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Saturday, February 11, 2023
Revealed! Avenue A ghost signage!
Photos by Stacie Joy
Yesterday, workers removed the rolldown gate on a vacant storefront on Avenue A between Fourth Street and Fifth Street (the former lottery place next to Discount Fine Wine & Champagne's, aka Nizga Liquors).
In the process, the workers uncovered ghost signage for a long-ago shop that sold carriages, strollers and toys...
... from the days when Avenue A had several like-minded shops along this corridor (like here) ...
"Teenage Furniture" was among those, iirc, Had friends in college who named their band Teenage Furniture, which I didn't understand until I moved to the EV and saw it on Avenue A, lol.
As far as I know, this area was a big deal in the post-war 50s for returning vets to settle down and raise families; Stuyvesant Town was built specifically to house the glut of returning vets and their families—as long as they were white.
In 1981, I lived on avenue A and 5th street; in the neighborhood, there were still a few stores specializing in baby furniture, including Ben's Babyland. [A web search shows it as having been in Great Neck since 1977, but I distinctly remember it being on Avenue A in 1981.] Later in the 80s, a baby-themed bar called Babyland opened and was reviewed in this blog and owned by Deb Parker.
I also seem to remember Schneider's Carriages around 2nd and A, but that appears to be lost to history.
... from the days when Avenue A had several like-minded shops along this corridor (like here) ... 
3 comments:
Love ghost signs.
"Teenage Furniture" was among those, iirc, Had friends in college who named their band Teenage Furniture, which I didn't understand until I moved to the EV and saw it on Avenue A, lol.
As far as I know, this area was a big deal in the post-war 50s for returning vets to settle down and raise families; Stuyvesant Town was built specifically to house the glut of returning vets and their families—as long as they were white.
In 1981, I lived on avenue A and 5th street; in the neighborhood, there were still a few stores specializing in baby furniture, including Ben's Babyland. [A web search shows it as having been in Great Neck since 1977, but I distinctly remember it being on Avenue A in 1981.] Later in the 80s, a baby-themed bar called Babyland opened and was reviewed in this blog and owned by Deb Parker.
I also seem to remember Schneider's Carriages around 2nd and A, but that appears to be lost to history.
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