Saved from the dumpster: Classic Lower East Side signage rescued

An iconic Lower East Side sign won't disappear with its storefront — it's headed to a museum.

Yesterday, workers from the New York Sign Museum (housed in space adjacent to Noble Signs in Brooklyn) removed the Louis Zuflacht/154/Smart Clothes sign from 154 Stanton St. at Suffolk Street, sparing it from an unceremonious ending in a dumpster. (Thanks to EVG reader Seth for the photo and tip!) 

The New York Sign Museum is a nonprofit foundation "dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of advertising and signage in New York City and the surrounding areas." 

The current two-story building on Stanton and Suffolk is due for a luxury upgrade, adding two floors and a penthouse. Here's a rendering showing the possibilities for a lux conversion at No. 154 (we haven't seen a final rendering) ...

According to Ephemeral New York, the sign dates to 1942 and served (until yesterday) as a "a time machine to the Lower East Side's midcentury days as a neighborhood crammed with cut-rate clothes and accessories shops — and aggressive store clerks hawking their goods to crowds of shoppers." 

Mr. Zuflacht was born in Austria in 1881 and arrived in New York in 1900. After an unsuccessful attempt at selling clothes at 184 Stanton St., Zuflacht took over No. 154 in the early 1940s and worked for decades with his sons at the tailor shop and haberdashery. He died in 1986. It's not immediately known when the shop closed. 

Since the mid-1980s, the space has been home to various businesses, including a vintage shop or two and the New York Studio Gallery. 

The subsequent businesses (and the landlord) kept the Zuflacht signage up through the years. 

Per Ephemeral New York: 

And why should they? It's a wonderful remnant of a certain era in Manhattan, and an accidental memorial to a man who invested much of his life in a Lower East Side garment district of inexpensive "smart" clothes for bargain-hunting buyers. 

And we're glad to see it preserved as part of the city's rich small business history.