Workers yesterday began packing up Silver Monuments Works on Stanton Street and Essex Street for a move to Woodside, Queens, as these photos by EVG contributor Derek Berg show...
Silver Monuments, nearly 70s years old, was the last tombstone business on the Lower East Side... in the city's former monument district...
Here's more on the business via the Times in 2006:
Situated in a five-story walk-up, the store is owned and run by Murray R. Silver, 65, who lives in an apartment above the business, which absorbed three other gravestone dealers, Forsyth, Weinreb & Gross.
Inside, the selection ranging from standard marble “toaster” shapes with the Star of David in relief (customary for men, while women usually get Shabbat candles) to massive granite Torahs rests on squares of tattered artificial green grass to capture the feel of a real cemetery. The oldest gravestone sample, hand carved by Mr. Silver’s late father, Samuel Silver, depicts a broken tree and a flying dove.
“You are now in the house of satisfied customers,” a sign proclaims. Mr. Silver inherited the business from his parents. His father died 20 years ago and now rests in a cemetery on Long Island under a modest family marker engraved “Silver.” His mother, Minnie, who is 95, became the first woman on the Lower East Side to run a monument store’s showroom. She would leave work early so she could put out milk and cake for her children arriving home from school.
According to BoweryBoogie, who first noted Silver's upcoming move, Mr. Silver prefers to "rent the storefront to a 'quiet' business, not a restaurant; perhaps a gallery” after the departure.
