Nearly one year has passed since workers were spotted clearing out the long-empty storefront at 84 Second Ave. between Fifth Street and Fourth Street.
A worker said that Betty Sopolsky, the owner, had recently moved away around the same time as an LLC with a Hempstead, N.Y., address bought the building for $5.125 million, per public records. (A few EVG readers said that she was estranged from her family, and only a niece remained.)
Now, in the last few days, retail for rent signs arrived on the building (thanks to
Goggla for the photos!)...
As previously noted, there have been
several deaths inside this house. This is from
The New York Times,
dated Jan. 18, 1974:
The nude body of a 40-year-old woman propietor of a tailor shop that rents tuxedos on the Lower East Side was found bludgeoned to death. The victim was Helen Sopolsky of 84 Second Avenue, near fifth Street, whose shop is one flight up at that address. The motive of the attack was not determined immediately....
As far as some longtime residents can remember, the storefront has remained empty since Helen's death. The perceived lack of activity inside the building along with the preserved window display on the second level was long a source of mystery.
Here's Jeremiah Moss
writing about it in 2011:
It seems the shop has stayed virtually frozen in time since that terrible moment. The dinner jacket, never hired out to a party, is white beneath its dusty plastic, and the shirt and tie are the orange sherbet color of baby aspirin. Above hangs a crooked neon sign announcing DRESS SUITS TO HIRE. The ITS in SUITS is broken and dangling.
[
Photo by Jeremiah Moss]
For now the only mystery here will be with who arrives as the new retail tenant.
