Chock Full O' Nuts

For many years a Choc Full o' Nuts lunch counter occupied retail space in the ground floor of the Hotel McAlpin, now, Herald Towers building, at 34th and Broadway. Like most restaurants in Midtown Manhattan, it was packed around lunchtime. 

December 1954, Alfred Eisenstaedt. Photo: LIFE via this blog post.

Choc Full o' Nuts opened its first store near Times Square at Broadway and 43rd Street, in 1926. The company continued to grow, opening its first cafe opened in 1932, and following with food trucks.

Possibly the first store, c. 1926 Photo: Pinterest

Food cart from the 1930s or 1940s. Photo: here

The company's founder was William Black, who, as his business grew, also became a well respected philanthropist. He donated a lot of money towards medical research, and in 1957 founded the Parkinson's Disease Foundation with an initial donation of $100,000.

One of Choc's most well known employees was famed baseball player Jackie Robinson. Shortly after retiring from baseball in 1956, he was hired as the company's Vice President and Director of Personnel. Mr. Robinson was an extremely vocal Civil Rights advocate as well. NARA has a great collection of his letters. 

William Black and Jackie Robinson at a store opening. Photo: NYT

The comments section of this post by Ephemeral New York includes many fond memories of the franchise in the city.

For a while, Choc Full o' Nuts at 34th Street and Woolworth's supplied Midtown workers with two solid lunch options flanking Herald Square. The 34th Street lunch counter closed in 1990.

Where do you go to get an Egg Cream now?

N. Jay Jaffee

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

It's been over a month since my last post. I'm working on a bunch of small projects that will hopefully wrap up in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's a short post featuring one of the city's many street photographers.  

These gentleman are leaning up against a fairly marked up William Cullen Bryant monument in Bryant Park. The photo was taken in 1953 by photographer N. Jay Jaffee.

Bryant Park, W.C. Bryant Monument, 1953. Photo by N. Jay Jaffee. Image: Brooklyn Museum

People still sit with Bryant on a daily basis in the park, though, since 1992, they've had chairs.

Jaffee is one of my favorite photographers right now, so here are a few more of his images:

Another park scene, not Bryant Park.

Woman in Black, 1978. Photo by N. Jay Jaffee. Image: Brooklyn Museum

Signage, two ways:

Who Has Three or Four Rooms (Brownsville, NY), 1950. Photo by N.J. Jaffee. Image: Brooklyn Museum

Kishke King, Pitkin Avenue (Brownsville, NY) 1953. Photo by N. Jay Jaffee. Image: Brooklyn Museum

Kubrick

A couple of weeks ago, I was going through the MCNY digital archive for this post, and came across the Stanley Kubrick photo collection. It's awesome. I hadn't realized how much street photography he'd done prior to his film work. This image of a Columbia Professor messing with lights, taken in 1948, is especially good.

Image: MCNY

It reminded me of this shot of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (imdb).

There's a 16 year gap between when the image and film were made, but the aesthetic seems on point.

Knox the Hatter

Hats and fascinators seem to be making a comeback, and not just for specific occasions. In 1800s New York, hatters and milliners were all over the place, and it remained a reliable trade until at least the 1960s-ish? President Kennedy stopped wearing hats around then, and so did everyone else, though I'm sure there were other influences.

The Knox Hat Company was founded in 1838 by Charles Knox, a few years after a major fire wiped out most of lower Manhattan. The first store was located on Fulton Street, a couple blocks away from Barnum's American Museum, which was destroyed by another major fire in 1865. Though the store remained intact, looters managed to lift a good portion of the stock (mostly Panama hats) during the fire's aftermath. The Hatter moved again, this time to 212 Broadway, next door to the National Park Bank. 

Knox Hatters at 216 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, 1895. Image: MCNY

Seeing retail make its move north, the Knox Hat Company set its sites on the SW corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue for the store's next location.

The SW corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue. Before the Knox building, it was occupied by the mansion of Lawrence Kipp, who died in 1899. Image: NYHS

The Knox Building was designed by City Architect John H. Duncan, whose work included Grant's Tomb in Manhattan. The stunning Beaux-Arts commercial building was built in 1901-1902.

From the LPC Report: "Knox retained ownership of the Knox Building until his death. In 1903 he had split the company into the Knox Manufacturing Company and the E.M. Knox Hat Retail Company. Offices for the company and main retail store were located in the building."

SW corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, looking west on 40th Street, c. 1914. Image: NYHS

New construction was growing larger, taller, and more commercial throughout the early 1900s as retail moved north, and the city's  trains and trolleys brought increasing numbers of people into Manhattan for work and play.

In 1913, the Knox Hat Manufacturing Company was amalgamated with the E.M. Knox Retail Hat Company. The company Manufacturing building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, still exists, though it's now residential.

Knox Hattery advertisement, 1913. Image: NYPL

Pre and post Empire State Building:

Same corner, looking south on Fifth Avenue, 1928 Image: MCNY

NYPL Fifth Avenue terrace, facing south towards 40th Street. Photo by Mike Roberts, 1960. Image: MCNY

The "Jaguar," popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1964, the Republic National Bank, then owners of the building, modified it to suit banking purposes (see LPC report for specifics, page 4), and in 1980, began construction of a neighboring tower.  (That bank was bought by HSBC in 1999.)

SW corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, c. 1980. Image: BPC

The tower was completed in 1984 and the pair sort of give the impression of Sense and Sensibility meets Bonfire of the Vanities, architecturally speaking. . . .

SW corner of 40th and Fifth Avenue, 2013. Image: BPC, AK

Knox hats are still coveted by many on the interwebs, with many vintage men's and women's styles for sale on Ebay and Etsy.

Other Sources:
-Landmarks Designation Report, LP-1091
-NYT article on the development of 40th Street in the early 1900s.

Woolworth's on Fifth Avenue

Eleven years after B. Altman opened store at 34th and Fifth, the Woolworth's Board of Directors announced that the company would build a large store at the NE corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue. The new "Five and Ten Cent Store deluxe" Woolworth's opened in the Fall of 1917.

Parade route along Fifth Avenue -- most likely a WWI send-off parade. The parade is heading south; the view looking north. The Woolworth's store is on the far right, and brownstones where the future Arnold Constable building are to its right (north). Date, ca. 1917  Image: NYPL

Over ten years later, in 1930, the first supermarket was built in Jamaica, New York, making it possible for food shoppers to obtain most, if not all, of their groceries under one roof. That, along with the growth of the suburbs throughout the 1930s, popularized discount retailing. Discount retailers, such as Woolworth's, and in the 1950s, Korvette's and McCreery's, offered frequent sales, less individualized customer service, and savvy merchandising to attract a wide range of customers.

Window shopping on Fifth Avenue, ca. 1930. Image: MCNY

Throughout the 1930s, Woolworth's continued to grow and expand operations throughout the U.S. and in Canada. In 1937, the NYT announced that plans were filed to build the company's 1,000th store at 39th Street and Fifth Avenue, just one block south of the existing flagship store, and next door to the Arnold & Constable Co. store. It opened a year later, in 1938, sixty years after the the first  "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store" was opened in in Utica, New York. 

Fifth Avenue looking north from 39th Street, ca. late 1930s / early 1940s. Image: Pisark

The new Woolworth's store was designed by architects Starrett & van Vleck, known for designing the flagships of several other department stores, including Lord & Taylor, on Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets (It's still there.).

Woolworth's shopper shot by Stanley Kubrick, 1947. Image: MCNY

Before Woolworth's the NE corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue was home to the Union League Clubhouse. The Union League Club was founded on February 6, 1863, and incorporated on February 16, 1865 as a group of political elites in support of the Union. Among others, Bryant Park's namesake William Cullen Bryant was a member.

Union League Clubhouse, c. 1909, at the NE corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue. Image: LOC

The building at 39th Street and Fifth Avenue was the club's third location, having moved first from 17th Street to Madison Avenue and 26th Street. The club moved to 39th Street on March 5, 1881 and stayed until 1931, at which time it moved to it's present location at 37th Street and Park Avenue.

View of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue, showing the Union League Clubhouse and Arnold Constable & Co. store, 1929. Image: MCNY

The F.W. Woolworth Company went defunct in 1997, and as of 2001 the company has been part of Foot Locker Inc.

There are two Foot Locker stores in the 34th Street area, each within blocks of the former Woolworth's store at 35th Street and Broadway.

Woolworth's at 35th Street and Broadway, c. 1927 Image: Pisark

Other Sources
Union League Club Landmarks Preservation Commission Report, LP-2389
This book.
Wikipedia

Arnold Constable & Company: The Best Mansard in NYC

Just south of the Flatiron building, on East Nineteenth Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, sits the  Arnold Constable Company building. It has one of the largest and most impressive mansards in the city. I can't think of another that is this palatial. It also looks to be two high-ceiling-ed stories tall. I'm awed in ways I can't explain.

Arnold Constable & Co. building, Broadway facade, April 2013. Photo: Anne Kumer

The company was originally founded in 1825 as a small dry goods store in lower Manhattan. In 1857 the founders built a five-story white marble store on Canal and Mercer Streets, a bit north. Because of the store's success, the need to expand again came in less than ten years. In 1869, the company moved farther north, this time to a cast-iron building on Broadway and Nineteenth Street. Designed by Griffith Thomas, the Broadway facade was constructed of white marble. One of the store's founders,  Aaron Arnold felt it was ". . . the only material elegant enough for a prosperous emporium." The AC & Co. was definitely that -- it catered to the carriage trade before the term even came into being, and is credited as being the city's first department store. Arnold died a year before the store's expansion along Nineteenth Street, straight to Fifth Avenue in 1876.

It looked (and looks) something like this:

The Arnold Constable & Co. building showing the Fifth Avenue facade looking east, 1877. Image: archiseek

In 1914, the NYT reported another move uptown to an undisclosed location. That location turned out to be the corner of West 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, directly across from the main NYPL building (built in 1911), near Bryant Park, and just one block south of this. The company traded in its cast iron and mansard glory for a much less decorative structure. French Second Empire be damned.

After the move to West 40th and Fifth Avenue, 1915. Image: MCNY

Around 1925, the store became part of A.T. Stewart Company -- a name in retail history that you can't swing a dead cat without encountering a million times -- and in the late 1930s, several branches of the store were built by then president, Isaac Liberman. In 1975 was forced to close its doors, 150 years after they originally opened in 1825.

This location is now the home of the NYPL Mid-Manhattan branch, but might not be for too long, though this could delay the progress some. The Mansard-ed up Broadway building is still home to a large retailer though: ABC Carpet & Home.

Other Sources:
Ladies' Mile Historic District designation report
Hendrickson, Robert. The Grand Emporiums, p. 154-155

Saks and Gimbels on Sixth

This post also appears on Fashion Herald.

A few years before the ground broke for Penn Station, construction was underway in Herald Square for a retailer new to the city: Saks. The company, founded by Baltimore merchant Andrew Saks, chose Herald Square as the location for its first New York store in part, because of its proximity to the Sixth Avenue elevated train and rumored Penn Station. Along with Macy's and a little later, Gimbels, these major stores would soon redefine Herald Square as a retail hub of the city.

View from Greeley Square, looking north at Herald Square, around 34th Street and Broadway, 1901. Image: MCNY

The Saks building, designed by architecture firm Buchman & Fox, the same firm that would later design the World's Tower building on West 40th Street. Though Saks and Macy's were more or less neck and neck with their store construction and opening announcements, Saks still managed to open its doors just five weeks before Macy's in 1902. Unlike Macy's, a store composed of several departments, Saks in the early 1900s sold only clothing, making it not quite a true department store. Around the same time, one avenue over, Benjamin Altman was purchasing lots on Fifth and 34th to build his new store B. Altman & Co.

The completed Saks building at West 33rd Street with its competitor Macy's one block north at West 34th Street, 1902. Image: MCNY

Those two coexisted, offering consumers slightly different inventories -- Saks was an upscale clothing-based retailer, and Macy's catered to the general consumer with a large variety of merchandise-- until 1909, when another large retailer, Gimbels, joined the fray. Founded by Adam Gimbel in Vincennes, Indiana, Gimbels built its first large store in Philadelphia, PA, before constructing a New York branch just one block south of the Saks store, on Sixth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets. Three large department stores in a row + public transportation = retail district.

Gimbels store at Sixth Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, 1912, thirteen years before the Gimbels Traverse was built. Image: MCNY

Model wearing a Gimbels dress, 1914. Image: LOC

Similar to Macy's, Gimbels was a large department store and family business.  Adam Gimbel had several sons, many of whom worked for the Gimbels Company: Isaac Gimbel became President in 1894, and was the driving force behind the store's expansion to the New York market; that same year, Ellis Gimbel took over Public Relations and advertising for the company. In 1921, he started the first Thanksgiving Parade in Philadelphia, PA, three years before Macy's began its iconic parade in New York City.

The company purchased Saks in 1923, and one year later, created the Saks Fifth Avenue brand, and opened its first store. The 34th Street location was kept open, and the Saks 34th brand was created. High end retail was moving farther north along Fifth Avenue, and the building's out-of-date construction (it didn't have escalators) were key factors in the decision to close the store in 1965.

Looking north from Greeley Square with the Gimbels and Saks buildings on the left, [1965]. Postcard: Anne

In 1967, discount retailer Korvette's moved into the Saks building. They "modernized" the facade, as seen below. Founded in 1947 by Eugene Ferkauf in a small store on Fifth Avenue and West 47th Street, Korvette's expanded quickly, with 2,684 stores in operation by the mid-1960s. This decade also saw a general rise in the national presence of discount retailers.

Same view as above, [1969]. Postcard: Anne

Gimbels stayed open until 1986. When it finally closed, it was cited as the store with the largest shoplifting rate of any in the country, largely because of the Gimbels Corridor. Originally built as a convenience to shoppers, the underground passageway connected the store to Penn Station a couple blocks away, and provided shoplifters with an easy escape. By the 1970s, the corridor had a horrible reputation and was the scene of more than a few gruesome crimes. This very opinionated description from a NY Post  article (are there any other kinds of NY Post articles?) pretty much sums it up: "In the midst of teeming Midtown, bare-bulb fixtures like those in mines marked a path through a Calcutta-like sprawl of diseased, predatory humanity."

After Gimbels closed, the building was renovated, and in 1989, reopened as A&S Plaza, and is now the home of JC Penney and the Manhattan Mall. Next door, the Saks building, now the Herald Center Mall, is slated for yet another makeover.