Forgotten New York

ROGERS PONTIAC, Borough Park

I haven’t been in this stretch of Borough Park, at Fort Hamilton Parkway and 60th Street, for a year and a half at least, but I have always had a distinct memory of this somewhat imposing building on the SW corner. When I was a kid my parents and I used to go on excursion bus rides on the B16 route that traveled down FHP on its way to Ocean Avenue a block away from Prospect Park, and this building…

 

… and the huge neon “Rogers Pontiac” sign will always be emblazoned on my engrams as it was a grand auto showroom. It didn’t occur to me at age seven that I would never truly learn to drive!

 

Earlier on it was a Dodge and Plymouth showroom, still ran by the mysterious Mr. Rogers.

At length, the car showroom moved out and in the 1980s, it was home to a roller skating rink called, I sh-t you not, “United Skates of America.”

The most recent business inhabiting the building was a caterer called Hostess International. The framework of the neon sign supported their print sign.

The Google Street View from 2014 indicates that the building had been hollowed out and construction fencing had surrounded the building.

So, till I can get over there again, let me know: has it been torn down, or is it being rehabilitated?

9/23/15

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