Forgotten Fan Bill Mangahas passed along this photo taken a few years ago by Jay Bendersky of a painted building ad on Avenue J just east of Coney Island Avenue. The building the ad is on is still there, but new buildings hosting a TD Bank and Payless shoe store, according to Google Street View (Payless is now defunct, so another shop has likely taken its place) have now obscured it.
It’s odd that McEnery’s Furniture on Myrtle Avenue was miles away from this location in Midwood. But where on Myrtle? My initial thought was Forest Hills; 86-90 Myrtle is currently an address that doesn’t exist, and it would be just west of Woodhaven Boulevard if it did.
The clue that the store was in Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn is the “surface cars and elevated trains.” Myrtle Avenue had its own trolley routes, the #17 and #54; each had vanished, though, by 1949. Of course, Brooklyn’s Myrtle Avenue El continued to rattle on until October 1969.
As far as McEnery’s, 86 to 90 Myrtle had been on the SE corner of Lawrence Street. Unfortunately the 1940 Municipal Archives does not have a photo of the location. Currently, this address is in the midst of the MetroTech development, with Myrtle and Lawrence both auto-free walkways.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/23/20