I was tipped about this ancient sign at 49-10 Vernon Boulevard in the recent book by Bill Helmreich, The Queens Nobody Knows (sadly, Helmreich, who I met by serendipity on a tour in Fordham in 2018, passed away in 2020). The family of Italian immigrant Antonio Mona marks the spot at #69 Vernon Avenue, now 49-10 Vernon Boulevard, where Mona maintained his coal and ice business after immigrating from Italy in 1897. How long this sign has been here, I have no idea, but I never noticed it on previous trips down Vernon Boulevard, which have been often.
Notice the telephone exchange, HUnterpoint 0677. By 1940, the Monas were operating a clothes cleaning business at 49-10.
Much more from FNY’s Vernon Boulevard survey from 2019.
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8/30/21
10 comments
It wasn’t there in 2017.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/49-10+Vernon+Blvd,+Long+Island+City,+NY+11101/@40.7431762,-73.9539834,3a,89.5y,297.88h,83.08t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s3FNF7Gxgte-noHfVzDZ6-w!2e0!5s20171001T000000!7i13312!8i6656!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x89c259237a596e4f:0x2390c0d48fad3cf5!2s49-10+Vernon+Blvd,+Long+Island+City,+NY+11101!3b1!8m2!3d40.7431624!4d-73.9542434!3m4!1s0x89c259237a596e4f:0x2390c0d48fad3cf5!8m2!3d40.7431624!4d-73.9542434
fantastic info!!!
The sign says Mona but you say Mora, which is it and why would there be a variance between the sign and the family name?
You got me. Fixed.
I lived in this neighborhood when this sign appeared – or maybe more accurately, reappeared. They did a renovation on the building around 5-10 years ago and it was a “classic” type restoration. I wouldnt be surprised if they found this in the basement and decided it would kinda cool to put it up.
I’m more interested in the 2 lamps.They wouldnt be reproductions,would they ?
That sign looks to be in WAY too good condition to be as old as it would with a six-digit phone number (1920s? 1930s?). It has to be a reproduction. The typeface, particularly on the phone number, looks very 1960s vintage.
That reminds me–need ice for the icebox.
I can remember growing up in Brooklyn in the late 40’s/early 50’s when the ice man lugged a block of ice up to our 3rd floor apartment and put it in the top of our ice box. A few years later my folks bought a house and the coal man would roll a big barrel of coal to a cellar window and empty it down a chute into the coal bin. I don’t think it was the same company, and it certainly wasn’t the same delivery truck!
Like the old “Mona Beauty Salon” sign on Avenue U: Neither owner could bring themselves to spring for an apostrophe & an “s”.