IT’S been awhile, maybe a couple of years, since I’ve been in Mott Haven. I’ll admit, since the pandemic began and crime increased in 2020, discretion has been the better part of valor for me and I have avoided subwaying it into a number of regions that I had had no compunction of entering before that fateful year. I’m hoping that the virus lessens and safety increases in the coming years so I can again stroll, as bold as brass, into whatever area I please. I’ll admit, though, I was very rarely accosted before 2020, as I do not present as a figure with anything worth robbing.
I have previously made a number of forays into this southernmost Bronx neighborhood and one Forgotten Tour has noted its historic treasures that include a colonial-era church and a number of former piano factories; Mott Haven was once NYC’s piano manufacturing capital. However, I had not encountered this painted ad at #120 Bruckner Boulevard between Brook avenue and Brown Place for Schorsch Paper Bags, which housed the manufacturer between 1913 and 1951, when the firm met its end. I do not know if the name is pronounced “skorsh” or “shorsh,” and I’m a proponent of simplified spellings at least where names are concerned.
The Indispensable Walter Grutchfield explains that the firm was founded in Tribeca in 1901 and had a number of Manhattan addresses before settling way uptown in this spot in 1913. During the paper bag company’s tenure here, the name of the street was changed twice, from East 133rd to Eastern Boulevard to Bruckner Boulevard, the latter in 1944.
You know, I’ve met the Indispensable One only once, in passing, at one of Frank Jump’s book events several years ago, and I’d really like to pick his brain on his research methods, which must include a lot of picking around in dusty tomes in library basements, otherwise known as my element. His information on the Schorsch family is a master class in research. We probably won’t see Grutchfield’s like again. Thankfully, I believe his archives are in the possession of my partner organization, the Greater Astoria Historical Society: but they should really also find a home with an entity like the New-York Historical Society.
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1/11/23