I worked in the Garment District at a number of companies for over a decade, at small type shops, trade schools I attended (after school I worked in the school’s type room) , and most notably, in the Macy’s creative department for four years, between 1988 and 2004 (with a stint in Nassau County from 19992-1999). However, I never worked in the garment trade itself, not directly. In those years the seeds were being sown for Forgotten NY, which launched in 1999, and I became quite familiar with the streets between 28th and 40th and between 5th and 9th Avenues. A hallmark of the Garment District is the painted signs high above the streets for companies that have long disappeared; they are the Ghosts of Midtown. Every time I come back to the neighborhood, I find more ghosts. Many have survived for over a century now, as the paint used for them must have been a high grade that would stand up to direct sun.
One man has made a lifelong commitment to researching the names behind these ads, Walter Grutchfield (who I call “Indispensable” as only Frank Jump has approached his research prowess.
Today’s grouping, at 16 West 39th Street between 5th and 6th, is mainly hat manufacturers and wholesalers, though there are also some surprises. The top two ads are ladies’ hat manufacturers including H. Goldfarb. Grutchfield details the ads below that as follows: Morris J. Gerber, Ladies Hatter, was located here from 1919 to 1922; Meyer Friedman, Ladies Hats, from 1925-1929; hat manufacturer Max Berwick and his partner, with arguably the best-preserved sign, was at #16 for a few months in 1925; United Trimming (The Lavin Co.), and Virocacao Co. were co-owned by Sol Charles Lavin, who dealt in dressmaker’s supplies and silk trimmings; “virocacao” was a health tonic. (like the ubiquitous Omega Oil) likely made from the cacao plant. William Atwood Haughton (1848-1921) and Mortimer Montgomery Lee (1846-1931) were silk importers with offices in this building from 1918 to 1923.
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8/26/23
11 comments
I bet the guys who painted those signs were the elite of the sign painting trade.Its one
thing to paint a house number on a door with a stick and brush.Entirely still another at
the scale shown above.I’d further declare that the big scale guys could easily do the
job of the small fries but not vice versa..
I grew up on the 2nd floor of a 4 story tenement on 51st St. in Brooklyn. The old woman in the apartment directly above us was Mrs. Kramer. We kids called her the “Crazy Lady” because she’d be talking and cursing to herself, and trying to hit us with her cane, but we always heard her coming. She’d let her sink overflow and the water would come down through our ceiling fixtures.
In later years my father explained why. Mrs. Kramer used to work in a hat factory. They’d soak wool in mercury compounds to stiffen it before shaping it into hats. Many of the workers in the millinery industry absorbed the chemicals through their skin and developed mercury poisoning, which is toxic to the nervous system.
Mrs. Kramer was a “Mad Hatter”!
“Hat making was the main trade in Stockport where Carroll grew up, and it was not unusual then for hatters to appear disturbed or confused; many died early as a result of mercury poisoning. However, the Hatter does not exhibit the symptoms of mercury poisoning, which include excessive timidity, diffidence, increasing shyness, loss of self-confidence, anxiety, and a desire to remain unobserved and unobtrusive”
A relic of the days when men and women regularly wore hats year-round. Look at a classis New York movie of the 1940s, such as my favorite The Naked City (1948). Most of the characters, female and male, wore hats, especially the detectives in the movie (it was police drama). Even in the summer, men wore hats and business suits. Different times.
Glad I don’t have to wear those brimmed hats.
On a hot enough day, maybe a panama and a seersucker suit.
A famous urban legend says that men’s hats fell out of fashion after JFK went bareheaded for most of his January 1961 inauguration.
In reality, hat sales had been declining every year since 1937.
So wonderfully enlightening about rare little remarked upon upon remnants of the city’s past. Thank you
Don’t miss the Magid sign on 33rd east of 5th on the south side! Company was founded in 1919, current owners have owned for 66 years!
They say Kentucky started the hatless trend among men when he took the oath of
office hatless.B.S.,The trend was well underway before that.If you noticed,the brims
just kept on getting narrower and narrower till they couldnt possibly provide any more
shade,and then one day-Poof! they just dissapeared altogether.
And now we have those idiotic ball caps everywhere.They even wear them while eating
in restaurants.Such class!
Especially when they wear them backwards!