- Messages
- 17,190
- Location
- New York City
2jakes I am glad to see the old buildings in use, but it breaks my heart just the same. There was a larger version of the brick structure in your last photo about 20 miles from here, built in 1933 by Mr. Roy Perry. I know who built it because the engraved stone over the door said so. It was along what was a major highway at the time and had two large service bays and a second floor above for a home. It sat empty for many years and finally met its demise a year or so ago. I had hoped someone would preserve it as a home, but it was not to be.
While the Fedora Lounger in me would love to see buildings and businesses continue in their original state, as 3fingers notes, there is something cool and uplifting (even with a tinge of remorse for what was lost) to see buildings reused for other businesses.
NYC is a viciously competitive business environment with small-business turnover far exceeding the national average, so seeing buildings reused and reused again is commonplace. Sometimes a bakery becomes a clothing store or an auto repair shop becomes a restaurant and it's neat in its own life-goes-on way.
But one of my favorites is when a business turns over but a new business of the same type takes over - so the building remains what it was - a restaurant or dry cleaners or what have you. If you believe buildings have souls, then I think this makes the building happy.
A great example of this is the corner of 1st Avenue and 62nd Street in NYC where you can see in the two photos below that the lower left part of this building has been a casual dining establishment (first a "lunch bar" and now a "diner") since at least (guessing from the first pic) the 1930s: