Sol. Lou. 25¢ a Lesson

Two weeks ago in these pages I was admiring the symmetrical presentation of Kubrick Self Service Stores at 1267 40th Street, Boro Park, Brooklyn. One week ago I was in a reverie about the Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market, one side of which ran down 40th Street, north of Kubrick. Today it’s time to see what once stood at the corner of 13th and 40th, just south of Kubrick.

[3920 13th Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. As seen from 13th Avenue. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

That’s quite a corner, with nearly every available surface used for text. Sol. Fruit & Vegetable Mkt. Lou. Sol・Fruit・Vegetables・Lou. Quality Fruits & Vegetables. But Sol. and Lou. had nothing on the Community Schools of Music, Courses for Beginners & Advanced, Courses for Children & Adults. And in case you missed it: the price of a lesson was 25¢.

I can find nothing online about these establishments. Not a single advertisement: maybe that’s how they kept prices low. (See below). Something produce-related was still happening on this corner in the not distant past, as this 1980s tax photograph shows. As of October 2021 (Google Maps), the corner of 13th and 40th housed a mobile-phone store and a referral service for home health-care.

When I was a kid in Brooklyn in the 1960s, we may have shopped at this market. Or it may have been another market, also exposed to the open air, Burdo Bros. Poor People[’]s Friends, at 13th Avenue and 39th Street. Here’s a photograph by Anthony Catalano from the early 1970s. A 1980s tax photo shows produce still being sold on that corner, under an awning with what appear to be the same words: Burdo Bros. Poor People[’]s Friends. Whichever market we went to, I remember the handwritten (handnumbered?) signs with prices: everything in red and black, mixing thin and super-thick lines. Something like this. As of September 2021 (Google Maps), the corner of 13th and 39th housed a deli and grill.

Further reverie: just down the avenue from Burdo Bros. in Anthony Catalano’s photograph is the storefront for Vinny and Roger, or Vinny and Roger’s, or Vinny & Rogers, the butcher shop where we bought meat and poultry. I remember also the jars of Aunt Millie’s Spaghetti Sauce lined up on a shelf, with the odd silhouette of a woman with her hair in a bun. I knew a kid named Millie in Brooklyn. I knew a kid named Vinny too. He had an teenaged uncle, Uncle Tony, whom he would call for assistance. Ah, Brooklyn.

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July 18: I made the mistake of searching Brooklyn Newsstand for “community schools of music.” A search for “community school of music” shows the project getting underway between 1926 and 1927, with classified ads selling furniture and soliciting salespeople, followed by a 1927 advertisement offering lessons. Thanks, Brian.

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July 20: By 1943, it was Sol’s Fruit & Vegetable Market. Still WIndsor 5-3868. Thanks, Brian. And thanks, telephone directory.

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November 13: As I now know, it was Vinny & Rogers. See also this photograph.

Related reading
All OCA Boro Park posts (Pinboard) : More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives