Daylight and shadows

[6119 New Utrecht Avenue, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

I can’t tell you anything about the Daylight Cafeteria, except that the proprietor chose an appropriate name for an establishment that must have spent at least some of each day free of the El’s shadow. I can’t even tell you the cafeteria’s address: 6119 New Utrecht is the address of the large building on the other side of 62nd Street, which now houses a pre-K. And there are no tax photos for whatever followed the cafeteria up the avenue.

This photograph is here because I like the cafeteria’s name, and because the arrangement of lines and surfaces makes me think of the paintings of Charles Sheeler. For instance.

Here’s a 1919 view of the intersection. In 2023 the El still runs above New Utrecht. And one more thing, which I didn’t realize until after I’d chosen this photograph: the 62nd Street station is where Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) catches up with and kills Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) at the end of the spectacular chase scene in The French Connection (dir. William Friedkin, 1971).

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)