Sunday, November 5, 2023

A waterfront barber

[194 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

It’s Sunday morning, but this scene is not quite Edward Hopper. On or in Early Sunday Morning, the barber shop was closed. Hopper called that painting “almost a literal translation of Seventh Avenue” in Manhattan. This Sunday we’re in the Waterfront District of Brooklyn. I am imagining that it’s a noon-ish weekday (notice the shadow under the sole pedestrian), with most potential customers at work. In addition to the barber and the pedestrian, there’s someone at a window. Look closely.

Why is it the Union Park Barber Shop? No clue. There’s a Union Square Park in Manhattan. Brommer’s Union Park was was a location in the Bronx. Go figure.

Today no. 194 houses an event space, Poppy’s HQ. Things happen there.

[Click for a larger barber.]

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

comments: 4

Anonymous said...

Like the window posters, hair tonic, maybe for wrestling or boxing?

Michael Leddy said...

I would guess “the fights,” boxing.

Anonymous said...

this barber shop has a good slogan

https://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/16fw4e

Michael Leddy said...

Click for larger to see it: “Where the promise is fulfilled.”

Thanks, reader.