A mystery cafeteria

[99–101 William Street and 110–126 William Street, Manhattan, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click either image for a much larger view.]

Here are two views of a mystery establishment, the Janice and Jessie O’Connell Cafeteria. Sisters? A mother–daughter team? A wife and husband? (Probably not a wife and husband, though Jessie can be a male name.) I can find no trace of the place online save for these photographs.

Hoey, Ellison & Frost, next door to the cafeteria, was a big name in insurance.

I like the schoolhouse light fixtures and the ghost walkers in the first photograph. And I like the dramatic perspective in the second, with a crowd of pedestrians heading straight for the photographer. Perhaps it was the lunch hour. If so, are the women leaving the cafeteria, or are they walking right past it, perhaps having fled from Hoey, Ellison & Frost?

Thanks, Brian, for pointing me to this cafeteria.

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