In the typewriter district

[130 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Above, Gramercy Typewriter Company, in what Jay Schweitzer, grandson of the company’s founder, says was once known as the typewriter district. Look closely at the lower left corner, and you’ll another typewriter establishment. Gramercy is now the sole typewriter repair shop in Manhattan, still doing business at 108 West 17th Street.

[Straightened. Click for an even larger view.]

[From the 1940 Manhattan directory.]

Look below the Gramercy sign: West 23rd Street seems to have also been in the waterproof-novelty district.

[Popular Mechanics, June 1917. This ad and other bits in Google Books lets me understand that waterproof novelties are items made of waterproof fabric. Novelty : “a small manufactured article intended mainly for personal or household adornment → usually used in plural” (Merriam-Webster).]

Thanks, Brian, for pointing me to Gramercy and to this tax photograph.

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

[This post replaces an earlier version that I put online by accident.]