Sand, slag, coal, crime, lunch

[123-133 Varick Avenue, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

From industrial Brooklyn, a composite of Brooklyn industry: [Unreadable] Repair Co., Evergreen Sand Company, The Slag Company of America, Vijax Coal, and Gates Coal. And up front, what looks like a ramshackle luncheonette.

The Vijax Coal Company was the site of two robberies in 1938, crimes committed in the course of a gruesome four-man spree:

[“Gang Seized Here For 3 Kidnappings: Hoover Implicates 4 Suspects in Robberies Also.” The New York Times, November 2, 1938.]

The kidnapping victims: an executive of a White Plains sand and gravel company, murdered before a ransom was arranged; the owner of a Brooklyn coal company; and the son of the owner of a Manhattan stevedoring company. Those two men were released after their families paid ransoms. One must wonder what prompted the perpetrators to go after sand, gravel, coal, and stevedoring. The Times reported that two of the men responsible were executed in 1940. A third received a fifty-year sentence. The fourth culprit, who testified against his three cronies, received a suspended sentence.

On a happier note: a second WPA photograph gives a better look at Marty’s Luncheonette. If wonder if the photographers were brave enough to eat there.

[137–57 Varick Street? The numbering here seems off. Click for a larger view.]

[Click for a larger view.]

Today a massive recycling operation stands where these businesses once stood: Cooper Recycling, which described as “the largest construction and demolition debris recycling facility in NYC.” It’s women-owned and family-run.

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