The House of Sandwiches

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

The House of Sandwiches, now Defonte’s Sandwich Shop, is a third-generation family establishment. Nicola Defonte started out with a grocery store at this address in 1922. This page of Red Hook history tells the rest of the story: Defonte’s Finally Gets Their Way (Joe Enright’s Stuff). And here’s the menu in 2026. Yow!

It’s worth clicking for large to see the front window. And to wonder about the man in the doorway, who puts me in mind of the Oysterette man.

[Click for a larger man.]

Thanks, Brian, for not letting this corner get away.

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

Early Sunday Morning-ish

Still on Columbia Street.

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

Figure at a window. Wildroot. (Still made!) But what immediately struck me was the Edward Hopper feeling. If it were really Early Sunday Morning though, there’d be no one at the window, and the barbershop would have a sign saying CLOSED.

I looked into the name Rinascente and learned nothing about this barbershop. (No barber lived at this address in 1940, only two longshoremen and their families.) But I did learn that Rinascente is the name of an posh Italian department-store chain, founded in Milan in 1865:

The name Rinascente, which means “she who is reborn,” was invented by the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio in 1917. The author found it “a simple, clear and appropriate name” because it indicated the action of rebirth that would carry into the future.

I suppose the barbershop was aspiring to some reflected glory.

What makes it all a bit weird is Rinascente’s present-day marketing of a line of men’s grooming products called Bullfrog:

Bullfrog is an Italian brand that draws inspiration from the concept of modern American Barber Shops and traditional Italian barbershops.

No. 376, no longer housing a barbershop, stands.

[No waiting.]

Related posts
Another Columbia Street barbershop : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

[Google Maps places this block of Columbia Street in Carroll Gardens. But everywhere else, it’s Red Hook. I amended other posts accordingly.]

The carriage’s in the midst of all

Sorry, Yeats.

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

Just one more look at Columbia Street, and one more unattended carriage. The unattended carriage has become an unexpected motif in these WPA tax photographs. The Unattended Carriage : that could have been the title of an Edward Gorey volume.

My eye went from the carriage to the store at no. 369: Maria Mazzella Grocery.

The name Mazzella had a long history at this address. On May 12, 1924, The Brooklyn Eagle reported a marriage license issued to Natalina Mazzella (1904–1996), then living at no. 369, and Robert Nocera (1900–1980), then living at 5 Luquer Street, just down the block and around the corner. They are reported living at no. 369 in the 1930 census, which also has Mary and John Mazzella living at this address, a widowed mother, fifty-five, born in Italy, and her son, twenty-nine, born in New York. Robert and John are both listed as “loader,” “wharf” — in other words, they were longshoremen. I think it’s safe to assume that Mary is the Maria on the awning in this tax photograph. But there’s no grocery store with that name yet.

The 1940 census has only Mary and John at no. 369, now sixty-six and thirty-seven, and now Mary is identified as a grocery-store owner. The 1930 census shows a grocery-store owner already at no. 367, Nicholas DeMonte. Was there a single store that changed hands and, somehow, its street address? No, there’s another store at no. 367 in the tax photographs, Nick’s Italian-American Grocery, with its own detail-laden tax photograph.

A 1941 full-page Brooklyn Eagle advertisement for Doublemint Gum lists Maria Mazzella’s store as a purveyor: “You hit the nail on the head, Brooklyn! Doublemint Gum gives you real chewing satisfaction.” In the 1950 census, Mary and John, now seventy-five and fifty, remain at this address. Mary, in a third census, is not yet a naturalized citizen. John is now identified as “salesmans,” “wholesale barsup” (bar supplies?), and there’s no grocery store attached to Mary’s name. But Nicholas DeMonte, his name recorded as Nick Domonte, is still at no. 367, now listed as the proprietor of a candy store.

I will assume that someone had come for the carriage by then.

[Click for a larger view.]

Sources: Brooklyn Newstand, Find a Grave, and census records via Steve Morse. My starting point, as always, is Julien Boilen’s Street View of 1940s New York. I was able to turn up nothing about Sal Laundry.

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

Woof redux

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

The arrow points to no. 364, but I’m here for no. 362. Brian called my attention to this second tax photograph in which the dog at no. 362 appears. This post is for Brian and for Fresca, who liked that first photograph.

It’s now clear to me that there’s a railing of some sort placed outside the window sill — handy for both dogs and pillows. And it’s now clear that this dog was watching the street, the whole street, in both directions.

Eyes on the street — long before Jane Jacobs coined that phrase.

*

A reader has suggested that there are two dogs in this photograph. Thoughts, anyone? Here’s a link to the full-size photograph.

*

I finally see them both.

[Click either image for a larger view.]

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

Woof

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

As Elaine asked: how much is that doggie in the window?

G. De Gennaro at no. 360 will won’t remain a mystery meat-purveyor. The 1940 Brooklyn telephone directory has a couple of close calls: Ciro De Gennaro, “meats,” at 6815 14th Avenue, and DeGennaro Bros, “fruits&veg” at 163 Kingston Avenue. I checked the 1940 census: whoever G. De Gennaro was, he (or she?) didn’t live at this address.

A correction: I didn’t realize that I was looking at the 1950 census. A more careful reader found Gaetano and Rose Degennaro at no. 360 in the 1940 census.

On the 1940 census page, seven of the nine residents of nos. 360 and 362 are identified as having been born in Italy (one in New York, one in Ohio). On the 1950 census page, three of the twenty residents of nos. 360 and 362 are identified as having been born in Italy, with nine born in New York and eight born in Puerto Rico, or “Pourto Rico,” as the census-taker spelled it.

It turns out that Columbia Street looms large in the story of Puerto Rican life in New York City.

The buildings still stand.

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

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)