Then and Now Thursday: The Vanished Michaels Brothers Furniture Store

                                                                                     NYPL

It's easy to underestimate just how crucial an intersection Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street used to be. Not only was it where the Fifth Avenue elevated tracks met the Ninth Street trolley, it was one of Brooklyn's central hubs for shopping and entertainment. Over the next few weeks our Thursdays will be spent exploring what made this intersection so special back in the day.

We've already discussed the intersection's two main theaters, the grand RKO Prospect (where the Marx Brothers became famous, now a supermarket), as well as the smaller Avon located across Fifth, but today it's all about the gorgeous Michaels Brothers Department Store, located on the northwest corner of the intersection. Here's a closeup, note the great vertical sign:

Constructed in the 1920s, the store specialized in furniture, and was simply massive. At four stories it looked much larger than that due to its high ceilings and large, arched windows. Unfortunately there simply isn't that much more information about it online, and this is the only photo of it I could find. One fact that can't be denied, though: its demolition in 1967 was a major mistake, especially when you realize what kind of junk replaced it:

Then and Now Thursday: Stavenhagen's (Food) Pawn Shop

Once upon a time, there existed a two-storefront-wide pawn shop named Stavenhagen's, on Fifth Avenue between 16th Street and Prospect Avenue. It was in business for over a hundred years, but the only mention of it online popped up in this Brooklynian board from a few months ago:

Brooklyn_Original: "Stavenhagen's has been closed since the early 90s. It was huge; two large storefronts wide. It was started there in the late 1800s, and when I was growing up there in the early 60s, Ernie (the owner) knew my family back down to my grandfather. And I'm talking more than 60 years ago."

Thankfully, Stavenhagen's will live on forever thanks to this documentary* about its last few years in existence, when it became a "food pawn shop," owned by none other than Steve Buscemi, who hired Horatio Sanz as a salesman. It appears as if Will Ferrell and Tracy Morgan were regulars.

And here's a view of the storefront today:

Then and Now Thursday: McCaddin Funeral Home, After the Plane Crash

It's fairly common knowledge that in 1960, the nation's first major airline disaster had major fallout (no pun intended) over Park Slope. After two passenger jets collided over Miller Field in Staten Island, one contunied toward La Guardia Airport but never made it there, instead crashing down on the corner of Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place.

Once the crash site was cleared, I had assumed that the corner (which ironically included a church named Pillar of Fire) remained vacant until apartment buildings were constructed within the last five years. I was wrong, however: in 1961, a new, one-story building was constructed on the corner, to house a new version of the McCaddin Funeral home, which had been severely damaged in the crash. Records indicate that it remained there until 1980 recently, when it was demolished. It remained a vacant lot until an apartment building called the Vermeil was built a couple years ago.

Then and Now Thursday: De-Mapped on Flatbush

There are very few instances of streets being entirely wiped off the map in our neighborhood. In the South Slope, we've got the parts of 17th Street displaced for the Prospect Expressway, and in the far North Slope, parts of Fifth Avenue, Dean Street, and Pacific Street have have been de-mapped, all within the past couple years, for construction of the Barclay's Center.

In the above 1914 photo, we see one of those rare views that simply does not exist anymore. It's looking northeast, at the tail end of Fifth Avenue from Flatbush, toward Dean Street. Joseph Kaiser's Clothier, Furnisher, and Hatter flanks a bicycle shop on Fifth, and a butcher shop named Berger & Son Company "Of America" is on Dean.

These buildings were demolished long ago (the above shot is the most recent Google Maps image of the same spot), but it was only last year that this intersection, along with the surrounding streets, were de-mapped entirely.

Looking beyond the new tail end of Fifth Avenue today, it's hard to believe that the neighborhood once simply continued northward. Construction of the Barclay's Center continues apace, while, for now at least, the stalwart Triangle Sporting Goods looms over the proceedings.

Top photo: Merlis and Rosenzweig, Brooklyn's Park Slope. 1999.

Then and Now Thursday: Park Slope Post Office, 1978

The sidewalk was empty when photographer Anders Goldfarb snapped the above photo of 198 and 200 Seventh Avenue, between First and Second Streets, in the spring of 1978. The storefront on the left looks vacant (wish I could make out what's on that sign in the window), and next door the much-maligned post office's sign slowly begins to fade.

In 1977, artist Mark Ravitz (who was then employed as David Bowie's set designer), purchased 200 7th Avenue, and a few years later the first of his signature "drips" appeared on the building's facade. The current design, "Four Eyes," is the seventh installment. Park Slope Books later moved into the space, but it closed a couple years ago and Ravitz has used the space as his gallery since then. Recently the space has been sold and it's currently in the process of being converted into a MetLife insurance office.

The post office is still there, but without the flag and with a more standardized sign.

Top Photo: BPL