For years, people have admired the Pepsi-Cola HOTEL sign that hung on chains outside the Elk Hotel on 9th Avenue and 42nd Street. The faded paint, the old typeface, reminded us of a lost Times Square, of fleabags and flophouses, of Travis Bickle rolling by in his Checker cab looking for underage hookers to save.
The sign is now gone.
Nothing remains of it except its chains, a rusted triangle of braces hung between two windows and the words HOTEL CLOSED.
Those windows once belonged to a man called Pops, an 86-year-old disabled war veteran who relied for years on the kindness of his neighbors to bring in food from the outside.
But Pops was evicted, along with Coo-Coo and the rest of the hotel's tenants, as we learned from Mark Schulte, the last of the Elk's holdouts. He has since moved out, too, and the 88-year-old hotel stands empty, a husk of haunted rooms.
Across the avenue, a cluster of old buildings, recently containing the Big Apple Meat Market, have been draped in a black shroud, prepped for demolition and the glossy hotel tower to come. We expect the same fate for the Elk--and maybe half a block of its neighbors, too, which we heard have all been sold to the same buyer in the past year.
The sign lasted awhile after the closure, the last survivor of the Elk Hotel. We wondered if some intrepid collector of urban ephemera climbed up there to save it, or if Pops took it with him when he went. But we heard from a reader that the landlord's nephew, an antiques enthusiast, claimed it for himself.
Maybe it's hanging on the wall of a luxury loft, to be discussed during cocktail parties. Maybe it will be scrubbed up and sold to a trendy restaurateur who's planning to open a high-end brasserie called Flophouse.
More likely, it'll be hawked on Ebay. So keep watch. You never know.
Previously:
Inside the Elk (a must read)
The Elk Hotel
It will hang in a trust fund boys loft in Williamsburg that his parents are financing for his dream of making it as an artist in NYC (which will happen very soon because his parents will set him up with a gallery)
ReplyDeleteHello Vanishing NYC,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, this blog is beyond fantastic- it really speaks to me. As a 20 year NY'er the city has really changed- mostly for the better, but, as this blog points out sometimes for the worse. All the big cross streets in Manhattan (23, 34, 42, 57) are becoming one big Disneyland & franchisees homeland. NYC is losing it's character.
As for this current blog post- I work in midtown, near Hell's Kitchen and this sign has been gone for years I think. I walk past it everyday and haven't noticed it for a while. The sad thing is that across the street on 9th ave they tore down that block- for another luxury condo I'm sure! Just what NYC needs- more luxury condos! Thankfully there is still some character on 9th with bodegas, delis, pizza shops, dry cleaners, Italian restaurants and dive bars.
Anyway, keep up the great work on this blog- I'll be reading.