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Reader Greg Wyles, sends in a photo of the sign hidden beneath the sign, recently revealed. He says "the Pizza Place that had been there was knocked out by Hurricane Sandy and there has been construction going on and off" ever since.
Last year, spotting the shape of Giuliano's sign, Thomas Rinaldi at New York Neon suspected it was an antique. He did a little digging into the history of the sign and found photos of Blank with its neon intact.
As for A. Blank -- no history remains. Only this. Since 1899.
Anthony Cortese, flickr
A. Blank was a contract office furniture supplier, and was in existence, at least through the 90's.
ReplyDeleteHa, I was going to send you a photo of this sign, but I see someone beat me to it! Thank you for posting - the building to which the sign is attached looks like it may have a new business in it soon. It would be nice if they could incorporate the sign.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.waltergrutchfield.net/blank.htm
ReplyDelete"The founder of A. Blank was Abraham Blank (1875-1932), an immigrant from Romania. The claim "Established 1899" would seem to be a bit early for this business. The first listing in New York city directories was in 1908 at 82 Broad St. and in the New York telephone directory in 1910 at 73 Broad St. Abraham Blank seems to have immigrated to the U. S. approximately 1901. [...]
The business was located in downtown New York in the area of Broad St., Stone St. and South William St. from 1908 until the early 1990s. They were located at 88 Broad St. from 1958 until they closed.
Among Abraham Blank's sons who continued the business after his death were Harry Blank (1908-1962), Louis Blank (1909-1958), and Isaac Blank (1911-2005)."