Moulded Shoes

The Moulded Shoe shop has been on 39th Street since 1942 and it looks like they haven't changed their fantastic signage since--they still spell "moulded" with a U. Run by Maurice Mousserie, who was a New Yorker of the month a few years back, Moulded not only sells shoes (including Aldens, from one of the oldest and last remaining American shoe manufacturers in the country), they also make custom shoes and orthotic inserts.

And they will balance your feet. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds great.



Tucked away on this lightly trafficked block, the shop's walls are stacked with yellowed shoeboxes straight up to the ceiling. It's like walking into an archival library of shoes. In the back, they've got a 120-year-old, very rare bunion-pressing machine. I couldn't help but think of Ben Katchor when I stood amid the crowd of odd, specialized, and little-known shoes, stamped with words that felt both old and invented: conformal, cantilever.



Let's hope the speculators don't ever find this place. Mr. Mousserie expects to stay in business for another 30 years. He told Ask a New Yorker, "New York needs to keep this kind of small business. We can't just give everything to malls and big shopping centers and all that nonsense. People need a personal touch, which we really give them. We give them real personal attention, to their feet. It's their feet that are important!"

I Dream of Fontana

Last night I dreamed A. Fontana Shoe Repair reopened. Angelo was there. Overjoyed, he showed me his new lease--12 more years with no rent increase! Although it had been gutted, most of the interior had somehow been saved and replaced. Only now, instead of a shoe repair shop, it was a barber shop with a single red chair. The walls were pistachio faux-wood paneling, the ceiling strung with Christmas lights.



Angelo felt like celebrating. He poured us each a tall shot glass filled with spicy orange-flavored liquer. I drank mine fast, he sipped his, and I felt embarrassed for drinking mine the wrong way. I told Angelo that I would write about the reopening on my blog and "let everybody know to come back." He smiled but didn't seem to understand what I was saying.

He had a new television and a VCR, and he put in a Marcello Mastroianni movie. The mood shifted. Angelo became quiet and retreated into the back of the shop, through a door, into a decrepit room that looked like a defunct tavern from another age.



I took out my camera to take pictures of the shop for my blog, but the batteries were low and I couldn't get the flash to work. I became anxious, worrying that I would not be the first blogger to announce "Fontana Reopens!"

People started coming in to get their hair cut. Angelo forgot about me. I went outside. The shop windows were foggy and I couldn't see in. I soon realized that Fontana's had not reopened after all. I went into a Chinese hand laundry next door and through their back door connected to the defunct tavern, through that, and into Fontana's. It was gutted and empty.

I looked out the window and saw that that buildings on the corner had been demolished. I thought, "I'm next."



Post Script: While I dream of evicted New Yorkers, other people are dreaming about the presidential candidates. Check out these blogs for those dreams:

• I Dream of Barack
• I Dream of Hillary

*Everyday Chatter

8th Street comic shop suddenly shutters...as the street continues its death rattle. [Flaming P]

Protest at Varvatos shop: "One small loss of a music space, one large step for pants." [Gothamist]

Take a look back at the 1884 gala opening of the Stuyvesant Polyclinic, devoted then to the "relief of the sick and suffering," now a future rockstar mansion in the East Village. [Times Archive]

As the market goes down, the ultra-rich are stacking condos to create their own supersized urban McMansions and combination "mega-pads." [Post]

Go to Streit's Matzo Factory on 4/13 to tell your Streit's story and be in their documentary (click photo to enlarge for details):


Sharon Florin, who paints New York in all its vanishing glory, will be having a show at the Ansonia Pharmacy Windows--that funny little gallery space on 10th Street and 6th Avenue that often has great stuff. So go check her out.

Will there be t-shirts for NYC's vanishing? If you like these, check out Sally Young's stuff. [Curbed]

Mourn the vanishing of a New York society that cared for more than just money. [AMNY]

Take another visit to that sad little block of 9th Ave between 17th and 18th that I covered here and here. [AMNY]

And read a little more on the New Barbershop through the eyes of Romy Ashby and her dog Pilar. [Goodie]

...Speaking of which, yesterday the city planted a tree on the corner of 9th and 18th and I thought, "Here we go--where there are new trees, there will be new gentrification." Then I thought, "But trees are good, so don't worry about it." Then I saw this: The tree was planted by Bloomberg and Tyra Banks. Actually, a bunch of workmen did the planting, but Bloomie and Tyra posed for the photo op. (And who could forget Tyra in homeless chic?) This block is so freaking doomed. [Urbanite]

*Everyday Chatter

Here's that repugnant "Buy This Mansion" sign on the Stuyvesant Polyclinic building, which has been on sale for quite awhile now. Plans for its redevelopment included an NYU dorm and a condo--it stood in as a TV police precinct for a time--but now I guess they're going the single-family-of-multimillionaires route. Note the small type: "Beautiful neighbors included." Ick.

...Also, the developer had been Hirsch, but the poster says Moss (not me--any relation to the Cooper Sq Hotel Moss?)--a "hotshot broker" who quotes Deepak Chopra on his company website--where the Stuyvesant Polyclinic is listed at $13 million with "a grand staircase even Lenny Kravitz would envy" and "do I hear indoor/outdoor saltwater swimming pool exiting to your gigantic organic garden?" So here's the new developer's hope for this longtime community-service center: "someone with rock star attitude will transform this coolest of village landmarks into the most extraordinary eco-mansion New York has ever seen." Does that mean we'll all be invited for a healing saltwater soak?


And here's a painterly ode to this future rockstar mansion. [SJFNY]

Sign the petition to save Met Foods in the East Village.

More evidence shows the new New Yorkers are anti-urban--they just want to live in the suburbs. So why don't they? [Curbed]

East Villagers roast Bruce Willis on a spit for opening a right-wing yuppie bar on the Bowery. [EVGrieve]

I love the photographs of Rudy Burckhardt--and so do the Bowery Boys.

Tonight, go hear stories from New York's garment industry veterans--at the Gotham Center--before they're vanished forever.

Boro Hotel

The Boro Hotel, long condemned at 125th and 5th, appears to be coming down. I passed by yesterday and found it shrouded in demolition netting, its cornice wrecked. I was unable to get a picture, so these images from my visit to 125th last fall will have to do. (If you've got a shot, please add it to the VNY Flickr pool with any info you might have about this building...and here's a pic of the shrouded hotel.)


pics: my flickr



I'm not sure what's coming to this corner--covered above by a car advertisement showing the city's prickly, sleek vision for this neighborhood--but a possible suspect is this luxury hotel:



I love the Boro Hotel's yellow sign with its 1970s(?)-style typeface, but sadly can't find any information about the place.

However, on the first floor, on the 5th Ave side, there was a well-known, locally owned restaurant called La Famille, opened in 1958 by two sisters, Willette Craine Murray and Viola James, with their husbands, Oswald and Ben. According to Ms. Murray's obituary, she was one of the first African-American women to work on 125th Street, a position she fought for by marching in picket lines. She washed dishes in a dime-store and later helped to build La Famille into a Harlem favorite.



La Famille is gone and all traces of it will soon vanish, too, under the crush of Harlem's rezoning. This weekend, you can join The Coalition to Save Harlem in a human chain that will stretch the length of 125th Street, from river to river, and back through generations, back to Ms. Murray and all the people who fought for the right to make a dime, to build and nurture businesses of their own--businesses that are now being taken away by the new shapers of the city, people like "blue-blooded Upper East Side A-lister" Amanda Burden who was blasted last month by Harlem historian and author Michael Henry Adams. His angry words to her are well worth repeating:

"You're a rich, rich, rich horrible person. You're destroying our communities. You're a rich, rich socialite. You're a rich, rich socialite. How dare you! You're destroying Harlem. You're getting rid of all the black people."

*Everyday Chatter

Forgotten NY takes a trip to the gone-but-not-forgotten Cheyenne Diner. [ForgottenNY]

Working to save the Cheyenne, Kyle Supley visits with video. [YouTube]

Another last look at the Cheyenne, which closed on Sunday. [Gothamist]

A piece of the past revealed! The Sucelt sign comes down and unveils a long-forgotten dumpling house from three decades ago:


More great pics of the Ratner/Brooklyn Museum protest from a VNY reader. [Kingston L]

The CBGB site reopened this weekend as a John Varvatos shop--complete with history under glass. [Racked]

The death of Meatpacking continues as the Hog Pit announces its closing--probably to be replaced by a Ralph Lauren store. [Eater] The Pit has only been there since 1995, but in this neighborhood, that's old-school. So how much will the new rent be? A year ago the owner said $40,000 a month.

A look at Page 6's coverage of the new kids on the Bowery and what would Hilly think. [EV Grieve]

"From laptops to lapdances, this high class piece of ass is gonna show you her lower east side!" Meet Sarah Jessica Porkher. [Gothamist]

Saving Cheyenne

At age 25, Michael Perlman has become a veteran preservationist in New York City. Who said "Don't trust anyone under 30?" I did. Well, I take it back--Michael gives me hope for the future. After succeeding in rescuing the Moondance Diner from destruction, he is now turning his powers of preservation to the threatened Cheyenne. I interviewed Michael over email and asked him about his work with the Moondance and his hopes for the Cheyenne.


Michael at the Moondance
photo credit: Mike Dabin

With the Moondance, he said, “I was aware that freestanding diners were pre-assembled and manufactured to move, so I figured ‘why not pick it up & move it?’” He then convinced Extell Development to donate the Moondance to the American Diner Museum in exchange for a tax write-off, and the rest is history—the Moondance is now beloved in Wyoming and should be opening its doors in June.

Could the same happen for the Cheyenne? It can if George Papas (owner of the Skylight Diner and landlord of the Cheyenne property) donates the moveable structure to the American Diner Museum instead of demolishing it. So far, Papas is open to that possibility. As he told Urbanite, "I would really love for somebody to take that away and put it somewhere." Michael happily confirmed that Papas supports the move, provided the diner is structurally sound.

Ironically, Papas is reopening the defunct Market Diner nearby and the Cheyenne used to be one in a chain of Market Diners, as seen here:


photo: John Baeder

The Cheyenne is a nostalgic gem and well worth saving, Michael says, as “the last streamlined railway car-inspired diner in Mid-Manhattan. It was pre-assembled by Paramount in 1940 and retains a majority of its original/distinctive elements. The facade features vertical and horizontal stainless steel securing bowed colorful enamel panels, wrap-around windows, a curved entryway with glass block, and a reverse channel illuminated neon sign. It was recently granted first prize on NYC-Architecture.com’s Top 10 New York Diners/Restaurants.”


photo: Michael's flickr: Still a favorite spot for cabs

Michael hopes that the diner will not go as far as the Moondance did (hopefully not all the way to the real Cheyenne), but might find a place somewhere in the outer boroughs of the city where New Yorkers can continue to enjoy it.


photo: my flickr

Every New Yorker can be a preservationist. Michael recommends that we all survey our neighborhoods “for places that hold the greatest sentimental value, initiate character, and preserve our city's diverse architecture and culture." Filling out the LPC's Request for Evaluation form is quick and easy. It’s up to us to “advocate for landmarking before more cherished sites fall victim to the wrecking ball and the unidealistic real estate craze. Once a site is endangered, it is often too late.”

But don’t be discouraged, Michael writes, “A landmark is (ideally) in the eyes of the majority. I encourage the public to share their landmarking/preservation concerns with me, and especially let me know if a diner or another meaningful type of establishment is at risk, or on their preservation wishlist. My e-mail is always open: unlockthevault@hotmail.com.”

In addition, Michael asks, "Does anyone know of someone who is hoping to purchase a classic diner if the current tenant, Spiros Kasimis, can't afford the rigging and lot acquisition costs?" Drop him a line today if you're in the market to adopt this imperiled souvenir of the real New York.

• Cheyenne: Vanishing
• Market Diner & Cheyenne
• Rolando bemoans the Cheyenne
• Bid to save Cheyenne