Jackson Heights Life

I was born in Jackson Heights in 1949. Went to PS 69 and PS 145. Lived on 75th Street between 35th and 37th Avenue. Left Jackson Heights in 1964. Thought it would be fun to try to reconstruct the stores on 37th Avenue between 74th and 82nd Street from about 1954 to 1964.  Turns out it was a lot harder than I thought. Here's my list - would appreciate adds and corrections.

74th Street and Roosevelt Ave.
Ferns Stationary
Lamston's
Merit Farms
Jay Dee bakery
Fanny Farmer candy store
Miles shoes
National Shoes

Between 74th and 75th 37th Avenue
Carvel
Chinese Restaurant
Bruson Building
Newtown Lanes (in basement of telephone building)
Cleaners

Between 75th and 76th 37th Avenue
Frank's Dress Store on corner of 75th Street and 37th Avenue
Mollies (aka Sam's) (Owners Molly and Lefty) Ollie worked there.
High end chocolate shop (a lot of European chocolates)
Chinese Laundry
Bohak
Italian Bakery (best sicilian slices)
Toy City
Drug store (Royal Pharmacy was on the other side of 76th Street
Wexlers (When I was 15 I used to work there preparing trays of herring, pickle, potato salad and cole slaw trays - remember smelling like fish all the time)
Travel Agency

Between 76th and 77th 37th Avenue
Key Foods
Toddle House
Hamburger Express (run by Arthur Landau's parents)
Radio Repair Shop
Royal Pharmacy

77th between 37th and 35th Avenues
Pizza place (slices were 15¢ in 1963)

Between 77th and 78th 37th Avenue
P.S. 69
Raja's Candy store (Louie and Willie) (previously Moe & Archie's??)
King Edwards Deli

Between 78th and 79th 37th Avenue
Post Office
Fruit Market (owned by Sal)
Baars

Between 79th and 80th 37th Avenue
Teddy's Butcher Shop (my brother delivered meat for them on a bike in the 50s)


Between 80th and 81st 37th Avenue
Don't remember any

81st and 82 37th Avenue
Jan's Ice Cream Parlor
Arts 'n Flowers Florist Shop
Weiss's Stationary
Fields

82nd  Street and Roosevelt Ave.
Colony Movie Theater
Woolworth
Thom McAn Shoes
Florsheim Shoes
The Record Store
Clark's Women Clothing
Schrafft's Restaurent

I remember Wexler's and Toy City and most of the rest.  Wasn't there a Kosher deli between 75th and 76th, on the south side of 37th.  Also, the drug store opposite Royal was called Almadine or something like that.

I believe that the used book store was between 77th and 78th, in the spot where the realtor is now (next to the old City Coffee).

Quote from: queenskid2 on May 07, 2018, 02:31:12 PM

I believe that the used book store was between 77th and 78th, in the spot where the realtor is now (next to the old City Coffee).

Yes. I new it was located in the vicinity of the mid to high 70s.  It was the kind of place where you had to climb over stacks of books!

Yes!  They had Magick the Gathering cards and had some games going on Saturdays.  And a lot of old, hard to get scifi books.

Newman's!

wow, that's quite a memory -- a place i frequented long before i moved to the neighborhood because it was just so packed with cool, old, odd stuff.

Some more notes.

On 74th St- Key Food (later moved to corner of 73rd and 37th)
                  Archer Hardware
                  Pizza Boy? (corner of 37th-still there)

74th-75th- Armando's Italian Restaurant (Bruson Building, now on Northern Blvd)

75th-76th- I think the Landaus owned the high end chocolate shop (Artie was a classmate of mine and the family lived in my building.) Not sure if they owned the Hamburger Express.
                 Star Hardware (or on 76th-77th?)


76th, N of 37th-
                  beauty parlor?
                  Victor Parmentier Photography

76th-77th, south side-
                  nightclub Blue Angel? (burned out in the '60's)
                  Shopwise (opened c. 1953 in two stores that had been the Public Library, later expanded down toward 76th, where there had been several separate stores, including an art framer.)
                  Toddle House

77th-78th    Raja was, indeed, Moe and Archie's.
                  Just to Raja's west were two narrow stores- a piano school and a button shop
                  The corner store, now a fruit market, was a women's hat store.

78th-79th    Newtown Lanes was here, mid block entrance, N side. The alleys were under Larry's Appliances.

79th-80th    The camera store was Barney's.

81st-82nd, north side
                   Jamaica Savings Bank
                   Battipaglia Liquors (later moved across the street when Fields expanded)

81st-82nd, south side
                   Arts and Flowers
                   Shelley's Bakery (later moved to Roosevelt between 82nd and 83rd)
                   Weiss Stationers
                   Ligett-Rexall Drugs
                     

the Baskin-Robbins was between 75th and 76th for ages, i believe.

From my recollection, the Baskin Robbins dated back to at least the early 80s... don't know what was there before.  I'm trying to remember if it was located at the Al Araf or Swim Two Birds space.

Swim Two Birds.  I worked at B&R for years.  It opened in the mid-70's, if I remember correctly.

Wow! That's pretty cool, queenskid2 (pun intended  )