The exterior of Brooklyn Psychotherapy (705 Manhattan Ave.) has a new look, one that we hope stays.
Work crew unearthed vintage signage harkening back to a time when the space served as a drugstore. The stained glass appears similar to the signage outside of the former STORM Books and Candy on Norman Avenue.
The long-running local blog Forgotten New York unearthed additional details.
“A 1940 tax photo reveals the same signs in place when this was John H. Wienholz’s Drug Store. You can see the traditional vials and bottles of medications in the window, as well as the nickel weighing machine that used to be so ubiquitous at drugstores. Chances are you could get a good milk shake here while you picked up your aspirin.”
We found newspaper advertisements for Wienholz’s Drug Store dating back until at least 1920. It’s unclear when the drug store went out of business; a tax records photo from the 1980s shows an auto parts store in its place.
It certainly looks much more attractive than the onslaught of millennial grey architecture plaguing the neighborhood!
I don’t know if there was an article on this at the time but as a pretty cool Tuxedo advertisement on the side of the building at Huron street and Manhattan Ave where Jungle Cafe used to be (995 Manhattan Ave?). As they stripped that back to eventually demolish the building the advertisement was revealed. And I was able to find a picture from the 1920’s or 30’s with the same advertisement. I just can’t find the picture I took before they demolished the building and put up the current apartment building in 2019.
On the subject of “vintage signage”, if you take an evening stroll down those portions of Franklin Street which are designated part of the Greenpoint historic district (i.e. the Eastern side) you can see that some stores & bodegas are flouting the strict historic district signage regulations with large neon signs that are totally out of character with the historic nature of the neighborhood and the neighboring storefronts. If a store like CVS (which is also in a portion of Manhattan Ave that is a historic district) can fully abide by the historic signage regulations, then the stores along Franklin historic district should also be forced to do so by the appropriate city agencies. Why even have a historic district & the regulations that help preserve it, if you don’t enforce those regulations, and if you let some bad apples ruin it?
Real vintage signs are cool and have rich in history that is worth preserving. New signs that are forced to look vintage/historic have no value, and unnecessarily homogenize our streetscape.
Hello there, I’m the renter of the space and owner of Brooklyn Psychotherapy. Rest assured the beautiful stained glass will stay! It was just a happy surprise. We aren’t finished yet – we’re still waiting for a new door, but I’m so glad that this turned out so well!