The Storefront Academy

The storied Storefront Academy https://www.storefrontacademycs.org/ has changed to a Charter School and is now struggling to come online in the COVID-19 era.

The Children’s Storefront was a tuition-free private school in Harlem, founded in 1966 by the poet Ned O’Gorman.  It was the subject of a 1988 documentary film, The Children’s Storefront, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

The mural on their east wall (behind the BP gas station at 129th Street and Park Avenue) is wonderful and inspiring, albeit marred somewhat by the “Now Enrolling” sign.

1940’s Streetview

The wonderful blog Gotham to Go (the labor and love of one of our Madison Avenue neighbors – https://gothamtogo.com/were-enjoying-the-interactive-street-view-map-showing-nyc-in-1940/) has a great piece on a wonderful project that stitched together the 1940s tax photos of NYC into a kind-of mid-century street view.

Coal is being delivered on West 129th Street:

And Madison Avenue between 126 and 127 is barren with not a sign of a tree, trash or life:

Notice how there used to be a restaurant at the ground level on the north west corner of 126/Madison:

To see more: https://1940s.nyc/map/photo/nynyma_rec0040_1_01749_0056#17.09/40.806624/-73.9386