The McDonald’s franchise on Sixth Avenue and 28th Street appears to be a typical unremarkable fast-food building on the edge of Manhattan’s ever-shrinking Flower District.
But if you look closely at the building, you can see an unusual motif that wraps its way all around the structure: pairs of intertwined seahorses framing a trident.
The sea-creature motif exists because the building originally housed a Child’s restaurant—part of a chain of eateries the dotted New York City in the first half of the 20th century, like Schrafft’s and Horn and Hardart’s Automat.
Not all Child’s restaurants had this logo; the famous one on the Coney Island Boardwalk, landmarked in 2003 and now Dreamland Roller Rink, features colorful terra cotta fish, seashells, ships, and King Neptune.
Tags: Child's on the Coney Island Boardwalk, Child's Restaurant, Coney Island Child's restaurant, Flower District, King Neptune, McDonald's, sea creatures
Ephemeral New York 
February 23, 2009 at 11:37 am |
Wow, I gotta go check that out. I never thought a McDonald’s franchise owner would make any effort to keep some peaty old ornamental architecture.
February 23, 2009 at 4:13 pm |
[…] a McDonald’s and find a piece of New York’s restaurant past. [Ephemeral New […]
October 19, 2009 at 2:47 am |
Here are some more, all in Queens:
* The southeast corner of 45th Street and 43rd Avenue
* 60th Street, between 44th Avenue and Queens Boulevard
* Roosevelt Avenue, between 63rd Street and 64th Street
* The northeast corner of 36th Street and Broadway
* The east side of Fresh Pond Road, at 67th Avenue
They all appear to be close to what was their original form. I see that the seahorses and the background at the McDonald’s have all been painted black. Plus, there is additional ornamentation at the above sites.
October 13, 2010 at 4:09 am |
[…] Could it be the same building with the top floors sheared off? Possibly; back then, this McDonald’s was a Child’s restaurant. […]
July 23, 2011 at 9:09 pm |
[…] the 1970s, the city was dotted with Schrafft’s restaurants, a mini-chain in the tradition of Child’s and Chock Full o’Nuts that offered sandwiches and ice cream—mostly to […]
November 1, 2016 at 4:06 pm |
[…] The seahorses and bear-like creatures on the facade are historic details leftover from the days when the building housed a Childs Restaurant, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York reported, citing Ephemeral New York. […]
November 1, 2016 at 4:30 pm |
[…] The seahorses and bear-like creatures on the facade are historic particulars leftover from the times when the constructing housed a Childs Restaurant, Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York reported, citing Ephemeral New York. […]
June 27, 2022 at 3:01 am |
[…] former Childs outlets can be found throughout the city. One is now a McDonald’s on Sixth Avenue and 28th Street—at least it was last time I […]
July 7, 2022 at 6:59 am |
[…] former Childs outlets can be found throughout the city. One is now a McDonald’s on Sixth Avenue and 28th Street—at least it was last time I […]