As mom and pop delis and luncheonettes disappear from the five boroughs, so do the wonderful “privilege” signs affixed to them.
But one continues to hang on in Brooklyn at the leafy, brownstone-beautiful corner of Lafayette Avenue and Cumberland Street.
“Lafayete” Grocery & Dairy is a bodega that maintains a vintage Coca-Cola sign.
There’s no word on exactly how old the sign is, but oddly, it was spelled correctly back in 2009 before the place underwent a renovation.
Much older signage can be seen on facade of the building, which likely went up in the 1870s (and once served as home base of the New Diamond Point Pen Company): the names Lafayette and what looks like Cumberland carved in the corner.
These corner-cut street signs can be seen all over New York’s oldest neighborhoods.
Tags: Brooklyn Store Signs, Clinton Hill history, Clinton Hill Street, Fort Greene Street sign, Lafayette Grocery and Dairy, Privilege Signs New York City, vintage Coca-Cola signs
Ephemeral New York 
November 2, 2015 at 6:19 am |
This is the greatest blog! Fascinating!!!!
November 2, 2015 at 9:15 am |
Thank you–it helps to have engaged and thoughtful readers!
November 2, 2015 at 2:02 pm |
I believe the conversation during the renovation went something like this,
“Hey, where did that ‘T’ go?”
” What ‘T’? I didn’t see no ‘T”.
November 5, 2015 at 4:42 am |
What a great blog – thanks for sharing your words and images.
November 5, 2015 at 6:18 pm |
Thank you!
September 2, 2016 at 8:28 am |
[…] can see more disappearing privilege signs here and read about their history in David Dunlap’s excellent 2014 New York Times piece on these […]