This Canal Street sign might be older than SoHo

I can’t be the only person in New York in love with the Canal Rubber sign—a can’t-miss yellow, red, and black throwback to Canal Street’s days as an industrial and art supply center.

Canal Rubber has been in business here near Greene Street since 1954.

That year, Ellis Island closed its doors, On the Waterfront hit movie theaters, teen gangs were making news headlines, and the desolate neighborhood not yet known as Soho was called Hell’s Hundred Acres (for all the fires in the cast-iron buildings used for manufacturing).

Or it went by no name at all, because no one wanted to be there.

Tags: Canal Rubber, Canal Street 1950s, downtown old store signs, Hell's Hundred Acres Soho, New York in the 1950s, Soho 1950s, vintage store signs Manhattan

This entry was posted on March 27, 2017 at 6:50 am and is filed under Fashion and shopping, Lower Manhattan, Random signage, SoHo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “This Canal Street sign might be older than SoHo”

Nicole Says:
March 28, 2017 at 9:41 pm | Reply
Imagine my surprise last year, when I went to re-up on art supplies/roam about the different floors of Pearl Paint & it was completely shuttered! May people be able to have rubber cut to size for some time.
Bob Says:
May 4, 2017 at 9:29 pm | Reply
Store for rent

See http://tinyurl.com/canalrubber
Matt Says:
May 5, 2017 at 4:00 pm | Reply
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
-Mark Twain
polloplayer Says:
July 15, 2017 at 2:37 pm | Reply
Such interesting factoids! I wondered why the Soho restaurant was called “Hundred Acres” as it seems to have nothing to do with Winnie-the-Pooh. Now I know!
Two Prince Street relics on a pre-SoHo building | Ephemeral New York Says:
August 19, 2017 at 6:59 am | Reply
[…] What they were for we may never know, but these businesses must have been right at home in the area at the time, when this post–Civil War red-light district was the 20th century commercial hub known as Hell’s Hundred Acres. […]
CANAL STREET, SoHo-LES - Forgotten New York Says:
April 14, 2019 at 10:09 pm | Reply
[…] The NE corner building at Canal and Greene Street, #329-331 Canal, is officially the J.B. Snook Building, named for its architect who designed it in 1883. 329 is home to Canal Rubber and its famous sign, “If it’s in rubber — we have it!” Unfortunately in 2019 it was partially obscured by a construction awning. The rubber emporium has been on Canal Street since 1954. […]