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
March 28, 2017 at 9:41 pm |
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.
April 20, 2017 at 4:53 pm |
bon film trés romantique
May 4, 2017 at 9:29 pm |
Store for rent
See http://tinyurl.com/canalrubber
May 5, 2017 at 4:00 pm |
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
-Mark Twain
July 15, 2017 at 2:37 pm |
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!
August 19, 2017 at 6:59 am |
[…] 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. […]
April 14, 2019 at 10:09 pm |
[…] 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. […]