Back in 2010, a lounge and restaurant called Beauty & Essex opened in a cavernous space at 146 Essex Street—a glittery addition to Lower East Side nightlife back when the neighborhood still had a grittier edge.
Beauty & Essex is temporarily closed, according to Yelp. But there’s another reason to do a walk-by at this address: to see the faded ghost sign that still remains on the facade decades after it went up in the 1960s.
This spot used to be the home base of M. Katz & Sons Fine Furniture—a business founded in 1906 out of a Lower East Side tenement by Meilich Katz, according to the store website. In the 1930s, M. Katz’s sons opened a shop on Stanton Street, and by the late 1960s, a third generation relocated to 146 Essex Street (below, an undated photo of the Essex Street sign).
M. Katz’s still sells furniture; a fifth generation of the Katz family occupies a smaller space on Orchard Street these days. The facade on Essex Street is a palimpsest of a century-old family business still bearing the founder’s name.
[Second photo: Yellowbot]
Tags: Essex Street LES, Ghost Signs Lower East Side, ghost signs New York City, Ghost Signs of Defunct Stores NYC, Lower East Side Old Stores, M. Katz & Sons Fine Furniture
March 15, 2021 at 6:27 am |
Back in the 70s, a friend of a friend sent us there to buy furniture for our apartment. There was no showroom – we we ushered into an office and selected everything from catalogues.
March 15, 2021 at 2:02 pm |
During the pandemic, I’ve been seeing more and more “ghost signs” as businesses close and more modern signs and awnings are removed.
March 15, 2021 at 8:25 pm |
Definitely, especially in Lower Manhattan
March 16, 2021 at 1:20 am |
Palimpsest 😍swoon
March 16, 2021 at 4:06 am |
I had to look that word up. Can’t wait to add it to Pal in Scrabble for a bingo!