Before it is gone . . .
I posted this picture a while ago as part of my 125th
street extravaganza. This period picture
looks like it was taken not long after opening. This is just next to the Riverside Drive Viaduct on what we call incorrectly 125th street. Ultimately the service station was turned into a car
wash. The station and the car wash
fall within the area that Columbia University feels it need to expand
into.
This is the service station as it has look for years. The car wash stopped operating a few
years ago but gas was being sold there up until a few weeks ago. Above the “menu” the
protest banner reads “Dear Columbia: No Forced Displacement”. The banner is protesting the eviction
of the businesses that have called Manhattanville home for years.
So farewell once upon a time art decoesque service
station. Farewell slightly
overpriced gas station and not so hot car wash. I will miss you, you relic, you reminder of another time
when even Manhattan had beautiful gas stations.
Nice post, Gary. I was privy to some of the zoning discussions between with the University's outside counsel about the necessity and design of the expansion plan. Needless to say, they didn't give an inch.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I think it was architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler who said something along the lines of "if you took someone from the upper westside and sent them 20 years into the future, he would not recognize his neighborhood", something like that. He was also talking about his own time, the late 19th century. If Montgomery Schuyler were writing about now, the time one would be sent to an unrecognizable future would be much shorter, say 5 years.
Delete