Losing Lascoff's

A none-too-optimistic update on the ancient sign at Lascoff's Drugs: the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati offered to make arrangements to have the sign brought to its sign heaven in Ohio, so on Saturday (July 21) I went up to the store to leave a note asking the owners to contact the museum if they were interested in working something out.  

Lascoff's incredibly historic sign, with lettering removed, July 21, 2012. (T. Rinaldi)

No one contacted the museum.  Then, on Monday (July 23) I learned (via Wayne Heller at Lite Brite Neon) that the sign had been listed for sale on Craigslist.  

Lascoff's "museum quality" sign could have been yours via Craigslist. (Craigslist)

The ad was posted on July 16 with the caveat that the sign had to be removed by the next day, but the listing remained online through the 23rd (it's gone now) and the sign was still there as of Tuesday the 24th (though most of its lettering has been carefully removed, apparently for salvage).  I replied to the ad but once again got no answer, so, sadly, we are left to watch and wait. 

Lascoff's gutted: Saturday, July 21, 2012. (T. Rinaldi)

EXTRA FEATURE: SYLVIA, ELAINE AND FEDORA

What can I say that hasn't been said already, except - three lovely lady restaurateurs, three lovely signs.  Let's hope Sylvia's will be here for a long time to come.

From top: Sylvia's at 328 Lenox Ave.; Elaine's, formerly at 1703 Second Ave.; and Fedora, in its old guise, at 239 West Fourth Street. (T. Rinaldi)

IN OTHER NEON NEWS:

• On a happier note, Debra Jane is back on the road, making daily posts brimming with vintage sign porn par excellence through mid-August.
• By way of JVNY - Manganaro's closed back in March and now the sign is gone too: replaced, at least, with a well-intended approximation of its predecessor.  (The new business looks promising as well.)
• Special thanks to the Postcards from Hell's Kitchen blog for the shout-out this week!

• From the Up-For-Grabs department: Duke's Bar on East 19th Street is entertaining bids for a c. 1950s liquor store sign that has decorated its back room for the past decade or so.  Photo here. 

J. Leon Lascoff & Son

I have scrapped my planned blog post this week to run yet another obituary piece, this time for J. Leon Lascoff & Son, "Apothecaries," on the Upper East Side.  The news comes via the blog Jeremiah's Vanishing New York.  Sorry to say, I never patronized Lascoff's, so I'll (mostly) leave the memorializing to others and get down to neon business. 

 

Lascoff's, at 82nd and Lex.  The business served New Yorkers from 1899 until this past weekend.  The sign dates to 1931. (T. Rinaldi)

Suspended over Lascoff's storefront is one of the oldest neon signs in New York, installed in 1931.  The tubes vanished years ago, but the rest is there: raised letters, both serif and sans-, bead-and-reel border molding, and - best of all - that superb, pre-deco, symmetrical silhouette.  It's one of the most significant neon signs in the city.

Lascoff's sign exemplifies typical details common among neon signs of the late '20s and early '30s, including raised lettering, stamped sheet metal border moldings, and a symmetrical silhouette. (T. Rinaldi)

Lascoff's is (was) one of those neighborhood institutions that had been around so long (113 years) it seemed immune from the pressures that have done in so many businesses like it.  The shop was already old when the writer and painter Charles Green Shaw featured it in his book New York, Oddly Enough, back in 1938.  What caught Shaw's eye was not Lascoff's neon sign - then quite ordinary - but an old wooden mortar and pestle that hung just beneath it.  "Established in 1899, Lascoff's has served the Yorkville community ever since, and recently filled its millionth prescription," Shaw wrote.

 

Lascoff's as pictured in Charles Green Shaw's New York, Oddly Enough, in 1938.  The bottom of the neon sign is visible at top left. (NYPL)

The old mortar and pestle disappeared at some point, leaving just the metal bracket that held it in place.  I called Lascoff's last year to enquire about both signs, but the man I spoke with knew nothing about either.  By appearances, Lascoff's wooden sign was not quite 40 years old when Shaw photographed it.  The store's neon sign (which is featured the neon book) turns 81 this year.  

Lascoff's, elevation sketch.  (T. Rinaldi)

Someone needs to save this sign - do it for New York, do it for cultural heritage, do it for neon - but please, someone, save this sign!  If anyone has any information regarding the owner's intentions for the sign or a means of contacting them, please drop me a line.

 

Save This Sign. (T. Rinaldi)

SEE ALSO: 

• News of Lascoff's closing at JVNY.

• Lascoff's profiled in-depth at Forgotten NY.

• Lascoff's profiled in print in "The Historic Shops & Restaurants of NY" by Ellen Williams.

IN OTHER NEON NEWS:

• A heads-up from my uncle: in Western NY, the landmark Batavia Downs sign has made way for a LED replacement.