A trip to Warshaw hardware at 248 Third Avenue, is my own return to my past when the family shop was on the corner of 18th Street and 3rd Avenue. Third Avenue between 14th Street and 23rd Street in the 60s was my oyster. I knew all the shops on both sides of the avenue. As for hardware stores, if we needed anything there was always Warshaw and their competition Greisman's on 22nd street, on the same side of Third.
Greisman's is gone, and as Ed of Warshaw tells us, when he was growing up there were seven hardware stores in the area. Right now, other that Warshaw, I know of two. and was in both of them yesterday.
The sign over Warshaw's door tell us they've been there since 1928. Above the store are three stories, likely apartments for the family members. I once asked Ed how were they there so long, and he explained I think it was an uncle who convinced the family to buy the building decades ago. Owning the bundling when you're the store makes all the difference to your future when you're in Manhattan. Landlords and rents will do away with you.
If Warshaw has been there since 1928, the building has probably been there since the late 1800s. The Third Avenue El would have been going by those upper floor bedroom windows either disturbing sleep, or helping it. The place no doubt shook a bit when trains went by.
As for my own family's experience, my grandfather didn't go into real estate. The two buildings the Third Avenue shop was in at 3rd and 18th Street were too big for a proprietor to buy. (The first shop was a front for Pete's Tavern on Irving Place and 18th Street when it was a speakeasy.) There's a picture of my grandfather in front of the store when it was on the southwest corner, the old store. He's standing in front of the store with his son, who was not yet my father, with a poster on the window about buying war bonds.
I look at the picture and wonder if my grandfather was ever "worried" about the world his grandchildren were going to be in. You can't tell of course, but if he really had a thought about the future he should have bought a building. Just 20' of frontage on Third Avenue would be worth something today. Some things are not meant to be.
I once needed hanger bolts for a woodworking project. A hanger bolt is machine threaded at one end, and twist threaded for wood at the other end. Warshaw had it.
When it came time to need the bolts again for building more Adirondack chairs I again went to Warshaw's. The young helper was unfamiliar with the item, so I showed him where they were. When you're dealing with a hardware store as classic as Warshaw's it helps if you get to ask a question of someone who was born there. They are the only ones who really know where everything is.
The most recent trip to Warshaw's--and there were three--was to get 60 watt bug lights. These are yellow, and do not attract the moths and mosquitoes outdoors when they are in season.
Home Depot was worthless, and the hardware store at 152 East 23rd Street store, Vercesi, where I could always rely on finding these bulbs, had now gone away, the building came down, and a new one was going up. Vercesi was also a classic hardware store that apparently got so successful they expanded into the store adjacent to them and stocked more household items.
The entrance to Vercesi was also classic, an entrance way that was flanked by two display windows. Warshaw is classic as well, but in the sense that half the store seems to be on the sidewalk. Ladders of varying size, boxes, joint compound, and a few other items that have to make closing the store a bit of a struggle. You probably have to back out of the place.
At the flower shop, when it was Christmas time, we had trees and other holiday plants and greens on the sidewalk. When it came time to close up I had to haul it all back into the store and back out as my father waited with the key to lock the door.
The most recent quest that took me to Warshaw was chasing 60 watt bug lights. My go-to guys at Vercesi were now a construction site. I walked further down Third to 20th Street to see if a similar fate had somehow befallen Warshaw.
No. Tons of stuff was in front of the store on the sidewalk, so they were still there. But no 60 watt bug lights. Ed said he'd order them. A few weeks later I was back in the city for something so I went to see if they had gotten the bulbs. No. Ed once again put in inventory order and said he'd have them at the end of week.
Maybe two weeks later I was back in the city for a few things and still chasing my yellow whale. This time Warshaw had stocked an order of the bulbs, so I loaded up and bought three two packs. He might be a brother of Ed, Carl(?), a jolly bearded guy who could, with a red suit, play Santa Claus, who rang me up and told me the season was over for bugs. I told him I'm stocking up. Hoarding. I asked for a bag, which turns out wasn't extra.
Warshaw makes plenty of fans who write flattering Yelp reviews. Manhattan is of course filled with challenged do-it-your-selfer apartment dwellers, so the help they get at Warshaw is usually greatly appreciated. There's a sign in their window about rewiring lamps. This really isn't too hard, but doing it has made lifetime customers for them. Read the reviews.
You may not find everything you need at Warshaw. The elderly woman who was in front of me clogging the aisle to my access to the bulbs I wanted was busy asking a staff member if they had the bulb she was holding in her hand. Turns out they didn't have a long neck, white, 150 watt incandescent. She was disappointed. She and her burnt out bulb departed.
But, if you are in that area, or close enough to it, and do need a whatchamacallit, give the place a try. And then write a review.
http://www.onofframp.blogpsot.com
The inventory in these places is amazing and look for the oldest person in the store.
ReplyDelete