1904 (Date of Painting Unknown): 2713 Broadway at West 103rd Street
By Caitlin Hawke
A painting of the gone but unforgotten Broadway Barber Shop owned by Kyriacos Demetriou
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Owned for four decades by Mr. Kay, aka master tonsorialist Kyriacos Demetriou, the Broadway Barber Shop lasted for a century. This is why I put the incorporation date in the subtitle of the post. When the shop finally closed, it was memorialized as the end of an era. No one predicted the shaggy rage we're now in.
The perfectly preserved slice of Americana stood at 2713 Broadway between W. 103rd and 104th Streets until it was gifted to the Museum of the City of New York. I know. You are kicking yourself that this one, too, slipped through our fingers. Why do we keep doing this? |
"There's something you should consider before you begin -- my hair works hard and it plays hard." A cartoon by Ed Koren featuring the Broadway Barber Shop
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At least it is preserved in the museum and in print. The shop made it into the New York Times in the the hirsute days of the Beatles, as this piece from 1964 charmingly describes. And there was also the poignant obit here of Mr. Kay himself, telling tales out of school about Columbia president Dwight D. Eisenhower whose tips, alas, were inversely proportional to the area of bare pate.
It is also featured in the showstopping painting above. I am featuring it in this Throwback post for several reasons. First, quite plainly, I cathect it. I am unsure whether the artist mashed up several storefronts with Mr. Kay's shop as the centerpiece or if those stores in it actually all stood side by side. Either way, the huge painting stopped me in my tracks.
I am also featuring it because it hangs in the home of a wonderful neighbor who I was lucky enough to work with through Bloomingdale Aging in Place. A charming, brave woman, she's been in my thoughts a lot recently.
We both fell in love with this painted slice of old Broadway. And by way of this post, I am sending her warm thoughts and my thanks for having shared with me this beauty on that day when we first met. You made me a great cup of coffee, true to your word.
More on 2713 Broadway to come soon.
It is also featured in the showstopping painting above. I am featuring it in this Throwback post for several reasons. First, quite plainly, I cathect it. I am unsure whether the artist mashed up several storefronts with Mr. Kay's shop as the centerpiece or if those stores in it actually all stood side by side. Either way, the huge painting stopped me in my tracks.
I am also featuring it because it hangs in the home of a wonderful neighbor who I was lucky enough to work with through Bloomingdale Aging in Place. A charming, brave woman, she's been in my thoughts a lot recently.
We both fell in love with this painted slice of old Broadway. And by way of this post, I am sending her warm thoughts and my thanks for having shared with me this beauty on that day when we first met. You made me a great cup of coffee, true to your word.
More on 2713 Broadway to come soon.
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