Left: Optimo Cigars, Union Square, NYC
Right: 10 Years Later
10 years ago, photographers James and Karla Murray released a book titled Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York that captured the city’s disappearing mom-and-pop shops.
Fast forward to 2014 and they have embarked on a follow-up project called Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York - 10 Years Later to see how the places they documented have changed.
They revisited their shots from a decade ago and placed the old and new images side-by-side for comparison. The results are sobering; delis, bars and speciality shops have been pushed out to make way for generic fast food outlets, banks and condominiums.
The Mars Bar at the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 1st Street is now the site of a condominium, while Casa Nova Pizzeria in Hell’s Kitchen has been taken over by a Verizon outlet. They are just a couple of the many neighborhood stores that have fallen prey to increasing rents, proving that nothing stays still in this fast-changing city for long.
Read an interview with the duo at Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York where they talk about the most striking changes they’ve encountered so far.
Check out some photos below and view more here.
Above: 2nd Ave Deli - 2nd Avenue at East 10th Street East Village, NYC
Below: 10 Years later - 2nd Ave Deli at this location 1954 - 2006
Above: Mars Bar, corner of 2nd Ave. and E 1st St. East Village, NYC
Below: 10 Years Later
Above: Bar Martins - West Houston Street near Varick Street Greenwich Village, NYC
Below: 10 Years Later
Above: The corner of Grand Street and Ludlow Street
Below: 10 years later - Lismore Hosiery Co. to Subway
Above: Casa Nova Pizzeria 664 Ninth Ave Hell's Kitchen, NYC
Below: 10 Years Later
Above: CBGB, The Bowery, East Village, NYC
Below: 10 Years Later
Above: Ralph's Discount City, TriBeCa, NYC
Below: 10 Years Later, 1963 - 2007 Location still vacant today
[via Fast Company and Gothamist, images via James and Karla Photography]