96th and Riverside Drive, c/o NYPL Digital Collections
Odd, what’s gone. Take newsstands. Sprawling out from a minimal shelter for the vendor, green-painted newsstands were predictably located outside of subway entrances. Newspapers were stacked outside and magazines were stuck overlapping each other inside and on the walls of the shed. Candy, soda and heated glass-paned booths came much later.
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Now, where to get a paper and why? I’ve been getting my news online for many years. Same thing with the phone booths that were set up on sidewalks every block or so. In the 1960s, as neighborhoods got rougher, the phones were revamped to make them harder to vandalize. Pre-cell, from childhood, you would memorize an emergency number and carry a dime, later a quarter with you, just in case. As 96th and surrounding streets got rougher in the ’60s and ’70s, you just picked your street and avoided crossing Central Park.
On Saturday nights, my family would pick up a hefty Sunday Times at the newsstand on 96th and Broadway. From about age 8, I was the person in charge of scrutinizing the real estate listings under “apartments for rent,” in the hopes of finding a new, larger place to live. This was something that would take years to realize.
Alan Chartock of WAMC, an affiliate of the NPR network based in Albany, grew up at 50 West 96th Street. Recently, he recalled his local newsstand. “Well, there was one on Central Park and 96th. The guy running it was Harry Trachtenberg. When I took the subway and asked for the Times or Trib, he would try and get me to take the Daily Worker! We read five papers in our house.”
Since Chartock could pull up memories so well, I asked him, “Do you remember Andre’s, the French bakery on 96th Street just off Columbus going toward Central Park West?”
He didn’t even take a minute to answer. “Indeed I do! Right near my building. My mother worked many jobs and always bought home boxes of frozen blintzes from Andre’s. I remember the owner lady’s face very well. The hard rolls were the best I ever had. Eclairs were the best ever!”
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Down the block on the other side of the street, the family-owned Plant Shed Flowers has been located midway between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue for over 30 years. It seems always to have been there. But in the 1960s, my mother bought long stemmed roses at a bargain price every Friday from a street vendor at the corner of Broadway and 86th Street.
Many older West Siders remember The Riverside and Riviera Theatres topped by Japanese Gardens. Somehow my attention was not so much on these particular movie houses, but on a very small hosiery shop squeezed in between them. Hard to imagine, but this was before pantyhose, and my high school friends and I went there to buy lace stockings. It was a sort of funky 60s look.
Riverside and Riviera Theatres, c/o cinematreasures.org
Inside the Riverside Theatre at 2561 Broadway. Photo c/o cinematreasures.org
But even before that, I would go with my mother to make her carefully considered purchases from the shop between the theaters. The whole process was a ritual. The first question was “With seams or without?” Nylons came neatly folded, wrapped in a sheet of tissue and stacked three pairs to a slim, shiny box. The salesperson would inquire about size and color, open the box and slide a hand gently into the stockings so the customer could see how it would look when worn. Rarely was the first trial acceptable. This could go on for some time.
On the other side of the street was the Senator Cafeteria. This was an out-of-the-depression to mid-century style restaurant where a ticket was dispensed at the door and punched according to the customer selections. Although I liked the big baked apples in cherry syrup, this wasn’t my type of place. But my father did love it. After a lunch there we sometimes went bowling upstairs at Hess’ Pool Hall and Bowling Alley.
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I.B. Singer was very well known at The Senator and he based a number of short stories on the people he met there. A 1980s movie was made from his short story called “Cafeteria.” Just rounding the corner was the mysterious old IRT Substation, one of eight original substations that powered NYC’s early subways. It has long been unused. Now, it is set to be converted into a new apartment building.
At the corner of West End Avenue, The Paris Hotel went through a seedy decline before a more recent revamp. But, it was known to have the luxury of a health club and swimming pool.
Getting out of the city in our old green Chevy, we always stopped just before the 96th Street entrance to the West Side Highway to fuel up at the indoor gas station. I always liked starting our trips at 96th Street and returning late at night, to look out across the Hudson to the lit up roller coaster at Palisades Amusement Park.
I bought an apt at 50 W 96th using my credit cards in 1984.
regards. 1984 used c c to buy apt. didnot know you couild do that way back when? it brought to mind i rented a car coiple of times in nyc i believe it was west side in or near midtown. a rule then i guiess? was they would not take my credit card or sometning similar had to pay $ loke i said i believe it was for thje age factor in 1963/64, i would have been 21-23?, weird i guess for today, as today can but the taj mahal if youi had the $ and it was for sale on a credit card.
Ah, NYC and the UWS! Went to NYU, lived in student housing on UWS. Can’t even find a place in DC that has hard rolls! Italian food is horrible – my friend paid 29 bucks A RPM Italian for chicken parm and I got a better parm for 7 bucks waiting for the bus back to DC And no, no real bodegas. AOC was just trying to be kind to this city on the Potomac.
Thanks for the memories. Most of this story was all part of my growing up. The Riviera and the Riverside theaters were a weekend staple. I think 2 movies for .30 cents. Later there was Marty Reismans table tennis club, Ping Pong. Above the theater on 96 west of Broadway. Great stuff. I remember my dad sending me out to get bagels that had just gone up to 7 cents from 5 cents. Some things are getting a bit foggy but most of those memories are still pretty clear . More later have to run.
Marty Reisman’s PingPong Parlor was actually on the South side of 96th Street, below street level, and just West of Broadway on the hill down to West End Avenue.
I temember the day that place burned down. I was in high school in another neighboring. My mother met me at the subway exit at 96th and CPW and told me there was a fire on Broadway. We walked over and it was a real blaze. Completely burned out. I moved away about two years later and the place was still a ruin.
My father was an avid swimmer. I remember going with him to swim in the Paris Hotel in the winter. Many times we would be the only people in the pool.
When we would leave chlorine would make the street lights have halos and sometimes snow would be falling.
I loved living on the Upper West Side and lived there for 38 years.. It is too expensive now.
Yes, I too loved swimming in the Paris pool. My father took me swimming there when I was a youngster — I’m 82 now so that tells you when we went there. Then again, as an aging senior, but one of the “youngest” in the group, I started doing aqua-aerobics there. The teachers, staff, and fellow alta-cockers in the class were all terrific. Then the pool was closed, renovated, and turned over to elite neighborhood schools. So much for us old folks who scattered to the 92nd St Y, Harlem Y, JCC and a few other places — or lost the spirit for exercise and community. About 10 years ago I read an article that listed the UWS as one of most senior friendly communities in the country. Too expensive, too many electric bikes, etc., too hard to find parking — no longer so senior friendly, I’m afraid.
To update my earlier comment, I gave up the rent-controlled apartment last year that I had lived in since 1966 and have relocated to Rhode Island. I could make the move, in part, because I no longer could find street parking nor afford indoor parking. Also, I was terrified each day and night trying to walk around and safely cross streets with all sorts of unregistered and unregulated electric vehicles zooming every which way, on sidewalks, in the street, heading random directions, and totally ignoring red street lights. I wonder what the neighborhood streets will look like when all the tall new buildings from 86th to 96th finally open and fill up. Where will all their cars go? I do miss walking around the reservoir in Central Park.
My classmate at PS 75 and Joan of Arc was Michael Walter. His father was the manager of the Paris.
child of nyc born 1942 lieved with grandmother and mother after dad home from ww2 lived west 69th street grandmother was west 67th street. lincoln center puahed us out for failed urban enewaal stuff around 1956b57 movred to doglas pjs ewst 100st and amsterdam/columbus avenues family left for the bx about 66/67 after i and bro left military. but being lifelong resident of nyc not wothstanding going to other places esp in military and basically working living nyc know nyuc very good all 5 boros. i feel nyc has lost as those say in slang alot of its flavor. had uncle lived formyears west 54thmstreet, some thing im remember (cant list all not enough paper) slaughter houses, before 1st wtc, westside piers when ships really came in, old 42nd street, old east harlem old south bronx etc etc etc later maybe for more? another slang thought its been a trip!.
Does anyone recall Stanley’s Cafeteria on Broadway between 101st Street to say 105th Street on the west side of B’way…sometime around 1963-64?
The newsstand on 96th Street and Broadway at the subway entrance on the West side of Broadway was run by two brothers. They also sold numbers, and every evening dozens of people would await the arrival of next day’s Daily Mirror which had the number as the last digits of today’s racing handle. I grew up at 336 W. 95th Street, and went to P.S. 93 and later P.S. 75 and J.H.S. 118 “Joan of Arc” Junior High (with Alan Chartock and his twin brother Louis by the way).
I also went to PS 75 and JHS 118. Anyone remember the bakery, butchers and maybe a flower shop on Columbus? Also the drugstore on the corner ?
I’m looking for two images of the old 96th St —
I was born in 1939 and grew up on 96th between CPW and Columbus and then lived on WEA at 94th since 1966.
I was one of the 6th graders who marched from PS 93 to PS 75 as the first graduating class in 1951-52 (and have a photo with all the 6th graders taken for our graduation and am happy to share that). I remember spending happy hours in the Riverside and Riviera.
For years I’ve been looking for two, particular, 96th street pictures from my youth, maybe someone can help:
1) The Horn and Hardart cafeteria on 96th and Bway.
2) Rip’s (sp?) tennis courts and ice-skating areas where PS 75 is now and what was where 711 WEA is now.
Hi…I share many of your memories. I was in Kindergarten at P.S. 93 when we all marched to our new school, P.S. 75. It was even on television for those of us who had one. Would love to hear from you.
Another PS 75 and JHS 118 (Joan of Arc) alum here. Parents owned a candy store (Manny’s) between 98th and 99th on Broadway and lived on W. 99 between Broadway and Amsterdam. Loved the Riviera and the Riverside, Reisman’s, the Nedicks, Rosenblum’s restaurant on 100th, et al. Played a lot of punchball on West End, stoop ball and Chinese handball on 98th next to the Radio Clinic. Morris Brothers across the street. Parents’ store was next to the Busy Bee grocery store. Good times.
Forgot to mention that one of my classmates at PS 75 and JHS 118 was Michael Walter. His father was the manager at Hotel Paris.
Abe, I remember the candy store very well next to Busy Bee. But I recall it was called Joe and Harry’s. Did Manny buy it from them?
Does anybody remember the giant illuminated Crisco sign on the other side of the Hudson River which came into view when driving west on 101st street between West End and the river?
Yes, but it wasn’t Crisco, it was a competing product: Spry. I practically learned my letters from that sign. It went like this: “SPRY for baking. SPRY for frying. S-P-R-Y. SPRY!”
I grew up at 101 Street, and played stickball at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at 100th Street. Went to Joan of Arc, (where my mother was a math teacher who taught algebra, geometry, and trig.) One of my vivid memories was to go to the Riverside or the Riviera on a Saturday afternoon with a couple of buddies, when they were showing a horror film as a second billing. We would sit in the last row of the balcony, and when the horror scene came on, we would scream, and scare the hell out of everbody in the theater.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is on 89th Street. You remember the Firemen’s Memorial (probably called the Firefighter’s Memorial today) at 100th Street.
Are you the Jonathan Amson who was in my class at Hunter College Elementary School?
I grew up on West 97th between Amsterdam and Columbus. Attended Holy Name School in the 1950s. I remember the two theaters. They used to have kids time on Saturdays. And, of course, the Symphony where I saw Fantasia for the first time. Remember the Nedick’s on 97th and Broadway and the butcher store a couple of blocks up. I remember the toy store between the two theaters where I got my Ginny dolls and their many outfits. Also, I remember the newspaper/candy store on 97th where my father would get ice cream cones with sprinkles when he went out for the early morning edition of the paper on Sunday nights and bring that home as a treat for me. I remember the wonderful bakeries that were located along Broadway, especially Cake Masters at 100th and Babka which was maybe 92nd Street. And the florists on Broadway and on Amsterdam and on 96th, where we used to get flowers, I remember going to Broadway with my father to buy the annual Christmas tree. And walking home with my parents from the Thanksgiving Parade. Being a bookish girl I didn’t play outdoors too much, but loved the proximity to two gorgeous parks. The kindergarten I attended was actually in Central Park, at the North Meadow field house. It was a great place to grow up. I would probably still be there if it hadn’t been for the wholesale destruction of my entire block during “urban renewal”. I’m just glad I managed to be there till I was 16. Now I live on the other side of the park, as close to the 72nd and Fifth entrance to Central Park as I was to the 96th and COW one, but there’s no near equivalent for Riverside Park. I miss that, though I can take the crosstown bus. I still love the West Side better than the East. Always a westsider at heart.
Speaking of André’s, the bakery on 96th just east of Columbus, I had a traumatic experience there. I must have been about 6 or 7 years old in the mid ’50s, and with a little snow in my pail, I upended it to make a snow castle, on the shoveled part of the walkway in front of the bakery. Maybe my mother was inside buying something? Anyhow the irate owner came out and yelled at me. it made me feel terrible and I still remember this almost 70 years later.
I can’t forget Murray’s Market on Amsterdam between 95th and 96th Streets. Benny also worked there and Murray’s wife, Belle. In many ways it was the hub of the neighborhood for we young Mitchell-Lama families. Low on cash? Murray let you put that quart of milk for your kids on credit and the pound of chopped meat which was served up on the butcher block at the back of the store. We young parents could also leave our house keys with Murray if we knew we couldn’t be home in time for the children’s 3 o’clock dismissal and Murray or Bennie might throw in a free snack. for the kiddoes when they picked up the house keys.Then, at about 4 every afternoon, Murray, Belle, and Bennie started their own happy hour – paper coffee containers laced with whatever was their favorite.Once a year Murray and Belle made a huge party in their apartment for which Belle had been cooking for weeks in advance. Beef Wellington was her specialty and at this party there, we customers, old young, black, white, Spanish speaking, Asian, and many of us who’d owed MUrray money for months and, as far as I know, he never pushed anybody for it. And at their party we celebrated our upper west side night dancing, eating, drinking, etc.
Years later, on a 7 or 11 bus, I might see someone who looked familiar and realize that we’d danced together at Belle and Murray’s party even if we never spoke to each other again. And, once, maybe it was ten or eleven years ago, Murray himself was on a #7 bus.
He was seated on a front seat, looked as twinkly as ever and as ever as interested to have a chat with a gal who said hello. Another personality in the shop – Cologne. It was rumored that his activities were nefarious but he was always a honey to we young mommies and our children. It was a sad day when Belle died (remember she moved into her own space on the street – first opened a health food store and then a knitting shop? ) and then she passed away and later Murray’s Butcher Shop closed and, for my part, that street has never been as vibrant and embracing – a sweetlyEE significant part of neighborhood history.
A bit further south — at 86th & Amsterdam — but the aroma from Lichtmann’s bakery was so powerful that I’m sure it was enjoyed all the way up at 96 St. I once dated a girl who lived in an apartment above the bakery and gained ten pounds just from inhaling the richly scented air coming up from the Bakery.
I lived on west 84th between west end Ave. and Broadway from 1957 through 1967 as a young boy. some of the best years of my life.
I swam many miles in the Hotel Paris pool, come out blinded and stumble over to Broadway and buy a big slab of meat –wonderful butcher, Oppenheimer’s, people came from all over the city to shop there–and go home and devour it. Lived at West End Ave and 98th, 1970 to 1974; beenin California, ever since. To me, NYC will always be UWS, and I only ever stay there when I go back to NY.
Tell me–was there a big place on the corner of 96th and Bway, where guys played chess? I seem to remember…
I really enjoyed reading all the comments from my old neighbor growing up on 98st. I too attended PS 75 and Joan of Arc and played in all the movie theaters and went swimming at the Paris Hotel. All my goodie’s came from Manny’s candy store or the other across the street from Ps75 on west end avenue. I lived playing punch ball in the park where Johnny the Cop resided and Franky the ice cream man who would let me help him push his cart up the hill for a free one. Played ringolivio and skully with everyone and saw west side story and Hatari at the theatre. They were fond memories when innocence ruled.