It’s a slender ad that reads vertically, found on East 62nd Street in that mouse trap of approach roads on the Manhattan side of the Queensboro Bridge.
“Decorators Center” it says, with an address number above it: “315.”
Sure enough, 315 East 62nd Street, the building the ad is painted on, was known since the 1960s as the Decorators Center Building, a “headquarters for interior decorators and furniture concerns,” noted the New York Times in a 1961 article reporting that the new structure was 90 percent leased.
Today, 315 East 62nd Street seems to be empty, perhaps a symbol of the business enclave known as Manhattan’s design district. Its borders used to run from Third to First Avenue in the East 50s and 60s.
East 58th Street between Second and Third Avenues bears a street sign that calls it “Designers Way,” and the same stretch of East 59th Street has the honorary title of “Decorators Way.” Both blocks are lined with appealing little shops and showrooms for furniture, fixtures, and other interior design staples.
But like so many of Manhattan’s once-bustling commercial districts—the garment district, the flower district, the novelty district, radio row, and so on—the design district seems to be a shrunken version of what it was decades ago.
Tags:Decorators Center 62nd Street, Decorators Center Faded Ad, Decorators Row New York City, Design District East Side New York City, Designers Row New York City, Faded Ad Decorators Center East 62nd Street, faded ads New York City, NYC Design Business District
Posted in Beekman/Turtle Bay, Random signage | 6 Comments »
Upcoming Tours and Events
Exploring the Gilded Age Mansions & Memorials of Riverside Drive: Sunday July 21, 1-3:15 PM. Sign up here!
The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910 Press Inquiries — Kara Thornton, Publicist, Black Dog & Leventhal — 212-364-0537 kara.thornton@hbgusa.com
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
Digital Marketing & Design by Yellow Falcon