Memories of St. George Hotel Pool

By on November 19, 2006 11:03 am in History, Landmark Preservation

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The Brooklyn Eagle has a wonderful story this week about the glory days of the St. George Hotel, most notably its salt water pool.  The piece was written by Dr. Howard B. Moshman, a long time resident and neighborhood dentist.

111606134047.jpgBrooklyn Daily Eagle: How It Was…: The huge hotel pool varied in depth from 3 feet to 10 feet, with a waterfall at the shallow end, three diving boards at the deep end, a 10-foot-high board in the center, and low boards on either side of it. The St. George pool was the place to go in the winter, when Coney Island and its adjacent beaches appealed only to members of the Polar Bear Club.

My trips to the indoor pool were generally with my childhood pal Malvin Guralnick. I would walk north on Henry Street where I lived at number 309, to Pineapple Street, then east over to Fulton Street. Malvin lived in one of early nineteenth century storefront buildings on the west side of the street, above his parents’ stationery/candy shop. In the 1960s that whole area was razed and supplanted by the Cadman Plaza housing development, and the street renamed Cadman Plaza West.

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  • Andrew Porter

    The Parrish Pharmacy was indeed on the corner of Orange Street. The 5-letter neon sign saying D-R-U-G-S has been retrofitted to now spell S-A-L-O-N, for the hair salon that now occupies the space. According to a 1920s directory I once saw, Parrish once manufactured and sold its own brand of prophylactics (aka condoms).

    There are many photos of old Brooklyn Heights, indeed of the immediate area surrounding the St. George Tower, on the New York Public Library’s Digital Library. You can access them by Googling a specific address and then clicking on Images. Or go to the NYPL website itself.

  • benita berman

    I have been to that site and have found some. There are also some at the Brooklyn Historical Society. You can go there to access their date base and then purchase a print. They charge $25.00 for a scan of one of their photos. The Brooklyn Public Library also has a digital collection. I wasn’t able to find any of the section of Henry Street near Orange and Cranberry.

  • nabeguy

    Benita, I should have that Clark St scan ready tomorrow night along with 14 circa-1961 shots of Fulton Street from Middagh to Orange.

  • benita berman

    Thank you so much, Nabeguy. I can’t wait to see what you send. My email is bermanhome@comcast,net, if you want to send them that way. Let me know. It really is a coincidence about the pharmacy. It would be nice to see a picture of it. Do you know about the tax photos? In 1943 the city took pictures of every house in New York City. I haven’t seen any of them yet. You have to go to the courthouse, I think, and look at their photos to see if a particular house is there. I don’t know if they took pictures of any businesses. I wonder if Parish Pharmacy was a chain? I always thought if was owned and run by the Fuchs. Let me know if you want the picture of the inside of the St. George Playhouse. I don’t think it was owned by the hotel, so it might not be eligible for the St. George Tower site.

  • bornhere

    Benita and nabeguy — You two seem to have way better facts and actual connections than I do, but the more I think about Fuchs and a drugstore, I seem to think that the Fuchs family ran the Rexall Pharmacy that used to be on the east side of Henry, maybe a bit north of where Parrish used to be. (It was much bigger than Parrish, and very sort of dark and moody.) Maybe the Fuchs family had an “empire” of pharmacies:)
    Benita – Do you remember the fish market on “Fulton,” run by Dolly?

  • benita berman

    The Fuchs family drug store was definitely on the southwest corner of Henry and Orange. I don’t know if they had anything to do with a Rexall Pharmacy. I never heard any mention of it. Maybe another relative owned it. I don’t recall there being another pharmacy on Henry. I remember there being a fish market on Fulton – don’t remember Dolly – as well as Tommy’s grocery store which was on the corner of Fulton and Clark Street. There was also a deli further up on Clark near Henry where my parents would buy milk, eggs, etc. and Tommy’s was for produce. I think there was also a meat market next to the deli. All gone now for the Cadman high rise. I found a picture of what appears to be the outside of Tommy’s looking up the street from Fulton in a blizzard.

  • nabeguy

    Bornhere, I thought the Rexall was on the northwest corner of Henry and Clark where the liquor store now is. I have fuzzy memories of going there after swimming in the pool for a malted at their soda fountain counter. And as Benita states, the Fuch’s pharmacy was definitely on Henry and Orange. A real old-time place that made it’s own house brand concoctions and remedies…with an atmosphere straight out of a Hopper painting.

  • nabeguy

    Benita, I seem to have miss placed your e-mail address and can’t find the post. I have that picture ready.

  • nabeguy

    I’ve loaded all the old photos of Fulton St to the BHB photo club, so have a look.

  • benita berman

    I thought the northwest corner of Clark and Henry was occupied by the St. George Hotel coffee shop ( see comment above from Joan Pennock Craig ). My sister used to go to the counter and get a BLT sandwich when she didn’t like the dinner at home and I used to eat dinner there sometimes with my friend Faith, who lived upstairs in the hotel. She introduced me to soy sauce on my chicken chow mein. The other local drugstore was located off the southeast corner on Henry (across from the side of Clark’s). It was a small pharmacy where we filled prescriptions. On the southeast corner was the Fannie Farmer candy shop. A few doors down the south side of Clark was some kind of sundries shop where I remember posters of some beer company that sponsored a beauty contest every year and then posted the picture of the winner. I’m not sure which beer company it was. I have a gallery page on my apple mobile me site where I can post pictures which can be downloaded, and it also accepts uploads. Will advise more on this later.

  • bornhere

    Drugstore-o-rama …. The St George drugstore/coffee shop (where the liquor store is) also had an amazing number of phone booths in the entry area (from the subway arcade).
    The other drugstore was on the SW corner, where Clark’s corner is now. As a kid, I thought their milkshakes were great.

  • benita berman

    Nabeguy, my email address is bermanhome@comcast.net. Thanks much. I didn’t see your two posts before I submitted my last one. I’ll look at the BHB photo club now. Maybe I can put my other pictures there instead of my mobile me gallery.

  • benita berman

    Nabeguy, I can’t find the fulton street photos on the BHB photo club. Have you seen them posted? If so, how do I get there?

  • nabeguy

    Benita, I had to join the group to view hem so try that, Otherwise, I’ll e-mail them to you on Monday. I tried sending you the Clark St photo via Yahoo, so let me know if you got it.

  • bornhere

    I meant to add that “Parker’s” was the name of the drugstore where Clark’s Corner is now.
    I definitely remember Parrish, but that wasn’t our go-to place. But I still look twice when I pass by Ornage and Clark because I still expect to see Parrish. If anyone can remember what was on the NE corner of Henry/Clark (way, WAY before By George), you win.
    Benita — I think you’re talking about the old Miss Rheingold contests. Where the pet store now is on Hicks and Pineapple, there used to be a great little deli (“Gus’s” rings a bell here), and as kids, we’d be sure to vote early and often, mark the little ballots, and stick them in the handsome cardboard box. And then buy PEZ, when it still had characterless tops.
    nabeguy — I would love to see your Fulton Street photos, but I’ve had no luck in my search. I must be doing something wrong.

  • benita berman

    I do remember the store on the northeast corner of Clark and Henry. I can’t remember the name, but you would go there to buy sundries and tobacco products, gum and candy, maybe newspapers and magazines, and I remember there were phone booths in there. Do you have a better recollection? Since it was too hard for me to find the pictures on BHB site, I think I’ll put up what I have on my gallery site and post the username and password.

  • nabeguy

    Sorry guys, I missed one step. They’re on the site now.

  • nabeguy

    B & B, your memories are much deeper than mine. I only have the fuzziest of memories of the east side of Henry before the Cadman towers…a Chinese hand laundry on Pineapple, a seafood restaurant with a lobster tank in the entryway where Gristede’s is, but not much more. For some reason, my mother was more of a Henry Street west-sider, choosing to go to either Mike’s or Sal’s for meat. And Kennedy’s on the NE corner of Cranberry, but only on Sunday’s, when the Schlemer’s deli on Hicks would be closed, and we ran out of a basic like milk, since Kennedy’s prices were “highway robbery” to her. Speaking of Parrish, I recall an amusing story when my mother, in the grips of her monthly burden, sent me there to get a package of Modess. Being only about 10 at the time and not the most articulate of kids, I mumbled the order…and surprised my mother with a bottle of No-Doz

  • bornhere

    nabe — Wow. Wonderful pictures!

  • nabeguy

    Glad you enjoyed them. Bring up any memories?

  • since47

    The placement could be totally incorrect, but on the southeast corner of Pineapple and Henry, just west of the St. George Playhouse, was the 72 Club, a restaurant/bar, owned by a very funny man named Benny, who would greet every customer who entered. I remember a lobster tank inside the restaurant, and there may have also been a tank in the window. Further north across the street (same side of the street) on the corner was a large, dark drugstore, with small black and white floor tiles and a tall scale just inside the door; I think this place was called Rizaffi’s, or maybe it was owned by a man named Rizaffi, but that’s what we called it. Then east of the drugstore (between Clark and Fulton Street) was Lottie and Jack’s, another restaurant. I remember a jewelry store on Henry Street (east side), but that may have been later. On the west side of Henry and Pineapple, where the breakfast/lunch place is now, was a wonderful deli that we called ‘Lou’s,’ owned and run by a lovely man named Lou Weisberg. I remember Parker’s and the phone booths (we’d also get our film developed there) and it’s a toss up on which place made the better malteds: the St. George Drugstore or Parker’s. Fanny Farmer’s was across Henry where the Penny Bridge is now, and east of that, where the Iron Chef place is now, was a great pizza place with the best jukeboxes at the counter. I think it was there that I heard Tony Bennett’s “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

  • Andrew Porter

    Lottie and Jack’s was the name of the Chinese restaurant at the corner of Pineapple Walk and Henry Street, after that row of one story stores went up, after 101 Clark Street was built, at the beginning of the 1970s. The restaurant later became a gay bar with the windows covered over; it’s now part of Peas & Pickles.

    Benita Berman, I’ll e-mail you some of the photos I’ve downloaded over the years of your area of interest.

  • benita berman

    Where was Parker’s? Also, what was the name of the drugstore a few doors down from Fannie Farmer on the corner of Clark and Henry? I seem to remember there being a coffee shop which was part of the St. George (I think you could enter through the lobby or the street), which had a counter. Where was the St. George drugstore? I also remember Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight restaurant which was on ground floor next to the Church off Henry. They served great popovers and complimentary condiments with your meal. I have a picture of it in an old shot.

    Nabeguy – I found your pictures on the BHB site – they look really good. Great color and they really depict the area s it was in 1961. Thanks for posting them.

  • bornhere

    Benita — Parker’s was on the SW corner of Clark and Henry, with the entrance actually at the corner. It ran along Henry to the Candlelight (that was the side with the counter and standard malt-shop stools, and extended down Clark to include I guess what is now Sea Asian. The St George coffee shop was part of the drugstore. I think their counter ran along Henry, and you could enter from the arcade both at Clark and at Henry, and I think there was also a street entrance on Clark, although I might be making that up. Candlelight was exactly where you describe, and it occupied what became a Thai restaurant. I can’t remember a drugstore next to Fanny Farmer — I’m guessing that it would have been really small, and with Parker’s and the St George and Parrish and Rexall and Kleinman-Spector (on Montague), I guess there was a lot of competition.
    Andrew — you may be right about Lottie and Jack’s, but I seem to recall it being on Henry before Mitchell-Lama went up. But it’s funny how one remembers “the old days”; seeing nabeguy’s great pictures of Fulton Street reminded me that, as a kid, if I were to venture as far north as McGrath’s, I was being a little too adventurous for my own good. And the idea of crossing the Fulton Street force field to the park without a grown-up would be an act of youthful recklessness :)

  • benita berman

    I remember eating chicken chow mein with my friend at a counter in the St. George. It doesn’t sound like something served at a pharmacy counter. I wonder if I’m remembering the oyster bar which was also in the St. George and had a counter in it. There’s a picture of it on the St. George Tower site. Clark’s must have replaced Parker’s, but originally there was a church on that corner – I see it in al old picture I got from BHS and it’s next to Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight restaurant. There was a very small drug store that just filled prescriptions and sold a few things a few doors down from Fannie Farmer, across from PM Candlelight. I remember being surprised to find a Thai restaurant in its place. I, too, had my limits as to where I could go in the Heights. Not north of Middaugh and not south of Montague, and not across Fulton. In fact, my mother preferred that I walk around to the St. George Playhouse on Henry instead of Fulton.

  • bornhere

    Benita – I agree that the drugstore would not be the place for chow mein. I don’t recall the oyster bar, but I’ll check it out on the other site.
    I learned about the Sands Memorial Church (Clark and Henry, pre-Parker’s) from my son; the pictures on the Brooklyn Public Library site are stunning. I wonder if there was much of a dust-up when that beautiful building was razed.
    I love your boundaries; my sister’s and mine were about the same. We did sometimes go down to the “big” playground, but those adventures were just too fraught with anxiety to be much fun. And the idea of crossing Atlantic Avenue would seem like a trek that might involve passports and take-along meals. My experiences with Fulton Street were, at first, related to journeys with my mom to get fish, go to the antique stores, or shop in the butcher’s. My sister remembers the buildings your family owned, but I keep confusing them with one of the smallish houses on Orange Street, where my mother would bring our blankets to have new satin binding put on them by a woman who lived there. Do you remember Semple’s on Fulton Street, just south of Clark, that was a beautiful small market? I think two brothers owned it, and I vividly recall that they would wrap each piece of fruit in tissue paper. I also remember the wonderful little card shop attached to the church across from where you lived.

  • Andrew Porter

    You know, boys and girls, you could start a YahooGroup which would allow attachments, as in the downloading of photos and such. No charge, and you could make it open to the public.

    Benita, as I told you via e-mail, I could make a CD of the hundreds of images I have of the Heights and give it to you. No charge. Are you in Heights now?

  • benita berman

    This is great! I love your memories. Sound like your sister has quite a few herself. We might have used the same butcher unless there was one on Clark Street next to the deli. My mother liked to go to the stores right on Clarkk. We always used Tommy’s on the corner of Fulton for groceries. And don’t forget the diner that was on the south corner of Clark and Fulton. I don’t remember Semple’s since we went to Tommy’s. They must have been close to each other. There must have been enough business to support so many small enterprises. Do you remember a beauty parlor (no salons then) on Henry Street between Clark and Pineapple. It was on the east side where Cadman is now. Also, was Noodle Pudding always an italian restaurant? Different owners back then. And was there a Chinese restaurant on Henry on the same side as Noodle Pudding? Will write more later.

  • http://BrooklynHeightsBlog Wm Fitzpatrick

    Will try to provide input in small bursts.I got windy and timed out twice.
    To:Feeney-JP Craig-Diane-Berman Here Goes.
    I graduated from the Assumption School in 1935 and My Wife(McCarron) graduated in 1933.She was an emplyee of the
    Hotel St George and alternated between the Pool-Fountain Room and the Coffee Shop.
    There was two favorite hang out for the Assumption and PS 8
    youngsters. One was Moe`s on Middagh and Hicks St. the other was mrs Berman`s on Henry St Near Poplar.
    Part one concluded

  • http://BrooklynHeightsBlog Wm Fitzpatrick

    Part two
    The Assumption School was located on Middagh St and was
    the original PS 8. When the ne PS 8 was built the Assumption
    Parish acquired it.The Mason Peak Factory was built next to our schoolyard and yes, on rare occasions the employees would toss some of the product out the window to us aspiring
    ballplayers in the school yard. Most of the time it was the
    coconut innards of a chocalate covered coconut candy.
    There was a large full service Garage on Orange St and
    Fulton St.Customers paid extra to deliver their cars to the garage and be chauffered home. When they needed the vehicle they were picked up at their residence and were then
    driven to the garaqe to drop the employee off.
    One of the larrge laundrys was the Mott Laundry on Henry St
    very close to the St George Hotel
    End of part two

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