← Back

You Oughta Be in Pictures: 2013 Village Award Winners

Posted

By

two-signsB
Before the creation of Sir Winston Churchill Square, 6th Avenue was much wider. Notice the older advertisement for Avignone Pharmacy in the picture on the right, 1932, via the NYPL.

Tonight, GVSHP will present our Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony. This evening  will look back on the work of the Society over the last year, while honoring those who make a special contribution to our Village neighborhoods. Here at Off the Grid, we have been exploring each of our 2013 Awardees the past few weeks. If you missed those posts, you can check them out here. In the course of our research about our six awardees, we have discovered some great photos that we thought we would share here.

 Two of the 2013 Awardees, Avignone Pharmacy and Sir Winston Churchill Square, share a common façade. But images from the 1930s and 1940s from the New York Public Library show just how much this area has changed today.

The Avignone brothers built this building on 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street in 1929.
The Avignone brothers built this building on 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street in 1929. This 1940 photo is via the NYPL.
This walled entrance to The Downing Street playground can now be found inside Sir Winston Churchill Square. Photo via the NYPL.
This walled entrance to The Downing Street playground can now be found inside Sir Winston Churchill Square. Photo via the NYPL.
Before becoming a partner at Block Drug Store, Carmine Palermo Sr. worked at a Whelan's Drug Store. This Berenice Abbot photo is via the NYPL.
Before becoming a partner at Block Drug Store, Carmine Palermo Sr. worked at a Whelan’s Drug Store. This Berenice Abbot photo is via the NYPL.

This Berenice Abbott photo of Whelan’s Drug Store on 44th Street and Eighth Avenue at the New York Public Library from 1936 was particularly interesting to us, as the owner of Block Drug Store moved from the Whelan chain to Block Drug in the 1960s.

Carmine Palermo Sr. outside Block Drug Store.
Carmine Palermo Sr. outside Block Drug Store.

And we could not resist sharing this last photo we found which so wonderfully illustrates the work of Village Awardee Jeremiah Shea.

As head of the 9th Precinct Community Council for twenty years, Jeremiah Shea instituted many community-centered event. He is pictured here bringing in one of the many toys collected though the precinct's toy drive.
As head of the 9th Precinct Community Council for twenty years, Jeremiah Shea has instituted many community-centered events. He is pictured here with one of many toys collected though the precinct’s annual toy drive and given out by Santa each year.

We hope to see you at this evening’s program, which is free and open to the public. Please visit the GVSHP website to learn more about this annual event.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *