Thursday, August 5, 2010

☞ REMEMBER: The Oldest Fish Market in Harlem


Artist Raymond Sicignano Harlem storefront series shows vanishing old Harlem shops as they stood a decade ago. The abandoned fish market in the shell of a building just north of 130th Street and Lenox apparently was the oldest fish market in Harlem. The storefront is up for rent now but considering the condition of the block, that might be a tough sell (seeing that the entire structure would have to be renovated). Does anyone know when this fish market shut down? Check out the other painting in this series: LINK. Current photo by Ulysses. www.RaizArt.com

2 comments:

  1. http://www.jamesandkarlamurray.com/JamesandKarlaMurrayPublicFishMarket.html

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  2. '00 to '01 I believe. The gentleman (old White guy) that ran the place was a nice and very well respected guy in the community, he looked like your typical fish monger or butcher. He was a one man show. He always wore a worn old White apron, he drove a very old beat up van with graffiti scribbled all over it. Every day he would drive that van to the front of his store and unload the days fish he had for the community. Note just to the left of his storefront is one of the oldest buildings in Harlem, there were twin buildings, one is still standing and a church, the other's been demolished and is a parking lot.

    That guy stuck through some pretty tough and bad years in Harlem. He had regular customers, but the Korean operated fish market on about 134th and Lenox opened and eventually took all the business. This guy only took cash, that Korean Fish market was set up to process welfare coupons & benefits cards.

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