After mixed recollections of the once ubiquitous Childs Restaurant's location on 125th Street, we finally came up with a breakthrough. The above menu (price listed in cents) for Childs in 1907 was for the Beaver Street location close to the Financial District but the menu also included the location of the other Childs establishment in the city. Two address are listed for 125th Street and the one in West Harlem is at 272 West 125th Street which is 8th avenue (today's FDB). We had a source that mentioned it was on 7th Avenue and a reader mentioned St. Nicks.The last photo is the building today and which is owned by the United House of Prayer For All People with the lower levels in use as retail spaces. We conclude that the scale of the building fits the historic description of Childs but the ornamentation and detail had been plastered over a couple of decades ago based on the conspicuously barren surface of the facade. Read our past post on Childs: LINK
My grandfather was a manager of Child's Restaurant in 1900. He followed in employment with Child's in New York to Connecticut and Boston. Later he tried to open a restaurant of his own in NJ. I'd love to know if I could get an employeee record of his from Childs.
ReplyDeleteThe Riese Organization bought out the Childs chain in the 1960's. They own a bunch of fast food franchises these days and may have records on hand of the old Childs Restaurants. Since these records are not public, it would be hard to get them otherwise.
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