Harlem Bespoke: We have only heard about the legendary Harlem ice cream soda parlour called Thomforde's that was around from 1909 until 1983 but where was it exactly? Since the specialty shop would basically be a historic site, we checked the city archives and found this image of the northwest corner of 125th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. After some more searching online, a grainy color image from more recent decades came up which we combined with a photo taken this week to get a better idea of what the establishment would look like today if it had stayed open.
The signage from the 1940s image would have stayed exactly the same over the decades and the prewar corner residential building is still intact. There is a deli at this location in modern times but having the ice cream counter that was also a soda shop would have been an amazing treat for the neighborhood. An article in the New York Times from 1983 reminisced about the disappearing old school soda fountains in the city and mentions that Thomforde's was probably the finest to be found anywhere in town:
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