gertz ( department store )
gertz department store on jamaica ave. queens 1960 | memories of queens | pinterest | department store
the department store museum: b. gertz & co. , jamaica, queens, new york
gertz was the perfect suburban middle of the road department store. it is still missed by all .
mr. gertz was instrumental in the campaigns to situate york college in jamaica, to extend subway service in the area and to re - establish the family' s former flagship department store as an office building and retail center that accommodates 2, 000 workers. the gertz department store was sold to allied stores in 1941 and closed in 1981 .
i worked as a store detective in the flushing store, but was trained in the jamaica store. that was agonizing because at the time gertz jamaica had like 9 floors. last time i was up on jamaica avenue, the conway store had occupied the old gertz' s ground floor .
a conway chain store facade has now erased the last traces of the formerly grand gertz department store, which formerly occupied this building on the south side of jamaica avenue between union hall street and guy brewer boulevard. the store, established by benjamin gertz as a stationery store in 1918, lasted until 1981 when it was consolidated under the stern’s banner and later, the macy’s flagship banner. the gertz mall had opened in 1988 .
there was a gertz in great neck - - - they had a girl scout department where we could buy our uniforms and gs merchandise .
“the chances that a department store would displace any shops is very small — it’s more likely to support other shops by attracting foot traffic, ” he said .
re: east hampon. the department store was arrayed across a series of barns, connected by pathways. it opened as gertz long island, and was only later converted by allied to their stern' s fascia .
stanley b. gertz, a businessman and philanthropist known for his efforts to revitalize jamaica, queens, where his family operated its flagship gertz department store for many years, died on wednesday at st. vincent' s hospital in greenwich village. mr. gertz, who lived in manhattan and in locust valley, l. i. , was 74 .
queens — jamaica, once the shopping hub for much of queens and long island, could be getting its first major department store in more than three decades, according to the local development corporation .
there will never be another gertz, like the one in jamaica. met santa there in the early 1950' s with petunia the talking cow. also visited the enchanted village on the sixth floor with my mother. i use to love toyland on the 4th floor. and above all, jamaica days. rest in peace gertz department store. urltoken
at the corner of guy r. brewer boulevard and jamaica avenue in queens stands a vacant seven - story building that for 69 years housed gertz' s department store. despite plans for converting the building' s 200, 000 square feet of selling space into a discount mall, it has stood gated and empty since gertz shut its doors in 1980 .
my first job was as a part - time floater at gertz jamaica in 1971 or 1972. my first night was kinda easy, in the greeting card department; my second was tougher because they put me in the wig department, where i couldn' t answer anyone' s questions. it was fun and i loved having my employee discount !
i remember as a child shopping frequently at gertz in jamaica with my mom. we lived in cypress hills brooklyn, just a short bus ride east on jamaica avenue on the b56 bus. it was such a treat for me to go shopping at gertz. my mom and i would always eat lunch in the long island room. these are cherished memories that will never be forgotten. gertz was our family' s favorite department store .
gertz was a nice store in flushing i liked their bargain basement. shopping was great years ago in flushing also gertz being next door to alexanders. up a few blocks on kissena blvd was korvettes. you had a good variety of stores there .
'' jamaica avenue has gotten a little stronger,'' said jerry green, owner of 2 shoe stores in the neighborhood for more than 30 years.'' i have good vibes for jamaica avenue. it needs a few good tenants. the side street store needs a department store. a tenant in macy' s would help.''
to all those who questioned the odd levels of the first floor of the flushing branch of gertz: the building was originally a bus terminal! ! that is why all the northeast queens busses now start / stop in the concentrated area of roosevelt ave and main street. for some reason, the bus terminal was turned into a department store .
jamaica used to be home to three department stores — macy’s, mays and gertz. all of those stores closed during a ten - year period of “sheer economic failure” for the neighborhood, beginning with the closing of macy’s in 1978, said towery .
in the late' 60' s i worked in the flushing gertz in the basement receiving department. my job was to put the price tags on the merchandise as we opened the received boxes. my manager was artie andrews who later went on to be the store manager. i else to become night supervisor, which meant i got to write in a red pencil and go to lock the department doors when i left at night. no raise, tho! i was making $ 1. 70 an hour. this was my mother' s favorite store, after bloomies and i got a 10% discount .
i worked at gertz from! 962 - 68, i met my wife of 50 years at gertz. she worked there also. we worked at the opening of the new bayshore branch in 1962. i later became a buyer in the basement store later promoted to an upstairs department. paul dowd was president. his son was killed in vietnam a few weeks after being deployed. a tragedy that motivated me to become a peace activist .
your post is closer to my time at gertz. i, too, went to jamaica high - 1949 - 1953 and we had many happy shopping trips to gertz with my mother. i started working at kitty kelly shoe store, which was across the street, in 1951 or 1952 and could always go over to gertz after i got my pay check! ! don' t know whether we might know each other or not. do you remember the asendorf twins - that' s how most of our friends knew us. my sister and i had done some modelling at gertz in the teen department .
the idea for the complex came out of a series of meetings two years ago between the gjdc and local community groups, said towery. at those meetings, the corporation determined that invigorating local retail and bringing a department store to jamaica was a top neighborhood priority, he said .
gertz had a small branch store in great neck in an odd shaped shopping plaza. it was not a large store, but it had a nice selection and good service. if you wanted a larger selection you could travel to flushing, douglaston or hicksville. the architecture of the building was odd (it had been a different store earlier in its history), but it still had a certain charm .
i love all the happy gertz memories. my mother worked at gertz during the seventies. she did not drive so i would pick her up on the nights she worked late. on three occasions i was mugged right outside the store waiting for my mother to get out of work .
i grew up in south ozone park, and i believe that besides going to the city for a macy' s run all the clothes i ever owned as a child up to age 14 were purchased at the jamaica gertz store. i knew every inch of that store... . wow good memories
two ancient painted ads can be seen looking west from here: spear’s jamaica store and one for sachs furniture .
with the headline: stanley b. gertz, 74, a merchant, developer and philanthropist .
mr. gertz, whose grandfather benjamin, a russian immigrant, founded the family business with a stationery store on jamaica avenue in 1918, devoted much of his life to his family' s real estate interests .
my mom worked at gertz jamaica from 1969 to the early 80s. she later retired to ridge ny and lived a short distance from her old supervisor. thank you for posting info on gertz .
the flagship jamaica gertz department store is where my mom bought her wedding dress, and i guess a lot of other people bought a lot of stuff there, too, and at the flushing, hicksville, massapequa and bay shore branches as well. no one’s bought anything there for quite some time, though, as they all converted to stern' s in the early ’80s before becoming macy' s in the ’90s .
gertz was just the perfect mid century place... a wonderful memory of a long gone era
my mom worked at the store in great neck and i worked there for a couple of christmases while home from college .
i just purchased a small safe that is marked b. gertz inc. 16210 jamaica ave. jamaica ny. would you know if it was sold there or was it used in the store? it is old but still serviceable .
i thought stern' s first came to long island when allied stores converted gertz to stern' s .
jamaica, a neighborhood once home to department stores like macy' s, mays, and gertz, will have to wait for the arrival of its next major shopping destination. high - profile plans to transform two former parking lots into a $ 85 million mixed - use complex have been put on ice, according to dnainfo .
i remember old king kullen store # 2 209 - 16 jamaica ave bellaire ny 28 - zip code. . mom and dad went to king kullen shopping year from 1949 to 1973 then fire king kullen store. then now is us post office queens village 11428
i miss the good old days. gertz was great. my mom bought all my clothes there. sigh .
that ice cream was called frozen custard, i believe, and you could get it with chocolate or strawberry syrup. my mother used to bring me and my brother there for a treat sometimes. i remember the
gourmet
food department in gertz, just a corner of the store near the frozen custard stand - - it sold
delicacies
like
chocolate covered ants! yikes! gertz had a wonderful christmas display, too - - at least it was wonderful by the standards of the times; i' m sure it would seem pathetic to toeay' s kids. helen
the on - line museum of north america' s independent department stores. the museum holds all sorts of information about classic department stores which either no longer exist, or are changed beyond recognition. a few of them are still with us, and provide an interesting connection to north america' s retail past. the others are presented so that they may be properly remembered as a tangible part of the lives of their customers, shopping destinations where memories were often made .
over the years, our passion has been to find the best product lines for our customers. as a result, our list of brands has grown both in our department store and online. to create a better online shopping experience, we have grouped our hand - picked products into four departments. shop just one, or shop them all. thank you for choosing getz’s .
is there anyone out there who was a member of the gertz teen board 1964 - 1965? we did informal modeling in the store and then had runway fashion shows in each of the stores. i remember the folk group
the witches of wellfleet
.
13650 roosevelt ave. ; south side between main and union streets. i believe it still serves as a macy' s store. - bruce
mr. gertz, who was involved in many civic and philanthropic activities, served for a decade as chairman of the board of jamaica hospital, where the gertz pavilion for ambulatory care was named for his family in recognition of its support .
randy: no, stern' s had a unique store in east hampton, before they moved out of manhattan and focused on new jersey. i believe that it later became gertz; many of these stores shuffled back and forth at the whim of allied. on my recent trip to new york, we walked through bryant park, and i looked at the hugely unattractive slope - sided building that replaced stern' s; i wondered what it might have been like to have an excellent and popular department store at that site, rather than a static office building, one whose architecture, at that, seems out of context with the streets around it. bruce
i remember the lovely christmas village that gertz would assemble in its jamaica store in the 60' s, and i also joined some sort of teen - age girl fashion club for a week or so when i was around 13 back in 1967... i can' t remember exactly. my mother worked in the woman' s dept. in gertz in jamaica for many years .
my dad was the corporate physician for many years. he started at the jamaica store but ended up in hicksville where we lived. he was the physician until the mid - 70s when they phased out the position. i remember working at both the hicksville store and the one i believe in massapequa before it opened as a teenager. we obviously shopped at gertz for all those years, even when it became stern' s .
my wedding band was purchased at gertz in jamaica 52 years ago. sadly the ring went the same as the marriage kaput !
besides his wife, the former charlotte kess pickman, mr. gertz is survived by jeffrey, of hartford - - a son by mr. gertz' s first marriage, which ended in divorce, to irma isserman - - and by three grandchildren .
in addition to serving as president of the gertz family enterprises, including real estate development and management companies, mr. gertz was a co - founder, the treasurer and a director of the greater jamaica development corporation from its inception in 1967 until his death .
bruce, indeed the basement snack bar of macy' s was called dutch treat. my grandmother took me to macy' s many times in the 50' s... never venturing far from the budget fabric department that had an entrance right from the subway .
i worked at gertz during my high school senior year until i graduated from queens college. those were wonderful 5 years where i was hired in the bargain basement store for the holiday season. i was later moved up to the first floor hosiery department where i helped launch panty hose. i learned about the finer things in retail and developed a real passion for those pretty ladies who got to sell cosmetics. many years later i reentered retail and worked at estee lauder for 20 years. those ladies with all those wonderful jars of cream still linger in my thoughts
across the street there’s a classic neon shoe store sign. my mother swore by the “enna jettick” brand of affordable footwear, which was in business for decades .
does anyone remember the modeling
contests ,
or tryouts that gertz in jamaica held annually at a local theater? groups of teen & pre - teen girls would walk in front of a group of judges and those who were touched on the arm or hand could come back for a second round. i know that young girls would get very excited about that. i assume the winners would model in the gertz store .
thank you so much for bringing this little gem to your museum... a queens and long island legend... i feel that i grew up in gertz. although jamaica was not a very safe place in the 70' s the flushing store really was the place to go. all the other long island stores were also very nice and people today still have fond memories. again, thanks for adding gertz .
i was an employee of gertz at the jamaica store from 1974 through 1975. it was a great place to work, but in a deteriorating neighborhood. and, yes, it' s a small world debuted at the 1964 / 1965 ny world' s fair. it was the pepsi pavillion .
the east hampton branch did have a unique history. that store started as a summer only branch of stern brother' s (back when stern' s was a far more upscale and innovative retailer). after stern' s closed it' s manhattan flagship, the location became a year round branch of gertz. in the early 1980' s gertz started construction on a larger branch in hampton bays. however in 1983 allied stores folded it' s gertz division into stern' s, and the east hampton location once again became stern' s (this time open year round), the planned hampton bays location opened as a stern' s, and both locations remained through the late 1980' s. at that point stern' s closed the small multi - building east hampton location and focused on the hampton bays store. the 50, 000 square foot hamptons bays store remains today as a macy' s .
gertz was always part of my family lifestyle! in the early 1950' s my cousin took me there to see santa and petunia, the talking purple cow next to him. the enchanted village of st. nicholas was also a big attraction to us kids as the years went on. my father knew one of the gertz sons also. gertz was a landmark in jamaica for so many wonderful years of fond memories .
i remember working in the gertz flushing store as a stock - boy one summer, i was maybe 16 or 17. i had no idea what i was doing. i worked in the ladies clothing department, although i had little knowledge of the likes, dislikes nor nature of women at all. i worked for a very cultured small woman of italian extraction who was very stylish and very nice to me, innocent little jewish boy that i was. this was in perhaps, 1965; i would be surprised if she were alive today. in a fit of nostalgia preceding this note, yesterday i went to google maps and looked at the street view of what was gertz flushing... . it' s now a macy' s: the entire face of the store cold and austere. the woolworth' s on the corner of roosevelt and main is now a caldor. the old giunta pizza parlor where we used to play hookey from hebrew school is now a starbucks. i guess now there is asian boy working in the ladies clothing department at macy' s who is cutting class at the starbucks. the more things change, the more they stay the same is an old french saying, but nonetheless, i miss gertz and there is a certain poignancy missing from flushing now, perhaps never to be regained... . .
sid tannenbaum, the real - estate broker who is handling the empty macy' s store, said that one of the neighborhood' s assets was plenty of office space.'' we have available the range from 500 to 50, 000 square feet for as little as $ 4 per square foot in an elevator building,'' he said. filling up the empty gertz store and the completion of the social security building will make it easier to rent the office space, he asserted .
i worked at gertz flushing from 1973 - 1976 while attending queens college. i worked in the women' s dept with the wonderful marian coles, the famous dancer and wife of the great honi coles, whom i met once when he came into the store. as a young kid i had no idea of their wonderful history, just what marian told me about and some photos she brought in. they both went on to renew their dancing careers, notably marian with the silver belles and honi in the dirty dancing movie and on broadway. i am watching the movie now and that prompted me to start researching both the coles and gertz. my husband of 35 years also worked a few months at gertz as an assistant buyer in home furnishings but in the jamaica store. we did not meet until after we left gertz. it was a great place to enter the workforce and started a lot of young kids on their way .
bak... all the gertz stores were converted to stern' s once allied started to consolidate divisions in the late 70s / early 80s. prior to that, all ads read
available at stern' s / gertz
... by 1980, it was all stern' s
the store you saw yankee no. 9 was hicksville as i had same memories (though that day he was wearing coat and tie !). may he rest in peace .
at the intersection of 210th street and jamaica ave was king kullen grocery store, the site of my first and only theft, a box of zuzu ginger snaps (small size) .
many neighborhoods now have new street clocks construted in a classic style, but this one at jamaica avenue and union hall street is the real mccoy. it originally stood at 161 - 11 jamaica avenue and was likely built around 1900. it was restored and moved to its present location in 1989, directly across the street from the former site of gertz, one of jamaica’s largest department stores. it too was declared a nyc landmark in 1981 (and so can’t be legally removed) .
i recall that gertz had a great electronics dept on the fourth floor. they also had a book dept and record dept up there. something for everyone .
mr. gertz was born in jamaica. he received a bachelor' s degree from union college in 1940 and a law degree from harvard two years later .
i remember macys franklin simon johns bargain store hertz mays bobs burgers tom mccann fred brauns reval knox woolworth marguerita pizza (still there) roller skating rink. alden and valencia and community theaters priceless the casablanca johns bargaun store trunz meat market. bakers shoes the creep. arrowsmith shoes chock fulla nuts nedicks. two bowling alleys and shooting range. i thought we had moved to hollywood! !
tiedemann’s — treat after movie at hollis movie theater across st. and same block as tiedemann’s – ed earl’s toy store — lionel trains, baseballs. same block as ps 35. george v .
jerry, did you have long brown hair? i used to love going to that store with my girlfriends, late 60’s. we were always in our school uniforms, woodhull prep in hollis .
hello gertz fans - - i found this site researching a brass badge used by the store as a give - away premium in the mid - 1930s. about 2 - 1 / 8
wide with narrow left and right panels reading gertz long island which flank a center shield reading member pie club. item will be in hake' s americana & collectibles auction # 222 ending in early nov. 2017. visit urltoken and sign up for our emails which will let you know when auction 222 goes online in mid - october .
bruce, what a wonderful site you' ve put together. you mention the wooden escalators in macy' s nyc and i always show them to people i travel to nyc with. i believe they are some of the last in existance. i grew up in philadelphia and enjoyed your notes about my city. there was another store named snellenbergs, one block away from wanamakers. i believe i have some info on it and will forward to you. it was on par with strawbridge' s. lit brothers was the discount store, wanamaker' s the upscale store with an incredible toy department before the toy discounters arrived. in the 1960' s they had a monorail suspended from the ceiling that kids could ride. today wanamaker' s is a shadow of it' s former self, now macy; s, but with only 3 of it' s 9 selling floors open. keep up the great work... . martinscq @ urltoken
my grandfather used to buy that delicious custard for me. that was the best custard i ever had! wish i could have it today. great memories of gertz .
my sisters and i fondly remember the parfaits we' d get at the snack bar at the gertz in hicksville, vanilla frozen custard with either chocolate or strawberry syrup .
the great neck store had originally been a branch of john wanamaker, opened in 1951, back when wanamaker' s had a big store in new york (where k - mart is now, on astor place). there were 2 suburban ny branches, great neck and yonkers. great neck was sold to stern' s in 1955, becoming a gertz in 1961. it closed in 1979. it' s now a waldbaum' s supermarket. the hicksville store was unique for suburban stores in that it was 5 selling floors, not the typical 2 or 3 floors. mid - island plaza was an outdoor mall and the height of the gertz building caused the mall to be quite windy. colorful plastic wind panels were erected to cut down on the wind gusts. it' s been a few years since i' ve been out there, but both the flushing and the hicksville stores still had much of their mid - century vibe .
wish i had the recipe for the yummy white soft serve treat with chocolate or red syrup that gertz used to serve at the hicksville store. i remember enjoying some while waiting there for the 1960 vp candidate and his family to show up for a rally. don' t know if trish and julie got to sample any, but it was soooo good, almost addictive !
does anyone remember the resturant and the great seafood dish
snug harbor
also the lunch counter in the basement... . my favorite was the hot turkey and french fries w / brown gravy... as a buyer for gertz i helped to open the sterns stores when gertz closed down... still have my executive training manual
hi bruce, i' m the great great granddaughter of benjamin gertz. would love to chat with you. please let me know how i can get in touch! debbie
bruce, this is awesome. i can' t believe how many people have the same shared memories. the absolute best frozen custard. we always got a frozen custard with chocolate syrup at the jamaica store, then ran out to catch the bus. the city buses all stopped along the one side of gertz. i' ve talked about that frozen custard for over 40 years .
loved this site. was looking for info on hertz dept. store. used to shop these stores even before moving to queens. used to live on fairbury ave in queens village. thanks for the memories !
i always wondered why the gertz in flushing had a sloped first floor? if you walked into the east roosevelt entrance it would slope downward toward the west roosevelt entrance. the back half of the store (men' s clothing) was down steps and the west side had about one or two steps down, while the east side had about six or more steps. the back half of the store was straight. the escalators were at that level and went up to the upper floors or down to the
lower level
. i don' t believe that situation occurred on the other floors. i know roosevelt avenue was somewhat of a hill, but why the inside of the store? a mystery i never uncovered. i wonder if the building is the same today? ?? ?? ? ?
i would love to see a video of the christmas village back in the 60' s, as those wonderful memories are still pulling at my heartstrings. like so many of you, i wish i could go back in time and revisit such a special store - christmas at gertz in jamaica. i used to go there every saturday with my mother to take my dance lesson located a block from mays. we took the jamaica bus where we waited for it right in front of gertz. mom used to shop at the bargin basement and i remember looking forward to saturdays .
my grandmother, florence schreiber, worked in the gold room in the hicksville gertz selling gowns. i wrote a little about her on my blog a while ago at urltoken. a friend once told me about the christmas display at the jamaica gertz. it' d be wonderful to see photo of that display, especially the gulliver' s travels piece. anyone ?
it must have galled both gertz and j. kurtz & sons that two retailers with such similar names were close neighbors. the joyfully art deco building at the corner of brewer blvd. and jamaica avenue went up in 1931 (architects allmendinger & schlendorf –easy for them to say). it was designated a nyc landmark in 1981. kurtz distinguished itself from gertz by specializing in furniture. jacob kurtz had founded the company in 1870, and the furniture store occupied the building until 1978, coinidentally the same year the jamaica el closed (it was rerouted under archer avenue in 1988) .
my uncle, gene brown, worked at the flushing store as a personnel manager in the 50' s to early 60' s. i do remember the series of steps and ramps on the main floor... it was very unique. a great store, and across the street from the main entrance was a kind of arcade that delivered one to the next block with great new york style chow mein in a nice chinese restaurant ,
i worked at gertz, jamaica store from 1962 - 1967 as the s. i. m. ; selective inventory management supervisor. i loved my job and the people i worked with. we use to go to lunch at a small deli just outside the employee' s door. in fact last year a gertz former buyer called me at home and we chatted for about 15 minutes. it was great hearing from him after over 40 years. i' m now in florida and he is in california. also, found out that my former supervisor, roy pologe is in the new england area. i met my husband at gertz who went to stern' s as a buyer. unfortunately, joe montrone passed away in 1985 after he worked his way up to president / ceo of robinson' s of florida. the plus side is that i married a wonderful man and had two additional sons. i have so many wonderful memories of gertz, jamaica .
officials from the greater jamaica development corporation and the blumenfeld development group announced monday that they have signed a deal to convert two parking lots into a massive 160, 000 square foot retail store and a 550 - space parking garage .
does anyone rember the jewelry store on jamica ave…. guessing 158 st? they had a recognizable name like bulova or someting that you remembered. i think they had one or two other stores in maybe astoria. i remember seeing an ad in the daily news about 1980 ish for a engagement ring for 59. 99. the gold ring was thin and the diamond was like 2 record player needles thick. i remember the ad i just dont remember the store .
remember the jamaica bus terminal? i lived to go into the baby carriage stores. do moms still push those lovely carriages in ny. my first memories of life (1940’s) were in an apt over a fish store on sutphin blvd .
i believe that the resturant was called snug harbor and it had a sort of tea room atmosphere... it was pretty popular with employees from the health department on parsons blvd... and my mom and i ate there from the time i was little, long before i became a buyer for gertz... . i am not sure that the lunch counter in the basement had a name but it was located on the other side of the
budget
womens clothing... if i can find out the name of it or any memorabelia i will be happy to let you know ...
i also worked part time in gertz flushing during the early 70s, in jr sportswear... . great place! my then boyfriend' s aunt gladys worked in the coffee shop in the basement .
i also remember the charm school at gertz and the birthday book club. gertz would send you a postcard for your birthday and you would redeem it for a free book. they had a drawer full of books and you could pick any one, girls got nancy drew or the bobsey twins, boys the hardy boys. but loved eating lunch in the bargain basement in flushing and with 6 floors jamaica was tremendous .
to gene brown' s family member: yes gertz had a ramp and stairs system on the first floor... i was never able to figure out why this was. when you went thru the arcade across from the store (the other side was a city parking area... the great chow mein restaurant was tai tung... the food there was excellent! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! !
do you know what floor
snug harbor
was on? thanks for your input... many people have fond memories of gertz, even my first - year architecture professor at the university of detroit! bruce
that was the teen girls birthday book club. as a member you received a birthday card that you brought into the store so that you pick up your neatly wrapped book. they also had fashion shows that you could model in right in the jr. dept .
the library of congress has, in its photo archives, an exhaustive photo survey of the john wanamaker great neck store when it was new. it looks quite upscale and it is a shame that
the eagle
doesn' t fly there any longer. - bruce
i read a number of the posts but my memory goes back to 1940, when gertz jamaica. she would drag me along in a leash - all kids were on leashes then and to go through 6 floors was maddening. oh yes, the elevator operators were women! sometimes a few guys. one final thing, gertz jamaica was the birth of ups i believe? i remember the brown trucks delivering the parcels to our home for free !
i remember going to gertz with my mom. it' s where she brought her living room & dining room. my son jason still has the hutch which is over 40 years old. no one makes furniture like that any more
that is a great story. it' s the sort of stuff i look for when writing a book about one of these stores. i bet gertz was chock - full of them! thanks for sharing that gem! - bruce
my mom was the model on a brochure for the gertz hi gal club dated february 1951 and i recently found it. she' s posing with a guy for a valentines day promotion or contest. it' s really something .
we lived off kissena blvd. between jamaica and flushing. the q25 / 34 took us to either gertz. my mom worked in children' s clothing in the basement of the jamaica store. i remember john' s bargain store nearby on jamaica ave. we were never allowed to shop there. lol i remember the picketers always out front -
don' t buy judy bond blouses
. i always thought i would - once i had money. on the side street where employees had to go in was a pet shop that always had chicks in the window at easter time. my first job was in the jewelry dept. in woolworth' s in flushing. i could go on and on - thanks for the memories... ...... .... .
yes 1961! as a 9 - year boy i was with my my mother on a shopping trip to gertz. as we approached the entrance, a gentleman dressed in suit and tie also entering the store paused to hold the door open for us with a big smile and a
how do you do ma' am
; wow, to my surprise it was roger maris! i was just telling this story to my disbelieving son and your comment turned him into a believer... thanks for your memory !
still fond memories of the jamaica gertz... .. shopping for dresses in the early' 70s. loved hot donuts at the nearby bus terminal. dad in his nineties still lives in the family home a bus ride away !
developers don' t expect to break ground on the project, at 168th street, between 90th and jamaica avenues, for at least two years, pending a series of city approvals, said towery. it' s also not yet clear which store will be moving into the planned space .
worked at goodwin' s dept. store for 2 summers (1952 - 1953), and recall the concord cafeteria, woolworths just down the street, the gertz and macy' s stores, the valencia and albee theaters, the terminal shop (one of the 1st shops to offer
pegged pants
during that craze). many fond memories. temporarily returned to work in jamaica (montgomery ward) in 1957 after military service while completing college. it was a safe
squeaky clean
place to be in those days .
i grew up in queens, ny from 1975 - 84 and i went to gertz a couple of times on jamaica ave. with my mother and grandmother. my memories of shopping on jamaica ave. still linger despite the passing of time .
my uncle jim astwood owned astwood travel which was located in gertz jamacia from the early 1960' s until it was moved to the flushing location. as a kid when we would visit in ny we would always go to his office. we had portraits taken at the portrait studio and lunch in the long island room. every year my brother and i had our picture taken with santa and i remember the beautiful christmas display. my uncle moved to fl in 2000, and passed away in 2010. if anyone who reads this, remembers jim astwood or my grandmother, marie astwood who was frequently in gertz, please email me. mabk4mk @ msn. com. i would love to hear your memories of gertz and my family members .
thanks, folks. i' ve often thought of the beautiful christmas display in the jamaica store... . i remember it being such a treat to go, as i thought of it as a child ,
way out in jamaica
during the 1960s (we lived in woodhaven). the ride on the b56 bus (or on the elevated jamaica line) always meant shopping... . a trip to paterson silks, a stop in mays, and a walk into gertz (macy' s was a little too rich for our pocketbook... we did shop in john' s bargain store). lunch was usually a stop in nedicks for a hot dog and orange drink, maybe a hamburger at tad' s steaks, or a hot knish for the ride home on cold winter' s day. thanks for the memory .
the flagship store in jamaica was quite the place and a true copetitor to macy' s jamaica. it' s too bad that greedy realtors and frighened / anxious / not too smart people made jamaica into a less than desirable place to shop in the late 60' s - early 70' s. although my parents were able to take my sister and i to the mall (green acres) there were a lot of people that did not have this choice. gertz like so many things and people was a victim of the ignorance of the 60' s .
i recently traveled to flushing queens for a good chinese meal at one of the many chinese restaurants on main street. after dinner, we walked the area and found ourselves on roosevelt avenue. although its been over 30 years since i was last there, i went into the macy' s (formally stern' s formally gertz) and although it looked remodeled and very lovely the first floor still slops and it still feel like gertz... oh the memories! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! !
just celebrated my 53rd birthday and every year since i was very young i remember waiting for the end of june to receive the book birthday club card for my july birthday. i lived within a couple of miles of the hicksville li ny store and so loved taking my time going through the choices. i still don' t know
why
it was books that they chose to give you since that store was small and didn' t sell anything but clothes mostly. i didn' t care then and i' m just curious now and happy that i have such a great childhood memory. if anyone knows why please let me know. thanks
i always remember gertz at christmas and the winter wonderland in the toy dept. i had 3 sisters and every christmas my mom would take us there, this was a special trip after we saw santa we would meet our dad and go for dinner, thanks for the memories
i remember that gertz in flushing had a candy counter that had a hazelnut shaped wafer filled with chocolate hazelnut filling. does anyone remember this item and if i can find anywhere else? most of the other candies i am able to find at specialty shops except this one .
someone circulated an email in my office today. most of us work at home so the occassional
mass
emails we receive are always a nice touch. the email was about nastalgia and so many memories flooded my mind. i thought of the early 60' s when i would go shopping with my mother. we would always stop at woolworths for something. i can still smell the combination of popcorn, nuts and candy the minute we entered the store. my mother would always go to gertz too, and before we left the store to head home, we always stopped for a hot fudge sundae made with that wonderfully delicious frozen custard. times were good then. i' m a
baby boomer
and the next generation missed out some of the best things in life. back then, i did not realize how much life would change and i don' t know of anything today that can compare to the quality of life growing up in the 60' s. a. j .
hi barbara, that would be me. and yes i do remember your group. some interesting things you may not know. we employed 40 sales associates in that location and sold suits to all the do wop groups as well as the beatles who used to sneak into the record store and smoke herb with stanley in the back. we also catered to all the wise guys from east new york and brownsville. we could completely tailor a suit in a half hour. when i think back to those times i wish there was a time machine. i’d go to teddys gator hamburgers, dirty nats for pizza. i loved the monkey meat pies sold on the street. do you remember the elderly nun that sat outside gertz with a basketball t for spare change. and gertz had a great place to eat called the long island room. i could go on but thanks for interest and business and allowing me the journey back in time! , jerry d
hi bruce, my name is mandy. that would be wonderful as it seems the gertz ww display seems to be further in the past than i anticipated. please feel free to friend me on fb. i' m probably the last person to join your site. looking forward to the display .
without a doubt my fondest memories of childhood were of gertz in the 60s. my grandmother took us there every saturday we visited her, which was very often. we ate on the 2nd floor in the long island room and always had the chuck wagon special burger fries coke and ice cream cone. remember the 4th floor toys and records got my first jimi hendrix album there. books were on the 6th floor my sister and i loved to read. my grandmother lived to 103 and passed away in 2008 long after gertz had left. one day i was taking her to mary immaculate hospital about 2000 she remarked ,
this is not our avenue anymore. i said no nana its very different now. i still live in jamaica and drive past the old gertz building, conway now, and just think back. oh i forgot the enchanted village at xmass what a sight for kids of those times .
hi alicia, i am margie. i lived on 168th st and 89th ave was around the corner. there was a large parking lot, and the police station down the street. then there was the back of food fair and the back of mays dept store. i moved out in 1974. i vaguely recall a pizza place, but i never went there .
yes, that frozen custard found on the 1st floor (by archer ave entrance) - back then was the treat we as children would receive if we were good in the store. i remember all of us standing their with our coats on trying to balance the packages and everything, and eating. knapkins were always an issue of coarse. funny how its like yesterday .
our grandfather believed in jamaica, and so do we ,
mr. gertz said a few years ago .
we grew up here, we worked here, our parents and grandparents struggled here. people said we were crazy to stay. but we stayed, and we' re determined to make it work .
my 90 year old mother passed away recently, and in going through her jewelry, we came across an adorable old box containing a sweet pearl necklace. the box says ,
gertz long island... where long island shops ,
and is adorned with airplanes, beach scenes, what looks like horse racing and polo, and i' m guessing the empire state building. the box is as much a find as anything! my mom and dad moved from new york to oklahoma in the 40' s when they were newlyweds in their 20' s. my maternal grandmother often spoke lovingly of long island, and i bet they shopped at gertz a lot!
gertz was a new york-based department store , headquartered in jamaica , queens . founded in 1918 by benjamin gertz , along with his five sons , the company was acquired by allied stores in 1941 . gertz had branch stores in bay shore , east hampton , flushing , douglaston , great neck , hicksville , massapequa , and lake grove . the 300,000 square foot hicksville location was opened in 1956 in the mid-island mall , known today as broadway mall . in 1981 , changing demographics caused the company 's first store closure , its flagship jamaica location . later , the bay shore location was converted to a stern 's and then a macy 's . after macy 's closed the location , the building was demolished and a lowe 's was built on the site . 
gertz was a new york-based department store, headquartered in jamaica, queens. founded in 1918 by benjamin gertz, along with his five sons, the company was acquired by allied stores in 1941. gertz had branch stores in bay shore, east hampton, flushing, douglaston, great neck, hicksville, massapequa, and lake grove. the 300,000 square foot hicksville location was opened in 1956 in the mid-island mall, known today as broadway mall. in 1981, changing demographics caused the company's first store closure, its flagship jamaica location. later, the bay shore location was converted to a stern's and then a macy's. after macy's closed the location, the building was demolished and a lowe's was built on the site.
gertz was a new york-based department store, headquartered in jamaica, queens. founded in 1918 by benjamin gertz, along with his five sons, the company was acquired by allied stores in 1941. gertz had branch stores in bay shore, east hampton, flushing, douglaston, great neck, hicksville, massapequa, and lake grove. the 300,000 square foot hicksville location was opened in 1956 in the mid-island mall, known today as broadway mall. in 1981, changing demographics caused the company's first store closure, its flagship jamaica location. later, the bay shore location was converted to a stern's and then a macy's. after macy's closed the location, the building was demolished and a lowe's was built on the site.