Beers Bros.
Beers Bros., etc., 110-112 W. 30th St. (2004)

This is a stack of 5 faded signs that were still bright and clear in the 1940s:

Zwilling Fur Trading
Beers Brothers, Picture Frames
Buch & Rosenthal, Dresses
William L. Gottlieb, Coats
C. A. Vanderbilt, Silversmith
(Click here for early 1940s image. (Photo courtesy NYC Dept. of Records / Municipal Archives)) This same grouping can be seen even more clearly in a photo dated 1940 by Percy Loomis Sperr (1890-1964) in the New York Public Library's Digital Collections.

Slight traces can still be made out for Beers Bros. (2nd down) and C. A. Vanderbilt (at the bottom):

The original Beers Brothers were John M. Beers (ca.1840-?) and Samuel A. Beers (ca.1842-1914), sons of Mary Beers, who immigrated from Ireland with her first 3 sons, James L., John M. and Robert A. around 1841. By 1867 John M. Beers had his own framing shop at 89 Mercer St., and he was joined by his brother Samuel soon after.

The 1880 U. S. Census (non-population schedules) recorded Beers Bros., Looking Glass & Picture Frames, with $10,000 capital and raw materials valued at $4000. They employed an average of 16 workmen, and paid annual wages of $9000. Skilled workers were paid $3.00 a day and ordinary laborers $2.00. They worked full time 7 months in the year and quarter time the other five months. Earnings in the past year totaled $16,000.

The business was located on Broadway for many years (primarily at 1262-1264 Bway), and then in 1908 notice appeared in the New York Times that the Reliance Construction Co. had rented the first loft in its new building at 110 and 112 West 30th St. to "Beers Bros., now at 1,264 Broadway." Beers Bros. remained at this location until 1952. In addition to framing, they renovated paintings, bought and sold paintings and held painting exhibitions. At the time of his death in 1914 Samuel A. Beers was "widely known as a renovator of the old masters and had done considerable work for the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as for private collectors" (New York Times, 3 May 1914, p. 15).

This ad for Beers Bros. dates from 1886 when they were located at 814 Broadway near 11th Street.

This ad for Beers Bros. dates from 1915 when they were located at 110-112 W. 30th St.

Buch & Rosenthal were Isidore Buch and Harry Rosenthal. Their partnership to manufacture dresses lasted about 10 years between 1920-30. They were located at 110 W. 30 from around 1922 to 1926.

Clarence A. Vanderbilt (1869?-?) was a jeweler / silversmith who started in business on lower Broadway around 1891. He was located at 110 W. 30th from around 1909 to 1913. In 1913 the business moved farther west to 151-155 W. 30th St. Later addresses were on W. 38th St. (1916-19), W. 14th St. (1919-27) and E. 27th St. (1927-35). Vanderbilt appears in the US Census of 1920 age 50 born New York, living at 2334 Creston Ave., Bronx, with his wife Jennie 50 and sister-in-law Frances Cornelisse 39.

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