With rows of red brick family houses and small apartment buildings, modest and slightly rundown, this part of Beverly Road is not particularly pretty.
But, then, one comes across this marvelous Artdeco tower on the edge of a seemingly triangular structure. Later, I found out that it is a department store, opened in 1932 with Eleanor Roosevelt being the guest of honour, keynote speaker and first customer in what was to be Ms. Roosevelt’s last public appearance before her husband became President.
Beverly Road, Flatbush, Brooklyn
More reading about Sears here.
October 6th, 2016
The Humble Fabulist 
Sears had a number of Art Deco buildings around the country (Houston and Chicago come to mind), I was glad to hear that this one was put on the Historic Building registry. NYC has torn down so many great buildings throughout the years. Jackie O. was the person who pushed to start saving buildings. (The original Penn Station was fabulous – but she wasn’t working to save buildings at that point…)
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Yes, I’ve seen that it was thanks to Jackie O. that Grand Central was saved – what a pity for Penn Station! There was a time that people just wanted to get rid of the past and make space for the new and the modern. Same happened in Greece (the level of destruction is criminal) and Belgium too with some gorgeous Art Nouveau structures gone forever.
I was astonished to bump into Sears that evening. The area is really not that nice, we were looking for the other gem, Kings Theater, which is right behind Sears. I wished it was earlier in the day so I could take a better look!
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