Gordon Parks, Untitled, 1957
Have seen varying opinions as to locale. I assumed uptown Manhattan. Others say Chicago. Or Brooklyn.
this is a view looking east on the south side of livonia avenue, from just west of powell street, in brooklyn. the above-ground train shown is now the 3 train, but would have been the 2 train at the time. (they swapped terminals in brooklyn in 1983.) evidence and images under the cut!
my gut said this wasn't uptown manhattan (which i have a lot more familiarity with than brooklyn), so, in hopes that this was new york city, i plugged "jack ebert's food center" into the brooklyn public library's brooklyn newsstand, to no avail. i broadened the search term to just "jack ebert" and got some results for classifieds, like the following from a may 6, 1953, issue of the brooklyn eagle:
so, it looks like jack had control of two storefronts, and wanted to rent out an adjacent one but didn't want any competition with his "food center." fun! but which corner building was it?
i heaved a significant sigh at this point, as it appears everything that was present in 1957 on all four corners is gone now. at least we can confirm the above-ground train.
the most recent 20th-century historical map i have readily available for this section of brooklyn is dated 1916. this isn't as close to 1957 as i'd like, but it can give me a decent sense of the block and lot numbers for the area.
now the fun part: connecting these blocks and lots with the ca. 1940 tax photographs, fully digitized and available online. (i remember when you had to go look at the microfilm or just order them blind!) anyway, the first building i clocked was 416 livonia avenue (southeast corner powell street) in the background of the 1957 photograph.
then we can take a look at 442 powell street, to the west across powell street, to compare...
... and it looks pretty similar! the awning of the little part of the building encroaching on the sidewalk is out ca. 1940 and folded up in 1957. lastly, you can see the first-story metal cornice of 442 powell street (above "jack ebert's food center" in 1957) a little better in this photograph of the adjacent 398 livonia avenue.
this would place gordon parks about here:
thank you to @onihcinimkcin for cluing me into this little mystery to solve!
