TENDER FEET IN STUYVESANT HEIGHTS (1910)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Charles I. Clark seemed to be all about helping womens’ tired, aching feet. From 1900 until 1923, at the intersection of Halsey Street and Broadway, sat Clark’s shoe store, above which was posted a sign that ran the width of his building (at the cornice): “THE CLARK SHOE.” In Clark’s store, one of his shoe lines was “Grover’s Soft Shoes for Tender Feet,” a footwear design for women who were both sensitive and sensible. The location of his store was an excellent one. Just outside of it was the stairway leading to and from the Halsey Platform for the Brooklyn Rapid Transit elevated train. People heading into Manhattan passed his store on their way to the elevated trains, and those returning from “the City” detrained there. Additionally, in 1910, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Clark had invested in a major remodeling on the front of his store, which “considerably improved its appearance.” Clark had “electric lights in concealed prism reflectors in the ceiling” which gave “ample illumination after nightfall” and “made the store bright and cheerful.” So, there was every reason in the world for any woman who shopped along the Broadway business corridor to have purchased a pair of sensible shoes in Clark’s store – if she had tender […]
