McCloskey's Drug Store - 351 Montgomery St at Monmouth St

The photo and post card shows Montgomery Street running east towards the Hudson, at the intersection with Monmouth Street.

Even though many of the buildings in the old postcard are covered by greenery in the new photo, the images are from exactly the same location - when using the slider one can see how the windows on the first building on the right lines up between the old and new pictures. And so does the roof line of the building just beyond the building that housed McCloskey's Drug Store.


When the old post card photo was taken Montgomery St was a cobble stone street. The advertising on the pharmacy reads "Canada Pine cures coughs". The sign on the commercial space on the building on this side of Monmouth St reads "Laundry" (between the Canada Pine sign and the blue car).

The building that housed McCloskey's Drug Store on the far corner was torn down in the early 1980s to make way for public housing as part of the Montgomery Gateway project. Before the buildings were torn down, they were documented and these documents have made their way to Library of Congress, where these photos are from.

The building with the awning with "La Esquina Famosa" is the one that used to house the pharmacy. The first photo shows the facade facing Montgomery St:

The second photo shows the side of the building facing Monmouth Street:

The photo below depicts the terrace of buildings on the right in the post card. In the post card only two columns of windows can be seen; those are the two columns to the left in the photo below. Even though they were in pretty poor condition, the buildings were saved and turned into public housing.

There were many buildings along Montgomery Street that were torn down in the 70s/80s. The building that housed McCloskey's Pharmacy in the old post card seem to be in rather good condition in the photo above from 1979 - a shame it was demolished after 100 years.

Credits

The old postcard is from my personal collection. The black and white photos are from Library of Congress, here, here and here.


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