Then and Now: Mermaid Avenue, Coney Island, NYC

Jack's Discount Center, 1970.

This series is all about the evolution of a city. We examine this by looking at details such as individual businesses and then seeing how changes in them reveal something larger about what is going on. The story of Jack's Discount Center in Coney Island is a good example of that.

Coney Island has gone through massive ups and downs over the years. The neighborhood we call Coney Island isn't actually on its own island (though it used to be kind of an island until Coney Island Creek was filled in during the 1920s/1930s) unless you count it being on Long Island. It is located on the western portion of the Coney Island peninsula west of Ocean Parkway.

Coney Island remained a sleepy little town far from the big city until 1878, when two major things happened. The huge Brighton Beach Bathing Pavilion opened that year as well as the Brooklyn, Flatbush, and Coney Island Railway, which opened on 2 July as the predecessor to the New York City Subway's present-day Brighton Line aka Brighton Beach Line. The original two-track line was acquired by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation BMT in 1923, which in turn was folded into the modern subway system in 1940. The subway was the defining feature of the area, resulting in businesses being constructed along its route.

Coney Island reached a peak of fame as a destination in the 1930s through the 1950s. It was the chosen way for city residents to "beat the heat" in a time before the widespread use of air conditioners. Even though the beaches were far away for most people and insanely crowded, they were still better than sitting in a sweltering apartment. The subways remained at a nickel a ride from October 27, 1904, when the first subway opened, until July 1, 1948, when the fare finally doubled to a dime. This made them accessible to everyone who was willing to suffer the long, rumbling ride. However, by the 1960s the area fell into a steep decline as people got air conditioning and more and more city residents got cars or moved to the suburbs.

Anyway, I spotted the photo above from 1970 of a typical "dollar store" before they were known as such and were still known as "discount centers." This one was called "Jack's Discount Center," and it was located at the current street address of 1403 Mermaid Avenue, Coney Island. So, I decided to do a comparison of Jack's Discount Center in Coney Island then and now.

A shot in 1978 taken from the subway platform gives a little more perspective. Note the top of the subway car in the foreground.

The property, located at coordinates 40.5772094,-73.9818174, was originally built in 1930. Located a few blocks from the beach, it already was starting to look run down by 1970, and things didn't get any better during the 1970s. These types of discount stores used to be much more common in New York City than they are now. While you may still some scattered in various places such as 14th Street in Manhattan and the South Bronx, they've largely been supplanted by gentrification, exorbitant rents, and smaller, more focused chain retailers.

Undated, but the same site perhaps ca. 2000. Note that this version was called "Mermaid Horizon Discounts" in honor of the street location. Now it became a "99 Cent" store.

These days, businesses have to be real money machines to survive. That's why you see so many of these quaint old businesses disappearing, to be replaced by bank branches, pharmacies, and Starbucks establishments. Nothing wrong with that, it's what the people who are voting with their dollars want.

The new McDonald's in 2012, boarded up for Hurricane Sandy.

Around 2008-2009, the building, which was located on two parcels. Fiserv Mastermoney was drastically renovated and replaced with a McDonald's restaurant. While it certainly looks like the building was completely torn down, complete tear-downs don't happen too often in New York City for tax reasons. An owner needs to retain just enough original structural elements to be able to call it a "renovation." But, basically, the old 1930 two-story building disappeared around that time and was replaced by the current restaurant.

A recent photo of the location. Note that this angle gives you a little perspective, showing a sliver of the massive elevated subway line that is just across the street.

That area of Brooklyn has become a rough area over the years, and there was a fatal stabbing at that McDonald's on Easter Sunday 2014. That's just a reflection of the neighborhood, which has never completely recovered from its steep decline during the 1960s and 1970s.

However, lest you be left with the wrong impression, this particular McDonald's gets an "A" grade from the NYC Health Inspectors, so it has that going for it. It even gets onto Coney Island's "Ten Best Eating Establishment" lists, which may tell you more about the current state of Coney Island than it does this particular burger joint. The world needs fast food, though, and this looks like a great location for one.

This capture from Google Street View in November 2019 gives a little more context. The subway line is revealed right across the street. One can imagine that the original Jack got a lot of business from the subway trade, thus explaining all of his garish signs facing in that direction.

The story of this parcel of land really speaks volumes about the evolution of New York City. The small, independent businesses in their ramshackle buildings had their day, and now it is a time of chain restaurants and sleek architecture. There are some constants such as the subway lines, however, that maintain the structure of the city even as everything around them changes.

I hope you enjoyed this little walk through the past in our "the more things change, the more they stay the same" series. Please visit some of our other entries!

2021