One of the highlights at our "Store Front II- A History Preserved" book discussion and signing sponsored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation at the Hudson Library in Greenwich Village was that we were able to meet the family members of one of the stores that we had documented in our book. Bonnie Antelis, whose father owned Antelis Pharmacy in Midwood Brooklyn attended the event with her sister Honey . She told us that her grandfather founded Antelis Pharmacy before passing it on to her father, who unfortunately passed away in 2000. The pharmacy was sold to a different owner, but the new owners kept the gorgeous neon signage that adorned its facade. Above is our photo of Antelis Pharmacy which appears in "Store Front II- A History Preserved".
We always loved Antelis Pharmacy's neon signage with its combination of script lettering and different colored neon. In the photo we took in 2011, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the neon was still working as many store owners we have interviewed over the years have repeatedly told us that it is a "real labor of love" to maintain these vintage neon signs because they need constant work to fix broken transformers, fuses and other things that get broken when exposed to rain & snow.
When the Antelis family decided to sell the entire building in 2016, Bonnie and her family told us that "We could not let that sign go. We contacted many sign people and none of them wanted to touch the sign as it was over 60 years old. After a long search, we finally found someone to remove it (Emil of Sign Select in Brooklyn) and fix the transformers. I now have the "Antelis" script neon hanging in my living room, while my sister has the Rx part of the signage and my other sister has the letters P and M from the PHARMACY as her name is Paula and her husband's name is Mike." We can't think of a happier outcome for this wonderful neon signage which was manufactured by the Silverescent Neon Sign Company in Brooklyn.
The photos below of the restored neon are courtesy of Bonnie Antelis:
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