Ideal Hosiery, Lower East side, NYC

We announced last year that the Federal row house building that houses Ideal Hosiery is up for sale and we recently checked up on the shop and found that it is still open for business. This long-time men’s hosiery #storefront on Grand Street (its been open since 1950) which we photographed for our book “Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York” in 2004 never ceases to amaze us as the window displays are full of dusty faded undershirts 👕and inside are rows of boxes 📦 of products that form a narrow aisle, and don’t look conducive to a vibrant business. The building is landmarked (it was built between 1831-1833 by John Jacob Astor) and has a pitched roof so it’s unlikely that a developer will be allowed to build higher than its present 3 1/2 stories but the air rights can be transferred to an adjacent lot.