I was strolling through the back room of the auction house when I saw a mass of relics corralled along a side wall that stretched the width of the room. They were hanging on practically every inch of wall space, covering the floors and holding down table tops.
It looked as if a huge antique store had been wiped clean of its merchandise. So, I was naturally curious about where it had all come from. I got my answer from a sign hanging on the edge of a table that identified the items as contents from the Waterfront Crab House in Long Island City, NY. The stuff was waiting to be sold the next day.
Googling, I learned that the crab house had been in business since 1977, and was closed in February after the death of its owner Tony Mazzarella at age 77 the month before. He had furnished his seafood restaurant with historical relics – including boxing paraphernalia – dating back to the 1900s.
The restaurant had been a place to hold weddings, parties and other events.
A city institution, the Waterfront Crab House apparently wasn’t a fancy place, but was homey and comfortable, according to one article. It had seen its share of troubles over the past few years: a devastating fire in 2009 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which flooded the place and ruined much of the boxing memorabilia. Mazzarella was said to have been active in the boxing community.
Another company is reportedly taking over the location and keeping the name.
Most of the memorabilia at the auction house came from a time long before Mazzarella opened his restaurant. Seeing all of the stuff together, I could imagine it giving the restaurant a nostalgic but dated feel. The relics were at home here, though, and it was neat wedging my way through and among it all.
Consider:
The Mutoscope was an early motion-picture machine, first produced during the 1890s. Inside were cards with pictures that flipped as patrons turned the knob. The machine was especially popular for peepshows.
Road Master bikes were first produced in the 1930s, and Perfection Stove Company made its first heaters in the late 19th century.
Cail-O-Scope, another picture/peepshow machine, from around the turn of the 20th century.
Penny scales date back to the 1880s, and offered folks a way to weigh themselves by slipping a coin in a machine on the corner rather than going to the doctor to be weighed.
Advertising thermometers first arrived around the 1900s and were usually made of tin. They were made to hang outside.
The first public telephone signs were porcelain, and those are now very collectible. They were first used in the 1800s, and usually bore the name of the local phone company, such as Bell.
Humble Oil Co. was based in Texas. This is a “visible gas” pump with a cylindrical glass middle that held five to 10 gallons of gas so the buyer could see what he/she was getting or whether the gas was clean.
