Using the investigate NYC website, I found out that between 1936 to 1941 and then again in the 1980s, the Department of Finance took a picture of every building and house in every one of the five boroughs. I was directed to the NYCityMap website, where I typed in the address of Istanbul (2202 86th St, Brooklyn, NY 11214), the Turkish Restaurant Amanda and I interviewed. Through this website, I found out that the building was on Block 6381, lot 37, Police Precinct, and owned by 86 Street Realty. The lot area of the building is 4553 square feet, it has 2 floors, and was built in 1953.
Returning back to the investigate NYC website, there was instructions on how to create a special code to search on the NYC Department of Records website (NYC Municipal Archives Gallery). The code for Istanbul was dof_3_06381_0037. The dof stands for Department of Finance, the 3 indicates that the borough is Brooklyn, the 6381 indicate the block, and the 37 is referring to the lot. With this code I was able to find a picture of the building in around the late 1980s or early 1990s.
According to the media information, the owner of the building in 1990 was a man by the name Ari Pitsiladi. By clicking on his name I was also able to find 5 other properties owned by him. Surprisingly enough, he also owned two neighboring buildings, 2208 and 2204 86th Street. Using the 2204 image, I was able to make out some of what the 2202 store sign said, which is Exchange… gold plated. I can assume it was a gold exchange shop, in which people could bring in their used gold and exchange it for money.
Using myheritage.com, I was able to find that the surname Pitsiladi originates from South Africa; however, it is also the name of a Greek City. Using real direct, I was able to confirm that he owned the 2202, 2204 and 2208 Brooklyn properties; however, real direct indicates it was purchased by Nicholas Pitsiladi & Maria Courtsourides & Marie Pitsiladi & Constantine Pitsiladi in addition to Ari Pitsiladi, which I am guessing are other family members. They also owned 128 W 36th st. in Manhattan and 6328-52 108 Street in Queens (confirmed by real direct and the NYC Department of Records website). They seemed to have their own real estate business.
Ari Pitsiladi purchased the 2202 property in 1980, and then sold around the early 2000s to 86 Street Realty. Ali, the manager of Istanbul, said that the business has been around for 17 years so Istanbul probably began renting the space around when it was purchased.
Searching through the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Newspaper archives, I was also able to find that in the late 1920s, the building under the address 2202 86th Street, Brooklyn was Weber Bros which was an authorized Awater Kent Dealer. Doing a simple good search, I was able to find that Awater Kent was referring to these radios, which I assume were considered great technology back in the day.
I found it extremely fascinating that this one spot in Brooklyn carries so much history. Now, I also realize how much I should appreciate how easy it is to document and search for information with the internet and databases.
