Window Display Contest, March 1931
The section of Flatbush Avenue that ran through Flatbush became a hub of commercial activity and held approximately 500 stores in a mile and a half strip. These businesses included grocery stores, butcher shops, greengrocers, pharmacies, hardware stores, clothing stores, furniture stores, and appliance stores.[i] The people of Flatbush were very much attracted to the retail area. In 1931, there was an advertisement in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle for a contest looking for the best window displays along Flatbush Avenue.[ii] In 1953, the people of Flatbush suggested the idea of acquiring their own stamp in celebration of the 300th anniversary of New York City, as the former New Amsterdam was formally incorporated as a city in 1653.[iii] They believed that Flatbush contributed greatly throughout the years and had deserved this honor, and wanted to depict its increasingly popular retail stores on the face of the stamp. The stamp would cost a half-cent, which would illustrate the low costs of the stores in the Flatbush area.[iv]
[i] Nedda C. Allbray, Flatbush: The Heart of Brooklyn (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub., 2004), 150-152.
[ii] “Window Displays on Flatbush Avenue,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 3, 1931. http://bklyn.newspapers.com/.
[iii] Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 44.
[iv] Kent B. Stiles, “News of the World of Stamps,” New York Times, May 3, 1953. http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/browser.
