Nassau - The Street of Stamps

An unidentified New York Times reader asks reporter Michael Pollak,"When I collected stamps as a child, I used to love exploring the dealers’ shops along Nassau Street in the financial district. Is that stamp district still there?"

Michael responds, "They’re all gone, dispersed by high rents, tax increases and lack of room for expansion. The last one, Subway Stamp Shop, left in 1994 for Altoona, Pa., where it has 15 employees."

He goes on to say, "But in the 1930s, perhaps the collectors’ heyday, the stamp district was a booming bazaar...Herman Herst Jr., who had been a dealer in the former Stamp Center Building at No. 116, described the scene in his book Nassau Street (1988): The busiest day of the week was Saturday. On that day, the buyers descended on Nassau Street like locusts, and when they left, the stock books themselves resembled a cornfield devoured by locusts.”

To read the entire piece, click here.