Wiener Suit, etc., 3-5 E. 28th St. (2003)

This is the west wall of 3-5 E. 28th St. The east wall duplicates many of the same signs seen here, but there they are usually larger and in a different arrangement. Click here for east wall.

Distinctive here is Wiener Suit. The proprietor was Max Wiener (1874-?), an immigrant from Russia around 1890. He became a naturalized citizen 14 May 1900 when living at 101 8th St. (aka St. Marks Place). He is listed in the U. S. Census of 1900 living at this address with his wife, Jennie, age 21, also an immigrant from Russia. He registered for the World War I draft in 1918 when he gave his employment as "Manager Cloaks Wiener-Hussey Co. 3-5 E. 28th St." Max began in clothing manufacture around 1902, had a partnership called Wiener & Bloom with Kalman Bloom (1873-1935) from around 1905 to 1913, then started his own company, Max Wiener & Co., which moved to 3-5 E. 28th St. in 1917. This company became Wiener-Hussey & Co. in 1918. The partner this time was William J. Hussey (1860-1935). Wiener-Hussey went out of business around 1921, and Max Wiener disappears from business listings at this time. Kalman Bloom's petition for naturalization dated 5 Aug. 1902 was witnessed by "Max Wiener - 128 2 Ave - N.Y.C. - Tailor." William Hussey was born in Pennsylvania and lived for many years in Stamford, Conn. His obituary in the New York Times, 18 Aug. 1935, p. 31, says , "In 1903 he formed the Levy-Hussey Company in New York City to manufacture women's coats and suits." The Levy in Levy-Hussey was Isidor Levy (1879-?). Levy registered for the World War I draft in 1918 as "Owner Isidore Levy & Co. 148 Mad Av NY NY NY." Levy-Hussey seems to have been formed around 1909 and to have gone out of business around 1916.

This ad for Max Wiener & Co. appeared in The American Cloak & Suit Review, Jan. 1914. At that time he was located on W. 26th St.

The same publication had this ad for Levy-Hussey Co. and this one for K. Bloom Co. (formerly of Wiener & Bloom).

A photo in the New York Public Library's Digital Collections by Percy Loomis Sperr (1890-1964) dated 1928 shows this wall with the following configuration of signs:

The Sperr image has two levels of signs above Zenker and Gold Star that I have not been able to read.

On my 2003 image above many of these signs are still extant. Others are different. For instance, to the right of Wiener Suit and W. Adler there are two smaller signs rather than the larger one for Rubin & Gross. Also above these is a fairly clear sign for Sig Rosenthal Waists instead of the [unreadable] Coats & Suits. The wall, then, was repainted at least once after 1928.

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