The Mac Garage, 521-525 W. 19th St. (2017)

Faded but readable: The Mac Garage was located here on West 19th Street from 1942 to 1949. The owner of the Mac Garage was Thomas Irwin McCormack (1892-1946), and his company was T. I. McCormack Co., first listed in city directories at 36 Gansevoort St. in 1925, and shortly thereafter at 261 11th Ave.

Thomas I. McCormack was born in County Cavan, Ireland, 14 January 1892 and died in New Milford, Conn., 7 July 1946. In his Declaration of Intention to Naturalize filed 20 Feb. 1913 he said he was born County Cavan, Ireland, that he emigrated to the U. S. from Londonderry, Ireland, on the SS Caledonia, and that he arrived in New York 2 October 1911. He registered for the World War I draft in 1917 when he was an alien declarant, lived at 225 W. 135th St., Manhattan, and gave his occupation of "foremen, Burns Bros., 132nd St. & Park Ave." (Burns Bros. were coal and ice dealers with numerous locations including 132nd St. on the Harlem River.) In the 1920 U. S. Census he was recorded age 28, born Ireland, immigrated 1910, naturalized 1916, "salesman, soap company." In the 1930 census he was 38 years old, born Irish Free State, and "proprietor, trucking." In 1940 he was 47 years old, a "freight hauler, own business," living at 629 Walton Ave., Bronx. The 1942 World War II draft registration said he was employed at T. I. McCormack Trucking Co., 261 Eleventh Ave. New York.

261 11th Ave. was the main office of T. I. McCormack Co. from the early 1930s to 1949.

The Herald Statesman, Yonkers, N. Y., 18 February 1952, pg. 5, described the probate of Thomas I. McCormack's estate as follows: "The estate of Thomas I. McCormack of 271 East 240th Street, Riverdale, and New Milford, Conn., president of the T. I. McCormack Trucking Company, Inc., of 261 Eleventh Avenue, New York, has been appraised by the New York State Transfer Tax Department at $114,950 gross value, $106,946 net. The widow, Mrs. Helen Carter McCormack, receives two-thirds of the property, while the rest is shared by two daughters, Grace Helen McCormack and Jean Elizabeth McCormack. Mr. McCormack died at the age of fifty-four at his home in New Milford on July 7, 1946. He was a member of the American Legion, the Monitor Lodge of Masons, the Ulster Irish Society and the Traffic Club of New York."

The business survived Thomas I. McCormack's death, but left Manhattan in 1950 for Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn (1950-1954) and Hoboken, New Jersey, (1950-1954). From 1955 to 1973 T. I. McCormack was located on Highway 9, Woodbridge, New Jersey.

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