Address: 12 Bloomingdale Avenue
Old Address: 3-5 Bloomingdale Avenue
Year built: Before 1895, with replacement or major renovations before 1903 and again 1910-1914 (front brought flush with 1st floor, cure porches added)
Other information: A commercial building with apartments built with cure porches, added about 1915. It housed Henry P. Leis pianos and Earl H. Finnegan's Pharmacy on its first floor.
The 1895 and 1899 Sanborn maps show Thomas J. Farrell's blacksmith shop on the site, consisting of three buildings. The 1903 Sanborn shows a single, larger building on the site labelled "Hand Laundry 1st Hall". Marie Leis Pearce writes that when her father bought the property on April 20, 1903 for $4,600, it was already a three-story building with the blacksmith shop on the first floor, a pool hall on the second floor, and a dance hall on the third. So the building was evidently greatly expanded or entirely replaced between 1899 and 1903.
Leis expanded the building, and added apartments designed for TB patients and two store fronts on the first floor. Henry Leis operated a piano and musical instrument business on one side of the first floor, and A.G. Lavalley operated a grocery business on the other side. Later photographs show the Cut Rate Pharmacy as a tenant.
The 1917 health survey indicates the presence of TB patients.
Henry P. Leis sold "Pianos, Player Pianos, Organs, Musical Instruments, Brunswick Radios, Phonographs and Records" according to an advertisement in the program for the St. Bernard's Club's Minstrel Review, circa 1930. "LATEST DOUBLE-FACED RECORDS, 25c. Singer Sewing Machines, Latest Sheet Music... Tuning and Repairing a Specialty."
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Comments
2010-05-19 14:06:06 12 Bloomingdale, Leis Block on second floor housed Dorsanne's Beauty Salon in the 1950's,early 60's. —67.241.54.79