Julie Gaines and David Lenovitz started Fishs Eddy 25 years ago with little more than a rickety pickup truck and an idea for a store dedicated to American-made housewares. Since then, they”ve amassed a museum”s worth of original china, glasses, paintings, and architectural miscellany collected from hotels, factories, and other shuttered businesses across the country. Their enormous trove is housed in this 50,000-square-foot warehouse space in Jersey City, which also holds inventory for their store at Broadway and 19th Street in the Flatiron district. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Julie shows a table that would have been used by the women in the previous photo for painting china. Photo: Wendy Goodman
The couple haven’t just collected thousands of dishes and products”they’ve hoarded tools and devices that were used to manufacture the stuff. Pictured here are metal molds that held ceramic cups in place to be spray-painted. Photo: Wendy Goodman
This stash of nudes by a single artist was found in a rabbi’s basement in Pittsburgh. He had them all turned toward the wall. Photo: Wendy Goodman
A display of original tabletop serving pieces from hotels, banks, trains, you name it, will be arranged on the mezzanine of the enlarged Fishs Eddy store early next year. Julie and David recently took over a former apartment space in the back of the store, and will soon break through a wall to expand their square-footage by 30 percent. Photo: Wendy Goodman
This fascinating apparatus was used to test how many times a plate could withstand knife cuts. It still works! Photo: Wendy Goodman
David demonstrates the lazy-Susan action of a Teflon-topped worker’s table from a factory in Syracuse that went out of business in the seventies. Wouldn’t this be great for a kid’s playroom? Photo: Wendy Goodman
These gorgeous wrappers are in fact labels for engraved steel and copper plates that were used for letterpresses. Photo: Wendy Goodman
This is still Fishs Eddy’s best seller: the skyline plate from 1991, which continues to feature the Twin Towers. Photo: Wendy Goodman
Craig Murphey
Ten Eyck Street and Union Avenue, Williamsburg. Early in the morning of October 18, 2007, Murphey was biking home from escorting his date to her South Williamsburg apartment. According to police reports, Murphey attempted to outrun a gas truck turning left on Ten Eyck Street. His pelvis shattered on impact, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. In his honor, over 40 friends have since received tattoos that read BE BETTER.
Frank C. Simpson
Linden Boulevard near 175th Street, St. Albans. Simpson, a janitor returning from the evening shift at a Con Edison facility, was hit by a Dodge Stratus on November 9, 2006.