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May 1943. "New York. A tenement house in Harlem." Note the sign advising of COVER. Photo by Gordon Parks, Office of War Information. View full size.
During the Red Cross's many wartime "appeals" for donations, those who gave then received a red cross sticker, to be placed in their window. This also had a practical virtue, because it enabled door-knockers to concentrate on those homes with no such stickers.
I wonder what the significance is of what appears the be a RED CROSS symbol in the second floor window above the tailor shop. Any ideas, Shorpyites?
Largely the same. I wonder how they decided which of the building numbers to use.
The poster in the window is advertising the Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour movie with that title, released a couple months earlier in March of 43.
was located at 143 West 135th, AUdubon 3-7722, thanks again to the NYPL Direct Me NYC 1940 page.
Addendum: the website for the rental office gives a nice background on the block:
According to the Nov. 27, 1942 New York Times, the New York Department of Civil Defense started to install the "COVER" signs that month (beginning in midtown Manhattan), in order to mark places of safety in case of an air raid. It reported that "the signs, about eight inches wide and eighteen inches long, are marked with a large C followed by the word 'cover,' and an arrow."
Great architectural detail in these buildings. BTW, that's a 1938 Ford at the curb.
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