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Lucky 99 Laundromat, 8015 20th Avenue, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn (Block 6287, Lot 4), between 80th and 81st Streets. The laundromat from Vlad’s childhood, where this file started.
Status: signs still on the wall, checked in person on 14 November 2026. Documented
What’s on the wall, 14 November 2026
Seven Laundesigns from the yellow series: DON’T DYE HERE, HOWDY, NEIGHBOR, BE AN ANGEL, CAREFUL NOW!, DID YOU SAY CHANGE?, WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE and THIS COULD BE YOU. Documented
To the right of HOWDY, NEIGHBOR a plain yellow panel hangs in the row of signs. It may be covering a gap where an eighth sign used to hang. Inferred
The signs are worn: stains, spills and fading on the white field. The farmer, the undertaker and the angel remembered from the early 1990s are all here. Documented
The maker line: a phone number, not a copyright
Under the caption panel of each sign is a tiny line in yellow: LAUNDESIGNS 1-718-497-5252. The photo is soft; the last four digits read most likely as 5252. Documented
That is Schorr Sign Service’s number, from the Myrtle Avenue shop after the 1963 move. The known Schorr numbers by era: 1961, at 67-15 Myrtle Avenue, PRospect 6-7100 (American Coin-Op listing); 1971 to 1972, at 67-43 Myrtle Avenue, HY 7-5252 (Queens Yellow Pages display ad, page 945, in the Research Archive). On a dial, HY is 49, so HY 7-5252 is 497-5252, the number on the sign. Documented
The 718 area code did not exist until 1 September 1984, when Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island were split off from 212. A sign printed with 1-718 was printed in September 1984 or later. So these seven are not 1960 originals. They are a later run of the 1960 designs, still being made and sold by Schorr from Myrtle Avenue in the mid 1980s or after. Documented
The building fits. The city’s 1980s tax photo shows this storefront shut and blank, and 20th Ave. Launder Center Inc. was formed at this address on 29 September 1988. The likeliest story is that the set went up when the laundromat reopened around 1988, a few years before a six year old read them off the wall. Inferred
Before today
- 1940: a bakery, next door to Sklar’s Delicatessen, in the city tax photo (see it). Documented
- 17 March 1953: the Board of Standards and Appeals lets the owner, Leo Gershenhorn, convert the former bakery to a self-service laundry. Documented
- 1980s city tax photo: the storefront is shut and blank. Documented
- 29 September 1988: 20th Ave. Launder Center Inc. formed in Kings County at this address. Documented
- Early 1990s: a farmer with a pitchfork, an undertaker and an angel with a harp on the walls, read off by a six year old while his mom folded laundry. Memory
- Deeds: sold in 1970, 1988, twice in 1997, 2007 and 2009. Documented
- 14 November 2026: all seven signs on the wall. Documented
No photograph of this wall from before 2026 has turned up. If you have one, send it in.
The same seven
These are the same seven titles photographed at Rob’s Stop ‘N’ Wash in Park Slope in 2008 and at 6914 Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge the same year. Documented Three Brooklyn laundromats with an identical set suggests the seven were sold as a package. Inferred
The day it was found again: I Saw The Sign.
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An open file on the Laundesigns of Schorr Sign Service, Glendale, Queens. Sign images are faithful digital recreations made from photos of the originals; each sign page links to the record. The recreations were generated with Grok, chosen after comparing image quality across several AI models.
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