Photographer Matt Weber took this photo of his friend Herman Markowitz in 1995.
“This is how I want to remember Herman Markowitz. Smiling and being a sweet old man. When he was released from the concentration camp, he weighed less than ninety pounds. As you can see he was well built. He said he was a talented wrestler, and he was very strong into his seventies. In 1956 he moved into a 3d floor studio apartment on West 86th Street. His rent was $56 per month! When he died in 2007, his rent had climbed to $218 per month.”
Read the full remembrance on Matt’s site here. And check out a website where you can purchase Matt’s photos here.
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Check out our other Throwback Thursday posts here.
Pretty nostalgic. The background in this pic is a series of bldgs. recently renovated on the South Side of West 86 street between WEA & B’way. Buildings 272-276
“Shell Chassis Motor Lubrication”…. Was there previously an auto repair shop or similar on that stretch?
To put those rent numbers in perspective, if his rent had risen in line with the Consumer Price Index from 1956 to 2007, it would have been about $427 in 2007. So in inflation adjusted terms, his rent fell by 50% over those years.
I wonder if someone inherited the $218/month apartment lease.