Museum Illustrates New York’s Past Through Pop Cultural Artifacts

The City Reliquary Museum in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a not-for-profit community museum and civic organization located at 370 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It moved to its present location in January of 2006.  According to its website, “through permanent display of New York City artifacts, rotating exhibits of community collections, and annual cultural events, The City Reliquary connects visitors to both the past and present of New York.”

An antique cash register greets visitors in the foyer of the Museum. According to its label, this National Cash Register was produced in Dayton, Ohio on October 14, 1914 and was donated to the museum by Frank E. Silverman.

Among the displays is a collection of seltzer bottles from New York manufacturers. According to Wikipedia, such bottles were popular in the 1920s and 1930s for dispensing soda water.

The museum features an exhibit of vintage beer cans and bottles. According to Wikipedia, Piels Beer was brewed in the East New York section of Brooklyn, NY from the establishment of the original Piels Brothers Brewery in 1883 until its closing on September 20, 1973. 

Nik Sokol, the resident geologist to the museum has amassed a collection of rock and mineral samples characteristic of New York City and its surrounding region. According to Sokol, these materials were extensively used in early New York architecture and can still be seen in older buildings.

A Second Multiplex Theatre to Open in Williamsburg

Joining Nitehawk Theatre, which opened at Metropolitan Avenue and Berry Street last year, new multiplex movie theatre Williamsburg Cinemas will open its doors at Driggs Avenue and Grand Street by June, said owner Harvey Elgart.

The new multiplex will have seven screens, with almost 1,000 seats. According to Elgart, who has been planning this project for over six years and has worked as a projectionist mainly in Brooklyn cinemas for over two decades, “all the screens [in this new multiplex] will be equipped with the latest state-of-the-art digital sound and screens.” Each auditorium will have stadium seating and will range in capacity from 90 to 250 seats.

Asked why the neighborhood needs two movie multiplexes, Elgart replied, “my theatre is much larger compared to Nitehawk, who has only three screens, and their largest auditorium holds only 90 seats, and that is what our smallest room will hold.” In addition, while the Nitehawk screens mostly art-house and other indie films, Elgart plans to screen films ranging from art house indie types to mainstream blockbusters.  Currently, if Williamsburgers want to catch more mainstream films, they must trek to Union Square in Manhattan.

Several area residents and business owners agreed that the new venue will become an asset to the neighborhood. For example, Margaret Kozlowska, who owns Margo’s Patisserie Café at Driggs Avenue and Fillmore Street, welcomed the additional foot traffic it will bring to her café. As she is also a resident of the area, she also welcomed the new multiplex on a personal level, stating that “it is much more convenient than [Regal Union Square Stadium 14 in] Union Square, and I really like the fact it will bring more variety to the neighborhood.”

Not everyone, however, is as excited about the idea. Song Ly, one of the managers of the Japanese restaurant Samurai Mama next to the Williamsburg Cinemas site, said that while the benefits the multiplex will bring to local businesses are clear, she is not a fan of the process of gentrification that she says is ruining the “spirit of Williamsburg at a break-neck pace.” She is concerned that the introduction of a new multiplex of this scale will add to the pace of the gentrification of the neighborhood.

Some residents along the area are also concerned about the noise and crowd the new venue will could bring. “I'm concerned that it will add a lot of noise to the street,” said James DiGiovanna, a resident of Fillmore Street, which runs perpendicular to Driggs Avenue and is currently one of the quieter streets in Williamsburg. “Fillmore was pretty quiet when I first moved here…I don't see the theater helping that.”