At the corner of Canal & Mulberry Streets stands a pretty unassuming building. Most people would simply walk by without noticing anything special; I know I had. But back in 2018 I went on typographic tour of Lower Manhattan with a group lead by the type designer Tobias Frere-Jones who designed the Gotham typeface famously used in the Obama presidential campaign. He excitedly pointed out the diagonal ghost signs on this building. You can still make out the words Oil, Cloth, Windows. I had done some research over the past few years to see if I could find out anything about these mystery signs and had come to the conclusion that they most likely were for a company called Weiss & Klau. However I didn’t have concrete proof until a few weeks ago when I came across the above photo in the New York Public Library digital archives labeled “Fire at Mulberry Street, 1904”. I instantly recognized the corner building.

Weiss & Klau specialized in window shades as this ad from 1910 states.

The earliest mentions I could find were from 1894-95. A New York Times article writes of efforts by the Colombian government to recover unused cloth from Weiss & Klau that was used make uniforms for the Colombian Army—I guess they didn’t always make shades! A second New York Times article describes how a former employee has been jailed and charged with stealing over $1,000 which must have been a lot of money back then!