The demolition of 525 6th Avenue at 14th Street, along with a couple of its neighbors, in 2023 revealed a ghost sign for H&H Corset. Another ghost sign was also uncovered, this one much fainter, for Geo. C. Flint Co. Furniture.

On this same corner there use to be a half-painted over ghost sign for Kenlastic which I posted in May of 2021 (this was before the tear-down).  Kenlastic manufactured elastic for the corset industry. I wonder if this area was once a corset district?

I couldn’t find out much about H&H Corset but I did find few details about Geo. C. Flint Co. Furniture. They opened their first showroom in 1868 at 106 W. 14th Street in an area close to the ladies mile area on 6th Avenue. Once this shopping district started moving uptown, George C. Flint Co. Furniture followed, commissioning a new store on 23rd Street in 1893. 

I haven’t been able to find a photo of the ghost sign from back in the day. But I was able to find a photo from the NYPL digital photo collections dating from 1888. It shows 14th Street at 6th Ave after a snow storm. In the upper right section you can make out the same sign but on west side of the building. In the center of the photo you can see the station for the 14th Street stop on 6th Avenue elevated. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a curio cabinet of theirs on display in their American Wing. You can also find Geo. C. Flint Co. Furniture for sale through online auctions.

Check out Daytonian in Manhattan’s blog post about the history of the company and the 23rd Street store.

https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/02/george-c-flint-furniture-co-building-no.html