This is a sad story, but one we were expecting for a while. It appears that the Beer Distributor at 94th and Jamaica has gone out of business after serving Woodhaven for decades. Here it is earlier this year, while it was still open:
And here was the scene today -- an ominous "For Rent" sign hanging in front of shuttered gates on a Saturday Afternoon. Unfortunately, I think we can pronounce this one dead. It had shrunk in size a while back, giving up the section to the right which was used for storage and that incredible 24-hour self service ice machine.
I'll share a brief memory with you here. December 31st, 1974. I'm 10 years old we live on 95th Street and Jamaica Avenue. I'm thrilled to be allowed to stay up with the adults on New Year's Eve. Some time well after midnight, we ran out of ice and my Dad gave me some quarters. He let me walk to the distributor by myself to get 2 bags of ice and I felt like such a grown up. Of course, he could see me the whole time from our doorway -- and it wasn't like I was blocks away. But it was a great feeling of freedom to be walking Jamaica Avenue that late by myself.
Also, from my bedroom window I could hear that ice machine late at night. It was loud when each bag came crashing down. CA-CHUNK-CHUNK. It was a real old-fashioned ice machine -- you had to choose if you wanted cubes or blocks (a remnant from the old days of iceboxes). Anyway, suffice to say that I had a soft spot for this place and a few months back we'd heard the rumors that it was closing down. We went by and were happy to find out that while it was still alive -- it was definitely on life support. So we took some pictures in the event this sad day would come. So here, we bring you a last look at the Beer Distributor at 94th and Jamaica.
In its' waning weeks and months, it had become more of a soda dealership than beer. But for many years, this was the place you went when you were buying beer. If you were having a party, you went here and packed your trunk with a few cases and a bunch of bags of ice. And there was always a few handtrucks around with cases of beers or soda on them. You needed them, even more so in the old days. Back in the 70s the 2-liter bottles of soda were made from glass -- and they were heavy. I worked for a years in a Deli and hated getting deliveries of soda for that reason. The owner told me that this had been a beer distributor for at least 50 years and I'm guessing it was even longer than that. I seem to recall there being sawdust on the floor, or some other covering like you used to see in the butcher shops. Does anyone else remember that? Anyway, here's a shot of the floor -- probably doesn't look too good here, but I bet portions of it would scrub up real nice. That floor is decades old and, chances are, all of us have trodden on it at one time or another. The prices have changed, but this is close to how I remember the counter. Maybe someone out there has some photos from years past. Apparently, from what we heard, the rent was too high -- and this is something we hear over and over from shopkeepers on Jamaica Avenue. Heck, our new Assemblyman wanted to set up shop on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven and found the prices to be exorbitant. He ended up on Woodhaven Boulevard, up by Park Lane South. Heh. I can remember standing at this fridge, eyeing a six pack of Budweiser, wondering if I was going to pass for 18. Of course, that's sadly not a problem anymore. Here's another memory -- sick with a stomach ache and my Mom coming here and buying Coke Syrup. Man, when you were sick to your stomach was there anything better than Coke Syrup administered by Mom? This is a classic store, with the old fashioned floors (seen earlier) and the tin ceilings, which have been painted over throughout the years. They will, undoubtedly, tear out the ceilings and floors -- so this is probably our last look at them. We were puzzled by this until we remembered that this stretch of stores along Jamaica Avenue has no apartments above them. This is a passageway to the roof. Side Note: Woodhaven was recently re-zoned and this area was protected from building "up" -- we reported this at the Woodhaven Resident Block Association meeting back in April. So there won't be any excessive development here. And so, we bid farewell to an old friend. Now, this location has gone through a number of changes in ownership over the years, so perhaps someone will come in, decide to keep it as a beer distributor, and this "beer wake" will have been premature. But we have this nagging feeling that we're going to see yet another 99 cent store in this location. That would be so discouraging, wouldn't it? Can we reach some sort of compromise? How about this -- a 99 cent beer distributor! Change you can believe in! All joking aside: We were very sad to see that "For Rent" sign today, because aside from how it affects us -- this was someone's business, their bread and butter. We thank them for their service to Woodhaven, and we thank all of the generations of folks that owned and operated this business and served Woodhaven. To comment on this story, or share your memories of the Beer Distributor, go to our forum. We haven't had much success with our forum -- so we have opened this up so you don't need to register. If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com. 
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