Brooklyn Crown Deli Porcelain & Neon Sign

Sign was an icon in its Brooklyn neighborhood, located at 4909 13th Avenue. The deli was one of many businesses owned by the wealthy Orthodox Jewish Rubashkin family. It was run by Rivka Rubashkin, wife of family patriarch Aaron. Founded in 1960, it had a reputation as a sort of soup kitchen with Rivka feeding anyone who was hungry.

The sign was taken down by Aron Fixler, Boro Park Signs of Brooklyn, and offered to the museum as a donation, but the donor had no place to store the sign.  The museum contacted its old buddy at Let There Be Neon to see if he could come to the rescue; that is, retrieve the sign and store it until the weather breaks this spring and the museum could make the drive east to pick it up. Friedman confirmed the porcelain enamel sign was in excellent condition, except for broken neon.

Good: The majority of the porcelain is in good condition, although lower portions are rusted away. All neon is missing and cabinet is structurally unsound.

Face was disassembled from one side of sign and new horizonta angle iron welded to existing structure. All new wiring, tube supports and transformers installed with new neon. Porcelain faces were cleaned with Bar Keepers Friend.

7-20-2016: Disassembly and re-wiring at a cost of $66.00

7-28-2016: Disassembly of sign at a cost of $87.00

10-4-2016: Internal, structural angle iron replaced at a cost of $125.00

2-5-2017: Cleaning, rewiring and bending new glass at a cost of $291.50

2-26-2017: Cleaning, re-wiring and bending new glass at a cost of $357.50

4-3-2017: Installation of tube supports at a cost of $45.00

4-6-2017: Neon glass fabrication at a cost of $4520.00

4-15-2017: Installation of housings, wiring and neon at cost of $99.00

5-23-2017: Installation of neon at a cost of $11.00

8-20-2017: Troubleshooting neon at a cost of $22.00

1-9-2018: Replace transformers at a cost of $44.00

3-11-2018: Replace transformer at a cost of $22.00

4-30-2021: Replace 3 transformers from ASM stock at a cost of $105

5-6-2022: Replace transformer from ASM stock at a cost of $60