Bay Parkway McDonalds & A Bit Of History

BENSONHURST/GRAVESEND – A neighbor asked the other day to look into what has been going on at the McDonald’s on Bay Parkway and 67th street. So we did.

For a little while now it has been covered in scaffolding, with a permit allowing work outside regular hours posted on the wall.

According to filings with the Department of Buildings, the establishment is undergoing repairs and adding extra seating in the basement, and has not changed hands. Their request to extend the off-hours construction permit for another two weeks was just approved, so they will be working late into the night and all day on weekends to finish work that they estimated at $56,500.

McDonald’s have been renovating their locations in an attempt to change the look and feel and perceptions of what the chain could be for the last few years – wonder which style this place will be getting – or if it will be more of the same old.

Since we are curious, here is a bit of history of the location.

The building department lists 6620 as having been completed in 1931, though that seems inaccurate, as there are both – certificates of occupancy and business listings from the late 1920s, informing us that it was home to Bay Parkway Electric & Radio company in December of 1927. Later it became home to Tompkins & Hart Inc, also in the radio business, in 1930s.

At the time it was owned by a Mrs. Stella Straha, about whom we have been unable to dig up more information, but from old property records it seems there was always also a permit for a restaurant, with a total occupancy of about 88 people, but we have been unable to find anything more.

The building was foreclosed in the fall of 1941, and in 1946 there was an ad in the Brooklyn Eagle that advertised this location as “Dress Shop for sale at 6620 bay Parkway, 2 year lease, rent $100”. That comes out to about $1,326.55 in 2017 dollars.

It seems that the Krimskys, who owned the location in 1960 died at the end of the decade, and since 1970s it has been owned by Regmac and operated as a McDonald’s.

Those of you with longer memories – please set us straight if you remember when the McDonald’s opened and what was there before – researching urban retail locations is notoriously difficult, and we’ll take all the help we can get. And – if you have suggestions for another location you’re curious about – drop me a line at Liena@bklyner.com.