Famed Greenwich Village Store Sign No Longer Covered By Scaffold

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — The C.O. Bigelow pharmacy has operated in Greenwich Village for nearly 200 years, but that did not stop it from falling victim to the all too common curse for New York City businesses — the sidewalk shed.

For the past three and a half years, the nation's longest-running apothecary, located at 414 6th Avenue, was blanketed by a sidewalk shed.

The sidewalk shed also covered the business's most iconic feature, its neon DRUGS sign.

While the sidewalk shed came down over the summer, celebratory images of the famed sign no longer hidden by scaffolding made their way across social media on Thursday.

Alec Ginsberg, a fourth-generation family owner of the Greenwich Village pharmacy, told Patch that "a lot of our usual customers came in very excited that it (sidewalk shed) was gone."

"The store means a lot to a lot of people," Ginsberg continued. "It's in the heart of the neighborhood."

C.O. Bigelow first opened in Greenwich Village in 1838.

Customers such as Mark Twain, Eleanor Roosevelt, and possibly even Thomas Edison have shopped at the Lower Manhattan storefront.

You can learn more about the history of the store on its website.