Polk's Hobby Memory

October 25, 2012 8:55 AM

Polk's Hobby Store Irwin and Nat started Polk's Hobby as retailers in New York City in 1935 on Seventh Avenue, but quickly moved to a 5 story building. Each floor represented a different category of the hobby field and was a show case for the industry. As a child in the 1970's in New York City I vividly remember going to Polk's Hobby Store. It was five stories of pure hobby fun with each floor dedicated to a topic, trains, planes, cars, boats, figurines. The cars floor was at the top and had a large, bring your own slot car track with a banked figure eight. The place was magical. Now, with that said, I was young and the memories are sparse. There is a little bit on Polk's on the net as they are still around as a remote control hobby manufacturer. The only photo on I could find was in reference to a scene from the Godfather that was shot at Polk's. Anyone remember the greatest Hobby store in the land?
posted by silsurf to media & arts (9 answers total)

Are you asking if this place still exists, or just if people remember it?
posted by Grither at 8:59 AM on October 25, 2012

I do remember Polks, went there with my father. I dont think this is a legit AskMe, however.
posted by shothotbot at 9:06 AM on October 25, 2012

A spinoff still exists.
posted by Jahaza at 9:08 AM on October 25, 2012

This is legit. He is trying to find out information about Polk's. No different than someone trying to remember a song or a book.

I do remember the store, but I have no information beyond that.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 9:08 AM on October 25, 2012

I was just interested in feedback and memories of Polk's, possibly some ideas on where to find photos?
posted by silsurf at 9:22 AM on October 25, 2012

New York Public Library might have some photos in their archive -- I didn't have any luck searching the digital archive but I bet a librarian would be happy to help if you give them a call.
posted by jabes at 9:40 AM on October 25, 2012

The New York Historical Society is another major source for photographs, but I don't see any of that intersection at the correct dates or of the store.
posted by Jahaza at 10:16 AM on October 25, 2012

I bet if you contact the spinoff of Polks (http://www.polkshobby.com/cgi-bin/pages/show.cgi?id=contactindex.html), they will have photos of the original

The spinoff is run by the son of the original store - in fact, if you can get to the new store in New Jersey I bet they'll be delighted to share memories with you.
posted by zia at 1:44 PM on October 25, 2012

Here's a description of the magic trick guy: http://www.themillions.com/2010/06/the-trick-of-it.html

And here is Lewis Polk talking about trains in 2012 (I guess he would be the guy to talk to about the original store): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMAcBe-OTyE
posted by zia at 1:57 PM on October 25, 2012