Every picture this investigation has turned up or relied on, in one place: the signs on laundromat walls, the trade magazine ads, the copyright register, the directories, the census, the property records, and the clip art they were checked against. Click any image to open it full size. Each caption says where the picture came from and whether the point it supports is documented or inferred.
The individual sign titles, with wording and registration numbers, are in the Sign Catalog. Signs that turned out not to be Laundesigns are on Other Vintage Laundry Signs. If you own a photo here and want a different credit or want it removed, use the contact page.
Photographs of the signs where they hung, oldest sighting data first where known.
Rob’s Stop ‘N’ Wash, 54 5th Ave, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Documented. The seven-sign reference set, photographed on the wood paneled wall at Rob’s: BE AN ANGEL, DID YOU SAY CHANGE?, WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE, CAREFUL NOW!, THIS COULD BE YOU, HOWDY NEIGHBOR, DON’T DYE HERE. Part I of the file dates these photos to about 2008; a Google Maps photo of DON’T DYE HERE at the same address is dated July 2019 (contributor JC Rosas). The two dates are not reconciled.BE AN ANGELDID YOU SAY CHANGE?WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLECAREFUL NOW!THIS COULD BE YOUHOWDY NEIGHBORDON’T DYE HEREThe seven Rob’s photographs one by one. Yellow border, yellow text box, black line figure.
Long Island City, Queens
Documented. WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE in an unnamed laundromat, taken 31 Oct 2009 by Jason Eppink. Source: Flickr. This is the photo whose straitjacket figure Google Lens matched to CSA Images stock art (section 7).
Trumansburg, Finger Lakes, New York
Documented. HOWDY NEIGHBOR and WE’RE SORRY above a row of teal coin washers, taken 2 Jul 2011 by Flickr user finitor. Source: Flickr.Documented. WE’RE SORRY, cropped from the Trumansburg photo. Vlad’s reverse search of this crop found the 1958 Butter-Nut coffee pitchman (section 7).
Rensselaer, New York
Documented. WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE, BE AN ANGEL and DON’T DYE HERE side by side, captioned by the pinner as hanging in a local laundromat in Rensselaer, NY. Pinned about 2019 or 2020. Source: Pinterest.
Felton, Santa Cruz County, California
Documented. DON’T DYE HERE and HOWDY NEIGHBOR with a wall clock between them and a house notice about horse blankets. From the blog Felton Homes and History (Vicki Wees), posts of 31 Aug and 1 Sep 2013, where commenters said the sign had hung in the Felton laundry for 40 years or more.Documented. The same blog’s HOWDY NEIGHBOR close-up as it appears in Google Images.
Alabama home laundry room (Facebook)
Inferred. HERE’S HOW (washer) and DRY? (dryer), the two large instruction posters, in a private home laundry room. Facebook post, 9 Aug 2023. No maker line visible; the attribution rests on style and the 1960 copyright descriptions.Unverified. Blue-panel DON’T DYE HERE, WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE and BE AN ANGEL on a home laundry wall, from a Facebook post titled Adding vintage signs to a laundromat. Treated as the same Alabama source until the poster confirms.
The search started on a side road. Many New York laundromats share one exterior sign design: the word LAUNDROMAT in red block letters on a long cream panel, with round porthole washer graphics at one end. Nobody has identified the maker. No evidence ties these signs to Schorr Sign Service, and this thread is paused until the Laundesigns question is settled.
Reference. Storefront with the shared LAUNDROMAT sign design, SERVICE and SELF SERVICE strip below. Saved from a storefront photography website into the original illustrated timeline; the source page was not recorded.Reference. A faded example over graffiti covered roll down gates. Saved from a storefront photography website into the original illustrated timeline; the source page was not recorded.Reference. Another example, washers visible through the window. Saved from a storefront photography website into the original illustrated timeline; the source page was not recorded.Reference. SERVICE and SELF-SERVICE variant. Saved from a storefront photography website into the original illustrated timeline; the source page was not recorded.Reference. A corner laundromat with the design on both faces. Google Street View, April 2026; exact address not recorded in the file.Reference. The same design on a brick building. Alamy stock preview (watermarked), found in Google Images.Documented. Survey captures from Google Maps: Atmi Junior (Harlem), Laundromat 181st (Washington Heights), Lucky Laundromat (Hunts Point), Norwood Laundry (Bronx), Min81 (East Broadway), SLJ Laundromat (Village), Park West Laundromat (Upper West Side), Village Cleaners Laundry.Reference. Candidate painted signs logged during the Google Maps survey.Reference. A survey stop: exterior sign and interior washers, both from Google Maps.
3. Trade press ads and news
American Coin-Op was the trade monthly for coin laundry owners. Schorr Sign Service advertised Laundesigns there from May 1961. Most 1962 to 1979 issues are print-disabled on the Internet Archive, so several of these are snippets rather than full pages.
Census details below cover people who have died. Living relatives and private family tree entries are left out on purpose.
Documented. 1950 census, Queens, ED 41-1417, sheet 48, line 25: Joseph Schorr, 27, occupation show card writer, industry printing dept of retail drug chain, 40 hours. Ancestry transcribed it Straw Card Writer; Vlad read the handwriting and the address, 144-27 76th Avenue. Source: National Archives 1950 Census.
Checked: the artist on line 27 of the same sheet is Joseph Rabuse, 60, born Austria, head of the next household with his wife Elsie, 60, born Germany. Occupation and industry both read artist. A neighbor, not a relative. Whether he and Joseph Schorr ever worked together is unknown. Documented (the entry); any link to the signs is unverified.
1940 census (no image saved). Queens, ED 41-569, sheet 13A, 37-16 103rd Street, Corona: Nathan Schorr, 55, born Romania, sign painter, working on own account, 44 hours the prior week; wife Rose; son Joseph, 17. Documented.
1930 census (no image saved). 37-16 103rd St, Corona: Nathan, Rose, Bella, Herbert, Gertrude, Selma, Joseph (6) and Rose’s mother. Documented.
1950, Herbert Schorr (no image saved), Joseph’s older brother, born 1912, died 1991: sign painter in his own business, 40-31 99th St, Corona. Documented. Full family notes are on People and Firms.
6. Property records and the shop
Documented. NYC ACRIS: 1967 assignment of mortgage that recites the 1 October 1963 mortgage by Joseph and Elsie Schorr, the year of the move to 67-43 Myrtle. Source: ACRIS.Documented. ACRIS: 25 July 1973 mortgage to Ridgewood Savings Bank, $20,000, by Joseph and Elsie Schorr who reside at 67-43 Myrtle Avenue. The document does not describe how the ground floor was used.
The 1998 deed, Joseph Schorr as trustee in Coconut Creek, Florida, conveying the building, is in ACRIS but not shown here because it names the living private buyers.
Documented. 67-43 Myrtle Avenue, Glendale, Google Street View, September 2024. Blue awning, roll down gate, Evergreen Dental next door at 67-41. No sign trace remains.
Documented. 67-43 Myrtle Avenue in the city’s 1980s tax photo (taken 1983 to 1988): the storefront sign reads schorr sign service. The only picture of the shop found so far. NYC Municipal Archives via 1940s.nyc, Block 3681 Lot 38.
Documented. About 1940, the same storefront next to the corner Glendale Market: J. SWEENEY, HOUSEFURNISHINGS, DEVOE PAINTS. The Schorrs bought the building in 1963 from Edward J. and Elinor E. Sweeney. That this J. Sweeney is Edward J. is inferred. Cropped from the tax photo of the corner lot (Block 3681 Lot 37); the 1940 photo of Lot 38 itself is not online. Via 1940s.nyc.
Documented. 102-08 Roosevelt Avenue, Corona, about 1940, the 1928 address of Schorr Sign Co.: the store is empty with a TO LET notice, and the shop next door has SIGNS and SIGN-CRAFT in its window. No Schorr name is visible. Block 1974 Lot 49, via 1940s.nyc.
7. Clip art and comparisons
The figures on the signs were checked against stock art, clip books and greeting cards of the period. Two produced real matches; the rest are reference for style and ruled-out candidates. Details on The Artist Question.
Documented. Fall 2026: a Red Bull TV ad, snapped on Vlad’s phone. The cartoon devil sent him back to a Bensonhurst laundromat wall. The full story: A Grave Situation.Documented. Not a Laundesign: the Philco-Bendix clothes thief sign, filed under Other Vintage Laundry Signs.
Know where one of these came from, or have a photo that belongs here? Report a sign.
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