Something to remember about NYC’s only commercial taxidermist, Cypress Hills Taxidermy, is that it isn’t in Cypress Hills: at least, not any more. For many years as I’d walked or cycled on Jamaica Ave. in Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, just west of the undefended Queens border, I’d gone past a storefront labeled “taxidermist” but hadn’t the time or nerve to enter.
A few years ago I noticed the storefront was no longer in the same place, but an online search revealed that the shop had moved to Middle Village, at Metropolitan Ave. and 71st St., across the street from All-Faiths Cemetery. It had retained the name, Cypress Hills Taxidermy.
Taxidermy, from Greek for “arrangement of skin” and taxicab have the same Indo-European root, tag-, “to touch, to handle.” Taxidermy, or the arrangement, stuffing and mounting of animal skins, has been around since the mid-18th century and reached an apotheosis in the Victorian era, when stuffed beasts populated the most fashionable homes. Every species of animal was represented, from the smallest hummingbird to the fiercest grizzly or Bengal, and my cousins in Park Slope had a mounted moose head in the basement they inherited from a previous tenant.
John Youngaitis, NYC’s last taxidermist, put the Jamaica Ave. joint up for sale in 2011, a pity since his shop was a sight to behold. But Youngaitis is still in business here. On previous visits to Middle Village, I’d been frustrated since it was always closed. This time I was in luck. The gates were up, and Youngaitis was just arriving. John graciously permitted me to take a few photos in the front parlor of the shop; the business end is behind a curtain at the rear of the shop. I hadn’t seen so many stuffed beasts since I visited Teddy Roosevelt’s house, Sagamore Hill, in Oyster Bay. Facing the front window is a stuffed version of the Alaskan brown bear, which with the polar bear is the largest bear in the world. Youngaitis told me he currently mounts only game beasts, not pet animals (as he used to do), but the range of species is wide, including wild birds and game fish.
Cypress Hills Taxidermy isn’t a museum (though John does welcome visitors) but Torah Animal World in Borough Park is.
For generations, someone has “had the meats” at Metropolitan Ave. and 70th St. Most of the south side of Metropolitan Ave. between the M train station at Metro Mall and about 73rd Pl. is occupied by Lutheran/All-Faiths Cemetery, except for this small plot where an Arby’s franchise is located. On one of the rocks guarding a driveway, there’s an etching depicting a lengthy, two-story restaurant called Niederstein’s which once occupied the space.
Built by Henry Schumacher about 1854, this building became John Niederstein’s hotel and restaurant in 1888. It originally served as a rest stop patronized by those hauling their goods between Jamaica and Williamsburg via the former Williamsburg and Jamaica Turnpike. In the 1970s the hotel was modernized by its new owners, who removed the porch and carriage sheds to make way for small parking lots. It ceased functioning as a hotel many years ago.
Niederstein’s served typical German fare and in recent years catered mainly to funeral and wedding parties as well as loyal locals. There was no joy in “Midville” when the restaurant closed in February of 2005 and was sold to the fast food franchisee. Arby’s eventually razed the building. Over the years its interior and exterior had been altered to such a degree that it was deemed unworthy of protection by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
At Metropolitan Ave. and 69th St. (the former Fisk Ave. mentioned on the #7 train stop a couple of miles north) is the Frank T. Lang Building, one of my favorite edifices in all of Queens, not least for the playful cats on the parapets. It was built by Lang, a mausoleum and monument manufacturer, in 1904. During renovations in the 1990s, a Bohack gasoline station sign was revealed there; Bohack made a foray into auto parts distribution in the early-20th century. Lang went out of business in 1946 and the building has seen mixed use since, with an auto body repair shop on the ground floor for the past several years.
—Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)