5th Avenue - Berkeley Place, 1929.

This corner building was one of the hundreds of James Butler' grocery stores opened by Irish immigrant Butler. The original store opened in 1882 in Manhattan with more stores added each year. In 1905, over a four month period, he opened 40 stores.

Though this photograph is black and white, you should imagine that the storefront is green, as ALL of the James Butler stores were painted the same dark green.

A 1910 advertisement of the store enticed with quip, "Thrift is the highway to prosperity and happiness, and every one of the James Butler groceries is an entrance to this pleasant road."

By 1922 James Butler would have 577 stores open in New York, New Jersey and Long Island, and just before the business went into bankruptcy in 1935, there were more than one thousand. Butler himself died in 1934, perhaps precipitating the bankruptcy of the following year.