I find something endearing in businesses that set up shop inside what is obviously a house. It comes from growing up in the rural Midwest I think, where almost every roadside bar or restaurant operated out of the ground floor of what used to be, or still was, somebody's home. The only way to tell the plain old house from the house/business was the glowing Schlitz sign by the road.
You don't find that phenomenon as much in New York, but it's still around, usually on the side streets in the outer boroughs. A conglomeration of small businesses has nested inside this Jackson Heights home like a family of mice. A jeweler, a travel agent, an accountant, an astrologer. And despite all that activity, it still pretty much looks of a suburban domicile.
This kind of crap conversion is all over Queens. I find is totally depressing to see once-beautiful homes converted into several junky stores with total disregard to the original architecture. It's not endearing when you're from here.
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