The Mystery of Lascoff Drugs

Nobody in the neighborhood of Lascoff Drugs, which closed last July after 113 years in business on upper Lexington Avenue, knows what going to go into the grand, high-ceiling, corner space.

The building is currently boarded up and there is construction going on inside. The intricate, priceless arched windows were, I'm told, carefully removed and preserved. The angled metal hood that hung over the corner entrance has also been removed. And the wording on the vertical sign seems to have been scraped off.

The owner of the nearby Lexington Candy Shop told me that the owner of Lascoff sold the building because he was getting too old to run the store and had health problems. A toy store lost out in a big to take over the space. The owner had wanted to preserve the interior, which would have been wonderful. The victorious bidder obviously doesn't feel the same way. But nobody knows who that is. Which doesn't bode well, in my reckoning.