According to The Times, there’s only one store left in New York City devoted exclusively to pressed-tin ceilings. AA Abingdon Affiliates, now located on Utica Avenue in Flatbush, has been around for eight decades. When Joseph Punn, the grandfather of current owner Sheldon Gruber, began lugging his samples around pre-Depression Era New York, tin ceilings had already been in use for 60 years. (Though we doubt they are original, the ceiling of the back of our parlor floor and ceiling in the hallway of our top floor both have pressed tin ceilings.) One version of history has it that the pressed ceiling originated from European immigrants who stamped sheets of tin with repeating ornamental patterns to recreate the look of molded plaster ceilings like the ones back home. Abingdon currently has 41 ceiling designs (along with 15 cornice designs) that cost as much as $12.50 a square foot. We’re curious to hear whether anyone has ever bought anything there?
Tales Told in Tin [NY Times]