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Arts & Entertainment

Photos: Mars Bar's Transformation Into TD Bank Almost Complete


By

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 25, 2014

Modified Feb 25, 2014


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By

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 25, 2014

Modified Feb 25, 2014


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Photos via Bitchcakes, jimandkarlamurray, ixtayul, and EV Grieve

It was with almost impressive swiftness that Mars Bar was demolished to make way for a luxury apartment building (albeit, one with $10 apartments)—as if the developer purposefully took the ripping-the-Band-Aid-off approach. And now that transformation is about to fully metastasize, with TD Bank signage going up on the sacred spirits-soaked ground which the emblematic drinking institution used to call home. Thanks to the Old New York aesthetic the place had—looking almost as if it were a monument to the Bad Old Days recreated for a movie—the side-by-side comparison showing how that corner looked just a few years ago versus today is jarring.

LGmarsTD.jpg
Photos via Bitchcakes and EV Grieve

At least Mars Bar still lives on Google Street View, until a robot car drives by to capture the new look of Our Future. After that, we'll just be left with Jonas Mekas’s Mars Bar movie:

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Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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