Several of us researching family in Suchostaw (4908/2552), Galicia have
found an interesting phenomenon. When our male ancestors arrived in NY in
the early 1900s, they became "window washers." Indeed, several of us have
heard family stories that our ancestors started window washing companies and
would give the new greenhorn boys an instant job when they arrived.
Schelly Talalay Dardashti remembers that when her grandfather was asked
about the business and why window cleaning/building maintenance was
successful, he would say that when times are good, businesses want things
sparkling clean, and even more important when times are bad. Even if your
business is hurting, or especially (as he always emphasized it), when there
are problems, you always want your offices/store etc to look like it's
making millions. The Fink Brothers business headquarters were at 1407
Broadway in NYC.
Another fellow SRRGer (see
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Suchostaw/SRRGhome.html) in Curacao
tells of a window cleaning business started in Chicago, by a Chorostkov
{4914/2555) boy, which became the largest window washing business in
Chicago. This was probably affiliated with the NY company. And another
Suchoastaw-ian, >from Uruguay, remembers that his father's good friend in the
U.S. (who was also >from Suchostaw) was the director of "Window Cleaners."
Last names that we have as associated with window cleaning businesses
include: Fink, Altneu/Altman, Frankel, Balaban, and Horowitz.

Do any other of you Genners have stories about window cleaning?

Joan Baronberg, Denver, CO
FRIEDMAN, MESTER, WEISSER
Suchostaw, Slobodka bei Strusov, Ukraine