NEW YORK GALLERY

PETER LASKOWICH

“I link your ordinary experience – what you see, hear and feel – with the history of New York, the nation and the world.”

Peter Laskowich: Historian, Lecturer and Guide

The natural features of the area - a vast harbor, an ice-free port, access to the interior - made New York’s rise to greatness a certainty.

Manhattan then (1609) and now

Downtown Manhattan in 1650 and today - New York's distinguishing traits (remarkable openness and a hard practicality) trace to the founding Dutch.

Downtown Manhattan before 9/11, with the Hudson River to the left and the East River to the right - Why doesn't the East River freeze, and how does that matter?

Looking towards Battery Park in the 1650s from the old Dutch fort and site of today's Custom House - Native and newcomer didn't always get along. The Dutch attempt to tax the Natives (!) went about as well as you would expect.

The wall of Wall Street - Wall or no, in 1664 the British took over. In a pattern of growth that is still apparent, the city grew up the island from there.

New Amsterdam in 1660 - Wall Street was uptown.

New Amsterdam in 1664 - Notice the curl of streets towards the perpetually ice-free East River.

New York Harbor was once populated not only by bass, turtles and swans but also seals, dolphins and whales. Wallabout Bay off the Brooklyn Navy Yard for example is Dutch for "Whale-About Bay."

The extent of landfill in Downtown Manhattan - New Amsterdam extended only to the Wall Street wall, with the shorelines along Church and Pearl Streets.

July 9, 1776 at Bowling Green - Patriots destroy the statue of King George. The British response...

... was swift. Here are 48 of the eventual armada of 481 ships arriving by August. The view is looking towards Brooklyn and the Narrows from Staten Island. A New Yorker will soon write, "It looks like all London afloat."

September 1776 - The Battle of Harlem Heights, looking southwest from near today's 126th Street and Amsterdam Ave. Notice the Hudson River and Palisades in the background.

The patriot cause demanded innovation as well as courage. The Turtle's attempt to sink the British flagship off Liberty Island was the world's first submarine attack.

A replica Turtle

Chaining the Hudson - The patriots defied the British Navy with the Great Chain.

The Chain crossed the Hudson at what Washington referred to as "the key to the continent" - West Point.

The Great Fire of 1776 was the first of two catastrophic fires during the Revolution. This one destroyed everything west of Broadway up to Fulton Street. St. Paul's Church survived.

Trinity Church after the Great Fire of 1776 - Two of its gravestones still bear charring.

"New York is destroyed," said Washington, "but its future greatness is certain." Upon his return at war's end, Washington referred to New York as "unrecognizable." This depiction looks north on Broadway from the site of the Custom House.

Wall Street on April 30th, 1789: Washington takes the oath and the American Experiment begins - The present statue in his honor in front of Federal Hall is roughly 60 feet east of where he stood. A new Trinity Church rises in the background.

New York grew gradually up Manhattan Island from the site of the old Dutch wall on Wall Street. This is Sunfish Pond in 1827, looking north from what will become 31st Street and Park Ave. That hill remains.

Looking north on Broadway from 21st Street in 1828 - Within eight decades the Flatiron Building will rise on the site just beyond the houses to the left.

Looking north in 1862 from 59th Street and Broadway, the site of today's Columbus Circle

84th Street between Amsterdam Ave. and Broadway in 1879

The Dakota was far uptown in 1890.

The Dakota circa 1890

Looking west in 1890 along 94th Street from Broadway - Note the Hudson River and Palisades.

The South Street Seaport at Maiden Lane in 1827

A forest of ships' masts at the Seaport circa 1880

The South Street Seaport c. 1885 - We may think of it as a mall but to history the Seaport was a 2 1/2-mile stretch of East River shoreline. Through the 1800s, most international shipping worldwide was either coming from or heading to the South Street Seaport.

The South Street Seaport from Wall Street circa 1890 - The great financial center is there because the great Seaport was here.

The Brooklyn Bridge (1883) began the age of heroic construction in New York and around the world.

The South Street Seaport around Fulton Street represented the skyline of New York in the mid-1800s.

1875 - Grand Central Depot, down 42nd Street to the left, stands on the same site as the Terminal today. Midtown Manhattan grew up around both.

Grand Central Depot in 1890 - Railroading once meant luxury as well as unparalleled speed.

28th Street and 5th Avenue in 1865, with the Marble Collegiate Church in the background

Coal chutes, bootscrapers, horse-walks... the neighborhood of Chelsea suggests 19th-Century New York more than any other.

The Chelsea Hotel (1884)

Forerunners of the skyscraper were the magnificent cast-iron buildings like the Haughwout (1856) on Broome Street and Broadway.

Hugh O'Neill's at 20th Street and 6th Ave. (1887, shown here along the 6th Avenue Elevated in 1890) remains one of the cast-iron palaces along Ladies Mile.

5th Avenue and 22nd Street (looking north) was quiet and comfortable in 1889.

The old Madison Square Garden is also significant to sports history but Madison Square Park, foreground, is where baseball began.

Madison Square circa 1903

St. Patrick's Cathedral and 5th Ave. circa 1895

Looking north from 51st Street and 5th Ave. early in the 1900s - The wealthy avoided the raucous waterfronts on slender Manhattan Island by moving up the Middle Road: now known as Fifth Avenue.

Looking up 5th Avenue circa 1900, with the Vanderbilt Houses at left and St. Patrick's Cathedral in the foreground - Residential 5th Ave. soon moved above 59th Street as this area became entirely commercial by the end of the 1920s.

The Vanderbilt Houses and the view north on 5th Avenue from 51st Street circa 1900

The Astor Mansion, and others, looking north on 5th Avenue from 64th Street in 1898

The Carnegie Mansion (1902) on 91st Street and 5th Ave.

A typical ship's manifest from 1923

Mulberry Street in 1900 - Once Irish, then Italian/Jewish and now Eastern Asian, the Lower East Side remains a great doorway between Old World and New.

The Lower East Side circa 1900

1890 in the Lower East Side - Tenement apartments were as small as 325 square feet.

In 1910 the average American wife had given birth to ten children. Federal law forbade instruction concerning birth control and contraceptives had been declared obscene.

Lower East Side tenement in 1910 - At least nine people appear in this photo.

Homeless boys on Mulberry Street in 1895

What this visiting nurse found within the Lower East Side prompted revolutionary change.

New arrivals - Ellis Island in December 1906

The Lower East Side in 1941

West Street in 1901 - The waterfronts were noisy, dirty and generally foul. Here's why the wealthy moved up the middle of the island: 5th Avenue.

Park Row was Newspaper Row in the late 1800s.

Looking south from 49th Street and Park Ave. in 1902

Looking south from 49th Street and Park Ave. in 1909 - A given area north of Grand Central is the top of a great train yard.

Looking south from 49th Street near Park Ave. in 1913

Looking south from 49th Street and Park Ave. circa 1930

Looking north from 49th Street and Park Ave. circa 1930 - St. Bartholomew's Church (right) remains.

Even the amber glow of the Grand Central concourse suggests welcome.

Grand Central in 1941

The vast interior of Grand Central houses many offices and shops. The catwalks within the great windows provide ready access.

From the catwalks of Grand Central

Cigarette-smoking was once common within Grand Central as throughout the U.S. A thorough cleaning in 1995 exposed the ceiling's true colors behind decades worth of nicotine. That dark portion is Grand Central on a 20,000-pack-a-day habit.

A small portion of the ceiling's northwest corner has been left just as it was. This 5 x 9 inch rectangle is Grand Central's nicotine patch.

Tennis is popular at Grand Central... if you know where to find it.

Notice the scale of Grand Central's main facade. The statuary surrounding the clock is sixty feet across, as you might notice...

... by the six...

... or by Minerva's face...

... or by Mercury's good right arm.

To the left is Hercules, god of strength. In the middle is Mercury, god of transportation and commerce. Minerva, to the right, with the book in her lap and her hand to her head, is goddess of wisdom. The message: We, the New York Central Railroad, built this place with money (Mercury), drive (Hercules) and know-how (Minerva).

The building behind Grand Central was home to the great New York Central Railroad. It was known as the New York Central (now the Helmsley) Building.

Grand Central is utility and elegance. Grand Central is humane...

... and Penn Station was magnificence and awe. Penn Station was divine.

Penn Station (1910 - 1963) from across 7th Ave. at 33rd Street

Penn Station in June 1955

Through Penn Station, "one entered the city like a god." - Vincent Scully, Yale Art Historian

Penn Station - Urban preservation in the United States took off with the 1963 demolition of this surpassing building.

The waiting room at Penn Station was considered the most monumental room in the world.

"Penn Station did not make you feel comfortable. It made you feel important." - Hilary Ballon, Art Historian

Penn Station

Penn Station (1910 - 1963)

Leaving Penn Station

Penn Station just before demolition in October 1963

The Woolworth Building (1913) - The old line goes, "You haven't lived until you've seen the Grand Canyon and the Woolworth Building."

New York Harbor in 1927 - Into the 1950s the Harbor handled 700 ships (and thousands of boats) every day. It was said that one could cross the Hudson by walking the decks of criss-crossing ships.

Harlem in 1897 - 124th Street and 5th Ave.

Wall Street in 1929 - Of all financial transactions taking place in the world today, involving money in any form, forty percent go through one of the dozen major buildings on Wall Street alone.

It's summertime at Herald Square in the 1930s - That's Macy's.

Looking from 36th Street and 5th Ave. towards the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on 34th Street. It occupied the site of the Empire State Building.

1930 - The Empire State Building goes up.

You were meant to get on and off dirigibles - by open stairway - at the top of the Empire State Building. Guess what happened.

Lunch break at Rockefeller Center in September 1932

1902 - The Flatiron Building shows that it is the skeleton within that holds up any tall building. The walls just keep out the wind and rain.

When the Flatiron Building opened in 1902, bookies gave even money that with the first stiff breeze the debris from the Flatiron would scatter beyond Madison Ave., 400 feet over.

The Flatiron was once among the tallest buildings in the world. Three decades later it was dwarfed by the Empire State (from which this photo was taken), four times taller. This stark difference illustrates the explosion of American influence and power early in the 1900s.

Times Square in June 1940

Times Square (circa 1960) is central to the Theater District but its colors and lights provide a show all their own.

Word is that life is sweet along Harlem's Sugar Hill. This is Convent Avenue.

Harlem

Brass appointments, marble fireplaces, wood floors... Harlem is home to the finest housing stock in the United States.

Downtown Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights - The world’s first business district from the world’s first suburb

Brooklyn Heights

Not a lot of frills to the subways but the system is generally quick and reliable. New York expanded dramatically with their opening in 1904.

The splendid High Line

This distinctive park is not a refuge from the city but a full-on immersion from 25 feet up.

The High Line runs between...

... and through buildings.

The High Line

The High Line

The High Line's 10th Avenue Square

The High Line is an official New York City park that has rejuvenated the Far West Side and serves as a model for innovative re-use everywhere.

Street signs give direction. Street names suggest history and values.

228 nations exist in the world today. 193 are members of the U.N. This means that New York is easily more diverse than the U.N. itself: there are citizens of this city from every one of the 228. It is believed that no other city in history can approach this claim.

"Our ability to reach unity in diversity," said Gandhi, "will be the glory and test of our civilization."

No other island nearly this size (2 x 13 miles) could stand up to this tremendous weight. Manhattan's stature is owing to a series of natural features - in this case, an incredibly dense layer of bedrock.

In New York it is the function of parks to increase the value of surrounding land. How much would Central Park be worth if we could build on it tomorrow? $529 billion - but if we did, the value of the land surrounding would decrease by at least $529 billion. So we don't.

The Brooklyn Bridge is the only major bridge in the world dominated by a promenade.

New York Harbor is the only harbor on Earth big enough and deep enough to float the entire modern U.S. Navy.

The city that never sleeps - It seems that Manhattan (left) never does, and neither do the Bronx (above), Queens (top right) and Brooklyn (bottom right). Staten Island is five miles south (below all of this) and does not appear.

The Chrysler Building and 59th Street Bridge

The Plaza Hotel and Midtown Manhattan from Central Park

Midtown

Downtown and the Harbor

The Brooklyn Bridge and the Woolworth Building

The Brooklyn Bridge and Downtown

The 59th Street Bridge

The nation's symbol, at the nation's gateway

Manhattan - Rosetta Stone of the modern age...

... Capital of the World

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The Brooklyn Bridge and Downtown Manhattan

Ebbets Field in 1955 - That's Gil Hodges at bat with Pee Wee Reese on second.

Downtown Manhattan before 9/11, with the Hudson River to the left and the East River to the right - Why doesn't the East River freeze, and how does that matter?

The Polo Grounds in 1950 - Jim Hearn warming up for the Giants

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