New York County Court House (later New York State Supreme Court), 1927.

Broadway, north across Grand Street, showing mainly the westerly side of this thoroughfare, ca. 1870. The grand building on the corner (at left) was the Lord & Taylor building, constructed in 1859. The cast iron building was described by the New York Times as “more like an Italian palace than a place for the sale of broadcloth.” Less than 10 years later, the store vacated their new building and moved uptown to the new fashion district, the Ladies Mile. According to most sources, the 1860 building remained standing until a fire destroyed it in 1967. For a few decades after the fire, the space was a parking lot with a popular flea market. Today the large lot, which goes all the way through to Mercer Street (hence its more well known address: 40 Mercer) is occupied by a dark, grid-like new building (2007) designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel.

361 Broadway Building ARCHITECT: W. Wheeler Smith DATE: 1881-82 STYLE: Cast-iron This building is an important survivor of the mid-19th century commercial development of New York. It is a rare extant work of W. Wheeler Smith, a prominent late-19th century New York architect. It is among the last commercial 11 palazzi 11 built in New York and one of the last and largest cast-iron buildings constructed in the city. Its unusual abstract floral ornament is almost entirely intact. It is one of the handsomest representatives in New York of cast-iron architecture, an extraordinary and uniquely American architectural development.

The demolition of St. John's Chapel, designed in 1803 for Trinity Parish, helped spark public discussion about the role of preservation in New York City. The elegantly spired chapel on Varick Street in today's Tribeca once overlooked a private park in an exclusive residential neighborhood. Around 1900, with the park converted to a railroad freight yard, and church attendance dwindling, Trinity announced the chapel's demolition. The outcry from New Yorkers, including preservation champion and Manhattan Borough President George McAneny, delayed any action for nearly two decades, but plans to widen Varick Street to make way for the Seventh Avenue subway led to the ultimate demolition of the chapel in 1918.

Kitchen, Montross & Wilcox Store ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1861 STYLE: Cast-iron The 85 Leonard Street Building is the last remaining building in New York City by James Bogardus, self-described “inventor of cast-iron buildings.” It is one of the few extant buildings of cast iron designed in the so-called “sperm candle” style, a style which uses classical elements in combination with a non-classical emphasis on verticality, lightness, and openness, and that the fine quality and wealth of detail enhance the basic forms of the building and illustrate the desirability of cast-iron as a building material in the 19th century.

Manhattan Municipal Building, ca. 1980. By the late 19th century, and especially following the consolidation of New York City's five boroughs in 1898, existing office space was unable to meet the demands of new and swelling civic agencies. In 1907 a proposal by architect William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White was selected; the Municipal Building became the storied firm's first steel-frame skyscraper. The design incorporated numerous Classical references, most notably its entrance arch and Gustavino tile south arcade. "Civic Fame," a sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman, sits atop the Classical tempietto.

The China Daily News was the newspaper of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance. Never shy of voicing their leftist beliefs, both the paper and its subscribers were monitored by the FBI at the height of the Red Scare. It became so controversial that its editor would be imprisoned and multiple staffers deported. Like many of New York's radical societies, the paper had an unlikely beginning: the passing of a local ordinance that concerned laundromats.

Spanning from the turn of the 20th Century to the 1920s, the Progressive Era left a lasting impact on the United States and New York City. During these years the nation experienced an increase in reforms meant to alleviate the suffering of the working classes. In order to accomplish this goal, Progressives believed the government needed to accept greater responsibility for its citizens' well-being. The Progressive ideals of greater government involvement and regulation was a reaction against the policies of the Gilded Age. During this period in American history, wealthy business owners and corporations accrued vast fortunes, often at the expense of working class people. Many believed something had to be done. Following the Civil War, The Gilded Age contributed to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the United States. While both of these processes created enormous wealth for some, it also worsened the plight of many people. Urbanization and industrialization transformed both the physical landscape and the experiences and expectations of Americans. During the Progressive Era, many municipal services, like the police and fire departments, were established or expanded. School reform and increased access to sanitary living conditions improve the lives of poorer Americans. To many, the Progressive Era provided a much needed antidote to the societal ills of Gilded Age urbanization and industrialization. New York Social Studies Scope and Sequence Standards: 8.2e & 11.5. For Teachers: The Progressive Era in New York Lesson Plan

Showing a portion of St. John's Chapel and the church yard. The church and the 3-story house adjoining it have been demolished and its site is now (1937) occupied by station V of the United States Post Office.

Preparations for subway construction on Broadway, north of Howard Street, August 18, 1912. No. 433 Broadway is nearest at left. The BMT Broadway line was completed in stages between 1917-1919, having endured a number of changes to its route since the line’s first proposal in 1907.

St. John's Chapel was designed by John McComb, Jr., in 1803 for the vestry of Trinity Church to accommodate its expanding Episcopalian congregation and to serve Trinity's planned real estate subdivision around it's newly-created St. John's Park. The chapel's hewn-oak spire reached more than two hundred feet in height, while a curved stairway to the pulpit and carved fluted pillars lent elegance to its airy, open interior. The original location of this church was one of the most attractive in New York. It stood on the eastern side of St. John's Park whose tree-shaded walks were a favorite recreational spot for the well-to-do residents of the neighborhood. But, in the second half of the 18th century, as the fashionable moved uptown and Trinity sold the park to Cornelius Vanderbilt for construction of a freight terminal, what had been a neighborhood of patrician townhouses became slovenly and ramshackle. By the 1890’s, most of the congregation had left and Trinity wanted to sell St. John’s Chapel. Holdouts at St. John’s — including the pastor, the Rev. Dr. Philip A. H. Brown, known as the Fighting Vicar — resisted the parent church. Dr. Brown died in 1909, the year that pro-demolition candidates won a vestry election at Trinity. In 1912, the City decided to widen Varick Street. In response to protests from architects and historians, a proposal to save the Chapel would have run the sidewalk and part of the street under the columns of the portico, which would be allowed to jut out into traffic. Ignoring the New York Times' editorial opinion that "to destroy it would be vandalism", Trinity Church decided to demolish the Chapel and put the site on the market for more than $200,000.

By Robert Pigott As a bit of greenery opposite the Criminal Court on Centre Street has replaced an unsightly municipal parking lot, the name given this new park -– Collect Pond Park -- evokes 400 years of New York City history. The soggy origins of the block containing the new park pre-date the 17th-century encounter of the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam and the Native Americans who inhabited the woods, fields, streams, and ponds that were pre-colonial Manhattan. Read this in its original format here.

Cary Building ARCHITECT: King & Kellum DATE: 1856-57 STYLE: Cast-iron The Cary Building’s two cast-iron facades are among the earliest surviving in New York. It was built in 1856-57 for the early dry goods department store of Cary, Howard & Sanger. It was one of the first important cast-iron buildings fabricated by D.D. Badger’s Architectural Iron Works, the most important architectural iron foundry in 19th-century New York. Its design is a key monument in mid-19th-century commercial architecture, marking the joining of the Italianate style with the cast-iron technology.

Think!Chinatown presents a walk of the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, based on the stories of its residents, as collected by archivist and oral historian Rochelle Kwan. Follow along online or use the stories to connect with the neighborhood through the memories of its residents. As you take a walk around the neighborhood, check out the Landmarks Oral History Project stories: www.thinkchinatown.org/landmarks

Woods Mercantile Buildings ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1865 STYLE: Italian Renaissance The Woods Mercantile Buildings are fine examples of the palazzo node of architecture which was based on Italian Renaissance prototypes. The elegant simplicity and restraint of the facades indicate their original utilitarian function. They are representatives of a period of the city’s history when White Street was part of the country’s textile and dry goods center.

39 Worth Street Building ARCHITECT: Isaac F. Duckworth DATE: 1866 STYLE: Italianate, Second Empire The 39 Worth Street Building was constructed for James Smith, a prominent manufacturer of fire engines. It was designed in a transitional style incorporating elements of the Italianate and Second Empire styles. The deep cornice features foliate modillions, a central segmental pediment, four large brackets with pellet molding and latticework, classically-inspired frieze and scalloped corbel table. Each story is separated by paneled spandrels and plinths or molded sill course.

226 West Broadway was the headquarters of the New York Fire Department's High-Pressure Service. This elegant structure looks remarkably different from its squat brick compatriot at 25 Joralemon. Architect Augustus D. Shepard designed this four-story and 20-foot wide structure with elements of both a "workshop and an office building," according to the structures' 1991 LPC Designation. Its facade features creme terracotta, a set of elegantly chiseled letters, and "iconographic representation of the work," including sculpted hydrants, valves and pipes. These symbols, secessionist in style, allude to the work that once went on inside.

Detail of Western Union Building, Hudson Street base, 1930. 60 Hudson Street was Western Union’s headquarters from 1930 to 1973, when the company moved operations to New Jersey. Designed by Ralph Walker of the Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker firm — who promoted the project as “the largest telegraph building in the world” — the massive building occupies the entire square block bounded by West Broadway, Thomas, Worth and Hudson Streets. Walker’s design incorporated German Expressionist elements, including a 19-shade color gradient brick, as well as Art Deco entranceway details closer to street level. Throughout its history, the skyscraper has been a key telecommunications hub: first for regional telegraphy; and, today, as a colocation (data centre) site for various Internet service providers.

Church Street, east side, south from White Street, 1928. The major street work depicted in this 1928 photograph is the cut and cover method of subway construction for the IND Eighth Avenue Line. The groundbreaking ceremony for this new line was held in March of 1925 at St. Nicholas Avenue and 123rd Street and the line opened to the public right after midnight on September 10, 1932 (four years nearly to the day after this photo was taken). Church Street needed to be widened to accommodate the planned infrastructure. The west side of the street was moved back some 65 feet, with buildings demolished or truncated. 257 Church Street is the building at left on the south corner of Franklin Street, and in the hazy distance stands the Woolworth Building.

378-374 Broadway, showing the Remington Company Building, ca. 1920. Remington is most well known as a manufacturer of guns, but at various points in their history they (and related firms) also produced items such as sewing machines and typewriters. In 1873 they released for sale the the first commercial typewriter. The machines were produced in Ilion, New York and introduced QWERTY, the keyboard layout for Latin script. In 1886 Remington sold the typewriter business to the Standard Typewriter Manufacturing Company, Inc. the three buyers were former employees, Misters Wickoff, Seamans, and Benedict. The company that would become Remington Typewriter Company (so named c.1905) originally had their headquarters at 327 Broadway (as early 1892, perhaps earlier). Circa 1910 they retrofitted a series of buildings (no. 327 and the surrounding ones) to make one large structure for Remington. After outgrowing the space they moved to the pictured structure at 374-378 Broadway. This building was replaced in 1988-1990 with the 26-story apartment house currently on the lot.

Western Union Building, First Floor Interior ARCHITECT: Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker; Ralph Walker DATE: 1928-30 Style: Modernist The First Floor of the Western Union Building is a recognized achievement in Modernistic design. Its design was influenced by the work of German and Dutch Expressionist architects and drew upon Ralph Walker’s well-defined design theory emphasizing harmony and unity. In the design of the first floor interior, executed in the expressionistic style of the exterior of the building, Walker used materials and design motifs in an innovative manner to link the interior and exterior. The design of the interior is exceptional in its extensive use of brick with ingrained, modeled ornament of various colors and patterns.

Westward view along Lispenard Street, with workings laying pipes for the high pressure water system into a trench; undated photo. In the background, an Sixth Avenue elevated train passes over West Broadway. Beyond the tracks is a storefront of Frank & Gutman, manufacturers of garters and cuff-holders, at 272-274 West Broadway. The blockfront at left was slowly transformed over the course of the next three decades. In 1909, the American Telephone & Telegraph company purchased a set of contiguous lots between Walker and Lispenard Streets. Construction of the Walker Lispenard building, a17-story skyscraper, was completed in 1914. That structure was extended to 24 stories by 1919, and plans for a further additions were filed in 1929. No. 26-28 Lispenard and a handful of other small buildings on the south side of the block persisted until April 1930, when they were finally razed ahead of the final expansion. Today, the AT\&T Long Distance Building, also known as 32 Avenue of the Americas, occupies the full block. The 27-story Art Deco skyscraper was designed by Frank Walker, and completed in 1932.

Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building ARCHITECT: Sullivan Jones and William Haugarrd DATE: 1928-30 STYLE: modernist classical The Louis J. Lefkowitz State Office Building, historically New York State Office Building at 80 Centre Street was constructed as a piece of a master plan for this area. The nine-story edifice is composed in a modernist classical style faced in granite to be contextual, but not detract from, the courthouses in Manhattan’s Civic Center. A heavy, rusticated base boasts carved seals of New York State, and “STATE OF NEW YORK”, prominently centered on the façade, rests above the seals. The cornerstone of 80 Centre was laid on December 18, 1928 by Governor Al Smith, who used a silver trowel to apply the first layer of mortar and secured a copper box time capsule containing records, newspapers, and photographs into the stone block. The impetus for the New York State Office Building came down to economics. Throughout the 1920s, the State of New York hemorrhaged money toward expensive rents for State offices, typically in midtown. This building consolidated all State offices to one location, as the New York Times explained its dire need: “Completion of the State Building marks a realization of one of the largest units in a well-defined public building program which has for its aim the unified housing of official activities and elimination of tremendous rents.” (NYT, “Civic Centre Plan Showing Progress.” 11/2/1930) In 2018 it was announced 80 Center would be demolished to make way for a new 40 story tower that would house the new Manhattan jail. Thankfully, that plan was abandoned, but the building is still not landmarked and therefore under threat.

287 Broadway ARCHITECT: John B. Snook DATE: 1871-72 STYLE: Second Empire The 287 Broadway Building is notable for its combination of the Italianate and French Second Empire styles as executed in cast iron, and one of the few surviving examples in New York city. It is executed in richly detailed cast iron and is crowned by a prominent slate mansard roof with iron cresting. The prestige of the building was indicated both by the mansard roof and the installation of an early Otis passenger elevator. The building graphically illustrates the transformation of lower Broadway in the 19th century from a residential boulevard into the city’s commercial center.

Workers lay pipe for the high pressure water system along Chambers Street, between Church Street and West Broadway; undated photo.

96 Bayard Street, 1932.

New York Life Insurance Company Building STATUS Designated Exterior and Interior Landmark 346 Broadway ARCHITECT: Stephen Decatur Hatch; McKim, Mead & White DATE: 1894-99 STYLE: Neo-Italian, Neo-Renaissance This building is a fine example of the neo-Italian palazzo mode popularized by Mckim, Mead & White. The interiors of the building are designed using excellent craftsmanship and lavish materials, typical of the finest buildings of the turn of the century. These interiors are designed in the neo-Renaissance style, and they bear the personal stamp of their architects.

My Archive Spring 2019 "Mott Street in front of Transfiguration school. A photo taken for 8th-grade graduation in 1982." —May Lew

Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is an ongoing audio exploration of memory and place, produced by Think!Chinatown. Through a story stroll around the neighborhood, we visit and remember our community members’ own personal landmarks and memories in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Our Stories, Our Chinatown Landmarks is a part of Chinatown Arts Festival 2023, produced by Think!Chinatown.

Long Distance Building of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company ARCHITECT: Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker; Ralph Walker DATE: 1930-32 STYLE: Art Deco The huge concentration of equipment of this building made it a communication crossroads for telephone, tele typewriting, and telephotography. Its polychrome, rough-textured brick exterior embodies the Art Deco style through its setbacks, overall sculpted quality, and linear ornament. This progressive technologically-inspired aesthetic successfully broadcasts the building’s role in housing the technologically sophisticated equipment of a critical American industry. The Long Distance Building first floor interior is a harmonious complement to the architectural character of the building’s exterior, reflected in the use of rippled surfaces, linear ornament, and earth colored materials. This building was the world’s largest long-distance communications center upon its completion in 1932. The first floor lobby features an iconographic program that clearly and artfully broadcasts the building’s significance as a hub of international communication, and it displays a linear decorative motif which symbolizes the great distances spanned by the telephone lines and radio waves channeled through this operations facility. The first floor interior was appointed with a terrazzo floor, ceramic iron-spot wall tiles with bronze details, and multi-hued glass mosaic tiles, and it is articulated in an Art Deco aesthetic, an especially appropriate treatment given the building’s associations with technology.

South from 125 Worth Street, view of Thomas Paine Park and Foley Square beyond. In the late 18th century the land that is now Thomas Paine Park was part of a freshwater swamp. Now surrounded by municipal buildings and courthouses, during the Revolution it was encircled by three former British prisons for American rebels. Later part of the notorious Five Points, most of its buildings were condemned in the late 19th century. The City acquired the land in 1913, and it was officially named for the patriot and author Thomas Paine in 1977. In 2000, it along with nearby parcels in Foley Square were combined to form one larger open space.

Foley Square Courthouse (today the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse), 1936. The Classical Revival courthouse at 40 Foley Square was designed by Cass Gilbert, and finished by his son, upon Gilbert's death in 1934. Completed in 1936, the colonnade entrance on Foley Square fits in well with its neighbors, including the Municipal Building and the New York County Courthouse. The imposing main tower is set back from the base and rises 20 stories to a pyramidal roof. One of the first federal skyscrapers constructed, it was originally called the Foley Square Courthouse. In 2001, the United States Congress passed a bill renaming the building in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court Justice, who had sat on the resident Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the early 1960s.

Welcome to Chinatown, Manhattan! One of over 50 Chinatowns in the U.S. and nine in New York City alone, Manhattan’s Chinatown is home to the largest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere. The story of Manhattan’s Chinatown begins in the middle of the 19th century. Immigration to the US from Asian countries, especially China, boomed due to factors such as the California gold rush, Chinese labor recruitment for the transcontinental railroad, and the Taiping rebellion in China. Post Civil War, resentment towards Chinese immigrants due to competition with white laborers drove members of the Chinese population towards larger cities in the East, such as New York, with the added incentive of job opportunities and a more diverse population. Chinatown was born as Chinese New Yorkers, mostly men, settled around Mott, Pell, and Doyer streets in the 1870s, forming a Chinatown of only 3-blocks which, when compared to the 55-60 block span of today’s Chinatown, creates a clear image of Chinatown’s impending growth. Though the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 along with other exclusionary laws passed by Congress slowed Chinatown’s population growth, its cultural development was not impeded, with many notable business and organization establishments taking place between the passing of the act in 1882 and its lifting in 1943. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 led to a dramatic population increase of Chinatown, with its boundaries expanding to an approximately 55-block area. Immigration groups shifted–where early Chinatown had been primarily populated by Taishanese-speaking Chinese immigrants, the second half of the 20th century saw a wave of Cantonese speaking Chinese immigrants from Mainland China followed by Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants and other Non-Cantonese immigrants in the 70’s and Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Fuzhou in the 80’s and 90’s. In recent decades, the vibrant community of Chinatown has been impacted by modern issues facing both New York City and the rest of the world. Gentrification and displacement have become increasingly prevalent throughout the past few decades, with luxury developments threatening to raise real estate prices and push out working class residents and longstanding family businesses. Chinatown was also hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, with businesses being affected as early as January 2020 due to stereotypes and racism surrounding Asian and specifically Chinese communities, and a 361% increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2021. Despite the challenges that have impacted Chinatown both then and now, it has remained rich in culture and community, and its resilience and character has cemented its importance in the past and present both in New York and throughout the country and world.

2 White Street ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1808-09 STYLE: Federal Among its important qualities, the Number Two White Street House, complete with its original gambrel roof and other fine architectural details, is an important remaining example of a style which is rapidly disappearing from our City. It is one of those very rare brick and wood houses in New York which still retains its gambrel roof and original dormer windows. Three rectangular second story windows have excellent splayed lintels with central keystone blocks.

Western Union Building ARCHITECT: Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker; Ralph Walker DATE: 1928-30 STYLE: Modernist, Skyscraper The Western Union Building is a recognized achievement in Modernistic skyscraper design. The building is characteristic of a group of communications buildings designed by Ralph Walker in the late 1920s, primarily for the telephone companies, in which he developed a distinctive design approach related to the contemporary Art Deco style. The design of the Western Union Building was influenced by the work of the German and Dutch Expressionist architects, and drew upon Walker’s well-defined design theory which emphasized harmony and unity.

No 380-382 Broadway, at the northeast corner of White Street, ca. 1912. The Italianate style white marble corner building was completed in 1860, with its first tenants including a variety of commercial interests related to the Civil War effort (garment and shoe makers, recruiters). In the opening decade of the 1900s, the Cincinnati-based Globe-Wernicke Co., manufacturers of office furniture, became the building's anchor tenant, with advertisements adorning the facade and roof. Today, the building is home to the offices of several performing arts organizations.

140 Franklin Street, ca. 1977. 140 Franklin Street, located in the center of Tribeca, is one of Manhattan's most admired Romanesque Revival buildings. Trimmed in yellow terra cotta with grand arched windows, this 6-story yellow brick structure was built in 1889 to the designs of Albert Wagner, also the architect of Soho’s iconic Puck Building, for a paper manufacturing company. In 2000, AA Studio spearheaded the renovation of this building into 14 loft-style condominiums, including a two-story penthouse.

Broadway Chambers Building ARCHITECT: Cass Gilbert DATE: 1899-1900 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The Broadway-Chambers Building was important within Cass Gilbert’s career because it was his first design built in New York City. It is designed in the Beaux-Arts style and, as is characteristic of the style, the building is richly ornamented with monumental sculpted figures, a dramatically arcuated crown, and a wealth of garlands, wreaths, and festoons. The Broadway Chambers Building is notable for its polychromy and early use of glazed terra-cotta. At the time it was built, the building was considered one of the best examples of the tripartite design scheme which is analogous to the classical column.

Building at the southwest corner of Lafayette and Howard Streets being dismantled during the construction of the IRT Lexington Avenue line, March 2, 1903.

Public Buildings and Court Houses: Manhattan, Department of Health, 125 Worth Street, 1938

The Chinese Merchant's Associaton was built in 1950 by Poy Gum Lee. The Museum of Chinese America describes the building as, "a boxy modernist block with modest Chinese decorative motifs...the most iconic building in Chinatown, the pagoda-topped On Leong Tong building typified Lee’s Chinese modern style." Poy Gum Lee, born and educated in New York, was the architectural consultant for the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. This was the first building to be constructed in a style reflective of Chinese-American culture. Additionally, Poy Gum Lee was the first well-known architect of Chinese-American descent to build in Chinatown. The building houses the On Leong Tong, or the Chinese Merchants Association, a tong society established in 1893. This building was part of the tong's territory. Upon its formation, the On Leong Tong feuded with the Hip Sing Tong over control of the area. Tongs were mutual aid societies established to protect Chinese families and businesses against racism and prejudice in the United States. Many tongs were quickly associated with street gangs as violence between tongs was not uncommon. In extension, tongs found profit in appealing to vices, and many tongs were sustained by running brothels, opium dens, and gambling houses. However, tongs acted as the court and police force for Chinese-American communities, providing a semi-legitimate structure for communities otherwise unprotected by the government. The On Leong Tong is still operational and maintains over 3,000 members.

39-41 Worth Street, ca. 1970-1990. No. 39 (at left) and no. 41 (center) are two cast-iron store-and-loft buildings constructed within one year of each other and designed by Isaac F. Duckworth. No. 39 was constructed ca. 1866 in mix of Italianate and Second Empire styles as an investment for James Smith, a manufacturer of fire engines. For more than 100 years (1860s through the 1970s) the building was occupied by various dry goods companies. Today it is, unsurprisingly, a residence. No. 41 was designed by same architect one year before no. 39. The “Venetian” Italianate style store-and-loft building also included a cast-iron facade by Daniel D. Badger’s Architectural Iron Works. Both buildings have retained much of their original detail above the ground floor. The AIA Guide to NYC notes that the first floors have been "castrated by banal 'modernization'."

Prisco State Bank, 1927. Prisco State Bank was founded in by an Italian man named Raffaele Prisco in the mid 1920s and occupied this classical style bank building on Mulberry Street in the heart of what was Little Italy at the time. In 1931 the bank was closed by a New York State Banking Agency and Prisco was arrested and charged with grand larceny. The charges involved withdrawing funds from an account held by the bank to pay a personal debt. Along with Raffaele, his two sons and a third employee were also charged and served time for the crime. When the bank closed, many of its clients, small businessmen of the neighborhood, lost their funds.

Park Row Restaurant, ca. 1940. The Depression era deals advertised on this restaurant front include 'Pigs head and cabbage' and '2 broiled lamp chops' both for 15 cents. For 25 cents you could get '3 broiled pork chops' with soup and coffee.

Hall of Records, ca. 1935. Built as the Hall of Records (to replace the old and decrepit Hall of Records in City Hall Park), the ornate Beaux Arts building was constructed between 1899 and 1907. Architect John R. Thomas had actually won the commission for a new City Hall building in 1896. When the state legislature decided that the city was not permitted to replace the old City Hall, Thomas adapted his design for a new Hall of Records. He would, unfortunately, not live to see the completed building. Thomas died in 1901 and the firm of Horgan & Slattery took over the project. The completed building was an impressive civic structure, very much in line with the in vogue "city beautiful" movement. Entered through a triple arched entrance with eight, thirty-six foot high granite Corinthian columns above, the building is also topped with a grand mansard roof. Though the Surrogate's Court was one of the original tenants of the building, it wasn't until 1962 that the structure was renamed the Surrogate's Courthouse (though the Department of Records is still housed there as well). Both the interior and the exterior of the building have been designated New York City landmarks.

Public art represents and is represented with many different forms and ideas, its creation, concept and location all come into play when looking at a piece's place in an urban landscape such as New York City. Public art takes up a space, one that is always shared with a community, part of this story would like to address how the two intersect. In some cases a piece can even cultivate its own community, in the case of 5 Pointz, which in itself was its own piece of public art but also a space that created a community of artists. The Graffiti Mecca can also lead us to ask the question, “What is considered public art and where is the line drawn?” This question will be explored as well as looking to an ideal future for a city where public art is put at a higher priority and invested in. Where graffiti artists aren’t criminalized for their work or commodified for profit. Take a look at spaces and experiences where communities are represented and enhanced by public art, while considering the way public art can give back and engage all people in ways of expressing themselves.

Northwest corner of Church and Chambers Streets, 1927. The two five-story buildings on this corner were demolished in the early 1930s widening of Church Street. Today the building at the northwest corner of this intersection is the arched window Cary Building seen at the far left of this image.

247 Canal, 1930. The six-story tenement building at the corner (no. 247) is no longer standing and has been replaced by an ad hoc single story souvenir shop. The traffic tower is, of course, no longer extant either. The traffic towers of New York were attempts at safety and traffic control on city streets that were becoming gridlocked and dangerous with automobiles. In 1920 Dr. John A. Harriss, a millionaire doctor, designed the first permanent traffic lights in New York, which were a small wood shed on a steel frame. From inside the shed a police officer could change the signals, allowing for traffic to flow safely in each direction. More traditional traffic lights (red, yellow, green) began to be installed in the late 1920s, but this corner at Lafayette and Canal had not had their tower replaced when this photo was taken in 1930.

Chambers Street: Ruby's Book Sale (No. 119, left) and the former Irving Savings Bank (No. 115, center), ca. 1976. Ruby’s Book Sale, which opened in 1960 and moved to Tribeca in 1970, closed in March of 2005 after 45 years of business.

Cary Building Designed by King & Kellum, 1856-57 New York’s commercial influence grew in the mid-19th century, with the help of buildings like this one. Its early use of cast-iron and Italianate forms (most likely influenced by the A. T. Stewart Store) makes it a great example of some major trends and developments of its time. Cast by Daniel D. Badger’s Architectural Iron Works, it was one of the first to incorporate a façade made entirely of cast-iron. Its upper four stories are identical, with arched window openings supported by paired Corinthian columns and faux rustication to imitate stone. At its crown are a bracketed cornice and a pedimented roof with a cartouche bearing the building’s name. The Cary Building is a New York City designated Individual Landmark and listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

Workers install bracing ahead of excavation for the construction of the BRT Centre Street Loop, October 8, 1909. This building, No. 112 Centre Street, stood at the northeast corner of Centre and Franklin Streets. All the buildings on this block were razed in the 1930s in preparation for the construction of the Manhattan Criminal Court building at 100 Centre Street.

Odd Fellows Hall, ca. 1975. Built in 1849, the large Italiantate brownstone structure, with a steep double story mansard roof, was constructed as the grand lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization. Designed by architects Trench & Snook, the original structure was only five stories tall, with a traditional cornice and a broad dome above. According to a 1862 guidebook, ''Miller's New York as It Is,'' the building ''contains a series of highly ornamented lodge rooms, richly furnished in the different styles of architecture; some Egyptian, Grecian, Elizabethan, etc.'' Originally the lodge housed 79 subordinate lodges and commercial spaces on the ground floor. For organizations and clubs that could afford to build their own buildings, the cost was often defrayed some by collecting rent from purpose built retail spaces. The Odd Fellows sold the building in 1881 and the new owner, a printer, had the structure drastically altered to create lofts. The highly decorated interiors were gutted and the cornice was removed and replaced with the steep mansard. The loft spaced were occupied by manufacturing for more than a century. In the 1980s and 1990s, most of the lofts were occupied by garment factories. Despite the vast changes to the surrounding neighborhood, the building has changed very little since its massive renovation in 1881. Today it is a building of residential condominiums.

China Daily News was founded at 105 Mott Street by the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, a rival of the Chinese Hand Laundry Association and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. Labeled a communist paper by its rivals, The Daily News was certainly leftist and was attacked for celebrating the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Some rumors even suggested that the Alliance was quietly aided by the Communist Party in China in the early years of its formation. A congressional record from 1942 wrote that the paper was suspicious, though it was helped by the fact that it was printed in Chinese and "a considerable amount of translating would be required to ascertain whether or not the paper adhered to the Communist Party line." However, by 1952, the paper was charged with violating the law by the United States Department of Justice. Two years into the Korean War, the China Daily News had been advertising ways for subscribers to skirt the Trading with the Enemy Act. The paper was caught publishing instructions on how to send remittances to families in China. Manager of the Daily News Eugene Moy was found guilty and sent to jail, where he died a few years later. Some staff members of the newspaper were deported, some fled the country voluntarily. To make matters worse, newspaper vendors were fearful to even carry the paper. Reportedly, even subscribers were hounded by the FBI. The paper survived the Cold War, but just barely. It was funded by leftists across the country who donated to its cause. The small circulation finally ceased to exist in 1989, as did the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance.

191 Canal Street has a long history. It was first home to the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, which formed in 1933 in response to an ordinance targeting Chinese laundry owners. In 1933, an ordinance from the board of alderman required that the 3,500 Chinese-owned laundromats in New York City pay $25 in annual fees and post a $1,000 bond. Even though this ordinance did not explicitly target Chinese laundrymen in its language, they were its target. The ordinance was specifically geared toward one person laundries (almost all of the Chinese-owned laundromats were one-person businesses.) This ensured that the Chinese laundries would bear the brunt. Seeking legal protection, laundrymen looked to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA). The organization promised the protection of all Chinese-owned businesses so long as they paid their annual dues. In response, the CCBA asked for additional payments to open an investigation of the ordinance. Out of frustration with the CCBA's inaction and dues, the laundry owners formed the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance in 1933. They had the help of Y.K. Chu, a regular critic of the CCBA and the editor of the Chinese Journal of Commerce. The following year, it is said that the CCBA bankrolled the formation of the Chinese Hand Laundry Association, a rival to the Alliance. The Alliance was never shy of their leftist and radical beliefs and therefore shed many members to the conservative Association in its early years. Soon becoming politically homogenous, the Alliance formed a newspaper aligned with their beliefs. The China Daily News was headquartered at 105 Mott Street, just around the corner from the Alliance's headquarters on Canal Street. The Daily News proved so successful that they were able to purchase the entire building at 191 Canal Street in 1951. Though Alliance and the China Daily News were met with success early on, this was by no means the end of the fight. The Korean War and the Cold War took its toll on both groups. Decreased subscribers and other financial strains required the news company to sell 191 Canal Street in 1951. A year later, the Justice Department charged the China Daily News with violating federal law. The paper was caught printing advertisements with instructions on how to send remittances to families in China, an act that violated the Trading with the Enemy Act. Manager Eugene Moy was announced guilty in 1954, and he died in jail a few years later. Some of the paper's staffers were deported, others fled the country. Subscribers of the China Daily News were hounded by the FBI with the intensifying pressure of the second Red Scare. However, The paper held on until 1989. The Alliance found a similar fate with "the long decline of the hand laundry industry...and the death of its elderly members."

"White Street, at, adjoining and east of the north east corner of Centre Street, showing prominently three 2 1/2 story buildings bearing No's. 118 to 122 inclusive, 1938."

Broadway Chambers ca. 1905 Architect Cass Gilbert worked in New York as a draftsman for the renowned firm of McKim, Mead & White for a year before establishing a successful practice in Minnesota. The opportunity to design the Broadway Chambers building however, lured him back to New York. The success of this project (completed in 1899) established Gilbert in the City, where his distinguished career continued with his winning design for the U.S. Custom House and later, the commission for the iconic Woolworth Building. Still used as office space, the Broadway Chambers Building was designated a landmark in 1992.

125 Worth Street, 1936. Designed by Charles B. Meyers in a mix of Classical Revival and Art Deco styles, 125 Worth Street was constructed between 1932 and 1935. The large structure first housed the city's Department of Health. Today it is home to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the Health and Hospitals Corporation and the Sanitation Department.

Signage at 319 Broadway, looking at the facade of 317 Broadway, March 6, 1936.

New York County Courthouse Interior ARCHITECT: Guy Lowell DATE: 1913-27 STYLE: Neo-Classical The Interior of the New York County Court House is one of the last neo-Classical public buildings erected in New York City and ranks as one of the best. The interior design reveals maximum attention to detail, a rich variety of materials, and elegant classical symmetry and design. It is distinguished by excellent murals designed by Attilio Pusterla under the Public Works of Art Project and the Federal Art Project. The murals are some of the earliest executed in New York City under the Projects. It houses the Archives of the County Clerk, an invaluable collection of court records open to the public, and it reflects the Classical spirit that strongly influenced American architecture during the early 20th century.

American Thread Building, behind the tracks of the Sixth Avenue El, 1928. Architect William B. Tubby designed the eleven-story Renaissance Revival American Thread Building for the Wool Warehouse Company. Originally known as the Wool Exchange Building, it was completed in 1896. In 1981, it was converted to live-work loft units. The excavation of the foundation for the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street is in the foreground.

Workers dig trenches along Duane Street, near West Broadway and the Sixth Avenue Elevated trestle; undated photo.

Man in the excavation cut for the BRT Centre Street Loop, July 22, 1909. The Municipal Building, then under construction, is out of frame at right. Straight ahead is the Technical Press building at 236 William Street. That building has since been demolished; its site was near present-day One Police Plaza and the Brooklyn Bridge offramp toward FDR Drive.

Church Street between Lispenard and Walker Streets, ca. 1975. The building pictured at far left is 36 Lispenard Street. It was once the home of David Ruggles, a zealous abolitionist and the nation's first black journalist and printer. While the building today is just a coffee shop, nearly two hundred years ago, the building was home to the antislavery movement in New York City. From this space, Ruggles led more than 600 runaway slaves to freedom, including Frederick Douglass. He also operated a bookstore and library out of his home, where he would print anti-slavery pamphlets and the Mirror of Liberty, which was the first African American magazine. The original townhouse has since been demolished.

City Prison (1902) ca. 1939 The City Prison on Centre Street, nicknamed the Tombs after type of Egyptian edifice that inspired the original building, was notorious for its poor incarceration conditions. This imposing Gothic structure, the second prison erected at this site, opened in 1902 and contained 320 cells and two chapels. Prisoners were led to trial at the Criminal Courts Building next door through the mid-air Bridge of Sighs connecting the two buildings. This structure was replaced in 1939 with the present city prison located across the street.

The building at 280 Broadway has been known by a number of names since it was erected in 1846 (later additions and alterations occurred between 1852 and 1884). Built for the A.T. Stewart Company, it was not only the first commercial building in the Italianate style in the United States but is also considered the country's first department store. The John B. Snook and Joseph Trench-designed marble structure remained home to Stewart's dry goods store until 1876. During the last 14 years, it housed only the wholesale trade, as the retail business had moved further uptown to 9th Street. Converted into an office building (two new stories were added to the five-story structure), it became the home to the New York Sun newspaper when they purchased it in 1917. Known as the Sun Building, the new owners installed a bronze clock (seen here) at the building's southwest corner. The paper folded in 1953 and the city took the title during condemnation proceedings. Though the building was to be razed for a planned civic center development, it remained. Substantially renovated between 1995 and 2002, today the building is home to the city's Department of Buildings and lower level retail.

Municipal Building ca. 1976 The vaulting over the South Concourse of New York’s Municipal Building epitomizes the spatial genius of Guastavino Jr. This irregularly shaped area, punctuated by numerous columns supporting the 580-foot skyscraper above, presented him with particular challenges. Guastavino Jr. designed a deceptively simple and graceful array of vaults—no two of them alike—springing from asymmetrical structural bays. The open-air concourse provides access to the Chambers Street Subway Station below.

In the 19th century, these shot towers soared above all other buildings. This particular tower, built in the year 1855 by James Bogardus, was over 175 feet tall with an octagonal base formed from 11 iron pillars. The height of the towers was necessary for the creation of the shot. Arsenic-laced melted iron would be brought up to the top of the towers and poured through a sieve. As it dropped, the molten iron would cool and form a circular shape before landing in a vessel of water. This would create a perfectly spherical lead shot. With some towers creating 15 tons of shot a day, the noise was cacophonous as the iron clattered down from the top.

291 Church Street, ca. 1979. No 291 (second building from the right, with the sign at top) was erected in 1877 in a neo-Grec style. The four-story, store-and-loft building was designed by John B. Snook, who built many industrial structures in TriBeCa and SoHo. A number of the historic features of the building remain, including the cast-iron columned base and the wooden signage at the top which advertised one of the tenants, a D. Rich Company. Today the buildings is occupied by Apex Art, a non-profit arts organization and a single large residence on the upper floors.

City Prison, 1938.

Former A.T. Stewart Building 280 Broadway, Joseph Trench & John B. Snook, 1845-46 280 Broadway is one of New York’s most significant commercial structures. Built for Alexander Turney Stewart’s department store—the city’s first—the building and the business greatly impacted the city’s economic growth and American merchandising. With this building, Stewart introduced America to the pleasant shopping experience and to the idea that architecture can be employed to reflect a business’ image. Its marble façades emulated an Italian Renaissance palace, a trend for commercial architecture in London, with which Stewart was familiar. This style was a major departure from New York’s low-scale, simple commercial buildings, and it was imitated into the 20th century.

Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association ARCHITECT: William H. Hume DATE: 1892-94 STYLE: Richardsonian Romanesque Revival The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building is one of New York City’s most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, with its two designed facades featuring granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper section. The building is notable as an early steel cage-framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper.

135 Grand Street, 1911. Designed by Neville & Bagge in 1893-1894, the seven-story Renaissance Revival structure was constructed as a loft building to house manufacturing and small warehouses. Some of its tenants have been a shirtwaist factory, leather goods, a bank, automotive and machining parts. The empty lot at left was not empty for long after this 1911 photograph was taken. A seven-story neo-Classical building, constructed of terra cotta, rose by the end of 1911.

Centre Street, west side, from Leonard to Franklin Street's, showing the entrance to the original 'Tombs," ca. 1890. Formally called the New York Halls of Justice and House of Detention, the Tombs was the municipal jail in Manhattan. A series of jail buildings in this location have used that nickname, though the one pictured here was the first. Designed in an Egyptian Revival style in 1838, the jail was a huge structure at 250 feet by 200 feet. The site of the massive building was the former location of the Collect Pond, which had once supplied the city with drinking water.

Fire Engine Company No. 7/Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 ARCHITECT: Trowbridge & Livingston DATE: 1904-05 STYLE: Beaux-Arts Firehouse was designed in the Beaux-Arts style–or what at the time was described as the “modern French” style. Its three-bay width was dictated by the two-bay requirement of an enlarged engine company and a third bay for a separate hook & ladder company. The architects created a facade remarkable for its symmetry and emphatic horizontality. It is visually unified by superimposed architectural elements drawn from early seventeenth-century French civic architecture: the boldly rusticated Indiana limestone ground story, the brick and raised limestone bands of the upper stories, the entablature and parapet.

National City Bank of New York, 1929. Founded as the City Bank of New York in 1812, the National City Bank of New York boomed post World War I. In need of new branches, they purchased a plot from another bank on the corner of Broadway and Canal. Designed in a sleek, white Art Moderne style by Walker & Gillette, the building was completed in 1927. The massive entrance was topped by Deco stylized eagles surrounding the bank's seal. The bank, after various name changes, became Citibank in 1976, and remained in this building until the 1990s. It has since been converted to retail space.

The corner building at 85 Mott Street began its history as a luxurious brick-fronted home, complete with all the trappings of a Federal-style while also holding on to some Georgian elements. It featured dormers on a peaked roof, a pair of chimneys, and charming arched windows. Owing to its corner location, it perhaps received much more sunlight than most mid-block Federals. It likely only remained a single-family home for a short time, as the density of the city closed in on it. By 1835 it, and its two Mott Street neighbors, were bought by the Bull family and became multifamily dwellings. . Over the next century, the structure at no. 85 saw likely thousands of residents cycling through the various ethnic communities that inhabited the neighborhood. In the 1870s the ground floor was converted into commercial space, occupied by variously by a tavern and retail shops. . The Bull family sold the three buildings in 1939 and Chinatown-born architect Poy Gum Lee was hired to design a new structure for the On Leong Tong, or Chinese Merchants Association. The resulting building, completed in 1951, was a cultural hybrid, which combined a Modern style with stereotypical “Chinese” features, like a pagoda roof and projecting balconies.

Sixth Avenue El tracks above West Broadway, April 14, 1902. The photographer is facing uptown, just north of the Chambers Street elevated station. The building at left, No. 16 Hudson Street, is a six-story neo-Grec warehouse dating to the 1870s and operated by the Thurber, Wyland & Co. grocery wholesalers. Bogardus Triangle, a small park bounded by West Broadway, Reade and Hudson Streets, is out of frame at left.

41 Mott Street in rendering at the far right, 1950.

Built in 1895 and designed by architects Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, the firehouse has the look of a 16th-century French chateau. It has ornate decorative stonework details of shells, dolphins and floral wreaths. The main section of the building has a high hip-roof, towers, elaborately embellished dormer windows, and an iron railing at the peak. The building was occupied by the fire department until 1972. Since that same year, it has been occupied (and the exterior lovingly maintained) by the Downtown Community Television Center, a non-profit media arts center.

New York City is known for many things: Art Deco skyscrapers, picturesque parks, the world’s greatest theater district, venerable museums and educational institutions, not to mention bagels and pizza! But above all of these, New York is most important as home to some of the world’s most fascinating and significant people and as the site of impactful and significant happenings throughout history. The city’s cultural influence is, perhaps, its greatest contribution to the world, and its built environment stands as a grand scavenger hunt of clues waiting to be uncovered. Lucky for us, the city’s Landmarks Law, passed in 1965, provides the legal framework for protecting the physical reminders of the city’s cultural wealth. In fact, one of the stated purposes of the Landmarks Law is to “safeguard the city’s historic, aesthetic and cultural heritage.” In the first 50 years that landmarks were designated by the City, much emphasis was placed on the historic and aesthetic. In recent years, though, more consideration has been made for the importance of sites associated with people or historical events, rather than just for their architectural or historical value. In 2015, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Stonewall Inn as an Individual Landmark solely for its association with the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. In 2018, the Commission designated the Central Harlem—West 130th-132nd Streets Historic District, describing it as “not only representative of Central Harlem’s residential architecture, but the rich social, cultural, and political life of its African American population in the 20th century.” Also, in recent years, Greenwich Village’s Caffe Cino and Julius’ Bar were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as significant and influential sites connected to the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBTQ) community, The New York Times profiled a historian giving tours of Muslim sites of significance in Harlem, and the City is commemorating some of our most storied and accomplished female citizens with the installation of statues in all five boroughs. Indeed, grassroots preservation activism around the city is also swelling around sites of cultural significance: Tin Pan Alley and Little Syria in Manhattan, Walt Whitman’s house in Brooklyn, Arthur Avenue in The Bronx and a recently-rediscovered African burial ground in Queens, to name a few. In response to this movement of interest in cultural landmarks, the Historic Districts Council undertook an initiative to highlight such places as one of its Six to Celebrate in 2018. The culmination of that effort was a conference in October 2018 entitled “Beyond Bricks and Mortar: Rethinking Sites of Cultural History.” The conference convened preservationists, historians, artists, planners, place-makers and more to work together to clarify what cultural significance is and how it can work, how to document and create compelling narratives around cultural sites, and how to identify the specific challenges of cultural sites from a preservationist perspective. This tour provides just a sample of some of the city’s cultural landmarks, organized thematically and representing all five boroughs. The list includes some sites that are legally protected — in some cases by more than one government body — and some that are unfortunately in danger of being lost. Preserving culturally significant sites that may not possess overtly aesthetic value often requires a particularly active and engaged form of advocacy to achieve protection from the wrecking ball. But, as long as there are interesting people making their mark on New York City and crucial events taking place here, that effort will never be in vain, since those stories are the lifeblood of this vibrant place.

Cortlandt Alley looking south to White Street (77 White Street visible), 1994. Cortlandt Alley is one of the few New York City alleys that retains its dark, seedy charm. In sunlit, polished (and often posh) Manhattan, this small, secluded stretch looks like what you might imagine the movie version of a New York alley looks like. Here the graffiti, fire escapes, metal shutters, and backdoors remain, creating a narrow street that was first laid out in 1817 and is named for the founding Dutch family, the Van Cortlandts.

Western Union Building Interior By the late 1920s, the grandeur of Beaux-Arts architecture had begun to seem old-fashioned. Meanwhile, new concrete vaulting methods started to rival the Guastavino system for spanning large spaces. Commissions like the Western Union Building reflect the company’s adaptation to these changing times. The Guastavino tiles in this magnificent Art Deco interior are primarily an ornamental finish, hanging from a superstructure of steel and concrete.

Showing the lower part of the 3-story house that adjoined the churchyard of St. John's Chapel. It was then known as Trinity Hospital, ca. 1914.

Merchants Refrigerating Company, ca. 1905. Constructed in 1891 as a cold storage warehouse for the Merchants Refrigerating and Ice Manufacture Company, the six -story Romanesque Revival building occupies the entire lot from North Moore Street to Ericsson Place (Beach Street when this building was constructed). Architect Thomas Jackson also designed a number of other industrial buildings in the neighborhood. After 1901 the building supplied its immediate neighbors (in the surrounding two blocks) with cooled brine (a refrigerant liquid). By 1924 the refrigerating company also owned and occupied buildings at 17-19, 27-29, and 31-31 North Moore Street. Both the North Moore Street facade (nos. 35-37 in tan brick) and the Ericsson facade (nos. 30-32 in red brick) retain the carved granite signbands with "Merchants Refrigerating & Ice Manufact. Co." and address numbers. Today the old warehouse included private loft residents and an art gallery at ground level.

The brick building at 161 Duane Street was originally constructed in 1843 as a private house. From 1860 until 1920 the structure housed a whalebone cutting business (as can be inferred by the painted sign on the facade). The workers here created hoops for horse whips, women's skirts, corset stays, collar stiffeners, and umbrella ribs out of whalebone, but by the early 20th century, fashion, material technology, and a significant decline in American whaling rendered this business largely obsolete. In the 1890s the whalebone work moved to the top floors, while the Ye Olde Tavern (seen here in 1902) moved into the ground floor. When the firm's final owner, a man named George Massmann, retired in 1920, he had worked in this building since 1866 (under both of the previous owners). Later in the 20th century, the building was home to a shoe company and likely dozens of other unknown businesses. During that time the facade and its Whalebone sign were painted white, and the older faded sign attached above the second floor was removed. In 2002 architect and developer Joseph Pell Lombardi purchased this building and its neighbor at the corner (at left). Known as the Mohawk Building—it was once the home to the Mohawk Electric Company— the 1891 corner structure was built for a confectioner. Pell combined the two interiors for residential condos while restoring both facades and repainting the building's eponymous signage.

The former "Idea Warehouse," 22 Reade Street, 1999. In 1973, Clocktower Gallery and P.S. 1 founder Alanna Heiss leased space in a city-owned building on Reade Street, under the imprimatur of the Institute of Art and Urban Resources. Studio occupants included the composer Philip Glass, performance artist Charlemagne Palestine, and avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, while an additional space was reserved for performances and exhibitions. The space closed in December 1975, following a fire. In materials for the New Museum's 1981 survey of the city's history of alternative spaces, "Alternatives in Restrospect: An Historical Overview 1969-1975," Palestine reflected: "Recalling the Idea Warehouse to my mind, I remember a space of haunted power, seemingly possessed by strange spirits. Any works that took place there seemed to contain something extraterrestrial, almost as thought it housed ghost refugees from a seance long ago. I loves that space as did many other people. Spaces like that are almost extinct now."

Golden Pacific National Bank, 1991. In 1982, the firm P.K.Y. Chen completed a drastic conversion of a few early 20th-century buildings at the northwest corner of Canal and Centre Streets. Designed for the headquarters Golden Pacific National Bank, the new edifice had the look of a Chinese pagoda. The main Canal Street frontage stands six stories while a two-story wing extends along Centre Street to Howard Street. The building is rendered in tan brick, multi-colored tiles, red piers, and numerous green, tiled, pagoda-style roofs. While the original tenant vacated the building two years after it opened when they became insolvent. Today, the main tenant is once again a bank, but its best-known occupant is perhaps the Starbucks at its corner.

173 Worth Street, April 7, 1928. A home on the north side of Worth Street, east of Baxter Street. Today this land is part of Columbus Park.

Gideon Tucker House, 1928. This house — possibly the oldest surviving building in the Tribeca Historic District — was built in 1808-09 by Gideon Tucker, an alderman, school commissioner, and the New York City Commissioner of Estimates and Assessments, whose Tucker & Ludlum plaster factory was located further east on White Street. It was later home to the now-famous abolitionist and minister, Theodore S. Wright. As one of New York City's most prominent conductors of the Underground Railroad, Wright used this Lower Manhattan building as a safe house for slaves escaping to Albany. While the dormer windows and second-story windows on the White Street side are consistent with early 19th century Federal style houses, the gambrel roof recalls the previous century’s Dutch-influenced architecture. The building has likely included a storefront throughout its existence, leading to a series of ground floor alterations. In 1941, Leonard Hecht opened a liquor store on the ground floor of the property. The neon sign and etched glass advertisements on the West Broadway shop window date to this period.

Odd Fellows Hall ARCHITECT: Trench & Snook DATE: 1847-48 STYLE: Anglo-Italianate Built in 1847-48, it is an early and particularly fine example of the Anglo-Italianate style of architecture that architects helped introduce to New York. It is one of the few surviving institutional buildings of any style from the 1840s, an important period in the architectural history of the city. The design with its emphasis on planar surfaces accented by a rusticated base, central projections, and colossal pilasters is characteristic of the style and takes full advantage of the building’s prominent site.

Timbering below street level for construction of the BRT Centre Street Loop, July 31, 1911. Above street level, the steeple and church facade belong to the Church of St. Andrew at the intersection of Duane Street and City Hall Place. Today, these streets have been de-mapped with the plaza where they once ran part of the judicial complex at the eastern side of the Manhattan’s Civic Center. The church building pictured dates to as early as 1812, and was known as Carroll Hall, a meeting place for the Congregational Society of United Christian Friends denomination, until 1842, when it became the Church of St. Andrew. The church, just a short distance from the offices of the city’s major newspaper became known as the “printers’ church,” after Father Luke J. Evers established a 2:30am mass in 1900, accommodating the late hours of printers at work on morning editions. By the late 1930s — by which point St. Andrews was dwarfed by the adjacent U.S. Courthouse by Cass Gilbert — the structure’s condition had deteriorated, and construction started on a new church on an overlapping site. The original church was razed in 1938. The Centre Street Loop, was an early 20th century project connecting lines running over the Williamsburg and Brooklyn Bridge, thereby providing Manhattan transfer for the various Brooklyn lines terminating at Park Row and reducing the need for trains reversals at bridge terminals. The Center Street Loop connection to Brooklyn Bridge lines was not completed as planned. Instead, the Centre Loop connected to the companion Nassau Street Loop (designed to provide a similar service for Manhattan Bridge trains). Together, the remaining tracks form the BMT Nassau Line (J/Z trains) with extraneous loop tracks presently out of service.

246 West Broadway, 1939. No. 246 in this photograph is the two-story center structure, with the telltale striped decor of a barber shop. According to the notes of the photographer, this is a frame building, faced in brick. Today the building remains, though its wood-frame neighbors have disappeared and it has added a third story and new stucco facing.

If you were able to gaze at the skyline of New York in the 18th or 19th century, you might notice some strange towers sprouting up across the city. These towers existed to keep early New Yorkers locked and loaded and were essential in the creation of lead shot for ammunition.

Langdon Building, 1922. Originally known as the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association Building, the Langdon Building is a Romanesque Revival structure designed by William Hume. The 13-story building was completed between 1892 and 1894 and it was one of the first towers in the city to use a steel frame structure (a sort of early version of a skyscraper). While the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association occupied a number of floors, the other floors, including the ground level, included a barber shop, cigar stand, bike showroom, ticket office, and telegraph and telephone offices. The Association moved out in 1909 when it went into bankruptcy and the building was renamed the next year. This building later served as the headquarters for the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission between 1967 and 1980.

34-46 Varick Street - Laight Street, Manhattan, NY

317 and 319 Broadway, March 6, 1936. Constructed in 1869–70, Italianate cast-iron buildings at no. 317 and 319 were designed by D. & J. Jardine. This firm is well represented in surviving 19th century commercial and residential buildings in the Ladies Mile, Upper East Side, Soho, and Greenwich Village Historic Districts. Called the "Thomas Twins" for the street they straddled, the mirrored five-story buildings remained together 1971 when no. 317 was demolished. The entrances to the buildings were both originally at what is now the second story, and were moved to altered ground floors in 1912. In this 1936 photograph, the second story of no. 319 seems to be encased in glass. Today the glass has been removed and the original entrance (now window) arch and its two neighbors on the second floor are unobstructed.

View of the intersection at Chambers and Centre Streets from the Park Row Station, ca. 1925. The Surrogate's Court Building is at left, and the Municipal Building is at right.

The intersection of Canal, Baxter, and Walker Streets, ca. 1870. The above view is westward, toward the Hudson River. At center left, west of Centre Street, is the warehouse of the M\&G Wilkinson wood and willow ware wholesalers. At bottom left is the Grand Street Ferry-bound streetcar, likely en route from the Cortlandt Street Ferry downtown. The image, credited to "American Photo," also appears in the New York Public Library's Photographic views of New York City collection. Notes there date it to ca. 1860, though the presence of M\&G Wilkinson advertising (founded 1867) indicate a later date.

74 Franklin Street, date unknown. This Federal-style building was constructed in 1815 by a John Wood, likely a successful merchant. In 1853 the structure was purchased by G. A. Bradbrook and the ground floor was converted into a venue for his 'outfitting store.' At that time the cast iron storefront was added, as well as the full fourth floor with an Italianate pressed metal cornice. Later tenants of the storefront included shops that sold 'fancy goods and corsets' and one that produced and sold umbrellas and parasols. The upper floors were converted into a factory space. Throughout the 20th century the building cycled through a long lists of owners and tenants. In 1998 the upper floors returned to residential occupation, likely for the first time in nearly 150 years, while the lower level remains a commercial showroom.

Kitchen, Montross & Wilcox Store, No. 85 Leonard Street, ca. 1974. Constructed on property owned by the estate of Thomas Swords, this cast iron structure was commissioned in 1861 by dry goods merchants Kitchen, Montross, & Wilcox. The firm, leased the land to architect James Bogardus under the condition that he erect “a good and substantial store house.” When completed in 1861, he unveiled a five-story Italianate structure that amazed its owners. Unlike the neighboring buildings made of stone, the facade at No. 85 Leonard Street was made from cast-iron, allowing for greater detail in its ornamentation. Kitchen, Montross & Wilcox operated a retail store in the building until 1868, whereafter the ground floor remained in use by various other dry goods merchants. In the late 20th century, Joseph Salamon of FRF Promotional Fabrics purchased the building and rented out the fourth floor as an artists' studio. In 1974, the site achieved Landmark designation, in recognition of its significance as perhaps the only extant structure by Bogardus (while a handful of other Bogardus-designed cast iron facades remain on buildings associated with other architects, the design construction of 85 Leonard is believed to have been executed by Bogardus, alone). A plaque testifying to his influence reads: "James Bogardus, Originator and Constructor of Iron Buildings, New York."

"Wooster Street, south from Grand Street to its southern end at Canal Street, showing the New York Telephone Building, 1933." The New York Telephone Building at 32 Sixth Avenue, now called the AT\&T Building, (seen here from the corner of Grand and Wooster Streets) is an Art Deco skyscraper. Constructed in 1932 (from a much smaller original building) by the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, the building housed the technical offices and equipment for the AT\&T's transatlantic communications. A grand 27-story structure that highlights classic Art Deco features, including asymmetrical massing, striped motifs, and light colored brick parapets at the roof line. Equally spectacular is the lobby of the building, which features a tiled world map (appropriate for a long distance communication building) and mosaics with themed on the seven continents. Both the interior and exterior of the building are landmarked.

Soy Kee Co. Soy Kee and Company was an importer and exporter of Chinese goods, selling curios, chinaware, lamps, silks, ivory carvings, imported Chinese teas, candies, coffees, and other accessories. It was first located here at 36 Pell, under a Chinese eatery before moving to 7-9 Mott Street where it occupied the ground floor space of a building known for its busy upstairs restaurant, called Port Authur. It is unknown when Soy Kee and Company opened, but its move to Mott Street occurred sometime after 1903. In 1921 Soy Kee and Co. became the owners of the building they had long rented at 7-9 Mott Street.

51 Chambers Street ARCHITECT: Raymond F. Almirall DATE: 1908-12 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, established in 1850, was an important aid to Irish immigrants settling in New York during the second half of the 19th century. This building, the third for the institution on the same site, was designed by Raymond Almirall, a noted New York architect. Almirall’s Beaux-Arts style design represents an important stage in the early development of the design of skyscrapers. He pioneered the use the “H”-plan to provide good interior lighting.

The Wood's Mercantile buildings, Nos. 46 and 48-50 White Street, ca. 1982. The Wood's Mercantile Buildings, described as "handsome examples of mid-19th century commercial architecture," were built in 1865 as storehouses for the brothers Samuel and Wood, importers of dry goods. The five-story marble buildings include a ground floor cast iron facade, in keeping with the Civil War-era fashion for commercial buildings throughout present-day Soho and Tribeca.

The African Burial Ground is considered the largest colonial- era cemetery for enslaved African people, and in addition to being of great historical and spiritual significance, is a major resource for the study of the African diaspora. The African Burial Ground is part of the African Burial Ground & The Commons Historic District; a National Historic Landmark and listed on the State and National Register of Historic Places.

Surrogate’s Court (Hall of Records) ARCHITECT: John R. Thomas; Horgan & Slattery DATE: 1899-1907 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This building was planned as a magnificent architectural symbol of the prosperity, importance, and achievement of New York City. The opulence, grandeur, and lavish decoration of the interiors are highly characteristic of the Beaux-Arts style. The main lobby, a vast and imposing architectural space, is one of the most splendid interiors in New York City. The magnificent mosaics of the ceiling in the foyer and vestibules are indicative of the high degree of artistic attention lavished on the building. The North and South Court Rooms on the fifth floor are unusually splendid. The building continues to play a vital role in City government as the Surrogate’s Court and Hall of Records.

Gruzen & Partners designed this pair of 25-story cement towers in 1965. Part of the Civic Centre Urban Renewal Project, they were built by the Committee of Middle Income Housing and only used 15% of their lot, allowing for an elevated public plaza (designed by often Gruzen collaborator, landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg) and a 125 car garage that sits below the plaza.

Across Chambers Street from City Hall Park is the 10-story granite Hall of Records. The richly sculpted exterior of this city government building is an example of "Beaux-Arts Classicism," a name derived from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where many American architects pursued an elite education. Originally the architect John R. Thomas's design for the Hall of Records was the winning entry in a competition to replace City Hall. His design was adapted for this site and program after the project to rebuild City Hall became mired in political dispute. On the Chambers street façade is a spectacular three-story Corinthian colonnade, topped with the figures of mayors, administrators, and governors of New York and New Amsterdam. The interior, accessible to the public, is truly spectacular. The foyer has a mosaic tiled ceiling decorated with a pseudo-Egyptian theme, as well as four monumental bronze eagle-topped radiator grills. The three-story main hall, which is surrounded by staircases and hallways and clad at its height in a golden marble, is a work of baroque theatricality.

Northward view along Centre Street from Chambers Street, August 25, 1903. This survey photograph was taken in preparation for the construction of the original IRT East Side line. The building at left, behind the wooden barrier, is the Surrogate's Courthouse (also known as the Hall of Records). Began in 1899, the grand Beaux-Arts structure was under construction at the time of this photograph; it would not be completed until 1907, three years after the IRT subway had opened below. Other than that structure, literally nothing else pictured remains. The massive Municipal Building would rise across the street from the Surrogate's Courthouse in 1914, and the area north of Reade is now Foley Square, which is lined with courthouses and civic buildings constructed in the decades after 1915.

My Archive Spring 2019

Umberto's Clam House, pictured here in the distance, at the corner of Mulberry and Hester Street, has long been famous as the site of a mob hit. The establishment was opened by Umberto Ianniello in 1972. His son, Matthew Ianniello AKA "Matty the Horse" was a rambunctious mobster and part of the Genovese crime family. He was later be found guilty of skimming the profits from around 70 Manhattan restaurants, bars, and strip clubs. This list included his father's restaurant. At 4:30 in the morning on April 7, 1972, gangster "Crazy Joey," Joe Gallo was killed while dining at Umberto's with friends and family. His party included Gallo's wife of three weeks, her 10-year old daughter, and his bodyguard Peter Diapoulas, and Diapoulas' date. They had just come from the Copacabana nightclub at 10 East 60th Street. Gallo, who was celebrating his 43rd birthday, supposedly thought the Genovese family wouldn't take offense at his presence as Little Italy was believed to be off-limits for gang brawls. Gallo was a member of the Profaci crime family and had been marked for execution by the Colombo gang for several months. The shooting left bullet holes in the facade of the restaurant across the street (they were still visible in the mid-1990s!) The next morning, Colombo gang member Joseph Luparelli turned himself in to the FBI as one of the perpetrators. Luparelli detailed the events of the evening as follows: Luparelli and a friend, who happened to be at Umberto's Bar, spotted Gallo and entourage enter the restaurant and take a table facing the door. Luparelli rushed to a nearby hangout of other Colombo members to alert them to the sighting. The men included Philip Gambino and Carmine Di Biase. They phoned acting head Yacovelli and left the restaurant briefly the arm themselves. Shortly after, five men drove two cars to Umberto's, four of whom entered the back door of Umberto's and shot 20 bullets. Three of these bullets entered the mobster's body. Gallo stumbled out into the street and he died on the pavement. The Colombo men fled to Nyack, New York, at which point Luparelli began to become concerned that the others planned to kill him as well. He turned himself into the FBI after fleeing to California. Matty Ianniello claimed that he was not involved in the incident in any way, and recounted diving from the cash register into the kitchen when the first shot was fired. On the floor of the kitchen, Ianniello covered his eyes. The next thing he heard was the empty clicks of a gun pressed against his skull. Fortunately for Ianniello, Gallo's bodyguard depleted his ammo trying to save his client. On February 13, 1986, the court sentenced Matty Ianniello and eight others to time in prison after being indicted for racketeering charges. With "Matty the Horse" in jail, the Federal Government began overseeing the business of Umberto's. United States Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani administered this action, which made it the only restaurant in the country to have been overseen or seized by the government due to mob activity. From 1988 until 1994, all managerial manners and finances were handled by government-appointed Michael C. Prezioso. Owner and brother of Matty, Robert Ianniello, complained that the interference left slim profits during the 6 years of supervision. A revision to the agreement restored Ianniello's management rights in 1994, though Prezioso would still be allowed to perform spot inspections of all financial records. Umberto's has moved twice since the 1972 shooting, once in the mid-1990s to Mulberry and Broome, and again in 2010 to a spot closer to the original. Umberto's is owned by Robert Ianniello Jr., the grandson of Umberto Ianniello. The original Umberto's building is occupied by Ristorante Da Gennaro.

Storefront and barbershop at the southwest corner of Church and Reade Streets; February 27, 1927. The building at left, No. 170 Church Street (a.k.a. 85-87 Reade Street) would soon be demolished to facilitate the widening of Church Street for construction on the IND Eighth Avenue line. The demolition exposed the eastern wall of the Cary Building, the 1850s-era cast iron fronted loft building stretching the full block between Chambers and Reade Streets.

254-260 Canal Street ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1856-57 STYLE: Italianate This building is one of the earliest surviving cast-iron fronted buildings in New York. It is an excellent early example of the successful adaptation of the Italianate style to cast-iron architecture. It is representative of the development of the “commercial palace” type in response to the unparalleled commercial growth of New York City in the early 19th century

78 Mott Street, 1914. James Naughton (referred to as Joseph in at least one source) was born in Ireland and immigrated to New York in the 1860s. For more than five decades he served the Chinatown/ Five Point area as an undertaker. He purchased a number of local buildings including Nos. 37 and 78 Mott Street, as well as the stables at Nos. 31-37 which operated for both mortuary and police horse needs. Though Irish and certainly having enough Irish clients, he also advertised to and served both the local Italian and Chinese communities.

277 Broadway - Broadway Chambers Building Architect: Cass Gilbert Completed: 1900 Cass Gilbert's first building in New York was this boldly designed tower. Gilbert's design juxtaposes the grandly ornamented pink granite clad base with the plain red and blue brick clad shaft. The tower culminates in a highly ornamented colonnade, attic story and projecting cornice. At the time, this design was hailed by architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler as "the last word" in the period’s dominant skyscraper style, which looked to the classical three-part column for inspiration. The building also features the first large scale use of polychrome terra-cotta architectural ornament in New York, a material that Gilbert would use extensively in later buildings. Even before construction began, building owner Edward Andrews, a Boston banker, aggressively pursued tenants that could pay some of the highest rents in the city, including the main tenant, the United States Life Insurance Company. By 1901, with the building fully rented, Andrews was able to collect $100,000 per year in rent, a considerable sum at the time.

Looking east on Leonard Street toward McKim, Mead & White's Clock Tower Building, the former headquarters of New York Life Insurance Company, 346 Broadway; ca. 1977. In 1868, the New York Life Insurance company purchased a fire-damaged property at Broadway and Leonard Street from the Appleton's publishing house, and enlisted architect Griffith Thomas to design its new headquarters. By the 1890s, New York Life had expanded domestically and internationally was in need of a larger building for its main office. The firm solicited proposals for an eastward extension of Griffith's 1870 building, selecting Stephen D. Hatch's design for an extended structure to occupy the square block bounded by Broadway, Catherine Place, Elm (Lafayette) and Leonard Streets. Hatch — whose winning bid notably included a lower commission that his more-celebrated competitors — died just three months into construction in 1894. McKim, Mead & White took over the commission, and completed Hatch's design, with some alterations, in 1896. However, where Hatch's design was grounded in the materials and scale of the original Thomas building, New York Life and MM\&W came to favor a grander statement. The original, Thomas-designed building was razed later that year. The new design, supervised by partner William Rutherford Mead and architect Henry Bacon, associate called for a commanding, three-story pavilion and clocktower atop a new, twelve-story neo-Italian Renaissance building flush with the completed structure along Leonard Street. The updated building, complete with its signature clocktower, was completed in 1898. The clock itself was designed by the E. Howard Clock Company and installed, along with its 5,000-pound bell, in 1897. New York Life's tenure was relatively brief: the company moved to a new, Cass Gilbert-designed headquarters on Madison Square Park in 1928, with 346 Broadway and its clocktower passing into City ownership. In 1972, the curator Alanna Weiss, who would go on to found and direct the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1), established the Clocktower Gallery in the building's top story of the former New York Life Insurance Company building. The gallery, a multidisciplinary space for exhibitions and performances by contemporary artists, operated until 2013 when the building was sold by the city. The fate of the clocktower and its clock became the subject of litigation and intense debate Following the sale to developers Peebles Corporation and the El Ad Group, who planned to convert the tower into a multi-story penthouse apartment. The condo conversion plan would have required the electrification of the clock — which was restored in 1980 and continues to be wound manually every week — a move initially approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but later overruled by a State Supreme Court Judge. The Clock Tower's fate remains in limbo (the prospective developers are mired in court battles over project funding), but for now the massive, mechanical timepiece continues to tick away, still guaranteed to be accurate within 10 seconds per month.

32 Mott Street (tall building, second from right), ca. 1890. 32 Mott Street is a dumbbell-shaped "old-law" tenement that was built in 1897 by the architect Louis Heimeeke. This section of Mott between Pell Street and Chatham Square was the center of late 19th century Chinatown. The ground floor of this building was occupied for more than 100 years by a Chinese store run by generations of the Lee family. The Quong Yuen Shing and Company shop opened here in 1899, changed its name to 32 Mott Street General Store in the mid 20th century and only closed in 2003 due to rising rents. Chinese-American architect Poy Gum Lee lived here at no. 32.

Fire Engine Company No. 31 ARCHITECT: Napoleon Le Brun DATE: 1895 STYLE: French Renaissance Eclectic Fire House Engine Company is a fine example in the realm of public architecture. It was built in French Renaissance Eclectic style. Its main features include the delicacy of details displayed in shell forms, dolphins, floral wreaths. The main mass of the building is well composed with its high, hip-roof and iron crestings embellished by dormer windows and low corner towers.

9-13 Mercer Street, site of the Museum of Holography, ca. 1978. This five-story cast iron-fronted building, erected in 1870 for the India Rubber Company, is where artists Jody Burns and Posy Jackson founded the Museum of Holography. When the Museum opened to the public on December 9, 1976, it became the world's first permanent venue for the exhibition of holograms, collection of artifacts, and education about the scientific principles and artistic applications of holographic technology. The museum closed permanently on Sunday, March 1, 1992. The building has since been leased as commercial space to advertising agencies and media companies, including the publishers of V Magazine, while its upper floors remain in residential use.

View of the intersection at Chambers and Centre Streets from the Park Row Station overpass, November 12, 1903.

The Bruce Building, 254-260 Canal Street, ca. 1974. The cast iron corner building at Lafayette and Canal Streets was designed for George Bruce, a Scottish-born polymath and printing magnate in mid-19th century New York. The facade was likely designed by James Bogardus, the foremost practitioner of architectural cast iron in the pre-Civil War period, and completed in 1857. While Edmund Vincent Gillon's mid-1970s photograph shows the ground floor encased with contemporary storefronts (Billy's Donuts, off-track betting), the street level has since been restored to its original condition.

Uptown entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge station of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (4/5/6), ca. 1910. Originally known as Brooklyn Bridge, and later as Brooklyn Bridge—Worth Street, the station was connected to the BMT Nassau Line in 1914, a year after the Chambers Street station was completed.

Municipal Building As a consequence of the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, space was needed to house additional administrative offices and services for the expanded city. The architectural firm McKim, Mead and White won the 1908 Municipal Building competition with their design for the forty-story building that opened in 1914. I.N. Phelps Stokes, the respected New York City iconographer who was also an architect, said of the resulting building: "Of met actually the prototype of the upward tapering type of skyscraper with highly accentuated vertical lines, at least marked an important step in that direction and had a far-reaching effect upon the design of the modern skyscraper." Furthermore, the Municipal Building exemplified the large new "purpose-built" structures developed to accommodate the newly enlarged city's increasingly complex needs, both civic and commercial. The building's open U-shape encompasses the two triangular blocks bounded by Park Row, Centre, and Duane Streets and straddles Chambers Street, thus forming what has been called the "gate of the city." This view looks west toward the early modern emblem of the "progressive city," which towers over the lower profile of Peck Slip, a vestige of nineteenth-century New York's former maritime dominance. Among the first agencies housed in New York's Municipal Building were the city-owned and operated radio station WNYC, a new reference branch of the New York Public Library, and the city's marriage license bureau. The area around Foley Square, which quickly developed into a modern center of governmental activities, formed a marked contrast to the timeworn neighborhoods that bordered the area.

This collection of locations in Chinatown was curated in collaboration with Think!Chinatown to celebrate, appreciate, and support the local community of Chinatown. This collection of historical photographs illustrates the diverse businesses, architecture, and communities that have occupied the streetscapes of this vibrant neighborhood over the last two centuries!

15-27 Mercer Street, ca. 1915. The building at left (nos. 15-17) are a 1886 cast iron facade loft building. Surprisingly, it is a relative newbie on this block, where 11 of the 17 buildings were constructed before 1861. No. 19 (at center with the arched windows at the third and the fifth floors) is a 1861 stone building, constructed for S.B. Althuas, who had an iron works on this same site as early as 1852.

Cosmopolitan Hotel, 1935. The first part of this structure was built in 1844-5 by James Boorman, a merchant and later President of the Hudson River Railroad. Boorman likely anticipated the construction of the railroad’s southern depot at Hudson and Chambers Streets, and continued to buy and develop property for a hotel serving railroad passengers and those conducting freight business. In 1853, the Girard House hotel opened, while Boorman broke ground on the first of two additions. Renamed the Cosmopolitan during the 1860s, the hotel continued serving business clientele through the turn of the 20th century, despite the shift of railroad business further uptown following the construction of the St. John’s Terminal. By the 1960s, the hotel had been converted to S.R.O. dwellings and renamed “the Bond.” Today, the Cosmopolitan name has been restored and, despite its many alterations, the building is included in the Tribeca South Historic District.

Cass Gilbert's final work, the United States Courthouse was completed by his son two years after his death in 1934. It is arguably the last classically themed skyscraper built in New York, which Gilbert used to reflect the building’s function as a public federal building. While the thirty-eight story, 590 foot tall tower lacks the rich ornamentation of earlier work, such as the Woolworth Building, or 90 West Street, its pared-down decoration seems more appropriate for a court of law. The building’s shaft emerges from a six-story classical colonnade, decorated with sculpted American eagles. The tower culminates in a dramatic gilded terra-cotta pyramid roof topped by a lantern. For security reasons, the building's interior is not accessible to the public unless on court business.

The consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898 created the need for an impressive and suitably-sized headquarters for the city government. Between 1907 and 1908 the city sponsored an architectural competition for a large office building to consolidate various agencies. Urged by Mayor McClelland to enter, the firm of McKim, Mead & White won with a proposal for a classically detailed skyscraper. Designed by a partner William Mitchell Kendall (1856- 1941), the U-shaped structure was adroitly placed on an irregular site adjacent to the ramps of the Brooklyn Bridge and crisscrossed underground by transit connections. Completed in 1913, the 25-story block is surmounted by a central "wedding-cake" tower of spires, colonnades, obelisks and the sculpture "Civic Fame" by Adolf A. Weinman. This skyscraper grafts the language of traditional civic architecture onto a commercial office block form. The Municipal Building underwent a complete restoration of its exterior masonry in 1999, which entailed a the replacement of the badly corroded metal pins which hold the granite cladding in place.

Workers dig a trench for the installation of the high-pressure water system at the northeast corner of Hudson and Thomas Streets; undated photo. The sidewalk shelter at right covers the loading area for the R.C. Williams & Co. building at 56 Hudson Street. Established in 1811, the wholesale grocers had been headquartered in this building since the late 1880s. Contemporaneous trade publications show the firm to have been an active player in the city's produce distribution sector (albeit with predictably dry headlines, e.g.: "Green Olive Importers Engage in Advertising"). In 1926, R.C. Williams purchased a full-blockfront site on Tenth Avenue, between West 25th-26th Streets, in anticipation of the construction of the High Line freight railway. The ten-story R.C. Williams warehouse, designed by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1928, occupies the full site between Tenth Avenue and the elevated trestle to its west. In fact, when the High Line opened to rail traffic on August 1, 1933, the first carload was delivered to R.C. Williams. After R.C. Williams departed, the Hudson Street warehouse was demolished to make way for Ralph Walker's Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street.

Canal Street, with subway construction on Broadway visible in the background, August 30, 1914.

155 Worth Street. ca. 1911. The Italian school opened by the Children's Aid Society on Worth Street was originally established in 1855. Situated in the neighborhood known as Five Points, the school (located within the building known as the Five Points' House of Industry) was considered a successful experiment of public education. The eight-story classical designed building seen in this ca. 1910 photograph was likely constructed in the early years of the 20th century. It would not survive long. In 1930, it was replaced by the Egyptian decorated Art Deco New York State Office Building (which today is the location of the Manhattan Marriage Bureau, and thousand of 'city hall' weddings).

94-100 Lafayette ARCHITECT: Howells & Stokes DATE: 1907-08 This building at 94-100 Lafayette is the only known store-and-loft building designed by the eminent architectural firm of Howells and Stokes. It is an excellent and intact example of a later commercial-style construction. The building served as an important showcase for hardware in New York City; that its original tenants were two of the most important hardware manufacturers in the country and that the building reflects the area’s role as a center for wholesale businesses.

Manhattan Company Reservoir, 1855 The Manhattan Company Reservoir opened on Chambers Street in 1801. Rather than following a more costly plan to bring water from the Bronx, the Manhattan Company cut corners, using ground wells with risk of contamination by sewers, all supplied by the polluted Collect Pond nearby. Wooden mains made of pine logs supplied water to the area via principal streets, which risked freezing in winter or damage by tree roots. While the company promised a one-million gallon reservoir to support the city’s growing population, it delivered one 10% of the size. The reservoir was razed in the early 20th century, following the opening of the Croton System.

41 Mott Street, 1933. No. 41 (at the center of the frame with the balcony at the top) was home to the Chinese Merchants Association or the On Leong Tong, in the first half of the 20th century. The Association celebrated the opening of their new headquarters in 1921 with an eleven-day celebration. Its opening night saw 15,000 revelers crowding the narrow street of Chinatown and more than 6,000 merchants from 20 different cities. In 1950 the On Leong Tong Merchants Association moved into a new Chinese Modern building on Mott and Canal Streets. Since 1977 No. 41 was has been owned by the Lee Family Association, the oldest and largest tong in New York City. The building today has a modern style white facade, installed at an unknown date in the midcentury. Its lower floor has long been home to Golden Fung Wong Bakery, one of the oldest bakeries in Chinatown.

178 Hester Street, 1932. Despite the asphalt shingles that can be seen on the side of the building and the odd perhaps 1980s style brick facade, this building is the early 19th century, wood-frame structure seen in this 1932 photograph. Built in the first few decades of the 19th century, the history of this structure which survived alongside the construction of the taller tenement buildings that define these streetscapes, tells the story of this neighborhood. In 1855 a volunteer firefighter named John Nichols, who was a teamster by trade, lived here. In 1900, owing to the massive influx of Italian immigrants, the building had residents with names like Dominick Pagano and Guadazro Gaetano. Supposedly a mob hit occurred just outside the store at no. 178 in 1906 when Angelo Ladero (a fish dealer with a shop at 120 Mulberry Street) killed Michael Dambra after he left the store. In 1908 the owner of two pushcarts resided here.