Siegel-Cooper ca. 1975 When the Siegel-Cooper store opened its doors on September 12, 1896, 150,000 people attended for a glimpse of what the New York Times called "a shopping resort." The store, which ran from 18th to 19th street on Sixth Avenue, and could be reached by the new El, sold everything from feather boas to feather dusters, abdominal bands to zephyrs, as well as live animals and birds, on four selling floors and a basement. The fifth and sixth floors were stockrooms, and a conservatory could be found on the roof where plants were for sale. Adjacent to the conservatory was a photography studio and a staircase which led to a public observatory on the roof. The tower at the top of the building housed a searchlight with a lens thirty-six inches in diameter, "the largest ever made," whose light could be seen for 30 miles and was used "for the benefit of the public in signaling the results of elections and like matters, and for the benefit of the Big Store by throwing advertising announcements upon the lower surface of clouds by night." Services included a bank, telegraph office, dental parlors, a barber shop were "especial attention is paid to children's haircutting," and a restaurant which could seat 350 people.

38 East 14th Street, June 15, 1938. 14th Street (across foreground), at the S.E. corner of University Place, showing the former Springler Hotel under demolition. It will be replaced by a 2 story commercial structure. It is on a part of the old Brevoort farm of 22 acres that Elias Brevoort sold about 1758 to John Smith and whose heirs four years later sold to Henry Springler. The demolished building was originally a private dwelling and became a hotel after the Springler House of No. 5 Union Square burned down in the 1870's. It was a favorite rendezvous for actors playing at the old Academy of Music, Tony Pastors, the Union Square and other theaters of the vicinity. Tradition has it that well known Thespians lived here and that the "Lambs" had their inception here, though that organization has no record of having formally used these rooms.

The Rhinelander Gardens row houses on West 11th Street, February 3, 1937. The Unadilla Apartment building is to the right of the image at 126 West 11th Street. A Sheffield Farms milkwagon stands out front.

453-463 Sixth Avenue (formerly 141-149), west side, from north of 10th to 11th Streets. February 14, 1932. The rowhouse at 457 Sixth Avenue near the Jefferson Market police court (now the Jefferson Market Library) was the last residence and office of well-known Tammany politico Murray H. Hall, who today would be considered gender non-conforming. Murray H. Hall (c. 1840-1901) was a Tammany politico who lived as a man for decades without his gender being questioned. Following Hall’s death, however, the New York Times reported that Hall’s “true sex” was revealed by the doctor. As an early instance of a gender non-conforming person in New York, this attracted worldwide attention, including that of pioneering English sexual psychologist Havelock Ellis. According to one source, Hall was born Mary Anderson in Scotland and around age 16 began dressing as a male, taking the name John Anderson. Anderson married young, but had a roving eye and a jealous wife who disclosed Anderson’s gender to the police. Fearing arrest, Anderson fled to America in 1870 and assumed the name Murray H. Hall. In 1872, Hall married Cecilia Florence Lowe, a schoolteacher, and by 1874 Hall had established an employment agency chiefly representing domestic help. The couple moved several times but remained close to the Jefferson Market police court (now the Jefferson Market Library) since Hall was also a bail bondsman. Hall’s last home and office was an upper-story apartment at 457 Sixth Avenue. As a Tammany figure, Hall played poker and pool with city and state officials and political leaders and was often able to secure appointments for friends.

Tiffany and Company Building, 1903. The origins of Tiffany & Co date to 1837 when Irish immigrant Charles Lewis Tiffany opened a stationery and fancy-goods shop. Within a few decades Tiffany's was one of the most prominent jewelry stores in the country. In 1869, the business began construction on a new store on Union Square, The new building at 15 Union Square West (it is the first full building at left in the photograph) was designed by John Kellum. Clad in an elaborate cast iron facade, it was an imposing sight on the square. The New York Times called it a "palace of jewels." Louis Comfort Tiffany, the son of the founder, became the firm's first Design Director in 1902, creating jewelry with glass, enamel, and gemstones. Tiffany & Co. moved further uptown in 1906. The building on Union Square was then home to a number of garment companies and factories before becoming the headquarters for the Amalgamated Bank in 1925. In 1952 a piece of the cast iron facade fell from the building and struck a pedestrian, who later died. Following this accident the bank hired an architect to stripe the building of its projecting ornamentation and cover all the rest. The end result was a simple (almost Brutalist) white brick structure. In 2008 the building was sold and redeveloped in condos. The original structure was surrounded by dark glass and black aluminum framing, and an additional six stories were constructed.

The Margaret Louisa Home located at 14-16 East 16th Street is part of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. It was commissioned by YWCA-benefactor Margaret Louisa Shepard, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt. It was built in connection with the YWCA to serve as a temporary home for Protestant women seeking employment. Robert Henderson Robertson designed the six-story home to accommodate 100 female residents. Construction was completed in 1891.

Images of every one of the 2,200 buildings in the Greenwich Village Historic District, prior to designation in 1969 and today, along with tours of the district’s history, architecture, artists, theaters, houses of worship, and more. All pre-designation images: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. All 2019 images: Village Preservation Explore these images from the 1969 Designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District on Village Preservation's GVHD50 Then and Now map.

(1875, Mortimer C. Merritt; expanded 1895) As early as the 1860’s, the West 20s above Union Square had a reputation as a shopping district for a new class of retail consumer, primarily women with disposable income and leisure time to spend on shopping for ready-made clothing and goods. The Hugh O’Neill Dry Goods Store is perhaps the most visible department store on this stretch of Sixth Avenue. With its domed corner towers and central pediment, it is among the finest examples of cast-iron architecture in the city. The original fourstory, French-inspired Renaissance Revival design was expanded in 1895 with a fifth floor. The domes and pediment were temporarily removed and then reinstalled on top of the addition. Adding stories or whole new bays on cast-iron fronted buildings was a fairly frequent occurrence, and pointed up the advantages of cast iron as a modular construction technology in which standardized, mass-produced facade components and ornament could be replicated and installed with relative ease.

154 West 14th Street ca. 1917 One of the few Viennese Secession-style buildings in the New York, 154 West 14th Street has anchored this bustling corner for nearly one hundred years and appears today almost exactly as it did at the time of construction. 154 West 14th Street was constructed in 1912-13 for lawyer-banker and real estate developer Leslie R. Palmer as a speculative loft. It was built in anticipation of the extension of Seventh Avenue, completed in 1917, and the construction of the Seventh Avenue subway line underneath. This steel-frame structure employed the latest technology in loft construction with maximum allowance for light to the interior spaces, accommodations for automotive delivery and freight elevators. The architect responsible for the design was Herman Lee Meader (1874-1930) who after graduating from Harvard in 1898 worked for the architectural office of Ernest Flagg. In 1911 he established his own practice and had some notable commissions, all of which included terra cotta as a cladding material. These included the Cliff Dwelling Apartments (1914-17 – also for Palmer) at 339 West 96th Street and the Greenwich Village Theater (1916, demolished) at Seventh Avenue and Christopher Street which was an experimental theater for Marguerite Abbott Barker (daughter of the president of Eastman Kodak Co.) 154 West 14th Street conforms to a tripartite arrangement of base-shaft-capital differentiated by color and materials. The three-story base is entirely clad in the polychromatic glazed tile, which is also featured at the mid-section on the spandrels between the white brick piers and at the top section. The terra cotta was manufactured by the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company which was the city’s only major producer of architectural terra cotta at the time. Palmer was a long-time director of the company and this building served as a virtual advertisement for the product.

Church of the Ascension, ca. 1979. Built by architect Richard Upjohn between 1840-41 in the Gothic Revival style, the Church of the Ascension is compared in the registers listing to Trinity Church, also built by Upjohn between 1839-1846. The listing also details a remodeling of the interior from 1885-1889, undertaken by Stanford White of McKim, Mead, & White. This remodeling lightened the space considerably, removing galleries on the north and south and adding stained-glass windows and the mural “the Ascension of Our Lord” by artist John La Farge. The sculptured angels over the main altar are the work of Louis St. Gaudens and the two angels in the mosaic were done by D. Maitland Armstrong.

Village Community Church ca. 1020 Greenwich Village may have a proud history of welcoming immigrants, but not all of the neighborhood’s residents was quite so willing to extend their open arms. In fact, one prominent Greenwich Village leader’s disdain for Catholic immigrants led to the coining of one of the most notorious slurs in American political history, and arguably changed the outcome of the hotly-contest Presidential election of 1884. In 1884, Democrat Grover Cleveland was running for President against Republican James Blaine. Blaine was embroiled in a bribery and corruption scandal that resulted in many Republicans jumping ship and supporting Cleveland, presenting the possibility of the first Democrat to win the White House since the Civil War. But Republican loyalists pushed back, fanning the flames of a scandal which soon engulfed Cleveland – that he had apparently fathered a child out of wedlock. Seeking to rally their base against the Democratic insurgent, Republicans led by the Rev. Samuel Burchard, leader of the 13th Street Presbyterian Church, gathered before the election to sound the alarm against a potential Democratic victory, warning loyalists not to support the party (in Burchard’s words) of “rum, romanism, and rebellion,” citing the party’s large constituency of Southern former Confederates and northern Catholics (who were thought to be particularly fond of drink). A Democratic spy at the rally reported the insulting alliteration to the press, which painted Blaine as anti-Catholic. In one of the closest Presidential elections in history, Cleveland won the electoral college by just barely winning New York State’s 36 electoral votes by a mere 1,000 votes cast or 0.1 percent. His edge came from high levels of support in heavily Catholic New York City, whereas he lost to Blaine in predominantly-Protestant Upstate New York. Cleveland would be the only Democrat elected to the White House between 1860 and 1912.

The Krueger Cafe and Restaurant at No. 56 Union Square (later 213 Park Avenue South), ca. 1910. This space would later become the legendary Max's Kansas City, the venue of choice for New York School artists of the 1960s and Andy Warhol's coterie of avant-garde performers and hangers-on. Later, the bar was reinvented as a music venue, becoming a crucible of the city's nascent punk, post-punk, and no-wave scenes.

The New York Society Library was founded in 1754 as a subscription library and calls itself the oldest cultural institution in the city. The library was first housed in a room in the original City Hall during the colonial era. During the Revolutionary War, the collections were extensively damaged by looting and soldiers tearing up books to use for wadding in their muskets. During the years that New York City served as the country's capital (1789-1790), the Society Library effectively served as the first Library of Congress. (It is said that President Washington borrowed two books which he never returned). Following a number of moves in the first half of the 19th century, the Library settled in this purpose-built structure at 109 University Place building in 1856 where it remained for 81 years. In this venue, the Library was visited by luminaries such as Herman Melville and Willa Cather. The Library made its final move in 1937 into an Upper East Side mansion at 53 East 79th Street. At the time of this move the institution held 150,000 volumes; today, that number has nearly doubled. The building seen here was demolished for a new apartment building completed in 1940.

The Vanderbilt Restaurant at Broadway and 21st Street, February 26, 1920. The rear of the Flatiron Building is visible in the background, at left.

St. Francis Xavier High School, 30 West 16th Street, ca. 1928. Founded in 1847 by Father John Larkin, a professor at St. John's College (now Fordham University), the school was originally known as the College of St. Francis Xavier and offered instruction to boys from the ages eight to twenty-one. A military training operation began at Xavier High School in 1886 under the direction of the National Guard; membership became mandatory in 1892. In the years that followed, collegiate and secondary studies were separated, and the college level department at the school closed in 1912. From 1935 to 1968, Xavier High School acted as a Junior ROTC unit. Students took four years of military science and training, which was recognized upon enrollment in any branch of the United States Military. After 1971, participation in military studies was no longer mandatory. Today, Xavier High School is an independent Jesuit university-preparatory high school for boys. Since 1928, when the school was first accredited, Xavier High School has held membership in the Jesuit Schools Network, the National Catholic Education Association, and the New York State Association of Independent Schools.

Mortimer Building, 159 Fifth Avenue (935-939 Broadway), ca. 1977. Completed in 1862, The Mortimer Building was an early exemplar of the commercial architecture that would transform today's lower Flatiron District during and immediately after the Civil War. The Italianate-style department store, owned by the developer and stockbroker Richard Mortimer, is attributed to the prolific architect Griffith Thomas, whose later works include several cast iron-fronted loft buildings included in the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. In its Ladies' Mile Historic District Designation Report (1989), the Landmarks Preservation Commission acknowledges the influence of the earlier, J.B. Snook-designed A.T. Stewart department store at Broadway and Chambers Street. In the immediate post-war period, department stores like Stewart's and Lord & Taylor began to open "uptown" outposts near Madison Square. The brownstone Mortimer building, with frontage on Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and East 22nd Street, blends with the area's previous residential architecture, while looking toward the neighborhood's future as a commercial district. Indeed, Mortimer's building was home to the very first offices of the American Institute of Architects, founded in 1866. Early commercial tenants included a variety of retail merchants (it's now a Restoration Hardware showroom). Apart from small changes to storefront window displays and cornice alterations, Thomas's design remains largely intact.

Tammany Hall ARCHITECT: Thompson, Holmes & Converse; Charles B. Meyers DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Neo-Georgian Tammany Hall features a rusticated stone base, pedimented portico, and double height pilasters, sculptural reliefs in limestone and terra cotta, and neo-Georgian details. It is in the words of New Yorker architectural critic George S. Chappell (T-Square) “an exceptionally charming design” and “a real adornment to the neighborhood” and remains a significant reminder of New York City’s political, theatrical, and labor history.

9th Regiment Armory, ca. 1921. The colossal granite fortress of the 9th Regiment Armory was built in 1894 to the designs of architects Edward Sargent and W. E. Cable. In addition to military use, the cavernous main hall was used as an exhibition space, athletic venue, and welfare administration center. The 19th-century redoubt was demolished in 1969, only to be replaced by a new armory for the 22nd Regiment, in 1971.

Trade and banking energized New York in the early 1800s, drawing new businesses and people. Growth fueled prosperity. And prosperity fueled more growth. Railroads were a vital part of this dynamic cycle—both a response to and catalyst for the city’s expansion. This story originally appeared in the Grand by Design virtual exhibition here.

Union Club, pre-1890. Established in 1834, the Union Club of New York City is the oldest men’s social club in the city. The origins of a number of New York's other private clubs can be traced to this organization. The Knickerbocker, Brook and Metropolitan Clubs were offshoots. Its best known descendant is the Union League Club, founded by Union Club members during the Civil War who were displeased with the club's unwillingness to dismiss its Confederate members. The Union Club has occupied six buildings over its 183-year history. The pictured building, at the northwest corner of 21st Street and Fifth Avenue, was first building constructed expressly as club headquarters. Completed in 1855, the club moved into their first permanent home in April of that year. (The previous locations were all on Broadway, Nos. 343, 376, and 691.) An impressive mansion surrounded by residential buildings (full of likewise wealthy citizens) when built, by the turn of the century the nature of the neighborhood had changes much to the chagrin of the Club members. In 1900, they purchased a plot of land on Fifth Avenue and 51st Street for $700,000 (about $16 million in today's economy). In 1903 the Club officially moved out of their 21st Street building into a new club house designed by Cass Gilbert (or John Du Fais, or both, the attribution is a little murky).

The time-honored tradition of window shopping truly comes alive during the holiday season, when retailers pull out all of the stops to make their window displays ever more eye-catching, festive and uplifting. Countless visitors and New Yorkers alike participate in this yearly ritual, which has its roots in the Gilded Age. That era of rapid economic growth and industrialization, which began in the 1870s and lasted until around 1900, generated the building technology that made window shopping in the city possible.

Rhinelander Gardens, February 3, 1937. Designed by James Renwick Jr. in a High Victorian Gothic style the balconied houses with ornate ironwork were built in 1855 for William C. Rhinelander as rental properties. The homes of Rhinelander Gardens were set back from the street, which allowed for lovely and somewhat uncommon front yards. The buildings survived more than 100 years; they were demolished in 1958 for the construction of a new school building.

138 West 14th Street ca. 1928 144 West 14th Street (aka 138-146 W. 14th St.) is “a grandly-proportioned Renaissance Revival-style loft building” and was built between 1895-6. As described in its designation report, the structure is: “Faced with limestone, tan brick and terra cotta, it was designed by the architects Brunner & Tryon in 1895-96. Seven stories tall, the street facade is articulated through a series of monumental arches, embellished with handsome classical details.” The building served as a workshop for many different stores and products over the years, including Macy’s and Les Paul. Eventually in the late 90’s, the building was acquired by Pratt and now serves as their Manhattan campus. “Since its completion, many commercial tenants have occupied various floors, including R. H. Macy’s, which produced flags and silk underwear here, the silversmith Graff, Washbourne & Dunn, as well as Epiphone, a leading manufacturer of stringed instruments. In 1941, the noted American jazz guitarist Les Paul assembled a “solid-body” electric guitar in the company’s workshop; it became the prototype for many electric guitars played today. 144 West 14th Street was acquired by Pratt Institute in 1999. Restored by Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, it now serves as the school’s Manhattan campus.”

Salmagundi Club, November 24, 1937. The Salmagundi Club was an art club founded in 1871. Initially called New York Sketch Class and later the New York Sketch Club, the organization was a men's only group of artists, students, and friends who met once a week. It was renamed Salmagundi in 1877 and meet at a number of Greenwich Village locations during its first 40 years. In 1917 the club purchased and moved into the1853 Italianate-style townhouse at 47 Fifth Avenue. For the last century it has operated in this building as a center for fine arts, artists and collectors, exhibitions, classes, demonstrations,and auctions.

Edith Jones Wharton (1862-1937), one of America’s most important authors, lived at 14 West 23rd Street, Manhattan at a time when 23rd Street marked the northern boundary of fashionable New York. There, in her father’s extensive library, young Edith Jones discovered the world of literature. Wharton wrote with authority on gardens and design, but was most celebrated for her fiction. Her novels and stories are characterized by her intelligence, perception and the great beauty of her prose. Wharton lived in France for the latter part of her life, but the complex world of patrician New York remained the source of her greatest fiction. This includes The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920), for which, in 1921 she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.

"Sixth Avenue, north from and across West 18th Street, showing mainly the west side of this Avenue, 1939. The corner building with the A. Shulte store was formerly part of Altman's Department Store. This bears No. 615-9 Sixth Avenue and is at the N.W. corner of W. 18th Street. The store covered the entire block front from 18th to 19th Streets. The New York Times of March 7, 1939 reports the 1st transfer of this holding since 1817 when it was acquired as farmlands by John Tonnele." (text from the photographer P.L. Speer) The neo-Grec structure was opened in 1877 as the B. Altman store and within the next decade additions were added on 18th and 19th Streets to house the expanding department store. This store was a mainstay of the Ladies' Mile, a section of the Flatiron neighborhood that became a prime shopping district (with most of the larger stores on 6th Avenue) during the late 19th and early 20th century. Interesting features of the building when it opened included an ornate cast iron facade, pneumatic tubes for the movement of money and paperwork, and electric lights.

14 West 10th Street (second building from the left), May 29, 1933. The Greek Revival house at 14 West 10th Street was constructed sometime in the 1850s. The house, in the fashionable area near Washington Square Park, was home to members of New York's high society in the 19th century. In 1900 Mark Twain lived in the house for a year or so. In the long history of the house at least 22 people died while residing there. (This is not an inconceivable number given the home's age and the fact that for much of history people died at home). In 1937 the single family home was divided into multiple apartments. Starting around that time residents began taking note of strange occurrences and haunting visions. Author Jan Bryant Bartell lived in an apartment there for seven years and wrote about her supernatural experiences there. It has been called the "House of Death." Unfortunately the building also hosted a real life gruesome event in 1987 when a former New York defense attorney beat his illegally adopted daughter to death in the house.

Union Square Savings Bank ARCHITECT: Henry Bacon DATE: 1905-07 STYLE: Academic Classic, Bank The Union Square Savings Bank was designed in a bold and monumental Academic Classic style popularized by the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Bacon’s design accentuates its prominence with a freestanding portico supported on four giant Corinthian columns and a monumental entranceway behind the columns.

On August 6, 1966, the first known recording of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was made by the Miracles. Written by Motown pioneers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, the song was re-recorded several times, most famously by Gladys Night and the Pips and Marvin Gaye, whose version landed on the top of the charts for seven weeks in early 1969. But where did it come from? Plentiful evidence and credible sources say it all goes back to a beloved tavern on the corner of 6th Avenue and 11th Street in Greenwich Village.

Grove St Press moved here after a brief stay at 80 University Place from 1964-67. Less than half a block down to 53 East 11th Street the move came at a crucial time for the enterprise. In 1967 Grove became a public corporation, vastly expanding its scope and resources. According to “From the Third Eye: The Evergreen Review Film Reader”, in January of that year, the Press also announced the acquisition of the prestigious Cinema 16 Film Library, consisting of two hundred shorts and experimental works, including films by Stan Brakhage, Kenneth Anger, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Peter Weiss, all darlings of the cinematic avant-garde.

By the late 19 century, not only were unmarried working-class women toiling in factories, mills, shops, and various trades, but middle-class women were employed in new white-collar jobs as clerks, secretaries, stenographers, journalists, and telephone operators. An 1879 report of the Association for Inquiry into the Condition of Professional and Business Women estimated that there were about 50,000 women pursuing “professional, literary, and artistic pursuits” in and within 50 miles of New York, while there was only accommodation for 500. The need for housing was so great that the LCU and similar organizations were turning away three applicants for everyone they could house.

31 Union Square West ARCHITECT: Bruce Price DATE: 1902-03 STYLE: Neo-Renaissance A limestone-faced bank and office tower, the Bank of the Metropolis, a columnar tripartite skyscraper, is a representative example of the major New York architect Bruce Price’s neo-Renaissance commercial architecture. The design incorporates classical elements which were traditionally associated with American bank architecture. Notable features include the bowed two-story portico with monumental polished granite columns, lions’ heads, consoles, foliated spandrels and spandrels with open-mouthed lions.

In the Gilded Age, this was the area where America went to shop. If today, New York's iconic shopping district is midtown Manhattan, in the 1880s and 1890s it was Ladies' Mile, the area extending between 15th and 24th streets from Broadway to Sixth Avenue. As a popular guidebook noted in 1892: "Ill fares the rural or provincial purse whose owner ventures before these attractive windows, extending for miles on miles, ever diversified and varied." Indeed between just 19th and 22nd streets on Broadway you could purchase a French velvet or antique Oriental rug at the carpet emporium, W. & J. Sloane (now ABC Carpet & Home); a silver punch bowl carved with twisted vine handles and lion paw feet at the silver maker Gotham Manufacturing Company; and a bespoke or ready-made suit at Brooks Brothers. It was Lord & Taylor that not only showcased the season's most luxurious fashions, but helped turn shopping into a social activity and form of entertainment. The store-which opened at 20th and Broadway in 1871-beckoned shoppers from the sidewalk. Its large plate-glass windows were a marvel-according to a guidebook, one of Broadway's greatest sites filled with the "richest and rarest good of every description." The windows were set in a five-story structure that architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler called "by far the most beautiful, sensible, and perfect iron building yet erected in New York." Once inside, visitors could take a ride in a passenger elevator. The innovation was less than two decades old-and Lord & Taylor was the first department store to have one. An article in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper toned the elevator as "luxurious as the grand saloon of the first-class steamboats." Though some went just to browse, those who shopped at Lord & Taylor were mostly from the so-called "carriage trade"- the middle class and wealthy who could afford a carriage ride rather than depend on mass transit. The store had grown from a small dry goods shop on Catharine Street in 1826 to an emporium compared to those in Paris. the New York Times routinely reported on the items in a new season's collection- such as brocaded silk and fur-trimmed boots; a white satin evening dress trimmed with Fedora lace; and a street costume featuring a jacket with matching jockey cap and muff in camel's hair. Lord & Taylor remained a premiere destination on Ladies' Mile until 1914, when it followed other stores upton to its current location at 38th and Fifth Avenue. Shortly thereafter, the owners of the location in front of you put up an interior wall separating off the section of the building fronting Broadway, and created the new stone facade you see on that half of the building today.

Third Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, June 11, 1933. This cemetery is one of the burial places of the oldest Jewish congregation in North America, Congregation Shearith Israel. While the exact location of the first cemetery for the congregation has been lost (it might have been near the African Burial Ground), two other graveyards for this community pre-date this one and remain extant. They are located at Chatham Square and just east of Sixth Avenue on West 11th Street, established 1682 and 1805, respectively. Due to the encroaching city development and changes in the law regarding burials in Manhattan, both of these cemeteries were unfit for the community's needs by the 1820s. Referred to as the 'Third' Cemetery or the 21st Street Cemetery this plot was established in 1829 to move the disinterred graves from the 11th Street location. The active period of this cemetery was brief, as the city banned burials below 86th Street in 1851. The congregation looked to the outer boroughs (a popular cemetery locale by that time). Joining with two other Jewish congregations they founded the Beth Olam Cemetery in Ridgewood, which is still active today.

29 Union Square West when it was Jason's Restaurant, 1978. In the 1890s this plot was the location of a five-story brick building that housed the Bank of the Metropolis. In 1903 the bank moved across the street to a new building at 31 Union Square West (where they had been founded in 1871). The building at no. 29 was demolished by 1928, and a one-story structure was erected on the site (likely as a taxpayer during the years of the Depression). The current blue-walled midcentury mundane building currently on the lot rose in 1959. It is unknown when the iconic coffee sign was installed. In the 1960s it was a coffee shop called Chase, and it was Jason's in the late 1970s and 1980s. The Coffee Shop, a dependable late-night spot opened in 1990. Slinging coffee, cocktails, and Brazilian fare, the locale became a well-known spot for a diverse crowd of students, East Villagers, scenesters, and celebrities. It often appeared on the show, Sex, and the City. After 28 years the restaurant closed in mid October 2018. A rumor the next week suggested that the location was to become a Chase Bank (ironic given that its first coffee shop tenant was Chase too)

Germania Life Insurance Company Building ARCHITECT: D'Oench & Yost DATE: 1910-11 STYLE: French Second Empire This twenty-story commercial building, crowned by an early and impressive example of modern signage, was designed by the architectural firm of D’Oench & Yost and built in 1910-11 as the national headquarters for the Germania Life Insurance Company of New York. The building is a tripartite columnar skyscraper which incorporates in its design motifs from traditional European architecture, most prominently the grand four-story mansard roof with varied dormer windows. The mansard roof and other features tie the building’s design to French architecture, both the Second Empire style and the modern French mode that dominated Parisian architecture of the 1890s.

Trench prepared for the installation of the high pressure water system on Fifth Avenue, south of Madison Square; undated photo. 20th Street crosses Fifth Avenue in the middle ground. At right is No. 127-129, the second storefront south of the southeast corner of the intersection. The loft space was leased by Lord & Taylor between 1906-1914, and the brand name is visible above the storefront.

The Century Building, East 17th Street, ca. 1975. William Schickel’s Queen Anne style headquarters for the Century Publishing Company was built in 1880-1, facing south toward Union Square.

Century Association Building ARCHITECT: Gambrill & Richardson DATE: 1869 STYLE: Neo-Grec The Century Association Building is the oldest known surviving structure erected as a clubhouse in Manhattan. Its stone-trimmed brick exterior, which remains remarkably intact, heralded a wave of neo-Grec buildings in the early 1870s.

Constable Building, ca. 1900. While the earlier building and extensions of the Arnold Constable flagship store in the Ladies' Mile shopping district were designed by architect Griffith Thomas in the 1870s, William Schickel was involved in the 1880s expansions of the monumental emporium complex. He designed the Renaissance Revival annex on 18th Street in 1884, as well as the 12-story structure at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 18th Street, seen here, completed in 1895.

Southeast corner of 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, ca. 1977. The now unrecognizable corner of Union Square where today a large CitiBank occupies the corner lot.

12-14 West 12th Street ca. Architect Alexander Jackson Davis was born on July 24, 1803. Davis, one of the most successful and influential American architects of his generation, is perhaps best known for his association with the Gothic Revival style of architecture and rural settings. Though many surviving examples by Davis exist in upstate New York and at other locales along the East Coast, some very prominent examples of Davis’ fine work once stood on lower Fifth Avenue. In 1849, Davis designed two matching Italianate mansions on West 12th Street, Nos. 12 & No. 14. A description of these buildings can be found on Daytonian in Manhattan: ” …abutting the churchyard of First Presbyterian Church, which had been completed three years earlier. The handsome brick residences reflected the refined neighborhood. Each two bays wide, they featured arched entrances four steps above the sidewalk and a cast iron, second floor balcony that ran the width both structures. Brownstone lintels and a simple cornice added to the understated elegance of Davis’ design.” These mansions survived into the mid-20th century, changing hands a couple of times throughout their lifespan. Most famously, No. 12 was the home of Thurlow Weed, an influential statesman. After the death of Thurlow, ownership of No. 12 fell to his daughter Harriet, and after her passing both buildings were taken over by the First Presbyterian Church, becoming their parsonage. However, in 1958, the church, in need of a modern church house, made the decision to tear down Nos. 12 & 14. A necessary decision for the church proved to be an unpopular one with the community, as reported by The Times: “Though church folk dislike the idea of having the old mansions torn down, and architects in town frown on the notion, too, they know they must go. The space is sorely needed for the children. So, one by one, the master works of great architects vanish from the city.” Davis, who worked along with the architect Ithiel Town, had a hand in other architectural works within the Village, including a portion of the now-demolished Brevoort Mansion on 5th Avenue, and the designs for Colonnade Row. However, with the loss of Nos. 12 & 14, the city lost a truly wonderful example of Davis’s designs. As lamented by The Times, “All that will remain of his dreaming on paper when the Twelfth Street mansions go down in rubble…will be a few villas up in Hudson River Valley.” Architect Alexander Jackson Davis was born on July 24, 1803. Davis, one of the most successful and influential American architects of his generation, is perhaps best known for his association with the Gothic Revival style of architecture and rural settings. Though many surviving examples by Davis exist in upstate New York and at other locales along the East Coast, some very prominent examples of Davis’ fine work once stood on lower Fifth Avenue.

Greenwich Village may have a proud history of welcoming immigrants, but not all of the neighborhood’s residents was quite so willing to extend their open arms. In fact, one prominent Greenwich Village leader’s disdain for Catholic immigrants led to the coining of one of the most notorious slurs in American political history, and arguably changed the outcome of the hotly-contest Presidential election of 1884.

72 Fifth Avenue ca. 1915 In 1847, on Bond Street in London, a young man named Philip Morris opened a small tobacco shop. Eight years later, Morris began to produce his own cigarettes. When, in 1873, he died, his widow Margaret and brother Leopold took over the business. In 1885, the company gained international fame and was officially named Philip Morris & Co. LTD. By 1902, Philip Morris was incorporated in New York. After some shuffling around and restructuring, in 1917, the business moved to 72 5th Avenue, at the northwest corner of 13th Street. This 7-story building was erected in 1893 as a warehouse. The masonry façade ornamentation and rhythm is very characteristic of loft warehouse buildings in this area at the time. In 1913 an alteration was performed by the architect Adolph E. Nast who worked for the firm of John L. Sands. In 1931, after disappearing from his New York hotel, Nast’s body was found in Baltimore with a pistol wound to the head. It was believed to be a suicide. Up until the 1930s the building was owned by the estate of Katherine Lorrilard and throughout the 1940s a bank was located in the storefront. In 1960, Ginn & Company publishers occupied three floors of the space, totaling 15,000 square feet. Philip Morris relocated to 5th Avenue and 19th Street in 1938, where they continued to grow. In 1954 the company launched a major campaign with Marlboro Cigarettes, marketing them specifically to men. In 1970 Philip Morris acquired Miller Brewing Company and in 1985 acquired Kraft. In 2003 the name Philip Morris disappeared when Altria Group, Inc. took over the company. Five years later the entire company was relocated to Richmond, Virginia.

The Macmillan Co. Building (later Forbes Building), April 1, 1925. Called a “pompous limestone cube” by the AIA Guide to New York, the Macmillan Co. headquarters was built between 1923-1925, in a collaborative effort by two firms known for New York City landmarks: Carrère & Hastings (New York Public Library, 5th Avenue) and Shreve & Lamb (Empire State Building). In 1965, the building was acquired by Forbes Magazine, whose Malcolm Forbes opened a small gallery there, showcasing his eclectic art collection. New York University purchased the building from Forbes in 2010.

Lord & Taylor Store ARCHITECT: James H. Giles DATE: 1869-70 STYLE: French Second Empire The Former Lord & Taylor Building is an impressive cast-iron structure handsomely designed in the French Second Empire style by the architect James H. Giles. It was constructed with the most up-to-date materials of the time, cast iron and glass, which were particularly suited to the design of commercial buildings. Its picturesque corner tower with tall mansard roof gives the building a highly distinctive and striking character.

853 Broadway, ca. 1945. The Domestic Sewing Machine Company Building, which previously occupied the lot at the southwest corner of Broadway and 14th Street, was designed by Griffith Thomas. The structure was tall (for its time!) and capped with an eye-catching cupola and “DOMESTIC” sign at its rooftop. At the time of its 1873 construction, it was hailed as an early skyscraper, the tallest cast-iron building yet built. It’s hard to imagine a seven-story building as a skyscraper nowadays, but in the late 19th century it certainly was. The Domestic Sewing Machine Company showcased its sewing machines on the first floor. Its corporate headquarters were on the upper floors.

Southeast corner of 14th Street and Broadway, ca. 1977.

"Sixth Avenue, at the N. E. corner of West 20th Street, showing the P. E. Church of the Holy Communion. 1940."

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace ARCHITECT: Theodate Pope Riddle DATE: 1923 STYLE: Gothic Revival An unusual note of elegance is shown in the drawing room windows at first-floor level which are full length and open upon a handsome cast-iron balcony. All windows and the front door have special drip moldings above them which were the hallmark of the Gothic Revival house. All the windows, with the exception of those in the basement, are shuttered. The cornice at the top of the front wall is carried on a continuous series of small arches, a concession to its having been designed in the Gothic style.

First Presbyterian Church ca. 1900 Set in ample grounds where it may be seen from three sides, this handsome exemplar of the Gothic Revival makes us realize that all was not necessarily fuss and gingerbread in this period. Joseph C. Wells, the architect, attempted a scholarly representation of an ecclesiastical style which, at best, was foreign to this country before 1835.

Forbes Building, 60-62 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1977.

23 East 11th Street, ca. 1971.

"Sixth Avenue, east side, north from West 19th Street, 1939." View of the same corner just after the removed of the elevated train infrastructure.

The Union Square Theatre, on the southeast side of the Square, was next to the Union Square Hotel. It Opened in 187 as a variety house and was transformed into a legitimate theatre the following year. Originally the most prestigious dramatic house on the Square, it faltered after a series of managers who tried to continue the tradition of serious fare, and became a vaudeville house which enjoyed a successful twenty year run under the management of B.F. Keith and E.F. Albee.

Siegel-Cooper department store, ca. 1975. The crowds at the opening of Siegel-Cooper department store on September 12, 1896 were so crushing the police had to call in for back up. Eleven thousand pushed inside the doors within just the first ten minutes, and there was a solid wall of people stretching along Sixth Avenue, from 14th to 23rd streets. By the time doors closed at 10:30pm, 150,000 shoppers had been inside. Siegel-Cooper was the largest retail space in New York, occupying the entire block between 18th and 19th streets on Sixth Avenue. It quickly became a spectacle on a par with museums, theaters, and other cultural attractions. It felt like a small city, with aisles as wide as streets. Inside, shoppers were greeted by a 10-foot high fountain with a statue of The Republic in marble and gilded bronze- a replica of the one Daniel Chester French had designed for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. After dropping their children at a nursery, women could wander through the store's 125 departments on six floors, admiring goods as diverse as canned food, feather boas, live animals, and sheet music. They could then lunch on lamb stew or chicken pot pie in the restaurant and head up to the roof for a view of the city from the observatory. Before picking up their kids—and without ever leaving the building—they could visit the dentist, send a message from the telegraph office or deposit a check at the bank. Department stores, epitomized by Siegel-Cooper, were unlike anything shoppers had experienced before. Over the course of the 19th century there were dramatic changes in what retail stores looked like, what they sold and how they sold it. Before the Civil War, shops mostly specialized in one type of item, such as books, purses, or carpets. Or there were dry goods stores that sold ready-made items, fabrics, and other sewing materials. Window displays and interiors were cluttered and customers went in to negotiate the best price for just the items they needed. A.T. Stewart and Macy's ushered in the era of New York City's department stores—building marble and cast-iron palaces with window displays that lured passersby. They had dozens of departments with ready-made goods from corsets and parasols to furniture and toys. They had lounges and lunchrooms that fortified customers to stay and buy items on impulse. And throughout the store, scores of shop girls, trained in the art of selling offered merchandise at a fixed price.

17 West 16th Street, Manhattan (ca. 1846) NYC IL, NHL From 1930 to 1973, this Greek Revival style townhouse was home to the clinic of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger (1879-1966). Sanger moved to New York City in 1911 and began working as a nurse on the Lower East Side, where she treated women with frequent births, miscarriages and self-induced abortions. At the time, birth control, a term she popularized, was not available in the United States, and the federal Comstock law of 1873 prohibited the distribution of information on the topic. She founded a monthly newsletter entitled The Woman Rebel in 1914, and was indicted for sending “obscene” material through the mail. In 1916, Sanger opened her first clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and in 1921 she helped found the American Birth Control League, which later became known as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In 1930, she established a more permanent home for her Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau here at 17 West 16th Street, where research was performed, patients were treated and instructed on contraceptives, and medical professionals from across the country were educated about sex, contraception and disease. The building, today a private residence, still stands as a reminder of Margaret Sanger’s groundbreaking work to advance women’s health and quality of life. Photo from Wikipedia

St. Francis Xavier R.C. Church, ca. 1895. St. Francis Xavier Church was established in 1847 by Jesuits who came down from Fordham (then in Westchester) to start a Manhattan parish. The original building was a simple classical style building, constructed in the 1850s. In 1877 the original church was site of a false alarm panic after someone yelled 'fire' during a service. The ensuing stampede caused the death of seven people. The first structure was demolished a year after this event, and a new church was built in a grand neo-Baroque style, completed in 1882. The tall church with an imposing granite-block facade was designed by well-known church architect Patrick Charles Keely. At the time of its completion it dwarfed most of the surrounding buildings. The interior too was designed in a colossal scale, with frescos, carved plaster and stone, arches, niches, and inlaid marble. A local newspaper in 1884 called the church "sumptuous and exhilarating.”

Moquins Restaurant. ca. 1910. Though today no. 456 Sixth Avenue is located at 11th Street, when this photograph was taken ca. 1910, no. 456 was located further uptown between 27th and 28th Streets. In 1929, during the extension of Sixth Avenue south from Greenwich Village to Canal Street for the Sixth Avenue IND subway, the addresses on the avenue were renumbered.

28 East 20th Street, south side, between Fourth Avenue and Broadway, 1925. This brownstone was built in 1848 and purchased by Theodore Roosevelt's grandfather, Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, in 1850. He would go on to gift the home to his son and new daughter-in-law as a wedding present in 1854. Theodore Roosevelt was born here on October 27, 1858. The Roosevelt's moved uptown (as was the trend) in 1873, as the area surrounding his birthplace evolved into a primarily commercial district. After the family left, the home (and its neighbor at no. 26, which was also gifted to Roosevelt's uncle) went through a number of drastic alterations before being totally demolished in 1916. In 1919, after Roosevelt's death, the family repurchased nos. 26 and 28 and restored the structures to their 1865 state, complete with period rooms. Initially a private venture, the site became part of the National Park Service in 1962.

70 Fifth Avenue (at far right), May 19, 1933. Constructed in 1913 as a speculative office building, the 12-story structure on the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 13th Street was advertised as "office space at a prestige address." In 1914 it became the headquarters for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the offices of its official publication, The Crisis. (The NAACP had previous worked from offices at 20 Vesey Street for the first five years of their existence.)

56 West 14th Street Everyone knows the iconic Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street and Broadway. But before moving to 34th Street, Macy’s operated out of a series of buildings on West 14th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. H. Macy & Co. was founded by Rowland Hussey Macy in 1858. The original Macy’s stood on the southeast corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue. As the company succeeded over the next few decades, claiming to have “pioneered such revolutionary business practices as the one-price system, in which the same item was sold to every customer at one price, and quoting specific prices for goods in newspaper advertising. Known for its creative merchandising, Macy’s was the first to introduce such products as the tea bag, the Idaho baked potato and colored bath towels.” it expanded into neighboring buildings on West 14th Street. After Macy’s passing in 1877, the company remained in family hands until 1895, when brothers Isadore and Nathan Straus took over the company. In 1898, the Straus brothers built a new Macy’s Annex at 56 West 14th Street. This tall (nine stories) and narrow (25 feet) building is ornately designed in the Neo-Classical style popular at the time. Landmarked in 2011, the building is now home to a 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. Macy’s moved to 34th Street in 1902. It is not clear if any retail took place in the 14th Street Macy’s Annex, or whether it was just used for offices, storage, or rented out. According to the designation report, “The former Macy 14th Street Annex, owned by the Straus family until 1939 and internally connected to the 13th Street Annex through the 20th century, housed a variety of firms over subsequent decades.” The Macy’s logo has always featured a red star, which allegedly comes from a tattoo that Macy got as a teenager when he worked on a Nantucket whaling ship. 56 West 14th Street is still ornately decorated, and if you look closely you can still see the Macy’s logo and stars on the building facade.

Marion Parker, a graduate of Michigan State University, designed the structure for the Whitehall, and Broad-Exchange buildings, and assisted in designing the Flatiron Building. Elmina Wilson, a graduate of Iowa State University, designed the structure for the Whitehall Annex, the Manhattan Municipal Building, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower — the tallest building in the world from 1907 to 1913. Learn more here.

Chickering Hall, ca. 1888. Chickering Hall was New York headquarters and concert hall of the Chickering & Sons piano manufacturing firm. Architect George B. Post’s design made use of brick, marble, and brownstone and included a tiled hipped roof and massive, two-story arches on the building’s 18th Street and Fifth Avenue frontages. Indoors, Post’s 1,450-seat performance hall hosted its first event on November 1875. Events at Chickering Hall included an early telephone demonstration by Alexander Graham Bell (1877) and a lecture by Oscar Wilde (1882), among many musical performances showcasing Chickering & Sons instruments. In 1901, Chickering & Sons lost their lease for the property and the building was demolished in early 1902.

New York's Doughnut Hut of the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army's connection to donut making originated in 1917 when a troop of 250 American volunteers traveled to the front lines in France during World War I. Stationed to provide spiritual and emotional support for the fighters, the volunteers, primarily women, wanted to give the soldiers a taste of home by serving them home-baked goods. However, they found it difficult to procure the ingredients necessary to bake pastries or cakes and so opted for a simple dessert that wouldn't even require an oven: donuts! Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance began coordinating an effort to provide this taste of home to the soldiers in the trenches. They were quickly able to produce around 2,500 to 9,000 donuts daily, using a cutter fastened out of a condensed milk can and a camphor ice tube. This heroic effort has been credited for donuts' popularity in the states today. During the Great Depression, the Salvation Army used the donut in yet another campaign to boost morale. National Donut Day, celebrated on June 4th, was invented in Chicago in 1938 to fundraise for aid efforts provided by the Salvation Army.

New York City Fire Engine No. 72 Cinema Village, located at 22 East 12th Street, is the oldest continuously operated cinema in Greenwich Village and one of the oldest continuously operated art cinemas in the city. Information from GVSHP’s research notes the following about the Cinema Village building: The façade appears to date from a 1964 alteration. The NB application shows that the structure was built as a three-story fire engine house in 1898 and designed by Horgan & Slattery for the City of New York. (Horgan & Slattery designed the Butterick Building at the Corner of 6th and Spring Streets in 1903 and other sites around the city during the early twentieth century). The building at 22 East 12th Street remained in use as a firehouse until it was converted to a movie theater in the 1960s. A 1964 Certificate of Occupancy shows it was operating as a “moving picture theater and entrance lobby.” The theater opened on October 5th of that year with Ingmar Bergman’s All These Women. Through most of its early years, Cinema Village was one of the city’s many repertory cinemas, showcasing vintage movies, cult classics, and contemporary favorites on double bills (aka double features) that would usually change three times a week. This once essential programming format has mostly died out in commercial movie theaters throughout New York City and the United States. By the late 1980s – and due to the surge in home video, buy outs by large-name theaters, and real estate development – commercial repertory cinema all but disappeared in New York City. Cinema Village escaped closure, surviving by presenting limited engagements of unconventional first run shows. In the early 1990s, before Jackie Chan, John Woo, Michele Yeoh and their stunt coordinators went to Hollywood, Cinema Village became known, through its annual festivals and other bookings, as the place to see the Hong Kong films of what would soon be acknowledged as a filmmaking golden age.

Century Building ARCHITECT: William Schikel DATE: 1880-81 STYLE: Queen Anne Schickel designed the Century Building in the Queen Anne style, an English import defined by a picturesque use of 17th- and 18th-century motifs. The Century is an unusually handsome example of the Queen Anne, notable particularly for its richly carved stonework, its two-story oriel window, its gambrel roof framed by massive chimney stacks, and its terra-cotta details including sunflowers, the trademark of the style.

The Salvation Army National and Territorial Headquarters ARCHITECT: Ralph Walker; Vorhees, Gmelin & Walker DATE: 1929-35 STYLE: Art Deco The complex includes a 12-story office building, adjacent to a 4-story auditorium building that included modern broadcast facilities. The building was designed by preeminent modernist architect Ralph Walker of the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, using an Art Deco style. Both of these buildings are clad in brick, with a small amount of cast-stone ornament near the top and around the entrances.

Amid the cast-iron facades of commercial and converted residential buildings between Broadway and University Place in the Village resides a large brick and brownstone institutional building. With its Police Athletic League (PAL) banners and Police Department signage over the door, it looks like it could have been an old station house re-purposed for PAL uses. In fact, this building on East 12th Street between University Place and Broadway is one of the city’s oldest surviving school structures and was the workplace of one of the pioneers of higher education for women.

The Hotel Grosvenor Apartments were constructed in 1926 on the site of the 1876 Grosvenor Hotel. The original hotel was one of the earliest businesses in the fashionable mansion district.

Lincoln Building ARCHITECT: R. H. Robertson DATE: 1889-90 STYLE: Romanesque Revival A classic example of the layered arcade design solution, a solution in which New York pioneered, the Romanesque Revival Lincoln Building is representative of an important transitional phase in the history of tall buildings. Using interior metal skeleton skyscraper construction in combination with traditional masonry bearing walls, the building is executed in limestone, granite, and brick, and has exceptionally fine carved and terra cotta detail, which includes the corner griffin, acanthus scrolls, Byzantine capitals, crisp moldings, human and lion heads.

"6th Avenue between 18th and 19th Street. Westerly block front, looking S.W., B. Altman store, cast iron architecture, 1948"

Statue of the Marquis de Lafayette, Union Square, March 20, 1936. S. Klein, a discount department store, the Union Square Savings Bank and the tower of the Consolidated Edison Building are visible in the background. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s bronze sculpture, a gift from prominent French residents, was installed in Union Square on September 6, 1876. Bartholdi is best known for another iconic, French-funded civic sculpture: the Statue of Liberty.

30-32 West 21st Street, ca. 1985. The second location of Danceteria had four floors of dancers hidden behind this dour facade. In its short-lived location it was known for new wave and post-punk music as well as early hip-hop. Madonna, New Order, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, The Smiths, Cyndi Lauper, Depeche Mode, Sonic Youth, the Violent Femmes, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Beastie Boys, and LL Cool J all played here. If you missed hanging out with Madonna here, watch Desperately Seeking Susan. Danceteria reopened in the Martha Washington Hotel ballroom from 1989 to 1992 and a Hamptons outpost ran from 1984 to 1995.

Lord & Taylor building, ca. 1908. The grand Second Empire building was completed in 1870, becoming the third Lord & Taylor store, and the first north of Union Square. Architect James H. Giles designed an intricate cast iron facade, notable for its departure from previous cast iron designs, which sought to emulate stonework. This store is also said to be the site of New York’s first department store Christmas window display. In 1915, Lord & Taylor moved into a new showcase space uptown, and the building at Broadway and 20th Street was converted for manufacturing use.

The Decker Building was the site of Andy Warhol's Factory from 1968 and 1973. Fittingly, the building was designed by a radical anarchist architect, John H. Engelmann when he worked for Alfred Zucker in 1892. Engelmann had been expelled from the Socialist Labor Party and immediately formed the American Social League. Its name comes from the piano company that commissioned it: Decker. Andy Warhol moved his Factory to the Decker Building in 1968 after the original Factory's building on East 47th Street was slated for demolition. Warhol used a large portion of the sales of his work to fund his "Factory." It was at this factory where a bulk of Warhol's screenprints were produced by an assembly-line of workers. Conveniently, the Decker was in close proximity to Max's Kansas City, a nightclub he and his entourage would frequent. Warhol's sixth-floor unit was both a workspace and hangout frequently crowded with socialites, intellectuals, artists, adult film stars, drag queens, drug users, musicians, and many other characters on the fringes of society. These friends of Warhols became his "art-workers," producing his paintings, starring in his films, and generating the atmosphere the Factory became known for. It was here on a fateful afternoon in June (the 3rd) of 1968 that Warhol would be shot by Valerie Solanas. Solanas was a radical feminist and author who asked Warhol to produce her play titled "Up Your Ass," which she later accused Warhol of stealing. Solanas followed Warhol and Paul Morrisey into the elevator to the 6th-floor Factory where she shot Warhol three times and art critic Mario Amaya once. Warhol and Amaya recovered from their injuries and Solanas turned herself in. The Factory remained at this location until 1973.

Union Square West, north from and including the southwest corner of 15th Street, 1904.

Church of the Holy Communion Complex ARCHITECT: Richard Upjohn DATE: 1844-46 STYLE: Gothic Revival The Church of the Holy Communion and Sisters House and Chapel form a remarkably attractive homogenous architectural group of buildings executed in the Gothic Revival style of architecture. It was the first “free” church in the City. It had the first boys choir, and it was the home of New York’s first Anglican Sisterhood. The Sisters founded St. Luke’s Hospital in the Sisters House, destined to become one of the great hospitals of New York City.

"Sixth Avenue, east side, north from West 19th Street, 1933. Appearing progressively are the former Alexander and Cammeyer Buildings, the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, the Masonic Temple building and the Hotel McAlpin. Towering above the church is the dominant Empire State Building." (text from the photographer P.L. Speer)

39 Fifth Avenue ca. 1923 Emery Roth designed this 14-story apartment building, his first in Greenwich Village, in 1922. It was the first of many of the larger apartment houses which would line this part of Fifth Avenue, typically replacing the 19th-century mansions which originally lined the thoroughfare. It is clad in Flemish bond brick and is restrained in its ornament with the exception of the multi-colored terra-cotta loggias at the third and the eleventh and twelfth floors.

Marquis de Lafayette Statue, ca. 1917 Located at a prominent site of protest and political gathering, this statue, designed by Henry Kirke Brown, with assistance by John Quincy Adams Ward and Richard Upjohn, depicts this founding father as an equestrian hero. Celebrating the General's arrival in New York on November 25, 1783, the day the British troops evacuated the city after a seven-year occupation, the monument was unveiled on July 4, 1856. It remains one of the earliest examples of bronze statues cast in the United States and a unique record of nineteenth-century American foundry techniques. After over a century of vandalism, corrosion, and missing elements, such as a sword that once fit into the scabbard, MAS's Adopt-A-Monument program facilitated restoration efforts in 1989 with a grant from the Glick Organization.

Civic Repertory Theater, 1900 This building is a theatre with a long history. The structure was originally constructed in 1866 as the Theatre Francais, a venue for French dramas and opera. Designed by German-born architect Alexander Saeltzer, his inspiration came from 18th century English styles. The resulting theatre was a large stone building with a two-story portico, classic pediment with sculptural figures, and supported by numerous Corinthian columns. Saeltzer is better known for his still extant buildings, including the Public Theatre (former Astor Library) and the Gothic Revival Anshe Chesed Synagogue, which is now the Angel Orensanz Center. The theatre would change hands and names with great frequency over the next 50 years. It was renamed the Lyceum in 1871 (one of a number of theatres to use that moniker). In 1879 it was taken over by J.H. Haverly and renamed Haverly's 14th Street Theatre. By the next decade it was called just the 14th Street Theatre. The theatre became a movie venue in the 1910s but returned to theatrical productions in 1926 when it was taken over by British actress Eva Le Gallienne, who was very involved in the American Repertory Movement. She successful produced high quality, low cost shows until the Depression forced the theatre's closure in 1933.

Milligan Place is a small alley off of Sixth Avenue, one of a number of hidden alleys in the Greenwich Village. Named for Samuel Milligan, the original owner of the property, the alley is lined with brick homes constructed in the 1850s. Today the small alley looks much like it did in this circa 1915 photograph and likely just as it did in the second half of the 19th century, quietly tucked away from the busy nearby street.

61 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1983. 61 Fifth Avenue first opened in 1938 as a Schrafft's luncheonette. The cozy restaurant, framed by a grand staircase, semi-circular open ceiling, and heaps of flowers, gift baskets and boxes of chocolate, was designed by architects Bloch & Hesse. By 1969, Schrafft's became the “official dining spot” for what New York Magazine then called “L.O.L.’s,” or Little Old Ladies. With the hope of reinventing its image, the owners hired Andy Warhol to film a trio of young girls in miniskirts with the tagline, “Have you seen the little old ladies in Schrafft's lately?" for a commercial. Despite efforts to appear hip, the restaurant closed in the 1970s and was replaced by a Brew Burger. Then came The Lone Star Café. Known for its “honkytonk” live music and the giant 40-foot iguana statue that sat on its roof, the Texas-themed cafe and club was the top venue for country music in New York from 1976 to 1989. Mr. Fuji's Tropicana opened at 61 Fifth Avenue in the early nineties, but only remained open for a short period of time. The club was famous for its tie to Vin Diesel, who is rumored to have worked the front door as a bouncer. A Korean deli with a secret karaoke bar on the second floor opened after Mr. Fuji’s shut down, and following that, a 24-hour convenience store. In 2006, the building was destroyed in a fire. The land was sold to a developer who recently erected a 10-story condominium at 61 Fifth Avenue. Designed by architect Alta Indelman, the building today is surrounded by a fence that has become a showcase for street art.

Atrium of the Simpson-Crawford Company decorated for Easter, 1904. Simpson-Crawford Co. began as a small dry good store opened in the 1860s at Sixth Avenue and 19th Street. Through a series of new partnerships, the store grew and prospered (and changed names a few times), catering to a very high end clientele. At the turn of the 20th century, the owner selected architectural firm, William H. Hume & Son, to expand the large store to a full block width on Sixth Avenue. The building, complete in 1902, was stately and conservative, rendered in an understated Beaux Arts style. The building included the first escalator (called “moving stairs”) on Sixth Avenue and used a new marketing device, the mannequin. The interior featured a soaring cast iron atrium with a colored-glass skylight. This space was perfect for over the top holiday displays, such as the Easter one depicted here.

Old Grapevine Tavern ca. 1895 On August 6, 1966, the first known recording of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” was made by the Miracles. Written by Motown pioneers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, the song was re-recorded several times; Marvin Gaye’s cover landed on the top of the charts for seven weeks in early 1969. While the song now a Motown standard, the famous saying about receiving important news or information through a person-to-person chain of communication significantly pre-dates the Motown era. In fact, plentiful evidence and credible sources trace it back to a beloved tavern on the corner of 6th Avenue and 11th Street in Greenwich Village. A wooden two and a half story house built in the 1700s that stood at the southeast corner of this intersection housed a saloon called the Hawthorne. Originally a private home, by the early 19th century it had become a refuge for those escaping the beehive of activity in Lower Manhattan. But by the late 19th century, as the city grew around it, the tavern took on a different role. In 1877, the Tavern became a noted hangout for lawyers and politicians, including future presidents Teddy Roosevelt and Chester A. Arthur. There they shared information from and speculated about the many goings-on at the nearby courthouse, and the tavern became known as the best place to hear political gossip in New York. Also in the 19th century was the growth of an ever-expanding grapevine along the 11th Street façade of the building. So prominent was the climbing plant that the Hawthorne simply came to be known as “The Grapevine.” And thus, at least according to legend, this fertile ground for gossip and reconnaissance became the source for the figure of speech that information could be “heard through the grapevine.” In 1915, the old Grapevine Tavern was demolished to make way for the six-story apartment building which now stands at 78 West 11th Street.

Mansard roof of 881 Broadway, ca. 1973.

Union Square Park, 1902. In 1815, the former potter's field at the intersection of Bowery and Bloomingdale Road (Broadway) was designated Union Place, a public commons. Official establishment as a park came in 1833, and re-designed in 1839 to adopt the spirit of the public spaces dotting the London city map. Development in the surrounding neighborhood accelerated during the middle decades of the 19th century, as Manhattan's fashionable residential and commercial districts shifted uptown. In 1872, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the celebrated landscape architects behind Central Park and Prospect Park, were enlisted to redesign Union Square. The Olmsted and Vaux design is still evident in today's park, with its emphasis on space for public assembly and greenery.

149 West 14th Street, ca. 1930. Kooky’s Cocktail Lounge, better known as Kooky’s (pronounced “cookies”), was a Mafia-owned lesbian bar that operated here from 1965 to 1973. Even though a female-operated bar at that time was unusual, Kooky (last name unknown) was not particularly welcoming to lesbian patrons. She enforced a door cover-charge policy ($3 – a large financial burden at that time) and had a lot of control over the imposing bouncers; rather than protect the patrons, which was supposedly their job, they would often bully them. Lesbian feminist author Karla Jay described Kooky’s memorable style: “Her hair was shellacked into a large golden beehive that suggested that she had last set, teased, and sprayed her hair in the 1950s and then left it permanently in place.”

Union Square West looking south, including the Decker Building (extreme right), date unknown. This 1893 building, designed by John H. Edelmann for the Decker Brothers piano company, replaced the company's previous headquarters designed by Leopold Edilitz. Edelmann, notable for his anarchist views and his mentorship of the architect Louis Sullivan (Edelmann came up with the idea for Sullivan's maxim "form follows function"), drew upon Venetian and Islamic influences in the design, which featured balconies, elaborate cast iron filigree, Islamic style terra cotta tiles, and culminated in a domed minaret. Later, from 1967 to 1973, the Decker building was the site of Andy Warhol's studio the "Factory," which was located on the 6th floor. This was where, in June of 1968, Valerie Solanas shot and injured Warhol, as well as art critic Mario Amaya.

Salmagundi Club ca. 1965 As written in the designation report, the four-and-a-half story Italianate style building at 47 Fifth Avenue was constructed in 1852-1853 for Irad Hawley, the president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, which had yards along the Hudson River in the West Village. The building’s arresting entrance, up a flight of wide steps, is framed in original stone ornament and flanked by French doors that open onto cast-iron balconies. And, the report indicates, the inside is no less stunning. The first floor of the building showcases Italianate-style carved marble chimney pieces, rose wood doors, and an arcaded Corinthian screen dividing the front and back parlors. The dining room features elements of the Gothic Revival style and is one of the few remaining interiors in New York to do so. The Salmagundi Club, by 1969, was one-of-a-kind, the last architectural relic of the swath of mid-nineteenth century Anglo-Italianate brownstone mansions that once lined the lower portion of Fifth Avenue. Its dignified, former northern neighbors at 49 and 51 Fifth Avenue were razed to make way for a 19-story apartment building, built-in 1929 by Thomas W. Lamb, but the Salmagundi Club stayed put. Beyond the architectural significance of 47 Fifth Avenue, the designation report cites the building’s cultural significance as a key reason for its designation. The Salmagundi Club, before moving into its longtime home, was organized in 1871 for the “the promotion of social intercourse among artists and the advancement of the art” and named for the “Salmagundi Papers,” a satirical magazine published by short-story writer Washington Irving in which he coined the term “Gotham.” The Club purchased the grand Fifth Avenue mansion in 1917, and has resided there ever since. The designation report credits the maintenance of the historic building to the club, which had been, and continues to be, a reliable and generous steward. Notable members of the Club include illustrators Edwin Abbey, N.C. Wyeth, and Howard Pyle; Impressionist painters William Merritt Chase and Childe Hassam; Arts and Crafts pioneer John LaFarge; designer Louis C. Tiffany; Hudson River School artist Thomas Moran; and architect Stanford White. But that’s not all there is to celebrate today. The building is not only a historic cross-section of Fifth Avenue history and an esteemed center of orbit in the city’s art world. It is noteworthy also as one of the first individual landmarks named and protected by the city. The designation report is a mere page long, absolutely minuscule compared to the over 50-page reports put together today, but it set a crucial precedent in New York City’s landmarking process. And, from April 1, 1982 until 1999, Village Preservation’s offices were located in the building’s attic!

Church of the Holy Communion ca. 1928 Rarely does such a complete ecclesiastical group survive intact from the Gothic Revival. Although this diminutive church, parish house, and rectory represent that style pared down to its bare essentials, the general effect is delightful and sincerely religious in its lack of pretentiousness.

"127-123 West 20th Street, north side, just west of Sixth Avenue. No. 123 adjoins the Partola Building, which is on Sixth Avenue at the N.W. corner of 20th Street, 1931." The Partola Building was originally the the O'Neill-Adams department store building. After an extensive renovation in 1920, the building became home to the Partola Manufacturing Company, a chemical company.

West 14th Street looking east from Sixth Avenue, ca. 1892. No. 36, is at right, in the middle of the block. In the middle of the 19th century a brownstone occupied the lot. In 1858, sugar merchant Moses Lazarus (father to Emma Lazarus) and his family moved into the mansion. They remained in the home until at least 1876, when Emma wrote a letter to Thomas Wren Ward from this address. In 1877 the home was replaced by a five-story cast iron commercial building for Lazarus (as a headquarters or office, or as a rental property, it is unknown). That building is visible at right. In 1899 the Lazarus building was replaced by an addition to a neighboring structure, the Ludwig Brothers building. It soon after became Rothenberg & Co., "New York's most up-to-date store." Today that Neo-Grec commercial structure still stands at 34-42 West 14th Street.

Rock pit at 17th Street and Fourth Avenue (as Union Square East and Park Avenue South were then known), during the construction of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, January 9, 1901. The trees visible at upper right are in Union Square Park. Note the subterranean surveyor at the bottom of the image.

840 Broadway ca. 1927 840 Broadway was constructed for garment industry tenants in 1899-1901. This 12-story, steel-frame Renaissance Revival style building was designed by Robert Maynicke, and is a prominent reminder of Broadway’s turn-of-the-20th century development below Union Square. The report tells us that permits to construct 840 Broadway were filed with the Bureau of Buildings in December 1899. Construction began in 1900 and was completed in 1901. The structural framing was fabricated by the Hecla Ironworks, possibly at their North 11th Street Williamsburg factory During the first half of the 20th century, the ground (or first) floor was leased to companies that sold men’s clothing. Thompson & Company was first, signing a ten-year lease in 1899. A 1901 ad described 840 Broadway as “The Thompson Building.” It was the clothier’s uptown branch, selling “haberdashery and hats, as well as men’s and youth’s clothing.” The store closed at the end of 1907. Lester & Lester, another men’s clothing company, was the next tenant, followed by the Goodyear Waterproof Company, which sold raincoats and waterproof apparel. Goodyear operated in this location until 1953.” The architect of 840 Broadway was the German-born Robert Maynicke (1848- 1913). He took night courses at the Cooper Union (also a New York City Landmark). He supervised the construction of the New York Times (1888-89), Equitable (1886- 89), World/Pulitzer (1889-90), Union Trust (1889- 90) and Havemeyer (1891-93) Buildings, as well as the New York Produce (1881-84) and New York Cotton (1883-85) Exchanges. Further south on Broadway and Waverly Place, Maynicke was also responsible for the Guggenheimer Building. Maynicke was an expert on the structural properties of iron and steel and, consequently, tall buildings. Not just an engineering expert, Maynicke used various types of classical ornament here. The upper stories have elaborate terra-cotta details that draw from Greek, Roman, Renaissance, and Baroque sources. Such features include wreaths, garlands, margents, fasces, rosettes, banded arches with keystones, and banded Ionic columns with fluting.

A hot spot for writers and artists, this bar is credited as an important incubator of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the mid century. The Cedar Street Bar first opened in 1866 on (unsurprisingly) Cedar Street in lower Manhattan. After nearly a century and a number of moves further uptown, in 1964 the bar relocated to 82 University Place (seen here) after its venue a few blocks to the south was demolished for apartment buildings. While at its previous location at 24 University Place (1945-1964) the Cedar Tavern became a popular watering hole for many Abstract Expressionists. Artist Robert Motherwell held weekly salons in his nearby studio and this was the closed spot for a drink after the meetings. This group of patrons included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Michael Goldberg, Landes Lewitin, Aristodimos Kaldis, and others of the New York School of Abstract Expressionists. Beat Generation writers and artists, including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Bob Dylan, also frequented Cedar Tavern. The 82 University Place location closed in 2006 and its century-old, 50-foot mahogany bar was sold and transported to a bar in Austin, Texas.

80 Fifth Avenue, an elaborately-detailed Renaissance Revival style office building constructed in 1907-1908 by the architecture firm of Buchman and Fox, has been a striking presence at the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 14th Street for well over a century. The stunning architecture would be enough to warrant landmark designation of the 17-story office, store, and loft building, which has housed law firms, clothing and jewelry shops, magazines and real estate offices, a school, and civic organizations over it’s more than one hundred ten year history. But beginning in 1973, the top floor was also home to the National Gay Task Force, the country’s first national LGBT rights organization, during its early period when it made groundbreaking advances — the first in fact ever made — for LGBT rights on the federal level. This building was constructed in 1908 to be used as manufacturing and office space. Known as both 80-82 Fifth Avenue and 2-4 West 14th Street, its facades facing two of New York’s busiest streets is full of stately embellishments. This beautiful building’s lower and upper levels feature decorative floral and geometric ornamentation, elaborate cornices, and angled bay windows on the third floor. Ornamented pilasters are found at either side of these windows, with slightly more austere middle floors and in its arched windows and elaborate ornamentation at the top story. The National Gay Task Force, now renamed as The National LGBTQ Task Force, works to advance full freedom, justice, and equality for LGBTQ people. The organization is the country’s oldest national LGBTQ advocacy group. The founding members of the Task Force included Dr. Howard Brown, Martin Duberman, Barbara Gittings, Ron Gold, Frank Kameny, Nathalie Rockhill, and Bruce Voeller. They were inspired by the Stonewall uprising and the burgeoning LGBTQ rights movements in the Village. Among the Task Force’s accomplishments during the time it was located at 80 Fifth Avenue included getting the American Psychiatric Association to end its classification of homosexuality as a mental illness; getting the federal government to end its ban on employing gay or lesbian people in any federal agencies (though a guarantee not to discriminate based upon sexual orientation was not implemented until decades later); and brokering the first meeting of gay rights advocates with the White House in 1977.

Townhouses on West 10th Street, October 11, 1940. (Note the growth of the tree in front of No. 17!)

Civic Repertory Theater, July 2, 1936. From the 1860s to the turn of the century, New York’s theater district centered on 14th Street. Abbott photographed four 19th-century theaters in the old district, anticipating their imminent destruction. The Civic Repertory opened in 1866 as the Theatre Francaise and acquired its modern name in 1926, when Eva Le Gallienne reopened it to produce classic revivals and new plays at low prices. Between 1932 and 1935, it housed the Labor Theatre, which performed plays with social themes. When Abbott photographed the Civic Repertory in 1936, it was closed, and two years later, a motion picture chain tore it down with plans for a new movie house, which was never built. In 1974, a six-story apartment house went up on the site.

31-41 Union Square West, October 26, 1938. The building at the far left is the Metropolis Bank, a neo-Renaissance structure designed by Bruce Price and completed in 1903. Next to it at no. 33 is the Decker or Union Building.The 1892 building was designed by John H. Edelmann. The style of the facade includes Venetian and Islamic traditions, rendered in terra cotta detail. From 1967 to 1973 the building was the venue for Andy Warhol's "Factory." It was here in 1968 that Valerie Solanas shot Warhol and critic Mario Amaya. The Hartford Building (no. 41 at the corner of 17th Street) dates to 1895 and was built as the headquarters of the Hartford Carpet Company. Today all of these buildings remain standing.

Streetcar tracks alongside the high pressure water system trench on Union Square West; undated photo. At left is the shop of Victor S. Flechter, violin dealer, at No. 23 Union Square West. Flechter was not a merchant of high moral character: He twice ran afoul of the law during the 1890s: first for selling an imitation violin as a Gasparo Duiffopruggar original; and again in 1896, for possessing a Stradivarius violin stolen from the late Prof. Jean Joseph Bott, for which he was sentenced to one year in prison.

29 West 14th Street, August 10, 1927. No.29, the old house at the right, belonged to the estate of the late Frederick T. Van Beuren.

Northwest corner of 14th Street and Fourth Avenue, ca. 2001.

Lincoln Funeral on Broadway, 1865. This 1865 photograph of President Lincoln's funeral procession shows Broadway looking north from 13th Street. The large home on corner is that of Cornelius van Schaack Roosevelt, grandfather of future president Teddy Roosevelt. Cornelius was a very successful plate glass importer and he owned the entire blockfront of Broadway from Union Square to 13th Street. In the 1940s a filmmaker and author named Stefan Lorant was putting together a pictorial biography of Lincoln. Upon closer inspection of this photograph he noticed two small figures in the second-story window. Lorant proposed that the two children were Teddy and his brother. He was able to ask Roosevelt's widow, Edith Carow Roosevelt, who was then in her late 80s, and she confirmed that it was very likely them.

Hungarian American Bank, ca. 1910. Real estate developer Henry Corn commissioned the architect Robert Maynicke to design a mid block, 11-story Beaux-Arts building in the mid 1890s. The large bank building then had an addition completed in 1899, which extended the building to the corner, added two more stories, and erected a three-story dome at the new corner. The new addition made the building a far more striking edifice. Through the 20th century, the bank and manufacturing structure lost its balcony and had contemporary infill on the ground level. In 2005 while undergoing a condo conversion the facade was restored and the original features, once lost, were remade. The cupola is now a 3,200 square-foot apartment.

Everett Building ARCHITECT: Goldwin Starrett & Van Vleck DATE: 1908 STYLE: Chicago Built in 1908 for the Everett Investing Company, was designed by Goldwin Starrett & Van Vleck, a firm known for its commercial architecture. In its design, the Everett Building synthesizes classical elements with key aspects of both the New York and the Chicago styles. Goldwin Starrett, the architect, brought to his New York practice familiarity with the Chicago style. The building reflects its structure in its cladding while employing a design vocabulary that includes classical motifs.

Village Preservation successfully advocated for this building's landmark designation in 2021. This building housed the headquarters of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organizations, the NAACP, the first magazines for an African-American audience, The Crisis Magazine, and what would become the American Civil Liberties Union, among many other entities. To learn more about 70 Fifth Avenue, click here.

Asociación de Arte Latinoamericano (ADAL), 682 Sixth Avenue. For nearly 40 years, gay artistic director Max Ferrá led INTAR, a Latino theater company first known as Asociación de Arte Latinoamericano (ADAL) when it was located in this building from 1966 to 1971. Under Ferrá, who was also a co-founder, the company became a major force in developing Hispanic-American theater talent, including original works by several notable LGBT playwrights.

Prohibition began in 1920 with the passage of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. For the next thirteen years, the production, sale, and consumption of alcohol in the United States was illegal. The Prohibition Movement originated with organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League in the second half of the 19th century. Belonging to the Progressive Movement, these temperance organizations sought not only to address the effects of society's problems, but to eliminate the root cause of crime and poverty by prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. While these ideas might seem noble, they involved a darker side. These organizations were rooted in Protestant ideas of the Social Gospel and exhibited prejudice towards the growing number of immigrants and Catholics in America's cities. Many supporters of Prohibition viewed the newly arriving immigrants' enjoyment of beer and whiskey as the reason for the rising poverty and crime rates in many American cities, especially New York. Prohibitionists' intentions of eliminating crime and poverty not only failed, they backfired! Prohibition actually led to an increase in crime and illegal activity, as many began to profit from the illegal importing, production, and selling of alcohol. While the experiment with Prohibition ultimately ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment, it transformed American society and culture. NYS Social Scope and Sequence Standards: 8.4 & 11.7 For Teachers: Prohibition Lesson Plan

In 1892, 27% of the country's millionaires lived in New York, when the city only made up 2% of the country's population! Welcome to the society of the Gilded Age. This tour takes its inspiration from an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York that explores the visual culture of New York's richest residents from the mid-1870s to the start of World War One. It stops at several places, such as the old headquarters of Tiffany \&Company that are connected to the dazzling objects in the show. It also introduces you to some of the people at the center of Gilded-age society, and illuminates how-over the course of three decades- the city transformed more rapidly than ever before. It was during this time that New York became a world capital on par with London and Paris. Before the 1870s the lives of the rich and the places they frequented had been more private and understated. By the 1890s they were public and over the top: Simple brownstones gave way to French chateaux, cluttered dry good stores became palatial department stores; and grand hotels and restaurants became premiere places to entertain, outside the home. Even if shoes are more comfortable now than they were in the Gilded Age, you may find it tiring to walk this tour from beginning to end. So feel free to split it up!

Union Square is known today as a site of public gathering and for expressions of discontent. This is built upon Union Square’s rich, multi-layered history as a public space in Manhattan. The name of the park comes from its location within the downtown area, placed between, or at the “union,” of the then-Bloomingdale Road and Bowery Road, which is now Fourth Avenue and Broadway. Only thirty years after it was designated a public space by the State Legislature in 1831, despite its fencing and narrow sidewalks, Union Square evolved into a space where mass demonstrations, rallies, and protests took place.

A communist demonstration in front of the Hartford building on May 1, 1937.

Civic Repertory Theatre, 1936. The Civic Repertory Theatre opened in 1866 as a home for French language dramas and opera. Also known as Theatre Francais, it was designed by Alexander Saeltzer and presented French productions until 1869. It operated as a booking house from 1880 through the start of the twentieth century, most famously presenting Haverly's Minstrels. In 1871, the theatre was renamed to the Lyceum, after its new owner. The theater was again renamed in 1878 as Haverly's 14th Street when J.H. Haverly took it over. Despite its name change, by the mid-1880s, it had simply become known as the Fourteenth Street Theatre. The space was used as a movie theatre in the early part of the twentieth century until 1926 when actress Eva Le Gallienne turned it into the Civic Repertory Theatre. Although she put on 34 successful productions, the Great Depression ended that venture in 1934. The building was demolished in 1938.

The Gilded Age describes the era following the Civil War and preceding the Progressive Era. From around 1870-1900 the United States industrialized rapidly. Factories sprung up throughout the towns and cities in the Northeast and Midwest. New railroad networks and telegraph lines connected these industries and cities with the financial centers of the nation, specifically New York City. The Gilded Age is a complicated period. It saw the rise of monopolies and the creation of vast wealth. However, this wealth was limited to only a few families. Most Americans, including the millions of immigrants arriving annually, remained incredibly poor. The inequality of the Gilded Age prompted Progressive Reformers to enact laws which helped those poorer Americans. New York City represented well this "tale of two cities." In 1892, 27% of the country's millionaires lived in New York, when the city only made up 2% of the country's population! Yet the vast majority of poor immigrants arriving to the country entered through New York Harbor. While many Progressive reforms got their start in the Big Apple, the city was also the center of Gilded Age opulence. NYS Social Studies Scope and Sequence Standards: 8.2 & 11.5 For Teachers: The Gilded Age Lesson Plan

One of a pair of almost entirely identical townhouses, 24 West 12th Street was built in 1851 by Charles Partridge. In 1853, it was sold to General Winfield Scott, who used it as his residence in the city. Winfield Scott was one of the most important generals of the 19th century. Having successfully lead the United States Army during the invasion of Mexico, Scott was important in the organization and modernization of the American military. Despite the respect of his peers and broad popular support, Scott was unsuccessful as the Whig presidential candidate of 1852 (the party having been broadly divided due to the Compromise of 1850.) Despite being a Virginian, Scott stayed loyal to the Union during the civil war and developed the Anaconda plan to crush the rebellion. However, Lincoln caved to popular pressure for an immediate (and disastrous) attack. Scott resigned in 1861, dying five years later.

22 West 15th Street, ca. 1935. The Leopold Ascher Brush Company was headquartered in the large six-story building at center. They produced boar bristle brushes for shaving. They were established in 1888 by Ascher, a German-Jewish immigrant to New York. In 1920 he applied for a trademark for his products. Oddly that trademarked symbol was very similar to the Nazi swastika. He is better known for the 1939 trademark for his popular Strong Set of shaving brushes. Ascher was a cousin to Paula Kissinger, mother to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Young Kissinger worked at the factory as a brush maker and later clerk and delivery boy as a teenager, while attending high school in the evening uptown.

20 West 12th Street, 1940. In the years just prior to and after the First World War there was a movement among a group of architects, homeowners, and developers to re-imagine the old (and sometimes deteriorating) rowhouses of Manhattan's older neighborhoods into innovative and stylish dwellings. No. 20 was one of those older rowhouses (it likely looked very similar to its neighbors). In the 1930s the home was renovated by architect Charles Magill Smith, who also lived there. The stoop was removed and the entrance created at the garden level.

The Everett Building, 200 Park Avenue South, ca. 1975. Erected in 1908, the Everett Building was designed by the Goldwin Starrett & Van Vleck firm. The facade of this 16-story high rise reflects the philosophy, taste, and style of acclaimed architect, Daniel Burnham — best known for the Flatiron Building — who previously employed Starrett in Chicago.

Milligan Place, March 20, 1936. Named for Samuel Milligan, whose home originally stood on the site, Milligan Place’s four houses were built in 1852 by Aaron Patchin, Milligan’s son-in-law, who owned nearby Patchin Place. Like Patchin Place, Milligan Place attracted bohemian tenants, such as George Cram Cook, co-founder of the Provincetown Players, and his wife, playwright Susan Glaspell. After 1917, the houses were modernized and subdivided into apartments. Abbott allowed the bright sunlight to impose a graphic pattern on the awkward space of Milligan Place, with the deep shadow of the El filling the foreground and the craggy branches of a barren tree filling the middle ground. The man standing at the apex of the triangular walkway cooperated with the photographer; a variant image shows that he walked into space twice. Threatened with demolition by a new owner, Patchin Place and Milligan Place were granted landmark status in 1969.

View north from 7th Street and Fourth Avenue (today Park Avenue South), August 2, 1902. During the cut and cover process of construction of the IRT East Side line, the busy streets of the city needed to maintain their necessary uses. Here a fully loaded trolley rolls over the tracks of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company. The tracks have been raised above the large excavation pit and shored up with thick timbers.

In the 1850s James Boorman Johnston, a wealthy real estate investor, had an idea. He wished to create a building that was designed specifically and solely for artists. He commissioned a young Richard Morris Hunt to bring his vision to life. The resulting Tenth Street Studios were nothing much to look at from the outside, a somewhat simple three-story brick facade with large windows. But it was these windows that aided in the buildings innovative interior. The inside of the structure was laid out with a domed central gallery from which rooms radiated. Light flooded the studios from the large windows. The functional design was an instant success, with some of the spaced occupied before the building was even complete in mid-1858. Early tenants included painters Frederick Church and John LaFarge and Hunt himself, who started the first architecture school in the States from his studio here. Later famed artists William Merritt Chase and Winslow Homer lived and worked here. The building remained true to its original form and function for more than half a century before an important, but ultimately non-disruptive change occurred. In 1920 the resident artists discovered that the owner wished to sell the building. They banded together and purchased it to hold off a commercial conversion or demolition. Saved for three more decades, the building was sold again in 1952 and razed four years later. A banal mid-century apartment building now stands in its place.

Are you ready for a closeup? Try your hand at re-creating these historic photos at Union Square! This challenge is only available to our iOS app users. If you don't yet have the Urban Archive App, download it here. Each location in this challenge has an address and a historic image tied to it. Check-in at each location by tapping the lock icon to the left of the clue. If you’re in the right place, it will turn green. Your challenge today is to take as many then-and-now photos as you can. Tap the image, and then the recreate button to line up the historical image with your present-day view. Once you’re happy with your photo, hit save to add it to your camera roll. Please share these photos with team@urbanarchive.nyc once you’ve completed the challenge. Happy snapping!

In 1750, British naval officer Thomas Clarke bought a Dutch farm to create his retirement estate, named “Chelsea” after the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. His property extended from approximately Eighth Avenue to the Hudson—its shore ran roughly along today’s Tenth Avenue—between 20th and 28th Streets. The estate was subdivided in 1813 between two grandsons; Clement Clarke Moore received the southern half below 24th Street while his cousin, Thomas B. Clarke, inherited the northern section. The two halves developed distinctly different characters due to the split. Today, Chelsea contains a variety of historic architecture, including some of the city’s most intact nineteenth-century residential blocks, significant commercial buildings, and industrial complexes near the Hudson River.

Scribner Building ARCHITECT: Ernest Flagg DATE: 1893-94 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The Scribner Building is a handsome Beaux-Arts office building. It was designed by the eminent American architect Ernest Flagg, and it is a tine example of the application of the best principles of French Beaux-Arts design to a relatively small commercial building, and that it served for many years as the corporate home of Charles Scribner’s Sons, the noted publishing firm.

18 West 10th Street, June 15, 1938. Constructed in 1856 in an Italianate-style, the mansion was built for James Winslow, a wealthy New York banker. The home, four-stories above an English basement, was next door to Winlow's father-in-law and business partner, James F. D. Lanier at No. 16. The building's most striking feature was the three floor to ceiling windows at the parlor level, which matched the entranceway. The original residents only lived in the home for three years. Over the next two decades the mansion would change hands a number of times before being purchased by wealthy and retired sugar merchant Moses Lazarus in 1883. Lazarus, who was in poor health, moved in with his grown daughter, Emma. Emma Lazarus already a known poet, was surrounded by artists on the block, including painter John La Farge who lived two doors down. In 1883, after a trip to Europe, Lazarus wrote "The New Colossus," as part of the fund-raising art exhibition for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Moses died in the home in 1885 and Emma left for a second trip to Europe soon thereafter. She returned to New York and the house in 1887, herself ill. She passed away in November of that year, of what is now believed to have been Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The mansion was sold to Henry B. Livingston, a wealthy scion of an old New York family, before once again passing hands through various of New York's financial elite. For the middle part of the 20th century, the largely unaltered home was occupied by attorney Charles Abrams and his wife, artist Ruth Abrams. Today the basement level has been converted into a separate residence, though the upper floors remain a single-family home.

Church of the Ascension ca. 1933 Particularly beautiful for its interior and for the great mural by John La Farge above the altar, this church is a good example of Gothic Revival style in ecclesiastical architecture. It appears that the rector, knowing architect Richard Upjohn's High Church proclivities, bought the lot across the end of the property for his rectory in order to prevent Upjohn from building a deep chancel, as was his wont.

Let's go west! Explore 14th Street, one of Manhattan's most vital and vibrant arteries. This time, we'll be starting at 5th Avenue and heading towards the Hudson River. Among the highlights: an armory, a bowling alley, and a gorgeous old theater that is no more.

Church of the Holy Communion, date unknown. The Gothic Revival church was constructed between 1844-1845. Designed by well-known church architect Richard Upjohn, it was the first asymmetrical Gothic Revival church building in the United States. The architect designed it to resemble a small medieval English parish church. Though the church was an influential building in the 19th century, it is the building's later 20th century history that is most well known. In the mid-1970s, the church was the Lindisfarne Association's headquarters, which created a cultural center, hosting poetry readings, concerts and lectures. Oddysey House, a drug rehabiliation program, next occupied the church. Then, from 1983 until 2007 the church housed the Limelight, a notorious nightclub. First a disco and rock club, it would evolve into a place for techno, goth, and industrial music. It was frequented by the club kids of the 1990s and was closed and reopened a number of times during its history due to police raids. The Limelight finally closed in 2007 (by that point it had been renamed Avalon). Today the 1840s church is occupied by an upscale Chinese restaurant and a branch of the David Barton Gym chain.

“45 East 18th Street, adjoining the N.W. corner of Fourth Avenue, showing an old enterprise; a feature of this locality (woolen’s) for years. To the right is the 12-story Belvedere Building located at the aforementioned corner. June 1938.” The “old enterprise” is, of course, the Old Town Bar and Restaurant, opened in 1892 and in continuous operation since (its proximity to Prohibition-era Tammany Hall probably didn’t hurt). Inside, you’ll find the original marble and mahogany bar, and one of New York’s oldest operating dumbwaiters.

Village Community Church, West 13th Street, ca. 1985. This temple-fronted Greek Revival church was built in 1846 as the Thirteenth Street Presbyterian Church. Mergers with nearby congregations led to a series of new names: Greenwich Presbyterian, Village Presbyterian, and the Village Community Church. In 1975, the church was sold to a residential developer, despite its inclusion in the Greenwich Village Historic District. It is now an apartment complex known as Portico Place.

First Presbyterian Church, ca. 1915. Founded in 1716, the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York first worshipped on Wall Street, before shifting to Cedar Street and, in 1846, to its present location on Fifth Avenue. The Gothic Revival church, designed by Joseph C. Wells, was built between 1844-6. Today, the First Presbyterian complex includes several additions and outbuildings, including a transept by McKim, Mead & White (1893-4) and a “church house” by Edgar Tafel.

Street & Smith Publishing is was one of the oldest publishing houses in the country. They can be credited with encouraging literacy en masse by churning out thousands of volumes of enticing and easy-to-read dime novels, pulp fiction books, comic books, and magazines. The company was founded in 1855 by Francis Scott Street and Francis Shubael Smith when the two revitalized a dying fiction magazine. Three short years later, they purchased the New York Weekly Dispatch and began growing their publishing empire. The house put forward novels in the following categories: adventure and sea stories, detective and mystery, romance, sci-fi, sports, westerns, and young adult fiction. They also published comic books including the likes of Jesse James, Buffalo Bill, and Nick Carter. Their weekly magazines included Popular Magazine, Pic, Charm, and Mademoiselle. Street & Smith ceased production of pulp fiction in 1949, largely due to increasing competition with television. The publishers turned their attention to their collection of magazines. The publisher was sold to Conde Nast for over 3.5 million dollars in 1957.

Guardian Life Building, 1918. Forced out of their previous headquarters on Cedar and Nassau Streets because of serious structural complications, the Germania Life Insurance planned a move uptown in 1909. They purchased land near Union Square and commissioned the firm of D’Oench & Yost. The resulting 20-story building, completed in 1911, was largely Renaissance Revival in style, though it featured elements of other styles, such as its eye-catching four-story mansard roof (their previous building had been a Second Empire structure with a stately mansard). The mansard, tiled in reddish-orange terra cotta, had scores of windows in various shapes and styles. And on top an electric sign broadcasted the firm's name. Renamed the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America during the anti-German sentiments of the First Wold War, the firm had a new sign manufactured. Guardian remained in the building until 1999, when they moved back downtown. Today the building is the W New York, Union Square, a hotel.

Harris (1855-1931), an Irish immigrant who became a naturalized U.S. citizen during his editorship of Pearson’s Magazine, was a noted author, journalist, editor, publisher, and provocateur. His autobiographical My Life and Loves was banned in the United States and Britain for 40 years due to its sexual content. In addition to publishing this and Pearson’s, Harris wrote two books about Shakespeare and biographies of his friends, the playwright George Bernard Shaw and the poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Wilde, who was found guilty of engaging in acts of “gross indecency” in 1895, became an icon in the emergence of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Harris’ close friendship with Wilde is portrayed in Moises Kaufman’s Gross Indecencies: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, as well as several other literary portrayals of Wilde’s life.

Twin townhouses on West 12th Street, which served as the Church House for the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue. July 16, 1936. These townhouses, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, were likely completed during the 1840s. Decades later, No. 14 (right) was home to the sculptor John Rogers (1888-95) and the writer Theodore Dreiser (1897-98). The townhouses were razed during the 1950s, ahead of the construction of the new Church House, designed by Edgar Tafel, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. One architectural element of the old Church House survives: a stained glass window, now part of the Brooklyn Museum collection.

This building served as the home of the groundbreaking Pearson’s Magazine and bookstore. Pearson’s began as a progressive British magazine in 1896 with a socialist bent and focus on literature, publishing works by Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, and H.G. Wells, among others. However, the American version, founded in 1899, began to diverge in its content and focus more on American writers and issues, especially under the editorship of Frank Harris in the 1910s and 20s, when it was located here.

Margaret Louisa Home ca. 1907 By the late 19 century, not only were unmarried working-class women toiling in factories, mills, shops, and various trades, but middle-class women were employed in new white-collar jobs as clerks, secretaries, stenographers, journalists, and telephone operators. An 1879 report of the Association for Inquiry into the Condition of Professional and Business Women estimated that there were about 50,000 women pursuing “professional, literary, and artistic pursuits” in and within 50 miles of New York, while there was only accommodation for 500. The need for housing was so great that the LCU and similar organizations were turning away three applicants for every one they could house. The Young Women’s Christian Association of New York City constructed the first new building designed specifically to house single working women.] Completed in 1891 at 14-16 East 16th Street, the six-story Margaret Louisa Home was described as “a temporary home for the Protestant self-supporting woman who is a stranger within the gates of Gotham.” The requirements for acceptance to the house show the continued emphasis on moral character: “Those desiring admission \[must] provide a name, occupation, church denomination, and the name and address of a reliable person…” Thirty years on, the house rules were as strict as those in the earlier “moral homes.” Rent was payable in advance, no cooking or washing was allowed on the premises, electricity was “extinguished at 11 o’clock,” and “the house is closed at 11 pm; those liable to be detained later must report at the Superintendent’s office in advance.” The Margaret Louisa was a new type of building, much larger than any earlier home (it could accommodate up to 110 women). Still, it was consciously designed, under the leadership of the all-female association board, to “have that indescribable, indispensable something—sympathetic home influence.” Contemporary descriptions of the public spaces note the walls were “painted in warm, soft colors which add greatly to the charm of the finish,” while “the parlors are tastefully furnished, with engravings, a piano…reading lamps…all of which give a peculiar home-like air to these surroundings.” In contrast, the bedrooms at the Margaret Louisa were quite small and furnished plainly. Photos from about 1907 show a dormitory bedroom crowded with three iron bedsteads, small wash basins, a bureau, and a shelf. While the single-bedroom photo has similar furnishings, it appears staged as an attractive, feminine, middle-class space, a sort of “aspirational” bedroom with a vase of flowers, pictures on the bureau, and personal items pinned up behind a shelf, which also has assorted knick knacks More occupants meant a lower cost per boarder, which might explain the small size of the bedrooms and their spartan furniture. However, it is interesting to contrast the austere nature of the small, almost institutional bedrooms, with the attractively decorated public rooms—rooms where genteel practices like reading or playing the piano were encouraged. Even though the residents, for the most part, were middle-class, professional women—teachers, artists, and journalists—in form, furnishings, and rules, the Margaret Louisa continued the traditions of the “Moral Home.”

Tammany Hall was the home to the political machine known as the Tammany Society from 1929 until they could no longer afford the building in 1943. Despite its storied political history, the Neo-Georgian building was only designated a New York City landmark in 2013. A renovation proposed by BKSK Architects a year later in 2014 included a multi-story glass dome perched on the top of the existing landmarked building. This design was deemed too stark by the LPC, but a year later BKSK came back to the commission with a slightly pared-down version and it was unanimously approved. There will still be a large glass dome that rises two stories above the roofline of the existing building, but the profile is much lower from the street. If you look up the designs (which you should!), you’ll notice that the glass dome rather resembles a turtle shell, which is precisely what the architects were after. Inspired by the namesake of the original chief of the Tammany organization and leader of the Lenape people in the late 17th century, Chief Tamanend.

881 Broadway, ca. 1976. The massive building that runs from Broadway to Fifth Avenue along the whole of 19th Street (and also actually has a small mid block facade on 18th Street) was built over 15 years. Designed by Griffith Thomas, the original section of this building fronted Broadway and a small section of 19th Street. Constructed in 1868 in an ornate Second Empire style, Thomas extended the building along 19th in 1872 and had a second entrance on that facade added. At this time the original top of the building was removed for the construction of the double-story mansard roof. The building was once again extended in 1876 so that it reached all the way to 5th Avenue. (The 1883 addition which is a mid block facade on 18th Street was completed in a very different style and by a different architect.) The building was constructed and subsequently altered for the Arnold Constable dry goods company. The origins of this business date to 1825 and a storefront on Front Street. The firm grew and prospered and moved a number of times before purchasing the lot on 19th Street. Already one of the largest dry goods stores in the city in 1868, the additions to the building allowed for new departments (carpet, upholstery, wholesale) and created a massive department store. It was said to be "one of the largest business establishments in the world." The store remained in this location until 1914, when it moved uptown to 40th Street. In 1925 Arnold Constable merged with specialty retailer Stewart & Company and began expanding to the suburbs. The store finally closed its Fifth Avenue and 40th Street location in 1975. It would go on to become the location of the Mid Manhattan Branch of the New York Public Library.

827-831 Broadway (two middle buildings with peaks at the roofline), c. 1910. The pair of cast iron-fronted buildings at 827 and 831 Broadway were built in 1866 and designed in the Italianate style by cast iron master Griffith Thomas. Constructed for Pierre Lorillard III, the grandson of New York's earliest maker of snuff, the four-story buildings were designed for retail, office, and manufacturing spaces. The symmetrical rows of arched windows, crafted by Thomas in 1866, remain nearly unchanged today. Not long after completion the building became the headquarters of Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing, which invented some of the first successful sewing machines and forever changed clothing manufacturing. In the mid to late 20th century the ground floor was occupied by a well-known high end antique shop, one of many on this section of Broadway at that time. The most famous tenant of no. 831, though, was the artist Willem deKooning, who began renting an industrial space in 1958. His studio was described in 1962 by photographer Dan Budnik: “Walking into his studio was like entering a New York artist’s dream space. Daylight from skylights and large front windows reflected off white walls and a polished natural wood floor, creating a proper balance in the ambient light." Despite earlier threats of demolition, the twin buildings were landmarked in October of 2017, with the LPC noting their significant cultural history in addition to their architectural merit.

Village Presbyterian Church ca. 1985 The simulation of stone in wood required that the carpenters produce absolutely flat, smooth surfaces for parts of the entablature and for the back of the pediment. Where these surfaces were not properly maintained and kept painted, the whole illusion was lost. In this hexastyle Doric church it was apparently not deemed necessary to return the entablature beyond the depth of the portico, as this was not a corner site.

April 13, 2020, marks the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Museum occupied two temporary buildings before opening its permanent location in Central Park in 1880. When it first opened to the public, The Met was located in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. The Douglas Mansion became The Met’s second home from 1873 to 1879, situated at 128 West 14th Street. Since opening its permanent home on Fifth Avenue, the building has expanded greatly, and various additions now surround the original structure. These images chronicle the early decades of The Met’s 150-year history.

George Washington Statue, ca. 1975. This equestrian memorial to America's first president is the oldest sculpture in the collection cared for by the NYC Parks Department. In 1851 a group of citizens approached two artists regarding a desired Washington sculptor. Horatio Greenough was well-known for a previous marble sculpture he created of the president, but passed away before a design could be planned. The resulting bronze monument was created by Henry Kirke Brown, who had already sculpted DeWitt Clinton for Green-Wood Cemetery. Kirke choose to recreate a scene from Evacuation Day, November 25, 1783, when Washington reclaimed the city from the British. He spent more than 18 months modeling the horse and its rider. Placed on a simple pedestal designed by Richard Upjohn, the statue was dedicated June 5, 1856 before a crowd of thousands. Originally located in a fenced traffic island in the middle of the intersection at the southeast corner of Union Square (see the next image below), the statue was moved to a more central location in the south plaza of the park during a redesign and reconstruction in the late 1920s.

Broadway, north from 21st Street, ca. 1909. The entire two blocks in the foreground, from 21st to 23rd Streets, will be unchanged some twenty-seven years later, in 1936, except for a 12story loft building, which will occupy the clearing shown here in the block between 21st and 22nd Streets. This clearing is the result of the demolition of three four-story houses. In 1936 the Bancroft House will be the Hotel Courte; and the Hotel Bartholdi, on the S.E. corner of 23rd Street, will be the Bartholdi Building, remodeled into an office building. But during this period of twenty-seven years there will be no demolitions and, with the exception noted, no construction work -- a long period in New York

In the Gilded Age, this was the area where America went to shop. If today, New York's iconic shopping district is midtown Manhattan, in the 1880s and 1890s it was Ladies' Mile, the area extending between 15th and 24th streets from Broadway to Sixth Avenue. As a popular guidebook noted in 1892: "Ill fares the rural or provincial purse whose owner ventures before these attractive windows, extending for miles on miles, ever diversified and varied." Indeed between just 19th and 22nd streets on Broadway you could purchase a French velvet or antique Oriental rug at the carpet emporium, W. & J. Sloane (now ABC Carpet & Home); a silver punch bowl carved with twisted vine handles and lion paw feet at the silver maker Gotham Manufacturing Company; and a bespoke or ready-made suit at Brooks Brothers.

"Meditations in an Emergency" by Frank O’Hara, 1957 was published five years after the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a sociopathic personality disturbance, and four years after President Dwight Eisenhower signed an executive order banning homosexuals from working for the federal government or any of its private contractors.

The Hudson Building, Union Square, May 18, 1942. This 1908 Beaux-Arts building by Buchman & Fox included both retail and office space. Though it was advertised to business clients, by the 1930s tenants included leftist groups like International Workers Order (IWO), who operated its own birth control clinic out of the building.

7 East 15th Street, ca. 1970. Founded in 1906 by devotees of the Socialist Party of America, the Rand School of Social Science was created as an educational institution for worker, focused on a knowledge of class structure. The school consisted of evening courses and lectures in history, economics, and philosophy. The school's programming was originally housed in a series of converted homes on 19th Street. In 1912 the school moved into the 1887-built, Romanesque Revival, former Y.W.C.A building at 7 East 15th Street.

With the onset of the Gilded Age, New Yorkers began looking for the best places to outfit themselves and their home. Department stores served that need and few did so better than Siegel-Cooper. This story is a preview of our Spring Retail exhibition.

90 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1914. Designed by 1902 by Robert Maynicke, the loft building was one of a number commercial building constructed on Fifth Avenue by the Cooper Union-educated architect. The eleven-story, cast-iron building with classical details included 140,000 square feet of space. In the 1980s the large industrial building was gutted and converted into the headquarters for the Research Institute of America. Forbes became a longterm tenant in the 1990s (leaving in 2013), and today the 3rd through the 11th floor is home to the brokerage company, Compass.

18-24 West 11th Street, 1971. This 1971 image captures a very specific time frame in the history of the particular block. Just one year earlier a Greek Revival townhouse (18 West 11th Street) constructed in 1845 stood next to the home with the set back on the fourth floor. By the end of the 1970s, a severe angle-fronted brick home would take its place. But just before noon on March 6, 1970, a bomb being constructed in the basement of the house exploded prematurely. The bomb makers were members of a radical left group, the Weather Underground. Three Weathermen were killed and the building was reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble. The lot remained empty until 1978 when architect Hugh Hardy (who had for a short time owned the empty property) convinced the new owners—and the Landmarks Preservation Commission—to allow him to rebuilt the home with a sharply angled, modern facade.

A city is not just buildings but the people who live there and visit - so we added your history to the map. Enjoy reading through the stories that we selected as part of our second NYC Memories initiative!