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.

Cooper-Hewitt House, Gramercy Park, June 1925. In 1848, Peter Cooper left his longtime residence at Fourth Avenue and 28th Street (then a busy industrial area and slaughterhouse district), for a new mansion in the Gramercy Park neighborhood. Cooper shared his 35-room residence with his extended family, including son-in-law and future Mayor of New York City Abram Hewitt. Hewitt had befriended Cooper’s son Edward Cooper — himself the city’s 83rd Mayor — while traveling abroad in Europe. The Cooper-Hewitt bond was cemented when both me survived the capsizing of their return ship off of Cape May. Hewitt would go on to marry Edward’s sister, Sarah Cooper. Hewitt’s family continued to reside at 9 Lexington Avenue after Peter Cooper’s 1883 death, and even enlisted Gramercy Park neighbor Stanford White to design updates to the structure. The building was eventually replaced by a 13-story apartment building, completed in 1951.

3-4 Gramercy Park West, ca. 1970-1990.

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.

New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital. October 7, 1911. The hospital at Second Avenue and 20th Street opened in May, 1894, with a reception attended by friends and benefactors of the institution. The New York Times described the new facilities: “Physicians who have visited the great hospitals of Europe pronounce the new building as second to none In Its equipments for advanced medical work,” also noting that “the baby incubator, in which there was a baby, was a source of great interest.” The hospital closed in 1963, when it was rendered obsolete by the newly-completed Bellevue Hospital. The building was demolished and its site was converted to a playground for the Simon Baruch Junior High School.

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.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower ca. 1909. New York boasts few campaniles, yet here, the architects arrived at the ingenious scheme of combining skyscraper offices, a commercial symbol ("The Light that Never Fails"), and a large office building into one structure. In 1908 it was the tallest building in New York, and the clock faces are larger than those of Big Ben in London.

Madison Square Presbyterian Church, ca. 1903-1906.

Hotel St. Germain ca. 1855 Though now long gone, the Hotel St. Germain certainly attracted some attention when it was built in 1855, especially when compared to the nearby stately Fifth Avenue Hotel. An 1862 Vanity Fair recounted a particularly critical exchange "What started that horse to run away?” asked the Architect. “I don’t know sir, he took fright up at the St. Germain Hotel.” “Took fright at the St. Germain? Sensible horse. I don’t wonder!” replied the Architect. This short exchange sums up the public's feelings about the Hotel St. Germain and it was eventually demolished by real estate investor Amos Eno to make way for better-loved buildings (though not that better-loved since they too were demolished around the turn of the century for the Flatiron Building).

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

Provident Loan Society of New York, 1917. The Provident Loan Society was established in response to the panic of 1893, with Gilded Age industrialists providing its initial capital, and expanded its operations in the early years of the 20th century. In 1908, the organization moved into its new headquarters at Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South) and 25th Street, an Italianate palazzo designed by J. Lawrence Aspinwall. Today, the building is unaltered, despite the development of skyscrapers on all sides.

Madison Square Presbyterian Church, interior dome, ca. 1905.

Samuel Tilden House ARCHITECT: Vaux & Radford DATE: 1881-84 STYLE: Victorian Gothic This building is a fine example of conservative Victorian Gothic architecture. It displays a wealth of unusual details and varicolored stones. It was once the home of an American distinguished both in the realm of politics and the world of culture and scholarship.

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.

In 2021 Madison Square Park was awarded Level 2 Arboretum Accreditation for its continued diversity of tree species. Madison Square Park Conservancy cares for nearly 300 trees that sequester carbon, filter rainwater, and provide shade that keeps our neighborhood cool.

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.

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).

Flatiron Building 175 Fifth Avenue, 1901-1903 Architect: Daniel H. Burnham Developer, Structural Engineer, MEP Engineer, General Contractor, Original Owner & Tenant: George A. Fuller Construction Co. Current Owner: Flatiron Associates Current Tenant: St. Martins Press, Springer-Verlag Inc. Height: 285 ft / 87 m Floors: 21 The Flatiron Building, also called the Fuller Building, stands at 175 Fifth Avenue, at the intersection of 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue and Broadway. The client was Fuller Construction Co., who also built the 22-story, steel-framed triangular shaped building clad in limestone and terra-cotta. The eclectic decoration borrows form Greek, Gothic and Renaissance traditions. It is often mistakenly described as of the first skyscrapers or first steel-framed buildings. It is more aptly described as one of the first Chicago-style tall buildings in Manhattan with its unbroken, columnar block with a distinct base, shaft and capital instead of the more traditional New York-style skyscraper which features a tower rising above the building. The Flat Iron Building is 285 feet tall, but the rounded corner, like the prow of a ship featured in this view, is only 6 feet wide. When it was under construction it was nicknamed "Burnham's Folly" since its triangular shape was considered unsafe. Gawkers used to dawdle in front of the building to watch as the drafts created by the building lifted women's skirts as they passed. This is said to be the origin of the phrase "23 Skidoo" which police officers would shout out to disperse the gawkers. The entrances to the Flat Iron are in the middle of the long facades which houses retail space and elevator banks. When it opened, the building had an electric generator to provide its own electricity and heating and an early type of hydraulic elevator. There were no designated ladies' rooms since the restrooms of alternate floors were assigned to opposite sexes. On the left is Broadway and Fifth Avenue is on the right in this view. Behind the Flat Iron on the right is the dome of the Merchants Bank of New York, 141 Fifth Avenue (Robert Maynicke, 1897) at the southeast corner of 21st Street. Barely visible to the extreme right is the tower of Sohmer Building at 170 Fifth Avenue (Robert Maynicke, 1898) on the northwest corner of 22nd Street is seen behind it. Although they are rather short, both the Sohmer Building and the Merchants Bank are typical of the New York-style tall building.

Luchow's Restaurant ca. 1975 Luchow’s was a German restaurant/beer garden. It opened in 1882 at 110 East 14th Street at a time when the East Village was known as “Little Germany”, or Kleindeutschland. The restaurant would expand over the years in size and prominence, eventually occupying a space eight times as large as the original venue. In its heydey, Luchow’s was the place to see and be seen if you were a part of the music, theater, or literary crowd. It imported 70,000 half-barrels of beer a year, a daily consumption of 24,000 liters. Famous diners include Theodore Roosevelt, Diamond Jim Brady, Oscar Hammerstein, John Barrymore, Arturo Caruso, Sigmund Romberg, Lillian Russell, O. Henry, Theodore Dreiser, Thomas Wolfe, and Edgar Lee Masters. Luchow’s was the first restaurant in the city to get its liquor license following Prohibition’s repeal in 1933. Union Square lost much of its luster and Luchow’s moved to midtown in the early 1980s. The Palace restaurant and disco opened in Luchow’s former space, followed by a gay bar. But a 1992 fire led to the building’s demolition in 1995, despite efforts to landmark the Victorian building. NYU bought the site and locals were hopeful when plans were announced to revive Luchow’s with a ground-floor “Gay 90’s”-themed restaurant with a (less warmly-received) 600-bed dorm atop it. In the end, the dorm was built, but the restaurant was never revived.

“Stanford White’s city house,” ca. 1884. Stanford White was one of the leading American architects of the Gilded Age, a leading practitioner of Beaux-Arts architecture and a partner in the firm McKim, Mead & White. His New York City buildings include the second Madison Square Garden, the Washington Square Arch, the Gould Memorial Library, and the Judson Memorial Church among several others. White moved into 121 East 21st in 1898, and immediately began an extensive interior renovation which included ornate furnishings, sculptural elements and antiquities imported from Europe. White is also known for the spectacular circumstances of his 1906 murder: he was shot in the head on the roof of his own Madison Square Garden by Harry Kendall Thaw, whose wife, the actress Evelyn Nesbit, had been assaulted by White years earlier, and later carried on an affair with the architect. Thaw’s murder trial became a tabloid spectacle, bringing the unsavory acts of White’s private life into public view. After White’s death, his art collection was auctioned off and the house was sold to the Princeton Club in 1907. The building was demolished in 1924, with construction on the Gramercy Park Hotel commencing later that year.

Stuyvesant Fish House, 19 Gramercy Park South; March, 1909. In 1845, the politician and Whig Party official Samuel Johnson, built a four-story townhouse at 86 Irving Place, just south of the newly-developed Gramercy Park (the fifth floor would added by its next owner, paper merchant Horace Brooks). Just as developer Samuel Ruggles intended, Gramercy Park became a fashionable address in the latter 19th century, and attracted a set of socially prominent residents. In 1887, the house was purchased by Stuyvesant and Mamie Fish, the son of Secretary of State and New York governor Hamilton Fish. Mamie, a renowned hostess in possession of biting wit, immediately set about brining the townhouse up to her standards. The first order of business was a change of address, to the more desirable 19 Gramercy Park South. Next, the Fishes hired architect Stanford White, himself a Gramercy Park resident, to lead a thorough redesign of the interior — including a top-floor ballroom. The spectacular results were described by Brendan Gill, writing in The New Yorker in 1979, as "Unquestionably, the greatest house remaining in private hands in New York." (Some sources, including the Times' Christopher Gray insist that another architect, Sidney V. Stratton, was responsible for the redesign.) Mamie Fish, however, had her sights set on even greater things: the Fishes decamped for a new uptown mansion, also designed by White, in 1898. During the 20th century, the publicist and art collector Benjamin Sonnenberg lived at No. 19 for nearly 50 years.

Academy of Music, 1909. The Academy of Music opera house, opened in October 1854 with a production of Vincenzo Bellini’s ""Norma."" That opera house was destroyed in a May, 1866 fire. (The building pictured above is the second Academy, opened in February 1867). In 1887, the Academy of Music, no longer able to compete with the popular Metropolitan Opera uptown, was sold and to a theatrical venue. Pictured above in 1909, the marquee advertises a production of “Brewster’s Millions” starring Edward Abeles. The building was demolished in 1926. Today its site is occupied by the Consolidated Edison headquarters, a 24-story Beaux Arts skyscraper.

146 East 24th Street, ca 1974. In the late 19th-century, this Beaux-Arts building was home to the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Auction Mart. According to an 1895 advertisement, the firm was once "the largest dealer of horses in the world.'' The mart would host crowds of up to 1,000 people in a huge interior rink that was 65 feet by 197 feet. Before torn down, it was caught in a preservation battle against Baruch College, who eventually demolished the building to construct their William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus.

Klein Department Store, ca. 1984. S. Klein On The Square was department store whose flagship location sat in two buildings on the corner of 14th Street and Union Square East. Considered a more affordable option to stores such as Macy's and A\&S, Klein still offered a furniture department, fur salon, and a full service pet department. The original store (at 14th Street) opened in either 1905 (as stated in the founder's obituary) or by 1912 (as noted in the Landmarks Preservation Commission's East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District Designation Report). The store expanded in 1930 to include the former Union Square Hotel building at the southeast of 15th Street (out of frame at left). During the 1960s the business expanded opening stores in New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. By the late 1970s the parent company of the store began closing the locations en masse and selling off the property, including the flagship location, which closed in 1975. The building was demolished in the mid 1980s for the 1987-completed, Zeckendorf Towers apartment complex.

129 East 19th Street ca. 1904 Son of the author Frances Hopkinson Smith, F. Berkley Smith (1868-1931) resided and worked at this charming Gothic Revival row house near Gramercy Park, at 129 East 19th Street. Smith was an architect and practiced that profession until 1896, when he turned his attention to painting. Built originally as a stable in 1860-1861, the house still stands today under landmark protection.

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.

Consolidated Edison Company Building ARCHITECT: Henry Hardenbergh DATE: 1910-14 STYLE: Classical Revival, Renaissance The Con Edison Building was constructed in stages between 1910 and 1929 for the Consolidated Gas Company, the predecessor to Consolidated Edison. Hardenbergh’s eighteen-story, classically-inspired facades feature giant segmental arches and double-story porticos at the base and rusticated limestone piers balanced by strong horizontal moldings at the upper stories and are enlivened by a rich blend of Classical Revival and Renaissance motifs.

German Savings Bank, ca. 1905. The Central Savings Bank was constructed between 1870 and 1872 as the German Savings Bank. The bank, founded by successful German businessman Jacob Windmuller, dated to 1859. Windmuller created the bank for the large and growing lower Manhattan German population. Business was conducted in German and the immigrant community flocked to the institution. In 1864 the successful bank moved north to a location at the corner of 14th Street and Fourth Avenue. They outgrew their original building, purchased some of the surrounding lots, and hired German-born architect Henry Fernbach to design a French Second Empire style building. The resulting five-story structure had a facade of arched openings, separating pilasters, and cornices at each level. While the bank occupied the lower floor, the upper floor tenants included artist and glassmaker David Maitland Armstrong and sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Following the anti-German sentiments of the First World War, the banks changed its name to ‘The Central Savings Bank in the City of New York.' The bank left the neighborhood in 1928, relocating to a large new building that occupied the entire block between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, 73rd to 74th Streets. The upper floors of the 14th Street bank building housed the New York County Committee of the Communist Party for a number of years in the 1940s. The bank building was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a no-style red brick apartment building.

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.

George Bellows house (center). Ca. 1915. The painter George Bellows, known for his realist depictions of boxing matches, New York City scenes, and portraiture, purchased this Greek Revival townhouse in 1910. He renovated the building’s top floor, raising the ceiling and adding large windows to provide light for his studio.

Epiphany Branch, NYPL, 1916. Opened in 1907 and designed by the firm that worked on a large number of Carnegie libraries in New York City, Carrère and Hastings, the Epiphany Library actually dates back to the 1880s. The library was founded by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York as a part of the Cathedral Library Association in 1887. (The unique name of the branch is understandable given the religious origins of the institution.) The new Carnegie building opened in 1907 and underwent a large renovation by the WPA in 1939. In the late 1960s the community successfully blocked plans for its demolition. Originally a four bay building, as seen in this early photograph, the building had a fifth bay, set back from the street, added during substantial work in the 1980s. The addition included a new front door, which was handicap accessible, and the original door was converted into a window.

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.

Manhattan Trade School for Girls, 1929. The first vocational school for girls—the Manhattan Trade School for Girls—was organized in 1902. Here, young underprivileged female students were trained in a trade (dressmaking, millinery, etc) and given physical education until the age 14, when they aged out of mandatory education and entered into the industrial workforce. After continuously outgrowing smaller spaces, Superintendent of School Buildings C. B. J. Snyder was tasked with designing a new larger home for the school. The resulting building was rendered in the Collegiate Gothic style (a Snyder favorite) with a gleaming white terra cotta facade. The 10-story building could accommodate 1,200 student for classes during the day and 2,000 in the two sets of night classes. Completed in the summer of 1918, much of the training at the start was devoted preparing women to work in the war effort. They learned to drape military garments, cook for canteens, and being nurse's aids. While work for the war effort ended by the close of 1918, the school did continue to produce items that could be sold. An article in 1932 stated that items for sale included "children’s clothes, towels, hats and dresses for adults, neckwear, lampshades, novelties, cakes, cookies, and pies." Over the next few decades the curriculum of the school slowly changed with the times. By the 1980s, the school, then known as Mabel Dean Bacon Vocational High School, was concentrating on business education, nursing, dental assistance and cosmetology. Today the once again gleaming white building (following extensive restoration and upkeep) is the School of the Future, a middle and high school facility focused on small class sizes and an “ethnically, economically, academically, and geographically” diverse student body.

The Players ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1845 The porch of this building represents the epitome of refinement and elegance and that this handsome addition brought a new gaiety to New York City. This building was remodeled from a Gothic Revival townhouse. The very distinguished front porch of the Players with its handsome iron railings and gorgeous wrought iron lamps is the work of Stanford White.

Madison Square Presbyterian Church, ca. 1906. Designed by Standford White and completed in 1906 (just a few months after White was killed), the Madison Square Presbyterian Church was a High Renaissance style building. It replaced the 1853 Gothic church building that occupied the lot across the street at the southeast corner. The main entrance was reached through a portico supported by six light green granite columns, which were 30 feet tall. The building had a huge central dome, which was decorated in the interior with mosaics and Guastavino tiles. It also featured a number of Tiffany windows. The final feature of the church to be completed was the pediment (the triangle over the portico) which only had its heavenly themed terra cotta sculpture installed in 1910 (after this photograph was taken).

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.

College of the City of New York, formerly the Free Academy of the City of New York. July 25, 1927.

Scheffel Hall ARCHITECT: Weber & Drosser DATE: 1894-95 STYLE: German Renaissance Revival The (former) Scheffel Hall, dating from 1894-95, is a significant reminder of the German-American community known as Kleindeutschland which flourished on the Lower East Side in the last half of the nineteenth century. Scheffel Hall’s unusual and flamboyant facade, designed by the architectural firm of Weber & Drosser after the modeled of the famous Friedrichsbau at Heidelberg Castle, is one of the few examples of the German Renaissance Revival style in New York.

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.

College of the City of New York, formerly the Free Academy of the City of New York. Ca. 1912.

In the 1880s, the Lyceum Theatre sat here on Fourth Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets. The theatre was eventually acquired by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as it looked to expand. The theatre owner, Daniel Frohman, moved his theatre to 45th Street and Broadway at a time when that area was only beginning to emerge as the New York City Theatre District. Frohman's new Lyceum opened in November 1903 with a few bricks from the old Lyceum in its cornerstone.

Two storefronts on East 21st Street: Frank J Baker, Plumber; and a kosher meat and poultry shop. June 28, 1926.

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.

Here at Urban Archive, we often focus our stories on the city streets and the public-facing architecture of the city. However, being stuck inside our apartments has given us a new appreciation for interiors so we thought we'd take a look at a diverse array of New York's interiors over the years. This particular story dives inside the homes and lives of New York's elite at the turn of the century and what their interiors meant to them.

23 Skidoo. Today crowds gather around the Flatiron Building to admire its architecture and place in New York history, but back in the early part of the 20th century, men gathered there for a vastly different reason. As many New Yorkers know, the Flatiron sits at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, directly across from Madison Park; the layout of the streets and the park, combined with the building’s placement, can create gusts of wind strong enough to lift women’s skirts. Back in an era when showing any part of one’s legs was risqué, men would gather on 23rd Street hoping to catch a glimpse of a woman’s ankle or maybe even a little more. A contemporary viewer may not conclude that the man in the postcard to the left is admiring the woman’s ankle; I initially thought he was looking at her posterior, but a fellow cataloger clued me in. While it isn’t used heavily today, some say the phrase “23 skidoo” came from this phenomenon. Popular in the early part of the 20th century, getting the “23 skidoo” refers to either leaving an area quickly or being forced to leave. Apparently, the effect of the wind at this intersection was well known and crowds of men would gather in hopes of seeing some skin. As Andrew S. Dolkart in his online article Birth of the Skyscraper: Romantic Symbols describes, so many men loitered in this area that police would eventually come to 23rd Street to usher the crowd away: In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women’s dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building.

Cadillac Cafeteria, ca. 1922. Despite extensive research, little can be discovered about the history of the Cadillac Cafeteria, a dining establishment on 23rd Street just east of Broadway. But upon closer inspection this photograph taken circa 1920 happily captures the cafeteria's architect, Louis Abramson (second from right) and three unnamed companions. The dining spot was no longer operating in 1966 when a fire tore through the basement of the building behind this one on 22nd Street. Unaware that the two structures shared a basement and a supporting wall had recently been removed, the firefighters attempted to approach the blaze through the drug store now occupying 6 East 23rd Street. The fire weakened the flooring, causing a collapse that killed 12 firemen. Prior to September 11, 2001, this disaster claimed the lives of more fire personnel than any other disaster in the city.

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.

Stuyvesant Apartments, December 18, 1936. Completed in 1870, the Stuyvesant Apartments are considered New York’s first apartment building for middle-class residents (as opposed to tenement dwellings). The Victorian Gothic building was designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the celebrated architect who designed the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fifth Avenue facade, and numerous private residences. Annual rent at the Stuyvesant Apartments was between $1,000-1,800, and tenants included the landscape architect Calvert Vaux, and Elizabeth B. Custer, the widow of General George Custer. The apartment house concept took off; soon, similar developments were planned throughout the city. The Stuyvesant, however, was demolished in 1958, making way for a new — what else — apartment building.

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

On May 3rd, 1913, marchers arranged themselves, as the New York Times described, “In straight and graceful lines which were brightened with resplendent decorations, passed in attractive and impressive dignity up Fifth Avenue…it was the greatest spectacular triumph ever won by women in this country in their pursuit of the ballot.”

Any opera lover in New York knows one of the best places to hear an aria (or a couple dozen) is at the Metropolitan Opera. But many may not know about its contentious beginnings! It was at 39th and Broadway where one of the greatest Gilded Age dramas played out. And it wasn't on stage!

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.

3-4 Gramercy Park West, 1935.

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.

Construction of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1906.

United Charities Building ca. 1928 The United Charities Building was built (as the name suggests) to assist the Charity Organization Society. Founded in England in 1869, the Charity Organization Society was aimed at uniting protestant charities to combat social problems. A wealthy new yorker banker, John Stewart Kennedy wanted to provide the charities under its umbrella (which represented thousands of prominent families and hundreds of churches) with a headquarters from which to conduct their work. Similarly, Kennedy wished to include other New York Charities that weren't strictly protestant such as the Children's Aid Society or the New York Mission and Tract Society. The remaining space could be rented by charities at rates significantly below what they would be paying elsewhere. Kennedy selected the architect Robert Henderson Robertson due to Robertson’s previous experience working with charities. Built in 1893, the building housed charities for more than a century until it was sold in 2014 to developers. It was made a national historic landmark in 1991 due to the work of its inhabitants.

The graceful Metropolitan Life Tower overlooks Madison Square Park. This story is of its beginnings, as adapted from the Skyscraper Museum's "Ten Tops" exhibition.

Labor College, ca. 1972. The Mayan-inspired B.W. Mayer Building was completed to the plans of architect Herman Lee Meader in 1916. The facade of the seven-story building is awash in brickwork, terra cotta snakes and skulls, and turquoise details. Originally offices, the building was bought in 1923 by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, a trade union, and in 1930 it became a trade school for the Electrical Workers. The Labor College was established in 1971 as the first such program in the United States. Affiliated with the SUNY system it focused on work, workers and the working-class presence — social, cultural and institutional — in a historical and contemporary context. The building was bought in 1994 by the Society of Friends (Quakers) who converted it into the Friends House, a residence for people with AIDS.

"The Tweed Ring was more than a Democratic Party scandal. William 'Boss' Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall — Manhattan's county Democratic organization — was chief architect of the scheme that embezzled millions of dollars of public funds between 1868 and 1871. Yet, Republicans also deserve a fair share of the blame... A clique of officeholders, the so-called Tammany Republicans, openly joined with the Tweed Ring during its climb to power. As early as 1868, newspapers reported 'a nice little arrangement.' The group was 'doing their best to defeat our Mayor and reelect the regular Tammany incumbent,' complained the New York Tribune. 'Perhaps this is the very way to promote Gen. Grant’s election. Do they expect to nominate him in Tammany Hall?'" For more on Tammany Hall and the Tammany Republicans, check out this article by Jeff Broxmeyer in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Con Edison Building ca. 1983 Though situated on the north side of 14th Street, the tower of the Consolidated Edison Building looms over the East Village to its south and has served as neighborhood place marker for decades. The complex of buildings including the tower we see today actually took almost two decades to arrive at its final form. By the turn of the twentieth century, the headquarters of the Consolidated Gas Company (an earlier iteration of what we know today as Consolidated Edison—Con Ed) was based in a warren of buildings on Irving Place near East 15th Street. When it was decided to consolidate into a single new building, the company tasked architect Henry Hardenbergh with creating a new design. The new 12-story structure on Irving Place between East 14th and 15th Streets was completed in 1911. The company soon realized it would require additional office space, and with the purchase of addition lots on the block, expanded the building to the north and south and increased its height to 19 stories. As the report notes, “because the original twelve story section at the center of the building had not been framed to carry the weight of seven additional stories, a complicated system of trusses was designed to off-load the weight of the upper floors above the old wing onto the newer portions for the building.” An innovative exterior lighting plan was also included (see image below), but was discontinued by the 1920s. It was in the 1920s when the need for expansion came again. This time, the company gave the commission for the additions to the noted firm of Warren & Wetmore, who also designed Grand Central Terminal and Pier 54 on the Hudson. With the acquisition of more land on the block to the east, the expanded building and clock tower that we see today was begun in 1926 and not completed until 1929. Warren & Wetmore looked to the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus in Turkey for inspiration for the distinctive tower top. Throughout the new building design, imagery of urns, fire, and light are present, and was meant to reflect the company’s purpose, as well as serve as a memorial to the service and sacrifice of company workers during the First World War.

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.

Bryant's Minstrel Hall, Later Tony Pastor's New Fourteenth Street Theatre, was the first tenant of Tammany Hall, which was dedicated on July 4, 1868. Audiences flocked there to enjoy the best in entertainment at what became the most famous vaudeville house of the eighties and nineties. It would later be renamed yet again as the Olympic Theatre

120 East 14th Street, September 2, 1936. Irving Place, south from East 15th to 14th (where it terminates) Streets, showing prominently what was once the City Theatre.

A & P, Great American and Pacific Tea Company ca. 1936 Begun on Vesey Street in 1859 as a tea and coffee importer, the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company grew into the world’s largest chain store. In 1937, there were 119 A & P’s in Manhattan and 15,500 stores nationwide. The store in Abbott’s photograph occupied the ground floor of a tenement one block east of Gramercy Park. As the window indicates, most of the store’s products were nationally advertised brands. A comparison of the image with Abbott’s photographs of ethnic groceries documents a dramatic change in modern American life. Today the store is a plumbing supply outlet.

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.

Russell Sage Foundation Building and Annex ARCHITECT: Grosvenor Atterbury; John A. Thompkins II DATE: 1912-23 The Russell Sage Foundation Building was constructed in 1912-13 for one of the leading reform social service organizations of the Progressive era. The Russell Sage Foundation was established in 1907 with an unprecedented ten million dollar bequest of Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage that was to be applied “to the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States of America.” Grosvenor Atterbury’s elegant design was inspired by the sixteenth-century Florentine palazzo but adapted to a twentieth-century office building. The structure’s principal facades are almost entirely clad in rock-faced Kingwood sandstone of a light brown/pink color.

Dewey Arch ca. 1899 This wood-and-plaster arch and colonnade at Madison Square was the focal point of Commodore George Dewey's triumphal procession through New York City on September 30, 1899, after defeating the Spanish forces at Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. The temporary construction, erected by the National Sculpture Society under the leadership of architect Charles R. Lamb and sculptor Frederic W. Ruckstall, was completed on September 29, just one day before the procession. The arch was intended to attract subscriptions for a permanent structure, but Dewey's popularity waned and the project was abandoned. The heavily deteriorated temporary monument was removed in late 1900.

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.

Appellate Division Courthouse of the Supreme Court of New York ca. 1900 Extremely rich in its use of materials, this small courthouse seems almost overburdened by its pediment and balustrade crowned with statues. Yet it is significant as a building in which the arts, including sculpture and mural painting were liberally represented through the efforts of the Municipal Art Society.

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.

"Healy’s Cafe at the corner of 18th Street and Irving Place, March 1909. The 1829 building was originally the Porter Hotel and has been home to a tavern since at least 1864. In 1899, the bar was purchased by Tom and Jon Healy, who opened Healy’s Cafe, a regular haunt of the short story author O. Henry, who lived nearby. Henry is said to have written some of his stories in the establishment, though these tales are likely apocryphal. Now known as Pete's Tavern, the restaurant has officially been in business for more 150 years. It even survived prohibition, when a flower shop served as a front for its clandestine business.

Church of All Souls, ca. 1908. The bold, polychrome Byzantine Revival church was designed by Jacob Wrey Mould and completed in 1855. Mould used red and yellow stone, from Philadelphia and Italy, respectively, to create a distinctive — and divisive — visual effect. The church earned nicknames, including “Church of the Holy Zebra” and “Beefsteak Church.” By the early 20th century, the building was somewhat worse for wear and was sold for development in 1929. Two years later, it was destroyed in a fire.

Flatiron Building, ca. 1977. Located on a site once known as "the Cow Catcher," this building amazed New Yorkers with its dizzy, slender height as seen from the north. Actually, it was almost as sturdy as a rectangular building, though triangular in plan. The exterior treatment, overly rich to our modern eyes, was considered quite conservative in 1902 when it was designed by D.H. Burnham & Company.

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.

Roscoe Conkling Statue, ca. 1976. Mayor of Utica, New York, New York State Congressman and Senator, Roscoe Conkling was a well-established and popular politician until an 1881 dispute with President Garfield over patronage dispensation and federal appointments caused him to resign his Senate seat. He is perhaps best known as the most famous victim of the Great Blizzard of 1888. After leaving his law office, Conkling was walking to the New York Club on 25th Street. He ended up caught for some time in a nearly chest-high drift in Union Square. Though he made it to the club, his health soon began to decline, starting with an ear infection. He died April 18, 1888. In the early 1890s friends advocated for a statue of Conkling in Union Square. Park officials declined the proposed site, supposedly they did not feel he was an appropriate fit with Lincoln and Washington in Union Square. The statue, created by John Quincy Adams Ward, depicts the man while delivering a speech before the United States Senate. Installed in early December 1893, the eight-foot-tall statue did not have a dedication ceremony. The statue was moved 20 feet to its current location during the renovation and redesign of Madison Square Park in 2000.

Cedar Creek, once visible, still flows west to the East River under Madison Square Park. It was buried as the city industrialized during the 19th century.

National Arts Club ca. 1977 Designed by Vaux and Radford for Samuel J. Tilden, the two houses now combined at this address were executed in a scholarly version of Ruskinian Gothic. They display on the exteriors a carefully modulated banding of polychromy replete with foliated sculpture and medallions containing busts of famous authors. The interiors are very rich and to our tastes gloomy, abounding in highly original foliate carvings. There is an exquisite glass dome in the westerly house.

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.

The Players Club ca. 1935 Originally a Gothic Revival town house, this building was purchased by Edwin Booth for his home. In 1888 he made it into a clubhouse for his actor friends. At about this time Stanford White offered his services in remodeling the interior and adding the Italian Renaissance loggia and lanterns, which provide such a handsome entrance.

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.

Houses on Gramercy Park West, ca. 1923. The two Greek Revival houses at left (Nos. 3-4) share a cast iron porch designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. The pair were build around 1844, the same year planting began with the gates of Gramercy Park, signaling the beginning of the surrounding neighborhood's development. No. 4 (furthest left) was home to John Harper, Sr., a former Mayor of New York who moved to Gramercy Park West after leaving office. Harper’s tenure is commemorated by the twin gas lanterns at the gates of No. 4, a borrowed Dutch tradition marking mayoral residences. No. 4 also has a place in music history: the cover image of Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited” was shot on its front steps; Albert Grossman, Dylan’s manager at the time, was the building’s owner.

Entrance to the Domestic Relations Courthouse, August 13, 1940.

Friends Meeting House, Stuyvesant Square, ca, 1900. The Friends Meeting House and Seminary in Stuyvesant Square date to 1860. In the 1820s a schism occurred within the Society of Friends in New York. When the larger Quaker community began accepting the then in-fashion focus on intense Bible study, a group led by Elias Hicks of Long Island defected. (Traditional Quaker practice places the utmost importance on the personal relationship and direct interaction between worshiper and deity.) The break off group, referred to as Hicksites, purchased land on what had formerly been Peter Stuyvesant's estate. In 1860 one of their own, Charles Bunting, designed and built the pictured the Meeting House and Seminary. The red brick buildings are a mix of Federal and Greek Revival styles, rendered in a simple and unassuming design. In the 1950s, more then a century after the split, the two Quaker sects reunited. Today, they continue to occupy these buildings. The Friends Seminary, a private day school, run here is the oldest continuously coeducational school in New York City. The school was founded in 1786 with funds from a $10,000 bequest by wealthy merchant Robert Murray (who the neighborhood Murray Hills named).

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.

Friends Meeting House and Seminary ARCHITECT: Charles T. Bunting DATE: 1861 These two buildings are fine brick buildings built in the style of an earlier period. They display great elegance in their simplicity and, as a pair of buildings, set off in spacious grounds, they are a positive addition to Stuyvesant Square.

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.

Players Club, June 1925. The building that has houses the private social club, the Players Clubs (or just Players) was once Elihu Townsend's actual house. The Greek Revival townhouse was constructed in 1847 the banker, Townsend, and was purchased in 1888 by actor Edwin Booth to be the home of his passion project. Inspired by a social club for actors that he visited in London, Booth and 15 colleagues and friends (including Mark Twain and General William Tecumseh Sherman) established a social club. It was too be a place where actors "mingle \[..] with minds that influence the world." The Players is the oldest social club in New York City that remains in its original location.

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.

The 1913 Armory Show The Armory Show took place from February 17 to March 15, 1913 at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue and 25th Street, and in just less than a month it changed the way Americans thought about modern art. It has been called the most important exhibition ever held in the United States. The International Exhibition of Modern Art took place in the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue between 25th and 26th Streets. Its enormous drill hall provided over 30,000 square feet of display space for the estimated 1,400 works on view. The hall was divided into eighteen octagonal galleries with burlap covered panels. The space was decorated with greenery, pine trees, flags and bunting, and yellow streamers that formed a tent-like cap to the exhibition space. The Armory Show was a stunning exhibition of nearly 1,400 objects that included both American and European works, but it is best known for introducing the American public to the new in art: European avant-garde paintings and sculpture. One hundred years later it is hard to imagine what it would have been like to see works by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent Van Gogh, all together for the very first time. The exhibition created a huge sensation in New York. It traveled to Chicago and Boston, and was even more controversial in Chicago, where students burned paintings by Matisse in effigy. The exhibition’s travel turned it into a national event, and the polemical responses to the show have come to represent a turning point in the history of American art.

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.

Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory ARCHITECT: Hunt & Hunt DATE: 1904-06 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Military Among its important qualities, the Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory is an outstanding example of military architecture, notable for its unique synthesis of Beaux-Arts design principles and clear expression of military function. It is an important work of the firm of Hunt & Hunt. The vast drill hall is an outstanding example of innovative engineering technology.

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.

West side of Fifth Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets, March 26, 1920. This block, part of the 1989 Ladies Mile Historic District, includes a number of buildings recalling the neighborhood’s history as a tony 19th century residential and shopping district. The three leftmost buildings (nos. 172-176) have been replaced by late 1920s construction.

"“E. 17th Street, north side, west from Third Avenue, to and across Irving Place. The low ornate structure at the right (No. 143 East) is now occupied by a Greek Orthodox Church. It was formerly Scheffel Hall, a German restaurant, owned and operated by one, William Allaire. 1938.” In 1928, the heirs of former proprietor William Allaire sold the Third Avenue beer hall to the German-American Athletic Club, while the 17th Street wing was acquired by the Greek Church of St. John the Baptist."

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.

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.

Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth (IPLGY), 112 East 23rd Street. Between the fall of 1983 and early 1986, the full third floor of this building was the first office of the Institute for the Protection of Lesbian and Gay Youth (IPLGY), which in 1988 was renamed the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI) after its founders. During the period at this address, IPLGY established the Harvey Milk High School, the first high school in the nation for LGBT youth. Today, HMI is the nation’s largest agency serving LGBT youth, with a dual focus on providing services and shaping policy.

Henry William Poor House, 1899-1901. Formerly known the Cyrus W. Field mansion, this turn of the century photo depicts 1 Lexington Avenue after renovations by the architect Stanford White (a fellow Gramercy Park resident) on behalf of its new owner, the banker Henry William Poor. Poor purchased adjacent townhouses, both previously in the Field family, in April 1899, with the intention of building a larger and more modern mansion on their site. Apparently, White was able to convince Poor to abandon his tear-down project. Instead, the architect led a comprehensive interior renovation in characteristically opulent style. Outdoors, the building’s entrance was shifted to Lexington Avenue, in order to accommodate a windowed conservatory facing the park. Poor, for whom Standard & Poor’s is named, was forced to sell the mansion and its furnishings after the 1908 failure of certain investments and the subsequent liquidation of his assets. The house was razed in 1910 to be replaced by a 12-story apartment building.

Gramercy Park North, November 24, 1919.

Madison Square Presbyterian Church, ca. 1910. The church was often referred to as the "Parkhurst Church" after its pastor, Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst. It was the place of worship for a number of prominent early 20th century New Yorkers, including Tiffany, who as a parishioner, was given near complete artist freedom in the creation of the church's stained glass. By 1918, only 12 years after the new church was constructed, the congregation merged with the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue. Its wealthy community was moving further uptown. The demolition of the church began in October of 1918 and the plot was sold to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, who erected a 29-story annex to their main building between 1928 and 1950. An interesting fact about this short-lived church is the number of architectural details that survive today, elsewhere. The iron scrollwork light fixtures, carved pews, and a glass cross were moved to the church where the congregation relocated. Some small bits ended up with the family of Stanford White. The Tiffany stained glass windows (which Tiffany demanded be returned to him should the church ever close) are now in a wedding chapel at a hotel in Riverside, California. A doorway is in the collection at the Brooklyn Museum, a terra cotta block that topped one of the columns is at Ohio State University, and Hartford Times building in Connecticut has the 30-foot-tall green columns and portions of the cornice. One of the directors of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Robert DeForest, was also the President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He had the pediment with its terra cotta sculpture moved to the museum. It was on display for some time until the building was expanded in the 1960s. No one wanted to fund the removal and re-installation of the 44-foor-long piece, so it was demolished.

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

186 Fifth Avenue (at right), 1896. Designed by Henry J. Hardenburgh, architect of the Plaza Hotel and the Dakota Apartments, this vibrant red brick Queen Anne style building with the peaked roof stands out among its lighter colored cast iron neighbors. Hardenburgh completed the structure in 1883 as a branch office of the Western Union Telegraph Company. There are still company logos carved in stone on the building. This "uptown" branch was connected to the Western Union downtown headquarters at Broadway and Dey Street by a pneumatic tube system. While the building remained offices for much of its history, today the upper floors have been converted into condos while the lower two floors are commercial.

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.

In 1864 William Steinway opened a showroom for his pianos on 14th Street near Fifth Avenue. Owing to their overwhelming popularity, he decided to build a new concert hall as a venue to display and promote his pianos. The original Steinway Hall was constructed at the rear of this white marble building. Opened in 1866 the hall sat 2,500 guests and was one of the largest auditoriums in the city. Over the next 25 years, it was the home of the New York Philharmonic. The success of Steinway Hall in promoting Steinway's instruments was considerable, so much so that his competitors, the Aeolian Company and Chickering & Sons, felt the need to open concert halls as well. Following a few decades as a hub of musical and literary performances, in 1890 Steinway Hall ceased live shows. By then the neighborhood had lost its identity as both an upscale commercial district and a hub of entertainment. These areas had long been on the move uptown. For many years the auditorium was used largely for storage. Owing to a desire to have their showroom and a concert venue near Carnegie Hall, Steinway & Sons commissioned a new building on 57th Street in the late 1910s and moved to 111 West 57th Street in 1925. This photograph was taken just after the move. The sign on the front of the building notes that the building had commercial space for rent. Less than a year later the building was razed, and in its place, the S. Klein Department Store rose.

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

Appellate Division Courthouse of New York State ARCHITECT: James Brown Lord DATE: 1896-99 The courthouse with its interior is a major manifestation of the turn-of-the-century movement which called for an integration of architecture, sculpture, and painting. It was the first in New York to carry out the ideals of this movement. The interior and exterior harmoniously work together to depict aspects of the theme of Justice and the Law and create a sense of architectural magnificence. The interior is both lavish and elegant in its materials and furnishings, and it displays the work of some of America’s foremost artists and craftsmen.

The early fight against fascism in the United States predates WWII and started in the city with a huge march for May Day in 1934. The Forward was there to march, and also to cover it in all its excitement and color.

Calvary Church, ca. 1900. Designed by famed church architect James Renwick Jr. and completed in 1848, the Calvary Church building has been shrinking in size since the 1860s. The original church has two tall wooden spires. Renwick had modeled the structure on the many twin-towered French cathedrals. The spires were removed in 1860 (less than 20 years after construction) when they were no longer structurally stable. This photograph depicts the church with the bases two octagonal bases intact. They too were dismantled in 1929 due deterioration. Today the church is one of two sanctuaries of the combined (since 1976) Calvary-St. George's Parish.

American Cinephone Company, 1910. Referred to as the Camera Building, this structure on 25th Street was home to the American Kinograph Company and the American Cinephone Company. Both companies provided equipment related to the "talking picture" movie industry.

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.

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.

69th Regiment Armory building, ca. 1905. Completed in 1906, the armory remains the headquarters for New York Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry Regiment. However, the space is likely best known for hosting the International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913; the “Armory Show” was the first presentation of Modern art in the United States.

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!

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.

Domestic Relations Courthouse, January 9, 1943. Legislation passed in 1933 combined the Family Court and Children's Court to create the Domestic Relations Court. More space was needed to house the increased functions of the court and a new building was undertaken next to the Children's Courthouse on 22nd Street. Designed by Charles B. Meyers and completed in 1940, the structure has a granite base and windows lined up in strong vertical orientation. Similar to other municipal buildings constructed at the time, the facade features reliefs that express themes illuminating the purpose of the structure. Here the reliefs, created by sculptor H.P. Camden, feature families in group activities such as reading, gardening, and praying. Since 1983 building has been a part of the campus of Baruch College. The school has preserved the facade and even some of the interior features. A tutoring space occupies an old jail cell in the building, complete with bars along the walls and windows and a thick steel door with a peephole.

11 Madison Avenue, ca. 1937.

Luchow's Restaurant, October 26, 1938. Originally opened prior to 1882 as a small beer hall, August Luchow, a German immigrant and waiter at the beer hall, purchased the business, with a loan from the piano-maker William Steinway, whose office was across the street. The large German restaurant that Luchow created was a neighborhood landmark for 100 years. The popular dinning hall was in close proximity to the Academy of Music and Steinway Hall, which boosted its reputation as a pre or post-performance hot spot. The author Ludwig Bemelmans called Luchow's a goulash and Wiener schnitzel emporium. When Teddy Roosevelt dined there he had venison. By 1910 Luchow had purchased a number of neighboring lots and greatly expanded its footprint. Despite the depressions and wars of the first half of the 20th century (and the anti-German sentiment that accompanied those wars) the restaurant survived and largely thrived. Luchow's was the recipient of the first cafe liquor license in New York City following the repeal of Prohibition. The business would change hands a number of times post 1950, but despite a number of renovations, both the quality of the food and the quality of the surrounding neighborhood had declined measurably. The 14th street restaurant closed in 1982, 100 years after it had opened. The owners attempted to move a version of the place uptown closer to the theatre district, though this iteration only lasted a few years.

116-124 East 14th Street Building Date : 1993 Original Use : Commercial Original Owner : Department of General Services Original Architect : Schuman, Lichtenstein, Claman & Efron Description & Building Alterations Now the site of a two-story commercial building, this lot once held the 2,267-seat City Theatre. Built in 1909-10 for William Fox, the theater housed both vaudeville and motion pictures and was one of the first large theaters to show movies in New York City, as stated in the Ridgewood Theater Building designation report. The French Renaissance-style theater was designed by Thomas W. Lamb, a prolific American theater specialist responsible for over three hundred theater buildings in the United States and around the world. The 14th Street facade is visible in a 1938 photo taken by Berenice Abbott for her Changing New York series. The City Theatre was demolished in 1952 and the current building was constructed in 1993. This building is set to be demolished and replaced with a 21-story Tech hub.

“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.

Saint George’s Church ARCHITECT: Blesch & Eidlit DATE: 1846-56 STYLE: Romanesque Revival, Church The Saint George’s Church is one of the great examples of Romanesque Revival architecture in New York. It has characteristics which may be identified with the sturdy Romanesque architecture of South Germany. It is notable for its excellent detail and that it makes a significant contribution to the architectural beauty of Stuyvesant Square.

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.

The famed Armory Show took place from February 17 to March 15, 1913, at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Ave. and 25th St., and in just less than a month, it changed the way Americans thought about modern art. It has been called the most important exhibition ever held in the United States.

Burning of the Second Avenue Armory, July 1863.

Madison Square ca. 1900 The Seven-Acre Madison Square, bounded by Fifth and Madison Avenues, Broadway, 23rd and 26th Streets, opened on May 10, 1847. Having served as a paupers' burying ground and a military parade ground before its nineteenth-century metamorphosis into a gracious park, the tract became the object of extensive improvements. Between 1847 and 1851, the Common Council voted funds to supply Madison Square with new grading and lawn seeding, and gas-fired street lamps. In 1857 a granite monument honoring General William Jenkins Worth, by Henry Kirke Brown 91819-1886), was installed on a small plot on Fifth Avenue opposite Madison Square. In 1876 two bronze statues are dedicated; one, the work of Augustus St. Gardens (1818-1907), honoring Admiral David G. Farragut, and another, by Randolph Rogers (1825-1892), in memory of William H. Seward. In 1867 a fountain spraying water from the Croton Aqueduct system was moved from City Hall Park to Madison Square. The handsome area rapidly became a stylish locale for the homes of wealthy New Yorkers. As with most fashionable New York neighborhoods, the infiltration of commerce into Madison Square forced its residents to seek ever-more-northerly residential outposts. By the 1890s a multitude of shops along the side streets and Sixth Avenue encroached on the elegant homes around the square. Construction of the Metropolitan Life Building in 1890-1893 and Stanford White's Madison Square Garden in 1890 (the "Garden" is the twin-turreted white building visible above the trees at the extreme right of the square) gave the square an increasingly commercial aspect.

In 1907, the president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, John Rogers Hegeman, commissioned the firm Napoleon LeBrun and Sons to design a campanile-style tower for the expansion of the company headquarters. Construction began later that same year, and in 1909, the building opened, advertising the company's status as s the largest insurer in the world. With its slender shaft, high-pitched roof and lantern, the tower of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company evokes the famed bell-tower of San Marco in Venice. First planned to be 658 feet, the final height stretched to 700 feet. Sheathed in white Tuckahoe Marble, the tower rises above Madison Square at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue where at night the "light that never fails" glows from its lantern, flashing the hour and quarter-hour. In 1960-61, the tower was subjected to an aggressive remodeling campaign in which most of the classical detail was stripped off, including balconies and a prominent cornice. The marble facade was replaced with sheer limestone panels so the Tower would match the modernized base. Today, the four clock-faces remain the only memory of the ornate facade, though, the proud tower still remains a defining element of the midtown skyline.

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.”

Gramercy Park was never meant to be public. Designed by Samuel B. Ruggles, who also designed Union Square, the park was envisioned as a kind of "front yard" for the residents of the 66 lots which face the park. Ruggles described it as "ornamental" to the Greek Revival row houses surrounding it. A fence, rendered in an English Romantic style, was constructed around the park in 1833, supposedly to protect the landscaping. Even today, you will need to obtain one of the 383 circulating keys to gain access to the park. This access is only available to park-facing residents for a fee of $350 a year. Activities such as music playing, dog walking or socializing with groups of more than six people are prohibited. The well-manicured park, protected by shrubs and stately American elms, rarely sees more than a few people at a time. In recent years the exclusive greenspace has opened its gates for one hour to the general public for carols on Christmas Eve.

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.

12 West 23rd Street, date unknown. In 1870 the four-story mansion at 12 West 23rd Street was occupied by Benjamin Nathan and his family. Nathan was a wealthy Jewish stockbroker, descendant of the early Spanish and Portuguese 17th century Jewish arrivals to New York, and uncle of poet Emma Lazarus. The home at no. 12 was described by the New York Times as “one of the most elegant and spacious of the private residences of the City.” On the night of July 28 Nathan and two of his adult sons returned to the city, while the rest of the family remained at their rented vacation home in Morristown, New Jersey. That evening, while asleep in a makeshift bedroom on the second floor (owing to renovation work on the upper floors) Nathan was brutally murdered in his bed, bludgeoned to death. The diamonds and gold worn on his clothes were stolen as were items from the safe in the next room. Despite hefty rewards, thousands of tips, and the belief of many that Washington Nathan (the wild 22 year old son) was involved, the murder was never solved. The family, of course, moved out of the home. Over the next decade or so the once wealthy residential neighborhood was replaced with commercial tenants. The family continued to own the building, though finding a tenant in those early years after the murder was challenging given the notoriety of the address. By the 1890s the front of no. 12 had been covered by a cast iron facade and businesses finally began to occupy the building. Almost destroyed by a gas explosion in 1914, the building was restored and had a fifth floor added. Today the former mansion, now rusting cast iron-fronted commercial building, still stands.

Are you ready for a closeup? Try your hand at re-creating these historic photos at Madison Square Park! 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!

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

Flatiron Building ca. 1938 The Fuller Building, nicknamed Flatiron for its triangular shape, was built in 1902 at the scissor-like intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. It was instantly famous, at first derided as an misshapen symbol of commercial greed and later extolled as an exhilarating symbol of modernity. Abbott photographed the Flatiron Building before the FAP project began and again in 1938. The first photograph, taken from the top floor of a six-story building on 25th Street, was a conventional postcard view, showing the whole building amidst bustling Madison Square traffic. The second photograph was more innovative. Standing close, Abbott pointed her camera upward, transforming the foreshortened building into an arrow soaring above its neighbors. A modern high-rise on the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street has blunted the Flatiron’s impact from afar. A 1991 cleaning of layers of soot has exposed its white limestone surface.

Since 2004, Madison Square Park Conservancy has commissioned some of the most distinguished artists of our time to realize temporary public art projects in the 6.2 acre park. Public art has the capacity to challenge, energize, inspire, and provoke people outside of designated indoor art spaces of museums and galleries. The fascination is heightened when art is placed in a public park. Here, art is vulnerable, accessible, and open to the environment and the minds of visitors from all over the world. The works on view are seen in the context of complete democracy: available to all, no admission fee, no threshold to cross. At Madison Square Park, artists have challenged themselves to create with these factors in mind. Below, we look at a few of the commissioned projects and reflect on their lasting impact.

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.

Today’s Madison Square North neighborhood reflects successive waves of development, the earliest dating to the year Madison Square Park was created—1847. Until very recently, the neighborhood comprised almost exclusively buildings that pre-date 1930. From the park’s opening through the 1920s, Madison Square North evolved from being a fashionable residential enclave to an entertainment district of hotels, clubs, restaurants and theaters, to a commercial hub of offices and mercantile loft buildings. Examples of each are still prominent today, often in startling juxtaposition. The 19th century saw a northward development trend, as new residential neighborhoods were established in response to growing commerce to the south. This pattern repeated itself numerous times up the length of Manhattan. From roughly 1850 to 1865, Madison Square North was fashionable with the city’s elite. Such boldface families as the Stokes, Livingstons, Vanderbilts, and Stewarts (of A.T. Stewart department store fame) were residents. Rowhouse construction, largely built in the popular Italianate style, began first along Broadway and spread to the side streets. Extant rowhouses from this period include two on West 24th Street and four on West 29th Street. After the Civil War, the neighborhood became host to a number of theaters, restaurants, men’s clubs and hotels. The trailblazer in the latter category was the Fifth Avenue Hotel, completed in 1858 on the northwest corner of 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue. The hotel was a social, cultural and political hub until its closure in 1908, at which point it was replaced by the commercial structure at 200 Fifth Avenue. Many hotels also functioned as “bachelor flats” or “apartment hotels” for extended stays. One of the city’s first apartment houses, constructed in 1872 after designs by the noted New York architect George B. Post, still stands at 251 Fifth Avenue. The prevalence of entertainment and commercial ventures on Broadway made it a bustling night-life district. Thus, beginning in the 1890s, Broadway from about 13th to 45th Street became one of the first thoroughfares to be illuminated by electric street lamps and billboards, leading to its lasting moniker “The Great White Way.” By the 1890s and early 1900s, industries including photography, architecture, construction and banking planted roots in the area, constructing commercial high-rises designed in styles such as Gothic Revival, Beaux-Arts and Art Deco. Many of these buildings were also constructed for the wholesale garment industry to initially support the Ladies’ Mile shopping district to the south, which, until they moved to Herald Square in the early 1900s, was home to the R. H. Macy & Co. and B. Altman & Co. department stores. The neighborhood’s growth was spurred on by nationwide industrial trends for ready-to-wear clothing, and later, wholesale household décor. This period of prolific development left a lasting impact, as mercantile loft buildings remain the area’s architectural hallmark. In 2001, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Madison Square North Historic District, 96 buildings from roughly 25th to 29th Streets between Sixth and Madison Avenues. Community members and preservationists are advocating for an extension to the district, to encompass roughly 374 buildings from 23rd to 34th Streets and Sixth to Park Avenues. This area includes the surviving buildings of Tin Pan Alley on West 28th Street, where the American popular music publishing industry was headquartered from roughly 1890 to 1910.

Metropolitan Life Tower ca. 1916 Completed in 1909, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tower, on the east side of Madison Square at 24th Street, at 657 feet, was the tallest building in the world for four years. The four-faced clock on the tower is 26-1/2 feet in diameter and the dials are two stories high. Before the tower's completion, during the 1908 presidential election, a large searchlight was placed on top of it that displayed the election results for miles around.

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.

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!