As the population of New York City swelled in the 19th century, the city's reservoirs were built to supply a growing population with a safe and reliable water supply.

For six months in 1936, this “House of the Modern Age” — a prefabricated, modernist, all-steel, one-family home — stood on a Park Avenue “million-dollar lot.” The house, advertised as “fireproof, cyclone-proof, termite- and lightning-proof,” was designed by Chrysler Building architect William Van Alen and assembled by National Houses, Inc., at a cost of $10,000. One of many experimental houses built during the Depression, it attracted 110,000 visitors who paid ten cents a tour. Abbott photographed the house the day before it was torn down, showing it surrounded by relics of Victorian Murray Hill, including the Murray Hill Hotel, which in turn were encircled by new skyscrapers. Today the “million-dollar lot” is occupied by an office building.."

In honor of #nyfw (New York Fashion Week), we present the city's hottest #ootd's (outfit of the day) from our partner's collections. New York has hosted NYFW, first known as "Press Week," since 1943. It was created to pivot the spotlight from Paris fashion designers and showcase New York's homegrown talent.

Looking north on Fifth Avenue from 40th Street to 500 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1995. This slab-style Art Deco skyscraper was constructed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon from 1929-32, concurrently to the firm's most celebrated skyscraper, the Empire State Building.

Feeding birds by the fountain in Bryant Park, ca. 1930s. Bryant Park was laid out as a potter's field in 1823. The area became a public park in 1847, when it was named Reservoir Square after the adjacent reservoir. The Crystal Palace exhibition hall occupied the site from 1853 until it burned to the ground in 1858. In 1884, the park was given its present name in honor of William Cullen Bryant, the poet and newspaper editor who was also an advocate of public parks. After the main branch of the New York Public Library rose on the former site of the reservoir in 1899, Bryant Park was redesigned, and in the early years of this century became an active meeting place. During the Depression, it served as a warm-weather "dormitory" for the indigent, and in the 1970s, became a refuge for the homeless and an open market for drug dealers. Subsequent restoration and the opening of upscale restaurants have restored to its early state.

Hotel Mansfield ARCHITECT: Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen DATE: 1901-02 STYLE: Beaux-Arts BEAUX-ARTS MANHATTAN MIDTOWN WEST The Hotel Mansfield is a 12-story, red-brick and limestone Beaux-Arts style hotel located on the same prestigious Midtown block as the New York Yacht Club, the former Yale Club, the Harvard Club, the former Mechanics’ and Tradesmen’s Institute, the New York Bar Association, and the Algonquin Hotel. The Hotel Mansfield was an early example of the apartment hotel type that catered to well-to-do single men and childless couples, who resided in these buildings on a semi-permanent or even permanent basis, taking advantage of the services on offer such as common dining rooms, maid and laundry services, valets, and even private physicians. The architects Renwick, Aspinwall & Owen designed the Hotel Mansfield in the Beaux-Arts architectural style, in part, because of the style’s residential associations and flamboyance, which helped to set the hotel apart from other building types, such as office or commercial buildings.

COLUMBIA CLUB/RENAISSANCE HOTEL, MANHATTAN Address: 510 Fifth Avenue Constructed:1890-91 The Columbia Club was formed in 1901, and membership increased vastly by 1915 that the organization left the then-club district of Gramercy and purchased 4 West 43rd Street. Many other clubs followed suit and eventually this area centered around West 43rd and 44th Streets between Fifth and Sixth Avenues emerged as the “Clubhouse District”. Originally the Renaissance Hotel, the building was designed by architect Clarence Luce and was constructed in 1890-91 originally as an apartment hotel for young men.

Fred F. French Building ARCHITECT: H. Douglas Ives and Sloan & Robertson DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Near Eastern, Egyptian, Ancient Greek, Proto-Art Deco The design of this interior represents the stylistic compromise between lingering historicism and the modernistic trends which typified the architecture of the late 1920s. The interior continues the architectural historicism of the building’s exterior and is exceptional for the eclectic blend of Near Eastern, Egyptian, ancient Greek and proto-Art Deco influences. The lavish marble walls and floors, polychromatic vaults and gilt bronze wall fixtures of the public areas of the first-floor interior render the French Building among the finest commercial palaces of the late 1920s.

New York Public Library (Main Lobby, North and South Staircases from first to third floor and Central Hall, third floor) STATUS Designated Interior Landmark ARCHITECT: Carrere and Hastings DATE: 1898-1911 The interiors of the New York Public Library display some of the finest stonework and vaulting in the City. The ornamental plaster ceilings are of great elegance. These rooms and staircases provide a grand approach to the facilities of one of the finest libraries in the world. Three paired, pedimented entrance doors, set beneath high arched transoms of glass, are embellished by ornamental wrought-iron borders. The great interior space of the entrance lobby is over seventy feet long and forty-four feet wide. This space is all of stone, including the two grand Staircases leading to the upper floors.

Replica of Federal Hall in Bryant Park, ca. 1932. While today there is a building in lower Manhattan called Federal Hall, the first building given that name in New York City was constructed in 1703 to serve as the city hall. The original Greek Revival structure was extensively renovated in 1788 by Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the architect of Washington, D.C. This work created what is considered the first example of Federal style architecture in the United States. The building became the Capitol of the newly formed country in 1789. Here, George Washinton was sworn in as President. The building was razed in 1812. But! it made a comeback (sort of). In 1932 the George Washington Bicentennial Planning Committee (established to honor the 200th anniversary of Washington's birth) and Sears, Roebuck, and Company erected a replica of the famous building, made out of wood and plaster. Situated in Bryant Park, near the terrace, the true-to-size building necessitated the temporary removal of a couple of statues. To further celebrate a reenactment of the inauguration was presented. Though master planner Moses had hoped that the display would boost visitation to the park (which had been largely neglected for decades), the replica was not hugely successful. That fact, and some shady financial dealings that depleted the committee's funds resulted in the razing the replica in 1933.

Gorham Building ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Stanford White DATE: 1904-06 Crowned by an impressive copper cornice that projects eight feet from the building, it features bronze friezes and balconies, designed by White and crafted by the Gorham company, and bas-relief sculpture by Andrew O’Connor. The Gorham Building, one of the early commercial palaces built on Fifth Avenue, north of 34th Street, early in the twentieth century, was widely praised for the beauty and artistry of its design.

Though it has been a couple of hundred years since New York was seized by the British, New Yorkers have always contributed to the defense of their country. Here are a series of photos from our partners' archives of New Yorkers during wartime.

Tiffany and Company Building, ca. 1910.

James Hampden Robb and Cornelia Van Rennselaer Robb House ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Stanford White DATE: 1889-92 STYLE: Renaissance Revival This elegant and imposing structure is considered one of the finest urban residences designed by Stanford White of the prominent architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White and was one of the earliest Renaissance Revival townhouses by White. Articulated by White with an exceptional command of proportion and design, the building is composed with simple cubic forms which contribute greatly to its monumental character. The handsome tawny-orange Roman iron-spot brick facing complements the color of the boldly modeled brownstone base and matching tan brick and terra-cotta ornament. The richly-textured facades are beautifully detailed with a wealth of Renaissance-inspired ornament for which White is so justly renowned. Other notable features include the double-story entrance porch with paired corner columns, the beautiful iron balustrades, balustraded roof parapets, and the two-story oriel on the East 35th Street facade.

Grand Central Station (as Grand Central Terminal was known between 1900 and its 1913 expansion), January 27, 1901. Grand Central Station included a stop on the city's first subway line. The IRT's inaugural line provided service from City Hall to Grand Central along today's Lexington Avenue Line (4/5/6), with the present-day 42nd Street Shuttle tracks connecting to the west side tracks of the Broadway—Seventh Avenue Line.

Bowery Savings Bank ca. 1933 The architectural firm of York & Sawyer made a name for itself designing a series of Romanesque buildings easily recognized on the exterior by their superb rustication, and by their rich, colorful interiors. Here, in the main banking room, we see a variegated assortment of marble columns. Historically it will be remembered that the Romanesque architects looted the temples of classical antiquity of their rich marbles and polished columns to produce their new buildings.

A minister straight out of the midwest by way of New York's Union Theological Seminary and East Harlem's Presbyterian church, socialist leader who fought against union corruption, and candidate for office for three decades, Norman Thomas, was a favorite of The Forward newspaper.

Kress and Company Building, 1935. Designed by Brooklyn architect Edward Sibbert, the seven-story flagship Kress and Co. store on Fifth Avenue was the crowing glory of Sibbert 's career as the chief architect for Kress. He created more than 50 stores for the dime store chain. The marble Art Deco structure included Mayan motifs in the interior. This Kress store survived until 1977, though it was no longer the flagship and was only using the basement and first two floors of the building in the last few years. Kress & Co. went entirely out of business in 1980. The lot at the corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue is currently part of the HSBC Tower.

The former Lincoln Safe Deposit Company Building, 42nd Street, ca. 1910. Built on the eve of the twentieth century, the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company building stood diagonally across 42nd Street from the old Grand Central Depot. The transition to electric trains, and the erection of the new Grand Central Terminal with covered tunnels and state-of-the-art engineering that shielded tall buildings from railroad vibrations, brought on rapid changes in this area that would would through the 19120s, culminating in an explosion of Art Deco skyscrapers and apartment buildings. The Lincoln Safe Deposit Company building- which had a branch of the Lincoln National Bank within, was replaced by the 54-story Lincoln Building.

Streetcar emerging from the Park Avenue tunnel, with the Church of the Messiah across 34th Street, ca. 1890. The Park Avenue Tunnel, then called the Murray Hill Tunnel, was built in 1834 as an open cut trench for New York and Harlem Railroad traffic, including both steam engine-powered trains and horse-drawn vehicles. In 1850, the tunnel was covered over. In 1871, tunnel traffic shifted to horse-drawn cars only, and three stations were added at the north and south ends, and at 38th Street, inside the tunnel. Electric streetcar service operated from 1898-1935, when the tunnel was closed for conversion to automobile traffic.

Tiffany and Company Building under construction, ca. 1905. The first Tiffany and Company location was a small shop established in 1837 near City Hall. The second Tiffany location was a cast iron-fronted building on Union Square (15 Union Square West), which the firm moved into in 1870. Charles Tiffany, the founder, died in 1902 at the age of 90, but prior to his death made plans for his now world renowned store to move uptown to a brand new building on Fifth Avenue at 37th Street. This move is said to have signaled the end of Broadway as a preeminent shopping district. The new building was designed by Standford White of the venerable firm of McKim, Mead and White. Inspired by a 16th century Venetian Palazzo, White created a gleaming white marble building in an Italian neo-Renasaiance style. (The writers of the book “Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York: A Photographic Guide,” suggested that perhaps this building is even MORE beautiful than its Italian model, owing to White's use of proportion.) From the outside it looks to be three large stories, but it is, in fact, seven stories. The facade spans five bays on the Fifth Avenue side and seven along East 37th Street. While housed in this building Tiffany's prominence as status symbol for the wealthy grew. In one year they regularly sold $6 million in diamonds and kept up to $40 million in jewels in their vault. The company remained in the building until 1940, when they moved further uptown to their best known, and current, location. After the firm vacated the building its ground floor was transformed by modern storefront infill. In 2003 a substantial restoration returned the lower levels of the facade's columns to their original state, though the new stonework is highly noticeable in its lighter tone.

Murray Hill Hotel ca. 1935 Built in 1884, the 600-room Murray Hill Hotel offered its guests the ultimate in modern convenience, including a steam elevator and electric lights on the first two floors. During its glory years, Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland, Jay Gould, and J.P. Morgan were among its regular clientele. By the time Abbott photographed it in 1935, the “Old Lady” stood as an eloquent reminder of a bygone era. Rather than show the huge brownstone bulk of the building, Abbott chose two salient details: the hotel’s entrance, bedecked with enormous American flags; and its “spiraling” fire escapes. Sold in 1943, the Murray Hill Hotel survived until 1947, when it was demolished to make way for 100 Park Avenue, a 36-story office building.

Middleton S. and Emilie Neilson Burrill House ARCHITECT: Hoppin & Koen DATE: 1902-03 This house features a two-story limestone base with arched openings at the parlor level that is surmounted by a balustrade resting on massive console brackets. The Philadelphia brick and limestone-trimmed upper stories display ornate molded window enframements, with the second story having pedimented window frames enriched with console brackets, dentils, and guttae, and the third story having eared surrounds with prominent keystones and projecting sills.

Sherry's Hotel, ca. 1905. Sherry's was a restaurant established in 1880 by Louis Sherry. Popular among New York's elite society, the restaurant moved locations a few times in its first two decades (from 38th Street and Sixth Avenue to 37th Street and Fifth Avenue). Just before the turn of the century the society mainstay moved in to a new hotel building at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street (seen here). The ballroom at the hotel was well-known for catering lavish dinner parties. The most extravagant event might have been the party thrown by industrialist C.K.G. Billings in 1903. As the guests drank champagne and dined on a fine meal, they did so all while seated on a horse! Billings was a passionate horseman who built a 25,000 square foot horse stable and accompanying mansion uptown. Originally the dinner was to be at the stables but instead, he switched venues to the hotel. The "horseback dinner" was called by the New York Times “one of the most novel that has ever been given in the city.” The Sherry Hotel and Restaurant moved out of this building in 1919 and Sherry's restaurant moved into the Hotel Netherland on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street (where its name lives in the 1927-completed Sherry Netherland Hotel). The building at 44th Street became offices for the Guaranty Trust Company building in 1919. Undergoing a major renovation in the 1960s, the building had 12 more stories added and had its intricate facade replaced with limestone. Today the building still stands with a modern two-story commercial base.

The The James F.D. and Harriet Lanier House, East 35th Street, ca. 1975. This Beaux-Arts mansion was built for James F.D. Lanier, a well known banker from a prominent family, and his wife Harriet (neé Bishop). The house, designed by the Hoppin & Koen firm, was completed in 1903, replacing a pair of brownstone townhouses which had previously stood on the site.

Tiffany and Company, interior, 1903-1906.

The Chrysler Building, the Empire State, 30 Rock, and other skyscrapers adorn the skyline. At street level the solitude of the Public Library, and the glitz of Fifth Avenue. And underground, Grand Central Terminal ushers commuters in and out of the city. Take a walk amongst the sights of Midtown East.

10 East 40th Street ca. 1943 This building formerly known as the Chase Tower is located across from the New York Public Library at 40th street between Madison and 5th avenue. Ludlow and Peabody the architects who designed the NY Times Building and Peoples Trust Co. in Brooklyn designed 10 East 40th street, a massive 44 story office building in x. The entire width of the block, a 75x 200 ft site is extruded and setback gradually with no light courts. The elements and details are classical but reveal a modern essence

Pershing Square Building ARCHITECT: York and Sawyer, John Sloan DATE: 1921-23 STYLE: Lombard Revival The Lombard Revival-style Pershing Square Building anchors a prominent corner directly across 42nd Street from Grand Central Terminal at Park Avenue. Designed by John Sloan, working with staff of York & Sawyer, the building is remarkable for the important role it played in the development of the city’s mass transit system, its transitional role in the history of the city’s building development, and its exceptional terra-cotta cladding. The Pershing Square Building is also noteworthy as an integral element of the redevelopment of the Grand Central Terminal area.

"In the final analysis, the New York Chamber Music Society would possibly not have existed if Aeolian Hall was not built. It was a perfect hall for an ensemble of their size, thus the appropriate music could be programmed, knowing that any performance would be the best sounding acoustically, the most accessible to the public, and a great showcase for the critics to opine on the performances and the music. Additionally, the New York composers she commissioned not only took into consideration who they were writing for but also the acoustical space — having a premiere at Aeolian Hall was a great honor... NYCMS had established itself in New York City at Aeolian Hall and, were now able to move to another location knowing they would have an audience to follow. " For more on Aeolian Hall and the New York Chamber Music Society, check out this article by Lisa Kozenko in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

William Cullen Bryant, a 19th century poet and namesake of the library’s backyard park, edited the New York Evening Post, advocated for the emergence of the Republican Party in the 1850s, espoused ending slavery and supported the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here he sits in commanding intellectual posture, embodying the western liberal mind and spirit. Across from Bryant - not pictured here - sits the statue of another American poet, Gertrude Stein, sculpted in the 1920s but not installed in the park until the 1990s - the first statue of a real female (versus a personification or symbol, like Audrey Munson) in NYC since Joan of Arc in Riverside Park in 1915; Gertrude sits in the lotus position, in meditative repose, zenlike, at one with the universal void. These two statues anchor the soul and central nervous system of the library and the midtown park.

Morgan Library & Museum, 1938. Built expressly to house the famous J. Pierpont Morgan Collection of books and manuscripts, the Morgan Library was designed by McKim, Mead & White to provide a beautiful setting for the treasures within. As in the construction of Greek temples, the stones were perfectly fitted, obviating the use of a full bed of mortar- an expensive but enduring method of constructing masonry walls and today practically a lost art.

Grand Central Terminal, 1914.

Few restaurants have a better claim on being an integral part of New York Restaurant History than Delmonico's. From its beginnings on Wall Street to its expansion uptown, Delmonico's was the first and last word on Gilded Age fine dining.

Fifth Avenue at the southeast corner of 46th Street, 1946. Notice the two versions of double-decker Fifth Avenue Coaches waiting at the light. On the left, an older model, likely a Yellow Coach-produced Type Z (1930) with a covered upper level. The bus on the right is a Model 735 (1936-1938), which was called the Queen Mary because of its supposed likeness to the cruise ship.

Pierpont Morgan Library and Annex ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Charles F. McKim DATE: 1902-07 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Eclectic The Pierpont Morgan Library and Annex are outstanding examples of Italian Renaissance Eclectic design incorporating the talents of architect, sculptor and painter. They represent the finest available both in use of materials and craftsmanship. Their architectural details are both refined and delicate and that the classical purity of the Library exerted a marked influence on the general development of architecture in this country at the time it was built. The Pierpont Morgan Library is one of the finest neo-Italian Renaissance buildings in New York City. It was designed to house the extensive book, manuscript, and art collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. The interior and exterior harmoniously work together to create a splendid showcase for Morgan’s collection. The interior is particularly distinguished by the extensive ceiling murals, and the rich array of wood and marbled surfaces. The murals , which are based on Renaissance prototypes, depict themes that allude to Morgan and his collection.

New York Central Building/Helmsley Building ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Skyscraper The New York Central Building is the skyscraping counterpart of Grand Central Terminal. It was designed by the same architects in the same materials and Beaux-Arts style, simultaneously developing some of the depot’s most innovative circulation systems. Swallowing Park Avenue traffic and thereby relieving congestion around the terminal, the building functions as an open gate to the “Gateway to a Continent.” With a distinction all but unique in a grid patterned Manhattan, it has a double focus, as powerful by day as it is dramatic by night.

James F. D. and Harriet Lanier Residence ARCHITECT: Hoppin & Koen DATE: 1901-03 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This imposing residence of Beaux-Arts design was built in 1901-03 for James and Harriet Lanier in the fashionable Murray Hill section of New York. Designed by the architectural firm of Hoppin & Koen, it remains one of their finest residential works in New York City. Among its significant features are the rusticated ground floor base, the two-story pilasters, the mansard roof, and the gracefully carved stonework.

Main Branch, New York Public Library, 1908. Perhaps one of the most recognizable buildings in the city, the Main Branch of the New York Public Library was built on land that had served as the Croton Reservoir since the early 1840s. In the late 1890s, the newly established library announced an open competition for the creation of a new building. The commission was awarded to the (then largely unknown) firm of Carrère & Hastings. After two years of dismantling the reservoir, the cornerstone for the new structure was laid on November 10, 1902. The resulting edifice, which was then the largest marble structure constructed in the United States, was designed to the wishes of the library's director. Dr. Billing envisioned a grand reading room constructed on top of seven floors of stacks and a complex system for book retrieval and dissemination. Dedicated on May 23, 1911 (the 16th anniversary of the merger that created the new centralized institution) the new library installed 75 miles of shelving for its one million books. The library was immediately an overwhelming success, with between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors on the very first day. The iconic stone lions that grace the entrance to the library had a bit of an identity crisis in their early years. First named "Leo Astor" and "Leo Lenox" (for the library's founders), they were then referred to as Lord Astor and Lady Lenox (though, obviously, both lions are male) before being christened "Patience" and "Fortitude" by Mayor La Guardia during the Depression. His nicknames nodded towards virtues that he felt New Yorkers would need to possess during the difficult financial times.

Engineer's Club ARCHITECT: Whitfield & King DATE: 1905-07 The Engineers’ Club Building is an early example of the high-rise clubhouse building. It featured 66 sleeping rooms, in addition to public and social spaces. The Engineers’ Club occupied the West 40th Street building until 1979, when the structure was successfully converted into residential apartments. Today the Engineers’ Club Building looks almost exactly as it did more than a century ago. It continues to stand as an architectural reminder of the emergence of New York State as the engineering center of the country and of the United States as an industrial and economic power. As the last remaining club building on a block which once had several, the Engineers’ Club Building is also a visual reminder of the prominence of the social club and of the bachelor apartment at the turn of the 20th century.

Interborough Subway sign on Park Avenue, just south of 42nd Street, ca. 1980.

Commodore Hotel ca. 1920 This is one of a series of photographs documenting Chef Leoni and his extensive staff and facilities at the recently completed Hotel Commodore. Staff exercise sessions such as that depicted here were not uncommon. Byron also photographed the Siegel-Cooper sales clerks exercising atop the roof of the famous department store.

Stewart & Company Building ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1914 STYLE: British Neo-Classical The 1914 building reflects the unusual combination of diverse influences such as the 18th century British neo-Classical movement and the late 19th century Chicago School of Architecture style. The blue and white ornament of the terra-cotta cladding is reminiscent of the 18th century neo-Classical movement in England. The color combination of blue and white in the architectural terra-cotta is rarely used in architecture. The building is an early example of boldly polychromatic terra-cotta. The delicate classically inspired decoration is a striking example of ornamentation covering the structural frame of a building.

Murray Hill Hotel fire escapes, November 19, 1935. Berenice Abbott's photo captures the intricate ironwork of the Murray Hill Hotel fire escapes. The building in the background is located at 22 East 40th Street (now 275 Madison Avenue), a 43-story Art Deco skyscraper by Kenneth Franzheim.

Constructed in 1913, the Biltmore Hotel was the first post-Grand Central Terminal commission for Warren and Wetmore (who had used some seriously underhanded methods to secure Terminal City work)

Nighttime view of the Empire State Building, ca. 1975. The building at the extreme right is No. 139 East 35th Street.

Madison Avenue skyscrapers, surrounding a brownstone mansion at 39th Street, July 2, 1936. The brownstone building once belonged to Moses Taylor Pyne, the financier and philanthropist who was a benefactor of Princeton University. After Pyne’s death in 1921, his widow Margaretta S. Pyne continued to live there. In a 1927 Brooklyn Daily Eagle article detailing the sale of Madison Avenue dwellings, Mrs. Pyne “is reported to have confided to her friends, ‘I will never give up this house.’” Eventually, the house was sold and demolished. The current yellow-brick structure on the site was built in 1949.

Street Clock at 522 Fifth Avenue, May 13, 1938. The double-faced cast-iron clock at 522 Fifth Avenue was manufactured in 1907 by the Seth Thomas Company. Originally installed one block south on Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in front of the American Trust Company, the clock was relocated in the 1930s when the American Trust Company merged with the Guaranty Trust Company. It was just one of a proliferation of large clocks installed on New York City streets, beginning in the 1860s. The clocks, which provided a unique advertising space for businesses, were also used by those on the streets for convenient time keeping. Most of the late 19th and early 20th-century street clocks did not make it passed the mid 20th century, but a few did. In 1981 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated eight of the sidewalk clocks still standing as landmarks.

503 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1918. The first structure on this corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street was a four-story residence completed in 1860. The brick and brownstone mansion with arched windows and a mansard roof became the home of Montagnie Ward, a drug merchant. The next owner, Levi P. Morton, a banker who would go on to national and international political notoriety, purchased the home in 1871. Morton proposed demolishing the house for a seven-story commercial building in the late 1870s. While that was not to come to pass, the home did have its mansard lopped off, two floors added, and was doubled in size by an extension to the full depth of the lot on 42nd Street. (Prior to conversion into a commercial building, a young Edith Jones, later Wharton, was introduced into society at the Morton Mansion.) By the late 19th century the top floors of the building functioned as a hotel, while the ground level housed a showroom for one of the premier carriage makers in the city. Despite out-of-town positions such as Ambassador to France and American Vice President, Morton held on to the building. (It was quite the income generator for Morton, with considerable rents and money generated from the billboards that covered the exterior by the 1910s.) Morton died in 1920 but his heirs retained ownership through 1980. The building changed hands between large commercial development firms a few times in the 1980s while being emptied of tenants. A history-cum-eulogy of the building in 1988 by NY Time writer Christoper Gray suggested an unknown yet imminent timeline for the building's disappearance. The building and a few of its neighbors came down in 1990, but the lot remained empty for more than a decade. In 2004 a 27-story glass and concrete commercial structure was erected.

MetLife Building, ca. 1995. The MetLife Building first opened in 1963 as the Pan Am Building, the then-headquarters of Pan American World Airways. At the time of its opening, the 59-story skyscraper was one of the largest office buildings in the world. While commemorated for its size, the building itself has long faced opposition. It became highly controversial, even while in the stage of design because it was originally planned as a reconstruction project in conjunction with a Grand Central Terminal renovation. Given its Park Avenue location and implications on aesthetic, those who protested its construction also expressed concern over the building's imposing modern design and impact on the streetscape. In 1962, the writer Wolf Von Eckhardt in The New Republic even called the structure ''conspicuous for its ugliness and arrogant disregard for its surroundings.'' The next year Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic of The New York Times, called it ''gigantically second rate.'' In 1981, the building was purchased by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and its designation changed to the MetLife Building by early 1993.

National-Lefcourt Building, 1993. This boxy-tower, formerly known as the National Lefcourt Building, was erected in 1929 by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates. 40-stories high, the building was completed for Abraham E. Lefcourt, one of New York’s leading real estate developers in the 1920s.

John Williams Campbell was born in Brooklyn in 1880 into a well-to-do family. His father was treasurer of the Credit Clearing House, a credit bureau for merchandise wholesalers. At the age of 18, Campbell joined his father at the firm and moved up the ranks, becoming a senior executive seven years later. By the 1920s Campbell was making millions as president of the Credit Clearing House and served on the board of the New York Central Railroad. This story is adapted from a Museum of the City of New York blog, which can be viewed here.

Vanderbilt Concourse Building, 1917. Designed by one of Grand Central's architectural firms, Warren & Wetmore, between 1914 and 1916, the Vanderbilt Concourse Building was one of the early office buildings of Terminal City. At 20 stories it has a limestone base and brick facade. The building is topped on all facades by a three-story loggia (covered exterior corridor) and a simple, though decorative, cornice. In 1971, as the railroad company, by then Penn Central, was suffering financial instability, this building as sold along with at least five other parcels owned by the railroad. In recent years this building has been suggested for landmark designation due to its Terminal City history, in an attempt to preserve a number of older buildings at risk with the rezoning of east Midtown.

Yale Club, ca. 1975. The Old Yale Alumni Association of New York was founded in 1868 and was formalized as the Yale Club in 1897. An elite social club for alumni and faculty of Yale University, they moved into their current home at 50 Vanderbilt in 1915. Designed by Yale alumnus, James Gamble Rogers, the Renaissance Revival skyscraper was constructed on land leased by New York Central Railroad as part of the real estate development around Grand Central. The facade is rendered in limestone, brick, and terra cotta. The architect consulted with Warren & Wetmore, the architects of the Terminal and other nearby buildings, to ensure the club blended in with the style of its neighbors. Supposedly (according to the Ken Burns documentary) the club horded enough liquor to last them through Prohibition. The club allowed female members beginning in 1968. To the scorn of some of the other clubs and the unhappiness of a portion of its members, the Yale Club became the first of New York's Ivy League clubs to allow a business casual dress code in 1999.

Lord & Taylor Building ARCHITECT: Starrett & Van Vleck DATE: 1913-14 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Revival The Lord & Taylor Building’s Italian Renaissance Revival design began the trend toward more evidently commercial appearances for retail buildings in the Fifth Avenue shopping district above 34th Street. The building and its site wrap around what was historically a separate parcel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 39th Street; the ten-story building with its main façade on Fifth Avenue and two developed facades on West 38th and 39th Streets owes its dignified sense of scale to the subtle treatment of its tripartite façade consisting of a two-story limestone and granite base with elegant double-height, vaulted Fifth Avenue entrance and two stories of display windows, a six-story center section of subtly modulated gray face-brick with terra-cotta and patterned brick detailing and multi-light windows, and a two-story limestone colonnade in the Corinthian order supporting a deep copper cornice.

Chrysler Building, ca. 1979. The eagle “gargoyles” that protrude from the 61st floor are made from a corrosion-resistant Nirosta, an alloy of chrome-nickel steel. The style of the 61st floor eagles was inspired by the hood ornaments of a 1929 Chrysler. The 31st floor is also adorned with stylized corner eagles. They are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps.

Church of Our Saviour, ca. 1975. A mid-century take on Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture, Our Saviour was designed by the architect Paul C. Reilly and completed in 1959, for a Roman Catholic parish established in 1955.

Chanin Building, 122 East 42nd Street, ca. 1985. The Chanin Building, developed by Irwin S. Chanin, was the third tallest in the world when it was completed in 1929. Sloan & Robertson, who also designed the Art Deco Graybar Building on the next block, constructed the building with the assistance of Chanin’s own architect, Jacques Delamarre. Towering 56-stories high, the Art Deco skyscraper is among New York’s most prominent. Its facade features sculptural decoration in terra cotta, bronze, and limestone by Rene Paul Chambellan, and makes use of a mixture of of colored glass, stone, and metal throughout. The 50th and 51st floors, near Irwin Chanin’s offices, featured a full movie theater.

Lioness statue at the Morgan Library, ca. 1976.

Mechanics Institute, ca. 1915. The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen was founded as an institution in 1785 to provide cultural, educational and social services to families of skilled craftsmen. In 1820 the General Society opened one of the city’s first free schools. Following the city getting its act together regarding public education, the Society converted their free public school in the Mechanics Institute in 1859. The Mechanics Institute provided adult education, particularly in technical subjects, and library was thought to be an alternative venue for adults (to keep the working classes from gambling and drinking). In 1899 the General Society moved into the Renaissance-style building on 44th Street. The building had been constructed in 1891 as the Berkeley School, a private boy's prep school. Designed by Lamb & Rich, the building had the look of a library or professional association, with large banks of windows on the second and third floors. The school founder sold the building to the General Society after some financial issues, and the large drill hall on the first floor was converted into the library. In 1905 the General Society also had architect Ralph Townsend add three stories to the top of the building and remove the the stoop to create a ground-floor entrance. Today the building continues to provide free educational programming. And in a contentious deal in 2008 the institution sold their unused air rights, which allowed a developer to add additional stories to an already planned new building around the corner.

Entrance to 275 Madison Avenue, ca. 1990.

Behind the majestic design and décor of Grand Central Terminal is a triumph of engineering and ingenuity. Grand Central didn’t just do things better than other train terminals. It did them differently. It pioneered new approaches to organizing space. It invented new technologies. And it overcame the daunting challenge of building a vast, durable, efficient train station—much of it buried deep underground—in the bustling center of the nation’s busiest city. More and more people were riding more and more trains. Grand Central needed additional tracks…and efficient ways for passengers to reach those tracks. With little space to spread out, the station dug down. Engineers created a vast underground structure: four tracks in the Park Avenue tunnel and a 123-track train shed designed to support heavy locomotives plus the weight of the buildings overhead. A series of crossovers let trains reach any platform from any track. Inside the station, meanwhile, pedestrian ramps took passengers swiftly from level to level. The design also included a centralized hot water heating system—the largest of its kind at the time—with four miles of pipe serving the station and surrounding buildings.

Leopold Eidlitz designed this parish as a hybrid of the High Victorian and German Romanesque style in 1873. The new building for the Church of the Holy Trinity replaced a low Victorian "cottage ornee" at this very site. Colloquially, this church was known as Dr. Tyng's Church, which endearingly referred to the congregation's organizer - a young Dr. Stephen H. Tyng who was regarded as one of the most notable religious figures of his time. Unfortunately, this beautiful structure did not survive for long. It was razed after the parish merged with St. James in 1895.

Commodore Hotel, 1919. The second Terminal City hotel named for railroad baron, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, this 2,000-room hotel was completed in 1919 to the designs of Warren and Wetmore, one of GCT's architectural firms. The hotel boasted the "Most Beautiful Lobby in The World," which was also the world's largest. A successful venture for more than 50 years, the hotel suffered in the 1970s as the railroad company which owned the building, (then) Penn Central filed for bankruptcy. The suffering hotel was sold in 1977 to the Donald Trump Organization in partnership with the Grand Hyatt Corporation (with some shady dealings which gave the buyers an unprecedented 40-year tax abatement). Under the new ownership, the hotel was gutted and its masonry facade was covered by a reflective glassy skin. So though the Grand Hyatt New York may look like a 1980s glassy structure, the 1919 building remains hidden beneath. Today only the single smoke stack of the original building peaks out from the glass building.

North side of West 44th Street towards Lexington Avenue, August, 13, 1914. This street scene of 1914 provides a view of Grand Central Terminal that is no longer available. Looking from the east, today the 1927 Graybar Building stands at 420 Lexington Avenue blocks the view of GCT from East 44th Street. The business at right is a baggage delivery firm which advertised their services for 25 cents.

Chanin Building ARCHITECT: Irwin S. Chanin; Sloan & Robertson DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Art Deco The Chanin Building, built in 1927-29, rises 56 stories at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street. Designed by the architectural firm of Sloan & Robertson with sculptural decoration by Rene Chambellan, it is a major example of Art Deco architecture in New York City. Erected under the supervision of the Chanin Construction Company, the building still serves as the organization’s headquarters.

Church of the Incarnation ARCHITECT: Emlen T. Little DATE: 1864 STYLE: Gothic Revival The Church of the Incarnation and Parish House form a striking complex in the Murray Hill area. The church, designed by Emlen T. Littell and built in 1864, is a significant example of Gothic Revival architecture, and among its notable features are the corner tower, the entrance porch, the carefully executed pointed-arch openings with stained glass, and the beautifully-laid brownstone facing.

The Madison Avenue entrance to the J.P. Morgan Jr. house, January 27, 1937. The freestanding Italianate brownstone mansion was built in 1852-3 for Isaac Newton Phelps, whose family’s copper mining fortune funded the construction of three such mansions on Madison Avenue, between 36th and 37th Streets. Isaac Phelps, himself, was a wealthy merchant and banker. Having purchased the southernmost house in 1882, J.P. Morgan Sr. acquired Phelps’ home at No. 231 and the remaining mansion in between in 1903. Morgan demolished the middle house, using its lot for a private garden, and gave the No. 231 to his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr. In 1928, Morgan Sr.’s house was razed for the construction of the Morgan Library. When J.P. Morgan Jr. died in 1943, the Lutheran Church acquired the building, setting off a long-running preservation saga. In 1965, the Church signaled its intent to build an office building on the site, which was subsequently declared a New York City Landmark, protecting the property. The Church appealed the ruling successfully, and in 1974, the Landmark status was reversed. However, the Lutherans no longer had the funds to pursue their planned construction. With the mansion’s status uncertain, the Landmarks Preservation Commission re-designated the building that year. This time, there was no appeal. The Landmark limbo ended in 1988, when the Morgan Library purchased the property, securing its future and tying its legacy to the collection of its most prominent owner. Today, it’s home to the museum offices, store, and cafe.

Polish Consulate General (Joseph Raphael De Lamar House), ca. 1975. At the turn of the 20th century, Murray Hill was a fashionable district for the city’s wealthiest residents, trailing only Fifth Avenue in terms of prestige. Across the neighborhood, the existing housing stock of mid-19th century brownstones were quickly being replaced by extravagant new mansions, including this Madison Avenue gem. Joseph Raphael De Lamar was a Dutch-born merchant and entrepreneur, who became wealthy investing in mining operations in the American West — new money, by New York standards. To establish his place in city society, De Lamar commissioned famed architect C.P.H. Gilbert to design an opulent Beaux-Arts mansion, the largest in Murray Hill. De Lamar’s ostentatious residence took three years to build and ultimately rose to a height of six stories, surmounted by a massive mansard roof. After De Lamar’s death in 1918, the mansion passed to the American Bible Society, and later, the National Democratic Club. Since 1973, it has housed the Polish Consulate General.

George S. Bowdoin Stable, ca. 1976. This charming Dutch Revival stable, designed by architect Ralph S. Townsend, was built in 1902 for William R.H. Martin, a real estate developer. Martin sold the building to George S. Bowdoin, a banker and partner of J.P. Morgan, in 1907. After Bowdoin’s death in 1913, his daughter Edith Bowdoin took over the property. During Edith tenure, the downstairs level was converted to a garage, while the second story remained her living quarters until 1944. Since then, the building has had several private owners, with a brief period as a non-profit arts center, the Carriage House Center for the Arts.

This streetscape of the north side of East 38th Street, east of Third Avenue looks very different today. While the two-story brick building at no. 215 still stands, the rest of these buildings are long gone. In their place, the northbound Queens Midtown Tunnel exit street cuts through from 37th Street to 41st Street.

Adelaide L.T. Douglas Residence (right), ca. 1911. The buildings at left were later razed for the construction of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Saviour. By 1908, Adelaide L.T. Douglas, a prominent socialite, was separated from her husband William Proctor Douglas — and widely believed to be carrying on an affair with J.P. Morgan. In 1909, with her husband living at a separate residence uptown, Mrs. Douglas commissioned the architect Horace Trumbauer to build a new Louis XVI-style mansion on Park Avenue (the previous building on this site had been damaged during subway construction in 1902). Trumbauer’s opulent design was befitting of a client of Adelaide Douglas’s status — though it’s rumored that J.P. Morgan underwrote construction. The six-story mansion, completed in 1911, includes a rusticated limestone base, intricate relief carvings, a fourth floor colonnade, mansard roof, and wrought iron detail at every level. After Douglas’s death in 1935, the mansion was converted to apartments. In 1959, it was acquired by the United States Olympic Association. Nineteen years later, it was sold to the government of Guatemala, which established its United Nations mission there.

Bowery Savings Bank ARCHITECT: York & Sawyer; William Louis Ayres DATE: 1921-23 STYLE: Italian Romano Byzantine The architects incorporated a monumental banking room into a revenue-generating eighteen-story office tower, which has its own impressive entrance vestibule and lobby. The Italian Romano-Byzantine precedents for the design are expressed in the basilica-like banking room. The fine materials, rich and varied finishes, and allegorical referents create an interior in which thrift is celebrated as a virtue and practiced as a ritual

Woolworth Store at 33 West 42nd Street, ca. 1940. The Humane Society mobile adoption display (or maybe they are just using the cute kitten to ask for donations) sits on the sidewalk on the north side of 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. The Woolworth Store in the background is in the Aeolian Building at no. 33. The building directly behind the kitten display is the flagship location of Stern's Department Store. These stores made this block a major destination for shoppers, who might have been induced to donate by the cuteness!

Postum Building, 1936. One of the 1920s office building additions to the Terminal City neighborhood, the Postum Building was completed in 1925. A Neoclassical building designed by the firm of Cross and Cross, it calls to mind the style of Warren & Wetmore's Terminal City creations, while lacking the more decorative elements of the earlier buildings.

500 Fifth Avenue ARCHITECT: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Art Deco This is a soaring 59-story Art Deco skyscraper, located at the northwest corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The building was constructed concurrently with the Empire State Building. Located in two zoning districts with differing setback requirements, it is asymmetrically massed with setbacks at the 18th, 22nd, and 25th stories on Fifth Avenue and a recessed light court beginning at the eighth story and setbacks at the 23rd, 28th, and 34th stories on West 42nd Street. Sheathed in limestone, terra cotta, and buff brick, the facades are enriched with carefully scaled Art Deco motifs, which accentuate the building’s sculptural massing and emphasize its verticality.

"White Wings" on Parade, ca. 1896. Pictured here are the White Wings: a brigade of street cleaners who were established by Street Commissioner Colonel George E. Waring Jr. in 1895. Waring treated the sanitation department as an army, mandating his workers to wear all white uniforms and caps. He believed that their white attire portrayed a sense of cleanliness, as much as they helped keep workers conspicuous while on the job, discouraging slacking off at the local saloon. These "White Wings" kept streets cleaner than at any previous time in the city's history. Regulation whites remained in effect until the 1930s (when someone finally decided that whites were not appropriate for street sweeping).

New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation ARCHITECT: Carrère and Hastings DATE: 1898-1911 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The Central Building of the New York Public Library occupies a fabulous site, that has often been referred to as “the crossroads of the world”. This majestic marble building, one of the masterpieces of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture, is a magnificent civic monument and fully justifies the pride of its generation and of ours. It sits regally enthroned on a terraced plateau, displaying urns, fountains, flagpoles, sculpture and ornament. Replete with sparkle and delicacy, it is by night or day a joyous creation. This building comes closer than any other in America to the complete realization of Beaux-Arts design at its best.

In 1911 this stately row of buildings included the original building of the Church of the Holy Rest. Established in 1865 by Civil War veterans, as a memorial to those who had died during the war, construction on the church building at 551 5th Avenue began in 1868 (when the neighborhood was very much residential). The structure was grand with a large rose window fronting 5th Avenue and a tall mansard roof with decorative metal work at the top. The church was very involved with the local community, opening up a soup kitchen for the poor as early as 1890. By the 1920s, commercial enterprise had taken over the neighborhood, and newer nearby churches competed for parishioners. In 1924, the pastor negotiated the purchase of land uptown across the street from the Carnegie Mansion (now the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum), and the Church of Heavenly Rest moved into a new building complete in 1929.

237 Madison Avenue, ca. 1980. This fifteen-story neo-Romanesque building (at center) was constructed in 1927 by architect Andrew J. Thomas. Originally intended for long-term residents, the structure reopened as the Hotel Duane in 1984, following renovations, and was later renamed the Morgans Hotel, under the ownership of the Morgans Hotel Group. On July 14, 2017, the Morgans Hotel closed its doors for the last time. The building is now owned by Shel Capital and the Kash Group, who are expected to convert the nearly 100-year old property into a condominium complex.

The four corners of the flagpole seem to symbolize the virtues of the western world before the onset of World War I, but in fact the totems north and south of the library facade were installed at the eve of World War II, when they may have seemed as both hallowed and dated as today, yet remain the type of ideas that sent explorers cleaving the waves of the Atlantic to colonize lands where civilizations of peoples had inhabited for thousands of years: “Conquest,” represented by a sword; “Discovery,” represented by a globe; “Adventure,” by the ship Argo; and “Civilization,” by a topless female holding a book. The whole structure rests on the backs of four turtles, which reference creation myths of the Lenni Lenape, who dwelled in Manhattan long long long before Director-General Peter Syuyvesant, or his successor, Rudolph Giuliani.

Chrysler Building, ca. 1993. A New York City icon, the Art Deco Chrysler Building was designed by William Van Alen and constructed between 1928 and 1930. The land on which the building was erected was originally owned by Brooklyn real estate magnate William Reynolds. He contracted Van Alen to design a massive skyscraper to be called the Reynolds Building. For unknown reasons (though, likely, a disapproval of the architect's plans), he sold the land and the building plans to the Chrysler Corporation in 1928. Groundbreaking on the building occurred in September 1928, and the race was on to building the tallest building in the world. (The competing building was 40 Wall Street, designed by Van Alen's estranged former partner Craig Severance.) Though 40 Wall Street broke ground after the Chrysler Building and was completed earlier, Van Alen and Chrysler won the height competition, when they secretly erected a 186-foot spike or "vertex," pushing the building to 1,046 feet tall. The building only remained the world's tallest for less than year, eclipsed by the Empire State Building in 1931. The Chrysler Building is still the world's tallest steel-supported brick building. The exterior, now iconic, is clad extensively in metal ornamentation. Much of the details are references to the automobiles that the company manufactured. Most notably the building's gargoyles (in this case eagles) take the form of Chrysler radiator caps, car fenders, and hood ornaments. The Chrysler Building remains popular among New Yorkers, tourists, and architecture professionals. In 2005, the Skyscraper Museum asked one hundred architects, builders, critics, engineers, historians, and scholars to pick their 10 favorite skyscrapers from a list of 25. The Chrysler Building came in first place as 90% of them placed the building in their top 10 favorite buildings.

William Wilgus, New York Central Railroad's largely self-taught chief engineer, was the mastermind behind Grand Central Terminal's innovative engineering technology. With the plan for electrification and the sinking of the railroad tracks below grade, while building the new modern terminal, Wilgus also convinced railroad officials to commercialize the air above the new street-level decking. In leasing the area above the tracks to developers, the Railroad could increase its profits and create a bustling business district that surrounded, supported, and benefited from Grand Central Terminal. Terminal City, as it was called, began to develop even before GCT was complete in 1913. Between 1909 when the Grand Central Post Office opened and the early 1930s when the Depression largely halted construction, the neighborhood boomed with hotels, apartment hotels, private clubs, and office buildings. Many of these structures were designed by Warren & Wetmore, one of the two architectural firms that created Grand Central. Most of the best-known hotels of Terminal City, including the Biltmore, Roosevelt, and the Commodore, were constructed by the mid 1910s, while the office buildings, including the Graybar and New York Central Buildings, were largely completed in the 1920s. This walk does not propose to be a complete list of all Terminal City development. It does not include any post-World War II constructions and it concerns itself ONLY with some of the Terminal City structures that are still extant. Some of the buildings will be easily recognizable, while others, though technically the same structure, bear no resemblance to their former selves. So lace up some comfortable shoes and let's get exploring.

Stewart & Co. Building (left) and Brick Presbyterian Church (right), Fifth Avenue, 1914.

May 3rd, 1913 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." Inspired by a massive suffrage march in Washington D.C. in March of the same year, this parade was intended to further press the issue of enfranchisement. The parade's Grand Marshal was Inez MIlholland, a lawyer and suffrage activist, who lead the parade on a white horse. Assembled in formation, the suffragettes maintained strict order during the march, the participants were ordered to keep: "Eyes to front. Heads Erect. Shoulders back. Dignity and Silence." Beginning in Washington Square Park, the marchers proceeded in unseasonable heat (almost 87 degrees.) Following disruptions of previous parades by "Antis" (people opposed to Women's suffrage), the 1913 parade had widespread police protection to prevent the harassment of marchers. Counter-protesters mixed with the thousands of spectators, but it was noted that there was no significant disruption. Banners and signs were common throughout the parade, the New York Times noting that there was more "punch in them than usual. A selection included: "More Ballots: Less Bullets." "Politics Govern Even the Purity of the Milk Supply. It is Not "Outside the Home." But Inside the Baby." "To Create Sex Antagonism Is an Unwise Precedent." "Let the People Rule; Women are People." and notably "Hasn't Your Wife Brains Enough to Vote?" "No Government Ever Yielded a Right Unless Bullied into It." While the "Antis" and the New York Times (based on the Anti's count) tallied the parade at 9,613, however, other sources put it at 30,000. Suffrage groups from across the United States joined the parade as well as groups from abroad such as Sweden and England. Parades like this were vital for pushing the conversation on women's rights forward.

Blind performers on 42nd Street outside of Grand Central Terminal, undated.

Delmonico's Restaurant, ca. 1898. Perhaps more than any other establishment, Delmonico's restaurant epitomized the Gilded Age. IT was the premiere public place for the elite to dine and hold lavish affairs, and it set trends in dining and entertaining that people across the country- and even the world- spired to. Upper and middle-class women read about the restaurant's linens, oysters spoons and flower arrangements for ideas on how to set their own tables. And silver purveyors like Reed and Barton clamored to sell the restaurant their place settings so customers would buy them. The original owners, brothers Peter and John Delmonico, started out in 1827 with a shop at 23 William Street that served cakes, ices, and fine wines. By the 1830s, they had created the "restaurant" as we know it today. Before Delmonico's, men went to restaurants to eat, not dine. They visited sparse rooms where employees ran back and forth between the kitchen and the tables to serve from a handful of dishes that were written on a big board. By contrast, Delmonico's offered an elaborate printed menu of French and Italian dishes in an opulent setting with waiters who catered to patrons' every need. Like other restaurants and hotels in the 1880s, Delmonico's opened a midtown location- the one you're stopped at-to be closer to the city's nightlife and its patrons. Now diners could walk just a few blocks for a meal after an evening at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1923, the combination of high rents and prohibition caused Delmonico's to close. Though the current Delmonico's downtown is under new management, you can still order two of the original's signature dishes- Egg's Benedict and Chicken a la Keene.

Brick Presbyterian Church, 1908. Founded as an offshoot of First Presbyterian Church, Brick Presbyterian Church dates to the 18th century. The first church structure opened on New Year's Day 1768 on the corner of Beekman and Nassau Streets. The parish's second church was this one with a soaring steeple on 37th Street and Fifth Avenue. The total cost of the building was about $140,000 and it sat 1200 parishioners. Completed in 1858 the church survived 80 years. Once again the congregation was on the move uptown. The church merged with Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1937 and built a new sanctuary on 91st Street. The 37th Street edifice was demolished and replaced by a low rise, Art Deco, commercial building that housed the Lerner Shop and A.S. Beck Shoes. That structure was replaced in 1990 with a contemporary 30-story office tower.

Yale Club of New York City Building ARCHITECT: Tracy & Swartwout DATE: 1900-01 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The former Yale Club of New York City Building is located along “Clubhouse Row,” West 44th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Its neighbors including the Harvard Club, New York Yacht Club, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and former City Club. This Beaux-Arts style building, constructed in 1900-01 by builder Marc Eidlitz & Son, was designed by Evarts Tracy & Egerton Swartwout, both Yale University graduates, Yale Club members, and former employees of McKim, Mead & White

Since arriving on these shores, dogs have made New York City their home. Here are some of our favorite photos from our partners' collections of New York dogs in their natural habitat!

Union League Club, Park Avenue, 1931. The Union League Club was founded in 1863 by a group of prominent New Yorkers who shared a firm commitment to the Union cause in the Civil War. The members were part of a breakaway from the Union Club, which had maintained support for Confederate Members. Frederick Law Olmsted was among the Club’s founders, and later members were a veritable directory of the city’s Gilded Age society, including John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and several former and future Presidents of the United States. The Club first occupied a building on Union Square, followed by clubhouses on Madison Square and Fifth Avenue. The present neo-Classical building on Park Avenue was designed by architect Benjamin Wistar Morris III, and erected on a lot assembled by J.P. Morgan and his son J.P. “Jack” Morgan, Jr. The new club opened in February, 1931, with the first four floors dedicated to social and dining spaces, and the upper levels including 64 bedrooms. The club, which continues to operate today, extended membership to women in 1988, and was designated a New York City landmark in 2011.

Tiffany and Company Building detail, ca.1903-1906.

No single building better symbolized the Gilded Age than the home of William K. Vanderbilt, completed in 1883. While the rich had been flaunting their wealth in costumes and jewels, Vanderbilt displayed his dollars in limestone. And then other society men and women followed suit.

The "Air Lines Knot-Hole Club," pictured here, was "to kibitz the erection of the world's largest airline terminal." The word "kibitz" is Yiddish for "spectator," though particularly one who might offer poor advice. The "knot holes," (perhaps referring to imperfections in wood grain) are viewing holes that allowed inspectors and other curious members of the public to check out what's going on beyond the construction fence. In 2013, an iteration of these "knot holes" became a local law, stating that "every 25 feet, fences must have 12-inch by 12-inch viewing panels." However, the Airlines Terminal Building, completed in 1939, most likely placed them as an advertising gimmick to excite inquisitive New Yorkers.

New York Central Building, 1929. Considered by many the crowning achievement of Terminal City, the New York Central Building wears the honor well, with its pyramidal roof topped by a copper-clad lantern. Completed in 1929 to the designs of Warren & Wetmore (one of their final New York commissions) the headquarters for the New York Central Railroad Company stood 172.5 meters tall. The grand building was rendered in the Beaux Arts style, though by the time of its completion, architecture in the city had moved on, and many critics felt the building was retrograde (though it nicely complemented the Terminal itself). Because the building straddles Park Avenue and creates a physical (and visual) termination point of the street, the 35-story structure was designed with both pedestrian and vehicular arcades to facilitate movement through the building. The railroad sold the building in the 1950s during a period of financial woes. It was purchased in 1977 by real estate mogul Harry Helmsley and was unapologetically renamed the Helmsley Building. During the ensuing "renovation" all of the decorative details on the building, including the sculptures, were coated with a layer of gold paint. The building was sold again in 1998 (with the requirement that the name remains) and a 2002 renovation project removed the paint from the decorative brass and stone surfaces.

Knox Building, 1944. Designed by architect John H. Duncan, who also created the Grand Army Plaza Memorial Arch and the General Grant National Memorial, the Knox Building was constructed in 1901 and 1902. The 10-story Beaux-Arts structure was the headquarters for the Knox Hat Company (founded in 1838). The Beaux-Arts style for a commercial building was unique even in a city dotted by buildings of this style, most of which were residences, hotels, and civic buildings. In 1965 the building became the headquarters for the Republic National Bank and in 1985 work was undertaken to construct a 29-story L-shaped tower that hugged the 1902 building. The new construction unfortunately meant the demise of the neighboring Art Deco Kress building. Today the Knox mansard remains a striking visual on the corner, with the HSBC Tower as its modern backdrop.

The physical likeness of the statue of Beauty atop the fountain just south of the entrance steps to the library is the model Audrey Munson, whose countenance and contours have provided the personification of Civic Fame above the Municipal Building; the figure of Abundance as goddess Pomona outside the Plaza Hotel; and “Columbia Triumphant” at the USS Maine Monument for the bombed ship that ushered the US into the Spanish-American War. After a suicide attempt and failing mental health, brought upon by pressure from family and the media, Audrey was checked into an upstate asylum in 1931, where she died over 60 years later at age 104.

Manhattan Storage and Warehouse, 1922. Constructed in 1882 for the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company, the fortress-like structure on Lexington Avenue was designed by James Ware (best known as the creator of the dumbbell, or old law, tenements). The building was considered an experiment for the new company. The goal of the firm and its new building was to furnish merchants with a location to store goods for a season, as needed. The completed building was a success and the firm (and their architect Ware) would go on to build a number of other large warehouse structures in the city. In 1927 the warehouse was razed for the construction of the 56-story Art Deco Chanin Building.

100 Park Avenue, ca. 1950. This shiny glass tower was designed by Kahn & Jacobs in 1950 in the International style. As one of the first large office buildings constructed in New York after the Depression, the structure is astylar in ways that architects, up until that point, could not previously imagine. Unlike prewar buildings which were drawn to be responsive to the environment, new advances in technology set this building apart. With the advent of central air-conditioning and fluorescent lighting, the tower was designed to emphasize floor space rather than airspace and light. Its ground floor alone is 40,000 feet, making it the prototype of the "block-through" office building in New York City. In 2008, the property was redeveloped by Moed de Armas and Shannon and awarded "International Building of the Year" by the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA).

Photographer Edmund Vincent Gillon captured an enchanting nighttime view of the Empire State Building, but his long exposure also caught a fleeting image of passing traffic — note the advertisement text "Bagel Wheel, Inc." seemingly floating over 35th Street.

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New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) Interior ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The interior survives as an integral part of the planned enclave known as Terminal City. It functions as a through-corridor between 45th and 46th Streets, and it presents an excellent example of axial Beaux-Arts planning. Construction of the lobby in between two vehicular tunnels and over double-layer railroad tracks required extraordinary engineering solutions. It reflects the railroad’s imperial prowess in its lavish appointments. The well-maintained surfaces, fixtures, elevator alcoves and cabs comprise one of the finest Beaux-Arts lobbies in New York.

Though today the stretch of Fifth Avenue from 40th to 42nd Street looks onto Bryant Park and the New York Public Library, in the late 18th century, passersby would be met with a vastly different sight: 50 feet high and 25 feet thick granite walls that could hold up to 20,000,000 gallons of water. This was the Croton Distributing Reservoir and served a crucial role in the development of New York City. The concept of a municipal supply of water began after the growing city had been hit by waves of epidemics due to a lack of clean water (which was only accessible by wells or cisterns). The public outcry that followed prompted the military to create the Aqueduct, which started at dams at the Croton River in Westchester and ended at the Reservoir. The Croton Distributing Reservoir allowed New Yorkers the ability to have running water in their homes and served as the predecessor to the tap water available to us today. Outstripped by the growing city, the Croton Distributing Reservoir became obsolete and eventually was torn down. However, photographs of the imposing walls with their Egyptian facade provide a reminder of this essential relic of city infrastructure that occupied four acres of Midtown.

Wendel Mansion, 1934. In the early 20th century one family could lay claim to the title of most powerful landlords in New York City. The Wendel family owned more than 150 properties in Manhattan and had a net worth of what would be billion dollars today. They owned the land under some of Manhattan's most well known buildings, including the Standard Oil Building and the Time-Life Building. Unlike some flashy real estate moguls (of the past and today) the Wendel's were private in their wealth and their lives. The origins of the families money and land holdings dated to John G. Wendel, a German fur trader who arrived in New York at the end of the 18th century and befriended and then married into the Astor family. The grandchildren of the first John Wendel included six sisters and a brother who lived in a mansion on the corner of 39th Street and Fifth Avenue. The home had no electricity and no phone, and the inhabitants wore clothes and lived as though they were still in the 19th century. The brother John was known as "The Hermit of Fifth Avenue,” and tightly controlled his sisters' lives until his death in 1914. The home was constructed around 1856 by the first John Wendel. Sitting on a large corner plot, it had a considerable carriage house and back-yard. The ever-frugal family hung their laundry out to dry in the yard, annoying their neighbors. When the final sister died in 1931 the four-story mansion still had gaslights, an ancient coal stove, and more ancient servants. The large yard, which was then an uncommon open space among the large commercial buildings surrounding it had been used largely as a dog park for the last sister's poodle. The family's fortune was divided among a number of charities and institutions, including Drew University in New Jersey. The Fifth Avenue mansion was given as a bequest to the school. The home was demolished in 1934. Today a bronze plaque with a image of the home and a bit of family history graces the structure built in its place.

GRAND CENTRAL DEPOT Railroads brought people, profits…and pollution. Residents complained. So in 1854 the city banned soot-belching steam engines below 42nd Street, keeping them far from New York’s populated heart. Trains arriving from the north unhitched their engines at 42nd and towed passenger cars the last few miles downtown by horse. Despite these restrictions, the Hudson, New Haven, and Harlem Railroads were eager to expand. To coordinate their services (and save money) they agreed to share a new transit hub. With 42nd Street the southern limit for steam engines, it was the logical station location.Grand Central Depot opened in 1871. Three towers represented the three participating railroads. Thirty years later, a new Annex doubled the Depot’s size. But double wasn’t enough. Rail traffic had quadrupled.

The Advertising Club of New York at Robb House, Park Avenue, ca. 1975. This Stanford White-designed Italian Renaissance Revival mansion was completed in 1892 for James Hampden Robb, a veteran of city and state politics and New York City Parks Commissioner at the time of construction. The house was acquired by the Advertising Club of New York in 1923, and converted to co-op residences in 1977.

38 East 40th Street. ca. 1905. Designed by Ernest Flagg, this home was the first in Manhattan to use the Hennebique process, a late 19th-century method for reinforced concrete.

This slick black tiled Art Moderne storefront housed Kayser Hosiery. From the curved windows to the tiered levels at the top of the storefront and the block typeface, it exudes the style of Streamlined Moderne. Founded in the 1880s producing simple cotton gloves, Kayser grew to manufacture and sell hosiery, lingerie, swimwear, and silk gloves. Their colorful advertisements featured beautiful illustrations of flappers and fashionable women through the decades.

Stairs and elevator inside the Tiffany and Company Building, ca. 1903-1906.

Grand Central Post Office, ca. 1910. Constructed by the associated architecture firms of Reed & Stem and Warren & Wetmore, the Grand Central Post Office was completed in 1909, three years before Grand Central Terminal (by the same architects) was finished. It is the oldest surviving structure of the area that became Terminal City. When opened the entire structure was devoted to postal functions. At seven stories, the post office is considerably shorter than most of the Terminal City structures (excepting GCT, itself). In 1992, though, a 31-story tower was built within and on top of the 1909 building.

Flag pole base in front of the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, ca 1935. The large Carrere & Hastings Fifth Avenue Branch is flanked by two tall flagpoles. The elaborate bronze bases for the poles were designed by Thomas Hastings and are decorated with allegorical and symbolic figures, in the same ornate Beaux Arts style of the library itself. The figures depicted (including people, turtles and owls) represent various human races as well as themes and actions such as Discovery, Conquest, Civilization, Adventure and Wisdom. The bases were created by Menconi brothers (Italian immigrant sculptors) in plaster from drawings by Hastings and the piece was cast in the Tiffany Studios in Queens. The bases were installed in 1912.

Lamp Cleaner on the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, 1940. This cast iron, twin lamp post seen being worked on here was one of the original 1892-installed ornamental posts on Fifth Avenue between Washington Square and 59th Street, the first large-scale installation of decorative electric lighting in the city. The New York Times said this about the lamp posts: "Fifth Avenue is to be lighted with handsome electric lamps.... The Edison Illuminating Company will furnish the light on an improved system, consisting of a new style of arc lights used on a low-tension circuit....Fifty cast-iron poles, 20 feet in height, and each carrying two electric lamps of about 1,000 candle power...will be ornamental in character, as will also the lamps, which will have artistic ground-glass globes and brass trimmings....The avenue is likely to present a very brilliant spectacle, as there will be 100 lights." Though impressive they must not have provided enough light, because less than one year later 50 more posts were added to the mid blocks.Today this location has a contemporary post, but in 1997 more than 60 historic lamp posts of various sizes and shapes were landmarked. (About 100 historic lamp posts survive, but the balance not landmarked in 1997 are either within historic districts or on individually landmarked property.) The building seen in the background is 500 Fifth Avenue, the 1931 Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Art Deco skyscraper.

Graybar Building ARCHITECT: Sloan & Robertson DATE: 1925-27 STYLE: Art Deco, Byzantine While the powerful stepped massing conforms to the 1916 zoning resolution that required structures to setback as they rise, the exotic decorative program blends Art Deco and Byzantine-style aesthetics, particularly the monumental stone reliefs that frame the three portals. These impressive robed figures clutch symbols of air, water, earth and fire, as well as objects that relate to the Graybar Electric Company, a major tenant.

Temple Emanu-El was established in 1845 as New York City’s first Reform congregation. 33 members met in a loft at the intersection of Clinton and Grand Streets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the congregation grew, Emanu-El moved further and further uptown. In 1854, it moved to its third location at 110 East 12th Street, which later housed St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church

Park Avenue Malls, 1934. These patches of green were originally fenced in shrubs that were planted to obscure the view of railroad vents. From 1894 until 1920, the Park Avenue Association formed a coalition that would totally cover the unsightly vents and eventually receive funding from private donors to plant over 7,000 trees in the malls. Flowers were added to the narrow plots by 1946. In 1969, the Parks Department hired landscape architect Clara Coffey to redesign the malls. She removed the fencing and tall hedges which disrupted the view of the well-maintained little gardens, which no longer hid subway vents. Today, the Carnegie Hill Neighbors and Fund for Park Avenue maintain the Mall and host an annual tree lighting ceremony at its intersection with 91st Street.

152 East 38th Street ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1858 STYLE: Federal Elegance and charm are abundantly evident in the architectural quality of this three-story Federal-style brick house. Separated from the street by a spacious forecourt and an inner landscaped garden, this outstanding townhouse is partly shielded from view by a one-story brick wall dividing the forecourt from the garden. The wall and six slender columns with modified Ionic capitals support a covered walkway intended to provide shelter for those about to pass through the two entrance gates in the arched openings of the wall.

Century Club, ca. 1905-1920. The Century Association (also called the Century Club) is a private social club established in 1847 as a community to promote interest in the fine arts and literature. The club evolved from the Sketch Club, founded in 1829 by editor and poet William Cullen Bryant. The first permanent headquarters for the club was purchased in 1857. The townhouse at 42 East 15th Street (later nos. 109-111) was home to the organization's activities through 1891 when they moved to a new McKim, Mead and White-designed building on 43rd Street. Rendered in a formal Italian Renaissance Revival style, the structure has remained the headquarters for the secretive club since then. Particular architectural features of note include the massive arched entrance, the wreathed round windows at the third-floor level, and the ornate cornice. The 1967 LPC designation report for the building states, " The roster of Centurions reads like the "Who's Who" of American Arts and Letters." Members of the club have included its architect Stanford White, painter Winslow Homer, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and FDR. The club began admitting women in the late 1980s after a prolonged legal battle. Today the club has a membership of around 2500 people, including former Mayor Bloomberg, documentarian Ric Burns, author Robert Caro, and any number of unknown lawyers, doctors, and business people.

Commodore Hotel Ballroom ca. 1919 The size of the mammoth Hotel Commodore (Warren & Wetmore, architects), completed in 1919, had 1,956 guest rooms on 28 floors. The hotel at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue claimed to have the largest banquet and ballroom in North America. It seated 3,500 and hosted many of the country's most important functions. In 1980 the glass-clad Grand Hyatt hotel opened, built over the structural shell of the Commodore.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel, ca. 1910. The first of what would eventually become a chain of hotels, the original Ritz-Carlton opened on Madison Avenue in 1911. Designed by Warren \&Wetmore, architects of the new Grand Central Terminal. The ambiance, service, and gathering spaces were considered some of the city's most spectacular. Other Ritz-Carlton Hotels opened all over the country and world (including Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Boston, Madrid, and Paris) over the next two decades. The hotel's dinning room was the first place that women were permitted to smoke in public and supposedly the French chef at the Ritz invented (or re-invented) Vichyssoise. In 1951 the hotel closed and was quickly razed, prompting a sad, nostalgic article in the New York Times that enumerated all of the famous old hotels that had also been lost.

American Radiator Building (at right), December 5, 1938 Designed by Raymond Hood, the American Radiator Building is a striking scene at the mid block of 40th Street. Rendered in black and gold, the 23-story building is largely a free-standing tower. While the bronze and marble entry and ornamentation is neo-Gothic in style, the sleek lines of the building nod towards an Art Deco style, which would not truly come into vogue for a few more years. Hood also included in the design purposeful uplighting for the top of the building, making it the first New York skyscraper with dramatic exterior lighting. (Its nighttime look is immortalized in Georgia O'Keeffe's 1927 “Radiator Building at Night - New York.”) Hood, who for some time in the early 1920s designed radiator covers for the American Radiator Company, would complete this headquarters for the company in 1924. The building remained headquarters for that American Radiator for 65 years (even after a name change to American Standard Company in 1967). Purchased by a Japanese firm in 1988, they intended to convert the building to a hotel. A decade and new owner later, the black and gold skyscraper was converted into The Bryant Park Hotel.

Listen to the Gotham Center and Sharon Zukin's podcast on the history on the B. Altman Department Store, once a premier department store of New York, while examining these related archival images!

American Radiator Building ARCHITECT: Raymond Hood DATE: 1923-24 STYLE: Art Deco The American Radiator Building, a striking twenty-three story black and gold tower, is one of the finest and most significant skyscrapers in Manhattan. Designed by Raymond M. Hood and built in 1923-24, the American Radiator Building initiated a new trend in skyscraper design in New York City with its bold cubic massing of forms often associated with the Art Deco style and its freedom from the Beaux-Arts classical details that had previously encumbered New York City skyscrapers.

Knox Building ARCHITECT: John H. Duncan DATE: 1901-02 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The Knox Building is one of the finest Beaux-Arts style commercial buildings in New York City. It was designed by the notable New York City architect John H. Duncan who had achieved his reputation with his designs for the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch and Grant’s Tomb. This favored motifs as full facade rustication, large scale ornament, and a two-story mansard roof are carried over from Duncan’s residential designs and here skillfully transmuted to a large commercial building.

New York Public Library This building probably comes nearer than any other in America to the complete realization of Beaux Arts design at its best. Replete with sparkle and delicacy, with its urns, fountains, sculpture, and ornament, it is by night or day a joyous creation. Unlike the legion of heavy Classical buildings that invaded the country after the World's Columbian Exposition, it has somehow managed to keep the light, airy quality which so often is seen only in architectural drawings, so rarely achieved in execution.

Explosion in front of the Murray Hill Hotel, January 27, 1902. On Jan 27, 1902, a wooden shed at 41st and Park Avenue filled with 200 pounds of dynamite exploded. The nearby Murray Hill Hotel saw extensive damage. The explosion, followed quickly by billowing flames and flying glass killed five on the ground, while the tunnels being dug (the reason for the explosives) were largely undisturbed.

Grand Central Terminal Interior. For the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station, Guastavino Jr. devised a series of vaults of cream-colored tile to create a space that was both intimate and expansive. The vaults endured the ultimate test in 1997 when a fire ravaged the popular restaurant. Thousands of tiles delaminated from the ceiling and had to be replaced, but engineers cited the results of the Guastavino Company’s fire tests of a century earlier to prove that the basic structure was still sound. The bar reopened only 12 weeks after the fire.

Main Branch, NYPL Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street (Carrère & Hastings, 1901-11, master plan and restoration: Davis Brody Bond, 1980-2000; South Court addition: Davis Brody Bond, 2000-02; Children’s Center at 42nd Street: Gensler Architects, 2008) NYC IL, NYC INL, NHL The NYPL’s Main Branch is one of the city’s most important civic monuments and most impressive works of architecture. Along with Bryant Park, it is located on the site of the old Croton Distributing Reservoir, once the city’s main source of fresh water. The reservoir’s 50-foot high, 25-foot thick walls were demolished in the 1890s, just as plans were underway for a new central library. Some of the reservoir’s foundations can still be found in the library’s South Court. In 2000-02, a new wing was added to this part of the building and the architects intentionally exposed the foundation wall as a record of the site’s history. Situated on the eastern end of two city blocks, the library’s marble façades and lavish interiors are a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style. The firm of Carrère & Hastings, fairly unknown at the time, was chosen to design the building. Their success led to commissions for 14 Carnegie-funded branches across the city, more than any other firm. The building’s front is set back from Fifth Avenue by a grand staircase and terrace that give the façade added grandeur and perspective. The terrace’s two famous lion statues were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter and were originally named “Leo Astor” and “Leo Lenox” after the library’s founders. During the Great Depression, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia nicknamed them “Patience” and “Fortitude.” The main entrance is housed within a triple-arched portico supported by coupled Corinthian columns. The rear, or west façade, expresses and honors the function of the building. Its series of full-height, vertical rows of windows both represent and give light to the seven floors of book stacks within. The steel stacks once held 88 miles of books, which have since been moved offsite. However, the stacks also function as structural support for the building, providing a powerful symbolism to the building’s construction. On all four façades, pedimented pavilions lend visual interest and elegance. When it was completed in 1911, the library bore the distinction of being the largest marble structure in the United States. Formerly known as the Humanities and Social Sciences Library and the Center for Humanities, the building was renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building in 2008 to honor a major gift to the institution. The library functions as a reference, rather than a circulating library, and, as such, includes magnificent interior reading rooms, including the Rose Main Reading Room. This grand space, with arched windows and a fresco ceiling, is one of the most revered interior public spaces in Manhattan. In the 1980s, the institution undertook a major restoration of many of the library’s interior spaces and added two levels of stacks beneath Bryant Park. At that time, the library collection had outgrown the building, necessitating the park’s excavation.

Century Association ca. 1975 Despite its rather fussy detail, the main massing of this facade, with its once deeply recessed Palladian arched loggia, is extremely masterful and teaches a lesson in the successful combination of elements. McKim, Mead & White designed this building when the Club moved from East 15th Street; they achieved great elegance in its sumptuous interiors..

Grand Central Eagle, ca. 1966. The current Grand Central Terminal was preceded by two other train stations: Grand Central Depot (1871) and Grand Central Station (1901). Grand Central Station, which was not so much a new building as the renovation and expansion of the earlier Depot, was the shortest-lived of the iterations. Completed between 1898 and1901, it stood for less than a decade, replaced by the Beaux Arts icon in 1913. A feature of Grand Central Station still lives though. Adorning its four towers were larger-than-life cast iron eagles. As Grand Central Station was being demolished, a number of them were removed and sold or auctioned off. One is seen here in Mount Vernon, New York in 1966. In 1999 the first of the eagles returned to the Terminal and was installed at the Lexington Avenue entrance to the Grand Central Market at 43rd Street. Two years later, a second eagle, rescued from a monastery in Garrison, New York, was installed here at the Terminal entrance at Vanderbilt and 42nd Street.

Heckscher Building, 1916. August Heckscher, a German-born real estate developer, built this Madison Avenue skyscraper in 1916. Though it was constructed before the 1916 Zoning Resolution codifying setback requirements for skyscrapers, the Heckscher Building, designed by Jardine, Hill & Murdock, featured a five-story base, with a setback 27-story tower above. However, as reported by Christopher Gray in a 2002 Streetscapes column, Heckscher’s then-unique design had more to do with the peculiarities of lease terms for some of the assembled Madison Avenue plots. Be that as it may, the Heckscher building now stands among a thicket of Midtown skyscrapers, each with its own creative response to the 1916 regulation preserving light and open space.

Hotel Manhattan, 1922. The Hotel Manhattan was a 16-story structure completed in 1896 to the designs of Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. At 250 feet tall, it was once (likely briefly) the tallest hotel structure in the world. It was crowned by a stately mansard roof. The hotel was demolished in 1961 and replaced in 1963 by a Kahn & Jacobs-designed glass tower.

Aeolian Building, 1920. The 18-story building, completed in 1912, boasted a third floor concert hall which hosted performances by many leading musicians of the day — including the 1924 debut of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Samuel Longley Bickford began a career in restaurants just after the turn of the century, but it was not until 1921 that he established his eponymous restaurant chain.

I'm Picketing Your Heart for the Humane Society, ca. 1940.

Grand Central Terminal, ca. 1975. Here is a case in which distinguished architecture and a brilliant engineering solution were wedded to produce one of the fabulous railroad terminals of our times. Grand Central was always a place one was proud to show to out-of -town visitors until the mean clutter of shops and splays ruined its once magnificent interior scale. Nonetheless, the exterior windows, with their great expanses of glass and steel, represent the best of Parisian Beaux Arts Architecture.

150 East 38th Street In 1934, Mr. Pettengill, an engineer and antiques dealer hired architect Robertson Ward to combine 150 and 152 East 38th Street into an office and home. House & Garden praised the design in 1936, called the "Pettengill Project," which placed offices and a conference room in the front house and living quarters in the set-back house at 152. Robertson Ward later designed resort buildings in Acapulco and Barbados, and the Mill Reef Club in Antigua. Eventually, the two properties were severed, although the LPC designated 152 East 38th Street in 1967.

475 Fifth Avenue (at left), ca. 1975. Built in 1926 for the Farmers' Loan and Trust, 475 Fifth Avenue was designed by Starrett & Van Vleck, who built in the Italian Romanesque Style.

American Radiator Building ca. 1978 One of the greatest problems that confronted our architects was how best to express skyscraper construction. Here there was no precedent, so that many interesting experiments were made, among which this was one one of the most notable. Raymond Hood, using a theme of black and gold, achieved the "new look" for the 1920s; and, although the setbacks above seem to us needlessly agitated, the general effect was original and fairly expressive of the underlying structure. The small, sculptured corbels just above street level are interesting as ornament although by no means original.

Grand Central Terminal, Park Avenue Viaduct and the Grand Central station of the Third Avenue El, 1920.

The most fanciful and famous top of all of Manhattan's ornamental beauties is certainly the Chrysler Building, a quintessential expression of Jazz-Age New York. Its flashy modernism was communicated through the stainless steel crown with its crescendo of seven scalloped domes and spiky triangular windows. The needle spire stretched its height to 1,046 ft., which won it the title of the tallest building in the world from 1930 to 1931, until the completion of the Empire State Building. This Story is adapted from an exhibition at the Skyscraper Museum, which can be viewed here.

Socony-Mobil Building ARCHITECT: Architect: Harrison & Abramowitz; John B. Peterkin DATE: 1954-56 STYLE: Skyscraper This structure is a vivid study in contrasts, juxtaposing deep blue structural glass with stainless steel, smooth and embossed surfaces, as well as curved and rectilinear forms. These juxtapositions give the Socony-Mobil Building its singular character; while the zoning-driven massing was typical of speculative office buildings erected during this period, the sparkling elevations gave the project a strong modern identity. Aside from modest alterations to the base and storefronts, this office tower remains one of the postwar era’s and neighborhood’s most striking skyscrapers.

Joseph B. and Josephine H. Bissell House ARCHITECT: Edward L. Tilton DATE: 1903-04 STYLE: Neo-Classical By the early 20th century this area was the city’s most prestigious residential neighborhood and was known as Vanderbilt’s Row because of that family’s involvement in maintaining the elite character of the neighborhood. The house was purchased by Josephine H. Bissell in 1903. She hired prominent architect Edward L. Tilton to alter the house by removing the traditional Italianate style brownstone facade and its high stoop and replacing it with a more fashionable neo-Classical style brick and limestone facade with an American basement plan.

C.K.G. Billings "Horseback" Dinner at the Sherry Hotel, March 28, 1903.

A 1920s steeple of class-act Art Deco, the golden tips of the tower are supposed to mimic the hue of a radiator aflame, and symbolic figures at the base of the building represent states of heat such as “lust” and “labor” and “drunkenness.” The lower facade is also decorated with fire-breathing salamanders - a symbol of the court of King Francis I, under whose auspices in 1524 the Italian navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano sailed to the “New World” - allegedly the first European to blaze the waters of Lower New York Bay, and cast western eyes on the shores of Brooklyn and Staten Island. In 1926, Lynn Bomar of the New York Giants stood on the roof of the building and hail mary’d a football into Bryant Park, where Giants halfback Hickey Haines, wearing a waistcoat and tie, caught what the papers called the longest forward pass on record.

You're standing across from one of three brownstones that J.P. Morgan owned on this block. Next to it is the addition to the Morgan Library designed by Renzo Piano in 2006. Around the corner is Morgan's original library, built in 1912. The photographer Edward Steichen once said that looking into Morgan's "black eyes was like confronting the headlights of an express train bearing down on you." That unrelenting ambition drove his art acquisition as much as it had his business strategy. In 1901, he formed the country's first billion-dollar company- U.S. Steel- and following the Panics of 1893 and 1907 helped to save the country and then the city from financial ruin. It was not until Morgan was in his 50s-after amassing his great wealth- that he turned buying art, rare books, and manuscripts into a second job. In 1901, one of Morgan's partner wrote: "We never see him and it is difficult to get hold of him. He spends his time lunching with Kings or Kaisers or buying Raphaels." By 1890, more than 50% of Morgan's money went towards art, and by 1912, he had put $60 million (more than $1.5 billion today) into objects that ranged widely beyond Old Masters. There were Gutenberg Bibles, Roman frescoes, Assyrian reliefs, 17th century, German metalwork, tapestries, ivories, enamels, and furniture. Morgan hired Charles McKim, of the architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White, to build him a library in which to put it all. The design was inspired by Rome's 16th-century palaces and churches. Once inside the bronze doors, visitors entered a rotunda with a vaulted ceiling covered in scenes inspired by Raphael's ceiling the Vatican. One of the three rooms you can visit today is Morgan's private study. This room- with its 16th-century Italian wood ceiling, red damask walls, stained glass window panels, and oversized glass window panels, and oversized Italianate desk became a haven for Morgan in the last years of his life. And when he died, in 1913, it was here that the family held the viewing. Morgan's son, Jack, turned his father's library into a public institution.

Roosevelt Hotel, 1924. Named in honor of former President Teddy Roosevelt, the 1924 hotel was constructed on land leased by the New York State Realty and Terminal Company, a division of the New York Central Railroad. Designed by George B. Post & Son, the hotel was built with storefronts and not lounges on the sidewalk level, owing to its construction during Prohibition. Hotel guest once had direct access to Grand Central through a basement tunnel. The hotel was purchased in 1943 by Conrad Hilton, who three years later founded the Hilton Hotel chain. The Roosevelt was the first hotel to have a television in every room, which they instituted in 1947. The hotel has undergone numerous large scale renovations in the last 20 years and remains open as a luxury hotel.

Gorham Building One of the outstanding masterpieces of New York architecture, this Italian Renaissance building by McKim, Mead, & White ingeniously adapts the first floor arcade to show windows, screens, balconies, and cornice leaves one with a sense of accomplished finality all too rarely achieved. This photograph was taken before the building was altered, but the changes cannot completely destroy the dignity of this old aristocrat.

B. Altman ARCHITECT: Trowbridge & Livingston DATE: 1905-13 STYLE: Italian Renaissance The B. Altman & Company Department Store Building was the first and one of the most handsome of the flagship department stores on Fifth Avenue. Its construction in 1905-13 acted as a catalyst in the transformation of Fifth Avenue north of 34th Street into a grand boulevard lined with large, high-class department stores. The architects, Trowbridge & Livingston, created an elegant ltalian Renaissance palazzo type design, reserved and stately in character, which was designed to blend with the then residential appearance of the area.

One of the best parts of a summer in New York City is the wide array of free outdoor programs. There’s nothing like lying back in the grass while hearing crisp notes dance from a trumpet at Kingsborough’s Lighthouse Bandshell. There's nothing like watching the Delacorte Theater reawaken the words of Shakespeare under a starry night. Part of what makes our city so special is that it unites communities and cultures with free arts performances. While we won’t be able to share these moments in the summer of 2020, this story celebrates those experiences in all five boroughs. We hope to see you there next year!

Hotel Belmont, 1922. The Hotel Belmont was the tallest hotel in the world when completed in 1906. Built over subway infrastructure (which necessitated considerable underground supporting columns) the 23-story hotel was designed by Grand Central Terminal architects Warren and Wetmore. Despite the high cost and the ornate nature of the building, it was not reviewed favorably upon opening. The Architecture Record called the the cornice “ponderous” and “rather loud.” A critic had even more negative opinions of the interior where he found decorative features to be questionable, useless, and boring. He also called the entranceway “rather cold and uninviting." Despite these judgements, the hotel was successful, its proximity to the train terminal a major benefit. In 1930, quietly and with little fanfare, the hotel closed. On May 3, after a final luncheon, the full-time residents moved out. The furniture, housewares, decorative features, and utilitarian items were sold at auction. Demolished in 1931, plans for a skyscraper were floated but nothing came of them. After three years of being vacant, construction began on the low rise Art Deco Airlines Terminal Building, which was completed in the early 1940s.

Women's League for Political Education, 1899. Though this photograph does not specifically detail the location of the gathering, it is likely the League's headquarters in the Berkeley Lyceum on 44th Street. The League, originally established as a pro-women's suffrage group, created a meeting place where people of all walks of life could be educated on important issues of the day. They held classes, meetings, and lectures. They also founded a number of affiliate groups including The Civic Forum, an assembly designed to foster higher standards of civic responsibility and international goodwill and the Economic Club of New York, a non-partisan organization that encouraged dialogue on economic, social, and industrial problems. The League, which was opened to both genders around 1905, moved into a larger space in 1921 in the building today known as Town Hall, where they continued this work. A new project started in 1935 was 'America’s Town Meeting of the Air' a public affairs discussion radio show, recorded at Town Hall for more than 20 years. In 1938 the League changed its name to The Town Hall, Inc.

Tiffany and Company Building, May 2, 1907.

Lefcourt-Colonial Building, 1930. The Lefcourt-Colonial is a 45-story, Art Deco office building that was commissioned in 1930 by Abraham E. Lefcourt. Designed by the Charles F. Moyer Company and Bark & Djorup, the building has a storied history as part of Lefcourt's real estate empire. While the Lefcourt Colonial is only one of Lefcourt's many buildings in New York (20 in Manhattan!), it is one of his most iconic. The building's most prominent feature, its tower, can actually be seen from almost any point in the midtown area!

Carriage houses on Sniffen Court, a private mews off East 36th Street, ca. 1980. This set of ten carriage houses dates to the 1860s. The building at left (with oriel window) is No. 156 East 36th Street, also 2 Sniffen Court. Preservation documents state that the mews was named for John Sniffen, the builder purportedly responsible for the mews layout and the construction of the houses. However, Christopher Gray, in a 1991 “Streetscapes” column for the New York Times, disputes this claim, finding no evidence to connect John Sniffen to the property or its developers. In the early 20th century, the service buildings were converted to private residences, and in 1966, Sniffen Court received Landmark designation, forever cementing the Sniffen name, whether it arose from fact or tradition.

15 Vanderbilt Avenue ca. 1923 John Campbell leased 15 Vanderbilt Avenue (known widely as the Campbell Apartment) from William Kissam Vanderbilt in the same year that this photo was taken: 1923. Campbell, a member of the New York Central's board of directors wanted an opulent office, and he got one. Located at the southwest corner of Grand Central, it was at 3,500 square feet, the largest ground floor office space in Manhattan. Nor was Campbell content with size alone, he hired architect Augustus Allen to decorate the space. Allen, known for his luxury architecture, had worked for many a robber baron before and knew his way around opulence. He reimagined the room inspired by 13th-century Florentine architecture. Allen added leaded windows, wood detailing, and hand-painted ceilings. The centerpiece of the office was an enormous faux fireplace. Nor was the apartment reserved for business, Campell would hold music recitals and other social events in it as well. It is said that the Persian rug he installed was worth 300,000$ at the time. Upon Campbell's death in 1957, the apartment was used for less glamorous activities. Initially used as signalman's office, the Metro-North Commuter Railroad police took ownership of the space. Under them, it served a number of functions, including gun storage and office space. At one point, the wine cellars were even used as a prison. Needless to say, the space was well worn and like much of the city in rather shabby shape. In 1999, however, it was given a new use: a luxurious cocktail bar. Several costly renovations in the past decades have restored it to its former glory and is now a bar called The Campbell.

There’s no place like Grand Central. The sheer scale and elegance of the main concourse transforms the daily commute into a complex choreography as commuters and tourists negotiate through the hallways, overheard conversations turn into mysterious plots of other people’s dramas, and what can be mundane becomes a unique experience. Grand Central has seen a steady tide of humanity for the past 100 years, becoming a beloved New York landmark.

New York Club, ca. 1907 If you asked a well-heeled New Yorker today if he or she knew about the New York Club, you might well be met with a look of confusion. However, that would not have been the case a century ago. Founded in the 1840s, the prestige of the New York Club was such that it was noted as a simple N. in the Social Register. It was so well known that one needn't have a longer signifier. As such, many of New York's prominent citizens were members and its coffers were bountiful. At the turn of the century, the club was feeling confident enough to buy land for a new clubhouse across from Bryant Park and the Ne York Public Library. They retained Henry Hardenberg, known for the original Waldorf-Astoria (and later the Plaza Hotel), to design their nine-story clubhouse. The new home's facade was old New York with red brick and terracotta with common spaces as well as bedrooms. It cost more than a $1,000,000. Opened in 1907, the new location quickly amassed quite a membership, and there were almost 700 members by the start of the First World War. However, like many of its fellow clubs, the Great Depression took its toll on the New York Club and soon they were forced to sell. In 1933, the clubhouse was taken over by a liquor distributor, who used the space for sales and tasting rooms. The New York Club sold the building for less than a quarter of the price it had cost to build. Freedom House (an early human rights and racial equality organization) purchased the building in 1945 and renamed it after Wendell Wilkie, a Republican presidential candidate. During its tenancy, it hosted a number of organizations under its roof, including the NAACP. Doom came for the building in the familiar specter of a bank, the Republic National Bank, purchasing it as part of a midtown expansion. In 1985, its distinctive facade was demolished by workmen before it was sold, with many preservationists speculating that it was a preemptive move to prevent landmarking and a cynical act by the bank. Regardless, without any protection, the Bank demolished the old club as soon as it took ownership of the land.

Century Association ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White DATE: 1889-91 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Stately in its formal appearance, this four-story Italian Renaissance building, of granite, terra-cotta and brick, is extremely successful in its architectural treatment. McKim, Mead & White, architects for The Century Association, had a reputation for understanding the use of Renaissance elements, and Stanford White, the partner in charge of this project, was renowned for his talent as a designer and for his great ability in using materials, texture and detail in the creation of a building. Working in the true Renaissance spirit, achieving unity and balance, he reestablished the supremacy of form and detail.

Berkeley Lyceum Theatre, drawing from 1935. This now demolished theatre building was constructed in 1887-1888 as a gym for the nearby Berkeley School. The headmaster of the private school also established a men's athletic club in the building to assist in the financial costs of the building's maintenance. In the mid 1890s the building also began hosting theatrical performances. It was the original New York home of Henrik Ibsen's play Ghosts. At the same time that the building became home to a proper theatre it also became headquarters for a new progressive organization. The Women's League for Political Education, was established in 1894 by a group of prominent suffragists following the defeat of the women's suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution. The organization's mission was to provided education on social and political issues. Originally a female only organization, the League for Political Education became co-ed sometime in the early years of the 20th century. In 1914 the League purchased a lot on 49th Street for a new building, which would provide a larger space for classes and lectures. The new building, originally called the Societies' Building (now known as Town Hall), opened in 1921 and was designed with the democratic principles of the League in mind. No box seats were included in the design and every effort was made to allow an unobstructed view for every seat in the house. The Berkeley Lyceum was torn down in 1916.

We've rounded up our favorite photos of New Yorkers in costume.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, a plane ticket from New York to Europe cost the equivalent of five-thousand dollars. Airfare was a privilege of the wealthy and the Airline Terminal Building was built to accommodate them. The Airline Terminal Building saw its cornerstone laid by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia on April 22nd, 1940. The building served multiple airline companies, including American, Eastern TWA, United, and PanAm. The terminal provided a convenient Midtown hub for passengers to purchase tickets, have their bags checked, dine, and watch the news in a 600-seat theater before being transported by bus to the airport to catch their flight. The building opened on January 26, 1941, ferrying passengers to the New York Municipal Airport. Initially, it brought passengers to Newark, which the same year, as well as Idlewild when it opened seven years later. This sleek, 5-story Art Deco structure was designed by architect John Peterkin in what was then called the modern-classical style. Its stark, symmetric facade faced Grand Central across 42nd Street. Above the door of the building was a mural depicting a map of the planet, projecting its role as was the gateway to the world. Inside, a blue dome raised over gold painted walls, offering an atmosphere that was reminiscent of "Arabian Nights," according to the New York Times. However, after Newark and Idlewild airports opened, buses pulling traffic through grid-locked Midtown stopped seeming like an amenity. A sister terminal opened on First Avenue between 37th and 38th street near the Midtown-Queens tunnel in 1954. The original Airline Terminal Building began to just offer ticketing services. Declining in value and usage, the terminal was shuttered in 1978 to make way for a corporate headquarters.

Three examples of very dense high-rise housing developments suggest how the private market might have rebuilt parts of Manhattan for the middle class if the real estate boom of the late 1920s had not ended in the Great Depression. Two were created by the visionary developer Fred French: Tudor City (1927), a 14.5-acre enclave of a dozen towers on E. 42nd Street, and Knickerbocker Village (1934) on the Lower East side, which replaced some of the district’s oldest tenements with modern, but extremely dense, multifamily housing. The other, London Terrace (1930), packed 1,665 units into an avenue-long apartment block in Chelsea. The density of these middle-class developments averaged 463, 800, and 931 persons per acre, respectively. This story is adapted from an exhibition at the Skycraper Museum. The original version can be seen here.

T.A. Havemeyer Residence ca. 1898 First occupied by the Theodore A. Havemeyer Family in 1867-1868, this mansard-roofed mansion on the south-west corner of Madison Avenue and 38th Street was remodeled by society architect Richard Morris Hunt in 1891-1892. Seven Byron photographs were featured in a 1895 Once A Week article about Mrs. Havemeyer and her grand home. This photograph was taken the year after Theodore Havemeyer's 1897 death. Havemeyer and his brother made their fortune in sugar refining, and during the 1890s controlled as much as 98 percent of the U.S. sugar industry

Phelps Stokes-J. P. Morgan, Jr., House ARCHITECT: R. H. Robertson DATE: 1852-53 STYLE: Neo-Renaissance Robertson’s designs harmonized with the original while adding neo-Renaissance characteristics. When J. Pierpont Morgan purchased the house for his son J.P. Morgan, Jr., in late 1904, it was subsequently further renovated, and much of the exterior character it assumed then still survives today. When the Pierpont Morgan Library purchased the house in 1988, it was incorporated into the museum forming a vital part of its ongoing program.

Graybar Building, ca. 1925 Established as a small electric and telecommunications firm in 1869, this company became Western Electric in 1872 and grew into a large multinational business. By the turn of the century, Western Electric was the main producer of telephone equipment in the United States. In 1925 the company was split, with a new firm handling distribution of supplies and equipment. It was named Graybar after the company's original founders, Elisha Gray and Enos Barton. In 1929 the company was bought out by its employees for its capitalized value, which was $3 million in cash and $6 million in cumulative preferred stock. Two years before this buyout the company moved into their new home at 420 Lexington Avenue. One of the final buildings constructed in “Terminal City,” the Art Deco structure with Byzantine-styling was completed to the designs of Sloan & Robertson. The tan brick building has a monumental Lexington Avenue facade with three limestone figurative bas reliefs that frame the three entrances. The southernmost portal (the entrance to the Graybar Passage to the Terminal) includes some playful ornamentation; here animal heads surround the marquee struts (the supports attaching the marquee to the building) and sculptural rats seem to be climbing the struts. The rats were a reference to New York's maritime history. The Graybar Company was headquartered in this building until 1982, when they moved to Missouri. In 2016 33 years after leaving the building that retained their name, the Graybar Company returned to the building, leasing 3,000 square feet of office space.

"Beauty," ca. 1915. Flanking the main entrance of the Main Branch of the New York Public Library two statues stand, presiding over stone fountains. "Truth," the figure of an old man stands in the niche on the north side, while "Beauty" (seen here) is a young woman. Sculpted by Frederick MacMonnies, the works complement the grand Beaux-Arts style of the building. While the water flowed in the two fountains for decades, it was turned off sometime in the 1980s. Plans for work on the features fell through in 2013, but funding came through a couple of years later. In July 2015, the fountains bubbled with water once again, to the surprise and delight of passersby.

Pershing Square Building, 1940. In 1914 the hotel which had previously occupied this large corner lot, the Grand Union Hotel, closed after it was acquired by the city. The city and its transit agency, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, had big plans for the site. They proposed a large diagonal subway station which would connect the older section of the IRT (under Park, then Fourth Avenue) and the new section (which would proceed uptown via Lexington Avenue). The building was razed and despite wartime delays the station was complete in 1920, providing a strong foundation for the construction of a large building above. Designed by John Sloan, working with the architecture firm of York & Sawyer, the 1923 Pershing Square Building is a Lombard Romanesque- Renaissance Revival structure. The textured brickwork and multi-colored terra cotta of the facade predates its popularity in later Art Deco buildings. Interestingly, because the subway station foundations of the building were begun prior to the 1916 zoning laws, it was was designed without adherence to newly required regulations regarding setbacks (it was the last tall building without setbacks). Given its prime location above the busy subway station and adjacent to the railroad station, the building was a very successful venture within Terminal City. Early tenants included a number of large corporations, such as the Irving Trust Company, as well as smaller offices of real estate agents, lawyers, and investors. The building was renamed the American Can Building in 1945 for one of its then largest tenants. Today called the Pershing Square Building, once again, or simply 125 Park Avenue, the Terminal City office building remains largely unchanged and was designated a landmark in 2016.

Liggett Building, 1922. The Carrère and Hastings-designed Liggett Building was a commercial office building completed as part of the Terminal City development in 1922. Despite its first class architectural pedigree, the building itself was not a showy structure, given the firm's other major works. In 2016 the Liggett Building and four of its surrounding neighbors were razed in preparation for the construction of One Vanderbilt, a gargantuan, glassy skyscraper to be erect across Vanderbilt Avenue from Grand Central (it will rival the Empire State Building when completed). Whatever one's opinion on the new development, the removal of these five buildings did provide New Yorkers with something none of them had ever seen... an unobstructed view of the west facade of the venerable Terminal.

George S. Bowdoin Stable ARCHITECT: Ralph S. Townsend DATE: 1902 STYLE: Dutch Revival This two-story stable building was constructed in 1902 for William R. H. Martin, a businessman and real estate developer active in the Murray Hill section of the city. Architect Ralph S. Townsend designed this small building in a distinctive Dutch Revival style, with an elaborate stepped gable and oversized stone quoins and voussoirs

Richard Thibaut Wallpapers, 1922. Established in 1886, Thibaut is America’s oldest continuously operating wallpaper firm. The two-story showroom building was completed circa 1921 to the designs of Trowbridge & Livingston, replacing two older homes. It is unknown how long the wallpaper firm occupied the low rise building, but in 1927 the facade of this building was retained when the structure had a massive addition constructed. The design of the resulting 22-story office building was created by the firm of Albert Buchman and Ely Jacques Kahn for the National Bank of Commerce.

Biltmore Hotel, 1914. Constructed in 1913, the Biltmore Hotel was the first post-Grand Central Terminal commission for Warren and Wetmore (who had used some seriously underhanded methods to secure Terminal City work). At 26 stories the Terminal's neighbor stood five times as tall, with two imposing wings surrounding a center light court. The terrace at the sixth-floor setback provided guests with a roof garden and occasional ice skating rink. As early as the 1920s the gold clock of the lobby was a well-known and popular meeting spot, for New Yorkers "Meet me under the clock," directed one to the Biltmore. Not only known in popular culture, the hotel was the location of a number of important geo-politcal events. In 1916 the Treaty of the Danish West Indies was signed there, transferring the now U.S. Virgin Islands to America for $25 million in gold. In 1942 the Biltmore Conference was vital in the establishment of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth. By the 1980s the once thriving area known as Terminal City was run down and full of aging structures. The Biltmore was closed in 1981 and, though a somewhat perfect candidate for landmark designation, the demolition of the structure began soon thereafter. Shocked preservationists worked to save some of the interiors. The building was not fully razed, but was gutted, taken down to its steel framing, and rebuilt as 335 Madison Avenue. Today the rescued clock and piano live in the lobby of the new building.

The 1,046-foot Chrysler Building was the tallest building in the world from 1930 to 1931 and was part of an intense race for this title. In 1928, developer William H. Reynolds hired William Van Alen to design the world's tallest building for a site leased at the northeast corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street, across from Grand Central Station. Later that year, Reynolds sold both leases and plans to Walter P. Chrysler, who wanted to build a new headquarters for the Chrysler Corporation. Van Alen altered the plans to reflect his new patron: a domed lantern became a metal-clad spire; the frieze on the 30th floor became a line of hubcaps; new gargoyles were enormous, Chrysler Eagle radiator caps; fenders and hood ornaments became part of the decoration. Groundbreaking took place on September 19th, 1928. In 1929, however, Van Alen's former partner, H. Craig Severance, began work on an even taller building at 40 Wall Street for the Bank of The Manhattan Company. Not to be outdone, Van Alen secretly had a 185-foot spire built within the fireshaft of the Chrysler Building. As soon as Severance had completed his 927-foot structure in August 1930, Van Alen had the 27-ton spire raised to the top of the Chrysler Building in a mere 90 minutes, surpassing his downtown rival handily. The Chrysler Building has an H-plan with setbacks at the 16th, 23rd, and 30th floors. The main shaft rises 68 floors, although offices only go up to the 65th (the 66th through 68th housed the exclusive Cloud Club and an observation lounge). Four banks of eight elevators each brought up over one thousand workers and visitors daily at an unprecedented speed. The novel use of aluminum and chrome-nickel steel for exterior details was mirrored in an interior of luxury; elaborate, wood marquetry, rich, varied marbles, and dramatic custom lighting created an interior as theatrical as its exterior. Van Alen and Chrysler fell out over allegations of contractors' bribery; the Chrysler Corporation never fully utilized its space and Van Alen's career virtually ended. Moreover, critics were unimpressed with the building, calling its metal-clad form too "romantic," "overly ambitious," or even worse, "merely advertising." However, it is just these aspects that make the building perhaps the most notable of New York's skyline. When completed, it became the tallest man-made structure in the world, surpassing even the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Its reign was short-lived. On May 1st, 1931 the 1,250-foot Empire State Building opened at 350 Fifth Avenue (Shreve, Lamb & Harmon) and became the World's Tallest Building for over four decades.

In the late 1930s and 1940s, a plane ticket from New York to Europe cost the equivalent of five-thousand dollars. Airfare was a privilege of the wealthy and the Airline Terminal Building was built to accommodate them.