400 Madison Avenue ARCHITECT: H. Craig Severance, Inc. DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Neo-Gothic With its dramatic massing, intricate neo-Gothic detailing, and bright, expansive terra-cotta facade commanding a full Madison Avenue blockfront, the 400 Madison Avenue Building is one of East Midtown’s most striking prewar skyscrapers. Designed by H. Craig Severance and constructed by the George A. Fuller Company, one of the nation’s most experienced skyscraper builders, it was completed in 1929 as the area surrounding Grand Central Terminal was experiencing a boom in skyscraper construction and transformation into one of the country’s leading financial centers.

Shelton Hotel ARCHITECT: Arthur Loomis Harmon DATE: 1924 STYLE: Lombard Revival, Hotel Even while it was under construction the Shelton Hotel was recognized as the first successful embodiment of the massing requirements of the 1916 Zoning Law, notable for its soaring expression of height, powerful simple massing, striking silhouette, and exceptional handling of materials and details. The 31-story-plus-penthouse building is designed in the Lombard Revival style incorporating Medieval and Renaissance details. Above a beautifully detailed limestone base, its facades are clad with multi-hued greyish-brown brick and terra cotta. There are three setbacks, stepping up to a central tower, and a picturesque hipped-roofed penthouse.

William Lescaze House and Office ARCHITECT: William Lescaze DATE: 1933-34 STYLE: Modern The Lescaze House of 1933-34, designed by William Lescaze for his own use as a combined residence and architectural office, is an embodiment of the theory and practice of one of the most influential exponents of modern architecture in the United States. The sudden appearance on East 48th Street of this startlingly “modern” facade of 1934 set between deteriorating brownstones of the post-Civil War period, had a dramatic impact upon the streetscape and the neighborhood.

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 the mid-summer of 1863, tensions in New York had reached a boiling point. To replenish the Union Army after devastating casualties, Congress had passed the enrollment act, enacting the first draft. In New York, many of the newly arrived immigrants had been pushed by Tammany Hall and other political machines to become citizens, which made them eligible for this new draft. These newly minted citizens became incensed by the prospect of being drafted, and the anger quickly grew. The drawing of the draft numbers was a spark that drove the city into what would become the worst race riot of its history. Days later, anywhere from a hundred and twenty to more than a thousand were killed, thousands more injured, and with many prominent African-American and Abolitionist buildings destroyed.

Beaux-Arts Apartments ARCHITECT: Kenneth M. Murchison; Raymond M. Hood; Raymond Hood, Godley & Fouilhoux DATE: 1929-30 STYLE: Beaux-Arts Designed by Raymond Hood, among the most prominent American architects of the twentieth century, and built-in 1929-30, The Beaux-Arts Apartments is one of the earliest examples in New York City to reflect the trend toward a horizontal emphasis in the aesthetic of modern European architecture of the 1920s. Conceived as a corollary to the neighboring Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (a designated New York City Landmark), the Beaux-Arts Apartments at 310 East 44th Street and its twin building on the opposite side of the street were intended to provide residential and studio accommodations for architects and artists, as well as others interested in living in what was anticipated as a midtown artistic community.

Daily News Building ca. 1935 Acclaimed for its verticality, this building was considered by many as the embodiment of the soaring quality of the skyscraper. However, the vertical ribbons of equal width fail to express the location of the steel columns; and, as seen from within, the fenestration- a series of solids and voids- represent no improvement over that of the eighteenth century

Lexington Avenue at East 47th Street, east of the Grand Central rail yards, August 25, 1914. The building at left, with smokestacks, was the station's steam powerhouse until 1929, when it was demolished in favor of electric power. After the Waldorf-Astoria was completed in 1931, across 49th Street, certain of the hotel's most prominent guests made use of a private train platform originally built for service cars calling at the powerhouse.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Windsor Hotel, 1885.

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.

Hotel Shelton, 1924. The Shelton Hotel was the brainchild of James T. Lee (grandfather of Jackie Kennedy). He wanted to build a massive bachelor hotel. And massive it was. When completed in 1923, the structure, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon, had 1200 rooms. Designed in a Romanesque Revival style, the building was considered the first major successful example to adhere to the massing requirements of the 1916 Zoning Law. The three setbacks culminate in a central tower. The building became a model for other skyscrapers and its architect would go to design the Empire State Building a few years later. Originally opened as a men's only residence, the building began admitting women and families soon after it opened. Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz lived on the 30th floor from 1935 until 1937. And in 1926 Houdini had himself locked in a box and submerged in the basement swimming pool, eventually emerging unharmed. Today the building is the New York Marriott East Side.

Grand Central Terminal, 1914.

Upon its completion in 1931, the new Waldorf Astoria became both the tallest and the largest hotel in the world. At 625 feet, and with 1.68 million sq. ft. in floor area, the Waldorf occupied an entire city block between Lexington and Park Avenue and offered more than 2,000 rooms. Designed by architect Lloyd Morgan of the firm Schultze and Weaver, the new Waldorf Astoria was a mountain of construction, with its limestone base matched above with gray bricks, custom-made for the hotel and named “Waldorf Gray.” The wide base was topped by two towers which were filled mostly with private residences. Ornamental spires with a streamlined classicism gave the hotel a modernist “Art Deco” character. Dubbed “New York’s Unofficial Palace,” the Waldorf Astoria’s luxurious suites have been home to many high-profile residents, including William Randolph Hearst Jr. and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Every president since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite, and the Waldorf is the official residence of the United States’ UN Ambassador.

277 Park Avenue, 1962. This Emery Roth & Sons office tower is a quintessential example of the modernist steel and glass towers that sprung up along Park Avenue in the late 50s through the 60s. This building is still owned by the Stahl Organization, the original developer of the project. The tower has 1.74 million square feet of office space spread over 50 stories. The famed architecture firm Emery Roth & Sons were known for "marketable designs that maximized the net rentable area," particularly after World War 2. This block-spanning lot had previously been occupied by a McKim Mead & White apartment building, though it was never meant to stand the test of time. In order to prepare for Midtown's development as a business district, the New York and Harlem Rail Road Company, who owned the lot at the time, had a foundation poured that could support a 75-story tower.

Ford Foundation Building ARCHITECT: Eero Saarinen Associates; Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo Associates DATE: 1963-67 STYLE: Modern The Ford Foundation and its architects, through this new building, offered New York an alternative model for a modern office building, creating an elegant, transparent glass cube enclosing a twelve-story high, lush, indoor landscaped atrium visible from outside. The architects, in an approach unusual for modern movement buildings in the 1960s, carefully considered the context in planning the building’s design, relating the interior atrium and its garden to the small parks of Tudor City directly to the east.

The Vanderbilt YMCA, ca. 1937. Opened in 1932 and designed by Warren and Wetmore, this Young Men's Christian Association building was originally called the "Railroad YMCA" because of its housing program for railroad workers. In 1972, it was renamed the Vanderbilt YMCA, to recognize Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon.

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.

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.

Turtle Bay Gardens, 1937. Purchased by socialite Charlotte Hunnewell Martin in 1918, the eleven 1860s-built townhouses on the south side of 49th Street and nine on the north side of 48th Street underwent two years of renovation. The extensive work included the creation of a communal garden space at the center of the block. The individual backyards are separated only with low brick walls, while a broad esplanade at the center is shared by all. When the work was complete on the homes, Martin did the unexpected; she sold the homes at cost (to her friends). Residents of the homes have included Katharine Hepburn, Tyrone Power, Stephen Sondheim, and E. B. White.

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

Loew's Lexington Theatre, 1925. This structure was originally called the Lexington Opera House and was opened by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1914. Due to a negotiation with the Metropolitan Opera which disallowed Hammerstein from staging opera, the so-called "opera house" opened with a program of vaudeville acts and films. Hammerstein sold the theater to Marcus Loew, who utilized it as one of his circuit's most popular venues. Leow's Lexington Theatre was kept in pristine condition, and the Beaux Arts design was hardly altered until its demolition in 1961. The theatre sat 2,500 and had 40 boxes. It was razed to make room for another of Loew's ventures, the Loew's Summit Hotel

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.

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)

"The second Waldorf Astoria (without the hyphen) is the present one located at Park Avenue and East 49th Street. Opened in 1931, it was the largest, the tallest and the most expensive hotel ever built, not just succeeding its illustrious predecessor , but surpassing it in every way imaginable. Today, more than eighty years after its completion, the Waldorf Astoria remains the epitome of the grand hotel. New York City’s Waldorf Astoria may well be the best known hotel in the world. Synonymous with grandeur, luxury and sophistication, its name has been appropriated by numerous pretenders from London to Shanghai, by the Waldorf’s own ubiquitous salad, and, somewhat amusingly, by one of Jim Henson’s Muppets. The Waldorf Astoria has been celebrated (and occasionally excoriated) in both song and verse by such talents as Irving Berlin, Langston Hughes, Cole Porter, Wallace Stevens, and Thomas E. “Fats” Waller. It has been featured in countless books, plays, and movies, including a top-billed role in M-G-M’s 1945 melodrama, Weekend at the Waldorf. Thousands of people who have never set foot through its doors know the Waldorf Astoria by sight and reputation. Set in the very heart of the fashionable Fifth Avenue residential district, the new hotel was intended to cater specifically to the socially prominent ladies and gentlemen of New York and the increasing number of distinguished foreign visitors to the city from abroad. To them, the Waldorf proffered the finest in French cuisine, a telephone in every room, and the privacy of meals served in their chambers, the first room service. It surrounded them with the art and trappings of a European royal court and an army of servants seeing to their every wish. Clearly, the Waldorf was their hotel. And how did all this come about? It begins as a tale of two cousins..." To learn more about all the Waldorf Astoria, check out William Alan Morrison's article in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Hotel Beverly, 1930. Built in the "hotel alley" of Lexington Avenue north of Grand Central Terminal as part of the two decade development known as Terminal City, the Beverly Hotel was completed in 1927. Designed by Emery Roth with tiered, set back massing, the hotel was marketed to “sophisticated New Yorkers” and advertised their "many sunny outdoor terraces." The building's striking silhouette made it a favorite subject for artists. Today, the neo-Romanesque building is the boutique Hotel Benjamin, and has retained (or been returned to) its original appearance.

The Daily News, New York's first tabloid paper, was founded in 1919 and was immediately immensely successful; its circulation was 1.4 million, the largest in the nation, just a decade later. Its owner, Captain Joseph Medill Pederson, bought an inexpensive, mid-block property on East 42nd Street between Third and Second Avenues (the elevated train lines on these avenues made the area unappealing to most developers); he envisioned a small headquarters with editorial offices and, more importantly, a printing press, that would capitalize on easy distribution to Times Square and the rest of the city. His architect, Raymond Hood, saw that a tall rental tower would bring his client added income and create an identity for the paper. Pederson reluctantly agreed and the 476-foot tall tower pictured soon came into being. The building is actually L-shaped. A long, 10-story front along 41st Street (right) houses the printing press and loading areas; the 39-story tower (left) rises within the 90-foot wide length between 41st and 42nd Street. A deal with the city regarding the school along Third Avenue meant the building had three-and-a-half entirely unobstructed sides, uncommon for a mid-block tower. Yet it is the exterior articulation of the building that was most remarkable. Vertical piers of white brick alternate with uniform bands of recessed windows with rougher red and black brick spandrels in between. Even the crown of the building, where a false front hides the water towers, continues this pattern. Derived entirely from the needs of the uniform office spaces within, "the exterior more or less created itself," explained Hood. The stripped verticality is one of the purest expressions of "form follows function" of its period. The transmission tower for WPIX TV rises another 275 feet on top of the building (WPIX was owned and operated by the Daily News, "New York's Picture Newspaper," from the late 1940s until 1991 when the paper was sold to Rupert Murdoch). In 1958, an addition was added to the 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue corner (Harrison & Abramovitz) that repeats the exterior articulation of the tower with wider windows.

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.

Ford Foundation Building, ca. 1979. Designed by the architecture firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (both former principles at Eero Saarinen and Associates), this International style building was completed in 1968. The building was constructed for and continues to house the Ford Foundation. Some of the modern features of the building include load-bearing concrete and weathered steel as the materials, which are highly visible, as well as simple, unadorned facade. The most striking feature of the design is the interior garden within a greenhouse-like atrium. Visible through the glass facade, the large open space and lush vegetation were designed to create transparency and an interactive experience for the building's occupants and visitors.

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.

Daily News Building ca. 1935 Founded in 1919, the New York Daily News was America’s first tabloid and soon became its best-selling newspaper. The Daily News Building, designed by Raymond Hood in 1930, combined the paper’s nine-story plant with a 36-story rental office tower. Hood gave the News a signature building, whose white-and-black striped brick facade was audaciously stark. From the vantage point of the Chanin Building, a new office tower at East 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, Abbott captured the bold presence of the building, set against the lowly tenements of Kips Bay, with Tudor City and a Consolidated Edison power plant in the background. In 1931, Abbott took a similar photograph of the building; she may have returned to the site in 1935 to replace a lost or damaged negative. On her second visit, she was unable to gain access to the Chanin Building roof and was forced to photograph from a lower floor. As a result, the perspective is skewed, and the building appears to lean to the left. Today Abbott’s view is obstructed by the Mobil Building (1955). In 1994, the Daily News moved its editorial offices to the West Side and its plant to New Jersey.

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.

General Electric Building, January 27, 1937. Built in 1931 as the RCA Victor Building, this 50-story skyscraper was designed by the firm of Cross & Cross. The building combines the general form of Gothic architecture (emphasized verticality,piers and butresses, and pinnacles) and Art Deco motifs and ornamentation. Both of the base and the tower boast fantastic design and ornamentation. The top of the tower has the look of Gothic tracery (or the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window), but includes Deco depictions of electricity and radio waves. The facade of the building uses three brick colors (orange, buff, and tawny) which are also the brick colors of the adjacent domed St. Bartholomew's Church, which can be seen in this image at the bottom center.

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.

Remains of the Windsor Hotel, 1899. This photograph is dated one day after the massive Windsor Hotel fire that claimed the lives of more than 90 people. The charred ruins of the building were not demolished immediately and the search for victims went on for nearly a month. Despite suggesting that they would erect a monument to the tragedy's victims, hotel proprietor Warren F. Leland and land owner Elbridge T. Gerry ended up using the site for billboards in the year after the fire. In 1901 a new three-story building, the Windsor Arcade, was constructed and housed luxury shops. It was later demolished in 1910.

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.

Columbia University Midtown Campus, ca. 1897. Between 1857 and 1897, Columbia University was located between Madison and Park Avenues from 49th to 50th Streets. This location was the school's second home after moving north from Park Place. At the time, the school was known as 'Columbia College' —it would be christened 'Columbia University' upon its move to the Morningside Heights.

277 Park Avenue, 1926. This apartment building designed by McKim Mead & White was completed in 1925. The structure took up the entire block with its 12 sections and 432 apartments and included a "drive-in...giant interior court" according to the New York Times. The building was funded by the New York & Harlem Rail Road through the construction of the new Grand Central Depot, who's railyards below prompted a redevelopment of Park Avenue. One notable previous tenant was John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. In 1931, the Real Estate Record and Guide noted that of this part of Park Avenue, "no further long-term leases are being granted," to make way for the area's growth as a business district. The building was leased in 1923 for a maximum of 63 years, though in 1948 it was repossessed by the New York and Harlem Rail Road Company. After a much-disputed demolition in the 50s, construction began on a new 50-story office tower to take its place in 1962. Surprisingly, the foundation which the (much shorter by comparison) original apartment sat on had been cast strong enough to support a 70-story building. The rail company had anticipated a tower all along.

Windsor Arcade ca. 1907 Though long gone now, the Windsor Arcade once sparkled with lightbulbs, columns, and ornaments as people wandered through its shops. However, its whimsical nature covered up a much more serious history. It was St. Patricks Day, 1899 when parade attendees suddenly began to notice cries for help and smoke coming from the 1872 Windsor Hotel. Horror soon struck the crowd as they watched people throw themselves from windows and become engulfed in flames. The fire escapes, which were simply ropes, couldn't adequately assist victims in reaching the ground; many fell to grievous injury or death. In the end, almost a hundred people perished in the fire and the hotel was entirely raised. While Warren Leland, the hotel's manager, wished to rebuild, Eldridge T. Gerry, the owner of the land, rented the space to billboards while considering the problem. Eventually, Gerry's architect, Charles Berg came up with the flamboyant Beaux Art structure that Gerry dubbed "The Windsor Arcade." The Arcade occupied a full city block, complete with street-level stores, offices on the second story, and studios on the third. All this surrounded a courtyard with an elaborate arcaded entrance on Fifth Avenue. Lit up by electric light bulbs, many argued about its taste, but none could deny that set among around the surrounding brick buildings, it was eye-catching. The Windsor Arcade eventually meet its end as well; it was demolished in parts during the early 20th century, giving way to towers.

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.

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.

Designed by the same firm as the Empire State Building, 245 Park Avenue replaced the 1911-built Grand Central Palace. Completed in 1967, the 48-story skyscraper has variously been called the American Tobacco Company Building, the American Brands Building, and the Bear Stearns Building (before they moved to 383 Madison Avenue). In the late 1970s, the publishing firm Doubleday was headquartered here. Today tenants include Heineken, Major League Baseball, and the asset and wealth management groups ofJ.P Morgan Chase.

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.

When you think of classic New York brands, you might come up with Nathan's or the Yankees before thinking of Steinway & Sons. However, the historic piano maker has deep roots in the five boroughs.

Villard Houses, ca. 1980. The Villard houses, a six-building Italian Renaissance-style brownstone development completed in 1884, was designed by architect Joseph M. Wells, for Northern Pacific Railway president Henry Villard. However, Villard's stay in his residence at No. 451 Madison would be short lived: he soon declared bankruptcy and retreated to Westchester County. In 1943, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia presided over the re-opening of the building as the Women's Military Service Club, offering inexpensive lodging to visiting service members. Most of the complex was later acquired by the Archdiocese of New York. A timely Landmark designation in 1968 saved some buildings from substantial demolition as part of the construction of the Palace Hotel, completed in 1980.

Windsor Hotel, March 17, 1899. The Hotel, despite being what some considered to far uptown for success, was very popular and profitable. Alas the owner of the Windsor, John T. Daly owed a large mortgage and substantial constructions debts. When the family whose land the building was located on began foreclosing proceedings, the owner hanged himself. During the 1880s and 1890s the hotel became a popular location for political, financial, and diplomatic wheeling and dealing. On St. Patrick's Day, 1899, as thousands of revelers streamed by the hotel for the annual parade, a guest on a top floor lit a cigar and did not proper extinguish the match. It ignited a curtain and the cigar smoker exited the building without notifying anyone. The fire spread extremely fast and soon the entire building was engulfed. Despite their best effort to rescue patrons, the firefighters were pushed back by the heat and were forced to watch as people jumped from windows to escape the flames. Some firefighters arrived in their dress blues directly from the parade route. They attempted to keep the fire from spreading to nearby buildings by hosing them down, to some small success. The building was largely collapsed by 4:30pm, just an hour after the blaze started. The still burning ruins took days to cool down enough for a thorough search of the building. In the end more than 90 people were killed.

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

Eleanor Roosevelt was a noted human rights activist, longest-serving first lady of the United States and friend to knish lovers everywhere!

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.

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.

48th Street west across Third Avenue. The Shelton Hotel is the tall building at center, February 1, 1938.

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.

209-211 East 48th Street, February 1, 1938. This 1934 townhouse (seen at the right) is considered the first modernist residence in New York City. Called the William Lescaze House for the architect who designed and lived in the home, the house employed the newest available technology, materials, and methods of construction.With his partner George Howe, Lescaze pioneered modernism in America, building the first International style skyscraper in the U.S. in Philadelphia in 1930. The concrete and glass home was designed to be beautiful, economical, and efficient, as per Lescaze's opinion on the merits of modernism. The structure was not an entirely new building, but the massive gut renovation, exterior redo and addition to a pre-Civil War brownstone. This house was the first recorded structure in the city to use glass blocks, an architectural feature now common in vernacular architecture.

St. Bartholomew’s Church ca. 1995 St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue and 51st street was designed by Bertram Goodhue and completed with the addition of the dome designed by Mayers, Murray, and Phillips in 1927. One of the largest congregations of the Episcopal Church, St. Bartholomew’s with its “Cross of Triumph” at 148-foot above street level, still keeps its grand scale among towering apartment buildings. The 570-ft RCA Victor Building immediately behind it has identical brick and its Gothic style crown make it appear as an extension of the church’s style and presence.

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

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

Windsor Hotel, ca. 1885. The Windsor Hotel, which occupied the entire blockfront on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets, was hotel for a new kind of neighborhood. Construction on the seven-story hotel began in 1871, the same year the Grand Central Depot opened a few blocks away. The lots on Fifth Avenue between 42nd Street and 50th Street (where St. Patrick's Cathedral would rise in 1878) were being transformed from simple wood-frame structures, open spaces, and natural features like ponds, into a neighborhood of wealthy residents. When the hotel opened in 1873, it catered to this affluent sect. It was referred to in a late 19th century book as “at that time, the most luxurious and aristocratic hostelry in New York.”

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.

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).

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.

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.

St. Bartholomew's Church, ca. 1921. The parish of St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church was founded in 1835. The congregation's first church was located on the corner of Lafayette at Great Jones Street in the neighborhood now known as NoHo. In the early 1870s, the congregation moved uptown to a new church designed by James Renwick, Jr. While in this location the church became very involved in social services, establishing six Sunday schools in five languages, a rescue mission, and a medical clinic. A new pastor in the early years of the 20th century advocated for a new church as, "a great gift of beauty to the city." In 1914 the church purchased a new plot of land at Park Avenue and 51st Street and Bertram Goodhue was hired as architect. The resulting structure was a grand edifice in a Byzantine-Romanesque style. The original design was scaled back quite a bit due to financial debts. The first mass was held in a very unfinished building in 1918 and the largely completed church was officially consecrated in 1923.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Intersection of East 46th Street and Lexington Avenue, March 2, 1917. The building seen at left is the Grand Central Palace. Designed by the team of associated architects that created Grand Central Terminal (Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem) the Palace was an 13-story exhibition hall completed in 1911. It replaced the the 1893 Grand Central Palace which at Lexington Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets had to be demolished for the new train station. The 1911 Beaux-Arts building hosted large-scale events and exhibitions, including auto, boat, flower, and trade shows on its lower three floors. In 1911 the First Industrial Aeroplane Show, the first time most New Yorkers had ever seen a plane, was presented at the Palace. It was also the home of the Westminster Dog Show for many years. The upper floors were leased as offices. The final exhibitions were installed in 1953 and a decade later the building was demolished, two years before the Landmarks Law was passed. The replacing building was the 44-story 245 Park Avenue.

View north along the east side of Lexington Avenue toward 49th Street, October 20, 1915.

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.

Alma Gluck-Zimbalist Residence, 1927. With the carved stone violin and singing angel that sits above the entrance, this double lot home is marked as the residence of musicians. Constructed in 1926 the Tudor style house was home to Efrem Zimbalist, a famous violinist, and his equally famous opera singer wife, Alma. The house served as the NYPD 17th Precinct station house for a time in the 1950s before being divided into rental apartments.

Beaux Arts Institute of Design ARCHITECT: Frederic C. Hirons; Dennison & Hirons DATE: 1928 STYLE: Beaux-Arts Founded in 1893 by American architects who had studied at the prestigious Parisian Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects had a profound impact on architectural practice in this country by its dedication to fostering the principles established by the Ecole. The Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, chartered in 1916 to accommodate the expanding educational programs of the Society, served as the national headquarters for architectural instruction based on the curriculum of the Ecole and influenced several generations of American architects.

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.

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.

The 42nd Street entrance to the Daily News Building, ca. 1985.

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.

Hotel Barclay, 1928. Opened in 1926 as a residential hotel, the Barclay was designed by the architectural firm of Cross & Cross. Right in the center of the hustle of Terminal City (the lobby had a ticket booth for rail travel) the hotel was luxurious and popular among the glamorous social circles of the city. Between 1939 and 1962 the Cornell Club was headquartered in this building. The hotel was purchased by the InterContinental Hotel Group in 1978 and has seen a number of renovations in the last 40 years. The most recent renovation of the now named InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel was completed in 2016. Between 1926 and 2010 when the hotel closed briefly for renovation, it hosted the flagship location of Caswell Massey, the oldest apothecary and perfumery in the country (established 1752).

Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 1931. Originally two separate 19th century hotels that become one, on the land later occupied by the Empire State Building in the 1930s, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel opened its doors at 50th Street and Park Avenue in 1931. At the time it was the tallest and largest hotel in the world. President Hoover mentioned the hotel in a White House address, saying, "The opening of the new Waldorf Astoria ... marks the measure of nation's growth in power, in comfort, and in artistry." Built on the plot of land previously occupied by the New York Central Railroad powerhouse, the 47-story Art Deco building was designed by architects Schultze and Weaver. The main hotel occupied the lower 20-floors, while the central twin Waldorf Towers (topped with bronze-clad cupolas) were designed for 100 suites, with a portion of them leased as long term residences. Famous tenants of the building have included Herbert Hoover, General Douglas MacArthur, Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Cole Porter.

The F.M. Schaeffer Brewing Company was the longest operating brewery in New York City and the oldest lager beer company in the United States. It was officially founded in 1842 by two brothers who had immigrated from Wetzler, Prussia, Germany to NYC and brought with them the recipe to a popular lager beer from their hometown. Lager beer was unheard of in America at this time but thanks to the Schaeffer brothers, quickly became the beer of choice for New Yorkers and East Coast Americans. Their headquarters and brewing facilities remained in the city for over a century, and they were the last brewing company to operate in New York until the late 1970s. Their locations include Seventh Avenue and 17th Street (present-day Barneys!) where they stayed briefly and later moved to Park Ave from 50th to 52nd Street. They remained in their Park Avenue location until the early 20th century. They then moved to Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, where they remained until officially closing their New York plants in 1976. Today, Schaeffer Beer is owned by the Pabst Company, who still brew Schaeffer beer under the Miller Company to this day.

Summit Hotel, undated postcard. The Summit Hotel (completed 1961) was the first major New York project for architect Morris Lapidus. Known for his oversized and somewhat garish Miami hotels (the Fontainebleau Hotel, particularly), Lapidus introduced a new type of building geometry to the staid rectangular forms of midtown. The 51st Street frontage is rendered as a subtle curve, with a uniform facade pattern of windows tucked between protruding white-brick masonry. Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable said of the hotel: ''The Summit is a glittering display of gaudy confusion...\[m]osaics, marbles, woods, enamels, fabrics, synthetics, colors and crafts have been poured forth and combined with profligate abandon and aggressive insensitivity.'' Others have described it as jolly and welcome surprise among the city's grid. The architect himself noted many years after its completion that it was the "most hated" hotel in the city. But despite its scorn, it can be credited with—if not directly inspiring other eclectic building— at least laying the foundation for later experiments in architectural geometry. The hotel has changed hands a number of times in the last few decades and has had extensive alterations. Today it is the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Metropolitan. While many of the more ostentatious features have been removed or toned down, the groovy eight-story sign on the Lexington Avenue facade, which now spells out Doubleday on its oval protrusions, remains.

General Electric Building ARCHITECT: Cross & Cross DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Art Deco Designed by the firm of Cross & Cross in the Gothic mode of the Art Deco style which is both symbolic and expressive of the function of the building, this tower is a major example of Art Deco architecture. The massing and articulation of the building, shown through the use of ornament and color, is remarkable and laudable. Not only does this treatment illustrate the breadth of the Art Deco, but it also gives the General Electric Building exemplary status. Moreover, the building is the successful culmination of the Cross & Cross firm’s efforts to develop a coherent and cohesive articulation for tall office buildings.

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.

Lexington Avenue between East 51st and 52nd Streets, February 18, 1915. At center left is the Lexington Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1861. In 1937, the historically Swedish congregation moved to a new sanctuary on East 62nd Street, known as the Lexington United Methodist Church.

St. Bartholomew's Church ca. 1926 When the new Saint Bartholomew's was built in early twentieth century, the handsome entrances, designed in 1902 for the earlier church, were moved from Madison Avenue and incorporated in the new structure. They were inspired by the Romanesque Church of Saint Giles at Arles, France, and blended singularly well with the Byzantine splendor of the new edifice. The tower of the General Electric Building, which rises directly behind Saint Bartholomew's, used the same warm-colored brick as the church to harmonize with it- a farsighted bit of planning rarely encountered today

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.

Beverly Hotel (now The Benjamin) ARCHITECT: Emery Roth DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Romanesque Above a handsome two-story arcaded limestone base (largely reconstructed) the upper stories of grayish-brown brick terminate in a series of skillfully modeled setbacks that rise toward a lofty octagonal tower with wheel windows that is topped by a pavilion with tile roof and copper finial. The Beverly Hotel is richly ornamented with stylized Romanesque motifs and incorporates details such as pelican and owl sculptures and warrior-head corbels.

Towers of the Waldorf Astoria in the Midtown Manhattan skyline, ca. 1935.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel ARCHITECT: Schultze & Weaver; Lloyd Morgan DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Art Deco, Skyscraper, Hotel This building combined a transient hotel and a related but separate residential tower into a 625-foot-high skyscraper, one of the city’s tallest at the time, located in the major new skyscraper office building district developing around Park Avenue near Grand Central Terminal. The architect of the hotel and towers, Lloyd Morgan of the firm of Schultze & Weaver, designed the complex in a sedate but handsome version of the modernistic style now generally referred to as Art Deco, adapting the skyscraper form and an up-to-date look to a conservative traditional establishment.

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.

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.

231 East 47th Street, later the site of Andy Warhol's first "Factory," September 23, 1947. In 1963, as his Pop Art works began to gain traction, Andy Warhol rented a large studio space on 47th Street for an annual rent of $100. Sometimes described as the "Silver Factory" for its tin foil and paint decor, Warhol's fourth floor loft became a fashionable performance space, production studio, and party venue for the artist and his acolytes, known as the Warhol superstars. The Factory moved to a new downtown space in 1968, with the "Silver Factory" building slated for demolition.

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.

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.

Morris Sanders Studio and Apartment, April 26, 1940. Though not the first Modernist house in New York City (that honor belongs to the Lescaze House), the Morris Sanders Studio and Apartment is considered the second residence in the city to adapt the aesthetic principles pioneered by Le Corbusier and the European modernists. Designed by architect Sanders between 1934 and 1935, for his own use, the home certainly was eye-catching on a block of 19th century rowhouses. Unlike the Lescaze House, which altered an existing structure, this five and half story home was a completely new building. Lacking in ornamentation, with the upper floors looming over the set back ground level, and clad in glossy blue tile and glass blocks, the home was (perhaps surprisingly) well received. The Architectural League of New York City awarded it their highest prize in 1935 for domestic architecture and national and international architecture publications lauded it. The Architectural Forum wrote of how it rose “abruptly from a stodgy row of brown-faced houses, interrupting with brutal finality the orderly sequence of uniform facades." (They meant it as a compliment!)

Destroyed trolley after an explosion near the Grand Central Terminal Powerhouse at 50th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, December 1910. On December 19, 1910 an explosion at the New York Central Railroad's Sub Station killed 13 people and injured dozens of others. At 8:22 A.M. the massive explosion (likely two blasts, one from a gas issue and one from the dynamite kept in the still-being completed powerhouse) rocked the area. The blast threw up brick, stones, beams, and other building materials, tossing them hundreds of feet. Windows in the area were blown out and a passing trolley felt the brunt of the force, killing at least four passengers.

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.

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.

Villard Houses ca. 1980 This great complex of town houses surrounding a central court yard was designed by Joseph M. Wells for McKim, Mead, & White in the manner of an early sixteenth-century Italian palazzo. By far the most beautiful feature of this block of residences is the interior decoration of Henry Villard's own house on the south side of the courtyard.

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.

Subway construction at East 46th Street and Lexington Avenue, September 14, 1917.