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"First Avenue, north west corner of East 51st Street showing P.S. 135, 1920." Though most of the still standing ornate public school buildings in the five boroughs were designed by C.B.J. Snyder, BOE Superintendent of Buildings from 1891 to 1923, a few remain from an early time. Public School 35 (later no. 135) was the final structure designed by Snyder's predecessor George W. Debevoise. Built on the land of the once James Beekman mansion (built 1763), the Romanesque Revival building of brick and brownstone, with large window openings, was to house 1354 students. The school missed the opening of the 1892 school year and its next two planned opening dates in November and March 1893. After a fire in February 1893 and more than $15,000 in damage, the school finally opened in May. In 1897 the school became P.S 135 and the Assembly Hall was used for twice-weekly free lectures for adults. Later in its life, the school would become known for its dancing-as-gym program, open air classrooms during the tuberculosis scare of 1910s, and a fully-equipped school unit for children with cerebral palsy in the 1940s.

Gnome Products Building roof, 1933. Following a facade and storefront redesign in the early 1930s, the building at 316 East 59th Street because the fairytale-esque 'Home of the Gnomes." The bakery, which sold bread (often in unique shapes) used nearly every inch of their building as advertising. The gnome sitting on the roof, chomping on a bread roll, was best viewed from the entrance roadway to the Queensboro Bridge. Alas the rooftop gnome was removed by 1935 after the business was taken over by new owners and converted from a retail to an industrial bakery.

East 56th Street from Third Avenue, looking toward Lexington Avenue, 1940. On the north side of 56th Street is no. 141, completed in 1940. The 12-story building was designed by H.I. Feldman, a prolific city architect whose projects include the Park Lane Tower on Third Avenue between 85th and 86th Streets, the NYCHA LaGuardia Houses on the Lower East Side.

This synagogue building (seen at center at 221-223 East 51 Street) began its life as the Good Will Chapel, a Presbyterian mission of the nearby Madison Avenue Church, sometime in the late 19th century. The building was then purchased by Congregation Orach Chaim, a Orthodox congregation, in 1898. The congregation occupied the ornate building for only eight years before moving uptown to an even more elaborate structure. In 1906 the building was purchased by Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hachodosh Talmud Torah, an Orthodox synagogue established in 1901. By the mid 1950s the congregation had became a conservative synagogue known as the East 51st Street Synagogue. In the 1960s and 1970s many changes came to the building and the nearby streetscape. The congregation purchased the land at nos. 225 and 227 and constructed a new building, while also selling the parcel at no. 221 to the Rockefeller family. No. 221, along with two properties to the west, became Greenacre Park, a “vest pocket park,” with a 25 foot waterfall next door to the new Sutton Place Synagogue.

We know there's a lot of stressful news in your timeline, so here's a round-up of calming images for a #MuseumMomentofZen.

“55th Street, north side, east of Lexington Avenue. The church is the Swedish Baptist Church, and beyond it is the Babies Hospital. March 28, 1928.” In 1929, both the First Swedish Baptist Church and Babies Hospital left their 55th Street locations, the former for a new building on East 61st Street, while the latter shifted operations to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on West 168th Street in Upper Manhattan.

An exterior photograph looking North on Lexington Avenue. The intersection at 55th Street is visible in the distance. Apartment houses line the street, with several businesses, such as a laundry and a grocer, occupying the ground floor. In the distance, there is a throng of pedestrians and streetcars and a horsedrawn carriage can be seen. To the extreme right, there is a statue of a Native American in front of a shop.

Church of St. John the Evangelist ca. 1928 Philip DiFalco constructed this model of an East Side parish church over a period of years while he lived at 304 East 59th Street with his father and sisters. The Church of St. John the Evangelist stood at First Avenue and 55th Street from 1881 into the 1970s. The parish had been founded in 1840, on East 50th Street. News coverage of the church's dedication noted that the edifice was 14th-century Gothic in style designed by architect Arthur Crooks, with a campanile tower on the north end and 18 large stained glass windows imported from Munich.

312 East 53rd Street CLIENT: R. V. J. Cunningham ARCHITECT: Robert & James Cunningham DATE: 1866 STYLE: French Second Empire This attractive little wood house, one of a pair, was built for R. V. J. Cunningham in 1866. Simple as it is, it nonetheless reflects faithfully the post-Civil War architecture so much influenced by French Second Empire models. Here are the Mansard roof and the carefully framed windows and front door, all displaying cornices carried on brackets. The arrangement of the windows is somewhat unusual as the two long ones at the left of the door follow an asymmetrical pattern, while the two above are symmetrically placed with reference to the center of the building, as are the two dormers above them. They are all the double-hung type with the broad central muntin intended to simulate casement windows. This was characteristic of our desire to look French while retaining the practicality of double hung windows.

Riverview Terrace at the foot of Sutton Square, ca. 1977. This iconic view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge was made famous by Woody Allen's 1979 film, "Manhattan." Riverview Terrace itself (out of frame at left) is a private cobblestoned block, once part of an 1878 development of 24 townhouses, of which six remain.

Lexington Avenue between East 53rd and 54th Streets, ahead of subway construction. The northward extension of the IRT East Side Line, later dubbed the Lexington Avenue Line would be completed more than six years later, in 1918. This view includes two important landmarks of Lexington Avenue religious life: at left, the 1870s-era Central Synagogue; at far right (No. 619), St. Peter's Lutheran Church. The latter building has since been replaced with an angular granite structure described by the New York Times's David Dunlap as "New York’s most architecturally successful postwar sanctuary."

731 Lexington Avenue, at the southeast corner of East 59th Street; November 8, 1935. Sometimes referred to as Bloomberg Tower, this building is the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. The complex, a 55-story tower on a 27-story base of offices, was built on the former site of the Alexander’s Department Store.

1 Sutton Place, July 6, 1927. Architect Rosario Candela and the firm Cross and Cross designed this 13-story Italian Renaissance building in 1927. The structure was funded by the Phipps family, former Pittsburgh steel barons. Though Phipps was known for funding lower- and middle-income housing, this building was created for the city's elite, who were moving east from their former massive mansions on Fifth Avenue. The large three- and four-bedroom apartments and private river-facing garden attracted wealthy residents, as the rest of Sutton Place became a street of exclusive addresses. Practicality and exclusivity came together in many Candela-designed buildings. The prime building in the Sutton Place enclave along the East River in midtown Manhattan, 1 Sutton Place South featured a porte-cochère for cars and people behind a trio of two-story arches.

Gnome Products Building, ca. 1935. The bakery at no. 316, right next to the Queensboro Bridge entrance, entered the city directories in 1932. By the next year, the building was in the midst of a major renovation. In the 1920s and 1930s, with the rise of large chain and department stores, many smaller businesses aimed to standout in the streetscape by shaking up storefront design. Here the architects created a new storefront, new steeply pitched roofs, and a third story. The new look included dramatic signage that announced the building as 'Home of the Gnomes," a multipaned storefront and, of course, some painted gnomes dancing around a stalk of wheat on numerous exterior walls. The figure of a giant gnome leaning against the chimney eating a loaf of bread (mentioned in some of the articles about the building) seems to have already been removed by the time of this circa 1935 photograph. Described as a ''a Hansel and Gretel cottage," the look didn't last long. The retail bakery went bankrupt within its first few years and the next business owner (Gnome Bakers, an industrial bakery) supposedly replaced the ground level shop with a truck bay. Later used by a framer, an exterminator, and a kitchen furnishings store, the building has been converted into a quirky private residence (sans any exterior gnome imagery, unfortunately).

Anne Morgan House (second from right), now the official residence of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Sutton Place; April 2, 1936. In 1921, newly-widowed Anne Vanderbilt sold her huge Fifth Avenue mansion and moved to a renovated townhouse on the corner of 57th Street and Sutton Place. She convinced her friend Anne Morgan, daughter of JP Morgan, to create a home next door at 3 Sutton Place. Architect Mott B. Schmidt transformed several existing Victorian style row houses into two neo-Georgian mansions. After Morgan’s death in 1952, the glass magnate and philanthropist Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. acquired the residence. In 1972, Houghton donated the building to the United Nations — and thereby received a hefty tax deduction — for use as the Secretary-General’s official residence. Until then, past UN leaders had leased homes for the duration of their terms.

The East 54th Street Baths opened in 1911 with 79 showers for men and 59 for women. In 1895 a New York State passed a law requiring that cities over 50,000 provided free public bathhouses. In the era of cramped tenement living (with no indoor plumbing), this socially progressive initiative allowed the city's working class a free sanitary facility. The neo-classical building also housed recreation activities such as a pool, gymnasium, jogging track, and basketball court. Despite its very functional purpose, the building featured unique and decorative interior and exterior details, including Guastavino tile vaulted ceilings and colorful brickwork patterns on the facade. Originally under the control of a newly formed city agency called the Public Recreation Commission, the baths and recreation center are now under the auspices of the Parks Department. And though the need for free public showers has changed, the building still houses recreational and athletic activities.

River House ca. 1932 The River House a luxurious 64-unit apartment building overlooking the East River. Designed by the architects Bottomley, Wagner and White in 1931 it has a 14-story U-shaped base creating a courtyard and a 26-story tower. This innovative grand gray brick and limestone building with elaborate detailing and terrace garden rooftop marked a turning point in the history of skyscraper housing; combining the courtyard with the tower. Vincent Astor, Archibald M. Brown, Edward B. Meyer and J. B. Patterson were among the residents in these exclusive accommodations located uncomfortably near dilapidated tenements. This very condition of extreme class distinction may have inspired Sidney Kingsley's play, Dead End.

"135, 137 and 139-141 East 55th Street (left to right), at, adjoining and east of the N.E. corner of Lexington Ave., showing the International Medical Centre (formerly the Babies Hospital); a four story residence and the American Music Hall (formerly the Swedish Baptist Church). September 18, 1937."

The Queensboro Bridge, viewed from East 60th Street underneath the tracks of the Second Avenue El, 1937.

"First Ave., west side, south from East 52nd Street. Shown at the N.W. corner of East 51st Street, is P.S. No. 135, 1928." In 1960 the nearby P.S 53 opened and most of the students were moved into that school. For a decade and a half the massive school only housed the cerebral palsy unit, then the small UN International School and later a private school. In the late 1970s the school was sold to a developer who planned to demolish the building. The neighborhood reacted harshly and enacted a "Coalition to Save 931." The preservation efforts paid off as the building was listed on the National Register and the Board of Estimates confirmed the desire for preservation. The city put the building up for auction in 1983 with the caveat that the facade remain intact. More than a decade passed before appropriate plans were developed. Between 1996 and 2004 a proposal was agreed on, and construction commenced on a luxury high-rise apartment building which incorporated the exterior walls of P.S. 135.

Rosario Candela played a major role in shaping the architectural legacy of 20th-century Manhattan. Candela's elegant yet understated high rises created the look of New York urbanism between the world wars. This walking tour takes you through some of Candela's iconic buildings on the Upper East Side.

The Campanile (far left), 1932. The Campanile is a luxury co-op building that was completed in 1927. Designed by Van Wart & Wein, the 14-story building sits on a bluff at the end of a dead-end street. The Campanile is oriented toward the East River with balconies and bay windows on its eastern facade and once included a private entrance to the boat landing for the Mayfair Yacht Club. Famous tenants of 16 apartments included Greta Garbo, actor Rex Harrison, and members of the Heinz and Rothschild families. Alexander Woollcott, critic, member of the Alquonquin Roundtable and good friend to Dorothy Parker, lived here in the 1930s. Other members of the Roundtable visited and given its peculiar location considered naming the home, "The-Little-Apartment -on-the-East-River-That- It-Is-Difficult-to-Find-a-Taxi-cab-Near." Parker decided instead to call it "Wit's End."

Billy's Bar, December 8, 1936. The first location of Billy's Bar, opened in 1870, was on First Avenue near 56th Street. The bar moved in 1880 to the southeast corner of that intersection and remained there until 1966 when it moved south a couple blocks to 948 First Avenue. This 1936 Berenice Abbott photo depicts the large mahogany bar and original gas lanterns of interior in its longest occupied location at 1020 First Avenue. Billy's was a neighborhood and, truly, a city institution. The red checkered tables cloths, friendly long-term staff, and pricey American steakhouse meals – which most people agreed were not that good – greeted patrons for decades. A bar most often filled with regulars, generations of families dined here, starting off their meals with the cole slaw that arrived when they sat down, likely delivered by a waiter who had been working there for more than two decades. The restaurant's tenure at the 52nd Street and First Avenue location (post-1966) came with new interiors a and few new menu items, including vegetables (!), likely sometime in the 1980s, and pasta in 1991. After a run of 134 years Billy's closed in 2004.

316 East 59th Street ca. 1935 The Gnome Products Company was a two story shop for “unusual bread and rolls” at 316 East 59th Street near the Queensboro bridge ramp. Renovated in 1933 by the American Architects Adams & Prentice, the building has a cottage charm complete with slanting pitched roofs, gingerbread details, timber columns, a medieval German Kitchen, and a large papier-mâché Gnome sitting on the roof welcoming passersby.