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58th Street Branch, July 8, 1928. Designed by Carrère and Hastings and opened May 10, 1907, the 58th Street Branch looks very different today. The original wide library building was demolished in the 1960s and was replaced in 1969 by a new branch in the lower floors of an office tower at the same location.

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.

New York is a city built on the labor of its people. This story captures a glimpse inside training spaces and workplaces of days past, many of which you'd be hard-pressed to find today.

521 Park Avenue, 1930. The apartment building at no. 521 was constructed in 1911, and designed by architect William Boring, who is best known for the Immigration Station on Ellis Island. In 1913 the 12-story building was awarded an honorable mention by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Its decorative metal balconies (some which run the width of the building, and others considerably shorter) have been preserved.

Martin Erdmann House ARCHITECT: Taylor & Levi DATE: 1908-09 STYLE: English Renaissance Revival The Martin Erdmann House is an outstanding example of a fashionable English Renaissance Revival townhouse that was built 1908-09 to the designs of the prominent New York City architectural firm of Taylor & Levi. It was designed in a period-revival style that reflected the upper-class tastes of the wealthy art collector, Martin Erdmann, and as such, is a rare survivor of the time when the area around Fifth Avenue was an affluent residential neighborhood.

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.

Ritz Tower ARCHITECT: Emery Roth; Thomas Hastings DATE: 1925-27 STYLE: Classical-inspired Designed by the inventive and prolific architect Emery Roth, who was responsible for many luxury apartment buildings throughout Manhattan, the Ritz Tower was intended to be the ne plus ultra of apartment living. Thomas Hastings, the surviving partner of the prominent architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings helped to create the Classical-inspired design. At the time of its construction, the Ritz Tower was the tallest residential building in New York, with panoramic views in all directions. The lower floors, which are more easily visible from the street, are enriched by highly sculptural ornament, including putti, urns and rusticated stone. Each setback of the tower is marked by pilasters, pediments and balustrades and is highlighted by large stone fleches which carry the viewer’s eye upward along the building’s height. The tower, crowned by a pyramidal roof with a tall obelisk, further increases the sense of height which was such an important factor when the building was constructed.

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.

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

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.

135 East 52nd Street, 1912. Constructed on land purchased with donations by a number of wealthy New York society women, the Young Women's Christian Association building was completed and dedicated in 1912. The building housed the national headquarters of the charity. The section of the building entered through 135 East 52nd Street was known as "the Annex;" it provided space for the National Board Training program and residences for its trainees. Affectionately known as as "600," it was the first building to be built in the United States solely for the use of a woman's movement. The National Board of the organization decided to sell the building (which they had received many previous offers for) in 1981. The building was demolished and redeveloped. The Y.W.C.A moved into a number of rented headquarters through the 1980s and 1990s, including a stint in the Empire State Building. Following a reorganization in 2003, they consolidated their activities into their Washington, D.C. office.

Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, ca. 1995. The Fuller Building, constructed in 1929 for the Fuller Construction Company, which had previously been based in the Flatiron Building. The New York Times dubbed the 40-story Art Deco skyscraper a “jazz-age testament to the emerging commercial chic of 57th street.” Designed by the architectural firm Walker & Gillette, the building features rich bronze, marble, and mosaic details, as well as abstract sculptures by Elie Nadelman on both its interior and exterior.

There's no place like NYC for the holidays! From iconic window displays to synchronized light and sound shows, this walk will guide you through the history of a festive city tradition that dates back to the 1870s.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Bloomingdale's, ca. 1995. The classic holiday windows at Bloomingdale's have drawn in crowds of locals and tourists from around the world for decades. Their decorative windows are typically unveiled just before Black Friday so that they can be viewed by holiday shoppers throughout the season.

Lever House, ca. 1952. Designed by the huge international firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Lever House ushered in the age of the "glass box" skyscraper (pioneered by the architects at SOM). Completed in 1952, the green-tinted glass curtain wall and elevated horizontal plaza at the base (set off the ground by columns) epitomize the International Style. At only 24 stories, Lever House is smaller than both most nearby skyscrapers as well as the large glass box commercial buildings designed by SOM since 1952. In an unusual occurrence (especially in comparison to the current real estate market), the building, instead of occupying its full zoning allowance, uses only 25 percent of the available zoning and provides open public space on part of the lot.

Hotel Delmonico, 1937. Built in 1927, this 32-story neo-Renaissance building struggled through its early years, cycling through owners and names. First called the Cromwell Arms, the building became the Delmonico in September 1928 and was sold by its owners in foreclosure less than six months later, The name stuck, though. The hotel changed a hands a few more times, becoming a hangout for the social elite in the 1960s and a luxury apartment building in the mid 1970s. The building, once again a hotel, was purchased in 2001 by Donald Trump for $115 million. Today the building is a condo called the Trump Park Avenue.

In the 1920s, not only had American women won the right to vote, but the number of women in college began to approach that of men. The majority of women college graduates planned on careers in business, the social sciences or the professions. In New York, the hotels for women constructed during the 1920s were taller and larger than their pre-War counterparts, in part because of technological advances in construction, but also due to the continued demand for housing from single women.

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.

Allerton House ca. 1923 In the 1920s, not only had American women won the right to vote, but the number of women in college began to approach that of men. The majority of women college graduates planned on careers in business, the social sciences or the professions. In New York, the hotels for women constructed during the 1920s were taller and larger than their pre-War counterparts, in part because of technological advances in construction, but also due to the continued demand for housing from single women. The Allerton Hotel for Women, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon and completed in 1923, is a good example of the type. Seventeen stories high, it was constructed on the corner of Lexington and 57th Street and designed to house 600 women. Described as a “Business Women’s Hotel” and “a hotel for women who think independently,” it offered a variety of public spaces—parlours, a library, a roof garden, a restaurant, and even a ballroom—as well as “up to date” amenities needed by busy self-supporting women such as a sewing room and in-house laundry. The hotel was a project of the Allerton Company, who had previously constructed several “club” hotels for men, providing “the service of a hotel, and the intimacy of a private club.

430 Park Avenue, ca. 1943. Warren & Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, designed this building for Spencer Fullerton Weaver in 1916. Originally erected as a residential development, the structure in its early years featured separate entrances at 55th and 56th Street; each entryway served as a corridor to one luxury apartment per floor. Due to development pressure and the changing neighborhood south of 57th Street, in the mid 1950s the building was stripped and converted into offices. With renovations done by the architecture firm Emery Roth & Sons, the building's original brick and limestone facade was replaced with a glass wall along its Park Avenue facing side. Between 1955 and 2012, the building hosted a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed automobile showroom. Over nearly a 60 year period, the showroom displayed the latest and greatest imported cars, including a Mercedes-Benz from 1957 to 2012.

Fuller Building ARCHITECT: Walker & Gillette DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Art Deco The first floor of the Fuller Building is an elegant Art Deco public space. The Fuller Building was built to be the headquarters of one of the largest and most important construction firms in America, the George A. Fuller Company. The interior’s stylized classical motifs joined to modernistic geometric patterns continue the Art Deco design of the building’s exterior. The design is elegantly executed in bronze and marble, and it includes depictions of the Fuller Company’s major works and images of the construction trades, promoting the Fuller Company’s premier role in the industry.

Ritz Tower ca. 1925 The luxury hotel and apartment building known as Ritz Tower was the world's tallest residential building at its opening in 1926 at 540 feet. The arrival of such a large apartment building signaled the style and glamour that had begun to be associated with living in apartments on Park Avenue. Developed by Arthur Brisbane, the building served as apartment hotel with richly appointed public rooms and restaurants on the lower floors. The famous name associated with the tower stemmed from these rooms, the Ritz-Carlton Company,having been hired by Brisbane, to provide services to the building and manage the lower floors. Its architects Emery Roth and Thomas Hasting were responsible for its classical design merging a steel frame with limestone, terra-cotta and a decorative style. The terraced levels of the tower both drawing the viewers eye upward as well as providing beautiful spaces for its inhabitants. Brisbane eventually sold the building to William Randolph Hearst who in turn sold it to the Sonnabend Hotel chain in the 1950s, whereupon it was converted to a co-op.

"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."

Roger Horne, a Mohawk ironworker, grasping a rope in each hand and looking upward on a construction site at Park Avenue and 53rd Street in New York City. 1970 - 1971. David Grant Noble photographs. Courtesy of the National American Indian Memorial.

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

My Archive Summer 2019 “I was a Fiorucci addict from 1977-87, in whatever city I was in if there was a Fiorucci, I shopped it. I love the NYC store, and once when I was there I noticed the live model in the window and snapped some exterior shots and some from the inside behind the model. I prefer the indoor photos as I like the people's reactions to her and the wardrobe, reflective of the era. I love the twins in their matching outfits and the man with his hands in his pockets who just might be looking at me.” —Meredith Marciano

Todhunter Fireplaces and Lighting, date unknown. In 1927 Arthur Todhunter purchased the former upscale home at 119 East 57th Street and renovated the building for use a a showroom for this business. Todhunter, Inc. imported European antique architectural items, such as fireplaces, mantles, hardware and lighting features. Later he would also move into the business of manufacturing and selling architectural reproductions. Swept up in the popular fad for old English architecture, the facade was transformed into something the New York Times described as, "late sixteenth century England transported to the heart of New York’s shopping district.” Much of the ornamentation and materials, unsurprisingly, given the business of the owner, were recovered from older European structures and reused here. Todhunter only remained in the building he had worked to create for a little over a decade. Between 1939 and 1973 tenants included a number of galleries, a furniture store, offices of theatrical producers, and a literary auction firm. In 1973 the eye-catching building was razed for a large, modern apartment building.

Arion Hall, ca. 1908. Founded in 1854 to promote "the perpetuation of love for some of the characteristic elements of German civilization," the Arion Society was a musical group that built this headquarters in 1886-1887. The grand pile was an Italian Renaissance style building with stone balconies, two sculptural groupings at the roofline, Guastavino-tiled arches inside that created huge vaulted spaces, a German beer hall, and a ballroom with seating for 500. While the society was successful through the end of the 19th century, performing at the White House and hosting international statesmen, they ran into trouble by the entry of the U.S into the Great War. When asked to sign a “pledge of loyalty to President Wilson," along with other German societies, the Arions refused. Their response was, “we regard the invitation to sign as a doubt of our loyalty and therefore an insult.” Soon after, a member refused to play the Star-Spangled Banner during a classical concert. (The conductor stated it was not a un-American sentiment, but that the song is "decidedly unclassical and did not fit in with the programme.") These actions proved the death knell for the society. They sold the clubhouse within weeks to the brewer George Ehret, and the interior furnishings were sold at public auction. The later history of the building is strange and varied. It served as the Anderson Galleries, home to art dealers, agents, and appraisers. Then it was empty between 1931 and 1946 before opening the Park Avenue Theater, a “unique and artistic movie house designed to meet the needs of a subscription clientele.” By 1957 the building had a bank, an auto salesroom, and a dance studio. Then it became the Chapel of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity, an annex of St. Patricks's. Finally, in the late 1970s, the diocese sold the building, and the new owner razed the four-story building for a sleek new office building completed in 1981.

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.

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.

Lever House STATUS Designated Individual Landmark 390 Park Avenue ARCHITECT: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Gordon Bunshaft DATE: 1950-52 STYLE: International Lever House is a 24-story glass and stainless steel clad office building composed of a vertical slab rising above a horizontal base. Its construction in 1950-52 heralded the beginning of a new wave of American skyscraper construction and a new synthesis of modernist architectural ideals. Since the time of its completion, its crystalline forms and glazed curtain walls have attracted world attention. It has assumed a major role in the literature of modern architecture and has been widely recognized as a key monument in the evolution of the International style.

"Mr. Himmel from the New York Association for the Blind, 111 East 59th Street, standing outside with his seeing-eye dog, 1929." The New York Association for the Blind was established in 1906 and offered home counseling and instructional programs for the visually impaired. Today the organization is called Lighthouse Guild International and is headquartered at 15 West 65th Street.

Racquet and Tennis Club and the Seagram Building, ca. 1975. The Seagram Building, seen here at center, is a 1958 skyscraper that was built for the Seagram liquor company. The building was designed by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (who was once director of the Bauhaus, the art school which greatly influenced modern art, architecture, and design). Considered an icon of modernism, the simple, straightforward design of glass and metal, highlighted minimalist geometries and the underlying shape of the structure, without added ornamentation. From 1959 until 2016, the Seagram Building was also the home of the Four Seasons Restaurant, the bastion of mid century modern design, Americanized fine dining, and the power lunch.

Central Synagogue ARCHITECT: Henry Fernbach DATE: 1871-72 STYLE: Moorish Revival Central Synagogue is the oldest Jewish House of Worship in continuous service in the State of New York. Although the plan is Gothic in its arrangement, this stone Temple is our finest extant example of the Moorish Revival style in New York City. Dominating the East elevation are two striking octagonal towers, surmounted by globe-shaped domes enhanced by the patina of age. A prominent design element of this imposing facade is the largo handsomely enframed and geometrically constructed circular window, centered in the well decorated front wall which connects the two towers.

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.

William and Helen Ziegler, Jr. House ARCHITECT: William L. Bottomley DATE: 1921-27 STYLE: Neo-Georgian The Ziegler House, quite substantial at four-and-a-half stories (plus basement) in height and thirty-seven-and-a-half feet in width, has a beautifully detailed, symmetrical three-bay front facade. Bottomley successfully and creatively adapted an elegant neo-Georgian style design to an urban townhouse. Among its notable features are the Flemish bond brickwork with burnt headers, splayed lintels, and end quoins. The entrance with a bowed-arched pediment; multi-pane wood sash windows and paneled shutters. The modillioned cornice; the steeply-pitched, grey slate-covered roof with dormers and end chimneys; and the wrought-iron fence with brick piers at the sidewalk line.

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.