We're asking New Yorkers where they tied the knot and mapping their answers! Add yours to the list by emailing us at team@urbanarchive.nyc. ❤️

600 Park Avenue James Gamble Rogers, 1910-11 – NYC HD 600 Park Avenue was built for businessman Jonathan Bulkley and his wife Sarah Tod. After their deaths in 1939 and 1943, the Renaissance Revival mansion sat empty until 1946, when the Swedish Government purchased it as its Consul General’s residence. In 2009, the house became the residence of the Swedish Ambassador to the United Nations

129 East 62nd Street, date unknown. This neo-Grec style building, constructed between 1873 and 1874 by John Prague, has the triangular pediment (over the door) that is indicative of that architectural style. This is the final building in a row of 15 structures built at the same time, by the same architect, stretching from Park Avenue to the middle of the block on the north side of 62nd Street.

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.

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.

47 East 60th Street, 1922. The Grolier Club is the oldest existing bibliophilic (a fancy way of saying literary) club in North America. Founded in 1884, they have occupied three locations in their history. In 1917 the club moved into this neo-Georgian townhouse designed for them by famed architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Unsurprisingly, the building's interiors were designed to prominently display their book collections.

Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, June 12, 1937. This ornate Queen Anne style structure was completed in 1882 to the designs of architect Henry Fernbach. The educational facility occupied the entire blockfront on Lexington Avenue from 68th to 67th Streets. Instruction here was focused on a method of communication known as Oralism, which asked that deaf students reproduce sounds by imitating the position of the lips of hearing people. This was the mode of instruction that the school promoted through the 1960s. The institution was renamed the Lexington School for the Deaf by the mid century and moved to Jackson Heights in 1960s, where it remains today (teaching both oralism methods and American Sign Language). This imposing building was once only one of a row of civic and charitable institutions that lined Lexington Avenue between 66th to 69th Street that included Mount Sinai Hospital, the New York Foundling Asylum, and, the still standing, Seventh Regiment Armory. The deaf school was eventually demolished and replaced with another building for Hunter College.

Edward Durell Stone House, ca. 1980. In 1956 architect Edward Durell Stone purchased a narrow 1878-built rowhouse on 64th Street. Originally designed in a neo-Grec style by James Ware, the 15 feet wide facade was dramatically transformed by the modernist Stone. He removed the stoop and created the entrance at the basement level. The most impactful work was the addition of a bright white filigree screen that reached from street level to the roof, rendered with a somewhat dizzying geometric pattern that alternately looked like circles, squares or diamond shapes depending on the perspective. Though fiercely modernist, Stone respected the history of his home, adding his mid-century details alongside the 19th-century interiors in a harmonious way. This photograph captures the home sans screen when a few years after his father's 1978 death, Benjamin Hicks Stone removed the screen due to deterioration and instability. He reproduced and replaced it. When the home changed hands in 2004, the new owners hired Hicks Stone to restore it and update the kitchen, baths, and mechanical systems.

Park Avenue, today a coveted address, was once neglected. In 1831, the New York and Harlem Railroad was granted use of what was then known as Fourth Avenue for its train tracks. Steam locomotives were introduced in 1837, and the avenue was widened from 100 to 140 feet. Just after the construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street (the first of three stations to be called Grand Central), legislation in 1872 mandated that train tracks be below ground, which led to construction of a railroad tunnel between 56th and 96th Streets. Known as the “Fourth Avenue Improvement,” this partially covered tunnel funneled pollutants and noise up to the street through vents in the center of Fourth Avenue. As a result, residential development stalled in the 1870s and 80s, even as the wealthy were building extravagant mansions on Fifth and Madison Avenues and associated carriage houses and stables east of Fourth Avenue. A transitional place, Fourth Avenue’s first buildings included an assortment of rowhouses, tenements and institutions. The latter category included the German Hospital (later Lenox Hill Hospital) and the Seventh Regiment Armory. In 1887, the Board of Alderman voted to rename the blocks north of 42nd Street Park Avenue, but “Fourth Avenue” was widely used until the early 20th century. After a major rail accident in 1902, the New York State Legislature banned steam locomotives in Manhattan, requiring train lines to be electrified. This precipitated the construction of a new Grand Central Terminal and drastically increased Park Avenue’s real estate value. The central vents were converted into landscaped malls. In 1928-29, to facilitate the widening of the avenue for vehicular traffic, the malls and sidewalks were narrowed and buildings’ areaways were removed. Regardless of their diminution in size, the malls are still a highlight of Park Avenue. Perhaps the most important contributor to Park Avenue’s special character is its apartment buildings, whose largely uniform heights form continuous street walls. After World War I, apartment living became fashionable for the wealthy, and Park Avenue experienced a building boom in the 1910s and 20s. Apartment buildings were designed to emulate the elegance of the townhouses they were replacing. In addition to spacious lobbies, uniformed doormen, elevators and large apartments (with as many as 18 rooms), the buildings were designed by respected architects in popular styles, including: Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival and Art Deco. Among the notable architects were: George and Edward Blum, Rosario Candela, J. E. R. Carpenter, George F. Pelham and Emery Roth. These buildings continued to be built on Park Avenue after World War II and up until the present, signaling its constant desirability over time. Park Avenue also boasts a number of graceful townhouses and religious institutions, as well as several new buildings completed in the early 2000s. Residential Park Avenue is largely protected by landmark designation. The Upper East Side Historic District, designated in 1981, includes the blocks between East 61st and 79th Streets. The Park Avenue Historic District, designated in 2014, includes the blocks between East 79th and 91st Streets. The Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District, designated in 1993, includes the blocks between East 91st and halfway between 93rd and 94th Streets. The avenue also includes a number of individually designated landmarks.

535 Park Avenue ca. 1913 535 Park Avenue began its life in 1909 when a group of businessmen and professionals began to plan for an apartment building on Park Avenue just above midtown. Intending on creating a co-op, the group hired the architect Herbert Lucas, known for his work on 24 Gramercy Park South. In designing the building, the group hoped that Lucas would land as close to "a private home as possible." Endeavoring to do so, Lucas came up with an elegant Colonial design, using simple brick and half-oval balconies. The co-op owners' apartments tended to be duplexes within the building, along with a numbed half floor simplexs that were rented, mostly to bankers and lawyers, to reduce the initial building costs. However, the press was not as kind. It was decried in the 1911 Architectural Review as a sham-palatial amongst other more biting critiques. The author, taking particular offense to the mix of red brick and terra cotta, called it "cheap finery" and described its cornice as that "of the cheapest and vulgarest kind of tenement houses." While 535 has aged well, the two-story terracotta band at its bottom has experienced some wear and tear, graying with dirt over the years. The co-op board undertook renovation work on the base in 2013, returning it to its original gleaming white color.

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.

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1799 STYLE: Federal The charm of this Federal style stone stable converted into a comfortable headquarters for the Colonial Dames is to be found in its superb masonry construction and its excellent proportions. The sharp profiles of the low pitched pedimented gable roofs cut a clean line that is both severe and pleasing to the eye. A smooth-faced stone belt-course separates the rock-faced masonry of the lower floor from that of the second story clearly defining the building’s perimeter.

Col. Smith House (also known as the Adams Mansion), 1924. This building was originally a carriage house on the estate of Colonel William S. Smith, aide-de-camp to Washington and husband of Abigail Adams, the daughter of President John Adams. The estate was known as "Smith's Folly." After his failure in business, about 1800, the buildings were brought by William T. Robinson and were said to have been completed by him. In 1826 the main house burned, and in 1830 the carriage house was bought by Jeremiah Towle, remaining in the possession of his family until 1906. It was later purchased by the Colonial Dames of America.

130-134 East 67th Street Apartment House ARCHITECT: Rossier & Wright DATE: 1907 STYLE: Italian Renaissance This building consists of duplex units of the type used on West 67th Street, although in the plan of this building many large double-story living rooms were built instead of studio spaces. So successful was the cooperative arrangement in this building, that the developer took title to the adjoining lot on the southeast corner of 67th Street and Lexington Avenue, as well as another property on the northeast corner of Lexington and 67th Street in 1907. Both of these soon were developed with cooperative apartment houses.

Fire Engine Company 39 and Ladder Company 16 Station House ARCHITECT: Napoleon LeBrun & Son DATE: 1884-86 STYLE: Romanesque Revival This six-story Romanesque Revival structure was designed by N. LeBrun & Son for the headquarters of the New York Fire Department and to provide fire protection in a neighborhood that was experiencing considerable growth and change. Unlike many modest mid-block firehouses, the East 67th Street building served multiple functions, providing space for two fire companies, the offices of the Commissioners, and various departmental bureaux.

Emery Roth and Sons designed this 1915 apartment building at 570 Park Avenue. The twelve-story building replaced eight rowhouses on the site. Between 1932 and her death in 1947 author Willa Cather lived here with her companion, author and critic Edith Lewis.

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

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.

Allan Stillman, the founder of "T.G.I. Fridays" unknowingly created what would become one of the most beloved and hated eating establishments of its era. Stillman, a perfume salesman, put down $5,000 (plus an additional $5,000 he borrowed from his mom) to turn a divey boy's bar into a hoppin' singles hangout, velvet ropes and all. Read on to learn the history of T.G.I. Fridays.

New York Foundling Hospital ca. 1899 New York Foundling Hospital was founded in 1869, by Irish-born Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon with her co-worker Sister Teresa Vincent McCrystal, who formed a female lay auxiliary to obtain private and public funding for the project. The New York Foundling Hospital sought to alleviate the common nineteenth-century problem of abandoned babies. In December 1870, the Common Council of the City of New York approved a 99-year lease at a dollar per year for the block of land bounded by Lexington and Third avenues and 68th and 69th streets. The City also supplied $100,000 for the building fund. The auxiliary's Great Fair of 1871 netted an additional $100,000 toward the project. By November 1873, the first phase of the Foundling's campus was ready for occupancy. The campus expanded to include St. Ann's Maternity Hospital in 1880. St. John's Pediatric Hospital opened in February 1882, completing facilities dedicated to the care of children in need. From 1873 until 1958, when it moved to 1175 Third Avenue, the hospital was located at 175 East 68th Street. Now occupying a modern facility at Sixth Avenue and 17th Street, the New York Foundling Hospital is still operated by the Sisters of Charity, who no longer take in abandoned babies, but instead care for very sick infants from hospitals throughout the City.

Park East Synagogue ARCHITECT: Schneider & Herter DATE: 1889-90 STYLE: Moorish Revival, Byzantine With its richly-decorated and imaginatively composed Moorish Revival facade, this building is an unexpected delight in the picturesque streetscape of East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Its combination of Moorish and Byzantine architectural detail marks it as a late manifestation of the attempt to find appropriate expression for synagogue architecture which accompanied the proliferation of new Jewish congregations after the Civil War.

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).

My Archive Spring 2019 "On a sizzling Indian Summer afternoon on September, 1958, on a New York sidewalk, Eileen M. Scanlon, a June, 1958 graduate of Julia Richman High School, with her KODAX in hand seized the moment, for posterity, via a picture of her youngest sister, Francie (right) and best friend, outside of that very high school." —Francie Scanlon

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden, ca. 1939. Located on 61st Street between 1st and York Avenue, this plot was originally purchased by Colonel William S. Smith, a Revolutionary War veteran and politician. Smith found the property with his wife, Abigail Adams, the daughter of founding father and second U.S. President John Adams. The two bought the land with intentions to develop it into an estate called "Mount Vernon," named for George Washington's plantation in Virginia. The couple eventually sold the land, never beginning construction of their planned estate. Instead, William T. Robinson, who owned a house nearby, purchased the property to build a stone carriage house and stable. He continued to call the area "Mount Vernon." Unfortunately, Robinson's main estate was lost to a fire in the 1820s. In 1826, the former carriage house was converted into a hotel by Joseph Coleman Hart. Surrounded by rural lands, the stone house provided an easy getaway for Manhattanites looking to spend a day in the country. In an era with no public parks, the area provided New York City's elite with a place to roam free and participate in many activities, such as boating and hiking in proximity to the East River. Mount Vernon was more of a country club than a hotel, and many guests returned home to the city in the evenings by steamboat or stagecoach. The hotel closed in 1833, likely put out of business by nearby competitors. It was purchased by Jerimiah Towle and converted into a private residence for his family. As photographs indicate, by the early 20th century the Standard Light and Gas Company began building tanks in the vicinity of the property and eventually purchased the home in 1905. The building's ownership was eventually passed down to the Colonial Dames of America, a patriotic society, who converted the former hotel into their headquarters in 1924. Coinciding with the New York's World's Fair, the building was converted into the Abigail Adam Smith Museum, which was later renamed the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden to better reflect its history. The Colonial Dames of America still operate the Hotel Museum and Garden, which focuses on the history of New York City after the construction of the Erie Dam in 1925.

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.

Third Avenue Railroad Company car barn, behind the tracks of the Third Avenue El at 65th Street, October 8, 1936. This imposing French Second Empire structure opened in 1861 and later expanded to cover the entire block between Second and Third Avenues, 65th and 66th Streets. The car barn served as a storage and transfer facility for Third Avenue streetcars and also included stables until horse-drawn streetcars were discontinued in 1899. In the early decades of the 20th century, elevated trains, subways and the increasing prevalence of automobiles combined to make the streetcars redundant. When the fleet switched to buses in the 1940s, that spelled the end for the car barn: in 1946, the dramatic Victorian building was sold to New York Life and demolished. The Manhattan House, a groundbreaking modern apartment building, was completed on the site in 1951.

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.

As the only institution in New York City receiving infants with no questions asked, the Foundling placed a reception crib outside the building, with a bell nearby to be rung to alert the sisters to retrieve an infant. When Foundling resources were strained during the depression of 1873, the Sisters moved the crib inside. But infants kept coming. In 1889, a new infant discovered in the crib received the number 20,715.

Helena Chaja Rubinstein, a rabbi's grandaughter and founder of the eponymous and enormously successful cosmetics firm Helena Rubinstein Inc. was born on December 25, 1870, in Krakow Poland, the eldest of eight daughters. She attended university in both Poland and Switzerland where she briefly studied medicine before immigrating to Australia, where she had relatives, and where her milky complexion and sense of style was noted by local light skinned women suffering overexposure to the sun there.

What did you do if you had a child you couldn't support in the 1800s? You could send it to the New York Foundling Hospital. The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1869, by Irish-born Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon with her co-worker Sister Teresa Vincent McCrystal, who formed a female lay auxiliary to obtain private and public funding for the project. The New York Foundling Hospital sought to alleviate the common nineteenth-century problem of abandoned babies.

119-121 62nd Street, ca. 1911. Nos. 119 and 121 were originally separate structures built in 1873-74 by John Prague, as part of a series of 15 buildings on the north side of East 62nd Street. In 1910 the two homes were combined and a new single facade was constructed, creating a neo-Federal style building. The work was designed by Grosvenor Atterbury (who designed Forest Hills Gardens) for the owners of the structure, Dr. Lewis A. Connor, a famed heart doctor and founder of the American Heart Association. Today the building is the Consulate General of Bulgaria.

The most famous, and arguably the best example of the new, modern women’s hotel was the Barbizon Hotel for Women, built by Murgatroyd & Ogden and completed in 1928 at 63rd and Lexington. One of the Allerton Group partners, William Silk, was the developer, and the Barbizon resembled the Allerton in size and height, as well as in purpose: to provide amenities and entertainment in-house for single, professional women. Early newspaper coverage emphasized the Barbizon was designed for the “modern woman,” who was simultaneously depicted as “strong” and “dainty.” The Barbizon positioned itself as a hotel for women who wanted a career in the arts, taking its name from a school of French artists and advertising its proximity to cultural institutions. The hotel included artists’ studios and music rooms, as well as a rich program of cultural events. There were facilities for dining, entertaining, reading, and exercising as well, including a gymnasium and a pool. As with the Martha Washington, there were also elegant shops on the ground floor. Despite the modern and even luxurious amenities and public spaces, Barbizon bedrooms were small and fairly plain. As with earlier women’s hotels, the smaller rooms meant more occupants. A 1939 hotel brochure shows an image of a single bedroom with a somewhat glamorous inhabitant, while an amateur photo of a different single bedroom at the Barbizon reflects a starker reality: one window, a bureau, a small desk, and a day-bed.

Col. Smith House (also known as the Adams Mansion), 1924. This Federal style structure was originally built as the carriage house for the large 23-acres estate of John Adams' daughter Abigail and her husband, William Stephens Smith. Despite grand plans and an idea to name the estate after George Washington's home, the Smiths were forced to sell the estate due to financial troubles. This building was completed in 1799 by the next owner, William T. Robinson, a well-to-do merchant. By the 1820s the building and its nearby structures and land were purchased and converted in the Mount Vernon Hotel, which was a day hotel catering to a rising middle class looking to escape the crowding and congestion of downtown. The hotel would only stay open for seven years. For the rest of the 19th and early 20th century it was a private residence. The building was sold to Standard Gas and Light Company in 1905. The Colonial Dames of New York purchased it in 1924 (the year this photo was taken) and turned it into a museum. It has continued in that capacity into the 21st century.

Park Avenue Armory This indefensible fort, bristling with battlements, provides an amusing commentary on the architectural expressionism of the eighteen seventies. although a functional drill hall makes up for its defensive shortcomings. A high belfry above the central tower has been removed and the tower has been lowered since the turn of the century.

Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, ca. 1930. The Gothic Revival church by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was completed in 1918, for a Roman Catholic parish dating to 1867. Andy Warhol, an East 66th Street resident for 13 years, regularly attended daily mass.

601 Park Avenue Designed by Walter Lund & Julius F. Gayler, 1919-20 – NYC HD 601 Park Avenue, a neo-Federal mansion with 100 feet of Park Avenue frontage, was built for sugar wholesaler Thomas A. Howell. A long, half-elliptical stair hall occupies the center of the house and all of its rooms face the avenue. Interestingly, this house was left on the market for almost two decades, unable to find a buyer from 1989 to 2008.

Park Avenue Armory, as viewed from Lexington Avenue and 66th Street, 1937. The Park Avenue Armory (also known as the Seventh Regiment Armory) is a massive 1880 Gothic Revival structure. The main entrance fronts Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets. (This photograph depicts the back end of the building on Lexington Avenue.) Designed by Charles Clinton, the huge structure was the headquarters and administrative building for the 7th New York Militia Regiment. The most well-known feature (certainly in its current use as an arts space ) is the 55,000 square foot drill hall. This regiment, from its beginnings, had a majority of members from the city's wealthy and elite families– it was known as the Silk Stocking Regiment. While all armories included additional rooms such as a reception hall, library, veterans room and staff offices, the interior of these rooms here were particularly spectacular and the work of some of the periods most well known designers and artists. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed (with a 24-year old Stanford White assisting) the Silver Room or "Trophy Room" and the Veterans Room, which is decked out in hand carved wood panelling, a coffered ceiling, and stained glass windows. Today the building is still used by a detachment of the New York National Guard, Veterans of the 7th Regiment and the Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, a non-profit that programs unconventional performing and visual arts.

Saint Vincent Ferrer Priory and School ARCHITECT: William Schickel DATE: 1880-81 STYLE: Victorian Gothic, Church The St. Vincent Ferrer Complex consists of four buildings; the church (a designated New York City Landmark), the priory, the Holy Name Society Building, and the school, all of which display elements based on the Gothic style and form a unified ensemble. The Dominican Fathers, the Roman Catholic order who developed the complex, purchased the site two years after the close of the Civil War in order to serve the spiritual and educational needs of the community. The priory (1880-81), the oldest of the four, is a late, simple rendition of the Victorian Gothic by William Schickel, a noted 19th-century New York architect. The church (1916) is by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and was considered by him to be his finest work in the ecclesiastical field. The Holy Name Society building was built in 1930 from designs by Wilfrid Edwards Anthony and harmonizes sympathetically with the two earlier structures. The school was designed and built in 1948 by the firm of Elliot L. Chisling-Ferrenz & Taylor.

The Seventh Regiment Armory 643 Park Avenue Designed by Charles W. Clinton 1877-79 NYC HD, NYC IL, NYC INL, NR-P, NHL The Seventh Regiment was formed in 1806 from four volunteer militia companies, and served in the War of 1812, the Civil War and both World Wars, as well as aided in subduing numerous civilian disorders. In 1880, after years of using various buildings, its own grand armory, designed in the style of a fortified castle, opened to much fanfare. Often referred to as the “silk stocking regiment,” its members were socially prominent. As such, the building features lavish interiors designed by noted artists and architects, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers and Pottier & Stymus, among others. Much of the first and second floor interiors are protected by landmark designation. Because the drill hall was used for maneuvers, the 55,000-square-foot space required very high ceilings. Normally used for train sheds, enormous iron trusses span the enclosure to support the roof. It remains one of the largest unobstructed spaces in the city, and has been used for a variety of functions. From 1900 to 1963, the National Indoor Tennis Championships were held here, and since 1902, the Knickerbocker Greys, a junior cadet corps for school boys, has used the space for drills.

Located between 65th and 66th streets between Second and Third avenues, Manhattan House (1947-51) occupied a full block in an area that was undergoing significant change as the elevated train tracks that had imprisoned that swath of the city was either recently demolished or scheduled for demolition. An old trolley barn, tenements, and assorted commercial buildings were so affordably priced that New York Life bought extra property in the surrounding blocks. The clean, crisp modernist design by architect Gordon Bunshaft, principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), which was associated with the firm Mayer & Whittlesey on the project, was an immediate success and attracted famous tenants such as Benny Goodman, Grace Kelly, and furniture designer Florence Knoll, as well as Bunshaft himself. The apartments were spacious, but the overall density was an impressive 478 pp/acre. Thanks to New York Life’s interest in long-term profits, the building was more “tower in a garden” than “tower in the park” and covered a higher percentage of land (59 percent) than the vast publicly subsidized projects that were its contemporaries. Manhattan House inspired its share of glazed brick imitators, but the truth about private investment in postwar New York was grim. With unrelenting middle-class flight, the demand for high-quality, higher-priced apartments in Manhattan remained comparatively weak. Density reduction, given these facts, made more sense to both private and public developers. Had density levels of Manhattan House been pursued across large areas of the city during the postwar years, it is likely that the city would already be accustomed to much greater density as is the case in crowded cities like Hong Kong. Instead, market failure in postwar New York was used to justify an aggressive strategy of subsidized low-density living.

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

NYPD 19th Precinct Station House ARCHITECT: Nathaniel D. Bush DATE: 1886-87 STYLE: Rundbogenstil, Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec The midblock station house, five stories high above a basement, was constructed with a cross-shaped plan with one-bay wings and is faced in red brick and gray granite with contrasting buff-colored stone detail. The design combines elements of the Rundbogenstil and the Renaissance Revival and neo-Grec styles. The three-bay main facade, articulated as a grid formed by continuous rusticated stone piers and intermediate cornices, successfully affirmed the authority of the Police Department in the rapidly expanding Upper East Side neighborhood.

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.

131-135 East 66th Street Apartment House ARCHITECT: Charles A. Platt; Simonson, Pollard & Steinam DATE: 1905-06 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Vertically the facade is divided into four sections separated by band courses or cornices. The first division or base, three stories high, is rusticated and accented at the fourth floor by a wide band course. The second section is only one story. The third section of two stories is surmounted by a cornice at the level of the seventh floor window sills with another smaller cornice below it at the fifth floor window sill level. An added accent is achieved in these two cornices by having Them projected forward above all the framed windows. On these two floors art the windows, except the end ones, are joined together by eared frames with keystones and have decorative spandrel panels between them. The next section above is four stories high and has windows set in a plain wall and is separated by a band course from the attic windows, which are set in the architrave of the entablature.

Colony Club Ca. 1944 In 1903, a group of women led by Florence Harriman founded the Colony Club in order to provide women with a space comparable to many of the city's men only clubhouses. Raising $500,000, helped by the club's treasurer Anne Morgan, one of the richest women in the world, the Club commissioned Stanford White to build a club house at 120 Madison Avenue. Completed in 1908, the Colony Club only inhabited this property until 1913 whereupon it commissioned it current clubhouse at 564 Park Avenue (seen here). Designed by Delano & Aldrich in the Colonial Style, the Colonial Club's Park Avenue Clubhouse was completed in 1916. Seven stories high, it contains three dining rooms, two ballrooms, 25 guest rooms and full athletic facilities. One of the city's most exclusive social clubs, the membership remains entirely female. Men are permitted to enter as a guest of a member, but must adhere to its strict dress code.

Barbizon Hotel ARCHITECT: Murgatroyd & Ogden DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: North Italian Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance Designed by the prominent hotel specialists Murgatroyd & Ogden, the 23-story Barbizon Hotel is an excellent representative of the 1920s apartment hotel building, and is notable for the high quality of its design. Its vigorous stepped-back massing reflects the influence of the 1916 zoning resolution. The Barbizon’s design is distinguished by the complex arrangement of setbacks and recessed courts, which create subtle transitions between the various elements of the design, and by the masterful handling of its eclectic mixture of North Italian Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance ornament. The richness of the building’s exterior brickwork that varies considerably in hue and texture, the careful proportioning of its details, and its dramatically massed roofline with its 18th story Gothic arcades and chapel-like crown have also won critical acclaim.

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.

580 Park Avenue, date unknown (post 1923). This elegant 14-story apartment building was constructed as a cooperative in 1923. During the 1910s a number of older single family and tenement dwellings were demolished to make way for large apartment houses. This neo-Renaissance building that occupies the entire blockfront replaced ten tenements building that had been constructed in 1877-78.

Abigail Adams Smith House, 1935.

"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.

120 East 65th Street, ca. 1911. No. 120 (the farthest building on the right) was originally built in 1874 as one a series of speculative brownstone-fronted homes (nos. 120-130). Because of the locomotives that once traveled down the middle of Park Avenue (previously called 4th Avenue) the homes east of Park were originally not hugely desirable. Once the railroad was moved underground in 1875, the value of these attractive homes increased greatly. No. 120 was the home to a series of well-to-do merchants. In 1897 is became the St. Joseph’s Home for Babies, an orphanage run by Dominican nuns. By 1902 the structure was a private home again and undergoing a massive renovation. Owners Isaac Chauncey McKeever and his wife Julia commissioned architect S. E. Gage to transform their Victorian rowhouse into a neo-Federal house. The most striking new feature was the stoop turned sideways with dogleg configuration (meaning it included a sharp bend). Today the home, with the unique stairs, still sits directly next to a series of Victorian rowhouses that look exactly as it once looked.

Links Club, 1937. Nos. 36 and 38 East 62nd Street were originally a pair of brownstones constructed in the 1880s. Famed conductor, Anton Seidl lived in No. 38. In 1916 the lots were sold to the Links Club. The gentlemen's club was devoted to golfing interests and was the brainchild of Charles B. Macdonald. MacDonald was the vice-president of the United States Golf Association, tournament- winning golfer, and the architect of American golf courses. The new Cross & Cross-designed clubhouse, completed in 1917, was a 40-foot fronted Georgian Revival structure with a subtle, nearly hidden entrance, a few steps below the sidewalk. Though plans were discussed for a driving range on the roof, instead, a tradition roof garden was constructed. Famous members of the club have included President Eisenhower, ambassadors, governors, senators, the CEOs of all the major financial firms, and any number of other extremely influential men. It has been called the perhaps the most powerful club in the world. The Links, with no exterior signage that calls out the building as a clubhouse, still occupies this stately structure one hundred years after its construction.

Manhattan House ARCHITECT: Mayer & Whittlesey; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill DATE: 1947-51 Considered by many writers to be the first white brick apartment building, it was also notable for being one of the first multiple dwellings in New York City to attempt “an indoor-outdoor synthesis” through the integration of large windows and deep projecting balconies, as well as landscaped driveways and a block-long rear garden enclosed by a low granite wall. Manhattan House generated considerable media attention and in 1952 received an award from the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which described it as “extremely attractive in appearance and beautiful in detailing.” Future New York Times and Wall Street Journal architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable also praised its design, commenting in 1960 that Manhattan House was “one of the best examples to date … notable for its clean architectural shape, as well as for its superior execution in a highly competitive, speculative, building field.”

Postwar, the private sector showed signs of renewed interest in high-density housing. The resurgence of the city’s service sector, as embodied in gleaming office towers of midtown, indicated a real estate vitality not seen in the city since the 1920s. Modernist apartment projects pointed the way to stylish, in-town living. Explore the entirety of the Skyscraper's Museum's Exhibit: Housing Density From Tenements to Towers.

Lay nurses and aides as well as Sisters of Charity of New York worked at the Foundling. The Foundling housed an average of 600 women and 1800 infants at a time, and also provided day care for working mothers. The largest institution of its kind in the nation, the Foundling was the only one in New York City that provided care for all children and women who requested assistance, regardless of race, creed, marital status, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

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.

FDNY Engine 39, ca. 1915. Set among a row of historic institutional buildings on 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, the Fire Department headquarters was the first and largest. Constructed in 1886 to the designs of the fire department's regular architect, Napoleon LeBrun, the Romanesque-style building included a 150-foot tower. The block itself was on a slight hill and the addition of the tower allowed for a panoramic view all the way down to the Battery. The building also housed the department's complex telegraph system. It was described in 1887 as ''an excellent piece of design . . . giving the taxpayer something worth looking at for their money.'' Over the next five years the fire headquarters acquired some grand neighbors, including a police station house (just left of the firehouse), the Mount Sinai Hospital dispensary and nursing school (left of the police station), and the Orthodox Congregation Zichron Ephraim (the Moorish style church at right). Despite plans to demolish the police and fire buildings in the 1970s for a Hunter College complex and an overturned landmark designation for both in 1980, the buildings remain among their historic neighbors. While the historic exteriors have largely been preserved and maintained, the fire house (no longer the headquarters, but home to Engine Co. 39 and Ladder 16) lost its tower and some of its facade carvings, giving it a somewhat unfinished look.

Mount Sinai Dispensary ARCHITECT: Buchman & Deisler; Brunner & Tryon DATE: 1889-90 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance This very handsome neo-Italian Renaissance-style building at 149-151 East 67th Street was built in 1889-90 to serve as a dispensary for Mount Sinai Hospital. The hospital originally faced the dispensary from its site on the south side of East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. The dignified and elegant architectural expression of the clinic, itself very much a product of late 19th-century social ideals is an important element in the group of stylistically diverse monumental civic and institutional buildings on this East Side block.

67th Street Branch, NYPL, July 26, 1930. Built in 1905 by Babb, Cook & Willard, the 67th Street Library has the Italian Renaissance Revival design of many of the Manhattan Carnegies. The most distinctive feature of the building is the unusual Art Nouveau transom window above doorway (seen at right).

125 East 65th Street, undated. This Neo-Georgian Townhouse was designed by Charles A. Platt for Dr. Frederic S. Reed in 1904. Platt was a notable architect whose clientele included Vincent Astor and Sara Delano Roosevelt. Henry R. Luce purchased the home in 1944, eventually gifting it to the China Institute, who remained at this address for 70 years. More recently, the building was the Kips Bay Decorator Show House, which invites 24 designers to reimagine the interior of the five-story home.