OSBOURNE APARTMENTS INTERIOR, MANHATTAN Address: 205 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019 Constructed:1885 The Osbourne’s interior is a remarkable gem within the bustle of ever-changing 57th Street in Manhattan. Completed in 1885, the building’s intact interior is evocative of the panache and glimmer that defined the Gilded Age. The space glows with warmth with and opulence, featuring Italian marble wainscoting and carved marble recesses with benches. The floors are mosaic tiles and marble, and the arched ceiling is treated in vibrant in hues of red, blue and gold. Designed to resemble a vertically-extended Renaissance palazzo, the Osborne, built in 1883-85, is the second oldest luxury apartment building in New York--preceded by the venerable Dakota. The building is a massive rectangular structure constructed of heavy Romanesque-Revival-inspired rock-faced stone blocks. The architect of the Osborne, James Edward Ware (1846-1917), frequently combined Renaissance and Romanesque elements to his work. Ware practiced in New York for many years, establishing his office in 1869 and joining in partnership with sons Franklin and Arthur in 1899. Ware was an extremely versatile architect, designing buildings for many different uses. The Osbourne is named for Thomas Osborne, a stone contractor who began the construction of the apartment building in 1883. Unfortunately, the cost of the building led Osborne to bankruptcy and the structure was completed by John Taylor, a hotel developer who had lent Osborne money. The Taylor family retained control of the Osborne until 1961, when it became a cooperative. Because of its location, the Osborne has long been known as the "residential Carnegie Hall" and has been home to such musical and theatrical luminaries as Leonard Bernstein, Van Cliburn, Shirley Booth, Lynn Redgrave, and Gig Young. Reflecting the influence of an Italian Renaissance palazzo, the Osborne is horizontally divided into four symmetrical sections, each of which was originally crowned by a cornice. The modest cornice at the top of the building has been removed and the lower two cornices have lost their classical balustrades. On 57th Street the cornices do not continue across the entire facade, reflecting the presence of a 1906 addition by owner/architect Alfred S.G. Taylor at the western end of the building. The distinctive stone facing and the subtly curving bays, as well as the bartizan-like forms at the corners, are among the notable features of the facades. The major portion of the Osborne has eleven floors, but the rear, visible on Seventh Avenue, has fifteen stories, creating duplex levels for many of the apartments. The street level has been altered for commercial use. The Osborne has a sumptuous ground floor interior. The entrance vestibule and the lobby have ornate mosaics, marble, leaded glass, gold-leafed ornament, coffered ceilings, and murals. The design is attributed to John LaFarge, the noted 19th-century American artist.

250 West 57th Street, 1938.

U.S.S Main Monument, 1913. On February 15, 1898 the USS Maine, sitting in Havana Harbor, exploded, killing 266 sailors. Using the anti-Spanish sentiment, newspapers fanned the flames of horror and anger among Americans. In April of that year President William McKinley declared war on Spain. Newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, whose sensationalist yellow journalism had agitated the negative public opinion towards Spain, initiated a public fund to install a memorial almost immediately after the tragedy . The successful, but drawn out, fundraising campaign included benefits and collections taken up by groups large and small, from school drives to a ritzy Opera House event. The monument itself was created by architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle and sculptor Attilio Piccirilli and was to stand over 60 feet. More than 10 years after the explosion, with more than $100,000 raised, both the design and the location were confirmed. After an earlier rejection (fearing competition with the Columbus Statue), a site just within Central Park near the corner of 59th Street and Central Park West was approved. On Memorial Day 1913 the monument was dedicated in front of a crowd of thousands of the citizens and more than 10,000 sailors and soldiers. As the monument was uncovered, a 252 gun salute rang out from the Navy boats in the harbor.

Columbus Circle ca. 1936 From the ninth floor of the General Motors Building on West 58th Street, Abbott photographed Columbus Circle through the back of the Schenley Rye neon sign mounted on the New York Journal Building. The Circle’s statue of Columbus, erected in 1892 to commemorate the quadricentennial of his ocean voyage, occupies the center of the photograph but is dwarfed by an even more popular landmark, the Coca-Cola sign standing atop the American Circle Building. The dominance of the commercial signs over the Columbus statue emphasizes modern advertising’s subversion of traditional civic imagery. In a variant image, Abbott adopted a horizontal format and boldly superimposed the Schenley sign over the entire cityscape, totally obscuring the panorama. In 1964, Huntington Hartford’s iconoclastic Museum of Modern Art replaced the New York Journal Building. Two years later, the 44-story Gulf and Western Tower replaced the American Circle Building along with the much-loved Coca-Cola sign.

Alvin Theatre, September 1935. Built in 1927 as the Alvin Theatre, the Broadway house was designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp for the developer and real estate mogul Alexander Pincus. The name Alvin was a portmanteau of the names of producers Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedley. The theatre opened with a premiere of George and Ira Gershwin's 'Funny Face' with Fred and Adele Astaire. Gershwin also had his best known musical 'Porgy and Bess' premiere here in 1935. The theatre was renamed for playwright Neil Simon in 1977, after the Nederlander Organization bought the building. In the 1980s the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated a number of Broadway Theatres, including this one (in 1985).

"Broadway, west side, from 60th to 61st Streets. The building in the foreground was built two years before this as a three-story building. Nine stories have just been added, to make it a twelve-story building. Construction work, both exterior and interior, was completed within three months, December 26, 1924."

The Albermarle, ca. 1975. Opened in 1903 as the Hotel Carlton, this Beaux Arts structure stood 11 stories and hosted some of the city's high society. Over the next few decades, the hotel saw numerous name changes, broken windows from no less than two underground explosions (1912 and 1913), and thousands of tenants, well-behaved and overwise. In the mid-1920s former actress and speakeasy proprietor Mary Louise Cecelia "Texas" Guinan opened Club Intime in the basement of the then-Hotel Harding. Despite Prohibition, the club served alcohol and featured scantily clad entertainment. (Upon her many arrests for liquor law violations, she always insisted her wealthy patrons brought their own liquor.) Dorothy Parker and her friends enjoyed drinking here. Club Intime closed and was soon replaced with a new spot which was just as notorious (this time as a mob hangout). Renovated by Emery Roth in 1936, the hotel became a more traditional apartment house and today goes by one of its earlier names, The The Albemarle. The cozy bar in the building now called The Flute has hosted social events for the Dorothy Parker Society for more than 20 years.

Catholic Apostolic Church ARCHITECT: Francis H. Kimball DATE: 1885-86 STYLE: Terra-cotta The Catholic Apostolic Church, built in 1885-86, was one of architect Francis H. Kimball’s earliest independent commissions in New York City. Kimball had previously worked mostly in Hartford, Connecticut, where he supervised the construction of the Collegiate Gothic style buildings at Trinity College designed by English architect-theorist William Burges, and where the foremost leaders of the Church were residents and would have known his work. Kimball was in the forefront of architects in using exterior architectural terra0cotta in New York during this period, and the Catholic Apostolic Church is significant in the history of American terra-cotta. The facade of the church is dominated by a central rose window within a pointed-arched surround, one of the most complex elements yet attempted in terra-cotta in the United States, and the sculptural ornament also incorporates iconography referring to Apostle-Evangelists and angels.

Columbus Circle ca. 1918 Max Schreyer traveled around the United States and Europe making a name for himself by riding a bicycle down a wooden chute, launching himself into the air and landing in a tank of water. Photographer William Hassler was there for the event at Broadway and 59th Street on November 27, 1918. Schreyer succeeded on that day, but six months later, performing in Van Cortlandt Park, his famous “Leap of Death” finally proved fatal

My Archive Summer 2019 "In 1996 we got married at the now-demolished Roseland Ballroom off Times Square.. the first and last time our names were on a Marquis. We finally found a place to host 600 people at an affordable rate. This old dance hall had seen better days but we all fit in. It was a hoot." —Brocha Metzger @gothamfairytales

American Fine Arts Society ARCHITECT: Henry J. Hardenbergh DATE: 1891-92 The arched, main entrance doorway is well decorated, being flanked by tall, ornate, candelabra-like spindles executed in stone. The surface, surrounding the three gracefully arched second floor windows, is embellished with rich decoration, and these three arches are likewise separated by large sculptured stone spindles. Above them, on the third floor, three triple windows with mullions are flanked by pilasters, decorated with a profusion of detail. A balustrade, adorned with delicate urns, and the low pitched red-tiled roof add a touch of stability and color to this distinguished building.

Ziegfeld Theatre, ca. 1927. Constructed in 1927 by architect Joseph Urban, the Ziegfeld Theatre was the William Randolph Hearst-funded brainchild of Florenz Ziegfeld. Urban had also been a set designer for the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and as a movie designer for Hearst's production company in the 1920s. The theatre was owned and managed by Ziegfeld until his death in 1932, at which point it became a movie theatre. In 1943 theatre impresario, showman and lyricist Billy Rose purchased the building for his productions. He remained successful in this location for about a decade but business declined in the mid 1950s, likely due to its location further uptown than the popular theatre district. Rose leased the space for filming television shows starting in 1955, and reopened it a Broadway theatre for a brief stint in 1965. He also purchased some adjacent lots in the hopes of selling to a developer. He died in 1966 and his estate did just that. A skyscraper was built on the site, which from 1969 until 2016 included a single screen movie theatre called "The Ziegfeld." The 1927 theatre was a gorgeous Art Deco limestone building with a bowed facade decorated with classically based ornamentation rendered in Deco and modernist forms. The large oval shaped auditorium, which sat 1660 patrons, was topped by a colorful mural of overlapping medieval, biblical, and literary scenes on the ceiling.

Gainsborough Studios ARCHITECT: Charles W. Buckham DATE: 1907-08 The Gainsborough Studios is a rare surviving example of artists’ cooperative housing, a building type popular in Manhattan for a brief period in the early twentieth century. Built during the heyday of its type, in 1907-08, the Gainsborough provided both living and working spaces. The handsome, distinctive design of the building reflects its unusual purpose. Large, double-height windows provide an abundance of northern light to the artists’ studios. Designed, managed and inhabited by artists, the building was given artistic connotations via its name and the proliferation of exterior ornament.

Art Deco architecture flourished in Europe and the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Spurred by the 1925 Paris exhibition Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes which boasted over 16 million visitors, structures such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building began dotting the New York City skyline. The following are photos from MCNY's collection that struck me as particularly beautiful in their exemplification of Art Deco architecture.

Alvin Theater ARCHITECT: Herbert J. Krapp DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Neo-Georgian, Adamesque The Alvin Theater survives today as one of the historic theaters that symbolize American theater for both New York and the nation. It was designed for Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedley, producers of some of Broadway’s most successful musical comedies. The facade designed for the Alvin by Herbert J. Krapp, the most prolific designer of Broadway theaters, is an exceptionally handsome neo-Georgian design. This facade, based on elegant proportions and Adamesque detailing, distinguished the theater headquarters of Aarons and Freedley, and as such represents a special aspect of the nation’s theatrical history. The Alvin Theater Interior was designed in Adamesque style. The elegant Adamesque detailing distinguished the theater headquarters of Aarons and Freedley, a company that produced some of Broadway’s most successful musical comedies. It represents a special aspect of the nation’s theatrical history.

Rodin Studios, 1922. Conceived as a studio-residence for prosperous artists in the 1910s, the Rodin Studios were the project of painter John Fry, his wife Georgia Timkey Fry, and painter Lawton S. Parker. Named for the sculptor Auguste Rodin, the architect Cass Gilbert designed a striking Gothic facade clad in sculptural terra cotta. When completed in 1917, the building included retail and offices on the lower floors for additional income. The upper floors were studios, studios with adjacent living spaces, and duplex apartments. In 1926 novelist Theodore Dreiser and his wife moved into the Rodin. They held a weekly Thursday night gathering of a diverse cross section of New York society, inviting financial tycoons, writers, artists, critics and social scientists. By the turn of the 21st century most of Gilbert's interiors were long gone. The ornate exterior was in bad condition, with chucks of terra cotta falling to the streets below. The building underwent a massive restoration. 235 historic wood window were renovated and terra cotta sections were replaced with new casts. Finally the 8-foot tall cornice was removed and replaced with new structural steel and glass fiber reinforced concrete replicas.

Century Theatre, 1930. A grand (and hulking) presence on the corner of 63rd Street, the Beaux-Arts theatre and opera house, designed by Carrère and Hastings, opened in 1909 as the New Theatre. The New Theatre produced shows for only two seasons before leasing the space to other theatre managers. The venue reopened as the Century in 1911 and by 1915 was under the management of Florenz Ziegfeld. Buoyed by the success of his roof garden venue and nightclub at the New Amsterdam in Times Square, Ziegfeld opened the Cocoanut Grove on the rooftop here. Unfortunately the theatre had too many strikes against it. And the WPA Guide to NYC was there to call it out as, describing the venue as "New York's most spectacularly unsuccessful theater" and a "Shrine of Snobbism." The locations was too far from the theatre district, the large and ornate building was expensive to maintain, and the acoustics were poor, despite efforts to improve them. In 1931 the theatre was demolished and replaced by the Art Deco Century Apartments, designed by the firm of Irwin Chanin.

Alwyn Court, February 15, 1938. A 12-story apartment building, Alwyn Court was a ''studio palace'' co-op built between 1907 and 1909. Dreamed up by the artist Walter Russell (who would leave the project early) and developer Alwyn Ball Jr, the building was designed by the architects Harde & Short. Led by Ball's vision, the apartment house became one of the most luxurious in the city. A 32-room duplex within the building was listed at $22,000 per year. The mostly iconic feature of the building though was the intricate terra cotta facade. Created by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company the entrance includes Gothic details while the rest is of French Renaissance styling. The building was advertised as an appropriate residential replacement for costly private homes. (Apartments were still palatial. They required less staff. And repairs were taken care of quickly by building staff!) Some of the original residents included Jacob Wertheim, president of United Cigar Stores, and Frederick Steinway, president of the piano company. Though popular in the 1910s, the building was largely empty by the late1930s. The building's owners foreclosed and the building was gutted, with 75 smaller apartments replacing to two dozen original ones, and major alterations of the facade. In the 1980s the building went through a co-op conversion. The facade, though spectacular, has required a near constant effort of regular and continual cleaning and replacing damaged sections.

Alwyn Court Offering a complete contrast to many contemporary buildings which are totally devoid of ornament, this structure has scarcely one square inch of surface which is not decorated. The salamander, symbol of Francois I, is much in evidence, and most of the ornament here employed is that borrowed from Italy during the early phase of the French Renaissance.

240 Central Park South ARCHITECT: Mayer & Whittlesey DATE: 1939-40 STYLE: Art Deco This is a significant and innovative complex that represents the transition between 1930s Art Deco style apartment towers with courtyards (characteristic of Central Park West) and post-World War II “modernist” apartment houses. The architects were particularly skillful in adapting their plan to a highly prominent and complex site, with frontages along Central Park South, Columbus Circle, Broadway and West 58th Street. The complex consists of a 20-story, C-shaped-in-plan building (with an 8-story tower), facing Central Park, connected by ground-story lobbies and rounded shopfronts (following the diagonal of Broadway) to a 15-story building to the south.

Workers inspect the site of the Ninth Avenue El derailment on September 11, 1905. At upper right is the 53rd Street spur, leading to the Sixth Avenue El, where the derailed train was mistakenly switched.

The young men's club opened in March of 1930, costing a grand 3,250,000 dollars. According to a New York Times article from March 30th, 1930, "the boys' department contains several novel rooms including a forge and workroom and a "Totem Room," which will house a large original Alaskan totem pole." The log cabin was part of this set of novelties, which also included a "Pirate Ship's Cabin," of which we can only imagine. Of the more typical fixtures of a recreational facility, the building also housed three gymnasiums, two swimming pools, twenty large entertainment and activities rooms, a technical school, theater, and dormitory of 600 rooms. The branch reportedly had around 14,000 members.

The monument to Christopher Columbus in what we now call Columbus Circle was one of the dozens of monuments erected in the Americas and Europe to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, but this one was especially significant to New York’s growing Italian American population. Led by Carlo Barsotti, publisher of the newspaper Il Progresso Italo-Americano, the Italian American community raised funds and paid for the monument itself. At the time, Columbus, born in Genoa, was perhaps the most widely celebrated figure of Italian descent in the United States. As Italian immigrants faced discrimination and struggled to forge an identity in their new home, many found in Columbus a symbol of both Italian heritage and American pride. At the unveiling, on October 12, 1892, Luigi Palma di Cesnola addressed the 10,000 people in attendance: "The countrymen of Columbus, the Italians resident and citizens in the United States, conscious indeed that his true monument is this great land, its institutions, its prosperity, its blessings, its lessons of advance for all humanity, have yet desired to testify, to at least the present generation, their full and unfailing sense of their great peculiar debt. They have procured, in contributions great and small, but uniformly large in spirit, the execution of this monument; and they have erected and presented it in token of their affection and gratitude to this great and beloved country; the country in which they have found a permanent home, a more congenial form of government, and better and freer facilities honorably to earn their livelihood."

1790 Broadway, 1915. Completed in 1912 for the United States Rubber Company, this building stood on the stretch of Broadway from Times Square to 70th Street known as "Automobile Row." U.S. Rubber, desiring to make a statement in this automotive center, commissioned architects Carrère and Hastings, having just completed the Fifth Avenue New York Public Library, to design their headquarters. The result is the dignified building that remains today, faced with Vermont marble. Unfortunately, a 1951 sale of the building to the West Side Saving Banks prompted the destruction of the facade of the bottom two floors in favor of an incongruous international style infill. Though a later restoration did not end up restoring the lost facade as planned, the rest of Carrère & Hastings building remains historically intact.

The Century apartment building, 1936. The Century towers, which take their name from the theater which previously occupied the site, are an Art Deco apartment complex designed by architect Irwin S. Chanin and completed in 1931.

Russian Tea Room, c. 1935. The Russian Tea Room opened in 1927 as an after-hours hangout for the Russian Imperial Ballet and other ex-patriots. The restaurant, with an elite club-like atmosphere, was supposedly founded by a Jacob Zysman though 1929 records list dancer Albertina Rach as its president. The room opened at 145 West 57th Street but moved across the street to 150 West 57th Street after a short while. Before the tea room, this property was an Italianate brownstone residence owned by John F. Pupke. Originally, the building had a stoop occupying the ground floor, though this was removed in 1919 when an automobile showroom moved in. A 1988 issue of the New York Times called it a "brownstone peanut," compared to its towering modern-day neighbors. Kitty-corner of Carnegie Hall, the restaurant was known for its colorful clientele. A pamphlet for the establishment stated, "for more often than not the artist will come to the Russian Tea Room Restaurant straight from the performance, flowers and all." A Siberian émigré, Alexander "Sasha" Maeef is credited as orchestrating this lush environment. He took over the business from 1933 until 1946. In these formative years, patrons could find Russian luxuries like caviar on blini, chicken kiev, and pelmeni. Maeef sold the restaurant to first-generation Russian-American Sidney Kaye, who cloaked the establishment in the kitschy themed rooms that still exist today. Only the facade received a re-do in 2000 that divorced it from its brownstone past. The Russian Tea Room closed in 2002 but re-opened in 2006 with no visible update. Over the years, it has been visited by Michael Douglas, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Jackie Kennedy, Anne Bancroft, Barbara Streisand, and Dustin Hoffman.

Gallo Theatre, 1928. Opened as the Gallo Opera House in 1927, the theatre at West 54th Street has a long, varied, and unique history. Both early opera and straight play productions were commercial flops in the Eugene De Rosa-designed theatre. Sold in foreclosure less than two years after opening, the building became the New Yorker Theatre and a WPA Federal Music Project venue in the 1930s. Renamed Studio 52 in 1943 when purchased by CBS (the number had nothing to do with the street address), the space hosted radio and TV productions through the 1970s, including What's My Line?, The $64,000 Question, and The Jack Benny Show. In 1977 the building entered its most famed period as the nightclub Studio 54, a glitzy, glamorous, celebrity-filled disco. Studio 54 closed in 1986. Occupied by other clubs and concert venues through the late 1980s and 1990s, the theatre was restored to much of its architectural grandeur in 1994 (the nightclub owners had covered or painted black much of the interior). It was leased by the Roundabout Theatre Company in 1998 for a production of Cabaret and was purchased by Roundabout in 2003.

The Hearst Magazine Building was designed by Joseph Urban and George B. Post for William Randolph Hearst between 1926 and 1927. The building would be Hearst's many publication's headquarters in Columbus Circle, what he considered the up-and-coming theater district in Manhattan. The project marks Hearst's ambitions to turn Columbus Circle into an urban center parallel to Times Square. Hearst moved to New York in 1895 after a successful overhaul of his father's publication, the San Francisco Examiner. His techniques of yellow-journalism made the paper sell quickly, and Hearst carried this style of work to his newest purchase in New York, the Morning Journal. He quickly outran his competitor, Joseph Pulitzer, by decreasing the price of his paper and eventually picking up a share of Pulitzer's employees. When he wanted to design a new headquarters for the Journal and his 72 other acquired companies, he hired the architect of Pulitzer's World Building, George B. Post. Hearst had amassed 150 million dollars in profit by 1926 when he set out to build his grand headquarters. Joseph Urban, the other architect of the project, was a Viennese theater designer who had decorated the Abdeen Palace in Cairo when he was just 19 years old before studying under secessionist architect Otto Wagner. Urban had been introduced to Hearst after designing the set of "Follies," which he had seen years prior. George B. Post, the "commercial architect" of the project was to guide it to become the grand and tall structure Hearst had desired for his company. The building is moored with Art Deco, Secessionist, and Baroque tones, as well as Classical allusions. It encompasses an entire city block. Its six "sculpture groups" decorate the fourth floor of the building, and were designed by German immigrant Henry Kreis. The allegorical figures are meant as representations of the disciplines which the building housed: Comedy and Tragedy, Music and Art, Sport and Industry, and Printing and Sciences. The building's auditorium would showcase a variety of musical and theatrical events, as per Hearst's interest. The six-story building had been planned from the beginning as a base to a larger tower. This is reflected in the structure of the building and the fact that it contains six elevator shafts - double what was typical for a building of this height. The tower addition was prepared by George B. Post in 1946, but the plans were never realized. It wouldn't be until 2004 that a tower, designed by Sir Norman Foster, would top off the Hearst Magazine Building.

In October 1892 the Italian government dedicated this granite monument with its depiction of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, to the people of America. The statue of Columbus which now tops the monument was placed there two years later. The Tichenor Riding School, prominent in this card, was one of the many Upper West Side riding stables whose close proximity to Central Park made the location ideal for horseback riding. The building was razed in the late 1960s.

Century Theatre, ca. 1912. The elegant Beaux Arts structure opened as the New Theatre in November 1909, but immediately encountered challenges: while the building was acclaimed for its architecture, the cost of maintenance was high and the acoustics of the performance space were poor. Combined with a location some distance from Manhattan’s established Theater District, the New Theatre closed after just two seasons. The space was reopened as the Century Theatre in 1911 and continued to cycle through new management regimes — including the Cocoanut Grove, a rooftop nightclub — until its demolition in 1931. The Century, a 29-story apartment building now occupies the site.

Central Park Apartments, 59th Street ca. 1828 The Central Park Apartments, otherwise known as the Spanish or Navarro Flats for its developer Jose F. De Navarro, was praised as “the most vast, complete, and permanent apartment houses ever as yet erected in any country.” Stretching 425 feet along the southern edge of Central Park on 59th Street, east of Seventh Avenue, the massive 10-story complex “in the “Moorish style” was composed of eight smaller separate buildings, each named after a Spanish city. Navarro financed his project creatively, according to American Architect and Building News, intending “to erect the buildings in his own name, and sell the apartments absolutely to those who wished to occupy them by means of trust-deeds and perpetual leases.” The buildings could be constructed one by one, and the sale of the finished apartments paid for the construction of the next. The first four buildings—the Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Cordova—were built in 1883, and the Valencia, Granada, Salamanca, and Tolosa were completed in 1885. The complex was designed by French-born architect Philip Hubert and his firm, Hubert Pirsson & Co., who were credited with originating the cooperative apartment system as well as the duplex-apartment layout in New York. The cooperative apartment system, commenced in 1880, allowed residents to partially and collectively invest in ownership of the building. Each building contained twelve apartments, some of which included up to three floors and up to six bedrooms, a parlor, living room, dining room, and library. Apartments sold for $15,000 to $20,000 with annual maintenance fees from $1,000 to $2,000. The complex was arranged around a system of courtyards that gave light, air, and access to the buildings and the interior of the block.

Church of Paulist Fathers, ca. 1910. The history of the Church of St. Paul the Apostle provides a case study of the birth and growth of a missionary parish in the years immediately before and following the Civil War. The parish had its origins in an 1858 agreement with Archbishop John Hughes, in which the new Paulist Fathers community was given the responsibility for a territory initially extending on the west side of Manhattan from 59th Street to 109th Street. Isaac T. Hecker, C.S.P. (1819-1888), a New York-born Catholic convert of German heritage, was both the first pastor of St. Paul's and the first leader of the Paulists. In 1858, Hecker received Papal authorization to found the first male religious community organized within the Archdiocese of New York and the United States, the Congregation of Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle (better known as the Paulist Fathers). Establishing both a community and a parish required immediate fundraising. The Paulists sought pledges toward the erection of a parish church and community house, with an initial contribution from Archbishop John Hughes, and the largest donation coming from Isaac Hecker's brother George, developer of "Hecker's Self-Rising Flour." The Paulist Fathers acquired land at 59th Street, west of Ninth Avenue, which remains the parish center. As the building rose from its foundations using stone recycled from the old Croton Aqueduct, the Greenwich Elevated Railroad reached Ninth Avenue and 59th Street. In 1876, the north boundary of the parish was reduced from 109th to 75th Street. The Catholic population of the neighborhood increased, until it peaked at some 27,000 in the 1890s. In 1890, artist John Lafarge directed the redecoration of the interior of St. Paul the Apostle. New altars were fashioned from rare Numidian marble, Mexican onyx, and porphyry. Derricks, with their blocks and tackle, were used to lift the altars into position. Harper's noted that the church never closed; work proceeded while "service at St. Paul the apostle never ceases." In the early 20th century, the Paulist Fathers' Church was known for its music as well as for its preaching. Its choir of men and boys achieved a national reputation when the Paulist Choristers toured widely and performed regularly on the Paulist radio station WLWL. Seats for festival Masses such as the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass were reserved for ticket holders.

Rodin Studios ARCHITECT: Cass Gilbert DATE: 1916-17 STYLE: French Renaissance The Rodin studios building, built in 1916-17, was designed by Cass Gilbert specifically for artists. Named for the most innovative living artist of the time, it represents a refinement on the earlier essays in what was a relatively new building type. The two principal elevations of this fourteen-story, reinforced concrete frame building, are sheathed in rough brick, polychromatic buff to gray, laid in American bond. The elaborate and extensive terra-cotta and iron trim is molded and cast in the late Gothic-early Classical motifs which characterize the French Renaissance style, the style of the neighboring Arts Students League as well as a style Gilbert thought appropriate for artists.

Majestic Theater Interior ARCHITECT: Herbert J. Krapp DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Modern Spanish This theatre was part of an unusual multi-use project including three theaters and a hotel. The “stadium” configuration of the auditorium represents an attempt at bringing democracy to theater seating. The auditorium’s segmental-arched proscenium, narrow floor-to-ceiling arched openings on the side-walls, and broad shallow domed ceiling, and the broad coved ceiling of the inner lobby are among the most prominent design features of the interior.

Audrey Munson (1891-1996) was once the most famous artist’s model in the United States and her likeness can be found in a dozen public sculptures in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In 1913, her likeness had become so prominent in public spaces that the New York Sun dubbed her "Miss Manhattan." For an in-depth look at the rise and tragic fall of America’s First Supermodel, we recommend “The Curse of Beauty: The Scandalous & Tragic Life of Audrey Munson, America’s First Supermodel” by James Bone and “Miss Manhattan” (Episode 200) of the 99% Invisible podcast.

Osborne Apartments ARCHITECT: Architect: James E. Ware DATE: 1883-85 STYLE: Romanesque Revival, Renaissance Revival The Osborne Apartments was one of the earliest luxury apartment buildings in New York City. Constructed in what by 1890 had become New York’s first apartment house district, near Central Park, this architecturally-impressive building is a rare surviving example of the original development in this city of multi-family dwellings for well-to-do residents, an increasingly important building type in the 1880s. The design draws elements from the popular Romanesque Revival style, such as the heavy, rusticated stone exterior with deeply set windows, for a sense of solidity; these are combined in a bold and original manner with the refinement, proportions, and strong horizontality of the emerging Renaissance Revival style.

B.S Moss Colony, ca. 1932. The theatre at 1681 Broadway opened in 1924 as the B. S. Moss’s Colony Theatre, a vaudeville and movie theatre. Designed by one of the premier theatre architects of the 1920s, Eugene De Rosa, the venue has a large seating capacity (1,765 seats) and deep stage (60 feet). During its two stints as a movie theatre (1924-1930 and 1934-1940), Walt Disney debuted two of his most famous early films there. "Steamboat Willie" opened in 1928 and "Fantasia" in 1939. Given a number names in its early years (Universal's Colony Theatre, B.S. Moss' Broadway Theatre, and Earl Carroll's Broadway Theatre), the theatre became a venue for live Broadway performances starting in 1930 and then again in 1940, when it was christened the unimaginative, Broadway Theatre. Bought in 1939 by the Shuberts, the theatre has been renovated a number of times. The interior and exterior were designed in an Italian Renaissance style. The original facade was resurfaced in a grey polished granite in 1991 when a skyscraper was constructed above the theatre. One of only five Broadway theatres that actually front the street, Broadway, this venue has often been the location that successful shows transfer to near the end of their runs.

Completed in 1891, Andrew Carnegie’s Music Hall was opened as the new home for the Oratorio Society of New York, with a five-day musical festival during which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the world’s foremost composers of the day, conducted several of his own works. Often considered one of the premiere centers of American musical life and history, Carnegie Hall has continually featured the work and performances of countless LGBT artists. Few had as close an association with the Hall as Leonard Bernstein, who appeared more than 430 times between 1943 and 1990, as conductor, pianist, composer, and educator. Dimitri Mitropoulos was the conductor of the New York Philharmonic between 1950 and 1957, until he became the victim of McCarthy-era homophobia. Other conductors here included Jeffrey Tate and Michael Tilson Thomas. Premieres of classical works by LGBT composers Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, David Diamond, Marc Blitzstein, Gian Carlo Menotti, Ned Rorem, and John Corigliano were conducted here. African-American composer and pianist, Don Shirley, also performed here. Innumerable LGBT performers have ranged from pianists Vladimir Horowitz and Van Cliburn, to dancer Isadora Duncan, leading Wagnerian heldentenor Lauritz Melchior, popular singers Chris Williamson, Meg Christian, and Rufus Wainwright, and the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus.

Essex House, ca. 1993. This 44-story Art Deco building began construction one day after the Stock Market Crash in 1929. The depression slowed the building process and the hotel, with 509 rooms, opened in October 1931. The building's most well-known feature, the roof-topping six-story, red neon sign, was erected in 1932. Taken from it's bankrupt owners only a couple years after opening, it was owned for 15 years by the US Reconstruction Finance Corporation (which gave financial support and loans to local governments and businesses, following the Depression). The hotel has cycled through various hotel chains and foreign and domestic business owners over the last 50 years. Today it is the JW Marriott Essex House, still topped by the iconic neon sign.

Steinway Hall, June 30, 1925. In 1864 William Steinway opened a showroom for his pianos on 14th Street near Fifth Avenue. Owing to overwhelming popularity, he built a new concert hall as a venue to display and promote his pianos. This was the original Steinway Hall. Opened in 1866 the hall sat 2,500 guests and was one of the biggest halls in the city of New York. Over the next 25 years, it was the home of the New York Philharmonic. The success of Steinway Hall in promoting Steinway's instruments was considerable, so much so that his competitors, the Aeolian Company and Chickering & Sons, felt the need to open their own concert halls. Owing to a desire to have their showroom and concert venue near Carnegie Hall, Steinway & Sons commissioned a new building on 57th Street in the early 1920s. The new Steinway Hall, seen here, included not only showrooms and a hall, but also recording and broadcasting spaces. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the neo-Classical building officially opened on October 27, 1925. Steinway & Sons sold the building and land in 1958 but continued to use the building as a rental. In 1999 they bought the building back but were required to continue to lease the land it occupied. In 2014, in a deal that cost a combined $177 million ($46M for the building and $131M for the land), a development company purchased Steinway Hall and its plot. Steinway Hall moved to 1133 Sixth Avenue, while a controversial plan for the landmark 57th Street building has it being restored and incorporated into a supertall residential tower.

The Century Apartments ARCHITECT: Irwin S. Chanin DATE: 1931 STYLE: Art Deco The Century Apartments, built in 1931, is one of the major Art Deco style apartment buildings in America. It stands today as a testament to the vision of its architect and builder Irwin S. Chanin and is one of his finest works. With its twin-towered form, enabled by the 1929 multiple dwelling law, it is one of a small group of related structures that help give Central Park West its distinctive silhouette. The Century is a sophisticated essay in Art Deco design, exhibiting a complex balance of horizontal and vertical elements that creates a dynamic design tension. This is expressed in the manipulation of such structural features as brickwork, windows, bays, and balconies. The towers with their crowns are one of New York City’s major architectural adornments. The Century Apartments continue to symbolize the high quality of residential design on New York’s Upper West Side.

Fine Arts Building of the Art Students League of New York, ca. 1910.

Childs Restaurant, 1939. The first Childs Restaurant was opened in 1889 by brothers Samuel S. Childs and William Childs, on the ground level of the Merchants Hotel (current site of One Liberty Plaza, also previously the Singer Building), at 41 Cortlandt Street. By 1932 there were more than 20 Childs Restaurants in the five boroughs. The location at 300 West 59th Street was leased to the Childs Company in 1910 and occupied by the restaurant by September 1911. This location was well-known by the gay community in the early 20th century. The convenient location between the theatre district and Central Park, as well as its reputation for a tolerance of diverse patrons, made it popular among gays who were forced to hide their nature in most public venues. It was also a busy pre-dawn spot for actors, writers, and prizefighters, who toiled late into the evenings nearby. The restaurant closed after 42 years in December of 1953. It was mourned by many of its regulars and long-time employees. The restaurant building and its neighbors were demolished and replaced in 1956 by the New York Coliseum, a Modern style convention center.

Ninth Avenue El derailment at 53rd Street. September 11, 1905. At a few minutes after 7 a.m., a downtown-bound train on the Ninth Avenue El plunged from the tracks at the corner of 53rd Street, ultimately killing 13 and injuring 48, in what was then the worst subway accident in city history. The wreck occurred at the point where downtown-bound Ninth and Sixth Avenue tracks diverged, with Sixth Avenue trains making a 90 degree turn East along 53rd Street. Ordinarily, the approaching downtown train would display a placard indicating to the towerman whether to activate the switch for the curve. In this case a miscommunication between the motorman and the towerman (who may not have been at his post) sent the train into the curve at more than three times its speed limit. The motorman braked, but was unable to prevent two cars from careening over the edge of the trestle. One car slammed into the ground while the other came to rest partially suspended by the second floor window of no. 798 Ninth Avenue. The New York Times described the scene: “The third car of the train, hurled forward by the weight of those behind it, was shoved over the elevated structure and its forward end was forced through the window of the apartment of Mrs. James G. Crowe, who lives above the drug store. The car rocked for a moment and seemed as if about to fall into the street. Then it settled, its forward end held by the sill of the window and the fire escape, and hung suspended like a bridge across the street. The frantic passengers clambered out of the windows and along the roof into the apartments of Mrs. Crowe, and thence to the street.”

My Archive Spring 2019 "This is a photo of my mother that was taken in Central Park in 1974. My parents had just begun dating." —Melissa D'Lando

West side Y.M.C.A. South exterior. June 1, 1930. Architect Dwight James Baum’s West Side YMCA more resembles a Medieval Italian fortress than a recreational facility completed in 1930. Baum’s 14-story structure was designed to accommodate the needs of 10,000 members and was at the time of its construction the largest YMCA facility in the world.

Majestic Theater ARCHITECT: Herbert J. Krapp DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Modern Spanish This theater ’s facade is a fine example of the romantic “Modern Spanish” style with which Herbert Krapp, the architects, adorned later theaters. Among its significant architectural features are its balcony with simulated Spanish-style tile roof, blind stylized Palladian window, and rusticated base.

Hammerstein’s Theater, now the Ed Sullivan Theater ARCHITECT: Herbert J. Krapp DATE: 1927 STYLE: Gothic The Ed Sullivan Theater Interior was designed in Gothic style, and it includes leaded glass light fixtures and polychromatic ceramic tile, making it unique among the Broadway theaters. Despite a number of alterations the interior retains most of its original character and configuration.

Carnegie Hall ARCHITECT: William B. Tuthill DATE: 1889-91 STYLE: Italian Renaissance This building with its 15 story tower has an intrinsic character and integrity of design which evoke considerable praise. Music lovers consider no building in the City with more reverence. Modified Italian Renaissance in style, its facades include a veritable vocabulary of Renaissance detail. The details for this building were selected with great taste and discrimination, producing an overall design that is truly fascinating. The reddish-brown Roman brick, which is used for the largest areas of the walls, combines with band courses, arches, pilasters, and other terracotta decorations, to produce a beautiful color, which has mellowed with age.

New York Athletic Club, 1929. Founded in 1868, the New York Athletic Club is a private social and athletic club. The 180 Central Park South location, known as The City House, includes two restaurants, a cocktail lounge, library, ballroom, billiard room, meeting rooms, rooftop solarium, eight floors of guest rooms, in addition to its sports facilities. The athletic floors boast swimming pools, basketball and squash courts, fencing and wrestling rooms, and a judo floor. A Long Island location, known as Travers Island, hosts larger outdoor sporting facilities. The elite club has not existed without controversy. Since its conception, the NYAC was a men-only club. It wasn't until 1989, with pressure from both the city and the United States Supreme court, that the club allowed women to join. The New York Times wrote: "a symbol of masculine exclusivity has bowed to the forces of change and feminine scorn and agreed to accept women as members."

Are you ready for a closeup? Try your hand at re-creating these historic photos at Columbus Circle! This challenge is only available to our iOS app users. If you don't yet have the Urban Archive App, download it here. Each location in this challenge has an address and a historic image tied to it. Check-in at each location by tapping the lock icon to the left of the clue. If you’re in the right place, it will turn green. Your challenge today is to take as many then-and-now photos as you can. Tap the image, and then the recreate button to line up the historical image with your present-day view. Once you're happy with your photo, hit save to add it to your camera roll. Please share these photos with team@urbanarchive.nyc once you've completed the challenge. Happy snapping!

Mecca Temple ARCHITECT: H. P. Knowles DATE: 1922-24 STYLE: Moorish-inspired Designed by Harry P. Knowles in a Moorish-inspired style which is both symbolic and functionally expressive, the building is a major example of fraternal architecture. In 1943, under the leadership of Mayor LaGuardia, the building became the home of the City Center of Music and Drama, where it fostered a vast array of performing arts, including the New York City Ballet and the New York City Opera, for the people of New York City.

The Lotos Club—so named for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lotos-Eaters”—was founded in 1870 by a group of young writers, journalists, and critics. According to the club’s constitution, it sought to promote and develop “literature, art, sculpture, music, architecture, journalism, drama, science, education and the learned professions,” to encourage the professionals who work in these fields, and “provide a place of assembly for them and other persons interested in and sympathetic to them, their objectives, effort, and work.” The Club featured a roster of recognizable names, including author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain); art collector and philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim; 34th United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower; writer, director, and actor Orson Welles; newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst; and steel magnate Charles M. Schwab. Though membership was originally limited to men, the club began admitting women in 1977, welcoming opera singer Marilyn Horne, writer Mary Higgins Clark, and actress Angela Lansbury, among others. The club remains in existence today, at 5 E. 66th Street, and forms part of New York City’s long history of private clubs.

American Circle Building, February 10, 1936. By the 1920s William Randolph Hearst was the largest property owner in the area surrounding Columbus Circle. He had purchased a plot of land in 1915 on the north side of the circle. The lot between Central Park West and Broadway was formerly occupied by a horse-riding academy and a ballfield. Hearst, unsurprisingly had grand plans for the lot. Envisioning a 30-story office tower, the American Circle building topped at out two stories when the U.S. entered the First World War. The renderings for the larger building exist and the architect James C. Green had planned a five store base with a soaring tower. The two-story resulting building did have an ornate terra cotta facade and interior, giving it the look of a cathedral. Despite not matching up to its original plans, it did become well known in its own right. The American Circle Building was home to WINS Radio for many years and on the roof of the building (depicted here) sat a large Coca-Cola thermometer, well known to the neighborhood. In the 1960s the building was demolished and replaced with 1 Central Park West, a 43-story office tower. That building would go through a massive overhaul in the 1990s before opening as the Tr\*mp International Hotel and Tower in 1997.

130 West 57th Street Studio Building ARCHITECT: Pollard & Steinam DATE: 1907-08 STYLE: Neo-Renaissance The 130 West 57th Street Studio Building, along with its almost identical neighbor at 140 West 57th Street, was built in a prime location, on a wide cross-town street, with other artists’ studios, the Art Students’ League, Carnegie Hall, and many other nearby sites devoted to art and music. The duplex plan of the building allowed for seven double-height stories facing the street, with twelve stories in the rear, and was popular with artists and non-artists alike for the abundant amount of space it provided. Located on the south side of 57th Street, the tall, projecting bay windows set in geometrically-ornamented cast iron frames bring in the north light so prized by artists, and suggest the unique spatial arrangement in this building

West Side YMCA The YMCA on 63rd street just west of Central Park, popularly known as the “Westside Y,” was designed by Dwight James Baum in 1930. This 16 story building, the largest of 20 YMCAs in greater New York, houses a school for 300 boys and a dormitory for 600 men looking for “leisure, hospitality, and job training” through programs that “build spirit, mind and body.” The exterior is a light South Carolina pastel brick with Romanesque and Gothic detailing, the mass is set back for an intimately scaled entrance despite the grand metropolitan scale reminiscent of the popular commercial clubs of the era.

Horn & Hardart Automat, February 10, 1936. Horn and Hardart was Philadelphia-founded food service company. They were the first non-Europeans to receive patented vending machines from Max Sielaff's Automat factory in Berlin. The first Automats were opened in Philadelphia and New York City in 1902 and 1912, respectively. The pre-packaged foods were extremely popular, especially during the Depression. By 1950 more than 50 Horn & Hardart restaurants were operating in New York City. Later they branched out to sit-down waitress service restaurants, cafeterias, and bakery shops. The men in this photograph could not only find cakes and pie at the Automat but other staples including macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and creamed spinach.

The monument at Columbus Circle's dedication was a moment of triumph for New York City's immigrant Italian population.

Hearst Magazine Building ARCHITECT: Joseph Urban; George B. Post & Sons DATE: 1927-28 STYLE: Art Deco Stretching a full block along the west side of Eighth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, the building remains the expectant six-story base of an office tower that was not constructed until 2006. It is a stylistic synthesis of Art Deco ornament, Secessionist influence and Baroque theatricality. Further enriched by classical allusions which are both imposing and dramatic, the building survives as a relic of unrealized plans to transform greater Columbus Circle into New York’s new cultural and commercial center as well as the corporate headquarters of Hearst’s vast publishing empire.

Take a walk in the beautiful Upper West Side. Start at Columbus Circle and discover the cultural and religious landmarks and the extravagant apartment buildings of this affluent neighborhood.

General Motors Building, 1937. The General Motors Building was designed by Edward Durrell Stone & Associates with Emery Roth & Sons at the height of the International Modernism architectural era. At the time of construction, the tower was one of the only in Manhattan to occupy a whole city block. When the building opened in 1968, it replaced the much-loved Savoy Plaza Hotel, which stood on the site since 1927. Over the past few years, the General Motors Building has undergone many changes. In 1998, the company sold its office, making it home of CBS's The Eary Show from its inception in 1999 to its end in 2012. The building was sold again in 2003 to the Macklowe Organization for a record $1.4 billion and again in 2008 for $2.9 billion– the largest real estate transaction of that year. While the building's design has many critics, its location on Fifth Avenue and next to Central Park is what makes it one of the most enviable properties in New York City. In 2015, the tower again broke records by becoming the first commercial property in the city to command starting rents of more than $200 per square foot.

924 Seventh Avenue, date unknown.

United States Rubber Company Building ARCHITECT: Carrère and Hastings DATE: 1911-12 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This elegant, Beaux-Arts style, twenty-story office building was constructed in 1911-12 for the United States Rubber Company at a time when the automobile was beginning to exert a powerful influence on American society. Located on Broadway, along the section known as “Automobile Row,” the U.S. Rubber Company Building was one of the most prominent and important of the many automobile-related structures concentrated here. The design features a distinctive rounded corner and vertically-grouped windows with metal spandrels and thin, continuous piers. In this building, as in their other works, Carrere and Hastings used their training at the French Ecole des Beaux-Arts to create an impressive design for a tall building where the skeleton construction is expressed by the thin stone veneer which is obviously non-weight-bearing. The two lowest floors of this building were remodeled in 1959 for a bank.

Lotos Club, ca. 1909. Established as gentleman's club for those interested in literature, science and the fine arts in 1870, the Lotos Club—named after a feature in a Tennyson poem—has called a number of buildings home in its nearly 150 year history. The club's first home was at 2 Irving Place. Mark Twain was an early member of the organization. After a series of moves that had the club inching further uptown, the first true clubhouse was purchased in 1893 at 558 Fifth Avenue. In 1909, with the financial support of Andrew Carnegie (who was a member), the club moved into a headquarters specifically designed for their purpose at 110 West 57th Street. Designed by architect Donn Barber, the Italian Renaissance was lauded as beautiful with features painted in orange, blues, and greens and multi-toned grey brick. The building became a venue at the forefront of arts and culture in the city, presenting fine art exhibits and lectures by renown orators. The club knuckled though the Depression with downsized events but they completed paying off their mortgage in 1941 (which they celebrated by burning the paperwork in their oversized fireplace). By 1945 the Lotos Club was looking to downsize and moved into a Beaux-Arts building 5 East 66th Street. They made $166,000 on a building that had cost them $750,000 in 1909. The building was largely striped down to its steel framing in 1949 and had a new modern facade installed as it was being converted into offices. Since the mid 1960s it has been the home of the Directors Guild of America.

Built in 1924. The group that constructed the enormous Moorish-style temple was known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or the "Shriners" in short. Though their name suggests they may have been affiliated with a religious cause, the fraternity was an offshoot of the order of Freemasons. The Shriners were established by an actor, William Jermyn Florence, and a surgeon, Dr. Walter Millard Flemming. The group wasn't interested in mysticism by any means, but rather "fun, fellowship...love, relief, and truth." From the group's conception, Florence and Flemming stressed a policy of fun in support of medical research. They met in various locations around New York before purchasing a plot on 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenue. Legend has it, they met in Carnegie hall before they were evicted for producing an intolerable amount of cigar smoke. The Shriners, red fez-wearers themselves, were taken aback by a mysterious Orient and went about designing and constructing a massive mosque-like structure to host their own meetings and with auditoriums which could be leased out to rake in some extra cash. The site was bought from Yale University for $400,000 and had been the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation's movie studio site. The Shriners were fittingly just as theatrical as the previous tenant. Architect, Shriner, and Master Mason Harry P. Knowles, who was known for neo-Moorish constructions, designed Mecca Temple before he passed away in 1923. Firm Clinton & Russell were then brought on to carry out Knowles' designs. The ornate structure, with romanticized Ottoman and Andalusian elements, was the largest Masonic Shrine in the city. Its hall seats 3,500 and is topped with a red terracotta-tiled dome crowned by the Scimitar and Crescent - symbols of the Shrine. In contrast to the colorful interior, its facade was of sandstone and nearly completely flat, save for shallow-arched recesses. The Landmark Preservation Committee characterized the Temple's outward appearance as a "huge sandstone cube...which is articulated by a cornice of heavy dentils...and the chamfered upper corners making the transition to the great, glazed tiled dome." The design of the temple came from no specific precedent overseas but drew upon Knowles' academic knowledge of the Alhambra, various Egyptian Temples, and expertise in navigating an elevational scheme that meshed a monolithic presence with carefully-scaled entrances. The Mecca Temple included an auditorium and three Masonic Lodge rooms. Steep balconies in the grand auditorium required all sorts of structural acrobatics to be performed. Unfortunately for the Shriners, the financial crash of 1929 left them so bruised that they were unable to pay taxes on the building and it became city property. However, architectural tourists looking to travel to this "Mecca," an example of an arabesque architectural wonder nestled in the towering apartments of Midtown need not fear. Mayor LaGuardia saved the building from demolition in the early 1940s by converting it to a performing arts center. Presently, it is a home of groups such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Manhattan Theater Club, The Flamenco Festival, and Martha Graham Dance Company.

Check out some of the sites in the lower half of Central Park! 🌳

Carnegie Hall ca. 1979 In 1959 the owner of Carnegie Hall announced the decision to demolish the famed concert hall when its major tenant, the New York Philharmonic, moved to its new home at Lincoln Center. A skyscraper clad in bright red porcelain panels was set to rise on the valuable site at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue. Lovers of architecture, history, and music united in a preservation effort. Demonstrations and petitions demanded that the building be saved. But the hero of this battle was violinist Isaac Stern, who saw Carnegie Hall as "the be-all and end-all of musical life" in the United States. Stern teamed up with Jacob Kaplan, an entrepreneur who created the J.M. Kaplan Fund - a foundation that over the next 20 years supported preservation activism and organizations - to establish the Citizens Committee for Carnegie Hall, with Eleanor Roosevelt as honorary chair. The committee persuaded the city to buy the site, and a non-profit was established to run it. Carnegie Hall remains one of the world's great concert halls.

1774 Broadway, the old General Motors Building, unknown date.

Church of St. Paul the Apostle ARCHITECT: Jeremiah O’Rourke DATE: 1875-85 STYLE: Medieval Revival The Church of St. Paul the Apostle is one of the largest and most monumental religious buildings in Manhattan. It was built for the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, commonly called the Paulist Fathers, between 1875 and 1885 and is an austere and imposing Medieval Revival style structure, reflecting both Gothic and Romanesque sources.

B. F. Goodrich Company Building ARCHITECT: Howard Van Doren Shaw; Ward & Willauer DATE: 1909 STYLE: Elizabethan, Jacobean 1780 Broadway was constructed in 1909 as the New York headquarters of the B. F. Goodrich Company, a leading American manufacturer of automobile tires and other rubber products. Since the late 1880s the company had operated a Manhattan office and this project coincided with the company’s reincorporation in New York State. Clad with mostly red brick and limestone, the 12- story facade is distinguished by abstract, stylized ornament that suggests the influence of Elizabethan and Jacobean sources, the English Arts and Crafts movement, and the Vienna Secession.

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was an extremely influential critic, novelist, photographer, and cultural arbiter, especially noted for his advocacy of African-American art and culture. Although married, Van Vechten had many long-term gay relationships and his sexuality was an open secret during his life. In May 1924 Van Vechten moved from a small apartment at 151 East 19th Street (the so-called Block Beautiful, between Irving Place and Third Avenue) into a large and elegant apartment on the seventh floor of the newly-completed building at 150 West 55th Street. “Harlem was sexually attractive to him mainly because it was a point of fusion among his homosexuality, his fascination with blackness, and his natural voyeurism.” Edward White, biographer Van Vechten was instrumental in introducing the artists of the Harlem Renaissance to white society. This is especially evident in the homoerotic photographs that he took of African-American men. He was also famed for his portrait photography, including images of many lesbian and gay writers, actors, and celebrities. Van Vechten was known for his parties, as they were among the few venues where black and white New Yorkers freely intermingled on an equal basis. Notable gay and lesbian attendees included Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Ethel Waters, Somerset Maugham, Salvador Dalí, and Bessie Smith.

Broadway, west side, north from 61st Street, ca. 1895. Broadway, north of Columbus Circle, was called the "Boulevard" during the second half of the 19th century. It was a favorite street for cyclists. The Boulevard was "opened" in 1869 after being specifically designed. Modeled after the Champs Elysées in Paris, the thoroughfare was a 60 foot-wide right-of-way, with double rows of elm trees on each broad sidewalk, and 30 foot-wide landscaped medians with pedestrian walkways in the middle. The Empire Hotel (visible at center), was on the southwest corner of 63rd Street. It was replaced in 1923 by a larger (15-story) hotel, topped by the now iconic 'Hotel Empire' red neon sign.

Steinway Hall ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1924-25 STYLE: Neo-Classical Designed in a restrained neo-Classical style, Steinway Hall is L-shaped in plan, with a front portion clad in Indiana limestone that terminates in a setback, four-story colonnaded tower, and a central campanile-like tower with a steep pyramidal roof and large lantern. The main facade’s base is embellished by a music-themed sculptural group by Leo Lentelli and by a frieze with medallion portraits of distinguished classical composer-pianists. The style, materials, setbacks and massing, picturesque towers, and decorative elements add distinction to the building and make it a monumental architectural presence along the West 57th Street cultural corridor.

The Mechanics National Bank was founded in 1810 in New York. By 1921, it was one of four national banks with branch offices in the city: accompanied by Chatham and Phenix National, Irving National, and National City Bank. Of this list, only the National City Bank (Citibank) remains. In 1911, the Mechanics National Bank merged with the National Copper Bank to become the Mechanics and Metals National Bank. Then in 1914 and 1920, the bank merged with the Fourth National Bank and the Produce Exchange Union. The Mechanics and Metals National Bank was consolidated by Chase National Bank in 1926. After the bank vacated the building for an office downtown, The Russian Tea Room, now located at 150 West 57th Street, was founded at this address. In 1991 the building was razed to make way for a 21-story tower for the Japanese American Nippon Club.

Majestic Theatre ca. 1903 One of almost ninety theater buildings documented by Byron, the Majestic's first year-1903- was tremendous success, with such popular productions as The Wizard of Oz and Babes in Toyland. Located at Columbus Circle, not far from the current location of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, it was the northernmost Broadway house at the time. Sadly, it was too far from the theater district and within five years motion pictures- not theater- were the mainstay here. Despite attempts by the Shuberts, Florenz Ziegfeld and the Minsky family to revive the Majestic with legitimate theater, it continued to decline, and in 1954 it was demolished for wider pedestrian access to the equally unsuccessful New York Coliseum. In 1998 a plan to redevelop the site with a glass-and-steel tower was approved.

Brooklyn-born Aaron Copland (1900-1990), known as the “Dean of American Music,” was one of the most influential and popular figures of 20th-century classical music. He grew up in an apartment at 628 Washington Avenue (demolished) in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn and heard his first symphony at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) when he was 16. In between extensive travels abroad, Copland lived in a number of Manhattan apartments, including his first at 135 West 74th Street from 1924 to 1926. His most significant city residence was a modest tenth-floor studio – furnished with a piano – at the Hotel Empire from 1936 to 1947. He also rented and worked in a nearby loft at 113 West 63rd Street (demolished for Lincoln Center). During this incredibly prolific period, Copland completed a number of important works, some of which are among the cornerstones of 20th-century American music. A selection of compositions completed while in residence at the Hotel Empire include Billy the Kid (1938), Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), Lincoln Portrait (1942), Rodeo (1942), Appalachian Spring (1944), and Symphony No. 3 (1944-46). Copland was given New York Music Critics Circle Awards for the latter two works; Appalachian Spring, composed for choreographer Martha Graham’s ballet in 1944, also earned him a Pulitzer Prize in Music.

Adelphi Theatre, March 30, 1937. Opened as the Craig Theatre opened on December 24, 1928, the venue on 54th underwent more name changes that most theatres (which is saying something since most changed names at least twice in their histories). The venue's longest running name was the Adelphi Theatre (1934–1940 and 1944–1958). In 1947 the theatre premiered the American opera "Street Scene" with music by Kurt Weill ("The Threepenny Opera") and book by Langston Hughes. In the 1950s the venue was used as a TV studio, episodes of the 'Honeymooners' were filmed there. It returned to live theatre in 1957, changed names a few more times and closed, finally, in the late 1960s. The building was razed in 1970 and eventually replaced by the office tower at 1325 Avenue of the Americas.

Carnegie Hall, 1895. The main structure of the world-renowned venue, Carnegie Hall was built in 1891 and designed in the Renaissance Revival style by William B. Tuthill with Richard Morris Hunt and Dankmar Adler as consultants. Funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, it was originally called Music Hall. The official opening night performance on May 5, 1891 was a concert conducted by famed Russian composer Tchaikovsky. Renamed Carnegie Hall in 1893 the building had two residential towers added a year later, design by Henry J. Hardenbergh. Carnegie Hall became the preeminent concert hall in the United States during the 20th century, with performances in diverse genres. Slated for demolition in the late 1950s after the Philharmonic announced their plan to move to Lincoln Center, the building was saved through the advocacy of a group of musicians, including violinist Isaac Stern. Special legislature allowed the city to buy the building and a non-profit was created to run the venue. In the last decade, the last remaining residents of the towers were evicted prior to the redevelopment of those spaces into a new educational wing.

Listen to the Bowery Boys' podcast on the history of the iconic Carnegie Hall while examining these archival images!

As the Great Depression wore on, the Socialist Party organized protesters who demonstrated against unemployment and demanded immediate government aid. The Forward called for its readers to march in support of this demonstration by publishing the date and locale atop its masthead.