"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."

Lincoln Center, 1986. Lincoln Center, a world-class performing arts center, has had close connections to the LGBT community since planning began in the mid-1950s. It was also the location of the first AIDS Walk, sponsored by the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, in 1986.

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.

IRT POWERHOUSE, MANHATTAN Address: West 58th & 59th Streets, 11th & 12th Avenues Architect: Stanford White Constructed: 1904 Stanford White was able to design in 1904 what today seems like a minor miracle: a highly elegant and ornate utilitarian structure. It was all in a day’s work for White and other City Beautiful proponents who believed that public improvements should be built to create a city that is both functional and beautiful. This monumental structure is a remarkable example of Beaux-Arts design applied to a utilitarian building; its architectural grandeur meant to convince the public to embrace the subway, a major new mode of transportation in 1904. Designed as a showpiece, it now stands as a monument to progress and rapid transit. In addition to its architecture, the building holds an important place in industrial history. When it opened, it was the largest powerhouse in the world and provided the energy needed to run the first subway line along Manhattan’s west side, which in turn created and enabled the modern city of New York. Despite the unfortunate loss of its original smokestacks, the IRT Powerhouse remains a commanding presence and a dynamic anchor for an ever-changing west side. Occupying the entire block bounded by Eleventh and Twelve Avenues, West 58th and 59th Streets, the original powerhouse of the Interborough Rapid Transit Subway is the most monumental building associated with the subway system in New York City. This mammoth structure was the largest powerhouse in the world upon its completion in 1904, and it represented the highest level of technical sophistication in the production of electrical power at that time. From the powerhouse, current was generated and fed to eight substations to power the signal and lighting systems. In its role as company symbol, the building heralded a new era of electrified urban transportation, illustrating the power of technology to improve urban life. The IRT Powerhouse still stands as a monument to the engineers and architects who planned and built New York City's first successful underground transit system. The exterior of the powerhouse was designed by Stanford White of the prominent firm of McKim, Mead and White and is a rare example of utilitarian design by that firm. Executed in the Beaux-Arts style and drawing upon Renaissance prototypes, it is the embodiment of the aesthetic ideals of the civic-minded City Beautiful movement, spawned by World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, which held that public improvements could beautify American industrial cities. The structural design of the powerhouse was the responsibility of William C. Phelps, assistant engineer in charge of the Mechanical Department of the Subway Construction Company. Standing on a base of smooth ashlar granite, the building has symmetrically designed facades of buff-colored brick arranged in bays with two-story arched window openings that are decorated with terra-cotta moldings and keystones. The arcades are surmounted by an attic story with paired window openings framed by terra-cotta moldings and keystones. The six windows of the Eleventh Avenue facade are separated by brick pilasters with foliated terra-cotta rustication blocks and topped by terra-cotta wreaths. At the long north and south facades, pairs of rusticated brick pilasters separate the arched bays. Many of the windows retain their original multipane industrial sash. It is unclear whether any of the original six chimneys--which were erected on a steel substructure 76 feet about the basement floor of the powerhouse in order to maximize floor space--remain, and a new, much taller chimney has been added near the southeast corner. The original terra-cotta roof tiles and the upper cornice have also been removed.

Sculptor Bill Tarr’s welded steel memorial, an enduring tribute to King, can be found at the entrance to the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus at West 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Tarr’s 63-ton sculpture was completed in 1973 and named the “best monument in New York” by New York Magazine in 1985.

John Theurer Wagon Works, ca. 1913. A surviving piece of Hell’s Kitchen’s industrial heritage, the former Theurer building dates to about 1913, when a July edition of The Carriage Monthly announced: “John Theurer Wagon Works, Inc., announce that they have opened a new and modernly equipped plant for the manufacture and repair of wagons, trucks and commercial automobile bodies.”

When one speaks about the historic buildings of New York City, images of the stately brick rowhouses of Brooklyn, the cast-iron office buildings of SoHo, and the elaborate mansions of 5th Avenue come to mind. But the interesting architecture of the city is not limited to buildings constructed before 1900 in a classical style. Buildings built in the modern styles in the middle of the 20th century dot the streetscape and range from tall office buildings, to transportation structures, to private residences. These Mid-Century Modern buildings with their unique shapes, unusual massing, and uncommon materials (at least uncommon compared to architecture that came before) stand out from the earlier masonry buildings and the contemporary glassy structures that surround them.

144-140 West 64th Street, ca. 1911. The Amsterdam Houses are a 13-building public housing complex that covers 61st Street to 64th Street between West End and Amsterdam Avenues. Planned prior to the Second World War, they were begun in 1947. In the process of construction many rowhouses were demolished (including the two in this photograph).

Metropolitan Opera House, ca. 1970. Opened in 1966 to replace the original 1883 Metropolitan Opera House at Broadway and 39th Street, this Mid-Century Modern building was designed by Wallace K. Harrison. Plans for a new opera house were discussed as early as the 1920s and plans were made to include a new venue into the development of Rockefeller Center, but financial troubles related to the stock market crash of 1929 halted those plans. In the early 1960s the Met and the New York Philharmonic Society commissioned Harrison, one of the architects in charge of Rockefeller Center, to create their new home and the centerpiece for the larger Lincoln Center complex. The distinctive facade is rendered in a white limestone, and its main entrance (seen here) includes five concrete arches and a stylish glass and bronze facade. Visible though the large glass front, the lobby is decorated with two massive murals by Marc Chagall. The stage technology in the auditorium is some of the most complex in the world. To create the magic of the opera the mechanisms include seven hydraulic, double decked elevators that are 60-feet-wide, three slipstages (that can accommodate a complete stage set), and a 60-foot turntable.

"Tenth Ave., west side, north from West 58th to 59th Streets, showing occupying this block front, the Haaren High School. This structure formerly housed De Witt Clinton High School, 1937." The ornate building on Tenth Avenue was built by C.B.J Snyder, the BOE Superintendent of Buildings, in 1906. It originally housed DeWitt Clinton High School, which had previously been located in Greenwich Village. The H- shaped school (a Snyder design innovation) was built in the Flemish Renaissance style, with large gables, dormers, high-pitched roofs, and red brick trimmed with limestone. DeWitt Clinton High School moved to the Bronx in 1929 and the building then became Haaren High School, a vocational institution, which lasted through the 1970s. The building underwent a renovation in 1998 which converted the courtyard into a glass atrium. Today it is Haaren Hall on the campus of John Jay College.

IRT Powerhouse, date unknown. Stanford White’s monumental Renaissance Revival structure directly embraces the City Beautiful philosophy, then in vogue among urban planners; its imposing grandeur and ornate detailing inspire viewers while the building itself serves a larger functional purpose: powering the New York City subway. The building was acquired by Consolidated Edison in 1959, after the subway system had adopted new power sources.

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.

The Wm. Fox Corp. building at 55th Street and 10th Avenue, 1921. Construction on the Fox building, a $2.5 million endeavor supervised personally by founder William Fox, began in 1919. The building was both a film production facility, with fireproof construction specifically designed to accommodate hazards associated with flammable filmmaking materials, and the corporate headquarters of the Fox Film Corporation. The 1929 stock market crash and litigation over an unsuccessful bid to acquire the Loew’s chain of theaters left William Fox bankrupt. He lost control of the Fox Film Corp in a 1930 hostile takeover; even so, 20th Century Fox continues to bear his name. Today, the former Fox building on 10th Avenue is the Independence High School.

Phipps Houses, May 28, 1944. Henry Phipps was a steel magnate and the partner of Andrew Carnegie in the Carnegie Company. In 1901 he sold his holdings in the firm to J. P. Morgan for more than $50 million. With these funds, he built himself a couple of homes in New York, one more splendid than the last. But he also used this money to establish a fund for the creation of model tenements to be called the Phipps Houses. These tenements (four six-story buildings) on 63rd Street were the second project to utilize the fund. Completed in 1906 or 1907 the apartments were rented to African Americans, who suffered increasingly from housing discrimination. The look of these plainly designed buildings (the work of architects Whitfield & King) differed from the earlier Phipps Houses on 31st Street, which had varied brickwork, overhanging tile roofs, and elaborate central roof pergolas. The Phipps Houses organization still exists, but their earliest project, including this still extant one, were sold off to finance other developments in the mid century.

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.

Grace Institute ca. 1929 Founded in 1897 with funds provided by former mayor William R. Grace and his family, Grace Institute opened in 1898 in a remodeled mansion on West 60th Street. The Sisters of Charity provided instruction within a nonsectarian framework. By its second year of operation, the Institute enrolled 500 girls and women in cooking, sewing, millinery, stenography, and bookkeeping classes. Although no longer administered by the Sisters of Charity, Grace Institute continues to provide practical tuition-free education for women.

Leon Lowenstein Academic Building, Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus, ca. 1974. This 14-story Modernist building was constructed as the second building of the Fordham University Lincoln Center campus in 1969. The facade is raw concrete and the repeated rectangular windows give the building a utilitarian look, described by one modern writer as, " look\[ing] like a prison or socialist government building...uninviting, boring and generally ugly eye sore." Though it should be noted that many a modern building has inspired equal or more vitriolic criticism.

Laren Garage, ca. 1937.

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.

“Men aboard a coach from the New York Herald City Beautiful Campaign. They are located at 54th Street & 10th Avenue.” April 29, 1900. On Sunday, April 29, 1900, the New York Herald ran a full-page feature (including the above photo) framed as a conversation on the topic “How Can New York Be Made The City Beautiful?” between panelists including the President and Landscape Architect of the Board of Park Commissioners, a member of the Municipal Art Society, and a Danish “Traveller and Sociological xpert.” The headline references City Beautiful, a turn of the century urban planning movement that aimed to improve the living conditions in cities by instituting new aesthetic principles to govern urban architecture, including the promotion of monumental municipal buildings.

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.

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.

Sheffield Farms plant, 1938. Sheffield Farms was a milk company that in the first half of the 20th century became one of the largest dairy companies in the world. They also sold 20% of all of the milk purchased within New York City. Sheffield was established over a few years in the 1880s, as L. B. Halsey got involved in his wife's family butter business and then expanded it a larger scale dairy trade. In 1939 the company erected a plant on the West Side, consisting of a large three story (plus massive basement and sub-basement) plant and a six-story office building. By 1952 the operations at the plant were diminishing as the company moved their processing elsewhere. After a double sale, the complex was purchased by the television network CBS for its broadcast center, which remains in the space today.