222 East 79th Street James Brown Lord, 1902; renovation: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates 1986 NYC IL, NR-P The very first of the Carnegie-funded branches of the NYPL, the Yorkville Branch officially opened in December of 1902. The three-story building has a limestone facade, divided into three bays with elegant arched windows on the main floor and Ionic columns on the second. At the turn of the century, Yorkville was a densely populated German immigrant neighborhood, and as such, the third floor of the original building housed only German language publications. At the end of World War I, Thomas Masaryk used the Yorkville library to conduct the research that led to his founding of the Czechoslovakian state. The library’s interior was renovated in the late 1980s with funds donated by the Rose family. Once again the place of a pioneering event, the renovation was the first time a branch library was overhauled using private resources. The current library occupies two floors within the original ornate Palladian-inspired façade. The building was designated a landmark in 1967, only two years after the enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law. The library is an New York City Individual Landmark and listed on the New York City and State National Register of Historic Places.

Zion St. Marks, at 339 East 84th Street, was built in 1889 for The German Evangelical Church of Yorkville and designed by Michael J. Fitz Mahoney. The church, a stunning example of neo-Gothic architecture, has been a community space since the 19th century. When the Zion Evangelical Lutheran congregation moved into the building in 1892, it began offering German language mass, religious education, and social events. The congregation became a vital part of the Yorkville German community, and also provided a heaven for members of the Lower East Side’s St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, after that congregation was decimated by the 1904 General Slocum disaster when an excursion steamboat caught fire and sank during a chartered trip for the congregation. The two congregations merged in 1946 to create today’s Zion-St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Just as the congregation proudly proclaimed its German heritage in the 19th century with an inscription in German on the facade, the church maintains that identity today, and continues to support Yorkville’s German community, with bi-lingual Mass in German and English, as well as with German language classes, and German film programs.

Founded by Maria Bowen Chapin, Miss Chapin's School for Girls and Kindergarten for Boys and Girls opened in 1901 at 12 West 47th Street with 78 students and 7 teachers. Eventually expanding and occupying a couple of buildings, the school moved to its current location in 1928. Delano and Aldrich, a New York architecture firm, designed and built the neoclassical building that the school still occupies at 100 East End Avenue. It was at this location that the school's name was changed to the Chapin School at Ms. Chapin's request.

German Delicatessen, ca. 1930. A German deli when pictured in 1930, this storefront was later the home of the Old Dutch Delicatessen, whose specialty was smoked eel. The building was razed sometime at the start of the 21st century and a new glassy structure completed in 2009.

St. Stephen’s parish was founded in 1902 to serve the Hungarian immigrant population of the Lower East Side. With the upward migration of the Hungarian population to Yorkville, in 1928 the congregation constructed a new church, parochial school, community center, and adjoining rectory on 408 East 82nd Street. The Romanesque Revival-style building was designed by Hungarian architect Emil Szendy. The building’s inventive design combines the school and church into one structure. The church was an important and central place for the Hungarian community, and after World War II it became the center for actions directed against the Soviet Union’s occupation of Hungary. Today, the parish of St. Stephen’s has been relocated to St. Monica’s on East 79th Street, but the School is still active and popular for families in Yorkville.

This beautifully detailed Romanesque Revival structure was designed in 1893 by the architects Fowler and Hough, whose other Romanesque Revival work includes the 23rd Regiment Armory on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. The First Hungarian Baptist Church was a community space even before it was a church. The building at 255 East 80th Street was originally home to an Industrial School for the American Female Guardian Society, an organization founded in 1849 to assist working women by offering necessities like food and clothing, as well as vocational and educational training. When the New York City Baptist Mission Society purchased the building in 1918, with the vision to spread Christianity throughout the city, it focused on the Hungarian immigrant population in the area. That year, First Hungarian Baptist Church opened on the building’s first floor, and accommodations for the pastor were made on the second floor. At the time, many of the Hungarian immigrants in Yorkville were young working women. In an effort to provide safe lodging for those women, and a link to the community for those who had come to the United States alone, the Baptist Mission Society transformed the Industrial School’s third-floor classrooms into bedrooms for girls and created the Hungarian Girls Club. In 1957, the ownership of the building was transferred to the First Hungarian Baptist Church, which retains ownership of the building today. The community spirit still survives at First Hungarian Baptist, where services and events are still offered in Hungarian.

Greek Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist, 1930. This church building, which according to the photographer's notes was once a synagogue, has had some major facade alteration since this image was taken. The circular windows have been made rectangular, the stairs now sit snug up against the building and flat roofline cornice has been removed.

Frame House at No. 412 East 85th Street, 1932. This still standing, three-story, Italianate style, wood-frame home was likely built in 1861 for a James R. Reed. It is a somewhat unlikely survivor. Only a few years after its construction, a law was passed banning the building of wood-frame structures below 86th Street. Similarly these wooden structures were often targeted for demolition and redevelopment in the late 19th century, being seen as fire hazards and detriments to neighborhood improvement and progress. In the 1890s the original single family house was converted into three apartments with a commercial ground floor space. From the first decade of the 20th century until the 1950s the ground floor was occupied by J. Herbst and Sons, a monument and gravestone business (samples of their products can be seen in this photograph). During the later part of the 20th century the house fell into disrepair, but in 1996 new owners restored its facade to closely resemble the earliest known look of the building.

412 EAST 85TH STREET HOUSE, MANHATTAN Address: 412 East 85th Street c. 1860 This Italianate style house stands as a reminder of Yorkville’s transition from farmland and country estates to a denser, residential character. The building appears to date to circa 1860, though it is possible that it was built earlier as an ancillary farm structure, moved to this location and renovated in the Italianate style, as this was a common practice. If it was, in fact, constructed circa 1860, it is one of the last frame buildings to be constructed before the city fire code outlawed wood frame construction south of 86th Street. The house has sustained some changes over the years, including conversion to apartments with a commercial ground floor, the removal of some of its details and the re-cladding of the façade. However, it has been cared for time and time again. In 1996, a major restoration was undertaken to simulate the building’s original appearance.

Musical Protective Union Building, Yorkville Casino, ca. 1912. The Yorkville Casino was a social club and community gathering space for the German community on the Upper East Side. The building was constructed in 1904 by the Musician’s Mutual Protective Union (the precursor organization to the American Federation of Musicians). One of the two large ballrooms in the Casino had a 15,000 square foot floor and was a popular nightclub. The building also functioned as a catering hall for personal and political events. The in house caterers were known for their excellent German fare and, of course, authentic German beer. The Casino, being so connected with the German-American community, was supposedly watched closely by the government during the Second World War. In the years after the war, as the neighborhood diversified ethnically, the Casino floundered and eventually closed in 1965.

Yorkville Sidewalk Clock (at far left), 1932. The Yorkville Clock, formerly in the shadow of the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad, was a community favorite from the day in 1898 when Adolph Stern had it set up in front of his jewelry story at 1508 Third Avenue, the northwest corner of 85th Street. In 1923, Stern’s store, having added a pawn shop, moved across the street to 1501 Third Avenue, between 84th and 85th Streets. The 17-foot cast-iron clock, simulating a giant two-faced pocket watch, was designated an official New York City landmark on August 25, 1981, along with the few other remaining sidewalk clocks in the five boroughs. It was produced by the E. Howard Clock Co., a Massachusetts firm with a New York office at 532 Broadway. The company had manufactured sidewalk clocks since 1870. In the second half of the 19th century similar tall sidewalk clocks became very popular throughout the United States. Merchants used them for advertising, and they served the public by telling the correct time for the many people who could not afford pocket watches. About ninety years after it first appeared on Third Avenue, the Yorkville Clock, by this time owned by Reimann and Bresse Furniture Store, had a quixotic experience. In 1985 a city employee mistakenly sold it as surplus property to a clock devotee named Frank Dorsa, who planned to display it in his family’s collection in Muttontown, Long Island. When Dorsa went to Reimann and Bresse hoping to locate missing clock pieces, he was almost arrested as a thief. Only his bill of sale saved him. Apprised of the unfortunate sale, Herbert Rickman, who was a special assistant to Mayor Edward Koch, arranged for the clock’s return and for reimbursement to the Dorsa family. After these peregrinations, the clock needed significant repair, which was provided by antiques dealer Louis Agrusa. Reerected on the sidewalk in front of the furniture store (next to McDonalds) the clock was ceremoniously unveiled in February, 1989. By early 1998, the need for a complete restoration was evident. The connections between the clock face and its stand were alarmingly weak. It ran sporadically. Often one face told one time, and the other another. The glass on one face was cracked and taped. Its iron pedestal, defaced by graffiti, showed patches of rust where paint had peeled off. FRIENDS worked in collaboration with the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture and Neighbors Restoring the Historic Yorkville Clock to raise $20,000 for the repair. Following an extensive restoration the Yorkville Clock was rededicated on September 14, 1999.

St. Joseph’s Church, the tallest building on the block in this 1934 photo, was built in 1884 by architect William Schinckel. The congregation was founded a decade before by Jesuit priests, seeking to serve the growing German population of Yorkville. The Romanesque Revival building at 420 East 87th Street still retains much of its architectural integrity, including the ornate rose window and distinctive copper-clad bell tower. Throughout its history, St. Joseph’s has been dedicated to fostering German culture and traditions. In 2008, German-born Pope Benedict XVI led a prayer service in St. Joseph’s during his visits to New York City.

St. Joseph's Roman Catholic, April 7, 1928. The origins of St. Joseph’s Parish date to the 1860s when a small German-speaking community of Catholic immigrants worshiped the chapel of an orphanage on the Upper East Side. In 1873 the community approached the Jesuits who ran the first church in the neighborhood (St. Lawrence O’Toole Church, now St. Ignatius Loyola) and requested a German-speaking priest. St. Joseph's was established that year and a new, modest, brick church was dedicated the following year. The German community, Yorkville, boomed over the next few decades. A school was established and the church passed from the jurisdiction of the Jesuits to the Archdiocese of New York. By the middle of the 1890s, the church building was deemed too small. William Schickel, a well-known architect and German immigrant, himself, was commissioned to design a larger space. Completed in 1895, the Romanesque Revival church included extensive stained glass windows and a new, modern organ. The bell tower was not completed until 1926 (seen here a few years later). The local German community grew even larger in the first decade of the 20th century, with German speakers leaving Kleindeutschland and moving to Yorkville. Though there is little trace of the once vibrant German population here today, the church continues to serve the local community from its 19th century home.

185 East 85th Street ca. 1967 Immortalized in the opening credits of the Jefferson's, 185 East 85th Street was once emblematic of the wave of new 1960s construction on Third Avenue. Erected in 1967, this 35-story apartment tower was striking among its lower-rise neighbors. Though perhaps not so eye-catching today, at the time it was a prime example of a "deluxe apartment in the sky." Designed by architect H. I. Feldman, The Park Lane was known for its rounded balconies and unobstructed views until later construction hemmed in its sightlines.

Henderson Place, 1927. Henderson Place was a grouping of 32 buildings constructed in 1881-1882 by developer John C. Henderson. These lovely Queen Anne style dwellings were built for “persons of moderate means.” Designed by the architectural firm of Lamb & Rich, the homes featured wide arched entryways, steep roofs, terra cotta details, and projecting bays windows. The eight homes on the west side of this quaint dead end street (seen here in the photo) were demolished by the time the enclave became a historic district in 1969. They have been replaced by a large residential tower. The homes on the east side of Henderson Place remain in excellent shape.

My Archive Summer 2019 “I took this picture in the late 1970s. I was fascinated by the woman leaning out the window and didn't notice the other person walking by until later when the roll of film was developed. It was a matter of luck. I was kicking through the neighborhood.” —Joe Raskin

St. Monica Roman Catholic Church, ca. 1905. Founded in 1879, St. Monica's was the fourth Catholic parish established on the Upper East Side. While the first services were conducted in a small second-story store space, the church moved into its first new church building in 1883. In 1906 the firm of Schickel & Ditmars, well known for their Catholic church architecture completed the current church. The Gothic Revival building opened for services on Thanksgiving Day.

Many houses of worship on the Upper East Side are devoted to a myriad of individual traditions, which contributed to our neighborhood’s multi-ethnic identity. The Church of the Holy Trinity, at 316 East 88th Street, is somewhat unique because it was not built to support just one of these traditions, but welcomed everyone. Holy Trinity was conceived as a “Settlement Church” by Serena Rhinelander, a member of the prominent Rhinelander family, which held vast land in Yorkville and was known for real estate and philanthropy in the neighborhood. Originally founded in midtown in 1864 as a Protestant Episcopal Church, Holy Trinity was designed as a community complex by the architectural firm Barney and Chapman. Their work on the Holy Trinity includes a French Gothic bell tower, which the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission calls an “outstanding example of the French Gothic spirit adapted to a late Nineteenth Century brick and terra-cotta religious structure,” and a French renaissance Parish house that has served as a community oasis since it opened in 1897. Then as now, the Parish House offers an auditorium, classrooms, and meeting rooms serving the needs of neighbors of all ages. Holy Trinity was designated a New York City landmark in 1966 (so one of the City’s first) and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979

East side of First Avenue between 87th and 88th Streets, Glaser's Bakery (at no. 1670) is the light colored building second from right), October 9, 1934.

Eberhardt's House of Vienna, date unknown. In the 1960s this spot at 320 East 79th Street was bar and restaurant called Eberhardt's House of Vienna. Then it became Ma Pomme, a French restaurant. By 1972, it was the Neopolitan Noodle which was the scene of a mistaken mob hit on August 11, 1972. Here is the story: To avenge the death of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Gallo, a member of the Colombo crime family, a hitman was hired to kill four men who had supposedly set up Gallo's murder. They were Colombo family acting boss "Little Allie" Persico and three mob lieutenants. (This was an intra-family crime wave.) The man arrived and sat at the bar, where his marks were supposed to be sitting as well. Instead, they had moved to a table, and the hitman mistook four kosher meat sellers for his targets. He pulled out two long-barreled pistols and began shooting. Two of the meat sellers died while the others were seriously injured. The gunman was never found. Today, the building that housed these restaurants as well the others that followed (Chez Z and Vienna ‘79) is the Albanian Consulate. Thanks to UA user Anne Raso for this tip about this spot's interesting history.

Residence of Lieutenant Abraham Quackenbush, ca. 1885. “The house was built in 1851 and demolished in 1890; Lieutenant Quackenbush's great-grandchildren are pictured in the photograph.”

This pair of stately Romanesque Revival style brick apartment buildings was constructed at a time when apartment-style living was becoming more socially acceptable for New York’s burgeoning middle class. They exemplified the use of distinctive architecture and evocative naming to elevate the image of the multiple-dwelling building type, which had long been associated with the cramped and squalid quarters of Manhattan’s worst tenement districts. In this case, the choice of the noble-sounding names “Kaiser” and “Rhine” signaled the overwhelmingly German heritage of their presumed occupants, as well as the prominent Rhinelander family’s involvement in their construction and in broader real estate development in Yorkville. Although built as two separate structures joined along a party wall with interior courtyards, the buildings’ Second Avenue façades present a unified, monumental appearance. The decorative iron balcony and pent eave roof anchor the façade’s center bay, while the round arches that are a hallmark of the Romanesque Revival style play across the façade at different scales. The red-orange brick façade is embellished by rich geometric patterning and detailing, including corbels, quoins and window spandrels featuring delicate cartouches with ribbons. The building was recently restored with the removal of white paint obscuring the building’s subtle texture and fine ornament. With luck, the cornices that flanked the pent eave roof in this once-picturesque roofline will also be restored.

The Kaiser and the Rhine, August 13, 1941. In 1886 Gertrude Rhinelander, a scion of a well-established and wealthy New York family, purchased a series of lots on the corner of Second Avenue and 89th Street. She commissioned architects Lamb & Rich to design two matching apartment buildings with ground floor commercial spaces. Christened The Rhine (nos. 1716-18) and The Kaiser (nos. 1720-22) by Rhinelander, the buildings were completed in 1887. Rendered in a Romanesque Revival style to look as though a single structure, the building did feature some unexpected architectural details, including an almost Modern style maze-like pattern of brickwork on the second floor facade. A massive and devastating fire in 1904 gutted the building. Gertrude Rhinelander, who still collected the rents herself, rebuilt. It was likely at this time that the Tuscan Revival style roofs were added. In the late 20th century the buildings were painted in muted grey and white tones, but in 2016 the paint was striped off, revealing the rich tones of the original red brick.

Lot on East 79th Street being prepared for the construction of No. 229; February 2, 1928.

The Church of St. Monica was founded in 1879 by the same pastor that had founded St. Joseph’s. St. Monica’s grew out of humble beginnings, with the mission to serve the expanding Irish Catholic population of the neighborhood. The current building at 413 East 79th Street, shown here at the year of its completion, 1905, was designed in a Gothic Revival style by the firm Schickel & Ditmars. Its facade on East 79th Street remains nearly unchanged since construction.