St. Francis Court, ca. 1910. Early advertising for St. Franics Court notes that its location on "the choicest corner' of Riverside Drive afford it 20-mile views of the Hudson River and the hills of New Jersey. The apartments offered in this Neville & Bagge-designed building were five, six, or seven rooms with wood floors and a long distance telephone in each apartment! They rented for between $700 and $1500 a year.

Known locally as the “castle,” A late Gothic Revival building with a façade of roughhewn stone and terra-cotta trim was built for Saint Walburga’s Academy of the Holy Child of Jesus. Founded in 1904 to educate and house orphans, the convent and school were originally located in the two ornate mid-19th century mansions shown here. In their place rose an imposing, five-story, nine-bay structure with a crenellated tower puncturing its gable roof. Similar in appearance to the nearby City College campus, both institutions were constructed of schist excavated during the construction of the IRT subway. In 1957, the academy relocated to Rye, New York, and rechristened itself as the School of the Holy Child. After numerous failed attempts to repurpose the abandoned school, the Fortune Society purchased the building in 1998 and utilized historic tax credits to restore the exterior. It was converted into emergency and longterm housing for the formerly incarcerated

U.S.S. "Illinois" and Launch, July 2, 1937. Launched in 1898 and commissioned in 1901, the U.S.S. Illinois was a naval battleship. Active in the European Squadron and North Atlantic fleet through 1907, between 1907 and 1909 the ship was one a group, called the Great White Fleet, that circumnavigated the globe. After being decommissioned in late summer 1909, she became a training ship and was lent to New York State as a training vessel for the New York Naval Militia in 1919. Five years later the ship had a building-type structure constructed on its main deck when it became a floating armory, barracks, and the location of the Naval Reserves Midshipmen's School. Renamed the Prairie State in 1941 (so that a new battleship called Illinois could be commissioned) the ship would survive until 1956 when it was removed from the naval register and sold for scrap in Baltimore.

1560 Amsterdam Avenue, west side, between West 136th and West 138th Streets, showing the Hebrew Orphans Asylum, date unknown. Hebrew Orphans Asylum was established in 1860 for the care of orphaned Jewish children. The large building was constructed in 1884 in a Renaissance Revival style and designed by William H. Hume. The building functioned as an institutional home for children until 1941. It was demolished in 1956.

(Carlson & Wiseman, 1921) This three-story commercial structure, spanning the full block-front on Broadway, was originally the Gotham Theatre. Although most of the building’s exterior finishes have been removed, the inscribed words “Gotham Theatre,” flanked by Corinthian pilasters, exhibit the building’s original use. It was commissioned by Harris Theatrical Enterprises, which operated numerous theaters throughout the city, including the nearby Dorset/ Bunny Theatre at 3589 Broadway. The company hired the firm of Carlson & Wiseman, which designed a number of other theaters, including Brooklyn’s Alpine Cinema and Alhambra Theatre. Renamed the Delmar Theatre in 1937, the building remained in use as a theater until 1961. Located next to Montefiore Park, the theater was constructed on the site of the Montefiore House, founded by Jewish philanthropists to serve those suffering from chronic illnesses and the predecessor to the Bronx’s Montefiore Medical Center.

125th Street and Twelfth Avenue, under the Riverside Drive Viaduct, November 10, 1937.

The High School of Music & Art, April 3, 1926. The High School of Music & Art for Gifted Children opened for the spring term of 1936, in a William H. Gompert-designed school building at 135th Street and Convent Avenue. Built in 1924 for the New York Training School for Teachers and the associated New York Model School (where the training teachers taught), by the mid-1930s, the hilltop Collegiate Gothic structure housed P.S. 193 and an annex of the Wadleigh High School for Girls. The New York Times reported that the initial Music & Art enrollment of 215 “specially gifted students” would receive instruction “not only to develop their abilities in fine arts or music but to pursue courses leading either to the academic high school diploma for college entrance or the general high school diploma.” Piano instruction was also compulsory. Music & Art opened during the administration of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, himself an enthusiastic patron of the performing arts. In his remarks at the school’s dedication ceremony, La Guardia predicted that “in five years this will be one of the outstanding high schools in the country.” Over 70 years later, the Mayor’s prediction has been validated by the lengthy list of notable alumcross every discipline of the arts. The “castle on the hill” campus was home to Music & Art from 1936 to 1984, when the school merged with the High School of Performing Arts upon moving into a new campus at Lincoln Center. The new facility was named the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. Today, over 2,700 students are enrolled at La Guardia, each with a studio or performing arts concentration. Gompert’s building is today part of the City College south campus, and includes the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School.

St. Walburga Convent and School, 1931. St. Walburga Convent and School (named after an 8th-century British female saint) provided housing and education for orphans administered by nuns. It was both a boarding and a day school for girls. It was originally housed in a pair of large 19th-century homes. This Gothic Revival building was constructed between 1911 and 1913 and remained St. Walburga until the late 1950s when the school moved upstate. In 1998 the building was purchased by an organization that assists formerly incarcerated people in reintegrating to society called the Fortune Society. With this new occupant, the building was restored and now can house up to 62 individuals.

The Riverside Drive Viaduct was built in 1901. The 50-foot tall elevated roadway is an extension of Riverside Drive. The Drive splits into two paths at the terminus of Riverside Park which converge at the entrance to the Viaduct. Aside from a masonry approach on both the north and south entrance, the structure is entirely steel. At the time of its construction, the girders over 125th street were the largest ever built. F. Stuart Williamson was the chief engineer of the project, which was regarded as a civic monument. The Scientific American referred to Riverside Drive as "a continuous drive of ten miles along the picturesque banks of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers."

Adolph Lewisohn Stadium, during a formal reception for Italian legation when Italy entered World War I., ca. 1915. The Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built where City College's North Academic Center presently stands. Designed by Arnold W. Brunner, the arena opened in 1915 and was the site of City College's athletic events and commencement ceremonies from its inception to 1973, when it was demolished. The structure could not have been built without the financial support of philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn, who donated the money for construction. It was through his contribution that the school was able to construct a great open space that not only served the student body but the public. The stadium was a destination for elaborate theatrical events, summer concerts, including the production of The Trojan Women at the dedication ceremony. In 1973, the structure was demolished to make way for the $125 million North Academic Center.

Hamilton Gate on Convent Avenue, undated postcard. Four concrete and metal arched gates, rendered in a neo-Gothic style, created four entrances to the North Campus Quadrangle of City College. Mirroring the original neo-Gothic buildings of the campus (the building seen here is Shepard Hall), the gates were all named for famous men, Hudson, Washington, Stuyvesant, and Hamilton. This gate at the northern edge of Convent Avenue was named for Alexander Hamilton who lived nearby at the start of the 19th century.

Hamilton Place and West 138th Street. February 1, 1949. The building at center-right is No. 30 Hamilton Place. At left is Montefiore Square Park, named for Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, a prominent 19th century British-Italian Jewish philanthropist. In 1884, members of New York’s Jewish philanthropic community established the Montefiore Chronic Individuals on the Upper East Side. The Home moved to 138th Street in 1889; the park was acquired and named for Montefiore in 1906. Today, the institution is known as the Montefiore Medical Center, and has been located in the Bronx neighborhood of Norwood since 1913.

A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, Manhattan Established in 1979, the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School (H.S. 540) occupies the former High School of Music & Art, located on West 135th Street in Harlem. Designed by William H. Gompert and built between 1924 and 1926 in Collegiate Gothic style, the L-shaped building is clad in limestone and mottled buff-to-brown ironspot brick features distinctive square towers. Designated as a New York City Landmark in 1977, the school is named in honor of Asa Philip Randolph, founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who is considered to be the greatest African-American labor leader in American history.

College of the City of New York: The Main Building, 1911. Described in the LPC designation report as being shaped from above as a stubby anchor, Shepard Hall (originally known as Main Hall) is the largest of the buildings on the City College of New York North Campus. Built in a lavish neo-Gothic style with terra cotta quoins and a seven-story tower, Shepard Hall is the "cathedral" of this campus. Designed, along with most of the other university buildings nearby, by George B. Post between 1903 and 1907, it was the particular project a former graduate Edward Morse Shepard. Shepard would oversee the design and decoration of the enormous room within the Main Building called the Great Hall, which could accommodate more than 1000 people.

U.S.S. "Illinois" and Wharf: Armory for Naval Reserves, July 2, 1937. The USS Prairie State docked at the 135th Pier on the Hudson River was the nation's largest floating armory. The 375-foot houseboat had been a naval battleship, the USS Illinois, from 1901 until 1920. In 1924, it was disarmed and converted into an armory with the large, barn-like shed built on the hull. The USS Prairie State remained until 1951, when it was relocated to 25th Street on the East River and eventually scrapped. In 1991, the City opened the North River Waste Water Treatment plant on this site.

136th Street, east of the northeast corner of Broadway, 1931. The four-story building in the background is part of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. In the foreground on the corner is a once common rail car diner, which has since been replaced by an equally if not more ubiquitous today market and corner fruit stand.

35 Hamilton Place, north east corner of West 138th Street, ca. 1922.

Townsend - Harris Hall, City College, ca. 1910.

(Gaetano Ajello, 1913-1914) As evidenced by the terra-cotta movie camera and tripod in its parapet, the Claremont Theater is one of the city’s first buildings built specifically to show motion pictures. The two-story, neo-Renaissance building faced in white brick and terra cotta is distinguished by its chamfered corner, a rarity in Manhattan’s gridiron plan. Unlike the first theaters downtown which was simply nickelodeons located in storefronts, those built-in expanding neighborhoods like West Harlem were freestanding structures built by theater operators seeking to elevate the movie-going experience. Commissioned by the Wayside Realty Company, the theater was the only non-residential building by architect Gaetano Ajello, who designed roughly 30 apartment buildings on the Upper West Side. Seating between 1,200 and 1,500 people and featuring multiple shows a week, the Claremont Theater also boasted a second-floor restaurant and dance hall.

New York Training School for Teachers, 1926. Known as the "Castle on the Hill," the school building seen here was built in an "abstracted contemporary Collegiate Gothic style," according to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Designed by William H. Gompert, Architect and Superintendent of School Buildings for the Board of Education and constructed in 1924-1926, the building originally housed the New York Training School for Teachers. In this buildings teachers were educated and allowed to "practice" teaching. It became the New York Teachers Training College for a few years, but was closed in 1933 when, during the Depression the city had a surplus of 5000 teachers waiting for appointments. Next, the building became Public School 193 briefly before becoming the High School of Music and Art, which it remained for nearly 50 years. Created by Mayor LaGuardia in 1936, it is considered to be the first public high school in the country to have a specialized study of art and music. The school merged with the High School for Performing Arts in 1984 and moved to Lincoln Center. Today the building is occupied by the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School, a public school where screened applicants offered a place in one of three academic academies within. An educational collaboration between the Board of Education and CCNY, the school was established in 1979 and moved into this building in 1983.

"622 West 131st Street, south side, between Broadway and Twelfth avenue. This is a three-story frame house. The first story has a brick front and the two upper stories are of wood, 1932." This brick and wood-frame structure survived until sometime between 2011 and 2013 (when it disappears from Google streetview).