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.

(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.

West 130th Street ferry, with service to points in New Jersey, ca. 1915. The West Harlem Piers sit at a low point between the bluffs of Morningside and Washington Heights, where Manhattan’s inhabitants have long accessed the waters of the Hudson River. In the early 1800s, Manhattan’s merchant class — and those seeking a more bucolic life — began to build country homes overlooking the Hudson River. By 1808, ferry service connected the new village of Manhattanville to New Jersey. A century later, Irving Underhill’s photo includes placards advertising services to Newark, Englewood, Paterson, Rutherford, Edgewater, Hackensack, Leonia, Fort Lee, and Tenafly. Ferry service was discontinued in 1965 when the pier was demolished.

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

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."

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.

Crowds gathered in Riverside Park, opposite the West Harlem Piers, for the fireworks show opening the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, September 25, 1909. The celebration jointly commemorated the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River and the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s East River Ferry.

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.

(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.

"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).