Jumel Building, 1925. In 1899, Frank Winfield Woolworth commissioned architect C.P.H Gilbert to design him a mansion at Fifth Avenue and 80th Street. Seven years later Woolworth hired him again, this time to build a two-story commercial building in Washington Heights for his retail store. Attractive but unremarkable for such as illustrious architect, the building is pictured here in 1925 during survey work for the IND Eighth Avenue Line. It still stands today, though most of the facade is obscured by oversized signage.

The vacant Singer’s Auto Service Station on West 166th Street, about 1926. The sign at left indicates that Singer's has moved to a new location on 167th Street. The large sign advertises Singer's as an authorized mechanic for Willys-Overland automobiles. Best known for the production of World War II-era Jeeps, Willys-Overland had earlier produced passenger cars. The sign in the photograph advertises the Whippet, a smaller model introduced in 1926.

Washington Heights, the narrow strip of high ground between the Harlem and Hudson Rivers, is named for the Revolutionary War Fort Washington. Fortifications aside, the area was rural, rocky, and sparsely populated until latter half of the 19th century; the extension of rapid transit to Upper Manhattan century helped spur development. Today, Washington Heights is a diverse, densely populated enclave including the massive Columbia University medical campus, historic sites like the Morris-Jumel mansion, and panoramic views of the Bronx, Lower Manhattan, and the New Jersey Palisades.

512 West 167th Street, ca. 1932.

Riverside Drive, north from 165th Street, ca. 1915. Washington Heights’ wooded, bucolic character would soon be disrupted by development. In 1921, the Harkness family donated a 22-acre plot between 165th and 168th Streets for what would become the campus of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Today, the Milstein Hospital Building, built in 1988, occupies 165th Street between Riverside Drive and Fort Washington Avenue.

“West 165th Street, north side, west from Fort Washington Ave., across Riverside Drive to the North (Hudson) River and showing across the latter the Jersey highlands and the George Washington Bridge. The property on the right is a part of the Columbia University-Presbyterian Medical Center and partially shown thereon is the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing. June 15, 1937.”

Wooden frame houses at 2123 and 2121 Amsterdam Avenue, 1932. The former is set back from the street, behind a picket fence that had likely seen better days. The storefront at no. 2121 is vacant and available for rent.

Grinnell 800 Riverside Drive Designed by Schwartz & Gross 1910-11 Audubon Park Historic District Occupying the entire triangular lot formed by the intersection of the diagonals of the old Boulevard Lafayette and Riverside Drive, the Renaissance Revival style Grinnell has a dominating presence in the neighborhood. While only nine stories tall, its size is amplified by freestanding cupolas topped by bell-shaped pediments that tower over each corner. Two-story granite arches flanked by duplex apartment units on either side serve as entrances to the building’s large interior courtyard. Upon completion at the original terminus of the Riverside Drive extension, the Grinnell claimed to be the only building in Manhattan with both a Riverside Drive address and a subway station at one entrance. Early residents recalled how dances with a full orchestra used to be held on the roof every spring and gloved staff delivered mail to each apartment twice a day.

American League Base Ball Park, ca. 1910. Hilltop Park was the home of the New York Highlanders, as today’s Yankees were then known, between 1903 and 1912. The team moved to the Giants’ Polo Grounds on the Harlem River for the 1913 season and Hilltop Park was demolished in 1914. In 1925, Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital broke ground at this site.

Den Norske Frei Missions Menighed (Norwegian Free Lutheran Brethren Church), 1934. This brick structure replaced a 2-story frame house, still standing as late as 1922.

857 Riverside Drive, November 16, 1937. This charming 19th century, wood-frame home with a widow's walk on the roof remains standing though with some serious alterations. The widow's walk and porch have been removed and the clapboard replaced with faux brick siding. The current cornice and chimney seem to match with the details of this 1937 photograph.

Willam A. Wheelock Mansion ca. 1937 This Second Empire-style mansion, located at 661 West 158th Street with grounds spreading from West 158th to 160th Streets, was built about 1860 for businessman William Almy Wheelock. The Wheelock House withstood the incursion of the 1904 Riverside Drive extension, which was curved inward toward the east to avoid the charming villas of Audubon Park. Laid out around an oval park with a white marble fountain group, the Drive tended to isolate the houses, which were gradually replaced by apartment houses. Almost the last of the old places to survive was 661 West 158th Street. It was finally demolished in 1938, just a year after photographer Berenice Abbott documented it, for Riverside Houses, a low-income housing project.

Though actually triangular, Mitchel Square is a small urban park that features the war memorial seen here. The plot was initially dedicated as a public space in 1911 and named Audubon Square. On February 8, 1919, the square was renamed in honor of John Purroy Mitchel. Mitchel was elected the youngest mayor of New York City (a record which still stands) in 1913. The "Boy Mayor" was known for his idealism and (perhaps uncommon in politics) honesty. Following his mayoral term (he lost a bid for reelection in the primaries), he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. In 1918 while on a training flight in Lousiana, Mitchel fell from his plane and died. The city (and state) mourned and eulogized the former mayor, naming this park after him, erecting a memorial at Fifth Avenue and East 91st Street, and naming a Long Island airfield for him. Theodore Roosevelt wrote of the man, “No stauncher American, no abler and more disinterested public servant, and no finer natural soldier than Purroy Mitchel was to be found in all our country.” Four years after the park's renaming, this World War I memorial sculpture was installed. Dedicated on May 30, 1923, and designed by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, this public arts still stands on the north side of the park, while the south side remains benches and rock outcroppings.

South side of West 161st Street, ca. 1905.

The Roman Catholic Church and Rectory of St. Rose of Lima, viewed from across McKenna Square, 1934. The triangular park site was created in 1917, when the city cleared the ad-hoc cottages of Irish immigrant workers there as part of the widening of 165th Street. The roadway in the foreground had previously been known as Croton Street. In 1924, the square was named after Private William McKenna, a soldier killed in World War I. St. Rose of Lima, in the background was designed by architect Joseph H. McGuire and completed in 1905.

Chapel, Church of the Intercession, ca. 1910. The second home of this Episcopal congregation, the chapel at 158th Street and Grand Boulevard (now Broadway) was built in 1872. By 1906, the parish was suffering from both overcrowding and financial difficulties. To solve both issues, parish officials struck a deal with the Trinity Church, whereby the new Church of the Intercession was built on the grounds of the Trinity Cemetery, at Broadway and 155th Street.

“Fort Washington Avenue, north from West 163rd Street, and showing upon the west side of same, the New York Institution for the Deaf extending to 165th Street. Note the tower of the George Washington Bridge through the trees. June 15, 1937.” The New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was founded in 1818 and moved to its third location, in Washington Heights, in 1856. The school moved to its current campus in White Plains, New York in 1938, shortly after this photo was taken. When the George Washington Bridge (at left) opened in 1931, it was the longest single bridge span in the world. 19 days before this photo was taken, it lost that title to San Francisco’s brand-new Golden Gate Bridge."

The first Washington Heights Library opened in 1868. The library moved twice before a generous gift from J. Hood Wright, a New York philanthropist, made its collection available free of charge to all residents of Washington Heights. In 1914, the library moved to its present building, designed by Carrère & Hastings, the architects of the New York Public Library’s Main Fifth Avenue Branch.

160th Street, east from Broadway, ca. 1905. Pope & Co. druggists at 3834 Broadway advertises stationary, drugs, and prescriptions at “downtown prices.”

"St. Nicholas Avenue, east side, from 162nd Streets, seen from Amsterdam Avenue at 162nd Street." The streetcar tracks in the foreground are on Amsterdam Avenue. Between 161st and 160th Streets (at the center of the photograph) is the western end of Sylvan Terrace (formerly Sylvan Place), with its two-story wooden houses, a real estate development of the early 1860's when this part of town was practically suburban. St. Nicholas Avenue in its present form had been laid out up to this point since around 1870. North from here it was still Kingsbridge Road.

White Tower Hamburger, 1933. White Tower Hamburger was a chain of fast food restaurants created as a copycat or imitator (if we are being generous) of White Castle. Founded in Milwaukee in 1926, they hired away White Castle employees, barely tweaked the chain's slogan, and mimicked the crenellated building design. By the 1950s White Tower had more than 250 locations all across the country., largely in urban areas. Despite the inevitable copyright lawsuit, the last batch of original White Towers remained in business through the 1980s. (A single location is still open in Toledo, Ohio, though it is long divorced from the original owners). New York City was home to at least a half a dozen White Tower Hamburger locations. This castle-like building at Broadway and West 167th Street is no longer extant, but at least one original White Tower building remains in Woodside, Queens.

514 West 160th Street, ca. 1932.

517 West 161st Street, north side, between Amsterdam Ave., and Broadway. Building is a frame house. November of 1927.

455 West 164th Street, ca. 1932.

The earliest development of Madam Stephen Jumel’s property (at present-day St. Nicholas Avenue and 160th Street) was undertaken in 1882 by members of her family who were anxious to derive some income from her land-rich estate. By 1880 the old carriage drive from Kingsbridge Highway had been graded, widened, paved and renamed St. Nicholas Avenue in honor of the patron saint of the Netherlands. In 1882 architect Gilbert Robinson Jr. designed a row of wooden houses meant to be rented to working-class Irish immigrants. These structures, which seem so charming to us today, were quite commonplace in the poor sections of northern Manhattan at the end of the nineteenth century. Considered to be just a step above tenement houses, such small frame dwellings were discouraged in lower Manhattan by both the higher valuation of property and a more stringent enforcement of fire codes. Over the years, the owners of these houses fell victim to promises of maintenance-free living offered by high-pressure brick-face and stucco, asphalt, and aluminum-siding contractors. In 1979, through an almost unprecedented program, the Landmarks Preservation Commission used federal funds to restore the houses to their original appearance. This ambitious project was carried out by Polonia Restoration.

The most resplendent of all the theaters designed by Thomas W. Lamb, the Audubon Theatre and Ballroom on the east side of Broadway between West 165th and West 168th Streets was graced with segmented arches made of polychrome glazed terra-cotta. If the entrance's relief of a Viking ship guided through rough seas by a Titan goddess is inexplicable, droll fox-head trophies positioned at the springing of each arch are not. They allude to the builder of the Audubon, William "20th Century" Fox. A venue for Fanny Brice as well as for the Marx Brothers, who lived nearby, the Audubon is now best remembered as the place where Malcolm X was slain in 1965. After becoming the property of New York City, the Audubon deteriorated. Most of the building was demolished to make way for a new building constructed by Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. The base of the new research center incorporates portions of the Audubon's original facade. Painstakingly restored, the elaborate terra cotta facade serves as a vivid reminder of an important neighborhood landmark, over half of which was destroyed to provide a parking lot.

“West 158th Street, west from Riverside Drive to the North (Hudson River). Shown in the center is the elevated West Side Vehicular Highway against the Palisades of New Jersey. November 18, 1936.” The elevated roadway at center is the viaduct carrying Riverside Drive West, with the West Side Highway visible through its arch. The ornate columned entryway to no. 613 (right) has been stripped of its details, though the structure remains.

Row houses at 508-510 West 159th Street, “both are frame houses with part stucco and brick fronts,” 1932. This block of 159th Street once included an eclectic mix of row houses, large wood-frame homes, garages and, by the 1930s, apartment buildings.

447 West 163rd Street, ca. 1932.

Frame houses at 464, 466, 468 West 166th Street, 1932.

A restaurant at the corner of West 163rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue advertises chop suey, 1934.

The New York Preservation Archive Project is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving, and celebrating the history of historic preservation in New York City. The Archive Project is devoted to celebrating neglected narratives of New York historic preservation using the archives that hold these stories. This collection includes a selection of historic sites that became flashpoints of the city's preservation movement(s). For more information, visit: www.nypap.org/phd-category/places/

Top view faces south on Broadway, from between 159th and 160th Streets. Bottom view is the reverse, north on Broadway, with the Loew’s Rio Theatre at center, ca. 1914. Cab drivers are using the Broadway median to park, while they await fares from theatergoers. Due to competition from larger theaters in the area, the Rio closed in 1957.

504 West 160th Street, ca. 1932

Riverside Drive West and the Hudson River, ca. 1941. The original route of Riverside Drive made a sharp turn to the right at 155th Street, bisecting Audubon Park, and isolating “Minnie's Land,” John James and Lucy Audobon’s former home, well below street level to the west of the new road. Upon the opening of the new curved roadway in 1911, motorists complained about the succession of sharp turns. As a solution, the city built a new viaduct between 155th and 161st Streets. Opened in 1928, the viaduct today carries Riverside Drive West.

“519-521 West 158th Street, north side, west of Amsterdam Avenue. Both are three-story frame houses. 1932.” The sign advertises a tailor at no. 521. The clapboard and shingle facades have been replaced, and the wooden porches dismantled, but the bones of this row of frame houses remain.

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Washington Heights; November 16, 1937.

Audubon Theatre, 1915. Built in 1912 by William Fox, the founder of the Fox Film Corporation, the Audubon was a film and vaudeville theatre with a second floor ballroom, and basement-level meeting rooms often used by political activists, trade unions, and religious groups. In 1950, Congregation Emes Wozedek purchased the building. After Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in 1964, he founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), whose weekly meetings were held at the Audubon Ballroom. It was at one of those meetings, on February 21, 1965, that Malcolm X was assassinated as he was giving a speech. Thereafter, the building fell into disrepair. In 1992, the building was slated for demolition and redevelopment by Columbia University. Preservation groups resisted the development, eventually reaching a compromise: Columbia could build at the northern end of the block, but the building and facade closest to Broadway and 165th Street would be preserved.

William A. Wheelock Mansion, photographed by Berenice Abbott in November 1937. In 1862, Wheelock, a dry goods wholesaler, purchased a riverside parcel of the Audubon estate that stretched from 157th to 159th Street. There, he build a Victorian mansion, complete with a bell-shaped mansard roof, Gothic details, and extensive gardens. The city purchased the by-then overgrown Wheelock property in 1941, tearing the buildings down to make room for a housing development.

516-518 West 160th Street, ca. 1932.

This endangered two-story wood-frame house at Riverside and West 159th Street, is believed to have a connection to the Underground Railroad and upper Manhattan’s little-known Abolitionist history.