Entrance to the apartment complex at 658-666 West 188th Street, ca. 1995.

Yeshiva College, 1928. Designed by Charles B. Meyers Associates in 1928, the style of this Orthodox Jewish education institution is a mix of Art Deco touches with prominent Moorish/Byzantine/Near Eastern Romanesque elements such as colored stone blocks and ceramic tiles; and towers, turrets, and domes. Today the building is mostly occupied by the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy, also known as Yeshiva University High School for Boys. It was the first academic Jewish high school when it was organized in 1916 downtown with the rest of the Yeshiva University. Though this uptown building was designed for the high school specifically, for many years it shared the space with Yeshiva College, the undergrad institution which began in 1928 in this location with 31 students.

Entrance to apartment complex at 45 Wadsworth Terrace, ca. 1980. 45 Wadsworth Terrace is an Art Deco apartment house built in 1929. Prominent is the decorative brickwork of the facade. Designed by prolific (he is said to have designed more than 4000 buildings) but largely unknown architect, H. I. Feldman, the lobby of the building entered through this main doorway retains many of its original murals.

Wadsworth Avenue, south from 193rd St. and St. Nicholas Avenue, 1927. Wadsworth Avenue is the only street in New York City named after a Civil War General: James S. Wadsworth. (A number of other generals—Sherman and Sheridan—got squares named after them.) Born in upstate New York, Wadsworth was killed in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864. Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island is also named for the General.

George Washington High School, detail, main portico entrance, 1925. The building at 549 Audubon Avenue was originally constructed as an annex to Morris High School in the Bronx in 1919. George Washington High School, which had been established in 1919 as well, in a different location, moved into this building in 1925. During the Great Depression a WPA mural called 'The Evolution of Music' was painted by Lucienne Bloch, an apprentice of Diego Rivera. In 1999 George Washington High School was closed and divided into four smaller schools. Famous alumni of the school include Henry Kissinger, Harry Belafonte, and Alan Greenspan.

Yeshiva University, founded as "Yeshiva College of America" in 1928 has historically provided a seminary level Jewish education alongside a modern academic one. Like many Jewish educational institutions, as it grew, Yeshiva College, whose class of male students are seen here in this image, moved on up from the Lower East Side to Washington Heights where its campus is still located. "YU" as it's known by its legions of fans, emerged out of the merging of two historically important orthodox Jewish educational facilities: the Eitz Chaim elementary type traditional Jewish school known as a "cheder" founded in 1886 and a rabbinic seminary was known as Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) established a decade later in 1896. Both located on the Lower East Side and founded by Eastern European Jewish immigrants.

9-11 Washington Terrace, 1916. Washington Terrace is a small private street tucked away in Washington Heights. The land here was purchased in 1898 by Daniel J. Murphy, who constructed (he listed himself as both architect and builder) 18 three-story tan brick attached homes. The early tenants of the street included Murphy (though he had lost ownership through foreclosure), a postal superintendent, a couple of actors, and a driver. Despite early efforts by residents petitioning the city to take over ownership of the roadbed (ie make it a public street), the road remains private. By the 1980s a number of homes on the street were abandoned and left to deteriorate. Today, only two of the original nine buildings that lined the east side of the terrace remain, including no. 11, the building at right in this photo. The west side of Washington Terrace has fared better, with six of the original nine still standing.

George Washington High School, Manhattan Founded in 1917, George Washington High School moved to its current location in the Fort George section of Washington Heights in 1925. The Neo-Classical brick and limestone building features classical architectural elements including Palladian windows, Ionic columns, a roof balustrade and a central tower. Notable alumni include former Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize recipient (1973) Henry Kissinger and former Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan.

Isabella Home for Aged Women, 1927. In 1873, Isabella Url, the daughter and step-daughter of the German-language newspaper publishers Anna and Oswald Ottendorfer, died at age 27. Having a charitable spirit, Isabella, on her death bed, requested that her mother establish an organization that helped poor older women who were alone in life. Two years later the Ottendorfers opened in the Isabella Heimath, or the Isabella Home for Aged Women in Astoria. Free of charge and generally serving the aging German women, the facility quickly outgrew its Queens home. A new complex was funded by Oswald and completed in 1889, a grand building at Amsterdam Avenue and 190th Street. This larger facility provided a nursing home not just for older women, but for anyone (regardless of sex or ethnic background) in need, as well as offering hospital and recovery spaces for the same population. In 1965, an additional 17-story building was constructed to expand services. In the early 1970s the 80-year-old building was razed for the construction of a modern 14-story building. Both of these 20th century buildings continue to serve the elderly community as the Isabella Geriatric Center.

Wadsworth Avenue, west side, north from 187th Street, 1934. This series of eight small wood-frame homes were constructed circa 1895 (according to the photographer's notes). Today a number of the homes are still standing, though the wooden facades have been covered by brick or stucco.

George Washington Educational Complex ca. 1925 George Washington High School, home to such alumni as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, actor and singer Harry Belafonte, and baseball star Manny Ramirez, came into existence on February 2, 1917. The high school’s current structure was completed in 1925. Within five years the student body of GWHS had grown to six thousand students, and it was one of the top schools in the city. The demographics of the school began to shift dramatically during the 1960s, along with those of the neighborhood. Over the course of the decade the graduating classes of the high school went from 18% to 70% minority students. In 1964 black and Puerto Rican students boycotted schools that they felt did not employ enough black and Latino faculty members nor place enough emphasis on black and Latino history. In 1983, according to The New York Times, GWHS’ students were 70 percent Spanish speaking, with 90 percent of the Spanish speaking population of Dominican origin. By the late 1980s the school was overcrowded and had fallen into disrepair, with dropout rates well above city averages. At the end of the 1990s, the school was divided into four smaller high schools and renamed George Washington Educational Campus, with the hope of paving a road back to the schools’ former prestige

George Washington High School, 1926.

516 West 185th Street, ca. 1932.