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

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.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour's Atonement, 1930. Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church was created from the merger of two smaller congregations: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement, and the Lutheran Church of Our Saviour. The building that is used by the church today was in fact constructed as the parish house. Constructed in 1928 just before the stock market crash, the planned Gothic style sanctuary was scrapped in the financial crisis. The parish house became the church building. In the 1970s, the structure was transformed into the Cornerstone Center, a multi-use facility that provided space for a video studio, dance and performance space, a kindergarten, and a church for the deaf.

Jewish Memorial Hospital, 1942. Constructed in the mid 1930s with funds from the Public Works Administration, this Art Deco hospital building commemorated the Jewish veterans of World War I. In the early 1970s the hospital made plans for an additional ten-story building. The new structure was never begun because the hospital entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1977. The hospital finally closed in 1983 and the building was demolished.

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.

Survey photograph of 656 Ft. Washington Ave. for the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line. Shows a large frame house. Original photographic logbook notation reads: Camera at Sta. 1071/50, on west side of Fort Washington Avenue, looking east, showing frame building No. 656. 11:52 A.M.

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.

Tryon Hall, 1913. Although Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a wealthy industrialist, already owned a home on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, he fell in love with northern Manhattan while visiting the Harlem River Speedway, a dirt, horse-racing track. Already retired at age 40, so as to devote himself to his passion for horses, Billings decided to construct a summer home in the area. He purchased 25 acres and built a 25,000 square foot horse stable and mansion. The mansion sat on the highest point of his property, just above the Hudson River on land that had once been Fort Tryon. Called Tryon Hall, the extravagant residence was designed in a Louis XIV chateau style and completed in 1907. It featured a heated indoor swimming pool, a two-story squash court, a bowling alley, and numerous formal gardens. The home was reached from Riverside Drive via a 1,600 feet long driveway that had a 6-degree grade. The Billings moved on to other (more exorbitant) living spaces in 1916 and sold Tryon Hall and its surrounding property to John D. Rockefeller Jr. Initially Rockefeller planned to demolish the buildings and donate the land to the city for a park. Architects protested the anticipated loss of the house and the city actually turned down the land. The mansion was then lived in for some years by the president of a large realty company, but burned to the ground in 1926 (no lives were lost but artwork valued at $1 million was destroyed). The ruins were removed and Rockefeller finally got the city to accept the land for a park. Fort Tryon Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Of the mansion, a few features remain, including the gatehouse, entrance pillars, and original S-shaped roadway.

Construction of the Jewish Memorial Hospital, 1934.

As a museum, the Cloisters is unique in New York as its collection extends to include the architecture of the building that houses it. The second of the Metropolitan's museums, the structure is an ensemble of four cloisters and three chapels brought to New York from Europe. The collection is founded on American sculptor George Gray Barnard's personal holdings of medieval objects. Barnard had established a medieval art museum in Upper Manhattan, but constantly prone to financial mismanagement, he was forced to sell his preliminary medieval museum to John D. Rockefeller in 1925 to avoid bankruptcy. Rockefeller established the Cloisters as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1938 on the newly purchased land of Fort Tryon Park. This story takes us through the history of the four cloisters that make up the museum.

Before Olmstead sculpted Fort Tryon Park, the land was the grounds of a luxurious estate.

Dr. Henry L. Hirscher, Dog & Cat Hospital, 1932. In 1939 a wealthy New York woman named Louise Baier passed away and left her former alley cat, Tommy, a trust fund of $5000. Dr. Henry Hirscher was the cat's veterinarian and was entrusted with his care. When the doctor requested a payment of $2 a day for the cat's housing and care, the executors of the estate refused and the case went to court. A judge ruled that the bequest to the cat was illegal. Dr. Hirscher, who had also been left a sum of money in the woman's will, decided to keep the cat despite it no longer having its own trust fund.