The stoop is a coveted treasure in all of New York's boroughs. Let's take a look at what residents passionately call "stoop culture" through the years.

Often overlooked, doors are perhaps the most important feature of a building. They are the means by which we escape the often crowded and chaotic streets of the city. Every building has one (well, maybe except for the Raymond Street Jail which was accidentally constructed in 1836 sans front door), but some outfit this largely utilitarian feature with more panache than others. This collection highlights some the city's loveliest historic doorways, from the simple but classic columns of early 19th century Federal rowhouses to the gloriously geometric brickwork of Art Deco apartment houses, and everything in-between.

Family standing on the stoop at 115 Jay Street, May 22, 1936. These photographs were part of a group Abbott took in “Irishtown,” a slum of pre-Civil War houses nestled under the anchorage of the Manhattan Bridge. Lacking cellars, central heat, hot water, toilets, and bathtubs, many of the houses had been declared uninhabitable by the City. In the only portrait of the Changing New York project, Abbott captured the dignity of this African-American family living at no. 115 Jay Street. She later recalled that the family told her “a dog shouldn’t live in this place.” Vendors like the pots-and-pans salesman in Traveling Tin Shop were a disappearing breed when Abbott took this photograph, but they still serviced the City’s poorest neighborhoods. A public housing project now stands on the site of 115 Jay Street. In 1950, the entry ramps of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway cut through the area and further marginalized it.

Traveling Tin Shop, May 22, 1936. "The location of the photograph is unknown but the neighborhood resembles Talman and Jay Streets in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, which Abbott photographed on the same day."

There is no place like New York — and there is certainly nothing like growing up here. This collection will give you a look into the lives of New York City's youngest and cutest, dating from the late 19th to the mid-20th century.