P. Lorillard Tobacco factory, 1927.

The recorded history of Yorkville begins in the 17th century when it was a tiny hamlet on the Boston Post Road, which ran northward from New York, which at the time only occupied the tip of Manhattan. It was long the province of farmers and wealthy landowners, including merchant Archibald Gracie, whose riverfront estate is now the official residence of New York’s mayor. In the 19th century, the area slowly began its transformation into the urban neighborhood we see today. Like most such transformations in New York, these changes were largely propelled by transportation improvements. In 1834, the New York & Harlem Railroad (later the New York Central) opened a station at 86th Street and Park Avenue, and in the 1850s, horsecar lines were completed along Second and Third Avenues. This opened the neighborhood to low-density residential development, a few remnants of which remain, including 412 East 85th Street. After two major economic depressions (in 1857 and 1873) and the Civil War, the area was finally primed for a major wave of construction in the late 1870s with the arrival of mass transit. The Third Avenue elevated train was completed in 1877-78, and the Second Avenue elevated in 1879-80. In a relatively short period, the Upper East Side was entirely built up, and the elevated trains segregated the area along ethnic and economic lines. West of Third Avenue, wealthy homeowners established the city’s most exclusive neighborhood, while east of Third Avenue became a thriving immigrant community (already known as Yorkville by the 1860s), which in many ways was a second-generation immigrant neighborhood—a place that recent arrivals aspired to live after filtering through the older, more congested downtown districts like the Lower East Side. Its housing stock was largely composed of tenements, but they were brand new and built after the Tenement Law of 1879 (the “Old Law”), so were subject to improvements. There were abundant employment opportunities, notably in the neighborhood’s breweries and at the Steinway piano factory in Queens, which was a short ferry ride away from the foot of East 92nd Street. The largest and perhaps most visible immigrant group in Yorkville was the Germans. Already an established presence in New York following a wave of immigration in the 1840s, they began moving uptown from their Lower East Side settlement, Kleindeutschland (Little Germany) to Yorkville, which by the turn of the century had become New York’s foremost German neighborhood. They brought with them many of their institutions, including churches and benevolent organizations, as well as cultural and commercial enterprises, such as beer halls and music societies. East 86th Street became the community’s main artery. Other groups had micro-neighborhoods in Yorkville, as well. Czechs began moving to the area in the 1880s and settled mostly between 71st and 75th Streets. Hungarians arrived around the turn of the 20th century on East 79th Street, though their institutions can be found throughout the neighborhood. Yorkville’s heyday as a distinct immigrant community was relatively short-lived. German immigration to New York peaked in 1882, and by the early 20th century, Yorkville’s Germans were already moving farther afield, using the recently built subway to access newer, more affordable neighborhoods in the outer boroughs. At the same time, anti-German sentiment during World War I led many Germans to downplay overt displays of national heritage. The Second Avenue and Third Avenue elevated trains were demolished in the 1940s and 1950s, respectively, removing one of the major boundaries between Yorkville and the rest of the Upper East Side. The neighborhood has seen its share of redevelopment since then, with large apartment buildings towering over the tenements. The recent opening of the Second Avenue subway re-established one of the area’s transit links, but may also put additional pressure on Yorkville’s surviving historic resources.

Where in the world can you dine where the residents speak a combined total of 138 languages and there is a melting pot of diverse food options to choose from? You don't have to go any further than Queens, New York. That’s right, Queens also holds the Guinness World Record for the most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet! With just the swipe of your MetroCard, you can make your way around Queens’s diverse neighborhoods with endless food options to choose from. Take in some history, and whether you’re in Astoria, Jackson Heights, Sunnyside, or Flushing, you’ll surely discover a new meal to try.

The Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to stimulate the economy and create jobs during the Great Depression, employed thousands of artists between 1935 and 1943 to create artworks for public spaces. This groundbreaking democratic experiment celebrated and supported American art and artists by providing a source of income, enhancing public buildings, and enriching the lives of Americans in the throes of the Great Depression. The Art Commission reviewed hundreds of Federal Art Project commissions during this period, including murals, sculpture and mosaics. A significant portion of the WPA/FAP commissions in our collection were installed in public health and hospital facilities. There is a noticeable shift in theme and tone depending on the location of murals. Murals in children’s wards often focused on nursery rhymes and fanciful themes, while those in nurses’ recreation rooms were “relaxing” and focused on familial scenes. Murals in doctors’ recreation rooms focused on the history and progress of medicine, while those in psychiatric wards sought to provide therapy for mental distress.

Vernon Boulevard, west side, at 43rd Road, showing the Bodine Castle, 1932. One of the many unique features of this castle was an underground tunnel from below the home out to the the East River waterfront, which can be seen just right of center. Before it was demolished the land surrounding the castle was used as a lumberyard evidenced in the details of this photograph.

Bohemian National Hall ARCHITECT: William C. Frohne DATE: 1895-97 STYLE: Renaissance Revival Bohemian National Hall (Narodni Budova) is a rare survivor of the social halls built in the nineteenth century for New York City’s immigrant ethnic communities. Constructed in two phases in 1895 and 1897, it replaced an earlier National Hall on East 5th Street, which had served the Czech and Slovak population living in the Tompkins Square area of the Lower East Side. The five-story building was designed by William C. Frohne in the Renaissance Revival style. Richly ornamented, it is faced in buff Roman brick, stone, and terra cotta. Among its prominent features are a projecting entrance porch with paired granite columns and a two-story arcade with Ionic columns resting on lion’s-head bases.

View east from the southwest corner of First Avenue and East 70th Street, ca. 1935. The large tower of the Rockefeller Institute seen in the distance still stands east of York between 70th and 71st Streets. Today it is obscured from this view by the large Hemlsey Medical Tower.

"East 74th Street, east from but not including Third Avenue. This view showing prominently the north side, 1937." Though the storefronts seen adjacent to the corner of 3rd Avenue (on the far right of the photos) have been replaced by a large apartment building, the building at nos. 214 and 216 (just slightly down the block) with the large arched doorways remains.

The Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to stimulate the economy and create jobs during the Great Depression, employed thousands of artists between 1935 and 1943 to create artworks for public spaces. This groundbreaking democratic experiment celebrated and supported American art and artists by providing a source of income, enhancing public buildings, and enriching the lives of Americans in the throes of the Great Depression. The Art Commission reviewed hundreds of Federal Art Project commissions during this period, including murals, sculpture and mosaics. A significant portion of the WPA/FAP commissions in our collection were installed in public health and hospital facilities. There is a noticeable shift in theme and tone depending on the location of murals. Murals in children's wards often focused on nursery rhymes and fanciful themes, while those in nurses' recreation rooms were "relaxing" and focused on familial scenes. Murals in doctors' recreation rooms focused on the history and progress of medicine, while those in psychiatric wards sought to provide therapy for mental distress.

New York Hospital under construction, 1940. The original New York Hospital was founded in 1771 by Edinburgh graduate Samuel Bard in lower Manhattan. The hospital moved a number of times in the ensuing centuries until it landed at its current location in 1932 (it had become affiliated with Cornell University a few years earlier in 1927).

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1799 STYLE: Federal The charm of this Federal style stone stable converted into a comfortable headquarters for the Colonial Dames is to be found in its superb masonry construction and its excellent proportions. The sharp profiles of the low pitched pedimented gable roofs cut a clean line that is both severe and pleasing to the eye. A smooth-faced stone belt-course separates the rock-faced masonry of the lower floor from that of the second story clearly defining the building’s perimeter.

Col. Smith House (also known as the Adams Mansion), 1924. This building was originally a carriage house on the estate of Colonel William S. Smith, aide-de-camp to Washington and husband of Abigail Adams, the daughter of President John Adams. The estate was known as "Smith's Folly." After his failure in business, about 1800, the buildings were brought by William T. Robinson and were said to have been completed by him. In 1826 the main house burned, and in 1830 the carriage house was bought by Jeremiah Towle, remaining in the possession of his family until 1906. It was later purchased by the Colonial Dames of America.

Schermerhorn Farmhouse ca. 1913 The Schermerhorn Farmhouse, built in 1747, was located on a peak overlooking the East River on the southern edge of the Schermerhorn Farm, which spanned from the East River to Third Avenue between 63rd and 68th Streets. The farmhouse was likely built by the Hardenbrook family, who owned the southern portion of the farm before it was purchased by Peter Schermerhorn. Tradition holds that the farm was once the country home of Governor George Clinton, who served as a member of Continental Congress, Governor of New York State, and Vice President of the United States for two terms under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Schermerhorn estate was purchased by John D. Rockefeller in 1903 as the site for the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. The farmhouse was demolished in 1914 and the site is now home to the Rockefeller University campus.

501-7 East 71st Street, at N.E. corner of York Avenue. In the foreground is the excavation for the Cornell Medical College-New York Hospital, July 31, 1930.

St. Jean Baptiste Church, 1913. The parish of St. Jean Baptiste dates to 1882 when it was founded to serve the long -established French Canadian immigrant population of the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. The community first worshiped in the hall above a stable on East 77th Street, referred to as the “Crib of Bethlehem.” A purpose-built church was erected between 1883 and 1884 in a simple Gothic style. The church became both popular among the larger Catholic New York community and the home of eucharistic worship in the decades surrounding the turn of the century. The community recognized the need (and desire) for a larger and more "worthy" (in pomp and decoration) structure and their prayers were answered with the entrance of a benefactor in 1910. Financed by American tobacco, insurance and transportation tycoon, Thomas Fortune Ryan, the present church building was designed by Nicholas Serracino, an Italian architect, and completed in 1913. The domed church (one of only a few Catholic churches in the city that feature a dome) was rendered in a combination of Italian Renaissance Revival and Classical Revival architectural styles. The main dome reaches a height of 172 feet. The interior is richly decorated with stained glass windows brought in from the glass studios of Chartres, Frances.

"Located in the once-fashionable Ravenswood area, the Bodine Castle was typical of the modestly-scaled romantic villas that formerly surrounded New York." Constructed sometime in the mid to late 18th century by a supposedly exiled French nobleman, the eclectic building included a large square tower and turret on a large plot of land. Though considered for landmarking in 1966, just one year after the passage of the Landmarks Law, it was denied and was demolished the same year. It was replaced by expanded infrastructure for the Con Ed "Big Aliss" power plant.

The Queensbridge Houses, often called "The Bridge," by various rap and hip hop artists who grew up in the complex, is the largest public housing project in the United States. The complex consists of the North and South Queensbridge Houses, spanning the area between Queensboro Bridge and 41st Avenue from Vernon Boulevard to 21st Street. The Houses are part of the New York City Housing Authority.

At the beginning of 1934, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia founded the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). It was a moment of great need in the city, as its poorer residents struggled with a shortage of affordable homes amidst the pressures of the Great Depression. The state had just amended its housing laws of 1924, allowing the establishment of municipal housing authorities. The federal government was also moving to address issues like living standards and affordability, and the 1930s were a time of change and improvement in the availability of safe, sanitary, and economical residences for the poor and working class.

York Avenue - 74th Street, looking northwest, 1934. This corner of mostly empty storefronts and apartments on the upper floors would not survive long after this photograph was taken. In 1939 a Norman Gothic style church was erected on this corner for a congregation with a long New York City history. The Church of the Epiphany was established in 1833 as the first church of the New York Protestant Episcopal City Mission Society. The parish, which began in a small room on the Lower East Side, had their first church building at 130 Stanton Street. Through various moved and mergers with other parishes the church had services in locations on 47th and 50th Streets, as well as Lexington Avenue. The current church building was constructed around the time that the nearby hospital facilities were also being built. The architect of the church, Marion Sims Wyeth of the firm Wyeth & King, is perhaps currently (2017) best known as the architect of Mar-a-Logo. This Florida mansion built by socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post as a winter retreat for presidents was purchased in 1985 by Donald Trump and has been used in 2017 by the 45th president.

Webster Branch, November 20, 1928. Constructed in 1906 to the designs of the architectural firm of Babb, Cook & Willard, the Webster Branch of the New York Public Library became an important community hub for the neighborhood's large Czech population. The library provided Czech newspapers and magazines, children’s story hours in Czech, a location for Bohemian Club meetings, and exhibition space for cultural displays.

Three-story frame structures, southwest corner of 1st Avenue and 75th Street, 1935. Charles Kosches was a furniture store that had locations uptown as well as on 14th Street and st Avenue.

Riverview Terrace at the foot of Sutton Square, ca. 1977. This iconic view of the East River and the Queensboro Bridge was made famous by Woody Allen's 1979 film, "Manhattan." Riverview Terrace itself (out of frame at left) is a private cobblestoned block, once part of an 1878 development of 24 townhouses, of which six remain.

Blackwell Island Lighthouse, ca. 1970. Constructed in 1872, by the Board of Governors of the Commission of Charities and Correction, the lighthouse was rendered in stone that was quaried on the island by inmates of the nearby Asylum under the direction of supervising architect was James Renwick, Jr. (of St. Patrick's Cathedral fame). The lighthouse originally sat on a piece of land connected to the main island by a bridge. Today, it is firmly attached, as the northern point of the now-named Roosevelt Island.

Allan Stillman, the founder of "T.G.I. Fridays" unknowingly created what would become one of the most beloved and hated eating establishments of its era. Stillman, a perfume salesman, put down $5,000 (plus an additional $5,000 he borrowed from his mom) to turn a divey boy's bar into a hoppin' singles hangout, velvet ropes and all. Read on to learn the history of T.G.I. Fridays.

Public School 158, 1920. This large school which fronts York Avenue from 77th to 78th Streets opened on Jan. 9, 1899. For more than four years, a school trustee, W. Horithal, had been advocating for a school building to education the rapidly growing population of immigrant children in the neighborhood. Today the school is named for Bayard Taylor, an American poet, literary critic, translator, travel author, and diplomat.

At the beginning of 1934, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia founded the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). It was a moment of great need in the city, as its poorer residents struggled with a shortage of affordable homes amidst the pressures of the Great Depression. The state had just amended its housing laws of 1924, allowing the establishment of municipal housing authorities. The federal government was also moving to address issues like living standards and affordability, and the 1930s were a time of change and improvement in the availability of safe, sanitary, and economical residences for the poor and working class. Queensbridge Houses, located in Long Island City in Queens and named for the nearby Queensboro Bridge, opened to residents in 1939. The rent for a 4 1/2 room apartment was $22.75 per month, which is about $390 in today’s dollars. (Today rent is based on a percentage of the tenant’s income and averages around $445.) In order to cut costs, elevators originally stopped only on every other floor. The Y shape of the buildings, however, was unique and was intended to provide light and fresh air to tenants no matter where their apartment was located. There remains ample outdoor space, which is augmented by Queensbridge Park across Vernon Boulevard. Indoor and outdoor community spaces that were part of the original construction remain active today, offering activities for children and seniors. In the 1950s, the racially mixed community at Queensbridge was effectively segregated when the NYCHA moved higher income residents out of the complex, leaving mostly African American and Latino families. The complex experienced an epidemic of crime during the 1980s and 1990s, becoming one of the most dangerous housing projects in the city, but at the same time it fostered the talents of young people who went on to distinguished careers in rap and hip hop, including Nas, Havoc of Mobb Deep, and Marley Marl, to name just a few. Athletes such as basketball players Sean Green and Metta World Peace also grew up in Queensbridge. Frederick Brendan, writing about the project’s musical legacy in XXL Magazine, stated, “\[T]he Bridge has produced the highest per-capita talent of any ’hood.” The complex spans 29 six-story buildings and today houses nearly 7,000 people.

New York City’s leaders pioneered a revolutionary vision of urban living: large-scale, master-planned, high-rise, low-density, apartment communities. The success of these places—with residents, the media, and designers—set the city on a path to density reduction in the decades that followed. This story is adapted from an exhibition at the Skyscraper Museum. The original version can be seen here.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Queens buildings.

My Archive Spring 2019 "On a sizzling Indian Summer afternoon on September, 1958, on a New York sidewalk, Eileen M. Scanlon, a June, 1958 graduate of Julia Richman High School, with her KODAX in hand seized the moment, for posterity, via a picture of her youngest sister, Francie (right) and best friend, outside of that very high school." —Francie Scanlon

New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (now NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center), ca. 1931. The view is from Roosevelt Island, then known as Welfare Island.

Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden, ca. 1939. Located on 61st Street between 1st and York Avenue, this plot was originally purchased by Colonel William S. Smith, a Revolutionary War veteran and politician. Smith found the property with his wife, Abigail Adams, the daughter of founding father and second U.S. President John Adams. The two bought the land with intentions to develop it into an estate called "Mount Vernon," named for George Washington's plantation in Virginia. The couple eventually sold the land, never beginning construction of their planned estate. Instead, William T. Robinson, who owned a house nearby, purchased the property to build a stone carriage house and stable. He continued to call the area "Mount Vernon." Unfortunately, Robinson's main estate was lost to a fire in the 1820s. In 1826, the former carriage house was converted into a hotel by Joseph Coleman Hart. Surrounded by rural lands, the stone house provided an easy getaway for Manhattanites looking to spend a day in the country. In an era with no public parks, the area provided New York City's elite with a place to roam free and participate in many activities, such as boating and hiking in proximity to the East River. Mount Vernon was more of a country club than a hotel, and many guests returned home to the city in the evenings by steamboat or stagecoach. The hotel closed in 1833, likely put out of business by nearby competitors. It was purchased by Jerimiah Towle and converted into a private residence for his family. As photographs indicate, by the early 20th century the Standard Light and Gas Company began building tanks in the vicinity of the property and eventually purchased the home in 1905. The building's ownership was eventually passed down to the Colonial Dames of America, a patriotic society, who converted the former hotel into their headquarters in 1924. Coinciding with the New York's World's Fair, the building was converted into the Abigail Adam Smith Museum, which was later renamed the Mount Vernon Hotel Museum and Garden to better reflect its history. The Colonial Dames of America still operate the Hotel Museum and Garden, which focuses on the history of New York City after the construction of the Erie Dam in 1925.

The four buildings of the former Shively Sanitary Tenements (a.k.a.East River Homes, Vanderbilt Model Tenements); 1911. Built in 1910-11, the Shively Sanitary Tenements, named for Dr. Henry Shively, were an experiment in housing for sufferers of tuberculosis and their families. Shively, architect Henry Atterbury Smith, and benefactor Anne Harriman Vanderbilt envisioned a housing development where poor tuberculosis patients could receive treatment in an environment replete with fresh air and sunlight — without being quarantined from their non-infected families. Smith's design prioritized features encouraging exposure to fresh air: open stairways, courtyards, rooftop recreation areas, and triple-hung windows were all thought to confer therapeutic benefits. The trustees were ultimately unable to provide meaningful help to poor New Yorkers with tuberculosis, though not for any failure of design or treatment — the apartments were simply too expensive for the communities they were intended to serve. In 1923, the trust governing the project was dissolved and the buildings sold for residential use. In 1986, the residential units were again turned over for condo conversion, with the new development dubbed the Cherokee apartments, after neighboring Cherokee Place.

City Hospital Blackwell's Island ca. 1896 The City Hospital on Blackwell's Island was originally called Penitentiary Hospital due to its nature as the hospital for the inmates of Blackwell's Penitentiary. Built in 1832, its name changed to the City Hospital Blackwell's Island after a fire caused its reconstruction in 1861. The new building, designed by James Renwick Jr. and constructed by inmates, served both the prisoners and the city's poorer inhabitants. Its name changed once again to Charity Hospital in 1873 due to the nature of its work. This, in turn, caused Blackwell's Island to be renamed Welfare Island in 1921. To complete all this renaming, the island itself was redesignated Roosevelt Island in 1973. WIth many of the City Hospital's facilities growing obsolete, the City Hosptial was moved to Queens in the 1950s. The hospital building on Roosevelt Island was abandoned and left to ruin. Though it has fallen into disrepair, the Landmarks Preservation Committee granted it landmark status in 1975 for its important architectural details.

Queensbridge Houses, 1939. The Queensbridge Houses are the largest public housing project in the United States, with almost 7,000 residents in 3,142 units. The complex opened in 1939 and is operated by the New York City Housing Authority. The unusual shape of the buildings (two Y's connected at the base) was an attempt to provide more natural light to the residents. The buildings' facilities include basketball courts, a rollerskating rink, and dance classes in studios. The Queensbridge Houses are well-known for their connection to hip hop and rap music. Some of the most influential musicians in the genre have lived in Queensbridge, including Nas, Mobb Deep, and MC Shan.

Bodine Castle With its rather gloomy, forbidding exterior implying Gothic origins, there is almost as much of the Romanesque in this "castle." It may be sensed primarily in the massing of the elements and in the round-arched windows and doors. In its final location, it would have been difficult to visualize the spacious grounds and lawns that must have once surrounded the house.

New York City has 520 miles of waterfront (which is more than Miami, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco put together)! Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, with rivers that separate and surround its land, the waterways of the city have long played a major role in the development and growth of the city. The safe passage of goods, fuel, and passengers has always been of paramount importance and as such dozens of lighthouses have been erected on land and at sea, used to aid in maritime navigation. This lists highlights a few of historic lighthouses that have illuminated the waterways of the city.

Crew waterproofing reinforced concrete entrance to the 60th Street Tunnel, October 17, 1917. Plans originally called for the BMT Broadway Line to connect to Queens lines via the Queensboro Bridge, but this plan was scrapped due to uncertainty over the bridge’s ability to support additional train and vehicular traffic. The tunnel opened on August 1, 1920, in an event timed to coincide with the opening of the Montague Street Tunnel; together, the tunnels connected the Manhattan’s BMT Broadway Line to service in Brooklyn and Queens.

The Memorial Hospital (now part of Memorial Sloan Kettering) moved to its new location following a donation of land and millions of dollars from John D. Rockefeller Jr. amongst others. Officially reopening in 1939, the Memorial Hospital was one of the city's leading cancer hospitals.

Col. Smith House (also known as the Adams Mansion), 1924. This Federal style structure was originally built as the carriage house for the large 23-acres estate of John Adams' daughter Abigail and her husband, William Stephens Smith. Despite grand plans and an idea to name the estate after George Washington's home, the Smiths were forced to sell the estate due to financial troubles. This building was completed in 1799 by the next owner, William T. Robinson, a well-to-do merchant. By the 1820s the building and its nearby structures and land were purchased and converted in the Mount Vernon Hotel, which was a day hotel catering to a rising middle class looking to escape the crowding and congestion of downtown. The hotel would only stay open for seven years. For the rest of the 19th and early 20th century it was a private residence. The building was sold to Standard Gas and Light Company in 1905. The Colonial Dames of New York purchased it in 1924 (the year this photo was taken) and turned it into a museum. It has continued in that capacity into the 21st century.

FDR Drive, north of 78th Street, ca. 1979. The City and Suburban Homes Company was a firm established in 1896 whose goal was to create humanely designed tenements that produce a substantial profit. In 1901 they began filling the block between 78th and 79th and York and First Avenue. The block would eventually include 13 model tenements. The one outlier on the block was the building at the northwest corner of 78th Street and the East River. Constructed in 1910-1912 as a joint project with the Junior League of New York, the building was called the Junior League Hotel for Working Women, and was a residence specifically for single women. Designed by Philip Ohm, in a simple style with neo-Renaissance features. The original entrance was facing the water on what was then quiet Exterior Street (now elevated and noisy FDR Drive). In 1913, there were 317 residents including 40 stenographers, 32 dressmakers, 18 librarians, 14 milliners and 5 telegraphers. In 1978-1980 the building was converted into apartments and after threats of demolition in the 1980s, the building was lanmarked in 1990. Today the building remains residential, though the entrance now sits , safely, on East 78th Street.

1314-1318-1322 York Avenue (Avenue A), at and adjoining northeast corner of 70th Street, 1928. No. 1314 (at corner) was built around 1905 on the site of the Davis Moulding Mill (1895). No. 1322 (at left) was built around 1895, as a cigar factory, and circa 1916 by the American Tobacco Company. These buildings were demolished soon after this photograph was taken in 1928. They were replaced by a building for the New York Hospital and Cornell Medical School, which included residences for nurses. Today that structure is called the Hemsley Medical Tower and is a residence for families of patients at New York -Presbyterian Hospital.

Court of the First Model Tenements in New York City, 1936 At the time of the 1879 Tenement House Act, which first regulated the City’s low-income housing, Mayor Edward Cooper invited a group of prominent businessmen to form the Improved Dwelling Association. The Association invested $300,000 in the first model tenement and by law was limited to a five percent return on its investment. Constructed in 1882, the tenement was laid out along the perimeter of First and Second Avenues and 71st and 72nd Streets, with an open courtyard in the center admitting light and air. Fifty years later, Abbott documented the courtyard, which had become a communal laundry line: ropes with pulleys led from apartments to five-story poles embedded in concrete. She later recalled that winter day: the laundry was frozen stiff, and the children were huddled together, too cold to move. In the 1960s, the tenement was replaced with a full-block, white brick apartment building.

My Archive Spring 2019 "A photo of my father in front of the building we lived in—242 East 72nd Street in Manhattan, taken by my brother for a class assignment." —Jill Melamed

St. Monica Roman Catholic Church, ca. 1905. Founded in 1879, St. Monica's was the fourth Catholic parish established on the Upper East Side. While the first services were conducted in a small second-story store space, the church moved into its first new church building in 1883. In 1906 the firm of Schickel & Ditmars, well known for their Catholic church architecture completed the current church. The Gothic Revival building opened for services on Thanksgiving Day.

The nurses plunged her into an ice-cold bath, pulled her out sopping wet, and threw a sheer flannel slip over her head. Large black letters spelled “Lunatic Asylum, B.I., H. 6.” across the garment. Nellie Brown, the now-freezing woman, was relegated to Blackwell’s Island, Hall 6.

Seen in this undated photograph, the First Hungarian (Magyar) Reformed Church at East 69th Street, has a distinguished history, architect, and design. Originally established on the Lower East Side in 1895, the congregation commissioned, in 1914, Hungarian-American architect Emery Roth to design their new church in Yorkville. Roth was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States as a child. He opened a New York City office in 1895, and over the next forty years, he designed some of the most iconic apartment houses in New York City in a variety of styles. The First Hungarian Reformed Church was the architect’s only ecclesiastical building, and it displays a Hungarian vernacular style that incorporates Art Nouveau motifs. The structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000 and as a New York City individual landmark in 2019.

The Holy Trinity Cathedral, at 319 East 74th Street, was constructed in 1932 in the Neo-Byzantine style. Eleanor Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the cathedral in 1931, and today the church serves as the National Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in America. Originally established in 1891 on the West Side, Holy Trinity was the first Greek Orthodox church in New York City. But that’s not the only first on the block. The Upper East Side is so dense with extraordinary ecclesiastical structures that this stretch of East 74th Street is also home to Jan Hus Presbyterian Church, (visible further up the street in this photograph) at 351 East 74th Street. Jan Hus is the oldest Czech Presbyterian Congregation in the United States. Originally founded in 1877 to serve a variety of small Czech communities worshiping around the city, the parish grew to become the First Evangelical Bohemian Presbyterian Church. The building at East 74th Street was constructed in 1888 by renowned architect R.H. Robertson in a Bohemian Gothic Revival Style with features “that harks back to Prague,” embracing the cultural roots of its congregation. The church went on to build an even greater sense of community around Czech identity when it constructed the Neighborhood House next door in 1915. The house became a center for Czech music, art, and dance, and offered social services like job training, athletic clubs, and language classes. Later it also offered a number of theatrical shows that would serve as early training grounds for Barbra Streisand, Robin Williams, and Jerry Seinfeld. Most recently the Neighborhood House has provided outreach and advocacy for the homeless In 2019 the congregation sold its East 74th Street building and purchased a new property on First Avenue where they hope to create an Urban Outreach Center comprised of a pantry, showers, charging stations, and more to serve the community. The building at East 74th Street was acquired by the Church of Epiphany, which is adapting the sanctuary and community house for continuing us

Over the years, more than a few New Yorkers have taken the phrase "A man's home is his castle" literally. This tour takes you through a few of the fortifications that New Yorkers have built for themselves.

Eberhardt's House of Vienna, date unknown. In the 1960s this spot at 320 East 79th Street was bar and restaurant called Eberhardt's House of Vienna. Then it became Ma Pomme, a French restaurant. By 1972, it was the Neopolitan Noodle which was the scene of a mistaken mob hit on August 11, 1972. Here is the story: To avenge the death of Joseph “Crazy Joe” Gallo, a member of the Colombo crime family, a hitman was hired to kill four men who had supposedly set up Gallo's murder. They were Colombo family acting boss "Little Allie" Persico and three mob lieutenants. (This was an intra-family crime wave.) The man arrived and sat at the bar, where his marks were supposed to be sitting as well. Instead, they had moved to a table, and the hitman mistook four kosher meat sellers for his targets. He pulled out two long-barreled pistols and began shooting. Two of the meat sellers died while the others were seriously injured. The gunman was never found. Today, the building that housed these restaurants as well the others that followed (Chez Z and Vienna ‘79) is the Albanian Consulate. Thanks to UA user Anne Raso for this tip about this spot's interesting history.

Abigail Adams Smith House, 1935.

Octagon Tower, ca. 1970. The Blackwell's Island Asylum opened in 1839. The first lunatic asylum in the city of New York and the first municipal mental hospital in the country, the facility on Blackwell's Island (later Welfare, now Roosevelt Island) was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. Nearly from its opening the institution was plagued by overcrowding, under-funding, and scandals. In 1887 Nellie Bly, a reporter, entered the hospital under the guise of insanity on assignment from newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer. Her resulting report, later published as "Ten Days in a Mad-House," exposed and embarrassed the institution and was a major factor in its closure. Beginning in 1894, the institution slowly emptied, continuing until the final patients were moved to new facilities in 1901. The building was then taken over by Metropolitan Hospital, which remained on the island through 1955. The Octagon Tower is the only surviving structure of the original building. It was the main entrance to the Asylum. After the Metropolitan Hospital vacated the building in the 1950s it remained vacant and was left to deteriorate. The wings of the structure were demolished and the Octagon Tower was in rough shape (seen here) when it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. In the early 2000s the building was restored and opened as the entrance to a pair of large adjacent apartment buildings.

Penitentiary and City Hospital, on the south end of Welfare Island; as seen from the Queensboro Bridge, March 5, 1933. In 1832, on what was then called Blackwell's Island, a large penitentiary was constructed. The long imposing arcaded structure looked a bit like a castle with crenelations at the roofline and turrets. This complex included areas for both male and female prisoners. In the 1830s hundreds of prisoners were head there and spent their days in labor, often breaking rocks. Boss Tweed was imprisoned here in 1874, though he had a private unlocked room and a secretary. Though the island prison likely had a long history of poor conditions and corruption, it was not until the early 20th century that the conditions were widely made public by Katharine Davis, the female Commissioner of Correction in 1914. Despite the accusations of overcrowding, drug-dealing, and favoritism the prison survived until reforms by Mayor La Guardia in the mid 1930s finally prompted the closing of the facility and the removal of prisoners to the nearly complete complex on Riker's Island.

Public School 183, 1920. A C.B.J. Snyder school was constructed in 1902 and opened in 1903. The school has a long history of promoting science-based learning and has been nicknamed the "School of Discovery." Today the school remains P.S. 183 and is named after Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist and travel writer.

Who is the Bridge and Tunnel crowd? In more quotidian times, that moniker might call to mind tourists from New Jersey. Currently, the crowd in question might be New Yorkers themselves: Over the past several months, many New Yorkers have sped across these spans on their way out of the city. At the same time, subway-wary city-dwellers have also streamed across New York’s bridges, and through its tunnels, making what would ordinarily be public transit trips by foot, bike or car. Whether you’re in-town or out-of-town, this is a bridge and tunnel moment for New York City. Since the pandemic has redefined our relationship the city’s iconic modes of ingress and egress, let’s take this moment to recognize the bridges and tunnels that carry us in and out of the Upper East Side. Scroll on for a bridge and tunnel history of the neighborhood. Read this story in its original format here.

"The lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Roosevelt Island. Designed by James Renwick and built in 1872, the lighthouse is 50 feet tall with an octagonal shaft, and built of hewn blocks of gneiss in Gothic style. It is an imposing structure... Legend has it that before the lighthouse was built the outcropping was the site of a small fort and house belonging to the fort’s builder and who thereafter became the de facto caretaker of the property. To build the fort, the builder used materials found nearby and which were common on the island: clay, rock, dirt, and tall grasses. To get the materials to construction site on the outcropping, the builder faced an engineering challenge: the watery gap between island and outcropping. He solved his problem by creating a landfill using the clay, till, and rock. The power to accomplish all this work was supplied by the builder’s own brute strength and intelligence, working alone and by his own hand. It took determination, imagination, and time. Time was something he had in spades, as he was an inmate at the Lunatic Asylum, located just down the road apiece from the fort. His name was Thomas Maxey." Read this post in its original context here.

Rockefeller University (formerly Institute), ca. 1980.

Queensboro Bridge ca. 1910 Restoration and reuse have saved many Guastavino projects. Originally an open-air market under the Queensboro Bridge, the Bridgemarket served the community from 1914 to 1930. For nearly 60 years thereafter, the space functioned as a storage garage. In 1999, extensive restoration returned the area to public use as a market and popular event space named in honor of the Guastavinos.

The Queensboro Bridge, viewed from Sutton Square, ca. 1930. When the Queensboro— originally named the Blackwell's Island Bridge for the island close to the Queens side of the East River— was built, the area around the Queens approach was still sparsely settled. Large portions of land in the vicinity were owned by a few wealthy families and the remainder of the borough was home to truck farms, cemeteries, and race tracks. Following the consolidation of Greater New York in 1898, consolidationist politicians sought to accelerate the development of industry and housing in Queens; completion of a bridge connecting Queens to Manhattan was essential to these ambitions. Engineer Gustav Lindenthal, who was also chief engineer for the Hell Gate Bridge, collaborated extensively with architect Henry Hornbostel to conceive a bridge both functional and architecturally appealing. Hornbostel and Lindenthal used symmetry and repetition, towers capped with spires, and falsework support in an effort to compensate for the bridge's massiveness and relative lack of decorative ornamentation. The finished structure has been described as a cantilever bridge wit suspensions bridge lines. When the Quebec Bridge, a contemporary cantilever project planned as the longest cantilever in the world, collapse in 1907, apprehensive City officials ordered exhaustive tests of Lindenthal and Hornbostel's design. Administrative misgivings led also to concern about the quality of materials, which were subjected to exhaustive reinspection.

Saint Jean Baptiste Church ARCHITECT: Nicholas Siracino DATE: 1910-13 STYLE: Church The principal facade on Lexington Avenue is a masterpiece of lively symmetry with a tasteful and intelligent statement and restatement of architectural motifs. A temple-front portico screens the central door of the three that gives access to the Church. Four free-standing Corinthian columns, on a high plinth, support a full entablature and pediment.

Originally founded in 1895 by Slovakian immigrants on the Lower East Side, the Church of St. John Nepomucene moved north to East 57th Street, before finally settling in Yorkville at First Avenue and 66th Street. Their current building, seen here in 1927 two years after it was completed, was designed in a Romanesque Revival Style by architect John van Pelt. The prominent tower, rose window, and brick and stone facade with intricate details stand out along the busy avenue to this day.

The Church of St. Monica was founded in 1879 by the same pastor that had founded St. Joseph’s. St. Monica’s grew out of humble beginnings, with the mission to serve the expanding Irish Catholic population of the neighborhood. The current building at 413 East 79th Street, shown here at the year of its completion, 1905, was designed in a Gothic Revival style by the firm Schickel & Ditmars. Its facade on East 79th Street remains nearly unchanged since construction.

67th Street Branch, NYPL, July 26, 1930. Built in 1905 by Babb, Cook & Willard, the 67th Street Library has the Italian Renaissance Revival design of many of the Manhattan Carnegies. The most distinctive feature of the building is the unusual Art Nouveau transom window above doorway (seen at right).