Contrasting 331 East 39th Street with Chrysler and Daily News Buildings ca. 1938

Standing near an abandoned tenement between First and Second Avenues, Abbott looked northeast toward two glamorous corporate headquarters on East 42nd Street. The campaign posters for Congress affixed to the tenement, for incumbent Republican John J. Connor and his opponent the Communist Israel Amter, speak to the neighborhood’s Irish and Jewish working-class constituents. Today, a garage and parking lot for Con Edison occupy 331 East 39th Street, and apartment buildings block the view of the famous skyscrapers.