Commercial Buildings Archives - Page 37 of 76

Fifth Avenue Near 42nd Street, New York City

June 20, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking south on Fifth Avenue in New York City from in front of the New York Public Library, between 41st and 42nd Streets, around 1910-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroi Publishing Company Collection.

Fifth Avenue in 2016:

The first photo is blurry and somewhat out of focus, which gives a busy, chaotic feel to the picture as blurred cars speed past the pedestrians on the crowded sidewalks. Not much has changed in that regard in the past century, and even many of the buildings from the first photo are still standing. There is a good number of modern skyscrapers in this scene, but interspersed with them is a variety of early 20th century commercial buildings.

Some of the historic buildings in the present-day scene include the Knox Hat Building on the far right, at the corner of 42nd Street. Built in 1902, this 10-story building housed a company that probably sold many of the hats worn by the pedestrians in the first photo. Further down Fifth Avenue on the left is a similarly-designed building with a copper mansard roof. This was the Knabe Building, which was completed in 1906 for Wm. Knabe & Co., a piano manufacturing company.

Other early 20th century commercial buildings include the one on the far left at the corner of 41st Street, and, a block away, the current Mid-Manhattan Library building, which has the two vertical red banners in the 2016 scene. The most prominent building in this area, though, is the main branch of the New York Public Library just out of sight to the right. Only the lions at the front steps are visible from this angle, but they help to establish the date of the first photo as being no earlier than about 1910-1911, when they were installed at the newly-opened library building.

Fifth Avenue from 42nd Street, New York City

June 20, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking north up Fifth Avenue from the corner of 42nd Street, around 1900-1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Fifth Avenue in 2016:

Unlike sections of Fifth Avenue to the south of here, this then and now scene shows no discernible landmarks left from the first photo. The area in this view, from 42nd Street north to Central Park, has some of the most valuable commercial real estate in the world, so over the years most of the low-rise structures from the early 1900s have been replaced with more modern buildings. One such building is to the left of center in the 2016 photo, at the corner of 43nd Street. Built in 1954 as the home of the Manufacturers Trust Company, this glass and aluminum building was an early example of modern architecture in the United States, and it is now designated as a New York City landmark.

The first photo was taken sometime before automobiles became the dominant form of transportation in the city, as most of the vehicles in this scene are horse-drawn carriages. However, one particularly interesting vehicle is the double-decker bus on the left side, which was operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company. Unlike all of the other numbered avenues in Manhattan, Fifth Avenue never had a trolley line, as its wealthy residents did not want tracks and trolleys running down their street. Instead, it was served by buses such as the one in the photo, which carries a Bull Durham Chewing Tobacco advertisement on the side of it. This has continued to the present-day, with several bus lines running along the surface of Fifth Avenue instead of a subway underneath it.

Fifth Avenue from 36th Street, New York City

June 18, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking south on Fifth Avenue from 36th Street, around 1910-1915. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The view in 2016:

This view shows the same section of Fifth Avenue as this earlier post, just from the opposite direction. Like the photos in that post, it is remarkable how many buildings here are still standing over a century later. Most of the buildings here date back to the first decade of the 1900s, when this section of Fifth Avenue was becoming a major commercial district. To the right, at the corner of 35th Street, is the New York Accessories Exchange Building, which was built in 1907 and has had few exterior alterations since then. Across the street from it is the former B. Altman department store building, which was built in 1906 and is now used by the City University of New York. The one major building from the first photo that is not still standing, though, is the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, located two block away on the right side. As mentioned in earlier posts, it was demolished in 1929 to build the Empire State Building.

Waldorf-Astoria and Knickerbocker Trust, New York City

February 9, 2018June 18, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking south along Fifth Avenue toward the intersection of 34th Street, around 1904, with the Knickerbocker Trust Company building in the foreground and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel beyond it. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2016:

The two buildings in the first photo, the Waldorf-Astoria and the Knickerbocker Trust Company Building, have been discussed in further detail in earlier posts, but this photo here provides a particularly good view of the architecture of the Knickerbocker building, which had been completed around that time. It was designed by McKim, Mead & White, a prominent architectural firm whose other significant works of the era included the Boston Public Library and New York’s Penn Station. Unfortunately, although the bank building is technically still standing here, subsequent alterations have completely destroyed the original architecture, including the addition of 10 stories on top of it in 1921 and the replacement of the facade in 1958 with the bland exterior that it now has. As for the Waldorf-Astoria, it is obviously no longer standing; the famous hotel was demolished in 1929 and the Empire State Building was built in its place.

Fifth Avenue from 34th Street, New York City

June 18, 2016June 17, 2016 by Derek Strahan

Looking north on Fifth Avenue from 34th Street in New York City, probably in 1912. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

Fifth Avenue in 2016:

This view shows much of the same section of Fifth Avenue as the photos in an earlier post, with the only difference being that this was taken a block north. Although taken only around five years apart, the “then” photos in these two posts show a number of changes. As mentioned in that post, Fifth Avenue was widened in 1908, and the 1912 photo here also shows a significant increase in the number of cars on the road, as opposed to the horse-drawn carriages that appear in the earlier view.

The date of 1912 for this photo is established thanks to a banner across Fifth Avenue in the distance, which is only readable in high-resolution copies of this photo. It is a political ad for Republican presidential candidate and his running mate James S. Sherman, and although they ran for office in both 1908 and 1912, the photo can be conclusively dated to 1912 because of the license plates on the cars in the foreground; New York did not begin issuing license plates until 1910. At the time, both men were running for re-election, but President Taft lost in a landslide, coming in third behind Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. It was an even worse year for Sherman, though, who died less than a week before the election.

Today, a surprising number of buildings from the first photo are still standing, especially in the foreground. The Knickerbocker Trust Company Building on the far left has been altered beyond recognition, but it is still there, along with many of its early 20th century neighbors. The building on the far right is the former home of department store B. Altman and Company. It was built in 1906, and is now used by the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Another historic landmark built around the same time was the Gorham Building, on the left side of the street near the center of the photo. Although the street-level parts of the building have been altered over the years, it is still recognizable from the first photo.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City

February 9, 2018June 17, 2016 by Derek Strahan

The Waldorf-Astoria, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, around 1900. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection.

The scene in 2016:

The Waldorf-Astoria is one of the most famous hotels in New York City history, and it all began as a result of a feud within the Astor family, whose origins dated back to 1827, when William B. Astor, Sr. purchased a significant amount of property in present-day Midtown Manhattan, including a section of Fifth Avenue from 32nd Street to 35th Street. With a purchase price of $20,500 (about $433,000 today), this largely undeveloped land on the outskirts of the city turned out to be a wise investment, and Astor became the wealthiest man in America.

Here along Fifth Avenue, two of his sons split the block on the west side, with John Jacob Astor III and his wife Charlotte Augusta Gibbs living on the corner of 33rd Street, and William B. Astor, Jr. and his wife Charlotte Webster Schermerhorn at 34th Street. As explained in more detail on the Daytonian in Manhattan blog, a rivalry formed between their wives, which ultimately led to John’s son William Waldorf Astor demolishing his father’s house and building a large hotel, named the Waldorf Hotel, that overshadowed his aunt Charlotte’s house right next door. The noise and traffic generated by the hotel was, as desired, a significant nuisance in the previously residential neighborhood, and Charlotte soon moved out of the house.

When Charlotte moved out, her son, John Jacob Astor IV, announced plans to build a competing hotel on the property, named the Astoria Hotel. It was designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, the same architect responsible for the Waldorf, and by the time it was completed in 1897 the two sides of the family had agreed to consolidate the two into a single hotel, named the Waldorf-Astoria. The first photo here was taken soon after, and it shows the distinction between the earlier Waldorf Hotel on the left, with the significantly larger Astoria on the right. Together, they occupied much of the block, and with 1,300 rooms it was the largest hotel in the world at the time.

Although he started the hotel, William Waldorf Astor did not remain in the United States. He moved to England and became a British subject, earning the title of 1st Viscount Astor in 1917, two years before his death at the age of 71. As for John Jacob Astor IV, he is probably best known today for having been the richest man aboard the Titanic when it sank in 1912. He had a net worth of around $87 million at the time (around $2 billion today), and he and his second wife Madeline had been returning from their honeymoon aboard the ship. Madeline and their unborn son survived the sinking, but Astor did not. Coincidentally, the hearings for the U.S. Senate inquiry into the disaster were subsequently held here at the hotel.

In its heyday, the Waldorf-Astoria functioned not only as a high-end hotel, but also as a restaurant and event venue for the wealthy New Yorkers who lived nearby. However, by the 1920s the relatively new hotel was already showing its age. Its Victorian interior decor, while fashionable in the 1890s, was soon out of date. Making matters worse, most of New York’s upper class, including the Astor family themselves, had moved further uptown, to mansions in the vicinity of Central Park. This, combined with Prohibition’s ban on alcohol sales, hurt their dining rooms, which had once been one of the hotel’s most profitable business.

The hotel closed in 1929, and two years later reopened in a new building further uptown on Park Avenue, where it still stands today. The original building here on Fifth Avenue was then demolished to clear the space for the Empire State Building, which was completed in 1931 after just over a year of construction.