Third Avenue El: 1910

this has got to be one of my all-time favorite photos. So beautiful! The damage to the negative actually adds to its impressionistic quality.

The dome with the flag was the New York World Building, yet another one of those structures that were once the tallest in the world. It was torn down in the mid-1950s and Pace University now occupies part of the site. I will have to walk through the area - now largely occupied by government buildings - to see whether any of the foreground buildings remain standing.

The row of buildings including Cowperthwait and the cigar company may be on Park Row. In which case, I would guess about half of them still remain, mostly housing various branches of the J&R electronics empire (JandR.com).

The Cowperthwait building in Harlem has been demolished and is currently an empty lot awaiting the official rezoning of 125th street before it can be developed. The planned building would be 630,000 square feet, and Major League Baseball would be the anchor tenant.

Cowperthwait & Sons was founded in 1807 and grew along with New York City "to supply household requisites to all classes of homes as they multiplied over and over." It was one of the earliest stores to actively cater to and serve the black population in NY from its Harlem store on 125th St. In 1907 they published the Cowperthwait Centennial March, with words and music by Abe Holzmann for their 100th anniversary 1807 to 1907.

So this might be in 1913.

1950s views from the El at Chatham Square.

In 1878, a ride on the El.

This was very well done. Occasionally I would take the Third Avenue El from the 169th Street Station, in the Bronx, to City College on 23rd Street. I remember the RR tracks overhanging the sidewalk in some places only 2 or 3 feet from the buildings on Third avenue. You could get a glimpse of the old tenements that housed working families, and the noise from the trains was deafening. The El in Manhattan came down in the early 1950s and Third Avenue became a business center with highrise office and residential buildings. Many of the original tenement structures, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, still survive, and the apartments that are no longer rent-controlled command outrageous prices but have no problem attracting tenants.

If you're interested in the Third Avenue El, check out this vid:

This was the Chatham Square stop. In 1910 that was quite a seedy part of Manhattan.

Cowperthwait & Sons pioneered installment credit at their Third Avenue store at about the time this picture was taken. They sold Singer sewing machines to their most reliable customers for scheduled payments. This was the forerunner of credit cards. Previously if a store allowed charge accounts, the entire balance had to be paid in 30 days.

I used to work near here. The municipal building visible in the upper right still exists. I have been inside only once, when my wife and I were getting our marriage license.

The domed building to the left, also extant, sits behind City Hall. I am pretty sure that the eastern wing of City Hall is the rectangular building visible between the cigar company and Cowperthwaite, to the left.

The tallest building in haze in the back is, of course, the Singer Building. That's one of the most famous architectural silhouettes of all time, even though the building was torn down in the 1960s.

Cowperthwait & Sons in business since 1804. Wow.

The large view is quite rewarding. Quite otherworldly. Interesting sign claims a business is in its 106th year at same location.