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January 1938. "Front of livery stable, East Side, New York City." 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
My family has been in the NYC horse drawn carriage business since 1981.
To the comment below about today's carriage stables: actually, there are four carriage stables in Manhattan in 2012, and they are all on the west side -- 37th, 38th, 48th, and 52nd Streets, all west of 10th Ave.
The stable on 38th Street still has the old doors with the smaller door for people to go in and out without opening the double doors. As for hay, in the old days it was winched up to the top floor or hay loft with a pulley system from the sidewalk; it is still done this way at the 38th & 48th Street stables; the others use elevators.
To Banderboy - there has never not been livery stables in Manhattan; the carriages that continue to ply their trade at Central Park and around town have been continuously in business since the Park was opened in the 1850s, and of course, there were always liveries before that time. Additionally, the 'fruit man' and other horse and wagon businesses were common enough in NYC right into the 1950s.
I think it was 611 East 11th Street. The next picture taken by Lee shows another stable with a gas tank in view. Those tanks were on East 12th and Avenue D.
Interesting door on the right. High enough to let people or hay in, but low enough to keep horses from straying.
On the east side of Manhattan today, you will find a number of livery stables still in operation. They house the horses that give carriage rides around the city. Does anyone know the srteet this 1938 photo was taken on?
I'm surprised there were livery stables in NYC as late as 1938.
Is that short door where the Shetland ponies go in and out?
I believe this where Louie De Palma got his first job. Indeed if you carefully zoom in on the opened door you may see him lurking.
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