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Today's Top 5
Patience and Fortitude: 1911
Submitted by Dave on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 4:05pm.
Tags:
The New York Public Library (last seen here sans lions) around the time of its opening in 1911. Detroit Publishing Co. glass negative. View full size.
Amazing
Submitted by Anonymous Arkie on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 9:07pm.
The building is so clean and new that it looks like a really detailed architectural model. Nice to see the lions made it safely!
Missing Statues
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 7:18pm.
In the previous picture there was a statue (one of four) being installed on the cornice next to the Astor dedication. In this completed version of the building, the statues are missing in action.
What gives? Did they crack on installation? Were there nudes upsetting to the morality of the day? Or were they simply "bad art" best lost?
[They're still there. The building's not quite finished in our photo. - Dave]
Awesome replaced by more awesome
Submitted by misscrabtree on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 2:16am.
The library sits on the site of the first distributing reservoir for NYC, with water originating from the Croton River upstate.
Built in 1842, the reservoir was awesome even compared to this gorgeous building. The walls were 5 stories tall, 25 feet thick, and there was a promenade up top, all around the perimeter. It held 20 million gallons of water.
It was shut down when the Croton River was dammed and alternative water aqueducts were completed from the Ashoken upstate, and was demolished in 1899 to make way for the library.
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Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.
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Today's Top 5