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Broadway From Above: 1903

New York circa 1903. "Looking up Broadway from City Hall." With a view of the National Shoe & Leather Bank, and a roving vendor of DESKS. View full size.

New York circa 1903. "Looking up Broadway from City Hall." With a view of the National Shoe & Leather Bank, and a roving vendor of DESKS. View full size.

 

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Trolleys

Actually, the 'trolleys' in the photograph are cable cars. You can see the slot for the plough to attach to the cable between the tracks. Also lack of trolley poles and wires is a giveaway.

[By this time, all of Manhattan's cable lines had been converted to electricity; the slot is to access the underground electrical conduit. -tterrace]

Landmark

The New York Sun building on Chambers Street was originally New York City's first department store, built for the A. T. Stewart Company. It's now has National Historic Landmark status as well as New York Landmark status and currently houses the New York City Dept. of Buildings offices.

Sun in the North

That's the New York Sun building just to the north of City Hall Park. Publisher of the "Yes Virginia.. . " letter. Building still stands.

You can just about make out a corner (on the right) of "The New County Courthouse" today the home of the Board of Education. Now written in stone is the name "TWEED COURTHOUSE", and it has to be the only building named after a rouge - Tweed and his gang swiped millions from the city, and now he is honored with his name on the building that he used to swindle money for himself and friends.

And to think - the city fathers of NY, in building City Hall, never imagined that the city would grow north of here. And all this is facing north.

Actually ...

This photo could not have been taken from City Hall, as Murray Street is seen to the left (two streets downtown from Chambers) and Murray is south of City Hall.

This photo was taken from the old Post Office.

[Also known as the City Hall Post Office and Courthouse, part of the City Hall Park complex of municipal buildings. - Dave]

Looking Downtown

Compliments of the Museum of the City of New York: a look at the Chambers Street side of the National Shoe & Leather Bank Building. Apparently the bank was subsumed into the JP Morgan Chase empire.

Shoe and Leather Bank
1852 Established Shoe and Leather Bank
1865 Convert Federal National Shoe & Leather Bank of the City of NY
02/01/1906 Converted To Shoe & Leather Bank of the City of New York
04/01/1906 Acquire By Merger Metropolitan Bank (1905-4/1906)
04/01/1906 Name Change To Metropolitan Bank (4/1906-9/1921)
01/01/1921 Acquire By Merger Hamilton Trust Company
09/01/1921 Converted To Metropolitan National Bank of the City of NY
11/01/1921 Merge To Federal Chase National Bank of the City of New York
03/01/1955 Merge To State President and Directors of the Manhattan Company
03/01/1955 Name Change To Chase Manhattan Bank, The (1799-9/1965)
09/01/1965 Convert Federal Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., The
07/14/1996 Merge To State Chemical Bank
07/14/1996 Name Change To Chase Manhattan Bank, The
11/13/2004 Convert Federal JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association

Rogers, Peet & Co.

The building on the left with the flag was originally Rogers-Peet, a clothing store for men and boys.

It was at this location for over 70 years, finally closing in 1976. On March 5 of this year, an 1100-square-foot apartment (photo below) in the building sold for over $1.5 million.

I wonder if the man who built this little eight story neo-Renaissance tower could have ever guessed that his handiwork would ever bring so high a price.

NYC hasn't changed much

Notice the car cutting off the trolley, center left of the photo.

[That's an electric hansom cab. - Dave]

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