c.1890-1893
6 July 2004
Would you believe these two photos are of the same block? Both were taken looking west across Fifth Avenue at 116th Street. That's one block to the east of where I live.
I came across the top photo in a hypertext version of the 1861 novel Bessy Conway; or, The Irish Girl in America. The photo heads Chapter 6, but was not in the original book. As an aside that Bessy, the young colleen, Conway is quite a gal. The photo is uncredited, but I think the original is at the Museum of the City of New York or the LaGuardia/Corsi House at 307 E. 116th St. My only evidence of this is a very similar picture on East-Harlem.com.
The top picture was taken in the early 1890s. The buildings aren't arranged according to the street grid. The building boom that replaced all these buildings took place around 1904 in anticipation of the Sixth Avenue IRT subway line (today's 2/3 line). The hill has been somewhat leveled, but I wonder if the outcropping of bedrock between the buildings is still visible.
Comments