I have been amazed in that I never saw a photograph of the newly landmarked "Tin Pan Alley"in our city at Broadway to 6th avenue.
I wnder if any photographs exsist of the interiors of those buildings
#43 -57 west 28th St.
I have found myself with binders full of vintage postcards from many NYC landmarks, buildings, train stations, parks etc
Is there's a social media group i could share them and sell as well?
The mammoth and sprawling size of these buildings -- built at the end of the 19th Century -- is well represented in these postcards. Also the trolleys going everywhere in the surprisingly wide streets. NYC was already a metropolis. Fascinating. The bizarre windowless convention center at Columbus Circle was unfortunately a disaster -- that's the only building that deserved to go.
Do any of these postcards show subway cars/stations?
@m.pipik Of course.
Thank you for restarting “ Streetscapes”. For many years, the column was my first read as I opened my NYT.
I could never understand why the column ended. But, based on the letters here, a large group of NYT readers are as excited and enthralled with its return as I.
The rich history of NYC (an understatement), particularly the many aspects that have been lost to progress, must be remembered and celebrated.
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I hope someone could arrange for audio and /or video recordings be made of some of the people at these events and their memories. Their knowledge and stories are lost once they are gone and we will be the worse for that loss. The stories give the buildings (and the city) their context. Would be a great project for a historical society or the Museum of NYC!
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Very cool, what I love about this hobby is it encompasses history, art and low prices! Most cards are a couple of buck at most. People collect for the love of the city, no ones doing it to make a quick buck or appear fashionable.
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I have a pretty large collection, arranged by geographical location—first the docks and lower Manhattan, midtown, then Brooklyn, concentrating on Brooklyn Heights, then Coney Island, upstate NY, other cities, etc.—but I know people who have far larger collections.
The best place to find NYC postcards isn't here, but in other cities and countries. I found hundreds for sale when I was in San Antonio back in 1997. Apparently one woman corresponded with many collectors around the world, and received cards from all of them.
I scanned in all of my Brooklyn Heights cards and have shared them with many others. Brownstoner.com did a feature on them here:
https://www.brownstoner.com/history/vintage-brooklyn-postcards-tower-hotel-25-clark-street-brooklyn-heights/
I used to go to the Metropolitan Post Card meetings, but don't buy cards any more. Now I'm into far larger and, alas, much more expensive streamlined "O" Gauge steam locomotive models.
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A friend born in 1907 left me a box of postcards. A quick look turned up many New York City cards from early 1900's. Also New Jersey shore, Long Island, New England and Quebec
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So great to read! And that the Christopher Grey legend lives on:) Thank you!
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I have a few old cards and can understand their appeal as collectibles.
I hope the club members with prodigious specialized collections have made legally-binding provisions for their preservation. Rare cards depicting old New York should end up in the picture collections of one of our three library systems. It’s tragic when collectors die and such treasures end up in a Dumpster instead.
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I couldn’t be happier that the Streetscapes column is back. Thank you, NYTimes.
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Nice pictures that look back on a bygone age when NYC, Manhattan, was a place to live and work for the poor and middle class. Their were lots of factory and ware house jobs and plenty of affordable housing. It certainly has changed as mass transit and roads/bridges reached the outer boroughs and Manhattan became the playground of the rich, famous and investment bankers.
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There were postcards of Bell Blvd in Bayside?! That's my old hood. Would love to see those. Looking at these, we all can't imagine how "lowrise" the whole city was then. And how cool are all those mansard roofs that barely lasted into the 20th century? Great hobby!
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You can find almost anything on eBay . . . even a postcard of your old neighborhood. And you don't even have to buy one.
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@Steve
You can see old 1940 tax photos of everywhere in NYC on NYC's Municipal Archives website. Many areas without distinctive buildings or scenes did not attract the postcard makers, who were, after all, only interested in making cards that sold well.
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I have one of my parents' house. Only one car nearby! Parked in the wrong direction.
And casement windows.
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I have been a member of the club for 15 years or so and really love the monthly meetings as well as the larger biannual shows. There are usually a half dozen or so dealers at the monthly meetings and I would encourage NYT readers to come by Sunday, December 8th for our holiday meetup! Beginning collectors should start by checking out the cheaper dollar boxes of unsorted cards. If you're a history buff and love a treasure hunt you're sure to have a good time. It runs from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and is at The Watson Hotel at 440 West 57th (between Ninth and Tenth Avenues). Admission is $3.00 and students are free!
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@WhooDoggie!
Thank you for the recommendation and notification of the upcoming meeting and post card collector show on Sunday. I went based on your announcement and had a very nice chat with Mr. Hy Mariampolski who was profiled in the article. We reminisced about growing up in the same Lower East Side neighborhood but in slightly different adjacent eras. And I bought some early 20th century antique postcards (postmarked 1906!) and later eras of a few of my personal favorites of historic NYC from Hy. Ellis Island, Coney Island, 14th Regiment Armory in Park Slope Brooklyn (which was my home base for NY National Guard service in 1988), 1962 World's Fair NYS Pavillion and "Flying Saucer" Observation Towers (which they are finally restoring), etc.
And ironically, I had just strolled the NoHo area Saturday evening prior after just flying in and took a night picture of the stunning Joseph Papp Theatre/Astor Library/Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society building lit up by floodlights. And the next morning I logged on to the NYT and I read of the hiidden history of the theater/library/and refuge for Holocaust survivors. The six degrees of separation of NYC past and present. I love and miss my hometown.
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Great that we have such documentation of Madison Square Park.
Lately Ms Berman has become a historian of the area just a few blocks away from Madison Square Park on West 28th street now threatened with demolition and hopefully soon landmarked the birthplace of American popular music Tin Pan Alley.
I have never seen a postcard of that area in it's glory.
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I have a great old postcard of Leighton's, that beautiful stone-clad restaurant on the Saw Mill River Parkway. It was the Sunday afternoon destination for lots of New Yorkers in search of a good dinner in the 1950s, with a duck-filled lake behind, perfect for squirmy toddlers.
I think it was Leightons that Jerry Seinfeld must have been thinking about in that episode about the smelly restaurant valet.
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My grandparents owned and operated a modest family resort in the “Catskills” ( really the Upper Delaware Valley) and the post cards depicting it are among my most prized possessions. Seeing the scrawled sentiments in the message sections and the Brooklyn, Queens, etc. pre-ZipCode addresses helps me appreciate the role these “upstate” vacations played in the lives of working class New Yorkers.
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What gorgeous old structures!; they sure knew how to build in those days and there wasn't an artisan or designer who couldn't dance circles around the the poseurs we have now, who can't even freehand a circle. Today, in Bloomberg's city, you could send someone a photo of downtown Houston, claim it was Manhattan, and no one would know the better. Hudson Yards anyone?
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