Thursday, August 27, 2009

☞ REMEMBER: The Corner of 117th and Lenox

The last time we had a historic photo of southern Lenox Avenue in the late 19th century, most of the street views were still very pastoral. The above shot is the block on the north east corner of 117th and Lenox, a couple of decades later, in the early 1900's and illustrates the lively new businesses that the street would attract in the brand new buildings of the early 20th century. John Schultz's store at no. 144 Lenox advertises pilsner, beers and porter above the cornice of the windows and produce stands can be seen at the side. The store to left has H. Goldenberg as signage but it is unclear what they sold from all the crates out front. Today, this corner exist on a sort of mundane, architectural neutral zone on Lenox, one block north of the 2,3 train at 116th Street and these buildings are no longer there for the entire block consist of nondescript, late 20th century structures. Archival photo via NYPL

2 comments:

  1. I wonder what thw woman looking standing in fron the window was thinking? She makes the photo memorable.

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  2. The photo does have a strange double exposure affect since the early 19th century cameras require the subject to stand for 15 minutes at a time to take a picture. As one can imagine, people tend to move around and thus these blurred ghost images are formed because the shutter speed was too slow.

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