After seeing what the elevated train station looked like at 110th Street last week, we were able figure out that the southeast corner of West 116th Street and FDB/8th Avenue once had a similar structure. The top photo, circa 1940, shows the corner right after the elevated train tracks had been deconstructed. The cinder block covered section closer to the top must have lead to the entrance ramp that connected the building to the tracks. Today, there's a rather nondescript single level shop at the corner but the rough-looking exposed side of the adjacent building intimates that a large structure did originally sit on the lot. Check out the other tower station from last week's post:
LINK. Archival photo courtesy
NYPL. Current photo by Ulysses
After seeing what the elevated train station looked like at 110th Street last week, we were able figure out that the southeast corner of West 116th Street and FDB/8th Avenue once had a similar structure. The top photo, circa 1940, shows the corner right after the elevated train tracks had been deconstructed. The cinder block covered section closer to the top must have lead to the entrance ramp that connected the building to the tracks. Today, there's a rather nondescript single level shop at the corner but the rough-looking exposed side of the adjacent building intimates that a large structure did originally sit on the lot. Check out the other tower station from last week's post: LINK. Archival photo courtesy NYPL. Current photo by Ulysses
Boy, they didn't do anyone any favors by tearing that down, did they.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most interesting photographs you've unearthed in a while. Thank you for digging this up! It is a loss for that not to be here anymore. How gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteFascinating... thank you for making this connection for us. Surely something could have been done with that structure -- but I suppose the impulse for "progress" got ahead of the actual planning of alternatives.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's always depressing to note just how much of that adjacent building (the base of which houses Africa Kine) remains bricked up.
It seems this block in particular (along FDB) could see a lot of redevelopment in the coming years. I recall reading earlier in 2010 that the Masjid Aqsa will be moving from its current location to a church building they purchased on Manhattan Ave (just below 116th) -- but I thought the move was supposed to have happened by now. Does anyone have additional information?
I was wondering the same thing about Masjid Aqsa. I have not seen any signs of activity at the new location.
ReplyDeleteThe number of shuttered and decrepit storefronts on 116th between FDB and Lenox is indeed depressing. Definitely not "vibrant" as the realtors like to say.
Mark, I mostly agree. Though I would say the degree of vitality at the street level itself is pretty impressive. Our usual conversation about the balance between "old" and "new" in Harlem takes on an interesting dimension along 116th, where currently the "new" is most strongly represented by the dynamic, entrepreneurial risk-taking of the West African immigrant community.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to venture a guess, I would say the existing building owners are likely hunkered down and waiting for a sea change in property values and rents. That sea change may well come, but the combined effect of their individual, short-sighted tactics will tend to cut against their own collective interests by delaying the process of reinvestment.
Greater change may happen when the zeitgeist shifts from anxiety about risk to a willingness to consider potential ROI -- which to me seems pretty high at the moment for those who can stomach it.