☞ REMEMBER: 324 Pleasant Avenue circa 1932

The lower part of East Harlem's Pleasant Avenue still retains much of its prewar architecture but there are a handful of lots that still remain today. At top is a photo circa 1932 that shows No. 324 Pleasant Avenue at 117th Street and one can see a wood frame house with a distinctive mansard roof. This area would still have been densely populated by the largest Italian community in New York City at this point in time and children can be seen freely playing in the streets (click on photo to enlarge).  A smokestack in the background would have been a factory on the next block that faces the East River and would have had manufacturing facilities on site.  Today, the house is gone but the new building in the background is the back end of the East River Plaza which opened last year (lower photo).  As for the empty lot, a new building is planned on site but has yet gone up. Archival photo courtesy NYPL