February 9, 2024

The Phony and the Crackpot at City Hall, by Stanley H. Howe

February 9, 2024

The For the Record blog has frequently commented on the serendipitous nature of archival research. Thanks to imperfect descriptions and the sometimes haphazard filing practices of record-creators, researchers are often rewarded with seemingly random items. The typescript featured this week turned up in Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s subject files, in a folder labeled “Speeches, 1936.”

Henry Modell, to Hon. Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, January 8, 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The five-page typescript is titled “Cheese Club 1/13/36.” It appears to be a transcript of remarks that Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, gave to members of the Club. The exact nature of this organization is not entirely clear, but a reference in a description of Sardi’s restaurant seems plausible: “. . . a group of newspapermen, press agents, and drama critics who met for lunch regularly at Sardi's and referred to themselves as the Cheese Club.” It is possible that the Club dates back to James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) who founded the literary “Bread and Cheese,” according to a New York City Encyclopedia entry under literature.

Howe began his remarks: “It occurred to me that the members of the Cheese Club would be interested in hearing some of the interesting human incidents that occur at the City Hall. There are times when it seems that everyone of the seven million people of the City of New York is trying to see the Mayor.”

Take a few minutes to read Howe’s account of a day at City Hall. In his words: “Every day we have we have to deal with the phony and with the crackpot as well as with the serious and well-intentioned.”

Transcript, remarks to Cheese Club, by Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, January 13, 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

NYC Municipal Archives

February 2, 2024

Langston Hughes, The Writer’s Position in America

NYC Municipal Archives

February 2, 2024

Continuing our celebration of WNYC’s 100th Anniversary and in honor of Black History Month, we present this 1957 recording of Langston Hughes discussing the challenges faced by Black writers from a National Association of Authors panel discussion “The Writer’s Position in America.” The themes he discusses: representation, pigeonholing and lack of intellectual freedom, seem as salient today as they were in 1957.

Langston Hughes was an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, and although best known as a poet and novelist, was also a journalist, a composer and an activist. He was a frequent guest on WNYC radio.

On July 8, 1924, radio station WNYC made its inaugural broadcast from a studio at the top of the Municipal Building. During 2024, For the Record will celebrate the centennial of one of the nation’s first municipally-owned radio station with a series of articles featuring historical audio recordings from the WNYC collection in the Municipal Archives.

In 1986 the Municipal Archives acquired a large collection of original WNYC lacquer phono discs and tapes dating back to 1937. These unique audio recordings capture the sounds of a city and a nation through decades of transformations, tribulations, and triumphs in the voices of presidents, dignitaries, world leaders, artistic revolutionaries, musical geniuses, luminaries of the literati, and cultural icons. Outside of the federal government, the WNYC Collection is the largest non-commercial collection of archival audio recordings and ephemera from an individual radio broadcaster.

The Archives has collaborated with WNYC on a series of projects to reformat this material. Most recently, funding from the Leon Levy Foundation enabled digitization of thousands of hours of audio content that documented political, historical, scientific, and cultural events—both large and small.

Kenneth R. Cobb

January 26, 2024

The Condemnation Photographs

Kenneth R. Cobb

January 26, 2024

The Municipal Archives photograph collections are renowned and widely valued for their comprehensiveness. For example, the tax photograph series includes pictures of every house and building in all five Boroughs circa 1939 and 1985. As useful as they are, however, they depict only building exteriors. Pictures of building interiors are less well represented in the collections. There are interior views in New York Police Department crime scene and Housing Preservation and Development collections for example, but they are relatively few in number.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Entrance, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

This week, For the Record takes a look at some remarkable pictures in an unprocessed collection, the “Condemnation Photograph Files.” They consist of excellent quality exterior and interior pictures of all types of buildings—apartments, stores, factories, restaurants, theatres, garages, tenements, taverns, warehouses, filling stations—in short, the entire urban landscape of mid-century New York. They even include the legendary Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.

NBC Television (International) Theatre, Entrance, Columbus Circle, May 4, 1953. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

NBC Television (International) Theatre, General View of Theatre from stage, February 24, 1953. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

In a legal context “condemnation” is the process by which a government takes private property for public use under the right of eminent domain. In New York, condemnation proceedings take place in the Supreme Court. The pictures were created as part of the appraisal process that determined how much to compensate the property owner.

The Division of Old Records of the New York County Clerk received and filed the photographs upon conclusion of each Supreme Court condemnation proceeding. They range in date from 1946 to the early 1960s and total 52 cubic feet. There is a box-level inventory. They were transferred to the Municipal Archives in 1998.

Recently, a researcher visited the Archives looking for historical photographs of the San Juan Hill neighborhood in Manhattan before it was razed in the 1960s to make way for the Lincoln Center complex. With help from City archivists and the Collection Guide the patron identified the 1998 accession as a potential resource.

The box-level inventory created when the collection was transferred to the Archives described the contents in very broad terms—essentially by the name of the proposed project, e.g. Harlem T. B. Hospital, Lincoln Tunnel, or by the general neighborhood depicted, e.g. Upper Westside, East Harlem, etc. The San Juan Hill researcher examined the boxes that contained pictures of “Lincoln Square,” and “Columbus Circle,” both in the general vicinity of San Juan Hill, which seemed promising. And indeed they were; several unique images were discovered for the research project.

Hertzberg & Son, 2300 Fifth Avenue and West 140th Street, July 14, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Hertzberg & Son, 2300 Fifth Avenue and West 140th Street, Private Office, Main Floor, July 14, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Further examination of the collection revealed some rather noteworthy pictures. Given that property owners would be compensated not just for the building structure, but also for the value of equipment and fixtures inside the building, it makes sense that there are many interior scenes. In some instances, the pictures include people—shoppers in a store, patrons at the bar, and factory workers at desks and operating machinery.

Another feature of the pictures is their quality. They were taken by professional photographers and consist of well-composed large-format 8x10-inch black and white prints. Each image is captioned with a location and date. The Rutter Studio took almost all of the sample pictures in this article. The Rutter Studio is familiar to City archivists because the Borough President of Brooklyn contracted with them in the 1910s and '20s to document construction of the Coney Island Boardwalk and other public works in the Borough; many have been digitized and are available in the gallery.

Sinclair Refining Co., NE corner Broadway and 225th Street, General View of Station, November 1, 1948. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Sinclair Refining Co., NE corner Broadway & 225th Street, Office, November 1, 1948. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Of particular interest in the Condemnation series are pictures of the legendary Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. There are not people in the pictures (apparently the photographer worked during closing hours) but they do include the ballroom, bar area, murals, cloakrooms, etc. It is also interesting that the pictures date from 1952 and the building was not demolished until 1958/59. Whether this speaks to the time frame of the condemnation proceeding, or to protests against demolition of the Harlem landmark, will require further research. The Ballroom made way for the Delano Housing Complex, renamed the Savoy Park Apartments in 2017.

Further research will also be necessary to answer other questions about the condemnation process; e.g. what entity commissioned the pictures? The Court, the City, or the law firms representing the owners? Did the people in the pictures know the building was slated for demolition? Further research in MA collections might reveal answers. In the meantime, here is a selection from the series.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Entrance Lobby, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Easterly side of Ballroom, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Mural at Lunch Bar, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Kenneth R. Cobb

January 19, 2024

John Glenn, the First American to Orbit the Earth

Kenneth R. Cobb

January 19, 2024

John Glenn shaking hands with Mayor Wagner, March 1, 1962. Official Mayoral Photographs, NYC Municipal Archives.

This week’s article looks back to 1962 when WNYC broadcast NASA communications as well as chatter from Mission Control and various tracking stations around the world during astronaut Lt. Col. John H. Glenn’s orbit around the earth. We also feature records and photographs that document the city’s exuberant salute to Glenn and six fellow astronauts, Lt. Comdr. Alan B. Shepard, Capt. Virgil I. Grissom, Maj. Donald K. Slayton, Lt. Comdr. M. Scott Carpenter, Capt. Leroy Gordon Cooper and Comdr. Walter M. Schirra, Jr., that took place on March 1, 1962.

Planning for the celebration took place during the last week of February 1962 under the auspices of the Department of Commerce and Public Events. In 1954, Mayor Robert Wagner merged the Mayor’s Reception Committee, originally established by long-time City Greeter Grover Whalen in 1919, with the Department of Commerce set up by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in 1940, to form the new Department.

Astronauts leaving City Hall after tickertape parade, March 1, 1962. Official Mayoral Photographs, NYC Municipal Archives.

Program for Astronaut Day, 1962. Mayor Wagner papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Glenn event generated several folders of correspondence in Mayor Wagner’s Public Events sub-series. A typical item is the ten-page minutes of a planning meeting on February 24. The detailed document described the itinerary: “The official party will arrive at Marine Terminal, LaGuardia Airport, on Thursday morning, March 1st, aboard two planes... The official party will leave the Airport at 11:35 a.m. in order to be at Bowling Green in time for the start of the Broadway parade at 12:05.” After proceeding up Broadway, accompanied by marching bands, Mayor Wagner will meet the honored guests on the steps of City Hall. After brief remarks, the motorcade will travel to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. “Approximately two thousand people will attend the luncheon in the Grand Ballroom...” At the luncheon Mayor Wagner will confer on Glenn the Gold Medal of Honor, the City’s highest award.

Additional items in the correspondence folders point to the “no detail too small” aspect of event planning. An unsigned memo dated February 23, 1962, informs “Col. Barlett” that “Nobody is to be invited to sit on the dais unless the Mayor has personally approved the name.” And, “Governor Rockefeller is to be invited just like anyone else.” Another lengthy document lists the seating arrangements for each automobile in the motorcade, indicating make, model, and license plate number, e.g. astronaut Capt. Virgil Grissom and his wife were assigned to a bronze Cadillac, license IN 1826 NY.

Unknown participants at reception luncheon for Mercury astronauts, March 1, 1962. Official Mayoral Photographs, NYC Municipal Archives.

Luncheon menu for astronauts’ reception, 1962. Mayor Wagner papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

Newspaper clippings in the file describe the triumphant day: “Glenn Tribute Greatest Ever - New York’s millions roared their welcome to Astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr. yesterday in an outburst of enthusiasm and acclaim never before equaled even in this city of traditional tributes to heroes.” (Daily News, March 2, 1962.) The in-depth coverage of the day’s activities also informed readers that “A new $17,000 police horse van was used for the first time yesterday to bring about 40 horses to the lower Broadway area to handle the crowd. As usual, nobody argued with the horses and their mounted officers.”

More seriously, another big story on that day tempered reports of the Glenn celebration: “The early moments of the day’s activities were tinged with shock and sadness as word spread at the airport and among the assembled crowds along the route than an American Airlines jet plane had crashed on takeoff at [Idlewild] International Airport and that all aboard were killed.” The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation later determined that a manufacturing defect in the rudder system caused the accident. Among the 87 victims was Louise Sara Eastman, mother of Linda McCartney.

Program and proclamation for Astronaut Day, 1962. Mayor Wagner papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

The Public Events files also include several folders of letters from school children (and their parents) urging the Mayor to close public schools for the day to afford students the opportunity to see the festivities. A short news clipping summed up the story: “There will be ticker-tape and brass bands for Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr. in New York on Thursday, but the city’s million school children will see none of it—except by way of the TV screens in their schools. Supt. of Schools John J. Theobald and the Board of Education today decided that the youngsters will get more out of the celebration at school than if they tried to elbow their way through the crowds along Broadway. They vetoed the suggestion that the schools be closed for the event.”

Press badges for Astronaut Day, 1962. Mayor Wagner papers, NYC Municipal Archives.

In the coming years, New York City continued to celebrate the nation’s space program. Two of the astronauts feted in 1962, had the honor of participating in a second ticker-tape parade. On May 22, 1963, Maj. L. Gordon Cooper Jr., received the city’s traditional welcome after orbiting the earth 22 times, and on March 29, 1965, the city feted Maj. Virgil I. Grissom along with Lt. Comdr. John W. Young. Their Gemini III mission was the first U.S. space flight in which two astronauts went into orbit in the same capsule. In 1969, the City celebrated the Apollo astronauts in two parades; Apollo 8 on January 10, 1969, and finally the Apollo 11 astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Col. Buzz Aldrin, and Lt. Col Michael Collins for the first manned moon landing, on August 13, 1969.

Not to be outdone, Lt. Col. John H. Glenn Jr., marched up Broadway in a parade one more time. On November 16, 1998, then Senator John Glenn and fellow crew members of the US Space Shuttle Discovery had their achievements celebrated in the traditional parade.

Look for future blogs featuring audio from the WNYC collection or visit https://www.wnyc.org/series/archives-preservation/archive-shows

NYC Municipal Archives

January 12, 2024

Stables and Auction Marts - Building Plans with Horses

NYC Municipal Archives

January 12, 2024

A recent For the Record article, Horsepower the City and the Horse introduced the topic of the horse and its profound influence on virtually all aspects of city life. Expanding on this theme, For the Record looked at how the horse informed many of the design elements of Central Park in Drives Rides and Walks -Horses in Central Park.

This week’s post continues exploring the subject of horses and focuses on collections in the Municipal Archives and Municipal Library that document structures built in the city to house, buy and sell horses.

Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Auction Market, front elevation. Located at 147-51 East 24th Street and 144-148 East 25th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues the auction market was designed by Horgan & Slattery in the grandest style. The building mixed Roman classicism and Beaux-Arts grandeur, with a façade that featured a full-size sculpture of a horse and trainer above the entrance. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 880, Lot 34. NYC Municipal Archives.

*The former Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Auction Market, 1940. Tax Photo Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.*

*Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Auction Market,* detail. While the market still had the required utilitarian aspects with stalls and manure pits, it was fitted with elaborate chandeliers and ornate decoration which led Architects’ & Builders’ Magazine to write that Horgan & Slattery had decided '“to abandon all former conventions” in its design. In 1928, the auction mart was sold to the R&T Garage Company, which installed two intermediate floors for parking and removed the balcony and ornate ceiling. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 880, Lot 34. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission Designation report for the VanTassel and Kearney Auction Mart, located between East 12th and 13th Streets, Manhattan, one of few horse-related buildings still standing (although long-since re-purposed), provides some context: “A century ago, the streets of American cities were crowded with horses. Mainly used for transportation, these animals pulled private carriages, stage coaches, and streetcars. To accommodate the estimated 75,000 horses in New York City, about 4,500 stables were built. Wealthy families commissioned their own distinctive structures where horses, carriages, and attendants (grooms and coachmen) were quartered.”

The Manhattan Building Plans collection and the related permit files in Municipal Archives are a rich resource documenting horse-related infrastructure. For the last several years, City archivists have been processing the Plans collection with support from the New York State Archives’ Local Government Records Management Improvement Fund and the New York State Library’s Conservation/Preservation Program. For the Record blogs, most recently Loews Canal Street Theater, have tracked progress and highlighted some of the exceptional items discovered during processing. The agency’s Lunch and Learn programs, available online, provide an overview of the project.

Fiss, Doerr & Carroll Horse Auction Market, second story plan. The auction space enclosed a huge interior rink 65 feet by 197 feet, where animals for sale were exercised for crowds of up to 1,000 people in a suspended gallery. The roof was supported by a steel arch, with a suspended, coffered ceiling and the mezzanine level included office and living quarters for the staff. *Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 880, Lot 34. NYC Municipal Archives*

Horse auction venues, much like auto dealerships in later years, were an essential component of the horse culture in the city. Several of the most visually appealing items in the Plans collection are the blueprints submitted to the Department of Buildings in 1906 by architects Horgan & Slattery for construction of the Fiss, Doerr & Carroll horse auction market at located at 147-51 East 24th Street and 144-48 East 25th Street. Although no longer extant, the elevations and details depict what had been an elegant chandelier-lit space.

Front elevation and longitudinal section, submitted with application 1568 of 1899 by architects Schneider & Herter for stables and auction market at 49 Orchard Street. The facade of the building was decorated with sculptural elements including a horse head detail. The longitudinal section depicts the ramps used to move the horses from one floor to the next as well as a horse wash and a hoist system for the animals. The building was converted to a storefront and tenement units by 1927 with the ornamentation removed and windows changed. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 308,Lot 23. NYC Municipal Archives.

The collection also includes plans submitted in 1903 by architects Jardine Kent & Jardine for the Van Tassel and Kearney Auction Mart. As noted above, the building has been designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission for its significance. “In terms of architectural design and specialized purpose, the former Van Tassell & Kearney auction mart recalls the era when New York City was a leading auction center and horse sales were a common activity.” Information in the designation report (available in the Municipal Library), adds considerably to the history of the building: “Edward W. Kearney, son of the firm’s founder, commissioned this elegant building to attract the type of wealthy clientele that purchased horses for competition and leisure. Weekly auctions took place in the ‘commodious sales ring,’ a shed-like space with mezzanine. Van Tassell & Kearney were active on East 13th Street for more than fifty years. Originally general auctioneers, after 1904 ‘high class’ show horses and ponies dominated sales. By the 1920s, the firm was mainly involved in automobile sales and the building would be leased to a candy manufacturer, and later, the Delehanty Institute, a vocational school that trained women for the defense industry during the Second World War. In 1978, the structure was acquired by the painter, printmaker and sculptor Frank Stella, who used it as his studio until 2005.”

Elevation and section, from New Building Application 323 of 1903, by Jardine Kent & Jardine for the Van Tassel & Kearney stables, 126-128 East 13th Street and 123 East 12th Street. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 558, Lot 43. NYC Municipal Archives.

*126-128 East 13th Street, former Van Tassel & Kearney stables, ca. 1985 when it was Frank Stella’s studio. 1980s Tax Photograph Collection, Block 558, Lot 43. NYC Municipal Archives.*

Eldridge Street elevation submitted with New Building Application 1656 of 1887 for stables. Owner: Edward and Ridley & Sons Department Store, 59-63 Allen Street and 88 Eldridge Street. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 307, Lot 24. NYC Municipal Archives.

Not all of the horse-related structures were as grand as the auction houses. Perhaps more typical of the genre is the blacksmith shop at 33 Cornelia Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The related Manhattan Building Permits collection provides good documentation for this modest building, The permit folder includes the new building application (no. 331) submitted on July 3, 1913, by architect Nicholas Serracino on behalf of building owner Mary P. Brescianni. Additional applications in the permit folder trace the subsequent history of the building. An Alteration Application filed on December 15, 1954 requested conversion of the space into a “grocery, fruit & vegetable store”

Similarly, the permit folder for the stables constructed at 59 Allen Street (B. 307, Lot 24) help trace the evolution of the building. The folder contains new building application no. 1646 of 1887 submitted by Edward Ridley and Sons for a “stable & wagon house” designed by architect William Shears. In 1916, according to alteration application 3284, “It is proposed to use the first, second and third floors for garage purposes.” Conversion to automobile storage proved a popular re-use for stable structures in the early part of the twentieth century.

*The Village blacksmith 33 Cornelia Street, Manhattan, August 6, 1937. Photographer: E.M. Bofinger. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.*

Other useful resources can be found in the Municipal Library’s collection of published materials. The 1866 [Manhattan] Bureau of Buildings Annual Report indicates that builders submitted 131 applications for stable construction, out of a total of 1,507 new building permit requests. In 1900, after the City’s consolidation when the Bureau’s activities covered construction in all five Boroughs, the report listed 199 stable applications (out of more than 6,000 structures in total). Ten years later, that number diminished to 59 applications out of 778 in total. In the next year, 1911, with automobiles increasingly present in the city, the Annual Report recorded 64 plans filed for “Stables and Garages,” out of 771 total applications. By 1935, the category recorded only “Garage” applications; 17 in that Great Depression year (out of 98 total).

*New Building Application 1056 of 1887, page 1 of 2. Manhattan Building Permits Collection, Block 307, Lot 24. NYC Municipal Archive*s.

The New York City Guide, published by the Works Progress Administration in 1939 (the manuscript and research for the Guide can be found in the Archives collection; the printed book is available in the Library), has a brief narrative in the section about the Middle and Upper East Side of Manhattan, describing Twenty-fourth Street, between Second and Lexington Avenues as “Old Stable Row.” According to the Guide, “Here, before the advent of the automobile, a horse mart flourished.” The text continued: “The street was littered with straw, oats, and manure. On auction days, the strength of draft horses was demonstrated by hitching the animals to wagons with locked wheels and then whipping them up the block and back.”

The apparent cruelty of this practice points to other important themes related to horses in the city that future For the Record articles will explore using records available in the Archives and Library.

Front elevation and longitudinal section, detail, submitted with application 1568 of 1899 by architects Schneider & Herter for stables and auction market at 49 Orchard Street. Manhattan Building Plans Collection, Block 308,Lot 23. NYC Municipal Archives.

Michael Lorenzini

January 5, 2024

Radio Row and the Fight for Lower Manhattan

Michael Lorenzini

January 5, 2024

It has been said that nobody loved the Twin Towers until they were gone, and that is certainly true of the residents and business owners of the Manhattan neighborhood known as Radio Row. One of many such “Radio Rows” in cities throughout America, New York City’s was the largest and one of the oldest. It was roughly bounded by Dey Street to the north, Liberty to the south, between West and Church Streets. The heart of it was Cortlandt and Greenwich Streets, but another concentration of shops lined Dey Street (also known as Telegram Square for the Western Union Building at the corner of Broadway and Dey). At its peak over 400 merchants sold radios, televisions, and associated parts in this area.

DaVega City Radio, 63 Cortlandt Street, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

North-Star Radio, 78-80 Cortlandt Street, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

From the earliest days of radio in the 1920s, dealers in radios and radio parts set up shop in the area. As car radios became more common, some shops specialized in conversion kits for autos. Other shops just sold vacuum tubes, which frequently burned out and were often non-standard parts hard to find.

By the time the New York City Department of Finance Tax Photo project got underway in the late 1930s, the area was bustling with vendors and buyers. A famous 1936 WPA Federal Writers’ Project photograph shows a crowd of men standing along Cortlandt Street in front of DaVega City Radio listening to a World Series game between the then New York Giants and the Yankees. A second photo reveals why they are all looking across the street: two men hanging out the window of Atlas Radio updating a scoreboard. The neighborhood was not just about radios, as revealed in the Tax Photos: bicycle shops, bars, coffee shops, diners, hotels, pet shops and automotive stores also were packed into the old brick buildings. A few newer buildings housed insurance companies. In the 1950s, televisions became popular, and Radio Row vendors started to sell them, and their components, as well.

Men watching World Series announcement board, Cortlandt Street (Radio Row), 1936. WPA Federal Writers' Project collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The World Series announcement board above Atlas Radio, which the men on Cortlandt Street were watching, 1936. WPA Federal Writers' Project collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Bell Radio, 60 Cortlandt Street, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Weston Radio, 64 Cortlandt Street, also Times and Publix Radio, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Vim Radio, 70 Cortlandt Street, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Arrow Radio, 82 Cortlandt Street, ca. 1939. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Detail of a 1934 GW Bromley atlas of Manhattan showing the area where Radio Row existed. Everything from Liberty to Vesey Street, from Church to the river was demolished for the World Trade Center in 1966 and 1967. NYC Municipal Archives.

It was a successful business district, even if a bit unsightly, but by the 1960s Lower Manhattan was slated for a dramatic change. The waterfront businesses essential to a port city were no longer needed, as a new era of trucking and the introduction of the cargo container took hold. In addition, airplane travel reduced the number of passenger ships coming into the Manhattan docks. David Rockefeller, Chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank (and brother of Governor Nelson Rockefeller), envisioned a World Trade Center that could revitalize Lower Manhattan. He had already used political pressure and eminent domain to build One Chase Plaza in 1956 on the site of the old sail-making lofts of the Coenties Slip area near the Financial District. He thought the area just north, South Street Seaport, would be the perfect site for his World Trade Center. He created the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA) to remake Lower Manhattan. To bring in more financing, he approached the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an interstate compact created in 1921. However, New Jersey Governor Robert Meyner saw nothing in the project for New Jersey. Eventually, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller struck a deal that would move the project to the west side if the Port Authority would take over the bankrupt Hudson & Manhattan Railroad and build the new World Trade Center on top of its southern terminal, creating the PATH train system. The plan also called for the Port Authority to destroy the freight piers along West Street and build container ports at the Port of Newark-Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Letter from the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association to Mayor Lindsey, February 1966. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Letter from Mayor Lindsey to David Rockefeller, August 1966. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Emergency Committee to Oppose the World Trade Center letter, November 1966. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. The Committee was made up of prominent journalists, historians, and architectural critics, including Jane Jacobs, fresh from her fight against Robert Moses’ Lower Manhattan Expressway.

Telegram from Thomas Maguire, Vice President International Union of Operating Engineers to Mayor Lindsey, urging him to press forward with the Trade Center, March 1967. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

The radio-shop owners had initially been fans of the proposed east-side trade center, which they thought would bring in new business. However, when they saw plans for the west side and realized the proposed site would completely wipe out their business district, they formed the Downtown West Businessmen’s Association and started to advocate against the project. Headquartered at Oscar’s [Nadel] Radio Shop at 63 Cortlandt Street (formerly DaVega City Radio) they fought the plan through protests, legal challenges, and street theater. They were joined by other groups, including the Committee for A Reasonable World Trade Center (made up of prominent real-estate families), and the Emergency Committee to Oppose the World Trade Center, a more literary and artsy group, which had amongst its members Jane Jacobs. Mayor Lindsey’s subject files contain a thick folder from 1966-1967 with correspondence on the World Trade Center from and to these groups. Also represented are commerce and labor groups that strongly advocated for the project to fight the economic slump in the building trades.

Letter from the Downtown West Businessman’s Association, February 1966. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Letter from the Committee for a Reasonable World Trade Center, March 1966. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives. This committee represented prominent real-estate interests, who feared the new trade center would devalue commercial real estate in the City.

Excerpt from Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton questioning Port Authority director Austin Tobin, Board of Estimate Hearing, June 16, 1967. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

*Harper’s Magazine*, “New York’s Trade Center: World’s Tallest Fiasco,” advance proof of May 1966 edition. Mayor Lindsey Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Destruction of Radio Row, looking south along Greenwich Street from number 189, ca. April 1966. Jean M. Brown photographer, NYC Municipal Archives Collection.

The Port Authority offered Radio Row merchants $3,000 to relocate, and some did move—dispersing to Canal Street, Union Square and west of Times Square—but many refused the payments and simply went out of business. Eventually the project was pushed through, and by May of 1966 the architecture critic for Harper’s Magazine, Wolf von Eckardt, lamented “It’s ready to go up right now. How did the plans get this far?” He said the proposed “instrument of urbicide… not only the tallest, but unquestionably one of the ugliest buildings in the world,” would displace “thirteen historic, living and breathing square blocks of the city.”[1]

One resident of those thirteen blocks was Jean M. Brown, a young woman living at 189 Greenwich Street and working as a typist. She had a front row seat to the destruction of Radio Row and, using an amateur camera, she documented it from her 3rd floor window. Brown also took a photo of her own building before she too was evicted by the Port Authority in November of 1966, while seven-months pregnant. Brown just passed away in August 2023, but her son William recently recalled that she sent eleven photos to the Municipal Archives in 2005 because she wanted someone to remember what had once been a thriving neighborhood. In her donation letter she wrote, “I hope that this will be of help to future individuals who are interested in what that part of Manhattan looked like before the Trade Center was erected.”