The Viele Map
"No other city is so spitefully incoherent"
--James BaldwinWelcome to Manhattan Unlocked Walking Tours
Discover the hidden-in-plain-sight histories and have fun decoding the streetwalls of Manhattan across the city's most iconic neighborhoods. Manhattan Unlocked answers the question: "why is this building next to that building, and that building next this building?"
About Us
Manhattan Unlocked began as a blog over a decade ago as an effort to decode and make sense of the captivating streetwalls of the city. New York is an architectural complex stretching for miles across a constellation of neighborhoods from the Battery to Central Park. There was no way it could all be random; there had to be patterns.
I soon realized that to take on the search for the single-story history--the "unified theory"--behind New York City's instantly recognizable yet wholly enigmatic built environment, walking tours were required, especially along the path of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. While I had to discontinue the blog for a decade or so, I hope to begin updating again soon.
Our Walking Tours
Join Us on a Walking Tour...Click the big blue button below for more details, or to book any of the following tours:
- Midtown Manhattan Art and Architecture Walking Tour
- Holdouts! Based on the Book by Alpern & Durst
- Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York
- A Disastrous History of Housing the Poor (starts May 15, 2024)
- Explore the Ruins of a Forgotten City in the Middle of Manhattan (starts May 29, 2024)
Midtown east, Grand Central, Rockefeller Center
Astor Place, NoHo, SoHo, Chinatown, Foley Square
Foley Square, Chinatown and The Lower East Side
Madison Square, Nomad, the Flatiron District, Chelsea
In the meantime, the old blog for "testing the waters" remains below.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
298 Grand Street, Then and Now
Most single family homes lasted just a few decades before becoming multiple family dwellings and/or businesses, such was the vortex-like growth of Manhattan’s population.
You can see the tracks of the Second Avenue railroad in the street. Horse-drawn cars ran south on Allen Street, west along Grand Street (below), and turned north up Second Avenue.
Museum of the City of New York
And here it is today in the middle of Chinatown. All three buildings are still there, slightly modified.
That's awesome! Crazy how much a neighborhood can change. Maybe a post on the origin and growth of Chinatown is in order?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! I'm trying to figure out how to approach the whole area. Thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteCool find!
ReplyDeletePhenomenal. I just can never get enough of then and now photos, it's like an addiction.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Missing NYC.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! According to the link below, the tracks may have extended on Grand St. all the way to the East River where they met the Grand St. Ferry:
ReplyDelete"The tracks had been part of The Forty-Second Street and Grand Street Ferry Railroad, a 19th century horse-drawn streetcar line which began operations in 1862, extending from the 42nd Street Ferry on the Hudson River to the Grand Street Ferry on the East River."
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/nycha////html/resources/work_begins.shtml
More research turns up additional streetcars that ran on Grand St, including one that went from City Hall to Brooklyn (over the Williamsburg Bridge). It ran on Bowery, Grand St, Essex St, and Delancey St. It was called the "Post Office Line." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streetcar_lines_in_Manhattan
ReplyDeleteThanks for the complete picture, Randy! I had looked up that part of Grand Street in The Historical Atlas of New York City, Eric Homberger (1st ed. p. 99), to see what he had to say about the area. If you look at the map on that page, from 1865, he has the Second Avenue railroad running down 1st, across Grand, and up 2nd. It was obviously part of a much more extensive system. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteAfter a passage of time, everything gets change. As you have shown both the pictures of Grand Street, there is a lot of difference between both. Really very nice.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know where I can find a photo of a milliner (hat maker /seller) working on The Grand around the 1840s?
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