Why is there an overhead street medallion labelled Haiti?
It's at Sixth Avenue and West 31st Street -- or as city planners would tell you:
"Avenue of the Americas" and West 31st.
The Avenue was lined with medallions boasting the names of countries in the western hemisphere -- both North and South America.
Hence the Haiti medallion.
Although today those medallions are few and far between.
You're right about that. It's a mere shadow of its former self.Originally Posted by smellslikeabid
There's a few interesting ones on this thread:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402544
What an incredible ride through all of these pages. It makes me appreciate the relative cleanliness of the city and its gentrification. However, the absence of the WTC is so obvious when one views the two photos, a few pages back, that show the approach to the Holland Tunnel then and now.
The pride photos were also very interesting. Thank goodness for changes in attitude.
^ New York could look like that again one day, but the economy would have to complete collapse, including the federal government defaulting. I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime, but stranger things have happened
A View From 1978
(click images to enlarge)
A friend recently found an old souvenir picture book of New York at a stoop sale and picked it up to give to me. It was published in 1978 and has some wonderful old shots in it. One of my favorites is the above view of Times Square, looking up Broadway from 46th Street. Notice the Howard Johnson's in the foreground. That newsstand is still there. Nothing else, though.
Below are two views of Fifth and Sixth Avenues, looking fairly unchanged, aside from the people's clothes and the cars.
Here is a scene from the old Chelsea free market.
This shot of Times Square's W. 44th Street looks particularly foreboding. Love the big old metal chartered bus steaming through.
This is Greenwich Village. W. 4th near the corner of Sixth.
http://lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/...from-1978.html
These were nice old buildings.
What lame POS is there now?
PS: Times Sq was an embarrassment.
Scanned from "The Pavements of New York", photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976.
The captions are mine.
The lollipops of 2 Columbus Circle:
Subtle advertising:
Chinatown:
Trinity Church:
Financial District activity:
Greenwich Village:
Interesting interaction opposite the Plaza Hotel:
Ladies of the night during the day:
Ah, those '70s fashions:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Private Eye? Gotta love those shoes and socks.
NYPD on horseback:
Lovely little house on Park Avenue:
Plaza Hotel. The lady in the foreground featured in several photos in different locations throughout the book:
The art of street selling:
That lady again:
The famous puff:
Not just macho men:
United Nations:
Wall Street on a Sunday:
Not to be seen again:
West Side Highway (my favourite):
I came to NYC in 1978 from my native Philly.
These shots really hit the mark. The city had an edge to it back then. To this day I carry my wallet in my front pocket for fear of being mugged, pickpocketed, remembering that other age in Manhattan.
The Winston's cigarettes sign was at 8th and 34th opposite the New Yorker Hotel and MSG. On Google maps the building is still there and they are painting I think a gin bottle on it.
The view up West Broadway from the WTC brings back memories before it got gentrified. Back then only a few brave souls, mostly artists, lived in illegal living lofts that were only zoned for business and not living.
Cost of a broadway show matinee was something like 15-16 dollars. Can remember seeing The Gin Game with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy and A Touch of the Poet with Jason Robards the first week I was here.
Great historic shots of Manhattan. Thanks for the peek in the past.
This is a beautiful building in the background. Is it still there? It looks like the site where the POS Bertelsman building is. It would suck huge schlong if this was razed.
This is when NYC had character!!!
It's all gone now.....
Same spot today:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=4...43.43,,0,-3.94
Scanned from "The Pavements of New York", photographed by Nicolai Canetti, 1976.
The captions are mine.
The art of street selling:
That lady again:
[/IMG]
Same view today - 7th Ave at 44th, looking northeast:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=4...1.15,,0,-12.69
This is a beautiful building in the background. Is it still there? It looks like the site where the POS Bertelsman building is. It would suck huge schlong if this was razed.
Where is the building with the columns and the cornice which is seen just beyond Bond 45? Was that razed for where Bertelsman is located now?
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