More Postcards From New York City #85: Winter In Central Park

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Winter In Central Park, New York City - Thousands of young and old enjoy skating in Central Park at Wollman Memorial Skating Rink near 59th Street and 5th Avenues.

More Postcards from New York City #77: Broadway - Circa 1895

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An old view of lower Broadway. The caption on the postacard reads: "No. 531 - Broadway, NY. Copyright 1895 by A. Loeffler, NY. Published by J. Koehler, 150 Park Row, NY" I believe the "No. 531" refers to the postcard number, not the street address shown in the photo.

More Postcards From New York City #73 - Prometheus Statue At Rockefeller Plaza

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Located in the Plaza of Rockefeller Center. This majestic fountain, desinged by Paul Manship, is the focal point of the attractive Sunken Gardens which are noted for their trees and shrubs and flowers.


Back in July 2009, our "Postcards From NYC #30" featured another, more modern view of the statue.

More Postcards From New York City #72 - The Little Church Around The Corner

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Church of the Transfiguration, better known as "The Little Church Around The Corner," is a 1 East 29th Street. Many prominent persons from all over the country, including theatrical people, are married here. It has an important collection of rare paintings, wood carvings and statues and is noted for its charm and quiet.

More Postcards From New York City #71 - The Conservatory at the Botanical Gardens in Central Park

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The Conservatory, Central Park, New York City. The Conservatory is located at Fifth Avenue east, from 102nd to 105th Streets. Here are exhibited rare plants brought to this country from all parts of the world. The Conservatory is open daily to all visitors.

A bit more info from TripCart.com:

The six-acre Conservatory Garden is Central Park's only formal garden. It takes its name from the huge glass conservatory that once stood on this same spot, built in 1898. In 1934, when maintenance of the facility had become too costly, the conservatory was demolished and replaced with the present Garden, which opened to the public in 1937. The Conservatory Garden is in fact three gardens representing different landscape styles: Italian, French, and English.

And still more information about the gardens in Central Park can be found at the official Central Park Blog.

More Postcards From New York City #70 - Ariel View of Manhattan

(Photo by: Aziz Rahman)
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New York City. Ariel view of Manhattan skyline showing the Empire State Building with the Madison Square Garden Center on the left.

More Postcards From New York City #69 - South Street Sea Port & Fulton Fish Market

Quote from:
"Our New York"
by Alfred Kazin & David Finn
1989 [p. 19]

The face of New York may well be the most photographed site in the world. Almost a century ago, when picture postcards first came into view, the then largely New York-based printing industry (long departed from New York) "poured forth a torrent of postcards," says the historian of New York photography Benjamin Blom, "depicting New York as home of the nation's (and the world's) tallest buildings..." These postcards fostered the enduring legend of New York as the last word in the long history of metropolis, the megacity, the awesome, the ever "unbelievable."

No skyscrapers today, but it is a shot that will transport you back to another time, a time when the South Street Sea Port was a bustling hive of daily activity...



South Street Sea Port restoration with the Fulton Market.

From Wikipedia:
During much of its 183-year tenure at the original site, the Fulton Fish Market was the most important wholesale East Coast fish market in the United States of America. Opening in 1822, it was the destination of fishing boats from across the Atlantic Ocean. By the 1950s, most of the Market's fish were trucked in rather than offloaded from the docks.


What's there now? Not much, it's pretty quiet at the old Fulton Fish Market now, since they moved to a new location in the Bronx in 2005.

More Postcards From New York City #67 - Hotel New Yorker

Hotel New Yorker, New York City

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Hotel New Yorker - 34th Street at 8th Avenue, New York City. Tunnel connection to Pennsylvania Station. 2500 rooms, each with radio: Both tub and shower: Servidor and circulating ice water. Four popular priced restaurants. Dancing nightly in the Terrace Restaurant. Rates: $3.00 a day and up. Ralph Hitz, President.

$3.00 a day. Man, those were the days. A quick check on the hotel's website this morning lists "the best price" for a room room for tonight at $279.00.

Last fall we posted a 1947 Hotel New Yorker Room Service Menu. Click HERE to see it.
For more information on the history of the hotel, click HERE.

More Postcards from New York City #66 - Woolworth Building and City Hall Park

Woolworth Building and City Hall Park, New York City

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New York City - New York City has a population of over 7,500,000 people and is known everywhere as the "Sky Scraper City". Radio City, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the Woolworth Building, are some of the largest buildings in the world and form an integral part of New York's famed skyline.

More Postcards from New York City # 65 - Empire State Building at Night

Empire State Building at Night, New York City

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More Postcards from New York City # 64 - Triborough Bridge at Hellgate

Triborough Bridge, Looking Down East River From Over Hellgate, New York City

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More Postcards from NYC #63 - Park Row Building

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No description on the back, but you can read all about it and see many more images of this beautiful building HERE.

More Postcards from NYC #62 - Brooklyn Bridge & East River

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Brooklyn Bridge spanning the East River and connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn was erected in 1883. It is 6,016 feet long.

More Postcards from NYC #61 - The Famous Taft Hotel

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Hotel Taft - New York
On Times Square at Radio City
In Center of Entertainment and Shopping District.
2000 Air Conditioned Rooms at Sensible Rates.
All With Television - Radio - Circulating Ice Water
World's Fair Subway At Our Door

More Postcards from NYC #60 - Toffenetti Restaurant

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Toffenetti Restaurant
43rd Street at Broadway on Times Square - New York
A Beautiful Place to Dine
One Thousand Seats - Delicious Food - Reasonable Prices
Ulys Owens, Resident Mgr.
Your Host - F.L. Toffenetti

More Information and photos HERE, and in this post from Ephemeral NY from 04/07/09, featuring the same postcard pictured here.

More Postcards from NYC #59 - Washington Square Park - & "Journey to New York" by Ed Siejka

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Washington Square Park
At the foot of Fifth Avenue sits Washington Square Park, long known as a magnet for young artists, singers, guitarists and others wishing to relax and forget their cares. New York University's downtown campus is located just to the east of the park.

Recently, I received a new written piece by poet Ed Siejka. I felt that Ed's explanation of his inspiration for his new piece fit this postcard well and so I am presenting his piece along with the above photo, which to me appears to be from the mid-late 1960's.

"The inspiration or idea (for "Journey to New York") came from two sources...the artists, writers and musicians I knew from the 70's...many tried and many just didn't make it in New York. One young writer fresh from the Midwest asked me where Washington Square Park was. I told him, "This is it...you're looking right at it." He just seemed totally devastated. His imagination had built up the park to be a place of inspiration for all artists and the reality of looking at a seedy and run-down park (and somewhat dangerous place) just overwhelmed him. It was in essence Dreams -vs- Reality." - Ed Siejka

Journey to New York - by Ed Siejka

Standing in front
Of the place
He felt
A faint breeze
Skimming
The streets
Ankle high
Swirling dust
Reaching up
Stinging his face
Reminding him
This was not
Wind blown sand from
The ocean.

He came from a
Place like that
"...seashells by the seashore..."
Tired
He packed up
Headed out
Straight down the highway
Took the high span view
Over the George Washington Bridge
And saw the misty outline
Of Manhattan's
Gray turrets
Piercing the clouds
Brightly colored banners
Everywhere
And soldiers in armor
Beckoning
Him
To come with
His dreams.

Stepping back
He looked
Up and down
The streets
Nothing moving
Nothing to see
The dream
Within
Still
Burned
White
Self taught
He spent
Long nights
Searching
For the right words
And solitary days
Practicing
Until his fingers cramped
And bled.

At the clubs
He met some ladies
Had some fans
When agents stopped
Calling
He stayed
When the others
Slipped away
Leaving behind
Empty backpacks
And borrowed shoes.

The place fills up
Lights dim
A stray cough
Punctuates the silence
Alone on stage
He eases into th mike
His voice carries the song
The audience leans
To hear
Words meant only for them
He connects
With them
And they with him
The Devil is in the room
The club is transformed
After all those years
His chance is now.

-end

Click HERE to read another of Ed's original works, posted back in November of 2008, titled "St. Adrian's, 1971".

More Postcards from NYC #58 - Embers Restaurant

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*This one is for that purveyor of historic NYC Restaurantalia and good Jazz, Hunter-Gatherer...

Embers in New York...one thing you MUST DO is visit the famous Embers to enjoy the MOST EXCITING food and MUSIC in our town...famous for ROAST BEEF, STEAKS, BARBEQUED RIBS. No 20% tax ever. Dinner from 5:30pm. Open to 4:00am.
161 E. 54th Street, NYC. Plaza 9-3228

From Old And Sold.com...
"New York City Jazz Joints and Restaurants with Jazz"
(Originally published (publication not cited) 1n 1959)

The Embers, at 161 E. 54th St., is the 16th restaurant to open on what had become known as a "jinx spot." That was seven years ago and THE EMBERS is still thriving. Ralph Watkins, owner and creator of THE EMBERS, attributes its success to the fact that he pays as much attention to the kitchen as he does to the entertainment, and still personally supervises both operations. Piano trios and quartets playing "subtle jazz" is the specialty in the front of the house; roast beef, barbecued ribs, steaks, etc., are what come out of the kitchen. Joe Howard is the front man, keeping an ear tuned to comments by customers.

Watkins' reputation as a jazz entrepreneur started at a room on 52nd St. called Kelly's Stable. Preceding that was the original Onyx Club, Royal Roost, Bop City, Basin Street and Lower Basin Street, all now defunct. Ralph started his professional life as a saxophone player in the old Ben Bernie and Abe Lyman orchestras and once led his own dance band at Ben Marden's Riviera, on the New Jersey end of George Washington Bridge (wiped out by the Interstate Palisades Parkway).

THE EMBERS' bartender, Jack Spencer, frequently worked as President Roosevelt's bartender at private Hyde Park parties, and more recently mixed drinks for the Eisenhower-McMillan Bermuda conference.

In its seven years' history, THE EMBERS has presented such eminent piano virtuosos as George Shearing, Dorothy Donegan, Don Shirley, Carmen Cavallero, Teddy Wilson, Eddie Heywood, Joey Bushkin, Erroll Garner and Barbara Carroll.

You can see more Broadway celebrities at THE EMBERS than at many more widely publicized spots. Watkins eschews bulb-popping photographers, which he feels interfere with the entertainment. The building occupied by THE EMBERS, incidentally, is owned by John Perona, whose EL MOROCCO is located directly across the street. In turn, the building housing EL MOROCCO is owned by Daniel Lavezzo who is also proprietor of the premises housing a different type of operation, P. J. CLARKE'S, which is just around the corner.

More Postcards from NYC #57 - Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridges

(Photo by: Alan Schein) (Image via: NYCDreamin Archives)

Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, New York City.

More Postcards from NYC #56 - New York...From The Top Of The World

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New York City - view from atop the World Trade Center.

More Postcards from NYC #55 - Manhattan Island

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New York - view of Manhattan Island.