Stephen Harmon has been photographing the Upper West Side for decades, walking around the neighborhood and taking shots of the various characters who make this place unique. His photos are regularly featured in the West Side Rag.
Filmmaker Christopher Ming Ryan spoke with Steve and showcased several of his photos in the short film below. As Chris wrote:
In the 1960’s when Stephen Harmon saw Walker Evan’s 1931 photograph of Saratoga Springs’ Main Street he said to himself, “Nothing will ever look like this again and thank God that guy took that photo and I’m going to be that guy who takes those photos.”
It required moving to the Upper West Side in 1978 for Harmon to find a neighborhood on the cusp of change to gather the motivation. Thank God he took these photographs of Mom and Pop stores gone by and of the people of the Upper West Side that according to Steve, “walked around like they owned the place.”
Stephen Harmon: An Appreciation from Wheelhouse Communications on Vimeo.
Loved this piece and so happy that you could foresee that things would change so that you recorded what was. The people are still the heart of the upper west side .
Amazing! So wonderful to see the old neighborhood like this. It seemed so much more colorful and vibrant then it does now. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Steve is a gem ! As a relative newcomer to the UWS (only 23 years) I’m grateful for his dedication and willingness to take the countless hours and days to document these essential elements of a fast disappearing NYC.
And as the cinematographer of this film I am blessed to know and spend time with him
Please check out our Facebook page :
Disappearing NYC
and feel free to like and share it so we can continue to tell beautiful stories about amazing folks like Steve Harmon. Thanks
A VERY short film. Too short! I would love to see a longer version, that includes many more images and stories (his and others’), so Mr. Harmon’s magnificant work can reach a larger audience. Or do only the museums that acquired his photos now have the image rights?
Wonderful! Now I want to see the entire photo collection!
Thank you, I spent the 70s in an apt above the Tap A Keg.
I am gratified and honored that Chris Ming Ryan made me and my photography of the UWS in the 1970s and 1980s the subject of a documentary in his series on Disappearing NYC. I am particularly grateful because I am alive and can view it and share it with my family and friends. Chris and his Director of Photography, Evan Fairbanks, have made several documentaries dealing with the theme of Disappearing NYC. Each one is a short gem that is a pleasure to watch. You can see all of them at ChrisMingRyan.com. I know you will like them and I hope you will share them with your family and friends because the talented work of Chris and Evan deserves the widest audience possible.
Wonderful film and wonderful photos. Thanks for posting this.
Fantastic! Having first moved to the UWS in the early 1980s, this is a treasure. OMG…Tap A Keg!!! Thank you, Mr. Harmon.
‘To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.’ Mary Oliver
Thank yoy. I moved to west end& 75 th in 1977. I miss pandemonium!! Thi was truly a great economically, culturally& racially diverse area… now creative people no longer live here.
I love this! I wish there was an online archive of all of his work. I’d love to browse for hours through that treasure.
Gone…..but not forgotten:
Upper West Side Favorite shops and restaurants… now gone
79th Street Restaurant (diner)
A-1 Locksmith
A.S. Beck Shoes
Acker Merrill Wines (86 & B’way)
Artie’s Deli
Morris Bros
Asian Star Restaurant
B & H Fish Market
Babka Bakery
Barbara G’s
Bargains and Things
Barton’s Candy
Baskin Robbins
Beck’s Drugs
Big Nick’s Pizza and Burger Joint
Blue Boy Restaurant
Bridie’s Hotdogs (oranges hanging from ceiling!)
Briggs Men Shop
Broadway Nut Shop
Cafe Europa Restaurant
Cafe’ China Restaurant
Cake Masters Bakery
Captain Nemo’s Seafood Restaurant
Carvel
CB Furniture
Chantilly
Charamis Beauty Parlor
Charavari
Chun Cha Fu Restaurant
Circle Theater (Marshall Mason, playwright Lanford Wilson)
Copper Hatch Restaurant
Crazy Eddie’s Electronics
Creations and Things
Daitch Shopwell Supermarket
David’s Handbags
Defa Hi Fi
Dix Liquors
Dixie Liquors
Eclair
Esquire Coffee Shop (86 & B-way)
Eyeore’s
Fleur de Mayo Restaurant
Food City Supermarket (80th & B-way)
Forest and Sea Restaurant
Gitlitz
Gristedes, 86th & B’way
Grossingers Bakery
Harvey’s Meatballs and Potatoes on 78th and Bdwy
Houlihan’s TV Repair, Columbus and 73rd
Home Base
Hunan Taste
Hunan Taste Restaurant
Hungarian Rendezvous Restaurant
Indian Walk Shoes
John’s Bargain Store
Keystone Meats
Laytner’s Linen
Levitt and Elrod Music
Linda’s Deli
Loew’s *83rd* Street Theater
Marvin’s Gardens Restaurant
Menach
Merit Farms
Miss Ellie’s Restaurant (79th)
Mrs. Field’s Cookies
Mr. Louie’s Chinese Laundry
Ned King Cleaners
Ollie’s Noodle House (now Five Napkin Burger)
Optimo Cigars
Orphan Annie’s Restaurant (now Five Napkin Burger)
Palmer Pharmacy
Party Cake Bakery
Pennywhistle Toys
Perla Pharmacy
Plymouth Shoppe
Polletti’s Italian Restaurant (now Five Napkin Burger)
Pumpkin Eaters’ Vegetarian Restaurant
Quick-as-a-Wink Cleaners
RCI Appliance
Red Apple Supermarket (now Barnes & Noble)
Rettinger’s Trimmings
Riveria Theater
Riverside Theater
Rose Laiken
Rosen’s Butcher Shop
Schraff’s Restaurant (now Barnes & Noble)
Schwartz’s Candies
Sechuwan Taste
Shakespeare Book Shop
Show of Hands
Sloan’s Supermarket
Steinberg’s Dairy Restaurant
Sterling Cafeteria
Sterling Lanes (became Morris Bros and then Ancora Restaurant)
Surroundings
Teachers I and II Restaurants
Teletape Studios
The American Restaurant Coffee Shop
The Front Porch Restaurant
The Golden Cue
The Looking Glass
The Paper House
The Pet Bowl
The Sabra Cafe and Nightclub
The Sacred Cow
The Shirt King
The Specialty Shop
Tibb’s Coffee Shop (now Five Napkin Burger)
Tibb’s Wharf Restaurant
Tip Toe Inn Restaurant
Tony’s Italian Kitchen Restaurant (79th)
Townhouse West
Uncle Tonoose Restaurant
Upper West Side Favorite shops and restaurants… now gone
Williams Barbeque
Wisdom’s Child
Women’s Wear West
Woolworth’s (79 & B-way)
Wrights (on 72nd and Bdwy)
Wurst Gesheft
====================================
I recall it as Pumpkin Eater and being quite good. Broadway in the low 90’s, IIRC. Souen was a macrobiotic restaurant, also on Broadway, near Pumpkin Eater.
Thanks for that extensive list. I recall a number of those places.
Too many of people and not enough of the neighborhood. My kids navigated to (public) school through the gritty UWS and would love to see more photos of the neighborhood they remember.
Thanks! What a treat! I’m looking forward to seeing more of these pics. The UWS is so dramatically difft from my childhood UWS. (I’ve lived on west 96th Street my entire life.)
thank you Steve. thank you Christopher Ming Ryan.
I first lived on the UWS, in Morningside Heights, from 1972-75. I spent a lot of time working here in the late 80s and moved back (Upper 90s, on RSD) in 1991.
I agree with Steve that something very precious has been lost. I am so tired of hearing people who didn’t live here tell us that the “old” UWS was all about crime and decay. It was about a vibrant, affordable, multi-class and multi-ethnic urban neighborhood. Steve Harmon captures this and explains it visually.
Bruce Bernstein:
The suggestion that the neighborhood was ever “all about crime and decay” is indeed preposterous. But so is the suggestion that such negatives were anything less-than real and formidable factors during the era in-question. (And more-so, on balance, than in more recent years.) The reality, as so often is the case in life, is mixed. One can be nostalgic for the past, welcome much of the change and lament much of both, all at the same time. I speak as someone who grew-up in the neighborhood in the 70’s and 80’s.
Hi Bruce
The UWS is still extremely “affordable” to you and has been since you started to grace the neighborhood with your presence back in 1991.
Furthermore, contrary to your claims the UWS was gross before all these greedy folks moved here and fixed the neighborhood up.
I enjoyed looking at Mr Harmon’s photos. And yes, in retrospect maybe in the 1970s they early 1990s the UWS had a gritty and grimy charm to it but I’m grateful as to how much it has improved.
Sherm
i have to give you “props”, Sherman. you’re really proud of being an elitist. You don’t hide anything.
I imagine you find the vast majority of neighborhoods in NYC “gross”… and probably most of the UWS as it currently exists, as well.
Ha! I moved to NYC in ’78 as an aspiring opera singer, living at Bretton Hall 86th and Broadway. First night ever in NYC was at Hotel Opera, an SRO hotel, now an expensive coop. I miss H&H Bagels so much, and it’s gone. The Library restaurant, walking down Broadway to Lincoln Center. I was a teacher assistant at Dalton School, 86th on the East Side. I miss a lot of NYC, it changes you like it or not. I went back in 95, and knew it was all over when I saw a GAP store in the upper West Side. How many walls has Zabar’s broken through since then? Keep taking the pics!
Wonderful pictures of the UWS which charmed me with it’s history and vibrancy. Something very special and these pictures capture it’s change.
Tremendous work! Many thanks to Steve. I would love to have the opportunity to show my children what the UWS used to be. Please, please more films and many, many photo collections in books! Also, it’s not only the images that are valuable, but also Steve’s vision. I’m particularly interested in Steve’s narrative along with his precious images. The thing that I miss the most is the character of the city. Steve can flesh out that character both as a citizen historian and as a character himself.
wow-that brought the biggest smile to my face….beautiful!
Thank you! I moved to the Upper West Side in February of 1978. Still here! I miss the old neighborhood so much! Remember The Cherry Restaurant on Columbus Ave and DDL Foodshow? So many great Greek coffee shops and Jewish bakeries, they no longer exist. Great times and I’m grateful that I was here to witness them!
I appreciate Stephen Harmon’s photos.
A pity that the film had to be so short. Many of the photos flashed-by much too quickly.
Note that one of the businesses featured in the film, Fischer Bros. & Leslie kosher butcher, is still standing and active on W. 72nd St. between Broadway and West End Ave. I believe they may be the oldest currently-operating kosher butcher in the City.