By Stephen Harmon
As many West Side Rag readers know, during the late 1970s and 1980s, when I was trying to capture and stop time with my camera, I photographed many businesses and storefronts that we all loved and now miss. See some here.
My favorite activity, however, was observing, often meeting, and photographing people wherever I might find them. Everyone had a unique look and character and a palpable dignity and humanity that I also tried to capture with my camera. Here are a very few. I hope you find something to like.
Stephen Harmon is a longtime Upper West Sider, a retired lawyer, and a world-class photographer whose work is displayed in many of the city’s museums, including The Museum of the City of New York, The Brooklyn Museum, The New-York Historical Society, and The New York Public Library.
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The picture with 5 elderly people sitting on the bench in the middle of the street is something you don’t see now. If these medians are occupied now, it is by derelicts.
God forbid poor people sit down somewhere.
How many D batteries did that thing take?
All of them.
That boombox photo is as classic as it gets
I loved the UWS back then. Now…..not so much!
Sorry to hear that. I love the UWS now. Great place to live.
Thanks for the picture of Teacher’s next to Zabar’s. I had my first date with my husband in November,1983 at that Teacher’s. I still remember what each of us ordered (short ribs for him, mussels for me). I had forgotten exactly which block it was on. So, will save this picture.
I forgot about Teachers. Thanks. They had a great weekend brunch! I also forgot it was next to Zabar’s. There was a terrific old dive bar Wilby’s–I forget exactly where. I once ran into Debbie Harry (Blondie) there.
Such fantastic photos, thank you for sharing!!
I agree. It brings back such great memories. I have lived on the west side for 55 years. I miss many of the old places. Teacher’s Restaurant was between 80th and 81st Street. Wish it was still there.!
Agree. Teacher’s was one of those places where you could drop in for a pleasant meal without stressing out on RESY or having to get all dressed up. Nothing innovation or pretentious about it, just good food with identifiable ingredients, a mellow ambiance and a nice neighborhood crowd. I miss it.
Those were the days of graffiti and unswept streets….. the good old days, the nights ww stayed home unless your block had a private security guard.
10 years ago when we arrived, the streets were much cleaner than in those old photos and today.
The city should be emptying the trash barrels twice a day—and also adding more barrels.
When I look at the old photos I see much more litter & garbage all over the streets & sidewalks. I guess you see them clean?
Perhaps you want to reread my comment. The streets were dirty in the old photo and are dirtier today than they were 10 years ago.
Most people were out all the time…
Wonderful photos! I lived on the Drive between 98 and 99th from 1976 to 1984. Large apt with river view–$350/month. The UWS was a bit sketchy, but colorful and very affordable. I’d have dinner and a beer at Hunan Balcony for under $10 with tip!. Thanks for these precious photos. They capture that era perfectly.
One thing missing is someone wearing leg warmers, or someone carrying their dance bag on the way to or from class.
Am loving seeing all of Stephen Harmon’s retro images of the UWS. Have lived here since 1968 and his images are great reminders of days gone by.
Great photos, thank you!
What the heck are some of the people holding? They look to be made of paper and people are looking at them.
Maybe religious objects? I see pictures on some of them.
Wonderful pictures. Those boom boxes and the graffiti on the subways but people were actually reading books!
Love these photos!
They bring it all vividly back to life.
Seems like yesterday…
More please!!!
Fabulissimo, Stephen Harmon! I love and will save all these photos.
The Workbench on Broadway is where I bought the oak dining chairs I still have today; it closed several decades ago. The Jackie O head kerchiefs and wide lapels were all the fashion. The over-sized hair dryers, before handheld blow dryers, shaped my banana curls for a special birthday. Graffiti artists, such as Basquiat, were taken seriously and became huge successes.
Smoking was ubiquitous, on the streets, restaurants, and offices. That’s one thing I don’t miss at all.
How about the ash on that woman’s cigarette, the lady with the hat?!
Love these photos! A reminder of times gone by. Keep them coming.
I loved the UWS then; love it even more now.
From the last Throwback Thursday. . . who knows when Papaya became Gray’s Papaya? It was Gray’s at least as far back as the early 90s when I first moved to the UWS.
No longer my UWS I’m sad to say. I was living there from 1955 to 1978.
It’s all about pleasant memories now.
The sharpie with the matching white hat and shoes!
The lady with the fur hat and the cigarette!
Brilliant portraits of a time and a place, Stephen.
I grew up in the area of Riverside Church in the sixties,seventies and eighties and always loved the upper Westside. Should have looked for a apartment bet 116 and 96 st back opted for a new condo complex in the East Bx.No regrets but nothing beats the upper westside
Great stuff!
Steve MUST do a book!!
Love seeing the photo of Teachers. My favorite for many many years. I miss it terribly. Great Spinach Salad.
What’s missing? iphones! Oh those were the days
So amazing….people connected in such a straight forward way.
Most boomboxes from the 70’s, 80’s require a large number of D cell batteries- sometimes up to 8 /10 of them. The cost for 8 /10D batteries today is around $18 or more- yikes! Luckily there is a solution, and it’s possible to modify your old boombox with a rechargeable battery pack.
Remembering the 60s and the 70s, we most didn’t have a New York City bankruptcy was just around the corner and they were no cell phones a good book or the newspaper from the newspaper stand on the street corner to read when taking the subway downtown would suffice. No looking at your cell phones back then. Oh yes, Zabar’s $3.98 a pound for coffee.
But I like it now, I love change! Look at this way…..Central Park is no longer a dust bowl! And we have a new stunning museum to go to and tree line streets to walk through on every block with hundreds of window planters and flowers planters lining the stoops steps and 56 years older! 👌🎃
Anyone remember Marvin’s Garden?
Teachers, Dublin’s House, Teacher’s too, F.W. Woolworth’s, A Different World men’s store, Food City, & H& M Bagles?
God bless you brother! I lived on 103rd and West end avenue from 1986 to 1991. I shared a one bedroom apartment. My rent was $300. “Good times.” Then I lived at the corner of West end and 80th Street right up the block from zabars. rent? $400. Last artist, writer, cop or cab driver out of the city, please close the door behind you, NYC only wants the super rich.
Zabars was my go to place in the 60s and still is today. When we have to be away from The City we still order from Zabar’s.
I had that same boombox around 81′ 82′. If I remember correctly it took about 8 D size batteries and weighed I would say about 20 lbs. I loved that boombox. I don’t remember what happened to it, I think it finally gave up.
One other thing when you came out with it you had to have eyes in the back of your head. Attracted a lot of attention mostly from the wrong people.
A wonderful rent controlled neighborhood made up of artists, teachers, and intellectuals.
I love all the trench coats. That reminds me of 1985. Casual clothes with a long wool coat and scarf. Cool brat pack feel.
Wow, thanx so much Mr. Harmon for sharing these pics! I was wondering if you might have photos of the events and people surrounding the efforts of The Committee to Save the Beacon Theatre to stop the deleterious conversion of our beloved theatre into a discotheque during the mid-1980s? In particular, I’m searching for photos of the large yellow/red banner flown over street fairs, the Fairway Market at 74th and Broadway, and at both benefits – Felt Forum (’86) and Symphony Space (’87). I made the banner and have lost my photos in a flood.
Love seeing these, thanks so much for posting. More, more!
I went to L.D. Brandeis H.S. in the late 60’s. Thank you for refreshing great memories.
Did you happen to know a guy named Frank (Francis) Kelleher at Brandeis? He graduated in 1966. Lived around 112th and Broadway.
The picture with the man in the suit. *Incredible*
Don’t forget the 7117 murders during Rudy Giuliani’s tenure as mayor.It was very dangerous then.
Great pictures. Live nyc, very mystical n magical. Are there books or diaries written about people living in nyc in the 1960s and 1970, How they lived in such a popular city of the world in those eras. Coping with life in nyc. What they did to survive in this city. Who they are?
I wentting to Columbia in the early 1960s, when the Upper West Side, which had fallen on hard times, was starting its glorious comeback. The wisest of my classmates held onto the apartments they had rent3d for sacrifice rents, and a lot of them are STILL THERE!
I hope these photos remind folks that maybe the good old days weren’t as uniformly great as they remember. The graffiti and the litter were indicative of a city that was basically broke. Where crime was at an all time high and 10-fold higher than it is now. While things aren’t peachy-keen at the moment, quality of life in NYC is much higher now than back then. I grew up in the city in the 70s/80s. I’m now raising my kids here. I’m grateful the schools are better and the streets are safer. While the city has lost some of its quirks as it has Disneyfied, it’s still the best big city in the world.
I like to leave this post about the seventies at 74th Street and Amsterdam corner grocery store when it was owned by Dominic palomini he made sure that the people in the neighborhood that couldn’t afford to eat he made sure that their families were fed by donating and giving food to them hello not too many people know this but his is doing this from the 60s 70s and ’80s until his store at that time had closed up and he had passed away he was a good person for that era