By Rob Garber for the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
Welcome to another installment in the Rag’s Historical Photo Challenge. The image above was taken somewhere on the Upper West Side, sometime in the past. Can you figure out where, when, and what it shows? Look closely; this week’s challenge photo, like the others in the series, includes clues that will help you identify the scene, if you’re a dedicated UWS history sleuth. And even if you don’t recognize the picture—not to worry! Come back in two weeks and I’ll decode it, show you the clues that help identify it, and—best of all—tell you a story the image unlocks, because this column isn’t just a test of your neighborhood knowledge; it’s also a rolling celebration of the people, buildings and events that wove the tapestry of the Upper West Side.
Ready? If you think you know where and when the photo was taken and what it shows, post your answer as a comment on this column.
Solution to Historical Photo Challenge #12
Subject: Bloomingdale Reformed Dutch Church
Location: West End Avenue at 106th Street
Date: 1906-1913
Image Source: New-York Historical Bracklow Collection
Clues: It’s unusual when a church in the center of the image turns out to be the ephemeral feature, whereas the apartment buildings on either side of it are still there, more than 100 years later! Denizens of Straus Park will recognize the flanking buildings at 945 and 953 West End Ave (approximate building addresses—the numbering system in this stretch of WEA is bewildering).
The rest of the story: This is the curious tale of the Bloomingdale Reformed Dutch Church, and it’s a story that overlaps with that of Bloomingdale Square—well, Triangle—I mean, Straus Park—across the street. The history of the Dutch Protestant church in Manhattan is best left to serious church historians, and the peregrinations of its Bloomingdale chapter have been well-told by ace public historian Tom Miller. For our photo-identification purposes, suffice it to say that when the Bloomingdale Reformed church decided that its neighborhood at Broadway and West 68th Street was “overchurched” at the turn of the 20th century, it relocated to a lot at West End Avenue between West 106th and 107th streets. The church wasn’t able to exactly replicate its beloved building at West 68th Street in what had once been called Harsenville, but it did reuse many of the stones from the old edifice. The new church building featured memorable stained-glass windows, including one designed by noted American artist John La Farge. Its walls were even embedded with remains of parishoners, transferred from crypts at the old location to crypts at the new one! This storied house of worship was built to last…until it wasn’t. Just six years later, the church disbanded. It didn’t move again—it ceased to exist. There are still Dutch Protestant churches in New York City, but not the Bloomingdale church. In 1913 the building was sold to Harry Schiff, a developer who had recently snapped up the choice property a block away that had been owned by Isidor and Ida Straus of Macy’s and Titanic fame. Their corner lot at Broadway and West 105th Street was developed by Schiff as The Clebourne, and the Bloomingdale Reformed Dutch Church building was unceremoniously torn down and replaced by 949 West End Ave.
Shoutout to Readers: you guys barely worked up a sweat with this one. drg got there first, joined by Sal Bando, Robert Fried, Flaky cheese danish, Brian, Elgin 93, ACH, and James. Hat tip to Anthony Bellov, who knew the whole history of the church.
…and that’s the story behind the mystery image. Now scroll back to the top of the column and take on your next challenge, Sherlockians! If you’ve missed any pictures in this series, here is the complete collection.
About the author: Rob Garber has lived on the Upper West Side since the late 20th century and is a member of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group. To learn more, visit their website at upperwestsidehistory.org. All photos in Upper West Side Historical Photo Challenge are used by permission.
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59th Street & Bdwy.
I would say Columbus Circle, probably where Trump Hotel is. There is the news stand and subway on the left and what appears to be the Maine Monument on the right
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Building at Columbus Circle, 1957
You can see the Maine Monument at the far right, placing this in Columbus Circle, on the east side of Broadway, with the other window on the other side of the building facing CPW. I had to look up what this was. It’s the B&O Waiting Room of the B&O building that the Gulf & Western building eventually replaced and remains today (under a different name that I won’t sully this post by including). Though the precise location is where the subway entrance is now. I know that before the construction of Penn Station and the train tunnels under the rivers that came with it, buses connected people to ferries and trains, so I assume that people waited here for a bus. This was fun. Thank you.
The ferries across the Hudson River to railroad terminals lasted decades after the opening of Pennsylvania Station, into the fifties and sixties: Weehawken (NY Central West Shore line), Jersey City (Erie RR), Hoboken (Lackawanna RR then Erie Lackawanna RR), Jersey City (Communipaw Avenue CRRNJ terminal). The B&O used the Jersey Central tracks (CRRNJ) and departed from the Communipaw Avenue terminal. The last ferry operation in the 60’s was the Barclay Street Ferry to Hoboken, which was discontinued on Wednesday, November 22, 1967, only to be resurrected years later. The Hudson Tubes (now PATH) also provided service from Manhattan to some of these riverfront terminals.
That looks like Columbus Circle on the right edge of the picture, with the Maine Monument at the entrance to the park. So this would be Broadway at 60th Street. No idea when it was taken, but obviously before the construction of what was originally the Gulf & Western building in 1970.
The B&O Railroad storefront was located on the north side of Columbus Circle between Broadway and Central Park West and under the huge Coca-Cola sign.
From Broadway toward CPW and Columbus Circle; north triangle. Bus service office. Current site of globe? GW building
This was at Columbus Circle in 1957.
How do you conclude the exact year?
Something near Columbus Circle because you can see it in the background to the right.
Maine Monument in background is in Columbus Circle. The camera angle suggests the south side of the circle where the Museum of Art & Design now stands. The auto in the background looks 1950s-ish. I’d guess we’re looking at the Pabst Grand Circle Hotel, which was demolished in 1960 and replaced by a museum housing the collection of A&P heir Huntington Hartford. It was common in those days for hotels to have a place where guests could purchase railroad tickets, like the B&O office in the photo.
The B & O Travel Bureau existed there as part of their coach station at 59th and Broadway. The building was a smaller two-story job that existed beneath the Coca cola sign at the location. The whole thing was demolished in 1966 and replease by the Gulf & Western Building, which in turn was torn down for Trump Tower. Whis whole section is largely where the stairs decending into the station are today.
As for when, B&O stopped running bus service east of Baltimore in 1958 and we can be certian that is it after 1954 wehn the former Majestic theater across the way was demolished for the New York Coliseum. The reflection in the window on the left is from the sign over the entreance to the coliseum promoting the event running or soon the be running there. In the reflection, the sign is promoting what looks to me to be NATIONAL GARDEN SUPPLY SHOW. Seems this would have been around February 1957
You are absolutely correct! Brief and well written history lesson. I have a picture of the front reading Baltimore & Ohio Motor Coach Station (Columbus Circle)
According to this article ( https://forum.trains.com/t/b-o-station-in-the-chanin-building/263233 ), B&O passengers bound for NY or Brooklyn would get off at Jersey City and get on a bus which would be transported by dedicated ferry across the Hudson, where they would be tasken to a number of stops, one of which was presumably this location.
Columbus Circle, you can see the Maine Monument in the background which is the giveaway.
TIL what “peregrinations” mean. Thanks!
Across the street from the museum of natural history. The clue is on the photo’s lower right hand side, where you see a piece of the building.
Columbus Circle, Southwest area.
It’s a lovely historical photo; thank you for sharing.
It looks like Columbus Circle behind the right side of the building.
Historical Photo Challenge Number 13: The Baltimore and Ohio office at Columbus Circle. An image before 1957
B&O bus station, on east side of Broadway facing onto Columbus Circle where the large subway entry under the metal globe now stands.
this is such fun, thank you!
Okay, it’s clearly Columbus Circle, and I’m guessing the 1950s. 1950s from the car styles and the cover style of Harper’s Bazaar. There’s the Maine memorial and you can see Central Park through the window of the B & O waiting room. From the subway placement and the angle of the B&O room, I think it’s that SW edge of Columbus Circle — though the cars are going in the other direction. But! the kicker is the National Garden Show being advertised, reflected in the window — presumably from the old convention center. So that makes it seem like it’s on the north edge of Columbus Circle, bw Broadway and CPW
The B & O Railroad office is located on the northwestern side West 58th street and 8th Avenue. In the distance is Columbus Circle with a 1956 style sedan in the photo.
I was able to figure out the location was the north side of Columbus circle by zooming in on the subway stop, noting the triangular shape of the building and matching the monument to the Maine monument. And while I was able to discover the American International Building was bulldozed about 1960 in favor or the Gulf and Western building, and I spotted the 1950’s car, I wonder how 1957, specifically, was determined? Working backward, I found the national garden something show (reflected in the window) might have referred to the International Flower Show that opened at the Coliseum on 3/31/57. Perhaps the faces on the magazine at the newsstand?
There are 2 magazines fully displayed on the right side of the newsstand. The one on top shows something that looks a lot like the Rolling Stones logo, but that is impossible. The one on the bottom may show 2 policeman or two soldiers.
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad did did not have rail access into Manhattan like its arch rivals New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad. So to make their NYC service as seamless as possible, they built several ticket and waiting room facilities in Manhattan such as this one. Luxury motorcoaches would transfer passengers to the Jersey Central Railroad Terminal, now part of Liberty State Park, where the actual B&O trains departed for Philadelphia and Baltimore with connections as far as Chicago and St. Louis, to compete with the aforementioned New York Central and Pennsylvania lines. What the B&O couldn’t make up in speed, they tried to do in luxury and service, and these facilities were a key part of that plan in the early-middle 20th Century. It kept them in the game for a good while, but the B&O ended passenger service north of Baltimore in 1958 amidst the major decline in railroad passenger traffic as cars and then planes came to the fore.
Such a fun feature — thank you for the mystery AND the history, Rob!
The old railroad office at Columbus Circle in the late 50s.
110th and Frederick Douglas circle
This is definitely Columbus Circle. I’m guessing that we’re looking North (through the storefront) at 58th and Broadway?
I’m also guessing tht this was taken about 1955.
Pretty sure this is where the subway entrance is on 59 & Broadway, under the big globe. PS – I LOVE THIS COLUMN!
Looks to be the Baltimore and Ohio travel or ticket office at the corner of Broadway and CPW at Columbus Circle. I see the park behind the shop and the subway globe entrances to the left and through the windows. Also, looks like the reflection of a theater or cinema in the window. Love the gargoyles above the shop, especially the porcupine.
Lacking tunnels under North River for a direct connection into Manhattan B&O RR turned lemons into lemonade. While other railroads were competing against motor vehicles for passengers, B&O built up an extensive network of travel “stations” where passengers could not only purchase train tickets, but wait for bus service that took them to CNJ terminal on other side of Hudson River.
Like Staten Island ferry of old B&O ferries between NJ and NYC carried passengers, trucks and buses. There were about 15 B&O bus/travel stations across Manhattan and Brooklyn which provided free service to RR ticket holders. Said buses took passengers from city directly to train platforms in NJ or vice versa. There was a B&O office across from GCT, and buses stopped at various hotels and at least one department store, Wannamaker’s.
https://www.trains.com/ctr/railroads/passenger-service/railroad-bus-service-to-new-york-city
One of the more famous and most popular B&O RR trains from NYC was the Shenandoah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenandoah_(B%26O_train)
If you look to the far right of the photo you can see the base of the Maine monument.
Also note that you can see another window in the otherside, so it is on a thin strip.
It must be on the north end of Columbus Circle and. Broadway. There is some tall ugly building there now.
Chelsea area of Manhattan. 1930’s
As per your previous UWS Historical Photo Challenge, the clues are in the surroundings. I actually spotted the Maritime Memorial to the right of the photo. Meaning? We’re looking at the original Columbus Circle, pre-Gulf & Western Building construction.
If I’m not mistaken, we’re actually looking at a 2 story taxpayer that once held WMCA Radio, along with a giant COCA-COLA Billboard that told New Yorkers the current temperature. Gregory Peck can be seen exiting the Central Park West facade of the storefront in the mysterious 1966 film MIRAGE.
The building was located at the northern intersection of Broadway and Eighth Avenue/CPW. The Baltimore & Ohio was principally a railroad, but this was a bus depot. This is the narrow southern point of the building, where stairs descend to the subway today, and we see through to Central Park. IRT 1 station entrance is at center left (round lamp atop pole). The Maine Monument is at far right. Judging from the cars, I’d say early 1959s.
That should have read “early 1950s.”