By Rob Garber for the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group
Welcome to another installment in the Rag’s Historical Photo Challenge. The images above were taken somewhere on the Upper West Side, sometime in the past. Can you figure out where, when, and what they show? Look closely; this week’s challenge photos, like the others in the series, include clues that will help you identify the scene, if you’re a dedicated UWS history sleuth. And even if you don’t recognize the pictures—not to worry! Come back in two weeks and I’ll decode them, show you the clues that help identify them, 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 #17
Subject: Table Tennis Centers
Location: Broadway and West 55th, 91st, 96th and 110th Streets
Year: 1940
Image Source: Tax photos at New York City Municipal Archives
Clues: Ping pong centers required a lot of floor space and since they were not particularly high-earning enterprises, they were usually upstairs or in the basement of undistinguished buildings. So it’s understandable if you didn’t recognize any of these buildings; none was famous and only one survives today.
The rest of the story: Not only were there Jewish gangsters and Jewish boxers in early- to mid-20th-century New York City, there were Jewish ping-pong champions as well. An ecosystem of Runyonesque characters populated table tennis parlors, just as they hung around boxing gyms and pool halls. Gambling and hustling was the name of the game, and players like Marty Reisman, Sol Schiff and Dick Miles were the real deal. A striking number of the best players were from the Upper West Side, and according to Miles, who won the U.S. championship 10 times, “In the late ’30’s, early ’40’s, it was possible to find as many as 1-2-3-4 table tennis clubs located up and down Broadway from 54th to 96th streets”. You can find them in the photos taken by the city in 1940 to document buildings for tax-assessment purposes. As Dick Miles noted, the string of tennis table centers started at 1721 Broadway between West 54th and 55th Streets (let’s grandfather it into the UWS for this purpose), called the Broadway Table Tennis Courts. It was owned in the 1940s and 50s by a Barbadian expat named Herwald Lawrence, and The New Yorker noted in 1942 that Lawrence’s was where “most of the experts in New York hang out,” and it was there that tween Marty Reisman stepped up to big-time table tennis.
Less is known about the Olympic Table Tennis Centre at West 91st and Broadway or the Cathedral Recreation Center on the northeast corner of Broadway at West 110th. The building that housed the Olympic, at 2471 Broadway, has been occupied by an Equinox gym for more than 15 years. You may have recognized its pediment, with a modest diamond embellishment.
The basement of the Riverside Theater building on the northwest corner of Broadway and West 96th was home to table tennis for at least 40 years. According to Dick Miles, Riverside Ping Pong was a less intense environment than the other UWS table tennis rooms. That changed in 1958 when it was purchased by Marty Reisman, making a fresh start as a business owner following his devastating loss to Hiroji Satoh in the 1952 World Championships. Reisman’s inimitable style made Riverside a combination of neighborhood hangout and celebrity destination until the 1970s. It’s now The Columbia apartment building.
Shoutout to readers: Many of you really know your second floors! The location of the Woolworth’s between 91st and 92nd fooled some of you because the façade and lettering was nearly identical to that of the Woolworth’s at 79th and Broadway, That’s why I gave you the distinctive pediment and a little bit of the building next door as clues. A number of readers recognized the Riverside Theater at 96th and Broadway, where Marty Reisman held court through the 1960s and early 1970s at his ping pong club downstairs. Elgin93 added a splendid memory of seeing Boris Spassky simultaneously play 40 opponents in the Chess City at that location in February 1974. Elgin, recognize anyone in these photos of that event?
ecm upbraided me for including Herwald Lawrence’s Broadway Courts because it was outside of the UWS at 55th Street. ecm also dropped the name of Duncan’s Tennis Shop on the SW corner of Broadway and 96th, right across from what became the Reisman establishment. Paul S remembered watching a fight in the billiards portion of Duncan’s. Here’s a bonus photo of that shop, also showing the old subway entrance.
…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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The Van Den Heuvel mansion / Burnhams Inn now the site of the Apthorpe on Broadway between 79 & 78th.
Is it the building that was formerly on the block that the Apthorp now occupies? I hadn’t seen the top photo but I’ve seen the bottom one — the Van Den Heuvel mansion.
I concur with Gary Dennis and Grayson on this one.
View is looking West and slightly North. to the building behind which still stands on the NW corner of 79th & WEA.
I put the photo at around 1904.
Parts of the Vanden Heuvel House dated to before the American Revolution.
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The Boris Spassky photos –That was very much the scene. I have a number of very similar photos (rolls probably) of this event, taken by my father who was something of a photographer in those days.
Later in the 1970s Reisman moved his club across the street to the SW corner of 96th and Broadway. Basement again, which I believe was under a grocery store. In 1940, as you said, it was Duncan’s.
I believe these are images of the lost Burnham’s Hotel – a super popular resort/destination of Old Bloomingdale, and originally the Van Den Heuvel country estate from the 18th Century., located roughly near 79th Street between what became Broadway and West End Ave. As the neighborhood filled in with development from the 1880s on the building transformed itself several more times, eventually becoming a nursery with greenhouses for the flower trade.
In 1906 The Apthorp apartment building filled in the entire block.
William Waldorf Astor – the owner of the property at that time – stripped the important 18th Century pre-Revolutionary War interiors from the building while demolishing it and installed them in his English castle, Cliveden, where they can still be seen to this day.
Anthony Bellov
This whole series is just the absolute best. Awesome and a half. Including the readers’ comments.
I remember playing table tennis at the 96th ST. location…
Just a little more info on the W. 110th Street and Broadway picture. Before the building was demolished the last thing in the upstairs area was a used bookstore. In addition to Columbia Hot Bagels there was a Chinese restaurant on the corner named Dynasty and around the corner on 110th Street was a Burger King. The West Side Market was there before the demolition and greatly expanded in the new building.
Burham Mansion on 79 and Broadway!! The top picture is the oldest and the bottom was more in 1900s
The Latin quarter Club was on the second floor in the 90″s.