Comments on: Where & When: Season 2 Game 13

By: rbj

rbj — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:53:40 +0000

[12] Thanks

4 weeks until pitchers and catchers!

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:12:50 +0000

[11] That’s the 42nd Street station of the Sixth Avenue El. That had been there since 1878(!)

By: rbj

rbj — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:06:52 +0000

Now, what was the pedestrian bridge in the background?

By: Chyll Will

Chyll Will — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:14:53 +0000

Well done, gentlemen. As you can see, this is far more genteel if you will than what it looks like now in that area; more downtown Fifth Avenue (below Union Square) than the uptown skyscrapers we're used to. The year is noted to be c.1900, so you're pretty much correct on that account as well. Since we're guessing at the year, we can also guess that this was about the time they began considering what would become the main branch of the New York Public Library system. Where the library is now was once occupied by huge stone retaining walls encompassing the old Croton Reservoir, which I featured last season. If this picture was taken in 1900, the walls had been taken down just the year before and the aqueduct had either been diverted or submerged well underground, so there may have been nothing more than an empty lot at that point, next to what was considered a disreputable park shadowed by the Sixth Avenue El Train. Interesting. Btw, Bryant Park was originally named Reservoir Square from 1847-1884 when it was renamed after abolitionist New York Evening Post editor William Cullen Bryant. Before that it was a potter's field (burial ground for the poor/unknown) from 1823 and a public space dating back to 1686; George Washington's troops crossed his area after the Battle of Long Island in 1776. Enjoy the brownies, guys!

By: Alex Belth

Alex Belth — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 20:27:25 +0000

Alls I can say is you guys are mad impressive. I’m just so stumped when it comes to this kind of detective work.

By: rbj

rbj — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:41:07 +0000

Bryant Park dates to 1884, so this was probably late 1880s to 1890s

By: rbj

rbj — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:33:15 +0000

The proper name for the vehicle in the foreground is horse-drawn streetcar. Image search for that brings up the photo credit.

By: rbj

rbj — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:25:38 +0000

[3] Yeah. Now that I see the corner of the church it makes sense. But no pictures of the Spalding building itself.

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:02:29 +0000

Ah, and the Church was built in 1865, demolished in 1911 or 1912, so the when is in between then. 🙂

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:01:49 +0000

[3] According to wikipedia, the building that replaced the Church was eventually replaced itself by the SUNY College of Optometry.

Bryant Park is across the street.

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:59:34 +0000

I changed my mind. Not the Brooklyn Spalding Building.

This one was on West 42nd Street near the West Presbyterian Church (there’s a small picture on the Church’s wikipedia page that shows both).

By: Shaun P.

Shaun P. — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:53:24 +0000

Well, all searches of “nyc spalding building” give me a slightly different looking Spalding Building in Brooklyn, which was torn down as part of the Atlantic Yards project for Ratner’s Barclay Center for the Nets. If that building is this building, then was in Prospect Heights, along 6th Avenue. But I’m not sure it is.

As for when . . . 1880s? 1890s?

By: rbj

rbj — Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:43:23 +0000

Gotta be 19th Century.
Hm, Spalding building? West Shore Line trolley?