Old New York in Colour - Part 1 - Downtown

CartLegger: 5th Apr 2010 - 01:12 GMT

These really go beyond architecture shots, to bring the real life of the time to the viewer, crusty socks, tight suits, and all! Nice!

Franny Wentzel: 5th Apr 2010 - 03:48 GMT

I'm loving the circus wheels on that sodie cart

and if anyone wants a closup of that newspaper

jack: 6th Apr 2010 - 15:23 GMT

actually i remember most of the things in these pictures. hung around battery park as a kid and as a young teen went into those bars on south street and hung with the old dames in there. they would dance very close with you but they were thinking of years gone by when they were young girls.

Franny Wentzel: 7th Apr 2010 - 17:20 GMT

There's more outstanding views of downtown in part two of this series!

anon (cpe-76-167-113-42.socal.res.rr.com): 8th Apr 2010 - 11:26 GMT

awesome pictures

fira flame: 8th Apr 2010 - 20:43 GMT

If there was ever a reason for time traveling, it would be just so someone can go back with a 12MP camera and take some fucking pictures like these...

Franny Wentzel: 8th Apr 2010 - 20:48 GMT

I'd be heading for Dealey Plaza with an HD Cam and Dolby THX recording equipment...

anon (host-92-10-126-154.as43234.net): 9th Apr 2010 - 12:29 GMT

Brought me to tears! I miss my home!

anon (222.127.192.231): 9th Apr 2010 - 13:36 GMT

Hi! I will send to my sister Vangie Galing who lives in New York...Nice...

bert: 9th Apr 2010 - 15:56 GMT

this photos are amazing. brought a real smile to my face. what a fantastic city.

Duffey: 9th Apr 2010 - 17:29 GMT

These are a reminder of a period when the world was a simpler place. I still love New York, but these pictures tell many stories of people who are no longer with us. I really wonder how there lives turned out?

edwin: 9th Apr 2010 - 19:30 GMT

Amazing photos for sure, but I'm glad to be alive and kicking in this century.

Joe Gande: 9th Apr 2010 - 23:09 GMT

Awesome Photos of The Greatest City in the World!

Pamberjack: 9th Apr 2010 - 23:38 GMT

Amazing. Lovely colours. Someone invent time-travel, please...

Jane Lissner: 10th Apr 2010 - 03:10 GMT

What is that sky scraper in the view east from north end of Battery Park? Is it under construction? Looks like the top is missing?

Franny Wentzel: 10th Apr 2010 - 04:05 GMT

From left to right...

1 - Standard Oil Building

2 - 66 Wall Street,

3 - 20 Exchange Place

4 - Old Customs House

5 - Produce Exchange

Franny Wentzel: 10th Apr 2010 - 05:35 GMT

and they were all complete at the time the picture was taken.

anon (ppp-94-68-144-36.home.otenet.gr): 10th Apr 2010 - 13:12 GMT

beautiful pictures!!!!!

mosie ravel: 10th Apr 2010 - 14:29 GMT

Seems like exremely modern photographic technique and printing for old color photos, amazing!

Jeff Prager: 10th Apr 2010 - 17:07 GMT

This is what the world looked like before food additives, before the obesity epidemic, before people got fat. I remember this. And I'm old and slender because I eat right.

Sergio Mcfly: 10th Apr 2010 - 17:23 GMT

How is beautiful to see the old world in color!

Hopskoch: 10th Apr 2010 - 18:18 GMT

As a kid in the 1940's I made enlarged (8 x 10) three color wash off relieve prints of Kodachrome slides of some of the same sites in NYC.

Memories of times past. Now I use digital and Photoshop.

anon (adsl-99-56-170-73.dsl.dyt2oh.sbcglobal.net): 10th Apr 2010 - 19:38 GMT

This is beyond wonderful! Thank you!

anon (99-157-197-170.lightspeed.miamfl.sbcglobal.net): 10th Apr 2010 - 22:02 GMT

thank you.

jo blanco: 10th Apr 2010 - 22:16 GMT

If there is one thing I can say of New York City is that, I can plant my butt down on any spot and deeply enjoy the scenery.

marc: 11th Apr 2010 - 10:29 GMT

is there any way to get a high resolution image of these pics, would make an awesome wallpaper

jim: 12th Apr 2010 - 00:01 GMT

Awesome! I love retro-photos like this! What a different time, don't you think? No welfare, no food stamps, no half the country paying taxes (like me) to support the lazy other half..and...no damn obamacare...

CartLegger: 12th Apr 2010 - 01:59 GMT

"the good old days weren't always good, and tomorrow's not as bad as it seems"

Wow, thanks Billy Joel!

No thanks, republican reactionaries living in subsidized states. Funny that the only people that actually do pay for others tend to live in blue states--the states that actually bring in money.

How ironic, that we coastal states, we educated blue states, are the ones footing the bill--for you.

but please, keep paying your taxes.

Franny Wentzel: 12th Apr 2010 - 03:06 GMT

It wasn't so good in the good old days tax-wise. Until JFK's last year in office the top income rate was 91% - the bottom was 20%

Of course the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts of the Eastern Ruling Class never paid those rates as they'd made their fortunes a long time before and could buy tax breaks from the politicians that the up and coming fortune makers couldn't. Then as now, only the little people really paid taxes.

Interestingly, when the West Coast threatened their supremacy, Hollywood was dragged before the House Unamerican Activities Committee as the Supreme Court broke the vertical integration that made the film industry so profitable - but I digress...

Equally interesting was that the institutional racism of the Eastern Ruling Class was such that not only could the Holocaust be buried in the back pages of the NY Times but a Jew from the Bronx named Herb Stempel was forced to take a dive on one of those popular TV quiz shows in favour of an Aryan intellectual named Charles Van Doren.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Emporor Jones. As soon as he's served his purpose, he'll be thrown under the bus by the people who put him in power like everyone else.

Franny Wentzel: 12th Apr 2010 - 03:25 GMT

The Emperor Jones

Virginia Steiner 12 April 2010: 12th Apr 2010 - 14:17 GMT

I was a little girl in the 1940, these pictures remind me of what a wonderful place New York City was when I was growing up. It was then and still is the greatest city in the world. I can remember taking the train to the city for special occasions such as going to Radio City Music Hall, or to sit in the audience as they produced the "Lets Pretend Hour". I loved going from Coney Island where I grew up to Williamsburg and visiting my grandparents on Division Ave. No matter where you go, you will never meet people with greater hearts than New Yorkers. Thanks for these pictures.

Penelope Tsaldari: 13th Apr 2010 - 18:14 GMT

WOW! Didn't live this era, but I loved the pictures. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers,
Penelope

Yesterdays Wine: 15th Apr 2010 - 14:10 GMT

So many fewer cars, too... and beautiful ones.

applemeat: 15th Apr 2010 - 14:34 GMT

Beautiful, thanks! I wish I could walk into some of these photos and walk around all afternoon, get some good lox at a diner, smoke cigarettes like it's the most wholesome activity on Earth and then buy some fantastic vintage housewares in brand new condition and dirt cheap too.

Alex: 15th Apr 2010 - 16:47 GMT

Wooow brillant! thanks for sharing these great pics!
applemeat, AND BUYING OLD 78 RPM RECORDS IN NEW CONDITION!!!

Pziemba: 15th Apr 2010 - 17:02 GMT

I love this! Thank you for ruining my morning's productivity, and I mean that sincerely!

Belinda Harman: 15th Apr 2010 - 17:05 GMT

fantastic quality its like time traveling looking at them.

Tanisha: 15th Apr 2010 - 17:24 GMT

Amazing!! I live in the city and often when I'm walking around I try to imagine what it was like over fifty years ago, These really give me the picture of NYC c1940, I love it!

JLowen: 15th Apr 2010 - 18:42 GMT

I remember one Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip wherein the father explained why old photos were not black & white, they were in fact color photos and the world was just black and white back then. I tend to subscribe to that theory and these photos are disturbing my world view.

Manfred Kershaw: 16th Apr 2010 - 04:24 GMT

Ah! Rose tinting; what a technical feat. Scary city, money money. The SO building the sacariest of the lot. Do human beings live and love in planet NYC? Paris, Rome, Amsterdam any day.

Halloween Jack: 16th Apr 2010 - 15:14 GMT

In my mind, I sometimes divide recent history between the time when everyone wore suits and hats, and when they didn't. These pics into the former time are priceless.

FWIW, when I started watching Mad Men, the signifier, to me, that Don Draper represented an established past that was to change was the fact that he was still wearing a hat.

Luana Weber: 16th Apr 2010 - 16:42 GMT

this pics are SO beautiful! very nice, i really appreciated it

M. Jackson: 17th Apr 2010 - 12:20 GMT

Fascinating and beautiful pictures...I've looked at many NYC photos and scoured the official aarchives looking for more, but these are probably the best I've ever seen. Congratulations to whomever collected and preserved them, and of couse to the person who stood out there with a big camera and got the shot. Could you (whoever) provide some technical details and perhaps a note on sources? And are there more like these for the outer boroughs, or even uptown Manhattan?

Franny Wentzel: 17th Apr 2010 - 16:12 GMT

If you scroll back up to the top you'd see a note that these are from the Charles W. Cushman collection of colour photographs taken in 1941...

[[webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/]]

The four sets I've posted contain just about all the New York City slides donated by Mr Cushman.

Teresa Giambrone: 4/17/2010: 17th Apr 2010 - 23:33 GMT

Excellent photographs. I grew up in New York and those sights brought me back. They were the "good old days". People took it easy. Today, we're on the fast track. Everything is a rush. Microwave, convection oven, email, jet planes, rockets to the moon. I wonder just how great all this progress will be viewed fifty years from now?

Lola Bolesalvia: 18th Apr 2010 - 19:15 GMT

Wonderful photo's... Thank you for sharing them!

anon (ool-457bba8b.dyn.optonline.net): 18th Apr 2010 - 20:23 GMT

I was born and lived in lower Manhattan until I was 32 years old. I worked in lower Manhattan up to 2003. These pics brought back lots and lots of memories. I remember as a little girl shopping with my Mom going from pushcart to pushcart and I loved all the different smells of what people were selling. Thank you for sharing such great pictures.

Scott D: 19th Apr 2010 - 00:56 GMT

born in Brooklyn moved to the Bronx to start school. Loved to visit my grandparents every Sunday in Bensonhurst/Brooklyn getting together for family dinner.It was great
growing up in New York with all the cultural things available museums, theater, opera and all the great parks.The great photography brought back fond memories of
growing up in one of the greatest cities in the world.Thank you

jonathan: 19th Apr 2010 - 09:45 GMT

My father worked at 32 Broadway as a lawyer and it brings back happy memories to see things that he woud have seen everyday during this period. Thanks.

digital3drealm: 19th Apr 2010 - 10:22 GMT

Just love looking at these color photos from the 1940s it really shows how NYC has changed.

eydie: 19th Apr 2010 - 18:00 GMT

i'm not from new york, but i am a history buff and these pictures are simply beautiful. the photographer really captured the essence of the moment. it really seems as if you could just step into the 40's. i wasn't born til 1957 and i remember as a child, it came as a shock to me that there was actually a world before i was born and it didn't all materialize with my birth,lol. i'm sure things get romanticized and the good old days had there ups and downs just like any era, but it certainly is beautiful. thanks for these pictures.

Bill: 19th Apr 2010 - 18:53 GMT

Great collection. I was born in the wrong era, for sure.

RJ: 19th Apr 2010 - 18:55 GMT

I work in the Financial District (Wall & Pine Streets) and am getting a real kick at seeing a view of my everyday walks from sixty years ago. The view of Wall Street between Broadway & Broad Streets (picture no. 1) looks exactly the same!

Tine: 19th Apr 2010 - 19:01 GMT

These are so excellent! I live right by Bowling Green/South Ferry, so it's great to see what it looked like back then!

wilson: 19th Apr 2010 - 19:55 GMT

these are awesome. are these (or similar photos) in a museum anywhere?

Franny Wentzel: 20th Apr 2010 - 00:10 GMT

They're part of the Indiana University library's collection.

webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/cushman/

There are scads more photographs taken by Charles W. Cushman in his travels around the world.

Jonty Hampson: 20th Apr 2010 - 12:04 GMT

Extremely evocative photos. Almost all the photos are tilted to the right. Did Mr. Cushman have one leg shorter than the other?

J: 21st Apr 2010 - 12:40 GMT

Lovely old photographs.

It's just a pity that they can't be appreciated without people waxing nostalgic about the good old days and how the world has turned to crap now. Life may have been very different but they had their own set of problems, just as we do. It seems some people have rose-coloured glasses placed firmly on their noses.

It would be nice if we could just appreciate the photos for the beauty and not get into life/political debates over them.

Deeba: 22nd Apr 2010 - 03:48 GMT

Utterly charming. I wish I lived in NY in 1941. Thank you for sharing this treasure.

anon (user-12hc7v2.cable.mindspring.com): 22nd Apr 2010 - 15:10 GMT

And where is the modern pics of the same places. Do compare the two. Find the differences. Like children do.

Suad Alhalwachi: 24th Apr 2010 - 09:37 GMT

i loved new York, its the one city i would like to spend at least a year in. maybe when i am willoff i will write my book over there.

Allan Rockitter: 24th Apr 2010 - 10:49 GMT

As a boy I remember the Croydon reservoir in the middle of midtown. Any shots of that?

Ken Dowsett: 25th Apr 2010 - 05:09 GMT

Very nostalgic pictures. Thank you for sharing them. Speaking of time travel - I could not help wondering how many of those people in the photos would react if they were able to see those same locales and sights to-day.

Nitesh: 25th Apr 2010 - 05:09 GMT

I have never been to NY .. bt not in my dreams could have thought it had been so beautiful

Jose Carrilho: 25th Apr 2010 - 05:34 GMT

Hi,

Great photos.
It's always interesting to compare how cities looked like in different countries, namely between New York and Lisbon.
Lisbon is still shorter than NY in the 40's :-)

Maggie Jay: 25th Apr 2010 - 07:08 GMT

These photos feel so familiar. I'm actually London born and bred but looking at these images, I think I may have been a New Yorker last time round (in rose-tinted specs).

Robbie: 26th Apr 2010 - 12:21 GMT

Amazing how nothing has change just the cars and cloths, born and raised in NYC and it sucks the people in the pictures look like they all had a hard life why live here to continue a hard life. Many just do not relize how hard it is. When you are here you are in a rat race to nowhere.

Bob: 26th Apr 2010 - 15:17 GMT

Photos were great, taken three years befor I had ever seen the city

Thanks Susie

Janet: 27th Apr 2010 - 03:47 GMT

Signs of the times: men in hats and dark suits, some with overcoats; even the pedlars are suited and wear caps or hats and ties; a few women in the downtown streets during the working day and all wearing dresses. Some warehouse streets downtown are badly littered; and men sitting about or lounging on benches in the park are dressed for work. (One woman in a long dress--perhaps a pedlar--sits there too.) There are no crowds and the looming buildings tower and close in over all. Sailors in middies are probably not expecting to be called to action--pictures suggest fall season, before December 7, 1941.

Franny Wentzel: 27th Apr 2010 - 08:45 GMT

This set of photos was taken around 29 May to 6 June, 1941

Ann Harrison: 27th Apr 2010 - 15:52 GMT

I am transported. What a smooth collection of concrete and style.

Ian: 27th Apr 2010 - 22:23 GMT

I took a photo looking down Wall Street at Trinity Church in the background, with the statue of George Washington to the right, from virtually the same spot in 2006!

Franny Wentzel: 27th Apr 2010 - 22:43 GMT

I came pretty close myself

Howard Parker: 1st May 2010 - 11:24 GMT

From an old brooklyn guy. These were great pictures. Brings back a lot of memmories. Thank you

Mo: 1st May 2010 - 12:24 GMT

Good to see such pride in their city from the New yorkers on here.

I have only been to NY once and loved it.It's a city that makes you feel like a local after spending only a couple of hours in it.

addie: 5th May 2010 - 03:10 GMT

The guy at Battery Park City's jacket? Very cool!
And I love to see all of the men wearing hats in the old pics.

----Ken Dowsett- 4-25-10
They would kill themselves.

--jim: 12th Apr 2010 - 00:01 GMT
Are you retarded?
By the way, I believe you meant, vintage, not, "retro."

Michael Bannon, Ireland.: 9th May 2010 - 17:50 GMT

Thank you for the beautiful pictures

King Billy: 18th May 2010 - 19:38 GMT

New York like the rest of the USA is a shithole.

Sandy: 14th Jul 2010 - 00:31 GMT

Hi I think the photos are beautiful, I enjoy looking at them. I had a good time seeing New Your City, in the the 1940tys it was fun I had a good laugh, Thank you.(God Bless America and You too)

agnes doherty ondrovic: 3rd Aug 2010 - 12:59 GMT

I was quite young at that time so had not seen the area until much later but I am happy to note how nicely people dressed and how clean the surroundings were.

John : 20th Aug 2010 - 19:44 GMT

Notice that there wasn't any air conditioning back then not to mention TV. Newspapers and radio ruled !

Windows open even in the sky scrappers and you get the noise and the smell (good and bad) when you want fresh air. A lot different from the climate controlled boxes we travel and live in today. A simpler time but it was harder.

Bronx guy: 4th Sep 2010 - 21:50 GMT

I miss the old days. I hunger for the return of Tuberculosis, Diptheria etc. We had nothing back then but before child cruelty laws were introduced, you would would be enriched by the savage beatings you would get from your parents, your school teachers and the police. That was a real education, education with integrity. You were eager to pass on this new found knowledge the next time you and 7 of your friends cornered a small black kid in an alley. Unlike today where TV and movies have warped our childrens minds. There is a big difference with screen violence and real violence, being the subject of relentless physical,sexual and mental abuse never hurt anyone back in the day. You try going out in the hood today and most of the colored guys have got shoes on, what has happened to the New York I remember?

Franny Wentzel: 5th Sep 2010 - 01:54 GMT

Yes because nobody ever picks on black kids anymore, nobody beats rapes or murders their children or anyone elses and people in general are all sunshine and loveliness today...

Elliott ayika: 10th Oct 2010 - 07:42 GMT

I wasn't born in the 40s . my parents where born in the late 50s. I am going to be 30 in November
I will say these photos are great. Especially in color. Love the history. I lived in Queens, and stil miss it.

I can imagine how great and classy the greatest melting pot must have been back in the day.

-Delaware USA

Elliott ayika: 10th Oct 2010 - 07:42 GMT

I wasn't born in the 40s . my parents where born in the late 50s. I am going to be 30 in November
I will say these photos are great. Especially in color. Love the history. I lived in Queens, and stil miss it.

I can imagine how great and classy the greatest melting pot must have been back in the day.

-Delaware USA

John Voss: 14th Oct 2010 - 01:25 GMT

WOW AWSOME, My sister was one of NEW YORK ROCKETTS when they first started out..I did a LOT of elevator work in NEW YORK.Started out with SERGE elevotor comany. Went to MILLAR elevator.Moved to FLORIDA but STILL have my heart in the CITY.....JUST GGGRRREEEAAAATTTT...

Dino: 13th Nov 2010 - 17:57 GMT

The following site shows Then and Now shots for virtually all of Cushman's pics. http://dinosnycpics.com/

Franny Wentzel: 13th Nov 2010 - 23:47 GMT

Let's make that clickable...

dinosnycpics.com/

Craftsman Dave: 25th Nov 2010 - 15:45 GMT

I was born in Brooklyn in 1961, moved all over the world when I was a kid, I remember my grandparents telling stories about the great depression and all the jobs my grandfather took just to keep the family going during that period. They also talked about the second world war during that time. These photos were wonderful and sort of brought their stories to life for me.

eve harris hassman: 12th Dec 2010 - 14:24 GMT

there was a time once when people ruled and the city was a backdrop for greatness. We all should study these photos and remember this.

William Kooy: 23rd Jan 2011 - 17:44 GMT

I loved to see the Cars, Bus's and yes the Push Cart. Liked to see Fabric of people's clothing. Anymore of these subjects? HOR65L@msn.com

Real: 15th Aug 2011 - 19:35 GMT

Pics very nice of course..the mirror of the era...what i dont agree is that some people think NYC is the greatest city in the World. Phisically maybe yes..but otherwise no..maybe who says that has never been to Rome...be more modest..and the world will like you more !

Franny Wentzel: 15th Aug 2011 - 22:27 GMT

Mohammed Ali was fond of declaring himself the greatest of all time. That sure ruined his popularity didn't it?

Yeah... no.

Jim Rodgers: 14th Dec 2011 - 00:34 GMT

Hey, isn't the #2 building labeled "66 Wall Street" on the 3rd photo from the bottom actually on Pine? Or do they just look similar...

Franny Wentzel: 14th Dec 2011 - 02:37 GMT

It's currently the American International (AIG) Building and its address is listed at 70 Pine Street.

www.in-arch.net/NYC/nyc2b.html#39

##THE AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL BUILDING (70 Pine St.)
[Clinton & Russell and Holton & George]

was built in 1930-1932 for the Cities Service Company.

This 289.5-metre, Gothic-like, spire-topped skyscraper was the tallest building in the Downtown area until the completion of the World Trade Center. It also was to be the last skyscraper to be built in Financial District in the pre-WW II years. It took until 1960 that another tall skyscraper rose to the area, in the form of the Chase Manhattan Bank.

The Cities Service Company was a trust responsible for New York City's gas supply, as well as owning electric companies and street railways, and the building was designed to accordingly exude a sense of power. Limestone models (image) of the 67-storey building are carved on the central columns of both main entrances and the doors (image) are adorned with the agency's emblem, a triangle.

Above the granite-clad base, the brick tone of the tower lightens as it rises, until it sets back to a white-coloured top, like a snow cap on a mountain. The "mountain" had an open-air platform with an enclosed glass observatory above, offering undoubtedly the best views of Downtown before being closed from public.

At one time called the 60 Wall Tower due to a fifteenth-floor connecting bridge to a building at 60 Wall St., the name was discarded along with the 60 Wall wing and the bridge when the Cities Service Co. vacated the building.

Originally equipped with double-decker elevators -- ie. ones that serve two floors at the time -- in order to provide sufficient vertical service for the narrow tower, these were nevertheless removed due to their unpopularity. The Citicorp Center, however, adopted the idea in the 1970s, to maximize the core usage as well as an energy-conscious choice.

Today the building is owned by the American International Group, an insurance company. The observatory at the top is still used, albeit only as an executive oasis during lunch hours... ##

Dunno how I got 66 Wall Street for the ID

ange: 10th May 2012 - 06:12 GMT

Someone needs to take the time to go and get shots of all these spots now to show comparison!

Philip Fischetti: 15th May 2012 - 16:23 GMT

Great old Photo's! i worked in the old Produce exchange bldg from 1946 to 1950 when i was 16 until 1950.Western union had an office in that building and had telegraph operators on the exchange floor.I became a telegraph operator and went into the service in 1950.That building was a great piece of Architecture and One of NYC landmarks.Nice to see a pic of the building as i remember it.Brought back fond memories of my first job working there.Oh! a little trivia.. There was a barber shop on the ground floor where i got my haircut by a nice old man who was Alan Alder's (Of Mash)Grandfather.

Diana Buckingham: 26th May 2012 - 23:13 GMT

Where caN I find a picture of Mikes Ship Ahoy A restaurant located bet. columbus and Broadway in Manhattan in about 1950???? They used to say where columbus meets broadway.

anon (c-29e2e253.6478392--62697410.cust.bredbandsbolaget.se): 9th Oct 2012 - 11:51 GMT

Hi.Thank you for the beautiful pictures think they are beautiful and enjoy looking at them. I loved to see the Cars.
Some of my uncle lived i NY.
Regards from Sweden.

Pat Harris: 29th Oct 2012 - 20:05 GMT

Diana Buckingham

Hi, Diana,

I have a photo of Mike's Ship Ahoy from a postcard I found on eBay a while ago. I saved it on my computer and would be happy to send it to you. I used to live in the area. In fact, I grew up there in the 1950's.

My email is patjack1956@gmail.com