historical seventh ave

recently, we have been working with our condo's board to oversee a renovation for our building's entrance, lobby, and hallways. as a result of some research, we found some pretty interesting images of the neighborhood going back 100 years.

1914: streetcars and horse drawn carriages adorn seventh ave. this photo was taken from the intersection of 23rd street looking up seventh avenue, and on the left side you can see the chelsea mercantile building and on the right side, the chelsea atelier. the chelsea rental building across 24th street has not yet been built, nor many of the other high rise apartment and office buildings which now dominate seventh avenue north of 23rd street. there is an antique-like street lamp at the NE corner of 23rd and seventh.

1915: on september 22, 1915, there was an explosion during construction of the 23rd street subway station that caused the tunnel to collapse. that's our building at the top right corner of the following photo.

1974: american muscle cars fill the paved south-bound avenue. a series of buildings have gone up on both sides of seventh avenue, filling up the manhattan skyline and earning the city its reputation as a city of skyscrapers. the streetlamp at the corner has been replaced by a more modern one.

source: these photos were acquired from the NYPL archives.