Bread Line On Dover Street: 1931

A spot not too far away from where Buster Keaton was filming in 1964

49 Hester Street 1910

This picture was taken just around the corner from 27 Essex Street where garbage was to accumulate a year later. The gentlemen in the foreground is selling socks just in front of the obligatory corner German bar of that era. In time, as the neighborhood would be more densely populated with different Eastern European immigrants, those bars would be less popular and merchant stores would predominate. In 1968, the artist Grace Hartigan would write that Henry's fruit stand which was then located at this address would inspire the painting of her "East Side Sunday." Note: Henry's, at that time, was next to Hollander's Pickles

11 Hester Street 1896

This block is now incorporated into the Seward Park housing site, completed in 1960 . It would be just east of the intersection of Suffolk and Hester. An 1891 real estate map would show a coal yard just north of the address. An up close view would show J. Smith selling watches and jewelry at number 11 and a man viewing a candy display featuring what appears to be boxes of candied balls at 5 cents a box. Some of the young boys are wearing civil war era hats also known as cheese-cutters due to its narrow, sharp brim. It evidently was popular at the time. In 1891 five barrel lots of rock candy went for 7 cents a pound.

PS 20: 1917 Draft Registration

originally from the early days of pseudo-intellectualism This incredible picture from the American Memory Collection (see url on image and search for "rivington") puts the last posting in perspective.

17 Monroe Street, 1912

A View Of The East River And The Brooklyn Bridge 1918

from the library of congress collection

Times Square 1943

The recent new year's post mentioned the Globe Theater which is pictured here. See shorpy for more info on this photo

Snow Removal In 1899

from the library of congress collection with some wishful editing

Christmas On East 12th Street 1938

!903: East River View From The Williamsburg Bridge

From the Library of Congress

Wash Day: 1900

from the tenement museum

Housekeeping in the Tenements
Housekeeping in a tenement was no easy task for the women and children who generally did it. There were no automatic machines to wash and dry clothes and dishes or get the dirt off the floors and carpets. And for much of the nineteenth century, few tenements even had running water. Perhaps most importantly, tenement dwellers didn't have the household help which middle and upper class new Yorkers could afford.
One of the most basic household chores was taking out the trash to the garbage boxes on the street. Although there had been some street cleaning since the days of the Dutch, primarily done by "cartmen," the City did not organize a department of street cleaning until 1881. Effective street-cleaning, however, did not arrive until the appointment of George Waring to direct the department in 1895. Trash also tended to accumulate in the rear yards and airshafts of tenements. Another basic chore was keeping dust and dirt off the floors, rugs, and upholstery. During most of the nineteenth century, wood and coal burning stoves made the task difficult since they produced soot, which tended to get into just about everything. Gas burning stoves, standard by the 1930s, significantly alleviated this problem.
Women used the same tool to battle dirt and dust that had been used for centuries throughout the world - the broom. Until the twentieth century, brooms were made from twigs or tufts from a corn plant. Since brooms did little to remove dust from rugs and upholstery, these items had to be periodically taken outside and beaten. This was an important part of the annual spring cleaning. Mechanical carpet sweepers were invented in the late 1870s, but electric vacuum cleaners weren't common until the 1930s, and then still mostly among the middle class.
Since most tenements didn't have indoor plumbing until the turn of the century, water had to be brought in for baths, washing clothes and dishes, or cleaning the apartment itself. If hot water was needed it had to be heated on the stove. During the 19th century, laundry was usually washed outside by the water pumps - weather permitting - in order to save the labor of hauling it up or down dark tenement stairways. Of course if the tenement had indoor plumbing, as most did by the 1910, washing was done in the kitchen and the clothes were usually boiled in the water.
Under the best of conditions, the wet laundry was hung to dry on the roof or on clothes lines strung between buildings. But poor weather, water dripping from clothes on higher lines, pollution, falling refuse, and thieves frequently made it necessary to dry laundry in the kitchen. Ironing was done by heating several irons on the stove and then using them alternately as they cooled. Needless to say, it was hot and exhausting work. After the turn of the century, even the working poor began sending some of their clothes out to commercial laundries, frequently owned and run by Chinese immigrants. While many middle class Americans had their own automatic washing machines by the 1930s, tenement dwellers didn't often have the money or the space and continued to use commercial laundries.
The kitchen was generally the central work-place of a tenement apartment, especially if it had running water, which most did after the tenement act of 1901. Families hooked up their stoves (which they usually brought with them in the 1870s) to the kitchen chimney, and it was here that food preparation, cooking, and eating took place. Because tenements had no reliable food storage facilities (the refrigerator was common in middle class households in the 1930s, but not in working class tenements), children were sent to purchase food as many as three times a day. During the 1870s, children also helped their mothers by scavenging for wood and coal to use as fuel in their stoves. Since few tenements had central steam heat as late as the 1930s, stoves were usually used for heating as well as cooking.
Women could earn money for their housekeeping labor if they took in boarders. Part of the boarder's rent was often meant to pay for the woman (or women) of the tenement apartment to do the boarder's laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. However, this was the only time a monetary value was placed on this exhausting work.

Elizabeth and Hester Street, 1902

The Run On Pati's Bank: 1908, Part 2

Mary Malchiodi Of The Fourth Ward: Part 2

Here she is with her fellow news vendors a few months later than the previous photo. From what I can make out of the headline that the boy has on the left (I have a higher definition photo) it looks like the story referred to was the one below. I'm sure the dates given for the library of Congress photos may not be accurate. Newsies always wanted sensational stories to sell their "papes." Things haven't changed, especially in New York City with the Post and the News. I wonder what that boy on the right is swigging down?

Mary Malchiodi Of The Fourth Ward: Part 1

Lewis Wickes Hine has more than one picture of Mary in his study of newsboys and newsgirls over 100 years ago. They can be found on the Library of Congress site I believe her name was misspelled there because the census has no one named Malchade, whereas Malchiodi seems to be the closest common spelling. It looks like Mary might be wearing a sibling's pair of shoes since they look far too big for her.

1908 Sewers: Monroe Street and Ward 7

Archival Pics Of Tompkins Square Park

photographed by the Byron firm via Detroit Publishing, Library of Congress

Coney Island Images: From Library Of Congress

Coney Island Dreamland
The last image is from the Coney Island Mardi Gras in 1906. More about the Mardi Gras and what went on there.

Venice Theater On Park Row: 1940

A follow up to story about Mazie told to me by Bruno in Tanahey Park last week
Bruno probably lived near where the X is the top map before he moved to Knickerbocker Village. It's a section I cropped from the Galt Hoy map (circa 1900) found on the library of congress site. In the bottom section you can see the Venice Theater where Mazie Phillips (Gordon) worked.

A Labeled Close Up Of The 1916 Bridge Photo