“Boating on Bronx Lake”

Yes, really—this bucolic postcard from just after the turn of the last century depicts several New Yorkers rowing down a placid body of water in the Bronx near the newly opened zoological park.

“In this park there are two lakes, which owe their existence wholly to the Bronx River,” explains a 1912 New York Times write-up. “One is Lake Agassiz, of about six acres in area, and the other Bronx Lake, embracing 25 acres and nearly a mile long. 

“Bronx Lake is available for boating, and in 1911 the boats there were used by more than 46,000 persons.”

And the Bronx River is still used for boating, and parts of it look very much like this old postcard. Check out this parks department virtual tour.

Where Seventh Avenue once abruptly ended

This 1912 photo shows what was then the end of Seventh Avenue, with Greenwich Avenue to  the left and West 11th Street on the right.

It looks quaint and Village-like, but it wouldn’t last much longer.

City officials had already decided to extend Seventh Avenue to Varick Street to build the IRT Seventh Avenue subway. A lengthened Seventh Avenue would also improve traffic flow downtown, they reasoned.

So the headquarters of Monahan’s, a shipping company, met the wrecking ball a year later. And a not particularly attractive thoroughfare christened Seventh Avenue South came into existence.

Here’s the same stretch of the Village today. In the 1912 photo, you can see the fence of St. Vincent’s Hospital at the far left. The ghost of the hospital is still there.

Hawking pretzels on the streets of New York

Before hot dogs, falafel, Mr. Softees, and other New York City street eats became food cart/vending truck staples, the hot pretzel was already a ubiquitous city favorite.

These two men are selling their pretzels in City Hall Park, circa 1936. They don’t have vending carts but cigarette boxes as a makeshift stand.

A 1923 New York Times article proclaimed that pretzel vendors had disappeared from the Park Row area. I guess the Depression brought them back.

I don’t know where the 1890s photo below was taken, but it looks like they’re hawking fruit and bread too, with more pretzels inside those baskets. 

Would these two pass a health inspection today? Hmm. (Photos from the NYPL digital archives.)