“Everything is fine and dandy so far,” someone scrawled in cursive on the back of this postcard, stamped March 11, 1912—almost 100 years ago to the day.
“Jake met us at the station. Was very nice. We are having a fun time.” It’s signed “F & M.” Father and mother? I wonder who they were.
Does anyone know exactly where this stretch of Riverside Drive is? My guess is the upper 80s.
Tags: New York in 1912, New York street, Riverside Drive in 1912, Riverside Park New York, street scenes of old New York, vintage New York City postcards
Ephemeral New York 
March 1, 2012 at 2:42 pm |
I could be wrong (it happens a lot), but it looks like the building with the green mansard roof is at 105th Street. If that’s it, then the buildings on the extreme right of the frame have been replaced (by fairly plain apartment buildings).
March 1, 2012 at 2:51 pm |
And….flag on my play. The building I mentioned looks remarkably similar to the one on the postcard, but according to oasisnyc.net, it wasn’t built until 1921.
March 1, 2012 at 3:10 pm |
Good guess though. I’m thinking it’s either about 89th street because Riverside has a nice curve around there. Also around 96th, I believe.
March 2, 2012 at 12:47 am |
Nathan’s first call was correct. The building he describes is 330 Riverside. Survives today.
Much of the area was empty in 1890, built thick with mansions by 1910.
To the right of the camera, but not in the shot was an iron-clad mansion. Find it on New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery bearing the “Digital ID” of 722745f.
March 2, 2012 at 3:51 am
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but I’m still pretty sure I was wrong. Unless they replaced a building with a fairly close copy, the building at 105th wouldn’t have been there in 1912.
March 3, 2012 at 1:38 am |
OK here’s my guess:
http://collections.mcny.org/MCNY/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=SearchDetailPopupPage&VBID=24UP1GTYIHQG&PN=17&IID=2F3HRGMZEX90
(# F2011.33.58)
It looks like the white bldg with mansard roof at the mid point between the two larger apt. bldgs. also the curve of road on the left and the grass and straight line of the bldgs. to the right.
(btw; MCNY has this postcard picture dated 1905)
March 3, 2012 at 1:35 pm |
I was looking at rents ca. 1900-01 and the priciest places were new buildings on Riverside Drive. The rents are advertised as a yearly price, there’s one on the page below that was $1,800/year, or $150/month. If you searched on particular names of buildings, you might find ads for them when they were new.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1901-12-08/ed-1/seq-13/;words=rented+RENTS+Drive+DRIVE+RIVERSIDE+Riverside?date1=01%2F09%2F1901&date2=12%2F10%2F1902&searchType=advanced&lccn=sn83030213&lccn=sn83030212&lccn=sn83030214&proxdistance=10&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=riverside+drive+rent&phrasetext=riverside+drive&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&index=0
March 5, 2012 at 7:27 pm |
My in-laws live on 89th and Riverside and, even with taller trees there, the huge and lovely Soldiers and Sailors Monument (dedicated in 1902) is very visible. Something tells me this photo is a scene from just north of it, or at the very southern end of the road, in the mid 70s.
March 5, 2012 at 7:45 pm |
Now that I look at it, nycedges’ photo looks pretty darned close. Thanks for digging that one out.