Louis Comfort Tiffany—son of Charles Tiffany, founder of Tiffany & Co, the famed jeweler then located on Prince Street and Broadway—is better known for his lovely stained glass works.
But as a young man, he studied painting, and from his rented studio at a YMCA he depicted impoverished Duane Street in 1877.
The Belgian block paving is uneven and dirty; a wood frame building appears to house a plumber, while a man out front seems to tinker with potted plants.
It’s certainly not the Duane Street in posh Tribeca we’re used to today.
Tags: ", Charles Tiffany, Duane Street, Duane Street New York, Louis Comfort Tiffany, New York artists, New York in 1877, New York painters 1870s, New York slum, New York slum street, Tiffany & Co. Prince Street, Tiffany's first building
Ephemeral New York 
May 17, 2012 at 11:35 pm |
I think you might mean “forbidding”, not “foreboding”. That suggests a foreshadowing of evil to come, and it’s certainly gotten better.
I’ve always wondered — is the drugstore Duane Reade named after the streets?
May 17, 2012 at 11:50 pm |
Thanks, yes, forbidding is probably more appropriate. I’d always heard that Duane Reade came from the name of the two cross streets the first store, on Broadway, was located between. A good future post idea to look into!
October 16, 2017 at 11:19 pm |
True. I’d always wondered which came first: “Duane Reade” the store or “Duane” Reade” the streets.
June 25, 2015 at 9:40 am |
[…] The slums of dark, foreboding Duane Street « Ephemeral New York […]
September 14, 2020 at 12:05 pm |
Duane-Reade was so named because the original store, still there, is on Broadway between Duane and Reade Streets.