Morningside Heights looks like a country village in this 1895 photo, facing south from 114th Street.
“The Boulevard” referred to the main artery bridging 59th Street to Harlem. Eventually it was absorbed into the northern extension of Broadway; those wide roads and the tree-lined center mall are still recognizable. No more bicyclists riding leisurely though.
It may be one of the more grungy parts of Manhattan now. But around 1900, Broadway between 14th Street and Herald Square was one of the centers of the city—a place to stroll, shop, show off, and be seen—lined with fancy hotels and theaters.
The ritual is chronicled in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, when the title character, new to New York, visits this part of Broadway with a young female neighbor and is enchanted by what she sees:
“The walk down Broadway, then as now, is one of the remarkable features of the city. There gathered, before the matinee and afterwards, not only all the pretty women who love a showy parade, but the men who love to gaze upon and admire them. It was a very imposing procession of pretty faces and fine clothes.”
I bet the hairdressers at this old salon, on Broadway in the 150s, were responsible for a lot of bouffants and beehives in their day.
Ephemeral New York 