Where to schedule surgery in 1891

If you had a choice, you may have picked the “Syms Operating Theatre” at Roosevelt Hospital (now St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center) on the corner of 59th Street and Ninth Avenue. Tiers inside the building accommodated about 200 viewers—how else were young physicians supposed to learn from your doctor’s mistakes? 

Back then, this was the premier place in New York to have surgery. The last operation took place in 1941, and the building was landmarked in 1989.

A city kid’s communion portrait

 He sure looks cute, and his coat, knickers, and spotless lace-up shoes give me the impression that he’s a middle-class boy. The back of the photo has lists a portrait studio at 830 Third Avenue, off 50th Street. If we only knew what he did with his life.

Furs and waists in the garment district

It’s hard to read, but the lowest part of this cool old ad in the West 20s—for Schwartz & Schwartz coats and waists (an old-fashioned term for a woman’s blouse)—deserves a close look.

I couldn’t find anything about the Schwartz Brothers, but I did learn that Mr. Greenblatt, the furrier, was a Polish immigrant who manufactured his furs at 305 Seventh Avenue. He died in 1938.