Your neighborhood in 1924

[Child Of Atom]

Very cool aerial photo of NYC in 1924 from the city website. Click here, when it loads click the button that looks like a camera and change the slider to 1924. It's fun to move between 1924 and the later years to see the differences. In 1924 you can still see the individual trees in Central Park, nothing is grown in yet, the original reservoir is still in place, up at 155th the Polo Grounds are still standing, Park Ave is still a park and hasn't been opened to car traffic yet, the Naval Yards are still full of military ships, all the piers along the sides of Manhattan are still bustling with ships...

what can you find?

[ruthny]

Oh, brilliant, Cully! I will have so much fun with this. Look at the saplings in our beautiful Park!

Thanks for posting!

Ruth

[gerkmax]

Spuyten Duyvil Creek looks different! there's a peninsula jutting down from Riverdale. And you can see the remnants of Hilltop Stadium where NY Presbyterian Hospital now stands.

Also, You can see Randall's & Wards Islands when they were separated. Rikers Island looks like it might have housed just a handful of prisoners at the time.

[addisonbr]

Spuyten Duyvil Creek looks different! there's a peninsula jutting down from Riverdale.

Oh yeah baby.

[Bonick0]

This is pretty cool. My neighborhood is all farms - although Queens Blvd is already in place as a tiny mud road. Thanks for sharing.

[halijusapa]

Ah a new toy for me, really cool! Never knew that there were enough aerial photos in 1924 to create something like a "time machine Google Earth"

Really liked seeing how "empty" the northeast Bronx, eastern Queens, and some of Staten Island (though it wasn't as undeveloped as I expected) was. Farms in the boros!

[pelagori]

this is amazing. i have spent a year on and off trying to find various historical & lost features of prospect park such as the croquet house, and... there it is! thanks for sharing, i will have hours of fun on this!!!

[Child Of Atom]

Glad to be of service Nick. I knew this would spark some cache ideas out of somebody....

[Harry Dolphin]

1924? The Morris Canal still ran through my town.
My mother was living in a cold water flat near Myrtle Avenue in Queens. (They kept chickens in the back yard...) My aunt's friend was living near a peach orchard in the Bronx. Shakespeare Ave. But I don't remember the addresses to check. Oh, well.

[Child Of Atom]

Looking back at the map... what is this structure in Inwood Hill? Anyone know?

[addisonbr]

Wow. It's enormous. I know the photo predates Inwood Hill as an NYC park by a couple of years, but that still seems too big to be a private estate. Hmm.

[Child Of Atom]

This page says there was an Indian reservation in Inwood Hill park until the 1930's (?!) could it be part of that?

[pelagori]

it would be interesting to go up there and see what if anything remains to be discovered. i know from my own investigation in prospect park that buildings vanished a century ago still leave traces....

a little urban archeology perhaps...? this weekend might not be the best for it though.....

[Child Of Atom]

Hmmm... you might right Nick... from the Parks Dept. webpage:

In the 1800s much of present-day Inwood Hill Park contained country homes and philanthropic institutions. There was a charity house for women, and a free public library (later the Dyckman Institute) was formed. The Straus family (who owned Macy’s) enjoyed a country estate in Inwood; its foundation is still present... When the Department of Parks bought land for the park in 1916, the salt marsh was saved and landscaped; a portion of the marsh was later landfilled. The buildings on the property were demolished during the Depression when the City employed WPA workers to build many of the roads and trails of Inwood Hill Park.

So... so far we have an Indian reservation, a charity house, the library, and the Straus estate as candidates... funny I always thought Inwood Hill had been virgin forest from the beginning, but it certainly seems like there was a lot of activity up there counter to that idea.

[Child Of Atom]

With further research I am narrowing it down to either the Straus Estate, or the "Episcopal Home for Wayward Girls."

My evidence for the Straus Estate is pretty much this map, from 1970, which shows "house ruins" at approximately the correct spot. It could of course just as easily be the ruins of the Girls Home.

My evidence for the Girls Home is this photo, which I found while trying to track down more info on the Straus's. It looks to me that the area on the west side of the building, near the middle would be the area shown in that photo, and the tower visible in that photo looks like it could be on the central arm of the building.