Flashback: Last Brownstone Standing

We happened upon this photo in the LIFE magazine archives. The caption reads: "Construction in NYC: land being cleared for 20 story building in East 60s — still occupied brownstone is soon to go." It was still occupied! The photo was taken in 1959... any guesses as to what block it was on?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on November 10, 2009 3:27 PM

Comments [rss]

Stacy Rosenstock

Reminds me of the setting for the movie Batteries Not Included.

nyactorgirl

Hey I'm from Florida where if it was built more than 20 years ago, you knock it down and build something new! I know its an extreme way of thinking down south, but up here its extreme on the other end of the spectrum. Every other weekend someone is picketing outside a old burned-out store front saying that you're destroying their neighborhood if you knock it down and build something new. All this fear of tearing down old buildings and starting new is simply annoying.

To me, you've got to be able to find a BALANCE between preserving truly notable, historical buildings and not being afraid to move forward and invite in new architecture. We all can't live on a block of brownstones where every household is burning 2 or more window-mounted AC units all day every day. Someone has got to build and live in newer greener, more efficient buildings with modern amenities. Someone has got to embrace the new!

cmdrogogov

Absolutely - but not in the case of what happened to New York in the 50's and 60's where entire neighborhoods and communities were flattened down to some lunatic's personal ideals of a new way of living (that ultimately proved to be unsustainable anyway) - just look at where those communities moved to.
Long Island might as well be a city of the dead if you actually WALK around there - full of fat, mouthbreathing losers in SUV's who think it's too tough to walk to the end of the street, let alone a couple of miles.

It is quite possible, and in some cases desirable and a HELLUVA lot more energy efficient any way you cut it to work with existing buildings. Yes, newer designs are often 'better' - but there's nothing stopping human ingenuity from working with what is already there, and I feel that gets to the heart of the real tragedy in all this.

Constantly scrapping neighborhoods and redeveloping areas only encourages the political corruption, continual lack of a sense of community and featureless low cost housing that the USA has become utterly infamous for. It's an extremely unnatural environment whose social, environmental and economic impacts weren't thought through properly.

Nobody is saying we can't have new/nice things, but it was precisely the blinkered focus on novelty of the future that caused this mess in the first place.

dreamking

I've family in Central Florida. I have no patience or respect for what passes for 'new' there. Or 'old', for that matter. Some parts of Orlando are nice, but only because enough of a cohesive segment remains to appreciate something in its context. Such places were considered the 'old' slums. As opposed to the new slums everywhere else in the region...

maximoose

It is indeed 215E 68th street. I should know...the company i work for owns the property.

HOTCUP

looks like a bad MS Paint job.

Jeffrey

Hmm, is that not 60th and Lex? Here's the Google street view..

http://bit.ly/3g4DeA

Jack D. Ripper

This looks like the brownstone that was in the Judy Holiday musical 'The Bells Are Ringing". She and Jean Stapleton ran an answering service out of that building.

Wza

Wow!

Crazy pic.

wiseguynyc

Very tragic. It's important to keep things like this in the public consciousness so history doesn't repeat itself.

mikeylikestv

Aww, Batteries Not Included made me want to move to New York.

JacqueMehoff

harry and tonto lived there.

Cousine

I believe this is looking north at the buildings on 69th St between 2nd and 3rd. The 20 story building would be the one facing south on 68th St with a circular drive and pond.

NJayjay

I agree, it looks like the current site of 215 E 68th St. According to the architect it was built in 1962, so date-wise it makes sense.

Cousine

PS That smaller brick building on the right facing the avenue is slated to be demolished for part of the 2nd Ave subway project.

Nestor

Note, this was BEFORE emminent domain, makes you wonder if they really even needed it. I guess its purpose is merely cosmetic then?

Awesomer

Before eminent domain? I thought eminent domain is in the Constitution.

carbomb

correct!

jibbly

Someone with less work than I have get on google maps street view, quick!

TT

Batteries Not Included

grove

is it 64th?

gimme

modern day version:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/us/28edith.html

hotstepper

thanks for sharing. that is a pretty incredible example of developers who will stop at nothing to put up some impersonal piece of crap. i have got some serious respect for that lady. RIP to her.

NeatEngine

I'm actually reading a book, Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City by Anthony Flint, that discusses this topic.

DanielJ

Robert Caro's The Power Broker is the best depiction of Moses I've seen. a power-hungry lunatic with no respect for the people of New York, just those who wanted to drive through it. His "slum clearance" programs didn't take into account the fact that neighborhoods change, and can clean themselves up. Building a superblock of housing projects all but guaranteed that it stays a slum.

Gemini Lounge

The Power Broker, that is. Thought my comment would fall underneath the one I was replying to.

Gemini Lounge

Oh yes. My Dad tossed his dusty old copy of this bible my way; excellent book. I have yet to finish it, but it is quite a glimpse at the life of a uniquely powerful, visionary megalomaniacal man.

1200

The Power Broker is perhaps my favorite book. For anyone who hasn't read it, it's much more than just a biography about Robert Moses though. It can also be taken as a primer on how American politics really work, a tale of an insatiable lust for power and belief in one's own infallibility, and as a history of the first two-thirds of 20th century America. (That is, if you believe the history of NY can also serve as a miniaturized view of the the history America. I do.)

His giving primacy to automobiles was insane. Moses could have pushed the FDR and Hudson drives another 1/4 mile from the water. He insisted on their current placement so automobiles could enjoy the view. Think of what an amazing park Manhattan could have lining the city if it hadn't been for Moses.

No subway direct to an airport? That was Moses. While he was building the highways, he could have easily set aside land for possible future subway construction. He refused to do so due to his stubborn allegiance to the automobile - refusing to even listen to other arguments.

This 50s and 60s destruction wasn't just Moses, nor just New York. Boston got nailed hard and was rewarded with their City Hall Plaza abomination. If you've seen "The Red Balloon" about a boy with his red balloon getting chased through absolutely magnificent and centuries old alleyways, neighborhoods, and streets in Paris, don't bother trying to look for that neighborhood while in Paris. It got flattened in the same time period.

That age was before my time but I get infuriated whenever it's mentioned. The era is a good lesson about the results of arrogance and unmitigated power.

/sorry for the rant! Nothing gets me going like Moses.

----------

The pic in question reminds me of the Chauncey Gardner residence.

carbomb

I like to watch.

savedbyzero

See also Tom Schactman's book, "Skyscraper Dreams, The Great Real Estate Dynasties of New York".

Emery Roth & Sons put up 215; it's Rudin property;

from a NYT 1990 article

NeatEngine

I enjoyed Robert Caro's book too. Have you read Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York edited by Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson? I would add that to the sylabus/reading list too.

DanielJ

Basically sums up the entire 1950s and 60s in New York. Entire blocks of gorgeous classic brownstones and townhouses razed for anonymous apartment blocks. Tragic.