Video: The History of One Manhattan Block

The complete history of Eldridge Street between Stanton and Rivington has all been visually played out in this 12-second video. Don't blink, you might miss that time it was Delancey Farm.

Get a slower look, and learn more about the project, here. Creator Zach van Schouwen even made each building clickable so you can get the individual histories of them. His own inspiration came from trying to discover more about a building his great-great-grandfather lived in — a five-story tenement at 218 Eldridge Street. He says, "With some help from Christopher Gray's guide to researching New York City buildings, I discovered that the building had been erected in 1834, on the site of an old house. It was demolished in the 1940s; its lot later held a garage, then a housing project."

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

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on November 15, 2009 4:07 PM

Comments [rss]

Ted

My grandmother's parents used to live in a tenement this block in the 30s/40s -- she said that she remembers the rats running through the garbage in the halls. They were destitute and couldn't take care of my grandmother, who was living in a big jewish orphanage uptown.

in 2000, I lived for a while in an apartment just up the street, on Eldridge just south of Houston. I paid $600 for half of a tiny 2 bedroom six floor walkup, which was a really good deal but my grandmother could not really comprehend. I tried to find her parents' tenement, but that huge ugly complex was in its place.

Edward

Fascinating.

For the past four years I've been working documenting the photgraphy on the changes on Eldridge St (Houston - Division).

www.echito.com

Cobalt

This is fantastic work Mr. van Schouwen, I love the drawings!

Must have been a real time investment but totally worth the effort.

I hope that one day Google maps will allow a user to select a year and view the city as it looked at any given point in time.

Think2wice

Well done Zach van Schouwen. I feast on stuff like this!

The rows of 1830's houses may have looked nice (if the neighborhood wasn't a Dickensian slum). Likewise with the 1920's apartments. Then it all went downhill into the plastic-fantastic 50's and 60's.