Park Avenue looking north from 31st Street, 1850's.
Description
Park Avenue and East 31st Street. Caption reads: Cars taking engine from New York to Boston. Drawing looking north along Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South) from between 31st and 32nd Streets, mid-1850's. At left, with the flag, is the Brandes Hotel and Restaurant; to its right, in the block now occupied by Two Park Avenue, are the ticket office, locomotive house and smith shop of the New York and Harlem Railroad, this location having been dictated by an 1842 ban on the use of steam power south of 32nd Street. Horsecars from downtown, arriving here a the city's then northern limits, are being assembled into a steam-driven train for Boston, while the animals, unhitched, are refreshed for the return trip or retired to the railroad's stables off to the right. In the background is the 34h Street bridge over the entrance to the railroad-out through Murray Hill, whose side streets are being built up with row houses and the Zion Protestant Episcopal Church (Madison and 38th), while Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South) still remains mostly undeveloped.
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Local Subjects
New-York and Harlem Rail Road Company
Railroads -- Buildings and structures
Park Avenue (New York, N.Y.)
Brandes Hotel (New York, N.Y.)
Street life
Railroad repair shops
Hotels
Murray Hill Neighborhood (New York, N.Y.)
Note
Digitized by Mina Rees Library; City University of New York. Graduate School and University Center.