May 25, 2005
1929, NYC, but where
This is a photo of my grandfather (left) during his brief stint in New York. He arrived in 1928 and stayed one year, eventually skipping the country back to his ranch in Mexico. He was working parking cars at the Waldorf and had crashed a fancy car. This would have meant prison, so he left... quickly. He had saved almost four hundred dollars had planned to marry my grandmother, take a steamer to Argentina, and start a ranch down there (100 dollars would buy a nice spread), but one of his sisters used the money for her own wedding (a blowout apparently), and that was it for that plan. He would never return to New York, but in his 90's he would recall small telling details like the electric smell of the subway cars or the way men with black umbrellas would walk through central park in the snow holding their girlfriends close and tight. Always at the end of story he would always turn a a bit sour on the memory of his dream unfulfilled.
My question with this photo... does anyone recognize the street? There aren't many places where such wide avenues are bisected by sidewalks like that, but the buildings are fairly anonymous.... I know he was living on the west side in the 70's... New Yorkers? Any ideas?
to this site
05/25/05 02:54 PM
Anonymous said...
Maybe on one of the big avenues leading to central park.. but the lack of tree shadows suggests otherwise... let me thing about this one...interesting challenge. surely some of those buildings are still here and as you say there aren't many places in the city where wide blvds dead end into sidewalks...
05/27/05 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...
As you say there aren't too many places in the city where wide avenues dead end into sidewalks... I'd just look at a NY map and spend a Sunday checking out all the possibilities. Because the ground is unpaved I think it might be the west side... all of lower manhattan was paved by the 20's...
11/16/07 07:28 PM
Martin said...
If you look closely at the photo, there are paved roadways and street lights to the left and to the right of the three men pictured. I believe the open field behind them are city blocks where the existing buildings have just been demolished, possiby to make way for parkland or freeways, but nowhere close to Central Park. This can be the Lower East side, possibly Forsythe or Chrystie Streets.