Wow! Park Ave before it was Park Ave. This ten-photo panorama series taken from Park Avenue and 94th Street in 1882 captures the clash between an expanding city grid and the rural landscape of the Upper East Side. The photographs were taken from the roof of a newly built mansion on Park between 93rd and 94th by photographer and brewer, Peter Baab. Between the 1830s and 60s, the boulevard known as Fourth Avenue, a railroad corridor between Grand Central and Harlem with noisy at grade train tracks until 1872 when the New York & Harlem Railroad sunk the tracks from 56th to 96th Streets below ground. When the construction was finally finished, Fourth Avenue was the perfect place to facilitate the northward growth of speculative real estate that was facilitated by the city's growing population and recently mapped grid system of 155 streets and twelve avenues. During construction of the tunnel, the avenue had been widened to 140 feet with a landscaped promenade in the middle and ventilation shafts for the tracks below. When the project was finished in 1876, the loss of pollution and noise caused by the railroad, combined with the opening of nearby Central Park and the quick commute to rapidly developing Midtown, Fourth Avenue became the prime spot for opulent townhouses and mansions. In 1886, four years after these photos were captured, Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue, now one of Manhattan's most famous thoroughfares. The first view is looking south, down Park Avenue and the series rotates west, north, then east. Collection of the Museum of the City of New York. #nychistory #nycphoto #nyc #nyhistory #parkave #parkavenue #grandcentral #nycentralrr #midtown #uppereastside #harlem #eastharlem #parkavenyc #grandcentralterminal #parkavearmory #railroad #railfan #historicphoto #urban #urbanhistory #manhattan #uptown #uptownnyc #midtownnyc #mcny #corneliusvanderbilt #newyorkhistory #subway #nycurbanism (at Park Avenue) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LgyqAnkHP/?igshid=mccq644lyzoz
