Fifth Avenue

Photographs and images are hugely important to me as I write. The Gilded Hour is set in the 1880s when photography was well established, but it’s not always easy to find the kind of images I need. If I lived in Manhattan (now there’s a pipe dream) I’d spend a lot of time at the historical museums and libraries and I would have more luck in my searches, but alas. Here I am on the west coast, almost close enough to British Columbia to chuck a rock over the border. To say I miss the East Coast is a massive understatement.

Every once in a while I come across a photo that takes my breath away. This example is posted at Ephemeral New York: an 1884 shot of the corner where the Flat Iron building now stands. A big, clear, detailed photo like this gives me a jolt that’s hard to decribe.

The 1902 Flat Iron building is iconic, as recognizable as the Eiffel Tower (though on a smaller scale) or Trafalgar Square in London. Film makers use it to establish geography almost as a matter of course. But look at this corner before all that (clicking on the image will take you to the full-sized version at Ephemeral New York). I can almost project myself onto that corner.

23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue 1884

Bodega is word borrowed from Spanish and well established as a general term for a convenience or corner store — in Manhattan and in LA, at the very least.

In Chicago when I was growing up in Chicago we just called them corner stores. Sometimes they were referred to as . mom-and-pop shops because many of them were run by a married couple and their extended family. Kids were sent down to the corner shop a couple times a day, for bread and milk or (I remember clearly) cigarettes. No age restrictions at that time. Some of the stores were very bright and clean, but a lot of them were a little creepy, with dusty, out of date cans of green beans and fruit salad. Which puts me in mind of Lilek’s Gallery of Regrettable Food. The problem is, once you’ve looked at the old advertisements and recipes, it’s impossible to forget those images. People really cooked this stuff. And then ate it.

Tyson’s-Market SE Corner 44th and Fifth

In Chicago corner stores went out of business as large grocery stores came along, but some have survived. In New York they are still everywhere. They’ve got a history.

Consider the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, where in 1883 you’d find Tyson’s Market, maybe the first bodega, ever. The story of how Mr. Tyson fought the rich and powerful to hold onto his butcher shop/tavern/corner store (found here at the Daytonian in Manhattan) gives you a good sense of how quickly things changed on Fifth Avenue.

Note the tree in the image above, which was taken in winter. It was a landmark of its own, the Old Willow. You can spot it in the image below (also from the Daytonian in Manhattan). Nothing bucolic about Manhattan in 1884.

Regimented rows of stoops lead to side-by-side brownstone mansions on the west (left) side. In the distance is the white marble St. Patrick’s Cathedral and in the foreground is Temple Emanu-el. The lone tree in the etching is the old willow tree, obscuring Henry Tyson’s 5th Avenue Market — New York’s Great Industries, 1884 (Daytonian in Manhattan)

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My name is Rosina Lippi. I'm a former academic and tenured university professor, writing full time since 2000. Under the pen name Sara Donati I am the author of the Wilderness series, six historical novels that follow the fortunes of a group of families living in upstate New York from about 1792-1825. A new series based on later generations of the same families was launched September 1, 2015 with The Gilded Hour. The next volume in the new series, Where the Light Enters, was released in 2019.

Please see the pinned post for an overview of what you'll find on this weblog, and what has been moved to the wiki (including the FAQ page).

before the flat iron building

Running out for Milk in 1883

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