An Architectural and Sociographic History of Manhattan’s Upper West Side

At the turn of the 20th century, farmhouses, and even some shantytowns, still dotted the upper west side, soon-to-be casualties of a great building movement of brownstones and grand apartment buildings.  The Bloomingdale Road became The Boulevard and then Broadway, and the "country" villages of Harsenville, Bloomingdale and Carmanville would soon be forgotten for the collective "Upper West Side".    The progress of settlement and architectural development bulldozed literally over the landscape and figuratively through residents' memories, a seemingly never-ending process that continues to this day.    Some changes have represented significant technological and cultural improvements in the quality of a rapidly changing city life, others seem stupefying in hindsight for their seeming disregard for forever lost gems of our architectural and social history.  The evolution of Manhattan has always been spurred by a particular combination of the commercial opportunism and social aspiration that has defined New York since its earliest days.  What is most dramatic is the rapidity with which this has and continues to occur.   As structures and roads are modified and replaced, so often are our memories with it, adapting at every turn, like an only slightly less dramatic version of a science fiction film in which the characters wake up each morning to an altered and adjusted version of the city of their day before -- a doorway here, an alley or a building there -- so that we become quickly readjusted to our new streetscapes and must struggle to remember, "what was it that used to be there?"  

So, within this website, I hope you will enjoy finding a little bit of nostalgia for our historical New York.   Go to the map and click on any marked location to read about it's history ... I'll be adding to it as often as possible.  

Please feel free to email with me with any comments or requests, particularly if you’d like me to research a particular block for you.  Meredith

Eighth Avenue El, between 114th and 115th Streets, looking north, circa 1892