Every picture tells a story — but it takes a lot of pictures to show the transformation of New York City from humble Dutch colonial outpost to crossroads of the world. Some 90 images purport to do just that in “The Landmarks of New York,” opening tomorrow at the New-York Historical Society.
Photos of key buildings, parks, public monuments, even churches and cemeteries — shot by photographers both recognized and not — give us a sense of the seismic changes that have rocked this city in the last three centuries. The photos come from the collection of Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, longtime head of the New York City Landmarks Commission, who curated the exhibit with the museum’s Marilyn Kushner. Here’s what they had to say about a few key photos:
Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway
The building opened in 1913, a major year in New York City, which also saw the opening of Grand Central Terminal, women’s suffrage marches and the start of income tax. Architect Cass Gilbert designed it for Frank Woolworth, owner of the ubiquitous five-and-dime stores, and decided to make it not only a skyscraper, but the tallest one in the city, which it was until the Chrysler Building came along in 1929. The Woolworth opened on April 24 after a dinner for 800 or 900 people — nearly all of them men in tuxedos — on its 27th floor. The newly elected President Wilson flipped a telegraphic switch that lit up all 80,000 incandescent bulbs in the building — something that could be seen from 100 miles away at sea.
Charlie Parker residence, 151 Avenue B
An unknown architect designed this modest row house in downtown Manhattan, where Parker lived on the ground floor between 1950 and 1954 with his wife, Chan Richardson, and her daughter, Kim. Parker and Richardson had two children of their own — a son and a daughter. After he left, the painter Franz Kline moved in. Nevertheless, 151 Avenue B is known today as Charlie Parker Place — in honor of the alto saxophonist who, with the great trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, invented bebop. It was given landmark status May 18, 1999.
John Bowne House, Flushing, Queens
In 1661, when John Bowne built his house, Flushing was part of the Dutch colony headed by Peter Stuyvesant, who forbade Bowne from letting Quakers meet in his home. Bowne continued to do just that until Stuyvesant deported him back to Holland, where Bowne tried his own case and won, then returned to Queens and the Quakers. From this came the Flushing Remonstrance, a precursor to the freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights.
The Unisphere, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens
Built in 1963-’64 for the World’s Fair, the Unisphere and its surrounding pool and fountains stayed up while the rest of the fair was dismantled. “The giant, stainless-steel globe was the physical center of the fair and represented the theme of peace through understanding, a shrinking globe in an expanding universe,” Kushner says. “See the rings around it? They represent the orbits of John Glenn and other early astronauts.”