Madison Avenue at 92nd Street

A scene capture from "The House on 92nd Street" (1945) of the Third Reich flag waving over the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1941.

I love old Hollywood black-and-white films. They give a different perspective on life, one unaffected by modern issues such as the Internet or even in many cases television. Of course, they had their own issues to deal with and we can see how people confronted them. Hollywood motion pictures have been excellent at preserving ordinary street scenes from the past. However, often this resource is overlooked for a variety of reasons, such as the plot of the film being unpopular or the film stock being of poor quality. "The House on 92nd Street" (1945) incorporated some location shooting of areas of Manhattan that now are interesting to those who enjoy looking into the past of New York City. Here, we have a comparison of scenes from "The House on 92nd Street" from its filming in 1945 to 2017.

"Bowling Green" in "The House on 92nd Street."

Some establishing shots in "The House on 92nd Street" have little to do with the plot. For example, there is a nice view of Bowling Green in lower Manhattan. That building now is the location of many offices, including the Museum of the American Indian.

Bowling Green recently (Google Street View).

The small park at Bowling Green has been greatly expanded since World War II. This is a change that has taken place throughout the city. For instance, traffic during World War II used to run under the Washington Square Park arch. Now, the park is purely for pedestrians.


"The House on 92nd Street" was (in the film) the location of a German spy ring in the months before the United States entered World War II. The location (in the film) was just off Madison Avenue on East 92nd Street.

92nd Street at Madison Avenue recently (Google Street View).

The corner hasn't changed much over the years. However, the evocative fire escapes are gone.

Upper floors of the five-story house on 92nd Street shown in the film, which in reality was at 53 East 92nd Street in Manhattan.

The film pans down slowly across the entire building when it is first "introduced." I guess you have to actually show the entire house if you are going to call your film "The House on 92nd Street."

This is the five-story house on 92nd Street shown in the film, which in reality was at 53 East 92nd Street in Manhattan.

The location of the spy ring, disguised as a women's clothing store, was shown in "The House on 92nd Street" only once (aside from incidental views of people entering and leaving the building and so forth).

Here is the hero of the film, William Eythe, standing outside the eponymous house when he first sees it. Note the beautifully wrought iron fence out front. He is emphasizing how tall the building was, though, in fact, it was only of moderate height at five stories.

The building used wasn't actually on 92nd Street at all, but it was close by. In fact, the building shown in the film was exactly one block north at 53 East 92nd Street.

The spot where the house shown in the film stood is now a pathway to a large building (Google Street View).

Why they changed the location isn't clear. However, a look on Google Street View now shows that the infamous (because of the film) house on 93rd Street where much of the spy action takes place is long gone. Its spot now serves as a back entrance to Carnegie Hill Tower at 40 East 94th Street. Carnegie Hill Tower was built in 1984, so the five-story house shown in "The House on 92nd Street" has been gone for at least that long.

"The House on 92nd Street shows Columbus Circle, with the Adams Building behind it.

The protagonist of "The House on 92nd Street" has his office just off Columbus Circle in the Adams Building at 59th and Columbus Circle. So, there is a nice establishing shot of Columbus Circle in "The House on 92nd Street."

Columbus Circle recently (Google Street View).

In the 1950s, the large white building that was seen behind the memorial to Christopher Columbus in"The House on 92nd Street" was torn down and replaced by a hideous convention center. That lasted less than 50 years and since has been replaced by a somewhat more attractive complex of buildings. The park around the memorial has been expanded, but traffic still flows around it.


The houses on either side of the eponymous "The House on 92nd Street" are still there and look pretty much exactly as they did then. The same railing that was in front of them remains, though the railing in front of the house for which the film was named was removed whenever that house itself was torn down. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? And those are beautiful, upscale homes which have benefited from the growing desirability of the Upper East Side for the wealthy.

The view from in front of the house shown in the film toward Madison Avenue, looking west. That is No. 51 East 92nd Street. The same windows and stairway are visible, along with the railing (Google Street View).

So, while the house that "starred" in "The House on 92nd Street is long gone, the area itself on 93rd Street otherwise is little changed. I hope you enjoyed this entry in this entry of our "the more things change, the more they stay the same" series. If you enjoyed it, please visit other entries in the series!

Below is a copy of "The House on 92nd Street" (1945).


2019

Madison Avenue at East 97th Street in Manhattan

Madison Avenue at 97th Street, NYC, following a snowstorm in 1972.

In general, the further you get from midtown Manhattan, the more likely you are to find your surroundings relatively unchanged from previous decades. Downtown has a lot of symbolic buildings which nobody can touch, while uptown usually hasn't been considered productive enough to merit large capital outlays. Of course, there may be other factors at work (and that's a very deep subject we won't get into), but there are many buildings in Harlem and nearby neighborhoods that have survived intact simply because the areas never got gentrified. When I stumbled across the 1972 picture above from an uptown neighborhood, I thought that might be the case here, too. So, this is a comparison of Madison Avenue at East 97th Street in Manhattan from 1972 to 2017.

Madison Avenue at 97th Street in October 2017 (Google Street View).

We are looking toward the southwest corner of 97th Street with the uptown traffic on Madison Avenue passing by. The easiest way to verify that we're in the right spot is by comparing the distinctive trim on the building across the street in the two pictures. On close inspection, it turns out that the other buildings also match up.

Madison Avenue at 97th Street in October 2017 (Google Street View).

While the original photo doesn't show the buildings to the left (west side of the street), they look unchanged as well. East Harlem really hasn't changed that much over the years except around its southern fringes. Otherwise, it is in many places a time capsule from decades ago.

Madison Avenue at 97th Street in October 2017 (Google Street View).

This close-up shows the area on the east side of the street in the original 1972 photograph in a little better detail. As with so much of Manhattan, the addition of trees softens the area tremendously and gives it a more residential and almost suburban feel. It looks like the storefront businesses have stepped up a level in class, with fancy delis and restaurants replacing the generic shops of 1972.

Southeast corner of Madison at 96th Street (Google Street View).

There's a six-story building with a cornice clearly visible to the south in the 1972 photo. It turns out that the building is still there, complete with cornice, on the southeast corner of 96th Street. It appears to be having some routine maintenance done in the 2017 photo. Otherwise, though, it probably looks exactly like it did 45 years earlier.

Southeast corner of 97th Street, Manhattan (Google Street View).

One of the finer points of these types of comparisons is the seemingly eternal presence of some things you generally wouldn't notice. In this neighborhood, the same streetlamps seem to have survived. In some other more genteel sections of town (for instance, 8th Street in Greenwich Village), these old sodium lamps that look like they belong in a parking lot or along a highway still light the way after almost five decades. They serve as a reminder that Yogi Berra was right - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And those old street lamps may last five more decades.

I hope you enjoyed this entry in my "the more things change, the more they stay the same" series. People come and go, but Manhattan neighborhoods are eternal. Please feel free to visit my other pages in my series which compare the past with the present and give some hints as to what the future may have in store.

2019