1929

Manhattan: 5th Avenue - 31st Street

Fifth Avenue, west side, north from W. 31st Street (extreme left and not seen). In the center, occupying the 33rd -34th Street frontage is the ornate Waldorf Astoria Hotel standing vacant at this date. A year hence this will be razed and the Empire State Building erected on its site and include Astor Court, the short thoroughfare at the westerly side of the Hotel Exclusive of this change, the avenue will appear the same in early 1939, with the exception of the Brick Presbyterian Church (spire seen in the distance). A two story business structure replaced the latter in the Fall of 1938. March 1929. P.L. Sperr

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection