1893

Manhattan: Broadway - 23rd Street

Madison Square, looking northeast from the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street. Madison Square Garden is about three years old. The first Diana of St. Gaudens was removed from the tower the preceding September to be sent to Chicago for the World's Fair, where she was destined to remain until she was destroyed by fire, a few years later. Shortly after this photograph was made the second Diana (also by St. Gaudens), somewhat smaller than the first, was placed on the tower and remained there until May 26, 1925, when she was removed for the demolition of the building. The house on the N.E. corner of 25th Street and Madison Avenue will be demolished about 1898. By 1920 the houses on Madison Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets will all be replaced by office buildings. At the S.E. corner of Madison and 24th Street, where the Metropolitan clock tower will rise in 1907, we see the old Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, built in 1854. In the right foreground is the Hotel Bartholdi. Note the brand new Metropolitan Life building at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, the first of the buildings which will ultimately take up the whole block. Brown Brothers, Photographers. 1893.

Photo from the New York Public Library - Milstein Collection