Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Studebaker Cathedral

Regard, the bright light of a New York City morning in 1910! This is a detail of a picture of the Flatiron Building one of my colleagues found on a great website of random old photographs. Fifth Avenue's one big zebra stripe - you can see all the way down to Washington Square!

I learned about this website (called Shorpy.com) at a meeting with other faculty teaching "Reading NYC" courses next semester. It'll be a great resource for my course, Religious Geography of New York, too. For instance, look what comes up if you search for "Cathedral New York": a 1908 (a century ago) picture of what still bears the lettering of the First Church of Christ Scientist at 143 W. 48th Street - but has been converted into the "Studebaker Cathedral"- a garage! The central door has been turned into a driveway! But look close up. It's for sale or let...