Minor Errors

From a New York Public Library scrapbook, an 1880 view of Union Square. The title on the web page says “South side Union Square B’way” except that this is definitely (see below) the north side of the Square, AKA East 17^th Street. Is the first word written in pencil “South”? If I try, I can convince myself that whoever wrote that caption wrote “North” very sloppily.

The engraving shows a small commercial building on the left, at the corner with Broadway, then another similar building (with higher floor to floor heights, so grander and/or more pretentious), then a bow-front house left over from the Square’s early days as a residential development, then the grand commercial building at 33 Union Square North, often called the Century Building after the publishing company that was a tenant from the 1880s into the 1910s, then the Everett House hotel at the corner of Fourth Avenue. Note that the Century Company is listed as having been founded in 1881, so the 1880 date on the engraving may also be wrong.

Here’s a view probably from 1900:

The two building on the west (left) end of the block have been replaced by a single bigger commercial building. The house has been replaced by the Jackson Iron Works headquarters (with the big round arch almost the full width of its facade). Jackson was involved with the construction of some early skyscrapers and their building qualifies as one, although with somewhat backward structure. The Century Building looks much the same (no surprise, seeing as how in 2024 it still looks much the same) and the Everett House was still hanging on. The Library of Congress has the photo dated as “1900-01-01” which might be possible except for the caption saying that the flowers are an Easter display. The Everett House was demolished in 1908 and a skyscraper loft building constructed on the site the next year. The other change to the block since is the demolition of the Jackson building and its replacement with a nondescript two-story store.

So, interesting stuff in both the engraving and the photo but (1) the engraving is maybe not 1880, (2) it’s definitely not the south side of Union Square, and (3) the photo is almost certainly not January 1, 1900. I’m not pointing this out to make fun of the archivists, but rather as a reminder to read historical documents with some skepticism. Mistakes happen.