Yeah, But

The title from the Wurts Brothers is “Parks – City Hall Park”:

City Hall is a real park in the sense that the Department of Parks and Recreation is involved with it, and there’s grass and trees. But realistically, it’s an open space with some buildings in it – and there used to be a lot more buildings in it, with the number gradually decreasing through the twentieth century to the two that are there today (City Hall and the Tweed County House) – and the grass is pretty much unused for active play or inactive sunbathing. This picture must have been taken on a nice day, as it looks like every possible place to sit on a bench is taken.

For me, at least, the draw in the photo is not the park. It’s City Hall on the left (the little be-cupolaed palazzo) with a corner of Tweed sticking out behind it and a corner of the Surrogate’s Court sticking out behind that, and then finally the Municipal Building behind that. It’s the Tribune Building on the far right at its final height (having been expanded twice), the domed Pulitzer Building to its left, and the big shed of the Park Row Station for the Brooklyn els to the left of that.

Like a lot of the Wurts photos, this one was not specifically dated, so the NYPL web page simply gives the dates for the archive, “1887 – 1964 (Approximate).” The Municpal Building was completed in 1914, and the Park Row Station demolished in 1944, so we can be a bit more precise. I think – it’s a low-res photo, so I’m not certain – that we’re seeing another building behind City Hall and to the right of Tweed, with much plainer masonry. If I’m right about that, it’s the old City Courthouse near the northeast corner of the park. The City Courthouse was demolished in 1928, and getting the photo to a 14-year window is about as good as it’s going to get.