Looking west toward Sixth Avenue at 42nd Street - 1890s In COLOR

42nd St looking west from Fifth Ave Dr. Parkhursts Church Horse Trolley 1889 photo TiemannWe are looking west along 42nd Street towards Sixth Avenue during a photograph taken sometime during the last decade of the 19th century. A cropped version of this photograph appeared within the must own book ny Then & Now 83 Matching Photographic Views from 1864-1938 and from the 1970s by Edward B. Watson and Edmund V. Gillon (Dover) 1976. When published within the book the date was given as 1900, but on the first photograph (seen above) taken by the firm of H.N. Tiemann, the caption says 1889 and lists the church as that of Dr. Parkhurst. this is often definitely incorrect as Parkhurst was presiding at the Madison Square Presbyterian Church . The building nearby , the Spalding Building wasn't constructed until around 1890, so there's doubt on truth date of the scene. 

 Rapid transit is on display within the sort of a few of horse drawn trolleys and therefore the Sixth Avenue Elevated’s 42nd Street station within the background.

On the side of the road is that the West Presbyterian Church (built 1862, demolished 1911) which in its heyday was attended by business titans like Gould , Henry Flagler and Russell Sage. From 1882-1893 the Reverend Dr. John R. Paxton led the congregation and attracted wealthy parishioners together with his popular sermons. To the left of the church is that the Spalding Building, named after the Chicago sports equipment manufacturer, located at 29-33 West 42nd Street. The building was demolished in 1912 to form way for Stern’s emporium . On the street side is Bryant Park, not seen in the Tiemann photo, but seen here in a photo by Byron & Co. Looking north across 42nd St at the church and Spalding building. Take in everything you see here: the steel rails, the horse-drawn streetcar, the cobblestone street, the streetlight, the elevated train station, the civilized people and the human-scale buildings. With the exception of Bryant Park, which has been remodeled several times in recent years, not a single object from our main photo remains today.