MCNY's Special Collections

The Museum of the City of New York's recent launch of its online collection of historic photographs of New York City received considerable notice in the local blogosphere.

We scanned through the entire collection, or what was online about two weeks ago, and found almost no images from Park Slope, which was disappointing. We'll feature some of the few highlights in upcoming posts.

Some of the photographs offer rather alarming contrasts with the present.

Consider the following view of the west side of 4th Avenue, between Butler and Douglass Streets. The photograph was taken in 1936 by Berenice Abbott:

4th Avenue, west side, btwn Butler & Douglass Streets
Berenice Abbott, photographer - 1936
Museum of the City of New York collection

The MCNY photo caption reads:

Abandoned old-law tenements at 154 Fourth Avenue between Butler and Douglass Streets.

Below is the same view from Google Street View; we believe a new "luxury" condominium tower is now rising on the same site:

Same location, Google Street View, 2010