Municipal Archives Online

In some very exciting news, the New York City Municipal Archives has put their 1940s tax photo collection online. That's hundreds of thousands of historical photographs of every (or almost every?) building in New York City. And you no longer have to go down to the Archives to see them (although that makes for a great adventure).

Last night, within an hour of sharing the link on the Vanishing New York Facebook page, the Municipal Archives' Online Gallery crashed. People are clamoring! (It's back up now.) Before that happened, I went down the rabbit hole and got screenshots of a few of my favorite spots.

On 8th Avenue off Times Square, here's the vaudeville house built in 1916 that later became The Playpen and then was demolished in 2007 (to become a hotel with Shake Shack):



Here's Charle's Garden (which I always thought was spelled Charlie's) before it was Fedora on West 4th Street:



And Julius' Bar -- still Julius' Bar (but with a different clientele):



Here's the grocery store delicatessen that preceded Three Lives & Company Bookshop across the street from Julius' Bar:



And the site of CBGB's before it was CBGB's:



And long before it was John Varvatos (today):