Anatomy of a Street Corner

 

This installment of our Anatomy Series concerns 42nd Street and First Avenue, specifically the northeast corner. It's a day in 1947 according to Brown Brothers, publisher of the photo.   

Moving to the bottom right, we see some construction and a sign saying Builders Cauldwell-Wingate Co. New York. The firm has been around since 1910 and is still in business today.   

What were they building? We suspect it was some kind of temporary thing in connection with the United Nations, a structure to house people needed onsite once the construction got going.  

Meanwhile, the building on the corner of 42nd and First appears to be empty, although it bears various advertisements. Here, we see a beer ad: None can compare to Skelly's Beer & Ale ‒ at the Best Taps in town.  

The corner of 42nd Street and First Avenue shows a neighborhood about to vanish. The store there has gone out of business; thus an ad for the picture Boomerang holds down one window, while the other promotes Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, appearing at Madison Square Garden April 9th. Turning the corner, Ford Trucks Last Longer reports Sutton Motors, while below it a waitress beckons Come Over for Coke.

The Snack Food Shop, apparently the sole functioning business in the building.  

To the left of Snack lies a parking lot where the United Dressed Beef Company parked their trucks.

Below this, on the street is a truck bearing some kind of surrealistic load. Weird!

Finally, at the bottom of the picture is a bus, part of the Service Transportation System.

Skyline Builders

Today we take a look at Skyline Builders, a long-sought book by fans of Tudor City lore because it was one of the complex's earliest celebrations, written in 1948 by Bill Brede. Among the book's subjects were the machinations behind the building of the UN (in progress), as well as that of Rockefeller Center, Grand Central, Penn Station, and the Tudor City‒Knickerbocker Village combo.

Here is the Tudor City contribution.

     

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Any questions?

More NEW YORKER Ads

Once again, we turn to the pages of the New Yorker for our content. These ads all ran in 1928, and apparently were written with the New Yorker's audience in mind. 

Gambling on the Green

Even money that there won't be another for ten minutes. Two to one that it will be full when it gets here. . . He falls up the steps, is lurched to his seat, and is still gambling on the green as they grind to a stop for traffic lights. Even if this were fun I wouldn't like it, he muses. . . because it's so unnecessary.

So now he walks to work. . . and gambols on the green in spare hours. Yes, Tudor City even has a small 18-hole golf course and two parks.

Tudor City offers more with less trouble. High on the East River Front, just four minutes' walk to the Grand Central and convenient to everything. Its own shops, garage, restaurants, children's playground and every conceivable service. Renting office in Tudor Tower at east end of 42nd Street. (Vanderbilt 8860.) 

Latitude ‒ Not Much

This way, ladies and gents, pick your own ice floe. Settle down to a nice cozy winter in Hartsdale, White Plains, Armonk, Albany, Buffalo, Canada and points north. Trains leaving on track 40 at 5:17.

But then again ‒ wouldn't you rather not? Is commuting worth it after October? Perhaps you care for igloos in the best Spanish Renaissance manner. Or find it fun to tend to a furnace.

Don't do it! Why not live where winter is a Season with a capital S ‒ musical, theatrical, artistic, social  ‒  each with its bright particular star. Your home at Tudor City will start you from the meridian. Just four minutes' walk from Grand Central. Close to theaters, clubs, shops, concerts ‒ not to mention the Public Library. And pleasant all year long. 

Mush On!

Huskies ‒ the crack of a whip like a pistol shot in the frosty air ‒ crunch of snow beneath fast flat runners ‒  Mr. Stilson is on his way to business!

Two hundred and tenth. . . ninth. . . eighth ‒ ah, the loyal dogs. . . straining at the thongs till their sturdy hearts are bursting. At this pace, he muses, I'll be there before the market closes tomorrow. Meantime, of course, Marston Oil will slough off six points. . . but Mr. Stilson doesn't know that ‒ won't know till too late. All because nobody would tell him.

What? About Tudor City, of course. There . . . well, he might have to put on his overshoes, but four minutes' jog down the hill on 42nd street, and there he is, ready for action, before his favorite ticker.

That's what Tudor City is for. . . a direct answer to prayer for anyone who wants to live pleasantly and yet can't waste time junketing around trying to get places.   

RESTAURANTS: La Bibliotheque

Now it is finally time to investigate a somewhat forgotten Tudor City restaurant, La Bibliotheque, located at 341 E. 43rd Street. For reasons unknown, the building that housed it was never considered a part of Tudor City. Perhaps it was the fact that its main entrance was on First Avenue. 

The restaurant opened in late 1969, and very quickly announced itself as an upscale establishment. They had hired a high-powered press agent to spread the word, and early visitors included Ginger Rogers, Rosalind Russell, Mel Brooks, and Anne Bancroft.

There were three Times reviews over the years ‒ three two-star reviews ‒ noting successful dishes (the "excellent" broiled red snapper) and some not so successful (the "overcooked" roast duck). There was nothing wrong with its wall of books, UN views, and makeshift outdoor space, however.

   

The menu was printed on a facsimile of the French newspaper, Le Monde.

On the inside pages, the menu was laid out. The autograph is unknown, perhaps that of the chef.

This was its story for the next decade. Then, in 1983, came the startling news that the owners had skimmed $790,000 in profits, and soon thereafter they were convicted, and the restaurant closed. The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Bhutan to the United Nations took over the space in 1985.

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A special thanks to Fabrice Frere who supplied the matchbook that inspired this post.

Artifact: HOTEL TUDOR HOTELETTER

A bit of fun today via a printed artifact, circa 2007, picturing Hotel Tudor. It had been just been bought by the Procaccianti Group, a real estate investment and management concern, and this 'HOTELetter' celebrated the occasion. 

       

Above, the unfolded item. The reverse is blank, awaiting your inscription.  

The folded envelope.

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And now, we come upon the website of Freedom Plaza, here. Talk about a story that won't die. . .

Instagrammable You

Hello, once again from the wondrous world of Instagram, offering inspiration to our intrepid Instagrammers. 

    

by mrcpix                 

by ericsamuels2      

by therescuedphoto                                

by enginberiphoto                

by fabulousfrederick       

More THEATER PROBLEMS

Once again, a return to an offshoot of Tudor City promotion, that which was aimed at the theatergoer. 

"They come late and leave early ‒ leaving annoyance and irritation in their wake. It's absolutely inexcusable ‒ with Tudor City within easy walking distance of all the theaters."     

   

"Did you stand for thirty minutes hanging to a strap to get here this evening? . . . How much more you would enjoy the play if you had arrived untired and knew that it would take you only ten minutes to get home. And you could do just that if you lived at Tudor City."

"When you deposit your nickel, you don't know whether yours will be standing room for your own feet or whether your feet will be furnishing standing room for someone else's. . . Tudor City offers a definite solution to subway crowding."

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The attached caught our eye recently. "Tudor City Takeover" was part of the sizzle reel of The Millennial Broker on YouTube. Made in 2023, it said there were over 60 micro-apartments in Tudor City for sale, all priced at under $350,000 ‒ and micro because they all measured less than 400 square feet. The video concludes with speedy montage of designers and floor plans with groovy add-ons. See for yourself.