In 2018, I purchased an old New York photo in an eBay listing titled, “Vintage Glass Magic Lantern Slide New York City Photo T. H. McAllister Antique.” When the glass plate arrived at my doorstep, I opened the package and noted the view was not a negative.
The old New York photo displays a magnificent view looking from lower Manhattan to the Brooklyn Bridge and then beyond to Brooklyn. The impressive quality of the picture was evident from the first moment I first examined the glass plate. It appeared in good condition, as if its previous owners responsibly stored its contents safely for many decades. The photo initially appeared to date to the late 19th century and not the early 20th century.
The obvious objects standing out in the picture included the Brooklyn Bridge, a tall tower resembling a smokestack and numerous buildings.
My goal with this article was to document how I found the location where the photographer positioned the camera. I laid out everything in the order in which I discovered various clues. Which building is it? What’s the address? The high vantage point of the old New York photo suggested the photographer captured it from a high floor or rooftop. Further, I also sought to discover the little mysteries of this picture and documented those for readers as pieces of bonus content.
Researching T. H. McAllister’s Name Mentioned Alongside the Old New York Photo
The text displayed on the glass plate read, “T. H. McAllister, Manufacturing Optician. 49 Nassau Street, New York.” The plate also featureD some handwritten notes including “E.R. Bridge” for East River Bridge, as well as other writing difficult to make out.
A search for T. H. McAllister in old New York city directories turned up Thomas H. McAllister. McAllister’s office was indeed located at 49 Nassau Street in the late 19th century. However, bear in mind the unidentified photographer of the picture did not capture the glass plate from this address.
The New York Public Library’s Digital Collections website featured a photo displaying 49 Nassau Street years later in 1921. According to page 407 of the “Directory of Directors in the City of New York 1917-1918,” the sign visible in the picture behind the “We Move To 171 Broadway” sign displayed the words, “Gotham Shops.”
According to Google Street View, as of 2023, a Dunkin’ donuts shop occupied the ground floor of 49 Nassau Street.
Visit luikerwaal.com (archived) for additional details about the McAllister family’s history of magic lanterns and slides.
Researching the ‘TYPE’ Signs Mystery
Zooming in on the old New York photo glass plate I purchased from eBay, two visible building signs read, “TYPE.” I spent several days looking for answers about these signs in old city directories, newspapers and books. However, I initially couldn’t find any businesses matching the name.
A man participating in an old New York photos Facebook group named Alan Lasky pointed me to a specific business. The “TYPE” signs belonged to the A.D. Farmer & Son Type Founding Company. The King’s Handbook of New York from 1892 published a picture of a different view of the building, with the vertical “TYPE” sign likely just around the right-hand corner.
The A.D. Farmer & Son Type Founding Company was located at 63 and 65 Beekman Street, as well as 62 and 64 Gold Street. Basically, the corner of Beekman and Gold Streets was the location of the company.
The King’s Handbook of New York from 1892 read, “Many of the great New York daily newspapers, and also great papers of other cities, are printed with equipments furnished by the predecessors or the present house of A.D. Farmer & Son Type Founding Company. It is safe to say that every important printing office – newspaper, periodical, book or job – has the whole or part of its outfit from this establishment.”
Additionally, a past eBay listing – one I did not archive on archive.is – featured a photo of an advertisement for another type foundry once based at the same location. The ad included the names New York Type Foundry, Printers’ Warehouse and Farmer, Little & Co. The eBay user titled the listing as sourced from a Rochester document, such as a book or newspaper, in 1878. I downloaded the picture taken by the eBay user and archived the listing.
Finding Answers About Bindery Sign in the Old New York Photo
In the old New York photo glass plate, beyond the “TYPE” signs for the A.D. Farmer & Son Type Founding Company is a difficult-to-read sign for a bindery.
At first, I thought the sign read, “Toote’s” for the first word. However, the name Toote’s did not show up in any city directories in the late 19th century. After inquiring on Twitter, some users suggested the sign might read, “Ladies Bindery.” I squinted my eyes and believed I read “Ladies Bindery,” and thought that solved the matter.
Still, I spent more days researching the area to try to find a business named Ladies Bindery, or perhaps a bindery specifically looking for women in a way others might not. However, I didn’t find anything helpful to confirm the truth.
I turned to users on Twitter once more and someone suggested the sign might not say Toote’s but rather Foote’s, as in Foote’s Bindery. In an 1882 city directory, I found a James H. Foote listed as a bookbinder at 77 Beekman Street from around 1882 to 1884. This information provided the answer to the name on the sign, considering the “TYPE” building’s location of 63 and 65 Beekman Street.
Newspaper Ads for Foote’s Bindery
I documented several newspaper ads for 77 Beekman Street or Foote’s Bindery. For example, on March 13, 1882, the New-York Daily Tribune advertised the “first loft at 77 Beekman.” James H. Foote possibly read that very ad and took the leasing individual or company up on their offer – the beginnings of Foote’s Bindery.
On Oct. 13, The Sun printed an ad asking for females to work at Foote’s Bindery. Two months later on Dec. 18, another ad in The Sun read, “Respectable girls paid to learn book folding; steady work after learning. FOOTE, 77 Beekman Street.”
On Feb. 18, 1883, The Sun published an ad asking for stitchers to show up to 77 Beekman Street. Months later on Aug. 27, another ad in The Sun published by Foote’s Bindery asked for female book folders.
I found no other ads about the address relating to Foote’s Bindery in my research of newspaper archives hosted on Newspapers.com.
Examining the Brooklyn Bridge’s Spiral Staircase
In the old New York photo glass plate, the north side of the New York Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge features a spiral staircase leading to more stairs to the top. From what I gathered in my research, workers once used this spiral staircase for the construction of the bridge. However, details about the staircase are scarce, even when referencing David McCullough’s exhaustive work in “The Great Bridge.” I hope to one day locate credible records documenting the date when workers demolished the staircase.
The old New York glass plate picture also showed shadows on the Brooklyn Bridge towers. The sun shined from the southwest, meaning the timing of the capturing of the photo occurred closer to winter than summer. The direction of the sun also indicated the photographer captured the picture during afternoon hours.
Although some company signs like those of A.D. Farmer & Son Type Founding Company (“TYPE”) and Foote’s Bindery are sometimes left up after businesses close or move, the photographer likely captured this photo sometime in the latter part of 1883 or early 1884. After all, the Brooklyn Bridge appears to be complete and the construction-oriented spiral staircase remains visible. (The bridge officially opened on May 24, 1883.)
The Shot Tower in the Old New York Photo
The goal of this article is to find the location from which the glass plate photographer captured the old New York photo. However, before we arrive there, I looked to identify the tall tower visible in the picture. A 2011 article (archived) from the Dreamers Rise blog identified this tower as the 217-foot tall Tatham & Brothers shot tower. (217 feet is about 66 meters.)
From my understanding, in a shot tower, workers pour molten lead from the top of a tall tower through equipment separating it into small pieces. As the molten lead drops fall, they gain speed and solidify. At the bottom of the tower, the drops land in water and cool. Workers in shot towers used the cooled pieces in ammunition and other products.
The Bennett Building
The New York Public Library’s Digital Collections website provided the final piece of the puzzle to find the location from which the glass plate photographer captured the old New York photo. The website featured a view from 1888 taken farther from the bridge yet still similar to the one central to this story. That view included the building where the photographer captured the picture in question: the Bennett Building.
As of 2024, the Bennett Building is still located at 93 through 99 Nassau Street, though without its impressive Mansard rooftop. (According to the Daytonian in Manhattan blog, in the early 1890s, workers demolished the Bennett Building’s Mansard roof and added four more floors.)
The Landmarks Preservation Commission (archived) credited James Gordon Bennett Sr. and his son, James Bennett Jr., as the namesakes of the Bennett Building. Brittanica.com published their family founded the New York Herald newspaper. The Bennett Building first opened to tenants in May 1873 and featured two elevators.
A Special View of the Bennett Building
In 1876, Joshua Beal photographed some of the most impressive old New York photos ever captured. The pictures showed a view of Manhattan from the top of the Brooklyn Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge, then better known as the East River Bridge. At that point, the bridge was still seven years away from completion. Beal shot several glass plates to capture a magnificent panorama.
The Bennett Building was visible in a zoomed version of one of Beal’s glass plates. Again, the building spanned between 93 and 99 Nassau Street, taking up an entire city block.
The glass plate photographer possibly shot the old New York photo from the top floor or the rooftop of the Bennett Building. An alternate view of the Bennett Building showed the original roof and entryways. The photographer might have captured that image standing at the center of the ledge on the rooftop, just as the city was beginning to rise.
In sum, my research suggested the unidentified glass plate photographer captured the old New York photo from the top of the 7-story Bennett Building in late 1883 or early 1884.
Less important, the 1888 picture captured a bit farther back from the Brooklyn Bridge – referenced in the previous section of this article – appeared taken from the building for The Evening Post. One of Beal’s glass plates captured The Evening Post’s building with its impressive height.
Bonus Content #1: Hallenbeck Indictment
A wide brick building is visible at the bottom of the old New York photo glass plate. The building spans all the way left to all the way right. In order to figure out the identity of this building, I referred to an old atlas of street addresses.
The brick building sits directly south of the Bennett Building, located at 93-99 Nassau Street. My research led me to 117 Fulton Street as the address for the brick building.
A search for 117 Fulton Street found an ad from The Sun containing the answer: ACME Stationery & Paper Co.
Separately, the Wynkoop & Hallenbeck Printers building was once two doors down from ACME Stationery & Paper Co. at 121 Fulton Street. In 1903, The New York Times reported that, during an investigation of the U.S. Post Office Department, the Supreme Court for the District of Columbia indicted H.C. Hallenbeck on the charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States.
According to the Times, Hallenbeck had a contract with the United States to furnish the Postal Service with its money-order blanks. Instead of following the contract signed with the government, Hallenbeck and others cut corners and printed the money orders on inferior paper. The lithographer went against the agreement and only printed on one side of the paper. This strategy allowed Hallenbeck’s company to secretly pocket large sums of money from the government, that is, until the government caught them.
Bonus Content #2: 44 Ann Street Robbed
Further, I noticed something interesting on the roof two more buildings closer to the Bennett Building at 125 Fulton Street. A search for 125 Fulton Street turned up the name F.J. Kaldenberg. According to an 1888 city directory, Kaldenberg owned a store selling meerschaum & briar pipes, ivory, tortoise and pearl goods.
On Feb, 18, 1888, The New York Times reported on a burglary at Kaldenberg’s shop. Under the cover of darkness, three teenage boys pried up the grating of the basement of 44 Ann Street – the rear-side address for 125 Fulton Street – and entered the store.
The Times published:
The nefarious schemes of three young beginners in the paths of crime were unceremoniously stepped on by an officer of the Fourth Precinct last evening. Robert Humphreys, 17 years of age, who said he lived at 55 James Street; John Sullivan, 14 years of age, whose city residence is 85 James Street, and James Campbell, also 14 years of age, but having apartments at 38 Oak Street, were the three young beginners. They probably thought their way clear to achieve both wealth and distinction by breaking into the meerschaum pipe and amber store of F.J. Kaldenberg, at 125 Fulton Street. They accordingly provided themselves with a stout bar of iron about 18 inches long, having a small point, and approached the grating of the basement of 44 Ann Street. This store was vacant, but is directly in the rear of 125 Fulton Street and separated from it only by a thin partition.
The young burglars pried up the grating with their stout “Jimmy,” entered, and got through into Kaldenberg’s store. In effecting their entrance, however, they accidentally and unconsciously cut the wire of a burglar alarm. While they went on, silently gathering together such articles of meerschaum and amber as they could lay their hands on an officer had been sent to ascertain the cause of the alarm. Just as the youthful pilferers were making their way back on the path they had come over they were startled by seeing the legs, and later the body, of a stalwart policeman entering the pried-up grating. They dropped the articles they had secured and approached the policeman very innocently. He promptly took them to the station, where they were locked up. On searching the basement the various bits of meerschaum goods they had dropped were found.
According to Bing Maps (archived), as of 2024, the same basement space is still located behind a door at 44 Ann Street.
For further reading, I recommend checking out my first investigation in chapter one of “Old New York Photo Mysteries.”
Editor’s Note: I previously published a YouTube video about the glass plate photo examined in this story. I consider this article a companion to the video.