Saw this old photo online somewhere. Love it. I can stare it it and just see so much going on. Look at the dog. Look at the lady getting onto the carriage. Is she posing for the photo? Was this just a nature shot? I’m guessing this is 6th Avenue because of the elevated train to the right and the buildings look like so many of them that are still there up and down 6th Avenue in the teens and 20 (streets).

This photo is Ladies Mile in NYC in the year 1897. Ladies Mile was a shopping district in the late 1800s. It went from roughly 15th Street to 24th Street and from Park Avenue South to west of 6th Avenue. A large part of Broadway, also comprised Ladies Mile.

So many of the buildings are still there today. When I’m walking around New York City, I can’t help but feel their presence. They are kept in such great shape, especially the old department stores. Many are separated into a few different stores, but the old buildings look as if they were just built. Some have golden cupolas on the roof and they all seem to have those great Beaux Arts and Queen Anne style arches and layers.

As I walk through the city, and not just in the Ladies Mile area, building seem to jump out to me and speak to me. What I do is google the address and all sorts of wonderful history pops up. I get the history of the building, when it was built, what it was originally used for and so on. There were so many department stores back in the day and not just department stores, smaller buildings pop up as being rooming houses for men, or an old fire houses or old livery stables. It’s quite interesting.

In October, this year, I think it was, I had an old photo of buildings on Union Square from the late 1800s. It was on my phone. I was holding the phone up and trying to match the view to see if I could find the exact buildings. As I was holding the phone up, it looked as if I was taking pictures, but I was just looking at the image to compare it to the current street. I had the phone up to one guy’s face and I got embarrassed.

I showed him the photo and told him what I was doing and he started laughing. I think he thought I was taking pictures of him.

I never did match the buildings. I did match the exact location, just not the buildings.