The Way Tribeca Was

November 15, 2010 History

Being released today: Tribeca: A Pictorial History, the new book by Tribeca historian Oliver E. Allen and published by the Tribeca Trib. The 144-page book is an expansion of Allen’s Tales of Old Tribeca, and much richer with photos. “It’s the culmination of what I’ve been doing now for more than 15 years,” says Allen. “Although I know an awful lot about Tribeca’s past, I don’t and can’t know everything. The subject is inexhaustible. The book is done, but I’m still learning new things and finding new things to say.” Tribeca: A Pictorial History costs $50 is available through the Trib and Amazon. Here is but a taste—five of the images, with the book’s captions—of what you can expect. (Note: Many of the images in the book will run much larger than this.)

Harry Wils & Co. trucks in front of its Duane Street warehouse in 1998. Soon the company moved to New Jersey. It was last of its kind in the former egg and cheese district.

The Dietz (lantern company) building rises behind the Greenwich Street elevated railroad line at Laight Street.

(Iron foundry) Brownings and Dunham’s offices were convenient to the Hudson River, at the end of North Moore Street.

Neighborhood children stand outside 36 Laight St., then a tenement, around 1910.

In 1913, bystanders observe the construction of the subway line up Varick Street, between Franklin and North Moore Streets.

Related: A profile of Oliver E. Allen (“He Wrote the Book on Tribeca”)

 
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1 Comment

  1. Zoe C.
    November 15, 2010 • 9:33 pm

    Perfect! Beautiful. I just finished watching Basquiat: Radiant Child. Its a story of Jean Michel Basquiat, but ofcourse it also tells the story of an amazingly empty Tribeca filled with 500 or so exceptionally creative people- Madonna, Warhol, The Talking Heads, the Ramones, all who made appearances at the Mudd Club next door. Infact, I was visiting a friend at the old Mudd Club the other day, lying on the floor of a condo full of documentary makers, subletting from a new tenant, thinking- I wonder who was here having a drink, 1977? Now I’m all hungry for history.. Its so easy to forget how incredibly rich and influential this tiny plot of land we all live on, has been. thx. perfect.