Two plates, as made
New York
Both are labeled street photograph. Read what each actually shows.
1902·New York
Flatiron Building, Fifth Avenue and Broadway
Detroit Photographic Co.
Street photograph · Surviving
What this plate shows
The completed Flatiron photographed from the street: the prow at Twenty-third, carriages, a clock, the new tower filling the view. A camera at ground level, 1902. Not the 1873 harbor lithograph. Early steel-frame construction as a physical object, not as a skyline argument.
- Image type
- Street photograph
- Structure
- Flatiron Building (Fuller Building)
- Region
- North America
- Documented completion
- 1902
- Architect
- Daniel Burnham; D. H. Burnham & Co.
- Present status
- Surviving — The building still stands. Steel frame, stone and terracotta skin.
- Source
- New York Public Library, Image ID 804860. Gelatin silver print issued 1902.
- License
- Public domain.
1912·New York
Woolworth Building — ironwork, 4 April 1912
Unidentified photographer. Dated on the negative 4 April 1912.
Street photograph · Surviving
What this plate shows
The Woolworth frame going up: steel, timber staging, neighboring masonry, a street of carts. Dated 4 April 1912. A camera on a building site. The finished tower is a later plate. Do not collapse construction and completion into one image.
- Image type
- Street photograph
- Structure
- Woolworth Building
- Region
- North America
- Documented completion
- 1913
- Architect
- Cass Gilbert
- Present status
- Surviving — The building still stands. This plate is construction, not the finished tower.
- Source
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs, ppmsca.54252.
- License
- Public domain.