The Bwog
The Twilight Zone: Old-Timey Photos of Morningside
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For many of us, it's difficult to even imagine a Morningside Heights without Pinkberry and West Side Market—not that we would ever want to. What would such a haunting reality even look like? Bwog Webmaster Zach van Schouwen stumbled upon a collection of historical photographs of the neighborhood that will give you a good idea. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge.

Enjoy!

(Above photo is of the 110th St. El train.)

Read more: A Land Of Both Shadow And Substance, History, Morningside Heights, Photobwogging

January 15, 2008 @ 3:00 PM | Comments 15 comments | Add comment Post a comment | Link to this article | | Email this post | Share on Facebook

Posted by alexw: [#1] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 3:28 PM )
I would hunger strike to force Columbia to rebuild the baseball diamond that used to be South Lawn.
Posted by JJV: [#2] [reply] [track] (in reply to #1)
( posted January 15, 2008 at 3:55 PM )
Maybe we should just play a giant game of stick ball on it as the protest. All you need is a ball and a stick and a pocket full of dreams!
Posted by c 09: [#3] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 6:47 PM )
It's pretty easy to remember Morningside without Pinkberry or West Side, after all, it was only last year.
Posted by Your oxen drowned!: [#4] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 7:58 PM )
Wow. Check out Manhattanville.
Posted by Not Will Ferrell: [#5] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 8:37 PM )
Now that's old school.
Posted by cc '07: [#6] [reply] [track] (in reply to #3)
( posted January 15, 2008 at 8:55 PM )
new West Side is only from this year.

but i remember an old west side with oddly sticky floors cramped aisles and cheap produce. amen i say to you, this land was full of plenty and here no one went hungry.
Posted by EAL: [#7] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 9:25 PM )
Haha, this all pales in comparison with the plans for the proposed Riverside Park football stadium, aka one of the biggest blown opportunity in Columbia's history, besides acquiring more land at the turn of the century and the failure to build a proper gym facility.

Check it out on [ external link to www.wikicu.com ]
Posted by EAL: [#8] [reply] [track]
( posted January 15, 2008 at 9:26 PM )
*opportunities
Posted by except: [#9] [reply] [track] (in reply to #7)
( posted January 15, 2008 at 10:43 PM )
people would still not go to the football games because no one gives a fuck about ivy league football.

when you don't play and bowl games, and not even in the division i-aa playoff tournament, football boils down to a dick measuring contest between ivy league schools.
Posted by wirc: [#10] [reply] [track] (in reply to #7)
( posted January 15, 2008 at 10:46 PM )
Columbia's history is littered with blown opportunities, and worse decisions.
Posted by The King of Spain : [#11] [reply] [track] (in reply to #7)
( posted January 16, 2008 at 12:16 AM )
Oh but can you imagine the fun to be had once Robert Moses tries to plow a highway through that?
Posted by Alum: [#12] [reply] [track] (in reply to #7)
( posted January 16, 2008 at 4:13 AM )
It's easy to conclude from these old renderings that Columbia blew a lot of opportunities, but the fact is that the university was strapped for cash (building an entirely new campus tends to do that) and could not have afforded to build many of these structures or even to buy more land. Heck, it could barely have afforded what it *did* buy/build.
Posted by for the lazies: [#13] [reply] [track] (in reply to #4)
( posted January 16, 2008 at 4:53 AM )
[ external link to www.morningside-heights.net ]
Posted by by the way: [#14] [reply] [track]
( posted January 16, 2008 at 9:50 PM )
are these images copyrighted? Does anyone know the source?
Posted by ZvS: [#15] [reply] [track] (in reply to #14)
( posted January 17, 2008 at 10:53 AM )
The vast majority of these (at least, the ones we reprinted) are in the public domain, by dint of having been first published before 1923.

[ external link to en.wikipedia.org ]

That said, the morningside-heights.net webmasters would be the ones to ask.
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