Urban Archive

Urban Archive Uncover the history of New York. Urban Archive is a location-based platform that empowers New Yorkers to learn about history where it happened.
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The app brings together the digital collections of New York City’s museums, archives, and libraries in an easy-to-use resource built for discovery. Find us on your desktop and mobile devices! urbanarchive.org and in the App Store (for iOS)

Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, 1935.In 1935, the state-of-the-art Hayden Planetarium was ...
06/05/2026

Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, 1935.

In 1935, the state-of-the-art Hayden Planetarium was added to the American Museum of Natural History. Robert Moses had a heavy hand in the building’s construction, and even created a “Planetarium Authority” to acquire funding. The venue utilized a Zeiss Projection Instrument (image 2) which was a dumbbell-shaped projection machine with spherical star-projectors on either end.

To learn more about the American Museum of Natural History, click the link in our story to read the latest edition of Archive Weekly.

📷 Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York,

LET'S G🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀! 💙 A few of our favorite photos of New Yorkers (and beyond) playing basketball:1 : Waterfront basketball,...
06/04/2026

LET'S G🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀🏀! 💙

A few of our favorite photos of New Yorkers (and beyond) playing basketball:

1 : Waterfront basketball, 1951 “A spacious Park Department playground on Kent Ave. at the foot of Broadway provides ideal athletic facilities in the very shadow of Williamsburg Bridge.” Courtesy of the Center for Brooklyn History,
2: Dean playground, 2000 “Children playing Basketball at Dean Street Playground between 6th and Carlton Ave.” Photographed by Anders Goldfarb, courtesy of the Queens Public Library
3: YMHA (Young Men’s Hebrew Association), 1926 Runners-up in the National YMHA Basketball Tournament, Paterson, NJ. Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society

New York Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, 1949 and Old Kings County Courthouse, 250 Joralemon Street, 1933.Rai...
06/02/2026

New York Supreme Court, 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, 1949 and Old Kings County Courthouse, 250 Joralemon Street, 1933.

Raise you hand if you’ve done jury duty in this building 🙋‍♂️

In the 1940s, Shreve, Lamb, & Harmon, were tapped to design the New York State Supreme Court Building to replace an older courthouse built in 1865. The original building, at Joralemon and Fulton Streets (second photo), was designed by Gamaliel King and Herman Teckritz and featured a grand ribbed dome and commanding marble facade.

Shreve, Lamb, & Harmond’s structure embraced modernist principals, with square windows set into horizontal bands of stone and an overall restraint in ornament. Suzanne Spellen, of Brownstoner, wrote that after completing their masterpiece, (the Empire State Building) the architects “must have run out of ideas… the bunker-like appearance of the huge building does not meet [Robert Moses’] hope of Cadman Plaza being Brooklyn’s Piazza San Marco.”

📷 Courtesy of the Center for Brooklyn History

The Guggenheim Musuem, 1978.On this day in 1867, Architect Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Wisconsin. The Solomon R. Gugge...
06/01/2026

The Guggenheim Musuem, 1978.

On this day in 1867, Architect Frank Lloyd Wright is born in Wisconsin. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, competed in 1959, is Wright's most prominent New York City work.

📷 Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

Golden City Park, Canarsie, Brooklyn, c. 1907On May 30, 1907, William T. Warner’s Canarsie Amusement Company opened Gold...
05/30/2026

Golden City Park, Canarsie, Brooklyn, c. 1907

On May 30, 1907, William T. Warner’s Canarsie Amusement Company opened Golden City, a theme park set to compete with Coney Island. Newly erected elevated train and trolley lines made access to the park easier for city-dwelling Manhattanites.

Golden City Amusement Park was opened by William T. Warner. Warner's Canarsie Amusement Company looked to compete with the ubiquitous theme parks of Coney Island by building a park in an area that was technically closer to Manhattan: newly erected elevated train and trolley lines made access to the park easy for city-dwellers.

The park's entrance led directly to a bay-facing promenade and was marked by a grand archway capped by a statue of Ben-Hur on his chariot. Like most amusement parks of the time, the Golden City Amusement Park was constructed in a variety of architectural styles meant to invoke feelings of far-away and exotic destinations. The park's two piers, one of which is known as Canarsie Pier, were outfitted with skating rinks and dance halls. The crown jewel of the park at its opening was the 2,500 seat Golden City Theater, which hosted productions such as Robinson Crusoe, their most popular show. Much to Warner's delight, opening day was a great success and the park welcomed 25,000 guests.

Following this initial success, Warner began planning for expansion in 1909. However, a fire that started in one of the theme park's restaurants put the plans on hold. Though half the park was destroyed, it remained open, mostly owing to the fact that the rollercoaster had been salvaged. By the 1910s, a beer hall and boxing arena opened across the street from Golden City, contributing a slightly rowdier atmosphere particularly on the pier. However, a second fire, this time started in a nearby rowhouse, savaged the park in 1934. It quickly became clear that it would never recover its former glory after the second conflagration. Enemy number one of all amusement parks, Park's Commissioner Robert Moses, officially condemned the Golden City Amusement Park in 1939.

📷 Courtesy of the Center for Brooklyn History

Allen Street Baths, 133 Allen Street, 1970s.Now a Fujianese Church, the Allen Street Baths opened in 1905 and was one of...
05/29/2026

Allen Street Baths, 133 Allen Street, 1970s.

Now a Fujianese Church, the Allen Street Baths opened in 1905 and was one of the last public baths on the Lower East Side. Bas reliefs of scallop shells appear in medallions on the building’s frieze, which hint to the aquatic program. According to the Tenement Museum, included “two floors of hydrotherapeutic bathing featuring forty-nine showers and two soaking tubs for men on the first floor and thirty-one showers and three soaking tubs for the women located on the second floor.”

📷 Courtesy of the New York Landmarks Conservancy,

Columbus Circle, c. 1904.Since its completion in 1905, Columbus Circle has been a bustling hub for New Yorkers and touri...
05/29/2026

Columbus Circle, c. 1904.

Since its completion in 1905, Columbus Circle has been a bustling hub for New Yorkers and tourists alike. The Circle marks the official geographic center of New York City (distances to NYC are measured from here). Read more about Columbus Circle’s history in the latest edition of Archive Weekly, which you can find on our Substack.

📷 Courtesy of the New-York Historical

Aerial View of Brooklyn Heights, looking northeast, 1927.View towards the Manhattan Bridge with 25 Clark Street (formerl...
05/28/2026

Aerial View of Brooklyn Heights, looking northeast, 1927.

View towards the Manhattan Bridge with 25 Clark Street (formerly Leverich Towers Hotel) and Hotel St. George visible.

📷 Courtesy of Center for Brooklyn History

Main Street in Flushing, Queens, 1944.View looking south on Main Street, from 39th Avenue. People are lined up, at a Q 4...
05/25/2026

Main Street in Flushing, Queens, 1944.

View looking south on Main Street, from 39th Avenue. People are lined up, at a Q 44 Jamaica bus stop. Crawford Clothes is in the building on the corner.

📷 Courtesy of Queens Public Library

422 Grand Street, 1932Max Meisel's book shop at the corner of Grand and Attorney Streets, New York.📷 Courtesy of the Ame...
05/22/2026

422 Grand Street, 1932

Max Meisel's book shop at the corner of Grand and Attorney Streets, New York.

📷 Courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society

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