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.

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)

St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University, present day and 1905St. Paul’s Chapel attains an altogether pleasing dignity fro...
08/21/2026

St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University, present day and 1905

St. Paul’s Chapel attains an altogether pleasing dignity from its beautiful proportions and handsome architectural details. This brick building with limestone trim is highlighted with terra cotta ornament and ornamental bronze carefully integrated into a harmonious ecclesiastical design. Because of its Greek cross plan, surmounted by a high drummed dome over the crossing and its four columned portico (porch) with a Florentine gable, this Byzantine Chapel displaying much Italian Renaissance detail makes an attractive contribution to American architecture.

Caption courtesy of our partners, Historic District Council

📷 Courtesy of Historic Districts Council and the Museum of the City of New York

Grand Central Terminal, 1941.60 East 42nd Street. Lincoln Building, looking south at newsstand in front of entrance, 1:0...
08/20/2026

Grand Central Terminal, 1941.

60 East 42nd Street. Lincoln Building, looking south at newsstand in front of entrance, 1:05 p.m.

📷 Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

Manhattan Engine Co. 18, 132 West 10th Street, 1970s.Napoleon LeBrun designed this fire station in the late 19th century...
08/19/2026

Manhattan Engine Co. 18, 132 West 10th Street, 1970s.

Napoleon LeBrun designed this fire station in the late 19th century. From 1879 on, LeBrun’s firm had designed all 40 of New York City’s fire stations, according to according to Tom Miller, of Daytonian in Manhattan. This company on West 10th Street was one of the many that responded to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911, and to the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.

📷 Courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission

323 Broome Street, 1960.Chrystie Street at the corner Broome Streets look southwest towards No. 323 Broome Street, Lerke...
08/18/2026

323 Broome Street, 1960.

Chrystie Street at the corner Broome Streets look southwest towards No. 323 Broome Street, Lerkey Clothes.

📷 Courtesy of the New York Transit Museum,

199 York Street, 1923.Following the opening of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1801, the Irish Catholic population of Brooklyn...
08/17/2026

199 York Street, 1923.

Following the opening of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1801, the Irish Catholic population of Brooklyn boomed. In that period, Brooklyn Catholics were required to travel to Manhattan to attend church. Given the inconvenience, the community began requesting that a priest come to Brooklyn to perform mass. At an unknown date circa 1820, Father Philip Larisey traveled to the home of William Purcel, on the corner of Gold and York Streets, to say mass for the nascent community. This was the first Catholic mass celebrated in Brooklyn. On January 7, 1822 a committee was organized in the same home to formally ask the consent of the Bishop for the establishment of a Brooklyn Church. In April of the same year, the plot for a church building was purchased on the corner of Jay and Chapel Streets. St. James Church was dedicated in August 1823, the first Catholic Church on Long Island.

📷 Courtesy of the New York Public Library,

45-51 Ann Street, Newburgh, NY. 1966.The spacious home of the Warner family, founders of Meals On Wheels, looked out on ...
08/14/2026

45-51 Ann Street, Newburgh, NY. 1966.

The spacious home of the Warner family, founders of Meals On Wheels, looked out on the Hudson River from its wide veranda on lower Ann Street. Their house was built before the Civil War and was taken by Urban Renewal and covered by the public safety building in 1976. Frederika's Warner's oral history of life on Ann Street can be found on Hudson Valley Sound And Story.

📷 Courtesy of the Newburgh Heritage Center

Broadway and Main Street, Flushing, Queens, 1922.📷 Courtesy of the Queens Public Library
08/14/2026

Broadway and Main Street, Flushing, Queens, 1922.

📷 Courtesy of the Queens Public Library

Hotel and Cafe Brevoort, 1944.Café Brevoort was located in the Brevoort Hotel on Fifth Avenue between East 8th and 9th S...
08/12/2026

Hotel and Cafe Brevoort, 1944.

Café Brevoort was located in the Brevoort Hotel on Fifth Avenue between East 8th and 9th Streets. It was razed in 1954 for the 19-story Brevoort apartments.

📷 Courtesy of Village Preservation

View of New York from roof of St. George Hotel, 1930.View looking over the East River to the Brooklyn and Manhattan brid...
08/11/2026

View of New York from roof of St. George Hotel, 1930.

View looking over the East River to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. A panoramic skyline of Manhattan is in the distance, featuring the Empire State Building at its center. Brooklyn warehouses can be seen in the foreground.

📷 Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

New York Harbor, 1936.The RMS Queen Mary departing New York Harbor. After completing her maiden voyage to New York in 19...
08/10/2026

New York Harbor, 1936.

The RMS Queen Mary departing New York Harbor. After completing her maiden voyage to New York in 1936, the legendary ocean liner quickly became an icon of transatlantic travel.

Before she ever crossed the Atlantic, a spectacular 22-foot-long builder's model of the Queen Mary was exhibited at London's Olympia Hall in 1935. It was later shipped to New York aboard the Britannia and displayed in the Cunard White Star Line offices on Broadway.

Today, this remarkable model is preserved in the South Street Seaport Museum's collection and is currently on view together with a large reproduction of this photograph—a rare opportunity to see one of the finest surviving representations of one of history's most celebrated ocean liners.

📷 Courtesy of South Street Seaport Museum

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