Through the Mirror, Lightly

Two pictures of the front step of 1582 York Avenue, 1942 & 2009, then & now.

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Spy the Mission Soda advertisement behind my 36 year old grandmother on her way to the 85th Street Gracie Station Post Office to mail the letter in her right hand. Every day would improve with a bottle of Mission Cream.

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Below, two pictures of the east side of York Avenue between 83rd & 84th Streets in 1945 & 2009. The 1945 shot is Tom Pryor, my uncle, in front of 1582 just home from Italy after four years in the Army. Old Timers Tavern is directly to his right.

Below are two pictures of the southeast corner of 86th Street and York Avenue, 1953 & 2009. Fran Carmody, Pat O'Rourke & Barbara Ryan. Down the block on the west side of 86th Street was Misericordia Hospital.

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If you look at both pictures you can see a strip of bluestone sidewalk along the 86th Street side. Bluestone was the best roller-skating surface, polished smooth, worn down, you flew over it, and there was so little of it left when I was a kid, but we knew where it was. The best stretch was in front of the Frick Museum on Fifth Avenue. A long way to go for a skate but well worth it.

Below is the store front of what was Kronk's Soda Fountain, at the NW corner of 87th Street & York Avenue, where Barbara Ryan rolled me around in a stroller, gallivanting and flirting with the boys.

Below is the stoop of 222 East 85th Street, from where Jimmy Nolloth watched the river flow for 40 years, enjoying all the traffic in and out of the post office across the street. I loved Uncle Jimmy. We leaned on that rail together a thousand times.

The rear of the former Yorkville Casino on 85th Street between 2nd & 3rd Avenue. Notice the original etching of the musician's union that built the structure nearly a hundred years ago.

York Avenue Oct 2009 ~ bet. 83rd & 84th Street

Frame Houses in Yorkville built in the mid 1800s. What a blast walking down the block and running into one of these beauties.

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