An Area Surrounded By Change, 38th Street Off 11th Avenue – 1934

This photograph taken by Percy Loomis Sperr on August 31, 1934 shows a mostly desolate section of the west side of Manhattan. 38th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues has still not been absorbed by the Hudson Yards building boom.

There has been great change, but there are many vacant lots and Incredibly nearly 90 years later, the two story building on the left remains.

The parked cars on the left in our 1928 photo appear to be taxi cabs. The building today houses an auto repair center that caters to limousines and taxi cabs.

158 years ago there was also commerce in this area, but of the most noxious sort.

The1865 map for the Report of the Council of Hygiene and Public Health of the Citizens’ Association of New York Upon the Sanitary Condition of the City displays the unhealthy businesses of the neighborhood in detail.

On 38th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues the entire south side of the street was occupied by a manure yard. On the north side, there were factories processing soap fat & hides, slaughter houses, manure yards. The surrounding blocks were no better, a cornucopia of foul smelling businesses with more slaughterhouses, fat melting plants, packing houses, hog pens, stables, varnish factories, gas houses, breweries and distilleries.

Today there are still a handful of horse stables in the area. But they are vanishing as New York’s  horse days are numbered due to a combination of misguided animal activists, rising costs, and most importantly land values.

It is clear that this part of 38th Street will eventually be completely transformed with modern skyscrapers. The owners of the last four older buildings on this block will at some point give way to an exorbitant offer for their property from salivating real estate developers.