Looking South Along Park Row / Newspaper Row -1890
This Albertype Company photograph was taken from the German language Staats-Zeitung newspaper building at the confluence of Centre Stret and Park Row.
We’re looking south along Park Row at the New York terminus of the Brooklyn Bridge. This busy district was appropriately nicknamed newspaper row because most of the city’s newspapers were headquartered here.
The building in the foreground is the Brooklyn Bridge Terminal extension or Park Row Terminal. This transportation hub was where over 40,000 daily passengers would transfer between el trains and surface cars.
Directly behind the extension is the newly completed New York World Building or Pulitzer Building with its double height arched entry. The World Building was the tallest building in New York from 1890-1894.
Beyond the World Building, we have a glimpse of the five-story New York Sun Building. Looming behind The Sun Building is the New York Tribune Building with the clock tower showing it is noon. To the right of the Tribune Building in the center of the photograph is the New York Times Building.
The building to the right of the pedestrian bridge over Park Row is the three-story Registers Office or Hall of Records built in 1758 as a jail. It was one of the four oldest buildings in New York when it was demolished in 1903.
A Closer Look At Some Of These Features
Advertising, including a poster for Castoria is attached to the terminal building. Atop the roof in reverse the sign says “Hall.” The first word is illegible. Most likely it is “City,” as City Hall is across the street on Park Row.
Behind the bridge, the arch entrance to the World Building.
The Tribune tower’s clock.
People idle on the bridge. The Benjamin Franklin Statue stands in front of the Times Building,
Registers Building or Hall of Records.
