centralparksouth

"From the ninth floor of the General Motors Building on West 58th Street, Abbott photographed Columbus Circle through the back of a Schenley Rye neon sign mounted on the seven-story New York Journal Building. "The Circle's statue of Columbus, built in 1892 to commemorate the quadricentennial of his ocean voyage, occupies the center of the photograph, but it is dwarfed by an even more popular landmark, the Coca-Cola sign standing atop the American Circle Building (1915). "The sign contained a half-mile of tubing, 3,000 incandescent lamps, and five miles of wire compressed into an area of 80 x 50 feet. " — more: Museum of the City of New York

The New York Journal Bldg. was originally the Virginia Hotel.

beautiful...I love Berenice Abbott

"New York's most famous Automat was its first, located in Times Square, but Abbott chose to depict the restaurant at Columbus Circle, well-known as a nighttime gathering place for musicians and cabaret-goers. She photographed it from the General Motors Building across the street on the same winter day she photographed the Circle itself. The two images are complementary symbols of modern New York life. "Abbott's photograph illustrates the restaurant's mechanized character. With the sharp diagonal of coin-operated, Deco-styled windows receding indefinitely into space, the photograph shows food and its consumers on a culinary assembly line." (more)-- Museum of the City of New York

Wow, has anyone ever played a video game called Bioshock? Art deco heaven just like this.

I took this photo at the Lunch Hour exhibit at the Schwarzman building and didn't realize the reference until I got my film back!

The New York Times has uploaded the article on the J W Gates funeral dated August 24, 1911. =)

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called New York City Undertakers & Funeral Homes, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_Hotel

John Warne Gates (May 18, 1855 – August 9, 1911), also known as "Bet-a-Million" Gates, was an American Gilded Age industrialist, who was a pioneer promoter of barbed wire. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Warne_Gates