55-57 Allen Street

55-57 Allen Street, between Grand and Hester. These buildings are gone now. The El was torn down not long after the photo was taken.

The photo is by Berenice Abbott, February 11, 1937. It's part of the "Changing New York" collection at the New York Public Library.

A terrific book for anyone who loves photography and New York history/architecture is New York Changing, which revisits these classic Abbott photos at the turn of the 21st century. Like Abbott, Douglas Levere finds many things changed, but many vestiges of the old days remaining. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.