Lost New York: Revised Edition (Lost)

by Marcia Reiss

Overview

Profiles places in New York City that have been destroyed, altered, and/or demolished during the twentieth century, with photographs of the original structures, background information, and stories about memorable individuals.

The Lost series looks at the cherished places in a city that time, progress and fashion have swept aside. As well as celebrating forgotten architectural treasures, Lost New York also looks at buildings that have changed in use or simply disappeared from the streetscape.

Organized chronologically, the losses date from the mid-nineteenth century, the dawn of photography, to twenty-first century losses, such as the classic Moondance Diner which was shipped off to Wyoming in 2007.

First published in 2011, Lost New York has been revised and redesigned for 2020, including an extra 32-page section, with more losses from the twentieth century inserted throughout the book and further losses since the book was first published.

Losses include: Fifth Avenue Reservoir, The Elephant Colossus, South Street Seaport, Coney Island's Dreamland, Grand Central Depot, Wall Street Curb Brokers, New York Herald Building, Fulton Ferry, Madison Square Garden, Vanderbilt Mansion, Astor Mansion, Waldorf-Astoria, Central Park Casino, Central Park Menagerie, Tiffany Mansion, Tombs City Jail, City Hall Post Office, Hippodrome, Floating Bathhouses, Elevated Train Tracks, Castle Garden Aquarium, Brooklyn Bridge Terminal, Wanamaker's Department Store.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781911641377
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/02/2020
Series:	Lost
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	407,288
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Marcia Reiss is the author of Central Park Then and Now (2010); New York Then and Now (2005); Manhattan in Photographs (2005); Architectural Details (2004); Architecture in Detail: New York (2003); Brooklyn Then and Now (2002); and a series of guides to historic Brooklyn neighborhoods for the Brooklyn Historical Society. She was Policy Director of the Parks Council, now New Yorkers for Parks, and previously Public Affairs Director for the New York City Department of Ports and Trade. She also taught at Columbia University and Hunter College, and was a reporter for the Brooklyn Phoenix. She and her husband are former residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan and now live in upstate New York.

Editorial Reviews

In her latest, journalist and historian Reiss (New York Now and Then) leads us through New York’s vanished architectural heritage. From the first Metropolitan Museum of Art, engulfed by additions in 1895, to SoHo’s Moondance Diner, trucked to Wyoming in 2007, the book’s catalogue of disappeared landmarks evokes an alternate reality in which elaborate gothic mansions, elevated train tracks, floating bathhouses, first generation skyscrapers, and copious pleasure gardens dotted the city’s grid. Pithy, though sometimes elliptical, summaries of genesis and destruction accompany astounding black-and-white photographs of New York’s illustrious past, including the opulent interiors of Vanderbilt mansions and Coney Island’s generations of pleasure-seekers. The cumulative effect of these images is less a sense of loss than the recognition of the fluidity of fortune. Monuments to the robber barons and extinct newspapers of yesterday are demolished or transformed into the hospitals, hotels, office buildings, and apartment complexes of tomorrow. Reiss shows that change is not itself a bad thing, though some “improvements”—like the dismantling of the old Penn Station in 1966 for the monolithic Madison Square Garden—display the shortsightedness that can afflict any era. Although the book could use a general introduction and conclusion to frame the entries, the pictures alone are worth the price of admission. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"The pictures alone are worth the price of admission." —Publishers Weekly


"As a native New Yorker, I can wax poetic about a long list of favorite haunts that have disappeared from the island . . . All these iconic images are retained in glorious black and white." —DowntownMagazineNYC.com  


"[Lost New York] is beautifully illustrated in aged black-and-white photos and burnished with charming prose based on many years of research." —Library Journal

From the Publisher

Reiss, who has published seven books on the city's history and architecture (e.g., New York Then and Now), accurately depicts and valuably describes in two-page spreads 75 of the most memorable buildings of old Manhattan, mostly dating from the Civil War to World War II (with a few Coney Island landmarks thrown in). The book is beautifully illustrated in aged black-and-white photos and burnished with charming prose based on many years of research. This book is briefer than the three comparable volumes of Robert A.M. Stern's four-volume series (New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1930) and offers an alternative view to Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel's The Landmarks of New York, which just appeared in its fifth edition; the latter volume covers surviving buildings, whereas Reiss's title recollects demolished buildings, including Pennsylvania Station, New York's greatest architectural loss. VERDICT A good choice for enthusiasts of northeastern or urban architecture and for fond collectors of public memories.—Peter Kaufman, formerly with Boston Architectural Coll.

Library Journal