Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Photo of New York


This undated photo released by Sotheby's shows an 1848 daguerreotype of a stately Manhattan home expected to go for $50,000 to $70,000 when it is auctioned off at Sotheby's in New York, Monday, March 30, 2009. It's believed to be one of the earliest photographic views of New York City and shows the hilltop house with a vast lawn on what is now Manhattan's Upper West Side. (AP Photo/Sotheby's)
New York City daguerreotypes are rare. All of the others from the 1840s and 1850s show Lower Manhattan.
A street shown in front of the house is believed to be the old Bloomingdale Road. Early city directories refer to it as a continuation of Broadway.
Would you pay that much for this photo? Maybe if I was really, really rich. Maybe if that house had been owned by my family.
It's amazing that you could stand where that house was and not see a speck of grass! If I went back to 1848 to where my house is the land would look the same, maybe my mom's house would be over the hill or in the process of being built. I don't know if the tannery would be down the road.

2 comments:

RoeH said...

So sad that that wonderful place had to come down for......'progress'. I would have bought it if it had been a family home.

jmisgro said...

I wish you could see the house better!
I wonder what you could see from the upstairs windows!