Just now saw your post. I can tell you there’s a.. 5 or 6 story.. white apartment building on the corner of 146 & Riverside, across from the park, that was already there in, say, 1913, though the central row of windows was clearly added later. There’s a picture of one of my relatives as a young girl standing in the park right across from it with a small white dog.. Several of the addresses my family lived in in likely the early ‘20s, among them 543 W 146, are still there, and described by a 97 year old as having been really grand at the time, with thick carpeting and crystal chandeliers. They worked their way up (the American story, huh?) from addresses of long-gone tenements and wood frame single family houses within the same 2 or 3 blocks. Again, there’s a photo of one of my relatives in a grassy back yard, and a photo of their next door neighbor sitting on a wooden porch with that dog. Also in the background of neighborhood photos, are one and two family brick houses. In other words, it was quite a different world.
alas, anyone in my family who might have known him is gone, though, if they really knew each other, perhaps they’re all chatting in The Great Beyond. :) I note from the family album that a lot of the neighborhood side streets Back Then had small, individual private houses, with porches and back yards. Ancient history.
It was a stationary store (3557 B'way) and apparently a pretty classy one. When last (and first) I went up there, in 1998, it was a record store. My mothers/ grandmother’s family lived in a number of different apartments, all within a few blocks of the store, and went to the grade school there which, by ‘98, was an abandonned, graffiti’d shell with broken windows, but must have been really fine in its day. What a shame. Who knows, maybe some were classmates of your mother and uncle.
Sorry for the confusion. Have no idea, offhand (tho I do have notes on it someplace) when it was constructed and will take your word that it was 1912. To repeat (from my long-ago comment) my original interest in the place came when I inherited a family photo album with many photos of my forebears that were taken in front of their store, which was across Broadway from the Hamilton. Many of the photos, posed in front of the store, therefore had the Hamilton Theater in the backgtound. When I said “c. ‘06-”, I was merely approximating the dates they likely acquired the store which is not necessarily when the pix were taken (tho, in any case, I’d say “before 1915.”) Point is, the Unknown (to me) Building across the street was so wonderful looking, I thought it might have been an uptown version of the Plaza Hotel, and went to some lengths, about a decade ago, to learn what it was. That was when I batted out on trying to reach current owners. hoping they could fill me in. Now that I do know what it was, no reason to care.
I see I last posted… a year and a half ago, but got a notice out of the blue tonite that there was action on the thread. In answer to the question someone asked a while ago, for personal reasons I stated above, I tried valiantly to track down the current owner when I was still trying to find out what the building housed at the turn of the 20th C. There must be some kind of shell game involved. The ostensibly current owners, as listed in city records, are a nonexistent company, and, IIRC, when tracked to yet another holding company, the phone was never answered.
I can only repeat that, c. 1906-15, the exterior was grand and regal.
Alas, Warren, not a digital camera either. Tell you what, tho, if you want to e me at , I’d be willing to get a good laser copy made of a few of them and send them to you by mail. You can then crop them as you will and post them here. Just make the subject line Hamilton Theater. I’ll check that email account in a few days.Otherwise, be prepared for a healthy wait till I get a friend to lend me a camera or get a scanner.
I have photos of the theater from c 1915 to c 1925. Only because my grandfather owned a store across Broadway (3557) and many family pix were taken in front of his store with the Hamilton in the background. It was a magnificent building and what’s left today is a desecration. Since I don’t own a scanner yet I can only try to describe it. There was a a long canopy that went from the main door to the curb that appears to made of metal or iron with decorative scalloped glass panes coming down on the sides of it. The roof had a graceful overhang that appeared to be held up by stone brackets with carvings; there were colums between the windows with decorative finials. Along the bottom of the second floor windows (which appear to be one with the third floor windows) is a stone railing, as though there might have been narrow exterior balconies. Also the facade seems to be done in smaller panels of stone, fitted like large tiles to curve around the ground floor windows. In the later photos the ground floor windows have cloth awnings and seem to be individual small shops; you can see manequins with womens' clothes in one of them. I’ve wondered for a long time what this grand building was (I thought it was a hotel, sort of like a uptown version of The Plaza) and just learned today what it actually was (which is why I’m here.) I also took a photo of it in the late 1990s in its guise as Hamilton Palace (not Place, as someone said.) All the angles and grace have been stripped from it. There were colored streamers hanging down from a now flat roof (no overhang); and banners across the front and signs over every window with the name of the store. The stonework and sculptures are gone too. Ugly. A real crime. If I do get a scanner (don’t hold your breath; I’m slow about this stuff) I’ll come back here and post.
Ace—
Just now saw your post. I can tell you there’s a.. 5 or 6 story.. white apartment building on the corner of 146 & Riverside, across from the park, that was already there in, say, 1913, though the central row of windows was clearly added later. There’s a picture of one of my relatives as a young girl standing in the park right across from it with a small white dog.. Several of the addresses my family lived in in likely the early ‘20s, among them 543 W 146, are still there, and described by a 97 year old as having been really grand at the time, with thick carpeting and crystal chandeliers. They worked their way up (the American story, huh?) from addresses of long-gone tenements and wood frame single family houses within the same 2 or 3 blocks. Again, there’s a photo of one of my relatives in a grassy back yard, and a photo of their next door neighbor sitting on a wooden porch with that dog. Also in the background of neighborhood photos, are one and two family brick houses. In other words, it was quite a different world.
Joanna
alas, anyone in my family who might have known him is gone, though, if they really knew each other, perhaps they’re all chatting in The Great Beyond. :) I note from the family album that a lot of the neighborhood side streets Back Then had small, individual private houses, with porches and back yards. Ancient history.
Joanna
Hi Movie Place—
It was a stationary store (3557 B'way) and apparently a pretty classy one. When last (and first) I went up there, in 1998, it was a record store. My mothers/ grandmother’s family lived in a number of different apartments, all within a few blocks of the store, and went to the grade school there which, by ‘98, was an abandonned, graffiti’d shell with broken windows, but must have been really fine in its day. What a shame. Who knows, maybe some were classmates of your mother and uncle.
Joanna
Sorry for the confusion. Have no idea, offhand (tho I do have notes on it someplace) when it was constructed and will take your word that it was 1912. To repeat (from my long-ago comment) my original interest in the place came when I inherited a family photo album with many photos of my forebears that were taken in front of their store, which was across Broadway from the Hamilton. Many of the photos, posed in front of the store, therefore had the Hamilton Theater in the backgtound. When I said “c. ‘06-”, I was merely approximating the dates they likely acquired the store which is not necessarily when the pix were taken (tho, in any case, I’d say “before 1915.”) Point is, the Unknown (to me) Building across the street was so wonderful looking, I thought it might have been an uptown version of the Plaza Hotel, and went to some lengths, about a decade ago, to learn what it was. That was when I batted out on trying to reach current owners. hoping they could fill me in. Now that I do know what it was, no reason to care.
But thank you so very much for the offer.
Joanna
I see I last posted… a year and a half ago, but got a notice out of the blue tonite that there was action on the thread. In answer to the question someone asked a while ago, for personal reasons I stated above, I tried valiantly to track down the current owner when I was still trying to find out what the building housed at the turn of the 20th C. There must be some kind of shell game involved. The ostensibly current owners, as listed in city records, are a nonexistent company, and, IIRC, when tracked to yet another holding company, the phone was never answered.
I can only repeat that, c. 1906-15, the exterior was grand and regal.
Joanna
Alas, Warren, not a digital camera either. Tell you what, tho, if you want to e me at , I’d be willing to get a good laser copy made of a few of them and send them to you by mail. You can then crop them as you will and post them here. Just make the subject line Hamilton Theater. I’ll check that email account in a few days.Otherwise, be prepared for a healthy wait till I get a friend to lend me a camera or get a scanner.
I have photos of the theater from c 1915 to c 1925. Only because my grandfather owned a store across Broadway (3557) and many family pix were taken in front of his store with the Hamilton in the background. It was a magnificent building and what’s left today is a desecration. Since I don’t own a scanner yet I can only try to describe it. There was a a long canopy that went from the main door to the curb that appears to made of metal or iron with decorative scalloped glass panes coming down on the sides of it. The roof had a graceful overhang that appeared to be held up by stone brackets with carvings; there were colums between the windows with decorative finials. Along the bottom of the second floor windows (which appear to be one with the third floor windows) is a stone railing, as though there might have been narrow exterior balconies. Also the facade seems to be done in smaller panels of stone, fitted like large tiles to curve around the ground floor windows. In the later photos the ground floor windows have cloth awnings and seem to be individual small shops; you can see manequins with womens' clothes in one of them. I’ve wondered for a long time what this grand building was (I thought it was a hotel, sort of like a uptown version of The Plaza) and just learned today what it actually was (which is why I’m here.) I also took a photo of it in the late 1990s in its guise as Hamilton Palace (not Place, as someone said.) All the angles and grace have been stripped from it. There were colored streamers hanging down from a now flat roof (no overhang); and banners across the front and signs over every window with the name of the store. The stonework and sculptures are gone too. Ugly. A real crime. If I do get a scanner (don’t hold your breath; I’m slow about this stuff) I’ll come back here and post.