Old City New York

New York City in the Fifties

 

Those were years of great economic prosperity and great cultural transformation in the United States. New York City's population decreased from 7.89 million residents in 1950 to 7.78 million in 1960, with increasing suburbanization in the New York metropolitan area. However the City's development never stopped.

Civil rights movement gained momentum. Broadway was still glamorous and the cityscape was in continuous transformation. The United Nations Headquarters was completed in 1952. Several skyscrapers were built, like the 28-story tower at 600 Fifth Avenue, completed in 1952, the last addition to the Rockefeller Center, the Lever House at 390 Park Avenue, built in 1952, the 32-story building at 425 Park Avenue, completed in 1957, the 34-story 1065 Avenue of the Americas, built in 1958, the 38-story Seagram Building, completed in 1958, the 48-story Time & Life Building at 1271 Avenue of the Americas, completed in 1959. Guggenheim Museum opened in 1959.

The fifties set the stage for the cultural revolution on the sixties.

 

Copyright © Geographic Guide - NYC in the 1950s.

 

Old City of New York

 

 

Fifties

 

NY 5th Avenue

 

Crowd gathered on fountain steps of Washington Square Park - Fall of 1953. Photograph by Angelo Rizzuto, Library of Congress.

 

Chrysler Building

 

Broadway Houston St.

 

NYC Battery Park

 

Maps NYC

 

Park Row NY

 

N Y Times Building

 

NY 20th Century

Looking south from Wall Street.

 

Manhattan

North from 87th Street.

 

20th century NY

 

20th century NY

 

Billboards NY

 

Grand Central Terminal

 

NY 20th century

 

Midtown Manhattan Fifties

 

Grand Central Terminal

 

20th century NY

 

20th century

 

Spring Street

Showing 19th century structures on the site of the old St. Nicholas Hotel.

 

South Street

 

Trading Floor NYSE

 

Chatham Square

 

NY 20th Century

 

Ritz Tower

 

Broadway NY

 

West 45 Street

 

20th Century NYC

 

20th century NY

 

Theaters NY

 

Manhattan

 

Headquarters United Nations

 

Bowery scene

 

Forty Second Street

 

Renovation Brooklyn Bridge

 

20th century NY

 

Skyscraper

 

New York Public Library

 

Astor Place

 

Intersection NY

 

Bowery Street

 

New York NY

 

Columbus Circle

 

20th century

Broadway, looking north from Houston Street.

 

Broadway NY

 

Fifties NYC

 

Construction UN

 

New York City in the Fifties