St. Germain Hotel, Broadway and 22nd Street

This is an imperfect mosaic composed of three undated images, from two stereoscopic views (on the right), taken possibly about the same day. Original titles: "Cumberland House, N.Y." (American Series) and "Fifth Avenue Hotel, N.Y." (New H Series / New York and Central Park). North from Broadway at 22nd Street. Source: Photography Collection of the New York Public Library.

This is the block where Flatiron Building was erected later in 1901-1902. The name of the old Hotel St. Germain, located on the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue at 22nd Street, changed to Cumberland House about 1880. External fire escape was installed on the 22nd Street side of the hotel after an inspection of the Department of Buildings in January, 1873. About the 1870s, the hotel's façades were stripped of some of their external decoration. It was renovated and expanded by 1880 and demolished in 1901 to make way for Flatiron Building. A canvas screen is seen on top of the Flatiron commercial buildings. It was used to project illuminated text and images by the means of a stereopticon, a kind of slide projector. It was used in 1888 by the New York Herald to project bulletins in the presidential election night (see below).

The Fifth Avenue Hotel, opened in 1859, is seen in the distance at 23rd Street. It was demolished in 1908.

On the left, is the Venetian Gothic style building at 174 Fifth Avenue, home of the Dunlap & Co. Hatters. The store previously was in the ground floor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel since 1859 and replaced in 1871 by Knox the Hatter, when Dunlap moved. Later it changed hands and the building was demolished in the 1920s.