TIME once again to jump into the H.G. Wells Time Machine and head for some time other than now. This contraption is hard to keep around my apartment, especially with all the bookshelves. I could put it in storage, but some jabronie would make off with it and head for parts and periods unknown and I’d never see it again. After giving the dials a spin I wound up at Madison and Scammel Streets on the Lower East Side on July 14, 1941. I got funny looks because of my blue Mets hat with the orange bill.
In 2024, nothing except the Vladeck Park Houses, brand new in 1941 and without the lush street trees, exists today; the Vladeck Houses eventually expanded to take out the tenements and storefronts at left. Scammel Street, named for Revolutionary War commander Alexander Scammell (1747-1781. He was wounded while inspecting fortifications at Yorktown and was fired upon by British dragoons. The street, though, survived after a fashion as a pedestrian path in the Vladeck Houses complex, which was named for New York City Housing Authority boardmember Baruch Vladeck (1886-1938), who was also general manager of the Jewish Daily Forward.
The city infrastructure has changed since 1941. In the foreground is a Type 6 Bishop Crook, which was narrower than the usual Type 24 Crook, with simplified scrollwork. The pandant ornamentation held an Acorn white glass lamp fixture; these were in the process of changeover to Bell fixtures, one of which can be seen in the rear. The navy blue and white street signs hung on until the early 1960s for the most part. The Type 6 retained the ladder rest of its predecessor. The globular fire alarm indicators later gave way to cylinders which themselves became small red lights mounted on top of lamp fixtures shortly after the year 2000.
Note the Bell telephone signs; by 1940, not all households had phones yet. There are also ads for the New York Sun, of which there is a modern counterpart available by subscription. There was formerly a hard copy Sun newspaper, in which architecture author Francis Morrone favorably reviewed Forgotten NY the Book when it came out in 2006. In the distance at Corlears Hook looms the Williamsburg Bridge and a painted ad for the Bowery Savings Bank.
Despite more street trees, things look considerably blander in the this stretch of Madison in 2022, when this Street View photo was obtained. There is still a fire alarm where it was in 1941, marking the former location of Scammel Street. Another housing project blocks the view of the bridge.
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[Actually the 1941 view is from Shorpy, a great old photo resource; thanks to Shorpy fan Vicki Metzger.]
3/25/24