 |
|
ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S
CHURCH, WALDORF-ASTORIA HOTEL, AND GENERAL ELECTRIC BUILDING Founded in 1835, St. Bartholomew's was one of the city's oldest and wealthiest congregations. Its 1919 move to the site of the old Schaeffer brewery on Park Avenue at 51st Street signaled the transformation of an industrial outpost into the city's social epicenter. In 1930, when the old Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was razed for construction of the Empire State Building, a Park Avenue and 50th Street site proved an ideal new location for the hotel. The world's tallest hotel at 47 stories, it contained 2,200 rooms and was the preferred venue for high-society events. In 1931, RCA Victor built its new headquarters at nearby 570 Lexington Avenue, directly behind St. Bartholomew's. The company never occupied the building; it moved instead to Rockefeller Center and sold the Lexington Avenue property to General Electric. Abbott photographed the three buildings from a 12-story apartment house at 340-350 Park Avenue. She photographed the same site the following year from slightly south and west. All three buildings still stand. The G.E. Building, joined to an office building at 560 Lexington Avenue, is landmarked, as is St. Bartholomew's. In 1983, the church tried, but failed, to gain permission to demolish its garden and community house for an income-producing office tower. Return to the Middle East Side |