CITY
HALL PARK, "NEWSPAPER ROW"
JULY 23, 1936. ABBOTT FILE 153
The massive Victorian skyscrapers on Park Row were built by the city's nineteenth-century newspaper publishers, who found it advantageous to maintain proximity to City Hall and the financial district. From left to right are: the Pulitzer Building (G. B. Post, 1890); the Tribune Building (R. M. Hunt, 1876); the Times Building (G. B. Post, 1889); and the Potter Building (1883). At the turn of the century, the papers began to move uptown, leaving only the name "newspaper row" as their legacy.
Abbott's photograph of City Hall Park and Park Row, which was taken from the 14-story Postal Telegraph Cable Building at 253 Broadway, was one of her least dynamic compositions, resembling a postcard view. She rejected from the project her equally mundane view of City Hall, a building she wanted to include for its historic importance but did not like architecturally (McQuaid, 343).
Today, half of "newspaper row" has been demolished: the Pulitzer Building gave way to the Brooklyn Bridge's entrance ramps in 1955, and the Tribune Building was razed for Pace University's massive tower in 1966.