GRAND STREET, NOS. 605-609
Between East and Monroe Streets
APRIL 1, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 230

A few weeks after photographing an old warehouse on Corlears Street, Abbott returned to the area in search of other decrepit structures, which were in abundance there. These old warehouses date at least to the Civil War era. The large gabled building at 607 Grand served as offices for a succession of elevated railway companies from 1865 until 1910, when it became a door and shaft factory. The cooperage at 609 Grand was the site of a cooper's shop as early as 1800. The research file includes this 1820 description of the area:

In the little community around and about the "Hook" there was one real live institution valued above all others. It was known as the "Saturday Night Session" and was held at the corner shop of "Cox, the Cooper," who presided and took a leading part in all the discussions brought before the savants and local pundits of the "Hook." Cox, the character of the location, was a noted workman, who had built honest water- and air-tight barrels on the same corner for more than two score of years.

By 1939, the site was demolished to make way for the East River Drive and East River Park.The strip of shabby buildings stretching across Abbott's frame creates the feeling of reaching the end of the earth, or at least the edge of Manhattan. In fact, Abbott was simply standing where Monroe meets Grand Street at an extreme obtuse angle. She exaggerated the composition's two-point perspective, enhancing the impression that the streetscape curves back at the picture's edges.

Return to the Lower East Side