Manhattan Moves Uptown: An Illustrated History

by Charles Lockwood

This fascinating chronicle traces New York City's growth from Wall Street at the end of the Revolutionary War to Harlem at the turn of the twentieth century. Documenting the frantic construction and speculative frenzy that swept through Manhattan in the nineteenth century, it explores the development of the city's landmark neighborhoods as the rural landscape of Upper Manhattan gave way street by street to today's fashionable residential and commercial districts.
Compiled from newspaper archives and richly illustrated with historic images, Manhattan Moves Uptown reveals bygone days when Greenwich Village was a real village and Midtown was a cluster of shacks surrounded by garbage dumps and slaughter houses. The rise of Union Square, Murray Hill, Broadway, the Upper West Side, and other well-known areas are recounted, along with trends ranging from the first luxury department store to the earliest tenement houses. A captivating account of metropolitan flux and expansion, this book offers memorable historic views of one of the nation's richest, most powerful, and most exciting cities.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, New York

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Charles Lockwood was an American writer and consultant on green business strategies.

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses the 19th-century growth of Manhattan northward. At the start of the 19th century, Manhattan was only a few blocks long; at the end of that century, the Upper East and Upper West Sides were being developed. Some of the interesting facts in this book include:
1. For the first few decades of the 19th century, the east side of downtown was the city's commercial hub because the "East River shoreline had always been better for sailing ships than the Hudson." As a result, the rich at first moved to the west side of downtown. But as trains and steam-powered ships became more prominent, the west side became more commercial, and the rich moved north.
2. River traffic also explains why New York overtook Philadelphia as the nation's dominant commercial city. The Delaware River froze more easily than the East River, and was further from the ocean and thus attracted less foreign trade.
3. Today, opponents of new housing claim that housing never filters down from the rich to the poor- but in the 19th century, filtering was common. For example, as middle-class WASP families fled the Lower East Side in midcentury, houses there sold for one-fourth the price they had fetched in the 1820s and 1830. Similarly, Lafayette Place "underwent slow decay, as the old row houses became boardinghouses, and tenements were built a block away on the other side of the Bowery."
4. Then as now, traffic was jammed and occasionally lethal to pedestrians- but horses rather than autos were the problem.
5. Then as now, economic conditions sometimes slowed building. During the Civil War, homebuilding collapsed even though the economy was sound, because of an increase in the price of building materials and a shortage of workmen. As a result, rents doubled. But because there were no zoning codes to limit building, construction began to recover after the war.
6. Today, many people think of New York's brownstones as classic. But the author notes that in the late 19th century, many people thought they were "monotonous and ugly. " For example, Edith Wharton described them as "hide-bound with deadly uniformity of mean ugliness."

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book, while informative on various aspects of the development of early NYC, wasn’t coherently organized and was repetitive at times, and therefore it was hard to keep my attention (this was also the consensus of the book club I read it for).

[Will Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book with some great visuals. First of three books I found on the street coming home from the gym.

Will look nice on the coffee table

[Tawney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book compliments of Dover through the Goodreads First Reads program.

In 1811 City Hall at Broadway and Chambers was on the outskirts of Manhattan. Charles Lockwood chronicles the next two hundred years of New York City's growth through the buildings raised and razed, the changes in their use and those who used them. Naturally the city grew to the north, uptown.
There were patterns repeated several times over. The rich built themselves a nice neighborhood. Of course other rich built more luxurious homes farther along. That, combined with pressure from business and commercial entities, nudged the rich north. There were also fires that cleared out whole sections of town making it possible to build bigger and better warehouses, banks, etc. where they had occupied repurposed houses. As times changed hotels, theaters and restaurants were added to the mix. Meanwhile the lower classes found themselves crammed into tenements whose landlords wanted to make every square foot profitable and the middle classes often lived at the edge of town.

Lockwood provides plenty of social history with the more bareboned account of who built where. I found it very interesting. The descriptions are supported by plenty of illustrations. The map on the endpapers is too small to be of much use and a current street map or the internet can help those of us not familiar with the layout of the city.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

Reprint of a classic history of the changes in Manhattan.

I've been looking for a history of Manhattan that extends beyond its earliest years, and was happy to have found this reprint by Dover. I will post a detailed review upon finishing the book.

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic trip through the past. Quotes and stories of people who lived in Manhattan as it was transforming, social and economic commentary and plenty of old photos that will make you say, "no way!".