My focus for this story is the rise and fall and rise again of Harlem as showcased through the homes of Astor Row. Since this story has visual elements, my first stop was City Hall. Several times throughout the 20th century every building in the city was photographed as Tax Photos. These collections are held down at City Hall along with a lot of other records. While searching to find out the visiting information, I discovered that the 1980s photo collection is online, while the photos from the 1940s are still on microfilm.
I headed down to the stately buildings of City Hall to check out the microfilmed photo collection and learned several small lessons in archiving. Since I was raised in the technology age, I’ve had limited need for using microfilm. To begin, I learned I needed to find what block and lot number I was looking for to locate the film I needed. After combing through giant books looking at the street numbers, I found myself switching between the table of contents and the rest of the book. I finally got the hang of searching through land books. After locating the block and lot number, I had to look up the corresponding film reel number. All this was laid out on the table and it was extremely easy to access the books. I located the reel numbers; there were two since it was an entire block of homes.
From there I had to find the filing cabinet with all the reels in it. Each drawer was labeled with a borough, alphabetical letter, and the reel numbers. I located the drawer with the two reels fairly quickly and went to set up a microfilm machine. A gentleman sitting next to my machine was kind enough to help me insert my film, and I was off. My first lesson when looking at microfilm is that it is not always in the order of the block and lot number you were expecting. I had to slide through the film several times before I learned that lesson. Seeing New York in the 1940s was a little bit disconcerting, other than Astor Row, I found that I didn’t recognize any of the other buildings because the facades and businesses have changed over the years; new structures have gone up, some buildings have stayed the same, and a few looked vaguely familiar. Astor Row may not have looked fantastic over the years, but there is a specific architectural component to it that is distinct.
Initially I wasn’t sure if the photos would be used for this assignment or not, but I think it be best to include some. The quality isn’t the best in the older photos, and to enhance them I could pay more, but for initial purposes I will simply keep them and decide what to do after that.
I also was in contact with the Astor Family Archives and was attempting to visit. Lea Jordan, a manuscript specialist, sent over some documents relating to Astor Row and suggested I start there. She is also willing to let me look through the other documents when I know which part of the family I would like to look into.
Finally, I had a person-on-the-street encounter and found myself contemplating the pluses and minuses of documents versus personal interviews. There is a lot I can get from documents, but they also work in conjunction with people on the street information.