Video of Manhattan in 1911 – simpler times…

by David Brussat, contributing writer – Architecture Here and There

A horseless carriage putt-putts and three amused men stroll past the Flatiron Building.

This is, I am pretty sure, the best video of old New York City that I’ve come across. At eight and a half minutes, it is among the longest, with crisp photography and a wide range of locations. Ladies and gentlemen of every status, kids, hucksters and hoboes manage to stroll by, most but not all unconscious of the camera. There are more scenes where people are the focus than in most such films. There are early motor cars, horse cars, trolleys, horse-drawn wagons and conveyances of every sort. At one juncture, the camera, shooting from the rear of a trolley, catches one motorcar attempting (and failing) to pass another. Ahh-ooo-gah!

Yes, the sounds of the street are reproduced, too – probably in a studio. Some of today’s most recognized buildings slide by – there’s even a stretch of film, shot from a high floor or the roof of a building, that conveys a strong sense of the Manhattan skyline of the era. The film is slightly colorized, as if it had originally been shot in color (an impossibility?) but had faded – at least that’s the impression achieved. The auteur of the video is Denis Shiryaev of Neural Network Things. So click the button in the frame below and enjoy being transported 109 years into the past.

My freelance writing and editing on architecture and others addresses issues of design and culture locally and globally. I am a member of the board of the New England chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, which bestowed an Arthur Ross Award on me in 2002. I work from Providence, R.I., where I live with my wife Victoria, my son Billy and our cat Gato. If you would like to employ my writing and editing to improve your work, please email me at my consultancy, [email protected], or call (401) 351-0457 https://architecturehereandthere.com/