Sub-series 7.2: New York Railways, 1911 - 1936
Scope and Contents
The Harvey Mordetsky Collection comprises approximately 5,000 photographs of street railway and trolley lines operative in the New York metropolitan area, including Long Island and Staten Island, as well as other areas of the United States, and select foreign locations. Approximately 1,700 35-mm color slides showing trolley lines in Canada, Europe, and the United States is an additional feature of the collection. Footage of these same services is additionally captured in a series of moving image artifacts. Non-photographic materials include 282 BMT and NYCT trolley and bus transfers, trolley and transit periodicals, and personal effects/memorabilia belonging to Mordetsky.
Dates
- 1911 - 1936
Creator
- Mordetsky, Harvey (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Series: 0.7 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Series Outline
Series 7: Photographs of New York Railways and Other Early Agencies
- 7.1: Metropolitan Street Railway
- 7.2: New York Railways
- 7.2.1: Cars
- 7.2.2: Lines by Avenues
- 7.2.3: Lines by Streets
- 7.2.4: Car Barns, Shops, Yards
- 7.2.5: Other Photos
- 7.3: Other Early Agencies
Series Description
Sub-series 7.2 contains 506 images of cars and street scenes, some from 1915-1916, but the majority dating from the mid-1930s, just before NYR service was discontinued. The history of New York Railways is a story of reorganizations, receiverships, and new owners, and it is a history that can be hard to follow. The assets of the 13 underlying companies making up the Metropolitan Street Railway, in receivership since 1907, were auctioned off on December 30, 1911 and purchased by a group of buyers. Prominent among them was the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and its officers. On December 31, 1911, the New York Railways Company came into being. The entity was forced into receivership in 1919 and some routes were restored to independent operation. The receivership was lifted in 1925 when a new company, New York Railways Corporation, was incorporated as the successor to the New York Railway Company; at this point, IRT was no longer an owner. The following year, in 1926, Fifth Avenue Coach Company, a subsidiary of the Omnibus Corporation, purchased the New York Railways Corporation, and in 1930, New York Railways proposed the substitution of buses on all remaining lines. An extensive history of New York Railways, whose cars were sometimes marked “Green Lines,” is available in New York Railways: The Green Line, published by N.J. International, Inc. c. 1994, available for reference in the Archives.
This series is arranged in multiple sub-subseries, by car type, avenues (north-south routes), streets (east-west routes), cars barns, shops & yards, and other sites and structures. Theses photographs show numerous noteworthy components of streetcar service; the stepless cars that New York Railways was known for; photos of slot-scrapers, sand cars, sweeper cars, flat cars, snow sweepers, and a tow car; turnstile cars; images showing Park Avenue and Grand Central Terminal under construction; convertible Pay-as-You-Enter cars, and photos of cars wrapped in black crepe, marking the end of streetcar service.
Repository Details
Part of the Archives and Reading Room Repository