I know that they were only recently made available because I spent $40 on a photo just a few months ago, which is now free! It was a pizza parlor that my family operated on White Plains Road in the 40’s.
You mentioned that one of your family members lived on West 231st Street in 1915 near the area in the photo that I posted. I wonder if you have ever seen the below photo. It is pretty much the same area W 231st Street East of Broadway in 1909. It can be found on p. 107 Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil by William Tieck (the founder of the KHS). In part, the caption reads: “In April, 1909, when this photo was taken looking east from Broadway, Macomb (231st) Street would have made a good set for a Western movie. What look like the tops of four smokestacks are manholes rising out of a sewer built prepatory to raising the street so that it could bridge the railroad tracks.”
The other address you mentioned, 5189 Broadway was right on the corner of 225th Street according to the below map I found at the NYPL. You can see the street addresses along Broadway:
There’s not a lot of detail but here’s that corner in 1902 before the elevated train was built. It comes from an amazing panorama at the LOC.
Here’s the same area after the train was built. The stadium in the foreground is the Kingsbridge Velodrome:
You can see the top of 5189 Broadway just sticking out above the tracks.
Here’s that corner in 1952. The building is on the far left with a store on the ground floor.
The old multi-story building on the corner must have been torn down. Today the building on the corner is a one story corner deli called “Garden of Eden” with the address of 5187 Broadway. I don’t know how much of this you already know or have seen but your comment got me curious.
