Amazing Photos Capture Street Scenes of 1950s New York
21/07/2025•
The streets of 1950s New York buzzed with life, framed by brick buildings and glowing neon signs. Men in fedoras and trench coats hurried past corner newsstands, while women in fitted dresses and pearls strolled beside them, heels clicking on the pavement.
Yellow Checker cabs weaved through traffic, dodging trolleys and delivery trucks. Kids played stickball in alleyways, their laughter echoing between tenements. Jazz spilled from smoky bars in Harlem, while diners served coffee and pie to night owls and cabbies.
The city pulsed with energy β gritty, glamorous, and endlessly alive. Below is a set of amazing photos depicting New York street scenes from the 1950s.
Far right, No. 319 Broadway, New York City, circa 1950. (Photo by Angelo A. Rizzuto)
Crystal Motors Showroom, Bay Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, February 1950. (Photo by Samuel Gottscho)
New York City views. Manhattan skyline from City Hospital, March 14, 1950. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
John Wanamaker Store, Great Neck, Long Island, New York, December 1, 1951. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Patricia Murphy’s Candlelight Restaurant, Manhasset, Long Island, New York, May 26, 1951. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Great Neck Shopping Center, Long Island, New York, April 1952. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Lever House, 53rd Street and Park Avenue, March 25, 1952. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Fifth Avenue at W. 54th Street, New York City, July 1953
Smithtown Shopping Center, Smithtown, New York, September 27, 1954. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Hotel Beverly, 125 E 50th Street, New York, 1956. (Photo by Phillip Harrington)
Medical building, Cross County Center, Yonkers, Westchester County, New York, June 6, 1956. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Seagram Building, Park Avenue. Oblique view from northwest, New York, January 23, 1957. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum under construction, East 89th Street and Fifth Avenue, New York, November 12, 1957. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Cat sitting on car in parking lot with skyscrapers in the distance, New York, October 1958. (Photo by Angelo Rizzuto)
Girl Scout building, 830 Third Avenue and East 51st Street, New York City, May 21, 1958. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
People gathered at lunch counter, New York City, 1958. (Photo by Angelo Rizzuto)
Seagram Building, Park Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, New York, January 1958. (Photo by Samuel Gottscho)
Cat on sidewalk, New York, May 1959. (Photo by Angelo Rizzuto)
Esπβ―π Street and Henry Street, Lower East Side, New York City, November 4, 1959. (Photo by Marion Trikosko)
Lighting Co. trucks, Long Island, New York, March 1959. (Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner)
Photos show 14-year-old JoseΜ Rivera, a Puerto Rican immigrant, his friends, family and neighborhood on New York City’s Upper West Side, September 15, 1959. (Photo by Paul Fusco)
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