Welcome to CornerSpotter, Curbed's regular game in which you, fair readers, consult archival streetscape photos or postcard illustrations to identify the building(s) and/or location presented. Time to tap that reservoir of urban minutiae and flaunt it before your fellow readers. Fire away in the comments, and we'll reveal the correct identity and backstory tomorrow.
It's a common refrain in CornerSpotter: the loss of substantial buildings to systematic urban change rather than change encounters with the wrecking ball. When the future form of whole neighborhoods came into play during urban renewal's heyday, no street or intersection was entirely safe. This corner vanished. Its focal point, pictured above, was an eight-story apartment block built in the 1890s and containing 40 hardwood-finished units with modern plumbing and electric lighting— spoils of the day! You can see the intricacies of the brick, stone, and terra cotta facade, with overt gestures to Romanesque and renaissance styles. As we've implied, the architectural integrity of surrounding blocks suffered greatly through riots, fires, and slum clearance leading to the abandonment of the grid in favor of housing projects and open space. Alrighty then, what's this extinct corner and its former anchor?
·CornerSpotter
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