What Manhattan looked like in the 1940s: A Photographic Tour of the Streets, Landmarks and Everyday Life

The 1940s began with the world at war, and Manhattan was no stranger to its effects. Ships sailed from the city’s harbours, carrying brave souls abroad. Times Square’s news tickers spilled wartime updates, and air raid drills became a part of daily life. Victory gardens sprouted in public parks, and citizens rallied around bond drives, proving once again Manhattan’s resilient spirit.

Swinging into the Spotlight

Even in wartime, Manhattan’s cultural pulse never wavered. Swing music reached its zenith, with big bands and crooners like Frank Sinatra captivating audiences. The Savoy Ballroom continued to be the place to be, with dance floors vibrating to the rhythms of the Lindy Hop and Jitterbug. In these spaces, people found solace and joy, an escape from the wartime headlines.

Broadway’s Golden Era

The lights of Broadway shone even brighter in the ’40s. Landmark plays like “Oklahoma!” and “The Glass Menagerie” premiered, drawing crowds and setting the stage for what many consider the Golden Age of Broadway. These stories, both heartwarming and thought-provoking, became a sanctuary, transporting viewers away from the daily grind.

The Birth of the United Nations

1945 was a pivotal year for global cooperation, with Manhattan playing host to the founding conference of the United Nations. Leaders from around the world congregated in the city, crafting agreements and forging a path for international peace. This historic moment reaffirmed Manhattan’s status as a global nexus, a place where world-changing decisions were made.

Post-War Evolution and the Rise of Television

As the decade progressed and the war concluded, Manhattan saw rapid changes. Television, the latest sensation, began to make waves. The city became a hub for TV broadcasts, with shows filmed live from studios, bringing the magic of Manhattan into living rooms across the nation. Times Square’s billboards started promoting TV shows, marking the beginning of a new entertainment era.

The Rise of Bebop and the Jazz Revolution

Greenwich Village and Harlem in Manhattan became the epicenters of a new jazz movement: Bebop. It was more than just music; it was a revolution. Clubs like Minton’s Playhouse became the playground for musical geniuses like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk. The notes were faster, the rhythms more complex, and the improvisations more daring. As patrons filled the smokey clubs, they weren’t just listening to tunes; they were witnessing the evolution of a genre, right in the heart of Manhattan.

#1 Elevated train structure and buildings — Lower Manhattan, New York City, 1941

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#2 Skyline of Midtown Manhattan from Radio City (Rockefeller Center), New York City, 1941

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#3 Manhattan Savings Bank and Third Avenue elevated tracks, New York City, 1947. The bank, completed in 1924, stands at the corner of Bowery and Canal on the Lower East Side.

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#4 Street vagrant pushcart, Manhattan Hobo, New York City, 1942

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#5 Lower Manhattan, S.S. Coamo, 1941

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#6 The Third Avenue el winds its way through lower Manhattan, February 12, 1946.

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#7 The Empire State Building is seen at right in this aerial view of buildings in Manhattan’s Garment District on Seventh Avenue on Dec. 9, 1947.

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#8 A pretzel vendor displays his wares on an approach to the Manhattan Bridge in New York City, April 29, 1948.

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#9 Skaters glide on the ice at the center’s skating rink in midtown Manhattan, New York, Dec. 8, 1949.

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#10 General View of the March on Washington Movement’s Mass Meeting in Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, 1943

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#11 Night Views of Times Square, Manhattan, Circa 1946

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#12 View Looking North Up Mott Street in Chinatown, Lower Manhattan, Circa 1943

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#13 Paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division Marching in Victory Parade Through Washington Square Arch, Manhattan, 1945

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#14 People Walking Past Billboards on a Street in East Harlem, Manhattan, 1947

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#15 Cars Abandoned Outside the Hampshire House Hotel During the Great Blizzard, Manhattan, 1947

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#16 Pedestrians Crossing at 5th Avenue and West 42nd Street, Manhattan, August 1940

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#17 View Looking East Down Pell Street in Chinatown, Manhattan, Circa 1943

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#18 Manufacturers Delivering Goods by Hand Carts Due to Shipping, Trucking & Tugging Strikes, Manhattan, 1946

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#19 View of 42nd Street at Park Avenue, Two Days After Pearl Harbor Attacks, Manhattan, 1941

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#20 Approach to the George Washington Bridge Completely Snowed Under, Manhattan, 1948

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#21 Park Avenue Looking Like Any Other Street in Gas-Rationed City, Manhattan, 1947

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#22 Man Feeding Pigeons in Times Square, Manhattan, 1946

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#23 Long Line of Voters Outside Polling Place at 112th Street and Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, November 1948

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#24 View of the Manhattan Bridge Looking East, Manhattan, 1948

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#25 Bryant Park Looking Toward Public Library, Manhattan

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#26 View of Grand Central Terminal from Park Avenue, Manhattan, 1947

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#27 Streetlights Blazing Over Greenwich Village, Manhattan, 1947

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#28 Huge Billboards Hanging Above the Broadway Entrance, Manhattan, 1948

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#29 Exterior of Mayoral Residence, Gracie Mansion, Manhattan, 1947

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#30 Litter and Garbage Filling Vacant Lot in East Harlem, Manhattan, 1948

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#31 New York City Police Department Mounted Unit on Broadway, Manhattan, 1949

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#32 High-Angle View of the Hotel Chelsea, Manhattan, March 1947

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#33 Congress of Industrial Organizations Rally Supporting Job Loss Victims, Manhattan, Circa 1945

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#34 Ladies Queue to Purchase Nylons on East 44th Street, Manhattan, November 1945

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#35 Pedestrians on 47th Street and 7th Avenue During a Blizzard, Manhattan, February 1947

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#36 Pedestrians Sheltering from Snow and Freezing Rain in Herald Square, Manhattan, March 1940

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#37 View from a Tall Building in Midtown, Manhattan, Circa 1940

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#38 United States Life Insurance Company on the Corner of Mott Street and Pell Street in Chinatown, Manhattan, 1940.

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#39 Co-op Drivers Cab Parked Outside the Hotel Algonquin on West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan, 1940.

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#40 Whelan Drugs Store and a DeSoto Sky-View Taxicab on 42nd Street in Manhattan, 1940.

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#41 Berger’s Hardware Company Store at 574 Ninth Avenue, Manhattan, 1940.

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#42 Members of the American Dancers Anti-Fascist Protest Committee Picket the New York City Center Theatre to Protest Serge Lifar, Manhattan, 1948.

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#43 Two Marines Walk Down a Street in Harlem, Manhattan, 1943.

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#44 Fish and Seafood Loaded into Trucks at the Fulton Fish Market for Delivery to Retail Stores, Manhattan, 1946.

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#45 Trading Floor with 15 Trading Posts Accommodating 65 Different Stocks on Wall Street, Manhattan, 1940.

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#46 High Angle View of a Rally Calling on US President Harry Truman to Veto the ‘Hartley-Taft Slave Labor Bill’ at Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, 1947.

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#47 Smoke from Bursting Bombs During Air Raid Drill at Union Square, Manhattan, 1940.

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#48 View between Rockefeller Center Complex with Empire State Building in the Distance, Manhattan, 1946.

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#49 American Legion Roof Spotter Benjamin Franklin Enjoys the New York Skyline, Manhattan, 1940.

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#50 Pennsylvania Station in New York Pictured from the Corner of Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, 1940.

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#51 Picture of Columbus Circle at the Intersection of 8th Avenue, Broadway, Central Park South and Central Park West, Manhattan, 1947.

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#52 Long View Beneath the Third Avenue Elevated Train Tracks, Manhattan, 1940.

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#53 Scene in Harlem Area, Manhattan, 1940.

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#54 Passengers on a Train at Times Square New York City Subway Station, Manhattan, 1948.

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#55 People Rest in Washington Square Park, Manhattan, 1947.

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#56 Many Accidents Are Attributed to Unpatrolled Intersections in Harlem, Manhattan, 1940.

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#57 Traffic at 5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Manhattan, 1946.

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#58 Pedestrians Walk Along the Snow-Covered Sidewalk Outside the Beacon Theatre on Broadway, Manhattan, 1941.

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#59 Capitol Theater Marquee on Broadway Reads “Tracy and Hepburn in MGM’s ‘Adam’s Rib'”, Manhattan, 1949.

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#60 Roseland Theatre Marquee on Broadway, Manhattan, 1949.

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#61 Little Girl Holds Balloons at a Local Greenwich Village Farmers Market, Manhattan, 1947.

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#62 Aerial View of the Washington Square Arch, Manhattan, 1947.

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#63 View of Pedestrian and Street Traffic in Times Square, Manhattan, Spring 1940.

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#64 Elevated View Along Broadway with Chrysler Building in the Background, Manhattan, 1940.

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#65 Solitary Drinker, Lafayette Hotel, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, 1945.

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#66 Nassau Street Looking South, Manhattan, 1940.

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#67 Seventh Avenue, Manhattan, 1940.

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#68 Cars Parked Along the Sidewalk with Pedestrians Outside Stores on Mott Street in Chinatown, Manhattan, 1945.

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#69 52nd Street, Manhattan, 1948

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#70 Times Square, Manhattan, 1947

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#71 Times Square, Manhattan, 1947

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#72 Carnegie Hall, Manhattan, 1947

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#73 52nd Street, Manhattan, 1948

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#74 52nd Street, Manhattan, 1948

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#75 A Harlem Street Scene, Manhattan, 1948

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#76 Late Evening on the Lower East Side, Manhattan, 1948

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#77 Harlem Apartment House, Manhattan, 1948

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#78 Many Accidents Are Attributed to Unpatrolled Intersections in Harlem, Manhattan, 1948

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#79 Fulton Fish Market, New York City, Manhattan, 1948

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#80 A Harlem Apartment House, Manhattan, 1948

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#81 One of the Numerous Employment Agency Signs in the Harlem Area, Manhattan, 1948

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#82 Children Playing in a Harlem Sprinkler, Manhattan, 1946

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#83 The Manhattan Bridge from Madison & Pike Streets, Manhattan, 1946

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#84 Fulton Fish Market Wharf, Manhattan, 1946

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#85 Rainy Day in New York, Manhattan, 1941

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#86 New York Bus Stand, Manhattan, 1941

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#87 Winter in New York, Manhattan, 1945

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#88 1944 United States Presidential Election in Times Square, Manhattan, 1944

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#89 Truck with Flat Tire on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Manhattan, 1949

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#90 Piccadilly in New York, Installation in Duffy Square, Corner of Times Square, Manhattan, 1940

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#91 A Couple Crosses the Street at Broadway and West 49th Street, near Ambassador Theatre in Times Square, Manhattan, 1947

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#92 Heavy Car Taxi Traffic Looking North up Park Avenue to Grand Central Station and 230 Park Avenue, Manhattan, 1940s

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#93 Pedestrians on Sidewalk and Automobile Traffic in Front of Stock Exchange Building, Wall Street, Manhattan, 1940s

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#94 Pedestrians, Cars, Taxis, Buses, Trolley Traffic Fifth Avenue Looking North from Below 42nd Street, Manhattan, 1940s

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#95 Group of Anonymous Tourists Standing on Top of RCA Building Looking North Towards Central Park, Manhattan, 1940s

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#96 Lower East Side with Signs in Yiddish on Delancy Street, Barber Shop with Williamsburg Bridge in Background, Manhattan, 1940s

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#97 View of Lower Manhattan from 30 Rockefeller Plaza Observatory with Empire State Building, Manhattan, 1949

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#98 Lower East Side Shop Sign for Flags, Books, Badges, Button in Yiddish, Hebrew Alphabet, Manhattan, 1940s

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#99 Sad Faced Kids Watch Marian Duffy Give Bouquet to Nurse for Ailing Babe Ruth at Memorial Hospital, Manhattan, 1945

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#100 Looking up Fifth Avenue from Across the Front of the Public Library, Midtown, Manhattan, 1940s

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#101 Elevated View of the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Manhattan, 1946

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#102 Elevated View of Automobile Traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan, 1940

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#103 Nighttime View over the Manhattan Skyline, Manhattan, 1945

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#104 Buses and Passengers at Times Square Terminal of Public Service and All American Bus Lines, Manhattan, 1940s

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#105 Exterior View of Carnegie Hall, at 7th Avenue and West 56th Street, Manhattan, 1941

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#106 ASPCA Ambulance Carries an Ailing Horse, Corner of Broadway and 66th Street, Manhattan, 1940s

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#107 New York City Sidewalk Crowd in Front of Alexander’s Hardware Store, Manhattan, 1940s

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#108 Grand Central Station Pedestrian Sailor Uniform, Taxi Store, 42nd Street Sidewalk, Manhattan, 1940s

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#109 Buy Defense Bonds Billboard at Statue of Father Duffy at Times Square, Manhattan, 1940s

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#110 Boys Working in Wartime Victory Garden, Ludlow Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan, 1940s

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#111 Aerial View of 6th Avenue from the Top of the Rock Observatory, Manhattan, 1949

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#112 Herald Square Intersection 34th Broadway and Avenue of the Americas Looking North, Manhattan, 1940s

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#113 Looking South Towards Times Square in Midtown, Manhattan, 1940s

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#114 Duffy Square, Part of Times Square with Gaudy Signs, Pedestrians, Cars, Taxis, Manhattan, 1940s

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#115 WWII War Bond Rally, New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street, Manhattan, 1942

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#116 Afro-American Nun Walks on Broadway in the Used Car Dealership District, North Manhattan, 1947

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#117 Women with a Baby Carriage Meet Students on a Sidewalk of Broadway, Manhattan, 1947

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#118 A Woman and Her Child Pass by Huge Watermelons on the Sidewalk, Harlem, Manhattan, 1946

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#119 A View of Hunter College at Park Avenue and 68th Street, Manhattan, 1944

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#120 L Motors, Dodge Car Showroom at Night, Broadway at 177th Street, Manhattan, 1948

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#121 Street Scene on Rainy Day, Times Square, Manhattan, 1943

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#122 Edwin Rosskam, U.S. Farm Security Administration/U.S. Office of War Information, Manhattan, 1941

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#123 Famous Latin Quarter Night Club on the Corner of Broadway and West 48th Street in Manhattan, 1946

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#124 17th and 18th Century Graves Covered with Snow in the Cemetery Surrounding Trinity Church, Manhattan, 1947

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#125 African American People Get on a Bus in Harlem, Manhattan, 1946

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#126 People Walk on Broadway While a Film by Charlie Chaplin Is Screened in the Theater District, Manhattan, 1947

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#127 A Man Prepares Mail in Front of the Capitol Theater near Lindy’s Restaurant, Manhattan, 1947

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#128 Winter Garden Theatre, Located at 1634 Broadway in the Theater District, Manhattan, 1947

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#129 Jane Ace and Goodman Ace Relax in Their Apartment with a View Towards Central Park, Manhattan, 1947

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#130 Illuminated Storefronts of Apollo Theater and Times Square Theater, Manhattan, 1947

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#131 Street Scene on Rainy Day, Times Square, Manhattan, 1943

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#132 Crowd in Madison Square on D-Day, Manhattan, 1944

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#133 Camel Cigarettes Advertisement, Times Square, Manhattan, 1943

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#134 “Fifth Avenue Candy Bar Presents ‘Strike It Rich’ with Todd Russell” at CBS Radio Theater, Manhattan, 1947

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#135 Grand Central Terminal, Manhattan, 1941

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#136 Tourists Ride on the Manhattan Sightseeing Tour Bus, Manhattan, 1947

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#137 Two Men Chat in Mott Street, near the Merchants Club, Chinatown, Manhattan, 1947

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#138 Subway Station near Chinatown, Manhattan, 1947

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#139 Pedestrians in Times Square, Manhattan, 1947

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#140 Motorcade Welcoming General Dwight D. Eisenhower Home from WWII at City Hall Park, Manhattan, 1945

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#141 Delivery Man Carries Newspapers on Broadway, Manhattan, 1947

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#142 CBS News Reporting during the Parade Welcoming General Dwight D. Eisenhower at City Hall Park, Manhattan, 1945

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#143 View of Fifth Avenue Looking South from 36th Street, Manhattan, 1910s

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#144 Cityscape at Night, View from Carlyle Hotel, Manhattan, 1937

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#145 Cars Driving down Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday, Manhattan, 1913

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#146 Manhattan Skyline and Welfare Island, Midtown, Manhattan, 1940s

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#147 View of Mott Street past the Port Arthur Restaurant in Chinatown, Lower Manhattan, 1943

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#148 Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Skyline, Manhattan, 1940s

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#149 New York City Police Department Mounted Unit on Broadway, Manhattan, 1949

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#150 Broadway at Night, Illuminated Times Square, Manhattan, 1946

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#151 Marquees of Apollo and Times Square Theaters in Midtown, Manhattan, Circa 1941

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#152 African American Men Stand in Front of a Restaurant in Harlem, Manhattan, 1946

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