I walk down this street every day on my way home from work and usually about this time of night, too, so it was great finding this picture from 1911. It's funny how, even 100 years later, not much has really changed. The clothes people are wearing, obviously, and I wish that the lampposts were as beautiful these days. But essentially it's the same. The Flat Iron is the same. Madison Square Park there on the left looks no different. Those buildings on the west side of fifth avenue are all still standing--I've always loved that one with the little dome on it. It's gold-leaf now. Wish we could see what color it was then. And I wish we were just a few feet closer to the corner of 23rd street and Broadway. There's a 60's era apartment building on that corner now, but I'd love to see what was there at the time this picture was taken.

I grew up on 14th street and Avenue A, so 23rd and 5th was about as far north as I went without parental accompaniment. That lasted probably right up until I went to high school. I know what 14th street looked like before Stuy Town was built in the 40's--nothing at all like it looks now with it's organized rows of red brick buildings, and I've seen the street change quite a bit even in the relatively short span of my life here. But it is nice to see that some things in New York are, indeed, permanent.