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Department of Finance, Manhattan 1940s Tax Photos
The photographs were the result of a collaboration between the Works Project Administration (WPA) and the New York City Tax Department. Intended as the basis for a more equitable property tax assessment, the images offer a frontal view of over 720,000 properties in the five boroughs of New York City. The nature of Harlem's built environment means that multiple buildings appear in most photographs. To identify which building was at the address given for the photograph, a sign board was placed in the image, with an arrow pointing to the building to which the signboard was assigned (frequently a man appears holding the signboard). Photographers working in teams of two took the images, with around thirty-two photographers in total working on the project. No information has been found identifying those men.
Photographs survive for most of the buildings targeted in the disorder. Only one building was demolished and replaced, on the southeast corner of West 125th Street and 8th Avenue. A handful of buildings are missing, most notably on West 125th Street. In order to capture the whole structure, other buildings were photographed from too great a distance to see the details of individual storefronts. In the interval between the disorder and the photography, a number of businesses closed and were replaced by new stores. Those changes are a reminder that the images date from four to six years after the disorder. Despite these limitations, the photographs provide a granular, street-level view of the varying physical environment of the disorder. The photographs of Harlem's retail buildings show the mix of residential and commercial occupancy and the small size of most businesses.
What the photographs do not convey is a sense of the presence of people let alone crowds of people on Harlem's streets during the disorder. The photographers tended to work at times when few people were on the street or to wait until there were no people in the frame to take a photo, unsurprisingly given that their task was to capture images of the structures.