THEN AND NOW: East 40th Street

Looking east down 40th Street from 2nd Avenue, then and now:

No. 5, circa 1940

This picture was made around 1940, featuring No. 5, triumphant amidst the chaos all around it, including the elevated train tracks of the Second Avenue El, at the top and the murky goings-on in the street, below it. 

No. 5, in 2022

Eighty-two years later, the neighborhood has changed with the arrival of No. 2 in 1956, and then 305 E. 40th Street in 1962. Both buildings were tall enough to almost eclipse No. 5, and today there is only a hint of it on the street.