A Life Built in New York
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Tour 3

New York That Disappeared

Six projects whose demolition or transformation reveals how quickly New York replaces its own recent past.

6 stops · 1955–1979 · 6 identified

Thematic. Each stop links to the full project record, where the sources, construction team and archival evidence are set out.

Toots Shor standing outside his new restaurant, photographed for the World Telegram & Sun. The doorway and canopy of the second location, the site on Rita's list.
1961 · Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Reuse terms not verified.Toots Shor outside his new restaurant — the second location recorded on the list. The Library of Congress carries a rights advisory for this photograph.
New York Coliseum, Columbus Circle, New York City. Photographed in 1956.
1956 · Photo: Gottscho-Schleisner Collection · Public domain
01 · 1955 · Manhattan / New York City

New York Coliseum — Columbus Circle

Joseph's list puts him on the New York Coliseum in 1955 — the same year a major section of the exhibition-hall formwork collapsed during construction.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — A marquee mid-century New York civic project with a dramatic construction history and a complete demolition-and-replacement lifecycle.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: N. Y. Coliseum — 1955

Transcription: N. Y. Coliseum — 1955

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
Toots Shor standing outside his new restaurant, photographed for the World Telegram & Sun. The doorway and canopy of the second location, the site on Rita's list.
1961 · Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division · Reuse terms not verified.Toots Shor outside his new restaurant — the second location recorded on the list. The Library of Congress carries a rights advisory for this photograph.
02 · 1960 · Manhattan, New York

Toots Shor's Restaurant — second location

In 1960, Joseph worked on the new home of one of New York’s most famous celebrity saloons.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — In 1960, Joseph worked on the new home of one of New York’s most famous celebrity saloons.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Toots Shor Restaurant — 1960

Transcription: Toots Shor Restaurant — 1960

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
New York City. Photographed in 1980.
1980 · Photo: Gerd Eichmann · CC BY-SA 4.0
03 · 1967 · Manhattan / New York City

Seamen's Church Institute — 15 State Street headquarters

Joseph helped build a seafarers' residence that lasted less than two decades; its 1985 sale and demolition then became entangled with New York's new protections for SRO residents.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — The building's brief life links Joseph's construction work to two different forms of urban change: the waterfront economy that made it obsolete and a housing-policy fight over how it could be demolished.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Seamen's Church Institute — 1967

Transcription: Seamen's Church Institute — 1967

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
The Morgan's main building today. The 1975 addition Joseph's list records was demolished and is not pictured.
Current view · 2026 · Photo: Epicgenius · CC BY-SA 4.0
04 · 1975 · Manhattan, New York

Morgan Library — 1975 five-story addition

Joseph's 1975 Morgan addition rose while the very same block was testing the legal limits of New York's young landmarks law; three decades later his addition was itself removed for Renzo Piano's expansion.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — Few projects show preservation as such a continuous process: landmark litigation beside the site in 1974, Joseph's new addition in 1975, and a later celebrated expansion that deliberately erased that addition.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Morgan Library — 1975

Transcription: Morgan Library — 1975

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
The bus terminal photographed in 2022. Current exterior, not the 1970s expansion under construction.
Current view · 2022 · Photo: Eden, Janine and Jim from New York City · CC BY 2.0
05 · 1977 · Manhattan, New York

Port Authority Bus Terminal — 1975–79/81 North Wing expansion

Joseph helped build the Port Authority expansion New York is now preparing to tear down.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Strong

Why this stop — A complete New York lifecycle: old terminal → Joseph's expansion → disliked but familiar city fabric → planned demolition → another new terminal.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Port Authority Bus Terminal — 1977

Transcription: Port Authority Bus Terminal — 1977

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →
The Galleria at White Plains in January 2023, near the end of its life; the mall has since closed and redevelopment is approved.
Current view · 2023 · Photo: ajay_suresh · CC BY 2.0
06 · 1979 · White Plains, New York

The Galleria at White Plains

Joseph helped build the mall that embodied White Plains urban renewal; now White Plains has formally approved replacing that same megablock with a new walkable residential district.

Project identity
Verified
Kelly connection
Family source
Masonry scope
Probable

Why this stop — A nearly perfect suburban urban-history cycle: 1970s urban renewal created the enclosed mall, Joseph worked on it during construction, the mall became obsolete, and the city has now approved a dense walkable district to undo the very planning logic that created it.

Rita’s list

Rita Bartscherer’s handwritten entry: Galleria - White Plains — 1979

Transcription: Galleria - White Plains — 1979

Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record

Full project record →

None of these buildings were meant to be temporary. They were built to last, and the city outgrew them anyway. What survives of them here is a line of handwriting, a permit, a photograph and, in a few cases, a documented masonry contract.

Continue with The Jet Age and the Communications City →All 205 projects →