{"id":237235,"date":"2026-05-19T21:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/237235\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:02:17","slug":"upper-west-side-historical-photo-challenge-no-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/237235\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper West Side Historical Photo Challenge No. 27"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Rob Garber for the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group<\/p>\n

Welcome to another installment in the Rag\u2019s Historical Photo Challenge. The image above was taken somewhere on the Upper West Side, sometime in the past. Can you figure out where, when, and what it shows? Look closely; this week\u2019s challenge photo, like the\u00a0others in the series<\/a>, includes clues that will help you identify the scene, if you\u2019re a dedicated UWS history sleuth. And even if you don\u2019t recognize the picture\u2014not to worry! Come back in two weeks and I\u2019ll decode it, show you the clues that help identify it, and\u2014best of all\u2014tell you a story the image unlocks, because this column isn\u2019t just a test of your neighborhood knowledge; it\u2019s also a rolling celebration of the people, buildings and events that wove the tapestry of the Upper West Side.<\/p>\n

Ready? If you think you know where and when the photo was taken and what it shows, post your answer as a comment on this column.<\/p>\n

Solution to Historical Photo Challenge #26
Subject:\u00a0 Moorish Garden Open Air Theater
Location: 610 West 110th Street
Date: 1913
Image Source: Reel Life
Clues: The dominant building in this image, the Hendrik Hudson Annex on the NW corner of Broadway and West 110th Street still stands, although the elaborate cornice has been removed. Remarkably, the low building in the center background is still there as well\u2014it\u2019s now a CVS. It had an additional story until 1981, when a fire caused the top floor to be removed. The taller building whose backside is on the far right was the Beauclere, a seven-story apartment house that was inexplicably torn down around 1934 when it was less than 40 years old, to build a Woolworth. That entire blockfront\u2014the west side of Broadway between 109th and 110th\u2014thus has the unusual distinction of having lower buildings now than it did 100 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Top left: \u00a0Moorish Garden theater in 1913. Top right: Beauclere apartments around 1910, looking north with Hendrik Hudson Annex in the background.\u00a0 Bottom left: Hendrik Hudson annex today with cornice removed. Bottom right: SW corner of Broadway and 110th in 1940, showing two-story taxpayer (now a CVS) and the apartment building behind it at 610 West 110th that replaced the open-air theater in the early 1920s.<\/p>\n

The rest of the story: In the 1910s and early 1920s, there was a window of time when theaters were not yet air conditioned and movies were still silent.\u00a0 This combination gave rise to urban outdoor theaters, known as air domes or aerodomes.\u00a0 They were often quite large\u2014the theater on West 110th sat 2,000 people\u2014and showed movies, hosted concerts, and were even used to present live updates of major sporting events using a system of lights and signs.\u00a0 A live pianist or even an orchestra provided the soundtrack to the silent movie. The Moorish Garden, which bore no discernible resemblance to anything Moorish or garden-like, was owned by outdoor advertising magnate Amedee van Beuren and Harry \u201cDoc\u201d Kelton, an UWS sports entrepreneur.\u00a0 They leased the lot from 1913 to about 1919 from Margaret Sage, widow of Wall Street financier and social science philanthropist Russell Sage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Top left: 1913 ad for World Series game at Moorish Garden, \u201cwith moving ball and runners.\u201d\u00a0 Top right: photo of a Star System, showing how a baseball game was presented.\u00a0 Bottom left: an air dome showing the screen size.\u00a0 Bottom right: ad for a football game presented at Moorish Garden.<\/p>\n

\u2026and that\u2019s the story behind the mystery image.\u00a0 Scroll back to the top of the column and take on your next challenge, Sherlockians!\u00a0 If you\u2019ve missed any pictures in this series, you can find the complete set on my author page<\/a>.\u00a0 All photos used with permission.<\/p>\n

About the author:\u00a0 Rob Garber<\/a> has lived on the Upper West Side since the late 20th century and is a member of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group. To learn more, visit their website at upperwestsidehistory.org<\/a>. All photos in Upper West Side Historical Photo Challenge are used by permission.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to West Side Rag\u2019s FREE email newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>. And you can Support the Rag\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Rob Garber for the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group Welcome to another installment in the Rag\u2019s Historical Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,881,92823,9,24,63,129,131,130,17709],"class_list":["post-237235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-history","tag-history-beat","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-uws-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}