{"id":58572,"date":"2025-12-02T16:48:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/58572\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T16:48:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T16:48:07","slug":"upper-west-side-historical-photo-challenge-no-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/58572\/","title":{"rendered":"Upper West Side Historical Photo Challenge No. 15"},"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 #14<\/a><\/p>\n

Subject:\u00a0 Manhattanville, including Prentis Hall aka The Milk Building
Location: West 125th Street, looking east towards Broadway
Year: October 6, 1929
Image Source: New York City Municipal Archives
Clues: The large light-colored building in the center-left of our mystery photo still stands, but there were other clues.\u00a0 In the background, the open trusswork of the elevated subway station at 125th Street looks nearly identical today to its appearance a century ago.\u00a0 The triangle in the upper left corner isn\u2019t an artifact of the photograph\u2014it indicates that the photographer was standing under the viaduct that takes Riverside Drive over the Manhattanville valley, and caught a bit of the supporting arch\u2014it\u2019s a scene you can duplicate today.\u00a0 Finally, the prominent Sheffield Farms Sealect sign was a hint that we\u2019re in Manhattanville, which once processed 60% of New York City\u2019s milk supply.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rest of the story: No one would place Prentis Hall (\u201cIsn\u2019t that a textbook publisher?\u201d) on their list of favorite Columbia University landmarks, but for my money there\u2019s not a more interesting building on or near the campus\u2014and it\u2019s one that you don\u2019t need an ID card to gaze at!\u00a0 Prentis Hall\u2019s sparkling white terracotta facade, still mostly intact despite time and neglect, hints at its origin as a model of cleanliness.\u00a0 At the turn of the 20th century, drinking cow\u2019s milk could be hazardous due to the introduction of disease-causing bacteria during unsanitary handling of raw milk.\u00a0 To promote the image of clean, healthy milk, the Sheffield Dairy built 632 West 125th Street in 1909-1911, just as pasteurization was becoming widespread.\u00a0 The building sparkled inside and out with gleaming tile, and large windows in front allowed families to see milk being processed.\u00a0 When milk distribution models changed, Manhattanville\u2019s role in dairy declined, and Columbia bought the building in 1949.\u00a0 A second extraordinary chapter in its history began a year later, when Columbia established the nation\u2019s only Nuclear Regulatory Commission-qualified facility for testing fuel assemblies. These are the metal rods that encase nuclear fuel in the hearts of nuclear reactors.\u00a0 The rods tested on 125th Street weren\u2019t loaded with uranium\u2014it was the job of the Heat Transfer Research Facility for half a century to subject them to the kinds of extraordinary conditions of temperature and pressure that they would experience in a nuclear core.\u00a0 The lab tested these materials under hellish (600\u00b0F) environments to look for defects and to establish the parameters under which reactors could be safely operated.\u00a0 The facility used one-of-a-kind equipment which may or may not still be in Prentis Hall.\u00a0 It was a profitable enterprise for Columbia until the university decided that such a laboratory wasn\u2019t aligned with the institution\u2019s mission and shut it down in the early 2000s.\u00a0 The building\u2019s future is not known\u2014not publicly, at least.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Left: 1940 New York City tax photo of the Sheffield Farms dairy facility.\u00a0 Note the unusually large ground-level large windows. Top right: Milk cans on the railroad siding at 130th Street
\n\"\"<\/a>Examples of the electrical equipment used in testing of nuclear fuel rods. When a test was underway, the facility drew more electricity than any single building in Manhattan other than the World Trade Center towers!<\/p>\n

Shoutout to readers: Challenge No. 14 posed no challenge for Rag history maestros.\u00a0 Several readers knew the role of Sheffield Farms and Manhattanville in New York City\u2019s pasteurization story, as well as the transition of the building to Prentis Hall.\u00a0 ecm knew the connection to nuclear testing; elmn linked to some of the P.R.-driven historical work that Columbia commissioned during the Manhattanville eminent-domain controversy of a decade ago.\u00a0 Thanks to Jay B for studying car models closely and nailing the date.\u00a0 Hat tip to Carmella Ombrella for suggesting I include the original challenge photo with the solution.\u00a0 I usually do\u2013it was in #14\u2019s solution, for example\u2014but I\u2019ll try to call attention to it so it\u2019s more apparent.<\/p>\n

\u2026and that\u2019s the story behind\u00a0the\u00a0mystery image.\u00a0 Now 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, here is the\u00a0complete collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About the author:\u00a0\u00a0Rob Garber<\/a> has lived on the Upper West Side since the late 20th\u00a0century and\u00a0is a member of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group.\u00a0\u00a0To learn more, visit their website at\u00a0upperwestsidehistory.org<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0All 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":58573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,881,9,24,63,129,131,130,17709],"class_list":["post-58572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-history","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\/58572","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=58572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}