At the Intersection of Broadway & Ann

Between the 1830s and the 1870s, the corner of Broadway and Ann Street was transformed from a quiet, fashionable residential district to a commercial and entertainment hub. The intersection represented a microcosm of the city’s demographic and commercial changes in the post-Erie Canal era, with its sights, sounds, and smells. Innumerable depictions appeared in widely circulated periodicals and guidebooks and as stand-alone prints, owing to the decades’ technological advancements in printing and photography.