08/04/2006 - Maps (Part 3)

Constructing these pictures has been an ungodly task. I’ve been doing them on the fly without any real knowledge of what I am doing and as a result have spent more time than anyone deserves to on such a task. The following posts will be quick and short. This photo below represents Edith’s journey from Delmonico’s to the office of the Trumpet and will highlight the following things:

1. Delmonico’s (44th Street and Fifth Avenue)
2. Fifth Avenue - “Pulling her cloak close about her Edith darted across the Avenue. She started nervously as a solitary man passed her and said in a hoarse whisper --"Where bound, kid do?" She was reminded of a night in her childhood when she had walked around the block in her pajamas and a dog had howled at her from a mystery-big back yard” (page 103).
3. 44th Street – A “two-story, comparatively old building on Forty-fourth” (page 103). Since the Trumpet office is fictional, I am unsure exactly if this is the building that Fitzgerald is speaking of, however this remains the only area left on 44th Street where there is a short two story building.
4. Sixth Avenue - “Over on Sixth Avenue the elevated, a flare of fire, roared across the street between the glimmering parallels of light at the station and streaked along into the crisp dark. But at Forty-fourth Street it was very quiet” (page 103).
5. 42nd Street - “Glancing down toward Forty-second Street she saw a commingled blur of lights from the all-night restaurants” (page 103).

Aside from 42nd Street, which will be two streets directly south of 44th Street, you’ll be able to see these landmarks inked in black from right to left. As far as resources go, I have liked to a page at the N.Y.P.L. Digital Gallery where you can look at original copies of the maps. I believe most of the maps I refrenced and used here are on pages four and five.

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Atlas of the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York. Plates 73,72. Map. New York: Bromley. 1916.