Welcome back to another edition of Where & When, where we try hard not to peek at the photo credits while sleuthing for the answer to the $64 questions about New York City, past or present.  Speaking of which, I’m presently trying to bring some of these challenges to the present, but it’s not an easy thing to present.  Instead, I drag you back into a familiar era (a present for you already!) and present you with this:

Maybe some of you are familiar with this place, which still stands as it did over a hundred years ago and is surprisingly still in use, but for a lot of commercial urban crap. If you were to go there today, the remnants of this building, which served a long-defunct train line that is now used mainly by Amtrak and Conrail (clue!), are still visible.  Regarding the picture, it was taken 22 years before the train line it served closed.

So you know how this goes; you try to figure out where and when this was taken, and perhaps flash a little knowledge such as who designed the building or what was the name of the train line and where did it begin and end, or even what significant features of today are missing from the picture… or the name of a store that presently occupies the building?

Send your answers to cixposse at gmail dot com (Doggone spambots) First one to get it right gets a root beer, those following suit get a cream soda. I’ll check in with you later in the day and post the answer here and in the latest thread at or after 6pm (or earlier if you figure it out sooner).  Have fun!

Welcome back to Where & When, where we use our fine detective skills to figure out where and when a given picture was taken, and then we settle into general satisfaction, swapping of tales and quaffing of root beers and cream sodas.

Here is today’s challenge:

This one shouldn’t be too tough. Some may see a similar view on a regular basis. So, tell us the location depicted, including the structure, which should also give you a notion when the picture was taken. Bonus if you can list any other features in the picture (relative to the year).

Send your complete answers to cixposse@gmail.com. I will try to reveal the answer later in the day here and in the most current thread. Stories and descriptions of neighborhoods are especially encouraged, so share away and good luck!

Welcome back to Where & When; to make up for my error from Monday, I’m presenting an extra challenge this week. Today’s game is hosted by RIYank who writes:

Let’s change decades for this one.
There are obvious visual clues for the approximate year, and also a kind of conceptual clue.
I don’t think it’s too hard to get the approximate location, but see how precise you can be.
I’ll release a clue later in the day.

Send guesses to:

whereandwhen.riyank@spamgourmet.com

Good luck!

[Photo Credit: Ephemeral New York]

Today’s gem is a little a little difficult to date, so I’ll be lenient with the exact date unless you can figure out the hint.
Hint: This picture was taken two years after one of the buildings in this picture was built.

A root beer to you if you get the location depicted and the date. Bonus if you know the nickname of a certain feature within this picture. Feel free to discuss as much as you want on the thread about it without directly revealing the answer (which will be published at or after 6pm tonight). Hey, I’m still trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, so bear with me >;)

Answers, challenge submissions and suggestions can be sent to cixposse@gmail.com. As usual, do not use the photo credit link in researching your answer. Have fun!

{photo credit: Shorpy Historical Photo Archive}