Exploring New York’s Industrial Past in "Cathedrals of Industry"

Tour Highlights:

• See into NYC's industrial past by viewing photographs of places like the West Side Piers before they were torn down for Battery Park City and the Hoboken Ferry Terminal in the 1970s (the deteriorated Beaux Arts concourse is now finally being restored!)
• Discover the remnants of American industry and the ones still operating in New York City, from Streit’s Matzo Factory to a silk flower workshop
• Explore rarely-seen interiors, like inside an IRT substation hiding in plain sight
• Hear Michael’s stories from decades of taking photos and gaining entrance to hard-to-reach places

About this Virtual Talk:

Michael Horowitz has spent 50 years documenting the rapidly disappearing places throughout New York and the Northeast, using his lens to preserve them for our cultural memory. Workshops and factories, mostly staffed by European immigrants, filled lower Manhattan at the turn of the 19th century. These workers were the heartblood of both the manufacturing and the nation's economy.

Horowitz’s new book, Cathedrals of Industry, features defunct and enduring examples of America’s industrial past, such as a mechanical cash register repair shop, a seltzer works, and vast infrastructure like the Paterson Hydroelectric Plant and Bethlehem Steel.

About Michael L. Horowitz:

Michael L. Horowitz, a New York-based photographer, has dedicated himself to documenting cultural history in the face of rapid change. His books are Cathedrals of Industry: Exploring the Factories and Infrastructure That Made America and Divine New York: Inside the Historic Churches and Synagogues of Manhattan. His past exhibitions include Landmarks of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy; Cathedrals of Industry, about the iconic twentieth-century industrial buildings of Buffalo, New York; The Richardson Complex: Behind Closed Doors, on the Buffalo Psychiatric Center; and Revisiting L’Aquila (One Year after the Earthquake). Horowitz is the owner of A Photographer’s Place, a custom digital and fine art photo lab.

This post contains affiliate links, which means Untapped New York earns a commission. There is no extra cost to you and the commissions earned help support our mission of independent journalism!