Stereoview Spotlight: Flatiron Building

Experienced stereographers may scoff, but this is one of our favorite stereoviews! The aged tone, the mistiness, the street-level perspective and bustling activity, the double-decker bus, the hat-and-suited men, and the huge Life Savers ad on the building wall at the left rear of the Flatiron advertising “cool and refreshing companions.” Those elements all combine to give this stereoview a whole vibe that we don’t feel when viewing other, clearer Flatiron stereoviews from publishers like American Stereoscopic Company and Underwood & Underwood.

This ~1920s stereoview is the 8.3 cm x 11.2 cm format that fits the Indupor / Camerascope viewer and was part of a 14-card set from The Standard Textile Co. There were other New York and New Jersey locations pictured in the set — Grant’s Tomb, Atlantic City Boardwalk, the U.S. Sub-Treasury Building, the Traymore, and Haddon Hall — along with interior shots of kitchens, dining, and bed rooms that feature their Sanitas “modern wall covering.” However, when viewed in the accompanying viewer, none had the same effect on us as this one did.

The iconic Flatiron Building opened in 1902, is named after its triangular clothes-iron shape, and is thought to be one of the most photographed buildings.

Flatiron Building, Broadway and 23rd Street, New York City

Back of the stereoview.

The Standard Textile Products Co. Stereoview Set