Colin Campbell Cooper (1856–1937), City Hall Park, ca. 1925. Oil on canvas. Collection of Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld, Scenes of New York City.
The New York Times called Cooper “the skyscraper artist par excellence of America.” Here, he contrasts the squat profile of the City Hall Post Office (1880–1939) with the lofty forms of 41 Park Row (formerly the New York Times Building, and the oldest surviving structure of Newspaper Row) toward the left and the partially glimpsed Woolworth Building (the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1929) at far right. Electric streetcars, which ran across New York City from 1909 into the 1950s, mingle with pedestrians, horse-drawn carts, and automobiles during a period of rapid change in the transportation industry