East 29th Street and Third Avenue, 1930
By the 1930s, a decline in population and economic activity made much of the
East Side of Manhattan, including Rose Hill and Kips Bay, a depressed area.
The 1939 WPA Guide to New York City described it as
"a drab extension of
the Lower East Side....a welter of depressing tenements and small stores that
follow the shore" of the East River.
