In the oldest photo, the sign on the building reads Canadian Pacific Railway Lands.
MidlandMikeIn the oldest photo, the sign on the building reads Canadian Pacific Railway Lands.
And that is a tiny little office; I think it's just to have a New York Broadway address for correspondence and to handle the occasional walk-in prospective 'settler' or emigrant, perhaps like a travel agent's office.
Mike says :
"The word Lands perhaps refers to overseas destinations."
OK Vince/Mike -- the ads are cute, but where are the views of 458 Broadway "then and now"?
Pretty clear to me that the big business done out of that office was Canadian 'lands' of various kinds, not just for settlement but investment. Note the play in each advertisement for 'bankers' who are 'interested ... in study[ing] Canadian conditions' (presumably interested by the pitch in each ad) to stay at the hostelries mentioned. I think the 'overseas' advertising done by CP would have involved different media in different ways. Most of the passenger stuff 'outside' Canada would be handled through travel agents or the equivalent, not a real-estate office. Overseas direct 'opportunity' would likewise primarily be transportation ... do we have direct advertising for specific overseas projects of interest to CP, with the same reference to the New York office location? (I'd look very carefully at about 1905 to 1915 or so as peak years CP was doing things in foreign passenger service...)
The color photo on the bottom is "now". I assume Bread Kraft is either a bakery or a kitchen supply store.
Canadian Pacific Building
Note the implicit change in function: the office at 1231 Broadway held the 'land, colonization, and development office' at the point between 1907 and 1915 that the 'old building' was pictured in use, but it moved to 1270 Broadway between then and 1921. (We need a picture of the latter building in that time period). The Canadian Pacific space in the 1915 building concerned both rail and steamship passenger operation.
The 'Canadian Pacific' Building had to have been called something else by the early 1960s - I spent much of my youth around that area and don't remember this at all. CP Ships has been owned by Hapag-Lloyd since 2005.
This might help
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/24/archives/sisters-twins-and-landlords-nancy-and-patricia-purdy-are-all-three.html
The Canadian Pacific Building has been replaced by a newer building. The stone and brick building just north of 44th St is still there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEyNq7PHdPM
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