125th Street, An Update

Honestly, 20 years just sneaks up on you but one of the satisfying things about this admittedly somewhat insane project is catching change over time. Walking the length of 125th Street in Manhattan in 2004 was just to see what was there, while walking the length of it on January 23, 2026 made you aware of how much of the street has evolved, so I paid more attention to the new things than I usually would have:

The former site of Demolition Depot (which is now on 126th Street I believe) . . .

. . . is now this:

And the southwestern corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in 2004 . . .

. . . in May 2020 (those images are here . . .

. . . and today:

The “Corn Exchange” building at the northwest corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue pre- and post-renovation:

The northeast corner of 125th Street and Madison Avenue:

The Studio Museum, first “of” now “in”:

“Movie Center 5” was long closed by the time we walked by in 2004, but it was once a huge Loew’s theater and is now part of a huge mixed-use project:

And the Apollo, behind scaffolding then and now:

Nelson Cleaners, same:

The pre- and post-eminent domain Manhattanville deserves its own page, here, but some side-by-sides follow:

St. Nicholas Avenue (The Whole Thing)

St. Nicholas Avenue in Upper Manhattan stretches from 111th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Harlem to 193rd Street in Washington Heights — 4.4 miles total.

Basically the whole route is in the link above, and then there are breakout sections for the portion in Harlem (111th Street to 155th Street) and the portion in Washington Heights (155th Street to 193rd Street). Those add images from 2004 from other pages where streets intersected. First, St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem:

The page Harriet Tubman Square is new:

As is the page for Hancock Park:

St. Nicholas Avenue in Washington Heights:

Manhattan Chinatown Dumplings

An afternoon of dumplings in Manhattan’s Chinatown with two taste testers. Spots cribbed from Robert Sietsema’s Eater top ten list from February 2024.

First up, Tasty Dumpling (rated 7.2 and 8.5 out of 10):

Shu Jiao Fu Zhou (rated 6.8 and 8 out of 10):

Vanessa’s Dumpling House (rated 8.7 and 8.7 out of 10):

North Dumpling (rated 9.3 and 9.5 out of 10):

Also, Chinatown Ice Cream Factory:

And duck from Great NY Noodletown to take home for dinner later on: