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I have this photo from around June 1958 that I'm pretty sure is in New York City and I'm trying to identify the intersection.

enter image description here

The reflection of what is off camera across the street to the right may prove key as the lower left shows what might be an old church:

enter image description here

Also, the divided two-way roadway with fence and plantings, and a rounded end divider sidewalk is a good clue that suggests one of the major north-south roads like Park Avenue:

enter image description here

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    What steps have you taken so far to locate the photo?
    – user6485
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 17:12
  • Downvoted because the question shows no research effort. Ideally questions for this site about identifying photos should elicit answers about methodology that would help others trying to identify photos in their own collection.
    – Jan Murphy
    Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 18:17
  • @ColeValleyGirl I looked for clues in the photo, I thought the best clue was the detection of the church like building in the reflection. I also thought about the street being two-way with a divider, which made me think of a major NYC street running North South. After that, I wasn't sure how to take action on those, other than asking others for ideas. Like what kind of Google search terms would be helpful?
    – WilliamKF
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 1:55
  • If you thought it was Park Avenue, you could have tried searching for images of Park Avenue with fountains in them. youtube.com/watch?v=uBf6kDWOcVA took five minutes to find and that's only one of many results of the search.
    – user6485
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 7:04
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    @ColeValleyGirl I tried to make an answer generally useful to others in the future based on your idea.
    – WilliamKF
    Commented Nov 25, 2019 at 22:42

3 Answers 3

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As suggested by ColeValleyGirl, try looking for an unusual landmark in the photo that is likely to be still around today. In this case, there was a fountain that could be added to the search terms to greatly reduce the set of possible areas to peruse. With this small set, a quick scan of matching images reveals the matching intersection with the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue, between East 52nd and 53rd Streets, the fountain still remaining today and my guess of Park Avenue turned out to be correct.

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The Seagram Building, 1958, view from across Park Avenue near the Racquet & Tennis Club building (not St Bart’s as I initially thought) https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seagram-Building

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The road on the right in the photo is a two-way, while the road on the left is a one-way.

I'd say find out when in NYC past were the East-West streets one-way and North-South avenues two-way, and you'll have a time frame to work with, and also the orientation of this photo, i.e. it is looking towards east or west.

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