Photos of Manhattan’s 42nd Street Taken in the 1980s and 1990s During Its Final Years of Seediness

As a young aspiring artist in the late 1980s and early 1990s, illustrator Mitch O’Connell found himself exploring Manhattan’s 42nd street, camera in hand. The snapshots he took offer a glimpse at the final years of the street’s notoriously seedy and colorful era, when it was a hot spot for grindhouse cinemas, adult theaters, and other unsavory businesses. Starting in the early 90s the street was gradually sanitized to the tame thoroughfare it is today.

photos by Mitch O’Connell

via Gothamist