In Anne Petry's 1946 novel, The Street, the setting is key to understanding the novel, that is not only the physical place but the history and culture of that physical place.  Petry deftly sketches the geography of Harlem in her prose, especially the street on which the main characters live.  The photos below give a visual sense of Harlem during the time that the novel is set.

Children stand in line at Harlem's RKO Regent movie theater on Nov. 29, 1941 in New York.  (AP Photo)

Many of the old buildings now located between 112th - 115th Streets and Park and 3rd Avenues, here, will soon be reduced to rubble as wrecking crews proceed with their work to clear the area for the proposed housing project in Harlem, July 6, 1946.  To honor the deceased Negro poet, James Weldon Johnson, by bearing his name, the community will house 1,310 families when completed in 1947.  (AP Photo)

Children play a rough-and-tumble game in a street in Harlem, N.Y. November 29, 1941.  (AP PHOTO)