In 1951 LIFE magazine documented a crew of demolition men—whom they dubbed The Wreckers—knocking down townhouses and other structures around the city. We're told that most of the photos available in their public archive are for stories that never ran, so this one likely never saw the light of day (there's no trace of it in the Google machine). There was plenty of destruction happening in the '50s, with high rises going up and brownstones coming down.