Rockefeller Center (and the Plaza comprised of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres or prime real estate between 48th and 51st streets) was built in 1939, declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, and immortalized in LEGO form just last year. And here's a fun fact from NPR: "The sunken plaza was originally a failure, unable to retain the intended retail tenants, and it remained a problem until the skating rink, a great novelty made possible by new refrigeration technology, was added as a somewhat desperate experiment."
There are a slew of uncaptioned photos of the complex from long ago... like when they had penguins there? You can check them out above, and there are even more here.
