Feb

21

Wednesday, February 21, 2021 – LOOKIG FOR GOLD, TRYTHE EAST RIVER

By admin

Is There Sunken Treasure
Beneath the Treacherous
Currents of Hell Gate?

Just off the coast of Astoria, Queens, at the confluence of the Harlem and East Rivers, is a narrow tidal channel. Hell Gate. Its fast currents change multiple times a day and it used to be riddled with rocks just beneath the surface. Even today, visitors to Randall’s Island Park can see the swirling churn and watch pleasure boaters struggle through. American author Washington Irving wrote an essay about it: “Woe to the unlucky vessel that ventures into its clutches.”

But many a vessel did venture into those clutches over the centuries. Traversing it could save sailors navigating between New York Harbor and Southern New England days of travel around Long Island. This expediency often came at a cost. Hell Gate is the final resting place of literally hundreds of ships. Most of them are forgotten but one continues to captivate. Because down there, under the minor maelstroms, is the promise of gold.

 

The East River runs up from New York Harbor with Manhattan on one side and first Brooklyn then Queens on the other. At Randall’s Island it splits. To the west, it becomes the Harlem River, which skirts around the top of Manhattan to join the Hudson. In the other direction, it connects to the entirety of Long Island Sound—but it’s easy to miss that this connection comes only via a single, slim channel. Each time the tide turns, the Atlantic forces its way through this passage in one direction or the other, with the discharge of the Harlem River adding to the chaos.

Hell Gate, seen in a Hammond’s map from 1909, is where the East River skirts two islands. On the upper left, it turns into the Harlem River and connects to the Hudson. At the upper right, it leads out. to Long Island Sound. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS/PUBLIC DOMAIN

“Because those volumes are large, and the opening at Hell Gate is small, it means the velocity is going to get very high and that makes it difficult to navigate,” says Roy Messaros, a coastal engineer and professor of hydraulics at New York University.

“Even on a calm day the current is boiling,” says John Lipscomb, who regularly patrols New York Harbor on a 36-foot wooden boat for the environmental nonprofit Riverkeeper. “It’s a boisterous place. There are whirlpools and the wind against the tide causes interesting, short, aggressive waves. You pay attention when you’re in Hell Gate.”

That’s today. Conditions in the past were even worse. Most rocks in the area have now been removed to facilitate navigation, but Hell Gate used to be a minefield. It sounded like Hell, too. The whirlpools could be heard from “a quarter of an hour’s distance,” according to one 17th-century Dutch traveler. During the 1850s, it was estimated that about one in 50 ships that crossed Hell Gate was either damaged or sunk.

“You’re talking about centuries of navigation,” says Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan. “Everything from rowboats to large ships have been sunk by hitting those rocks. One on top of the other on top of the other on top of the other.”

Hell Gate already had a reputation for treachery in 1775. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS/PUBLIC DOMAIN

Out of all those wrecks, one in particular has obsessed people for over 240 years—HMS Hussar. The whole gamut of underwater exploration technology has been employed in the search for its purported treasure, from 18th-century diving bells to modern sonar scanners. The cast of characters who have invested significant time and money into salvaging the ship is equally wide-ranging. Thomas Jefferson had a go, as did the inventor of the modern submarine. Alongside crews of schemers and hustlers, serious underwater archaeologists have tried, too. Most recently the most prominent attempts to find the wreck were the brainchild of a Bronx man who calls himself Joey Treasures.

The coveted ship was a frigate of the Royal Navy that arrived in British-occupied New York during the Revolutionary War, in November 1780, reportedly carrying the payroll of British troops in gold coins. Shortly after arriving in the city, Hussar set sail for Gardiner’s Bay on the eastern end of Long Island (though some accounts say it was headed to Newport, Rhode Island). While traversing Hell Gate it hit a submerged formation known as Pot Rock and began taking on water. The ship drifted down the East River until it sank to a depth of 60 to 80 feet, somewhere off the coast of the Bronx. This much is known. The rest, much like the waters of Hell Gate, is murky.

Accounts differ on how many, if any, of the crew were lost, but most agree that around 60 American prisoners of war who were shackled below deck went down with the ship. Crucially, whether Hussar still had gold on board when it sank has also been the subject of much debate over the past two centuries. Modern historians tend to think not. Contemporaneous news articles about the accident made no mention of treasure, nor do the minutes from the Royal Navy court martial into the loss of the frigate.

“It’s a pie-in-the-sky romantic notion that you could find gold in the waters of the Bronx,” says Ultan. But this did not stop generations of people from trying, beginning in the early 19th century. It was known that the ship was carrying gold when it arrived in New York, and in the decades after Hussar sank, “the legend began to grow that the gold was still on the ship,” says Ultan. “The East River at the southeastern end of the Bronx suddenly becomes the Spanish Main.”

Captain Charles Morice Pole (left) was in command of HMS Hussar when it wrecked, but was acquitted of wrongdoing at a court martial. This British gold George III guinea (right) from 1777 represents the coins that were rumored to have been carried in the ship. PUBLIC DOMAIN; THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART/PUBLIC DOMAIN

By the 1810s, the notion that a fortune in gold was lying near the bottom of Hell Gate had become an almost-uncontested truth in the New York press, and would remain so well into the 20th century. “You have to remember it’s a good story,” says Ultan. “It sells copy.” This frenzy may have been initially fed by the British themselves, who, despite denying that there was gold in Hussar when it sank, sent over a team of experts to salvage the ship in the 1790s, “with results wholly ineffectual,” according to a New York Times article from several decades later.

Press speculation on the value of the gold varied wildly. The “large amount” vaguely referred to in early articles suddenly became the oddly specific sum of £600,000, and then $1,000,000, then $5,000,000. In the 1980s, an international coin dealer told The New York Times that the bullion said to be in the Hussar wreck could fetch a whopping half a billion dollars in the rare coins market. “Everything gets distorted,” says Ultan. “It’s like a game of telephone.”

Early attempts to salvage the ship, including by the British, involved diving bells, a technology that dates back to antiquity and is still used today. Divers descended in a small metal chamber with an open bottom, with the air pocket that allowed them to breathe at depth as they more or less felt around the bottom. At and around Hell Gate, this yielded few results. Diving was only possible for short windows, and even then the currents would toss the bell around, making any kind of concerted search impossible.

A Charles Pratt diving helmet which is on display at the Worcester Historical Museum in Massachusetts. JOAQUIM SALLES

But even for him the waters around Hell Gate were a worthy opponent. The bottom lived up to the tempestuous reputation of its surface waters. Currents remained fierce, visibility was near-nonexistent, and the submarine armor was cumbersome. It was made of a combination of rubber and metal and weighed around 70 pounds. Its copper helmet had to be bolted to the diver’s neck piece. A rubber hose connected the helmet to a hand-cranked air pump at the surface.

Over the course of 13 years, Pratt salvaged numerous artifacts from Hussar. He raised cannons and cannonballs, bottles of wine and swords. He found human bones still in shackles—likely the remains of the American prisoners. Tantalizingly, he also found several 18th-century gold guineas, but far from the promised windfall. The coins probably belonged to the crew and were not a part of a larger haul, but were more than enough to keep the legend alive. Like others before him, Pratt had difficulty breaching the wreck’s lower deck, where cargo was traditionally stored. He dove on Hussar for the last time in 1866. (Fast forward to 2013, when Central Park Conservancy employees were cleaning a cannon from Hussar that had likely been donated by Pratt and kept in storage for many years. They were surprised to discover it was still loaded with gunpowder and a cannonball. The NYPD bomb squad was called on to diffuse it.)

McGowan’s Pass, now in Central Park, was a British position during the Revolutionary War. Today, a cannon from HMS Hussar marks the site. In 2013, the Central Park Conservancy discovered that it was still loaded, and called on the NYPD bomb squad to defuse it. STATION1/CC BY-SA 4.0

Several salvage companies worked on Hussar over the ensuing decades, without Pratt’s success. One notable attempt was led by a less-than-reputable street preacher named George W. Thomas, who, like Davis before him, convinced investors to back his effort. They gave him $70,000, roughly equivalent to $2 million today, though he was later accused of using the money to buy a lavish house in New Jersey. In 1900, divers trying to salvage a yacht in the East River found an anchor with “H.M.S. Hussar” inscribed on it and sold it to a junk shop. After a century of regular media coverage, it would be almost 40 years until Hussar made headlines again.

Four decades is a long time in a place like Hell Gate. Somewhere along the way, the location of the wreck was lost. Hell Gate itself had changed significantly over the course of the 19th century. Its rocks had been blown to bits to facilitate boat traffic, first by a French civil engineer in the 1850s and later by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Pot Rock, the hazard that sank Hussar, was the first to go. The greatest of these blasts happened in 1885, when 300,000 pounds of explosives were simultaneously set off in the waters of Hell Gate, lifting a geyser of foam and rock high in the air. Journalists at the time hyped it as the single largest explosion in history. The blast was felt as far as Princeton, New Jersey, 50 miles away, according to the New York City Parks Department website entry for Mill Rock Island, where the explosives were prepped. One can only imagine the effect that this blast and the ones that came before it, all over Hell Gate, had on the remains of the wrecks below.

But even after dozens of failed attempts and the bombardment, there were still those who believed there was a fortune waiting to be discovered. Simon Lake, one of the inventors of the modern submarine, began looking for Hussar in 1935 in a “baby-submarine” of his own creation, adapted to the conditions of the East River. A year later he gathered journalists in his hotel room and announced that he had found the ship. “Within six weeks I expect to step within her hold,” he told The New York Times. This never came to pass. Whatever Lake had found, it was not Hussar. He ended the 1930s in dire financial straits.

The Flood Rock Explosion of 1885 was one of numerous efforts to improve the navigability of Hell Gate. EWING GALLOWAY/THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS/PUBLIC DOMAIN

Fifty years later, another underwater explorer would continue the search. Salvage expert Barry Clifford came to the project with a pedigree. He had just discovered Samuel Bellamy’s treasure-filled pirate ship, Wydah, off the coast of Cape Cod. Hussar seemed like the next logical step. Clifford and his team began taking sonar images of the bottom of Hell Gate in 1985. The same technology had just been used to locate the wreck of Titanic that same year. Within months, in an echo of Simon Lake’s hotel room press conference, Clifford announced to the world that he had found the wreck. “My opinion is there is a very strong possibility that there is treasure on board the Hussar,” he told The New York Times. But when divers got in the water it was a different story. In the end, Clifford and his team encountered abandoned cars, washing machines and seven other shipwrecks, but none from the Revolutionary War era.

And with that, the era of serious salvagers and underwater explorers was deep-sixed. The latest to take up the mantle left by others before is an actor and demolition worker from the Bronx named Joe Governali, who goes by “Joey Treasures.” Governali has been trying to secure exclusive salvage rights over the wreck since the early 2000s. In a deposition, Governali claimed to have found an old map in the Rare Books Room of the New York Public Library that revealed the location of the ship. His salvage company conducted several exploratory dives, but have little to show for it other than some grainy video of what Governali claims is the wreck of Hussar and an 18th-century beer pitcher of British origin. Governali produced a reality TV pilot of his escapades. Alas, he is also being accused of fraud by one of his investors, James Kays, who was convinced to pitch in $100,000 after being shown gold coins purported to be from Hussar. According to court records, they were allegedly “junk bought on eBay.”

It’s difficult to predict what the next phase of this centuries-long treasure hunt will be, but it’s likely to continue in some form. James Kays’s lawyer wrote in a letter to the judge presiding over the case that his client intends to continue the search, just as soon as he gets his money back.

The next big development might be with Hell Gate itself. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed major civil works in the area to protect New York City from storm surges. Some versions of the proposal include large storm barriers that could permanently alter the tidal exchange between the East River, Long Island Sound, and New York Harbor, potentially weakening Hell Gate’s infamous currents. Although such barriers would only close during rare storms, they “threaten to choke off the tidal flow” even when open, according to Riverkeeper. The Army Corps of Engineers indicated recently that they are leaning towards a less invasive alternative but the storm barriers have not yet been ruled out. “It remains possible that other alternatives or components of those alternatives may also be advanced,” according to New York/New Jersey Harbor and Tributaries Project Manager Bryce Wisemiller.

“It’s a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit everywhere.”
For now at least, the currents of Hell Gate will keep on flowing unobstructed. As for Hussar, the promise of its gold remains alive and well, even if the same may not be true for the ship itself. After two centuries of salt corrosion, violent tides, salvage attempts and maybe explosives, it’s a safe bet that whatever remains of it is probably beyond recognition. “I think the Hussar is hither and yon,” says Lloyd Ultan. “It’s a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit everywhere.”

In his essay about Hell Gate, Washington Irving mentions how he had grown up hearing fantastic stories about the remains of a ship that lay scattered among the channel’s rocks, one of the many that fell victim to its currents. As an adult, he tried to find the truth about those stories. “I found infinite difficulty, however, in arriving at any precise information,” he wrote. “In seeking to dig up one fact it is incredible the number of fables which I unearthed.”

WEDNESDAY  PHOTO OF THE DAY

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WEEKEND PHOTO

112 Prince St @ Greene St, building with Richard Haas trompe l’oeil art on it.
This mural was just restored.
Joyce Gold and Gloria Herman got it right

Text by Judith Berdy

ATLAS OBSCURA

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Feb

17

Weekend, February 17-20, 2024 – A CENTURY PAST OF MEDICAL EDUCATION –

By admin

WEEKEND


FEBRUARY 17-20, 2024

CITY HOSPITAL
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
&
NEW YORK TRAINING
SCHOOL FOR NURSES
 

The south end of the island was the training center for physicians and nurses from the 1870’s until the 1950’s.  Enjoy some of our vintage images.

Medical students in front of City Hospital

Staff House for doctors.

Nursing students picture perfect pose

This lounge with its’ plaster relief of the City of New York existed during my early years on the island. It is the southernmost room in the Smallpox Hospital ruin.

Classes were in lecture style

Student nurses were taught to make healing medications and foods.

Meals were taken in a formal dining room

WEEKEND  PHOTO

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FRIDAY  PHOTO OF THE DAY

Corner that replaced 39th Street Wendel Building. 

CREDITS

Text by Judith Berdy

ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
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Feb

16

Friday, February 16, 2024 – RECLUSIVE MILLIONAIRES***UNLIKE TODAYS

By admin


FRIDAY

FEBRUARY 16, 2024

The Wendel House

Manhattan, New York

The former home of the reclusive “Weird Wendels” who dominated New York real estate a century before Donald Trump. 

BEFORE DONALD TRUMP’S MONIKER WAS STAMPED all over New York City, there was another super-rich surname that dominated Manhattan real estate, and another bizarre story attached to it. 

Around the turn of the 20th century, the Wendels were one of the most powerful real estate families in New York, owning 150 properties in Manhattan, worth about $1 billion today. But they certainly didn’t act the part. The six Wendel siblings—five of whom were women—lived together in a mansion on 5th Avenue and barely ever set foot outside the house. The four-story, 40-room red brick brownstone became known as the “House of Mystery,” where “the Weird Wendels” lived like hermits.

John G. Wendel, the one male, was eccentric at best, tyrannical at worst. He refused to allow his sisters to marry, worried that any children they had would dilute the family fortune. He gave them few opportunities to socialize with others, and lived like a recluse stuck in his ways. The house, built in 1856, was lit by gaslight up through the 1920s, eschewing modern amenities like electricity or telephone. Decades went by without any updates made to the musty furniture or decor, or the Wendels’ clothing—they wore outdated Victorian garb and traversed the city in an old carriage instead of a car on the rare occasion they went out.

The last of the Wendel siblings, Ella, passed away in 1931. She left the Wendel home to Drew University requesting it remain as a memorial to the family in its current state (such that it was). The university maintains a memorial room on campus, but the prized site on 5th Avenue was razed in 1934 and gave way to commercial properties like the rest of the formerly residential avenue.

Today there are a few reminders of the Wendel empire, outside a vault at Trinity Cemetery in lower Manhattan, and a bronze plaque the size of a door at the site of the former Wendel home on 5th Avenue.

The building today with its commemorative plaque.

FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

19th century map showing Manhattan’s East Side shoreline and Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island.    Avenue A and Avenue B are now York and East End Avenues, respectively.

Andy Sparberg

Text by Judith Berdy

Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
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Feb

15

Thursday, February 15, 2024 – THE FIGHT BETWEEN EDISON AND TESLA

By admin

 

RADIO WAVE BUILDING

 

To commemorate the New York City designation of July 10, 1997 as Nikola Tesla Day, the Flatiron Partnership recalls the electric power inventor’s life in the neighborhood during the 1890s. Tesla resided and conducted scientific experiments at the Gerlach Hotel, now known in his honor as the Radio Wave Building at 49 West 27th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Wireless remote control was one of Tesla’s notable creations, and he held its first demonstration at the 1898 Electrical Exhibition in Madison Square Garden on 26th Street.

Born on July 10, 1856 in the Croatian village of Smiljan, Nikola Tesla was the fourth of five children. His father was a Serbian Orthodox priest, and mother, a household appliances inventor and manager of the family’s farm. While in high school, their son Nikola could “do integral calculus in his head,” notes thoughtco.com, and was so inspired by the demonstrations of electricity in his physics class that it “made him want to know more of this wonderful force.” He would receive a college scholarship for further study at Austria’s Graz Polytechnic School.

In 1882, Tesla accepted an offer to work at Thomas Edison’s Continental Edison Company in Paris. Two years later, he relocated to New York City for a job opportunity at Edison Machine Works, along “with the hope that Edison would help finance and develop a Tesla invention, an alternating-current (AC) motor and electrical system,” wrote The New York Times on December 30, 2017. “But Edison was instead investing in highly inefficient direct-current (DC) systems, and he had Tesla re-engineer a DC power plant on Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan.”

Photo Credit: Commons WikiMedia

According to history.com, Tesla “worked there for a year, impressing Edison with his diligence and ingenuity. At one point Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000 for an improved design for his DC dynamos. After months of experimentation, Tesla presented a solution and asked for the money. Edison demurred, saying, ‘Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.’” Tesla left the Edison team, and the pair soon engaged in an electrical power rivalry known as the “War of the Currents.” Their competition included the 1892 bid by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where Tesla sold his AC patent and was now a consultant, and Edison’s General Electric firm vying for Chicago’s World’s Fair electricity contract, which Westinghouse won.

During 1892, Tesla had also moved to the Gerlach Hotel at 49 West 27th Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway. Constructed as French flats between 1882-83, the 11-story structure was designed by August Hatfield. But by the 1890s, it was operating as a hotel. Explained Richard Munson in TeslaInventor of the Modern about the tech pioneer’s time there, “After arising at 6:30 a.m., having gotten three hours of sleep, Tesla enjoyed a light breakfast, performed a few gymnastic exercises, and began his daily thirty block walk” pass Madison Square Garden and Madison Square Park to his Lower Manhattan lab. Tesla had installed at the Gerlach, a “receiver on the hotel’s roof in order to capture some of the first radio transmissions from his downtown workshop,” wrote Munson. The author also revealed that while Tesla strolled, he “counted his steps, making sure they were divisible by three.” His “obsession with the number three and fastidious washing,” notes history.com, were “dismissed as the eccentricities of genius.”

By 1898, Tesla was ready to showcase one of his most innovative inventions, the first radio-controlled vessel, at an exhibit held in Madison Square Garden on 26th Street. The event’s opening day on May 2nd included a wired message from President William McKinley in Washington, D.C. The Commander in Chief expressed that it gave him “great pleasure to open the Electrical Exhibition in Greater New York, and to participate in this wonderful demonstration of the latest method of recording and publishing by means of electricity,” reported The New York Times on May 3, 1898.  “I am glad to know that the resources of the wonderful electrical arts have already been so far advanced in the United States that American electrical goods are welcome the world over.”

Photo Credit: Nikola Tesla demonstrates his Tesla coil “Magnifying Transmitter via ThoughtCo

Tesla’s presentation was considered to be “a scientific tour de force, a demonstration completely beyond the generally accepted limits of technology,” according to pbs.org. “Everyone expected surprises from Tesla, but few were prepared for the sight of a small, odd-looking, iron-hulled boat scooting across an indoor pond (specifically built for the display). In an era when only a handful of people knew about radio waves, some thought that Tesla was controlling the small ship with his mind. In actuality, he was sending signals to the mechanism using a small box with control levers on the side. Tesla’s device was literally the birth of robotics.”

This groundbreaking technology inside the Garden was not the only sign of change around the neighborhood. At the end of the 19th century, the Gerlach had also temporarily shut its doors in 1899, and Tesla made a move to Midtown Manhattan. “In his heyday,” wrote Time magazine on November 27, 1944, Tesla “lived at the Waldorf-Astoria and had a fabulous reputation as a host. He invariably took his guests to his laboratory and treated them to an electrical display, which included the then startling trick of passing 1,000,000 volts through his body.” Tesla continued to occupy hotels most of his life, which included a 10-year stay at The New Yorker Hotel, where he reportedly died of coronary thrombosis on January 7, 1943 at the age of 86.

Photo Credit: Radio Fidelity of Guglielmo Marconi

Six months after his death, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an earlier decision on Tesla’s radio patent, thus naming him the real inventor of the radio, not Guglielmo Marconi, who had received the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in wireless telegraphy. “The Court had a selfish reason for doing so,” notes pbs.org about the controversial ruling. “The Marconi Company was suing the United States government for use of its patents in World War I. The Court simply avoided the action by restoring the priority of Tesla’s patent over Marconi.” In recognition of Tesla’s triumphs in radio technology while living and working in Madison Square, a commemorative plaque was placed at 49 West 27th Street by the Yugoslav-American Bicentennial Committee on January 7, 1977, which was also 34 years after Tesla’s passing.

THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

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WEDNESDAY  PHOTO OF THE DAY

SUNY PLATTBURGH NURSING STUDENT STANDING ON ROOF
OF CENTRAL NURSES RESIDENCE.  STUDENT NURSES LIVED ON WELFARE ISLAND WHILE STUDYING AT NEW YORK HOSPITALS, 1966

Text by Judith Berdy
Thumbnail: Department of Energy
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura


Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Feb

14

Wedneday, February 14, 2024 – A SMALL TREASURE ON BEDFORD STREET

By admin

 

75 1/2 BEDFORD STREET

 

75½ Bedford Street is a house located in the West Village neighborhood of New York City that is only 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 meters) wide. Built in 1873, it is often described as the narrowest house in New York.[1] Its past tenants have included Edna St. Vincent Millay, author Ann McGovern, cartoonist William Steig and anthropologist Margaret Mead.[1][2][3] It is sometimes referred to as the Millay House, indicated by a plaque on the outside of the house.[4] The house is located in the Greenwich Village Historic District, but is not an individually designated New York City Landmark.[5]

History
The three-story house is located at 75½ Bedford Street, between Commerce and Morton Streets, not far from Seventh Avenue South in the West Village section of Manhattan.[4] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considers it the city’s narrowest townhouse.[1][4] On the inside, the house measures 8 feet 7 inches (2.62 m) wide; at its narrowest, it is only 2 feet (0.61 m) wide.[1]

According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the archives of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the house was constructed in 1873 during a smallpox epidemic, for Horatio Gomez, trustee of the Hettie Hendricks-Gomez Estate, on what was the former carriage entranceway for the adjacent property,[1] which includes the adjacent 1799 house at 77 Bedford Street, built by Joshua Isaacs,[3] the oldest house in Greenwich Village. However, the house may have been constructed earlier, as the style that appears in a 1922 photograph at the New-York Historical Society is typical of the 1850s Italianate architecture common in the area at the time.[3]

In 1923, the house was leased by a consortium of artists who used it for actors working at the nearby Cherry Lane Theater. Cary Grant and John Barrymore stayed at the house while performing at the Cherry Lane[4] during this time. Edna St. Vincent Millay, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet, and her new husband, coffee importer Eugen Jan Boissevain, lived in the house from 1923 to 1924. They hired Ferdinand Savignano to renovate the house. He added a skylight, transformed the top floor into a studio for Millay and added a Dutch-inspired front gabled façade for her husband.[3]

Later occupants included cartoonist William Steig and his sister-in-law, anthropologist Margaret Mead. The house was the inspiration the children’s book Mr Skinner’s Skinny House,[6] written by former resident Ann McGovern and illustrated by Mort Gerberg. George Gund IV, son of sports entrepreneur George Gund III, purchased the house for $3.25 million in June 2013.[4]

Architecture
The external dimensions of the house are approximately 9.5 by 42 feet (2.9 by 12.8 m), on a lot that is 80 feet (24 m) deep, while the internal dimensions vary between 2 and 8.5 feet (0.61 and 2.59 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m) deep.[1][3] City records list the house as 999 square feet (92.8 m2).[4]

The exterior features a stepped gable similar to those seen in the Dutch architectural tradition.[7] Inside, “[a] centrally placed spiral staircase dominates all three floors and bisects the space into two distinct living areas. The narrow steps call for expert sideways navigational skills. Under the stairwell on the first floor is a tiny utility closet, the only closed storage space in the house. All three floors have fireplaces”.[1] An arched doorway leads to the shared garden in the rear.[7][1] The house has two bathrooms, and its galley kitchen comes with a microwave built into the base of the winding staircase that rises to the upper floors.[4]

WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

PHOTO OF THE DAY

WELFARE ISLAND PENITENTIARY
PHOTO BY BEN SHAHN

Text by Judith Berdy

WIKIPEDIA

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

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Feb

13

Tuesday, February 13, 2024 – A GLIMPSE OF THE PAST IN THE CITY

By admin

TUESDAY


FEBRUARY 13, 2024

SEARCHING FOR  A

35 ROOM

UPPER MANHATTAN

CASTLE FROM 1905 

It takes a lot of audacity (not to mention deep pockets) to build yourself and your family a Manhattan mansion in the style of a Medieval castle.

But real estate developer Charles Paterno doesn’t come across as someone who lacked boldness.

In the late 19th century, Paterno (below left) was an Italian immigrant whose father and brother ran a contracting business, according to Christopher Gray in a 1999 New York Times Streetscapes column. He graduated from medical school at Cornell University in 1899, intended to become a doctor. A tragedy changed his career plans.

“His father died, leaving the family in possession of a half-finished apartment house,” noted the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in Paterno’s 1946 obituary.

“To assist his brother [in completing] the structure, Mr. Paterno agreed to defer his medical practice, and his success in the building profession [made him decide] to remain in it.”

Paterno and his brother would go on to build more than 140 apartment buildings, including the Colosseum and the Paterno—two luxury residences completed in 1910 with spectacular curved facades opposite each other at 116th Street and Riverside Drive.

When it came time to build his own mansion, however, Paterno favored old-world fortresses over pre-war masonry and terra cotta. In 1905, roughly 70 blocks north of the Colosseum and the Paterno on Riverside Drive (and next door to New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett’s estate), he constructed a four-story, 35-room castle.

“Built of white marble, the structure was designed using an eccentric architectural vocabulary that drew influence from both Norman castles and the Rhineland,” wrote Danielle Oteri at metmuseum.org.

“Attended by elegant Italian gardens and pergolas that peered out onto the Hudson, it also featured a cellar solely devoted to growing mushrooms and a swimming pool that filtered water directly from the adjacent Hudson River,” explained Oteri.

The New York Times in 1946 pointed out the castle’s stone turrets “designed in a mixture of old English and Roman style,” the white marble interior containing an organ worth $61,000, the 17 greenhouses, and a swimming pool “surrounded by bird cages.”

Castle Village opened in the late 1930s, but its construction didn’t obliterate all traces of the castle mansion that inspired it.

“Two pillars from Paterno Castle remain near the intersection of West 181st Street and Cabrini Boulevard, as well as part of the massive retaining wall that resembles a dismembered piece of the Castel Nuovo in Naples,” wrote Oteri. This pillar (above) looks like one of the surviving two.

“Part of the wall was destroyed in 2005 when it collapsed and slid onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, but a large section of Paterno’s original wall remains intact, with the restored portion recreating the tone and texture of the façade’s original grandeur,” she added.

Then there’s this structure, which I didn’t get to view close-up. It certainly seems like a Paterno Castle relic, perhaps some kind of an outdoor storage space? This photo shows a front view.

Some sources state that the wonderful cantilevered Pumpkin House, perched high above the Hudson River, was created from remnants of the Paterno Castle. Others refute this claim; it’s just up the street from Castle Village and was more likely built on Bennett’s former property.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO:
ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

Text by Judith Berdy

EPHEMERAL NEW YORK

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Feb

12

Monday, February 12, 2024 – EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ARTICHOKES

By admin

THE ARTICHOKE,

MEDICINE,

SEX AND MOBSTERS

The Artichoke: Medicine, Sex &

Mobsters

 by Jaap Harskamp 

A native of the western or central Mediterranean, the artichoke is a perennial plant in the thistle group of the sunflower. The wild variety of the species is called a cardoon. Sicilians claim that the plant originated on the island. In the town of Cerda (the “artichoke capital” in the Province of Palermo) a sculptural monument in its main square is dedicated to the plant’s presence.

Thistles, either in the form of artichoke or cardoon, have been consumed since the days of Ancient Greece and Rome. The flower bud is its edible part.

The Romans preserved artichoke hearts in honey and vinegar and seasoned them with cumin. The vegetable was neglected after the fall of Rome, but remained to be nurtured by Arabs who transported the plant to Spain.

North African Moors who had settled there began cultivating artichokes in the area of Granada; another Arab group, the Saracens, became identified with chokes in Sicily. This suggests an Arab origin. The European name is derived from “al-khurshuf,” the Arabic term for thistle. It became alcarchofa in Spanish, articiocco in Italian and ultimately artichoke.

Interest in the vegetable was revived in the mid-fifteenth century when the plant was cultivated around Naples and gradually spread to other parts of Europe and, eventually, to America.  In the process, the artichoke turned out to be much more than just a delicacy. It became associated with medicine, sexual performance and organized (Sicilian) crime.

Cure & Aphrodisiac

The artichoke’s medicinal properties have long been praised. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder ascribed various health benefits to the plant’s consumption. All plants of the thistle family were recommended for stimulating digestion and treating rheumatism in various ways, not only in Europe but also by Native Americans and in Chinese medicine. The juice of the leaves was used in skin treatment.

Traditional uses are borne out by modern research that has shown artichoke to aid digestion, liver and gall bladder function and to reduce cholesterol levels. The plant is rich in Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and minerals.

When, according to Greek myth, Zeus emerged from the sea one day to visit his brother Poseidon, he observed a pretty young girl by the name of Cynara. He seduced her and, turning her into a goddess, took her to Mount Olympus. She disobeyed him by making secret visits to her family. In anger, he tossed Cynara aside and turned her into an artichoke. The scientific name for the plant therefore became Cynara cardunculus and its erotic association lingered.

The pairing of artichokes with sexual potency was stressed in later medical textbooks. In 1576, Boldo Bartolmeo published his Libro della natura (Book of Nature) in Venice. The book was a revised version of a popular tract entitled  Libreto di tute le cosse che se manzano (Little Treatise on the Things One Eats), first published in 1508 by Padua-born Michele Savonarola, former physician to Niccolo III d‘Este, Marquis of Ferrara, and one of the outstanding practitioners of his era.

The book illustrated the nature and properties of food with particular attention to human health and well-being (the “regimen sanitas”). In Boldo’s updated account artichokes are praised for possessing the virtue – as the author delicately puts it – of “provoking Venus for both men and women; for women making them more desirable, and helping the men who are in these matters rather tardy.” The artichoke became widely lauded as an aphrodisiac that enhanced performance and helped conception.

Catherine de Medici & Henry VIII

Originally associated with Italian cuisine, artichokes reached the rest of Europe when Catherine de Medici married Henry II of France at the tender age of fourteen. Having arrived in Paris from Florence in 1533, she brought her kitchen staff with her.

The artichoke was an instant gastronomic success at the Court. Catherine de Medici and her circle of intimate friends gave the vegetable an over-sexed reputation. Inevitably, Henry VIII was tempted to test its impact on the functioning of the genitals.

Artichokes had been introduced to England by immigrants from the Low Countries where they had been in vogue since the start of the sixteenth century.

In 1611, the incomparable Antwerp-born woman artist Clara Peeters painted a “Still Life with Fish, a Candle, Artichokes, Crab and Prawns,” the earliest recorded fish still life in art. Fish was a staple food in the Netherlands, but the presence of artichokes on the table is surprising. Peeters and a number of her contemporaries had become curious enough in the “new” vegetable (and its intriguing shape) to include them in their paintings.

By 1530 artichokes were reported to be growing in Henry VIII’s formal gardens at his Essex summer resort, the Palace of Beaulieu in Boreham. The King’s favorite vegetable soon became fashionable and associated with copious dining. Its reputation as an aphrodisiac was undisputed. A century later, botanist Nicholas Culpeper described artichokes in his Herbal as “under the dominion of Venus” – they spur lust.

Landscapers at major English estates of the sixteenth century were ordered by their employers to design and cultivate ‘artichoke gardens’. Dating from the reign of Elizabeth I, there was in London a tavern named the Queen’s Head and Artichoke in Albany Street, Regent’s Park. The second part of the name was allegedly added at the Queen’s request who, whilst dining at the inn, took a liking to the taste of artichokes.

The vegetable’s appeal did not diminish. Botanist John Evelyn was the one of the first notable British historians of gardening. In 1699, he published his Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets (familiarly known as Evelyn’s “salad list”) in which he paid ample attention to the preparation of artichokes which were best enjoyed (with a glass of wine) by the heads “being slit in quarters, first eaten raw, with oil, a little Vinegar, salt and Pepper.”

It was around this time that the American colonies were beginning to take an interest in the plant. Artichokes were grown in the United States as early as the eighteenth century. French and Spanish immigrants had been involved in their introduction to the United States.

Monterey County

George and Martha Washington cultivated globe artichokes at Mount Vernon. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello and first listed the plant in 1770 in his Garden Book. However, as a foodstuff artichokes remained a rarity and were not a popular edible until the twentieth century.

Early settlers and native-born Americans had previously consumed a limited supply of vegetables, consisting of (sweet) potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, corn, beans and tomatoes. Mass immigration changed that habit and pattern. By the 1920s, people were offered a wider and more diverse range of vegetables, including asparagus, avocados, endive, spinach and sweet peppers.

Andrew John Molera, a Californian landowner in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County, decided in 1922 to lease land that had previously been dedicated to the growing of sugar beets to immigrant Italian farmers, encouraging them to cultivate artichokes.  His reasons were purely economic as demand for the vegetable was outstripping production and prices were rising fast.

He and his tenant farmers formed the Monterey Bay Artichoke Growers cooperative, creating the Sea-Lion brand. Molera shipped their produce to New York City, Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago and New Orleans, firmly establishing the artichoke as part of the American diet.

His success set a precedent. Within a relatively short period of time California dominated this particular corner of the nation’s vegetable market with Monterey County at the heart of its cultivation. Henrietta Shore’s mural “Artichoke Pickers” (1934), originally located at Monterey’s Old Customs House, provides a lively image of a harvest in Salinas Valley.

King of Artichokes

Citrus fruits have grown in Sicily since Arabic conquerors planted trees on the island in the eleventh century. The bay around Palermo derives its name of “Conca d’Ora” (The Golden Basin) from an abundance of the species. From the mid-nineteenth century onward the Mafia became involved.

It was in the island’s citrus groves that the organization began developing their characteristic practices of intimidation and extortion. Some historians argue that the Sicilian Mafia grew out of lemons. New York City produced its own entrepreneur of food rackets.

Ciro Terranova was born in 1888 in the “Mafia” town of Corleone. In 1893, his parents moved the family to the United States, lived for a while in Louisiana and Texas, before settling permanently in New York City where Ciro and his brothers met up with their half-brother Giuseppe Morello.

They would later form the powerful Morello syndicate that was involved in the familiar rackets of alcohol, gambling, etc. Based in Manhattan’s Italian Harlem, it was one of New York’s earliest crime families and gained dominance by defeating the Neapolitan Camorra of Brooklyn.

Ciro created his own corner of criminal activity. Keenly aware of both the profitable artichoke market (especially in his own Italian community) and the limited availability of the plant because of specific growing conditions, he saw an opportunity of monopolizing the sales. Having founded a produce company, he purchased all artichokes shipped to New York from California and resold the product at a massive profit.

In the process, his gang terrorized distributors and merchants. Its members launched attacks on the artichoke fields of farmers reluctant to deal with him, hacking down the plants with machetes in the dead of night. They even attacked farms with gas bombs dropped from small planes.

Ciro’s racket earned him an estimated million dollar each year between about 1925 and 1935. He became known and feared as the “Artichoke King.”

Queen of Artichokes

New York’s first Italian-American Mayor Fiorello La Guardia was elected in 1934 on a platform to fight corruption in the city. He was determined to rid the streets of criminal activity which, during the Great Depression, included extorted “extra” payments on fruits and vegetables. Why did he pick a fight with racketeers of the artichoke industry?

The (baby) artichoke was particularly popular in New York City’s densely populated Italian neighborhoods, but its trade at local vegetable markets was not monitored by the NYPD. The Mayor identified the artichoke as both as symbol and core activity of the Morello clan. He decided to take on the Artichoke King himself. As the produce racket was an interstate affair, Herbert Hoover (head of the FBI) was alerted. The Mayor expected prompt action from the federal agencies.

At 6:50 a.m. on December 21, 1935, two police trumpeters – in true Italian style – roused workers at the Bronx Terminal Market. La Guardia climbed onto the back of a vegetable truck and proclaimed a ban on baby artichokes for posing a “serious and threatening emergency” in the city, pronouncing that a “racketeer in artichokes is no different than a racketeer in slot machines.” His operatic action was dramatically labelled the “Great Artichoke War.”

Three days later, the extortion racket was broken. Mobsters were arrested and five members of Terranova’s gang imprisoned. The illegal surcharges they imposed on Californian artichokes ended and the ban was lifted.

Having defeated the Mafia’s control, La Guardia enlisted the cooperation of local restaurants to promote and drive up demand for his beloved baby artichokes. Grocery sales rocketed and recipes proliferated, spreading awareness and popularity of the vegetable.

The success story continued after the war. The farming community of Castroville, located about fifteen miles northeast of Monterey, became a focus of agricultural and commercial activity. It was here that in 1948 a young lady named Norma Jean Mortenson was chosen as California’s first official “Artichoke Queen.”

In the years that followed Castroville developed into the “Artichoke Centre of the World,” hosting (just like Cerda in Sicily) an annual festival dedicated to the vegetable. Norma Jean, having changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, became the irrepressible sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s as well as an emblem of the era’s sexual revolution. The artichoke had fully regained its formal reputation.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

ONE OF A COLLECTION OF 
MURALS PAINTED DURING THE 1930’S
WPA ERA FOR CHILDRENS’ WARD AT GOUVENEUR HOSPITAL

Text by Judith Berdy

IMAGES AND TEXT 
NEW YORK ALMANACK

JAAP HARSKAMP

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Feb

10

Weekend, February 10-11, 2024 – 1930’S SURVEY OF RURUAL LIFE IN AMERICA

By admin

DEPRESSION ERA

 

PHOTOS BY 

BEN SHAHN

October 1935. Young residents of Amite City, Louisiana. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration.

October 1935. Natchez, Mississippi. “Two women walking along the street.” 35mm negative by Ben Shahn for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.

Summer 1938. Hamburger stand at the Buckeye Lake amusement park near Columbus. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn, who goes on to describe the place: “Buckeye Lake is the weekend and summer months resort for all of central Ohio. Its patrons are clerks, Columbus politicians, laborers, businessmen, droves of high school and college students. The rich occupy one side of the lake, the rest rent cottages on the other side. It has an evil reputation and an evil smell. It has furnished Columbus and the neighboring small towns and cities with dancing, cottaging, swimming, etc. for several generations. This is the most unsavory place the photographer ran across in Ohio.” But how are the hot dogs?

October 1935. “Poverty on the march.” Wife and child of destitute Ozark family in Arkansas. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn. View full size.

Summer 1938. Drugstore window in Newark, Ohio. View full size. Photograph (35mm nitrate negative) by Ben Shahn, Farm Security Administration.

1937. “Mrs. Mary McLean, Skyline Farms, Alabama.” 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Interior of tenant farmer home. Little Rock, Arkansas. October 1935. The “round thing” is an old-fashioned convex mirror. View full size. Photo by Ben Shahn.

Summer 1938. “Street Scene in Circleville, Ohio. Because of its non-industrial surroundings, retains much of old-time flavor.” Reflected in the glass we can see Ben Shahn snapping this picture with his Leica pointed sideways. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

THE ISLAND NOBODY KNOWS
PUBLISHED IN 1969 SHOWING THE FUTURISTIC VIEWS
OF THE ISLAND THEN CALLED WELFARE ISLAND

Text by Judith Berdy

IMAGES AND TEXT 
SHORPY HISTORIC AMERICAN PHOTO ARCHIVE

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
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Feb

8

Thursday -Friday, February 8-9, 2024 – PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS ON VIEW NOW

By admin

GREAT  ART INSTALLATIONS 

 

ADNY x AP – Lighting Installation, Photo by Jason DeCrow/AP Images for Alliance for Downtown New York

This month you can craft a song with glowing dominos at Fosun Plaza! In partnership with Quartier des Spectacles International, Montreal-based design studio Ingrid Ingrid presents Domino Effect, an immersive take on the game of dominos that allows visitors to engage with life-size, musical domino pieces. The installation consists of 120 tumbling pieces, each with its own color and range of sounds, distributed across 12 stations. Each set of dominos features different instruments such as percussion, marimba, balafon, flute, and even vocals. Colorful and bright, the dominos glow like lanterns in rectangular form, bringing warmth to the cold city. They stand sturdy, built specifically to endure icy weather and winds, but with a simple push, they are awakened with light and fall, creating a classic “domino effect.” The playful exhibition encourages pedestrians to leave their cozy homes and spend some time outdoors. Domino Effect will be on view through March 6 at Fosun Plaza in front of 28 Liberty St. in Lower Manhattan.

Courtesy of Art Production Fund, Photo by Daniel Greer

New York-based artist Melissa Joseph presents her first art exhibition at Rockefeller Center through the Art in Focus program. Raised in an Indian/American household, Joseph’s art mirrors her cultural heritage. She uses textile art to weave together a heartfelt narrative about the importance of POC representation and underrepresented voices in marginalized communities. The exhibition on view at the Rink Level of 45 Rockefeller Plaza will feature a 125-foot display of curated works by Joseph. The pieces featured include needle-felted wool emblazoned with imagery of intimate aspects of the artist’s life displayed along the walls like a series of family portraits. Joseph’s presentation can be viewed at 10 Rockefeller Plaza, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, 50 Rockefeller Plaza, and Radio Park.

Joseph will also host a free Art Sundae children’s workshop at Rockefeller Center where participants can create their own art alongside the artist and have their work included in a window installation. Joseph’s Art In Focus will be on view through April 19. 

Courtesy of Morahan Arts and Media, Photo by Noemie Trusty

Mesmerizing projections will cover anchorages of the Manhattan Bridge this winter as the Dumbo Improvement District launches an outdoor video art exhibition titled The Dumbo Projection Project. This series will feature works by different artists from January to April projected in three different locations: the anchorages at Adams Street and Pearl Street, and along the BQE in Susan Smith Mckinney Steward Park, Thursdays to Saturdays from dusk to 10pm. Volume One features four different projections, each with its own unique theme.

In Speculative Geologies & Speculative Geologies (Triptych) by Jason Urban and Leslie Mutcher show 400 individual 3d models of made-up rocks and minerals created from the melding of nature and technology. In Sound of Deep Waters, Josh Miller and Angela Fraleigh translate viewer text messages into floral imagery. Mz.Icar Collective pays homage to the local youth and wise elders of DUMBO in The Protectors. Finishing out Volume One is Ocean with Spirit Patterns, a trance-like video by Grant Cutler.

Photo Courtesy of David Plakke Media

The latest installation at Penn Station brings forth New York-based artist Rico Gatson’s Untitled (Collective Light Transfer). Geometric shapes in a colorful bright palette decorate Amtrak concourse, bringing a pulsing energy to the bland space. The vibrant acrylic compositions cover the high pillars and walls for travelers to view as they move through the station (the patterns represent the rhythm of people as they hustle through the city). Gatson’s artistic inspirations derive from African, Native, and Indigenous cultures as well as spirituality, translating into abstract mathematical imagery. Amtrak Vice President Jina Sanone says Untitled (Collective Light Transfer) “weaves light, color, and culture together to surprise and delight customers and station visitors.” The installation is on view through the summer in the upper-level rotunda between the 8th Avenue Amtrak departure concourse and the 7th Avenue NJ Transit.

phanous Pareidolia (2024) © Eirini Linardaki, LIRRGrand Central
Madison. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design. Photo: MTA Arts & Design.

Two new digital works by artists Eirini Linardaki and Zach Horn animate the screens at Grand Central Madison. Greek-born and New York-based, Linardaki presents a piece that serves as a culmination of experiences she has gone through on her travels in different cities. Diaphanous Pareidolia, is a five-screen digital animated artwork clad in multi-patterned landscapes, buildings, and commuters on the subway. Itdepicts the energy of the city and its panoramic views, taking the viewer on a nomadic journey through Long Island City to Upstate New York. 

Horn’s serene hand-painted waves undulate methodically in Rockaway, a tribute to his family’s connection to the Queens neighborhood. Horn’s style of work is heartfelt and personal with hints of nostalgia. Glowing in blue and indigo hues, Rockaway is a visual reminder of memories made throughout the generations of Horn’s family. Both artworks are presented as part of the MTA Arts & Design Digital Arts Program and are displayed across five LED screens near the 47th Street entrance to Grand Central Madison.

Don’t be alarmed if you catch a glimpse of a sloth, alligator, pelican, or some other wild animal at JFK Airport this month. It’s likely a hologram. As part of Terminal 4 operator JFKIAT‘s T4 Arts & Culture program, T4 has partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Bronx Zoo to create a series of holographic stations where travelers can learn about wildlife and T4 sustainability efforts from Bronx Zoo Director Jim Breheny.

T4 has also introduced a hand-painted mural representing the vibrant history of Queens by local artist Zeehan Wazed, a photography exhibit powered by the Cradle of Aviation Museum, and a photography series featuring shots captured by T4 employees.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

VINTAGE PHOTO BY EUGENE DE SELIGNAC, OFFICIAL BRIDGE PHOTOGRAPHER OF NEWLY CONSTRUCTED QUEENSBORO
BRIDGE.  SEE POLICE OFFICER  ON FAR SIDE.  SEE SPIRAL STAIRCASE LEADING PEDESTRIANS FROM ONE SIDE OF THE ALL PEDESTIAN UPPER LEVEL TO THE OTHER.

CREDITS

Text by Judith Berdy

IMAGES AND TEXT 
UNTAPPED NEW YORK

Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com

Feb

7

Wednesday, February 7, 2024 – ISLAND HISTORY ON EXHIBIT IN WESTCHESTER

By admin

 

VISITING THE 

 

METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL

HISTORY AT 

NEW YORK MEDICAL COLLEGE

NICHOLAS WEBB, ARCHIVIST

Last week I had the opportunity to visit the archives at New York Medical College. (NYMC)  NYMC  has had a long affilitation with the Homeopathic Hospital on Wards’s Island which later relocated to Blackwell’s Island was re-named Metropolitan Hospital. It was located to the site of the former lunatic asylum, opening in 1895.  The Met was on the island until1955, when it relocated to East 97th Street, where it remains today.

The archives were mostly collected by Dr. Jay Tartell who has had an interest and extensive collection of materials from the 1700’s on.  Dr. Tartell has donated much of his collection to the NYMC and recently hung art and there are display cases of his collections.  His collections include medical instruments history and William Cullen Bryant,

The archives include yearbooks and annuals from Metropolitan Hospital School of Nursing, which were held at the hospital until the library closed.  Luckily some of the collection was preserved but much I assume was discarded.

This is the original check to pay James Blackwell for the purchase of the  Island by the City of New York for $13,900- in 1828.  This was half the payment. 

The hallway and halls are full of historic artifacts and memorabilia from the many collections.

Nic Webb stand in front a a wonderful display of Metropolitan Hospital images just installed in one of the study rooms, (no libraries, just cubicles for laptops is the look of modern medical schools) 

Many oil painting also donated by Dr. Tartell decorate the stairways.

New York Medical College Proudly Displays Donated Portrait of William Cullen Bryant

Historical Portrait of NYMC Founder and Longtime President of the Board of Trustees Adorns Medical Education Center

New York Medical College (NYMC) co-founder and revolutionary, William Cullen Bryant, is back at the College–in oil painting form. The portrait of the long, gray-bearded founding father is hung prominently in the Blanche and Albert Willner, M.D. ’43 Atrium and Lobby in the Medical Education Center, where hundreds of students pass each day and can now be inspired by the man who laid the College’s foundation. Jay D. Tartell, M.D. ‘82, gifted the College “Portrait of William Cullen Bryant,” which was painted by Ferdinand Danton Sr., in 1877.

“William Cullen Bryant’s often forgotten contributions to the ascent of America and the vitality of New York need to be understood and remembered today,” said Dr. Tartell in a statement. “Bryant’s role in the founding of NYMC is of obvious interest to the College community. But his role as a ‘Renaissance Man,’ advancing our country on multiple fronts – including science, art, politics, literature, world awareness and moral principles – can serve as an even greater inspiration to our students.”    

The archives at at the NYMC campus in Valhalla, NY., adjoining the Westchester County Medical Center.  NYMC is now part of Truro College  and has a long history of being part of Grasslands Hospital and Flower Fifth Hospital.


 Nicolas Webb has just acquired a medical instrument collection that he is busy researching and  cataloging .  The work of an archivist never ends. Thanks for a great visit to see our history.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

CREDIT

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Dottie Jeffries

MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM

All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated

www.tiktok.com/@rooseveltislandhsociety
Instagram roosevelt_island_history


THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.

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Copyright © 2024 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com