In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a few blocks of Manhattan’s 28th Street housed sheet music publishers, composers, songwriters, and agencies. Nicknamed Tin Pan Alley, it was home to the nation’s music industry.
The playhouse being the main venue of entertainment, Broadway musicals and Union Square vaudeville acts demanded an unceasing supply of songs. A dense concentration of creative talent laid the foundation for the “Great American Songbook,” a canon of songs and jazz compositions that have stood the test of time.
Late nineteenth century New York City saw the mass arrival of East European Jews who had escaped persecution. They made their distinct presence audible in music. Tin Pan Alley consisted primarily of Jewish composers who introduced Yiddish lyrical traditions and liturgical melodies to the metropolis.
Black Americans played their part in the process too. The sheer vitality of these emerging trends created enduring new standards in popular music, launching the iconic careers of Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and many others.
Tin Pan Alley’s influence went worldwide. From 1911 into the 1990s, its London equivalent was Denmark Street, Soho. There were intriguing parallels between these creative urban hubs.
Shaping Tin Pan Alley
Born in 1863 in Vilnius, Lithuania, Judah Katzenelenbogen grew up in a Jewish family of publishers. In 1887 he emigrated to America and opened a bookshop in Canal Street, Lower Manhattan.
Following current trends in sheet music publishing, he issued Ukraine-born Avrom Goldfaden’s arrangement of a traditional Yiddish lullaby titled “Rozhinkes mit Mandlen” (Raisins & Almonds). It was an immediate hit.
He then published a collection of songs named Di Yidishe Bine (The Yiddish Stage, 1897). He also edited the journal Lider Magazin (Magazine of Songs), published by the Hebrew Publishing Company, Brooklyn.
Every issue held a variety of lyrics as well as spoofs of recent hit songs. A flourishing niche “industry” surfaced of text writers adding Yiddish words to popular American tunes.
Many songs originated in Manhattan’s theater circles. Second Avenue was known as the “Yiddish Broadway.” Songwriters and composers such as Henry Russotto, Louis Friedsell, Shalom Secunda and many others, were revered figures at the time.
The “stage Jew” was a common character in vaudeville acts mocking immigrants through exaggerated accents and stereotypical attributes. In the end, Jews took over the genre themselves, happily indulging in self-mockery. In the process, they sharpened their skills as songwriters.
New copyright laws of 1909 curbed plagiarism and the theft of songs. Immigrant songwriters turned away from imitative spoofs and began creating their own work. They revolutionized the craft by expressing themes of love, loss, and pain in songs that would make up the core of America’s popular music. East European Jews and their offspring shaped Tin Pan Alley.
Aaron Gumbinsky was born in 1872 in Detroit into an immigrant family of Polish Jews. Pursuing a career in music, he adopted the stage name Harry von Tilzer by adding “von” to his mother’s maiden name (Sarah Tilzer). A prolific composer, his first hit was “My Old New Hampshire Home” (1898) which sold two million sheet music copies. In 1902, he founded a publishing company with his younger brother Albert, himself a successful songwriter.
When in 1900 journalist Monroe Rosenfeld of the New York Herald visited Von Tilzer’s office on 28th Street, he was struck by a cacophony of noise emanating from neighboring businesses. Music publishers kept upright pianos in their offices where keyboard pounders banged out the latest songs trying to attract client attention.
During the interview, Von Tilzer compared this soundscape to the clatter of tin pans in a professional kitchen. Rosenfeld was handed an instant headline for his article: “Tin Pan Alley.”
The anecdote’s accuracy cannot be checked since the report has not survived, but Grove’s Dictionary of American Music confirmed the story. The name Tim Pan Alley stuck, the industry accepting it as a badge of honor. It became a general term for the catchy and memorable tunes that came to dominate American popular music. The output of Tin Pan songwriters was phenomenal.
Song Pluggers
The “song plugger” was a person who performed in saloons, small theaters, or departments stores to introduce new compositions and drive the sale of sheet music. The qualification “hit” song depended upon the number of sheets sold. Newspapers started printing weekly lists of the best-selling sheet music. The practice was central to the success of Tin Pan Alley in its early days.
The Pelham Café at 12 Pell Street, close to the poverty-stricken Five Points neighborhood, was the headquarters of Mike Salter, a Russian-born Jewish gangster. A former tenement building, the saloon was known as the “House of a Hundred Entrances.” Multiple passageways, trapdoors, and points of entry/exit were in use to dodge police raids.
Labeled the uncrowned “Prince of Chinatown,” Salter controlled local prize-fights, dice games, and opium dens. He also acted as a “ward heeler” for Tammany Hall, mobilizing immigrant voters by whatever means, including practices such as false registration, ballot box stuffing, or repeat voting.
Nicknamed “The Professor,” Mike (Nick) Nicholson played a tin pan piano, accompanied by the saloon’s seventeen-year-old Russian-born waiter Israel (Izzy) Baline belting out raunchy versions of current hit songs. The café’s music blended Jewish melodies with ragtime rhythms, attracting a diverse local audience.
As word spread of Izzy’s musical talent, the bar began hosting a more upmarket crowd. Chuck Connors, Chinatown’s self-appointed tour guide, led celebrity “slummers” through its doors. John Jacob Astor (New York’s richest entrepreneur), Thomas Lipton (Scottish tea magnate), and August Belmont (financier and diplomat) came to sample the atmosphere. When Rear Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg (British Navy) entered the bar, a horde of reporters followed in his steps.
In 1907, Salter challenged “The Professor” and Izzy to compose a ditty celebrating his saloon. They responded by producing “Marie from Sunny Italy.” Sold cheaply to Tin Pan Alley publisher Joseph W. Stern, the sheet music listed the misspelled name I. Berlin as its lyricist. The song launched the career of Izzy Baline, better known as Irving Berlin.
That same year, police arrested Salter on charges of false voter registration and shut down his saloon. Salter skipped bail and fled to Canada (he later ran ventures in Coney Island).
In 1911, Irving Berlin’s “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” sold over two million copies of sheet music, earning him the accolade “King of Tin Pan Alley.” The former song plugger would become one of America’s greatest performing artists.
Popularity of vinyl records in the 1930s threatened to suffocate Tin Pan Alley. Instead, it evolved into the legendary eleven story Art Deco Brill Building at 1619 Broadway (named after its owner Maurice Brill, a Jewish haberdasher of Russian descent). It was there that the greatest pop music of the 1950s and 1960s would be created.
The teams working in and around the building crafted an “assembly-line” of chart-toppers recorded by artists such as Aretha Franklin, The Drifters, Dionne Warwick, The Ronettes, and Elvis Presley.
Mick Jagger’s Rag Trade
The influence of Tin Pan Alley spread worldwide. Running from Charing Cross to St. Giles High Street, Denmark Street became known as London’s Tin Pan Alley. With the West End theaters nearby, it was a hub of music publishers and recording studios. Located close to the “rookery” of St Giles, the street was a crime-ridden slum during the nineteenth century.
Change came in 1911 when music publisher Lawrence Wright hired a basement there and set up offices in 1911. He was the founder of Melody Maker magazine in January 1926.
Those who followed this pioneer included Irving Mills, the publisher of Hoagy Carmichael and Duke Ellington. Over the decades, the soundscape evolved from jazz and blues to R&B. In 1952, promoter Maurice Kinn (born in Poplar, East London, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe) founded the New Musical Express which began compiling Britain’s first singles chart, replacing the sale of sheet music as a measurement of popularity.
Former dance-band singer Richard Leon (Dick) James was born Isaac Vapnick in East London in December 1920 into a Polish family (his father was a kosher butcher). He worked as a music publisher out of 132 Charing Cross Road at the corner of Denmark Street.
There, in 1963, he and Brian Epstein (his Jewish grandparents were of Russian and Lithuanian descent) formed the Northern Songs firm, publishers of The Beatles. He later founded Dick James Music (DJM) and launched the career of Elton John.
By the 1960s, the street captured the energy of Rock & Roll. David Bowie, The Kinks, Black Sabbath, and many other groups and performers rehearsed in its studios. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album in 1964 at Regent Sound Studios (4 Denmark Street) founded in 1961 by Ralph (Raphael) Elman.
Born in Mile End, East London, the latter’s father hailed from Kyiv, Ukraine, from where he had escaped the Russian pogroms. Andrew Loog Oldham took on the management of The Stones, shaping their image and musical direction. His father was a non-Jewish U.S. Air Forces lieutenant who died in action during the war. His mother Celia (née Löwenstein) was of Lithuanian Jewish heritage. She raised him as a single parent in London.
Oldham hired eighteen-year-old photographer Gered Mankowitz, a descendant of Russian Jewish immigrants, who handled the band’s early album covers and joined them on their first tour of America. In 1966, Oldham turned over management of the Rolling Stones to New York accountant Allen Klein who secured the band’s record deal with Decca. Klein was the son of Jewish immigrants from Budapest.
The band’s song “Shattered” was an ode to New York City. Included in the 1978 album Some Girls, its lyrics recall the era of Abraham Beame (the city’s first Jewish mayor) which was darkened by recession, austerity, and crime.
Economic downturn caused the demise of the Jewish garment and rag industry, to which Jagger refers with the line: “Shmatta shmatta shmatta, I can’t give it away on Seventh Avenue.” The Yiddish word “shmatta” means rag.
By the 1990s, Tin Pan Alley’s prominence had waned. The digital revolution in music in addition to rising rents in Central London, drove independent labels and small publishers to cheaper suburban premises.
Creative Milieus
The Tin Pan Alley phenomenon in Manhattan and London share striking parallels. Both were small streets in dense immigrant districts where rents were affordable, packing small publishing houses, song pluggers, and instrument shops into just a few buildings. West 28th Street earned the then derogatory name “Tin Pan Alley” in the late nineteenth century.
When during the 1910s and 1920s, British publishers and musicians congregated in Denmark Street, they borrowed the American nickname as an honorary moniker. In both cities, Jewish immigrant composers, songwriters, and entrepreneurs dominated every aspect of the industry.
Both streets offered a diversity of styles, serving as cultural melting pots for Jewish musicians who had fled persecution in Eastern Europe. In Manhattan, immigrant Jews blended European and Yiddish folksongs with syncopated ragtime rhythms to define American popular music. Denmark Street saw the evolution from traditional sheet music publishers to twentieth-century rock and pop producers.
New York’s Tin Pan Alley sat just blocks from the vaudeville and Broadway circuits; Denmark Street was a short walk from London’s West End. Songwriting, publishing, and theatrical performance fed off one another in the development of popular music as we know it today.
A creative milieu is a physical and social setting where talent clusters to generate innovative ideas, art, and music. Within an urban context, such nurturing surroundings were often associated with immigration. Driven by a will to succeed and borne out of the necessity to overcome socio-economic disparities or racial stereotyping, migrants introduced new aesthetic standards as well as alternative ethnoinguistic traditions. Diverse perspectives sparked artistic breakthroughs.
Vanguard contributions by newcomers pushed the rise of Tin Pan Alley in both Manhattan and London. The streets eventually lost their monopoly as stakeholders expanded to other areas. Manhattan’s music industry moved up towards Broadway, while musical activity in London gradually dispersed in various directions – but the magic and memory of the name Tin Pan Alley live on.
Everyone is invited to join us for the opening of the Cole Art Show
PHOTO OF THE DAY
FUN AT THE RIHS TABLE AT
FALL FOR ARTS
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JUDITH BERDY NEW YORK ALMANACK
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Everyone is invited to join us for the opening of the Cole Art Show
PHOTO OF THE DAY
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JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Originally named the Union Guardian Building, this building was created for the Union Trust Co. when it required more space after a merger with the equally huge National Bank of Commerce. It would vacate its 1896 building — designed by Donaldson & Meier — for a new structure located across the street on a block bounded by Griswold, Larned and Congress.
The commission for the building went out to Smith, Hinchman & Grylls, which chose one of its noted designers, Wirt C. Rowland, for the job. The result was a 496-foot, 40-story steel-framed building sheathed in 1.8 million orange bricks — a specially formulated shade dubbed Guardian brick by the architect. The use of brick is unusual in a building of this size from this era. Usually, granite and limestone were used, and the Guardian was the world’s tallest masonry structure when it was completed.
This was Rowland’s third sizable commission in the city after doing the nearby Buhl and Penobscot buildings. Five buildings were torn down to make way for what would become the Guardian. Demolition on the Huron, Burns, Lewis, Butler and the Standard Savings and Loan Association buildings began on March 1, 1927. The skyscraper was literally founded on bedrock, resting upon 72 caissons sunk through hardpan to bedrock 120 feet below ground. The foundation was completed Oct. 15, 1927. It would open April 2, 1929.
The exterior of the building has a granite base with carvings by Corrado Parducci, with multistory windows surrounded by tile. Rising beyond the base is the orange brick facade, with portions setback to reveal a north and south tower connected to create an I shape. Elegant detail is seen throughout the facade and large amounts visible on the north tower crown.
The interior, however, was as elaborate, if not more so, than the exterior. Upon stepping through the doors, clients of the bank would enter the 150-foot-long main lobby, with a three-story vaulted ceiling above them, that consisted of an Aztec design with multicolor, interlocking hexagons of Rookwood pottery and Pewabic Tile. The giant columns in the room are formed from Travertine marble imported from Italy. At the base of each of these columns is a block of black marble imported from Belgium. No more of this black marble remains in the quarries from which it was mined.
And that’s not the only rare marble in the lobby. Numidian marble was chosen for its unusual blood-red color. No mines in the world quarried it at the time, so Rowland went to Africa, where a mine that had been closed for 30 years was reopened just long enough for Rowland to pick out the marble he needed for the lobby.
And for a ceiling of such height, the main banking lobby is unusually quiet. That’s because the ceiling is entirely acoustical, absorbing sound. A 3/4-inch mat of horsehair covered the cement-plaster ceiling. A perforated canvas was placed over that layer and painted.
Anthony Eugenio stenciled and cut the entire ceiling himself. A crew of 10 painters took on the job, using a pallet of 16 colors. Solid gold leaf adorns the sunburst arches; the rays of the sunbursts spread from the center of the ceiling down along the columns.
There also are several large simulated skylights in the center of the ceiling, giving the effect of natural lighting. They are composed of 4-inch square, glass tiles connected with lead channels and a center made of prisms and crinkled glass. All the glass was imported from France.
The wall between the elevators contains a large mosaic of a pine tree and text outlining the bank’s purpose. From there. The building’s elevator lobbies feature stained glass figures representing Fidelity.
The ceiling, color and stained glass give the Guardian a church-like feel and helped give it its nickname, the Cathedral of Finance.
The banking hall had the same ceiling height, but featured a hand-painted canvas ceiling, which was stretched over horsehair to dampen sound. Upon entering the hall, to the left and right were Art Deco styled teller windows, which flanked a mural of Michigan and its industries, painted by Ezra Winter. Separating the lobby and banking hall was a large screen of Monel metal with Art Deco styling, complete with a Tiffany glass clock in the center, of which only four clocks of the same style exist.
By the time the building was completed, Union Trust had bought up several other banks and become the Guardian Detroit Union Group, which held 40% of Detroit’s banking resources. But the Great Depression hit Detroit — and the bank — hard. In 1932, the bank went into receivership as the New Union Building Corp.
During World War II, the building was used as a command center for the Army as it coordinated ordinance production. The New Union Building Co. took the building back over after the war, but the bank filed for bankruptcy in 1949. It was sold at auction in 1952 to the Guardian Building Co. of the Michigan Bank Corp.
Up until the 1950s, MichCon remained the Guardian’s biggest tenant until the gas giant built its own skyscraper – now known as One Woodward – on the site of the Hotel Norton. But MichCon wasn’t giving up on the Guardian, actually buying the landmark in 1975, then selling it to General Electric Pension Trust under a leaseback contract. But in January 1983, MichCon separated from American Natural Resources and began listing its corporate address as the Guardian Building. MichCon would later vacate the building after merging with DTE Energy in May 2001.
In 1998, Smith, Hinchman & Grylls – now known simply as the SmithGroup – said it would move into the Guardian, the gem that one of its architects had designed 70 years earlier.
The Sterling Group bought the Guardian in the fall of 2003 and plunked down more than $14 million in improvements into it. But the biggest change was the announcement that Sterling would open the building up to the public, the first time in more than a quarter century that non-employees were allowed to enter the masterpiece.
In July 2007, Wayne County announced that it was going to buy the Guardian Building for $14.5 million and relocate some of its offices to the landmark. Unfortunately, the county would be vacating its offices in an even older Detroit landmark, the Old Wayne County Building.
The Guardian was designated a National Historic Landmark in June 1989.
The staircase leads to the former banking area.
The reception desk greets you with a burst of colors and textures
Every inch of the lobby exudes color.
Each elevator bank is arched with these tile motifs
The former banking hall now has shops and a wonderful ceiling murals, painted on fabric to deaden noises.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Remember a Night Depository? Businesses would bring their cash deposits to the depository at night.
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JUDITH BERDY ROBIN LYNN DETROIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Michigan Central Station, located in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, was the city’s primary railway depot from 1913 to 1988. Prior to the new station’s construction, the Michigan Central Railroad operated out of a depot located near the Detroit River and Third Street – about where Joe Louis Arena previously stood. Michigan Central Station was built partially to accommodate rail traffic from the Detroit-Windsor rail tunnel, which opened in 1910, and an increase in passenger business. The station was put into use before a formal dedication in December 1913 due to a fire destroying the Third Street station.
The impressive structure was designed by New York hotel architects Whitney Warren and Charles D. Wetmore, along with Charles A. Reed and Allen Stem, designers of New York City’s Grand Central Station. The building consists of a three-story depot with 10 gates for trains, and an 18-story tower with more than 500 offices. The depot’s waiting room was the highlight of the station, with marble floors, high vaulted ceilings, bronze chandeliers, and many other details indicative of Beaux Arts style. It also featured a restaurant, lunch counter, barber shop, florist, bathing facilities, and other amenities.
Rail travel saw a sharp decline beginning in the 1950s due in part to the proliferation of highways and air travel, and ridership from the station sagged. Ownership changed hands several times beginning in 1968, with portions of the station closing and facilities disappearing until the final train departed on January 5, 1988, bound for Chicago. Redevelopment plans for the structure came and went, and much of its lavish features were destroyed by vandalism and neglect. The structure was saved from the threat of demolition several times thanks to pending plans and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, achieved in 1975.
After sitting vacant for decades, the derelict but still beautiful station had become the target of “ruins photography,” and drew comparisons to Detroit as a whole. In June 2018, Ford Motor Company announced their purchase of the building, and their plans to transform the station and nearby buildings into a mixed-use campus. A remarkable undertaking spanning several years, the building underwent a full restoration and re-opened in June 2024, with an opening celebration headlined by a televised concert featuring Detroit musical legends.
The waiting room in the 1940’s
The blueprint shows the massive size of the terminal with gates to 5 sets of tracks reached by underground passages. There was a carriage entrance, a ladies waiting room and restaurant.
The abandoned station prior to purchase by Ford.
It took years to restore the massive General Waiting Room and the wonderful Guastavino tiled ceiling.
The station now has a park approaching the site with seating and flower beds. Activities are constantly scheduled for the station and many organizations have offices in the building above.
Light flows into the windows and the restored lamps.
Freight trains still pass by the station and Amtrak is planning on restoring passenger to the Central Station. There is still service to Chicago daily via the Amtrak Wolverine line from a smaller station in Detroit.
NoMad Hotels has announced its debut in Michigan, following an agreement with Ford Motor Company to open a nearly 180-guest room hotel in Detroit. The hotel will be housed within The Station at Michigan Central, a 30-acre tech and cultural hub. This is part of an ambitious effort to revitalize Detroit’s historic, once-abandoned passenger rail station.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
As the freight trains roll by, waiting for the future.
CREDIT
JUDITH BERDY DETROIT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
After a 90 minute flight from New York we arrived in Detroit for a 3 day adventure in the Motor City. The first stop was the Detroit Institute of Art. On the must see list was the Diego Rivera murals.
Entering the museum a grand foyer with sparkling chandeliers greet you and you proceed into the gallery.
The water fountain exudes the richness of the museum.
Detroit Industry Murals
1932-1933 Diego M. RiveraMexican, 1886 – 1957
About the Artwork
The themes established on the east wall are continued on the west wall, where the technologies of the air (aviation) and water (shipping and pleasure boating) are represented in the upper panels. The half-face/half-skull in the central monochrome panel symbolizes both the coexistence of life and death as well as humanity’s spiritual and physical aspects, while the star symbolizes aspirations and hope for civilization. This heraldic image introduces another major theme of the cycle: the dual qualities of human beings, nature, and technology. Vertical panels on each side of the west entrance to the court introduce the automobile industry theme through the representation of Power House No. I, the energy source for the Rouge complex.
TitleDetroit Industry Murals
Artwork Date1932-1933
ArtistDiego M. Rivera
Life Dates1886 – 1957
Nationality Mexican
Culture ———-
MediumFrescoes
Dimensionsvarious dimensions
ClassificationPaintings
DepartmentAmerican Art before 1950
CreditGift of Edsel B. Ford
Accession Number 33.10
CopyrightARS represents the Bank of Mexico on Rivera and Kahlo’s works of art with a few exceptions. Our murals are one of the exceptions and they are in public domain when published in the United States.
A brief video shows Rivera planning, sketching and painting the murals on the giant canvas’. Freida Callo sits with him taking notes.
The first image is a baby in a womb.
The murals are overwhelming to take in all in one visit. The images of the 1920’s assembly line with the workers, some protected, all doing dangerous tasks.
On each side of a door way are images of a worker at the Rouge power house and a manager supposedly looking partially like Henry Ford.
On the glove of the worker is a red star.
At all times there is a staff member to explain the complex stories of the mural.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
CREDIT
JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
THIS MORNING WE WERE AT DETROIT AIRPORT. AT 8:47 A.M. THE AIRPORT CAME TO A COMPLETE HALT AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF A MINUTE OF SILENCE WOULD BE OBSERVED, COMPLETE WITH AN HONOR GUARD.
AFTERWARD WE SPOKE TO MR. GILMORE A TSA OFFICER. HE JOINED TSA ONE YEAR AFTER 9/11. HE TOLD US HE HAD NEVER MET NEW YOKERS WHO WERE IN NEW YORK ON THAT DAY. HE FELT IT MEANT SO MUCH HAVING MET NEW YORKERS ON THIS DAY. WE HONOR HIM FOR HIS SERVICE TO OUR COUNTY.
LOUIS I. KAHN:
THE LAST NOTEBOOK
PRESENTED BY SUE ANN KAHN
DAUGHTER OF LOUIS KAHN
RIHS & NYPL
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th
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ROOSEVELT ISLAND BRANCH
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Issue # 1745
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Two volume set
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Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
I was on 36tth Avenue in Astoria and decided to see what was around the corner from Little Flower Coffee.I discovered a lovely neighborhood.
I shared a table with the neighborhood cafe that serves unique combination breakfast/brunch foods. Little Flower is owned by the family that owns Sammy’s Kabab own the same block and is Halal.
I spotted the garden loaded with sunflowers. Time to walk down the street.
Small house with grand gates and gateposts. This turned out to be a theme in the neighborhood.
The neighborhood has rows of wonderful single family homes with large entries and gardens
This house has its own little book library, perfectly matched the brick of the big house.
The secret is alleys linking to backyards and parking areas. Considered uneconomical, this style is not used now but it is so much more appealing view.
Individuality is always obvious in Queens neighborhoods. The love of steel at this home is apparent.
This squirrel observes the rules.
No cigar smoking in the house.
Crescent Street has recently been changed to 2 lanes for bikes, one for parking and one for cars. No longer the fastest way to get from there to here.
I was at Foodtown this afternoon and purchased a roast beef sandwich for lunch. I was in a rush and put it on top of my full tote bag. I got on the #6 red bus to go home. When I was in the lobby of 531, my home, I discovered the sandwich was missing. I called PSD and the officer asked which bus I was on and which direction it was going. A few minutes later he called back and told me the sandwich would be at PSD when the bus came north. I met the bus and thanked PSD for the swift response.
SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR FIRST NYPL PROGRAM
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Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
NYC HISTORY NYC GEOGRAPHY BIOGRAPHIES GUIDE BOOKS ARTS BOOKS COFFEE TABLE BOOKS WORLD WAR 1 BOOKS ARCHITECTURAL BOOKS AND MUCH MORE
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JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
