Yesterday, I had an appointment at a NYU Langone Health Orthopedic Center on East 38th Street. Nothing seemed unusual about the building, modern on the ground level and brickwork above. Once on the upper 4th floor I noticed enormous support columns on the spacious floor. I was sure no new building would have concrete columns and very high ceilings. There must be a story hiding in this structure. Time to consult Wikipedia.
333 East 38th Street is a 12-story commercial building in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Located on the west side of First Avenue between East 38th and 39th streets, the building was built in 1928 as a warehouse and distribution hub for the Eleto Company, which provided delivery services for merchandise sold by Lord & Taylor and James McCreery & Company. After the package deliveries for these department stores were contracted to United Parcel Service (UPS) in 1930, UPS became a major tenant in the building and the facility served as the company’s corporate headquarters and main depot in the New York metropolitan area. UPS vacated the site in 1964 and since then the building has mostly been used as commercial and medical office space.
June 30, 1927 Electo Company purchases building site. NY TImes George Ehret was a millionaire real estate magnate and his family owned a beer brewery on the East River near Welfare Island.
Eventually George Ehret regained his property and fortune, but another hurdle was in store. On June 30, 1919 the Wartime Prohibition Act took effect, followed on October 28 by the Volstead Act which ushered in the Prohibition Era.
Production at the Hellgate Brewery came to an abrupt stop.
Luckily, George Ehret had invested heavily in New York real estate as his fortune accumulated; many of the plots purchased for the liquor business. He held 181 parcels of Manhattan realty including many valuable corner lots.
On April 6, 1925 one of the last great celebrations were held in the Ehret house on Park Avenue. The mansion was filled with “sons, daughters, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, some of whom came from Germany” for George Ehret’s 90th birthday party, reported The New York Times.
The rumors and suspicions of only a few years earlier had been forgotten and George Ehret and his family were again accepted by New York. Two years later, on January 20, 1927, George Ehret died in his home at No. 1197 Park Avenue. A requiem mass was said in St. Patrick’s Cathedral two days later. He left an estate that was still valued at approximately $40 million.
From Wikipedia:
Eleto Company
In October 1927, the Eleto Company filed plans to construct a garage and warehouse facility on the west side of First Avenue between East 38th and 39th streets. The building was designed to accommodate the delivery services the company provided for department stores and a warehouse to replace its existing facility at 153 East 24th Street in Rose Hill.[5] A subsidiary of the Associated Dry Goods Corporation, the Eleto Company was organized in 1916 to handle the package deliveries of the Lord & Taylor and James McCreery & Company department stores, each of which previously had handled its own deliveries to retail customers.[1][8] The building was designed by Starrett & van Vleck*, an architecture firm whose works in the early twentieth century included a number of department stores such as the Lord & Taylor Building on Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th streets.[5][9]
Property for the new building was acquired by the Eleto Company in June and July 1927; the land encompassed the entire blockfront along the west side of First Avenue and included 175 feet (53 m) of frontage on East 38th Street and 125 feet (38 m) of frontage on East 39th Street; these lots consisted of five- and six-story buildings.[10][11][12] The extended frontage on East 38th Street allowed for a loading dock and elevators to serve the upper warehouse floors without interfering with the delivery operations on the first two floors and basement level.[5]
Additional property was subsequently purchased on East 38th Street to increase the total frontage on the south side of the building to 225 feet (69 m).[13][14] Updated plans for the building were filed in February 1928 and the construction was awarded to the White Construction Company. The facility was constructed using reinforced concrete and facing along the three street fronts included granite, limestone, terra-cotta, and tapestry brick. Steel cores were used in interior columns the reduce the amount of space occupied by the structural elements on the floors.[6][15] The facility opened on April 17, 1929.[2] *Starett & Can Vleck architects of the Steam Plant
June 26, 1929
We don’t know what Edward L. Hengerer did for Eleto, but he was a great employee.
From Wiklipedia: United Parcel Service In July 1930, the package deliveries for department stores owned by the Associated Dry Goods Corporation, which included Lord & Taylor and James McCreery & Company in Manhattan and the Hahne and Company of Newark, were contracted to the United Parcel Service (UPS).[16][17] As a result, UPS would become a major tenant in the Eleto Company’s building.[1] Until then, UPS operations had been limited to the West Coast of the United States. With the expansion of services to New York City, UPS also moved its corporate headquarters to the floors above its main hub at 331 East 38th Street.[17][18][19]
With a decline in retail sales following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression, other department stores and specialty shops chose to outsource their deliveries to UPS and eliminate the costs of operating their own in-house delivery services.[16][19] UPS expanded its operations to serve 158 stores within the New York metropolitan area within its first year. It began providing deliveries for Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Gimbels in 1934.[20] In 1946, Macy’s and Bamberger’s were the last major department stores in the area to have their delivery services taken over by UPS.[21] The facility at 331 East 38th Street served as UPS’ primary depot in the metropolitan area and was used to collect goods picked up from stores and sorted for deliveries to retail customers and to over fifty sub-depots located in the five boroughs of New York City, Long Island, Westchester, southern Connecticut, and northern New Jersey.[16][22][23]
The building was sold by the Eleto Company to the Seebee Corporation in 1944, but continued to be occupied by UPS and function as a service building for Lord & Taylor and James McCreery & Company.[1] In 1955, a group of tennis players that lost their tennis courts on Sutton Place to the development of an apartment building formed Tennis Center, Inc., leased the rooftop of the building from the Seebee Corporation, and added three Har-Tru tennis courts plus a clubhouse. Membership in the tennis club was limited to sixty.[24] In later years, the tennis courts were also available for rent to the public by appointment.[25]
In 1959, UPS purchased property and filed plans to construct a new warehouse in Hell’s Kitchen on the block bounded by Eleventh Avenue, Twelfth Avenue and West 43rd and 44th streets.[26][27] The building on First Avenue was sold to a group of investors in 1961 and UPS vacated the facility in 1964.[28][29]
From Wikipedia: Other uses The group of investors that had purchased the building in 1961, which were organized as 673 First Avenue Associates, remodeled the structure to accommodate office and manufacturing uses.[30] Tenants that moved into the building after the departure of UPS included Buick,[31] Mercedes-Benz,[32] Railway Express Agency,[33] and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund).[34] The building was fully leased in 1966.[29]
The building’s former loading docks were converted into a new office lobby as part of the renovations in 1989
After the building became largely vacant in the mid-1980s, the net lease was acquired by S.L. Green and Philips International in 1988. The structure underwent a $12 million renovation by J.C.S. Design Associates and Lev Zetlin & Associates that began the following year.[3][35][36] The building’s loading docks on East 38th Street were converted to a new 3,000-square-foot (280 m2), two-story lobby and the freight elevator that had been used for trucks was converted into four passenger elevators. Other improvements included the installation of new electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems, modernization of the two existing passenger elevators, replacement of windows and repairs to and cleaning of the facade.[3][4]
The renovated building, which became known as 333 East 38th Street, was fully leased again in 1991. New tenants that moved into the building included New York Hospital and Newbridge Communications.[3]NYU Medical Center became a tenant in the building in 2006, opening an ambulatory surgery center for orthopedic procedures in 2009 and a center for outpatient musculoskeletal services in 2012.[37][38][39] SL Green sold its leasehold interest in the building to NYU Langone Medical Center in 2014.[39] The building currently houses NYU Langone Health’s Orthopedic Center (formerly the Center for Musculoskeletal Care) and Outpatient Surgery Center.[40][41]
MORE ON THE ROXY THEATRE FROM GUY LUDWIG:
The RKO Roxy Theatre had a checked history almost from the day it debuted – Mr. Rothafel was ill but still managed to be there opening night. Because there is so much turmoil in the story of the “other” Roxy, some of the notable triumphs which occurred there are overlooked. “King Kong” opened in Manhattan not only at the RKO Roxy but simultaneously at the Radio City Music Hall. The combined seating capacity of the two facilities was slightly less than 10,000 and yet – during the heart of the depression – both houses played to sold-out crowds.
The so-called “television” conversion of the subsequently named Center Theatre was also – notably – a RADIO conversion. In fact, the first NBC program to regularly emanate from “The Center” was “The Big Show” a 90 minute, Sunday evening, live RADIO program featuring Tallulah Bankhead as host with a 50 piece orchestra under the direction of Meredith Willson (who later wrote “The Music Man” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”). Other famous NBC shows became simulcasts in the house that Roxy built including “The Voice of Firestone” (radio, television and FM!) and Kate Smith’s daily mid-day program which aired in 1951. Wally Cox had a fondly remembered situation comedy called “Mr. Peepers” seen in those days on NBC television. It was broadcast alternately from both the Center and Studio 8H, the home today of Saturday Night Live.
Milton Berle had been on television since 1948, originating in the 30 Rockefeller Plaza studio now occupied by The Tonight Show (6B) … but in 1952 and ’53, most of his weekly shows came from the Center. Berle was to go through a spectacular decline in ratings during the late 1950’s but during this earlier period, his highest ratings – and in fact, some of the highest ratings for television EVER – occurred during his live, tuesday night broadcasts from the theatre on the corner of 49th and 6th.
Ironically, shortly after NBC dropped its very favorable lease at the Center, they were forced to go shopping for a similar venue to house a new weekly variety show hosted – in Living Color – by Perry Como. That show, housed at ten times the cost of Roxy’s place, five blocks north on 6th avenue at the Ziegfeld theatre continued through 1961. Had Perry instead moved into the Center, the theatre might well have been preserved.
guy ludwig Westview
CREDITS
Wikipedia TimesMachine 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.
The only building to ever be demolished from the original Rockefeller Center complex was the RKO Roxy Theater, also known as the Centre Theater, at 1230 Sixth Avenue. The theater was named after Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel, a theater impresario whose name was synonymous with opulence and glamour. The theater, just a block away from the iconic Radio City Music Hall, hosted everything from motion picture screenings to ice skating shows throughout its short existence.
Image of the Roxy Theater Facade on the opening night program
Construction on the Roxy began in 1930 after the land was cleared of existing brownstones. The theater was meant to be a companion to the nearby Radio City Music Hall. While Radio City hosted live performances, the Roxy was intended to show films. Both theaters were designed by noted architect Edward Durell Stone.Stone’s designs for the two different theaters were very similar. Both fit the overall modernist, Art Deco style of the complex, were constructed out of limestone, and featured tall vertical marquees that ran perpendicular to a thin horizontal marquee. The two theaters did differ in size. While Radio City could accommodate over 6,000 seats, the Roxy was almost half the size, accommodating just over 3,000.Above the large windows on the 49th Street facade of the Roxy, there was a large metal and enamel sculpture titled “Radio and Television Encompassing the Earth.” The sculpture was designed by American Art Deco muralist Hildreth Meière, who also designed bas-reliefs that appear on the 50th Street facade of Radio City.A recreation of “Radio and Television Encompassing the Earth” was installed in the Rockefeller Center underground concourse in 1988. Untapped New York consulted multiple Rockefeller Center employees on a quest to locate the sculpture while researching the site for our Art Deco Icons of New York tour. At the time, it appeared to have been removed or hiding behind construction walls. Turns out, it was removed during construction and was salvaged by Olde Good Things. We were pleasantly surprised to see it on a recent visit to the antique store!
The interiors of the Roxy were designed by Eugene Schoen. Guests purchased their tickets at one of three ticket booths in a low-ceiling lobby. Next, they passed under a two-tiered fountain and into the grand two-story foyer. Light streamed in through 24-foot floor-to-ceiling Corning Glass windows dressed in red and gold velvet curtains. Hanging from the blue ceiling was a series of spherical chandeliers by Steuben Glass. Opposite the windows, an undulating wall covered in mahogany followed the curve of the theater’s mezzanine. It was an impressive, modern space that oozed glamour.
Roxy Theater Interior from the opening night program
More works by Hildreth Meière were scattered throughout the interior, including above the auditorium doors. There, guests would pass under painted silhouettes of mythological Greek figures as they went through the leather-covered doors. The auditorium was covered in wood and plaid-patterned linen. The main feature of the space was a giant chandelier, said to be the largest light fixture in the world.
Roxy Theater Interior from the opening night program
The chandelier weighed six and a half tons and measured 30 feet in diameter. It had four different color settings, amber, red, green, and blue. Inside the three-tiered fixture were over a hundred floodlamps and dozens of spotlights. Swirling around the light were relief sculptures of gods and goddesses designed by Rene P. Chambellan with the Italian sculptor Cronozio Meldarelli. According to the New York Times, the artist said the figures represented the forces of love, enjoyment, sport, play, and freedom. Chambellan also created the iconic Atlas statue at Rockefeller Center and others around the complex.
The RKO Roxy Theater had a Gala Opening on December 29, 1932, just two days after the grand opening of Radio City. Entertainment for that evening was described by the New York Timesas “unusually interesting.” It consisted of a stage show and a feature film starring Myrna Loy and Leslie Howard called “Animal Kingdom.” In a brochure handed out on the opening night, Rosenthal wrote to guests, “within these gates may you find peace, and gayety, and inspiration.”
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Gottscho-Schleisner Collection
In order to keep both the Roxy and Radio City theaters afloat, there were frequent changes to their programs, with the theaters swapping films and live shows throughout the 1930s. In 1933, the Roxy’s name was changed to the RKO Center Theater after a legal battle with the existing Roxy theater on Seventh Avenue in Times Square. By November 1937, rumors began to swirl about the possible demolition of the failing theater.
In 1940, John D. Rockefeller drove the last rivet of Rockefeller Center’s construction into the building next to the Center Theater, the new home of U.S. Rubber. Book publishers Simon and Schuster moved into offices above the theater. As development continued in Rockefeller Center, the theater tried to make ends meet once again with motion pictures. Walt Disney’s Pinocchio had its world premiere at the Center Theater in February 1940. Walt Disney’s name was added to the theater’s marquee and the building was adorned with a giant sign of Pinocchio’s face. The animated feature would be the last film shown at the Center. For the next ten years, the theater found success with ice skating shows, made popular by Olympic skater and actress Sonja Henie.
With the arrival of the 1950s, television was booming and the NBC network needed more space. Despite the success of the ice show, it was ousted from the theater when NBC took over and converted the space into a television studio. It took a lot of work and a lot of money to make the expansive theater auditorium conducive to television production, and some major stars of the time such as Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin, and Jerry Lewis declined to perform in the large space. As a television facility, the Center Theater hosted comedians, radio, television, and movie stars including Ed Wynn, Tallulah Bankhead, and Groucho Marx.
Opening night program
The last hurrah for the theater was hosting the New York broadcast of the 1954 Academy Awards. The award ceremony was also broadcast from Los Angeles. On the Center Theater stage, burgeoning Hollywood movie star Audrey Hepburn accepted her award for Best Actress in Roman Holiday.
When NBC’s lease was up in 1954, it was decided that the theater would be torn down. Radio City had its own demolition scare in the 1970s. By 1955, all traces of the Center Theater were gone and an annex to the U.S. Rubber Building designed by Harrison & Abramowitz stood in its place at the southeast corner of West 49th Street.
PHOTO OF THE DAY CELEBRATING THE SABBATH AT CENTRAL SYNAGOGUE WITH A FULL AUDIENCE THERE TO WORSHIP AND SUPPORT
CREDITS
Untapped New York 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.
Day three, we have about 7 hours to see more of the City. I had contacted the Oneida History Center and was referred to Joe Caruso. Caruso is a Utica native, professional writer with a background working with many agencies and organizations in the area. He was the perfect guide for our day delving into the city history.
After introductions we decided that a walk would be in order. Accross the street from the hotel we were on Gennessee Street the main shopping avenue in years past.
We walked into Adirondack Bank Building Initially constructed as the First National Bank, this building was designed by noted architects, York and Sawyer, in 1926. The 16-story office building features Sullivanesque style details. In the Main floor lobby is an exhibit of photos of downtown Utica, most from the ’30’s and ’40’s. It was great to compare the past and the present.
The massive F.W. Woolworths no longer exists but the building is being used as the Clark City Center Building Initially home to the Robert Frasers Department store, and subsequently occupied by the FW Woolworth Co., the Clark City Center Building is today primarily occupied by Utica University business school’s undergraduate and graduate programs.
A.S. Beck, Thom McCan SHoes and Fanny Farmer were as familiar here as on 34th Street, Manhattan.
Joe suggested a visit to Christ Church, a magnicent structure by architect Richard Upjohn, (from the history):
Grace was an offshoot of the historic Trinity Church of Utica and was formed in 1838. Around 1847, Alfred Munson, a wealthy Utica businessman and a member of the congregation, secured the services of Richard Upjohn, architect of Trinity Church in New York City, to draw up plans for a new edifice and location for Grace Episcopal Church, which was ultimately built at the corner of Genesee and Elizabeth Streets in downtown Utica. In 1875 the tower and spire were completed under the personal supervision of Richard M. Upjohn, son of the original architect. The parish house, vestry room and choir room were added in 1884 and in 1890 the chancel was enlarged through the generosity of Mrs. Helen E. Munson Williams, who died before the work was completed. The new windows adorning the chancel were commissioned in her memory by her daughters, Mrs. Rachel M. W. Proctor and Mrs. Maria W. W. Proctor.
Henry Holiday, the notable English stained glass artist, was commissioned to design and create the seven windows. He took the great hymns of the church and the seven days of the Creation as the subject for what is considered by art experts the world over to be his masterpiece. Evidently Mr. Holiday considered them to be his best works for he chose them as the frontispiece of his definitive book on stained glass and copied them for the west window of the Cathedral Church of St. Savior, Southwark, London.
The present Parish House was constructed through the generosity of Mrs. Thomas R. Proctor and Mr. Frederick T. Proctor. The cornerstone was laid on Advent Sunday, 1926 and on May 15, 1928, the Parish House was dedicated.
The generosity of the Proctors to the church was also shown in a gift of the Lady Chapel. Stone from the dismantled old chapel was used in the new one, thus giving an impression of antiquity. Exquisite in design, the chapel was styled after Old World churches where it was the custom to dedicate the chapel immediately behind the high altar to the Mother of Christ. The chapel and its altar were consecrated on May 17, 1928.
Impressive Tiffany window and baptismal font.
After walking around downtown it was time for lunch. We chose a local Lebanese Cafe. At Zeina’s Cafe, we were greeted like old friends. Lots of pita, hummus, falafel, tahini and Mediterranean specialties got us ready for some more sights.
We had parked in front of an abandoned bar and could not resist their “menu”: MON 15 CENT WINGS TUES $1.50 BOTTLES WED PITCHER SPECIALS THUR $1.00 SHOTS FRI POWER HOUR OUTLANDISH SPECIALS
A wonderful courtyard surounded by art studios.
The Munson Museum is most impressive with its modernist design by Philip Johnson. It is surrounded by classical campus of Munson-Pratt, art college.
We stopped by the impressive Oneida History Cener, now housed in a former Christian Science church. With a large gallery, meeting space and archives, it is a wonderful space to learn about history.
It was almost 5 p.m. and our Amtrak train would be arriving soon. A great day with all kinds of sights and stories (Joe has lots of local stories, lore and information) and we were soon back to home.
CREDITS
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.
Day two took us miles away and above Utica to the town of Old Forge by vintage rail on the Adirondack Railroad
“Let the Adirondack Railroad help you discover the beauty of the Adirondacks by transporting you to Old Forge. The Utica to Old Forge Layover trip is truly unique experience and has several features that set it apart!
Travel through forests, over rivers and streams, spend a full afternoon in Old Forge enjoying the outdoors and visiting local shops and restaurants, and then let us take you home. Fun-filled outing for people of all ages! While you’re on the train, visit our café car and try the light and hearty fare as you ride the rails on the Adirondack Railroad!”
The train ride offers different classes of service from coach to club car with upper domed tables to comfy tables and chairs below. Great snacks and service with enthusiastic staff., The train ends at Thendara and you take a shuttle into Old Forge.
Thendara has a real old fashioned rail station with a showcase display of history and a real pot belly stove. Can imagine being in this mountain town in winter with an elevation of over 1,800 feet.
Located on a lovely lake the town is tor tourism hub for the region with lots of shopping, dining and a constant flow of campers, Jeeps, trailers, snow-mobiles and other out-of-door being hauled on its two lane main street. The traffic reminded me of another narrow corridor, the only way in and out of town.
Northbound and homeward bound the scenery was magnificent with rivers, lakes and streams. Along the way was a vintage Pullman car with mystery story characters painted in each window. Our locomotive homeward bound was freshly painted and her diesel engine brought us back to Utica in comfort. We were met by Dianne, Mike and their daughter for a fun dinner at a great new restaurant Tailor and the Cook. The restaurant is located in a former dry goods supply company building.
Stay tuned…for day 3.
Parked Outside the Utica Railroad Station
The Merci Train was a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by (primarily) individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on February 2nd, 1949 and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii. Parades and ceremonies of welcome were conducted in the state capitols and major cities of almost all the states. The largest and most attended was in New York City where more than 200,000 people turned out to welcome that state’s assigned box car.
CREDITS
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.
I do not remember what inspired and motivated me to visit Utica. It might have been learning about the Utica Asylum, the grand rail station or a vintage rail trip to Old Forge in the Adirondacks. My frequent travel companion Jeong and long-time friend decided to join me on this adventure.
After a 4 1/2 hour Amtrak trip on the Maple Leaf (the train travels daily between New York and Toronto) we were at the wonderful vintage 1914 Utrica rail station. Marble columns and grand decor was a wonderful surprise. We met our guide Diane and her husband Mike and headed off on an afternoon of discovery. (I contacted the local historical society and Diane volunteered to show us her city).
Outside the station was a charming reminder of the history of Utica, Baggs Tavern which has been on the site since the 18th century. (not serving any more).
A few minutes from downtown is the Utica State Hospital, a former psychiatric hospital nicknamed Old Main. The massive building closed it the 1970’s and many of the surrounding buildings are now used by other organizations. In contrast to closed institutions in our area, this one is maintained and seems to be in good condition and not an eye-sore..
Forest Hill Cemetery is located on a meandering hillside overlooking the city. It is designed in the same style as Green-Wood in Brooklyn. The ride thru the grounds is most impressive. There is a New York connection: ” A simple lodge was erected for the keeper, with a tower in which was placed a bell purchased from Greenwood Cemetery to summon workmen to and from their labors and to toll at funerals. A receiving tomb was cut into the abrupt northern front of the hill.”
The Utica Library is a most impressive structure with the open stacks that have glass floors and celings to bring light into the area. We spotted a notice about a lecture on the Erie Canal that evening. We returned to learn more about the canal from a local historian. There was an original canal that opened in 1825 and over the years it was expanded and relocated. So many of the streets in the city were once part of the Erie Canal. Learning of the importance was interesting and to realize that the canal starts in New York City. It was a fun day with Diane and Mike, learning about their city and the pride they have in it. We met their daughter Alexis who works the local professional ice hockey team, the Utica Comets an affiliate of the New Jersey Devils, and took a tour of the ice arena. There an ice center with 3 areas for sports in the Utica University. We had dinner at a local Asian restaurant and walked back to the Doubletree Hotel, which was a few blocks away., Being a car focused town, almost no pedestrians on the street!
Off tomorrow on our trip on the Adirondack Railroad.
Stay tuned We had dinner at a local Asian restaurant and walked back to the Doubletree Hotel, which was a few blocks away., Being a car focused town, almost no pedestrians on the street!
Off tomorrow on our trip on the Adirondack Railroad.
Stay tuned
OOPS
SOMEONE POSTED NEW DIRECTIONAL SIGNS ON THE “LANDINGS” EXTERIOR. ONE LOOK AND I RELIZED THEY WERE PRINTED TO BE ON THE OPPOSITE WALL. TAKE A LOOK AND SEE THE MAP HAS 510 TO THE NORTH ON 580 TO THE SOUTH END OF MAIN STREET.
Let’s see how long it takes for correct signage to appear.
CREDITS
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.
Second President of the United States John Adams held the post of envoy to the Netherlands from 1780 to 1782. He secured the States General’s recognition of American independence in April 1782, the second country in the world to do so, after France; obtained a five million guilders loan (carrying an interest rate of five percent) from a consortium of Amsterdam bankers; and signed a “Treaty of Amity and Commerce” between the two nations. While his wife Abigail remained in America, he had brought his sons John Quincy and Charles with him, living in the heart of Amsterdam at Keizersgracht 529.
Unhappy with the educational progress of his sons, he took them to Leiden because of the city’s academic prestige, low cost, and pure air. In January 1781, the brothers enrolled at Leiden University. Adams wrote to his wife that he had sent the boys to that city to “to pursue their Studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent Masters, and there to attend Lectures of the celebrated Professors in that University.”
In Leiden, Adams met an American medical student named Benjamin Waterhouse who helped him find lodgings for his sons near to the university at Langebrug 45. Waterhouse interacted closely with the teenage brothers.
John Quincy Adams’ studies were cut short later that year when he was asked to travel to Catherine the Great’s Russia as a secretary and (French) translator for the Massachusetts diplomat Francis Dana when only fourteen years of age (he completed his law degree at Harvard in 1787 and returned to the Netherlands in 1794 for a three-year spell as ambassador).
In August 1781, Waterhouse traveled back home aboard the South Carolina, the largest American warship in operation during the Revolutionary War. Leased from the French and captained by Commodore Alexander Grillon (born in Rotterdam into a Scottish Presbyterian family and fluent in Dutch), the frigate had recently been launched in Amsterdam.
Upon his return, Benjamin would keep a lifelong correspondence with the Adams family. Who then was this medical student and what role did he play in the development of health teaching in America? Why did he choose Leiden University for his studies?
Medical Science in Leiden
Benjamin Waterhouse was born on March 4, 1754, in Newport, Rhode Island, into a Quaker family. After a local apprenticeship in medicine, Benjamin traveled to Europe to continue his studies. Aged twenty-one, he spent time in London and Edinburgh, before crossing the Channel to matriculate at Leiden University on October 28, 1778.
The eighteenth century marked a shift in medical science and the treatment of patients. While traditional therapies relied on purging and bleeding, professional attention moved towards clinical observation and “bedside” teaching. After Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) had introduced plant classification, naturalists systematically explored medicinal flora, laying the groundwork for pharmacology and clinical practice.
Chemistry became integrated too, advancing the use of mineral-based compounds. Controlled production of powders and ointments improved the consistency of medication. Vaccination experiments tested targeted immunological defense methods over symptom management. Medicine was revolutionized.
The foundation of Leiden University was a reward by William the Silent (Willem de Zwijger), Prince of Orange, for the bravery of the town’s citizens during the Spanish siege of 1574. The official opening took place on February 8, 1575. Up to that time, Louvain (Leuven) was the only city in the Low Countries to host a university.
Founded in 1426, it was a Catholic institution: each student had to sign a “declaration fidei,” an adhesion to the faith. Leiden had Protestant origins but admitted students of other religions. It became the first “open” university. Students from far and wide flocked to the city to study in its various faculties.
In 1673, the Test Act closed the universities of Oxford and Cambridge to students who did not belong to the Church of England. Protestant dissenters, Jewish and Catholic students had to travel elsewhere for their academic education.
Leiden was a logical choice for many of them. A truly cosmopolitan city, its university (and associated printing and publishing houses) attracted talent from Europe and beyond, united academically by a common Latin language.
Leiden University soon got an international reputation for its medical teaching, overtaking both Padua and Bologna as centers of excellence in the field. The first medical student who matriculated in Leiden in 1578 was Hampshire-born John James, formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge. He would become Royal physician at Queen Elizabeth I’s household in November 1595.
What distinguished Leiden University from its rivals was a commitment to research while most other European universities stuck to teaching textbook curriculums. The university had an anatomical theater, a chemical laboratory, a botanical garden, a well-stocked library, as well as large collections of medical curiosities (later brought together in the university’s Anatomical Museum).
These distinct parts formed an indivisible whole, a “theatrum sapientiae.” In addition, academics offered students private tutorial sessions (at a fee) to discuss the latest research and carry out chemical experiments or anatomical dissections.
In 1701, the university appointed Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) to lecture in medicine. Eight years later, at the age of forty-one, he became a professor. Although there was limited space for clinical teaching, Boerhaave demanded that his students attended the clinic for practical and observational training. From that there, he transformed medical education.
His students spread his methods to European courts and capitals, defining the Enlightenment era of medicine. Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller, a former pupil, described his mentor as “communis Europae praeceptor” – the teacher of the whole of Europe.
Waterhouse’s Leiden Education
Once his fame spread, English-speaking students arrived in numbers to fill the crowded classrooms and listen to the “Batavian Hippocrates.” More than a third of Boerhaave’s students during his professorship (between 1709 and 1738) came from Britain, many graduating on return to their respective home universities. When Benjamin Waterhouse began his studies at Leiden University’s medical faculty, the memory of Boerhaave’s presence was ubiquitous.
Born in Heidelberg on July 9, 1729, Johannes David Hahn studied medicine at Leiden where he absorbed Boerhaave’s clinical principles. After graduating, he taught at Utrecht University and became Professor of Botany and Chemistry in 1759. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1770. His appointment as Professor of Medicine at Leiden University came five years later. He stayed there until his death in March 1784.
Hahn promoted the empirical integration of chemistry, toxicology, and medicine. He argued that understanding chemical reactions was vital for practitioners to diagnose illness and prescribe treatments. Departing from purely theoretical lectures, he popularized public experiments and clinical demonstrations. In his lectures, he stressed “epistemic virtues,” that is, the rigorous observation and notation of medical data.
This intellectual climate Waterhouse absorbed when matriculating in October 1778. Johannes Hahn became his mentor; surviving archival letters prove that the two men remained in touch, building a “transatlantic bridge,” a link between clinical standards promoted at Leiden University and the construction of an early medical infrastructure in America. Benjamin often wrote about the splendid tradition Boerhaave had started.
Harvard Medical School
Having received his doctorate on April 19, 1780, Waterhouse returned to the United States, a well-educated, idealistic, and ambitious academic. In 1782, twenty-nine-year-old John Warren was nominated Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at Harvard University. Former head of the Boston Army Hospital, he introduced its students to their first formal instruction in medicine.
Benjamin Waterhouse joined him to teach the Theory and Practice of Physic (Medicine). Harvard Medical School was officially opened in 1783. What did Waterhouse bring to the school? In how far did his Leiden experience shape Harvard’s development as a medical center?
Harvard adopted educational methods that emphasized observational investigation rather than memorizing dogmatic theories. Its curriculum was modeled after the University of Edinburgh’s Medical School, founded by former students of Boerhaave (including John and Alexander Monro). Waterhouse was the first to deliver lectures on botany and mineralogy.
In 1799, Waterhouse received a copy of Edward Jenner’s Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae in which the latter used his own observations (and those of predecessors) on cowpox to prove that a mild bovine variant triggered immunity.
Eager to start his own experiments, Waterhouse approached the English country doctor requesting some specimens of thread impregnated with the vaccine matter.
In July 1800, he tested those on his own children and servants. Waterhouse published the results of his project shortly after in A Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox, advocating vaccination to erase smallpox (the “devouring monster”).
Having sent a copy of his publication to Vice-President Thomas Jefferson, the latter celebrated cowpox vaccination as a breakthrough in the battle against a cruel disease.
Waterhouse sent vaccine thread and matter to Virginia. Jefferson coordinated vaccinations for his family and enslaved household members at Monticello, as well as for others in the community. By sharing precise medical observations with Waterhouse, Jefferson helped cement the credibility of the vaccine and its role in American public health.
As the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson kept an interest in the practice of medicine, promoting public health measures and encouraging scientific research that was free of political or religious interference (some forethought!).
In 1819, he founded the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, drawing heavily from the Boerhaave model of science-based professional education. The legacy had spread across the Atlantic through a direct lineage: from Herman Boerhaave and Johannes Hahn in Leiden to Benjamin Waterhouse at Harvard and Thomas Jefferson in Virginia.
Report a Problem to RIOC
and a bench is now at the Southpoin Park bus stop. After watching tired visitors and residents wait for the red bus, I went on the RIOC website and reported a problem.. It took a few months, but last we the bench was installed. (Photo courtesy of RIOC)
A BIG PROBLEM WITH THE MTA NEW YORK TRANSIT
Our station sign says only the “M” Train Apparently the MTA does not know the “F” Train operates nightly and weekends. WAKE UP MTA or someone will post correct signs!
Send an e-mail to the above. She does reply.
Maybe this will wake up the MTA
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK JAAP HARSKAMP RIOC MTA 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.
Gertrude Ederle: The Queen of the Waves Hits a Speed Bump
August 14, 2026 by Randall WhitestoneLGertrude Ederle led a long and amazing life. Born in New York City in 1905 to German immigrant parents who ran an Upper West Side butcher shop, Ederle became an Olympic swimming champion at age 19 in 1924, and in August 1926, a century ago this month, became the first woman – and the fifth person – to successfully swim the English Channel.
Henry Ederle promised his daughter a red roadster if she did it, and in a companion boat he and Trudy’s sister shouted reminders about the car as encouragement on the turbulent route from France to England.
At the behest of New York Mayor Jimmy Walker, her hometown soon honored Ederle with a ticker tape parade attended by an estimated two million delirious Gothamites. “City Booms Welcome to ‘Trudy’” blared The Brooklyn Citizen.
Grover Whelan, longtime chair of the city’s reception committee, recalled that “After the official ceremony Mayor Walker escorted Trudy to the front steps of City Hall in response to the request of the press for a picture.
“They did not tarry there long, however. A tidal wave of citizenry burst upon them. One burly patrolman rushed to Trudy’s rescue, lifted her bodily, and carried her back inside City Hall.
“Two other policemen ran interference for the slim Mayor, one on either side of him, and finally got him back into the building.”
Trudy’s record for speediest women’s channel swim, at 14½ hours, stood for a quarter century. But the adored national hero drew a different kind of speed-focused attention less than two years after her ticker-tape triumph.
In February 1929, hurrying to a doctor’s appointment, presumably in her bright red Buick roadster, she was ticketed for going 35 miles an hour on Riverside Drive, at a time when city speed limits were generally 15 miles an hour.
The problem? The “Queen of the Waves” failed three times to appear in court to answer the summons, resulting in issuance of a warrant.
According to the contemporary New York Times account, Trudy explained in traffic court that she knew nothing of the warrant, learning of it only when she read about it in the newspaper the previous evening at a friend’s Highlands, Jersey Shore home, where she was recuperating from an illness.
According to the Times, she told Magistrate Abraham Rosenbluth that “traffic had been light at the time, her speedometer had not registered the thirty-five miles an hour and that she had been in a hurry to see her physician… She added that her hearing had been defective since she swam the Channel.”
Stature apparently outweighed excuses, and Rosenbluth issued a suspended sentence, due to “your plea of guilty and because you did so much for your country.” The Times reported that the courtroom erupted in applause, though a court attendant was forced to shout at Trudy to make her understand the judge’s decision.
Just months later, the nautical and land-based speedster was in trouble again. This time, she was cited for traveling 50 on Riverside Drive. Her attorney, saying Trudy was “indisposed” at her Bronx home, entered a guilty plea on her behalf, resulting in a fine of $50 (about $970 in 2026).
Gertrude Ederle toured the vaudeville circuit, including a stint in Billy Rose’s Aquacade, a swimming, dance, and music show, but health issues continued to dog her. A 1933 fall down the steps of her apartment building resulted in a twisted spine, leaving her bedridden for several years.
Poor hearing remained an issue stemming in part from swimming and childhood measles, and by the 1940s, she was mostly deaf. Trudy spent decades as a swimming instructor for deaf children, and in 1975 dedicated a park in her own name in Highlands, where she had summered since youth.
The center is just two blocks from the site of her former doctor’s office, the destination she’d been rushing toward 84 years earlier.
NEW CUTIE KEYCHAINS AVAILABLE AT KIOSK NOW. $ 6 – EACH
CREDITS
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.
The notice announced that you could see the door to a Blackwell House this Sunday at the Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586, 21-14 30 Avenue, Astoria.
I had see the door once before when it was displayed at the former Greater Astoria Historical Sociey headquarters. The society has moved and the door is on temporary loan ato the Masonic Temple, until August 30th.
An easy drive and I was in front of a whiote columned building.
The temple has a grand entrance with a majestic doorway.
The temple is a communtiy asset with space available to groups looking for venue. Inquiries are welcome and on their websire at https://www.astoriamasons.org/
On the Main Floor is a large meeting room and on a stage the door was in plain view.
A history of the door is on site and time to review some history.
There a series of owners, the bronze door knocker ended up at the FDR Library in Hyde Park, New York, far from the door in Astoria.
The Blackwell home was located on what is now 37th Avenue near Vernon Blvd.
Advance Service Mizpah Lodge No. 586
Meetings for members take place on the second floor.
The room is filled with important symbols of freemasonry.
The Temple is open to the public and has very imformative members who offer the educational tours. The news is that this Temple has a growing membership of young candidates.
Part two of our book sale is coming.
Our booksale yesterday was most successful. If you missed it, we will probably have Part 2, next weekend. Watch for details.
Judy Berdy
CREDITS
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
FREE OR SMALL DONATION REQUESTED
SEEN ON THE ISLAND
CITIBIKE WAS NOT MADE WITH A KIDDIE BASKET
CREDITS
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.
During the Renaissance (roughly 1400–1600) and Baroque (roughly 1600–1750) eras, Spanish barber shops doubled as social hubs. Barbers kept stringed instruments hanging on the wall for waiting customers to play or played them themselves to entertain patrons.
Spain has a rich lineage of stringed instruments that includes the bandurria.
Belonging to the lute family, it is a small pear-shaped, twelve-stringed instrument featuring a short neck and a headstock that holds tuning pegs. Used in traditional folk or classical ensembles, the bandurria is the most “misunderstood” member of all stringed instruments. It caused a mix-up in American music history that sparked the mandolin craze of the 1880s, highlighting an immigration paradox.
Barber-Musician
In 1775 French dramatist and bon-vivant Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais published Le barbier de Séville (The Barber of Seville). Its main character named Fígaro would become the most famous “barber-musician.” Gioachino Rossini turned the play into a comic-opera in 1816.
In Il barbiere di Siviglia, Fígaro helps Count Almaviva to serenade his beloved Rosina with a stringed instrument beneath her balcony. By the 1880s, the opera had become wildly popular in Europe’s operatic capitals from Milan to London.
In that decade, going to the opera had become a social “must” for Manhattan’s elite. During an era that saw the rise of operatic divas, The Barber of Seville played a crucial role in this cultural phenomenon.
Legendary soprano Adelina Patti often toured Manhattan and her performances as Rosina in Rossini’s opera drew packed houses and generated intense media interest. When New York’s Metropolitan Opera opened for its first season, The Barber was selected as a foundational showpiece, making its premiere on November 23, 1883.
The opera was equally alive on the streets of Manhattan as the genre was part of popular culture. While major houses performed the opera in Italian, touring troupes offered vernacular versions of The Barber, recasting arias into catching ballads that were accessible to most New Yorkers. Fígaro’s opening solo piece “Largo al factotum” was a hit at the time through various translations and vaudeville adaptations.
The cult status of Rossini’s Barber coincided with the arrival of the Estudiantina Española Fígaro, a touring group known as The Spanish Students. This double musical sensation triggered a “Spanish Craze” in New York City. The performers were received as a living embodiment of Rossini’s masterpiece.
Plucking in Paris
In February 1878, sixty-four students from Madrid’s universities and colleges founded a group named the Estudiantina Española (Spanish Students) seeking to take part in the musical festivities on the eve of the Exposition Universelle (World Exhibition) in Paris. All its members were amateur musicians.
Drawing inspiration from historical serenade practices associated with student life in cities like Granada, participants dressed in Renaissance-style costumes, wearing capes, sombreros, and historical student attire. Driven by a desire to project Spanish cultural identity on an international stage, performances blended glamorized historical elements with folk music. The plucked-string ensemble featured instruments like bandurrias, guitars, violins, and tambourines (panderetas).
Members of the group arrived in Paris on March 2, 1878, and their performances proved sensational, drawing massive crowds to street and garden concerts of jotas, pasodobles, and habaneras accompanied by regional and popular dances. Mixing historical detail with exotic allure, the spectacle took Paris by storm.
A concert on March 6th outside the famous Café Riche on the Boulevard des Italiens attracted well over 50,000 onlookers, creating enormous traffic congestion. A performance in the Jardin des Tuileries the next day was also packed with enthusiastic attendees.
The group’s overwhelming success in Paris and other European capitals inspired rival ensembles to copy the model. By May 1878, guitarist and musical director Dionisio Granados split from the original group following internal disagreements and formed a splinter ensemble in Madrid.
He reduced the number of participants and named the new group Estudiantine Española Fígaro. This ensemble toured extensively throughout Europe, adapting to stage limitations if necessary and introducing vocal parts alongside the traditional plucked string instruments.
With a repertoire that fused Spanish folk tunes with classical adaptations, the Fígaro orchestra included multiple bandurrias for melody and harmony (aided by violins and cellos), guitars for rhythmic support, and tambourines for percussion, creating the typical sound of a Tuna (Iberian student string instrument groups going back to the thirteenth century). Elements of patriotism and local pride played a role in the spectacle.
At a time when nation-building faced political hurdles (regional resistance against Madrid’s centralized policies), popular musical movements bonded citizens at home and offered a romanticized flavor of Spanish character to foreign audiences. Composers started blending native folk traditions
such as Andalusian flamenco and regional dance rhythms with European classical structures. Isaac Albéniz captured the soul of nation in piano suites like Iberia, utilizing jota or habanera rhythms.
Parisians loved the visual theatricality and vibrant style of the Tuna street and stage performances. It became a rage at balls and festivities with participants wearing replica Spanish student outfits. Weary of German and Austrian domination of the musical domain, young French composers too found inspiration in Spanish tunes.
The Mediterranean region went in search of a style that contrasted with the “heavy” tones and “misty” atmosphere of Northern European compositions. Emmanuel Chabrier’s vibrant orchestral rhapsody España (1883) is one of many examples.
Mandolin Mania in Manhattan
The Spanish Students embarked on their first visit to America in late 1879. On January 1, 1880, a reduced Fígaro ensemble, compromising nine bandurrias, five guitars, a violin (as well as five assistants), sailed into New York Harbor aboard SS France to launch an acclaimed eight-week run at Booth’s Theater on the southeast corner of 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, beginning on February 3rd.
Arranged by prominent impresario Henry Eugene Abbey, their performance was an integral part of his Humpty Dumpty pantomime production. During the show’s interval, bandurria-driven Spanish tunes and medleys complemented the English vaudeville elements of the pantomime itself. It took a significant adaptation from earlier Tuna performances, but the unlikely mixture turned out to be a massive success.
Bandurrias were unknown to most Americans; journalists mistakenly labeled them as “Spanish mandolins.” Rossini’s story of The Barber of Seville became tied to the phenomenon. The visual presence of Spanish Students ignited Manhattan’s “Mandolin Mania.”
Italian immigrants stepped in to fill the commercial demand by selling proper Neapolitan mandolins and producing instruction manuals of how to play the instrument. Musicians capitalized on the hype by forming look-alike ensembles, mimicking the name, costumes, and repertoire.
Composer Carlo Curti was born in May 1859 in the province of Potenza, Basilicata. Around 1875 he emigrated to America. Having seen the Spanish Students in 1880, he grasped the opportunity to set up a rival ensemble of Italian players that masqueraded as Spanish youth, but using mandolins rather than bandurrias. Touring extensively, Curti’s group drove the American passion for plucked instruments.
Italian Emigrants
Naples was the birthplace of the mandolin. Its metal strings were played with a plectrum to create a signature “tremolo” effect by the repeated and fast striking of a single string.
Developed by the city’s master luthiers during the mid-eighteenth century, it became the voice of Neapolitan songs and folk music. Historians credit the Vinaccia family of instrument makers (working from Rua Catalana in Naples) with perfecting the mandolin design in the 1760s. They made it an emblem of the Neapolitan soundscape.
During the nineteenth century, Naples was home to hundreds of instrument workshops. Originally embraced by classical composers like Antonio Vivaldi and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the mandolin then transitioned into the ultimate symbol of popular Italian street music. It served as the melodic engine for Neapolitan folk pieces (Canzone Napoletana) and lively dances.
Italian emigration from the 1880s onward triggered a widening interest in the instrument. When millions of Italians left regions like Naples and Sicily, they carried lightweight mandolins as cultural anchors to their new destinations.
Within Europe, Marseille was a center of Italian settlement which brought a vibrant musical heritage to the historic Panier district, often referred to as “Petite Naples.” Today, the city is a global hub for the mandolin and home to the annual Mandol’in Marseille Festival.
Italian artisans brought traditional woodworking skills to Manhattan. Having emigrated to New York in 1885, Morcone-born (Campania) luthier Angelo Mannello built a factory to produce highly ornate, award-winning mandolins. Operating his workshops at 553 East 140th Street, he employed up to seventy-five instrument makers in the early 1900s, including several artists for delicate decorative work.
Between 1880 and 1924, some four million Italians settled in the United States. They clustered in cities such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and New Orleans, where music was at the heart of social life. Bowl-back Neapolitan mandolins turned up at weddings, social gatherings, and club meetings. Newcomers formed mandolin orchestras that performed everywhere, from local parish halls to mainstream civic stages.
For many second-generation Italian immigrants, such ensembles were the pathways to identity awareness and music literacy. Founded in 1924, the New York Mandolin Orchestra (NYMO) has been performing for over a century.
Roots Music & Bluegrass
In 1898, American instrument maker Orville Gibson at Kalamazoo, Michigan, modified the Neapolitan bowl and patented (Patent Office, no. 598,245) a mandolin with a flat back and carved F-holes, producing a louder and more piercing sound. He built a national network of agents and teachers, published musical practice books, and promoted full mandolin orchestras.
Before the First World War, there were countless American mandolin ensembles producing music for social engagements and entertainment. This orchestral rage died out after the war, but the instrument found a second life in American roots music.
Gibson’s redesigned mandolin was adopted by musicians in the Appalachian Mountains, reaching new audiences by becoming the voice of bluegrass music. The 1923 Gibson F5 “Lloyd Loar” (named after its designer) was Bill Monroe’s trademark instrument as he and his Kentucky band defined the genre in the 1940s.
What began as a link to home for nostalgic immigrants became part of the American soundscape. This gives the mandolin its dual identity of being a marker of Italian settlement and a key force in roots music.
Nino Rota’s legendary soundtrack for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972, first of the trilogy) cemented the association between mandolin and Mafia. The instrument most famously appears during the film’s opening scene of Connie Corleone’s wedding celebration with master musician Giovanni Vicari (an immigrant from Catania, Sicily, nicknamed “Godfather of the Strings”) playing a Martin mandolin.
Its immediate appeal and continuous use in mafia films relied on the tremolo technique, creating a “crying” tone to balance family loyalty with brutal violence. The use of mobster-style instrumental tracks has, over the years, become a cultural stereotype. That is unfortunate. The mandolin is a traditional folk instrument that expressed the deep feelings of everyday people, not those of mob bosses.
The bandurria was restored to full international glory when it became a signature sound during Leonard Cohen’s global comeback tours between 2008 and 2013 thanks to the contribution of Zaragoza-born virtuoso Javier Mas (“shepherd of the strings”) that added Aragonese and Mediterranean textures to some of Cohen’s classic songs.
SHOW OFF YOUR CREATIVE TALENTS AT THE CBN OLDER ADULT CENTER
Nita Advani shows off her decorated vase made at “Jewels with Judy” at the CBN Older Adult Center. JWJ meets twice a month and different crafts are made. Necklace making is popular so this week decorating vases was on the schedule. Ribbons, jewelry and other items are used and applied by hot glue. It is a fun way to explore a new activity. No experience needed. Next class on MONDAY, AUGUST 24th, 1- 3 pm, CBN Center, 546 Main Street.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Judy Berdy
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK JAAP HARSKAMP
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.
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