Thursday, July 15, 2021 – FROM A POLLUTED WASTELAND, A NEW LIFE EMERGES
THURSDAY, JULY 15, 2021
THE 416th EDITION
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
NEWTOWN CREEK
NATURE WALK
EXPANSION IN
GREENPOINT OPENS
From Untapped New York
The Newtown Creek Nature Walk, located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is a public esplanade that wraps the waterfront edge of the city’s largest wastewater resource recovery facility. Artist George Trakas was commissioned through the City’s Percent for Art Program to create a site-specific artwork as a part of the comprehensive upgrade of the wastewater facility in the late 1990s. The first phase was completed by DEP in 2007, and now the eagerly anticipated new expansion is open to the public.
Beyond providing much needed public open space, the Nature Walk delves deeply into the history of Greenpoint, Newtown Creek, and the centrality of water to all life on earth. The artist imbued these themes into the design of the public amenities, from the seating elements to the planting and even the trash receptacles.
Courtesy of Jean Schwarzwalder.
The Newtown Creek Nature Walk is planted with native trees, shrubs and other flora, to revive a long-inaccessible industrial shoreline for public use as a waterfront promenade. The walk features a 170-foot-long “Vessel” passage to the waterfront evoking the angled timber construction of ships once built along the East River. The walk also features nine 12-inch-thick granite slab steps that ascend out of Newtown Creek, each with scientific names etched on them to trace the evolution of the Earth through geologic and biologic eras that include forms of life native to Newtown Creek and Greenpoint. While there, check out seven stone circles, etched at various angles with local, native place names used by the Lenape help visitors visualize the places they identify. Another noteworthy feature is a 1,400-pound granite table in the shape of a shipping bollard, the cylindrical posts used to secure ships in port. The table also features an etching of Newtown Creek’s original watershed.
On July 22, join the NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Alicia West and George Trakas on a virtual walking tour of the newly expanded Newtown Creek Nature Walk. Learn directly from Trakas about the inspiration and construction of the City’s largest Percent for Art commission. See the transformation of the Newtown Creek waterfront since the 1990s. Discover the details of the Nature Walk in preparation for your own in-person visit and attend a live Q&A with the artist following the virtual tour. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (and get your first month free with code JOINUS).
Newtown Creek itself has quite a fascinating but troubling history. The three-and-a-half-mile-long estuary used to be one of the most heavily used — and most polluted — waterways in the country. The creek is the site of one of the largest oil spills in U.S history — the culmination of decades of oil leakage. The creek has been undergoing cleanup efforts after it received a Superfund from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010.
DEP host Alicia West with artist George Trakas.Courtesy of Jean Schwarzwalder.
Newtown Creek is also the site of numerous combined-sewage overflow sites (CSOs). There have been dozens of sites along the creek where sewage was and still is dumped whenever the rainwater system becomes overwhelmed during storms. One of the most notorious stenches that permeated the neighborhood in 1855 originated from the Peter Van Iderstine plant, which turned the entrails of butchered animals (including at least one ten-ton circus elephant) into animal feed, fertilizer, and glue. Recently, 216 small, tightly-wrapped, plastic bags containing a mystery substance were found floating together in the creek. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company also owned a site at Newtown Creek. To add insult to injury, on October 5th, 1950, an explosion rocked Greenpoint, ripping a 10-foot-wide hole out of the pavement at the junction of Manhattan Avenue and Huron. It sent concrete shrapnel flying, blew 25 manhole covers up to three stories high and shattered windows in over 500 buildings.
On July 22, join the NYC Department of Environmental Protection’s Alicia West and George Trakas on a virtual walking tour of the newly expanded Newtown Creek Nature Walk. Learn directly from Trakas about the inspiration and construction of the City’s largest Percent for Art commission. See the transformation of the Newtown Creek waterfront since the 1990s. Discover the details of the Nature Walk in preparation for your own in-person visit and attend a live Q&A with the artist following the virtual tour. The event is free for Untapped New York Insiders (and get your first month free with code JOINUS).
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
The French Consulate General
is the consular representation of the French Republic in New York City, New York, in the United States. The consulate general is housed in the Charles E. Mitchell House, at 934 Fifth Avenue, between East 74th and 75th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The consulate’s mission is to provide protection and administrative services to French citizens living or traveling in the district. Under the authority of the French Embassy in the United States, its consular district extends across three states (New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey), as well as the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda.
Currently housing the consulate general of France, 934 Fifth Avenue was the residence of Charles E. Mitchell, President of the National City Bank (now Citibank). Anne-Claire Legendre has been the consul general since August 2016.
History of the consulate
The Charles E. Mitchell House
The Italian Renaissance-style townhouse, designed by architects A. Stewart Walker and Leon N. Gillette, was built between 1925 and 1926 on Fifth Avenue for Charles E. Mitchell.
While residing at 934 Fifth Avenue, from 1925 to 1933, Mitchell served as informal advisor to American Presidents Warren G. Harding and Herbert Hoover. But the prestige of this address owed in great part to his wife, Elizabeth Mitchell, who hosted numerous musical evenings at the house. Musicians such as George Gershwin, Fritz Kreisler, Rudolph Ganz, Ignay Padrewski, or José Iturbi regularly gave recitals in the “Pink Room” at 934 Fifth Avenue.
In the early 1930s, following the stock exchange crash and investigations on his financial activities, Charles E. Mitchell lost most of his fortune and had to give up his residence. Number 934 is the only survivor of the seven townhouses that formerly lined this block. Within 50 years, the first houses built in the 1880s were replaced by equally luxurious large apartment buildings. The Charles E. Mitchell House was preserved thanks to the decision of the French government, which acquired it in 1942 and made it the official consulate general building.
Before the consulate
As historic partners, France and the United States have maintained ties of friendship and cooperation since the first days of the American nation. The first French consular representation was established in Philadelphia in 1778. As soon as 1783, a French consulate was founded in New York, the first consulate to be established in this city. Saint John de Crèvecoeur became the first consul. However, very little information is available on the buildings that housed the consulate over the 18th centuries.
During the First World War, the French consulate general in New York City was located at 8 Bridge Street, Manhattan.[1]
From 1933 to 1942, the consulate general of France was located at Rockefeller Center, at 640 Fifth Avenue. As prestigious as this address was, it was decided, in 1941, to acquire another building that could house the offices and residence of the consul. In 1942, 934 Fifth Avenue became French property. But it wasn’t until 1943, after Franco-American relationships were reestablished (following an interruption under the Vichy regime), that consular affairs resumed with the French resistance representatives.
In keeping with the spirit of its founders, Charles E. Mitchell and his wife, who conceived the 934 as a place for culture, with an emphasis on literature and music, the consulate has perpetuated this tradition and welcomes, every year, numerous receptions involving the French community. The consulate hosts up to 150 events every year, including the monthly Conferences@934, which bring together French and American speakers.
HARA REISER, SUSAN RODESIS, ANDY SPARBERG
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Deborah Dorff
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Roosevelt Island Historical Society
unless otherwise indicated
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