LAST TWO DAYS TO VOTE EARLY AT SPORTSPARK, 250 MAIN STREET
Sometimes a story brings history to life and this is one. It is a story when the government did the right thing for mothers who had lost their sons in the Great War.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND, OCTOBER 30-31, 2021
THE 508th EDITION
GOLD STAR MOTHERS
VISIT SONS’ GRAVES
IN FRANCE
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, 1999
World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, Part I
Summer 1999, Vol. 31, No. 2 | Genealogy Notes
By Constance Potter
On the evening of August 14, 1930, Katherine Bell Holley, an African American schoolteacher from Hedgesville, West Virginia, boarded the train at the Baltimore and Ohio station at North Mountain, outside the small town. At Martinsburg, she transferred to a train to New York, where she boarded the SS American Merchant for France. She arrived by train at Les Invalides in Paris on August 26.1 Holley traveled to France as part of a Gold Star Mothers pilgrimage, a United States government program that paid the travel expenses to the grave sites for mothers and widows whose sons and husbands had died overseas as members of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during the war.
Katherine Holley made the journey to France to visit the grave of her husband, Pvt. Lewis A. Holley. Twelve years earlier, on October 4, 1918, Private Holley, Company B, 542d Engineers, United States Expeditionary Force, France, had died of pneumonia. Holley died at the Naval Base Hospital #65 at or near Brest, France.2 He had enlisted only two months earlier, on August 5, 1918, and had arrived in Brest just seven days before on the troop ship USS American. The troops debarked on October 1, just three days before Holley’s death.3 Holley was one of the 53,000 American soldiers who died in France during the First World War. He was buried on October 7 in the American Cemetery in Lambezellac, France, northwest of Brest. On June 10, 1920, the Graves Registration Service of the Quartermaster Office reburied Holley in a different site in the cemetery at Lambezellac, and on October 25, 1921, the GRS moved his remains to the American Cemetery in Oise-Aisne.4
The records that describe Katherine Holley’s trip to France and her husband’s death and interment are among the Burial Files and Graves Registration records in the Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92).
“From 1930 to 1933, more than 6,000 women participated in the Gold Star Mothers and Widows pilgrimages to visit the graves of their loved ones who sacrificed
World War I Graves Registration
5 During the Civil War, the military first developed procedures to identify and bury the dead, both Union and Confederate. With the Spanish-American War in 1898, the first foreign war following the Civil War, the War Department expanded these procedures to include the return of the bodies of the men who died overseas.
The problem of burying the dead only expanded with U.S. entry into World War I on April 6, 1917. As soon as the AEF landed in France in June, the problem of caring for the dead became an immediate concern. On August 7, 1917, War Department General Order 104 authorized the organization of a Graves Registration Service.6 The first Graves Registration unit reached France on October 31, 1917.
The GRS was not responsible for the original burial. The individual combat units had the responsibility of burying the dead as soon as possible. Most men killed in battle were buried within twenty-four hours, although it sometimes took a week or longer. Battlefield conditions made immediate and proper burial difficult after the troops advanced, but great care was taken to ensure that the graves were properly marked.
The GRS eventually moved the bodies to an American military cemetery in Europe or shipped them back to the United States. France, in particular, asked that the burial sites be consolidated. Throughout the process, the GRS continued to care for the bodies and kept identification records.
The work of the Graves Registration Service continued until the summer of 1919. It was not until after the war that the Office of the Quartermaster General asked each family if it would like the body to be brought back to the United States for final burial in a family plot, nonmilitary cemetery, or National Cemetery (such as Arlington) or buried in an American military cemetery in Europe.
Holley’s burial was not typical. Because Lewis Holley was a noncombatant and died on a naval base rather than in a combat zone, he was buried within four days of his death in an American cemetery. When the GRS first reburied the body on October 25, 1921, they found it buried in a pine box but under a cross marked “Paul Schur.” The identification tag on the body, however, identified it as Lewis A. Holley.7 When the GRS moved Holley’s remains the final time, the unit found the correct identification disc on both his body and grave marker. The GRS also found a reburial bottle in the coffin that gave Holley’s name, service number, rank, and unit. Because the bodies were usually “badly decomposed, features unrecognizable,” the examination report included detailed dental records.8
In an undated telegram to the Graves Registration Service, Katherine Holley indicated that she wanted the remains brought back to the United States. In a letter dated April 20, 1920, however, Katherine asked that the “remains to Private Louis A. Holley Co. B 542 Engineer Corps [be] left in France.” There is nothing in the file that explains why she later changed her mind.9 In many cases, however, the family left the body as a reminder to the Europeans of the sacrifice their son or husband had made. Some families who originally asked that the body be brought back to the United States changed their minds when they received pictures of the graves of their sons or husbands and realized that they could visit the grave. Many families, however, could not afford the trip.
Whether a man was buried in Europe or returned to the United States, the GRS prepared a “Report of Disinterment and Reburial,” which listed the soldier’s name, serial number, rank, and organization.10 The form also showed where the soldier was originally interred and where he was finally buried. The GRS reburied the bodies as much as two to three years after the war, and report after report notes that the features were unrecognizable. No photographs of the bodies are in the reports. The GRS identified the bodies through dental records, identification tags, grave markers, or other means of identification.
Gold Star Mothers’ Pilgrimage
Description
A group of Gold Star mothers visits the St. Mihiel Memorial commemorating the capture of the St. Mihiel salient by the American First Army, the operations of the American Second Army on November 9-11, 1918, and other combat services of the American Division, located on the high isolated hill of Montsec, France. A. Robert Ginsburgh is in the group, along with other Army officers, who accompanied the group on their visit to the graves of their sons and several monuments. Date(s) June 11, 1932
Gold Star Mothers’ Pilgrimage
During the 1920s, the Gold Star Mothers’ Association lobbied for a federally sponsored pilgrimage to Europe for mothers with sons buried overseas. Although many of the women who belonged to the organization had visited their sons’ graves, they realized that women often could not afford the trip to Europe. In their testimony, these women placed great emphasis on the bond between a mother and son. The bond between wife and husband seemed almost secondary in the congressional debates. The bond between fathers and sons was barely considered–the association maintained that the maternal bond surpassed that of the paternal bond.
In 1929 Congress enacted legislation that authorized the secretary of war to arrange for pilgrimages to the European cemeteries “by mothers and widows of members of military and naval forces of the United States who died in the service at any time between April 5, 1917, and July 1, 1921, and whose remains are now interred in such cemeteries.” Congress later extended eligibility for pilgrimages to mothers and widows of men who died and were buried at sea or who died at sea or overseas and whose places of burial were unknown. The Office of the Quartermaster General determined that 17,389 women were eligible. By October 31, 1933, when the project ended, 6,693 women had made the pilgrimage. Once the quartermaster determined a woman was eligible, she was sent a questionnaire.
Katherine Holley was eligible because Holley’s mother had died May 12, 1919, and Katherine had not remarried. In a letter to the quartermaster’s office, she asked if her daughter, Louise Elizabeth Holley, born April 10, 1919, could accompany her. Capt. A. D. Hughes, replied:
As the Act of March 2, 1929, does not contain any provision for any member of the family to make the trip except the mother or unmarried widow, nor does it permit the mother or widow being accompanied by any member of the family, it is regretted to have to inform you that while your feelings with regard to taking your little daughter to her father’s grave are appreciated, she is not eligible to make the pilgrimage.
Once Katherine Holley accepted the offer to go on the pilgrimage, she received carefully written and detailed instructions on what to do and what to expect. The government paid all of her expenses. As Col. Richard T. Ellis, Officer in Charge of the American Pilgrimage Gold State Mothers and Widows in Paris, wrote, the quartermaster had to develop an organization that could create and operate simultaneously as a hotel, travel, steamship, and welfare bureau.11 In 1930 alone, the quartermaster general provided these services for 3,653 mothers and widows between May 16 and September 22, with each trip lasting approximately two weeks. Whenever possible, the quartermaster wanted to organize the pilgrimage with as little disturbance “to the way of living of the Pilgrims as possible” and considered both physical and psychological comforts.
The age of the women created problems. Their average age was between sixty-one and sixty-five, which “reduced the speed with which almost all operations of the Pilgrimage could have been conducted.” The methods of travel, the food, and everyday living conditions were different from those to which the women were accustomed. The pilgrims visited not only Paris, a large city with all modern conveniences and medical facilities, but also small country towns where many of the graves were located. To do this in a country with different laws and customs, the quartermaster needed to obtain special permission to do things that were not customary. Where the quartermaster general thought it would not be possible to get such permission, they tried to make such adjustments and compromises that would least disturb the women’s morale. The majority of the woman did not speak French, and provisions had to be made for bilingual field personnel. The nature of the visit also presented problems. Col. Ellis wrote that the trip “was in no sense a holiday or a pleasure trip but on the other hand it was necessary to prevent over-emphasis of the sentimental side in order to prevent morbidness or hysteria.”12
In Remembering War the American Way, G. Kurt Piehler writes that the pilgrimage united different women: “Socialites and farm women; Catholics, Protestants, and Jews; native born and foreign born.”13 There was one difference, however–race. Membership in the Gold Star Mothers Association was limited to white women. African American women who made the pilgrimage were segregated from the white pilgrims. For example, white women traveled on luxury liners; African American women, in commercial steamers.
The War Department and quartermaster general received letters of complaint, although the original letters do not appear to have survived in the records. In response to a complaint letter from Mrs. M. E. Mallette, president of the Keith Improvement Association in Chicago, F. H. Payne, the assistant secretary of war, wrote:
I regret that you protest against that part of the pilgrimage regulations of the War Department which provides for the formation of groups of colored gold star mothers and widows. The large number of mothers and widows who will make the pilgrimage, together with the necessity of providing suitable accommodations for all, made impracticable the sending of the pilgrims in one body, and made the organization of groups necessary.
Payne defended the War Departments decisions:
After thorough study, the conclusion was reached that the formation of white and colored groups of mothers and widows would best assure the contentment and comfort of the pilgrims themselves. No discrimination as between the various groups is contemplated. All groups will receive like accommodations at hotels and on steamships, and the representatives of the War Department will, at all times, be as solicitous of the welfare of the colored mothers and widows as they will be of the welfare of those of the white race. . . . It would seem natural to assume that these mothers and widows would prefer to seek solace in their grief from companions of their own race.14
By July 7, 1930, seven African American women had declined to take the pilgrimage because of segregation; however, Katherine Holley chose to make the pilgrimage to her husband’s grave.
Mothers traveled ocean liners to and from France
World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages, Part 2
Fall 1999, Vol. 31, No. 3 | Genealogy Notes
By Constance Potter
Between 1930 and 1933, many of the eligible mothers and widows of U.S. soldiers who died overseas during World War I sailed to Europe to see the graves of their sons and husbands. The federal government paid the expenses of these Gold Star Pilgrims. The Gold Star Pilgrimage files are among the records of the Graves Registration Service (GRS) in the Records of the Quartermaster General (Record Group 92).1 The GRS files, which contain information on men who died overseas during World War I, are arranged alphabetically by the name of the soldier. The records of each Gold Star mother or widow are in the folders of her son or husband.
Part 1 of this article in the Summer 1999 issue described how the Graves Registration Service cared for the bodies of the soldiers and told the story of how one woman, Katherine B. Holley from Hedgesville, West Virginia, prepared for the trip. This article describes her trip to Paris as well as how the Office of the Quartermaster General organized the pilgrimage.
Born in Berkeley County, West Virginia, on July 31, 1893,2 Katherine Brown married Lewis Holley sometime in 1918 in Berkeley County. Lewis Holley arrived in Cherbourg on October 5, 1918, and died of pneumonia on October 14. The World War I monument in Martinsburg, the county seat, lists Lewis Holley as one of the soldiers who served from Berkeley County. Louise, their daughter, was born on April 6, 1919, six months after her father died. By 1920 Katherine was teaching school in Hedgesville.3 Katherine Holley was the only woman from the area to go on the Gold Star Pilgrimage.4
The quartermaster’s intent was “to conduct the Pilgrimage with as little disturbance to the way of living of the Pilgrims as was possible.” The details of the trip survive both in the files of the individual Gold Star Mothers files and among the administrative records of the Gold Star Pilgrimage.5 Although the files do not contain letters that the women may have written to their families about their trips, researchers can get a good idea of what sites the women visited as well as how the army organized the trip.
On October 1, 1929, Col. Richard T. Ellis, officer in charge of the Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimage in Paris,6 recommended that the Office of the Quartermaster General contact the French authorities responsible for various aspects of the trip. The American embassy in Paris contacted the French Foreign Office through Baron de Vitrolle, chief of the American Section of the Foreign Office. De Vitrolle subsequently agreed that direct contact with the various branches of the French government would be the most useful approach.7
The quartermaster made contact with the following French offices: Customs, Ministry of War, Administration of Public Hygiene and Assistance, Administration of Fine Arts, Prefect of Police and the Prefect of the Department of the Seine, Department of Touring, Quartermaster Corps of the French Army (which included the Ministry of Pensions), the Federation of Veterans’ Societies in France, French State Railroads, and postal authorities.8 These contacts show the breadth of issues that the quartermaster had to work with to make the pilgrimage run as smoothly as possible.
Before the women left home, the quartermaster sent each a list of what to pack and gave detailed travel arrangements.. The War Department warned the women to wear “somewhat heavier clothing” to protect them against “the cold and dampness.”9 Because of the lack of laundry facilities, the quartermaster urged them to pack “sufficient underwear, nightgowns, stockings, and handkerchiefs.”10 The travel arrangements included dates and times of travel as well as berth, seat, or room number for the ship, trains, and hotel rooms.
The Quartermaster assigned a letter of the alphabet to each party. Katherine Holley was assigned to Party Q, the Oise-Aisne group, which was composed of African American women. The white and African American women had the same itineraries; however, they were segregated. In many instances the accommodations were different. For example, white women traveled on luxury liners; African American women, in commercial steamers. Katherine Holley sailed from New York on August 16 on the American Merchant. Col. Benjamin O. Davis was the officer in charge.11 Mrs. B. J. Runner and Miss N. Bost, nurses, and Mrs. N. Brown, hostess, also accompanied the party.
Colonel Ellis, along with a staff of ten that included two nurses, met the ship when it docked at Cherbourg on August 15. The War Department had made special arrangements with the French authorities to get the women off the boats as quickly as possible. Although French law required that baggage be checked carefully, the director general of Customs issued instructions that reduced the customs formalities to a minimum.
The Operations Division worked with the International Dining and Sleeping Car Co. to provide meals for the women on their way to Paris. To avoid the congestion of the St. Lazare Station, special arrangements were made for the trains to arrive at Les Invalides, which was usually reserved for state occasions.12 The executive officer and his staff, nurses, and interpreters met the party at Les Invalides. Among the party that greeted the women of Q party were Noble Sissle and his band.13
The women stayed at the Hotel Imperator at 70, rue Beaubourg. The accommodations consisted of double rooms with twin beds and a bath. Traditionally, the police controlled registration at hotels in France and throughout Europe. Rather than have each woman provide the necessary information to the police, the Quartermaster’s Office was permitted to submit the forms containing the names and room assignments of each woman as well as home address, date of birth, nationality, occupation, and the authority and purpose of the visit.14
Each party selected an “honor pilgrim,” who laid a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe.15 Mrs. Louise Kimbro, the mother of Martin Kimbro, was Party Q’s honor pilgrim. The Ministry of Pensions arranged with the Federation of Veterans Societies in France to have representatives at each wreath laying. Following the wreath laying the women had tea and reception at the Restaurant Laurent at the other end of the Champs Elysees. Aside from a trip to Fontainebleau, the women were free to see Paris, or be with their thoughts, until they left for the cemetery on the morning of August 29.16
On the twenty-ninth, the party left at 8 a.m. for Soissons17 via La Forte, with a rest stop at Hotel de la Terrassee at the Chateau Thierry,18 where they lunched at the Hostellerie du Bonhomme. At Soissons the party had dinner and spent the night at the Lion Rouge hotel. The itinerary for August 30 notes the women were to have “breakfast at the hotel.” Even this apparently simple part of the day had required negotiations between the War Department and the French hotels. To provide an American breakfast, the hotel had to add kitchen staff. After negotiating with the seven hotels, the hotels and quartermaster agreed on a price per pilgrim per day.
The same day, the women visited Chateau Thierry. In the afternoon, they saw Belleau Wood,19 Aisne Marne Cemetery, Monument Hill 204, and the grave of Quentin Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt’s son). Before returning to Soissons for dinner, the women had tea at the Oise-Aisne Cemetery.
The towns near the Meuse-Argonne, Oise-Aisne, and St. Mihiel cemeteries did not have restrooms or cafes that could efficiently serve the groups. The quartermaster therefore built, within ninety days, rest houses at each of these cemeteries. The rest houses had tables, comfortable chairs, and restrooms as well as kitchen facilities. Each rest house had a shady porch for the hot weather and a large, open fireplace for the cooler days.20
On the morning of August 31 they visited the Oise-Aisne cemetery. The quartermaster very carefully planned the reception at the cemeteries. To make the visit as personal as possible, they did not permit any ceremonies but focused on each woman’s visit. The cemetery superintendent gave each pilgrim a grave locator card, and cemetery staff guided each woman to the grave. The guide then gave the woman flowers or a wreath to put on the grave and took a photograph.21
On September 1 the women were free to sightsee or visit the cemetery. After lunch at the hotel, they left for Reims where they spent the night at the Hotel Bristol Crystal.22 The following day they toured the cathedral as well as the Fort de la Pompelle. After lunch the party left for Compiegne, where they spent the night.23
The party arrived back in Paris the next day around 6 p.m. They had dinner at the hotel and spent the rest of their time in Paris visiting such sites as the Louvre, Versailles, Sacre Couer, Notre Dame, and Napoleon’s Tomb and took a nighttime tour of the city. Although the purpose of the trip was serious, the women were still permitted time to see and enjoy Paris.
On September 7 Katherine Holley and her party sailed for home on the American Merchant.24 Ten days later, on September 16, they arrived at the port of New York and then returned to their homes.
The Gold Star Pilgrimage provided the chance for 6,693 women who might otherwise not have been able to visit their loved ones’ graves to travel to France. Some of the women wrote to the War Department thanking them for the trip. Mrs. Kimbro wrote in part:
Dear Sir: . . . As for myself I never will get through talking about the grand time we had. Everyone was happy over the way Col. Maroney and his wife treated us so nice. Also Mr. Ellis and his wife. . . . How can anyone forget such a trip . . . we never can. . . . I want to thank the whole War Department and every one concerned for the courtesy and kindness shown to the Gold Star Mothers and Widows. Yours very sincerely Mrs. Louise Kimbro President of Party Q.25
Mrs. G. A. Buckley of Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrote to Col A. E. Williams on October 2, 1930:
Since my return home I have talked to six different organizations, and am writing for the Daily paper about my Pilgrimage. I am telling of the very excellent way in which it was carried out from beginning to the ver[y] end. I am going to write to our United States Senator of how the Gold Star Mothers appreciate this great thing the Government is doing for them. I feel that a gap has been filled, and that now that I have seen my dear son’s resting place, and know that it will for ever be kept beautiful, I am more contented. [emphasis added].26
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY A PEAK INSIDE THE NEW VERIZON EXECUTIVE EDUCATION CENTER AT CORNELL TECH. ALEXIS VILLAFANE GOT IT!!!
CORRECTION
Good morning, this is Andy Sparberg.
If I may take the liberty, you need to correct the directions for riding through the old IRT City Hall Station. The #6 train (Lexington Ave. Local) goes through the old station when it turns around going from downtown to uptown. The #5 train never goes through City Hall. If you stay on the #5 after Brooklyn Bridge you’ll end up in Brooklyn! Please post a correction. Thank you.
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Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. “City Hall Subway Station, New York” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1906.
The Interborough Rapid Transit Subway, or IRT, was the first subway company ever in New York City. The company formed as a response to elevated train lines springing up around the city–it was time to go underground and build a rapid transit railroad to help combat street congestion and assist development in new areas of New York, according to NYCsubway.org. And so 117 years ago, on October 27, 1904, the first IRT subway line opened with the City Hall station as its showpiece. It’s no overstatement to say that after this date, the city would never be the same. And the day was one to remember, with pure excitement over the impressive feat of moving the city’s transit system underground.
The City Hall station under construction, via Wiki Commons
The first IRT subway line ran from the spectacular City Hall subway station–which is no longer open–to 145th Street. The route was trumpeted as “City Hall to Harlem in 15 minutes.” The day’s festivities centered around the City Hall station, decked out in Guastavino vaulting, as it was intended to be the ultimate showpiece for the IBT’s new subway line with its impressive architecture and curved platform. It was also the chosen place for hanging the commemorative plaques dedicated to those who designed, built, and financed the system.
The New York City Mayor George B. McClellan was given the honorary duty of starting the first train at City Hall station. According to a New York Times report of the event, the mayor was eventually supposed to give the controls over to an IRT motorman. Instead, he took the train all the way to 103rd Street. When asked, “Don’t you want the motorman to take hold?” McClellan said, “No sir! I’m running this train!” In the Times article, McClellan is dubbed as “Mayor-Motorman” during the opening ride.
The Mayor was delivered a silver controller to operate the subway train; it was inscribed with the message, “Controller used by the Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor of New York City, in starting the first train on the Rapid Transit Railroad from the City Hall station, New York, Thursday, Oct. 27, 1904. Presented by the Hon. George B. McClellan by August Belmont, President of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.”
Turns out it didn’t fit very well on the motor, so the emergency brake lever was pulled in the first few minutes of the ride. According to the Times, it caused “a violent jolt, a sudden stop,” with passengers “thrown forward as though the train had struck an obstruction.”
Despite the initial error–which was quickly fixed for the rest of the trip–throngs of New Yorkers wanted in on the underground train ride. 200 policemen managed a crowd of as many as 7,000 people around City Hall, some of which pushed through the entrance underground. The New York Times recounted that “both the two sections [of the same train] were crowded uncomfortably. Many passengers stood in every car, and the total loads probably aggregated at least 1,100 passengers.” People were also trying to access the train from different stations. Some had gotten afternoon passes to ride, but the passes weren’t valid for that very first trip.
Some New Yorkers did get the chance, earlier in 1904, to inspect the underground line on wooden cars. Both of the MTA photographs above were taken in 1904. The left depicts an IRT inspection tour with Mayor McClellan in the center foreground and contractor John B. McDonald at the edge of the platform. The right shows an inspection tour for New York City officials.
After that initial ride with the mayor, the subway opened for paying fares at 7 p.m. that same day. Ultimately the first person to buy a green ticket was a “middle aged woman from Brooklyn,” according to the Chicago Tribune. She had waited at the front of the line for two hours. That conflicts with a report from the New York Times, which said the first ticket was sold to H.M. Devoe, a Deputy Superintendent in the Board of Education.
The third man to buy a ticket, Henry Barrett, was a resident of West 46th Street. He took the first train at 7:02 p.m., at the 28th Street station, and then at 7:03, he claimed his diamond horseshoe pin with 15 karats went missing. This marks the first crime in the NYC subway system.
The closed station is occasionally open for Transit Museum tours. Ride the #5 train to Brooklyn Bridge, do not get off at last stop and you will go thru the closed station and peek at its beauty.
THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND THE PANORAMA ROOM GRADUATE HOTEL NINA LUBLIN GLORIA HERMAN LAURA HUSSEY ARLENE BESSENOFF JOAN BROOKS SORRY IF I MISS SOME NAMES BUT THE WORK AT THE POLLSITE CALL!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
6SQFT
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Created during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Hunter’s “Confinement Gardens” series was inspired by the artist’s walks through New York City’s public parks and gardens during lockdown. As he sought refuge from these restrictions in the city’s greenspaces, he experienced the restorative power of flowers in bloom, which gave him hope despite the surrounding pandemic and political turmoil. In this series, his non-figurative compositions combine floral and leaf forms with wholly abstract linear patterns. To achieve the paintings’ luminous power, he applies several coats of translucent acrylics over an under-layer of aluminum leaf which reflects and refracts light through the layers of semi-transparent paint.
Images: Paul Hunter, Confinement Garden #AA, 2021, aluminum leaf, acrylic on canvas
CENTRAL PARK, NY — For the first time in a year and a half, Central Park’s Arsenal Gallery has reopened to visitors — and has a new art exhibition to draw them in.
The gallery is located within the 1840s-era Arsenal, the imposing brick building just in from Fifth Avenue near East 64th Street, next door to the Central Park Zoo. It had been closed since March 2020, as COVID-19 hit New York.
On Monday, the gallery reopened with “Confinement Gardens,” a series of paintings by the artist Paul Hunter.
The works were inspired by Hunter’s walks through New York City’s parks and gardens during lockdown, where he “experienced the restorative power of flowers in bloom, which gave him hope despite the surrounding pandemic and political turmoil,” the Parks Department wrote.
« From the very beginning, my internal vision has been determined by my ongoing desire to express the emotional intensity of experiencing light and color. » Paul Hunter is an artist based in the United States whose paintings have been exhibited nationally and in Canada. In addition, his art is featured in the permanent collection of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Canada), the Art Museum of Princeton University (U.S.), etc. Hunter’s works endeavor to capture the poetry and drama of light. He most often creates using acrylics and gilding on canvas.
Hunter gave the paintings a “luminous power” by applying several coats of translucent acrylic paints over an under-layer of aluminum leaf, refracting and reflecting light through the semi-transparent paint.
Find out what’s happening in Upper East Side with free, real-time updates from Patch. Your email address Let’s go! The show will be on view through Nov. 18. Proof of vaccination and mask-wearing are required to enter the gallery, which is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on the Arsenal’s third floor.
“I am fully aware of the deteriorating natural environment, and the artifice of cultivated gardens, an ‘unnatural’ space where plants are protected,” Hunter said in a statement. “However, during this time, I was nonetheless seeking a vision of hope, and celebrated nature’s ongoing luxuriant beauty in these lush green paintings punctuated with colorful notes of imagined flowers.”
Parks Commissioner Gabrielle Fialkoff called the works “a timely reflection on the inspiration New Yorkers have found in greenspaces” during the pandemic. “For decades, the Arsenal Gallery has showcased artworks that explore nature, urban landscapes, and park history, and we are happy to reopen the space to visitors for the first time since the start of the pandemic,” she said. To attend in a group of more than five people, visitors must call call 212-360-8114 or email artandantiquities@parks.nyc.gov to pre-register.
THE RI LIGHTHOUSE UNDER RESTORATION NAMES OF THOSE WILL BE SENT TOMORROW. WE ARE WORKING AT EARLY VOTING THIS WEEK!!
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 All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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The unusual clock hands on a Third Avenue union sign
from: Ephemeral New York
There’s a little history on it: the current union came out of an original union of wood, wire, and metal lathers workers that was organized in 1897. But what really caught my eye was the street clock attached to the sign, with its streamlined, Art Deco look.
The clock hands could be tools of some kind, perhaps a tool a lather might use? (A lather installs the metal lath and gypsum lath boards that support the plaster, concrete, and stucco coatings used in construction.)
This lathe cutter looks something like the clock hands. Maybe it’s a stretch, but perhaps the clock reflects something about the work these union members do in an industry vital to the growth of the city.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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FROM FACEBOOK: “FOLLOW PROMETHIUS ART-AMANDA MATTHEWS & BRAD CONNELL” ALL IMAGES (C) PROMETHIUS ART
THE REVERSE OF THE NELLIE BLY FIGURE
While working for the New York World, Bly also set a world record for circumnavigation of the earth in 72 days. When told by her manager that it was an impossible trip for a woman, Nellie Bly responded…“Very well, start the man, and I’ll start the same day for some other newspaper and beat him.”
Although her life and legacy include broad professional experience as a journalist, women’s rights advocate, suffragist, WWI correspondent, inventor, patent holder, industrialist, and humanitarian, a common thread for Nellie Bly was that she experienced the plight of those who suffered and powerfully transcribed this reality to the world, who had turned a blind eye.
She moved the needle toward equality and progress. Nellie Bly died on January 27, 1922. The following day, the Evening Journal newspaper carried a tribute by Arthur Brisbane, which read… “Nellie Bly was THE BEST REPORTER IN AMERICA and that is saying a good deal…
She takes with her from this earth all that she cared for, an honorable name, the respect and affection of her fellow workers, the memory of good fights well fought and of many good deeds never to be forgotten by those that had no friend but Nellie Bly. Happy the man or woman that can leave as good a record.”
Here we end where we began, with a quote from Nellie Bly. “I said I could and I would. And I did.
A young girl had been institutionalized in the Blackwell Island Asylum for 4 years. She spoke to Nellie Bly every morning and said, “I dreamed of my mother last night. I think she may come today and take me home.”
Bly’s quote from this young girl represents a palpable brokenness. Such pain and loneliness are apparent as this abandoned child kept clinging to a tinge of hope that her lot in life would change. This face is inspired by my daughter, Audrey, who as a teen, was the subject of an emotionally crippling court case in which she was marginalized.
Her personal story and expressions of incredible pain also fell on deaf ears. Neither protection nor solace could be found as she suffered, while begging to be heard within a flawed legal system.
Advocates who choose to maintain the status quo often fail to protect the innocent. Bly spoke of another girl in the asylum who repeatedly cried, “They always said God made hell, but he didn’t.”
Bly spoke up and affected change. She put herself in danger on many occasions to fully understand those who were suffering. Absent this type of compelling representation, vulnerable members of our society will continue to be abused by those who use their privilege and power as leverage.
Asian American Woman – Original Artist Proof
On the wagon ride to the Blackwell Island Asylum, Bly states “I, as well as my comrades, gave a despairing farewell glance at freedom as we came in sight of the long stone buildings.”
Bly sees the “look of distress on the faces of [her] companions. Poor Women… They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life.”
My dear friend and studio assistant’s mother, Mioko, inspired this face. Of Japanese descent, she is an American by birth, and was only 18 years old in February 1942, when by Executive Order she was moved from her home in Gardena, CA, and taken to the Santa Anita Racetrack to live in a horse stall.
She was later interned to Rohwer—a 500-acre camp surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards, and she was not reunited with her family for years. Mioko recounted this story to me in great detail when she was in her early nineties.
Bly describes “a woman taken without her consent from a free world…” and argues, “Compare this with a criminal, who is given every chance to prove his innocence.” I could not read this passage without thinking of Mioko. She knows the sting of racism, understands the dehumanization of immigrants in America, and the loneliness and alienation of being held against her will under dreadful circumstances by her own government.
Bly “watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they in all likelihood [would] never enter again. It means liberty and life; it seems so near, and yet heaven is not further from hell.” Mioko understands freedom that seems so near, but could not be further from hell.
African American Woman
Nellie Bly resisted being harshly handled by an attendee while she was being admitted to Bellevue hospital. Once freed from his grip, she stated, “I walked with the grace of a queen past the crowd that had gathered, curious to see the new unfortunate.”
Bly describes defending herself against other assaults and with frightening imagery, she depicts the abuse of the helpless women and girls in the Asylum, who “were in the power of their keepers”. Bly says they “could weep and plead for release, and all of no avail, if the keepers were so minded.” These descriptions of anguish and control evoked images for me of the unthinkable treatment of many minority women and their children throughout American history.
My dear friend, Cutia, inspired this face. A strong, intelligent black woman who has dedicated her life to helping others, Cutia endured unimaginable grief when she lost her infant child. She understands deep and abiding loss and the agony of feeling helpless to change a dire situation.
Cutia also knows first-hand the structure of dominance in America and the urgent need to eliminate systemic racism. The emotion in her eyes speaks volumes about the 400-year arc of history, including the pain and trauma endured by generations of human beings.
Similar to Bly in many ways, Cutia transformed her sorrow into passion that ignites her drive for equality, justice, and healing.
Older Woman – in backrgound
The miniature version of the art is next to the large one so a blind prson can feel it and read the Braille description of each work,
While institutionalized in the Blackwell Island Asylum, Nellie Bly read a motto on a wall that said, “While I live I hope.”
Bly stated that “the absurdity of it struck [her] forcibly..” because so many women were unjustly stripped of their freedoms and rights with no hope of ever escaping their fate. They were convicted without “ample trial” for being different, or old, or an immigrant.
This face is inspired by my daughter, Natalie, who is a member of the LGBTQ community. Like many other Americans, she lacks equal representation under the law and lives in fear of being stripped of her freedoms, rights, and protections with every change to the US Supreme Court. This face portrays the hopeful trajectory of her life showing long-lived happiness and a perpetual desire for equality and acceptance of those who exist in the margins.
Nellie Bly witnessed these disparities; and moved by her experiences, she wrote, “Poor girl, how my heart ached for her! I determined then and there that I would try by every means to make my mission of benefit to my suffering sisters…”
Natalie’s likeness is aged forward 50 years, bearing a remarkable resemblance to my mother. It serves as a much-needed tribute to the queer community and to older women, sages who are rarely honored in sculpture for their beauty and wisdom.
SPORTSPARK SWIMMING POOL NOW CLOSED FOR RENOVATION THOM HEYER, ARON EISENPREISS, ALEXIA VILLAFANE, BRENDA VAUGHAN, LAURA HUSSEY AND NINA LUBLIN GOT IT RIGHT!!
YOU CAN VISIT SPORTSPARK THIS WEEK AND GET IN THE SWIM OF EARLY VOTING!!! THE POLL SITE IS IN THE GYM. ENTER ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING OPPOSITE THE GRADUATE HOTEL.
Early Voting Schedule
Tuesday
October 26, 2021
10:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Wednesday
October 27, 2021
10:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Thursday
October 28, 2021
10:00 AM to 8:00 PM
Friday
October 29, 2021
7:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Saturday
October 30, 2021
8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Sunday
October 31, 2021
8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
FACEBOOK: “FOLLOW PROMETHIUS ART-AMANDA MATTHEWS & BRAD CONNELL” ALL IMANGES (C) PROMETHIUS ART
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Born in New York City in 1958, painter Diana Horowitz received her BFA from SUNY Purchase and MFA from Brooklyn College. She has had solo shows in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, and taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Tyler School of Art / Temple Abroad Rome, among other places. She currently teaches at Brooklyn College.
Horowitz’s work is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of the City of New York, the New-York Historical Society; Hunter Museum, Chattanooga TN; and the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, among others. In 2005, she was elected a member of the National Academy and she has received awards from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and grants from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the Pollock Krasner Foundation. Horowitz has held residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s World Views program; and Ballinglen in Ireland. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and is represented by Bookstein Projects.
Bridges Across the East River, 2015
Brooklyn Tech Backlight, 2006
Early Summer Gowanus Bay, 2013
Como from Above Perled 2016
Bellagio Afternoon 2015
Varenna from Fiumelatte 2017
Beginning with Green Blue Green Blue Core Red Prism
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
HINT: YOU CAN EARLY VOTE IN THIS BUILDING, THOUGH THE POOL IS CLOSED
ARON EISENPRESS, ANDY SPARBERG, LAURA HUSSEY, HARA REISER AND ED LITCHER ADDED THIS:
The American Radiator Building (since renamed to the American Standard Building) was conceived by the architects John Howells and Raymond Hood and built in 1924 for the American Radiator Company. Raymond Hood, rose to prominence in 1922 when he won the international competition for The Chicago Tribune’s new office tower. After the competition, the young architect received numerous offers, including one from American Radiator for an office building facing Bryant Park. The skyscraper would be built of black brick and topped it with gold-colored masonry units, the architects combined Gothic and modern styles in the design of the building. Black brick on the frontage of the building (symbolizing coal) was selected to give an idea of solidity and to give the building a solid mass. Other parts of the facade were covered in gold bricks (symbolizing fire), and the entry was decorated with marble and black mirrors. Howells and Hood employed the talents of their frequent collaborator Rene Paul Chambellan for the ornamentation and sculptures. The basic feeling of the skyscraper is Neo-Gothic but the general ornament is abstract and moving towards Art Deco, which would become important in the following years inspiring neighborhood buildings including the Empire State Building. In 1998 the building was sold, later the American Radiator Building was converted to The Bryant Park Hotel with 128 guest rooms. The conversion also included building a film studio screening room in the sub-basement, a cocktail lounge in the lower lobby space and a restaurant in the lobby. The exterior of the building is a National Historic Landmark building so none of the exterior features of the building could be changed when converted to a hotel. Only the interior space was changed during the conversion. The American Standard Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark in 1974. The 26 story tower still stands out for its colors – black brick trimmed in gold – and unconventional shape.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
New York City’s Fifth Avenue in Manhattan has been associated with glamour and wealth since the 1800s. However, when this now-iconic street was first laid out, it was given a rather humdrum name, Middle Road. The undeveloped parcel of land Middle Road cut through, which was sold in 1785 to raise municipal funds for the newly established nation, would become the epicenter of New York City’s high society. As the 18th-century turned into the 19th-century and the Gilded Age began, the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan renamed Middle Road Fifth Avenue. Development of the city moved northward, led by millionaires who built palatial homes on the largely empty swaths of land. The string of fabulous Gilded Age 5th Avenue mansions that stretched from 59th to 78th Street was dubbed the “Gold Coast,” and “Millionaire’s Row.” While many of the grandiose 5th Avenue mansions of New York City’s 19th and early 20th-century millionaires have been lost to time, there are some that remain intact today, serving as homes for non-profits, museums, and cultural organizations.
WILLIAM K. VANDERBILT MANSION
Photo from Library of Congress
Richard Morris Hunt, the architect commissioned to design a home for William K. Vanderbilt and his ambitious wife Alva, “knew his new young clients very well,” writes Arthur T. Vanderbilt II in Fortune’s Children, “and he understood the function of architecture as a reflection of ambition. He sensed that Alva wasn’t interested in another home. She wanted a weapon: a house she could use as a battering ram to crash through the gates of society.” Alva’s home needed to stand out against all the other 5th Avenue mansions. Alva crashed through the gates of society in the spring of 1883 with her “Fancy Dress Ball.” Until that groundbreaking ball, Alva, part of the new money rich, was not welcomed into the established New York City social scene ruled by Mrs. Astor.
Besting Mrs. Astor’s 400, Alva invited 1,200 of New York’s finest to her ball. Mrs. Astor was conspicuously left off the guest list, until she came calling at Alva’s door, symbolically bowing to the new order as she sought an invitation for her and her daughter. Inside Alva’s home, guests were greeted in a hall built of stone quarried from Caen, France. The interiors were decorated from trips to Europe, with items from both antique shops and from “pillaging the ancient homes of impoverished nobility.” The Vanderbilts affectionately referred to their mansion as the Petit Chateau. Sadly, the mansion was demolished in 1926 after being sold to a real estate developer and in its stead rose 666 Fifth Avenue, an office tower.
WILLIAM A. CLARK MANSON
Image via Library of Congress
“Copper King” William A. Clark’s mansion at 960 Fifth Avenue was dubbed “Clark’s Folly.” The hulking home cost $6 million to build at the time, a sum that roughly equals $150 million dollars in modern times according to the Museum of the City of New York. Clark’s mansion, which took fourteen years to build, consisted of “121 rooms, 31 baths, four art galleries, a swimming pool, concealed garage, and underground rail line to bring in heating coal was completed in 1911.”
To facilitate the construction of the extravagant home, Clark bought a quarry in New Hampshire where he sourced stone and transported it to New York via a railroad he built specifically for that purpose. He also acquired a bronze foundry to make all of the metal fittings. Marble was imported from Italy, oak brought in from the Sherwood Forrest of England, and pieces of a French Chateau shipped over from France. After all of the work on the mansion was complete, Clark had a mere fourteen years to enjoy it before he passed away in 1925. The home became a white elephant. It eventually sold in 1927 for less than $3 million dollars and was promptly demolished, making it one of the most short-lived buildings in New York City. The mansion was replaced by a 12-story luxury condo building designed by Rosario Candela.
The Vanderbilt Triple Palace: 640 and 660 Fifth Avenue and 2 West 52nd Street
Image from Public Domain from the A. D. White Architectural Photographs Collection, Cornell University Library
Two granddaughters of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt were each given their own 5th Avenue mansions. In 1882, the girls’ father, William Henry Vanderbilt, bought an entire block between 51st and 52nd Street where he built the “Triple Palaces,” three near-identical brownstone homes for himself and his wife along with their two daughters, Emily and Margaret. When hosting large events, the separate drawing rooms could be converted into one large ballroom!
The “palaces” caught the eye of another wealthy New Yorker, Henry Clay Frick. Frick is reported to have said, “That is all I shall ever want” on a drive past the Triple Palaces with his friend Andrew Mellon. In 1905, Frick would get the chance to have his own palace when he rented one out on a 10-year lease while George Vanderbilt was preoccupied with building the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. He would have bought the house if William H. Vanderbilt’s will had not barred George from selling the home and art outside of the family. Later, via a loophole, the property and artwork were able to be sold by Vanderbilt’s grandson to the Astors, who in turn sold the holdings in the 1940s. Today, skyscrapers stand in place of the palaces and where once there were ballrooms and drawing rooms, there are now retailers like H&M, Godiva, and Juicy Couture.
FOR THE VANDERBILT KIDS
Photo by Albert Levy in public domain from Wikimedia Commons
William Henry Vanderbilt’s other two daughters, Florence Adele Vanderbilt Twombly and Eliza Osgood Vanderbilt Webb, also got their own mansions on Fifth Avenue. In fact, there were so many Vanderbilt mansions built along Fifth Avenue, that a stretch of the street became known as “Vanderbilt Row.” Florence and Eliza’s townhouses were designed by architect John B. Snook in 1883. The two neighboring homes were very different than their sisters’ “Triple Palaces.” Florence and Eliza’s mansions boasted rusticated stonework, turrets, bow windows, and a mixture of domes and galbes that resulted in busy rooflines.
Florence lived at 684 Fifth Avenue until 1926 when she upgraded to a new mansion further north along Central Park. The Webbs sold 680 to John D. Rockefeller in 1913. Both were demolished for a skyscraper that has The Gap as its anchor tenant.
As a founding partner and treasurer of Standard Oil, Jabez A. Bostwick was one of the many men who made it big in the oil business. Bostwick, like most wealthy men of his time, took his fortune and his family to Fifth Avenue where he built a 10-room French Second Empire mansion in 1876 on the corner of 61st Street. When his daughter Nellie married, he extended the mansion to 801 and 802 Fifth Avenue.
After Jabez’s death and other family tragedies befell the Bostwicks, his wife Helen remained in the home until she too passed away in 1920. Family friend Mrs. Marcellus Hartley Dodge, a daughter of William Rockefeller purchased the Helen Bostwick home in 1922 and left it seemingly abandoned until 1977. In 1979, the homes were demolished to make way for a 33-story luxury apartment building.
When Caroline Astor’s nephew William Astor knocked down his own townhouse to build the original Waldorf Hotel, right next door to her own mansion, she up and left. In 1894, Caroline and her son headed uptown to a more fashionable spot on 65th Street and Fifth Avenue. “Starchitect” Richard Morris Hunt, the same man who designed other Gilded Age 5th Avenue mansions like William K. and Alva Vanderbilt’s Petit Chateau, was hired to design Caroline’s new abode. While the exterior appeared to be that of one large mansion, the interior was actually split into two separate living spaces, one for Caroline, and one for her son John Jacob Astor. The two residences were connected by a ballroom that could hold 1,200 guests (the same amount of guests that Alva Vanderbilt had invited to her fancy dress ball).
After Caroline’s death, John Jacob Astor took over his mother’s portion of the mansion and made some major renovations. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t live long enough to enjoy the new space. After honeymooning in Europe with his new second wife, he booked a return trip aboard the doomed RMS Titanic. John did not survive the tragedy. While his new wife and her maid did make it safely back to New York City, they were forced to give up the mansion, as dictated by Astor’s will. It passed to Astor’s son from his first marriage, William Vincent Astor. Preferring his estate out on Long Island, William sold the 65th Street property to developers and auctioned off the interiors. Today the Temple Emanu-El stands in its place.
FRICK MANSION
Magnolias in bloom, The Frick Collection, Fifth Avenue
Today, we know the Henry Clay Frick House as the Frick Collection, a repository of old masters (and a hidden underground bowling alley!). Frick began to amass his art collection while staying at one of the Vanderbilt Triple Palaces. In 1912, he commissioned Thomas Hastings, of the firm Carrère and Hastings, to build his own mansion on 5th Avenue and 7oth Street. The illustrious firm of Carrère and Hastings designed the New York Public Library at Bryant Park.
Fricks instructed Hastings to build him “a small house with plenty of light and air,” one that would be “simple, in good taste, and not ostentatious.” Despite what Frick may have said, he ended up with a palatial, 61-room home embellished with ancient symbolism and decorated inside with Rococo and Renaissance furniture and decorative arts, and of course, his collection of old masters. The Frick mansion recently had a starring role in the HBO Max television show The Undoing. While the mansion is under renovation, the priceless works of art have been moved for the first time in nearly 80 years, into the Met Breuer.
This new Street Seat in Long Island City highlights an ancient rock formation on 12th Street. The VOREA Group
A Long Island City street with an unusual, ancient impediment has been transformed from a derelict strip of concrete into a vibrant pedestrian plaza.
The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has partnered with developer the VOREA Group to overhaul a stretch of 12th Street between 44th Avenue and 43rd Road, where through traffic was previously prohibited by a glacial rock formation. The partnership came to be through the Street Seats program, a citywide effort that converts underused streets into public spaces.
The geological quirk left the street, which originally lacked pedestrian sidewalks, in a sort of limbo; it couldn’t easily be accessed by the public, so was previously used as employee parking for a local company. Enter VOREA, which owns properties along the street, and who applied to work with the city to turn the block into a pedestrian oasis in a largely industrial swath of the Queens neighborhood. Now, instead of functioning as an obstacle, the rock formation and its history serves as a focal point.
“That was the vision we had with the developer, to highlight that as a unique element within the space,” says Samantha Dolgoff, the director of strategic initiatives with DOT. “We didn’t want the rock to just be there. We wanted it be more prominent in the space.”
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2021
THE 501st EDITION
The story of the house-size rock
between two
apartment buildings off
Riverside Drive
from EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
West 114th Street between Riverside Drive and Broadway is a quiet sloping block of light brick rowhouses, similar to other side streets in the area.
But there’s one massive difference that sets West 114th apart: the 100-foot rock lodged between two houses and walled off behind an iron fence. This hulk of Manhattan schist was nicknamed Rat Rock years ago by locals, who were understandably spooked by the rodents that used to enjoy nesting there, according to a 2000 New York Times article.
Like all the rock outcroppings found in Manhattan, the story of Rat Rock began hundreds of millions of years ago, when the bedrock that helps support skyscrapers was formed. Manhattan schist is a type of bedrock, and while most bedrock lurks beneath ground, geological fault lines forced some rocks to the surface, The Times piece explains.
Having big boulders above ground wasn’t a problem in Central Park. Though some were dynamited away when the park was being built, others were left behind to provide a rustic feel amid the lake, pond, and pastures.
Rat Rock in 1917
But when developers encountered rocks like this on the street grid, they either blasted them away or left them alone. For unknown reasons—perhaps because it’s just so enormous—Rat Rock remained, and builders worked around this break in the streetscape.
Apparently, it’s here to stay. The land is owned by Columbia University, and they have no plans to get rid of it. “The lot and development rights are incredibly valuable, but removing the rock could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” states The Times.
Enormous boulders like this didn’t get in the way of nearby development a century or so ago, however. The Museum of the City of New York has this 1903 photo in its collection of a similar rock thwarting the building plans of a row of houses on Riverside Drive between 93rd and 94th Streets.
I’m not so sure this photo is labeled correctly; it doesn’t look like the Riverside Drive of the era to me. But assuming it is, the rock has long been removed.
Over on the East Side, this undated photo shows rock outcroppings at Fifth Avenue and 117th Street, with modest houses built on top of them far off in the distance. The rocks here are no longer.
THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE WITHOUT THE LIGHT NEW TOP IS BEING INSTALLED, STAY TUNED Laura Hussey, Jay Jacobson and Andy Sparberg & Hara Reiser got it
from Andy Sparberg: Good morning, this is Andy Sparberg. The answer to the Thursday photo is Roosevelt Island lighthouse, and Hallet’s Cove Apartments in the background.
May I add something to the Grand Central photo that appeared on Wednesday morning: If you look in the lower right of the Grand Central photo, you can see an elevated train. Until 1923, a short branch of the Third Avenue Elevated line existed atop 42nd Street between Third and Park Avenues, carrying a two car shuttle train that connected with the namesake elevated at Third Avenue. In December 1923 this branch was closed, and razed soon afterward. Dear Everyone at RIHS and “from the Archive” – –
Another terrific daily e-letter – – and YOWZA, it’s the 500th!
To Judy and all your wonderfully helpful e-docents, you are just amazing, and soooooooo appreciated, for the totally interesting and fact-filled slices of living here in NYC. I’m a NYC native born and bred, and these subjects you select, and present so well, are so terrific! I really look forward to my daily e-letter!
I also recognize the time it takes to put out this daily e-letter, and to provide such compelling content. . so your contributions of time and brain power are also recognized, with gratitude.
Best to all,
Susan Rodetis (Manhattanite . . and I teach bike lessons around NYC and on Roosevelt Island)
from Clara Bella ANOTHER DELIGHTFUL MORNING JOURNEY INTO THE PAST! The tributes said it all. HAPPY 500th!!!!🎉🥳👏🏼🎊🙌🍾 At last! A topless photo in From the Archive! The Roosevelt Island lighthouse is being renovated. Not quite as well-known as its counterpart under the George W Bridge, the RI Lighthouse has been the subject of much conjecture. From the delightful tale about the person who erected the lighthouse to prove that he had been improperly detained in the insane asylum to the saga of the memorial to lives lost on vessels traversing the notorious Hell Gate where waters from Long Island Sound, and the East and Harlem rivers swirled, our lighthouse has stood. In the late 1970s, when it was not yet fully secured, our son Dan and I wandered in with the hope of climbing to the peak for the view. We found, however, such a state of disrepair that even we foolhardy folks realized we couldn’t responsibly risk the intrusion. JAY JACOBSON JJJ
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
Riverside Drive is one of New York’s most historic (and beautiful!) streets. Join Ephemeral New York on a walking tour of the Drive from 83rd to 107th Streets on October 24 that takes a look at the mansions and monuments of this legendary thoroughfare.
Tags: Bedrock in NYC, Boulders of NYC, Central Park Rock Outcroppings, Geology of Manhattan, Manhattan Schist NYC, NYC Geology, Rat Rock 114th Street, Rock Outcroppings Manhattan
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
The days of the flagship New York City department store of B. Altman are numbered. At one time, the glamorous New York City department store was the height of fashion, filled with opulent spaces and genteel clientele. Attentive employees and over-the-top merchandise were hallmarks of this experience. Unfortunately, changing tastes doomed all but the biggest stores in the 1980s. For the past decade, online buying has also taken its toll on these historic structures. Once pillars of the New York department store scene, Lord and Taylor, Henri Bendel, and Barneys New York were shuttered in 2020. Although B. Altman and Co. was lost to bankruptcy thirty years ago, its allure and nostalgia still live on.
The “B” in B. Altman stood for art collector and owner Benjamin Altman. Leaving the family business, he opened his own store in 1865 on the Lower East Side. The store quickly grew and so did the need for a bigger building. Moving to a new location on 6th Avenue and 18th Street, B. Altman was now part of “The Ladies’ Mile.” Ladies’ Mile was where wealthy ladies shopped. Stores like Macy’s and Lord & Taylor also clamored for business. Eventually, New York society would migrate uptown, and so too did the department stores. Anticipating this move, the enterprising Benjamin Altman had quietly been buying land along 5th Avenue and 34th Street. B. Altman’s new location would be neighbors with The Waldorf Astoria Hotel and Macy’s. Today, if you look hard enough, you can see glimpses of that grand era of department stores in Macy’s Herald Square store.
From Wikimedia CommonsPortrait of Benjamin Altman
The architectural firm Trowbridge and Livingston, who designed John Jacob Astor’s St. Regis Hotel, was commissioned for the project. B. Altman and Co. would be built in the Italianate Renaissance style. The French limestone exteriors complemented the large plate glass windows. The storefront windows included tantalizing merchandise and clothing guaranteed to attract customers. Additionally, interiors were magnificent with dramatic mahogany wood staircases, Doric columns on the first-floor showroom, and beautifully detailed elevators. The massive store had eight floors that sold luxury items such as perfume, china, art, furniture, tailored clothes, coats, and shoes. Huge crowds attended the opening of B. Altman and Co.’s proclaimed it the “Palace of Trade” in 1906.
According to The Life and Legacy of Benjamin Altman by Dr. Jeann Abrams for the Altman Foundation, Altman honed his skills as a tastemaker and trendsetter, transforming New York retail. B. Altman and Co. was one of the first to have distinctive clothing departments such as women, men and children for its clientele. Likewise, B. Altman used quality fabrics for its revolutionary ready-to-wear as well as its custom-made clothing. The store also had the ingenious idea of having a dedicated buyer in Paris. Yes, B. Altman had whole departments dedicated to Parisian fashion right on 5th Avenue.
Constant competition with the New York department stores drove B. Altman to innovate. The store would create the position of “walker” to assist both customers and employees. The walker was similar to a section manager who “walked” the floors to assure quality and satisfaction. Along with this new management style, the attentive staff and uniformed elevator operators generated a standard of refinement for its well heeled customers. Not to mention, the store had a waiting room for customers to rest until their carriage driver of chauffeurs arrived. Benjamin Altman wanted to accommodate his guests’ needs, big or small. And to that end, the store had a grand awning to protect the fashionable ladies from weather and wind.
“The Ladies Who Lunch at B. Altman and Co.”
In the late 19th century, New York society had strict rules for women both married and single. Surprisingly, New York’s department stores created the original “ladies who lunch.” And B. Altman and Co. provided its guests with lovely but reputable places for tea and eventually a restaurant, thus allowing unaccompanied women to shop and eat without a chaperone or husband. By the 1930s, New York department store restaurants were evolving into charming dining locales. Not to be outdone, B. Altman’s Charleston Restaurant had not only delicious meals but also a full-size Southern porch.
From Wikimedia CommonsAdvertisement for B, Altman and Company
It is important to realize that after Mr. Altman’s death in 1913, the Altman Foundation took over ownership of the store. With philanthropy as its driving force, B. Altman and Co. founded a program to help employees that had not finished high school to earn their degree. Indeed, this program was the continuation of Benjamin Altman’s thoughtful approach to his staff. Altman had already initiated a shorter workweek, subsidized meals and in-house doctor and medical care for his employees. Many employees would remain at B. Altman’s for decades thanks to these benefits. Due to changing tax laws, the Altman Foundation had to relinquish control of the famous New York City Department Store, and it was sold in 1986.
Lost New York Department Stores
By the 1980s, changing tastes and the modernity of the smaller chain store (such as the Gap) made shoppers take a another look at retail. Department stores were now thought of as old-fashioned and stuffy. With the fall of Gimbels, the formidable New York City department stores were at a loss about what to do. Once known as Macy’s rival in the film Miracle on 34th Street, if Gimbels could close, who was next? Unfortunately for B. Altman and Co., it would not be too far behind. The famed New York department store would declare bankruptcy in 1989. In November 1990, with no Santa but just a “going out of business” sale, B. Altman and Co. was no more. Fortunately, B. Altman’s magnificent architecture was given landmark status by the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission in 1985. In 2000, CUNY Graduate School moved into the historic building. Luckily, some of the original interior details are still intact, such as the limestone facade, large display windows, and the beautiful curvy glass canopies. Beneath, a metal frieze runs above the entrance.
EDITORIAL
My mother would take me to Altman’s for much of my wardrobe. There was always a great selection of clothes. Lunch at the Charleston Garden was always included. Your tray came with your meal on it and the tray filled into a slot on the table top.
In later years I would haunt the china and glassware clearance area for bargains. I remember purchasing gifts that were beautifully wrapped by ladies behind high counter.
The ambiance was calm and civilized.
I would meet our neighbor Ed O’Flynn who worked on the main floor and when Altman’s closed moved to Saks Fifth Avenue.
The top floor of the CUNY building is a bland and most unattractive cafeteria.
But, past the library on the 34th Street side of the building two elevators remain, with their decorative iron work. There is a water fountain around the corner in the offices of Oxford University Press at 198 Madison Avenue. The Madison Avenue side is vacant since the NYPL has left.
FROM OUR READERS
Jay Jacobson Starting out as a publishing toddler at pandemic lockdown, the RIHS daily diary has become a vibrant, thriving, “wonder-what -wonders -she -will -share -with -me” part of starting the day. New to me information about our Island, our City, and people who have been active in both. Introductions to art by artists whose names were unknown and artists who were old acquaintances. Fascinating guides to places and people, and “oh, I recognize that picture!” puzzles. Congratulations to the dedicated folks with the RI Historical Society on #500! And please don’t let our defeat of the pandemic diminish what you all have done! xoxoxoxox Sorry if it’s too long, but you guys have done a great job!
About the 500th issue—enjoy checking the mail first thing every morning to see another unique topic.
My favorites are many but love familiar places that I thought I knew but maybe didn’t know the whole story. Love pieces about transportation, especially our subway.
More of? One was trolley cars and els but that was featured the other day. Other topics to explore might be secret rooms and/or hideaways, prohibition, the polio vaccine, pigeons.
Thanks Judy. This has become part of my day
GLORIA HERMAN
As we come to our 500th edition of the From the Archives, I’ve taken a moment to reflect on the variety of interesting topics. We started with the history of Roosevelt Island and moved well beyond. We have learned about bridges, buildings, and architecture. We have explored neighborhoods, regions, and icons. These pieces have given life to colorful characters who have influenced Roosevelt Island and the surrounding city. The most impressive editions, to me, are the seemingly endless artists both foreign and home grown. I hope each of you are continuing to learn and enjoy each piece.
Deborah Dorff
Is it possible this is the 500th issue of “From the Archives”?!? The slog that has been our collective Covid-19 experience for the past year & a half (plus!) has been made bearable, hopeful & even enjoyable at times by my daily emails from the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s “From the Archives” publication. Judy Berdy has been tireless in her efforts to publish & I have to think that it has helped give her life focus during this difficult time–I know it has mine! No one is an Island unto themselves & Judy has had the help of Stephen Blank, Bobbie Slonevsky, Melanie Colter, Deborah Dorff and many others to make “From the Archives” seem effortless. The stories have been broad in their scope reflecting Roosevelt Island & NYC’s checkered history. I’ve especially enjoyed the different stories of visual artists, people of color & LGBTQ+ communities that have been represented by this publication. Broadening our scope of who gets to tell their stories has only ever enhanced our collective, ongoing history on Roosevelt Island……Thank you Judy et al for enhancing my life “From the Archives”…….. Most sincerely:
Thom Heyer
I have really enjoyed reading the previous five hundred entertaining and informative notes from the Archives. I look forward to reading the next five hundred. Keep reporting on past and present art and artists and architecture around the city. And there is a lot I learned that I didn’t know about New York City history.
The length of the articles make them very readable. Not so long that I don’t have time to read them but long enough to provide insight on any given topic.
Laura Hussey
Judy: Your From the Archive series is a joy for both the reminders of New York lore I’ve forgotten and for new tidbits to add to my mental swamp of treasures and trivia. Thanks to your stable of writers and researchers. Matt
ANDY SPARBERG, LURA HUSSEY, P. WALTER, ARLENE BESSENOFF, ARON EISENPREISS, HARA REISER GOT IT
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 All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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TOMORROW IS ISSUE #500. PLEASE SEND US YOUR COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS TO BE INCLUDED IN THIS SPECIAL ISSUE. SEND TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021
499th ISSUE
THE SECOND AVENUE
ELEVATED SUBWAY
ON THE
QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
ANDY SPARBERG
We all know that the Queensboro Bridge (aka Ed Koch Bridge, popularly the 59th Street Bridge) has two decks for motor traffic. But it’s been lost to history that the upper deck carried, between 1917 and 1942, two elevated train tracks that connected Manhattan’s old IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) Second Avenue Elevated Line with the Queensboro Plaza station complex, which allowed the Second Avenue trains to travel to Astoria and Flushing on today’s N and #7 lines, respectively.
The bridge elevated tracks were a part of the Dual Contracts, which greatly expanded the initial subway system constructed between 1900 and 1913. Under the Dual Contracts, the two rapid transit operating companies, the IRT and BRT (Brooklyn Rapid Transit), were granted the right to operate, through a lease, a whole series of new lines that NYC government built between 1913 and 1931.
These transit lines connected Manhattan with a whole variety of neighborhoods in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. New housing, made possible by the new transit connections, induced people to move out of Manhattan, whose population dropped from 2,332,000 in 1910 to 1,867,000 in 1930, or a 20% drop.
In the same twenty years, Queens grew from 284,000 to 1.079,000, a 280% increase. The two bridge tracks, along with tunnels at 42nd and 60th Streets, were key reasons why Queens grew so rapidly. Population data is rounded to the nearest thousand.
Originally the Queensboro Bridge tracks were in the center of the upper deck. In 1929 the tracks were moved to the north side (Manhattan-bound traffic today) to permit installation of two automobile lanes on the south side.
The BRT was reorganized into the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit) in 1923. In June 1940, New York City purchased the IRT and BMT firms, and merged them with its IND subway (always city-owned from its 1925 inception) to create a single unified city-wide subway system under the Board of Transportation.
Mayor LaGuardia choreographed this event, which he called “a good deal” because the five-cent fare was saved for the duration of his years in office. Unfortunately, part of LaGuardia’s deal was the closing of the Second Avenue elevated south of 60th Street, and its connecting tracks on the Queensboro Bridge, both of which occurred in June 1942. The elevated north of 60th Street had already closed (June 1940).
There’s more to this story, but for now suffice to say that no elevated train has crossed the Queensboro Bridge for close to eighty years. The former train tracks on the upper deck north side were converted to two automobile lanes in the late 1950s and are still in that use today.
A view of Long Island City from Blackwell’s Island (around 1901), showing the under construction footings of the Queensboro Bridge and the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Works factory
. In his 1891 book Terra-Cotta in Architecture, Walter Geer described the factory in detail. “The first story contains the engine, boilers, machinery for preparing clay, and the clay, coal and grit pits.” This machinery included washer and slip tanks, crushers and mill stones, as well as some items known as pug mills. There were 12 kilns.
The clay came from New Jersey. It was mined, seasoned, and delivered to the factory, where it was crushed, ground, washed, and mixed with grit before being molded and sculpted. From there, the terra cotta got shipped off to adorn some of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Ed Litcher
FROM CLARA BELLA, Who commented that we did not mention the Bronx:
And by the way, although I’ve resided in this area for 18 years (longer than anywhere else I’ve ever lived) I didn’t know the great majority of the info you featured today, the significant history of my humble neighborhood.AND THANKS for featuring my local Armory!! There has been debate and discussion about how to re/use the space for well over a decade. It was/is supposed to become the world’s largest ice rink complex but progress has been stalled for a number of years. About a decade back, Macy’s filmed a holiday tv ad in the hangar, and that same space served as a pandemic food distribution center in 2020. Someone who worked there told me that the basement contains about 8 feet of foul water that freezes every winter and melts every spring, as well as a thriving population of rats and raccoons. Currently the chain-link fence around the Armory provides the perfect display wall for informal second-hand clothing sellers and street vendors who set up a variety of stands and tables offering everything from industrial equipment to mostly-used electronics to handicrafts to rescued and recycled furniture to gold jewelry, all at rock-bottom prices.
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
