Frances Steloff was the daughter of a Russian immigrant and itinerant rabbi who, in an age of rising anti-Semitism, was one of the early Jewish settlers in Saratoga Springs. The large family lived in dire poverty.
After the death of her mother, Frances was “informally” adopted by a wealthy Boston couple. Having run away from her foster parents, she made her way to New York, worked in a Brooklyn department store selling corsets, before establishing a tiny bookshop in Midtown Manhattan. On her death, after eighty-one years in the business, she was revered as one of America’s most influential booksellers and bibliophiles. Founder of the Gotham Book Mart, she turned her establishment into a center for avant-garde literature
Taking the Waters
Upstate New York mineral springs have been valued throughout American history for their medicinal properties. European colonists gradually obtained most of the springs from Indigenous People, and the habit of “taking the waters” to combat illness and promote health was recommended by colonial doctors. Boarding houses and hotels were constructed to accommodate an increasing number of visitors.
One of the first permanent dwellings in Saratoga Springs was built around 1776. An inn was constructed above High Rock Spring, and, in 1802, a tavern and boarding house was built by Gideon Putnam across from Congress Spring. This became the luxurious Union Hotel in 1864 and the 834-room Grand Union Hotel five years later.
Although spa activity had been central to Saratoga in the 1810s, by the 1820s the resort had hotels with great ballrooms, opera houses, stores and clubhouses. The Union Hotel had its own esplanade, fountain, and formal landscaping by then.
One regular guest to the springs staying at the impressive United States Hotel on Broadway was Joseph Bonaparte, the deposed King of Spain and elder brother of Napoleon. After defeat at Waterloo, Joseph had fled to America in 1816 and acquired the Point Breeze estate in Bordentown, New Jersey. It was his home until 1839 when he returned to Europe.
The house became famous for its gardens, extensive art collection of Flemish and Italian masters, and a library of some 8,000 volumes. Eager to encourage the fine arts in America, Joseph generously lent items for exhibitions to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and other places. He was instrumental in disseminating European culture and artistic knowledge to early nineteenth century Americans.
Thanks to its relative proximity to New York City, Saratoga Springs became the nation’s top upscale resort and tourist destination. With it, the town’s character changed. Not health, but pleasure became its major appeal. In 1863 the Saratoga Race Course was opened where members of the Vanderbilt and Whitney families brought their thoroughbred horses, watched the races, and shared in Saratoga’s hectic social life.
The town gained a reputation for its “gentlemen gamblers.” In 1870, John Morrissey built the casino in Congress Park and with his successor Richard Canfield helped make it the “Monte Carlo of America.” The presence of these men was accepted by locals as they played by the rules, supported various charities, and refrained from violence. That all changed when Arnold Rothstein, the “Grandfather of Organized Crime” and the “Brain” of New York’s Jewish mob, settled in town. Gambling soon became associated with gangland activities, especially during Prohibition. By the late nineteenth century, the Saratoga springs were being depleted by commercial use. Medical advances reduced the springs’ therapeutic appeal. Anti-Semitism
In 1877 Saratoga became the center of a controversy that attracted nationwide publicity. Joseph Seligman was a Bavaria-born Jewish banker and railway investor, a prominent and politically influential figure. On June 13th, 1877, he and his family showed up at the Grand Union where they had holidayed on previous occasions.
Although still a prime resort, business had been slack in recent times. Owner Alexander Stewart and his manager Judge Henry Hilton (a jurist and entrepreneur) blamed the cause of decline on the presence of too many “Israelites” at the hotel; many customers did not wish to stay at a hotel that freely admitted Jews. When Stewart died in April 1876, Hilton decided to impose admission restrictions. Jews were barred from registering. Seligman was denied entrance to the hotel.
What seemed initially a mere feud between two powerful men, became one of the first widely publicized anti-Semitic controversies in the United States. In a headline set entirely in capital letters, the New York Times of June 19th, 1877, ran an article on “A SENSATION AT SARATOGA.” The case became a national topic of discussion. A group of Seligman’s friends started a boycott of the hotel, eventually causing its decline and demise. Other hotels nevertheless followed suit by posting notices such as “Hebrews Need Not Apply” and “No Jews or Dogs Admitted.”
Within a few years, the mass migration of Jews from Eastern European would begin, giving rise to a spike in American anti-Semitism. From 1880 to 1910 near 1.5 million Jews fled pogroms and violent discrimination in Russia and elsewhere.
One early Jewish settler in Saratoga was Benjamin Goldsmith who had arrived from Russia in 1865. He eventually operated a prominent cigar shop on Broadway. By 1910, the (Orthodox) Jewish community in Saratoga Springs consisted of some twenty-five mostly poor families who stuck together in a neighborhood full of boarding houses and cheap restaurants nicknamed “The Gut.”
Amongst the early Russian newcomers were Simon and Tobe Steloff with their children.
Flower Girl & Book Lover
Ida Frances (Fanny) Steloff was born on September 31st, 1887, the sixth of fourteen children in an immigrant family and the first to be born in America. Her father Simon was a dry goods peddler, itinerant rabbi, and Talmudic scholar who spent much of his time in meditation while his large family was close to starvation.
Fanny’s mother died in 1890. Simon immediately remarried and continued to have more children. One cannot cogitate all day. The stepmother was said to be a cold and indifferent character. Fanny’s younger years were recalled as difficult and dark.
Beneath their home’s single lamp, Simon would teach his sons to read from religious books he kept on his shelf. His girls looked on from the dark, not allowed to be part of the educational process. It filled young Frances with pain and envy, but also ingrained a deep love for books. For the rest of her life she would associate learning with “a circle of light.”
Taken from school at a young age to help in putting food on the table, Frances started selling little bouquets of flowers to the patrons who sat on the verandas of Saratoga’s grand hotels. Aged seven, she became known as “Fanny the Flower Girl.” She also took care of her younger brother who accompanied her on her trading rounds. A small and attractive boy, he received much attention and boosted her sales.
One day, a wealthy Boston couple expressed the wish to adopt her little brother (the informal procedure by which poor children were “farmed” out was common at the time). Simon refused to let his son leave, but offered one of his daughters instead. Pleased to escape her stepmother, Fanny left with her foster parents for Boston. Being used as a housemaid, she eventually ran away to New York City and never saw her adoptive parents again.
Having established herself, she began work at Frederick Loeser’s luxury department store in Fulton Street, Brooklyn, selling corsets. Once she was transferred to the book and magazine department to assist during the Christmas rush, she quickly found her niche. Her love for books had not died. Taking jobs and learning the trade in several bookstores, she slowly made her way up. By 1919, she was employed at Brentano’s, then the largest bookselling firm in the world.
One day in December 1919, while walking towards Times Square to see her sister who worked at the Hotel Aster, she noticed a “Shop for Rent” sign in the basement of an old brownstone. On January 2nd, 1920, in the middle of theater land, she opened her tiny Gotham Book & Art store on West 45th Street. As the district was also the center of the music publishing industry, the location proved a perfect choice. She soon built up a clientele of writers, artists, actors, and musicians. George and Ida Gershwin were amongst her first and most frequent visitors as their studio was on the same block.
Wise Men Fish Here Steloff’s ‘Wise Men Fish Here’ sign in 2007
1923, planning permission was given for her building to be pulled down, forcing Frances to move her store to 51 West 47th Street. She changed its name to Gotham Book Mart (Gotham as a nickname for New York had been popularized by Washington Irving). Outside she displayed the iconic cast-iron sign “Wise Men Fish Here.”
Her customers remained loyal. John Dos Passos, H. L.Mencken, Theodore Dreiser, and many other prominent writers of the day followed her. The store continued to expand and gained a reputation for promoting the avant-garde.
Frances focused primarily on the “little” literary magazines of the day where many modernist writers would first publish their work. Steloff’s reputation reached Europe. She started to receive orders from T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and James Joyce. In return, she made every effort to supply their books to her customers, even if certain works were officially banned.
In order to smuggle Ulysses into the country, she arranged for friends in Paris to disassemble the books and mail them in gatherings. On arrival in New York these were sown back together again. Frances ordered Lady Chatterley’s Lover directly from D.H. Lawrence in Italy, arranging for customers to smuggle them in their luggage. She did the same with Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer. Her disregard of and contempt for the censor resulted in a good deal of problems with the authorities. In 1936 she braved arrest for selling André Gide’s autobiography Si le grain ne meurt (If It Die).
Gotham Book Mart managed to survive throughout the Depression and the Second World War. Over a period of time, Frances acquired a long list of loyal literary customers. Christopher Morley, William Carlos Williams, Thornton Wilder, Marianne Moore, Anais Nin, Gertrude Stein, and Alice B. Toklas, they all paid her a visit when they were in New York. Where possible Frances employed young authors. LeRoi Jones and Allen Ginsberg worked for a while at the Gotham. Tennessee Williams held his job as a clerk at the store for less than a day. Frances sacked him for being lazy and sloppy. The shop also functioned as a literary salon, hosting meetings of the James Joyce Society, organizing poetry readings, and holding exhibitions. It was a catalyst in the formation of the international avant-garde.
Frances was close friends with Edgar Stravinsky and his wife. When Edith Sitwell was in town she introduced the British poet to the composer and arranged tickets for her to attend a Stravinsky concert at Carnegie Hall. When Frances gave a party in honor of Jean Cocteau, the French author was accompanied to the occasion by Charlie Chaplin.
Having fled war-torn Europe in 1940, Henry Miller arrived in New York without a penny to his name. He turned to Frances for help. When on a brief vacation (she rarely left the premises of her bookshop) in New Mexico in the company of Georgia O’Keefe, she met Frieda Lawrence and other members of the literary commune gathered there.
In 1965 William Garland Rogers published Frances Steloff’s biography Wise Men Fish Here. That same year she received the gold medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters for her contribution to the arts. Fearing that she was slowing down, she sold Gotham Book Mart to her chosen successor Andreas Brown, the cataloger of John Updike’s manuscripts at Harvard University. The deal was struck in 1967, but Frances remained actively involved until her death, aged a hundred and one, in April 1989. Her career as a bookseller had spanned eighty-one years. Gotham Book Mart finally closed its doors in 2007.
Now home to an ice cream franchise, this building, opened in 1926, was formerly used to berth fireboats and dry firehoses, hence the tower. On this spot, at the north end of Old Fulton Street where Brooklyn Heights meets DUMO in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, had been the elaborate Victorian Fulton Ferry Terminal; the ferry, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Fulton streets, began operating in 1814 by Robert Fulton’s ferry company and was discontinued in 1924. The building contained the offices for the harbor firefighting patrol until the late 1970s. (Contrary to popular belief, Fulton didn’t invent the steamboat, but his ship the Clermont established that it could be commercially viable.)
The opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 assured the decline of this and other ferries on the East River. Fulton Ferry service ended in 1924.
In addition, the Kings County Elevated Railway opened the line, from dual western terminals at Fulton Ferry and Brooklyn Bridge (Sands Street) east to Nostrand Avenue, on April 24, 1888. It was extended east to Albany Avenue on May 30, 1888. The line was further extended to Ralph Avenue on September 20, 1888 and completed to BMT Fulton Street Line at the west end of East New York in early November.
Service from Fulton Ferry ended May 31, 1940, and the Fulton Street el was gradually cut back until all of it was eliminated. Today’s A and C trains duplicate its route.
SOURCES
NEW YORK ALMANACK JAAP HARSKAMP
Illustrations, from above: Congress Spring, Saratoga, 1849; Morrissey’s Gambling House (later Canfield Casino) 1871; Saratoga Racecourse in 1907; the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs; Lynn Gilbert’s iconic photograph of Frances Steloff in 1978; and Steloff’s ‘Wise Men Fish Here’ sign in 2007 (the year of the bookstore’s closure).
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
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RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M. WITH MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT
UPDATE ON HART ISLAND HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT.
As if you didn’t already know, the Port of New York is a pretty big place. It’s bounded by some 650 miles of developed shoreline of 5 boroughs and 7 New Jersey towns. At the peak of its activity, just after WWII, it contained 600 individual ship anchorages, piers and warehouses. It was serviced by a fleet of 575 tugboats. It was watched over by a sturdy team of fireboats.
Fireboats have been around for a long time. The City’s first official purpose-made fireboat dates to 1875, but, decades earlier, in 1809, New York City volunteer firefighters first mounted a crude hand-operated pump on a small boat. This was the beginning of the American fireboat.
Early fireboats were familiar, post-Civil War steam-powered tugboats found in many harbors. Although not specifically intended for fireboat duty, some were fitted with steam-operated pumps and nozzles with wide flexibility for auxiliary fireboat use. Their new equipment was more efficient than hand-operated pumps but the problem was that these early tugboat fireboats were not always available when needed. Also, since they were usually equipped with a single boiler, it was difficult to maneuver and to pump water at the same time.
In 1865, the Metropolitan Board of Fire Commissioners took over the management of the Fire Department and discussed the need for a “floating engine to fight fires on and along the river fronts.” They signed a contract in 1866 with John C. Baxter & Son, owners of the steam salvage tug John Fuller, for the services of the boat on a “call basis” at a yearly rental.
Fuller served the Department for more than nine years, until the first city-owned fireboat was put in service in 1875. At first, when Fuller was needed at a fire, a messenger was sent from Fire Headquarters in Mercer Street to her West Street dock, with orders to respond. The first fire at which the “floating engine” operated as a unit of the Department was on October 16, 1866, at 307 West Street, close to her berth. In his report to the Commissioners for the year 1866, Chief Elisha Kingsland wrote that the contract for the use of the Fuller had proven most satisfactory.
The need for fireboats escalated with the expansion of America’s ports and waterfronts because of the significant fire risks they posed, and cities began buying purpose-made fireboats. In 1873, the Boston Fire Department commissioned the William F. Flanders, the first American steam-powered fireboat. This was followed a year later when the New York Commissioners contracted for the construction of a fireboat priced at $23,800. When placed in service on May 12, 1875, the boat, named William F. Havemeyer, was berthed at the foot of Pike Street, East River, and Engine Company 43 was organized to man her, with two officers, two engineers, pilot and five firemen – all quartered on board. Havemeyer remained in service until 1901.
Drawing of the “William F. Havemeyer”, Harper’s Weekly, Nov 11, 1882
Even with an “official” Fire Department fireboat, competition still seems to have broken out with unofficial fire fighters. The Harper’s Weekly Havemeyer story reports this: “An amusing incident in the career of the fire-boat happened a few years ago, upon her return from a short excursion down the bay, with a party of Western chief engineers of fire departments on board. An elevator in Brooklyn was on fire, and several tug-boats were throwing streams of water upon it. As the Havemeyer approached, with a view of rendering assistance, and at the same time showing the Western visitors of what she was capable, the tugs directed the several streams against her for the purpose of driving her off. Instead, however, of leaving she turned two of her powerful streams upon them, and within five minutes had the field to herself having completely deluged her opponents. She then went to work and subdued the fire, to the great admiration of her guests.”
A second fireboat, Zophar Mills, was built in 1882 and placed in service on April 14, 1883 as Engine 51 and berthed at Pier 42, North River. Zophar Mills was the first iron hull fireboat and served the Department for 52 years, until 1934.
883 Drawing of Zophar Mills, John Landers – Beth Klein Collection
Zophar Mills was the first (or second) fireboat to respond to the General Slocum fire
The most powerful and most famous of these early fireboats was New Yorker, placed in service on February 1, 1891. She was the first New York fireboat with a steel hull and the first with a shore station. Its architecturally distinctive station near Castle Garden became a landmark as famous as the boat itself.
Fireboat “New Yorker,” tied up at the Station House, c. 1910; Fireboat, “New Yorker,” 1903. Department of Docks and Ferries Collection. NYC Municipal Archives
New Yorker was the most powerful fireboat in the world. When Admiral Dewey came to New York with the flagship “Olympia” after the battle of Manilla Bay, New Yorker led the water parade of hundreds of craft. After its storied career, the New Yorker was taken out of service in 1931. The firehouse was reaching the end of its days and Battery Park was about to be closed for several years while the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was built. Engine 57 was moved to then Pier 1 in 1941.
Fireboats commissioned after 1896 established the model on which the modern fireboat is designed. The new fireboats were equipped with multiple, high capacity boilers. They were faster and capable of delivering large volumes of water at high pressures without affecting the boat’s maneuverability. The new fireboats designed for one purpose: to deliver large volumes of water at high pressures during a fire.
The internal combustion engine was first introduced into fireboats in 1918. But the gasoline engine didn’t last long because of concerns about explosions. By 1927, many of the steam and gasoline powered fireboats had been decommissioned or were overhauled and retrofitted with more efficient and economical diesel engines or diesel/electric powered motors and pumps. By replacing steam with diesel and diesel electric power sources, boat designers were able to incorporate multiple engines and pumps into the same space occupied by large steam boilers, steam engines, and pumps. For the first time, propulsion and pumping systems could be separated, allowing fireboats to maneuver and pump at the same time. This separation of systems solved the problem that early versions of the fireboat had experienced being in the dangerous situation of choosing between propulsion and pumping.
At its peak, in the early 1900’s, the FDNY Marine Division had 10 fireboat stations within the city. Budget cuts in the late 1960’s and 1970’s reduced the fleet to 4 Marine Companies.
The role played by fireboats on 9/11 deserves an entire article. But in brief, when the towers came down, the water mains in Lower Manhattan around the area of the towers were all destroyed, so fireboats pumped water ashore to the land companies so they could battle the fires. The John J. Harvey, a small fireboat built in 1931, over three days straight pumped 38 million gallons into the city.
The fireboats were a part of a larger boatlift operation with some 150 vessels from tug boats and ferries to the Coast Guard and New York Police Department boats. Hundreds of mariners on the water that day helped to evacuate nearly 500,000 people. Fireboats remained in support for nearly two weeks.
Following 9/11, the department recognized the continued value of a fire boat fleet and developed plans for upgrading the fleet to meet the needs of the future. In the 2010 and 2011, three new and powerful boats entered service. The older boats have either gone into reserve status or retirement.
Today, the FDNY operates the most modern and powerful fire boats in the world. The two “big” boats, the “Three Forty Three” and the nearly identical “Fire Fighter II” are significantly larger than all older boats and can pump twice the water. The city got its money’s worth out of those older boats. The “Three Forty Three” replaced the “John D. McKean,” christened in 1954 and “Fire Fighter II” replaced the “Fire Fighter,” christened in 1938. A third boat “The Bravest” is the fastest of the fleet, cruising at 50 knots when needed. The newest of the big boats, named for the Deputy Commissioner killed on 9-11, “William M. Feehan,” was delivered in the fall of 2015.
Stephen Blank RIHS December 11, 2021
William M. Feehan, Courtesy MetalCraft Marine
WE ARE OFF FOR A FEW DAYS, SO JUST HOLD YOUR BREATH TO SEE IF YOUR ANSWERS WERE CORRECT!
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
In 1895, the old building at 37 East 12th Street underwent a flurry of sales. Emil Bloch purchased it from John W. Condit “for a sum less than $150,000,” according to the Real Estate Record & Guide. Shortly afterward, on October 11, he resold it to Jacob Hirsh, “for improvement.” And a month later, Hirsh sold the property to architect and builder Albert Wagner. On November 30 the Record & Guide reported that Wagner “will improve the plot by erecting an eight or nine-story modern business structure.”
Wagner was already responsible for many mercantile and loft buildings throughout the city. For this eight-story structure, he turned to the Italian Renaissance for inspiration. The two-story base was clad in cast iron and encrusted with intricate arabesques.
Wagner used terra cotta to lavishly embellish the upper floors. The three-story mid-section featured a centered, full-height, engaged Ionic column. A complex band framed this area, which was flanked by two pairs of three-story, barley twisted colonettes. The dramatic treatment of the top three floors included shell-carved pediments supported by Corinthian columns at the sixth floor, and an arcade of deep-set windows at the eighth.
The building was completed by December 1896 and it filled with garment manufacturers. Among the first was Henry Cohen & Co., makers of ladies’ silk waists, or shirtwaists.
In March 1902 Fromberg & Goldstein moved in, doing business as the newly-formed Fashion Cloak and Suit Company. It was not long before the fledgling firm was in trouble. In September Siegel Brothers had not been paid for 13 pieces of cloth, valued at $233 and filed a complaint. But, according to The New York Times on September 12, when Assistant Deputy Mayforth went to the factory, he “found it closed, and was informed that it had been cleaned out on Saturday last.”
The firm’s creditors did not wait for authorities to find the missing owners. The Fur Trade Review reported, “On September 18 a petition in involuntary bankruptcy was filed against the concern.”
In the meantime, other apparel firms fared much better. Operating from the building at the time was Edelman Bros., makers of “misses’ and children’s cloaks and suits.” In its January 1904 issue, Cloaks and Furs remarked, “Every season they turn out many new and exclusive styles for the young folks which make ‘hits.'”
Other apparel-related tenants were cloak manufacturer Moses Natelson; Horwitz & Goodman; A. Lehman & Co., makers of tailored suits; and La Mode Skirt Co.
A. Lehman & Co. catered to the carriage trade. An advertisement on September 9, 1908 touted its “Exceptionally attractive Designs made in the latest Fall models. Critically correct to your measure.” The prices ranged from $15 to $35–the more expensive equal to about $1,000 today.
During the 1910’s the building was home to D. Kaplan, makers of shirtwaists. The firm employed two men and 26 women. Other tenants were Nelson and Ladin, another shirtwaist manufacturer; A. Ratkowsky, “medium-priced furs;” and Kurshan Bros., importers of “venetians” (worsted fabrics used in suits, coats and dresses).
The Depression years saw a change in the tenant list. While at least one garment firm, Benjamin Margolis, maker of pajamas and blouses, moved in in 1931, a variety of industries were now represented. That same year the Crown Footstool Corporation leased a floor. They were joined by the Joy Packaging Co., Inc., which sold and distributed candy.
Most notable, however, was the Communist-based The Workers School Forum, which leased space on the second floor by 1932.
A tenant with a similar political bent, the newspaper L’Unita Oberaia, set up its operation here in 1935. The two-year old publication was run, according to The Daily Worker on February 7, by “revolutionary Italian workers.” The article explained…
this Italian language newspaper has conducted the most relentless struggle against the penetration of Italian fascist propaganda and against the persecution of Italian workers in this country by the agents of Mussolini. It has been the best guide of the Italian workers in all their daily struggles against the attacks of capitalism upon their standard of living and against the deportation weapon of the bosses.
The newspaper did not go unnoticed by the Federal Government. The Massachusetts House Committee on Un-American Activities report of 1938 described it as “An Italian monthly which the Communist Party admits is under Communist influence.”
Other tenants were decidedly less political, like the Clyde Furniture Co., here at the same time. After mid-century the Acme Bulletin & Directory Board Corp. leased space in the building.
But the last quarter of the century saw significant change in the district, and around 1975 the Kenshire Galleries moved in. In its December 7, 1987 issue, New York Magazine mentioned that “Nineteenth-century Italian gilt armchairs, $6,000 a pair, and an antique French Aubusson fire screen, $2,200,” were available here. The upscale store remained until around 2015.
In February 2015, The New York Times journalist Vivlian Marino reported on Edward J. Minskoff’s upcoming conversion of 37 East 12th Street to residential space. The president and founder of Edward J. Minskoff Equities, he announced that there would be just six units, pointing out “the room sizes are big and the ceiling heights range from 13 to 16 feet.”
The renovation, which was completed in 2016, resulted in one apartment per floor from the second through sixth, and a four-bedroom duplex on the top two floors. A three-bedroom, two-story maisonette (called The Townhouse by realtors) has a private entrance on the ground floor.
Albert Wagner’s striking facade remains unchanged and is worth a pause to adequately appreciate.
photographs by the author
Our lighthouse is at the Bronx Botanical Garden annual holiday display, Photo by Vicki Feinmel
Rose window at Chapel of the Good Shepherd Laura Hussey & Ed Litcher got it right!
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) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated:
DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN
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The tree—a 60-footer from the Adirondacks—made its debut in Madison Square on December 21, 1912, lit with 1,200 colored lights donated by the Edison company. It was such a hit, decorated Christmas trees soon became the norm in many city parks and squares.
I haven’t been able to confirm the date of the painting. Cornoyer moved to New York City in 1899 and spent several years here, so if the tree in this nocturne isn’t the very first park Christmas tree, it’s likely to be one of the firsts.
What a beauty it is, next to what could be the tower of Madison Square Garden in the blue glow of a winter’s night!
Manhattan Bridge over the Lower East Side NINA LUBLIN, ED LITCHER, ARON EISENPREISS, GLORIA HERMAN AND LAURA HUSSEY GOT IT RIGHT!
RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M.
WITH MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT
UPDATE ON HART ISLAND
HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT.
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)
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
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Standing across the street at Grand and Orchard, you just know this unusual building with the black cornice and curvy corner windows has a backstory. Though it’s a little rundown and has a strange pink paint job, this was once the home of a mighty 19th century department store known as Ridley’s.
Ridley’s story begins in the mid-1800s. Decades before Ladies Mile became Gilded Age New York’s premier shopping district, browsing and buying fashionable goods meant going to Grand Street, which was lined with fine shops and dry goods emporiums east of Broadway in the antebellum city.
The best known of these dry goods emporiums and a rival to neighbor Lord & Taylor (located on Broadway and Grand) was Ridley’s.
Founded by English-born Edward A. Ridley as a small millenary store at 311 Grand Street in 1848, according to a Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) report, Ridley’s expanded by buying many of the former residential buildings on the block. Ridley then built a new mansard-roof structure at the corner of Grand and Allen Streets accessible to street car lines and the ferry to Grand Street in Brooklyn.
In the 1880s, Grand Street was still a shopping district but no longer elite. Lord & Taylor had already relocated uptown to a prime Ladies Mile site at Broadway and 20th Street. But Ridley’s sons, who had taken over the business, commissioned a new building at the corner of Grand and Orchard Streets.
Five stories tall with a cast-iron facade, the new Ridley’s opened in 1886. The space featured a “curved, three-bay pavilion that may have been originally crowned by a squat dome, or a flagpole,” the LPC report stated.
Inside, 52 “branches of trade” sold everything from clothes to furniture to toys and employed approximately 2,500 people. Stables behind the store “provided parking for horses and carriages,” according to The Curious Shoppers Guide to New York City, by Pamela Keach.
The amazing thing is, the new block-long Ridley’s would only occupy the space for 15 years. In 1901, Ridley’s went out of business, according to an Evening World article that year—partly a victim of its increasingly unappealing location on the crowded Lower East Side.
After Ridley’s departed, the space was chopped up into smaller retail outlets. Above is the building in 1939-1941 with a housewares store on the ground floor. Today, a men’s clothing store exists there.
The Ridley’s store today in pastel pink
A PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT
Ron Crawford’s new print of the Queensboro Bridge is available at the kiosk, a perfect holiday gift, $35-
RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M. WITH MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT
UPDATE ON HART ISLAND HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT. REGISTER ON THIS LINK:
William Marcy “Boss” Tweed A guest at the Penitentiary for a year
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) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated:
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
RIHS (C) FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
You can always spot a New York newbie by their pronunciation of wide, bustling Houston Street—as if they were in Texas rather than Manhattan
But the way New Yorkers pronounce the name of this highway-like crosstown road that serves as a dividing line for many downtown neighborhoods begs the question: Why do we say “house-ton,” and what’s the backstory of this unusual street name, anyway?
It all started in 1788 with Nicholas Bayard III, owner of a 100-acre farm located roughly in today’s SoHo (one boundary of which is today’s Bayard Street).
Bayard was having financial difficulties, so he sold off parcels of his farm and turned them into real estate in the growing young metropolis, according to a 2017 New York Times piece. “The property was converted into 35 whole or partial blocks within seven east-west and eight north-south streets, on a grid pattern,” explained the Times.
Bayard decided to name one of those east-west streets after the new husband of his daughter Mary, William Houstoun (above)—a three-time delegate to the Continental Congress from Georgia. Houstoun’s unusual last name comes from his ancient Scottish lineage, states Encyclopedia of Street Names and Their Origins by Henry Moscow.
The street name, Houstoun, is spelled correctly in the city’s Common Council minutes from 1808, wrote Moscow, as well as on an official map from 1811, the year the grid system was invented. (It’s also spelled right on the 1822 map above).
In the 19th century, the city developed past this former northern boundary street. East Houston Street subsumed now-defunct North Street on the East Side and extended through the West Side (above photo at Varick Street in 1890). At some point, the spelling was corrupted into “Houston.”
The Times proposes a possible reason why the “u” was cut: Gerard Koeppel, author of City on a Grid: How New York Became New York, thought it could have to do with Sam Houston emerging in the public consciousness in the 1840s and 1850s as senator and governor of Texas.
Whatever the reason, the new spelling stuck—with the original late 18th century pronunciation.
RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M. WITH MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT
UPDATE ON HART ISLAND HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT. REGISTER ON THIS LINK:
STRECKER LABORATORY AFTER IT WAS ABANDONED IN THE 1960’S
SOURCES
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
[Top Image: Danny Lyon/US National Archives and Records Administration via Wikipedia; Second image: Wikipedia; third image: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.; fifth image: New-York Historical Society; sixth image: MCNY 1971 by George Roos x2010.11.763]
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
We have been celebrating the people and artists Amanda and Brad Matthews from Lexington, Kentucky. We are shocked to hear of the devastation and death on the State. Our prayers are for all the wonderful people of Kentucky at this terrible time.
This morning Amanda texted me “We got home in the dark last night. Our farm and animals all seem to be fine, but have family members list homes and businesses and who have friends who died in the storms.”
Hurray for The Girl Puzzle and the people who have brought it to Roosevelt island. Piece by piece, RI is becoming an urban outdoor analogue to the installations that appear in the Storm King Art Center along the Hudson upstate, but for the most part, the statuary here helps us know our history. A continuing tribute to the leader of the RIHS.
And the photo looks like automobiles exiting into Manhattan from the 59th St Bridge… But let’s keep using RI as the venue for art teaching us about our history.
The old bollards to which vessels tied up in the West Channel near the Otterness statues extolling real estate. The prow of a vessel jutting out from the Island into the West Channel. The Becker restoration and renovation of the Octagon. The buildings along Main Street and the new construction at Cornell Tech. The preserved ruins telling more of our history Then the elegance of FDR Memorial. What a wonderful place our Island is! Thanks to the people with the vision and talent to create it!!
Sent recently from an iPhone transmitting near my home planet
Jay Jacobson
Judith, it was my pleasure entirely. All the fiends who joined me thought it was a very special afternoon celebrating an extraordinary woman, the artist, you, and all the civic work it took to make the installation happen. I’m now on the Advisory Board of another nonprofit in Lexington, MA working to put up the first monument to women in town. They selected Meredith Bergmann as sculptor.
The thing about Amanda’s work is that she makes the women and the work come alive. That’s no easy task.
Let’s stay in touch. Here are some beautiful photos. – Namita Luthra
Manhattan end of Queensboro Bridge, lower deck, approaching Second Avenue. Small structures to left of the bridge traffic are stairs to and from the underground trolley terminal for cars crossing the bridge that stopped at the then-Welfare Island, where elevators brought passengers to the surface level. Bonus history factoid: photo is after June 4, 1951, when First and Second Avenues were converted to one-way traffic. Andy Sparberg
Hara Reiser, Gloria Herman, Aron Eisenpreiss, Alexis Villafane also got it right!
SOURCES
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
[Top Image: Danny Lyon/US National Archives and Records Administration via Wikipedia; Second image: Wikipedia; third image: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.; fifth image: New-York Historical Society; sixth image: MCNY 1971 by George Roos x2010.11.763]
Tags:Houston Street 1970s, Houston Street Name NYC, Houston Street Old Photos, Houston Street Origin NYC, Houston Street Pronunciation Posted in East Village, Lower East Side, Lower Manhattan, Maps, Random signage, SoHo, Transit, West Village
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
Judith Berdy, Rebecca Seawright, Ben Kallos, Susan Rosenthal, Tad Sudol with Nellie
You can touch the miniature and feel the Braille text
Christina Delfico tests the surface
Susan Rosenthal and Shelton Haynes with restored lighthouse
Reflecting in the orb
That was a large bow!
The gulls were a receptive audience
After event at The Sanctuary. A perfect afternoon celebrating Nellie, Amanda and our Island
CONFLUENCE Speech by Judith Berdy at Dedication
We are at a major confluence. The joining of the East and Harlem Rivers, and the Long Island Sound. This Island, where the bodies of water meet, sometimes as a swirling sea. A location with many turbulence, including shipwrecks, on the unseen rock formations in the rivers.
This site was adopted as a fort by an asylum inmate to protect us from the imagined invasion that never came.
Nellie Bly came here to see and experience the turbulence of an asylum that was in turmoil, and was not a peaceful respite space for those whose lives had been upended. Lives interrupted by illness, madness and complicated situations for women towards the end of the late 19th century; those women depicted here by Natalie, Cutia, Audrey and Mioko.
At this northern tip of Blackwell’s Island, many were disillusioned, uncaring and failed to recognize human suffering. Elizabeth Cochrane used her pen to start a movement and work to make those lives better.
For many years, I heard from dozens of writers, playwrights and actors who wanted to know more about the girl in the madhouse. They were all intrigued by this one small aspect of Nellie’s life – only 10 days. Her life of advocacy went around the world to tell the stories that were hidden from view.
A few years back, Susan Rosenthal, our highly driven president of RIOC, initiated a campaign to recognize and celebrate Ms. Bly here on Roosevelt Island.
As a member of the team I was happily amazed at Amanda’s design which materialized into The Girl Puzzle, not only celebrating one person but representing so many women.
Lighthouse Park is very special to me. When I arrived here 44 years ago, it was just a muddy field with a dark lighthouse and little more than that. I was here at its dedication in 1980. This has always been my favorite park, with its panoramic views, the river traffic and, so many times, people fishing & catching bass from the river. On the coldest days of winter, the seagulls sun themselves here, their only respite from the biting cold.
The calmness here will now be lit by this wonderful restoration of the Lighthouse by Tom Fenniman especially with the rebuilt and historically correct top glowing in the night, reflecting the faces of the Girl Puzzle.
I cannot say Thank You enough to everyone who worked so long and hard to make this day come true. I also welcome all our friends from Coler, our closest neighbors, to come to this park, to continue to enjoy the ambiance and remember that out of the swirling waters will arise an area of communal meeting and enjoyment.
Judith Berdy President Roosevelt Island Historical Society
p.s. Thanks to all the RIOC staff and Administration who worked so hard to make this day memorable
Red tailed hawk on RIvercross terrace, probably scouting dinner!
Hi. Just read about the unusual birds of NY. This one was on the Rivercross stoop in September. He wasn’t bothered by the group who gathered to observe and try to help what we thought was a lost baby. Ignored us for the most part and then when someone brought a box to keep him safe until help could come he just flew away…Marcia Ellis
SOURCES
Roosevelt Island Historical Society
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
TODAY AT NOON. THE EASY WAY TO GET CLOSE TO THE LIGHTHOUSE PARK IS TO TAKE Q102 BUS GOING NORTH. YOU CAN GET THE BUS IN FRONT OF FOODTOWN. THE BUS WILL DROP YOU OFF AT THE COLER ENTRANCE. THERE IS A CLEAR WALKWAY TO LIGHTHOUSE PARK.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2021
The 542nd Edition
5 FAMOUS BIRDS
THAT HAVE CALLED
NYC HOME
from UNTAPPED NEW YORK
Few birds have thrown New Yorkers into such a frenzy as the mysterious Mandarin Duck did in 2018. The tiny bird made a big splash when he turned up at the Central Park Pond near the Hallett Sanctuary that fall. Mandarin Ducks are usually found in East Asia, so how this guy got to Central Park was quite puzzling. Although the bird had a band on its leg, no one claimed it. When the duck first appeared, the NYC Parks Department told Untapped New York, “It is likely that this duck escaped captivity or was released. Unfortunately, it’s not totally uncommon for people to release pets into a park when they can no longer care for them. This is both against Park rules, and bad for the animal. We have confirmed that it did not come from any of the local zoos.”
Before the Mandarin Duck disappeared as mysteriously as it emerged, there was Mandarin Duck fever in New York City. Dogs were dressed up as the duck, t-shirts were made, The Cut branded the bird “Hot Duck,” and the bird even made it to the pages of gossip website TMZ! The duck made trips to New Jersey and Brooklyn while he was in New York, and was last spotted in March 2019, right before the spring mating season.
In certain parts of Brooklyn, you may catch a flash of green against a tangled nest of twigs and branches. The brightly colored birds who make these massive communal homes are Monk Parrots. The grey hoods that color their foreheads inspired their name. Native to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, they have been famously spotted in the spires of Green-Wood Cemetery and at Brooklyn College. New Yorkers have also seen the parrots in Brooklyn neighborhoods like Red Hook, Bay Ridge, Manhattan Beach, and Canarsie and in some parts of Queens and the Bronx.
According to Stephen Baldwin, an enthusiast who runs the site BrooklynParrots.com, tens of thousands of Monk Parrots were sent to the United States from Argentina in the 1960s. Argentina had an overabundance of these birds and they were ruining crops. It’s unclear however how exactly the parrots came to be “in the wild.” The most popular story is that they arrived in an unmarked crate at New York’s JFK Airport in 1967 and were accidentally released by a curious airport employee. Another theory states that the birds are released pets, set free by buyers who regretted their talkative purchases. A final version of the origin story is that they all flew away from a shuttered pet shop on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. As of 2020, Baldwin estimates there are about 40 birds at Brooklyn College, 60 at Green-Wood Cemetery, and perhaps another 50 in all of South Brooklyn (including Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Manhattan Beach, and Canarsie).
All photos from the MTA Photos Flickr
The high bridges and skyscrapers of New York City make the perfect home for a population of Peregrine Falcons. These predatory birds, native to the East Coast, can be found nesting on the Brooklyn Bridge, Verrazano Bridge, Throgs Neck Bridge, George Washington Bridge, Metropolitan Life Building, Bank of New York, St. Regis Hotel, and Riverside Church. The high perches of New York City’s architecture and infrastructure offer the falcons a great vantage point for hunting their prey. From their lookouts, they can swoop down at speeds of 200 miles per hour!
New York City’s falcons were among the first animals to receive aid from the Endangered Species Act of 1973. According to the NYC Parks Department, over 145 falcons have been successfully hatched and banded by biologists since 1983. Now, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Protection, while Peregrine Falcons are listed as an endangered species in New York State, New York City has the largest urban population of them.
The most recent celebrity bird sighting happened in February 2021 when a rare Snowy Owl took up residence in Central Park. The appearance of the majestic white bird was a welcomed bright spot in an otherwise gloomy second winter of the pandemic. With little else to do, crowds of New Yorkers flocked to the park to catch a glimpse of this visitor. Wild City author Thomas Hynes spent a snowy Saturday night with the Snowy Owl and counted a crowd of roughly 100 admirers, which included actor and comedian Steve Martin! The owl didn’t disappoint when it appeared atop one of the turrets on the 1864 pump house at the Reservoir.
Before the Snowy Owl appeared last winter, the last sighting of this species in Central Park was in 1890, more than 100 years ago! While these owls are usually found in the Arctic regions of North America, Europe or Asia, they pass New York in their normal winter migratory patterns. You can see a Snowy Owl specimen on display in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall of the American Museum of Natural History. This specific bird was shot by Theordore Roosevelt himself near his home on Long Island in 1876 and donated to the museum in 1911.
Image Courtesy of Ravensbeard Wildlife Center
Little Rockefeller, a small Saw-Whet Owl brought some Christmas cheer to New York City in 2020 when he hitched a ride from Oneonta to Rockefeller Center inside the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Though her stay in New York City was brief, the tiny owl with big eyes captured the hearts of New Yorkers who followed her story of rehabilitation. After he was discovered by a crew member on the Christmas tree transport team, Little Rockefeller, as she was dubbed, was sent to the Ravensbeard Wildlife Center in Saugerties to recover from his journey. Though it looks like a baby, Rocky, as the owl was affectionately called, is a full-grown Saw-Whet Owl. Saw-whet Owls are the smallest owls in the northeast. At Ravensbeard Wildlife Center, Rocky was given fluids and fed “all the mice she would eat.” After receiving a clean bill of health from the vet, the owl was released back into the wild at dusk. If you ever get the chance to go see a rare bird in New York City, please keep in mind the Audubon’s guide for ethical bird photography, which reminds us to avoid causing birds any unnecessary stress or disruption.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY THE LIGHTHOUSE FROM COLER HOSPITAL 1950’S BY ELEANOR SCHETLIN
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) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated:
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
RIHS (C) FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Today at 3 p.m. the glass was being installed at the top of the structure, a project in the works for more than a decade. Thomas Fenniman, architect has worked diligently to re-create the wonderful cap to the structure. It will be finished within the next months, but is worth a visit to see it along with THE GIRL PUZZLE.
Lighthouse Park lives!
Lighthouse Park with and elaborate landscape in the early 20th centuryThe plaque is gone now, and hopefully it will be reconstructed on the site.
This small Lighthouse stands at the northern tip of Roosevelt Island on a projection of land which was at one time a separate island connected to the main land by a wooden bridge. Local legend maintains that during the 19th century a patient from the nearby Lunatic Asylum was permitted to build a stone fort on this outcropping as he feared an invasion by the British. When plans were formulated to build the Lighthouse, this patient was allegedly persuaded to surrender the fort only after much cajoling and a bribe of bogus money. The tale continues that the patient himself demolished the fort and built the new Lighthouse, carving the inscription:
This is the work Was done by John McCarthy Who built the Light House from he bottom to the Top All ye who do pass by may Pray for his soul when he dies.
While construction of the Lighthouse cannot actually be credited to the diligent Mr. McCarthy, the warden of the Lunatic Asylum did specifically mention in his annual report of 1870 an “industrious but eccentric” patient who had built near the Asylum a large section of seawall, thereby reclaiming a sizable piece of land. The warden further remarked that this patient “is very assiduous, and seems proud of his work, and he has reason to be, for it is a fine structure, strong and well built.” Whether or not this patient was the model for the legend of the fort and Lighthouse builder, a connection of the Lighthouse and the Lunatic Asylum is a historical fact. In May 1872, City official resolved to “effectually light” the Asylum and the tip of the island. The following September, the Lighthouse was completed , with lamps furnished by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. The stone structure was built under the direction of the Board of Governors of the Commission of Charities and Correction, the body which administered the numerous City institutions on the island., At that time. The supervising architect for this Commission was James Renwick, Jr.
James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895), was son of a highly regarded professor at Columbia College. He began his notable career in 1836 as an engineer supervising the construction of the great Distributing Reservoir at 42nd Street for the Croton water supply system. In 1840, his drawings were selected in a competition for the design of Grace Church, which, at that time, was New York’s wealthiest and most fashionable congregation. Renwick, only twenty-five and entirely self-trained as an architect, achieved instant recognition. During his long and highly successful career he designed many important buildings, including the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Main building at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, the William E. Dodge Villa (now Greyston Conference Center) and St. Patrick’s Cathedral-both designated landmarks, as is Grace Church. As an art collector and yachtsman, Renwick’s association with the Charities and Corrections Board, in all likelihood, had philanthropic motivations. He designed the Workhouse, City Hospital and Smallpox Hospital on Blackwell’s Island (as Roosevelt Island was then known); the Inebriate and Lunatic Asylum on Ward’s Island; and the main building of the Children’s Hospital on Randall’s Island. He also designed several smaller structures, among them, the Lighthouse on Roosevelt Island.
The Lighthouse is approximately fifty feet tall and is constructed of rock-faced, random gray ashlar. The stone (gray gneiss) was quarried on the island itself, predominately by convict labor from the Penitentiary on the island, and was used for many of the institutional buildings erected there. The Lighthouse is encircled by a small yard paved with flagstone. An entry walk at the south is flanked by stone bollards which have pyramidal tops carved with simple trefoils. The Lighthouse is octagonal in plan and vertically organized according to the tripartite division of the classical column-base, shaft and capital. The base is separated from the superstructure by a series of simple moldings which are interrupted to the south side by a projecting gable above the single entrance doorway. This doorway, which an incised pointed arch above a splayed keystone with flanking corbels, is designed in a rustic version of the Gothic style. The stepped stones of the Lighthouse are pierced above the doorway by two slit windows which light the interior staircase. The top of the shaft is adorned with Gothic foliate ornamentation in high relief, separated by simple moldings from the brackets which support the observation platform. These elements form the crowning feature of the Lighthouse. The octagonal lantern, originally surmounted by a picturesque conical roof is of glass and steel. It is surrounded by a simple metal railing.
The rock-faced stone and the sparing uses of boldly scaled ornamental detail give the Lighthouse the strength and character of a medieval fortification. In its isolated setting, the Lighthouse is a prominent and dramatic feature of Roosevelt Island.
A VIEW OF THE ISLAND FROM MANHATTAN SHOWING METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL JAY JACOBSON GOT IT!!
RIHS/NYPL ZOOM PROGRAM ON DECEMBER 21, 2021 AT 6:30 P.M.
WITH MELINDA HUNT, FOUNDER OF THE HART ISLAND PROJECT
UPDATE ON HART ISLAND
HART ISLAND, THE HOME OF THE NYC MUNICIPAL CEMETERY HAS HAD MANY CHANGES IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. THE ISLAND IS NOW ADMINISTERED BY THE NYC PARKS DEPARTMENT. WATCH FOR REGISTRATION DETAILS NEXT 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)
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
