The City of Greenbelt has gone into the history books as the first community in the United States built as a federal venture in housing. From the beginning it was designed as a complete city, with businesses, schools, roads and facilities for recreation and town government. Greenbelt was a planned community, noted for its interior walkways, underpasses, its system of inner courtyards and one of the first mall-type shopping centers in the United States. Modeled after English garden cities of the 19th century, Greenbelt took its name from the belt of green forestland with which it was surrounded and from the belts of green between neighborhoods that offered easy contact with nature.
In 1997 Greenbelt celebrated its 60th anniversary. To coincide with this historic event, the United States Department of Interior saw it fit to recognize Historic Greenbelt as a National Historic Landmark. At such a time it was appropriate to ask how this early prototype of the planned community has weathered through the years. Have the design concept and the social and cultural features built into that design succeeded in fulfilling the town’s early promise? Greenbelt is one of three greenbelt towns envisioned by Rexford Guy Tugwell, friend and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and created under the Resettlement Administration in 1935 under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. (Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are the other two towns. A fourth town, to be located in New Jersey, was never built.)
9224-9238 EDMONSTON ROAD (TOWNHOUSES) FROM SOUTH. – Springhill Lake Apartments, 9230 Edmonston Road, Greenbelt, Prince George’s County, MD HABS MD-1216-4
Greenbelt was an experiment in both the physical and social planning that preceded its construction. Homes were grouped in superblocks, with a system of interior walkways permitting residents to go from home to town center without crossing a major street. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic were carefully separated. The two curving major streets were laid out upon and below a crescent-shaped natural ridge. Shops, school, ball fields, and community buildings were grouped in the center of this crescent.
The architecture was streamlined in the Art Deco style popular at that time—with curving lines, glass brick inserts in the facades of apartment buildings, and buttresses along the front wall of the elementary school. These buttresses create vertical lines framing a set of bas reliefs by WPA sculptor Lenore Thomas. (These features make the original buildings of the city some of the finest examples of Art Deco to be found in the Washington area. Indeed, the Greenbelt Community Center is considered one of the ten best structures in Art Deco style within the United States.) A sculpture by Thomas, a mother and child statue, graces the town center. Greenbelt was also a social experiment. Designed to provide low income housing, it drew 5,700 applicants for the original 885 residences. The first families were chosen not only to meet income criteria , but also to demonstrate willingness to participate in community organizations. (In 1941 another 1,000 homes were added to provide housing for families coming to Washington in connection with defense programs of World War II.)
The first families, who arrived on October 1, 1937, found no established patterns or institutions of community life. Almost all were under 30 years of age. All considered themselves pioneers in a new way of life. A mix of blue and white collar workers, they reflected the religious composition of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish; but because of the racial bias controlling public policy at that time, all were white.
Almost immediately the new residents formed a town government—the first city manager form of government in the State of Maryland. They also formed the first kindergarten in Prince George’s County. During that first year they also formed a citizens’ association, a journalism club which published the first newspaper (still published today on a weekly basis as the Greenbelt News Review), and a community band. Interdenominational church services were held in the elementary school auditorium, which also functioned as a community center. The Greenbelt Health Association opened to provide hospital services. Police, fire and rescue squads formed. Residents held a town fair that first summer. In 1939 the first public swimming pool opened in Greenbelt—first in the Washington area. Numerous clubs flourished. In fact, Greenbelters were so busy attending meetings that the town council called a moratorium on meetings between Christmas and New Year’s in 1939 to permit residents to spend time at home with their families.
Greenbelt is also unique for its cooperative institutions. Boston merchant and philanthropist Edward Filene provided funds to Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., which operated a food store, gas station, drug store, barber shop, movie theater, valet shop, beauty parlor, variety store, and tobacco shop. In December 1941 citizens within the community were able to raise funds to purchase GCS.
In 1952, when Congress voted to sell off the greenbelt towns, citizens in Greenbelt formed a housing cooperative (Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation, later Greenbelt Homes, Inc.) which purchased the homes. (The other two greenbelt towns were purchased privately.) Citizens also formed a cooperative baby sitting pool, a cooperative nursery school, a cooperative kindergarten, and a cooperative savings and loan association. In fact, when Greenbelters confronted any kind of a new problem, their typical first approach was to form a new cooperative.
Today much of the original features of this planned community still exist. In addition to it, the city itself has expanded to include additional shopping centers, high rise office buildings, garden apartments, townhouses and private development. With the construction of the BaltimoreWashington Parkway, the Capital Beltway, and Kenilworth Avenue—which meet in Greenbelt— the city has become a center of major residential and commercial development within the Prince George’s County.
Nevertheless, legacies of the past remain. The cooperative spirit and the strong sense of community are passed on to new generations of Greenbelters, and around a dozen of the original families still live in the city. Indeed, many of their children and grandchildren have also chosen to reside in Greenbelt. Perhaps their dedication to the community is the best answer to the question raised earlier: Has the town’s promise been fulfilled?
For more on Greenbelt’s unique place in the history of American culture, visit Virtual Greenbelt, a project sponsored by the University of Maryland.
Other informational sites about Greenbelt’s history, include the Greenbelt Museum , and the Tugwell Room a unique collection at the Greenbelt Branch of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System.
ELEVATED SUBWAY AT CHATHAM SQUARE. 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 Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
Sources GREENBELT HISTORY GOVERNMENT WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
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For over 3 years Nick has posted his daily art on Tumblr and his website, Enjoy the unique views of our city,
4.3.22 Lunchtime drawing: King’s Halal Food has been setting up on Gansevoort Street since the Whitney Museum opened in 2017 (left). The Veggie Juices cart first eta up yesterday (right). We’re all under the High Line today staying out of the rain.
This month I’m highlighting food carts periodically via my daily drawing project, a theme chosen by my Patreon members (Join me!!!) Also, check out the Street Vendor Project fighting to create just working conditions for street vendors in NYC.
4.2.22 Lunchtime drawing: Kicking off this month’s drawing theme, “Street Vendor Food carts”, with a favorite, NY Dosas in Washington Square Park! There’s even my drawing on the cart.
Food carts will be a thread through April’s drawings, and the topic was voted on by my Patreon members. Check out my story to see what the options were—and join me on Patreon so you can vote next month! Patreon.com/nickgolebiewski or link in bio.
Open to all though, what are your favorite NYC food carts and trucks?
4.1.22 Lunchtime drawing: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights (Columbia University’s neighborhood if you’re not familiar) is still unfinished! Construction started on this Episcopal Church back in 1892. I remember seeing a live pipe organ performance to a film projected by Rooftop Films here so many years back, participating in a “blessing of the bikes”, and have always loved their connection to the arts.-Apr 01, 2022 01:06 pm on Tumblr
3.31.22 Lunchtime drawing: Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! Independently owned and in business since 2007 (they also have a spot in Jersey City.)This sketch closes out the month’s “Independent Bookstores of Brooklyn” theme voted on by my Patreon members. Join at any level and vote for April’s theme for this drawing-a-day project at patreon.com/nickgolebiewski-Mar 31, 2022 03:23 pm on Tumblr
3.30.22 Lunchtime drawing: Last week I drew some magnolia blossoms, and then there was a below-freezing snap in the weather, and they all froze and became these wilted things.-Mar 30, 2022 01:12 pm on Tumblr
3.29.22 Lunchtime drawing: Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle Corp on Elizabeth Street at closing time (if only I arrived a few minutes earlier!) They’re known for their stone mill rice rolls and opened here in Chinatown in 2019.-Mar 29, 2022 05:35 pm on Tumblr
THE LATEST WAY TO FALL OVER SOME GUY’S SCOOTER BLOCKING THE DOOR ON A SUBWAY…
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
NICK’S LUNCHBOX
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I decided to walk up Broadway and write about the different buildings I spotted. The first one that attracted my attention was 670 Broadway. You will have to wait fort the rest of the sites, since this building distracted me and a story was born, courtesy of Daytonian in Manhattan.
When Henry Sands Brooks died in 1833 Henry Jr. inherited his father’s men’s clothing business. Then his sons, Elisha, Edward, Daniel and John took over the business in 1850, renaming it Brooks Brothers. Theirs would be the oldest men’s clothier in the United States, founded by their grandfather on April 7, 1818.
Seven years later they moved northward from the Catherine Street to the northeast corner of Broadway and Grand Street. The brothers intended to lure upscale customers and outfitted the store with gas-lit Tiffany chandeliers. And, indeed, they did. The suit Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865 was purchased at this store.
Again following the northward migration of the fashionable shopping district, Brooks Brothers moved again in 1869 to Union Square. Here, already, the elegant mansions surrounding the park were being razed as high-end retail emporiums took their place.
In 1873 Adele L. S. Stevens still lived in the magnificent Stevens mansion, one of the survivors of the fashionable Bond Street Area; once the most exclusive residential neighborhood in the city. The old mansion, noted in The New York Times that year as being “well known as the repository of the famous Stevens collection of paintings,” spanned three lots – Nos. 670, 672 and 674 Broadway.
But by now the grand old homes of New York’s wealthy along Broadway were being replaced by commercial structures. The Stevens mansion was no exception. By August the house had been demolished and a new Brooks Brothers building was going up.
“The building, when completed, will, from its admirable site, and the manner in which it is to be constructed, add much to the beauty of Broadway,” predicted The New York Times on August 30, 1873
The line continues northward on a conventional elevated line; below photo shows the next station, 207th Street, (nycsubway.org) looking west. At this point, the #1 line does not follow Broadway, but runs atop Nagle Avenue and 10th Avenue, rejoining Broadway at 218th Street.
Red brick, white stone and cast iron combine in handsome contrast — photo by Alice Lum
“The foundation will be of hard quarry stone and brick,” said the article, “and the walls three feet in thickness. The front will be of dressed brick, with Ohio sand-stone trimmings. The floors will be of yellow pine, sustained by double iron columns…The building, exclusive of the lot, will cost $275,000. The architects are Messrs. J. W. and Geo. E. Harney.”
George Harney produced a five-story store and factory building of red brick with contrasting stone trim. The architect borrowed from several styles. Groups of Romanesque arched openings were supported by brick, stone or cast iron columns. Between the second and third floors, Eastlake detailing was carved into the stone course and enormous, decorative iron tie plates accented the broad, brick pilasters between the third and fourth stories.
The great decorative cast iron tie plates spell out the construction date 1-8-7-3 — photo by Alice Lum Harney created a visual extension of the cornice by aligning the brick corbels above the top floor with the row of brackets. At the first floor, the exceptional cast iron work was executed by Michael Grosz and Sons.
Brooks Brothers continued to attract the carriage trade. A few days before Christmas in 1876 The Times mentioned that “The firm do not, in fact, pretend to run their business on the cheap-goods basis. No effort is made to attract a large floating customer by offers to sell ready-made clothing at starvation prices—a line of business which involves the keeping of goods as low in quality as in price…Nothing showy, nothing cheap and bad, is offered there.”
Inside, leafy cast iron column capitals still remain — photo by Alice Lum
The handsome building at Broadway and Bond Street was the fourth store for Brooks Brothers since the brothers had taken over the business in 1850. And only ten years after settling in, they were on the move again. In 1884 Brooks Brothers moved northward to Broadway and 22nd Street.
The building continued to house clothiers – Hornthal, Weisman & Co., dealers in menswear were here for years. Then, by 1910, the showrooms that once sold men’s suits to the merchant class were home to Broadway Bargain House. The store offered wholesale ready-to-wear garments for men, women, and children. Ten years later the G. H. Hat Works was headquartered here.
Sawtooth designs and incised decorative elements reflect the Eastlake movement — photo by Alice Lum
When Nessa Sears and Jeannette Epstein purchased the building from David S. Meister in June 1943, there was still a “large clothing store” on the first floor and various manufacturers on the upper floors. Meister had bought the building only a year earlier. The new buyers would not hold on to the property any longer than he did.
A year later in May the building was sold again to an investor. Tenants were paying a total of approximately $23,000 per year on the building valued at $150,000.
In the 1950s the diversity of tenants continued with Magna Products Co., an automobile parts firm, having space here as well as Librik Brothers, which made jewelry cases. In 1956 the hat manufacturer M. Barsky & Co. was forced out of its building at 186 Wooster Street to make way for the Washington Square-New York University development project. The company purchased the old Brooks Brothers building with “plans to modernize the Broadway structure and use a major part of it,” according to a press release.
Window columns boast beautiful stylized bases and capitals. Each of the incised rosettes is unique. — photo by Alice Lum Before long the Empire State Cap and Cloth Hat Manufacturers Association, a workers union, established its offices here.
Today the store continues its original purpose – a clothing store on the first floor and manufacturing spaces above. Although there have been some changes, the façade is remarkably intact and first floor ironwork is, miraculously, preserved.
And, by the way, Brooks Brothers did not stay overly-long in their Broadway and 22nd Street store – in 1915 they moved on to Madison Avenue and 44th Street.
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MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK WHEN IT ARRIVED FROM THE BROOKLYN CHILDREN’S MUSEUM IN 2006.
GLORIA HERMAN, ANDY SPARBERG, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, NANCY BROWN, HARA REISER, VICKI FEINMEL. AL GOT IT!!
FROM: SUMIT KAUR Good morning, The answer to Monday photo of the day is “Visitor Centre, Roosevelt Island” Picture shows it being set in position after being lifted from its original position. Congratulations Judith Berdy for the timely initiative – its a gem that greets the visitor to the island.
FROM ED LITCHER
One of what was originally five exquisite entrance and exit kiosks, rendered in beautiful Beaux Arts terra cotta, that used to stand at 2nd Avenue and East 60th Street where trolleys from Queens let out, or accepted passengers from an underground station. The kiosks, is dwarfed by the Queensboro/59th Street/Ed Koch Bridge, as well as one of the huge stanchions that carry the tramway wires. The bridge was one of the last bastions of trolley traffic in Manhattan, as the line that left people of mid-span, to be carried by elevator to the island, until it was shuttered in the late 1950s. Both kiosks, this one and one that has been allowed to remain on 2nd Avenue, go all the way back to the year the Queensboro opened in 1909. Trolley service to the bridge ended in 1957 when the Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island Bridge opened to Astoria.
Thus the five Beaux Arts kioks were orphaned. Three were executed, one remained in place, and one was shuffled off in 1970 to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Brower Park, where it was used as the main entrance. However it was in danger of being discarded when the Museum planned a complete renovation by famed architect Rafael Viñoly. However, at the intercession of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s Judy Berdy, who worked with the BCM and several other agencies, in 2006 the kiosk was transported to the very spot where the trolley elevator landing was once located, where it now serves as the Roosevelt Island Historical Society‘s visitor center.
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
Sources DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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Most of the opulent mansions that lined the avenues of Murray Hill in the late 19th century have been demolished, and the spaciousness and quiet formality of what used to be an entirely residential neighborhood has largely disappeared.
But in the early decades of the Gilded Age, the east side blocks between Madison Square and 40th Street comprised the most elite enclave in the city. Mrs. Astor’s brownstone mansion commanded respect on 34th Street and Fifth Avenue; her brother-in-law lived in a similar house next door.
By the turn of the century, however, most of the Gilded Age rich decamped for Upper Fifth Avenue; Murray Hill was thought of as staid, even a little shabby as commercial enterprises crept in.
So it raised eyebrows when, in 1902, Joseph Raphael De Lamar—who made millions in gold mining and then millions more on Wall Street—chose the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 37th Street as the site for the breathtaking Beaux-Arts mansion he built for himself and his young daughter.
Joseph Raphael De Lamar, undated photo
De Lamar was rich, but he was an outsider when it came to Gilded Age society. Born in Amsterdam, he supposedly stowed away on a ship as a child and spent years as a sailor, visiting ports around the world, according to his 1918 obituary in the New York Times.
After settling in Martha’s Vineyard, the Captain, as he was called, moved out West. There, he made his mining fortune, tried politics in Idaho, and then set his sights on New York City.
The De Lamar Mansion in 1925
On Wall Street, he was known as “the man of mystery.” Wrote the Times: “His intimate friends said that he never talked much,” but was “uniformly successful in his transactions.”
De Lamar was socially ambitious as well. In the 1890s he wed Nellie Sands, the daughter of a prosperous New York druggist. Despite their wealth, “the Lamars never became a part of the inner circle of society,” wrote Wayne Craven in his book, Gilded Mansions: Grand Architecture and High Society. After having a daughter, Alice, the family subsequently spent a few years in Paris. “Wealthy Americans who were shunned by society often tried their luck in European capitals,” stated Craven.
The marriage ended in divorce. After De Lamar returned to Manhattan with Alice, he hired Charles P. H. Gilbert, the architect behind some of the best-known Gilded Age mansions, to construct his as well. De Lamar gave Gilbert “a free hand so far as the dwelling itself [was] concerned,” wrote the New York Times in 1904, via Gilded Mansions.
De Lamar may have chosen the Madison Avenue and 37th Street site for a specific reason: to spite J. P. Morgan, who resided a block away and “had regularly rebuffed [Lamar] in business,” according to Leanne Italie in a recent Associated Press article.
The Parisian-style mansion, completed in 1905, didn’t reflect Gilbert’s usual French Gothic style. But physically and stylistically, it overshadowed Morgan’s dwelling—thanks in part to the rusticated stone, copper crests, recessed entrance, and roof. “The subtly asymmetrical house, with an entrance that is flanked by marble columns and crowned by a pair of putti, is surmounted by an exceptionally imposing mansard,” wrote The Guide to New York Landmarks.
That spectacular mansard was dubbed “the most formidable mansard roof in New York,” by the AIA Guide to New York City.
De Lamar added another impressive feature to his mansion: a sidewalk-level car elevator. “At the far right edge of the property, a large metal plate flush with the sidewalk is actually the roof of his automobile elevator, which goes down to the basement,” wrote Christopher Gray in the New York Times in 2008. (The outline of the metal plate is barely visible now under a new stairway.)
For the next 13 years, De Lamar and Alice lived in the eye-popping mansion; the 1910 census recorded the two living with nine servants, stated Gray. Society may not have accepted him, however, and Alice seemed to shy away from the display of wealth. Even so, when De Lamar died in 1918 at Roosevelt Hospital, he left part of his fortune of $29 million to his daughter, who was now 23 years old.
The mansion in 1975
“Alice De Lamar soon deserted her father’s house for a Park Avenue apartment, and went on to become a volunteer driver and mechanic for the Red Cross and an advocate of housing for working women,” wrote Gray. This “bachelor girl,” as 1920s and 1930s gossip columnists dubbed her, spent time in her homes in Palm Beach, Connecticut, and Paris. She was a quiet supporter of the arts until her death in 1983.
And the mansion? It was bought by the American Bible Society, and then became the headquarters of the National Democratic Club in the 1920s. in the 1970s, De Lamar’s Beaux-Arts gem was purchased by the Polish government, which made it the site of its Consulate General. The interiors are rumored to be as lovely as the facade. Keep an eye out for events that might be open to the public.
[Third image: ; fourth image: Wikipedia; fifth image: NYPL; ninth image: Images Wikimedia Commons in public domain
FROM ED LITCHER: Ringling Museum of Art Garden Having made his money in the circus, John Ringling and his wife Mable purchased 20 acres of land on the waterfront in Sarasota in 1911. They built a Venetian Gothic mansion, known as the Cà d’Zan (meaning “House of John”) and a Museum of Art to house their private collection. The Mable Ringling Rose Garden was completed in 1913. The estate is now run by Florida State University.
NOTES FROM READERSM. FRANK ALSO GUESSED THE TRYON AND PERISPHERE
JAY JACOBSON REPORTS: No idea about the photo, but the tattooed man depicted in the Barnum piece clearly is the model for some of the basketball players I have been watching this weekend!
REMINDER: SOMETIMES WE JUST CANNOT GET ALL THE NAMES OF THE PERSONS WHO GOT THE PICTURES RIGHT. OUR APOLOGIES!!
Sources
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2022 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
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This is the first in a series dealing with legendary entrepreneurs in New York’s entertainment world. In each case, reputations are multi-sided, vulgar and personable, selfish and civic. P. T. Barnum, the first in the series, embodies these contradictions and created the role of the New York pitchman that became an icon of the city.
Some of usrecall the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus. The same Barnum, but the circus came later, after Barnum created one of the United States’ first widely popular attractions, the American Museum in New York City.
Barnum has been described as the “Prince of Humbugs” (as he called himself), a liar, a racist, and an entertainer who would do anything for a crowd. Barnum believed the public was willing—even eager—to be conned, provided there was entertainment in the process. (Although there’s no evidence he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”.) Yet, others contend he was responsible for introducing many Americans to high culture – the public museum, the musical concert, European opera.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel Connecticut in 1810. When his father died, he supported his family, becoming publisher of a Danbury, Connecticut weekly newspaper. He was arrested three times for libel, first taste of notoriety. In 1829, Barnum married Charity Hallett and soon moved to New York City, where he found his vocation as a showman.
His first gig involved Joyce Heth, a woman purported to be 161 years old who had been George Washington’s nursemaid, who he purchased from a travelling act. Barnum’s genius for publicity flowered, New Yorkers flocked to see her, and soon Barnum had recouped what he’d paid. The play involved more cities and even wound up with a public autopsy. Bad press didn’t faze Barnum: “Newspaper and social controversy on the subject (and seldom have vastly more important matters been so largely discussed) served my purpose as ‘a showman’ by keeping my name before the public”.
Next, Barnum acquired John Scudder’s American Museum, located at one of the nation’s most important cross-roads – at Broadway and what was then the Boston Post Road (now Park Row) – a five-story marble building filled with stuffed animals, waxwork figures, and similar conventional exhibits.
Barnum’s museum opened on January 1, 1842, a combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and most celebrated, Barnum’s freak show.
His first attraction was the “Feejee mermaid” – really the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish — which Japanese sailors had sold to an Englishman for $6,000 ($103,500 today). The mermaid was displayed in London and then found its way to New York, where Barnum negotiated to lease it for $12.50 per week.
Barnum convinced many that the creature was real, fending off scientific opponents and even weaseling his way into the American Museum of Natural History. He fabricated a story about the mermaid’s discovery and distributed over 10,000 pamphlets. In a matter of weeks, he had the public’s attention.
Following the success of the Feejee Mermaid, Barnum searched for new human “freaks”. He found Charles Stratton, who had average-sized parents and developed normally until he was six months old, when he measured 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. By age five, he hadn’t grown an inch. Barnum partnered with the boy’s father, taught the child to sing, dance, and impersonate famous figures (Cupid, Napoleon Bonaparte), and, in 1844, took him on his first tour around America. Now named “General Tom Thumb” — “The smallest person who ever walked alone” — the show became an enormous success, even leading to a European trip where Queen Victoria enjoyed the act. Barnum did well: he made so much on the European tour that he nearly purchased William Shakespeare’s birth home. His earnings extended well into the hundreds of thousands and by 1846, his museum was drawing 400,000 visitors a year.
another famous Barnum find was “Zip the Pinhead”.
William Henry Johnson was born to impoverished, newly-freed slaves in New Jersey, in 1842. While he possessed a modest physical deformity (a microcephalic, or cone-shaped, head), a local showman had showed him in sideshows in the mid-1850s. In 1860, Barnum enrolled Johnson, and transformed him into “Zip,” a “different race of human found during a gorilla trekking expedition near the Gambia River in western Africa.” His head was shaved, save for a small tuft on top, and he was dressed in a head-to-toe fur suit. Darwin’s Origin of the Species had recently appeared, and Zip was promoted as a “missing link”. Barnum displayed Zip in a cage and ordered that he must only grunt; he quickly became a star in Barnum’s array.
All of this seems pretty grim, even terrible stuff. But freak shows weren’t unusual at the time, and, apparently, Barnum treated his performers well.
Stratton was mobbed by crowds wherever he went and became an international star. For the better part of fifteen years, Barnum paid him some $150 per week ($4,100 today) and, then when Stratton retired, he lived in New York’s “most fashionable neighborhood,” owned a steam yacht, and wore only the finest clothes.
For his efforts, Zip was rewarded handsomely: Barnum paid him $100 per performance (of which he often had 10 per week) and purchased him a lavish home in Connecticut. His showmanship extended far beyond Barnum’s eventual death, and he performed into his late eighties. He was also a masterful marketer: during 1925’s Scopes Trial, he offered himself as living proof of evolution, generating a massive amount of publicity.
Captain Costentenus, the Tattooed Man, partnered with Barnum in the 1870s and became the American Museum’s highest grossing act, taking home more than $1,000 per week ($37,000 per week today). The Times commented, “He wears very handsome diamond rings and other jewelry, valued altogether at about $3,000 [$71,500 in 2014 dollars] and usually goes armed to protect himself from persons who might attempt to rob him.”
Fedor Jeftichew, “The Dog-Faced Boy”, was reported to have been found in a cave deep in Russian forests; after enduring a bloody battle to capture the “beast,” hunters taught him to walk upright, wear clothes, and speak like a dignified human. Barnum dressed Fedor in a Russian cavalry uniform, and had him play up his savage nature, “barking, growling, and baring his teeth” at onlookers. Throughout the 1880s, Fedor was among the highest paid performers in the business, netting $500 per week ($13,000 today). By the time of his retirement, his saving totaled nearly $300,000 ($7.6 million).
Barnum’s bearded lady, Josephine Clofullia, developed a wide fan base during her tours, and received a large diamond from Napoleon III after fashioning her beard after his.
His Museum wasn’t limited to freakshows. One historian writes that the Museum became “a central site in the development of American popular culture.” “Foreshadowing trends in American commercial amusement, the Museum gathered exhibitions and amusements that previously had been offered in separate milieus. In an urban culture characterized by increasing difference—in taste, in subject, and in audience—it was the first to combine sensational entertainment and gaudy display with instruction and moral uplift….the Museum also promoted educational ends, including natural history in its menageries, aquaria, and taxidermy exhibits; history in its paintings, wax figures, and memorabilia; and temperance reform and Shakespearean dramas in its theater.”
Barnum organized flower shows, beauty contests, dog shows, and poultry contests, but the most popular were baby contests such as the fattest baby or the handsomest twins, and his lecture room and salons was one of the city’s few respectable public spaces for middle-class women.
Perhaps his most daring adventure was to persuade Jenny Lind – the famous Swedish singer – to return to the stage in the United States. Sponsoring Lind would shine his image in higher culture, and to do this, he promised her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for up to 150 nights of performances—with expenses and musical assistants of Lind’s choice included. Not only that, Barnum offered to put salaries on deposit up-front, which required him to either sell or mortgage everything he owned.
It was an enormous success. Barnum’s public-relations blitz worked brilliantly. From her first show on September 11, 1850, at the Castle Garden in New York, Jenny Lind was a sensation: “Jenny Lind’s first concert is over; and all doubts are at an end. She is the greatest singer we have ever heard.”
In November 1864, the Confederate Army of Manhattan failed in an attempt to torch the museum, but on July 13, 1865 the American Museum burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires New York has ever seen. Barnum rebuilt and opened his New Museum on September 6, 1865, on Broadway, between Spring and Prince Streets, but that also burned down, on March 3, 1868.
The 1865 fire that destroyed the museum’s Broadway and Ann Street location (NYPL)
Three years later, Barnum joined circus owners Dan Castello and William C. Coup to launch P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome in 1871. In 1875, he owned it outright. And we are off and running on still another iteration of Barnum’s life.
At its peak, the American Museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as 15,000 visitors a day. Some 38 million customers (the U.S. total population in 1860 was under 32 million) paid the 25 cents admission to visit the museum between 1841 and 1865—among them Henry and William James, Charles Dickens, and Edward VII, then prince of Wales.
The Times’ coverage of the fire produced an appropriate epitaph for Barnum’s Museum: “Granting the innumerable sensations with which the intelligent public were disgusted and the innocent public deluded, and the ever patent humbuggery with which the adroit manager coddled and cajoled a credulous people, the Museum still deserved an honorable place in the front rank of the rare and curious collections of the world.” (NYT, July 14, 1865)
Despite the humbuggery, still an honorable place. That’s Barnum. Stay tuned. More entertainment entrepreneurs to come.
THE TRYLON AN PERISPHERE AT THE 1939-40 NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR GUY LUDWIG, ED LITCHER, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, GLORIA HERMAN, AND SPARBERG, HARA REISER & LAURA HUSSEY ALL GOT IT!
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. 2022 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
LIVING IN FOREST HILLS AS A TEEN-AGER WE ALWAYS ENJOYED SHOPPING ON AUSTIN STREET AND GOING TO THE MOVIES THERE. THE “GARDENS” WERE AN EXCLUSIVE ENCLAVE AWAY FROM THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT. THE TENNIS STADIUM WAS IN THE HEART OF THE PRIVATE HOME STREETS. THE ONLY TIME I WAS IN THE STADIUM WAS THE 1972 U.S.OPEN WHEN I SAW THE MATCHES FOR $6-. MUCH HAS CHANGED AND NOW THE STADIUM IS REVIVED FOR MUSIC.
At the back of the historic Forest Hills Inn at 1 Station Square lies a long-lost architectural gem, the Forest Hills Tea Garden. Opened in 1912 behind an ornate gate, the Tea Garden hosted everything from weddings to dinner dances. Though the remains of the tea garden remain today, most residents probably are unaware of its history. According to Michael Perlman, an author and historian who has been raising money and awareness to preserve the Tea Garden, the structure is just a shell of its former self, though it has the potential for restoration and revitalization. Perlman, a fifth-generation Forest Hills resident, spoke with Untapped New York about the history of this mostly forgotten but rich historic site.
Forest Hills Gardens was established in 1909 as a Tudor enclave. One of the country’s first planned communities, the area was developed by architect Grosvenor Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., whose father helped designed Central Park. The community was inspired by the English Garden City movement, which at the time stressed providing housing to people of all income levels. Perlman came across the “veritable fairyland and hidden gem” in around 2011. The Tea Garden was in continuous operation from 1912 to about 1968, around when the Forest Hills Inn was converted from a hotel to a residence. Forest Hills featured numerous music festivals in the 1960s, and after the U.S. Open moved from Forest Hills Tennis Stadium to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in 1977, the demographics of the area shifted. As the potential for the Tea Garden dwindled, it fell into disarray, and after Jade Eatery opened in the former inn, Perlman began working with the owner to preserve it. He wanted to open the tea garden for not just large events but also for flower shows and plays — over a century ago, the Garden Players, a local organization, put on plays such as Prunella. The tea garden was also open for festivities on July 4, when Station Square hosted parades.
“I wondered how I’ve passed by it for so many years and never noticed,” Perlman said. “It had a charming and serene feel and simultaneously a somewhat mysterious feel. I appreciate that the Tea Garden feels like it’s somewhat uncharted territory, and I like the history in it too, it’s amazing.”
The Tea Garden had an 11-foot-tall “Ring for Tea” stand, at which people on their rocking chairs would pull a cord and ring the bell for tea. Afterward, hotel staff members would come out of the Forest Hills Inn and provide tea to guests. Many rooms in the original Forest Hills Inn attracted celebrities and often had regal names, as well as names reflecting the nearby community such as the “Tournament Grill” inspired by the nearby tennis stadium. By the 1950s, the Tea Garden was referred to as the Patio-Garden, featuring “a bubbling fountain, candlelight, large umbrellas, and tall trees.”
A 1924 edition of The Forest Hills Bulletin read, “The Tea Garden of the Forest Hills Inn is a veritable fairyland, when lighted with Japanese lanterns, with the trickling fountain heard in the background, and a new moon shining overhead. There is no more delightful place in Greater New York for one to spend the dinner hour.”
Barry Manilow, Roger Williams, and Lucille Ball likely performed at or attended social events at the Inn, and it is likely that The Beatles and Frank Sinatra passed through the Inn, according to Perlman. There was a feature outside known as Celebrity Walk near the Inn that featured about 25 concrete slabs featuring names like Barbara Streisand, Sammy Davis, Jr., and perhaps Arthur Ashe. Many of the figures on Celebrity Walk would spend time in the Tea Garden, which offered afternoon teas and performances by the Inn Trio, who performed pieces such as Dvorak’s “Humoresque” and Albeniz’s “A Night In Seville.”
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
