Aside from its main role as a transit hub, the New York City subway system often serves as an unexpected repository for artifacts. From marine-themed terra cotta murals inside the Fulton Street Station to ornaments of demolished buildings at the Eastern Parkway-Brooklyn Museum stop, there are plenty of unlikely treasures embedded into station walls or presented along transit corridors. Yet, the come-and-go nature of the subway makes it difficult for commuters to take in what’s openly displayed to the public. The South Ferry station — serviced by the 1, R, N, W and 2 trains — is particularly noteworthy, as it harbors an 18th-century stone wall, one of four fragments discovered 10 feet below the eastern portion of Battery Park.
The four excavated segments — measuring roughly eight-feet thick, and varying in length and height — were uncovered in December 2005, when the Museum of the City of New York‘s archaeological team started excavating for the South Ferry Terminal Project, a $530 million endeavor to reconstruct the subway station and address “physical and operating deficiencies.” Those excavations have yielded tens of thousands of individual artifacts that provide insight into Colonial New York — from seeds, ceramic dishes and coin fragments to a wine bone of the Passenger Pigeon (a now-extinct species of bird), a medal bestowed to Admiral Boscawen by King George III, and a glass bottle seal belonging to Benjamin Fletcher who served as the British colonial governor of New York from 1692 to 1697.
Untapped Cities tour guide, Justin Rivers, shared this photo of the wall, seen with fossilized oyster shells
Widely reported to be the oldest man-made structure still in place in Manhattan, the Battery Wall was built as a fortification on the Southwestern tip of Manhattan around the 1740s and 1750s. Not only was it a defense against enemies, it also provided a barrier against the rough waves and relentless wind that slammed into New York Harbor. In the late 18th century, the wall became buried under landfill, and was subsequently lost when colonial fortifications were demolished and Battery Park was built in the early 19th century.
According to Robert Tierney, the chairman of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, the wall give rise to the park’s modern name. So, next time you head to the South Ferry Station, make sure to keep an eye out for this major segment of The Battery Wall, which is embedded into the tiled wall at the station’s entrance. Another L-shaped bastion segment is also on display at Castle Clinton in Battery Park.
PHOTO OF THE DAY WILL RETURN SOON.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Steinway & Sons’ piano factory in Astoria, Queens is one of the city’s great hidden gems, where 250 workers are still meticulously handcrafting the world’s most acclaimed pianos since the 1870s. It is only one of two factories worldwide for Steinway, supplying all of the demand for the company’s pianos in the Western Hemisphere, following many of the innovations patented by the company over the centuries. Steinway is still regularly adding new innovations to the manufacturing process as well, necessary to maintain its place among the great instrument names in the musical world. Steinway is also innovating on the marketing end, with the opening of a secret vault that showcases its most exceptional pianos, including the limited edition John Lennon piano.
The Vault is so off-limits that it is opened by biometric fingerprint, and only four people in the company have access. We recently had the opportunity to go inside the vault with Anthony Gilroy, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at Steinway & Sons. and once his fingerprint was approved, an automated female voice announced “Access granted. Welcome Mr. Gilroy” in a very James Bond-esque way. The vault door, hand wheel and all, is not visible from anywhere on the floor, but located behind another door. Inside, there is space for six pianos displayed to their most optimal conditions.
Each piano is presented as a “vignette” which is, fittingly, merchandised more as performance art than how it would be in a standard show room. The lighting, which can only be controlled by app by the four who have biometric access to The Vault, is custom-designed for each piano, all of which retail for at least $200,000. One rather unusual piano, inspired by Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition goes for $2.5 million. “You’re going to light a wood finished piano differently than you would light an ebony piano with silver accents,” explains Gilroy.
The John Lennon Imagine piano
The most famous of the pianos in the Vault may well be the John Lennon Imagine Limited Edition, launched in 2010 with the partnership of Yoko Ono on what would have been Lennon’s 70th Birthday. It features artwork by John Lennon on the music desk, of which there are seven different versions. The piano is modeled after the piano Lennon bought for Ono in 1971 that sits in the apartment they shared together in The Dakota where Ono still lives today. The piano has Lennon’s signature at the right end of the keyboard and the words “You may say I’m a dreamer” on the inside of the rim. A portion of the proceeds of this piano go to John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a non-profit mobile recording studio. There are only a limited number of these pianos left.
Power to the People by John Lennon
The Lang Lang Black Diamond Limited Edition piano is signed by the pianist and designed in conjunction with the furniture designer Dakota Jackson who is a pianist himself. Like most of the pianos in The Vault, this piano comes with Spirio, the program that enables the piano to play on its own. The Lang Lang piano comes with Spirio R, which allows you to record, edit and play back what you’ve been playing. Following Chinese superstition surrounding the lucky number 8, there are only 88 pianos available of the Lang Lang piano in the Model B size, and 8 in the Model D size that is generally used in concert halls.
The Lang Lang Black Diamond Limited Edition piano
Another piano is made from of one single flitch (or plank) of Santos rosewood, an exotic wood from East India — making it a particularly rare piano both in terms of the material and construction. Another piano has a Macassar ebony exotic wood veneer, while another called the Onyx Duet has the Macassar ebony only on the underside of the rim and lid. When the piano is closed, it looks like a classic Steinway piano. And one piano which has recently moved out of The Vault but is sitting just outside it is the Heliconia Designed by Lalique piano created in partnership with the Hamburg Steinway factory featuring crystals and silver-colored inlays from the famous French glassmaker.
Last but not least is “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the multi-million dollar art case piano with cuckoo clock legs. There’s only one available and it took four years to make. It was painted by notable Steinway artist Paul Wyse who has painted members of Parliament in Canada, a portrait of Billy Joel that was hung at Steinway Hall, and other works. The piano shows works of art referenced or inspired in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a famous piece for the piano and was developed in conjunction with Steinway’s President who was looking for a piano that could meld art and music.
The Vault also has a soundproof lounge, with furniture designed by Christopher Guy and a mid-century Teague Steinway piano a design created for the 100th anniversary of the Steinway company. It too has Spirio, so if a VIP’s guests get bored of the testing of the pianos, they can sit in the lounge, peruse a copy of Christopher Payne’s incredible book Making Steinwaywhile listening to a pre-recorded piece. We are potentially planning a tour of the Steinway factory for our Untapped New York readers. If you’d like advance notice of this tour, sign up below!
PHOTO OF THE DAY WILL RETURN SOON.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
With approximately 40 million annual visitors, Central Park stands as the most visited urban park in the United States. Navigating its long, winding paths across 843 acres can expectedly get quite tricky—even for the most seasoned New Yorkers. If you ever find yourself lost in a sea of green, there’s a way to reorient yourself without having to rely on dubious data networks or Google Maps: just head to one of Central Park’s 1,600 lamp posts, which serve as unlikely navigational devices.
Also known as “luminaires,” Central Park’s decorative lamp posts feature plaques with four numbers embossed onto them. The first two indicate the closest cross street, and the last two numbers indicate which side of the park the lamp is closer to: even numbers, in this case, mean the east side, and odd numbers mean west. The last two digits also indicate location, with the numbers increasing as you move closer to the center of the park.
Newer lamppost navigational devices in Central Park
A lamp post with the number “6202,” for instance, translates to a location on the east side aligned with 62nd Street.
“The last two digits increase as one moves toward the center of the park,” explained writer Susan Merrit in Works That Work. This numerical system was originally designed to help park employees locate lamps in need of service or repair, but it’s has since become a useful tool for in-the-know park visitors.
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY WILL RETURN SOON.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY WILL RETURN SOON.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The Alexander Hamilton Custom House, now the National Museum of the American Indian, was built to impress. Designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert, the Custom House was the first building merchants and traders sailing into Manhattan’s Port of New York would visit to pay their duties, The building purposefully faces Broadway instead of the Port, so those entering could see the impressive thoroughfare and Bowling Green and be dazzled by the bustle of New York City. Massive sculptures and ornate stonework add grandeur to the facade, and inside, the building is just as magnificent. Walking into the landmarked building’s rotunda, a massive domed ceiling and skylight created by the masterful Guastavino Company are revealed.
When Cass Gilbert sent the Guastavino Company his 1899 plans for a 130 by 85-foot elliptical dome with a skylight in the center, he didn’t explain how it would be structurally supported. The Guastavino father and son engineering duo were often tasked with transforming vague and ambitious architectural plans into real structures. For Gilbert’s Custom House dome, Guastavino Sr. created a “double-tile dome with an elliptical steel compression ring at the top and a steel tension ring at the bottom,” as explained in Guastavino Vaulting: The Art of Structural Tile by John Ochsendorf. The skylight weighs 140 tons and is supported by the dome thanks to Guastavino’s innovative vaulting method. The recognizable Guastavino-style vaulting with its cross-hatch tile is hidden behind the dome you actually see!
When you gaze up at the dome today, you see beautiful murals painted by Reginald Marsh. Those paintings were not part of the original design but were added in 1937. The murals were commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project, an offshoot of the Works Progress Administration. Marsh’s art covers 2,300 square feet of the vaulted ceiling. With help from eight assistants, it took only three months to complete the project. Marsh paid his assistants $1.50 an hour and took only ninety cents an hour for himself. The entire project cost $3,000, surely much less than just one of the paintings is worth today. The murals depict port scenes of various ships arriving and departing, with interpretive portraits of famous early explorers like Henry Hudson and Giovanni da Verrazzano in-between.
Mark Twain was also known, inside and outside the club, as an avid, obsessive billiard player. The famous billiard champion William Hoppe described Twain as “the most enthusiastic billiard fan” he ever knew. According to the website of the Amsterdam Billiards in New York City, Twain was more than enthusiastic, he was borderline obsessed: “Twain stipulated anywhere he lived, there must be a proper billiards table. As he grew older, billiards became an obsession for him; he was a recluse who would only accept callers if they were willing to shoot pool with him. Once, when his house caught fire, he was so invested in his game of billiards that he barely even noticed the flames.” Twain himself in a public speech declared, “The game of billiards has destroyed my naturally sweet disposition.”
You can find more of Guastavino’s work in the staircases of the Custom House. The spiral shape was inspired by the shells of the nautilus, an aquatic mollusk. This design feature is in-line with the decorative nautical theme found throughout the Custom House, where ornamental shell shapes, waves, anchors, dolphins, and ship bows are a common sight. The staircases employ the same innovative vaulting methods as the rotunda dome.
The Museum of the American Indian, which now occupies the building, is currently closed due to COVID-19. However, when the museum is open, you can visit for free and see the rotunda inside, as well as the museum’s exhibits! The Guastavinos were a prolific pair who left their mark on many of the city’s most iconic buildings.
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
WILL RETURN SOON.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
WILL RETURN SOON.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
OOPS….ONE OF NEXT WEEK’S ISSUES WENT OUT EARLY. ON JANUARY 2 INSTEAD OF JANUARY 11. WE ARE WRITING IN ADVANCE AND PUSHED THE WRONG BUTTON. ENJOY THE ISSUES. SEE YOU ON THE 12TH!!!! JUDYB
FROM THE ARCHIVES
TUESDAY,JANUARY 3, 2023
ISSUE 876
TIDBITS FROM
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
LOCATE MARK TWAIN’S POOL CUE IN THE PLAYERS CLUB IN NYC’S GRAMERCY PARK
Above a portrait of Mark Twain hangs his pool cue at the Players Club
There are many treasures in the members only Players Club in Gramercy Park, whose membership consists of theater industry folks and enthusiasts. One of them is a pool cue used by writer Mark Twain (aka Samuel Longhorne Clemens), one of its most famous members who by all accounts, lived it up at the club.
He was present at the founding lunch at Delmonico’s where the club inaugurated, an event reported with gusto in the New York Times on April 18, 1888 as one of the “pleasanter lunches ever given” at the restaurant. (General William Tecumseh Sherman was also present, himself a big fan of the theater). He was also an avid attendee of the dinners hosted at the club itself, according to Lost Past Remembered, and signed the below menu from January 3rd, 1906 where each dish has an accompanying clever quote.
Mark Twain was also known, inside and outside the club, as an avid, obsessive billiard player. The famous billiard champion William Hoppe described Twain as “the most enthusiastic billiard fan” he ever knew. According to the website of the Amsterdam Billiards in New York City, Twain was more than enthusiastic, he was borderline obsessed: “Twain stipulated anywhere he lived, there must be a proper billiards table. As he grew older, billiards became an obsession for him; he was a recluse who would only accept callers if they were willing to shoot pool with him. Once, when his house caught fire, he was so invested in his game of billiards that he barely even noticed the flames.” Twain himself in a public speech declared, “The game of billiards has destroyed my naturally sweet disposition.”
The Library of Congress has a photograph of Twain standing over a billiard table holding a cue stick at Stormfield, Twain’s house in Redding, Connecticut that he lived in from 1908 to his death in 1910. Twain’s house in Hartford, Connecticut (where he lived from 1874 to 1891), designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and Alfred H. Thorp, had a dedicated billiard room.
He was not an even-tempered player. When the game went steadily against him he was likely to become critical, even fault-finding, in his remarks. Then presently he would be seized with remorse and become over-gentle and attentive, placing the balls as I knocked them into the pockets, hurrying to render this service. I wished he would not do it. It distressed me that he should humble himself. I was willing that he should lose his temper, that he should be even harsh if he felt so inclined–his age, his position, his genius gave him special privileges. Yet I am glad, as I remember it now, that the other side revealed itself, for it completes the sum of his humanity. Once in a burst of exasperation he made such an onslaught on the balls that he landed a couple of them on the floor. I gathered them up and we went on playing as if nothing had happened, only he was very gentle and sweet, like a summer meadow when the storm has passed by. Presently he said:
“This is a most amusing game. When you play badly it amuses me, and when I play badly and lose my temper it certainly must amuse you.”
It is therefore not surprising that The Players Club would also have a billiard table and to this day, his pool cue hangs next to it above a portrait painting of Twain by Gordon Stevenson
PHOTO OF THE DAY WILL RETURN SOON.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
