The first Blacks arrived in New Amsterdam in 1626, imported from Africa as slaves by the Dutch West India Company. During the British occupation of New York City in 1776 the population soared after the Crown promised freedom to slaves who deserted their rebel masters. It resulted in thousands of runaway slaves flocking into the city. By 1780 there were more than 10,000 Blacks living in New York. Finally, in 1827, slavery was abolished in New York. But freedom did not necessarily translate into improvement in the lives of Black citizens.
The city, of course, was tasked with the education of all children; but integrated classrooms was not conceivable. “Colored schools” were established, staffed by Blacks. They were an offshoot of the first African Free School, established in 1787 on Mulberry Street. Seven Colored Schools were organized in 1834.
In 1853 Primary Schools No. 27 and 29 shared the new 25-foot wide building at No. 98 West 17th Street (renumbered 128 in 1868). Three stories tall and faced in brick, it had two entrances–one for boys and the other for girls–as expected in Victorian school buildings. In the basement was a small living space for the janitress, Mary Sallie.
There were four teachers in each school, all unmarried women. Their wages in 1855 ranged from $400, earned by H. A. McCormick (about $12,200 a year today), to the $100 salaries earned by Abbie M. Saunders and Eliza Ideson. How the women survived on the equivalent of $3,000 a year in today’s money is remarkable.
The street address was not the only thing about the school building that would change. By 1861 it was renumbered Primary School No. 14 (H. A. McCormick was still teaching here at the time), and within two years it became Colored School No. 7. That year it was staffed by seven teachers–four teachers in the Boys’ Department and three in the Primary Department.
By 1866 the name was changed yet again, now known as Colored Grammar School No. 4. Schools across the city staged a yearly exhibition of the children’s work and this one was no exception. On May 30 that year the New York Herald reported “The exhibition of Colored Grammar School No. 4 took place last evening at the Cooper Institute. The audience was quite large, and included a few white persons, both male and female, and was well pleased with the exercises embraced in the programme.” The newspaper was careful to point out that the school was “formerly No. 7.
” Rather surprisingly, two specialized teachers were added to the staff in 1868. William Appo, a renowned Black musician, taught music and S. Anna Burroughs taught drawing.
Graduating from grammar school was an important milestone, especially for Black children who were often pulled from school in order to work and help their families financially. On March 5, 1869 The Sun reported “In Colored Grammar School No. 4, in Seventeenth street, Mrs. Sarah J. S. Thompkins, the principal, treated her pupils to an inauguration celebration. Remarks were made by the Rev. Charles B. Ray, Fred Sill, C. E. Blake, Jacob Thomas, and William F. Busler.”
The position of music teacher was taken by Joan Imogen Howard, who came from Boston, Massachusetts. Like William Appo, she was recognized as an accomplished musician. She was as well an ardent worker for integration and racial rights. On October 30, 1892 The World reported “Miss J. Imogen Howard, the only colored women on the Board of Lady Managers of the [Chicago] World’s Fair, is busily engaged in gathering statistics concerning colored women in New York State.
Reflecting the innate racism of the time, the reporter asked Howard if it were possible for a Black woman to become a member of “the learned professions here.” Her reaction was visible. “Miss Howard looked surprised,” said the article. She replied “I know of a great many. In Brooklyn there are three doctors, each of them enjoying a large practice and doing well…I am personally acquainted with one colored woman who graduated from law school with honors…Miss Ida B. Wells, a young colored girl, is assistant editor of the New York Age, a weekly paper devoted to the interests of the colored people.” She went on to list a number of other successful professional women.
In 1873 the attendance of Colored School No. 4 was 120 pupils. The school building was showing the effects of two decades of use. An inspection by the School Board that year found in part: “ceilings cracked through and need repairing; ventilation by windows; water closets of wood, in poor condition; heated by seven wood stoves, properly shielded with tin.”
The tin-lined flues of the cast iron stoves would cause problems at least twice. On January 6, 1879 The New York Evening Express entitled an article “Scared Colored School-Children” and reported “A defective flue caused a fire this morning in Colored School No. 4, at 128 West Seventeenth street. The fire occurred just before the assembling of the school, and a panic was thus averted, although the children collected around the building were considerably frightened.”
It may have been that incident that prompted Principal Sarah J. S. Garnet to routinely instruct the pupils on how to react to a fire. (Sarah Garnet was the widow of the Rev. Dr. Henry Highland Garnet, the former Minister to Liberia.) It proved to be worthwhile instruction. On February 14, 1883 The Sun reported that another flue fire had broken out.
At around 10:30 that morning children on the second floor noticed wisps of smoke “and became restless.” Mrs. Garnet told a reporter “I had frequently told the children that if fire broke out they would have sufficient warning from me to enable them to walk safely out of the school building. Their faith in me is what saved them from a panic.”
There were a total of 150 children in the building. Garnet instructed a teacher to arrange the pupils on the second floor in straight lines, while she went upstairs to do the same with the youngest children. “At a signal the pupils marched down the narrow, wooden stairways and stood quietly in the inner court yard.” One child ran three blocks to the nearest fire station. The fire was quickly extinguished and the pupils were marched back to their desks. “They were as busy in the afternoon as though nothing had happened,” said The Sun.
In 1884 Joshua S. Lawrence published an article in Ballou’s Monthly Magazine entitled “The Negroes of New York.” He praised racial advances, beginning, “What a contrast between now and twenty years ago! Then they were vassals, now they are clamoring for the offices and other perquisites of a free government.” His out-of-touch assessment was highly biased and he insisted “The negro in this city is not debarred or hindered in any way…Their children are allowed to enter public schools all over the city, besides having separate ones, taught by their own teachers.”
The article pointed out that integration was slowly coming about. “In order to show that the color line is breaking in this regard, an idea encouraged by the Board of Education, is not to take notice of complaints when two or more negro children happen to be near the offspring of some fastidious parent.” Lawrence mentioned Colored School No. 4, saying it combined “both primary and grammar,” levels.
At the time of the article the prospects for the school were dim. The Board of Education had already proposed closing the school. The minutes of the Board of Education on March 5, 1884 documented the receipt of a petition “From the Teachers of Colored Grammar School No. 4, asking that said school be continued for a longer period than that assigned by the action of the Board in 1883.” The petition was forwarded to the Committee of Colored Schools. Its decision was no doubt disheartening.
The teachers were permitted to continue to teach “in other premises than the school building, but without incurring any expense on the part of the Board.” In other words, if the teachers wanted to continue the school, they were responsible for all aspects of it, including funding.
But there was obviously a change of heart. The facility continued, now known as Grammar School No. 81. Sarah J. S. Garnet was still principal and Joan Imogen Howard was still teaching here in 1892. Another inspection that year reflected the poor sanitary conditions. It said “the sinks are defective and cannot be cleaned and flushed regularly. The closets [i.e. toilet rooms] are not ventilated, but are filled with sewer gas and foul air.”
The push to discontinue the school in the 17th Street property continued. In December 1894 Mayor William L. Strong received a resolution from the Board of Education “requesting the sale of property No. 128 West Seventeenth street.” By the following year the building was unoccupied.
Finally on March 24, 1896 the City signed a deal with the Civil War veterans of the 73rd Regiment to lease the ground floor as its clubhouse. Four months later renovations had been completed and on July 6, 1896 the New-York Daily Tribune reported “The members of the Veteran Association of the 73d New-York Volunteers-2d Fire Zouaves–held a celebration in honor of the opening of their new headquarters, No. 128 West Seventeenth-st–the old schoolhouse.” Among the entertainment that night was John J. Moloney, who “gave his bone solo, which elicited much applause.”
The club rooms were decorated with war relics, perhaps the most significant of which was the first Confederate war flag captured by the North. On March 11, 1907 The Yonkers Statesman explained that it had been taken by Corporal Daniel Boone on May 2, 1862 at Yorktown, Virginia.
Other than the sign announcing the Veteran Association, little had changed in the school building. Note the small-paned windows of the upper floors. Real Estate Owned by The City of New York, January 1, 1908 (copyright expired)
Interestingly, the city retained possession of the old school house property. On January 19, 1921 The City Record announced that renovations would be made “to properly place the premises…in a state of occupancy for the Veteran Fire Association.” The 73rd Regiment Veterans remained in the ground floor while $5,000 was spent in renovations on the upper floors for the Veteran Fire Association.
The new residents renamed their portion of the building Firemen’s Hall. Like its downstairs neighbor, it was a social club. On February 17, 1923, for instance, The Brooklyn Standard Union reported “The Veteran Firemen’s Association held its annual banquet last Saturday night, at Firemen’s Hall, 128 West 17th street, Manhattan. There were 300 members and their guests present, and it was a most unique affair.”
Around 1941 the remarkable holdout still retained its schoolhouse appearance. from the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services
The two organizations remained in the building at least into the 1930’s. A renovation in 1931 made “general repairs to the toilets, urinals and all the fixtures.”
The building was later acquired by the New York City Department of Sanitation, which utilizes it today. At some point a a veneer of yellow brick was applied. Remarkably, the small paned windows survive. The little building with its remarkable history is easily passed by today with little notice.
“WE LOVE THE COOK” IS THE CAPTION ON THE PHOTO OF THE EFFLER CHILDREN WHO LIVED IN BLACKWELL HOUSE IN 1917.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The pedestrian and bike path on the north side of the George Washington Bridge opened on Tuesday following a renovation and accessibility upgrades. The project, led by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, included widening approach paths, bigger entry plazas, and removing stairs that prevented access to cyclists and users with mobility challenges. The upgraded north walk also features two new viewing platforms, one on the New York side and one on the New Jersey side.
Improvements to the bridge fall under a $2 billion “Restoring the George” program which includes nearly a dozen structural repair projects on the 96-year-old bridge. As part of the project, the bridge’s original steel suspender ropes will be replaced for the first time in its history.
As part of the work, the Port Authority built a new plaza at the entry of the bridge’s northern path on West 180th Street and Cabrini Boulevard in Washington Heights that leads onto the new curving onramp. The new plaza and onramp have replaced the 171 steps travelers had to climb to get onto the bridge.
The revamped entrances also have new lighting, signs, surveillance cameras, and higher fencing. A new set of viewing platforms on either end of the bridge allows for impressive views of the Hudson River and the Palisades.
While the new onramps are ADA-compliant and give cyclists and pedestrians more space to get onto the bridge, the actual width of the shared lane is the same as it was before the construction project, according to Streetsblog.
Starting this Wednesday, the southern path of the bridge will close for similar renovations, projected to take roughly four years to complete. Once those repairs are finished, pedestrian traffic will move to the south side and cyclists will stay on the north side, according to Ken Sagrestano, the Port Authority’s general manager for the George Washington Bridge.
As Streetsblog reported, the revamp project doesn’t address the narrow promenade on the bridge’s south path which is said by locals to cause a large number of crashes involving walkers, runners, and cyclists. Despite calls from advocates, community members, and local politicians, widening the bridge’s bike paths is not part of the Port Authority’s plans.
“We didn’t change the width because it would’ve been hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars,” Sagrestano told the website. “It was not something that the Port Authority was actively looking at as an alternative.”
RIVERCROSS UNDER CONSTRUCTION 1973 ED LITCHER GOT IT
Years ago I walked over the George Washington Bridge. These were the days of polluting fuels and heavy traffic. It was not a pleasant experience with the roar of traffic. The new path seems better and now is time to walk to NJ again.
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
Today, October 11th is the birthday of the trailblazing Eleanor Roosevelt. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is unmissable, rising from the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. But did you know there is a memorial to Eleanor Roosevelt, lying forgotten inside the United Nations Sculpture Garden? The bust of FDR at Four Freedoms Park was positioned to be aligned with Eleanor’s memorial across the East River. Not only is there very little easily accessible information about the memorial in general, the memorial is located under a grove of trees in a distant corner of the nearly nine-acre United Nations Sculpture Garden which contains gifts from member countries. Public access to the garden, which was originally private, has been scaled back from when it was open daily in the 1950s.
Inside the United Nations Sculpture Garden
A few years ago, while there was some effort underway to potentially restore the memorial, we were given access to photograph the monument before limited public access was reinstated. Located in the northeast corner of the United Nations Sculpture Garden, the memorial was dedicated on April 23rd, 1966. The memorial features a curved granite bench engraved with “1884 — Anna Eleanor Roosevelt — 1962” and a slab across from the bench that contains a bas-relief of a flame. An inscription reads, “She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness and her glow has warmed the worlds.”
The memorial was a gift of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation, an organization created through an Act of Congress on April 23, 1963, three years before the memorial was dedicated. The act was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy who said at the time, “Mrs. Roosevelt, I believe, would be pleased to know that her friends and associates have chosen this way to continue her work, especially because it enables all citizens to take part in deeds rather than just words.”
According to the text of the act, the charter decrees that the “Foundation will work in the areas of Mrs. Roosevelt’s principal interests: relief of the poor and underprivileged; promotion of public health; promotion of economic welfare; and furtherance of international good will.” The initial Board of Trustees included Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson, who served as chairman. Mrs. Roosevelt’s five children served as ex officio trustees. No federal funds were allocated to the Foundation, with all funds were to be through private fundraising.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial is in need of a restoration, but we have been informed by someone close to the effort that the main road block here is that the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation is basically defunct. The gifting country/organization for the United Nations Sculpture Garden is required to maintain it for perpetuity, but in this case the line of succession has been lost. Efforts to re-establish a link did not materialize, as no group would accept responsibility for the sculpture. Hopefully, this is the first effort to raise awareness for this memorial so that it does not become too dilapidated over time. However, one positive outcome of the effort was to open up access to the garden to the public. Though you cannot simply walk in to the garden, you can now take a guided tour, only in the summer, during one time slot, on one day a week.
UNDER CONSTRUCTION BARRY SCHNEIDER, ELLEN JACOBY, HARA REISER GOT IT RIGHT
CONTENTS COURTESY OF UNTAPPED NEW YORK, NY EDC
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The Beacon Towers, also known as the Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont estate, was constructed in Sands Point, along the coastline of the north shore. Built in 1917 to 1918 for Alva Belmont, the ex-wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt and widow of Oliver Belmont, the estate was replica of an Irish castle. It was eventually acquired by William Randolph Hearst, who went on to sell the property in 1942. Three years later, the estate was demolished to make way for a new development.Although now in ruins, during its heyday, the mansion appeared to be a wondrous Irish castle on the sand. Today, only some fencing and other various small components of the structure remain since its demolition.
King Zog’s mansion can be found in Brookville, Long Island at the Muttontown Preserve. The last monarch of Albania, King Zog fled his home country after the 1939 Italian invasion. In 1951, he paid $100,000 for the Knollwood Estate at Muttontown. However, King Zog never actually moved into the mansion, choosing instead to live in Europe and Africa.
He sold the property in 1955, but rumors about hidden treasures within the mansion have sparked vandals’ curiosity, and the mansion was quickly looted, leading to the new owners selling it in 1959. Today, the mansion is in ruins, and forgotten is the refuge and sign of hope for King Zog and his family.
If Lands End looks at all familiar to you, you might recognize it as the inspiration for Daisy’s Buchanan’s “East Egg” mansion in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The Stanford White-designed mansion laid in debris and remnants before it was officially demolished in 2011 to make way for the construction of 5 $10 million custom homes. Developers attempted to sell the 25-room mansion for $30 million, but with no bids, they were forced to tear it down.
Famous names known to attend parties at Lands End include Winston Churchill, Ethel Barrymore, The Marx Brothers, and F. Scott Fitzgerald himself.
The now-demolished Harbor Hill, Clarence MacKay estate was once home to a mansion and expanse of stables. It was constructed from 1899-1902 in Roslyn, and was designed by prominent American architecture firm, McKim, Mead, and White, with Stanford White as the supervisor of the project.
All that remains of the estate in the stone drive entry and an original statue of a house and rider that now stands in front of Roslyn High School, which has since taken the mansion’s place. The estate is also now occupied by the Roslyn A.N.G. Station, a housing development, and the town pool.
JOIN US IN PERSON AT THE R.I. BRANCH NYPL IN PERSON
Tuesday, March 7th 6:30 pm. “The Challenges of Building the LIRR Grand Central Madison Terminal – The East Side Access” Nasri Munfah
Nasri Munfah is a Professional Engineer and a Principal of Gall Zeidler Consultants, a global specialty tunneling and underground engineering firm. He is responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s long term strategic growth plan, he oversees the firm’s tunneling and underground projects, and provides leadership in project delivery and the development of innovative solutions. With over 40 years of experience in tunneling and underground engineering, he was responsible for the successful delivery of multi-billion-dollar projects in the US and internationally. Among his notable projects are: The East Side Access in New York, the Gateway Program in NY/NJ, The Alaskan Way Tunnel in Seattle, The Central Subway in San Francisco, and the Istanbul Strait Crossing in Turkey. Mr. Munfah is a member of the International Tunneling Association (ITA), The Underground Construction Association of the US, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and The Moles Organization. He is the Animateur (Chair) of ITA Working Group 19 “Conventional Tunneling”, and an associate professor at Columbia University. He has published numerous papers and technical articles and he is the recipient of several awards.
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
TEXT COURTESY OF UNTAPPED NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Blackwell’s Almanac: Benedict Arnold’s Saga, Radio City Music Hall and More
His name has come to be synonymous with treason. Yet, between 1775 and 1780, Benedict Arnold was a relentless American patriot. The first article in this issue recounts Arnold’s many heroic acts and how he became a turncoat. It’s based on the RIHS Library Lecture presented on November 15, 2022, by James Kirby Martin, professor emeritus of the University of Houston and author of Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered.
Author and documentary producer Dean Irwin grew up backstage at Radio City Music Hall. His father, Will Irwin, was musical director of the iconic theater in the 1960s and 70s. The next article, Part 1 of a two-part series, provides a unique and colorful glimpse behind the scenes and describes the elder Irwin’s rise to assistant conductor at the Music Hall.
You can read these stories and more in the latest issue of Blackwell’s Almanac, online at https://rihs.us/newsletter.
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Last week I was on the way to JFK and decided to take the Airtrain from Jamaica Station. Upon arrived I found a barriered off area and a crowd of hundreds trying to buy Metrocards. There were a few Metrocard machines working with staff directing passengers to the machines and instructing many foreigners on how to purchase an $8 card, plus the $1- surcharge.
After purchasing the card, only 2 turnstiles worked.
The scene is chaotic since on one side is a line for outgoing passengers and on the other side is a line for arriving passengers, waiting to buy their cards.
Read what I have found after seeing this MTA mess (also to blame is Port Authority)
It’s a philosophical question that vexes every traveler who tries to take the subway to and from JFK Airport: why does the AirTrain experience suck so bad?
Specifically: Why is there seemingly always a bottleneck to pay the eight dollar fare to board the AirTrain? Why does the AirTrain require you to buy or load up an MTA MetroCard ($1 apiece) with cash to pay this fare, but does not accept OMNY, the MTA’s tap-to-pay system that 40 percent of its subway riders currently use? (Don’t try using your unlimited MetroCard, the system won’t take it.)
While the MTA controls the (frequently busted) MetroCard machines at the two AirTrain portals at Jamaica and Howard Beach, as well as the rollout of their OMNY technology, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates the AirTrain itself, and collects the eight dollar (that’s $8.00, also known as EIGHT FUCKING DOLLARS) fare only for travelers attempting to enter and exit mass transit—drivers heading to their cars in the parking lot ride free. It’s a black and white cookie of municipal dysfunction.
Last month, Hell Gate asked the chair and CEO of the MTA, Janno Lieber, what he was doing about the frequent bottlenecks at the subway/AirTrain connections, whether he’d spoken to the Port Authority about the issue recently, and if he has a firm date for when passengers can use OMNY capability for the AirTrain.
“I have not spoken to the Port Authority about the condition of the entry point that they operate,” Lieber replied. While tap-to-pay can be used at every subway station and on every bus, the full OMNY rollout is some 2.5 years behind schedule and $100 million over budget; reduced fare programs, commuter rail, OMNY vending machines, and access to conveyances like the AirTrain have been stalled—some until 2025.
Lieber told us that this is why, two months ago, he asked his deputies to look at the OMNY implementation timeline, “tear it apart,” and make the Cuomo-era initiative better. But he offered no firm date for tap-to-pay coming to the AirTrain.
“I decided that we needed to look at the schedule for how we were managing the project, because it was not being, in my view, managed the same way you would manage a more conventional mega project,” Lieber said. “We inherited—I inherited, this project, which is great, but from my standpoint, has certain project management challenges.”
You might be wondering why the Port Authority didn’t adopt OMNY, a system that was introduced in 2019, some time ago. The Port Authority may also be wondering this, as a slide the agency produced from that same year indicated that PATH trains would “adopt MTA OMNY technology” in “2021/2022.” That never happened, as the MTA’s own delays dragged on.
Instead, puzzlingly, the Port Authority announced in late 2021 that it would be developing its own tap-to-pay technology system with Cubic for its PATH trains, the same company the MTA uses for OMNY. (NJ Transit, which includes the $8 cost of the Newark AirTrain in its tickets, which can be purchased and scanned via smartphone, uses a different company called Conduent. The technical term for all this incompatibility is “LOL.”)
The Port Authority offered Hell Gate no timeline for OMNY integration, and declined to address an old tweet from its JFK Airport account stating it’d happen “sometime in 2024.”
“We are working closely with the MTA on ways to speed up the schedule,” the spokesperson said. Asked about what was causing the delays, the agency pointed to the MTA’s answers to our questions about the issue.
Last month, VICE’s Aaron Gordon made a strong argument for the Port Authority to eliminate the $8 fare from the JFK Airport Airtrain. The AirTrain is not a money maker, and making it free would encourage airport travelers to take mass transit (currently only 12 percent do) instead of waiting for an expensive, polluting private car.
Well, it turns out the Port Authority does sometimes lift the fee from AirTrain/subway commuters, but only when the bottlenecks at the exits get really, really bad.
“The decision to temporarily open the fare gates at the JFK AirTrain stations to speed passenger throughput is being made on an exceptional case-by-case basis,” a Port Authority spokesperson told us in an email, “only at peak periods when necessary while we make multiple other changes and await the installation of OMNY tap-and-go technology by the MTA.”
Oh, and just a heads up: starting on January 15, part of your AirTrain fare may include a ride on a shuttle bus.
November 1935. Household supply store. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania by Walker Evans for the U.S. Resettlement Administration From Ed Litcher
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
The Lewis Latimer House in Flushing, a red and white Victorian home, honors Lewis Howard Latimer, an African-American inventor and humanist born to fugitive slaves who lived in the home from 1903 until his death in 1928. Latimer was one of the founders of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Queens, and he was known for his work with figures like Hiram S. Maxim, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The red and white house, which dates back to around 1889, contains a museum dedicated to Latimer’s work and the achievements of other black scientists.
George Latimer, his father, escaped from Virginia to Boston before his subsequent capture and imprisonment. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass strove to grant George freedom through a publication called “The Latimer Journal, and the North Star.” Growing up in the Antebellum period, Lewis Latimer joined the Union Navy in 1864 and later became an expert draftsman while working at a patent law office. After learning about physics and engineering, Latimer would work with Edison, under whom he invented and patented the carbon filament, which improved the production of the incandescent lightbulb. He also authored “Incandescent Lighting,” the foundation for modern electrical engineering theory. He would also go on to draft drawings for Bell’s invention of the telephone.
Joseph Rodman Drake Park
In Joseph Rodman Drake Park in Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood is an enclosed cemetery and recently discovered slave burial ground. When Drake Park was originally created in 1909, an 18th-century cemetery of wealthy slave-owning families like the Hunts and Leggets were preserved. Yet in 2013, students at Public School 48 analyzed census data and maps to identify a potential spot where the remains of 156 Black and Indian slaves in Hunts Point, per the 1790 Census, ended up.
The students and their teacher Justin Czarka found a black-and-white photograph from 1910 showing several markers resembling headstones, labeled on the back, “Slave burying ground, Hunts Point Road.” The US Department of Agriculture sent scientists to perform soil tests using radar in the cemetery in the summer of 2013, and several areas of the park were determined to have “anthropogenic features” as “likely potential burial sites.” A plaque honoring the burial ground was put up in 2014.
The infamous Audubon Ballroom at 166th Street is where Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 while giving a speech. The building was originally built as the William Fox Aubudon Theater in 1912, designed by Thomas Lamb. Shabazz died either en route to or at the Harlem Hospital, across the street.
Today it is owned by Columbia University, which provides space for the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center. Columbia University also preserved the facade of the theat
Apollo Theater
The legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem is perhaps one of the best-known sites that have empowered African Americans to showcase their art and break free from oppression. The singer James Brown, who released the album Live at the Apollo, loved the theater so much that his body was brought to the Apollo before his funeral. Music legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and many others performed at the Apollo. Additionally, artists like Dave Brubeck and Stan Getz performed at the Apollo, and even The Beatles flocked to the Apollo as soon as they arrived in NYC.
The Apollo Theater was opened in 1914 and was designed by architect George Keister, opening originally as the all-white New Burlesque Theater. It wasn’t until 1934 that it became the Apollo, a hotspot for African American pop culture and music. It became the first theater to allow a mixed-race audience and the first in New York City to hire Blacks for backstage jobs. The year the Apollo opened, Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut there during Amateur Night, winning a grand $25. Secrets of the Apollo range from its “Good Luck Stump” that entertainers rub before performing to its Wall of Autographs with names like the Obamas, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Photo courtesy New York Public Library.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a New York Public Library research library on Malcolm X Boulevard that serves as an archive repository for Black culture worldwide. From poems by Phyllis Wheatley to papers by Malcolm X and Ralph Bunche, the Center is home to everything from manuscripts to rare books to photographs depicting Black culture. The center also houses documents signed by Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture and a recording of a speech given by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey.
Named after Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the Center often hosts readings, art exhibitions, and workshops, and it is currently directed by Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Young. In the past, the Center has put on influential exhibitions like Malcolm X: the Search for Truth, the controversial Give me your poor…, and “Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery.” The Schomburg Collection today stands at over 10 million objects written, created, and designed by people of African descent from countries like South Africa, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.
SOUTH ENTRY TO MACY’S DEPARTMENT STORE LAMP ON 34TH STREET CLOSE TO 7TH AVENUE
GLORIA HERMAN 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
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The African Burial Ground National Monument is found in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan that contains the remains of more than 419 Africans from the 17th and 18th centuries. It is estimated that there were as many of 10,000 to 20,000 burials in the 1700s, and it is considered New York’s oldest African-American cemetery.In the 1600s, the Dutch West India Company brought over slaves from Angola, Congo, and Guinea, and by the mid-17th century, a village called the Land of the Blacks saw 30 African-owned farms in modern-day Washington Square Park. It was estimated that 42% of households in New York had slaves, which eventually totaled about 2,500 by 1740. Slavery was ultimately abolished on July 4, 1827, yet only one-third of the city’s blacks were free in 1790. The site was initially labeled on old maps as “Negro Burying Ground,” and the first recorded burials for people of African descent occurred in 1712, but it is speculated that the burial ground was in use two decades earlier.Some of the bodies of the deceased were illegally dug up for dissection, which sparked the 1788 Doctors’ Riot. The city shut down the cemetery in 1794, and urban development began taking place over the burial ground. The land remained largely forgotten until bones were discovered in 1991 during an archaeological survey by the General Services Administration. Protests occurred just a year later after it was discovered that the GSA had damaged some of the burials and took little care in excavation efforts. George H.W. Bush signed a law to redesign the area and to install a $3 million memorial, which was dedicated in 2007 to commemorate the role of Africans and African Americans throughout New York City’s history. In 1993 the African Burial Ground was designated a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. It is also a National Historic Monument.
Seneca Village in present-day Central ParkSeneca Village was a settlement in the 19th-century in present-day Central Park, founded in 1825 by free blacks. With a population of around 250 residents at its peak, the village featured three churches, a school, and two cemeteries. Bounded by 82nd and 89th Streets, Seneca Village would exist for over three decades before villagers were ordered to leave due to the construction of Central Park.A white farmer named John Whitehead bought the land in 1824 and sold three lots of it to an African American man named Andrew Williams and twelve lots to the AME Zion Church. After the outlawing of slavery, many African Americans began to move into the village from downtown. A number of Irish immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine also settled in the village. Most of the homes were well-constructed, two-story buildings, the Central Park Conservancy tells us, rather than shanties which were in the minority of the buildings. Workers typically were employed in construction and food service, with many women working as domestic servants. The African Union Church in Seneca Village was one of the city’s first black schools, named Colored School 3.The Seneca Village Project, founded in 1998, was created to raise awareness of the settlement’s history as a middle-class, free black community. Today, a plaque commemorates the site where Seneca Village once stood. There have also been recent archaeological excavations to uncover traces of Seneca Village, and in 2011, researchers discovered foundation walls of the home of William Godfrey Wilson, who was a sexton for All Angels’ Church in the village. 250 bags were filled with artifacts during the digs, including the leather sole of a child’s shoe. Central Park recently celebrated the history of Seneca Village through new historic signage as well as free tours during Black History Month, of which Untapped New York partnered with the Conservancy to offer a special tour to our Insiders members.
Historic Weeksville in BrooklynLike Seneca Village, Weeksville was a neighborhood that was founded by free African Americans, situated in modern-day Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Weeksville was founded in 1838 by James Weeks, an African-American longshoreman who bought land from Henry C. Thompson, a free African American land investor. The land was previously owned by an heir of John Lefferts, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.By the 1850s, Weeksville’s population had surpassed that of Seneca Village, with upwards of 500 residents from across the East Coast, with over a third of residents born in the south. Weeksville was home to two churches, a school (Colored School No. 2), and a cemetery, as well as the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum. Weeksville also had one of the first African-American newspapers called the Freedman’s Torchlight and served as headquarters of the African Civilization Society. Additionally, the area was a refuge for many African Americans who left Manhattan during the 1863 Draft Riots. Four historic houses dating back to the time of the village collectively make up the Hunterfly Road Houses, listed on the NRHP in 1972. The discovery of these houses led to the creation of the Weeksville Heritage Centerdedicated to the preservation of Weeksville.
Blazing Star Cemetery is in Rossville, Staten Island nearby the Sandy Ground communitySandy Ground was a community in Rossville, Staten Island, that was founded by free African Americans around the year 1828. Only a few months after slavery was abolished in New York City, an African American man named Captain John Jackson purchased land in the area, and the area quickly became a center of oyster trade. Many settlers would harvest and sell oysters at the nearby Prince’s Bay.Sandy Ground was also an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and the settlement is currently considered one of the oldest continuously settled free black communities in the U.S. A church, a cemetery, and three homes from the settlement are today designated as New York City landmarks, yet most of the original houses were destroyed in a 1963 fire. Today, the Sandy Ground Historical Museum is home to the largest collection of documents detailing Staten Island’s African-American culture, history, and freedom.
A memorial in The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground honoring the dead who are buried there.The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground is a small burial ground alternatively known as the “Colored Cemetery of Flushing.” A large circular monument notes the burial of 500 to 1,000 people, primarily African Americans, Native Americans, and victims of four major epidemics of cholera and smallpox in the mid-1800s. Acquired by the town of Flushing in 1840 from the Bowne family, the burial ground contains the bodies of slaves and servants of the Flushing elite, as well as members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Death certificates issued in the 1880s confirm that more than half of the buried were children under the age of five. About 62 percent of the buried were African American or Native American.In 1936, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses decided to build a modern playground on the site of the burial ground. Local activist Mandingo Tshaka halted plans of renovating the cemetery to preserve its history. The Queens Department of Parks commissioned a $50,000 archaeological study in 1996 of the burial ground. In 2004, $2.67 million was allocated to this site, leading to the creation of a historic wall engraved with the names from the only four headstones remaining in 1919.
The Church of St. John the Baptist, located at 213 West 30th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, has stood in Midtown since 1872. Designed in the French Gothic-style by architect Napoleon LeBrun, it first served New York City’s German population and was later assumed by the Capuchin Friars. In 1974, a brown brick Brutalist structure was added on the other side of the site at 210 West 31st Street, facing Penn Station, to serve as the Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist.
The building now is closed and awaits if fate.
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.
Robert Ray Hamilton — The New York Times August 30, 1889 (copyright expired)
An attorney, Robert had attended both Columbia College and Columbia Law School. In 1881 he was elected to the New York State Assembly and remained in office until 1889. Like the rest of his respected family members, he led an untainted life—until his last year in politics.
Hamilton had begun an affair with Evangeline L. Steele in 1886. Unbeknownst to him, as The Sun later said, she had led “a disreputable life.” What he also did not know was that she was already married, to “Josh” Mann. Popularly known as Eva, she recognized the financial opportunity the affair presented and she laid plans to ensnare her lover.
Robert Ray Hamilton came from one of New York City’s most esteemed families. His father was the highly-lauded Civil War and Mexican War veteran General Schuyler Hamilton; his grandfather was the historian and attorney John Church Hamilton; and his great-grandfather was Alexander Hamilton.
Robert Ray Hamilton — The New York Times August 30, 1889 (copyright expired) An attorney, Robert had attended both Columbia College and Columbia Law School. In 1881 he was elected to the New York State Assembly and remained in office until 1889. Like the rest of his respected family members, he led an untainted life—until his last year in politics.Hamilton had begun an affair with Evangeline L. Steele in 1886. Unbeknownst to him, as The Sun later said, she had led “a disreputable life.” What he also did not know was that she was already married, to “Josh” Mann. Popularly known as Eva, she recognized the financial opportunity the affair presented and she laid plans to ensnare her lover.
Newspapers called Evangeline Steele “a notorious woman.” photo The Evening World, December 7, 1904 (copyright expired)
In December 1888 Eva and Josh traveled to Elmira, New York. The Evening World later reported “They decided that Eva should get a baby, and make Mr. Hamilton believe it was his. If they succeeded they knew he would not suffer the little innocent to go through life unnamed.” On December 17 they paid $10 for an unwanted newborn.
Hamilton believed the child was his; but Eva’s demands that he marry her were temporarily halted when the baby became ill and died. The death certificate listed the child’s name as “Alice Mann, daughter of George and Alice Mann,” and stated the cause of death was “want of breast milk.” Eva, who had never been pregnant, was unable to nurse the infant and it died of starvation.
Before the baby was buried, according to court testimony later, a replacement baby was purchased (also for $10). Josh Mann’s mother, “Grandmother” Anna Swinton, moved in with the couple to ensure this one would not die.
“Hamilton knew nothing of the death of the first one, and yielding to the persistence of Eva he married her in Paterson, N. J. on the 7th of January last,” explained The Evening World. In February Hamilton took an apartment in the Marshall Flats on West 15th Street. Joshua Mann rented a flat on the same street and when Hamilton was not around, he and Eva lived together as man and wife. And she provided him with large sums of Hamilton’s money to live on.
Because Hamilton was still serving in the Assembly, he was often out of town. The New-York Tribune reported “Before she married Hamilton, he agreed to give her $6,000 a year for pin money and to defray her expenses at home.” A quarrel over that allowance brought an end to the marriage and to Hamilton’s reputation.
On August 26, 1889 the couple was summering in Atlantic City. Eight months earlier, just after Hamilton learned of the baby, he had hired a nurse, Mary Anne Donnelly, to care for the child. Donnelly traveled with the family, accompanying them to California earlier that year.
But that morning, after Evangeline repeatedly pressed Hamilton that they should live permanently in Manhattan; he told her that he would reduce her allowance if they did. “Quick-tempered and passionate, she began to quarrel with him and threatened to leave him forever,” said the New-York Tribune a few days later. Hamilton refused to budge on the subject.
At one point Mary Anne Donnelly tried to intervene, but she was told to leave the room. Eva did not like the nurse and already had instructed her husband to fire her. She demanded that Mary Anne leave the cottage. When she was unable to move her husband, Eva turned to the whiskey bottle.
At 11:30 a. m. the nurse returned. Now Eva upbraided her for leaving the child alone, they argued, and Eva fired Mary Anne Donnelly. Within earshot of Hamilton the nurse took her last shot, denouncing Eva “as a faithless woman.”
A physical confrontation followed, during which Mary Anne proved to be a better street fighter than Eva. “Mary was as strong as a bull and had the fight lasted much longer Mrs. Hamilton would have been beaten insensible,” reported the Tribune. Hearing the battle, Hamilton rushed into the room just in time to see Eva thrust a knife into the heart of the nurse. In trying to break up the fight he was cut in two places. Mary ran from the room and died on the parlor sofa.
Astonishingly, Evangeline blamed the death on Hamilton. As she was taken away she said “You know I told you before I left New-York that if you did not discharge that nurse there would be murder committed.”
The scandalous details of the affair came out during the trial. Newspaper readers nationwide learned of the purchased baby, the other husband, and the plot to get Hamilton to leave his fortune to the baby Beatrice. His lawyer described him as “outraged and indignant. When he remembers all he sacrificed for that woman he can hardly restrain himself.”
Eager to escape the scandal, Robert Ray Hamilton went into partnership with John Dudley Sargent, a stage coach driver in the Rocky Mountains who proposed establishing a tourist resort in Yellowstone Park. Hamilton funded the plan and Sargent acted as the “experience.” They built a luxurious hotel and lodge on Jackson’s Lake in June 1890.
Three months later Hamilton was dead. He was found drowned in the Snake River under suspicious circumstances. He was quickly buried and when investigators from New York later disinterred his body, it was found forced into a too-small wooden crate. The Sun reported on October 15, 1891, “Strangers found his body, and those who could not appreciate his worth knocked a few rough boards together for a coffin, wrapped the body in a dirty and ragged tarpaulin, loaded it into the box, and so without a tear or a prayer dumped it into a hole on a desolate hillside…A loyal friend, a true gentleman, and a brave man was Robert Ray Hamilton, but hundreds of dogs have been more decently interred by their master than was he by the friends to whom he was loyal.”
Sargent was arrested for his murder, but was later sent to an insane asylum.
Hamilton’s will included the clause “I direct my executors…to expend the sum of ten thousand dollars in the purchase and erection of an ornamental fountain which I give and bequeath to…New York City, provided that such fountain may be erected in one of the streets, squares or public places in said city.”
Scandal and controversy would follow Hamilton even in his death. His generous bequest was fought by the family. On April 22, 1891 The New York Times ran the headline “Let Him Be Forgotten,” and explained that the Hamilton and Schuyler families petitioned the City to ignore his wishes. “Such a memorial as the will designates would, they believe, perpetuate a name that brought dishonor to the family.”
The battle would last for years. In the meantime Evangeline Mann had been released from prison. She had received a settlement of $10,000 from Hamilton’s will. But she died penniless on November 23, 1904 in St. Vincent’s Hospital. The Evening World reported that “the body was buried in the common plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery, there being but one mourner present.”
The Park Board accepted the design for the fountain, submitted by architects Warren & Wetmore, on December 30, 1903. Two months earlier it had approved the location—on Riverside Drive at 76th Street. The architects’ baroque fountain featured a spread-winged eagle above a coat of arms and a shell-shaped basin fed by a dolphin. Water from the basin spilled into a large pool. The entire Tennessee marble fountain formed part of the stone wall separating the Drive from Riverside Park. Along the rim of the pool was the inscription “Bequeathed to the people of New York by Robert Ray Hamilton”
Far beneath the fountain, at the base of the wall on the Park side, was a marble bowl that served as a horse trough for thirsty, passing carriage horses. In reporting on the installation of the Hamilton Fountain, newspapers said it was “for man and beasts.”
The marble horse fountain, seen here in 1935, was the “beast” portion. It was eventually covered by feet of dirt and debris. photo Alajos Schuszler/New York City Parks Photo Archive
By the second half of the 20th century the horse trough in the park was buried by accumulated soil—a total of 10 to 12 feet deep by the new century. With the parkside marble bowl long forgotten, the “man and beast” comment resulted in the lavish ornamental fountain on the Drive being termed a “horse trough;” a reputation it still carries. In fact, Hamilton’s will does not mention the “ornamental fountain” being used by horses, and its positioning makes that improbable. Carriage drivers would have to direct their horses onto the sidewalk to take a drink.
Throughout the 20th century the marble fountain suffered vandalism and neglect. The eagle’s beak was smashed off and the inscription was eroded to nearly illegibility. Riverside Drive residents did their best, planting flowers in the no longer functioning basin.
Then in 2008 the Riverside Park Fund and a small maintenance endowment initiated a $150,000 restoration. The eagle’s beak was replaced, the stone restored, and the plumbing repaired. And in November an archeological dig of sorts was undertaken to find the old marble horse trough. It was successful. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, on December 1, “the basin might be excavated and reused elsewhere, perhaps as a dog fountain” or “perhaps it will be amply documented and then simply left in place. That will allow another parks commissioner in another era to find it again.”
In the meantime, the stunning marble fountain continues to be deemed a horse trough–an ironic similarity to the memory and reputation of its donor.
NINTH AVENUE SIDE OF JAMES A. FARLEY POST OFFICE BUILDING AND MOYNIHAN STATION. DANIELLE SHUR, ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT
MOYNIHAN HALL HAS A GREAT FOOD COURT AND PROBABLY THE LONGEST BAR IN THE CITY………GREAT FOR BEFORE OR AFTER MSG EVENTS!
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
