Every New York City borough has its fair share of lost mansions. Today, we are revisiting the lost mansions of Queens. Now New York City’s most diverse borough and the second most populated, the development of Queens began with farmland and suburbs. Western areas of Queens, which offered an easy commute into Manhattan but lots of land to spread out on, attracted the wealthy families of New York. There are still standalone mansions that you can spot throughout the borough, but here we revisit the country estates and follies that have been long forgotten…
BODINE CASTLE LONG ISLAND CITY
This fantastical castle has inspired fantastical backstories. It was rumored that it was built by a fleeing French nobleman or that it was the headquarters of a secret society. The truth, however, is that it was built by a wealthy grocer, John Bodine, in 1853. Located at 43-16 Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, the mansion was made of immense granite blocks and had a copper roof. It boasted a crenelated watchtower, Gothic windows, and a tunnel to the beach. These tunnels were a popular feature of grand mansions along the East River. These tunnels were used by servants to go back and forth from the house to the beach to serve guests while they lounged or partied.
John W. Rapp made his fortune in metal manufacturing. His United Metal Products Company produced steel parts for fireproof buildings according to the New York Times. His products were integral to the construction of such landmarks as the Woolworth Building (which was known for its advanced fireproofing methods) and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building. The business occupied ten acres of land in College Point, including the former factory of Rhedania Silk Mills. His success in business allowed Rapp to purchase an opulent home close to his business. In the early 1900s, he moved into the mansion seen above with his new wife, Corine.
Located on First Avenue in College Point (now 14th Avenue), this lost mansion of Queens had lovely manicured gardens, a mansard roof, and a large porch. According to an article in the New York Heraldannouncing Rapp’s death in 1922, the metal mogul owned 500 acres in College Point and Flushing. The house was eventually demolished and the area was redeveloped.
The mansion on the right side of this photograph was built by merchant Horace Whittemore around 1840 in the suburbs of Astoria, Queens. Astoria offered expansive plots of land within a short distance of Manhattan, which could be easily accessed across the East River. This classical Greek revival villa had unobstructed views of the river from its spot on what were Perrot Avenue and Franklin Street (now 27th Avenue). The Met Museum describes the interior layout of the home:
Upon ascending the outside staircase at the front of the house, traversing the portico, and entering the first floor, visitors were welcomed into a central hall flanked on the right by a pair of formal parlors and on the left by a family living room and a billiards room. On the ground level below were the dining room, kitchen, and pantries. Five family bedrooms were located on the second floor, and the third floor, with its low ceiling and small horizontal slot windows, likely housed the servants’ quarters.
Franklin Avenue in the 1800s was lined with standalone mansions. You can still see some grand homes along 12th Street in Astoria. The Whittmore House was later known as the La Roque Mansion for its second owner. The house was demolished in 1965. You can get a glimpse of what this opulent home looked like on the inside with a visit to The Met. In the American Wing, you can see the parlor with architectural details from inside the mansion. Two parlors from the home were donated to the museum by the mansion’s final owners, the Molteni family.
SUNSWICK, ASTORIA
One of the earliest grand estates to appear in Astoria, especially around the coast near today’s Hallet’s Point, was that of Major John Delafield and his wife, Ann Hallett. Called Sunswick, their home was built in 1792, faced the East River, and was backed by a wide expanse of farmland. It was named for a now-buried nearby creek.
Delafield fell on hard financial times in the early 1800s and was forced to sell his estate to noted mineralogist Colonel George Gibbs. Gibbs and his family were known for their hospitality at Sunswick. Upon GIbbs’ death, the land was subdivided into four lots. There were multiple owners after that and the house was eventually torn down in the 1920s.
JOSIAH BLACKWELL HOUSE, ASTORIA
Another grand mansion that once stood along the former Franklin Avenue in Astoria was the Josiah Blackwell House. Located around what is today 27th Ave and 8th Street, the home belonged to a decsenadnat of Robert Blackwell, owner of Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island. The image of the home above was captured in 1937 by photographer Berenice Abbott.
The lost Queens mansion in Astoria remained in the family until the early 1920s when it was sold and converted to a boarding house. It was demolished and replaced by the Astoria Houses in the 1940s.
THE CHISHOLM MANSION
Hermon A. MacNeil Park now stands at the site of the form Chisholm Mansion. The land was originally purchased in 1835 by Reverend William Augustus Muhlenberg for a new stone Episcopal seminary. When the Panic of 1837 hit, his plans were scrapped and the land was sold to his sister, Mrs. John Rogers. She used the leftover stone from the abandoned school project to build her own mansion, at the highest point on the grounds, in 1848.
Mrs. Rogers later gave the mansion to her daughter Mary as a wedding gift when she married William F. Chisolm. The family remained in the home until 1930, when it was acquired by the City of New York. Mayor Fioerello LaGuardia used the mansion as a “summer City Hall” in 1937. Sadly, the mansion was demolished between 1939 and 1941. Today, a flagpole in the park marks where it once stood.
OUR FRIDAY WENT OUT TOO LATE, SO ABOVE IS OUR PHOTO 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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
UNTAPPED NEW YORK NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY QUEENS BOROUGH PUBLIC LIBRARY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
An advertisement for The Hagey Institute first appeared in the Plattsburgh Sentinel in November of 1893 as an establishment which provided the “gold cure,” a permanent cure for the disease of addiction to liquor, morphine, opium and nicotine.
Offered was a “golden opportunity” for an absolute cure in just 21 days. With this promise, The Hagey Institute opened for business on November 4th, 1893 in the Winslow Block across from the Witherill Hotel on Margaret Street in Plattsburgh, Clinton County, NY.
What was the treatment offered? Those taking the cure were injected with “bi-chloride of gold” four times a day and ingested a tonic every two hours. The injected chemical combination was created by Dr. William Henry Harrison Hagey. Later laboratory reports claimed it contained not gold but “practically everything else, including quinine, strychnine and other poisons.” No cost was ever advertised for the treatment.
In June of 1894, local investors formed the New York Gold Company and took over the Hagey Institute in Plattsburgh. They accumulated $125,000 from shareholders and purchased the Hagey formula for $50,000. First National Bank Director Edwin G. Moore was President. Under new ownership, the Institute moved from Margaret Street to lower Bridge Street. A large sign on the west side of the building faced downtown Plattsburgh.
By September of 1896, the New York Gold Company announced that 485 residents had been cured, five for morphine addiction and the rest for alcoholism. Additionally, the Company had opened branches in New Jersey and New Hampshire.
Those cured by the Institute were called graduates, and their testimonials appeared in local newspapers. The names attached to many testimonials can be traced to real people in the community although their vivid descriptions read like professional ads.
One of the most influential endorsements, however, may have been in February of 1894 from 37 Plattsburgh community leaders including Judge John Booth, Plattsburgh Sentinel owner Abram Lansing, three doctors, four members of the clergy, and William T. Howell, owner of the Witherill Hotel.
They certified they “no longer entertain doubts as to the efficacy of this treatment” and recommended it to all who were addicted in the “hope of helping suffering humanity.” It should be clear that this was an endorsement. They were not graduates.
Physicians were often praised in the testimonials. The first physician at the Institute was Dr. Daniel Oscar Fosgate who appears to have left in mid-1894. Dr. Jefferson G. McKinney was next. Originally from Schuyler Falls, he was a long-standing member of the Clinton County Medical Society, and his term as chief physician at the Hagey Institute extended into early 1896 when a Dr. T. Bates Cook from Laconia, NH, took over and stayed until the Institute closed.
Despite the convictions of the owners that “the Hagey treatment will provide a sure and effective cure,” the Institute closed by the end of 1897, and the New York Gold Company was not mentioned again in the local papers.
A blog post from Western Kentucky University reports that although the Hagey treatment promised to be “perfect and pleasant… it more commonly made users nauseous, fatigued, inebriated, confused, and even insane.” As science improved, remedies of this type were moved to the category of quackery. Was this the reason for our local company’s fate?
Or did the “gold cure” work? Not for Gardner McLean of Saranac Lake who took the cure twice and sadly, in a “drunken frenzy,” shot his wife to death. Hopefully, the hundreds of others reported to have taken the cure fared well.
RIOC ERASES ANY EVIDENCE THAT A PATH WAS BEING BUILT. STAY TUNED AND SEND US YOUR COMMENTS AND SUPPORT ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
When walking today you will see no evidence of the path that was being constructed so Coler residents could access the West Promenade.
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NEW YORK ALMANACK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
When walking north past Coler Long Term Care on the West Promenade, notice that there is no access to the path from the area near Coler. This makes it virtually impossible for the Coler residents to enjoy the promenade and many have to use the roadway as the closest site to view the river and enjoy our fresh air. There is an area that could easily be configured into an accessible pathway.
On Wednesday, April 20th contractors were repairing sidewalks near Coler and a path was being installed to the promenade.
By the end of the day it was marked out.
By Thursday half the path had been cemented
On Sunday I noticed the path was cemented but a curb had been installed, therefore making this an useless and obstacle for Coler residents? What is going on?
Why is there a curb?
WHAT HAPPENED?
I WAS INFORMED BY COLER ADMINISTRATION THAT RIOC WOULD NOT PERMIT A PATH TO THE PROMENADE. (IT IS THEIR PROPERTY)
I HAVE NOT BEEN HOME FOR 3 DAYS (TO CELEBRATE A LANDMARK BIRTHDAY)
THIS SURELY ADDED A SOUR NOTE TO MY WEEK AND MORE IMPORTANTLY TO THE COLER RESIDENTS.
WE WILL BE ON THE CASE THIS WEEK AND SEE WHAT AND WHO IS NEEDED TO GET THIS PATH INSTALLED.
VOICE AND SUPPORT IS NEEDED NOW
FROM OUR APRIL 17TH ISSUE
This area is directly across from the Coler driveway.
There is direct path to the building entrance.
There is even a curb cut. A crosswalk and stop sign would make a wonderful addition so our neighbors could cross the street safely.
Vincent a Coler resident express frustration at not being able to access the promenade.
Coler Administration has contacted RIOC to no avail for over a year. Recently Borough President Mark Levine and State Senator Liz Kreuger inspected the site. We need community and political support to motivate RIOC to do a small construction project to make the promenade truly wheelchair accessible.
This wonderful walk has been denied to mobility challenged for years.
TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
OCTAGON DOME IN THE 1920’S SORRY, TOO LATE TO SEE WHO GOT IT RIGHT
PHOTO OF THE DAY
WILL RETURN TOMORROW
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
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.
CHAPLAIN AND GUESTS AT THE OPENING OF COLER IN 1952. THOM HEYER GOT IT!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
On a chilly November day in 1829, a man dressed completely in white stood before a crowd on the precipice of the High Falls of the Genesee River in the middle of Rochester, New York. Many watching had traveled for days to view the spectacle. All eyes were riveted on one of the most famous men in America.
In our own day, we’ve been fascinated by Philippe Petit walking a wire between the World Trade Center towers, or by Evel Knievel leaping over a row of buses on a motorcycle. A forerunner of these daredevils was Sam Patch.
As a boy, Sam had learned the art of jumping when he leapt for fun from the roof of the six-story stone textile mill where he worked. Slater’s Mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the first major factory in the nation. Sam turned every jump into a four-act drama: the tense anticipation, the thrilling leap, the heart-stopping disappearance, and the joyful resurrection.
The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 had made Rochester the largest flour-milling city in the world. The town roared with the clattering machinery driven by the river’s water power. The walls of the Genesee gorge formed a misty amphitheater below the falls. On Friday, November 6, a crowd of more than ten thousand people gathered there for the show.
Sam had earlier scouted the river, taking soundings below the falls. Part of his secret was that dropping into the frothy water at the base of a cataract softened the impact of the landing. Now he bowed, said a few words, launched himself, and plummeted. Some cried out, “He’s dead!” After a tense moment, he bobbed to the surface, relieving the onlookers.
Why did he do it? Was it a hunger for attention? A death wish? For Sam Patch, it went beyond the personal. He was reasserting the worth of industrial laborers like himself. Sam had started working twelve-hour days in the mills at the age of eight. He had found little time for play or for schooling. As a factory hand, he was a hireling, dispensable, worth less than the machinery he tended. He worked for someone else’s profit.
Americans did not take easily to factory work. In 1824, workers in Pawtucket walked off the job to protest a decision by mill owners to cut wages by a quarter and extend the work day by an hour. Women and girls instigated the nation’s first industrial strike. Men, including Sam Patch, joined in.
Patch later moved to Paterson, a prosperous mill town in New Jersey. On a whim, he upstaged the opening of a pleasure garden by leaping from the top of the 77-foot Passaic River Falls. In doing so, he defied the city’s upper classes — the place of amusement was off-limits to working people. He jumped again on the Fourth of July, 1828, advertising his feat with the terse phrase that would become his motto: “Some things can be done as well as others.” It was the working man’s sneer at the pretensions of the elite. Sam Patch had found his calling.
By the time he was thirty, Sam was traveling the country, jumping from ships’ masts and over waterfalls. He became the first of the Niagara Falls daredevils, leaping from a platform into the seething cauldron at the bottom of the falls. With this feat, the Buffalo Republican declared, “he may now challenge the universe for a competitor.”
Now, to the consternation of Rochester’s respectable citizens, Sam scheduled another jump in the city a week after the first — on Friday the thirteenth. He had a platform constructed to raise him even farther above the river, 120 feet. “There’s no Mistake in SAM PATCH,” his handbills read. “HIGHER YET! Sam’s Last Jump.”
Again the great mass of spectators assembled. The mills shut down. Watchers crowded windows and roofs. The sensation, one viewer noted, was “between a horse race and an execution.” All waited in the penetrating cold of a gray November afternoon.
Sam Patch wore the white togs that were the uniform of mill workers. He stepped onto the platform. He had imbibed enough whiskey to make him sway a bit as he looked out on all those looking back.
“Napoleon!” he shouted, knowing few could hear. “Napoleon was a great man. But he couldn’t jump the Genesee.” Sam paused. The wind carried his words away over the housetops. “That was left for me to do. I can do it and I will.”
That was his belief. Anyone, even a working man, could be great. Could be somebody. Instead of a cog in a machine. A man could take his life into his own hands. He could dare.
The anticipation had built long enough. Sam stepped to the very edge of the platform. A man in the crowd bit his thumb until it bled. Each spectator drew a breath and held it. Sam looked into all their eyes, into the abyss. He jumped.
He lost control of his erect posture halfway down. His arms flailed. He tipped sideways. Some spectators covered their eyes. Sam Patch slammed into the river.
“When the bubbling water closed over him,” a journalist wrote, “the almost breathless silence and suspense of the multitude for several minutes was indescribably impressive and painful.” No one moved or spoke. Then, finally, “it became too apparent that poor Sam had jumped from life into eternity.”
It wasn’t until the next March that a workman watering horses near the mouth of the river broke the ice and discovered Sam’s frozen body, still dressed in white. Over his grave, someone mounted a wooden plaque that read: “Sam Patch. Such is Fame.”
CHAPLAIN AND GUESTS AT THE OPENING OF COLER IN 1952.
THOM HEYER GOT IT!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NEW YORK ALMANACK Illustrations, from above: High Falls of the Genesee River and Sam’s Last Jump handbill.
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Dating from 1785, Edward Mooney House at 18 Bowery, at the corner of Pell Street in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, is one of New York’s oldest surviving brick townhouses. Built shortly after the British evacuated New York and before George Washington became President, its architecture contains elements of both pre-Revolutionary (British) Georgian and the in-coming (American) Federal style. Designated in 1966 as a landmark sample of domestic architecture, Mooney House has three stories, an attic and full basement.
The property itself and the land on which it was built are manifestations of Manhattan’s socio-political emergence. The house harbors a history of various functions that involved a diverse mix of tenants and occupants, reflecting the chaotic rise of the metropolis.
Edward Mooney House
Born in New York in November 1703 (his father was a French Huguenot refugee from Caen; his mother descended from the prominent Dutch-American Van Cortlandt family), James De Lancey (Delancey) was educated in England, attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, before studying law at the Inner Temple in London. Having been admitted to the bar in 1725, he returned to New York to practice law and enter politics. In the course of his career he served as Chief Justice, Lieutenant Governor and acting Colonial Governor of the Province of New York.
De Lancey was also a substantial property owner. Known as “De Lancey’s ground” it included a 300-acre estate on today’s Lower East Side. Having sided with the British during the Revolutionary War, his land and assets were seized by the city’s authorities after the end of hostilities.
Part of the estate was purchased by Edward Mooney, a wholesale butcher and racehorse breeder. He erected the townhouse there, close to the slaughterhouses, holding pens and tanneries where Mooney made his money. He occupied the house until his death in 1800.
In 1807, the size of the house was doubled by an addition to the rear. It was in use as a private residence until the 1820s after which at various times the building served a range of purposes, including as a brothel, general store, hotel-restaurant, and pool room.
In the early 1900s the Edward Mooney House functioned as a tavern that gained a notorious reputation; Barney Flynn’s Saloon was a hangout for pugilists, gamblers, gang members and political hacks in an area that by then was referred to as Chinatown.
Chinatown
Manhattan’s ethnic enclave of Chinatown was born of exclusion. First established by Chinese merchants putting down roots near what was then a multi-ethnic port area. By 1870 there was a population of some two hundred immigrants. Soon after, these numbers increased sharply. During the post-1873 Long Depression, blatant discrimination in California and elsewhere drove large numbers of Chinese workers eastwards in search of employment in New York’s laundries and restaurants.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 (repealed in 1943), made it impossible for immigrants to legally enter the country. The law did not halt the flow of arrivals and their illegal entrance intensified racist prejudice in the wider society. In 1900, the US Census reported over 7,000 Chinese males in residence, but only 142 Chinese women. Chinatown was a “bachelor society.” The district was shared with various other groups of migrants. Its local funeral parlor served both Irish and Chinese customers.
George Washington O’Connor claimed that he was born in 1852 on Mott Street in Chinatown (he probably hailed from Providence, Rhode Island). Having changed his name to Connors to clear his presence of Irish associations, he became known as Chuck (for his love of chuck steaks which he cooked over an open fire in the middle of Mott Street). As a youngster he joined gangs that pestered Chinese citizens, but Chuck also learned to speak some Cantonese (which eventually endeared him to the local population). He subsisted on an Irish-Chinese diet of chop suey and potatoes.
Connors had a brief career as a professional prize fighter and then worked as a bouncer for James (“Scotty”) Lavelle, a gangster who ran several joints in Chinatown. He was a regular at The Dump, a saloon at 9 Bowery owned by Jimmy Lee and Slim Reynolds where criminal fraternities met and alcoholic ‘Bowery Bums’ gathered. Its clientele was described at the time as the ‘dirtiest species of white humanity.’
Inevitably Chuck got involved in criminality. His association with a thug named Big Mike Adams got him into trouble. Acting as an enforcer for local tongs (brotherhoods), Adams bragged he killed a slew of Chinese men by decapitating them. After the latter was murdered himself, a rumor spread that Chuck had been implicated in the attack. Having decided that Chinatown was too dangerous a place for him, he moved uptown, learned to read and write, and got married. Chuck took on a job on the Third Avenue El.
When his young wife suddenly died, Connors hit the bottle. Blind drunk one day, he was shanghaied onto a ship that set sail for London docks. He washed up in Whitechapel.
Spectacles of Deprivation
Deprivation in the Victorian period was associated with London’s East End. It was outside the Blind Beggar tavern on Whitechapel Road that William Booth founded the Salvation Army; it was here that social investigator Henry Mayhew researched his four-volume survey London Labour and the London Poor (1851); and it was in these slums that Arthur Morrison located his moving account of childhood suffering in A Child of the Jago. The East End was a nightmare, a gothic tale of distress that sparked deep indignation amongst social critics.
In literature and painting scenes of poverty and criminality were used in narratives to stir up a Cockney playhouse of images and emotions. Viewing the street as theater encouraged artistic license and misrepresentation. Sentimentalism and sensationalism were part and parcel of the process. Excursions into London’s poorest districts provided both scenes of bitter social hardship and accounts of crude merriment. There was an additional element.
Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 a wave of pogroms swept across Russia and neighboring countries leading to mass migration to Britain and America. London’s Jewish population rose in the course of the next quarter of a century from some 47,000 to approximately 150,000, of whom some 100,000 lived in the East End.
These new immigrants formed tight-knit communities. Yiddish was used in signs, newspapers and in theaters. Local shops sold bagels, salted herrings and pickled cucumbers; kosher butchers provided brisket and salt beef. Itinerant Jewish hawkers dealt in second-hand wear and discarded household articles. It offered an urban spectacle never witnessed before in Britain. By the 1890s “slumming” in the East End had become a pastime for the rich. Colorful myths about Cockney life and familiar stereotypes about Jewish culture and people were expressed there and then.
It was in these harsh urban surroundings that Connors found safety and a sense of comfort. East End eccentricities appealed to him. Working for and with local costermongers, the itinerant traders who cried their trade lines (London Cries) to attract customers, he absorbed Cockney culture.
Mayor of Chinatown
Once returned to his Manhattan haunts, Chuck presented himself in an East London costermonger attire of bell-bottom trousers, blue stripped shirt, yellow silk scarf and a blue pea coat with big “pearly” buttons. He even adopted a Cockney song he had learned:
Pearlies on my front shirt, Pearlies on my coat,
Little bit of dicer, stuck up on my nut, If you don’t think I’m de real thing, Why, tut, tut, tut.
Instead of an East End flat cap, Connors wore a derby (a “dicer”) that was two sizes too small with a nod to Bowery traditions.
A sharp observer of life in Whitechapel, he was well aware of the weird vogue by which sightseers paid good money to be escorted through the city’s slums and witness “picturesque” sites of local and migrant deprivation. He exported the idea to Chinatown.
Connors was able to rebuild his life after meeting Richard K. Fox, publisher of the Police Gazette. The latter owned several properties in the district and offered his protégé free accommodation at 6 Doyers Street in exchange for magazine tales about the exploits of “The Great Chuck Connors.” He would enthral New Yorkers with lively stories (in a colorful dialect) about his neighborhood. In 1904 Fox assisted Connors in producing an autobiography Bowery Life where the author is introduced as the “Mayor of Chinatown.” The label stuck.
Doyers Street was, according to contemporary guidebooks, a seriously crooked street. Connors exploited that reputation. The Bowery Boy became the Godfather of Manhattan’s slumming industry, a phenomenon that was described in The New York Times (September 1884) with the headline “A Fashionable London Mania Reaches New York.”
One of his favorite stop-overs was The Pelham Café at 12 Pell Street, headquarters of Mike Salter, a Russian-Jewish gangster known as the uncrowned “Prince of Chinatown.” Every single night, his saloon hosted a crowd of visitors who came to hear pianist “Professor” Nicholson play ragtime, accompanied by a seventeen year old waiter named Izzy Baline who belted out raunchy versions of various popular songs. For the young singer this was the start of a glittering career. He would soon change his name to Irving Berlin.
Although he did have macho and no-nonsense competitors in the Bowery, Connors – with the blessing of local tong leaders – made Chinatown his exclusive territory. No other “lobby-gow” (Chinese slang for tour guide) would dare to bring his clients into the district.
Slum Tourism & Stereotyping
Chuck made Barney Flynn’s Saloon the headquarters from where he organized his “vice tours.” He sat his customers down for an “authentic” Chinese dinner; he took them to the Chinese Theatre at 5/7 Doyers Street (with reserved seats for “Americans”). There was the standard introduction to a temple, known in local jargon as a “joss house” (a corruption from the Portuguese Deos for God).
The tour’s climax was a visit to an opium den where his clients encountered the “terror” of drug dependency. It was pure theater. Connors employed Chinese actors to create illusions of addiction and drug-induced stupor.
To add a street element of imminent danger, fights with hatchets and knives between rival gangs were staged whilst in the distance gunfire could be heard. Shocked visitors were neither shot nor robbed in Chinatown. They safely left the area to re-join their respectable families under the impression that they had witnessed a glimpse of “primitive” life in the depraved and seedy margins of society. Slumming had been an adventurous day trip.
Chuck himself became a celebrity host and his tour was a ‘must’ for other prominent figures, including tea magnet Thomas Lipton, novelists Israel Zangwell and Hall Caine, actors Henry Irving and Anna Held. When Chuck Connors died of pneumonia on May 10, 1913, his passing was widely reported. According to the New York Times his funeral was attended by sporting friends, local businessmen, gangsters and Tammany Hall politicians, all paying their respect to the Mayor of Chinatown.
The procession, consisting of sixty three coaches of mourners and another six of floral arrangements, started outside Chuck’s room in Doyers Street. The cortège snaked through Chinatown, stopping for mass at the Catholic Church of the Transfiguration in Mott Street, after which it continued over the new Manhattan Bridge towards Calvary Cemetery in Queens. As the coffin passed by, Chinese merchants set off traditional funeral firework displays, honouring a white man they considered one of their own – and therein lies a painful irony.
Slum tourism consisted of typecast representations that were based on anti-immigration rhetoric and bigoted press reports linking urban deprivation to an ‘alien’ culture of addiction, debauchery and violence. Chuck’s Chinatown was a stage on which white stereotypes about ethnicity and color were either formed or confirmed. It contributed to the racial profiling that Asian-Americans would experience subsequently.
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QUEENSBORO BRIDGE SHOWING NY ARCHITECTURAL TERRA COTTA WORKS ON VERNON BLVD
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Illustrations, from above: the Edward Mooney House at 18 Bowery on the corner of Pell Street; Chuck Connor’s presentation card, 1900 (Museum of the City of New York); The Bowery Burlesquers presenting a satire on New York’s slumming craze, 1898 (Library of Congress); Chuck Connors’ autobiography; Doyers Street, Chinatown, 1909; Chinese Theatre entrance, 5-7 Doyers Street (date unknown); and Slumming according to Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (Library of Congress).
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Soon the direct path to the promenade will be complete.
A crosswalk and stop sign would make a wonderful addition so our neighbors could cross the street safely.
Coler Administration has had a contractor repairing many damaged and dangerous sidewalks and paths today. Apparently the word got out and the path was being prepared!! What a great result to a long-standing problem.
This wonderful walk will now be accessible to all!!
THE RIHS KID’S BOOK GIVE-AWAY AT EARTH LOVE DAY. LOOK FOR OUR TABLE.
DO YOU LIKE TO GARDEN?
THE RIHS KIOSK NEEDS VOLUNTEER(S) TO MAINTAIN OUR GARDEN. DO YOU HAVE AN HOUR OR TWO A WEEK? DO YOU NEED COMMUNITY SERVICE CREDITS? CONTACT US AND HELP US MAINTAIN OUR WONDERFUL GARDEN ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
MISHI, COLER’S THERAPY CAT
CAT FEEDER NEEDED FOR CATS ON THE EAST SIDE OF COLER
VOLUNTEER NEEDED TO FEED PLEASE CONTACT 1-646-246-2046 VIA TEXT THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE
NINA LUBLIN, GLORIA HERMAN AND ALEXIS VILLAFANE IDENTIFIED ONE OF THE LAST AND NOW LONG-GONE PARK BENCHES, LEFT OVER FROM OUR 1970’S DESIGN. THESE WERE EYESORES AND UNCOMFORTABLE FOR DECADES. (THE RIHS DID NOT PRESERVE ONE FOR HISTORY!)
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
ON MONDAY NO ROUTE, ON WEDNESDAY A ROUTE WAS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, SEE BELOW
When walking north past Coler Long Term Care on the West Promenade, notice that there is no access to the path from the area near Coler. This makes it virtually impossible for the Coler residents to enjoy the promenade and many have to use the roadway as the closest site to view the river and enjoy our fresh air. There is an area that could easily be configured into an accessible pathway.
Now, there is direct path to the building entrance.
There is even a curb cut. A crosswalk and stop sign would make a wonderful addition so our neighbors could cross the street safely.
Coler Administration has had a contractor repairing many damaged and dangerous sidewalks and paths today. Apparently the word got out and the path was being prepared!! What a great result to a long-standing problem.
This wonderful walk will now be accessible to all!!
CAT FEEDER NEEDED FOR CATS ON THE EAST SIDE OF COLER
VOLUNTEER NEEDED TO FEED PLEASE CONTACT 1-646-246-2016 VIA TEXT
EARLY OPENING OF THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE UPPER PEDESTRIAN LEVEL ON MARCH 30, 1909. OFFICIAL OPENING WAS IN JUNE.
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Designed by Philip Johnson for the 1964 World’s Fair, the NYS Pavilion is a concrete and steel structure, consisting of three observation towers, an open-air elliptical ring, and a theater.
The Tent of Tomorrow measures 350 feet by 250 feet with sixteen 100-foot columns suspending a 50,000-square-foot roof with multi-colored panels. The tent also held three towers, measuring 60 feet, 150 feet, and 226 feet, respectively.
The two shorter towers held cafeterias for the World’s Fair and the tallest held an observation deck. The Pavilion also included the “Theaterama,” a space that exhibited pop art by renowned artists Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, among others. The space was used as the Queens Playhouse from 1972 until 1985.
“Perhaps the most iconic landmark in our parks system, the NYS Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a reminder of our city’s historic past, and a beacon towards the future,” NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said. “As we light the Towers and Tent of Tomorrow ‘Parks Green’ in celebration of the completion of this stabilization and lighting work, we look forward to further renovations on the Pavilion to help ensure this landmark continues to inspire and delight visitors for decades to come.”
In addition to the dynamic lighting, the Pavilion received several structural and electrical improvements. Deteriorating suspension cables on all levels of the towers and Pavilion were replaced and the tower stairs were repaired to allow access for maintenance.
All of the original 1960s conduits were replaced along with the installation of new electrical equipment for a planned NYPD Mobile Command Center. The concrete towers and historic piers were replaced as well, and the tower’s blue globe lighting was restored to its original form.
In December 2018, the Pavilion received a $16.5 million FEMA grant for repairs after Hurricane Sandy. The funding would be used to replace electrical units at the Pavilion’s World’s Fair Park and to create new flood protection systems to prevent damage from future storms.
After years of plans to restore the Pavilion, work broke ground on the project in November 2019. The work was expected to be completed in March 2021, as 6sqft previously reported.
Work on the next phase of the restoration is still in its planning stages, but is expected to further bolster the structure’s stability and eventually allow for guided tours of the towers in the future, according to Untapped New York.
“This is a major milestone in the effort to once again make the NYS Flushing Meadows Corona Park Pavilion a popular public space,” Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., said.
“Along with brightening our skies, the lighting of the Pavilion will brighten the hearts of Queens residents both young and old, especially those who have fond memories of attending the 1964 World’s Fair. Thanks to this important restoration work, new generations of residents and visitors will be able to make memories when they visit this iconic and brilliantly illuminated structure.”
EDITORIAL
I lived blocks from the 1964-5 World’s Fair and could never understand why the NYS Pavilion was preserved in a state of deterioration for years. It is now having more funding poured into it and never seems to be complete and even be a least bit attractive. There were many more worthy pavillions to preserve and we will watch this one become an example of incomplete and expensive “restorations.” Perhaps the green lights signify the funds being spent.
Judith Berdy
CORRECTION
THIS IS COLER RESIDENT VICTOR. HE WAS IMPROPERLY IDENTIFIED AS VINCENT YESTERDAY. OUR APOLOGIES.
MEMBERS OF THE EFFLER FAMILY SWIMMING IN THE EAST RIVER DURING 1914-1919 RESIDENCY ON THE ISLAND
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
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
6SQFT
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
