PHOTOS AND MEMORIES OF OUR LIVES DURING THIS TIME AND HOW WE GOT THRU IT AND HOW MANY WONDERFUL THINGS TOOK PLACE ON THE ISLAND EVEN THROUGH RESTRICTIONS. IT SHOWS OUR RESILIANT COMMUNITY AND HOW PROUD WE ARE TO LIVE AND WORK HERE.
TODAY IS THE PART FROM APRIL, 2020 UNTIL DECEMBER, 2021.
APRIL, 2020
MOMO OUR HEALING HOUND ARRIVES AT COLER TO SPEND MANY DAYS AT THE FACILITY IN QUARANTINE
WE DISCOVER THE WONDERFUL ART OF RON CRAWFORD TO FILL OUR FIRST ISSUES
OUR FIRST ISSUES TELL OF THE LONG GONE FDNY TRAINING CENTER ON THE ISLAND
ONE OF HUNDREDS OF MASKED STROLLS WITH BOBBIE, FOR THE NEXT FEW YEARS
ONE ISSUE FEATURED THE TRAGEDY OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM SINKING IN THE EAST RIVER
MAY 2020
MOMO HELPED DELIVER COFFEE MAKERS TO UNITS WERE COLER RESIDENTS WERE QUARANTINED
COLER ADDED 300 BEDS FOR POST-COVID ACUTE CARE RESIDENTS AND HUNDRES OF STAFF FOR 4 MONTHS AND WERE CELEBRATED BY A PARADE OF EMS AND FDNY VEHICLES.
CLOSED FROM APRIL TO JUNE, THOUGH VERY FEW VISITORS FOR THE YEAR 2020
JULY, 2020
WE DISCOVERED THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ART ON THE SMITHSONIAN WEBSITE AND HAVE FEATURED DOZENS OF ARTISTS
SOMETHING WAS HAPPENING AT THE CHAPEL BY THE OCTAGON, NOW THE SANCTUARY, A SPEAKEASY?
AUGUST, 2020
THE ISLAND TOOK TO THE STREETS TO SAVE OUR POST OFFICE, WHICH HAS BEEN PRESERVED
SEPTEMBER, 2020
WE LOVE THE WPA ERA WITH ITS GREAT ART AND WONDERFUL RECORDS OF THE WORKS DONE DURING THAT TIME INCLUDING MURAL AT THE WNYC RADIO STATION
COLOR COORDINATE GLASSES, MASK AND SCARF
OUR BEST EFFORT TO BE BACK IN THE COMMUNITY
ROSH HASHANAH IN OUR NEW REALITY
OCTOBER, 2020
WORK CONTINUES THROUGH ALL THE QUARANTINE. FLYBOY IS GUARDING THE EMPTY HOTEL SITE
NOVEMBER 2020 ELECTION DAY PROCEEDS WITH RECORD BREAKING TURNOUT AND GREAT SPIRIT EVEN AFTER AT 16 HOUR DAY
BLACKWELL HOUSE REOPENS THE MAIN FLOOR FOR VISITORS AND TOURS
A FEATHERED FRIEND APPEARS ON A NEIGHBOR’S TERRACE, SCOUTING LUNCH
DECEMBER, 2020 GIFT BAGS OF NECESSITIES FOR COLER RESIDENTS READY FOR DISTRIBUTON
WE SCOUTED THE BRAND NEW MOYNIHAN STATION AND ITS ARTWORKS
JANUARY 2021 TIME FOR CELEBRATION, MY FIRST COVID VACCINATION
MARCH 2021 RIVAA CELEBRATED BLACK HISTORY MONTH WITH A QUILT EXHIBIT
WE LOVE REPORTING ON NEW PUBLIC ART, ESPECIALLY A CUDDLY CREATURE AT HUDSON YARDS
EASTER WAS CELEBRATED IN THE LOBBY SHOWCASES AT COLER
APRIL 2021 SPRING BLOOMED ON-TIME THOUGH THE CORNELL TECH CAMPUS WAS EMPTY OF STUDENTS
A CHERRY BLOSSOM TOUR RESUMED AT THE KIOSK
MAY 2021 SOUTHPOINT PARK IS PREPARED FOR A TOO CLOSE TO WATER WALKWAY
JUNE 2021 THE GRADUATE HOTEL OPENS, BUT NOT THE PANORAMA ROOM QUITE YET
JULY 2021 THE FIREWORKS RETURNED TO THE EAST RIVER
FDR HOPE MEMORIAL IS ALMOST READY TO BE REVEALED WITH RESIDENTS ATTENDING AFTER A RIOC BLUNDER
THE STONEWALL AND VESTIGES OF THE 1970’S PLAYGROUND ARE DEMOLISHED OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY
AUGUST 2021 MANHATTAN SIDEWALK BLOOM WITH DINING SPOTS, SOME GREAT, SOME INTRUSIVE
SEPTEMBER, 2021 THE LONG DELAYED ELEVATORS ARE REVEALED AT THE MANHATTAN TRAM STATION
THE COYOTE WAS PATROLLING THE FDR FOUR FREEDOMS PARK LAWN AGAINST CANADA GEESE…GUESS WHO WON?
SUNDAY MUSIC AT RIVAA RETURNS
OCTOBER, 2021 WE AMTRAKED IT TO ALBUQUERQUE FOR MELANIE AND JOSE’S NUPTIALS
THE GIRLS OF THE GIRL PUZZLE TAKE SHAPE AT LIGHTHOUSE PARK
ONE OF OUR FAVORITE SOURCES OF PHOTOS IS “SHIRPY.” WPA PHOTOS AND FROM WWII
DECEMBER, 2021 OUR REINDEER HAVE RETURNED TO THE CHAPEL PLAZA
FINISHED!!!!
A WONDERFUL SITE FOR WEDDING PHOTOS
THE WINDOWS ARE GREAT BUT THE REAL THING IS EVEN BETTER
COLER RESIDENTS GOT GOODIE BAGS AFTER THIS LONG YEAR OF ISOLATION
ENDING THE YEAR WITH THE TRADITIONAL KING CRAB FEAST
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY THE BLUMENTHAL PATIO AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco is a 1510s marble patio; an example of Spanish Renaissance architecture. It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was originally part of the Castillo de Vélez-Blanco in Vélez-
Congratulations, RIHS, for creating the very best result of the CoVid pandemic. Never realized how interested I could be in the snippets of art, and obscure history that you have published 999 times! Even when I missed them for a few days, on returning, they have almost always shown me places or taught me something that I wish I had known earlier.
Thank you, and please keep up your publication!! Jay Jacobson
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
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a legal text or a set of rules that people identify and use to avoid adhering to it. Exploiting loopholes in tax legislation by big corporations or wealthy individuals is a preoccupation of our time. The authorities fight a losing battle trying to plug them as lawyers specialize in finding new and profitable flaws.
The word itself has an intriguing history. Originally it referred to a vertical slit-opening in the walls of a castle from which archers fired arrows at an enemy without fear of being hit themselves. Its etymology was most likely derived from the Middle Dutch word lupen, “to watch or peer.”
By the mid-seventeenth century the term had acquired its figurative sense as a “means of escape.” It then became applied to legal issues, allowing practitioners to identify ambiguities in the law that could be applied to court matters. Over time, the word came to signify the legal “holes” that were there to be exploited and taken advantage of.
A New York liquor tax law was framed by Senator John Raines and adopted in the State Legislature in March 1896. Better known as Raines Law, it was a precursor to Prohibition and took effect in April that year. The law provided one of the more spectacular loopholes in New York’s legislative history.
Blue Laws
America has a long-standing problem with and an ambivalent attitude towards alcohol. When Peter Stuyvesant arrived in New Netherland to take on the role of Director-General on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, he was instructed to impose order in the remote and unruly colony. He immediately issued an edict limiting the sale of alcohol and enforcing strict penalties for violent and/or drunken conduct.
George Washington on the other hand established in 1797 the nation’s largest whiskey distillery in Mount Vernon (producing 11,000 gallons by 1799); Thomas Jefferson brewed his own beer; and in 1833, preceding his career as a legislator, Abraham Lincoln held a liquor license and operated a tavern in New Salem, Illinois.
With the advance of urbanization and industrialization, drinking was increasingly seen as a social problem that needed ‘solving.’ In the first half of the nineteenth century, temperance societies were founded in a number of European countries: Sweden (1819); Germany (1830); England (1831); and the Netherlands (1842). Referring to pathological changes in the body due to sustained intoxication, Swedish physician Magnus Huss coined the term “alcoholism” in 1849.
America’s temperance movement began in the mid-1820s as part of a fervent Protestant revival referred to as the Second Great Awakening (the first Evangelical Revival had swept the colonies in 1730/40s). It gave rise to the nation’s oldest political third-party in existence, the Prohibition Party.
Founded in 1869, members campaigned for legislation to prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors. Rural and small-town voters affiliated with Evangelical churches provided most of the party’s support. Enormous energy was dedicated to eliminating perceived sin from society (gambling, drinking, prostitution or sloth) through the introduction and enforcement of “blue laws.”
After the American Civil War and following the massive increase of immigration from Europe, beer replaced whiskey as the working men’s preferred beverage. It was the favored drink of the German and Irish newcomers; in temperance circles the craving for beer signified disorderly taverns and dissipation (there was a “hidden” xenophobic element in the push for Prohibition). The moral mission of prohibitionists was the abolition of the saloon.
By the mid-1890s New York City counted some 8,000 saloons. Crime and prostitution were rampant in many of these establishments. Saloons were prohibited from opening on the Sabbath, but the police turned a blind eye. As laborers worked six days a week, this single day was their only boozing time. Saloons were financially depended on Sunday clients.
In the meantime, the temperance movement was bearing down hard on New York City’s drinking habits. Moral crusaders and groups like the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) led by the forceful attorney Wayne Wheeler lobbied city leaders to curb the manufacture and sale of liquor. Advocates of an official ban argued that alcohol posed a threat to public decency and moral safety. They successfully campaigned for legal intervention by the authorities.
Raines Law
In 1896 a new law, authored by the Republican Senator John Raines, was passed by the New York State legislature. Nominally a liquor tax, its real purpose was to tackle the “scandal” of intoxication and public drunkenness.
The “Raines Law” put strict limits on the opening of new saloons and made the issue of licenses to sell liquor prohibitively expensive. A renewed crack down on Sunday drinking was the most contested aspect of the regulations. The law exempted establishments that offered the hospitality of ten or more bedrooms, allowing wealthy clients to dine on the Sabbath in hotel-restaurants and order drinks at an open bar with little risk of prosecution.
In 1895, young Theodore Roosevelt had been appointed New York City’s Police Commissioner with the specific task of removing corruption and bribery from the force. Ambitious to clean up the city as a whole, he championed the Raines Law and predicted that the measure would solve “whatever remained of the problem of Sunday closing.”
It was huge miscalculation. Saloon owners quickly started to exploit a loophole in the law. They partitioned back rooms and turned upper floors of their bars into “bedrooms” which were rented out to prostitutes or unmarried couples to meet the high cost of licensing fees. By the early 1900s, more than 1,000 Raines Law hotels were established. Sunday drinking continued unabated.
As concerns grew that these “hotels” were operated for sexual encounters and commercial prostitution, the city’s authorities decided on a “men only” policy by forbidding women to enter the premises. One consequence of this rule was that a number of Raines Law hotels developed into relatively “safe” spots for gay men.
Raines Sandwich
Eugene O’Neill, the first American playwright to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, completed his play The Iceman Cometh in 1939 (although he delayed its production until after the war). The play covers two days in the life of a group of “lost souls” who, hiding behind alcoholic pipe dreams, shield themselves from the harsh realities of modern-day urban life.
The action takes place in a Raines Law hotel owned by Harry Hope which is located on the ground floor of a tenement building in downtown Manhattan. In the saloon cheap whiskey is served accompanied by a “property” sandwich described as an old “desiccated ruin of dust-laden bread and mummified ham or cheese.” The reference to a property sandwich, once clear to members of the audience, now needs clarification.
In April 1896, The New York Times published an analysis of the Raines Law in which the author pointed out that any hotel guest could buy a Sunday drink as long as a meal was ordered first. The procuring of drinks was made subordinate to a formal request for food. Another loophole was found. The Raines legislation focused on ordering food, but did not require its consumption.
As a consequence of the necessity to supply a meal before serving drinks, Raines Laws hotels designed a system of preparing fake food to comply with the letter of the law. Saloons produced the cheapest possible sandwiches. The so-called Raines sandwiches were not meant for consumption at all; they were used and re-used. The same disgusting plate could be served multiple times. Some barkeepers decided to present a sandwich made of rubber instead.
Journalist and photographer Jacob Riis fought out his “battle with the slums” in the pages of The Atlantic. In the issue of August 1899 he focused on families that lived in overcrowded tenements. In an article on “The Tenant,” the author describes the life of a laborer who drinks his beer in a Raines Law hotel, “where brick sandwiches, consisting of two pieces of bread with a brick between, are set out on the counter.”
When a saloon keeper from Stanton Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side was taken to court over serving this particular “meal” in his establishment, he was acquitted by a jury.
Committee of Fourteen
Determined to clean up New York City’s image, a citizens’ group that lobbied for the elimination of prostitution and gambling founded the Committee of Fifteen in 1900. Members of the group visited and inspected various locations of concern (saloons, dance and pool halls) and filed detailed records on each site.
In 1902 the evidence was collated in a comprehensive account, The Social Evil with Special Reference to Conditions Existing in the City of New York, and presented to the city’s 34th Governor, the Republican Benjamin Barker Odell, after which the Committee disbanded. The report’s final conclusion was that the Raines Law hotels were responsible for the curse of uncontrolled prostitution. The group’s work was continued by the Committee of Fourteen. Founded in 1905, the association’s explicit priority was the abolition of these hotels.
At the time, New York was known as a “wide-open” city in which public order was difficult to impose and maintain. The Tenderloin, the Lower East Side and Little Coney Island (around Third Avenue & 110th Street), were areas with a high concentration of saloons, brothels and “disorderly” dance halls. Sunday drinking was rife and many establishments had prostitutes soliciting openly in their back rooms. Corrupt officials and police officers were bribed to look the other way.
Having declared war on the Raines Law hotels, members of the Committee set out to have the legal provisions amended by making on-site investigations of “suspicious” establishments. They presented evidence of violations to the police, the State Department of Excise and the City Tenement House Department, to the brewers who supplied the saloons, and to real estate companies who owned the properties.
By 1911 most of the Raines Law hotels had closed up (although the law itself was not repealed until 1923), but the Committee remained active in the battle against alcohol, vice and “immorality.” Its members worked closely with the police and the courts to push for law enforcement in a political environment where the temperance movement gradually gained prominence and influence.
Campaigning alongside groups such as the Anti-Saloon League, they claimed that the prohibition of alcohol would eliminate poverty and eradicate vice and violence. It paved the way for the Eighteenth Amendment which was ratified in January 1919 and banned the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks throughout the United States.
Prohibition
While the Raines Act was signed as a measure to curb drinking and deviancy, it created a massive loophole that gave countless businesses more freedom to serve liquor. Given that the law demanded the availability of bedrooms on the premises, the legislation inadvertently encouraged prostitution.
The Committee of Fourteen ensured the closure of the Raines Law hotels and promoted the argument for Prohibition. When the temperance movement finally won its battle to ban alcohol, opposition to and the dodging of the Eighteenth Amendment was set in motion. Loopholes were sought and found to acquire whatever alcohol that remained available. Drinkers posed as priests to obtain sacramental wine; they pestered their doctors to prescribe “medical” beer from the pharmacy to them.
Lawmakers had not learned the lesson from the Raines debacle that moral indignation alone does not produce effective legislation. Prohibition did not stop drinking, but it pushed the consumption of booze underground.
By 1925, there were thousands of speakeasy clubs located in New York City and profitable bootlegging operations sprang up around the nation. Prohibition boosted a booming industry of organized mobster crime which continued until Congress ratified the Twenty-First Amendment in December 1933, allowing Americans to raise a (legal) glass again.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
BUDDHIST MONKS VISITING THE ISLAND IN THEIR WONDERFUL SAFRON ROBES ALEXIS VILLAFANE AND 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
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustrations, from above: Pro-Temperance cartoon from the 1900s (Getty Images); the original “loop hole”; Free lunch, 1911 by Charles Dana Gibson (Library of Congress); Barney Flynn’s Saloon on the corner of Pell Street and the Bowery, 1899; Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt in support of the Raines Law (Getty Images); and Satan’s Sieve anti-Saloon League Poster, 1919.
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Michael Ancher – A stroll on the beach – Google Art Project
Capri, Marina Grande (1880), by Rubens Santoro
Toile du peintre Charles Hoffbauer, présentant, à la Belle époque, une partie de plage en Normandie. 1907. Musée des Beaux-Arts de Roubaix (Musée d’Art et d’Industrie de Roubaix, La Piscine)
Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida – Strolling along the Seashore – Google Art Project
PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE OF OHER RED BUS PASSENGERS DOGS DO NOT BELONG ON THE BUS SEATS SOME PEOPLE ARE HIGHLY ALLERGIC TO DOG FUR AND THIS COULD CAUSE A TERRIBLE MEDICAL EPISODE
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
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
700 DAYS ROOSEVELT ISLAND WILL CELEBRATE 50 YEARS SINCE FIRST RESIDENT MOVED IN
LET’S COMPILE A LIST OF THE BESTS
THE BEST OF THE ISLAND
THE BEST PEOPLE THE BEST ADMINISTRATIONS THE BEST SERVICES THE BEST INNOVATIONS THE BEST ART THE BEST DECOR THE BEST TRANSPORTATION WHAT WOULD YOU IMPROVE? AND ALL THE GOOD THINGS THAT MAKE THE ISLAND SPECIAL
How to Turn a Church Full of Cats and Raccoons Into a Coveted Wedding Venue
By Clio Chang, a Curbed writer who covers everything New York City Photo: The Sanctuary
The new “destination wedding” is on Roosevelt Island, per the New York Times “Style” section. The Sanctuary, a former church on the island’s north end that dates back to the 1920s, is now a go-to venue for New Yorkers looking for something a little more creative than the Prospect Park boathouse. But before any of that, it was overrun by cats and raccoons.
The cats were part of an existing sanctuary run by the Wildlife Freedom Foundation on the lot, while the raccoons were interlopers nesting in the attic. It took a full year of cajoling the property’s 15 cats to move them to a new spot nearby. (“They come to sleep at our sanctuary, but they still go visit the church every single day,” says Rossana Ceruzzi, the founder of WFF.) Left unaddressed by the Times: How one goes about relocating a cat sanctuary, ushering out said raccoons, and getting rid of the smell. I called up co-owner Frank Raffaele, who oversaw the renovation, to talk about how he turned the space into one where only humans are allowed inside.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Tell me about the renovation and relocation. There was the church portion and a large house that’s still there, and the cats were living in what is now the backyard, with full access to the inside of the sanctuary. They were inside and outside, pretty much all around the place. The cats and raccoons were living in harmony from what I can tell. They were in some sort of symbiotic relationship. When we took it over, we needed to have a cat free environment — and I say that as someone who loves cats. We worked closely with the Wildlife Freedom Foundation and found a location for the new cat sanctuary super close to us, probably 50 yards away. The WFF dealt with the lion’s share of it. Cats are super-smart, they go where the food is, so it wasn’t hard for them to realize when they had a new place to camp out in.
Now raccoons are a different thing. I really had no experience with raccoons beforehand;
I was a little bit jarred
.
Photo: Frank Raffaele
Oh no. It was a hard effort. The main thing we had to do was close off all spots of entry. They would go into the steeple, the attic, the rafters of church, they were living in the bedrooms — they pretty much had free rein around the entire facility. I’m from Queens, so I knew nothing about raccoons before this. But every day around dusk, when the sun went down, the raccoons woke up and left the house — you would see a procession of raccoons walking on the roof of the church, leaving the steeple.
Okay, this sounds like a fairy tale. It was incredible! We had to wait for them to leave every day to close the holes. We did it piecemeal. Every night they’d be gone for hours so we had plenty of time. They’re still on the island doing well — we see them around.
Was the raccoon smell hard to get rid of? Yes, we had to completely mitigate it. They can climb anywhere and get in anywhere. You can’t clean it. The only way you can do it is to replace the walls and floors.
What did it smell like? Very wildlife-y. I’m a vegan, I love all animals, but people often refer to meat as gamey, I think it was a sort of very non–New York City wildlife smell. Here you’re in a different world with different wildlife. I didn’t know this going into it, but Roosevelt Island is known for its wildlife.
Cats and raccoons seem like a nice change for your clientele, who I assume are more used to rats and pigeons. This is incredible, but I’ve never once seen any sort of rodent. I don’t know if it’s because of the cats, but it could be. The new cat sanctuary that’s just a stone’s throw away from the human Sanctuary. Photo: Rossana Ceruzzi
Do the cats still visit? The new home is a stone’s throw away. They come around the outdoor areas, but not indoors anymore. I’ve seen brides take pictures at the new cat sanctuary in their wedding dresses. But the indoors is closed off for all wildlife except for human beings — that’s the only species allowed in currently.
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
FORMER HOSPITAL STEAM PLANT ARON EISENPREISS GOT IT RIGHT
WEDNESDAY PHOTOS OF THE DAY
PLEASE BE CONSIDERATE OF OHER RED BUS PASSENGERS DOGS DO NOT BELONG ON THE BUS SEATS SOME PEOPLE ARE HIGHLY ALLERGIC TO DOG FUR AND THIS COULD CAUSE A TERRIBLE MEDICAL EPISODE
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
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
700 DAYS ROOSEVELT ISLAND WILL CELEBRATE 50 YEARS SINCE FIRST RESIDENT MOVED IN
LET’S COMPILE A LIST OF THE BESTS
THE BEST OF THE ISLAND
THE BEST PEOPLE THE BEST ADMINISTRATIONS THE BEST SERVICES THE BEST INNOVATIONS THE BEST ART THE BEST DECOR THE BEST TRANSPORTATION WHAT WOULD YOU IMPROVE? AND ALL THE GOOD THINGS THAT MAKE THE ISLAND SPECIAL
After it was decommissioned in the 1950s and partially demolished, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power Station standing at the edge of the Gowanus Canal was abandoned for decades. Opened in 1904, the 8-story brick building designed by Thomas Edward Murray helped to supply power to Brooklyn’s growing transit system. In the 2000s, the derelict structure became known as the Batcave and was home to a community of squatters. Now, after more than five years of restoration work, the Batcave has transformed into Powerhouse Arts, an arts center with manufacturing, exhibition, and educational spaces.
Sitting at the intersection of Red Hook, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope, the historic building has seen much change and development in the surrounding neighborhoods in recent years. Plans for the conversion of the building were first announced in 2017 and the project broke ground in 2018.
When restoration began, only half of the original structure, the Turbine Hall, was standing. The Boiler House had been demolished. As part of the building’s renewal led by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with PBDW Architects, the Boiler House was reimagined and rebuilt. The adjoining historic Turbine Hall building was stabilized and preserved. All of the work done to the structures pays homage to the building’s original purpose and design, as well as the gritty and creative spirit it acquired while abandoned.
The reconstructed Boiler House contains fabrication spaces to support the production of print, ceramics, and public art. There are more than 170,000 square feet of fabrication shops stacked vertically within the building. Public art workshops, which require the highest ceilings and best access to loading areas, are located on the ground floor. Above, there are workshops dedicated to print and ceramic production, disciplines that require strict exhaust specifications and access to the building’s rooftop extraction units.
The Loft, Photo by Albert Vecerka/ESTO
Public programminging inside the Boiler House will take place at the Loft, a double-height room that can function as both an exhibition space, staging area, and fabrication workshop. When functioning as a BRT power plant, this space produced and supplied the steam that was funneled into the turbines in the adjacent Turbine Hall.
In the adjoining Turbine Hall, the iconic uppermost floor has been transformed into the “Grand Hall,” a forum for multi-use and public programming. This flexible community gathering space with host exhibitions, large installations and art staging, performances, art fairs, events, and more. This space is where the turbines were once located, producing power for Brooklyn’s above-ground train system.
Grand Hall at Powerhouse Arts, Photo by Albert Vecerka/ESTO
Outside, work by the project’s landscape architect, Ken Smith Workshop, has helped to make the building more resilient in the face of climate change. The Powerhouse site was raised 13 feet to protect the building from flooding mand a new sheet pile sea wall was installed alongside the waterfront walkway.
The debut exhibition now on display is Hive Mind. This group exhibition showcases the work of 26 participating artists from across the Powerhouse Arts organization, a not-for-profit organization that “hosts an extended network of art and fabrication professionals and educators who work together to co-create and share artistic practices vital to the wellbeing of artists and the communities to which they belong.” Some of the participating artists include Andrea DiStefano, Biata Roytburd, Chris Kinsler, and others.Among the preserved graffiti that has been worked into the new design, you’ll also find a newly commission mural by Brooklyn-born, New Orleans-based artist Ellery Neon tilted Flying Home. Neon actually lived in the Batcave with friends in 2002 and used the side of the building as their own “personal billboard” for graffiti. The new mural depicts a pigeon in flight and pays homage to another mural Neon created. Neary’s “You Go Girl” mural, which was created when the building was abandoned, has been preserved and is on display in the lobby. Also currently on view at Powerhouse Arts is a duration performance and installation by Miles Greenberg titled TRUTH. This piece is the first part of a trilogy that takes its name from a scene in the novel Orlando, by Virginia Woolf: TRUTH, CANDOUR and HONESTY. In this work, Greenberg “creates a portal into an alternate reality through which viewers are encouraged to leave the real world behind as they experience a utopic, watery landscape, populated by mysterious, silent avatars.” Check out more photos of the new Powerhouse Arts center in the gallery below!
CBN OLDER ADULT CENTER VOLUNTEERS GETTING READY FOR THE EILEEN FISHER GENTLY USED CLOTHING GIVEAWAY ON SATURDAY. THE EVENT WAS A GREAT SUCCESS.
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.
WEEKEND PHOTO SHELTON HAYNES SHOOTING HOOPS AT THE SPORTSPARK OPENING
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY CBN OLDER ADULT CENTER VOLUNTEERS GETTING READY FOR THE EILEEN FISHER GENTLY USED CLOTHING GIVEAWAY ON SATURDAY. THE EVENT WAS A GREAT SUCCESS.
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
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Japanese contemporary artist, Yayoi Kusama, will return to Chelsea’s David Zwirner art gallery, featuring an all new twist on her iconic infinity mirror rooms
Yes, Yayoi Kusama has been taking over NYC (and the world) for years. Her signature dotted pattern and her Instagrammable infinity mirror rooms have made her work quite recognizable
According to the Smithsonian Institution, Kusama created her first infinity room in 1965 called Phalli’s Field. The “kaleidoscopic environments” challenge onlookers’ perception and creates an illusory reality.
*Entry in the infinity mirrored room will be timed due to the high volume of visitors expected to attend.
Can’t afford Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton but still love the design? Her upcoming exhibit will highlight her renowned dot pattern on pumpkins and flowers.
The Yayoi Kusama exhibit will be entirely free to the public, so no tickets or reservations are required. However, her work is known to attract a line—some as long as two hours!—so be prepared to wait. The gallery recommends coming early on weekday mornings.
And of course, you’ll want to take all the selfies and photos for the feed possible, but just note that flash is not allowed at the exhibit.
Yayoi Kusama merchandise will be available for purchase at the David Zwirner bookstore, located at 535 West 20th Street, during the duration of the exhibit.
Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity.
–Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama
Guided by her unique vision and unparalleled creativity, critically acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama has been breaking new ground for more than six decades. In 1993, she became the first woman to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale, and last year, Time magazine named her one of the world’s most influential people.
Born in 1929, Kusama grew up near her family’s plant nursery in Matsumoto, Japan. At nineteen, following World War II, she went to Kyoto to study the traditional Japanese style of painting known as Nihonga. During this time, she began experimenting with abstraction, but it was not until she arrived in the United States, in 1957, that her career took off. Living in New York from 1958 to 1973, Kusama moved in avant-garde circles with such figures as Andy Warhol and Allan Kaprow while honing her signature dot and net motifs, developing soft sculpture, creating installation-based works, and staging Happenings (performance-based events). She first used mirrors as a multireflective device in Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, transforming the intense repetition that marked some of her earlier works into an immersive experience. Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 but has continued to develop her mirrored installations, and over the years, she has attained cult status, not only as an artist, but as a novelist.
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
BEACON THAT WAS ON TOP OF THE ORIGINAL TRAM TOWERS- 1976-2010
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
SECRET NYC
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
8. The Visitors Center Was Part of a Lost Trolley Line
The adorable Visitors Center tucked at the base of Queensboro Bridge has a fascinating history, and secrets of its own. The tiny structure dates back to 1909 when the Queensboro Bridge had a trolley line that went to Astoria, Flushing, College Point, Corona, Steinway and Queens Boulevard. There were originally five kiosks located between the inbound and outbound lower level roads between 59th and 60th Street. After the last trolley ran on this line in 1957, three of the five kiosks were demolished. One was moved to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights where it functioned as the entrance to the museum.
When the museum was redesigned in 2003, the Roosevelt Island Historical Society (RIHS) wanted to bring the kiosk back to the Manhattan side of the bridge. After a four year effort, the kiosk opened in 2007. It is run by the Roosevelt Island Historical Society today and serves as resource point for those looking for more information about the island. Inside, look up and you’ll find Guastavino tiling, the familiar herringbone patterened arch system found in Grand Central Terminal, Ellis Island, the decommissioned City Hall subway station, and many more places. Learn more about the Visitors Center here!
9. Roosevelt Island’s Tramway Was Initially Temporary
The bright red tramway system carrying commuters from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island and back was established in 1976 as a temporary means of transportation for island residents while they awaited the completion of the island’s subway link. By this time, the trolley tracks connecting Roosevelt Island with mainly Manhattan had been slowly deteriorating beyond repair. However, by the time the link was there, the tramway had already become an integral mode of transportation, so it continued to operate and became permanent.
The tram was built by Swiss company Von Roll, though the current tram is the second iteration; the tramway underwent a major renovation in 2010 that added a dual-hall system and new cars. Today it remains a crucial part of New York City’s transit system which has carried well over 26 million passengers, serving as North America’s first aerial tramway used for commuter transit. The tram was notably the last mode of transportation in New York City to adopt the MetroCard, doing so in 2003.
10. FDR Four Freedoms Park Is Louis Kahn’s Only New York City Work
The FDR Four Freedoms Park, which was finished in 2012, took 40 years to finally complete. Over the years, economic crises and political sensibilities halted progress on the park until architect Gina Pollara revived the project. As such, Roosevelt Island’s Four Freedoms Park is the only establishment designed by Louis Kahn in New York City. The city commissioned architect Louis Kahn for the memorial, which was his last major work before his death in 1974. Kahn died of a heart attack in Penn Station, with a final rendering of his completed design for Four Freedoms Park in his briefcase at the time.All materials for the memorial were shipped in via barges, which were loaded up in New Jersey and sent down the East River. An excerpt of Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union speech outlining his Four Freedoms is inscribed on the back of the stone frame that holds up his bust, Each granite paving stone is a cube and measures four feet by four feet by four feet. Four Freedoms Park also neighbors a cat sanctuary just to the north inside Southpoint Park, At the opening ceremony, Governor Cuomo said the park was a testament to Louis Kahn, whose design lay “dormant for years but could be picked up and be as vital and current as it was when he designed it.”
11. Roosevelt Island Was Once The Equivalent of Riker’s Island
Many have probably heard of Nellie Bly, a woman who pretended to be insane in order to write a breakthrough investigative piece on the cruelty of the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. This asylum was run inside Octagon Building which still stands on Roosevelt Island. The asylum opened in 1838, and rumors quickly spread about its brutal abuse of the inmates. In her expose, “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” Bly called the asylum a “human rat-trap” with staff who “choked, beat and harassed patients.”The asylum moved to Ward’s Island a little while later, so this building became the Metropolitan Hospital, which then moved to Harlem in the 1950s. The asylum’s original octagon still stands as a classy apartment complex near a beautiful community garden, quite a contrast to what it used to be. Visitors are generally welcome to enter the octagon, which serves as the lobby, and look at the old photographs on display.
On the island, Bly’s legacy is remembered with a public art piece called The Girl Puzzle. This piece consist of a series of faces that depict women who have endured hardship in their lives and were made stronger because of it. In the center of the monument is a Bly’s face cast in silver bronze. Bly’s face is flanked by the four bronze faces meant to represent Asian American, Black, young, older, and queer women, each rendered in partial sections to appear like giant puzzle pieces.
12. The Blackwell House Is One of the Only New York Farmhouses From Immediately After the American Revolution
A descendant of Robert Blackwell, James Blackwell, built a house called the Blackwell House, now on Main Street, in about 1796. When the city bought Blackwell’s Island, the island became less agricultural and more institutional. When a penitentiary was erected in 1829, the wooden house became a residential place for institutional administrators. The house was abandoned during the 1900s and restored in the early 1970s.In addition to being one of the few New York farmhouses from the period immediately following the Revolutionary War, it is also the only surviving building on Roosevelt Island from the time period when the island was still private property. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
13. Roosevelt Island Used to Have An Artificial Geyser
The Delacorte Fountain was dedicated in 1968 by George T. Delacorte, who wanted New York to have an equivalent to Switzerland’s Jet D’Eau. It sprayed East River water hundreds of feet into the air across from the United Nations on the southern edge of Roosevelt Island. However, the New York Timesreported in 1987 that the city’s Parks Commissioner had fears that “liquid waste was being flung 400 feet in the eyes and faces of people who lived on Sutton Place.”In response to this, the water was chlorinated, which lowered its height to 240 feet. During the later drought years, people worried the fountain would represent overconsumption of water, so it was turned off. In 1985, the powerful streams of water washed off the topsoil from some newly planted trees and crushed a car roof. The next year, the geyser stopped working.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
GLASS SCULPTURE AT R.I. SUBWAY STATION GLORIA HERMAN , NINA LUBLIN AND ALEXIS VILLAFANE 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
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Untapped New York has written a lot of articles on New York City’s islands, both abandoned and in use. While the city’s mainland is filled with cool history and things to do, its islands, such as North Brother Island, Hart Island, Governors Island, and Rikers Island, also have some intriguing sights. Now, it’s time to rediscover New York City’s Roosevelt Island – a residential, two-mile-long island packed with interesting secrets.
1. Roosevelt Island Has Had At Least Six Different Names
Though Roosevelt Island is now named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, people have called the island quite a few different things before. The Lenape tribe, who first inhabited the island, called it “Minnehanonck.” According to the New York Times, this name is commonly thought to be translated as “Long Island,” or “It’s nice to be on the island.” When the Dutch purchased Roosevelt Island from the Native Americans in 1637, they renamed it “Varken Eylandt,” or “Hogs Island,” for all the hogs raised there. A little while later, a British captain named John Manning lived on the island in shame after surrendering New York to the Dutch, so it became known as “Manning’s Island.”
2. Roosevelt Island Has the Country’s Only Automated Vacuum Collection System Serving a Residential Complex
Operated by the New York City Department of Sanitation, it is only one of two such systems in the United States at this scale (the other being at Disney World). For nearly half a century, the island’s residential trash has been handled without curbside truck pickup, limiting the need for workers to be out handling the garbage. The waste stays in an inlet until a sensor notes the garbage has reached a certain level. The AVAC system automatically opens the valve and sucks garbage at 60 to 70 miles per hour through 20-inch underground tubes to the central facility.
3. The Octagon Building Used To Be An Infamous Lunatic Asylum
Many have probably heard of Nellie Bly, a woman who pretended to be insane in order to write a breakthrough investigative piece on the cruelty of the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. This asylum was run inside Octagon Building which still stands on Roosevelt Island. The asylum opened in 1838, and rumors quickly spread about its brutal abuse of the inmates. In her expose, “Ten Days in a Madhouse,” Bly called the asylum a “human rat-trap” with staff who “choked, beat and harassed patients.”
The asylum moved to Ward’s Island a little while later, so this building became the Metropolitan Hospital, which then moved to Harlem in the 1950s. The asylum’s original octagon still stands as a classy apartment complex near a beautiful community garden, quite a contrast to what it used to be. Visitors are generally welcome to enter the octagon, which serves as the lobby, and look at the old photographs on display.
On the island, Bly’s legacy is remembered with a public art piece called The Girl Puzzle. This piece consist of a series of faces that depict women who have endured hardship in their lives and were made stronger because of it. In the center of the monument is a Bly’s face cast in silver bronze. Bly’s face is flanked by the four bronze faces meant to represent Asian American, Black, young, older, and queer women, each rendered in partial sections to appear like giant puzzle pieces.
4. The Ruins of a Smallpox Hospital Remains on Roosevelt Island
If the lunatic asylum and prison weren’t enough, another former, creepy institution on Roosevelt Island can be added to the list: a smallpox hospital. By the end of the 1800s, it was common to isolate patients suffering from contagious diseases like smallpox on islands, like North Brother Island, Hoffman and Swinburne Islands, and of course, Blackwell’s Island. The island’s Gothic Revival-style Renwick Smallpox Hospital was designed by James Renwick Jr. (who designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral), built using labor from the lunatic asylum and completed in 1856.
It functioned for 19 years and treated about 7,000 patients. Many of these were impoverished immigrants or Union soldiers who needed curing. In 1875, the hospital moved to North Brother Island when it became too crowded, but the original building remains today and is the “only landmarked ruin” in New York City. During the construction of FDR Four Freedoms Park, the organization behind the park hoped to use the hospital as a visitor center, but funds and interest petered out after initial stabilization. Recently released is the new short film Unforgotten: Renwick Ruin by artist Aaron Asis, Untapped New York’s Artist in Residence. Asis and his team at Green Ghost Studios were given special access inside the abandoned structure, and the film showcases perspectives of the Renwick ruin that are rarely seen by the public.
5. What’s With the Boat Prow Jutting Out of Roosevelt Island?
It might seem like the large boat prow sticking out the side of Octagon Park is some intriguing, ancient remnant of a ship washed ashore. However, turns out it’s an art project. There actually used to be a boat landing in this location, and in 1997 a performance stage and observation platform were built in the shape of a boat prow.
According to The New York Times, there are only two “nautical embellishments.” The Times writes of “Two small slots near the tip–presumably for imaginary anchor chains… though a few heavy mooring posts have been placed nearby.” The prow has become somewhat of a popular graffiti spot, though it is regularly cleaned and maintained. The Prow is currently closed due to deterioration of the steel structure.
6. There are Benches Shaped Like Roosevelt Island on the Island
Along Main Street, at The Shops on Main, you’ll find wooden benches that are shaped like Roosevelt Island. On a tour of the island back in 2020, David Kramer, President of The Hudson Companies, the developer behind numerous projects on Roosevelt Island, including Riverwalk and The House at Cornell Tech, told Untapped New York, “the impetus behind the design was to be, well, fun and terrific. There’s a history of interesting, design-oriented, whimsical details on Roosevelt Island.”
Jonathan Marvel of Marvel Architects said the mahogany benches with stainless steel support are a “signature moment” and that the design team “didn’t want to do a normal New York City park bench because we’d be losing an opportunity to make something distinctive.” The long slender shaped of the island made it perfect for a bench seat. Other benches on the island are in the style of the 1939-40 World’s Fair benches, originally designed for Central Park. Learn more about the Roosevelt Island-shaped benches here!
7. Quirky Tom Otterness Statues In the East River
If you were to stroll along the western promenade of Roosevelt Island, you might want to peer over into the East River: there are small, funny-looking, green statues in the water. These quirky sculptures were created by Tom Otterness in 1996, and the installation as a whole is called “The Marriage of Real Estate and Money.”
The series consists of three bronze sculptures by the Brooklyn-based artist, whose works often include large pennies and other money caricatures. He is also known for “Life Underground” at the 14th Street subway station, which depicts various scenes including an alligator reaching out from underneath a manhole cover to snatch a man for dinner. The three Roosevelt Island sculptures depict respectively, a coin attacked by a moneybag coming out of the mouth of a man, a house wearing a skirt attacked by a money-inspired lobster, and a house and coin getting married.
UPPER LEVEL PEDESTRIAN WALKWAY AT THE NEWLY OPENED QUEENSBORO BRIDGE IN 1909 DAVID JACOBY, ANDY SPARBERG, ELLEN JACOBY 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
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
For years we have been trying to get RIOC to preserve two benches that have been part of the island for almost 75 years.
The benches probably were first used at the Central Laundry that was across the street from the Tram. The workers would take their breaks outside on these benches. The laundry, garage and firehouse building were demolished in the 1980s.
The benches probably ended up in one of our community gardens. for years.
In recent years the benches have been on the Senior Terrace at the CBN Older Adult Center.
We asked RIOC to refinish them since they are part of the island history and would be a great addition to the terrace. After submitting photos the project was never approved by the RIOC staff. It took over a year to get this done. Finally the benches were seen by Shelton Haynes and he agreed to get them repaired and refinished when Lisa Fernandez told him of my trials and tribulations to get these benches preserved.
Lisa Fernandez enjoys the bright addition to the terrace.
Judith Berdy, President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society checks off one more accomplishment for historic preservation on the island.
Former gas station at the corner of Broadway and West Houston Street. Today, the corner is home to a giant Adidas shop.
There is little left of the old neighborhood. This proves 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
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
WE LOVE REPORTING ON NEW PUBLIC ART, ESPECIALLY A CUDDLY CREATURE AT HUDSON YARDS
EASTER WAS CELEBRATED IN THE LOBBY SHOWCASES AT COLER
APRIL 2021
A CHERRY BLOSSOM TOUR RESUMED AT THE KIOSK
MAY 2021
