World’s Fair Mosaics Removed from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Untapped New York
Issue # 1543
After multiple patchwork repairs, a set of colorful mosaics have been completely replaced with pavers.
At David Dinkins Circle in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the ground bears little evidence of the five tile mosaics that were recently removed. The Passarelle Plaza mosaics were installed in 1997 to commemorate the 1939-40 and 1964-65 World’s Fairs. Now, they are another lost relic of World’s Fair history.
In November 2024, The New York Post broke the news that the New York City Parks Department planned to remove the mosaics. Gloria Nash, author of Looking Back At The Future and an advocate for preserving the mosaics, shared photos with us in July 2025 of the spaces where the medallions used to be. At that time, the mosaics had been excavated and the holes they left were covered by cement.
By August, once the U.S. Open arrived, the holes had been filled in with pavers, leaving barely a trace of what was once there.
The Parks Department attributes the significant deterioration of the mosaics to natural weather conditions. Because loose and missing tiles can lead to trips and falls, the works of art were deemed a safety hazard. A representative for the Department says, “The decision to remove the mosaic medallions was made after several attempts at repair, in consultation with specialists, and with the support of the original designer. We are dedicated to preserving historic objects and structures and hope the removal of these mosaics might enable their future preservation as well as ensure the safety of park patrons.”
by Gloria Nash, August 2025
Michael Perlman—a 5th-generation Forest Hills resident, author of Legendary Locals of Forest Hills and Rego Park, Chairman of Rego-Forest Preservation Council, and longtime member of the Four Borough Neighborhood Preservation Alliance—has been campaigning to save the Passarelle Plaza mosaics since 2022.
“I am hopeful that a permanent accessible home can be secured in the near future,” Perlman says of the missing mosaics. “My colleagues and I would be very interested in assisting with the restoration process and finding a space.” Perlman suggests the medallions should be restored and “resurrected in an upright position on a pan-like structure. Then they can be placed outdoors, and the Parks Department can have confidence that they will not have to be stepped on.”
The Passarelle Plaza Mosaics depicted various elements of the two World’s Fairs in Queens. It is believed that 10 of the original mosaics have been lost, two covered by cement, and the final five recently removed. Elsie the Cow (1939), a smiling portrait of Robert Moses by Andy Warhol (1964), the New York Hall of Science and Rocket Park (1964), Fountain of Planets (1964), and Venus by Salvador Dali (1939) make up the five that survived the longest.
Known missing medallions include mosaics depicting a work called EAT by Robert Indiana (1964), the Billy Rose Aquacade (1939), the New York State Pavilion (1964), New York City Pavilion (1939) (now the Queens Museum), and two medallions about the Westinghouse time capsules from each fair (1939 & 1964).
“They were beautiful and rare works of mosaic art that communicate our history in a unique manner,” says Perlman, “There are very few mosaic works of art throughout our borough.”
When we initially covered the news of these mosaics being removed, Michael Golden, a specialist in custom and high-end mosaics, reached out to us. Golden worked on some of the mosaic designs with the park’s landscape architect. His illustrations were then sent to the mosaic company to be produced. He dug up some of the original drawings to share with Untapped New York.
Photos Courtesy of Michael Goldman & Michael Perlman
“There are many things big and small that make our city rich with culture and meaning,” Golden says, “I was proud to have a part in designing and facilitating these mosaics. I miss them, as I know others will as well.”
While we wait to learn the final fate of the mosaics, the Parks Department has committed to prioritizing Dinkins Circle as a location for at least one public art installation each year through the Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park’s Art in the Park Grant.
Your Seat Awaits at the RIJC YOM KIPPUR SERVICES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1 KOL NIDRE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 SERVICES www.rijc.orgPHOTO OF THE DAY
Credits
Untapped New York
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.
“GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES” Program at the RI NYPL, Monday, Sep. 29th, 6:30 p.m.
CELEBRATING OUR ISLAND AT 50 YEARS
How long have you lived on Roosevelt Island?
How many generations of your family have the Island their homes?
Our island has been home to many generations of families. It is easy to name so many families whose parents, grandparents arrived here in the 1970’s and 1980’s and now their families are raising kids, grand kids and even great grand-children.
Why is this so common?
What is it like to have all the generations near?
Join us for this discussion with our multi-families.
This program is sponsored by the ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
This program is free and open to all.
PLACES TO EXPLORE
ON 36th AVENUE
Sunday & Monday, September 28 & 29, 2025
JUDITH BERDY
Issue # 1542
Crossing 31st Street to the east side to see what busineses and dining spots were available. There is a great selection of small, local, ethic restaurants here.
A petit space with Tibetan and Himalayan specialties, lots of great review online
Psari Seafood, beautifully designed seafood restaurant
Behind to fabric, an intimate Ramen spot
‘We could’ve just gotten 1 Arepa since they’re huge and stuffed to the brim. Probably one of the only places left in Astoria you can get some delicious arepas!’ I agree wth this review. All you need is one of their wonderful arepas, delicious. Friendly staff and is has been here 18 years. A great find.
Need some tacos? Try this charming spot.
A SWIM LESSON, A EV CHARGING STATION, A GREAT FLORIST
You can bring your future olympians here to learn the basics.
A neat idea, a charging lot, looks great and powers up the neighborhood.
Watching arrangements coming to life at Flowers buy Lunelly. We love their work!
Your Seat Awaits at the RIJC
YOM KIPPUR SERVICES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1 KOL NIDRE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 SERVICES www.rijc.org
Credits
Judith Berdy
Editorial I love to support Roosevelt Island and our businesses. I also love to go to Astoria, an old fashioned neighborhood in transition. For years there were empty spaces and not many businesses that invited shoppers. The area has changed into a Ethinc Mecca of dining spots.
It is fun to walk and discover everything from an Irish Bar to a Nepali restaurant.
All aboard the Q102!
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.
“GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES” Program at the RI NYPL, Monday, Sep. 29th, 6:30 p.m.
CELEBRATING OUR ISLAND AT 50 YEARS
How long have you lived on Roosevelt Island?
How many generations of your family have the Island their homes?
Our island has been home to many generations of families. It is easy to name so many families whose parents, grandparents arrived here in the 1970’s and 1980’s and now their families are raising kids, grand kids and even great grand-children.
Why is this so common?
What is it like to have all the generations near?
Join us for this discussion with our multi-families.
This program is sponsored by the ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
This program is free and open to all.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Thomas Nast & Chinese American History
Friday, September 26, 2025
New York Almanack
Issue # 1541
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Thomas Nast & Chinese American History
Migration from Asia to the United States was minimal before the 1800s, but facing poverty and political instability large numbers of Chinese residents began looking a better life in the West from the 1840s onward.
Many would escape the Taiping Rebellion, a large-scale civil war that had started in 1850. Lasting for fourteen years, violence and persecution encompassed much of Southern China, pushing citizens away from their traditional homes.
After German-born Swiss immigrant John Augustus Sutter discovered gold in 1848 at Sutter’s Mill, Sacramento, rumor spread about a promised land of riches. Migrants rushed to California en masse. By 1851, twenty-five thousand Chinese incomers had settled there; three decades later a quarter of the state’s workforce was Chinese.
Gold Mountain & John Chinaman
Workers arrived with high hopes, referring to their new Californian home as Gold Mountain (Gum Shan in Cantonese). Every migrant dreamed of becoming a “Gold Mountain Man.” The metaphor signified the potential of opportunity that pulled many to seek their fortunes in the West.
While some immigrants did find success, many faced the harsh realities of discrimination, brutal working conditions and the separation from their families.
Throughout the 1850s and 1860s Chinese men were recruited either as miners or workers on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Local employers appreciated their cheap labor, work ethic and skills, breeding resentment among white workers.
The stand-off provoked regular disputes and conflicts. Most migrants planned to return home at some time and there was little motivation for them to assimilate. After completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, job security was at risk. By the 1870s, the economy was in a post-Civil War decline. The country experienced a series of financial crises, starting with the Panic of 1873.
The depression that followed caused income levels to fall and many laborers were sacked. In California, white workers competed for scarce jobs with Chinese migrants who would work for lower wages. They became political scapegoats, being blamed for unemployment and accused of stealing American jobs. Public opinion turned against “John Chinaman.” Stereotypes and bigotry loomed large. Discrimination became endemic.
Perceived as “totally unassimilable,” Chinese men were abused for their short stature, traditional pony-tailed hairstyles and “effeminacy.” Opium smokers and gamblers, they were considered an immoral lot. Campaigns were started to expel them from the labor market.
Social unrest led to the passing of a series of anti-Chinese legislative measures from the 1850s onward, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which was the first law in American history to ban a specific racial group from entering the country.
Turning diverse groups of immigrants against one another became a political strategy. The phrase a “nation of immigrants” is based on a very selective historical narrative.
Early legal interventions were attempts to suppress the use of drugs. Many immigrants descended from Canton, a region with a long history of opium addiction. By 1875, anxious authorities in San Francisco issued an ordinance prohibiting opium dens (America’s first anti-narcotics law). As the Chinese presence spread eastwards, edicts banning opium-smoking were issued across the United States as the habit attracted a white clientele as well.
Federal law prohibited Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens. The 1892 Thomas Geary Act (officially titled: “An Act to prohibit the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States”) required them to carry a residence certificate at all times upon penalty of deportation. To (brutally) enforce the law and restrict entrance, Angel Island Immigration Station was built in San Francisco Bay in 1910.
Thomas Nast’s Cartoons
During the eighteenth century, the political cartoon became a recognized form of socio-political commentary. The British weekly satirical magazine Punch started in 1841, featuring the work of John Leech (1817-1864) whose drawings were the first to be called “cartoons.” John Tenniel (1820-1914) illustrations popularized symbols such as Britannia, John Bull or Uncle Sam.
Under British colonial rule any person who criticized the Crown or government might be imprisoned, but during the American Revolution cartoons became a much used tool in political discourse. With the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791, cartoon creation was protected by the First Amendment. The greatest American satirist to emerge was Thomas Nast.
Born on September 27, 1840, in military barracks in Landau, Bavaria, Nast’s father was a trombonist in the Bavarian 9th Regiment band. In trouble for his political views, he sent his wife and children to the city of New York in 1846 where he later joined the family. Thomas was educated in the city, a poor student in academic terms, but a talented illustrator.
After studying at the National Academy of Design, he eventually joined the staff of Harper’s Weekly in 1862. He quickly developed into a sharp political cartoonist, focusing on such topics as the Civil War, slavery, xenophobia, and William “Boss” Tweed’s corrupt rule at Tammany Hall. When Nast died in 1902, The New York Times eulogized him as the “Father of American Political Cartoon.”
A solitary voice, Thomas Nast dedicated forty-six cartoons in Harper’s Weekly defending Chinese Americans. His images were aligned with the journal’s editorial position of inclusion and tolerance towards immigrants.
On February 18, 1871, the magazine published an article which dismissed the purported “Chinese invasion” as altogether mythical, arguing that most Americans still adhered to the “old Revolutionary doctrine that all men are free and equal before the law.”
That sentiment is reflected in Nast’s cartoon entitled “The Chinese Question.” The Romanesque goddess Columbia, who preceded Uncle Sam as a symbol of independence, is depicted shielding a Chinese worker from a furious mob (themselves immigrants), with the caption “Hands off, gentlemen! America means fair play for all men.”
Plastered on a wall behind the nurturing figure of Lady Columbia, are slurs that refer to Chinese workers as mongolian, barbarian, heathen, idolatrous and pagan. They are condemned as morally suspect, vicious and vile.
At the time of the cartoon’s publication, New York City’s Chinese population was minuscule.
Exodus to Manhattan
Some early Chinese settlers were sailors and traders who had arrived in New York Harbor and decided to stay, but most residents were refugees from the western United States. Increased mob violence and rampant discrimination in California had driven them to Manhattan where there were job opportunities as well as the relative safety of a more diverse population.
In 1870, less than a hundred Chinese people resided in New York City; two decades later there were about 13,000 living there. From the 1870s onward, Manhattan’s Chinese population began to concentrate around Mott Street. Barred from citizenship and its protections, locals formed their own internal structures that provided jobs, medical care, mutual protection and housing.
The tenement was the district’s predominant type of building and these structures were modified to conform to Chinese uses and tastes. The first genuine such building was the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA) at 16 Mott Street.
Considered its “City Hall,” the appointed leader was known as the “Mayor of Chinatown.” The organization mediated in disputes, acted as a broker in business transactions, protected local residents and stood up for their rights.
By the early 1880s, Chinatown was a mini-economy with over three hundred laundries, fifty vegetable markets, twenty tobacco stores, ten pharmacies, six restaurants, and numerous opium dens and brothels. By then, the Chinese owned almost every building on Mott Street. Known as “China Town” (the term was introduced by The New York Times in 1880), the quarter counted a number of secret societies and rival gangs fighting for dominance in an almost exclusively male society.
This type of mayhem offered juicy material to reporters. The Police Gazette was a tabloid-like magazine that chronicled crime and violent acts for the consumption of New York City’s general public. Its pages were filled with lurid accounts of street battles featuring hatchet-wielding warriors fighting on behalf of Chinese secret societies.
Prejudice and racial discrimination reached every aspect of society in every part of the nation. In 1886, the George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company in Dixon, Illinois, produced a poster with the slogan “Uncle Sam Kicks out the Chinaman,” promoting its new detergent (“Magic Washer”) in an effort to displace Chinese laundry operators.
Traditionally, Chinese men had left wives and family behind to come to America, hoping to make money and return home later. During the period of anti-Chinese agitation, lawmakers seized upon gender categories to impose social control and close the open borders.
In 1875, Congress passed the Horace Page Act, aiming to “end the danger of cheap Chinese labor and immoral Chinese women.” It specifically barred prostitutes, a vaguely defined category that border agents could apply as they saw fit. Single and unemployed women were qualified as sex workers. Long periods of exclusionary policies led to a severe gender imbalance in Chinese communities.
Deprived of familial ties, men relied on local associations and societies as substitute families or turned to gambling, prostitutes or opium (most arrested Chinese men were accused of one of three criminal acts: visiting brothels, gambling, or using drugs).
Some men married local women, even though an American woman would be deprived of her U.S. citizenship if she did so. Most of these ladies were of Irish background as relationships were driven by a shared experience of discrimination, hostility and exclusion. Intermarriage between Irish women and Chinese men challenged prevailing social norms, creating further racial conflicts and xenophobic hatred.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee
Even though early Chinatown was predominantly a bachelor society, women played a crucial role in its development and evolution. They ran family businesses, worked in restaurants and laundries, maintained religious and cultural traditions, and built local community associations and networks. As the district grew and diversified, women began to take on more leading roles in the community. Some of them became prominent social activists.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee was born on October 7, 1897, in Guangzhou, Canton City. Her father Lee Towe was a clergyman who was called to the United States when she was four years old. By 1904 he acted as pastor of the Baptist Chinese Mission in Chinatown, Manhattan. Mabel stayed in Canton with her mother, but they were able to join him in 1905 after she was awarded a Boxer Indemnity Scholarship (a program for Chinese students to be educated in the United States). She would make her presence felt in the fight for minority rights.
Living in a tenement at 53 Bayard Street, Chinatown, she attended Erasmus Hall Academy on Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn. Founded in 1786 as a private institution of higher learning named after Desiderius Erasmus, the school served to accommodate the sharp increase of immigrant children. In 1913 Mabel entered Barnard College. Founded in 1889 and affiliated with Columbia University, this woman’s college was one of the original group of liberal arts institutions that made up the so-called “Seven Sisters.”
As a Chinese immigrant, Mabel was legally unable to vote under the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Being denied that right, she became committed to political activism at an early age and tried to inspire other Chinese women to become civically engaged.
At Barnard she joined the Chinese Students’ Association and wrote essays in support of women’s education for The Chinese Students’ Monthly, including one on the “Meaning of Woman Suffrage” (issue of May 1914).
She was already known for her views by then. Two years earlier, she had hit the headlines. On May 4, 1912, riding a white horse, she helped leading a suffrage parade in Manhattan that was attended by some ten thousand people.
By 1917, women in the state of New York were granted the right to vote. Three years later, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed that gave them the right to vote across the country, but not to Mabel and other women of color. She continued to plea for equal rights, but it would take until 1943 for the Chinese Exclusion Act to be repealed.
After graduating from Barnard College, Mabel carried on her studies at Columbia University. In 1921 she became the first Chinese woman to graduate with a PhD in economics. Her thesis was published that same year as a book entitled The Economic History of China: With Special Reference to Agriculture. The study was significant enough to be re-issued in October 2022.
Mabel never betrayed her Manhattan roots and remained involved with its immigrant community. Following her father’s death in 1924, she took over his role as Director of the First Chinese Baptist Church at Pell Street. She opened the Chinese Christian Center, offering a health clinic, a kindergarten, vocational training and English classes to the local community.
Mabel Ping-Hua Lee died in 1966. On December 3, 2018, Chinatown’s Post Office Station at Doyers Street was dedicated to her.
It is not known if she ever attained American citizenship or exercised her right to vote.
SCENE TODAY AT CONFUCIUS PLAZA, CHINATOWN
I HAPPENED TO BE AT OLIVER STREET TODAY, CONFLUENCE OF WORTH STREET, ST. JAMES PLACE, HENRY STREET, & PARK ROW.
Your Seat Awaits at the RIJC
YOM KIPPUR SERVICES WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1 KOL NIDRE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 SERVICES www.rijc.org
Credits
Illustrations, from above: Postcard of Mott Street, Chinatown late-19th century, published by Brown Brothers; Anonymous, “Opium den in San Francisco boarding house,” late nineteenth century. (The Bancroft Library); Thomas Nast, “The Chinese Question,” published on February 18, 1871, in Harper’s Weekly; The George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company, “The Chinese Must Go” broadside poster promoting a new detergent, 1886 (Library of Congress); “Chinese Girl Wants Vote” portrait of Mabel Ping-Hua Lee in the New-York Endowment Tribune, April 13, 1912 (Library of Congress).
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.
“GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES” Program at the RI NYPL, Monday, Sep. 29th, 6:30 p.m.
CELEBRATING OUR ISLAND AT 50 YEARS
How long have you lived on Roosevelt Island?
How many generations of your family have the Island their homes?
Our island has been home to many generations of families. It is easy to name so many families whose parents, grandparents arrived here in the 1970’s and 1980’s and now their families are raising kids, grand kids and even great grand-children.
Why is this so common?
What is it like to have all the generations near?
Join us for this discussion with our multi-families.
This program is sponsored by the ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
This program is free and open to all.
1871: The New Grand Central Terminal
Thursday, September 25, 2025
New York Almanack
Issue # 1540
1871: The New Grand Central Depot at 42nd Street & Fourth Avenue, Manhattan
What follows is a July 15, 1871 Scientific American article about the opening of Manhattan’s Grand Central Depot, a predecessor to the current Grand Central Terminal, built on the site of a previous 42nd Street Station. This structure was later expanded and became known as Grand Central Station before its final reincarnation as the current Grand Central Terminal in 1913:
Among all our large commercial buildings, the railroad depots are those of which New Yorkers have least cause to be proud. Discomfort, shabbiness, and dirt, concentrated in ill-ventilated structures, have generally hitherto been all the accommodation to the public that our railroad kings have seen fit to give.
But at last a building has been erected, where space for business, order and discipline in arrangement, ample ingress and egress, and substantial elegance of interior and exterior, are provided. This is the new Union Depot, corner of Forty-Second Street and Fourth Avenue, and it is intended to be the New York terminus of the New York Central and Hudson River, the New York and Harlem, and the New York and New Haven lines, which are all, directly or indirectly, under the control of Commodore [Cornelius] Vanderbilt.
The building is nearly 800 feet in length by 240 in width, and is thus about four acres in floor area. The crown of the arched roof is over 100 feet from the ground; and the iron and glass of which the roof is built, and which is now the universal system of roof building for railroad purposes, insure to the depot plenty of light and an airy and pleasant appearance.
Offices for the transaction of the business of the three roads, well built and decorated, are exterior to the depot itself, and face Forty-Second and the adjacent streets; and waiting rooms, with restaurant adjoining, and toilet accommodation are also provided.
Telegraphic communication is made from the depot master’s office to all the switches, and the centralization of all the switch arrangements will be found to prevent the numerous slight accidents which often occur in and about a railroad depot, accidents of which the public hears nothing, but which add greatly to the expenses of a railroad.
To these well designed and costly arrangements, it will be necessary to add a well disciplined, courteous, and business like staff of clerks, porters, and attendants; and the traveling public will appreciate the convenience of the new terminus, and one of our railway presidents will have got rid, as far as he is concerned, of a lasting reproach to New York.
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Credits
Grand Central Terminal arose from a need to build a central station for the Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad in Midtown Manhattan. The Harlem Railroad originally ran as a steam railroad on street level along Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue), while the New Haven Railroad ran along the Harlem’s tracks in Manhattan with a trackage agreement.
Vanderbilt had purchased the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads in 1867, and merged them two years later. He then developed a proposal to unite the three separate railroads at a single central station, replacing the separate and adjacent stations that created chaos in baggage transfer. Vanderbilt commissioned John B. Snook to design this new station which was constructed from September 1, 1869, to October 1871 in the Second Empire style.
Illustration: Grand Central Depot in Manhattan, ca. 18171 (New York Public Library).
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.
“GENERATIONAL PERSPECTIVES” Program at the RI NYPL, Monday, Sep. 29th, 6:30 p.m.
CELEBRATING OUR ISLAND AT 50 YEARS
How long have you lived on Roosevelt Island?
How many generations of your family have the Island their homes?
Our island has been home to many generations of families. It is easy to name so many families whose parents, grandparents arrived here in the 1970’s and 1980’s and now their families are raising kids, grand kids and even great grand-children.
Why is this so common?
What is it like to have all the generations near?
Join us for this discussion with our multi-families.
This program is sponsored by the ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY.
This program is free and open to all.
VISUALIZING JEWISH NEW YORK
Tuesday-Wednesday, September 23-24, 2025
New York Public Library
Issue # 1539
Percy Loomis Sperr, 1890–1964, “Shoes–peddler, Lower East Side” New York, ca. 1930–34 Visualizing Jewish New York
Jewish life in New York drew the attention of many prominent photographers whose affection and fascination for the city found diverse expression in the early and mid 20th century. During this time, the Jewish population of the city was growing exponentially; it reached 1.6 million in 1920. Naturally, The New York Public Library became home to extensive collections by both Jewish and non-Jewish photographers who offer intriguing snapshots of Ellis Island and street scenes from the Lower East Side, the hub of early 20th-century Jewish life in New York City. They demonstrate the many different approaches to capturing scenes and people. There are the socially driven “photo-studies” by Lewis Wickes Hine (1874–1940), the meticulous and exhaustive explorations of Lower East Side architecture and immigrant life by Percy Loomis Sperr (1890–1964), the ever-changing New York landscapes of Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), and Morris Huberland’s (1909–2003) intergenerational portrayals of the Jewish inhabitants of the Lower East Side. Together, these images celebrate the energy and aspirations of the vibrant, dynamic Jewish community of New York.
Market Day in the Lower East Side
Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874–1940
“Market day in Jewish quarter of East Side, New York City – 1912”
New York, 1912
In this photograph, Lewis Wickes Hine masterfully captures the vibrant life, dynamism, and exuberant spirit of the Lower East Side in 1912. Its atmosphere calls to mind the bustling market days in the Jewish towns in Eastern Europe, while the skyline of tenement houses and the pedestrians dressed in their Sunday best place the viewer in New York’s “Jewish quarter of East Side.”
The photograph offers a fascinating view down a long, unnamed busy street somewhere at the heart of the Lower East Side’s Jewish neighborhood. A seemingly endless row of shops lines both sides of the street, punctuated with pushcarts moving in different directions or stationed in the middle of the street, loaded with an array of wares ready to tempt some new Americans on a beautiful warm Sunday.
Hine indeed reveals the American life in the making, in the midst of the Lower East Side
Jewish Grandmother on Ellis Island
Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874–1940
“Jewish Grandmother – Ellis Island, 1926”
New York, 1926
Lewis Wickes Hine was a renowned American sociologist and photographer who pioneered the use of the camera as a tool for social reform. He was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and moved to New York in 1901. He studied sociology at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. Starting around 1904, he took thousands of photographs of immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island daily. He often referred to his work as “photo-studies,” as he was trying to see his models in detail, to deepen the perspective and make his art more impactful. For Hine, the new immigrants were not a faceless mass, but rather, vital individuals captured in real situations of life. Without depriving them of their personalities, he presented them as a group, thus amplifying the social message he aimed to deliver.
Hine frequently accompanied his gallery of portraits of Jewish immigrants on Ellis Island and scenes on the Lower East Side with some associative quotations by authors or with his own notes. These helped to frame a specific message and communicate it so the viewers would study his works from the societal point of view.
In this photograph that Hine captured on Ellis Island in 1926, the steady gaze of the Jewish grandmother is directed skyward, as though she is engaged in some kind of silent prayer.
“So this is America,” wrote Hine on the accompanying note card, as if reading the woman’s thoughts. He continued: “This Jewish grandmother’s face is filled with awe and hope, as she looks towards the land for which her people have gained, and to which they have given so much.”
Nurse and Jewish mother
Lewis Wickes Hine, 1874–1940
“A Visiting nurse showing Jewish mother how to care for the baby, East Side, New York – 1925”
New York, 1925
In the early 20th century, numerous immigrant welfare organizations in New York City, including the prominent Educational Alliance on the Lower East Side, played a crucial role in providing services to the newcomers. These ranged from vocational training to language instruction to healthcare, all to help the immigrants adjust to their new country. Nursing classes were available to young mothers, who were strongly encouraged to take them. The classes showed the women how best to care for their babies and helped them to embrace the new, progressive American health and hygiene practices.
In this captivating photo-study from 1925 by Lewis Wickes Hine, we witness a revealing moment of interaction between two young women, a visiting nurse and a mother, both lovingly attending to a baby in one of the Lower East Side tenement apartments. Despite their proximity in age, they seem to belong to two different generations and even worlds, although they may be speaking Yiddish to each other. The younger woman, a nurse, most likely an immigrant herself, seems to be a well-established professional with more American experience. She shows the other woman, most likely a more recent immigrant, how to care for the child. The mother is observing the process with tender attention, but with a hint of hesitation on her face.
Rivington Street – Eldridge Street
Percy Loomis Sperr, 1890–1964
“Manhattan: Rivington Street – Eldridge Street”
New York, 1930
Percy Loomis Sperr not only documented the addresses of the buildings on the streets that he captured in his photographs, but he also considered it essential to describe the local landmarks.
This photograph offers a snapshot of Rivington Street on July 23, 1930. Sperr’s typewritten note states: “56 to 64 Rivington Street, north side, east from but not including Eldridge, to but not including Allen streets, showing the Warshauer First Congregation Synagogue (No. 58-60).” He goes on to indicate: “The Congregation was organized in 1889 and conducts services in Hebrew.”
The synagogue is featured on the left side of the photograph in the context of daily bustling life on the street. It captures pushcarts lined up right across from the building, vendors and their customers, pedestrians, and cars parked on the pavement. Adjacent establishments, such as a law office and Friedel’s restaurant, are also in the frame.
The synagogue building was constructed in the Moorish Revival style by the renowned architect Emery Roth (1871–1948), a Hungarian Jewish immigrant who designed many Beaux Arts buildings in the city. It was originally built for the congregation Adath Jeshurun of Jassy, serving immigrants from Iași, Romania. But in 1907 the building changed hands and was sold to the First Warshauer (Warsaw) Congregation, which remained on the premises until 1973. Sperr’s photograph of 1930 may be the earliest surviving photographic documentation of this historic synagogue. The Library has other images of the same synagogue that the Polish-American photographer Morris Huberland (1909–2003) captured in the 1970s, apparently after the congregation’s departure.
Shoes-peddler, Lower East Side
Percy Loomis Sperr, 1890–1964
“Shoes–peddler, Lower East Side”
New York, ca. 1930–34
Percy Loomis Sperr was an American photographer best known for his meticulous documentation of the streets of New York in the 1920s through the 1940s. This resulted in more than 30,000 images for The New York Public Library’s “Streetscape and Townscape of Metropolitan New York City, 1860–1942” project as well as for the “New York City, Immigrant Life” project. During this period, Sperr was an employee of the Library, working primarily in the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division. His librarian’s skills and access to the relevant resources added depth to his systematic explorations of the city. What makes the results of his work even more impressive is that this man with his small, simple camera was walking dozens of miles around the city’s five boroughs on crutches, as his right leg was paralyzed from childhood.
In terms of the studies of New York’s Jewish neighborhoods, Sperr’s collection is a precious gift and a trove of information on what the theaters, synagogues, shops, and tenement houses looked like in those days, and how life was conducted on the streets around these buildings. Sperr’s photographs reflected his fascination with immigrant communities and people in general, thus preserving for us many street scenes that enhance our understanding of these neighborhoods in the context of daily life for that time.
In this photograph, one can imagine a lively conversation taking place between the elderly shoe peddler in a weathered coat and hat, whom Sperr characterized as “itinerant,” clutching several pairs of women’s and men’s second-hand shoes, and the younger, fashionably dressed customer. They are likely bargaining over a possible purchase while standing in the middle of the pavement on one of the bustling market days on the Lower East Side. The photograph dates to the early 1930s and offers a glimpse into this moment of exchange between generations and styles.
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.
WORLD’S FAIR IMAGES FROM THE MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Monday, September 22, 2025
MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
ALL IMAGES PROPERTY OF MCNY
Issue # 1538
Today, it is Flushing Meadows Park, home of the US Open, Queens Museum, Queens Theatre in the Park and long forgotten, two worlds’ fairs.
The 1939-1940 fair was a turning point on contemporary design. So many innovative structures were housing exhibits. The architects and designers became famous for decades
The structures were built to bed demolished and today only photos remain.
Creator New York World’s Fair (1939-1940). Board of Design
They Build the Fair (Theme Center Riveters) Photographer Richard Wurts
Parachute Jump, New York World’s Fair Creator Curt Teich & Co., Interborough News Company Accession number X2011.34.4304 Unique identifier MNY286985 Description Officially Licensed. Lic. by N.Y.W.F. 1939 – K-1877 | In 1941, the Tilyou family purchased the Parachute Jump and moved it to Steeplechase Park in Coney Island.
Schaefer Center at the 1939 New York World’s Fair Photographer Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho (1875-1971) Accession number 50.137.2 Unique identifier MNY71940 Description View of a circular bar in front a mural. Men and women are gathered in front of the bar, bartenders are behind. Dated 1939
General Motors Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair Photographer Samuel H. (Samuel Herman) Gottscho (1875-1971) Accession number 50.137.22 Unique identifier MNY71952 Description Exterior view of the General Motor’s Building from the southeast. Dated 1939
U.S.S.R. Exhibit Bldg. – N.Y.W.F. Accession number X2011.34.4302 Unique identifier MNY286978 Dated ca. 1939 Object Type postcard
Perisphere Creator Hugh Ferriss (1889-1962) Accession number 2011.15.129 Unique identifier MNY13686 Description Black and white rendering of crowds at base of Theme Center (Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline) at night, New York World’s Fair 1939. Dated 1937
Chemicals and Plastics Building Accession number 41.44.218 Unique identifier MNY12351 Description Interior perspective drawing of Chemical and Plastics Building, showing 3 dimensional exhibit panel and cutaway roof to expose portion of exterior building, New York World’s Fair 1939.; Dated ca. 1938 Object Type watercolor (painting)
Proposed design for Greyhound Bus Creator Raymond Loewy (1893-1986) Accession number 2011.15.69 Unique identifier MNY845 Description Colored elevation drawing of streamlined coach for Greyhound bus for transport within fairgrounds; New York World’s Fair 1939. Dated 1938 Object Type painting (visual work)
Stage at Columbia Recording Company Building, New York World’ Fair 1939. Accession number 41.44.240 Unique identifier MNY23139 Description Watercolor and ink on paper Colored drawing of interior, Columbia Recording Company stage, with insets of various arrangements for recording and showing motion pictures, New York World’s Fair 1939. Dated ca. 1938
The World of Tomorrow. New York World’s Fair. Accession number 95.120.5 Unique identifier MNY286200 Description The New York World’s Fair 1789-1939 | NYWF LIC 750 | Copyright by Elizabeth Sage Hare & Warren Chappell. | Object opens to reveal accordion-like layers.
General Motors Highways and Horizons Exhibit by Night, New York World’s Fair Creator Manhattan Card Publishing Co. Accession number F2011.33.2063 Unique identifier MNY286476 Description “N.Y.W.F. LIC. 2965” Officially Licensed Dated ca. 1939
Happy 80th Ella!
CREDIT TO
Museum of the City of New York
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.
Recently I spent some time on 17th Street looking out the hospital window at 302 Second Avenue, especially staring at the bas reliefs of swaddled infants. It was time to check out the building accross the street. (The building has been restored since the photos, and the stonework is glowing white now).
James Wright Markoe earned his medical degree in 1885 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. The strapping young man was as physically-inclined as intellectually. The New-York Tribune would later say of him “As a young man he was an athlete. He spent much of his spare time in the gymnasium boxing, and was classed as one of the best amateur boxers at that time.”
Boxing would soon take a back-seat to a more humanitarian interest, however. Following graduation he traveled to Munich where he spent a year advancing his medical studies. While at The Frauenklinik of Von Winkel learning obstetrical procedures, he and fellow student Samuel W. Lambert recognized the need for a clinic in New York to help needy mothers-to-be.
Manhattan at the time was filling with immigrants who struggled to survive in grimy, crowded tenements. Unsanitary conditions coupled with the inability to pay for medical help resulted in a catastrophic infant mortality rate within the tenement community. Upon the doctors’ return to New York they established the Midwifery Dispensary in 1890.
The clinic opened in a house at No. 312 Broome Street and shortly thereafter was combined with the long-defunct Society of the Lying-In Hospital. Expectant women flocked to the new facility, quickly resulting in the need for an expanded and improved space.
Dr. James Markoe not only practiced medicine among wealthy society, he was a member of it. He held memberships in the exclusive Metropolitan, Century, Racquet and Tennis, and New York Yacht Clubs. For years he was a vestryman in the highly-fashionable St. George’s Church on Stuyvesant Square.
Among James Markoe’s moneyed patients was millionaire J. Pierpont Morgan. Markoe not only became his personal physician, but a close friend. It was a friendship that would create financial advantages for Markoe’s pet project.
In 1894 the Hamilton Fish mansion at the corner of 17th Street and Second Avenue was purchased and converted for the hospital. The New York Times said “In this fairly commodious house the work of the association has increased” and quickly the building was not sufficient to care for the stream of patients. By 1895 the push was well underway to expand the Lying-In Hospital and build a new facility. On March 14 of that year Mayor William Lafayette Strong introduced a bill appropriating $12,000 to the Society of the Lying-In Hospital—about a quarter of a million dollars in today’s money.
“The Mayor asked any one who had anything to say in opposition to the appropriation of $12,000 for the Lying-In Hospital to state their objections first,” reported The New York Times. “No one responded, and the Mayor said that he was not surprised, as it would be a queer kind of man who would oppose such a charity.”
Private donations came in; but at a rather disappointing rate—at least to the mind of J. Pierpont Morgan. In 1896 donors had given $53,738; not nearly enough to even consider a new structure. On January 4, 1897 Morgan penned a letter to William A. Duer, the President of the Society of the Lying-In Hospital:
Dear Sir: I have for some time thought it desirable that your society should erect upon the land recently purchased from the estate of Hamilton Fish a suitable building for the needs of the hospital.
Being of this opinion, I have had preliminary studies made by Mr. Robertson, as architect, which I think will be satisfactory to your Board of Governors; if not, they can easily be modified.
The architect, “Mr. Robertson,” was the esteemed Robert Henderson Robertson. Morgan had taken it upon himself to choose the architect and lay out stipulations on the building’s construction. His letter would go on to explain why he had every right to do so
I assume that the cost of the building will be about $1,000,000, which sum I am prepared to donate for that purpose. The only conditions that I make are:
First—That before the building is erected it shall be apparent that the income of the hospital, from endowment or other sources, render it in all human probability sufficient to meet expenses, after the new building shall be erected.
Second—That the plans and the carrying out of same, from a medical point of view, shall be satisfactory to Dr. James W. Markoe. Yours very truly. J. Pierpont Morgan.
Morgan had put Markoe fully in command of the design of the medical aspects of the structure. The New York Times quickly published Robertson’s preliminary plans.
On January 15, 1897 the newspaper said “The proposed new hospital building will be a handsome and imposing structure of granite and pressed brick, thoroughly fireproof, ten stories in height…It will have every improvement and convenience known in modern architecture and applicable to hospital purposes. It will have accommodations for 250 patients, and, as the patients are usually discharged in two weeks, the total capacity of the hospital will be about 6,500 a year, while the outdoor service is practically unlimited.”
Invigorated by the sudden windfall, the Governors of the Society set to work to raise additional funds. Morgan’s stipulation was, after all, that the hospital be financially independent. “But they seem nowise afraid of the future,” reported The New York Times. “They expect to raise not less than $1,000,000 in a reasonable time, and are even hopeful that they may exceed that amount.”
Morgan’s patronage of the hospital was possibly a factor in its becoming a favorite money-raising event among New York’s wealthiest socialites. On February 27, 1898 The New York Times wrote “One of the most important Lenten entertainments to which society people are now looking forward will take place on the afternoon and evening of Saturday, March 19 at the Waldorf-Astoria. The Society of the Lying-In Hospital of the City of New York is to be beneficiary, and the fashionable set have come out in force to give it their patronage.”
The article listed the ladies who put their significant social heft behind the affair, including Caroline Astor, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, Mrs. Ogden Mills, Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs, Mrs. Frederic W. Vanderbilt and other prominent names like Rhinelander, Sloane, Lorillard, Whitney, Stokes, Baylies, Dodge and Morton.
The old Fish mansion was demolished and erection of the hulking new hospital began. Morgan’s initial $1 million donation proved insufficient. The New-York Tribune noted that “Because of a rise in the price of structural materials, Mr. Morgan subsequently gave $500,000 additional.”
The building neared completion in August 1900 — New-York Tribune, August 13, 1900 (copyright expired)
By August 13, 1900 the building was taking form and the New-York Tribune updated readers on the progress. “The exterior of the main structure lacks only a few additions in the way of casements and doors to make it complete, and the gangs of men employed upon the central superstructure are busily at work on the iron frame.”
The newspaper was not especially impressed with Robertson’s design. “The main building arrests the attention of the passer by not so much because of its architecture, which is markedly lacking in ornate features, but because it stands in such striking contrast with its immediate neighborhood. It towers high above the adjacent dwelling houses, and its walls of gray Ohio limestone and bright red brick stand out sharply in comparison with their dingy brownstone.”
In explaining to its readers the purpose of the new building, the newspaper waded into what, by a 21st century viewpoint, was a swamp of potentially-offensive verbiage. “The erection of this great hospital is perhaps the logical outcome of the tremendous racial changes which have been going on in that district of the city during the last thirty or forty years. The influx of a vast foreign element has altered what was once an exclusively residence part of the city to one occupied largely by tenement dwellers. The increasing congestion of this kind of population naturally demanded hospitals, and the need of a great maternity hospital became most imperative.”
The hospital opened in January 1902; a stately Renaissance Revival structure surmounted by a Palladian pavilion. Although the Tribune complained that it lacked ornamentation, Robertson creatively included sculptures of chubby babies within the spandrels, in medalions, and within the friezes.
Adorable bas reliefs of swaddled infants appear along the facade — photo by Alice Lum
The first floor housed the offices of the doctors, the second and third floors were for “the clerical department” and accommodations for 52 nurses, while the fourth, fifth and sixth floors housed the wards. The kitchen and laundry were on the top two floors and a solarium was on the roof.
Robertson brought the design to a dramatic climax with the Palladian pavilion — photo by Alice Lum
The paint was barely dry before the expectant mothers filed in. Eight months later there had been 1,278 applicants seeking ward treatment–an average of 160 per month. In the meantime, doctors going into the field to treat the impoverished women in their homes found their jobs not always the easiest.
On August 2, 1902, just eight months after the new hospital opened, the husband of Jennie Davis rushed to get medical help as she went into labor in their apartment at No. 368 Cherry Street. Two doctors of the Lying-In Hospital, Dr. Rose and Dr. Tailford, arrived with a visiting physician. Word spread among the concerned neighbors that Rose and Tailford were students who were observing and helping a veteran doctor.
When the visiting physician left the woman in the care of Rose and Tailford, whom the neighbors supposed were merely students, a near riot broke out. The New-York Tribune reported “After examining the woman, the one the neighbors thought was a physician went away on other business, leaving the supposed students in charge of the case. Relatives and neighbors crowded in and objected to their way of treating the woman.”
Tragically, in the uproar that followed the doctors were interrupted in their treatment and Mrs. Davis died. “The crowd grew excited and threatening, and in the excitement the woman died before the child was born,” said the newspaper. The enraged group, now a rabble, seized the doctors and threw them down the tenement stairway.
The poorest of New York City’s citizens passed through a magnificent entranceway — photo by Alice Lum
James W. Markoe continued on as Medical Director and attending surgeon at the Lying-In Hospital. In his will J. Pierpont Morgan bequeathed Markoe an annual income of $25,000 for life “because of his service at this hospital,” as reported in the New-York Tribune.
On Sunday morning April 18, 1920 as services at St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church drew to a close, Markoe was walking up the aisle with the collection plate. Suddenly Thomas W. Simpkin, a stranger to the congregation, rose from his seat near the rear of the church and fired a bullet into the forehead of the doctor. The shooter was described in The New York Times the following day as “a lunatic, recently escaped from an asylum.”
Within seconds the life of the celebrated surgeon, the victim of an irrational act, had been snuffed out. His will instructed that had his wife and daughter not survived him, his entire estate was to be left to his beloved Lying-In Hospital.
Close inspection reveals infants popping up throughout the ornamentation — photo by Alice Lum
As the years passed, John Pierpont Morgan, Jr. was concerned about the long-term stability of the hospital his father had so generously provided for. He recruited John D. Rockefeller, Jr.; George F. Baker, Sr.; and George F. Baker, Jr. to join forces in establishing an association with New York Hospital. Upon the subsequent opening of the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in 1932, the Lying-In Hospital moved out of the Second Avenue building. It became the more modern-sounding Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of New York Hospital.
In 1985 the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle renovated the building—already added to the National Register of Historic Places—as offices and residential spaces. Like the New-York Tribune in 1900, the “AIA Guide to New York City” was reserved in its assessment of the design, calling it “boring until the top.”
The “top,” however, makes up for the “boring” and the delightful limestone babies—reminders of the building’s original purpose—are guaranteed to bring a smile.
photo by Alice Lum
SURPRISING 17TH STREET
The Corner of Rutherford Place and 17th Street.
Every house needs a COAL HOLE COVER, still neatly on the sidewalk
There still are furnished room houses! A rare site these days.
These brownstones have professionally tended fronts along with wonderful ironwork.
“MON BIJOU” a grand name for this building
Still standing this landmark Scheffel Hall, (from Wikipedia)
Scheffel Hall at 190 Third Avenue in the Gramercy Park neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was built in 1894–1895, and designed by Henry Adams Weber and Hubert Drosser, at a time when the area south of it was known as Kleindeutschland (“Little Germany”) due to the large number of German immigrants who lived nearby. The building, which served as a beer hall and restaurant, was modeled after an early 17th-century building in Heidelberg Castle, the “Friedrichsbau”, and was named after Joseph Viktor von Scheffel, a German poet and novelist. It later became known as Allaire’s,[1] a name still inscribed on the building. The building’s style has been described as “German-American eclectic Renaissance Revival”.[2]
Later, in the late 1920s, the building was used by the German-American Athletic Club. By 1939 it became the German-American Rathskeller,[1] and then Joe King’s Rathskeller. O. Henry used Scheffel Hall as the setting for “The Halberdier of the Little Rheinschloss” and wrote some of his stories there.[1] Beginning in the 1970s, it was the home of Fat Tuesday’s, a well-known jazz club, and the restaurant Tuesday’s, which lasted until the early 21st century. In subsequent years it was a yoga and pilates studio and today is unoccupied.
Concert this Sunday at 5 p.m. Good Shepherd Chapel
A WONDERFUL ARTWORK AT FALL FOR ARTS
Credits
DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN WIKIPEDIA JUDITH BERDY
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.
Through the Poster Program, MTA Arts & Design commissions five to six artists each year to create transit-related artwork for Poster and Art Card production.
The popular Poster program was established in 1991 to celebrate the diverse communities that make up the New York region. The commissioned work by painters, printmakers, and illustrators touches upon transit-related subjects and the places that can be discovered using the mass transit system. Posters are randomly displayed in unused advertising space on subway platforms throughout the 472 subway stations and on subway cars and buses. Printed posters are available for sale to the public through the New York Transit Museum Stores. Revenue from sales from the posters help to support the educational and exhibition programs at the non-profit museum.
The program offers illustrators and other artists the opportunity to reach a broader public, and provides the public exposure to incredible artists and visionaries who create a respite of engaging visual art.
Marcel Dzama, “The underground helps the garden 1,” 2023
Marcel Dzama, “The underground helps the garden 2,” 2023
Dennis RedMoon Darkeem, “Turtle Island Connections,” 2023
Erin K. Robinson, “Catch a Line,” 2023
Concert this Sunday at 5 p.m. Good Shepherd Chapel
This 45 star flag is on display in the lobby of the Graduate Hotel This flag became the Official United States Flag on July 4, 1896. The 45th star was added for the admission of Utah on January 4, 1896. The flag was in use for twelve years, until 1908, when Oklahoma was admitted to the Union. It was the Official United States Flag during the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Credits
MTA ART & DESIGN JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The ‘Most Colorful Home in Queens’ Has a Dark Secret
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Issue # 1534
I took our Q102 bus today to order flowers and discovered some interesting businesses and homes along 36th Avenue between 21 Street and 31 Street. This house stands out as I passed it. I have seen it the last few years, but this was the first time I could view it from the sidewalk. It is quite a site and you will surely enjoy the photos of the interior.
The three-story house AT 28-07 36th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, is hard to miss. The exterior walls are a pale yellow and the windows are trimmed in fire-engine red. Scrolls of metallic ocher leaves and vermilion flowers adorn the front gate. It looks like a rococo McDonald’s.
Inside, the design goes full Candy Land, from the fake pink tree and Skittles-colored chandeliers to the multicolored leather sofas off the kitchen.
The building would stick out anywhere, but especially in a neighborhood known for its red brick Tudors and walk-up apartments. And local curiosity has only grown since it landed on the market in July with an enormous $3 million price tag.
My first stop was Flowers by Lunelly. I have seen their arrangements at many island events and it is great to support this neighborhood business. The shop is on the same block as the new Q102 bus stop.
This wonderful and creative playground is on the corner of Crescent Street and 36 Avenue.
Creative water activities are in multiple locations.
Next to the Dutch Kills Playground is a home that exudes extravagance.
Just up the block is a cute cafe called Little Flower
There are lots more interesting spots on 36th Avenue, now just 10 minutes from the island. Stay tune for more wanderings.
Concert this Sunday at 5 p.m. Good Shepherd Chapel
What is this flag and where is it located?
CREDIT TO
JUDITH BERDY
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.
10 Secrets of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street
From doors that lead to nowhere to miles of underground book stacks, uncover the top secrets of the New York Public Library!
Libraries are places of wonder that inspire and satisfy the inquiries of curious minds, and there are few libraries that do so better than the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Standing proudly between Fifth Avenue and Bryant Park, the New York Public Library‘s midtown branch—often referred to as the “main branch” of the city’s public library system—is an invaluable research resource, an architectural treasure, and a historic New York City institution. The New York Public Library (NYPL) was founded in 1895 when already established library institutions created by John Jacob Astor and James Lenox were combined, along with a fund created by Samuel J. Tilden. These three components created a new free and public library system. The building that would house this new library was designed by the renowned architecture duo of Carrère and Hastings. The library was officially dedicated on May 23, 1911, sixteen years after the historic agreement between Lenox and Astor. Inscriptions on the facade of the building, above the main entrances, note the three founding institutions.
1. The New York Public Library has 125 Miles of Book Stacks
Now, more than 100 years later, the library continues to serve the intellectual needs of New Yorkers, expanding to 92 locations and four research centers systemwide. The original midtown library building, now considered the main branch of the system, is the second largest library in the nation, just behind the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C, and one of the largest in the world. Within its walls, the library holds not only millions of books and priceless artifacts but also many secrets waiting to be discovered.
If you’ve ever walked into the New York Public Library and wondered, “Where are all the books?” the answer lies beneath your feet. Around 4 million books are stored in subterranean stacks beneath the library building and Bryant Park. The library contains 125 miles of shelving both above and underground, including 88 miles spread throughout the seven stack floors of the Humanities and Social Science Library, and 37 miles in the two-level stack extension under Bryant Park called the Milstein Research Stacks. If you look around Bryant Park, you can spot a door in the ground that serves as an emergency exit for the underground stacks.
The self-supporting steel stacks serve as structural elements of the building. The stacks act as buttresses to the floor of the Rose Main Reading Room, which stretches the length of nearly two full city blocks. Snead & Company Iron Works of Jersey City, New Jersey, were the contractors for the stacks which are made up, in part, of Carnegie steel. In addition to the sprawling stacks beneath the New York City site, there are also millions more books stored in an off-site facility in Princeton, New Jersey.
2. The New York Public Library was Built on the Site of the Old Croton Reservoir
Getting fresh and clean water to New York City was a major challenge in the early 19th century as the city rapidly expanded. The solution to the city’s water needs was the Old Croton Aqueduct. Construction started on this water transportation system in 1837, and water first flowed through it in 1842. The aqueduct moved water from the Croton River in upper Westchester County down into Manhattan. The water was stored in a receiving reservoir which was located where the Great Lawn of Central Park is now, and was distributed from a reservoir at the current site of the Schwarzman building. That reservoir was known as the Croton Reservoir.
The Croton Reservoir held 20 million gallons of water within its walls, which stood 50 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Edgar Allan Poe frequently walked atop the reservoir walls to enjoy the view they offered of the city. When it became obsolete in the 1890s, it was torn down to make way for the new library building. It took two years and some 500 workers to dismantle the reservoir. The cornerstone of the library was laid in 1902. The Old Croton Aqueduct would serve as a vital water supply for New York City for nearly a century until a new aqueduct was built, which remains in service to this day. Inside the library, you can still see pieces of the reservoir walls if you look for the rough stone between the stairs on the lower levels of the South Court, near the Celeste Auditorium.
3. The Employees Only Catwalk in the Rose Reading Room
The Rose Reading Room houses the library’s General Research Division and serves as the central research hub in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. This area is open to anyone who needs to look something up, and most of the books are easily accessible in the open stacks. However, there is a second level of stacks above the main floor, and it’s not apparent how to access them. Ringing the Rose Reading room is an elevated mezzanine for employee use only, so if you need a book from this section, you need assistance. In addition to access to the second-level stacks, the catwalk offers a great view of the space.
In order to get to the top of the catwalk, there are tiny hidden spiral staircases behind doors that are locked to the public. On a recent visit to the New York Public Library, Untapped Cities Insiders were granted special access to walk atop the catwalk and take in the amazing views it offers of the reading room. Untapped New York Members got to walk across the off-limits level on a series of tours run in partnership with the NYPL!
4. The Adorable Book Train
The stunning Rose Reading Room inside the New York Public Library underwent a major restoration from 2014 to 2016. The intricate plasterwork of the ceiling was restored, the mural was recreated and the lights got an upgrade. The historic room also got a new mode of book transportation, a “book train.” Before the advent of the book train, books from the tracks were transported via a conveyor belt system and dumbwaiter for oversized books.
The electrically powered train is made up of twenty-four individual cars which can carry up to thirty pounds each. The swinging design of the train’s carts allows them to move in multiple directions and remain upright while switching from horizontal to vertical positions. The train runs on 950 feet of track over the course of eleven levels. It travels at seventy-five feet per minute, which means it takes just five minutes for a book to travel from the stacks below to the Rose Reading Room.
5. There are Pneumatic Tubes in the New York Public Library
Until a few years ago, the New York Public Library still used pneumatic tubes to fulfill book requests. To request a book from the stacks, you would fill out a call slip that would be sent through the tube to one of the eight levels of stacks where an employee would find your book and then send it via conveyor belt to the same spot where you submitted the slip.
The system was so efficient that it mainly went out of use because the canisters were too difficult to replace. Officially retired only a few years ago, the pneumatic tube system was receiving upgrades and new installations until 1998 according to Atlas Obscura. You can still see the tubes in the library today in the Rose Reading Room.
6. The Tiny Doors that Lead to Nowhere
Have you ever noticed the tiny doors with mini balconies on the exterior facade of the New York Public Library, set between the arched windows of the Rose Reading Room? Clearly not level with the floor of the Reading Room and not proportionate to the monumental scale of the building, it was a mystery where these doors led and what their purpose was.
It turns out that those doors can be accessed from the catwalk of the Reading Room. Between the windows, there are wooden doors that open up to a few stairs and a short, undecorated passageway that ends at the tiny door that can be seen from the outside. When Untapped Cities discovered this, there was a foreboding sign on the door that read, “DANGER! DO NOT UNLOCK THIS DOOR!” and a window with cross bars. Photographer Max Touhey explained to us that, according to the New York Public Library, the doors were built as part of a planned extension of the building which never happened. He also says one of the windows opens and offers a view of Bryant Park.
7. It was Once the Largest Marble Building Ever Built in the U.S.
The New York Public Library required six times more marble than was used in the construction of the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Chamber of Commerce combined. At the time it was complete, the library contained 530,000 cubic feet, or roughly 4 acres, of white Vermont marble which came from two quarries on Dorset Mountain. In 1911, this made the New York Public Library the largest marble building ever built in the United States. Marble pieces that didn’t meet the high standards of the library’s architects were incorporated into other contemporary buildings including Harvard Medical School. Inside, there are various different types of marble found throughout the library. One gallery is clad in Pentelic marble, the same type of marble used to create the Parthenon in Greece.
The exterior marble on the library’s facade is twelve inches thick and the cornerstone alone weighs 7.5 tons. The splendor of the stone continues inside the library and is on grand display inside Astor Hall. Visitors to the library walk into Astor Hall from the Fifth Avenue entrance. To this day, this room is the only room in New York City constructed entirely of marble, from floor to ceiling. Even the candelabras that illuminate the space are made of marble.
8. Priceless Pieces in the NYPL Collection
The New York Public Library has innumerable treasures tucked away in its stacks. In addition to millions of volumes, the library also possesses priceless historical artifacts. Some of the library’s items can be seen in their rotating special exhibitions and you can request to see certain items if you are conducting research. Among the amazing pieces found at the library are literally thousands of Virginia Woolf‘s personal letters, e.e. cummings‘ typewriter, boxes of personal items that belong to writer Jack Kerouac (including his shoes, library card and prayer bells), Charles Dickens‘ writing desk, a handwritten poem from Emily Dickinson, George Washington’s recipe for beer, even pieces of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s skull!
On a recent Untapped New York members-only visit to the library while showing highlights of the Berg Collection, including an annotated copy of T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land and tiny pieces of paper containing writing from the Brontë siblings, curator Carolyn Vega explained that part of what makes these items so important is that it gives a glimpse into the creative process of some of the world’s most famous writers.
Many of the library’s fascinating artifacts can be seen on display in the library’s first permanent exhibition, the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures. There you can see items like the original Winnie the Pooh dolls, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, and more!
9. There was a Secret Storage Location During WWII
The New York Public is an extremely valuable resource with extremely valuable items inside of it. During World War II, after the attack of Pearl Harbor, many of the library’s most valuable books and manuscripts were taken off-site to safer locations. Relocated items were taken to bank vaults around New York City and 12,000 other items from the collection, valued at that time at $10 million, were temporarily moved to a secret location 250 miles away.
World War II prompted many precautions to be taken around New York City to protect its most important buildings. Windows atop Penn Station, which at the time was a grand Beaux-Arts structure designed by McKim, Mead, & White, and the original City Hall subway station, were blacked out, baseball games weren’t played at night, and the Statue of Liberty‘s torch went dark, all for fear of becoming targets of a bombing. During the War, the library even served as a helpful resource to the military, which made use of its Map Division to the coastlines of enemy countries.
10. The Library’s Lions Don’t Have Official Names
Known today as Patience and Fortitude, the lions who stand guard at the entrance of the New York Public Library have gone by many names, but officially they don’t have names. Sculpted out of Tennessee marble by Edward C. Potter, they were originally called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox after the library’s founders, John Jacob Astor and James Lenox.
There was a time when they were called Lady Astor and Lord Lenox, though both lions are male. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was the first to call them Patience and Fortitude. He chose these names because he felt they represented the virtues needed for New Yorkers to weather the Great Depression. The name has stuck ever since. Patience sits on the south side of the steps and Fortitude on the north.
FALL FOR ARTS NOW ON AT RIVERCROSS LAWN
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UNTAPPED NEW YORK
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.
