About 11,500 Americans lost their lives aboard British prison ships from 1776 to 1783. More soldiers, sailors and civilians died aboard the prison ships than in all of the Revolutionary War battles combined. It started with the Battle of Brooklyn (the Battle of Long Island).
The City of New York played an important role throughout the American Revolution. Not only was the city an important port of commerce, providing supplies and food to the Continental Army, but it served as a central communications route between the northern and southern states.
Without a large naval military, the Continental Army used privately owned ships to advance the patriotic cause, carrying supplies and messages from Boston to New York and down to the southern colonies.
New York’s importance as a strategic location during the American Revolution was not lost on either the British or the American patriots and would become the location of the first military engagement following the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
On August 27, 1776, just eight weeks after the colonies declared their independence from England, the Battle of Brooklyn began.
Although George Washington and his army were able to retreat and escape capture, an estimated 1,300 prisoners of war would remain in British custody. Continental soldiers only comprised a portion of the prisoners held captive by the British during the American Revolution however.
Civilians and privateers commissioned by the Continental Army who refused to pledge allegiance to the Crown of England were also arrested and held in New York’s two jails.
The number of prisoners held captive by the British quickly outgrew the jails, leading the British to use abandoned churches, warehouses, and ultimately decommissioned war ships known as “hulks” anchored off the Brooklyn coast.
During the war, at least 16 hulks, including the infamous HMS Jersey (a former warship built in 1736 and converted to a hospital ship before becoming a prison hulk), were placed by British authorities in the waters of Wallabout Bay.
Living conditions in the British prisons were unbearable, but none as much as on the prison ships. The ships were overcrowded; the prisoners were tortured; and, if fed, prisoners were given rancid food and unclean water.
In 1778, Robert Sheffield, one of 350 prisoners held in a compartment below the decks, escaped and told his story in the Connecticut Gazette:
“The heat was so intense that (the hot sun shining all day on deck) they were all naked, which also served well to get rid of vermin, but the sick were eaten up alive.
“Their sickly countenances, and ghastly looks were truly horrible; some swearing and blaspheming; others crying, praying, and wringing their hands; and stalking about like ghosts; others delirious, raving and storming, — all panting for breath; some dead, and corrupting [decomposing].
“The air was so foul that at times a lamp could not be kept burning, because of which the bodies were not missed until they had been dead ten days.”
Diseases, including smallpox and yellow fever, ran rampant on the ships. Captives on the ships died from malnutrition and disease at alarming rates of 10-12 prisoners a day. Their bodies were either thrown overboard or buried in shallow graves along the banks of the bay.
Historian Edwin G. Burrows writes that “by the end of 1776, disease and starvation had killed at least half of those taken on Long Island and perhaps two-thirds of those captured at Fort Washington – somewhere between 2,000 and 2,500 men in the space of two months.”
Christopher Vail, who was held aboard HMS Jersey five years later in 1781, wrote:
“When a man died he was carried up on the forecastle and laid there until the next morning at 8 o’clock when they were all lowered down the ship sides by a rope round them in the same manner as tho’ they were beasts.
“There was 8 died of a day while I was there. They were carried on shore in heaps and hove out the boat on the wharf, then taken across a hand barrow, carried to the edge of the bank, where a hole was dug 1 or 2 feet deep and all hove in together.”
The prison ships held captives until 1783 when the British occupation of New York ended. It is estimated that approximately 11,500 soldiers, sailors, and civilians lost their lives aboard the prison ships from 1776 to 1783. More Americans died aboard the prison ships than in all of the Revolutionary War battles combined.
In the years following the war, the bodies of the prison ship martyrs would wash up on the shores of Brooklyn. Remains were collected and held in a small crypt near what is now the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In 1808 that burial vault collapsed and the remains of those that died aboard the prison ships were re-interred in Fort Greene Park, on which a part of the Battle of Long Island had been fought.
A monument to memorialize the martyrs was created, but by the mid-1800s, the monument had fallen into disrepair and plans for a new monument to be located in the newly created Washington Park (now Fort Greene Park) were conceived.
The Prison Ship Martyrs Memorial
In 1867, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were hired to create a new design for what would become Fort Greene Park. At the insistence of The Martyrs’ Memorial Association, the large city park was to include a burial site and permanent monument for the remains of the prison ship martyrs.
Olmsted and Vaux’s design included a large crypt and elaborate memorial set into the stepped hillside in the northwest corner of the park.
The park entrance on the intersection of Canton Street and Myrtle Avenue opened onto a large public gathering space designed for public meetings and political speeches. From the open space, a tiered staircase would lead up the steep hillside to a saluting battery, refreshment house, observatory, and a set of open playing fields.
The design also included an elaborate monument for the prison ship martyrs halfway up the grand staircase with a crypt being located beneath the monument.
Construction on the Olmsted and Vaux plans began in 1868, but an economic downturn caused the Olmsted and Vaux’s elaborate plans to be cut short.
The open space and tiered staircase would be completed, along with a vault for the remains of the martyrs, but the monument itself and the observatory were never created. In 1873, 22 boxes containing the remains of the prisoners were interred into the vault.
In 1899, construction of new facilities at the Brooklyn Navy Yard uncovered additional remains and sparked new interest in creating a more significant monument to the prison ship martyrs and a new campaign for funding was initiated.
On June 30, 1902, Congress passed an act (32 Stat. 747) that provided $100,000 towards designing and constructing a large commemorative structure in Fort Greene Park to memorialize the martyrs. The act provided specifically that the contribution of the federal government was contingent upon the raising of a like sum by private subscription and by the State and City of New York.
In 1905, the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White was hired to design a new entrance to the existing vault and a permanent monument to the prison ship martyrs.
The McKim, Mead, and White design transformed the existing grand staircase into a 100-foot wide staircase broken into three flights. The entrance to the crypt, located in the center of the middle flight of stairs, is a single bronze door. At the top of the staircase sits a large plaza with four bronze eagles set at each of the four corners.
The Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument, a 149-foot Doric column, is centered on the plaza on top of a two-tiered square base. The base of the column includes two bronze doors, identical to the crypt door and the column is topped with a 22-foot bronze lantern designed by Adolph Alexander Weinman (who also designed the plaza’s four eagles).
The McKim, Mead, and White design also modified several other areas of the original Olmsted and Vaux plan including the addition of a small comfort station to the north of the upper plaza and a redesign of the lower plaza (which was never fully implemented).
The McKim, Mead, and White Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument was completed and dedicated in a ceremony attended by President-elect William H. Taft in 1908.
Since the dedication ceremony, the Monument, grand staircase, and upper and lower plazas have been modified. Some alterations to the Monument, such as the construction of an interior elevator, were subsequently removed.
The upper and lower plazas have been modified twice since 1908: once in 1936 with a design by Gilmore Clarke, and the second through a 1972 design by A. E. Bye.
The upper plaza was expanded, branching out to the north and south, while the lower plaza was transformed to include a set of smaller open spaces including playgrounds, a comfort station, and seating areas.
The grand stair case retains its McKim, Mead, and White three-tiered layout, but has been modified with tree wells and planting beds. The underground crypt remains in its original location.
“Not of National Significance” Finding
In 2021, after a study and analysis of the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Memorial in order to have the site named a National Historic Landmark, the National Park Service determined that the site “does not meet the criteria for national significance for cultural resources through the application of national historic landmark criteria.”
NPS argued that while the monument is indirectly associated with a historic event, it did not exist during the time of the historic event and it memorializes a phase of history not associated with the site.
The criteria for National Park Service designation requires that sites not only have historical or cultural significance, but also a high degree of integrity of location, design, and setting.
Cemeteries and other properties that are commemorative of events unrelated to their sites, such as the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument, do not ordinarily qualify for designation.
NPS also determined that the Memorial did not possess national significance based on its own architectural or design values because it does not represent an exceptionally important design of either Olmsted and Vaux or McKim, Mead and White.
Visiting Fort Greene Park and the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument
Fort Greene Park and the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument are owned and operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The park is open daily from 6:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. unless otherwise posted.
A staffed visitor center is located to the north of the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument and includes an exhibit on the prison ship martyrs’ and the history of Fort Greene Park within the context of the Revolutionary War. Restrooms are located within the visitor center and in a small comfort station on the lower plaza. Neither the Monument nor the crypt are open for public access.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE EAST COMMONS ARE SOON TO OPEN
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NEW YORK ALMANACK Judith Berdy
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This year I wrote about the Lampposts designed by Jsoseph H. Freedlander. It turns out there was much more to the story about Freedlander.
Joseph Freedlander (1870 – 1943) Mercury 18 x 9 x 6 inches Created 1931 Bronze on a marble base
In the late 1920s, Joseph Freedlander was asked by the City of New York to design a series of bronze light posts for Fifth Avenue. The first, completed in 1931, was installed at 41st and Fifth, and 103 others followed between 8th and 59th Streets.
Each traffic light was topped by a bronze statuette of Mercury. In the late 20th century, only several survived, two at the Museum of the City of New York, one in the offices of the Fifth Avenue Association, and a few in private collections.
If you go to the New York Times site and plug in “Joseph Freelander Mercury,” a detailed story by Christopher Gray will come up. The provenance of the sculpture is extraordinary.
NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS JOHNSON CITY, TENNESSEE
VA History Tidbit – Joseph H. Freedlander, Architect – Beaux Artss architecture
– Mountain Home In celebration of National Preservation Month
VA’s earliest hospitals were built as branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteers Soldiers. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, Congress established the National Homes to provide medical care, rehabilitation, and a “real home” for thousands of Union veterans who survived the war, but whose disabilities or lack of family prevented them from finding suitable jobs and housing. The National Homes were purposely designed to be beautiful and welcoming and many notable architects were involved in creating that first generation of national veterans hospitals and homes. They were built in spacious, park-like settings which provided lots of opportunities for veterans to take relaxing strolls, get fresh air, and commune with nature. The National Home’s Mountain Branch, which opened in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1903, was designed by renowned Beaux Arts architect, Joseph H. Freedlander, and is unique among VA’s early hospitals.
Joseph Henry Freedlander was born on August 18, 1870 in New York City to Jewish immigrants who migrated from Germany. His father was a hat wholesaler and his mother was a homemaker. He attended public schools and was later accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he graduated in 1891 with a degree in architecture at the age of 20. He then became one of the first Americans to attend the prestigious Écoles des Beaux Arts in Paris and graduated in 1895. Beaux Arts was a distinctive design style that embellished classical revival architecture with lavish and ornate details. The Écoles des Beaux Arts was regarded as one of the superior fine arts school in the world, at the time, and its artistic influences spanned from the early 19th century until the mid-1930s.
After graduation, Freedlander returned to New York where he set up his private practice as a Beaux Arts atelier. In 1897 he was selected to design the St. Louis Club in St. Louis, Missouri—it was his first major work. In 1901 a national competition was announced by the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers’ Board of Managers for someone to design their new branch which was to be built in Tennessee. Out of six designs submitted, Freedlander’s design was selected in July 1901. He was 30 years old and newly married at the time and one of the youngest architects in the country.
In 1914 Freedlander was selected as Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honor by the French Government—a distinctive order established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. During his career he was president of the Société des Architectes Diplomés’ American group, the Fine Arts Federation of New York, chairman of the annual Paris prize committee for the Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, trustee of the Museum of French Art, and associate of the National Academy of Design. He was an active and distinguished member of architecture circles, including the American Institute of Architects and National Sculpture Society, where helped to promote and expand the presence of Beaux Arts architecture in America. He went on to design other significant public buildings including the Harlem Hospital in New York (1907), the Perry Memorial in Put-in-Bay, Ohio (1912), the French Institute (1929), the Fifth Avenue traffic towers (1929), Museum of the City of New York (1930), and the Bronx County Courthouse (1934). He also designed numerous private residences. He died of a heart attack near Madison Square Garden on November 23, 1943 at the age of 73.
Joseph H. Freedlander’s magnificent work from 112 years ago still stands at the former National Home’s Mountain Branch, which today is known as the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center. Its unique architecture and significant role in our country’s history earned its designation by the Secretary of the Interior in 2011 as one of America’s National Historic Landmarks. Please enjoy these images of Freedlander’s beautiful work at Mountain Home:
Built in 1900, this Beaux Arts-style building was designed by Arthur Dillon of Friedlander and Dillon to serve as the home of the exclusive St. Louis Club, which remained in the building until 1925.
PERRY MEMORIAL PUT-IN-BAY, OHIO
In October 1911, a “Program of a Competition” was announced and 147 architects and firms submitted designs. The winning drawing was awarded to Joseph H. Freelander and Alexander D. Seymour Jr. of New York City.
The History of the Monument
“Don’t Give Up The Ship.” Spoken by Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to his troops as they defended this area against the British in the Battle of Lake Erie, this words remain stirring to this day. Despite being heavily unnumbered, Perry was victorious in taking control of Lake Erie. This was a crucial turning point for the War of 1812 and the US went on to win the war. The British fleet fought the Battle of Lake Erie in the waters near South Bass Island. Soon after, Oliver Hazard Perry sent the fleet back to Great Britain and celebrated the American victory.
Buried at the base of the column are six soldiers who perished during the batter. Both American officers and British officers are remembered at Perry’s Monument. The names of all the soldiers slain in the battle including Commodore Perry are also etched inside the grand rotunda.
After this war, relations between the US and England remained peaceful ever since. The monument is a symbol of this lasting peace, its construction a multi-state effort to “inculcate the lessons of international peace by arbitration and disarmament.”
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923 to preserve and present the history of New York City, and its people. It is located at 1220–1227 Fifth Avenue between East 103rd to 104th Streets, across from Central Park on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, at the northern end of the Museum Mile section of Fifth Avenue.
The red brick with marble trim museum was built in 1929–30 and was designed by Joseph H. Freedlander in the neo-Georgian style, with statues of Alexander Hamilton and DeWitt Clinton by sculptor Adolph Alexander Weinman facing Central Park from niches in the facade.The museum is a private non-profit organization which receives government support as a member of New York City’s Cultural Institutions Group, commonly known as “CIG”s. Its other sources of income are endowments, admission fees, and contributions.[Wikipedia]
The Bronx County Courthouse, as seen from the south end of the Grand Concourse on a June 2022 afternoon. Architects Max Hausle and Joseph H. Freedlander collaborated with a bevy of noted artists and sculptors (Charles Keck, Adolf A. Weinman, James Monroe Hewlett, and Joseph Kiselewski were among those who contributed works) on this massive civic temple that was built over three years beginning in 1931 as a prominent local example of the large-scale public works projects that provided welcome job opportunities to designers and builders during the Great Depression, and of which then-New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia was especially fond. The building’s Monumental Neoclassical style has been described by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission as “a characteristically American version of a style which was also popular in Europe, seen for example in the new section of Rome” in which “bold, simple geometric massing… is combined with ornamental detail and sculpture which derive inspiration primarily from ancient Greek and Roman models”. This, however, is combined with subtle but timely Art Deco flourishes such as the streamlined aesthetic that’s noticeable especially in and around the entrance porticos. Belying its name, the building houses not only the judiciary but all organs of the borough government, and its inauguration in 1934 coincided with the the 20th anniversary of the splitting off of the Bronx as a separate county. The dedication ceremonies included speeches, a military parade and band concert, and luncheons at the nearby Concourse Plaza Hotel. It was nominated as a New York City Landmark in 1976, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places both in its own right (1983) and as a contributing property to the Grand Concourse Historic District (19
ANDREW FREEMAN HOME
The Andrew Freedman Home is a historic building in the Bronx, New York City. Constructed by the estate of the millionaire Andrew Freedman, it has been renovated into an artists’ hub consisting of an interdisciplinary artist residency, an incubator space, workforce development and community services.[1] It is a New York City designated landmark. The money to build it was bequeathed by Freedman. Located at 1125 Grand Concourse in the Concourse neighborhood, the Andrew Freedman Home was designed as a retirement home for wealthy individuals who had lost their fortunes.
The trust that operated the Andrew Freedman Home ran out of money in the 1960s. The home was reopened in 1983 for all elderly individuals, regardless of past financial status. As of 2012, the Andrew Freedman Home serves as a day-care center and event space
BARON DE HIRSCH TRADE SCHOOL (?)
PHOTO OF THE DAY HONEYMOONERS VISIT KIOSK CONGRATULATIONS TO JAVIER AND EYLUL ON YOUR MARRIAGE
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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 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.
Elevated by 10 feet, Battery Park City’s Wagner Park Reopens with New Flood Protection
Friday, August 1, 2025
6sqft
Issue # 1500
AUG. 1, 2025 TODAY IS OUR 1,500th EDITION SINCE APRIL 2020, WE HAVE PUBLISHED 1,500 EDITIONS IN 1928 DAYS.
All images courtesy of Battery Park City
Wagner Park in Battery Park City reopened on Tuesday after a two-year overhaul to better protect the park and Lower Manhattan from coastal flooding. As part of the Battery Coastal Resilience Project, much of the 3.5-acre park was elevated by 10 feet to hide a buried floodwall under the central lawn that will protect against storm surge. There’s a 63,000-gallon underground cistern for rainwater reuse and lush gardens planted with native, salt-resistant species. The park’s flood risk reduction system includes both passive and deployable measures, designed to withstand a 100-year storm and projected to protect from severe storms through the 2050s based on anticipated sea level rise.
“The Battery Park City Authority is thrilled to deliver Wagner Park back to the public with this environmentally sustainable, downtown destination featuring expansive lawns and gardens, programming spaces, beautiful views, and universal accessibility,” BPCA Chairman Don Capoccia said.
“Let this magnificent public space overlooking the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island serve as testament to the resilient spirit of New York.”
Designed by AECOM in partnership with the Battery Park City Authority, Wagner Park now features an integrated flood barrier system seamlessly built into the landscape to guard against future storm surges and sea level rise.
The park also has an upgraded stormwater management system that uses grading and directs water into a system that maximizes rainwater capture and reuse.
Sustainable materials such as salvaged stone, wood, and trench drains from the original park were reused in the reconstruction. New paving materials were chosen to reduce heat island effects, and energy-efficient, solar-powered lighting enhances nighttime visibility while minimizing glare.
The park now includes four planted regional ecosystems: a tidal estuary, maritime meadow, maritime forest, and upland woodland. These native landscapes reduce water use, require less maintenance, and support local biodiversity.
An upgraded subsurface irrigation system cuts turfgrass water consumption by more than 30 percent. Additionally, a new area at the Pier A inlet encourages marine growth and offers space for environmental education and marine awareness.
Designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners, the new Pavilion is accessible from Battery Place via two sloped gardens, or from the waterside esplanade using accessible ramps and stairs, offering multiple entry points for visitors. Arched vaults lead to an entry piazza, where sweeping views of the green space, harbor, the Statue of Liberty, and Ellis Island take form.
The Pavilion will open in phases, with a classroom scheduled to debut this fall and a new restaurant expected in 2026. The new dining replaces the Italian restaurant Gigino at Wagner Park, which has operated there since 1999.
Pursuing Living Future Institute’s Zero Carbon Certification, the Pavilion is fully electric and free of any on-site combustion. The building will also include public restrooms and a spacious rooftop terrace open to the public, offering sweeping views of the harbor.
Wagner Park will continue to host public art and free community programming. Alongside temporary installations, the park will serve as the permanent home for three major sculptures: “Resonating Bodies” by Tony Cragg, “Eyes” by Louise Bourgeois, and the “Mother Cabrini Memorial” by Jill Burkee and Giancarlo Biagi.
Wagner Park closed in March 2023 for construction. In April 2024, the BPCA issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the planned restaurant within the Pavilion.
The Battery Coastal Resilience project is one component of the larger $1.7 billion Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) initiative, which aims to protect Lower Manhattan from future flooding and sea level rise. The larger plan includes raising waterfront infrastructure and enhancing the area’s rainwater management systems.
In May 2024, city officials broke ground on the $200 million Battery Coastal project. Scheduled for completion in 2026, the project aims to protect 100,000 residents, 300,000 jobs, and 12,000 businesses in the area.
Other components of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) initiative include the Brooklyn Bridge-Montgomery Coastal Resilience project, which began construction in fall 2022, and the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project, with its first two public areas opened in 2022 and 2023.
Later this year, work will begin on the North/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project, an interconnected network of fixed flood barriers and deployable measures designed to protect the remaining areas of Battery Park City and western Tribeca from flooding.
“More than a decade after Superstorm Sandy, our climate adaptation work continues with the return of a beautiful new Wagner Park,” BPCA President & CEO Raju Mann said. “Today’s reopening marks another step in our collective efforts to build a more resilient Lower Manhattan. We have a lot of work ahead, but today is a day to celebrate what we can do when we work together.”
The other day we wrote about the Baron Hirsch Trade School at 222 East 64th Street in 1903. Today, while at Manhattan, Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, (MEETH)I discovered a photo of the former school in a photo of the hospital in the early 1900’s. MEETH is located adjacent to site.
Note the building with round bollards in front. MEETH Archives
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Aarron Ginsburg MEETH Archive Judith Berdy
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If you spent the first weekend of October hoisting lager and Oomph-ing it up for Oktoberfest, then you joined a long and proud tradition of German beer production and consumption in New York City. In fact, New York’s German-owned breweries were once the largest beer-making operations in the country, and the brewers themselves grew into regional and national power-players, transforming Major League Baseball, holding elected office, and, perhaps most importantly, sponsoring goat beauty pageants in Central Park. While brewing flourished in both Manhattan and Brooklyn throughout the 19th century, the city’s largest breweries were clustered in Yorkville. In fact, much of the neighborhood’s storied German cultural history can be traced to the rise of brewing in the area, and the German-language shops, cultural institutions and social halls that sprang up to cater to the brewery workers.
New York’s first City Hall, the Dutch Stadt Huys, was built in 1642 as the Stadt Herbert, or the City Tavern, which sold Ale. In fact, Ale was the standard variety of beer sold in New York City until the mid-19th century (consider that Civil-War-era McSorley’s is an Ale House). Why? It was German immigrants who introduced lager to NYC.
Large-scale German immigration to New York City began in the 1840s. By 1855, New York City was home to the world’s third-largest German-speaking population behind Berlin and Vienna. According to FRIENDS of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, and their book, “Shaped by Immigrants: A History of Yorkville,” New York’s German community, which had first congregated in “Klein Deutchland” in today’s East Village, began moving to Yorkville in the 1860s and 1870s, drawn by new housing and improved transportation.
As New York’s German community moved uptown, so did New York’s Breweries. In 1866, George Ehret founded his Hell Gate Brewery between 92nd and 93rd Streets and Second and Third Avenues. Ehret’s brewery was so large, he built his own well to pump 50,000 gallons of fresh water every day and turned to the East River for 1,000,000 daily gallons of saltwater.
Though Ehert presided over the largest brewery in the nation, he was not the only brewer on the block. The year after Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery opened, Jacob Ruppert opened a rival brewery across the street. His operation sprawled between 91st and 92nd Streets and Second and Third Avenues. Ruppert also celebrated his local bonafides, calling his most popular beer Ruppert’s “Knickerbocker Beer.”
Lest the two biggest names in beer not be enough for one street corner, the George Ringler Brewery posted up at 92nd Street and Third Avenue in 1872. And the parade of suds did not end there. According to the 1911 Yearbook of the United States Brewers Association, the John Eichler Brewing Co. sat at 128th Street and Third Avenue. Central Brewing Company packed the pints at 68th Street and the East River. Peter Doelger, who’s signage you can still see at Teddy’s Bar in Williamsburg, was on 55th Street east of First Avenue. Elias Henry Brewing presided over 54th Street, and of course, F. M. Shaefer stood tall at 114 East 54th Street.
According to FRIENDS of the Upper East Side, by the 1880s, nearly 72 percent of all New York brewery workers were of German heritage. Accordingly, New York’s brewing culture was based on the systems and traditions that had prevailed in Germany since the Middle Ages. For example, German breweries traditionally required their employees to live in brewery-owned housing, known as Brauerherberge, or “brewer hostels,” which were overseen by brew-masters and company foreman. The same was true for employees in Yorkville, who lived close to their breweries. Since most of the workers living in brewer hostels were single men, employees with families in Yorkville were usually given accommodations in brewery-owned tenements in the neighborhood. And the brewers didn’t just own the hostels, they owned almost all aspects of their businesses. In fact, Jacob Ruppert owned an ice factory, stables, a barrel-making outfit, and a chain of banks.
But nothing brought beer to market better than owning the saloon itself. Here was the deal: the brewers would own the bars, and lease them to saloon-keepers; in return, the spot would sell only the owner’s beer. (There was no such thing as ‘100 beers on tap’ it was Ruppert’s or Hell Gate or Schaefer etc.) Ruppert was famous for his Knickerbocker Inn, but Ehret was “the king of beer corners:” He owned a whopping 42 saloons in New York by 1899.
Yorkville Theater, 86th St. between Lexington and Third, via Wikimedia Commons
But the brewers didn’t just build beer corners. Because breweries required such close consolidation of life and work, a full brewing community flourished in Yorkville. Beer halls, beer gardens, and saloons became centers of social life, and hosted all kinds of cultural and professional activities, from vaudeville revues to union meetings.
Meanwhile, 86th street grew into the neighborhood’s main drag, earning the moniker “German Broadway,” providing everything from cabaret to cabbage, lined with German-language shops, restaurants, and theaters. For example, The Doelger Building, built by the Doelger brewing family, and still standing at 1491 Third Avenue at 86th Street, was built as a music hall, with space for stores, a cabaret, office space, and a “hall for public assembly.”
In fact, German life was so intimately tied to the brewers, that the neighborhood got its news from Ruppert. He published the German-language newspaper New Yorker Staats-Zeitung.
That intimacy prevailed among the brewers themselves: For example, Ehert and Ruppert jointly owned a silk mill, they vacationed together, their families intermarried, and they were both loyal members of the Arion Society of New York, a German-American musical society. Like the Arion Society, many of the breweries in Yorkville were felled by the anti-German sentiment in America during and after WWI, and many more were shuttered during Prohibition.
Here is where the fates of Ehert and Ruppert diverge (and converge again). Ehret had gone to Germany in 1914 to recover from an illness, thinking the Alpine air might do him good. But WWI broke out while he was overseas, and he was stranded in Germany during the war, unable to return to the United States until mid-1918. In the meantime, Ehert’s business and property were seized by the US Government as “alien property,” even though Ehert was a naturalized citizen.
Bain News Service, P. (1923) Harry New Postmaster General, Dr. Chas. Sawyer President’s physician, Albert Lasker, Jacob Ruppert & Pres. Warren Harding at Yankee Stadium, 4/24/23 baseball. 1923 The Library of Congress.
Conversely, Jacob Ruppert Jr. was as All-American as it gets. By the time his father, the founder, Jacob Ruppert Sr., died in 1915, Ruppert Jr. had already served four terms in the House of Representatives and was part-owner of the Yankees. As president of that ball club, he was responsible for signing Babe Ruth in 1919, and for building Yankee Stadium in 1922.
Ehert regained control of the Hell Gate Brewery after WWI, but Prohibition hit him hard. Though he was determined to hang on until the Volstead Act was repealed and keep his workers on for the duration, Ehert died in 1927. When the Act finally was repealed in 1933, Ruppert expanded his own Brewery with 300 additional workers and bought Hell Gate in 1935.
Ruppert Jr. himself died in 1939, but the Brewery that bore his name survived, sending the scent of barley and hops through the streets of Yorkville until 1965. In the 70s, the site of Ruppert’s Brewery became an urban renewal project known as Ruppert Towers and is now a 4-building condo complex called Ruppert Yorkville Towers.
But, in 2014 the red brick of Ruppert’s brewery once again made an appearance in Yorkville. That March, workmen were excavating Ruppert Playground on East 92nd Street as developers prepared to turn the community space into a 35-story apartment building. Serendipitously, the bulldozers unearthed two underground brick archways that had been part of the brewery. For a brief moment, the Brew Man was back in town.
ENJOY A COLD ONE ON A HOT SUMMER DAY!!
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6sqft Lucie Levine is the founder of Archive on Parade, a local tour and event company that aims to take New York’s fascinating history out of the archives and into the streets. She’s a Native New Yorker, and licensed New York City tour guide, with a passion for the city’s social, political and cultural history. She has collaborated with local partners including the New York Public Library, The 92nd Street Y, The Brooklyn Brainery, The Society for the Advancement of Social Studies and Nerd Nite to offer exciting tours, lectures and community events all over town. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
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 holdout houses on a former colonial-era farm by the East River meet the wrecking ball in 1914
It’s hard to imagine in today’s river-to-river concrete city, but Manhattan at one time was almost entirely an island of farms and estates.
As the colonial outpost once known as New Amsterdam transitioned into the city of New York, vast tracts of land were sold and parceled out to new owners and developers—who built urban neighborhoods to accommodate the booming population and surge in commerce and industry.
One by one, as the city expanded northward in the late 18th and 19th centuries, farms in today’s Greenwich Village, Murray Hill, Gramercy, Chelsea, and Midtown were sold off—disappearing into a cityscape of new homes, factories, mass transit hubs, and business spaces.
But farmland in the upper reaches of Manhattan held out for much longer, thanks to their relative remoteness. One of these was the farm of Peter Schermerhorn, which stretched from today’s 63rd and 67th Streets on York Avenue along the East River.
You know the old-money Schermerhorns. The patriarch of this Knickerbocker family arrived in New York from Holland in the 17th century and made his home in the Albany area. A century later, a branch of the family relocated to Gotham, becoming merchants, shippers (Schermerhorn Row on South Street is named for them), and landowners in Manhattan and Brooklyn (see Schermerhorn Street, which runs from Flatbush Avenue to Brooklyn Heights).
Peter Schermerhorn (right), a ship chandler and merchant, wasn’t the first settler to take hold of this expanse of riverfront. It was originally part of a larger estate owned by David Provoost, a descendent of a French Huguenot immigrant who made his fortune as a merchant.
The Provoost farm was divvied up in 1800, according to a 1922 New York Times story; Schermerhorn supposedly purchased it and added the farm to land he already owned to the north in 1818.
With the land came some outbuildings, including a pretty, colonial-style farmhouse (top two images) on high ground near the future East 63rd Street dating back to 1747.
“Early records state that the house was, for a time after the Revolution, the country home of General George Clinton, who became the first Governor of the State and afterward Vice President of the United States, and tradition also says that Washington visited Clinton at the house and enjoyed the peaceful river view from beneath one of the ancient trees,” reported the New York Times in another 1922 article.
Along with the farmhouse, the Schermerhorn farm had a pre-Revolutionary War chapel building and a cemetery for family members. Over the years, other buildings were added.
Surrounded by woodlands, the family’s nearest neighbors may have been the Jones family to the north, who owned an estate known as Jones Wood, which almost became the site of Central Park.
To the south was the Beekman mansion and estate in today’s East 50s. In between would have been the still-standing Mount Vernon Hotel, built for President John Adams’ daughter as a home but by the early 19th century a summer resort for elite New Yorkers seeking cool breezes and countryside relief far from the sweltering city center.
What was life like in the 19th century on the Schermerhorn’s countryside farm estate, with its ornamental gardens and groves of trees? Probably isolated at first, but as the century went on, railroads and manufacturing invaded; streetcars and later elevated trains brought traffic and crowds to nearby avenues.
Both Peter and his wife Sarah passed away in the middle of the century. Their children inherited the property, and then their heirs. But according to a report by Rockefeller University, it appears that the Schermerhorn descendants moved to a new mansion on 23rd Street in the 1860s and no longer occupied the farmhouse.
A German immigrant, August Braun, leased half of the property and ran a successful boating and bathing facility at the river’s edge. In 1877, the Pastime Athletic Club built a running track on the other half of the estate, using the rundown chapel as a gymnasium.
By the turn of the 20th century, the urban city ringed the former farm, with tenements, apartment houses, and breweries constructed near what was still known as Avenue A; it wouldn’t be renamed York Avenue until 1928.
In 1903, a different kind of wealthy New Yorker took came calling: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. This financier and philanthropist son of the Gilded Age founder of Standard Oil had plans to build the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research here, and he set about acquiring land for his new biomedical research facility.
Schermerhorn descendant William Schermerhorn (or his estate) sold the farm to Rockefeller. In the Institute’s early days, the roughly 150-year-old colonial farmhouse was repurposed as a nurses’ station and dispensary as part of a hospital for sick babies on the institute’s campus.
The hospital closed, and the farmhouse met the bulldozer in 1914—as did the chapel and the remnants of other outbuildings on the property that year or sometime before or after. (The cemetery remained sans the headstones, which were toppled and broken long before Rockefeller bought the land.)
Newspapers chronicled the passing of what was deemed the second-oldest house in Manhattan, but not all took a nostalgic ot wistful tone.
“When built in 1747 it was surrounded by woods on all sides but the river,” noted the Sun in 1914, which added that now the marked-for-destruction farmhouse was surrounded by brick medical institute buildings, “in which many wonderful medical wonders are being performed.”
In 1955, the institute became The Rockefeller University, maintaining its presence with a gated driveway and many buildings on sloped grounds overlooking the East River
Gee, now we can grow the marijuana and sell it at the same location,
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.
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.
Ever wonder why Madison Square Garden is located atop Penn Station and not at Madison Square? The story is very New York and is not quite finished yet. Repeated calls over the years to relocate the current Madison Square Garden have been rooted in a desire to reimagine Penn Station, but all the recent improvements to the transit hub, including the opening of Moynihan Train Hall, gingerly sidestep the behemoth in the midst.
In total, New York City has been home to not one, not two, but four different Madison Square Gardens dating back to 1879. Sadly, none of the former MSG buildings stand today. Beginning with a humble open-air arena to the world-renowned sports and entertainment venue it is today, the four Madison Square Gardens have witnessed the evolving society of New York City with dramatic scandals and murders, evolving architectural styles, and events that reflected the social and political milieu of the time.
The first Madison Square Garden was already an existing venue known as P.T. Barnum’s “Great Roman Hippodrome,” or “Barnum’s Monster Classical and Geological Hippodrome,” located at the northeast corner of Madison Square Park. In fact, before it was Barnum’s entertainment venue, the complex was actually the former depot of The New York and Harlem Railroad, which pulled trains using horse drawn carriages. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad magnate, relocated the railroad hub to 42nd Street (first as Grand Central Depot, then Station, then Terminal).
The open-air venue was used as a velodrome, for multi-day races, and even for a Roman Carnival. When Vanderbilt opened his new station, he leased the old one at Madison Square to P.T. Barnum. After a few more proprietors and lease changes, Vanderbilt’s grandson, William K. Vanderbilt, rechristened the venue Madison Square Garden in 1879.
The first Madison Square Garden was demolished in 1889. Vanderbilt, citing lack of profitability of the venue, sold the land to a consortium of esteemed buyers including J.P. Morgan, P. T. Barnum, and Andrew Carnegie. By 1890, a new Madison Square Garden opened with a Beaux-Arts Moorish design by the young celebrated society architect Stanford White. It cost over $3 million or nearly $88 million in 2020 dollars.
The most distinctive feature of the second Madison Square Garden was its tower, modeled on the Giralda in Spain, on top of which stood a statue of Diana by August Saint-Gaudens. Also notable was a rooftop garden, all the rage for entertainment in the Gilded Age, which became the site of Stanford White‘s murder at the hands of Harry K. Thaw, a jealous rival in a love triangle gone wrong.
The Second Madison Square Garden was also the site of the 1924 presidential convention, which was the first time a woman was nominated to be Vice-President of the United States. The second iteration of Madison Square Garden would be demolished just a year late
A 1941 postcard depicts Madison Square Garden, Public Domain via National Park Service
New York Life Insurance held the mortgage on the second Madison Square Garden, and in 1923, the company decided to demolish the arena and build their new headquarters at Madison Avenue and 26th Street. The Cass Gilbert-designed headquarters with the gold pyramidal roof still stands today, next to the MetLife buildings.
Madison Square Garden itself was then relocated to the west side, on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th streets. The venue was designed by renowned theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, but the seats with obstructed views proved to be a problem. It would be here, however, that many political events would take place: a Nazi rally; an anti-Nazi rally; a fundraiser hosted by Eleanor Roosevelt and the Crown Princess of Norway (recently shown in the PBS Masterpiece series, Atlantic Crossing); and the famous rendition of “Happy Birthday” sung by Marilyn Monroe to John F. Kennedy in 1962.
The third Madison Square closed in 1968. The venue moved again to where it currently sits, atop the demolished site of Penn Station. The circular venue was designed by Charles Luckman. He is perhaps most famous for designing Boston’s Prudential Tower. This fourth version of Madison Square Garden has hosted everything from sports games and circuses to concerts and stand-up comedians, and everything in between.
PHOTOS OF THE DAY
TOMORROW WILL BE A SPECIAL ISSUE ON QUEENS BUS DESIGN NEW ROUTES
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
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.
For Europeans planning or being forced to migrate, the concept of the United States as a virtually border-less society remained alive until the passing of the Immigration Act of 1917 (this was not the case for other groups). It offered an opportunity to governments to “shovel out” troublesome subjects.
The German term Übersiedelung (literally: relocation) was used by officials of the Kingdom of Hanover to describe the practice of exiling “unwanted” subjects to America. From the early 1830s to 1866 (when Hanover was conquered by Prussia), some three thousand individuals – most of them petty criminals or paupers – were expelled from the territory.
Their coerced removal served as an alternative to imprisonment and was, therefore, presented as a mutually beneficial course of action. Criminal law was applied to enforce emigration.
Many Americans resented accepting German speaking outlaws as immigrants. It was not their first conflict with the Kingdom. George III, the Hanoverian British monarch, had in the eyes of colonists overreached his power with a hard-line approach to the American Revolution.
The Declaration of Independence accused him explicitly of tyranny. Britain’s long history of exiling offenders to America had started a century before the ascendancy of the Hanoverians to the British throne in 1714.
In 1615, King James I (1566-1625) allowed English courts to send convicts to the colonies as a way of alleviating the nation’s criminal population. Deported convicts were set to work on plantations in Virginia and Maryland, provide cheap labor and populate remote areas.
By 1699, an estimated 2,300 felons were removed from jails and workhouses, but the system of penal transportation had to cope with rising opposition from within the colonies. The snake began to rattle its tail.
Bloody Code
Enacted in England from the seventeenth century onward, the “Bloody Code” was a set of penal laws that mandated the death penalty for such crimes as murder, arson, forgery, stealing cattle or sheep, pick-pocketing or stealing from a shipwreck. Dating back to 1688, the misdeeds punishable by death initially amounted to fifty; by 1815 the number had increased to over two hundred.
The Code reflected the harshness of a system that responded to social changes – urbanization, population growth, increased poverty and crime. It was used to maintain the status quo and suppress dissent.
As criminal justice relied upon fear of retribution, the public display of executions was crucial. If punishment was to set an example to onlookers, then the execution should be dramatic. The death penalty was both a ritual and performance.
Over time, “hanging days” deteriorated into drunken orgies of a rowdy and boisterous mob. The regularity of executions led to hanging-fatigue amongst the public and a hardening of its moral senses. Juries became increasingly reluctant to convict defendants for minor misdemeanors, leading to a decline in the effectiveness of the system. It was feared that law and order were at stake.
In 1615, King James I had authorized the process of transporting convicts to the American colonies where they could be profitably employed on the plantations. By the end of the century, the chaotic process had ceased to function as colonies were unwilling to accept convicts and ship owners reluctant to take felons on board.
In response, Parliament passed the Transportation Act of 1717 to create a systematic way of deporting convicts. It formalized the process, allowing courts to sentence felons to either seven or fourteen years of exile as an alternative to capital punishment.
The Act significantly increased the number of deported convicts and established a structured system for their transport to the colonies. Landing along the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, they were put to work in the tobacco fields or at shipbuilding yards. Completion of the imposed sentence had the effect of a pardon; the punishment for attempted escape was death.
Between the passing of the 1717 Transportation Act and the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, it is estimated that over 52,000 convicts were deported from overcrowded prisons and workhouses to be sold to the highest bidder. Convicts may have made up a quarter of British immigrants to colonial America during that period.
Many observers judged transportation a means of “draining the Nation of its offensive Rubbish.” Lawmakers considered exile an appropriate punishment; others regarded it an offer of rehabilitation, giving felons the opportunity of making a new life.
This applied to female convicts in particular. Upon arrival in the colonies, they were sold as indentured servants, facing harsh working conditions and mistreatment whilst suffering separation from their own families.
Daniel Defoe’s novel The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (1722) is the personal history of a bigamist, prostitute and thief. Born in London’s Newgate Prison to a convict mother and having lived a life of deprivation, she spent eight years as a transported felon in Virginia. Moll Flanders died a penitent.
The novel has been interpreted as a conversion narrative, a piece of propaganda supporting transportation’s “redemptive” powers. In his preface the (Puritan) author promised his reader a serious message, but the storyteller proved stronger than the moralist. It is not so much a story of salvation, but a gripping tale of survival in the urban jungle.
From Satire to Symbol
Exporting criminal miscreants to North America was a policy celebrated as a “way to help the colonies grow.” Settlers were dubious. Although costly, slaves were more attractive to potential buyers than deportees as they were considered stronger, healthier and less defiant. In addition, they were sold for life whereas most convicts served a seven-year term.
Once English ships arrived at their destination, deportees were lined up for inspection by interested parties. All “unsold” convicts were offered as a group to dealers (known as “soul-drivers”). Chained together they were marched into the country and sold at remote locations.
While plantation owners may have welcomed the availability of cheap labor, other Americans were anxious about the influx of convicts. Authorities in Virginia and Maryland tried repeatedly to prevent the “trade” in felons, but their legal measures were overturned by representatives of the Crown.
In The Scarlet Letter (1850), a novel set in the Puritan Bay Colony, Nathaniel Hawthorne observed that however lofty the ideals of early settlers might have been, the first practical step they took was to “allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.” Boston Gaol [Jail] was erected in 1635, the city’s first “house of detention” (rebuilt in 1704 on the same site).
Opponents of penal transportation would find support of an eloquent spokesman. On May 9, 1751, using the pen name “Americanus,” Benjamin Franklin published a satirical article in The Pennsylvania Gazette entitled “Rattlesnakes for Felons” in which he praised England for its generosity by which “all the Newgates and dungeons in Britain are emptied into the colonies.”
As a token of appreciation he suggested that the nation should present England with rattlesnakes in exchange. Behind the satire there was a message. Emptying jails into American settlements was an act of contempt. Benjamin Franklin introduced the rattlesnake into political debate.
As the species was unknown in the Old World, European authors and French academics in particular were fascinated by rattlesnakes. The study of snakes saw a mix of empirical observation and lingering traditional beliefs. The myth of the “joint snake” persisted, suggesting the ability of reptiles to regenerate their bodies after being severed. It was perpetuated in emblem books.
In 1685, Nicolas Verrien published a Recueil d’emblèmes (a new edition appeared in 1724), a collection of emblems that includes a sample of a snake cut in two parts with the motto: “Un Serpent coupé en deux. Se rejoindre ou mourir” (A serpent cut in two. Either join or die).
Franklin admired the genre for its use of imagery to communicate complex ideas. He was most likely familiar with Verrien’s emblem. A similar tale circulated in the English colonies: a cut serpent would come alive if the pieces were joined back together before sundown.
Academic interest advanced research. In 1705, Jamestown-born planter Robert Beverley published his History and Present State of Virginia (three French editions were published between 1707 and 1718) in which he called for a better understanding of the rattlesnake’s behavior.
Fears expressed by Europeans were unjustified. He insisted that the viper was not a threat; it would only attack if disturbed. The rattlesnake image produced by Suffolk-born Mark Catesby in The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (1731/43) further excited the scientific world.
All these trends play in the background of a cartoon “Join, or Die” in The Pennsylvania Gazette of May 9, 1754, presenting a sliced up rattlesnake in the shape of a colonial map. Its engraver has not been identified, but Benjamin Franklin formulated the message behind what he called his “Emblem.”
Alluding to the old myth, the cartoon shows a snake in eight pieces, each representing part of colonial North America. Franklin made a call for the colonies, from New England at the snake’s head to South Carolina at its tail, to unite in battle during the French and Indian War or face defeat.
Metaphor & Banner
On the eve of the American Revolution, the snake image appeared again in print. Boston-born printer and journalist Isaiah Thomas used his newspaper The Massachusetts Spy (established in 1770) to rally support in the struggle for self-governance.
He published the first eyewitness accounts of the Battles of Lexington and Concord which turned out to be pivotal events in the Revolution. At the head of the newspaper’s first page, Thomas displayed the snake confronting the dragon symbolizing England with the phrase “Join or Die.”
The rattlesnake turned into a mascot. Once again, Franklin played a part. On December 27, 1775, he issued another anonymous article in the Gazette. Signed “An American Guesser,” it was entitled “The Rattlesnake as America’s Symbol.”
A scientist at heart and aware of recent research developments, the author stressed that the rattlesnake tends to avoid confrontation. If provoked or disturbed, however, it will respond in a lethal manner. Franklin’s reference to reptile behavior proved to be a perfect tool for political discourse, both as a metaphor and a prophecy.
The rattlesnake became emblematic of American pride and vigilance.
Almost simultaneously Christopher Gadsden, a native of South Carolina and a Colonel in the Continental Army, designed a flag that displayed a coiled timber rattlesnake with fangs exposed, ready to strike. It contained the words “Don’t Tread on Me” upon a bright-yellow background.
In 1775, George Washington officially established the Continental Navy to intercept English supply ships. Commodore Esek Hopkins was handed the banner for display on his flagship USS Alfred. Known ever since as the “Gadsden Flag,” it was a telling extension of Franklin’s metaphor.
During the uprising, the rattlesnake represented a desire for national unity and independence. It appeared in printed caricatures, newspapers and paper money as well as on flags and buttons.
The Continental Congress incorporated the reptile into the seal for the Board of War & Ordnance in 1778. That same year, Georgia issued a $20 bill featuring a rattler accompanied by the motto “Nemo me impune lacesset” (No one will provoke me with impunity). Snakes slithered everywhere.
The American Revolution ended the deportation of English convicts to the United States. Colonial ports ceased accepting convict ships. The Transportation Act was suspended that same year with the introduction of the Criminal Law Act, otherwise known as Hard Labour Act. Australia became the new penal colonial location.
When in 1782 Britain was coming to grips with defeat by the rebels and forced to negotiate a peace treaty in Paris, English cartoonists portrayed the United States as a vengeful and menacing rattlesnake.
While the bald eagle was – against Benjamin Franklin’s wish – ultimately chosen as a national symbol, the rattlesnake continued to be used in various other contexts. To this day, either perverted or not, it remains in certain circles (in 2010, the Tea Party adopted the Gadsden flag as its banner) a symbol of American identity.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
ROOSEVELT ISLAND RACQUET CLUB’S SKIP HARTMAN WAS SALUTED WITH AN 85th BIRTHDAY PARTY AT THE SANCTUARY ON WEDNESDAY.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKIP!
CREDIT TO
Illustrations, from above: Detail from “A Fleet of Transports under Convoy,” outside London’s Newgate prison (British Museum); a relatively easy punishment under the bloody code; Illustration from Moll Flanders, from an 18th-century chapbook; “Mother Brownrico Flogging Her Apprentice in the Cellar”; Mark Catesby, watercolor of a timber rattlesnake in The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, 1731/43 (Plate 41); Franklin’s rattlesnake in The Pennsylvania Gazette of May 9, 1754; The Gadsden flag depicting a coiled timber rattlesnake ready to strike; and the Seal of the Board of War & Ordnance, adopted by the Continental Congress in 1778.
New York Almanack
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Explore the artists who make Printemps New York a truly unique space! Whether emerging or established, working in paint or sculpture, permanent or temporary, each of these amazing artisans bring their own distinctly fresh perspective and unique flair to your experience.
Wednesday, July 23, 2025
PRINTEMPS NEW YORK ONE WALL STREET Issue # 1491
Red Room Mosaic Art, 1931
Designated an official New York City interior landmark in 2024, the Red Room is the pièce de résistance: sculptural walls, soaring 33-foot ceilings, and nearly three million red and gold mosaic tiles. It’s the vision of Hildreth Meière, the trailblazing Art Deco artist whose work also graces Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center. Completed in 1931, originally designed as the banking hall for the Irving Trust Company, and later the Bank of New York, the space still feels bold, glamorous, and full of life …and shoes!
A newly crafted mosaic “river” by Pierre Mesguiche now winds its way from the Red Room’s entrance to the adjacent Red Room Bar. A celebrated mosaicist, and Printemps Paris collaborator, Mesguiche’s latest work creates a playful dialogue between Paris and New York and between the past and the future.
Riviera Botanica, 2025
South Korean artist Maria (Taehyoung) Jeon, brings a breezy charm to our store windows with Riviera Botanica, a layered digital work inspired by the carefree elegance of summer in the French Riviera. Merging vibrant flora with subtle human forms, she evokes a mood of playfulness and ease, bringing summer in botanical form to our windows.
Raised between New Zealand and the UK and now based in Seoul, Jeon draws on a multicultural perspective and a background in printmaking and animation. Eastern and Western influences blend in each digital brushstroke, bringing depth and harmony to her richly composed works
Fantasy Flower No.6, Frutti di Mare, and Chinese Restaurant No.8 Lamps
In collaboration with Todd Merrill Gallery Curated by Valentina Guidi Ottobri
Finnish artist Teemu Salonen brings a touch of the fantastical with his botanical, sculptural lamps that burst with color and movement. Known for blending natural forms with surrealist flair, Salonen’s pieces feel at once organic and otherworldly. Each sculpture invites a closer look, adding moments of surprise and delight throughout the space where blooms that appear caught in mid-movement underscore our endless spring
Currently in the Salon and Red RoomMAARTEN VROLIJK
The Blooming Glass & Ceramic Collection
In collaboration with Todd Merrill Gallery Curated by Valentina Guidi Ottobri
Amsterdam-based artist Maarten Vrolijk brings a sense of softness and joy to the space with his Sakura vases, each a playful, oversized form rendered in soft curves and luminous, layered hues. With a spirit that nods to Romanticism and Art Nouveau, the vases blur the line between function and sculpture. Their fragile transparency, set against the strong lines and saturated palette of the Red Room, creates a beautifully poetic contras
Origami Birds, 2025
Belgian artist Charles Kaisin brings his signature vision to New York with a shimmering flock of golden origami-like birds suspended across our Salon windows overlooking Broadway. Known for sculptural works that explore light, geometry, and organic form, Kaisin previously created a celebrated installation beneath the historic dome at Printemps Haussmann – making his presence at Printemps New York a fitting new bridge between Paris and New York
Champagne Bar, 2025
Brooklyn-based artist William Coggin created the Champagne Bar’s ceramic-clad façade, an organic sculptural form that evokes the look and feel of sea coral. Large slabs replete with craggy textures and hand-formed curves create a multi-sensory experience that invites guests to pause, touch, and take it all in. Tucked at the end of our marble Salle de Bain, the Champagne Bar offers an intimate escape – the perfect spot to enjoy a perfectly chilled, small-batch cuvée, surrounded by beauty.
Odyssey of Nature’s Rebirth, 2025
In collaboration with Nilufar Gallery Curated by Valentina Guidi Ottobri
Multi-media artist and fashion designer Christian Pellizzari brings a burst of whimsy and wonder to our Grand Foyer with Odyssey of Nature’s Rebirth, a vibrant, dreamlike garden where Murano glass flowers and intricate 3D prints bloom in full color. Having grown up near Venice, Pellizzari often draws on the centuries-old traditions of Murano glassmaking, blending them with contemporary techniques to create works that feel both timeless and new. Lining the entry with dazzling flowers, he welcomes every guest into a world of beauty, imagination, and renewal. Artwork is available for purchase.
Stained glass panels and windows, 2025
Pierre Marie, the renowned French glass artist, brings his exceptional mastery to Printemps New York with a series of hand-crafted, stained-glass windows and panels featured in both the Red Room Bar and Maison Passerelle. Bold, botanical, and with a nod to the Baroque, these pieces capture the interplay of light and color, drawing inspiration from the intricate patterns and grandeur of the iconic Printemps Paris dome. Each piece blends contemporary techniques with timeless design, making these works of art a stunning tribute to Parisian craftsmanship and the art of glassmaking – a first for Pierre Marie in the U.S.
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.
Wondering why the beachgoers in this Rockaway Beach postcard don’t look like they’re having much fun—with their heavy hats, head-to-toe bathing outfits, and stiff posture as they sit in wood chairs or stand near the water?
It might have something to do with some new beach rules instituted a few years earlier.
According to a 2017 article in the longtime Rockaway news site The Wave, an NYPD Captain named Louis Kreuscher was concerned that a surge in visitors to this popular summer destination in the early years of the 20th century might have a negative effect on morals and manners.
So he composed a list of etiquette violations, which The Wave published in an August 1904 edition. The rules included the following:
“No person or persons shall be allowed to sit on the sand under the boardwalk after dark; As the beach is a public place, kissing is strictly forbidden; No hand-holding allowed; Hugging is strictly forbidden and the beach is for the use of bathers and is not to be used as a trysting place…”
A Wikipedia page on the history of Rockaway Beach also referenced Kreuscher’s rules, adding that they allowed for the “censoring the bathing suits to be worn, where photographs could be taken, and specifying that women in bathing suits were not allowed to leave the beachfront.”
Not using the beach as a “trysting place” seems reasonable. But no hugging, handholding, or heading to the boardwalk in a bathing suit? At some point in the 20th century, these rules were ignored, the
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.
