Look up at the massive brick and mortar confection at the southeastern corner of West End Avenue and 102nd Street, and you might think you’re facing one wildly idiosyncratic Gilded Age mansion.
There’s the center tower with four stories of bay windows capped by a bell-shaped roof. On the West End Avenue side are chimneys, carved panels, stained glass, and windows of all styles. On the 102nd Street end, balconies, pedimented parapets and a stoop entrance animate this sleepy side street.
Because all these ornamental eccentricities are united in brownstone and fronted by a lacy iron fence, it seems like one house—specifically a surviving example of one of the mansions built in the late 19th century in the rapidly urbanizing West End of Manhattan (the Upper West Side of today).
But a closer look tells a different story. Rather than one mansion, this corner features four separate townhouses completed in 1893. As a group, it’s the “sole surviving example of a type of site planning used on several corner plots on West End Avenue in the early 1890s,” stated the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in 1990.
Number 858 is in the center, and numbers 854 and 856 face West End Avenue. Number 254 West 102nd Street is around the corner, unattached to its three sisters except by a thin band of brownstone above a path leading to the shared backyard (below left).
These clusters of fanciful row houses were a popular house style on the Upper West Side of the late 1800s, as the LPC pointed out. The style worked for builders, who wanted to maximize profits on the corner lots they purchased by putting up as many separate houses as possible.
Meanwhile, discerning middle- and upper middle class buyers were turning up their noses at the traditional brownstone row houses built in the 1860s and 1870s. Instead, they desired dwellings that rebelled against what was then considered boring, woefully out of date uniformity.
They also sought lots of light, an amenity traditional row houses didn’t offer. That might be why the architects decided to build one of the houses unattached—it afforded the opportunity for more back and side windows, plus a yard in the middle and Hudson River views from the top floors.
“Highly animated by recessed entrances and balconies, these lively Queen Anne/Romanesque Revival–style houses typify the eclectic residential architecture of West End Avenue in the 1890s,” wrote Barbara Diamonstein-Spielvogel in her book, The Landmarks of New York. (Below, two of the houses in 1910).
“By detailing each building individually, the architects also expressed a reaction against the uniform look of the city’s older Italianate row houses.”
Like so many other houses on West End Avenue, which like Riverside Drive was designated as a commerce-free residential thoroughfare, this group of houses was built on speculation.
The interiors featured several bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens with butler’s pantries, and front parlors with music rooms. “All the principal living and sleeping rooms have mantels, mirrors, and open fireplaces, with tiled hearths and onyx or marble facings,” wrote the Real Estate Record and Guide in an approving nod published in February 1893. (Below, in 1940)
Such an attractive cluster of row houses should have had no problem finding buyers. But with the city and nation in the grip of the Panic of 1893, the developers found themselves with few takers.
Number 856 was sold first, noted the LPC. Two years later, the remaining houses were sold to the investors, and architect/developers Ernest Schneider and Henry Herter took title to Number 858. That house sold in 1897, then the title reverted to Schneider and Herter in 1898. (Below, the row houses in 1893)
The others sold in the mid-1890s but seemed to change hands often. Number 254 West 102nd Street became a boarding house.
These days, the cluster of Gilded Age row houses are charming anachronisms on a West End Avenue long dominated by rows of prewar apartment houses. Each of the four, now all rental buildings, seems to be in decent shape. A few front entrances have been altered; some ornamentation has disappeared
But as a surviving example of a type of housing once found on many corners of the Upper West Side, this group continues to delight passersby with its whimsical style and beguiling backstory.
Auction houses are the best way to discover art, well known and not so. This Sunday I ventured to Christies to see their American and Modern items that will be auctioned this coming week. Christies even has a lovely free coffee bar with comfortable seats. Located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza, it is a great stop when in the neighborhood.
Maurice Prendergast, an artist whose work included the New York waterfrontOr a set of Matisse prints?Or some Lautrec postersOr some Alex Katz ladies?
Both houses now private sales, on-line sales and other typed of purchasing to encourage young collectors. Both had many rooms of elegant furnishings from grand New York apartments.
Sotheby’s is closing the York Avenue site and moving to the former Whitey Museum site at 74th and Madison Avenue, this summer.
A fun afternoon away from the flock of visitors and parade on 5th Avenue.
Classic Japanese art redesignedA classic Bugatti to go with the Sotheby’s Art Deco SaleTh perfect Art Deco dining room.
The look of the Art Deco feminine
JUST PUBLISHED CONTEMPORARY ART UNDERGROUND
Contemporary Art Underground presents more than 100 permanent projects completed between 2015 and 2023 by MTA Arts & Design. This ground-breaking program of site-specific projects by a broad spectrum of well-known and emerging contemporary artists has helped to create a sense of character and place at subway and commuter rail stations throughout the MTA system. Among the featured artists are Yayoi Kusama, Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Ann Hamilton, Xenobia Bailey, Jim Hodges, Alex Katz, Sarah Sze, and Vik Muniz.
Of special interest is the discussion of fabricating and transposing the artist’s rendering or model into mosaic, glass, or metal, the materials that can survive in the transit environment. This is the definitive survey of the latest works of the internationally acclaimed MTA Arts & Design collection. On view 24 hours a day, the collection is seen by more than four million subway riders and commuters daily and has been hailed as ‘New York’s Underground Art Museum.’ The collection enlivens stations in all boroughs, with a myriad works by major contemporary artists executed in mosaic, glass, metal, and ceramic.
“A cloudburst of the harshest kind ever known in local baseball history,” hit Port Henry on Lake Champlain, June 14, 1923. It was not the kind of cloudburst of rain which disrupts a ballgame and sends fans scrambling, but a cloudburst of talent that finds local fans cheering for the visiting team.
The Brooklyn Royal Colored Giants professional baseball team defeated the Port Henry semi-professional team, comprised primarily of local players, 20-1 in a game the home team was not expected to win. Sourian, the Giants pitcher, had 19 strikeouts.
“The locals had no more of a show against this aggregation than a kitten would have against a tiger,” the Essex County Republican reported on June 22, 1923.
The goal of Port Henry management was to test the draw that a nationally-recognized team would have in this segregated Essex County mining village, where semi-professional and amateur baseball had long been a pastime.
Booking the Brooklyn team was a matter – as in real estate – of location, location, location.
Port Henry was a convenient stop on the way from Burlington, where the Royal Colored Giants had won two of three games against the University of Vermont the previous week, to Montreal, where the Giants were scheduled to play the next day.
Bringing in the “fast and classy aggregation” was expensive. “It cost the Port Henry team’s management so much to get this team that it is necessary to raise the admission price to 75 cents (the equivalent of $13.38 in 2023 dollars) for gentlemen and 50 cents for ladies,” the Ticonderoga Sentinel reported on June 7. “If the attendance of the game warrants it, Port Henry will book some more high-class teams like the Giants.”
Typically, 25 cents was the standard admission to baseball games in various towns in that era.
Fans got their money’s worth, according to the Essex County Republican. “Fans who witnessed the game will perhaps wait many a day before they will see a ball team in action as that of the Royal Colored Giants.”
John Wilson Conner, owner of the Brooklyn Royal Café, established the Royal Colored Giants in 1905. Over the decades, the team played in various Negro leagues, starting in 1907 in the National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba.
The Royal Colored Giants also played against semi-professional white teams.
Conner later sold the team to Nat Strong, a white booking agent and promoter from New York City, who owned the team when it played at Port Henry.
In 1923, the same year the team played at Port Henry, the Royal Colored Giants was a charter member of Eastern Colored League, and played in the league through the 1927 season, according to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The Royal Colored Giants placed third in the league in 1923, with a .500 season record.
The team disbanded in 1942.
An 1896 ‘Old Timers’ Boxing Event in New York City
The following essay was published in the “The World Of Sport” column in The [Troy] Daily Times on December 15, 1896.
Pugilistic champions of other days and of the present time passed in rapid review before a crowd of 2,500 sports in the Broadway Athletic Club last night. There was a rare galaxy of them.
Jem Mace [James Mace, born in 1831-died in 1910], who was champion of England thirty-five years ago, and Mike Donovan [Michael J. Donovan, see below, b. 1847 – d. 1918] were the stars of the occasion. The kaleidoscopic entertainment was arranged for their benefit and they will divide $2,400 between them.
Preceding Mace and Donovan, however, there appeared more than one man who has played a larger part in fighting and done more to make ring history. There were champions of a quarter of a century ago and champions who in this day are prepared to defend the titles to which they lay claim.
Well known men and well known faces abounded. Thomas E. Byrnes, ex-superintendent of [New York City] police was present, witnessing a boxing entertainment for the first time since he left the police ranks. Then there were Bob Pinkerton [co- manager of the Pinkerton Agency, 1848-1907], H. K. Knapp [Harry Kearsarge Knapp, 1864 – 1926, thoroughbred racing executive], Harry Buermeyer [a rower call the “father of American athletics,” 1864-1926], Phil. Dwyer and his understudy, Colonel Abe Daniels; H. G. Crickmere [Henry G. Crickmere, 1839-1908], secretary of the Westchester Racing Association; Al Johnson [baseball executive Albert Loftin Johnson, 1860-1901], Frank Simpson [football coach Frank William Simpson, 1871-1929], Jockey Taral [Hall of Fame Jockey Fred Taral, 1867-1925], Dave Holland, Jack Lawrence [John Lawrence, ca. 1823-1896], who trained [American Bare-knuckle Heavyweight Champion] John Morrissey in his day; George E. Smith, better known as “Pittsburg Phil” [George Elsworth Smith, gambler and thoroughbred horseman, 1862-1905], Ed Kearney, Jr., Gottfried Walbaum [operator of Saratoga Race Course], Ike Thompson, Al Smith [probably future New York Governor Al Smith, 1873-1944], Dan Noble [19th century gambler and boxer], Ed Stokes [possibly Edward C. Stokes, later Governor of New Jersey, 1860-1942], Ed Gilmore [19th century boxing promoter], Timothy D. Sullivan [Timothy Daniel Sullivan, Tammany Hall leader, 1862-1913], Tony Pastor [Antonio Pastor, variety performer and theater owner known as the “Dean of Vaudeville,” (1837-1908] and Citizen George Francis Train [traveler and entrepreneur who inspired Jules Verne’s novel Around the World in Eighty Days, 1829-1904].
It was 10:30 o’clock when the real stars, Jem Mace and Mike Donovan, appeared. Both veterans wore long white flannel trousers and were stripped above the belt. “Parson” Davies [Charles E. Davies, Chicago sporting man, manager and promoter, 1851-1920], master of ceremonies, explained that the bout was friendly, and that no decision would be announced.
Donovan was decidedly more active on his feet and proceeded to dance around the Englishman in rapid style, at the same time tapping him with his opened gloves. Mace, in spite of his sixty-five years, was by no means slow and used his left constantly.
In the second round Donovan got in an extra hard slap and Mace stopped to remove his upper row of false teeth, which he carelessly threw to his seconds. Jem was a bit tired toward the end of the third round and said, breathlessly: “Don’t go so bloomin hard, Mike!”
The fourth round was the wind-up, and the old fellows went at it in lively fashion. Mace held his own and all the crowd yelled “Draw! Draw!” when it was all over. John L. Sullivan [first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, 1858-1918] and “Jim” Corbett [James John Corbett World Heavyweight Champion, and the only man who ever defeated John L. Sullivan, 1866-1933] received an ovation during the evening.”
Note: During his professional boxing career Mike Donovan, later known as “Professor” for his teaching prowess, fought John Shanssey in a bout refereed by Wyatt Earp in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the late 1860s. At the end of his career he became a boxing instructor at the New York Athletic Club where he taught Theodore Roosevelt and his sons how to box.
Illustrations, from above; Professor Mike Donovan (on right) helping his son train in boxing, ca. 1910s; and a portrait of Jem Mace.
The Roaring Twenties saw the collision of an emerging culture of celebrity with the established popularity of sports, creating one of the twentieth century’s most enduring personalities — baseball hero Babe Ruth.
In 1928, Ruth not only led the New York Yankees to their third World Series victory, he also threw himself into politics, campaigning enthusiastically for New York State governor and Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith. Smith’s liberal and progressive platform appealed to diverse, working-class Americans, often marginalized by the policies of other politicians.
Ruth’s enthusiasm for Smith reinforced this appeal, but also brought backlash from voters, especially nativist, who viewed Smith and his admirers as un-American. Joined by teammates and other stars from the sporting world, Ruth’s support for Smith was a new and exciting development in presidential politics and showed the growing importance of sports in American culture and the role of identity in politics.
The New York State Museum will host “Babe Ruth Gets Political: Sports and Identity Politics in the Roaring Twenties,” a program with Stephen Loughman and Dr. Robert Chiles set for Thursday, November 17th, at the Huxley Theater in Albany.
New York State Museum Curator of Sports, Stephen Loughman, will present a short history of the “House that Ruth Built” and discuss New York Yankees-related artifacts in the Museum’s collection, including a recently donated Babe Ruth signed baseball.
Dr. Robert Chiles is a senior lecturer at the University of Maryland and, in 2021, became a Research Associate in History with the New York State Museum. He is co-editor of New York History, a member of the editorial board of The Hudson River Valley Review, and the host of “Empire State Engagements.” Chiles has written numerous pieces on New York State history, including in his first book, The Revolution of ’28: Al Smith, American Progressivism, and the Coming of the New Deal (Cornell Univ. Press, 2018); as well as in articles for Environmental History, the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, New York History, and op-eds for Newsday, the New York Daily News, and the Albany Times Union.
Stephen Loughman is the Curator of Sports at the New York State Museum. He has presented several times on New York State sports history and is working to build the Museum’s sports collections.
The Black Cyclone & The Unbearable Whiteness of Cycling
The invention of the wheel has been celebrated as a hallmark of man’s drive for innovation. By the 1890s, Europe and America were obsessed with the bicycle. The new two-wheel technology had a profound effect on social interactions. It supplied the pedal power to freedom for (mainly white) women and created an opportunity for one of the first black sporting heroes.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, bicycle racing as a sporting event reached feverish popularity both amongst the public and within artistic circles. In the early twentieth century racing developed as a distinct facet of modernity. The bicycle was the pre-eminent vehicle of the avant-garde.
Annie Londonderry
For women the bicycle was a “freedom machine” and a symbol of independence. It became a political force, an emblem of liberation. A popular line in the American press suggested that “woman is riding to suffrage on the bicycle.” Negotiating this new form of transportation was so liberating that women were eager to burn their bustle-cages. The bike not only forced a move away from the restrictive fashion of the Victorian age, for some women cycling was a life-changing exercise. Activists on bikes became role models in the emancipation process. Their pedals inspired social mobility.
A Jewish immigrant from Latvia, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky was a strong willed mother of three children under the age of six who took on the seemingly risible challenge to cycle around the world. Sponsored by the Londonderry Lithia Spring Water Company of Nashua, New Hampshire, she was given the nickname Annie Londonderry. She started her epic journey on June 27, 1884, carrying with her only a change of clothes, a pistol, and her sponsor’s advertising placard.
Having reached the city of New York, she sailed to Le Havre from where she part cycled, part traveled by train to Marseille. The French public was intrigued, turning up in large numbers to encourage her. She then sailed to Alexandria, Colombo, Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Nagasaki. In large towns and cities throughout the journey, Annie would halt and captivate audiences with colorful tales that were often exaggerated or completely made-up. She knew how to manipulate the media.
In March 1895 she landed in San Francisco, rode to Los Angeles, and then cycled through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Nebraska. She arrived back in Boston fifteen months after leaving. She fulfilled what she had set out to do: to prove that women were equal to men in achieving what was considered the near impossible.
African-American Champion
Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor was born on November 26, 1878, in a rural area on the fringes of Indianapolis. His grandfather was enslaved in Kentucky; his father had been a Union soldier in the Civil War and, after moving from Kentucky to Indiana, was employed as a coachman in the family home of Albert Burley Southard, a railway executive who gave young Marshall his first bicycle.
Whilst in his early teens, Taylor’s agility caught the eye of the owners of the local Hay & Willits Bicycle Shop. They employed the youngster to perform stunts in front of the store. As he was dressed in a military uniform, his performances earned him the nickname “Major.” The tag would stick throughout his illustrious career.
Later Marshall worked as an instructor in a bicycle shop that was co-managed by Louis “Birdie” Munger, a retired racing cyclist who had started building bicycles in Indianapolis. He recognized young Marshall’s talent. Despite being barred from cycling clubs and the unwillingness of white cyclists to compete against an African-American, Marshall did participate in July 1895 in a seventy-five mile race from Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, to Matthews in Grant County – and won.
In September that year Munger signed up his protégé to race at the Capital City Cycling Club’s track in Indianapolis (although it was whites-only event). He won over the crowd by setting new record-breaking times, but angry officials refused to acknowledge his efforts. Marshall was banned from further racing there. The taste of success however urged him to continue. Making his debut as a professional rider, he won the 1896 Six Day Bicycle Race at New York’s Madison Square Garden by clocking a record 1,732 miles on the track. He was the only African-American competitor.
Between 1896 and 1904 Major participated in races in Chicago, Connecticut, and New York. In spite of blatant and at times violent racism at the races, he would set world records at various distances between one-quarter mile and two-miles. In August 1899 he won the world championship in the one-mile race in Montreal, becoming the second African-American to win a sporting world championship (bantamweight boxer George Dixon had been the first in 1887).
Marshall’s talent was widely acknowledged in September 1900 when he won the American national championship in front of a crowd numbering more than 10,000 people. The press praised him as the “Black Cyclone,” but there was a cloud hanging over his career as he was denied opportunities to compete. White pros refused to race against an “intruder” which made it impossible for Taylor to complete the full round of the championship season.
European promoters in the meantime had been keen to offer Marshall a lucrative contract. In 1901, he crossed the Atlantic to take part in events that on several occasions had to be rescheduled for his sake. As a committed Baptist he refused to race on Sundays. In spite of that, between 1901 and 1904 Marshall defeated the best cyclists not just in Europe, but also in Australia and New Zealand, winning most of the races that he participated in, proving his reputation as a world-beater.
Parc des Princes
On June 4, 1972 President Georges Pompidou opened the Parc des Princes stadium with its innovative ring-shaped roof providing Paris with a state of the art venue for international rugby and soccer matches. The stadium replaced the velodrome of the same name that had stood in its place since July 1897 under directorship of former racing cyclist Henri Desgrange.
Nicknamed the “Father of French Cycling,” HD was also editor of the sports journal L’Auto (later: L’Équipe) which in 1903 initiated the Tour de France, to this day the world’s most spectacular cycling event. Every year until its destruction in 1967, a wild crowd at the Parc des Princes would welcome the arrival of those brave cyclists who had completed the brutal Big Loop (“La Grande Boucle”).
One of the highlights at the velodrome took place on May 16, 1901, when the reigning French sprint champion Edmond Jacquelin took on the American title-holder Marshall “Major” Taylor. Jacquelin had been absent when Marshall was hailed World Champion in Montreal (1899) and Taylor did not take part when Edmond was crowned World Champion in Paris (1900). It added spice to an eagerly anticipated encounter in which the two stars went head-to-head across the best of three heats.
The press had whipped up excitement, describing the event as an unofficial World Championship battle, featuring the master of Old Europe versus the star of the New World, a race in which a white Frenchman challenged a black American. The stands at the Parc des Princes were packed to capacity with some 20,000 spectators waiting in suspense. The duel turned out to be a disappointment. Jacquelin beat Taylor by two heats to nil, winning by a wheel in the first round and two lengths in the second. A re-match took place on May 27 with the Cyclone storming back to thump his opponent.
The sprinting head-to-head would become one of those sporting events that lived on in the public imagination. Endless pages of post-race analysis filled the cycling papers. Had the conditions changed? Had Taylor prepared himself better than his opponent? Was it all a sham in an attempt to set up a lucrative third and decisive meeting? To this day, sporting historians argue about the significance of a controversial encounter that in the end was never settled.
Modernism
Modern literature traveled on a bike. Alfred Jarry’s final novel Le Surmâle, roman moderne (1902) features a race between a train and a team of cyclists. The story concentrates on the exploits of a “super male” who is capable of prodigious muscular feats of endurance. Samuel Beckett’s works overflow with references to bicycles, including the extended “Dear bicycle” monologue in Molloy.
Early on Easter Sunday, 1897, a group of racing cyclists set out from Paris to Roubaix, an industrial town on the Belgian border. The 175 mile route ran along tracks of cobble stones that rattled the handlebars so badly it gave the riders nosebleeds (the contest was later dubbed “Hell of the North”).
One of the amateur participants was Maurice de Vlaminck, co-founder of the Fauvist movement. Although he did not finish the grueling race, cycling to him was an integral part of the creative process. Pedaling through the countryside of the Île-de-France he became “intoxicated with the light” that is such a vital part of his painting.
Within the context of European modernism, the bike figures strongly in art and design. Artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec (a great cycling fan) and Alphonse Mucha designed posters for bicycle manufacturers. Paul Signac’s pointillist painting Le Vélodrome dates from 1899. In 1908, Aristide Maillol was commissioned by Harry, Graf (Count) von Kessler, a great promotor of modernist art, to sculpt a statue of his young lover Gaston Colin. The bronze became known as “Le coureur cycliste,” the first known statue of a racing cyclist.
For artists of the Futurist movement the bicycle with its speed and turbine-like wheels was the embodiment of the machine age they exalted. Italian artistic interest in cycling goes back to Umberto Boccioni’s 1912/3 painting Dinamismo di un ciclista that demonstrated his preoccupation with the depiction of movement.
Natalia Goncharova and her partner Mikhail Larionov stood in the vanguard of modernist Russian painting. In March/April 1912, they organized the ground-breaking Donkey’s Tail exhibition in Moscow where Natalia exhibited her painting The cyclist (1913) in which the influence of Futurism is evident. In the two years preceding the First Word War, cycling had become a recurrent theme in art.
Feininger’s Cyclist
Major Taylor’s first bike race in Europe was held in April 1901at Berlin’s Friedenau velodrome. At that time, there was an American free-lance artist living and working in the city.
Lyonel Feininger was born Léonell Feininger on July 17, 1871, in New York, to the German-American composer Karl Feininger and his American wife. In 1887 he travelled to Germany to pursue a career in music, but decided instead to study drawing at Hamburg’s Kunstgewerbeschule. In 1888 he moved to Berlin where for four years he attended the Akademie der Künste and worked as a caricaturist for various American and German newspapers and sports magazines.
His output included a number of cycling-related cartoons. Cycling was his passion, riding the latest racing bikes available, though for his own pleasure rather than competitively. Feininger would not have missed Major’s appearance on the Friedenau track. In 1906/7 the artist was in Paris, mixed in avant-garde circles, and made the most of this cultural experience. There too Lyonel witnessed the intense excitement created by the presence of Major Taylor who set two new world records whilst racing in the capital. What is the relevance of all this?
In 1912 Feininger created his painting “Das Radrennen” (The Bicycle Race) which he submitted to Berlin’s First German Autumn Salon (Herbstsalon). Organized in 1913 by Herwarth Walden at his modernist Sturm Gallery, this was one of the first major Expressionist exhibitions that took place in Germany. Of all the works of art dedicated to bicycle racing at the time, Feininger’s image is unique in that it incorporates a black coureur.
Created two years after Taylor’s retirement in 1910, it may well be that at the time of creation the artist had the prestigious career of his compatriot in mind. Was it a belated tribute to the Black Cyclone?
At the peak of his career, Marshall “Major” Taylor was the fastest man on two wheels. Unfortunately, he did not leave a legacy. Racing remained and Illustrations: Annie Cohen Kopchovsky with her Londonderry-sponsored bike; Marshall “Major” Taylor (Smithsonian National Museum of American History); Postcard from May 1901 showing Major Taylor versus Edmond Jacquelin at Parc des Princes, Paris; Paul Signac, Le Vélodrome, 1899 (Private collection); Natalia Goncharova, The Cyclist, 1913 (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg); Lyonel Feininger, “Das Radrennen” (The Bicycle Race), 1912 (National Gallery of Art, Washington).still is an unbearably “white” sport. Cycling badly needs another Major.
Illustrations: Annie Cohen Kopchovsky with her Londonderry-spon
JUST PUBLISHED
CONTEMPORARY ART UNDERGROUND
Contemporary Art Underground presents more than 100 permanent projects completed between 2015 and 2023 by MTA Arts & Design. This ground-breaking program of site-specific projects by a broad spectrum of well-known and emerging contemporary artists has helped to create a sense of character and place at subway and commuter rail stations throughout the MTA system. Among the featured artists are Yayoi Kusama, Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Ann Hamilton, Xenobia Bailey, Jim Hodges, Alex Katz, Sarah Sze, and Vik Muniz.
Of special interest is the discussion of fabricating and transposing the artist’s rendering or model into mosaic, glass, or metal, the materials that can survive in the transit environment. This is the definitive survey of the latest works of the internationally acclaimed MTA Arts & Design collection. On view 24 hours a day, the collection is seen by more than four million subway riders and commuters daily and has been hailed as ‘New York’s Underground Art Museum.’ The collection enlivens stations in all boroughs, with a myriad works by major contemporary artists executed in mosaic, glass, metal, and ceramic.
Brooklyn is a historic place, but a special history-making event took place on April 5, of 1913: Opening Day at Ebbets Field.
By the end of the 19th century, baseball had become a very popular sport in New York State as well as elsewhere in the nation. There were organized amateur or semi-professional teams in just about every New York city. Thousands of people attended games. Big cities had professional teams.
The New York Giants traced their origins to 1883, the Yankees to 1903. Brooklyn, an independent city until it merged with the city of New York in 1898, had its own team, organized in 1883, which had gone by various names, and in the early 20th century was called the Superbas.
Charles Ebbets, team owner, believed that an outstanding team deserved an exceptional field. In 1913, he opened Ebbets Field, at the time one of the most modern and largest in the nation.
It was the pride of Brooklyn. The Superbas debuted in their new home on April 5, 1913, beating their cross-town rivals, the Yankees, in an exhibition game before a cheering crowd of about 30,000 people.
The Superbas soon changed their name to the Dodgers, which became one of the most famous teams in history. The Dodgers were beloved in Brooklyn but also a source of pride in the rest of the city. Ebbets Field was one of the best-known baseball venues in the nation.
The spacious new stadium was filled to capacity for home games for many years. But interest began to wane and attendance fell off in the 1950s. The Dodgers left Brooklyn and moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and Ebbets Field was torn down two years later to make way for apartments.
Here is how Opening Day was reported in the New York Tribune on April 6, 1913:
“Ebbets Field is the last word in the way of a baseball park. Charles H. Ebbets, owner and president of the Brooklyn club, has spared neither money nor constant care to add to the comfort and convenience of the ‘fans’ and players. Nothing has been overlooked. From the grandstand to playing field, every modern improvement has been made and the home of the Brooklyn Superbas who, according to one of their most ardent rooters, “are first in well-wishers, first in enthusiasm, and only seventh in the National League pennant race,” stands out as the most complete field in the country today.
“Erected at a cost of $750,000, the park includes everything that could be thought out by the fertile mind of a master in baseball. The grandstand is the pride of Mr. Ebbets and he has good reason to be proud, as he practically designed it himself. The entrance to the stand is more like that of some vast theater than of a ballpark and the ‘fans’ have never seen anything like it. The main gate is located at the corner of Cedar Place and Sullivan Street, named after General Sullivan of Revolutionary War fame.
“The lobby of the entrance is more than eighty feet in diameter and is resplendent with its marble and glazed brick walls, its glass plate windows in the ticket booths and brass railings. There are a dozen ticket windows placed about the rotunda, and enormous crowd can be handled with little trouble. Since all stairs have been done away with, and inclined runways installed in place, the ‘fans’ will have no trouble in finding their seats quickly.
“The holders of unreserved seats will enter through the stile, which will be marked, and, ascending the short incline, will come out in the center of the stand, from which they make take the best seats procurable. The holders of box seats and seats in the reserve section will proceed through the proper stile under and through the front of the stand and to their proper seats.
“There will be no unnecessary intermingling of the fans. Those who old tickets on the upper tiers will ascend the runways at the rear of the stands and so up to their seats. The bleacherites [sic] will find ticket booths at convenient points. Only one point is lacking to add to the comfort of all. There is not a single knothole in the whole blooming fence for what with the great still girders and solid concrete, the small boy will have to draw his own conclusions from the volume of noise that will arise from the inner battlements.
“The park is centrally located and easy of access to all. For the benefit of the New York “fans” who will make the trip, be it noted that the fastest and shortest way of reaching the park is by taking the Brighton Beach ‘L’ train to Consumers’ Park station and walking across the block to Cedar Place, arriving right at the entrance to the rotunda.
“The admissions rates will be as follows: general admission, 75 cents; reserved seats (lower tier) first nine rows, first nine rows on Saturdays and holidays (four rows on other days), $1; box seats, $ 1.50; exchange rates from upper to lower tier, 25 cents. Upper tier admission $1, box seats $1.50. Pavilion general admission 50 cents, north end pavilion 25 cents….
“Among the conveniences which may be found at the new park are a ladies’ suite, which is located on the lower tier of the main grandstand, consisting of a parlor, private retiring room with maid, telephone and writing desk; a checkroom where all articles may be checked free of charge, incoming telephone messages received and umbrellas loaned at the nominal charge of 10 cents.
“Brooklyn owes the fact that she can boast of the finest ball park in the country to Charles H. Ebbets, after whom the park is named. [After construction delays] now all is ready and Brooklyn has one of the most magnificent monuments to the great national game.”
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Frederick Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt From Ed Litcher
This heroic-sized bronze bust by Gustaf Blaeser (1813–1874) depicts German scientist, explorer, and naturalist Frederick Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859). Humboldt made an expedition into Central and South America in 1799, exploring the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers and portions of the Andes to learn more about meteorology and plant life. His later expedition to Siberia in 1829 furthered his study of ocean currents and magnetism. Gustav Blaeser knew Humboldt and used his death mask as a reference as he sculpted the bust. In 1981 it was moved to its current location at Explorer’s Gate on Central Park West and 77th Street, across from the Museum of Natural History.
Joyce Gold also got it right
Eid-al-Fitr Visitors
A couple visiting the kiosk celebrating the end of Ramadan. Welcome to Roosevelt Island !
Gloria takes on the garden
Gloria Herman groomed our garden for it’s springtime cleanup including tackling the ivy and other invasive weeks with the magic weed puller!
CREDITS
Photos, from above: Ebbets Field in ca. 1913; and in 1956. JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
The walls are decorated with whimsical murals painted by the creator of the Madeline franchise.
IN A BAR IN MANHATTAN that is covered in art, lives the last public place Ludwig Bemelmans’ whimsy plays a big part.
The story of the feisty literary heroine Madeline begins in Paris, but the girl with the red hair and big yellow hat travels all around the world in the books written and illustrated by Ludwig Bemelmans. Much like his most famous character, Bemelmans’ life began in Europe, in the Austrian Tirol, but he emigrated to the United States when he was nearly 20 years old. After working in the hotel industry and serving in the army, he began writing and illustrating books for children. He found huge success with his Madeline series, the first book of which came out in 1939.
He went on to write five books about the spunky seven-year-old and her adventures, and also produced popular artwork for publications like The New Yorker and Vogue. In the 1940s, Bemelmans took on a commission that combined two of his passions: hotels and painting. He was contracted to decorate the new bar that was built in The Carlyle, a luxury hotel in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
For this, he was paid not in cash, but received free board for himself and his family for a year and a half, the duration it took for the wall murals to be completed.
The dull yellow of the walls is enlivened by elephants, rabbits, and other animals frolicking around Central Park, all painted in Bemelmans’ trademark style. Madeline and her friends can also be spotted, alongside other typical park scenes like dogs sprinting with their owners and nurses taking babies for a stroll. The simplicity of the wall art is contrasted by the more luxurious Art Deco interiors of the bar. The ceilings are coated in gold leaf and leather banquettes line the walls, placed near glass-top tables.
The whimsical artwork adds to the New York City piano bar’s quiet appeal and it is the only remaining place where Bemelmans’ work that is open to the public. It’s all there is, and there isn’t anymore.
Know Before You Go
Located in the Carlyle Hotel.
A cover charged is applied to individuals and tables when the jazz band is playing in the evenings, usually after 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday $25 per table and $15 for an individual. Friday and Saturday $35 per table and $15 for individuals. The bar opens at noon and serves food after 5 p.m. (These prices are subject to change)
I was sitting in Madison Square Park today at lunchtime and it turns out I was sharing the table with a young architect. We chatted about all things including Roosevelt Island (which he thinks is a great place).
He asked me to look at the Metropolitan Insurance North Building, not the glorious south building. I had never noticed before, but the north building has a base the size of the Empire Ste but ends about 20 plus floors high. There had to be a story here.
The North Building was built in three stages on the site of the second Madison Square Presbyterian Church. Construction started in 1929, just before the onset of the Great Depression. Originally planned to be 100 stories, the North Building was never completed as originally planned due to funding problems following the Depression. The current design was constructed in three stages through 1950. As part of the Metropolitan Life Home Office Complex, the North Building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 19, 1996.[1]
The original Madison Square Presbyterian Church, designed by Richard M. Upjohn in the Gothic Revival architectural style, was located on Madison Square Park at the southeast corner of East 24th Street and Madison Avenue, and was completed in 1854.[2] The building was acquired by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and razed to make way for the 50-story Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower,[3] which was briefly the world’s tallest building.[4] In exchange, the church received a 75-by-150-foot (23 by 46 m) plot of land on the north side of 24th Street that became the site for Stanford White’s 1906 building for the Madison Square Presbyterian Church,[5] sometimes called the “Parkhurst Church” after Reverend Charles Henry Parkhurst.[6]
A plot on the north side of 24th Street, measuring 75 by 100 feet (23 by 30 m), was developed in 1903 as the first Metropolitan Annex, a 16-story printing plant building faced in Tuckahoe marble. The annex was designed by LeBrun,[7] and it was connected to the main building by a tunnel.[8] White’s building was demolished in 1919 to make way for an expansion of that annex. The structure was to be 18 stories tall with six elevators, and would incorporate the existing annex, which would be 75 by 225 feet (23 by 69 m). The ground story of the new annex would contain an auditorium with 1,100-seats, and the 12th story would include a lunchroom and a sky bridge to the 11th story of the home office building across 24th Street.[9] This annex was designed by D. Everett Waid and completed in 1921.[7]
Construction The North Building was designed in the 1920s by Harvey Wiley Corbett and D. Everett Waid and built in three stages.[10] Metropolitan Life had acquired the lot bounded by Madison Avenue, 24th Street, Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South), and 25th Street in September 1929.[11] Preliminary plans, submitted that October, proposed a 35-story building that would serve as a new “home office”, supplanting the old “home office” in the Metropolitan Life Tower directly to the south.[12] The final design for the new building, presented in November 1929, called for a 100-story tower with several setbacks, which would have been the tallest building in the world.[4][13] The structure would accommodate 30,000 daily visitors when completed, and would have escalators connecting the lowest 13 stories.[13]
Following the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression, Corbett and Waid resubmitted plans for the building in November 1930. The new plans called for a 28-story brick, granite, and limestone structure. Starrett Brothers & Eken were selected as contractors the following month.[14] Initially, only the eastern half of the block was developed; that structure was finished in 1932.[15] Upon the first stage’s completion, Corbett said, “it is a highly specialized building designed primarily as a machine to do as efficiently as possible the particular headquarters’ work of our largest insurance company”.[16] The new structure contained 22 acres (8.9 ha) of new office space.[15][16] The original 16-story Metropolitan Life annex, at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 24th Street, remained in place.[17]
In 1937, four buildings on Madison Avenue between 24th and 25th Street, ranging in height from 12 to 20 stories, were demolished to make way for the second phase of construction: the northwestern portion of the 28-story structure.[17] In 1938, the company filed plans to build the western half of the 28-story building at a cost of $10 million. The western wall of the existing structure would be demolished so the two sections would be integrated into a single building.[18] The second phase was finished in 1940 and contained 32 stories: 28 above-ground and four basement levels, the same as in the first phase.[19]
LeBrun’s and Waid’s northern annexes were demolished in 1946 to make way for the third and final stage of the North Building. Waid and Corbett prepared the third phase along with Arthur O. Angilly. The design was similar to that of the first and second phases, but in smaller scale. Construction was completed in 1950.[7] There were no plans to build the extra stories, even though the building plan would have allowed for such an expansion, because Metropolitan Life no longer required the extra space.[20]
Later years In 1985, Metropolitan Life vacated the clock tower and moved all remaining operations to the north building and the east wing of the south building.[21] From 1994 to 1997, the building’s interior was demolished and rebuilt by Haines Lundberg Waehler and the exterior was renovated at a cost of $300 million. The renovation entailed reducing the size of the building’s core to provide additional office space. The North Building had been considered obsolete for the uses of Metropolitan Life (now MetLife), which had moved most of its employees to the MetLife Building in Midtown Manhattan. Credit Suisse First Boston, a subsidiary of Credit Suisse, then leased 1.5 million square feet (140,000 m2) within the building, an agreement that was later expanded to 1.6 million square feet (150,000 m2). Other space was taken up by Alexander & Alexander Services, Emanuel/Emanuel Ungaro, Wells Rich Greene and the Gould Paper Corporation.[20]’
Digital rendering In January 2022, ArchDaily published a digital rendering of what the building would have looked like if it had been constructed as planned to 100 stories and not truncated at 25 stories. Cortesía de 90Grados Arquitectura-Renderings assembled all the available data and graphic information about the building’s intended design. The original plans were not extant, but sketches and photographs of a model were available. Where there were gaps in the information, they extrapolated from other designs by Corbett, in particular his work on Rockefeller Center. They then used various rendering programs to create the finished images of the building.[22]
Architecture The building, which has 2.2 million square feet (200,000 m2) of interior space, was constructed in three stages. The building’s bulk is mitigated by numerous setbacks[10] and its polygonal shape.[23] As a result of these setbacks, mandated under the 1916 Zoning Resolution, the architects maximized the usable interior space[16] The building initially contained 30 elevators, enough to serve the originally-planned 100 floors.[10][20] In addition, because the existing building was constructed to be strong enough to support extra floors, the roof included 16 electrical generators, enough to power the building for several days.[20]
One of the entrance loggias at the corners of the building Facade The North Building is clad entirely with stone and contains numerous angled sides.[24] The building is finished on the outside with Alabama limestone and marble detailing, covering an interior steel frame.[10][25] The window frames are mostly made of bronze, except those installed during the final stage of construction, which are made of aluminum. The ground-floor windows are multi-pane windows and all others are three-over-three sash windows. Limestone grilles are located outside the second-story windows.[25] The stonework is laid in a scalloped pattern; this is the only major decorative element on the building’s exterior.[24]
The North Building features four vaulted corner entrances, which are each three stories high and composed of loggias on either side of the corner.[23][25][26] Each entrance contains a three-story-high pier with ribs, which supports a double-height loggia. The vaulted entrances contain modern-style coffers with a Moderne-style chandelier hanging from the center.[26] Pink Tennessee marble is used as a decorative element on the floors and around the doors of each loggia. The middle of the 24th Street facade contains another entrance. The 25th Street side contains numerous loading docks.[25] In addition, there are paired arched openings on Madison Avenue, which are decorated with floral-patterned stone screens.[26] Until 2020, the North and South buildings were connected by a sky bridge on the eighth floor.[27]
Interior[edit] The three-story lobby contains travertine and marble finishes.[10][25] The lobby contains a coffered ceiling with aluminum leaf in numerous colors. On the walls above the passages to each elevator lobby. there are bas-reliefs made of aluminum leaf.[25] The other corridors contain terrazzo floors, plaster ceilings with stepped moldings, and marble paneling.[28] On the upper floors, the elevators, restrooms, and stairs are located in a core at the center of each floor.[25]
Corbett and Waid described how the building had “the latest ideas in ventilation, air conditioning, sound deadening, artificial lighting, intercommunicating pneumatic tubes, telephones, call bells, unit operating clock systems [and] special elevator and escalator installations”.[16] The offices are located on the outer edges of each floor, near the windows, and are generally open plan spaces with few private rooms in order to accommodate the large numbers of workers at the company.[16][28] The offices were utilitarian, with indirect artificial lighting allowing for office space that was up to 80 feet (24 m) deep. The stepped acoustic-tile ceilings increased in 6-inch (150 mm) intervals, from their lowest height near the building’s core to their highest height near the windows, which maximized natural light while also providing space for ceiling ducts.[15][29] Another innovation for the building at the time of its construction was the inclusion of a building-wide air conditioning system.[30] The 27th floor contained an auditorium.[29]
There are four basements: the kitchen on the first basement level (just below ground), the employee dining areas on the second and third basement levels, and the mechanical spaces on the fourth basement level.[28][29] The dining areas could accommodate 8,000 diners per day.[29][19] Seven-foot-high (2.1 m) murals are mounted on the walls of the basements’ dining rooms and elevator lobbies.[28][29] These murals were painted by Edward Trumbull, D. Putnam Brinley, Nicholas L. Pavloff, N. C. Wyeth, and Griffith Bailey Coale, depicting scenes from American folk stories, North American wildlife, and New York state history. They were intended to “bring to the employees a feeling of cessation from their work through the contemplation of artistic and amusing masterpieces.”[31] The original plans were to include an entrance to the 23rd Street subway station, but the entrance was ultimately built one block south, on 23rd Street, with an entrance through the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.
The R.M.S. Titanic went to its watery grave in the Atlantic Ocean on the morning of April 15, 1912. Few cities felt the tragedy as deeply as New York City.
At the end of its maiden voyage, the luxurious ship was set to dock at the White Star Line’s Pier 59, near today’s Chelsea Piers. Instead, 706 dazed survivors picked up by the R.M.S. Carpathia disembarked a few blocks away at Pier 54—greeted by a crowd of thousands desperate for news about the iceberg that sank the ship and the whereabouts of family members.
Influential and lesser-known residents went down with the ship, including Macy’s owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, and John Jacob Astor IV (the son of Mrs. Astor, the society leader). Their absence was felt immediately in a city stunned with grief.
In response to so much tragedy, no time was wasted planning a monument to the lives lost—one that would function as not just a memorial but also as a guiding light for ships in New York Harbor.
“The Seaman’s Benefit Society has undertaken the task of collecting the funds for the erection of a permanent memorial to the men and women lost on the Titanic in the form of a lighthouse tower on the new Seaman’s Institute at the corner of Coenties Slip and South Street,” wrote the New York Times on April 23, 1912.
The lighthouse memorial, which would have a lantern gallery and a fixed green light viewable as far away as Sandy Hook, was to be topped by a time ball that dropped down a pole at noon, so seaman could set their chronometers (and Lower Manhattan dwellers could set their watches).
Though it honored everyone who went down with the ship, the memorial would be “in memory of the engineers who sent their stokers up while they went to certain death; the members of the heroic band who played while the water crept up to their instruments; and of the officers and crew who put duty above personal safety,” noted the Times.
“It will be given in memory of those in the steerage who perished without ever realizing their hopes of a new land, the America of endless possibilities.”
Putting the memorial on top of the new Seaman’s Institute was also a fitting choice. This organization, launched in 1834 as the Seaman’s Church Institute, helped take care of the thousands of sailors who came to New York City on the many vessels over the years that made shipping and trade a powerhouse of Gotham’s economy.
The cornerstone for the Institute’s new building went in the ground on the morning of the sinking of the Titanic. One year later, the completed building—featuring dormitory rooms, a bank, library, and chapel—hosted a dedication service for the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse perched on its roof.
The lighthouse, designed by Warren & Wetmore (the architects behind Grand Central Terminal) went into service that November, according to the South Street Seaport Museum.
For the next 55 years, as ship traffic decreased in New York Harbor and South Street’s fortunes turned, the Titanic memorial with its time ball stayed in service on the roof. In 1968, the Seaman’s Institute moved to a new headquarters on State Street. The top of the Titanic Memorial was given to the South Street Seaport Museum.
But it wasn’t until 1976 when the memorial lighthouse went up on a triangular corner at Pearl and Fulton Streets (now known as Titanic Memorial Park), held in place by a concrete podium. The time ball is also gone; it’s been replaced by an ornamental sphere.
Here it still stands, a memorial to a maritime disaster that hit the city hard and remains in the public imagination.
I’m not the only one who has noticed it could use some TLC. A group dedicated to restoring the monument has formed, according to a 2022 New York Times piece. But a costly restoration of a relic not many passersby notice remains uncertain.
PHOTO PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE ROOF OF THE SOUTH PORTION OF BLACKWELL HOUSE IS LOOSING SHINGLES. I AM TRYING TO RECOLLECT IF THE ROOF WAS REPLACED (OR JUST PATCHED) 3 YEARS AGO AFTER A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR RESTORATION PROJECT.. TYPICAL OF ISLAND PROJECTS THAT WERE DONE WITH SHODDY CONSTRUCTION AND CORNERS CUT. HOPEFULLY RIOC WILL REPAIR THE ROOF VERY SOON OR THE HOUSE WILL FACT MORE DAMAGE.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
The Netherlands Consulate General in New York announces FUTURE 400, a vibrant, two-year celebration of the 400 years since the Dutch arrived in New York. This event series will bring together artists and thinkers from both New York and the Netherlands for performances, talks, art exhibits, and more.
On Tulip Day, April 7th, over 200,000 tulips will take over Union Square Park, welcoming thousands to pick their own bouquet from the array. The Consul General of The Kingdom of the Netherlands in New York will present a new tulip variety to the city, called FUTURE 400. It will commemorate this year’s anniversary of the first Dutch settlement and honor another 400 years of collaboration between the nations.
A rendering of “Biosignature Preservation” on Park Avenue, a sculpture by Jorge Otero-Pailos which will be part of his forthcoming exhibition “Analogue Sites” on Park Avenue Exhibition
Jorge Otero-Pailos’ Analog Sites lines Park Ave this month with large steel pieces wrought from a fence that once surrounded the former U.S. Embassy in Oslo. The sculptures aims to raise awareness of the importance of American modern architecture and the preservation of mid-century embassies as they stand amongst Park Avenue’s mid-century modernist landmarks and the Park Avenue Armory. Originally placed in Oslo, the series will be on display until October 2024.
The iconic Tiffany & Co. flagship store unveiled an art exhibition in partnership with renowned architect Peter Marino, who led the transformation of the iconic store’s interior. TItled Culture of Creativity, the exhibition is a testament to Tiffany & Co.’s long-standing connection with the art world. It features nearly 70 works of art from the Peter Marino Art Foundation by artists like Louis Comfort Tiffany, Damien Hirst, Rashid Johnson, and Peter Marino himself. Also on view is a beautiful range of 19th-century pieces from Marino’s personal collection of Tiffany silver. The exhibit runs through May 20th at the Tiffany & Co. flagship store on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street called The Landmark. Complimentary tickets can be reserved through the Tiffany website.
The world-famous American Museum of Natural unveils a new exhibit on April 2nd, Grounded by Our Roots. The exhibition features gorgeous works by five up-and-coming Indigenous artists. These thirteen pieces, including paintings, prints, clothing, and sculptures, showcase modern Indigenous art inspired by the beautiful visual traditions of the Northwest Coast.
Artists include Hawilkwalał Rebecca Baker-Grenier, a fashion designer who debuted her first collection at New York Fashion Week in 2022, as well as Alison Bremner Naxhshagheit, an artist of many media who explores the present-day Tlingit experience. The exhibition will be on view in the Contemporary Art Gallery in the Museum’s Northwest Coast Hall, and is included with all admission.
Rendering Courtesy of LeMonde Studio
Baseball season is back! Fans of this iconic New York sport are called to Lou Gehrig Plaza for the launch of Home Run, a new installation by LeMonde Studio in partnership with the 161st Street Business Improvement District and the Québec Government Office in New York. The unvileing of the sculpture, which depicts a giant baseball bat and ball, will take place on the Yankees’ first home game of the season on April 5th!
Preparatory sketch of Rose B. Simpson’s site-specific commission for Madison Square Park Conservancy,Seed Courtesy of the artist and Madison Square Park Conservancy
As a part of the milestone twentieth anniversary of Madison Square Park Conservancy’s art program, Rose B. Simpson will unveil her new public art exhibition, Seed. This outdoor exhibition features nine towering sculptures in both Madison Square Park and Inwood Hill Park. Set in bronze and steel will be figures depicted in gatherings on the grounds of the parks.
The pieces draw from Simpson’s own background as well as the history of Manhattan Island. Simpson illuminates the notions of interconnectedness and our natural relationship with the ground we walk on. Seed is on view from April 11th through September 22nd.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
WONDERFUL STUDENT DESIGNS IN THE WINDOWS OF F.I.T. AT SEVENTH AVENUE AND 27TH STREET
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
The Memorial Scrolls Trust is pleased to announce a scroll gathering in New York City to celebrate MST’s 60th anniversary on Sunday afternoon April 7, 2024, 3pm at Temple Emanu-El of New York. The planning committee has been hard at work to create an afternoon that will be an everlasting memory for all participants. MST Scrolls from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other states are being invited for a reunion of these scroll survivors. The last time we held a gathering here in 2019, we had 75 scrolls and 800 people. We hope that you will join in. It will be a remarkable event.
This group of 1,564 scrolls which were collected by the Jewish Community in Prague during the Nazi occupation represents the vibrant cultural and religious life of Czech Jewry that once existed. These sacred objects survived when 85% of Czech Jews were murdered in the Shoah. After being collected, stored, moved and eventually sent to London, these scrolls are the tangible links from past generations to today. Help us honor the Jews killed in the Holocaust and celebrate the continuity of Jewish life today.
Program: The program will be held at Temple Emanu-El, 1 E.65th Street (at Fifth Avenue) in NYC. Please enter on 66th street. Our speakers will include Mr. Jeffrey Ohrenstein, Chairman and Trustee of MST, and Ms. Lois Roman, Trustee of MST. There will be a parade of the scrolls, music and other festivities. The program will be appropriate for all ages, from children to seniors.
Registration:
All attendees MUST pre register. Tickets are free.
IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON ATTENDING JOIN THE MEMBERS OF THE RIJC AND CONTACT JUDITH BERDY TO TELL US YOU ARE ATTENDING …. JBIRD134@AOL.COM
Come together for this commemorative service for the Czech scrolls from the Memorial Scrolls Trust (MST) that are being cared for in the New York metropolitan area. Dozens of scrolls and their caregivers will assemble for a program filled with music and reflection. Guest speakers will include MST chairman Jeffrey Ohrenstein and trustee Lois Roman. In addition, we will hear from Miles Laddie, author of 1564 Scrolls.
Please enter using the West 66th Street entrance to Temple Emanu-El. Pre-registration is required.
WEDNESDAY PHOTOS
RIOC’S TIKKET SYSTEM WORKS THESE ARE THE SMALL REPAIRS THAT MAKE LIFE BETTER ON THE ISLAND TRANSFORMER BOX FOUND OPEN ON WEST PROMENADE, ON SUNDAY REPAIRED ON MONDAY
STREET LIGHT OUT OPPOSITE SUBWAY REPAIRED THE NEXT DAY
ADDITIONAL GRAB BAR ADDED IN LADIES ROOM CULTURAL CENTER.
I arrived at our station this morning to find a dust condition in the station. Apparently our station was thorough cleaned over the weekend. When the first trains came through the tunnel at 5 a.m. they brought cement dust that was in the tunnel between 63/Lex station and Roosevelt Island.
The MTA staff was apologetic and promised a thorough cleaning again this week.
I arrived at the Queensbridge station at 8 a.m. for the ceremonial reopening of the F train service. Lots of press coverage and MTA press staff (only positive comments). Richard Davey, NY Transit President gave a brief speech and chatted with the media.
They aides eventually gathered the staff and guest and headed to the train. The F train arrived, full of passengers and a mob of press crowded into the car for the 3minute ride to the Island.
Up the escalator to be greeted by Gerald Ellis, Mary Cuneen, Bryrant Daniel, Paul Krickler and TOUCHDOWN the Cornell mascot bear.
TOUCHDOWN was the star of the station.
Lots of smile and photos.
Time for me to descend back downstairs for an appointment in Manhattan.
Judy Berdy
What a welcome sight
Press briefing describing work completed with Jaime Torres Springer and Richard Davey.
How many film crews can you fit onto an escalator?
Greg Morrisett and Touchdown from Cornell welcome the VIP’s.
Richard Davey admiring the “Double Take” mosaic wall by DIana Cooper, a project of MTA & DESIGN
Maybe TOUCHDOWN can get an orange vest and greet rider more often.
MONDAYPHOTO OF THE DAY
The Workhouse, located where 10 River Road now stands.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
This beautiful kitty was our favorite kiosk visitor on Sunday
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
