The village of Red Hook (Roode Hoek = Red Corner) was established by Dutch colonists in 1636 and named after the locality’s red clay soil. Two decades later its community became part of Brooklyn.
During the 1650s, settlers brought over ovens from the Low Countries to supply fellow colonists with household vessels. Manhattan’s production of red earthenware is thought to have begun with Dirck Claesen, a potter based in the New Amsterdam settlement.
Born in Leeuwarden, Friesland, he had arrived in New Netherland in 1653. As early products resembled objects produced at home, it is difficult to differentiate between local products and imports.
The expansion of the city of New York after the Revolution boosted the need for household earthenware and helped sustain local potters. Their numbers increased once mass migration from Europe was set in motion. Amongst the newcomers were many English potters who settled in Brooklyn and revitalized the industry.
The Six Towns
The “Potteries” is a collective name for six towns in Staffordshire (Stoke-on-Trent, Longton, Fenton, Hanley, Burslem and Tunstall) where during the Industrial Revolution the ceramic industry boomed. The availability of clay, coal and clean water from the River Trent meant that manufacturers had ready access to vital resources.
In 1770, Josiah Spode was the first Staffordshire potter to develop a viable method of manufacturing blue and white ceramics. His son Josiah II worked out the formula for bone china. Having opened a showroom in London in 1778, porcelain became popular amongst the city’s wealthy elite.
Although preceded by Josiah Wedgwood, Spode’s enterprise set a standard that was followed by the likes of Minton, Copeland and Ridgeway. Railway expansion in the 1840s increased distribution and soon there were over two hundred “potbanks” in operation, employing some 50,000 people.
With growing demand at home and abroad, manufacturers built larger ovens with little consideration for their workers. Factories were divided into workshops where skilled laborers were paid on “piece-rates,” their earnings depending on the number of pots produced. Child labor was common.
The kilns created a permanent haze of black smoke and turned the six towns into a polluted wasteland. Poor conditions caused ill health. Silicosis or “potter’s rot” was a common disease.
By 1824, potters had gained the right to organize into unions and negotiate conditions of employment. Forward steps were made, but by the mid-1830s the relationship between employers and workers worsened.
In 1836 the National Union of Operative Potters called out a strike that lasted for twenty weeks until starvation forced members to return to work. The walkout was followed by a recession in the early 1840s. Unemployment rose sharply and factory owners invested in machinery to reduce the wage bill. Skilled workers competed with each other for a diminishing number of jobs at low wages.
In 1843 a new union of potters was founded which, instead of confrontation, suggested a scheme to reduce surplus labor and improve the bargaining position of remaining workers.
The union supported emigration to the colonies. In April 1845 a polemical poem entitled “The Pioneers Song” appeared in the weekly newspaper The Potters’ Examiner, published in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, calling for English potters to forsake the tyranny of their employers and move to America.
The final verse reads:
But away with the pain – we shall see them again! We are only preparing a way for the rest: Then blow! Breezes blow! As onward we go- The Potters shall yet have a home in the West!
Ceramics may not have figured on a priority list of crafts in America at the time, but urbanization and the push westward had increased consumer demand. The discovery of raw material deposits opened up the potential of a viable industry. The 1840s saw a sustained period of potter migration from the Potteries to the United States.
Beauties of America
Prior to the Revolutionary War, colonists imported mass produced earthenware from English potteries. In spite of trade interruptions the pattern was continued after independence. Entrepreneurs at Staffordshire factories promoted patterns that would appeal to American patriots. White items of pottery were decorated with transfer-printed scenes of New York and other cities, portraits of the Founding Fathers and coats of arms from the new states.
In September 1822, Hanley potter John Ridgway sailed to Boston, Massachusetts, where he began a two-month tour in order to procure American prints and views and establish relationships with local ceramic merchants. On his return he began the process of creating his “Beauties of America” dinner service by transferring twenty-two views and landscapes onto plates, dishes, gravy boats, etc.
Burslem-born Andrew Stevenson ran the Cobridge Pottery in Stoke-on-Trent. An enterprising character he set out to seek a market niche in New York City. In January 1823, he sailed on the packet ship James Cropper from Liverpool with a consignment of earthenware. Later that year, Spooner’s Brooklyn Village Directory listed Stevenson as a “China & earthenware Manufacturer / Address Mansion House, Brooklyn Heights / Store 58, Broadway, New York.”
The business did not last long. In November 1823, the New York Gazette and General Advertiser supplied details of a sale at the above address of an assortment of china, earthenware and glass. From Brooklyn Heights Stevenson had enjoyed a view of the city which, on his return to Cobridge, served as inspiration for printed patterns on plates and dishes – New York in Staffordshire blue.
Greenpoint
Located at Brooklyn’s northernmost point, Greenpoint was an industrial site that would become associated with shipbuilding, but the first firms here were practitioners of the so-called “five black arts.” Glass and pottery makers, printers, refiners and cast-iron producers were so named because of the toxic fumes they produced. Smokestacks were a feature of Brooklyn’s skyline.
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, there were at least a dozen potteries operating here. Many of the entrepreneurs and workers were English-born. This was a case of chain migration, the socio-economic process by which migrants from a particular place follow others from that area to a specific destination. Greenpoint was turned into Little Staffordshire.
Although modellers brought along popular English styles and motifs (such as Toby jugs), they quickly incorporated local flowers, trees, fish and animals in their pottery designs. Niagara Falls inspired waterfall scenes. In addition to utilitarian pieces, they began to produce “Fancy” ceramic pieces in a variety of styles, glazes and materials.
In 1848, a migrant by the name of Charles Cartlidge set up a works in Freeman Street. Born in 1800 into a Burselm family of potters, he manufactured tea sets, pitchers, bowls, door knobs, buttons, cane heads, inkstands and cameos. His brother-in-law Josiah Jones modeled “busts of celebrated Americans” in what the firm always described as bisque (white unglazed) porcelain.
Cartlidge engaged talented painters to decorate the firm’s products. One of these artists was Elijah Tatler who had served an apprenticeship at Minton in Staffordshire. After Cartlidge closed the factory in 1855, he would establish his a decorating business in Trenton, New Jersey.
In 1853 Longton-born William Young, also a former employee at Cartlidge, settled in Trenton producing decorative hardware and household crockery. During the 1860s, several potteries were ranged along the Delaware and Raritan Canal.
Two years after closure of Cartlidge’s pioneering firm, German-born William Boch founded a pottery in Greenpoint. He produced Rococo-style pitchers as well as household ceramics and ornamental figures. Boch displayed his wares at Manhattan’s spectacular Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1853. But, as with Cartlidge, the firm ran into financial difficulties and passed into the care of a stock company. At the outbreak of the Civil War, a new owner took over.
Patriotic Pottery
Thomas Carll Smith had started his career in New York as a builder. A wealthy man at a young age, he had funds to invest. Although without experience in pottery and in spite of the high rate of failure in the trade, Smith decided to proceed.
In 1863, suffering from ill health, he traveled to Europe to recuperate and embraced the opportunity to visit the French porcelain factory of Sevres and some potteries in Staffordshire. He engrossed himself in the minute details of porcelain making.
On his return he renovated the factory which he named the Union Porcelain Works (UPW) and invested in the plant’s modernization. He acquired a quarry in Brachville, Connecticut, to secure the supply quartz and feldspar. Located at 300 Eckford Street, UPW became the main manufacturer of porcelain tile, door knobs and fireplace ceramics, a position it held well into the 1920s when the factory was finally closed.
But Smith had bigger dreams. His ambition was to compete with the quality china of Limoges or Meissen. Unwilling to copy European motifs, he resolved to use only original designs and create typical American patterns.
In 1874 he offered a job to sculptor Karl Müller to design wares for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Born in Germany about 1820 and trained in Paris, Müller had moved to the city of New York in the aftermath of the 1848 political unrest. Smith admired his work.
Müller’s designs at the Exhibition attracted keen interest. His most notable contribution was a pair of large Century Vases, each covered with a profusion of historical and patriotic scenes. Bison heads serve as handles; a portrait of George Washington embellishes each side; and six biscuit-relief panels around the base depict historical events.
By producing uniquely themed china, UPW shaped a stylistic tradition that set the tone for future developments. The 1876 Centennial spurred on a vogue of collecting Americana. People sought out items memorizing the early years of the Republic, from furniture and silver to ceramics with patriotic themes.
Pioneering Pottery
Decorators were elite artisans in porcelain manufacturing as the work required both artistic talent and the skill to paint with enamels. Born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Edward Lycett was apprenticed aged twelve at Copeland & Garrett, the former Spode manufactory in Stoke-on-Trent.
In 1852, he joined Thomas Battam’s renowned decorating firm in London. He created classical figures and cameo medallions as well as flowers, birds and fish in a palette that was characteristic of the finest china painting in England.
Lycett was one of many Staffordshire craftsmen who made his way to New York in search of new challenges and better prospects. He settled in Greenpoint in 1861 where he worked to order, sometimes alone and on other occasions in partnership, decorating a range of wares in a variety of styles, from ornate dinner services to bar pitchers, building a growing name for himself. In 1866 he was commissioned by President Andrew Johnson to paint a china set for use in the White House. His reputation rocketed.
In 1884, eager to experiment with the aesthetics of design, he accepted an invitation by Bernard Veit, part owner of the Faience Manufacturing Company, to take up the role of Art Director. French faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and Limoges wares had been fashionable ever since the Centennial Exposition.
It inspired the name of the company and served as models for wares produced at the Brooklyn factory and sold at Veit & Nelson’s showrooms in Lower Manhattan. But the public’s taste was changing, becoming more focused on Royal Worcester or Crown Derby porcelain. Lycett was appointed to facilitate the change towards the creation of art pottery.
Within two years of his arrival, he transformed the Faience Manufacturing Company’s artistic agenda. Edward specialized in large bulbous vases and ewers decorated with an eclectic mix of Japanese and Islamic influences that reflected the “cult of beauty” associated with the Aesthetic Movement.
Imposing size and complex in decoration, his designs of the 1880s exhibited an American inspiration that distinguished them from those by European art potteries. They were sold in elite art emporiums, including Tiffany & Company. He set a new standard of excellence in ceramics.
The high cost of producing labor-intensive art ceramics for a relatively small market was not sustainable. In 1890, the Faience Manufacturing Company ceased production. Lycett retired, but his legacy endured.
In 1895 historian Edwin Atlee Barber (author of Marks of American Potters in 1904) described him as “The Pioneer of China Painting in America” and the label stuck. He stood out as a gifted craftsman in Brooklyn’s Little Staffordshire community.
2006 BRAND NEW BUS #3 Judith Berdy
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Illustrations, from above: A detail from Andrew Stevenson’s platter “New York from Heights near Brooklyn,” a Staffordshire blue roast dish from ca. 1825 (Brooklyn Museum); Middleport in the Potteries, Staffordshire, from above; 20th century workers in the casting room Middleport pottery, England; Andrew Stevenson’s plate showing the 1816 Alms House in New York City on the banks of the East River; the Cartlidge Porcelain Works at Greenpoint, “drawn from memory by Mr. C.W. A. Cartlidge”; a William Boch pitcher decorated by F.K.M. Kropp, 1850s (Brooklyn Museum); a Karl Müller vase, ca. 1876 (Brooklyn Museum); and a Edward Lycett covered vase, ca. 1887 (University of Richmond Museums).
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.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people and engage in policing on New York State Lands.
What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers.
Town of Warrensburg, Warren County Wilderness Search: On June 18, at 11:45 p.m., Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a concerned party about a subject who was last seen the day before on the Pack Forest nature trail. Forest Rangers Kabrehl and Savarie performed linear searches overnight with negative results. At 8:45 a.m., the Warren County Sheriff’s office advised the 45-year-old from Glens Falls was located walking on Route 9 without shoes or a shirt. Forest Ranger Captain Ganswindt and Ranger Savarie interviewed the subject who advised he had become lost on June 17 and found his way to the main road early on June 19. A sheriff’s deputy transported the subject to the hospital for dehydration treatment.
Town of Clifton, St. Lawrence County Water Search: On June 19, at 7:48 p.m., Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a kayaker who had become separated from his paddling partner and could not find his way back to their camp on Bog Lake. Forest Ranger Jansen found the kayaker on Grass Pond and helped him back to the campsite. Resources were clear at 10:10 p.m.
Town of Ticonderoga, Essex County Wilderness Rescue: On June 20 at 3 p.m., Forest Rangers responded to Putnam Pond Campground for a report of a subject who had fallen and broken his leg across the water from the main area of the campground. Three Rangers, EMTs, and the Ticonderoga Fire Department used motorboats to reach the 67-year-old from Warwick. The rescue crew packaged the subject onto a back board and carried him to one of the docked boats across the water to a waiting ambulance. Resources were clear at 6 p.m.
Town of Philipstown, Putnam County Wilderness Rescue: On June 21, at 2:45 p.m., Forest Rangers Pries and Russo responded to a call for a hiker going in and out of consciousness on the Breakneck Ridge trail. The subject’s hiking companion shared information about the hiker with the Hudson Highlands State Park Manager. Rangers and staff from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (State Parks) hiked up to the coordinates provided by Putnam County Dispatch. At 4 p.m., rescue crews reached the 18-year-old from Holbrook and provided food, water, and electrolytes. The crew used a wheeled litter to get the subject down the mountain. A Putnam County Paramedic examined the hiker and an ambulance transported her to a hospital for further assistance. Resources were clear at 5:20 p.m.
Town of Mamakating, Sullivan County Wilderness Rescue: On June 22 at 4:30 p.m., a group of five hikers called Sullivan County 911 to report they were lost in Roosa Gap State Forest and couldn’t find their way back to the Cox Road trailhead. At 6:30 p.m., Forest Ranger Rusher reached the group from Queens, approximately 2.5 miles from the trailhead.
The group thought the Long Path was a one-mile loop and had not prepared to be outside in the extremely hot weather. The group had only brought one bottle of water for each person. One member of the party was dizzy and nauseated due to heat exhaustion. Ranger Rusher provided food, water, and electrolytes to everyone in the group so they could continue hiking down. At 8:10 p.m., Summitville Fire Department hiked in with additional water for the group. At 8:45 p.m., the group reached the trailhead and were checked out by EMS.
Town of Keene, Essex County Wilderness Search: On June 22 at 4:45 p.m., Ray Brook Dispatch received a call from a group of hikers reporting a 19-year-old member of their party had hiked ahead of them on Mount Marcy and was presumed lost. Forest Ranger Praczkajlo spoke to the summit steward who saw the hiker near the peak at 10:40 a.m., and a report from John’s Brook Lodge indicated the hiker was spotted at 3:30 p.m., lying down from exhaustion. At 5:40 p.m., Ranger Praczkajlo met the hiker as he reached the trailhead and reunited him with his hiking party.
Our favorite benches are the two located on the Senior Center Terrace. These were rescued by the RIHS and it took years for RIOC to paint and preserve them for the community. Be sure to check them out on the terrace, a popular lunch spot for our seniors. We extend our gratitude to Lisa Fernandez for tending the garden. Judith Berdy
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Photo: A Forest Ranger leads lost hikers from Queens found in Roosa Gap State Forest out of the woods in Junee 2024 (DEC Photo).
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.
I learned about MudGirl Srudios from a NJPBS program featuring the studiol.
Last Tuesday after arriving on a day trip bus visit, my friend Ranyee and I ventured two blocks from the Boardwalk to find MudGIrls Studios. Located on the second floor of a church, in the space of a former school we discovered the studio.
We were met by founder Dorrie Papademetriou. She was surprised to have visitors and welcomed us warmly introducing us to the women artists at work.
(Arrangements have to be made to visit this working studio)
“MudGirls Studios is a non-profit 501(c) (3) organization that empowers disadvantaged women through training and employment. MudGirls Studios helps women transition onto a pathway towards self-sufficiency and out of poverty. We use clay as our vehicle to change lives through their own creations and sales of functional art and aesthetic utilitarian objects. These women gain a source of long-term supplemental income along the way”
Dorrie showed us finished products that are sold to retailers, custom designs, and at markets. This is the display area with the beautiful articles on view.
The windows look out on the casinos with the ocean just a few blocks away.
Clay come in large cubes, which are cut and pressed to sizes that are used to press molds into tiles and flat designs. (No potter’s wheels here)
The tiles on the table will be fired, glazed and fired again. After completed they will be a a wall installation at a New Jersey organization. Many people commission special objects for events.
These custom coasters with a tree design are commissioned for wedding gifts. Lovely gifts for the guests.
Some of the staff are professional artist, but most are women looking for a better life for them and their families.
The products range from large platters, vases to wonderful earrings.
The building’s past is visible in the hall and the former classrooms. There are move improvement and community arts groups in the area now and hopefully more will blossom soon.
A block away from MudGirls, was the Roman Forum at Caesar’s Resort. A fun trip to Atlantic City for all participants. Ranyee and I followed our tradition of off the beaten path discoveries.
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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.
IT IS OUR FIRST 4th WITHOUT THOUSANDS OF VISITORS ON THE SOUTH END OF THE ISLAND, TO SEE THE MACY’S FIREWORKS. A YEAR TO RELAX IN OUR PARKS AND GARDENS.
BRING YOUR KIDS BY ON THE 4TH FOR A SURPRISE GIFT 12N TO 5 PM THURSDAY ONLY
ALL DECKED OUT AND AWAITING YOUR VISIT
ALL DECKED OUT AND AWAITING YOUR VISIT
THANKS TO MATERIALS FOR THE ARTS FOR OUR WONDERFUL SELECTION OF BUNTING TO DECORATE THE KIOSK.
THOM HEYER AND PENNY GOLD’S IMAGINARY IMAGE OF ROOSEVELT ISLAND IS FREATURED IN THE RIVERCROSS DISPLAY WINDOW SPONSORED BY THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY. FOR A REAL MAP, STOP AT THE VISITOR CENTER KIOSK, ALSO A WORK OF ART BY DAVID CAIN (C)
The organ is not hooked up and has not been used recently. I could not find a manufacturer on the instrument. E-mail me if your are interested: jbird134@aol.com
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JUDITH BERDY, THOM HEYER, PENNY GOLD, DAVID CAIN (C)
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.
When next you are in Southpoint Park, stand across from the Smallpox Hospital and look west to 434 East 52nd Street. Perched on top of this building the the pink house. I have seen it for years and only managed to take blurry photos of it! It’s current occupants remain a mystery.
Judith Berdy
Three years ago, a post popped up on Reddit that caught my attention. It contained an image (below) shot from Roosevelt Island of a pretty, candy-pink house on the roof of an East Side apartment building.
“Anyone know what this pink house on top of a building is?” the Redditor asked. I knew I had to find out.
Turns out this storybook-like, brightly colored house with two chimneys and a greenish peaked roof is the penthouse on top of 434 East 52nd Street, a prewar Bing & Bing apartment residence designed by Emery Roth that opened in 1930.
The house, which looks like it belongs on a suburban street or country lane rather than an urban canyon near Sutton Place, boasts three floors, 4,000 square feet, and wraparound terraces. All this comes from its Streeteasy listing, which says that it was on the market for $4.5 million in 2021.
As if living in your own house in the Manhattan sky wouldn’t be enough of a thrill, this penthouse was home to a famous resident. In 1974, it was the “lost weekend” residence of John Lennon and May Pang, according to various real estate and home decor sites.
Is it the same penthouse? I’m not so sure. In her book Loving John, Pang recalls the “small penthouse” with a wood-burning fireplace plus tiny kitchen, which ran Lennon $750 per month in rent. Maybe the rooftop house seemed small to a couple used to the oversized chambers of the Dakota?
According to Pang, this is where she and John spotted a UFO from their terrace—perhaps the UFO memorialized in the lyrics “There’s a UFO over New York, and I ain’t too surprised” from the song “Nobody Told Me.”
“’Look up there!’ Pang recalled John saying one August night, pointing to the sky. ‘Tell me what you see.’ I looked up and couldn’t believe my eyes. ‘There was a saucer-shaped object surrounded by blinking white lights gliding through the sky.’”
The pink house is also reportedly where photographer Bob Gruen took the iconic images of Lennon wearing a New York City T-shirt. From the view of the terrace, it really could be the same adorable home.
It’s not visible from the street, but from the river or another penthouse, it must look pretty sweet.
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I mentioned the Colossus of Coney Island once before, but it’s time to expand on that a bit. (The fact that I mentioned this building three and a half years ago and did not remember having done so until I searched for it makes me wonder if I’ve written too many blog posts.) Here’s an 1896 photograph that, while sadly lacking contrast, gives an accurate impression of how big that elephant was. The one-story building in front only goes halfway up the legs.
Note that visiting the inside was free at that time. It had been planned as a mall of sorts, housing individual store stalls and supposedly had a grand hall and museum. While it was extraordinarily large as an elephant, it was not really that big as a building, and the museum and hall spaces were small as museums and grand halls go. And since the number of windows – again, large for an elephant, small for a building – was limited by the need to have the wood structure span between the legs, it must have been a bit dark and close inside there. Here’s a cross-section
It was about twice the size of its predecessor, Lucy, in Atlantic City, with the peak of the howdah on the elephant’s back about 120 feet above grade. My personal favorite detail is that there were telescopes set into the eyes – which may be why they look a little weird in the photos – so that the head was a kind of observatory. Another not-great photo:
The Colossus opened in 1885 and, like so much of early Coney Island, burned down. The stereoscopic view may be dated 1897, but the elephant burned down in September 1896.
A Coney Island Tragedy: Burning of the Historic Elephant Cover from October 10, 1896 issue of The Illustrated American
The attractions at Coney Island and other beach resorts at that time were maybe one notch better than those of a traveling carnival and were built as cheaply as possible. A building-sized object made up entirely of plank and 2×s, and lit by gas, was pretty much inevitably going to burn.
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That’s the new folly, but I have no way to explain what that is because I have no idea. If you look at the website about the projectthere are some renderings of it, but they don’t seem to look much like that. It may be that my imagination is lacking or it may be that the design has changed since the renderings were made or it may be some of both. In the end, I just want the project done to get the sidewalks back to normal.
Nearly every day, I walk past the construction of the South Battery Park City Resiliency Project, part of protecting lower Manhattan from the kind of flooding that occurred during Hurricane Sandy. Much of it is relatively straightforward: there’s a big berm being added to the park along the river, which will be landscaped to be a useful part of the park.
Part of the park since its construction has been an odd folly, with a fake brick arch as its centerpiece, that housed a restaurant. Since the folly’s footprint crossed form an area with unchanged elevation into the berm, it had to be removed, and is being replaced with an odder folly, which will probably house a restaurant.
That’s the context for this photo:
UNLIKE COLER THIS PROJECT IS IN A PARK, CHECK OUT LINKS AND IMAGES
The South Battery Park City Resiliency Project contemplates creation of an integrated coastal flood risk management system from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, across Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza, and along the northern border of the Historic Battery.
The SBPCR Project represents one of several projects within the overall Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) Master Plan.
The purpose of the SBPCR Project is to:
• Provide a reliable coastal flood control system to provide risk reduction to property, residents and assets within the vicinity of South Battery Park City in response to the design storm event;
• Protect and preserve to the maximum extent practicable, open space resources and opportunities to view and interact with the Manhattan waterfront, particularly in Wagner Park, Pier A Plaza and The Battery; and,
• Avoid or minimize disruption to existing below and above-ground infrastructure (i.e., water and sewer infrastructure, subways, tunnels, utilities, etc.) from flood events
The SBPCR Project enhances Wagner Park’s programmatic diversity and provides an opportunity for a new waterfront marine habitat educational area along the Pier A inlet. The Pier A Inlet design converts a concrete relieving platform and rip-rap edge to a terraced condition that improves habitat opportunities.
SBPCR Project: Frequently Asked Questions (May 2023)COMMUNITY NOTICE: SOUTH BATTERY PARK CITY RESILIENCY PROJECTThe South Battery Park City Resiliency Project contemplates creation of an integrated coastal flood risk management system from the Museum of Jewish Heritage, across Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza, and along the northern border of the Historic Battery.The SBPCR Project represents one of several projects within the overall Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency (LMCR) Master Plan.The purpose of the SBPCR Project is to:• Provide a reliable coastal flood control system to provide risk reduction to property, residents and assets within the vicinity of South Battery Park City in response to the design storm event;• Protect and preserve to the maximum extent practicable, open space resources and opportunities to view and interact with the Manhattan waterfront, particularly in Wagner Park, Pier A Plaza and The Battery; and,• Avoid or minimize disruption to existing below and above-ground infrastructure (i.e., water and sewer infrastructure, subways, tunnels, utilities, etc.) from flood eventsThe SBPCR Project enhances Wagner Park’s programmatic diversity and provides an opportunity for a new waterfront marine habitat educational area along the Pier A inlet. The Pier A Inlet design converts a concrete relieving platform and rip-rap edge to a terraced condition that improves habitat opportunities.
FROM WALT WHITMAN’S LEAVES OF GRASS THE SHAPES ARISE
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OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING DON FRIEDMAN POETRY BY WALT WHITMAN YIMBY
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JUDITH BERDY ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
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The Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed on March 17, 1861, although linguistic and economic characteristics differed from one region to another. When in that same year statesman Massimo d’Azeglio published his memoirs, he began his narrative with a warning: “Pur troppo s’è fatta l’Italia, ma non si fanno gl’Italiani” (Unfortunately, Italy was created, but Italians are not being created).
The country might have become a political entity, but its population was far from cohesive. Not rooted in ancestry, national identity was a political and socio-cultural construction.
In 1911, Italians celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of unification (Cinquantenario). Marked by expositions in Turin, Florence and Rome, the festivities aimed at showing the world that a vigorous young nation was ready to join the Great Powers of Europe. The jubilee aspired to embrace modernity by challenging stereotypes of backwardness and indolence.
At the same time, organizers paid tribute to seventeenth century architecture. Baroque was presented as the peninsula’s first genuine national style and therefore proof of a cultural sense of self that anticipated political unity.
Tension between Italy’s fragmented past and its centralized present was a feature of identity formation. Food traditions were part of a troublesome process that was further complicated by the input of Italian-Americans.
Belly of Naples
Soon after Christopher Columbus completed his first voyage to the Americas, crops were taken to the port of Seville and presented to the Royal Iberian gardens. Seeds of maize, marigold and chili peppers attracted the interest of European scholars – and so did the tomato. Spanish colonizers reported that the Aztecs cultivated the fruit in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors.
The Kingdom of Naples was a vital part of the Spanish global Empire which spanned from South and Central America to the Philippines. Many Neapolitans served on ships sailing under Portuguese and Spanish flags. It did not take long for the tomato to reach its local gardens. Tomatoes or “pomi d’oro” (golden apples) were studied by botanists in the 1540s.
Naples in the late seventeenth century was one of Europe’s most populous cities (with three million inhabitants in 1600) and a center of architecture, art and music pulling visitors from far and wide. Mount Vesuvius added a thrill to those who had traveled to see the city.
The quality of its cuisine was another attraction. The San Marzano tomato came to symbolize local cooking and the Mediterranean diet. Campania’s potassium-rich volcanic soil was perfect for the fruit’s cultivation.
Antonio Latini was a self-made man who had started his career in the household of Cardinal Antonio Barberini in Rome, before settling in Naples in 1682 to become steward to Don Stefano Carillo Salcedo, first minister to the Spanish Viceroy. In this role he was responsible for the management of all staff, provisions, meals and entertainments.
In 1692/4 he published a cookbook in two volumes entitled Lo scalco alla moderna (The Modern Steward). It was the last great book of Italian Renaissance and Baroque cuisine, a flamboyant tradition that had dominated elite European dining. The French style of cooking was beginning to emerge.
At the same time Latini looked forward. With a keen interest in local ingredients, he closely inspected the region and listed specialties such as oil, olives, vegetables and fruits. He was the first author to publish recipes using tomatoes and chili peppers. The American tomato was about to conquer Naples.
Following unification, Naples lost its leading position and suffered serious economic decline. Street vendors began selling pizzas in the poorest parts of the city. As Matilde Serao observed in Il ventre di Napoli (The Belly of Naples, written in the aftermath of the cholera epidemic of September 1884) large sections of the population lived on the street.
They survived on flatbread, fritters of cabbage stalk, fragments of anchovy, or boiled chestnuts. Street fare was the only way of procuring a meal.
One of the earliest accounts of “lazzaroni” (poor people) consuming pizza was recorded by French novelist Alexandre Dumas during a visit to Naples in 1835. Street vendors baked pies in wood-fired ovens and kept them warm in tin “stoves” which they balanced on their head.
Judgmental Italians treated the pie with disgust. Carlo Collodi, son of a Florentine chef and author of Pinocchio, referred to it as a “patchwork of greasy filth.” Pizza was associated with poverty, malnutrition and disease.
Cooking & Politics
Lombardy-born chef and author Bartolomeo Scappi made his career at the Vatican. In 1570, he published his monumental Opera dell’arte del cucinare, listing about 1,000 recipes of Renaissance cuisine which included a “pizza alla Napoletana,” described as a baked dessert pie stuffed with almond custard.
Three centuries later the same dish featured in a cookbook that has been hailed as an iconic contribution to culinary history.
Published in Florence in 1891, Pellegrino Artusi’s La scienza in cucina e l’arte di mangiare bene (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well) was the first attempt at creating a comprehensive Italian cookbook.
Unable to find a publisher, he printed the first 1,000 copies at his own expense. The original volume contained 475 recipes which had grown to 790 by the fourteenth edition (published in 1911, the year of the author’s death). Since then the book has never been out of print.
Recipe 609 in the collection is a “pizza alla Napoletana,” presented as a shortcrust filled with a cream of ricotta, almonds and lemon peel (Artusi included two more “pizze,” both of them desserts).
Living in Florence, Pellegrino was a prosperous silk merchant with literary ambitions and a passion for food. A taste traveler, he had enjoyed all Tuscan delicacies, macaroni in Naples, saltimbocca in Rome and risotto in Milan.
Recreating these dishes at home, supported by his assistants Marietta Sabatini and Francesco Ruffilli, he transcribed them in the form of recipes. Artusi was a gourmet, not a chef. A noted host and raconteur, his flowing narrative is a mixture of directions interspersed with anecdotes and asides. But his book was more than just an entertaining manual.
The author had been a member of Giuseppe Mazzini’s “La Giovine Italia” (Young Italy). He would have been aware of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s statement that the force of macaroni would unite Italy as it reflected the rich variety of its culture.
Artusi’s cookbook was a political document. He argued that presenting gastronomic delights in a common language would benefit unification. An inclusive society embraces regional practices and values difference. Sharing a table bridges cultural divides. Food is a unifier.
Not only did Artusi turn against the ingrained Italian habit of speaking in dialect, he also attacked the French dominated terminology of “haute cuisine.”
When lexicographer Alfredo Panzini published his Dizionario moderno delle parole che non si trovano nei dizionari comuni (A Modern Dictionary of Words Not Found in Ordinary Dictionaries’) in 1905, he praised the author for his determination to create a vocabulary free of Gallicisms. Artusi became the nation’s food ambassador.
In 1889, at the Pizzeria Brandi in Naples, Raffaele Esposito was said to have baked a pie with a topping of basil, mozzarella and tomato representing the nation’s flag. He named his creation “pizza Margherita” in honor of Margherita of Savoy, wife of King Umberto I. The story was an invention.
Pizza as we know it today did not exist at the time. Its “modern” definition first appeared in an Italian dictionary in 1905.
Naples to Manhattan
Thomas Jefferson served as US Minister to France from 1785 to 1789 and during his stay he developed a passion for Mediterranean cuisine. He studied farming techniques, researched cooking utensils, and had his own chef trained in the French culinary arts.
In 1787 he wrote a short treatise on the delight of Neapolitan pasta and produced a sketch of a “maccaroni” (a generic term for pasta) machine, a version of which he later shipped back to Monticello.
Once installed as President, he served such delicacies as ice cream or peach flambé to his dinner guests, but also surprised them with a plate of macaroni and cheese at a time that the American diet was dominated by heavy English-style boiled, baked or stewed meats. It would take several decades before Italian food became embedded in American culture.
During the late nineteenth century, peasants and the urban poor in the Italian South suffered severe hardship and food insecurity. They survived on stale bread and soup. Wholesome food was mainly memory.
Italians left in droves, arriving in America through Ellis Island. In spite of long hours of hard labor and living in squalid quarters, families were able to afford flour, eggs and meat. Olive oil, pasta and cheese were imported from Italy itself or via the Italian diaspora in Argentina.
The stereotypical Italian-American red sauce cuisine was a fusion of ‘rich’ ingredients (cheese, meat and fish) and tomatoes, whilst retaining the simplicity that characterized Neapolitan or Sicilian meals.
Until the 1960s few Italian-American cookbooks were published as recipes were passed down orally. Neapolitans had come to work in factories, not to make culinary statements.
Gennaro Lombardi arrived in New York from Naples in 1897 and started a small grocery story in Manhattan’s Little Italy. Located at 32 Spring Street, he began selling slices of Neapolitan “tomato pies” wrapped in paper to local laborers.
In 1905 he was licensed by the New York City government to make and sell pizzas. Named Lombardi’s, the business thrived. Tenor Enrico Caruso, himself born and raised in Naples, was a client.
Adapting to new conditions, New York-style pies were baked in coal rather than wood-fired ovens. The hand-tossed thin crust was topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Neapolitan poor man’s pie made an appeal as it corresponded to the American pace of life. It became New York’s fast food icon.
Always keen to identify a starting point in time, historians have nominated Lombardi as pizza’s “Founding Father.” Inevitably, the suggestion has been challenged. The idea that in the midst of an influx of immigrants there would be a single pioneer is unlikely.
Pizza slices were produced before Lombardi had settled in Manhattan. Filippo Milone was an immigrant who had arrived in New York in the early 1890s and he apparently ran a successful pizza business in the city. There would have been others.
Pizza Effect
Artusi’s personal bias was towards the cooking of Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. Other regions were represented with few dishes, whilst some parts such as Marche, Abruzzo, Puglia, Basilicata or Calabria are not mentioned at all. These omissions highlight the limitations of our notion of a “national cuisine.”
Dishes such as German “sauerkraut,” Hungarian “goulash” or Ukrainian “borshch” have become a means of ethnic identification, both positively and negatively. The Racial Slur Database lists hundreds of insults based on what people eat.
Once the economic concept of World Fairs had taken root, nations created pavilions to present themselves to the outside world. Authenticity was staged; tradition invented; cooking standardized. Tourism contributed to the process of simplification. National cuisine became a stereotype.
The pizza boom started after the Second World War. Most new outlets were owned by independent operators of various nationalities. The simple Neapolitan pie was turned into a New York, Chicago or Detroit-style pizza with mozzarella, tomatoes and a variety of “gourmet” toppings. The pizza habit spread quickly to workers on their lunch hour and families looking for an affordable meal out.
The American pizza-scape changed with the proliferation of chains. Pizza Hut made a successful start in Kansas in 1958 and was followed in rapid succession by a range of others (Little Caesar’s in 1959 and Domino’s in 1960, both in Michigan). Pizza became a commodity and a lesson. By sharing slices, its consumption promotes cooperation. As a metaphor, pizza has entered the domain of politics and enterprise.
The “Pizza Meter” is a theory that postulates that an uptick in takeaway orders in Washington, DC, signals international conflict. The delivery record of Domino’s pizzas at the CIA offices occurred on August 1, 1990, the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The rush may have inspired Jeff Bezos when, four years later, he founded Amazon from his garage in Bellevue, Washington. To achieve maximum efficiency, he divided the company into groupings and introduced the “Two Pizza Rule,” stipulating that every internal team should be small enough to subsist on two pizzas.
Such was its popular impact that Yankee pizzas invaded Europe. Pizza may have been invented in Naples as cheap food consumed by the poor, it remained unknown outside the region until migrants arrived in Manhattan.
After the Second World War many Italian-Americans traveled to Europe to reconnect with their ancestors and make a pilgrimage to the “home” of pizza. In Naples, they were served their familiar Americanized versions.
In a globalized world, cultures tend to influence each other in a loop. Elements of a national or regional culture are embraced elsewhere, transformed, and then re-exported to their domain of origin. Sociologists have named this phenomenon the “Pizza Effect.”
Celebrating 35 years serving our community weekly with fresh fruits, vegetables, other goodies and great friendly service!!! Congrats to Israel, his family and crew.
Illustrations, from above: Garibaldi departing on the Expedition of the Thousand in 1860; Sprig of a tomato plant from an album of medicinal plants, Rome ca 1610 (Royal Collection Trust); Third corrected edition of Artusi’s La scienza in cucina; Pizza alla napoletana (dessert) according to Pellegrino Artusi; 1989 commemorative plaque in Naples marking the 100th anniversary of pizza Margherita; Thomas Jefferson description and sketch of a macaroni machine (Library of Congress); and Pizza Hut opens its 11,000th international restaurant in Dubai in 2019.
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.
Our work with old buildings has us studying a lot of different topics in addition to structural engineering – for example, architecture, history, and historic preservation – and we like sharing stories about what we’ve found. OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING
The central dome of the US Capitol on May 9, 1861:
There was a certain symbolism to its incomplete state given that the Civil War had begun the previous month, but that was a coincidence. The replacement of the original wooden dome had been planned for some time. The old dome was too small, architecturally, having been sized for the building before the wings were added, and was a fire hazard in an era where “artificial light” meant “flame.”
The new dome took ten years to build from start to finish, in part because of the war but largely because of logistical and design issues. In any case, it’s interesting to me that common descriptions consistently describe the structure incorrectly. The description at the Architect of the Capitol’s website, for example, call is “cast iron” twice and “iron” twice. Similarly, the Wikipedia page calls it “cast iron” four times, despite having an original drawing that makes it clear why that’s only partially correct:
[This post was edited after posting, with the edits marked in square barckets. My thanks tio the reader who pointed out my error.]The dome consists of a cast-iron skin largely supported by a series of wrought-iron trusses. [Edit, 5 hours after posting: the trusses are a combination of cast and wrought iron, with the wrought iron used where tension was expected.] The cast skin contributes to the structural action but is not the main load-carrying element. So why are the trusses ignored? First, visible architectural elements are easier to understand than hidden structure. Second, as I’ve learned the hard way, non-engineers really don’t understand trusses and are sometimes freaked out by them. Third, there’s a common narrative in architectural history that cast-iron construction in the US was a stepping stone to steel frames, which really isn’t true (cast-iron facades are a form of bearing wall, not rigid frame, and I know of no building where the cast iron supports the structure without the help of masonry or wrought iron) and is a twentieth-century retcon of the technological development. In any case, feel free to put on a superior expression and say “actually, it’s a cast-iron skin over [Edit: combination cast- and] wrought-iron trusses” if you hear someone call it a cast-iron dome.___As for my title, the cast-iron foundry was in the Bronx. I don’t remember offhand where the wrought iron was rolled and fabricated.
I was at Coler with head nurse Melana to celebrate the Beacon Award for great care in the Memory Units at the hospital!!!
CREDITS DON FRIEDMAN OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
