On June 23, 1909 The New York World reported, “The largest apartment house in the world is being built on a site covering the entire block bounded by Eighty-sixth and Eighth-seventh streets, Broadway and Amsterdam avenue…It will be known as the Belnord. It will house a community as large as that of many a town.”
The Belnord was rising at a time when many affluent families were giving up private homes for the conveniences of sumptuous apartments. On August 1, 1908 the Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide noted that The Belnord would not only be the largest, but “one of the highest grade apartment houses in the world.” The Belnord Realty Company had hired the architectural firm of Hiss & Weekes to design the leviathan structure that the New York World said “will contain 175 apartments, with 2,080 rooms, and the number of occupants, including servants will be 1,225.”
Completed in 1909, the 12-story brick and Indiana limestone Belnord was designed in the Italian Renaissance style. Notable was the large, landscaped courtyard, accessed by two arched carriage entrances on 86th Street (one for incoming and the other for outgoing vehicles), and a “footway entrance” on Broadway. Residents were not subject to public view in alighting from their carriages or cars. “All the entrances to the building proper open into the garden court,” said an advertisement. There were four entrances in the courtyard, one at each corner.
The court was accessed by two carriage entrances on 86th Street (bottom) and a pedestrian entrance on Broadway (left). Entrances into the building were at each interior corner. The Record & Guide, November 7, 1908 (copyright expired)
The smallest of the apartments contained seven rooms. Suites came with “two, three and four bath rooms and two or three servants’ rooms and baths, according to the size of the apartment,” said an advertisement. For those families needing extra servants rooms, those were available elsewhere in the building.
To ensure residents a good night’s sleep, almost all the bedrooms faced the courtyard. Management explained, “the width of the court is greater than that of the average city street, thereby securing more privacy, quiet and sunlight.”
Each apartment had windows on the street and the courtyard. from The World’s New York Apartment House Album, 1909 (copyright expired)
The New York Times noted on September 4, 1908, “A remarkable feature of the house will be its sub-courtyard, which will lie beneath the central court and will be lighted with skylights and gratings. No tradesmen’s wagons will be allowed to drive into and stand around in the main courtyard, but will drive down into the sub-courtyard by means of an inclined driveway from Eighty-seventy Street.”
from The World’s New York Apartment House Album, 1909 (copyright expired)
Residents would enjoy the latest in domestic amenities. “All kitchens and pantries are equipped with specially designed gas ranges, porcelain-lined refrigerators and sundry other modern devices…including a garbage receptacle built in the wall and ventilated,” said an advertisement. The built-in refrigerators were capable of producing “ample ice for table use.” Each apartment had a wall safe.
Domestic Engineering explained, “These refrigerators are attached to a refrigerating coil and do not use ice’ the refrigerator is built in the wall, thus giving enlarge space in the room.” December 25, 1909 (copyright expired)
The New York Times wrote, “The interior decorations of each apartment will be in the style of Louis XVI. The doors will be of solid mahogany. The floors will be of hard wood.” While there was a laundry on the roof with “individual tubs, ironing boards, and lines for each tenant,” wash tubs in the kitchens provided maids the convenience of doing quick small jobs.
Rents in The Belnord in 1909 started at $2,100 per year–or about $5,125 per month in today’s terms.
Among the initial tenants were John Jacob Taylor and his wife, the former Caroline Clarke. His grandfather, John Bloomingdale Taylor, had been the manager of John Jacob Astor’s estate. Born in 1845, The Yonkers Statesman said he “spent his early boyhood in New York City and Newport, and his early manhood in traveling around the world.” He lived on significant inherited wealth. “He never engaged in business,” said The Yonkers Statesman following Taylor’s death in his apartment on March 24, 1911.
The courtyard featured a fountain and manicured gardens. from The World’s New York Apartment House Album, 1909 (copyright expired)
Another early resident was playwright and lyricist Henry Martyn Blossom. He primarily worked with Victor Herbert, although he also collaborated with composers like Raymond Hitchcock and A. Baldwin Sloane, and wrote the lyrics for Montgomery and Stone’s successful The Slim Princess.
The early 1920’s saw two theater owners in The Belnord. Joseph “Joe” Leblang was a part owner of the George M. Cohan Theatre, the Sheridan Theatre, and the Broad Street Theatre in Newark.
Simultaneously, Walter Reade and his wife, the former Gertrude Blumberg, had an apartment. Known as the “showman of The Shore,” Reade owned six motion picture theaters in Asbury Park. His chain of theaters would eventually swell to 40.
A somewhat colorful tenant was Lillian N. Duke. She had married tobacco magnate James Buchanan Duke in 1904, but he quickly divorced her over infidelity. She received a $500,000 settlement, more than $15 million in today’s money. But her finances were seriously impacted when she trusted an unscrupulous broker, Alfred E. Lindsay. On March 2, 1922 The Morning Telegraph reported that Lillian had charged him with “grand larceny in the first degree,” saying he had “taken money ostensibly to invest.” She won the case and Lindsay was “sent to prison for swindling Mrs. Duke out of $325,000 in cash and $50,000 in jewelry,” said The New York Times.
It was a Pyrrhic victory. Lindsay had lost his freedom but Lillian had lost her fortune. She soon left The Belnord and moved to West 88th Street, where she died on October 25, 1925. In reporting her death, The New York Times mentioned, “Several days ago it was learned that she had been nearly destitute for months.”
By the 1930’s, grand Victorian apartment buildings had generally fallen from favor as wealthy New Yorkers moved to modern Art Deco style buildings. But The Belnord held its own. An advertisement in The New York Sun on June 17, 1930 boasted, “Everybody who ever lived in The Belnord likes it, and nearly everybody who ever lived there is still living there now!”
A view from 86th Street through the opulent carriage entrance into the courtyard. photo via thebelnord.com
But the third quarter of the century did see remarkable change. On November 16, 1980 The New York Times began an article saying, “At the Belnord, the wages of battle is more battle. And more battle. And more battle.” The disputes between the tenants and the landlord had started nearly a decade earlier. The article said, “the splendor that was the Belnord’s is mostly gone. Although Isaac Bashevis Singer and scores of other success stories live there now, much of the grace has been chased by the shrill battles pitting many of the 225 current residents against the owner, Lillian Seril.”
Amy Munetz recalled that when she moved into the building in August 1940, “the staff used to include full-time carpenters, electricians and laundry room attendants.” Now, she said, “we are down to about a dozen people for this huge place.”
Although the exterior of the building had been given landmark designation in June 1966, inside was another story. “The roof, the elevators and the electrical and plumbing systems are said to need major repairs. Chunks of ceiling in some apartments have collapsed and other apartments have leaks. The platform holding the garden is cracking, shifting and leaking and stalactites have formed in the basement,” said the article.
The hostility between the tenants and landlord raged on for another 14 years. Then, on October 29, 1994 The New York Times journalist Shawn G. Kennedy reported, “Twenty years after angry tenants went to war with the owner of one of the Upper West Side’s grandest apartment buildings, a peace settlement was reached yesterday, ending one of the longest rent strikes in New York City’s history.”
Lillian Seril had thrown in the towel, selling The Belnord to Property Markets Group. “The new owners…have agreed to spend $5 million on new plumbing and electrical systems, a new security system and more staff members,” said the article. The owners inherited “hundreds of building code violations and state-imposed penalties.”
Interestingly, one of the tenants was Lillian Seril. She died in her 3,000-square-foot, $450 per month rent-controlled apartment at the age of 95 on June 24, 2004. In reporting her death, The New York Times mentioned that The Belnord had been “a center of the Upper West Side’s intellectual life, home over the years to figures like the Nobel Prize-winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Actors Studio founder Lee Strasberg and the actor Zero Mostel.” Other well-known residents include actors Matt Damon and Walter Matthau.
The much-improved Belnord was sold in 2015 to HFZ Capital Group, which announced plans to convert the building to condominiums. Architect Robert A. M. Stern was commissioned to remodel the apartments. And while carriages and touring cars no longer pass in and out of the majestic iron gates, the dignity of the grand apartment building has been recaptured. (Currently the Belnord is the set of the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building.”)
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A DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
Nineteenth century critics constructed an image of the artist as masculine, ignoring the fact that women were very much part of the bohemian subculture. In literary and pictorial representations, the figure of the “grisette” was consistently associated with the Latin Quarter.
The term refers to a group of independent young women who frequented Parisian cafés, posed as artist’s models, and provided additional sexual favors. The most enduring grisette is Mimi in Henri Murger’s “Scènes de la vie de Bohème,” the source for Puccini’s opera La bohème.
In New York, the bohemian scene at 647 Broadway seemed a male dominated affair too. Historians have given ample attention to Charles Pfaff, the Swiss-born owner of the establishment, and to Henry Clapp, the journalist who brought bohemianism to the attention of a wide readership.
The fact that Walt Whitman’s growing reputation was linked to his association with Broadway’s unruly band, obscured the presence of those who were left in his shadow. Yet, some of the strongest characters within the Pfaffian circle were women.
Pioneering Theatre
In November 1856 a new playhouse opened at 622/4 Broadway, between Bleecker and Houston Streets, called Laura Keene’s Theatre (later renamed the Olympic Theatre). Close to Pfaff’s basement, Keene and many of her actors and actresses made their way to his establishment after or in between performances.
Pfaff’s was one of the few of New York’s saloons that welcomed women. Laura Keene was born Mary Frances Moss in July 1826 in Winchester, Hampshire. She was seventeen when she married Henry Wellington Taylor, who claimed to be a nephew of the Duke of Wellington. The couple had two young daughters when Henry was arrested, convicted (crime unknown), and shipped to a penal colony in Australia. Mary had to earn her own living.
She joined a theater company. As acting was considered a suspect occupation, she had to re-invent herself. Leaving her daughters with her widowed mother, she changed her name to Laura Keene and made her debut in Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s melodrama The Lady of Lyons in October 1851. She gained further experience working with Lucia Elizabeth [Madame] Vestris, a prominent figure in theatrical management, who became a role model.
In 1852 she accepted an offer from London-born James William Wallack to join his New York theater company. The latter had just assumed the management of Brougham’s Lyceum (renaming it Wallack’s Lyceum) on the west side of Broadway. It was a profitable move and she was soon able to send for her mother and two girls. She toured in the States, and in between acting duties traveled to Australia in the forlorn hope to trace her missing husband.
On her return to the United States Laura met John Lutz (whom she married in 1860) who would take charge of the business side of her acting career. Back in New York, funds were raised and a specialist architect nominated to design a Broadway theater after Laura’s specifications. Keene’s Theatre soon made its mark. In November 1860, she premiered the extravaganza The Seven Sisters (with music by Thomas Baker) which ran for 253 performances, an astonishing total for the time.
Keene built a reputation as a fine actress and shrewd manager at a time when only men held this position. As her daughters grew up they also became involved in the theater business, either in management or supporting and/or singing roles.
Her name lives on in American historiography for another reason. Laura’s most famous production was the three-act farce Our American Cousin by English playwright Tom Taylor which had premiered on Broadway in 1858. At the end of the Civil War she was requested to produce a celebratory performance of the play on April 14th, 1865 in the presence of Abraham Lincoln.
Keene was in the wings awaiting her cue when the President was shot by the actor John Wilkes Booth. She claimed to have held the Lincoln’s head and that her gown was soaked with his blood, although many suspect that the tale may have been a fabrication.
Queen of the Long Table
Ada Agnes McElhenney was born in 1834 on her family’s cotton plantation on Toogoodoo Creek in Charleston County. Having been orphaned at a young age, she grew up in the care of her maternal grandfather as part of an aristocratic South Carolina family.
Having escaped the life of a Southern belle and estate mistress at nineteen, she settled in Greenwich Village earning a living as a columnist. Using the pseudonym Ada Clare (after Charles Dickens’s orphan in Bleak House), she built up a following of readers with an interest in New York’s theater and demi-monde.
At the same time, Ada pursued a career as an actress although initially was limited success. She was then offered the opportunity to travel to Paris as correspondent for the successful Sunday newspaper The New York Atlas. Between November 1856 and January 1857, she published a series of lively and provocative reports from the Latin Quarter which were received with delight by her New York readership.
In one of those articles she revealed her passion for the New Orleans-born virtuoso pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the son of a Jewish businessman from London and a French Creole mother. Louis composed music portraying the songs and dances of Louisiana slaves which captured his Parisian audiences and satisfied the era’s craze for exotic cultures. Not long after her return to New York in the summer of 1858, Ada gave birth to a son out of wedlock. Aubrey was believed to be Gottschalk’s child.
She participated in New York’s literary life and wrote a weekly column in Henry Clapp’s Saturday Press in which she discussed topics from female emancipation to the status of American theater. From her home she ran the Sunday night West 42nd Street Coterie, a gathering of writers and actors.
She provoked public opinion by introducing herself and Aubrey as “Miss Ada Clare and Son.” She refused to accept the contemporary characterization of a ‘fallen’ woman. Instead, Clare presented herself as a proud and unapologetic single mother. More outrageously, she preached the doctrine of free love and adopted a bohemian lifestyle.
With utter contempt for convention and decorum, she was the perfect Pfaffian. The primary seat at Pfaff’s long table (offering space to some thirty people) was for reserved for Ada Clare, the Queen of Bohemia. To Walt Whitman, she represented the ideal of the modern woman: talented, intelligent, and emancipated.
Ada Clare moved to California in 1864. For some time she contributed articles to the Golden Era and penned a poorly received confessional novel, Only a Woman’s Heart (1866). In 1874, she returned to acting and went on a tour of cities in upstate New York. She died in Rochester in March that same year, stricken by rabies after she had been bitten by a theatrical agent’s dog.
Magic Menken
Adah Isaacs Menken was a poet and actress known for her sensual stage performances. Born Adelaide McCord in June 1835 near New Orleans probably into a Catholic family, Adah worked from an early age (her father had died young) as an actress in various theaters learning her trade. Aged twenty-one, she married the Jewish musician Alexander Menken in Texas. Her partner wished for a conventional relationship. While prepared to adopt the Jewish faith, she refused to give up acting. The marriage ended in divorce.
In 1858 she settled in New York where she met prize fighter John Heenan, the Benicia Boy. Having married him, he turned out to be an abusive character. She lost his baby at birth and divorced him. Adah returned to the theater and became a minor celebrity on the Bowery circuit, appearing blackface in a minstrel show, and doing impersonations of the great actor Edwin Booth as Hamlet.
ons of the great actor Edwin Booth as Hamlet.
A friend of Ada Clare, Menken was one of those regulars at Pfaffs’s who openly ignored conventions of propriety. She rose quickly to notoriety. At a time when women were expected to be self-effacing, Menken smoked in public, cropped her hair, starred in provocative stage roles, and wrote poetry. Encouraged by Walt Whitman, she had poems published in the New York Sunday Mercury. She was a “New Woman” in the making.
Her role in the melodrama Mazeppa (based on Lord Byron’s poem) which opened in 1861 in Albany, NY, created a sensation. Dressed in a flesh-colored body stocking which gave the illusion that she was nude, she appeared strapped to a horse which “galloped” down a ramp towards the audience.
Having disposed of two husbands, she left New York in August 1863, heading for San Francisco where Mazeppa brought her a new enthusiastic following. During her stay in the city she went through another two failed marriages. Longing for wider adoration, she took Mazeppa to Paris where she had an affair Alexandre Dumas pére whose son threatened his father for being a senile Romeo. Menken then left for London where her act excited Charles Dickens, Walter Swinburne, and others.
Bohemianism had been a dazzling firework display, a short-lived spectacle. Soon after, dark skies returned. The world moved on, routinely and relentlessly. Menken’s health declined; her wealth was wasted. The wild flower wilted.
In 1867 she collected her poems in the volume Infelicia dedicated to Charles Dickens with the novelist’s permission. She gave her last London stage performance in May 1868 and returned to Paris, but the fast-living city had forgotten her. She faded away (most likely tuberculosis), forgotten and friendless. Her passing went unmarked. Thirty-three years old, she was buried in the Jewish section of the cemetery of Montparnasse.
Illustrations, from above: Deux grisettes by Constantin Guys (The Metropolitan Museum); Ada Clare during her Pfaff days; interior of Laura Keene’s New Theatre, Broadway, December 1856 (NYPL); the blood-stained sleeve cuff belonging to Keene (National Museum of American History, Washington); Adah Isaacs Menken in Mazeppa; Sensational Adah Menken in Mazeppa; and 1902 edition of Menken’s poems, published in Philadelphia by J.B. Lippincott.
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Sometimes it is the exception to the rule that produces the most interesting result.
Read this fascinating story of how a small donation to the Municipal Archives connects all the photos and a family history.
42nd Street, looking East to 6th Avenue, Manhattan, ca. 1890. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
On October 7, 1989, Leonora Gidlund, then head of collection processing, set up a table at the “Heritage Day” event sponsored by the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York at the McBurney YMCA on West 23rd Street. Two visitors, Felice and Marion De Gregario noticed Ms. Gidlund’s display and asked if she would be interested in a donation to the Archives of four dozen 19th century lantern slides. The De Gregarios said they had found them in the basement of their home on West 13th Street in Manhattan. Ms. Gidlund explained that the Archives usually only took in records created by agencies, departments, or officials of NYC government, and not from private organizations or persons. But Ms. GIdlund was intrigued by the offer and asked for more information. And we are glad she did.
Bethesda Fountain and Terrace, Central Park, ca. 1890. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
The collection now known as the De Gregario Lantern Slides is fascinating and unique. Although only numbering 55 items, the slides provide rare views of iconic venues around the city—Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, Fifth Avenue, etc.—all dating from the last decades of the 19th century. Images from this time period are especially valuable as most City agencies did not adopt photography to document their work until after 1900.
Brooklyn Bridge from Coenties Slip, ca. 1890. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
On the appraisal report for the collection, Ms. Gidlund noted that the De Gregarios said their house had been owned by Robert Devlin some years before they bought it in 1967. They believed he may have been the source of the slides. Caption information on the slides attributed several to “Robert J. Devlin,” adding to the probable connection. Other captions listed “W. T. Colbron.” According to the “Guide to the Records of the New York Camera Club,” at the New York Public Library, Colbron was an amateur photographer who joined the newly-formed Camera Club in 1888. The Club had split from the Society of Amateur Photographers, founded in 1884.
Post Office, Broadway, near Vesey Street, ca. 1890. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Perhaps further research in other Archives records would provide more information about Mr. Devlin and add to our knowledge of the collection’s origin.
The first stop in research involving a house or building is the property card collection. The cards provide basic information about every structure in the city—dimensions, classification, ownership, and assessed valuation—typically dating from the 1930s through the 1970s or 80s, depending on the Borough. They also include a photograph of the building taken circa 1940. (The original negatives of the prints have been maintained as a separate collection in the Archives. Recently digitized and available online, the “1940 Tax Photographs” are one of the Archives’ most well-known collections.)
153 West 13th Street, 1940 Tax Photograph Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
After determining the block and lot number for 153 West 13th Street (Block 603, Lot 11), the card was quickly located. The conveyance section on the card listed an “S. Devlin” as owner of the building beginning in 1881. The 1881 date recorded on the card is very unusual; most property card conveyance information only dates back to the 1930s, when they were first created by the Department of Finance.
The next stop in the research quest was the 1890 “Police” census. It listed the inhabitants of 156 E. 13th Street as Samuel Devlin, age 55, Hannah Devlin, age 55, Robert Devlin, age 32, Samuel B. Devlin, age 23, and Mary Devlin, age 18. Although the 1890 census does not indicate relationships, it seems reasonable to assume that Robert, Samuel B. and Mary were the children of Samuel and Hannah Devlin, and that at some point Robert assumed ownership of the house.
Perhaps more details could be found to confirm that supposition. Luckily, for the purposes of this research, the De Gregario home was located in lower Manhattan which meant there might be a folder of applications in the Manhattan Department of Buildings collection. Indeed, there was. The earliest documents in the permit folder for Block 608, Lot 11 dated from a 1904 application to alter the building. In addition to information about the proposed alteration, the document indicated the name of the owner. And there he was: “Dr. Robert Devlin.” Devlin proposed to add a one-story extension to the back of the house to serve as an office. The alteration architect was Henry J. Hardenbergh, the architect of the Dakota apartment building on Central Park West, among other iconic structures.
Alteration Application 1392 of 1904 (detail). Department of Buildings Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
The DOB folder contained other applications including one that listed the basement as being used for “photography,” although the time period of that function was not clear. Information listed on another application stated the building had been converted from a one-family to a two-family dwelling with a medical office in the basement, and funeral home on the first floor. That would seem an unfortunate juxtaposition – but perhaps these occupancies were not simultaneous.
Based on the knowledge that Robert Devlin was in New York City as early as 1890, and the pictures attributed to W. T. Colborn in the collection, it seems quite possible that Devlin was also a member of the Camera Club. Perhaps further research in the Club records at the New York Public Library would confirm Devlin’s association with the Club.
Hudson River Pier 42, Horatio and Jane Streets, ca. 1890. Photographer: Robert Devlin. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
This question may never be resolved, but it is obvious that these ‘amateurs’ were talented photographers. The pictures are well-composed and show that the photographer saw the value in documenting important places and events in the city’s history. And fortunately for historians today, lantern slides are a very stable medium. The emulsion layer is on glass and is protected by another layer of glass. Lantern slides are positive images and were intended to be projected for viewing, just like Kodachrome slides, or today’s Powerpoint presentations.
Here is a selection of more lantern slides from the De Gregario collection. And take a moment to look at the entire series in the gallery. You might agree that sometimes it is the exception to the rule that produces the most interesting result.
Crowds awaiting cornerstone laying ceremony for the General Grant National Monument, Riverside Drive and 120th Street, Manhattan, 1892. Photographer: W. T. Colbron. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Crowds awaiting cornerstone laying ceremony for the General Grant National Monument, Riverside Drive and 120th Street, Manhattan, 1892. Photographer: W. T. Colbron. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Crowds awaiting cornerstone laying ceremony for the General Grant National Monument, Riverside Drive and 120th Street, Manhattan, 1892. Photographer: W. T. Colbron. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, Manhattan, horse-drawn wagon of N. Y. Transfer Company, ca. 1890. De Gregario Lantern Slide Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.
WASHINGTON STREET MARKET, OR THE REMAINS OF THE ONCE THRIVING WHOLESALE MEAT DISTRIBUTORS
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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Today, we live in a veritable ferry-land. Ferries up and down the East River, ferries scuttling across the Hudson, ferries hauling tourists to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Staten Island ferries. This ferry-abundance replaced a long ferry-drought. Here’s the story:
Throughout much of New York history, ferries were key to economic and social growth. Ferry service from New Amsterdam to Breuckelen dates back to the 1630s. The first ferry to New Jersey was founded in 1661. Ferries along the Harlem River, between uptown Manhattan and the Bronx, started in 1667, and a ferry to Staten Island began in 1712.
In 1904, 147 ferryboats operated on New York City waters. Then a wave of bridge and tunnel construction pushed development far into Brooklyn and Queens, diverting density from the waterfront. These new communities and business districts required land-based connections that ferries could not provide. The old ferry network became obsolete and the City began taking over failing services. By the 1920s, New York had an extensive municipal ferry system, backed by public investment in vessels and terminals. But it was shortlived; most of the routes lost their riders and the municipal network fragmented. In the 1960s, ferryboats disappeared from the East River, severing the oldest link between the boroughs. The last cross-Hudson ferry between Hoboken and Battery Park City) hung on to 1967 when it ceased operations.
“Fort Amsterdam about 1650”, NYPL Digital Collections
A little history
It all goes back to the Dutch – of course. The story is that in the early 1630s, Cornelius Dircksen, a farmer and owner of real estate at Peck Slip ran an informal ferry service to Breuckelen. If someone wanted to cross, they just had to blow on a horn hanging from a tree and Cornelius would do the deed. His landing on the Breuckelen side would become, of course, the future dock of the Fulton Ferry
Robert Fulton created the first steam ferry service across the East River in. In the early 1800s, and other Brooklyn businessmen competed for profitable routes to Lower Manhattan. By 1853, the Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn, the successor to Fulton’s business, consolidated control over the Brooklyn ferry business with 7 routes from Fulton Ferry to Hamilton Avenue and 40,000,000 annual passengers. And Brooklyn was home to the largest ferry company in the world. At the time the Brooklyn Bridge opened, there were at least 12 ferry routes in operation between Manhattan and Brooklyn, using 10 different ferry terminals in Brooklyn and 11 in Manhattan.
A ticket from the 1814 Fulton Ferry steamboat. The ferries carried both people and horse-drawn carriages and wagons. There were three cabins on the modern ferries of 1900. On the main deck, a cabin was provided for each sex. Most likely it wasn’t modesty that necessitated providing a women’s cabin, but rather the appetite for cigar smoking among men. It was taken as a given that women didn’t smoke. But if by chance a woman did, she could go to the unisex upper-deck cabin. Between the two main-deck cabins, an open area ran the length of the ferry. This is where horse-drawn vehicles made the voyage.
In the ferry-abundant second half of the 19th century, ferries streamed across the Hudson as well. Ferries moved people (passengers arriving by rail lines at their New Jersey Hudson River terminus and everyday commuters) and goods (from the same railroads). At one time, twenty passenger docks existed on the Manhattan side of the river.
In 1908, NYC ferryboats reported a total of 201,300,000 passenger rides. The ferry system was at its peak.
Ferries on the Hudson, ferries to Brooklyn. What about the rest of the East River?
This is the less told story. As settlements on what became Queens grew, so did ferry services, but ferries were never as dense as between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Early settlers transported grains, livestock, timber, and firewood across the river from Hallets Cove to New Amsterdam. The first passenger boats began operating in the 1700s from Hallets Cove to Hornes Hook—present-day 86th street—in Manhattan.
The Astoria Ferry
Peter Fitzsimmons began the first regular ferry service between Astoria and Manhattan in 1782. A fleet of row boats and sail boats would depart, at predetermined intervals, from a dock at Hallets Cove not far from what is now Socrates Sculpture Park. The fare was one shilling per person. When Stephen Halsey arrived in 1835, an overhaul of the ferry system was part of the sweeping changes he brought to Astoria. Halsey bought the ferry service, constructed new wharves at the foot of Astoria Boulevard on Hallets Point, and upgraded the boats being used to ship people to and from Manhattan. Soon, Astoria would become a refuge for wealthy New Yorkers’ “country” homes and a stop on the fast ferry route from South Street Seaport to Harlem, another center for New Yorkers of money.
In 1936, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia arranged to end the then city-operated ferry and transfer the land to the Triborough Authority to build a new approach to the Triborough Bridge. La Guardia finalized the plans for the turnover on July 15 but gave the ferry an additional sixty days to wind down operations while ferry riders found alternative ways across the East River. However, Robert Moses, who headed the Triborough Authority, didn’t want to wait that long. Long story short, on July 21, as the ferry Rockaway had pulled away from the terminal, Moses directed his contractor to tear the dock apart – even though passengers were waiting on the Manhattan side to return. At the last minute, La Guardia was able to get the police to stop the contractors from destroying the rest of the dock. That night, the city hastily rebuilt the damaged dock and ferry house. By morning, the Rockaway was back in service. But the Astoria ferry was over.
The Greenpoint Ferry
The first Greenpoint ferry dates from the 1830’s. The ferry was started by a Greenpoint carpenter, Alpheus Rollins. Neziah Bliss later established regular ferry service to Manhattan from Greenpoint around 1850, which is one of many changes that allowed for Greenpoint to become part of the City of Brooklyn in 1855. Bliss sold the ferry off to Sheppard Knapp, and the Knapp family ran the local ferry for many years.
On September 25, 1921, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported that, after many years of running in the red, “the City of New York took over the ferry thanks in large part to the non-stop badgering of Alderman Pete McGuinness who so often berated Mayor Hylan that Hyland told him that the city would take over the ferry if Pete would only shut up. Amazingly, McGuinness did and the city began to run the ferry.” On February 12, 1933, the Greenpoint Ferry made its final run. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle tells us “Starting this morning, the East River Ferry is no more…” It would be part of a reorganized city ferry service. “The good thing about the new city-subsidized service,” the Daily Eagle stated, “is that fares are being slashed to $2.75 for a one-way ticket (formerly up to $6).” But it was gone.
The 34th Street Ferry
The ferry terminals at 34th St and James Slip both connecting with Long Island City at Hunters Point opened in 1858. When the Long Island Railroad moved from Brooklyn to Hunters Point, the ferry was linked to the LIRR. It closed down on in March 1925, after 67 years of East River crossings. The New York Times piece on the closing (March 4, 1925) focuses on the ferry skipper: “’Too slow for New York today,’ soliloquized Skipper Schow. ‘The ferryboats that were good enough for the late Theodore Roosevelt, Russell Sage, Charles Dana, August Belmont, William Whitney and William Vanderbilt, as they went to and fro between Manhattan and their Long Island homes, won’t do for the army of wage-earners riding nowadays from home to their work and back again. ‘T.R.’ and all the rest of them were satisfied with our speed then, but now even the hearse drivers complain when funerals cross the river.”
The Municipal Ferry Service
What about the Municipal Ferry Service? In 1905, the City of New York began a “progressive takeover of the ferry system” when it acquired the ferry route running between Whitehall Street (Manhattan) and Saint George (Staten Island) from the Staten Island Rapid Transit. By 1925, the New York City municipal ferry system had reached its pinnacle as it operated over a dozen routes that provided ferry service to all five boroughs and New Jersey. But the times had moved on. More bridges, better steel rail transportation and much greater use of automobiles doomed the project. Twenty years later, only one municipally-operated ferry route remained, the same route that it started with in 1905, the Staten Island Ferry.
So the ferry drought – except, as most of us saw as kids, the venerable Staten Island Ferry. And, now, ferry supreme. And our own dock.
STRECKER MEMORIAL LABORATORY ARLENE BESSENOFF AND GLORIA HERMAN GOT IT RIGHT!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
Stephen L. Meyers, Manhattan’s Lost Streetcars The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, September 25, 1921
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“I believe the man who will go down to posterity is the man who paints his own time and the scenes of every-day life around him,” Childe Hassam said in 1892, three years after this Boston-born Impressionist painter settled permanently in New York City.FROM EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
New York Winter,” 1900
Painting scenes of everyday life around him is exactly what Hassam did for the next four decades. From his first studio at Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, he began depicting random moments in the Gilded Age city. His Impressionist style brilliantly captured light and color: of gaslit lamps, snowy sidewalks, rain-slicked umbrellas, and the sky at the “blue hour” just before twilight.
“Messenger Boy,” 1900
Perhaps his best-known works are urban landscapes near Washington Square, Union Square, and Madison Square, and Ephemeral New York has posted many examples over the years. But ultimately, Hassam was interested in what he termed “humanity in motion.”
“The Manhattan Club,” 1891
“‘There is nothing so interesting to me as people,’ he remarked in 1892,” according to an article from Smithsonian Magazine. “’I am never tired of observing them in every-day life, as they hurry through the streets on business or saunter down the promenade on pleasure. Humanity in motion is a continual study to me.’”
“Broadway and 42nd Street,”
1902 Hassam’s subjects engage in habits and rituals New Yorkers still take part in, and they occupy a city that looks familiar to us today. Despite transportation options like elevated trains, streetcars, and horse-drawn cabs, Gotham was a city of walkers, then and now.
“Bottleman 1892”
New York was also a class-structured city in Hassam’s era, as it remains today. Elegant men and women enjoy leisure time while cab drivers, messengers, doormen, vendors, and other workers earn a living around them.
“View of Broadway and Fifth Avenue,” 1890
Critics then and now have pointed out that Hassam’s work lacks the rough edges and raw social realist energy of many of his contemporaries. “In New York, for example, he ignored the new heterogeneity and hardships, romanticized symbols of modernism such as skyscrapers, and emphasized fast-fading Gilded Age gentility,” states Boston’s Gardner Museum.
“Rainy Day, Fifth Avenue,” 1893
Hassam had a simple answer for his critics and those in the art world who latched onto trends. According to the Smithsonian Magazine article, he told a critic in 1901: “I can only paint as I do and be myself. Subjects suggest to me a color scheme and I just paint.”
INTERNATIONAL ARRIVALS TERMINAL JFK AIRPORT HARA REISER GOT IT. FROM ED LITCHER: In 1957, Calder was commissioned to make a monumental work for the International Arrivals Building of Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International Airport) by the Port Authority of New York. “People think monuments should come out of the ground, never out of the ceiling, but mobiles can be monumental too,” Calder said of the project, “I made three models to scale, 17 inches wide. The one that was bought had to be blown up to forty-five feet wide.” The sculpture, titled .125 after the gauge of the aluminum elements, now hangs over the departure hall in Terminal 4.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Source: ephemeralnewyork | October 11, 2021 at 12:59 am | Tags: Childe Hassam Fifth Avenue, Childe Hassam Impressionist NYC, Childe Hassam New York City, Childe Hassam Paintings NYC, New York City in the gilded age, NYC Gilded Age Painters | Categories: art, Flatiron District, Music, art, theater | URL: https://wp.me/pec9m-9
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Nellie Bly told the stories of other women. Now, we tell hers.
Although her life and legacy include broad professional experience as a journalist, women’s rights advocate, suffragist, WWI correspondent, inventor/patent holder, industrialist, and humanitarian, a common thread for Nellie Bly is that she experienced the plight of those who are marginalized. She wrote stories that would move the needle toward equality and progress, especially for women. Highly regarded as America’s first investigative journalist, she set a precedent for what it means to be a voice for the voiceless.
Bly gave a voice and a face to women who had no visibility or prominence in society.
The Girl Puzzle honors Nellie Bly by presenting, on a monumental scale, faces of many women who have endured hardship, but are stronger for it. The monument gives visibility to Asian, Black, Young, Old, Immigrant, and Queer women. Their stories and lives are forever commemorated alongside Nellie Bly, whose face is cast in silver bronze, while the other four faces are cast in bronze. Each of them, rendered in partial sections that appear like giant puzzle pieces, show a depth of emotion and complexity of being broken and repaired. As the viewer approaches and enters, they become part of the puzzle by interacting with the reflective surfaces and seeing sections of the faces come together at different vantage points.
This installation is dually inspired by Bly’s incredible response to bigotry which became her first published headline in 1885, The Girl Puzzle; and by her seminal work, Ten Days in a Madhouse, that shaped her life of dedication and empathy for others.
The story of each woman can be downloaded from “The Girl Puzzle: website or from the QR code below.
The back of the Nellie piece with the quote “while I live, I hope” engraved in it
The reflective orbs give different visions of each piece
Adjoining each sculpture will be a miniature of the face and a braille description so that a visually impaired person can feel the features and texture of the face.
This QR code will give you the entire story in spoken and written text.
The initial stages of the lighthouse restoration are proceeding at the same time as this installation. Soon a new historically accurate top will grace the Renwick designed lighthouse.
Entry Gate a Cyprus Hill Cemetery Queens, New York ARON EISENPREIS, ANDY SPARBERG AND CLARA BELLA GOT IT RIGHT
EDITORIAL
Two years ago when this project was announced, I was hoping it would not be another failed effort. I am happy to report that “THE GIRL PUZZLE will be a rousing success and bring multitudes of visitors to the Lighthouse Park and the north end of the island.
Watching the work this week has been wonderful. Seeing the detail and textures of the sculptures brings the faces to life.
The project is so well thought out that it will include touchable surfaces, braille interpretation, and an easily downloaded audio narration.
Amanda Matthews and Brad Connell have given their lives to the project, not just designing it but fabricating, transporting, installing, perfecting every detail. It will show in the long term.
Rarely do you feel the stories come alive as in the oral narration and written text.
This art piece is gracing our island, finished or not. Come see it thru the construction fence. RIOC should be proud and immediately tell the world of the new addition to the island.
Welcome Nellie
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
JUDITH BERDY PROMETHEUS ART (Text) ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
We have just acquired this wonderful plaque from the Elevator Storehouse Building. We need your help to pay for the mounting of this 130 pound bronze tablet in the kiosk Your can send us a check or e-mail us and we will take your donation by charge card towards the $1000.00 charge to install the tablet. Help us add this wonderful to our collection of artifacts on view. Thank you R.I.H.S., P.O. BOX 5, NY NY 10044 or e-mail us at rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2021
THE 489th EDITION
‘LAYERS’
ART INSTALLATION
AT THE BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
INVITES VISITORS TO
CONTEMPLATE THE HISTORY
BENEATH THEIR FEET
from UNTAPPED NEW YORK
Following a year of isolation and social restriction, the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative has invited artist Aaron Asis to create a site-specific installation designed to honor and celebrate the multifaceted history of the Naval Cemetery Landscape at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The installation, entitled ‘Layers’ is designed in two parts to showcase the past and remind us of the layered history beneath our feet — and to allow us to contemplate our layered past, to inform our shared future.
“It’s too easy to ignore the past and it’s far easier to look ahead than to look behind — but there is much we can learn from our history, we just need to pause long enough to consider its impact and appreciate its value,” says Aaron Asis.
Along the entrance facade a large-scale mural displays the pre-development landscape surrounding the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Naval Cemetery Landscape site. Inside, hundreds of stripes along the boardwalk evoke the history of the earth beneath it. Footprints left along these striped paths honor the lives historically laid to rest on these grounds. These temporary installations are designed to acknowledge our human impact on the land and to inspire public attention, inquiry, and contemplation into the layered history of this site, the city, and our lives.“The year-round beauty and unique history of the Naval Cemetery Landscape make it a particularly inspiring venue for site-specific art,” Terri Carta, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative, notes. “Aaron Asis’ latest piece, Layers, interprets the site’s topography and natural history while inviting visitors to reflect on its cultural significance and meaning for the communities that interact with it.”
The Naval Cemetery Landscape is located in the southeast corner of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was established on the shores of Wallabout Bay and was America’s premier naval shipbuilding facility from 1801 to 1966. Prior to the NCL, the Brooklyn Naval Hospital Cemetery was an active burial site from 1831 to 1910. In 1926, the Navy relocated individuals buried in the cemetery to Cypress Hills National Cemetery. However, in the 1990s, a series of archaeological investigations concluded that hundreds of burials were unaccounted for and are potentially still at the site.
“Art has a profound ability to inspire and engage and ‘Layers’ is a public invitation to explore a unique New York City history. We should all take a moment to consider the significance of this history and contemplate how understanding our past can improve our lives,” Asis continues.
WATCH THE YOU TUBE VIDEO:
Today the Naval Cemetery Landscape is a project of Brooklyn Greenway Initiative to create a place for retreat and remembrance while honoring its rich layers of natural and cultural history — without disturbing the hallowed ground. ‘Layers’ is currently on display at the Naval Cemetery Landscape at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn NY — through October 2021.
Operating Hours
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday: CLOSED
Wednesday: 10am-6pm
Thursday: 10am-6pm
Friday: 10am-6pm
Saturday: 10am-6pm
Sunday: 10am-6pm
The Naval Cemetery Landscape is following CDC and New York State COVID guidelines.
Face coverings are required for all NCL program participants.
Please note that bike and scooter riding is not permitted at the NCL. As our site is a wildlife habitat, dogs are also not permitted on our grounds.
Getting There
Located on the eastern edge of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and accessed from the Brooklyn Waterfront Greenway at Williamsburg St West between Kent and Flushing Avenues. We highly recommend taking public transportation, biking or walking to NCL.
KING COLE BAR AT THE ST. REGIS HOTEL BY MAXFIELD PARRISH GLORIA HERMAN, LINDA BECKER, LAURA HUSSEY, ARLENE BESSENOFF, THOM HEYER ALL GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
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The Flatiron Partnership offers a snapshot of the 1893 debut of the United Charities Building, a pioneer headquarters for a number of nonprofit organizations that provided social services to those in need. The Renaissance Revival-style building shared the address of 287 Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South) and 105 East 22nd Street.
The location for UCB had been the former site of St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, once described as “one of the most massive and strongly-constructed buildings in the city,” wrote The New York Times on September 24, 1891. Noted designer of homes in the Hamptons, Robert H. Robertson, and the team of Rowe & Baker, who had offices at 10 West 23rd Street near Madison Square Park, were the architects behind the blueprint for UCB. The land where UCB would be built had been purchased by New York philanthropist and banker John S. Kennedy for a reported $300K. The estimated total construction costs for the 121,059 square foot building was valued between $500K and $700K.
Kennedy nominated four organizations to inhabit UCB: the Children’s Aid Society, the Charity Organization Society, the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and the New York City Mission and Tract Society. The nominated organizations were desingnated to benefit from USB as, “The building is expected to be self-supporting, and any surplus revenue, after providing for maintenance and perhaps extension, will be devoted to the general purposes of the four societies named,” according to The New York Times on March 10, 1891.
The day before UCB officially opened its doors for occupancy on March 6, 1893, a dedication service for the property was held at the location. Scheduled attendees at the event included political dignities such as former New York City Mayor Abram S. Hewitt and future Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr., as well as members of the City’s wealthy Gilded Age society such as financiers J. P. Morgan and Russell Sage.
(Drawing by Hughson Hawley From: King’s Handbook of New York City. Planned, edited and published by Moses King, Boston, Mass. Copyright, 1892)
Other soon-to-be UCB occupants included The Hospital Book and Newspaper Society, the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the New York Cooking School, which trained individuals “to cook cheap and nutritious food,” and “supply luncheon to all the employees in the building,” noted The New York Times on March 5, 1893.
During this era, a number of charitable organizations were headed by women. According to the book Landmarks of American Women’s History, the National Consumers’ League was “one of the most influential women’s reform organizations” and the group decided to locate their offices at UCB in 1899.
In addition to the offices that were being used by the charities, UCB featured five elevators, an assembly hall, artists’ studios, and ground-level space for two stores as well as a Penny Provident Fund branch, which promoted itself as a financial institution that would “better safeguard” the accounts of its low-income clients. There were also “free baths to be managed by the Children’s Aid Society,” according to The Times.
One of the most appealing architectural aspects of UCB was its entranceway. In a 1986 report issued by the National Register of Historic Landmarks about UCB’s pending status as a landmark, the entry doors were described as being “flanked by granite Ionic columns. The arch is enhanced by guilloché, egg and dart, and bead and reel patterns. On either side of the arch are decorative cartouches. Surmounting the entrance is the legend United Charities Building in bronze letters, and a tripartite semi-circular window with floral pilasters.” Five years later, on July 17, 1991, and nearly a century after its opening, UCB was designated a National Historic Landmark.
But in 2014, and for the very first time in the building’s real estate history, UCB went on the market to be sold. The property was purchased by a developer for a reported $128 million, with the intent to build condominiums. “This deal is part of a larger trend, where nonprofits city-wide are taking advantage of a hot condo-development market and selling off their headquarters, downsizing to smaller ones or moving to less pricey areas,” reported the website Curbed New York on September 14, 2014.
Following a gut-renovation of the property, however, Spaces, a global office and room provider, became UCB’s newest occupant leasing more than 100K square feet in the mixed-used property, noted published reports. And acclaimed British steakhouse Hawskmoor indicated its first U.S. restaurant would open at the building’s ground-level location.
The legacy of charity launched by financier John S. Kennedy, however, still maintains an active role within the Flatiron District today. The UCB founder’s idea of a place “to which all applicants for aid might apply with assurance that their needs would be promptly carefully considered” continues more than a century later, with almost 30 nonprofit organizations that offer various services throughout the community.
But in 2014, and for the very first time in the building’s real estate history, UCB went on the market to be sold. The property was purchased by a developer for a reported $128 million, with the intent to build condominiums. “This deal is part of a larger trend, where nonprofits city-wide are taking advantage of a hot condo-development market and selling off their headquarters, downsizing to smaller ones or moving to less pricey areas,” reported the website Curbed New York on September 14, 2014.
Following a gut-renovation of the property, however, Spaces, a global office and room provider, became UCB’s newest occupant leasing more than 100K square feet in the mixed-used property, noted published reports. And acclaimed British steakhouse Hawskmoor indicated its first U.S. restaurant would open at the building’s ground-level location.
The legacy of charity launched by financier John S. Kennedy, however, still maintains an active role within the Flatiron District today. The UCB founder’s idea of a place “to which all applicants for aid might apply with assurance that their needs would be promptly carefully considered” continues more than a century later, with almost 30 nonprofit organizations that offer various services throughout the community.
FAMED LONDON STEAKHOUSE HAWKSMOOR OPENS IN UNITED CHARITIES BUILDING
SIGNS FROM ORIGINAL SWISS TRAMS. NANCY BROWN, GLORIA HERMAN, ED LITCHER, CLARA BELLA ALL GOT IT RIGHT!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FLATIRON 23rd STREET PARTNERSHIP
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Green bear cub from the new origami-inspired sculpture series Hacer: Transformations. Photo by Alexandre Ayer. Courtesy of DiversityPics for the Garment District Alliance.
As summer bleeds into fall, new public art installations offer an enticing excuse to explore the city. From the Stapleton Waterfront in Staten Island to the bustling lights of Times Square, over a dozen new art installations are open for viewing. This October, be sure to check out Hacer: Transformations’ colorful origami-inspired sculptures, Jeff Kasper’s mural Soft Spots, and the outdoor photo gallery Inside Out: NY Together at the Port Authority Bus Terminal. In addition, keep reading to learn more about art installations still up from previous months.
No Less Than Everything Came Together by Marcel Dzama at the Bedford Avenue Station. Photo by Kris Graves.
As an additional pop of color, the MTA has unveiled Queens of the Night and No Less Than Everything Comes Together, two permanent mosaic series inside the 1st Avenue and Bedford Avenue L train stations. Created by artist Katherine Bradford, Queens of the Night serves as a tribute to the creatives and essential workers who ride the L train daily. Located in the East Village at the 1st Avenue station, the ethereal figures in Bradford’s work come together to inspire viewers to consider the outward expression of their own interior vivacity. One of the most striking panels from Queens of the Night is “Superhero Responds,” portraying New York’s essential workers in the style of Superman. Situated in Williamsburg at Bedford Avenue, No Less Than Everything Comes Together features theatrical fairy-like figures under the sun and moon. Created by Marcel Dzama, scenes depicted in No Less Than Everything Comes Together are populated with elegant ballet performers, many of whom are adorned with the black-and-white costumes typically worn by NYC Ballet dancers. Scattered throughout the mosaic series are numerous characters representing infamous Brooklynites including Bugsy Siegel and Captain Jonathan Williams — the founder of Williamsburg.
Fuzzy Spiral by Jeremy Couillard. Courtesy of the artist.
During October, Times Square Art will present Fuzz Spiral by Jeremy Couillard. The futuristic animated video will be part of the Times Square Arts Midnight Moment series, airing across 75 electronic billboards throughout Times Square from 11:57 a.m. to 12:00 p.m every day. Fuzz Spiral depicts a rat-dog witch and reptilian mutant playing a video game — the short film was created for the new video game Fuzz Dragon, created by Couillard in June 2021. Over the course of three minutes, the two characters are sucked into a swirling vortex created by a hypnagogic machine placed between them. Once inside, they are taken into a phantasmagorical simulation where they take on different forms and styles as they travel throughout the gamescape. In conjunction with Fuzz Spiral, Daata will present Sasquatch Sex Amulet and Other Objects from the Fuzz Spiral, an online exhibition and merch store featuring exclusive limited edition artworks, NFT’s, t-shirts, and aluminum prints.
“This exhibition is a little store of digital and physical objects that relate to the world inside the video game and reflect on the panoramic screening of the game world in the nighttime atmosphere of the hyper commercialized, bright light whirl of Times Square,” Couillard says.
Every One by Nick Cave at Transit Times Sq 42 St Station. Courtesy of MTA Arts & Design.
Inside the new 42nd Street Connector between Times Square and Grand Central is Every One, the first of a three-piece installation by artist Nick Cave. Commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, the installation was created as part of the 42nd Street Shuttle reconstruction and reconfiguration project, costing the city more than $250 million. The figures were made from recomposed source photos of soundsuits taken by James Prinz, which were then interpreted in glass for display on the subway station’s walls.
Every One’s design features a series of figures wearing colorful soundsuits — costumes that camouflage the shape of the wearer. Taking inspiration from African art traditions, ceremonial dresses, and haute-couture fashion, soundsuits are unique in that through covering the entire body, they conceal the wearer’s gender, race, and class, which eliminates audience judgment throughout the performance. Throughout the installation, the figures can be seen jumping and twirling along the wall, with their suits swaying as if moved by the wind. The other two parts of Cave’s installations, Each One and Equal All, will be installed next year at the new shuttle entrance and on the center island platform wall at Grand Central Terminal respectively.
Sculpture from Jim Rennert: In New York. Courtesy of Cavalier Galleries.
Jim Rennert: In New York is a series of 10 public sculptures created by artist Jim Rennert. Located at various points throughout Midtown Manhattan from 34th Street and 2nd Avenue to 55th Street and 6th Avenue, the sculptures represent recognizable feelings and attitudes of working men and women. Given their prime location in the bustling heart of New York City’s business district, Rennert’s sculptures offer passersby a sense of calm and optimism. Examples include a figure pausing to look at his watch in contemplation, and another sitting on a bench waiting. One of the most prominent figures from the installation includes a towering sculpture of a businessman gazing upwards into the Manhattan skyline, reminding viewers that any dream, regardless of how improbable it may seem, is possible.
In addition, Jim Rennert: In New York will include a selection of new works by the artist on display at the Cavalier Gallery on 57th Street. Rennert’s public sculptures will be on view through December 2021 with the feature gallery exhibition running until October 30, 2021
Geo Grid by Michelle Weinberg. Courtesy of Robyn Roth-Moise.
Throughout Lower Manhattan, the public-artspace nonprofit ArtBridge has turned 65 lamp posts into temporary art installations exploring the theme of resiliency. One selection of featured work includes Dances of New York City by Frances Smith. As the name suggests, Smith’s work features breathtaking illustrations of dancers atop colorful backgrounds of key New York City landmarks and iconographies such as the Brooklyn Bridge and subway entrance. With 10 total illustrations, Dances of New York City highlights traditional dance techniques while simultaneously showcasing relatable New York moments such as the “Pizza Soca,” “The Village Cross,” and “Upper West Side Swing.”
Another featured work on display is Geo Grid by painter Michelle Weinberg. Geo Grid expertly utilizes the cylindrical shape of the lamp posts to highlight patterned art. Through the usage of vividly colored geometric shapes, Geo Grid showcases movement as it swirls upward. Art for the lamp posts was selected through a public design competition held this past summer that received more than 100 submissions.
Experience The Times of Bill Cunningham. Courtesy of ESI Design.
Located at 26 Fulton Street at the South Street Seaport, Experience The Times of Bill Cunningham transports viewers into the vibrant world of famed street photographer Bill Cunningham. Today, Cunningham is known for his photographs of world-renowned personalities such as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Anna Wintour and Andy Warhol on the streets of Manhattan. Over six decades, Cunningham captured shots of celebrities across a wide variety of environments including fashion shows, social events, and on the streets of New York City. The exhibit is inspired by The Times of Bill Cunningham, a 2020 acclaimed documentary by Mark Bozek and hailed by the Hollywood Reporter as being “a snapshot of a life that leaves you grateful for having encountered it.” Experience The Times of Bill Cunningham was designed by NBBJ’s New York Experience design studio, ESI Design and co-presented by Live Rocket Studio founded by Bozek, Creative Edge Parties and Blue Note Entertainment Group.
To bring the photographer’s work to life, Experience The Times of Bill Cunningham will feature large-scale reproductions of Cunningham’s most iconic photos, video, and audio interviews — including artifacts like Cunningham’s iconic Biria bicycle and his trademark blue french worker’s jacket. Across two stories, 18,000 square feet and six distinct faces, the exhibit will also showcase a grand staircase where guests’ outfits will be digitally transformed into a one-of-a-kind fashion statement. Additionally, guests can pose on a simulated city crosswalk just like the subjects in Cunningham’s work or relax on a bench made of milk crates and a foam mattress — alluding to the artist’s bed in his Carnegie Hall studio. Launching September 12 for Fashion Week, Experience The Times of Bill Cunningham will run through October 30, 2021
THE STATEN ISLAND MUSEUM WITH IT’S WONDERFUL PARKLIKE LOCATION AT SAILOR’S SNUG HARBOR.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
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The story begins in 1831, when Samuel B. Ruggles, a New York City lawyer and real estate investor, had an idea.
The metropolis was growing fast, pushing past its Lower Manhattan borders and creeping up to 14th Street and beyond. The builders of all the new houses and commercial buildings didn’t always care much about urban planning, and Manhattan’s naturally hilly topography was being leveled and turned into streets and building lots.
Ruggles knew that elite New Yorkers would pay big to reside in a different kind of setting, even if it was somewhat north of the posh sections of the city. “He recognized the value of centering residences around inviting open spaces within Manhattan’s strict city grid,” stated the National Parks Service.
So Ruggles bought land between today’s 19th Street and 24th Street and Broadway (then known as Bloomingdale Road) and Second Avenue. This marshy part of the city was known as the Crommesshie, or krom moerasje, a Dutch term later corrupted to “Gramercy” that meant “little crooked swamp,” per the NPS.
Ruggles drained the marsh and planned the new neighborhood of Gramercy (below map, from 1831): 66 lots centered on a two-acre green space for residents only that would be an “attractive inducement for real-estate development in the early 19th century,” according to a 1966 report by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
The idea of a private park on city grounds sounds very undemocratic to contemporary New Yorkers. But it wasn’t all that unusual at the time. First, the whole idea of a park as we know it today was a new concept; it would be another decade before city officials began seriously considering creating the open urban space that ultimately became Central Park in 1859.
Also, a precedent had been set, as Manhattan already had another private park for elite residents only: St. John’s Park, in view of St. John’s Chapel and many posh row houses in today’s Tribeca. And since the buyers of the building lots would also pay to maintain the park, it wasn’t unreasonable that the park itself would be off-limits to outsiders, blocked by a wrought iron fence.
The first residents relocated to Gramercy in the 1840s, and two years later, planting in the park began, according to the LPC, adding that the iron gate has been locked since 1844. (The first keys were actually made of solid gold, per a 2012 article in the New York Times.)
Close to two centuries later, some of those original private dwellings remain, joined by elegant and historic apartment buildings. Gramercy Park residents successfully fought an attempt to have a cable car cut through the park in the 1890 and 1912, and the tranquil character Ruggles sought remains to this day, “long after the death of the society for which it was designed,” notes the LPC. (A fountain in the park pays homage to Ruggles.)
And what about the still-private park, the only one in Manhattan—St. John’s Park bit the dust in the 1860s—and one of two in all of New York City? (Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, created in 1926, is also members-only.)
According to the New York Times, just 383 keys to the park exist, and they’re reserved for residents of the 39 buildings around the perimeter of the park. (Guests of the Gramercy Park Hotel can also sign a key out and be escorted to the park by a staffer.)
“Any of the 39 buildings on the park that fails to pay the yearly assessment fee of $7,500 per lot, which grants it two keys—fees and keys multiply accordingly for buildings on multiple lots—will have its key privileges rescinded,” notes the Times.
Though Gramercy Park used to open one day every year to non-residents, that tradition has ended. If you really want to enjoy the gorgeous landscaping and the statue of actor (and presidential assassin brother) Edwin Booth yet can’t get a key of your own, you might have a shot on Christmas Eve.
In 2019, the park opened to the public for one hour for a caroling event. But be warned: there’s no word on whether that will ever happen again.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY BEAVER TILE AT THE ASTOR PLACE
SUBWAY STATION ARON EISENPREIS, HARA REISER, GLORIA HERMAN, JAY JACOBSON THERE IS A G-MAIL GLITCH TODAY SO I HAVE NOT RECEIVED ALL THE MESSAGES. DO YOU THINK THE BEAVER IS EATING THE WIRES?
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
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In November 1856 a new playhouse opened at 622/4 Broadway, between Bleecker and Houston Streets, called Laura Keene’s Theatre (later renamed the Olympic Theatre). Close to Pfaff’s basement, Keene and many of her actors and actresses made their way to his establishment after or in between performances.
Adah Isaacs Menken was a poet and actress known for her sensual stage performances. Born Adelaide McCord in June 1835 near New Orleans probably into a Catholic family, Adah worked from an early age (her father had died young) as an actress in various theaters learning her trade. Aged twenty-one, she married the Jewish musician Alexander Menken in Texas. Her partner wished for a conventional relationship. While prepared to adopt the Jewish faith, she refused to give up acting. The marriage ended in divorce.
A friend of Ada Clare, Menken was one of those regulars at Pfaffs’s who openly ignored conventions of propriety. She rose quickly to notoriety. At a time when women were expected to be self-effacing, Menken smoked in public, cropped her hair, starred in provocative stage roles, and wrote poetry. Encouraged by Walt Whitman, she had poems published in the New York Sunday Mercury. She was a “New Woman” in the making.
Having disposed of two husbands, she left New York in August 1863, heading for San Francisco where Mazeppa brought her a new enthusiastic following. During her stay in the city she went through another two failed marriages. Longing for wider adoration, she took Mazeppa to Paris where she had an affair Alexandre Dumas pére whose son threatened his father for being a senile Romeo. Menken then left for London where her act excited Charles Dickens, Walter Swinburne, and others.
