What happened to the 104 bronze figures that once lined NYC’s famous thoroughfare?
The bronze statuette of Mercury now standing atop Helicline Fine Art proprietor Keith Sherman’s kitchen island once stood atop a traffic light on Fifth Avenue. Over 100 of these statuettes formerly lined the famous thoroughfare from Eighth Street to 59th Street, but the figures vanished from the streetscape over 60 years ago. What happened to these gilded gods and how did Sherman get a hold of not one, but four of them?
To trace the appearance and disappearance of Fifth Avenue’s Mercury statuettes, we need to look at the earliest days of vehicular traffic on Fifth Avenue. They were a mess. To help ease the flow of traffic, five elevated signaling sheds were constructed in 1920. A patrolman at each post manually operated the tri-colored signal lights. These signals were effective in cutting down travel time along the avenue.
The first signaling sheds were built simply for function and painted with black and white stripes for visibility. A couple of years after their installment, the Fifth Avenue Association offered to pay for more ornamental and permanent versions. A design competition was held and the victor was American sculptor Joseph H. Freedlander
Freedlander designed a series of ornate bronze towers that stood 23 feet tall on a granite base. The towers were adorned with neoclassical ornamentation such as eagles, torches, and foliage. An illuminated clock sat at the center of the tower below the glass-enclosed space where the patrolman operated the signal, a space heated by an electric stove according to the New York Times.
As traffic signal technology advanced, the bulky manually operated towers became obsolete. Freedlander was tasked with designing traffic light poles to take their place along Fifth Avenue. He topped these slender bronze poles with a figure of Mercury, the Roman god of commerce and travel.
Freedlander’s depiction of Mercury stands atop a globe wearing a World War I-style helmet and a sash draped around his waist and arms. One arm is outstretched while the other holds a winged wheel at his side. The figure stood atop a rectangular traffic light with just two colors.
Two Mercury statues were installed at 41st Street and Fifth Avenue in 1931 and more were added until they stretched all the way from 8th to 59th Street.
The Mercury statuettes stood watch over Fifth Avenue for over thirty years until more innovations in street lighting and signaling were made. Many of the ornate lampposts of the early twentieth century began to be replaced by sleek modern posts in the 1950s. By 1962, the changes hit Fifth Avenue.
Christopher Gray wrote in theNew York Times in 1997 that Traffic Commissioner Henry A. Barnes had the Mercurcy statues removed in 1964 “to stop souvenir hunters.” The paper reported that the removal process was complete by Christmas of that year.
Another article in theNew York Times from 1971 states that the statuettes were briefly reinstalled due to public demand after Michael B. Grosse, executive vice president of the Fifth Avenue Association at the time, had the statuettes refurbished. It’s unclear when the statues were taken down again, but they were gone by the time Gray wrote about them in the 1990s.
Throughout the coverage in the Times the disappearance of the statues was attributed to traffic accidents, vandalism, theft, and destruction. Gray wrote that the statuettes were “junked for scrap.” He was able to track down just three of the 104 statues that once existed. He found two in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York and one in the office of the Fifth Avenue Association. Untapped New York reached out to those institutions to check on the tiny Mercury figures.
MCNY confirmed that the museum has one in its collection, while the representative we corresponded with for the Fifth Avenue Association said they were unable to turn up any photos or information about a statuette in their possession.
A former chairman of the Fifth Avenue Association wrote a letter to the editor in 1997 in response to Gray’s piece, stating that he remembered the Association giving out the statues to “guest of honor at the annual luncheon, which took place at the Waldorf-Astoria for a great many years.” Clearly not all the statues had been destroyed. They are out there somewhere.
Art collector Keith Sherman, co-owner of Helicline Fine Art, has been lucky enough to find multiple Mercury statues on the antique market. “I pore through hundreds of auctions every week and at one point I was just fascinated by this gorgeous Art Deco Mercury,” Sherman told Untapped New York. He didn’t know the backstory at first but after doing research on the artist and learning about the statuette’s New York City history, he was hooked.
His first Mercury find was in the 1990s. In total, Sherman has found four of the statuettes. He has sold two, one is at his Manhattan home and another is at an upstate property.
Sherman’s Mercury statues have come from the families of former Department of Transportation workers who he surmises salvaged the statues when they were removed from their posts. His most recent Mercury find was during the pandemic and he always has an eye out for more. “Every time I look at an auction, in my head, I’m saying ‘When I flip to the next page, will there be a Mercury? Will there be another one?'”
If you remember seeing the Mercury statues on Fifth Ave or have ever come across one since they were removed, let us know by leaving a comment!
PHOTO OF THE DAY
A MACY’S ODDITY.
Back in the 1960’s when Macy’s was constructing their new store on Queens Boulevard there was a holdout homeowner. To satisfy the the problem the building has a notch in the structure to accommodate the neighbor. It is still visible on the western side of the building.
CREDITS
HELICLINE FINE ART- KEITH SHERMAN DYLAN BROWN
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.
Fashion icon Ralph Lauren, who transformed a small necktie business into an international brand, joined elite company recently when he accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden.
Lauren, known for his “preppy threads,” but whose fashion empire extends to fragrance and furniture and beyond, said in a statement that it was an “honor of a lifetime.”
In bestowing the award, the White House cited Lauren’s philanthropy, “including fighting to end cancer as we know it,” and noted that “Ralph Lauren reminds us of our distinct style as a nation of dreamers and doers.”
And those who know their Sullivan County, New York, history know that in the case of Ralph Lauren, his own dreams started right there. That’s right, Ralph Lauren once lived and worked in Monticello.
Ralph Lifshitz, was born to Frank and Frieda Cutler Lifshitz on October 14, 1939, and grew up in the same Jewish neighborhood in The Bronx that produced Robert Klein, Penny and Garry Marshall, and rival designer Calvin Klein. His father made a living painting houses, and also dabbled in art, as well.
“The Lifshitz family had spent summers there for years,” Gross writes. “In the 1930s, Ralph’s uncle, Izzy Lifshitz, opened a produce store in Monticello and soon became a wholesaler, supplying fruits and vegetables to the many local summer camps and hotels. Eastern European immigrants had vacationed in the mountains since the turn of the century, converting farmhouses into boardinghouses, boardinghouses into hotels, and hotels into grand resorts like Grossinger’s, Kutsher’s, and the Concord.”
Several members of the Cutler family owned property there, too. One of Frieda’s brothers had a bungalow colony. Frank and Frieda had a kochalyn– a rooming house with a communal kitchen. Frank bought the Green Mountain House (aka Lifshitz Bungalows) but hated it because he had to commute every weekend while Frieda and the kids got to stay all summer.
“When he got there on Fridays, he’d be overwhelmed with repair and painting chores,” according to Gross. “The big white house atop a wooded rise had two bedrooms on its ground floor, three more upstairs, and two separate bungalows with five more bedrooms – every one with its own sink.
“Next door was the Hilltop Bungalow Colony, owned by the Pincus and Cohen families. All alone together on their hilltop, the two compounds were a world apart in the 1940s. ‘We were kept secluded and out of the mainstream,’ says a Cohen cousin, Barbara Levy. ‘We knew there was a war, but nobody talked about it.’
“They would all swim in the Hilltop’s unfiltered concrete pool, climb the apple trees, go berry picking, play punchball, sneak into the local hotels, and walk to the movies at the Rialto and Broadway in town.”
Frank Lifshitz used to frequent Gusar’s Pharmacy on Broadway in the village. He used to paint pictures and sell them outside, usually allowing drug store owner George Gusar to see them first.
One day during the summer of 1955, he asked Gusar if he might know where the two Lifshitz boys might find summer employment. Gusar hired them both.
“I don’t remember much about them,” he once related to a newspaper reporter. “They didn’t really stand out, but you have to realize, I’ve had a lot of people work for me over the years who went on to become famous, like George Cooke and Eddie Cooke.”
The boys – Ralph and his older brother Jerry – left the drugstore after a short time for jobs as waiters at Camp Roosevelt on Sackett Lake, where they worked for a number of summers thereafter. Their tenure there proved life changing.
“Camp Roosevelt opened up new possibilities for Ralph,” Gross writes. “It was his first real exposure to a world beyond the insular immigrant community his parents inhabited. Though most of the campers were middle class, some were rich – the children of hotel owners, real estate moguls, and newspaper distributors – and they were real preppies, not just dress-up wannabes.
“Their world, until then alien, suddenly seemed within his reach. ‘Even then,’ says one of Jerry’s campers, ‘Ralph knew where to mingle.’”
The Camp Roosevelt experience made a lasting impression on Ralph Lifshitz, and was largely responsible for instilling in him his renowned drive and insatiable ambition. As Gross points out, he became a sort of real life Jay Gatsby, “who sprang from his Platonic conception of himself.”
In keeping with this new image, he and his siblings legally changed their name to Lauren in the late 1950s, and the rest, as they say, is history, culminating in the nation’s highest civilian honor, whose previous winners include Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., President Ronald Reagan, Maya Angelou, and Mother Teresa.
Obviously, Ralph still “knows where to mingle.”
I wrote a few months ago about my relatives that were the owners of the Luzon Lodge, far from the later Catskill experience.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
No, it is not Sportspark! This is the greatest feature on the MSC MIraviglia, the cruise ship I sailed on last week. A great way to have basketball, soccer, tennis, pickleball while at sea. Keeping teens active this is the best attraction on board after unlimited food at the buffet. (During really rough seas, the gym is closed for safety).
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK 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.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said she wants to spend $400 million to revitalize Albany, including committing $150 million to the State Museum and $35 million to move soon to be announced proposals to re-imagine some of Albany’s Hudson River waterfront into the design phase.
Hochul teased the history-related proposals in her State of the State address and in press materials on Tuesday. Plans for how that money would be spent will come when the Governor’s budget proposal is released later this month.
“If it all comes true, it will be the biggest damn Christmas present to Albany in decades,” State Senator Pat Fahy told the Albany Times Union. “It’s extraordinary.”
The $150 million the New York State Museum would receive comes years after unfulfilled promises of a $14 million Museum renovation, which was supposed to include new exhibits, a wall system for the exhibition space that would make it more versatile, and interactive technology and media displays.
This new investment will be used “to renovate the New York State Museum and upgrade the exhibits to be more inviting to visitors, including families,” according to the Governor’s office.
Hochul told the Times Union that her office would convene a panel of education and tourism experts. The panel “will focus on how to best preserve the museum’s cultural and educational heritage while modernizing the space to be more appealing,” she said.
Details of the State Museum proposals provided to the Times Union did not mention the involvement of the state Education Department, which oversees the Office of Cultural Education’s State Museum, Library and Archives.
“Instead, it suggests that the state ‘identify a new operating model for the museum, returning this world-class collection to its rightful place as a point of pride for all New Yorkers.’, the Times Union reported.
Education Department spokesperson JP O’Hare told the paper: “We look forward to reviewing the governor’s proposal and will provide our feedback once we have had the opportunity to assess the details thoroughly.”
Management has been at issue at the State Museum for at least a decade, and has recently gained support for structural change the Times Union reported.
“Last summer, past and current museum employees expressed frustration about what they saw as a lack of oversight from the education department, which they said contributed to stagnation and management problems at the museum,” according to the paper.
“At the time, Fahy discussed her 2023 proposal to create an advisory body — including those from the private sector — to oversee the museum as well as the other two entities under the Office of Cultural Education: the state archives and library.”
The Governor also supported plans to include Harriet Tubman as one of New York’s representatives in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall; more funding for community centers and playgrounds statewide; and more.
COMMENT
I have visited the Albany Cultural Education Building many times while in Albany.
The building contains the NYS Archives, where RIOC historic records were relocated a few years ago since RIOC was unable to safely preserve them.
The State Library has been used many times for historic research and is located in the building. These two institutions are a great resource for historians and everyone.
The problem is the NYS Museum, an enormous space on three floors of the structure. The exhibits are out of date, rarely changed, and the animals in the dusty dioramas are on death row. There are some areas, such as the 9/11 WTC exhibit, that are so realistic you can smell the smoke that still lingers in the vehicles exhibited. In general, the museum is sad and hopefully will finally be a shining exhibit of State history and not a dusty relic of the 1960s Rockefeller development of the Capitol.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Members of the Coler Auxiliary gathered together to celebrate 2024 and plan for 2025 projects to improve residents’ lives on Wednesday. from left to right: Jacqueline Kwedy, Theresa Chamberlain, Judith Berdy, Marie Marie, Glorias Swaby, Mary Coleman, Emilia Ciobanu, Emmanuella Chevalier. (not shown: Moriko Betz, Khady Sene, Alida Torres, Darlene Torres)
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK 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.
I am back from vacation and the new Lenovo is making life a breeze. I can tell you the tale of the week on the high seas later. Did not miss your weather, but mine was never above 75 degrees.
John La Farge: Eclectic Art Circles in London & Manhattan
During the late nineteenth century articles that focused on artist’s dwelling and studio as a demonstration of his or her creative personality became fashionable reading.
Between March and April 1884, six installments were published simultaneously in London and New York City of “Artists at Home,” a serial publication of twenty-five photogravures (a high quality print process) by Joseph Parkin Mayall with biographical sketches by the art critic and member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Frederic George Stephens (1827-1907).
The London home of Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) in Holland Park with its Arab Hall or Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Italianate villa in St John’s Wood were presented in great detail and glowing terms. These grandiose mansions created enormous curiosity, both in Britain and America.
Victorians in Togas
Introduced by the great German art critic Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768) in 1763, the term “eclectic” was most clearly defined a decade later by Joshua Reynolds in his Discourses (1774), describing the ancient heritage as a “magazine of common property, always open to the public, whence every man has a right to take what materials he pleases.”
Dutch painter Lawrence (Lourens) Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) was born on January 8, 1836, in Dronrijp, Friesland. Trained at the Antwerp Academy of Art, he was an Orientalist with a preference for Merovingian and Egyptian subjects.
When on honeymoon in the Campania region, he visited Pompeii to witness the first excavations of the site. Inspired by the spectacle, he embarked on depicting scenes from Greek and Roman Antiquity. A prolific artist, he came to be known as the painter of “Victorians in togas.”
In 1864 he secured a commission for twenty-four pictures from Belgian-born dealer and publisher Ernest Gambart (1814-1902) who at the time dominated London’s art market; in 1869 he received a contract for another forty-eight paintings. These works were exhibited at the prestigious French Gallery, Pall Mall. Successful sales linked the painter closer to Britain.
In December 1869, some nine months after the death of his first wife, Lawrence met Laura Epps. Half his age, she made him decide to settle in London with his two young daughters. Having married in July 1871, the couple made Townsend House on Titchfield Terrace near Regent’s Park their home.
Lawrence re-designed the property to resemble a Roman villa, but in the early hours of October 10, 1874, an accident happened. The barge Tilbury was towed westwards along Regent’s Park Canal.
Laden with sugar, nuts, barrels of petroleum and five tons of gunpowder, the canal boat caught fire as it went under Macclesfield Bridge, causing an explosion that killed all on board. The blast seriously damaged Townsend House.
In Alma-Tadema’s elaborate reconstruction of the property each room was given a distinct theme. Downstairs there were a Gothic library, a Japanese studio (for Laura), and a Spanish boudoir. The upstairs parlors were laid out in Moorish and Byzantine styles. Lawrence’s studio was given a Pompeian look.
As soon as the restoration work was finished, the artist went out in search of a new project to mark his position as the arbiter of Victorian taste. He found a villa at 44 Grove End Road in St John’s Wood, once owned by Jacques-Joseph (James) Tissot, a prominent French painter who had returned to Paris in December 1882.
When the family settled there in November 1886, the grand mansion of sixty-six rooms had been modeled in Italianate style. The entrance to the hall was laid with Persian tiles and named the Hall of Panels as it consisted of an “unending” series (some fifty in total) of vertical paintings against the white walls produced by friends and visitors to the house.
One room was filled with treasures from China and Japan. Another chamber had leather-covered walls with cabinets and brasses of Dutch workmanship.
Central to the structure was a balcony overlooking a marble basin with fountain. Alma-Tadema himself occupied a three-story studio with walls of grey-green marble and capped with a semi-circular dome covered in aluminum. One of its stained glass windows was designed by a painter and muralist from New York City.
Gilded Age Architect
Having studied art history in Rome, Vermont-born Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) decided on a career in architecture instead. He trained in Geneva, before being admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, the very first American architect to enter this prestigious institution. His schooling was thoroughly French.
Back in the United States by 1856, he opened a practice in New York becoming the city’s most prominent architect. He has been labeled the builder who “gilded the Gilded Age.”
Hunt shaped New York’s built environment with his designs for the Metropolitan Museum, the Roosevelt Building, the vanguard Stuyvesant apartment block, the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and numerous grand mansions (including Vanderbilt’s estate on Fifth Avenue), although few of his buildings still stand.
His grand structures were based on French neo-classical and Renaissance models. Almost single-handedly, he replaced the dominant English High Victorian public building of the 1860s/70s with his interpretation of French classicism.
His first eye-catching project was the Tenth Street Studio Building. Completed in January 1858, the structure at 51 West 10th Street was New York City’s earliest multiple-artist studio. Boasting twenty-five studios, its central atrium was a shared area that featured a glass ceiling and gas lighting for daylong illumination.
Hunt himself rented space in the building where he founded the first American architectural school in 1858.
An early tenant in the building was William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) who first occupied a small apartment and then took over the gallery originally intended as exhibition space.
To American critics, eclecticism served as a defining characteristic of the artist’s work to indicate his exploration of multiple genres, his stylistic borrowings from Old Masters, and his passion for exotic objects of various historical periods. Chase encouraged his students to adopt a similar approach by instructing them: “Take the best from everything.”
Marquand Mansion
In 1884 Hunt built the Marquand residence at the northwest corner of Madison Avenue & 68th Street. Banker Henry Gurdon Marquand (1819-1902) had made his fortune in financing railroads. Having developed a passion for art, he acquired paintings by Anthony van Dyck, an array of Roman bronzes, and a rich collection of Chinese porcelains.
One of the co-founders of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Marquand acted as its second President and donated many works of art to the institution.
The Marquand mansion was designed to call up memories of a French “château” (castle). The outside looked palatial, but ample attention was given to the building’s interior. Rooms were arranged in a rectangular plan around a central hall from where a double staircase gave access to the tiered galleries above.
Each section was decorated in a different historical style. A Pompeian salon, Moorish library, Japanese drawing room and Spanish refectory were designed to house Marquand’s eclectic collection of art works.
Alma-Tadema’s presence here was almost inevitable. In 1882, Marquand had commissioned a painting from him intended to depict Plato teaching philosophy to a group of followers. After various re-workings of the painting, the artist eventually completed “A Reading from Homer” in 1885.
He would also be involved in the decoration of the estate. His skill as an interior designer was internationally known. Marquand was aware of his talent when he commissioned the artist to design the mansion’s music room.
The Greek-style suite of furniture was planned by Alma-Tadema himself (at the staggering cost of £25,000) and compromised a music cabinet, several settees, chairs, occasional tables and stools.
All items were executed in London’s West End by Messrs Johnstone, Norman & Co. of 67 New Bond Street under the supervision of Norfolk-born William Christmas Codman (1839-1921, who, from 1891 onward, would act as chief silver designer for Gorham Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island).
Alma-Tadema commissioned Frederic Leighton to create a triptych ceiling painting that featured allegorical figures representing music, dance and poetry. Central to the room was a grand pianoforte, the workings of which had been supplied by Steinway & Sons (now known as the “Alma-Tadema Steinway”).
Edward Poynter, another artist who sought inspiration in classical antiquity, was requested to paint the piano’s fallboard. Its interior lid was fitted with parchment sheets to be signed by its performers (names included Walter Damrosch, Arthur Sullivan, William Gilbert and others).
Backwards & Forwards
John La Farge (1835-1910) was the eldest child in a family of urbane Catholic French immigrants who had settled in New York City. His father, a successful lawyer, was a refugee from the ill-fated expedition by Napoleon Bonaparte to regain control of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
Born in 1835, John was brought up with close attention to French culture and educated at Mount Saint Mary’s College, Maryland. He then studied law in New York, without ever abandoning his interest in art.
In 1856 he left for Europe. In Paris he briefly worked at Thomas Couture’s studio and visited museums in northern Europe to copy the Old Masters. When news broke of his father’s illness, he returned to New York City.
On his way back he stopped by in Manchester to see an exhibition that included paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites from which he drew inspiration.
After briefly taking up his studies again, the death of his father left him financially independent. Free from having to pursue a legal career, he dedicated his life to painting and rented a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building (which he would maintain for the rest of his career).
After meeting Richard Morris Hunt, he traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, to study painting with the architect’s brother, William Morris Hunt.
Having married in 1860, his family life was centered in Rhode Island, but his outlook was that of a cultivated metropolitan artist. During the 1860s he was one of the first American artists to be influenced by Japanese color prints (he visited Japan in 1886 in the company of Henry Adams).
Having embarked on mural painting in the 1870s, he was commissioned by architect Henry Hobson Richardson to paint walls at Trinity Church, Copley Square, in Boston. The project (completed in 1876) established his name as a muralist.
During that same period he began experimenting with stained glass which, at the time, was a relatively new medium to the United States. In Britain, the Gothic Revival had elevated its creation to an art form.
The majority of stained glass used in America was imported and produced in a traditional manner. Having worked out a technique for the manufacture of opalescent glass, La Farge was granted a patent (no. 224,831) for a “Colored-Glass Window.”
Between 1886 and 1902 he created a series of glass stained windows based on the Japanese theme of “peonies in the wind.” One of those had been commissioned by Alma-Tadema for the decoration of his London studio. Another was acquired by Marquand and installed at his Newport (summer) residence.
It was a meaningful moment when, in October 1912, London auctioneers Hampton & Sons announced the sale of Alma-Tadema’s Grove End property and its contents. Jean Guiffrey, a former curator at the Louvre in Paris acting on behalf of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, acquired the glass stained painting for its return to the United States.
The complexity of La Farge’s workmanship was shown in a window commissioned in 1908 by Mrs George T. Bliss for her house at 9 East 68th Street, Manhattan. The work features a woman in classical garb drawing back a doorway curtain. Tiny pieces of glass were joined together to evoke folds in her gown; panels with garlands and Pompeian ornament frame the work.
This is the paradox: La Farge used ground-breaking techniques in order to create an image that represented the backward looking tradition associated with Alma-Tadema and members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
In the same year that John La Farge began work on the Bliss window, six automobiles representing America, France, Germany and Italy set off from Times Square on a 169-day ordeal competing in a New York City to Paris Race. The contest was won by the American team driving “The Flyer,” a car built in Buffalo, NY, by the E. R. Thomas Motor Company.(You can read more about the race here).
Whilst contemporary artists retreated into the past by seeking inspiration in late medieval or early Renaissance culture, technology’s exponential growth moved ahead and increased the pace of life. Art had to be dragged into the modern world.
While others were shopping for “diamonds & jewels” I was at this wonderful Ardastra sanctuary in Nassau. I was thrilled to meet Rosie’s relative living in the warm Bahamian sunshine.
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustrations, from above: W. P. Frith’s “A Private View at the Royal Academy,” 1883; Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s “A Reading from Homer,” 1885 (Philadelphia Museum of Art); Henry Gurdon Marquand’s mansion at the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and 68th Street, built in 1884, demolished ca. 1912; The Alma-Tadema Steinway, 1887 (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts); John La Farge’s “Peonies Blown in the Wind,” 1886 (Museum of Fine Art, Boston); and John La Farge, Window from the Bliss house at 68th Street, 1908/9. (The Met, New York City).
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.
We will be off line for two reasons the next two weeks:
Our computer is aging out after 5 years and just getting too difficult to use. The new Lenovo is out of the box and will be ready to use very soon. Time for another trip sailing for a week. See you later this month.
For most of the 20th century, the City of New York ran the largest municipal broadcast organization in the United States, consisting of WNYC-FM, AM and TV. During this time, WNYC brought the diverse lives and cultures of the city into the homes of its residents through original entertainment, journalism and educational programming.
Since the separation of WNYC from the City in 1996, the New York City Municipal Archives has been caring for the thousands of films and video tapes from WNYC-TV, and thousands of radio recordings in partnership with the WNYC Foundation’s Archives. Some digitized items added to the online gallery show deep appreciation for the life and work of music legend Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington.
Duke Ellington Day was proclaimed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 29th, 2009, which would have been the jazz legend’s 110th birthday.
Ellington is famous for adding his piano to brass orchestral jazz with songs such as “It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it Ain’t Got that Swing),” and was house band leader of the influential and infamous prohibition era Harlem venue the Cotton Club.
The City of New York has honored the composer several times for his work and 2009 was not the first Duke Ellington Day. In 1965, Duke Ellington was presented with the Bronze Medal by Acting Mayor Paul Screvane, and Mayor John V. Lindsay also proclaimed Duke Ellington Day on September 15th, 1969, in honor of his contributions to American culture. WNYC Radio and TV covered the two events.
Long before the awards and honors, Ellington arrived in New York in 1923, leaving his successful career in his hometown of Washington, D.C. for opportunity in the vibrant art scene of Harlem.
That Manhattan neighborhood was in the middle of a cultural awakening now described as the Harlem Renaissance, when many enduring works by African American artists were created.
Aside from Ellington, other musical giants like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong wrote and performed in clubs across Harlem. Writers like Arthur Schomburg and Langston Hughes penned famous works such as ‘The Weary Blues’ in 1926 and visual artists Richmond Barthé and Meta Vaux Warwick Fuller portrayed the beauty of black physicality.
Duke Ellington had gained recognition as a member in other bands already, but his career really took off once he became the band leader at the Cotton Club.
Although the venue was highly popular among its exclusively wealthy and white clientele, the real surge in popularity came when CBS began broadcasting the performances across the country, making Duke Ellington the first nationally-broadcast African American band leader. This popularity quickly led to short films with RKO Pictures and recording deals with major record labels.
Ellington and his band left the Cotton Club in 1931 and found great success in composing and recording original music, as well as touring internationally despite the onset of the Great Depression.
Some of his most enduring work, like “Caravan” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing” were composed and performed for the first time during this period. Ellington also began to win major awards for his work when he scored a film titled Symphony in Black (1935), featuring Billie Holiday’s first screen appearance, which won the Academy Award for Best Musical Short Piece that year.
Ellington’s popularity waned during the 1940s, only to resurge in the 1950s and ‘60s after his headline-grabbing appearance at the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival. The resulting vinyl record of the performance has become the best-selling album of Ellington’s entire career. Soon he and his orchestra were in high demand to play at festivals across the country.
Ellington spent the later years of his career split between expanding his discography and receiving awards and accolades for his decades of musical innovation.
In addition to honors from the City of New York, Duke Ellington also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and won 12 Grammy’s as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Although the original Cotton Club no longer exists, the indelible mark that Duke Ellington left on the City and its culture is evident not just in the awards he was given, but the material now preserved and publicly available.
A version of this essay by Chris Nicols was first published on the New York City Municipal Archives Blog. The Municipal Archives preserves and makes available New York City government’s historical records. Records include office documents, manuscripts, still and moving images, vital records, maps, blueprints, and sound recordings. Learn more about historical records the Municipal Archives at their website.
A JOYOUS EIGHTH NIGHT OF CHANUKAH WAS CELEBRATED BY A CELEBRATION WITH MANY BRINGING THEIR FAMILY MENORAHS FOR THE LIGHTING AND REFRESHMENTS AT THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND JEWISH CONGREGATION. RIJC.ORG
CREDITS
NEW YORK ALMANACK JUDITY 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.
TIME TO AVOID THE LEXINGTON AVENUE ENTRANCE TO THE 63/LEX STATION
MORE TRANSIT
HASSLES AHEAD AT
63/LEX STATION
DECEMBER 30-31, 2024
ISSUE #1366
OUR 211th ISSUE IN 2024
JUDITH BERDY
TIME TO AVOID THE LEXINGTON AVENUE ENTRANCE TO THE 63/LEX STATION
THE ESCALATOR ENTRANCE
ON THE NORTHWEST SIDE OF LEXINGTON AVENUE IS CLOSED. THE ELEVATOR ENTRANCE AROUND THE CORNER IS OPEN. THE STAIRCASE FROM THE STREET TO THE MEZZANINE ON THE SOUTHWEST CORNER IS OPEN
ONE DOWN ESCALATOR
FROM THE MEZZANINE IS STILL WORKING, BUT THE NEXT ONE IS NOT RUNNING (50 STEPS DOWN)
BE FOREWARNED
MORE CHANGES IN FEBRUARY
AND NOW THE “ULTIMATE NEWS”
YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE LONG ESCALATOR TO THE LOWER (QUEENS/UPOWN) PLATFORM AND THEN WALK UP THE STAIRS TO THE (DOWNTOWN/BROOKLYN) LEVEL PLATFORM
IN SIMPLE WORDS USE ONLY THE THIRD AVENUE ENTRANCE AND EXIT FOR THE 63/LEX STATION
NONE OF THESE IMPROVEMENTS AFFECT THE THIRD AVENUE AREAS OF THE STATION
The MTA has plenty signage to navigate riders thru this project. My advise is STAY AWAY and use the Third Avenue entrances and exits.
Happy New Year 2025 MTA!!!
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.
Friends and strangers eating together offers an appealing image of togetherness. “Let us build a table where everyone is invited,” is an inspiring mantra. At the same time, food is a religious symbol that creates exclusion.
Food taboos appear in almost all societies, either self-imposed or enforced by authorities on minority groups. In medieval Europe, Christian authorities forbade Jews from baking “sacred” bread.
Different ethnic and religious groups identify themselves by the foods they consume or refuse to eat. A food taboo maintains a group’s identity in the face of others, creating a sense of belonging.
If such a ban limits the diet, it also encourages the consumption of symbolic foods particular to that group. Jewish tradition marks every calendar event (birth or death) with a special meal. Circular shaped bagels symbolize the lifecycle.
Bagels once were a Jewish specialty. First boiled and then baked, its preparation method gave the bread a chewy outer texture and soft dough within. The bagel was brought to Manhattan in the 1890s by Polish immigrants of the Lower East Side.
Longing for the breads of their homeland, they recreated rye, challah and above all: bagels. For decades bagels remained an exclusive ethnic delicacy. Taste and nostalgia are inseparable.
A multi-cultural metropolis demands coexistence and does not function properly in an environment of selective restrictions. At New York City’s collective dining table many traditional food taboos – either voluntarily or by necessity (hunger or scarcity of ingredients) – were overcome.
Since the 1950s, bagels have conquered Manhattan’s foodscape and permeated American culture.
Cream Cheese & Cheesecake
Jewish immigrants Isaac and Joseph Bregschtein from Panemune on the banks of the Nemunas River, Lithuania, settled in the United States in 1882, initially working as peddlers and (possibly) living in Pennsylvania.
By 1885, they had arrived in Manhattan where Joseph opened a grocery store at 27 Orchard Street. Isaac continued to deal in dry goods until 1888, when he entered the dairy market, selling milk and other products. At some time, they anglicized their name to Breakstone.
They quickly built a reputation in the world of dairy. Their cousins Morris and Hyman – a typical case of chain migration – owned stores of their own. In 1897, the family members joined together as the “Breakstone Brothers” and opened a grocery.
The name was copyrighted in 1906 and a year later the group began manufacturing dairy products at a small plant in Brooklyn.
At a time that many American households made their own butter and soft cheeses, the Brothers brought convenience by selling the products from big wooden tubs.
The company was among the first to use trucks to deliver their products. During the First World War, Breakstone’s was the largest producer of condensed milk for the Armed Forces.
After the war, the firm started to mass market their products to consumers, making soft cheeses and other products affordable to many poorer Jewish consumers. In 1925, Breakstone’s began designating their products as “kosher.” The brand played its role in the identification of New York City’s passion for cream cheese with the story of Jewish immigration.
New York style cheesecake, which used cream cheese instead of drier ricotta or cottage cheese, was introduced in 1929 by German-born Jewish restaurateur Arthur Reuben in his legendary outlets Reuben’s Restaurant at 58th Street and the Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway.
Also known as “Jewish cheesecake” for the recipe’s kosher ingredients, it was a favorite of actors and actresses seeking late night relaxation after stage appearances.
The taste of cheesecake quickly became the rage of the city, but the story of its origin was in dispute. Reuben accused Leo Linderman, another German-born Jewish restaurateur, of copying his recipe and making it his own.
Lindeman owned Lindy’s, a Jewish delicatessen on Broadway which marketed its cheesecake (produced with Philadelphia cream cheese) as its iconic dish. Considered a masterpiece of Jewish culinary skills, it became the gold-standard in cheesecake baking. And yet …
No Success Like Failure
The history of cream cheese is an essential American tale. Early English and Dutch settlers had brought recipes for something tasting similar. At the turn of the nineteenth century, small producers of cream cheese could be found in the Philadelphia area, but it was in Upstate New York that the first large-scale manufacture of the product began.
Orange County was officially established on November 1, 1683, when after nearly two decades of English rule the Province of New York was divided into twelve counties. Each of these was named in honor of Charles II, his brother James, Duke of York, and other members of the Royal family.
Orange County referred to Dutch-born William of Orange, James’s son-in-law and subsequently King William III of England. Within the next few decades Dutch, English and German Palatine migrants began populating an area that consisted of fertile farming land.
The town of Chester’s economy in Orange County was based on dairy products, particularly milk. This industry flourished after completion of the Erie Railroad in 1841. The line ran through the town which enabled local farmers to ship their products directly to New York City, where demand was high. Chester became the original home of American cream cheese.
In 1872, dairyman William Lawrence was challenged by a Manhattan deli owner to produce a new fresh cheese that would please the taste of affluent customers. William tried to duplicate the popular French soft cheese brand of Neufchâtel, but did not succeed.
His failure became a massive success. He discovered and developed the formula for Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Although not created in that city, Lawrence adopted the name because of Philadelphia’s reputation for producing high-quality cheeses at the time.
Lawrence was the first to sell soft cheese in foil-wrapped rectangular packages and ship them to markets in New York City. At the outset, his creamery delivered about two boxes daily. By the time of his death in 1911, the factory was producing over two thousand boxes each day.
Lawrence’s cheese making operation had a major impact on the local economy. He employed rural residents and used regionally sourced milk in his cheese production. Although not an aspiring politician, he was elected Mayor of Chester in 1893.
James Lewis Kraft, a Canadian businessman of German descent living in Buffalo, NY, purchased the business in 1928. The company continues making Philadelphia Brand Cheese to this day. By the 1950s cream cheese had become an all-American staple without any particular ethnic or migrant ties.
A quintessentially New York creation, cream cheese has since proliferated throughout nation, touching disparate cuisines and inspiring multiple recipes.
Bagel Mania
In the early medieval period, a form of round bread similar to the “pretzel” became popular among German-speaking migrants to an area of Eastern Europe which (roughly) now constitutes Poland. In the region, bakers suffered less intervention in their profession than other Jews whose activities were severely restricted by segregation laws.
They were permitted to sell products to Christian residents who, when abstaining from rich foods during Lent, consumed a boiled and ring-shaped bread known as “obwarzanek.” They also enjoyed a smaller version for everyday consumption which was known as “bajgiel” in Polish and “beygal” in Yiddish.
The delicacy soon spread throughout the region and was sold by licensed street hawkers from a basket or hanging on from a stick.
The bagel became a Jewish staple in Poland. When in 1908 Isaac Bashevis Singer described a childhood trip to Radzymin (a suburb of the city of Warsaw) in “A Day of Pleasure,” he recorded the sight of sidewalk peddlers who were selling “loaves of bread, baskets of bagels and rolls, smoked herring, hot peas, brown beans, apples, pears and plums.”
Polish Jews brought the bagel to Manhattan. Their first known bakery was established on the Lower East Side in 1895. Twelve years later, the powerful International Beigel Bakers’ Union was created which monopolized New York’s bagel production.
The all-Jewish union carefully guarded knowledge of how to bake the bread and urged Jewish customers to buy from associated shops instead of giving their business to owners who were likely to exploit newly arrived immigrants. For decades, bagels remained an ethnic delicacy, virtually unknown to society at large.
The invention and adoption of a bagel-making machine spelled both the downfall of the Union and a widening interest in the product. The post-war years were a turning point. Food writers such as Fannie Engle, author of The Jewish Festival Cookbook (1954), popularized the bread at a time that Jews were assimilating and sharing their culinary traditions with others.
The bagel made an eye-catching appearance in the Yiddish-English revue Bagel and Yox (the word means “belly laugh”) that ran at the Holiday Theatre, Broadway, from September 1951 to February 1952. It included the song “Bagel & Lox” (written by Sid Pepper and Roy C. Bennett):
Bagel and lox with the cheese in the middle, Bagel and lox let it toast on the griddle, Bagel and lox with the cheese in the middle, And a slice of onion on the side.
During the show’s intermission, freshly baked bagels were handed out to members of the audience. A 1951 review of the show published in Time magazine helped to hype them amongst American consumers. A passion for bagel and cream cheese erupted. It would take some more time before the addition of lox completed the “holy trinity.”
Iconic Breakfast
According to food historians, Jewish shopkeepers were selling preserved salmon by the early twentieth century, using recipes introduced by Scandinavian immigrants. Soon, lox and cream cheese were prized breakfast accompaniments. Newspapers in the early 1940s reported that bagels and lox were sold in Manhattan delis as a “Sunday morning treat.”
Lox is a fillet of salmon cured in salty brine, but not cooked or smoked. Known as “gravlax,” it was a Nordic method of preserving fish long before refrigeration was made available. The salmon was coated with a spice blend of dill, capers, juniper berry, salts, sugars and liquors, before being brined. Lox was also popular among Eastern European Jews (the word lox comes from the Yiddish “laks,” meaning salmon).
The Transcontinental Railroad helped to popularize lox as trains transported salted salmon from the Pacific coast to New York City. Bagel and lox became a Manhattan sensation. Spurred on by Kraft’s advertizing blitz for Philadelphia Cream Cheese, the Sunday morning ritual of lox, bagel and cream cheese took off.
This was as an American food concoction, a collage consisting of Polish Jewish bread, Scandinavian cured salmon, Mediterranean capers heaped over Anglo-French styled cream cheese. At some point by the middle of the twentieth century, Lox Bagel had replaced the English trilogy of bacon, eggs and toast as Manhattan’s breakfast of choice.
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.
HOLIDAY SCENE BY YVONNE SMITH RESIDENT GOLDWATER HOSPITAL COLLECTION OF NYC H+H COLER
HELP US MAKE
2024 A RECORD YEAR FOR
THE KIOSK
DECEMBER 24-25, 2024
ISSUE #1364
JUDITH BERDY
HAPPY CHANUKAH AS WE CELEBRATE THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
TWO DAY SALE
RIHS TAPESTRY THROW & GONDOLA PILLOW COMBINATION PRICED SEPARATELY $75+ $55 TOTAL $ 130 MONDAY & TUESDAY ONLY $110-
WINTER WONDERLANDS
THE COLER LOBBY HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO A WINTER WONDERLAND & GLOWING ON THIS SUNNY AFTERNOON
THE OCTAGON GETS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE HOLIDAY TREE AGAIN THIS YEAR!
OUR POSTER IS COURTESY OF YOUNG ARTIST JULIET CINA
SHOP THE KIOSK THIS WEEK 12 NOON TO 5 PM
JULIA GASH ROOSEVELT ISLAND PORCELAIN ORNAMENT $20-
PHOTO OF THE DAY
AN ICE SKATING RINK INTHE GRAND LOBBY OF THE NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, DC
CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY YVONNE SMITH JULIET CINA
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.
GOOD NEWS!!! RIOC HAS OPENED THE TWO BATHROOMS IN THE SPORTSPARK TO VISITORS!! THEY ARE LOCATED AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE ON THE WEST ROAD!
YESTERDAY, I SAW THIS LOVELY PHOTO AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACATION TIME FOR CORNELL TECH STUDENTS, FACULTY AND VISITORS.
INSTEAD OF JOY, MY THOUGHT WAS WHERE TO SEND OUR NEIGHBORS AND VISITORS TO USE A BATHROOM!
FOR THE YEARS CORNELL TECH HAS BEEN OPEN, THEY HAVE ALWAYS PERMITTED VISITORS AND NEIGHBORS TO USE THEIR FACILITIES.
THE SITUATION IS COMPLICATED WHEN CORNELL IS CLOSED.
NEW BUS ROUTE PRESERVES DIRECT SERVICE TO QUEENS PLAZA
Proposed Final Plan Addendum: Q102 Local
36th Avenue/Roosevelt Island Associated existing route: Q102
For languages other than English, use the Google Translate tool at the bottom of this page.
About the route
The Q102 will now connect Long Island City and Roosevelt Island with a new, more direct routing. In Queens, the route will start at Court Square, traveling to Roosevelt Island via Jackson Av, 31 St, and 36 Av. On Roosevelt Island, the route will be shortened to terminate at the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The trains will provide service along 31 St, and the Q18 will still serve 30 Av. Service through Queensbridge will still be provided by the Q103.
CELEBRATIONS
TAMA BLEVINS, MICHAEL STEWART, GLORIA HERMAN & JUDITH BERDY HELPED MAKE IT A FUN EVENING IN THE BLACKWELL HOUSE.
WINTER WONDERLANDS
THE COLER LOBBY HAS BEEN TRANSFORMED INTO A WINTER WONDERLAND.& GLOWING ON THIS SUNNY AFTERNOON
THE OCTAGON GETS THE MOST IMPRESSIVE HOLIDAY TREE AGAIN THIS YEAR!
OUR POSTER IS COURTESY OF YOUNG ARTIST JULIET CINA
SHOP THE KIOSK THIS WEEK 12 NOON TO 5 PM
JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROW IS BACK!! $75-
JULIA GASH ROOSEVELT ISLAND PORCELAIN ORNAMENT $20-
PHOTO OF THE DAY PEEKING OUT FROM THE TREES IS THE LIGHTHOUSE PARK ON THIS DELIGHTFUL WINTER DAY
CREDITS
JUDITH BERDY TIME FOR SOME DAYS OFF THE ISLAND. ENJOY THE PRE-HOLIDAY WEEKEND
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.
YESTERDAY, I SAW THIS LOVELY PHOTO AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACATION TIME FOR CORNELL TECH STUDENTS, FACULTY AND VISITORS.
INSTEAD OF JOY, MY THOUGHT WAS WHERE TO SEND OUR NEIGHBORS AND VISITORS TO USE A BATHROOM!
FOR THE YEARS CORNELL TECH HAS BEEN OPEN, THEY HAVE ALWAYS PERMITTED VISITORS AND NEIGHBORS TO USE THEIR FACILITIES.
THE SITUATION IS COMPLICATED WHEN CORNELL IS CLOSED.
Starting next week, visitors and residents will face a bathroom shortage.
Many visitors appear at the kiosk asking for bathroom facilitie.
Cornell Tech’s Bloomberg Cafe bathrooms were used before, and people are now directed to Southpoint Park or one of our businesses. That is a long trek in winter.
Though sewer work is done, only one tram station bathroom could be available for public use. (One is reserved for staff). For years It has been off limits by Poma staff.
Opening Sportspark bathrooms is a solution that won’t disrupt its functions. The two bathrooms next to the entrance are not inside the members area and there is no reason for RIOC to prohibit outsiders to use them.
Portable facilities in winter are unsafe, and local businesses shouldn’t bear the burden.
Why should the Graduate Hotel, Starbucks, Nisi, all the other businesses be responsible for providing a public necessity while RIOC turns a blind eye to the need?
Years ago David Kramer, developer got out of a pledge to build permanent facility at Firefighters’ Field and nothing has been done by RIOC to alleviate the situation.
A permanent solution is urgently needed. Will RIOC step up to address this critical issue?
Should I take bets?
OUR POSTER IS COURTESY OF YOUNG ARTIST JULIET CINA
Thanks to all our friends and neighbors who made the sale at the Pop-Up sale this weekend a great success.
Stop by Blackwell House tomorrow evening for a fun evening from 5 to 8 pm.
SHOP THE KIOSK THIS WEEK 12 NOON TO 5 PM
JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROW IS BACK!! $75-
JULIA GASH ROOSEVELT ISLAND PORCELAIN ORNAMENT $20-
CREDITS
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.
&mc_cid=97c41add03&mc_eid=UNIQID)
