The City of Greenbelt has gone into the history books as the first community in the United States built as a federal venture in housing. From the beginning it was designed as a complete city, with businesses, schools, roads and facilities for recreation and town government. Greenbelt was a planned community, noted for its interior walkways, underpasses, its system of inner courtyards and one of the first mall-type shopping centers in the United States. Modeled after English garden cities of the 19th century, Greenbelt took its name from the belt of green forestland with which it was surrounded and from the belts of green between neighborhoods that offered easy contact with nature.
In 1997 Greenbelt celebrated its 60th anniversary. To coincide with this historic event, the United States Department of Interior saw it fit to recognize Historic Greenbelt as a National Historic Landmark. At such a time it was appropriate to ask how this early prototype of the planned community has weathered through the years. Have the design concept and the social and cultural features built into that design succeeded in fulfilling the town’s early promise? Greenbelt is one of three greenbelt towns envisioned by Rexford Guy Tugwell, friend and advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and created under the Resettlement Administration in 1935 under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. (Greendale, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, and Greenhills, Ohio, near Cincinnati, are the other two towns. A fourth town, to be located in New Jersey, was never built.)
9224-9238 EDMONSTON ROAD (TOWNHOUSES) FROM SOUTH. – Springhill Lake Apartments, 9230 Edmonston Road, Greenbelt, Prince George’s County, MD HABS MD-1216-4
Greenbelt was an experiment in both the physical and social planning that preceded its construction. Homes were grouped in superblocks, with a system of interior walkways permitting residents to go from home to town center without crossing a major street. Pedestrian and vehicular traffic were carefully separated. The two curving major streets were laid out upon and below a crescent-shaped natural ridge. Shops, school, ball fields, and community buildings were grouped in the center of this crescent.
The architecture was streamlined in the Art Deco style popular at that time—with curving lines, glass brick inserts in the facades of apartment buildings, and buttresses along the front wall of the elementary school. These buttresses create vertical lines framing a set of bas reliefs by WPA sculptor Lenore Thomas. (These features make the original buildings of the city some of the finest examples of Art Deco to be found in the Washington area. Indeed, the Greenbelt Community Center is considered one of the ten best structures in Art Deco style within the United States.) A sculpture by Thomas, a mother and child statue, graces the town center. Greenbelt was also a social experiment. Designed to provide low income housing, it drew 5,700 applicants for the original 885 residences. The first families were chosen not only to meet income criteria , but also to demonstrate willingness to participate in community organizations. (In 1941 another 1,000 homes were added to provide housing for families coming to Washington in connection with defense programs of World War II.)
The first families, who arrived on October 1, 1937, found no established patterns or institutions of community life. Almost all were under 30 years of age. All considered themselves pioneers in a new way of life. A mix of blue and white collar workers, they reflected the religious composition of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish; but because of the racial bias controlling public policy at that time, all were white.
Almost immediately the new residents formed a town government—the first city manager form of government in the State of Maryland. They also formed the first kindergarten in Prince George’s County. During that first year they also formed a citizens’ association, a journalism club which published the first newspaper (still published today on a weekly basis as the Greenbelt News Review), and a community band. Interdenominational church services were held in the elementary school auditorium, which also functioned as a community center. The Greenbelt Health Association opened to provide hospital services. Police, fire and rescue squads formed. Residents held a town fair that first summer. In 1939 the first public swimming pool opened in Greenbelt—first in the Washington area. Numerous clubs flourished. In fact, Greenbelters were so busy attending meetings that the town council called a moratorium on meetings between Christmas and New Year’s in 1939 to permit residents to spend time at home with their families.
Greenbelt is also unique for its cooperative institutions. Boston merchant and philanthropist Edward Filene provided funds to Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., which operated a food store, gas station, drug store, barber shop, movie theater, valet shop, beauty parlor, variety store, and tobacco shop. In December 1941 citizens within the community were able to raise funds to purchase GCS.
In 1952, when Congress voted to sell off the greenbelt towns, citizens in Greenbelt formed a housing cooperative (Greenbelt Veterans Housing Corporation, later Greenbelt Homes, Inc.) which purchased the homes. (The other two greenbelt towns were purchased privately.) Citizens also formed a cooperative baby sitting pool, a cooperative nursery school, a cooperative kindergarten, and a cooperative savings and loan association. In fact, when Greenbelters confronted any kind of a new problem, their typical first approach was to form a new cooperative.
Today much of the original features of this planned community still exist. In addition to it, the city itself has expanded to include additional shopping centers, high rise office buildings, garden apartments, townhouses and private development. With the construction of the BaltimoreWashington Parkway, the Capital Beltway, and Kenilworth Avenue—which meet in Greenbelt— the city has become a center of major residential and commercial development within the Prince George’s County.
Nevertheless, legacies of the past remain. The cooperative spirit and the strong sense of community are passed on to new generations of Greenbelters, and around a dozen of the original families still live in the city. Indeed, many of their children and grandchildren have also chosen to reside in Greenbelt. Perhaps their dedication to the community is the best answer to the question raised earlier: Has the town’s promise been fulfilled?
For more on Greenbelt’s unique place in the history of American culture, visit Virtual Greenbelt, a project sponsored by the University of Maryland.
Other informational sites about Greenbelt’s history, include the Greenbelt Museum , and the Tugwell Room a unique collection at the Greenbelt Branch of the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System.
ELEVATED SUBWAY AT CHATHAM SQUARE. ED LITCHER 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)
Sources GREENBELT HISTORY GOVERNMENT WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
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For over 3 years Nick has posted his daily art on Tumblr and his website, Enjoy the unique views of our city,
4.3.22 Lunchtime drawing: King’s Halal Food has been setting up on Gansevoort Street since the Whitney Museum opened in 2017 (left). The Veggie Juices cart first eta up yesterday (right). We’re all under the High Line today staying out of the rain.
This month I’m highlighting food carts periodically via my daily drawing project, a theme chosen by my Patreon members (Join me!!!) Also, check out the Street Vendor Project fighting to create just working conditions for street vendors in NYC.
4.2.22 Lunchtime drawing: Kicking off this month’s drawing theme, “Street Vendor Food carts”, with a favorite, NY Dosas in Washington Square Park! There’s even my drawing on the cart.
Food carts will be a thread through April’s drawings, and the topic was voted on by my Patreon members. Check out my story to see what the options were—and join me on Patreon so you can vote next month! Patreon.com/nickgolebiewski or link in bio.
Open to all though, what are your favorite NYC food carts and trucks?
4.1.22 Lunchtime drawing: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights (Columbia University’s neighborhood if you’re not familiar) is still unfinished! Construction started on this Episcopal Church back in 1892. I remember seeing a live pipe organ performance to a film projected by Rooftop Films here so many years back, participating in a “blessing of the bikes”, and have always loved their connection to the arts.-Apr 01, 2022 01:06 pm on Tumblr
3.31.22 Lunchtime drawing: Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn! Independently owned and in business since 2007 (they also have a spot in Jersey City.)This sketch closes out the month’s “Independent Bookstores of Brooklyn” theme voted on by my Patreon members. Join at any level and vote for April’s theme for this drawing-a-day project at patreon.com/nickgolebiewski-Mar 31, 2022 03:23 pm on Tumblr
3.30.22 Lunchtime drawing: Last week I drew some magnolia blossoms, and then there was a below-freezing snap in the weather, and they all froze and became these wilted things.-Mar 30, 2022 01:12 pm on Tumblr
3.29.22 Lunchtime drawing: Yi Ji Shi Mo Noodle Corp on Elizabeth Street at closing time (if only I arrived a few minutes earlier!) They’re known for their stone mill rice rolls and opened here in Chinatown in 2019.-Mar 29, 2022 05:35 pm on Tumblr
THE LATEST WAY TO FALL OVER SOME GUY’S SCOOTER BLOCKING THE DOOR ON A SUBWAY…
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
NICK’S LUNCHBOX
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I decided to walk up Broadway and write about the different buildings I spotted. The first one that attracted my attention was 670 Broadway. You will have to wait fort the rest of the sites, since this building distracted me and a story was born, courtesy of Daytonian in Manhattan.
When Henry Sands Brooks died in 1833 Henry Jr. inherited his father’s men’s clothing business. Then his sons, Elisha, Edward, Daniel and John took over the business in 1850, renaming it Brooks Brothers. Theirs would be the oldest men’s clothier in the United States, founded by their grandfather on April 7, 1818.
Seven years later they moved northward from the Catherine Street to the northeast corner of Broadway and Grand Street. The brothers intended to lure upscale customers and outfitted the store with gas-lit Tiffany chandeliers. And, indeed, they did. The suit Abraham Lincoln wore to Ford’s Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865 was purchased at this store.
Again following the northward migration of the fashionable shopping district, Brooks Brothers moved again in 1869 to Union Square. Here, already, the elegant mansions surrounding the park were being razed as high-end retail emporiums took their place.
In 1873 Adele L. S. Stevens still lived in the magnificent Stevens mansion, one of the survivors of the fashionable Bond Street Area; once the most exclusive residential neighborhood in the city. The old mansion, noted in The New York Times that year as being “well known as the repository of the famous Stevens collection of paintings,” spanned three lots – Nos. 670, 672 and 674 Broadway.
But by now the grand old homes of New York’s wealthy along Broadway were being replaced by commercial structures. The Stevens mansion was no exception. By August the house had been demolished and a new Brooks Brothers building was going up.
“The building, when completed, will, from its admirable site, and the manner in which it is to be constructed, add much to the beauty of Broadway,” predicted The New York Times on August 30, 1873
The line continues northward on a conventional elevated line; below photo shows the next station, 207th Street, (nycsubway.org) looking west. At this point, the #1 line does not follow Broadway, but runs atop Nagle Avenue and 10th Avenue, rejoining Broadway at 218th Street.
Red brick, white stone and cast iron combine in handsome contrast — photo by Alice Lum
“The foundation will be of hard quarry stone and brick,” said the article, “and the walls three feet in thickness. The front will be of dressed brick, with Ohio sand-stone trimmings. The floors will be of yellow pine, sustained by double iron columns…The building, exclusive of the lot, will cost $275,000. The architects are Messrs. J. W. and Geo. E. Harney.”
George Harney produced a five-story store and factory building of red brick with contrasting stone trim. The architect borrowed from several styles. Groups of Romanesque arched openings were supported by brick, stone or cast iron columns. Between the second and third floors, Eastlake detailing was carved into the stone course and enormous, decorative iron tie plates accented the broad, brick pilasters between the third and fourth stories.
The great decorative cast iron tie plates spell out the construction date 1-8-7-3 — photo by Alice Lum Harney created a visual extension of the cornice by aligning the brick corbels above the top floor with the row of brackets. At the first floor, the exceptional cast iron work was executed by Michael Grosz and Sons.
Brooks Brothers continued to attract the carriage trade. A few days before Christmas in 1876 The Times mentioned that “The firm do not, in fact, pretend to run their business on the cheap-goods basis. No effort is made to attract a large floating customer by offers to sell ready-made clothing at starvation prices—a line of business which involves the keeping of goods as low in quality as in price…Nothing showy, nothing cheap and bad, is offered there.”
Inside, leafy cast iron column capitals still remain — photo by Alice Lum
The handsome building at Broadway and Bond Street was the fourth store for Brooks Brothers since the brothers had taken over the business in 1850. And only ten years after settling in, they were on the move again. In 1884 Brooks Brothers moved northward to Broadway and 22nd Street.
The building continued to house clothiers – Hornthal, Weisman & Co., dealers in menswear were here for years. Then, by 1910, the showrooms that once sold men’s suits to the merchant class were home to Broadway Bargain House. The store offered wholesale ready-to-wear garments for men, women, and children. Ten years later the G. H. Hat Works was headquartered here.
Sawtooth designs and incised decorative elements reflect the Eastlake movement — photo by Alice Lum
When Nessa Sears and Jeannette Epstein purchased the building from David S. Meister in June 1943, there was still a “large clothing store” on the first floor and various manufacturers on the upper floors. Meister had bought the building only a year earlier. The new buyers would not hold on to the property any longer than he did.
A year later in May the building was sold again to an investor. Tenants were paying a total of approximately $23,000 per year on the building valued at $150,000.
In the 1950s the diversity of tenants continued with Magna Products Co., an automobile parts firm, having space here as well as Librik Brothers, which made jewelry cases. In 1956 the hat manufacturer M. Barsky & Co. was forced out of its building at 186 Wooster Street to make way for the Washington Square-New York University development project. The company purchased the old Brooks Brothers building with “plans to modernize the Broadway structure and use a major part of it,” according to a press release.
Window columns boast beautiful stylized bases and capitals. Each of the incised rosettes is unique. — photo by Alice Lum Before long the Empire State Cap and Cloth Hat Manufacturers Association, a workers union, established its offices here.
Today the store continues its original purpose – a clothing store on the first floor and manufacturing spaces above. Although there have been some changes, the façade is remarkably intact and first floor ironwork is, miraculously, preserved.
And, by the way, Brooks Brothers did not stay overly-long in their Broadway and 22nd Street store – in 1915 they moved on to Madison Avenue and 44th Street.
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MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK WHEN IT ARRIVED FROM THE BROOKLYN CHILDREN’S MUSEUM IN 2006.
GLORIA HERMAN, ANDY SPARBERG, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, NANCY BROWN, HARA REISER, VICKI FEINMEL. AL GOT IT!!
FROM: SUMIT KAUR Good morning, The answer to Monday photo of the day is “Visitor Centre, Roosevelt Island” Picture shows it being set in position after being lifted from its original position. Congratulations Judith Berdy for the timely initiative – its a gem that greets the visitor to the island.
FROM ED LITCHER
One of what was originally five exquisite entrance and exit kiosks, rendered in beautiful Beaux Arts terra cotta, that used to stand at 2nd Avenue and East 60th Street where trolleys from Queens let out, or accepted passengers from an underground station. The kiosks, is dwarfed by the Queensboro/59th Street/Ed Koch Bridge, as well as one of the huge stanchions that carry the tramway wires. The bridge was one of the last bastions of trolley traffic in Manhattan, as the line that left people of mid-span, to be carried by elevator to the island, until it was shuttered in the late 1950s. Both kiosks, this one and one that has been allowed to remain on 2nd Avenue, go all the way back to the year the Queensboro opened in 1909. Trolley service to the bridge ended in 1957 when the Welfare Island, now Roosevelt Island Bridge opened to Astoria.
Thus the five Beaux Arts kioks were orphaned. Three were executed, one remained in place, and one was shuffled off in 1970 to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Bedford-Stuyvesant’s Brower Park, where it was used as the main entrance. However it was in danger of being discarded when the Museum planned a complete renovation by famed architect Rafael Viñoly. However, at the intercession of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s Judy Berdy, who worked with the BCM and several other agencies, in 2006 the kiosk was transported to the very spot where the trolley elevator landing was once located, where it now serves as the Roosevelt Island Historical Society‘s visitor center.
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
Sources DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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This is the first in a series dealing with legendary entrepreneurs in New York’s entertainment world. In each case, reputations are multi-sided, vulgar and personable, selfish and civic. P. T. Barnum, the first in the series, embodies these contradictions and created the role of the New York pitchman that became an icon of the city.
Some of usrecall the Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey circus. The same Barnum, but the circus came later, after Barnum created one of the United States’ first widely popular attractions, the American Museum in New York City.
Barnum has been described as the “Prince of Humbugs” (as he called himself), a liar, a racist, and an entertainer who would do anything for a crowd. Barnum believed the public was willing—even eager—to be conned, provided there was entertainment in the process. (Although there’s no evidence he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”.) Yet, others contend he was responsible for introducing many Americans to high culture – the public museum, the musical concert, European opera.
Phineas Taylor Barnum was born in Bethel Connecticut in 1810. When his father died, he supported his family, becoming publisher of a Danbury, Connecticut weekly newspaper. He was arrested three times for libel, first taste of notoriety. In 1829, Barnum married Charity Hallett and soon moved to New York City, where he found his vocation as a showman.
His first gig involved Joyce Heth, a woman purported to be 161 years old who had been George Washington’s nursemaid, who he purchased from a travelling act. Barnum’s genius for publicity flowered, New Yorkers flocked to see her, and soon Barnum had recouped what he’d paid. The play involved more cities and even wound up with a public autopsy. Bad press didn’t faze Barnum: “Newspaper and social controversy on the subject (and seldom have vastly more important matters been so largely discussed) served my purpose as ‘a showman’ by keeping my name before the public”.
Next, Barnum acquired John Scudder’s American Museum, located at one of the nation’s most important cross-roads – at Broadway and what was then the Boston Post Road (now Park Row) – a five-story marble building filled with stuffed animals, waxwork figures, and similar conventional exhibits.
Barnum’s museum opened on January 1, 1842, a combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and most celebrated, Barnum’s freak show.
His first attraction was the “Feejee mermaid” – really the torso and head of a juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish — which Japanese sailors had sold to an Englishman for $6,000 ($103,500 today). The mermaid was displayed in London and then found its way to New York, where Barnum negotiated to lease it for $12.50 per week.
Barnum convinced many that the creature was real, fending off scientific opponents and even weaseling his way into the American Museum of Natural History. He fabricated a story about the mermaid’s discovery and distributed over 10,000 pamphlets. In a matter of weeks, he had the public’s attention.
Following the success of the Feejee Mermaid, Barnum searched for new human “freaks”. He found Charles Stratton, who had average-sized parents and developed normally until he was six months old, when he measured 25 inches tall and weighed 15 pounds. By age five, he hadn’t grown an inch. Barnum partnered with the boy’s father, taught the child to sing, dance, and impersonate famous figures (Cupid, Napoleon Bonaparte), and, in 1844, took him on his first tour around America. Now named “General Tom Thumb” — “The smallest person who ever walked alone” — the show became an enormous success, even leading to a European trip where Queen Victoria enjoyed the act. Barnum did well: he made so much on the European tour that he nearly purchased William Shakespeare’s birth home. His earnings extended well into the hundreds of thousands and by 1846, his museum was drawing 400,000 visitors a year.
another famous Barnum find was “Zip the Pinhead”.
William Henry Johnson was born to impoverished, newly-freed slaves in New Jersey, in 1842. While he possessed a modest physical deformity (a microcephalic, or cone-shaped, head), a local showman had showed him in sideshows in the mid-1850s. In 1860, Barnum enrolled Johnson, and transformed him into “Zip,” a “different race of human found during a gorilla trekking expedition near the Gambia River in western Africa.” His head was shaved, save for a small tuft on top, and he was dressed in a head-to-toe fur suit. Darwin’s Origin of the Species had recently appeared, and Zip was promoted as a “missing link”. Barnum displayed Zip in a cage and ordered that he must only grunt; he quickly became a star in Barnum’s array.
All of this seems pretty grim, even terrible stuff. But freak shows weren’t unusual at the time, and, apparently, Barnum treated his performers well.
Stratton was mobbed by crowds wherever he went and became an international star. For the better part of fifteen years, Barnum paid him some $150 per week ($4,100 today) and, then when Stratton retired, he lived in New York’s “most fashionable neighborhood,” owned a steam yacht, and wore only the finest clothes.
For his efforts, Zip was rewarded handsomely: Barnum paid him $100 per performance (of which he often had 10 per week) and purchased him a lavish home in Connecticut. His showmanship extended far beyond Barnum’s eventual death, and he performed into his late eighties. He was also a masterful marketer: during 1925’s Scopes Trial, he offered himself as living proof of evolution, generating a massive amount of publicity.
Captain Costentenus, the Tattooed Man, partnered with Barnum in the 1870s and became the American Museum’s highest grossing act, taking home more than $1,000 per week ($37,000 per week today). The Times commented, “He wears very handsome diamond rings and other jewelry, valued altogether at about $3,000 [$71,500 in 2014 dollars] and usually goes armed to protect himself from persons who might attempt to rob him.”
Fedor Jeftichew, “The Dog-Faced Boy”, was reported to have been found in a cave deep in Russian forests; after enduring a bloody battle to capture the “beast,” hunters taught him to walk upright, wear clothes, and speak like a dignified human. Barnum dressed Fedor in a Russian cavalry uniform, and had him play up his savage nature, “barking, growling, and baring his teeth” at onlookers. Throughout the 1880s, Fedor was among the highest paid performers in the business, netting $500 per week ($13,000 today). By the time of his retirement, his saving totaled nearly $300,000 ($7.6 million).
Barnum’s bearded lady, Josephine Clofullia, developed a wide fan base during her tours, and received a large diamond from Napoleon III after fashioning her beard after his.
His Museum wasn’t limited to freakshows. One historian writes that the Museum became “a central site in the development of American popular culture.” “Foreshadowing trends in American commercial amusement, the Museum gathered exhibitions and amusements that previously had been offered in separate milieus. In an urban culture characterized by increasing difference—in taste, in subject, and in audience—it was the first to combine sensational entertainment and gaudy display with instruction and moral uplift….the Museum also promoted educational ends, including natural history in its menageries, aquaria, and taxidermy exhibits; history in its paintings, wax figures, and memorabilia; and temperance reform and Shakespearean dramas in its theater.”
Barnum organized flower shows, beauty contests, dog shows, and poultry contests, but the most popular were baby contests such as the fattest baby or the handsomest twins, and his lecture room and salons was one of the city’s few respectable public spaces for middle-class women.
Perhaps his most daring adventure was to persuade Jenny Lind – the famous Swedish singer – to return to the stage in the United States. Sponsoring Lind would shine his image in higher culture, and to do this, he promised her an unprecedented $1,000 a night for up to 150 nights of performances—with expenses and musical assistants of Lind’s choice included. Not only that, Barnum offered to put salaries on deposit up-front, which required him to either sell or mortgage everything he owned.
It was an enormous success. Barnum’s public-relations blitz worked brilliantly. From her first show on September 11, 1850, at the Castle Garden in New York, Jenny Lind was a sensation: “Jenny Lind’s first concert is over; and all doubts are at an end. She is the greatest singer we have ever heard.”
In November 1864, the Confederate Army of Manhattan failed in an attempt to torch the museum, but on July 13, 1865 the American Museum burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires New York has ever seen. Barnum rebuilt and opened his New Museum on September 6, 1865, on Broadway, between Spring and Prince Streets, but that also burned down, on March 3, 1868.
The 1865 fire that destroyed the museum’s Broadway and Ann Street location (NYPL)
Three years later, Barnum joined circus owners Dan Castello and William C. Coup to launch P.T. Barnum’s Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan, and Hippodrome in 1871. In 1875, he owned it outright. And we are off and running on still another iteration of Barnum’s life.
At its peak, the American Museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as 15,000 visitors a day. Some 38 million customers (the U.S. total population in 1860 was under 32 million) paid the 25 cents admission to visit the museum between 1841 and 1865—among them Henry and William James, Charles Dickens, and Edward VII, then prince of Wales.
The Times’ coverage of the fire produced an appropriate epitaph for Barnum’s Museum: “Granting the innumerable sensations with which the intelligent public were disgusted and the innocent public deluded, and the ever patent humbuggery with which the adroit manager coddled and cajoled a credulous people, the Museum still deserved an honorable place in the front rank of the rare and curious collections of the world.” (NYT, July 14, 1865)
Despite the humbuggery, still an honorable place. That’s Barnum. Stay tuned. More entertainment entrepreneurs to come.
THE TRYLON AN PERISPHERE AT THE 1939-40 NEW YORK WORLD’S FAIR GUY LUDWIG, ED LITCHER, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, GLORIA HERMAN, AND SPARBERG, HARA REISER & LAURA HUSSEY ALL GOT IT!
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2022 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
LIVING IN FOREST HILLS AS A TEEN-AGER WE ALWAYS ENJOYED SHOPPING ON AUSTIN STREET AND GOING TO THE MOVIES THERE. THE “GARDENS” WERE AN EXCLUSIVE ENCLAVE AWAY FROM THE COMMERCIAL DISTRICT. THE TENNIS STADIUM WAS IN THE HEART OF THE PRIVATE HOME STREETS. THE ONLY TIME I WAS IN THE STADIUM WAS THE 1972 U.S.OPEN WHEN I SAW THE MATCHES FOR $6-. MUCH HAS CHANGED AND NOW THE STADIUM IS REVIVED FOR MUSIC.
At the back of the historic Forest Hills Inn at 1 Station Square lies a long-lost architectural gem, the Forest Hills Tea Garden. Opened in 1912 behind an ornate gate, the Tea Garden hosted everything from weddings to dinner dances. Though the remains of the tea garden remain today, most residents probably are unaware of its history. According to Michael Perlman, an author and historian who has been raising money and awareness to preserve the Tea Garden, the structure is just a shell of its former self, though it has the potential for restoration and revitalization. Perlman, a fifth-generation Forest Hills resident, spoke with Untapped New York about the history of this mostly forgotten but rich historic site.
Forest Hills Gardens was established in 1909 as a Tudor enclave. One of the country’s first planned communities, the area was developed by architect Grosvenor Atterbury and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., whose father helped designed Central Park. The community was inspired by the English Garden City movement, which at the time stressed providing housing to people of all income levels. Perlman came across the “veritable fairyland and hidden gem” in around 2011. The Tea Garden was in continuous operation from 1912 to about 1968, around when the Forest Hills Inn was converted from a hotel to a residence. Forest Hills featured numerous music festivals in the 1960s, and after the U.S. Open moved from Forest Hills Tennis Stadium to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in 1977, the demographics of the area shifted. As the potential for the Tea Garden dwindled, it fell into disarray, and after Jade Eatery opened in the former inn, Perlman began working with the owner to preserve it. He wanted to open the tea garden for not just large events but also for flower shows and plays — over a century ago, the Garden Players, a local organization, put on plays such as Prunella. The tea garden was also open for festivities on July 4, when Station Square hosted parades.
“I wondered how I’ve passed by it for so many years and never noticed,” Perlman said. “It had a charming and serene feel and simultaneously a somewhat mysterious feel. I appreciate that the Tea Garden feels like it’s somewhat uncharted territory, and I like the history in it too, it’s amazing.”
The Tea Garden had an 11-foot-tall “Ring for Tea” stand, at which people on their rocking chairs would pull a cord and ring the bell for tea. Afterward, hotel staff members would come out of the Forest Hills Inn and provide tea to guests. Many rooms in the original Forest Hills Inn attracted celebrities and often had regal names, as well as names reflecting the nearby community such as the “Tournament Grill” inspired by the nearby tennis stadium. By the 1950s, the Tea Garden was referred to as the Patio-Garden, featuring “a bubbling fountain, candlelight, large umbrellas, and tall trees.”
A 1924 edition of The Forest Hills Bulletin read, “The Tea Garden of the Forest Hills Inn is a veritable fairyland, when lighted with Japanese lanterns, with the trickling fountain heard in the background, and a new moon shining overhead. There is no more delightful place in Greater New York for one to spend the dinner hour.”
Barry Manilow, Roger Williams, and Lucille Ball likely performed at or attended social events at the Inn, and it is likely that The Beatles and Frank Sinatra passed through the Inn, according to Perlman. There was a feature outside known as Celebrity Walk near the Inn that featured about 25 concrete slabs featuring names like Barbara Streisand, Sammy Davis, Jr., and perhaps Arthur Ashe. Many of the figures on Celebrity Walk would spend time in the Tea Garden, which offered afternoon teas and performances by the Inn Trio, who performed pieces such as Dvorak’s “Humoresque” and Albeniz’s “A Night In Seville.”
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated:
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THE #1 LINE – UNIQUE IN MANY WAYS – PART TWO As noted in Part One, the #1 tracks emerge from a real mountain at the Dyckman Street Station (below), as Washington Heights gives way to Inwood. Dyckman station begins on the street level but transitions to a conventional elevated line as it crosses its namesake station. Photo below (Andy Sparberg) dates from 2008, before the station was reconstructed.
The line continues northward on a conventional elevated line; below photo shows the next station, 207th Street, (nycsubway.org) looking west. At this point, the #1 line does not follow Broadway, but runs atop Nagle Avenue and 10th Avenue, rejoining Broadway at 218th Street.
The station house above the intersection (207th St. and 10th Avenue) uses a style that was borrowed from the 19th century Manhattan elevated lines. The current station house is the original 1906 structure, but it has been modified extensively over the years. The original windows have been removed. Top photo is contemporary; bottom one is 1906 when the station was new and located in an open field, a situation that would change quickly because of the new subway route,
Next stop is 215th Street, similar to 207th, and then the #1 elevated route crosses the Harlem River Ship Canal on a bridge that opened in 1960. Immediately afterward is the 225th Street Station, opened in 1906. This location is full of interesting history.
First, the location itself. You think you’re in The Bronx, but you’re still in Manhattan, specifically Marble Hill. Originally, the Harlem River flowed into an unnavigable waterway, Spuyten Duyvil Creek that connected it to the Hudson River. The creek flowed as far north as 228th Street. In 1895 a man-made waterway, the Harlem River Ship Canal, was constructed, uniting the Harlem and Hudson Rivers with a navigable route. In the process Marble Hill was cut off from Manhattan Island, but it remains officially a Manhattan locale. See the map below, from myinwood,net. The old creek bed was eventually filled in, but Marble Hill remains part of Manhattan, including phones with a 212 area code.
Second, the Broadway Bridge. When the Harlem River Ship Canal opened a new swing bridge was installed to carry Broadway across it, without provision for train tracks. When the IRT arrived in 1906, it was determined that the 1895 bridge could not carry the vehicle and train tracks, so a new swing bridge with an upper deck for trains was installed in 1906. The original 1895 bridge was then floated downstream to 207th Street where it was re-installed as the University Heights Bridge, connecting Manhattan (207th Street) and The Bronx (Fordham Road). It is still there and in daily use and was extensively rebuilt between 1989 and 1992. The current bridge is a New York City landmark since 1984. A swing bridge is one that sits on a central pier in the waterway, and swings laterally 90 degrees to allow ships to pass that would be too tall to fit under the closed bridge (normally a 25-foot vertical clearance).
By 1960 the 1906 Broadway Bridge needed replacement, partly because of a fire that damaged it in 1956. A new bridge was designed and installed 1960-62. In a remarkable sequence of events, the 1906 bridge was cut away and removed, and the new bridge span was floated into place and installed for subway service only, over a period of three days in December 1960. The new bridge had been pre-assembled off-site and barged into place. It is a vertical lift, not a swing span, which makes the shipping channel much wider due to the elimination of the central pier.
Motor traffic had to wait until mid-1961 it could resume; the bridge was fully opened in July 1962. The photos below, both from www.nycsubway.org, show the original 1906 bridge being removed, and the current bridge. The towers that raise and lower the span were not built until after the span was installed, so for about 18 months the Broadway Bridge was fixed and could not move.
The photo below shows how the 225th Street Station is immediately north of the bridge and the Harlem River Ship Canal. This location is an important mass transit junction, as the Metro North Marble Hill Station is directly below the bridge and the 225th Street Station.
The #1 train officially passes into The Bronx just south of the 231st Street Station, and has two more stations, 238th and 242nd Streets, before it ends. The entire line north of 215h Street opened in 1906-08. Below is the 242nd Street terminal station, which has a unique station house placement that straddles Broadway just outside of Van Cortlandt Park (www.nycsubway.org). This station is an important transfer point for Westchester County bus routes and serves nearby Manhattan College. The classic Victorian architecture here, at 207th Street, and the other #1-line stations above Dyckman Street was borrowed from the Manhattan elevated routes that opened in the 1870-1880 period.
ABANDONED BIKE STORAGE AND REPAIR CONTAINER UNDER MOTORGATE HELIX NEITHER RIOC OR BIKE NY HAS TAKEN RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTAINER AND IT’S CONDITION ED LITCHER 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
Sources ANDY SPARBERG
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
TEN MORE NEW CHERRY TREES ARE PLANTED ON SATURDAY, MARCH 26th
Ten more Kwasan cherry trees were planted along the East Road near the tennis courts. The trees were donated to the Roosevelt Island Historical Society by Material for the Arts. Thanks to Matt Kibby and Eddie Perez from RIOC, Plant Specialists for the planting. A special thanks to Tara Sansone at MFTA for arranging this anonymous donation. Last June MFTA donated 25 trees to the island. (Photo: Eddie Perez). We are now up to approximately 55 trees!!!
MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2022
634th Issue
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
BLAZING COLORFUL ART
FROM THE
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART
MUSEUM
O’Keeffe’s Manhattan was created for an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. If the flowers don’t seem like typical O’Keeffe, they’re not: she based them on paper and cloth decorative flowers created by Hispanic women in New Mexico. What we get is kind of a New York/New Mexico mash-up. I feel like I’ve wandered into a parade with paper flowers tossed out of high windows.
Painter. From her birthplace in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O’Keeffe’s world expanded in stages: she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, then with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in 1907, and finally with Arthur Dow at Columbia University from 1914 to 1915. From 1912 to 1918, she taught art in South Carolina and Texas; her summer vacations included travel and a first visit to New Mexico in 1917. In 1916 Alfred Stieglitz exhibited her work and began his life-long dedication to and sponsorship of her art. Until 1924, the year of her marriage to Stieglitz, O’Keeffe’s drawings and paintings in watercolor and oil were frequently abstract. But her artistic language broadened to include representational subjects, usually taken from nature and often painted in series. Visiting Taos in 1929 as the guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan, O’Keeffe discovered new interpretations of light and shadow and began to extract and simplify the monumental natural forms and architecture of the Southwest. Long a summer visitor, O’Keeffe became a New Mexico resident in 1949. Within the disciplined forms of her southwestern subjects — bones, buildings, hills, flowers, and crosses — she evolved a highly personal style.
Charles Eldredge, Julie Schimmel, and William H. Truettner Art in New Mexico, 1900 – 1945: Paths to Taos and Santa Fe (Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1986)
Georgia O’Keeffe was born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, in 1887. During her teens and early adulthood, O’Keeffe lived in Virginia, Chicago, and New York. She studied with John Vanderpoel at the Art Institute of Chicago, with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League of New York, and with Arthur Wesley Dow at Columbia University of New York. O’Keeffe taught at Columbia College (South Carolina), at University of Virginia, and at West Texas State Normal School. Her first important exhibition was in 1917 at 291 gallery, which was run by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom O’Keeffe would later marry. She lived and worked in New York beginning in 1918, and began spending summers in New Mexico in 1929. In 1949, O’Keeffe moved to New Mexico to live year-round.
O’Keeffe received a commission from Cheney Brothers, a silk company, but she later expressed reservations toward commercial art; in 1924, O’Keeffe wrote to her sister Catherine: “You see I tried commercial Art. … I was a failure. … And I tried doing other foolish forms of commercial Art — I could make a living at it … but it wasn’t worth the price. … Always thinking for a foolish idea for a foolish place didn’t appeal to me for a steady diet — so I gambled on this foolish business of painting — and here I am at it.”
O’Keeffe’s husband and major promoter, Alfred Stieglitz, discouraged the reproduction of her works for fear that the paintings would be compromised. Nevertheless, O’Keeffe’s art has frequently been used successfully on posters, most notably for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. Since its first year in 1973, the festival has used a reproduction of an O’Keeffe painting, with her permission, and sold the poster nationally. With the crisp lines, rich colors, and abstracted, simple shapes characteristic of her paintings, O’Keeffe’s art lends itself well to use on posters.
Therese Thau Heyman Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998)
One of the pioneers of American modernism, Georgia O’Keeffe was a member of Alfred Stieglitz’s circle of progressive artists who made it their mission to create a new and distinctly American art. She was one of the few women in the group and, to her frustration, contemporary critics often highlighted the ability of her work to express “femaleness.” In 1922 she complained that critics “make me seem like some strange unearthly sort of creature floating in the air — breathing in clouds for nourishment — when the truth is that I like beef steak — and like it rare at that.” (Corn, The Great American Thing, 1999) Born in Wisconsin, she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later at the Art Students League in New York. She married photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1924, and during a long career created images of cityscapes, abstractions, landscapes, and her celebrated flower paintings. She taught for four years in Texas, where the wide-open spaces profoundly affected her art. In 1929 she started spending months at a time in New Mexico, telling friends in New York that “I never feel at home in the East the way I do out here … I feel like myself — and I like it.” After Stieglitz died, O’Keeffe settled in New Mexico and created haunting images of sun-bleached bones, clouds, and mesas. She was a true “Santa Fe character,” dressed severely in black or white, with her long dark hair pulled tightly back
Hibiscus with PlumeriaSmithsonian American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery Gallery Label Intrigued by the opportunity to paint tropical flora, Georgia O’Keeffe accepted an offer from the Dole Pineapple Company for an all-expenses paid trip to the state of Hawaii to create a painting for the company’s 1939 advertising campaign. She visited Maui, O’ahu, Hawai’i, and Kaua’i, painting the islands’ dramatic gorges, waterfalls, and tropical flowers, among them Hibiscus with Plumeria. Pink and yellow petals towering against a clear blue sky transform the delicate blossoms into a joyous monumentality. But of the twenty canvases of Hawaii she completed, none showed a pineapple. Only after Dole had one flown to New York did she finally, if reluctantly, paint the desired fruit.
SUMIT KAUR, PAT SCHWARTZBERG, ED LITCHER, CLARA BELLA, NANCY BROWN, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, JAY JACOBSON, GLORIA HERMAN, LAURA HUSSEY ALL GOT IT RIGHT!
Sources
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2022 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
A destination for neighborhood residents and visitors from all over the world, its six acres are well-known for plantings of tulips, lilacs, crabapple trees, summer perennials, and chrysanthemums. Its more formal design and specular floral displays have also made it a popular destination for small weddings.
The Garden opened in 1937 and is named for the glass conservatory that was built at this location in 1899 to offer seasonal plant displays to the public. Even earlier, this area had a horticultural function—it housed a large greenhouse designed by Park co-designer Calvert Vaux for growing plants for the Park’s landscapes.
The Conservatory Garden is composed of three areas, each with a distinct design: the French-style North Garden, the Italianate Center Garden, and the English-style South Garden. The main entrance is marked by an ornate gate, known as the Vanderbilt Gate, which was donated to the City by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and once adorned the mansion of Cornelius Vanderbilt II at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street
Through the gate is the Center Garden, influenced by Italian Renaissance gardens. Its symmetrical design features a central lawn with a single jet fountain, behind which is a semicircular pergola covered in wisteria. The lawn is bordered by yew hedges and flanked with allées of crabapple trees, which burst into pink and white blooms every spring.
The North Garden offers spectacular seasonal displays of tulips each spring and Korean chrysanthemums in autumn. At its center stands the Untermyer Fountain, featuring the Three Dancing Maidens by German sculptor Walter Schott, which is surrounded by an intricate French parterre garden.
The South Garden is arranged in concentric planting beds in the style of an English perennial garden. It contains a diverse array of plantings that bring interest and beauty to every season, including bulbs, annuals, perennials, and numerous flowering trees. This garden also features the Burnett Fountain, a memorial to the author Frances Hodgson Burnett, that stands at one end of a waterlily pool.
FORMAL GARDEN
WISTERIA PERGOLA
Statue of Mary and Dickon from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden” at the reflecting pool of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, New York City
THE MURAL BUILDING AT HARLEM HOSPITAL CLARA BELLA, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, HARA REISER, ED LITCHER, GLORIA HERMAN, LAURA HUSSEY ALL GOT IT RIGHT.
FROM ED LITCHER: Harlem Hospital Mural is a mixed media by Terry Wallace which was uploaded on May 22nd, 2014. This Mural comprises 429 completely unique, laminated, insulated, digitally printed pieces of glass coming together in one 13,000 sq. ft. modern masterpiece that pays homage to historic murals. PS. I only found this information because the name of the hospital is above the door in the picture.
SOURCES
CENTRAL PARK CONSERVANCY
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2022 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES ABOUT OUR MUNICIPAL HOSPITAL SYSTEM, THE PEOPLE WHO THEY SERVE, THE PEOPLE WHO WORK THERE AND THE EFFORTS CONTINUALLY MADE TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL NEW YORKERS.
The following text is by Mexican artist Arantxa X. Rodriguez, who will share her experience creating the murals for Lincoln Hospital with Untapped New York Insiders in a virtual talk on April 21st at 12 p.m. This event is free for Untapped New York Insiders. If you’re not an insider, become a member now (the code JOINUS to get one month free).
In early 2020, I was selected via an open call to produce a mural inside Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. This opportunity was hosted by the Arts in Medicine department at NYC Health + Hospitals, together with Residency Unlimited. I was excited to produce such a large-scale work in an important public place, and eager to get started on the project. We had our first team meeting right before the onset of Covid-19, and the project was placed on indefinite hiatus. During a time of such uncertainty and fear, I flew to Mexico, finding peace and refuge in my parents’ home. I found much comfort there, but I soon realized this retreat into the life and home of my parents was affecting my independence and identity as an artist. After three months in Mexico, I decided to return to New York to fight for my project, my career, and my Artist Visa.
My return to New York was tumultuous, and the summer of 2020 held some of the highest highs and lowest lows thus far in my life. I decided to give up my Manhattan apartment, which I could no longer afford, and lived a nomadic existence. I was not sure where I would go next or how long I would be in the country, because I was unsure if I would receive my Artist Visa. It was during this time that I received the crucial email from Lincoln Hospital, explaining that the mural project was back on. I immediately agreed to return to this project, and this gave me something to focus on when so much else felt unresolved.
Photo by Anders Jones
When I initially received this mural project, I submitted two potential drafts: one that would adorn the escalator, and a second that would hang in the maternity ward. We decided to move forward with the first mural. I rented a room in Harlem, and I began to bring my plans to life. I painted the mural on a material called Polytab, a very thin fabric that allowed me to paint offsite in my studio, and then paste the mural to the final destination. The painting itself took about a month and a half, and then I spent about three weeks onsite installing the mural in Lincoln Hospital. I titled this mural The Formation of Abundance.
During a time of such personal and communal uncertainty, this project affirmed my identity as an artist, and taught me the power of public artwork. The Bronx has a large Latin community, which is enormously important to me as a Mexican artist. During the installation, I met so many people of different walks of life: doctors, nurses, staff, patients, and community members. I received a thousand kind comments and “God Bless Yous” from folks walking by. I saw many patients recovering from Covid-19 and other illnesses. I was so moved by these encounters that I promised I would return someday to complete the second mural as a donation.
Photo of Arantxa X. Rodriguez by Anders Jones
After completing the first installation, I applied for as many grants and opportunities as I could, and I eventually received the City Artist Corps Grant. This grant, together with assistance from NYC Health + Hospitals, allowed me to embark upon the maternity ward mural. All the while, the pandemic continued as different waves and threatening variants appeared. Delays pushed the project further into 2022, but when we finally chose a date for the unveiling, we realized the perfect one: March 8th, International Women’s Day. I could not imagine a more appropriate day to unveil this mural, which I have titled Blooming Blossoms.
Visually, both murals are very geometrical and full of mandalas, something that has long been present in my work. In the maternity mural, within each mandala I painted figures of ambiguous gender and ethnicity, highlighting the diversity of mothers and caregivers. These life forms grow and expand, radiating outward into imagery that references cells, flowers, and other organic shapes. The mural shows a universe in constant movement: past, present, and future.
These visual cycles of life and time are particularly significant given the history of the New York City public health care system, and of Lincoln Hospital in particular. In the 1970s, the Young Lords and Black Panthers advocated for better public health care through activism and demonstrations. Much of this activism was focused in Harlem and the Bronx, areas largely neglected in favor of wealthier neighborhoods. In response to the city’s continued indifference, the Young Lords eventually occupied Lincoln Hospital, forcing the government to take notice of the community’s needs, and improve the poor conditions of health care at the hospital. The current New York City public health system has been made possible by the activism of the Young Lords.
Photo by Linda Morales
Although the healthcare system in this country is very imperfect, today Lincoln Hospital offers so many public resources. No matter who you are, what language you speak, or your legal status, you can receive care here. I have heard so many extraordinary stories of the unique care offered at Lincoln Hospital. One in particular that resonated with me was of a couple in Paraguay expecting their first child, Candela. They were informed their baby would be born with a serious heart condition, and only a difficult and expensive surgery could help. The parents were desperate to find funds to save their baby. Marcello Villagran, who conducts communications for Lincoln Hospital, learned of the couple’s struggles, and made contact with the consulate of Paraguay in New York City. He was able to arrange for the couple to come to New York, where the surgery would be possible.
This story is only one of many that echo through the halls of the hospital. I have made so many meaningful connections with Lincoln Hospital, and the surrounding neighborhood in the Bronx. These murals honor the work of activists, doctors, and staff that have contributed to this legacy. Painting there has really filled me with life and inspiration, and I wish I could adorn every corridor of the hospital.
Mexican artist Arantxa Rodriguez, who will share her experience creating the murals for Lincoln Hospital with Untapped New York Insiders in a virtual talk on April 21st at 12 p.m.This event is free for Untapped New York Insiders. If you’re not an insider, become a member now (the code JOINUS to get one month free).
ROOSEVELT ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE NANCY BROWN, GUY LUDWIG,HARA REISER, CLARA BELLA, ED LITCHER, SUMIT KAUR, JAY JACOBSON, & ALEXIS VILLAFANE & GLORIA HERMAN ALL GOT IT!!!
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
RIHS (C) FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Though several efforts have been made to install a permanent memorial to essential workers in New York City since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, nonprofit organization Friends of the Ruin’s proposal to stabilize and adaptively repurpose the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island may be the most promising yet. Intended to honor medical professionals and frontline workers fighting viral and infectious diseases, the envisioned memorial would lend new significance to a site of already considerable cultural importance.
Before it was dilapidated, the building that formerly stood on the site of the proposed memorial played an important role in the public health of the city. Situated north of Four Freedoms State Park on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, the structure was designed in the Gothic Revival style by James Renwick Jr., the well-known architect of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan. When it opened in 1856, the hospital served as the first dedicated to the smallpox epidemic. After three decades of use, the hospital closed, and two new wings were constructed before the building reopened as a nursing school.
In the 1950s, the school was abandoned. The structure has since been actively deteriorating; roofs, stairwells, and the entire north wall have collapsed, and vegetation has crept its way up and into the structure, further destabilizing it. Identifying elements of the building that have endured include the crenellation along the roofline and parapets, the cupola and stone porch, and the pointed arches framing apertures. The building was eventually granted landmark status at the city, state, and national level, becoming the country’s first “landmark ruin.”
Friends of the Ruin was established in 2018 with the objective of stabilizing the remaining structure and turning the grounds into a publicly accessible park, but the COVID-19 pandemic cast the landmark’s significance in a new light. Given its former function as a hospital and nursing school, the adaptation of the site into a memorial to healthcare professionals seemed particularly fitting. Now, the necessity for such a memorial has only acquired greater urgency; though a semblance of normalcy has returned to daily life in the city, New Yorkers have yet to experience a meaningful space in which to grieve the dead.
To date, Friends of the Ruin has raised an estimated $1.2 million through private and public support. The organization is also working with local firm Walter B. Melvin Architects to prepare stabilization drawings which detail, amongst other needs, where steel columns will be inserted and where walls will be reinforced. The preservation team intends to use the stones salvaged from the collapsed portions of the building in the reinforcement. The majority of the interior walls will be demolished, and the accumulated debris will be removed, leaving behind a stabilized building shell and a sunlit interior open to the sky above. Though still in the fundraising process, Friends of the Ruin intend to hold an international competition for the design of the memorial, which when complete will be free to the public and accessible year-round.
Throughout the decision-making process, the organization has sought to engage members of the community, elected officials, and advocacy organizations in the envisioning of the memorial. In March 2021, unanimous support was obtained from Manhattan’s Community Board 8. To better contextualize Friends of the Ruin’s approach, one need only recall the comparatively different one taken by former Governor Andrew Cuomo last summer, when plans were announced to build the “Circle of Heroes” monument to essential workers in Battery Park City. Within five days of having released the renderings, bulldozers were sent to Rockefeller Park, where the monument was slated for construction. Residents responded by protesting, decrying the lack of transparency in the decision-making process and the monument’s proposed design, which involved paving over valuable greenspace and installing 19 maple trees and an “eternal flame.” Following the pushback, plans to install the memorial in Battery Park City were halted indefinitely.
The northwest corner of the existing ruins (Courtesy Walter B. Melvin Architects)
Scattered, more successful past efforts to realize a COVID-19 memorial in New York City have largely been temporary or relatively smaller in scope, including a statue installed in Lower Manhattan in honor of sanitation workers, a commemorative painting in the Brooklyn office of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s largest union, and a memorial service held on the one-year anniversary of the city’s first documented COVID-19 death, during which faces of New Yorkers who died of the virus were projected onto the Brooklyn Bridge.
Friends of the Ruin’s proposed memorial, dedicated more broadly to all frontline scientists and medical professionals who have fought viral and infectious diseases, is both all-encompassing and unique to this moment, when the Covid-19 Pandemic appears to have reached a turning point. Given the scope of the ambition and the historical significance of the site, it seems the ultimate design for the memorial will have to negotiate a fine line between inclusivity and specificity, serving to both educate the public on medical advances across generations and provide a meaningful space for mourning and reflection, particularly for those visitors who have lived through this pandemic and have perhaps lost someone during it.
POST SCRIPT
For all the years I have been on the Island the question comes up frequently is what to do with the Smallpox Hospital. Perhaps this wonderful solution to the buildings future will come true.
RENDERING OF PROPOSED QUEENS PLAZAANDY SPARBERG, JAY JACOBSON, SUMIT KAUR AND ED LITCHER 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)
Sources
THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSLETTER
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
