On a cold, snowy January evening in 1874, Anna Elizabeth Dickinson became one of the first women of national prominence to speak on women’s suffrage in Clinton County, NY. Those gathering to hear her at the Palmer Hall, located upstairs at 60 Margaret Street in downtown Plattsburgh, were described as the most intellectual and cultivated in the community.
The crowd that night would have known her reputation.
Dickinson was born in 1842 into a Philadelphian Quaker family. Her father was an abolitionist. She was educated at the Friends’ Select School in Philadelphia and acknowledged as a gifted speaker and prodigy.
Her first speaking engagement was in 1860 at age 18 when she addressed the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In early 1861, when she spoke in her native city on “Women’s Rights and Wrongs,” her career on the speaking circuit began.
By 1863 Dickinson’s reputation had grown and her name appeared around the country for her anti-slavery stand during the Civil War. She was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party, though not always of Abe Lincoln, whom she felt was too moderate. Because she was a young phenom, she was elevated by some as the “Joan of Arc” of the United States’ ongoing battle to end slavery in the South.
In 1864 she was the first woman to speak before Congress and after the war she resumed her speaking career, equality for African-Americans and women’s rights. The speech was attended by Lincoln.
By 1874 she had been on the speaking circuit for nearly 15 years. During the 1871-72 lecture season she spoke almost every night from October to April commanding from $150 to $400 a night, a very large sum for its time. At her peak, she earned more than Mark Twain.
Dickinson’s spoke on “The Rights and Wrongs of Women,” Reconstruction, “Women’s Work and Wages,” and “Between Us Be Truth,” on the social evils of venereal disease. Before arriving in Plattsburgh, she had started an acting career, climbed Pike’s Peak, and traveled the nation to give her orations on African American and women’s suffrage. (is is believed to be the first white woman to summit Colorado’s Longs Peak, Lincoln Peak, and Elbert Peak, and the second to climb Pike’s Peak.) It is unclear which organization in Plattsburgh sponsored her lecture or if admission was charged.
She entered the Palmer Hall stage not as the audience expected a radical, nonconformist to appear. Her rich brown silk dress included a train. There were diamonds on her ears, neck, and fingers. Her passport described her as 5’ 2” with large gray eyes, a fair complexion, a large Grecian nose, full lips, a round chin, and a round face. Her voice was rich, deep, and mellow, with a style betraying her Quaker training using biblical words.
Her stage presence was not that of a petite woman, and she used the entire stage to deliver her speech. She was a dramatic actress with a message. The title of her address was “What’s to Hinder Women from Helping Themselves?”
She began with the premise women are weak and dependent and need to understand how to overcome their “disabilities.” Women are their own worst enemy, she said, due to their typically gentle upbringing, women are not toughened for real work as their brothers are. Further, in order for women to do men’s work they needed to have the same training.
There would be no free ride, she argued. One will not get something for nothing. If all women are waiting for is marriage, they are not fitting themselves for good work and will not receive rewards for good work.
“The key of a woman’s success is in the brain and in the skill and cunning handle craft that come only with practice,” the Essex County Republican quoted. The reporter felt she did far more than other female orators in the country to create “a correct public sentiment for the best interests of her sex.”
After Dickinson’s 1874 lecture, Plattsburgh organizations started to host lectures by other noted suffrage supporters such as Wendell Phillips and Susan B. Anthony. But it would be 43 years before the city’s women would win the right to vote in state and federal elections.
Also a writer, Dickinson published the radical novel What Answer? (1868), supportive of interracial marriage. She made arguments for worker training, prison reform, assistance for the poor, and compulsory education for children in A Paying Investment, a Plea for Education (1876).
In the meantime, Anna was committed to against her will by her sister Susan Dickinson to the Danville State Hospital for the Insane in Pennsylvania, before being transferred to a private hospital in Goshen, Orange County, NY, where she quickly began giving lectures. She sued newspapers who claimed she was insane and those who had her committed, winning the case against her kidnapping and three libels suits in 1898.
Once released, she lived with George and Sallie Ackley in Goshen for more than 40 years. According to letters between them, and confirmed by George Ackley and his sisters, Dickinson and Sallie Ackley were lovers. When Sallie died, she left a large portion of her estate to Anna.
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson died in 1932 at the age of 89 and was buried in Slate Hill Cemetery in Goshen. A marker at her grave (next to that of the Ackleys) reads “America’s Civil War Joan of Arc,” and quotes her: “My head and heart, soul and brain, were all on fire with the words I must speak.”
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
READY FOR NEXT YEAR NINA LUBLIN, PRESIDENT OF THE R.I. JEWISH CONGREGATION STORES ITEMS FOR OUR NEXT HOLIDAYS.
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
COUNCIL SYNAGOGUE OPENED BY THE NATONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN IN 1927, TO SERVE THE RESIDENTS OF THE CITY HOME
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Anna Elizabeth Dickinson: ‘America’s Civil War Joan of Arc’ NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustrations, from above: A Mathew Brady photo of Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, taken between 1855 and 1865; an Anna E. Dickinson photo and autograph; and a lecture poster from 1891.
John Warren contributed to this article.
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
In 1993, the Roosevelt Island Jewish Congregation (RIJC) moved into it’s new home in the Cultural Center. We were the only tenants along with the Main Street Theatre and Dance Alliance (MSTDA).
The RIJC held its services in the same room all year and expanded to the adjacent dance studio for high holidays and and occasional celebrations.
The MSTDA thrived under the direction of Worth and Nancy Howe, and subsequent directors.
Many other island and outside organizations used the space and it thrived as a cultural headquarters.
In the 2000’s the Cultural Center suffered two massive floods that closed the facilties for years. RIOC decided that the RIJC and MSTDA would now rent their space and other groups would also use the facilities.
The constant delays and construction issues, along with RIOC politics lead to extensive delays and postponements of usage.
Our sanctuary was no longer ours, stripped of all removable furnishings. Anyone can now rent the space for any event. We agreed to the changes and worked to reserve the space when we needed it for events.
Other groups used the space and left in frustration of dealing with RIOC. Only two groups have persevered with use of the center.
We are thirilled to be back in our “home” even for they most holy of holidays and welcome all to our Succah this Friday evening on the roof of the CUltural Center, at the 540 breezeway (on the senior center terrace) RIJC.ORG for more information.
Rabbi Laurie Gold and Cantor Sandra Goodman welcoming congregants for our Yom Kippur service
The torah is read and congregants follow in person or on Zoom.
The end of the holiday is celebrated with Havdalah
NINA LUBLIN AND RABBI LAURIE GOLD AFTER THE LONG YOM KIPPUR SERVICES.
VACATION TIME I was just away on a long-needed cruise. Our trip was to start on Monday, September 4th. The ship, the Norwegian Joy was delayed due to the hurricane in Bermuda. This gave the 4,000 passengers an extra day in New York (at the cruise lines expense). I asked many of my fellow travelers how they spent the day. Here is one families story.
The father was in New York, in 1942, a member of the Royal Navy and waiting to sail to Europe to the battle front. As any good sailor, he found his way to Jack Dempsey’s Bar on Times Square. He sent a postcard home to England. His family kept the card and his story of having Jack Dempsey autograph it personally.
They came to our city with the mission to photograph the Jack Dempsey’s.
When told the site was the Brill Building I knew there was another story behind the address; the home of many in the music industry.
I could not wait to get home and read Daytonian in Manhattan to find our more about the Brill building.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
JACK DEMPSEY’S BAR
&
THE BRILL BUILDING
ISSUE# 1078
The current Jack Demsey’s is a reproduction of the original at a new location.
The 1931 Art Deco Brill Building — Tragedy and Musical History
Nothing, it seemed, could go wrong for Abraham E. Lefcourt prior to 1930. Born on New York’s Lower East Side, he started business manufacturing ladies’ apparel. In 1910 he built his first building, a 12-story structure at 48-54 West 25th Street that housed his factory on two floors.
In 1914 he created the Alan Realty Company–named after his 2-year old son–and continued building, erecting structures throughout the Midtown area. In 1924 Lefcourt gave his now 12-year old son ownership of a $10 million office building being erected at Madison Avenue and 34th Street. His purpose, he said, was to “inculcate in his son…a sense of thrift and responsibility.”
By 1929 Lefcourt not only commanded a vast real estate empire, but was president of the Lefcourt National Bank & Trust Company. On October 3 of that year he announced that he would build the tallest building in the world at the northwest corner of Broadway and 49th Street – the Lefcourt Building. Exceeding the Chrysler Building by four feet in height, it was to cost an estimated $30 million. Negotiations began for leasing the land from brothers Samuel, Max and Maurice Brill, where their Brill Brothers clothing store stood, and the architect Victor A. Bark, Jr. was commissioned for the project.
Nothing, it seemed, could go wrong for Abraham E. Lefcourt.
Suddenly, however, Lefcourt’s fortunes plummeted. Three weeks after his announcement, the stock market crashed. The plans for the skyscraper were quickly reworked, reducing the structure to a $1 million, 11-story office building.
Tragically, one month after the lease of the site was finalized in January 1930, 17-year old Alan Lefcourt died suddenly of anemia. Coupled with the intense grief caused by his son’s death, Lefcourt was forced to deal with a crumbling empire. In August he resigned his bank presidency to devote more time to his real estate holdings. By the end of the year he had sold no fewer the eight Manhattan buildings and investors brought suit against the bank alleging “improper investments.”
The developer continued to lose millions even as the Lefcourt-Alan Building was completed in 1931. By the fall of that year Lefcourt defaulted on the agreement with the Brill Brothers, who foreclosed. The building which he intended as a monument to his son was renamed the Brill Building.
In November 1932, with a judgment pending against him and his world collapsing, Lefcourt suddenly died. While the official report blamed a heart attack, rumors of suicide persisted. His one-time $100 million fortune was reduced to a few thousand.
The polished brass portrait bust of young Alan Lefcourt over the main entranceCompleted in 1931, the striking Art Deco Brill Building remained, in a sense, a memorial to Alan Lefcourt. Above the entrance doors an elaborate niche holds a brass bust of the handsome youth. Another, larger bust, possibly terra cotta, graces façade at the 11th floor. Only the smaller bust is documented as being of Alan (mentioned in Abraham Lefcourt’s obituary in The New York Times as “his son’s bust over the entrance”); however the New York Landmarks Commission feels the evidence suggests the larger bust “too, represents the son, or, perhaps, an idealized male tenant.”
The Lefcourt-Alan Building rises above Broadway on September 10, 1930 with the upper-story bust in place — photo by Edwin Levick — NYPL Collection
Perhaps more significant than the Brill Building’s striking Art Deco architecture, with its contrasting brass and polished black granite, and terra cotta reliefs, it is subsequent place in American music history.
Early tenants were music publishers, many having roots in Tin Pan Alley. Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Tommy Dorsey had offices here along with their music publishers.
By the 1950’s radio disk jockey Alan Freed and Nat King Cole leased space here. Leiber and Stoller wrote for Elvis Presley here; Red Bird Records, famous for its “girl groups” was on the 9th Floor, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David met here in 1957 after which they wrote over 100 songs together.
Throughout the years the building was home to publishing houses such a Lewis Music, Mills Music and Leo Feist, Inc. and composers Johnny Mercer, Billy Rose, Neil Sedaka and Rose Marie McCoy. By 1962 there were 165 music businesses here.
The larger, possibly terra cotta bust above the top floor
Initially the entire second floor –approximately 15,000 square feet—housed The Paradise, a cabaret where music for the floorshows was supplied by bands like Glenn Miller and Paul Whiteman.
Later it became the Hurricane with tropical palms and flowers, headlining Duke Ellington. In 1944 it was Club Zanzibar where Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Jordan and the Ink Spots entertained guests in evening attire.
In the 1960’s the songs for the girl groups and teen idols that emanated from the offices here gave rise to what was called “The Brill Building Sound.” It was, according to Robert Fontenot, “poppier, more laden with strings, more giddy with romantic possibility than some of the earthier R&B stuff…This was, in other words, sophisticated pop for teens in the first blush of love, and it’s precisely that combination of classic songwriting technique and post-rock modernism that helped it get over and kept it fresh and exciting in the years since.”
Abraham Lefcourt’s striking Art Deco monument to his son was designated a New York City landmark in 2010.
GIVE MOM A 14″ TRAM PILLOW! SOFT AND COMFY WAY TO ENJOY OUR ISLAND TRAM LIMITED QUANTITIES AVAILABLE AT RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK $48-
GREAT GIFT FOR DAD, NEXT MONTH FOR FATHER’S DAY!
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND, MAY 13-14, 2023
ISSUE 989
SECOND STREET,
A GEM OF A BLOCK
WITH GREAT CHARM
JUDITH BERDY
For the last few days, I have been working at East Houston Street training election workers. On my lunch hour I have had time to check out the neighborhood. The Bowery is a conglomeration of a few restaurant supply stores, down and out folk, seniors and hipsters. There is a Whole Foods in the building we are working in, where my morning iced coffee is a mere $5.44!!!
Yesterday I wandered two blocks and discovered Second Street. This tree lined street has restored brownstones, charming shops, a cook book shop record (33 rpm) store along with a wonderful community garden.
IL BUCO VITA at 4 East Second Street specializes in Italian glassware, porcelain and giftware. Image a wonderful Tuscan lunch as you wander thru this small shop.
There are three John Derian shops adjoining each other. Each one is loaded with all kinds of decorative merchandise from a plate at $14- to an automated French Squirrel for $1500-.
One shop has much housewares including bed and table linens.
After BRIDGERTON you may need to purchase an ancestor
Trinkets from long ago safaris to countries beyond.
Midblock is Albert’s Garden, tucked in between buildings. A wonderful oasis.
What a wonderful spot.
The bird mural at Albert’s gate is by Belgian street artist, ROA, who is recognized for his use of wildlife imagery that is usually inspired by the local environment. To read all about the garden go to: https://albertsgarden.org
Still looking for the 1967 Harry Belafonte recording of “Matilda, try this shop.
The shop was closed but I can imagine looking for more recipes.
SUPERINTENDENT’S COTTAGE, METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL IMAGE IS PICTURED IN EDWAR HOPPER’S “BLACKWELL’S ISLAND”
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
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Posted Wed, May 3, 2023 at 2:41 pm ET|Updated Wed, May 3, 2023 at 3:52 pm ET Replies (3)
The East Midtown Greenway, as viewed from Andrew Haswell Green Park in February, 2023. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — To the untrained eye, the new East Midtown Greenway, an expansion of the East River Esplanade alongside the Upper East Side and Sutton Place, seems like it could be ready for summer fun.
But all that seems is not so.
Despite the extensive landscaping and near completion of a totally new pedestrian footbridge in Sutton Place near Clara Coffey Park at East 54th Street, the project won’t be ready for bikes, strolls and sitting until the best time of year for waterfront fun: December 2023.
The same view as above, from April. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
As recently as a year ago, the New York City Economic Development Corporation claimed a Fall 2023 completion date.
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The work around Andrew Haswell Green Park and the Alice Aycock Pavilion. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
But according to the two most recent EDC presentations to Community Boards 6 and 8, this past October and Febuary, that while the rest of the greenway esplanade might be completed, continued work at Andrew Haswell Green Park and the Alice Aycock Pavilion will prevent them from opening the much anticipated — and needed — green space.
A worker washes down the greenway, as viewed from Sutton Place Park. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
“We won’t be able to open just this part of the part because then it will create dead end public space, which could cause safety concerns,” said NYC EDC project director Ankita Nalavade at the February Community Board 6 meeting. “This is one of the reason why the completion of the entire project will be extend until December 2023.”
The new footbridge at East 54th Street, viewed from Clara Coffey Park in early April. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
When asked for any additional details or updates about the construction, NYC EDC only told Patch that the work would be completed by the end of the year.
The southern terminus of the park, viewed from the 51st Street Esplanade section, which will not connect at all to the Greenway for the time being. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
While neighbors find the new completion date “a little disappointing,” as one CB6 board member put it, residents are still thrilled to have another way to engage with the neighborhood’s waterfront.
Jennifer Ratner, founder of the group Friends of the East River Esplanade, called the project “a great leap forward” when it comes to creating a greenway around Manhattan.
Work as viewed from Andrew Haswell Green Park in mid-April. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
“We are very excited about the opening of the East Midtown Greenway. We can’t wait to have even more mileage on a contiguous waterfront for runners, walkers, bikers, and people just strolling with kids and their families,” she said.
Looking north from Sutton Place Park in early April. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
Even when the current construction finishes, more work will be on the way — once the project can find about $38 million.
That’s how much it’s gonna cost to enact any of the ideas Community Board 8 had for the space under Andrew Haswell Green Park, a former heliport and Sanitation waste transfer station, according to Michael Bradley, a Parks Department project administrator.
The southern terminus of the park, viewed from the 51st Street footbridge, which will not connect at all to the Greenway for the time being. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
Those ideas pitched in 2018 included a bathroom or a cafe as well as a new ADA compliant ramp.
While the concrete curtain walls are mostly demolished at the structure, until the funds are secured, half of the space will be fenced off and will act as temporary Parks Department maintenance space.
One day the work will end — and then it will start up again. (Peter Senzamici/Patch)
The next stage of the East River Greenway — the United Nations headquarters gap — is currently in the design stage and should be ready for strolls, bikes and sits in about four years, according to NYC EDC.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY IONIC TOP FROM ORIGINAL OCTAGON COLUMN
JUST IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE PHOTOS
LOUNGE IN NEW YORK TRAINING SCHOOL FOR NURSES NOW THE ABANDONED SMALLPOX HOSPITAL.
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
PATCH UPPER EAST SIDE
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
THANK YOU TO RACHEL MAINES AND GLORIA, MARK HERMAN, CAROLINE CAVALLI, MR. & MRS. RICHARD MEYER, NANCY BROWN, ARLENE &STEVE BESSENOFF, MARIE EWALD & DAVID DANZIG, BARRY & JUDY SCHNEIDER, & MICHELLE ROY, ARON EISENPRESIS, TANYA MORRISETT, MATTHIAS ALTWICKER, JUDY CONNORTON, THOM HEYER, STEPHEN QUANDT, QING XUN & ANNONYMOUS FOR THEIR DONATIONS. WE ARE WAITING TO ADD YOUR NAME TO OUR DONOR LIST
We need your help this spring to help us restore and enhance our garden. Our goal is $2000.00 for a complete restoration of soil, drainage, plantings and fencing. We will update donations daily. We will list our donors.
Join us in making our garden thrive again. ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE
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The Lucy G. Moses Awards are the Conservancy’s highest honors for outstanding preservation efforts, named for a dedicated New Yorker whose generosity benefited the City for more than 50 years.
Winners of the “Oscars of Preservation” have been announced and they feature a wide variety of historic structures across New York City. The Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award is the highest honor for excellence in preservation awarded by The New York Landmarks Conservancy. Every year the Conservancy recognizes outstanding contributions to the city from individuals, organizations, and building owners. Here, we take a look at the winners of this year’s preservation award, including a Manhattan armory, a historic lighthouse, stunning churches, and more!
In addition to the buildings being honored, Laurie Beckelman, former Chair of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, will receive the 2023 Public Leadership in Preservation Award. John J. (Jack) Kerr, Jr., attorney, will receive the Preservation Leadership Award in honor of his role in preservation’s most significant legal decisions, and for his work with many nonprofit organizations, including the Conservancy, where he served as Board Chair. Winners will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony on April 19th at 6:00 pm at Saint Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan. You can register for tickets to attend the event here.
CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY’S ISSUE
9.Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Manhattan
Church of Saint Mary the Virgin Entry Sculpture Photo Courtesy of JHPA, Inc
After two decades of being obscured by a sidewalk bridge, the restoration work at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin can finally be seen and appreciated. The Lucy G. Moses Award-winning project has revealed a newly restored limestone and brick façade. Restored limestone statues by John Massey Rhind are out in the open once again on 46th Street.
Known as Smoky Mary’s, for the generous incense used in services, the church was designed by Napoleon LeBrun and Sons in the French Gothic Revival style. Completed in 1895, it was the first building in the world to use steel frame construction, eliminating the need for flying buttress supports and permitting a large interior on a narrow lot.
10. 131 Duane Street, Manhattan
Photo (c) Albert Vecerka Esto
Restoration work on 131 Duane Street in the Tribeca South Historic District revealed the building’s historic “Hope Building” sign. A team of preservation professionals rediscovered the sign while restoring the structure’s original marble, brick, and cast iron façade, paying careful attention to the ornate architectural details.
Now a mixed-use building with lofts, retail and amenity spaces, and a two-story rooftop penthouse, the building was originally constructed in 1863 by Thomas Hope. It housed a variety of dry goods companies and shoe manufacturers. The upper floors were converted for residential use in the 1970s.
11. The Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, Brooklyn
Photo by Michael Middleton/ Li Saltzman Architects
The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is made up of seven different stone types to achieve its unique polychrome design. Completed in 1891, the church exemplifies the Italian Romanesque Revival style.
This restoration project which will receive the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award has stabilized and restored the monumental façade and stained glass, and repaired a hole in the roof. The project was funded in tandem with zoning changes to a nearby new development.
12. 1065 Clay Avenue, Bronx
Photo by Mary Kay Judy
1065 Clay Avenue in the Bronx was once a vacant wreck. Now, the formerly abandoned residence has been transformed into a home by the current owners Ali and Farah Mozaffari. Located within the Clay Avenue Historic District, the Mozaffari’s home has become a beacon of renewal.
The three-story house, which is attached to a twin, boasts a Roman brick facade with prominent three-sided angled bays. There are Flemish-inspired gables at the roofline above the wrought-iron railings encircled balcony created by the bays. It is clear that much work and care has gone into the restoration of this historic home to bring it back to its former brilliance.
MONDAY-TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
FRIENDS GONE NOW AT PASSOVER, 2011
PHOTO OF THE DAY
WE ARE AWAY FOR A FEW DAYS. ENJOY THE VIEWS OF THE ISLAND
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NEW YORK LANDMARKS CONSERVANCY
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
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Every spring dozens of daffodils bloom around our Kwasan Cherry tree next the the Visitor Center.
We need your help this spring to help us restore and enhance our garden. Our goal is $2000.00 for a complete restoration of soil, drainage, plantings and fencing. We will update donations daily. We will list our donors.
Join us in making our garden thrive again. ALL DONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE
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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
When you walk through the front doors of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you enter a Neoclassical lobby that’s an architectural treasure in its own right—with dramatic archways, a marble floor, and a ceiling that seems to soar to the heavens.
But amid the coolness of the stone and marble, there’s a feature of the museum’s “Great Hall” that adds an aura of warmth and life: the giant urns that contain beautiful oversize fresh flower arrangements.
These lovely blooms change weekly; they tend to reflect the seasons. And just like every work of art displayed at the Met, there’s a story behind them.
The flowers were the idea of philanthropist Lila Acheson Wallace. In the late 1960s, she funded an endowment that would allow Met administrators to purchase and display weekly “starburst” flower arrangements throughout the lobby.
“An ephemeral addition to an otherwise timeless space, the florals change every Tuesday thanks to the generosity of a single donor, Lila Acheson Wallace, whose endowment in 1967 funded fresh flowers in perpetuity,” reported the New York Times in 2016.
Wallace, who with her husband founded Readers’ Digest in 1922, was a major benefactor of the Met. Museum-goers may recognize her name above the entrance to the Lila Acheson Wallace wing, which opened in 1987 to exhibit modern art.
Though she passed away in 1984, her endowment continues to grace the Great Hall and bring a sense of the present to a building famed for its antiquities.
For some years in the 1980’s I worked for a travel agency doing corporate business trips for employees of Reader’s Digest.
Reader’s Digest, based in Pleasantville, NY was a large worldwide privately owned business.
Lilia and DeWitt Wallace, aside from owning the publishing business were art collectors. Their headquarters was famous for the impressionist art on the walls of all the offices. From the staff I learned that the environment was lovely and lots of amenities that other 1980’s offices did not offer.
Some of my time at the agency, we booked trips for staff to Paris. Mrs. Wallace was on of the donors (mostly American) to fund the restoration of Giverny, Monet’s home outside Paris.
I did visit Giverny shortly after it opened and a plaque to the American’s generosity was on the wall.
In the late 1990’s and corporate restructuring the art collection was sold and only memories remain of the long closed campus.
Every time I visit the Met, I smile at the flower arrangements and the plaque acknowledging Lila Wallace.
CAN STREET BRIDGE ARON EISENPREISS AND ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT!
One of the more ornate features of the West Side Elevated Highway was the bridge constructed over Canal Street and opened to the public in February 1939. In November 1982, the bridge was ripped down and sold for scrap. I’m not sure of the exact date of the photography above (courtesy the Library of Congress) but it’s clearly after the entire elevated highway was closed. Notice the weeds growing from the highway partition!
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
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Manhattan’s 57th Street, the world’s “most expensive” street, was laid out and opened in 1857 as the city of New York expanded northward.With the Hudson and East Rivers on either end, the area was until then largely uninhabited and clustered with small factories and workshops. As late as the 1860s, the area east of Central Park was a shantytown with up to 5,000 squatters.Half a century later it was Manhattan’s cultural heart and an intercontinental meeting place of artists, collectors and dealers.
57th StreetIn 1823, society doyenne Mary Mason Jones inherited the wasteland of what is today Fifth Avenue & 57th Street from her father, the President of Chemical Bank. In 1868 she commissioned architect Robert Mook to build her a spectacular mansion in the mode of a French chateau along with a row of similar marble dwellings (the project was completed in 1871). The block of five between 57th & 58th Street was treated as a single unit. After Jones moved into her corner mansion, she rented the remaining four to others in her social circle.Her initiative had an immediate impact. In the mid-1870s, wealthy New Yorkers began to put up “choice” family residences in a mixture of styles, from brownstone mansions to French chateaux and Gothic palaces. These grandiose erections were interspersed with structures dedicated to the arts.During the 1890s and early-twentieth century an artistic hub developed around the two blocks of West 57th Street from Sixth Avenue to Broadway. Predating the opening of Carnegie Hall in 1891, the thirty-eight Osborne Apartments at 205 West 57th Street were built to provide soundproof residences for musicians. During the mid-1920s, the piano showrooms of Chickering Hall and Steinway Hall were developed there. The composer Bela Bartok spent the last year of his life at 309 West 57th.On the south side of the street studio apartments were constructed that offered artists the advantage of light from the north, including the Rembrandt Studios at 152, Sherwood Studios at 58 (both demolished), and Rodin Studios at 200 West 57th Street. Childe Hassam worked in a double-height studio at 130 West 57th. The same street also served as headquarters of organizations such as the American Fine Arts Society, the Art Students League, and the Architectural League of New York.
Durand-Ruel Gallery
In 1839 Jean-Marie-Fortuné Durand and Marie-Ferdinande Ruel set up an art shop at 1 Rue de la Paix in Paris, naming it the Galerie Durand-Ruel. In 1865, their son Paul Durand took over the family business and moved the gallery to 16 Rue Lafitte with an additional branch at 111 Rue Le Peletier.During the 1860s and early 1870s he represented the landscape painters of the Barbizon School. He then became intrigued by a group of young Impressionist painters who, at the time, were lambasted by the critics and ridiculed in the press. When he filled three rooms of his Le Pelletier gallery with paintings for the second impressionist show in 1876, French critics were viciously hostile.Durand’s dealings with American collectors began during the 1860s, but were initially kept to short-term ventures such as exhibitions in Boston and Philadelphia. Struggling to make a living in Paris, he packed up some three hundred works in forty-three crates and sailed to America. In April 1886, the American Art Association (AAA) used its premises at 6 East 23rd Street to present a major exhibition of French Impressionism. The show consisted of 289 paintings that were assembled from Durand-Ruel’s stock.The favorable reception of the exhibition motivated him to open permanent quarters at Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street. It proved to be the cornerstone to his phenomenal success. Durand’s name became interlocked with the migratory history of Impression. He turned Manhattan into an Impressionist haven.Durand-Ruel & Sons was the official name of his venture which by 1893 included the participation of his sons Joseph, Charles and Georges. Having moved the firm’s location to 12 East 57th Street in 1912, the pioneering gallery supported a new breed of American art lovers in their foundation of some important private collections which, in turn, would form the basis of major museum holdings.Motivated by the success of Durand-Ruel, other galleries soon followed suit and relocated to “arty” 57th Street. It was just a matter time before additional exhibition spaces and auction houses opened up in the immediate vicinity. One of the newcomers was a young man named F. Valentine Dudensing.
Valentine & Foujita
Foujita exhibition the Valentine Dudensing GalleryIn 1926 the Dudensing name was well known in New York. Born in 1892, Valentine was the third generation of his family to be engaged in the art business. His grandfather Richard had emigrated from Germany in 1853 and worked as an engraver and printer.
In 1904 his father Frank opened the Dudensing Galleries at 45 West 44th Street, specializing in Barbizon School paintings and the work of young American artists. Valentine joined him after graduation in 1913. It was, from a dealer’s point of view, an exciting time. In the wake of the Armory Show there was a sudden interest in and enthusiasm for modern (European) art.
During a trip to Paris in the early 1920s, Dudensing became acquainted with Pierre Matisse, the painter’s younger son. Together, they conceived the project of a gallery managed by Dudensing in New York, while Matisse organized and curated art from Paris.
The F. Valentine Dudensing Gallery opened on February 8th, 1926, at 43 East 57th Street with an exhibition of work by the Franco-Japanese painter Léonard-Tsuguharu Foujita. It was the artist’s first American showing. While his work was acclaimed in Parisian circles (he was hailed as the “Japanese Ingres”), his work was virtually unknown in New York.The artist’s obsession with the female nude was highlighted with Déese de la neige (1924), a painting over six feet in length. Dudensing sold the painting of this lady with “porcelain” skin to Carl Weeks, a collector from Des Moines, Iowa, and owner of the highly profitable Armand cosmetics company who, at the time, was in the process of building Salisbury House, a grand manor that he planned to fill with his extensive art collection (the painting was donated to the Fogg Art Museum in 1974 by the owner’s son).The New York gallery was instantly hailed as an important venue for contemporary art. The show’s success was in part due to the gallery’s ground-breaking décor of pale grey walls, bare floors and abundant natural light from south-facing windows. Valentine created a Continental model that would followed by other Manhattan galleries. In 1927 he changed its name to the Valentine Gallery to distinguish it from his father’s art firm.
Valentine & Picasso
The Dudensing-Matisse partnership was hugely successful and lasted until 1931 when Matisse decided to open his own gallery in the Fuller Building on 57th Street where, for about six decades and some three hundred exhibitions, he introduced to New York some of the latest European art. He also promoted the careers of emerging American talent.Valentine’s program alternated between shows of contemporary French art, arranged with Matisse’s help as an agent and shows of American artists organized by Dudensing. The gallery presented the first American solo exhibitions of many (now household) names, including Giorgio de Chirico, Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, and others. In addition Dudensing arranged retrospectives of the work of Henri Matisse, Chaïm Soutine and Maurice Utrillo.Valentine and his wife Margaret [Bibi] van der Gros, an American artist who had studied in Paris, befriended Picasso during the late 1920s. In a letter of November 1928 he complained to Matisse that he had been unable to find buyers for Pablo’s work, but his fortunes would change rapidly. In early December that same year he sold a 1906 gouache Woman with Kerchief to the prominent New York attorney and collector T. Catesby Jones. The latter was one of a small group of Picasso collectors in the city who had purchased work from other sources, either in Paris or elsewhere.This sale seemed to have been the catalyst Valentine needed to begin handling and promoting the artist’s work. According to its sales records, the gallery sold six Picassos in 1929 and seven in 1930. This sudden interest motivated Dudensing to present the first Picasso exhibition at the Valentine, by then located at 69 East 57th Street.Making initial arrangements for the show, Matisse visited Picasso in April 1930 and reported that the artist was very keen on the project and promised to lend pictures. Abstractions by Picasso opened in early January 1931 with works dating from 1914 to 1930 and became one of the gallery’s most notable exhibitions. It gained Dudensing the reputation as a leading dealer and connoisseur of Picasso’s work.Just days after Abstractions show closed, he was alerted to the fact that Pablo’s masterpiece Family of Saltimbanque (1905) was offered for sale. The painting had been owned since 1915 by Hertha Koenig, a private collector in Munich, who had pledged it as collateral for a bank loan on which she defaulted. Dudensing immediately alerted Chester Dale and negotiated a deal on his behalf. The painting was shipped to America and put on view at New York’s Museum of French Art. Today it is part of the Chester Dale Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Spanish Refugees
Throughout the 1930s Dudensing sold more works by Picasso than any other European artist and he did much to promote and establish the painter’s reputation in America. He included Picasso’s paintings and drawings in numerous group exhibitions over the years and mounted seven solo shows between 1931 and 1939.
Early in the Spanish Civil War, the country’s Republican government commissioned Picasso to paint a mural for the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. Living and working in the capital, Picasso read in horror of the April 1937 German carpet bombing of Guernica, a Basque town that had sided with the Republicans against Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces. The latter had authorized the attack as a means of intimidating his opponents in the region. More than a thousand residents were killed.
In 1939, Picasso placed the painting in the care of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and decreed that it would not return from exile until democracy was restored in Spain. In May that year the American Artists’ Congress, chaired by the industrialist and gallery owner Sidney Janis, helped organize an American tour of Guernica along with a set of related drawings in order to raise funds for refugees fleeing the Spanish Civil War.
Although MoMA’s new Goodwin/Stone Building at 11 West 53rd Street had opened that same month with enormous publicity, Picasso did not want the painting to be shown there fearing that the commotion would deflect attention from the serious purpose of the occasion. Janis selected the Valentine Gallery as the painting’s venue not only because its main room could accommodate the large painting, but also in recognition of Dudensing’s personal relationship with the artist.
The gala opening on May 4, 1939, was attended by nearly one hundred guests, including the former premier of the Spanish Republic, Juan Negrín, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; and many other dignitaries. Two thousand visitors paid the admission fee to see Guernica during the show’s four-week run in New York. It left Willem de Kooning in awe; Jackson Pollock visited the gallery on various occasions to closely study the painting; for Lee Krasner it was a deeply emotional experience.
The painting was put on display in the Stendhal Gallery Los Angeles, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Chicago Arts Club, before returning to New York for a Picasso retrospective at MoMA. By then war had begun in Europe and dealers were feeling its effects. New York’s art world was changing. An influx of dealers fleeing the Nazis stiffened competition in the modern art market. One recent arrival from Berlin was Curt Valentin who opened the Buchholz Gallery at 32 East 57th Street in 1938 (in 1951 renamed as the Curt Valentin Gallery). Although Jewish, the latter had gained permission from the Nazi authorities to sell German art in America to help fund Hitler’s war efforts. The similarity between names caused confusion (which continues to this today).
In the spring of 1947, without a murmur to the press, the doors to the Valentine Gallery were left shut as the owner and his wife had quietly moved to France. Once Manhattan’s most influential dealer had departed, his name was soon forgotten. The man who had made Pablo Picasso a widely admired painter throughout the United States, lived his final years in obscurity tending to his cattle and vineyards.
Spain’s transition to democracy led to the approval of the 1978 Constitution. In 1981, eight years after Picasso’s death and an exile of forty-two years, Guernica arrived in Madrid for the very first time.
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
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Illustrations, from above: Mary Mason Jones’ marble mansion in 1917/8 (demolished in 1929); portrait of Paul Durand-Ruel, c. 1910 by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (The National Gallery, London); Foujita exhibition the Valentine Dudensing Gallery, East 57th Street, February 1926; Tsuguharu Foujita, Deésse de la neige, 1924 (Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA); Picasso exhibition at the Valentine Gallery, November 1937; and Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso (Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid).
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
