When I was a baby my parents lived in an apartment house on the same block as the Dorilton. There are many photos of myself in a carriage in front of the most impressive architecture. (Cannot find the photos, but still looking)
History
In his book, “Historic Manhattan Apartment Houses,” (Dover Publications, Inc., 1996), Andrew Alpern illustrates the building on his cover and remarks on its “overblown ostentation,” quoting a cynical review by famed critic Montgomery Schuyler,
Alpern noted that Schuyler was upset at the “stone balls on the gate posts of the entrance, two feet in diameter, left there for titans to roll at ten pins.”
Indeed, in his 1979 book, “The City Observed, New York, A Guide To The Architecture of Manhattan,” (Vintage Books, a division of Random House) Paul Goldberger wrote that “Now the building seems more to be pitied than censored, a rather too eager-to-please piece of Second Empire foppery. Once, some thought that a mansard roof and a lot of sculpture and cartouches make a building French; now we know better. Still, it is sad to see this building, for all its foolishness, in the sorry state of decay it has descended to, with unsympathetic storefronts along the Broadway side and a façade that clearly has not been cared for in years.”
“In its day,” Christopher Gray observed in his September 30, 1990 “Streetscapes” article in The New York Times, “it was considered the architectural equivalent of a fist fight,” adding that “over the years large hunks of its blowsy decoration have been removed, leaving it more curiosity than contretemps.”
Mr. Gray noted that the building’s “limestone lower stories are voluptuous in their deep carving,” adding that “the middle section is an epidemic of quoining, ironwork, brackets, cartouches, oriels and other details.” When it opened, it had “separate servant and passenger elevators, filtered water, separate tenant storerooms and a provision for charging electric automobiles,” according to Mr. Gray.
“In 1902,” Mr. Gray continued, “the critic Montgomery Schuyler chose the Dorilton for his Architectural Aberrations column in Architecture Record. He remarked on ‘the wild yell with which the fronts exclaim, ‘Look at me,’ as if somebody were going to miss seeing a building of this 12-stories area.’ ‘The incendiary qualities of the edifice may be referred, first to violence of color, then to violence of scale, then to violence of ‘thinginess,’ to the multiplicity and importunity of the details.’ ‘Motley elements,’ he said, ‘set the sensitive spectator’s teeth on edge.’”
Goodness gracious. Presumably the renowned Mr. Schuyler never stepped foot into a full-blown Baroque masterpiece in Europe! His sanctity might not have survived intact!
By 1974, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission had the good graces to declare the building a landmark, noting that it was “exceptionally handsome.”
About a decade later, the mansard roof was re-slated and some of the dormers were rebuilt but a 10th floor cornice could not be rebuilt, according to Mr. Gray, because of cost, and for “a lesser cornice at the 11th floor level, also missing, the bare wall was painted in trompe l’oeil to imitate the banding and shadows of the original. Designed by John Wright Stephens and Jonathan Williams it is an amusing deception.”
One of the building’s early residents was William Zeckendorf.
In August, 1938, the building was sold at auction under foreclosure by the Dry Dock Savings Institution.
“It was only with conversion as a cooperative in 1984 that the depredations of decades began to be turned along….and with patience, imagination and a large amount of money, the Dorilton may yet recover its lost outrageous glory,” Alpern wrote.
“Particularly distinctive are the two Brobdingnagian, classically draped maidens serenely surveying the passing scene from their perch overlooking Broadway at the balustraded fourth floor. Comparably unusual, along West 71st Street, are the two pairs of near-nude muscular men supporting (with great effort) iron-railed balconies at the sixth floor,” Mr. Alpern observed.
A fairer assessment of the building can be found in “New York 1900, Metropolitan Architecture and Urbanism 1890-1915,” (Rizzoli International Publications, 1983). In it, authors Robert A. M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin and John Montague Massengale wrote that “The Dorilton’s bold massing dominated Sherman Square….The Dorilton was distinguished by the astonishing voluptuousness of its details….It was precisely the intricacy and the burly swagger of the Dorilton which was the source of its drama and expressed the optimism of the new century.”
Over the years, the Dorilton was overshadowed by the high visibility of the nearby Ansonia, the celebrated legends of the Dakota and the skyscraping glories of the multi-towered apartment buildings of Central Park West.
Despite decades of neglect, the Dorilton has survived, thank goodness, a masterpiece of urban architecture, a lively, enriching edifice that Paris would love to have.
ORIGINAL RENDERING OF THE TROLLEY KIOSK, NOW THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER ED LITCHER AND ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Carter B. Horsley, a former journalist for The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Post. Mr. Horsley is also the editorial director of CityRealty.com.
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For more than 60 years, the 14-story building built in 1927 at 29-27 Queens Plaza North was the tallest commercial building in Queens. Until it was surpassed in 1990 by other structures, the building with the clock towered over the Queensborough Bridge and the elevated Flushing and Astoria subway lines running next to it.
The Long Island City Clock Tower, as the building came to be known, was purchased by developers in 2014 who, using land and air rights from the clock tower, as well as air rights from an adjacent lot owned by and purchased from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a 77-story residential tower is rising adjacent to the historic Long Island City Clock Tower.
While the Clock Tower’s hands have not moved in decades, it is landmarked and there are plans to renovate and restore the four clock faces below the gargoyles atop the 93-year-old neo-Gothic Clock Tower. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was asked to approve the replacement of 11 windows on the west façade of the building at a public hearing scheduled for the Community Board 1 virtual meeting on November 17.
The brown-brick landmarked Clock Tower, with castellated clock tower turret, copper windows, and granite shields, will have its glass and iron clock faces restored. The LPC approved the clock restoration plan in October 2019 with the stipulation that the old glass panels be replaced with the same frosted glass as the originals.
“(The Clock Tower) is a real icon for the city and the entire borough,” said LPC Commissioner Diana Chapin in an October 31, 2019 Curbed New York report.
LPC public review and official landmark designation protect the Clock Tower from destruction, but allow construction around it. Construction of the 762-foot residential tower, known as Sven, is concave, and curves partially around the Clock Tower and creating a closeness between the two buildings. The new structure, when complete, will assume the title of tallest building in Queens, supplanting the Citicorp building which stands at 673 feet.
LPC rules set forth the Commission’s application and public hearing procedures, and the rules and standards for work on buildings in historic districts and individual landmarks. The LPC is the largest preservation agency in the nation, it is responsible for protecting New York City’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status and regulating them after designation.
Aerial render of Queens Plaza Park looking west towards Manhattan, from The Durst Organization
It looks like construction is coming to a close on Sven, a 762-foot-tall skyscraper at 29-37 41st Avenue and the second-tallest building in Long Island City, Queens. Also known as Queens Plaza Park, the 67-story tower is designed by Handel Architects for The Durst Organization and will yield 958 rental units with interiors designed by Selldorf Architects, including 300 units set aside as affordable housing. Hunter Roberts is the general contractor and Jaros, Baum & Bolles Engineering administered the mechanical systems for the project, which is bound by Northern Boulevard to the east, Queens Plaza North and Dutch Kills Green to the south, and 41st Avenue to the west.
Since our last update in April, the exterior hoist has been fully disassembled from the flat western elevation and the glass façade panels have filled in the exposed gap. Only some minor work remains to be completed around the ground level
The Queens Clock Tower and Sven. Photo by Michael Young
Apartments at Sven are all about the experience. Stylish and thoughtful details, amenities you’ll actually use, a location unmatched in its convenience. In just a few short weeks we’re opening our housing lottery and individuals can apply for the rent-stabilized apartments in our community.
For those who qualify it’s an incredible opportunity to live in a beautiful new community at an affordable rate.
THIS IS DEFINITELY A FUN ADDITION. JUST LOOK UP A THE CEILING AND STUDY SOME HISTORY!
THE FULL VIEW OF THE MAP
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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For more than 60 years, the 14-story building built in 1927 at 29-27 Queens Plaza North was the tallest commercial building in Queens. Until it was surpassed in 1990 by other structures, the building with the clock towered over the Queensborough Bridge and the elevated Flushing and Astoria subway lines running next to it.
The Long Island City Clock Tower, as the building came to be known, was purchased by developers in 2014 who, using land and air rights from the clock tower, as well as air rights from an adjacent lot owned by and purchased from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), a 77-story residential tower is rising adjacent to the historic Long Island City Clock Tower.
While the Clock Tower’s hands have not moved in decades, it is landmarked and there are plans to renovate and restore the four clock faces below the gargoyles atop the 93-year-old neo-Gothic Clock Tower. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was asked to approve the replacement of 11 windows on the west façade of the building at a public hearing scheduled for the Community Board 1 virtual meeting on November 17.
The brown-brick landmarked Clock Tower, with castellated clock tower turret, copper windows, and granite shields, will have its glass and iron clock faces restored. The LPC approved the clock restoration plan in October 2019 with the stipulation that the old glass panels be replaced with the same frosted glass as the originals.
“(The Clock Tower) is a real icon for the city and the entire borough,” said LPC Commissioner Diana Chapin in an October 31, 2019 Curbed New York report.
LPC public review and official landmark designation protect the Clock Tower from destruction, but allow construction around it. Construction of the 762-foot residential tower, known as Sven, is concave, and curves partially around the Clock Tower and creating a closeness between the two buildings. The new structure, when complete, will assume the title of tallest building in Queens, supplanting the Citicorp building which stands at 673 feet.
LPC rules set forth the Commission’s application and public hearing procedures, and the rules and standards for work on buildings in historic districts and individual landmarks. The LPC is the largest preservation agency in the nation, it is responsible for protecting New York City’s architecturally, historically, and culturally significant buildings and sites by granting them landmark or historic district status and regulating them after designation.
Aerial render of Queens Plaza Park looking west towards Manhattan, from The Durst Organization
BY: MICHAEL YOUNG 8:00 AM ON JULY 27, 2021
It looks like construction is coming to a close on Sven, a 762-foot-tall skyscraper at 29-37 41st Avenue and the second-tallest building in Long Island City, Queens. Also known as Queens Plaza Park, the 67-story tower is designed by Handel Architects for The Durst Organization and will yield 958 rental units with interiors designed by Selldorf Architects, including 300 units set aside as affordable housing. Hunter Roberts is the general contractor and Jaros, Baum & Bolles Engineering administered the mechanical systems for the project, which is bound by Northern Boulevard to the east, Queens Plaza North and Dutch Kills Green to the south, and 41st Avenue to the west.
Since our last update in April, the exterior hoist has been fully disassembled from the flat western elevation and the glass façade panels have filled in the exposed gap. Only some minor work remains to be completed around the ground level
The Queens Clock Tower and Sven. Photo by Michael Young
Apartments at Sven are all about the experience. Stylish and thoughtful details, amenities you’ll actually use, a location unmatched in its convenience. In just a few short weeks we’re opening our housing lottery and individuals can apply for the rent-stabilized apartments in our community.
For those who qualify, it’s an incredible opportunity to live in a beautiful new community at an affordable rate.
THIS IS DEFINITELY A FUN ADDITION. JUST LOOK UP AT THE CEILING AND STUDY SOME HISTORY!
THE FULL VIEW OF THE MAP
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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FROM: EPHEMERAL NEW YORK & SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
Like other New York City printmakers in the 1930s, Armin Landeck’s etchings and engravings focus on the city’s dark corners and mysterious pockets. [“Housetops, 14th Street,” 1937]
His work displays the kind of familiarity with the city one would expect from an artist who grew up peering around the early 20th century Manhattan of dimly lit bars, shadowy elevated trains, and hidden tenement roofs.
Pop’s Tavern (1934)
But he was not a New York City native. Born in Wisconsin in 1904, Landeck arrived in Gotham to study architecture at Columbia University and attend summer classes at the Art Students League on West 57th Street.
Manhattan Vista (1934)
“By the time of his graduation from Columbia in 1927, he had become interested in printmaking and had bought a used press,” states the website for the National Gallery of Art. When he couldn’t find a job as an architect, he turned to printmaking. Though he lived in Connecticut, he taught in New York and had a studio on 14th Street. Landeck spent much of his career rendering nocturnes of rooftops, stairwells, street corners, and other “secretive places amid the very public place, Manhattan,” as the New York Times put it in a 1998 article.
Manhattan Nocturne (1938)
“Like Hopper, Landeck uses the human figure sparely; he was more interested in the surroundings, and his ambience of choice obviously was urban,” stated the Times.
Approaching Storm (1938)
In a 1980 Times article, Landeck addressed the fact that often the only person in one of his prints is the viewer. “That there are no people is intentional on my part, because I look at New York in terms of theater very often,” he said. Landeck’s work became more abstract as the 20th century continued, but no less accomplished.
Still, his prints from the 1930s and 1940s might best exemplify his style. Armin was “ever the master of twilight, of shadow, and mystery,” as one 2003 book title described him.
[Prints 1, 2, and 4: Smithsonian American Art Museum; Print 3: Artnet; Print 5: Artnet] Tags:Armin Landeck 1930s, Armin Landeck artist, Armin Landeck New York City, Armin Landeck printmaker, Artists 1930s New York, New York in the 1930s
Armin Landeck, Stairhall, 1950, engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ruth B. Benedict, 1983.96.1
Armin Landeck, Studio Interior no. 1, 1935, drypoint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1975.7.1
Armin Landeck, Untitled, n.d., engraving, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John B. Turner, 1972.24.8
The elevated rail tracks at Queens Plaza adjoining the tallest building in Queens.
ANDY SPARBERG, NINA LUBLIN, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, VICKI FEINMEL AND LAURA HUSSEY KNOW THEIR GEOGRAPHY
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)
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
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Herzl Emanuel, Lower Manhattan from Apartment in Brooklyn, 1937, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost, 1986.92.20
Herzl Emanuel created this piece shortly after he moved to New York. In this early work, he experimented with cubism by breaking up and distorting the traditional landscape format. Lower Manhattan from Apartment in Brooklyn displays patterns of bricks, architectural details, fragments of the Brooklyn Bridge, and ripples of water to create an imagined cityscape of jumbled shapes and crisscrossing lines.
“Hopefully one idea, the strongest, the most persistent, nagging and tenacious will emerge and survive, impose its will, resolve the conflict and cause a work of sculpture to come into being.” Herzl Emanuel, 1983
Harry LeRoy Taskey, Approach to George Washington Bridge, lithograph, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York through the General Services Administration, 1975.83.94
Everett Warner, Falling Snow, New York, 1922, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design, 1978.63
Ann Nooney, Near Brooklyn Bridge, 1935-1941, lithograph on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Evander Childs High School, Bronx, New York through the General Services Administration, 1975.83.71
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY THE DRIVERS FLOOR SPACE ON THE RED BUS!!
CLARA BELLA 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
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
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At first glance, the board game Monopoly doesn’t seem like it has a New York City connection. The man who sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935 was from Philadelphia, and the board features properties in Atlantic City.
J.P. Morgan
Then there’s that mustached man long dubbed “the Monopoly Man” or “Mr. Monopoly.” He appears on the Chance and Community Chest cards, always in a Depression-era suit with a bowtie and top hat.
But the Monopoly Man isn’t just a board game invention—this iconic character (who has an actual name, Rich Uncle Pennybags) is supposedly based on the image of an actual New Yorker.
Rich Uncle Pennybags So who is he?
Apparently he’s modeled after banker J.P. Morgan. Morgan’s company financed some of the Gilded Age’s biggest corporations. He consolidated railroads, helped rescue the gold standard, and helped stabilize financial markets during the Panic of 1907, according to History.com. His former mansion on Madison Avenue is now the Morgan Library.
Phil Orbanes, a former VP at Parker Brothers and author of The Monopoly Companion, confirmed in this interview that the artist who drew Mr. Monopoly based him on J.P. Morgan.
Kahn On the other hand, a site called monopolyland raises the possibility that Mr. Moneybags is based on Otto Khan, a German-born financier with a mansion on Fifth Avenue who died in 1934, close to the release date of Monopoly. (Morgan died in 1913.) Khan also wore a top hat and had the requisite mustache.
They both certainly look like Uncle Pennybags. A composite perhaps?
[Top image: Biography.com; second image: pixy.org; third image: Wikipedia]
Chapel of the Good Shepherd NINA LUBLIN, VICKI FEINMK, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, ED LITCHER, 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
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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A painter’s evocative look at an empty street beside the Manhattan Bridge August 16, 2021
Anthony Springer was a lawyer-turned-artist who painted the energy and vitality of various downtown New York City neighborhoods until his death in 1995.
A lawyer-turned-artist’s moody Greenwich Village December 3, 2018 Until recently, I’d never heard of Greenwich Village painter Anthony Springer. But I’ve found myself captivated by his colorful, textural images of a less dense, less luxurious Village and other surrounding neighborhoods.
Born in 1928, Springer, a native New Yorker, worked as a lawyer before deciding to make painting his vocation at the age of 40, according to friend and fellow artist Robert Holden.
Tony was a wonderful, quietly mysterious kind of guy, who played poker all night long, slept until the late morning, and then grabbed his half-box French easel and 16×20 inch stretched linen canvas to go paint the narrow side streets of the Village in the dusty afternoon light, a habit he kept up for 20 years or more,” wrote Holden.
When he died in 1995, Springer left behind “hundreds of his beautiful, moody gray cityscapes,” he wrote. More than two decades or so have passed since Springer’s death, and his evocative work serves as a reminder of the very different pre-2000s Greenwich Village. Springer’s “Meatpacking District,” at top, takes us to the Belgian block intersection of Greenwich and Gansevoort Streets.
When Springer painted it, this was a daytime corner of trucks, garbage carts, and pigeons before it became an pricey restaurant playground. His image of a gas station amid tenements is a reminder that downtown used to actually have gas stations.
Could this be the one Eighth and Greenwich Avenues? “Downtown Street” shows a quiet scene of a narrow side street and empty sidewalks. Maybe Mercer Street, or Greene Street?
The last image, “Townhouses and Naked Trees,” feels appropriate for the current season with winter approaching. Hmm, Tenth Street?
[First and last images: Doyle; second and third images: mutualart] Tags:Anthony Springer Greenwich Village, Anthony Springer Painter, Downtown New York Street 1980s, Greenwich Village 1970s, Greenwich Village Gas Station, Greenwich Village painters, Meatpacking District 1980s
COOK WITH EFFLER FAMILY WHO LIVED IN BLACKWELL HOUSE AROUND 1914. SEATED BY KITCHEN AREA
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
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Prior to 1920 the blocks east of First Avenue above 50th Street were home the Peter Doelger Brewery, decaying rowhouses and tenement buildings. Fashionable society lived toward the center of Manhattan–around the Madison, Park and Fifth Avenue sections. But that year wealthy literary agent Elisabeth Marbury commissioned architect Mott Schmidt to transform an old rowhouse at No. 13 Sutton Place into a neo-Georgian residence. By the mid-1920’s Sutton Place had become an exclusive enclave, home to residents like Anne Morgan and Anne Vanderbilt.
In 1926 real estate operator Joseph G. Thomas commissioned Van Wart & Wein to design an upscale apartment building at the end of East 52nd Street overlooking the East River, slightly to the south of Sutton Place. The 14-floor building was completed the following year–a Jazz Age take on Venetian Gothic.
The two-story base of rough-faced stone reflected traditional elements of Gothic design. The entrance was recessed within a pointed arched opening, and trefoils and tracery embellished the second floor. The upper floors were faced in rough-faced brick which gave the impression of age.
There were just sixteen apartments within The Beekman Campanile. The architects took advantage of the riverside location by including a yacht landing and private club, the Montauk Yacht Club.
The building quickly attracted upper class residents. Among the first was Ralph Pulitzer, Jr., grandson of publisher Joseph Pulitzer. His sprawling apartment had an additional occupant following his wedding to Bessie Catherine Aspinwall on June 27, 1929.
Living here at the same time was Leonard Outhwaite and his wife. The couple maintained a 90-foot schooner, the Kinkajou. On June 30, 1929, according to The New York Times, the “Outhwaite yacht set sail from the Montauk Yacht Club landing at Fifty-second Street and East River.” The cruise would entail 13,000 miles and last eight months. It did not go entirely smoothly. Outhwaite had to take over the handling of the vessel himself after Captain Olaf Berg was tragically drowned near England.
On November 27, 1931 the New York Evening Post reported quietly “Mrs. William K. Dick rented an apartment at 450 East Fifty-second Street.” She was Madeleine Talmadge Force Astor Dick, the widow of John Jacob Astor, who died in the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, and current wife of millionaire William Karl Dick. It was no doubt the couple’s domestic problems which prompted her taking an apartment alone. Within two years Madeleine divorced William Dick and quickly married Enzo Fiermonte.
One colorful resident in particular, The New Yorker critic Alexandex Woollcott, may have changed the personality of The Beekman Campanile. In his 1956 book More in Sorrow, Wolcott Gibbs wrote that after the break-up of the Algonquin Round Table its members visited Woollcott here.
While they no longer knew one another intimately, however, almost all of them kept in pretty close touch with Mr. Woollcott. His apartment at 450 East Fifty-second Street, which Dorothy Parker in a spasm of rascality had named Wit’s End, was a comfortable, untidy garret looking down on the East River, and long after the Round Table and the Thanatopsis Club were dead it was still a hangout for whatever members of the old mob happened to be in town. Sunday breakfast there lasted practically all day, with Mr. Woollcott in rumpled pajamas and an ancient, rather horrible dressing gown, receiving his guests from a throne in one corner with an air that would have done credit to Queen Victoria.
In the meantime the Mayfair Yacht Club with its stunning river views was a favorite among society. On October 14, 1932, for instance, The New York Sun reported that “Mrs. James H. Snowden gave a luncheon yesterday at the Mayfield Yacht Club, 450 East Fifty-second street.” Its Marine Room featured an orchestra and dancing. And alcohol.
On February 1, 1933 The New York Sun reported that the “classy speakeasy” had been raided. Prohibition agents had been tipped off two weeks earlier by a disgusted patron who objected to paying $1 for a bottle of beer in the tough Depression years. The article said he felt it “was plain highway robbery and he thought something should be done about it.” Something, indeed, was done. The manager, a beer delivery man, and fifteen waiters and bartenders were arrested.
The Great Depression had little effect on the residents like the Pulitzers, still here in the 1940’s, and wealthy tenants like John Hertz and his family, the Thomas L. Chadbournes (whose chef had previously worked for King Edward VIII), the family of John Louis Zauggs, and Henry Wise Miller and his writer and activist wife, Alice Duer Miller.
The “fairway” to the fair. Fairway Yacht Club, 450 East 52nd St., New York City, Below: Yachts docking at nearby pier. Campanile pier still functioning after highway was built.
Seen as it appeared in May 1930, the pine-paneled library of Henry and Alice Duer Miller was decorated with antique furnishings and paintings. photo by Samuel H. Gottscho from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
Alice Duer Miller’s bedroom was more like a Parisian salon. photo by Samuel H. Gottscho from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
Perhaps the Beekman Campanile’s first truly theatrical resident was Noël Coward, who took the former apartment of Alexander Woollcott. In 1942 film executive Gustoaf Miesegaes, president of Transfilm, Inc., took a nine-room apartment; and in May 6 the following year actress Ethel Barrymore moved into the former duplex apartment of the recently deceased Alice Duer Miller.
Stage and screen star Ethel Barrymore was theatrical royalty. from the collection of the Library of Congress.
In 1953 film star Greta Garbo took a fifth floor apartment. The now-retired actress decorated her home in her personal style, including having an antique Swedish skåp (a painted armoire) dismantled and installed as wall panels in a bedroom. She personally designed several of the colorful rugs.
The pine paneling in this section of the Garbo apartment matched that of the Miller apartment’s library. photo via 6sqft.com
Already living in the building were some of Garbo’s friends, like George Schlee and his fashion designer wife Valentina, and Sir William Stephenson. Other residents at the time included Clare Boothe and Henry Luce (founder of TIME magazine), H. J. Heinz and his wife (whose apartment had twenty-one rooms), Drue, Rex Harrison, publisher Walter Thayer, and actress Mary Martin.
Garbo installed panels from an antique Swedish armoire on the walls of a guest room. photo via 6sqft.com
Valentina Schlee designed Garbor’s wardrobe and by the mid-1940’s George Schlee was her financial adviser. The trio would sometimes attend social events together; but little-by-little Greta’s and George’s relationship deepened. According to Richard Alleman in his New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide, Schlee was “her escort, her confidant, and often her traveling companion.” It came to a head when, while Garbo and Schlee had adjoining suites in the Crillon Hotel in Paris, Schlee suffered a fatal heart attack.
Alleman writes “When Garbo discovered that Schlee was dead, she reportedly ran from the hotel and left Valentina to deal with the messy details…Garbo’s irresponsible behavior is said to have so angered Valentina that she made it clear that she didn’t want the actress to attend her husband’s funeral. The two remained neighbors at 450 East 52nd Street for years thereafter but reportedly never again exchanged a word.”
His unusual portrait of Garbo was taken in 1925 by German-American photographer Arnold Genthe from the collection of the Library of Congress
Garbo died on April 15, 1990 leaving an estate estimated at around $200 million. Her sole heir was her niece, Gray Gustafson Reisfield. She and her husband, Dr. Donald Reisfield, used the Beekman Campanile apartment as a pied-à-terre until moving in permanently in 2012. Following Gray Reisfield’s death in 2017 the three-bedroom apartment was put on the market for $5.95 million. Multiple offers came in and it sold later that year for $8.5 million.
The Beekman Campanile–home over the decades to millionaires, celebrities and a speakeasy–has changed little since the glittering Gatsby Era along the East River when it was first opened.
WEEKEND PHOTO Early 20th Century View of Octagon Staircase
Jinny Ewald, Hara Reiser, Thom Heyer all got it right
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN
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ON TUESDAY, AUGUST 17TH. MEET AT BUILDING LOBBY AT 5 PM. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED, SPACE IS LIMITED E-MAIL: DANIELLESHUR@NYPL.ORG THIS IS A FREE PROGRAM SPONSORED BY THE RIHS AND NYPL
AUGUST 14-15, 2021
OUR 442nd EDITION
THE BRANDS WE SMOKED!!!
(OR OUR PARENTS SMOKED)
Joe Camel was my favorite reason to visit Times Square. I think he was replaced by a steam iron!
Virginia Slims sponsored women’s tennis matches
One of the long lasting Tareyton campaigns
Bad choice lady!
From what I heard all the Marlboro men died of lung diseases
Cigarette ads on billboards proliferated in all neighborhoods, especially targeting some areas.
Joe Camel was aimed at the teenage market
OKAY, he is Tom Sellek….mustache and all that hair!
HAVE A CANDY CIGARETTE, JUST CHOCOLATE OR BUBBLE GUM INSTEAD OF TOBACCO
THE GUASTAVINO CEILING IN THE FORMER FOOD EMPORIUM UNDER THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
ED LITCHER, HARA REISER, CLARA BELLA, ANDY SPARBERG ALL GUESSED GUASTAVINO AND SINCE THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME, EVERYONE IS A WINNER TODAY!!
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
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Tilden Mansion: Victorian Facade and Political Scandal
PORTABLE NYC TOURS on JUNE 22, 2021
Though Samuel Tilden failed to become an American president, he succeeded in creating a masterpiece of a home.
While working as an attorney in 1863, Samuel J. Tilden purchased a home in Gramercy—the most fashionable area in town at the time. When he became governor of New York in 1874, he bought a mansion at # 14 to compliment his original home at #15. While busy with his civic responsibilities and political career, Samuel J. Tilden resided in this double-mansion on Gramercy Park South.
When he ran for president in 1876, he nearly won. On election night, Tilden’s victory seemed clear—he held the national popular vote by a 51%-48% margin. A candidate at that time needed 185 electoral votes to win; Tilden had 184 by midnight, with several states still left undecided. By the next morning, the country was in absolute turmoil. Tilden’s opponent, Rutherford B. Hayes, had captured Florida, bringing his electoral total to 185 votes! Samuel Tilden refused to admit defeat and didn’t concede the 1876 presidential election to Rutherford B. Hayes until June 1877.
His future political aspirations were furthermore cut short by an unfortunate misunderstanding. Tilden had had a telegraph machine installed in his house that counted the incoming votes. The press, however, ran a story that ruined his reputation and crushed any further political advancements: he was accused of using the machine to manipulate the ballot counters.
Tilden Mansion facade, High Victorian Gothic detail After the loss Tilden channeled his energies into a major remodeling of his Gramercy Park property. He hired Calvert Vaux—the famed architect known was his work on Central Park and Museum of Natural History—to “victorianize” his home. The two mansions, 14 and 15 Gramercy Park, were joined together by one facade in a High Victorian Gothic style, characterized by polychrome decoration, varying textures, asymmetry, and Gothic details.
Tilden Mansion facade with the busts of Shakespeare, Goethe, Dante, Milton, and Benjamin Franklin
Remodeling lasted for years and was finally finished in 1884, which sadly left very little time for Samuel J. Tilden to enjoy the house; he died in 1886. The stunning facade, with its busts of Shakespeare, Goethe, Dante, Milton, and Benjamin Franklin, point to Tilden’s love of literature. His extensive library (along with donations from Astor and Lenox) served as the foundation for the New York Public Library. The entrance to Tilden’s library at 14 Gramercy is adorned by a bust of Michelangelo—perhaps as a nod to Michelangelo’s great Laurentian Library in Florence.
The Tilden Mansion found a new life at the beginning of the 20th century as the venerated National Arts Club.
Lots of answers to today’s picture. The photo was taken on April 5, 2008 during a rescue drill on the old cabins. Enjoy the Photos!!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
