This treasured piece of medical history still exists next to the former Roosevelt Hospital, now Mount Sinai West.
Syms Operating Theatre, Coutesy of the Museum of the City of New York
When the immensely wealthy James Henry Roosevelt died in 1863, he left $1 million to establish a hospital “for the reception and relief of sick and diseased persons.” It was a staggering amount of money.
The new Roosevelt Hospital purchased its building site in 1866 between 9th and 10th Avenues, from 58th to 59th Streets, well north of the established city. In this sparsely-developed area land was much more affordable.
As plans for the new hospital were discussed, the trustees opted for the “pavilion plan” that had been devised in France. The concept was to inhibit the growth and spread of infection and disease by reducing stale air and dirt. It was believed that proper ventilation and ample sunlight would disperse the harmful elements.
Therefore small hospital buildings, or pavilions, rather than a single bulky edifice were considered more scientifically healthful. By 1872 three pavilions, all in the Victorian Gothic style and designed by Carl Pfeiffer, had been completed.
Fate would change the future of Roosevelt Hospital when multimillionaire William J. Syms became ill.
Syms was an iconic 19th century tycoon who increased his fortune with every new enterprise. Spreading his interests among diverse industries, he founded both the Metropolitan Gas Company and the Forty-second and Grand Street Railroad Company. He was President of the Franklin Telegraph Company, Vice-President of the Atlantic And Pacific Telegraph Company and a partner in the largest gun maker and dealer in New York, Blunt & Syms. Syms, his wife Catherine and their adopted daughter, Frances Mary, lived in a mansion at 477 Fifth Avenue.
Dr. Charles McBurney was “attending surgeon” at Roosevelt Hospital at the time and treated Syms who was more than happy to recover. In payment for the doctor’s $300 bill, the millionaire sent back a check for $3000, which Dr. McBurney promptly returned. But Syms never forgot.
William J. Syms died in 1889 and on April 19 his will was probated. The New York Times reported that “the Roosevelt Hospital will receive $350,000. Of that amount $250,000 is to be used in the erection of a surgical operating theatre, at the easterly end of the lot on which the hospital stands. The theatre is to be under the direction of Dr. Charles McBurney, and to be called the ‘William J. Syms Operating Theatre of Roosevelt Hospital.’ The remaining $100,000 is to be invested and the income applied to the expenses of the operating theatre.”
The gift was not totally humanitarian. Syms wanted the building to be “an enduring monument to himself” as well as of “great service to suffering humanity,” according to Harper’s Weekly
. Architect William Wheeler Smith was given the commission for the new structure. By November 2, 1890 work was well underway. The New York Times announced “The nearest approach to perfection in all that goes to bring about the results attainable by modern surgery will be made with the completion of the Syms Operating Theatre, upon which work is being rapidly pushed at Fifty-ninth Street and Ninth Avenue.”
The reason the operating theatre would be near to perfection, said the newspaper, was that “Dr. McBurney spent much time in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, filled with original ideas and anxious to glean the latest improvements in these surgical centres of the Old World.”
McBurney consulted with the architect and after three unsuccessful drafts, Smith came up with plans “that combined all the necessary features and were within the estimate.” To keep within “the estimate,” Smith had to forego any over-the-top architectural embellishment.
“All style and architectural feelings were sacrificed to the scientific demands, but the building, nevertheless, will be an ornament to its neighborhood,” said The Times.
The Syms building was separate from the main hospital. Image Mt. Sinai Archives
Smith’s design called for a rather bulky, understated red Haverstraw brick Romanesque Revival structure three stories tall over a basement, with a tall, conical glass skylight. A four-foot dry moat surrounded the structure, assuring light, air and drainage.
To ensure cleanliness the floors were to be mosaic, “these being absolutely impervious;” and the walls were either marble-clad or of hard plaster. The ground-breaking design included facilities for preparing patients and disinfecting them, the doctors and the instruments after operations.
The operating arena was clad in Italian marble and could accommodate 184 students. The glass dome, 40 feet above the floor, provided natural lighting. There was no wood–a potential harbor for germs– used in any section of the amphitheater.
The ultra-modern facility would include etherizing rooms, examination rooms, rooms for septic cases, rooms for quarantining dangerous cases, photographic rooms, a microscope room, instrument room, preparatory laboratory, and a room for preparing surgical dressings and bandages. The Times noted “Arrangements for the ventilation of the building will be elaborate and most complete.”
And then came the contesting of the will.
In March 1891, with construction well underway, Syms’ sister, Mary E. Serrell, protested that he was of unsound mind when he wrote the will and was under “undue influence.” Things ground to a halt on 10th Avenue. “When the contest of the will was started it became problematical whether the hospital would ever get the $350,000, so the work was stopped,” said The Times. The hospital had good reason to be worried. A reporter visiting that year said “The most noticeable feature of the [existing] surgical pavilion is its crowded condition. Every one of its thirty-six beds contains a patient.” But by mid-July Serrell dropped her suit and construction was restarted. It was finally completed in 1892, about six month past the expected date.Harper’s Weekly called it “The finest structure in the world for surgical operations.” As instructed by Sym’s will, Dr. McBurney headed the new surgical theater and, as the years progressed, the doctor’s reputation in the medical professional grew. Here he developed processes to perform appendectomies, he identified the “McBurney’s point,” a focused site of tenderness and, in 1894, developed the muscle-splitting incision access. It was McBurney who first used the term appendicitis and, contrary to contemporary practice, urged the early removal of the appendix. The Syms Operating Theater was still a world-renowned facility when, in 1909, 100 surgeons from foreign warships visited to observe about a dozen emergency operations performed under the direction of the then-head surgeon, Dr. George E. Brewer. As the 20th century progressed, however, the importance of the building would wane. Although the Syms Theater received a facelift in 1934, it was upstaged in 1941 when a new Private Patients Pavilion was built with new, modern surgical areas. The Syms was used as a blood bank and mortuary for six years, then in 1948 became a temporary emergency room. Things got worse for the old building in 1953. When the new Tower Building was built behind, over 17 feet of the rear of the building were removed to make way. Portions of the conical skylights were covered with copper and the interiors were gutted to provide space for the Department of Pathology.
Although the hospital repeatedly threatened to demolish the old Syms Operating Theatre, it never got around to it and in 1979 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it a landmark. Shortly thereafter the hospital sold the east end of the block to developers. The stocky little building became the focal point for two 49-story luxury apartment buildings. Restoration architect Walter Sedovich was hired who repaired the central skylight, original ground floor windows and the great red oak entrance doors. Salvage yards were searched to find just the right vintage bricks to replace lost or damaged ones. In the meantime, architect Robert Crane, working on the two new structures, relied on the Syms building as his design theme. Granite courses, curved bricks and other detailing echo the architectural feeling of the operating theater. After narrowly escaping demolition, the future of The William J. Syms Operating Theater which was on the cutting edge of science and medicine when designed is now secure.
Octagon Residents enjoyed a tour of the south end today, courtesy of Bozzuto Management and the RIHS. Lots of fun on a wonderful spring day for neighbors to meet each other. The RIHS can arrange a special tour for your group.
THE CHERRY TREES IN FULL BLOOM THROUGH THE WINDOW OF THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER
THOM HEYR, CLARA BELLA, ARON EISENPRESS, HARA REISER, GLORIA HRMAN, VICKI FEINMEL, ALEXIS VILLEFANE AND NINA LUBLIN 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
Sources: A DAYTONIAN IN MANHATTAN MT.SINAI ARCHIVES MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Will Barnet, Woman and Cats, 1962, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Harry W. Zichterman in memory of Joshua C. Taylor, 1981.140
Will Barnet, Silent Seasons–Winter, 1968, color lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Atelier Mourlot Ltd., 1969.2.28
Will Barnet, Study for Three Muses, ca. 1980-1985, charcoal and oil stick on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1994.42.6
Will Barnet, The Blue Thread, 1984, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Frank K. Ribelin and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 1996.72
Will Barnet has painted several images of mothers and children that capture intimate scenes of family life. In The Blue Thread, the verticals and horizontals of the windows, table, and chair divide the painting into neat rectangles, and Barnet positioned his daughter, her son, and the family cat so that they evoke figures from an Egyptian wall painting. The subdued tones and stylized poses transform a fleeting moment in his household into an image that feels timeless.
Will Barnet, Big Grey, 1962, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Given in memory of Peter Deitsch, 1974.67
Will Barnet, Big Grey, 1962, color woodcut on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Given in memory of Peter Deitsch, 1974.67
Will Barnet, Woman and Cat, 1979, charcoal on vellum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1994.42.8
Will Barnet, Janus and the White Vertebra, 1955, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. Wreatham E. Gathright, 1986.73
ALEXIS VILLEFANE, THOM HEYER AND VICKI FEINMEL GOT IT
Happy Birthday Judith Berdy!
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 Roosevelt Island Historical Society
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
On March 8, 2010 the two old cabins were moved from the Tram Station to Motorgate to suffer 11 years of indignity under the auspices of non-functional RIOC.
THE ART DECO LAMP OUTSIDE GOLDWATER
UNCEREMONIOUSLY LEFT IN BACK OF COLER INSTEAD OF BEING RE-USED
IGNORING THE OBVIOUS
THE PAVING AROUND BLACKWELL HOUSE HAS BEEN IN HAZARDOUS CONDITION FOR YEARS. MAYBE, SINCE PRESIDENT HAYNES HAS MOVED INTO THE HOUSE, THE PAVING WILL BE REPAIRED.
PLUS
OPENING ON JULY 17TH (IN CASE RIOC DOES NOT INVITE YOU) THE LONG AWAITED MEREDITH BERGMANN SCULPTURES WILL BE DEDICATED,
RECYCLE
A LEXUS TRAVELING AT ABOUT 80 MPH HIT THE LAMPPOST AND A BIKE RACK AT THE EAST ENTRY TO SOUTHPOINT PARK. LET’S MAKE THE DAMAGED POST INTO A FOUND OBJECT IN THE PARK.
WHAT IS THE FATE?
IN 2008 A RIOC STAFF MEMBER DISCOVERED THESE CARVED STONES IN SOUTHPOINT PARK. THE RIHS WANTS THEM TO BE PART OF THE NEW EAST PROMENADE IN THE PARK. NO WORD FROM RIOC. WE DO NOT KNOW WHO T. BURNS WAS,BUT THIS IS A COMMEMORATION OF ALL WHO WERE HERE BEFORE US.
OUR TREES
OUR MOST ENDANGERED TREES
THESE WONDERFUL TREES ARE IN FULL BLOOM. RIOC DECIDED THEY ARE “DISEASED” SO THEY CAN BE REMOVED TO BE REPLACED BY A BIKE HELIX.
JOYOUS CHEERFULNESS
THE WONDERFUL WINDOW DISPLAYS IN THE NEW MSTDA SPACE FOR TOT PROGRAMS. THANKS KRISTI AND KARINE FOR CHEERING UP MAIN STREET.
WILDLIFE FREEDOM FOUNDATION
CATS, POSSUMS, SQUIRRELS, GEESE, DUCKS, AND ALL OTHER CREATURES EXIST BETTER THAN HUMAN DO!
JUDY-TORIAL
I walk around the island and grumble at some sites. We were discussing our lives here over 40+ years. We have lost so much of the shine over the years. Newcomers do not know that we had a strong community spirit that has faded over the years.
I remember so many small amenities and events that have just gone away. I feel that after the pandemic even more of our events will vanish.
Do you remember the Good Shepherd Fall Fair with Mrs. Chapin serving up home-made soups for a wonderful fall fair event.
Do you remember the RIJC bazaar in the Thrift Shop?
Do you remember Sister Regina helping all, no questions asked and an active CYO
Do you remember Geof Carr and the Boy Scouts selling and hauling home your Christmas tree?
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
Emma Fordyce Macrae, Lady in Red (New York, New York, 1887 – 1974)
From the GRATZ GALLERY
Born in Vienna, Austria and raised in New York City where she remained based for her lifetime, Emma Fordyce MacRae was part of The Philadelphia Ten group.
An exhibiting member of the group from 1937 to 1945, MacRae summered in Gloucester, where she made acquaintance with Philadelphia Ten women. She befriended and regularly socialized with M. Elizabeth Price and Lucille Howard in the late 1920s and 1930s. MacRae studied under Impressionist Robert Reid and at the Art Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller, Impressionist Frank Vincent DuMond, Symbolist Luis Mora and Ernest Blumenschein.
Best known for her paintings of floral compositions set against textures of interior backgrounds, she was also critically praised for her figurative compositions. Her work demonstrated a keen decorative sensibility. Her paintings often appear dry and chalky as a result of applying her paint sparingly and allowing the texture of the canvas to show through.
MacRae exhibited extensively in many of the most prestigious exhibition venues of her time, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, as well as forty-one times between 1918 and 1950 at the National Academy of Design.
In 1951 she was elected as associate member of the National Academy of Design; she was the sole member of The Philadelphia Ten to achieve that great honor. MacRae painted until a few years before her death in 1974. Her later works focused on smaller-scale floral still lifes and cityscapes – especially of Central Park.
Victory Girls
By Bethesda Fountain, Central Park
SUNDAY IN THE PARK
Untitled
Elizabeth
Summer Flowers
Emma Fordyce Mac Rae works were shown at a special exhibit at the Cape Ann Museum in 2008.
Litchfield Villa, or “Grace Hill”, is an Italianate mansion built in 1854–1857 on a large private estate now located in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. It is located on Prospect Park West at 5th Street. The villa was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, America’s leading architect of the fashionable Italianate style for railroad and real estate developer Edwin Clark Litchfield.
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
THE COIGNET BUILDING, A SHOWCASE FOR CONCRETE IN BROOKLYN
The restored Coignet Building stands proudly awaiting a new tenant
Before the Whole Foods in Gowanus was built, a handsome building stood alone, left over from the bustling concrete industry that came before. But more than just another pretty Neoclassical building, the Coignet Building was actually a showcase for a new material, known today as concrete, that took the building industry by storm in the 19th century. Moulded concrete, or beton-coignet as it was called in France, was patented by French industrialist François Coignet and consisted of a mix of sand, lime and cement. Beton concrete was showcased to much acclaim at the 1867 Exposition Universelle de Paris.
Though many people were experimenting with similar mixes, Coignet made it possible to mass produce large pieces of concrete and pioneered the use of iron reinforcements. Coignet’s particular mix, perfected through many tests, was found to be particularly durable, adaptable and affordable. The material could be molded instead of painstakingly shaped with chisels and cutting tools. A cement wash could be applied to color the concrete, giving it the appearance of granite, brownstone or whatever was desired.
Etching of the Coignet Stone Company Building shortly after it was constructed. Image via the Victorian Artificial Stone and Plaster Company
The Coignet Building, completed in 1873, was once part of a five acre factory along the Gowanus Canal operated by the New York and Long Island Coignet Stone Company. Designed by William Field and Son (which also did the Tower Buildings in Cobble Hill), the building functioned as both an office and a prototype, much like the New York Terra-Cotta Company building that still stands beneath the Queensboro Bridge . The detailing on the exterior referenced numerous architectural styles popular at the time, in order to show the possibilities of the material. The building was landmarked in 2006 by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the designation report calls it “the earliest known concrete building in New York City.”
For many years, the Coignet Building was covered in a faux-brick, which concealed the concrete facade. The building was renovated by Whole Foods as part a deal to purchase the land and its completion was long awaited by local residents.
Work by the Coignet Stone Company can still be found today in some of the city’s most famous landmarks – the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cleft Ridge Span in Prospect Park and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.
On the two facades of the Coignet Building that face a street, there are two Ionic-columned porticos topped by a pediment. Quoining along the edges of the building give it a neo-Renaissance influence. The staircases leads up to rounded doors, a shape that is mirrored on the first floor windows.
On the second floor, both the rounded and rectangular windows are framed by columns and Italianate window-heads. The whole building is topped by a relatively simple entablature. It is believed that the original floors were possibly made of concrete as well.
After its use as the Coignet Stone Company offices, it was used by the Brooklyn Improvement Company, a company owned by Edwin Clark Litchfield, whose grand home, known today as the Litchfield Villa, still stands on a hill on the edge of Prospect Park.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
BROWNSTONER
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
MANSION AND MUNIFICENCE: THE GILDED AGE OF FIFTH AVENUE TONIGHT
Tuesday, April 20, 7 pm. on Zoom
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
The seedier side of Broadway by a 1930s painter October 19, 2020 Cigarette ads, a burlesque house, a struggling theater, a flea circus and freak show (likely Hubert’s Museum): If you visited 42nd Street on the west side of Broadway at Times Square in 1932, this is what you’d find.
“42nd Street West of Broadway” was painted that year by Edmund Yaghjian, an Armenian immigrant who depicted daytime scenes of the 1930s cityscape and nocturnes that showcased the Depression-era Art Deco feel of the New York at the time.
After studying and then teaching at the Art Students League, Yaghjian took a teaching job in 1942 that forced him to leave Gotham for South Carolina, according to The Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, SC.
His New York City, the city of almost 90 years ago, is on view online at Artnet.
Ships on East River, 1937
Lower Manhattan in the 1930’s
When he was only two years old, Edmund Yaghjian’s Armenian family immigrated to Providence, Rhode Island, where they opened a grocery store. The young artist’s talent—and especially his skill in drawing portraits—was encouraged by his local minister who convinced a wealthy parishioner to provide Yaghjian with a scholarship to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Following his 1930 graduation from RISD, Yaghjian enrolled at New York’s Art Students League. There, he studied with leading American painters, including John Sloan and Stuart Davis. These instructors and the influence of the Ashcan school led Yaghjian to abandon portraiture in order to pursue realistic portrayals of the people and places he experienced in the city. His work was recognized as “best of the year” in the League’s 1930 year-end report and, in 1932, he was represented at the Society of Independent Artists Annual Exhibition.
From 1938 to 1942, Yaghjian taught drawing and composition at the Art Students League; this tenure was followed by brief teaching stints at schools in New Hampshire and Connecticut, as well as the University of Missouri. Yaghjian was hired as chair of the University of South Carolina’s Department of Fine Arts in 1945, a post he held until 1966 when he was named the university’s artist in residence. Over the years, he mentored Jasper Johns, Sigmund Abeles, and the mural artist Blue Sky, among others. While his move to the South distanced Yaghjian from the national stage, his contributions to the arts in South Carolina were significant. As in New York, he viewed his hometown as a source of intriguing subject matter, capturing the streets of Columbia in vibrantly colored and increasingly modernist urban landscapes that successfully blend vernacular and abstract elements.
Yaghjian’s distinguished career was filled with notable awards and exhibitions at such important museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, National Academy of Design, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Butler Institute of Art, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Credited with being a catalyst in arts awareness in South Carolina, Yaghjian once noted: “I call myself a painter; only time will tell if I am an artist.”
Night at the Fair
Corner House 1950
Antiques Store, Park Street Grocery, Bring in the Vegetables
Interior of Holy Spirit Chapel former Dayspring Church now The Sanctuary
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
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK JOHNSON COLLECTION
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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MANSION AND MUNIFICENCE: THE GILDED AGE OF FIFTH AVENUE
Tuesday, April 20, 7 pm. on Zoom
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
Thousands of souls ended up on this island by choice or chance. There is an extensive collection of records and images about those whom home was on Blackwell’s or later Welfare Island. 1852 Image below, NYPL
In October 2015, under a grant generously funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the New York City Municipal Archives embarked upon a large and exciting new project: processing, preserving and cataloging the Almshouse Ledger Collection. This historic collection contains over 400 handwritten volumes pertaining to city-run institutions including the Almshouses, Workhouses, Lunatic Asylum, Penitentiary and various hospitals, which all found their home on Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island. The span covers the years 1758-1952. This important project will ensure that the Almshouse Ledgers are preserved for future generations of researchers, scholars, genealogists, educators and anyone interested in social, cultural and medical histories during this period of great change and growth in New York City.
City Home main street: one- and two-story brick buildings; men seated and walking down the street.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ALMSHOUSE: New York City’s Almshouse history dates back to the colonial era, when poverty and regular outbreaks of measles and smallpox overtook its streets. Greater care and responsibility of the city’s poor and sick, along with their dependents, was needed. In 1736, the city took over as official caregivers to these populations and absorbed the workhouses of New York into its activities. Prior to this time, the church had taken care of New York City’s poor and destitute. The first Almshouse was opened on the Commons of the City in 1736 and fell under the care and control of the Overseers of the Poor, House of Correction, Workhouse and Poorhouse, headed by two men appointed by the Office of the Mayor. Broadly referred to as Almshouses, these establishments included workhouses, soldiers’ barracks, hospitals, penitentiaries and asylums. By 1845 all these institutions were housed on Blackwell’s Island, which today we know as Roosevelt Island.
Incurables Hospital Admissions Ledger
As overcrowding, disease, malnutrition and crime became rampant in the Almshouses, they became synonymous with the very worst of New York City. Many city departments were formed to improve and oversee conditions in the Almshouses, Workhouse, Poorhouse, Lunatic Asylum and hospitals on the island only to be disbanded, re-organized or taken over by other agencies.
City Home: Female barracks; 2-story stone building with 1st and 2nd floor balconies
City Home: Nurses’ Home, stone 2-story building with basement, 1st and 2nd floor balconies.
City Home Administration Building, built in 1846: 2-story ivy-covered brick building with hedge.
The ledger-style admissions, discharges and deaths and census books in the collection record the names of people who were confined (voluntarily or otherwise) in the various facilities on Blackwell’s Island. Many volumes contain detailed information regarding age, gender, disease, date of admission, discharge and/or death. While overwhelmingly male dominated, women, and children to a lesser extent, are well-represented in these books during the years 1822-1860. With few opportunities for employment outside the home, a widow or unmarried woman without family support was often forced to turn to the city for help. Many women brought their children with them, or had their babies in the institution. Women who were unable to nurse their own children were assigned a wet nurse who was paid by the department overseeing the institution. A large number of the assigned wet nurses were inmates from one of the island’s institutions. Many mother-child pairs are noted in the children’s registers.
Old man exiting City Home brick building, “1887” medallion over door.
City Home, Indoor Recreation Center (“Klondike”). Long single-story structure; male patients seated outside.
City Home: Men seated on benches in Recreation Hall.
1864-1873 Certificates of Death
City Home for Dependents: Lawn and beach chairs outside Female Division. Look closely and not Chapel of the Good Shepherd
City Home: Ivy-covered Protestant Church.
City Home: Catholic Church under construction. Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted
City Home District: Exterior, Neurological Hospital Ward. Man in wheel chair seated in front of 1-story building.
Neurological Hospital Ledger 1927
Bond, Hospital and Stock ledgers contain valuable information about the inmates, patients and employees of Blackwell’s Island institutions, including name, age, nativity, child parentage (if known), when they arrived in New York and their port of origin. The type of food, beverages and supplies needed to run such overcrowded and busy facilities are also well documented, as are the needs of the staff of the institutions. Ledgers containing death certificates offer types of illnesses patients suffered succumbed to, while hospital ledgers include information on illnesses suffered from. Some ledgers offer details about the patients themselves. Census Ledgers provide the most detailed information about the various facilities with numbers being taken on a daily basis.
City Home District: Officers’ residences. Two-story wooden bungalows. These were known as Cottage Row, adjoining Blackwell House
CHRYSLER BUILDING Jay Jacobson, Vern Harwood, Guy Ludwig, Alexis Villefane, Hara Reiser, and 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:
NYC DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS & INFORMATION SERVICES, 31 CHAMBERS STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10007, USAARCHIVES@RECORDS.NYC.GOV
NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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FROM “BLACKWELL’S ALMANAC” 2015, By Bobbie Slonevsky
It is well known that the more than 3,000 cherry blossom trees gracing the Potomac Tidal Basin in Washington DC were a gift of the city of Tokyo early in the 20th century. Less well known is how and when we acquired ours.
The name Mary Lasker reverberates in philanthropic circles, mostly in the field of medicine. But she had other interests too. Wife of advertising mogul Albert D. Lasker, Mrs. Lasker was determined to contribute, and inspire others to contribute, to the beautification of New York City. The two best-known programs of her Salute to the Seasons Fund, founded in 1957, are the Park Avenue Malls Planting Project and the Park Avenue Holiday Lighting. However, another donation may have proved even more consequential.
In 1975–76, at the dawn of the Roosevelt Island development, Lasker made a generous gift of cherry blossom trees to the community. They now constitute the magnificent allées along the west promenade across from what was Goldwater Hospital and will soon be Cornell Tech, and all along the east promenade. There is no doubt that their cloud-like masses of blossoms that bloom every April enriched our Island landscape.
But, just as important, they seem to have inspired RIOC, other RI organizations and Island developers to plant more. Additions over the years now embellish all of Roosevelt Island. Of particular historical note is the grove of less mature trees south of the Rivercross lawn, which was dedicated in 2011 to the people of Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami. The trees were planted by RIOC and the Roosevelt Island Residents’ Association in coordination with the Roosevelt Island Tree Board. They anchored a fundraiser hosted by RIRA, the Japanese Association of Roosevelt Island and other groups to raise money for Japan Society’s Earthquake Relief Fund.
Roosevelt Island boasts several varieties of cherry blossoms. They all flower within a couple of weeks of one another, the white blossoming earlier than the heavier pink blooms. The exquisite blossoms that come and go so quickly are said to symbolize the Allée of cherry blossoms on the west promenade.
Trees planted after the earthquake/tsunami. A commemorative plaque on the rock reads: “Celebration of Hope: This grove of trees is dedicated in solidarity with the Japanese people.” 10 evanescence of life, the cycle of life, death and rebirth, an aspect of Asian cultural tradition often associated with Buddhist influence.
When the flowers burst out of their buds, the Asian people celebrate with food, dance and music— the very components of the Cherry Blossom Festival that took place in Four Freedoms Park on April 25, and has been an annual tradition since 2010. There are upwards of 400 cherry blossom trees on RI. This compares with 500 in Central Park and just 200 in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. What’s more, the recent festival attracted several thousand visitors. Our celebrity may be in its infancy, but surely we have made it to the Cherry Blossom Big League.
*No more Cherry Blossom Festivals since 2019
UPDATES
VISITOR CENTER KIOSK EXPANDS HOURS
April Friday, Saturday, Sunday
May Wednesday-Sunday OPEN 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Upcoming Events
with the NYPL Roosevelt Island Branch
Tuesday, April 20
“Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue”
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
Author and Harvard History Professor Lizabeth Cohen provides an eye-opening look at her award-winning book’s subtitle: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. Tracing Logue’s career from the development of Roosevelt Island in the ‘70s, to the redevelopment of New Haven in the ‘50s, Boston in the’60s and the South Bronx from 1978–85, she focuses on Logue’s vision to revitalize post-war cities, the rise of the Urban Development Corporation, and the world of city planning
Jane’s Walk
on Zoom
Roosevelt Island: A Vibrant Sustainable Community
Monday, May 3 1:00 PM 1-2 hours On Your Browser/ Register at MAS.ORG
TED BY THEODORE LIEBMAN, ARCHITECT, PERKINS EASTMAN, AND JUDITH BERDY, ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
We will review the history of the island and its change from the infamous Welfare Island to today’s vibrant Roosevelt Island community and the 1969 Johnson Plan and its execution. We will review all the architecture, the restoration of landmarks, and sustainability features on the island, the tram and subway, the new Cornell Tech University and Four Freedoms Park created as a memorial to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and designed by Louis I. Kahn.
TUESDAY, MAY 18th
Health Fair & Senior Awareness Day.
11a.m. to 3 p.m. Chapel Plaza Sponsored by Carter Burden Senior Network Watch for Details
ROOSEVELT ISLAND DAY RETURNS SATURDAY, JUNE 12th
Watch for details about events throughout the island
FDR HOPE MEMORIAL DEDICATION SATURDAY, JULY 17th
Watch for details on the long-awaited opening of this memorial in Southpoint Park
One of the original eagles that graced the old Penn station. This one is in front of Madison Square Garden, 2 Penn Plaza
Ed LItcher, Guy Ludwig, Andy Sparberg, Aron Eisenpreiss, Alexis Villefane all got it!
FROM GUY LUDWIG
good morning Mss berdy and the whole gazette team!
Tthe stone eagle depicted sits in front of two Penn Plaza, facing Seventh avenue. one of many, the proud bird sat atop the original penn station beginning in 1910
At the start of the station’s demolition in 1964, the eagle shown and several others were ceremoniously lowered off of the building for the press, radio and television to see. eventually – and some would say incongruously – the eagle in the picture was mounted in front of the new complex which replaced the old pennsylvania station. interestingly, right behind that eagle, in the lobby of the building she guards, is another statue from inside pennsylvania station – that of alexander cassett, the executive behind the massive effort which resulted in the original penn project.
it is a vivid, large bronze piece, and he looks like he might be hurrying to catch one of his own trains, home. if mr. Cassatt and his eagle could talk, i wonder what they would say about where they live now, versus the stunning surroundings for which they both conceived.
guy ludwig westview since 1980
p.s.
Alexander Cassatt’s was the seventh president of the Pennsylvania railroad and presided over the construction of the entire “New York terminal” project. and, for heaven’s sake, it is NOT Cassatt whose statue is behind the eagle. the one behind our eagle is that of Samuel Rea, who FOLLOWED mr. Cassatt as president of the Pennsylvania system. Cassatt IS cast in bronze as well, and this likeness, too, resided in the old Penn Station, but now rests at the railroad museum of Pennsylvania.
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 BLACKWELL’S ALMANAC
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
It turns out the the biggest bird will be hovering over Central Park this summer, bringing joy and happiness to the roof of the Metropolitan Museum.
I Wonder if “Happy Days” will be sung there this summer!!!!
Image and text courtesy of 6sqft
The Met’s latest rooftop installation features a swaying Big Bird overlooking Central Park
Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte “As Long as the Sun Lasts,” 2021. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Anna Marie Kellen
A 26-foot-tall moving sculpture featuring the Sesame Street character Big Bird has been installed atop the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the museum’s annual Roof Garden Commission series. Created by Philadelphia-based artist Alex Da Corte, As Long as the Sun Lasts exhibition includes a blue-feathered Big Bird sitting on a floating crescent moon and holding a ladder, gazing out at Central Park and the massive towers that dot the skyline. The exhibition will open at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden on April 16 and be on view through October 31.
installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte, “As Long as the Sun Lasts” (detail), 2021. Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo by Hyla Skopitz
The installation has a red base with three interlocking steel pieces and a mobile component that rotates along with the breeze, a design inspired by the artist Alexander Calder, known for his kinetic sculptures. Big Bird sits suspended at the top of the sculpture and has about 7,000 individually placed laser-cut aluminum feathers.
Making Big Bird blue instead of his familiar yellow is a nod from Da Corte (who lived in Venezuela as a child) to the Brazilian version of Sesame Street, which had a blue-colored bird character named Garibaldo. It also reflects the character’s “melancholic disposition” expressed in the work, according to the museum.
Installation view, The Roof Garden Commission, Alex Da Corte, As Long as the Sun Lasts (detail) 2021 Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, photo Anna-Marie Kellen
“The installation, which the artist initiated just as the pandemic was taking hold, invites us to look through a familiar, popular, modern lens at our own condition in a transformed emotional landscape,” Max Hollein, the Marina Kellen French Director of The Met, said in a press release.
“As the sculpture gently rotates in the wind, it calls us in an assuring way to pause and reflect: We are reminded that stability is an illusion, but ultimately what we see is a statement of belief in the potential of transformation.”
The exhibition is free with admission to the museum. Advance online reservations are required. Learn more here.
This is one of the Mc Donald’s original designed shops
Ed Litcher, Alexis Villefane, Jay Jacobson, Gloria Herman, Nina Lublin all had their burgers here!!!
EDITORIAL
I just saw this image of Big Bird and decided this is just what NYC needs now, artistic whimsy!!!
Can just visualize birders in Central Park trying to discuss the ornithological species of Big Bird!
UPCOMING PROGRAMS FROM
THE NYPL & RIHS ON ZOOM
Tuesday, April 20 “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue” Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen. REGISTER WITH THIS LINK: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/04/20/mansions-and-munificence-gilded-age-fifth-avenue
Tuesday, May 18 “Saving America’s Cities” Author and Harvard History Professor Lizabeth Cohen provides an eye-opening look at her award-winning book’s subtitle: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age. Tracing Logue’s career from the development of Roosevelt Island in the ‘70s, to the redevelopment of New Haven in the ‘50s, Boston in the’60s and the South Bronx from 1978–85, she focuses on Logue’s vision to revitalize post-war cities, the rise of the Urban Development Corporation, and the world of city planning
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
6sqft RIHS ARCHIVES
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
You are surely aware of the great Ketchup Packet Shortage. Of course you are. Well, the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of this crisis became a riveting mystery for me to track. After all, our Roosevelt Island Historical Society Almanac readers are a pretty savvy bunch. So I jumped in. And then, as these things happen, one Google step led to another. So come with me on my trek to the empire of condiment packets.
The What is pretty clear. Ketchup packets from take-out food have gone missing – particularly Heinz ketchup. (Full disclosure, I come from Pittsburgh where Heinz is headquartered and as a youth visited the Heinz plant on several school outings) The toney Brit newspaper, the Guardian, recently devoted serious space to this situation. They called it an American Tragedy. “It’s an American tragedy that takes place in under a minute. You eagerly open the warm takeout bag in your hands, the smell of french fries wafting through its package. Everything seems to be there until you dig around the bottom of the bag. Nothing but napkins. Where’s the ketchup?”
Who? Everyone. When? Now. Where? Apparently everywhere. (Not quite. I understand Mickie D. doesn’t use packets of condiments. Big squirty jugs instead.)
Who? Everyone. When? Now. Where? Apparently everywhere. (Not quite. I understand Mickie D. doesn’t use packets of condiments. Big squirty jugs instead.)
Why? The answer seems to be the increase in demand for the little packets, created, most likely, by the Covid-fueled gusto for take-outs. Again according to the Guardian, now citing the Wall Street Journal: “The uptick in ketchup demand has had an influence on the price of packets, which have increased 13% since January 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal.” The Journal tells us that “Long John Silver’s…said that the price increase of ketchup has cost the company an extra half-million dollars.” I told you this was serious stuff.
FoxNews has followed the story, too, and reports that Heinz Ketchup packets are being scalped on eBay. Fox says that listings vary in quantity, but one lot of 50 ketchup packets recently sold for $9.99. Another listing for 100 packets sold for $11.99. Another listing for 500 ketchup packets sold for $28.95 (with free shipping). Some scamps will stop at nothing.
The fast food resto business is getting sharper. The editor of a fast food trade mag laid down the law, telling owners that they “must run a much more efficient operation. You must run a tight ship, and you cannot get by being loosey-goosey and freewheeling with your condiment packets.” No loosey-goosey with your condiment packets. That tells it like it is.
This was just the beginning of my remarkable tour. Diligent researchers on the Tedium website dug down deeply into the roots and meaning of the story. Their findings:
The first Heinz ketchup packet didn’t come about until 1968, getting beat to the market by soy sauce packets, which came about roughly a decade earlier. Note: Keep this in mind. We will return to soy in a few paragraphs. I think I still have some of the earliest packets – from 1970 or so – in my pantry. Never know when you might need them.
According to Marketplace, food companies are very particular about the size of their ketchup packets. Despite the fact that they generally can be made in larger sizes, the market has settled on nine-gram packets, despite the fact that nine grams is clearly not enough since we use like six of them in a single serving. This seems deeply suspicious. Note to self: Follow the money.
Heinz sells a lot of these packets every single year—according to the company, that’s around 11 billion or so every 365 days, or two for every person on the planet. At nine grams each, that’s about 109,000 tons of ketchup. Heinz uses more tomatoes than any other company in the world. That’s some tomatoes. Particularly since until the mid-19th century, people were still wobbly about eating tomatoes, fearing it was related to the deadly nightshade. (Others felt/feared tomatoes were an aphrodisiac.)
Heinz’s website says that “Every tomato in every bottle of HEINZ Ketchup sold in the U.S. is grown in America by passionate people (might this refer back to tomatoes as aphrodisiacs?) dedicated to growing high-quality, non-GMO tomatoes, many who have farmed with us for generations.” Apparently, Heinz has developed its own specialized strains of tomatoes for its ketchup. The website continues “Each step in the tomato-growing process is monitored by HEINZ Tomato Masters: seven of the world’s foremost experts on ketchup tomatoes, who keep HEINZ tomatoes at the highest standard of quality – because the ketchup on your table is only as good as the tomato it comes from.” Love the idea of seven Tomato Masters. Not six. Not eight. And passionate.
\Now, another question leapt up. How in the world did soy sauce packets beat ketchup packets into the market? Surely the demand for ketchup must exceed the demand for soy sauce. The trail led to a serious article in another high class mag, The Atlantic, “The Mysterious, Murky Story Behind Soy-Sauce Packets”.
Things get a bit complicated here. Soy sauce packets track back to Howard Epstein (not that Epstein), who, as the founder of the dominant soy-sauce brand Kari-Out, is seen as the ambassador of packaged American soy sauce. Epstein became interested in food packaging because his father manufactured the flimsy plastic packaging for freezer pops. Epstein’s first venture into his father’s trade was a popcorn-packaging business, which he bought for $5,000 over 50 years ago. That didn’t work out and at 81 Epstein was looking for a change when one of his father’s salesmen, who sold tea bags, suggested he consider the soy-sauce-packaging business. In 1964, Epstein founded Kari-Out, and he says he arrived to the industry right as it was becoming commercially viable. He ran his new business out of the popcorn factory he owned. (As a fellow 81er, I am lost in admiration for a guy who starts a new business and changes the world.)
Going wasn’t easy. Epstein says that an old Jewish guy trying to break into the Chinese food business was tough. But his freezer-pop expertise gave him an edge. His break came in with affordable air travel, which went mainstream in the 1970s. To serve the newly airborne hordes of families and businessmen, airlines began offering prepared foods onboard. Epstein found his first major foothold as the primary provider of soy sauce for these in-flight meals. The Atlantic piece continues, “Cheap airfare also allowed Epstein to travel the country in search of new customers. He was scouting at a time when Chinese takeout joints were becoming as commonplace as nail salons and convenience stores in strip malls around the country.” He soon built up a widespread network of customers, and Kari-Out’s products appeared in the Chinese restaurants across the country. Now, he estimates that Kari-Out has a 50 percent market share. The company’s soy-sauce packets remain ubiquitous—Epstein recalls finding Kari-Out packets at a concession stand in rural Iceland a couple years ago. “We’ve survived 50 years,” Epstein says. “I never get sick of Chinese food or soy sauce.”
But the story doesn’t end here. Take a deep breath. A food and drink article on Thrillist followed up The Atlantic article. They learned that what we get in soy sauce packets isn’t really soy sauce. “Rather than soybeans, most are made with ‘hydrolyzed vegetable protein,’ which — while it could be processed from soybeans — is too ambiguous of a term to know for certain. Legitimate soy sauce (Kikkoman and other Asian brands) usually lists soybeans as the second or third ingredient. The packets also usually contain caramel coloring, molasses, and MSG, none of which are present in the real stuff either.” And on top of this, the wasabi we eat in sushi bars and take out is probably not real wasabi, but rather colored mustard and horseradish. All the news isn’t bad: Heinz has said they are planning to increase their ketchup output by 25%. The life of an investigative reporter isn’t easy. It’s Sunday morning and I think I will take the rest of the day off, perhaps order some take-out. Good eating. Stephen Blank RIHS April 11, 2021
UPCOMING NYPL AND RIHS ZOOM PROGRAMS
Tuesday, April 20, 7 p.m. “Mansions and Munificence: the Gilded Age on Fifth Avenue”
REGISTER WITH THIS LINK: https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2021/04/20/mansions-and-munificence-gilded-age-fifth-avenue
Guide, lecturer, author and teacher of art and architecture, Emma Guest-Consales leads a virtual tour of the great mansions of Fifth Avenue. Starting with the ex-home of Henry Clay Frick that now houses the Frick Collection, all the way up to the former home of Andrew Carnegie, now the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, she takes us through some of the most extravagant urban palaces the city has ever seen.
UNDER THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE ED LITCHER, ARLENE BESSENOFF, CLARA BELLA, HARA REISER, GUY LUDWIG, JAY JACOBSON, GLORIA HERMAN ALL GOT IT RIGHY
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)
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
