THE BROOKLYN WAS THE FIRST TO OPEN IN 1883, THE WILLIAMSBURG IN 1903 AND THE MANHATTAN IN 1909
BROOKLYN NAVY YARD
The Navy Yard has been the home of ship-building and heavy manufacturing for over a century. After most businesses left in the 1960’s the yard and neighborhood declined. Now it is the home lo new light manufacturing, movie studio, innovative and technology companies. Many of the old buildings are restored and new food preparation and dining venues area appearing. It is an easy ride on the Astoria NYC Ferry ferry from Roosevelt Island.
PROSPECT PARK
In the 18th century Brooklyn was one of six villages dotting the western end of Long Island. In 1814 Robert Fulton’s ferry service contributed to the expansion of East River commerce and linked the growing town with its neighbor and competitor, New York City. Chartered in
1834, Brooklyn became the new nation’s third largest city within thirty years. The resulting crowds and unsanitary conditions prompted the first American attempts at urban planning, with public green space seen as a health necessity more than an aesthetic one. At the same time, new concepts concerning the role of public parks in America were gaining popularity.
In 1858, designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux completed Central Park in Manhattan. Soon a movement grew in Brooklyn for a park of its own. James T. Stranahan, a business and civic leader, spearheaded the endeavor as head of the Brooklyn Parks Commissioners, overseeing the Park’s creation from inception to completion. In the early 1860s, Stranahan argued that a park in Brooklyn “would become a favorite resort for all classes of our community, enabling thousands to enjoy pure air, with healthful exercise, at all seasons of the year…”
BROOKLYN MUSEUM BROOKLYN CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
BED-STY, PROSPECT PARK, PARK SLOPE NEIGHBORHOODS
HIPSTER NEW BROOKLYN IN WILLIAMSBURG AND BUSHWICK
In recent years under-developed areas of Brooklyn have been ripe for redevelopment and the blossoming of new buildings catering to those who must live in Brooklyn.
BROOKLYN BY THE BAY
FLOYD BENNETT FIELD, JAMAICA BAY WILDLIFE PRESERVE FORT TOTTEN
IN THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF BROOKLYN IS THE AREA THAT IS STILL UNDEVELOPED AND PRESERVED TO NATURE AND WILDLIFE. A CAR IS NEEDED TO REACH THIS AREA AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED. YOU CAN ALSO SEE THE SITE OF BARREN ISLAND, WHERE OUR CITY HANDLED THE UNDESIRABLE CHORES OF THE DISPOSAL.
MYSTERY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Can you identify this object and location? Send you response to jbird134@aol.com Winner gets a trinket from kiosk.
YESTERDAY’S IMAGE
The trusswork of the Roosevelt Island Bridge. The winner was Andy Sparberg
EDITORIAL
We embarked on a voyage of the 5 boroughs this weekend. Lots of images and memories to remind you of times past and other tidbits of history.
Just took my first subway trip in 3 months. The train was spotless, the station was clean, the elevator did not have any of its usual aromas and the mouse scurrying under the Metrocard machine at 23rd Street did not have a mask!
I will be off the island to work at Early Voting next week in Manhattan. If you did not do an absentee ballot you can vote early in Manhattan at Wagner JHS. See the instructions at vote.nyc. If you still want to vote the old fashioned way we will be at PS 217 on Tuesday, June 23rd from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Bronx (/brɒŋks/) is a borough of New York City, coterminous with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York, the third-most densely populated county in the United States.[4] It is south of Westchester County; northeast and east of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of Queens, across the East River. The Bronx has a land area of 42 square miles (109 km2) and a population of 1,418,207 in 2019.[1] Of the five boroughs, it has the fourth-largest area, fourth-highest population, and third-highest population density.[4] It is the only borough predominantly on the U.S. mainland
if each borough were its own city, the Bronx would rank as the eighth-most populous in the U.S. The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895.[5] Bronx County was separated from New York County in 1914
.[About a quarter of the Bronx’s area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough’s north and center. These open spaces are situated primarily on land deliberately reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. The name “Bronx” originated with Swedish-born Jonas Bronck, who established the first settlement in the area as part of the New Netherland colony in 1639.
The native Lenape were displaced after 1643 by European settlers. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bronx received many immigrant and migrant groups as it was transformed into an urban community, first from various European countries (particularly Ireland, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe) and later from the Caribbean region (particularly Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic), as well as African American migrants from the southern United States.
THE GRAND CONCOURSE
The Grand Concourse (also known as the Grand Boulevard and Concourse) is a 5.2-mile-long (8.4 km) thoroughfare in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Grand Concourse runs through several neighborhoods, including Bedford Park, Concourse, Highbridge, Fordham, Mott Haven, Norwood and Tremont. For most of its length, the Concourse is 180 feet (55 m) wide. The Grand Concourse was designed by Louis Aloys Risse, an immigrant from Saint-Avold, Lorraine, France. Risse first conceived of the road in 1890, and the Concourse was built between 1894 and 1909, with an additional extension in 1927.
The development of the Concourse led to the construction of apartment buildings surrounding the boulevard, and by 1939 it was called “the Park Avenue of middle-class Bronx residents” A period of decline followed in the 1960s and 1970s, when these residences became dilapidated and the Concourse was redesigned to be more motorist-friendly. Renovation and redevelopment started in the 1980s, and a portion of the Grand Concourse was reconstructed starting in the 2000s.
The southern portion of the Grand Concourse is surrounded by several historically important residential buildings, which were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as part of the Grand Concourse Historic District. In 2011, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated numerous buildings around the Grand Concourse as part of a city landmark district. Additionally, several individual points of interest are located on or near the Concourse, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts and Edgar Allan Poe Cottage.
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
CONSERVATORY AT THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
Overview Established in 1891, The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is distinguished by the beauty of its landscape, collections, and gardens, and the scope and excellence of its programs in horticulture, education, and science. NYBG was inspired by an 1888 visit that eminent botanists Nathaniel Lord Britton and his wife, Elizabeth, took to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London.
The Brittons believed New York should have a great botanical garden to advance public understanding of plants, be a repository of rare and valuable specimens, and lead original research in botanical science. Because of its picturesque terrain, freshwater Bronx River, rock-cut gorge, and 50 acres of old-growth forest, the Garden was sited on the northern half of Bronx Park.
Today, the 250-acre Garden—the largest in any city in the United States—is a National Historic Landmark. In addition to the natural attributes that attracted the Brittons, NYBG encompasses 50 specialty gardens and collections comprising more than one million plants, the Nolen Greenhouses for Living Collections, and the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the nation’s preeminent Victorian-style glasshouse.
Highlights include the award-winning Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, considered among the world’s most sustainable rose gardens; the Native Plant Garden, celebrating the diversity of northeastern North American plants; and 30,000 distinguished trees, many more than 200 years old.
More than one million visitors annually enjoy the grounds, view innovative exhibitions, and participate in educational programs that are larger and more diverse than those of any other garden in the world. From its earliest days, NYBG has also been driven by a mission to conduct basic and applied research on the plants of the world with the goal of protecting and stunning urban oasis, created one of the world’s most comprehensive plant research and conservation programs, amassed unrivaled research collections, and, as a living museum, taught millions of visitors of all ages to love and respect the plants of the world. The New York Botanical Garden is committed to preserving and protecting the planet’s biodiversity and natural resources and enhancing human well-being by educating, training, and empowering the next generation of Earth’s caregivers—in partnership with both local and global communities.
THE BRONX ZOO
THE BRONX ZOO OR NOW KNOWN AS THE WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY
Located right across the street from the Botanical Gardens is the Bronx Zoo.
The Bronx Zoo is a zoo located within Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York. It is one of the largest zoos in the United States by area, and is the largest metropolitan zoo in the United States by area,[5] comprising 265 acres (107 ha) of park lands and naturalistic habitats separated by the Bronx River. On average, the zoo has 2.15 million visitors each year as of 2009.[5] The Bronx Zoo is world-renowned for its large and diverse animal collection, and its award-winning exhibitions.[5] The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium.
HALL OF FAME
LOCATED ON THE CAMPUS OF BRONX COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FORMERLY NY UPTOWN THE HALL COMMEMORATES GREAT AMERICANS, THOUGH SOME HAVE PROVEN CONTROVERSIAL
YANKEE STADIUM
BOROUGH OF PARKS
CROTONA AND PELHAM BAY PARK
LOEW’S PARADISE THEATRE
The Loew’s Paradise, located on the Grand Concourse at East 188th Street, is widely considered the grand dame of the Bronx’s former movie theaters. Long before the multiplex era, this single screen auditorium had over 3,800 seats, making it one of the largest in the city. It was one of the five famed “Wonder Theatres” developed by the Loew’s move chain in the late 1920s as movie palaces with highly elaborate details inside and out. The Loews Paradise was designed by John Eberson, who was the originator and leading architect of this style of “atmospheric theater.” Eberson designed theaters throughout the country and as far away as Australia. Today known as the Paradise Theater, it is now home to World Changers Church. It is designated as both an exterior and interior New York City Landmark.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
WHAT IS THE IS AND WHERE IS IT LOCATED? SEND ANSWER TO JBIRD134@AOL.COM
YESTERDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
THIS IS A PORTION OF A PLAQUE THAT HUNG IN CITY HOSPITAL “DIED IN THE DISCHARGE OF DUTY” THE PIECES WERE BORROWED IN THE 1980’S AND RETURNED TO THE R.I.H.S. YEAR LATER.
EDITORIAL
Today we are starting a 5 borough series on FROM THE ARCHIVES. Let’s explore one or more special aspects of each boroughs.
Looking for more fun subjects for the ongoing series. If you recognize areas that you grew up in or know well, send us some photos and stories.
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 Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) RIHS Thanks to the RIHS Archives for Images
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS ADMINISTERED BY NYC DIVISION OF YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK, JUNE 9, 2020 BY RON CRAWFORD (C)
INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME, Part 2
Creating Industrial Sublime
Billowing Smoke stacks, booming industry, noble bridges, and an epic waterfront-American art swung on an axis.
PART 2 OF 2 PARTS
GEORGE AULT FROM BROOKLYN HEIGHTS C 1925-1928
GIFFORD BEAL ON THE HUDSON AT NEWBURGH 1918
CARLTON THEODORE CHAPMAN THE EAST RIVER, NYC 1904
GLENN COLEMAN EMPIRE STATE BUILDING 1930-1932
Coleman’s career was in ascendancy when he died, aged 48, of a rare illness in May, 1932. Originally from the Midwest, he came to New York to become an artist. After studying with Robert Henri, he began selling paintings of Manhattan scenes to important patrons like John D. Rockefeller and Edward W. Root, as well as to museums including the Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée Luxembourg, Paris and the Detroit Art Institute.
However he was often obliged to supplement his income with routine jobs – he served as an usher at Carnegie Hall, and was a police patrol officer in the community of Long Beach, L.I., where he lived modestly with his wife. He became known for depicting Manhattan skyscrapers in a dramatic Modernist style. The present canvas, one of the largest, represents what was at the time the newest and tallest addition to the skyline, the Empire State Building. The dirigible alludes to the short-lived and rather fantastic plan that would have airships moored to the building’s mast and have passengers disembark – by ladders! – to the observation deck, whence they could proceed, by elevators, to the street.
Coleman’s Estate was handled by his uncle, who donated most of his studio to the Whitney Museum of American Art; this museum held a memorial exhibition in October 1932, coincident with their publication of a monograph, part of a series on American artists. This work was originally donated by the Estate to the Long Beach Public Library, then the only public institution in the community.
COLIN CAMPBELL COOPER HUDSON RIVER WATERFRONT, NYC 1913-1921
RALSTON CRAWFORD WHITESTONE BRIDGE 1939-1940
AARON DOUGLAS TRIBOROUGH BRIDGE 1936
JOHN FOLINSBEE QUEENSBOROUGH BRIDGE 1915
John Folinsbee was a fine artist being motivated by the beauty of form, color, line and texture and all that was good from the great tradition of the past. Without bothering to make sketches he attacks his canvas with lusty strokes and with astonishing speed the face and form seem to come to life. With a full brush and a broad stroke, the magic texture grew under his hand.
REGINALD MARSH TUGBOAT AT DOCKSIDE 1932
Marsh liked to venture out to Coney Island to paint, especially in the summer time. There he began to paint massed beached bodies. Marsh emphasizes the bold muscles and build of his characters, which relate to the heroic scale of the older European paintings. Marsh said “I like to go to Coney Island because of the sea, the open air, and the crowds—crowds of people in all directions, in all positions, without clothing, moving—like the great compositions of Michelangelo and Rubens.”
Marsh was also drawn to the ports of New York. In the 1930s, the harbors were extremely busy with people and commerce due to the country’s necessity for economic recovery. The Great Depression brought about a decline in raw materials and therefore the demand for those materials grew dramatically, resulting in bustling harbors in big cities such as New York. Marsh would sketch the seaports, focusing on the tugboats coming in and out of the harbor, and capturing the details of the boats such as the masts, the bells, the sirens, and the deck chairs.
REGINALD MARSH NEW YORK SKYLINE 1937 WATERCOLOR
JOHN NOBLE THE BUILDING OF TIDEWATER 1937
John A. Noble John A. Noble (1913-1983)He spent his early years in the studios of his father and his father’s contemporaries, innovative artists and writers of the early part of this century. He moved with his family to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life’s work. “It was the greatest wooden ship launching year in the history of the world,” he wrote. “About 1929 I started my crude drawings and paintings,” the artist recalled. “In the wintertime, while still going to school, I was a permanent fixture on the old McCarren line tugs, which had the monopoly on the schooner towing in New York Harbor.
This kept them constantly before my eyes. In the summertime, I would go to sea.” A graduate of the Friends Seminary in New York City, Noble returned to France in 1931, where he studied for one year at the University of Grenoble. There he met his wife and lifetime companion, “the lovely, green-eyed” Susan Ames. When he returned to New York, he studied for one year at the National Academy of Design. From 1928 until 1945, Noble worked as a seaman on schooners and in marine salvage. In 1928, while on a schooner that was towing out down the Kill van Kull, the waterway that separates Staten Island from New Jersey, he saw the old Port Johnston coal docks for the first time. It was a sight, he later asserted, which affected him for life. Port Johnston was “the largest graveyard of wooden sailing vessels in the world.”
Filled with new but obsolete ships, the great coalport had become a great boneyard. In 1941, Noble began to build his floating studio there, out of parts of vessels he salvaged and from 1946 on, he worked as a full-time artist, setting off from his studio in a rowboat to explore the Harbor. These explorations resulted in a unique and exacting record of Harbor history in which its rarely documented characters, industries, and vessels are faithfully recorded.
Although he was raised in artistic circles and quickly gained recognition for his work, Noble always remained intimate with the people of the Harbor. “I’m with factory people, industrial people, the immigrants, the sons of immigrants,” he asserted. “It gives life to it.” Late in his life, Noble recalled his first compelling views of New York Harbor. “I was crossing the 134th Street Bridge on the Harlem River on a spring day in 1928, and I was so shocked–it changed my life. I was frozen on that bridge, because both east and west of the bridge were sailing vessels. And I thought sailing vessels, you know, were gone… There it was, and I couldn’t eat, or anything; I was so excited.” By the time of his death in the spring of 1983, shortly after the passing of his beloved Susan, the sailing vessels he loved were all gone, and the maritime industry in the Harbor had diminished significantly. But Noble’s inexorable interest in the sea had not diminished. Although he felt the loss of many kinds of vessels, he was “just as interested in drawing the building of a great modern tanker, the working of a modern dredge, as…in the shifting of topsails.” In fact, he wrote, “Anywhere men work or build on the water is of interest to me…My life’s work is to make a rounded picture of American maritime endeavor of modern times.”
TWO PAINTINGS BY GEORGIA O’KEEFE IN 1928 FROM SHELTON HOTEL
CHARLES ROSEN THE ROUNDHOUSE, KINGSTON, NEW YORK 1927
Charles Rosen (28 April 1878 – 21 June 1950) was an American painter who lived for many years in Woodstock, New York. In the 1910s he was acclaimed for his Impressionist winter landscapes. He became dissatisfied with this style and around 1920 he changed to a radically different cubist-realist style. He became recognized as one of the leaders of the Woodstock artists colony.
THURSDAY IMAGE OF THE DAY
WHAT IS THIS OBJECT? SEND ANSWER TO JUDITH BERDY JBIRD134@AOL.COM
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
ENTRANCE TO NYPL ROOSEVELT ISLAND BRANCH The winner is Arlene Bessenoff
FROM OUR READERS
We have been receiving some great photos and comments. Enjoy some of them below.
JUDITH BERDY
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
From Matthew Katz Responding to the June 8 edition I must take exception to the description of an egg cream (my neighborhood in Brooklyn did not recognize the spelling “creme” as anything this side of the Atlantic) as including “chocolate syrup.” If it doesn’t include Fox’s U-Bet chocolate syrup it is bogus. One must maintain one’s standards! BTW, my wife, who grew up in Denver, Colorado, was introduced to a “Grandma’s Special” by her Brooklyn-born nanna. This was ginger-ale and milk; a pitiful substitute for those benighted refugees living west of the Mississippi and yearning for some taste of the real thing. When she moved to New York and tasted the ambrosia of the real thing she recognized the connection.
From the 1918 flu pandemic WEAR A MASK OR GO TO JAIL
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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated CATALOG REFERENCE FROM HUDSON RIVER MUSEUM FROM THE EXHIBIT INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME (C)
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Billowing Smoke stacks, booming industry, noble bridges, and an epic waterfront-American art swung on an axis.
PART 1 OF 2 PARTS TO BE CONTINUED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 11TH
GEORGE AULT FROM BROOKLYN HEIGHTS C 1925-1928
This article is from the 2014 review of this show at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers:
They came to New York from near and far — Connecticut and Australia, Pennsylvania and Norway — to paint the wonders of the new century. But even though the 50-odd artists whose works are on view in the magnificent new show at the Hudson River Museum were all looking at the same railyards and bridges and waterways, they were seeing very different things.
ELSIE DRIGGS QUEENSBOROUGH BRIDGE 1927
(NOTE SPIRAL STAIRCASE LEADING OVER THE UPPER LEVEL FOR PEDESTRIANS, SINCE REMOVED)
LEON KROLL QUEENSBOROUGH BRIDGE 1912
OSCAR BLUEMNER HARLEM RIVER 1912
In “Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York’s Rivers, 1900-1940,” viewers can share the excitement — maybe even the ecstasy — that these painters felt as they confronted both the urban maelstrom and the new ways of setting it down. Some, like Georgia O’Keeffe, gained wide celebrity; others became merely art-history footnotes. But all were seeking transcendence in the great, gritty machinery of the city, just as previous generations of painters had sought it in the rough grandeur of the American wilderness.
THEODORE EARL BUTLER BROOKLYN BRIDGE 1900
EDWARD BRUCE POWER 1933
DANIEL PUTNAM BRINLEY 1915 HUDSON RIVER VIEW (SUGAR FACTORY AT YONKERS)
Noble, the youngest of the exhibition’s painters, was born in 1913, the year that the modernist innovations of the Armory Show turned America’s art world on its ear. Several pictures selected for “Industrial Sublime” by the curators, Kirsten M. Jensen and Bartholomew F. Bland, like Oscar Bluemner’s vivid 1912 watercolor “Harlem River,” were in the Armory Show. But many more clearly proclaim its impact. Refer your friends to The Times. They’ll enjoy our special rate of $1 a week.
Around 1915, Daniel Putnam Brinley depicted a manufacturing plant as a Fauvist riot of color and geometry in “Hudson River View (Sugar Factory at Yonkers).” Cubist influence can be discerned in the simple forms and flattened color of George Ault’s striking 1920s oil “From Brooklyn Heights,” rightly chosen for the cover of the show’s excellent catalog. John Marin has a different take on the New York skyline in the nervous energy of “Lower Manhattan From the River, No. 1,” a 1921 watercolor. And the soft hues and agitated brushwork of John Folinsbee’s 1917 “Queensborough Bridge” dissolve its snowy rooftops and distant ironwork into passages of near-abstract painting.T Men and women who created the works in “Industrial Sublime” were painting contradictions — and sometimes expressing their own ambivalence about the gleaming skyscrapers and bustling harbors in their pictures. So at the very start of the 20th century, in “Cumulus Clouds, East River,” the pivotal Ashcan painter Robert Henri places the unsettling figure of a child in white amid looming black towers on the waterfront, then overwhelms both with a gorgeous, blazing sunset. And in “The Building of Tidewater,” John Noble, based in Staten Island, turns an oil refinery being constructed in late-1930s Bayonne, N.J., into a luridly compelling dreamscape of scarlet tubes and tanks.
ROBERT K. RYLAND THE BRIDGE 1931
VIEW FROM THE 30TH FLOOR OF THE HOTEL SHELTON GEORGIA O’KEEFE 1928
AARON DOUGLAS POWER PLANT IN HARLEM 1934
GLENN COLEMAN THE DOCK
LOUIS LOZOWICK LOWER MANHATTAN 1932
RICHARD HAYLEY LEVER HIGH BRIDGE OVER THE HARLEM RIVER 1913
Like so many of the figures in these paintings (and, for that matter, like those in canvases by the Hudson River artists), the workers are small and insignificant, dwarfed, even crushed, by their surroundings. In two of the show’s most dramatic snowscapes, Richard Hayley Lever’s imposing 1913 “High Bridge Over the Harlem River” and Martin Lewis’s luminous “Railroad Yards, Winter, Weehawken,” painted somewhat later, natural splendor vies for dominance with the engineering. But the people who built and used the structures the paintings celebrate have become invisible. That’s perhaps the point of Robert K. Ryland’s melancholy little oil “The Bridge Pier,” in which a man in a white shirt seems to slump beneath the weight of the city.
Painted during the Great Depression, it looks up at the dark, hulking forms of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan’s Municipal Building and sees oppression. Just 17 years earlier, Jonas Lie had surveyed the same scene — streams of smoke from the river traffic, the gothic towers of the bridge, the Manhattan skyline across the way — and captured it all from above, in the jaunty, joyous “Path of Gold.” Agony and ecstasy, shimmery smoke and hard-edge steel, grim murk and eye-popping color — the early 20th-century city was all these things, and in “Industrial Sublime” we experience it anew.
INNA GARSOIAN EAST SIDE DRIVE 1940
MARGUERITE OHMAN VIEW OF QUEENSBOROUGH BRIDGE FROM CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK 1940
GLENN COLEMAN QUEENSBORO BRIDGE, EAST RIVE 1910
The span, now named for former Mayor Edward I. Koch but still called the 59th Street Bridge by most who cross it, seems to have been a favorite subject — along with fresh snow — in the 40 years covered by the 70-plus works in the exhibition. Julian Alden Weir masks the bridge’s outline in a dark Whistlerian haze in 1910. Around the same time, Glenn Coleman crisply renders its red girders above a shockingly white paddle-wheeler, with shadowy spectators admiring both from the riverbank. And in 1912, Leon Kroll emphasizes the bridge’s monumental gray bulk, contrasting it with a dense plume of smoke rising from a tug and a cascade of powdery snow dumped onto a barge by workers who have shoveled it off the streets and sidewalks.
We will feature other images in the Thursday edition.
WEDNESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
What is this and where is it located E-mail jbird134@aol.com Win a trinket from Kiosk
TUESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
PEDESTRIAN ELEVATOR TOWER AT 60 STREET AT THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
TODAY IS ISSUE # 75!!
WOW
Thanks for your support and especially to Deborah who gets every issue on-line at rihs.us
EDITORIAL I know the popularity of East River and bridge art that are featured in INDUSTRIAL SUBLIME. The artwork will continue in the Thursday edition.
Please send me your comments and stories about your New York experiences. We are having ongoing discussions about egg-cremes or egg-creams with Matt Katz.
In the meantime check out our display window in RIvercross. Eunice Chang has donated many of the wonderful POETRY IN MOTION posters that hung in NYC subway cars.
Just to add to the double feature and (ice-cream) “bonbons”, besides the two films there were newsreels and cartoons. The show began at noon and ended at around 5:00 p.m., depending on the length of the feature films. All for 25 cents admission! And yes, a big draw in the summer is that aside from the local supermarket, it was the only place around that was air-conditioned, in the 1950s. Everyone brought their lunch from home and ate it in the movie theater. The place would reek of salami and tuna sandwiches.
Susan Berk Seligson
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 TEXT FROM THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPORE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
JUNE 6th BRING YOUR DOG TO THE KIOSK TRAM PLAZA 1-4 P.M. DOG TREATS GOODIES FUN MERCHANDISE THE DOGS NEED A SOCIALLY DISTANCING FUN EVENT
IMAGE COURTESY OF MARC TETRO (C)
POLITICAL CARTOONS
THOMAS NAST ON WILLIAM “BOSS” MARCY TWEED
“The Brains” Harper’s Weekly Oct. 21, 1871
The Tammany Tiger Loose “What are you going to do about it?” Harper’s Weekly November, 1871
A group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to “Blow Over”- “Let us Prey” Harper’s Weekly, Sept. 23, 1871
“No Prison is big enough to hold the Boss.”
In on one side, and out at the other. This Harper’s Weekly cartoon by Thomas Nast predicts that the legal authorities of New York City will not be able to keep William Tweed, the corrupt boss of Tammany Hall, in jail. In the 1860s and early 1870s,
William Tweed ran Tammany Hall, the powerful Democratic political machine in New York City, and served as the city’s public works commissioner and as a state senator (1867-1871). The name of Boss Tweed and his bulky visual caricature became synonymous with political corruption and greed, an association that remains potent even today. This is thanks in large part to the creatively memorable cartoons drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly.
As political boss, Tweed used his formal and informal authority to gain financial profit for himself and his Tammany Hall cohorts. The Tweed Ring, as they became known, extorted a reported $6 million from the public treasury, although more recent estimates put the figure between $30 to $200 million. Tweed became one of New York City’s largest landowners by the late 1860s, and spent his ill-gotten gain lavishly, living in a mansion on Fifth Avenue and wearing a large diamond stud on his shirt. Although criticized by good-government reformers, the Tweed Ring found support among the working class, many of whom were immigrants, by providing jobs and basic necessities like food and fuel, establishing the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, and expanding the number of public baths, almshouses, and orphanages in the city. However, in the less than three years of the height of the Tweed Ring’s power (1869-1871),
New York City’s debt tripled and its taxes rose accordingly. The downfall of the Tweed Ring came when disgruntled Tammany Hall members leaked incriminating evidence to the New York Times, which published a series of damning articles beginning in July 1871. Harper’s Weekly and other newspapers joined the Times to expose the scandal, and Tweed allegedly most feared “those damned pictures” by Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast. In November 1871, Tweed was reelected to another term in the state senate.
In general, though, the press campaign against the Tweed Ring was successful, with most Tammany Hall candidates losing in the fall election. In December, Tweed was arrested on fraud charges, and forced to resign as public works commissioner, state senator, and head of Tammany Hall. The first criminal trial against Tweed resulted in a hung jury, but the second ended with a conviction on misdemeanor charges. The sentence was a $12,500 fine and 13 years in jail, which in 1875 an appeals court deduced to $250 and one year.
Since he had already served 19 months in the city jail on Blackwell’s Island, he was released. The police, however, rearrested him the next day to stand trial on the civil charges. Being unable to raise the $3 million bail, Tweed ended up in Ludlow Street jail. He was granted privileges and liberties not allowed to other inmates, such as carriage rides and visits to his home and those of his adult children.
On December 4, 1875, he escaped while on such a sojourn and hid out in New Jersey. In March 1876, the civil jury found Tweed guilty and liable for over $6 million. Learning of the judgment, he fled to Cuba, then Spain. In September, Spanish officials arrested and deported him, mistakenly identifying him (through a Nast cartoon) as a child abductor. Back in New York by late November, he was placed in the Ludlow Street jail again. In poor health, Tweed gave the attorney general, Charles Fairchild, a full confession as part of a deal for his release. Fairchild, however, changed his mind and Tweed remained in prison. The former political boss later testified before a Board of Aldermen investigation, detailing how the ring operated, but he received no pardon for his cooperation. In April 1878, he died in Ludlow Street jail of heart failure caused by pneumonia
REVEREND EDWARD COWLEY by THOMAS NAST
Shepherd’s Fold was an institution under Reverend Edward Cowley charged with helping children. Instead many died in their charge. For the sad tale, see “Damnation Island” by Stacy Horn”
Campaign against the Tweed Ring The “Brains” Boss Tweed depicted by Thomas Nast
Nast’s drawings were instrumental in the downfall of Boss Tweed, the powerful Tammany Hall leader. As commissioner of public works for New York City, Tweed led a ring that by 1870 had gained total control of the city’s government, and controlled “a working majority in the State Legislature” Tweed and his associates—Peter Barr Sweeny (park commissioner), Richard B. Connolly (controller of public expenditures), and Mayor A. Oakey Hall—defrauded the city of many millions of dollars by grossly inflating expenses paid to contractors connected to the Ring.
Nast, whose cartoons attacking Tammany corruption had appeared occasionally since 1867, intensified his focus on the four principal players in 1870 and especially in 1871. Tweed so feared Nast’s campaign that he sent an emissary to offer the artist a bribe of $100,000, which was represented as a gift from a group of wealthy benefactors to enable Nast to study art in Europe. Feigning interest,
Nast negotiated for more before finally refusing an offer of $500,000 with the words, “Well, I don’t think I’ll do it. I made up my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind the bars”. Nast pressed his attack in the pages of Harper’s, and the Ring was removed from power in the election of November 7, 1871. Tweed was arrested in 1873 and convicted of fraud. When Tweed attempted to escape justice in December 1875 by fleeing to Cuba and from there to Spain, officials in Vigo were able to identify the fugitive by using one of Nast’s cartoons.
Cartoon depicts how Tweed lived on Blackwell’s Island While others worked the quarry and lived in cells he seemed to be living in the warden’s house
EDITORIAL
Many of us have seen an increase in the number of four legged friends on the island since March. It is time for the dogs to have a day in the sun. Bring your pooch over to the kiosk on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. Snacks for them and all the water they can drink.
The kiosk is not open yet, but we will be glad to provide any gifts you need. We are eager to welcome everyone back soon! We have a real good deal on winter gloves, which were good sellers when we closed on March 15th!!!
See you Saturday and the Kiosk crew will be here to welcome you and your four legged friends back Judith Berdy 212 688 4836 Jbird134@aol.com
IMAGE OF THE DAY THURSDAY
What is this object and where is it located? E-Mail: jbird134@aol.com Win a trinket from the RIHS Kiosk
YESTERDAY’S IMAGE OF THE DAY
Correctly guessed by Shelly Brooks
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) Thanks to the RIHS Archives for Images Harper’s Weekly Archive Damnation Island
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS ADMINISTERED BY NYC DIVISION OF YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
MINIATURE WATER COLOR SCENES OF NEW YORK HARBOR AND ISLANDS
These unmarked cards were probably collecting cards, from Chapin Collection (c) RIHS
Blackwell’s Island
Ward’s Island
Astoria
Governor’s and Bedloe’s Islands
Fort Hamilton
Staten Island
Governor’s Island
FEEDING THE ISLAND
After looking at the 19th and early 20th century dining choices, we will be glad to live here now.
Superintendent’s Cook
City Hospital Kitchen
Un-named Kitchen
Dinner at the Men’s Almshouse
Dinner at the Women’s Almshouse
Dinner will be served at the Penitentiary
(c) Ben Shahn Collection Harvard Museums
Island Staff including chef
Metropolitan Hospital School of Nursing Dining Room at Draper Hall
Effler family outside Blackwell House Kitchen with cook
Goldwater cook that prepared over 3.000 meals a day in the kitchens
Goldwater’s kitchens prepared meals for all special occasions
With this crowd, I am sure food was involved
WEDNESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
What is this and where is it located E-mail jbird134@aol.com Win a trinket from Kiosk
TUESDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY A SECTION OF ROSE WINDOW IN CHAPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
EDITORIAL #blackouttuesday
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 TEXT FROM THE NEW ENGLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Our country has suffered so much the last 3 months and we could tolerate being home, teaching our own kids, wondering what food would be available in the market. The day after we realized 100,000 human beings including friends and many of our family members have succumbed to this plague the scene changed.
The pandemic feels minor since the murder in Minneapolis. No one can justify any action taken that day by a peace officer. Being in a community where we respect every person, we cannot fathom this action. My heartfelt sympathies, and the fury we feel over the actions we have seen. May our States have leadership to make this country stronger. Judith Berdy
TUESDAY
JUNE 2, 2020
RIHS’s 68th Issue of
Included in this Issue:
ROCK FORMATION IN LONG ISLAND CITY
REMEMBERING CRISTO IN CENTRAL PARK AND
BISCAYNE BAY
MID-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE IN LONG ISLAND CITY
(c) ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LONG ISLAND CITY PEDESTRIAN PLAZA HIGHLIGHTS ANCIENT ROCK FORMATION
The city and a developer converted the little-used block into a pedestrian oasis
By Caroline Spivack
This new Street Seat in Long Island City highlights an ancient rock formation on 12th Street. The VOREA Group A Long Island City street with an unusual, ancient impediment has been transformed from a derelict strip of concrete into a vibrant pedestrian plaza. The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has partnered with developer the VOREA Group to overhaul a stretch of 12th Street between 44th Avenue and 43rd Road, where through traffic was previously prohibited by a glacial rock formation.
The partnership came to be through the Street Seats program, a citywide effort that converts underused streets into public spaces. The geological quirk left the street, which originally lacked pedestrian sidewalks, in a sort of limbo; it couldn’t easily be accessed by the public, so was previously used as employee parking for a local company.
Enter VOREA, which owns properties along the street, and who applied to work with the city to turn the block into a pedestrian oasis in a largely industrial swath of the Queens neighborhood. Now, instead of functioning as an obstacle, the rock formation and its history serves as a focal point. “That was the vision we had with the developer, to highlight that as a unique element within the space,” says Samantha Dolgoff, the director of strategic initiatives with DOT. “We didn’t want the rock to just be there. We wanted it be more prominent in the space.”
Designed by MAPOS Architecture and Design, the spacious Street Seat creates a pedestrian-friendly environment with outdoor seating and planters. Bright blue paint outlines the glacial rock and is used for striping, lending a vibrant pop of color to the space. Its design was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 1983 “Surrounding Islands” installation, where 11 small, uninhabited islands were surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of hot pink fabric in Miami.
The VOREA Group The block will also offer a space for displaying artwork crafted by local artists and makers. “Our goal was to use art as a vehicle to celebrate the unique history of LIC and help breathe new life into this incredible, creative pocket of the neighborhood,” says Adam Joly of VOREA. The Street Seat is the second to be rolled out in Queens—16 were installed in the city last year in Manhattan and Brooklyn—and DOT hopes more will apply through the program so that additional underutilized spaces throughout the borough can be revitalized.
Transportation officials and VOREA hope the community will take advantage of the space not only on lunch breaks and outdoor respites, but also for hosting neighborhood events, which can be done by securing a permit through the city’s Street Activity Permit Office. “One of the great things about this space in particular is it’s a pretty large space that’s been dedicated to pedestrians,” says Dolgoff. “It’s great for community events.”
Aerial view of area
The concept for the art was inspired by Cristo’s Surrounding Islands in Biscayne Bay in Miami..
MTA NY SUBWAYS POSTER FOR “THE GATES”
Courtesy of Eunice Chang
Jerome Perlstein – Walter Lippmann Building,Long Island City NY
Queens-based architect Jerome Perlstein (January 2, 1924-November 13, 1984) designed a wide range of structures, including restaurants, athletic clubs, residences, and synagogues, but put he put his mark on the borough largely with his quirky interventions to industrial structures.
Perlstein was born in New York City and even before graduating from high school in 1940 was already assisting his father, architect Morris Perlstein, as a draftsman. He served in World War II, studied at New York University and Pratt Institute, and then returned to his father’s office until 1949. In 1950 he set out on his own. One of his earliest extant works is the Do All Eastern Building, a long, low industrial building of tan brick with a contrasting red brick entrance surround and a corner wall of picture windows.
The Queens Chamber of Commerce gave it an honorable mention in its building awards program. In 1962, Perlstein became a consultant to Propper Manufacturing Company, a maker of medical devices, owned by Seymour Schuman. In the 1960s, Schuman began branching out into real estate development, eventually controlling numerous small industrial sites around Long Island City under the names Propper Properties and Schuman Properties. Perlstein was hired to rehabilitate many of these.
Between 1962 and 1975 Perlstein altered at least 10 buildings with eye-catching but cost effective designs. He used numerous materials, primarily in facade alterations, to make the street view of these buildings more compelling. The facades incorporate Roman brick, stone veneer, glass, concrete, enamel paneling, metal screens, and mosaic tiling, as quick ways to enliven largely utilitarian complexes.
Perlstein or Schuman also labeled each building with small metal plaques naming the buildings after specific individuals, both famous and obscure. A small garage at 11th Street and 44th Drive with red enamel brick and a jaunty metal facade screen is named after Perlstein.
The Queens Chamber of Commerce honored three of these industrial structures, as well as two restaurants, a bank, and a commercial building that all exhibit the same design characteristics. Awards also went to the Harold Felixson residence in Bayside, a long, wood house on a narrow site, and a more standard apartment complex in Forest Hills, designed with Jack Brown, architect of LeFrak City.
Perlstein died in 1984 at the age of 60. Note: A version of this biography appeared in docomomo_us New York/Tri-State’s mōd, issue 2, 2017.
SOME NOTES
This morning I needed a visual that has been here a long time. The giant rock outcropping in Queens qualified. I discovered the site last October when trying to find an architectural office. Tucked away in an alley was the bright blue painted paving leading to the rock formation.
This morning, when reading about it, the Cristo art piece “The Islands” was mentioned!! Cristo who passed away yesterday. Coincidence.
Then I remembered that Eunice Chang donated a series of posters to the RiHS. There is was… a 46 inch long poster for the event. I have enclosed photos of the poster.
I was always intrigued by the moderne building in Long Island City. The description of it is fascination and proves that Queens has wonder mid-century architecture.
WHAT AND WHERE ARE THESE OBJECTS? Send your submission to JBIRD134@AOL.COM Win a trinket from the RIHS Visitor Center Kiosk
MONDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
The correct answer is the address of Chapel of the Good Shepherd. Andrea Niall was first to answer.
DESIGN THE PERFECT ROOSEVELT ISLAND FACE MASK WHAT ARTWORK WOULD YOU PUT ON THE MASK? SUBMIT THIS IMAGE WITH ARTWORK ON IT TO: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM DEADLINE: JUNE 10, 2020 ALL DECISIONS ARE FINAL WIN A GIFT BASKET FROM THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION THRU PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS THRU DYCD
NIGHTHAWKS BLACKWELL’S ISLAND NAKED CITY DARK WATER CONSPIRACY THEORY AND MORE
DESIGN THE PERFECT ROOSEVELT ISLAND FACE MASK
WHAT ARTWORK WOULD YOU PUT ON THE MASK?
SUBMIT THIS IMAGE WITH ARTWORK ON IT TO: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
DEADLINE: JUNE 10, 2020
ALL DECISIONS ARE FINAL
NIGHTHAWKS (1981)
If you have lived long enough on the island you remember Sylvester Stallone being booed out of the Chapel, when the residents resisted the tram being “hijacked” for a film shoot.The film NIGHTHAWKS got shot, the tram closed for two weeks and we were appeased with free coffee and newspapers. Supposedly a $20,000 donation was to go the the Youth Center.
As we watched NIGHTHAWKS in the 1980’s, it was a captivating thriller. When I watched it in the post 9/11 world, it was too real life. Sly Stallone and Billy Dee Williams were the stars.
Deke DaSilva (Sylvester Stallone) and Matthew Fox (Billy Dee Williams) are two New York City cops who get transferred to an elite anti-terrorism squad. About this same time, an infamous international terrorist shows up in New York City looking to cause some chaos. It’s up to DaSilva and Fox to stop him, but will they be in time?
BLACKWELL’S ISLAND (1939)
In 1934, a New York reporter infiltrates a crime syndicate by befriending its boss who is serving time inside Blackwell Island prison.
The only scenes of the island were views from the Queensboro Bridge
NAKED CITY (1939)
A young woman, a carrier of a deadly infectious disease, leaves a self-imposed exile of 14 years on Welfare Island (now called Roosevelt Island) for Manhattan and a “normal” life. The NYPD is notified and seeks to find her before the “Van Nortons Sawyers Fever” infects the populace and causes multiple deaths.
I was just told of this episode called “Carrier” that has great actual film of the Queensboro Bridge Elevator Storehouse Building and scenes filmed at the old Central Nurses residence. Most of the episode is recognizable being filmed around Manhattan. Sandy Dennis plays the infected person. The episode is timely. It is free to watch on You Tube or IMDB. Sit back and think of the island in 1963.
DARK WATER (2005)
Dahlia Williams and her daughter Cecelia move into a rundown apartment on New York’s Roosevelt Island. She is currently in the midst of divorce proceedings and the apartment, though near an excellent school for her daughter, is all she can afford. From the time she arrives, there are mysterious occurrences and there is a constant drip from the ceiling in the only bedroom. There are also noises coming from the apartment directly above hers, though it would appear to be vacant. Is the apartment haunted or is there a simpler explanation?
Mostly filmed in the halls of 540 Main Street and continual “rain” falling on Main Street during filming. Not very popular with the residents. Who authorized this filming?
CONSPIRACY THEORY (1997)
Jerry Fletcher is a man in love with a woman he observes from afar. She works for the government. Fletcher is an outspoken critic of that government. He has conspiracy theories for everything, from aliens to political assassinations. But soon, one of his theories finds itself to be accurate. But which one? Some dangerous people want him dead, and the only person he trusts is the woman he loves, but does not know.
Filmed inside an outside old Central Nurse residence (where 475 Main Street is located), a scene included helicopter landings on adjacent ball field. Forgot how cute Mel Gibson was in his youth!
OTHER FILMS
Some other films include: EXORCIST which was supposedly filmed inside Goldwater Hospital CITY SLICKERS Star Billy Crystal gets on Tram SHAFT filmed in the abandoned City Hospital SPIDERMAN film at Tram and in studio, where they “destroyed” one of the Tram stations.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Identify and locate this. Send your answer to jbird134@aol.com Win a trinket from the RIHS kiosk.
WEEKEND MYSTERY PHOTO OF THE DAY
EDITORIAL
Escaping the real world, a good idea this weekend of chaos. Not being a film buff, I probably left out may films and the fine details that some people appreciate.
BRING YOUR DOG TO OUR SOCIALLY DISTANCING DOG APPRECIATION DAY NEXT SATURDAY, JUNE 6TH FROM 1-5 P.M. AT THE RIHS KIOSK. WE HAVE FREE TREATS FOR THE DOGS, INDIVIDUAL DISHES OF WATER FOR THEM. GOODIES FOR THEIR FAMILIES. ALL DOGS AND THEIR FAMILIES WELCOME TO GREET SUMMER OUTSIDE THE KIOSK.
Judith Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff All materials in this publication are copyrighted (c)
FUNDING BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
DISCRETIONARY FUNDING BY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS THRU NYC DYCD
Welfare Island: The Spirit of Place Past The Photography of Suzanne Vlamis ******************************
DESIGN THE PERFECT ROOSEVELT ISLAND FACE MASK. WHAT ARTWORK WOULD YOU PUT ON THE MASK? SUBMIT THIS IMAGE WITH ARTWORK ON IT TO: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM DEADLINE: JUNE 10, 2020 ALL DECISIONS ARE FINAL WIN A GIFT BASKET FROM THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER
Many of these photos were originally displayed in the Octagon Gallery in 2009
Views of the Smallpox Hospital and Queensboro Bridge
Plaque from City (formerly Island Hospital, then Charity Hospital) commemorating the first building was destroyed by fire 1858 (?) and rebuilt by the Governors of the Almshouse 1859.
Plaque that was in the City Hospital “DIED IN THE DISCHARGE OF DUTY.” The plaque was removed from the building and eventually returned to the RiHS Archives.
Pieces of plaque that were returned.
Signs stenciled on walls of City Hospital
Always signs left on walls.
Abandoned
Abandoned Strecker Memorial Laboratory
Abandoned Pathology Laboratory
Specimens
Reference Books
Luncheonette next to Elevator Storehouse Building where staff would get their morning coffee
Abandoned buses and ambulances outside the Laundry, Firehouse and Garage Building.
Chapel of the Good Shepherd
Abandoned German Lutheran Hospital
Dredging the River to bury the subway tunnel tubes
The helix under construction
Near Sacred Heart Chapel
Octagon interior dome
The staircase leading to the cupola.
Leading to the patient floors
New York University Medical Center Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine PRIMATE COLONY
Lighthouse before the Park
MYSTERY PHOTO OF THE DAY
Can you identify this building and location? Send you response to jbird134@aol.com Winner gets a trinket from kiosk.
YESTERDAY’S IMAGE
This image is the escalator entrance to the 63rd Street and Third Avenue Lexington Street Station.
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD 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 PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) ALL PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) SUZANNE VLAMIS 2009
How Abstract WPA Murals Were Preserved for Cornell Tech Campus, New York City
Cornell Tech’s campus on Roosevelt Island will have technologically advanced and future-facing facilities, but it will also have something else: a glimpse into US history, and a critical link to the island it calls home.
That’s thanks to a team of conservators who carefully removed three historic murals from Roosevelt Island’s Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing Facility just before its demolition in 2014, and who will reinstall them within the new Cornell Tech buildings.
The murals were by Ilya Bolotowsky, Albert Swinden and Joseph Rugolo.
Bolotowsky, the best known of the three, was a protégé of Piet Mondrian and leading early abstract painter known for creating a sense of order and balance in his paintings. What makes the mural he created for the hospital so unique, according to Keri Butler, deputy director at the Public Design Commission of the City of New York, is that it was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
The WPA seldom commissioned abstract works of art, Butler said, but Bolotowsky’s work was championed by a fellow abstract artist Burgoyne Diller, who also happened to be project supervisor of the New York City WPA/FAP Mural Division.
Removing these murals was no walk in the park. In their original incarnation, all of the murals by Bolotowsky, Swinden and Rugolo had been installed on walls in three of the building’s 32 circular-shaped rooms. In these circular rooms, patients would congregate, get fresh air, and look out through the windows to the river — the idea being that sunlight and fresh air supported convalescence.
A total of eight murals were commissioned for these spaces, though only four were ever completed. But over the years, these rooms were repainted many times. Eventually, layer upon layer of interior house paint obscured the locations of the murals themselves. Then, with demolition of the hospital slated for late 2014, Cornell and New York City worked together with a team of conservators on a kind of scavenger hunt, scouring the hospital to find these works.
—Bolotowsky’s, which had been restored in 2000, was easier to find than the other two. Though conservators knew a fourth mural may have existed, after searching each of the 32 rooms the group determined that the mural was not within any of them. Butler describes the discovery process like something out of a detective novel. “We were in one of these day rooms, and a conservator asked if it was okay to remove the light switch cover. So we got a screwdriver and removed the cover — there was canvas there! It was a revelatory moment.”
Once all of the murals had been painstakingly secured, they were chemically stabilized and, finally, restored off-site at a conservator’s studio, according to Stephanie Lee Wiles, director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. Where paint was missing, conservators filled in the blanks.
All of these New York City murals serve as reminders of an unprecedented government-funded initiative that provided essential work and income to artists, and supported the artistic careers of many otherwise overlooked abstract artists,” said Wiles. The murals, she hopes, will connect students and visitors to the history of the island. She also noted a conceptual overlap between Bolotowsky’s style of abstract painting, which was then avante-garde, and Cornell Tech’s mission in the world today: “In this brand-new building, [Bolotowsky’s murals] represent thinking about new horizons — and new directions that technology will take us.” Now that these paintings will be accessible to so many, Butler said she hopes they’ll inspire dialogue about not only the past, but also the future of public funding for art in America. “I can’t even imagine another time when the United States government had such an impact on cutting-edge American art,” she said. “I hope that students will look up and wonder what these murals are about, and that the murals provide inspiration and an uplifting experience.
ILYA BOLOTOWSKY
JOSEPH RUGOLO
Rugolo mural laid out at conservators
Mural parts on exhibit at Johnson Museum at Cornell, Ithaca in 2016. The Rugolo mural was not been placed yet and is in storage awaiting a suitable location.
ALBERT SWINDEN
Swinden mural laid out at conservators
The Swinden mural was the most complex to install high on a wall in the TATA Innovation Center
The Swinden mural high above the tiered study area in the TATA Innovation Center
EDITORIAL
Now that we have tempted you with these photos of the murals at Cornell Tech. Cornell Tech offers monthly art tours. On exhibit are some other contemporary artworks and installations.
To book a tour see: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cornell-tech-art-tours-registration-44681635976
All tours are subject to the campus being open. The tours are free and limited to 10 persons.
Judith Berdy 212 688 4836 Jbird134@aol.com
PHOTO OF THE DAY
What is this and where is it located? E-mail answer to jbird134@aol.com Win a kiosk trinket
YESTERDAY’S PHOTO OF THE DAY
This is the WILDLIFE FREEDOM FOUNDATION Cat sanctuary at Southpoint Park on the east side of the Island.
This arrived from Jay Jacobson this morning:
This morning’s very interesting picture appears to me to be the southern and western facades of the Roosevelt Island Residence for Less Fortunate Felines.
It is located in the northeast corner of Southpoint Park, adjacent to the East Channel of the East River. Although RIRFLFF does not appear on any copies of the RI Master Plan I have ever seen, it is believed to be the Quantico equivalent on the Island.
There, elite teams of cats, rescued from abandonment by sympathetic trainers and friends, are working to learn to herd the Canada Geese into parts of the Island where their signature pooping pattern is removed from the Island’s lawns and pathways and confined to places not populated by people.
I understand that Ben Kallos has been asked for funding support for RIRFLFF but has deferred a decision until he sees how many have registered to vote.
Beano, my long time friend and neighbor passed away last night with her family. She is socializing with her felines in cat heaven.
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) RIHS Thanks to the RIHS Archives for Images Museum of the City of New York Cornell University Johnson Museum
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: THE ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS ADMINISTERED BY NYC DIVISION OF YOUTH AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
