Amanda and Brad Matthews, sculptors of The Girl Puzzle were on the island this weekend to clean and polish some of our art: The Girl Puzzle, The FDR Hope Memorial and our Good Shepherd Plaza Bell.
Brad Matthews works on Nellie Bly. (Photo Amanda Matthews)
Each sculpture got a thorough cleaning and polishing by Amanda and Brad Matthews. Lots of visitors came by and watched the process.
Brad polished the orbs and they are glowing now in the sunshine.
Amanda was interviewed by Maya our Tik Tok reporter. See our page for 3 interviews with Amanda. TIK TOK @ rooseveltislandhsociety
FDR Hope Memorial as Franklin gets a good scrubbing,
Lots of detail to clean, especially the wheelchair. (Photo Amanda Matthews)
Chapel Bell was cleaned and all kinds of stuff removed from it. The next step is to repair a crack in the back of the hanger and design a new base (plinth).
Before cleaning.
After cleaning and polishing
The Chapel Bell is an art piece and deserves to be on a proper base since it was cast in 1888!
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY CHAPEL BELL GOOD SHEPHERD PLAZA
When will all our out-door island art get conserved? The Blue Dragon, The FDR Bust in the FDR FFP*, The Weather Station in the PS/IS 217 yard? Our island needs a curator to select, design placement and work with interested groups to enhance the art on the island. *The FDR sculpture is the responsibility of NYS Parks.
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
Are you interested in History & specifically OUR unique histories on Roosevelt Island?
Roosevelt Island Historical Society is looking for new Board Members to help us continue to serve the Roosevelt Island community.
We are regretfully losing two of our longtime Board members–one is moving and one is retiring. We are thankful for their years of service & will miss them both dearly.
We are also excited for this opportunity to meet new neighbors with diverse backgrounds to help move RIHS forward. If YOU are interested in history–and specifically Roosevelt Island’s unique and messy history–please contact us. We would value you as a Board Member to help keep Roosevelt Island’s history a LIVING history!
E-MAIL OUR AT: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM WE ARE NOW ON TIK TOK AND INSTAGRAM!
INSTAGRAM @ roosevelt_island_history
TIK TOK @ rooseveltislandhsociety
FROM THE ARCHIVES
MONDAY, JUNE 12, 2023
ISSUE# 1012
BEAUTIFUL LOCATIONS
TO FIND
GUASTAVINO TILES IN NYC
PART 2
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
We all know our visitor center probably has the smallest Guastavino ceiling in New York. Here are some that are much larger and more grand.
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the world’s largest cathedral, but remains unfinished. In cross-shaped churches, a tower or a dome is constructed over the intersection of the four arms of the cross; a junction called the “crossing.” Guastavino tiles were used to build the dome that hovers over St. John the Divine cathedral’s crossing, the side aisles of the nave, as well as the staircases.
The Guastavino tile system lends major stability to the dome, also making it one of the largest free-standing domes in the world. It is now near impossible that the cathedral will ever be completed, as new apartment buildings have risen where the trancepts would have been built.
Image courtesy Prospect Park Alliance by Elizabeth Keegin-Colley
Prospect Park contains many structures built using Guastavino tiles, including the entrance shelters at Grand Army Plaza, the Willink Entrance Comfort Station, the tennis shelter, and the menagerie.
The Boathouse, in particular, features beautifully colored Guastavino tiles, which have shone brighter since the building was restored in 1999. The Beaux Arts landmark was built in 1905, and is now an Audubon Center, the first of its kind in the United States. Also, check out 12 other secrets about Prospect Park.
The entrance to the Bronx Zoo elephant house — now the Zoo Center — has two adjacent domes overhead. The domes are lined with the characteristic herringbone pattern of Guastavino tiles, which train your eyes to the vaulted ceiling of the one-story Beaux-Arts building, located in Astor Court.
Today, the space is home to monitors, Komodo dragons, and southern white rhinoceros, but make sure to look up and spend time studying the grandeur of the Guastavinos’ work
Wolfgang’s Steakhouse (formerly the Della Robbia Bar) would have clearly been a stunning place to enter when it was built in 1913, but today it is even more remarkable for the fact that it is the “lone remnant of an interior ensemble destroyed in a 1960s modernization of the former Vanderbilt Hotel into a multi-use building,” write Gura and Wood in Interior Landmarks: Treasures of New York. The Vanderbilt Hotel was part of a larger grand plan around Grand Central Terminal, known as Terminal City.
Wolfgang’s is also an example of preservation and landmarking by means of community, grass-roots efforts. In this case, the organization Friends of Terra Cotta campaigned for its designation. In addition to the tiling work, the restaurant interior features polychrome ornamental tile by the Rookwood Pottery Company of Cincinnati.
A few steps after getting off the Roosevelt Island tram, you will be greeted by a stately but tiny welcome center. The welcome center structure dates to around 1909 when the Queensboro Bridge once had a trolley line, but this building was only moved here in 2007. There were five trolley kiosks, located between the inbound and outbound lower level roads between 59th and 60th Street. Like other parts of the Queensboro Bridge, the visitors center is one of the places in New York City you can find Guastavino tiling.
The last trolley ran on this line in 1957 and three of the five kiosks were demolished. One was moved to the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights where it functioned as the entrance to the museum until the museum was completely redesigned. Judith Berdy, President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, spearheaded the efforts to get the kiosk moved to Roosevelt Island, where it was restored and reopened as a visitors center.
The Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Nolita is yet another location that features Guastavino tiles. The tiles, are located in the catacombs below ground, where many past archbishops and cardinals are buried. Pictured here is a crypt for the Eckert family, above which you can spot the green-hued Guastavino tiles. Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral is one of the two locations of catacombs in New York City, the other is located in Green-Wood Cemetery.
When the New York City subway first opened, the now abandoned City Hall station was referred to as “an underground cathedral,” according to John Ochsendorf, head of the Guastavino Research Project at MIT and co-curator of the “Palaces for the People” exhibit. Speaking to Susan Stamberg of Morning Edition in 2013, Ochsendorf continues, “The public was afraid to go underground at that time and so these vaults and this beautiful decorative, colorful ceiling really helped people feel comfortable in a grand space below the city.”
With its stunning tile work and stained glass windows, the station was designed to be the crown jewel of the New York City subway system. The architecture remains as beautiful as ever, but the station has been closed since 1945 due to its curved platform, which was deemed too short for longer trains that were later used.
Guastavino’s work appears in the Alexander Hamilton Custom’s House (the American Museum fo American Indian portion) as a giant domed ceiling in the massive rotunda under which workers once sat at the large marble counter to collect tariffs. The skylight that is supported by the dome weighs 140 tons and there is no metal support structure. The ceiling is made entirely of plaster and tile using the famous Guastavino method.
THE HELL GATE BRIDGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION ARON EISENPREISS AND ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Are you interested in History & specifically OUR unique histories on Roosevelt Island?
Roosevelt Island Historical Society is looking for new Board Members to help us continue to serve the Roosevelt Island community.
We are regretfully losing two of our longtime Board members–one is moving and one is retiring. We are thankful for their years of service & will miss them both dearly.
We are also excited for this opportunity to meet new neighbors with diverse backgrounds to help move RIHS forward. If YOU are interested in history–and specifically Roosevelt Island’s unique and messy history–please contact us. We would value you as a Board Member to help keep Roosevelt Island’s history a LIVING history!
E-MAIL US AT: ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND, JUNE 10-11, 2023
ISSUE# 1010
BEAUTIFUL LOCATIONS
TO FIND
GUASTAVINO TILES IN NYC
PART 1
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
We all know our visitor center probably has the smallest Guastavino ceiling in New York. Here are some that are much larger and more grand.
In 2014, the Museum of the City of New York housed an exhibition on the work of the Guastavinos, named “Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile.” The retrospective called attention to many structures, including the Ellis Island Registry Room (The Great Hall), which used to be the first step in the U.S. immigration process for people who were waiting to be inspected by Immigration Service Officers.The room opened in 1900, and for over two decades, up to 5,000 immigrants passed through on a daily basis. Guastavino’s work, however, was not added until 1918. The Registry Room has since been restored to its appearance in 1918-24.
Located on the lower level of Grand Central Terminal, the Oyster Bar & Restaurant has been dishing out the freshest oysters and seafood dishes since 1913. Over a hundred years later, it remains a New York institution — famous not only for its seafood, but also for its adornment with Guastavino tiles. The tiles’ herringbone pattern takes center stage in this underground eatery, with lights running up and across the grand vaults.After dining, patrons can step outside the restaurant and into the next Guastavino tile location. Warning: this one is a little “hush, hush!”
Got a secret to tell? The acoustic pockets of the Guastavino-tiled vaults in the Grand Central Terminal‘s Whispering Gallery act as the perfect pathway for messages. Just stand with a partner at opposite diagonals of the base and talk into the arches. Whispers will be heard across the distance as if you and your partner were standing right next to each other.As we mention in our popular Secrets of Grand Central article, nobody knows whether this whispering gallery was built this way on purpose, but it has provided endless amusement for residents and tourists alike.
Sometimes the most surprising finds are in the most unassuming places, like a parking garage. On a visit to Grand Central Terminal, Untapped New York tour guide Justin Rivers noticed the famed arched herringbone pattern typical of Guastavino tile work. This area once part of The Biltmore Hotel, a grand Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore-designed structure that was built as part of “Terminal City,” a compound of hotels and other buildings connected to Grand Central Terminal that was proposed in the original plans by Charles A. Reed and Allen H. Stem, along with William Wilgus.One of the hotel’s best amenities was the ease with which guests could come and go using the hotel’s connection to Grand Central Terminal. Guests of the Biltmore arriving at Grand Central Terminal would have their luggage collected from the train by porters and then they would travel via tunnel to an elevator in the hotel’s basement and be carried up into the hotel without ever having to step outside.The hotel was stripped down to its steel skeleton in the 1980s and all that is left of the original structure are small remnants like this passageway and its iconic golden clock, which can be found in the lobby of 335 Madison Avenue.
St. Paul’s Chapel, located on the Columbia University campus between Buell Hall and Avery Hall has Guastavino tiles on both the staircase and the dome. The staircase may have 2-3 layers of Guastavino tiles, whereas the dome may consist of as many as 5 or 6 layers of tiles. The tile work was commissioned as part of the master plan for the campus. A recently completed renovation has restored the church to its original glory. And on your visit, fun fact: there’s a secret coffee shop hidden below St. Paul’s Chapel too.
Don’t worry about conspicuously lingering about in this government building; there is no need to go inside to find Guastavino tiles. The south wing of the Municipal building on Chambers Street is fitted with a vaulted tile ceiling, though not in the characteristic herringbone pattern.The Manhattan Municipal Building was the first to incorporate a subway station in its base, and it’s regarded as one of the most beautiful stations in the city, featuring 11 columns. According to MCNY, Guastavino “devised a series of elegant vaults to cover the space, adapting to its various shapes three basic forms: the barrel vault, used along the length of the colonnades; lunettes, curving between the columns; and groin vaults, to accommodate the diversely shaped polygons spanning the internal columns.” Also, check out 12 other secrets of the Manhattan Municipal building, including how you can access the cupola on the top.
The event space, Guastavino’s (appropriately named after Rafael Sr. and Rafael Jr.), is one half of the Guastavino-tile vaulted space that sits beneath the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Many people use the space, which is designated as a New York City landmark, as a place to host weddings, parties and other gatherings. You might have also recognized it as a film location for Marvel shows like The Defenders.The entire space used to be the Queensboro bridgemarket, filled with produce vendors year-round before the Great Depression. After an initial closure and re-opening in the late 1990’s, the space was converted into part Food Emporium, part event space. If you can’t get into Guastavino’s to see the tiling, there is a publicly accessible portion of the Queensboro Bridge, very much forgotten as a Department of Transportation storage area, that has more Guastavino tiling.
FAMILY OF REVEREND WARREN CROMEY WHO LIVED IN CHAPEL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD IN THE 1950’s
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
WIKIPEDIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The hospital received its first patient on July 26, 1917.[4] The hospital was set up to promote the newly created Carrel–Dakin method, which was developed for the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research by Alexis Carrel and Henry Drysdale Dakin.
One of the hospital wards.
On August 24, 1918 Rockefeller War Demonstration Hospital became United States Army Auxiliary Hospital No. 1, under the commanding general of what was then called the Hoboken Port of Embarkation (later renamed to New York Port of Embarkation).[2]
Between August 24, 1918 and its closure, the hospital trained 998 Medical Corps officers and enlisted men of the Army and Navy in the Carrel–Dakin method and treated 237 patients.[5]
The war demonstration hospital was closed on April 5, 1919[2]
Nancy Poultney Ellicott (1872-1944), Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research’s Superintendent of Nurses (1909 – 1938) received a Medal of Honor from the Minister of Hygiene of France in 1926 for her work at the Rockefeller War Demonstration Hospital.[6][7]
The War Demonstration Hospital construction, 1917
Courtesy of the Rockefeller Archive Center
The plan of the temporary hospital at the Rockefeller Institute was made by Mr. Charles Butler, a New York architect who had studied French and British hospital construction in France; he collaborated with the French War Department in designing hospitals. Mr. Butler adopted the unit building system patented by the Humphreys Company in London. Numerous slight structural changes, made necessary by American building conditions, have been devised by Messrs. Marc Eidlitz & Son, contractors.
DEMONSTRATING THE EMERGENCY EXIT
ALONG YORK AVENUE
WOUNDED SOLDIER LEARN NEW PROFESSIONS
Biography
Nancy P. Ellicott was born in Baltimore. She received her nursing diploma in 1903. After graduation she was placed in charge of Ward H in the Johns Hopkins Hospital. From 1905 to 1907 she held the position of Superintendent of Nurses at the Church Home and Infirmary in Baltimore. She was acting Superintendent of the Church Home and Infirmary in 1908. The following year she was appointed first Superintendent of the Rockefeller Institution Hospital in New York City where she remained until her retirement in 1938. During World War I, she assisted French doctor Alexis Carrel in the War Demonstration Hospital at the Rockefeller Hospital. In 1921 she sat on the Alumnae general committee for the Organization for the Endowment of the School of Nursing at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1926 she was awarded a Medal of Honor from the Minister of Hygiene of France. During her nursing training, her creative research into typhoid treatment won her the cofidence and friendship of Drs. Welch and Osler. She is noted as being the first woman in Baltimore to own and operate an automobile. She devised a back rest for patients and a laundry cart on wheels.
DEMOLITION OF ONE OF THE WINGS OF METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL, 1970
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
WIKIPEDIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
In last week’s blog, Amy Stecher adapted her “Lunch and Learn” presentation about the Manhattan Building Plan collection project. This week, co-presenter Alexandra Hilton highlights two architecturally significant buildings documented in the collection – the Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital and the Rivington Street Bath. Future blogs will feature the plans of other unique buildings that have been identified in the processing project.
Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital
Psychopathic Building, Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, architects’ rendering, 1927. Department of Public Charities and Hospitals Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital, as it was called at the time, was built in 1931 by Charles B. Meyers in the Italian Renaissance style. The building is still standing alongside the East River on First Avenue between 29th and 30th Streets, occupying an entire city block. When constructed, it joined the growing Bellevue hospital complex, and was intended to match the existing buildings, which were designed by architects McKim, Mead & White – same color brick, embellished with granite base course, limestone and terra cotta trimmings. By then, McKim, Mead & White was barely active; Meyers had just designed the Tammany Hall building and was a favorite of then-Mayor Jimmy Walker.
Manhattan Block 958. Bromley Atlas, 1955. New York Public Library.
Prior to its construction, Bellevue’s mental-health facilities were part of the main hospital and included an 1879 “pavilion for the insane,” and an alcoholic ward was added in 1892. Dr. Menas Gregory, a well-known psychiatrist who spent his career working in Bellevue’s psychiatric division, is credited with the idea for a psychiatric building after a trip to inspect similar institutions in Europe – a “Temple of Mental Health,” as he called it. Wanting to create a very clean and stately environment for the new hospital was right on brand for Dr. Gregory. In his position, he had already changed the terminology – preferring “psychopathic” to the word “insane,” thinking this would help make the patients seem curable. He had also removed the iron bars from the old pavilion’s windows and had lessened the use of narcotics and physical restraints on the patients. Dr. Gregory was seen as a good guy in the field, at a time when most medical professionals were largely ignorant about mental illness.
Psychopathic Hospital, Department of Hospitals, Charles B. Meyers, elevation, 1929, blueprint. Manhattan Building Plan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Before the hospital was built, The New York Times said it would be “one of the finest hospitals in the world for the treatment of mental disorders” and “thoroughly modern” at a cost of $3,000,000. (Unsurprisingly, by the time it was finished, the cost would be $4,300,000 ($66,000,000 today). It was designed as a single building with three separate units: 1) 10-stories to house administrative services, doctors’ offices, labs and a library; 2) 8-stories, for mild cases; 3) 8-stories, for more advanced cases. There were facilities for recreation and occupational therapy; physio-, electro- and hydro-therapy; an out-patient clinic; teaching facilities for medical students, and a special research clinic for the study and treatment of delinquency, crime and behavior problems, in collaboration with the Department of Correction, Criminal Courts and Probation Bureau.
Bellevue Hospital complex with new psychopathic building at right, October 31, 1934. Borough President Manhattan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Rooms were designed to house either one, two or three patients at a time. In a Mental Hygiene Bulletin, it was written that “special consideration has been given in the plans to incorporate within the building the appearance and aspect of home or normal living conditions with simple decorations and color tones believed to have the most soothing effect upon the patient.” One hundred of the six hundred beds were dedicated for the study and treatment of children, under the supervision of the Department of Education.
Completing the building was nothing short of dramatic and filled with accusations of corruption and mismanagement. Its lavish exterior juxtaposed against the great depression couldn’t have been more tone deaf to the city’s residents. When ground was broken on June 18, 1930, it was thought the building would be completed at the end of 1931. Almost a year later, in February 1931, the cornerstone was just being laid. Delays were plentiful. It reportedly took a year to choose the architect and another year to draw the plans, and then, according to the Acting Commissioner of Hospitals, “after the contractor had collected all the funds he could get, he left for Europe.”
Psychopathic Hospital, Department of Hospitals, Charles B. Meyers, first floor plan, 1929, blueprint. Manhattan Building Plan Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital, Manhattan Block 958, Lot 1, 1940. Tax Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The hospital partially opened in May 1933 with the 600-bed facility only ready for 375 patients. A formal dedication occurred later that year in November, where tribute was paid to Dr. Gregory for his vision. Dr. Gregory resigned from his post in 1934, amid an investigation of his division by the Commissioner of Hospitals, Dr. S. S. Goldwater. This formed a spectacular tit-for-tat-type relationship between Dr. Gregory and Dr. Goldwater, which The New York Times covered extensively. Dr. Gregory died in 1941.
Over the years, the building went from temple of health to a scary place you didn’t want to go, and was the subject of many films, novels and exposes. The hospital saw many celebrity patients. Norman Mailer was sent there after stabbing his wife in a drunken rage. William Burroughs after he chopped off his own finger to impress someone. Eugene O’Neill had several stays in the alcoholic ward. Sylvia Plath came after a nervous breakdown. And infamous criminals like George Metesky the “Mad Bomber,” and John Lennon’s assassin, Mark David Chapman, were briefly committed to the hospital.
In 1984, the city began transitioning the building into a homeless shelter and intake center, but much of it was left empty. Around 2008, a proposal to turn the building into a hotel surfaced. To developers, the building was naturally suited to such a use, given the H-shaped layout with long hallways and small rooms.
Long Island RR steam locomotive in Long Island City, with Sunshine Biscuit factory in background. The LIRR inherited these locomotive from its parent Pennsylvania RR, and they operated till 1955. Andy Sparberg
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
NEW YORK MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES FROM THE ARCHIVES BLOG
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
On February 26, 1875, Mary Halpine, age two months, was buried in trench no. seven at the City Cemetery on Hart Island. According to the cemetery burial ledger, Mary was born in New York City and died from Atelectasis (collapsed lung) at Bellevue Hospital on February 25.
Hart Island Bulk Head, January 13, 1972. Department of Marine and Aviation Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The entry recording the death and burial of Mary Halpine is the first one in a ledger recently donated to the Municipal Archives collection of City Cemetery burial records.
The City of New York purchased Hart Island in 1869 and designated it for the burial of indigent and unclaimed persons. The Department of Public Charities and Corrections was given responsibility for the burials and record-keeping.
In 1988, City archivists transferred all extant burial records dated prior to 1975 that had been stored on the Island, to the Municipal Archives. The earliest ledger in the series recorded burials beginning in May 1881. There are significant gaps in the collection during the 1950s and 1960s due to water damage. In 2018, the Archives accessioned a ledger, with entries dating from May 1872 through February 1875, from the Department of Corrections Historical Society. The latest addition to the Archives collection of City Cemetery ledgers lists burials beginning in February 1875, through 1877.
Transfer of records from Hart Island to the Municipal Archives, 1988.The City Cemetery burial records provide significant data for both family history research and investigation into broader topics such as immigration, public health, and social services. The ledgers list the name of the deceased person (if known), age, birthplace, how long in the country, date, cause and place of death, and date of burial. The ledger also indicates religion, although this information appears to have been inconsistently recorded, likely due to a lack of knowledge about the decedent’s affiliation. There is also a remarks column. At the conclusion of each month the clerk maintaining the ledger carefully tallied the total number of burials, and where the deaths occurred. The greatest number of deaths are recorded as “outdoor poor” which means they occurred somewhere other than an institution—at home, on the street, aboard a ship etc. Bellevue, Almshouse, Charity Hospital, Foundling Asylum, Riverside Hospital, Small Pox Hospital and Lunatic Asylum, account for the majority who died in institutions.
Transfer of records from Hart Island to the Municipal Archives, 1988.
The City Cemetery burial records provide significant data for both family history research and investigation into broader topics such as immigration, public health, and social services. The ledgers list the name of the deceased person (if known), age, birthplace, how long in the country, date, cause and place of death, and date of burial. The ledger also indicates religion, although this information appears to have been inconsistently recorded, likely due to a lack of knowledge about the decedent’s affiliation. There is also a remarks column.
At the conclusion of each month the clerk maintaining the ledger carefully tallied the total number of burials, and where the deaths occurred. The greatest number of deaths are recorded as “outdoor poor” which means they occurred somewhere other than an institution—at home, on the street, aboard a ship etc. Bellevue, Almshouse, Charity Hospital, Foundling Asylum, Riverside Hospital, Small Pox Hospital and Lunatic Asylum, account for the majority who died in institutions.
City Cemetery Burial Ledger, February 1875 – January 1878. NYC Municipal Archives
The birthplaces of the deceased reflect early-to-mid-nineteenth century immigration patterns in New York City. Most decedents are native born, or from northern European countries. For example, between June 5 and June 9th, the decedents’ birthplaces included Germany, Ireland, France, Scotland, Austria and New York.
Cause of death information also reflects the reality of New York City life at that time. Although the clerk did not tabulate causes, reviewing the list shows a world without good health care and modern medicine. Small pox, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and diptheria are just a few of the diseases that took the life of many city residents. Which is probably why “old age” is rarely recorded as a cause of death. Some of those who died of advanced years are Alice Crosby, age 68, born in Ireland, died on July 2, 1875; Ann Kiernan passed away on July 7, 1875, age 69, and Philip Mitchell, on March 25, 1875 age 70.
Also notable is the frequency of “drowning” as a cause of death. But based on the place of death, it appears that most were probably not related to recreational activities. In July 1875 three unrelated persons drowned: an unknown man, age 40, found at Pier 9, in the East River; John Maurer, age 50, in the Harlem River, and another unknown man, no age, found at Pier 42, North River.
Most persons listed in the cemetery ledger died of “natural” causes. However, German-born Fritz Reichardt, age 54, died on July 18, 1876 of a “pistol shot wound of head” on 7th Street between 8th and 9th avenues.
City Cemetery Burial Ledger, February 1875 – January 1878. Recapitulation, May 1876. NYC Municipal Archives
The remarks column is mostly blank except for notations regarding disinterment and reburial. In one instance, in August 1876, an “unknown man” was apparently later “recognized as William Bement,” age 60. He died in the “woods on 128th Street near 10th Avenue. He was disinterred and delivered to Taylor & Co. At 16 Bowery for removal to Elmira, N.Y. Most “unknown” burials did not have such a conclusive ending.
Scanning the names recorded in the ledger, one is immediately struck by the number of children buried in the cemetery. Indeed, the second page of the ledger is almost entirely children: Bridget Daily, age one month, from smallpox; Thomas Dowers, twenty-days, of marasmus (mal-nourished); six still births—boy of Anne Purvis, girl of N. Sullivan, girl of Catherine Beaufort, and an unnamed male and female. Mary Ann (no last name), a two-year old founding, died of Scarlatina on 68th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues.
Some clerks appear to have been more diligent in recording information about deceased children; or perhaps they simply had access to more specific data. Listings during the last week of July 1877, for example, include several premature and stillborn children. On this page, the clerk carefully wrote “female child of George and Carol Briner (stillborn); female child of John and Mary Ray (stillborn).”
New York City continues to bury its indigent and unclaimed deceased persons on Hart Island. Earlier this year, the City transferred jurisdiction over the Island from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Parks and Recreation. During Covid, the Department of Corrections had been overwhelmed by the quantity of burials and this function was transferred to contractors. Subsequently, the Human Resources Administration has assumed responsibility for the burials and record-keeping.
BROOKYN HEIGHTS PROMENADE, 1950 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 Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
KENNETH R. COBB
NEW YORK MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES FROM THE ARCHIVES BLOG
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Today was my last day of working on Houston and Bowery. On my walk south I spotted the old restaurant supply signs in a store that is now an art gallery upstairs.
On the corner of Bowery and Prince Street is the Supreme Store specializing in stuff 18 year- olds seem to relish. The exterior is a collection of graffiti decorations.
On Broome Street is Despana, the Spanish food and kitchen supply company. Cerrado Lunes, means Closed on Monday so no shopping for a new paella pan.
Across from the old Police Headquarters is the new in place for Parisiens in New York. In the French tradition many shops and restaurants were closed on Monday,
The building, now a condo graces the neighborhood.
The cornerstone remains and whatever was adjacent is long gone.
The north corner is a delight of stonework and foliage.
The best part of the stroll was discovering Center Market Place. Tonight I read about it on Wikipedia. Enjoy the story, it is worth it!!.
Centre Market Place
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The People’s Baths at 9 Centre Market Pl circa 1890s.Centre Market Place is a one block long street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, bordering Mulberry Street to the east, Grand Street to the south, Broome Street to the north, and Centre Street to the west. Centre Market Place was originally an extension of Orange Street (now Baxter Street, which starts at Grand Street, where Centre Market Place ends), before being formally renamed Centre Market Place in April 1837,[1][2] after Centre Market, which was west of the street. At one time, the street was at the top of a high hill.[3] Currently, local residents consider Centre Market Place to be part of the NoLIta neighborhood. At the southern end of the street, on the corner of Grand Street, is Onieal’s restaurant, which features a cavernous wine cellar that once served as a speakeasy during Prohibition. Gentlemen of means would walk through the front of the Police Building, perhaps make a contribution to the “widows and orphan fund” and then walk through the cellar corridor connecting the two buildings.[citation needed]9 Centre Market Place was once the location to “The People’s Bath House”, a privately run public bathhouse built by the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.[4] The People’s Baths served as a model to which the City of New York would later build the city’s truly public bathhouses.The block also included several gun stores including the John Jovino at 5 Centre Market Place, and the older Frank Lava Gunsmith at 6 Centre Market Place. The gun stores were part of a gun district owing to its proximity to the police headquarters at 240 Centre St.[5][6] A row of townhouses at No. 1, 2, 4, and 5 were rehabilitated by two developers, a husband-and-wife team, incorporating found architectural castoffs scavenged from around the world as part of its facade.[7]The street was home to many well-known writers, poets, and artists, including the noted crime photographer Weegee, who lived in a small studio apartment at 5 Centre Market Pl.[5]
Tucked away on Elizabeth Street is the Elizabeth Street garden, a mid-block oasis.
Standing at the corner of Bowery and Houston, I spotted this enormous tree in the Liz Christy Garden across the street.A wonderful view to see before returning to work.
Second Avenue Elevated Line when it crossed the Queensboro Bridge upper level. The train has left Queens (it came from either Astoria or Flushing) and is about to enter the downtown tracks of the Second Ave. Elevated. This service ended on June 13, 1942. The track space was converted to automobile use in the mid-1950s From Andy Sparberg
Ed Litcher, Aron Eisenpreiss, Nestor Danyluk and Gloria Herman all got it right!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
For its twelfth year running, Photoville will be making a return to Brooklyn Bridge Park. While Photoville is a Brooklyn-based nonprofit, the pandemic’s effect in 2020 allowed the festival to expand to outdoor spaces in each borough, seeing as many as 1 million visitors last year. From June 3rd to June 18th Photoville will provide photography exhibitions all over New York City that embrace diverse perspectives through the lens of photography and celebrate iconic public places in New York City.
A rendering of Lee Bae’s ‘Issu du Feu”
To prepare for its Korean heritage celebration in July and to showcase modern and contemporary Korean art, Rockefeller Center is debuting three new art installations in collaboration with three influential Korean artists. Organized by Johyun Gallery from Busan, Korea, the exhibition, Origin, Emergence, Return will be located at the Rink Level Gallery and consists of over 70 works that represent three generations of Korean artwork from the 20th century to the present. Each of the three sections of the exhibit will focus on one individual’s material.
Many consider Park Seo-Bo’s work to be the origin of post-war Korean art in the seventies. Bo’s Origin will contain over 40 of the artist’s works from the last fifty years, illuminating the ways in which his style and development helped shape both the modernization and westernization of Korean art in the late 20th century. Park Seo-Bo’s Origin utilizes Korean hanji paper as his focal point through traditional Korean calligraphy.
Image Courtesy of Port Authority of NY & NJ
Three large-scale bronze sculptures featuring various endangered animals will be on display at the World Trade Center campus within the South Oculus Plaza, where more than 180,000 international tourists, workers, and residents will view them each day. As a collaboration between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner, these three sculptures, collectively titled A Wild Life for Wildlife in New York, will be on display for twelve months in an effort to raise awareness of the issue of species endangerment.
The first of the three art installations will depict endangered species from around the world on a large tandem bike, which will include an extra empty seat for visitors to hop on and help them pedal. The second sculpture will portray a chess match between a rhinoceros and a dog-man hybrid, aiming to touch on staying one step ahead in the fight for animal survival. The third and final sculpture is of an African elephant with a rabbit-woman hybrid, inviting others to sit and have a conversation discussing the topic. Each sculpture will have a QR code that links visitors to its story along with key information regarding the threats to the animals portrayed.
Phyllida Barlow. In process image of antic, 2023 at 4th State Metals, NY Corten steel, fiberglass, lacquer Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Hauser & Wirth Photo: Asya Gorovits, courtesy Public Art Fund, NY Artwork a part of Phyllida Barlow: PRANK, presented by Public Art Fund in City Hall Park, New York City, June 6, 2023 November 26, 2023
A sculpture that dares to defy gravity and artistic form will come to City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan on June 6. Created by the late British artist Phyllida Barlow, PRANK is a collection of seven free-standing steel and fiberglass structures that serve as the artist’s first and only series of outdoor sculptures made from durable long-lasting materials. PRANk makes use of what has come to be known as Barlow’s well-known “rabbit ear” forms (originally created in Barlow’s Objects For series in the 1990s). In this series, Barlow stacks these forms precariously on top of mundane household objects such as workbenches, cabinets, and chairs. All of these objects are stacked and balanced at unusual angles, posing the question of art’s expectations of structural precarity and form.
While the title of the exhibition and complete series is written in all uppercase letters, the individual sculptures are all titled using only lowercase ones: antic, hoax, jape, jinx, mimic, stunt, and truant. Barlow plays around with word and letter choice in order to highlight the exhibition’s theme of disruptive behavior and defying expectations.
Rendering of Reclining Liberty by Zaq Landsberg, Morningside Park. Photo courtesy of the artist.
The Statue of Liberty is moving to Red Hook, well, a version of the Statue of Liberty. In 2021, artist Zaq Landsberg debuted his Reclining Libertysculpture in Morningside Park. After spending nearly a year in Harlem, it was moved over to Liberty State Park in New Jersey, where it rested until April of 2023.This June, the lazing Lady Liberty will lounge at the Andrew Logan Projects in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The sculpture will be on display from June 8th through June 24th. Visitors can see the installation Wednesday through Friday from 2:00 pm to 8 pm and Saturday through Sunday from 12pm to 8 pm or by appointment. Read the story of another Liberty replica that recently traveled from Brooklyn to Illinois here!
Glittering vultures, boldly textured fabric sculptures, and exotic plants are all part of the new Summer exhibit at the New York Botanical Garden, …things come to thrive… in the shedding… in the molting. The site-specific installation was created by multi-disciplinary artist Ebony G. Patterson. Spread throughout the interior and surrounding gardens of the Haupt Conservatory as well as the indoor galleries of the Mertz Library, Patteron’s installation contemplates the entanglements of race, gender, and colonialism, looking at the ideas of molting, shedding, and decay and their potential to give way to healing, regeneration, and beauty.
Patterson’s paintings and sculptures intermingle with the living specimen in the gardens. The exhibit will be on view through Sunday, September 17, 2023. You can purchase tickets here.
Looks to me like a photo of a summer celebration in the late 1930s of an event at the Goldwater Hospital. Nurses appear in starched uniforms that haven’t been seen on RI for many years. Jay Jacobson
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
IT SEEMS THAT OUR GREAT NEW 7 PERSON RIOC CONSTITUENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT DOES NOT THINK THAT ADVISING RESIDENTS OF SUBWAY SCHEDULE CHANGES ARE IMPORTANT.
THERE SEEMS TO BE NO EXPRESS BUSES SCHEDULED TO AND FROM THE ISLAND THIS WEEKEND.
GET OUR YOUR METROCARD AND BE PREPARED FOR LINES AT THE MANHATTAN TRAM STATION!!!
Queens-bound F trains are running on theF line from W 4 St-Wash Sq to Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Av from 11:45 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday because of track maintenance.
For service to/from 14 St, 23 St, 34 St-Herald Sq, 42 St-Bryant Park, 47-50 St, 57 St, and Lexington Av/63 St use nearby E stations, or take a downtown train and transfer.
For service to/from Roosevelt Island and 21 St-Queensbridge, take the Q66, Q69, Q100, or Q102 buses to Queens Plaza.
Note: Uptown trains are running on the line from W 4 St-Wash Sq to 59 St-Columbus Circle.
F trains are running between Jamaica-179 St and Church Av.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND, JUNE 3-4, 2023
ISSUE# 100
THE MAN WHO
GOT THE WINDOW GLASS
RIGHT
JUDITH BERDY
Good News! The scaffolding came off the subway station exterior today. The construction foreman told me the escalator replacement was nearly finished when I saw the stairs going up this afternoon. ****************** Just in time: This story arrived this week about our station’s construction.
Let’s hope the windows will soon show the wonderful mosaic artwork by Diana Cooper soon.
Yes I worked on the Roosevelt Island subway station. My involvement was in the construction phase, not the design phase, and it may be a bit more esoteric than you are expecting. Here’s my story:
In 1982-3 I was an Assistant Architect with the New York City Transit Authority. I was tasked with the review of the drawings for construction and installation of the glass wall on the west side of the building, facing Manhattan. The problem that I had with the drawings was this:
A slab of glass as large as you have there expands and shrinks a significant amount when it heats up and cools down.
The way that slab of glass is supported is by sliding it into a stainless steel channel frame. The Frame has to be big enough to accommodate the glass when expanded, due to heating, as far as it can possibly be predicted to go.
In addition, the channel had to be deep enough so that when it got cold and the glass shrank there was no gap where the cold air and rain could get in.
My problem was that neither the outside architect who designed it, nor the contractor who would fabricate it, had any idea how much the glass would expand and shrink. What I had to do was find an in-house engineer to tell me how much the glass would expand and shrink. With that information I was able to design the support system so the wall could be built. Hopefully I got it right and it didn’t leak.
As I noted earlier, this is pretty esoteric stuff. I hope that my description made sense. I
Keep Safe and Healthy, Alan Tepper
The mosaic is installed under the plywood and waiting for a gate installation. This project started over a decade ago.
PATIENCE PAYS OFF AND WE KNOW THAT WELL AROUND HERE.
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY CONSTRUCTION FENCE POSTER AND RESULTS FOR FENCE ON NORTH LOOP ROAD
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY 100 Centre Street, Manhattan Once was NYC Police headquarters – from Andy Sparberg. Also Ed Litcher got it
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
