For decades the elegant Fifth Avenue Hotel at Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street attracted princes and politicians, moguls and millionaires. Directly in front of its entrance a tall sidewalk clock conveniently told the time to passing businessmen and nannies pushing baby carriages to Madison Square across the avenue.
But, as was common practice, when the Fifth Avenue Hotel left in 1908, the clock went too.
The builders of the Fifth Avenue Building that replaced the hotel at 200 Fifth Avenue wasted no time in erecting a new clock. In the busy neighborhood anchored by the relatively new Flatiron Building across 23rd Street to the south, a street clock was considered essential.
The clocks served several purposes. Not only were they a convenience for the neighboring shoppers and businessmen, they drew attention to the store or building and provided excellent advertisement.
Desiring their clock to be in keeping with the high tone of their new office building, the owners commissioned the esteemed Brooklyn firm of Hecla Iron Works to produce their clock case. Hecka (named after an active volcano in Iceland) had produced the 133 cast iron subway kiosks as well as important cast iron building facades like the B. Altman & Co. Department Store on 6th Avenue and the New York Life Insurance Building.
Of the many street clocks on the sidewalks of Manhattan, this one stood out. Installed in 1909 it was one of the most ornate in the city. It sits on a rectangular base with classical ornamentation, a fluted Ionic column rising to a capital inspired by the work of 16th Century Venetian architect Vioncenzo Scamozzi. The two large dials which advertised Fifth Avenue Building are encircled by oak leaf wreaths. To make the cast iron clock even more a work of art, it was then gilded.
The clock was wound about every eight days; a weight within the column slowly descending the full length. More recently, the mechanism was replaced with an automatic one.
In 2011 the clock was completely restored by the Electric Time Company, Inc. of Medfield, Massachusetts. The eight-month restoration was sponsored by Tiffany & Co**.
A technician works on the eight-month restoration of the Fifth Avenue street clock in 2011 — photo courtesy Electric Time Company, Inc.
Throughout the 20th Century Manhattan’s many street clocks fell victim to auto accidents, neglect and sidewalk improvements until now only a handful remain. The well-maintained and magnificent example in front of 200 Fifth Avenue was deemed by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1981 “a gilded cast-iron masterpiece.”
Walking up Broadway tonight a new architectural gem struck me. I may wander around the area more often to see the revitalization of the many older structures.
Living in Stutgart, Germany did not impede Caroline H. Johnston’s Manhattan real estate operations. She remotely purchased properties around the island which she improved with commercial and residential structures. As the turn of the century neared, she little by little amassed the properties around No. 1170 Broadway. In 1897 she purchased No. 1172 at the southeast corner of Broadway and 28th Street for $250,000. She acquired the abutting property at No. 1168 Broadway the following year for $110,000; and No. 1168 Broadway in 1900 for $148,005.
On March 15, 1902 The Record & Guide reported that she “has decided to erect a 12-sty store and loft building on the site.” The nearly square footprint was just over 105 feet wide on Broadway and almost 103 feet on 28th Street. The architectural firm of Schickel & Ditmars was put to work designing what would briefly be known as the Johnston Building. Their plans, filed a month later, projected the cost at $500,000. Coupled with the price of the properties, Caroline Johnston’s project would cost her the staggering equivalent of around $30 million in today’s dollars.
The fact that this section of Broadway was dotted with several upscale hotels may have prompted the architects to design the Johnston Building to more closely resemble a hotel than an office structure. Above the street-level storefronts, the limestone-faced building dripped with Beaux Arts decorations, its rounded corner rising to an elaborate cupola.
The lushly ornamented entrance would have been appropriate for any high-end hotel of the time. photo by Beyond My Ken
The name did not last especially long, most likely because there was another Johnston Building downtown which was already well known. Two Johnston Buildings, one on Broadway and another on Broad Street, were just too confusing.
The new structure filled with the offices of architects and other construction-related firms. In the first decade after its opening architects James B. Ware & Sons, Bosworth & Holden, W. E. McCoy, J. J. Malone, and N. Serracino were here. Builders and contractors included Jobson-Hooker Co., The Bottsford-Dickinson Co., Geo. Vassar’s Son & Co., and the Hennebigue Construction Company.
The National Cash Register Company was in the highly visible corner store in 1905. photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York
Real estate firms joined the architects and builders. The International Amusement & Realty Co., the West Rockaway Land Company, and the uptown office of Frederick Soutack & Alwyn Ball, Jr. were tenants.
When the International Amusement & Realty Co. sought to update its offices in April 1910 by renovating the stairs and walls, it did not have to look far. Both the architect, James J. Malone, and the contractor, Geo. Vassar’s Son & Co., were tenants.
In June 1912 Caroline Johnston updated the show windows and replaced the roof. The building continued to lure architects and builders. That year the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company moved in and would remain into the 1920’s.
Atlantic Terra Cotta Company was a major tenant for years. Real Estate Record & Guide, December 21, 1912 (copyright expired) Atlantic Terra Cotta Company was joined in the building that year by builders Wills & Marvin Co. and architect James Brite. The well-known construction firm of Thomas J. Brady, Jr. Company took space in 1914.
A variation in the tenant list began in 1916 when A. J. Haire Publishing Co. moved in. The firm published The Corset and Underwear Review, a monthly trade journal, and the annual International Corset & Underwear Directory. The Corset and Underwear Review, July, 1921 (copyright expired)
In 1918 the general offices of the United Electric Light and Power Co. were here, and by the following year the Barker Original Bakeries System, Inc. operated from the building.
The Barker firm advertised nation-wide, hoping to attract would-be small business owners. For an investment of $5,000 (just under $74,000 today), an investor was guided through the process of opening a bread bakery. An advertisement claimed that “many wide-awake men in cities of the Middle West and East are today making $500 to $2,400 per month…who knew nothing whatever of the Baking business.” “We have solved all problems for these people, furnished an expert to start them and covered every detail to assure their success.”
Other garment-related firms in the building that year were The Textiles Company, Inc. and Naef Brothers, dealers in embroideries “that impart distinctiveness to Lingerie, Blouses and Infant’s and Children’s Dresses,” according to an advertisement.
Another new tenant in 1921 was the New York School of Filing. It entitled an advertisement on January 30 “Woman’s Best Vocation–FILING,” and claimed “We have trained and placed over five thousand girls and women in positions paying $18 to $35 per week.” (The higher salary would equal $500 today.)
After having been in the building for 37 years, Haire Publishing Company left in 1953. The neighborhood around No. 1170 suffered during the next few decades as modern Midtown business buildings attracted tenants. Small offices and stores moved in, like Josalam, headed by Joseph J. Samowich. Another tenant, Yuchius Co., operated from a storefront here and at No. 1133 Broadway.
As Christmas shoppers frantically searched for the popular Cabbage Patch dolls in 1984, Customs Agents raided the Yuchius Co. stores as well as the firm’s warehouse on West 27th Street, confiscating 20,000 counterfeit Cabbage Patch dolls. Tests by the Customs Department chemists indicated “that the stuffing in the dolls contained several volatile and flammable compounds, including benzene and toluene,” said The New York Times.
In the meantime Josalam garnered more positive press coverage. In October 1983 Joseph Samowich received his patent for “Josalam,” a decorative laminate “for home, business or even military use.” And two years later he was awarded another patent for a new “bulletproof clothing, or soft body armor.” This was Samowich’s third patent on the protective garments which he said “required fewer layers of fabric and are less costly than those currently employed” by the police and military, according to The New York Times on April 13, 1985.
photo by Beyond My Ken
The rediscovery of the neighborhood north of Madison S quare, or Nomad, at the turn of the century would result in a renaissance of No. 1170 Broadway as well. The building that looked like a hotel became one in 2012 when the Sydell Group transformed it into the NoMad hotel and restaurant. The interiors were designed by French architect Jacques Garcia.
The renovation-restoration resurrected Schickel & Ditmars’ 1903 Beaux Arts showpiece.
KEEPING WARM UNDER A SPECIAL R.I. DESIGN ORDER YOURS TODAY
$70- BEFORE 10/1 $80- AFTER 10/1 RESERVE YOURS TODAY AT FLEA MARKET Contact rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
FROM THE ARCHIVES
TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 2023
ISSUE# 1061
New Jersey’s Largest
Resiliency Park
Can Hold up to
2 Million Gallons of Stormwater
6SQFT
Photos courtesy of the City of Hoboken
A brand new park in Hoboken will also work to prevent flooding during storms. Located at 12th and Madison Streets, ResilenCity Park includes five acres of public open space, basketball courts, and athletic fields, and has the ability to detain up to two million gallons of water. Considered the largest resiliency park in New Jersey, the new park is part of a broader effort by Hoboken to build more resilient storm infrastructure after Hurricane Sandy flooded most of the city in 2012.
The new park is part of the State and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-funded Rebuild by Design project, which combats flooding caused by heavy rain, a phenomenon becoming more frequent due to climate change.
According to the city, ResilienCity Park can detain up to two million gallons of stormwater through a stormwater detention tank located below ground and through green infrastructure like rain gardens and a tank for on-site irrigation.
The public space includes a multi-use athletic field, a basketball court that doubles as a stormwater detention basin, a playground, a water spray area, open lawn space, and a terrace pavilion that will include a cafe and community center this fall.
“This park opening is a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to create a sustainable and resilient community, serving as the largest resiliency park in our great state and a model for the rest of the county,” Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla said.
“Not only does this park provide much-needed, state-of-the-art open space amenities, it will also provide a critical defense against rainfall flooding, two critical quality of life improvements for our residents.”
Since 2017, Hoboken has opened two other resiliency parks: the Southwest Resiliency Park and the 7th & Jackson Resiliency Park. Together, the two parks detain a total of 670,000 gallons of stormwater which would otherwise flood city streets and residential basements.
Hoboken is set to begin an expansion of the Southwest Resiliency Park before the end of the year, doubling its size from one to two acres and increasing its stormwater capacity from 200,000 gallons to 510,000 gallons. The city is also conducting a planning process for the design of a fourth resiliency park at 800 Monroe Street.
“The ResilienCity Park – the largest of its kind in the state – will connect New Jerseyans to green, open space while offering our children and families a host of recreational activities. Just as importantly, amid the increasing intensity and frequency of storm events due to climate change, this resiliency park will help protect Hoboken’s residents and properties from extreme flooding,” Murphy said.
Built on what was formerly a vacant industrial lot, ResilienCity Park was funded by a $10 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities (BRIC) program, $2 million in principal forgiveness through the NJ Infrastructure Bank, and $1 million in grants from the Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund.
According to Gothamist, during the park’s inauguration ceremony, activists from the Food & Water Watch disrupted Murphy’s speech and spoke out against two proposed gas-fired power plants by the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark and NJ Transit in Kearney, both of which are just a few miles from the park.
KEEPING WARM UNDER A SPECIAL R.I. DESIGN ORDER YOURS TODAY
$70- BEFORE 10/1 $80- AFTER 10/1 RESERVE YOURS TODAY AT FLEA MARKET Contact rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
FROM THE ARCHIVES
MONDAY, AUGUST 15 2023
ISSUE# 1060
NOTES FROM
ALL AROUND TODAY
JUDITH BERDY
SURPRISE!! A FUN SHOP LOCATED ON THE MEZZANINE OF THE ROOSEVELT AVENUE / 74 STREET JACKSON HEIGHTS STATION
Need to get some end of summer cool clothes at bargain prices? This shop has great Indian designed women’s clothes from $5 to $15. Just take the F train to Roosevelt Avenue and the shop is upstairs, a minute from the platform. (Sorry, you have to get there before August 28th due to our upcoming subway shutdown eastbound)
THIS IS THE NAVY YARD, NOT AIRPORT!!
When Concorde service ended in 2003, 75 air museums around the world put in bids for the 13 planes then in use. New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum got the British Airways Concorde that still holds the record for the fastest transatlantic crossing by a passenger aircraft — 2 hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds from Heathrow to JFK.
After welcoming museum visitors for nearly two decades, the needle-nosed jet will once again be out of commission until the spring of 2024, the Intrepid said in a news release.
The only supersonic commercial jet that ever flew, the Concorde cruised at twice the speed of sound. A one-way ticket cost $6,000 in 2003.
A crane lifted the Intrepid’s Concorde onto a barge Wednesday for a very subsonic passage to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it will be stripped down, sanded and repainted.
“We are stewards of some of the most important artifacts of the 20th and 21st centuries, and with that comes the responsibility to preserve, protect and perpetuate these icons for generations to come,” said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, president of the Intrepid Museum.
The restoration “will ultimately allow us to present this awe-inspiring technological marvel and continue to tell the stories behind it for the foreseeable future,” she said.
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
On November 2, 1820, the city of New York‘s Chamber of Commerce placed an advertisement in the Commercial Advertiser and other newspapers inviting merchant clerks to meet in Tontine Coffee House at 82 Wall Street and discuss forming of an organization that would be similar to Boston’s Mercantile Library (founded earlier that same year).
Nearly two hundred and fifty young men responded to the notice and joined the meeting which led to the creation of Manhattan’s Mercantile Library Association.
On February 12, 1821, the library opened in a large room on an upper floor of 49 Fulton Street under the guidance of its first librarian, John Thompson. Politically, it was an era of change. In Europe the year marked the death of Napoleon and the coronation of George IV; in the United States, President James Monroe had just begun his second term as the last of the so-called “Founding Fathers” in the post.
In the city of New York positive perceptions of opportunity and advancement took hold. It was felt that an “Era of Good Feelings” was about to open up.
Young professionals were inspired and challenged by people like John Jacob Astor, the son of a German butcher who had arrived in the United States after the Revolution and who, by 1820, had risen to be one of the city of New York’s wealthiest men.
The Association’s circulating library held a collection of seven hundred volumes in a mix of trade books and novels. Its mission was to provide the city’s growing population of young (often newly-arrived and socially mobile) clerks with an alternative to “immoral” entertainments and urban vices.
Books were championed as a means of cleaning up the city’s poor image of an incoherent mass of money-grabbing individuals. From our cynical perspective, it was astonishing that in commercial circles the realization dawned that a good library would be beneficial to the building of a civilized and cohesive society.
It may well be that their representatives had taken note of Benjamin Franklin’s words when he – the “ultimate bibliophile” – recommended the creation of lending libraries to stimulate learning.
Another (implied) aspect of the initiative was the growing irritation with rival Bostonians for their cultural snobbery and claims of intellectual superiority. New Yorkers were ready to take up the gauntlet.
Literary Manhattan
By 1820, with a population of somewhere between 120,000 and 150,000 inhabitants, Manhattan had become America’s most populous city. The small-town feel was vanishing slowly. The dirty streets were mostly unpaved and any form of infrastructure had barely been initiated. Pigs still ran lose all over town. Manhattan was an outhouse.
Early visitors were not impressed by the city’s poor standard of accommodation and hospitality. At night, the streets were as dark as a country town, lit only by smokey whale-oil (later: gas) lamps in an attempt to prevent crime. English novelist Frances “Fanny” Trollope, visiting in the late 1820s, complained bitterly about the New York’s philistinism in her book Domestic Manners of the American (1832). New York City was a haven for cash worshipers, an uncultured temple of Mammon.
Boston in the early nineteenth century was New England’s nerve center with a network of railways and other means of transport. Thanks to the city’s economic success, it became a financial center with abundant capital available for social and commercial investment. By 1820, Boston was focus of the nation’s intellectual, medical and publishing activities.
Three decades later, the roles were reversed. The city of New York had become a magnet of internal migration with many of the country’s most ambitious and creative individuals being drawn to Manhattan which soon was establishing itself as America’s publishing capital, displacing Boston as a literary hub.
Many in Manhattan’s emerging literary environment produced work that was unmistakably American in style and subject, but authors were just as keen to promote both their individual and collective status as New York intellectuals – thinkers that were as distinct from New Englanders as they differed from their European counterparts.
Publishers of newspapers and magazines established their headquarters in Manhattan. The most significant contribution was made by the monthly Knickerbocker Magazine. Founded in 1833 by New York-born Charles Fenno Hoffmann, it set out to resist and correct the predominant Anglo-Saxon and Puritan narrative of American history.
Celebrating New York’s fountain of creativity, Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant and other contributors would turn it into the most popular literary magazine of the age. The journal’s competitive tone had been set in the mid-1820s with the arrival of James Fenimore Cooper in Manhattan.
Literary Rivalry
Although born in New Jersey, James Fenimore Cooper was raised in Cooperstown, a pioneer settlement founded by his father on Otsego Lake. After finishing boarding school in Albany he attended Yale College, but was expelled for bad behavior after only two years as a student. This unhappy spell in his younger years filled him with a lifelong dislike of New England.
In 1819 William Tudor, co-founder and first editor of the North American Review, referred to Boston as the “Athens of America” for being “perhaps the most perfect and certainly the best-regulated democracy that ever existed.” Fenimore Cooper must have been irked and challenged by such statements.
Having inherited a fortune, Cooper briefly led the life of a country gentleman before taking up the pen. His debut novel Precaution, set in England and published anonymously in 1820, was followed a year later by The Spy, the first historical romance about the American Revolution. Its success encouraged him to move to New York and pursue writing as a career.
In 1823, he published The Pioneers, the first of a set of five novels called The Leatherstocking Tales, in which the novelist introduced the figure of Natty Bumppo, a mythic frontier man and the first American fictional hero.
In 1824, Cooper founded the Bread & Cheese Club which was a continuation of “Cooper’s Lunch,” a gathering of friends which had first met in 1822 in the back room of premises owned by bookseller and printer Charles Wiley in Reade Street, Manhattan.
This small printing shop would play a prominent role in the emergence of New York’s literary movement. Among a number of notable writers whose words went to print there were Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wiley made Cooper a celebrity with the publication of The Spy in 1821.
Fenimore became the center of a group of about thirty-five members that included painters of the Hudson River School as well as writers such as William Cullen Bryant.
The Bread & Cheese Club was not a bohemian gathering of young artists, but a self-conscious coming together of the first generation of the city of New York’s creative and intellectual elite. Although living in Paris at the time, Washington Irving was made its Honorary Chairman in absentia.
The meetings of the Bread & Cheese Club were held fortnightly on Thursday afternoons and ended in the evening after dinner. African-American Abigail Jones was mentioned in Longworth’s Street Directory of 1824 as a pastry chef at 300 Broadway, running an establishment that was considered amongst the finest of the era. Cooper requested that she would prepare the Club’s dinners.
One of the circle’s chief aims was the promotion of America’s artistic competence, but just as important was the drive to compete with Boston’s literary elite and put the city of New York on the intellectual map. The rivalry was intense.
Bread & Cheese
New England and New Netherland clashed on many different levels. New England was a religious colony founded by refugees from a persecuted minority. New Netherland, established by the Dutch West India Company, was a trading post. The Dutch Reformed Church may have been the official religion, but citizens were free to practice other teachings in private. A substantial population of Huguenots, Quakers and Calvinists settled along the Hudson River.
New England did not allow such leniency. Feelings of hostility between the two communities originated in long standing tensions between England and the Low Countries which resulted in four Anglo-Dutch Wars over trade routes and colonial monopolies.
Today, New York City has a rich bread culture that reflects the diversity of the metropolis. Bread had a prominent place almost since the foundation of New Amsterdam when doughnuts were introduced by settlers from the Low Countries. Wheat was a profitable commodity crop for a number of notable New Yorkers, including the descendants of the Dutch Schuyler family.
By 1770, wheat was shipped from New York’s port across the Atlantic to Europe, the West Indies and down the coast. Over time, waves of Germans, Italians and East European Jews (bagels) brought loaves of their own. Once outlandish immigrant specialties, they soon reached every street corner of the city.
Cheese arrived by a different route into America. When English Puritans crossed the Atlantic, they brought their knowledge of dairy farming to the colonies. Coming from predominantly agricultural areas, they set up cheese making operations in their areas of settlement.Production of Cheshire and Cheddar-style cheeses began in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629. As had been the case in Europe previously, cheese making on farmsteads was managed by women. For some considerable time, it remained almost a New England monopoly.With an increasing number of arrivals, English colonists began to press into former New Netherland territory from Connecticut. These Yankees, a disparaging name for New Englanders derived from the Dutch “Jan Kaas” (Jack Cheese), first took the eastern half of Long Island. They then moved westward, finally capturing New York’s port in about 1820 and dominated shipping activities until the Civil War.These expansive developments provoked a triumphant statement by Timothy Dwight, the fundamentalist preacher and President of Yale University (nicknamed the “Puritan Pope”), that New York was becoming “a colony from New England.” Such bragging must have infuriated the proud associates of Fenimore Cooper’s Bread & Cheese Club.Those who aspired to join the Club were chosen by ballot. The club’s very name was derived from the peculiar polls that were applied to admit or refuse new members. Critics have described the practice as somewhat eccentric. In doing so, they ignored its significance in view of the cultural rivalry between Boston and New York City.Considering Cooper’s aversion of New England and Puritanism (he was strongly attached to the Episcopal Church), the manner of selecting candidates was based on the following symbolic principle:Bread = New York = acceptance Cheese = New England = rejectionThese literary meetings and events lasted until 1827. Cooper himself had sailed to Europe in 1826 at the height of his popularity and the Club was dissolved soon after. The generation of “Knickerbockers” would continue his work in its drive to make New York City the nation’s cultural capital.
TIME TO BITE THE BULLET AND STUDY THE ROUTE MAP FOR RIDING THE “Q” TRAIN ON AUGUST 28TH.
WE WILL BE AT THE CHAPEL FLEA MARKET THIS SATURDAY STOP BY TO ORDER YOUR TAPESTRY THROW.
OUR JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROWS WILL BE AVAILABLE VERY SOON. RESERVE YOURS TODAY FOR DELIVERY SOON. THINK OF CUDDLING UP THIS WINTER UNDER A UNIQUE JULIA GASH (C) THROW!
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
TAPESTRY THROW $70 UNTIL OCTOBER 1, $80 AFTER OCTOBER 1 MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR RESPONSE TO: OUR SLOTHS ARE BACK IN STOCK. WE WILL BE AT THE FLEA MARKET ON SATURDAY READY FOR YOU TO ADOPT ONE,,,,,OR MORE.
THURSDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
WM. H. JACKSON IS THE MANUFACTURER OF OUR LAMP POST BASE LOCATED AT THE KIOSK CORNER.
PHOTO IS OUR LAMP BASE AT THE CORNER OF 60th STREET AND SECOND AVENUE
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Illustrations, from above: Francis Guy’s “Tontine Coffee House” (with flag on top), 1797 (New-York Historical Society); advertisement in the New York Commercial Advertiser of November 2, 1820; Knickerbocker Magazine cover (1856); the first edition of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers published by Charles Wiley; and William Cullen Bryant at work, ca. 1870s (New York Public Library).
TIME TO BITE THE BULLET AND SEE WHAT WONDERS WE WILL FIND WHEN WE START RIDING THE “Q” TRAIN ON AUGUST 28TH.
LET’S FACE FACTS THAT THERE COULD BE A WORSE SITUATION, WITH NO SERVICE AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED. FOLKS WHO HAVE TO GO TO QUEENS, THIS WILL BE A GIANT CHALLENGE.
WHEN WE ARRIVE AT 63RD STREET AND LEXINGTON AVENUE, WE CAN HEAD SOUTH PAST TIMES SQUARE TO 34th STREET AND THEN ON TO 14th STREET AND THEN CANAL STREET.
Scope and content: A horse-drawn ambulance arrives on the scene where a man lies in the street after being hit by a cable car. From Leslie’s Weekly, Aug. 29,1895. Background left, Union Dime Savings Bank. Background right, 6th Avenue El. Wikimedia Commons
These days you may not be hit by a trolley but by a biker, moped. scooter or out of control car in the Herald Square neighborhood.
Herald square, not as well known as its neighbor a few streets further north., Manhattan. Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
UNION SQUARE 14 STREET
CHILDE HASSAN Wikimedia Commons
The site of union movements, riots, demonstrations and all kinds chaos ages ago and weeks ago.
CANAL STREET
EXIT IN CHINATOWN FOR SOME FOOD AND THEN HEAD OVER THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE ON THE “Q TRAIN TO BROOKLYN
STAY ON THE Q TRAIN TO CROSS THE MANHATTAN BRIDGE OR WALK OVER IT FOR A MULTI BOROUGH EXPERIENCE.
TOMORROW WE CONTINUE OUR VOYAGE SOUTH ON THE “Q” TRAIN TO MORE STATIONS AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN BROOKLYN
OUR JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROWS WILL BE AVAILABLE VERY SOON. RESERVE YOURS TODAY FOR DELIVERY SOON. THINK OF CUDDLING UP THIS WINTER UNDER A UNIQUE JULIA GASH (C) THROW!
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
TAPESTRY THROW $70 UNTIL OCTOBER 1, $80 AFTER OCTOBER 1 MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
THIRD CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST, 64th & PARK AVE. UNDER FULL IMAGE OF STRUCTURE WHILE BUILDING IS UNDER RESTORATION. GLORIA HERMAN 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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
TIME TO BITE THE BULLET AND SEE WHAT WONDERS WE WILL FIND WHEN WE START RIDING THE “Q” TRAIN ON AUGUST 28TH.
LET’S FACE FACTS THAT THERE COULD BE A WORSE SITUATION, WITH NO SERVICE AS ORIGINALLY PROPOSED. FOLKS WHO HAVE TO GO TO QUEENS, THIS WILL BE A GIANT CHALLENGE.
WHEN WE ARRIVE AT 63RD STREET AND LEXINGTON AVENUE, WE CAN HEAD NORTH TO 72 STREET, 86TH STREET AND 96TH STREET SECOND AVENUE STATIONS, THAT IS GREAT TO REACH MUCH OF THE UPPER EAST SIDE. WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THIS FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS,
BETWEEN THE 86th & 96th STREET STATIONS IS CARL SCHURZ PARK WITH ITS BEAUTIFUL GARDENS, OVERLOOKING OUR ISLAND.
A LIGHTHOUSE OUT THERE!
57 STREET SEVENTH AVENUE RIGHT AT THE DOOR TO CARNEGIE HALL!!! NOT EVEN A BLOCK TO WALK
TIMES SQUARE
IS AN EASY CONNECTION TO THE “F” TRAIN THRU THE CONNECTOR TO THE WONDERFUL NICK CAVE MOSAIC WONDERLAND PASSAGE.
TOMORROW WE CONTINUE OUR VOYAGE SOUTH ON THE “Q” TRAIN TO MORE STATIONS AND NEIGHBORHOODS IN MANHATTAN AND BROOKLYN
OUR JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROWS WILL BE AVAILABLE VERY SOON. RESERVE YOURS TODAY FOR DELIVERY SOON. THINK OF CUDDLING UP THIS WINTER UNDER A UNIQUE JULIA GASH (C) THROW!
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
TAPESTRY THROW $70 UNTIL OCTOBER 1, $80 AFTER OCTOBER 1 MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
OOPS, WE GOOFED IN SPELLING OUR WEBSITE ADDRESS. THE PHOTO IS FROM THE 1970’S OF GOLDWATER RESIDENTS TRYING A NEW BUS TO TAKE THEM AROUND ROOSEVELT ISLAND. NOTE THE STEEP RAMP!
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
Lie was born in Moss, in Østfold county, Norway. His father Sverre Lie (1841–1892) was a Norwegian civil engineer and his mother Helen Augusta Steele (1853–1906) was an American from Hartford, Connecticut. He was named for his father’s cousin (and brother-in-law), the famous Norwegian author Jonas Lie, who had married his father’s sister Thomasine.
Following his father’s death in 1892, 12-year-old Lie was sent to live with Thomasine and Jonas Lie in Paris. His aunt and uncle’s home was a meeting place for famous artists such as Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Edvard Grieg, and Georg Brandes. He had already received drawing instruction from Christian Skredsvig in Norway, and Lie attended a small private art school in Paris. The following year he traveled to the United States, where he joined his mother and sisters in New York City. From 1897–1906, he trained at the Art Students League of New York.[6][7]
Lie traveled to Panama in 1913, to paint scenes of the construction of the Panama Canal. His thirty resulting canvases brought him wide acclaim. In 1929, twelve of these were donated to United States Military Academy in memory General George W. Goethals, the West Point graduate who had been the canal’s chief engineer.[7]
Jonas Lie – When the Boats Come In – 48.572 – Museum of Fine Arts
OUR JULIA GASH TAPESTRY THROWS WILL BE AVAILABLE VERY SOON. RESERVE YOURS TODAY FOR DELIVERY SOON. THINK OF CUDDLING UP THIS WINTER UNDER A UNIQUE JULIA GASH (C) THROW!
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GLORIA HERMAN, ED LITCHER, ANDY SPARBERG, ARON EISENPREISS, SUMIT KAUR, & JUDY SCHNEIDER 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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
The partnership of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux pioneered American landscape architecture. Their work in Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and Boston’s Franklin Park set new standards for outdoor spaces which some Upstate New York cities such as Buffalo sought to emulate, albeit on a reduced scale.
In 1859 Olmsted married his brother John’s widow, Mary, and adopted their children, which included John C. Olmsted. In 1870 Mary gave birth to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. fondly known as Rick, and these siblings followed in their father’s footsteps and formed the landscape architectural firm known as Olmsted Brothers in 1898, which continued many years after their patriarch’s death in 1903.
The Library of Congress is the custodian of Frederick Law Olmsted’s papers, and he is described there as a “farmer, writer, reformer, landscape architect, urban and suburban planner and conservationist.” Certainly he was a man who held a remarkable empathy for all life, and imparted this respect into all his designs.
In Rochester, citizens impressed with the success of Olmsted’s parks in Buffalo desired their own series of parks. In the late 1880s the city selected the Olmsted design which created Seneca Park, Highland Park and South Park, which was later renamed Genesee Valley Park. The city planners must have been delighted when Olmsted declared the farmland recently purchased for Genesee Valley Park was “almost ideal” for the purposed improvement into a city park.
With Governor Theodore Roosevelt in Albany’s Executive Mansion beginning the twentieth century, the citizens of New York State needed to decide the future of their statewide canal network. There was certainly a concern by that Governor about maintaining the preeminence of the Port of New York.
Although the original versions of the Erie Canal built in the previous century were extremely successful, transporting all types of commerce between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic seaboard, while enhancing the state treasury through tolls, it was beginning to wear out and needed enlargement to accommodate larger self-propelled vessels, which would dispense with draft-animals.
An actual ship canal would be an extremely large undertaking, and while this perhaps could have been accomplished at a Federal level to take advantage of the only water-level route through the Appalachian chain of mountains, it did not appear the other states in the union were interested in the proposal. The Barge Canal was an effective plan that New York State could build on its own, and was in fact a compromise between the large scale ship canal and the existing horse-drawn canal.
The New York State Barge Canal was approved as a major public works project by voters in a November 1903 referendum. The State constitution at that time provided for an elected State Engineer, and all design work was performed through that office. The construction phase ran from 1905-1918, and crossings of other transportation elements were some of the greatest obstacles the engineering staff faced.
The new canal would be, like its predecessor versions, the only price control on rail-rates east of the Mississippi River, in the days of a pure laissez faire American economy, before the existence of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The workings of a fair market were a motivating factor in the 1903 election, especially for voters on the terminal ends of the canal in New York City and Buffalo.
The onset of World War before the Barge Canal was completed upset and distorted the original premise and interfered with the designed accomplishments. Certainly railroad management did not look forward to continued competition with canal shippers on an economical waterway, which the railroads tax payments were helping build, and the numerous crossings required by the new construction was a matter of deep contention. In the Rochester area, six major rail routes would interface with the new Barge Canal, adding complications, costs and time required for completion.
Another obstacle faced by canal engineers was opposition from the citizens of Rochester. This upstate New York municipality, originally referred to as the Flour City from the numerous mills the original canal spawned, by the early twentieth century saw themselves as beyond inland navigation. The residents of what by then was the Flower City, resented the idea of prospering via what they foresaw as an unsightly and polluted ditch.
Remarkably, the opposition was spearheaded by the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, under the direction of John M. Ives, who evolved into the leading statewide anti-canal advocate. Rochesterians resolutely sought to keep the canal outside of their city limits. The canal engineers succeeded in doing so, by having the Barge Canal route stay south of the city, and using the Genesee River as a nearly three mile navigable spur into downtown. A movable gate dam was constructed near Court Street, which provided the navigational stage into the heart of the state’s third largest municipality.
This same impounding structure also allowed the main east-west route of the Barge Canal to cross the Genesee River in a slack water pool. Guard locks were built on each side of the crossing, which are only used during water level extremes in the Genesee. The Mount Morris Dam, which has mitigated seasonal periodic flooding of the Genesee River, was not completed until 1952.
This more southerly course was not without objection as well, as this route would bisect Rochester’s sylvan Genesee Valley Park. To allay these concerns, the canal engineers hired at great expense the landscape architectural firm of the late Frederick Law Olmsted, to design elegant footbridges to cross the canal. These three identical arched concrete spans are unique to Genesee Valley Park, and were constructed in order to preserve beauty and harmonize with their surroundings while maintaining the integrity of the walking trails.
The Christian Science Monitor wrote in 1912: “Genesee Valley Park is essentially pastoral, but it is pronounced a ”thing of joy and beauty” by all who visit it. It is paralleled in many respects by Franklin Park in Boston, but it has the advantage of the long stretch of the Genesee River running through it. It will be bisected by the Erie Barge Canal, which will be spanned by ornamental bridges, I hope patterned after some of those I saw in Boston. Thus the great waterway from the lakes to tidewater will be made to add beauty and interest to the park.”
Calvert Vaux’s previously designed bridges in New York’s Central Park had pleasingly arched chords, however none of them needed to cross a navigational waterway. The Barge Canal engineers were enamored with the recent advent of reinforced concrete, which allowed them to build large modern structures. An advantage which comes by building with reinforced concrete is that only one set of forms for a particular project need be constructed, from which countless identical clone structures could be cast.
The Guard locks on both sides of the Genesee River allowed the canal section through the park to be dry excavated, and the pilings and footings to be set in a convenient and efficient process. The gentle arch of the bridge chord would be surmounted by an attractive row of balusters topped by a balustrade, serving as an open parapet and enhancing the pleasing unique structure group.
The New York State Barge Canal was completed in its entirety in May of 1918, with the area in the vicinity of Genesee Valley Park being the last construction completed on the statewide route. New York State had built the canal solely with the financial support of its own citizens, with no Federal input or assistance, creating a brand new connection linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
The Empire State patriotically turned over its new transportation network to the national government in order to assist the war effort. Manpower and material shortages, caused by World War I, prevented the Genesee Valley Park pedestrian bridges from being completed until the economic restricting forces of the global conflict eased, with the graceful spans becoming serviceable in the autumn of 1920, and park grading and planting completed the following spring.Legendary canal chronicler Noble E. Whitford in his 1922 epic History of the Barge Canal of New York State wrote: “It was the park, the railroads and the flood conditions that presented the more difficult engineering problems, but none of these was really serious, once the way was cleared for action. By taking scrupulous care the engineers have not allowed the canal to spoil the beauty of the park. Ornamental bridges, both foot and highway, span its waters.”The expansion of the interstate highway system decades later would also bisect Genesee Valley Park, with I-390 spanning the Genesee River and paralleling the Barge Canal. Presently the management and operation of Genesee Valley Park has been divided between the City of Rochester and Monroe County.When the Barge Canal was conceived and built, it had an appeal for recreation possibilities, yet no one was thinking then of trails as activity infrastructure. Yet, in fact what was built is nearly perfect for what has become a statewide network of trails and a system to enjoy, both on the water and along it. The graceful trio of distinctive foot bridges remain an attractive and functional component of Genesee Valley Park, and our canal system and trail network.Herman Melville in Moby Dick wrote: “For three hundred and sixty miles, through the entire breadth of the state of New York; through numerous populous cities and most thriving villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, unrivalled for fertility; by billiard-room and bar-room; through the holy-of-holies of great forests; on Roman arches over Indian rivers…flows one continual stream…
For more information and online shopping check out the website at globaltable.com
WEEKEND PHOTO
WEST WING OF METROPOLITAN HOSPITAL FEATURED IN EDWARD HOPPER’S “BLACKWELL’S ISLAND” PAINTING, 1928
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
MUGS $15- TOTE $28- LANYARD $8- ORNAMENT $20- COLOR BOOK $8- POSTCARD $2- LARGE POSTER $35 (NOT SHOWN)
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
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Illustrations, from above: A Real Picture Post Card view of pedestrian bridge spanning the NYS Barge Canal in Genesee Valley Park Rochester, New York; Genesee Valley Park (courtesy Library of Congress); forms and re-bar are in place for the next concrete pour in this westward view of the East Foot Bridge in South Park, Rochester on August 2, 1920 (NYS Dept. of Public Works, courtesy Erie Canal Museum); a view of three foot bridges over the Erie Canal in South Park (Genesee Valley Park) in Rochester on October 15, 1920 (NYS Dept. of Public Works, courtesy Erie Canal Museum); a view of a tugboat pulling a barge under the East foot bridge on the Erie Canal in South Park (Genesee Valley Park), looking West Rochester on August 30, 1921; and a westbound tanker Burlington-SOCONY belonging to the Standard Oil Company of New York passes through Genesee Valley Park circa 1933, with the western most footbridge and Pennsylvania RR (truss) bridge in the distance (Courtesy Auke Visser’s MOBIL Tankers & Tugs website).
Walking down Sullivan Street I noticed a new hat shop, RYAN RAMELOW HATTER, at 107 Sullivan Street. Mostly universal styled for women or men. the hats are all made in this shop. Not only are there great hat styles and the decor is great and a fun store to visit. The hatter, Ryan, is very friendly and we chatted about starting a business during the pandemic and now being very successful.
Brick walls, tin ceiling, copper pipes holding hats give a fun atmosphere to the shop.
FDNY TRAINING ON WELFARE ISLAND IN THE 1960’S. NINA LUBLIN GOT IT RIGHT.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
MAYA LEVANON-PHOTOS TIK TOK & INSTAGRAM
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
JUDITH BERDY
COME SHOP OUR JULIA GASH COLLECTION OF GREAT NEW ITEMS:
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