The Lewis Latimer House in Flushing, a red and white Victorian home, honors Lewis Howard Latimer, an African-American inventor and humanist born to fugitive slaves who lived in the home from 1903 until his death in 1928. Latimer was one of the founders of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Queens, and he was known for his work with figures like Hiram S. Maxim, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. The red and white house, which dates back to around 1889, contains a museum dedicated to Latimer’s work and the achievements of other black scientists.
George Latimer, his father, escaped from Virginia to Boston before his subsequent capture and imprisonment. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass strove to grant George freedom through a publication called “The Latimer Journal, and the North Star.” Growing up in the Antebellum period, Lewis Latimer joined the Union Navy in 1864 and later became an expert draftsman while working at a patent law office. After learning about physics and engineering, Latimer would work with Edison, under whom he invented and patented the carbon filament, which improved the production of the incandescent lightbulb. He also authored “Incandescent Lighting,” the foundation for modern electrical engineering theory. He would also go on to draft drawings for Bell’s invention of the telephone.
Joseph Rodman Drake Park
In Joseph Rodman Drake Park in Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood is an enclosed cemetery and recently discovered slave burial ground. When Drake Park was originally created in 1909, an 18th-century cemetery of wealthy slave-owning families like the Hunts and Leggets were preserved. Yet in 2013, students at Public School 48 analyzed census data and maps to identify a potential spot where the remains of 156 Black and Indian slaves in Hunts Point, per the 1790 Census, ended up.
The students and their teacher Justin Czarka found a black-and-white photograph from 1910 showing several markers resembling headstones, labeled on the back, “Slave burying ground, Hunts Point Road.” The US Department of Agriculture sent scientists to perform soil tests using radar in the cemetery in the summer of 2013, and several areas of the park were determined to have “anthropogenic features” as “likely potential burial sites.” A plaque honoring the burial ground was put up in 2014.
The infamous Audubon Ballroom at 166th Street is where Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 while giving a speech. The building was originally built as the William Fox Aubudon Theater in 1912, designed by Thomas Lamb. Shabazz died either en route to or at the Harlem Hospital, across the street.
Today it is owned by Columbia University, which provides space for the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center. Columbia University also preserved the facade of the theat
Apollo Theater
The legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem is perhaps one of the best-known sites that have empowered African Americans to showcase their art and break free from oppression. The singer James Brown, who released the album Live at the Apollo, loved the theater so much that his body was brought to the Apollo before his funeral. Music legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Patti LaBelle, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and many others performed at the Apollo. Additionally, artists like Dave Brubeck and Stan Getz performed at the Apollo, and even The Beatles flocked to the Apollo as soon as they arrived in NYC.
The Apollo Theater was opened in 1914 and was designed by architect George Keister, opening originally as the all-white New Burlesque Theater. It wasn’t until 1934 that it became the Apollo, a hotspot for African American pop culture and music. It became the first theater to allow a mixed-race audience and the first in New York City to hire Blacks for backstage jobs. The year the Apollo opened, Ella Fitzgerald made her singing debut there during Amateur Night, winning a grand $25. Secrets of the Apollo range from its “Good Luck Stump” that entertainers rub before performing to its Wall of Autographs with names like the Obamas, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Photo courtesy New York Public Library.
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a New York Public Library research library on Malcolm X Boulevard that serves as an archive repository for Black culture worldwide. From poems by Phyllis Wheatley to papers by Malcolm X and Ralph Bunche, the Center is home to everything from manuscripts to rare books to photographs depicting Black culture. The center also houses documents signed by Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture and a recording of a speech given by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey.
Named after Afro-Puerto Rican scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, the Center often hosts readings, art exhibitions, and workshops, and it is currently directed by Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Young. In the past, the Center has put on influential exhibitions like Malcolm X: the Search for Truth, the controversial Give me your poor…, and “Lest We Forget: The Triumph Over Slavery.” The Schomburg Collection today stands at over 10 million objects written, created, and designed by people of African descent from countries like South Africa, Nigeria, and Trinidad and Tobago.
SOUTH ENTRY TO MACY’S DEPARTMENT STORE LAMP ON 34TH STREET CLOSE TO 7TH AVENUE
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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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The African Burial Ground National Monument is found in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan that contains the remains of more than 419 Africans from the 17th and 18th centuries. It is estimated that there were as many of 10,000 to 20,000 burials in the 1700s, and it is considered New York’s oldest African-American cemetery.In the 1600s, the Dutch West India Company brought over slaves from Angola, Congo, and Guinea, and by the mid-17th century, a village called the Land of the Blacks saw 30 African-owned farms in modern-day Washington Square Park. It was estimated that 42% of households in New York had slaves, which eventually totaled about 2,500 by 1740. Slavery was ultimately abolished on July 4, 1827, yet only one-third of the city’s blacks were free in 1790. The site was initially labeled on old maps as “Negro Burying Ground,” and the first recorded burials for people of African descent occurred in 1712, but it is speculated that the burial ground was in use two decades earlier.Some of the bodies of the deceased were illegally dug up for dissection, which sparked the 1788 Doctors’ Riot. The city shut down the cemetery in 1794, and urban development began taking place over the burial ground. The land remained largely forgotten until bones were discovered in 1991 during an archaeological survey by the General Services Administration. Protests occurred just a year later after it was discovered that the GSA had damaged some of the burials and took little care in excavation efforts. George H.W. Bush signed a law to redesign the area and to install a $3 million memorial, which was dedicated in 2007 to commemorate the role of Africans and African Americans throughout New York City’s history. In 1993 the African Burial Ground was designated a New York City Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. It is also a National Historic Monument.
Seneca Village in present-day Central ParkSeneca Village was a settlement in the 19th-century in present-day Central Park, founded in 1825 by free blacks. With a population of around 250 residents at its peak, the village featured three churches, a school, and two cemeteries. Bounded by 82nd and 89th Streets, Seneca Village would exist for over three decades before villagers were ordered to leave due to the construction of Central Park.A white farmer named John Whitehead bought the land in 1824 and sold three lots of it to an African American man named Andrew Williams and twelve lots to the AME Zion Church. After the outlawing of slavery, many African Americans began to move into the village from downtown. A number of Irish immigrants fleeing the Potato Famine also settled in the village. Most of the homes were well-constructed, two-story buildings, the Central Park Conservancy tells us, rather than shanties which were in the minority of the buildings. Workers typically were employed in construction and food service, with many women working as domestic servants. The African Union Church in Seneca Village was one of the city’s first black schools, named Colored School 3.The Seneca Village Project, founded in 1998, was created to raise awareness of the settlement’s history as a middle-class, free black community. Today, a plaque commemorates the site where Seneca Village once stood. There have also been recent archaeological excavations to uncover traces of Seneca Village, and in 2011, researchers discovered foundation walls of the home of William Godfrey Wilson, who was a sexton for All Angels’ Church in the village. 250 bags were filled with artifacts during the digs, including the leather sole of a child’s shoe. Central Park recently celebrated the history of Seneca Village through new historic signage as well as free tours during Black History Month, of which Untapped New York partnered with the Conservancy to offer a special tour to our Insiders members.
Historic Weeksville in BrooklynLike Seneca Village, Weeksville was a neighborhood that was founded by free African Americans, situated in modern-day Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Weeksville was founded in 1838 by James Weeks, an African-American longshoreman who bought land from Henry C. Thompson, a free African American land investor. The land was previously owned by an heir of John Lefferts, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.By the 1850s, Weeksville’s population had surpassed that of Seneca Village, with upwards of 500 residents from across the East Coast, with over a third of residents born in the south. Weeksville was home to two churches, a school (Colored School No. 2), and a cemetery, as well as the Howard Colored Orphan Asylum. Weeksville also had one of the first African-American newspapers called the Freedman’s Torchlight and served as headquarters of the African Civilization Society. Additionally, the area was a refuge for many African Americans who left Manhattan during the 1863 Draft Riots. Four historic houses dating back to the time of the village collectively make up the Hunterfly Road Houses, listed on the NRHP in 1972. The discovery of these houses led to the creation of the Weeksville Heritage Centerdedicated to the preservation of Weeksville.
Blazing Star Cemetery is in Rossville, Staten Island nearby the Sandy Ground communitySandy Ground was a community in Rossville, Staten Island, that was founded by free African Americans around the year 1828. Only a few months after slavery was abolished in New York City, an African American man named Captain John Jackson purchased land in the area, and the area quickly became a center of oyster trade. Many settlers would harvest and sell oysters at the nearby Prince’s Bay.Sandy Ground was also an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and the settlement is currently considered one of the oldest continuously settled free black communities in the U.S. A church, a cemetery, and three homes from the settlement are today designated as New York City landmarks, yet most of the original houses were destroyed in a 1963 fire. Today, the Sandy Ground Historical Museum is home to the largest collection of documents detailing Staten Island’s African-American culture, history, and freedom.
A memorial in The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground honoring the dead who are buried there.The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground is a small burial ground alternatively known as the “Colored Cemetery of Flushing.” A large circular monument notes the burial of 500 to 1,000 people, primarily African Americans, Native Americans, and victims of four major epidemics of cholera and smallpox in the mid-1800s. Acquired by the town of Flushing in 1840 from the Bowne family, the burial ground contains the bodies of slaves and servants of the Flushing elite, as well as members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Death certificates issued in the 1880s confirm that more than half of the buried were children under the age of five. About 62 percent of the buried were African American or Native American.In 1936, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses decided to build a modern playground on the site of the burial ground. Local activist Mandingo Tshaka halted plans of renovating the cemetery to preserve its history. The Queens Department of Parks commissioned a $50,000 archaeological study in 1996 of the burial ground. In 2004, $2.67 million was allocated to this site, leading to the creation of a historic wall engraved with the names from the only four headstones remaining in 1919.
The Church of St. John the Baptist, located at 213 West 30th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, has stood in Midtown since 1872. Designed in the French Gothic-style by architect Napoleon LeBrun, it first served New York City’s German population and was later assumed by the Capuchin Friars. In 1974, a brown brick Brutalist structure was added on the other side of the site at 210 West 31st Street, facing Penn Station, to serve as the Capuchin Monastery of St. John the Baptist.
The building now is closed and awaits if fate.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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Robert Ray Hamilton — The New York Times August 30, 1889 (copyright expired)
An attorney, Robert had attended both Columbia College and Columbia Law School. In 1881 he was elected to the New York State Assembly and remained in office until 1889. Like the rest of his respected family members, he led an untainted life—until his last year in politics.
Hamilton had begun an affair with Evangeline L. Steele in 1886. Unbeknownst to him, as The Sun later said, she had led “a disreputable life.” What he also did not know was that she was already married, to “Josh” Mann. Popularly known as Eva, she recognized the financial opportunity the affair presented and she laid plans to ensnare her lover.
Robert Ray Hamilton came from one of New York City’s most esteemed families. His father was the highly-lauded Civil War and Mexican War veteran General Schuyler Hamilton; his grandfather was the historian and attorney John Church Hamilton; and his great-grandfather was Alexander Hamilton.
Robert Ray Hamilton — The New York Times August 30, 1889 (copyright expired) An attorney, Robert had attended both Columbia College and Columbia Law School. In 1881 he was elected to the New York State Assembly and remained in office until 1889. Like the rest of his respected family members, he led an untainted life—until his last year in politics.Hamilton had begun an affair with Evangeline L. Steele in 1886. Unbeknownst to him, as The Sun later said, she had led “a disreputable life.” What he also did not know was that she was already married, to “Josh” Mann. Popularly known as Eva, she recognized the financial opportunity the affair presented and she laid plans to ensnare her lover.
Newspapers called Evangeline Steele “a notorious woman.” photo The Evening World, December 7, 1904 (copyright expired)
In December 1888 Eva and Josh traveled to Elmira, New York. The Evening World later reported “They decided that Eva should get a baby, and make Mr. Hamilton believe it was his. If they succeeded they knew he would not suffer the little innocent to go through life unnamed.” On December 17 they paid $10 for an unwanted newborn.
Hamilton believed the child was his; but Eva’s demands that he marry her were temporarily halted when the baby became ill and died. The death certificate listed the child’s name as “Alice Mann, daughter of George and Alice Mann,” and stated the cause of death was “want of breast milk.” Eva, who had never been pregnant, was unable to nurse the infant and it died of starvation.
Before the baby was buried, according to court testimony later, a replacement baby was purchased (also for $10). Josh Mann’s mother, “Grandmother” Anna Swinton, moved in with the couple to ensure this one would not die.
“Hamilton knew nothing of the death of the first one, and yielding to the persistence of Eva he married her in Paterson, N. J. on the 7th of January last,” explained The Evening World. In February Hamilton took an apartment in the Marshall Flats on West 15th Street. Joshua Mann rented a flat on the same street and when Hamilton was not around, he and Eva lived together as man and wife. And she provided him with large sums of Hamilton’s money to live on.
Because Hamilton was still serving in the Assembly, he was often out of town. The New-York Tribune reported “Before she married Hamilton, he agreed to give her $6,000 a year for pin money and to defray her expenses at home.” A quarrel over that allowance brought an end to the marriage and to Hamilton’s reputation.
On August 26, 1889 the couple was summering in Atlantic City. Eight months earlier, just after Hamilton learned of the baby, he had hired a nurse, Mary Anne Donnelly, to care for the child. Donnelly traveled with the family, accompanying them to California earlier that year.
But that morning, after Evangeline repeatedly pressed Hamilton that they should live permanently in Manhattan; he told her that he would reduce her allowance if they did. “Quick-tempered and passionate, she began to quarrel with him and threatened to leave him forever,” said the New-York Tribune a few days later. Hamilton refused to budge on the subject.
At one point Mary Anne Donnelly tried to intervene, but she was told to leave the room. Eva did not like the nurse and already had instructed her husband to fire her. She demanded that Mary Anne leave the cottage. When she was unable to move her husband, Eva turned to the whiskey bottle.
At 11:30 a. m. the nurse returned. Now Eva upbraided her for leaving the child alone, they argued, and Eva fired Mary Anne Donnelly. Within earshot of Hamilton the nurse took her last shot, denouncing Eva “as a faithless woman.”
A physical confrontation followed, during which Mary Anne proved to be a better street fighter than Eva. “Mary was as strong as a bull and had the fight lasted much longer Mrs. Hamilton would have been beaten insensible,” reported the Tribune. Hearing the battle, Hamilton rushed into the room just in time to see Eva thrust a knife into the heart of the nurse. In trying to break up the fight he was cut in two places. Mary ran from the room and died on the parlor sofa.
Astonishingly, Evangeline blamed the death on Hamilton. As she was taken away she said “You know I told you before I left New-York that if you did not discharge that nurse there would be murder committed.”
The scandalous details of the affair came out during the trial. Newspaper readers nationwide learned of the purchased baby, the other husband, and the plot to get Hamilton to leave his fortune to the baby Beatrice. His lawyer described him as “outraged and indignant. When he remembers all he sacrificed for that woman he can hardly restrain himself.”
Eager to escape the scandal, Robert Ray Hamilton went into partnership with John Dudley Sargent, a stage coach driver in the Rocky Mountains who proposed establishing a tourist resort in Yellowstone Park. Hamilton funded the plan and Sargent acted as the “experience.” They built a luxurious hotel and lodge on Jackson’s Lake in June 1890.
Three months later Hamilton was dead. He was found drowned in the Snake River under suspicious circumstances. He was quickly buried and when investigators from New York later disinterred his body, it was found forced into a too-small wooden crate. The Sun reported on October 15, 1891, “Strangers found his body, and those who could not appreciate his worth knocked a few rough boards together for a coffin, wrapped the body in a dirty and ragged tarpaulin, loaded it into the box, and so without a tear or a prayer dumped it into a hole on a desolate hillside…A loyal friend, a true gentleman, and a brave man was Robert Ray Hamilton, but hundreds of dogs have been more decently interred by their master than was he by the friends to whom he was loyal.”
Sargent was arrested for his murder, but was later sent to an insane asylum.
Hamilton’s will included the clause “I direct my executors…to expend the sum of ten thousand dollars in the purchase and erection of an ornamental fountain which I give and bequeath to…New York City, provided that such fountain may be erected in one of the streets, squares or public places in said city.”
Scandal and controversy would follow Hamilton even in his death. His generous bequest was fought by the family. On April 22, 1891 The New York Times ran the headline “Let Him Be Forgotten,” and explained that the Hamilton and Schuyler families petitioned the City to ignore his wishes. “Such a memorial as the will designates would, they believe, perpetuate a name that brought dishonor to the family.”
The battle would last for years. In the meantime Evangeline Mann had been released from prison. She had received a settlement of $10,000 from Hamilton’s will. But she died penniless on November 23, 1904 in St. Vincent’s Hospital. The Evening World reported that “the body was buried in the common plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery, there being but one mourner present.”
The Park Board accepted the design for the fountain, submitted by architects Warren & Wetmore, on December 30, 1903. Two months earlier it had approved the location—on Riverside Drive at 76th Street. The architects’ baroque fountain featured a spread-winged eagle above a coat of arms and a shell-shaped basin fed by a dolphin. Water from the basin spilled into a large pool. The entire Tennessee marble fountain formed part of the stone wall separating the Drive from Riverside Park. Along the rim of the pool was the inscription “Bequeathed to the people of New York by Robert Ray Hamilton”
Far beneath the fountain, at the base of the wall on the Park side, was a marble bowl that served as a horse trough for thirsty, passing carriage horses. In reporting on the installation of the Hamilton Fountain, newspapers said it was “for man and beasts.”
The marble horse fountain, seen here in 1935, was the “beast” portion. It was eventually covered by feet of dirt and debris. photo Alajos Schuszler/New York City Parks Photo Archive
By the second half of the 20th century the horse trough in the park was buried by accumulated soil—a total of 10 to 12 feet deep by the new century. With the parkside marble bowl long forgotten, the “man and beast” comment resulted in the lavish ornamental fountain on the Drive being termed a “horse trough;” a reputation it still carries. In fact, Hamilton’s will does not mention the “ornamental fountain” being used by horses, and its positioning makes that improbable. Carriage drivers would have to direct their horses onto the sidewalk to take a drink.
Throughout the 20th century the marble fountain suffered vandalism and neglect. The eagle’s beak was smashed off and the inscription was eroded to nearly illegibility. Riverside Drive residents did their best, planting flowers in the no longer functioning basin.
Then in 2008 the Riverside Park Fund and a small maintenance endowment initiated a $150,000 restoration. The eagle’s beak was replaced, the stone restored, and the plumbing repaired. And in November an archeological dig of sorts was undertaken to find the old marble horse trough. It was successful. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe said, on December 1, “the basin might be excavated and reused elsewhere, perhaps as a dog fountain” or “perhaps it will be amply documented and then simply left in place. That will allow another parks commissioner in another era to find it again.”
In the meantime, the stunning marble fountain continues to be deemed a horse trough–an ironic similarity to the memory and reputation of its donor.
NINTH AVENUE SIDE OF JAMES A. FARLEY POST OFFICE BUILDING AND MOYNIHAN STATION. DANIELLE SHUR, ANDY SPARBERG GOT IT RIGHT
MOYNIHAN HALL HAS A GREAT FOOD COURT AND PROBABLY THE LONGEST BAR IN THE CITY………GREAT FOR BEFORE OR AFTER MSG EVENTS!
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
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Subway rides are about to get a bit more futuristic. At the Coney Island Yard in Brooklyn this morning, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) unveiled one of two new R211 model subway trains and took it out for a test ride. The trains are still being tested and standard R211s are expected to roll out onto the tracks this spring.
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
We first got a glimpse of new open gangway subway car designs in 2017. The streamlined cars feature a variety of upgrades designed to create more efficient, comfortable, and safer rides. One new feature is wider door openings. At 58-inches, R211 doors provide more room for commuters to get on and off the car. There are no interior doors separating each car, so passengers can walk freely through the open gangway which will be surrounded by soft accordion walls.
Security cameras that can be easily monitored by conductors are dispersed throughout the train. Inside the cars, there is more space and additional accessible seating areas. Even the route displays will get an upgrade. Signage on the train on digital displays will provide more detailed station-specific information, and brighter lighting. Updated signage will show which car of the train you’re in, the current and next stop, and which connections you can catch there.
The first new cars will debut on the A and C lines, replacing R46s trains that went into service in the 1970s. The cars previewed are part of a 535-car order of the R211 model cars which includes 20 cars with the open gangway feature unveiled today, an additional 515 cars with standard futuristic amenities, and 15 Staten Island Railway five-car trains. With the approval of an order for an additional 640 R211 subway cars in October 2022, a total of 1,175 new cars are expected to be released within the next two years, with the potential of adding another 437 open gangway cars. The second set of new subway cars is expected to be delivered in early 2025.
Putting these cars into service will be a huge milestone in the MTA’s efforts to modernize our fleet,” said MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber. “These modern subway cars will of course upgrade the passenger experience, but they will also complement our signal improvement efforts and allow us to run more trains and provide more frequent subway service.”
Alexander S Beck shoe sore per Alexis Villafane, Gloria Herman, Andy Sparberg also 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
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UNTAPPED NEW YORK PHOTOS MARC A. HERMANN / MTA
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The annual Black History Month Exhibit opened on Saturday. Lorraine Williams curated this extraordinary exhibit.
For over 30 years Lorraine has been an active member of the Island community and active is so many organizations,
A special exhibit included this year are embroidery works from the women of Rwanada. These works celebrate the talent, industry, culture and bravery of these women of peace.
Amazia Thompson exhibiting his digital works on aluminum.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
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New York City finally got its bean. About five years and several delays later, Anish Kapoor’s mirrored sculpture was unveiled to the public this week, seemingly propping up Tribeca’s “Jenga Building” at 56 Leonard Street. As first reported by Tribeca Citizen, and confirmed by 6sqft, the longstanding barriers and scaffolding have been removed, with the monumental permanent public artwork taking its rightful place on the corner of Church and Leonard Streets.
When plans for Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard were unveiled in 2008, early renderings showed Kapoor’s sculpture in front of the building. After challenges concerning the welding and fairing process of the smooth, shiny sculpture added “a huge amount of time” to the installation, as 6sqft previously reported, construction began in February 2019, two years after 56 Leonard opened.
Like it did with most things, Covid halted progress. The sculpture remained a “half bean,” as described by Curbed, until the team was able to travel to New York from the UK in 2021.
This is the British-Indian sculptor’s first permanent public work in New York. While it remains nameless for now (an official dedication ceremony is expected in the coming weeks), the artwork closely resembles Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate,” which was installed in Chicago’s Millennium Park in 2004.
Sitting at the base of the 60-story tower, the bean (or squashed balloon) sculpture weighs 40 tons and measures 48 feet long by 19 feet high.As described on 56 Leonard’s website: “The relationship between building and sculpture is so closely cultivated that they appear to form a single unified object, exemplifying true synergy between art and architecture.”
Since there are only shuttles running to Jamaica the next few weeks, the schedule indicated the schedule was ever 30 minutes.
A SECOND FIRE IN 1999 DESTROYED THE TEMPORARY ROOF THOM HEYER, JOAN BROOKS, ED LITCHER, HARA REISER, ELLEN JACOBY, PAT SCHWARTZBERG AND GLORIA HERMAN GUESSED 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
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6SQFT
JUDITH BERDY
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Something has been missing from the lampposts along the Avenue of the Americas for decades. Hanging from the street lights, passersby would have once seen 300 different medallions, or shields, representing the countries and territories of the Western Hemisphere. Only 22 remained as of 2016. This week, the New York City Department of Transportation completed the first phase of a restoration project that will bring back 45 of the lost Avenue of the Americas medallions from West 42nd to West 59th Streets.
Photo courtesy of NYC DOT
The first nine medallions installed bear the insignia of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, Argentina, St. Lucia, and Uruguay. The NYC DOT described the process of producing these signs on Twitter. First, the design for each medallion is reviewed by multiple NYC DOT employees, the NYC Public Design Commission, and the relevant embassies and consulates to ensure all names, spelling, and insignia designs are correct. Next, the signs are fabricated at the DOT’s Maspeth Sign Shop
At the sign shop, the medallions are printed, laminated, and mounted on sheets of aluminum. In-house DOT engineers and staff designed and winded tested the new signs to make sure they would hold up better than the originals. Measuring three feet in diameter, the new medallions are lighter and more weather-resistant than the originals, which were made out of porcelain enamel.
Workers at the shop also fit each sign with special brackets. These brackets are designed to be sturdy yet flexible, and easily adjustable for events such as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when the medallions need to be removed to make way for the giant floating balloons. Once work at the sign shop is complete, DOT crews take the signs to the streets for installation on the lamposts along Sixth Avenue
Photo courtesy of NYC DOT
The country medallions were first introduced in 1959 under Mayor Wagner. In the previous decade, Mayor LaGuardia renamed Sixth Avenue The Avenue of the Americas as “an expression on the part of our people of the love and affection we have for our sister republics of Central and South America.” The country medallions, or shields as they were called, were a further expression of solidarity. Originally, 300 shields were installed from White Street to 59th Street.
Photo courtesy of NYC DOT
Over the years, the signs began to rust and fall into disrepair. Many were taken down in the 1990s when lampposts along Sixth Avenue were replaced. The plan to restore the medallions was announced by DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez in October 2022 in commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
“The creation of the Avenue of the Americas in 1945 was a great gesture that celebrated the cultures of our hemisphere, and these beautiful new medallions now once again properly honor the nationalities of so many of the people who live, work, and visit New York City,” said Commissioner Rodriguez.
Photo courtesy of NYC DOT
The NYC DOT’s Sign Shop in Queens produces over 100,000 street signs a year, or 9,000 to 12,000 each month. Everything from giant highway signs to tiny parking signs are fabricated at the shop. Once complete, the handcrafted signs make their way across all five boroughs. The shop will be busy creating the remaining country medallions over the coming months.
CENTER SECTION OF THE NOW 10 YEAR GONE GOLDWATER HOSPITAL
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
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At last, this work puts a female figure on a level plane with the traditional, patriarchal depictions of justice and power.Written by Rossilynne Skena Culgan
Statues of nine men from history and religion perch atop the courthouse near Madison Square Park. Now, for the first time, the representation of a woman has joined their noble rooftop plinths.
“Havah…to breathe, air, life,” an exhibition by artist Shahzia Sikander focusing on themes of justice, has brought stunning golden sculptures to Madison Square Park and the nearby courthouse at 27 Madison Avenue (officially called the Courthouse of the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York). The statues, unveiled this week, will be on view through June 4.
Photograph: By Yasunori Matsui / Shahzia Sikander’s artwork “NOW” atop the courthouse near Madison Square Park
Inside Madison Square Park sits “Witness,” a monumental female figure measuring 18 feet tall and wearing a hoop skirt inspired by the courtroom’s stained-glass ceiling dome. The figure’s twisted arms and legs suggest tree roots, referencing what the artist has described as the “self-rootedness of the female form; it can carry its roots wherever it goes.” You can even use your smartphone to bring the figure to life through AR technology.
Photograph: By Yasunori Matsui / Shahzia Sikander’s sculpture “Witness” in Madison Square Park
Adorning the nearby courthouse, “NOW,” an 8-foot-tall female figure resembles the park sculpture, but a lotus symbolizing wisdom replaces the hoop skirt. Her horns indicate sovereignty and autonomy. A delicate collar nods to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who often wore detailed collars with her traditional black robe. The statue—the only woman represented—sits next to figures including Confucius, Justinian, Lycurgus, Moses and Zoroaster. At last, this work puts a female figure on a level plane with the traditional, patriarchal depictions of justice and power.
“The image of justice as a woman has been present for centuries, but women only gained juridical voice in the last one. Despite years of women’s struggle for legal socio-economic and political equality, gender bias still continues to create barriers for many women, whether it is health and education rights, equal economic opportunities, gender-based violence and race or class discrimination,” Sikander said in her artist statement. “The essential role of visual representations of justice and ethics in judiciary spaces is one of many aspects in the relationship between art and the law, or how the image and law relate to one another.”
Photograph: By Yasunori Matsui / A female figure now sits atop the courthouse, as part of Shahzia Sikander’s “NOW.”
The installation is part of efforts by the Court of the Appellate Division to add new artworks from diverse contemporary artists to the courthouse, bringing modern perspectives on justice to the building’s existing artworks.
“As we seek to broaden the visibility of less-often-recognized contributors to law and justice in our society, what better way to start than with the figure of a woman? Women are foundations of our society. Throughout history we have been champions for freedom, equal rights and justice,” said Justice Dianne T. Renwick, chair of the court’s committee leading the effort. “For the first time since the Court’s historic opening well over 100 years ago, the figure of a woman finally and rightfully will stand on equal footing with the male philosophers and lawgivers who line the other pedestals. This type of collaboration is unprecedented in New York State and we are very excited about this endeavor and the possibilities for other courts.”
the figure of a woman finally and rightfully will stand on equal footing with the male philosophers and lawgivers who line the other pedestals
Photograph: By Rashmi Gill / The installation of Shahzia Sikander’s “Witness.”
Brooke Kamin Rapaport, deputy director and Martin Friedman chief curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy, describes the sculptures as “luminous allegorical female figures.” “Havah,” she explained, means “air” or “atmosphere” in Urdu and “Eve” in Arabic and Hebrew.
Sikander, who was born in Pakistan and now lives in New York City, is credited for renewing international interest in the Indo-Persian miniature form and for innovating a feminist neo-miniature movement. She’s a 2006 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and she received the United States Medal of Arts in 2012.
…the enduring power lies with the people who step into and remain in the fight for equality.
“The recent focus on reproductive rights in the U.S. after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion in the US, comes to the forefront,” Sikander said in a statement. “In the process, it is the dismissal, too, of the indefatigable spirit of the women, who have been collectively fighting for their right to their own bodies over generations. However, the enduring power lies with the people who step into and remain in the fight for equality. That spirit and grit is what I want to capture in both the sculptures.”
Photograph: By Rashmi Gill / Shahzia Sikander during installation of “Witness” in Madison Square Park.
You can hear more from the artist, along with human rights attorney Becca Heller and Justice Judith Gische during “Lifting Women and Justice,” an event on February 6. The speakers will focus on the state of justice today, how the legal field has advanced or failed women in juridical positions, and how works of art guide transformation on central questions upholding entrenched systems. Register here.
“Havah…to breathe, air, life” is co-commissioned by Madison Square Park Conservancy and Public Art of the University of Houston System (Public Art UHS). The exhibition is on view in New York through June 4, 2023, and will then travel to Houston.
Home of warden pictured in photo and also on Blackwell’s Island painting by Edward Hopper, 1913.
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
TIME OUT NEW YORK
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
Recently a story has been circulating about a boatload of pre-historic bones being lost in the East River around 65th Street in 1940. The bones were supposedly on their way from Alaska to the American Museum of Natural History. To date no evidence of the shipment has been located.
In 1971, The Sunday News featured the discovery of 3 anchors in the East River at the site of the 63rd Street subway tunnel. They were to be shared, 2 at South Street Seaport Museum and one at the new island subway station.
Needless to say the anchors never reached the South Street Seaport Museum and inquiries into their whereabouts have never been answered,
YOUNGEST SCOUTS VISIT KIOSK
Members of Daisy Troop 3416 and leader Christina Kirkman visited the RIHS Kiosk on Monday to learn about the Island history and visit island sites. An interesting tour of the kiosk and answering questions was followed by a story time.
Daisy members are learning all about the island including visiting different buildings.
RIHS President Judy Berdy read from the new book ROOSEVELT ISLAND KIDS. This audience could recognize all the pictures and told us of their favorite places on the island,
A MAP CORRECTED
When the Whitney Museum published a map featuring the New York sites that were featured in Edward Hopper’s art, something struck me as being incorrect in the interactive map.
The map featured the painting “Blackwell’s Island” as being located on the south end of out island. Wrong, the Octagon is at the north end and the map had to be corrected. Since the Octagon is still on the island how could such a mistake be made?(left )
It took weeks to hear back from the curator of the Hopper exhibit. After a few e-mails back and forth the map was corrected yesterday morning. Thanks to curator Kim Conoty for correcting history. This is the correct version:
TITANIC MEMORIAL Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, at Fulton and Pearl Streets inside South Street Seaport.
From South Street Seaport website: https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/titanic-memorial-lighthouse/ “Located in the Titanic Memorial Park at the corner of Pearl Street and Fulton Street, the Titanic Memorial Lighthouse, part of the collection of the South Street Seaport Museum, stands as a memorial to all those lost during the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic. Originally erected on the roof of the Seamen’s Church Institute at South Street and Coenties Slip, the tower was donated to the South Street Street Seaport Museum in 1968.” Andy Sparberg
Aron Eisenpreiss and Joyce Gold,( NYC tour guide) also got it right!
Oops: Andy Sparberg also gave correct answer about Monday’s photo of the Flushing Meadow Aquacade.
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.
Our recent blog highlighting Municipal Archives collections that document the New Deal included a description of the records of the New York City Unit of the WPA Federal Writers’ Project. The NYC FWP provided meaningful employment for more than 300 writers, journalists, editors and photographers during the Great Depression. Although the collection includes research materials and draft manuscripts for 64 books, only a handful were published, notably the New York City Guide, and New York Panorama.
This week we are posting an article about the Fulton Fish Market from one of the unpublished manuscripts – Feeding the City. As is typical of many FWP manuscripts, the name of the author is not clear (it may have been “McLellan”), but it is dated: October 1940.
“Manhattan Casts its Reflection in East River,” South Street, from pier, ca. 1937. WPA Art Project Photograph. Photographer: Suydam. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
No other wholesale market anywhere offers such an extensive supply of sea food as Fulton Fish Market. London’s famous Billingsgate has long been the world’s largest fish market, but in variety Fulton far surpasses it. During the busy season, early spring to late fall, 160 varieties of fishes and shellfishes from all parts of the world are available here to the 1,633 retail outlets that cater to the City’s diverse tastes.
Fishing boats at the dock, East River, November 1937. WPA FWP Photograph. Photographer: E.M. Bofinger. WPA FWP Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives
Delivering halibut, Fulton Fish Market, ca. 1937. Fishery Council Photograph. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
The Department of Markets estimates that no more than one-quarter of these fishes and shellfishes arrive by boat. The bulk is brought in trailer trucks from railroad terminals and points along the coast. Fresh-water fishes such as eels and carps, bought by certain racial groups, are shipped in alive by rail or are water-borne by Hudson River barges. Freshly caught whole fishes come in by the boatload, but gutted and packaged fishes, both fresh and frozen, arrive by truck from sheds and icehouses adjoining the landing piers in the ports of Boston, Gloucester, and New Bedford. Enormous frozen swordfishes, stiff salt cods, and millions of tins of sardines, sprats, tunas, mackerels and kippered herrings arrive by tramp steamers and transatlantic freighters. Not more than 10 per cent comes from waters contiguous to the City. The major portion is from commercial fisheries whose boats operate on the Newfoundland Banks and off the New England coast, from Gulf fisheries, and those of the Pacific coast. The greater part of the live-lobster supply comes from Maine, while from South Africa come large shipments of frozen tails of the spiny lobster. Other varieties of frozen or preserved fishes and shellfishes come to Fulton Fish Market from points as far distant as Japan, the Baltic states, Portugal, North Africa, and Alaska. Dried and flaked fishes are shipped from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, from Maine and Massachusetts. From the Mississippi and its tributaries in the southern States and from the Great Lakes arrive the fresh-water fishes so important in the diet of the City’s Jewish population.
South Street, near Peck Slip, October 1938. WPA Art Project Photograph. Photographer: Libsohn. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
The day’s work begins in Fulton Market at 2 a.m. when trawlers, draggers, and smacks draw into the docks along the lower East River to discharge their cargoes. Selling begins precisely at 6 a.m. when a gong clangs three times. Buyers, representing jobbers and retailers, scurry among the stalls of the market’s 100 wholesale dealers, making their selections. Stalls are on piers, in the market’s new buildings, and in the nine-block area west of South Street.
Fish vendors, South Street, ca. 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph. Photographer: Clifford Sutcliffe. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
Ninety per cent of the market’s sales are handled on a commission basis and selling must be concluded by one o’clock in the afternoon. After the boats unload, workmen begin wielding knives, cleavers, clippers, and scalers, preparing tons of fishes, and arranging them on beds of cracked ice for rush delivery to jobbers and retailers. The action along the waterfront is fast and furious since fish is one of the most perishable of commodities.
Hundreds of trucks are unloaded along the sidewalks where countless crates, vaporous and dripping wet from over-night refrigeration, are piled high. Empty trucks rumbling away are replaced by others belatedly reaching their destination. Retailers’ and jobbers’ trucks are loading up, a seemingly interminable stream of vehicular traffic.
Sidewalk stand, Fulton Fish Market, October 1937. WPA FWP Photograph. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
“Whale and five chickens,” shouts a floor salesman, moving about in thick-soled rubber boots. A handler disappears into a refrigerated compartment and emerges hugging a huge halibut and five small ones. He drops these into a barrel and the “whale and five chickens” are ready to be packed for the last lap of their journey from the salty depths to the neighborhood fish store.
Monday is the big day at Fulton Fish Market. Produce sold on Mondays is in the retailers’ stores on Tuesdays, and so the shrewd housewife does not have to wait until Thursday or Friday to shop for sea food. On Tuesdays, stocks are fresher and larger, and prices are apt to be lower than during the rush later in the week.
When South Street was a cobblestone thoroughfare, unpleasant odors hung over this 200-year-old market. Today odors are being banished, for South Street, 75 feet wide, is now paved with asphalt, and new buildings constructed between Piers 17 to 20 by the Department of Markets form the beginning of a model fish market.
Peck Slip and South Street, ca. 1937. WPA Federal Art Project Photograph. WPA FWP Photograph Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The huskies who man the fishing boats are among the most picturesque of those who go to sea for their living. Many are of Norse origin. Others are down-easters whose Yankee forebears fished the banks along the North Atlantic coast; Portuguese, Italians, and Newfoundlanders also form a large group. Like other seafarers, these fishermen have their superstitions. Few will leave the piers on Fridays. When the Friday morning rush is over, they descend into their cabins and sleep until Saturday morning, or wander along South Street on shopping tours.
The entire supply of sea food once came by boat, but the fishing fleet is gradually diminishing. Skippers in the distant fishing grounds head their craft for home port, to load the catch into railway express cars or specially constructed trucks with insulated bodies, which rush to the wholesale markets. The airplane, too, enters into the picture, bringing from the west coast, southern, and Canadian waters luxury sea food such as turtle, terrapin, salmon, pompano, Florida crabmeat and stone crab, mountain stream trout, and frog’s legs. Many of these expensive products are packed in special tins and cartons for flight to LaGuardia Field, and are trucked to the market or delivered direct to retail outlets, clubs, and hotels.
Peck Slip, between Front and South Streets, ca. 1937. World Telegram Photograph. WPA FWP Collection, Municipal Archives.
Four stories of limestone, brick, terra cotta, and granite, the building has the imposing, fortress-like look of a typical bank building from turn of the century New York City—when savings bank failures weren’t uncommon and financial institutions wanted to instill a sense of trust and strength to entice potential customers.
The allegorical figures are part of this strength and trust. The train the woman holds is a symbol of industry; the caduceus suggests commerce, according to the LPC report. The key in the man’s hands represents prudence, and the cornucopia is a sign of plenty.
Credit: McLaughlin Aerial Subject: Flushing Meadow Park Subject: Aerial photographs Subject:New York World’s Fair (1939-1940) Subject:Parks–Flushing Meadows-Corona Park Description:Aerial view, Flushing Meadow Park Amphitheatre. Date:July 1941
Flushing Meadow Park Swimming Pool/Amphitheater. Young people cavort in pool; Amphitheater backdrop.
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 CITY MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
