Born to a prominent Pennsylvania family, Mary Cassatt spent her artistic career in Europe. Though unmarried, she was no stranger to the family life she so often depicted: her parents and sister moved to Paris in 1877 and her two brothers and their families visited frequently. Today considered an Impressionist, Cassatt exhibited with such artists as Monet, Pissarro, and her close friend Degas, and shared with them an independent spirit, refusing throughout her life to be associated with any art academy or to accept any prizes. She stands alone, however, in her depictions of the activities of women in their worlds: caring for children, reading, crocheting, pouring tea, and enjoying the company of other women.
Elizabeth Chew Women Artists (brochure, Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)
Mary Cassatt was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family soon settled in Philadelphia but traveled extensively through Europe during Mary’s childhood. Her father was a prominent investment banker and her brother, Alexander, became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
At fifteen, she was admitted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and four years later moved to Paris where she studied briefly with Jean-Léon Gérôme, but chiefly educated herself by copying at the Louvre. In 1872, already under the artistic influence of Courbet and Manet, she established a studio in Spain, studied the work of Velázquez and Ribera, and produced a series of paintings of local subjects with strongly modeled features placed against dark backgrounds.
In the Salon of 1874, Edgar Degas saw a painting of Cassatt’s which prompted him to exclaim, “Voila! There is someone who feels as I do.” That same year, Cassatt noticed several Degas pastels in a shop window and wrote, “It changed my life! I saw art then as I wanted to see it.” Soon thereafter they met, beginning a friendship and artistic relationship that would last forty years.
Degas introduced her to other members of the emergent impressionist fraternity, and for nine years, as the only American, she continued to exhibit with them and help organize their shows. She always found their company congenial and stimulating, and as her most recent biographer points out, “for the first time Cassatt found people whose biting, critical, opinionated attitudes matched her own.”
It is noteworthy that both Cassatt and Degas preferred to call themselves “Independents” rather then “Impressionists”; both always insisted on the integrity of form in their painting, whereas Monet, Pissaro, and others tended to dissolve form into light. Like them, she initially employed a high-keyed palette applied in small touches of contrasting colors. However, over time, Cassatt’s style became less painterly, the forms more solidly monumental and placed within clear linear contours.
As a woman in nineteenth-century Paris, she lacked opportunity to depict the diverse subject matter available to her male colleagues: cafés, clubs, bordellos, and even the streets were not comfortably accessible to genteel ladies. The domestic realm, with occasional forays into the theater, became her field of activity. Women and children and family members were generally the subjects of her work, and she became chiefly known for her depictions of mothers and small children. In these “Madonna” paintings she sought to avoid anecdotalism and sentimentality, overcoming the limitations of her subject matter by endowing it with firm structural authority and subtle color interest.
In later years, her eyesight failing, she turned increasingly to pastels, as Degas had done under pressure of the same condition. Like Degas, she became a preeminent exponent of that difficult medium.
In 1872, Cassatt formed a close friendship with a young American in Paris, Louisine Elder, soon to become the wife of H. O. Havemeyer, the reigning “sugar baron” of the American Gilded Age. A woman of discriminating taste and formidable wealth, Louisine turned to her artist friend for guidance in assembling a collection of paintings. In time, they amassed a comprehensive array of impressionist work. Much of the collection was donated to American museums and contributed significantly toward the shaping of public taste and general acceptance of what has since become the most popular of all painting styles.
Emery Battis Artist Biographies for the exhibition American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000)
Mary Cassatt is best known for her paintings of mothers and children in relaxed, informal poses. She was the first American artist to associate and exhibit with the French impressionists in Paris. Cassatt first traveled to Europe with her family when she was eleven, and by the age of sixteen had decided to be a professional artist. Her family did not approve of this decision, but they eventually relented and allowed her to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (Effeny, Cassatt, 1991) She did not like the formal training at the academy, however, and went back to France, finally settling there in the 1870s. She lived in Paris for most of her life, but considered herself an American and was proud of her Philadelphia roots. She was a close friend of the French painter Edgar Degas, who invited her to show with the impressionists in 1877. She “accepted with joy” and in this circle of friends felt that she first “began to live.” Cassatt pursued her painting in the remaining decades of the nineteenth century, and the 1890s became her most creative period. By 1915, however, diabetes compromised her eyesight and robbed her of the ability to paint for the last eleven years of her life.
Mary Cassatt, Spanish Dancer Wearing a Lace Mantilla, 1873, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Victoria Dreyfus, 1967.40
Mary Cassatt spent a few months in Spain in the early 1870s. She went first to Madrid, where she copied the paintings of the Spanish masters, then established a studio in Seville. She made a series of paintings of Spanish life that emphasized the beauty and dress of the local women. This piece was exhibited at the 1874 Paris Salon under the title Ida, where it attracted the attention of French impressionist Edgar Degas. On seeing the work of Cassatt for the first time, Degas commented, “C’est vrai. Voilá quelqu’un qui sent comme moi” (It is true. There is someone who feels as I do).
Mary Cassatt, Sara in a Green Bonnet, ca. 1901, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.11
Mary Cassatt, The Caress, 1902, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1911.2.1
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
Smithsonian American Art Museum
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Born to a prominent Pennsylvania family, Mary Cassatt spent her artistic career in Europe. Though unmarried, she was no stranger to the family life she so often depicted: her parents and sister moved to Paris in 1877 and her two brothers and their families visited frequently. Today considered an Impressionist, Cassatt exhibited with such artists as Monet, Pissarro, and her close friend Degas, and shared with them an independent spirit, refusing throughout her life to be associated with any art academy or to accept any prizes. She stands alone, however, in her depictions of the activities of women in their worlds: caring for children, reading, crocheting, pouring tea, and enjoying the company of other women.
Elizabeth Chew Women Artists (brochure, Washington, DC: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)
Mary Cassatt was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The family soon settled in Philadelphia but traveled extensively through Europe during Mary’s childhood. Her father was a prominent investment banker and her brother, Alexander, became president of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
At fifteen, she was admitted to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and four years later moved to Paris where she studied briefly with Jean-Léon Gérôme, but chiefly educated herself by copying at the Louvre. In 1872, already under the artistic influence of Courbet and Manet, she established a studio in Spain, studied the work of Velázquez and Ribera, and produced a series of paintings of local subjects with strongly modeled features placed against dark backgrounds.
In the Salon of 1874, Edgar Degas saw a painting of Cassatt’s which prompted him to exclaim, “Voila! There is someone who feels as I do.” That same year, Cassatt noticed several Degas pastels in a shop window and wrote, “It changed my life! I saw art then as I wanted to see it.” Soon thereafter they met, beginning a friendship and artistic relationship that would last forty years.
Degas introduced her to other members of the emergent impressionist fraternity, and for nine years, as the only American, she continued to exhibit with them and help organize their shows. She always found their company congenial and stimulating, and as her most recent biographer points out, “for the first time Cassatt found people whose biting, critical, opinionated attitudes matched her own.”
It is noteworthy that both Cassatt and Degas preferred to call themselves “Independents” rather then “Impressionists”; both always insisted on the integrity of form in their painting, whereas Monet, Pissaro, and others tended to dissolve form into light. Like them, she initially employed a high-keyed palette applied in small touches of contrasting colors. However, over time, Cassatt’s style became less painterly, the forms more solidly monumental and placed within clear linear contours.
As a woman in nineteenth-century Paris, she lacked opportunity to depict the diverse subject matter available to her male colleagues: cafés, clubs, bordellos, and even the streets were not comfortably accessible to genteel ladies. The domestic realm, with occasional forays into the theater, became her field of activity. Women and children and family members were generally the subjects of her work, and she became chiefly known for her depictions of mothers and small children. In these “Madonna” paintings she sought to avoid anecdotalism and sentimentality, overcoming the limitations of her subject matter by endowing it with firm structural authority and subtle color interest.
In later years, her eyesight failing, she turned increasingly to pastels, as Degas had done under pressure of the same condition. Like Degas, she became a preeminent exponent of that difficult medium.
In 1872, Cassatt formed a close friendship with a young American in Paris, Louisine Elder, soon to become the wife of H. O. Havemeyer, the reigning “sugar baron” of the American Gilded Age. A woman of discriminating taste and formidable wealth, Louisine turned to her artist friend for guidance in assembling a collection of paintings. In time, they amassed a comprehensive array of impressionist work. Much of the collection was donated to American museums and contributed significantly toward the shaping of public taste and general acceptance of what has since become the most popular of all painting styles.
Emery Battis Artist Biographies for the exhibition American Impressionism: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000)
Mary Cassatt is best known for her paintings of mothers and children in relaxed, informal poses. She was the first American artist to associate and exhibit with the French impressionists in Paris. Cassatt first traveled to Europe with her family when she was eleven, and by the age of sixteen had decided to be a professional artist. Her family did not approve of this decision, but they eventually relented and allowed her to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. (Effeny, Cassatt, 1991) She did not like the formal training at the academy, however, and went back to France, finally settling there in the 1870s. She lived in Paris for most of her life, but considered herself an American and was proud of her Philadelphia roots. She was a close friend of the French painter Edgar Degas, who invited her to show with the impressionists in 1877. She “accepted with joy” and in this circle of friends felt that she first “began to live.” Cassatt pursued her painting in the remaining decades of the nineteenth century, and the 1890s became her most creative period. By 1915, however, diabetes compromised her eyesight and robbed her of the ability to paint for the last eleven years of her life.
Henry Wolf, Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, 1905, photomechanical wood engraving on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1973.130.220
Mary Cassatt, Woman Bathing (poster), poster, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1969.65.26A
Mary Cassatt, The Banjo Lesson, ca. 1893, drypoint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Robert Tyler Davis Memorial Fund, 1981.100
This series continues tomorrow
Tuesday Photo of the Day
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Many of the items and collection are from the William Lascoff
Pharmacy that closed in 2002 on Lexington Avenue
Facticerie an exhibition that houses
Sudhir Gupta’s rare factice collection in Hackensack
Sudhir Gupta, who started collecting rare fragrance display bottles from a shop on Canal Street, has now set a Guinness World Record.
Gupta’s collection of factices — perfume bottles used for advertising purposes or department store displays that are generally empty or filled with water — is on display at an exhibit in Hackensack, New Jersey called Facticerie: The Factice Collection.
Factices are an entirely new category to The Guinness World Records, and the New Jersey exhibit will show Gupta’s record-size assortment of over 3,000 of the rare perfume bottle replicas, which are valued at $2,000 to $100,000 each, including models by brands such as Chanel, Estée Lauder, Guerlain and Andy Warhol.
The exhibit was designed by creative director Mercedes Acosta and opened on Thursday at 70 First Street in Hackensack, New Jersey, for free viewings by appointment. The space was modeled after the interior of iconic Upper East Side pharmacy, Lascoff Drugs, which closed its doors in 2012.
“Some would say it was love at first sight,” said Gupta of the first factice he laid his eyes on. It was a Nina Ricci L’air du Temps factice, and he came across it while dusting the basement of a perfume shop on Canal Street that he worked at to put himself through graduate school upon coming to the U.S. in the early ‘90s.
Because they’re not intended for consumer use, factices are not available for sale by any conventional means — and the L’air du Temps bottle Gupta found that day was no exception.
“I didn’t even know what it was,” said Gupta, who hails from Chandigarh, India, of the factice. Despite not having a strong interest in or knowledge of fragrance at the time, Gupta was immediately entranced by the bottle.
After inquiring to the shop owner he worked under about why the bottle was there — and what it would take to have it — the owner ultimately agreed to sell it to him for $2,000. A few dozen paychecks later, Gupta inaugurated his collection.
From then on, Gupta sourced the bottles where and when he could, trying his luck at flea markets, pharmacies like Lascoff Drugs and department stores such as Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus, making friends along the way who indulged his passion, helping him expand his collection via under-the-table exchanges.
“Every time I had any extra money, I would budget it toward that,” said Gupta, who would make deposits to secure factices from sources and then pay the remainder of what he owed over time.
While Gupta feels his stint at the perfume shop was a stroke of “destiny,” he ended up leaving shortly after purchasing the L’air du Temps factice, instead making a living independently buying and reselling hard-to-find fragrances, a gig that allowed him more avenues and freedom to grow his collection.
Today, highlights from the collection include a rare Guerlain Shalimar factice, one of two Parera Tentacion factices in the world and the most expensive factice of them all: a ’20s Caron Les Fontaines Baccarat from the estate of Madame Alexander, estimated to be valued at $100,000.
On June 6, the collection was inducted into the Guinness World Book of Records as the largest in the world to date, an honor Gupta had been eagerly awaiting confirmation of since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although factices are no longer manufactured by most companies, Gupta continues to grow his collection to this day, having made a name for himself as an antiquarian when it comes to the rare bottles.
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
I WILL BE OFF SAILING FOR THE NEXT WEEKS (ON A LARGER VESSEL) ENJOY THE ISSUES AND SEE YOU SOON. JUDYB
SAILING ON THE PIONEER FROM SOUTH STREET SEAPORT
WITH JAY AND FRIENDS!
WEEKEND PHOTO
GRAND CENTRAL TO TIMES SQUARE SHUTTLE ALL PROMOTING MOVIE “BULLET TRAIN” STARING BRAD PITT ANDY SPARBERG, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, HARA REISER ALL GOT IT RIGHT
You should take F to 42 street, get off at back of train, take staircase to connector to Shuttle,1.2,3,N,R,W walkway to the Times Square Station.
In simple words to get to Grand Central take F to 42 St, go upstairs to Shuttle and you will be at Grand Central in less that 20 minutes!!!!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
With summer’s end just around the corner, be sure to enjoy some of New York City’s best public art installations this September while the weather remains ideal for walking outside. Much of the artwork on display this month draws from the rich cultural diversity of New York City. Viewers of Wendy Red Star’s painting series Travels Pretty can learn more about the history of Native American women while Somos Uno provides insight into the disparate cultures that make up the District 25 community. Head to Montefiore Square to marvel at a public mural representing the essence of the Hamilton Heights community or Times Square to view Midnight Moments‘ new film on the connections between bodies of water and living beings.
In-process image of Ancestor by Bharti Kher. Photo by Chris Roque. Courtesy of the artist, UAP, Public Art Fund.
Gracing Central Park’s Doris C. Freedman Plaza this year is Ancestor, an 18-foot-tall patinated bronze sculpture created by New Delhi and London-based artist Bharti Kher. Ancestor is part of Kher’s ongoing Intermediaries series in which small, broken clay figurines of humans, animals, and mythical beings are reassembled into hybrid figures in defiance of fixed identity norms. The sculpture depicts a universally recognizable mother figure, allowing viewers to connect their experience viewing the artwork with their own cultural and personal pasts and futures. At the same time, the figure’s design is also culturally specific with the woman being draped in a sari with a small child hiding in its folds and hair in the style of a multi-lobbed bun with a braid.
Inspiration for the piece was drawn from the Indic and global traditions of creator deities that combine male and female into one single philosophical form — in direct contention with our current understanding of gender-based identities. At the same time, Ancestor is a feminine figure at heart, being adorned with the heads of 23 children as a representation of a mother’s role as a keeper of wisdom and eternal source of creation and refuge. “I invite viewers to leave their wishes, dreams, and prayers with Ancestor; and to pass on their wisdom of living and love to the next generation,” artist Bharti Kher said. “She is the keeper of all memories and time. A vessel for you to travel into the future, a guide to search and honor our past histories, and a companion — right here, right now — in New York City
Somos Uno by Mark Saldana. Courtesy of the artist.
Somos Uno is a series of 12 vibrant murals painted on the outside of tree pots inside Travers Park. Created by artist Mark Saldana, Somos Uno is inspired by the disparate cultures that make up the District 25 community in Queens. For Saldana, conserving the traditional practices of immigrants such as farming, sewing, and pottery in his artwork is essential. As a result, Somos Uno features two series of designs: One set represents the connection and harmony between vegetation, the natural world, and humans, while the other focuses on the talent and skills immigrants carry over from their former lives into their new day-to-day activities.
In the center of one of the murals, two hands are cupped together with a heart, leaves, and the words “somos vida, luz, amor,, cultura, y communidad,” which translates to “we are life, light, love, culture, and community.” Through the implementation of these phrases Saldana’s piece works to inspire members of the local community to be proud and vocal about their heritage. In another mural, a woman can be seen turning a cog while surrounded by music notes, a coffee cup, and leaves — directly referencing the occupation of many immigrant workers in New York City. Somos Uno is presented by New Immigrant Community Empowerment and can be viewed through July 6, 2023.
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
SOURCES
UNTAPPED NEW YORK
GRANTS
CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE JULIE MENIN DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
DAY TRIP STEAMER GENERAL SLOCUM CAUGHT FIRE AND CAPSIZED OFF NORTH BROTHER ISLAND IN 1904. LARGEST LOSS OF LIFE IN NEW YORK UNTIL 9/11. Bill, Ed Litcher, M. Frank, Gloria Herman & Hara Reiser all got it right.
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Mailing address: Nick Golebiewski Studio Building 280, Suite 610, Brooklyn Navy Yard Brooklyn, NY 11205
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
The Cartographic Branch at the National Archives is home to over one million ship plans, with records spanning more than 15 distinct Record Groups and over 25 separate series. These drawings are among the most requested records from researchers in the Cartographic Branch.
The National Archives holds ship engineering drawings for a majority of vessels commissioned by the United States Navy dating from the 1790s through the Korean War era. These drawings mostly consist of inboard and outboard profiles, deck plans, and sections, although additional general arrangement drawings exist for some ships.
The majority of ship plans held by the Cartographic Branch can be found within Record Group 19: Records of the Bureau of Ships. Established in 1940, the Bureau of Ships was responsible for the construction and maintenance of the ships of the US Navy.
FULLER BUILDING, MADISON AVENUE AND 57th STREET HOME OF NEW YORK’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS GALLERIES LAURA HUSSEY AND CLARA BELLA GOT IT RIGHT!
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
Sources
Photos, from above: drawings of Naval Vessels and Equipment, 1939-1945, U.S. Ship of the Line Ware #17; and USS Oklahoma (BB-37): booklet of General Plans – Cover & Title Page / General Dimensions & Data / Inboard Profile (National Archives).
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
The late 1920s and 1930s were crucial years in New York’s rise as an international artistic center. Cultural contacts between Europe and the United States multiplied. American artists who had studied in Paris returned with fresh ambitions; dollar rich patrons were willing to finance new initiatives; the First World War had unsettled European artists and gallerists, many of whom settled in New York. They were joined by others who fled the Nazi threat. Manhattan was turning into a Mecca of modernism where a multi-national cohort of artists, dealers and investors mixed and mingled.
By our standards the art world was relatively small. At any one time in that epoch, there were probably fewer than fifteen galleries active in New York with only a handful concentrating on contemporary art. A pioneering role was played by Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery on Fifth Avenue. Operational since 1905, the gallery introduced the Parisian avant-garde to an American audience. In modernist Manhattan, Stieglitz was the Godfather.
A characteristic aspect of this period was the interaction between European gallerists and a generation of aspiring American artists. Stieglitz had set a pattern. His exhibition program consisted of introducing French modernists while simultaneously pushing a circle of up-and-coming local artists. Over time, the American presence became more prominent.
In the process, calls rang out to challenge “conservative” museums and establish an institution devoted to modern art. On November 8, 1929, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) opened its doors. Under guidance of its first director Alfred H. Barr, a productive working relationship was established with Manhattan galleries. In the midst of these developments towered the figure of Julien Levy.
The Harvard Experience
Born in New York on January 22, 1906, into an affluent Jewish family (his father was a real estate developer and art collector), Julien Levy attended Harvard where he studied English literature before changing to the subject of museum administration under Paul J. Sachs, one of seven founding members of MoMA.
He began his foray into the avant-garde during his years at Harvard. The environment was an inspiring one. Fellow students from the mid-1920s onward included Alfred Barr; James Thrall Soby who built up a famous collection of modern art at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; and Arthur Everett “Chick” Austin, who would become director of the Atheneum and organizer of the first Picasso retrospective in America.
A member of this Harvard group of modernists, Levy became an avid collector with a lasting affinity for film and photography. Eager to exploit his own creative potential, he became frustrated by his father’s refusal to back him financially in making experimental films. He dropped out of Harvard in 1927 (one semester prior to graduation) and went to Paris intent on working with Man Ray.
Ironically, it was Edgar Levy’s love for art that caused his son’s departure. In 1926, alerted by Julien, he acquired from the Brummer Gallery the marble Bird in Space (1923), the first in a series of iconic sculptures created over time by the Romanian-born French artist Constantin Brancusi.
It was on that particular occasion that Julien first encountered Marcel Duchamp, the legendary Dadaist artist and Surrealist sympathizer who represented the sculptor’s interests in America.
Brummer Gallery (East 57th Street)
A significant development in the art market of the early twentieth century was the role played by American collectors and their European suppliers. This occurrence was hurried along by the crippling economic effect of the First World War. The Old Continent was for sale.
Joseph Brummer was a Hungarian sculptor who, having left Budapest’s Academy of Fine Arts in 1904, settled in Paris. In 1909 he launched into a career of selling antiques, opening a gallery on Boulevard Raspail. When his brothers Imre and Ernest joined him, they traded as Brummer Frères.
With the onset of World War I, the property of all Austro-Hungarian and German enemy nationals was sequestered. Joseph and Imre moved to New York where they opened a gallery at 55 East 57th Street and cooperated until Imre’s death in 1928.
After the war, Ernest reopened his business in Paris. Until the beginning of the Second World War when Ernest joined Joseph in New York, the two branches worked together. The brothers flooded the American market with classical works of art and antiquities, but Joseph had other interests too.
At his premises he organized some of New York’s earliest exhibitions of contemporary French art. Joseph brought avant-garde art to Manhattan, including paintings by Picasso and Henri Rousseau (who painted his portrait in 1909), and sculptures by Aristide Maillol, Jacques Lipchitz, and others. His 1926 Constantin Brancusi show drew wide critical approval.
Weyhe Gallery (Lexington Avenue)
The meeting with Duchamp was a crucial moment in Julien Levy’s career. He left Harvard, joined Duchamp in February 1927, and set sail for Le Havre. Also making the journey was Robert McAlmon, author, drinking pal of James Joyce, and founder of Contact Editions in Paris where he published work by Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, amongst others.
During the crossing Levy and Duchamp became close. Once in Paris, the latter introduced his young friend to many figures in the Parisian avant-garde. He also joined the circle of expatriates. At a party thrown by Peggy Guggenheim, McAlmon introduced him to London-born artist and poet Mina Loy (her father had escaped anti-Semitism in Budapest). She was accompanied by her daughter. Levy and Joella Loy married in August 1927. From the outset, he was entranced by his mother-in-law’s artistic gifts and would help to promote her poetry and visual art throughout her career.
After three years in Paris, the couple returned to New York where Julien started work as an assistant in the print room of the Weyhe Gallery. Also known as Weyhe Gallery & Bookstore, this establishment was a print and art bookshop established in 1919 by German-born Erhard Weyhe who, after running a book business in London’s Charing Cross Road, had moved to New York just before the outbreak of the First World War. The firm operated from 1919 to 1923 at 710 Lexington Avenue, and from then on in a four-story townhouse further down the road at no. 794.
The Gallery served as a meeting place for dealers and collectors who were interested in modern art. When Levy arrived as an apprentice, the Gallery was directed by Weyhe’s assistant Carl Zigrosser, the son of an Austrian immigrant (later in his career Carl worked as Curator of Prints and Drawings at Philadelphia’s Museum of Art).
The Gallery specialized in contemporary prints and drawings, but Weyhe also collected and sold sculpture. At the time of Levy’s employment, Zigrosser organized in February/March 1928 the first solo exhibition of Alexander “Sandy” Calder’s wire sculpture. The event received considerable press coverage. Weyhe provided Levy with the practical experience of running a gallery, organizing exhibitions, and dealing with individual artists.
Julien Levy Gallery (Madison Avenue)
On November 2, 1931, funded by an inheritance from his mother, Julien opened the Levy Gallery at 602 Madison Avenue with an American Photography Retrospective Exhibition. The show was a tribute to Alfred Stieglitz, but Levy quickly realized that photography would not finance the running of the gallery and he was forced to shift his focus to modernist art.
On January 29, 1932, he presented the first exhibition of Surrealism in New York. Paying homage to Paris by naming the exhibition Surréalisme, the multi-media show featured painting, sculpture, collage, and photography. Levy introduced European artists to New York, whilst at the same time championing the work of young American painters.
The interaction between established European and young American artists was intriguing. In the period leading up to the exhibition, Joseph Cornell visited the gallery. After viewing a collection of collages by Max Ernst, he hurried home to construct his own works. For the cover of his book on Surrealism (1936), Levy used a Cornell collage of a boy trumpeting the word “Surrealism” that had been on display at the 1932 exhibition.
The show put the Levy Gallery on the map. Salvador Dali’s presence was largely responsible for the excitement. Key attraction was The Persistence of Memory (1931) which Julien had acquired during his stay in the French capital. It became the most discussed painting in the United States since Duchamp’s Nude descending a Staircase at the Armory Show in 1913.
Heydays & Legacy
Mina Loy was Levy’s mentor. She acted as his Paris representative and for the next five years she arranged the purchase and transportation of Surrealist art to Levy’s Gallery. In doing so, she became a central figure in the American reception of Surrealism.
Loy exhibited her own paintings at the Levy Gallery in 1933. Julien was keen to promote female talent and mounted exhibitions by Lee Miller, Katherine Dreier, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, and others. Though the Gallery struggled financially, it developed a far-reaching reputation. In 1937, business was moved to 15 East 57th Street, where Levy mounted the first solo exhibition of the work of Frida Kahlo in November 1938. His eye for talent never let him down.
Mina Loy’s move to New York in 1937 ended her work as the gallery’s agent. Levy and Joella divorced in 1942, after which he remarried the artist Muriel Streeter. By that time, the world had changed. The bright Manhattan’s days of cosmopolitan exchanges were fading and so did Julien Levy’s passion as a gallerist. In 1949 he shut up shop, taught art history for a while, and retired to a farm in Connecticut where he wrote the Memoir of an Art Gallery (1977). He died there in February 1981.
As a gallerist, Levy set a blueprint by codifying the rituals of commerce (from press releases to boozy opening nights) and interaction between collectors, curators and critics to generate reviews and publicity. He also initiated a competitive working relationship with MoMA that was repeated in other major art centers where gallerists acted as scouts for new talent.
By the very nature of the institution, museums worked retrospectively. Having made an assessment of events and activities, curators looked beyond the immediate towards context and continuity. Levy’s Surréalisme of 1932 and subsequent solo shows of Surrealist artists laid the groundwork for MoMA’s comprehensive exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism in 1936/7. Although the event was rife with controversy and arguments between rival factions among the participants, it was nonetheless a groundbreaking attempt by Alfred Barr to present Dada as a historical movement.
Illustrations, from above: Berenice Abbot’s portrait of Julien Levy in Paris, 1927 (The MET, New York); Bird in Space, 1923 by Constantin Brancusi (The MET, New York); Portrait of Joseph Brummer, 1909 by Henri Rousseau (National Gallery, London); Wire Portrait of Erhard Weyhe, 1928 by Alexander Calder (Whitney Museum of American Art); curved walls in the Julien Levy Gallery at 15 East 57th Street, late 1930s; The Persistence of Memory, 1931 by Salvador Dalí (Museum of Modern Art, New York); Joseph Cornell’s cover for Julien Lev’s book Surrealism (1936: Black Sun Press); and Frida Kahlo’s first American solo exhibition in November 1938 at the Levy Gallery, East 57th Street.
TRAM STATION IN 1980’S SEE ALEXANDER’S DEPARTMENT STORE IN BACKGROUND LONG STAIRCASE LEADING TO STATION PLATFORM PAY PHONES ALONG SIDEWALK
HARA REISER, NANCY BROWN, THOM HEYER, GLORIA HERMAN, ED LITCHER AND ARLENE BESSENOFF
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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Illustrations, from above: Berenice Abbot’s portrait of Julien Levy in Paris, 1927 (The MET, New York); Bird in Space, 1923 by Constantin Brancusi (The MET, New York); Portrait of Joseph Brummer, 1909 by Henri Rousseau (National Gallery, London); Wire Portrait of Erhard Weyhe, 1928 by Alexander Calder (Whitney Museum of American Art); curved walls in the Julien Levy Gallery at 15 East 57th Street, late 1930s; The Persistence of Memory, 1931 by Salvador Dalí (Museum of Modern Art, New York); Joseph Cornell’s cover for Julien Lev’s book Surrealism (1936: Black Sun Press); and Frida Kahlo’s first American solo exhibition in November 1938 at the Levy Gallery, East 57th Street.
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The Saratoga Race Course is instantly recognizable by its iconic roofline and unique treatment. The Gilded Age survives to our time through the turret-spiked, finial capped, slate roof of the grandstand.
The very distinguishable noble crown of racing’s dowager queen places one instantly at the Spa in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, and announces “Saratoga Springs.”
The summer resort, made popular by healing mineral waters that are part of indigenous history, saw thoroughbred horse racing introduced in 1863 on a track across Union Avenue, presently part of Horse Haven. The inaugural race meet was so successful that the following summer the track was relocated to its present site, with its larger grounds.
The group of pioneering sportsmen behind the effort, who were also successful in business, recognized the opportunity and potential at the track as a good gamble, and incorporated in 1865. As racing spurred breeding, the placing of wagers was tolerated, and the group named their new corporation “The Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses.” The group furthered betting interests with the operation of a clubhouse that functioned as a casino, which operated behind a veneer of respectability for those “in the know.”
The shareholders of the track continually poured their revenues into the facility, and the racing contributed toward the then village’s economy, and was supported in turn by the established resort infrastructure. Spectators were accommodated at the track in a modest wood structure similar to those at many county fairgrounds. A grandstand with incremental stepped seating levels and a simple gable roof provided better race viewing, and cover from sun and shower. This building was constructed by local craftsmen, and it was repeatedly improved and augmented, as the reputation for great racing increased the popularity of the meet over a span of nearly three succeeding decades.
By that time many of the original incorporating shareholders of the Saratoga Association had passed away, and the casino had come under increased scrutiny for its principal shareholder, Albert Spencer. With a single controlling interest, several scribes were quick to point out that the “Saratoga Association, was an association in name only.” Rumors, which seem to especially permeate race tracks where the patrons are always seeking an edge, abounded in discussion about a change in ownership.
Tales of this sort were a common conjecture in polite conversation, as everyone who visited had an interest. This prospective sale discussion bore more credence than in the past, as Mr. Spencer, the majority stockholder, had earlier sold his very profitable clubhouse/casino enterprise to Richard Canfield. Also, the prospective principals in the projected deal were noted racing men of unlimited capital: Pierre Lorillard, August Belmont, Senator George Hearst, D.D. Withers, John A. Morris, A.J. Cassatt and W.L. Scott, with the syndicate headed by publisher William J. Arkell.
Arkell, whose own fortune was made in publishing a host of daily newspapers and the very popular Judge Magazine, along with Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, had very strong ties to Saratoga County. He also operated the Hotel Balmoral there, at the same Mount McGregor location where the Drexel Family and Arkell provided the cottage used by former President U.S. Grant to compose his memoirs shortly before his demise.
It may have been as difficult to pull off a multi-partner high-profile deal in 1890, as it is today, and considering Arkell’s irritated comments on the matter, some things may not have changed. In response to a question from a Saratogian reporter on the track sale, Arkell, walking along Broadway, was quoted as responding:
“I have sold my interest in Judge to my partner, Russell Harrison, and have bought the Chicago stock-yards with a portion of the proceeds. I intend, of course, to invest three or four millions of dollars in Saratoga and then will buy up Canada and present it to the United States. Just at present I am negotiating for the purchase of the British Navy.”
With so many of his own reporters in the field, it is surprising Arkell allowed himself to answer a question that way. Comically the scrivener felt it necessary to explain, “It was evident from the sarcasm used Mr. Arkell is non-committal on the subject.”
The 1890 track season ended in Saratoga, and when the leaves were down as autumn transitioned to the frigid season, it was announced that all the officers and trustees of the Saratoga Association had been replaced by members of the Arkell syndicate, indicating an orderly property transition. As so often occurs in the thoroughbred racing world, the expected failed to materialize, mostly due to the unforeseen deaths of August Belmont and Senator Hearst.
Many daily publications during the winter of 1891 lamented the collapse of the transfer of the Saratoga Racing Association to the Arkell group, but indicated that the important changes and improvements projected would all be carried out as planned. It’s conjectured that the soon-to-be new owners moved beyond planning, with several modifications to the racing facility before the deal was closed. Indeed, several contracts let by the Arkell syndicate, such as the construction of a new betting ring by Saratoga’s master builder Andrew Robertson, were honored by Albert Spencer. Turnberry Consulting associates Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor in 2011 published in The Spa-Saratoga’s Legendary Race Course that perhaps the parameters for the classic grandstand, with its iconic slate roof and unique turrets with copper apex, were established by the Arkell group.
With the Arkell syndicate deal lost, Albert Spencer accepted another offer, and a paradigm shift occurred when the notorious Gottfried Gottlieb Walbaum purchased the Saratoga Race Course in August of 1891. This deal was brokered by Paul Grening, the proprietor of the Kensington Hotel on Union Avenue at Regent Street, with him becoming an officer of the transferred Saratoga Association.
Not all welcomed Walbaum in Saratoga, as his operations at the Guttenberg Race Track near Weehawken, New Jersey were more than suspect. The Brooklyn Eagle did not mince words, “The knell of doom has sounded for high class racing at Saratoga. Guttenberg has laid grimy hands upon it. Not satisfied with their illicit gains from winter racing the Guttenberg guerrillas propose to raid upon a New York track for thirty days of summer racing… The plagues of Egypt would be easier to bear.”
In late November of 1891 the Saratoga Association contingent, headed by G.G. Walbaum, met for a site review with H. Langford Warren, and discussed a contract for construction for a new clubhouse and grandstand complex. Given the limitations of 1890s design work, it would stand to reason that architect Warren “caught a flyer out of the gate” on his proposal, perhaps having been contacted originally by the Arkell group.
This same timeline neatly fits with author Maureen Meister’s conjecture in her book Architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement in Boston- Harvard’s H. Langford Warren, which compares Warren’s Saratoga clubhouse/grandstand design elements to the South End Grounds baseball pavilion in Boston, opened in the spring of 1888. This ballpark, which housed Boston’s National League Club, had a very short existence, being torched accidentally by children in 1894.
Meister also states in her 2003 publication that “the Saratoga racetrack has been the subject of two books by contemporary historians, but the identity of Warren as its architect has not been noted.”
The Saratoga Association contracted with the firm of the previously mentioned Andrew Robertson to build the iconic clubhouse/grandstand complex from the Warren design.
Certainly Gottfried “Dutch Fred” Walbaum is never fondly recalled in Saratoga Springs, as his ignominious operations seriously imperiled racing at the Spa. It took the foresight of Richard T. Wilson, recently re-honored with his name on the mile course, to form a syndicate of interested sportsmen including William C. Whitney as President, to buy out Walbaum’s interests in late 1900 and expel his injudicious methods. However, all of us who admire Saratoga’s very recognizable stately crown, must bear in mind that Walbaum made this reality happen.
The Whitney and Wilson-led Saratoga Association began their operation of the track in 1901. Following that season, extensive changes were made by the Empire City track designer Charles Leavitt, increasing the size of the oval and repositioning its orientation on the grounds. This involved moving all the buildings on the property, with the clubhouse, grandstand and betting ring relocated.
To accomplish the rearrangements the grandstand was separated into three sections, and reset as separate units, with the areas between becoming major additions which increased the overall length of the structure. Just prior to the opening of the reconfigured track in June of 1902, the local Saratoga Association office was destroyed in the Arcade Building fire with a regrettable loss of life, and many irreplaceable records of the recent rebuild.
Through the succeeding years further alterations were made, with the Warren-designed clubhouse and its delightful two-story veranda and conical turrets replaced in 1928 by the present multi-tiered turf terrace designed by Samuel Adams Clark. The betting ring, inactive since the introduction of pari-mutuel wagering in 1940, was torn down in 1964, replaced by a 550-foot addition to the east side of the grandstand, which attempted to include Warren’s roof treatments. Architect Arthur Froelich and assistant Robert Krause ordered installation of new slate over both old and new structures.
Since that time, the Victorian gem has taken on its so identifiable appearance, decorated with sculptured finials in a warm patina of tarnished copper, which so many fans of racing in Saratoga find a joy to behold.
RACQUET AND TENNIS CLUB, PARK AVENUE AND 52 STREET SUSAN RODETIS AND HARA REISER 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
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Photos, from above: Warren-designed clubhouse with 2-story veranda and conical turrets in the foreground, grandstand with pyramidal turrets center and betting ring far right (Library of Congress) ; Saratoga clubhouse turf terrace revision, completed in 1928, designed by Samuel Adams Clark, separated from the grandstand by the placing judge’s post (Boston Public Library, Tichnor Brothers Postcard Collection); South End Grounds baseball pavilion in Boston, designed by John Jerome Deery and operational 1888-1894 (Ballparksofbaseball.com); and Present day view of the Warren-designed grandstand slate roof, with its identifiable turrets and sculptured finials in their warm patina of tarnished copper (Bill Orzell).
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WEST SIDE STADIUM (NOW FOREST HILLS STADIUM), CLUBHOUSE AND STADIUM
WEST SIDE STADIUM (NOW FOREST HILLS STADIUM), CLUBHOUSE AND STADIUM
Clubhouse- Grosvenor Atterbury and John Almay Tompkins, 1913 Stadium- 69th Avenue between Clyde Street and Dartmouth Street, Kenneth M. Murchison, 1921-23
This internationally renowned tennis stadium is most famous for hosting the United States National Championship tennis tournaments, which were combined in 1968 to become the U.S. Open, from 1915 until 1977, when the tournament moved to the Arthur Ashe stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The West Side Tennis Club was established in 1892 and originally operated on Central Park West in Manhattan, giving the club its name. The clubhouse was designed in the neo-Tudor style, in keeping with Atterbury’s other work in Forest Hills. The 14,000-seat stadium was designed by Kenneth M. Murchison, a well-known architect of public institutional buildings, having also designed such distinguished structures as Penn Station in Baltimore and the Hoboken Terminal. The United States’ first concrete tennis stadium, its architectural features include blue and gold glazed terra-cotta shields bearing the WSTC logo and “1923″, archways, eagles, shields, flagpoles and cornices. In 1956, the stadium hosted a major turning point in American history, when Althea Gibson became the first African American woman to compete in a world tennis championship (she won the Grand Slam). The stadium also served as a performance venue from the 1950s to the 1990s (Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan, to name a few). In 2013, after many years of neglect, the West Side Tennis Club began an overhaul of the structure to restore it for use as a music venue once more. Turn left onto Dartmouth Street to make your way back to Station Square, noting the lovely streetscapes along the way.
THE EXTERIOR OF THE STADIUM
FROM JAY JACOBSON: Thanks for the story about B’nai Jeshrun. Growing up on the West Side of Manhattan in the 1940s, I remember it as one of a troika of synagogues where my friends would be Bar Mitzvahed. Rodeph Sholom, on 83rd street was most popular, as it’s Reform philosophy was appreciated by the families connected to it. I recall also dances, parties, and a gym as part of both B’nai Jeshrun and Rodeph Sholom.
My family paid no attention to religious philosophy. I was sent to the neighborhood schul. Until the day I was Bar Mitzvahed, neither of my parents had ever set foot in the very Orthodox West Side Institutional Synagogue.
And the day of that Bar Mitzvah was the last time I ever (except for my younger brother’s Bar Mitzvah) set foot in WSIS!
Part of the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian collection. Title: Crocodile statue Period: Roman Period Date: Late 1st century B.C. – early 1st century A.D. Geography: From Egypt Medium: Granite Dimensions: L. 108 × W. 37.1 × H. 29 cm, 124.7 kg (42 1/2 × 14 5/8 × 11 7/16 in., 275 lb.) Credit Line: Purchase, The Bernard and Audrey Aronson Charitable Trust Gift, in memory of her beloved husband, Bernard Aronson, 1992
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
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Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (“Children of Jeshurun”), incorporated in 1884, was the second oldest Jewish congregation in New York City. In 1864 it erected a synagogue on West 34th Street, between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, deemed by the New Amsterdam Gazette later, “undoubtedly the largest Hebrew place of worship in New York.” While it owned the structure, it leased the land on which it stood and in 1884, with that lease expiring, the congregation chose to move. On April 30, 1885 the New Amsterdam Gazette explained:
The growth of the city, however, of late years necessitated the congregation to look for another place of worship more suitable for the now remarkably increased and wealthy congregation, and more convenient to the large number of members residing uptown.
from The Decorator & Furnisher, October 1885 (copyright expired)
The New York Times reported on March 4, 1884, “The congregation B’nai Jeshurun has purchased from Newman Cowen a piece of property on the west side of Madison-avenue, about 25 feet south of Sixty-fifth-street, being about 75 feet from on the avenue, for $75,000.” The equivalent price the congregation paid for the vacant lot would be more than $2 million today.
Things quickly moved forward and two weeks later, on March 21, The New York Times reported that plans for the new structure had been filed. The firm of Schwarzman & Buchman received the commission, and a recently-hired architect was given the project. The New Amsterdam Gazette wrote, “The plan of the edifice, which was selected by competition, is the work of Don Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish architect of great ability.”
Trained in Barcelona, Guastavino had arrived in New York only three years earlier. He would become known not only for his often exotic designs based in Moorish and Byzantine traditions, but for his Guastavino Arch, an incredibly strong structural arch veneered with interlocking tiles.
The New York Times reported, “The front of the synagogue will be of brick and built according to the Byzantine style. In the basement will be a large school-room. The synagogue will seat nearly 1,100 persons and will cost about $65,000.” Although the New Amsterdam Gazette called the congregation, “now one of the wealthiest in New York,” the trustees made a cost savings move. “The old synagogue…will be torn down and the stone will be used in the erection of the new building,” said The New York Times.
Construction proceeded quickly. In reporting on the cornerstone laying on August 7, 1884, The New York Times remarked, “The edifice is already far advanced toward completion, and will be dedicated about Dec. 1 next. The basement rooms will, however, be ready for occupancy after the the October festivals.”
The “fine new building,” as described by The New York Times was dedicated on March 25, 1885. The Real Estate Record & Guide said, “There was a large and fashionable gathering, and the ceremony was of an impressive character.” The New York Times remarked, “The interior of the new synagogue was modeled after the first synagogue erected in Europe, at Toledo, Spain, and is in the style of the Spanish Renaissance. The front, which is of Philadelphia brick and stone, is of the byzantine style, with Moorish combinations and a portico in the Moorish style.”
The New Amsterdam Gazette added, “Care has been taken for an abundance of light; the side aisles receiving light through large side windows and semi-circular tops, while the main aisle is lighted through the immense circular front and dome windows, and a beautiful line of half-circular ones located on each side of the frieze of the center aisle. All the windows are glazed with fancy cathedral glass.” The stained glass windows were fabricated by Lampert & Co.
The New Amsterdam Gazette continued:
The grand organ, certainly one of the finest in the city, was built by George Jardine & Son, the builders of the Cathedral organ. The most prominent feature of the building, which cannot fail to attract the attention of every visitor, is the exquisitely carved and beautifully decorated desk designed for the reader of the Books of Moses, situated in the rear of the halls. It is constructed in the form of a balcony.
The movement of the synagogue away from Midtown created a problem. The congregation’s cemetery was located on 32nd Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. On February 23, 1887, The New York Times reported, “The old plot, which is only 40 by 100 feet, has become so desecrated by the refuse and rubbish which is thrown there that it has been thought advisable to remove the bodies.” The congregation met the day after the article to approve moving the bodies to Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.
The rabbi of B’nai Jeshurun was Rev. Henry S. Jacobs, a “fluent and graceful speaker,” according to The Menorah, who was “gifted with a remarkably pleasant voice, and is one of the best orators among the rabbis of the city.” King’s Handbook of New York said that under him, the congregation held “conservatively to the old Mosaic standards…paying little regard to the changeful spirit of the nineteenth century.”
He was succeeded in April 1893 by the Hungarian-born Rev. Dr. Stephen Seymour Wise, an outspoken critic of Tammany Hall who was described by Tammany leader Richard Croker as a “narrow old man.”
from King’s Notable New Yorkers, 1899 (copyright expired)
Rev. Wise remained seven years, preaching his last sermon on June 3, 1900. The New-York Tribune commented, “He took charge of the Madison Avenue Synagogue in April, 1893, and leaves it for a poorer cure in Portland, Ore.”
In November that year, the Rev. Joseph M. Asher of Cambridge University in England, was invited to “preach on trial.” Newman Cowen, the president of the congregation, told the New-York Tribune “that Mr. Asher is expected to be the rabbi of the congregation.” And, indeed, he was installed on December 22, 1900. The comments of the Rev. Dr. Gustav Gottheil of the Temple Emanue-El, who conducted the installation, may have hinted at problems to come. The New-York Tribune reported, “Dr. Gottheil emphasized the necessity of toleration and magnanimity. He also called to the incoming rabbi’s notice that he would find ideas more advanced here than where he formerly labored.”
Despite the warning, Asher could not accept new ways of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun. On February 15, 1908 the New-York Tribune reported, “Its ritual was not sufficiently orthodox for the new rabbi and he resigned and took charge of [a] smaller but less modern congregation.”
The congregation struggled to find a long-term leader. Asher’s successor, Dr. Benjamin A. Tintner, resigned in December 1910. He was replaced by Dr. Judah L. Magnes, who immediately began a series of far-reaching changes. The Sun reported on December 19, 1911 that “he announced that it was his intention to ‘further Judaism as it has been handed down to us by the Jewish people.'” The article said, “One of Dr. Magnes’s first acts was to shut down the organ and abolish the mixed choir. The women singers were discharged and a choir of male voices was substituted.”
from King’s Handbook of New York (copyright expired)
Dr. Magnes’s insistence on strict orthodoxy caused a rift within the congregation. A member told a reporter from The Sun, “The enthusiasm with which the new plan was received seems to have waned and the young people, upon whom we depend, are anxious to have the music restored and the services made attractive.” On December 20, The New York Times added, “Strong differences of opinion, it was learned yesterday, have arisen in the congregation of B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue at Madison Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street as to the desirability of certain change in the direction of orthodoxy.”
Dr. Judah Magnes resigned in January 1912, and was be replaced by Dr. Barnet Elzas. The congregation’s focus soon turned from infighting over religious ritual to its physical location. In 1915 it decided to relocate to the opposite side of Central Park, and on January 15, 1916 the Record & Guide reported, “The Congregation B’nai Jeshurun has been granted permission by to court to sell its synagogue property…to the Alliance Realty Company.”
The New York Times, on May 3, reported, “Madison Avenue is about to lose one of its most imposing religious structures in the demolition within a few weeks of the synagogue of the Congregation B’Nai Jesurun.” The final services had been held the previous Saturday and the congregation had arranged temporary quarters while its new synagogue at 257 West 88th Street was being constructed.
As it turned out, Raphael Guastavino’s magnificent Byzantine-inspired structure was not demolished, but otherwise obliterated by the architectural firm of Rouse & Goldstone. The firm remodeled it into a neo-Federal commercial building that bore no resemblance to its former self.
Nurses in cafeteria of Central Nurses Residence, that was demolished in the 1980’s. Gloria Herman and Ed Litcher got it right
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Deborah Dorff All image are copyrighted (c)
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