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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16th, 2021
The 521st Edition
Harsenville to Carmansville:
The Lost Villages of the
Upper West Side
from 6 SQFT
Via NYPL
In the 18th century, Bloomingdale Road (today’s Broadway) connected the Upper West Side with the rest of the city. Unlike lower Manhattan, this area was still natural, with fertile soil and rolling landscapes, and before long, countryside villages began sprouting along the Hudson River. They were a combination of farms and grand estates and each functioned independently with their own schools and roads.
6sqft has uncovered the history of the five most prominent of these villages–Harsenville, Strycker’s Bay, Bloomingdale Village, Manhattanville, and Carmansville. Though markers of their names remain here and there, the original functions and settings of these quaint settlements have been long lost.
The Harsen house in 1888, via New-York Historical Society
Harsenville ran from 68th Street to 81st Street, between Central Park West and the Hudson River. It began in 1701 when Cornelius Dyckman bought a 94-acre farm at Broadway and 73rd Street. His daughter Cornelia then married a farmer named Jacob Harsen, and they built their homestead at Tenth Avenue and 70th Street in 1763. Other farming families began to follow suit, setting up what became a small village, complete with schools, churches, and shops. At its height, it had 500 residents and 60 buildings, thanks largely to the perfect-for-tobacco soil and waterfront views. Harsenville Road was the main street, and it ran through present-day Central Park.
Somarindyck house at 77th Street
The Somarindyck family, another great farming clan, took up residence next to the Harsens on land from Columbus Circle to the 70s. Their home stood at Broadway and 75th Street, and it’s believed that Prince Louis Philippe lived here while exiled from France. They also had a second home at 77th Street, which was purchased in the late 1840s by Fernando Wood, who lived there while he served as NYC Mayor.
By the 1870s, the Harsen family began selling their land when farming fell out of fashion. In 1893, the Harsen home was torn down, and by 1911, Harsenville was no more, as brownstones and grand apartment houses began to dot the Upper West Side. There is one remnant of the village, however. The condo building at 72nd Street is named Harsen House.
Strycker’s Bay maps via the Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council
From 86th to 96th Streets was the village of Strycker’s Bay, situated atop an elevated piece of land next to an inlet. The name came from Gerrit Striker, who built his farm at Columbus Avenue and 97th Street. At the southern end, John McVickar had a 60-acre estate at 86th Street, where his grand Palladian house stood. The enclave was a wealthy suburb, made possible by a ferry that took residents downtown. Striker’s farmhouse eventually became the Striker’s Bay Tavern in the late 19th century. It featured a lawn along the river, dance floor, and shooting targets.
Today the name lives on with the Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council, a group that supports affordable housing on the Upper West Side, as well as the Strycker’s Bay Apartments on 94th Street.
Bloomingdale Insane Asylum
North of Strycker’s Bay was Bloomingdale Village, which stretched between 96th and 110th Streets. The Dutch brought the name with them in the 1600s, as “Bloemendaal,” which translates to “valley of flowers.” The Bloomgindale District originally encompassed the entire west side from 23rd Street to 125th Street, made up of the farms and villages along Bloomingdale Road. But in 1820, this particular area got its moniker when the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum opened on what is today the Columbia University campus
The Clendening mansion, depicted in an 1863 edition of Valentine’s Manual
The physical outline of the village is defined by a natural depression in the land (hence why it’s today called Manhattan Valley), and in the 1800s, most of it was occupied by the farm of wealthy merchant John Clendening. His land ran from Bloomingdale Road to Eight Avenue, between 99th and 105th Streets. At Amsterdam Avenue and 104th Street was his personal mansion, so within Bloomingdale Village the area became known as Clendening Valley.
New York Cancer Hospital
The Village began to change course in the mid 1800s when the Croton Aqueduct was constructed above the valley. Later in the century, large institutions—the Hebrew Home for the Aged, the Catholic Old Age Home, and the New York Cancer Hospital, to name a few—were erected in the area. It was thought that their location resembled the bucolic countryside, and would therefore attract wealthy patients and patrons. In 1904, Bloomingdale Village’s fate was sealed when Columbia University purchased the insane asylum building and the IRT – Seventh Avenue subway opened.
Tiemann Estate depicted in an 1858 edition of Valentine’s Manual
Manhattanville was perhaps the most bustling of the West Side villages. It also sat within a valley, this one running roughly from 122nd to 134th Streets. It was officially incorporated as a village in 1806, thanks to its commercial waterfront, warehouses, and factories, as well as the fact that it had a rail station and ferry terminal. The area was laid out by wealthy Quaker merchants who owned nearby country homes.
One of Manhattanville’s most prominent residents was Daniel F. Tiemann, who owned D.F. Tiemann & Company Color Works, a paint and pigment manufacturer. The factory had originally been located in Gramercy, but moved uptown in 1832 when a fresh water spring was discovered. Tiemann would go on to become a founding trustee of Cooper Union and mayor of NYC from 1858 to 1860. In addition to wealthy industrialists like Tiemann, the neighborhood was made up of a mix of poor laborers, tradesmen, slave owners, and British loyalists. After the Civil War, Jewish immigrants moved into the area.
In 1847, the Academy of Convent of the Sacred Heart, which would become Manhattanville College, moved just atop the hill of the village, and in 1853 the Catholic Christian Brothers moved their school from Canal Street to 131st Street and Broadway, establishing Manhattan College. Unlike Bloomingdale Village, Manhattanville didn’t change when the IRT subway opened in the early 1900s, as it only enhanced the area’s industrial and commercial nature. However, after the stock market crash of 1929, the neighborhood lost its manufacturing base and jobs and residents began to move to Harlem proper and elsewhere in the city. Today, Manhattanville is best known for being the site of Columbia University’s controversial expansion plan.
The northernmost of the Upper West Side’s lost villages, Carmansville stretched from about 140th to 158th Streets (the exact location is up for debate), today’s Hamilton Heights. It was named after the wealthy contractor, Richard Carman, who founded the area and lived on 153rd Street. He was a box manufacturer who got rich in the real estate and insurance businesses after the Great Fire of 1835. He was also friends with naturalist John James Audubon, who had his estate called Minniesland at 156th Street.
Carmansville, from an 1863 edition of Phelps’ New-York City Guide; via NYPL
It was a popular neighborhood for socially prominent families. An 1868 issue of the Atlantic Monthly described the setting: “Trim hedges of beautiful flowering shrubs border the gravel walks that lead from the road to the villas. Cows of European lineage crop the velvet turf in the glades of the copses. Now and then the river is shut out from view, but only to appear again in scenic vistas.” By the end of the 19th century, the views had become obstructed with tenements and apartment buildings for middle-class families, and most of the wealthy residents moved out. Carmansville Playground today serves as a reminder of this lost hamlet.
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
Born in New York. A pioneering abstract painter known for expressing natural forms, sounds, and musical motifs in his paintings.
Nora Panzer, ed. Celebrate America in Poetry and Art (New York and Washington, D.C.: Hyperion Paperbacks for Children in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994)
Arthur Dove, one of the pioneering abstract painters of the early twentieth century, graduated from Cornell in 1903 and worked for a period as a magazine illustrator. His discovery, in Paris in 1908, of Matisse, the Fauves, and the Cubists, as well as his encounter with aesthetic theories that stressed spiritual expression, had a crucial effect on his subsequent work. He spent much of his year abroad in southern France with Alfred Maurer, who provided Dove’s introduction to his lifelong friend and dealer, Alfred Stieglitz. Throughout Dove’s work, from the early “Nature Symbolized” series, in which houses, sails, and landscape elements are at times almost unrecognizable, to his later abstractions, Dove translated natural forms, sounds, and musical motifs into powerfully expressive paintings. Although during the 1920s Dove’s sense of humor emerged in a group of witty and formally inventive assemblages, his watercolors of the 1930s and 1940s, in which he wove imagery “into a sequence of formations” analogous to musical harmonies, are among his most distinctive works.
Virginia M. Mecklenburg Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Museum of American Art, 1987
Arthur Dove, Untitled (Landscape), ca. 1938, ink and watercolor on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1993.22.1
Arthur Dove began creating small watercolors as studies for larger paintings, but he came to appreciate them as stand-alone works and by the 1930s began to include them in exhibitions. Lyrical color and freely sketched forms reveal Dove’s impulsive, of-the-moment response to nature and his surroundings. Although celebrated as one of the country’s most accomplished abstract artists, Dove captures the American landscape through gestural lines and washes of color.
Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014
Arthur Dove, Car across the Street, 1940, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.24
Dove suffered from various illnesses that kept him housebound for weeks at a time. Nevertheless he painted the world that was visible from his glass-enclosed front porch. For a painter inspired by nature, this confinement was frustrating, but Dove transformed the nearby activity into imaginative compositions. In this watercolor, he created a colorful, visually exciting scene from an otherwise banal subject, the neighbor’s car. Defined by only two black lines, the car seems to merge with the surrounding environment.
Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2009
Arthur Dove, Black and White, 1940, gouache on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.23
Arthur Dove, Oil Tanker II, 1932, watercolor and conte crayon on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.25
Arthur Dove, Untitled (Centerport), 1941, watercolor, gouache, ink and pencil on paper mounted on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1993.22.2
Arthur Dove, The Court Room Scene, ca. 1904-1907, pencil and crayon on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Paul M. Dove, 1978.79
JAY JACOBSON, ED LITCHER, JOHN GATTUSO ALL GOT THE SUBWAY PASSING OVER THE UPPER LEVEL OF THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE
SOURCES
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
I learned this morning that Ethel passed away. Ethel Grodzins Romm was a child of the depression and a true American character.
I met her when she lived in Island House in the 1980’s. I knew she was unique when I met her at the tram station loaded down with bags of Entenmenn’s cakes. She was a construction project manager at a 5th Avenue mansion. She had figured out that the workers had to walk to Lexington Avenue for refreshments. She installed a coffee maker and daily schlepped goodies for workers.
Ethel was a character, sometimes funny, serious and never forgetful.
She left the Island to live in Boston with her brother’s family and help run a radon detection business. Her brother Lee was a MIT PhD who had worked in research and development.
Ethel had three sons. Daniel passed away a few years ago whose interests were literature and science fiction. David, a rehabilitation physician who retired from the VA and at one time did an internship at Goldwater. Joe is a well known author and speaker on science, climate change and the future.
Judith Berdy
One of my most vivid memories of Ethel is that of her tooting around Roosevelt Island on her Segue. I’m not even sure they were “street legal,” but nothing stopped Ethel. I loved – not only that she had the chutzpah to get up and learn to ride the thing- but that she was one of the first people to adopt the new technology. I’m sure Ethel was well into her 80s at the time.
Ethel was one of a kind. Nothing ever stopped her and I loved her for it. Of course, she would tell you that, too! She WAS the original “Rosie the Riveter” but really, Ethel was an original in everything she did.
Her memory is a profound blessing. Her life was an inspiration and I know she made a powerful impact in countless areas during her life, for which we have all been enriched.
Rabbi Leana Moritt
Be still. Listen. Listening is the singing and life is the song. Pray for peace. Speak up. Do justice.
Rabbi Leana Moritt (she/היא) Temple Beth-El of Jersey City 2419 Kennedy Blvd, Jersey City, NJ 07304 201.333.4229 www.betheljc.org
We just learned early this morning about the passing of Ethel Romm, on Tuesday, November 9th, of our good friend, long-time Roosevelt Islander, RIRA & RIJC member, and generous benefactor to many causes. Ethel was a genuine Woman of Valor, an accomplished author, journalist, mechanical engineer, architect and urban development expert, CEO, teacher, dedicated student of everything, and so much more. She was frequently the “first woman to be…” in many different fields. Loved History and made History on many occasions. Ethel loved her family & friends, her life here on Roosevelt Island & in NYC, and the world itself. Always out & about, her energy, curiosity and desire to learn and share her knowledge knew no bounds.
Nina Lublin
Memorial service for Ethel Romm Sunday
Subject: Remembering Ethel Romm’s extraordinary life memorial Zoom service
For those who don’t know, my mother, Ethel Romm, died 11/9 from end-stage Alzheimer’s disease
Dan Romm is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom memorial meeting.
Sunday 11/14, 1 to 3 PM
After the short service, you are invited to share one or two memories of Ethel Romm.
Meeting ID: 878 8139 3129 Passcode: 020567 One tap mobile +13126266799,,87881393129#,,,,020567# US (Chicago) +19292056099,,87881393129#,,,,020567# US (New York)
Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 878 8139 3129 Passcode: 020567 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdDYhFclT8
Ethel with Lynne Shinozaki a few years ago in Washington, D.C.
Andy Sparberg, Rob Mac Kay, Ed Litcher, Gloria Herman got it.
Among the oldest homes in New York City and New York State,
the Bowne House was built ca. 1661 by John Bowne, who emigrated from England to Boston in 1649 and settled in Flushing, Queens, when New York was under Dutch rule. His family prospered in America: the nine generations born and raised in the house produced businessmen, horticulturists, educators and politicians.
Over the course of 300 years, the family left its mark on American culture, participating in events of both regional and national significance -starting with John Bowne’s courageous defense of religious freedom in 1662, an act which inspired the principles later codified in the Bill of Rights -and continuing with subsequent generations’ abolitionist activities and participation in the Underground Railroad.
The Bowne House Historical Society was founded in 1945 by a group of local Flushing residents for the sole purpose of purchasing the house and opening it to the public as a museum in 1947. BOWNE HOUSE, FLUSHING, NY.
CORRECTION
Andy Spanberg
May I add that the description of yesterday’s photo as shown in this morning’s edition is not correct. It is not the Second Avenue Subway. It is a part of the old Second Avenue elevated line. As I wrote, it is the “Manhattan end of Queensboro Bridge, with an IRT elevated train from either Astoria or Corona turning south onto Second Avenue. This service ended in 1942 and the tracks and structure were removed soon afterward.”
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
ROOSEVELT ISLAND JEWISH CONGREGATION
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
BRING YOUR PENNIES, NICKELS DIMES AND QUARTERS TO OUR TABLE AT THE FARMER’S MARKET THIS SATURDAY,WEATHER PERMITTING.(IN CASE OF RAIN, LEAVE AT 531 DOOR STATION FOR JUDY BERDY)
THE PENNIES WILL BE SUPPORTING THE R.I.H.S. AND HELP RE-CIRCULATE COINS.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2021
THE 518th EDITION
NYC UNVEILS A NEW
MEMORIAL HONORING
AFRICAN AND NATIVE
AMERICAN BURIAL GROUND
6SQFT
BY DEVIN GANNON
Photo: NYC Parks/ Malcolm Pinckney
Hundreds of New Yorkers, mostly African and Native American residents, who were buried in Flushing at least 150 years ago were finally honored with a memorial this week. The city’s Parks Department and Queens officials on Tuesday cut the ribbon on a new commemorative plaza at the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground. The site, located north of 46th Avenue between 164th and 165th Streets, was used as a public burial ground starting as early as 1840, with over 1,000 individuals buried there until 1898. A new memorial wall includes the name of the sacred site, a brief history, and 318 recorded names of those buried there, and the new plaza has a butterfly garden and surrounding benches.
http://Photo: NYC Parks/ Malcolm Pinckney
“The reconstructed Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground memorial is a fitting tribute to those buried here who deserve dignity and respect and a space for reflection of the past and the promise of the future,” Gabrielle Fialkoff, commissioner at NYC Parks, said.
“This project is the result of the tireless efforts of the community. We are grateful to the Council Member and Borough President’s offices for their support, and to the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground Conservancy for their unfaltering dedication to preserving this site’s legacy.
” Starting in the middle of the 1800s, the town of Flushing suffered from cholera and smallpox epidemics. The town, afraid those who died from these diseases would contaminate church burial grounds, purchased land from the Bowne family to create a separate burial. According to the Parks Department, following the discovery of a link between contaminated water and cholera and improvement of hygiene, the frequency of epidemics diminished and the burial ground fell into disuse.
According to the Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground Conservancy, the plots were “indiscriminately arranged, often unmarked, and as shallow as six inches below the surface.”
At the end of the 1800s, the burial ground was used by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, which had run out of burial space at their property. Starting in 1880, the site was used as a final resting place for African Americans and Native Americans. The last burial there was in 1898, the year the City of New York was incorporated.
After Parks acquired the property, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses in 1936 built a playground on the site as part of a Works Progress Administration project, with a comfort station and wading pool added later. During construction, WPA workers found evidence of the burial ground, including pennies in the eyes of the dead, an ancient burial tradition seen also in burials excavated from the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan.
A Long Island Press article from 1936 detailed the WPA workers selling the coins for profit and described the men finding “bones galore” from the lot.
Photo: NYC Parks/ Malcolm Pinckney
When Parks started a renovation of the site in the 1990s, community activist Mandingo Tshaka called for the city to research its history. The city conducted an archaeological study in 1996, which discovered the site served as the final resting place for between 500 and 1,000 New Yorkers. Death records for the town of Flushing dated 1881 until 1898 show that during this period, 62 percent of the buried were African American or Native American, 34 percent were unidentified, and more than half were children under the age of five.
The site, formerly called “Pauper Burial Ground,” “Colored Cemetery of Flushing,” and “Martin’s Field,” was renamed in 2009, “The Olde Towne of Flushing Burial Ground.”
In 2018, plans were finally unveiled for the commemorative plaza and reconstructed pedestrian paths at the burial ground. Now open, the $1.76 million project involved the construction of a memorial wall made of an etched barre gray granite top. There is a butterfly garden at the center of the new plaza, which is surrounded by benches, flowering ornamental trees, and cardinal directions written in a local Native American language.
“At long last, this monument vividly restores the important history of this site, a burial ground unjustly desecrated and paved over by the city of New York decades ago in callous disregard for this final resting place of so many African and Native American residents in this community,” State Sen. John Liu said. “History must be memorialized so terrible mistakes will not be forgotten and repeated.”
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);
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Staff Sgt. Ruth Hanks, Sentinel, 4th Battalion, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) places a rose at each of the four crypts of the Unknowns during her last walk ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, Va., Sept. 3, 2017. Staff Sgt. Hanks is the 4th female Sentinel to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and has been guarding the tomb since September 2015. (U.S. Army Photos by Pvt. Lane Hiser)
On Veterans Day 1921, President Warren G. Harding presided over an interment ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery for an unknown soldier who died during World War I. Since then, three more soldiers have been added to the Tomb of the Unknowns (also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) memorial—and one has been disinterred. Below, a few things you might not know about the historic site and the rituals that surround it.
THERE WERE FOUR UNKNOWN SOLDIER CANDIDATES FOR THE WORLD WAR I CRYPT. To ensure a truly random selection, four unknown soldiers were exhumed from four different WWI American cemeteries in France. U.S. Army Sgt. Edward F. Younger, who was wounded in combat and received the Distinguished Service Medal, was chosen to select a soldier for burial at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington. After the four identical caskets were lined up for his inspection, Younger chose the third casket from the left by placing a spray of white roses on it. The chosen soldier was transported to the U.S. on the USS Olympia, while the other three were reburied at Meuse Argonne American Cemetery in France.
SIMILARLY, TWO UNKNOWN SOLDIERS WERE SELECTED AS POTENTIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF WORLD WAR II. One had served in the European Theater and the other served in the Pacific Theater. The Navy’s only active-duty Medal of Honor recipient, Hospitalman 1st Class William R. Charette, chose one of the identical caskets to go on to Arlington. The other was given a burial at sea.
THERE WERE FOUR POTENTIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE KOREAN WAR FOR THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. The soldiers were disinterred from the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. This time, Army Master Sgt. Ned Lyle was the one to choose the casket. Along with the unknown soldier from WWII, the unknown Korean War soldier lay in the Capitol Rotunda from May 28 to May 30, 1958.
THE VIETNAM WAR’S UNKNOWN SOLDIER WAS SELECTED ON MAY 17, 1984. Medal of Honor recipient U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Allan Jay Kellogg, Jr., selected the Vietnam War representative during a ceremony at Pearl Harbor.
THE VIETNAM VETERAN WASN’T AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER FOR LONG. Thanks to advances in mitochondrial DNA testing, scientists were able to identify the remains of the Vietnam War soldier. On May 14, 1998, the remains were exhumed and tested, revealing the “unknown” soldier to be Air Force 1st Lt. Michael Joseph Blassie. He had been shot down near An Loc, Vietnam, in 1972. After his identification, Blassie’s family had him moved to Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis. Instead of adding another unknown soldier to the Vietnam War crypt, the crypt cover has been replaced with one bearing the inscription, “Honoring and Keeping Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen, 1958-1975.”
THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER’S MARBLE SCULPTORS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANY OTHER U.S. MONUMENTS. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was designed by architect Lorimer Rich and sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones, but the actual carving was done by the Piccirilli Brothers. Even if you don’t know them, you know their work: The brothers carved the 19-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial, the lions outside the New York Public Library, the Maine Monument in Central Park, the DuPont Circle Fountain in Washington, D.C., and much more.
THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER HAS BEEN GUARDED 24/7 SINCE 1937. Tomb Guards come from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, “The Old Guard.” Serving the U.S. since 1784, the Old Guard is the oldest active infantry unit in the military. They keep watch over the memorial every minute of every day, including when the cemetery is closed and in inclement weather.
BECOMING A TOMB GUARD IS INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT. Members of the Old Guard must apply for the position. If chosen, the applicant goes through an intense training period, in which they must pass tests on weapons, ceremonial steps, cadence, military bearing, uniform preparation, and orders. Although military members are known for their neat uniforms, it’s said that the Tomb Guards have the highest standards of them all. A knowledge test quizzes applicants on their memorization—including punctuation—of 35 pages on the history of the tomb. Once they’re selected, guards “walk the mat” in front of the tomb for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, depending on the time of year and time of day. They work in 24-hour shifts, however, and when they aren’t walking the mat, they’re in the living quarters beneath it. This gives the sentinels time to complete training and prepare their uniforms, which can take up to eight hours. Tomb Guards serve for an average of 18 months.
THE HONOR OF GUARDING THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER IS ALSO INCREDIBLY RARE. The Tomb Guard badge is the least awarded badge in the Army, and the second least awarded badge in the overall military. (The first is the astronaut badge.) Tomb Guards are held to the highest standards of behavior, and can have their badge taken away for any action on or off duty that could bring disrespect to the tomb. And that’s for the entire lifetime of the Tomb Guard, even well after his or her guarding duty is over. For the record, it seems that Tomb Guards are rarely female—only six women have held the post.
THE STEPS PERFORMED IN FRONT OF THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER HAVE SPECIFIC MEANING. Everything the guards do is a series of 21, which alludes to the 21-gun salute. According to TombGuard.org:
“The Sentinel does not execute an about face, rather they stop on the 21st step, then turn and face the Tomb for 21 seconds. They then turn to face back down the mat, change the weapon to the outside shoulder, mentally count off 21 seconds, then step off for another 21 step walk down the mat. They face the Tomb at each end of the 21 step walk for 21 seconds. The Sentinel then repeats this over and over until the Guard Change ceremony begins.”
GUARDS DO NOT WEAR THEIR RANK WHILE ON DUTY AT THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. Every other service member wears insignia on their uniforms that denote their rank—but not the Tomb Guards. Since the identities and ranks of the soldiers within in the tomb are not known, the guards don’t wear their insignia to avoid potentially outranking the soldiers they’re watching over.
M. FRANK, GLORIA HERMAN, LAURA HUSSEY, ARLENE BESSENOFF GOT IT RIGHT………………..ERIE LACKAWANA TERMINAL IN JERSEY CITY
PENNIES FOR PRESERVATION
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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) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
MENTAL FLOSS
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80-foot-tall sculpture and new public plaza unveiled on Jersey City’s waterfront
6sqft
Photo Credit: SJ Martinez Photography
A massive sculptural portrait was unveiled on the Jersey City waterfront this week, along with a new public plaza. Created by Barcelona-based artist Jaume Plensa, Water’s Soul is a monumental 80-foot-tall sculpture depicting a young person in contemplation. The new permanent artwork sits on the Hudson River in Newport, the master-planned, mixed-use community developed by the LeFrak Organization and Simon Property Group.
“I believe in the spirit of water too, and its great capacity for connection and transformation. Water is the great public space — it does not belong to anyone and at the same time belongs to all of us.”
The sculpture is Plensa’s tallest work and second major installation in the New York area, preceded by “Voices” at 30 Hudson Yards in 2018.
Along with the new sculpture, a new walkway designed by MNLA was unveiled. The landscaped path connects to Newport’s Hudson River Waterfront Walkway, as well as a new “art plaza.” The newly opened plaza and pier walkway is part of a broader plan from the developer for park space on the waterfront, including a dog run and an overlook with a deck and tree pits, as Jersey Digs reported.
“This is transformative,” Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said of the sculpture. “It adds to the arts community here in Jersey City and further enhances Jersey City as an arts destination.”
Jersey City’s art scene is flourishing, thanks to the city’s longstanding public mural program, the Mana Contemporary art center, and in 2024, the first North American outpost of the Parisian museum, The Centre Pompidou.
Water’s Soul is located at 1 Park Lane South next to Newport Green and in front of LeFrk’s Ellipse rental tower. During the winter season, the sculpture will be open for public viewing from dawn to dusk.
SUNY Albany built under Governor Nelson Rockefeller.
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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Incredible, right? Called the Navarro Flats, this massive fortress of Gilded-Age extravagance was built on Central Park South at Seventh Avenue in the mid-1880s.
Twice the size of the Dakota, the Navarro Flats was also early example of apartment-style living. At the time, most New Yorkers of means still preferred living in a single brownstone or townhouse.
But “French Flats” were catching on, and the developer, Jose Francisco de Navarro, expected to make a mint selling luxury apartments to new-money New Yorkers.
He spared no expense. The seven-bedroom duplexes had as much as 7,000 square feet of floor space, including a drawing room, library, and billiards room (but only two bathrooms per apartment).
Each $20,000 duplex was part of one of eight townhouses within the complex, an arrangement thought to make the idea of apartment life more palatable, reports Nathan Silver’s Lost New York.
So why isn’t such a spectacular mishmash of Queen Anne and Gothic architecture there anymore?
Some apartments sold, but mostly, New Yorkers didn’t bite. In 1888, de Navarro was fending off lawsuits from mortgage holders, and the enormous complex met with foreclosure.
By the 1920s, it was gone–replaced by newer luxury residences the Hampshire House and Essex House.
Tags:Central Park Apartments 1880s, Central Park South, French Flats New York City, Gilded Age apartments, Incredible apartment buildings New York City, Navarro Central Park South, Navarro Flats, New York in the 1880s, New York’s luxury apartments, Old apartment buildings New York City Posted in central park, Cool building names, Midtown
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYC
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
BRING YOUR PENNIES, NICKELS DIMES AND QUARTERS TO OUR TABLE AT THE FARMER’S MARKET NEXT SATURDAY
THE PENNIES WILL BE SUPPORTING THE R.I.H.S. AND HELP RE-CIRCULATE COINS.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2021
The 514th Edition
GREGORIO PRESTPINO
ARTIST
1930’s to 1970’s
Gregorio Prestopino/001 Dominus Vobiscum 1936 oil on canvas 27×40.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino (1907 – 1984) “I knew at twelve that I was going to be an artist and that there was no other way I could conceive of having a life.”Known during the 1930’s and 1940’s as a social realist*, Gregorio Prestopino, or “Presto” as he was called by friends, spent the last several decades of his career creating a joyous, enchanted world of sunlit landscapes populated by vibrantly colored nymphs. Though these paintings were related to his previous work in their adherence to a painterly style with strong graphic underpinnings, to many observers they were such a radical departure that they appeared to have been produced by an entirely different, and much younger, artist. Prestopino’s friends Rosellen Brown and Marvin Hoffman wrote, “looking at the dark and angry early paintings, it feels as though Presto has lived his life backward, from disillusionment to joy.”Born on New York’s Lower East Side in 1907, Prestopino showed early promise and, at the age of fourteen, was awarded a scholarship to the National Academy of Design. It was there that he fell under the influence of the Ashcan painters. As a young man, he set up his first studio in Harlem and, for the next thirty years, concentrated on depicting the grit of city life – docks, laborers, vendors, Lower East Side streets and, in the 1950’s, Harlem life.Prestopino received much acclaim during the 1940’s, and was, along with Ben Shahn and Philip Evergood, on the best known of the social realist painters. He won a major award in 1946 from the prestigious Pepsi-Cola competition for this painting, Morning Conference. In 1954, on becoming the Director of the McDowell Colony, Prestopino began spending five months each year in Peterborough, New Hampshire.By the early 1960’s, Russell Lynes observed: “[in Prestopino’s work] the sound of the city… gave way to the sounds of the country, the relentless of bricks and pavement and steel to the happy disorder of dappled things.” Prestopino continued painting the sylvan world until his death in 1984.Prestopino’s influence as a teacher, mostly at the New School for Social Research in New York, has been attested to by such former students as Red Grooms. Prestopino was Painter in Residence at the American Academy in Rome during 1968-69. His work has been widely exhibited and can be found in many major public collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., which owns over twenty-five of his works.
Gregorio Prestopino/002 Days Work 1940 oil on canvas 44×36.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/005 Bread and the City 1945 oil on canvas 29×36.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/007 Two Men Two Bridges 1947 oil on canvas 26×32.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/008 Men and Images 1948 oil on canvas 26×34.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/010 Spring Garden, Coal Country 1950 oil on canvas 41×34.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/027 Green Nude with Bluejay 1972 oil on canvas 54×48.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/028 Brown Brook 1980 oil on canvas 46×50.jpg
Gregorio Prestopino/027 Green Nude with Bluejay 1972 oil on canvas 54×48.jpg
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD
When hostilities in 1939 created a combat situation between allied European nations and Germany, initiating the Second World War, the United States was officially neutral. However, the construction of ships began in America, to aid Great Britain and her allies.
When the events of 1941 pulled the U.S. into the conflict, the Navy and the Wartime Shipping Administration had a very serious need for vessels to transport war materials. This task was the duty of the country’s Merchant Marine, and all possible craft were requisitioned, including those on the Great Lakes and inland waterways.
Sailors at sea, since ancient times, have crafted all types of tales. The ferocity of a dark windswept night and the splendor of the sun descending into an endless horizon have wrought fantastic tales, which have survived for generations before the mast. One such yarn, which morphed into a fabled saga amongst seamen, was that of the Lorelei.
This sea spirit was the mythic form of a young woman who, finding herself the victim of an unfaithful fisherman, cast herself into the Rhine River in Germany. She emerged as an eternal specter, still alluringly beautiful, yet seeking to wrought vengeance on all those who took to boats. The methods of the Lorelei were that of a licentious and dissolute profligate, which certainly aided in the retelling of the tale amongst sailors.
Several years before the Second World War, George and Ira Gershwin, the wizards of Tin Pan Alley, produced a Broadway show titled, Pardon My English, based upon the legend of the Lorelei. This show was not the greatest success for the Brothers Gershwin, but its Lorelei lyrics made a lasting impression on many.
In late 1932 the New York Times opined “several of the tunes may be crooned in the privacy of one’s bathroom without the assistance of a symphony orchestra.” The New York Sun review of Pardon My English termed the show a “biological comedy.” In upstate New York, the Knickerbocker Press wrote, “it is also occasionally dirty in its lines and suggestion.” Indeed Ira Gershwin’s lyrics about the Lorelei may have precipitated that interpretation:
Back in the days of knights in armor There once lived a lovely charmer Swimming in the Rhine Her figure was divine She had a yen for all the sailors Fishermen and gobs and whalers She had a most immoral eye They called her Lorelei She created quite a stir And I want to be like her I want to be like that gal on the river Who sang her song to the ships passing by She had the goods and how she could deliver The Lorelei She used to love in a strange kind of fashion With lots of hey-ho-de-ho-hi-de-hi And I can guarantee I’m full of passion Like the Lorelei I’m treacherous, yeah-yeah Oh, I just can’t hold myself in check I’m lecherous, yeah-yeah I want to bite my initials on a sailor’s neck Each affair has a kick and a wallop For what they crave, I can always supply I want to be just like that other trollop The Lorelei
Much like the popular song “Lili Marlene,” the legend of The Lorelei was known to many mariners during World War II, no matter what flag their vessels flew.
Industrialist Henry Ford built a manufacturing empire, based near Detroit, Michigan. Ford also built plants on the eastern seaboard, which he networked together with four specially built motorships which were constructed to maximize the dimensions of the New York State Barge Canal, which linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
The Ford vessels were named for the east coast plants, Chester (Pennsylvania), Edgewater (New Jersey), Norfolk (Virginia) and Green Island in New York’s Hudson River. All these vessels were transferred to the Merchant Marine when Uncle Sam went to war, and used in coastal transport.
The United States Merchant Marine, or civilian sailors serving aboard Federal vessels, has existed since the Revolutionary War. One such merchant seaman was Curzon Scott, originally from Deposit, New York and the son of Cornelius E. Scott, a prominent attorney there.
During the First World War Curzon Scott served as a Merchant Marine officer. He was aboard a vessel which was sunk, or in sailor slang, “bumped.” Following that conflict, he found a position with the New York State Department of Public Works, and was assigned to the Binghamton office.
In 1920, as a reserve officer, Scott passed the government examination held by the United States shipping board in New York and received a license as chief mate on steam vessels of any tonnage. His wife, the former Mabel Owen, a native of Wellsburg in Chemung County, was a nurse at the Binghamton State Hospital.
In April of 1941, eight months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, Curzon Scott received a commission and re-entered the Merchant Marine. He was aboard the merchant vessel Pine Ridge, and “bumped” a second time when they ran aground near Nova Scotia, victims of saboteurs who had shifted channel buoys. The ship and everyone aboard eventually reached port safely.
Curzon Scott was next assigned as Chief Mate on the former Ford vessel Green Island, under the command of Master Josef Anderson. On May 6th, 1942, Scott was taking his turn at the helm of the Green Island while transiting the Caribbean about 80 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island on a clear day.
Suddenly, the Green Island was struck about six feet below the waterline, between the fourth and fifth cargo hatch, by a torpedo fired from the Nazi submarine U-125. The resulting explosion nearly broke the out-of-place canal boat in half, but no one aboard was injured. The pilot in command, Curzon Scott issued the order to abandon ship, and the full complement of 22 men evacuated to the two life boats.
Upon his return to Upstate New York, Scott detailed his experience staring down the surfaced sub’s gun barrel to the Binghamton Press thus, “After the lifeboats were launched, and before the submarine commander had time to ask for his information, I asked: “Have you got the third verse of the Lorelei aboard?”
The U-125 was commanded by Kapitanleutnant Ulrich Folkers, who had been awarded the Iron Cross, and had sunk four vessels previously. Scott continued with his retelling of his encounter with the Nazi Commander, “I told him that I’d been bumped three times and that I was supposed to add a new verse of the Lorelei every time — that, furthermore every member of my crew could sing two verses verbatim.”
Scott signaled his name and rank, and appealed once more “to send me the third verse” of the Lorelei if it were aboard. This elicited a response from the submarine commander who answered “No” to having the requested third verse. Scott was pleased to relate Commander Folkers’ next action, “he stood on the bridge and saluted me and motioned that we were to shove off. The ship sank in a short time.”
Curzon Scott concluded with his feeling “that he believed the crew of the Green Island was saved by his humor.” Certainly it helped that Commander Folkers was apparently familiar with the legend of the Lorelei.
The survivors of the Green Island, and their two lifeboats were picked up on May 7 by the British merchant steamer Fort Qu ‘ Appelle, which was sailing on its maiden voyage. The ship had recently been built in Vancouver, British Columbia, and launched in March, having transited the Panama Canal on its way to the United Kingdom by way of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Fort Qu ‘ Appelle landed the Green Island merchant sailors at Kingston, Jamaica on May 9, 1942, where they were repatriated.
Curzon Elliott Scott did not survive the war. He had long been under care for a heart ailment, and succumbed to a heart attack in Binghamton. The April 19th, 1943 Binghamton Press wrote that the, “43-year-old merchant- mariner and native of Deposit whose ability to grin and sense of humor probably saved the lives of 22 crewmen of a 3,000-ton motorship last May when it was torpedoed by a German submarine in the Caribbean Sea.”
Ulrich Folkers also did not survive the war, perishing with all aboard the U-125 when it was sunk by the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic, ironically a year to the day after the sinking of the Green Island, on May 6th, 1943.
The new British merchant vessel Fort Qu ‘ Appelle, never made it to Halifax, being sunk in the busy shipping lanes approximately 250 miles south and east of the Port of New York by another Nazi U-Boat (U-135). An unfortunate outcome resulted for many involved in a single wartime incident in the warm Caribbean, lending more credence to the lethal legend of the Lorelei.
Photos, from above: the launching Ford Motor Company ship “Green Island” at Great Lakes Engineering Works, Ecorse, Michigan, 1937; the Green Island arriving at New York City dock, August 4th, 1937; Curzon Scott (Binghamton Press); and Kapitanleutnant Ulrich Folkers (courtesy Uboat.net).
LAURA HUSSEY AND ED LITCHER BOTH GOT IT RIGHT! This photo of Floating Woman by Gaston LaChaise 1927 at the Museum in Canberra, Australia in the sculpture garden. One of nine casts created of this sculpture is now installed at Hunters Point South Park in Long Island City for a year.
Funding Provided by: Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation Public Purpose Funds Council Member Ben Kallos City Council Discretionary Funds thru DYCD Text by Judith Berdy
NEW YORK ALMANACK
Edited by Deborah Dorff ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT RIHS. 2020 (C) PHOTOS IN THIS ISSUE (C) JUDITH BERDY RIHS
When hostilities in 1939 created a combat situation between allied European nations and Germany, initiating the 
Industrialist Henry Ford built a manufacturing empire, based near Detroit, Michigan. Ford also built plants on the eastern seaboard, which he networked together with four specially built motorships which were constructed to maximize the dimensions of the New York State Barge Canal, which linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
The United States Merchant Marine, or civilian sailors serving aboard Federal vessels, has existed since the Revolutionary War. One such merchant seaman was Curzon Scott, originally from Deposit, New York and the son of Cornelius E. Scott, a prominent attorney there.
Upon his return to Upstate New York, Scott detailed his experience staring down the surfaced sub’s gun barrel to the Binghamton Press thus, “After the lifeboats were launched, and before the submarine commander had time to ask for his information, I asked: “Have you got the third verse of the Lorelei aboard?”