After a 90 minute flight from New York we arrived in Detroit for a 3 day adventure in the Motor City. The first stop was the Detroit Institute of Art. On the must see list was the Diego Rivera murals.
Entering the museum a grand foyer with sparkling chandeliers greet you and you proceed into the gallery.
The water fountain exudes the richness of the museum.
Detroit Industry Murals
1932-1933 Diego M. RiveraMexican, 1886 – 1957
About the Artwork
The themes established on the east wall are continued on the west wall, where the technologies of the air (aviation) and water (shipping and pleasure boating) are represented in the upper panels. The half-face/half-skull in the central monochrome panel symbolizes both the coexistence of life and death as well as humanity’s spiritual and physical aspects, while the star symbolizes aspirations and hope for civilization. This heraldic image introduces another major theme of the cycle: the dual qualities of human beings, nature, and technology. Vertical panels on each side of the west entrance to the court introduce the automobile industry theme through the representation of Power House No. I, the energy source for the Rouge complex.
TitleDetroit Industry Murals
Artwork Date1932-1933
ArtistDiego M. Rivera
Life Dates1886 – 1957
Nationality Mexican
Culture ———-
MediumFrescoes
Dimensionsvarious dimensions
ClassificationPaintings
DepartmentAmerican Art before 1950
CreditGift of Edsel B. Ford
Accession Number 33.10
CopyrightARS represents the Bank of Mexico on Rivera and Kahlo’s works of art with a few exceptions. Our murals are one of the exceptions and they are in public domain when published in the United States.
A brief video shows Rivera planning, sketching and painting the murals on the giant canvas’. Freida Callo sits with him taking notes.
The first image is a baby in a womb.
The murals are overwhelming to take in all in one visit. The images of the 1920’s assembly line with the workers, some protected, all doing dangerous tasks.
On each side of a door way are images of a worker at the Rouge power house and a manager supposedly looking partially like Henry Ford.
On the glove of the worker is a red star.
At all times there is a staff member to explain the complex stories of the mural.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
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JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
THIS MORNING WE WERE AT DETROIT AIRPORT. AT 8:47 A.M. THE AIRPORT CAME TO A COMPLETE HALT AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF A MINUTE OF SILENCE WOULD BE OBSERVED, COMPLETE WITH AN HONOR GUARD.
AFTERWARD WE SPOKE TO MR. GILMORE A TSA OFFICER. HE JOINED TSA ONE YEAR AFTER 9/11. HE TOLD US HE HAD NEVER MET NEW YOKERS WHO WERE IN NEW YORK ON THAT DAY. HE FELT IT MEANT SO MUCH HAVING MET NEW YORKERS ON THIS DAY. WE HONOR HIM FOR HIS SERVICE TO OUR COUNTY.
LOUIS I. KAHN:
THE LAST NOTEBOOK
PRESENTED BY SUE ANN KAHN
DAUGHTER OF LOUIS KAHN
RIHS & NYPL
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th
6:30 P.M.
ROOSEVELT ISLAND BRANCH
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
OPEN TO ALL AGES
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Issue # 1745
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Two volume set
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Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
I was on 36tth Avenue in Astoria and decided to see what was around the corner from Little Flower Coffee.I discovered a lovely neighborhood.
I shared a table with the neighborhood cafe that serves unique combination breakfast/brunch foods. Little Flower is owned by the family that owns Sammy’s Kabab own the same block and is Halal.
I spotted the garden loaded with sunflowers. Time to walk down the street.
Small house with grand gates and gateposts. This turned out to be a theme in the neighborhood.
The neighborhood has rows of wonderful single family homes with large entries and gardens
This house has its own little book library, perfectly matched the brick of the big house.
The secret is alleys linking to backyards and parking areas. Considered uneconomical, this style is not used now but it is so much more appealing view.
Individuality is always obvious in Queens neighborhoods. The love of steel at this home is apparent.
This squirrel observes the rules.
No cigar smoking in the house.
Crescent Street has recently been changed to 2 lanes for bikes, one for parking and one for cars. No longer the fastest way to get from there to here.
I was at Foodtown this afternoon and purchased a roast beef sandwich for lunch. I was in a rush and put it on top of my full tote bag. I got on the #6 red bus to go home. When I was in the lobby of 531, my home, I discovered the sandwich was missing. I called PSD and the officer asked which bus I was on and which direction it was going. A few minutes later he called back and told me the sandwich would be at PSD when the bus came north. I met the bus and thanked PSD for the swift response.
SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR FIRST NYPL PROGRAM
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Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
NYC HISTORY NYC GEOGRAPHY BIOGRAPHIES GUIDE BOOKS ARTS BOOKS COFFEE TABLE BOOKS WORLD WAR 1 BOOKS ARCHITECTURAL BOOKS AND MUCH MORE
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JUDITH BERDY
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
The first indication that the Fox Sisters had spiritualist talents occurred on the evening of March 31, 1848 when 11-year-old Kate and 14-year-old Maggie Fox claimed they heard knocking sounds coming from the east bedroom of their parents’ rented farmhouse in Hydesville, Wayne County, NY, about 30 miles east of Rochester.
The next night, the young ladies revealed this strange knocking spirit to their mother and older sister, Leah. The family’s excitement about communicating beyond the grave took no note that the inaugural demonstration had been staged on April first.
A few days later several neighbors were invited to hear the strange knockings. The neighborhood assemblage asked the source to guess the age of a close family friend and received the correct number of raps in return.
Mrs. Fox then asked, “If you are an injured spirit manifest it by three raps.” The knocking’s reply convinced everyone assembled that Maggie and Kate were communicating beyond earth’s mortal bonds.
Neighbors then searched the house and found strands of hair and fragments of bone in the cellar. The find prompted someone to remind the group that a peddler had disappeared, and was probably murdered in the Hydesville farmhouse.
Older sister Leah wrote a letter to Isaac and Amy Post, who were prominent members of Rochester’s spiritualist movement. The Posts invited Maggie and Kate to their home to demonstrate their talents before a group of spiritualist activists. There the knocking thumps produced an emotional reunion with the Post’s recently deceased daughter.
The Posts then rented a hall for a public demonstration that attracted four hundred spirit believers. After an arousing performance, the constable’s wife took the two girls off stage where they disrobed for examination. Finding no evidence of trickery, the constable and most of the evening’s attendees departed, convinced the sisters had been gifted a special talent.
At the time, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Weekly Tribune, was backing a tour of Dr. Franz Mesmer’s disciples promoting Mesmer’s theory of universal magnetic fluid. Evening after evening, the touring disciples waved their hands over volunteers to induce a relaxed hypnotic state they called being “mesmerized,” many of whom reported visions of a departed loved one.
Greeley recognized a good story, and his newspaper quickly followed the Fox sisters’ Rochester demonstration with an enthusiastic article about their unique talents. He then invited the sisters to the city of New York, where they met another aspiring spiritualist, Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910).
Davis called himself the Poughkeepsie Seer, but his real expertise lay in marketing, and he knew just how to promote the cute young prodigies. The sales pitch: “Communicating with the dead teaches the living about heaven and hell, assuring salvation.”
After their successful New York debut, Davis managed Fox sister tours from New York to Cincinnati. Seance attendees paid one dollar each, but private sessions were available for a considerably larger fee. In advance of their arrival, Davis paid local newspapers to carry updated stories about the sisters’ special skills. His favorite story was one about the Fox Sisters conjuring Benjamin Franklin’s spirit.
Fox seances were limited to 21 attendees and followed a format standard to the spiritualist movement. The rooms were bathed in blue-shaded gaslight, and a table of food was set out with a little sign that read, “Please partake of this fare. The spirit you seek is drawn to nourishment and encouraged by your contentment. Like us, the spirits seek sustenance.”
As customers gathered, Maggie and Kate mingled, speaking in voices so soft they were difficult to hear. With each approach, they hugged their guests, held hands, and gave the impression of a very private conversation. They asked the reason for attending and what message the departed would like to hear. Maggie did most of the talking, but neither girl took notes.
Maggie and Kate asked about the individual’s death, then asked for one pleasant memory and one memory that only the spirit would know. These pre-interviews established an intimacy that even made skeptics long for friends and relatives who had passed on.
Once they had circulated, a chime sounded, directing attendees to their seats. The sisters retreated behind a curtain while Mr. Davis (or their older sister Leah) explained that it was critical to maintain a total number of occupants evenly divisible by three. Therefore, no one could leave the room until the seance was completed.
There was to be no talking unless specifically addressed by one of the sisters. The final instruction warned everyone that alcohol must not be consumed until the cock crowed at dawn on the next day.
At this point, another chime rang out, and the sisters emerged from behind the curtain to take their places sitting in straight-back chairs in front of a small oval table covered with a long black cloth on which sat a loaf of freshly baked bread and three candles. As they lit the candles, the lamps in the room dimmed.
Maggie began, “We are deeply saddened by the loss each of you have experienced and are privileged to share with you God’s unique gift so generously bestowed on us. Communicating with the dead is serious and frightening business for both the living and the dead. By our silence we show our respect for those spirits with courage to speak. So too, it is essential that everyone hold hands no matter what transgresses. Tears can be wiped away later. Breaking the circle frightens the spirit and extinguishes the communication.”
The sisters then broke the loaf of bread into thirds. Steam rose from the broken loaf, and its freshness filled the room. Each sister tore a bite from the center of the bread; they then closed their eyes and remained silent for several moments. Soon, they began a chant of unintelligible words.
Suddenly, Maggie unleashed a forceful voice, “Our beloved Silas Abrams (or the name of another attendee’s departed loved one), we bring you gifts for life unto death. Commune with us Silas Abrams, and move among us. Join our bond of good will. Fear not our intentions.”
In response, a loud rap seemed to arise from the floor. Maggie said, “You are welcomed among these assembled souls as a friend and messenger. We are all pleased by your presence and respectful of your great exertions. One rap confirms and two raps deny. Please be open to the limitations of the living and accept our attentions.”
Over the ensuing hour, several, but not all, attendees were provided the opportunity to speak with dead relatives or friends through the code of knocking sounds. With some embellishment, Maggie and Kate recited stories shared during the earlier conversations.
As the hour closed, Maggie thanked the spirits who chose to attend and suggested that those spirits not revealing themselves might be welcomed at another time. They then closed with a few more unintelligible chants.
Audiences included farmers, businessmen, and laborers. The sisters did two shows an evening, taking in $42 a night (worth about $1,000 in 2027 dollars). It was more than common laborers made in two months and eclipsed the five-cent admission charged by most traveling lecturers.
To non-believers, the Fox sisters were dismissed as the “Rochester Knockers and Rappers.” But local newspapers, including Buffalo’s Commercial Advertizer, covered the Fox sisters’ spiritualism as a serious religious marvel, reprinting the press releases written by Mr. Davis.
Physicians, at least those making strides to embrace the principles of science, were infuriated. They dismissed the magical thinking encouraged by the Fox sisters much as they did the medical quacks peddling false hope.
In 1851, the Fox sisters booked a meeting room in Buffalo’s Phelps House Hotel. It happened to be the residence of Dr. Charles Coventry, professor of physiology and medical jurisprudence at Buffalo Medical College.
The curious Dr. Coventry attended a performance and afterwards he wrote a letter to the Commercial Advertizer that concluded, “such spectacles must propel all men of science to discourage all further waste of time, money, and credulity on the folly perpetrated by the Fox sisters.”
At Dr. Coventry’s urging, the Erie County Medical Society appointed a committee of investigation comprising Dr. Coventry, Dr. Charles Lee, two community leaders with credentials in science, and Dr. Austin Flint as chairman. Flint published a letter in the Commercial Advertizer challenging the sisters to an inspection.
The Fox sisters responded by publishing their own letter, welcoming the medical society’s inquiry. In part, their letter claimed that, “the investigation will contribute to an understanding of the important and mysterious manifestations for which we are honored to serve as an exceptional and uncommon agent.” Both letters were reprinted in several newspapers across New York State.
Within the week, the inspection was scheduled at the same Phelps Hotel where the sisters had performed. Dr. Flint began by suggesting that the sisters assume positions that would best demonstrate their abilities.
The sisters chose to sit side by side on firm, upright chairs, but asked if another attendee might be invited to bring the total present to a number divisible by three. Coventry invited a “proper” lady known to reside at the Phelps.
Maggie and Kate lit three candles on a short table before them and began their incantations according to habit. They soon confirmed the presence of a chatty, rapping spirit. At the close of their initial demonstration, the sisters expressed their delight with how accommodating the Phelps was to spirits.
At this point, Dr. Flint placed the feet of both sisters on cushions that prevented solid contact with the floor. The table with the three candles was carefully rearranged, but the spirits proved unarousable. Maggie explained that the spirits likely found the presence of so many skeptics fatiguing.
Flint apologized and removed the cushion under Kate’s feet, still no spirits could be awakened. Now Flint removed Maggie’s cushions, and in very little time the spirits were revived and the knocking recurred.
In the last phase of the inquiry, the “proper” lady Dr. Coventry recruited was instructed to hold the younger Kate’s knees. After introductory incantations, the spirits returned. Flint then instructed the woman to firmly hold Maggie’s knees, at which time spirit communications could not be produced.
Clearly, the older sister, Margaret, was the source of the rapping. Kate’s role was to reinforce Margaret’s memory and add to the sing-song nature of their incantations, but otherwise she was entirely passive. With the source of the rapping revealed, Dr. Flint ushered in two women he knew to be capable of producing similar rapping sounds by flexing their knees and ankles.
The wooden Phelps Hotel floor produced results nearly as sonorous as Maggie’s well-practiced knocks. To Flint, the explanation was now obvious. In women with supple ligaments, the broad articular surfaces of the knee joint allow considerable lateral motion. When the foot was firmly planted, a sudden lateral force can generate a rather loud noise similar to cracking the knuckles of one’s hands.
Flint rushed the publication of the committee’s findings into the March 1851 issue of the Buffalo Medical Journal. In the article, Flint expressed sympathy for people who seek remedy from grief through spiritualist communications. He admitted that even men of science have fallen victim to deceptive reasoning and at least temporarily believe things that are later proven false.
Flint hoped that similar investigations would be conducted on the mechanisms used by the many other showmen then touring the United States. The article was signed by Austin Flint, MD, Charles A. Lee, MD, and C. B. Coventry, MD.
The sisters feigned protest. They claimed the committee was typical of non-believers, like those who once denounced Galileo’s planetary theories. The official statement from the Fox Sisters was:
“It is true that when our feet were placed on cushions stuffed with shavings, and resting on our heels, there were no sounds heard, and that sounds were heard when our feet were resting on the floor; and it is just as true that if our friendly spirits retired when they witnessed such harsh proceedings on the part of our persecutors, it was not in our power to detain them.”
The Fox Sisters relished the publicity. As one might expect, believers dismissed Flint’s paper as an attack rather than an enlightenment, emphasizing that doctors are not priests. Flint countered, “we have satisfactorily demonstrated the principal phenomenon [is] an imposition and fraud, I think it as well to leave such persons in their simplicity; for, in their anxious search after the marvelous and wonderful, I fear they would grasp at something still more absurd and ridiculous.”
Flint and his committee proved to be no match for the marketing skills of Andrew Davis. Now adding an unfair persecution bias to his promotional activity, Davis continued to promote the Fox Sisters for another twenty years. Eventually Maggie, Kate, and their older sister Leah went their separate ways, maintaining their lifestyles by holding private seances for wealthy patrons.
A Philadelphia philanthropist funded the Sybert Commission to investigate spiritualism in 1884-1887. When interviewing Maggie Fox, then a tottering alcoholic, the commission repeated Flint’s investigative method and again found the rappings failed to occur if Maggie’s feet were placed on pillows.
Finally, at the Academy of Music, on October 21, 1888, Maggie, with Kate sitting nearby, took the stage before a packed house and confessed forty years of deception. She then showed how she made the rapping sounds for the assembled audience. The story was reported in the New York Herald on October 24, 1888.
While in Paris in 1854, Flint was asked about the Rochester knockings. In his response he told of an examination he had conducted on the wife of a Buffalo physician who could produce the same intense sounds produced by Margaret Fox. This woman produced double clicks or single clicks and could adjust click volume by altering the speed with which she moved her knee.
The clicks could be heard for a distance of 100 feet and in the floor below, but required her feet to be firmly planted on a hardwood floor. Since the Fox Sister inquiry, Flint had encountered a number of women who could generate rapping sounds, though none claimed communication with the dead.
Flint concluded, “The extent with which spiritual rapping belief has prevailed in the United States offers a sad illustration of the credulity of mankind.”
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New York Almanac
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U Thant Island: The Quirky Story of NYC’s Smallest Island
U Thant Island is located in the East River between the United Nations complex and Long Island City, named for the former UN Secretary General.
Situated halfway between the United Nations complex and Long Island City is a tiny 1/2 acre island that appeared in the East River in the 1890s. U Thant Island, as it is known, is nicknamed after former United Nations Secretary General from Burma — a story we will get into shortly.
The island was created from materials excavated by piano manufacturer William Steinway in the attempt to build underwater trolley tunnels in the East River between Manhattan and his company town in Astoria, Steinway Village. Workers dug a shaft down through an outcropping of granite rock known then as Man-o’-War Reef and the excavated rubble formed the man-made island, officially known as Belmont Island.
October 14, 1906 New York-Tribune. Image from Library of Congress, Serial and Government Publications Division.
Steinway died in 1896 before the completion of the tunnels, which were finished a decade later under the auspices of the first subway line, the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT). A historic photograph in the New-York Tribune from 1906 shows the newly created island packed with buildings and the mining shaft. Nobody lived here — it was intended for the equipment and activity connected to the mine and as an access point to the tunnels below. The caption reads: “A man-made island in the East River. A shaft it in leads down to the Belmont Tunnel beneath the stream, where the ‘sandhogs’ are boring day and night.” Those buildings remained on the island until around 1918.
The construction of the Steinway Tunnel was by no means a safe endeavor. Four workers died in an accident in the shaft in 1906. Much like the engineering feat that was the creation of the first East River tunnel just nearby in 1893, these large infrastructure projects were the products of ambitious, sometimes grandiose, visions of what the city could be. Today the tunnels are still used by the 7 line train, a testimony to the foresight of Steinway, Belmont and the early industrialists.
Belmont Island was named for August Belmont Jr. who was one of the main financiers of the IRT and its President. He was so important, he actually had his own private subway car that still exists today. How did it became known as U-Thant Island? In the 1970s, a group of employees from the United Nations who were followers of the guru Sri Chinmoy and called themselves the Peace Meditation at the United Nations unofficially named it for Chinmoy’s friend U Thant, the UN Secretary General from Burma. Chinmoy, who was born in British India (now Bangledesh) came to the United States in 1964 and lived in Jamaica, Queens. He was giving meditations twice a week at the United Nations, on invitation from U Thant.
The use of U Thant Island was a formal takeover, as the group leased the island from the State of New York and dedicated the island on September 16, 1977 to U Thant, who had died three years before. After New York Governor Hugh Carey stated his support of the initiative, the group “planted trees and flowers, and inaugurated its official lease of the island from the state,” according to Charlie Hailey in the book Spoil Island: Remaking the Makeshift Archipleago. There was even an award ceremony for the U Thant Peace Award that took place there.
The United Nations from the East River
The group was allowed on U Thant Island once or twice a year to maintain the greenery they planted, but increased security pretty much ended visits by the mid 1990s. They left behind a 30-foot tall steel “Oneness Arch” which has a capsule buried below containing personal items and writings from U Thant.
Remnants of the arch are still there, next to U.S. Coast Guard beacon that also has a sign with the nickname of the Island, the UN logo, the words “U Thant Island: Compassion—Home. Dedicated to World Peace through Prayer and Meditation” and a quote by U Thant: “Every man or woman should not only ask himself or herself what he or she is going to do in the world, but also ask ‘Will there be a world in which I can live.’” We have not been able to confirm if the personal items are still there. It wasn’t the first or last takeover of U Thant Island. In 1972, activists occupied the island for 2 1/2 hours and declared it the “Soviet Jewry Freedom Island” in protest of a speech at the United Nations by Leonid Brezhnev, the long time Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and his announcement of the diploma tax that was enacted on graduates from the USSR who wished to emigrate.The occupation was led by Percy Sutton and Robert Abrams, the Manhattan and Bronx Borough Presidents respectively. Then in 2004, in protest of increased security in New York City for the Republican National Convention, the artist Duke Riley sailed to U Thant Island and proclaimed it a sovereign nation. Today, U Thant Island, said to be New York City’s smallest island, is considerably smaller than when it was being used in the excavation of the tunnels. The manmade platform and edges that were built up to support the various buildings and structures are long gone. Its impermanence fits the philosophies of Chinmoy and U Thant, as Hailey writes in his book: “It represents the precariousness as well as the triumphs of human intervention…Meditating on the artificial island, U Thant could contemplate human vulnerability and agency through a landscape element that was not only a tiny outcropping but also the waste of human activity. This residual nature made it a particularly compelling tool for understanding impermanence and instability.”
What remains of U Thant Island is a narrow rocky island about 50-100 feet x 200 feet in size with a Coast Guard beacon “Roosevelt Island Reef Light 17,” the collapsed relics of Oneness Arch, some shrubs and a few stubby trees. New York City has designated it an Recognized Ecological Complex, a protected site for migrating birds.
You’ll often find a large flock of seagulls and double-crested cormorants on the rocks, striped bass in the waters below, and we assume an occasional appearance of the seals who have been known to appear on a nearby rock off Roosevelt Island. Jurisdictionally, U Thant Island belongs to Manhattan and Community Board 6, which includes Stuyvesant Town – Peter Cooper Village, Gramercy, Kips Bay, Murray Hill, Tudor City, Turtle Bay, and Sutton Place
U Thant Island is a curious repository of many moments in New York City’s history: its natural geological origin as a reef, a site of industrial intervention and ingenuity at the turn of the 19th century, a place of both protest and contemplation during the early years of the United Nations, and finally a nature sanctuary seen by New Yorkers and tourists as the city’s waterways become a place of both transit and entertainment once again..
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UNTAPPED CITIES Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
I was walking up Park Avenue from 33rd Street to 37th and discovered some sites that interested me on this warm, humid and damp morning. On the corner of 35th Street this plaque commemorates the farm named Inclenberg owned by Robert and his wife Mary Murray.
Where in colonial Manhattan was Inclenberg?
The only thing marking it is a bronze plaque discreetly affixed to an apartment building on Park Avenue and 35th Street in today’s Murray Hill.
But in the 1750s, with New York City concentrated far downtown, this was the center of a 29-acre hilltop estate known as Belmont or Inclenberg, the latter also lending its name to the surrounding area.
“A magnificent place altogether was Inclenberg . . . approached by an avenue of magnolias, elms, spruce and Lombardy poplars . . . the spacious, two-story mansion had a broad veranda extending around three sides, and . . . front windows commanding a view of Kip’s Bay and the East River.”
It was the home of prosperous businessman Robert Murray and his wife, Mary Lindley Murray, who entertained the city’s elite there, including George Washington.
Hosting Washington wasn’t Inclenberg’s only brush with Revolutionary War–era notoriety.
Legend has it that in 1776, Mary Lindley Murray—who, unlike her secret Loyalist husband, was a fierce supporter of American freedom—supposedly used tea, cake, and female charm to helped the Patriots escape the British army.
“When Gen. William Howe crossed the East River from Long Island in 1776, pursuing Washington’s troops and attacking New York City, Mrs. Murray and her daughters invited General Howe and his officers to tea,” states a 1999 New York Times article.
“They accepted and were detained long enough to allow Washington and his troops to escape.”
The Murrays died by the turn of the 19th century; their mansion burned down in 1835. The neighborhood and its once-formidable hill carry their name—while Inclenberg has been almost forgotten.
A New Look for Building Canopies
NY TIMES (c)
Since the weather was dark and raining, I have used the NYTimes images.
If you notice walkers slowing down in front of 41 Park Avenue in Manhattan, and wonder why, just look up.
Sheltering the sidewalk is a fabric entrance canopy printed on top and bottom with a graphic treatment by Ara Starck, the Paris-born, New York-based artist. Seen from below, the work, named Stonehenge Stellaris, offers a surreal take on the heavens — an abstract map of Manhattan depicting Stonehenge NYC’s 23 rental buildings as constellations, where your location is indicated by a company logo. The top of the canopy, viewable from apartments above, depicts leafy branches that blossom into human hands.
“The awning is very important because it’s the first thing that greets you and then the last thing you see when you leave,” said Ms. Starck, a daughter of the high-profile designer Philippe Starck.
“I’m not the type of painter who thinks that art should be in a gallery,” added Ms. Starck, who has painted expansive ceilings in hotels designed by her father, including Le Meurice in Paris and SLS South Beach in Miami Beach. “The more I can go outside the frame, or even outside on the street, the happier I am.”
The side entrance to the UNION LEAGUE CLUB enhances Park Avenue
Time for a light lunch. Scandinavia House has a delightful cafe with a great snack to full meal menu.
Interesting mural on the corner of 50 Street and Vernon Blvd.
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NY TIMES EPHEMERAL NEW YORK Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
He’s hardly a household name today. But Utah-born John Held, Jr. helped create the popular imagery of the 1920s.
Held made Jazz Age icons out of bobbed-hair flappers, college guys in raccoon coats, sporty women wielding tennis rackets, and tuxedoed partygoers dangling cigarette holders from their lips.
His gently satirical drawings depicting a carefree and exuberant era appeared on dozens of national magazine covers as well as inside periodicals and newspapers. His distinct style of work even made it to the book jacket of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age.
Then came the stock market crash. Held turned 40 in 1929, lost a lot of money, suffered a nervous breakdown, and found that his once-constant and highly lucrative artwork commissions had mostly dried up.
He was now free to do what he came to New York in 1912 for: to pursue the fine arts and become a watercolor painter.
In the Depression of the 1930s, when the city’s new skyscrapers might look to some like tall gray husks, Held depicted them as magical and luminous—radiant under the lavender, pink, blueish-white skies of dawn and dusk.
They’re a radical departure from his work a decade earlier, which featured stylish youth drawn in exaggerated angular proportions that suggest motion and energy. His watercolors, on the other hand, depict no people at all.
“From 1934-1936, Held’s view of the world turned more sober,” states the art website Arthur.
“The upper stories of a building on Sixth Avenue near Central Park afforded Held a high vantage point. From this perspective, the artist transforms the massive New York skyscrapers into flat patterns of right angles and colored shadows.”
The writer behind the website describes Held’s work as wistful. I think wondrous might fit as well.
Held spent the last years of his life on a farm in Belmar, New Jersey and died from cancer in 1958. He returned to the city for good; he’s buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
MICHAEL C.HALL, STAR OF DEXTER-THE INSURRECTION FILMING AN EPISODE AT THE TRAM PLAZA YESTERDAY
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EPHEMERAL NEW YORK Judith Berdy
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
