Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Fulton Ferry and the Creation of New York’s First Suburb

Posted on March 12, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Ferries have made a bit of a comeback lately with the East River Ferry, Governor’s Island Ferry, and even a ferry to Ikea in Brooklyn.  The first ferry route between Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, however, was established in the 1630s, just a few years after the settling of New York by the Dutch.  While Cornelius Dircksen Hoagland may have been the first to run a ferry between the two boroughs, Robert Fulton and his brother-in-law William Cutting popularized it in more modern times.

Fulton Ferry House in 1746, ca. 1850. South Street Seaport Museum, Print Collection.

Manhattan and Brooklyn  have always been dependent on one another (a large percentage of Hoagland’s passengers were farmers bringing daily produce into Manhattan).  Manhattan residents were moving to Brooklyn as far back as the 1600s, but the introduction of the Fulton Ferry,  which opened in 1814, cemented Brooklyn as New York’s first suburb.

George Hayward. Fulton Ferry Boat Over, 1859. South Street Seaport Museum, Print Collection.

Unlike ferries in the past, the Fulton Ferry provided not only regular service, but steam vessels between the two boroughs.  The result was a 12-20 minute passage, which was short enough to enable people to live in Brooklyn and commute daily into Manhattan.   Population growth in Brooklyn expanded rapidly around this time; the population sprang from 1,603 in 1796 to 186,000 in 1854, of which 35,000 used the ferry daily.  Not only did the population grow, but business did as well.  As Russel Granger from Whitman’s Brooklyn wrote, “Coal yards, hotels, oyster houses, an iron foundry, a marble yard, a wood yard, a flour mill, an ice house, banks and distilleries provided the ancillary businesses to make the Fulton Landing one of the most thriving ports on the eastern seaboard before the Civil War.”

Fulton Ferry Terminal with the Brooklyn Bridge under construction in the background, ca. 1880. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.8404.

Fulton Ferry Commutation Ticket, 1837. South Street Seaport Museum. 1981.22.

With these numbers came the chance to make big money, which is exactly what the ferry aimed to do.  The Fulton Ferry (now renamed the Union Ferry) slowly reduced its fare to knock out its competition, only to double its rates once its competition was destroyed.  New Yorkers are no strangers to fare hikes, but doubling the rate caused significant outrage.

Fulton Ferry House, 1856. South Street Seaport Museum, Print Collection.

The ferry eventually fell victim to changes in technology, with the Brooklyn Bridge striking a severe blow to its popularity.  Although it survived another 40 years after the Bridge’s construction, the ferry finally ceased operation in 1924.  Brooklyn and New York wouldn’t be connected by ferry again until 2006.

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Brooklyn’s Boweries

Posted on November 20, 2012 by | 1 Comment

A few months ago I attended the Wyckoff House’s country fair, held on the grounds of New York City’s oldest surviving building. The house is an anachronism among the car lots and fast food restaurants dotting the intersection of East 58th Street and Clarendon Road in the East Flatbush-Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Simon Benepe. New York (N.Y.). Dept. of Parks and Recreation. Wyckoff House. 1988. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.7902

Built around 1652, the Wyckoff House was originally a Dutch West India Company bowerie, or farm. Pieter Claesen Wyckoff, a Dutch immigrant and indentured servant, acquired the farm in 1652 after his term of servitude expired. Succeeding descendants of Pieter Wyckoff continued to live in the house and farm the land until 1901. Miraculously, the structure survived the rapid development of Brooklyn in the 20th century, and was the first landmark in the five boroughs designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission upon its establishment in 1965.

Josephine Barry. Wyckoff House, oldest bldg. in the 5 boroughs. 1948. Museum of the City of New York. 75.43.13

Of course, Brooklyn was once home to many Dutch farms, whose landowners took advantage of the fertile land and surrounding marshes and basins. Vestiges of this heritage remain, in one form or another.

The Van Pelt Manor house was built around 1686, at what is now the intersection of 18th Avenue and 82nd Street in Bensonhurst’s Milestone Park.

Van Pelt manor house. 1911. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7899

Well at the Van Pelt house. 1903. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7900

The Van Pelt family lived in the house until 1910, when Townsend Cortelyou Van Pelt deeded the estate to the city’s Parks & Recreation department on the “express condition that the said premises be used and maintained as a site for exhibiting and preserving thereon a certain old Dutch milestone.” The milestone in question is the oldest extant in the city, in the possession of the Brooklyn Historical Society. A replica can be found inside the park. The house, unfortunately, burned down in 1952.

Josephine Barry. Van Pelt Manor House, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. ca. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. 75.43.15

The Vechte-Cortelyou house stood on what is now 4th Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets in Park Slope. Built by Nicholas Vechte in 1699, the farmhouse was well situated near the Gowanus Creek, facilitating the harvest of oysters and the transport of goods down the waterway to Lower Manhattan.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The Vechte-Cortelyou House at Gowanus in 1699. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.34.1889

The house also played an important role during the American Revolution. During the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776, British troops took over the house and used it as an artillery position against patriots running for their lives across the Gowanus Creek. After the war, the house was sold to the Cortelyou family. The original structure is no longer standing, but in the 1930s  a replica was built in an adjacent space, using some original stones. It is now called the Old Stone House.

Elijah C. Middleton. Cortelyou House, a Relic of 1776. ca. 1800. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.3546

The Lefferts house was built around 1783 by Pieter Lefferts, a fourth-generation Dutch American and lieutenant in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Here it is below, in its original location at 563 Flatbush Avenue in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush, Brooklyn.

Lefferts homestead. ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7679

In 1917, the estate of John Lefferts, Pieter’s son, offered the house to the City of New York, on the condition that the house be moved to Prospect Park. The move took place in 1918, and the house remains in the park today.

Lefferts homestead. ca. 1935. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7841

Click on this link to view more images of Brooklyn’s boweries. These images are all available in various sizes as museum quality archival prints. If you see something you want to hang on your wall, email us at reproductions@mcny.org

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The Beecher-Tilton Affair

Posted on October 23, 2012 by | Leave a comment

What do women’s rights, religion, and sex all have in common?  The Beecher – Tilton Affair.

Photographer unknown.Henry Ward Beecher, ca. 1860. Museum of the City of New York. 33.153.1

Henry Ward Beecher was the first minister of the Plymouth Church, in Brooklyn, appointed in 1847.   Raised as one of thirteen children (including half-siblings) in a strict Presbyterian household in Litchfield, Connecticut, Beecher was somewhat reticent and bashful as a child,  but grew to be a charismatic  preacher.  Beecher was popular amongst his congregation, and according to some sources, especially so with young, attractive women.   Rather than preaching the harsh judgment of God, as his father had, Beecher spoke of the loving presence of God.  Beecher was known for taking stands against slavery and anti-Semitism; and championing women’s suffrage, temperance, and education.

Illustration from Harper’s Weekly. “Get Thee Behind Me, (Mrs.) Satan!” Thomas Nast (1840-1902), 1872. Museum of the City of New York. 99.124.22.

Despite Beecher’s belief in certain equal rights for women, such as the right to vote, Beecher was not in favor of complete equality for women.  He spoke out against Victoria Clafin Woodhull’s concept of “free-love,” or in other words, the right of women to marry, divorce, and bear children without the interference of the government, same as a man.  Woodhull and her sister Tennessee were both advocates of women’s rights, and an excerpt from One Moral Standard for All: Extracts from the lives of Victoria Clafin Woodhull and Tennessee Clafin, states “if a male debauchee is allowed to circulate in respectable society and marry women with unsoiled robes, then the female debauchee should be allowed the same privileges and be treated in the same manner.  This is justice – not mercy, not charity!” (Museum of the City of New York.  F2011.16.7).

Woodhull accused Beecher of hypocrisy, claiming that he himself practiced the very sort of free-love principles he denounced to his congregation, and was in fact involved in an affair with a married woman, Elizabeth Tilton.   Elizabeth Tilton and her husband Theodore were both members of the Plymouth Church Congregation.   According to Richard Wightman Fox, author of Trials of Intimacy: Love and Loss in the Beecher-Tilton Scandal, Theodore Tilton was once one of Beecher’s most committed devotees.  The two had a deep personal relationship, as well as a professional relationship through their work on the editorial content of the national religious journal Independent.   Beecher even presided over the Tiltons’ marriage.

(left) Photographer unknown. Theodore Tilton, ca. 1870. Museum of the City of New York. F2012.58.1235. (right) Pendleton Photographers. Elizabeth Titlon, ca. 1870. Museum of the City of New York. F2012.58.1236.

 The Beecher-Tilton Affair was alleged to have taken place during the 1860s,  when, due to conflict in the relationship and Theodore’s extended absences related to his work, Elizabeth sought the companionship of Beecher.   In 1870, Elizabeth confessed to her husband that she had engaged in an adulterous relationship with Beecher.  The confession was soon well-known among certain influential members of Plymouth Church, and eventually reached the ears of Woodhull, who then made the confession public.  Beecher and Theodore badgered Elizabeth to retract her confession, then retract the retraction, respectively.  By 1873, Theodore Tilton was no longer editor of the Independent, and in fact the journal came down hard against Tilton and in support of Beecher.  Tilton was also excommunicated from the Plymouth Church congregation.

Despite much published evidence of the affair, Plymouth Church exonerated Beecher, leading Theodore Tilton to bring suit against him in 1874 for “criminal intimacy” with his wife.

Admission card to “Tilton vs. Beecher,” 1875, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 32.287.6.

The trial was opened in January of 1875, and captivated the nation.  The significance of the trial was not lost on Beecher, as evidenced in the letter below, which states “But this poor note may have an extrinsic interest as being written at the climax of this remarkable trial.”

Letter from Henry Ward Beecher to Mrs. Southwick, June 24, 1875, in the Letters Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.3373.

At the close of the trial in July of 1975, the jury deliberated for six days, but could not reach a verdict.   Following the trial, Plymouth Church exonerated Beecher once again.  Theodore Tilton moved to Paris following the trial, where he lived out the remainder of his life.  Elizabeth Tilton remained a member of the Plymouth congregation until she, yet again, re-confessed to having an affair with Beecher in 1878.  At that point, she was also excommunicated from Plymouth Church.  Beecher remained a popular figure, though he never received quite the level of adulation he was accustomed to before the trial.

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Hidden in Plain Sight

Posted on August 14, 2012 by | Leave a comment

New York is home to many humble cemeteries right on the beaten path, their presence unannounced by towering monuments. Many of the city’s parks, such as Madison Square and Bryant Park, originated as potter’s fields. Other cemeteries have somehow weathered the test of time and withstood ever-encroaching development. If you’re not paying attention, you might walk right past them and not even notice.

George Miller, Jr. Jewish cemetery at Bowery near Chatham Square. ca. 1930. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.12.34

The first Shearith Israel cemetery at St. James Place near Chatham Square in Chinatown dates back to the 17th century.

Beecher Ogden. Jewish Burial Ground. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.2658

The oldest extant tombstone is from 1683, belonging to Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita.

Beecher Ogden. Graves in the Jewish cemetery. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.2667

It is often referred to as the first Shearith Israel cemetery, because it is the oldest surviving burial ground of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. But the synagogue’s oldest cemetery can be traced back to 1656, when authorities granted to Congregation Shearith Israel “a little hook of land situate outside of this city for a burial place.” Unfortunately, its precise location is now unknown.

Robert L. Bracklow. Jewish Cemetery, Chatham Square. 1880-1910. Museum of the City of New York. 93.91.359

Shearith Israel was founded in 1654 by 23 Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil. It was New York City’s only Jewish congregation until 1825. The cemetery is the final resting place for a number of notable people. The image below shows the tombstone of Jonas Phillips, a merchant, Freemason, and ardent supporter of the American cause during the Revolutionary War.

Beecher Ogden. Jewish Cemetery on New Bowery Street. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.2666

Phillips is not the only patriot buried in the cemetery. Below you can see the headstone of Gershom Mendes Seixas, Shearith Israel’s cantor, who also advocated for the United States during the revolution. Seixas was a participant in the 1789 inauguration of George Washington.

Beecher Ogden. Graves in the Jewish Cemetery. 1950. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.2680

At the bustling intersection of Church and Flatbush Avenues in Brooklyn stands the Flatbush Dutch Reformed Church. The landmarked structure was built from 1793-1798 and designed by Thomas Fardon.

Dutch Reformed Church, Built 1796, Flatbush Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York Postcard Collection. F2011.33.1976

The adjoining graveyard quietly blends into the surrounding neighborhood.

Flatbush Avenue Dutch Reformed Church. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7417

The engraved text on many of the tombstones has been rendered illegible by exposure to the elements.

Cemetery of the Flatbush Avenue Dutch Reformed Church. ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.7510

The surnames of some of the people buried in the churchyard are reflected in the names of Brooklyn neighborhoods and streets: Peter Lefferts, Catherine Wyckoff, and Philipus Ditmas.

George P. Hall and Son. Cemetery of the Dutch Reformed Church. ca. 1900. Museum of the City of New York. 92.53.35

The New York Marble Cemetery, bounded by Bowery, 2nd Avenue, and 2nd and 3rd Streets in the East Village, is New York City’s oldest public non-sectarian cemetery.

First Marble Cemetery. ca. 1910. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archives. X2010.11.243

Also called the Second Avenue Cemetery, it was incorporated in 1831. Most of its 2,080 burials took place between 1830 and 1870.

Chicago Albumen Works. Jacob A. Riis. Old Marble Cemetery. 1895. Museum of the City of New York. 90.13.1.283

Public concern over yellow fever outbreaks caused legislators to outlaw earth burials, so 156 marble vaults were built 10 feet underground. There are no gravestones in the cemetery, although you can see names of the deceased on plaques in the surrounding walls.

Jacob A. Riis. The Old Marble Cemetery — proposed for a play ground, taken in summer 1895. Museum of the City of New York. 90.13.1.281

The marble used for the cemetery’s vaults, plaques, and lintels is soft and susceptible to the elements. The Dead House, used for the temporary storage of remains, was particularly vulnerable and had to be demolished in 1955.

Jacob A. Riis. The Dead-house in Old Marble Cemetery. 1895. Museum of the City of New York. 90.13.1.285

For more information about these sites, please visit:

http://www.1654society.org/

http://www.facebook.com/FlatbushReformedChurch

http://www.marblecemetery.org/

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Officer Stanley Kronzak, North Brooklyn Beat from 1936-1954

Posted on July 17, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Like most of New York City, the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of north Brooklyn have changed considerably in the last 75 years.

New York City Patrolman’s Log Books, 1936-1954, in the Stanley Kronzak Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 94.90.20A – 94.90.20II.

I obtained a unique glimpse into these neighborhoods’ past through the patrol notebooks of Officer Stanley Kronzak of the New York City Police Department.  Officer Kronzak was born in Pinsk, Russia, in 1908, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1911.  He joined the police force in 1936 and was assigned to the 87th Precinct, which can no longer be found on current police precinct maps.  Based on the locations  referenced in his logs, Kronzak’s beat appears to have fallen in the eastern section of north Williamsburg and south Greenpoint, coinciding with parts of present day 90th and 94th precincts.  The notebooks cover the years of 1936 – 1954, and include Officer Kronzak’s record of each day’s events.

In most cases, Kronzak’s days were fairly routine.  On November 29, 1936, he noted the following, “Conditions reported… No door on street lamp – cable exposed – Cooper Park, pole#2W2C.”

Woodhull & Gale. Shelter House, Cooper Park, ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.7666.

Wurts Brothers. Grand Street and Graham Avenue, N.E. corner. Old buildings, Graham Avenue elevation, 1930. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.7192.

On June 15, 1948, he recorded that he escorted a man of “719 Grand Street [with] store receipts to Bank at Grand and Graham,” and later in the day escorted the Grand Theater receipts to the same bank.  On many days, Kronzak simply recorded the time, with the statement, “nothing to report.”

Excerpt from “The ‘Wick: Published to Encourage Thrift, by the Bushwick Savings Bank,” 1949, in the Stanley Kronzak Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 90.94.18.

Officer Kronzak is pictured to the left in “The ‘Wick,” a publication of the Bushwick Savings Bank, the same bank mentioned in the excerpt above.  The bank remains standing on the corner of Graham and Grand and though the stone facade still bears the name “Bushwick Saving Bank,”  it now houses a Chase bank.

Letter of Recognition to Officer Stanley Kronzak from Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine, 1942, in the Stanley Kronzak Collection. Museum of the City of New York, 90.94.13.

On April 17th, 1942, things got a little more exciting.  At approximately 1:15 PM, two men held up Vincent Perecelli’s bar and grill at 193 Frost Street.  The men made off with $333 from Mr. Perecelli’s pockets.  The two men ran from the premises and Mr. Perecelli began shouting “Hold up!”  The perpetrators first attempted to flee the scene in an automobile driven by a third man, but as Perecelli pursued them, the driver abandoned it and the robbers took off on foot.  Two detectives nearby heard the calls and apprehended one man. The other two, however, remained at large.   The detectives alerted a nearby patrol car.   Officer Kronzak was one of the two patrolmen in that police car. He gave chase and apprehended one of the robbers, recovering the stolen money and two loaded revolvers.  Following this event, Officer Kronzak received a letter commending his performance from the New York City Police Commissioner.

The image below shows the 15th Anniversary Dinner of his police academy class.  Kronzak is the man about half-way back, directly in front of a pitcher of beer on the banquet table, and is the only man in the whole photo wearing a bow-tie.  Officer Kronzak served on the police force for another five years following the dinner shown here, retiring in 1956 after 20 years of service and going on to work for a trucking company.

Techni-Photo Studio, Fifteenth Reunion of the Police Academy Class of March 1936, 1951. Museum of the City of New York. 90.94.11.

Many thanks to our intern, Richard, who assisted with matching photographs from our collection to the locations mentioned in Officer Kronzak’s logs.  Click on these links to view more images of the areas Kronzak patrolled in the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

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Summer in the City

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Now that summer is in full swing, we look back at the ways New Yorkers have either escaped or embraced the heat.

The Drive in Central Park was a place to see and be seen, particularly for the wealthiest New Yorkers, who dressed in their finest attire and rode carriages through the park.

Byron Company. Central Park: The Drive, Summer. 1894. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.17778

At the turn of the century, long black stockings typically accompanied women’s bathing suits (or bathing gowns, as they were called). Bathing suits became less restrictive a few years later, when women began participating in competitive swimming.

Byron Company. Sports, Bathing, Midland Beach. 1898. Museum of the City of New York. 93.1.1.17470

Before air conditioning, it was not uncommon for tenement dwellers to put their mattresses on the roof and sleep through the season’s hottest nights.

John Sloan. Roofs, Summer Night. 1906. Museum of the City of New York. 82.200.1

The Jackie Robinson Pool originally opened as the Colonial Park Pool in Harlem on August 8, 1936. It was one of 11 swimming pools opened throughout the city that year and funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal agency created to combat the Great Depression.

Sid Grossman. Federal Art Project. Colonial Park Swimming Pool, Harlem. 1939. Museum of the City of New York. 43.131.9.58

Some New Yorkers preferred water hoses to swimming pools.

United States. Office of War Information. Children spraying a hose from a porch. 1944. Museum of the City of New York. 90.28.88

Every summer, Coney Island’s boardwalk bustles with city dwellers seeking a respite from the heat.

Andrew Herman. Federal Art Project. Feeding Ice-Cream to the Dog. 1939. Museum of the City of New York. 43.131.5.34

Nathan’s Famous opened in Coney Island at Surf and Stillwell Avenues in 1916, where it still stands today and attracts scores of New Yorkers and tourists alike.

Andrew Herman. Federal Art Project. Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand, Coney Island. 1939. Museum of the City of New York. 43.131.5.13

Coney Island’s Steeplechase Park began hosting an annual poolside beauty contest called Modern Venus in 1913. Beauty contests flourished as bathing suits became skimpier.

Reginald Marsh. Modern Venus Contest at Steeplechase Park. 1939. Museum of the City of New York. 90.36.2.2.2F

After World War II, folk singers began congregating in Washington Square. The singers and their audience clashed with some residents of the neighborhood, who thought they were a nuisance. In 1947, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation started issuing permits for public performances in city parks. In 1961, Parks Commissioner Newbold Morris rejected folk singers’ applications to play in Washington Square. Protests ensued, culminating in a fight between the musicians and their supporters and the police seeking to clear the crowds. In the end, a compromise was reached, with folk singers being allowed in the park on Sunday afternoons.

Frederick Kelly. Musicians – Washington Square. 1962. Museum of the City of New York. 01.59.22

Some people, like the man below, embrace the “if you can’t beat the heat, join it” philosophy.

Benedict J. Fernandez. Male Beauty, Coney Island, 1970. Museum of the City of New York. 99.150.23

Skully, also known by variants like “skellie,” is a children’s street game played with bottle caps. Its popularity among youth began to fade in the 1980s.

Joseph Rodriguez. Game of Skellie, East Harlem, 1987. Museum of the City of New York. 2007.8.1

A telltale sign that summer has arrived is hearing the music from ice cream trucks. Ice cream vendors have used noise to attract customers since the late 1800s. But not everybody welcomes the familiar melody of ice cream trucks. In 2005, Mayor Michael Bloomberg attempted to ban the music in the city’s noise code. An outright ban was unsuccessful, but now vendors are only allowed to play music when their vehicle is in motion.

Gerard Vezzuso. Young boys at ice cream truck, Staten Island NY, 1999. Museum of the City of New York. 01.26.8

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Walt Whitman’s New York

Posted on July 3, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Walt Whitman, one of America’s most celebrated writers, was born into a working-class Long Island family on May 31, 1819. Four years later, the family moved to Brooklyn. Whitman cherished his memory of Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette visiting New York in August 1824. According to Whitman, Lafayette picked him out of the crowd, lifted him up, and carried him.

Anthony Imbert del. Samuel Maverick sc. Landing of Gen. Lafayette, at Castle Garden, New York, 16th August 1824. 1824. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.1744

After Whitman’s formal education ended when he was 11, he worked at a Brooklyn law firm and later at various newspapers. These positions afforded Whitman the opportunity for self-education and encouraged his interest in politics. Whitman openly supported the Free-Soil Party, formed in 1848 to oppose the extension of slavery into the Western territories. This would eventually cost him his job at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, as his convictions clashed with those of Issac Van Anden, the newspaper’s publisher.

N. Currier. Grand Democratic Free Soil Banner. 1848. Museum of the City of New York. 56.300.1060

In 1855, Whitman published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, paying for the publication out of his own pocket, designing the cover, and even setting some of the type himself in his friend’s print shop on Cranberry and Fulton Streets in Brooklyn. Many biographers and critics cite July 4, 1855 as the publication date, but The Walt Whitman Archive notes that advertisements for Leaves of Grass began appearing in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in late June.

Josephine Barry. Birthplace of “Leaves of Grass” Cranberry & Fulton Sts, Bklyn. 1949. Museum of the City of New York. 75.43.94

Whitman’s 1856 poem “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” drew heavily upon his childhood experience crossing the East River. Originally published as “Sun-Down Poem” in the second edition of Leaves of Grass, the poem explored the daily commute of a New York ferry passenger. Whitman would later remark in his autobiographical 1882 publication Specimen Days that “I have always had a passion for ferries; to me they afford inimitable, streaming, never-failing, living poems.”

Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Ferry House Foot of Fulton Street, Brooklyn, in 1850. ca. 1906. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.34.1935

Arthur Hosking. Fulton Ferry. Pier No. 17. Fulton Ferry where Walt Whitman used to come and go on the East River. Banker’s Trust tower in the distance. 1920. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.18.194

Complementing his passion for ferries, Whitman had an affection for transportation workers. He visited those who were injured on the job at New York Hospital on Broadway between Worth and Duane Streets. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Whitman also visited wounded soldiers at the hospital and wrote about them in a series of articles called “City Photographs”, published in the New York Leader in 1862.

John Robert Murray del. William Satchwell Leney sct. View of the New York Hospital. ca. 1820. Museum of the City of New York. 29.100.1902

Whitman, already in his forties at the outset of the Civil War, watched as New Yorkers marched off to the battlefields. “First O Songs for a Prelude” recounts his observation of the city during war:

(O superb! O Manhattan, my own, my peerless!                                                                   O strongest you in the hour of danger, in crisis! O truer than steel!!)                    How you sprang – how you threw off the costumes of peace with             indifferent hand,                                                                                                                            How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were                        heard in their stead,                                                                                                                     How you led to the war, (that shall serve for our prelude, songs                                  of soldiers,)                                                                                                                                      How Manhattan drum-taps led.

The Seventh Regiment assembled below Cooper Union, on their departure to the Civil War. 1861. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archive. X2010.11.13988

Whitman held an ardent admiration for Abraham Lincoln. He even said that “After my dear, dear mother, I guess Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else.” When news of Lincoln’s assassination reached Whitman, he began working on an elegy, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, published in Sequel to Drum-Taps in the fall of 1865.

Currier & Ives. Abraham Lincoln. ca. 1865. Museum of the City of New York. 56.300.979

Beginning in 1879 and continuing until 1890, Whitman offered lectures commemorating Lincoln’s assassination. In spite of his failing health he traveled from his home in New Jersey to Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to deliver the “Death of Lincoln” lecture. On April 14, 1887, Whitman spoke at Madison Square Theatre. Among those in attendance, noted by the New York Times  in an article published the following day, were Andrew Carnegie, Augustus St. Gaudens,  Frances Hodgson Burnett, James Russell Lowell, and John Burroughs. Afterward, Whitman held a reception for his friends at the Westminster Hotel. The evening netted $600 for Whitman, roughly the equivalent of $14,000 today.

Westminster Hotel, New York. ca. 1895. Museum of the City of New York Photo Archive. X2010.11.2240

It was also his last visit to the city. Walt Whitman died on March 26, 1892 at the age of 72 in his house on 328 Mickle Street in Camden, New Jersey.

George C. Cox. Walt Whitman. ca. 1890. Museum of the City of New York. 57.182.10

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The Prospect Park Concert Grove

Posted on June 5, 2012 by | 3 Comments

As mentioned in May 22nd’s post,  Saving the Interior of the Plaza Hotel, New York City isn’t known just for its landmarked buildings, but also its scenic historical sites, as well.  Brooklyn’s 585-acre Prospect Park is a hybrid of built structures, planned  landscapes, and natural areas left relatively unchanged.  The Park features wooded and paved trails, open lawns, a lake and streams, Brooklyn’s only forest, rolling hills, and ball fields, among other recreational and educational facilities.

Green-Wood Cemetery Visitor’s Pass, 1850, in the Ephemera Collection. Museum of the City of New York. 50.41.149

Prior to establishing Prospect Park, Brooklynites visited Green-Wood Cemetery to find a little outdoor recreational space. The inappropriateness of using a cemetery for leisure activities soon became apparent, as evidenced by the rules listed on this pass for visiting Green-Wood, to the right.

James Stranahan, a business and civic leader, was an early advocate of establishing a park in Brooklyn.  With significant real estate interests in Brooklyn, he hoped a park would help lure residents to the city and turn Brooklyn into the next great metropolis. He was a driving force behind the new park, serving as its first President of the Prospect Park Commission and selecting the design by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the landscape architects responsible for Manhattan’s Central Park, as well as many other parks throughout the city and country.

Design for Prospect Park in the City of Brooklyn, 1869, in the Map Collection. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.5.165.

Construction began on the park in 1866.

Photographer unknown. Original site of lake bed in Prospect Park, ca 1866. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.11.14264.

Brooklyn, Shelter House, Prospect Park, ca. 1908, in the Postcard Collection. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.34.1838.

Olmsted felt a park should provide a rural respite from the demands of city life. Among the many sites designed  for the park was the Concert Grove House and Pavilion (sometimes referred to as the Oriental Pavilion, and in this postcard to the left, as the Shelter House), built adjacent to the Lake so Park visitors could enjoy music in a pastoral setting.  One of the original features of the Concert Grove was Music Island, where live performances were held as visitors sat in an open air pavilion along the side of the lake.  In 1949, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses demolished the Concert Grove House, converted the Concert Pavilion to a snack bar, and constructed a skating ring in the area in between the lake and the Concert Grove.  Following a fire in 1979 which nearly destroyed the Concert Pavilion, it sat dormant until 1987, when it was restored to its original design.

Today, more work to restore this section of the Park to its original design is underway. Those of you who frequent Prospect Park may have noticed the construction going on along the southeastern side of the park.  The construction fencing around the site announces, “Lakeside is coming!”  The Lakeside project will restore the view of Music Island and recreate the promenade along the Lake, restoring the original view conceived by Olmsted and Vaux pictured below.

Brooklyn, N. Y., Lake in Prospect Park, ca. 1910, in the Postcard Collection. Museum of the City of New York. X2011.34.1972.

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Posted in Manuscripts and Ephemera, Maps, Photo Archive, Postcard Collection

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The Struggle to Save the Austin, Nichols and Co. Warehouse

Posted on May 15, 2012 by | Leave a comment

“This building is a piece of trash, and it should be knocked down.” – Simcha Felder, member of the New York City Council and chair of the council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Siting and Maritime Uses

“Preserving this site is important for the fabric of our community.” – Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City

“I could not distinguish this warehouse from dozens of other warehouse and factory buildings on the waterfront. It just simply doesn’t deserve it. It’s a nondescript white box of a building.” – David Yassky, member of the New York City Council

“Of course it should be landmarked. It’s by Cass Gilbert, one of our great architects. You have people who absolutely know nothing making outrageous statements about the architectural value of the building.” – Ada Louise Huxtable, architecture critic

“You can’t tell me the reason we voted it down isn’t related to the interests of the developer. This sends a chilling message to the Landmarks Preservation Commission and preservation groups.” – Tony Avella, member of the New York City Council

The quotes above are a small sample of the range of feelings evoked by the Austin, Nichols & Co. building at 184 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The warehouse was built from 1914-1915 for its namesake, the largest importing and manufacturing wholesale grocery business in the world. Critics of the time described the building, designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert, as an outstanding example of Egyptian Revival architecture rarely found in New York City and the United States.

Wurts Bros. Austin Nichols Building, watercolor perspective rendering, dated 1913. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4399

Noted architects Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius identified this type of building as the stimulus for the development of European modernism.

Wurts Bros. North 3rd Street. Austin Nichols Co. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4502

The warehouse utilized piers, railway tracks, freight elevators, conveyor belts, and pneumatic tubes for the production of foodstuffs under the Sunbeam Foods label.

Wurts Bros. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Austin-Nichols and Co., control and motor to refrigerator plant. ca. 1916. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4936

Wurts Bros. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Austin-Nichols and Co., peanut butter machines. ca. 1916. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4935

Wurts Bros. Austin-Nichols and Co., coffee roasting department. ca. 1916. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4937

The building remained the headquarters for Austin, Nichols & Co. until the late 1950s. The building was acquired by 184 Kent Avenue Associates in 1986 and rented to residential and commercial tenants. In 2004, the building’s owners submitted a proposal to the Board of Standards and Appeals to construct a rooftop addition and transform the 72-unit building into 256 condos. This would have drastically altered the building’s appearance. The Landmarks Preservation Committee (LPC) subsequently held a public meeting and deliberated over possible landmark status for the warehouse, which would negate the owners’ plans for the building.

At the public meeting  held on July 26, 2005, 27 people, including representatives from the Cass Gilbert Society, McCarren Park Conservancy, Municipal Art Society, and New York Landmarks Conservancy, spoke in favor of the landmark designation. In addition, the LPC received over 500 postcards in support of the designation, mostly from Williamsburg residents. Architectural historians Andrew S. Dolkart, Sharon Irish, Sarah Bradford Landau, and Robert A. M. Stern also wrote letters to the LPC endorsing the landmark status. The LPC also heard statements in opposition to the designation, from representatives of the building’s owners and councilman David Yassky.

Two months later, the LPC designated the Austin, Nichols & Co. warehouse a landmark. But on November 29, 2005, the New York City Council took a rare step in reversing the LPC’s designation. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg vetoed the council’s reversal, but the council voted to override the veto.

Cass Gilbert is perhaps best known for designing the Woolworth Building. When the building opened in 1913, it was the tallest skyscraper in the world. The LPC designated that building a landmark in 1983.

Wurts Bros. 233 Broadway. Woolworth Building, final view. ca. 1914. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.10817

In addition to the Woolworth Building, Gilbert designed other NYC landmarks. His first design in New York City was the Broadway Chambers Building in TriBeCa, built from 1899 to 1900. The LPC designated this office building a landmark in 1992.

Wurts Bros. Broadway and Chambers Street. Broadway Chambers Building. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.4846

In 1899, 20 architectural firms competed to design the United States Custom House in Lower Manhattan, but Gilbert won the commission. It was completed in 1907 and designated a landmark in 1965.

Wurts Bros. Bowling Green. New York U.S. Custom House, general exterior from N.W. ca. 1905. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.746

The West Street Building was also completed in 1907, and designated a landmark in 1998.

Wurts Bros. West Street between Albany Street and Cedar Street. West Street Building, finished view. ca. 1905. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.741

The New York Life Insurance Company Building, just north of Madison Square, was built from 1926-1928 and designated a landmark in 2000.

Wurts Bros. Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th Street. New York Life Insurance Building, view looking S.E. from N.W. corner of 28th Street, with foundation of new building in foreground. 1961. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.10170

Not all of Gilbert’s buildings have fared so well, however. The Westchester Avenue railroad station, built in 1908 to serve the old New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, is on the New York Landmark Conservancy’s list of endangered buildings.

Wurts Bros. Westchester Avenue Station, N.Y., N.H. and H.R.R. ca. 1915. Museum of the City of New York. X2010.7.1.1842

And what of the Austin, Nichols & Co. building? Surprisingly, the council’s decision was not the last word on the fate of the warehouse. Shortly thereafter, the owners sold the property to 184 Kent Fee LLC, which then donated a historic preservation deed of easement to the Trust for Architectural Easements. In return for the donation, the new owners qualified for the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program. The Austin, Nichols & Co. building continues to function as rental residences, but thanks to the donation, its height and shape will be preserved in perpetuity.

During the month of May, we’ll be posting more entries on historic preservation in the city. The Museum of the City of New York is competing for a $250,000 grant from Partners in Preservation, a joint program sponsored by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The winner is determined by popular vote, and individuals may vote once a day through May 21st. Please help us by going to http://www.helpmcny.com/ and voting today.

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