Walking Off the Big Apple

Greenwich Village in the Shade: Washington Square Park and the West Village at the Start of Summer

2012-05-29T16:46:00.001-04:00

Those left behind in Greenwich Village during the past weekend's long Memorial Day holiday did well to retreat to the shade. Muggy and warm days sent people to the leafy canopies of Washington Square Park and to the shady streets of the West Village. In addition to sitting, reflecting, and reading on benches, park visitors could pick among several entertainments. Children splashed in the fountain, those funny acrobat guys did multiple performances of their gymnastic routines, the piano guy played many tunes, and so did the jazz cats. A flurry of excitement hit the park late Monday, just around the time the sun was setting, when Boo and Scout, the park's adolescent red-tailed hawks, took off from their ledge on NYU's Bobst Library for their first flight.

American flag, Cherry Lane Theatre, Commerce Street

Ivy-covered house on Bedford St. at Grove Street.

Barrow and Commerce Street

Looking through the fence at the garden of The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, Hudson Street

Today, the start of the abbreviated work week, Washington Square Park is slowly filling up with its normal summertime contingent of neighbors and tourists. While less muggy, it's even hotter today. The pace stays slow. Greenwich Village is not bad under the shade.

Washington Square Park, morning

On the window ledge of NYU's Silver Building - one of the fledgling hawks and a hawk parent, from this morning.

Noon, Washington Square Park, May 29, 2012.

Here's a general map of the park and streets mentioned in the post -

View Meandering in the Village in a larger map

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 28 and 29, 2012.

On Memorial Day Weekend: A West Side Walk to the Intrepid, and Memorials to New Yorkers at War

2012-05-28T11:23:00.000-04:00

While many neighborhoods of Manhattan looked decidedly sleepy over the Memorial Day weekend, anyone in search of company need only to head to the west side. Find your way to any street in the West 40s and walk west through Hell's Kitchen to the piers along the Hudson River. You'll soon be joined by many others. I highly recommend taking W. 43rd Street, if only for the novelty of not walking down 42nd Street, but mainly for the splendid roadside architecture of the Market Diner (at 11th Ave.). A holiday weekend may require an oversize breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes with syrup and butter, so stopping here at this nostalgic 1963-1964 era diner may be the perfect thing. Since this walk maps out to 3.19 miles, you may as well indulge.

Market Diner, 11th Avenue and W. 43rd St.

The star attractions on these piers are the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum on W. 46th and 12 Avenue at Pier 86, where everyone gawks at the ships, and the popular Circle Line Sightseeing tours that depart from Pier 83 to the south. While visiting the sites yesterday, I entertained the fleeting fantasy of circumnavigating Manhattan aboard the Intrepid, but I figured that the enormous aircraft carrier could get itself stuck under one of the northern bridges. At any rate, it was fun seeing the Intrepid and other boats from the perspective of the Hudson River Park recreational pier next to it. Also worthy of attention were several locals who had stripped down to essentials for sunbathing on the pier, and many Hollywood-worthy sailors in their crisp midi uniforms. Obviously, sightseeing in New York does not only include buildings and monuments.

Hudson River Park, next to the Intrepid

Trees and aircraft carrier

I said it was an aircraft carrier.

The Intrepid Museum serves a the focal point for New York City's Fleet Week events, and the usual ship tours are augmented by performances and special events. The tall ships are a big attraction, being more romantic-looking than our contemporary battleships, so hundreds of people lined up to board the GUAYAS, a 257' tall ship in service to the Ecuadorian Naval Academy. Fleet Week activities conclude May 29, 2012.

The tall ship, GUAYAS, from Ecuador, ready for visitations at the Intrepid Museum

Memorial Day in New York is marked by many events, with the largest at the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on W. 86th and Riverside Drive on Monday morning. Yet, the city is full of monuments to New York at war. Just think of any World War II movie, and there's always that one wisecracking guy from Brooklyn. In an historically large and important city, many New Yorkers have lost their lives in wars, and speaking of Brooklyn, one of the most moving memorials is the Brooklyn War Memorial in Cadman Plaza. On this walk, however, you can visit a memorial dedicated to the local neighborhood "doughboys" who died in World War I. The work by sculptor Burt W. Johnson (1890–1927) and architect Harvey Wiley Corbett (1873-1954) in DeWitt Clinton Park features a doughboy with his rifle on his left shoulder and carrying poppies in his right hand. There are nine such statues in neighborhoods around the city.

Clinton War Memorial in DeWitt Clinton Park

A walk back toward the city center leads to Times Square. For this holiday weekend, the square looked less crowded than usual. I suppose you have to live in the city for a long time to evaluate the crowd size.

view of the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway, between 50th and 51st Streets

But here, too, from the vantage point of the top of the TKTS booth's red bleachers, you can clearly see another memorial to a New Yorker in war. It's the monument remembering Lieutenant Colonel Francis P. Duffy (1871-1932), a solider, Catholic priest and chaplain of the "Fighting 69th," a regiment made up of New York Irish immigrants. After World War I, Father Duffy became the Rector and then Pastor of nearby Holy Cross Church until his death in 1932. This northern part of Times Square is named Duffy Square.

Duffy Square, Times Square, with memorial to Father Duffy

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 27, 2012.

View A West Side Walk to the Intrepid and Memorials to New Yorkers at War in a larger map

Memorial Day Weekend Begins in New York, and the City's Pace Slows Down: Scenes from the City

2012-05-27T06:36:00.002-04:00

While walking the dog yesterday morning, the two of us stopped for a moment to sit on a bench next to the Thompson Street Playground in the South Village. Few people were on the streets. A woman strolled by with her young boy in hand and cheerfully exclaimed, "I love this time of year. Everyone has gone!" It felt like it.

Thompson Street, near Spring Street, South Village

the pigeon probably wonders why everyone flew the coop

Though not everyone is gone from a metropolis of several million people, Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of summer, feels like an evacuation in progress. Some restaurants and businesses, normally open for reliable hours, just give up and close their doors. For those of us who stay in the city, at least the pace slows down. Some head to the parks, weather permitting. Some still shop after the usually drawn-out brunch. The skies have been a little hazy.

sitting under a canopy of trees in Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village

West Broadway at Spring Street, with the unfinished One World Trade Center in the distance

For this particular Memorial Day weekend, the weather keeps changing its mind. Cold fronts move south across the five boroughs only to return as warm fronts later in the day. What the meteorologists call "disturbances" crisscross the region, producing intermittent rain showers that have the overall effect of interrupting any firm outdoor plans. Saturday started as a sunny though muggy day and finished with cracks of thunder that sounded like a movie soundtrack. Under these unpredictable weather conditions, the weekend plan requires a Plan B.

Bryant Park, muggy but mostly sunny at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

The best plan for enjoying Memorial Day in New York is to slow down and to wing it, and carry a big umbrella.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 25 & 26, 2012, with a Canon Rebel T3. (Yes, new camera. Suddenly, WOTBA became a lot clearer, despite the hazy weather.) More pictures coming for the remainder of the weekend, weather permitting.

Fleet Week in New York Begins with the Parade of Ships (Photos)

2012-05-23T14:41:00.000-04:00

Fleet Week in New York kicked off this morning with The Parade of Sail and The Military Parade of Ships in New York Harbor. The tall ships led the way, followed by the warships. The muted blues, greens, and battleship grays of this morning's overcast and hazy sky gave the flotilla the look of a maritime painting. The bright spots in these pictures belong to the shimmering sails of tall ships, the sailors in their crisp Navy uniforms, and to a seagull who often floated into the scene.

Fleet Week continues through May 30, 2012. Events include special performances, ship tours, and special exhibits. More information at the Intrepid event page.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from the morning of May 23, 2012. I happened to be on Governors Island for a preview of Cooper-Hewitt's design exhibition there, so I had a good vantage point to see a few boats in the flotilla.

After the Rain: Sights and Sounds from Madison Square Park

2012-05-23T08:25:00.001-04:00

The rain this week, ranging from gentle sprinkles to heavier downpours with lightning and thunder, has left the city's parks bathed in an intense verdant green. The lush appearance of such a place like old Madison Square, a result of the energetic combination of nitrogen and oxygen in the stormy atmosphere, evokes images of a primordial Mannahatta, or in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, the "fresh, green breast of the new world." Back in the day - let's say 1600 - the oasis currently known as Madison Square Park would have been a swampy forest filled with red maple trees and woodland ferns and a home to hawks, crows, chickadees, ducks, turtles, salamanders, and frogs.

Madison Square Park lawn, after the recent days of rain

The cyclical return of the park to its late spring verdancy also finds parallel with its fashionability. After opening as a public space in 1847, Madison Square became the epicenter of Gilded Age New York. This desirable residential area for high society soon spawned the nearby Ladies' Mile shopping district, palaces of entertainment (like the old Garden), and many handsome towers of business. The Flatiron Building, constructed in 1902, still upstages everyone else, demanding attention from architecture paparazzi. Today, Madison Square has become the fashionable location for various high tech startups of the information age.

The Flatiron Building, as seen from Madison Square Park.

The park's current art installation, Pet Sounds by California artist Charles Long, while looking very much like a children's fanciful playground, evokes the sights and sounds of an imagined primordial past. Its curving candy-colored rails spill into bulbous, amorphous forms, and when touched at various points, emit metallic squeals, cries, and rhythms. In this art playground, it is possible to play the sculptures like instruments. Multiple petting gestures on the creatures can produce a soft jazz-rock fusion. Just don't climb on them, as the signs warn.

Pet Sounds by Charles Long, a project of Mad. Sq. Art, continues through September 9, 2012.

Pet Sounds by Charles Long

Pet Sounds by Charles Long, with another famous NYC landmark in distance

With each passing year, Shake Shack looks like an organic natural feature of the park. For more food options, explore the pop-up tented food court, EAT at Madison Square Park. From this vantage point, the Flatiron looks seasonably fashionable, flanked by floral Marimekko red and white umbrellas. So stylish.

Madison Square EATS. The Flatiron Building with Marimekko umbrellas.

• By coincidence, the first trailer for the highly anticipated Baz Luhrmann film version of The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, was released today. See it here at IMDb.

Resources:
• Madison Square Park Conservancy

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from the afternoon of May 22, 2012.

Historic Preservation in New York City: Concluding Thoughts on the Final Day of Voting in the Partners in Preservation Initiative

2012-05-21T08:34:00.001-04:00

Over the past few weeks, I have visited and written about six of the sites selected in the Partners in Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to involve the public in the cause of historic preservation. As a blogging ambassador for the program, I have greatly enjoyed the opportunity to visit and write about six of the forty sites. Today is the last day to vote for your favorite in the competition, and the series concludes today with this review.

Though today is the last day to vote (click on the badge below), the program has undoubtedly heightened awareness about the vast historical treasures in New York City awaiting our discovery and involvement. The selected sites from all five boroughs have particularly struck home with me, challenging Walking Off the Big Apple to walk into new territory. My travels to the southern shores of Staten Island to the northern reaches of City Island off the Bronx, a distance of over 36 miles, have inspired me to expand coverage of under-appreciated areas of the city.

In terms of historic preservation, the city's greatest cultural assets require our collective attention and resources. Wonderful old buildings and historic sites do not take care of themselves. They require maintenance, funds, and people to keep them going. In short, they need your help, either through financial contributions, advocacy, or involvement as a volunteer.

The six sites I explored in depth on Walking Off the Big Apple have become close to my heart. Beyond learning fascinating histories, I have met many wonderful people along the way who care deeply about their sites. For today's last day of voting, I hope you will consider choosing one of these places. For tomorrow and the days that I follow, I want you to visit them.

Excerpts from the Partners in Preservation series on Walking Off the Big Apple:
Click on the links to read the full entry for each place.

• City Island Nautical Museum (Bronx) "An informed visit to City Island, one that fully explains the island’s history, should begin at City Island Nautical Museum. The museum is housed in a former school built by New York City in 1897-1898, a handsome Georgian Revival building at the top of a hill on Fordham Street. Now operated and maintained by a handful of passionate volunteers, collectively known as "the Barbaras," for all are named Barbara except for one Jane, the multifaceted rooms of this stately building illustrate the island's deep-rooted connection to the surrounding waters."

• Erasmus Hall Campus (Brooklyn) "The extraordinary focal point of the auditorium is the stained glass work, Life of Erasmus. The 41 panels illustrate episodes in the life of Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch theologian, priest, and writer for whom the school is named. The alumni association commissioned this work, crafted in 1910-12 by the Church Glass and Decorating Company. Erasmus is the seated figure in the middle, holding an open book on his lap. The panels together represent a life in learning."

• Second Stage at the Helen Hayes (Manhattan) "The exterior of the theater largely stays unchanged, yet what has gone on in this place over a hundred years has definitely changed with the times. Through its early years, the Little Theatre fulfilled its mission to produce exciting new dramas, with Ames sometimes leasing the theatre to other artistically compatible producers including John Golden and Oliver Morosco. In the early days, the theatre enjoyed many hits, including works by women playwrights. A Little Journey, a comedy written and directed by Rachel Crothers, was one of the highlights of the 1918-1919 season."

• Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church (Staten Island) "Many of the congregants of Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church near the far shores of Staten Island on Bloomingdale Road maintain deep and long family ties to this place, stretching back in time "six, seven, even eight generations," as Reverend Janet H. Jones, their pastor, explained as we walked down the aisles of the historic church. Returning for services on Sunday morning, the descendants reaffirm their ties to this once prosperous black community of Sandy Ground, founded by free African Americans in the 1820s and 1830s."

• Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine (Staten Island) "Vito Russo (1885-1954), an Italian immigrant, dreamed of such a structure even before arriving in the United States in 1903. After settling in Rosebank, he joined the Society of Mount Carmel, an organization founded that same year. A charismatic man, Russo became president of the society and was eventually elected president-for-life. In 1935, when Russo's youngest son died of pneumonia, it was said that Russo channeled the energy of his grief to realize his vision."

• Woodlawn Cemetery, Belmont Memorial Chapel (Bronx) "Among the couple's many fine houses is their final resting place in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Oliver died on June 10, 1908 after a severe bout of appendicitis, and Alva commissioned the mausoleum as a lasting memorial for both of them. Constructed as a replica of the chapel of Saint-Hubert at Amboise in France's Loire Valley, and notably the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci, the chapel is remarkable in its detail. Like the French original, almost exactly so, the 1910 chapel is abundantly decorated with references to Saint Hubert, the patron saint of hunters."

View Partners in Preservation in a larger map
_____

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is the final part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

(Voting is now closed.) LAST DAY TO VOTE! You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

At Woodlawn Cemetery, Remembering Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, The Socialite and the Suffragette

2012-05-19T17:07:00.001-04:00

The Woodlawn Cemetery's Belmont Memorial Chapel is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post marks the final of a series that takes a close look at six of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

Belmont Memorial Chapel, constructed 1910, The Woodlawn Cemetery,
final resting place for Alva Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933), socialite and suffragette,
and her second husband, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858-1908)

The Socialite

Alva E. Belmont
1911

As a woman who amassed a great personal fortune following her marriages to two of the Gilded Age's wealthiest men, Alva Erskine Smith Vanderbilt Belmont (1853-1933) embodied many of the stereotypes of a social climber, an overly ambitious type bent on crashing the social glass ceilings of New York's Gilded Age society. Quite successful in her efforts, her life resembles one of those established and conceited society women in a novel by Edith Wharton or Henry James. Yet, after her second husband, Oliver, died in 1908, Alva's story takes a different turn, although elements of her domineering personality did not.

Alva Smith was born January 17, 1853 in Mobile, Alabama to a moderately wealthy family. Before the Civil War, Alva's father moved the family to New York. Like many of her Gilded Age privileged peers, Alva made the grand tour of Europe and summered with her family in Newport. She attended a private boarding school in France. In 1875, Alva made her most advantageous social move when she married William Kissam Vanderbilt, the grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. The fortunate young couple had three children, and Alva kept herself busy ordering around her children and raising the level of their social visibility.

After twenty years of marriage, Alva divorced her husband on grounds of adultery. The generous financial settlement, in addition to a few million dollars in cash, included many of their estates. She spent much of her adult life co-designing and commissioning enormous houses, often with Richard Morris Hunt and subsequently with the architect's sons, including the Vanderbilt mansion at 660 Fifth Avenue (demolished) and the Marble Palace in Newport. After the 1895 divorce, at her Newport mansion, she threw one of the era's most lavish parties in honor of the engagement of her beautiful daughter Consuelo to the Duke of Marlborough. Alva planned the whole match, making her unwilling daughter a pawn for her own ambitions. The Duke got two million dollars for his role in this marriage power play.

On January 11, 1896, less than a year after obtaining her divorce, Alva married her next-door neighbor and ex-husband's best friend, Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858–1908). Oliver, the son of a Rothschild financier and a racehorse owner (yes, the Belmont Stakes is named for August Belmont, Sr.), became the beneficiary of an enormous inheritance upon his father's death. In addition to Alva's Marble House, inspired by the Petit Trianon at Versailles, and Oliver's own French Renaissance mansion called Belcourt, both in Newport, the couple had yet a third mansion built for them, Brookholt, in East Meadow, Long Island in 1897. While the Newport houses are still extant and are operated as museums, the Brookholt property was demolished in the 1930s.

Belmont Memorial Chapel, Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx

Among the couple's many fine houses is their final resting place in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. Oliver died on June 10, 1908 after a severe bout of appendicitis, and Alva commissioned the mausoleum as a lasting memorial for both of them. Constructed as a replica of the chapel of Saint-Hubert at Amboise in France's Loire Valley, and notably the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci, the chapel is remarkable in its detail. Like the French original, almost exactly so, the 1910 chapel is abundantly decorated with references to Saint Hubert, the patron saint of hunters. A carving of a stag above the front door serves as the focal point, and the motif of antlers is carried all the way up the steeple. The finest artisans of the day recreated the French chapel for this mausoleum in the Bronx.

Life and Death of the Suffragette

Alva's funeral at the chapel.
Women rights activists carrying banners
flank the entrance to the chapel.

After the death of Oliver, Alva became a vigorous leader of labor and women's causes. In 1909 she bankrolled and organized enormous rallies on behalf of the striking shirtwaist workers, and she insisted that labor's plight must be intertwined with the campaign for women's voting rights. She held feminist organizing sessions at her lavish home in Newport, and she sponsored the 1914 speaking tour of English suffragist Christabel Pankhurst.

Alva became an active member of the National Woman Suffrage Association, and she founded the Political Equality League, a local New York suffrage organization. In 1921 she was elected the President of the National Woman's Party. In 1929 she purchased a house in Washington, DC to serve as the organization's headquarters. Now known as the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum, the building on Capitol Hill houses a museum dedicated to the history of women's suffrage and the equal rights movement.

For most years of the 1920s until her death in 1933, Alva lived in Paris, maintaining several homes there. She left detailed instructions for her funeral, handing them over to friend and fellow activist Alice Paul to pass on to her New York attorney. When she died, her children accompanied the body to New York for services at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue. As she directed, a guard of two members of the National Woman's Party watched over the body in the chapel at the church where she rested in state for two days. Women's rights activists arrived from all over the country for the Sunday funeral. Feminist honorary pallbearers, carrying purple, white, and gold banners, accompanied the procession of her coffin into the church. The services concluded with the same feminist guard on the steps of the Belmont chapel in Woodlawn.

Maintaining the Belmont Chapel

Susan Olsen, Woodlawn Cemetery's historian, met me at the chapel. She pushed open the heavy doors of the chapel, and we walked inside. Oliver is interred on the left side, with Alva on the right, in mirror fashion. A soft light streams in from the stained glass windows overhead. Olsen pointed out the murals painted by William Mackay, faithful to the medieval style of the French chapel, noting Mackay also created the Ming-inspired murals of the Chinese Tea House at the Marble House. She explained that Alva left detailed instructions for the care of the chapel, and she showed me the chair where Alva's hired caretaker once sat.

In 1936, just three years after Alva's death, the Vanderbilt children deeded the chapel over to Woodlawn Cemetery, restricting that there would be no future burials there. Thus, Woodlawn has been responsible since then for maintaining the place, just one of many private mausoleums dotting the leafy streets of the 400 acre cemetery. For the Partners in Preservation initiative, Woodlawn is asking funds to restore the exterior of the chapel, now darkened in many spaces due to time, pollution, and the elements. Behind the door of the chapel rests the cross that should be on top of the steeple. It was blown down in a storm a year and a half ago and needs repair. Following Alva's wishes, the cemetery frequently opens the Belmont mausoleum to the public.

interior, Belmont Memorial Chapel

While more visitors these days are expressing interest in Woodlawn and other cemeteries due to the current vogue for genealogy, the expense of caring for our departed relatives frequently falls on the cemetery. Olsen said we should all take interest in maintaining these places as part of our cultural heritage. She says that she likes to begin the conversation with the question, "When was the last time you went to visit your great grandfather's grave?"

***

View Belmont Memorial Chapel, Woodlawn Cemetery in a larger map

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Resources:
• Official website for the Woodlawn Cemetery

Historic images from the Library of Congress -
• Alva E. Belmont. Photographer: Stadler Photographing Co., New York-Chicago. 1911. Records of the National Woman's Party.
• Alva Belmont's coffin being carried into St. Hubert's Chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery, New York. 1933 Jan. Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Images of the Belmont Memorial Chapel at Woodlawn Cemetery by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 17, 2012. Thanks to Susan Olsen for sharing the history of the chapel and the work of the Woodlawn Cemetery.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

On Staten Island, the Marvels of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto

2012-05-18T10:29:00.000-04:00

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post is part of a series that takes a close look at a few of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

In October 1937, members of the Society of Mount Carmel, a mutual aid society of Italian Americans, began building an extraordinary grotto next to their community hall on Amity Street in the Rosebank neighborhood of Staten Island.

You must see it. After the ferry ride, then a ride on the Staten Island rail to the Clifton Sirtoa stop, then a zigzagging stroll on three avenues, and finally through the increasingly narrow streets of Rosebank to arrive at 36 Amity Street, a visit to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto takes on aspects of a pilgrimage. Arriving at the end of the dead-end street, signs on the worn fence indicate the destination. "All Welcome," the sign reads.

Walking down the red brick path toward the grotto, this fanciful work of ecclesiastical homemade architecture comes into greater view with each passing step. The structure curves and flows in a serpentine shape. Perfectly lined stones are set in concrete with a myriad of details. Ahead on the path, a stone fountain is painted in bright turquoise. Up close, many saints, flowers, succulents, shells, and handwritten poems come into focus.

How can anyone in New York City not know of this place?

Below is a short version of how this grotto came to be and how it is remembered.

Vito Russo (1885-1954), an Italian immigrant, dreamed of such a structure even before arriving in the United States in 1903. After settling in Rosebank, he joined the Society of Mount Carmel, an organization founded that same year. A charismatic man, Russo became president of the society and was eventually elected president-for-life. In 1935, when Russo's youngest son died of pneumonia, it was said that Russo channeled the energy of his grief to realize his vision. Before work began on the stone grotto, Russo built a model made of paper, cardboard and aluminum foil and kept it in his house. He inspired his fellow members to build the grotto with him.

A longtime active member and officer of the society, Mike De Cataldo, explained how the structure was built. The grotto makers often worked inside the community house, constructing the work in sections with wood-framed molds. They carefully set smooth stones, pieces of hand blown glass, seashells, and other materials in sand, and then poured the cement over them. De Cataldo said, "They literally built the shrine in sandboxes." The men brought the pieces outside to add them to their growing structure. They built the initial fieldstone structure out of discarded blocks they picked up during their regular WPA work jobs in the city. They worked with materials available on hand, including seashells from the nearby beach.

Fashioned in shapes reminiscent of the Italian churches of their memories, the grotto quickly became a focal point of the community. Over the years, the faithful contributed statues of saints, icons, prayer cards, and written memories. Planted succulents further contributed to the organic nature of the structure. It's not finished either. De Cataldo showed me where he plans to build an addition, a wall and arch originally envisioned by Russo. The arched passage will lead around to a wooden structure used for food and beverage service on festivals days as well as to the shady open lawn. The archway seems to want to be there somehow, as if a mystical force drives the completion of its composition.

Individuals visit the grotto to spend solitary moments of peace in its beauty. On Our Lady of Mount Carmel's feast day on July 16, the grotto serves as the backdrop for a festival of friendship and homemade food. Throughout wars and the trauma of September 11, the shrine has served as a special gathering place for remembrances and tributes. For more secular-minded outsiders, the work could be viewed as one of the best examples of visionary folk art in the city.

In 2000, the National Register of Historic Places and New York State added the grotto to its list of traditional cultural properties. Because the society's property was not connected with a church or designated a museum, it was not eligible for tax exemption. In 2010, the New York legislature granted the exemption for the grotto and meeting hall, thanks in large part to De Cataldo's efforts.

For the Partners in Preservation funding request, the Society is seeking support to replace the roof and windows of the meeting hall as well as new fencing.

Many Italian Americans still live in Rosebank, De Cataldo told me. He lives nearby. Those who once lived here but moved away often return to this spiritual center of their hometown.

The shrine is open daily to the public.

***
Directions: Though I took the train and walked nearly a mile to the grotto, a more direct way would be to take the S78 Bricktown Mall bus at the St. George Ferry and get off near the intersection of Tompkins Avenue and Saint Mary's Avenue. From there walk southwest to Amity Street.

View Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto in a larger map
________________________

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Resources:
• Our Lady of Mount Camel website

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 11, 2012. A big heartfelt thank you to Mike De Cataldo of the Society of Mount Carmel for sharing the living history of the grotto.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

News and Views from the Staten Island Ferry

2012-05-16T08:27:00.002-04:00

Recent rides on the Staten Island Ferry, especially on good weather days, have been enjoyable as always, full of the usual sights of iconic landmarks and dazzling ships in the harbor. Even before the ferry left the dock, on every trip, passengers engaged in the same comforting routine. While visitors crowded the railings for pictures of the Statue of Liberty, commuting residents assumed their usual positions in the interior, yawning or pulling out a book. Adventurous types crowded the deck closest to the next docking, never minding their windblown hair. As everyone knows, most people riding the ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island get off the boat and immediately walk around for the ride back, this in spite of organized efforts to go forth and enjoy the bounties of Staten Island. Some people, and this includes me, just like being on a boat.

At this time of year, as spring leafs out into full-blown summer, the ferry experience is taken up a notch. Musicians of a high caliber have been entertaining waiting passengers. On a recent day, the crowd at the Whitehall Terminal listened to a couple of exceptional guitarists playing a cool jazz-rock fusion of original songs, while a self-described "cajun cellist" entertained in the St. George Terminal, including a haunting and rather memorable instrumental version of Leonard Cohen's overplayed "Hallelujah." Both sides of the harbor enjoyed brisk DVD sales. The musicians were performing officially as part of the MUNY (Music Under New York) program.

Open year-round, the Staten Island Ferry Terminal Greenmarket is open Tuesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. This past Friday, the market was amply stocked with perky sunflowers, tomato plants, and a variety of peppers plants for outdoor summer container gardening.

The ferry ride's close proximity to Governors Island (images below) affords a sneak peak at the island's coming attractions. Beginning Memorial Day weekend, May 26-28, Governors Island will be open every Saturday, Sunday and Holiday Monday (Memorial Day and Labor Day). Exhibitions will include Graphic Design—Now in Production, co- organized by Cooper-Hewitt and the Walker Art Center in Building 110, and Mark di Suvero at Governors Island: Presented by Storm King Art Center. The ferry ride offers a good view of Mark di Suvero's pieces from across the water. Many more special events are planned for the island summer season. Ferries to Governors Island from Manhattan depart from the Battery Maritime Building, just to the east of the Staten Island Terminal. From Brooklyn, ferries leave from Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6.

Finally, those wishing to capture special moments in New York's changing skyline should always consider the vantage point of the Staten Island Ferry.

Resources:
• Official website for the Staten Staten Ferry

Recent posts on Staten Island:
• In Staten Island's Snug Harbor, a Secret Garden
• The Living Spirit of Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church

Coming next - a visit to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto in the Rosebank in Staten Island's Rosebank neighborhood. Part of the series on historic preservation.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 10 and 11, 2012.

The Living Spirit of Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church

2012-05-15T15:54:00.000-04:00

Rossville AME Zion Church is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post is part of a series that takes a close look at a few of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

Many of the congregants of Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church near the far shores of Staten Island on Bloomingdale Road maintain deep and long family ties to this place, stretching back in time "six, seven, even eight generations," as Reverend Janet H. Jones, their pastor, explained as we walked down the aisles of the historic church. Returning for services on Sunday morning, the descendants reaffirm their ties to this once prosperous black community of Sandy Ground, founded by free African Americans in the 1820s and 1830s. Following settlers from the New York area, new residents came to Sandy Ground from Maryland, especially from the Chesapeake Bay community of Snow Hill, to build a thriving oyster industry that would supply the best New York restaurants. The residents of Sandy Ground started their own schools and churches.

Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church, 584 Bloomingdale Road, Staten Island, New York

As the oyster industry thrived, more free people of color found their way to this community in the years before the Civil War. At the time, Sandy Ground served as one area where free blacks owned their own property. Other such areas in New York included Seneca Village, a neighborhood in Manhattan that would be destroyed in the building of Central Park, and the former Lefferts family estate in Brooklyn, now Bedford-Stuyvesant. According to documents prepared by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of Rossville AME Zion Church's application for landmark status, the "oyster industry was quite successful on Staten Island and some of those who pursued it became wealthy, while others were able to support their families in a comfortable manner for many years." (source available as a pdf) When the oyster trade suffered as a result of industrialization and polluted waters offshore, the community turned to raising strawberries, as Reverend Jones explained.

This church that has long served as the spiritual heart of the community was founded as the African Zion Methodist Church in 1850 at the home of minister William H. Pitts, and the first church building on Crabtree Avenue was built in 1854. With the community's growing prosperity, land for a new church was purchased in 1890 on Bloomingdale Road. The congregation held its first service in this new church in December of 1897. Down the road, near the location of the original building, the church's cemetery is nestled behind lush overgrown plants and trees.

church interior

As many of the oldest Sandy Ground buildings were lost in a devastating fire in 1963, the Rossville A.M.E. Zion Church serves as a living reminder of the story of Sandy Ground. "People were empowered by their faith to come here," Reverend Jones said, "as they embraced the ideas of the Constitution and entrepreneurship." She explained many of the current members now live away from this spot, particularly in the New Brighton community in the northern part of Staten Island. One descendant of the original community returns for annual visits from her home in Georgia. As part of her overall mission of spiritual development and growth, Reverend Jones keeps busy with youth programs at the church, entrusting younger members to ensure the church's future.

One of the sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative, Rossville AME Zion Church is looking to restore the interior of the church, beginning with an analysis for removing more modern features added over time, including acoustic tiles, worn carpet, and siding. Pulling back layers to possibly uncover evidence of earlier details serves as an appropriate metaphor for a church that prizes the long memories of its members. Sandy Ground, Reverend Jones said, "lives in the spirit of the people."

You can help the church by voting for the project. Read below for details.

Directions: To visit Rossville AME Zion Church, from Manhattan, take the Staten Island Ferry from the St. George Terminal and then transfer to the Bricktown Mall bound bus. Get off at Bloomingdale Rd near Kramer Avenue and walk to the church.

View Rossville AME Zion Church in a larger map

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Resources:
• Rossville AME Zion Church on Facebook

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple. A big thank you to Reverend Janet H. Jones for her warm reception and sharing the story of her church.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

At the Helen Hayes Theatre, A New Act for Second Stage

2012-05-14T08:31:00.000-04:00

Second Stage at the Helen Hayes is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post is part of a series that takes a close look at a few of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

While walking along W. 44th Street in New York's Theatre District, the theatre at 240 W. 44th stands in marked contrast to its neighbors. Built by producer Winthrop Ames and designed by Harry Creighton Ingalls (1876-1936) of the firm Ingalls & Hoffman in 1912, the building when viewed from the street looks like a charming neocolonial inn. Built in sturdy red brick with white trim, the top two floors are adorned with shutters and the lower of the two with small curved Juliet balconies. The arched entrance on the left is flanked with pairs of columns painted white. Above the red awning that identifies this place as the Helen Hayes Theatre, a white classically-inspired plaque marks the theatre's original name, the Little Theatre, with its 1912 origin noted in Roman numerals.

The Helen Hayes Theatre, 240 W. 44th Street.

At the time of its opening in 1912, a contemporary reviewer described the exterior as follows,

"We are reminded of elm trees and a calm New England green; for the design of the façade is ancestrally American. Here is not strained and tortured imitation of the Greek or adaptation of the Romanesque, no puffed and timid rococo, no meretricious, glittering art nouveau; but a simple, chaste Colonial design, lovely in unobtrusive dignity." - from "The Advent of the Little Theatre" by Clayton Hamilton, The Bookman, v. 35, p. 239.

In its earliest days, the Little Theatre was an intimate affair of 290 seats with no balcony. It functioned as a chamber theater for predominantly well-to-do New Yorkers. Winthrop Ames had wanted a cozy setting for staging contemporary new plays and experimental productions. The original lobby even included a fireplace. Artistic tapestries adorned the curved walls. The 1912 article in The Bookman, while praising the worthiness of the inaugural production of John Galsworthy's play, The Pigeon, wondered aloud whether or not the theatre was perhaps too small and too restrictive in ticket price for "the most intelligent class of theatre-goers." These were the enthusiastic audience members who do not buy the pricey orchestra seats but rather pack a theatre's galleries and balconies. By 1915, Ames started to lose money on his intimate house, so he ordered a renovation and expansion to accommodate more seats, including the construction of a balcony.

from the article, "The Advent of the Little Theatre" by Clayton Hamilton, The Bookman, v. 35
The original theater from 1912 did not include a balcony. It was added later.

With nearly 600 seats, this truly little theater is still the smallest house on Broadway. A walk inside the theatre today (currently housing the musical Rock of Ages) reveals many of the elements of the original, including the decorative oval-shaped ceiling with winged female creatures festooned in a garland, the architect's signature columns, and the picture frames lining the curved walls that once held the tapestries. The acoustics remain exceptional. A specialist in theaters and private homes, architect Ingalls also designed Henry Miller's Theatre (rechristened the Stephen Sondheim Theatre in 2010) at 124 W. 43rd Street in red brick Georgian style from 1918.

The exterior of the theater largely stays unchanged, yet what has gone on in this place over a hundred years has definitely changed with the times. Through its early years, the Little Theatre fulfilled its mission to produce exciting new dramas, with Ames sometimes leasing the theatre to other artistically compatible producers including John Golden and Oliver Morosco. In the early days, the theatre enjoyed many hits, including works by women playwrights. A Little Journey, a comedy written and directed by Rachel Crothers, was one of the highlights of the 1918-1919 season. After its debut in a couple of other theaters that failed to live up to quality production values, Eugene O'Neill's first full-length play, Beyond the Horizon (1920), opened March 9, 1920 for an extended run in the Little Theatre.

decorative ceiling and balcony
The Helen Hayes Theatre

The Little Theatre, like many other theatrical houses, suffered during the economic crisis of the 1930s, and for the next decades, it underwent varying uses. The New York Times company bought and renamed the space as a conference hall. In the late 1950s, ABC acquired the building, adapting it for use as a television studio under its old name of the Little Theatre. The Dick Clark Show originated here from 1958 to 1961, and later Westinghouse Broadcasting assumed the lease for The Merv Griffin Show and The David Frost Show. Intermittently during this time, the Little Theatre would operate as a legitimate stage. One of the greatest successes came in June 1982 when Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, a landmark play about gay life that originated at La MaMa E.T.C. downtown, moved to this stage on 44th Street.

In 1983, the theatre was renamed the Helen Hayes Theatre to honor the acclaimed "First Lady of the American Theater." The existing Helen Hayes Theatre (1911) at 210 W. 46th Street, although listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was demolished that year to make way for the new Marriott Marquis complex. In addition to the demolition of the Hayes, the nearby Bijou (1917) and the Morosco (1917) fell under the wrecking ball. Many people from the theater community, including Joseph Papp, rallied to save the building. But since the actress had managed to outlive her namesake, the Little Theatre on W. 44th Street became the Helen Hayes.

The Helen Hayes Theatre is getting a new life with its acquisition by the Second Stage Theatre (2ST). The spirit of Winthrop Ames's original mission to present new works for audiences blends well with the vision of Second Stage, the company founded in 1979 to give new life or "second stagings" for worthy contemporary works in need of a second chance. The contemporary non-profit subsequently added to its mission the development and production of new works as well as programs for young theater artists. 2ST currently works out of two spaces - its small 108-seat theatre on the Upper West Side, and its second theatre on 43rd Street, a 296-seat space designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened in 1999.

The Helen Hayes Theatre will now provide Second Stage with a larger, yet still intimate space, for its productions. Owning and operating its own space will also allow 2ST a greater flexibility in revenue and in the length of runs. Fittingly, the theatre noted for its intrinsic American design will soon serve as the home for a production company dedicated to new works by American playwrights. Programming for Second Stage at the Helen Hayes Theatre is scheduled for the 2013-2014 season.

Named as one of the 40 New York sites selected to receive Partners in Preservation funding, Second Stage is seeking to restore the theatre's façade, entranceway, columns, and cornice. Renovating the public face of the Helen Hayes will importantly affirm a sense of continuity in a place that has once again reclaimed its commitment to new works in an intimate setting. Read below how you can participate in the funding process.

View Helen Hayes Theatre in a larger map

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Resources:
• Second Stage Theatre Company on Facebook

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple. Many thanks to Karen Goldfeder of 2ST and Sharon Fallon of the Helen Hayes Theatre for sharing their passion for this legendary theatrical space.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Lessons from East 10th Street

2012-05-09T08:17:00.000-04:00

A walk on 10th Street from the Hudson River to the East River, or vice versa, affords many pleasures, including the opportunity to look at some of the city's most beautiful townhouses, local libraries, and historic churches, to sample the wares from small neighborhood stores, and to grab a decent cup of coffee. This sort of lateral city walk can also introduce visitors to some of the historical and visual distinctions between the west side and east side in this part of downtown.

Residential block of E. 10th from Fifth Ave. to University Place with townhouses from the 19th century

"The Ava"
9 East 10th Street, built in 1888
decorated in East Indian style with teakwood
once home to writer Dawn Powell

Devonshire House, detail
28 E. 10th Street at University Place
designed by architect Emery Roth, 1928

In general, the west side of Fifth Avenue tends to run formal and subdued in its color choices, while the East Village blocks, especially in the more eastern stretches in the Avenues, would be the more likely location to enjoy a brightly painted mural of cats and dogs or of a unicorn. The west side doesn't seem to go for this sort of thing, so that's why the myriad visual stimulations of E. 10th make for a rather fetching walk.

Grace Church
802 Broadway at E 10th

intersection of 4th Avenue and E 10th

Townhouses on the market
James Renwick, 1854
123-125 E 10th
St. Mark's Historic District
near intersection with Stuyvesant Street

Walking several blocks of any street most anywhere can provide a sense of the area. Whether there's variety, continuity, and above all else, visible evidence of human use (people out walking, playing, etc.), can provide a good sense of the health of a place. The idea of mixed use development, coupled with elements of surprise and delight, even a certain degree of messiness, is known among contemporary city observers and urban planners as essential elements of vital street life.

St. Marks Church in the Bowery
131 East 10th Street

Russian & Turkish Baths
268 E 10th

St. Nicholas of Myra Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church
288 East 10th Street at Avenue A

Human scale buildings and visual breaks in conformity certainly entertain those of us who like to see the world on foot. The opposite scenario is unwelcome, both for walking types and the area itself - a bland conformity block after block, an anesthesia or blindness to the historical landscape we have inherited. So far, E. 10th is still okay.

apartment buildings in 300 block of E 10th Street
across the street from Tompkins Square Park

NYPL Tompkins Square Library
331 East 10th

Charlie Parker Place
E 10th and Avenue B
The jazz legend lived at 151 Avenue B from 1950-1954

Follow these square scenes of East 10th Street, and understand that each one deserves fuller appreciation and exploration. This area of Manhattan goes deep, encompassing the Dutch foundations of New York in Peter Stuyvesant's farm, the commercial and religious life of the 18th and 19th centuries, turn-of-the-century immigration from southern and Eastern Europe, the burgeoning bohemia of the Village in the 1910s and 1920s, the aspirations of public housing, the downtown scene, a revolution in jazz, a cultural center of Latino New York, the neighborhood of "Rent" and of rising rents, stories of old-time and recent residents who love the place, and the many dreams and anxieties of every business that has run its course here.

Public School 64
605 East 9th (rear view on E. 10th between Avenue B and Avenue C)
1904-1906 by C. B. J. Snyder
(note: The two previous posts on this website featured a building by Snyder. Crazy coincidence, that.)

Urban Vets Animal Hospital
163 Avenue C (at E 10th)
mural by longtime area resident and artist Antonio "Chico" Garcia.
Garcia worked in the city for 35 years. He moved to Florida, but he has returned to NYC
since then to paint a mural on Grand Street. (Story on Curbed, Jan. 4, 2012)

Dog by Chico. Urban Vets.

A walk in any city should be as stimulating. Strolling East 10th Street at any given time is like what the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus said about rivers. You can never step in the same street twice. This is especially true of New York and of this street in particular.

Unicorn by Chico

For more on West 10th, read these posts:
• West 10th Street, From Fifth Avenue to Waverly Place
• The Tenth Street Studio Building and a Walk to the Hudson River
• From the Arch and Back Again: A Nighttime Stroll to See the Holiday Lights

For more on Chico, see this interview with the artist on The Local East Village, The New York Times, from November 7, 2011.

View A Walk on 10th Street in a larger map

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple made with the CameraBag app for the iPhone. Locate "Walking Off the Big Apple" on your mobile browser and stroll along. Walking the length of 10th Street from river to river is just a little over 2 miles.

At Erasmus Hall, A Story in Stained Glass Windows

2012-05-06T14:35:00.000-04:00

Erasmus Hall Campus is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post is part of a series that takes a close look at a few of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

The story of how the Erasmus Hall Campus in Flatbush, Brooklyn came to possess such an extraordinary collection of stained glass windows will be told here in pictures and captions.

The Erasmus Hall Campus in Brooklyn can boast a long list of achievements for itself. Walking up Flatbush Avenue, the rising Gothic towers of the campus at 911 Flatbush Avenue foreshadow its importance in inspiring students over the years.

One of the oldest secondary schools in the state, the campus still encloses its original wood-framed Federal style building dating from 1786.

A subsequent expansive campus designed in the Collegiate Gothic Style enclosed the older school in a quadrangle. Charles B. J. Snyder (1860–1945), the architect and Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education at the time of construction, drew up extraordinarily ambitious plans for the campus, completed in phases, beginning in 1905.

Snyder designed the Erasmus campus with an eye toward the harmonious and romantic, incorporating art into the construction in the form of stained glass windows. The auditorium in Erasmus Hall, fondly called "the chapel" by its students, surely stands as one of the most harmonious gathering places in all of the city's schools.

The decorative side windows in the auditorium were designed at the time of its construction in 1905. In addition to letting light into the auditorium, the stained glass windows repeat the colors, shapes, and decorations (floral, shields) of the structure.

The architect believed that school buildings possessed the power to inspire learning. Who knows how the beauty of the Erasmus Hall campus may have affected its alumni? Consider just a few names on a very long list - Barbra Streisand, Elaine de Kooning, Clive Davis, Joseph Barbera, Betty Comden, Neil Diamond, Eleanor Holm, Susan Hayward, Eli Wallach, Mae West, Norma Talmadge, Arthur M. Sackler, Roger Kahn, Mickey Spillane, Bernard Malamud.
Exterior image of the auditorium's decorative windows. Note the open panel.

The extraordinary focal point of the auditorium is the stained glass work, Life of Erasmus. The 41 panels illustrate episodes in the life of Desiderius Erasmus (1466?-1536), the Dutch theologian, priest, and writer for whom the school is named. The alumni association commissioned this work, crafted in 1910-12 by the Church Glass and Decorating Company. Erasmus is the seated figure in the middle, holding an open book on his lap. The panels together represent a life in learning.

On the 2nd floor, in what was once the school library, a five panel work of stained glass dating from 1919 pays tribute to the school's first principal, Walter B. Gunnison. The central classical figure is a woman wearing a crown, an image meant to inspire students as a symbol of knowledge.

The window now sits on an alcove just off a room used for art lessons.

Yes, this work is by who you think it is - Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The side panels reveal characteristic Tiffany landscapes and motifs in greens and blues.

A student from the Erasmus Hall campus would then be able to say,

"My art classroom has a Tiffany window in it. Does yours?"

One more to show - Knowledge, c. 1937, a set of panels depicting human progress in ways characteristic of Depression-era murals. Here, the stained glass works portray various enterprises and achievements of the nation. The last panel shows the rise of the skyscraper city.

The stained glass windows of Erasmus Hall serve as inspirations for students.
Notice the statue of Erasmus out in the courtyard.

The back of the Tiffany stained glass pieces may be discerned in the windows
directly above the Gothic lettering spelling out the school name.
One of the 40 sites selected to compete for preservation grants, a process dependent upon your votes (simply click on the badge below), Erasmus Hall Campus has applied for grants to restore their stained glass windows.

Resources:
• Public Art for Public Schools on Facebook

View Erasmus Campus School in a larger map

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 4, 2012. Thanks to Tania Duvergne, Director, Public Art for Public Schools, NYC School Construction Authority, for sharing her knowledge and showing me around.

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

A Visit to the City Island Nautical Museum

2012-05-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

City Island Nautical Museum is one of 40 sites selected for the Partners in Preservation initiative in New York City, a program that raises awareness of historic preservation by involving the public in distributing grants. This post is part of a series that takes a close look at a few of these sites. Information about how you can participate follows.

The island belongs to New York City, and specifically this island beyond Pelham Bay Park is part of the borough of the Bronx, but City Island, in terms of its history, really belongs to the sea. A walk down the length of the small island and through this tightly knit seaport community confirms the dominance of all things nautical and seafaring here – the high masts of many boats moored in yacht clubs, the bountiful number of seafood restaurants, and antique stores specializing in the maritime trade.

City Island Nautical Museum

An informed visit to City Island, one that fully explains the island’s history, should begin at City Island Nautical Museum. The museum is housed in a former school built by New York City in 1897-1898, a handsome Georgian Revival building at the top of a hill on Fordham Street. Now operated and maintained by a handful of passionate volunteers, collectively known as "the Barbaras," for all are named Barbara except for one Jane, the multifaceted rooms of this stately building illustrate the island's deep-rooted connection to the surrounding waters. For anyone interested in the history of sailing, boat building, America's Cup, and City Island's important role in these stories, a trip here should be mandatory.

The Library of City Island Nautical Museum

City Island's claim to fame rests in its boat building heritage, amply illustrated in the museum in the form of photographs, documents, illustrations, models, and importantly, real boats, all of them carefully crafted on the island. A major center for yacht building from the Civil War to 1980, the shipyards of City Island built many illustrious vessels, including some of the largest yachts of their day - the 146' schooner for William Astor in 1877, a 187' steam schooner yacht in 1914, and a 160'8" steel diesel in 1921, the latter for Vincent Astor and at the time the world's largest diesel yacht. The careful craftsmanship of boats like these and others, along with the island's strategic geographic location, established City Island as a vital center for yacht making.

City Island Nautical Museum displays the island's boat-making history

As “the Barbaras” will explain, the existing tradition of boat building allowed City Island to play a central role in America's Cup. City Island-built racing boats of the 12 Metre Class made a particularly strong showing, with five serving as defenders in seven successful America's Cup campaigns. Visitors to the City Island Nautical Museum will have plentiful opportunities to learn more about these beautiful yachts - Columbia, Constellation, Intrepid, Courageous, and Freedom - along with the shipyards that built them. During wartime, City Island shipbuilders contributed to innovations in naval technology, including the World War II era minesweepers.

The museum's School Room displays images and artifacts relating to the building's past as a school house.
The building's architect, Charles B. J. Snyder (1860–1945), played an important role in designing schools throughout
New York City.

Beyond the history of boat making, City Island Nautical Museum also celebrates the life of the former Public School 17 (the building opened as P.S. 102 then was renumbered as P.S. 17 in 1903), safeguarding several artifacts and images of all of its graduating classes. The School Room of the museum joins the other well-appointed galleries - Community Room, Nautical Room, office, and Library - in presenting the story of this singular island. The building's architect, Charles B. J. Snyder (1860–1945), played an important role in designing schools in New York City as Superintendent of School Buildings for the New York City Board of Education for over thirty years. (Among many school buildings, Snyder designed Erasmus Hall in Brooklyn, one of the other 40 New York City sites selected by Partners in Preservation.) The school on Fordham Street closed in 1976, making way for the nautical museum to use the space. Students now attend P.S. 175 at 200 City Island Avenue.

As with all the sites selected in the competitive process for Partners in Preservation funding, a process dependent upon your votes (simply click on the badge below), the museum has certain needs. The front blue-stone and concrete stairways leading up to the museum have weather-worn cracks and are in much need of repair.

City Island residents retain a strong sense of community and personal ties. Safeguarding their history has served them well, especially when the tide of change can shift another way. Many islands in the contemporary world have unfortunately become unmoored from their past, turned into watery diversions of fried fish and daiquiris and decorated with incongruous fake palm trees. Though City Island experiences the weekend invasions of "off-Islanders," the community has kept much of the egregious effects of tourist development at bay, so to speak.

A residential street on the southwest side of City Island ends at the water.

City Island is easily walkable. Begin by exploring City Island Avenue, the main thoroughfare that runs a little over 1.35 miles down the length of the island, as well as a few of the gently sloping residential side streets that lead to the water’s edge. Included here is a map showing the location of City Island Nautical Museum. While visiting the museum, pick up their walking tour brochure that illustrates others points of interest. And be sure to ask for Barbara.

View City Island in a larger map

Resources:
• Website for City Island Nautical Museum
• City Island Museum on Facebook

City Island Nautical Museum
190 Fordham Street Bronx, NY 10464
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. and by appt. Admission is free.

Getting there: Become friends with the Pelham Bay-bound 6 train, because you will be on it for some time, and ride it all the way to the end. Just outside the Pelham Bay Park subway stop, wait for the City Island bound BX29 bus. Once on City Island, ask the driver for the Fordham Street stop and walk east to the museum.

Special note: The museum is participating in Partners in Preservation Open House weekend, May 5-6, 2012.

a view from the southern tip of City Island

Images of City Island by Walking Off the Big Apple from May 3, 2012. Many thanks to Barbara Hoffman, Barbara Dolensek, and Jane Protzman for sharing with me their knowledge about City Island and the museum.

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This post is part of a series providing special in-depth coverage of several of the 40 sites selected to receive funding.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Click on the badge to the left to cast your vote.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

In New York City, the Discussion on Historic Preservation Begins at Penn Station

2012-05-04T14:28:00.001-04:00

Waiting for a train at New York's Penn Station, the city's massive transportation hub underneath the behemoth of Madison Square Garden, involves a certain ritual, not altogether pleasant. Nearing their time for departure, passengers gather around the big boards that announce the track numbers. Typically, they don't know the track until 15 minutes or so before, and when the board unveils the location, a mass of people, almost like a swarm of bees, heads toward the appointed gate. While waiting in a state of anxious anticipation, there's little to do, other than contemplating another cup of coffee at one of the interchangeable food chains that crowd the mundane mall.

While looking at the train boards, little of the surrounding structure attracts the eye, nothing beautiful of architectural distinction. A few weeks ago, while I was engaged in this ritual of both boredom and anticipation, I was standing off to the side of the waiting room when I happened to glance at a framed black and white picture affixed to one of the building's support columns. It was a picture of the old Pennsylvania Station, one of the greatest Beaux Arts buildings ever built in New York, designed by McKim, Mead and White and finished in 1910. Seeing a picture of the beautiful old building inside this much lesser one added insult to injury, a psychic pang to the wait.

If I were waiting for a train in the old Penn Station, one well maintained and repurposed for a new generation, I would be happy to stay there and not hurry off to the gate.

On Wednesday evening, May 2, 2012, at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WNYC (44 Charlton), Partners in Preservation, the initiative to engage community involvement in selecting 40 historic sites for funding, sponsored a discussion about current debates in preservation. Studio 360 host Kurt Andersen moderated the discussion, titled "Preservation in New York: The Evolving Conversation." His guests included Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund; Paul Goldberger, the preeminent architecture critic; and David Mohney, a Professor and Dean Emeritus at the College of Design at the University of Kentucky.

Anderson began the discussion by talking about the destruction of Pennsylvania Station, only 52 years old in 1962, and he showed contrasting images of the soaring Beaux Arts masterpiece and the contemporary scene of ennui described here. Characterizing the structure's demolition as the "final straw" of the city's hurried modernization, Anderson explained that the event spurred the formation of the preservation movement and the city's own Landmarks Preservation Commission shortly after. (Indeed, the commission's webpage acknowledges this: "Events like the demolition of the architecturally distinguished Pennsylvania Station in 1963 increased public awareness of the need to protect the city's architectural, historical, and cultural heritage.") Now 52 years later, Anderson noted, it's a fitting time to assess the current state of historic preservation.

Topics of the evening's discussion, broadcast live on the web and now available on tape here, included the power of community groups in saving landmarks; the pressing need for preservation studies in the architecture profession; a backlash, as exemplified by architect Rem Koolhaas's theorizations; and the assessment of modernist buildings, including those defined as Brutalist, as worthy of preservation. Bonnie Burnham pointed out that New York City is "almost unique" among cities in having a process for historical preservation. Still, many historic sites are often underfunded, she noted, including five sites of the forty in the Partners in Preservation's NYC initiative that belong to the federal government.

One of the most well received comments of the night came when Goldberger evoked the popular preservationist intonation, attributed to Washington D.C. architect Carl Elefante: "The greenest building is the one that's already there."

The collective trauma brought about by the actual demolition of Penn Station, beginning in the fall of 1963, set in motion a new preservationist spirit in New York City and beyond. The story of Penn Station continues to reverberate in the city’s collective consciousness to this day. Episode 2 of Season 3 of Mad Men, titled “Love Among the Ruins,” highlighted the storm of protest surrounding the moment. The story informs contemporary conversations about the ultimate updating of the current Penn Station and the potential for converting the Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station.

Look for the next Partners in Preservation presentation at The Greene Space on May 16 at 7 p.m. Representatives of the 40 sites will present their individual tales in a Story Slam. Event page.

Be sure to visit some of the sites on Open House weekend, May 5-6, 2012. All sites will be offering special events, so today is an excellent time to plan visits.

Walking Off the Big Apple is serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative. Look for special in-depth coverage of several of these sites in the coming days. You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Visit the website Partners In Preservation to cast your vote.

Related:
• Partners In Preservation Announce the 40 Historic NYC Sites in Community-Based Funding Initiative.
• Bye Bye Penn Station: Mad Men Takes on an Epic Battle (2009)

Image of Pennsylvania Station from the Library of Congress: (top) Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection; Collins, Marjory, 1912-1985, photographer; LC-USW3-007028-D DLC (b&w film neg.); Track level and concourses, Penn. [Pennsylvania] Station, New York, N.Y. Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection. LC-D4-71936 DLC (b&w glass neg.); Across the waiting room, from the loggia, Penn[sylvania] Station, New York, N.Y. Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection. LC-D4-71929 DLC (b&w glass neg.)

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

The May Day March Down Broadway: A Slideshow

2012-05-02T12:19:00.002-04:00

Broadway, the thoroughfare that many people associate with the theater, is in fact more like a great long river that runs the length of Manhattan. It streams all the way downtown past the city's oldest inhabited areas, running past City Hall and the Woolworth Building and the intersection with Wall Street and Trinity Church. Broadway eventually spills out at Bowling Green near the Battery. Just beyond is New York Harbor and the promise of freedom symbolized by the Statue of Liberty.

On May 1, 2012, International Workers Day, tens of thousands of New Yorkers spilled out onto Broadway in a solidarity march. It was difficult to not get caught up in this stream of humanity. These pictures show the people near the end of the march, just one part of the river, walking down the blocks on Broadway near Houston Street. The last marchers carried a traditional maypole down Broadway. At top of the pole, a sign read, "All of Our Grievances Are Connected."

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple.

The Tallest Building in New York City: A Look Back in Pictures

2012-04-30T17:50:00.000-04:00

1 World Trade Center officially became the tallest building in New York City this afternoon when workers placed a steel beam on the 100th floor. 1 WTC reached 1,271 feet, surpassing the height of the iconic Empire State Building. In a gracious gesture, the latter building will be lit up tonight in red, white, and blue to honor this special skyscraper moment.

This look back in pictures from Walking Off the Big Apple charts the growth of 1 WTC through months, seasons, perspectives, and varying weather conditions.

October 25, 2010. From Liberty Island. 1 WTC is not visible.

January 26, 2011. Closeup during a snowstorm.

February 23, 2011. From the Battery.

After a delayed start of the entire World Trade Center project, 1 WTC gradually seeped into the visual identity of the downtown Manhattan skyline over the last year and a half. In the fall of 2010, the rising 1 WTC could not even be discerned in the skyline, as nearby buildings such as One Chase Manhattan Plaza (60 floors), AIG Building (66 floors), and 60 Wall Street (55 floors) obstructed views. By the middle of December 2010, 1 WTC had reached the halfway point at 52 floors.

May 1, 2011.
On the evening this picture was taken, President Obama announced that a small team of US forces had killed Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who directed the 911 attacks, in his heavily fortified compound in Pakistan. Following the announcement, over a thousand people gathered near the building at Vesey St. and Church St.

June 3, 2011. From Hudson River pier, Tribeca section.

Even then, the building did not begin to register much of a presence in the skyline until the late summer of 2011, around the time NYC had a brush with a hurricane. By the 10th anniversary of September 11, however, 1 WTC had clearly established its profile not just in Lower Manhattan but throughout many vantage points across the city.

August 27, 2011. NYC was busy with Hurricane Irene preparations.

September 10, 2011. The large screen shows Mayor Bloomberg rehearsing for the next day's 10th anniversary ceremonies and the dedication of the 9/11 Memorial.

November 15, 2011.
1 WTC rising behind St. Paul's Chapel, left in foreground.

February 4, 2012.
View from Brooklyn Bridge Park, with carousel in foreground.
The skyscraper to the right of 1 WTC is Frank Gehry's 8 Spruce Street.

Of course, a picture from today would be an appropriate ending. Here it is, the tallest building in New York City - a clear view from Washington Square Park.

April 30, 2012

All images by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Before May Day, Recalling the Paterson Strike Pageant of 1913

2012-04-30T13:47:00.001-04:00

Occupy Wall Street, with the support of several community and university groups, has announced a full slate of activities in New York City for May 1, International Workers' Day. In addition to calls for a general strike, the OWS has announced plans for a "Pop-up Occupation" of Bryant Park, a solidarity march and rally (already granted permits), and a Free University from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in Madison Square Park. In light of these activities on behalf of the 99%, I thought it would be instructive to take a look at a similarly spirited event that happened in the city 99 years ago - the Paterson Strike Pageant of 1913.

In the late spring and early summer of 1913, nurse and activist Margaret Sanger, writer Max Eastman, artist John Sloan and his wife Dolly, the Harvard-educated radical journalist John Reed, I.W.W. leader Big Bill Haywood, and others worked tirelessly to organize a pageant in support of striking workers. Over a thousand workers in the silk mill industry had walked off their jobs earlier in the year in Paterson, New Jersey, and they agreed to personally take part in an elaborate staging of their plight. The venue was Madison Square Garden. The Garden then was located just off Madison Square Park. The pageant opened on June 7, 1913.

Organizing the visual and performance aspects of the pageant took place in and around Greenwich Village where most of the organizers lived and worked. The organizers structured the pageant in episodes narrating the events of the strike - first, the walkout with workers singing the Marseillaise, the violent clashes with police, the shooting of an innocent bystander, and the I.W.W.'s mass meeting. Episode Five reenacted the May Day Parade in Paterson, with women and children dressed in red. The scene dramatized the emotional moments when the women on strike handed over their children to temporary "strike mothers" in other cities.

Mabel Dodge, a financial supporter of the strike and friend to the organizers, wrote in her autobiography, "No one realized the fun of having placed the letters I.W.W. ten feet high on each of the four sides of the Madison Square Tower in bright red electric lights, so that they could be seen from one end of town to the other." (from Movers and Shakers by Mabel Dodge Luhan) Inside the Garden, Sloan painted the ninety-foot backdrop of the Paterson silk mill.

Madison Square Garden, New York City. Created/Published between 1900 and 1910.
The Library of Congress.

In recounting the events of the pageant, Dodge acknowledges, "Everybody worked except me." Dodge's job, as she saw it, was to inspire John Reed, her lover of the moment, and to raise money. Dodge, as a wealthy Fifth Avenue heiress, spent a lot of energy trying to convince the anarchists in her circle that she was a good capitalist. The most humorous parts of her autobiography - although I don't think she saw them as funny - involve her worries that her friend, the anarchist Emma Goldman, might possibly kill her.

Unfortunately for all concerned, the Paterson Strike Pageant failed to raise enough funds through admission fees to make a significant economic contribution to the depleting strike fund. Furthermore, the event led to a bitter argument between the labor movement activists and the Greenwich Village arts radicals, with labor leaders accusing the Villagers of taking the profits of the pageant. The accusation proved unfounded, as the artists had loaned money to the cause. News reports indicated that the disappointing profit of $350 after expenses caused a great deal of ill will. The strike was, in effect, broken in August of 1913. (See T‪he Selected Papers of Margaret Sanger‬, Volume 1, ‪University of Illinois Press‬, ‪2003‬, p. 54)

Still, most all contemporary accounts indicate that at least for the night of the Paterson Strike Pageant at Madison Square Garden everyone was uplifted and in good spirits. Two reviews follow.

Here is a review from The Survey: social, charitable, civic : a journal of constructive philanthropy, Volume 30 from June 28, 1913.

The Independent noted in the following excerpt, "No stage in the country had even seen a more real dramatic expression of American life--only a part of it, to be sure, but a genuine and significant part."

Happy May Day.

See May 1 page for Occupy Wall Street with list of events.

See also the post One Hundred Years Ago in Bohemia: Greenwich Village 1912.

Watching the Space Shuttle Enterprise from a Hudson River Pier

2012-04-27T14:19:00.000-04:00

The Hudson River Park pier near Spring Street, the one with the Holland Tunnel ventilation building at the end, turned out to be a good place to watch this morning's flyover of the space shuttle Enterprise. Riding piggyback on the NASA Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, the shuttle, a prototype that never soared in real space, flew from Dulles to JFK with flyovers over the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks. Shortly after arriving around 10:30 a.m. in New York Harbor, someone on the pier shouted that they saw the shuttle in the distance coming up the Hudson.

New York's Intrepid Museum at Pier 86 will be the eventual home for the shuttle, and those assembled there this morning also got a good look at the future exhibit as it flew by.

The shuttle flew up the Hudson all the way to the Tappan Zee Bridge and then south again.

I was able to get decent pictures of the shuttle while it jetted over the Jersey skyline across the water.

Aside from chilly winds, the clouds looked dramatic this morning and made a nice backdrop for the flight. This being New York, people couldn't take and upload pictures fast enough. Below is one of my Instagrams of the New York minute.

At the Hudson River pier, almost everyone left after they thought we had seen the last of it. But, the Enterprise came back into view once again in the far distance over New Jersey.

Many professional photographers, shooting with huge telephoto lenses, had already left. A couple of other people said they had skipped out on work and were glad of it.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from April 27, 2012.

Partners In Preservation Announce the 40 Historic NYC Sites in Community-Based Funding Initiative

2012-04-26T20:22:00.000-04:00

Walking Off the Big Apple always supports venturing off the beaten path to explore fascinating sites in the city. Beyond the well-known museums and thoroughfares, great hidden historical treasures are still to be discovered by residents and visitors alike. Many of these sites are tied to the everyday life of their communities, important social institutions such as libraries, schools, churches, cultural centers, and museums about local history. A lot of them are located in parts of the five boroughs underserved by the popular guidebooks. All tell an important story about the city.

At a morning press conference on April 26 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Partners In Preservation, a program of American Express in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced the names of the 40 NYC historical sites that will be the beneficiaries of $3 million in preservation funds. The list follows. All of the selected sites greatly expand our awareness of the living history in New York City, and I encourage readers to become familiar with the selected places across the city.

Katharine McPhee sings "New York, New York" as the sites are announced.
The Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the Bronx was one of the selections.
The location for the announcement was the auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Katharine McPhee of the hit TV show SMASH highlighted the press conference by singing a rousing rendition of "New York, New York" to accompany a hologram-like unveiling of the historic sites.

Walking Off the Big Apple will be serving as a blog ambassador for the Partners In Preservation initiative. In the coming weeks look for special in-depth coverage of several of these sites here.

You are encouraged to participate by voting once a day through May 21, 2012 for your favorite on the list. The four projects receiving the most public votes will have their grant requests fully funded, and the rest will be distributed among the remaining sites. Visit the website Partners In Preservation.

Celebrate the sites at Open House weekend on May 5-6, 2012. The official website includes more information about visiting the sites, including useful maps of the boroughs.
Enjoy McPhee's full performance:

Watch live streaming video from americanexpress at livestream.com

Below see the New York City historic sites competing for the Partners In Preservation funds:

Alice Austen House Museum, Staten Island
Apollo Theater, Manhattan
Astoria Pool, Queens
Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, Bronx
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library, Brooklyn
Brown Memorial Baptist Church, Brooklyn
Caribbean Cultural Center, Manhattan
City Island Nautical Museum, Bronx (featured on this website)
Cleopatra’s Needle, Manhattan
Coney Island B&B Carousell, Brooklyn
Congregation Beth Elohim, Brooklyn
Duo Multicultural Arts Center, Manhattan
Ellis Island Hospital Complex, Manhattan
Erasmus Hall Campus, Brooklyn (featured on this website)
Federal Hall National Memorial, Manhattan
Flushing Town Hall, Queens
Gateway National Recreation Area, Brooklyn
Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, Brooklyn
Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan
Helen Hayes Theatre, Manhattan (featured on this website)
Henry Street Settlement, Manhattan
High Line, Manhattan
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Manhattan
Japan Society, Inc., Manhattan
Jefferson Market Library, Manhattan
Louis Armstrong House Museum, Queens
Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Manhattan
Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center, Bronx
Museum of the City of New York, Manhattan
New York Botanical Garden, Bronx
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Society of Rosebank, Staten Island
Queens County Farm Museum, Queens
Rocket Thrower, Queens
Rossville African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Staten Island (featured on this website)
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Manhattan
St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, Manhattan
Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor, Staten Island
Tug Pegasus & Waterfront Museum Barge, Brooklyn
Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx

Top image by Walking Off the Big Apple from April 26, 2012.

Disclosure: I have partnered up with Partners in Preservation to help promote their initiative and to raise awareness of select historical sites in all the five boroughs. While I am being compensated for my time, all opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

On Washington Mews, a Renovation in Progress

2012-04-25T07:54:00.000-04:00

People out walking past Washington Mews, the quaint little thoroughfare north of Washington Square Park, may be wondering what in the world is going on. A home for stables in the nineteenth century and then a studio row for artists beginning in 1916, the Mews certainly accounts for one of the most picturesque street scenes in Greenwich Village. Well, not exactly right now.

NYU is currently converting four buildings along the street as well as upgrading the infrastructure underground, the nearby sidewalks, and the street lighting. Visitors to the city, likely to read about the mews in their tourist guide books, may be disconcerted to find the urban hideaway in such an unappealing state. Residents, too, may look upon the current construction site with raised eyebrows, especially in light of controversies surrounding the university's quest for expansion. In this particular case, however, community and landmark authorities have granted their seal of approval. The renovation just adds one more chapter to a long colorful story.

The origins of the Mews go back to 1801 when Captain Robert Richard Randall died and left his sixteen-acre Manhattan property, Minto Farm, as an estate to be operated for the benefit of retired sailors. The captain's will was complicated, with a clause that made improvements to the existing property rather difficult. Legal entanglements led to the construction of the sailor home, Sailors' Snug Harbor, on the north shore of Staten Island. The trustees of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor eventually were empowered through additional legal measures to make alterations to the Washington Mews and surrounding properties.

In 1916 the Sailors' Snug Harbor Corporation erected new artist studios in Washington Mews and in its neighbor to the west, Macdougal Alley, replacing the old horse stables. The studios gained much attention and were singled out in the city guide books of the period. The studio conversion symbolized the emergence of Greenwich Village as the New World's Left Bank. In 1913 painter Edward Hopper had moved into his studio apartment on Washington Square North, the tallest building on the row between the park and the mews. Overcoming an attempt by NYU to evict him and his wife beginning in 1947, Hopper remained in his home on Washington Square until he died in 1967.

Rider's New York city and vicinity guide from 1916 noted:

"Just above Washington Square to the E. of 5th ave. is Washington Mews, an alley once occupied by the stables belonging to the houses fronting on Washington sq and 8th st.; and to the W. of the avenue, but entered from Macdougal st is Macdougal alley.

In both streets the stables have been turned into studios. This section of the city, popular with artists, is sometimes compared to the Latin Quarter of Paris. Much of this property is leasehold from the Sailors' Snug Harbor corporation which is now (1916) remodeling the block N. of Washington Mews into artists' dwellings on a comprehensive plan."

The Edison Monthly in 1916 ran a feature on "The New Mews," citing the new studio construction as "an exceptional combination of modernity and Old World picturesqueness." As a sponsored publication, The Edison Monthly proudly boasted that modern electricity in the mews would be served by the New York Edison Company.

The article also featured a photograph of the Washington Mews studio of modernist sculptor Paul Manship (1885-1966). Visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art will know his Group of Bears (1932, cast 1963).

New York University leased Washington Mews from Sailors' Snug Harbor in 1949-1950 and converted the property into faculty housing and offices. The current renovation includes ADA accessibility and further adaptation from residential to academic purposes.

Related posts:

• A Walk to a Mews and Alley, Unplowed (January 2011). The post featured the two small streets under a heavy snowfall.
• One Hundred Years Ago in Bohemia (April 2012).

Elsewhere:

• "NYU Begins Renovation of Historic Washington Mews Buildings." DNAinfo.com October 28, 2011.
• NYU's website page on the project.

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple.
On the map, Washington Mews is on the right (east side of 5th Avenue).

View MacDougal Alley and Washington Mews in a larger map

Dinner and a Movie: Food and Drink Near the East Village Cinemas

2012-04-24T13:53:00.000-04:00

Moviegoers attending screenings in the East Village at the Village East Cinema (2nd Avenue at E. 12th) or the Loews Village VII (3rd Avenue and E. 11th) are in luck with convenient food choices before or after the film. This historic area of the city, anchored by St. Marks Church in the Bowery, features a great range of dining and drinking establishments. For vegetarians, Angelica Kitchen is a good choice, or for a fun Italian dinner, John's of 12th Street is just next door. The food innovations of David Chang's Momofuku empire are within easy walking distance, as well as old school Ukranian, modern takes on southern (Redhead), and good burgers (Paul's Da Burger Joint). Cloister Cafe's pretty garden was recently featured on the TV show SMASH.

If the movie calls a for a beer, wander down to E. 7th for a pint at McSorley's or at Burp Castle. Wine drinkers should head north to Blind Pig at E. 14th Street or east to Terroir on E. 12th. For dessert, the venerable Veniero's on E. 11th Street stays open late. The Mudspot on E. 9th Street features a little bit of all of the above, including caffeine for those who like to stay up all night. More choices are noted on the map.

View Dinner and a Movie: Good Eats Near the East Village Cinemas in a larger map

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from April 2012.

For a citywide guide to a movie and dinner, click here.

City Escape: Discovering Local Color in Hudson, NY

2012-04-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

Please forgive this post for not focusing on New York City, but we all need to get away from time to time. For quick escapes like this, I like Hudson, New York, an historic river town that's just two hours north of the city by train. There, I can wander quiet streets on the weekdays, listen to a multitude of birds and train whistles and the soft sound of doors opening, and I can enjoy unobstructed views of the Hudson River at sunset. I am having fun there, too.

Warren Street. Hudson, NY, at 2nd Street intersection.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries Hudson was associated with the New England whaling community, and it served as home to many prosperous merchants. In the late 19th century and early 20th, Hudson took to the wild side, stimulating vigorous business in over a dozen brothels and fifty bars. After state troopers broke up the vices in the early 1950s, the town languished for a couple of decades before being discovered and renewed. The downtown Hudson Historic District, with over 700 properties in a range of architectural styles, served as a most useful launching point for its rediscovery.

historical detail with a splash of color on drain pipe

A two-night trip this week confirmed that activity has considerably picked up in Hudson over the past year, evidenced by new stores, galleries, and restaurants. In addition to Hudson's architectural heritage from the nineteenth century, extraordinarily preserved, and its well-known collection of antique shops, the town's new energy comes in part from more city dwellers taking a liking to the town. Hudson now even has a hipster area, its own small Williamsburg.

The farm-to-table restaurant Grazin' is in the renovated diner on the right at 717 Warren St.

Hudson is not afraid of color. While homes and commercial establishments of the nineteenth century typically employed varying color schemes, depending on style, Hudson shows off its built history by employing a mix of traditional and contemporary approaches to color. On the main drag of Warren Street, a bright electric orange for one entire facade and then a traditional dark brick for the immediate neighbor works well for them together. A building on Columbia Street cleverly presents itself to the street with panels of ordinary pallets painted in brilliant blues. The Chamber of Commerce renovated an old building at the foot of Warren Street and painted it a vibrant red.

The most famous colors in Hudson come with the sunset. Near Hudson is Olana, the Persian-style home of Hudson River artist Frederic Edwin Church. Across the Hudson River from Olana, via the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, is the Thomas Cole site. Both are operated as historical sites and open to the public. Watching the sunsets in Hudson certainly enhances an appreciation of the Hudson River School painters.

To take in the Hudson River landscape, walk down Warren Street to the river and then walk up to Parade Hill. The picturesque Hudson-Athens Lighthouse sits in the middle of the river, and the Catskills are off to the west. The town founders established this promenade in 1795 as a public walk, stipulating that it must be used for such strolling purposes in perpetuity. That's forward thinking.

View of the Hudson River landscape, with statue of Saint Winifred,
from Parade Hill, also known as Promenade Hill.

While visiting Hudson, be sure to visit Helsinki Hudson at 405 Columbia Street, a multi-purpose dining and entertainment venue in an impressive renovated industrial building. Also I recommend hanging out in the Wunderbar & Bistro at 744 Warren Street for informal good dining and a chat with the locals. Cafe Le Perche at 230 Warren offers excellent pastries. The cafe opens at 7 a.m. for counter service, perfect for early risers out on a walk. I've included more recommendations in the map.

View Hudson, NY getaway in a larger map

Counting the round-trip train travel from New York, two nights in my favorite guest house, and food (all good), this trip cost me about $400. I traveled lightly, and I didn't need a car. I consider this price a great bargain for the peace of mind and the renewed energy to take on the big city once again.

Train station, Hudson, NY

• Read more about Hudson at this post from 2010 - Day Trip: Up the River to Hudson, New York, and a Visit to Frederic Church's Olana.

• The prominent Hudson Valley artists maintained studios in Greenwich Village on Tenth Street, also a short walk to the same river. Read the post, The Tenth Street Studio Building and a Walk to the Hudson River.

• More information on train schedules and fares to Hudson, see amtrak.com

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from April 18-20, 2012. More in this set on Flickr WOTBA.

25 Things To Do in Chelsea

2012-04-21T07:06:00.000-04:00

(revised and updated 4.21.12) The phenomenal popularity of the High Line on the West Side has no doubt introduced many visitors to the pleasures of Chelsea, the multifaceted eclectic neighborhood that stretches out below. On the west side of the rails, between W. 13th and W. 29th or so, the Chelsea Gallery District is home to hundreds of contemporary art galleries in repurposed warehouses. New luxury residences rise up around these spaces, taking advantage of the stunning Hudson River views. On the east side of the line, the iconic Empire State Building comes into the picture, but closer in, the Gothic Revival outlines of the General Theological Seminary represent the neighborhood's roots in an earlier century.

Chelsea is a remarkable neighborhood bound together by an artistic and visual history, but it's also a community held together by social institutions - schools, historic houses of worship, affordable housing under the auspices of the city's housing authority, and businesses with deep ties to the area. Yet, a great deal of modern Chelsea is in a state of nervous flux, exemplified by its most famous hotel, currently shuttered for renovations. The best way to scope out what's happening in Chelsea is to get off the High Line and walk its historic streets.

That's a pretty picture of a scene on the High Line above, but come on down to see Chelsea at street level.

The approximate boundaries of Chelsea: 14th St. on the south to 34th St. on the north. Hudson River marks the western boundary. 6th or 7th Avenue and Ladies Mile Historic District are on the east. Chelsea derives from the name of the estate belonging to the Clarke family. The patriarch, Thomas Clarke, a retired British general, named the estate after London's Chelsea. More on Clement Clarke Moore ahead in this post. Clarke's vast Manhattan property extended from what's now 8th Avenue to the Hudson, with his daughter and her husband extending the original property between 21st and 24th Streets south to 19th Street.

25 Things to Do in Chelsea

1. Walk the High Line for an overview, if you have not done so already. Begin on the south near Washington Street and Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District and continue north through Chelsea to near W. 30th Street. To explore the historic district, take the steps at W. 20th down to the street and walk east. http://www.thehighline.org/

2. Stroll the Chelsea Historic District. Boundaries are W. 20th to W. 22nd Streets, between 8th and 10th Avenues. While the whole neighborhood presents a range of building styles, the town-house blocks in varying moods of Italianate, Greek Revival, and other popular styles of the 19th century set an Old World mood for a long walk. Map from the city. http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/maps/chelsea.pdf

3. Visit Clement Clarke Moore Park, located at 10th Avenue and 22nd Street. The Clarke family manor house, located at what is now Eighth Avenue and West 23rd, was called "Chelsea." At the time he wrote (or appropriated, as some claim) his famous poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas," Clement Moore was a Professor at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He had donated the family land for use as a seminary, and the still-thriving seminary stands today along Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets. Another popular park, Chelsea Park is located between W. 27th and W. 28th along 10th Avenue, near the northern part of the High Line.

Starchitecture. Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue reflected in Frank Gehry's IAC building.

4. Are you an English muffin fan? Pay your respects at The Muffin House. 337 West 20th Street in Chelsea. Built in 1850. In the early 20th century Samuel Bath Thomas used the building for his famous muffins. The arched brick ovens remain in the building courtyard. No muffins here, though. You'll have to get them at the grocery store.

5. Explore General Theological Seminary, an educational institution affiliated with the Episcopal Church. The gardens provide a beautiful oasis in Manhattan. Enter from W. 21st Street. Gardens are "usually" open (as a sign indicates) from 10 am to 3 pm, but closed Sundays. http://www.gts.edu/

6. Visit Chelsea's historic churches. Among them - the Church of the Guardian Angel, situated at the northwest corner of W. 21st St. and Tenth Avenue. The church was built in 1930, designed by architect John Van Pelt in the Italian Romanesque style. The church is an active Catholic church in the neighborhood with its own parochial school. Many other churches are worth checking out such as St. Peter's Church, built according to designs of Clement Clarke Moore, and Church of the Holy Apostles.

7. Attend performances of the Atlantic Theater Company. David Mamet and William H. Macy founded this company in 1985. Known for debuts of original plays, revivals, and ensemble acting. One of the company's stages, the Linda Gross Theater at 336 W. 20th Street, is currently completing renovations. http://www.atlantictheater.org/

8. Break out in disco moves at the former Limelight club. After ventures in Miami and Atlanta, in 1980 club impresario Peter Gatien found in New York the thing he was looking for, a former Episcopal church on the corner of 6th Avenue and W. 20th St. in Chelsea. After paying $1.7 million for the property and pouring more than $5 million into its renovation, Limelight opened its doors in 1983, and the party started. The space is currently configured as a boutique department store. See Limelight Marketplace website. Read about a documentary on the club on Walking Off the Big Apple.

The Joyce is known as an exceptional dance theater.

9. Learn about Himalayan art at the Rubin Art Museum, 150 W. 17th St. One of the wonderful small museums, the Rubin not only displays the finest collection of art of this kind in the Western world but offers an exceptional program of special events. Browse the gift shop and enjoy a cup of tea in the museum's excellent cafe. http://www.rmanyc.org/

10. Wander the gallery district for exhibitions by contemporary artists. For art fans, there's nothing more exciting than a Thursday evening with good weather, when dozens of galleries in Chelsea hold openings on the same night. To plan a visit with multiple openings, I often use http://oneartworld.com/

11. Check out the intersection between art and technology at Eyebeam, 540 West 21st Street. To stay ahead of the curve, visit the exciting experiments at Eyebeam. In recent years, several projects have addressed not only art and technology but the way these values can best serve urban life. http://www.eyebeam.org/

12. Worship at the feet of Starchitecture. Especially on the west side and near the High Line, forward-looking architecture has made Chelsea a particularly rich design landscape. For example, visit Frank Gehry's IAC Headquarters and Jean Nouvel's 100 Eleventh Avenue on the south and north sides of W. 19th at 11th Avenue.

13. See a performance at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street. The established non-profit experimental cultural institution features a variety of performing arts programs as well as exhibitions. http://thekitchen.org/

One of the most respected performance venues in the city - The Kitchen.

14. Discover art at the Cue Art Foundation, 511 West 25th Street, Ground Floor. This nonprofit art space provides engaging and thoughtful curated exhibitions. http://www.cueartfoundation.org/

15. Eat your way through the Chelsea Market, 460 W. 16th St. This food-obsessed busy market is housed in the former factory for the National Biscuit Company. In the 1990s the complex was refashioned with design elements reflecting industrial history and also a fake waterfall. The Lobster Place is a popular spot with New Yorkers for seafood, both to take home and enjoy on the premises. The market has recently revitalized itself with several new restaurant and retail additions. http://chelseamarket.com/

16. Buy some flowers at the Chelsea Flower Market, W. 28th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. Buy lots of flowers and plants at wholesale prices, and then figure out after how to get them home.

17. See a modern dance performance at The Joyce Theater, 175 8th Avenue. The Art Moderne building from 1941 originally served as a movie theater, but now it's home to a well-respected dance theater. http://www.joyce.org/

18. Count the portholes at the Maritime Hotel, 363 West 16th Street. The striking 1966 design was originally intended for the National Maritime Union of America. Now an upscale hotel. Cute website. http://www.themaritimehotel.com/

Eyebeam, where art and technology meet.

19. Behold the wonders of the gigantic boy. Brazilian artist brothers, Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo, known as Os Gemeos, along with Futura, the AKANYCcreative studio ,and street art website 12ozProphet, created an extraordinary giant mural - one of their "Gigantes" - on the wall of P.S. 11. The message to the children at play below is that all peoples of the world are united as one. See the documentation of the mural on their website. http://osgemeos.com.br/index.php/blog/arquivo/osgemeos-and-futura2000-nyc/

20. Mourn the Chelsea Hotel, closed for renovations, one of the most important cultural sites in New York. Creative types enlivened this space, celebrated in songs and movies. For one fabulous introduction to the life inside the Chelsea, see Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966). While the renovation is underway, reservations are no longer being taken. http://www.hotelchelsea.com/

21. Gaze at the wonders of massive buildings. Chelsea is home to enormous buildings, for example the Starrett-Lehigh Building (1932) at 601 W. 26th Street (home to many fashion, design, and tech companies), former Port of New York Authority Building at 111 Eighth Avenue (home to Google's New York office), and London Terrace (on land once owned by Clement Clarke Moore, this massive complex from the early 1930s established a new benchmark in massive apartment living).

22. Wander Chelsea at dusk, especially the historic district blocks. W. 21st. is beautiful and mysterious in the early evening.

Walk Chelsea at dusk.

23. See a movie at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, 260 W. 23rd St. The multiplex serves as one of the venues for the Tribeca Film Festival.

24. Laugh all night at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre, 307 W. 26th Street. Improv theater group founded by Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh came to New York in 1996. Many shows nightly at affordable prices keep a steady line out the door. http://www.ucbtheatre.com/

25. Discover the next fashion genius at the Fashion Institute of Technology, 7th Ave W 27th St. At the edge of Chelsea, hugging the Fashion District, FIT is part of the SUNY system. The Museum at FIT presents a fascinating series of exhibitions on design and fashion. http://fitnyc.edu/3662.asp

View 25 Artistic Things to Do in Chelsea in a larger map

Images by Walking Off the Big Apple. This is a revised and updated version of a post from August 2011.

Tribeca Film Festival 2012: The New York Stories

2012-04-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

The Tribeca Film Festival begins today, and following tradition, the 11th iteration of the homegrown festival includes several films that tell stories about New Yorkers. Many of the narrative New York films take on a decidedly youthful coming-of-age theme, either through the drama of romantic breakups or through casting our city's latest stock character, the hipster, into unexpected situations.

The city's cultural life is represented in documentaries about the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the legendary theater director Joe Papp, the PS22 chorus from Staten Island, and the comeback story of a Brooklyn-born musician and former inmate. What follows is a list of feature films in this year's Tribeca Film Festival that prominently showcase New York. Several short films also make ample use of the city.

For information about schedules, theater locations, and tickets, please visit the official website at www.tribecafilm.com/festival/. The festival, which offers a wealth of films and programming beyond the local fare mentioned here, continues through April 29, 2012.

NEW YORK FEATURE FILMS

• 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

2 DAYS IN NEW YORK

Caption: Julie Delpy, Chris Rock and Dylan Baker in 2 DAYS IN NEW YORK.

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Directed and written by Julie Delpy. (France) – New York Premiere, Narrative. In this follow-up to 2 DAYS IN PARIS, Marion (Delpy) is living in New York with her hipster boyfriend, Mingus (Chris Rock!), and their two young children from prior relationships. Marion’s zany family arrives from Paris to meet Mingus, and comedy ensues. In English, French with subtitles. A Magnolia Pictures release.

• BABYGIRL

BABYGIRL
Lena (Yainis Ynoa)
Photo by Ryan Muir

Directed and written by Macdara Vallely. (Ireland, USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. Bronx teenager Lena witnesses her mother's life with a series of men. When her mother's latest boyfriend starts making advances, she sets out to expose him. The plan takes an unexpected turn. Note: BABYGIRL will also be available for online viewing as part of the Tribeca Online Film Festival (official site) on Thursday 4/19 at 9 pm.

• BAM150

BAM150

Directed by Michael Sládek (USA) - World Premiere, Documentary. Behind-the-scenes look at the past and present of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) with footage of recent performances and interviews with artists, including Laurie Anderson and Robert Wilson. Will this documentary have that BAM-and-then-it-hits-you moment?

• FIRST WINTER

FIRST WINTER

Paul Manza (Paul)

Credit: Adam Newport-Berra

Directed and written by Benjamin Dickinson. (USA) – World Premiere. Debut film finds a group of Brooklyn hipsters stranded in a remote country farmhouse during winter with few resources. A tale of survivor of the hipster fittest.

• JACK AND DIANE

JACK AND DIANE
Juno Temple and Riley Keough in JACK AND DIANE, a Magnolia Pictures Release
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Directed and written by Bradley Rust Gray. (USA) – World Premiere. This summertime first-love love story set in New York City includes elements of the horror genre. A Magnolia Pictures release.

• JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS

JOE PAPP IN FIVE ACTS

Director: Karen Thorsen

Directed by Tracie Holder and Karen Thorsen. (USA) – World Premiere. Co-produced with American Masters and featuring Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Kevin Kline, James Earl Jones, and more, this documentary follows Papp's quest to democratize theater and the often stormy personal dramas involved in his life and art.

• LOLA VERSUS

LOLA VERSUS

Greta Gerwig

Lola Versus

Directed by Daryl Wein. Script by Zoe Lister-Jones and Daryl Wein. World Premiere. Narrative. Greta Gerwig stars as Lola, a New Yorker who gets dumped a few weeks before the wedding. Her friends Henry (Hamish Linklater) and Alice (Zoe Lister-Jones) help her in finding a clearer path to the age of 30.

• (Tribeca Talks event) ONCE IN A LULLABY: THE PS 22 CHORUS STORY

ONCE IN A LULLABY: THE PS 22 CHORUS STORY

Choir director Gregg Breinberg (left), chorus member Denise Bestmen (center) and chorus member Azaria Chamorro during an Improv session.

Photo by Jonathan Kalafer

SUN 4/29 3:00 PM SVA-1. Directed by Jonathan Kalafer. World Premiere. Documentary. USA. The PS22 chorus from Staten Island gained fame from You Tube. This documentary follows the dramatic developments of the new chorus stars as they make their way to the 2011 Academy Awards. 89 min followed by a 45 minute conversation.

• THE RUSSIAN WINTER

THE RUSSIAN WINTER

John Forté

Photo by Ian McAlpin

Directed by Petter Ringbom. World Premiere. Documentary. English, Russian. John Forté, a native of Brownsville, Brooklyn, was a member of the Haitian-American hip hop band The Fugees at the age of 21. He subsequently went to federal prison on drug charges. When his prison sentence was commuted in 2008, Forté resumed his career. The documentary chronicles his concert tour across Russia. Note: THE RUSSIAN WINTER will also be available for online viewing as part of the Tribeca Online Film Festival on Friday, 4/20 at 8:30.

• SEXY BABY

SEXY BABY

Winnifred, 13, on the right, poses in her bedroom for her friend Olivia. The two later post the images to Facebook.

photo courtesy of Sexy Baby

Directed by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. A look at the effects of our pervasive sex-centered media, including advertising and mobile technologies, as seen through the lives of different women.

• STONES IN THE SUN (WOCH NAN SOLEY)

STONES IN THE SUN (WOCH NAN SOLEY)

Caption: Vita (Patricia Rhinvil) with a box.

Photo by Will Serber

Directed and written by P. Benoit. (USA, Haiti) – World Premiere, Narrative. Haitian director P. Benoit follows the interwoven lives of Haitian immigrants after they arrive in New York following the political upheaval in their country. In English, Haitian Creole with subtitles.

• SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Liana (Melonie Diaz) and Darryl Wiggins (Tarik Lowe)

Photo by Richard Ulivella

Directed by Daniel Schechter, written by Tarik Lowe and Daniel Schechter. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. A pair of film editors try to rework a troubled movie in crisis as they deal with their own problems.

• Also worth noting: While his movie was shot on location in Los Angeles, James Franco is a frequent player in the New York scene. His experimental film, FRANCOPHRENIA (or: Don't Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is), in collaboration with filmmaker and editor Ian Olds, takes repurposed footage of Franco and his gig on General Hospital to spin a psychological thriller.

The Tribeca Film Festival takes place in several neighborhoods below 34th Street, including the home neighborhood (BMCC Tribeca PAC, Tribeca Cinemas), the East Village (AMC VIllage VII), and Chelsea (SVA Theatre, Chelsea Clearview Cinemas). The festival has teamed up with BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Gin for a rewards system on Foursquare. Check in on Foursquare for the Tribeca Film Festival Badge. See more at the Tribeca Film Festival Map.

Walking Off the Big Apple has covered the Tribeca Film Festival since 2008. By the way, if attending a screening at the BMCC Tribeca PAC, be sure to stop on the entrance steps and take in the view downtown.

All images courtesy Tribeca Film Festival and Getty Image's image.net.