tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84719005136283543432024-03-17T23:03:29.505-04:00NEW YORK TOURS BY GARY “Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? . . . this is the time to take a stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won’t all end up in a uniform world of steel and glass boxes.” - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-18928469215890667382015-03-06T12:22:00.000-05:002015-03-06T12:28:15.914-05:00AGAIN WITH 108th STREETSo I am looking through the New York Public Library and their new way of viewing on line. The clarity is a little better. However, looking around, I found a picture of a house that is listed as being on 110th Street and Riverside but really it is a house that was on 108th and Riverside.<br />
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This is looking south on September 30th 1870 from 109th Street.
Obviously much has changed but there is so much that is recognizable
today. None of the houses are with us but the shape of the island of
greenery (the tangled mess of bushes and trees) between the service road, merely a suggestion at this point,
and the main drive is starting to look familiar. The service road
does not exist on the 1867 maps and neither do these houses. There are
houses that unfortunately do not appear in this photo but do appear,
along with their drive ways, on the 1867 map. The hill leading
down from 106th street to the intersection of the service road and 108th
street where the shortest timed traffic light on the west side is
placed is already evident. Where the wagon with the big wheel in the
middle of the drive is sitting is 108th street. In such a short period
of time, massive change will happen. The white house on the left is on the north corner of 108th street and Riverside Drive. How much longer will it be there? It will be gone in less than 17 years.<br />
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This is 108th street and Riverside Drive in 1921 while the Drive was at the end of it's
second incarnation. The is house is part of the second wave, or incarnation of Riverside Drive. I believe that we are in the third incarnation at
this point. It was hoped that the Drive would rival Fifth Avenue and
would become a thoroughfare of suburban type villas for the wealthy.
Although the construction of many large private unattached homes, ranging from
houses such as this one to the largest private house ever built on this
rock (The Schwab Mansion of 1906 at 73rd street and Riverside Drive),
single family homes gave way to apartment house construction in the
first few decades of the twentieth century. <br />
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Built in 1892 for <span class="style104"><span class="style115"><span class="style16"><span class="style116"><span class="style87">Samuel Gamble Bayne<b> </b> (1844- 1924 ), </span></span></span></span></span><span class="style104"><span class="style115"><span class="style16"><span class="style116"><span class="style87">the son of a prosperous merchant in the town Ramelton, Ireland. </span></span></span></span></span>At the age of
<span class="style161">twenty-five Sam graduated from Queen's University Belfast and decided to travel to America. While he was here </span>Samuel G. Bayne <span class="style161">accumulated
enough wealth to join the billionaires club. His wealth was based on
gold prospecting in California, oil in
Texas and banking; he was a founder of
Seaboard National Bank, which ultimately after several mergers and
acquisitions became what we all know and love today - Chase Manhattan
Bank
(now JP Morgan Chase). </span>Could that be the nearly 80 year old Bayne sitting on the steps?<br />
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Bayne was involved in keeping the area around his home as elegant as
possible and bought the vacant lots on 107th Street and 108th Street. Andrew Carnegie would do something similar on 5th Avenue, to control who his neighbors would be.<br />
When Bayne sold the Riverside Drive lots near his house in
1899, restrictions were put into the sales agreement controlling not so much the neighbors, but how the the lots
would be developed. Only “high class residences” with no
more than two detached homes were to be built on the lots and that
there be at least 30 feet between the houses in the middle of the block
and those on either corner. What is with us today is a result of these stipulations, the distances between 355 Riverside, 353 and 352 Riverside and 351 Riverside (the Schinasi Mansion) are 30 feet and they allow sun to get into the usually dark sides of houses too close together. <br />
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This photo, looking north / uptown dates from 1894 and was taken by J.S. Johnston. It is labeled, not by the Library but but by the photographer as being on 110th street. I always had doubts about the location, and the house looked too familiar to the Bayne House. A little more comparison and a closer look with the zoom, a street lamp and the indications of a street appeared to me. This is clearly not 110th street as it is no way wide enough. What is great about this picture is that we can see the house that was to be the second structure on the north east corner of 108th and Riverside the second (?) 360 Riverside Drive.<br />
Both houses were built by Bayne and designed by Frank Freeman. 355 Riverside was a larger house and Bayne had an ever growing family. He sold 360 Riverside Drive and moved to 355 Riverside by 1892. <br />
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When 362 went up a spite wall was built on the north end of the lot of 360 Riverside, blocking the views of the side garden and the river looking south. Cora B. and John A. Rutherford were the owners of 360 Riverside when 362 Riverside went up. Cora was the descendent of Henry Spingler Fonerden Davis who had purchased the house from Samuel Bayne. She had found it too insulting to live next to an apartment building. She eventually sold the house and lot in 1917 to the Paterno Brothers who, with their favorite architect, Gaetan Ajello and built the current 360 Riverside Drive, known as The Rutherford. No mention of Bayne, a man who left a mark on this neighborhood, in a good way, anywhere . . . I'm just saying . . .New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-15826317079690811582015-01-29T15:56:00.003-05:002015-01-30T11:41:54.900-05:00Upper West Side Country - The slowly disappearing vestiges of rural life.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a section of one of the plates that comprise the
Dripps Map of 1868.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
based on the Commissioners Plan of 1811 map.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The map that did not take in the topography of this rock we
call Manhattan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It includes the
old farm names, property owners, the structures that were present on the blocks
created by the Grid and shows the old lanes and the route of the 1842 Croton
Aqueduct.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The future road called
Broadway is indicated to the left of the Bloomingdale Road.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Edge Hill is a name not used for way
over a century for the area surrounding 112<sup>th</sup> Street and Riverside
Drive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just above that the name
Andrew Carrigan appears, a name that is associated with the creation of a bank
and laws protecting newly arrived immigrants from the machinations of con men
(and woman).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at the larger
triangle created when the Bloomingdale Road crosses 11<sup>th</sup> Avenue the
name M.T. Brennan appears, as does the house he owns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Matthew Brennan was a Tammany Hall connected former
volunteer fireman who had moved up in the world. Eventually he sold the house to Isidore and Ida Straus who
eventually booked passage on the Titanic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The house, which had the first cast iron bathtub in the United States
was torn down soon after the tragedy and 924 West End Avenue rose in its place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> On top of all this, the map shows us a "Burying Ground" at what is now 110th Street and Columbus Avenue. </span>The map also serves to solve the orientation
of the following photos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I know that people have found this picture out there before. I have never been able to find a photographer's name attached to it. However every source declares that this picture is of the David Knapp house on West 105th Street near 10th Avenue and dates from 1875. But which way are we looking? North west. Those telephone poles in the distance, serving to bring lower Manhattan to the sticks, quite possibly could be on Broadway.<br />
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The orientation here is facing north east. And like the photo above this one, 1875 is the date and West 105th Street is the location. For this photo, one more piece of information was given; the large white house on the right was known as the David Gorham House in 1875. On the map The David Knapp house is to the west of the David Gorham house. On the map above, the Gorham house was owned by S.A. King. This view is from the south west looking north east. The road on the right is possibly the end of Clendening Lane. <br />
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John Clendening was a landowner in the area, and this would have been, over 30 years earlier, the north west corner of the property. The lane served as a boundary line as well as a lane.<br />
This is Clendening's house. Clendening lived on his rural estate for many years, but
in 1836 he lost most of his money when President Andrew Jackson refused
to renew the charter of the United States Bank, in which Clendening was a
major stockholder. The estate was sold in 1845 as forty lots for a
total of $4500. <br />
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Although the mansion was torn down the area was known as
Clendening Valley well into the post civil war 19th century New York.
On the site where Clendening's house one stood, the Clendening
Hotel (left and below) rose
in its place on the west side of Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd street. The
Hotel survived until 1965 when it was torn down for furthest west
building of the Douglas Houses complex. <br />
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The house called "Woodlawn", on the block bordered by 106th and 107th, Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, was owned by the Rogers family. Their property ran east along 103rd Street from Riverside Drive, around a little piece owned by the Furniss family, who owned a once upon a time very large estate. By the late 19th century all that was left was the house and the land around it - 99th Street to 100th street, Riverside Drive to West End Avenue. The house was called "The Colonial White House" and was famous enough to have it's own postcard.<br />
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This is The Colonial White House. The name came from the <br />
columns and the fleeting resemblance to the real Executive Mansion. <br />
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The Rogers' property then ran over to the Bloomingdale Road just south of the Downes Boulevard Hotel
at 103rd and then followed the western edge of the Clendening Lane up to
the south side of 105th street between 9th and 10th Avenues. Then over
to 8th Avenue and up to 107th street where the boundary ran a non - conforming to the grid straight line over to Riverside. Big piece of
land once upon a time, but it was starting to shrink.<br />
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The building in the left background is referred to as "The Ward School" on the map above. The white fence surrounding it separates the school from the vacant lot, indicated on the map, just uptown of the school. So given the location of the houses and the position of the school on the map, we can say that this photo, probably taken from the Gorham House, is looking southwest towards 104th street. What appears to be a road in the foreground, running at an odd angle, is the route of the Croton Aqueduct. The houses in the background above the Knapp house are on 10th Avenue. To the right of the cupola on the roof of the Knapp house, off in the distance is what I am fairly certain is the house that once stood on the site occupied by 895 West End Avenue. In a little over 20 years, this area will be unrecognizable. I always wondered if they removed the bodies from the "Burying Ground" on 110th Street . . . I have always felt a chill there.New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-79942045972466204882015-01-06T16:38:00.000-05:002015-01-06T16:38:05.320-05:00This is the end . . . does this really need to happen?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia75sZznoNccVxCe7m5LvFLWvSXl4ozNpxRlAVYNccpCN2sb9dYkstNLct9_IitHd57SkZZDosIlqkpJYguNkittixNMFWkFhqXzXI6hDFK339Hr9Rssxrg7L0vf5zFGshZrLckxm3HJM/s1600/streitsPhotographoftheexteriorofStreitsMatzosKosherbakerylocatedon148-154RivingtonStreetatthecornerofSuffolkStreetTenementMuseumphoto.jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia75sZznoNccVxCe7m5LvFLWvSXl4ozNpxRlAVYNccpCN2sb9dYkstNLct9_IitHd57SkZZDosIlqkpJYguNkittixNMFWkFhqXzXI6hDFK339Hr9Rssxrg7L0vf5zFGshZrLckxm3HJM/s1600/streitsPhotographoftheexteriorofStreitsMatzosKosherbakerylocatedon148-154RivingtonStreetatthecornerofSuffolkStreetTenementMuseumphoto.jpg.jpg" height="427" width="640" /></a></div>
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"> Streit's Matzo's back in a funkier era. And soon it will join the ranks of the "used - to - be's".</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">When
I was at P.S. 145 on the upper west side back in the late
'60's, a forward thinking teacher took us on a tour of the Streit's Matzo factory. Yes, they really gave
tours of this place. Although they probably had tried it before and did not realize it, half the kids didn't know what a matzo was but all
where intrigued and moved by this tour. Why? The very simple theme of immigration. It was the theme about
immigrants, coming here from wherever, and putting down roots. They were
able to do this, build a life, because of the steady employment offered
to the newly arrived. One group after another, and not just in matzo
factories but this was the one field trip that hit home with so many of
my classmates, in a great many cases the first English speakers in a
household. They saw themselves, their parents, on this tour. The tour spoke volumes to them, more history that could ever be gotten out of a book - because they felt it. This is a loss on so many levels, the educational value alone
is worth more than what ever glass and steal box will net a developer.
Not to mention how many of us grew up with a box of this on the table at Passover and Rosh </span></span></span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span class="_Tgc">Hashanah</span></span>? When will this city learn? Maybe never but I still love this dirty town. </span></span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.boweryboogie.com/2015/01/exclusive-streits-matzo-factory-contract-leaving-lower-east-side-spring/"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><br /></span></span></span></a>
<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".2t.1:3:1:$comment951952228168013_952025318160704:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0"><a href="http://www.boweryboogie.com/2015/01/exclusive-streits-matzo-factory-contract-leaving-lower-east-side-spring/">Click here for more of the story, a trailer for a documentary and more pictures.</a></span></span></span>New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-19543329301860320752014-12-10T11:12:00.001-05:002014-12-10T11:21:14.961-05:00Another One Bites the Dust - Another Slaughtered Lamb, Another McElfatrick Disappers Into Oblivion<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Back In August of 2013 I put up a piece about a theater. It was announced that yet another piece of our puzzle, mosaic, history or whatever you want to call it was going to go. The once upon a time Columbia Theater at 47th and 7th was going to join the list of "used to be". We knew this place as the Embassy 2, 3, and 4. It's last incarnation
was an over sized souvenir store - never had I seen so many Statue of
Liberty(s) or Empire State Buildings in one place. </span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG60u-jhbu1XCFgsIcOMONfoYb_6GrC1TWHsq_64DuZ-nZHIWdPxYlWV5PAXuDSFmTDgPGk6CdHBdrgU73313aXlBkwllnf9-ByYxe9aOXBcne09pxZzgzlwJYg6hT0Ib1YkaXm5VXM4M/s1600/large-6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG60u-jhbu1XCFgsIcOMONfoYb_6GrC1TWHsq_64DuZ-nZHIWdPxYlWV5PAXuDSFmTDgPGk6CdHBdrgU73313aXlBkwllnf9-ByYxe9aOXBcne09pxZzgzlwJYg6hT0Ib1YkaXm5VXM4M/s1600/large-6.JPG" height="400" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Columbia Burlesque was designed by William McElfatrick, one of the most prolific theater architects of the late 19th through the early 20th centuries. Sort of Thomas Lamb of his day. A re-design of the theater was carried out by Thomas Lamb when the Columbia became known as Loew's Mayfair.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKf8JhOyIA58XWyx96aBtXcZDWhTmF7w5K-QrpsRjC_Q7R1NXeDAb-QZe1juM182Of07D2WpTWnoLAbfA2bu4iA-PD0r8a4mR5cA7S6_p07Z3XspjUGMJNdq5J3oV6Px1tCoXA4n-TtY/s1600/getimage-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKf8JhOyIA58XWyx96aBtXcZDWhTmF7w5K-QrpsRjC_Q7R1NXeDAb-QZe1juM182Of07D2WpTWnoLAbfA2bu4iA-PD0r8a4mR5cA7S6_p07Z3XspjUGMJNdq5J3oV6Px1tCoXA4n-TtY/s1600/getimage-2.jpg" height="304" width="320" /></a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">We knew this place as the Embassy 2, 3, and 4. It's last incarnation
was an over sized souvenir store - never had I seen so many Statue of
Liberty(s) or Empire State Buildings in one place.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQ9NjXWd-TdvbzE7kiDRwfkZTSgIOiIEx1kYwm79348tPOa8JG0HxyLClL2D2IN7qKeovYuNmd9yWcIRPW8EL-RExCDupEHmaGV3cE4bRrFIbAHF53qZNQdCLUUM3ljccSl7sJSW9erQ/s1600/large-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNQ9NjXWd-TdvbzE7kiDRwfkZTSgIOiIEx1kYwm79348tPOa8JG0HxyLClL2D2IN7qKeovYuNmd9yWcIRPW8EL-RExCDupEHmaGV3cE4bRrFIbAHF53qZNQdCLUUM3ljccSl7sJSW9erQ/s1600/large-9.jpg" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmTFVwjMoTruxBDGgmBDewPWy1ct9a5-poXkduns5rYvgxMNA47C5D_8IP4S8w10fvRfjyiH9ALrzfPO0MxrQBuQBLUx7fUQUsDIYjlnbHslCXrls2Gu1irGhQLxfyt_a6RU2lu8z_gw/s1600/large-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmTFVwjMoTruxBDGgmBDewPWy1ct9a5-poXkduns5rYvgxMNA47C5D_8IP4S8w10fvRfjyiH9ALrzfPO0MxrQBuQBLUx7fUQUsDIYjlnbHslCXrls2Gu1irGhQLxfyt_a6RU2lu8z_gw/s1600/large-7.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The theater had several names over the years, including The DeMille, like in Cecil B. Amongst the big New York City premiers was one of the most famous movies ever made. In June of 1960, with the famous "No one will be admitted after the start of the picture" policy, Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Psycho </i>opened.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjf6qbCe8xxb_cmS3yU88LfoB7EoD0b74BDk7cWO0XfWG6IFw3H-FnwzfhZm43Gf5HDtN4TEamtgzRcmb7gge8S5hJe9B0xP7tPydoZveXt8Oxf15hsrlRNBoB9ChPslRoHHMPPD7rzQ/s1600/20141126_170523.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfjf6qbCe8xxb_cmS3yU88LfoB7EoD0b74BDk7cWO0XfWG6IFw3H-FnwzfhZm43Gf5HDtN4TEamtgzRcmb7gge8S5hJe9B0xP7tPydoZveXt8Oxf15hsrlRNBoB9ChPslRoHHMPPD7rzQ/s1600/20141126_170523.jpg" height="484" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I was walking by the demolition site the night before Thanksgiving and I decided to investigate. I found a small hole in the wall. Aren't we lucky to be living in an age where most of us have a camera at all times? The souvenir store did not use the entire space. What we are looking at, I believe, is the downstage edge of the stage and where the orchestra pit would have been and the orchestra section of seating would have begun. I tried to get in there the next day but there was no one there on Black Friday. However, I knew that with the help of the iPhoto, I would get something usable.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi33CIlIHbz1zwaC82kN9uawuHJcqpQ-1ilNcrNa9-jN0gNDAowByy6UbVL9DsC39P7fbQI6WcbQOa_506SjwZVUaLtBgzmH9aKu11M_hBGFSsmqRnoiaDCY1a0rxaOzc-xVuvuB7dD-r4/s1600/20141126_170601.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi33CIlIHbz1zwaC82kN9uawuHJcqpQ-1ilNcrNa9-jN0gNDAowByy6UbVL9DsC39P7fbQI6WcbQOa_506SjwZVUaLtBgzmH9aKu11M_hBGFSsmqRnoiaDCY1a0rxaOzc-xVuvuB7dD-r4/s1600/20141126_170601.jpg" height="592" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I pointed my phone as best I could to the left so I could get what I believe is the stage. It is not unreasonable to think that we are looking at the stage right wing space through the proscenium opening. Or what is left of it. That yellow machine is a small bulldozer type thing. The machine's arm (for lack of better term) is resting on what could be the proscenium arch structure and the vertical channel for the smoke pocket used with the fire curtain.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL33-vATWkLa9hxyzBlyljD5nqZ6sJEmX6dHGWTbrVEvWiJ9L4GTbr9adzRdBfErEJXiVleh0IQQzfdhuRuF4z5u-VDpWi4yGsXE7bS-2cZGkwbVXCt9mXKGtWeeZhkzNeqJBKzvUzY0/s1600/20141126_170615.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzL33-vATWkLa9hxyzBlyljD5nqZ6sJEmX6dHGWTbrVEvWiJ9L4GTbr9adzRdBfErEJXiVleh0IQQzfdhuRuF4z5u-VDpWi4yGsXE7bS-2cZGkwbVXCt9mXKGtWeeZhkzNeqJBKzvUzY0/s1600/20141126_170615.jpg" height="640" width="590" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">There is a bit of an incline going up to this area. Does this mean that the area with the mini bulldozer, the area I believe to have been the stage, somewhat elevated? If I ever get down there . . . but it may too late. Goodbye Columbia Burlesque, while New York reinvents itself again, as you fade away into the memories of fewer and fewer, along with the careers of those who tread your boards. </span>New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-53593593230975604712014-06-19T13:56:00.000-04:002014-06-19T14:19:19.647-04:00The Riverside and Riviera Theater - An Entertainment Meca On The Upper West Side.<style>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
1911 William Fox, a theater owner and pioneering film producer is finishing
construction of a large Vaudeville house on 96th street and Broadway. He is
approached by agents of the uber - powerful </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yYLEdjBxC539GWuTKG0spihZI1taVKNG1rgevwy0-fuiC6gjH_uwsBq4G6R8OfuKcSLmmSCPtwzoWk3xCRmQxzdYMQySl_2G8WquO2JJW8DS4k3Eh_WoplU7XZBBwuQY3gHcJKL3GGg/s1600/81dqx4LZSSL._AA1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7yYLEdjBxC539GWuTKG0spihZI1taVKNG1rgevwy0-fuiC6gjH_uwsBq4G6R8OfuKcSLmmSCPtwzoWk3xCRmQxzdYMQySl_2G8WquO2JJW8DS4k3Eh_WoplU7XZBBwuQY3gHcJKL3GGg/s1600/81dqx4LZSSL._AA1500_.jpg" height="400" width="230" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Keith Albee company - the largest
Vaudeville circuit on the East Coast. They want to buy the practically finished
1710 seat Riverside Theater. Mr.
Fox says at first says no but then threatened </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELOTv60VvV4jpLAu1YsnwCYa-TCpgmMaN8YSGuxIVMTq93vvzvyQiQt9Nq5DUDcS9bblDuQa5jn8-cOBejxsR4cuUh0YrYmFJg3zA5TtsBQIuaAbojVyw49WYDy9GwQLLyMGSWnRJLII/s1600/0clip_image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjELOTv60VvV4jpLAu1YsnwCYa-TCpgmMaN8YSGuxIVMTq93vvzvyQiQt9Nq5DUDcS9bblDuQa5jn8-cOBejxsR4cuUh0YrYmFJg3zA5TtsBQIuaAbojVyw49WYDy9GwQLLyMGSWnRJLII/s1600/0clip_image001.jpg" height="400" width="220" /></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">with the loss of all Keith performers
for his already established theaters, he sells. The Riverside Theater was built for high end Vaudeville
(only 2 shows per day). The great Sarah Bernhardt even played B.F. Keith’s Riverside. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On the right is the standard early 1920's program cover for the Keith circuit. I
found another east coast theater using the same art work on the program
cover, the Orpheum (in Boston I believe) that was proud to be
presenting Houdini live on stage. What a smart couple, all dressed up
for an evening at the Riverside. On the left is part of the program from January 22, 1923.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">At the time of this programs publication
composer and bandleader Julius Lenzberg was the orchestra leader at the
Riverside. This is the Riverside Orchestra, Julius is the guy with the
violin. Born January 3 1878 in Baltimore, Lenzberg began his career
accompanying dancing lessons at the piano. By 1903, with a couple of published compositions to his
credit, he got himself married and moved to New York City, eventually settling
in Queens. Thus began a long stint
serving as orchestra leader at various vaudeville houses in Manhattan and in
the summer, he led a band out on Long Island. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In 1919, Lenzberg
served as director of the George White Scandals of 1919 and also led the house
band at the Riverside Theater in New York. That year, Lenzberg
and the Riverside Orchestra began to make records for Edison, and though Lenzberg's
recording activity ended in 1922, he was prolific, ultimately producing more
than 50 sides for Edison. Lenzberg
continued to lead a band and appear on radio once it emerged, into the 1930s,
but the depression knocked him out of the performing end of the business. By
the last time Lenzberg
is heard from in the early 1940s, he was working as a booking agent. He passed away in April 1956. I recently received an email from a gentleman who worked at the theater through out the 1940's and 1950's. Among the tales of the Riverside and Riviera next door, he wrote that legendary Hollywood composer, the man who gave us the soundtrack to <i>Gone With The Wind</i>, Max Steiner, had also served for a time as the conductor of the Riverside Theatre Orchestra. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHdSOBG-5aRCN_ANtssio50-NXdB4OxlGVE_kkAM1ogIOdcfBaLSplxMP9I-C26tCovIkl-beugfzIJz0OIZreTXfbmFr-4FLs5W4ZtWbAXhbmrsKdY5qZtsWS4GxsEKnKn4_JpNu0Lj4/s1600/13%2529+Riviera+and+Japanese+Gardens+entrance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHdSOBG-5aRCN_ANtssio50-NXdB4OxlGVE_kkAM1ogIOdcfBaLSplxMP9I-C26tCovIkl-beugfzIJz0OIZreTXfbmFr-4FLs5W4ZtWbAXhbmrsKdY5qZtsWS4GxsEKnKn4_JpNu0Lj4/s1600/13%2529+Riviera+and+Japanese+Gardens+entrance.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Not long after giving up the Riverside Theatre, Mr. Fox buys the lots next door and builds the Riviera
Theatre. This is obviously a very early in it's life picture of the original entrance to the Riviera. The Riviera was built as
a legit house, and was on the subway circuit. What is the "Subway Circuit"? I will tell you. A show played its 300 or so performances
downtown on Broadway then moved to a neighborhood theater before going on the
road. This was good, runs of shows did not have go on forever, or 25 plus years. There was another show waiting in the wings. Records in the Shubert Archives indicate that from 1918 to 1931, the
Shubert’s had a profit-sharing contract with Fox. The Riviera became the
Shubert Riviera in 1923. In one of her first Broadway appearances, Bette Davis
came through the Riviera in a show that had been on the road. In this case the
road was a railroad. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A theater located at 96th and Broadway was ideally situated with a rail link two
blocks west. A vaudeville show often traveled as a package, and by train. Up
until recently, theatrical scenery flats were built to fit into railroad
boxcars. Prior to the great depression and the WPA, 96th street ended at the
Hudson River. There was no Westside highway. Access to the river and the New
York Central freight line was as simple as crossing a street. The tracks under
Riverside Park, built along what was the natural edge of Manhattan (the rest of
the park and highway is landfill) have been there since the early railroad days
of a pre-civil war New York. There had even been a passenger stop (not a station) at Stryker's Bay (96th
street) for many years just before and after the civil war. During the Great Depression, the Westside Improvement
created the rest of Riverside park, the highway and covered over the tracks,
thanks to Robert Moses and his persuasiveness with the WPA.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihd7ga5wvfXc7XqXDl-M0qe2G7fFbQmeJ2jlT-dMDLjYuCVoD7h_OjnqHQZugXqpVzdi9wfesCSrclEKBU_-Tm2xCDqsgUj-ZUMND1ATUyDlCI01u39JxPNowkFp0H592wwDAoYLVM3KI/s1600/getimage-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihd7ga5wvfXc7XqXDl-M0qe2G7fFbQmeJ2jlT-dMDLjYuCVoD7h_OjnqHQZugXqpVzdi9wfesCSrclEKBU_-Tm2xCDqsgUj-ZUMND1ATUyDlCI01u39JxPNowkFp0H592wwDAoYLVM3KI/s1600/getimage-4.jpg" height="400" width="355" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is 96th street prior to the Westside Improvement. The top picture is
looking south, the building in the background is 230 Riverside Drive at 95th
street and the kids crossing the tracks are really old now. The third
rail in the foreground is the same used today on the Metro North railroad (the
LIRR and the NYC subway system use a different type).</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhXKsQ2yspF3OdKNEP4tSPxeEV_7uAo1F3SNFbH0Mhlwk6vBwqkckKBgiVIgbJVNM4eUveSLVlftA55h-0Ci7JZnDmiBLLv1GyShnu1gx9bBHUg_zU8PEe9bIzVkqQBidHEPDAjpIXag/s1600/getimage-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuhXKsQ2yspF3OdKNEP4tSPxeEV_7uAo1F3SNFbH0Mhlwk6vBwqkckKBgiVIgbJVNM4eUveSLVlftA55h-0Ci7JZnDmiBLLv1GyShnu1gx9bBHUg_zU8PEe9bIzVkqQBidHEPDAjpIXag/s1600/getimage-3.jpg" height="351" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is looking north from just south of 96th street. The train in the background is being pulled by
an electric locomotive. Curiously, there is a passenger car at the back end.
Passenger service on that part of the Hudson Line had ended decades earlier. It was not unusual to see a passenger car as part of the consist of a freight train. A very bad accident along this line in the mid 1960's involving a head on collision near 147th street, a photograph from the New York Times does show a passenger car amongst the wreckage. They were used for the crew.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISmggPjTS7ddvJcewYHg5JhCXjlGhmxcpEtMvKt-vHFYCVKbldsypGynYQTIdQFDRq-hc4_6IiLyB6IwCbXoFgWwuK2wg9uGo9UJhzSVGARUGa26QC1TsoV4AfZC-MQkapUcsVfFFZY8/s1600/2%2529+Riverside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISmggPjTS7ddvJcewYHg5JhCXjlGhmxcpEtMvKt-vHFYCVKbldsypGynYQTIdQFDRq-hc4_6IiLyB6IwCbXoFgWwuK2wg9uGo9UJhzSVGARUGa26QC1TsoV4AfZC-MQkapUcsVfFFZY8/s1600/2%2529+Riverside.jpg" height="640" width="481" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">These are the original house right boxes in the Riverside
Theatre. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnEr_EXJu1hW1HiPh1yLlB3K_IIWcY2uzGwGUud9g37ONzRhzGN2qGwZ_PmaQLo6o3ACiv9Z64EEjNVYUDoGrGr1gi3NmYyQljPnW4HZIUT0MBy91NzaaAfSHKjxZ_63Hakxyz31Z7fk/s1600/regentinterior_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnEr_EXJu1hW1HiPh1yLlB3K_IIWcY2uzGwGUud9g37ONzRhzGN2qGwZ_PmaQLo6o3ACiv9Z64EEjNVYUDoGrGr1gi3NmYyQljPnW4HZIUT0MBy91NzaaAfSHKjxZ_63Hakxyz31Z7fk/s1600/regentinterior_2.jpg" height="494" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Early in the life of the Riverside. This photograph has been mislabeled as The Regent Theater, which still stands today as The First Corinthian Baptist Church on 116th and 7th Avenue. The architect of the Regent, Riverside and Riviera is the same person. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeG7fTuueRKXE2fBcIUO3bux8c8vIc0qFmbaKFamPfTJUP6G3645qZiWlBOASFAnV2Bt3hKjwotqTp_1veiukfpRysZapkHuGliqdmYkz7ZlebjsgoKuXHiDlVngu0HQrmPadAqv2XBEQ/s1600/3%2529+Riverside+outer+lobby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeG7fTuueRKXE2fBcIUO3bux8c8vIc0qFmbaKFamPfTJUP6G3645qZiWlBOASFAnV2Bt3hKjwotqTp_1veiukfpRysZapkHuGliqdmYkz7ZlebjsgoKuXHiDlVngu0HQrmPadAqv2XBEQ/s1600/3%2529+Riverside+outer+lobby.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The lobby leading into the Riverside. On the right that appears to be an elevator. This elevator has a lock on it, but is it to keep people from going into or coming out of the elevator? There were two floors above the lobby in what was called a "taxpayer" structure. The rental revenue collected on the retail establishments, the much missed Chess City for example, would defray the costs of taxes on the land and structure. So the elevator must have served those upper floors, bringing up ping pong tables and countless number of ping pong balls. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNvgqtRLRZ0a_uNVkPowi9R4frq0-vmkIxqvqhZQIfbTsoWP4xZOiDsOLA19POrjIyty_xbmLmAP2sSCF6bDPlSjLnCjyKO581IU7Xs9SEG4BDQjYFQ7g_C6zxmwZ1QZoRvvHhpJqazM/s1600/9%2529+Riverside+ceiling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihNvgqtRLRZ0a_uNVkPowi9R4frq0-vmkIxqvqhZQIfbTsoWP4xZOiDsOLA19POrjIyty_xbmLmAP2sSCF6bDPlSjLnCjyKO581IU7Xs9SEG4BDQjYFQ7g_C6zxmwZ1QZoRvvHhpJqazM/s1600/9%2529+Riverside+ceiling.jpg" height="440" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Dome over the Riverside auditorium. Probably not the
original chandelier.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTNGxHbZrbjeG21wy3kjVT3OxSeolZMt4sMIBIZiXyZ6UaEhpnwGdb7i9Jl62Ndm3etezBRLRKif1kRW2-oIj1rcMPP550swHFsO3wg0pmJGbhgDpdKoA9CoCrTDFkcRigNN3pIqRWBA/s1600/7%2529+Riverside+sound+board+mural.+It+appears+to+be+Peter+Minute+buying+Manhattan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTNGxHbZrbjeG21wy3kjVT3OxSeolZMt4sMIBIZiXyZ6UaEhpnwGdb7i9Jl62Ndm3etezBRLRKif1kRW2-oIj1rcMPP550swHFsO3wg0pmJGbhgDpdKoA9CoCrTDFkcRigNN3pIqRWBA/s1600/7%2529+Riverside+sound+board+mural.+It+appears+to+be+Peter+Minute+buying+Manhattan.jpg" height="444" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The mural
in the soundboard, above the proscenium appears to be Columbus discovering America (maybe New York
- how "urbocentric").</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AOuk4dJACvRrv7RrFpj8wZZ2Hhiu-qgs4_CTlO-8nCHl3iG_1RxxKLG8mozPDJFVpcB1hbHykSaBo_EBtBwUroFKrj2-gZHkjlIP94ARMb0toTSc__NHFqQQjDTXgAJ3gk-J4RyO6CU/s1600/10%2529+Riverside+ceiling+Columbus+wanting+to+go+west.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7AOuk4dJACvRrv7RrFpj8wZZ2Hhiu-qgs4_CTlO-8nCHl3iG_1RxxKLG8mozPDJFVpcB1hbHykSaBo_EBtBwUroFKrj2-gZHkjlIP94ARMb0toTSc__NHFqQQjDTXgAJ3gk-J4RyO6CU/s1600/10%2529+Riverside+ceiling+Columbus+wanting+to+go+west.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Detail from the ceiling of the Riverside Theatre. It appears
to be Christopher Columbus asking for financing for his voyage west. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLjdo_V6z3l4KyTL8GOosa5Sp9lVFAAO5LGz7jPSuS58NcdbhSHsxK3l6jP_buFFD8OAySrJ4AavCT2FsKJzTbfHIsorDpAzid4ztWGGwfWEiCuZBciICNCQQDolQGNgC6A3tXb61-4f0/s1600/4%2529+Riverside+towards+stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLjdo_V6z3l4KyTL8GOosa5Sp9lVFAAO5LGz7jPSuS58NcdbhSHsxK3l6jP_buFFD8OAySrJ4AavCT2FsKJzTbfHIsorDpAzid4ztWGGwfWEiCuZBciICNCQQDolQGNgC6A3tXb61-4f0/s1600/4%2529+Riverside+towards+stage.jpg" height="438" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Toward the stage at the Riverside from house right balcony. As a vaudeville house, the Riverside only presented high class acts and originally only 2 shows a day. Before opera singer Rosa Ponselle was Rosa Ponselle, she was part of a vaudeville act called <i>The Italian Girls - Carmella and Rosa Ponzillo</i>. They appeared as one of 9 acts at the Riverside beginning the week of September 3 1917. Belle Baker <i>"Incomparable Delineator of Character Songs" </i>was the headliner, the <i>Italian Girls</i> were second billed. Although she was proud to have played The Palace and did not talk too much about her life in vaudeville, Rosa Ponzillo's appearance at the Riverside was the one she did. It was here that she was heard by voice teacher / agent William Thorner and her path to the Metropolitan Opera, divaness and a less ethnic last name began. </span> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEFq7n0IWVIZ6hyphenhyphenbmJrrjrNyykuRY4by3Sfy_dKq0mxfWsN-jHu-UL-t9-BLBkkCghVFWLEU9VFYZSkqQUAvCvZC4ryRKL0r3exg3cwxW0c1qr2iiiXjlq-HZQQVUM2D3NbRCJ68yUpk/s1600/5%2529+Riverside+balcony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLEFq7n0IWVIZ6hyphenhyphenbmJrrjrNyykuRY4by3Sfy_dKq0mxfWsN-jHu-UL-t9-BLBkkCghVFWLEU9VFYZSkqQUAvCvZC4ryRKL0r3exg3cwxW0c1qr2iiiXjlq-HZQQVUM2D3NbRCJ68yUpk/s1600/5%2529+Riverside+balcony.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Balcony, house left. Everyone who was anyone in vaudeville went through The Riverside. Bert Lahr, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, The Marx Brothers are </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> luminaries</span></span> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">among the </span></span>names of those who played the Riverside. Even more, whose careers began and ended in vaudeville, people whose stardom has been lost to the ages and dusty booking ledgers, for a shining moment tread the boards of the Riverside stage. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3dmPfbpSzNqBNE9u_llV8RePTP1kiISC3twZ3iAtSTgfUHssi9VG8qtx2gGpqwkvMbFWt_PvSqXIvQ6RD77Tc4UrT6KO6erNPCMPpOpn_RJaHXfsrh87C1sAd1H4MNCLmFfZryZBg5PQ/s1600/6%2529+Riverside+from+stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3dmPfbpSzNqBNE9u_llV8RePTP1kiISC3twZ3iAtSTgfUHssi9VG8qtx2gGpqwkvMbFWt_PvSqXIvQ6RD77Tc4UrT6KO6erNPCMPpOpn_RJaHXfsrh87C1sAd1H4MNCLmFfZryZBg5PQ/s1600/6%2529+Riverside+from+stage.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> From the Stage towards house right. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVqH6k960joHbKVcvGaGlNt1kukoNTyfS0JaNiIJbCpSHaK27RS1PM94HD6hSNLEp_LQ4RPRpMLDO7xcSwK9zZuJWoJfvHxw0ULIYjRdntcDTEXPo4Rh8buyR9jFuEZSwoPMt219H6hzU/s1600/8%2529+Riverside+proscinium+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVqH6k960joHbKVcvGaGlNt1kukoNTyfS0JaNiIJbCpSHaK27RS1PM94HD6hSNLEp_LQ4RPRpMLDO7xcSwK9zZuJWoJfvHxw0ULIYjRdntcDTEXPo4Rh8buyR9jFuEZSwoPMt219H6hzU/s1600/8%2529+Riverside+proscinium+detail.jpg" height="400" width="272" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Detail of the proscenium at the Riverside.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Both houses
underwent renovations in the 1950's. It was at this time that the Skouras Brothers
owned the theaters. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
brothers Skouras started in St. Louis with distribution and exhibition as their business and
eventually went into production. Spyros Skouras became president of 20th Century
Fox in 1942 and was instrumental in introducing Cinemascope. With this new wide
screen process came the removal of boxes in many theaters across the country.
Somewhere there is a pile of old discarded boxes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> The Skouras brothers were notorious
"modernizers". As you can see in these photos, there are not only no
more boxes but no more orchestra pits as well. Very often orchestra pits were
covered over to add an extra row or two of seats. In some cases, the Mighty
Wurlitzer (or similar organ) would be left on it's lift, at the basement level,
covered over by concrete slabs. </span><span style="font-size: small;">The organ for the Riverside Theatre was a Wurlitzer with a manufactured date of August 8, 1928. I am not sure what
happened to it or where it ended up. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Riviera was built with a revenue generating office
building and another theater above the Riviera designed for this new fangled
motion picture thing, the 1579 seat Japanese Gardens. In part, due to it’s
heavy Japanese motif, this theater closed after “The Day That Shall Live In
Infamy”. The other reason that this theater probably closed in early 1942 was
that the fire escapes on the south side of the building went back into the
building. Accessible by one staircase and two elevators, this was a tragedy in
formation.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleashImqJbfFFMWZhcCN9TmmQdSTWbEYCeV6K9PABpfiha9F3qzgz393IDQYYoYISFZbJBatN3mMBET1il5MSTXHEyRwUIiVj0RxZrWw6uf5dTySYCcGnkDvBTi2yrN4IQl6QGSCbHmA/s1600/15%2529+Riviera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleashImqJbfFFMWZhcCN9TmmQdSTWbEYCeV6K9PABpfiha9F3qzgz393IDQYYoYISFZbJBatN3mMBET1il5MSTXHEyRwUIiVj0RxZrWw6uf5dTySYCcGnkDvBTi2yrN4IQl6QGSCbHmA/s1600/15%2529+Riviera.jpg" height="481" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Early in the life of the Riviera. According to the New York chapter of the Theater Organ Society of America, there had been an organ installed in the Riviera Theatre. It was built in 1917 by M.P. Möller of
Hagerstown, Md. and was one of the firm's standard theatre organ models having three manuals and 16
ranks. The Riviera had been built for legit theater, it was not unusual for such a house to have an organ installed. </span></span> </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgljPo_e7to_1B-euPT1HDL64nTjM6JKLQew7cnl04zFZjdIHqdVCJG8DXJHtmY_0G7fpw_z64Qt5PUBhQS2TskKXPupBI0f4nyBnjToa5MsP3E47iTYAhLVN-ykOWzQA7utSxlItQ57o/s1600/16%2529+Riviera+back+of+orchestra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgljPo_e7to_1B-euPT1HDL64nTjM6JKLQew7cnl04zFZjdIHqdVCJG8DXJHtmY_0G7fpw_z64Qt5PUBhQS2TskKXPupBI0f4nyBnjToa5MsP3E47iTYAhLVN-ykOWzQA7utSxlItQ57o/s1600/16%2529+Riviera+back+of+orchestra.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> Just behind the orchestra section. Notice the dirt around the vents in the ceiling. Normally, none of this would have been visible but because it was picture day, the theater were brighter than usual and we can see more. I do not remember these theaters being so brightly lit. I do remember the perpetually closed balconies. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Shuberts ended their relationship with the Riviera in the late 1920's. During the 1931 and 1932 seasons, the Chamberlain Brown players called the Riviera home. A former actor turned agent and producer, Chamberlain Brown claimed to have discovered Clark Gable, Helen Hayes,
Alfred Lunt, Rudolph Valentino, Leslie Howard, Jeannette MacDonald, Jack
Haley, Don Ameche, Preston Foster, Robert Walker, Glenda Farrell,
Carlotta Monterey (eventually Mrs Eugene O'Neill), Conrad Nagel, Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Menken (the first Mrs. Humphrey Bogart), Harry
K. Morton, Nita Naldi and many others. The Brown agency represented such
theater notables as John Carradine, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Lon Chaney,
Jr., Ruth Chatterton, Constance Collier, Glenda Farrell, Dorothy Gish,
Hal Holbrook, Miriam Hopkins, Otto Kruger, Fritzi Scheff, Spencer Tracy,
and Tom Ewell (once an agency employee) among others.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbTDXSZ8HZ4m4CwfERZBOVuOabz43B1QXeSGK3nslXrbE1p5D86-xAO1cUxrSCIEwZCLBm6Y4HwbvNmwC9XpDk__HuLyLch-r0tAPB_X-1A20D3F6ruqMK02pK6AHXOwo-14-zlY6KG0/s1600/17%2529+Riviera+towards+house+left..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbTDXSZ8HZ4m4CwfERZBOVuOabz43B1QXeSGK3nslXrbE1p5D86-xAO1cUxrSCIEwZCLBm6Y4HwbvNmwC9XpDk__HuLyLch-r0tAPB_X-1A20D3F6ruqMK02pK6AHXOwo-14-zlY6KG0/s1600/17%2529+Riviera+towards+house+left..jpg" height="444" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
screen is lit quite possibly by the projector and by footlights. I have often wondered if the footlights were
original. The red curtains cover the damage done by the removal of the
boxes. In 1931, Jean Arthur had returned from Hollywood. Her success in the pictures would be greater after her return to the New York Stage. By this point, the Riviera was home to the company run by Chamberlain Brown. He was sufficiently impressed with her work that he cast her a production of Lysistrata that opened in January of 1932. In the cast, a relatively unknown Sidney Greenstreet. In Febrary of 1932 Mr. Brown presented Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" which will be followed by the Theater Guild Success "Elizabeth the Queen". </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOulM3ZHg2X0oLLRRPycbnS_TXuFiZdaGYO8tPOZvmyg9-nS4zYzdolR3-3aPo5A5rj2XS3YK2xRlf__b-ZimBuXYAUk70ROqeNEMUdYFGNG53reybW3JinPF0NgrbsMJ37nNUOzLoT8c/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOulM3ZHg2X0oLLRRPycbnS_TXuFiZdaGYO8tPOZvmyg9-nS4zYzdolR3-3aPo5A5rj2XS3YK2xRlf__b-ZimBuXYAUk70ROqeNEMUdYFGNG53reybW3JinPF0NgrbsMJ37nNUOzLoT8c/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+018.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
is the mural on the sound board above the proscenium arch. Due to the terrible
lighting it is hard to make out what it represents in this picture.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On March 9th 1932, a review appeared in the Columbia Spectator: "A talented actress named Kathryn Civney made her New York debut in "The
Vinegar Tree" at the Riviera Theatre last Monday night and proceeded to
make the audience forget that Mary Boland had ever had Gotham chuckling
uproariously at her interpretation of the leading role in "The Vinegar
Tree" last season". Other companies, as well as dance companies, used the theater during this era. Eventually economics would give way and the Riviera would become a the movie house we all knew and loved.</span></span> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2D3gT4ZMavA_i8GkMUYZIk1jD08Zsw4sbAolkVPEIYp6Z4vNq1CcI58kew02pNEWSglBaAQDGP2aMNljE1gafTfU3JYmizgtaM7zAA_650zt6OZREBI6A7VXjqXOzzfF-heultTS6go/s1600/18%2529+Riviera+towards+stage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2D3gT4ZMavA_i8GkMUYZIk1jD08Zsw4sbAolkVPEIYp6Z4vNq1CcI58kew02pNEWSglBaAQDGP2aMNljE1gafTfU3JYmizgtaM7zAA_650zt6OZREBI6A7VXjqXOzzfF-heultTS6go/s1600/18%2529+Riviera+towards+stage.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Looking towards house right from the house left balcony. </span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The red curtains cover the damage done by the removal of the
boxes. Both houses
underwent renovations in the 1950's when the Skouras Brothers
owned the theaters. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2Y-zItZNYknDl0PwkCHBnV-DR7LCG_72ConLeNHAjnuhxDPjNKS8yFfQCMswQglG3mCy4wx5v89P9amS1MAbT5nBiHWHvk8aFWB4z8s5GCvI8WhHkpPr_KqOcI-q_0Mt663WYL3Q6VQ/s1600/19%2529+Riviera+towards+where+the+house+right+boxes+were..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq2Y-zItZNYknDl0PwkCHBnV-DR7LCG_72ConLeNHAjnuhxDPjNKS8yFfQCMswQglG3mCy4wx5v89P9amS1MAbT5nBiHWHvk8aFWB4z8s5GCvI8WhHkpPr_KqOcI-q_0Mt663WYL3Q6VQ/s1600/19%2529+Riviera+towards+where+the+house+right+boxes+were..jpg" height="640" width="436" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Once there were boxes . . . I like this picture. It is amazing how intact the Riviera seems to be given it will soon be gone. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotca1RaGYpS5hoPXNWZ1Y-Kqgu039w4w3vrRiR5U4XtloEb7Ntv2EefZoB7TdUSlNirRaoSjdpWETgE_y4ykBKz_rnGMxEHvUvRqK692Bs07RiEJwT7jeggTbdyRmq-yWnq4TkG-HeUc/s1600/12%2529+The+last+of+the+Riverside+proscenium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhotca1RaGYpS5hoPXNWZ1Y-Kqgu039w4w3vrRiR5U4XtloEb7Ntv2EefZoB7TdUSlNirRaoSjdpWETgE_y4ykBKz_rnGMxEHvUvRqK692Bs07RiEJwT7jeggTbdyRmq-yWnq4TkG-HeUc/s1600/12%2529+The+last+of+the+Riverside+proscenium.jpg" height="466" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When it announced that a developer was going to tear
down the theaters and put up a 30 story apartment tower (consisting of only
studios and one bedrooms) I was devastated. They only managed to knock a hole
in the side of the Riverside before running out of money. It was almost
shocking to see the red velvet curtain hanging in shreds behind the now
battered proscenium arch. The enormous balcony was collapsing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGal2yTtjuKTKCuHLVhJS0AYE1OAFQz0hxMIHOG7i5CBb_eugnB86zYpE7N1lQdehCy2dKJ9wANdpm8Fyls74sU_Tpno2BzqIOr8TGLtyYx9Et5oQ7A1Fb_Ujn2wFSV4ig359HgS532WM/s1600/11)+Riverside+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGal2yTtjuKTKCuHLVhJS0AYE1OAFQz0hxMIHOG7i5CBb_eugnB86zYpE7N1lQdehCy2dKJ9wANdpm8Fyls74sU_Tpno2BzqIOr8TGLtyYx9Et5oQ7A1Fb_Ujn2wFSV4ig359HgS532WM/s1600/11)+Riverside+being+demolished.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then the whole
thing did collapse, out onto 96th street (several parked cars were crushed) and
inward. </span></span>The fire and police departments searched and dug for days, looking for
crushed junkies that supposedly lived in the shell of the Riverside. I remember
seeing a hysterical woman on the news screaming that her daughter with a drug
problem was in there. No bodies were found, at that time anyway. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWacWNs91PbnKcFuSu1RWUQzHdNZlFmZxl6GFGLPpNh4rYWUilh6qLn7uD_D66vlrBiSVLB2MFP5RA4l7wx8yZuqVgyz33eLTOC985ijFxCrr_ZsgOhGyAAjuHqT8YdaEMjOmCxoyZKm4/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWacWNs91PbnKcFuSu1RWUQzHdNZlFmZxl6GFGLPpNh4rYWUilh6qLn7uD_D66vlrBiSVLB2MFP5RA4l7wx8yZuqVgyz33eLTOC985ijFxCrr_ZsgOhGyAAjuHqT8YdaEMjOmCxoyZKm4/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+019.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is an un - enhanced picture taken as the Riviera is beginning it's final fade out. The image is from a slide </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">and once I scanned them into my
iPhoto, I became convinced that there was more to the pictures than what I was
seeing.</span></span> The theaters were
photographed as discussion about their demise was bandied about. Various community groups wanted space within the Riviera Building. Alexanders had expressed a great deal of
interest in the site for a new store, apartment tower and new single screen
theater. Gimbel's had offered
pretty much the same deal. However, neighborhood opposition to creating an
overwhelmingly commercial area, at 96th and Broadway, scaled back the
development to a 30 story tower of studios and one bedrooms (as the developer said - to meet the need
of an ever growing swinging singles segment of society since the city was
attracting a younger, less family oriented population and families were moving
to the suburbs - or so the developer believed). However, there were cries about preservation which fell on deaf ears.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlM6OG_rprurAWMY6oS-6hdhZXVbm_FtMMmAG9lWh0QtRmLBFueiDQ-uxqUz4FfaVMzg8dzYRqnuXd2XNAEGiEDiC5LhB7OBiYXlUBRod95eM4QZJwHizgkCykBrJkbgFy1GnJfrDyIVg/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlM6OG_rprurAWMY6oS-6hdhZXVbm_FtMMmAG9lWh0QtRmLBFueiDQ-uxqUz4FfaVMzg8dzYRqnuXd2XNAEGiEDiC5LhB7OBiYXlUBRod95eM4QZJwHizgkCykBrJkbgFy1GnJfrDyIVg/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+022.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a digitally enhanced picture. The wood frame structure on the stage was probably for
the movie screen. The speaker horns are clearly visible behind the wooden
frame. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Obviously,
demolition has begun, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">the lighting is quite possibly just natural light</span></span>. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b_69wjpsP0yxthmNifGwk5T8Ym2piFEuCrCFxRLVQoMYttxn9A23GBNmjVqid4AhR4hdGXLDHmqF5HWcQz4wlf5d_Z3JQWdoHNl4aEXbAoIMVfa91iAj1lQ4VWPmrpikd_h7oFzEAFQ/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7b_69wjpsP0yxthmNifGwk5T8Ym2piFEuCrCFxRLVQoMYttxn9A23GBNmjVqid4AhR4hdGXLDHmqF5HWcQz4wlf5d_Z3JQWdoHNl4aEXbAoIMVfa91iAj1lQ4VWPmrpikd_h7oFzEAFQ/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+023.jpg" height="272" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
mural on the sound board appears to be one of those life at Versailles pastoral
images. Very Rococo. This mural, along with the murals in the Riverside, was
probably not saved. This was in the pre-Urban Archeology days and nothing was
saved or recycled. It kills me that the red velvet curtains at both theaters where still hanging during demolition. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYmmLlrEKBnWPvxXOlxrKo5L27cbyh1i8SHZWZxx_QSP8kAxPA8XXusUkxY6kYEZ2EnLwc51-QK9S30xnKxHIC8BnkhGRXSVFEmX56FBHGrH79BQIT3tN1c88mWbjTFV7k36_Gk6POlg/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdYmmLlrEKBnWPvxXOlxrKo5L27cbyh1i8SHZWZxx_QSP8kAxPA8XXusUkxY6kYEZ2EnLwc51-QK9S30xnKxHIC8BnkhGRXSVFEmX56FBHGrH79BQIT3tN1c88mWbjTFV7k36_Gk6POlg/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+020.jpg" height="271" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Looking to house right, light is coming on to the stage from 97th street. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZBW3mOkjN97vgHXDnU1D-Ia94C6gGget0vrohNbH6riKocaNCGvCKOacSTLEtmB0h8EElE2dWF77c4d87yhwrZAvr_XnCsReVvPqHziTIDWLJ8BHrjgCkzSgklGlFMMXYDUajM31o9YM/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+021.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZBW3mOkjN97vgHXDnU1D-Ia94C6gGget0vrohNbH6riKocaNCGvCKOacSTLEtmB0h8EElE2dWF77c4d87yhwrZAvr_XnCsReVvPqHziTIDWLJ8BHrjgCkzSgklGlFMMXYDUajM31o9YM/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+021.jpg" height="270" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">House right about to be house no more. So much original detail that survived the decades was about to be reduced to rubble only to be put into a landfill some where.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWacWNs91PbnKcFuSu1RWUQzHdNZlFmZxl6GFGLPpNh4rYWUilh6qLn7uD_D66vlrBiSVLB2MFP5RA4l7wx8yZuqVgyz33eLTOC985ijFxCrr_ZsgOhGyAAjuHqT8YdaEMjOmCxoyZKm4/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWacWNs91PbnKcFuSu1RWUQzHdNZlFmZxl6GFGLPpNh4rYWUilh6qLn7uD_D66vlrBiSVLB2MFP5RA4l7wx8yZuqVgyz33eLTOC985ijFxCrr_ZsgOhGyAAjuHqT8YdaEMjOmCxoyZKm4/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+019.jpg" height="433" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is an un-enhanced view of the stage. I do
<i><u>not</u></i> believe that these photos were taken by the photographer of the
"before" pictures. He was just an enthusiastic amateur theater
historian, as far as I can tell, and the condition of the Riviera looks
precarious.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjooNrW1zM0h4RPwTMH4XjUgaJw2l77WnfYmCHx2EQbnCAXA79sXWebxHLSVOdEXee2XGZDfcVeXX2u3TjEX_qUsDu_aAx0eR-M7_aFQHeiGSLukzJoO_kB3EzVrjh7UGEGqxfNCZ_j6s/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+027.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjooNrW1zM0h4RPwTMH4XjUgaJw2l77WnfYmCHx2EQbnCAXA79sXWebxHLSVOdEXee2XGZDfcVeXX2u3TjEX_qUsDu_aAx0eR-M7_aFQHeiGSLukzJoO_kB3EzVrjh7UGEGqxfNCZ_j6s/s1600/Riverside+%2526+Riviera+027.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Un-enhanced view of the sound board mural. The architect of both theaters was the great Thomas Lamb. Before calling himself an architect, Mr. Lamb had served as a building inspector for the City of New York. He had gotten himself into Cooper Union where he majored in mechanical drawings and acoustics. In the un-miked world he designed for, he needed to have a complete understanding of acoustics. Somebody had to sing over an orchestra to a 1700 seat house and the structure had to help.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMf59Njqk-g9Zx3nSXTRSb2nbn9fLZJ7FFE6eM2ChEJmVjUosgloAeZOPtdVl0nzIzUKDrOl32nukNMtJp_xSSAjAQHZVTIuek-cZwXc5jb8cqsWFyQWc6O6U2L2jGX7wNhQ0SpGE8Ds/s1600/28%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMf59Njqk-g9Zx3nSXTRSb2nbn9fLZJ7FFE6eM2ChEJmVjUosgloAeZOPtdVl0nzIzUKDrOl32nukNMtJp_xSSAjAQHZVTIuek-cZwXc5jb8cqsWFyQWc6O6U2L2jGX7wNhQ0SpGE8Ds/s1600/28%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The projection booth, like the one at the Hamilton Theater on 146th street were not original to the structure and were added later.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJs9d86bdMtnZ6d8Jo6nHjiGewup0mJIpwJwzIcMlser3YcEmhLsVNm6lyPSfLugSKRD4hdcFtFp_Y5wWSTfopu0EIFEFqZ3wVUApJmeuDjjC0a3qjNEGq3GcX9VZZ1YnNNzW4PImpSQ/s1600/27%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJs9d86bdMtnZ6d8Jo6nHjiGewup0mJIpwJwzIcMlser3YcEmhLsVNm6lyPSfLugSKRD4hdcFtFp_Y5wWSTfopu0EIFEFqZ3wVUApJmeuDjjC0a3qjNEGq3GcX9VZZ1YnNNzW4PImpSQ/s1600/27%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIuwnbv0iWBPyLQo2hMvOV9I6DYfY5CeV48GBxBW43DQ8qP-XiG5PpPVurm6twAhK_uI7JnxgdYBF4E3QtBfUWofctBtCbKIh3TxmZY5qC-VaU5A8N34K9vBn_L5ORqIIVkdj0bbaJGQ/s1600/29%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKIuwnbv0iWBPyLQo2hMvOV9I6DYfY5CeV48GBxBW43DQ8qP-XiG5PpPVurm6twAhK_uI7JnxgdYBF4E3QtBfUWofctBtCbKIh3TxmZY5qC-VaU5A8N34K9vBn_L5ORqIIVkdj0bbaJGQ/s1600/29%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJs9d86bdMtnZ6d8Jo6nHjiGewup0mJIpwJwzIcMlser3YcEmhLsVNm6lyPSfLugSKRD4hdcFtFp_Y5wWSTfopu0EIFEFqZ3wVUApJmeuDjjC0a3qjNEGq3GcX9VZZ1YnNNzW4PImpSQ/s1600/27%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcJs9d86bdMtnZ6d8Jo6nHjiGewup0mJIpwJwzIcMlser3YcEmhLsVNm6lyPSfLugSKRD4hdcFtFp_Y5wWSTfopu0EIFEFqZ3wVUApJmeuDjjC0a3qjNEGq3GcX9VZZ1YnNNzW4PImpSQ/s1600/27%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTS4PzGOWbrecqjTewbafR0rrZiQY0_la14QxoVbnbZvj00Sqb2fmsT2Lb-jTriPFpw7QlZbhjzxgS3z70waiiZgEMKj7xXcY-b0d6WHJibSRD7DLs5f8-yNHu8helaXes6lcPxP3px8/s1600/31%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirTS4PzGOWbrecqjTewbafR0rrZiQY0_la14QxoVbnbZvj00Sqb2fmsT2Lb-jTriPFpw7QlZbhjzxgS3z70waiiZgEMKj7xXcY-b0d6WHJibSRD7DLs5f8-yNHu8helaXes6lcPxP3px8/s1600/31%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
In case you were wondering how a balcony was constructed . . .<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJXXh_5Ec0R0f_lhZfL7IrZIx4cNGnevUMz7Ns69GndR4eNfUiGafe3qE57THlZSIFB3nNCrtHRWCaSlifXejVeoWyP7DoWQaxxQT4F0uwvBOWyY_YVO9UBRlQzI411aiWGHsUm_3KVA/s1600/32%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJXXh_5Ec0R0f_lhZfL7IrZIx4cNGnevUMz7Ns69GndR4eNfUiGafe3qE57THlZSIFB3nNCrtHRWCaSlifXejVeoWyP7DoWQaxxQT4F0uwvBOWyY_YVO9UBRlQzI411aiWGHsUm_3KVA/s1600/32%2529+Riviera+being+demolished.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXL4PNl78FTUCd7frRu_eDiXcvh_K97g6ob5R2yxkaMhT1Ao56wRZiKJQgVPTSr-lKmY-oOvuEq9X24fA1rnjd9SqE3LzVahwtgyiC6Rg39tgPiw1FAFs5Mlv1XuOSrKZqkJ13-ejMco/s1600/26%2529+Riverside+is+gone+exposing+the+south+side+of+the+Riviera.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiXL4PNl78FTUCd7frRu_eDiXcvh_K97g6ob5R2yxkaMhT1Ao56wRZiKJQgVPTSr-lKmY-oOvuEq9X24fA1rnjd9SqE3LzVahwtgyiC6Rg39tgPiw1FAFs5Mlv1XuOSrKZqkJ13-ejMco/s1600/26%2529+Riverside+is+gone+exposing+the+south+side+of+the+Riviera.JPG" height="512" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> This is the south wall of the Riviera Theater and the Riviera Building after the collapse and demolition of
the Riverside Theater. I remember thinking, as a small child, that the balcony
for the Riviera must be incredibly high, not knowing that there was a long closed
theater up there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I
read a story written by the man who took the "before"photos. His real quest that day
was to not only photograph these two theaters but also to photograph the
Japanese Gardens above the Riviera. The two elevators that went up there
were had been out of commission for years. The stair case that went up to the
Gardens from the elevator lobby had been sealed off long ago. According to the
floor plans for the Riviera Building, there were no connections between the
theaters and the office building. The only way they found to get into the
Japanese Gardens was through 5 floors of Riviera dressing rooms, described as
dark, dank and musty.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lf87s5kjkxCgWJr4WkLkbKwjUMroFqAX7TlI0We8Q8h65A2EjYuqeE-VK5IsQzmfR9nUxcqw-sppkTlBCSfdN2Xgq_cVlH_rdNGAR_oCgpHXm3ZMUzWyDkEddyyhmwZ6Dz12e0SbBFs/s1600/Copy+of+Japanese+Gardens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Lf87s5kjkxCgWJr4WkLkbKwjUMroFqAX7TlI0We8Q8h65A2EjYuqeE-VK5IsQzmfR9nUxcqw-sppkTlBCSfdN2Xgq_cVlH_rdNGAR_oCgpHXm3ZMUzWyDkEddyyhmwZ6Dz12e0SbBFs/s1600/Copy+of+Japanese+Gardens.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"> This is the only picture of the Japanese Gardens that I have found so far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"> In an earlier post, I cryptically stated that after
the Riverside collapsed and emergency personnel had dug through the debris for
days, that no bodies were found - at that time. The two theaters were built a
year apart, the Riverside (which had a longer construction period) in opening
in 1912 and The Riviera in 1913, and were entirely separate buildings. There
were connections made in the basement at some point between the two buildings. It was during the
demolition of the Riviera that, according to local legend and lore, two bodies
were found in what was left of a connector passage between the still standing
Riviera and the no longer with us Riverside.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeuJdqR3e95m_PM-zmGLccMEPbrbtAvLNnB26U3LD5Q8z-StIK6LsudjLPRtD5EixtjkIFnT8xoF6HJfEnROD094TGPwFR8KSqj35cCtvOERsCYlCc339mk37hOIzHclKH7rBm1_d05E/s1600/33%2529+The+last+of+the+Riviera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHeuJdqR3e95m_PM-zmGLccMEPbrbtAvLNnB26U3LD5Q8z-StIK6LsudjLPRtD5EixtjkIFnT8xoF6HJfEnROD094TGPwFR8KSqj35cCtvOERsCYlCc339mk37hOIzHclKH7rBm1_d05E/s1600/33%2529+The+last+of+the+Riviera.jpg" height="476" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The last of the Riviera. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
derelict Riviera Theater and Riviera building became a haven for the fringes of
society. After much complaining
from locals, demolition on the Riviera began a few years after the
collapse of the Riverside. </span></span>"We will be judged not by what
we have built, but by what we have destroyed" said the New York Times in
an editorial about the destruction of the old Pennsylvania Station. How sad and true. </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The site, which almost played host to Gimbel's West,
was a garden for many years. When the building that eventually went up on the
site was built, the displaced garden moved to Riverside Park as is called the
Community Garden. </span></span>The site is now home to one of the
least attractive buildings on the upper west side. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> What was once an elegant
entertainment complex, a mecca that could seat almost 5000 at any given moment was
certainly a gift. The entire
complex was designed by Thomas Lamb, whose career is slowly being obliterated in the name of progress. </span></span></div>
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</span></span>New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-48897776416058197592014-04-02T14:27:00.002-04:002014-05-05T14:50:00.244-04:00Another BEFORE IT IS GONE Situation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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What is cheaper than a billboard to show your wares? The side of a building. This is 8th Avenue and 46th street early in March of 2014. I was standing on the south west corner when I saw this. What was on this corner, I am already not recalling, which is kind of scary. Or does it mean that I have taken things for granted for too long?<br />
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There are 2 ads here; one is for a cigar and the other is for a hotel of some kind. The hotel or rooming house offers the conveniences of steam heat, hot <i><b>and</b></i> cold water and housekeeping. Is this hotel the building to which the sign is applied or is it elsewhere? I will venture that advertised digs is now called the New York Inn. As for the cigar, I could not make it out when I was there or even now.<br />
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What is also very cool is the mark, almost a tan line, of the structure that was on the south side of the now New York Inn. Sometimes a demolition peels back a layer as I do not recall seeing the sign on the building, or the tan line, prior to the demise of the tenement on the corner and the small building in between. The small building in between having been torn down first has left it's mark, a reminder that it was there. For how long we will be reminded?<br />
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This is from the map of 1911. The Henrietta was the tenement that has been demolished and the little yellow structure is the wooden building that left it's mark. The Lane that is coming through the Henrietta is Verdant Lane and it runs all the way from the river between 49th and 50th streets. It takes a turn along the way to bring it down to 47th street. More on that lane later. </div>
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This is an enhanced version of the first picture. Enhanced but I still can't make out the name. Better get there soon as something, I am sure a fine visual addition to an avenue trying to reinvent itself, will forever block this view.</div>
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<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-12815863028686149742014-03-28T15:48:00.003-04:002014-05-05T14:50:07.538-04:00REMAINS OF THE ROAD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDOQKSLnUT8G1NiCyADrA7E2Ba1lSgtjcEw_upRfP_gOPQQEBPFM4nsUuYcgW1BFRadOmyHVtEe5BMlIG2AOcmJyVco8IoNRKIIE3L2_NNLeTlNb8jChiwhWrURJejpafr2hZTGy_c6c/s1600/2014-03-28+10.42.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjDOQKSLnUT8G1NiCyADrA7E2Ba1lSgtjcEw_upRfP_gOPQQEBPFM4nsUuYcgW1BFRadOmyHVtEe5BMlIG2AOcmJyVco8IoNRKIIE3L2_NNLeTlNb8jChiwhWrURJejpafr2hZTGy_c6c/s1600/2014-03-28+10.42.10.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
How many times have you walked the block on 102nd street between Broadway and Amsterdam and noticed 202 West 102nd and the odd angle it takes. If you stand on the north side of the street and look straight into the lobby of the building, you are facing real south, not downtown. Conversely, if you are coming out of the building you would be heading due north as you promenaded through the lobby. So why?<br />
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This building is at such an angle that it almost looks like a flat. The eastern wall in this garage follows the same contours that this building does.<br />
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This is the 1867 map and what appears to be Broadway is not, it is the Bloomingdale Road. The footprint of Broadway is visible to the west, or left, of the Road. As the Road takes a turn to head due north it is cutting, at an angle, through 102nd street. Today, where the road took that turn is in between Broadway and Amsterdam. At the top of the map where it says "Ward School" is the site of the playground outside P.S. 145. and is the first of what will eventually be 3 school buildings on the site.<br />
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This the 1885 map and The Boulevard is in place and it appears that The Road has been rendered obsolete. There are undeveloped lots now in the footprint of The Road and for some reason the lots on the south side follow the contours of the road. There is nothing on either side and still the abandoned Bloomingdale Road is dictating the shape of things to come. <br />
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This is the map from 1911 indicating the current 202 West 102nd street. Broadway is there in it's current location and the Road has been reduced to dotted lines with a blue tint and a building at an angle. The Hotel Clendining is there at 103rd and Amsterdam and the 442 seat Rose Theater east of Amsterdam showed movies until it closed around 1942. But was it showing movies in 1911? New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-54256830220128189602014-03-26T12:52:00.001-04:002014-05-05T14:50:14.877-04:00The Watt's House on 139th Street<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This looks like small town anywhere U.S.A. Once upon a time, a good deal of Manhattan could pass for a place where you could expect Andy Hardy to come bouncing down the streets. Good thing there are some records of Manhattan's bucolic past.<br />
This is called, in the caption of the photo, the "old Watts Mansion". It once stood on West 139th Street just east of 7th Avenue. The picture was taken in 1915, long after the neighborhood had changed from an area known for it's Victorian Gentility to a "convenient residential suburb". Once the 9th Avenue El snaked it's way up 9th Avenue then over to 8th Avenue and past 139th street (there were stations at 129th and 145th street) the vestiges of the country life began to disappear. The neighborhood in a sense under went three evolutions. From rural to Victorian Gentility to Suburban to Urban, each resulting in it's own style and denser population.<br />
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This is the map from 1868 and clearly there is something just east of the corner of 139th street and 7th Avenue. The name "Watt" appears next to a structure closer to 8th Avenue.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgGmHee5vVc2k1JEz7PB3RtV3Iqx9AbWDqb9nuyS6OD0npYyW869SDNjDKR_mUyka1g4sKQi_TlBN3t5cH6-OdeMvVxcVchrDSJcLul-FgPDv9Qf6fdN1MTsON4htL3fNMOhiet-sxJ0/s1600/getimage-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghgGmHee5vVc2k1JEz7PB3RtV3Iqx9AbWDqb9nuyS6OD0npYyW869SDNjDKR_mUyka1g4sKQi_TlBN3t5cH6-OdeMvVxcVchrDSJcLul-FgPDv9Qf6fdN1MTsON4htL3fNMOhiet-sxJ0/s1600/getimage-1.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
The house is there in 1885 and the name across the property, whose property lines are the same from the 1868 map, has the name Cadwallader across it. That is the name of the family that had owned the land back even before the revolution. The patriarch of the family Colden Cadwallader, a former Colonial Governor of the New York Provence and avid scientist / botanist. Although he did have a friendly relationship with Benjamin Franklin, he was on the wrong side of the Revolution. <br />
His grandson Colden D. Cadwallader made up for his grandfathers leanings by becoming a colonel of volunteers in the war 0f 1812. He was eventually appointed Mayor of New York City by Governor DeWitt Clinton in 1818. A staunch supporter of a national canal system and a major abolitionist, Colden D. died in Jersey City in 1834. His remains were moved to Trinity Cemetery in 1845 to a prominent spot in the cemetery's east side so his grave could
overlook the then rural intersection of the Bloomingdale Road at West 153rd Street. By 1869, preparations to widen the Bloomingdale Road into the new Broadway, Colden had to be moved again to
another plot when
the new road cut through the cemetery, this time to an inconspicuous plot in the cemetery's west side.<br />
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This is the 1897 map and there has been a good deal of development. In 1891 David H.King Jr. created 4 rows of row houses that will one day be a large piece of the Saint Nicholas Historic District. After buying the land from the Watt estate, King commissions 4 of New York's star architecture firms Clarance Luce, Bruce Price, James Brown Lord and McKim Mead & White. The Watt family must have been putting land together to form a larger estate once upon a time. This map indicates conveyances of ownership, with out the dates but with the names of the former owner. "C.D. Colden to 'A. Watt'". The Saint Nicholas Historic District landmarking report states that the King had purchased the land from W. A. Watt. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Of-HnuynD72v4Ih17MoruGCZqxUyVG_v54vw1a7oif7ILLy3z3-FjM32nF9hMob7LAR8QkT5c6YqeV5jxd21xhNpyOt0NF4vCOhOZXU79sX856a3O7Wry6iSYpQ4vFHPSoYxVNcXJ_w/s1600/getimage-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Of-HnuynD72v4Ih17MoruGCZqxUyVG_v54vw1a7oif7ILLy3z3-FjM32nF9hMob7LAR8QkT5c6YqeV5jxd21xhNpyOt0NF4vCOhOZXU79sX856a3O7Wry6iSYpQ4vFHPSoYxVNcXJ_w/s1600/getimage-5.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
There is the house on the 1897 map and the Watt House stands alone. The old Watt house survived maybe due to the fact it was east of 7th Avenue but probably the large outcropping of rock that once rose up between the corner and
the house as seen in the top picture had something to do with it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7hyWJNTDzdOpoe4VYKseYSgAIHf6UN9mZAL_o7a6VMr-rtDosqXD9Cqnr04M6To-2PS7sOouWg0Zyw_T-rro_IjkjXbU7SpW3o-piqcFW_00Rl-Hz7PbtftzdPLOpj3yF5WpHmTSpaA/s1600/getimage-24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv7hyWJNTDzdOpoe4VYKseYSgAIHf6UN9mZAL_o7a6VMr-rtDosqXD9Cqnr04M6To-2PS7sOouWg0Zyw_T-rro_IjkjXbU7SpW3o-piqcFW_00Rl-Hz7PbtftzdPLOpj3yF5WpHmTSpaA/s1600/getimage-24.jpg" height="640" width="594" /></a> This view is from 1925 and we are looking north west. The apartment building in the left background was built on the vacant lot (see the 1897 maps) at the south west corner of 140th and 7th Avenue. I am guessing that the house, not long for this world (is there a demolished house heaven?) is being used as a multiple unit dwelling as there is what appears to be an emergency escape staircase on the left side of the house. Tenements are now filling the lots on 141rst street and in the center of this picture there is a sign in the vacant lot east of the house. What is being heralded? Perhaps the forthcoming apartment building soon to rise on the lot that will also absorb the old Watt Mansion. As one era begins, another must end.<br />
<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-23595726280284509262014-03-21T12:34:00.000-04:002014-05-05T14:50:33.740-04:00THE NEW PROBLEM AND AN OLD SOLUTIONOnce upon a time, in the 1980's, the ubiquitous corner market reared its head and became the thing we all dreaded when an older business with roots in the neighborhood and was replaced by the over priced fruit stand with dubious produce. Over time we have endured the proliferation of Duane Reades, banks, Starbucks and wireless stores along Broadway to the point where New York would start to look like the background in a Flintstones cartoon. The new business to over do it is the "Urgent Care" medical stores. If all human life were to disappear in flash, and aliens were to visit the empty earth, they would think that we were a bunch of coffee drinking, cell phone using money hoarders who where accident prone. This one is the straw that broke the my camel's back as it is going into the space once occupied by the late Great Shanghai. <br />
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This is the former home of the Great Shanghai. Soon it will be, by judging the pictures, a place for all those happy sick people.<br />
The first listing of this culinary palace was in the New York Times. Jane Nickerson reviewed on August 1, 1956. How many Christmas Day dinners did you have there growing up, in what would become a staple for too many upper west side families from the 1960's through the late 70's?<br />
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"Away from Midtown and off the beaten track" Ms. Nickerson wrote while calling it a "roomy place". Owned by Shelia Chang who likes to help diners unfamiliar with Shanghai Cuisine make menu selections. When the place opened it had 3 menus - one Shanghai, one Cantonese and one American. The costs were approximated at $4 - $5 per person, not including drinks. There was a bar when you came in, along the right wall. The bartender was an older Caucasian man, as were the flies sitting at the bar. Once upon a time the space was a night club and I always wondered if this bartender was a holdover.<br />
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This is the
Hotel Marseilles at some point in the 1920's. Designed by New York
born and educated (Columbia School of Mines) Henry Allan Jacobs went to
France after graduating in 1894 and attended (like too many other
American architects did) the Ecole des Beaux- Arts. However he did very
well while in attendance and was awarded the Prix de Rome. An early
example of his work is the 1904 Seville Hotel at
Madison Avenue and 29th Street. The entrance in the pictures above is visible on the right of this vintage postcard. <br />
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This is the hotel as photographed by Irving Underhill in 1919. In the Business Records section of the New York Times on September 14th 1950 there was, among the Bankruptcy notices, reference to this night club. Nicholas Varadinoff, trading as the Dennis Restaurant and Bar, had finalized the bankruptcy of the business. Ironic - same last name, no relation. The hotel was sold numerous times, according to the Business Records sections of the times throughout the 1930's through 1946. After World War II, the hotel was used a refuge for displaced persons, survivors of the Holocaust. After that, as the tide turned in the area north of 96th, the hotel began it's downward slide into the 20th century equivalent of the legendary Old Brewery of the 5 Points. It was on this block that not only Humphrey Bogart became Humphrey Bogart, but also were William Burroughs bought heroin. It was in the hotel that Sarah Delano Roosevelt lived (but the neighborhood had become to Old - Testamenty for her old New York blue blood), it is where the writer Cornel Woolrich, the man who gave us <i>Black Ange</i>l, <i>The Bride Wore Black</i> and what would become <i>Rear Window</i> lived (with his mother) from 1933 until 1957 (his last neighbors were one one side a prostitute and a junkie on the other). And it was probably in the restaurant / nightclub that a deal was hatched to spring a guy from Dannemora. </div>
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This is an ad for the fastest slice of Art Deco ever to cross the Atlantic, the Normandie. It was the ocean liner of all ocean liners. One of the most beautiful ships ever built, a product of the Roaring 20's if there ever was one. It attracted stars of the screen, stage, literary, artistic and financial worlds as the way to get to Europe.<br />
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This is the main dining room. It is sort of an art deco interpretation of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Fortunately it was not in it's home port when France fell in 1940. It became a possesion of the United States and was going to become the USS Lafayette.<br />
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On February 9th, 1942 work was proceeding on the Lafayette at pier 88 on the West Side. Some how a pile of life perservers caught fire and burnt the ship so badly and completely.<br />
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The fire was so bad that the 1000 foot long ship capsized under the weight of the water iused to suppress the fire. <br />
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Anything of value, anything that indicated the former <br />
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use of this ship had been removed. There were no art treasures lost. What was lost was a badly needed troopship and almost immediatly sabotage was suspected - union or otherwise.<br />
In 1916 German saboteurs had plotted to blow up the Ansonia Hotel but that did not work out. What they did do was to blow up a rail yard in what is now Liberty State Park that was full of boxcars that were full of ammunition waiting to be loaded onto boats to be shipped to England during World War I. The arm holding the torch of the Statue of Liberty was shifted forward 4 feet and and the original plaster ceiling in the Great Hall of Ellis Island's immigration station fell (not the roof, just the interior ceiling). The result was the torch being closed off and a new ceiling in the Great Hall (made out of Gustivino Tiles. It also made Naval Intelligence wary of possible German sabotage here during the war years. But who could they turn to?<br />
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This guy. This is Salvatore Lucania, better known as Charles "Lucky" Luciano who had risen from the streets of lower Manhattan and became one of the most powerful men in organized criminal history, one of the creators of Las Vegas and the creator of the "5 Families" in New York. That division of labor solidified the the power of what he called "this thing of ours". Unfortunately on June 7, 1936, Luciano was convicted on 62 counts of compulsory prostitution (the only thing they could get him with?) and on July 18, 1936, Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in state prison.<br />
He was still running the show from his suite at the Maximum Security facility known as Dannemora by passing instructions to his underboss Vito Genovese. He was powerful outside but also inside. Through his efforts the only free standing church structure in the entire New York State prison system is at Dannemora, now known as Clinton Correction Facility. The Navy, the State of New York and Luciano's lawyers eventually concluded a deal.
In exchange for a commutation of his sentence, Luciano promised his
complete assistance even providing the U.S. military with mafia contacts in
Sicily when the allied invaded in 1943. The deal was hammered out over a few meetings but at least one of those meetings took place in what was to become The Great Shanghai. After the deal was done, there was never a dockworker strike or another diabolical act of sabotage during the war. After the war Lucky was deported back to Sicily. He was a citizen of New York, but never an American citizen. I do not think he saw the difference.<br />
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These are part of the doors to the main dining room on the Normandie. They were originally 20 feet tall. They are medallions are now the of Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn. </div>
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-60117515207874309542014-01-21T11:41:00.002-05:002015-01-15T18:23:06.934-05:00Loew's 83rd - not 84th - a lost Thomas Lamb treasure on the Upper Westside<style>
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Opening in September 1921, the 2633 seat 83rd Street Theatre
was part of built at the same time as Loew’s State in Times Square.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Built for MGM product and vaudeville, I
would venture to say that it was the premier Loew’s house north of Times Square
until the opening of the larger (by a 811 seats yet) Loew’s 175<sup>th</sup>
Street Wonder Theater in February of 1930.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The State
and Loew’s Capital were the flagship <i>uber</i>-houses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The State was in the in the building that was home to Loew’s
corporate headquarters which in turn was the parent company of MGM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until 1946 the big studios owned a
significant interest in theaters that bore their name. The Paramounts, Fox’s and
Warners of the world are examples of what became an anti-trust suit that was
finally settled after W.W. II and the studios were forced to divest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the case of Loew’s, it was the other
way around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exhibition had to
divest production as opposed to everyone else, production divesting their
exhibition interests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t get me
wrong, there where loopholes and shenanigans to exploit. </div>
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The house has been referred to as plain. It was built just
before the real golden age of movie palace construction, which began around
1925 and came to a crashing halt by 1930.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is nowhere near as ornate as other Lamb houses of the “golden era”
but it was beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although my
memories of the theater have severely faded, I do remember the stained glass
lighting fixtures flush with the overhang of the balcony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">However plain it might have been, Loew's did spring for new seats, as noted in this 1939 ad and the benefits of sponge foam. </span>If I am remembering this right, there
was a chandelier over the inner lobby that had to be original. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many a time I had to wait for a date who
had gone into the ladies room but I had a view of that chandelier and the lobby
below from the balcony outside the restrooms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Some of us remember the "matrons", older woman who had been hired during W.W.II to monitor the kids in the theaters. Children who came to these theaters by themselves had to sit in a special section. In the case of Loew's 83rd, the house right section of the orchestra (house left was for smoking). This was done to protect children from the raincoat men who would gravitate towards kids dropped off by their parents who, during the war, would go off and work in a defense plant for 8 hours and too many movie houses became day care centers. </span></div>
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The theater was first cut up into a “triplex” by 1975, then
a quad by 1978. The seats were never re-angled, left in their original single
screen position so you always sat at a slight angle from the screen. Until it
was cut up into a quad you had a view of the intact auditorium and it’s box
seats from the balcony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fact
that the boxes were still there was not only a rarity but also shows how
theater design had changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Live
entertainment, although included in the design had taken a secondary role in
the purpose of the theater, which was to show movies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boxes, which did not have seats in them in 1975, were
used by patrons and did not interfere with the projection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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It also had an organ. Not a "Mighty Wurlitzer" but still a powerful instrument - not unlike an analog synthesizer (I know I have said this before). This is a picture of the second and last organ to be installed in the theater. Identical organs were installed in Loew's Alhambra Theatre in Brooklyn<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica;">,</span><span class="style72"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica;"> <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Loew's Astoria Theatre</span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">in Queens,<span class="style43"> Loew's Spooner Theatre </span>in the Bronx and Loew's Rio Theatre in Manhattan. The console pictured here was called the wing-style mahogany console. </span></div>
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Just before it was torn down I was fortunate enough to get a
tour of the remains of the orchestra section and the stage. Everything in front
of the wall they had put into make it a quad was intact. Sadly, however the
boxes had been removed as well as the decorative plaster above then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The orchestra pit had been covered over
years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The stage was very
large but was not used after the sound pictures and the depression really
kicked in. Loew’s dropped vaudeville in all but their big houses during the
depression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the big houses
had periods of time when their stages were dark. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Pin rail, used to tie off the ropes that hoisted scenery
up into the fly loft, was intact. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
was a white grand piano sitting in the middle of the stage. There were 4 or 5
floors of dressing rooms that I do not remember why I did not explore.</div>
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Loew’s 84<sup>th</sup>, the soulless "six-o-plex" opened in 1985
and for a few weeks the old 83<sup>rd</sup> Street theater operated at the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were a total of 10
screen on that block for while, a ten-o-plex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
the summer of 1985, another Thomas Lamb theater was but a memory. </div>
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-79915713046537691162013-12-17T18:07:00.001-05:002014-05-05T14:51:39.118-04:00Appalachian or Harlem Farmhouse? Regardless of the condition, the tenements inthe background should give it away.<style>
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Once upon a time, on the isle of Manahatta, amongst the
somewhere between 300 and 1200 Lenape who made what would become some of the
most expensive real estate in the world a full time home, there were more eco –
systems than what exists in Yellowstone Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were deer, cougars, eagles, egrets and bears (not the
picnic basket stealing kind).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
her book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>The Measure of Manhattan</u></i>,
author Marguerite Holloway sums up all this nature with some surprising figures
for those of us who are used to and need the concrete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Among 10,000 species (not
including insects, molds, mosses or micro-organisms), there sandy beaches,
eelgrass meadows, red-maple hardwood swamps, grassland and pine – scrub oak
barrens there were 21 lakes or ponds and 66 miles of streams</i>” she writes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like nature, don’t get me wrong, but
I love that it is somewhere else, especially the molds and mosses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am not alone with these sentiments either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What I am astounded by is the fact that change did happen so
quickly considering the big picture of history but also that it once was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Change did not happen in an instant and there were vestiges of this islands rural past late into the 19th century.</span></div>
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This is the 1867 map of Manhattan showing the northwestern
corner of Central Park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although
the park would not be officially complete until 1871, they knew what was to
be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The items that are missing are
any reference to what would become Morningside Park or any suggestion that the
topography there is a cliff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
cliff and very steeply sloped area was considered to be too “severe” for any
extension of the street grid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although New Yorkers had become adept in getting rid of natural
obstacles by the mid – 19<sup>th</sup> century, the area will be deemed
unsuitable for residential development and ripe for conversion into a
park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> These are from the 1885 map showing the soon to be completed Morningside Park. The gentle curve of the Ninth Avenue Elevated makes its way over to Eighth Avenue along 110th street. With the El bypassing of the plateau known as Morningside Heights, residential development was slow to blossom but not the resented institutional as the Heights became home to an insane asylum, a hospital and an orphanage. Notice that there is no station at 110th street yet as it was believed the tracks were to high for a station to be placed and that Morningside Avenue is called Ninth Avenue. </span><br />
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In 1867, Andrew Haswell Green, the Commissioner of the
Central Park project (it was called the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Greens</i>ward
Plan after all) recommended the park idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The City had taken control of the land in 1870 and a design
competition was held in 1871.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No
one got the contract as the Board of Commissioners of Public Works rejected all
the design proposals submitted, including the scheme introduced by the heroes
of Central Park Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Their plan included a
connecting park between the new Morningside Park and Central Park but this plan was not to be - what with the El in the way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Architect Jacob Wrey Mould, whose
floral and fauna carvings are all over the staircases<span id="goog_2029113607"></span><span id="goog_2029113608"></span> leading down to Bethesda
Terrace in Central Park was hired to re do the Olmsted and Vaux plans and work
began in 1883.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately Mould
died in 1886 before work was completed and in 1887 Olmsted and Vaux were
brought in to complete the project.<br />
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This is the 1868 map showing a section of the Harlem Creek. This is one of the streams and creeks that made up that 66 miles of waterways in this island. It entered the island between 106th and 107th streets and the East River. It flowed over to what is now Central park and created a swamp at the bottom of a rise, a place called McGowan's pass. McGowan's pass was home to a Tavern, The Black Horse, owned by McGowan which was a favorite stopping off place of George Washington after the Revolution. The creek then flowed north between 5th and 6th avenues and turned west just north of 116th street ultimately disappearing around Eighth Avenue and 122nd Street. The creek had branches off of it in several places and was known as a great place to fish. The Native Americans used it and so did the first Europeans to settle up in what Peter Stuyvesant called in 1658"Nieuw Haarlem". The little village had a name change after 1664 when the British took over, they called the village just "Harlem". The Lenape called the area Muscoota. </div>
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This is a farmhouse along side what is left of the creek. Note the newly minted tenements in the distance on the left, going north and west. Muscoota really referred to the Harlem Plains, a mostly flat area where the soil was great and could support various crops as well as being an area abundant with wildlife. The rise in the west around the area became Morningside, Saint Nicholas and Colonial (now Jackie Robinson) Parks. The south western corner of the area, now 110th street and Morningside Drive, was a perfect place for the first settlers to build as they had the protection of a cliff at their back, not an open field. In other words, it was harder to launch a sneak attack from the west. So, given the location of the house, it is likely that the house was not there for the village of "Nieuw Haarlem" but was there for the village of Harlem. This photo dates from 1893.</div>
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1868 map showing where the the house would be. The map detail shows a five block area from 115th to 120th street (the bottom of the orchard) from 5th Avenue on the right over to 6th Avenue on the left. The house was on the north side of the creek.</div>
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This is the 1867 map which for some reason has more information than the 1868 map, except the creek is missing. The land is owned by Samson Benson and this is indicated on both maps. The little square right above the name "Wm. Zeis" is the house.</div>
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This the 1885 map indicating the house and what is left of the creek. The house is the yellow rectangle between 58 and 56 west 118th street, so I am guessing the house was eventually known as 57 West 118th. The branch that once broke off from the main stream is indicated as well with dotted lines near the bottom left corner. The number 602 refers to the block. The land has been divided up into lots but there is nothing there . . . yet. </div>
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-36750859414045882502013-12-16T13:59:00.000-05:002014-05-05T14:51:53.629-04:00What is this, looks like a wine cellar. It is not.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Is it a medieval prison or a wine cellar under some villa in Tuscany? The brick work is very middle 19th century so we can rule out anything medieval. Well I will tell you that it is here, it is on Park Avenue as a matter of fact and it ain't no wine cellar. In 1831 a company called the New York & Harlem River Railroad began running streetcars hauled by horses up Fourth Avenue from Prince Street. Originally it went as far north as Union Square but eventually it was going to go further. The population of this fair city was growing and that population had only one way to move and that was up this long thin island. Horse cars was one way to move people; however, as you can imagine the process of getting uptown was long and you only moved as fast as the beast of burden did. Sometimes the beasts did not come back downtown . . .<br />
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By 1832 the New York & Harlem River Railroad had moved all the way up to 23rd Street and Fourth Avenue and by 1836 to this larger castle-like facility between Madison and Fourth Avenues bounded by 26th and 27th streets. By this point the NY&HRR is running steam engines, however, in 1858 a ban will be put into place as to how far south a steam engine can go. The risk of an exploding steam engine, as these things had the unfortunate propensity of every now and then doing that, was to great to bring into a populated area. The limit will be set at the once upon a time wilderness of 42nd street. This print is from the Valentine's Manual and is dated 1860. On the lower right, that is a train car being pulled by a team of 4 horses, the horses are pulling more than just this one car. The engine was removed at a facility at 42nd Street and 4th Avenue. In the center of the print, the smaller conveyance is a horse car and the building eventually became P.T. Barnum's Greco Roman Arena and then Frank Gilmore's Garden Arena. This is the great grand father of the current Madison Square Garden. <br />
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This is the what is known today as the Park Avenue Tunnel. It is now a one way car tunnel starting at 33rd Street and feeding into the Park Avenue viaduct around Grand Central Terminal. It did not however start as a tunnel, it started as an open cut beginning at 33rd Street. Remember that this was a horse drawn world and I do not know how plentiful horses were but this island I call home was once a great deal hillier, so New Yorkers have been trying to flatten this rock for centuries. This open cut went through a hill named for the local once upon a time land owner, the Murray family. The horses pulling the horse cars could not get over the hill without seriously shortening their service life. Eventually steam engines are plying the open cut. The City of New York had required the addition of bridges at the cross streets and soon after the steam engine ban went into effect, the open cut was covered and turned into a tunnel. Plantings were placed on the tunnel roof and thus the name Park Avenue is applied to 4th Avenue north of 33rd Street. South of 33rd is Park Avenue South. This is a picture of the tunnel with street car tracks and a station within the tunnel. <br />
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By 1871, Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had become incredibly wealthy in shipping and by starting what would eventually grow into the Staten Island Ferry, had put together his uber-railroad, when he became majority stock holder in various smaller roads. Amongst them was the Hudson River Railroad, The New York & Harlem River Railroad and a small upstate line with the name New York Central. He believed that people needing to travel by rail would come up to the wilds of 42nd Street; his peers tried to talk him out of it but he knew that the city would grow, could only grow, up the island and with a build and they will come attitude gave us the first, and immediately inadequate, of 3 Grand Centrals. This put an end to the horse drawn train cars under Park Avenue.<br />
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This was the glass and steel train shed on the north side of the station. Impressive, is it not. It had been influenced by the old Crystal Palace located where Bryant Park is now, and this influenced McKim, Mead & White in their design of the late great Pennsylvania Station.<br />
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This is the north facade of the train shed and that is Park Avenue, with tracks and dirt all over it. </div>
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This is the tunnel under Park Avenue. The tunnel existed as far back as the mid 1870's but it went only as far south as 59th. Notice the over-abundance of ventilation holes as this was built for steam - don't let the 3rd rail fool you. The tunnel was also built with stations for passengers at 59th, 72nd and 86th Streets. The horse cars were a slight improvement over walking but the trains were a huge improvement over the horse cars. Neighborhoods will blossom as the stations will spark development. </div>
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86th Street was on the grid prior to the grid map being published. It was a road to the Hells Gate Ferry and still was when this map was printed in 1885. The 86th Street station was accessed by a little structure in the center island, now marked by 2 steel emergency exit doors. There were 2 more stations north of this. The obvious one is 125th Street. The other one is not as obvious.<br />
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Again a detail from the 1885 map and this is the station at Park Avenue and 110th Street. The platforms were up on the viaduct, as the tracks come out of the tunnel at 97th Street at what was once called Mount Prospect (I guess that the Harlem Plains would be the "prospect"). This means that the station facility was within the viaduct.<br />
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These are 2 views from inside the pedestrain arch on the north side of 110th Street. The door is a gate with rusted metal panels large enough to stuck my hand through. This was the main entrance to the station. There are stairs, probably on both sides, at the end of this corridor. </div>
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This is the eastern side of the viaduct. The arch on the left is at street level but I am not sure it was a pedestrian entrance, maybe a carriage entrance but I am not sure. The scars of were the stairs would have been are plainly visible. Did a passenger go back inside or were the tracks raised after the closing of the station? The tracks were raised so it is possible that were the gate is would have been a small staircase up to platform level. But what is there now?<br />
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There are scars of something above this arch. This is where the stairs come out of. Perhaps a cast iron and glass canopy? In the keystone above the arch, does that not look like a weather beaten . . . something? A corporate logo perhaps?<br />
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I stuck my camera into the little window under the arch in above picture. It was pitch black but this is a back of a staircase.<br />
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There is a light at the top of the stairs. This is again the eastern side and the holes on either side as well as the concrete patch work indicate that there was once something there.<br />
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This is the western side that does contain a maintenance / emergency entrance / exit staircase. Dramatic with the train, right?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiDt9xVaBWE4f1i6zJUUb2GWQZmcNH4RizcjPpjG6r2D4OjEs0EnhKwUWYmUo8qxkGJWqGwXBPKiGPIzvujfrxVEIVPyWhU-SGsx8mqhhcS0UyqakAKhSIGVw8eOth6bdizeMsFLpozo/s1600/getimage-32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEiDt9xVaBWE4f1i6zJUUb2GWQZmcNH4RizcjPpjG6r2D4OjEs0EnhKwUWYmUo8qxkGJWqGwXBPKiGPIzvujfrxVEIVPyWhU-SGsx8mqhhcS0UyqakAKhSIGVw8eOth6bdizeMsFLpozo/s640/getimage-32.jpg" height="522" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the map from 1916. The station is there but not for very much longer. It appears that the need for these stations will not be needed. There already had been the 3rd and 2nd Avenues where in place by the early 1880's and we will have the Lexington Avenue subway running by 1918 so the East Side was well served and the New York Central did not need all of those stops, even if they would have been incredibly convenient. New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-52413217319571511392013-09-25T12:17:00.002-04:002014-05-05T14:38:01.139-04:00United Palace And The 4 Other Loew's Wonder Theaters<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-0fjsKWFZTWEklah9KX9monsfDDy9w7bdN7QskwzcloADiV8YwyI39xDkxutBNgvPyPOWLpiGjeW2v1dmN7Z8rYJQlP-8fLxpikiWCJEGVlHH74LjhP_jQwtDK6bsD30DZopCFrZM7Rs/s1600/large-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-0fjsKWFZTWEklah9KX9monsfDDy9w7bdN7QskwzcloADiV8YwyI39xDkxutBNgvPyPOWLpiGjeW2v1dmN7Z8rYJQlP-8fLxpikiWCJEGVlHH74LjhP_jQwtDK6bsD30DZopCFrZM7Rs/s640/large-11.jpg" height="424" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The House. Loew's 175th Street / United Palace. Photo: Tinseltoes</td></tr>
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This unbelievable jewel, this incredible space that only
could have constructed at a certain time in history, I boastfully declare could
have only been built in New York City. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know that other cities had places like this but New York’s
where the biggest and the most extravagant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was a neighborhood palace, bestowed upon the city along
with so many long gone temples to the motion picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A place that not only took your breath away but was entirely
geared to wrap the patron within another world. Whether it was a baroque opera
house, a De Medici villa, or a chunk of Versailles, the entertainment did not
end when the picture finished or the stage show ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The space itself was part of the show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ZiBiQKbDbBZYZNP2KKm6Vt9UaNArNX4daiL_JcBtG0o06mAUUkb2bmVZgMvIJqsCTWneUW98AYGsE6TIFH2G_-DwpaAdsprqp7iN8uP02tEPiRwMkEAJLNEbD77qHTRRgeg5GaapBIw/s1600/large-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ZiBiQKbDbBZYZNP2KKm6Vt9UaNArNX4daiL_JcBtG0o06mAUUkb2bmVZgMvIJqsCTWneUW98AYGsE6TIFH2G_-DwpaAdsprqp7iN8uP02tEPiRwMkEAJLNEbD77qHTRRgeg5GaapBIw/s400/large-12.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The balcony at the United Palace / Loew's 175th Street. Photo: Tinseltoes</td></tr>
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When Loew's divested itself of this theater it was 1969 and
the era of large single screen houses was <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At that time the possibilities for a
place like that was supermarket, demolition or church. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Triplexing and the even worse “quading”
of these spaces had not come into vogue yet but were on the horizon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reverend Ike purchased it for $1 and
Loew's got a huge tax break. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To
Reverend Ike's credit, he did not alter anything in the space. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He added quotes from the bible but that
was about it. He even had the research done to find opening day paint
colors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company that did the
interior decorating for almost all of Thomas Lamb's theaters, Rambusch Studios,
is still around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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very much over. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrWyeMidq0wB_z1N72BcM1i4-7gKACslU_l_KZcuPxJ-QNpd63DjuWDnc3-nSZa2DM-mMpygo1GPAXm1PsHVvWnxHXCmxNiY4KA339TEAaiAfarDbGMupTQI3UkHo3Xni3x-TVCPk_igA/s1600/1262652_10202087281608815_1288942720_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrWyeMidq0wB_z1N72BcM1i4-7gKACslU_l_KZcuPxJ-QNpd63DjuWDnc3-nSZa2DM-mMpygo1GPAXm1PsHVvWnxHXCmxNiY4KA339TEAaiAfarDbGMupTQI3UkHo3Xni3x-TVCPk_igA/s400/1262652_10202087281608815_1288942720_o.jpg" height="360" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">House right and the proscenium at the United Palace. Photo: Leo Sorel</td></tr>
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The idea for these "Wonder Theaters" actually
began with Paramount.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Paramount hit a financial bump, this is sometime in the late '20's, and
the idea was dropped.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This part my
memory is a little fuzzy but the Robert Morton Wonder Organs (all of these big
houses had huge Wurlitzer type machines - basically analog synthesizers) that
were ordered for the Paramount theaters had been built. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were the biggest organs that
Morton had manufactured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loew's
(the parent company of MGM) bought them and decided to build these
"Wonder" theaters in NYC. </div>
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There was one in every borough except Staten Island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were 5, all still standing and
all designed by three of the greatest theater architecture firms ever - Thomas
Lamb did Loew's 175th, Rapp & Rapp did the Kings in Brooklyn and the Loew's
Jersey in Jesrey City and John Eberson did the Paradise in the Bronx and the
Valencia in Queens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were
called Wonder Theaters" not only because of their organ installations but
because they were to be the last word in movie theaters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All were built with stages, all
initially included Vaudeville as part of the evening.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8V5fWIRdlX0JR0h1mHKL7EVhdN6ZWVZIfW_OAqgdybJ-RvwGDv-6doADpTKDEXkzjn27wjPv3p-RYpoIdXkbYY8TbvxYne39u2bR_dodoj58W7dxGoYYpzXqD_cq3Y4IreqOFI52GmI/s1600/19scap.1.600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD8V5fWIRdlX0JR0h1mHKL7EVhdN6ZWVZIfW_OAqgdybJ-RvwGDv-6doADpTKDEXkzjn27wjPv3p-RYpoIdXkbYY8TbvxYne39u2bR_dodoj58W7dxGoYYpzXqD_cq3Y4IreqOFI52GmI/s640/19scap.1.600.jpg" height="323" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Loew's Paradise on the Champs-Élysées of the Bronx, the Grand Concourse. The Concourse is so very Champs-Élysées that the zoning laws forbid the installation of a marquee over the sidewalk.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3I-8Gha5rA3UkE8uEpOcsTlHTtrjKUAbZ-NdwmLTlEWFjc-nJdf77KJ1iA43s34oLfAtQQnCjpfO9QaTHlOdpMd14XOOELQPcCg_TYEQuMC4zzgJPgI6Gi-mX97C4OsaKrj0ow_nw8mk/s1600/WestWallUpper178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3I-8Gha5rA3UkE8uEpOcsTlHTtrjKUAbZ-NdwmLTlEWFjc-nJdf77KJ1iA43s34oLfAtQQnCjpfO9QaTHlOdpMd14XOOELQPcCg_TYEQuMC4zzgJPgI6Gi-mX97C4OsaKrj0ow_nw8mk/s640/WestWallUpper178.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
A cherub watches the action on the screen and stage at the Paradise.<br />
</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The Paradise has been beautifully restored, even after being
triplexed back in the mid '70's and a fire in the stage house 20 years ago. The
Valencia is a church, which probably saved this theater, however there was one
thing done to this ire-replaceable space that is almost unforgivable. The
architect, John Eberson, was famous for designing "atmospherics" -
the side walls were built out and the ceiling curved into the recesses and was
painted usually a sky blue, little lights imbedded in to the smooth plaster simulated
stars and clouds were projected onto this "sky".<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The church hung a chandelier from the
middle of the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The organ at
the Paradise was removed prior to the restoration and moved to the Loew’s
Jersey were it now rises up on it’s lift and plays (the original organ at the
Jersey had been removed years ago and moved to a theater in Santa
Barbara).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4f1va2vUvxQbo6QX0FKBivVhcfWuK3frej1oy7NIWf0dulpFOZippcbJTJtntmN_iFvsUnQ3cQ3G-mBF09dVg9MmTR_rTfxnIFULE8W0-oyxIsMh2EvdniBcJ-Bmi7lqgYE8Vs2DRaHQ/s1600/large-2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4f1va2vUvxQbo6QX0FKBivVhcfWuK3frej1oy7NIWf0dulpFOZippcbJTJtntmN_iFvsUnQ3cQ3G-mBF09dVg9MmTR_rTfxnIFULE8W0-oyxIsMh2EvdniBcJ-Bmi7lqgYE8Vs2DRaHQ/s640/large-2.PNG" height="412" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Valencia soon after completion. The orchestra pit was on a lift but had a separate lift for the piano. Photo: CharmineZoe</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fU1H5Kd97Hr-7NOCV-cZgghJMiy34y9NoDHOmqADpabr-OkC-dA6rB2dCfmmXhulCNaBmnF2YVE4y88tZt5KRCFnpnW0itpiKARDJ5cCNp8n6dEyesoKpQd8XmfROyi6juZ26cqzO00/s1600/lowes-whole-theatre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_fU1H5Kd97Hr-7NOCV-cZgghJMiy34y9NoDHOmqADpabr-OkC-dA6rB2dCfmmXhulCNaBmnF2YVE4y88tZt5KRCFnpnW0itpiKARDJ5cCNp8n6dEyesoKpQd8XmfROyi6juZ26cqzO00/s640/lowes-whole-theatre.jpg" height="352" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Valencia, a recent picture showing the chandelier hanging from the sky. Photo: Scouting NY</td></tr>
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Although the Valencia
was called the most successful Loew’s theater in Queens, it closed in 1977 and
became and still is the Tabernacle of Prayer for All People church. Other than
the ceiling light fixture, the church covered up any (and there were enough)
nude statues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loew’s had dropped
vaudeville in the mid ‘30’s so the orchestra pit came to be considered wasted
space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At some point in the ‘50’s,
the pit and the organ lift were covered over with concrete so an additional
couple of rows could be installed (this sort of thing was such a common
occurrence).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately the
organ console was buried under the concrete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was finally removed and now resides in a theater in San
Diego.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQrPvsrTzkqq88flxxldl-qKfpQqkoTGnKdQHiW6P072fEFwE8sLgwX-BCz2EkVwrI5aLs9ad4DYtYB9-aGkyGQ0JZDKKmPMqC7p34SmJpxFsQXjetP3csbhbZ5uUUzLXUh9RJuF335E/s1600/large-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoQrPvsrTzkqq88flxxldl-qKfpQqkoTGnKdQHiW6P072fEFwE8sLgwX-BCz2EkVwrI5aLs9ad4DYtYB9-aGkyGQ0JZDKKmPMqC7p34SmJpxFsQXjetP3csbhbZ5uUUzLXUh9RJuF335E/s640/large-14.jpg" height="640" width="524" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Opening day shows included Frills and Fancies’ a revue, Wesley Eddy & his Kings of Syncopation, and the Chester Hale Girls along with the Loew's grand Orchestra. Photo: BrooklynGil</td></tr>
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Loew’s Kings on Flatbush is the last of the Wonder Theaters
to be saved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was last used as a
theater in 1977.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loew’s had done
nothing to the interior décor from the time it opened in 1929 up to their
divestiture of this beautiful space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like the Jersey, this theater was designed buy the Chicago based firm
Rapp & Rapp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This firm did
quite a bit of work for Paramount (The New York Paramount in Times Square and
the Brooklyn Paramount) but did only 4 theaters for Loew’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyG3Vm4jFfRUCzrOs2a9qm5CmsqZz6oWwy1rdtBCTAeBmWxn9PXuKEGAXzAt1eaa0FDaE3kBp-m3vvPY2Djvl-vkGNtPETcmxjejvckaPEmUzg3ZJMecH2eOdfkY7FHSYc_TnYxhqcRRQ/s1600/large-15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyG3Vm4jFfRUCzrOs2a9qm5CmsqZz6oWwy1rdtBCTAeBmWxn9PXuKEGAXzAt1eaa0FDaE3kBp-m3vvPY2Djvl-vkGNtPETcmxjejvckaPEmUzg3ZJMecH2eOdfkY7FHSYc_TnYxhqcRRQ/s640/large-15.jpg" height="640" width="425" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Stairs to the balcony at Loew's Kings. Photo: Tinseltoes</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">The kings was built with a seating
capacity of 3676, 2798 of those seats on the orchestra floor. This was a
departure for Rapp & Rapp as they normally did not do that, most of there
work contained the traditional balcony.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is not a departure for them is the style of the theater, which is
sort of baroque gone beserk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Almost every theater they did was based on spaces at Versailles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not saying that they were not beautiful,
I am just saying </span></div>
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Versailles played a heavy role in their work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Behind the scenes </span>The Kings had a gym and basketball court located in the basement, which were provided for the use of the theater staff.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8pL57RYlINwD9LP8Dy2N6HElvw1PG6FW1I2K3i6XqtXY__YNq7CsFsfhPogPH0KBifPgbq-aV0mAqLc5rNg3R5m1w-VTR18OLsDObRQiqFGce-JvWaauUJZ-QZ6-rSycVkNfcZ0prnc/s1600/large-16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8pL57RYlINwD9LP8Dy2N6HElvw1PG6FW1I2K3i6XqtXY__YNq7CsFsfhPogPH0KBifPgbq-aV0mAqLc5rNg3R5m1w-VTR18OLsDObRQiqFGce-JvWaauUJZ-QZ6-rSycVkNfcZ0prnc/s640/large-16.jpg" height="428" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even with the orchestra pit raised, the stage is a mess. There were 2 elevator platforms on the stage that look as if they collapsed in to the depths below. All the white areas indicate water damage to the plaster work.</td></tr>
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This is what happened to the Wonder Organ at the Kings,
according to the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists (yes
they got a guild):</div>
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“<i>In 1974, Loew's donated the Kings' Wonder Morton to the
NYC-owned Town Hall in Manhattan. The organ was played for the last time in the
Kings on Sunday morning, January 27, 1974, with Lee Erwin at the console and
about 200 organ buffs in the audience. The American Theater Organ Society and
its Greater New York chapter took care of the Morton's removal, which cost
about $15,000, including transportation to storage facilities owned by NYC.
Unfortunately, while the organ was under NYC's protection, most if not all of
the organ's esssential parts mysteriously "disappeared," and only the
console remained. In 1998, the console was sold to Paul and Linda Van Der Molen
of Wheaton, IL, who had the console rebuilt and connected to the four-manual,
26-rank theatre organ in their residence</i>”</div>
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The Kings, after decades of abandonment, water damage,
vandalism and false starts, the theater were Barbara Streisand worked as an
usher once upon a time, is finally getting it’s long over due restoration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQ-cIBn-1iSW_DYtjziLB682JGKcxZR1Id0y9KMJg2iSHWuFQEH6muSR6c_UjCnn8jfKpWpEt3Hei4jN3fp8fOq86O6R85MOIlveWPaqm24Dl5cxzEljP0zNvW6JZT0Ja_PfrCc5H4kc/s1600/large-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheQ-cIBn-1iSW_DYtjziLB682JGKcxZR1Id0y9KMJg2iSHWuFQEH6muSR6c_UjCnn8jfKpWpEt3Hei4jN3fp8fOq86O6R85MOIlveWPaqm24Dl5cxzEljP0zNvW6JZT0Ja_PfrCc5H4kc/s400/large-17.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amazing is that the light fixtures are intact at the Kings. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Photo: Tinseltoes</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Although the 5 theaters had different architects, Harold
Rambusch Studios worked on most of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 1979 a documentary was made about the Kings called Memories of a
Movie Palace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has interviews
with the last manager who served in that capacity for over 30 years and is
still alive (she just turned 100), the last organist who came up on the empty
lift, and the last projectionist who had worked there for decades as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the
interview the projectionist broke down and sobbed at the condition of this theater.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Harold Rambusch had been interviewed before
the theater was in horrible shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His firm hired the first woman to graduate from Columbia University’s
school of architecture, Ann Dornin.</div>
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As for the United Palace, it is the only one of the 5
theaters that has it’s original organ, it is playable and the theater is in
great shape.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the interior
is incredibly similar to a theater he did in Syracuse and the exterior is
repeated on his now ruined Loew’s Pitkin, this is one of Thomas Lamb’s greatest
works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read somewhere once long
ago that the style could be referred to as “Hashish nightmare”. I find that a
bit harsh but if there was ever a Baroque / Rocco period in Asia, it would have
looked like this.</div>
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-55692955379968779712013-08-31T01:12:00.001-04:002014-05-05T14:40:17.435-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24biqtH_0TGRnSRro_6aUg36UNuRtepQV0H2TF7-j-XGsLyriYpf_EJn0LoT1223c8E1x7gN8OBVTNorI0C8XzjZNKl9gXOD96DP8cujNzre44fKfBakNHrR0jhnWIs8uAnVz5lcZ1ww/s1600/large-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj24biqtH_0TGRnSRro_6aUg36UNuRtepQV0H2TF7-j-XGsLyriYpf_EJn0LoT1223c8E1x7gN8OBVTNorI0C8XzjZNKl9gXOD96DP8cujNzre44fKfBakNHrR0jhnWIs8uAnVz5lcZ1ww/s640/large-4.jpg" height="398" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the point, in my opinion, having just missed this era and only remembering remnants of this abstract masterpiece, when the Times Square area looked the best. A cornucopia of neon trying to deny the night at the same time needing the darkness so the bright brash colors could stand out. So much of this is gone, the longer I look at it the sadder I get. As the city prepares to lose yet another what was a theater (the 1910 Columbia Theater), some of us are reminded of what once was. This vista was one of the multitude of reasons why people came to New York, to see this. I passed a brand new Pinkberry today on Broadway at 94th street. What had been there before, for as long as I can remember, was an antique store. Maybe antique is kind, maybe it was junk. The store was dusty, kept strange hours, smelled like cat (not in a good way) but the store and the storefront was unique. Now it is a Pinkberry, it looks like it was ripped out of a mall and dropped onto Broadway. That storefront no matter how small, was part of the mosaic that makes New York special.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8C8hIcSrDd3i3g783dIDsGkPrp_2YtLPHZpgD0s77nTMQv3VRGB3EZjjOo67AfOHisUzPFFTKjuoVPGtke_KIhDH5Ps1oencxuQHh7sxfQzWXfZZ0oBM9mges-VkKmrZ-K1od6lwTSwo/s1600/large-6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8C8hIcSrDd3i3g783dIDsGkPrp_2YtLPHZpgD0s77nTMQv3VRGB3EZjjOo67AfOHisUzPFFTKjuoVPGtke_KIhDH5Ps1oencxuQHh7sxfQzWXfZZ0oBM9mges-VkKmrZ-K1od6lwTSwo/s640/large-6.JPG" height="640" width="490" /></a></div>
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The Columbia Theater and the building it was built with are most certainly part of that mosaic. Most of us do not recall the the name Columbia being used as the name of this house. Very few of us remember the second or third name bestowed upon this house and for many years it was known as the Embassy 2, 3 and 4 (the theater known as just The Embassy, or Embassy 1, was on 7th Avenue between 47th and 46th streets). Names come and go, the Embassy moniker was re-applied to what had been a newsreel theater during World War II. The Columbia was renamed Mayfair in 1930, then the DeMille in 1960 and eventually it was Embassy(ed).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiocGLQYm43U_UBpgKPJtZvd2e6_s29Z6KekBUZmJM02qxjrrllJPSPhmff85leoSrI2sMKTWml8xOtpjycIEZ8VeHbqdFBHg4f9DBb5GC0Z3z7x9aGHUp46k6ElgeRqRUgbYzzXytuYRo/s1600/getimage-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiocGLQYm43U_UBpgKPJtZvd2e6_s29Z6KekBUZmJM02qxjrrllJPSPhmff85leoSrI2sMKTWml8xOtpjycIEZ8VeHbqdFBHg4f9DBb5GC0Z3z7x9aGHUp46k6ElgeRqRUgbYzzXytuYRo/s640/getimage-4.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
The site in May of 1909. This looking at the north east corner of 47th and Seventh Avenue from the south west corner.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbiKIs2C62Ssn9hs_UpHPPKNIhGZq2KICgQCdrNUIjhafhcjJlQDdCliFOapcmWWfeOIfa9R9zP9ZLZL910ESPlMEbsO_UBOnlBpOIP85edQ2JLQI8aOX0_QUcbEPUVt654JZUFbggnY/s1600/getimage-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrbiKIs2C62Ssn9hs_UpHPPKNIhGZq2KICgQCdrNUIjhafhcjJlQDdCliFOapcmWWfeOIfa9R9zP9ZLZL910ESPlMEbsO_UBOnlBpOIP85edQ2JLQI8aOX0_QUcbEPUVt654JZUFbggnY/s640/getimage-3.jpg" height="544" width="640" /></a></div>
This is on the same day but further down 7th Avenue at 46th Street. All of this will soon be gone and replaced by the Valhalla of Vaudeville - B.F. Keith's Palace Theater as well as the what will be known as the Embassy 1 and now the Times Square Visitor Center. <br />
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Originally opened on January 10th, 1910 as the Columbia Theatre at
the northeast corner of 47th Street and Broadway inside an office
building. The office building was home to the Columbia Amusement Company, one of the larger burlesque circuits. In 1910, the term burlesque had not grown into what it would become associated with. Instead the emphasis was on comedy, musical numbers and beautiful showgirls. The 1800 seat theater was designed by noted
theatre architect William McElfatrick in a sort of Beaux Arts style. Above the proscenium arch, there had been a mural called “The Goddesses of the Arts,” painted by Arthur Thomas. The Columbia was also noted as one of the first theaters to install a ventilation system designed to remove tobacco smoke from the air. Although it wasn't airconditioned, at least you didn't leave smelling like a Chesterfield.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdfRtdUAQ0D6DRVS3QJtEBwKzt6mUKh3Krxgg1Z-QqhkH8bPgYBpY70s1Q5cwp36WrG1pwJhlnsOYpgBcP8bAt6i-xN6xG25QNIM3HUe0cRu0bLfdG4Ct4QM5jozWTkIOE_YIK3nHQDg/s1600/large.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdfRtdUAQ0D6DRVS3QJtEBwKzt6mUKh3Krxgg1Z-QqhkH8bPgYBpY70s1Q5cwp36WrG1pwJhlnsOYpgBcP8bAt6i-xN6xG25QNIM3HUe0cRu0bLfdG4Ct4QM5jozWTkIOE_YIK3nHQDg/s640/large.JPG" height="440" width="640" /></a></div>
The Columbia's Auditorium. The two balcony configuration was almost typical of McElfatrick's designs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPObs_Br_8B3GJ0Befwu8kC7u_L-0gG50cu1rodgqk7gi-WORmihB0dfkKhaUHTmMkswh7rOhv0GoYW3wZQxgR8IyuXj1FoncOYS_5lT4zknzz6sg08ras0dFd4u_9oTtI2yZX3UPm300/s1600/large-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPObs_Br_8B3GJ0Befwu8kC7u_L-0gG50cu1rodgqk7gi-WORmihB0dfkKhaUHTmMkswh7rOhv0GoYW3wZQxgR8IyuXj1FoncOYS_5lT4zknzz6sg08ras0dFd4u_9oTtI2yZX3UPm300/s640/large-1.JPG" height="354" width="640" /></a></div>
“The Goddesses of the Arts,” by Arthur Thomas.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRw9N95W1Uv5VbTKCXZ3jMQGh1URQCpOE-HjIEjQ3gLSzk3XchOYMT7u83Nj-l38B6W40fUEgAZG5XbmJeRvY6dy7w7xtBvqPixniryHW4enZjHVuK2oeMIM8nMc5cb82Pke7KphQwA9Q/s1600/large-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRw9N95W1Uv5VbTKCXZ3jMQGh1URQCpOE-HjIEjQ3gLSzk3XchOYMT7u83Nj-l38B6W40fUEgAZG5XbmJeRvY6dy7w7xtBvqPixniryHW4enZjHVuK2oeMIM8nMc5cb82Pke7KphQwA9Q/s640/large-2.jpg" height="640" width="478" /></a></div>
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Walter Reade bought the Columbia in 1928 and gutted it, leaving no trace of the original. It reopened in October 1930 with a new name, the RKO Mayfair, movies only and movies with RKO as the studio of origin.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzb6lv46SP_wPyPE6osYYlFaM955nHeE_2mimrtrhxPEePZOGX0ZnkG9JxQ5potusrIBnKuI9shFFkDownDj3h434hRnFH2b7lLfFbuTSQZVrUeEgoSr7mXGrgoxDf4zbT58SqEVAYyE/s1600/large-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzb6lv46SP_wPyPE6osYYlFaM955nHeE_2mimrtrhxPEePZOGX0ZnkG9JxQ5potusrIBnKuI9shFFkDownDj3h434hRnFH2b7lLfFbuTSQZVrUeEgoSr7mXGrgoxDf4zbT58SqEVAYyE/s640/large-3.jpg" height="468" width="640" /></a></div>
The task of redesigning the space and turn the Columbia into a movie theater was left to my favorite architect
Thomas W. Lamb. Lamb combined the two original balconies into a single
balcony. The auditorium was done in an Art Deco style. Around the same time Lamb had designed one of the five "Loew's Wonder Theaters", now known as the United Palace but once upon a time went by the name "Loew's 175th Street". If the far east had ever underwent a period where the Baroque was blended with Art Deco, it would have looked like Loew's 175th. What you can see in this picture, the wall treatment, is not too slightly reminiscent of Lamb had created up at Loew's 175th.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOI_7lgWUGtStdOzTPVNd4ZsIdIJVvK9w0uPO8tS8Av8Z1HvKtzU7fIA2BdqDc_TdeBSRMWUmzpuwLw5m2LrIC8wH6cu-75HsoCauZe4TELlcWrOCkGhu5GuALnx02arwvBslTrmLP2lA/s1600/getimage-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOI_7lgWUGtStdOzTPVNd4ZsIdIJVvK9w0uPO8tS8Av8Z1HvKtzU7fIA2BdqDc_TdeBSRMWUmzpuwLw5m2LrIC8wH6cu-75HsoCauZe4TELlcWrOCkGhu5GuALnx02arwvBslTrmLP2lA/s640/getimage-2.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
Eventually Loew's took over. Real air conditioning was added during the redesign. Well, the sign says the place was air conditioned, "<i>always</i>". In a pre - TV era, continuous shows from 8:30AM til 2:30AM for the entertainment starved. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOLBZxGo2EOGJtkx18J61uEGzet1tyJTnnVULkxyFbCdL4mgHC-iQOqQipneJA7Kk1BKDHr_Ygoc0Ght9c7wE8h-zy0ZGeyOHfBh-iCK9Vl7B6QfglS3zVtUw9rXpqY58HBUuPzyPbcYE/s1600/large-5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOLBZxGo2EOGJtkx18J61uEGzet1tyJTnnVULkxyFbCdL4mgHC-iQOqQipneJA7Kk1BKDHr_Ygoc0Ght9c7wE8h-zy0ZGeyOHfBh-iCK9Vl7B6QfglS3zVtUw9rXpqY58HBUuPzyPbcYE/s1600/large-5.JPG" /></a></div>
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The Mayfair was owned by Brandt Theaters by 1955 when Night of the Hunter had it's New York premier there. The name Mayfair was not to last and was ultimately changed to the DeMille Theatre, after Cecil B. (well he did play God's voice). Big world premieres of big pictures, when reserved-seat movies were popular in the early-1960’s included
“Spartacus” (1960) “The Fall of the Roman Empire” (1964) and “Hawaii” (1966).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_WapI0PFsIyeDZpkM5iRhRfKIW2ZFijzBSZ5UM088I3ImSCxWWoDD_nUOBHoylcn8jjnTn7BvmWp_t2ovIiVtDCsUSR7r2RmQung1cjFnLRmgUFWa_s5XJQIUVVTVHoE00VPIW7j34Q/s1600/large-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_WapI0PFsIyeDZpkM5iRhRfKIW2ZFijzBSZ5UM088I3ImSCxWWoDD_nUOBHoylcn8jjnTn7BvmWp_t2ovIiVtDCsUSR7r2RmQung1cjFnLRmgUFWa_s5XJQIUVVTVHoE00VPIW7j34Q/s640/large-7.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
However, one of the most famous pictures ever made, Alfred Hitchcock's <i>Psycho</i> in June of 1960. It also had one of the most famous "No one will be admitted after the start of the picture" policy. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6X3P283flnYoQw_6asJvIMDS92LW_DmGx6UnhIEpxa6O-Ro4SsbEeNn6V7e3Xun2tH1FqT9HgAwKXT6mtXBnR1ni9c53rSFH0kNvSKHXHrDXy7u54ECzP9Mqm4Qw5eOcKq67JH3Gij0/s1600/large-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie6X3P283flnYoQw_6asJvIMDS92LW_DmGx6UnhIEpxa6O-Ro4SsbEeNn6V7e3Xun2tH1FqT9HgAwKXT6mtXBnR1ni9c53rSFH0kNvSKHXHrDXy7u54ECzP9Mqm4Qw5eOcKq67JH3Gij0/s640/large-9.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
This picture was taken by one of the nicest guys to ever put a picture on a blog, Ed Solero. When I first photographed the Hamilton Theater on 146th Street, it was Mr. Solero who helped put the pictures on the web. Always interesting and always helpful. <br />
In late-1976, the theatre became the Mark I, II and III. The
triplexing was crudely done by putting a wall dividing the balcony down
the center, similar to the degradation of Loew's 83rd. <br />
It became the Embassy 2,3,4 Theatre in December 1977
when Guild Enterprises took it over. (The Embassy 1 Theatre was on
Broadway at W. 46th Street, next to the Palace Theatre). In
1997, after the Embassy 1 was closed for conversion into the Times
Square Visitor Center, this theatre was renamed Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre.
The Embassy 1,2,3 Theatre was one of the last Times Square movie houses
to close.<br />
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Another Ed Solero picture of the Embassy 2, 3 & 4. It was shuttered for several years and was a mega NYC souvenirs / t-shirt shop. Parts of the Mayfair's lobby ceiling was visible. There was a Famous Dave’s BBQ
Restaurant in there at one point. The theater had been gutted again
and by May 2013 every thing was out so demolition could begin. One more piece of the mosaic lost forever.<br />
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<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-81504498454875191802013-07-01T15:43:00.000-04:002014-05-05T19:23:18.866-04:00Artisinal Brewery in the 'hood? Sort of. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrAJMyJZGN4EOGixzvQ3riP1uQMovUVGmDKWaS-cQWVYvpHA_8RUnxt9UIoAvzG2T2sq5HwJCZZCsafH0nlJr9dZOaReFM7RJDwYgL4s1Tl3u42nFV28H4rM4TBwVM0cqwGgz9xtfeptI/s653/tumblr_m86oaiLAgb1rrpiufo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrAJMyJZGN4EOGixzvQ3riP1uQMovUVGmDKWaS-cQWVYvpHA_8RUnxt9UIoAvzG2T2sq5HwJCZZCsafH0nlJr9dZOaReFM7RJDwYgL4s1Tl3u42nFV28H4rM4TBwVM0cqwGgz9xtfeptI/s400/tumblr_m86oaiLAgb1rrpiufo1_500.jpg" height="400" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">With all this fuss about <span style="font-size: small;">"Craft Beers<span style="font-size: small;">" these days, it should be remembered that once upon a time New York City had quite a few breweries<span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">R</span>emember Miss Rheingold</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> and "my beer is Rheingold the dry beer, think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer"?</span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></b>Do<span style="font-size: small;">es anyone re<span style="font-size: small;">member Colonel Ja<span style="font-size: small;">cob Ruppert, his father's contributions to New York beer as well as his own <span style="font-size: small;">role in creating one of the most <span style="font-size: small;">revered<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">baseball teams ever or Ruppert<span style="font-size: small;">s <span style="font-size: small;">beer? How about George Ehert<span style="font-size: small;">, a <span style="font-size: small;">german immigrant who dug 700 feet to create a well and who most beer historians believe to be the first great American brewer? And what about Peter Doelger whose mansion once stood on Riverside Drive at 100th Street? His brew was sold all over, including the saloon at 100th street and Broadway which is now home to the Metro Diner. And it won first prize!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHoPeMit7LHdjsXz59MgFdW48JWHqvWEHjvzzhpWiVFyosqM6bIc3nfTpaC9UUir1pdEu0yXmOF7dbCFzVR9666-L6W5WK59T38lL6KMugM2-RgoHOqqw-vE5Jv403sbKLsjgHN9MmTo/s600/544px-Miss_Rheingold_-_Pat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifHoPeMit7LHdjsXz59MgFdW48JWHqvWEHjvzzhpWiVFyosqM6bIc3nfTpaC9UUir1pdEu0yXmOF7dbCFzVR9666-L6W5WK59T38lL6KMugM2-RgoHOqqw-vE5Jv403sbKLsjgHN9MmTo/s400/544px-Miss_Rheingold_-_Pat.jpg" height="400" width="362" /></a></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Beer was as common centuries ago as it is now in this burg, it is just that there are more choices (go into any bodega, convience store or supermarket and you see why we live in the greatest country in the world - freedom of choice) and most of it is kept refrigerated. However once upon a time, before we had a clean, reliable drinking water system on this rock, very often beer was a safe bet in the early New Yorker's continuous game of avoiding Cholera. In fact, John Randel Jr., the surveyor who laid the grid upon the isle of Manhattan kept within his copious and precise notes a recipe for beer to be made while out in the field. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bg3rTyaUSXnAKUr8rbXnEW_upMX5yAzr71P6hrTvGsKhLiB9MLMXYYQC7lUUdLHNVfpv6-uG7rHwS3oaxUYLs7LfaiLfthMYao9RNTAbyzDac9nW-RCfe3BfJMrYJKlw0IqB2utRklk/s420/getimage-88.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7bg3rTyaUSXnAKUr8rbXnEW_upMX5yAzr71P6hrTvGsKhLiB9MLMXYYQC7lUUdLHNVfpv6-uG7rHwS3oaxUYLs7LfaiLfthMYao9RNTAbyzDac9nW-RCfe3BfJMrYJKlw0IqB2utRklk/s640/getimage-88.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a section of the 1868 map showing 3 important items. One of course is the brewery. Two, the Aqueduct of the Croton sytem of 1842 turns at 107th and Amsterdam and heads south east and this raises yet another question. Was the Brewery getting water from the Croton system or an on-site well? And at the top of the map is a small space labeled Burying ground at what is now 110th Street and Columbus Avenue - practically right underneath Giovanni Pizza. Lion Brewing was a New York Cit<span style="font-size: small;">y - </span>based brewery established in 1857; it closed in 1944.</span></span></span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: small;">Shortly after immigrating to New York, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Catholic <span style="font-size: small;">Bavarians</span> </span>August Schmid and Emanuel Bernheimer founded the Costanz Brewery at
East 4th Street near Avenue B in 1850. The brewery produced a lagered beer, a favorite among German immigrants. By 1852, they built a second Costanz Brewery in Staten Island,
home to a large German community. Finally after five years of success, in 1857 </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bernheimer and </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Schmid establish the Lion Brewery.</span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuhOb6y6xZY-oyxcCCTucPewQbzfZ3PMKh82I_AgpVAWswPZSMIc17_11J99vYoJLahVNSH5CTPJdXfySu3xzhUnKg4iSURZnEdQdKKHXdN5M4J0CIAhx4hN9DOC9iO7Pa-QhQj69eLF8/s295/220px-Lion_Beer_Can.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuhOb6y6xZY-oyxcCCTucPewQbzfZ3PMKh82I_AgpVAWswPZSMIc17_11J99vYoJLahVNSH5CTPJdXfySu3xzhUnKg4iSURZnEdQdKKHXdN5M4J0CIAhx4hN9DOC9iO7Pa-QhQj69eLF8/s400/220px-Lion_Beer_Can.JPG" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
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</span><span style="font-size: small;">At its peak, the Lion Brewery occupied about six city square blocks,
from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue and from 107th to 109th
Street. At the time Manhattan's Upper West Side was an open area with
inexpensive land, housing, a few public institutions and an insane asylum.
Although most of the population of what became Central Park had moved into what would become the Lincoln Center area (especially near what would become the 60th street yard of the New York Central's Hudson River Railroad) there were many people living on </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">the Upper West Side in </span>shanty's after being
displaced in 1859. Consequently, with
the brewery and surrounding areas, the Upper West Side failed to
increase its real estate value until the early twentieth century.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeouUe5XG2USDz0IVMjjBloMirc5hxWBJBIFOX7q5HUwHX66s1K4Sm8nebQ5z4S3CkWtM5yB1ZyMJUV74PaM3D_4DwJMnmvlnFhWiQc86dpEnMv3rlgw3N6Z67k7KrMxuAfFSIj6HVROE/s681/MNY80368.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeouUe5XG2USDz0IVMjjBloMirc5hxWBJBIFOX7q5HUwHX66s1K4Sm8nebQ5z4S3CkWtM5yB1ZyMJUV74PaM3D_4DwJMnmvlnFhWiQc86dpEnMv3rlgw3N6Z67k7KrMxuAfFSIj6HVROE/s640/MNY80368.jpg" height="516" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is a 1932 picture of 127 and 129 West 108th street. These two 3 story frame houses were right across the street from brewery. Although they were not Astor mansions, they are still nice houses. Were these structures connected to the brewery in some way? Management housing? Once upon a time people worked and lived in the same neighborhood. I have been told that they were the brew master's houses. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3xefad6H3SRgAqkwuex3BpuZu8cdMxOkpGKTryNKX9_DwHB7uP5VEJxYv8LVnRcjYfLNp2Ri5684Z8rMCllrDkfatiYcYowy2hbJH0u8fqTSYQkLV0AsouVRpThkTiXP1YL3ql91_iU/s420/getimage-60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3xefad6H3SRgAqkwuex3BpuZu8cdMxOkpGKTryNKX9_DwHB7uP5VEJxYv8LVnRcjYfLNp2Ri5684Z8rMCllrDkfatiYcYowy2hbJH0u8fqTSYQkLV0AsouVRpThkTiXP1YL3ql91_iU/s640/getimage-60.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">This is the map from 1898, the brewery has grown and the houses are on the map. The building labeled "Iron Works" is still there. It is one of the three garages on the block. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH52AgPKzkgB17LMhc_ru3W7uTykzLqdu2w4idLepl6tZJ-FWvw9iHkkmuAAWYe0LCzbWRQlcfSDPZCTckdz6KDDN-l74s85Ok2EnMTo8uQQa4xhblcz3oj9k91i1yB24G_amvRa263DM/s420/getimage-54.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH52AgPKzkgB17LMhc_ru3W7uTykzLqdu2w4idLepl6tZJ-FWvw9iHkkmuAAWYe0LCzbWRQlcfSDPZCTckdz6KDDN-l74s85Ok2EnMTo8uQQa4xhblcz3oj9k91i1yB24G_amvRa263DM/s640/getimage-54.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is the 1911 map and clearly indicated are the two houses. 109th street is only slightly more developed. The brewery had it's own delivery service. There are two structures on the north side of 107th labeled "garage" (which are still there) as well as the old Iron Works now servings as a garage on 108th street. The undeveloped property surrounding the two houses is now a small playground dedicated to a local kid who had served in Vietnam. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Lion brewing got caught up
in a wave of mergers and closings among some of the smaller New York
Brewers in the early 1940s which continued until 1941, when the business
closed. The brewery (including the canning facilities) was auctioned
off on August 26, 1943. The plant was demolished in 1944 and more than
3,000 tons of steel were taken from the original brewery structure and
recycled for the war effort and the lot was paved over. On Sundays, after the war, the returning WWII Veterans gathered there for a
Softball League and played almost every Sunday afternoon. Home plate was
located near 107th street and Columbus Avenue. Today the Booker T. Washington Middle School (we just called it "Booker T")
occupies the Lion brewery's former location.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQa6Kyi7ytPWzW2lW6l2KqAageeu8rgmE4-N5JhmetNbIyOd-8HMQ1mKErsBZ0QEzdX3-NS9CQ66XUZrMvAb_2BEFIfDcwrm9-MoYWIKaIIUAZ4UYglooPK1eCF5ALOVESW0YrlArRql0/s550/MNY220556.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQa6Kyi7ytPWzW2lW6l2KqAageeu8rgmE4-N5JhmetNbIyOd-8HMQ1mKErsBZ0QEzdX3-NS9CQ66XUZrMvAb_2BEFIfDcwrm9-MoYWIKaIIUAZ4UYglooPK1eCF5ALOVESW0YrlArRql0/s400/MNY220556.jpg" height="400" width="285" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is the Parish House of the Church of the Ascension. It can be sa<span style="font-size: small;">id that <span style="font-size: small;">t</span></span>his </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Roman Catholic<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> church on 107th street</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> is an out growth of th<span style="font-size: small;">e brewery<span style="font-size: small;">; well </span>it owes it's <span style="font-size: small;">existence to the brewery at any rate. The <span style="font-size: small;">brewery not only employed a large </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Catholic <span style="font-size: small;">Bavarian <span style="font-size: small;">population, the brewery sparked a large scale migration into the area surrounding the brewery of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Catholic Barvarians in the mid - 19th century. For many years, Sunday services were held within the walls of the brewery for lack of a real church. </span></span></span></span></span></span>L</span>ocated at 221 West 107th Street<span style="font-size: small;"> the church <span style="font-size: small;">that me and many others always <span style="font-size: small;">referred to as just "</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ascension"</span></span></span> was established in 1895. <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Constructed</span> between 1896<span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="font-size: small;">and 1897 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;">the elaborate midblock church</span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> was <span style="font-size: small;">designed by the firm o<span style="font-size: small;">f Schickel & Ditmars. <span style="font-size: small;">The partners in this f<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">irm</span> were of German descent<span style="font-size: small;"> and were awarded many projects<span style="font-size: small;">, hired by other German - Americans. In addition to many private homes, the<span style="font-size: small;">y also produced a <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">significant</span> amount of work for the Catholic Church<span style="font-size: small;"> including<span style="font-size: small;"> Saint Monica's on </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">East 79th Street, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span dir="auto">Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue at 83rd Street, </span>part of St. Vincent's hospital and the "<i>nobody steps on a church in my town</i>" church - made famous by a colossal Stay Puff Marshmallow man in the picture <i>Ghostbusters</i> - the NYC Landmarked Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on 65th Street and Central Park West.<br />
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New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-65078162170359029762013-05-29T11:43:00.001-04:002013-05-29T11:43:34.914-04:00"I would rather have a square inch of New York than all the rest of the world." - Texas GuinanNew York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-40675816003633403812013-04-05T14:12:00.000-04:002014-05-05T19:24:33.327-04:00The Upper West Side's "Colonial House" in Color.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTWYZtodWgRUXetzayRY6PICYhJjjpKlLwfJDUcNVagtE8Xec6g_A0n3k5qRaft3nSyoeaYBAgUD1eOjp-eWjO6pL4qb6gIPPXJjz1vC0DPqWIYVpFFkiYLK8m6o2GEugAPfNO-jKiIiU/s1600/M3Y60239.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTWYZtodWgRUXetzayRY6PICYhJjjpKlLwfJDUcNVagtE8Xec6g_A0n3k5qRaft3nSyoeaYBAgUD1eOjp-eWjO6pL4qb6gIPPXJjz1vC0DPqWIYVpFFkiYLK8m6o2GEugAPfNO-jKiIiU/s640/M3Y60239.jpeg" height="422" width="640" /></a></div>
Often referred to as the "Colonial White House",probably because of the columns and the colorof the house, this mansion was important enough to merit it's own postcard. Built by the dry goods wholesaler William P. Furniss, the house was on land once owned by Charles Apthorpe. Apthorpe's estate once upon a time stretched from 99th street down to 81rst street, from Riverside Drive to Central Park West. In 1764 he sold a large chunk to Jacob Stryker. This piece included 96th street and the cove that used to be there was called Striker's Bay (spelling's and politician very often are corrupted. 100 years earlier the land was owned by Theunis Idens van Huyse, a Dutch tobacco farmer who once was the largest landowner on the island of Manhattan.<br />
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The Furniss estate briefly extended up to 104th street and Riverside Drive, and it did extend all the way to the edge of the Hudson River, but over the years lots were sold off or given away to his children and the construction of Riverside Drive cut off the river access. Furniss and his wife had passed away by 1880, their daughter
Margaret sold the lots south of what is now 99th street to John N. A. Griswold of Newport,
Rhode Island. Then in 1899 Griswold sold the lots, which had remained
undeveloped during his ownership. This left a still ample piece of property for an already vastly different city from when the house first went up - the entire block from 99th street to 100th street from West End Avenue down to Riverside Drive.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jfntpl-JznMU6Wp0PfOa2AjF0c72SE0bGETlTZePGx0kgv4UHw-QJ5jlnGgL8gCDa_0kCuh7XYBZvE6nLiyXeyzHp4HXVMyIt30VaejKqKZD-_pmZBkl_gFq2DI7h0sbKz6wdR_ag-0/s1600/getimage-19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6jfntpl-JznMU6Wp0PfOa2AjF0c72SE0bGETlTZePGx0kgv4UHw-QJ5jlnGgL8gCDa_0kCuh7XYBZvE6nLiyXeyzHp4HXVMyIt30VaejKqKZD-_pmZBkl_gFq2DI7h0sbKz6wdR_ag-0/s640/getimage-19.jpg" height="608" width="640" /></a></div>
This is a piece of the 1867 map and the house is clearly indicated on its eventual plot / block of land. On this map, the only indication that the estate stretched up to 104th street is a piece of property labeled "Furniss" on what is now the middle of West End Avenue at 103rd street down to the Bloomingdale Road / Broadway.<br />
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Eventually the old Furniss mansion had become an artist’s colony of
sorts. A playwright by the name of Paul Kester lived in the house during its final years
and would very often hold rehearsals in the big living room. Gertrude
Stein lived in the Furniss house from
February to late spring 1903. The Furniss house finally gave way to the ever growing city, apartment house construction and the old saying "the land is worth more than the house". The Old Colonial White House" was torn down in 1904. New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-31088682356193425312013-03-22T11:42:00.003-04:002014-05-05T19:25:22.802-04:00Riverside Drive at looking south from 109th street - nothing lasts forever in this town.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The future, and temporary Riverside Avenue, as it will be quickly renamed Riverside Drive. The Drive was under construction while lawsuits over land ownership and eminent domain abuse were litigated. One guess who won. This is looking south on September 30th 1870 from 109th Street. Obviously much has changed but there is so much that is recognizable today. None of the houses are with us but the shape of the island of greenery (the tangled mess of bushes and trees) between the service road and the main drive is starting to look familiar. The service road does not exist on the 1867 maps and neither do these houses. There are houses that unfortunately do not appear in this photo but do appear, along with their drive ways, on the 1867 map. What will become the service road is merely a suggestion at this point. The hill leading down from 106th street to the intersection of the service road and 108th street where the shortest timed traffic light on the west side is placed is already evident. Where the wagon with the big wheel in the middle of the drive is sitting is 108th street. In such a short period of time, massive change will happen.</div>
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This is 108th street and Riverside Drive while the Drive was in it's second incarnation. I believe that we are in the third incarnation at this point. It was hoped that the Drive would rival Fifth Avenue and would become a thoroughfare of suburban type villas for the wealthy. Although the contruction of several large private homes, ranging from houses such as this one to the largest private house ever built on this rock (The Schwab Mansion of 1906 at 73rd street and Riverside Drive), single family homes gave way to apartment house construction in the first few decades of the twentieth century. <br />
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Built in 1892 for <span class="style104"><span class="style115"><span class="style16"><span class="style116"><span class="style87">Samuel Gamble Bayne<b> </b> (1844- 1924 ), </span></span></span></span></span><span class="style104"><span class="style115"><span class="style16"><span class="style116"><span class="style87">the son of a prosperous merchant in the town Ramelton, Ireland. </span></span></span></span></span>At the age of
<span class="style161">twenty-five Sam graduated from Queen's University Belfast and decided to travel to America. While he was here </span>Samuel G. Bayne <span class="style161">accumulated enough wealth to join the billionaires club. His wealth was based on gold prospecting in California, oil in
Texas and banking; he was a founder of
Seaboard National Bank, which ultimately after several mergers and acquisitions became what we all know and love today - Chase Manhattan Bank
(now JP Morgan Chase). </span>Could that be the nearly 80 year old Bayne sitting on the steps?<br />
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If his house was here still, if you crazy enough to have a car on
this island and in this neighborhood, you would probably spend some time
waiting for a green light in front of it. Not an unpleasant site to
sit in front of.New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-21182123254525593342013-03-15T17:25:00.006-04:002014-05-05T19:27:45.931-04:00Once there was a valley, Clendening Valley.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpoup0Xeqc_zAUldUE6NnvfY8QWcThTZ5zqTjLqimEnqDeJ35HVxfVn9QxJmYLl9QdXWCk9H4VMnCUpwK55-xBLgJx0JD0IXFn6K0RwVK2_TTHnUVxlam770zNM4KFuaaMiDL4yGptwk/s1600/jpgrid3-popup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpoup0Xeqc_zAUldUE6NnvfY8QWcThTZ5zqTjLqimEnqDeJ35HVxfVn9QxJmYLl9QdXWCk9H4VMnCUpwK55-xBLgJx0JD0IXFn6K0RwVK2_TTHnUVxlam770zNM4KFuaaMiDL4yGptwk/s640/jpgrid3-popup.jpg" height="412" width="640" /></a></div>
I love this print. Look how happy everyone appears to be; the mother with her parasol, the father in his best top hat strolling along holding his son's hand. The girl playing with a hoop and the couple promenading north on Second Avenue at 42nd Street in 1861 have an air of contentment. But the house up on that cliff looks precarious. As soon as Europeans showed up on Manahatta, the task of taming the island began. As the city grew in population and the boundary inched ever northward, more and more of the original landscape disappeared into oblivion in the name of progress. Forests felled, streams filled in, swamps drained and hills leveled. And when we imposed a grid upon the island, all of those streets, all of those right angles were cut through making the streets level. After all, it was a horse drawn world when the grid was being cut through those hills, and would it not be easier on the beasts if they had a level path. This scene was all too common and those streets that were cut through were very often muddy gullies, not the idyllic scene with a house that could fall over any second presented here. This is a great record of a great city undergoing yet another transformation. However some hills could not be tamed, especially if the word "valley" is attached. Manhattan Valley, where the subway was forced to come out of the ground as it dropped, only to go back into a tunnel as it rose again; and Clendening Valley which centered on Columbus Avenue approximately between 104th street all the way to 94th street with 96th street the bottom of the valley. <br />
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This is the Clendening Mansion. This print from Valentine's Manual lists the location as 90th Street and 8th Avenue. This is incorect. John "Lord" Clendening was a wealthy New Yorker who made his fortune
importing Irish textiles after the Revolution, at the end of the 18th
century. He built this lovely mansion, complete with widow's walk and
waving American flag, around 1811. It stood at what is now the
southwest corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 103rd Street, in the northern fringes of the area known
as Bloomingdale. As the grew, so did the demand for a clean reliable water source. Early New Yorkers were incredibly dumb when it came to clean drinking water. They were very adept at polluting their water sources. Finally someone put it together and figured that all the garbage strewn ponds and wells (some wells too close to cemeteries that contained the bodies of those who had died in cholera epidemics) were killing them. Long story short, and it is a long story, after building the Erie Canal system nothing seemed impossible. So supervised by Chief Engineer John B Jervis (like in Port Jervis, who had served as one of the engineers of the Canal system) an aqueduct system was designed to bring water from reservoirs in Westchester County all the way down to City Hall Park. Bringing water by the force of gravity alone, New York City's first aqueduct system sent water 41 miles through stone aqueducts which for the most part were underground. Except in Clendening Valley. Because of the dip in the landscape a plan had to be hatched.<br />
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This is a plan of the plan. The streets that had been laid out in 1811 were to be accommodated by arches in a great stone wall carrying the brick
conduit which was lined with iron.<br />
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This is what they were going to look like. However the "Whig" party had gained control of the state legislature. This party was against wasting taxpayer money on arches through an aqueduct as they were firm believers in less government and lower taxes. They won their fight to scrap the idea of arches in favor of a solid wall of Manhattan Schist running the entire length of the valley. Realizing the obvious, an unbroken wall
would be a barrier to development, in the first veto ever by a New York City mayor, Democrat Isaac Varian prevented the walling up of the valley . A compromise was reached and the wall was to passable in three places - at 98th,
99th, and 100th streets. The wall
completely blocked the paths of the future 96th, 97th, and 101st
Streets.<br />
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This bucolic pasture is between the future 98th and 99th streets. Unless we are facing west then this could be between 100th and 99th streets. The Aqueduct ran between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues closer to Columbus.<br />
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There are the arches on the map from 1868. The streets and
sidewalks of 98th, 99th, and 100th streets passed beneath those arches. The Clendening estate stretched from the north side of 99th Street to the south
side of 105th Street and from Central Park West to the
Bloomingdale Road. The estate was lost in 1845 and the farm disappeared within 20 years. By the 1870s, development demanded more water; the above ground aqueduct section was buried underground into a pipe siphon and the solid wall blocking 96th,
97th, and 101st Streets–along with the arched 98th, 99th and 100th streets - was torn down.<br />
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Again, the map from 1868. The name John Clendening appears on the map although Clendening had lost the land years earlier. The diagonal line from where the aqueduct crosses west 105th street south west to just south of 103rd street and then west was called Clendening lane. The lane ran over to the plot of land that was the site of the old Downes Boulevard Hotel on 103rd street and the Boulevard (now Broadway). There are remnants of the intersection of the lane and the aqueduct on the south side of 105th street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues just east of P.S. 145. Best to observe it using bing or google maps.<br />
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This is looking northeast from just south of 101rst street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. The 104th Street 9th Avenue El station is in the distance and the remains of the aqueduct through Clendening Valley are in the left foreground. This is quite possibly the remains of the arch-way at 101rst street. The original Croton Aqueduct, one of the most important pieces of what made New York City, opened June 22, 1842, taking 22 hours for gravity to move the water the 41 miles to Manhattan. Almost immediately it was woefully inadequate. Construction on a new aqueduct began in 1885. The new aqueduct, buried much deeper
than the old one, went into service in 1890, with three times the
capacity of the Old Croton Aqueduct. <br />
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Clendening lived on his rural estate for many years, but
in 1836 he lost most of his money when President Andrew Jackson refused
to renew the charter of the United States Bank, in which Clendening was a
major stockholder. The estate was sold in 1845 as forty lots for a
total of $4500. Although the mansion was torn down the area was known as
Clendening Valley well into the post civil war 19th century New York.
On the site where Lord Clendening's house one stood, the Clendening Hotel rose
in its place on the west side of Amsterdam Avenue at 103rd street. The Hotel survived until 1965 when it was torn down for furthest west building of the Douglas Houses complex. <br />
<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-3027583697231059762013-03-07T14:12:00.001-05:002014-05-05T19:29:26.107-04:00West 107th and Riverside and it's connection to a castle up north.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">On December 18th, 1937, the Karlopat Realty Company announced plans to build an apartment house on a rocky little lot at Riverside Drive and 107th Street. The townhouse next door, to the east, would go but there was a problem. The deed to the land came with a covenant which specified that a one family home must occupy the lot first before anything else was built. The idea behind this was probably a contextual zoning type of situation done by a private owner. The owner of the land did not want something sticking out like a sore thumb on such a beautiful stretch of Riverside Drive, not to mention the beautiful houses along 107th street. Seriously, why would you want to detract in anyway from the 12,000 square foot William Tuthill designed Morris Schinasi mansion. William Tuthill designed another New York City Landmark - Carnegie Hall. So what is the Karlopat Realty Company to do about this covenant? Build a house, but not just any house. A pre-fabricated structure from the National Houses, Inc. makers
of Modern All-Steel house. House cost $3,000, and was built according to
FHA specifications. Most significantly the house was designed by William Van Alen, architect of another New York City Landmark and art deco icon, the Chrysler Building. So once upon a time the intersection of 107th street and the Riverside Drive service road had an incredible architectural pedigree - a William Tuthill building an</span>d a William Van Alen building within feet of each other.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Karlopat Realty was part of an empire, the Paterno family. Charles Paterno along with his brothers <span class="st">Joseph, Michael, and Anthony</span> left their mark on the upper west side like nobody else did. They were prolific builders, constructing some of the most beautiful non- Janes & Leo apartment houses. In Morningside Heights alone they were involved in the construction of 37 buildings. All over the upper west side and Morningside Heights there are buildings adorned with "P"for Paterno, or "JP" for Joseph Paterno(my childhood home does) or "PB" for Paterno Brothers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">This is a view of the family compound from the air. Today this site is occupied by Castle Village. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zGLtwIoVn9wZ0pKLfmvr3bIDMPRM-1jk3GYMBP_w-hfKb7W55_JmYw1op_IFnfNnUYxjGpPD0iv9iATBdGvWCK4PBjSmbF7hOQve3TJu8DUOhlpe_0xIllRU_hNfHhhnIDwsWOLGItM/s1600/getimage-41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9zGLtwIoVn9wZ0pKLfmvr3bIDMPRM-1jk3GYMBP_w-hfKb7W55_JmYw1op_IFnfNnUYxjGpPD0iv9iATBdGvWCK4PBjSmbF7hOQve3TJu8DUOhlpe_0xIllRU_hNfHhhnIDwsWOLGItM/s640/getimage-41.jpg" height="534" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The fort<span style="font-size: small;">une that was made built this castle<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> for Charles Paterno. </span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span>Like the Schinasi Mansion on 107th street<span style="font-size: small;">, the castle also had an underground t<span style="font-size: small;">unne<span style="font-size: small;">l<span style="font-size: small;">, in this case to Riverside <span style="font-size: small;">Drive (now the north bound Henry Hudson Parkway) where there were stairs leading down to the hudson river</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>. The Schinasi house tunnel went <span style="font-size: small;">u</span>nder the park to the not yet covered New York Central<span style="font-size: small;"> tracks, which ran along the shore of the river (pre - landfill). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How they got into this business has a most
romantic tale, as told in Joseph Paterno's New York Times obituary<span style="font-size: small;">. </span> <span style="font-size: small;">T</span>he young immigrant newsboy Joseph is shivering at his post on Park Row,
watching a tall office building rise. "'Papa,' he asked, ' why do
they make the business buildings so high?' ' Because it pays,' his
father replied....'[T]his is the American way.' The bright-eyed
newsboy wrinkled his brow and frowned, while making change for a
customer. 'But, papa, if this is so why don't they make the houses
and tenements high, too, as they will bring more rent?' The father
smiled and patted his son's curly head. 'You have an eye for
business, my son. Perhaps some day you may build some high
houses.'" From that day on, the story continues, "it became
Joseph's ambition to build skyscraper apartment houses."</span></span> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">The more accurate story is that their father </span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Giovanni was in the real estate business and a builder back in the old country, <span style="font-size: small;">Castelemezzano near Naples. </span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Giovanni
left Italy after an earthquake destroyed a project he was financially involved
as well as building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>
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Charles Paterno
became Doctor Paterno when he graduated from Cornell Medical School in 1899. He was on his way to a career in medicine when fate intervened with the death of Giovanni. Doctor Charles Paterno,
fresh out of medical school, never practiced medicine, he and his brother Joesph took over his father's business and the result is all those "P's" on all those buildings.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoEx9sHeI_3nBEXtX_x6SK2BPgBtPKkPjcHcYC0IXLUxUd1aMJoMR7HLNIkf0wlJjvhW2aoZp4t44K68Tg_jELI4KAMZk7VvTzEKshUebqWssp9vfrcqL_yf-b_Cqzu6JJ2lEvDly-JMI/s1600/getimage-42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoEx9sHeI_3nBEXtX_x6SK2BPgBtPKkPjcHcYC0IXLUxUd1aMJoMR7HLNIkf0wlJjvhW2aoZp4t44K68Tg_jELI4KAMZk7VvTzEKshUebqWssp9vfrcqL_yf-b_Cqzu6JJ2lEvDly-JMI/s640/getimage-42.jpg" height="536" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">T</span>he
builders<span style="font-size: small;"> hired</span> many architects who were from Italian and Jewish backgrounds, including Gaetan Ajello,
Simon Schwartz, Arthur Gross, George and Edward Blum are among the names people did <span style="font-size: small;">not see as the firms <span style="font-size: small;">who got <span style="font-size: small;">commissions</span> on the east side. The more ethnic west side <span style="font-size: small;">is one thing. </span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">This beautiful vine drenched pergola wrapped along the edge of the cliff. The castle did not even last 40 years, the land became to valuable. In 1935 John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the land that once was the C.K. Billings estate, Tryon Hall, to the City of New York to use as a park. Fort Tryon Park to be specific. The land values in the area began to rise and Charles Paterno smelled the future. In 1938 he announced plans to begin demolition of the castle in order to build 5 twelve story apartment houses called Castle Village.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPqpdqD36u_cyh9mJyyZZ7GchDr1G9Yo6crx2z4n5KHDRepICJvsZmCXHkHzEMB9FwzX5cw07TrGOHEonxCGlsILFlbMCs6Pa4jPt7WBwcWgAeWQeZ3MzStIZXoGhic2vCPAap0DNGm4/s1600/getimage-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxPqpdqD36u_cyh9mJyyZZ7GchDr1G9Yo6crx2z4n5KHDRepICJvsZmCXHkHzEMB9FwzX5cw07TrGOHEonxCGlsILFlbMCs6Pa4jPt7WBwcWgAeWQeZ3MzStIZXoGhic2vCPAap0DNGm4/s400/getimage-1.jpg" height="380" width="400" /></a></div>
This house is in the lower right corner of the shot from the air. I know nothing about this house, yet.<br />
<span style="font-family: Palatino,serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span><br /></span>
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New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-48055628719809050982013-02-14T18:14:00.000-05:002014-06-12T17:25:30.027-04:00More Riverside Theater<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6Wd-lDsoU5z32lA6TGf3RuJJQqZHSwjlra9Yg8wINfg6j6lHdCdz17W3JcSFKYUqp04lOWj1v6vAcOLdEfED7RIgsGA7xxpzhrhhwMzH6HbGMgF7TCMQuh_jYCfCy3ReNtU-ZzrBWc8/s1600/81dqx4LZSSL._AA1500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj6Wd-lDsoU5z32lA6TGf3RuJJQqZHSwjlra9Yg8wINfg6j6lHdCdz17W3JcSFKYUqp04lOWj1v6vAcOLdEfED7RIgsGA7xxpzhrhhwMzH6HbGMgF7TCMQuh_jYCfCy3ReNtU-ZzrBWc8/s640/81dqx4LZSSL._AA1500_.jpg" height="640" width="368" /></a></div>
This is the standard early 1920's program cover for the Keith circuit. I found another east coast theater using the same art work on the program cover, the Orpheum (in Boston I believe) that was proud to be presenting Houdini live on stage. What a smart couple, all dressed up for an evening at the Riverside.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5T1ROwogau0Mc84deZB7aR9fu9gCCUV1XnnCCZD7lv8hXVAkFL6f1Beihoyk040vwAG-xeBmCWv0f2cQlTDmZ_pFCoSGbWx3c2W7Ar6KpzJHQuMHiffwCv263o6VmnBmKcG5gXg9cfRg/s1600/lenzberg2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5T1ROwogau0Mc84deZB7aR9fu9gCCUV1XnnCCZD7lv8hXVAkFL6f1Beihoyk040vwAG-xeBmCWv0f2cQlTDmZ_pFCoSGbWx3c2W7Ar6KpzJHQuMHiffwCv263o6VmnBmKcG5gXg9cfRg/s640/lenzberg2.jpg" height="488" width="640" /></a></div>
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At the time of this programs publication composer and bandleader Julius Lenzberg was the orchestra leader at the Riverside. This is the Riverside Orchestra, Julius is the guy with the violin. Born January 3 1878 in Baltimore, Lenzberg began his career
accompanying dancing lessons at the piano. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By 1903, with a couple of published compositions to his
credit, he got himself married and moved to New York City, eventually settling
in Queens. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus began a long stint
serving as orchestra leader at various vaudeville houses in Manhattan and in
the summer, he led a band out on Long Island. </div>
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In 1919, Lenzberg<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lenzberg-mn0002299725"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a>
served as director of the George White Scandals of 1919 and also led the house
band at the Riverside Theater in New York. That year, Lenzberg
and the Riverside Orchestra<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/riverside-orchestra-mn0001944882"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a> began to make records for Edison, and though Lenzberg's
recording activity ended in 1922, he was prolific, ultimately producing more
than 50 sides for Edison. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Lenzberg</span><a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lenzberg-mn0002299725"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a>
continued to lead a band and appear on radio once it emerged, into the 1930s,
but the depression knocked him out of the performing end of the business. By
the last time Lenzberg<a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/lenzberg-mn0002299725"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a>
is heard from in the early 1940s, he was working as a booking agent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He passed away in April 1956.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8j0xp6G9zLpoGum2zKnt_JIOuFDgAb0RbN29w6-5oONMsJIVPqvmD1YJtbNWmT7h0srNi7NmrhaP8OcUExNFBRj6sA2ASGaMMghdIsjx_Sdj5NmF1UJrq_GGXzJeAJTohgmK7Xke6zEM/s1600/0clip_image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8j0xp6G9zLpoGum2zKnt_JIOuFDgAb0RbN29w6-5oONMsJIVPqvmD1YJtbNWmT7h0srNi7NmrhaP8OcUExNFBRj6sA2ASGaMMghdIsjx_Sdj5NmF1UJrq_GGXzJeAJTohgmK7Xke6zEM/s640/0clip_image001.jpg" height="640" width="352" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> However, here he is in a 1922 program, along with Horton's Ice Cream. Is that stuff still around? </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXE4lv5pSr0RZkh_GImR5O94IMTh9_-LGb2GafMyjYLmuAAGsxmTPdxmnELE6Txa0Hz6ydsMFiU7YJ4VHCZLfBdgk_l821oGgJgUQFtnJ354e6_V0Osd8jursNIymB8zJJMxs3aR2Sa8/s1600/JapaneseGardenTh1920Ext1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXE4lv5pSr0RZkh_GImR5O94IMTh9_-LGb2GafMyjYLmuAAGsxmTPdxmnELE6Txa0Hz6ydsMFiU7YJ4VHCZLfBdgk_l821oGgJgUQFtnJ354e6_V0Osd8jursNIymB8zJJMxs3aR2Sa8/s640/JapaneseGardenTh1920Ext1.jpeg" height="500" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Was this Julius's view as he crossed Broadway? Could be as this is circa 1920. The Riverside, Riviera and the Japanese Gardens all still have their original marquees, but the neon signs are new. Although William Fox (as in 20th Century) began construction of the Riverside, he gave it up to the uber powerful Keith people when they threatened him with no acts for his other theaters. The B. F. Keith people knew that 96th street was an ideal location; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">conveniently located </span>with an express subway stop right there, you also have direct access to the New York Central Hudson River Railroad and the not yet covered over tracks at 96th street on the Hudson. Very important if you are moving a vaudeville show that often traveled as a package around the east coast, if not the country. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Notice that the 1923 Broadway View Hotel, known today as the place we all know and love, The Regent, does not appear to looming in the middle of Broadway as does today, placed perfectly where Broadway takes a bend to the west following the path of the old Bloomingdale Road.</span></div>
New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-8149475481607026712013-02-14T12:29:00.002-05:002013-02-14T12:34:59.314-05:00More Tubby's Hook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_WzZyObIfg5-b477Mmmsp2jnaUzaDEh7IaeI4j9oQAbGJYJSjDJ5ph7jkfJ2t4HOBZhHQqbo3fR_dbg-BmYMEfy6LsTfnV_gAaNPLMHE-ALubmzt2ABhcFziQsY2fidyUyjI-YqFgdA/s1600/c5d6_12LIBBY-CASTLE-FORT-WASHINGTON-AVE-193-RD.-STREET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5_WzZyObIfg5-b477Mmmsp2jnaUzaDEh7IaeI4j9oQAbGJYJSjDJ5ph7jkfJ2t4HOBZhHQqbo3fR_dbg-BmYMEfy6LsTfnV_gAaNPLMHE-ALubmzt2ABhcFziQsY2fidyUyjI-YqFgdA/s640/c5d6_12LIBBY-CASTLE-FORT-WASHINGTON-AVE-193-RD.-STREET.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Across the road from the Billings was this castle. Well it looked like a castle, in fact the nice reporter who, in 1921 while working for the New York Tribune, explored the upper reaches of this large out cropping of schist called it a "Norman structure, with
its narrow windows and stone towers". So nice it was, it warranted it's very own post card. What it was called, according to the postcard, it was the Libby Castle. The "castle" had a larger claim to fame however as it was home to William Marcy Tweed, the Tammany Hall boss.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IsUMT336UtHlp1fd2bdOx_aXwKLq2P-UsevNzBgv8VkWXF_uIJnfu1Jn6dHx5p_1Rx3xcAe27_anLoQ_on2SBtIv-ak4ur95PmbBcsl7eYXvos0YZIC6e4tYTjau3nvXnYrMXSIyQAE/s1600/Libby-Castle-Undated.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IsUMT336UtHlp1fd2bdOx_aXwKLq2P-UsevNzBgv8VkWXF_uIJnfu1Jn6dHx5p_1Rx3xcAe27_anLoQ_on2SBtIv-ak4ur95PmbBcsl7eYXvos0YZIC6e4tYTjau3nvXnYrMXSIyQAE/s640/Libby-Castle-Undated.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is a later than the postcard picture, quite possibly very close to the end of the castle's existence. Tweed was living there when he was finally arrested for his unbridled corruption and fled from there to Spain. The land on which it stands was
purchased in 1846 by Lucius Chittendon, a merchant from New Orleans whose name is all over the 1867 map, who got
ninety-seven acres for $10,000. Angus C. Richards, another name all over the map (as A C Richards) bought a piece of the
ground in 1855 and erected the castle, which in 1869 he sold to General
Daniel Butterfield, who was acting for Tweed.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUh1rC6i8AU_mazLOVFEBF1M13gE4oSfYXuny8yriIWoS1lQ9AnzI6RlQFKWJjjATcnZ2o2420DSFriRtqeCAqOHRPB3JVO6yi2LGuSOuxRCv1ttRj_goHNCFzhg8ZuIPIwRpFxN6dDxU/s1600/boss_tweed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUh1rC6i8AU_mazLOVFEBF1M13gE4oSfYXuny8yriIWoS1lQ9AnzI6RlQFKWJjjATcnZ2o2420DSFriRtqeCAqOHRPB3JVO6yi2LGuSOuxRCv1ttRj_goHNCFzhg8ZuIPIwRpFxN6dDxU/s640/boss_tweed.jpg" width="510" /></a></div>
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This is William Magear Tweed, a member of the Odd Fellows and the Masons, a volunteer firefighter, certified as an attorney, Commissioner of Public Works and the ring leader of one of the biggest centers of corruption ever to befall our great city - Tammany Hall. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry" title="Freemasonry"></a> It had been said that Tweed put through Fort Washington Avenue
and the Boulevard (Broadway) and Lafayette Boulevard which is now the Riverside Drive that feeds on to Dyckman Street from the Henry Hudson Parkway (part of which had been Riverside Drive). The reason he had these streets constructed was that Tweed wanted easy access to his home. Traveling up to what I have called Manhattan's border with Canada back in the post Civil War 19th century New York was not as easy or as fun as it is now. My street, west 104th between West End Avenue and Riverside was a dirt road until the early 1890's so one can imagine that streets up there were still on the back burner in regards to paving, sewers, waterlines, things of that nature.<br />
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However, poor Boss Tweed. The New York Times and the father of American political cartoons Thomas Nast were after him and caused a great deal of trouble. With such biting images how could he have not avoided trouble? Especially with that pesky New York Times turning down a $5 million bribe to not publish their findings of corruption and Harper's Weekly investigating why plastering at the new court house (which took 15 years to build) cost many thousands of dollars more than it was supposed too (kind of like the $600 toilet seat on the B-1 Bomber back in the '80's). He didn’t enjoy the castle for too long due to his legal entanglements. After serving a year in prison he fled to Spain in 1875 to avoid a civil suit brought on by New York State in an attempt to recover $6 million in embezzled funds. Only $6 million? They were being nice.<br />
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This was Tweed's home after his year as a guest of the State of New York. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison but a higher court reduced the sentence to one year. He had been convicted of only 204 of 220 criminal counts of extortion, bribery, embezzlement, ballot box tampering and general chicanery after all. He was re-arrested and then charged in a civil suit bought on by the City and the State of New York. Unfortunatly he was unable to come up with the $3 million in bail. However <br />
Tweed had been allowed home visits and normally lived at the Ludlow Street Jail. The castle was in foreclosure as Tweed's son was behind in paying A.T. Stewart, the department store king. Tweed had put the names of various properties in the names of relatives, this house and his Metropolitan Hotel. Tweed, or should I say Tweeds, owed Stewart for the furnishings of the Metropolitan Hotel and the property is eventually lost. <br />
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However, incarceration was not for Mr. Tweed. As such a recognizable figure (after all Thomas Nast drew his portrait too many times) and even with all the scandal surrounding him, too much to go through here as there are entire books on the subject of Tweed and his shenanigans, he still had friends in high enough places in the business of law enforcement that saw no reason why this man should not be allowed out on weekends. After all, it wasn't like he killed anyone. <br />
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Sometimes the best intentions of mice and men go badly. Not wanting to pay the only $6 million the State was looking for, not having the $6 million the State was looking for, nor having any more desire for the structured life of prison, Mr. Tweed skipped bail. None of his friends knew where he could have possibly gone off to. However, one resident of Tubby's Hook did know. <br />
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When this particular resident of the banks of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek first appeared in the area is lost to the ages. He was living alone in a house on the banks by 1875. An anti-union "boatman", Civil War veteran and retired firefighter this man would become the
unofficial mayor of the marshy shallows of the area then called “Cold
Spring.” He had a couple of aliases, he was probably from the City of Brooklyn as he is listed as "Boatman" in the 1889-1890 Brooklyn directory. His name was Andrew Jackson "Pops" Seeley and rowed the about to be fugitive, William M. Tweed to a Spanish ship where he worked as a common seaman and eventually ended up heading to Spain. He almost made it into Spain but those darn cartoons came back to bite him; he was recognized from Nast's political cartoons and was turned over to an American warship which delivered him to the authorities in The City of New York on November 23, 1876, and he was returned to prison. Tweed knew the jig was up, he had lost. Broke, broken and desperate he now agreed to "turn state" about the corruption ridden Tammany Hall to a special committee set up by the Board of Alderman,
in return for his release. However Governor Tilden refused to stick to the agreement, and Tweed remained in the Ludlow Street Jail where he died on April 12, 1878 from
severe pneumonia and was buried in the Brooklyn's cemetery hot spot Greenwood. The Mayor at the time, Smith Ely, would not allow the flag at City Hall to be flown at half staff. <br />
<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-76173509653918258952013-01-25T16:44:00.001-05:002013-01-29T17:53:03.037-05:00Tubby Hook - Who was Tubby? Inwood Part 1 By the late 18th century, after the revolution and naming and renaming streets and
places had begun, the area on this rock north of the village of
Manhattanville all the way to the top of the island was called Mount
Washington. It was the popular name anyway as it was also very
patriotic; after all George Washington did have 1 of his 9 major battles
in the area. <br />
In 1921 the New York Tribune sent a reporter uptown to explore the rapidly developing hills of northern Manhattan and Washington Heights. At the time of her quest the area that was once the home of some of the wealthiest New Yorkers, that last bit of rural Manhattan was being swallowed up and absorbed into the city. The reporter, Eleanor Booth Simmons, went alone without a photographer. Even though there was much in the way of change happening there still was enough of the old to write about and she gives us quite a document of the still standing homes of once rich and
powerful families including Nathan Straus, James Mcreery and C.K.G.
Billings, to name a few.<br />
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This is from the 1867 map showing the north tip of Manhattan prior to the Harlem River Ship Canal cutting through and adding more acreage to the Bronx. The Harlem River flowed into a marsh and creek, then the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, .<br />
As
time marched on the upper section of the area close to the Hudson River
became known as Tubby Hook, a name still used by a soon to be no longer
dilapidated marina called the Tubby Hook Marina. But who was "Tubby"
and why is there a hook named after him? The common theory behind the
name lies with Dutch Sailors who, as they went up the Hudson called
every point of land that stuck out into the river a "hook". Perhaps
they saw in what was the bay of the Spuyten Duyvil creek a
resemblance to a tub, with the steep wooded hills for sides. The actual
hook is gone and so is the creek. The hook was just a bit north of the
foot of Dyckman Street, but with all the land fill, the hook is now just
part of Inwood Fields Park. <br />
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This is the same area but in 1897. The Harlem River Ship Canal has been cut through and a piece of Manhattan became part of the Bronx. Although still considered part of Manhattan by zip code and area code, the neighborhood of Marble hill looks like it is part of mainland United States. It also looks like wishful thinking to me, but there I go again being very boro-centric The path of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek that went around Marble Hill, making it a part of Manhattan Island and not part of the Bronx (or mainland United States), was filled in. The canal was widened along with what was left of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek. <br />
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"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt was told he was crazy to invest in a railroad so far over on the west side of Manhattan. No one will use it he was told. "Build it and they will come" and by 1851 the railroad went all the way to Albany. Build a station and they will come is more like it. This the Inwood or Tubby Hook Station of the old Hudson River Rail Road. Once Vanderbilt consolidated his railroads into the uber railroad the New York Central, passenger service began to bypass the old passenger stations of the Hudson River Rail Road. The 1921 article points out that the "Old inhabitants say it was the policy of the New York Central that left
Tubby Hook, as Inwood used to be called, in a forgotten pocket between
two rivers, unpeopling the beautiful houses and abandoning them to
ghosts". In 1871, with the opening of the first Grand Central Station, Vanderbilt connected the tracks of his Harlem River Rail Road with the tracks of the Hudson Line by building the Spuyten Duyvil - Port Morris Railroad so that trains leaving Grand Central could have easy access to the Hudson River Line. The old Hudson River Rail Road was used more and more for freight only. By the late 19th century only one or two slow
locals served the passengers along this line and after the subway opened up there in 1905 the line was truly redundant.
Not till 1900 did the first trolley cars run to Kingsbridge, and it was
five years later when the subway was extended to Dyckman Street. For a
good many years this most attractive part of Manhattan Island was rather
inaccessible, except for the men who could afford their horses.<br />
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The postcard above correctly states that this is the Inwood Station of the N.Y. Central as this is after the Commodore consolidated his railroads. The Hudson River Railroad Station at Inwood, was also known as Tubby's Hook.
In the above picture Dyckman Street is the street crossing the tracks, coming from the right and ending at the shore of the Hudson River which would be on the left. The road coming down the
hill is River Road, later known as Bolton Road.<br />
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On one map the station is indicated as either "Inwood or Dyckman" <br />
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This is River Road / Bolton Road looking south towards the train station and the river. What all those guys are doing in that veranda is a mystery. <br />
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Way before the Titanic took them, way before they moved downtown to The Bloomingdale area, this was the home of Isidore and Ida Straus. Even with the over grown foliage of a front yard gone wild, one could tell that the home of Straus Family home must have been a swell place in its prime. However, by the time the Herald reporter made her trip to the area the house was in, as she put it, "a melancholy
state of dilapidation". At the time the article was published, a policeman was living in it,
and according to the article very happy to be there. "He is a fresh air enthusiast" the article went on, so much so that "he parked his two infant sons day and night for many months on
the roof of the wide veranda". This is what attracted the Straus family to living way up in Tubby Hook as they too were fresh air enthusiasts. Isidore and Ida Straus were what we would now call "health nuts". However, rural splendor would eventually lose out to Ida's feeling cut off. This was not an especially easy area to get to.<br />
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This is the McCreery house, photographed in 1921. James McCreery was a successful dry goods dealer. So successful that he opened a behemoth department store on Broadway at 11th street (the building is still there - even after a bad fire in 1971 - as apartments).<br />
To reach the McCreery house one had to take Dyckman Street to the end and then take a
narrow path to River Road, a road that no longer exists. Walk north, past overgrown terraces and
box hedges, and quaint houses with cupolas and pillars, with the river
and the railroad tracks below. At the end of this narrow path, maybe wide enough for one car to negotiate it stood the house of James McCreery. At the end of what appears to be the path described there was a 20 acre estate owned by an E. Riggs. This site had a wooden house on it and would have western and northern views of the river (in addition to south and east) Basically where the tollbooths are now for the Henry Hudson Bridge. It is
was not considered a beautiful building by the author of the article, calling it "high and square shouldered, it looks like a
boarding house. But it commands a splendid view, and it has a generous
air, as if it had tales to tell of the hospitality that once made it a
social center." <br />
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Recognize this? If you take the north bound Henry Hudson past the George Washington Bridge on a stretch that was once Riverside Drive you have passed it. Constructed of Manhattan Schist quarried on site, this great arched stone gallery was the extravagant entry to the estate of Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a wealthy industrialist, noted eccentric and avid horseman.<br />
Billings father was a major stockholder in the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company. After college he joined this
firm, that provided a lion's share of the gas for lighting to Chicago, eventually inheriting controlling interest in the company
and, at the age of 40, retired from business to devote his time to his true love: the
growing stable of horses he owned. In fact, he moved to New York and purchased acreage in this undeveloped area of uptown because of the recent opening of the Harlem River Speedway which ran from 155th street to Dyckman Street, where the elite would meet to compete, with their horses. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.K.G._Billings#cite_note-1"></a><br />
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Another view of the driveway.<br />
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Like the postcard says, it was called Fort Tryon
Hall. The "Hall" cost was $2,000,000 and
stood on Manhattan's highest point, 250 feet above sea level,
with 20-mile views of the Hudson Valley. His 25-acre
estate encompassed formal gardens, a 126-foot-long bathhouse for the
75-foot indoor marble swimming pool, and a yacht landing on the Hudson
at
Dyckman Street. There he had his 232-foot yacht, <i>Vanadis</i>. <br />
The road to the right is Margret Corbin Drive, the first woman to be wounded in battle during the American Revolution. "Captain Molly" as she became to be known, was from Kentucky and had followed her husband north. At the Battle of Washington Heights, November 16th 1776, "Captain Molly" took over her husband's cannon when he fell mortally wounded. The actual Fort Washington was further south between what is now 183rd and 185th streets. "Captain Molly" was severely wounded herself but recovered and after the war served as a domestic and cook. Always addressed as "Captain" she was reportedly "tart of tongue and sloppy in dress". She died in 1800 in Highland Falls New York. In 1926 the Daughters of the American Revolution had her remains moved to the Post Cemetery at West Point, one of the few women and maybe only one of two civilians to be interred there. <br />
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Originally from Chicago, in 1907, Billings, his wife, two
children and 23 servants moved to a new residence described at the time as "In the style of Louis XIV", the house had
several large towers, a Mansard roof along with the previously mentioned swimming pool, squash courts and maple lined bowling alleys.<br />
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This is the Gate keepers house at the end of Fort Washington Avenue. The gate was for Fort Tryon Hall. This little house was built in 1908, a year after the big house was completed. The gate house is till there, right at the entrance to the Heather Garden. The house serves as the office for the park administrator of Fort Tryon Park.<br />
Billings and his family moved out. By 1916 he wanted to move on, not for any financial reason, he just wanted a change. He sold his 25 acre estate to John D. Rockefeller Jr. for $875,000. This sale began what we all know and love today, Fort Tryon Park. Unfortunatly Fort Tryon Hall is gone, it burned down in 1926 after being spared the wrecker's ball. Preservationists protested the destruction of the house and the city turned down John D. Rockefeller Jr's offer of a new park; the city knew he wanted to have some streets closed on the East Side for his Rockefeller University (but this is another story) so the quid pro quo situation would have to wait, as would the park and the house was saved for a while. This practically a chateau house only lasted 19 years but his 232-foot yacht, <i>Vanadis, </i>still exists<i>. </i>It<i> </i>is now anchored at Riddarholmen in Stockholm<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm" title="Stockholm"></a>. It is being used as a hotel known as Mälardrottningen.<br />
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<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-50205057219075809222012-12-17T16:48:00.001-05:002013-03-07T14:13:24.174-05:00New Picture of the Regent Theater<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a recent photo sent to me by a very kind person at the First Corinthian Baptist Church, formerly known as the B.S. Moss Regent or the RKO Regent Theater. The First Corinthian Baptist Church has taken beautiful care of this building, a building that holds a few important places in New York and motion picture history. The plaster work around the proscenium looks incredible, as does the detail on the boxes. Thank you First Corinthian Baptist Church for realizing the beauty and value of this building and taking care of it.<br />
The theater is about to turn 100 years old (February 2013) and the image above with the musicians on the stage is a full circle of the life of this space. It was a failing movie house until Samuel .L. Rothafel took over management. Better known as "Roxy", he had been successful with turning the fortunes of unsuccessful theatres in other parts of the country. In the theater prior to the Regent, prior to moving to New York was the Alhambra in Minneapolis were he covered up the orchestra pit and moved the musicians on stage. When the theater owner objected, Roxy's response was "well they're expensive, right? Might as well see them" or something to that effect. Roxy had a a set built surrounding the screen above the orchestra with balconies for singers. Roxy arranged music specific for the film being shown along with lighting effects. As the years went on, his shows and orchestras grew, eventually to the 110 musician Roxy Theatre Orchestra.<br />
It is here that Roxy got his start in New York. It was the first theater to be built for movies (however it did not differ much from the vaudeville house typical of 1913 - meaning it had a stage) and it is one of the most beautiful, intact houses by Thomas Lamb. New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8471900513628354343.post-73340922740683426772012-12-09T02:25:00.000-05:002012-12-09T02:30:51.688-05:00East 113th Street. Harlem had / has many hearts, especially the Harlem east of Fifth avenue. East 113th was part of Italian Harlem once upon a time.<br />
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In the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, an enormous wave of new Americans came to the shores of the Big Apple from southern Italy and Sicily. A large contingent of this wave settled in East Harlem. People from the same town would tend to settle on the same block, if not the same building, as accents from town to town in Italy are surprisingly different. There was also the idea of familiarity in addition to being able to communicate that lead to this phenomenon. This is a picture taken in July of 1931, looking south on First Avenue from 113th street. We are looking at the annual Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.<br />
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Detail from the same event. Behind the well dressed crowd is 349 - 351 East 113th street. <br />
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The same event again looking at the same buildings on East 113th.<br />
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This is 172- 156 East 113 between 2nd & 3rd looking west at the south side of the street. Myers Beverages must be 172. In the middle there are two single family wood frame houses with stoops and porches. The ever forward thinking City of New York passed a building ordinance in 1877 that forbade this type of construction. This was after enough disastrous fires in this town. Given this, these structures had to be built prior to 1877. The land was once owned by James Roosevelt and was sold off during the first half of the 19th century. There had been some speculative building going on as the Harlem River Railroad had opened it's horse car line on what we now call Park Avenue after 1835. This picture is from November 1937.<br />
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114 -118 East 113 between Park and Lexington. While 116 got and 118 got brick fronts, 114 retained it's weathered wood look. The open land that was East Harlem began to develop in earnest post Civil War as more and more people migrated to the United States, particularly New York City. An island shaped like the rock I call home, a population can only move up as the lower part of the island began to swell population - wise. This photo dates from 1932.<br />
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<br />New York Tours By Garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00784741501491495202noreply@blogger.com0