The Colonial White House

 This could pass as a southern plantation but it was really on the block between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive between 99th and 100th streets. It was referred to as "The Colonial White House", but it was a nickname.  The columns are what sparked the comparison to the executive mansion in Washington DC.

The house lasted until 1910. The property, along with the house, was eventually replaced by 276 and 270 Riverside Drive.

This grainy shot is of the back of the house, the eastern facade, looking from West End Avenue. That appears to be some sort of crop growing in the foreground.  This is one of the properties that lost a chunk of their front lawn. Eminent domain prevailed and Riverside Avenue, renamed Riverside Drive, was cut through by 1880.

This is the house, it is yellow as it is a wooden structure, in a post Civil War map.

More Riverside Drive at 103rd Street

This is Riverside Park at 103rd street looking north from the top of the stairs next to the stone wall from 1879. This time it is winter and it looks like the 1920's.

This is part of the same series. The path next to the train tracks was probably located just a little east of the promenade that is now over the tracks. The park had a great deal of re-landscaping during the Westside Improvement Project and the tracks were covered, not moved. The field to the west of the tracks is landfill that will very soon be the West Side Highway, the ball fields and the swing rings at Hudson beach.

This beautiful house, with it's glass enclosed conservatory, was on 103rd street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive. It is the original 310 Riverside Drive.

The original 310 Riverside Drive at 103rd Street

This is the original 300 Riverside Drive. It was owned by a family named Foster so it is often referred to as The Foster Mansion. Riverside Drive was on the original map of 1811, not as Riverside Drive but a street was there. Some maps refer to a "13th Avenue". It was not until the late 1870's that any serious work began on Riverside Drive. Then there were the law suits. Some of the households along the stretch now called Riverside Drive owned, or claimed to own the land, that extended way beyond the current lot lines. Where the drive now sits was disputed land in many cases.

This is detail of the Foster Mansion.

Coney Island's Cyclone, the fastest of all New York City Landmarks

This is the view from the front seat of the most terrifying roller coaster in the world, The Cyclone. Opening in 1927 at a cost of $175,000, the ride known as a "compact twister chain lift launch" roller coaster reaches a top speed of 60 miles per hour and lasts just under 2 minutes.  The picture shows what you would see if you kept your eyes open as you approached the first drop, an 85 foot 60 degree drop at that. As the train moves up the hill, an overwhelming sense of doom and awareness of this ride's age over takes you. If you are in first car, as you start to go over the top of the hill, the back of the train is still connected to the chain. This gives you a feeling of just hanging there 85 feet above the ground; This is why I have only one picture of this; the need to hold on to something outweighed the need to take pictures. I took this with a disposable camera on Friday August 1, 1997 (I just happen to remember that date as an article about Movie Place appeared that day on the front page of the New York Times). Not the first roller coaster in the world, not even the oldest. It is however, one of the greatest roller coasters ever built and it is fitting that it is in Brooklyn - the birthplace of the "Switchback Railway" which is the grandfather of all roller coasters.

All though there were earlier experiment with gravity powered rides in 15th century Russia called "Russian Mountains" and built under the orders of Russia's very own Catherine the Great in the Gardens of Oranienbaum in Saint Petersburg, a primitive roller coaster opened in 1784.  Some believe that the roller coaster was given to the world by the French. The Les Montagnes Russes à Belleville (The Russian Mountains of Belleville) constructed in Paris in 1812.

 Thompson's Switch Back Railway, Coney Island Brooklyn, 1884


In 1827, a mining company in Pennsylvania constructed what became known as a "gravity railroad", an 8.7 mile downhill track used to deliver coal. By the 1850s, the "Gravity Road" (as it became known) was providing rides to thrill-seekers for the outrageous price of 50 cents a ride. Using this idea as a basis, LaMarcus Adna Thompson began work on a gravity powered "Switch Back Railway" that opened at Coney Island, New York in 1884.  Riders had to climb to the top of a platform and rode a bench-like car down the 600 ft track up to the top of another tower where the vehicle was switched to a return track and the passengers took the return trip.  This track design was soon replaced with an oval complete circuit.  In 1885, another coaster pioneer Phillip Hinkle came along and introduced the closed-circuit coaster with a what is called in the industry a "lift Hill", called the Gravity Pleasure Road, which was soon the most popular attraction at Coney Island.  Not to be outdone, in 1886 LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented his design of roller coaster that included dark tunnels with painted scenery.  Called"Scenic Railways", these rides were to be found in amusement parks across the county from then on.

The Claremont Theater - Broadway at 135th Street - New York City

This is for my friends on 135th street. This theater was the Claremont Theater. With 1350 seats it opened in 1914. It was built for movies only, no vaudeville. It was designed by apartment building architect Gaetan Ajello, this was a departure from his usual line of work. The theater was gutted after 1933 when it became a automobile showroom. The space was used as a roller rink, dance hall and ballroom. It is now a "Tuck-away" storage facility. The White terra cotta front with it's motion picture camera at the top has been Landmarked by the city.

There was a Wurlitzer organ installation done just prior to opening and then it was repossessed by Wurlitzer in 1916. That organ was eventually shipped to a theater in Chicago and is now in a seminary somewhere in Illinois and is still playable.

The Hamilton Theater

This is the Hamilton Palace. It is one of the largest "dollar" stores in Manhattan. Everything from off - shore versions of Crest toothpaste to Guayabera shirts, slightly irregular undershirts to cleaning products you never heard of. It was once, however, the outer lobby and retail space structure for the 1913 Hamilton Theater.

Just a little detail, the caryatids are cast iron as are the frames around the windows.

Given the RKO logos above the boxes, this is what the theater looked like when RKO ran it. The Hamilton was built by Vaudeville impresario B.S. Moss and was designed for legit theater and high class vaudeville. Movies came later, once RKO bought the Hamilton and added motion pictures to the vaudeville shows. The Hamilton was one of the first theaters to show talkies in New York City.

This is what it looks like now. Actually what it looked like in 2006. The theater had / has not been used as a theater for over 40 years. Although you cannot tell from the pictures, it is in remarkably good shape for a theater this old, and this under - maintained. The boxes, as you can see, are still intact, even the boxes on the orchestra floor. A new roof put on in 1998 prevented any serious water damage to the plaster work. The space had been vandalized over the years however. All the stain glass exit signs were gone. Anything brass or copper has been striped. There are no banisters anywhere and the copper duct work that obviously went to power the "shin busters" was gouged out of the stage floor.

The Hamilton stopped showing movies in 1965. After that it became a sports arena (what sports I do not know but probably boxing), a church and a disco. The theater's last use was as a beer and soda (maybe cigarettes as well) wholesaler. In the previous picture you can see a ramp going up the to the stage. This was installed to accommodate a fork lift. A doorway with a metal role gate was cut into the asbestos fire curtain.

These are the house right boxes. This is a rarity as boxes where generally removed from theaters that were not built for movies. The boxes would block the throw from the projection booth on the sides, especially after wide screen formats were introduced.
The photos had to be enhanced. When I got there, I was told that the property manager did not know how to turn on the lights.

This is a view towards the stage from the house left boxes. The large rectangular panel on the sound board above the proscenium looks as if something was cut out and removed. Given what looks like a piece of canvas hanging down from the bottom of that panel, I'd say that a mural was cut out.

 These are the house left boxes.

The dimmer board, original maybe.

The grid, high up above the stage.

The stage from the fly loft. This is looking towards stage left. In the bottom right corner of the picture you can see the top of the roll gate that was put in after the fire curtain had a door cut into it. The fire curtain appeared to have been lowered permanently.

This is the fly loft and the old pin rail.

These are the onstage "Star" dressing rooms. This is still the Hamilton. Apparently the beer and soda distributors also distributed cigarettes.

Those doors lead to dressing rooms on the level just above the stage level dressing rooms. You will notice the absence of any lighting fixtures. This area was pitch black, I just held the camera into the area and shot this photo. Apparently some of the people who distributed beer, soda and cigarettes also slept here.

There were at least three floors of dressing rooms above the stage level. There was no lighting in any of the rooms or the stairs that led up to them. The stairs also lead to the fly loft and eventually the grid.

A sink in one of the dressing rooms. Even with the window back there, the room was pitch black. Not knowing what the floor was like (or even if there was a floor) I just held the camera into the room and shot.

 These two pictures are of dressing rooms on the top floor of dressing rooms. The size of these rooms indicated that they were chorus dressing rooms and since there were two I am assuming one for the boys and one for the girls. This was, if I am remembering it correctly, the level of the fly loft so we are pretty high up above the stage.

 The Dome.

 Proscenium arch detail.

 

 The balcony still has it's seats. That is the projection booth. It is not original to the theater. The Hamilton was built for legit and high end 2 shows a day vaudeville like I said earlier. Movies were added to the vaudeville just as a matter of economics and an inevitability. What appears to be a column supporting the booth, at the top of the steps, housed the ladder access to the booth.

 Over 40 years of dust and soot. I felt like I smoked 2 packs of Camels after I left, I coughed for days. I was surprised that the green circular cover of the air duct in the ceiling was not stolen over the years as it was probably copper. The Hamilton was not built with air conditioning but did have an air circulating system. Remember the good old days when you could smoke in the balcony (there were ash trays still attached to the seat backs)? Those ducts were part of that circulating system.

 The Passage way behind the last row of the balcony.

 View from the booth down to the stage.

 A D.C. meter in the booth.

Some sort of necessity of projection, what it is I do not know. It was dark in there. There were no windows in the booth as it was added to the theater after opening, so it was dark in there. 

 Several layers of wall covering revealed.

 Staircase from balcony.

 Probably not the original fixture, but this is the ceiling fixture in the Ladies Lounge.

 Look at all those stalls.

 This is the Ladies Lounge.

Fire Curtain detail.

 This is looking up a hole that was knocked into the house left base of the proscenium arch. It looks as if some one was looking for something. Brass organ pipes perhaps? This would have led up to were the pipes would have been.

 Detail of the front edge of the balcony.

 More detail of the front of the balcony. The damage was done when fluorescent light fixtures were installed.

More detail of the front of the balcony.

 This is the house right box in the the orchestra section. Thomas Lamb (again!) designed this theater. He was a prolific designer. The Hamilton opened the same month (January 1913) as his Jefferson on 14th Street. Mr. Lamb also designed the mega-palace, The Capitol. Once located on Broadway between 50th and 51rst (across from The Winter Garden), The Capitol at over 5200 seats was the largest theater in the world from the date it opened in 1919 to 1927 when the Roxy opened. The Capitol had boxes on the orchestra floor as well.

 I love that this sign was still there. It was an access to the stage from the house right orchestra floor boxes.

One more of the dimmer board, looking towards stage left.