Bryant Park Place

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

A few months ago the Landmarks Preservation Commission added the Engineers' Club building, now known as co-op residence Bryant Park Place, at 32 West 40th Street, to their list of New York City landmarks. In very good company, this Beaux-Arts clubhouse is flanked on either side by the Radiator Building, built in 1924, and the Scientific American Building, completed in 1925.
 

West 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 1935

The Engineers' Club was formed in 1888 to unify a profession growing in significance and numbers throughout the city. By the early 1900s, the club outgrew it's former location at Fifth Avenue and 35th Street, and club member Andrew Carnegie made an initial donation of $1 million to erect a new building.

Engineers' Club on West 35th Street and Fifth Avenue, 1897

Shortly after, he raised the amount to $1.5 million, to facilitate the construction of the Engineering Societies' Building, one block over on West 39th Street. The two buildings would connect on the ground floor, and have entrances on both 39th and 40th Streets.

Six well-known architects were invited to submit plans, and were each paid $1,000 for their submissions, whether they won or not. The small firm Whitfield & King beat out a few much larger firms, among them Carrère & Hastings, and won the contest to design and build the Engineers' Clubhouse on 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Another firm, Hale & Rogers, was chosen to design and build the Engineers' Societies Building on 39th Street. (Incidentally, Cargenie's wife, Louise Whitfield Carnegie was the sister of winning architect.) The firm also built the Carnegie building in Troy, NY.

The Engineers' Club, now, Bryant Park Place, at 32 West 40th Street, 1905

This 12-story Renaissance Revival clubhouse was completed in 1907, and was thought to be one of the most luxurious buildings of it's kind. Notable club members included Nikola Tesla (In 1917, a dinner was held in the adjoining building at 33 West 39th Street, in his honor after receiving the Edison Medal), Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie, and H.H. Westinghouse. The building featured public and social spaces, as well as 66 sleeping rooms. Tesla was very fond of pigeons, and often fed them in adjacent Bryant Park on a favorite bench near the corner of Sixth Avenue and 40th Street.

Dining room at the Engineers' Club, 1910

The Engineers' Club sold the building to developer David Eshagin in 1979, and it was converted into a co-op in 1983. Both buildings were added to the National Registrar of Historic Places on August 30, 2007.

** All photos are from the MCNY digital collection.

Primary sources cited:
Landmark's Preservation Commission document, March 22, 2011
Landmark's Preservation Commission press release. March 22, 2011
NYT Streetscapes column, 1995

Civil War in Midtown

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

Awhile ago at work I was half asked, half told to find a connection between the park and the American Civil War in order to commemorate its sesquicentennial. I'm not a Civil War historian, which makes finding non-obvious connections within this hugely dense topic of history difficult. Bryant Park, then known as Reservoir Square, was most likely used as an encampment for Union soldiers during the war, but I think that was true of most parks and public spaces in the city. Also, most of the confirmation of this comes from NYC guidebooks, not actual primary sources. I did find a small connection via one of my favorite monuments in the park.

At the east end of the reading room stands a monument to William Earle Dodge, founding member of the American chapter of the Y.M.C.A., New York 8th District Congressman from 1866-1867, and Native American rights activist, among many other things.

Photo: BPC

He was also the father of one of the youngest Brigadier Generals in the Union Army, Charles Cleveland Dodge, who aside from his commitment to public service, shares his father's stance.

Though Dodge left the service in June1863, he returned to volunteer with the U.S. Army to restore order in the city during the Draft Riots under Major General John Z. Wool. Transcripts of Wool's reports are available online. The Draft Riots, still considered one of the largest (and by day three) heinous acts of civil disobedience in the country, waged on for four days throughout the city from July 13 - July 16, 1863. The African-American community was especially targeted and horribly mistreated, leading to an exodus from the city by that community, which I'm sure had a huge impact on New York City's cultural and social development in the following decades.

Out West: Cement Ships and Dancing on the Beach

Summer in New York always makes me nostalgic for California, a land of heat, but not humidity. When I lived there, it was also a land of sparsely populated beaches that I didn't have to take multiple trains to reach and Mexican food that would make you cry. There isn't a Coney Island out there, and west coast pizza is a joke, but there is Venice Beach, inexpensive produce, and sunsets over the water. Moving on.

Years ago a friend and I were driving up the coast and we spotted this:

Photo by Smo

Through the magic of social networking, my friend Jake identified it for me after I'd posted it on facebook. A cartographer, he was also nice enough to provide a map.

It is the SS Palo Alto, a cement ship joined to the Seacliff Beach pier, off the central coast of California. Constructed out of reinforced cement as an alternative to steel and iron, the SS Palo Alto was built just after WWI, and launched on May 29, 1919. She laid at anchor in Oakland until 1924, then was sold as surplus. In the late 1920s the ship was purchased by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation (or, Cal-Nevada Company, depending on the source) and towed to its present location, off the shore of Aptos, California. The ship was then retrofitted as an event space with a dance floor, restaurant, hotel, and other amenities, and a pier was built leading out to it from the shore. A life-long resident of the Golden Coast, Jake told me that his grandmother remembers attending dances and other social events on the ship during this time. That partially explains why the pier itself is so much wider than most other CA piers. More space besides the water, for the party to spill over from the boat. . . .

Following several storms that caused damage to the ship's hull, investors cut their losses and sold the SS Palo Alto and surrounding beachfront property to the State of California in February 1936 for $1.00.

Though closed to the public since the 1930s, the ship is part of a state park and no doubt serves as a reef of sorts for the local ocean life. In 2004, after numerous sightings of oil-streaked fowl, officials and environmentalists launched an investigation of the ships' steel tanks. After finding an oil leak, a salvage company was brought in, the spill cleaned up, and the ship repaired. The cleanup effort was part of a larger effort along the west coast to examine sunken vessels and their potential impact on the environment.

George Rickey's Kinetic Art in Bryant Park

In 1986, kinetic sculptor George Rickey, installed six kinetic sculptures in Bryant Park. The exhibit was part of the Artists-in-Residence program sponsored by the Public Art Fund, Bryant Park Corporation (then, Bryant Park Restoration Corporation), and the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. Like other artists-in-residence, Rickey was present for the installation, worked during daytime hours, and had helpers. The installation began on June 25, 1986.

Photo: BPC Archive

Photo: BPC Archive

Placed in different parts of the park, all six sculptures were on view until October 17, 1986.

Postcard: BPC Archive

At the time, Rickey had two concurrent exhibitions at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery, and the  Zabriskie Gallery. To see more of Rickey's work, check out his video of an installation at the McNay Art Museum in  San Antonio,Texas from 2008.

Public art projects in Bryant Park also include this 1981 exhibit by Mel Chin.

Poetry in the Park

This post also appears on the Bryant Park blog.

For me, poetry in the park usually brings to mind small, informal and intimate gatherings of people. Maybe a microphone is involved, but probably not necessary, because there is more listening, and definitely no cell phones. As far back as the late 1960s, poetry readings were staged in parks throughout the city as part of the Academy of American Poets program Poets in the Parks. Not surprisingly, American modernist poet Marianne Moore drew an huge crowd with her 1968 Bryant Park appearance. I don't know what works she read that day, but I like to imagine her poem "An Octopus" was one of them, with all of its incredible imagery and detail. And, I don't know what her voice sounded like, but I like to imagine it too, as full of body and authority as her words.

Pulitzer Prize winning poet Ms. Marianne Moore at the podium. Behind her is NYC Mayor John V. Linsday, and Mr. August Heckscher, Administrtor of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.
Photo: copyright Academy of American Poets

Photo: copyright Academy of American Poets

The following year, the poetry season started out with this reading. I don't recognize the poet, but if you do (or even better, if you were there), please email me (Anne).

* 6/10/2011 update: Thanks to poet Mary Austin Speaker, for identifying activist and poet Muriel Rukeyser in the photo below. 

Photo: NYC Department of Parks

The park has a strong connection with poetry, starting with its namesake, American romantic poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant, who is also memorialized on the upper terrace with a bronze monument. In 1884 the park's name  was changed from Reservoir Square to Bryant Park in his honor. According to some, he was the first American writer of verse to accomplish international fame.

A verse from Bryant's poem "A Summer Ramble," first published in 1826 is perfect for bringing in the poetry season and the warm weather:

But now a joy too deep for sound,
A peace no other season knows,
Hushes the heavens and wraps the ground,
The blessing of supreme repose

New York Public Library Turns 100!

This post also appears on the Bryant ark blog.

To commemorate the 100th birthday of the New York Public Library, and its central branch, the Stephen A. Schwarzman building, lets take a look back at the library through the years.

Before the Beaux-Arts building designed by architecture firm Carrère and Hastings was built, the two-block section of Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets was home to the Croton Reservoir. The reservoir was torn down in 1899 to make way for the library. To read more about the demolition of the reservoir, and subsequent building of the library, click here.

Construction began in 1902, and was no small feat. When completed, the library was the largest marble structure in the country up to that time. This photo, from the NYPL's digital photo collection on the central building, shows exterior marble underway in 1905.

Photo: NYPL digital collection

The library opened to the public on May 23, 1911 with an elaborate ceremony presided over by 27th President of the United States William Howard Taft. Those flags are massive.

Photo: LOC digital collection

In 1919 the building served as a backdrop for a WWI victory parade along Fifth Avenue. Every stationary part of the building and street appears covered in shields, spears, and eagles. Shields and crossed spears often signify the defense of freedom, and eagles have long been associated with power and the U.S. I'm guessing that's their significance as decorations. If anyone knows otherwise, please email me.

Postcard:Pisark's cards

In the mid-1930s the NYPL established an outdoor reading room and called it the Bryant Park Library at Central Building. Much like our current reading room, patrons could enjoy books, magazines and newspapers outside in the park. The 1930s reading room was located on the Upper Terrace, just behind the main library building, and staff librarians were on hand to assist patrons.

Photo: BP photo collection

The library gets a scrub in 1945, seen here from 42nd Street looking east toward 40th Street. The World's Tower building on 40th Street looks huge in comparison to surrounding structures; the Empire State building is off to the right, just behind the Engineer's Club building (recently designated a landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission).

Photo: MCNY digital collection

Librarians and archivists: making research easier for 100 years and counting.

Photo: NYPL digital collection

The Bryant Park lawn (no chairs!) and rear facade of the library, May 1984.

Photo: BP photo collection

In 1988 the NYPL put two floors of additional library stacks beneath Bryant Park's lawn, seen here in a rendering by Hanna Olin, the design firm responsible for BP's redesign.

Photo: BP photo collection

Around this time last year, Improv Everywhere paid a visit to the the reading room, and re-enacted (sort of) the opening scene from Ghostbusters.

The NYPL has been hosting a number of events in celebration of the centennial, most over this past weekend. The library also has a special exhibit called "Celebrating 100 Years" on view until December 31, 2011. Here's a NY Times review.

National Air Mail Week Starts Today!

Get ready! Transcontinental mailing has changed over the years, but in 1938, it was just 20 years old, and May 15th marked the start of Air Mail Week. [I'm going to spell it 'Airmail' from here on out. Over the years the two words gave birth to the current compound word, sort of like to-day versus today, or good-bye / goodbye, though I don't think airmail ever had a hyphen . . .]

ANYWAY, the  The week-long festivities from May 15-21 were planned to help bring air transport companies out of an economic slump, caused in large part by the Great Depression. The goal was to get everyone to send and/or receive at least one piece of transcontinental mail.

Here are some New Yorkers doing just that, in the Farley General Post Office, during Airmail Week. I love the a-frame sign in front of the teller windows. It reminds me science projects, or history presentations on countries or civilizations of the world that you'd do in fifth grade. Mine was on the Phoenecians.

The Farley building's namesake James A. Farley, was appointed 53rd Postmaster General, by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933. He served from 1933 until 1940. He was instrumental in the 1934 addition of the post office's western annex.

 

To promote and celebrate Airmail Week, the USPS issued a new 6 cent stamp, with a patriotic color scheme and (of course) an eagle. A fierce-looking red one.

Not to be confused with this fierce eagle

 

National Airmail Week is no longer celebrated with such fervor, but in 2008, to commemorate 90 years of flying in the U.S. Postal system, three pilots in vintage planes retraced the same inaugural route used on May 15, 1918. They successfully completed the journey, chronicled  here by Air & Space magazine.