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Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

3/23/2017

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1898: West 100th between Broadway and Amsterdam

By Caitlin Hawke

Built in 1898 by architect James Brown Lord, the Bloomingdale Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library stood at 206 West 100th Street.  The date of the photo below is unknown.  And the library has, of course, since migrated eastward along 100th Street.  However to learn about this historic building replete with Ionic columns, a portico and balcony, see the Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report from 1989 for a whole lot of history.

At a time when both research and circulating libraries are desperately needed so that all may access them, and at a time when sadly ours are under threat and subject to mission drift due to real estate market pressures, it is interesting to read in the designation report about the old-school robber barons commissioning and paying for this first branch of the free circulating library.

Of course, you'd have to go way back to 1960 to have used this building as a library (that's when the library moved to the other side of Amsterdam). Since 1961, the non-profit Ukranian Academy of Arts & Sciences has owned this building and used it as a library and research facility.

A 1989 article in the New York Times reported:

The American Academy was incorporated in 1950 by emigres fleeing Stalinist oppression and it has kept the original library interior intact, if only because of its shoestring budget, now barely $50,000 a year.

The large, light reading rooms still have their oak furniture and varnished pine bookcases, but the building is now chock-a-block with Ukrainian artifacts, especially books and magazines like Dzvinok (Little Bell) and Dzvinochok (Tiny Bell), children's magazines published in Lvov in the 1930's, and the expatriate liberation journal Tryzub (Trident), published in Paris until 1941. 


If you've ever been inside, please leave a comment below and describe what you recall.
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It's Elemental, My Dear Bloomingdale

3/21/2017

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Locate that Element!

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Where is this? Hint: Think very old!
By Caitlin Hawke

Ok, so this feature, "It's Elemental," was supposed to be regular and somewhat interactive.  I send out apologies for the lag time between posts.  But we did have a few respondents, all answering correctly that the red "Restaurant" sign featured on November 26, was indeed a detail from the sign of the Broadway Restaurant pictured on this page in fuller context.
I was inspired to feature it when the NYT ran this piece about the Vanishing Diner Culture that I refuse to believe in. I can't bury one more special thing about this city, so the VDC needs to be rectified pronto stat.

In the article, the Times chose to focus on the neo-retro Metro while the downer-'n-dirtier retro-retro cousin just north and across the street is what I think of when I think of a diner.

Alas both are at risk in this VDC.

For playing along and successfully locating the sign, renewed hat tips go to Terence and Anthony.  But Ozzie was new to the game and also answered right off the bat.

Now with all that said, please locate the element at the top of this page!  If you do, I promise to tighten the elapsed time between postings.

Extra points if you can tell me the original name of the building at top.

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Click the image for the last post, which of course was an element from the Broadway Restaurant, our old time diner -- long may she ride.

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Love Your B.A.?

3/19/2017

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Come Out to the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 21

By Caitlin Hawke

After the rush of adrenaline you get from the vernal equinox the day before, come out on Tuesday when the day will officially be longer than the night!  It's the Block Association's Annual Meeting and you are hereby convened to The Master Building at 310 Riverside Drive and West 103rd Street at 7 p.m.  The meeting takes place in the community room.

We've got board elections, Hall of Famers, park, planting and precinct news, and more.

Here's Tuesday's agenda below.  Come one. Come all.

P.S. The Master turns 88 this week.  So while you're there, tip your hat to this Deco landmark which is registered as a national historic place! (See prior post about The Master here.)

(If you are receiving this via email subscription and it fails to display correctly, go to the blog here.)

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Agenda

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1.  Introduction of Board Members/Re-Election of Board

2.  Year In Review: What Your Block Assn. Does for You

3.  Neighborhood updates:
  • Natural gas line installation on West End Ave
  • Spring Planting 4/22 - Mark Schneiderman Lead Volunteer
  • Block Association Need for Volunteers and Reduction in Guard Service
  • Cherie Tredanari Memorial Bench Dedication 5/13
  • Participatory Budgeting Review: 24th Precinct Auxiliary Van Recommendation

4.  Special Guest: Virl Andrick
    President of Friends of Straus Park

5.  Special Guest: Captain William Burke
    Commanding Officer, 24th Precinct

6.  2017 Hall of Fame Inductees: Residents of 50+ Years

7.  Open Q+A



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Your Turn to Speak Your Mind

3/18/2017

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NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer Calls You to a Town Hall

By Caitlin Hawke

On Thursday, April 6th at 6:30 pm, neighbors may avail themselves of Scott Stringer's Town Hall at Goddard Riverside Community Center, 593 Columbus Avenue.  If you are a Seinfeld fan, it's like Festivus without the pole. Just come to air grievances.  RSVP to action@comptroller.nyc.gov.
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Fire & Ice

3/14/2017

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Seen in the Neighborhood with the Vernal Equinox Drawing Nigh

By Caitlin Hawke

On a day when so many of us sacrificed our duty to work out of respect for the laws of Nature (and delight at a late season snow day), Duty and Sacrifice stood proudly in service at the Firemen's Memorial on Riverside Drive (below).

Neighbors, be warm, this Ides of March!
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Duty
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Sacrifice
Decorating the Firemen's Memorial are sculptures carved by Attilio Piccirilli which depict muse Audrey Munson (above). To see Munson's appearances throughout New York, click here to navigate to a September post.  More sculptures from the 1913 memorial below.
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600,001 Dalmatians

3/13/2017

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Pugs, Pit Bulls, Beagles, Labs, Boxers, Poodles, Portuguese Water Dogs and Mutts

By Caitlin Hawke

It's estimated that NYC boasts 600,000 dogs.  If you don't mind my saying: that's a lot of Shih Tzu.

Apparently Council Member Helen Rosenthal concurs since she's asked for the release of this APB on Scofflaw Scoopers which comes from the Department of Sanitation.  (Of course, they have other things on their mind with the snowstorm we're waiting for).

Downward dog etiquette is gripping the city.

So until the uniquely French innovation of Motocrotte makes its way into the city's budget line, it's up to every dog-loving man, woman and child to scoop our way clear.

Duty calls, my friends.  Duty calls.

And as my outro today, I'm going to let Bloomingdaler Loudon Wainwright III illustrate the pleasures (and pains) of being a city-dwelling dog lover.
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Get Schooled in Bloomingdale History

3/12/2017

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The Story of Trinity School - A Lecture and Tour on March 14th

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**UPDATED AT 10:30 PM, MONDAY 3/13: DUE TO WEATHER, THE TALK TOMORROW (3/14) ON TRINITY SCHOOL HAS BEEN POSTPONED.  I WILL REPOST ONCE THE NEW DATE IS DETERMINED.


By Caitlin Hawke

OK, so maybe it's not techincally Bloomingdale, but West 91st Street boasts a little slice of Manhattan history in that it is the site of the Trinity School, originally founded downtown at Trinity Church over 300 years ago.  Our friends at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group have a treat in store with this presentation and a special behind-the-scenes tour of the school.

Come on out for it this special event!


Discover the History of the Trinity School
Tuesday, March 14th at 6:30 p.m.
Trinity School, 101 West 91st Street
between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.


Founded at downtown Trinity Church in 1709 and now one of the oldest schools in the US, the school moved uptown in 1895 occupying
a series of lots on West 91st Street in the midst of the rows of
townhouses of turn-of-the-century Upper West Side.

Learn how the school evolved from church-sponsored to ecumenical,
from a charity school to a private school, from all-boys to co-educational and
to a school that now prides itself on its diverse student body.

Presenters will include:
Kevin Ramsey, Director of Communications,  
alumna and two parents of alumni, one of whom is a former teacher and
the other of whom is a member of the first class of girls at the school
and a member of the Board of Trustees.

A tour of the school will follow the presentation and is accessible to all.
Please note: the tour includes stairs.

For more information: (212) 666-9774.

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First the Oscars, Now the Seasons

3/10/2017

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And the Winner of Best Current Season Goes to Spring. No Scratch That. To Winter!

By Caitlin Hawke

Is it just me or is this March madness in sync with the zeitgeist? I mean, just when you were getting ready to call it a season, Mother Nature threw you a curve ball, didn't she?  Sort of like Warren Beatty letting us know that "Moonlight" won best picture after we sat through all the "La La Land" acceptance speeches.

Well, pass the mic back to Old Man Winter. He's taking a victory lap for winner of "Current Season."  And it looks like the speech might last 'til Tuesday.

If you think it's bad here, the hand-wringing in DC is at an all-time high over the cherished cherry blossoms that have bounded ahead of schedule. So much so that the Washington Post wrote a piece yesterday about the peril the peduncles are in.  Washingtonians are watching those blooms so closely you'd think they are mating pandas. (Inside DC joke).
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Seen today on Broadway: Tulip shoots and snow
But it makes me wonder: am I the only one happy that our friend and neighbor Bob Donohue saw this scene below outside his window this morning?  What I find reassuring is to have this proof, however belatedly, that our planet still knows how to freeze at our latitude.

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow.
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West 105th Street on March 10, 2017
Photo Credit: Bob Donohue

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