By Caitlin Hawke

A mash-up of what the 300-block of W. 99th Street looked like 80 or 90 years ago

By Caitlin Hawke

With all the talk about various coming MTA station closures for "digital upgrades" on the B and C line, I am reminded that some of us lived through the IRT station upgrades at 103rd (2004) and 96th Streets (2010)--and survived to tell the story. Yes, I am grateful for those investments -- more capital than digital. And yes, they took forever.

Let me take you back. Remember the new but miscalculated staircase on the west side of Broadway exiting the 103rd Street station? Each step seemingly a different height, walking up or down it was  something of a funhouse ride or some bad Candid Camera prank -- only the risk was smashing your nose on the way up, or far worse on the way down! They sure did fix it in a flash. And at 96th, remember how prior to the renovation we used an underpass to get to the platform?  It's not that long ago and how quickly we forget. Even with my pathological nostalgia, I can't say I miss that.

Leaving the 96th Street Station, I was looking up the other day and once again saw the real-life version of the rendering above. It struck me as a nice touch. Maybe the sculpture has a function, too. (Pigeon abatement?). Quaint and already retro in its non-digital way.

The looped birdsong that goes with these 200 stainless flowers is intended to have a calming effect on riders. On most days, particularly after a post-apocalyptic commute from work, calming's a thing I am grateful for. Getting most of the way home in one piece on public transportation, is another.

With Spring galloping in, we have real looped birdsong starting up.  And Hawkes do appreciate the birds.

By Caitlin Hawke

Neighbor Emily Berleth clued me in about the locale of the powerful photo on the cover of the April 5 New York Review of Books featuring a piece by Adam Hochschild "Bang for the Buck."  It was taken by William Klein in 1955 near the intersection of W. 103rd Street and Broadway. I looked for the exact location, but I think it is gone (please let me know if you recognize the doorway the boys above are in).

Working in a public health environment, I experienced the same feeling looking at the NYRB cover as I did when I saw a picture of a baby smoking that tore up the internet a while ago. Both images just stop you in your tracks and can never be normalized, or we are done.

But one sits in the shade of our Bill of Rights. The other doesn't. That allowed us, on smoking at least, to rewrite history in just one generation. It reassures me that we could do the same for guns.

But if the big bang of the Second Amendment is still expanding in the form of relaxed gun laws across the country, when will contraction begin? Feeling the need to rewrap my head around it, I had another look:

Nothing about the mighty hunter. And nothing about bump stocks and automatic weapons. Apropos of hunters, a demographer told me last week that their numbers in the U.S. are in steep decline. One can project their die-off, and no one is clamoring to fill in and take up the hunt. Does this mean that new rationales for the right to bear arms will have to be spun out?

Getting back to the kids, if you don't recognize it, the title of this post is a Bushism, made in 2000.  It was taken out of context and was probably more of a slip up.  But he did say "Childrens do learn." Both became a meme. And now, I feel, we have a full-throated answer to the question: Not only are they learning, but they're schooling us, royally.

So, this post is inspired by the photo taken in our neighborhood 65 years ago that resonates loudly today.

It is for all the kids packing up to head to DC, to Central Park West or to their local main drag on Saturday. I am watching you in admiration, and I am watching adults fill into your slipstream and take the ride on your effort.  And I am watching, in this election year, what pressure you might bring to bear on how the right to bear arms is conferred upon our citizenry by our lawmakers and our policymakers -- who all, in the end, will have to answer to the youth, you: our rising voters.

Thanks to you, our tipping point is Parkland.

Our mantra is your mantra: #NeverAgainMSD.  Many of us will say it loudly in person with 6-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 18-year-olds not in tow but way out ahead of us. Pulling us along. Leading the chant.

We owe you deeply for doing the lift we should have done. But failed to do.

Life. Liberty. Happiness. These all precede the Second Amendment, you seem to say. Let's get those right first, you protest. Come November, you warn, he who gets hurt will be he who has stalled.

Saturday, your battle outside will be raging.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

By Caitlin Hawke

Happy Vernal Equinox! 

What better day than to pull from the vaults from about 10 years ago, a newsletter piece written by local gem Dorothy O'Hanlon and featuring the architect of many a planter (and walker of many a hound) our neighbor, Precious Costello Caldwell, Jr.

Since 2008, other media outlets have piled on, and he has been profiled in the NYT, on the show "Neighborhood Slice," in other blogs and on the news.

But you read it here first!

His tree well construction days are behind him, I hear.  But he'll go down in our local lore as the arborist EMT who salvaged our West End gingko post-assault three years ago.  A miracle of ingenuity and TLC, his surgery postponed the tree's inevitable demise.

It's a good time to remind  you that the Block Association's Spring Planting Day is scheduled for April 21, 10 a.m. Save the date.  I'll post a reminder in mid-April.

Hope to see you at the Master on Thursday, March 22 for the Block Association's Annual Meeting.

Details for both events are on the BA calendar.  And now to Precious.

By Caitlin Hawke

This neighborhood as muse never fails to delight me.

In my noodlings, I found this picture of the southwest corner of 108th Street and Broadway, circa 1910-20, with Emanuel Blout's Victor Talking Machine store firmly anchoring the corner. One could easily spend a whole day off of work (ahem) doing a deep dive into the lore of the Victor and Victrola, and investigating the robust collectors network, too.

The billboards atop this pretty building, which I've seen in earlier incarnations and hope to post images of soon, speak to a vibrant neighborhood just booming along a decade plus after the subway opened.  The presence of the store so far uptown attests to the fondness for this beautiful machine.

This Victor Talking Machine business wasn't Emanuel Blout's first foray into the music selling business, he was an early partner of Emile Berliner who eventually ceded his gramophone patents to Eldridge Johnson who went on to found the Victor Talking Machine Company.

In any event, in 1920 Emanuel Blout was well off enough to purchase the building that housed his Victor dealership.

There's a charming, if wonky, FAQ on the Victor-Victrola Page where I learned the difference between the two:  "A 'Victor' is a phonograph with the horn mounted externally. A 'Victrola' has an internal horn, often with doors in front that open and close to control the volume. Both are products of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Victors were made in the 1901 until the early 20's. Victrolas were made from 1906 up through 1929, when RCA bought the company and became 'RCA Victor'."

If you have one taking space up in your home, values can be anywhere from $500-3000 and on up to $10,000 for the rarest of the rare.

Don't get me started on the demise of vinyl and rise of streaming music.  For today, I just want to think about my phonograph fetish and imagine walking into E. Blout's to browse his beautiful machines.  Scroll down for my lagniappe for anyone wondering how it sounds (if you are reading this in an email click the blog post title to stream the video).

Aptly enough, the video above is "Spring Is Here" by Irving Aaronson and His Orchestra played on a Victor Victrola model VV-XI.

By Caitlin Hawke

Did you get yours? The Spring 2018 Block Association newsletter is hot off the press. If you want to jump the gun, you’ll find a copy here.

I’ve lived in the catchment going on half of forever. And still that evening when I put my key to the hole and push open my door to discover the crisp quarterly lying in wait, I drop everything to read it on the spot. Old faithful.

If you are a Block Association member, have you ever wondered how this sweet read wends its way to you? It took me a long time to learn that Ken Henwood was the delivery man for my building, and he’s virtually my next-door neighbor. So, let’s ballpark it at 80 times that Ken has crouched in front of my apartment and glided the quarterly under my door. I am aghast that I’ve never actually thanked him for doing this!  (Ken, thank you!)

If you live in the catchment, you, too, probably have a courier ferrying “old faithful” to your door or building entryway. And you, too, probably dig in as soon as you get it.

We’re coming up on the newsletter’s 47th birthday. The first issue — entitled “Neighborhood News” — rolled off a typewriter on May 20, 1971, thanks to original editor and publisher Richard De Thuin who, sadly, passed away recently. You can read that whole issue right here.

More or less, the newsletter has been chugging along ever since. So here now is a chance to consider the 102-103 Streets Block Association Newsletter and what happens behind the scenes to get it to your door.

The best place to begin is with Hedy Campbell. You may know her name from the many roles she’s had within the Block Association since moving here in 1984. Shortly after arriving, she went to a Block Association board meeting and has stuck around ever since. Over the three and a half decades, she’s organized Halloween parades, solstice caroling nights, Spring planting days, and more.

About eight years ago, the West End Historic Preservation’s effort to landmark the avenue inspired her to think about the people who live in those buildings and the stories they could tell. This led to the launch of the Block Association’s Residents of Long Standing Hall of Fame with 27 inductees and counting — a great feat that we owe to Hedy’s ingenuity and her appreciation for neighborhood and neighbors.

She’s also inadvertently responsible for this blog. Hedy gingerly approached me to manage and update the website when the prior webmaster stepped down. My first response was that I couldn’t imagine taking on more work given my time commitment to BAiP. But how could I say no to her (anyone else ever had that reaction?). That was four years and nearly 300 posts ago!

The hat Hedy’s worn longest is newsletter editor. She took over the duties at the beginning of 1987, succeeding a long line of editors: Richard De Thuin, Mary Louise Taylor, Evelyn Brodwin, Marilyn Ehlers, Connie Fredericks, Ginger Lief and Kathy Giannou. Between 1987 and now, Hedy has had a couple of breaks when Jock Davenport and David Reich each did stints as editor. (My apologies to any past editors I’ve neglected to mention!).

I caught up with Hedy to ask about her 20+ years at the helm. What follows is our recent Q&A.

In the coming weeks, to honor the longevity of our newsletter I’ll be featuring all kinds of pieces “from the vault."  Many of these archival pieces are thanks to Ginger Lief and Ken Henwood who've preserved the back catalog. I'm very grateful to both of them, and to Ginger in particular -- the human "wayback machine." 

So, stick around since there's lots more memory lane to come! And if you are a fan of the newsletter, tell Hedy and her team in the comments below.


Q&A with Hedy Campbell, newsletter editor

Caitlin:  To orient us, what roles have you held within the Block Association over the years?
Hedy: My board positions have been co-chair; chair; treasurer; recording secretary; newsletter editor and co-editor. I ran the Halloween parade for many years. And I’ve run caroling for many years. (Anthony Bellov used to run it but some years ago maxed out. He was happy to continue as the musical brains of the operation as long as somebody else did the organizational stuff.) And for more years than not, I’ve been in charge of yard sale refreshments.

Caitlin: Can you tell me a little about your history with the newsletter?  I know it started in 1971 but tell me about when you entered the picture.
Hedy:  For some years starting in 1987 it was just me and my typewriter and our goal was a monthly distribution, which was a goal I couldn’t consistently meet. I don’t remember when we decided to go quarterly, which actually made brilliant sense because we’ve always asked for dues quarterly. Alan Leverenz was the first designer I worked with. Jock Davenport took over from me as editor for some years. David Reich took it over from him, then I became co-editor with David, then I became editor again.

Caitlin: And here we are. Do you know how much people appreciate the fruits of your labor?
Hedy: Not really. We get occasional comments from readers, mainly written on the flaps of contribution envelopes.

Caitlin: Well believe me, we do. So, how does each issue actually magically appear under my door every three months?
Hedy: The issue gets submitted digitally to Best Copy — the Mom & Pop (or more precisely Pop & Son) copy shop on the northeast corner of 101st Street and Broadway. They print it, insert the loose sheet manually, and fold the print run. Block Association member Eliza Lansdale gets it from them. She counts out newsletters and envelopes and runs around the neighborhood delivering them to sub-distributors and building captains who then distribute them further. For instance, she gives a couple of hundred issues to a high-school student who lives in my building. That person subdivides the batch and delivers to the small buildings on West 102nd Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. The big buildings like the Broadmoor and the Master get batches delivered to their building captains.

Caitlin: Why a print newsletter in this day and age?  Do you foresee a day when it will go electronic?
Hedy: In addition to disseminating information, the print newsletter is our vehicle for envelope distribution, which is still primarily how we receive membership contributions from residents. But residents should know that on our website, they can contribute by credit card any time.

Caitlin: In its slightly anachronistic way, I suspect that a paper copy makes people stop and really take the time to read the news and neighborhood vignettes. How much does it cost to produce?
Hedy: Each issue costs about $800. The contribution envelopes cost about $150. We print 2100 copies. And that’s attractive to our advertisers because I estimate that 2-3 people read each issue, so our reach is around 4000-5000 people. The ads generate income to defray the cost of publication, and thankfully we have all the ads we need. Jane Hopkins has done such a good job! In publishing, a 50:50 ratio of ads to articles is the approximate goal, and we’re roughly there.

Caitlin: OK, we've got the distribution but what about the content -- what's your process there?
Hedy:  Four times a year, about six weeks in advance of publication, I send out an email to contributors in which the article lineup, assignments, and deadline are specified. That email is based both on what we historically print in a particular issue (such as the recurring annual events) as well as any current issues of importance (the gingko tree assault, for example). A group of faithful writers submit their articles, which are then lightly edited; this takes several hours, and I am grateful now to be working with Amy Edelman who has come out the gate very strong in this copy-editing role!  Ads that Jane Hopkins collects and all the articles are sent to the designer, Bradley Spear, who then does a preliminary layout. I review the layout and provide feedback about placement and prioritization. Brad makes changes and returns revised layouts for review. With some luck, only minor tinkering remains. Some issues (like the last one of 2017) require more back and forth until the layout is set. Content is proofread, and corrections are provided to Brad who makes corrections and returns a final proof for review. Brad sends the graphic file to Best Copy for printing. And then we start the delivery process above.

Caitlin: What we in the community get out of the newsletter is intangible: first and foremost, its very existence fosters a sense of community. What do you get out of your involvement with the newsletter?
Hedy: I get to shape the content of what is the primary public face of the organization. I believe that the organization’s role in the community is an important one, and therefore making its functions and initiatives known to residents in a way that reflects our efforts accurately and positively is critical. Although there are many residents who are here and have been here for many years, there’s also a lot of turnover. Providing a sense of perspective, which I can do because I’ve been here a long time, is part of what we want to communicate.

Caitlin: It seems you’ve been looking to train someone to take over for quite a while. Do you think you’ll ever succeed, and if not will this 47-year-old institution of a newsletter vanish?
Hedy: It’s possible. There could come a time when I just have to say that’s it. But for as long as I have an associate who will take care of the nuts and bolts of editing and proofreading, I’m happy to oversee it, keeping an eye on the issues of importance to the organization and assigning articles accordingly.

Caitlin: I know that Ginger Leif, a former editor from the earliest days, performed a colossal labor of love by archiving print issues going back to the very first issue (Thank you, Ginger!). These are now part of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group’s files at the Bloomingdale library branch. Have you ever looked at that collection and felt part of the long continuum of time – that we are all impermanent?
Hedy: I haven’t been over to see the archive. I have my personal collection, so I’m aware how fat the folder has grown. I do feel part of the continuum of the neighborhood, especially as I got to know Cherie Tredanari and Ted and Aysa Berger, who were founders of the organization. I feel as if I accepted a baton from them (Cherie ran Halloween, I took it over from her). And I’m concerned, as I know you are, that the next generation of baton recipients doesn’t seem to have identified itself. With the trend toward two working parents, there just isn’t as much time for volunteerism, and since there’s no pressing issue in the neighborhood for residents to rally around (such as crime or drug dealing, as there once was), I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency to get involved. Although I’m very aware that we’re all very temporary, I prefer to focus on what sort of imprint, if only a subtle one, I can leave while I’m here.

Caitlin:  I keep thinking that connecting via technology has supplanted the need for hyperlocal community. But as technology becomes more and more dehumanizing, people will turn back to the local bricks and mortar community right under their noses. There’s so much benefit in it. That’s the lesson I learned from both the Block Association and BAiP. Which reminds me!  Without the newsletter, BAiP would not have taken off as quickly as it did nine years ago. Because of their communications networks two block associations were able to get word out efficiently to all neighbors in five square blocks about BAiP’s creation. The infrastructure of the block associations and their newsletters jumpstarted BAiP. We need to put that on the balance sheet of under "newsletter successes."
Hedy: I couldn't agree more!

Caitlin: I think it’s pretty obvious that we share the love of living in Bloomingdale.
Hedy: Oh, yes, I’ve loved living here. It’s quiet without being isolated. We aren’t swarmed with foot traffic en route to an attraction or institution. People, if they’re inclined, get to know one another, whether because they do the alternate side shuffle, have children, walk a dog, or hang out at the diner. I used to say, especially when Oppenheimer and the Green Farm were here, that I could walk from my building to 96th Street to shop for Thanksgiving and return with everything I needed even though I’d left my wallet at home. I think it’s still pretty true, but maybe not as much.

Caitlin: A village.
That’s a good place to stop because I know that the Annual Meeting on March 22 will focus on the street-level retail crisis. It sure would be nice if every landlord would make a good faith effort to have the shops on our streets occupied by commercial tenants and usher back in the law of supply and demand, and perhaps a new era of local retail. Thank goodness for the shops we still have -- and for their support of the newsletter. And thank you and your team for bringing it to us four times a year.  There's plainly a great amount of volunteer sweat equity and TLC involved.

By Caitlin Hawke

On Thursday, March 22 at 7 p.m. at the Master (310 Riverside Drive at West 103rd Street), you are invited to the Block Association's Annual Meeting.  The focus -- the Crisis in Commercial Real Estate -- is a topic readers will recognize from the blog a mini-series entitled Empty Storefronts and the Changing Streetscape.  For further reading, see the following:

• Interview with Judith Norell, proprietor of Silver Moon Bakery
• In Joon, Our Fall: The last day at Joon Fish Market
• and my favorite: Stowin' Away the Time & Peelin' Back the Years on the decline of the Korean deli

I think it's going to be a great discussion. Hope to see you there!

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history. To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.

By Caitlin Hawke

From the vaults of our September 2001 newsletter comes the piece at the bottom of this post by Jock Davenport hinting at the origins of the group we all know and love today as the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group (then known as the Park West Village Neighborhood History Group, a old pamphlet for which you'll find here). The group's antecedents, of course, hark back to the Old Community -- which refers to the neighbors who lived in the two blocks of 98th and 99th Streets between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West from 1905-1951.

To explicate two cycles of racist real estate history, below (and here for those of you reading this in an email subscription) are excellent videos by Jim Epstein that tell stories about these blocks. The first video focuses on Philip Payton, Jr., a savvy investor who bought prime properties which he marketed to African Americans in the spirit of desegregation (and profit).  It was Payton who, in 1905, bought up these two blocks and began renting to black families, leading whites to move away.

For 50 years, an African American community including many known musicians and writers flourished until the houses on those blocks were razed as part of the NYC's Manhattantown project which took them by eminent domain to catalyze the so-called "urban renewal" of the 1950s sought by Robert Moses. This then paved the way to develop Park West Village while ravaging the well-knit 50-year old community of African Americans.

It's not the first time I've posted the second video below by Jim Epstein (again here for email subscribers), but it's well worth sharing again.

Remarkably, the ties of what came to be known as the "Old Community" -- the neighbors who lost their homes in this chapter of racially-motivated development -- live on today. In the second video above, you'll meet Jim Torain who was one of the neighbors to lose his boyhood home in 1951.  Pained, he persisted and continued to be rooted there -- in mind if not in body -- for another 60 years. To grossly understate it: that's not nothing. 

Sadly, Jim Torain died on December 29th. He would have been about 75 years old, I am guessing. Jim worked long and hard for the preservation of the memory of the Old Community. He was featured in this New York Times article. Dan Wakin also wrote a piece that attests to Jim Torain's deep knowledge of the many cultural figures, such as the black dance historian Joe Nash, who lived there. Each fall with Marietta Bussey, Jim organized regular reunions for the former neighbors.

When she entered the fight at an improbably late hour to save Grand Central Terminal, Jackie Kennedy said: "I think that if we don't care about our past, we can't have very much hope for our future." 

Clearly, Jim Torain would agree. My friend and one of our neighborhood's leading history preservationists, Win Armstrong, reminded me that the NYPL Schomburg Center houses a photo collection of the Old Community that Jim donated.

I am grateful that the story of 98th and 99th Street is not lost. There is much to be learned from the racist response to the arrival of the neighbors who would become the Old Community and from the racist events that brutally forced them out. Lessons about human nature. About market forces. About displacement and inhumanity. About persistence and memory. The Torain legacy to our neighborhood is unquantifiable, and this post is dedicated to him and to the efforts of all neighbors who value the act of preserving and sharing history. 

With sympathies to Jim Torain's sister and daughter and with thanks eternal to Jim himself  -- for bearing the torch of the Great Before.

By Caitlin Hawke

Readers seemed to have loved the reference to Childs in my last Throwback Thursday post.  Some of you still remember the actual restaurants.  But Jimmy Roberts wins the prize for pointing out the Rogers & Hart reference to the chain in "I'll take Manhattan."  I am including it at the bottom of this post as your lagniappe...you know the drill if you're reading this in an email subscription: you have to click here or on the post title to see the video.

You got me all curious about the SE corner of West 102nd Street and Broadway again.  You'll recall the recent post of the matchbook covers from the Childs' restaurant "Old Algiers" here. That then led to this post about the corner where Mexican Festival is that used to be home to both Old Algiers and its predecessor, Archambault.

My menschy friend, author and postcard collector Michael Susi,  kindly sent the images below. Black and white versions of these appear in his wonderful book of postcards, The Upper West Side. It's a book you've seen and leafed through and a book worth having -- not necessarily for the images alone!  His captions pack a wealth of historical detail into just a line or two.  And that's where I first discovered the Archambault.  Michael tells me that the eponymous Mr. Archambault also owned the Hotel Belleclaire which is having a renaissance now.

Again, if you haven't read Pam Tice's piece on dining out back in the day in Bloomingdale, you will enjoy it. She also references the restaurant at 102nd Street.

Michael says that a postcard image of Old Algiers' exterior will be hard to come by since its time falls outside the golden age of these postcards.  But behold these two beauties. 

I want to say just meet me there tonight for dinner.

Here's a side by side just for the kick of it.  Thanks, Michael!

Above is a clip from "Makers of Melody," the short 1929 film featuring Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart's first blockbuster, "Manhattan," as in We'll have Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, too....

It was their first hit song and quickly became part of our DNA. In the film, Ruth Tester and Allan Gould play a "boy and goil" in love, and if you listen closely at the 2:02 mark, you'll hear the reference to the Childs restaurant chain, courtesy reader and musician Jimmy Roberts.  (The Childs connection to the SE corner of W. 102nd Street and Broadway is explained here.)

Excerpt from the song "Manhattan" by Rogers & Hart

We'll go to Yonkers
Where true love conquers
In the wilds.
And starve together, dear,
In Childs'.
We'll go to Coney
And eat baloney
On a roll.
In Central Park we'll stroll,
Where our first kiss we stole,
Soul to soul.
Our future babies
We'll take to "Abie's
Irish Rose."
I hope they'll live to see
It close.
The city's clamor can never spoil
The dreams of a boy and goil.
We'll turn Manhattan
Into an isle of joy.

The "One from the Vault" feature plumbs the archives of back issues of block association newsletters for new neighbors and lovers of our community and its history.  To read others pieces from the vault, click on the category at right.


By Caitlin Hawke

I've been holding back on a trove of old newsletter pieces from the print archives for lack of time. My recent interview with Hedy Campbell (coming soon) inspired me to start getting them up.

So, today, I have a vault piece from the September 2006 issue of the BA newsletter.  Hard to believe that our beautiful Horn & Hardart building on the SE corner of Broadway and W. 104th Street had yet to receive landmark status just 12 years ago.  But after cries from the community and preservationists to "Save the Automat!" that designation came on January 30, 2007.  Better late than never.

For pictures of it over the years see my Throwback posts here (1930), here (1942), and here (1980).

And to dig into the weeds of the history and architectural details of the automat building, you can download the Landmarks Preservation Commission report here.

Lagniappes at bottom (remember to click on the blog post title to view the video on the blog if you are reading this in an email subscription).  Look closely at the first one because ours appears!