Category: Throwback Thursday

Changing Streetscape: The Erstwhile Barber of Bloomingdale

5/14/2017

Mr. Kay

By Caitlin Hawke

Some of you might think I am a little stuck on this topic (having covered it here and here), but I still love the story of this shop. Today is 18 years to the day that the owner died. Either way you look through the windows, it's a time capsule. Note the Food-O-Rama across the street in the automat building where the doc-in-a-box is now, or look at the barber pole just outside the door (when was the last time ou saw one of those?). Or take a look at Mr. Kay himself or the interior of his shop. All of an era.

I am tagging this as a Throwback post just because.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

4/5/2017

1976: 2781 Broadway at W. 107th Street

"Painting was more than a profession. It was also an obsession. I had to paint."

~ Alice Neel

By Caitlin Hawke

While I can't resist a vintage photo of our streets, there truly is nothing better than an example of our neighborhood put to service as an artist's muse. One of my favorite examples of this is this fabulous painting by one-time neighbor Alice Neel (1900-1984) who moved to Bloomingdale from East Harlem and settled at 300 West 107th Street in 1962.

Her apartment had a front room that faced north -- perfect for painting -- and it was here that she did most of her work from that date forward, according to her website. Indeed, the New York Times says that it was here that her style grew freer and nimbler thanks to the "copious light."

If you go to her website, you'll see a photograph of a chock-a-block corridor in her apartment filled with canvases. At the bottom of this post, I am also embedding the trailer to a very fine documentary on Neel in which you can see her walking that same corridor though if you are receiving this post via email, you'll have to click through to this blog post to view the trailer.

107th and Broadway by Alice Neel (1976)

My Throwback Thursday feature today is this five-foot tall beauty entitled "107th and Broadway." The light, shadows, palette, and mood quickly conjure up Edward Hopper. The blazing summer morning light illuminates the facade while Neel's own building across 107th Street casts a dark shadow that resembles a Moai in profile.

You don't see any of the mid-1970s grit and political tumult in this tableau. In Alice Neel's 1976, New York is small-town quaint with a dose of Hopperian solitude. With a dark shadow looming.

The reason I am bringing any of this up is that (a.) god, don't you love this painting? And (b.) shouldn't we all get together and go see the retrospective of her work, "Alice Neel, Uptown"! It is still on until April 22nd at the David Zwirner Gallery.

In case you missed it, the New York Times wrote about the show here in February and posted a slideshow of her portraits here. Have a look below at her "Still Life" from 1964. You can just glimpse the northern tip of Straus Park through her front window.

In Ms. Neel, there was greatness in our midst.

h/t to neighbor Emily B. who grew up on W. 107th for her knowledge that Alice Neel lived right here among us.

A view onto Broadway south of W. 107th Street outside Alice Neel's window

Alice Neel's muse, 2781 Broadway, today...

...and in 1976

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Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

3/23/2017

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.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

2/2/2017

1994: 2713 Broadway at W. 103rd Street

By Caitlin Hawke

Remember last week's painting and all the Throwback stuff about the Broadway Barber Shop? Well that suspended-in-time shop inspired cartoonists, painters and filmmakers as evidenced by yet another Bloomingdale gem below. It's an eight and a half minute film entitled "Broadway Barber." The comings and goings on Broadway between W. 103rd and 104th Streets may be seen through the shop's windows.

In 1994, as an NYU film student, Rob Morton said the following about this old Greek-owned neighborhood time capsule: "Mr. Kay gave haircuts in his old-fashioned barber shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side for over fifty years. Watching Mr. Kay work is like stepping back in time. I directed this "day in the life" documentary short...while in film school at NYU. Hope you like it!"

Note: If you are reading this via email subscription to the blog, the embedded video below will not appear. To view this special film, please go directly to the blog post by clicking on the title of this post, "Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition."

For video, h/t to Wronksi's Wramblings.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

1/26/2017

1964 (Date of Painting Unknown): 2713 Broadway at West 103rd Street

By Caitlin Hawke

A painting of the gone but unforgotten Broadway Barber Shop owned by Kyriacos Demetriou

Owned for four decades by Mr. Kay, aka master tonsorialist Kyriacos Demetriou, the Broadway Barber Shop lasted for a century. This is why I put the incorporation date in the subtitle of the post. When the shop finally closed, it was memorialized as the end of an era. No one predicted the shaggy rage we're now in.

The perfectly preserved slice of Americana stood at 2713 Broadway between W. 103rd and 104th Streets until it was gifted to the Museum of the City of New York.

I know. You are kicking yourself that this one, too, slipped through our fingers. Why do we keep doing this?

"There's something you should consider before you begin -- my hair works hard and it plays hard." A cartoon by Ed Koren featuring the Broadway Barber Shop

At least it is preserved in the museum and in print. The shop made it into the New York Times in the the hirsute days of the Beatles, as this piece from 1964 charmingly describes. And there was also the poignant obit here of Mr. Kay himself, telling tales out of school about Columbia president Dwight D. Eisenhower whose tips, alas, were inversely proportional to the area of bare pate.

It is also featured in the showstopping painting above. I am featuring it in this Throwback post for several reasons. First, quite plainly, I cathect it. I am unsure whether the artist mashed up several storefronts with Mr. Kay's shop as the centerpiece or if those stores in it actually all stood side by side. Either way, the huge painting stopped me in my tracks.

I am also featuring it because it hangs in the home of a wonderful neighbor who I was lucky enough to work with through Bloomingdale Aging in Place. A charming, brave woman, she's been in my thoughts a lot recently.

We both fell in love with this painted slice of old Broadway. And by way of this post, I am sending her warm thoughts and my thanks for having shared with me this beauty on that day when we first met. You made me a great cup of coffee, true to your word.

More on 2713 Broadway to come soon.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

1/12/2017

1910: West 104th Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

An earlier blog post from exactly a year ago showed a photo incredibly similar to this one! In fact, originally it was the same photo, and this is a detail of it. I am including the wide angle shot at bottom so you don't have to toggle back and forth. In the top photo, we can see a lot more street-level detail from fashion to transportation to interesting store signage. It's the corner where Suba Pharmacy stands today.

I've found quite a few shots taken in 1910 right around this intersection. Someone was out shooting that day, that's for sure.

The shots are both looking northward toward W. 105th and beyond with W. 104th Street in the foreground.

The Years in Pictures, 2016 Edition

1/5/2017

Throwing It Back Once Again on The Upper West Side

By Caitlin Hawke

This past year was the second where I featured a fairly regular "Throwback Thursday" post. As a look back, I offer the gallery "The Years in Pictures" -- a twist on the year-end media tradition. Ours spans a century this year with photos from 1888 to 1983.

Each photo is linked to its original page in this blog, where you might find more detail and historical tidbits.

There's no way to fit her in below, but in a labor of utter love, I featured an exhaustive gallery of the NYC appearances of muse of muses, Audrey Munson. Click the Lejeune photo at right to go to that special gallery.

Audrey Munson posed for this memorial in Straus Park, and neighbor Bob Lejeune shot her showing off her red, white and blues. Click the photo above to go to my labor of love: a gallery of 24 shots of Audrey Munson around town.

I hope 2017 is off to a good start and that it will be good to all. Fingers crossed! And now, The Years in Pictures, 2016 Edition.

Remember, if you enjoy this blog, tell a friend in the neighborhood to stop by! Subscribe below and get posts directly to your in box.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

12/22/2016

1887-1922: West 102nd Street and Riverside Drive, NE Corner

By Caitlin Hawke

The Foster Mansion sat on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and W. 102nd Street prior to the construction of what is now 300 Riverside Drive.

Thanks to an old Block Association newsletter, I can tell you something more about this beauty in a post that is a mash-up of "One from the Vault" and "Throwback Thursday."

Ginger Lief, a valued neighborhood archive-lover and historian presented information about the home here in our 2002 newsletter:

[For some forty years], a fine residence stood on the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and W. 102nd Street. It was built from 1887 to 1888 for William F. Foster who lived there with his wife, Bertha. The architect of the brick mansion was Halstead Parker Fowler (1859-1911). It was demolished in 1922 and replaced by today’s fourteen story and basement apartment building for which the architect was George Frederick Pelham (1866- 1937). Our early neighborhood home builder, Foster, was born in Taunton, England, October 11, 1841, and came to America in 1856. He invented the Foster glove fastening which he introduced to New York City in 1876, and then went on to develop a large and successful business. Earlier, he was in the glove business in Chicago but was financially ruined there by the fire of 1871. Foster died from cancer at the age of 54 at his Riverside Drive home on December 3, 1895.”

A big h/t to Ginger for that history. Another h/t to neighbor Gary Dennis who flagged the building in our Fall newsletter here where you'll also see links to Gary's history blogs.

And now for the Throwback photo (taken according to Gary just before the mansion was demolished in 1922), I give you the Foster mansion which sat squarely in the Block Association's catchment just 130 years ago. You can see it in the upper left corner of the 1891 Bromley map below.

The Foster Mansion sat at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 102nd Street from 1887-1922. It was demolished shortly after the photo above was shot and replaced by 300 Riverside Drive.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

12/1/2016

1983: West 105th Street and Broadway, NW Corner

By Caitlin Hawke

This is just the best kind of "throwback" picture. Something entirely reminiscent of its era. In the two photos below, Mayor Ed Koch is shown encountering Bloomingdalers on a July 13 walking tour in 1983. In the top photo, note "hair design" where Henry's restaurant is now. The woman to Koch's right is Fay Leeper, who headed the Broadway Merchants Development Corporation, and advocated for safety. Fay is still around from what I can tell. She had a kid's store back then but has became a restauranteur, in business with her daughter Ivette.

To her right is Gregory Tredanari, son of Cheri and Len, who owned "Gregory's" -- a gourmet food shop at 2725 Broadway. In the bottom photo, we get a glimpse across Broadway to the east, with an old city bus and the Silver Moon building, same as it ever was. This might be my favorite Throwback Thursday post yet. And is it just me, or is it incredibly quaint to see a big city mayor walking the avenue mixing it up with residents and listening to concerns of the mom-and-pop shop owners?

A Mighty Brick House Lets It All Hang Out

10/12/2016

You Might Drop a Thing or Two If You Were 132!

By Caitlin Hawke

On October 4th right around the morning exodus, neighbors were roused by some facade drama when a keystone from the quirky but adored Townsend house at 302 W. 102nd Street hit the sidewalk. Hard. Splintering in heart-wrenching chunks across the tree-well area. Having chipped a front tooth, I know the feeling, old girl.

Readers will know the house I am talking about from our homepage -- that great shot by Ozzie Alfonso. One of the things I have always loved about it is the color of the brick. It's an eye-poppingly red-orange terra cotta, paired to perfection with lemon chiffon trim.

Terence Hanrahan had a front row seat across the way in his home where he saw firefighters stabilizing the remaining masonry, and he took some of these shots. Now, of course, a sidewalk bridge has gone up. But I sure hope our Brick Dame will be restored quickly.

Online reports - either the West Side Rag or DNA Info -- mentioned vibrations that perhaps had jarred the keystone loose. But this house is a tough cookie; she withstood a lot worse over her 132 year life. If you scroll down, you'll see a shot of the Queen Anne style house when it was brand new and sat in the lot 25 feet south of W. 102nd Street (before 855 West End Avenue was built). It sat right on the "avenue." Then it was but a two-story house consisting solely of the current second and third floors which you will see in the side-by-side photos -- they superimpose perfectly! That old circa 1888 shot came to me by way of Hedy Campbell who acquired it from a longtime Bloomingdaler Marilyn Buckland.

Built in 1884, the Ralph S. Townsend house sat on West End (depicted in the black and white photos below) until 1893 when it was moved to its current site at 302 W. 102nd Street by Clara Delafield. And there it has sat for a century and a quarter.

Alas, the beautiful brick lady is missing a tooth now. But she's got good bones, that we know. To my way of thinking, she's the Maggie Smith of Bloomingdale, and she darn well better outlive us one and all.

Come wander by some day and behold her beauty!

Note how these two buildings superimpose perfectly: take the first and second floor of the building in the black and white immage and imagine them bumped up a story to become the second and third floors of the building above in the color picture, and you've got it. The front door from 1888 became a set of quirky asymmetrical windows. A new first floor and an additional floor at top -- a mansard roof -- were added when the house rounded the corner in 1893.

Circa 1888, this photo shows W. 102nd Street in the foreground with the little brick house sitting on a lot on the west side of the precursor of West End Avenue a bit south of West 102nd Street in the upper right quadrant. Just five or six years later, the house migrated around the corner to its current site at 302 W. 102nd Street all before 855 West End Avenue was a bustling thoroughfare.

In a map from 1891, the Townsend house is in its original location on West End Avenue 25 feet south of W. 102nd Street (see #35). Note the difference with the map below when nearly every lot on W. 102nd is built on and note how rural our neck of the woods was as recently as 1891! Compare it to the black and white picture which is roughly contemporaneous.

In this Bromley map from 1897, the Townsend house is shown in its current location at 302 W. 102nd Street (see #62)

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That Face, That Face, That Marvelous Face

9/22/2016

Those Cheeks, That Neck, That Chin: Must Be Audrey

By Caitlin Hawke

This isn't technically a Throwback Thursday post, but I am going to tag it as one since an earlier of my Throwback posts put me in an Audrey Munson state of mind. That face is everywhere!

I am not going to retread the narrative. Her story has been told again, and again, and again thanks both to her long life and her tragic fate. But for a time she was the most sought after model of the time. Sculptor after sculptor asked her to pose. And it wasn't infrequent that she sat for multiple figures in one work, as you'll see below.

So, while I usually try to stick to the Block Association's immediate environs when featuring things in this blog, I thought it was fair to stretch it a bit with this offering. The truth is, we boast a few prime Audreys right here in B'dale. And I have come to think of her as an honorary neighbor. What links us to the rest of the city (and well beyond) is one long chain of Audreys -- ornamenting buildings and fountains and bridges. Arms outstretched. Breasts bared. Laurel crowned. Leafed in gold. Marble hewn. Bronzed. Iconic.

I give you now, up close and personal and all in one place, the muse extraordinaire of Bloomingdale and well beyond. Miss Audrey Munson.

About This Gallery
For details about each sculpture depicted below, hover over the image with your cursor and a caption will appear with date, site and sculptor. Most (but sadly not all) are in place today; you can go see her for yourself.

If you want to explore more of our neighborhood's history, click here to see all prior entries in the recurring feature of this blog, "Throwback Thursday."

Finally, live in the neighborhood? Spread the word by sharing this; tell a friend to subscribe. There's a lot more in store.

1912 - USS Maine Memorial, Attillio Piccirill, Manhattan, Columbus Circle

1914 - The Spirit of Life, Daniel Chester French, Saratoga Springs, Congress Park (thrown in for kicks)

1913 - Civic Fame, Municipal Building, Adoph Weinman, Manhattan, 1 Centre Street

1915 - Memory, Straus Memorial, Henry Augustus Lukeman, Broadway and W. 106th Street

1915 - Audrey Munson by Arnold Genthe

1907 - The Americas, Alexander Hamilton Customs House, Daniel Chester French, Manhattan, 1 Bowling Green

1915 - Pomona, Goddess of Abundance, Pulitzer Fountain, Karl Bitter, Manhattan, Grand Army Plaza

1922 - Audrey Munson

1921 - Beauty, New York Public Library, Frederick MacMonnies, Manhattan, 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue

1913 - Sacrifice, Firemen's Memorial, Attilio Piccirill, Manhattan, W. 100th and Riverside Drive

1913 - Duty, Firemen's Memorial, Attilio Piccirill, Manhattan, W. 100th and Riverside Drive

1914 - Spirit of Commerce, Manhattan Bridge, Carl Augustus Heber, Manhattan side of the bridge

1916 - "Brooklyn," Manhattan Bridge (originally), Daniel Chester French, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum of Art

1907 - The Americas, Alexander Hamilton Customs House, Daniel Chester French, Manhattan, 1 Bowling Green

1916 - "Manhattan," Manhattan Bridge (originally), Daniel Chester French, Manhattan (now at Brooklyn Museum of Art)

1910 - Day, Penn Station (originally but now gone), Adoph Weinman, lost to the junkyard.

1910 - Night, Penn Station (originally), Adoph Weinman, now in Brooklyn Museum

circa 1918 - Memory, Met Museum, Daniel Chester French, Manhattan

1913 - Pediment, Frick Collection, Sherry Edmundson Fry, Manhattan, 5th Avenue and E. 70th Street

1919 - Audrey Munson

1912 - Figure, Maine Memorial, Attillo Piccirilli, Manhattan, Columbus Circle

1906 - Three Graces (all three are Audrey), Hotel Astor Lobby (now gone), Isidor Konti, Manhattan

1911 - Genius of Immortality, Hudson River Museum, Isidor Konti, Yonkers

Three Muses, Hudson River Museum, Isidor Konti, Yonkers

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

8/18/2016

1899: 9th Avenue and W. 104th Street

By Caitlin Hawke

Take a wild, throwback ride on the El trains of yore! Looking at old videos made by the Thomas A. Edison, Inc. (yes, that Edison was a pioneer filmmaker, too), I came upon this vintage footage produced by James Henry White in the Spring 1899 showing the W. 104th Street S-curve in the 9th Avenue Elevated Railway. It's wonderful in that the cameraman gets into the train and rides the rails. For more details about the film, see the Library of Congress catalog listing here. I'm including a second video which is a newsreel. At the beginning, there's a wonderful shot of St. John the Divine, but it is a long video so you may not want to get into the weeds of it. Delectable for the train lovers out there.

Our friends at the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group posted a great piece a few years ago about how the El train got to our neck of the woods in 1879.

A Library of Congress map of the El train system dating to 1881 is below.

So, does anything look familiar at all when you take these virtual rides?

Note: If you are receiving this directly to your email, click on the blog post title to go to the webpage and view the video. The emails don't code videos properly so it won't appear. Worth clicking through!

Also, if you like this blog, share it with a friend in the block association's neighborhood. There are loads of local treasures to come. Just not enough time to stoke the fires of this blog. Enjoy!

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

7/14/2016

1930: West 107th Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

Back in the day, the old, steady Schrafft's had a fountain at 2786 Broadway between W. 107th and 108th Streets. So the next time you are standing in front of Garden of Eden craving hot fudge or a scrumptious Shadow layer cake, you'll know why!

Where Schrafft's once stood -- 2786 Broadway in more recent days

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

7/7/2016

1946: West 101st Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

Note the W. 103rd St. IRT head house in the median one block north. It's hard to capture the perspective in the contemporary photo, but I am pretty sure the foreground of the picture from 1946 is the intersection at W. 101st Street looking northeast because the facades on the left match and the building at far right matches the building on the northeast corner of W. 102nd Street and Broadway today.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

6/30/2016

Circa 1910s: West 106th Street and West End Avenue

By Caitlin Hawke

At the turn of the last century, the Bloomingdale Reformed Church stood at 949 West End Avenue starting in 1905. But the congregation disbanded by 1913. It had these nifty buttresses, which you can see in some of these images.

A recent image of the site at 949 West End Avenue

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

6/23/2016

1935: West 105th Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

Looking northeast...in 1935 and today. Pretty similar except for the cars.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

6/16/2016

1909: W. 100th Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

It's comforting that some things don't change, to me at least. Have a look at the north side of W. 100th Street on the west side of Broadway, and you'll see that oldest of old wooden buildings right on the corner, occupied by the Metro Diner in all its retroness. And moving north you have status quo for the next 107 years! Oh, but have a look south, today. Bottom photo is current for comparison's sake.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

6/9/2016

1970: West 105th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue

By Caitlin Hawke

When I first considered this feature for the blog -- "Throwback Thursdays" of internet meme fame -- I had the notion that contributions of old snapshots would pour in from readers and neighbors. I would still love for that to happen. I'd like to see you in your habitat, as my 4-year-old niece Clare would say. But I also like the deep diving architectural history. You can see the whole historical library by clicking on the "Throwback" category, which you will find at right.

Chance had it this week that I came upon Chauncey. Chauncey G. Olinger, Jr., to be exact. Among other things, he chairs a University Seminar at Columbia on the university's history. So we were destined to meet.

Chauncey was a resident of W. 105th Street back in the 1970s. And he was the kind of neighbor who leaned into block beautification as you see below. He was the engineer of the first new-fangled tree guard and a motor of the landmarking process for that beautiful block of houses, status that was designated on April 19, 1973 incredibly enough. (It's a great report; I recommend the read!) Chauncey's DIY tree guard is, to my eye, particularly successful and of its era -- yet not unadaptably so. But take a close look. It's not at all what you think!

So a big hat tip to Chauncey, today, as well as to all the other folks who toil to prettify these parts. It's not lost on us. And history remembers you well.

Bloomingdalers, send in your pictures from the 1960s and 1970s.
Our operators are standing by!
Email: blog@w102-103blockassn.org

Old W. 105th Street neighbor Chauncey Olinger and his beautiful tromp l'oeil "iron" tree guard made of wood in 1970

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

5/19/2016

The Endlessly Fascinating Beaux Arts Muse Audrey Munson

By Caitlin Hawke

h/t to Peter Frishauf for the WSJ video.

If you don't know about Audrey Munson (1891-1996), the darling model of New York sculptors of yore, you are in for an eye opening. I mean, really, open your eyes and you will see: Audrey is everywhere! But to start, have a look at the figure in Straus Park where she was sculpted by Augustus Lukeman. Or check out the statues of Duty and Sacrifice on the Firemen's Memorial where Attillio Piccirilli sculpted her.

She wasn't just a Bloomingdaler, of course! You can see her atop the fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel (sculpted by Karl Bitter) or on the Maine Monument at Columbus Circle (also by Piccirilli). Or if you are downtown, crane your neck to see her on the Municipal Building: a gilded Munson as Civic Fame. I told you she was everywhere. And I haven't even gotten to Brooklyn.

A lot has been written (for example, here, here and here) about this celebrated and classical beauty who was also rather a tragic figure. Recently, the Wall Street Journal did this video which I thought would find a nice home on these blog pages in recognition of this honorary citizen of our neighborhood whose likeness stood for allegory and timelessness. May her image endure in these parts forever.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

4/28/2016

"History is Happening in Manhattan"

By Caitlin Hawke

"And we just happen to live in the greatest city in the world."

If you recognize these phrases, most likely you've just been to see "Hamilton" by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and you know the song as "The Schuyler Sisters." I have dug up a couple of videos for you to delect, in case, like me, you have a slight addiction and can't spring for another ticket.

But now here's the thing. What does Hamilton -- the person or the musical -- have to do with Bloomingdale?

Cherchez la femme! Or les femmes, as the case may be. Pivotal characters in Alexander Hamilton's life, the Schuyler sisters turned out to have had it bad for the father of our Treasury and Federalist extraordinaire. Hamilton married one, Elizabeth, aka Eliza. And it seems he may have had an affair with another, Angelica, the eldest of the sisters. The musical will explain that all to you.

Philip Schuyler

These femmes fatales were, of course, daughters of Philip Schuyler, revolutionary general and senator of New York.

In recognition of his service during the war and his stature, Schuyler Square was named for him. Alas, Schuyler Square is hard to find these days. But from 1899 until it was renamed about 10 years later, it referred to the triangle that is the current location of Straus Park. Eventually, it was renamed Bloomingdale Square as a nod to the Bloomingdale Road that once ran up through this neighborhood. And if you look carefully, there is still signage indicating that name.

I wrote about Straus Park here, but failed to mention the park was an urban palimpsest that harkened back to this historic figure.

So now you see how we get to Broadway genius Lin-Manuel Miranda from Bloomingdale without a detour to Miranda's beloved Washington Heights. You go to Schuyler Square at W. 106th Street and West End Avenue, and you contemplate the lives of two of Philip Schuyler's daughters who flew very close to Alexander Hamilton's incredible flame. And then you listen to Lin-Manuel's "The Schuyler Sisters." And you scheme about how to get your next ticket to the hottest show in the greatest city in the world….

From "Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the Municipal Assembly of The City of New York from April 4 to June 27, 1899

From 1900 "Proceedings of the Boards of Aldermen and assistant Aldermen"

This video is for the hard core fans. The three King Georges from "Hamilton" lip-syncing
"The Schuyler Sisters" number to the delight of the #ham4ham crowd.

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

4/21/2016

1930s: West 100th and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

Two oldie-but-goodie postcards of the Whitehall building -- also known as Hotel Whitehall -- on the southwest corner of West 100th Street and Broadway. Have you ever contemplated the bizarre dining room at Turkuaz? Long, low-ceilinged. Odd. Sort of perfect for the belly dancing that goes on at peak hours.

Truth be told, I rarely go, but when I do, I find myself opting for the front room. When I stumbled on the second image here, it all made sense. That funky draped ceiling conceals an urban archaeologist's treasure. The balcony of the old "Pompeian" room. Next time, I am having my döner kebob Italian-style!

Check it out.

Postcard of the Hotel Whitehall circa 1930

Postcard of the Hotel Whitehall's Pompeian Room circa 1920

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

4/7/2016

Pre-1950: West 107th and Riverside Drive

By Caitlin Hawke

h/t to Emily Berleth

This funky little house on a crag of rock was built in 1937 on the south corner of W. 107th Street and Riverside Drive -- yes, the corner opposite the Schinasi mansion. Talk about strange bedfellows.

It looks like an oddity, but it shares an architectural pedigree with the Chrysler Building as both structures were designed by William Van Alen. This was a prefab home, presumably a prototype. To read more, see this link and this one.

The house was supposed to be demolished in 1940 or 1941, but neighbor Emily Berleth, who grew up around the corner, recalls the house during the 1940s.

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A recent view of W. 107th and Riverside Drive where the Van Alen cottage stood for about 13 years

Throwback Thursday: Bloomingdale Edition

3/31/2016

1911: West 102nd Street and West End Avenue

By Caitlin Hawke

A streetscape that predates Costello's boxes and stone turtles by 100 years. But iron railing endures.

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The east side of the avenue looking north

Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

1/28/2016

1937: West 102nd Street and Broadway

By Caitlin Hawke

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Throwback Thursday, Bloomingdale Edition

1/21/2016

1944: West 101st Street between Broadway and West End Avenue

By Caitlin Hawke

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Above 247 West 101st Street in 1944, and, below, today