Historical and Contemporary All at Once

Posted on December 29, 2012 by admin

My friend Carolyn and I adventured downtown today for a bit of history and the art of 5 minutes ago.

What’s so wonderful about the Merchant’s House Museum is that the furnishings are intact from when the last family member Gertrude died in the 1930s. She apparently did not have a penchant for change and kept the house reflective of her family’s life from the 1840s forward. She even lived without electricity, except for a couple of outlets.

When the wealthy merchant family moved here, architectural styles were shifting from Federal to Greek Revival, as you can see in the front doorway. You have the lovely fanlight above the door–Federal–and the Ionic style columns of the Greek Revival. The house has the verticality of the Federal style with the balance and symmetry of Greek Revival, notable in the double parlors. Check out the gasolier lighting and the beautiful plaster work, mirrored in each the parlor.

What I also love about the house are the oldest extant Irish servant quarters in New York. Not terrible, although you climb a lot of narrow, steep stairs to get there. Some would say their apartment is about the same size and not in as good condition.

Then we moved a few blocks south to the New Museum, where we didn’t have the benefit of a tour with Penny, but I benefited from Carolyn’s sharp eye and good taste.

She instantly preferred Rosemarie Trockel’s ordered sensibility to the artists influenced by her. Trockel definitely has a way with texture, as you may be able to make out here. And she uses interesting materials, including acrystal, which is an acrylic resin, along with wool, platinum, and felt.

As always, I can be a bit baffled by the New Museum, a reminder that I’m not hep anymore.

We then debriefed at the lounge of the Bowery Hotel. We sat in those low-slung brown chairs at center, right by the fireplace. If you haven’t seen this place, stop in at E3rd and 3rd Avenue. It brought us full circle to a historic feeling place that’s completely contemporary, literally–a fitting mash-up for the day.

Meaning and Purpose

Posted on December 25, 2012 by admin

To see what the big deal is, I went on a walking tour of Rockefeller Center this morning, with architectural historian Tony Robins. He made the massive complex, that stretches from 48th to 51st Streets and the very long block from 5th Ave to 6th Ave, come together with meaning and coherence.

Originally John D. Rockefeller, the philanthropist son of the robber baron, invited the Metropolitan Opera to be the center of the complex, intending for profits from retail and office rentals to subsidize the Opera. But it was 1933, and the Met couldn’t pull it off. John D. was without a theme, and he wasn’t your typical real estate developer. He wanted to contribute to the world with this building complex, at the center of the city, at the center of the world. Tony described John D. like Atlas pictured above, bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders, both as a philanthropist and now, as a man with a problem.

Construction continued, as labor and steel were cheap in the Depression. You see the unimpeded, dramatic view from ground to the top of the 70 story RCA Building, now known as 30 Rock after the TV show. The whole complex is tied together aesthetically through the use of the same colored stone, vertical windows, vertical banding, all to make our spirits soar, as our eyes inevitably rise to skyward.

But each building is also different in design, even as they are aligned on an axis toward the center (today, the ice skating rink). The complex is very much like a stage set, with lead architect Raymond Hood creating the desired ‘effect’.

Since he was committed to “international understanding,” John D., in search of a theme for his complex, decided to devote the 5th Ave side of the Center to foreign affairs, now home to consulates and international airlines. Each of the four buildings that serve as the 5th Ave ‘doorway’ to Rock Center was given over design-wise to a country. Each had the opportunity to present its face to New York, to create its own image.

The British Empire Building front door has three parts. The arch at the top is a tribute to royalty with a lion, unicorn, and the Latin phrase for ‘God and my Right,’ referring to the divine right of the king. But look at the center part of the door, with these nine sculptures. Wow!

In gold, all about the wealth, eight are labelled: salt, wheat, wool, coal, cotton, tobacco, and sugar. You recognize products of the colonies. Even in 1933, England advertises itself as an Empire, symbolized by that rising sun at the bottom center.

Now compare that to the French. Also an industrial power with an empire, France instead promotes its Revolution with Liberté, Égalité, and Fraternité and the emblem of the country in Marianne, who carries the torch of liberty.

Below her are sculptural reliefs of diplomacy, with the emblem of New York greeting Paris at lower Manhattan. Below that scene are three female nudes for Poetry, Beauty, and Elegance.

And we haven’t even entered the complex yet!

Along the sides of these two buildings are simpler over-door decorations. For France, Marianne as a rustic girl, spreading seeds shaped like fleur-de-lis, the symbol of France. And above the British doorway, Mercury, god of commerce. Those messages are consistent, loud, and clear!

Marianne spreading seeds of France

Mercury spreading British commerce

The sides of the buildings take you into the promenade called the “Channel Gardens,” like crossing the English Channel–get it? You also see the water motifs below each figure’s feet.

The promenade is sloped down to kinesthetically invite the visitor into the complex, down to the skating rink at the center. The incline device is used throughout the complex, inspired by the design of Grand Central.

By the way, the Italian and International Building entrances aren’t nearly so interesting visually. But historically, they are: the generic International Building came to pass after the newly empowered Nazis turned down the opportunity to have a dedicated German building, and the Italian 1930s fascist-driven ornamentation was replaced in the 1960s to a bland branch.

No Rock Center visit would be complete without seeing the murals in the RCA building. Done in grisaille (shades of grays), they are actually very understated. Of course the backstory is anything but. After Picasso and Matisse said no to decorating the interior, Diego Rivera said yes. As a known Communist painting for a man Rivera believed symbolized capitalism, ya might think something would be up. But no. He goes right ahead and starts work. Rivera paints the mural of the working man, then the mural of the upper class drinkers, before doing an enormous portrait of Lenin. Oops.

Down come the murals.

John D., who was also involved with MoMA, just a couple of blocks away, said the murals would be moved to the museum. But for whatever reason, ha, they were destroyed in the process. Rivera was paid $21,000 and went home to Mexico, where he promptly recreated the murals as paintings on canvas. The upper class drinkers now included a portrait of John D, a known teatotaler. So there! Hope you had a chance to see the paintings at the recent MoMA show of Rivera works.

Of the current murals by Jose Marillo Sert, I especially love those on the ceiling. Look at this gargantuan figure, one of the workers raising the city of the sky, with airplanes up above instead of angels. The illusionism is awesome. We don’t get to see much ceiling painting in the U.S., and this is di sotto in su (looking up from below) at its best.

Then there’s the mural as you exit the RCA building onto 6th Ave. Its lengthy narrative wraps around a very large space, encompassing John D.’s themes about the progress of man. At the center is Thought, with the Written Word on one side and the Spoken Word on the other. Wonderful!

We ended with a peek at Radio City Music Hall, which replaced the Met Opera as the artistic group housed at the complex. But instead of being at the center, as was intended for the Met, Radio City is on the outskirts on 6th Ave. Of course, the Rockettes were named for Rockefeller Center, but did you know they originally were going to be named the Roxyettes?

Look above the tacky neon on the side of the building to see the medallions of the arts.

Music

Comedy and Tragedy masks

Rockefeller Center brings together the beauty and elegance of the symmetry–an axial design of many buildings radiating out from the center–and asymmetry–the uniqueness of architectural design, ornamentation, and theme. It was built at a time of hope, despite the Depression and the impending war. It was filled with meaning and values that celebrated possibility.

While the throngs were there to see a tree with lights, I left satisfied from this saturation of Beauty and Purpose. As I walked the 46 blocks home on this beautiful, cold New York day, I, too, could look past the difficulties of our daily life to hope for a better future in 2013.

Herb & Dorothy

Posted on December 13, 2012 by admin

You may remember Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who on their postal worker and Brooklyn librarian salaries amassed a contemporary art collection of over 4000 works, all kept in their one bedroom New York apartment.

To share their art legacy, they gave about 2500 works to the National Gallery (their rationale: they worked for the government, earning the money to buy art, and then returned the art to the people at this free museum). Then they gave 50 works to one museum in each of the 50 states. Their ’50×50′ program. Remarkable.

But what did they do? They continued collecting.

The Herb & Dorothy documentary is an utter joy, so life-affirming and moving, no matter what you think about the art they collected.

The Delaware Art Museum was one of the recipient’s of 50 works, while I was a docent there. A camera crew came by, to film part of their follow-up documentary. Looks like they’re going to excerpt from one of my Vogel tours for the new film. Meantime to see more about that documentary, check out these clips.

You can also follow them on Facebook.

Herb died not too long ago, to all our great sadness. My heart wept at seeing him shrunken in a wheelchair at the Delaware Art Museum, so terribly frail, still wanting to be a part, as Dorothy took the lead. That’s not how we’ll remember him though, thanks to these wonderful films.

Roll out the red carpet

Posted on December 11, 2012 by admin

My friend Penny gives “good tour”! She’s added Grand Central Terminal to her repertoire, and if you’re interested in going on one of her Municipal Arts Society tours, let me know, and I’ll connect you two.

Grand Central, well, it’s just grand. Mr. Vanderbilt, as with everything he built, didn’t skimp. This Beaux Arts building is full of his symbol, the acorn–from little seeds, grow big trees–and secrets, according to Penny. She shared some of those secrets: the dirtiest place in New York, the two most romantic places in New York, Track 61 as FDR’s supposedly private track in the adjoining Wadlorf-Astoria, the secret staircase in the information booth, and and Grand Central’s space age connection.

Did you know that the information desk clock where we all meet all the time, that clock is worth $10-20 million? It’s made out of solid opal!

All those light bulbs, some 35,000 exposed bulbs, celebrate electricity. I’m sure ConEd is thrilled, too! See more pictures in the slide show below.

I loved that Penny talked about the less obvious aspects of the architecture. Sure, there’s that magnificent statue of Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva atop the station, and the eagle perched off to the side. And there’s the carved sculptural program both inside and out. But I loved the explanation of the inclines (the station has no stairs).

Coming in, we’re on top of the world, as if a queen on a pedestal, then the incline down helps us hurry to our train. On the way out of the station, the incline up encourages us to slow down before entering the bustle of New York City.

Everyone loves the Whispering Gallery, and on this tour, I got to try it out. I turned into the corner of the barrel-vaulted space and said my name to the woman way on the other said of the space. Our conversation was muffled, but understandable. Sort of like talking cell phone to cell phone. Weird and amazing and delightful.

Apparently, a marriage proposal happens there everyday, so if your partner takes you there and tells you to face the corner, you can probably anticipate what comes next. This photo is of the vaulted tiling in the Whispering Gallery which I think is exquisite.

The old shoe shine stand is still set up, not far from where the Twentieth Century Train came in to the Terminal. The red carpet was rolled out for its Hollywood stars and other train-riding celebrities.

In 1913, Grand Central opened, so in just a few short weeks, we can celebrate the centennial of this grand old place, by rolling out the red carpet for Grand Central!

[Show picture list]

P.S. Kudos to Penny for keeping her cool as a “Free Tibet” protest parade marched from the Chinese Embassy at 42nd and 12th, all the way to Grand Central, right past us, and beyond.

House made of glass

Posted on November 24, 2012 by admin

Philip Johnson said, “You can only approach a house on an angle.” Eccentric, perhaps. But his architectural eye knew that approaching at a 45 degree angle shows the depth of the structure. Each of the eight structures on his grounds in New Canaan, CT are connected–visually, in repeated motifs, and through an angled, promenade approach.

The Glass House, from 1949, is only one of the phenomenons to see. Johnson, who proclaimed himself his own best client, considered the property a “50 year diary” in which he could experiment with new ideas. As one of the great innovators of the International Style, Johnson broke free from the mid-century restrictions of glass and steel.

Look at how as late as 1995, Johnson explores architecture as sculpture. The Frank Stella/Frank Gehry inspired Da Monsta is an organic red and black sculpture plopped at the entrance, near the Post-Modern gate (depicted in the slide show below). He said windows and doors could always be added later. Inside, there are no straight lines. The walls and ceiling are all angles and curves.

Corbusier, Ronchamp Chapel

The dimly lit interior is womb-like, with a sacred feeling, reminiscent of Corbusier’s Chapel at Ronchamp. Both Corbusier and Johnson move beyond the International Box to this sensual, textural, anti-glass-and-steel feel to something much more of the earth, spiritual in its essence. Perhaps the wisdom of age overcomes their youthful, masculine attempts to assert themselves against/over nature.

Johnson never lost the International-Style love of circles and squares, and the motifs are found all over the grounds. He imposed geometry on the terrain clearing out trees (he said, “In Connecticut, you can’t see the trees for the trees,” and never felt guilty for taking some out), sculpting the sight-lines he wanted. He had the grass cut in stripes. The trimmed the branches of the pine trees, so the needles would fall just the way he liked them.

Like an Earth artist, he constructed a tumulus, or burial mound, over his art gallery, when he decided he had added enough architecture. But not before Donald Judd contributed his circular sculpture as part of the promenade to the Glass House. Across from the Glass House, you see the yang to its yin–the Brick House. Heavy. solid, private, the Brick House was ostensibly the guest house, but Johnson said “that’s where you have to go to ‘ball,’ if you remember that euphemism.” With guests like Andy Warhol, you can imagine what kind of love nest the Brick House must have been.

The interior of the glass house gives you the stunning connection with nature you might expect, reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. But there were surprises in the interior as well. Not the Mies Van der Rohe furniture, not the Richard Kelly lighting, not the Ken Price sculpture (all fabulous), but the Nicholas Poussin neoclassical architectural landscape, freestanding on an easel in the full sunlight, really was unexpected. Johnson lined the painting up so its horizon line acted as a continuation of nature’s horizon.

But I can’t help wondering if there isn’t something just a bit passive-aggressive about taking a Poussin, which hung in his office at MoMA, and placing it in conservation-destroying, direct sunlight. The painting’s colors are dimmed, with paint flecking off to this day. His art collection, in the bunker, only seen in artificial life, features modernist and post-modernist friends and colleagues–Frank Stella, Julian Schnabel, Robert Rauschenberg, Michael Heiser, Cindy Sherman, you get the idea. Not a single artist working before 1945, except that poor, over-exposed Poussin.

What I most resonated with in Johnson’s personality and themes is the idea of “Safe-Danger.” He built an eyebrow bridge that shakes slightly when we walk over it. He liked to think of the buildings as pods, each with its own purpose. But then he built a classically-inspired Folly (how Post Modern!), too small to stand up in comfortably, for picnics and such. In honor of his friend Lincoln Kirstein, he built a stairway to nowhere. A staffer climbed it, no handrails, for a video shown in the Visitor’s Center. Not for the faint of heart! See it, vertical sculpture-like, above the Folly?

In 1967, Johnson hosted a “Country Happening” with Merce Cunningham and John Cage. I wonder if George Segal was there. In his sculpture gallery, Johnson has one of the Segal Lovers in Bed, a series of his more beautiful works. But before all this modern and post-modern art collection, Johnson was a mid-century man. He moved to New Canaan to be near friends from his Harvard years, architects who shaped the town with 120 mid-century modernist homes. Ninety still survive today and are open for the occasional home tour. But that, alas, is for another day. The sun was setting, and tired girls had to board the train back to New York City.

[Show picture list]

Dimly Lit Charm

Posted on November 16, 2012 by admin

After being closed for code updates, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, a wee national park, has reopened, and I have finally gotten there for a tour. The guide was not a park ranger, but a very knowledgeable volunteer guide.

What I loved about the house also makes it hard to show you what it’s like. It’s as dimly lit as it was in 1865, with no electricity or running water. Typical of New York, the original house was converted to industrial and commercial use, then rentals, before being torn down. The house is a re-creation., although happily, it is furnished with Roosevelt family furniture and objects, with moldings, wallpaper, and carpeting replicated based on family memories and photos. So it is worth a trip.

Besides the obvious stories, like where the Teddy Bear comes from, you know I love the trivia. Did you know that TDR did taxidermy as a child, grossing out the servants, and later wrote a book on it? Bully!

Did you know that TDR went west for the first time, after his wife and mother died on the same day?

Theodate Pope Riddle

And the architect for the house was Theodate Pope Riddle, the first woman architect in the state of New York and a survivor of the Lusitania.

I guess TDR was surrounded by strong women, not only his beloved niece Eleanor and outspoken daughter Alice, but also his maternal grandmother, who instilled the sense of societal obligation in her family. She did quite a job!

TDR Birthplace Pocket Door

The family made its money in land speculation, banking, and interestingly, imported glass. This door gives you a sense of how glorious that glass was.

And those Roosevelt’s trace their arrival in New York to the Dutch in the 1650s. Roosevelt means ‘field of roses’ in Dutch and so appears on their family crest, as you can sorta see in this original plate.

TDR Birthplace, Family Crest

Pertinent to nothing, I just liked this little lamp and its charming shade. You can see how dark the room is, and I was on the 11 a.m. tour! Hard on the eyes of the reader Teddy Roosevelt, but evocative for us visitors.

TDR Birthplace, Charming Lampshade

Heroines

Posted on November 12, 2012 by admin

Heroines of the Lower East Side, a walking tour with the LES Jewish Conservancy, comes right out of Joyce Mendelsohn’s book. Joyce inspired us with stories of women you know–Emma Goldman, Louise Nevelson, Lillian D. Wald, and Belle Moskowitz–and those you probably don’t.

Of the latter, my favorite was “The Red Yiddish Cinderella,” Rose Pastor Stokes. Rose was so poor that as a child, she was sent to work in a cigar factory. Writing about working conditions, she became a journalist, and then interviewed one of the Phelps-Stokes who was working in a settlement house, so called because the volunteers settled in the neighborhood or building they were serving. The two fell in love, overcame family prejudices of their inter-religious marriage, and enjoyed their wedding gift of an island off Connecticut. Yes, seriously. They divorced after 20 years, but it was a real life Cinderella story, and she continued to serve the LES all her life.

My favorite building was the “Forward” Building, where the Yiddish socialist paper was published for over 40 years. Perhaps one of the most memorable parts of the paper, which advocated for workers’ rights, social reform, and the importance of education, was the Letters to the Editor section called A Bintel Brief. Joyce told us ethical conundrums and heart-wrenching dilemmas of those asking for advice. The response generally was to rally the community to support the their struggling neighbors–an ongoing theme on the LES. I look forward to reading the book of letters.

The ‘Forward’ building is now luxury condos, of course, and we all wondered if residents would get the irony each day as they exit and enter their building. Just overhead, on the protected facade of the building, are the carved faces of Marx and Engels.

Right across from the building is Strauss Square, originally Rutgers Square, where we stood on the ubiquitous Belgian blocks (not cobblestones, which are rounded), the site of soapbox mass meetings. Here, the 1917 riot of housewives took place. That year, the pushcart sellers raised the price of onions, a symbol of good luck, from 3 cents per pound to 10 cents per pound. One housewife became irate, and because the peddler couldn’t hit a woman, he instead enlisted his wife, who wasn’t shy.

The riot ensued, and then housewives met at Rutgers Square and organized. They decided to boycott all food except for milk, bread, eggs, and butter, and then marched to City Hall. Guess what? They won! Heroines indeed.

One other special stop was the Henry Street Settlement House. Image, we got to sit in the dining room, a beautiful Federal style room with a piano, where Lillian Wald and others worked to introduce just the most basic sanitary and health care needs of LES residents.

I didn’t know that the Settlement House still operates, serving about 60,000 people per year, in all five boroughs. They’ve expanded beyond health care and early Wald innovations like advocating for the first playground in New York, revolutionizing public schools with special education and school nurses, and creating the Visiting Nurses concept. Now they also provide counseling, day care, elder care, college counseling, and even music, art, and dance lessons.

What was so good about Joyce’s tour was her stories of how ordinary women become heroines, with compassionate hearts and courage to enact their beliefs–a timely reminder in this time of ongoing challenges. Everywhere on the tour were signs of Hurricane Sandy. Volunteers were clearing away debris and broken tree limbs, as life limps back to normal. There are heroines, and heroes, everywhere we look.

Ghostly Sightings

Posted on October 28, 2012 by admin

Halloween apparitions will most likely be stirred by Hurricane Sandy this year. She seems to be a very angry spirit. So yesterday, it was time to go meet a few ghosts.

With its loveliness, one wouldn’t think that Washington Square would be a vortex of Halloween energy. But it was built on the graves of 15,000 yellow fever victims, and some say you can see the saffron yellow, linen-wrapped bodies, if you know where to look.

The Hanging Tree, last used in 1819
Click on this image to see its creepiness

But you don’t have to look hard to see the last Hanging Tree in New York, where Lafayette in his triumphal return to the U.S. was proudly taken to witness such justice.

So Justin Ferate told us on our tour of Haunted Greenwich Village.

As is typical of any tour with Justin, we went off on interesting tangents. Do you know why walk-ups rarely go higher than 6 stories? Because water pressure won’t go push water higher than that. Savvy builders constructed new apartment houses to 15 stories using water pump technology. Did you know that the best kind of water tower to have on the roof of your building is made of wood? Justin wants to lead a tour of New York’s water towers. I’ll be there!

And although not at all ghostly, those professional chess players in the park can get their supplies on nearby Thompson Street.

3rd and Thompson

So many places in the Washington Square vicinity are haunted, you’ll have to check out the slide show below. Here are some tidy tidbits. You know the phrase “getting sent up the river”? That comes from moving the prison in Greenwich Village up the Hudson River to Sing-Sing (a popular tourist stop on a daytrip out of Manhattan in the early 1800s, per my New York Historical Society connections).

We saw NYU’s Brown Building, where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire horrified all. The 146 unfortunate women, locked in the workroom, who died on March 25, 1911, had work because of R.H. Macy who invented the pricetag. A set price on a shirtwaist and black skirt allowed the Working Girl to afford the ‘uniform’ of her day.

In the myriad ways to detect a house of the wealthy is the type of column. In this case a full, that is a complete, rounded column, was more expensive than a partial column or pilaster. Makes sense.

Gertrude Drick supposedly haunts the small doorway she introduced to artist John Sloan and other ‘hoodies, when they climbed the 110 stairs inside the arch to go to the top and party.

Aaron Burr bought the carriage house at 17 Barrow Street, stabling his and George Washington’s horses there. Now the famous restaurant One If By Land, Two If By Sea, Burr and his daughter Theodosia haunt the place. She likes earrings, so be careful what you wear when you go there.

Anyone want to join me?

Washington Square is way too haunted to relay all the tales here, but check out this slide show:

washington-arch

Image 1 of 24

Then I rode the C train up to 163rd Street to visit the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Eliza Jumel’s spirit, which regularly haunts the place along with other ghosts, was apparently so restless that she morphed into 7 manifestations, each haunting a separate room or place on the grounds.

[gview file=”https://www.renatobey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Eliza-Jumel.pdf”]

To read more about Eliza, you can zoom to read the text on page 2 or click open the pdf.

Eliza was abandoned as a young girl by her parents and so turned to prostitution, before becoming an actress. She married for money, perhaps killed that husband, and then her second husband Aaron Burr conveniently died on the day their divorce was finalized.

Eliza as an abandoned girl, in the kitchen

Eliza as a widow, with the pitchfork that killed Stephen Jumel

In her mad, doddering elderhood, she was a scary gal, and I have to admit that I jumped a bit when I exited the house to be screamed at by Eliza’s ghost from the balcony, “Get Out of My House!” Okay, okay already. So that’s when I went on the grounds to encounter the Eliza who may have neglected to care for her husband Stephen, after he was pierced by a pitchfork. Hmmm.

Edith Wharton wrote in the introduction to her autobiography A Backward Glance, “To all the friends who every year on All Souls’ Night come and sit with me by the fire” (thank you, Justin for sharing this quote). Since Sandy seems to be keeping us at home for the next few days, join me by my proverbial fireplace…well, everyone maybe except Eliza!

City Island and Pelham

Posted on October 13, 2012 by admin

Fall is here. The air is crisp. The sky is that deep blue of autumn. Lexington Avenue is showing off its colors.

A perfect day to venture up to City Island, with some stops in Pelham Bay Park and Pelham Manor along the way. My first time to travel with the Victorian Society.

Our first stop was Grace Church in Pelham Manor. Very classy, as you can see.

Christ Church, Pelham Manor

It dates to 1843, featuring windows by the Bolton brothers, who were credited with creating the first figured stained glass in the U.S. Their father was the minister, and they were self-taught, with this church as an experimental palette.

We moved quickly on to the 1842 Bartow-Pell Mansion in the northeast Bronx.

My most favorite room was the Orangerie. Glorious on this beautiful day.

We then crossed the bridge onto City Island.

The island was originally part of Pelham and was intended to rival New York Harbor. But the island was devastated by the British during the Revolutionary War, and those ambitious plans were never realized. They then attempted to build the island up based on Salt Works. But without a bridge (not built until the 1870s), the industry failed, and they turned to oystering. City Island oysters were even served in Paris.

Pollution put an end to that business after making many fishermen rich. So the island reinvented itself again around shipbuilding. Those fortunes built up the island with its mansions and churches constructed by shipbuilding carpenters. Tourists rode ferries to the island for its beaches and casinos. With the demise of shipbuilding in the 1980s, the island has become residential.

This is the view from Barbara Dolensek’s house on the west side of the island on Easthaven Bay.

Their wonderful 1900 house was a wreck when they bought in 1979, the dark days of the Bronx, and they were the first owners to live in the house since 1906. Barbara called it “Mildew Manor.” They worked on the exterior first, restoring its beauty. The filmmakers of Long Day’s Journey into Night helped, too, by rebuilding their porch for the first 15 minutes of the film.

See the slide show below for interior pictures and more views from Barbara’s house.

By the way, she edited the Met Museum’s publications, commuting into Manhattan everyday from her beloved City Island. Her husband was the vet for the Bronx Zoo. One wonderful story she told was that her husband was caring for some lion cubs, and they really needed a lot of attention. So rather than stay with them over the weekend at the zoo, he brought them home to City Island, where the neighborhood children got to play with them. Imagine.

Barbara escorted us to her church, Grace Church, which also has a Bolton stained glass window. But I was enchanted by the boats at the altar–one faces east and the other west.

The church was built in 1862 by local shipwrights.

After visiting the Revolutionary War era Pelham Cemetery, where the dearly departed have the best views into perpetuity, we went on the Inn run by Michele French.

This house was built by an oysterman, Captain Pell, in 1867, and is truly Victorian inside, with weird little cubbyholes in rooms, narrow staircases, and delightful double bay windows on the first two floors.

I loved a couple of other houses nearby, which never let us forget the sea. One had a masthead and the other a two-story widow’s walk. Close ups are in the slide show.

And City Island has charming little finds, like this doorway — too fun.

I had wanted to go to City Island for awhile, and that itch has been scratched. I’m not moving there anytime soon, but will enjoy looking at this slideshow to remember the enchanting day there.

[Show picture list]

Usonian houses in Westchester

Posted on October 8, 2012 by admin

It’s been over a week since I joined the Usonian tour in Westchester County, led by Justin Ferrate, an amazingly knowledgeable, resourceful, and personable guide.

http://www.justinsnewyork.com/

Going into the two houses, plus walking the neighborhood, lingers as a highlight of my New York touring adventures.

Roland Reisley’s home.

He is an original owner who worked directly with Frank Lloyd Wright to build his home. Roland told me that Wright was easy to work with and even raised the ceilings 3 inches to accommodate Roland’s height. Roland was in his 20s when he worked with Wright, who was in his 80s. Talking with Roland today, now age 86, means connecting to over 150 years of American history.

More about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian houses in Westchester County, NY.

The neighborhood is a cooperative, and just like a New York City coop, prospective residents have to make an application. Check out this application page Justin gave us:

[gview file=”https://www.renatobey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Usonian.pdf”]

How would you answer these questions?

The rain doesn’t stop anyone

Posted on October 7, 2012 by admin

Despite the rain, about 30 people showed up for the Grand Concourse tour in the Bronx, part of Open House New York. Sam Goodman, an Urban Planner for the Bronx Borough, led the tour. About midway, as we stood before a much-storied, internationally traveling Beaux Arts Sculpture in Joyce Kilmer Park (part of the slide show below), he challenged us to examine our prejudices: “who says a working class neighborhood can’t be beautiful?”

He got us into the lobby of several doorman buildings and the courtyards of others on a stretch of Grand Concourse not too far from Yankee Stadium. Classic Art Deco and Beaux Arts detailing. Murals in two on the buildings. Elevators, oh my. Check them out.

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The people living in the buildings seemed more interested in getting on with their day than admiring the beauty of their surroundings. I get it. We live such busy, harried lives. But to take a moment and see, really see. That’s sweet. Sam talked about what makes a building inviting. It’s why I chose my building, which has a really pretty lobby, small floors, and clean, non-smelly halls. What about you?

Riding the D train up to my volunteer assignment at the NY Botanical Gardens, I wondered how many people would venture all the way up there on a rainy day. I met Bob and Jenny on the train, members of the Gardens, not aware that OHNY was there today, too. We walked the 8 blocks over to the Gardens, and through their generosity, I joined them as “members” who could go into the Monet Giverny installations.

For those of you who saw the Giverny exhibit this spring, as I did with Helen and Al, or in the summer, I’m not sure the autumn plantings are different enough to warrant the long trip, unless you have a car. Of course, if you haven’t seen it, it is lushly gorgeous.

In this slide show, you’ll also see the Fountain of Life and the neo-Renaissance building that houses the library and the Monet paintings that are on exhibit. I also was blown away with the sculpture installations on the grounds, definitely new since my spring visit.

Even on a rainy day, this is a place of great solace and beauty. The quiet, too. And there was added fall beauty, although no leaf color yet, all over the grounds.

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Going home on the 4 included a surprise treat–art in the subway. One of thousands of OHNY tours I missed this year was the subway art tour. There’s always next year…

Abundance of riches

Posted on October 6, 2012 by admin

There are 4 conferences in New York this weekend I wanted to go to, but I am only managing two. Such is the life in New York. While I’ll be missing the landscape conference and the Historic House Tours, today, I managed to make it to both JASNA in Brooklyn and Open House New York (OHNY) in Manhattan.

The day started with Cornel West, who is a Jane Austen fanatic, along with the 750 conference goers. His style of delivery and even his point of view made for a fascinating point-counterpoint with Anna Quindlen. While she focused on Austen as a miniaturist, who with that in-depth study models for writers a kind of greatness in the detail, he placed Austen as “the daughter of Shakespeare” in a Humanist tradition going back to the Greeks. What does it mean to be human? What is it affected by acknowledging our inevitable death? We accomplish wisdom only through self-knowledge. West argues that Jane Austen writes compellingly about each.

While Quindlen spoke from the heart, with tears in her voice, West leaned over his podium, spoke without notes, reference philosophy and literature through the ages, and impassioned his audience with preacher-like reverence. He compared Austen with Checkov who said “I am a sad soul with a cheerful disposition,” then compared both authors in their quest to reveal, understand, and grow from suffering. In a similar spirit to Quindlen, West said, “Jane Austen’s accomplishments go beyond our ability to keep up with them.”

: Cornel West dancing all around the podium

Having first met West’s work while in graduate school, in writing filled with anger at patriarchal power structures and the oppression of African Americans, I was a bit amazed to see him leap to the stage, personally acknowledge many coordinators and scholars in the audience, and hug everyone within a few feet. Perhaps, like all of us, age has brought a softening, a gentleness, a Jane Austen-ness that inevitably comes from the suffering of daily life.

After a rousing session on Georgian jewelry, I made my way back to Manhattan to the West Village. With an hour to spare, I visited a Tibetan shop and stopped in to look at some fun antique clocks next door.

: American clock, c1910s

Then I followed this guy for awhile, with his orange wheel. I have no idea what he was doing or where he was ultimately going.

I sat in a pretty park with a nice fountain, until it was time to make my way to the OHNY tour.

Manhole Covers. Yes, really. Quite wonderful.

The tour was led to the artist Michele Brody who has a passion for manhole covers, designed one that was temporarily situated on Wall Street, and recently has sold manhole cover inspired lighting. You’ll see her picture in this slide show, along with some of the highlights. I love how important the feet and shoes became in this venture of looking down at the minutiae of life. I bet Jane Austen would have loved this tour.