Have a Great Weekend!

This man is actually sitting in a chair next to the fountain in Bryant Park, but he looked like he was living it up and almost inspired several of us to throw off our clothes and dive into the water!

NYC Decade by Decade--1780-1789...Out with the Brits, In with the Feds

On October, 1781, word reached New York that the British forces had surrendered at Yorktown.  Hostilities were officially suspended in February of 1783.  The British finally left Manhattan in November--over two years after the final battle.  On November 25, Evacuation Day, Washington led his army into the city and claimed New York for the Americans.  (Click for more on Evacuation Day.)

With the occupying forces gone, there was work to do:  buildings to be rebuilt; new trading strategies to be devised; and punishments to be meted out.  No colony turned its wrath against former Loyalists like New York.  (No colony probably had as many to punish.)  There were mass confiscations of property belonging to sympathizers of the crown. 

Alexander Hamilton, now a married lawyer at twenty-seven, moved back to New York and became a star in the aftermath of the war.  Hamilton played a persuasive role in making New York the de facto capital for the nation in 1785 when the Continental Congress decided to meet there.  Along with James Madison and John Jay, Hamilton wrote multiple essays in what were known as the Federalist Papers and was instrumental in convincing New York to ratify the Constitution.

New York and Rhode Island, however, did hold out until assurances were made that certain amendments would be made to the Constitution.  A second Constitutional Congress was held in New York and the first ten amendments, the Bill of Rights, were drafted.  Hamilton was so loved in the city for his advocacy for a federal government that there was talk, at least during enthusiastic rallies, of renaming New York Hamiltoniana.

New York became the official capital in March of 1789 and George Washington was inaugurated on Wall Street on April 30th.  Hamilton became the first Secretary of the Treasury; Thomas Jefferson, the first Secretary of State; John Adams, the first vice president; and Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice.  Madison, John Monroe and so many other Founding Fathers worked and lived in lower Manhattan.  Plans were made to create vistas and grand avenues appropriate for a capital, but by the following August the federal government would be gone.

ALSO DURING THIS DECADE:

1784--New York's first bank opens.  Aptly named the Bank of New York, it will be the first traded stock of the New York Stock Exchange (1792).

1784--John Jacob Astor, twenty-one years old, arrives in the city where he works for at his mother-in-law's store on Queen Street selling musical instruments.  He will eventually turn to the fur trade and real estate and will become the richest man in the United States.

1785--The cornerstone is laid for St. Peter's Church (the oldest Catholic parish in the city) on Barclay Street.  That church will stand until 1836 when the modern Greek Revival structure replaces it.

1789--In the summer, the old fort dating back to the early years of the Dutch colony, is demolished to make room for a new federal district.

Sources:  Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; Manhattan in Maps by Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen; The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger; New York:  An Illustrated History by Ric Burns and James Sanders, with Lisa Ades; The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson.

Nicholas Cresswell on the Stench of the City in the 1770's

"If any author had an inclination to write a treatise upon stinks he never could meet with more subject matter than New York City."

It still rings true.

Six Positives About This Past Tour Season

6--The new Herald Square.  I don't love the new Herald Square as much as I hate the new Times Square, but at least here you can make an argument that the traffic flow has actually improved.  In Times Square, there was only downtown and crosstown traffic, but in Herald Square, there was uptown, crosstown, and downtown, which required a tedious series of light changes.  Traffic on Sixth was almost always congested down to at least Twenty-seventh Street.  With the removal of vehicles from Broadway, traffic up Sixth moves and the seating here doesn't seem as offensive.

5--The opening of the wonderful South Ferry subway station--the first new station in twenty-five years.

4--The new vendors on Liberty and Ellis Islands.  Polite, clean, environmentally conscious, and creative.  For years, I have told my tours that Ellis Island, for obvious reasons, should feature a different country every month and provide a real international food court.  In 2009, the new vendor created just that.  July was French for Bastille Day, March was Irish for St. Patrick's.  There was also Polish, Italian, etcetera.  The quality of the food is also superior to that the previous low bidder served.

3--The reopening of the Metropolitan Museum's American Wing!

2--The reopening of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  After several years of renovation and cleaning, it is radiant.

1--THE HIGH LINE!!!!!

Six Negatives About This Past Tour Season

Ever since the season ended, I have wanted to post an entry about what my fellow guides and I loved and hated about this spring.  After an informal poll (which entailed my asking, "Don't you agree with me that...?") I have come up with a list of twelve.  Today:  six features which earned a thumbs-down.

6--THE RAIN!!!!!!!!!  This includes the clouds, the overall gray, and the fog...though that last one was also beautiful.

5--The number of closings.  I stopped posting these a few months ago, because they were depressing me, but that does not mean the closings have abated.  On one recent afternoon, in the course of only two hours, I came across FOR RENT signs in the windows of one of my favorite coffee shops, one of my favorite restaurants, and the copy store which I had used since 1997.

4--The remains of the graffiti at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park.  You can still make out the tags on certain columns, and where you can't see the vandalism on the wall panels, you can see the discoloration that the removal itself caused.

3--The rise in subway and bus fares.  Ridiculous.  $2.25 for a single ride.  $8.25 for a day pass.  I HEART NY, BUT I HATE THE MTA.

2--Petty crime and con jobs targeting the out-of-towner were back this spring.  Beyond pickpockets, one of my students was literally grabbed and pulled against a wall on Fifth Avenue (Fifth Avenue, mind you) and pressured to buy a Hip Hop CD from one of our overlooked artists.  When the kid opened his wallet (a stupid move, granted) the salesman grabbed several bills and ran.  And then there was the proliferation of devious food cart vendors.  One frequently used trick is to give change for a ten even though a twenty was paid.  Another is to offer the $4 bottle of water instead of the $2.50 bottle the sign advertises.  A third is to charge an extra dollar for the hot dog or pretzel.  If someone challenges the cost and points to the price sign, the vendor apologizes for the honest mistake.  He just did the math wrong, his raised hands imply; however, as we all know, he does the math wrong all day long.

1--The Transformation of Times Square into Slothville. 

TOMORROW:  SIX POSITIVES!!

Roxy Paine on the Roof

I took groups to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on six different days in May and June.  On five of these days, the Roof Garden was closed because of rain.  (The torrential spring of 2009 will go down in infamy.)  On the sixth trip, however, the weather was gorgeous and since I was one of the first people inside the museum, the roof was all mine for about thirty minutes.

The sculpture built for this particular rooftop is entitled Maelstrom by Roxy Paine whose work you might remember in Madison Square two years ago. 

 

 

 

Maelstrom will be on the roof until October 25th.

NYC Decade by Decade: 1770-1779...The Revolution

The decade opened with the unveiling of a gilded statue of King George III in Bowling Green.  It was a symbol of gratitude and a pledge of loyalty to the crown after the repeal of the Stamp Act.  A year later, in 1771, a wrought iron fence was assembled around Bowling Green to protect the statue from the portion of the populace who preferred not to pledge.  The fence (at least large parts of it) still surrounds Bowling Green--a link to the pre-Revolutionary New York.  The statue it was supposed to keep safe, however, was torn down after the Declaration of Independence was first read in New York in July of 1776. 

For more on the statue and the fence:

The British moved the bulk of their forces to the troublesome city of Boston in 1774.  During the next couple of years, Paul Revere served the important role of keeping radical New Yorkers informed of the events in Boston.  It was Paul Revere who brought news (on 12/20/1776) that Boston had held a tea party a few days earlier.  New Yorkers dressed like Mohawks and dumped English tea into their harbor the following April. 

In the spring of 1776, Washington pressured the Brits to evacuate Boston Harbor whereupon they resupplied in Nova Scotia.  Washington knew that if the British were to capture New York and gain control of the Hudson River, they could cut the colonies in half.  (In fact, nearly a third of all Revolutionary War battles were fought on the shores of the Hudson.)  He marched his army south to fortify the city, but despite their best efforts, the Americans would lose New York in November.

For a quick chronology of the Battle for New York and the Alamo of the Revolution:

No other city was occupied by the British for so long (from 1776 until 1783) and no other city suffered as much physical damage.  The Fire of 1776 destroyed much of the city, including the first Trinity Church.  There was also large scale looting and vandalism of abandoned property and the deforestation of the island itself.  Washington was shocked at the absence of trees when he returned to the city the following decade.  

Finally, during the occupation, New York became a place of death--11,500 American captives died on the prison ships.  Their bodies were hastily buried or thrown overboard.  Bones washed up on the beaches for years after the war.

Sources:  Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; Manhattan in Maps by Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen; The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger; New York:  An Illustrated History by Ric Burns and James Sanders, with Lisa Ades; The Encyclopedia of New York City, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson .

Another Friend Climbs to the Top of St. John the Divine!!

Why do I always miss this opportunity?!?  This was my second invitation and again I had to decline.  Both times I was busy writing and couldn't spare the morning.

But I do envy my friends who have taken this exclusive tour.  Here are some pictures from Doug Nervik's fancy new phone:

 

The nave as seen during the climb up.  To give you a sense of proportion, those red squares in the middle in the middle of the photo are chairs.

 

A close-up of one of the recently cleaned stained glass windows.

 

A shot between the buttresses.

 

This last shot was taken in the attic, above the vaulted Guastavino ceiling.  Here you can see the tiles.  From down below, it's far too dark.  This is the vault above the crossing where the Statue of Liberty could comfortably stand.  (If she ever came down off her pedestal.)

The Hogwarts Raid of the Cloisters

I'm sure the majority of people who attended Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this weekend were as disturbed as I was to find the most famous of the Unicorn tapestries hanging at Hogwarts and not in the Cloisters where it belongs!  The art direction team selected the celebrated work to hang on the wall outside the Room of Requirement.  In the book, the tapestry that hangs there is a Rowling invention wherein Barnabas the Barmy is seen rehearsing trolls for a ballet.  In the movie, we see the Unicorn in Captivity:

 

For more on the Cloisters, watch our most recent Little Byte by scrolling down to yesterday's post.

Hudson Heights, Part Nine: The Cloisters

Every other Monday, we'll be posting the newest byte in our walk through Hudson Heights, my neighborhood in Upstate Manhattan, the stretch on the western ridge between the GW Bridge and the Cloisters.  The last Little Byte of the series will be posted on Monday, August 3rd. 

This byte was directed by Nona Lloyd.  Nona directed several of the Little Bytes up Broadway--between Madison Square and Columbus Circle.

Nona Lloyd is now the General Manager of the new hot lounge, WATERMARK, located on the Jersey Shore in Asbury Park.  While it may seem that she's left the theater world, she's still using all of her producing and directing skills, every ounce of her creativity, and is sure to jump into "show biz" again.

 

"These Are Fancy Coffee Stirrers"

 

 

 

Chopsticks, actually.

NYC Decade by Decade--1760-1769

The French and Indian War, which filled the pockets of New York's merchant class, ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763.  Almost immediately, the King of England, who had waged the expensive war, reevaluated the crown's relationship to the colonies and decided that they should be partly responsible for their own upkeep, particularly in sharing the cost of their defense.

The Navigation Acts were passed by Parliament, which effectively restricted trade between the colonies and the Mother Country.  New York had developed multiple trading partnerships and its economy depended greatly on the West Indies.  The city fell into a depression even worse than the one suffered in the 1730's.  To make matters worse, the Royal Navy began impressing seamen from town into service and tensions intensified between the military and the citizenry.

Then, in 1765, the Stamp Act was passed, which levied fees for almost fifty different kinds of business transactions, including liquor licenses, college diplomas, and the purchase of playing cards  For almost three weeks in October, twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies met in New York City (at what would become Federal Hall on Wall Street) to prepare a united front against the stamps sailing from England. 

On November 1st, when the Stamp Act went into effect, flags were flown at half mast, businesses were closed, and two thousand New Yorkers marched to governor's mansion at Bowling Green where they hanged and burned the governor in effigy. 

This governor kept the stamps secure, but did not press them upon the angry mob.  The next governor chose to pressure the businesses and forbade any transaction until the mob conceded.  This was devastating and fueled anti-British sentiment, most evident in the surging popularity of the newly formed Sons of Liberty.

In the Spring of 1765, the Stamp Act was repealed, but in 1767, the British, still in need of money to help pay for that costly war, passed the Townshend Acts which again taxed without representation and additionally restricted colonial self-government.

England considered that Stamp Act Congress a worrying development.

The Revolution was a decade away.

ALSO DURING THIS DECADE:

Trinity Church's Church Farm is surveyed and mapped into real estate lots.  This is the area on the west side that stretches between Cortlandt and Christopher Streets--from present-day Tribeca into Greenwich Village.

1766--St. Paul's Chapel (the oldest building in continual use in Manhattan) opens.

1766--The Morris-Jumel Mansion (Manhattan's oldest house) is built as a summer home for Lt. Col. Roger Morris and his wife.  It will be used as a headquarters by Washington in 1776.

Sources:  Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; Manhattan in Maps by Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen; The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger; New York:  An Illustrated History by Ric Burns and James Sanders, with Lisa Ades.

The Amazing High Line Park

I've been able to visit the Highline three times since the first third of it opened in June.  The section of the Highline that opened runs half a mile, from Gansevoort to 20th Street, winding over Tenth Avenue and passing beneath the new Standard Hotel and through the Chelsea Market Building.  This innovative new public park is exactly 6.7 times more brilliant and awe-inspiring than I thought it would be.  I look forward to many, many more walks.

Besides the Highline, Diller Scofidio + Renfro are busy renovating Lincoln Center, dramatically reshaping public space on the west side.  Visit their beautifully interactive website for information and photos on these and other projects.

 

More pictures after the jump.

Auditions for The Biggest Loser at NBC

I was at Rockefeller Center on Saturday and saw a huge line on the sidewalk of Forty-ninth Street.  I knew Saturday Night Live was on hiatus, so I asked, "Why the crowd?"  They were holding auditions for The Biggest Loser.

A few minutes later, while standing on the plaza, the entire crowd started cheering for me and taking my picture.  I thought, "Sure, why not?" until I discovered three former contestants had walked up from behind me.

Pictured here is the winner of this past season.  Several people took photos with her and then told her how much they hated her while watching the show.  (How sweet.)  She was apparently very nasty and kept winning immunity, so she couldn't be voted out.  She explained that some of her bitchiness was because of the editing and part of it was because she had been very unhappy and hungry.

My favorite auditioner was one of the first in line.  She had been there since the night before, having taken the bus from Pennsylvania after work on Friday.  She was charismatic, bonded with those near her, and was briefly taken out of the line to be interviewed with last year's winner.  Not only was she comfortable in front of the camera, but she was able to break down in the middle of the interview.  (And let me tell you something:  if you want to get a spot on this show, you better be able to burst into tears on cue.) 

I've seen a few episodes and do think it's an important show that offers great advice and tips for a healthy lifestyle.  I have to say, and I don't mean to offend, but despite the hundreds of overweight people in queue for the auditions, Rockefeller Center didn't look much different from a typical afternoon during the tour season.

That said, I did start to think that everyone in the area was auditioning for the show and when I saw a very obese man downstairs on the concourse level headed towards the restroom, I almost told him, "Good luck!"

But then I thought, he might not be here for the auditions and I imagined him telling the security guards, "There's a freak downstairs wishing people good luck on their way to the bathroom."

Still Floating from a Beautiful Weekend

The spring was a moody, cold, humid, rainy one, but July has been about as perfect as they come. 

 

 

 

 

 

Acting Classes: Four Places in NYC to Hone Your Craft

PS 212--THE PROFESSIONAL PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL 

 

FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA HIGH SCHOOL OF MUSIC & ARTS AND PERFORMING ARTS

THE JUILLIARD SCHOOL

 

THE DAVID CARUSO ACTING CONSERVATORY

NYC Decade by Decade: 1750-1759...War, Wealth and Gentility

With each passing year, the French in Canada became a larger threat to life in New York.  During King George's War, in the 1740's, attacks were made on towns as far south as Albany, and in 1756, a much bigger war broke out.  Known in Europe as the Seven Years War, the battles engaged on this side of the Atlantic were called the French and Indian War.

Thousands of troops from England were stationed in New York, and this ultimately helped the city make a fortune.  People profited not only by doing business with the soldiers but by winning plum government contracts to supply goods and services for the military quartered in the city.

In addition, privateering made a comeback during this period.  At least seventy ships were financed in New York and sent out into the wartime waters to seize enemy vessels and bring back their loot.

From Gotham:  "All told, between 1739 and 1763 legalized plunder poured something like two million pounds into the pockets of two hundred or so investors--an immense accession of wealth at a time when, as Gerard G. Beekman observed, an income of three hundred pounds a year was sufficient to live 'Like a Gentleman' in New York." 

ALSO DURING THIS DECADE:

1750--Captain Thomas Clarke acquires land north of the city, currently a western strip of midtown.  He names it Chelsea.

1753--A new New Theater was built on the same site as the first which had closed 15 years earlier.  Theater in the city is becoming more fashionable with the rise of the new gentry and several major theatrical productions are produced here.  Many trace the first legitimate theater performance in New York to a production of Richard III during this year.

1754--New York's first school, King's College (now Columbia) is granted a charter and opens with eight students in the basement of the first Trinity Church.  Construction for a new home for the college commences immediately on Trinity land just north of present-day Ground Zero.

1756--George Washington writes a letter and uses the term "New Yorker."  This is its earliest known use.

1758--Bedloe's Island (now Liberty) is purchased to serve as a pesthouse (quarantine hospital) which opens two years later.

Sources:  Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; The Blue Guide New York by Carol von Pressentin Wright, Stuart Miller, and Sharon Seitz.

Hudson Heights, Part Eight: Fort Tryon Park

Every other Monday, we'll be posting the newest byte in our walk through Hudson Heights, my neighborhood in Upstate Manhattan, the stretch on the western ridge between the GW Bridge and the Cloisters.  This is the eighth installment, which features one of the city's most scenic parks.

  This byte was directed by Nona Lloyd and featured Luis Villabon giving us the correct pronunciation.  Nona directed several of the Little Bytes up Broadway--between Madison Square and Columbus Circle.

Nona Lloyd is now the General Manager of the new hot lounge, WATERMARK, located on the Jersey Shore in Asbury Park.  While it may seem that she's left the theater world, she's still using all of her producing and directing skills, every ounce of her creativity, and is sure to jump into "show biz" again.

Luis Villabon is an NYC actor/singer/dancer/director.  He has appeared on Broadway in Cathy Rigby's Peter Pan as well as many Broadway National Tours, including A Chorus Line (Paul).  He is also Robert's Pilates instructor, so if you want that Westfield body, you know who to call!

COMING SOON:

The Cloisters--July 20

The Sculptor--August 3

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!

The Statue of Liberty as seen from Battery Park.  The photo makes it look like I've hacked my way through a jungle to reach the shore, but the trees are just part of a small but verdant copse at the southern end of the park.

Albino Manca's East Coast Memorial, 1961

 

NYC Decade by Decade: 1740-1749...The Slave Rebellion (?)

By this decade, out of a population of ten thousand, one in every five was an African slave.  Racial tensions were understandably high and when several fires broke out in March of 1741, New Yorkers couldn't help but remember that their last slave uprising in 1712 had also begun with arson.  By the end of March, one slave had been observed running from a fire at his owner's warehouse and two more had been found in possession of objects from burned property.

The fires were soon attributed to what was called the "Great Negro Plot," but many historians now view the "plot" or the "rebellion" as an example of mass hysteria, not unlike the Salem Witch Trials which shared approximately the same number of arrests.

Most of the convictions came from the extremely biased testimony of Mary Burton, an Irish indentured servant, who pointed a finger at her master, John Hughson, a tavern keeper she claimed was one of the leaders of a conspiracy that included white as well as black residents.  John Hughson's tavern catered to blacks and poor whites and, when one of the original arrests was made there, the tavern became widely regarded as the epicenter of the plot.

To further sully the legitimacy of the trials, many of the arrested had been accused in fireside confessions--two slaves, sentenced to burn to death, named names while the sticks were laid at their feet.  (They were executed anyway, because it was deemed wise not to disappoint the crowd.)

In all, over 20 of the accused were hanged, 13 burned, and 70-80 transported out of the colony. 

For more about this largely forgotten episode, read Jill Lepore's 2006 history--New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan.

Sources:  Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; Manhattan in Maps by Robert T. Augustyn and Paul E. Cohen; The Historical Atlas of New York City by Eric Homberger; New York:  An Illustrated History by Ric Burns and James Sanders, with Lisa Ades.

The Yacht in the Bay: LE GRAND BLEU

Wondering about that enormous yacht in the Upper Bay?  Thanks to Doug Nervik for doing the following research:

"The ship is called Le Grand Bleu.  In 2008, it was the tenth largest private luxury yacht in the world.  Built in Germany in 2000, it is 370 feet long (that's 70 feet longer than a football field) and boasts two 3600 hp engines and a crew of fifty!

It's currently owned by Russian oil billionaire, Eugene Shvidler, and it was GIVEN to him by Roman Abramovich.  A 2006 article in The Sun claimed the gift was worth 75 million pounds (around $150 million), but today a boat like this would cost twice as much. 

It is one of the greenest boats out there--it features a system which can reuse wastewater rather than pouring it into the sea. 

It was originally built for one of the McCaw brothers of cellular phone fame and was then purchased by MicroSoft's Paul Allen.  (He traded it up for larger vessels, one of which carries two submarines.)

 

You can see two boats sitting on the deck of Le Grand Bleu.  These are called tenders.  One of them is a 74' sailing boat, which itself would cost well over $1 million!  The other is a 68' Sunseeker Predator, a $1.5 million yacht with three staterooms!!  This boat alone is a quite luxurious yacht which charters for thousands of dollars a day.

A helicopter is also on the deck.  You gotta get places, you know.

There's a "garage" on one side of the boat--open it and you will find four large jet skis, kayaks, scuba and snorkeling gear, and every toy imaginable.

And last, just in time for the Fourth of July fireworks, there's a wonderful little dock which has been affixed to the rear of the boat, so that others can pull up and park and where you can sit or sunbathe or jump off for a swim."