There is always a lot of excitement when a new art exhibition is ready to open. It is even better when the museum opens it to its members first before the public gets a glimpse. The lines always wrap around the corner from the museum.
The long line of MoMA members waiting to get into the museum for the opening night of Artist Ruth Asawa’s exhibition
I noticed this year especially and right before Thanksgiving, all the museums are throwing open their doors for Member’s Nights. I have been invited to five Members Nights at museums all over the City. You can’t attend them all but when you can, it is a lot of fun.
The excitement the museum creates for these evenings
Video of entering the museum at the start of the opening with 80’s Japanese Pop Music
I think in an economy like this, these Members Nights are one of the best ways to engage with the membership for both donations and renewals of memberships especially before the holiday season. Plus it gives the members a wonderful night out to see the exhibitions ahead of time and enjoy the evening after a long week at work.
Born on a farm in Southern California, Asawa began her arts education when she was a teenager and she and her family were among the thousands of persons of Japanese descent who were forcibly incarcerated by the US government during World War II. It was at the internment camp that Asawa began taking classes in painting and drawing. After her release, Asawa studied to be a teacher but was unable to get a license because of her Japanese heritage, so she enrolled at Black Mountain College, an experimental art school in North Carolina. Asawa took classes from and worked alongside fellow artists Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, and R. Buckminster Fuller. Black Mountain was also where she met her husband, the architect Albert Lanier.
I loved her wire woven sculptures. They were the real standouts of the show.
The wire woven sculptures were the standouts of the exhibition
I thought these were a unique design
I liked here colorful paintings, these are of her child’s footprints. I loved the idea that her children were involved with the art
The patrons enjoying the art
The display of the wire art
The displays were impressive and graceful
The colorful faces looked tired
The look of nature in the wire art in the form of trees
I loved her works of food
At the end of the exhibition and the evening, I joined everyone on the main floor where the bar and gift shop were located. The main floor was the busiest part of the museum. I wondered if some of these people even went upstairs to see the exhibition or just stayed downstairs to socialize.
The main floor of the museum is always packed with people
Share in the excitement of the Membership opening
These evenings always get my mind off the stress of life. It is nice to just be in Midtown Manhattan and be in the moment. It is nice to see art, hear music and walk through the museum.
The membership arrived at the NJ State Firemen’s Home to find the home decorated for the upcoming Halloween and Thanksgiving holidays. It seemed like yesterday we were up here for the Summer Barbecues.
The outside grounds of the NJ State Firemen’s Home
We had a lot to talk about at our October meeting with the Annual Convention behind us. There had been discussions on the Home and its expansion, renovations going on and the upcoming holiday season. I thought it was one of the best meetings we had in a long time.
The outside of the home decorated for the upcoming holiday season
Our fundraising has been coming along really well and we have exceeded our drive from last year. I think the word getting out about what we do and the Social media has been a huge help. We not only want to show our fellow fire companies where their money is being spent but how it is being spent.
We discussed also our upcoming reorganization breakfast at the Wyckoff Fire Department in November and the Annual Christmas party in December. Our Secretary, Tom Simpson discussed the gift this year and a planned lunch for both the staff and the membership. Everything is underway and planned for a great holiday season.
After the meeting was over, we joined the residents in the main meeting room where refreshments were being served and the entertainment had started.
Gigi entertained the residents on a stage decorated for the upcoming Halloween season
Gigi performed a series of Classic rock and Country music
Gigi performing the Patsy Kline hit “Crazy for you”
After ending her performance with ‘God Bless America’, we got up and introduced ourselves to the residents. We let everyone know about our upcoming Christmas party, which is always a huge hit with the residents and staff alike. We also we wished them well and for their years of service to the fire service, which they seemed touched by. Then we took our group picture.
The members of the Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association
We ended the program with one of the employees of the home, Eleanor, singing with Gigi a heartfelt song., “I Believe”.
What I thought was interesting was one of the guys told me she had once been a backup singer to Michael Jackson. I thought that was really gift that this woman shared her voice and love for these guys.
It really was a wonderful afternoon and I want to thank everyone who made it possible. This is our gift to our fellow firefighters.
The sign welcoming you the the Endicott-Reardon Family museum
The original Endicott-Reardon Homestead that sits in the front of the museum
The entrance to the museum dedicated to the lives of both the Endicott and Reardon families.
The family artifacts and heirlooms at the museum as you enter the museum
The Endicott family display at the entrance
The museum is a real surprise as entire set of displays is dedicated to the lives of the local Reardon and Endicott families and their family items. A fascinating look of the lives of these early New Jersey families for over a hundred years. This is the collection of Harriett Reardon Bailey and her family. All these wonderful items were saved over the last 100 years and now it was time to share them with the world.
The various family items are organized by sections categorized by lifestyle and collection.
I was given a personal tour that I had arranged with the current curator who had known and worked with the owner of this extensive collection. It had been her dream to open a museum to share her collection with the public.
This beautiful, well lit and displayed collection of family heirlooms and personal items gives a glimpse of the lives of an upper middle class family in Southern New Jersey. It is organized and displayed as a household would be at that time.
The first section of the museum was dedicated to items from the kitchen and preparations.
The family Living room furnishings and decorations
The family piano that once graced their Living Room
A decorative toy car used in the Living Room
The kitchen area and artifacts of the cooking and washing done in the house
The table set for a formal dinner
The next part of the exhibit was the formal Dining Room and on display were many of the China patterns that the family owned.
All the china collections the family owned plus other decorative pieces
The family collection of China and glass pieces
The family had various collections of China
Mainly of the bedroom items have been preserved too from linens to comforters to every day clothing. There are also a selection of family member’s clothing, jewelry and personal items.
The Bedroom vignette with clothing and accessories
Another view of the bedroom
Harriett Reardon Bailey had been a school teacher like her mother and there were displays of items that reflected her time in the classroom including a classroom setting.
Time on the classroom and family employment
The classroom set up
Activities and programs at the school
More local school items
There were also displays on her father’s time in the army and her uncle’s time working on the railroad with carefully preserved outfits, programs and railroad artifacts from the job.
The Railroad display
School and family items
Work on the railroad
The display on the family contribution to the armed forces
What I thought was interesting was that the founder of the museum had been an only child with relatives that had never been married so that she was the only child and a bit spoiled.
The Toy Room
In a separate room off the side held her extensive collection of dolls and games. She had kept all her childhood items in such beautiful shape and with great care. What impressed me was there was a picture of her as a little girl with all her dolls and stuffed animals her room and since she kept everything, they were able to recreate the display.
The picture of the owner, Harriot Reardon Baily, of the museum as a little girl in her bedroom
The exact replicated display of toys in the same spots in the display
The collection of tea sets
The collection of toys and playthings are extensive and they are all in wonderful working shape
There was a large collection of dolls plus all their clothes and accessories that were kept together in her collection. Even into adulthood, all of her childhood items were kept in pristine condition.
The collectible dolls and clothing
The extensive collection of childhood dolls
The collection of China and baby dolls
The collection of baby dolls
The collection of cloth and rag dolls
The handmade dollhouse and rag dolls
The fancier imported and collectible dolls
What I thought was interesting during the tour was that the curator had said that the founder of this museum had the vision of keeping all these items for so long and packing the house with family memorabilia. I think she knew what she was doing.
She was not just preserving memories, she was preserving a past that was fading away and the memories of a different time. As her family died, she kept their memories alive by preserving their past as well. The curator had said that she had always wanted to create a museum with all her family’s items and share them with the public. Now we get to glimpse into her family’s history and everyday life.
The museum shares with the public the day to day happenings and life of the Endicott-Reardon branches of the family and life as a middle class Victorian family. I think she preserved the best items with such care as to share them with future generations of what life was like at that time. When people knew each other and times were slower and quality mattered. She loved her beautiful things and wanted to share them with us.
The inside of the Endicott-Readon Family Museum
A video of the museum from owner Harriot Reardon Baily and her collection
The Stone Harbor Bird Sanctuary is a wonderfully preserved microcosm of what the barrier islands of New Jersey looked like hundreds of years ago. As you walk along Sanctuary paths, it is easy to imagine the Lenni-Lenape Indians wandering through the maritime forest, crossing wind swept sand dunes, past groves of white cedar, birch, pine, holly and sassafras trees, taking time to drink water from a spring fed freshwater pond and then, fishing in the salt water meadows surrounded by herons and songbirds.
As early as the 1870’s and 1880’s, the Sanctuary area was recognized as a “veritable paradise of birds” for ornithologists. The primary attractions were Little Blue Herons, Black-crowned Night Herons, Green Herons and egrets. Once the 96th Street Bridge opened in 1911, those who wanted to study, hunt or collect the eggs of birds no longer had to walk across four miles of marsh. Easy access to the heronry was a boon to birders but also a threat to birds whose plumes and eggs were valued.
In 1941, the Stone Harbor Bird Club was organized in the home of Lillian R. Leuallen. The Bird Club was renamed in 1946 as the Witmer Stone Club to honor Witmer Stone, one of the first ornithologists to document birds in the Sanctuary area. With considerable foresight, the Witmer Stone Club proposed early in 1947 that the Borough of Stone Harbor establish a “sanctuary”. In October of 1947, the Borough Council passed Ordinance #208 which preserved 31 acres of land as a wildlife sanctuary. Subsequent to expert study in 1961 which demonstrated that no birds were nesting on the beach side sanctuary acreage, the Stone Harbor Borough Council sold ten acres to the east of Second Avenue. The remaining 21 acres bounded by Second Avenue to the East, Third Avenue to the West, 111th Street to the North and area between 116th and 117th on the South represents the Sanctuary as we know it today. The Sanctuary remains one of the few bird sanctuaries in the world that are completely within municipal boundaries.
One can’t overstate the foresight and commitment of the residents and Borough officials to conservation as well as the preservation of open space and wildlife in 1947, 1961 and every year since. This commitment was reinforced by the United States Park Service in 1965 when it designated the Sanctuary as a National Natural Landmark.
Over the years, the Sanctuary has been home to thousands of birds and visited by more than a million people representing all fifty states and most countries in the world. It has been estimated that Sanctuary visitors spend more than $5 million each year, locally. Although some like the New York Times in 1960 glorify the Sanctuary, referring to it as “The Everglades of New Jersey”, Stone Harbor residents think of the Sanctuary as a symbol of the character of this quiet, single family town which respects the nature and wildlife that surrounds them while placing a premium on livability, aesthetics and serenity.
The front of the sanctuary from 3rd Avenue
I took a walk when I was in Stone Harbor through the town’s Bird Sanctuary to hopefully view some rare birds. While I did not see much, I heard a lot of singing and scrawling as I walked the path through the trees.
The front gardens in the sanctuary
The gardens were still in bloom in the late Summer and many colorful wildflowers attracted all sorts of butterflies and other insects.
The sign greeting you about the experience
The front path of the sanctuary
You head over the bridge to the paths that take you into the woods
Walking down the pathways through the woods
The path takes you into a deep wooded area in the middle of the town and by the time you get to the middle of the path, you can hear the mating calls of many birds. It’s funny to note that we are a couple of blocks from the shore.
Walking through the pathways
Reaching the middle of the beach woods
The middle of the bird sanctuary noisy with bird calls
Walking back through the pathways through the roads
Touring through the Bird Sanctuary does not take a long time, but offers relief from a busy shore town.
The entrance to the museum from Bethany Beach City Hall
The City Hall sign
The History of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
The museum is right in the hallway of the museum. Just go through the front door and the museum is to the right. The Bethany Beach History Museum is currently located in the foyer of the Town Hall at the intersection of Garfield Parkway and Route 1. The exhibits contain memorabilia and photographs from the Bethany Beach area
The front of the museum building
The museum is run by volunteers who work on the displays and set the exhibitions. The exhibits that were part of the museum display were the history of the Bethany Beach Lifeguards, the Bethany Beach Women’s Club and the history of Bethany Beach.
The inside of the museum
The first display was on the history of Bethany Beach as a religious community. This was a display on the Tabernacle and the religious services.
The history of the town as a Methodist community.
The history of worship in the community
There was also an interesting display on the Native American tribes and their using the community as a fishing and hunting spot during the summer months.
The Native American history of the community and the dedication of the Chief Little Owl statue
The Chief Little Owl statute outside of City Hall
Chief Little Owl
The display of natural disasters in the town including the 1962 flood
The museum has displays of various aspects of the community from the farming industry to
The displays of the town’s history
The town’s Methodist past
The town’s Religious past
The early farming industry of the town
The start of the family resort
The Storms of the past especially the 1962 storm
The development of the town as a community
The back part of the gallery
The back gallery displayed the history of all the clubs and organizations of the town. These included the Woman’s Club, Police and Fire Departments and many of the civic clubs in this small beach town.
The history of the Women’s Club
The history of the Native Americans in the area
The museum also had a wonderful display on their Life Guards in town and the history of search and rescue.
The history of the Life Guards in Bethany Beach
The Life Guard uniform
The history of the Civic organizations in town
For such a small town, the town has such a rich history and an interesting past. For a beach community, there has been and still is a lot to get involved in.
The museum does a nice job displaying these accomplishments and an interesting perspective on a small town.
I could not believe how fast the Summer came and went. It was like a blink of the eye. I had covered a lot of ground over the last three months that included many neighborhoods in New York City, many Upstate New York and New Jersey towns plus updating older blogs that needed some work. They needed new pictures and updates in the businesses I had featured in the past. A lot has changed since COVID.
I started Alphabet City just before the Labor Day Weekend and a lot has changed here since the 1960’s and 70’s. The whole hippie movement is now over only to be replaced by the current hipster movement where men are wearing knit head coverings in almost 90 degree and still wearing ‘man buns’ that are ‘so 2010’. To each his own.
Looking down Avenue C on a sunny afternoon
I just ignored everyone and started my walk on the Avenue’s of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is broken up that the closer you are to public housing the less gentrified it was on the block. The border seemed to be around 10th Street. The lower the street, the nicer the bars and restaurants.
The one thing I did notice about the neighborhood was the amount of community gardens that popped up in corners all around the blocks. This was the result of the community efforts in the 1970’s and 80’s that saved the neighborhood and what has made the neighborhood as desirable as it is now. It seems you can’t stop gentrification. Even so, these hard working gardeners are setting the tone for the neighborhood.
The signs of the times on top of the old tenements on Avenue C
The other thing I noticed about Alphabet City are the tagging and outdoor murals that line all the blocks. The people who creat this street art are so clever and creative. They really have an eye on color and design.
Some of the art cleverly tucked along the walls and columns in the neighborhood
Some of the art close by
I liked this design
The first of the Community Gardens that J toured that afternoon (they all seemed to be open the Saturday that I visited) was the Francisco ‘Pancho’ Ramos Community Garden at 709 East 9th Street. The garden showed the creative spirit of the people who volunteered there.
The sign for the Francisco “Pancho” Ramos Community Garden at 703 East 9th Street
(The History of the Park from its website)
The Lower East Side of the 1970s was a hard place with little green. Local residents noticed the abandoned, littered lot at the corner of Ninth Street and Avenue C and began to sow seeds and plants along the chain link and among the debris, and so the Ninth Street Community Garden & Park was founded in 1979. Today Pancho’s Garden hosts community events including music, art, and gardening workshops.
The pathways were lined with flower beds and some with vegetable gardens with the latest crops coming in. Here and there were pieces of artwork such as sculptures and paintings.
Walking through the gardens at the end of the summer
Following the paths
Walking through the flowering arbors
Some of the creative artwork that lined the paths
The raised flower beds
Some of the creative touches of the gardens
The Vegetable Gardens in full growth
Even the shed and play areas were colorful
This is what the community spirit of hard work and dedication can create in a neighborhood
Another interesting mural that I came across on the walls of the buildings
Just a reminder that the Alphabet City name is not a negative one anymore
The Alphabet Wine Company at 100 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
Walking through Alphabet City today reminded me of years ago when I toured Bushwick in Brooklyn. The negative connotation of the name was now synonymous with ‘hipster’ cool. When I started to see signs like Alphabet Wine Company, you know times have changed for a neighborhood with not such a great past.
Passing the Lower East Side II still reminds you that public housing is a big part of this neighborhood
The next set of street art I admired was 15C Cultural Center building at 68 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C). The shop was closed that afternoon so I got to see all the interesting art work on the metal gates.
This was on one side of building of the 5C Cultural Center at 68 Avenue C and 5th Street
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
This mural was around the corner dedicated to Puerto Rico
The changes to Avenue C start around East 10th Street as you leave the area around the public housing and walk closer to the areas that cater to a younger NYU/Pace student population. When I visited the neighborhood originally walking the borders of the neighborhood and even this evening, the bars and restaurants exploded with students whose first weekend in New York City was filled with excitement.
They chatted on their cellphones and yelled to their friends and acted like a scene in early ‘Sex and the City’ episodes. I can always tell when an out of towner is trying too hard.
The rebuilt section of Avenue C
I walked through my next community garden, Gustavd Hartman Square. Some of these patches of green were really small and just required a peek inside.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood. Gustave Hartman was born in Hungary and immigrated to the United States with his parents while still a young boy. He attended P.S. 22 on Sheriff Street (now Columbia Street), the College of the City of New York, and received his law degree from New York University in 1905.
This plot of land, located at Second Street and Avenue C, is named for Gustave Hartman, a municipal court judge and philanthropist who spent most of his life in this neighborhood.
The growth of the garden needed a little pruning
I then started my walk back up Avenue C from the border of East Houston Street, which itself on all sides of the street has been knocked down and rebuilt. I have never seen a street go from shabby to chic more in the last fifteen to twenty years. Here the upper parts of the old Chinatown and Little Italy and the Lower East Side have merged with the Village. The lines have been blurred.
The changes to Avenue C start in the lower part of the neighborhood
The next set of public housing is the Bracetti Plaza
The next community garden I visited was the Secret Garden, a tiny park at 293 East Forth Street. Volunteers were hard at work weeding and planting while I walked around
Charlie Doves is a graffiti and fine artist from New York City’s Lower East Side, known for his work inspired by graffiti’s Golden Age and Japanese art. A master of his craft, Doves has moved from street art to fine art, fusing different techniques and styles to create a timeless body of work (Arts AI).
The Secret Garden Community Garden at 293 East Fourth Street
Alfredo Bennett, professionally known as The Royal “Kingbee” is a NYC artist. He was born in Harlem and raised in The Bronx in the early 70’s. He began his career painting graffiti on walls until gathering recognition and eventually being commissioned to perform his artistic abilities all throughout the city of New York. The artist went to JF Kennedy High School in the Bronx (BX 200 Artist.com).
The art was not just limited to the murals that looked more professionally done. The taggers showed their creativity on the closed gates of the businesses and the walls of the buildings around the Avenue.
Tagging art on Avenue C
Tagging art on Avenue C
The next community gardens I visited and one of the original is the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin, dedicated to Carmen Pabon.
The sign for the Carmen Pabon Del Amanecer Jardin at
Carmen Pabón, ‘la madrina del Lower East Side,’ was a Puerto Rican community activist, gardener, poet and actress who founded a community garden as an urban sanctuary for children, local artists, Nuyorican poets and the elderly. Carmen helped thousands to create a better life for themselves and fed multitudes of Lower East Siders experiencing homelessness.
While a lot of the neighborhood is low rise and tenement housing, I stopped to admire this unique brick building at 116 Avenue C, with its interesting faces on all levels staring back at you. It reminded me of the many buildings I had passed recently in Lower Chelsea.
Each window had a demonist look in its eyes as you passed it. This building was built in 1900 (Streeteasy.com).
These menacing demons stare back at you from every window
I spent some more time cross crossing through more gardens admiring the work of dedicated gardens. The next I visited was the Flower Door Garden at 135 Avenue C.
La Plaza Cultural de Armando Perez Community Garden was founded in 1976 by local residents and greening activists who took over what was then a series of vacant city lots piled high with rubble and trash. In an effort to improve the neighborhood during a downward trend of arson, drugs, and abandonment common in that era, members of the Latino group CHARAS cleared out truckloads of refuse.
Working with Buckminster Fuller, they built a geodesic dome in the open “plaza” and began staging cultural events. Green Guerillas pioneer Liz Christy seeded the turf with “seed bombs” and planted towering weeping willows and linden trees. Artist Gordon Matta-Clark helped construct La Plaza’s amphitheater using railroad ties and materials reclaimed from abandoned buildings.
What I liked about this particular garden was all the interesting metal work along the fencing. It popped all around the fencing like you were living in ‘Whoville’.
One of the entrances of the gardens
Walking around the inside along the paths
The whimsical ironworks on the top of the fencing
As I made my way back up Avenue C, J came across a small museum that I had never heard of before, the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C).
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The museum is a time capsule of information from the late 1960’s through the 70’s when the neighborhood had really hit rock bottom with the City’s almost bankruptcy. The neighborhood and its residents banded together to save the neighborhood and clean up all these empty lots of garbage and debris.
The entrance of the museum
The description of the museum’s purpose
The museum has pictures of the neighborhood at various stages of its development. There are the ups and downs of this section of the City and how its residents maintain it. The neighborhood has seen so much change and much of it due to the volunteers who keep improving it.
The inside of the museum
How the changes took place in Alphabet City
The masks and decorations that line the walls
The history of the neighborhood and its triumphs
After my trip through the museum, I continued the walk up Avenue C. Above 10th Street is was a little patchy but you can tell the neighborhood is getting better. I never felt unsafe walking around the ‘Alphabets’.
For the rest of my walk, I enjoyed the ‘open-air’ museum that the sides of the buildings offered me. There were many interesting murals to admire.
I think this one was in honor of the island of Puerto Rico.
Artist Antonio “Chico” Garcia is a New York City based Graffiti artist. He is well known in the neighborhood and has been featured in several periodicals (Wiki).
I saw this on the side of a Chinese restaurant
Then when I got to the top East 14th Street and I came across this mural on the side of a school and I admired the different styles of art in each panel.
The panel that lined the school created by artists from the Thrive Collective
Danielle Mastrion is a Brooklyn-born, New York City based painter and muralist who specializes in large scale, brightly colored murals. She holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design (Artist website)
I loved this whimsical school painting by artists Savannah Zambrano and Andrea Amanda
Savannah Zambrano is a freelance sequential artist that hosts workshops and panels, does face painting and caricatures, and works with Traditional and Digital Media (Artist Bio website).
The artists sign with the Thrive Collective
I loved this mural with the Puerto Rican flag by artist Miki Mu
Michela Muserra is an international muralist and illustrator based in Brooklyn. A graduate of Accademia di Bella Arti in her hometown of Foggia, Italy. The artist has worked as a teaching artist with Thrive Collective since January 2017 (Thrive Collective website).
I love this colorful display of positive behavior of Frank Ape by artist Brandon Sines
Artist Brandon Sines was exposed to many cultures while growing up simultaneously in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles. He mixes Pop Art’s mass culture, Surrealism’s private associations, and inventive paint handling to create dreamlike environments. His mark making ranges from experimental techniques to illustrative precision. Parts of the paintings are crystal clear, and other parts reach abstraction.
This was another great mural on the school but I could not find the artist
The piece of art that I noticed was as I was walking down East 14th Street and I came across this taggers work. To me it looked like a surreal ghost.
The piece of street art was East 14th Street
I turned the corner to Avenue B and started my journey down the street. Being closer to the colleges and further from the projects and around Tompkins Square Park, the vibe is different on Avenue B. The restaurants are a bit more expensive and there are more bars.
Walking down Avenue B
Walking through the neighborhood that offers so much to a visitor
I saw this ‘Love’ mural on one of the businesses
On the corner of Avenue B and East 13th Street I saw all this great street art on top of murals
As I continued the walk through this part of the neighborhood, I came across another series of community gardens that dot the street.
The Relaxation Garden was the first of the gardens I passed and this really had nothing to it. It looked like a garden waiting for something to happen to it.
The inside of the Relaxation Garden needs some TLC
I stared up at one of the buildings on Avenue B and this face from above was staring back at me. I thought this was really interesting but do not want to know how this artist did this without falling off the roof.
I thought this face staring back was really cool but I do not want to know how the tagger did this.
While I was walking, I stopped at the various restaurants and bars to look at their menus. I have to admit, they are not cheap. For a neighborhood known for poverty in its pockets, the places are pricy.
Passing the outdoor cafes on Avenue B
I then passed one of the community centers in the neighborhood and came across this series of panels. These were very retro 1970’s.
Panel One ‘Resist’
Panel Two ‘People Power’
Panel Three ‘Educate’
I thought they were profound and reminded me of works from the 1970’s.
Avenue B like Avenue C has its share of landscapers and gardeners and you see this in the creativity of the small community gardens.
The first one I walked through and admired was in front of the Trinity Lower East Side Church at 602 East 9th Street on the corner of Avenue B.
The Trinity Church Lower East Side at 602 East 9th Street
In 1839 German Saxon immigrants began to meet for worship in the home of a baker. By 1843 they were sufficiently strong to incorporate The Evangelical Lutheran Trinity Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession in the City of New York, since changed to Trinity Lower East Side Parish. In 1850, the congregation built a new church with four apartments below and a one-room school in the back. The present church was designed by Robert Litchfield and built in 1993. Dedicated on July 9, 1996, the facility includes a 100-seat chapel, community center and parsonage (Trinity Church website).
The gardens in front of the old church were a bit over grown but very colorful.
The fenced in garden in full bloom at the height of the summer
The one thing I like about this garden is how tranquil it was that day. Services were over so the church was quiet. It is the perfect place to just sit and think and relax.
Avenue B lines the eastern side of Tompkins Square Park and the park was alive with joggers, musicians, dog walkers and groups of college students stretching across the lawns talking, reading and sunning themselves. This is a far cry from the homeless camps of the early 1980’s.
Tompkins Square Park was extremely busy that afternoon
It’s fun to just walk through the borders of the park and see the neighborhood just conversing with each other. Community is not dead in New York City. Someone had tagged over this mural but I still thought it was interesting. The colors really stood out in the mural,
Romero, is a Korean and Spanish, first-generation American artist, and muralist . She is a New York City based artist. Her art is a contemporary representation, inspired by her mixed cultural background and layered complexities of the human experience. Her work is inspired by human emotion, identity, women’s empowerment, and New York City (Artist bio from website),
YouTube video on Artist Bianca Romero
Some of the community gardens are more creative than others. The next one I visited was the East 6th Street and Avenue B Garden at 84 Avenue B
The East 6th Street and Avenue Garden at 84 Avenue B
All the community gardens seemed to be open the weekend of my walk so I got to see all the gardeners at work. People were digging, pruning and cutting shrubs and trees and cleaning the beds of weeds and then composting.
History of the Garden:
(from the garden website
Throughout 1983 and 1984, garden members surveyed the site, drew up the plans for its optimal use, built over 100 4’ x 8’ plots and a large communal plot (“the Circle”), laid pathways, prepared for the installation of a fence, and laid out ornamental borders. In April of 1984, Green Thumb issued a one-year lease. Garden members were busy planting ornamental shrubs and trees. The Garden received important early technical assistance from the Citizens’ Committee, Green Guerrillas and the Trust for Public Land .
The welcoming French at the entrance of the Sixth Street and Avenue B Gardens
This was one of the larger community gardens and it was fun to stroll down the paths of flowers and vegetables and watch everyone hard at work.
The inside of the entrance of the gardens
Walking along the paths
The Vegetable gardens
The gardens at the height of the summer
The pathways in the gardens
The sitting area in the middle of the garden
The Weed Library and composting area
The tree has been part of this garden for years
I loved the ironwork along the fencing of the garden as I walked up Avenue B
The neighborhood reaction to a empty storefront in a gentrifying neighborhood
The garden was established in 1993/1994 soon after a building there was demolished. The building’s address was 194 Ave B which is also the garden’s address, but the garden’s entrance is at 546 E 12th St (NYC Parks/GreenThumb will eventually replace the garden sign. Down to Earth Garden, which changed its name on July 1, 2020 from Children’s Garden, is a Green Thumb community garden in the East Village/Lower East Side of Manhattan, NYC.
We’re a small community garden, 1261 sq ft, on 12th St, by Ave B, southwest corner. However, we have been very active in composting (in combination with El Sol Brillante’s composting activities) since the fall of 2009
The flowering beds of the garden
The side beds
The artwork against the building was covered with vines and new growth
There was one last garden I visited but is was closing for the evening and that was the Vamps A Sembrar at 198 Avenue B.
The small Vegetable beds and visible art in the garden
The History of the garden:
(from the garden website)
The garden used to be two separate GreenThumb community gardens (Vamos A Sembrar and 200 Ave B Association Garden) until 2019, when they were combined as Vamos A Sembrar under the guidance of GreenThumb
This community garden had just closed for the afternoon so I could only see if from the fence. I could see the beds of vegetables growing. I really admired the artwork on the walls of the building. I will be returning on a future weekend to really explore all of these gardens, which I find are open on the weekends for the members and outside people.
I passed Pop’s Pizzeria at 223 Avenue B that I had eaten at when I walked the borders of the neighborhood. I had gotten at the restaurant late at night so I had not noticed the outside of the restaurant that evening.
When you look up above the restaurant, you see this Skelton painting smiling above the entrance.
The Skelton face that I did not see before when dining here on my last trip to the neighborhood
I finished for the evening around 5:00pm and went to get some dinner.
I checked Google and Avenue D Pizzeria which I had passed when walking down Avenue D was still open. So I walked down one of the side streets to give it a try.
The pizza selection was really good that night and the slices were reasonable at $1.50 for a Cheese slice and $2.50 for a Sausage slice.
The pizza selection that night
The hot food selection is $10.00 for a plate
The pizzeria also has a selection of hot entrees and sides at a reasonable price as well. There is no place to sit down anywhere near the pizzeria so I went back to Tompkins Square Park to eat my dinner. I found an empty bench and ate by one of the gardens.
My dinner that night in the park
I have to say that I was really impressed by the pizza for having to walk for blocks to eat it. The sauce was spiced so nicely and they loaded the sausage on the other slice.
After dinner I walked through the park and watched the bars and restaurants come to life. Most get a younger crowd of college students but there are a lot of family restaurants as well. I was amazed at the amount of kids who were dining with their parents that evening.
Admiring street art on the border of Alphabet City (I could not find the artist)
Since it was such a great night that I decided to walk around both Little Italy and Chinatown since they both border Alphabet City.
Walking around Little Italy on a warm late summer night
Outside the Cannoli King dessert shop a guy was singing Sinatra songs. I stopped to listen and this guy was really good. Everyone in the crowd was filming him.
Singing outside the Cannoli King at 152 Mulberry Street
It was fun to stand there and just enjoy the concert. The singer was wonderful!
The singer was great
Afree the mini concert was over, I continued my walk down Mulberry Street into Chinatown. Once upon a time there were distinct boundaries of Chinatown and Little Italy but they have become very blurred over the last twenty five years with gentrification affecting both neighborhoods.
I walked down Mott Street to Catherine Street and stopped at my favorite bakery that I know is always open late, Great Taste Bakery at 35 Catherine Street. I love the reasonable pastries and buns here and it is one of the last of the Chinatown bakeries that is still open late. This is also one of the few neighborhood bakeries left in a very gentrifying Chinatown. I come here after meals or just having dumplings up the road and finish here for dessert.
I love their Pineapple cream buns with some lemon tea at Great Taste Bakery
Since there was no place to sit down in here too I ate at one of the benches outside near the local park.
These buns are so good!
After all the walking that evening, you would figure I would be tired. There was something about the Lemon tea and the sweet bun that gave me a second wind and I walked from Chinatown to the Port Authority. It was such a beautiful warm night I figured ‘why not’? It was a beautiful walk up Broadway.
Admiring one of the old churches on lower Broadway on my long walk up Broadway to the Port Authority
Looking at Madison Square Park at night
It really ended up being a beautiful evening ing the City. For all its problems, the City really is magical at all times of the day. You just have to look at all the good things that people do that make this City better. Between the small mom and pop restaurants providing wonderful food to the community gardeners who make Alphabet City bloom, it really shows that New York City is bouncing back from COVID in its own way.
The Paterson Museum is an interesting museum of the history of the City of Paterson, NJ. The museum is broken into different sections of the City’s history. The museum discusses from the time that the Lenape Indians lived in the area to the rise of colonization and then to how it developed into the Silk City through city planning and placement. The museum covers the history of the City of Paterson in the industrial Age as well with the rise of the Silk Industry, the Wright Airplane Factory, the Colt Revolver and the growth of the hospital industry in the City.
Paterson Fire Department
The Public Safety exhibition
Paterson Steam Engine
Take time to look at the live displays of minerals, Native American artifacts, old fire department equipment and the life and times of its native son, Lou Costello.
The inside of the Paterson Museum
The nice part of this museum is that the parking is free, it can be toured in about two to three hours and it is walking distance to the Paterson Falls and to Little Peru restaurants. It is also free.
The Paterson Falls up the road
Little Peru down the road
The Introduction:
The Welcome Center
The Paterson Museum offers a ‘History within History’ experience. Located inside the former erecting shop if the Rogers Locomotive & Machine Works, the museum, presents a glimpse of the rich history and the many factors that gave rise to Paterson, New Jersey: “America’s First Planned Industrial City.”
From the natural wonders and the first inhabitants of the land that lay below and above the ground to the vital role Paterson played in setting of our nation’s industrial course. Through the museum’s exhibits. you’ll find out why Paterson was known for more than a century as the “Silk City.”
Silk City
You’ll discover that Paterson was at the forefront of locomotive, submarine and airplane engine development. And that’s just the beginning of our story. By the time you finish your visit, you will want to learn more about this city that surrounds the Great Falls.
The Exhibitions:
Paterson Residents: There are exhibitions on such celebrity natives as Lou Costello and his life after living in Paterson are shown in detail.
The Lou Costello exhibition
The Lou Costello exhibition
Baseball players, football players and actors have shown against all odds and color barriers they found success in the world with Paterson being their roots.
Sports in Paterson, NJ
The Silk Industry
Silk City: The history of Paterson as ‘Silk City’ features winders, warpers and power-looms that produced beautiful fabrics. How the Falls and the location of the City of Paterson played its part in the garment industry at the turn of the last century. Not just in the silk industry but also in other companies like the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and the their time as a manufacturer in Paterson.
The Paterson Fire Department
The Paterson Fire and Police Departments: The history and development of both the Paterson Police and Fire Departments are told through pictures, stories, uniforms and equipment through the ages. There are many turn of the last century fire trucks in the museum.
World War Exhibition: The museum has a wonderful exhibition on the history of Paterson and the role it played in the World Wars. There are all sorts of uniforms, munitions and stories to tell.
The War years
The Veterans exhibition
Geographical: There is a whole side exhibition of gems and minerals both native and from all over the country at the museum and a full display of native New Jersey stone formations. There is also a discussion of how the Falls played such an important role inf the development not just of the City of Paterson but of New Jersey as well.
The Minerals
Alexander Hamilton Exhibit: The history and life of Alexander Hamilton is told from the time he was born in the Caribbean to his coming to the United States, his marriage and his rise through the ranks of the government. There is how he helped develop the banking industry and paying of the government debts to his fall from grace and his eventual fatal duel with Aaron Burr.
The Alexander Hamilton exhibit
Lenape Indian Culture: The Lenape Native American culture is shown how the tribes developed, lived, worked and hunted and gathered to create the society that was in place before colonization.
The Lenape exhibit
There are all sorts of tools, displays on their regions of living, language, housing (there is a recreation of a Tee Pee here), that native wardrobe and a complete display of tools and arrow heads. It is a very detailed account of life as a Lenape Indian.
Lenape Exhibition at the Paterson Art Museum
The Lenape Indian exhibition
The Lenape exhibition
The museum shows the history not just of Paterson but of the surrounding areas and how growth of the City of Paterson made an impact on the region.
The Museum of Reclaimed Urbsn Space at 155 Loisaida Avenue (Avenue C)
The Mission of the museum:
(from the museum website)
The Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space preserves the history of the Lower East Side’s grassroots activism and promotes environmentally-sound, community-based urban ecologies.
We do this by:
*Archiving and documenting the history of the Lower East Side’s activism.
* Educating visitors with exhibitions and guided tours of the neighborhood.
*Empowering individuals to participate in the drive for sustainable change with workshops and events.
Information of the museum
While walking around Alphabet City for my blog, MywalkinManhattan.com, I came across the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space on the fast gentrifying Avenue C. Alphabet City, technically part of the East Village, has been going through mass gentrification since the early 2000’s. One of the reasons why the neighborhood has not been fully gentrified as been the Public Housing in the upper parts of the neighborhood and lining Avenue D.
The predicament though is even the public housing is going through a renewal with the renovation of the grounds and the buildings with new lighting, landscaping and sidewalks. Hurricane Sandy had really damaged the infrastructure of the complex and the City has been working on this for a few years (Hurricane Sandy was in 2012).
What has been happening in the lower parts of Manhattan as well as parts of Harlem, East Harlem and Washington Heights is that these have become the ‘last frontiers’ for gentrification as New York City keeps getting more expensive. The museum captures the transition of the neighborhood from a burnt out section of the Lower East Side with the bankruptcy of the City to show the grit of the neighborhood not to let their neighborhood decline.
What I enjoyed seeing is how the neighborhood residents banded together to take empty lots and turn them into community gardens, many of them still exist today. These tiny pockets of green have made the neighborhood more desirable to live in. With the expansion of NYU and Pace into the neighborhood and boom of college students moving into the neighborhood made safer by these long term residents have been changing the makeup of Alphabet City. The museum did a wonderful job showing how they banded together and fought the City as it improved in the 1990’s and tried to ‘plow over’ these gardens. There presence today is what gives the neighborhood its character.
The founding of the museum
The history of the neighborhood
The History of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
he Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space (MoRUS) was founded in 2012 by members of Times Up! environmental organization and based in C-Squat. As a living history of urban activism, MoRUS chronicles the LES community’s history of grassroots action. It celebrates the local activists who transformed abandoned spaces and vacant lots into vibrant community spaces and gardens. Many of these innovative, sustainable concepts and designs have since spread out to the rest of the city and beyond.
The museum showcases an often untold version of New York City history through photography, videography, authentic artifacts, and documents. MoRUS is a 100% volunteer-run organization committed to open, community-based action. With this space, we invite visitors to learn, engage, and participate in grassroots activism of the past, present, and future.
One of the interesting masks that dot the corners of the museum
A view of the inside of the museum
The Collection and Purpose of the Museum:
(from the museum website)
MoRUS was born in the East Village out of the observation that the neighborhood and its inhabitants, undergoing rapid transformations, are beginning to forget about their own history. When New York City almost went bankrupt in the seventies, community members struggled to preserve and restore their neighborhood. These activists have become fewer, and the new residents, who reap the benefits of their predecessors’ efforts, are left unaware.
Noticing it, Bill DiPaola and Laurie Mittelmann, both long-term residents of the East Village and members of Time’s Up! Environmental Organization, were determined to provide new opportunities for long-term activists to share their story and to pass on their experience and knowledge firsthand to new generations.
Located in the historic building C-Squat, MoRUS officially opened its doors in 2012 as a non-profit organization. The museum’s storefront was renovated almost entirely by volunteers. They did electrical work and plumbing, built walls, ceilings, and floors, and constructed furnishings such as a reception desk and an elaborate mosaic sign. This process took eight months, and involved other volunteers simultaneously sourcing funds and exhibitions, designing tours, and creating structure for the volunteer collective that runs the museum, such as guidelines, by-laws and committees.
Decisions are reached, events are planned, and new volunteers are plugged in through weekly general meetings and committee meetings. Committees include marketing, fundraising, administrative, merchandise, programming, tours, and exhibition/graphic design.
The Museum has become an important fixture in the neighborhood, not only to preserve the untold story of the East Village, but also to encourage community activism and sustainable development.
Finishing the Meatpacking District the other week and relaxing on the lounge chairs by the Hudson River while the sun was setting gave me one perspective on Manhattan. Walking on the other side of the island in Alphabet City gives you another. Talk about opposites.
My morning had consisted of laundry and yard work. I was trying to straighten the backyard up while doing the first load and cooking dinner. Then I had to come into the City and get a haircut at York Barber on Lexington Avenue. When all of this was accomplished I hopped the Q downtown and started the walk around 4:30pm.
My start point at the corner of West 14th Street and Avenue A
Written on the wall of a building on the corner of Avenue B and West 14th Street. At this point I don’t know who they are talking about because things are crazy all over
Reaching the end of West 14th Street and Avenue C at the Con Ed plant and the turn to West 13th Street to Avenue D
I walked through the Riis Houses courtyard to get to FDR Drive. The construction all over the highway area blocks all the entrances and exits coming and going from Avenue D
So I was only able to walk about two blocks before I had to double back and walk the rest of the border of the neighborhood down Avenue D.
The upper part of Avenue D facing the East River is the Jacob Riis Houses
The Riis Houses like the Wald Houses on the southern side of the were under construction and renovation on all sides. Their green spaces were being updated which is sorely needed.
I could see the reason why when there is no grass to keep off of
I found my name reached in cement
For all the generic appearances on the buildings, there was a glimmer of hope and creativity with this beautiful mural painted on the side of the building.
The mural on the Riis Houses
‘Hope and Opportunity’ on the side of the building
The artists for this mural ‘Hope so Electrifying’ sponsored by the Riis Houses Tenants Association
There were several of these murals all around the neighborhood on the sides of the buildings. It added a little color to otherwise dim buildings.
Avenue D businesses on the other side of the street
I have noticed one thing about Avenue D from East 13th Street is that it is not as bad as everyone says. Most of the buildings on the block have been knocked down and rebuilt with new apartment buildings. Most of the old tenements that have been left have either been renovated or in the process of being renovated.
While not as ‘hipster’ as Avenues A or B which are closer to the NYU campus, I see a lot more students jogging down the street much to the looks of the people living in the housing complexes, as if they see where the future of the neighborhood is going.
Towards the southern end of Avenue D are the Lillian Wald Houses. It amazes me that the builders of these public housing units never had the fourth site to realize that they were giving the residences a million dollar view of the river. Back when these were built though, no one wanted to live near the river as badly as it was polluted back then.
Again by the Wald Houses all the entrances to the river park have been blocked by construction. The signs have all said that the City is reconfiguring the green space around the houses.
The Wald Houses don’t look so bad during the day
I turned the corner at East Houston Street and Avenue D on the southern border of the neighborhood and walked towards the river to see if there was any access to Stuyvesant Cove. It had been open during the Great Saunter in May but seemed to be closed off in all sections this time around for renovations.
Taking a walk east down East Houston Street
The Lillian Wald Houses line the borders of East Houston Street, Avenue D and FDR Drive and the whole complex including walkways and green space are all under scaffolding. Here and there you can see the building and closer to PS 188 next door, I saw a series of more murals.
The murals on the Lillian Wald Houses from East Houston Street
The mural along the walls
I couldn’t get any closer to the mural to see who painted it without freaking the residents out. They all looked at me like I was ICE walking around the neighborhood. It was funny because the ever getting drunk college students on Avenue A just ignored me.
The one mural that really caught my eye was on the side wall of PS 188. It was really colorful and whimsical.
I turned the corner to walk up the part of FDR Drive that I could along the sides of the public housing. There are so many twists and turns to this route and it will be a while before you can walk this sidewalk. The residents here did their best to ignore me as well. It’s fun when they pretend not to see me.
The sidewalk along southern FDR Drive is blocked off at East 10th Street
I walked the overpass at East 5th Street to the John Lindsey East River Park, which closed again for renovations. It had been open in May but they closed off all but a small portion of the park and the running track. I still could see the magnificent views of the East River and the Brooklyn skyline.
Interesting street art on the barriers
Interesting street art on the barriers on FDR Drive
Crossing all the construction on FDR Drive
The view of the Wald Houses from the East 5th Street overpass
The John Lindsay East River Park side of FDR Drive with the running park
The park is going through a major renovation and is now closed off on all sides. The running track, part of the picnic area and a small part of the river walkway are now open while the rest of the park is behind fencing.
Looking downtown towards the Manhattan Bridge
Looking uptown towards the East River and the Brooklyn skyline
A little street art tucked into the fencing in the park
The full view of the East River and what the park will look like when it is finished
The John Lindsey East River Park has been closed at various stages for renovation and to make it more environmentally friendly to protect the coastline. I have read though that many in the area say the improvements in the park have lead to the rapid gentrification of the area. Still I have seen the park when it was fully open and when it is finished it will be a fantastic park that everyone will enjoy.
After walking around this small portion of the park left open, I walked over the overpass back to East Houston Street and walked the southern most border of the neighborhood.
It still amazes me how many times I have walked this neighborhood and never really noticed what it was about. I justly passed it while I walked around. Now that I took the time to really study it, I was fascinated by what I had missed.
Walking down East Houston Street in the late afternoon
Tucked here and there were community gardens, tiny restaurants and loads of interesting street art. The artists and the taggers are really creative in this part of the City.
Le Petit Versailles Garden at 247 East second Street
The tiny garden that stood out was Le Petit Versailles Garden at 247 East Second Street that was closed both on the East Second and East Houston sides of the park. I was still able to sneak in on an open side door and admire all the interesting art.
The inside of the gardens in bloom
The sculpture work and landscaping
The Olmec looking statue at the entrance of the gardens
Inside the gardens were a series of sculptures that looked like something out of the ‘Wizard of Oz’. These unique pieces of are were hidden in the shadows but I hope to take a closer look when the gardens are open.
Sculpture number one
Sculpture number two
Sculpture number three
The back part of the garden in the midafternoon
A bit further down East Houston Street I noticed a G’s Cheesesteak shop at 6 Avenue B. I had their cheesesteaks in Downtown Point Pleasant Beach and can attest to their excellence.
The G’s Cheesesteaks at the corner of East Houston and Avenue B
It wasn’t the restaurant itself that grabbed my attention, it was the artwork painted on the side. Geometric and just wild the street art was just crazy.
I think that people added to the art since
The monster makes a statement
Geometric designs
I was not sure if Flore was the artist
I thought that this was clever
So was this
As I was down East Houston Street, a store window to a thrift shop caught my eye. While the store didn’t strike me as unique, the display in the window I thought was great. Someone used their creativity on this.
I thought this was surreal
Very clever from both views
I finally made it back to the southern part of Avenue A and talk about the extremes in the neighborhood.
Reaching Avenue A at twilight
While Avenue D is still gritty and a bit dangerous, Avenue A is like an extension of the NYU and Pace campuses. It was wall to wall bars and restaurants and outdoor cafes.
Walking up Avenue A in the late afternoon
The Best Housekeeping store at 17 Avenue A is an appliance store with the best murals on their roll down gates.
As I walked up Avenue A on this warm and clear Sunday night, I could not believe how packed all the restaurants and bars were and how young the crowds were dining. It looked to me that the colleges had just started the semester and everyone was letting loose a bit as classes started.
The tagging and street art dominated these blocks
I then passed 50 Avenue A with its interesting Monkey looking sculptures and its beautiful outdoor pictures.
Hearth House is a condop with a wonderful neighborhood vibe. One elevator, six stories…only a handful of units per floor. Most layouts offer two bedrooms. Top floor units have private roof terraces and some are duplexes (Streeteasy.com).
The Monkey (or Tiger motive on the building)
The wild painting outside this pet shop looks like a surreal ‘Magilla Gorilla’
It looks like the pet shop that was here has closed.
Walking up Avenue A at twilight
Interesting street art tucked on the sides of the building
St. Marks Place and Avenue A was closed off for about two blocks for outdoor dining
Much has been written about Tompkins Square Park over the years from a major drug den of the late 1960’s to the early 80’s, then a homeless camp, the Wigstock, the famous drag shows of the late 80’s to early 90’s to Mayor Giuliani closing the park down fencing it off and moving everyone out for a major renovation.
I had not stepped foot in this park since the fencing came down in the late 1990’s and I figured almost thirty years was enough time.
The corner of Avenue A and Tompkins Square Park at East 10th Street
The park has definitely changed and for the better. Yes, it does need a good weeding but it attracts a very diverse crowd of people from young couples walking around after eating to the dog walking crowd to the college students lying on the grass talking to the homeless on the benches there is a little bit of everyone at this park.
Walking around the pathways of Tompkins Square Park
The park has been reseeded and landscaped and now like Washington Square Park another extension of a backyard to the NYU, CUNY and Pace students.
The park was in bloom in the late Summer
The statue of Samuel S. Cox stands guard at the southwest entrance of the park
Samuel Sullivan “Sunset” Cox was born in Zanesville, Ohio, and served his home state as a Democratic Congressional representative from 1857 to 1865 before being unseated. After moving to New York in 1866, Cox served again in Congress for several terms from 1869 until 1889. Although Cox once publicly declared that his most satisfying contribution to public service was championing the Life Saving Service—founded in the 1840s to patrol the coasts and save imperiled boaters during bad weather, the group was absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1915—this statue is sponsored by U.S. Postal Service workers because of Cox’s support for their quality-of-life issues (NYCParks.org).
Artist Louise Lawson was an American born artist who studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Cooper Union. She worked as an apprentice under several famous sculptures and was one of the first American female sculptures to have a professional career. She is known for her Neoclassical sculptures (Wiki).
As I walked up Avenue A, the whole street is like an open air museum of street art but commercial and by taggers. Many of the restaurants had them painted on their walls.
The interesting mural was tucked under a building that was under renovation
Artists 23TatsCru is a group of Bronx based graffiti artists turned professional muralist (Wiki).
I walked both sides of Avenue A to admire the artwork and peek at all the menus. By 6:00pm on a Saturday night, the place was filling up with college students and young couples who were visiting the bars and restaurants. On this perfect night, everyone wanted to eat outdoors.
Walking the other side of East 14th Street
I made my way back down East 14th Street in the early evening tour walk the other side of the blocks.
Walking down the other side of East 14th Street in the late afternoon
The street art on the side of a restaurant on East 14th Street
Pedro Albizu Campos was a Puerto Rican born American lawyer and activist , who fought for our Country in WWI and was a member of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party.
I saw this piece of art on the sidewalk on East 14th Street
On a plain tenement building, this beautiful carving stood out
The view of the Con Ed Complex at the corner of East 14th Street and Avenue C
This interesting tag was on East 13th Street
Taking another walk down Avenue D again
When I got back to walking the other side of Avenue D, some of the businesses started to close up for the evening including some of the street vendors who were selling food. Many people had been giving me strange looks before had disappeared.
Walking past the Jacob Riis Houses in the late afternoon. They looked much nicer from the other side of the street
I stopped in at Avenue D Pizza because I had noticed their reasonable prices before but they were closing up for the evening and most of the food had disappeared from the display cases. I figured for another time.
Looking down the other side of Avenue D and you realize how much these blocks have changed in the last twenty years
Walking back up Avenue A again as the bars really started to fill up
It started to get dark at 8:00pm when I finished rounding East 14th Street for the last time that evening.
There were many restaurants to choose from that evening so I searched my Mileage Plus Dining Club to see any recommendations. It suggested Pop’s Pizzeria at 223 Avenue B not far away.
What an excellent recommendation because the pizza is wonderful here. They have some unusual pizza topping combinations and it really worked.
The inside of Pop’s Pizza
The selection of pies to choose from
I decided on the classic Margarita and a piece of Pepperoni with Cherry Peppers that had a hot and tangy flavor when they topped it with a little honey. The pizza is excellent here and the service was so friendly. The guys working here made some excellent suggestions and I really enjoyed my dinner.
My dinner that evening
The Margarita slice with freshly grated cheese on top
The Pepperoni with fresh cheese and honey on top
I really enjoyed my meal that night
It was such a beautiful evening, I decided to walk back to the Port Authority. The weather was still warm but crisp that evening and it was nice that the cool weather had come back.
I walked up Third Avenue and then crossed over to Park Avenue where I had admired the views.
Walking up Park Avenue that evening
I figured I worked off my lunch and dinner and it had been an interesting walk considering the neighborhoods shady past as a drug den. It may still have its problems but thirty five years and a reinvented and gentrified City shows you how resilient Manhattan really is and how it just keeps changing for the better.
What I love about being a member of the museums in New York City is that there is an opportunity to see the museum in the early hours for private events. This morning I got up early to experience Manhattan on a spectacular sunny morning for the event ‘Oasis in the Garden’, a talk on the design, purpose and art in the MoMA outdoor garden.
We met inside the museum before the tour
Since the museum opened at 9:30am and there was no one at the museum at that hour, we had the outdoor garden to ourselves for almost an hour and a half.
The outdoor garden at the MoMA at 10:00am in the morning
Our tour guide led about fifteen of us through a history of the creation of the gardens, the purpose in the museum, its renovation in 2004 when I joined and the sculpture in the garden.
She also talked about taking her students here and that some of them wanted specific answers to what the art meant rather than forming their own opinion. It is funny how I see this in my own students.
What I liked about our tour group was that it was an older, very educated crowd of people who brought different opinions on how the art we were seeing should be thought about. From the time the artist created it to it modern interpretation by the ‘politically correct police’, I was amazed by the other members take on each piece of art.
The gardens are a refuge from the noise and crowds of the museum and the City
Video of the fountain
The Albert Giacometti ‘Talk Figure III’
Each piece of sculpture we touch upon was chosen specifically for the gardens and we talked about its place from when it was made to the modern interpretation and how they differ. Our first discussion was about the Albert Giacometti sculpture ‘Tall Figure III’. Some people talked about hunger and the stance on poverty. I asked if her students had different thoughts of the statue when it was made versus today.
She explained everything is seen differently through the artist’s eyes versus the modern I perception. It was hard to compare the two opinions without a debate. I thought today’s students needed to lighten up a little and stop taking art at face value and just enjoy it. The context of work over a hundred years ago is very different from how it can be looked at today.
We had time to talk and relax between art pieces and I swear the sound of the fountains relaxed me so much I almost feel asleep.
The fountains were so calming that morning
Video of the Japanese fountain
The August’s Rodin ‘St. John the Baptist Preaching’
We talked about the religious standpoint of the sculpture versus its place in modern society. I thought it was a naked guy hitchhiking. It’s funny how you see art.
The Jacques Lipchitz ‘Figure 1926-30’
With the ‘Figure’ many of the member talked about their interpretation of the modern take of Cubism and some members asked about whether these were arms and legs or something else.
The back of the gardens
The back of the gardens were so peaceful. I stood back from the tour so I could just hear the water rumble.
The Henry Moore sculpture ‘ The Family Group 1948-49
We discussed the modern family unit of today versus when the sculpture was created.
The back of the gardens
The Henri Matisse ‘The Back (III) 1913-16
The Aristide Maillol ‘The River’
We talked about the fall from God. One person said it looked like someone was tripping into the fountain. I thought that was clever.
The Jean Dubuffet ‘Study for Tower with Figures’
This was the last figure we discussed and we were asked as a group what was the first thing that came to our minds when we saw this. I said ‘Juxtaposed’. So much going on and a lot being said. We talked about children and their make up in the family unit. How they change things.
I have to say that I saw the art in a different light this morning. It was interesting to hear the artist’s interpretation versus what members thoughts were on what the art meant. I thought it was a good take away when we finished the tour. There were so many interesting opinions on the art. What I liked was the weather was so amazing, and it was so nice to be outside.
The garden as the public entered later that morning
I know I got a lot out of the tour. It’s always nice to see different points of view of what the art means and how we interpret it. This is why it is fun to be a member of the MoMA. It’s nice to see the museum when it is quiet and you can just take your time.
mywalkinmanhattan 