Tag Archives: New York

T is for Theodore

Author: | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: , , ,

Located at 28 East 20th Street, New York, NY 10003
Museum Website:  https://www.nps.gov/thrb/index.htm

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, a brownstone townhouse, is where Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, lived from his birth on October 27, 1858 until he was 14 years old. The museum is designed as a memorial and place to interpret Roosevelt’s ideals and legacies. The site opened to the public on October 27, 1923. 

The museum building contains five period rooms: the parlor, library, dining room, nursery, and master bedroom, two museum galleries a library, auditorium, storage, and a bookstore.

Museum galleries are filled with Roosevelt memorabilia and exhibits pertaining to Roosevelt’s life, career, and politics. The collections include manuscripts, published books and articles, cartoons, and photographs, as well as many of Roosevelt’s letters and journals. Also included are original historic objects and furnishings from Roosevelt’s childhood home, as well as other objects from his later life.

The library is filled with a collection of Roosevelt books and other research material. 

The Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace was established as a national historic site in 1962 and donated to the National Park Service in 1963. 

The house gives the definite impression that it belonged to a wealthy family, with flowing silk curtains and expensive furniture and chandeliers. While all the period pieces of furniture and decorations are heirlooms, the original home, was demolished in 1916, after the family moved uptown and the building was used for commercial purposes for a number of years.

After Roosevelt’s death in 1919, the site was purchased by the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association, rebuilt and decorated with many of its original furnishings by Roosevelt’s sisters and wife.

The reconstruction of the birthplace was designed by one of America’s first female architects, Theodate Pope Riddle. 

The reconstruction of the exterior and the period rooms within it was based on the memories of Theodore Roosevelt’s sisters and wife.They were instrumental in determining spatial configuration, wall and floor finishes, furnishings, and furniture placement in the rooms. The restoration was also based on house descriptions from Roosevelt’s autobiography and the townhouse next door that had belonged to Roosevelt’s uncle and was still extant when the reconstruction began. Original elements from that home, which was identical to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, were incorporated into the reconstructed home. 

Called Teedie as a youngster, he started life as a sickly yet bright boy who exercised to improve his health and began a lifelong passion for the ‘strenuous life’. 

Under President Theodore Roosevelt, congress passed the Antiquities Act in 1906, which authorizes the President to declare, by public proclamation, historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest situated on federal lands as national monuments.

After becoming president in 1901, Roosevelt used his authority to establish 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks and 18 national monuments on over 230 million acres of public land. Today, the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt is found across the country.

The story of how a sitting president of the United States got associated with the most popular children’s plush toy starts when the president, on a hunting trip in 1902, refused to shoot a captive bear. And the story was published far and wide. Morris Michtom and his wife Rose, Brooklyn business people, had the idea to create a stuffed toy bear and dedicate it to the president who refused to shoot a bear. After receiving Roosevelt’s permission to use his name, the toy was mass produced, becoming famous all over the world as the Teddy Bear.

He is one of the four presidents the country honored and immortalized on Mount Rushmore. 

Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 “for his role in bringing to an end the bloody war recently waged between two of the world’s great powers, Japan and Russia”.

His reputation as an outdoorsman, naturalist, rancher, and conservationist has earned him a unique place in our country’s history. The motto on his Coat of Arms says: Qui plantavit curabit – He who planted will preserve.

Continue reading >1

24 Apr 2023

S is for Snug

Author: | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: , , , , ,

Located at 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301
Website:  https://snug-harbor.org/

Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden

Located on the north shore of Staten Island, Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden consists of extensive parkland grounds and gardens with meandering idyllic walks.

The architecturally classic buildings located in the park house various institutions like the Staten Island Museum, Noble Maritime Collection, and the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art.

A Smithsonian affiliate, Snug Harbor presents seasonal arts and crafts exhibitions and performances, all year round.

Snug Harbor has an interesting history. It was originally built as a home for retired sailors, with the name Sailors’ Snug Harbor.

In 1801 Captain Robert Richard Randall had bequeathed his Manhattan estate, in his will, for the purpose of starting a marine hospital for aged, decrepit and worn-out seamen. However, by the time arrangements could be made to build the home, the Manhattan location was not suitable and the trustees opted for Staten Island as the best choice. And the Sailors’ Snug Harbor, a name suggested by Randall himself, was founded in 1831.

The first building opening in 1833, with 37 occupants. As the number of people seeking refuge grew, more buildings were added, including a chapel, music hall, and more dormitories.

Over the next century, Sailors’ Snug Harbor expanded from its original three buildings to 50 structures and 900 residents from every corner of the world. By the turn of the 20th century, Sailors’ Snug Harbor was reputedly the richest charitable institution in the United States and a self-sustaining community with farms, a dairy, a bakery, workshops, a power plant, a chapel, a sanatorium, a hospital, a concert hall, dormitories, recreation areas, gardens, and a cemetery.

In the mid-20th century, the Randall endowment started to run out. Also, the number of residents also was going down as programs like Social Security and Medicare provided a financial safety for retired sailors. Several buildings at Snug Harbor were demolished in the early 1950’s as they were in disrepair.

In the 1960s, steps were taken to save the main buildings from demolition. The five main buildings, built in the Greek Revival style, were designated as New York City’s first landmark structures. They are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the early 1970s the dilapidated Snug Harbor had become economically nonviable, and the Trustees decided to move the home to North Carolina. Major parts of the land, including the area of the landmarked buildings, were sold to the City of New York.

Following the recommendation of the committee, appointed a committee to investigate uses and develop a strategy for the site, the Snug Harbor Cultural Center was set up in 1975. It was opened to the public on September 12, 1976. The first art exhibit at the site opened in November, 1977.

Today Snug Harbor consists of 28 buildings, fourteen distinctive botanical gardens, a two acre urban farm, wetlands and park land on a unique, free, open campus.

It is home to the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island Children’s Museum, Noble Maritime Collection, Art Lab, Children’s Harbor Montessori School, and Staten Island Conservatory of Music, entries to some of which are ticketed.

The different gardens, Rose Garden, Pond Garden, Perennial Garden, Herb Garden, Healing Garden, Potager Garden, Shade Garden, etc., are main attractions of the place, along with the several beautiful walks.

The Music Hall, built in 1892, hosts year-round concerts, dance and dramatic performances, film and video series, and poetry and fiction readings. 

The Newhouse Galleries exhibit contemporary art, and the Botanical Garden is one of the largest in the New York area, complementing the Connie Gretz Secret Garden and the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden.

The New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden is one of two authentic classical outdoor Chinese gardens in the United States.

Based on Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) gardens, it is a compilation of different gardens in China. All the architectural components of the garden were fabricated in Suzhou, China, including roof and floor tiles, columns and beams, doors and windows, bridges and paving materials.

Snug Harbor’s Heritage Farm was established in October of 2011 to help the local community.

A 2.5-acre production farm, it uses sustainable, low-till farming practices that focus on building soil health through the use of compost, crop rotation, intercropping, and cover cropping. In 2021, the Heritage Farm grew over 22,000 pounds of produce, donating around 4,000 lbs of produce to local community.

Over 250,000 people a year visit Snug Harbor, enjoying its many amenities. 

Snug Harbor’s educational programs complement and add diversity to conventional classroom curriculum.

Tidbyte

Funny story… The mosaic on the upper pavilion incorporates broken pieces of rice bowls, representing China, and broken beer bottles, representing America. The craftspeople wanted to incorporate both materials as a symbol of harmony and unity between the two nations.

Continue reading >1

22 Apr 2023

R is for Rockefeller

Author: | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: , , ,

Located at 45 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10111
Website:  https://www.rockefellercenter.com/

  Rockefeller Center 

Rockefeller Center is a commercial complex that currently consists of 19 buildings, 12 of them part of the original layout. It also provides a venue for events, art exhibitions, dining as well as shopping. Rockefeller Center has been referred to as a ‘city-within-a-city’.

In 1929, industrialist John D. Rockefeller Jr. signed a long-term lease for the site on which the Center stands, which was owned at the time by Columbia University. Once considered prime real estate, the site had deteriorated since the real estate boom of the late 19th century, and the building of the Sixth Avenue elevated train.

In the late 1920s Rockefeller sought to revitalize the area. The Metropolitan Opera House was expected to occupy a newly built home for it on the land, but the economic downturn, following the stock market crash of 1929, prevented the Opera House from going forward with the plans.

Rockefeller continued with the project, opting to create an exclusive commercial complex. In 1931, construction of Rockefeller Center began, and the 12 original buildings were completed in 1940. Throughout the Depression, the construction of the Center provided jobs for thousands of laborers and helped sustain the building industry in New York City.

The Center is laid out between the Fifth and Sixth Avenues, from 48th Street to 51st Street. Most noticeable about the Rockefeller Center is the beauty and harmony that is visible inside the buildings as well as outside. 

The pedestrian promenade area, the Channel Gardens, designed to lead visitors to a cascade of stairs that descend to the brightly colored, international flag-draped Sunken Plaza, is the most tourist-attracting and recognized locale in the Center. The Channel Gardens consist of six granite pools, each with bronze-cast fountainhead sculptures of Tritons, Nereids and sea creatures. Seasonal decorations adorn these pools and surroundings.

The plaza functions as an ice skating rink in the winter and an outdoor dining spot during the warmer seasons. 

The exteriors of all of the original complex’s buildings, as well as the interiors of the International Building’s and 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s lobbies, were granted landmark status on April 23, 1985.

The frieze above the main entrance to the front entrance of the Comcast Building, known as 30 Rock for 30 Rockefeller Plaza, was executed by Lee Lawrie and depicts Wisdom, along with a slogan that reads ‘Wisdom and Knowledge shall be the stability of thy times’, a biblical quote. The central figure represents Wisdom, who rules over man’s knowledge and interprets the laws of nature. Wisdom grasps a compass that points to the light and sound waves carved on the cast pyrex screen below. Made of 240 glass blocks, the screen is a technical and artistic masterpiece.

The Rockefeller Center is full of symbolic mythological characters who exemplify power and strength, and willfulness. There is Prometheus, who steals fire from heaven for mankind, presiding over the skating rink and there is Atlas, the Titan who taught man astronomy, a tool used by sailors to navigate the seas, and one used by farmers to measure the seasons, in front of the International Building. If you look around there are many more such icons inside and outside the Rockefeller Center buildings.

The dominating sculpture of Atlas, designed by Lee Lawrie, weighing 14,000 pounds, is the largest sculptural work in the Center. He stands 15-feet tall atop a 9-foot high pedestal. The exaggerated physical features cast in bronze are a fine example of the Art Deco style. What’s odd about Atlas is what he’s supporting on his shoulders -not the earth, as in the original myth, but a representation of the heavens.

The murals showing the evolution of machinery, the eradication of disease, the abolition of slavery, and the suppression of war, by José Maria Sert are displayed in the lobby on the 50th Street side, on the walls and the ceiling. The center ceiling mural is called Time.

No mention of the Rockefeller Center will be complete without a few words about Christmas at the Center. The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center is THE Christmas Tree for most New Yorkers, signaling the start of the season. An estimated 500,000 people visit Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree each day during the holiday season.

In 1931, men working on the excavation for Rockefeller Center put up the site’s first Christmas tree. The workers decorated a 20-foot balsam fir using garlands made by their families and the tinfoil ends of blasting caps. The site of their celebration was situated on the same area of the plaza where the tree is now raised each year.

In 1933, Rockefeller Center decided a tree would be the perfect way to celebrate the Center, and an annual tradition was born.

And the skating rink comes to life with the backdrop of Prometheus and the Christmas Tree!

Continue reading >0

21 Apr 2023

Q is for Queens

Author: | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: , , , , ,

Located at 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Queens, NY 11004
Museum Website:  https://www.queensfarm.org/

Queens County Farm Museum

Queens County Farm Museum is a working farm, dating back to 1697 and occupies New York City’s largest remaining tract of undisturbed farmland. The farm is one of the longest continuously farmed sites in New York State. The site includes historic farm buildings, a greenhouse complex, livestock, farm vehicles and implements, planting fields, an orchard, apiary, and a herb garden.

Queens County Farm Museum is a New York City Landmark, on the National Register of Historic Places and a member of the Historic House Trust of New York City.

The farm was privately owned by a Dutch family, the Adriances, from 1697 to 1808, after which year it was owned by a series of families. In 1926, the farm was sold to Creedmoor State Hospital. The hospital used it for occupational therapy, to stock its kitchen, and to grow ornamental plants for the rest of the hospital campus. 

In 1975, NYC Parks acquired the farm from the hospital for the purpose of starting a museum.

Queens County Farm Museum, also known as Queens Farm, provides an opportunity for urbanites to connect with agriculture and the natural environment.

The 47-acre farm has plenty of learning opportunities for people of any age, but especially for children. The farm is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and is operated by the Colonial Farmhouse Restoration Society of Bellerose, Inc.

The restored Adriance Farmhouse, the centerpiece of the farm complex, was first built as a three-room Dutch farmhouse in 1772. Certain dates each month, you can take tours of the historical farm house.

The Farmy Scavenger Hunt at Queens Farm, a free family program, is aimed at PreK to 5th grade children to help them discover and learn about plants, animals and the history of the farm.

At the Con Edison Reading Room, open year-round, visitors can relax with a book or magazine while visiting the farm. This was originally built as a summer kitchen and most recently was used for the farm’s tomato storage. You will find books related to cooking, gardening, the environment, health and wellness, animals, farming, science and NYC history at the reading room.

If you are interested in taking part in the Apple Blossom Carnival, now is the time! It is being held April 22-23 and 28-30, 2023. 

You can check out all the museum programs on the Events and Programs page of the museum website.

The Farm Store at Queens Farm is a wonderful place to find unique items for the home and garden including Queens Farm products, locally-made gifts, and educational toys and books.

Farm-fresh eggs from the variety of heritage-breed hens raised at the farm, raw, local wildflower honey, an assortment of herbal teas like lemongrass, nettles, lemon verbena, raspberry leaf, tulsi etc produced from plants grown at Queens Farm, yarn from the farm’s alpacas and cotswold sheep, some naturally-dyed using dye plants grown on the farm… these are some of the goodies available for sale at the Farm Store.

The Farm Store also sells a range of seasonal plants from spring through fall. 

Animal feeding, sheep shearing, pumpkin patches, tractor pulled hayrides a maize maze… lots of seasonal things (some are ticketed) are happening at the Queens Farm. Be sure to check out their happenings page for the year.

The Annual Queens County Fair, a traditional agricultural fair with competitions in produce, arts and crafts, takes place at the farm. This year it is scheduled for the September 8 to 10, with pie eating and corn husking contests, hayrides, carnival rides, and games. Tickets for this event can be purchased online.

Queens Farm also offers educational programs for students and adults, the details of which are on the museum website.

Continue reading >0

20 Apr 2023

P is for Park

Author: | Category: A to Z Challenge | Tags: , , ,

Located at Brooklyn, New York City, main entrance at Grand Army Plaza
Park Website:  https://www.prospectpark.org/

Prospect Park

Prospect Park is an urban park in Brooklyn, New York City. The 585-acre park is one of the nation’s premier public parks. In 2017, Prospect Park celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The park has a long history. In the 18th century, Brooklyn was one of six villages located at the western end of Long Island. By the second half of the 19th century, Brooklyn had grown to be the third most populous city in the country, after only New York and Philadelphia. The erstwhile farming community had quickly turned into a commuter suburb with row homes and street grids.

The growth of urban concepts coincided with this growth. Following the setting up of Central Park in Manhattan, by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux starting 1858, a movement grew in Brooklyn for a landscaped park of its own. 

James S.T. Stranahan, a business and civic leader with real estate interests in Brooklyn argued for a park not only as a public nicety, but also as a way to lure wealthy residents to the town. In 1865, Calvert Vaux sketched Prospect Park’s present layout at Stranahan’s request. This induced the Brooklyn commissioners to authorize the full purchase of the land for Prospect Park.

A comprehensive plan for the development of Prospect Park was submitted by the Olmsted and Vaux team in 1866, envisioning a tranquil, rural landscape where people could recuperate from the incessant pace of city life. They designed an elaborate infrastructure for Prospect Park, and construction began on July 1, 1866, under their supervision.

The principal features of the design included the Long Meadow, a heavily wooded area they called the Ravine and a 60-acre lake, meandering carriage drives, high elevation scenic lookouts, woodland waterfalls and springs, and a rich forest. 

Original Park structures included rustic shelters and arbors, and sandstone bridges and arches. A Concert Grove House and Pavilion were built adjacent to the Lake so Park visitors could enjoy music in a pastoral setting, and there was a Wellhouse near Lookout Hill, and a Dairy complete with milking cows. 

The public was welcomed to the park for the first time on October 19, 1867, long before the Park was complete. Construction continued for another seven years. In the year 1868, 2 million people came to enjoy what would come to be known as ‘Brooklyn’s Jewel’.

Over the years, the park was improved by activities like the creation of the Prospect Park Zoo in 1935, new playgrounds around the Park’s perimeter, the extensive renovation of the Park drives in the 1950s, and the construction of the Bandshell. 

The park has undergone many ups and downs in its lifetime. By 1979, the number of the visitors had dwindled to just 2 million a year, the lowest in the Park’s history. In 1980 was started long term restoration efforts to bring back the glory of the park.

The 146-acre section in the center of the park, known as the Ravine, is also Brooklyn’s only forest. The Ravine’s stream and steep gorge is a recreation of the Adirondack Mountains, created by the original design team of Olmsted and Vaux. The Ravine has a variety of trees growing there from black oak to hickory to tulip trees.

Prospect Park originally included several arched bridges to provide grade-separated crossings for pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Today the main surviving arches are the Endale Arch, East Wood Arch, Meadowport Arch, and Cleft Ridge Span.

The Music Pagoda, used for concerts until it burned down in 1968, was rebuilt on the site in 1971.

The Camperdown Elm is a species of elm trees with drooping branches usually called ‘weeping elm’. The Camperdown Elm in Prospect Park, nicknamed ‘the crowning curio’ of the park was planted in 1872. It still survives in the park, though it was almost dead once.

The Prospect Park Boathouse is set in the most idyllic scene, with its beauty reflected in the waters. When the Parks Department proposed demolishing the boathouse in 1964, the local preservation group Friends of Prospect Park built public awareness over the park’s disappearing historical structures. The public pressure became so strong that the park commissioner halted plans for demolition.

In 1987, a group of private citizens working with the Parks Commissioner founded a new nonprofit organization to work with the City in leading Prospect Park’s transformation called the Prospect Park Alliance. More than a decade of intensive restoration efforts followed with focus on restoring the Ravine, a radical redesign of the skating rink and the lakeside, and restoration of the historic Baier Music Island.

The LeFrak Center, a year-round skating and recreational facility, was opened In 2013, in the final phase of the restoration and redesign of the Lakeside section.

A restoration project, focusing on an 8-acre section of the Vale, is being planned to start in 2024. The Vale is a 26-acre portion of Prospect Park in its northeast corner. The plan is to restore two landscape features in this area: the historic Children’s pool and the former Rose Garden.

The Grand Army Plaza, which was constructed along with the park during the late 1860s, is the park’s main entrance, though there are 17 other entrances to the park.

Continue reading >0

19 Apr 2023