Broadway_A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles

by Fran Leadon

  276 “Husbandry, Commerce, and Government”: Matthews, A History of Columbia University, 444.

  276 The college’s “Laws and Orders”: “Laws and Orders of the College of New York.” Quoted in Matthews, A History of Columbia University, Appendix B, 446–447.

  277 Low transformed Columbia into a modern university: Andrew S. Dolkart, Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture & Development. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, 109.

  277 he engineered Columbia’s purchase, for $2 million: Ibid., 109.

  277 The asylum’s main building: One building from the asylum still exists: Macy Villa, which serves as Columbia’s Buel Hall.

  278 drawing equally well with either hand: “Charles Follen McKim,” Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art IV (October 1, 1909), 173; Henry Bacon, “Charles Follen McKim: A Character Sketch,” The Brickbuilder XIX, 2 (February, 1910), 38–39.

  279 “Roman weight”: Royal Cortissoz, “Some Critical Reflections on the Architectural Genius of Charles F. McKim,” The Brickbuilder XIX, 2 (February 1910), 33.

  280 Seth Low had been: Dolkart, Morningside Heights, 109.

  280 Columbia hired McKim: Ibid., 125.

  280 McKim’s plan for Columbia: Originally the campus was bounded on the south by 116th Street, which opened from Tenth Avenue to the Boulevard in 1889 and closed to traffic in 1953. Today it is the main east-to-west axis of the campus and is known as “College Walk.”

  281 Low Library had room for 600,000 volumes: Dolkart, Morningside Heights, 151.

  282 “enveloping serious ideas in garments”: Cortissoz, “Some Critical Reflections on the Architectural Genius of Charles F. McKim,” 32.

  282 Low had been calling it “Morningside Heights”: Dolkart, Morningside Heights, 5.

  284 the ‘‘temples of the white man”: “Ground Has at Last Been Broken for the Stately New Buildings of the College of the City of New York, Which Will Crown St. Nicholas Terrace,” New York Tribune Illustrated Supplement, March 8, 1903, 8, 9.

  CHAPTER 33. GOD’S SKYSCRAPERS

  285 “Morningside Heights has entered a new era”: “New York’s Acropolis Grows in Glory,” New York Times Magazine, March 7, 1926, 5, 23.

  286 Columbia remained a male bastion: In 1886, Columbia initiated the Collegiate Course for Women, which resulted in a certificate, not a degree. That program ended with the founding of Barnard College in 1889. From there, women were gradually admitted to Columbia’s professional schools and allowed to take some undergraduate courses but weren’t fully admitted until 1983.

  286 In 1890 there had been only four: Bromley’s Atlas, Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, New York Public Library, 1891, Sheet 38.

  287 In 1841, Philip Hone called: The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851, Bayard Tuckerman, editor, II, 97.

  287 Five Points orphans and newsboys: Advertisement, New York Evening Express, December 22, 1855, 4.

  287 “I saw the great audience with dismay”: Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson Forbes, The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1912, VIII, 448–449.

  287 Demonstrations of mesmerism: In January of 1844, Lydia Maria Child went to the Tabernacle to listen to an introductory lecture on “Phreno-Mnemotechny,” which promised to strengthen the memory in ten hour-long lessons. Child, Letters from New York. Second Series. New York and Boston: C. S. Francis & Co., 1845, 57.

  287 Rynders broke down in tears: Untitled, New York Tribune, April 13, 1857, 4.

  287 “The church may be dead”: “Where Are the Great Preachers? Does New York Know Her Own Pulpits?” New York Tribune, May 12, 1919, 13.

  288 “We should use in church buildings”: “Proposed Skyscraper Cathedral of Church Meets Opposition,” South Bend News-Times, January 15, 1922, 14.

  288 plans for a skyscraper church on Broadway: “Reisner to Tell of Temple Plans,” New York Times, September 13, 1925, 6E.

  288 little evidence of Christianity in New York’s skyline: “Links Lawlessness to Lack of Religion: Dr. Reisner Declares Conditions Better in Europe Than Here Because of Training of Youth,” New York Times, December 10, 1928, 30.

  289 Oscar Konkle broke ground: “Tallest Building in World Is Begun,” New York Times, January 19, 1926, 15.

  289 Blasting began at the corner: “Blast for Skyscraper,” New York Times, February 26, 1926, 23; “Tallest Building in World Is Begun,” 15.

  290 Ten percent of the building’s earnings: “65-Story Hotel Here to Be Part Church,” New York Times, September 1, 1925, 1.

  290 were crushed to death: “Huge Rock Kills 5 In Pit on Broadway,” New York Times, March 31, 1926, 8.

  290 administered last rites: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 34. “HONEST TO GOODNESS SLUM LAND”

  295 On October 28: Mardges Bacon, Le Corbusier in America: Travels in the Land of the Timid. Cambridge, Mass., and London: MIT Press, 2001, 67. Le Corbusier lectured at Columbia on October 28 and November 19.

  295 Empire State Building “too small”: H. I. Brock, “Le Corbusier Scans Gotham’s Towers,” New York Times Magazine, November 3, 1935, 10.

  295 Returning to Columbia on November 19: Bacon, Le Corbusier in America, 93.

  295 “swift and nervous”: Talbot Faulkner Hamlin, Columbia University Quarterly 28 (March 1936), 68–69. Quoted in Bacon, Le Corbusier in America, 93. Le Corbusier’s sketches from the Columbia lectures are in the collection of Columbia’s Avery Library. Some of them are reproduced in Bacon, plates 2, 5, 6, 8.

  296 Students were warned away from the park: “Woman Slain in Park,” New York Times, July 16, 1935, 11.

  296 “Columbia has lost conviction”: Lewis Mumford (uncredited), “Bricks of the City,” in New York Panorama. New York: Random House, 1938, 222.

  296 Morningside Heights had devolved: Wayne Phillips, “Slums Engulfing Columbia Section,” New York Times, June 9, 1958, 25.

  296 “obsolete design”: Elizabeth R. Hepner, Morningside-Manhattanville Rebuilds . . . New York: Morningside Heights, Inc., 1955, 2.

  297 “nothing short of substantial rebuilding”: Ibid.

  297 Moses informed Rockefeller: Ibid.

  297 The valley is a geological fault line: Eric K. Washington, “St. Mary’s Protestant Episcopal Church (Manhattanville), Parish House, and Sunday School,” Designation Report, New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, May 19, 1998, 2.

  298 Irish and German immigrants: Ibid.

  298 the neighborhood’s black population had doubled: Howard Brown Woolston, A Study of the Population of Manhattanville. New York: Columbia University Press, 1909, 89.

  298 “no exceptional incidence of [over]crowding”: Hepner, Morningside-Manhattanville Rebuilds . . . , 8.

  299 “hysterical”: Bert Horwitz, “Building Plans Objected to by Housing Group,” Columbia Daily Spectator, December 3, 1951, 1–2.

  299 “[The] aim of the redevelopment”: Ibid.

  300 on November 12 the city announced plans: “Morningside Groups Clarify Issues,” Columbia Daily Spectator, December 14, 1951, 3.

  300 for the “upset price” of $1,302,046: Hepner, Morningside-Manhattanville Rebuilds . . . , 23.

  300 A mass exodus: Ibid., 24.

  300 “After one or two futile attempts”: Ibid., 24.

  302 “The people on the hill”: Gertrude Samuels, “Rebirth of a Community,” New York Times Magazine, July 4, 1955, 26.

  CHAPTER 35. MURDERVILLE

  303 Seventy - five percent of the site’s buildings: Ira Henry Freeman, “Morningside Site Is Set for Co-Op,” New York Times, September 16, 1955, 25.

  305 Jane Jacobs . . . called“buoyancy”: Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books, 1961, 146.

  306 our “complicated and ornery society”: Ibid., 4, 9.

  306 One - third of them came: Charles Grutzner, “City’s ‘Acropolis’ Combating Slums,” New York Times, May 21, 1957, 37, 40.

  306 Seventy - five percent of Morningsi
de Gardens’: Charles Grutzner, “Moses Backs Sale of Slum Project,” New York Times, June 21, 1957, 27.

  306 In 1982, twenty - five years: Deirdre Carmody, “After 25 Years, Co-op Endures as Stable Sign,” New York Times, October 16, 1982, www.nytimes.com.

  306 The Grant Houses opened: Charles Grutzner, “5 Families Move to Grant Houses,” New York Times, August 21, 1956, 31.

  306 the Housing Authority spelled out HELLO: Charles Grutzner, “ ‘Hello’ to Gleam at Grant Houses,” New York Times, August 20, 1956, 23.

  307 in September of 1962 battalions of tenants: Peter Kihss, “Tenants Recruit Volunteer Guard,” New York Times, September 11, 1962, 35.

  307 Anna Ayala: “Girl, 12, Slain in Harlem Project as City Is Agreeing to Guard It,” New York Times, September 13, 1962, 35.

  307 The Housing Authority’s response: Franklin Whitehouse, “200 Guards Hired for City Housing,” New York Times, September 13, 1962, 35.

  307 “The tenants are afraid to leave their apartments”: Emanuel Perlmutter, “Vigil Is Begun in Harlem Project for More Police,” New York Times, April 16, 1968, 37.

  307 In 1980 twenty women reported being raped: “2 Indictmens Allege Sex Assaults on 7,” New York Times, May 2, 1980, 31; “Police Seek a Rapist,” New York Times, April 21, 1980, 23; Glenn Fowler, “A Suspect in 4 Rapes at 2 Housing Projects in Harlem Is Arrested,” New York Times, April 24, 1980, 37.

  307 In 1994 the decomposed bodies: Seth Faison, “Woman and 3 Children Found Killed in Harlem,” New York Times, May 2, 1994, 31.

  307 In 1997 a dispute between neighbors: David Kocieniewski, “Tenant Is Held In Explosion at Apartment,” New York Times, March 25, 1997, www.nytimes.com.

  307 eighteen - year - old Tayshana Murphy: Dmitry Kiper and Joseph Goldstein, “Heralded Girls Basketball Star Is Shot to Death in Manhattan,” New York Times, September 11, 2011, A21; Corey Kilgannon, “Housing Project Feud Cited in Killing of Basketball Star,” New York Times, September 14, 2011, A25; Sarah Maslin Nir, “Two Arrested in the Killing of a Student,” New York Times, September 21, 2011, A25.

  CHAPTER 36. THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

  314 “little retreat”: Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, June 8, 1800, in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, XXIV, 587–588.

  314 Eliza and Hamilton were married: Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin, 2004, 148.

  316 “You have forgot to send me the plans”: Philip Schuyler to Alexander Hamilton, July 17, 1800, in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor, XXV, 41–42.

  317 “Don’t forget to visit the Grange ”: Alexander Hamilton to Elizabeth Hamilton, January 18, 1801, in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor, XXV, 327–328.

  318 “You see, I do not forget the Grange”: Ibid., 159–160.

  318 the house “rocked like a cradle”: William Kent, Memoirs and Letters of James Kent. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1898, 143.

  318 “friendly and amiable”: Ibid.

  318 Hamilton was $50,000 to $60,000 in debt: Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 724–725.

  318 “[Schuyler] knows well”: “Alexander Hamilton’s Explanation of His Financial Situation,” in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor, XXVI, 289.

  319 he was, like Hamilton, in debt: Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 724–725.

  319 “I pray God that something may remain”: “Obsequies of Mrs. Hamilton,” New York Herald, November 12, 1854, 12.

  319 worth about $25,000: “Statement of My Property and Debts, July 1, 1804,” in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor, 1979, XXVI, 284.

  319 On April 8, 1805, it fetched $30,500: Mercantile Advertiser, April 9, 1805. Quoted in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498 to 1909. Six volumes. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915–1928. Reprinted, New York: Arno Press, 1967, V, 1434.

  319 Pendleton, Fish, Church bought it back: Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 724–725.

  319 Gouverneur Morris solicited subscriptions: Ibid., 725.

  319 Congress passed “An Act”: “Alexander Hamilton’s Explanation of His Financial Situation,” in The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Harold C. Syrett, editor, XXVI, n288.

  319 Eliza wore widow’s black the rest of her life: “Obsequies of Mrs. Hamilton,” 12.

  319 she never mingled in Washington’s fashionable circles: Ibid.

  319 credited Eliza with teaching him: “In Memory of Hamilton,” New York Tribune, July 13, 1904, 1.

  319 rented out as pasture for horses: Advertisement, New York Herald, August 9, 1868, 1.

  319 In 1887, De Forest subdivided: “The Great Auction Sale of the Magnificent Hamilton Grange Property,” advertisement, New York Evening World, October 17, 1887, 4.

  319 De Forest declared he was unhappy: “Small Demand for Hamilton Grange Lots,” New York Sun, October 26, 1887, 2.

  320 De Forest went bankrupt: “W. H. De Forest Fails,” New York Sun, January 10, 1888, 1.

  320 In the 1880s it was painted: “Where a Statesman Died,” New York Evening World, November 28, 1887, 3.

  320 The original carriage drive: “Alexander Hamilton’s Old Home,” New York Evening World, November 7, 1887, 4.

  320 The back corner of the house intruded: Ibid.

  320 Isaac H. Tuthill, St. Luke’s pastor: “And Old St. Luke’s Must Go,” New York Evening World, January 3, 1889, 2.

  321 when three generations of Hamilton’s descendants: “In Memory of Hamilton,” New York Tribune, July 13, 1904, 1.

  321 The last trunk was cut down: Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, V, 2072.

  321 That same year the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society: Clarence Dean, “City Hopes to Put Hamilton Grange Back in the Sun,” New York Times, March 4, 1955, 25.

  322 the Grange might be moved to Riverside Drive: “Substitute Urged for Claremont Inn,” New York Times, May 16, 1950, 33.

  322 a plan in 1955 to move the Grange: Dean, “City Hopes to Put Hamilton Grange Back in the Sun,” 25.

  322 During thunderstorms: Eric Sloane and Edward Anthony, Mr. Daniels and the Grange. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968, 16.

  322 “The Grange is a sad house”: Ibid.

  323 the Wolfe movers used hydraulic jacks: www.wolfehousebuildingmovers.com. Accessed June 2, 2016.

  323 the 298 - ton Grange: David W. Dunlap, “Witnessing a House, and History, on the Move,” New York Times, June 8, 2008, A38.

  323 chains were wrapped around it: www.wolfehousebuildingmovers.com. Accessed June 2, 2016.

  323 calculated the Grange’s speed at .04 miles an hour: Dunlap, “Witnessing a House, and History, on the Move,” A38.

  324 “may be regarded as fluid”: “Spires on Morningside,” New York Times, February 13, 1926, 12.

  324 There were 682 visitors: “Summary of Visitor Use by Month and Year (1979—Last Calendar Year),” Park Reports, National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics, http://irma.nps.gov. Accessed November 2, 2016.

  CHAPTER 37. NECROPOLIS

  326 commonplace deaths: “Weekly Report of Deaths,” New York Herald, 1830s–1860s.

  326 the churchyard was already “crowded with the dead”: John Lambert, Travels Through Canada and the United States of North America, in the Years 1806, 1807 & 1808. London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816, II, 88.

  326 “One would think there was a scarcity of land”: Ibid.

  327 killed over 4,000: J. H. French, Historical and Statistical Gazetteer of New York State. Syracuse: R. Pearsall Smith, 1860, 428.

  327 the city’s Board of Health recommended: Edward Miller, Report on the Malignant Disease, Which Prevailed in the City of New-York in the Autumn of 1805. New York: s.n., 1806, 35.

  327 held thousands of corpses: Records indicate 11,864 burials in the churchyard, but this doesn’t take into account missing records before 1777 and between 1783 and 1800. Whitey Flynn, Trinity Church Archives, email message
to author, July 13, 2017.

  328 “A more desirable excursion for schools”: Advertisement, New York Herald, August 27, 1845, 3.

  330 “How humbling to one with a heart and a soul”: John Augustus Shea, “The Ocean,” in Famous Fugitive Poems, Rossiter Johnson, editor. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1909, 307.

  CHAPTER 38. MINNIE’S LAND

  332 “pour[ing] forth his melody”: Excerpt from Audubon’s Ornithological Biography. Quoted in Rufus W. Griswold, The Prose Writers of America. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1870, 193–194.

  332 “I am part Frenchman, part American”: Untitled, New York Herald, July 7, 1837, 2.

  333 Audubon had some difficulty in securing subscribers: Richard Rhodes, John James Audubon: The Making of an American. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004, 273.

  333 “His bird pictures reflect his own temperament”: John Burroughs, John James Audubon. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1902, 125.

  334 the “most splendid book ever published”: The Diary of Philip Hone, 1828–1851, Bayard Tuckerman, editor. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1889, I, 73.

  334 “an interesting man”: Ibid. Audubon visited Hone on March 30 or 31, 1833.

  334 “Audubon, the great naturalist ”: Untitled, New York Herald, July 7, 1837, 2.

  334 Bennett ran into Audubon on a steamship: “Sailing of the Packet Ship England,” New York Herald, July 19, 1837, 2.

  334 volunteer firemen presented a copy to Jenny Lind: Augustine E. Costello, Our Firemen: A History of the New York Fire Departments. New York: Augustine E. Costello, 1887, 181.

  334 the edition earned $36,000: Rhodes, John James Audubon, 430.

  335 Samuel F. B. Morse visited: George Bird Grinnell, Audubon Park: The History of the Site of the Hispanic Society of America and Neighboring Institutions. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1927, 14.

  336 a “secluded house . . . unpretending in its architecture”: Parke Godwin, “Audubon,” in Homes of American Authors. New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1853, 4.

  336 Shown into a ground - floor studio: Ibid., 5.

  336 “How kind it is [of you] to come see me”: Ibid., 6.

  336 then returned to Minnie’s Land full of energy: Rhodes, John James Audubon, 429–430.