Gothic: one of the great cast iron bridges of Central Park.

The Interborough Rapid Transit building on 59th Street

an evocation of ancient Rome, and a tribute to modern American enlightenment. "But for its stacks, it might suggest an art gallery, museum or a public library rather than a power house.", enthused J. C. Bayles of the New York Times on October 30, 1904.

Built in 1904, this magnificent neo-classical structure dominates. Above it one can note smoke stacks belching black smoke so typical of the industrial age in which it was born but what the heck for? Our subway system today seems too modern to be reliant on such an antiquated system to generate power for the trains?  Just observe the building from its north side and it would appear that it is positively breathing. Yes, it is alive. A relic of the industrial age surrounded by 21st century glass and steel towers. But it's beauty is undeniable. Just look at its ornate baroque façade. It seems to be saying: I WAS BUILT AT A TIME WHEN THIS COUNTRY WAS AT ITS BEST. WHEN NOTHING ELSE LIKE ME EXISTED. I WAS THE MARVEL OF A BOOMING YOUNG CITY BURSTING AT THE SEAMS.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated lines and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940. The former IRT lines (the numbered lines in the current subway system) are now the A division or IRT Division of the Subway.

Here's a write up from The New York times in 1904:

The New York Times · October, 1904

New Power Plant of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company

One of the most interesting and instructive power plans in the world is the new one recently constructed by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company of this city for the operation of the Subway trains. From this one station is to be derived the power needed to run some 800 trains on the thirteen miles of three ad four track road now built or in the process of construction. This tremendous plant is situated on Eleventh Avenue and extends from Fifty-eighth Street to Fifty-ninth Street, being about 700 feet in depth measured back from the avenue. The skeleton of the building is of steel, but the other loads which will have to be supported are so great that the side walls have been made entirely self-supporting.

The IRT building in its heyday

The steel work is extremely strong, its heavy sections coming in the class of bridge girders rather than ordinary structural shapes. The floors are made of I-beams, connected by plate girders, and the interstices filled with concrete arches. The concrete is reinforced with expanded metal to give it greater stiffness and tenacity. The floors have been designed to stand safely under the following maximum loads: Two hundred pounds per square foot on all flat parts of the roof; 500 pounds in the engine room, and 300 pounds in the boiler house. In the latter part of the building, in the parts directly in front of the boilers, where the wear will be greatest, heavy cast-iron plates with rough, checkered surfaces are made into the floor. These plates extend across the entire front of the boiler, and are three feet wide.

Most of the columns are built up of plates and channels, the latter being 12 inches deep and the former 18 inches wide. The wall columns are of the "box" type of plate and angle construction.

As the layout of the boiler room, putting all the boilers on one floor required that exceptional care be taken to economize space as far as possible, the novel expedient was adopted of raising the the stacks and building them on steel legs and platforms instead of solidly on the ground, as has heretofore been almost the universal practice. These platforms are about the level of the roof of the building, saving thereby a large amount of space in the boiler room and the economizer room, which is on the floor above. The platforms on which the stacks rest are extremely heavy, being made up of 24-inch I-beams, on which the brickwork is directly placed. The beams are supported by a bracing made up of plate girders eight feet deep. The columns supporting this weight are of box pattern, made up of angles and plates, and are about 10 by 20 inches outside. These columns are stiffened by girders and braces, and are practically separate from the building proper.

 But for its stacks, it might suggest an art museum or public library rather than a power house. The unsightliness to which we are accustomed in buildings of this character usually represents an economy of thousands of dollars secured at a cost of millions in the depreciation of adjacent property and contiguous neighborhoods. -- J.C. BAYLES.












   In its heyday, the building boasted 6 smokestacks! Today, the last remaining smokestack hasn't been used in 16 years and the building has been acquired by Con Edison. There are now efforts by the Parks Dept. to make the building a historical landmark, turning it into a museum.

J. Marion Sims: pioneer in gynecological surgery

1813-1888. Dr. James Marion Sims was a reknowed surgeon whose pioneering work in gynecological surgery saved numerous lives from vesicovaginal fistula, a danngerous injury resulting from childbirth. His work became so celebrated that he attended to European royals.

In 1855 he founded the first hospital for women in America, and one of the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

But his legacy does not come without controversy. It turns out that while perfecting his technique he would experiment on black slave women..WITHOUT ANESTHESIA. Although he saved many of them he later performed the same surgery on white women this time WITH anesthesia. Because of this he is widely regarded as a villain.

This statue of his likeness stands loftily on 5th Avenue and 103rd Street by Central Park. Designed by Ferdinand Von Miller in bronze it captures the loftiness of the period and the confidence screams through his gallant pose.

The old Tibbetts Brook Park gazebo

Sitting in the middle of Tibbetts Brook park by a quiet, still lake is this mysterious structure. It was probably built around the late 1920s when the park was first opened to the public. But Tibbetts Brook has an amazing history. It was once owned by a wealthy land owner named Elias Doughty who sold it to George Tibbetts in 1668. Later the land was confiscated from Tibbetts after it was discovered he had sided with Britain in the revolutionary war.
Later it was the site of The Battle of Kingsbridge or The Battle of Tibbets Brook in 1778 where Ethan Allen joined forces with the Stockbridge indians under the Indian chief Sachem Daniel Ninham. Allied, they led the battle against the Queen's Rangers led by John Graves Simcoe. The battle lasted only a day and in the end, Britain won leaving dead 4 British soldiers and 40 indians.
There is very little information about this Gazebo. But it had to have been constructed around 1927 the same time the park was officially opened to the public.
The structure is a Romanesque design with 9 elegant arches. I can just see the frolicking flappers à la Gatsby running through each arch giggling insanely on the eve of The Great Depression.

Poor Poe house

Sitting in an urban park in the summer heat of the Bronx is Edgar Allen Poe Cottage. It was the last home of the early American literary legend.
It was built in 1812 by architect John Wheeler. There was a time, not long ago when it was fully restored and you could take a tour inside for a fee. Lately though it seems like it's become another victim of urban blight.
Somebody should let the Parks Dept. Know because they still list it as operating on their website.
Although the original location was on the other side of Kingsbridge, the cottage was moved in its present location closer to Fordham Road. To think that there was once a time when New York wasn't just a collection of square brick buildings. EAP spent most of his life in Baltimore and his last days in the Bronx. My favorite POEm is The Cask of Amontillado..well it's more like a short story but I just couldn't resist.

Cathedral of the Forest

Tall deciduos trees lean slightly forward in opposite directions creating the illusion of a gothic arch.

Flashback 1983.

A once popular ghost, the rubiks cube seems to have made a huge comeback. Originally called the 'magic cube', it was invented by a Hungarian sculptor and architect named Erno Rubik in 1974. It was then licensed and sold under the Ideal Toy company in 1980. Since then and its comeback, over 350,000,000 have been sold today making it the best selling game of all time!
I have so many frustrating memories of spending hours as a kid in the 80s trying to solve the puzzle. I know I succeeded a few times but what is really remarkeable to me about the rubiks cube is its iconic 1980s character. Just one look at a rubiks cube and i'm having flashbacks of Michael Jackson moonwalking. It was everywhere and it was cheap and everyone had one.
The rubiks cube faded from prominence during the late 1980s then in 2006, while teaching junior high in Taiwan, the kids were passing them around between class.

Here the young man furiously tries to unlock the algorythm while the girl next to him interacts with much later technology.

Andrew Haswell Green: New York's forgotten hero

Atop a seldom visited hill in Central Park sits the monument to perhaps the most instrumental founding father of New York, Andrew Haswell Green. Close by, a jogger stretches, oblivious to the presence of the man responsible for the park he enjoys today.

Green was responsible for not only the planning and development of Central Park but also The Natural History Museum, The Met, The Ny Public Library, The Bronx Zoo and the consolidation of the five boroughs which make up the New York City we know today. He was a New Englander who started out from humble middle-class beginnings. He had had several small time jobs during the economic crash of the 1840s (caused by the same reasons as the most recent financial meltdown). And he had even spent time in Trinidad where he worked  as a manager on a sugar plantation before returning to the states where he would eventually go to law school and become a successful attorney. He would travel to Europe and be inspired for his vision for new york. He would meet me Samuel J Tilden, a lawyer and politician who later became governor of New York and even a Democratic Presidential candidate who got so close to winning the presidency that the election of that year would remain one of the most controversial in US history. He had won the popular vote but would lose the electoral vote to Rutherford B Hayes. Green shared his home with Tilden until Tilden’s death in 1886. Seeing that he reportedly never showed any interest in women and like Tilden, was a confirmed bachelor till his death, he was probably gay.

Andrew Haswell Green c. 1840s

When Green had first traveled by boat with his sister from Worcester Massachusettes, New York was a brutish collection of slums and shanties. Central Park, one of Greens greatest achievement was a shantytown in a swamp like area.

 His life ended outside his Park Avenue brownstone when a deranged black man, Cornelius Williams, mistook him for another man who had been seeing his love interest, Hannah Elias, a prominent high-class call girl. She was a mulatto who had come from poverty to become one of the wealthiest and most sought- after women in New York. Her clients included prominent political magnates at the time. He was 83 years old.

The city we know today was his vision. He was a total micro-manager who saw through the execution of everything from the planning of the streets to the budget to the annexation of lands into new York. His work became a model for urban planning throughout the US and Europe. Yet all that remains of his memory is this lonely, austere bench built in 1928 by architect  John V. Van Pelt who had attended l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  

The bench is typical of the Second Empire Baroque style architecture that was trendy in the days of General U.S Grant. Van Pelt was no doubt influenced by his education at the Beaux Arts in Paris when he designed this bench. You can see from the hand rests, an opulent baroque flair while the rest of the bench seems to indicate the bureaucratic, utilitarian nature of the man who shaped New York at the time.