The Municipal Art Society of New York

The northwest Bronx isn’t the first place you’d go looking for an enormous medieval French castle. But that’s where such a castle—or an early 20th c. American version of a 19th c. French version of a 14th c. French castle—was built to house the Eighth Coastal Artillery in 1912. Its massive towers and crenelated parapets (those notched tops that scream “castle”), was designated a New York City landmark in 1974 for its military architecture. Read more about the Kingsbridge Armory in a new profile on the PlaceExplorer.

To get there, take the 4 train to the Kingsbridge Road stop. The site is bounded by Jerome Avenue, West 195th Street, Reservoir Avenue, and East Kingsbridge Road. The National Guard used the Armory until 1996, but today, it is closed off by a chain link fence that hides the enormous drill hall—a major feat of engineering in its time—and the bowling alley, rifle range, gymnasium and auditorium that once were tucked underneath it! Continue Reading>>

Take a stroll down Convent Avenue in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Harlem and you’ll pass the buildings that Duke Ellington, Jimmy Rushing and Cab Calloway once called home. Nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its many layers of New York City history, this broad residential street has been home to some very notable New Yorkers. Extending from 127th Street, through City College and up to 152nd Street, Convent Avenue is one of the city’s most cherished exclusively-residential streets. Shaded with trees and lined with rows of small-scale residential buildings it remains a kind of time capsule, largely unchanged since the early days of jazz.

Once a rural countryside, Alexander Hamilton – the first United States Secretary of the Treasury – acquired a 32-acre tract of land in the summer of 1800 for the site of his country estate, which he named Hamilton Grange. Convent Avenue itself was officially laid down in the mid-19th century after the erection of the Convent of the Sacred Heart, which stood just south of 136th Street. Continue Reading>>

On Tuesday, June 22, 2010, MAS will testify before the Landmarks Preservation Commission in support of the designation of a proposed Grand Concourse Historic District in the Bronx. The proposed district is comprised of 73 buildings running roughly along the Concourse between 153rd and 167th Streets.

In response to the LPC’s hearing, MAS President Vin Cipolla said: “The Grand Concourse is one of the Bronx’s most majestic thoroughfares and one of its great treasures.  The designation of a Grand Concourse Historic District  by the Landmarks Commission is the perfect way to celebrate the 100th year of the boulevard and protect this street and the buildings along it.” Continue Reading>>

Place Matters is joint project of MAS and City Lore.
The Scaglione Brothers Bakery & Deli was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for being a cherished feature of the Morris Park neighborhood in the Bronx.  Since the 1950s, three generations of the Scaglione family have been making fresh bread and focaccia daily in their Morris Park Avenue location, making it a mainstay of this Italian-American neighborhood.

The Sicilian immigrant father of current owner, Joe Scaglione, Sr., opened the first Scaglione family bakery on East 113th Street and Second Avenue prior to World War II.  In 1944, the Scaglione family moved their bakery from East Harlem to White Plains Road in the Bronx, and they relocated again in 1950 to their current location.  In the post World War II era, the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx was growing as an Italian-American neighborhood, making it an ideal location for the bakery.  Many Italian-American families looking for affordable single family homes to buy left their neighborhoods in Manhattan and southern Bronx for Morris Park. The Italian-American presence is still strong in Morris Park, which has one of the highest Italian-American populations in New York City and which is known to rival the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue for being the borough’s quintessential Italian-American neighborhood. Continue Reading>>

Place Matters is a joint project of City Lore and MAS.
The Kentile Sign along the Gowanus Canal was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for serving as a symbol of Gowanus’ industrial heritage and for being a remnant of this former Brooklyn business. Highly visible from the both the Gowanus Expressway and the F train, this 8-story-high sign dominates the Gowanus skyline even though Kentile Floors left Brooklyn in the late 1980s and the sign’s neon purple letters are no longer illuminated.

Founded in 1898 by Arthur Kennedy (hence the name, Kentile), the company had factories in both Queens and Long Island before building a new plant on 2^nd Avenue along the Gowanus Canal in 1949.  The iconic “Kentile Floors” sign was likely erected at this time. Kentile specialized in vinyl and asphalt floor covering that featured bold colors and patterns. Continue Reading>>

Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center in Corona, Queens, was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter because it houses the largest circulating Black Heritage reading collection in New York State. The facility was established as a result of local community efforts in the 1960s to form a community-controlled library and cultural center focusing on the history and needs of the African American community in the Corona neighborhood.

The library originally opened in 1969 in a former Woolworth’s store on Northern Boulevard. According to its Place Matters nomination, the original location provided the library with a storefront presence and also served “as a reminder of an earlier moment in history [when] this Woolworth’s was the site of a local civil rights struggle to break the color barrier for hiring in Queens.” Opening just two years after Langston Hughes’ death, the library was the first public institution named for the poet. The library’s Black Heritage Reference Center has grown over the years to more than 40,000 volumes of materials “written by, about, for, with and related to Black Culture.” In addition, the library has a special collection of works by and about its namesake, including Hughes’ own published works, analyses of his work, and even musical settings composed by Hughes. Continue Reading>>

The former Gage & Tollner restaurant on Fulton Street near Brooklyn’s Borough Hall is now the most beautiful Arby’s in the world, thanks in large part to its designation as both an exterior and interior landmark. Gage & Tollner was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter because for over 100 years it “gave diners a taste of old Brooklyn”. Although Gage & Tollner closed in 2004, its Victorian interior remains intact and open to the public, now as home of Brooklyn’s first Arby’s.

The restaurant that became Gage & Tollner was originally opened by Charles M. Gage in 1879.  When Gage partnered with Eugene Tollner a few years later, the restaurant was renamed for the two of them.  In 1892, Gage & Tollner moved from its original location near present-day Cadman Plaza to the 1870s Italianate row house at 372 Fulton Street. The building’s wooden Neo-Grec storefront, which is still intact, was likely added at this time. Gage & Tollner’s clientele were among Brooklyn and Manhattan’s elite, and throughout the next century, the restaurant was renowned for its food quality and excellent service.  The Landmarks Preservation Commission’s 1974 designation report for the building’s exterior refers to Gage & Tollner as “one of Brooklyn’s best known restaurants.” Continue Reading>>

Westbeth was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for both its past role as the home of Bell Laboratories and its current role as a thriving artists’ housing project. Occupying the entire block bounded by West, Bank, Washington, and Bethune Streets, Westbeth is a remnant from the time when the Greenwich Village waterfront was an industrial neighborhood and is an early example of the rebirth of industrial spaces for artists’ live-work housing.

The Bell Laboratories, originally known as Western Electric and part of the larger American Telegraph & Telephone Company (AT&T), moved its headquarters to a newly-constructed building on West and Bethune Streets in 1898.  Over the years, the company expanded on the block while developing some of the most important technological advances of the first half of the twentieth century.  Continue Reading>>

Just two months after the 1929 stock market crash, the doors of the lavish St. George Theatre opened at 35 Hyatt Street in Staten Island. Commissioned by Solomon Brill, the palatial theatre was intended to bring leading vaudeville acts, such as Al Jolson, Kate Smith and Guy Lombardo, to the island borough. It was also meant to rival to the great movie houses of the era.

Eugene DeRosa, the architect for over 35 cinema houses in the New York City area, worked with Staten Island architect James Whitford to design the distinguished, though austere, exterior of the St. George Theatre. Any restraint on the exterior’s design is more than compensated for by the interior opulence. The extravagant Spanish and Italian Baroque interior was conjured up by Nestor Castro, who was responsible for designing many of Time Square’s finest theatre interiors as the art director for Libman-Spanjer. Outfitted with stately gilded balconies, luxurious velvet seats, sparkling chandeliers, epic murals, sculpted fountains and grand marble staircases, going to a show at the St. George Theatre was an experience in and of itself. Continue Reading>>

Although now known for its dance nights and rock concerts, Webster Hall is in fact an incredibly culturally significant site. Designed as a “hall for hire” in 1886 by Charles Rentz, Webster Hall was available for rental by diverse groups from its inception. For more than 120 years, the Queen Anne-style assembly hall, located at 119-125 East 11th Street, has hosted a wide array of events, including debutante balls, society dinners, wrestling matches, political rallies, union meetings, bohemian costume parties and musical performances.

Political parties, movements and figures were an important part of Webster Hall’s activities. In 1892, two different groups met at Webster Hall to endorse presidential candidate Grover Cleveland, and Emma Goldman was a frequent orator there in the early 20th century. In 1912, activist Margaret Sanger fed 119 children at the hall because their millworker parents had been on strike for weeks in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Webster Hall was also where the founding convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) took place in December 1914; where the defense committee for Sacco and Vanzetti met in the 1920s; where anti-Fascists adopted a resolution condemning Mussolini in 1930; and where sixty German-American organizations congregated to pledge their loyalty to the U.S. in 1942. Continue Reading>>

Greetings from the Bronx — the birthplace of hip hop, the breathtaking site of the New York Botanical Garden and home base for the 2009 World Series Champions, the Yankees. Now the Bronx has even more to celebrate, as six of the borough’s notable locations will be recognized on December 3rd by Place Matters.

The six honorees are:
52 Park in Longwood is a popular urban oasis run by the NYC Parks Department with the help of 52 People for Progress (52PFP). When the South Bronx experienced its bleakest period in the 1970s, the open space at 52 Park became a danger zone. Since 1980, 52PFP, a volunteer group formed by local residents Al Quiñones, Fred Demera, Eduardo Rivera and Victoria Medina, has committed itself to maintaining a safe and welcoming public park. Continue Reading>>

When Houston Street was widened in the 1930s to accommodate the 6th Avenue subway line, the demolition of buildings on both sides of the street resulted in irregular lots that remained vacant for decades. In 1973, Mott Street resident and artist Liz Christy had a vision for at least one of these empty, rubble-strewn parcels.

With the help of friends and neighbors, Christy set out to transform the corner of Bowery and East Houston Street into an urban oasis. Together, Christy, and a group of volunteers who called themselves the “Green Guerillas” cleared the corner site of debris and began planting a garden.

The following spring, the department of Housing Preservation and Development leased the property to the Green Guerillas for a monthly fee of just $1, and thus it became the first community garden in New York City. The Guerillas’ Bowery Houston Farm and Garden was immediately recognized as a success, winning the Citizens Committee of New York City’s Mollie Parnis “Dress Up Your Neighborhood Award” in 1974. Continue Reading>>

Dating from 1697, the Queens County Farm Museum at 73-50 Little Neck Parkway in Queens, is the longest continuously farmed plot of land in all of New York State. Spanning 47 acres, the site is also home to the largest remaining parcel of working farmland in New York City.

The focal point of the farm museum is the “Jacob Adriance Farmhouse.” The oldest portion the house was built in 1772 and originally consisted of just three rooms. According to the 1976 landmark designation report, the design of this section of the house “reflects a mixture of Dutch colonial and New England influences common in old homes of Long Island where the two cultures met.” However, the house was altered through a sequence of additions as the property changed hands throughout the 19th century. Continue Reading>>

The Vander Ende-Onderdonk House, located in the Ridgewood section of Queens near the Brooklyn border, is the oldest Dutch Colonial stone house in New York City. It was nominated to the Census of Places that Matter for its connection to the 18th century history of Queens and for its story of neighborhood preservation advocacy.

The site of the Onderdonk house and farm was originally granted to Hendrick Barents Smidt by Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant in the 1660s. However, the house that stands today was not built until after the Ende family acquired the land in 1709. According to the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report, the house was originally constructed in the mid- to late-18th century. It was built facing Flushing Avenue, the colonial road connecting the Dutch town of Bushwick with the English town of Newtown. The frame addition to the house was constructed in the 1820s by Adrian Onderdonk, who purchased the farm shortly after his marriage to Ann Wyckoff, a member of the prominent Dutch-American Brooklyn family. Continue Reading>>

In September 1654, twenty-three Jews from Recife, Brazil, held Rosh Hashanah services in New Amsterdam, thereby founding the Congregation Shearith Israel. It remained the only Jewish congregation in New York City until 1825.

The early Sephardic settlement (along with those of the Quakers, the French and the English) helped to foster cultural diversity and religious tolerance in New Netherland. Civil and religious liberties won by this small Jewish community were important not only for the development of New York City, but for the United States as a whole.

One such liberty earned was the permission to buy a parcel of land for burial purposes, granted by order of the Director General and Council in February 1656. The First Shearith Israel Graveyard at St. James Place in Manhattan is the oldest existing Jewish cemetery in the country.  Many of those who had fought arduously for full political equality and the right to hold public office are buried there. (Until 1788, New York was the only colony to offer these rights to its Jewish citizens). Continue Reading>>