Journals 5-9
5. EAST HARLEM & EAST MIDTOWN
On September 27th I set out on a 9:53 train from Hicksville heading into Penn Station eager to see what awaited me in class today. After arriving and waiting around a little for Mike, he explained to us that we were going be exploring East Harlem today. When I heard this I was pretty scared considering my opinion of Harlem and what it was like was never good. He explained that after our visit in Harlem we would have a few choices as to what we could do after but we would vote on that later. So we headed down to the subway in Penn Station to hop on either the 1,2 or 3 train to take us uptown.
We ended up getting on the 2 train and taking it to Times Square at 42st. We then got on the Times Square Shuttle which took us across town to the east side where we could then catch the 4 train towards our destination. After getting on the 4 train we got off at 103rd street and Lexington Ave. Mike then explained how all of the subways have directions to point you toward which corner you want to come out of. We exited through the West East corner. Upon entering back up to the streets we were now in East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or "El Barrio". Mike then went on to explain the history of this area of New York to us and how it was filled with many different kinds of people through out different periods. In 1883 an elevated steam train line in this area led to the development and income of many immigrants from German descent. Later on many Italians migrated to this area and they still have a small section known as "Italian Harlem." In the mid 1950's and influx of Puerto Ricans began arriving and it was then given the term "El Barrio." Due to the poverty of the new incoming people the crime rate increased dramatically in the 60's and 70's. Robert Moses began building projects, which were high rise buildings exclusively for low income families. With the large amount of poor people in this small area this led to homicide and crime. The Genovise crime family controlled the area at this time. In the 80's many Latin American people joined the already multicultural area of East Harlem. "Today East Harlem has one of the largest Latino communities in the country, and, despite demographic changes, the neighborhood still retains its distinctively Latino flavor," (ENY pg. 161). Despite all this multicultural diversity in East Harlem, gentrification has been underway since the 1990's. Mike explained that this has been happening due to its prime location to the Upper East side and the view of central park people could enjoy. Even though the area wasn't somewhere I would not want to live, it wa,s so rich in culture and history that I really hope gentrification does not over power this unique neighborhood.
We then walked over to the Museum of the City of New York which was right across the street from Central Park. On the outside of the building was a sculpture of Alexander Hamilton. It was there because he was the first treasurer of the country and also resides in Hamilton Heights in New York. When we got to the museum we saw a 22 minute short film called the City Scapes. It was very interesting honestly, and went over how the city first began and how it grew up until today. It explained how the lower part of the city is not part of the grid because it had not been invented yet. It really tied together everything Mike has been teaching us these last few weeks in the way the city began and developed. After the movie Mike took us up to look at some of the art work that was displayed and explained to us about how 5th avenue in Midtown during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, used to be filled with huge mansions. William Vanderbilt lived on this block and owned the second largest house ever built in New York City to this day. The gate to his house is now used as an entrance to Central Park which we later got to see. We then headed to the exhibit which housed a lot of old Tiffany and Co. jewelry from the Gilded Age. The Gilded age was a time when the rich spent their money on things to show off how much money they had. This is the reason for all the fancy jewelry and items seen here.
Then we left the museum and walked down the block to El Mueseo de Barrio where we awaited the arrival of our tour guide. After a few minutes Luke showed up and introduced himself to us. He took us into the building and we stood in a circle and everyone said their name and picked any oMone word to describe themselves. We then exited through the side door and walked down 104th street which Luke explained to us used to be a river. Luke told us how the first people who occupied this area were the La Nape people. We then walked down Lexington Avenue where we stopped on a street corner to talk about the Spirt of Harlem Mural which was painted on the side of a building. However, during our discussion we got interrupted by some crazy man who began speaking to us in spanglish. Luke told us briefly about the mural and how it was paining in 1978 and represents the community and the Latin influences on street life (ENY pg. 163). The mural was later redone in the 1990's by Manny Vega.
We then continued walking North down Lexington Avenue and we stopped at a garden which was put there to celebrate the women in the community called the Modesto "Tin" Flores Garden. The garden had a weird sculpture in it that Luke said when its open it is a fountain. When Luke asked us what we thought the fountain was no one had an answer because we were all very confused as to what the artist was going for. He then went on to tell us that they were a representation of Fallopian tubes. There were also two women painted on the wall of the building behind the park. They women were holding hands and their hearts were also connected in the painting. Luke spoke about how it was a big deal because both the women were from different communities and it was showing how everyone in Harlem is connected.
Moving further up North on Lexington Ave we turned a corner and found a mural on the wall where Luke stopped again to talk about this art work done by Manny Vega again. Some of the wall featured John Lennon, Salsa musicians, Puerto Rican flag, dino sun, etc. "This mural celebrates the achievements of the Puerto Rican poet and activist for women's rights and Puerto Rican independence, Julia de Burgos (1914-1953)," (pg. 165). As we were enjoying the art walk a man from the neighborhood named Peter came up to see what was going on and Luke asked him to tell us a little about his experience in this community. He said how he lived here in the 1960's it was a bad area and there were many abandoned buildings throughout the neighborhood. He went on to explain how the changing of East Harlem is a good thing including the increase in the diverse culture. After here we stopped back at Luke's school where he was going to perform a poem, and to be honest I did not expect what I was about to hear.
On September 27th I set out on a 9:53 train from Hicksville heading into Penn Station eager to see what awaited me in class today. After arriving and waiting around a little for Mike, he explained to us that we were going be exploring East Harlem today. When I heard this I was pretty scared considering my opinion of Harlem and what it was like was never good. He explained that after our visit in Harlem we would have a few choices as to what we could do after but we would vote on that later. So we headed down to the subway in Penn Station to hop on either the 1,2 or 3 train to take us uptown.
We ended up getting on the 2 train and taking it to Times Square at 42st. We then got on the Times Square Shuttle which took us across town to the east side where we could then catch the 4 train towards our destination. After getting on the 4 train we got off at 103rd street and Lexington Ave. Mike then explained how all of the subways have directions to point you toward which corner you want to come out of. We exited through the West East corner. Upon entering back up to the streets we were now in East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or "El Barrio". Mike then went on to explain the history of this area of New York to us and how it was filled with many different kinds of people through out different periods. In 1883 an elevated steam train line in this area led to the development and income of many immigrants from German descent. Later on many Italians migrated to this area and they still have a small section known as "Italian Harlem." In the mid 1950's and influx of Puerto Ricans began arriving and it was then given the term "El Barrio." Due to the poverty of the new incoming people the crime rate increased dramatically in the 60's and 70's. Robert Moses began building projects, which were high rise buildings exclusively for low income families. With the large amount of poor people in this small area this led to homicide and crime. The Genovise crime family controlled the area at this time. In the 80's many Latin American people joined the already multicultural area of East Harlem. "Today East Harlem has one of the largest Latino communities in the country, and, despite demographic changes, the neighborhood still retains its distinctively Latino flavor," (ENY pg. 161). Despite all this multicultural diversity in East Harlem, gentrification has been underway since the 1990's. Mike explained that this has been happening due to its prime location to the Upper East side and the view of central park people could enjoy. Even though the area wasn't somewhere I would not want to live, it wa,s so rich in culture and history that I really hope gentrification does not over power this unique neighborhood.
We then walked over to the Museum of the City of New York which was right across the street from Central Park. On the outside of the building was a sculpture of Alexander Hamilton. It was there because he was the first treasurer of the country and also resides in Hamilton Heights in New York. When we got to the museum we saw a 22 minute short film called the City Scapes. It was very interesting honestly, and went over how the city first began and how it grew up until today. It explained how the lower part of the city is not part of the grid because it had not been invented yet. It really tied together everything Mike has been teaching us these last few weeks in the way the city began and developed. After the movie Mike took us up to look at some of the art work that was displayed and explained to us about how 5th avenue in Midtown during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, used to be filled with huge mansions. William Vanderbilt lived on this block and owned the second largest house ever built in New York City to this day. The gate to his house is now used as an entrance to Central Park which we later got to see. We then headed to the exhibit which housed a lot of old Tiffany and Co. jewelry from the Gilded Age. The Gilded age was a time when the rich spent their money on things to show off how much money they had. This is the reason for all the fancy jewelry and items seen here.
Then we left the museum and walked down the block to El Mueseo de Barrio where we awaited the arrival of our tour guide. After a few minutes Luke showed up and introduced himself to us. He took us into the building and we stood in a circle and everyone said their name and picked any oMone word to describe themselves. We then exited through the side door and walked down 104th street which Luke explained to us used to be a river. Luke told us how the first people who occupied this area were the La Nape people. We then walked down Lexington Avenue where we stopped on a street corner to talk about the Spirt of Harlem Mural which was painted on the side of a building. However, during our discussion we got interrupted by some crazy man who began speaking to us in spanglish. Luke told us briefly about the mural and how it was paining in 1978 and represents the community and the Latin influences on street life (ENY pg. 163). The mural was later redone in the 1990's by Manny Vega.
We then continued walking North down Lexington Avenue and we stopped at a garden which was put there to celebrate the women in the community called the Modesto "Tin" Flores Garden. The garden had a weird sculpture in it that Luke said when its open it is a fountain. When Luke asked us what we thought the fountain was no one had an answer because we were all very confused as to what the artist was going for. He then went on to tell us that they were a representation of Fallopian tubes. There were also two women painted on the wall of the building behind the park. They women were holding hands and their hearts were also connected in the painting. Luke spoke about how it was a big deal because both the women were from different communities and it was showing how everyone in Harlem is connected.
Moving further up North on Lexington Ave we turned a corner and found a mural on the wall where Luke stopped again to talk about this art work done by Manny Vega again. Some of the wall featured John Lennon, Salsa musicians, Puerto Rican flag, dino sun, etc. "This mural celebrates the achievements of the Puerto Rican poet and activist for women's rights and Puerto Rican independence, Julia de Burgos (1914-1953)," (pg. 165). As we were enjoying the art walk a man from the neighborhood named Peter came up to see what was going on and Luke asked him to tell us a little about his experience in this community. He said how he lived here in the 1960's it was a bad area and there were many abandoned buildings throughout the neighborhood. He went on to explain how the changing of East Harlem is a good thing including the increase in the diverse culture. After here we stopped back at Luke's school where he was going to perform a poem, and to be honest I did not expect what I was about to hear.
After hearing Luke's poem it opened my eyes to how amazing poetry actually is, I was almost in shock after hearing him perform this. It was so beautifully done and he was amazing at performing it as well. This was honestly one of the best experiences I have had all class. Then we made a short stop at a local Botanica owned by Jorge Vargas. Its a place people go for spiritual reasons. It is one of the oldest Botanicas still around and was started in 1930 but he has moved it three times. After this trip it was time to say goodbye to Luke and go get some lunch. A few of us went and got food at some nice spanish restaurant on Lexington Ave. After the hour was up we went back to meet Mike in front of the same school we met Luke at. Now it was time for our short visit into Central Park.
We entered the park through the Vanderbilt gate, which I said before was the gate that used to be the entrance to the mansion that was located on 5th Ave in Midtown. The gate was beautiful, large and you could tell that it was not recently made. There was actually a couple just married taking pictures in front of it which was I thought was a really cute idea. I wondered if they knew the history behind the gate or if they just liked the way their pictures were going to look in front of such a rustic gate. The gate was actually constructed in Paris in 1894 but it now stands at the entrance to Central Park on 5th Ave at 105th Street, (ENY pg. 150). As we walked through the gates we were in the section of the park known as the Conservatory Garden, after the conservatory that had previously been there was taken down in 1934. In the 1850's, as New York's population was rising, they decided they needed a park to be like the other famous cities around the world. In 1857, Frederick Law Homestead and Calvert Vaux, won the design contest for creating the park. The park was planned to have all different parts and attributes to it and Mike said how it was a fake recreation of nature for the city because it had all been previously designed and planned out . "To maintain an uninterrupted expanse of green space, four transverse roads eight feet below the park's surface were created to allow for crosstown traffic to pass through the park," (ENY pg. 149). However, in the late 20th century Central Park saw very bad times. The grass had all died, the monuments were falling apart and it was a place that people feared more than a place they could go to get away from the city. It was a very dangerous area filled with crime and drugs during this time from the 1960's till about the 1990's. After raising money to restore the park it is now one of the safest and most popular parks in the United States. We walked through the park to visit three different sections which were English, French and Italian style gardens. The Italian garden had a large lawn when we first entered. The French garden had a statue of the Three Dancing Maidens in a beautiful fountain surrounded by greens. In the English garden we found the Frances Hodges Burnett Memorial Fountain, which I was intrigued to find was of two children said to be from the famous book The Secret Garden, which I had read when I was younger. The park was interesting to me because of the few times I have been there I had never seen these gardens and the wonders they have in them. After viewing the gardens we walked up on a hill where Mike spoke briefly about the class as a whole and how we had liked our experiences so far. Then we got to vote on what we were going to do next for the day. Our choices were to explore more of the park, journey to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or experience the architecture of East Midtown. After the vote we were off to Midtown on the 6 train at 96th street to Grand Central Terminal.
Before we entered the Terminal Mike had showed us a clock outside of the station on 42nd Street and said that it was constructed from Tiffany Glass, and it represents both wisdom and strength. I had been inside of Grand Central once before and after being there a second time I was still amazed by all its beauty it had to offer. I guess when you're just so used to walking off the train and seeing the interior of Penn Station, this train station would make you stop and stare almost every time. The current Grand Central station was completed in 1913 and was a huge success after costing about $80 million, (ENY pg. 134). When cars became a more popular way of transportation than the underground railroad systems, they wanted to tear down Grand Central and create a skyscraper in 1968. Jackie Kennedy fought against this in order to save this beautiful historic landmark. Mike told us that the terminal is about 2 football fields in length, which to me seemed huge. We then took a moment to look at the constellations of stars on the ceilings. But to my surprise it was not facing the correct way. Mike said the image we see, would be the image that "God" would see looking down from above, which I thought was very strange. Mike also pointed out a small dark spot in the right corner on the ceiling showing how dirty it was before they cleaned and restored the whole terminal ceiling. We were then free to go and explore the terminal downstairs for a short while. Me and Taylor obviously found a gelato shop and had some amazing shakes. Once we met up with everyone we then exited the terminal together and went on to explore other buildings in the area.
One of the buildings we stopped to see is the Chrysler Building, which is evident in the skyline so I have seen it many a times. It is located on Lexington Ave and is of an art deco style building. "The most impressive feature of the building is undoubtedly its crown, composed of seven radiating terraced arches clad in stainless steel in a sunburst pattern," (ENY pg. 136). The Chrysler building was the tallest in the world for just about a year until the Empire State Building was built shortly after it. We walked into the lobby of the building but it was closed but we still got to take in how beautiful and detailed it all was. I think the Chrysler building was the most interesting one we got to view today in my opinion. I have seen so much of it but never really knew much about it until today. While in East Midtown we also saw a few other buildings including the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the General Electric building and the Daily News building. Another building that interested me on our walk was the Citigroup Center located on 53rd street between Lexington and 3rd ave. The building was built on 4 columns in order to allow for the reconstruction of the church that was in the corner of the property. When the property was purchased they promised the church to be in the same spot so it now sits below the right corner of the building. Also this building was the first to be built with a 45 degree roof which allows it to be easily located in the skyline, (ENY pg. 139). At this point in the day me, along with mostly everyone else, had been exhausted and checked out, so I feel almost as if I did not get as much out of this buildings as I had liked to. Mike let us go once we were done viewing the buildings he wanted to show us.
A few of us were in a hurry to catch trains from Penn Station so we were trying to figure out whether to take a subway, taxi or just walk it... fast. We ended up walking back at a very fast pace and luckily me and Tanya made the train we had wanted to, barely though. After a long day of walking and heat I could not wait to get home, shower and sleep.
We entered the park through the Vanderbilt gate, which I said before was the gate that used to be the entrance to the mansion that was located on 5th Ave in Midtown. The gate was beautiful, large and you could tell that it was not recently made. There was actually a couple just married taking pictures in front of it which was I thought was a really cute idea. I wondered if they knew the history behind the gate or if they just liked the way their pictures were going to look in front of such a rustic gate. The gate was actually constructed in Paris in 1894 but it now stands at the entrance to Central Park on 5th Ave at 105th Street, (ENY pg. 150). As we walked through the gates we were in the section of the park known as the Conservatory Garden, after the conservatory that had previously been there was taken down in 1934. In the 1850's, as New York's population was rising, they decided they needed a park to be like the other famous cities around the world. In 1857, Frederick Law Homestead and Calvert Vaux, won the design contest for creating the park. The park was planned to have all different parts and attributes to it and Mike said how it was a fake recreation of nature for the city because it had all been previously designed and planned out . "To maintain an uninterrupted expanse of green space, four transverse roads eight feet below the park's surface were created to allow for crosstown traffic to pass through the park," (ENY pg. 149). However, in the late 20th century Central Park saw very bad times. The grass had all died, the monuments were falling apart and it was a place that people feared more than a place they could go to get away from the city. It was a very dangerous area filled with crime and drugs during this time from the 1960's till about the 1990's. After raising money to restore the park it is now one of the safest and most popular parks in the United States. We walked through the park to visit three different sections which were English, French and Italian style gardens. The Italian garden had a large lawn when we first entered. The French garden had a statue of the Three Dancing Maidens in a beautiful fountain surrounded by greens. In the English garden we found the Frances Hodges Burnett Memorial Fountain, which I was intrigued to find was of two children said to be from the famous book The Secret Garden, which I had read when I was younger. The park was interesting to me because of the few times I have been there I had never seen these gardens and the wonders they have in them. After viewing the gardens we walked up on a hill where Mike spoke briefly about the class as a whole and how we had liked our experiences so far. Then we got to vote on what we were going to do next for the day. Our choices were to explore more of the park, journey to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or experience the architecture of East Midtown. After the vote we were off to Midtown on the 6 train at 96th street to Grand Central Terminal.
Before we entered the Terminal Mike had showed us a clock outside of the station on 42nd Street and said that it was constructed from Tiffany Glass, and it represents both wisdom and strength. I had been inside of Grand Central once before and after being there a second time I was still amazed by all its beauty it had to offer. I guess when you're just so used to walking off the train and seeing the interior of Penn Station, this train station would make you stop and stare almost every time. The current Grand Central station was completed in 1913 and was a huge success after costing about $80 million, (ENY pg. 134). When cars became a more popular way of transportation than the underground railroad systems, they wanted to tear down Grand Central and create a skyscraper in 1968. Jackie Kennedy fought against this in order to save this beautiful historic landmark. Mike told us that the terminal is about 2 football fields in length, which to me seemed huge. We then took a moment to look at the constellations of stars on the ceilings. But to my surprise it was not facing the correct way. Mike said the image we see, would be the image that "God" would see looking down from above, which I thought was very strange. Mike also pointed out a small dark spot in the right corner on the ceiling showing how dirty it was before they cleaned and restored the whole terminal ceiling. We were then free to go and explore the terminal downstairs for a short while. Me and Taylor obviously found a gelato shop and had some amazing shakes. Once we met up with everyone we then exited the terminal together and went on to explore other buildings in the area.
One of the buildings we stopped to see is the Chrysler Building, which is evident in the skyline so I have seen it many a times. It is located on Lexington Ave and is of an art deco style building. "The most impressive feature of the building is undoubtedly its crown, composed of seven radiating terraced arches clad in stainless steel in a sunburst pattern," (ENY pg. 136). The Chrysler building was the tallest in the world for just about a year until the Empire State Building was built shortly after it. We walked into the lobby of the building but it was closed but we still got to take in how beautiful and detailed it all was. I think the Chrysler building was the most interesting one we got to view today in my opinion. I have seen so much of it but never really knew much about it until today. While in East Midtown we also saw a few other buildings including the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the General Electric building and the Daily News building. Another building that interested me on our walk was the Citigroup Center located on 53rd street between Lexington and 3rd ave. The building was built on 4 columns in order to allow for the reconstruction of the church that was in the corner of the property. When the property was purchased they promised the church to be in the same spot so it now sits below the right corner of the building. Also this building was the first to be built with a 45 degree roof which allows it to be easily located in the skyline, (ENY pg. 139). At this point in the day me, along with mostly everyone else, had been exhausted and checked out, so I feel almost as if I did not get as much out of this buildings as I had liked to. Mike let us go once we were done viewing the buildings he wanted to show us.
A few of us were in a hurry to catch trains from Penn Station so we were trying to figure out whether to take a subway, taxi or just walk it... fast. We ended up walking back at a very fast pace and luckily me and Tanya made the train we had wanted to, barely though. After a long day of walking and heat I could not wait to get home, shower and sleep.
6. MoMA AND MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS
Today was a very rainy October morning when I woke up. Mike had previously posted on the website about how the forecast called for rain and how we may have to change our plans, but I did not expect this much rain. I put on my raincoat and headed to the station to catch a train that got me into Penn shortly before 11 AM. Since it was Saturday Mike said the E train was not going to pass through Penn so we needed to take a train to West 4th to get on the E train. However after we got onto the E train, we passed through Penn Station so we took the other train for no reason. Anyway we got off the subway and crossed the street and entered the museum. The museum was extremely crowded because I assume everyone had the same idea as us. We waited a half hour just to check our bags which did not leave us much time to walk around and view the exhibits. This museum is "one of the most important and influential museums of modern art in the world, MOMA houses an impressive collection of important works of the 19th and 20th centuries," (ENY pg. 121)
We viewed the contemporary art in the museum from Robert Gober, titled, The Heart is Not a Metaphor. I could honestly not grasp what was going on in any of the exhibits. There was a bunch of sinks and tubs in random places. There was a wrapper from a child's snack in a glass case. There was a room filled with just male reproductive parts all over the wallpaper. There were random limbs coming out from the walls in random places. One thing that I actually though was cool was the articles on the from the 9/11 attacks that were distorted and printed backwards. None of the rest of the art really got my attention or intrigued me even in the slightest. I kinda just breezed through the exhibit because it was beginning to freak me out. After we were done we stopped outside the exhibit and stood to the side to discuss what we had just seen. Mike tried to explain to us how the art's purpose was to make you think that is why it is different than the art that you would find in the MET. The art work was supposed to be ironic and make you laugh rather than have a historic purpose behind it. However, I did not find it amusing nor did I even consider it artwork in my eyes. We then went and viewed art that actually interest me and I was excited to learn about.
Mike started to talk about the art in New York prior to the contemporary area which was known as social realism. After WWII however, they could not create this art anymore because Joseph McCarthy was a congressman and he did not approve of it. Non-representation was then created and it is art that doesn't have a subject and allows you to create whatever you want. Mike expressed his passion for this kind of art.
We then got to view other exhibits that I actually looked at as artwork. One painting that I already knew of that we looked at was a Starry Night by Vincent van Goh. Mike explained that this was expressing the emotional state of the artist at the time. It is clear that he did not care about capturing the reality of what he was painting and Mike made a good point when he said why bother doing that when you could just use a camera for reality. The purpose behind this type of artwork is that the artists is expressing themselves by use of abstract or different color fields. Other art we looked at was a giant splattered tarp created by Jackson Pollock. When looking at it I thought to myself that I could totally do that but then again it would not be hanging in a museum. Another artist named Newman creates different variations of the same paintings with different colored stripes in different areas on the painting for his whole career and it represents the nuclear age.
After about an hour in the museum we had to get back on the line to retrieve our bags which took another 20 minutes. Then we were off to YUM YUM 2 for a Thai lunch. We had to head South West to 9th Ave between 45th and 46th for lunch and it was a nice walk. When we got to lunch we were allowed to order our own meal off the menu. I going pineapple rice with chicken as a safe choice because I never had this kind of food before. I really did enjoy the lunch and would be willing to try something more exotic if I ever were to have it again. After everyone finished eating Mike and Lee conducted their Gotham trivia class where the winner won a bracelet from the Botanica from last week. After the game was over Mike gave us some time to go to a few different spots he pointed out where we could grab desert. Me and Taylor went and got a cookie quickly then headed back to the restaurant. Once we were all back together, we headed to the subway located on 43rd Street and 7th Ave where we took the 1 train uptown to 116th street.
When we got off the subway we were now in the part of the city referred to as Morningside Heights. We met our tour guide Jim, who lives in the area, in Riverside park and began our tour walking towards what I soon found to be Ulysses S. Grant's tomb. After his presidential term was over he moved to New York and lived there until his death, in 1885, with his wife Julia. He was first buried in a brick tomb in Morningside park until John Duncan won the design contest to create his new tomb. The structure was based on many similar tombs from Europe at the time. Grant was then buried there upon its completion in 1897, and his wife Julia was then buried alongside him after her passing in 1902, (ENY pg. 171) When Grant was diagnosed with cancer, he was one of the first famous people to have been known to have it. This gave rise to the first cancer hospital. It was estimated that nearly a million people saw his funeral. Jim mentioned that at one point you could see straight down the park to the Statue of Liberty. However, the trees have since then grown too large and limited the view. Jim then gave us a few minutes to actually go into the tomb and look around. It was huge and almost seemed like such a waste of space because the two coffins were just placed below a giant hole in the first floor for you to see. Some of the artifacts they had in their were cool though.
We then crossed the street to talk about the huge church that you could not miss. It is known as the "Riverside Church, which is the tallest church in the United States," (ENY pg. 172). The architecture of the church is known as greek revival. The bell that is on top of the church is the largest in the word. Jim mentioned that they have some private weddings in the rooms was at the top and that it used to be a sanctuary. The firm that built the church was Alens, Pelton and Collins and the funding for it came from John D. Rockafeller. It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The detail on the entire building was amazing. Unfortunately there was a wedding going on so we were unable to go inside to get a better look and I was quite upset.
We then headed over to Columbia to view the school and some sites it had to offer. Just outside the campus Jim informed us that their was a legend about a tunnel that went underground from Barnard to Columbia that had never been found. Pretty cool to see how these legends get based down about secret tunnels through the college. We entered Columbia through this beautiful entrance that made me beyond jealous. Molloy is comprised of four buildings and Columbia seemed to go on forever and was filled with millions of people. Seeing things like this makes me wish I went to a large school with a big campus. Jim told us how Obama had gone here for some of his school, Roosevelt got his law degree here and Dwight Eisenhower was at one time the president of the school. We sat on the steps of the library while Jim spoke for a short while and honestly I didn't take much in because I was so amazed with the view of the campus.
From the stairs we headed over to St. Pauls Chapel which is located on the campus. "This was the first building on Columbia's campus not designed by McKim, Mead and White," (ENY pg 170). Isaac Phelps Stokes was given the honor of designing the building because his aunt and uncle funded it. From the outside I did not see much that special about it. The ENY book explains that the dome is covered in green ceramic titles which seems as if it would be a pretty cool site. Unfortunately we could not get into this chapel today either so we were off to our next site.
We walked through the campus of Columbia towards our last stop for the day. We were heading towards St. John the Devine Cathedral. On our way their we stopped at a hospital across the street. Jim's wife spoke to us briefly about the hospital stating how they housed the tuberculosis patients.
St. John the Divine, which is located on Amsterdam Avenue and 122th Street, is the largest church in the United States and the largest Gothic-style cathedral in the world It is of Episcopalian denomination. The construction of the cathedral began in 1892, but it is still not completed today and it was evident to us by the construction going on throughout. When we were in front of the cathedral it was so beautiful. Jim explained to us that to the left side of it they were going to built apartment buildings. I really did not like this idea because it is going to take the beauty away from this magnificent structure. Outside of the Cathedral on the South side is a beautiful fountain which we sat at for a short time while Jim explained to us what it was. It is referred to as the Peace fountain and was sculpted by Gregg Wyatt to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Episcopalian Diocese of New York. The statue depicts the triumph of good over evil and contains a spiraling pedestal in the form of a double helix. The mix of this concepts caused some controversy when the fountain was unveiled, (ENY pg. 168). Throughout the Gardena and fountain there are many story book items and nursery rhyme references to be seen. When we finally got to enter the cathedral the stained glass windows inside were impeccable. Other features such as the arches on the ceilings and the marble altar were all so unique and amazing. 'St. John the Divine is considered only two-thirds finished, and it is estimated that it would take another 100 years and more than $100 million to complete Cram’s original plan," (ENY, pg. 82).
After viewing the inside of the cathedral, Meg and I left in hopes to catch our next trains from penn station. We walked a few blocks West where we got on the nearest subway back to Penn Station. Both of us missed the trains we hoped for but we did not have to wait much longer for the next one. I was very impressed that we both figured out how to get on the subway the right way and did not mess it up. By the time I got home I was exhausted from a day filled with walking that I showered and climbed right into bed.
Today was a very rainy October morning when I woke up. Mike had previously posted on the website about how the forecast called for rain and how we may have to change our plans, but I did not expect this much rain. I put on my raincoat and headed to the station to catch a train that got me into Penn shortly before 11 AM. Since it was Saturday Mike said the E train was not going to pass through Penn so we needed to take a train to West 4th to get on the E train. However after we got onto the E train, we passed through Penn Station so we took the other train for no reason. Anyway we got off the subway and crossed the street and entered the museum. The museum was extremely crowded because I assume everyone had the same idea as us. We waited a half hour just to check our bags which did not leave us much time to walk around and view the exhibits. This museum is "one of the most important and influential museums of modern art in the world, MOMA houses an impressive collection of important works of the 19th and 20th centuries," (ENY pg. 121)
We viewed the contemporary art in the museum from Robert Gober, titled, The Heart is Not a Metaphor. I could honestly not grasp what was going on in any of the exhibits. There was a bunch of sinks and tubs in random places. There was a wrapper from a child's snack in a glass case. There was a room filled with just male reproductive parts all over the wallpaper. There were random limbs coming out from the walls in random places. One thing that I actually though was cool was the articles on the from the 9/11 attacks that were distorted and printed backwards. None of the rest of the art really got my attention or intrigued me even in the slightest. I kinda just breezed through the exhibit because it was beginning to freak me out. After we were done we stopped outside the exhibit and stood to the side to discuss what we had just seen. Mike tried to explain to us how the art's purpose was to make you think that is why it is different than the art that you would find in the MET. The art work was supposed to be ironic and make you laugh rather than have a historic purpose behind it. However, I did not find it amusing nor did I even consider it artwork in my eyes. We then went and viewed art that actually interest me and I was excited to learn about.
Mike started to talk about the art in New York prior to the contemporary area which was known as social realism. After WWII however, they could not create this art anymore because Joseph McCarthy was a congressman and he did not approve of it. Non-representation was then created and it is art that doesn't have a subject and allows you to create whatever you want. Mike expressed his passion for this kind of art.
We then got to view other exhibits that I actually looked at as artwork. One painting that I already knew of that we looked at was a Starry Night by Vincent van Goh. Mike explained that this was expressing the emotional state of the artist at the time. It is clear that he did not care about capturing the reality of what he was painting and Mike made a good point when he said why bother doing that when you could just use a camera for reality. The purpose behind this type of artwork is that the artists is expressing themselves by use of abstract or different color fields. Other art we looked at was a giant splattered tarp created by Jackson Pollock. When looking at it I thought to myself that I could totally do that but then again it would not be hanging in a museum. Another artist named Newman creates different variations of the same paintings with different colored stripes in different areas on the painting for his whole career and it represents the nuclear age.
After about an hour in the museum we had to get back on the line to retrieve our bags which took another 20 minutes. Then we were off to YUM YUM 2 for a Thai lunch. We had to head South West to 9th Ave between 45th and 46th for lunch and it was a nice walk. When we got to lunch we were allowed to order our own meal off the menu. I going pineapple rice with chicken as a safe choice because I never had this kind of food before. I really did enjoy the lunch and would be willing to try something more exotic if I ever were to have it again. After everyone finished eating Mike and Lee conducted their Gotham trivia class where the winner won a bracelet from the Botanica from last week. After the game was over Mike gave us some time to go to a few different spots he pointed out where we could grab desert. Me and Taylor went and got a cookie quickly then headed back to the restaurant. Once we were all back together, we headed to the subway located on 43rd Street and 7th Ave where we took the 1 train uptown to 116th street.
When we got off the subway we were now in the part of the city referred to as Morningside Heights. We met our tour guide Jim, who lives in the area, in Riverside park and began our tour walking towards what I soon found to be Ulysses S. Grant's tomb. After his presidential term was over he moved to New York and lived there until his death, in 1885, with his wife Julia. He was first buried in a brick tomb in Morningside park until John Duncan won the design contest to create his new tomb. The structure was based on many similar tombs from Europe at the time. Grant was then buried there upon its completion in 1897, and his wife Julia was then buried alongside him after her passing in 1902, (ENY pg. 171) When Grant was diagnosed with cancer, he was one of the first famous people to have been known to have it. This gave rise to the first cancer hospital. It was estimated that nearly a million people saw his funeral. Jim mentioned that at one point you could see straight down the park to the Statue of Liberty. However, the trees have since then grown too large and limited the view. Jim then gave us a few minutes to actually go into the tomb and look around. It was huge and almost seemed like such a waste of space because the two coffins were just placed below a giant hole in the first floor for you to see. Some of the artifacts they had in their were cool though.
We then crossed the street to talk about the huge church that you could not miss. It is known as the "Riverside Church, which is the tallest church in the United States," (ENY pg. 172). The architecture of the church is known as greek revival. The bell that is on top of the church is the largest in the word. Jim mentioned that they have some private weddings in the rooms was at the top and that it used to be a sanctuary. The firm that built the church was Alens, Pelton and Collins and the funding for it came from John D. Rockafeller. It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The detail on the entire building was amazing. Unfortunately there was a wedding going on so we were unable to go inside to get a better look and I was quite upset.
We then headed over to Columbia to view the school and some sites it had to offer. Just outside the campus Jim informed us that their was a legend about a tunnel that went underground from Barnard to Columbia that had never been found. Pretty cool to see how these legends get based down about secret tunnels through the college. We entered Columbia through this beautiful entrance that made me beyond jealous. Molloy is comprised of four buildings and Columbia seemed to go on forever and was filled with millions of people. Seeing things like this makes me wish I went to a large school with a big campus. Jim told us how Obama had gone here for some of his school, Roosevelt got his law degree here and Dwight Eisenhower was at one time the president of the school. We sat on the steps of the library while Jim spoke for a short while and honestly I didn't take much in because I was so amazed with the view of the campus.
From the stairs we headed over to St. Pauls Chapel which is located on the campus. "This was the first building on Columbia's campus not designed by McKim, Mead and White," (ENY pg 170). Isaac Phelps Stokes was given the honor of designing the building because his aunt and uncle funded it. From the outside I did not see much that special about it. The ENY book explains that the dome is covered in green ceramic titles which seems as if it would be a pretty cool site. Unfortunately we could not get into this chapel today either so we were off to our next site.
We walked through the campus of Columbia towards our last stop for the day. We were heading towards St. John the Devine Cathedral. On our way their we stopped at a hospital across the street. Jim's wife spoke to us briefly about the hospital stating how they housed the tuberculosis patients.
St. John the Divine, which is located on Amsterdam Avenue and 122th Street, is the largest church in the United States and the largest Gothic-style cathedral in the world It is of Episcopalian denomination. The construction of the cathedral began in 1892, but it is still not completed today and it was evident to us by the construction going on throughout. When we were in front of the cathedral it was so beautiful. Jim explained to us that to the left side of it they were going to built apartment buildings. I really did not like this idea because it is going to take the beauty away from this magnificent structure. Outside of the Cathedral on the South side is a beautiful fountain which we sat at for a short time while Jim explained to us what it was. It is referred to as the Peace fountain and was sculpted by Gregg Wyatt to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Episcopalian Diocese of New York. The statue depicts the triumph of good over evil and contains a spiraling pedestal in the form of a double helix. The mix of this concepts caused some controversy when the fountain was unveiled, (ENY pg. 168). Throughout the Gardena and fountain there are many story book items and nursery rhyme references to be seen. When we finally got to enter the cathedral the stained glass windows inside were impeccable. Other features such as the arches on the ceilings and the marble altar were all so unique and amazing. 'St. John the Divine is considered only two-thirds finished, and it is estimated that it would take another 100 years and more than $100 million to complete Cram’s original plan," (ENY, pg. 82).
After viewing the inside of the cathedral, Meg and I left in hopes to catch our next trains from penn station. We walked a few blocks West where we got on the nearest subway back to Penn Station. Both of us missed the trains we hoped for but we did not have to wait much longer for the next one. I was very impressed that we both figured out how to get on the subway the right way and did not mess it up. By the time I got home I was exhausted from a day filled with walking that I showered and climbed right into bed.
7. IMMIGRANT NEW YORK
After having a Saturday off last week due to the rain it was a weird feeling having to wake up on my weekend and journey once again into Manhattan for class. Today was an early morning compared to the others considering we were supposed to be in Penn Station by 9 AM so we could make it to our appointment at the Tenement Museum. However, I over slept and did not get on the train till around 9 AM. My late sleep was due to the fact that I only got off the LIRR about 5 hours ago coming home from an eventful evening that included the Eric Church concert at Madison Square Garden. Even though I did not make it on time to meet with the class in and travel with them, I arrived in Penn Station at around 9:45 and immediately hopped in a taxi and gave him the address of the museum located on Delancey Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The are of New York that we were in is known as Immigrant New York to people, which is located on the lower east side of the island. During the late 1800's many people of Irish, German and Eastern European descent made there way across the Atlantic Ocean and found them self in New York City. They came to America in hopes of abandoning the bad times at home (wars, famines and persecutions) and earning some money. Later on, between 1889 and 1924, about half a million Jewish people began to join the already diverse population of the Lower East Side. Along with all these people moving here, they moved here and brought their culture and customs along with them. It was very clear throughout the area that each ethnicity had their own culture because each block could have had different languages and customs. Most importantly, all of these people were poor when they came to America and desperate for any type of pay. They worked in small factories and sweatshops which had horrible working conditions, (ENY pg. 65-66) Their living conditions were not much better and that is what we got a chance to see today at the tenement museum. In the most recent years, the late 20th century, the Lower East side has seen a large influx of people coming from Asia and Latin America. Gentrification of this area began in the 1990's and "in 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservations declared the Lower East Side of Manhattan one of the elven most endangered place in the country because the pace of development threatens to eradicate the neighborhood's immigrant past," (ENY pg. 66).
When I made it to the museum a lady walked me around the block where I met with my group on the lowest level outside the building. The Tenement Museum is a preserved building from 1863 that has been modified over the years up until 1935 when the landlord boarded the place up due to not being able to keep up with the passing of certain housing laws. "During its almost 80 year history, 97 Orchard Street was home to an estimated 7,000 people from over 20 countries- the majority coming from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe," (ENY pg. 67). We were currently located in the "yard" of the building which was about a 12 feet by 12 feet concrete area with stairs on each side leading up the building. Our tour guide explained to us that the building was in what was known as a 5,4,3,2,1 set up. This meant their were 5 floors, each with 4 apartments, which contained 3 rooms, 2 toilets on each floor, and 1 yard for the building. She then past out what was an old drawing illustrating the time period from which the building was a home. It was of a few women working in one of the yards that we were standing in. Some of the women looked like witches and monkeys, while others were working together and some were alone. Also one of the women seemed to be much superior than the others. The one who was superior, she explained, that she was seen as German and a strong, independent person. The ones depicted as monkeys were supposed to be the Irish who were known as inferior or weak. All in all, the "yard" was not actually a yard for play, it was where the women, and girls, did work such as laundry and such.
We then headed up the stairs (which were not actually part of the original tenement) to the floor that housed the family we were going to talk about today. We walked through the hallway and with every step I took I felt as if I was going to fall through the floor with all the noises it was making. Everything was so old it amazed me that they were able to keep the building like this and allow people to actually walk through it. The first room we started in was the parlor. There was a glass case in the middle containing some random objects that some of the families had left behind when they were evicted so many years ago. There were things like a hair brush and a tooth brush, which, our tour guide explained that even though these people were living in harsh conditions they were attempting to be somewhat clean. There was things written on the walls from this time as well which she said they were trying to make out what it said and they did find a name which allowed them to trace back some of the people that lived there at this time. When our guide asked why we thought there was a large window from the kitchen to the parlor, no one had an answer. it just didn't seem like there was a logical answer honestly. She said that they were known as "tubercular" windows and they were put in when a law was past stating that every room must have a window. Since the kitchen was in the middle of the building and there was a building attached to its side, this was the only place it could go.
We then moved to another parlor room on the other side of the building where there were chairs set up and we sat and listened to some Irish songs from this time period. One was called No Irish Need Apply, which was about how no one was willing to hire the Irish Immigrants during this time. Another was a lullaby a mother would sing to her child. We then walked to another room which was set up to look as if was from this time and it was during the funeral of the baby Agnes who lived her for her short life. There was a baby coffin in the corner and it kind of freaked me out. While all the furniture in the apartment it gave you a feeling of how small it actually was with the multiple children families having to live her. The guide explained that most of the kids slept on "make shift" beds for their lives, which included piled up clothes most of the time. She then past around another cartoon of a witch handing out milk to the mothers while they turned their heads. This was during the time of the swill milk crisis. It was bad milk that was being sold in the stores due to the chemicals the cows were intaking. Since mothers had no other things to feed their babies most of them bought the milk hoping it was a good batch and their children would not get sick. It is not proven, but they assume that is what baby Agnes may have died from. Honestly, I think this was one of the better tours throughout a museum we have gone on. It really allows you to feel what it was like to be a poor family living in a tenement during this time. I think it is amazing that they have kept this place around for this long and preserved it almost just as it was.
After our tour we all grabbed our bags and waited outside the museum for everyone. Mike then split us up into four random groups and gave us a list of things to do and sent us off group by group. We had an hour to explore and walk around before we had to meet for lunch. The area that we were going to be exploring was the famous Chinatown. "Chinatown in recent years has grown to become a sprawling 55 block area that has taken over many parts of what was formerly Little Italy and the Lower East Side," (ENY pg. 73). I have never been to Chinatown because it never really intrigued me to go there but let me tell you it was just what I expected. There was Chinese people everywhere and everything was written in Chinese, not exactly somewhere Id want to spend my free time. My group started walking West down Delancey Street and then we turned onto Canal Street. The street gets its name because it was once "actually a 40 foot wide canal dug in the early 19th century to drain the contaminated fresh water pond that stood at Foley Square into the Hudson River,” (ENY, pg. 77). IN 1820 however it was changed into a road and given the name Canal Street. I know it's famous for its cheap knock of items but I didn't really care much to stop and look if I wanted anything. Our group just continued walking down the block through the heart of Chinatown. The smell of all the weird food was really bothering me. Not to mention the fully fried ducks hanging in every window. I could not wait to be done walking through this area. We stopped inside what seemed to be a grocery store and dollar tree all put into one and it amazed me. Some of the stuff they sold there was so strange. They had very weird brands as well. We stopped at the Chinese ice cream place and the place that sold bubble tea as well on our journey. I didn't get anything as to most of the sights and smells were making me not hungry. We made our way back to lunch by walking down Bowery Street past the Manhattan Bridge. We stopped and got free coffee that we had wanted early as well.
When we got to lunch, at Cognee Village, Mike and Lee were there already with Jim who was going to give us another tour after lunch. I was not very happy with lunch today to be honest with you. We were almost at like a family style restaurant and Mike had pre-ordered a bunch of different food for us. This did not allow for us to take much of one kind and I was not very fond of most of the food that we were given. This left me still hungry and I knew I was not going to be much of a happy or interested camper for the rest of the day. When we left lunch we started our tour right outside where Jim pointed out a very large building in the city skyline North of us. He talked about how it is going to have more stories than the Freedom Tower, but it is going to be a residential building. I thought to myself, wow wouldn't it be nice to wake up to that view every morning?! Next, we stopped at a candy shop along our way known as Economy Candy that has been owned by the same family since 1937. Everyone went inside and bought some things but I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I passed.
We continued walking to our next destination. We walked under the Williamsburg Bridge where we stopped for Jim to bring up and interesting fact. Both the J and Z trains run from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the bridge. This is how Jay Z got his name, which I never knew but now I will be sure to tell everyone when I see the sign for these trains. Our next stop was at the Bialystoker Synagogue. "The synagogue was founded in 1865 by Jews who came from the town of Bialystock in Poland," (ENY pg. 68). The building was made out of the famous Manhattan Schist.
We then ended up at the Henry Street Settlement which was founded by 25 year old Lilian Wald in 1893. The purpose was "to bring nursing care, education and the arts to the immigrant population of the community," (ENY pg. 69). Wald began the visiting nurse service as well which helped to bring health care to their homes. I thought it was pretty cool to think that this lady basically started the general idea of healthcare in this area of New York. I mean god knows these people needed it with all the harsh conditions everywhere. We were then off to our final stop for the day and thank god because I was beyond exhausted and starving. This destination was another Synagogue in the area. However, the look of this one actually intrigued me to listen to what Jim was saying. It was the Eldridge Street Synagogue and it was the first synagogue built in New York when all the Jews began to move here. The synagogue currently is located in Chinatown but it was once an area heavily filed with Jewish from Eastern Europe (ENY pg. 71). The synagogue officially closed in the 1950's but it is now a historic museum. Unfortunately it was closed so we were not able to go inside and I was upset because I could only imagine how beautiful they inside would have been.
After our stop here it was about 3 PM and it was the time Mike had promised to let us go since we were in earlier. Mike told us to take the train to 33rd Street... where we assumed we would be right a Penn Station. However, that was not the case and we were on the East Side of Manhattan and had to walk about 5 Avenues West to get there. We walked at quite a fast pace because our trains home were all in a few minutes. I missed mine but luckily I take a major line so there was one just a few minutes after it. I was home by 6 PM and could not believe that we had only one class left after this. It was such a bittersweet feeling to me.
SORRY FOR MY LACK OF PICTURES MY PHONE WAS DEAD FOR MOST OF THE DAY!! =(
After having a Saturday off last week due to the rain it was a weird feeling having to wake up on my weekend and journey once again into Manhattan for class. Today was an early morning compared to the others considering we were supposed to be in Penn Station by 9 AM so we could make it to our appointment at the Tenement Museum. However, I over slept and did not get on the train till around 9 AM. My late sleep was due to the fact that I only got off the LIRR about 5 hours ago coming home from an eventful evening that included the Eric Church concert at Madison Square Garden. Even though I did not make it on time to meet with the class in and travel with them, I arrived in Penn Station at around 9:45 and immediately hopped in a taxi and gave him the address of the museum located on Delancey Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
The are of New York that we were in is known as Immigrant New York to people, which is located on the lower east side of the island. During the late 1800's many people of Irish, German and Eastern European descent made there way across the Atlantic Ocean and found them self in New York City. They came to America in hopes of abandoning the bad times at home (wars, famines and persecutions) and earning some money. Later on, between 1889 and 1924, about half a million Jewish people began to join the already diverse population of the Lower East Side. Along with all these people moving here, they moved here and brought their culture and customs along with them. It was very clear throughout the area that each ethnicity had their own culture because each block could have had different languages and customs. Most importantly, all of these people were poor when they came to America and desperate for any type of pay. They worked in small factories and sweatshops which had horrible working conditions, (ENY pg. 65-66) Their living conditions were not much better and that is what we got a chance to see today at the tenement museum. In the most recent years, the late 20th century, the Lower East side has seen a large influx of people coming from Asia and Latin America. Gentrification of this area began in the 1990's and "in 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservations declared the Lower East Side of Manhattan one of the elven most endangered place in the country because the pace of development threatens to eradicate the neighborhood's immigrant past," (ENY pg. 66).
When I made it to the museum a lady walked me around the block where I met with my group on the lowest level outside the building. The Tenement Museum is a preserved building from 1863 that has been modified over the years up until 1935 when the landlord boarded the place up due to not being able to keep up with the passing of certain housing laws. "During its almost 80 year history, 97 Orchard Street was home to an estimated 7,000 people from over 20 countries- the majority coming from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe," (ENY pg. 67). We were currently located in the "yard" of the building which was about a 12 feet by 12 feet concrete area with stairs on each side leading up the building. Our tour guide explained to us that the building was in what was known as a 5,4,3,2,1 set up. This meant their were 5 floors, each with 4 apartments, which contained 3 rooms, 2 toilets on each floor, and 1 yard for the building. She then past out what was an old drawing illustrating the time period from which the building was a home. It was of a few women working in one of the yards that we were standing in. Some of the women looked like witches and monkeys, while others were working together and some were alone. Also one of the women seemed to be much superior than the others. The one who was superior, she explained, that she was seen as German and a strong, independent person. The ones depicted as monkeys were supposed to be the Irish who were known as inferior or weak. All in all, the "yard" was not actually a yard for play, it was where the women, and girls, did work such as laundry and such.
We then headed up the stairs (which were not actually part of the original tenement) to the floor that housed the family we were going to talk about today. We walked through the hallway and with every step I took I felt as if I was going to fall through the floor with all the noises it was making. Everything was so old it amazed me that they were able to keep the building like this and allow people to actually walk through it. The first room we started in was the parlor. There was a glass case in the middle containing some random objects that some of the families had left behind when they were evicted so many years ago. There were things like a hair brush and a tooth brush, which, our tour guide explained that even though these people were living in harsh conditions they were attempting to be somewhat clean. There was things written on the walls from this time as well which she said they were trying to make out what it said and they did find a name which allowed them to trace back some of the people that lived there at this time. When our guide asked why we thought there was a large window from the kitchen to the parlor, no one had an answer. it just didn't seem like there was a logical answer honestly. She said that they were known as "tubercular" windows and they were put in when a law was past stating that every room must have a window. Since the kitchen was in the middle of the building and there was a building attached to its side, this was the only place it could go.
We then moved to another parlor room on the other side of the building where there were chairs set up and we sat and listened to some Irish songs from this time period. One was called No Irish Need Apply, which was about how no one was willing to hire the Irish Immigrants during this time. Another was a lullaby a mother would sing to her child. We then walked to another room which was set up to look as if was from this time and it was during the funeral of the baby Agnes who lived her for her short life. There was a baby coffin in the corner and it kind of freaked me out. While all the furniture in the apartment it gave you a feeling of how small it actually was with the multiple children families having to live her. The guide explained that most of the kids slept on "make shift" beds for their lives, which included piled up clothes most of the time. She then past around another cartoon of a witch handing out milk to the mothers while they turned their heads. This was during the time of the swill milk crisis. It was bad milk that was being sold in the stores due to the chemicals the cows were intaking. Since mothers had no other things to feed their babies most of them bought the milk hoping it was a good batch and their children would not get sick. It is not proven, but they assume that is what baby Agnes may have died from. Honestly, I think this was one of the better tours throughout a museum we have gone on. It really allows you to feel what it was like to be a poor family living in a tenement during this time. I think it is amazing that they have kept this place around for this long and preserved it almost just as it was.
After our tour we all grabbed our bags and waited outside the museum for everyone. Mike then split us up into four random groups and gave us a list of things to do and sent us off group by group. We had an hour to explore and walk around before we had to meet for lunch. The area that we were going to be exploring was the famous Chinatown. "Chinatown in recent years has grown to become a sprawling 55 block area that has taken over many parts of what was formerly Little Italy and the Lower East Side," (ENY pg. 73). I have never been to Chinatown because it never really intrigued me to go there but let me tell you it was just what I expected. There was Chinese people everywhere and everything was written in Chinese, not exactly somewhere Id want to spend my free time. My group started walking West down Delancey Street and then we turned onto Canal Street. The street gets its name because it was once "actually a 40 foot wide canal dug in the early 19th century to drain the contaminated fresh water pond that stood at Foley Square into the Hudson River,” (ENY, pg. 77). IN 1820 however it was changed into a road and given the name Canal Street. I know it's famous for its cheap knock of items but I didn't really care much to stop and look if I wanted anything. Our group just continued walking down the block through the heart of Chinatown. The smell of all the weird food was really bothering me. Not to mention the fully fried ducks hanging in every window. I could not wait to be done walking through this area. We stopped inside what seemed to be a grocery store and dollar tree all put into one and it amazed me. Some of the stuff they sold there was so strange. They had very weird brands as well. We stopped at the Chinese ice cream place and the place that sold bubble tea as well on our journey. I didn't get anything as to most of the sights and smells were making me not hungry. We made our way back to lunch by walking down Bowery Street past the Manhattan Bridge. We stopped and got free coffee that we had wanted early as well.
When we got to lunch, at Cognee Village, Mike and Lee were there already with Jim who was going to give us another tour after lunch. I was not very happy with lunch today to be honest with you. We were almost at like a family style restaurant and Mike had pre-ordered a bunch of different food for us. This did not allow for us to take much of one kind and I was not very fond of most of the food that we were given. This left me still hungry and I knew I was not going to be much of a happy or interested camper for the rest of the day. When we left lunch we started our tour right outside where Jim pointed out a very large building in the city skyline North of us. He talked about how it is going to have more stories than the Freedom Tower, but it is going to be a residential building. I thought to myself, wow wouldn't it be nice to wake up to that view every morning?! Next, we stopped at a candy shop along our way known as Economy Candy that has been owned by the same family since 1937. Everyone went inside and bought some things but I don't have much of a sweet tooth so I passed.
We continued walking to our next destination. We walked under the Williamsburg Bridge where we stopped for Jim to bring up and interesting fact. Both the J and Z trains run from Brooklyn to Manhattan over the bridge. This is how Jay Z got his name, which I never knew but now I will be sure to tell everyone when I see the sign for these trains. Our next stop was at the Bialystoker Synagogue. "The synagogue was founded in 1865 by Jews who came from the town of Bialystock in Poland," (ENY pg. 68). The building was made out of the famous Manhattan Schist.
We then ended up at the Henry Street Settlement which was founded by 25 year old Lilian Wald in 1893. The purpose was "to bring nursing care, education and the arts to the immigrant population of the community," (ENY pg. 69). Wald began the visiting nurse service as well which helped to bring health care to their homes. I thought it was pretty cool to think that this lady basically started the general idea of healthcare in this area of New York. I mean god knows these people needed it with all the harsh conditions everywhere. We were then off to our final stop for the day and thank god because I was beyond exhausted and starving. This destination was another Synagogue in the area. However, the look of this one actually intrigued me to listen to what Jim was saying. It was the Eldridge Street Synagogue and it was the first synagogue built in New York when all the Jews began to move here. The synagogue currently is located in Chinatown but it was once an area heavily filed with Jewish from Eastern Europe (ENY pg. 71). The synagogue officially closed in the 1950's but it is now a historic museum. Unfortunately it was closed so we were not able to go inside and I was upset because I could only imagine how beautiful they inside would have been.
After our stop here it was about 3 PM and it was the time Mike had promised to let us go since we were in earlier. Mike told us to take the train to 33rd Street... where we assumed we would be right a Penn Station. However, that was not the case and we were on the East Side of Manhattan and had to walk about 5 Avenues West to get there. We walked at quite a fast pace because our trains home were all in a few minutes. I missed mine but luckily I take a major line so there was one just a few minutes after it. I was home by 6 PM and could not believe that we had only one class left after this. It was such a bittersweet feeling to me.
SORRY FOR MY LACK OF PICTURES MY PHONE WAS DEAD FOR MOST OF THE DAY!! =(
8. LOWER MANHATTAN
Well the day is finally here, our last Gotham class, and boy did time fly. I had such a bittersweet feeling on the train in this morning. Speaking of my train of course there was work going on so the normal train I take was not running and I got on a later one, which was running even later, but luckily I made it to Penn Station before class left. But anyway on the train I couldn't help but to think of all the things we had done in this last month and a half of class. Don't get me wrong I was excited to not have to write these journals every week and have my Saturdays free (sorry Mike!) but at the same time I was also sad that I would not be in the city every Saturday. When I got into Penn Mike explained how we were going to explore Lower Manhattan today.. which is from 14th Street and down. Mike said that this area of the city had more sites to see than any other part we had been to and that it would take us a few days to see everything. So we headed to catch the 1 train to Rector Street so that we did not lose any time and began our last day of class.
The area of lower manhattan is where the Dutch first settled their colony of Nieuw Amsterdam in 1624. Approximately 18 languages were spoken amongst the 1000 people who occupied this space known as North America's first melting pot. Unfortunately everything that was built by the Dutch from this time no longer exists due to the skyscrapers that now occupy the area, however, the streets remain the same and do not follow the grid that is above 14th Street. This area also served as the capital of America from 1785-1790. The reason for the massive immigration to this area was because Manhattan was an island located on the shore of America with rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. This allowed for the creation of harbors which led to New York becoming the number one city in the country. I had never been to this area before so to say I was excited was an understatement.
We got off the subway in Battery City Park. I was shocked to find our that most of the area was built on a landfill from the site of the World Trade Center, which means that at one point we would have been standing in the ocean. Mike told us that this area is filled with many million dollar apartments because of the beautiful views of the Hudson River. Our first stop for the day was in Battery Park, which got its name because their were a group of cannons located on this site by the British to repel any invasions in the 1680's. The idea for the cannons did not work for the Americans during the revolutionary war. Castle Clinton stands in the park and is named after Dewitt Clinton and was built before the war of 1812 and was actually in the water at the time, (ENY pg. 56). In 1855 it was then turned into an immigrant processing station due to the large influx of people. The building was eventually turned into New York's first aquarium. "Today, Battery park is the largest recreational space in Lower Manhattan and is typically packed on weekdays with New York workers looking for a relatively peaceful place to eat lunch and on weekends with hordes of tourists heading to the Statue of Liberty," (ENY pg. 56). The line for the Statue of Liberty seemed to be never ending and seemed to go on for miles. I could not believe that people were waiting that long especially with little kids.
Also in the park is the Sphere that was once located at the World Trade Center before the 9/11 attacks. The Sphere is now evidently damaged but it was not ruined and still stands in the park after they moved it here. It is symbolic of the resiliency of New York after the attack. Another statue in the park we stopped to see was the Immigrant Statue. Mike explained how it represents their struggle as they came to America at first. Many people took advantage of the immigrants when they got here because it was a new world to them and they were desperate for new life and money. The people represented in the statue are a freed African slave, a priest, a worker, and an Eastern European Jew, (ENY pg. 56). We got a great view of the Hudson River and Ellis Island from a nearby bridge located in the park right on the water.
We walked out of the park towards the East side and ended up on State Street. This road once had 8 Federal-style houses stretching around it located on the water in the 1800's. This is the oldest building that remains in Lower Manhattan and is the James Watson house and right besides it is the shrine of Elizabeth
Anne Seton. From here we walked a few blocks to the Fraunces Tavern Museum where we were to meet Lee and have a tour.
The Tavern was originally built in 1719 by Stephen Delancey were he lived for about 11 years until he moved uptown. The building was than turned into a tavern known as the Queens Head by Samuel Fraunces in 1763. This significant building in Lower Manhattan is most famous for being the site of General Washington's farewell address when the British officially evacuated on December 4th, 1783, (ENY pg. 55) Mike explained that even though the buildings structure is all original, most of the building has been redone due to the damage it received multiple times. Our tour guide, Rebecca, went into detail about how cannon balls have blown through here and that it was massively destroyed during superstorm Sandy. Not all of the bricks on the outside remain from the time of the building of the house, however, they were able to contact the company who manufactured them and they were still in business so the new bricks are of the same make and model.
What I thought was most interesting about this museum is the way that they knew what happened on December 4th. A man known as Benjamin Tallmadge kept a book of memoirs from his time as an officer for the Continental Army. While he was an officer in the army, he was also a leader for a network of spies for the British. I could not believe that a man like this was at such a symbolic meeting of this. I thought to myself, why wouldn't he have left with all the British once they had evacuated? Another thing I found odd was that he wrote his memoirs in 1830 but yet they still contained much detail of that evening for people to known what had gone on. George Washington choice this location because he was a huge fan of Samuel Frances' cooking so he rented out and upstairs room for him and his officers to enjoy food and drink. He also choose this place because it was a very communal and non-religious place where people felt comfortable and normally went to hang out and talk about what was going on in the world.
Rebecca walked us through most of the museum after talking about the farewell address and showed us some maps of Lower Manhattan from the time of the war. She took us to a room full of different paintings of Washington and events from the Revolutionary war by John Ward Dunsmore. The paintings were very interesting and beautifully depicted but I was more interested in the history of the building. What was cool is that while here Rebecca explained that Washington treated America like his child and that he felt after eight years of office he needed to let his child grow up on his own. I think it is amazing that Washington could walk away from that much power so easily and that two terms is now the legal amount for a president. The only president who served more than eight years is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Also I really enjoyed the rooms with all of the different flags from the time before the American Revolution, when people were still loyal to Britain, to after the war. It was cool to see how drastically the flags changed over such a short time and how most of the flags were just things they had made up. None of the flags were widely used until the famous Betsy Ross flag. After the flag room Rebecca took us down to the long room on the second floor, which was the actual location of George Washington's Farewell Address. Even though in the memoirs it was not completely stated as to what the room exactly look like but they set up the room to look as if it was from this time.
After the museum we were all starving so Mike promised us two more quick stops until we were off to lunch. We walked a few blocks to what used to be the Alexander Hamilton Custom House. The building is now the National Museum of the American Indian. Mike let us sit down on the steps and relax while he spoke to us about the building. The function of this house when it was created in 1907 was to collect duties from the shipping imports, which was one of the main sources of revenue for the federal government, (ENY pg. 54). The main thing Mike pointed out about the building was the four statues in front which represented the four colonies. Both America and Europe were the center statues next to the stairs. America was seen as better than Europe by showing freedom and liberty while Europe was stuck up. We then walked through Bowling Green park which is opposite the building to our next stop.
We stopped at the statue of the Charging Bull which is located in the middle of Broadway. The artist Arthuro Di MOdica and some of his friends placed the bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 as an act of guerrilla art. The statue was than temporarily moved to is current location before being thrown out by police and it eventually became one of the most photographed artworks in New York City, (ENY pg. 53). The lower end of Broadway where we were currently standing is known as the Canyon of Heroes because looking down the road it resembles of a canyon due to zoning laws. Many of parades take place down this road. The buildings around us were some of the earliest skyscrapers but they were not very tall because they lacked steel when they were built. This was our last stop before lunch so we headed towards the west shore of Manhattan and walked up the shore to Hudson Easts Food Court.
When we got to the food court it was not what I had expected. It was all stand of places I had never heard of before and they all seemed to be very healthy choices. I obviously went with the safe choice of the pizza stand and ended up loving it. Meg and Taylor got sushi and weren't very happy so I was glad I made that decision. After we all ate we went looking around for some type of desert however, we could not find anything. After lunch we all met up on the stairs and Mike told us we had a few more stops until class was officially over. Unfortunately in order for us to get out at 430 like we were promised, we had to cut out a few destinations such as wall street, the African burial ground and Trinity Church.
We finally made it to our destination that I had been waiting for all day, The World Trade Center. Mike talked about the time prior to the 9/11 attacks and after it. The Twin Towers were only two of the seven buildings that were once located at the complex. The Twin Towers which were completed in 1972 were the tallest buildings in the world for a year and the tallest buildings in the city until the attack. "The attack on The World Trade Center that day killed 2,977 victims making it the worst terrorist attack on American soil in the nation's history," (ENY pg. 48). To think that I was alive for this event and was only 45 minutes away from it at the time is such an unreal thought. The Freedom Tower, which I already knew all about because I wrote my first paper on it. My favorite fact about the building is that it stands tall at 1,776 feet. Mike talked briefly about the memorial and the two giant pools that stood in the outline of both the Twin Towers layouts and how the waterfalls were the largest man-made ones in the United States. Mike than gave us 15 minutes to walk around and take it all in. This was a very special moment to me because I have never been here before and my father, who was a New York City Fireman, was a first responder. It is scary how I can remember that exact day and coming home to the craziness of my house because my mother had not heard from my dad yet and we didn't until the next day. As I walked up to the first pool I looked down at the names and I was standing right in front of my fathers company... Engine 65... and his friends name Tom McGann was inscribed right there. This sent a chill through me and I had to almost remind myself to breathe because I was beyond freaked out. We then walked around the other pool and saw the surviving tree as well. I could not be more proud that my father was involved in helping during this event and could not be more thankful for all that lost their lives or helped in anyway. After our time was up we met Mike on the corner and walked down the block to St. Paul's Church.
This church is the oldest church in Manhattan and was completed in 1766. The church surveyed both the large fire of New York City in in 1776 that destroyed most of the city and also 9/11. It is crazy to think there was no damage to the church during the attacks because it is directly across the street from The World Trade Center. Mike mentioned that there was a large sycamore tree that protected the church. The church was home to George Washington when New York was America's capital and his pew can still be seen inside the church. As we walked inside much of the church was a memorial almost to the September 11th attacks. It almost seemed like a place where people could come to remember and be with the people they had lost and reconnect with them. There was a bunch of funeral cards and different items from fireman and policemen. The community is still healing and it was great to see that they are all healing together. New York truly is such an amazing community.
We were then headed back to City Hall. We sat in the exact same spot we sat the day we went to Brooklyn and thats when it hit me that class was over forever in about 30 minutes. Mike went over how City Hall faced south because before the city expanded it was only 14th Street and down. Yet again, we stopped to look at the Municipal Building, where Mike finally admitted that it was his favorite building in New York after saying a few of them were his favorites. It is a very beautifully designed building but it would be way too expensive to make buildings like this now. The statue on top of the building is the third largest statue in New York. The building was built after the consolidation of New York when City Hall was no longer big enough.
The Woolworth building was another skyscraper that was pointed out to us by Mike. The building was Neo-gothic style and was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in New York until the Chrysler Building. Our last stop EVER was at the Tweed Courthouse. We sat on the steps as Lee spoke about the building. Obviously Mike was trying to take pictures of her and she was giving him the finger and I thought... what a perfect way to end our classes together. Lee explained how Tweed was a very corrupt politician during his time in the late 1800's. Tweed claimed to have taken $14 million to build the courthouse meanwhile he took $10 million for himself, (ENY pg. 46). Lee pointed out that $14 million was about double the amount we paid for the entire state of Alaska. When he was court he was actually convicted in his own unfinished courthouse which I thought was such karma. The building was used at the Supreme Court and the City Court at points during its time. However, it is now used for the New York City Department of Public Education where you can have tours of it, which Mike obviously invited us on next week.
This was the end of class.... I could not believe it. A few of our classmates walked over the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn to go to the brewery but me and Meg were done for the day. We head back to catch the A or C to Penn Station. However, a man had told these trains were not running and to catch the E. I thought to myself what the hell does that mean and then I realized we had to go upstairs and cross over the tracks to the E. We got on the train and multiple people asked us if the train was going uptown or if they could get to various places on this train. To my own amazement I was able to help them and got us on the right train. I guess you could say this class definitely served its purpose and I could not be happier with everything I have learned.
Until next time New York!
Well the day is finally here, our last Gotham class, and boy did time fly. I had such a bittersweet feeling on the train in this morning. Speaking of my train of course there was work going on so the normal train I take was not running and I got on a later one, which was running even later, but luckily I made it to Penn Station before class left. But anyway on the train I couldn't help but to think of all the things we had done in this last month and a half of class. Don't get me wrong I was excited to not have to write these journals every week and have my Saturdays free (sorry Mike!) but at the same time I was also sad that I would not be in the city every Saturday. When I got into Penn Mike explained how we were going to explore Lower Manhattan today.. which is from 14th Street and down. Mike said that this area of the city had more sites to see than any other part we had been to and that it would take us a few days to see everything. So we headed to catch the 1 train to Rector Street so that we did not lose any time and began our last day of class.
The area of lower manhattan is where the Dutch first settled their colony of Nieuw Amsterdam in 1624. Approximately 18 languages were spoken amongst the 1000 people who occupied this space known as North America's first melting pot. Unfortunately everything that was built by the Dutch from this time no longer exists due to the skyscrapers that now occupy the area, however, the streets remain the same and do not follow the grid that is above 14th Street. This area also served as the capital of America from 1785-1790. The reason for the massive immigration to this area was because Manhattan was an island located on the shore of America with rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. This allowed for the creation of harbors which led to New York becoming the number one city in the country. I had never been to this area before so to say I was excited was an understatement.
We got off the subway in Battery City Park. I was shocked to find our that most of the area was built on a landfill from the site of the World Trade Center, which means that at one point we would have been standing in the ocean. Mike told us that this area is filled with many million dollar apartments because of the beautiful views of the Hudson River. Our first stop for the day was in Battery Park, which got its name because their were a group of cannons located on this site by the British to repel any invasions in the 1680's. The idea for the cannons did not work for the Americans during the revolutionary war. Castle Clinton stands in the park and is named after Dewitt Clinton and was built before the war of 1812 and was actually in the water at the time, (ENY pg. 56). In 1855 it was then turned into an immigrant processing station due to the large influx of people. The building was eventually turned into New York's first aquarium. "Today, Battery park is the largest recreational space in Lower Manhattan and is typically packed on weekdays with New York workers looking for a relatively peaceful place to eat lunch and on weekends with hordes of tourists heading to the Statue of Liberty," (ENY pg. 56). The line for the Statue of Liberty seemed to be never ending and seemed to go on for miles. I could not believe that people were waiting that long especially with little kids.
Also in the park is the Sphere that was once located at the World Trade Center before the 9/11 attacks. The Sphere is now evidently damaged but it was not ruined and still stands in the park after they moved it here. It is symbolic of the resiliency of New York after the attack. Another statue in the park we stopped to see was the Immigrant Statue. Mike explained how it represents their struggle as they came to America at first. Many people took advantage of the immigrants when they got here because it was a new world to them and they were desperate for new life and money. The people represented in the statue are a freed African slave, a priest, a worker, and an Eastern European Jew, (ENY pg. 56). We got a great view of the Hudson River and Ellis Island from a nearby bridge located in the park right on the water.
We walked out of the park towards the East side and ended up on State Street. This road once had 8 Federal-style houses stretching around it located on the water in the 1800's. This is the oldest building that remains in Lower Manhattan and is the James Watson house and right besides it is the shrine of Elizabeth
Anne Seton. From here we walked a few blocks to the Fraunces Tavern Museum where we were to meet Lee and have a tour.
The Tavern was originally built in 1719 by Stephen Delancey were he lived for about 11 years until he moved uptown. The building was than turned into a tavern known as the Queens Head by Samuel Fraunces in 1763. This significant building in Lower Manhattan is most famous for being the site of General Washington's farewell address when the British officially evacuated on December 4th, 1783, (ENY pg. 55) Mike explained that even though the buildings structure is all original, most of the building has been redone due to the damage it received multiple times. Our tour guide, Rebecca, went into detail about how cannon balls have blown through here and that it was massively destroyed during superstorm Sandy. Not all of the bricks on the outside remain from the time of the building of the house, however, they were able to contact the company who manufactured them and they were still in business so the new bricks are of the same make and model.
What I thought was most interesting about this museum is the way that they knew what happened on December 4th. A man known as Benjamin Tallmadge kept a book of memoirs from his time as an officer for the Continental Army. While he was an officer in the army, he was also a leader for a network of spies for the British. I could not believe that a man like this was at such a symbolic meeting of this. I thought to myself, why wouldn't he have left with all the British once they had evacuated? Another thing I found odd was that he wrote his memoirs in 1830 but yet they still contained much detail of that evening for people to known what had gone on. George Washington choice this location because he was a huge fan of Samuel Frances' cooking so he rented out and upstairs room for him and his officers to enjoy food and drink. He also choose this place because it was a very communal and non-religious place where people felt comfortable and normally went to hang out and talk about what was going on in the world.
Rebecca walked us through most of the museum after talking about the farewell address and showed us some maps of Lower Manhattan from the time of the war. She took us to a room full of different paintings of Washington and events from the Revolutionary war by John Ward Dunsmore. The paintings were very interesting and beautifully depicted but I was more interested in the history of the building. What was cool is that while here Rebecca explained that Washington treated America like his child and that he felt after eight years of office he needed to let his child grow up on his own. I think it is amazing that Washington could walk away from that much power so easily and that two terms is now the legal amount for a president. The only president who served more than eight years is Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Also I really enjoyed the rooms with all of the different flags from the time before the American Revolution, when people were still loyal to Britain, to after the war. It was cool to see how drastically the flags changed over such a short time and how most of the flags were just things they had made up. None of the flags were widely used until the famous Betsy Ross flag. After the flag room Rebecca took us down to the long room on the second floor, which was the actual location of George Washington's Farewell Address. Even though in the memoirs it was not completely stated as to what the room exactly look like but they set up the room to look as if it was from this time.
After the museum we were all starving so Mike promised us two more quick stops until we were off to lunch. We walked a few blocks to what used to be the Alexander Hamilton Custom House. The building is now the National Museum of the American Indian. Mike let us sit down on the steps and relax while he spoke to us about the building. The function of this house when it was created in 1907 was to collect duties from the shipping imports, which was one of the main sources of revenue for the federal government, (ENY pg. 54). The main thing Mike pointed out about the building was the four statues in front which represented the four colonies. Both America and Europe were the center statues next to the stairs. America was seen as better than Europe by showing freedom and liberty while Europe was stuck up. We then walked through Bowling Green park which is opposite the building to our next stop.
We stopped at the statue of the Charging Bull which is located in the middle of Broadway. The artist Arthuro Di MOdica and some of his friends placed the bull in front of the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 as an act of guerrilla art. The statue was than temporarily moved to is current location before being thrown out by police and it eventually became one of the most photographed artworks in New York City, (ENY pg. 53). The lower end of Broadway where we were currently standing is known as the Canyon of Heroes because looking down the road it resembles of a canyon due to zoning laws. Many of parades take place down this road. The buildings around us were some of the earliest skyscrapers but they were not very tall because they lacked steel when they were built. This was our last stop before lunch so we headed towards the west shore of Manhattan and walked up the shore to Hudson Easts Food Court.
When we got to the food court it was not what I had expected. It was all stand of places I had never heard of before and they all seemed to be very healthy choices. I obviously went with the safe choice of the pizza stand and ended up loving it. Meg and Taylor got sushi and weren't very happy so I was glad I made that decision. After we all ate we went looking around for some type of desert however, we could not find anything. After lunch we all met up on the stairs and Mike told us we had a few more stops until class was officially over. Unfortunately in order for us to get out at 430 like we were promised, we had to cut out a few destinations such as wall street, the African burial ground and Trinity Church.
We finally made it to our destination that I had been waiting for all day, The World Trade Center. Mike talked about the time prior to the 9/11 attacks and after it. The Twin Towers were only two of the seven buildings that were once located at the complex. The Twin Towers which were completed in 1972 were the tallest buildings in the world for a year and the tallest buildings in the city until the attack. "The attack on The World Trade Center that day killed 2,977 victims making it the worst terrorist attack on American soil in the nation's history," (ENY pg. 48). To think that I was alive for this event and was only 45 minutes away from it at the time is such an unreal thought. The Freedom Tower, which I already knew all about because I wrote my first paper on it. My favorite fact about the building is that it stands tall at 1,776 feet. Mike talked briefly about the memorial and the two giant pools that stood in the outline of both the Twin Towers layouts and how the waterfalls were the largest man-made ones in the United States. Mike than gave us 15 minutes to walk around and take it all in. This was a very special moment to me because I have never been here before and my father, who was a New York City Fireman, was a first responder. It is scary how I can remember that exact day and coming home to the craziness of my house because my mother had not heard from my dad yet and we didn't until the next day. As I walked up to the first pool I looked down at the names and I was standing right in front of my fathers company... Engine 65... and his friends name Tom McGann was inscribed right there. This sent a chill through me and I had to almost remind myself to breathe because I was beyond freaked out. We then walked around the other pool and saw the surviving tree as well. I could not be more proud that my father was involved in helping during this event and could not be more thankful for all that lost their lives or helped in anyway. After our time was up we met Mike on the corner and walked down the block to St. Paul's Church.
This church is the oldest church in Manhattan and was completed in 1766. The church surveyed both the large fire of New York City in in 1776 that destroyed most of the city and also 9/11. It is crazy to think there was no damage to the church during the attacks because it is directly across the street from The World Trade Center. Mike mentioned that there was a large sycamore tree that protected the church. The church was home to George Washington when New York was America's capital and his pew can still be seen inside the church. As we walked inside much of the church was a memorial almost to the September 11th attacks. It almost seemed like a place where people could come to remember and be with the people they had lost and reconnect with them. There was a bunch of funeral cards and different items from fireman and policemen. The community is still healing and it was great to see that they are all healing together. New York truly is such an amazing community.
We were then headed back to City Hall. We sat in the exact same spot we sat the day we went to Brooklyn and thats when it hit me that class was over forever in about 30 minutes. Mike went over how City Hall faced south because before the city expanded it was only 14th Street and down. Yet again, we stopped to look at the Municipal Building, where Mike finally admitted that it was his favorite building in New York after saying a few of them were his favorites. It is a very beautifully designed building but it would be way too expensive to make buildings like this now. The statue on top of the building is the third largest statue in New York. The building was built after the consolidation of New York when City Hall was no longer big enough.
The Woolworth building was another skyscraper that was pointed out to us by Mike. The building was Neo-gothic style and was completed in 1913 and was the tallest building in New York until the Chrysler Building. Our last stop EVER was at the Tweed Courthouse. We sat on the steps as Lee spoke about the building. Obviously Mike was trying to take pictures of her and she was giving him the finger and I thought... what a perfect way to end our classes together. Lee explained how Tweed was a very corrupt politician during his time in the late 1800's. Tweed claimed to have taken $14 million to build the courthouse meanwhile he took $10 million for himself, (ENY pg. 46). Lee pointed out that $14 million was about double the amount we paid for the entire state of Alaska. When he was court he was actually convicted in his own unfinished courthouse which I thought was such karma. The building was used at the Supreme Court and the City Court at points during its time. However, it is now used for the New York City Department of Public Education where you can have tours of it, which Mike obviously invited us on next week.
This was the end of class.... I could not believe it. A few of our classmates walked over the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn to go to the brewery but me and Meg were done for the day. We head back to catch the A or C to Penn Station. However, a man had told these trains were not running and to catch the E. I thought to myself what the hell does that mean and then I realized we had to go upstairs and cross over the tracks to the E. We got on the train and multiple people asked us if the train was going uptown or if they could get to various places on this train. To my own amazement I was able to help them and got us on the right train. I guess you could say this class definitely served its purpose and I could not be happier with everything I have learned.
Until next time New York!
9. MY CHANGED VIEW ON NEW YORK
I always loved New York and to be honest I think that I somehow love it more now. I can not even imagine myself walking around the city not knowing the things I now know about it. I would not change taking this class for anything. Yes, it may seem as if going to the city every Saturday for the first 7 weeks of the semester is a lot, but it was worth every second. And at times I may have been exhausted and hated that Mike made us keep walking but looking back it was the best class that I could have ever taken at Molloy. The things that I learned and the memories that I have from this class will be things I won't forget. It is safe to say that I no longer feel like a tourist in my own city.
I can't pick just one of my favorite experiences during the class but I can pick out a few of my favorite things. From the second class, walking over the Brooklyn Bridge was amazing. The views we were able to see and just the overall idea of being able to walk it was amazing. I have always wanted to do it but I never came into the city for reasons such as that so I was glad it was part of the class. Also I think it is so cool that Taylor, Meg and I signed our name along the bridge and that it will stay there forever, hopefully. Another experience I loved was our stop at The World Trade Center during the last class. This place holds a special place to my heart being my dad was in the FDNY. I had never gotten to experience it and was extremely happy that I did, although I wish I had got to experience it with my family. Of course my favorite tour guide from the class was Luke who took us around East Harlem. He was more personable throughout the tour and allowed us to be involved rather than just lecturing us about history. He was a great guy and I hope that the later classes are able to experience him and his amazing poetry.
Before I took this class I mentioned in my first journal that I was not confident while walking around the city. Now I find myself leading most of my classmates and friends back to Penn Station at the end of the day because I can literally tell exactly where I am. It is an amazing concept to me because I always thought the city was such a hard place to get around but it really just is a giant grid, divided east and west is 5th Avenue. There are so many directional new things I learned to help me get around. I never knew how to take the subway at all and I never did I would just hop in a taxi. Now, I feel confidently enough that if my destination was far enough I would hop on the subway. Of course I would have to look at the subway map to reassure myself which is the right train... But hey, it's a start right?
Don't even get me started on how I mentioned that I feel like I take this beautiful city for granted a month and a half ago. In that time I have decided my own words were an understatement. In just 7 short Saturdays I have seen more of New York City than I ever would have in my life if it was not for this class. After all the sites, tours, and walking, I can not believe the amount of things we were able to experience. And to think there were things that Mike had to cut out of classes due to time and certain things that we had not even planned to see in the city is a crazy to me. The city has so much more to offer than bars and concerts late at night on weekends. I actually feel bad for people who were not able to take this class and learn the things that Mike and Lee taught us about our own home.
I can honestly say that there is not another class that I will push someone to take besides this one at Molloy. Besides not having to sit in a classroom, the way Mike and Lee taught us things was just different. They actually spoke to us and treated us as equals rather than just students. It was an amazing class and I wish it was longer because I feel like there is just still so much to learn. Lately, I find myself telling people random facts and dates that have to do with our city and it amazes me at how much information I was actually able to obtain from this class. I mean come on we all take classes and forget what we learned within a month... but this stuff, this will stay with me for the rest of my life and I credit it all to Mike, Lee and the New York experience they were able to provide us with. I could not thank them enough for such an amazing few weeks that changed my view on New York and gave me a city I can now call my home.