Seeing a Broadway Show – On to Bryant Park

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Parks, Sculpture, Statues Leave a comment

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-1-of-9

I intended my make my first stop to be at Bryant Park, but first a picture (above) taken right outside Grand Central Terminal

Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre (3.9 ha), privately managed public park in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The eastern half of Bryant Park is occupied by the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. The western half contains a lawn, shaded walkways, and amenities such as a carousel, and is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library’s stacks. The park hosts several events, including a seasonal “Winter Village” with an ice rink and shops during the winter.

The first park at the site was opened in 1847 and was called Reservoir Square due to its proximity to the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Reservoir Square contained the New York Crystal Palace, which hosted the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853 and burned down in 1858. The square was renamed in 1884 for abolitionist and journalist William Cullen Bryant. The reservoir was demolished in 1900, and the New York Public Library’s main branch was built on the site, opening in 1911. Bryant Park was rebuilt in 1933–1934 to a plan by Lusby Simpson. After a period of decline, it was restored in 1988–1992 by landscape architects Hanna/Olin Ltd. and architects Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, during which the park was rebuilt, and the library’s stacks were built underneath. Further improvements were made in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. (Wikipedia)

The above mentions: “a period of decline”. That doesn’t quite tell the full story. By the 1960s, Bryant Park had deteriorated badly. When I arrived in New York in 1974 it had been taken over by drug dealers and the homeless. In was considered to be somewhere that ordinary people and visitors should avoid.

The park was substantially renovated and rebuilt during the 1980s and re-opened to acclaim in the early 1990s. The dramatic improvement in the park led to an equally dramatic rise in real estate values in the surrounding area. By 1993, the area had become a highly desirable office area, and formerly vacant office space around the park was being filled quickly. The Park is used mostly as a passive recreation space. It is one of the world’s busiest public spaces. Now more than 12 million people per year visit the park and enjoy gardens with seasonal displays, free daily amenities, cultural programming, exercise classes, and much more!

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-3-of-9

The Winter Village

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-4-of-9

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-5-of-9

Plastic igloos where you can sit and eat or have a drink while protected from New York winters.

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-6-of-9

Statue of William Earl Dodge by by John Quincy Adams Ward. It was cast in 1885 and dedicated on October 22 of that year. The statue was initially installed in Herald Square, having been financed by Dodge’s admirers and friends. It was moved to Bryant Park in 1941 and was renovated in 1992 by the Bryant Park Restoration Corporation.

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-7-of-9

The Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain, a memorial to Josephine Shaw Lowell, a social worker active in the late 19th century. The fountain was designed by architect Charles A. Platt and dedicated in 1912.

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-8-of-9

Coins in the fountain.

seeingsunsetboulevard-ontthewaytoBryantPark-9-of-9

One of the numerous decorative planters scattered around the park.

Taken with a Sony RX100 MVII

A Walk through Peekskill – McGregory Brook

by Posted in History, Nature, Parks Leave a comment
mcgregorybrook-1-of-4

I was walking back down it was much easier going down than going up) along Central Ave. to catch my train I heard the sound of running water. I looked across the street and noticed a pocket park with a couple of benches, and an information board (see below). In case you can’t make out the rather small text it reads:

McGregory Brook flows from the hills just east of Peekskill to the Hudson River at Riverfront Green Park. Kitchawank people, of the Wappinger confederacy, inhabited the area surrounding McGregory Brook and nearby Annsville Creek prior to Dutch settlement, led by Jan Peeck.

King William III of England granted 1,500 acres to Hugh MacGregorie in 1692, and the brook became the boundary between the original settlement known as Peekskill and surrounding Van Cortlandt lands. Numerous mills and factories diverted McGregory Brook for power, including Dain’s Lumber Company, Naylor Brothers machine shops, Mackellar’s Mills, and Union Stove Works. For many years, Peekskill residents drew water from the Tan Yard Spring, which also surfaced near this site.

Today, McGregory Brook enters a series of culverts at Field Street, flows beneath Downtown Peekskill, and emerges just east of this site. Remnants of industrial infrastructure can still be seen from the footbridge overlooking the waterfall.

Although McGregory Brook is no longer visible on most maps, FEMA’s 100-Year Flood Map clearly shows the pathway of McGregory Brook from Penelope Pond to the Hudson Riverfront. The lack of sunlight inhibits the brook’s natural ecosystem. While few fish, amphibians, or aquatic invertebrates inhabit the brook, filamentous green algae thrives on its surfaces, likely supported by nutrient enrichment from stormwater runoff and other sources.

For more information about Peekskill’s waterways and all of its natural features, explore the Peekskill National Resource Inventory at www.peekskilnri.com. For more information on Peekskill’s rich history, visit the Peekskill Museum at 124 Union Avenue.

mcgregorybrook-2-of-4

mcgregorybrook-3-of-4

mcgregorybrook-4-of-4

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV

A Visit to Boston – Day Two – Norman B Leventhal Park

by Posted in Buildings/Structures, Parks, Places Leave a comment
bostonday2park-1-of-3

According to the park’s website:

“In the heart of the financial district, nestled among the high-rise office buildings, lies a lush oasis of green, a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of a group of people, both public and private, who joined together to foster this unique vision. What had previously been a decrepit and unsightly garage, is now an award-winning and inviting park set above a new underground parking garage. The Norman B. Leventhal Park is supported, structurally and financially, by Garage at Post Office Square, a 1,400-space parking garage.’

The Urban Land Institute describes it as follows:

“The 1.7 acre park’s centerpiece is a walk-through sculptural fountain, so whimsically friendly that in the summertime, office workers eating lunch often kick off their shoes to dip their feet in the fountain. A few yards away is a 143-foot-long formal garden trellis, supported by granite columns, draped with seven species of vines. The jewel-like Great Lawn, raised above the walkways by a granite curb, provides a relaxed retreat. More than a hundred different species of plants, flowers, bushes and trees are within the park. It features custom wrought-iron fencing and specially designed drainage gates. Seating styles fit every posterior and mood – stately teak benches, curving steel settees, movable cast-iron café chairs with tables, hundreds of linear feet of inviting polished granite wall and half an acre of lawn, all meticulously maintained” (Urban Parks and Open Space, Urban Land Institute, 1997).

My Canadian friend had some business with a US bank so we walked around looking for it. Eventually we found it and she went in. While we were waiting, we sat in the park and talked. After a while a guy came up and spoke to us. Apparently, he was from Sudan. At first the conversation was fairly innocuous, but after a while he accused us of “not respecting” him and started hurling abuse at us. Thankfully, he walked away at that point. At that point we needed a change and moved to another part of the park, where there was a pleasant cafe (Sip Cafe) with an outdoor seated area where we waited until my friend had finished her business.

bostonday2park-2-of-3

bostonday2park-3-of-3

Taken with a Sony A6000 and 18-135mm f3.5-5.6 OSS

Croton Aqueduct in Art

by Posted in Events, Landscapes, People, Places Leave a comment
crotonaquedcutinart-1

In an earlier post I mentioned Cornela Cotton and her book store/gallery (See: Cornelia). I also mentioned that she was going to give a presentation organized by the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society on “The Croton Aqueduct in Art”.

She gave the presentation to an almost full house at Briarcliff Manor’s Vescio Community Center. It was very well received.

Note that I don’t have a copy of her presentation, or the exact images she used so the pictures below, although similar are for illustrative purposes only.

For a really good overview of images of the Old Croton Aqueduct see The Project Gutenberg eBook of Illustrations of the Croton Aqueduct, by F. B. Tower.

crotonaquedcutinart-2

crotonaquedcutinart-3

crotonaquedcutinart-4

crotonaquedcutinart-5

crotonaquedcutinart-6

crotonaquedcutinart-7

crotonaquedcutinart-8

crotonaquedcutinart-9

crotonaquedcutinart-10

crotonaquedcutinart-11

Taken in mid April 2023 with a Sony A7IV and Rokinon/Samyang AF 24-70 f2.8 FE

A walk around Dobbs Ferry – Overview

by Posted in Places Leave a comment
dobbsferryoverview-1

A while back I went for a walk around the Hudson River Town of Dobbs Ferry. Above view of the Dobbs Ferry Metro North Station from the other side of the the tracks.

“Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 10,875 according to the 2010 United States Census. In 2019, its population rose to an estimated 11,027. The village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a part of, the town of Greenburgh. The village ZIP code is 10522. Most of the village falls within the boundaries of the Dobbs Ferry Union Free School District.

Dobbs Ferry was ranked seventh in the list of the top 10 places to live in New York State for 2014, according to the national online real estate brokerage Movoto. Dobbs Ferry is also the first village in New York State certified as a Climate Smart Community and was granted in 2014 the highest level given out in the state.

…

Multiple groups of native peoples lived in what is now known as Dobbs Ferry since at least 4500BC. The most recent tribe who claimed territory of the area are the Wecquaesgeek, maintaining villages up until the 1600’s. Numerous artifacts from the tribe continue to be found along Wicker’s Creek in oyster middens.

Dobbs Ferry was named after Jeremiah Dobbs, a descendant of William Dobbs, of Swedish and Dutch ancestry whose family ran a ferry service that traversed the Hudson River at this location. Dobbs was a fisherman and settled near the southern part of what is now Dobbs Ferry, and he “added to his meager income by ferriage of occasional travelers across the Hudson. He used a style of boat known at that day as a periauger, a canoe hollowed out of a solid log. . . From this primitive ferry the village took its name.”

Dobbs Ferry played a vital role in the American Revolutionary War. The position of the village opposite the northernmost end of the Palisades gave it importance during the war. The region was repeatedly raided by camp followers of each army; earthworks and a fort, commanding the Hudson ferry and the ferry to Paramus, New Jersey, were built; the British army made Dobbs Ferry a rendezvous, after the Battle of White Plains in November 1776, and the continental division under General Benjamin Lincoln was here at the end of January 1777.

In July and August 1781, during the seventh year of the war, Continental Army troops commanded by General George Washington were encamped in Dobbs Ferry and neighboring localities, alongside allied French forces under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau. A large British army controlled Manhattan at the time, and Washington chose the Dobbs Ferry area for encampment because he hoped to probe for weaknesses in the British defenses, just 12 miles (19 km) to the south. But on August 14, 1781, a communication was received from French Admiral Comte de Grasse in the West Indies, which caused Washington to change his strategy. De Grasse’s communication, which advocated a joint land and sea attack against the British in Virginia, convinced Washington to risk a march of more than 400 miles (640 km) to the Chesapeake region of Virginia. Washington’s new strategy, adopted and designed in mid-August 1781, at the encampment of the allied armies, would win the war. The allied armies were ordered to break camp on August 19, 1781: on that date the Americans took the first steps of their march to Virginia along present-day Ashford Avenue and Broadway, en route to victory over General Cornwallis at the Siege of Yorktown and to victory in the Revolutionary War.

The village was originally incorporated in 1873 as Greenburgh, but the name was changed to Dobbs Ferry in 1882.

The Estherwood and Carriage House, Hyatt-Livingston House, South Presbyterian Church, and United States Post Office are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (“Wikipedia).

Taken with a Fuji X-E3 and Fuji XC 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS II