Upper West Side, Central Park West Between 63rd and 64th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………… click to enlarge


Nice, don't you think?

This is the meeting hall of the Society For Ethical Culture, a nontheist society devoted to the study of ethics, founded in 1876 by Felix Adler.

From the New York Times in 1910, when the building was built, as quoted in New York Streetscapes, by Christopher Gray:

"The severe plain wall is eloquent in its protest against the breathless rush and hustle of the modern city; it beckons to the hastening, sordid throng, Tarry a while; there is in life more than stocks and shekels and vain show."


See map.




Mary Sargent © 2007 ……. . . . ....…… click to enlarge

Here is a close up the plaque on the right. Sounds a bit self-righteous today, but it probably had a different ring then. But why did they have to crowd the words in that ugly parsimonious way? Didn't they have graphic designers then?