Sunday, October 12, 2008

Washington Heights, Broadway Between 156th and 155th Streets


Mary Sargent © 2008 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Last night when I was trying to get this post up, I got overwhelmed with all the different types of material associated with this complex. I couldn't get a handle on it. Couldn't subdue it. There are all the original components: The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, The American Numismatic Society, The American Geographical Society, The Church of Our Lady of Esperanza and the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation. and then there are the organizations that replaced some of them: Boricua College, The Hispanic Society (but there's conflicting information on this one). There's the complex as a whole, The Audubon Terrace Museum Group and the man, Archer Milton Huntington, who put it all together. There's John James Audubon and there's his book: Birds of America (and if you follow this link, you can view his book, page by page).

So tonight I just decided to list them and you can go figure it out. Or better yet, go visit! They don't get enough visitors way up here.

This photograph is taken from the courtyard facing Broadway. To the left is the original American Geographical Society, now Boricua College and to the right is the original Museum of the American Indian, now occupied by The Hispanic Society (I think).

See map.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

When I first saw this photo I thought "Oh has Mary finally gone mad?" because this is, I swear, the campus of Columbia University at 116th and Broadway. If she says it's something else, well then---I'd suggest if you don't want to travel all the way up to 156th St. to see this stuff live, you can just get off at 116th St. and go to Columia. Same thing.