Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Third Avenue and Park Avenue South

Mary Sargent © 2009 ………. click to enlarge


Don't miss the little face at the bottom.

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Murray Hill, Third Avenue at 28th Street

Mary Sargent © 2009 ……click to enlarge

Ah, the Chrysler Building. One of the reasons to consider living on the East Side.

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Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Lexington and Third Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge

Look what we have here – our first black and white photograph. Compare to the color version below and I think you'll see why I did it. With a digital photograph, black and white is as easy as pressing a button.

This is the church of Our Lady of the Scapular & St. Stephen, usually referred to as St. Stephen's, and I took no photos of it in my prior walk. I moved along faster in those days. I didn't stop and gawk at every damn thing. I was more into the walk, I think, wanting to get more streets marked off.

St. Stephen's has significant architectural, artistic and social history (designed by James Renwick, murals by Constantino Brumidi, largest Catholic parish in the country in 1860), but despite the efforts of Community Board 6 and others, it has not been given landmark status. Read all about it here, if that kind of thing interests you.

By the way, do you know what a scapular is? In the Catholic sense, I mean. I didn't. It's something worn over the shoulders, front and back that has protective qualities. You can read all about that here, if that kind of thing interests you.




Mary Sargent © 2009 …….. click to enlarge

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Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Lexington and Third Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

On this block, I was looking for the spot I photographed two years ago, but in the dark, I couldn't recognize anything. When I got home, though, I could match up Asia Deli & Grocery.



Mary Sargent © 2006 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the old photo. I miss Luncheonette. I can't tell if the second story is still painted blue-green in yesterday's photo. Now I want to go back in the day and see what's going on. NO! I'll never finish this as it is.

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Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

So, as I was saying, last night I went to a dinner meeting – it was the meetup of Dinner and Philosophy Now in NYC. I had been looking at groups on meetup.com and decided to check this one out. I love to argue, I mean, examine ideas, and it seemed that this might provide an opportunity to do that. None of my friends share this love so I'm frequently frustrated. They just say, okay, okay! Now can we talk about something else!

For anyone unfamiliar with meetup.com, it's a site that organizes all kinds of interest groups, book clubs, sports, knitting, drinking, anything you can think of. You find something you're interested in, go to the meetings and meet other people interested in the same thing.

This was my first time trying it and I was pleased.

So I was headed to the restaurant Dolcino on Second Avenue. I had already walked this part of 28th Street, but I didn't have a photograph from this block; also, I thought it would be fun to photograph the same sites as I did two years ago, but this time it would be at night. I'll give you links to the old ones when I post them.


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Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2009 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

I went to a dinner meeting in this neighborhood tonight and since I needed some new photographs . . . I'll explain all tomorrow – it's too late tonight.

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Murray Hill, Madison Avenue Between 33rd and 32nd Streets

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

Heading back to the office, down Madison Avenue. For a long shot of this stretch of street go here.

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Murray Hill, 36th Street Between Park and Madison Avenues

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

Now on the destination block, 36th Street, this is a small piece of the Morgan Library, a small old piece. The library recently underwent a major expansion and renovation and reopened last spring to some controversy. But the renovation occurred on the Madison Avenue side and I'm not walking that way today, so we'll have to take it up another day.

Other photograph: long shot of 36th Street, looking west. This gives you a pretty good view of the Morgan on 36th Street.

Now that I have a place to link to other photos, I'm going to try to remember to take long shots at every site and give you the link. You should be able to see where you are, don't you think?

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Murray Hill, 35th Street Between Park and Madison Avenues

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

Park Avenue South becomes Park Avenue at 32nd Street, thus injecting a bit of unnecessary confusion into mail delivery and address finding. On the downtown side of 32nd Street, the address is 470 Park Avenue South and on the uptown, it's 2 Park Avenue. This upsets my rational, orderly mind. What was the 1959 City Council thinking? I'm thinking of researching those City Council minutes. Just thinking.

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Murray Hill, 32nd Street at Park Avenue South

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

Last Friday, I took my camera out at lunch time and walked up Park Avenue South to 36th Street, to walk the block between Park Avenue and Madison. It was cold, lower 20's, and sunny. First I stood for a while here at the corner of 32nd and Park Ave South and took pictures of people at the corner waiting to cross. Here are my two favorites, since I couldn't chose between them. I think they make a nice pair.

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Murray Hill, 39th Street Between Third and Lexington Avenues

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

This is the last photo from my January 2 walk back to the office. So holiday looking! For some reason, my pre-Christmas walks didn't lead to any shots like this. The lights stay up a long time here, just like everywhere, I guess, but I'm going to eschew all such shots henceforth. This is it.

Until next December.

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Murray Hill, Second Avenue between 39th and 40th Streets

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

I'm trying to figure out why this shot doesn't bother me whereas this one did. In the earlier one, I loved the colors and different elements in it: the doorway with light and stairs and the red brick second storey and the dark red free daily box, but it seemed to be too much a photograph about a restaurant. In the present one, many of the same elements are present, the store front with the prominent sign, the doorway to the side and the brick second storey, but I don't get the same feeling, that it's a photograph about the restaurant.

But why? What's the difference? The tree? I almost think that's it. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.

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Murray Hill, Second Avenue at 39th Street

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

This is not in a meadow or swamp; it's at the corner of Second Avenue and 39th Street and I'm looking up into some grasses planted at the top of a brick wall about five feet high. Notice the blurry apartment building through the grasses at the right.

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Murray Hill, Second Avenue Between 38th and 39th Streets

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

This caught my eye because it is named Aquamarine, and yet, it is not aquamarine (bluish-green). Nor is it in any way evocative of water. It would be pretty to think that this is an homage to Jasper Johns who famously painted an area of color, say, red, and stenciled over it the word for a different color, say, blue. But farfetched.

I discovered online that this is a Japanese sushi restaurant which gets mixed reviews, e.g., lovely music v. ear drum breaking music, lovely ambience v. tries too hard to be hip. The food seems to be "okay", "not bad".

Notice Christmas tree.

Murray Hill, Second Avenue Between 38th and 39th Streets

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

Okay, a rare, no, a unique event: a photograph I shot today. It only happened because I got it into my head that the January 1 shot had to be shot that day so it would be dated 2007. Of course, it wasn't, but I'm not going into that again; if you care, you'll have to page down and read the previous two entries.

Today I had to dash over to the dermatologist to show him a mole that had ominously changed. You know what that means, folks, if you ever heed health warnings which I most certainly do. So he takes a look and tells me it was most likely bruised and not to worry. Just one more thing not to worry about.

His office is on 37th between Second and First Avenues, kind of out of the way, so afterwards, I walked up Second Avenue to 42nd Street before I went back to work.

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Midtown East, Second Avenue Between 37th and 36th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2006 …………………………………….. click to enlarge

Early post to beat the New Year's Eve rush.

I love New Year's Eve and Day, the end of an old year, and thank god, the beginning of a fresh new one! With optimism that this one will be BETTER. Please. And I'm all for ritual. This is the first year of my blog, so I'm right now establishing a ritual. Tomorrow I'm posting something from 2007. This means I must get up, get out, and take some photographs, come home, select one, edit it, write it, all in time to leave at 4:30 for a New Year's Day party. I'm up for it!

Luckily my New Year's ritual before the blog has not involved late night parties and drunkenness, appropriate though that may be. On this one night, I like to get all serious and reflect and make resolutions and go to bed at a reasonable hour and wake up without a hangover. So it's probable that I'll be in good shape to get out there and photograph tomorrow.

I realize that I'm probably writing to myself, as this ritual will go unnoticed by most of my readers since they'll be involved in their own selfish rituals without a thought for me. That's okay! I understand.

So for the last posting of 2006, here are two views of a building on Second Avenue, taken on my December 28 walk. It's old, that's appropriate. And, as I've mentioned elsewhere, these buildings left standing while all around them new tall buildings are going up seem poignant to me and I feel like I must photograph them before they're gone. These two especially so, since it looks like their immediate neighbors were just stripped away. Oh, let me not get maudlin. For auld lang syne and so forth.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for visiting! Love you!

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Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Third and Lexington Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2006 …………………………….. click to enlarge

This is the last shot from my lunchtime walk a week ago Friday, ending in a crescendo of color and complexity. Very different from the beginning.

After shooting this scene for a few minutes, I was stimulated enough that I could face going back to my beige office with the metal filing cabinets.

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Murray Hill, Third Avenue at 28th Street

Mary Sargent © 2006 …………………………….. click to enlarge

Extra post, Saturday morning. I need to catch up.

This is still a week ago Friday, I'm walking back to the office from my lunch time walk.

Murray Hill, 28th Street Between Second and Third Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2006 …………………………….. click to enlarge

I've decided to use more categories (neighborhoods) rather than fewer, so here, making its first appearance, is Murray Hill. Wikipedia says the boundaries are from 42nd to 29th Streets and Fifth to Second Avenues, and The New York Times in 1982 "loosely defined" it as having borders at 42nd and 34th Streets and Madison Avenue and the East River. Combining the two, I'm calling it Murray Hill if it's south of 42nd Street, west of Second Avenue, north of 29th Street and east of Madison Avenue. I'm going to have to change some titles.

So this is Murray Hill last Friday, a cold, bleak day, not as cold as this Friday, but bleaker. I love this building, at least photographically speaking. I can't tell you how much time I spent trying to decide which shot, of the many I took here, to show you. They're all similar, but there's enough difference between them to make me vacillate. I hope this is the right one. Be sure to notice the window coverings.

Murray Hill, 26th Street Between Third and Lexington Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2006

Help me out here. I'm thinking that one reason I want to put this photo up is I want to show you the street sign that says Broadway Alley. Please pull out your Manhattan street maps and look closely at 26th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues. You will see such a street (!) faithfully noted. Notice that it is far from Broadway. It seems I will not be able to walk this street. However, that's not what I want help with. I want to know if this works on more than a documentary level. Sometimes it helps to hear other more objective opinions.