Lower East Side, Orchard Street at Delancey

After walking two blocks, I stopped to look at my watch - I mean, cell phone - and realized this photowalk was over.  The tour was starting soon, so I hustled over to, uh, Joe's Fabric Warehouse, and took one last photo.


Mary Sargent © 2010 ………………….……………......... ………………….. click to enlarge

Even though it looks like these people are waiting to get into Joe's, they are actually waiting for a tour.  The Tenement Museum Gift Shop is back there somewhere, and the tours start and end here.

Luka and I went on the "Getting By" Tour which took us to two apartments:  the first restored to 1863, the second to the 1930's.  It was so good, so interesting. They've really done a good job.  Luka's father grew up on the Lower East Side, she thinks Rivington Street, so she has a special interest.  But you don't need a special interest to find this fascinating.  Please put this on your list before you forget about it.

Now, as to Joe's Fabric Warehouse, it opened in 1998. and according to The New York Times, was a harbinger of a new kind of Lower East Side.  If you'd like to see a copy of the real thing on Joe's website, complete with photos, but absent 2 other fabric stores, click here.

Flatiron District, 16th Street Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

Mary Sargent © 2010 ……….....………….…………… ………………….. click to enlarge

Between buildings 5, 7 and 9 and building 17 (see last night's post) is The Center for Jewish History, there since 2000.  I walked across the street to check it out and spoke to two police officers standing there (why?  I mean why were they standing there?).  I never knew it was here, I said.  Neither did I, said one.  That's what's great about New York, he said, you never know what you're going to see.

It was closed, it being Saturday.

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.

Spanish Harlem, Fifth Avenue at 105th Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 .... click to enlarge

The renovation is to El Museo del Barrio, just one of the museums on Museum Mile. But that's for another walk. Just now I'm interested in how this woman has dressed for her surroundings with style and panache, right down to her shoes.

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Inwood, Broadway at 204th Street

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

Now back to Broadway and here at 204th Street is the Dyckman House, built about 1784 and now a City Museum. For some very early history involving a trespassing goose, and for the ballad, The Dyckman House, check out pages 223-227 in Ballads of Old New York by Arthur Guiterman.

See map.

Upper West Side, 107th Street Between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue

Mary Sargent © 2007 ………… click to enlarge

Here is the pretty doorway to the Nicholas Roerich Museum. I had never heard of it – had you? Roerich was a Russian painter who gained fame designing sets and costumes for Diaghilev and most famously, collaborated with Stravinsky on Le Sacre du Printemps. There's lots more; if you are interested, check out the museum link.

So I walk in, and there are a couple of gents sitting around who direct me to the upper two floors. Paintings everywhere. On the second floor is a grand piano and a bunch of folding chairs set up for an audience. Pretty soon a woman sweeps in and begins rehearsing, playing Chopin, very accomplished. By this time I'm on the third floor, in the front room, all alone, with the light streaming in, colorful paintings all around, and gorgeous music from the piano below.

See? Even a walk up West End Avenue can end in an enchanted place you never knew existed.

They have concerts most Sunday afternoons at 5 o'clock. It's free (contributions accepted) and no reserved seating. If you get there before me, save me a seat.

Then after that, as if that wasn't enough, when I got back to Broadway, I went into Starbucks, got a latte and got a seat by the window, no waiting.

See map.

Upper West Side, 107th Street Between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue

What a city! I'm going to start at the end of this walk because I want to tell it now.

Sometimes there are walks that I decide to take, not because I think I'm going to get good or interesting photographs, but because it must be done. Every block must be walked whether or not it is interesting or beautiful. Today I took one of those walks. West End Avenue. Dull, dull, dull. One big apartment building after another, nothing commercial and no street life. The only reason it's not the dullest block in Manhattan (that honor falls to Fort Washington Avenue) is because the buildings are better looking than those on Ft. Washington and they have better details.

At least it was a beautiful day. Gorgeous. After the rain of the last few days and the unreasonably warm days before that, this was a real Fall day: sunny and breezy and brisk.

So I strolled along, starting at 96th Street, walking uptown to 106th, then turning and walking up Riverside, but giving that up after one block because the wind was so strong there, I was getting an earache. Turned back on 107th Street to go back to Broadway, and saw this pretty little building with a plaque on the side of the door.



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


This, my friends, is the Nicholas Roerich Museum. And this post is too long as it is, so I will continue tomorrow.


See map.