Midtown East, First Avenue at 36th Street, looking north

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

All I know is I gotta go to sleep. Maybe tomorrow. Sleepy.

Midtown East, 37th Street Between FDR Drive and First Avenue

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

The sign on the door says conEdison and the one above the standpipe says Water Only. Is it a standpipe if it doesn't stand?

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Midtown East, 38th Street Between First Avenue and FDR Drive

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

The other side of the street.

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Midtown East, 38th Street Between First Avenue and FDR Drive

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

Remember I told you last night I had just ordered a map from Identity Maps? This morning it was delivered to me by a spiffy young man who looked like an architect and who thanked me for buying their maps. You gotta admit that's fast. It's gorgeous and I wish I could display it, but the laminated version costs $300, whereas the rolled up version was a mere $40.

As to the question of the unknown street, it's there all right, but it's just one of the streets that's part of the package called FDR Drive.

Continuing the walk of December 28, 2006. Does this seem like an odd place to have a Curb Your Dog sign?

And yes, I will be doing a new walk as soon as the planets line up.

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Midtown East, FDR Drive Between 38th and 37th Streets

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

I thought it was a good idea to insert a little mundane everyday bleakness at this time. A kind of palate cleanser to refresh and brace ourselves as we look forward to welcoming in the New Year with more celebrating and excess.

There. Feel better?

This was taken two years ago on December 28 during a lunch break when I was working in Midtown. I haven't been able to discover the name of this street, but I just ordered an expensive detailed map of Midtown Manhattan from Identify Map Co., 3 feet high, 4 feet wide. Talk about excess. They better have that street identified. The other maps I've looked at have just ignored it. You can probably tell that it's between First Avenue and the FDR Drive, some entrance, I guess.

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Upper West Side, Broadway Between 66th and 67th Streets

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

Two years ago, on December 22, I made a trip to Pottery Barn to buy some champagne flutes, and I said to myself, you never can tell, it might be in a couple of years I won't have anything to post and I'll need to pull something out of the archives, so maybe I just better get a shot of Pottery Barn's lovely tree. Lucky thing.

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Upper West Side, Broadway Between 105th and 104th Streets

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

Unexpectedly being here for Christmas, I had to scramble to find a photograph for tonight. I backtracked a block to find a seasonally appropriate shot for Christmas Eve.

I wonder how nonobservers of Christmas view the annual forest of evergreens that lines our streets. Pleasant or annoying? Something else?

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Upper West Side, Broadway Between 104th and 103rd Streets

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

After dinner, we walked down Broadway to where I would normally take the subway home (note subway entrance at the right), but where, this night, I hailed a cab because I was carrying a very heavy Christmas gift from Luka which she had stoically schlepped to Henry's.

Okay, I'll tell you what it was. Four beautiful glowing red dinner plates, very heavy.

This was meant to be my Merry Christmas photograph because I was planning to go to Michigan tomorrow to spend Christmas with my son and his family. But no, the flight was cancelled and there was no other flight to be had, so I'll be here, posting on Christmas Eve.

Maybe I'll just run this one again.

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Upper West Side, Broadway at 105th Street

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

At last, the great Henry's, a favorite restaurant of Luka's and mine. Although the food is mostly quite good, I think it's the space that hooks us. So beautiful and spacious. And the windows that open onto the street. And the big beautiful wine glasses. And the friendly staff. However, the prices are inching up. We need to remind them about the bad economy. Just please keep the $10 burger on the menu.

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Inwood, No. 1 Train Between 215th and 207th Street Stops

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

Okay! We're finally in the present. This was not a proper photowalk, but a few opportunistic photos before and after meeting Luka for dinner at Henry's, but at least it's now.

I'm always a little uneasy shooting photos of strangers head on, but I think of Travis Ruse and his great subway shots and how he never tried to hide what he was doing, and I just raise my camera and click away. This woman looked at me after I took her photograph, so I smiled and said I was looking for Christmas shots and she made a good one with her gift wrap. So that was okay and when she got off, she said goodby. So far, so good.

Greenwich Village, Sullivan Street Between Houston and Bleecker Streets

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

Once again I'm posting from a two year old walk. I did go out tonight. FL and I went to see the sights, the tree at Rockefeller Center and the surrounding festivity, and if the weather had been reasonable, I would've taken my camera and had something to show you. But it was really cold. Too cold to be loitering and trying to get just the right shot, too cold to do anything but focus on Morrell Wine Bar & Café where we had a reservation.

I must say this was a great thing to do and my first time doing it. All of you blasé New Yorkers, go see the tree at Rockefeller Center in the evening the weekend before Christmas. Get crushed by tourists. It's an event. And beautiful. The crowds are enormous. Worse than Chinatown. Doesn't take long. And then if you can escape to a nearby really good restaurant, you've had yourself an evening.

Afterwards, we stopped at An American Craftsman and bought each other earrings.

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Greenwich Village, Sullivan Street Between Bleecker and Houston Streets

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

New Yorkers will back me up when I say that today was no day to be out photographing. Wet thick snow, slushy streets. Cold and mostly unpleasant. And so we have Sullivan Street, December 2006.

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Greenwich Village, Sullivan Street Between 3rd and Bleecker Streets

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

We are still on Sullivan Street, December 2006. I'm going to try to do a photowalk tomorrow. If not tomorrow, Saturday. Or Sunday. And so on. But in the meantime, Sullivan Street is not a bad place to be.

It's good to know that if I become disabled and can't walk, I can keep this blog going for quite a while just using old never seen photographs. One less thing to worry about.

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Greenwich Village, Sullivan Street Between 3rd and Bleecker Streets

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

This is V Bar and Café as of two years ago. It seems to be a coffee shop by day, wine bar at night, and is well thought of according to comments on the web.

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Greenwich Village, Sullivan Street Between 3rd and Bleecker Streets

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

Here's another shot from two years ago. My computer is finally in good shape, so if I can get out on a walk tomorrow, then tomorrow night we will be current. If not, there's a lot more where these came from. And I will admit that I'm kind of glad to have an excuse for showing these.

I'm deliberatedly leaving this oversized in the enlargement. The details are nice.

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Greenwich Village, 3rd Street Between Sixth Avenue and McDougal Street

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

Christmas at Ace Hardware. A little bit of Main Street on West 3rd Street. This shot was taken two years ago, December 2, 2006. See last night if you must know why.

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Greenwich Village, 3rd Street Between Sixth Avenue and McDougal Street

Let me explain. See, it's my computer. I finally called in a computer expert who worked and worked on it and then said those dreaded words: we need to clean it off and reload everything. BTW, this computer is not all that old: 2½ years. After he left, I spent a mighty long time copying files back, readjusting things, trying to get things back the way I wanted them, you know that drill. As a result of all this toil, there are many things that are better about this good as new computer, but one thing that isn't is that I can't upload photographs. It won't read my card reader and it won't read my camera. And yes, I reinstalled my camera driver.

And so that is why you are getting a two year old photograph instead of one from the photowalk I didn't take today because of staying home working on my computer.



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

This is from a walk I took on December 2, 2006 on my way to a pottery show on Houston. Here is a sad story common in the restaurant business. We see the Grand Opening of Roll and Dough also known as Unique Pastries (based in Flushing, Queens) and the high ambitions of spreading bing across the land. Read about it in the New York Times. If you haven't the energy to read anything else (isn't this LONG ENOUGH already?), just know that they're little cheap, apparently tasty, Asian stuffed bready things. I can't be more specific because I don't have the energy either.

Anyway food bloggers seemed to like the place, but now it's Closed. And I missed it.

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SoHo, Sullivan Street Between Prince and Houston Streets

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

Crossing Sixth Avenue, Charlton becomes Prince Street and we are in SoHo. Time to stop for a meal. It was around 1:30 but I hadn't had time for breakfast, so when I saw Once Upon A Tart, it appealed. Pie for breakfast is always good.



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

This is looking south, back toward Prince Street.



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

My first time here, though I've known of it for a while. This was good, the pumpkin filling a little softer, more custardy than typical. Not that there's anything wrong with typical. Pumpkin pie is hard to mess up. I wish I had some right now.



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

And now a seasonal touch, looking out the window.

When I left, I discovered the photowalk was over because I had no more room on my flash card. Consequently, you will miss seeing a photograph of Optique de Paris where I bought the most expensive glasses of my life. I hope I like them.

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Hudson Square, Sixth Avenue Between Charlton and King Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …….. click to enlarge

This is Sixth Avenue. I've walked down from King Street and now I'm looking back uptown from Charlton.

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Hudson Square, King Street Between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue

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

When I came home after this walk and did a little research, I discovered that King Street is part of a little historic district, the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District. These three streets are only 3 blocks long and run between Greenwich Street and Sixth Avenue. A neat little 3x3 area.

Then I realized that I hadn’t done King Street justice and that I must plan a walk specifically to cover this area.

In the meantime, I give you this photo which I’m guessing depicts numbers 15 and 17. In the 1966 report from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, numbers 15 and 17 are described as the buildings on King Street that "most clearly retain their original Federal flavor. Although their doors and lintels have been altered, they retain their original pitched roofs, dormers and cornices. The doorways are in their original state, as are their shallow stoops."

Just a guess. I'll check further when I return.

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Hudson Square, King Street Between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue

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

Posting in haste tonight. This important looking building used to be Public School 8, built in 1886, "a lively Queen Anne" according to the AIA Guide. Now a condominium.

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Hudson Square, King Street Between Varick Street and Sixth Avenue

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

Last Friday, after therapy, I went down to Soho to a new optician recommended by my opthamologist. I knew this guy would be more expensive than Lenscrafters, but I was never happy with my glasses from Lenscrafters and I've suffered with them for years, so I figured it was time to get good glasses. I deserved good glasses, I told myself.

So I took the No. 1 to Houston and walked into that area now being called Hudson Square even by people who live there, not just real estate agents, so I guess I'll have to acquiesce. Before it was called Hudson Square, it wasn't called much of anything, so it did need a name, but Hudson Square just sounds so wrong. So fancy. Not appropriate. I'll try to give up complaining after tonight.

I walked one block of King Street, then crossed Sixth Avenue into Soho.

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Upper West Side, 86th Street Between West End Avenue and Broadway

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

Isn't this the kind of building you'd like to see continue undulating its way down the whole block? Best not to stare at it too long if you're feeling a bit queasy.

A new walk tomorrow.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 88th and 87th Streets

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

I was startled at my first sight of these towers, especially the one closest. It seemed out of place, medieval. In fact the AIA New York Guide calls it "a startling work." But not exactly for its medieval appearance. More for its being in the imaginative vein of French neo-Classicist architecture. So I was off by a few hundred years.

Luckily, there is a 1987 Streetscapes article to provide a story. It describes the towers this way:

The most-striking feature of the church is its unequal pair of high, open towers on the West End Avenue front. Without bells, they have no apparent function and are haunting, evocative forms.

Note also that in January 2007, I posted a shot from the 86th Street side of this church.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue at 88th Street

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

It's about time we saw some people on this walk. And luckily, they're not all wearing black.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 90th and 89th Streets

Mary Sargent © 2008 …………click to enlarge

Here I go again.

See the short building between two tall buildings?



Mary Sargent © 2008 ………click to enlarge

Here it is again, showing just how much taller the two tall buildings are.



Mary Sargent © 2008 ………click to enlarge

Farther down the block, here's another short building between two tall buildings.



Mary Sargent © 2008 …....……click to enlarge X And here you can see how tall the tall buildings are. Okay. Did you notice that the two short buildings are identical? What is going on in the streets of New York? Do architects and builders like to mess with us? Are they playful? In case you think I'm just showing you the same building twice on different days, notice that the doorway is on the left in the first short building and on the right in the second. Okay, so they're not identical; they're mirror images. See map.

Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 91st and 90th

Mary Sargent © 2008 ………click to enlarge

It is a happy night when there is a Streetscapes article about the building I have just posted. My questions are all answered. If only Christopher Gray had noticed that the buildings across the street (see last night's posting) needed their own article.



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

Since you have a place to go for your questions about the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, I will confine myself to criticizing the bright blue canopy. If ever anything was out of place, garish and unnecessary, this is it. If the perpetrator of this deed couldn't come up with a canopy more in keeping with the gothic style of this church, they should have just let people walk in the rain. If they can walk in the rain to St. Patrick's, they can walk in the rain to this Greek Orthodox Church. Good Lord. So to speak.

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 91st and 90th Streets

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



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



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

Above are three shots which, together, show the entire east side of the street. North end, middle section and south end. You're going to have to pay close attention here, so drop everything and concentrate.

Okay, notice in the first photo that the end building is of a completely different style of architecture from the buildings next to it. I don't know what it's called (Italianate?), but I know it's different. It has ionic columns, and reddish brick and stripes at the top, whereas next to it is a row of typical New York brownstones.

In the next photograph, we see a good midsection of the brownstones, noticing that they are almost symmetrically organized. The windows at the top are entirely symmetrical, i.e., 2 square windows, 4 round windows, 4 square windows, 4 round windows, 2 square windows (you have to look at all three photographs to check this out). So they seem to have all been built by the same builder.

In the last photograph, we see that the end building is identical to the one on the north end. I don't know what to make of this. Was the entire block built as one? But why such disparate architecture? Or did some different architect just happen to obtain the two end lots? What really happened here?

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue at 92nd Street

Mary Sargent © 2008 ………click to enlarge

A bit of color. Not too much!

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Upper West Side, West End Avenue Between 94th and 93rd

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This is so West End Avenue. The monotony of it even overcomes the tree (see the tree?) which just disappears into the building.

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