Inwood, 217th Street Between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West

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

Here we have the highly esteemed Park Terrace Garden apartments, a complex of 5 buildings surrounding a garden.  Try to overlook the garbage bags.

I have lived in or close to the cities of Washington, D.C., Chicago and St. Louis, and never saw garbage bags on the sidewalk.  That is because those cities were constructed with alleys to handle all the unsightly necessities of life.  The first time I saw garbage bags piled on the sidewalks was in Cincinnati and I thought it was a backward and provincial city.

So you can imagine my horror to discover that New York was just as backward.  I found the explanation in a footnote in Gotham:  "Nor, as was customary, had the commissioners provided service alleys through the center of blocks:  this maximized salable land . . ."  (This refers to the Commissioners Plan of 1811 which laid out the numbered streets and avenues of Manhattan.)  It was to maximize salable land.  Figures.




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








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


Just thought I'd show you a little art deco detail and bits of shrubbery from their roof terrace.  All lovely . . . except for that band of paint over the brick at the top.  You should enlarge it to get the full effect of its ugliness.  They were covering up something?  Surely there was a better solution.  If only they would come to me first.

But to end on an upbeat note, you must check out Every Person in New York.

Inwood, 217th Street Between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West

Here they are, three actual houses with yards and driveways, right here in Manhattan.



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


A visitor sent me an email (thank you!) with this information about these houses:

The houses on W. 217th Street all date from 1934 and were developed by a single builder - most share similar floorplans. According to the original notice of construction in the New York Times, they were designed by Benjamin F.V. Driesler, an architect who was very active in the residential parts of Brooklyn (many of his buildings are now in historic districts there). The Park Terrace Gardens apartment complex began construction soon afterwards, in 1938, replacing the old Seaman-Dwyer mansion. Note that the street was at one time also known as Park Terrace North but eventually that name fell out of use.

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



 




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

Inwood, 217th Street Between Park Terrace East and Park Terrace West

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


Here is 217th Street, 1 block long.  See those buildings that look like real houses?  They are real houses with driveways and yards and many people covet them. Tomorrow I'll show them to you up close.  It's too late to do that tonight.

See map.