Is there a more beautiful, Spanish Eclectic-style building in Boston than the former St. Gabriel's Monastery?
I first wrote about this place, and the adjacent church, more than six years ago (see September 22, 2018, "Modern-Day Monastery, No Celibacy Required"). At that time, the compound, which opened in 1911 and includes the Our Lady of Fatima Shrine (see November 10, 2018, "Thanks, Nice Lady") had been vacant for more than a dozen years and in somewhat rough shape.
As of that date, the City of Boston had approved a redevelopment plan, and I closed the post by indicating that I would return to document the new apartment complex. Took me longer than I figured it would, but recently I got back to see just how nicely this place cleaned up.
Located between Washington and Warren streets just east of St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton, The Overlook at St. Gabriel's is a fantastic devellopment featuring all mod cons, as The Jam would say, including an infinity pool, a putting green, an electric bike station, two pet spas and a maker hall located in the former church that features "private conference rooms, a giant TV wall, a coffee bar, and a pub under a beautiful cathedral ceiling," per the development's web site. "Complete with both a state-of-the-art fitness center and a separate fitness studio." The renovations on the old buildings look fantastic.
(The former church, now a community space.)
(Details from the church.)
There are four new buildings here in addition to the original two. Below you can see a new one and part of a wonderful veranda on the old monastery.
And here are two more shots of the gorgeous old monastery, which also served as a Boston College dormitory, a convent and a health care facility over the years.
The site also includes a small cemetery, which is overseen by Jesus on the cross.
And the Fatima Shrine is still there, as beautiful as ever.
My last post featured highlights from a walk I took through Greenwich Village, as I tagged along behind my daughter and her friend while they did a self-guided tour of New York University (see December 21, 2024, "A Peep at Greenwich Village"). Later that day we checked into a hotel in Brooklyn near the Barclays Center, where the girls went to a concert in the evening. While they were at the Childish Gambino show, I walked around the Park Slope neighborhood and made some photos, trying to beat the sunset.
The first thing that caught my eye was the rear of a Warby Parker store along Bergen Street.
The eyewear store, which fronts on Flatbush Avenue, opened in 2020.
Along Flatbush Avenue, I dug the sign for Antonio's Pizza, which has been in business for more than 50 years.
Across the avenue was a pair of buildings that caught my eye. Frankly, there were dozens of buildings like this that appealed to me, but I couldn't make photos of all of them.
On the right is a Dominican restaurant, El Gran Castillo de Jagua, which translates to the Great Castle of Jagua. Jagua is a fruit found in the jungles of South America; it has been used for body ornamentation and medicinal purposes by the indigenous people of the Amazon for centuries, according to the Internet.
On the left is Sharlene's Bar, which, according to its facade, features beer cocktails. "Opening in its current form in 2009, when borough native Sharlene Frank rechristened it, the space had previously been a watering hole named Mooney’s," according to this 2018 profile at Punch. "Before that, according to The New Yorker, it was 'a bar for as long as anyone can remember.'
"The jukebox is stocked with everything from The Kinks to At the Drive In, but the bartenders only turn it on when it’s really busy; before then, it’s usually a steady flow of bebop. That lack of pretension or gimmick is exactly what has made it the beloved second living room for an extended web of ambitious young people looking to mingle, hook up, swap stories about the sorry state of [the media] industry and hatch schemes to improve the lots of their comrades."
This joint has been here since 2005, after starting in New York's Tribeca neighborhood in 1991.
I passed the Barclays Center and then made my way over to a beautiful old subway head house.
I believe this place was built in 1908 from a design by the firm of Heins & LaFarge, as part of a much larger complex for an elevated train station. Eventually, the elevated line came down and the old head house fell into disrepair, according to this blog post.
"At some point, Arts for Transit took over the building, and today, it sits majestically and silently in the middle of the triangle formed by Flatbush, Fourth and Atlantic Aves," the blog post indicates. The nicely restored building "now serves as an artistic skylight for those folks waiting on the Brooklyn-bound local IRT tracks" underground.
I love that.
The sun was fading, while my appetite was growing, so I started making my way back to my hotel. I got a bit turned around, but after reorienting myself via Google Maps, I ended up in front of a hulking industrial building along Butler Street, just a few blocks from the Fairfield Inn.
This neighborhood is still somewhat industrial, but I could tell that there once had been a LOT more buildings that looked like this, filling up what are now empty lots or new condominiums. Thanks to the awesome Brownstoner web site, I learned everything I need to know about this abandoned complex.
Completed in 1914, this place was originally a publishing plant for R.G. Dun & Company, according to this blog post. The "Vaguely Renaissance/Gothic Revival early 20th century factory" was designed by the architectural firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker. The firm also designed buildings including the American Express Building at 65 Broadway in Manhattan; Grace Church Neighborhood House and the Provident Loan Society Buildings, both in Manhattan; and sanitarium additions to Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, and Dollar Savings Bank in the Bronx.
You can read the history of R.G. Dun & Company at the blog link. I'll tell you where the story ends, though: the firm merged with the John M. Bradstreet Company, forming Dun & Bradstreet, which provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses.
There appears to have been a legal battle over this property, which as of early 2014 was slated for demolition to make way for a hotel, according to Brownstoner. More recently, a developer was awarded $36 million by a judge for...I'm not sure what, because the article is behind a paywall.
At the corner of Butler Street and 3rd Avenue there is a large mural advocating for drivers to watch out for pedestrians and those riding bicycles, with a big red stop sign painted that says "NOT ONE MORE DEATH." There are four kids portrayed, with names and birth and death dates next to three of them: Victor Flores 1992-2004; Juan Angel Estrada 1993-2004; and James Rice 2003-2007. The photo below depicts Rice.
Victor and Juan were hit and killed by a garbage truck at an intersection several blocks away, in February 2004, according to a news article that I don't feel the need to share. James was hit and killed by a car while in a crosswalk nearby, in 2007. Local teenagers painted the mural in 2007.
Before retiring to my hotel room, I did a loop around the property. Along Douglass Street, I saw a sign that I thought was perhaps a ghost, but alas it's for an active business: Marble, Onyx, Granite & Terrazzo.
Around the corner on Butler Street is a place that I'd noticed on Google Maps when I booked the hotel. I had to make an image of the Yellow Cab garage.
I will publish more quick-hit New York City posts in the near future.
Near the end of August I drove to New York City with my daughter and one of her friends. They wanted to check out New York University during the day, and go to a concert at night. While they did a self-guided audio tour of the NYU campus near Washington Square Park, I tagged along with my camera. After the tour, we got lunch and then walked around a bit more.
Here's some of what I saw.
I was quite charmed by these buildings on MacDougal Street, which is one of the most well-known addressess in Greenwich Village. On the right is #177, which was built in 1834; I'm assuming the building on the left rose around the same time. They abut 181 MacDougal Street, a 16-unit, full-service condominium that was under construction. That building was designed by Morris Adjmi Architects.
MacDougal Street is where Eleanor Roosevelt moved after the death of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the middle of last century, its cafes attracted artists such as Jackson Pollock, Beat Generation writers Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, author James Baldwin and musicans including Bob Dylan, according to this article from Untapped New York and this one from Grandlife.
I will cover more of the street's highlights below.
I learned the name of this street during my college years, when I heard Dan Green's 1968 psychedelic song, "MacDougal Street Freak Out," on the radio:
At 126 East 13th Street, I stopped to admire one of the windows, and noticed a plaque mentioning Frank Stella.
The name rang a bell, although I had no clue why. Stella, who died earlier this year at age 87, was an influential and well-known artist known for his minimalist works. "Stella’s works are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Gallery in London, among others," according to this Artnet profile.
Stella, who in 2009 was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama, lived and worked in New York City for decades. The Beaux Arts building on East 13th Street, of which I wish I'd taken more photos, dates to 1904 and is "one of the last remaining buildings in New York City built to stage horse auctions," according to this Curbed New York article.
A short distance away, I walked past a place with a dark, yet heroic, history.
I didn't make images of the plaques on the exterior wall listing the 12 members of this firehouse who died on 9/11. I wanted to stop for a moment to reflect, but my daughter and her friend were walking well ahead of me and I didn't want to lag too far behind. This is the station for Ladder Company 3 on East 13th Street. During the horrible terrorist attacks in 2001, the company reported to the North Tower of the World Trade Center. "As the time of the attacks coincided with the morning tour change, both tours remained on duty, and the company arrived at the World Trade Center carrying more men than usual," according to Wikipedia. "Captain Patrick J. Brown and his men were last known to be on the 35th floor of the tower before the North Tower collapsed. Ladder Company 3 received some of the heaviest casualties of any fire company in the FDNY."
Heavy stuff.
At the intersection of East 13th Street and Broadway stands a knockout of a building.
Built in 1893-94, the Roosevelt Building stands out for its architecture, its engineering, its history and its connection to a storied-and-moneyed New York family.
"Prominently situated on the northwest corner of Broadway and East 13th Street, the Roosevelt Building is an outstanding example of the high-rise commercial development that occurred south of Union Square during the late-19th century using innovative new technology such as elevators, electricity, and metal framing," according to a New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report from 2019.
"The striking transitional Romanesque Revival/Renaissance Revival-style, iron- and steel-frame building has a tripartite configuration that includes a two-story rusticated stone base with upper sections clad in Roman brick and elaborate terracotta ornamentation," the report continues. "A column topped with a copper cupola anchors the building’s southeast corner....Detailed examination of the building reveals layers of intertwining and overlapping terra cotta ornamentation clustered primarily on the pilaster capitals and in undulate bands along the intermediate cornices that project above the second, sixth, and eighth stories on both designed facades. Though much of the ornamentation is classically-inspired in form, it is enhanced with a multitude of references to ancient mythology – lions, humans wearing lion heads, dragon-like monsters, gods, and half-beings with the body of a beast or human and tails of a sea creature – set within a backdrop of wild, swirling foliage."
Damn - I want to hang off the side of this building on a window-washing scaffold!
As you may have guessed by the building's name, it was developed by the well-to-do Roosevelt clan, which at the time included two uncles of future president Teddy Roosevelt. "Architect Stephen D. Hatch designed the eight-story Roosevelt Building...for James A. Roosevelt and Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, who, together with other members of the Roosevelt family, formed the Broadway Improvement Company to oversee their real estate ventures. [They were] [h]eirs of the wealthy merchant Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt. CVS Roosevelt, as he was known, worked with his father as a hardware importer, and inherited a large sum upon the elder man's death in 1840.
OK, moving on. Along West 8th Street, amid all of the lovely late-19th and early-20th century homes and chic boutiques and restaurants, there is a bit of smut.
The Hustler Hollywood store sells lingerie, sex toys, party gifts and more. The chain operates dozens of outlets in cities ranging from Albuquerque to West Palm Beach.
At 414 6th Avenue, there is an apothecary that's been in business for 186 years.
C.O. Bigelow claims to be the oldest such store in America. And who am I to disagree?! When I saw the old painted sign for the store (seen below), I figured it was a ghost sign for a long-out-of-business store. But no.
"Vermont Physician Dr. Galen Hunter founded C.O. Bigelow, originally called The Village Apothecary Shoppe, located a few steps away from our current location at 102 Sixth Avenue," according to the shop's web site. "Part of our unique legacy has been the passing of ownership from employer to employee," the site continues. "Clarence Otis Bigelow, who worked alongside Dr. Hunter for years, purchased the store and renamed it C.O. Bigelow."
The store's soda fountain, which served famous people including the New York Dolls, John Belushi and the rest of the SNL cast, former mayor Ed Koch, filmmaker John Waters and lawyer William Kunstler, was shuttered in 1984.
The Ginsberg family, which acquired the apothecary in 1939, maintains ownership.
Nearby, at the corner of Greenwich Avenue and West 10th Street, we had a fantastic lunch at Rosemary's, an Italian restaurant that opened in 2012. It is the low, white building in the photo below.
After we ate, I spied another ghost sign along 6th Avenue, but my daughter and her friend were heading the opposite direction, so I made a long-distance shot.
The sign advertised a real estate company at 450 6th Avenue. The best part of the sign, which you unfortunately can't see here, is the old phone number: Algonquin 4-1817.
Heading south-southwest on 6th Avenue, I saw a nice old "time and temp" sign.
I'm guessing this was originally on a bank. I'm not sure whether this space is currently occupied.
I liked the look of the building on 6th Avenue housing Village Bazaar, which offers (offered?) tattoos, piercings and smoking accessories.
At 251 Bleecker Street I saw a great decorative panel that unfortunately has been lightly defaced.
Bert Waggott was "a long-time Greenwich Village resident, graphic designer and professor of graphic design at Pratt Institute," according to this article of appreciation after his passing in July 2015. He was passionate about working on the aforementioned Winston Churchill Square garden.
We eventually wound up back on MacDougal Street, where I spied some nice signs.
In the foreground is Off the Wagon, which calls itself the "busiest, most popular bar in Greenwich Village." Next is Artichoke Basille's Pizza, which opened in 2008; and last, and unfortunately most difficult to see, is Minetta Tavern, which is a new incarnation of a joint that opened in 1937 and was "frequented by various layabouts and hangers-on including Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Eugene O'Neill, E. E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, and Joe Gould, as well as by various writers, poets, and pugilists," per it web site. Honestly, I walked right past this place without even noticing it.
Last but not least is Cafe Wha? This place seemed like a place I should know, although I didn't know why.
A storied club with a chopped-up history, Cafe Wha? was opened in 1959 by Manny Roth, uncle of Van Halen singer David Lee Roth. The building at the corner of Minetta Lane was "a garage that used to be an old horse stable," per the club's web site. "You had to down steep stairs to reach the dark basement, which was bisected by a trough once used as a gutter for horse dung."
Between its opening and closure in 1968, the club hosted folk icon Bob Dylan, a young and unproven Bruce Springsteen, guitar god Jimi Hendrix, and comedians including Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Joan Rivers. From 1968 until 1987, the club was owned by Menachem "Manny" Dworman, who ran the place as Cafe Feenjon, per Wikipedia. "In 1987, the club was taken over by [Manny's son] Noam, who changed the room back to a rock music format, and changed the name back to Cafe Wha?
So, it turns out, a little more than a week ago, my daughter was accepted to NYU. I look forward to exploring more of Greenwich Village!
I have written about New York City before. Below are links to those posts:
I often travel to Bensalem, Pennsylvania, to visit my father. He has lived there for about 25 years. When visiting, I always pass the local mall when driving to his house. I have been to the Neshaminy Mall many times. So on my latest visit, I decided to go see how the once-bustling shopping destination was holding up. Also, I traveled with only sandals on my feet and thought I could find a cheap pair of shoes/sneakers since the fall weather was moving in. That did not happen, but I did feel like I went back in time for a moment.
If you know anything about malls in southeastern PA, they were the place to be in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s before the internet took over retail. I spent many teenage years roaming the corridors of the Exton Square Mall near my adopted hometown, Downingtown, PA. It was more than a shopping place, it was a place to be social.
I have also shopped at many other malls in the area including the Concord Mall, Franklin Mills Mall, King of Prussia Mall, Plymouth Meeting Mall, Springfield Mall, Granite Run Mall, Valley Forge Mall, Coventry Mall and lastly, The Gallery at Market East in Center City Philadelphia. These were the places most families did their holiday shopping and a lot of children got to hang out with their friends. Sadly, most of those malls, including the Neshaminy Mall, are not bustling anymore.
The anchor store at Neshaminy used to be Strawbridge & Clothier Department store, but the store closed in 2006 when it was bought out by Macy’s.
The Neshaminy Mall opened in 1968. Among the main stores at the location besides S&C were the Sears Department Store, Sears Auto Center and Modell’s Sporting Goods, which are now closed.
The main stores still keeping the location alive are the AMC movie theater, Boscov’s department store, Verizon Wireless, and Barnes & Noble bookstore. There are a scarce amount of smaller stores but it doesn’t look like the place will be able to sustain itself with the lack of traffic to this once-booming location.
Now, the parking lots are pretty empty, the food court has only a few eateries, the foot traffic is very light and the mall now looks like a ghost town.
I was there on a Sunday afternoon and I saw maybe 50 people. Presently, there are only 24 stores posted on the website for the Neshaminy Mall. Down from 47 open stores in 2023. When I was a teenager, most of these malls had over 100 stores at most locations. King of Prussia Mall being the largest with over 400 stores. I remember getting my new sneakers at Foot Locker, getting an Orange Julius smoothie and a Chick-Fil-A sandwich before roaming around the mall laughing with my family and friends. Sadly, from the way things are looking, it won’t be long before the malls and a cherished time period will be a thing of the past.
Here's a list of the 24 stores open as of this fall at the mall:
AMC Theatres
Barnes & Noble
Boscov's
Shoe Carnival
Torrid
Norman's Hallmark
Bath & Body Works
Aeropostale
Hot Topic
Jackson Hewitt Tax Services
Night Owl Graphics
Philly Pop Up Weddings
T-Mobile
Master Brows
Jean Madeline Aveda Institute
On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina
UNO Pizzeria & Grill
Stir Fry 88
Bavarian Pretzel Kiosk
Shreeji Ice Cream
Perfume Place
Massage Mob
Safe Repair
Polar X Ornaments
In September, the new owners of the mall, Paramount Realty, met with representatives of the Bensalem Economic Development Corp., and said they are dedicated to redeveloping the site as a mixed-use property.
