A Peep at Greenwich Village

From Dave Brigham:

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.

In addition to garment-related businesses, the Roosevelt Building was home in its early years to the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, which was later renamed the Biograph Company, according to the report. "It was the first company in the United States devoted entirely to film production and exhibition, and for two decades was one of the most prolific, releasing over 3000 short films and 12 feature films," according to Wikipedia. "During the height of silent film as a medium, Biograph was the most prominent U.S. film studio and one of the most respected and influential studios worldwide, only rivaled by Germany's UFA, Sweden's Svensk Filmindustri and France's Pathé. The company was home to pioneering director D. W. Griffith and such actors as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore."

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.

On Bleecker Street, surrounded by Winston Churchill Square, Downing Street Playground and Father Demo Square, is an outlet of Molly's Cupcakes. I couldn't resist the contrast (although I would've preferred a cupcake).

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.

As for the Federal-style building where Waggott plied his trade, it was built in 1829 (!) and altered in 1927 and again in 1931, according to this Greenwich Village Historic District Extension II Designation Report from 2010.

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:

February 19, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views from a Tour Bus"

February 12, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views from the High Line"

February 5, 2022, "New York City Flashback: Views While Strolling and Shopping"

January 29, 2022, "New York City Flashback: The Transit Museum"

Going to the (Half-Dead) Mall

From Mick Melvin:

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 mall has steadily declined since its closure. Strawbridge & Clothier department stores started in Philadelphia in 1868. The anchor store was located at 8th and Market Street, which was to be the Champs-Élysées of Philadelphia, but it never really materialized. However, Strawbridge's opened many branch stores throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. All of the malls mentioned above were offsprings of the Strawbridges and Clothier in Philly. The first mall being the Suburban Square Mall in Ardmore, PA, in 1930.

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 121 stores at the Neshaminy Mall dating back between 2011-2023.

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.

IC An Old Museum in Boston

From Dave Brigham:

What to do with a long-abandoned, modernist box of a building in the middle of a very popular Boston park that was once home to a horse-racing track and that for decades has been the finish line for the world's largest regatta? I'm glad I don't need to come up with an answer to that run-on question. After reviewing some photos and history, we will learn about possible plans for this place.

Nestled in a stand of trees just steps from an amphitheater in Allston's Christian Herter Park, this rectangular curiosity was completed in 1960. Designed by architect Nathaniel Saltonstall, the building became home to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) for the next two years. Saltonstall was a co-founder of the ICA.

The building and the amphitheater were collectively known as the Metropolitan Boston Art Center in the 1950s, and were sited on a moat-surrounded island a short distance from the Charles River. The project, while presenting a bold vision, was "at odds with the original concept of the Charles River Reservation as an open-space amenity," according to this State of Massachusetts document about Herter Park.

"The Herter Center (as the building is now known), built as a museum, for a time fulfilled that intent as the original home of the ICA, but poor location and low attendance finally closed it," the state document continues. Sometime in the 1980s the New England Sports Museum moved into the building, where it remained until the mid-'90s, I believe. The organization continued using the building for storage for many years.

I remember when this building housed the sports museum, although I never visited. Now known as The Sports Museum, the organization operates on levels 5 and 6 of the TD Garden, home to the Celtics and Bruins.

Since the sports museum moved out, this building, out of place amid the walking paths, canoe-rental shacks, playgrounds, pop-up brewery spaces and collegiate boathouses, has sat empty, gathering moss and graffiti.

At 45 acres, Herter Park is the largest park in the Charles River Basin. From the late 19th century into the first half of the 20th, Herter Park was where the Charles River Speedway was located. The what now?

Backside readers with strong memories will recall the post in which I found out about the Charles River Speedway (see September 6, 2010, "UPDATE: Horsing Around at the Old Barracks"). From the Brighton Allston Historical Society: "The Charles River Speedway was built in 1899 along the shores of the Charles River from Market/Arsenal St to Harvard Stadium and existed into the 1960's. The complex included a mile long race course used mainly for sulky racing and a 1.75 mile driveway, the original Soldier's Field Road, which paralleled the race course and extended up through Cambridge St. It was designed by the Olmsted Landscaping firm and included a bicycle racing course.

"The Superintendent's Building was located at the intersection of Western Ave and Soldier's Field Rd and is the only portion of the complex that still remains." Today, that building houses a fantastic space for eating, drinking, shopping and seeing live entertainment, known as The Speedway (I have an update post on that complex coming soon).

To return to my question: what to do with the former ICA/Sports Museum building, which is located on the grounds where a horse-racing track once stood? And yes, the park where each year, thousands of spectators, competitors and supporters gather for the Head of the Charles, and where during any given year lots of folks arrive for fundraising walks, family outings and theater performances.

Even in decay, the Herter Center shows its potential, with its large windows, well-shaded location and fascinating history.

In 2016, The Friends of Herter Park, which hosts events at the amphitheater, applied for funding from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (now known as the Boston Planning & Development Agency) in order to clean up the outdoor performance space. In that application, the group referenced the decay happening in and around the Herter Center, and laid out its vision for the building, tying its new uses to the stage productions.

The Friends at that time envisioned "gallery space for local artists, support facilities such as restrooms for event patrons, prep areas for caterers, staging rooms for event staff, costume changing rooms, green rooms for actors not on stage, or administrative support space to programs that utilize the amphitheater."

In the aforementioned State of Massachusetts document about Herter Park, there is a call for the Center's possible use as a home for environmental education programs or a ranger station; a space for public functions; or a cafe, or perhaps a combiination of those.

I understand the need for the amphitheater events to use the space, but I think it's important to make as much of this place available for public use as possible. Therefore, I love the ideas for gallery space, a ranger station/visitor center, a cafe, public event/programming space and restrooms.

I don't get the impression anything will happen here soon, but stay tuned.

Pioneering in Leominster

From Dave Brigham:

Let's get this out of the way, for any non-New England readers: the Massachusetts town I am briefly profiling in this post is pronounced "Le-mu-nster," not "Leo-minster." And for those across the pond, feel free to stick with your "Lem-stuh" pronunciation, since the settlers borrowed the name from the English town in Herefordshire (don't ask me how to pronounce that...).

One other piece of business before I get to the good stuff: I made only a quick visit to Leominster, and plan to return to cover more of Worcester County's second-largest city.

Known as the Pioneer Plastics City, Leominster is the birthplace of the pink flamingo lawn ornament. I learned about this a few decades ago when I worked as a proofreader at an accounting firm, where one of the clients was a guy named Don Featherstone, the artist who created the whimsical decoration while working for Union Products.

I was happy to see that crosswalks in downtown Leominster feature pink flamingos at each end.

I skirt the northeastern part of Leominster on my way to and from New Hampshire to play music with friends a few times a year. Located about 20 miles due north of Worcester, Leominster was at one time filled with manufacturers of all sorts, making paper, pianos, combs, sunglasses and Tupperware products.

This post focuses on the city's downtown. I will seek out the industrial zones somewhere down the line.

My first stop was the old brick building housing Brady's, a restaurant, bar and event facility on Mechanic Street.

MACRIS has nothing on this place, but the Brady's web site indicates that the nicely restored building "has served as a furniture factory, hardware store and even Leominster’s Post Office in the early-1900s!" I can't make out the ghost signs in either of these photos.

Right around the corner on Water Street is a somewhat odd-looking diner (for reasons explained below) that's 75 years old.

Tim's Diner was manufactured in 1949 by Silk City Diners, a division of the Paterson Wagon Company of Paterson, New Jersey. According to the Roadside Architecture blog, this is the diner's original location, although it was originally known as Roy's.

"In 1953, Tim Kamataris Sr. purchased the diner from [the original owner] and rechristened the business 'Tim’s Diner'," according to this Diner Hotline Weblog post. In the early 1980s, there were two accidents in a short span of time that damaged the diner. "The original factory-built entryway was destroyed along with the stainless steel facade under the front windows being damaged beyond repair," per the article. "Tim Kamataris Sr. made the decision to replace the entryway and facade under all the windows along the front and right side of the diner with brick. Ironically, a second car accident hit the front wall again within a fairly short time after the damage was repaired from the first accident, this time to the right of the new entryway."

Long story, short: after many years of featuring a brick facade, the owner (now Tim Jr.) was able to use grants from the City of Leominster to restore the diner to "a reasonable facsimile to the way it originally looked."

Along Water Street, I shot the backside of Tilton & Cook Marketplace, which calls itself "the largest indoor new and used good marketplace in Massachusetts."

I haven't found anything online about the building. I like the old alarm rusting down the wall.

At this point, I doubled back and headed north to check out an amazing old train depot on Merriam Avenue.

Built in 1878 by the Fitchburg and Worcester Railroad, the Gothic Revival stunner features a 75-foot central tower and loads of wonderful details.

The old depot is currently home to Russell's Liquors.

Along Main Street, I saw the Christian Life Center and thought, "That used to be something else - probably a theater."

"Opened January 8, 1923, the Rialto Theater was one of at least three classic movie theaters in this Massachusetts city," according to Cinema Treasures. "Although the exterior clearly suggests this building’s former use as a movie theater, the interior seems to have been gutted and put to other uses. It now serves as the home of the Christian Life Center. The entranceway reveals what was part of the original entrance/lobby area, and ceiling details remain intact."

The architects of the theater were Funk & Wilcox, according to this post at the Boschen blog, which offers "Quick fun random stuff regarding classic movie theaters, Drive-in Theaters, film history, and related projects" that the author does. "Funk and Wilcox designed many buildings throughout Massachusetts including several theaters such as the Ware Theatre in Beverly and the Strand and Franklin Park Theaters in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston," per the blog post.

The Rialto closed in the 1950s.

I headed southwest on Main Street, and while I saw many great buildings, the light and shadows were difficult, so I only shot two of them. The first is the Foster Building, which was built in 1874.

The second is the Wood Block, which dates to 1890.

I continued on to Union Street, where I saw a nice for a place that's unfortunately out of business.

I don't know when the Farmers Exchange opened or closed for business. Around the corner on Central Street is a much newer sign for an exchange of a different sort.

Bitcoin Ben's is an outlet of a company that I believe is based in Sarasota, Florida. "One of the goals of Bitcoin Ben’s Crypto Club is showing and utilizing the decentralized shareable economy experience," per the web site. "We want to increase awareness of cryptocurrency, blockchain and related technology."

I don't normally take signs of places like that, but I was intrigued by the juxtaposition of the old Farmers Exchange sign, indicative of a fading economy, with the bitcoin joint, which may be the future of commerce.

Here's hoping I can get back to Leominster soon!