Journal #6
Midtown West, Morningside Heights and Harlem
As every class, we met @ Penn station. Mike took attendance and discussed the plan for the day: Rockefeller Center, Midtown West, Morningside Heights and Harlem. This walks begins on a nice summer day outside Penn station we will pass by Midtown, Times Square and Rockefeller center.
As we walk on famous 34th street and Broadway we passed by Macy’s department store (1902) on Herald Square, also famous for being the end point of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
What I learned about Broadway is that it began as a trail “Carved through brush swamp, and rock by Manhattan’s native American Inhabitants” Essential New York p 32. Then, the Dutch used it to travel from Amsterdam to the rest of Manhattan. According to ENY p.32, Broadway is the oldest and probably one of the most important street in NYC , also it runs diagonally East side in lower Manhattan to west side cutting the avenues and creates triangles, called Squares (ex. Herald Square, Union Square) used as parks and public spaces. Mike explained that in 2009, Major Michael Bloomberg changed, from vehicular use into pedestrian zone, the entire stretch of Broadway from 33rd – 47th street and 2 blocks of Broadway between 33rd and 35th street are not far cars traffic flow. Most local business though such change it would harm their profits, but on the contrary, as pedestrians increased in Broadway also their business increase.
Once we get to 42nd street and this is the heart of midtown called, Times Square where Broadway, 7th avenue and W.42 –W.47 meet. Making this the most popular intersection in NYC. Almost everybody know here is where the ball drops in New Year’s Eve. Also is the NYC’s theater district. This used to be the farm of John Morin Scott, then by mid19th century was named Long Acre Square the center of NY Horse Carriage Industry, but later in 1904 with the moving-in of the New York Times its name got changed to Times Squares (ENY p.33)
At the General Electric Building (GE) (Located on 1240-1256 6th Avenue) is an Art Deco skyscraper in the heart of Rockefeller Center in midtown, also known to be the headquarters of the N.B.C TV network. As we walk inside the south corridor, you cannot miss the black granite interior and chrome ornaments on the floors and stairs. The main lobby walls is painted with artwork. Commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jose Maria created “American Progress” a piece of 8 feet high and 41 feet long and it was completed in 1937 , it depicts Abraham Lincoln (representing the “Man of Action”) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (“The Man of Though”) also contains poetry, music and dance muses according to ENY p.36 (see pics)
The lower floor of the GE Building (Rockefellercenter.com) has a vast network of passageways for pedestrians to connect with other buildings, shopping stores, fine restaurants and seven subway lines. Also The Top of the Rock is an observation deck with a 360⁰ city view from the 70th floor. It is magnificent and spectacular panoramic view (you may have to pay a fee). Among other fascinating places to explore and as part of this great complex are The Rink where you can ice skate during the winter and diners sit around it the rest of the year. This place is always crowded by tourists all year long.
As we leave walking on 6th Avenue towards the world famous Museum of Modern Art located on 11 West 53rd Street, where Mike is waiting for us with the entrance tickets. We are all dreading to find out what MoMA’s art is so special about. In the main lobby, Dan took his time to give us some pointers on how to look at art and to differentiate between abstract, representation, indexical, symbolic, impressionist and expressionist. It was very interesting to learn about how NY artists like Kooning, Rothko, Rauschenberg, John’s and Warhol lived and worked here (ENY p.39). By looking and comparing at all their paintings is easier for me to realize of the differences in their styles.
However, after all this art appreciation is time for the ‘so’ waited Thai lunch at Hell’s Kitchen only few blocks west to 9th Ave. Nobody really knows where its name came from, but this colorful neighborhood used to be one of the most crime-ridden in 19th century in NY. After lunch, we managed to get into the subway to travel north on the train #1 to 96th Avenue and Cathedral Parkway, on our way to visit the impressive Cathedral of Saint John’s the Divine in Morningside Heights (Amsterdam Ave. and 112th St.), the mother of the NY Episcopal Diocese and one of NY’s most LGBT-friendly (lesbians, gays, bisexual and transvestites) houses of worship. It has been a pioneer when it comes to the LGBT community, even before NY passed the Marriage Equality Act in 2011. This cathedral is the largest church in the U.S. and the largest Gothic-style in the world. According to the ENY p.81 “the cathedral has room for 3000 worshippers and spans a length of over 600 feet”.
The completion of the monumental St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1879, made the Episcopalians concerned about not having their own cathedral in Manhattan. Therefore, by 1887 the cathedral construction began as a Romanesque-Byzantine style, and in 1907 Ralph Adams Cram was appointed by the church officials to turn the church into a Gothic style (ENY p.81). The church is still not complete and is estimated that will take another 100 years to be finish.
We met outside where the Peace Fountain (1985) stands, created by Greg Wyatt. This sculpture, a large bronze work of art and public access depicts the struggle of good and evil, as in Archangel Michael and Satan. Also, contains the sun, the moon and several animals. The fountain is surrounded by plaques with written quotes of various philosophers, thinkers and artists, such as Gandhi, Socrates, Einstein and John Lennon.
Once inside the church, is just amazing to everybody with an enormous nave, magnificent phoenix hanging from the ceiling, the raised high altar is surrounded by huge white columns. As we get closer to the altar, there is a stone block containing carvings of Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony, Albert Einstein and Gandhi representing the 29th century. Behind the altar there are seven chapels called ‘Chapels of Tongues’ built between 1904-1918 as a representation to an international idea related to different ethnic groups (ENY p.82)
We mover north across the Riverside Drive West, where stands the General Grant National Memorial, completed in 1897 to be used as tomb for Ulysses S. Grant, who was a commander of the Union Army and later President of the U.S. between 1868-1877. He died of throat cancer in 1887 and his wife joined him after her own death in 1902. This is my first time in a real tomb, yet this memorial has an impressive white marble interior with a sunken crypt in the center of a circular dome, where you can see two red granite sarcophagi.
Then we return back to Columbia University campus, the first college established in NY State and the fifth in the US. The started in lower Manhattan in 1754 as King’s College and later changed to Columbia. This College has a long history and is even related to presidents of the US.
Then was time to go to Harlem, where I could see mostly African American people. In Harlem we passed by the famous Apollo Theater (1913-1914) and office of some politic. The music and the people were so loud that I could not hear Mike for a couple of block, plus we were walking towards the train to go back home and finish for today.
As we walk on famous 34th street and Broadway we passed by Macy’s department store (1902) on Herald Square, also famous for being the end point of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
What I learned about Broadway is that it began as a trail “Carved through brush swamp, and rock by Manhattan’s native American Inhabitants” Essential New York p 32. Then, the Dutch used it to travel from Amsterdam to the rest of Manhattan. According to ENY p.32, Broadway is the oldest and probably one of the most important street in NYC , also it runs diagonally East side in lower Manhattan to west side cutting the avenues and creates triangles, called Squares (ex. Herald Square, Union Square) used as parks and public spaces. Mike explained that in 2009, Major Michael Bloomberg changed, from vehicular use into pedestrian zone, the entire stretch of Broadway from 33rd – 47th street and 2 blocks of Broadway between 33rd and 35th street are not far cars traffic flow. Most local business though such change it would harm their profits, but on the contrary, as pedestrians increased in Broadway also their business increase.
Once we get to 42nd street and this is the heart of midtown called, Times Square where Broadway, 7th avenue and W.42 –W.47 meet. Making this the most popular intersection in NYC. Almost everybody know here is where the ball drops in New Year’s Eve. Also is the NYC’s theater district. This used to be the farm of John Morin Scott, then by mid19th century was named Long Acre Square the center of NY Horse Carriage Industry, but later in 1904 with the moving-in of the New York Times its name got changed to Times Squares (ENY p.33)
At the General Electric Building (GE) (Located on 1240-1256 6th Avenue) is an Art Deco skyscraper in the heart of Rockefeller Center in midtown, also known to be the headquarters of the N.B.C TV network. As we walk inside the south corridor, you cannot miss the black granite interior and chrome ornaments on the floors and stairs. The main lobby walls is painted with artwork. Commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Jose Maria created “American Progress” a piece of 8 feet high and 41 feet long and it was completed in 1937 , it depicts Abraham Lincoln (representing the “Man of Action”) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (“The Man of Though”) also contains poetry, music and dance muses according to ENY p.36 (see pics)
The lower floor of the GE Building (Rockefellercenter.com) has a vast network of passageways for pedestrians to connect with other buildings, shopping stores, fine restaurants and seven subway lines. Also The Top of the Rock is an observation deck with a 360⁰ city view from the 70th floor. It is magnificent and spectacular panoramic view (you may have to pay a fee). Among other fascinating places to explore and as part of this great complex are The Rink where you can ice skate during the winter and diners sit around it the rest of the year. This place is always crowded by tourists all year long.
As we leave walking on 6th Avenue towards the world famous Museum of Modern Art located on 11 West 53rd Street, where Mike is waiting for us with the entrance tickets. We are all dreading to find out what MoMA’s art is so special about. In the main lobby, Dan took his time to give us some pointers on how to look at art and to differentiate between abstract, representation, indexical, symbolic, impressionist and expressionist. It was very interesting to learn about how NY artists like Kooning, Rothko, Rauschenberg, John’s and Warhol lived and worked here (ENY p.39). By looking and comparing at all their paintings is easier for me to realize of the differences in their styles.
However, after all this art appreciation is time for the ‘so’ waited Thai lunch at Hell’s Kitchen only few blocks west to 9th Ave. Nobody really knows where its name came from, but this colorful neighborhood used to be one of the most crime-ridden in 19th century in NY. After lunch, we managed to get into the subway to travel north on the train #1 to 96th Avenue and Cathedral Parkway, on our way to visit the impressive Cathedral of Saint John’s the Divine in Morningside Heights (Amsterdam Ave. and 112th St.), the mother of the NY Episcopal Diocese and one of NY’s most LGBT-friendly (lesbians, gays, bisexual and transvestites) houses of worship. It has been a pioneer when it comes to the LGBT community, even before NY passed the Marriage Equality Act in 2011. This cathedral is the largest church in the U.S. and the largest Gothic-style in the world. According to the ENY p.81 “the cathedral has room for 3000 worshippers and spans a length of over 600 feet”.
The completion of the monumental St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1879, made the Episcopalians concerned about not having their own cathedral in Manhattan. Therefore, by 1887 the cathedral construction began as a Romanesque-Byzantine style, and in 1907 Ralph Adams Cram was appointed by the church officials to turn the church into a Gothic style (ENY p.81). The church is still not complete and is estimated that will take another 100 years to be finish.
We met outside where the Peace Fountain (1985) stands, created by Greg Wyatt. This sculpture, a large bronze work of art and public access depicts the struggle of good and evil, as in Archangel Michael and Satan. Also, contains the sun, the moon and several animals. The fountain is surrounded by plaques with written quotes of various philosophers, thinkers and artists, such as Gandhi, Socrates, Einstein and John Lennon.
Once inside the church, is just amazing to everybody with an enormous nave, magnificent phoenix hanging from the ceiling, the raised high altar is surrounded by huge white columns. As we get closer to the altar, there is a stone block containing carvings of Martin Luther King, Susan B. Anthony, Albert Einstein and Gandhi representing the 29th century. Behind the altar there are seven chapels called ‘Chapels of Tongues’ built between 1904-1918 as a representation to an international idea related to different ethnic groups (ENY p.82)
We mover north across the Riverside Drive West, where stands the General Grant National Memorial, completed in 1897 to be used as tomb for Ulysses S. Grant, who was a commander of the Union Army and later President of the U.S. between 1868-1877. He died of throat cancer in 1887 and his wife joined him after her own death in 1902. This is my first time in a real tomb, yet this memorial has an impressive white marble interior with a sunken crypt in the center of a circular dome, where you can see two red granite sarcophagi.
Then we return back to Columbia University campus, the first college established in NY State and the fifth in the US. The started in lower Manhattan in 1754 as King’s College and later changed to Columbia. This College has a long history and is even related to presidents of the US.
Then was time to go to Harlem, where I could see mostly African American people. In Harlem we passed by the famous Apollo Theater (1913-1914) and office of some politic. The music and the people were so loud that I could not hear Mike for a couple of block, plus we were walking towards the train to go back home and finish for today.