Po Cottage in NY

The white frame farmhouse now known as Poe Cottage was built as a laborer's dwelling around 1812. Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the esteemed poet and creator of the American Gothic tale and the detective story, rented the cottage for $100 a year in 1846. He moved there with his young wife, Virginia, with the hope that the Bronx country air might cure her tuberculosis. Despite his literary success with "The Raven," which he had written while living at his former residence on West 84th Street in Manhattan, Poe's stay in the country was marked by poverty.

In addition to writing such cherished poems as "The Bells," "Eureka," and "Annabel Lee," Poe spent his time gardening and discussing scholarly matters with the Jesuits at nearby St. John's College (now Fordham University). After Virginia died in 1847, Poe remained at the cottage until his death in Baltimore in 1849.
The cottage originally stood on Kingsbridge Road to the east of its intersection with Valentine Avenue. Across the road an apple orchard covered the land that is now Poe Park. When the widening of Kingsbridge Road threatened the cottage in 1895, members of the New York Shakespeare Society lobbied the New York State Legislature to relocate the house across the street and to establish a public park surrounding it. The park opened in 1902, and it was improved with curving paths, lawn areas, trees, shrubs, and flowerbeds. In 1909 the Bronx Society of Arts and Sciences presented a bronze bust of Poe by sculptor Edmond T. Quinn to the City to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth. The sculpture was vandalized soon after its installation and subsequently moved inside the cottage.

It was not until 1913 that the cottage was finally moved to its present site, about 450 feet north of its original location. On November 15, 1913 the cottage was opened to the public at a dedication ceremony featuring addresses by dignitaries from City College, Fordham University, New York University, Columbia College, the Brooklyn Institute, the Board of Education, and the North Side Board of Trade. The event concluded with a reading of "The Raven" by Morris High School student Miss Lisbeth Hacker. By this time, "Fordham Village" was no longer a rural escape; the construction of trolley lines and elevated railways brought the area within commuting distance of Manhattan.

By the late 1910s Poe Park was a popular locale for outdoor music concerts. When the circular bandstand was erected in 1925, the park became a hub of the community's social life, with regular classical music concerts drawing large crowds. From the 1940s to the 1960s, Con Edison sponsored name band concerts and dance contests at Poe Park. Artists included Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller. Cultural happenings in the 1970s included music concerts and folk dancing events.

Poe Cottage fell into disrepair in the early 1970s, and The Bronx County Historical Society became its permanent custodian in 1975. In 1980 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The main floor is sparsely furnished with, among other items, a rocking chair, bed, and mirror that may have been used by Poe. A narrow staircase winds up to the attic bedroom, which has a ceiling barely six feet high. Visitors to Poe Cottage are treated to a fascinating glimpse of The Bronx's rural past and an intimate portrait of the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's most brilliant and tormented literary figures.

Parker Phelps - My Great Nephew

April 9, 2013 at about 4:30 p.m., I received this beautiful picture of my niece Debbie and her new baby boy named Parker.  He was 20 inches long, 6 pounds and 10 ounces.  Mom and son are doing great.  The first thing that popped into my mind was that my sister, Wendy, would have been so proud!

I can't wait to go see Parker, his big brother, Grady, his Mom Debbie and Dad Mike in Arizona!

Titanic New York Memorial and Dock

Titanic Memorials in New York City

The Isadore and Ida Straus memorial stands at 106th Street and Broadway in a V-shaped park. It portrays a reclining lady and supplies a bench. Isadore Straus was a department store millionaire. Mrs. Straus was offered a seat in a lifeboat, but she said: “I have lived with him for 50 years - I won’t leave him now”, and they sat on deck-chairs until the end. This was portrayed in the movie, except they were shown on their bed in their cabin.





Below is the plaque on the back of the memorial. New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel, mentioned on it, later went to fight in the First World War and was killed, and there is a memorial plaque to him too, one block from the William T. Stead memorial .



William T Stead was a crusading British journalist who rocked Victorian Britain in 1885 by revealing the scandal of child prostitution. Later he began to believe in spiritualism, and had written stories about passenger liner accidents before his death in the Titanic.


New York NY, 91st St and Central Park East
W. T. Stead memorial
His memorial is on the wall of Central Park at 91st Street and 5th Avenue (Central Park East). It is a copy of another on the Thames in London. It has lovely tiny figures of COURAGE and CHARITY.

If she had arrived the Titanic would have docked at the White Star Line pier on the Hudson River on the west side of Manhattan.In 1910 a magnificent row of grand piers embellished with a unified pink granite facade replaced a hodgepodge of run-down waterfront structures on the west side approximately between 16th and 22nd streets. It was designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, which was also designing Grand Central Terminal at the same time.



Of the 2200 passengers aboard, 675 were rescued by the Cunard liner Carpathia, which arrived at the Piers on April 20th. By the 1980’s these piers were abandoned and derelict but four of them, with their facade, were saved to become a sports complex called The Chelsea Piers.

Here they are from the water side, with the Empire State Building in the background.

The (former) Seaman’s Institute is where survivors from the crew were put up. It is at the corner of Jane St where it ends at West Street and the Hudson River waterfront. Here it is viewed from across West Street. Behind the camera is the Hudson River. The White Star Line pier is only about 10 blocks north.


New York NY, Jane Street, Riverview Hotel (Seaman’s Institute)

The Institute had bedrooms above. On the river front (left) was a handsome dining room. On the right of the porticoed entrance was a chapel or meeting room. In this meeting room was held a meeting of inquiry into the events of the sinking. This room is now a theater.

The building is now the Riverview Hotel, a cheap hotel much appreciated by adventurous European travelers. I saw socks hanging out of one of the windows.

New York NY, Jane Street, Riverview Hotel (Seamans Institute)
Lobby

The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse stands at the entrance to South Street Seaport

NY NY, South Street Seaport, Water Street and Fulton

The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse is not a lighthouse any more than the South Street Seaport is a seaport.
South Street Seaport is a tourist area with shops, restaurants, old ships, excursions, and a museum at the foot of Fulton Street, beside the East River. It includes 18th and 19th Century and new buildings between Water Street and South Street and the use of several piers into the East River. Until the end of the 19th Century the South Street area was the docking place for ocean-going freighters and passenger ships.

The Titanic Memorial Lighthouse was originally erected by public subscription in 1913. It stood on the roof of the old Seaman’s Church Institute, a club-house and dormitory for merchant seaman docked in New York, similar to but not identical with the Seaman’s Institute described above. It formerly stood at the corner of South Street and Coenties Slip on the East River a few blocks south of the present location of the Memorial Lighthouse.

From 1913 to 1967 the ball at the top of the lighthouse would drop down the pole to signal twelve noon to the ships in the harbor.


In July 1968 the Seaman’s Church Institute moved to new quarters at 15 State Street. Its old site became an office building. 

The Memorial Lighthouse was donated by the Kaiser-Nelson Steel & Salvage Corporation to the South Street Seaport Museum, around which the tourist Seaport was developed.

The Wireless Operators Memorial is a small granite stele on which The Wireless Operators Veterans Society commemorates its fallen members. Carved in the stone is the inscription: “Elevated in memory of wireless operators lost at sea at the post of duty”. “Wireless” is an old term and a British term for “radio”.
It stands in Battery Park at the foot of Manhattan, facing out to the inner harbor and the Statue of Liberty.

New York NY, Battery Park
Wireless Operators Memorial

The Veterans Society adds plaques for members lost on duty. One of the earliest was an operator on a Lake Michigan car ferry; the most recent have Russian and Vietnamese names.Near the bottom of the first column is: “Jack Phillips, S.S. Titanic, April 15, 1912, Atlantic Ocean”.He, presumably, was the one who sent out the SOS - one of the first ships in history to send the new "SOS" distress call.

NY Marriott Marquis

New York Marriott Marquis is a Marriott International hotel at 1535 Broadway opened in 1985 and was designed by architect John Portman. It is located on Times Square at Broadway and 45th Street. The hotel is famous for its high-tech elevators and atrium lobby rising 45 stories to "The View", New York's only rooftop revolving restaurant and lounge. With 1,949 rooms and over 100,000 sq ft of meeting space, it is one of the largest hotels in the city. The Marquis Theatre is located within the hotel at the 3rd floor level.
 
The hotel was born in controversy because five historic theaters—the Helen Hayes, the Morosco, the Astor, the Bijou, and the Gaiety—were demolished to clear the site. Protesters, including Christopher Reeve (then at the height of his Superman fame) tried to stop the destruction, even forcing a Supreme Court challenge, but it was too late. What was dubbed "The Great Theater Massacre of 1982" went forward to make way for the hotel. By the time construction began, original operators Western International Hotels (today Westin) had dropped out of the project and Marriott had stepped in.

The hotel has been criticized for turning its back to Times Square. However, at the time the hotel was built, Times Square was only beginning to turn around. With the still-seedy character of Times Square, Portman's style of inwardly-oriented spaces made logical sense. The present redevelopment of Times Square as an urban destination point has left the Marriott Marquis detached from the street. However, the Marriott was the first major project in the Times Square revitalization, and has been credited as the starting point for today's development node at Times Square. The hotel has 36 guest room floors and features an award-winning restaurant on the top floor called "The View".

The hotel is served by twelve scenic elevators,         which are famous for facing into an atrium that stretches the height of the hotel. The cabs travel at 1,000 feet  per minute. They received a major modernization in 2005 that included replacing the cabs and reducing waiting times from originally more than 30 minutes in the past down to less than 5 minutes. Currently, the building boasts Schindler Group's Miconic 10 destination dispatch computer technology, which allows people to key in their destination floor number on a keypad and get assigned an elevator to use afterward. The cab interior still contains a floor button panel, but it is designed for firefighter use and is hidden under a locked panel.The elevators are also useful because they have handicapped mode. What that does is before the person enters their destination they will have to press the wheelchair button then the destination. Then the system will talk and a sound signal will come out of a speaker next to the car announcing the name of the car. For example the person enters their destination and then the system would say "Doors open Car A." It would also say "Doors closing." 

At the time the hotel was built, it featured Manhattan's largest grand ballroom and its first revolving restaurant, a three-story, 1,500-seat theater, a second and third ballroom, and 100,000 square feet  of meeting, banquet and exhibition spaces.

Robin and I were so lucky to have stayed in this hotel; my amazing Marriott rep, Maggie, helped me get a room with a view.  We were right over "Times Square", and you could see where the ball drops on New Year's Eve!

The first night we were there, I had made a reservation at "The View" restaurant within the hotel.  I knew that we would be tired from the plane ride, and we could just dress up and go eat that Thursday night.  Below is us dressed up as best we could.

Robin & I ready to go to "The View" Restaurant

The View is New York’s only revolving rooftop restaurant and lounge, where the breathtaking skyscraper views are matched only by the restaurant’s signature American menu. Express elevators whisk you 48 stories above New York City, where you arrive to an unparalleled dining experience. The revolving floor makes a 360° turn every hour, ensuring an ever-changing view of this celebrated city.

Our reservation was for 8 p.m., but they let us come early, and we were right by the window.  Perfect end to a perfect day.  I only passed out when I saw the bill.  :-)

It was a way expensive restaurant, but it was so worth it.  I had the "Sautéed Gnocchi",
Chipotle Braised Short Rib / Roasted Cippolini Onions / Queso Fresco/"Seared Scallops"
Celery Root Puree / Braised Celery / Black Truffle Emulsion/"New York’s Finest Cheesecake"
Fresh Marinated Strawberries and an alcoholic beverage of "The Manhattan". The only thing I might do different next time, would be to leave off the marinated strawberries (I wasn't crazy about them.) and not order the "Manhattan".  Oh boy the Gnocchi and Scallops were to die for and I do not even like celery.

Robin had the "Jumbo Shrimp" Micro Celery / Frisée / Cocktail Sauce  and they were huge, then the scallops for her main course.  Instead of a dessert, she had another beer.

If you are ever on "Times Square" and need an expensive restaurant, I would definitely say try "The View"!