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Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Nicholas Historic District, consisting of four rows of houses built by David H. King, Jr., appears much the same as it did when it was built, more than 70 years ago, in 1891. Both then and now, it has been a source of pride not only to its own residents, but to all the people living in its vicinity.
These houses are a fine example of Nineteenth Century urban design, influenced by English antecedents. The sense of forethought and consideration in land development seen here is much sought after today, and often today's results arc not as successful. A high degree of architectural continuity is maintained, while taking into consideration even such problems as house service.
This problem is successfully resolved by the use of a main cross alley extending through the block, from avenue to avenue, with two shorter transverse alleys between the streets.
The District, designed by three of the most prominent architectural firms of the day, was one of the most prestigious sections of Harlem and is still considered as such. The fact that these houses have been well maintained through the years is most unusual in New York City. Obviously its reputation as a fashionable area has contributed to the residents' desire to preserve their homes and to their tremendous sense or pride in them.
Harlem Background
In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant named this area we now know as Harlem, Nieuw Haarlem. Up to the middle of the Nineteenth Century this part of Manhattan remained very much the same as it had been in the Seventeenth Century. Farms, and some large estates, comprise most of the land holdings. Many of the most prominent colonial families: the Delanceys, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Rikers, Coldens and Hamiltons had estates in Harlem.
The St. Nicholas Historic District lies within the estate of Cadwallader D. Colden, an early Mayor of New York, whose grandfather was a colonial governor.
In Lloyd Morris' book "Incredible New York" there is an illustration of Commodore Vanderbilt racing horses on Harlem Lane near 137th Street. The Harlem Lane of that day extended up to 168th Street. Morris also notes that when General Grant visited the City at the end of the Civil War, one of his first requests was to be taken out to Harlem Lane.
In 1831, the Harlem Railroad was chartered, and by 1837 it was extended to Harlem changing it from a rural to a suburban community—one of New York's first suburbs. By 1981, the elevated rapid transit lines extended up to 129th Street, and by 1884 to 145th Street. Thus, Harlem had become a vary desirable and fashionable neighborhood by the 'eighties'.
During the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, with a rise of Harlem as a "convenient" residential suburb, there was great land speculation and a construction fever such as had rarely been seen in New York. It was in this climate of speculative activity that the D. H. King houses were built.
Early History
The property was purchased by D.H. King and in 1891 commissioned the architectural firms of Bruce Price, James Brown Lord, Clarence S. Luce and McKim, Mead & White to design four rows of houses. King was a member of the Knickerbocker Trust and was a well-known builder .
A period of Victorian gentility had led to the creation of the houses which comprise the District. They represented what was possibly the apex of that disastrous spurt of over-investing which occurred at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It is reported that in a society whose working class families paid an average of $10-18 monthly for rent, rents for these dwellings started at just below $60 and ranged somewhere between $900 and $1700 a year.
King wished to erect high-quality housing for well-to-do buyers, who wished to make a sound, profitable investment. Almost prophetic of the principles of today's Landmarks Preservation Commission, he wanted to be able to assure a purchaser that no nuisances could spring up near these buildings and that one need have no fear of a stable, factory, tenement or over-shadowing hotel rising beside his home.
"The interests of each property owner are carefully protected by stipulations against the building of additions or altering any house...." .
Recent History
The building fever that had overtaken Harlem investors came to an abrupt end with the panic of 1904. A wave of selling followed, and owners sold buildings at losses ranging from one-third to two-thirds of their original cost. Many of these buildings had never been inhabited.
Negro realtors, such as Philip A. Payton and John M. Royall, persuaded many property owners to sell or rant their houses to Negroes who wished to move to Harlem. The northward movement of Negro families from the South and immigration from the West Indies were the catalysts which caused the move to uptown Manhattan.
The houses and apartments were by far the best available to Negro families at that time. It is stated in Gilbert Osofsky's "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" that Harlem's "name was a symbol of elegance and distinction.... its streets and avenues were broad, well-paved, clean and tree-lined.... its homes were spacious, with the best of modem facilities...."
Finally, by 1919; the D. H. King houses were made available to Negroes and were already being acquired by well established professionals, a few of whom are still living there today. Many of Harlem's most prominent doctors have lived there. L. T. Wright, Surgical Director of Harlem Hospital from 1938-52, lived at 218 West 139th Street.
He was an eminent brain surgeon, and was the only Negro member of the American College of Surgeons at one time. P. M. Hurray, of 200 West 138th Street, was the Dean and Professor of Surgery at Howard University and was one of the first Negroes to be appointed to the staff of a private hospital.
Paul Collins, also of 200 West 138th Street, was a staff member in the Eye Clinic of Harlem Hospital.
In February, 1920, a front page article in the "New York Age" described the move to 260 West 139th Street of William Pickens, a former Dean and Vice-President of Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland, and an Associate Field Secretary of the NAACP.
Several famous entertainers have also lived in the St. Nicholas Historic District. W. C. Handy, internationally known and considered the father of popular jazz, lived at 232 West 139th Street. Hubie Blake, the musician, lived at 236 West 13 8th Street. Floumay Miller, of 200 West 139th Street, and Noble Sissle, of 264 West 139th Street, were members of the "Shuffle Along Company", extremely successful, which played to a wide range of audiences.
In 1933, Abram Hill, one of the collaborators on the play, "Anna Lucasta", and a founder of the American Negro Theatre, wrote a play about the Historic District, called "On Striver's Row". Popular use of the name "Striver's Row" developed in the 1920's and 30's and indicated the great desirability of living in this two-block area.
Comments on the District
Montgomery Schuyler, in the "Architectural Record" of April-June 1899, praised the King project for "the employment of three architects of the first rank to compete with each other, net on paper, but in actual brick and mortar.... in the most extensive building operation that has been carried out on the West Side."
His only criticism was that "they have supplied but a small fraction of the demand that exists for such dwellings."
style, by respecting each others conventions, by keeping to a uniform cornice line, the architects achieved an unusual unity rarely seen in this City. For this reason the...rows which make up this Historic District arc probably the finest of their kind in any of the five boroughs."
And the Rev. John J. Hicks, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Church and chairman of the West 139th Street Block Association, testified, "This area should be preserved in our City because it will aid us in keeping capable citizens and adequate indigenous leadership within the community. The present weakness in the inner city is that we have flights to the hinterlands that siphon off respectable and capable citizens and leave the community bereft of neighborhood leadership and respect."
ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE
The D. H. King Houses, though the rows vary in design and detail, were planned in order to create a unified, distinct "neighborhood within a neighborhood." The use of uniform block fronts of equal heights provides a strong cohesive element, while individuality of approach prevents the area from succumbing to monotony. The basic simplicity and elegance of the houses supports this dominating sense of quiet refinement.
The unobstructed view of the buildings of New York's City College, high on the heights overlooking St. Nicholas Park, contributes to a feeling of openness surrounding the St. Nicholas Historic District. Builder D. H. King wanted the residents of his houses to benefit from their location on land which was "high, healthful and accessible, swept by the westerly breezes from the Hudson."
The planning of ornamental, wrought-iron gateways for access is likened by Montgomery Schuyler to the cutting of the Gordian Knot of house service. The gateways were at once decorative .and functional. Ostensibly designed to act as entrances to serve the houses at the rear, they also led to attractive hidden accessways for private use by the residents. Circular flower beds and fountains were planned for the intersections of these interior "cross-streets". Agreements were made between King .and the various buyers concerning the privileges of ownership and use of these "streets" at the rear.
The comprehensiveness of King's undertaking involved more than an interest in the sale-ability of his properties. The very scale of the project and the resources available to him, the financing and retaining the services of three well-known architectural firms permitted King to concern himself, to a great degree, with the everyday needs of residents within the area as a whole. The air of exclusiveness that resulted is still highly valued today.
Rows in the District South Side of 139th Street
The houses designed by Janes Brown Lord, on the south side of West 138th Street, are without pretension and are relatively modest in design and detail. They derive from the Georgian tradition and are constructed of red brick with brownstone trim, in exceedingly good taste.
This row is composed of twenty-five houses, and is broken into three major groups, separated by two handsome wrought-iron gateways. Being the shortest block-front of the four, it stops east of Eighth Avenue at 250 West 136th Street. Lord also designed, at the east end, the four adjoining row houses facing Seventh Avenue. Lord's three-story houses, with basement, are the widest houses in the Historic District. The entrances to adjoining houses are adjacent to each other. Of interest, is the use of a common stoop, serving both entrances, with beautiful wrought-iron railings The illusion of a single, wider more elegant house facade is thus created, in lieu of the compartmented effect of narrow houses side by side.
There is a restrained use of detail within the row. This raw house concept evinces an over-all concern with the unity of the facade, which is treated as a. single mass, and the uniformity of the detail serves to create a pleasing rhythm, carrying the eye along the street and maintaining visual interest. The Jajr.es Brown Lord row is reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century English development of the palace facade and in its comprehensiveness reminds us of John Weeds' work in the City of Bath, England.
North Side of 138th Street & South Side of 139th Street
The block located between West 138th Street and West 139th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the work of architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce. This block was designed in the Georgian style of the Eclectic period. Here, there is a greater reliance on detail than in the Lord houses, and the profusion of decorative elements, and their numerous variations, are most attractive. The use of buff colored brick with Indiana limestone detail acts as a contrast both to the Lord houses to the south, and to the McKim, Mead and White houses to the north.
This complete block of houses, executed in a uniform style of architecture, consists of thirty-five houses along each street. On Eighth Avenue, two apartment houses close the end with entrances on the cross streets.
On Seventh Avenue, there are two groups of five story houses on cither side of the inner accessway. The houses on these two block fronts are narrower than those at the south side of 138th Street, averaging about seventeen feet in width, except for the end houses, Which, ore twenty feet wide.
Although the stoops arc adjacent to each other, serving the adjoining houses, one senses here that they arc distinct, as they run up straight from the street, separated by handrails. The basic street elevation consists of a flush masonry basement, whose entrance is under the front stoop of each house, and three stories of handsome buff colored brick, undefined by any horizontal string course. Instead, the uniformity of the brick work provides a uniform ground to set off decorative motifs. The window sizes vary, and there are several different window treatments.
The first story windows and the narrow ones at the second story have terra cotta splayed lintels with elongated keystones. The wider second story window has a cornice-like lintel above with a semi-circular panel above that. The two third story windows are narrow and have simple lintels with keystones.
The second story of the houses on either side of the handsome iron gateways display an interesting pseudo-Palladian window treatment in terra cotta. Here, a triply divided window is separated by handsome Ionic columns supporting, above its garlanded horizontal lintel, an arch-form above the columns. This arch has alternate voussoirs elongated with a blind tympanum with wreath design within. The triple square-headed windows on the floor above these complement the arched window, at the second story.
An element of movement is added to the row by projecting forward some of the facades of the houses, which are adjacent to each other. This difference in alignment also adds interest and apparent depth to the row. The doorway is slightly recessed and its round arched head has an elongated, console-like keystone the arch springs from Greek-fret motif impost blocks similar to those used for some of the third story windows.
Delicate wrought-iron balconies extend from the base of the full-length first story windows, and similar wrought-iron work is to be found at the top platforms of the stoops and used as handrails for the steps.
A delicate garland pattern is employed in the fascia of the cornice, signalizing the windows below it. A horizontal moulding at the base of the fascia displays a tiny, continuous swag motif. These decorative elements unify the individual, attached buildings as does the overhanging cornice surmounted by a handsome stone balustrade topping the whole.
Distinctive stone quoins delineate the corners of the houses whore breaks in the wall occur.
The diversity of window treatment and the decorative motifs of the cornice ere at-; an interesting variation against the over-all pattern of the windows and doors.
North Side of 139th Street
Finally, there are the houses designed by McKim, Mead and White, situated on the north side of West 139th Street. They represent basically the Italian Renaissance style, which this firm was among the first to absorb, modify, and then transform into that distinctive product of American architecture which we so readily associate with them.
Thirty-two houses, approximately nineteen feet wide, contrast wall with the other houses by their generally darker tone. They are built of handsome dark brown mottled brick. The over-all design of this exceptionally handsome row of houses reminds one of a Sixteenth Century Italian palace. The center house of the block, 233 West 139th Street, acts as a central feature of the raw. Its elegant first floor English Basement, entered at ground floor, is deeply rusticated and is similar to that of all the houses in this row, except that in place of the simple rectangular doorway of the other houses, there is an attractive arcade effect, seen through two rectangular openings on cither side of a round arched doorway. A deeply recessed porch lies behind this arcade, with the doorway set to one side. On Eighth Avenue there is an apartment house, and there are five row houses on Seventh Avenue. The ground floors of the buildings on the avenues have been extensively altered to serve as store fronts.
Most of the residences on the north side of 13 9th Street have a single platform step, with simple railings leading to the entrance doors.
The window arrangement of these houses is very unusual. The first story, in each case, is handsomely rusticated, with simple elongated keystones over each of the two windows and the door, which is set off unsymmetrically to one side. The rest of the facade is of brick, separated by a delicate string course at the third floor sill level. The second story displays two,, narrow side windows on either side of a largo central window, from which an iron railed balcony extends, supported by stone brackets . Above this central window is a medallion with a floral rosette. The medallion acts as a focal print for this window grouping and punctuates the row of houses at regular intervals. The medallion was widely used in Italian Renaissance architecture; an early example was to be found on Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital, in Florence, 1445 A.D.). The upper portion ofvthe front elevation contains the third and fourth stories exhibiting an unusual wide-eyed appearance with the two windows at each floor set well apart.
The fourth story windows have simple lintels with keystones. The frames of the other windows above the basement are surmounted by small-scale, distinct cornices.
The four houses on either side of the gateways (Nos. 217, 219, 247 and 249 West 139th Street' vary the second story window treatment. Here a round-arched pediment is used, instead of the usual medallion, producing a handsome note of emphasis en these terminal houses. An attractive cornice with modillions crowns the row of houses and unifies the whole composition. The variation in window treatment lends interest and to some extent signalizes the individual units, while brick quoins on the end buildings emphasize the corners and the breaks in the main wall.
- From the 1967 NYCLPC Historic Distric Designation Report
Be the best you can be!
Embodying the vibrant QZ Man lifestyle, this dynamic look is designed to accentuate the masculine lines of your body.
For ease of movement, good fit and comfort select your T-shirt from a cornucopia of colour.
Be the best you can be!
Embodying the vibrant QZ Man lifestyle, this dynamic look is designed to accentuate the masculine lines of your body.
For ease of movement, good fit and comfort select your T-shirt from a cornucopia of colour.
Has your school seen Striving For Freedom? This interactive program about the abolition of slavery in New York State is suitable for 4th through 7th graders and is offered free of charge thanks to a grant from Con Edison.
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
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KIDS |
Boys and girls strive to reclaim their childhoods after they experienced the trauma of being forced to fight in the armed conflict in northern Uganda.
For more on this story click <a href="http://www.needmagazine.com/Issue02/kids01.html">here</a>
THOMAS LEE’S BIO | Lee majored in film and art at Northwestern University. Photography is his tool. One day, while lighting a romantic comedy set, he pondered: why spend all this time perfecting reality to tell a story, when all the stories are in the imperfection? Lee was not sure, so he went to Uganda and Afghanistan to tell their stories; their stories stayed in him. Lee has reconciled his past and passion ever since. He considers himself an artist-journalist. Photography has become his way of life. More of his work can be seen on his web site: <a href="http://www.stylocreations.com">www.stylocreations.com</a>
Impressions from the 2015 OutDoor Fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. Read my Day by Day account of the event at hikinginfinland.com
Be the best you can be!
Embodying the vibrant QZ Man lifestyle, this dynamic look is designed to accentuate the masculine lines of your body.
For ease of movement, good fit and comfort select your T-shirt from a cornucopia of colour.
Striving for clarity and perspicuousness in the final crack at a highly detailed HDR of Duffy square/Times Square, New York
Designer: Zhang Biwu (张碧梧)
Ca. 1951
Strive hard to produce with mutual help and mutual love
Huzhu hu ai nuli shengchan (互助互爱努力生产)
Call nr.: PC-1951-010 (Private collection)
More? See: chineseposters.net//themes/marriage-law
A new $250,000, 18-month pilot program is being launched by the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the YWCA Metro Vancouver to help youth who are transitioning out of government care to gain the life and work skills they need to become independent.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/02/strive-will-help-former-an...
A new $250,000, 18-month pilot program is being launched by the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the YWCA Metro Vancouver to help youth who are transitioning out of government care to gain the life and work skills they need to become independent.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/02/strive-will-help-former-an...
Striver's Row, St. Nicholas Historic District, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Nicholas Historic District, consisting of four rows of houses built by David H. King, Jr., appears much the same as it did when it was built, more than 70 years ago, in 1891. Both then and now, it has been a source of pride not only to its own residents, but to all the people living in its vicinity.
These houses are a fine example of Nineteenth Century urban design, influenced by English antecedents. The sense of forethought and consideration in land development seen here is much sought after today, and often today's results arc not as successful. A high degree of architectural continuity is maintained, while taking into consideration even such problems as house service.
This problem is successfully resolved by the use of a main cross alley extending through the block, from avenue to avenue, with two shorter transverse alleys between the streets.
The District, designed by three of the most prominent architectural firms of the day, was one of the most prestigious sections of Harlem and is still considered as such. The fact that these houses have been well maintained through the years is most unusual in New York City. Obviously its reputation as a fashionable area has contributed to the residents' desire to preserve their homes and to their tremendous sense or pride in them.
Harlem Background
In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant named this area we now know as Harlem, Nieuw Haarlem. Up to the middle of the Nineteenth Century this part of Manhattan remained very much the same as it had been in the Seventeenth Century. Farms, and some large estates, comprise most of the land holdings. Many of the most prominent colonial families: the Delanceys, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Rikers, Coldens and Hamiltons had estates in Harlem.
The St. Nicholas Historic District lies within the estate of Cadwallader D. Colden, an early Mayor of New York, whose grandfather was a colonial governor.
In Lloyd Morris' book "Incredible New York" there is an illustration of Commodore Vanderbilt racing horses on Harlem Lane (now Eighth Avenue) near 137th Street. The Harlem Lane of that day extended up to 168th Street. Morris also notes that when General Grant visited the City at the end of the Civil War, one of his first requests was to be taken out to Harlem Lane.
In 1831, the Harlem Railroad was chartered, and by 1837 it was extended to Harlem changing it from a rural to a suburban community—one of New York's first suburbs. By 1981, the elevated rapid transit lines extended up to 129th Street, and by 1884 to 145th Street. Thus, Harlem had become a vary desirable and fashionable neighborhood by the 'eighties'.
During the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, with a rise of Harlem as a "convenient" residential suburb, there was great land speculation and a construction fever such as had rarely been seen in New York. It was in this climate of speculative activity that the D. H. King houses were built.
Early History
The property was purchased by D.H. King and in 1891 commissioned the architectural firms of Bruce Price, James Brown Lord, Clarence S. Luce and McKim, Mead & White to design four rows of houses. King was a member of the Knickerbocker Trust and was a well-known builder (Times Building, 1889; Madison Square Garden, 1890; Equitable Building, 1872; base of the Statue of Liberty, 1886).
A period of Victorian gentility had led to the creation of the houses which comprise the District. They represented what was possibly the apex of that disastrous spurt of over-investing which occurred at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It is reported that in a society whose working class families paid an average of $10-18 monthly for rent, rents for these dwellings started at just below $60 and ranged somewhere between $900 and $1700 a year.
King wished to erect high-quality housing for well-to-do buyers, who wished to make a sound, profitable investment. Almost prophetic of the principles of today's Landmarks Preservation Commission, he wanted to be able to assure a purchaser that no nuisances could spring up near these buildings and that one need have no fear of a stable, factory, tenement or over-shadowing hotel rising beside his home.
"The interests of each property owner are carefully protected by stipulations against the building of additions or altering any house...." (see agreement of December, 1890, Liber 463, par. 2338 in Hall of Records, between King and Board of Health).
Recent History
The building fever that had overtaken Harlem investors came to an abrupt end with the panic of 1904. A wave of selling followed, and owners sold buildings at losses ranging from one-third to two-thirds of their original cost. Many of these buildings had never been inhabited.
Negro realtors, such as Philip A. Payton and John M. Royall, persuaded many property owners to sell or rant their houses to Negroes who wished to move to Harlem. The northward movement of Negro families from the South and immigration from the West Indies were the catalysts which caused the move to uptown Manhattan.
The houses and apartments were by far the best available to Negro families at that time. It is stated in Gilbert Osofsky's "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" that Harlem's "name was a symbol of elegance and distinction.... its streets and avenues were broad, well-paved, clean and tree-lined.... its homes were spacious, with the best of modem facilities...."
Finally, by 1919; the D. H. King houses were made available to Negroes and were already being acquired by well established professionals, a few of whom are still living there today. Many of Harlem's most prominent doctors have lived there. L. T. Wright, Surgical Director of Harlem Hospital from 1938-52, lived at 218 West 139th Street.
He was an eminent brain surgeon, and was the only Negro member of the American College of Surgeons at one time. P. M. Hurray, of 200 West 138th Street, was the Dean and Professor of Surgery at Howard University (1917-1913) and was one of the first Negroes to be appointed to the staff of a private hospital.
Paul Collins, also of 200 West 138th Street, was a staff member in the Eye Clinic of Harlem Hospital.
In February, 1920, a front page article in the "New York Age" described the move to 260 West 139th Street of William Pickens, a former Dean and Vice-President of Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland, and an Associate Field Secretary of the NAACP.
Several famous entertainers have also lived in the St. Nicholas Historic District. W. C. Handy, internationally known and considered the father of popular jazz, lived at 232 West 139th Street. Hubie Blake, the musician, lived at 236 West 13 8th Street. Floumay Miller, of 200 West 139th Street, and Noble Sissle, of 264 West 139th Street, were members of the "Shuffle Along Company", extremely successful, which played to a wide range of audiences.
In 1933, Abram Hill, one of the collaborators on the play, "Anna Lucasta", and a founder of the American Negro Theatre, wrote a play about the Historic District, called "On Striver's Row". Popular use of the name "Striver's Row" developed in the 1920's and 30's and indicated the great desirability of living in this two-block area.
Comments on the District
Montgomery Schuyler, in the "Architectural Record" of April-June 1899, praised the King project for "the employment of three architects of the first rank to compete with each other, net on paper, but in actual brick and mortar.... in the most extensive building operation that has been carried out on the West Side."
His only criticism was that "they have supplied but a small fraction of the demand that exists for such dwellings."
style, by respecting each others conventions, by keeping to a uniform cornice line, the architects achieved an unusual unity rarely seen in this City. For this reason the...rows which make up this Historic District arc probably the finest of their kind in any of the five boroughs."
And the Rev. John J. Hicks, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Church and chairman of the West 139th Street Block Association, testified, "This area should be preserved in our City because it will aid us in keeping capable citizens and adequate indigenous leadership within the community. The present weakness in the inner city is that we have flights to the hinterlands that siphon off respectable and capable citizens and leave the community bereft of neighborhood leadership and respect."
ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE
The D. H. King Houses, though the rows vary in design and detail, were planned in order to create a unified, distinct "neighborhood within a neighborhood." The use of uniform block fronts of equal heights provides a strong cohesive element, while individuality of approach prevents the area from succumbing to monotony. The basic simplicity and elegance of the houses supports this dominating sense of quiet refinement.
The unobstructed view of the buildings of New York's City College, high on the heights overlooking St. Nicholas Park, contributes to a feeling of openness surrounding the St. Nicholas Historic District. Builder D. H. King wanted the residents of his houses to benefit from their location on land which was "high, healthful and accessible, swept by the westerly breezes from the Hudson."
The planning of ornamental, wrought-iron gateways for access is likened by Montgomery Schuyler to the cutting of the Gordian Knot of house service. The gateways (two per street, and one each at the avenue ends of the block) were at once decorative .and functional. Ostensibly designed to act as entrances to serve the houses at the rear, they also led to attractive hidden accessways for private use by the residents. Circular flower beds and fountains were planned for the intersections of these interior "cross-streets". Agreements were made between King .and the various buyers concerning the privileges of ownership and use of these "streets" at the rear.
The comprehensiveness of King's undertaking involved more than an interest in the sale-ability of his properties. The very scale of the project and the resources available to him, the financing and retaining the services of three well-known architectural firms permitted King to concern himself, to a great degree, with the everyday needs of residents within the area as a whole. The air of exclusiveness that resulted is still highly valued today.
Rows in the District South Side of 139th Street
The houses designed by Janes Brown Lord, on the south side of West 138th Street, are without pretension and are relatively modest in design and detail. They derive from the Georgian tradition and are constructed of red brick with brownstone trim, in exceedingly good taste.
This row is composed of twenty-five houses, and is broken into three major groups, separated by two handsome wrought-iron gateways. Being the shortest block-front of the four, it stops east of Eighth Avenue at 250 West 136th Street. Lord also designed, at the east end, the four adjoining row houses facing Seventh Avenue. Lord's three-story houses, with basement, are the widest houses in the Historic District. The entrances to adjoining houses are adjacent to each other. Of interest, is the use of a common stoop, serving both entrances, with beautiful wrought-iron railings The illusion of a single, wider more elegant house facade is thus created, in lieu of the compartmented effect of narrow houses side by side.
There is a restrained use of detail within the row. This raw house concept evinces an over-all concern with the unity of the facade, which is treated as a. single mass, and the uniformity of the detail serves to create a pleasing rhythm, carrying the eye along the street and maintaining visual interest. The Jajr.es Brown Lord row is reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century English development of the palace facade and in its comprehensiveness reminds us of John Weeds' work in the City of Bath, England.
North Side of 138th Street & South Side of 139th Street
The block located between West 138th Street and West 139th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the work of architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce. This block was designed in the Georgian style of the Eclectic period. Here, there is a greater reliance on detail than in the Lord houses, and the profusion of decorative elements, and their numerous variations, are most attractive. The use of buff colored brick with Indiana limestone detail acts as a contrast both to the Lord houses to the south, and to the McKim, Mead and White houses to the north.
This complete block of houses, executed in a uniform style of architecture, consists of thirty-five houses along each street. On Eighth Avenue, two apartment houses close the end with entrances on the cross streets.
On Seventh Avenue, there are two groups of five story houses on cither side of the inner accessway. The houses on these two block fronts are narrower than those at the south side of 138th Street, averaging about seventeen feet in width, except for the end houses, Which, ore twenty feet wide.
Although the stoops arc adjacent to each other, serving the adjoining houses, one senses here that they arc distinct, as they run up straight from the street, separated by handrails. The basic street elevation consists of a flush masonry basement, whose entrance is under the front stoop of each house, and three stories of handsome buff colored brick, undefined by any horizontal string course. Instead, the uniformity of the brick work provides a uniform ground to set off decorative motifs. The window sizes vary, and there are several different window treatments.
The first story windows and the narrow ones at the second story have terra cotta splayed lintels with elongated keystones. The wider second story window has a cornice-like lintel above with a semi-circular panel above that. The two third story windows are narrow and have simple lintels with keystones.
The second story of the houses on either side of the handsome iron gateways display an interesting pseudo-Palladian window treatment in terra cotta. Here, a triply divided window is separated by handsome Ionic columns supporting, above its garlanded horizontal lintel, an arch-form above the columns. This arch has alternate voussoirs elongated with a blind tympanum with wreath design within. The triple square-headed windows on the floor above these complement the arched window, at the second story.
An element of movement is added to the row by projecting forward some of the facades of the houses, which are adjacent to each other. This difference in alignment also adds interest and apparent depth to the row. The doorway is slightly recessed and its round arched head has an elongated, console-like keystone the arch springs from Greek-fret motif impost blocks similar to those used for some of the third story windows.
Delicate wrought-iron balconies extend from the base of the full-length first story windows, and similar wrought-iron work is to be found at the top platforms of the stoops and used as handrails for the steps.
A delicate garland pattern is employed in the fascia of the cornice, signalizing the windows below it. A horizontal moulding at the base of the fascia displays a tiny, continuous swag motif. These decorative elements unify the individual, attached buildings as does the overhanging cornice surmounted by a handsome stone balustrade topping the whole.
Distinctive stone quoins delineate the corners of the houses whore breaks in the wall occur.
The diversity of window treatment and the decorative motifs of the cornice ere at-; an interesting variation against the over-all pattern of the windows and doors.
North Side of 139th Street
Finally, there are the houses designed by McKim, Mead and White, situated on the north side of West 139th Street. They represent basically the Italian Renaissance style, which this firm was among the first to absorb, modify, and then transform into that distinctive product of American architecture which we so readily associate with them.
Thirty-two houses, approximately nineteen feet wide, contrast wall with the other houses by their generally darker tone. They are built of handsome dark brown mottled brick. The over-all design of this exceptionally handsome row of houses reminds one of a Sixteenth Century Italian palace. The center house of the block, 233 West 139th Street, acts as a central feature of the raw. Its elegant first floor English Basement, entered at ground floor, is deeply rusticated and is similar to that of all the houses in this row, except that in place of the simple rectangular doorway of the other houses, there is an attractive arcade effect, seen through two rectangular openings on cither side of a round arched doorway. A deeply recessed porch lies behind this arcade, with the doorway set to one side. On Eighth Avenue there is an apartment house, and there are five row houses on Seventh Avenue. The ground floors of the buildings on the avenues have been extensively altered to serve as store fronts.
Most of the residences on the north side of 13 9th Street have a single platform step, with simple railings leading to the entrance doors.
The window arrangement of these houses is very unusual. The first story, in each case, is handsomely rusticated, with simple elongated keystones over each of the two windows and the door, which is set off unsymmetrically to one side. The rest of the facade is of brick, separated by a delicate string course at the third floor sill level. The second story displays two,, narrow side windows on either side of a largo central window, from which an iron railed balcony extends, supported by stone brackets (consoles). Above this central window is a medallion with a floral rosette. The medallion acts as a focal print for this window grouping and punctuates the row of houses at regular intervals. The medallion was widely used in Italian Renaissance architecture; an early example was to be found on Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital, in Florence, 1445 A.D.). The upper portion ofvthe front elevation contains the third and fourth stories exhibiting an unusual wide-eyed appearance with the two windows at each floor set well apart.
The fourth story windows have simple lintels with keystones. The frames of the other windows above the basement are surmounted by small-scale, distinct cornices.
The four houses on either side of the gateways (Nos. 217, 219, 247 and 249 West 139th Street' vary the second story window treatment. Here a round-arched pediment is used, instead of the usual medallion, producing a handsome note of emphasis en these terminal houses. An attractive cornice with modillions crowns the row of houses and unifies the whole composition. The variation in window treatment lends interest and to some extent signalizes the individual units, while brick quoins on the end buildings emphasize the corners and the breaks in the main wall.
- From the 1967 NYCLPC Historic Distric Designation Report
A new $250,000, 18-month pilot program is being launched by the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the YWCA Metro Vancouver to help youth who are transitioning out of government care to gain the life and work skills they need to become independent.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/02/strive-will-help-former-an...
for a living.
A boatman exhausted from trying to get the boat into the water from the shore.
Taken at Sirajganj on a visit to my site where i have to design a museum! A few more visits to this place and i think I'll have thoughts of settling down over there. The people are that nice and the surrounding the river front that beautiful. =]
Strivers' Row was a speculative townhouse development in Harlem that later became home to several influential African Americans. This block was designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White, and famous residents included musicians Fletcher Henderson and W. C. Handy. Where Handy first heard the blues: www.flickr.com/photos/josepha/5424914959/.
Striver's Row, St. Nicholas Historic District, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Nicholas Historic District, consisting of four rows of houses built by David H. King, Jr., appears much the same as it did when it was built, more than 70 years ago, in 1891. Both then and now, it has been a source of pride not only to its own residents, but to all the people living in its vicinity.
These houses are a fine example of Nineteenth Century urban design, influenced by English antecedents. The sense of forethought and consideration in land development seen here is much sought after today, and often today's results arc not as successful. A high degree of architectural continuity is maintained, while taking into consideration even such problems as house service.
This problem is successfully resolved by the use of a main cross alley extending through the block, from avenue to avenue, with two shorter transverse alleys between the streets.
The District, designed by three of the most prominent architectural firms of the day, was one of the most prestigious sections of Harlem and is still considered as such. The fact that these houses have been well maintained through the years is most unusual in New York City. Obviously its reputation as a fashionable area has contributed to the residents' desire to preserve their homes and to their tremendous sense or pride in them.
Harlem Background
In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant named this area we now know as Harlem, Nieuw Haarlem. Up to the middle of the Nineteenth Century this part of Manhattan remained very much the same as it had been in the Seventeenth Century. Farms, and some large estates, comprise most of the land holdings. Many of the most prominent colonial families: the Delanceys, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Rikers, Coldens and Hamiltons had estates in Harlem.
The St. Nicholas Historic District lies within the estate of Cadwallader D. Colden, an early Mayor of New York, whose grandfather was a colonial governor.
In Lloyd Morris' book "Incredible New York" there is an illustration of Commodore Vanderbilt racing horses on Harlem Lane (now Eighth Avenue) near 137th Street. The Harlem Lane of that day extended up to 168th Street. Morris also notes that when General Grant visited the City at the end of the Civil War, one of his first requests was to be taken out to Harlem Lane.
In 1831, the Harlem Railroad was chartered, and by 1837 it was extended to Harlem changing it from a rural to a suburban community—one of New York's first suburbs. By 1981, the elevated rapid transit lines extended up to 129th Street, and by 1884 to 145th Street. Thus, Harlem had become a vary desirable and fashionable neighborhood by the 'eighties'.
During the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, with a rise of Harlem as a "convenient" residential suburb, there was great land speculation and a construction fever such as had rarely been seen in New York. It was in this climate of speculative activity that the D. H. King houses were built.
Early History
The property was purchased by D.H. King and in 1891 commissioned the architectural firms of Bruce Price, James Brown Lord, Clarence S. Luce and McKim, Mead & White to design four rows of houses. King was a member of the Knickerbocker Trust and was a well-known builder (Times Building, 1889; Madison Square Garden, 1890; Equitable Building, 1872; base of the Statue of Liberty, 1886).
A period of Victorian gentility had led to the creation of the houses which comprise the District. They represented what was possibly the apex of that disastrous spurt of over-investing which occurred at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It is reported that in a society whose working class families paid an average of $10-18 monthly for rent, rents for these dwellings started at just below $60 and ranged somewhere between $900 and $1700 a year.
King wished to erect high-quality housing for well-to-do buyers, who wished to make a sound, profitable investment. Almost prophetic of the principles of today's Landmarks Preservation Commission, he wanted to be able to assure a purchaser that no nuisances could spring up near these buildings and that one need have no fear of a stable, factory, tenement or over-shadowing hotel rising beside his home.
"The interests of each property owner are carefully protected by stipulations against the building of additions or altering any house...." (see agreement of December, 1890, Liber 463, par. 2338 in Hall of Records, between King and Board of Health).
Recent History
The building fever that had overtaken Harlem investors came to an abrupt end with the panic of 1904. A wave of selling followed, and owners sold buildings at losses ranging from one-third to two-thirds of their original cost. Many of these buildings had never been inhabited.
Negro realtors, such as Philip A. Payton and John M. Royall, persuaded many property owners to sell or rant their houses to Negroes who wished to move to Harlem. The northward movement of Negro families from the South and immigration from the West Indies were the catalysts which caused the move to uptown Manhattan.
The houses and apartments were by far the best available to Negro families at that time. It is stated in Gilbert Osofsky's "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" that Harlem's "name was a symbol of elegance and distinction.... its streets and avenues were broad, well-paved, clean and tree-lined.... its homes were spacious, with the best of modem facilities...."
Finally, by 1919; the D. H. King houses were made available to Negroes and were already being acquired by well established professionals, a few of whom are still living there today. Many of Harlem's most prominent doctors have lived there. L. T. Wright, Surgical Director of Harlem Hospital from 1938-52, lived at 218 West 139th Street.
He was an eminent brain surgeon, and was the only Negro member of the American College of Surgeons at one time. P. M. Hurray, of 200 West 138th Street, was the Dean and Professor of Surgery at Howard University (1917-1913) and was one of the first Negroes to be appointed to the staff of a private hospital.
Paul Collins, also of 200 West 138th Street, was a staff member in the Eye Clinic of Harlem Hospital.
In February, 1920, a front page article in the "New York Age" described the move to 260 West 139th Street of William Pickens, a former Dean and Vice-President of Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland, and an Associate Field Secretary of the NAACP.
Several famous entertainers have also lived in the St. Nicholas Historic District. W. C. Handy, internationally known and considered the father of popular jazz, lived at 232 West 139th Street. Hubie Blake, the musician, lived at 236 West 13 8th Street. Floumay Miller, of 200 West 139th Street, and Noble Sissle, of 264 West 139th Street, were members of the "Shuffle Along Company", extremely successful, which played to a wide range of audiences.
In 1933, Abram Hill, one of the collaborators on the play, "Anna Lucasta", and a founder of the American Negro Theatre, wrote a play about the Historic District, called "On Striver's Row". Popular use of the name "Striver's Row" developed in the 1920's and 30's and indicated the great desirability of living in this two-block area.
Comments on the District
Montgomery Schuyler, in the "Architectural Record" of April-June 1899, praised the King project for "the employment of three architects of the first rank to compete with each other, net on paper, but in actual brick and mortar.... in the most extensive building operation that has been carried out on the West Side."
His only criticism was that "they have supplied but a small fraction of the demand that exists for such dwellings."
style, by respecting each others conventions, by keeping to a uniform cornice line, the architects achieved an unusual unity rarely seen in this City. For this reason the...rows which make up this Historic District arc probably the finest of their kind in any of the five boroughs."
And the Rev. John J. Hicks, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Church and chairman of the West 139th Street Block Association, testified, "This area should be preserved in our City because it will aid us in keeping capable citizens and adequate indigenous leadership within the community. The present weakness in the inner city is that we have flights to the hinterlands that siphon off respectable and capable citizens and leave the community bereft of neighborhood leadership and respect."
ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE
The D. H. King Houses, though the rows vary in design and detail, were planned in order to create a unified, distinct "neighborhood within a neighborhood." The use of uniform block fronts of equal heights provides a strong cohesive element, while individuality of approach prevents the area from succumbing to monotony. The basic simplicity and elegance of the houses supports this dominating sense of quiet refinement.
The unobstructed view of the buildings of New York's City College, high on the heights overlooking St. Nicholas Park, contributes to a feeling of openness surrounding the St. Nicholas Historic District. Builder D. H. King wanted the residents of his houses to benefit from their location on land which was "high, healthful and accessible, swept by the westerly breezes from the Hudson."
The planning of ornamental, wrought-iron gateways for access is likened by Montgomery Schuyler to the cutting of the Gordian Knot of house service. The gateways (two per street, and one each at the avenue ends of the block) were at once decorative .and functional. Ostensibly designed to act as entrances to serve the houses at the rear, they also led to attractive hidden accessways for private use by the residents. Circular flower beds and fountains were planned for the intersections of these interior "cross-streets". Agreements were made between King .and the various buyers concerning the privileges of ownership and use of these "streets" at the rear.
The comprehensiveness of King's undertaking involved more than an interest in the sale-ability of his properties. The very scale of the project and the resources available to him, the financing and retaining the services of three well-known architectural firms permitted King to concern himself, to a great degree, with the everyday needs of residents within the area as a whole. The air of exclusiveness that resulted is still highly valued today.
Rows in the District South Side of 139th Street
The houses designed by Janes Brown Lord, on the south side of West 138th Street, are without pretension and are relatively modest in design and detail. They derive from the Georgian tradition and are constructed of red brick with brownstone trim, in exceedingly good taste.
This row is composed of twenty-five houses, and is broken into three major groups, separated by two handsome wrought-iron gateways. Being the shortest block-front of the four, it stops east of Eighth Avenue at 250 West 136th Street. Lord also designed, at the east end, the four adjoining row houses facing Seventh Avenue. Lord's three-story houses, with basement, are the widest houses in the Historic District. The entrances to adjoining houses are adjacent to each other. Of interest, is the use of a common stoop, serving both entrances, with beautiful wrought-iron railings The illusion of a single, wider more elegant house facade is thus created, in lieu of the compartmented effect of narrow houses side by side.
There is a restrained use of detail within the row. This raw house concept evinces an over-all concern with the unity of the facade, which is treated as a. single mass, and the uniformity of the detail serves to create a pleasing rhythm, carrying the eye along the street and maintaining visual interest. The Jajr.es Brown Lord row is reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century English development of the palace facade and in its comprehensiveness reminds us of John Weeds' work in the City of Bath, England.
North Side of 138th Street & South Side of 139th Street
The block located between West 138th Street and West 139th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the work of architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce. This block was designed in the Georgian style of the Eclectic period. Here, there is a greater reliance on detail than in the Lord houses, and the profusion of decorative elements, and their numerous variations, are most attractive. The use of buff colored brick with Indiana limestone detail acts as a contrast both to the Lord houses to the south, and to the McKim, Mead and White houses to the north.
This complete block of houses, executed in a uniform style of architecture, consists of thirty-five houses along each street. On Eighth Avenue, two apartment houses close the end with entrances on the cross streets.
On Seventh Avenue, there are two groups of five story houses on cither side of the inner accessway. The houses on these two block fronts are narrower than those at the south side of 138th Street, averaging about seventeen feet in width, except for the end houses, Which, ore twenty feet wide.
Although the stoops arc adjacent to each other, serving the adjoining houses, one senses here that they arc distinct, as they run up straight from the street, separated by handrails. The basic street elevation consists of a flush masonry basement, whose entrance is under the front stoop of each house, and three stories of handsome buff colored brick, undefined by any horizontal string course. Instead, the uniformity of the brick work provides a uniform ground to set off decorative motifs. The window sizes vary, and there are several different window treatments.
The first story windows and the narrow ones at the second story have terra cotta splayed lintels with elongated keystones. The wider second story window has a cornice-like lintel above with a semi-circular panel above that. The two third story windows are narrow and have simple lintels with keystones.
The second story of the houses on either side of the handsome iron gateways display an interesting pseudo-Palladian window treatment in terra cotta. Here, a triply divided window is separated by handsome Ionic columns supporting, above its garlanded horizontal lintel, an arch-form above the columns. This arch has alternate voussoirs elongated with a blind tympanum with wreath design within. The triple square-headed windows on the floor above these complement the arched window, at the second story.
An element of movement is added to the row by projecting forward some of the facades of the houses, which are adjacent to each other. This difference in alignment also adds interest and apparent depth to the row. The doorway is slightly recessed and its round arched head has an elongated, console-like keystone the arch springs from Greek-fret motif impost blocks similar to those used for some of the third story windows.
Delicate wrought-iron balconies extend from the base of the full-length first story windows, and similar wrought-iron work is to be found at the top platforms of the stoops and used as handrails for the steps.
A delicate garland pattern is employed in the fascia of the cornice, signalizing the windows below it. A horizontal moulding at the base of the fascia displays a tiny, continuous swag motif. These decorative elements unify the individual, attached buildings as does the overhanging cornice surmounted by a handsome stone balustrade topping the whole.
Distinctive stone quoins delineate the corners of the houses whore breaks in the wall occur.
The diversity of window treatment and the decorative motifs of the cornice ere at-; an interesting variation against the over-all pattern of the windows and doors.
North Side of 139th Street
Finally, there are the houses designed by McKim, Mead and White, situated on the north side of West 139th Street. They represent basically the Italian Renaissance style, which this firm was among the first to absorb, modify, and then transform into that distinctive product of American architecture which we so readily associate with them.
Thirty-two houses, approximately nineteen feet wide, contrast wall with the other houses by their generally darker tone. They are built of handsome dark brown mottled brick. The over-all design of this exceptionally handsome row of houses reminds one of a Sixteenth Century Italian palace. The center house of the block, 233 West 139th Street, acts as a central feature of the raw. Its elegant first floor English Basement, entered at ground floor, is deeply rusticated and is similar to that of all the houses in this row, except that in place of the simple rectangular doorway of the other houses, there is an attractive arcade effect, seen through two rectangular openings on cither side of a round arched doorway. A deeply recessed porch lies behind this arcade, with the doorway set to one side. On Eighth Avenue there is an apartment house, and there are five row houses on Seventh Avenue. The ground floors of the buildings on the avenues have been extensively altered to serve as store fronts.
Most of the residences on the north side of 13 9th Street have a single platform step, with simple railings leading to the entrance doors.
The window arrangement of these houses is very unusual. The first story, in each case, is handsomely rusticated, with simple elongated keystones over each of the two windows and the door, which is set off unsymmetrically to one side. The rest of the facade is of brick, separated by a delicate string course at the third floor sill level. The second story displays two,, narrow side windows on either side of a largo central window, from which an iron railed balcony extends, supported by stone brackets (consoles). Above this central window is a medallion with a floral rosette. The medallion acts as a focal print for this window grouping and punctuates the row of houses at regular intervals. The medallion was widely used in Italian Renaissance architecture; an early example was to be found on Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital, in Florence, 1445 A.D.). The upper portion ofvthe front elevation contains the third and fourth stories exhibiting an unusual wide-eyed appearance with the two windows at each floor set well apart.
The fourth story windows have simple lintels with keystones. The frames of the other windows above the basement are surmounted by small-scale, distinct cornices.
The four houses on either side of the gateways (Nos. 217, 219, 247 and 249 West 139th Street' vary the second story window treatment. Here a round-arched pediment is used, instead of the usual medallion, producing a handsome note of emphasis en these terminal houses. An attractive cornice with modillions crowns the row of houses and unifies the whole composition. The variation in window treatment lends interest and to some extent signalizes the individual units, while brick quoins on the end buildings emphasize the corners and the breaks in the main wall.
- From the 1967 NYCLPC Historic Distric Designation Report
You don't have to win, but you do have to try.
— Brett Jordan
5200 x 5200 pixel image designed to work as wallpaper on most iOS devices.
Typefaces: Bon Bon, Columbia Titling
Merchandise available: www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/35628324
Have you ever experienced the feeling of fulfilling a dream, which you have been pursuing for a long time? I am talking about striving for a dream.
It’s about believing in yourself regardless of what people may say.
It’s about being aware of your own limits and pushing them to the maximum.
It’s about courage and faith, as there is no guarantee at the outset that you will eventually get what you will fight for.
It’s about taking risks without being risky.
It’s about proactivity and discipline.
It is the most powerful feeling that has ever run through my body.
I can proudly say that I am among very very few students from two different Spanish universities that have been selected to do an internship in Jakarta starting Wednesday next week. A Spanish bank called Bankinter and its people will be supporting me during my stint in Jakarta as they have been doing so far in a 4-months-long course on innovation and leadership that I recently took. Thanks to my hard work in it and the unconditional support from my family, friends and Bankinter, I got what I strove for.
A few weeks ago I received a phone call from Bankinter:
“Would you work in Jakarta?”.
“Yes” I said. “Of course”.
Once I hung the phone I couldn’t help but crying like a baby. Suddenly my dream was no longer a dream.
View large on white!
Check out my new website: www.k9studios.es
Strive for excellence, not perfection.
— H. Jackson Brown Jr.
2048 x 2048 pixel image for the iPad’s 2048 x 1536 pixel retina display.
Designed to complement the iPad iOS 7 lock screen, also works on an iPhone, simply centre the image horizontally after selecting it.
Image via unsplash, by kitsuné, www.facebook.com/pages/Kitsuné-Espresso-Bar/132463243625279
Typeface: Archer
A new $250,000, 18-month pilot program is being launched by the Ministry of Children and Family Development and the YWCA Metro Vancouver to help youth who are transitioning out of government care to gain the life and work skills they need to become independent.
Learn more: www.newsroom.gov.bc.ca/2014/02/strive-will-help-former-an...
Designer: Zhang Biwu (张碧梧)
1956, March
Strive for the comprehensive early completion and overfulfillment of the Five Year Plan
Wei quanmian de tizao wancheng he chao'e wancheng wu nian jihua er fendou (为全面地提早完成和超額完成五年計划而奋斗)
Call nr.: PC-1956-019 (Private collection)
More? See: chineseposters.net
The Africa Progress Panel presented this year’s Africa Progress Report - Grain, Fish, Money - at a side event at the African Green Revolution Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Kofi Annan and Strive Masiyiwa from the Africa Progress Panel opened and closed the session. Discussants included Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Chief Executive Officer, Eleni LLC; Sipho Moyo, Africa Director, ONE; and Michael O’Brien-Onyeka, Executive Director, Greenpeace Africa. The discussion was moderated by APP Executive Director, Caroline Kende Robb.
Photo credit: Antonio Fiorent / Africa Progress Panel 2014
FORT CARSON, Colo. – Spc. Alejandra Herrera, mechanic, 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, runs on a treadmill during the VO2 Max competition, which determined who is the fittest Soldier on Fort Carson, March 6, 2013. Krys Bankard, health promotion technician, Army Wellness Center, monitors the test as Tony Heinz, project lead, AWC controls the speed of the treadmill. The competition was held at the Iron Horse Sports and Fitness Center, March 4 to 6.
(U.S. Army photo by Cpl. William Smith, 4th Inf. Div. PAO)
Collection: University Archives
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Format: Digital reproduction of exhibition panel
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Panel Description:
Special thanks to:
Robert E. Kennedy, Cal Poly President: 1967-1979
Everett Chandler, Cal Poly Dean of Students: 1950-1978
The student leaders, 1967-1975: Bob Bonds, Preston Dixon, Fred Johnson, Darryl Bandy, Roger Jones, and Doyle McGhee. Many of these students continued with their activism and interest in Civil Rights.
Kennedy Library staff members: Judy Drake, Denise Fourie, Ken Kenyon, and Catherine Trujillo.
Student Designers: Quyen Trieu and Joyce Ting, Art & Design
The Cal Poly Ethnic Studies Department. We are especially appreciative for the guidance of professor Jane Lehr and Victor Valle.
The Mustang Daily: The reporters from the 1960s and ‘70s as well as our current campus reporters.
Our project scholars: Josh Harmon and Laura Sorvetti, History Graduate students.
Dean of Library Services: Michael D. Miller
Striver's Row, St. Nicholas Historic District, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Nicholas Historic District, consisting of four rows of houses built by David H. King, Jr., appears much the same as it did when it was built, more than 70 years ago, in 1891. Both then and now, it has been a source of pride not only to its own residents, but to all the people living in its vicinity.
These houses are a fine example of Nineteenth Century urban design, influenced by English antecedents. The sense of forethought and consideration in land development seen here is much sought after today, and often today's results arc not as successful. A high degree of architectural continuity is maintained, while taking into consideration even such problems as house service.
This problem is successfully resolved by the use of a main cross alley extending through the block, from avenue to avenue, with two shorter transverse alleys between the streets.
The District, designed by three of the most prominent architectural firms of the day, was one of the most prestigious sections of Harlem and is still considered as such. The fact that these houses have been well maintained through the years is most unusual in New York City. Obviously its reputation as a fashionable area has contributed to the residents' desire to preserve their homes and to their tremendous sense or pride in them.
Harlem Background
In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant named this area we now know as Harlem, Nieuw Haarlem. Up to the middle of the Nineteenth Century this part of Manhattan remained very much the same as it had been in the Seventeenth Century. Farms, and some large estates, comprise most of the land holdings. Many of the most prominent colonial families: the Delanceys, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Rikers, Coldens and Hamiltons had estates in Harlem.
The St. Nicholas Historic District lies within the estate of Cadwallader D. Colden, an early Mayor of New York, whose grandfather was a colonial governor.
In Lloyd Morris' book "Incredible New York" there is an illustration of Commodore Vanderbilt racing horses on Harlem Lane (now Eighth Avenue) near 137th Street. The Harlem Lane of that day extended up to 168th Street. Morris also notes that when General Grant visited the City at the end of the Civil War, one of his first requests was to be taken out to Harlem Lane.
In 1831, the Harlem Railroad was chartered, and by 1837 it was extended to Harlem changing it from a rural to a suburban community—one of New York's first suburbs. By 1981, the elevated rapid transit lines extended up to 129th Street, and by 1884 to 145th Street. Thus, Harlem had become a vary desirable and fashionable neighborhood by the 'eighties'.
During the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, with a rise of Harlem as a "convenient" residential suburb, there was great land speculation and a construction fever such as had rarely been seen in New York. It was in this climate of speculative activity that the D. H. King houses were built.
Early History
The property was purchased by D.H. King and in 1891 commissioned the architectural firms of Bruce Price, James Brown Lord, Clarence S. Luce and McKim, Mead & White to design four rows of houses. King was a member of the Knickerbocker Trust and was a well-known builder (Times Building, 1889; Madison Square Garden, 1890; Equitable Building, 1872; base of the Statue of Liberty, 1886).
A period of Victorian gentility had led to the creation of the houses which comprise the District. They represented what was possibly the apex of that disastrous spurt of over-investing which occurred at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It is reported that in a society whose working class families paid an average of $10-18 monthly for rent, rents for these dwellings started at just below $60 and ranged somewhere between $900 and $1700 a year.
King wished to erect high-quality housing for well-to-do buyers, who wished to make a sound, profitable investment. Almost prophetic of the principles of today's Landmarks Preservation Commission, he wanted to be able to assure a purchaser that no nuisances could spring up near these buildings and that one need have no fear of a stable, factory, tenement or over-shadowing hotel rising beside his home.
"The interests of each property owner are carefully protected by stipulations against the building of additions or altering any house...." (see agreement of December, 1890, Liber 463, par. 2338 in Hall of Records, between King and Board of Health).
Recent History
The building fever that had overtaken Harlem investors came to an abrupt end with the panic of 1904. A wave of selling followed, and owners sold buildings at losses ranging from one-third to two-thirds of their original cost. Many of these buildings had never been inhabited.
Negro realtors, such as Philip A. Payton and John M. Royall, persuaded many property owners to sell or rant their houses to Negroes who wished to move to Harlem. The northward movement of Negro families from the South and immigration from the West Indies were the catalysts which caused the move to uptown Manhattan.
The houses and apartments were by far the best available to Negro families at that time. It is stated in Gilbert Osofsky's "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" that Harlem's "name was a symbol of elegance and distinction.... its streets and avenues were broad, well-paved, clean and tree-lined.... its homes were spacious, with the best of modem facilities...."
Finally, by 1919; the D. H. King houses were made available to Negroes and were already being acquired by well established professionals, a few of whom are still living there today. Many of Harlem's most prominent doctors have lived there. L. T. Wright, Surgical Director of Harlem Hospital from 1938-52, lived at 218 West 139th Street.
He was an eminent brain surgeon, and was the only Negro member of the American College of Surgeons at one time. P. M. Hurray, of 200 West 138th Street, was the Dean and Professor of Surgery at Howard University (1917-1913) and was one of the first Negroes to be appointed to the staff of a private hospital.
Paul Collins, also of 200 West 138th Street, was a staff member in the Eye Clinic of Harlem Hospital.
In February, 1920, a front page article in the "New York Age" described the move to 260 West 139th Street of William Pickens, a former Dean and Vice-President of Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland, and an Associate Field Secretary of the NAACP.
Several famous entertainers have also lived in the St. Nicholas Historic District. W. C. Handy, internationally known and considered the father of popular jazz, lived at 232 West 139th Street. Hubie Blake, the musician, lived at 236 West 13 8th Street. Floumay Miller, of 200 West 139th Street, and Noble Sissle, of 264 West 139th Street, were members of the "Shuffle Along Company", extremely successful, which played to a wide range of audiences.
In 1933, Abram Hill, one of the collaborators on the play, "Anna Lucasta", and a founder of the American Negro Theatre, wrote a play about the Historic District, called "On Striver's Row". Popular use of the name "Striver's Row" developed in the 1920's and 30's and indicated the great desirability of living in this two-block area.
Comments on the District
Montgomery Schuyler, in the "Architectural Record" of April-June 1899, praised the King project for "the employment of three architects of the first rank to compete with each other, net on paper, but in actual brick and mortar.... in the most extensive building operation that has been carried out on the West Side."
His only criticism was that "they have supplied but a small fraction of the demand that exists for such dwellings."
style, by respecting each others conventions, by keeping to a uniform cornice line, the architects achieved an unusual unity rarely seen in this City. For this reason the...rows which make up this Historic District arc probably the finest of their kind in any of the five boroughs."
And the Rev. John J. Hicks, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Church and chairman of the West 139th Street Block Association, testified, "This area should be preserved in our City because it will aid us in keeping capable citizens and adequate indigenous leadership within the community. The present weakness in the inner city is that we have flights to the hinterlands that siphon off respectable and capable citizens and leave the community bereft of neighborhood leadership and respect."
ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE
The D. H. King Houses, though the rows vary in design and detail, were planned in order to create a unified, distinct "neighborhood within a neighborhood." The use of uniform block fronts of equal heights provides a strong cohesive element, while individuality of approach prevents the area from succumbing to monotony. The basic simplicity and elegance of the houses supports this dominating sense of quiet refinement.
The unobstructed view of the buildings of New York's City College, high on the heights overlooking St. Nicholas Park, contributes to a feeling of openness surrounding the St. Nicholas Historic District. Builder D. H. King wanted the residents of his houses to benefit from their location on land which was "high, healthful and accessible, swept by the westerly breezes from the Hudson."
The planning of ornamental, wrought-iron gateways for access is likened by Montgomery Schuyler to the cutting of the Gordian Knot of house service. The gateways (two per street, and one each at the avenue ends of the block) were at once decorative .and functional. Ostensibly designed to act as entrances to serve the houses at the rear, they also led to attractive hidden accessways for private use by the residents. Circular flower beds and fountains were planned for the intersections of these interior "cross-streets". Agreements were made between King .and the various buyers concerning the privileges of ownership and use of these "streets" at the rear.
The comprehensiveness of King's undertaking involved more than an interest in the sale-ability of his properties. The very scale of the project and the resources available to him, the financing and retaining the services of three well-known architectural firms permitted King to concern himself, to a great degree, with the everyday needs of residents within the area as a whole. The air of exclusiveness that resulted is still highly valued today.
Rows in the District South Side of 139th Street
The houses designed by Janes Brown Lord, on the south side of West 138th Street, are without pretension and are relatively modest in design and detail. They derive from the Georgian tradition and are constructed of red brick with brownstone trim, in exceedingly good taste.
This row is composed of twenty-five houses, and is broken into three major groups, separated by two handsome wrought-iron gateways. Being the shortest block-front of the four, it stops east of Eighth Avenue at 250 West 136th Street. Lord also designed, at the east end, the four adjoining row houses facing Seventh Avenue. Lord's three-story houses, with basement, are the widest houses in the Historic District. The entrances to adjoining houses are adjacent to each other. Of interest, is the use of a common stoop, serving both entrances, with beautiful wrought-iron railings The illusion of a single, wider more elegant house facade is thus created, in lieu of the compartmented effect of narrow houses side by side.
There is a restrained use of detail within the row. This raw house concept evinces an over-all concern with the unity of the facade, which is treated as a. single mass, and the uniformity of the detail serves to create a pleasing rhythm, carrying the eye along the street and maintaining visual interest. The Jajr.es Brown Lord row is reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century English development of the palace facade and in its comprehensiveness reminds us of John Weeds' work in the City of Bath, England.
North Side of 138th Street & South Side of 139th Street
The block located between West 138th Street and West 139th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the work of architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce. This block was designed in the Georgian style of the Eclectic period. Here, there is a greater reliance on detail than in the Lord houses, and the profusion of decorative elements, and their numerous variations, are most attractive. The use of buff colored brick with Indiana limestone detail acts as a contrast both to the Lord houses to the south, and to the McKim, Mead and White houses to the north.
This complete block of houses, executed in a uniform style of architecture, consists of thirty-five houses along each street. On Eighth Avenue, two apartment houses close the end with entrances on the cross streets.
On Seventh Avenue, there are two groups of five story houses on cither side of the inner accessway. The houses on these two block fronts are narrower than those at the south side of 138th Street, averaging about seventeen feet in width, except for the end houses, Which, ore twenty feet wide.
Although the stoops arc adjacent to each other, serving the adjoining houses, one senses here that they arc distinct, as they run up straight from the street, separated by handrails. The basic street elevation consists of a flush masonry basement, whose entrance is under the front stoop of each house, and three stories of handsome buff colored brick, undefined by any horizontal string course. Instead, the uniformity of the brick work provides a uniform ground to set off decorative motifs. The window sizes vary, and there are several different window treatments.
The first story windows and the narrow ones at the second story have terra cotta splayed lintels with elongated keystones. The wider second story window has a cornice-like lintel above with a semi-circular panel above that. The two third story windows are narrow and have simple lintels with keystones.
The second story of the houses on either side of the handsome iron gateways display an interesting pseudo-Palladian window treatment in terra cotta. Here, a triply divided window is separated by handsome Ionic columns supporting, above its garlanded horizontal lintel, an arch-form above the columns. This arch has alternate voussoirs elongated with a blind tympanum with wreath design within. The triple square-headed windows on the floor above these complement the arched window, at the second story.
An element of movement is added to the row by projecting forward some of the facades of the houses, which are adjacent to each other. This difference in alignment also adds interest and apparent depth to the row. The doorway is slightly recessed and its round arched head has an elongated, console-like keystone the arch springs from Greek-fret motif impost blocks similar to those used for some of the third story windows.
Delicate wrought-iron balconies extend from the base of the full-length first story windows, and similar wrought-iron work is to be found at the top platforms of the stoops and used as handrails for the steps.
A delicate garland pattern is employed in the fascia of the cornice, signalizing the windows below it. A horizontal moulding at the base of the fascia displays a tiny, continuous swag motif. These decorative elements unify the individual, attached buildings as does the overhanging cornice surmounted by a handsome stone balustrade topping the whole.
Distinctive stone quoins delineate the corners of the houses whore breaks in the wall occur.
The diversity of window treatment and the decorative motifs of the cornice ere at-; an interesting variation against the over-all pattern of the windows and doors.
North Side of 139th Street
Finally, there are the houses designed by McKim, Mead and White, situated on the north side of West 139th Street. They represent basically the Italian Renaissance style, which this firm was among the first to absorb, modify, and then transform into that distinctive product of American architecture which we so readily associate with them.
Thirty-two houses, approximately nineteen feet wide, contrast wall with the other houses by their generally darker tone. They are built of handsome dark brown mottled brick. The over-all design of this exceptionally handsome row of houses reminds one of a Sixteenth Century Italian palace. The center house of the block, 233 West 139th Street, acts as a central feature of the raw. Its elegant first floor English Basement, entered at ground floor, is deeply rusticated and is similar to that of all the houses in this row, except that in place of the simple rectangular doorway of the other houses, there is an attractive arcade effect, seen through two rectangular openings on cither side of a round arched doorway. A deeply recessed porch lies behind this arcade, with the doorway set to one side. On Eighth Avenue there is an apartment house, and there are five row houses on Seventh Avenue. The ground floors of the buildings on the avenues have been extensively altered to serve as store fronts.
Most of the residences on the north side of 13 9th Street have a single platform step, with simple railings leading to the entrance doors.
The window arrangement of these houses is very unusual. The first story, in each case, is handsomely rusticated, with simple elongated keystones over each of the two windows and the door, which is set off unsymmetrically to one side. The rest of the facade is of brick, separated by a delicate string course at the third floor sill level. The second story displays two,, narrow side windows on either side of a largo central window, from which an iron railed balcony extends, supported by stone brackets (consoles). Above this central window is a medallion with a floral rosette. The medallion acts as a focal print for this window grouping and punctuates the row of houses at regular intervals. The medallion was widely used in Italian Renaissance architecture; an early example was to be found on Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital, in Florence, 1445 A.D.). The upper portion ofvthe front elevation contains the third and fourth stories exhibiting an unusual wide-eyed appearance with the two windows at each floor set well apart.
The fourth story windows have simple lintels with keystones. The frames of the other windows above the basement are surmounted by small-scale, distinct cornices.
The four houses on either side of the gateways (Nos. 217, 219, 247 and 249 West 139th Street' vary the second story window treatment. Here a round-arched pediment is used, instead of the usual medallion, producing a handsome note of emphasis en these terminal houses. An attractive cornice with modillions crowns the row of houses and unifies the whole composition. The variation in window treatment lends interest and to some extent signalizes the individual units, while brick quoins on the end buildings emphasize the corners and the breaks in the main wall.
- From the 1967 NYCLPC Historic Distric Designation Report
5200 x 5200 pixel image designed to work as wallpaper on most iOS devices.
Typefaces: Bon Bon, Columbia Titling
Not quite perfect symmetry, but we'll give big points to these two trumpeter swans for trying!
Credit: Lori Iverson / USFWS
Striver's Row, St. Nicholas Historic District, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
The St. Nicholas Historic District, consisting of four rows of houses built by David H. King, Jr., appears much the same as it did when it was built, more than 70 years ago, in 1891. Both then and now, it has been a source of pride not only to its own residents, but to all the people living in its vicinity.
These houses are a fine example of Nineteenth Century urban design, influenced by English antecedents. The sense of forethought and consideration in land development seen here is much sought after today, and often today's results arc not as successful. A high degree of architectural continuity is maintained, while taking into consideration even such problems as house service.
This problem is successfully resolved by the use of a main cross alley extending through the block, from avenue to avenue, with two shorter transverse alleys between the streets.
The District, designed by three of the most prominent architectural firms of the day, was one of the most prestigious sections of Harlem and is still considered as such. The fact that these houses have been well maintained through the years is most unusual in New York City. Obviously its reputation as a fashionable area has contributed to the residents' desire to preserve their homes and to their tremendous sense or pride in them.
Harlem Background
In 1658 Peter Stuyvesant named this area we now know as Harlem, Nieuw Haarlem. Up to the middle of the Nineteenth Century this part of Manhattan remained very much the same as it had been in the Seventeenth Century. Farms, and some large estates, comprise most of the land holdings. Many of the most prominent colonial families: the Delanceys, Beekmans, Bleeckers, Rikers, Coldens and Hamiltons had estates in Harlem.
The St. Nicholas Historic District lies within the estate of Cadwallader D. Colden, an early Mayor of New York, whose grandfather was a colonial governor.
In Lloyd Morris' book "Incredible New York" there is an illustration of Commodore Vanderbilt racing horses on Harlem Lane (now Eighth Avenue) near 137th Street. The Harlem Lane of that day extended up to 168th Street. Morris also notes that when General Grant visited the City at the end of the Civil War, one of his first requests was to be taken out to Harlem Lane.
In 1831, the Harlem Railroad was chartered, and by 1837 it was extended to Harlem changing it from a rural to a suburban community—one of New York's first suburbs. By 1981, the elevated rapid transit lines extended up to 129th Street, and by 1884 to 145th Street. Thus, Harlem had become a vary desirable and fashionable neighborhood by the 'eighties'.
During the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, with a rise of Harlem as a "convenient" residential suburb, there was great land speculation and a construction fever such as had rarely been seen in New York. It was in this climate of speculative activity that the D. H. King houses were built.
Early History
The property was purchased by D.H. King and in 1891 commissioned the architectural firms of Bruce Price, James Brown Lord, Clarence S. Luce and McKim, Mead & White to design four rows of houses. King was a member of the Knickerbocker Trust and was a well-known builder (Times Building, 1889; Madison Square Garden, 1890; Equitable Building, 1872; base of the Statue of Liberty, 1886).
A period of Victorian gentility had led to the creation of the houses which comprise the District. They represented what was possibly the apex of that disastrous spurt of over-investing which occurred at the end of the Nineteenth Century. It is reported that in a society whose working class families paid an average of $10-18 monthly for rent, rents for these dwellings started at just below $60 and ranged somewhere between $900 and $1700 a year.
King wished to erect high-quality housing for well-to-do buyers, who wished to make a sound, profitable investment. Almost prophetic of the principles of today's Landmarks Preservation Commission, he wanted to be able to assure a purchaser that no nuisances could spring up near these buildings and that one need have no fear of a stable, factory, tenement or over-shadowing hotel rising beside his home.
"The interests of each property owner are carefully protected by stipulations against the building of additions or altering any house...." (see agreement of December, 1890, Liber 463, par. 2338 in Hall of Records, between King and Board of Health).
Recent History
The building fever that had overtaken Harlem investors came to an abrupt end with the panic of 1904. A wave of selling followed, and owners sold buildings at losses ranging from one-third to two-thirds of their original cost. Many of these buildings had never been inhabited.
Negro realtors, such as Philip A. Payton and John M. Royall, persuaded many property owners to sell or rant their houses to Negroes who wished to move to Harlem. The northward movement of Negro families from the South and immigration from the West Indies were the catalysts which caused the move to uptown Manhattan.
The houses and apartments were by far the best available to Negro families at that time. It is stated in Gilbert Osofsky's "Harlem: The Making of a Ghetto" that Harlem's "name was a symbol of elegance and distinction.... its streets and avenues were broad, well-paved, clean and tree-lined.... its homes were spacious, with the best of modem facilities...."
Finally, by 1919; the D. H. King houses were made available to Negroes and were already being acquired by well established professionals, a few of whom are still living there today. Many of Harlem's most prominent doctors have lived there. L. T. Wright, Surgical Director of Harlem Hospital from 1938-52, lived at 218 West 139th Street.
He was an eminent brain surgeon, and was the only Negro member of the American College of Surgeons at one time. P. M. Hurray, of 200 West 138th Street, was the Dean and Professor of Surgery at Howard University (1917-1913) and was one of the first Negroes to be appointed to the staff of a private hospital.
Paul Collins, also of 200 West 138th Street, was a staff member in the Eye Clinic of Harlem Hospital.
In February, 1920, a front page article in the "New York Age" described the move to 260 West 139th Street of William Pickens, a former Dean and Vice-President of Morgan College, Baltimore, Maryland, and an Associate Field Secretary of the NAACP.
Several famous entertainers have also lived in the St. Nicholas Historic District. W. C. Handy, internationally known and considered the father of popular jazz, lived at 232 West 139th Street. Hubie Blake, the musician, lived at 236 West 13 8th Street. Floumay Miller, of 200 West 139th Street, and Noble Sissle, of 264 West 139th Street, were members of the "Shuffle Along Company", extremely successful, which played to a wide range of audiences.
In 1933, Abram Hill, one of the collaborators on the play, "Anna Lucasta", and a founder of the American Negro Theatre, wrote a play about the Historic District, called "On Striver's Row". Popular use of the name "Striver's Row" developed in the 1920's and 30's and indicated the great desirability of living in this two-block area.
Comments on the District
Montgomery Schuyler, in the "Architectural Record" of April-June 1899, praised the King project for "the employment of three architects of the first rank to compete with each other, net on paper, but in actual brick and mortar.... in the most extensive building operation that has been carried out on the West Side."
His only criticism was that "they have supplied but a small fraction of the demand that exists for such dwellings."
style, by respecting each others conventions, by keeping to a uniform cornice line, the architects achieved an unusual unity rarely seen in this City. For this reason the...rows which make up this Historic District arc probably the finest of their kind in any of the five boroughs."
And the Rev. John J. Hicks, pastor of St. Mark's Methodist Church and chairman of the West 139th Street Block Association, testified, "This area should be preserved in our City because it will aid us in keeping capable citizens and adequate indigenous leadership within the community. The present weakness in the inner city is that we have flights to the hinterlands that siphon off respectable and capable citizens and leave the community bereft of neighborhood leadership and respect."
ARCHITECTURE IMPORTANCE
The D. H. King Houses, though the rows vary in design and detail, were planned in order to create a unified, distinct "neighborhood within a neighborhood." The use of uniform block fronts of equal heights provides a strong cohesive element, while individuality of approach prevents the area from succumbing to monotony. The basic simplicity and elegance of the houses supports this dominating sense of quiet refinement.
The unobstructed view of the buildings of New York's City College, high on the heights overlooking St. Nicholas Park, contributes to a feeling of openness surrounding the St. Nicholas Historic District. Builder D. H. King wanted the residents of his houses to benefit from their location on land which was "high, healthful and accessible, swept by the westerly breezes from the Hudson."
The planning of ornamental, wrought-iron gateways for access is likened by Montgomery Schuyler to the cutting of the Gordian Knot of house service. The gateways (two per street, and one each at the avenue ends of the block) were at once decorative .and functional. Ostensibly designed to act as entrances to serve the houses at the rear, they also led to attractive hidden accessways for private use by the residents. Circular flower beds and fountains were planned for the intersections of these interior "cross-streets". Agreements were made between King .and the various buyers concerning the privileges of ownership and use of these "streets" at the rear.
The comprehensiveness of King's undertaking involved more than an interest in the sale-ability of his properties. The very scale of the project and the resources available to him, the financing and retaining the services of three well-known architectural firms permitted King to concern himself, to a great degree, with the everyday needs of residents within the area as a whole. The air of exclusiveness that resulted is still highly valued today.
Rows in the District South Side of 139th Street
The houses designed by Janes Brown Lord, on the south side of West 138th Street, are without pretension and are relatively modest in design and detail. They derive from the Georgian tradition and are constructed of red brick with brownstone trim, in exceedingly good taste.
This row is composed of twenty-five houses, and is broken into three major groups, separated by two handsome wrought-iron gateways. Being the shortest block-front of the four, it stops east of Eighth Avenue at 250 West 136th Street. Lord also designed, at the east end, the four adjoining row houses facing Seventh Avenue. Lord's three-story houses, with basement, are the widest houses in the Historic District. The entrances to adjoining houses are adjacent to each other. Of interest, is the use of a common stoop, serving both entrances, with beautiful wrought-iron railings The illusion of a single, wider more elegant house facade is thus created, in lieu of the compartmented effect of narrow houses side by side.
There is a restrained use of detail within the row. This raw house concept evinces an over-all concern with the unity of the facade, which is treated as a. single mass, and the uniformity of the detail serves to create a pleasing rhythm, carrying the eye along the street and maintaining visual interest. The Jajr.es Brown Lord row is reminiscent of the Eighteenth Century English development of the palace facade and in its comprehensiveness reminds us of John Weeds' work in the City of Bath, England.
North Side of 138th Street & South Side of 139th Street
The block located between West 138th Street and West 139th Street and Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the work of architects Bruce Price and Clarence S. Luce. This block was designed in the Georgian style of the Eclectic period. Here, there is a greater reliance on detail than in the Lord houses, and the profusion of decorative elements, and their numerous variations, are most attractive. The use of buff colored brick with Indiana limestone detail acts as a contrast both to the Lord houses to the south, and to the McKim, Mead and White houses to the north.
This complete block of houses, executed in a uniform style of architecture, consists of thirty-five houses along each street. On Eighth Avenue, two apartment houses close the end with entrances on the cross streets.
On Seventh Avenue, there are two groups of five story houses on cither side of the inner accessway. The houses on these two block fronts are narrower than those at the south side of 138th Street, averaging about seventeen feet in width, except for the end houses, Which, ore twenty feet wide.
Although the stoops arc adjacent to each other, serving the adjoining houses, one senses here that they arc distinct, as they run up straight from the street, separated by handrails. The basic street elevation consists of a flush masonry basement, whose entrance is under the front stoop of each house, and three stories of handsome buff colored brick, undefined by any horizontal string course. Instead, the uniformity of the brick work provides a uniform ground to set off decorative motifs. The window sizes vary, and there are several different window treatments.
The first story windows and the narrow ones at the second story have terra cotta splayed lintels with elongated keystones. The wider second story window has a cornice-like lintel above with a semi-circular panel above that. The two third story windows are narrow and have simple lintels with keystones.
The second story of the houses on either side of the handsome iron gateways display an interesting pseudo-Palladian window treatment in terra cotta. Here, a triply divided window is separated by handsome Ionic columns supporting, above its garlanded horizontal lintel, an arch-form above the columns. This arch has alternate voussoirs elongated with a blind tympanum with wreath design within. The triple square-headed windows on the floor above these complement the arched window, at the second story.
An element of movement is added to the row by projecting forward some of the facades of the houses, which are adjacent to each other. This difference in alignment also adds interest and apparent depth to the row. The doorway is slightly recessed and its round arched head has an elongated, console-like keystone the arch springs from Greek-fret motif impost blocks similar to those used for some of the third story windows.
Delicate wrought-iron balconies extend from the base of the full-length first story windows, and similar wrought-iron work is to be found at the top platforms of the stoops and used as handrails for the steps.
A delicate garland pattern is employed in the fascia of the cornice, signalizing the windows below it. A horizontal moulding at the base of the fascia displays a tiny, continuous swag motif. These decorative elements unify the individual, attached buildings as does the overhanging cornice surmounted by a handsome stone balustrade topping the whole.
Distinctive stone quoins delineate the corners of the houses whore breaks in the wall occur.
The diversity of window treatment and the decorative motifs of the cornice ere at-; an interesting variation against the over-all pattern of the windows and doors.
North Side of 139th Street
Finally, there are the houses designed by McKim, Mead and White, situated on the north side of West 139th Street. They represent basically the Italian Renaissance style, which this firm was among the first to absorb, modify, and then transform into that distinctive product of American architecture which we so readily associate with them.
Thirty-two houses, approximately nineteen feet wide, contrast wall with the other houses by their generally darker tone. They are built of handsome dark brown mottled brick. The over-all design of this exceptionally handsome row of houses reminds one of a Sixteenth Century Italian palace. The center house of the block, 233 West 139th Street, acts as a central feature of the raw. Its elegant first floor English Basement, entered at ground floor, is deeply rusticated and is similar to that of all the houses in this row, except that in place of the simple rectangular doorway of the other houses, there is an attractive arcade effect, seen through two rectangular openings on cither side of a round arched doorway. A deeply recessed porch lies behind this arcade, with the doorway set to one side. On Eighth Avenue there is an apartment house, and there are five row houses on Seventh Avenue. The ground floors of the buildings on the avenues have been extensively altered to serve as store fronts.
Most of the residences on the north side of 13 9th Street have a single platform step, with simple railings leading to the entrance doors.
The window arrangement of these houses is very unusual. The first story, in each case, is handsomely rusticated, with simple elongated keystones over each of the two windows and the door, which is set off unsymmetrically to one side. The rest of the facade is of brick, separated by a delicate string course at the third floor sill level. The second story displays two,, narrow side windows on either side of a largo central window, from which an iron railed balcony extends, supported by stone brackets (consoles). Above this central window is a medallion with a floral rosette. The medallion acts as a focal print for this window grouping and punctuates the row of houses at regular intervals. The medallion was widely used in Italian Renaissance architecture; an early example was to be found on Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital, in Florence, 1445 A.D.). The upper portion ofvthe front elevation contains the third and fourth stories exhibiting an unusual wide-eyed appearance with the two windows at each floor set well apart.
The fourth story windows have simple lintels with keystones. The frames of the other windows above the basement are surmounted by small-scale, distinct cornices.
The four houses on either side of the gateways (Nos. 217, 219, 247 and 249 West 139th Street' vary the second story window treatment. Here a round-arched pediment is used, instead of the usual medallion, producing a handsome note of emphasis en these terminal houses. An attractive cornice with modillions crowns the row of houses and unifies the whole composition. The variation in window treatment lends interest and to some extent signalizes the individual units, while brick quoins on the end buildings emphasize the corners and the breaks in the main wall.
- From the 1967 NYCLPC Historic Distric Designation Report