East Village, Manhattan

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels (approximately 340 acres) abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary (a designated New York City Landmark) helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library (a designated New York City Landmark) provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations (vereins) organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace (1826­1890) in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, (some orphans, others from difficult home situations) and sent them by train (“the Orphan Trains”) to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year (1890) the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895)37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse (1874-77, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages (published originally 1857) was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company (1865-72). These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn (1865, a designated New York City Scenic Landmark), Riverside, Illinois (1868-70), Morningside Park (1887-94, from earlier plans), and Riverside Park (1873-88).

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut (1865, with Olmsted), Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds (1867-72), the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington (1866), the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa (1873-79), and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1874-80) and the American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, both designated New York City Landmarks).

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford (dates undetermined), a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York (1881-4) and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York (1879-80). Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street (demolished). The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street (1883, demolished) and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B (1885, a designated New York City Landmark), and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street (1888, a designated New York City Landmark), and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School (1888-89, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School (1888-9, demolished) was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street (1890, demolished). The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women (later the National Florence Crittenton Foundation), it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses (East 12th Street), the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window (on the eastern bay) has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Sikhism originated in the 15th century, in the Punjab region by Guru Nanak, who preached ideas that were radical for his age: he denounced Hinduism's oppressive caste system and Islam's gender discrimination, preaching that all people can commune with the divine equally, without the intervention of rituals or priests. The Sikh faith is a monotheistic religion, meaning Sikhs worship one God. The three core pillars of Sikhism are: vaṇḍ chakkō (sharing with others, helping those in need, as well as participating as part of a community), kirat karō (earning/making a living honestly, without exploitation or fraud, and speaking the truth at all times) and naam japna (meditating on God’s name to live a life of decency and humility).

The temporary distractions of the material world are seen as an illusion. The qualities of ego, anger, greed, attachment and lust are known as the Five Thieves that rob a person of their ability to realize their oneness with God and creation. Sikhs work to counteract the temptations of these qualities through the values of service, equality, and seeking justice for all. Sikhs also believe that one’s form on Earth is only a temporary vessel for the eternal soul. Thus, the death of the physical body is a natural part of the life cycle, while the soul remains. Death is not an end, but merely the progression of the soul on its journey toward God.

Nine more gurus succeeded Guru Nanak (Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das, Arjan, Har Gobind, Har Rai, Har Krishan, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh), and continued to spread his teachings across the world.

The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh sacred text, the Guru Granth Sahib, to be the eternal Guru that would guide the Sikhs going forward. It consists of 1,430 Anks, or pages, and 6,000 Sabads, or line compositions, all are written in poetic verse and are aligning to the rhythmic forms of ancient north Indian classical music. At the core of the Guru Granth Sahib is a yearning for a world governed by divine justice, without oppression of any kind.

The final living guru, Gobind Singh, also established the Khalsa, or order of Sikh soldier-saints. They are recognizable by "The 5 k's," their physical articles of faith: Kesh (unshorn hair and beard), Kirpan (ceremonial sword), Kangha (comb), Kara (steel bracelet) and Kachha (drawers). The Dastar, or turban, is considered a spiritual crown, a token of remembrance of the Sikh principles.

 

Subathu, Himachal Pradesh, India

The following article was sent to me with commentary by my friend Robin Dude. The article is worth reading in full, as it brings attention to the inevitability of the U.S. waging perpetual warfare in attempting to secure its brand of perpetual peace.

 

The article outlines the historical changes that have taken place since the writing of The Federalist Papers and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, up to the present day justification by the Obama administration for continuing the war in Afghanistan. Author David Bromwich likens contemporary America to a hungry empire, rather than the peace-seeking republic its founders sought to create.

 

Robin Dude's comment looks to the nature of civilized societies to explain how America has become a corporatist, corrupt state, or rather, how the values which currently drive our society have become dominant. It is absolutely key to understand that these current values are not essential to human nature. That is to say that things have not always been this way. Even more essential is to understand that the belief that 'things have always been this way', or that 'societies have always gone to war with one another and always will go to war with one another' has the effect of ensuring the United State's current aggressive and abusive imperialism. If we are foolish enough to believe that the values currently saturating our society reflect the values of humankind throughout history, then we have permanently shackled ourselves to the miserable social, economic and individual consequences associated with those values.

 

I repeat: THE CURRENT CONFIGURATION OF VALUES IN OUR SOCIETY IS A PRODUCT OF TEMPORARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE EVENTS WHICH PRECEDED THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES. THEY ARE NOT AND WILL NOT BE PERMANENT. THEY CAN BE CHANGED AND THEY SHOULD BE CHANGED BY CONCERNED CITIZENS WHO SEE THROUGH THE FOG IMPOSED BY SOCIETY'S ELITE. THE FUNCTION OF THIS FOG IS TO ENSURE THE CONTINUATION OF A VALUE SYSTEM THAT FAVORS THEIR INTERESTS. UNLESS YOU CONDONE PROSPERITY FOR THE FEW AND MISERY FOR THE MANY, THEIR INTERESTS ARE NOT YOUR INTERESTS.

 

Read the note, read the excerpt, and if you're intrigued, I urge you to read the whole article. This is essential understanding for anyone ambitious enough to attempt that 'Change' stuff we see so very little of yet hear so much about.

 

Included is the link to the original article.

 

Enjoy.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

From Robin Dude:

 

Values are preferred ends & preferred means. Hierarchically structured societies - that is, civilizations built upon economically divided class systems - dictate values from the top, not the bottom or middle, & therefore those values favor persons at the top & the relatively small cadres of managers needed to serve them & their causes. The first & perpetual task of those in this upper company is to make everyone below them believe that whatever is dictated is true, necessary, just & intended by the haves to better the lives of those with less. To achieve this task religion, ideology, morality, education, politics, business, police & the military must continuously work together toward one end throughout the whole population, which is conformity of beliefs regarding the economy & consequent business practices, & of course that includes suppression of dissent. Every schoolboy & girl learns that failure to be absolutely possessed by their betters leads to Hell for themselves.

 

Lest one imagine there is some evil genius behind all this, it is not needless to add that the betters are themselves equally bamboozled by what greed & their wealth bred in their minds & hearts during the 10,000 years since cities - civilizations - were made possible by the Agricultural revolution.

 

Scholars continue to study, converse & teach even after they appear to others to have learned everything about their subject, because they know a number of things, such as: "All that can be known" is only a grammatical, not a real, fancy; & what is even more important, study is the mind's match (it both lights & puts in contest the contents & respective worth of some number of one's memories).

 

The scholarly & accurate article below is all about values now being dictated in the United States. Thus, it is a telescope, & at moments a microscope, through which the planned American future can be clearly foreseen. There is nothing anyone can do to stop it. Only everyone could stop it, & the values needed to bring that about are not only not being dictated, but are taboo & lead to Hell.

 

As I said many times in the past, George Orwell's "1984" is being used as a political science handbook.

 

... If someone reading this has the decency to engage within a community of workers & intellectuals to devise & build a different kind of society & make a place for it to exist, now is the time to begin. The dictators are not afraid of dreamers, & will not stop them. In fact, it is certain that some dictators will join & contribute, & the others will find this harmless & amusing.

 

NB: Bracketed comments added by Robin Dude.

 

------------------------------

 

tomdispatch.com/post/175098/david_bromwich_america_s_seri...

 

EXCERPTS: On July 16, in a speech to the Economic Club of Chicago, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that the "central question" for the defense of the United States was how the military should be "organized, equipped -- and funded -- in the years ahead, to win the wars we are in while being prepared for threats on or beyond the horizon." The phrase beyond the horizon ought to sound ominous. Was Gates telling his audience of civic-minded business leaders to spend more money on defense in order to counter threats whose very existence no one could answer for? Given the public acceptance of American militarism, he could speak in the knowledge that the awkward challenge would never be posed.

 

We have begun to talk casually about our wars; and this should be surprising for several reasons. To begin with, in the history of the United States war has never been considered the normal state of things. For two centuries, Americans were taught to think war itself an aberration, and "wars" in the plural could only have seemed doubly aberrant. Younger generations of Americans, however, are now being taught to expect no end of war -- and no end of wars.

 

.... A very different view of war was taken by America's founders. One of their steadiest hopes -- manifest in the scores of pamphlets they wrote against the British Empire and the checks against war powers built into the Constitution itself -- was that a democracy like the United States would lead irresistibly away from the conduct of wars. They supposed that wars were an affair of kings, waged in the interest of aggrandizement, and also an affair of the hereditary landed aristocracy in the interest of augmented privilege and unaccountable wealth. In no respect could wars ever serve the interest of the people. Machiavelli, an analyst of power whom the founders read with care, had noticed that "the people desire to be neither commanded nor oppressed," whereas "the powerful desire to command and oppress." Only an appetite for command and oppression could lead someone to adopt an ethic of continuous wars.

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society . Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, and sent them by train to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux 37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse .

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country . Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company . These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn , Riverside, Illinois , Morningside Park , and Riverside Park .

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut , Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds , the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington , the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa , and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History .

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford , a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York . Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street . The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B , and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street , and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School .

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street . The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women , it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses , the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

East Village, Manhattan

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels (approximately 340 acres) abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary (a designated New York City Landmark) helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library (a designated New York City Landmark) provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations (vereins) organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace (1826­1890) in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, (some orphans, others from difficult home situations) and sent them by train (“the Orphan Trains”) to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year (1890) the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895)37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse (1874-77, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages (published originally 1857) was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company (1865-72). These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn (1865, a designated New York City Scenic Landmark), Riverside, Illinois (1868-70), Morningside Park (1887-94, from earlier plans), and Riverside Park (1873-88).

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut (1865, with Olmsted), Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds (1867-72), the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington (1866), the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa (1873-79), and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1874-80) and the American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, both designated New York City Landmarks).

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford (dates undetermined), a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York (1881-4) and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York (1879-80). Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street (demolished). The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street (1883, demolished) and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B (1885, a designated New York City Landmark), and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street (1888, a designated New York City Landmark), and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School (1888-89, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School (1888-9, demolished) was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street (1890, demolished). The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women (later the National Florence Crittenton Foundation), it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses (East 12th Street), the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window (on the eastern bay) has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

"Is that disgusting. Yes, and it's not just the people, although Lord knows that's bad enough. Even doggies and cats can't be trusted - underneath their fur .... completely NAKED."

 

('Sam the Eagle' / Podium with book by Palisades Toys)

 

Stage by RK

"Los actos de Greenpeace son repudiables y esperamos que los responsables sean sancionados con todo el peso de la ley."

El Comercio, Lima, 11.12.14

 

The story made The New York Times on December 13, 2014:

 

“We fully understand that this looks bad,” [Greenpeace's] statement said. “Rather than relay an urgent message of hope and possibility to the leaders gathering at the Lima U.N. climate talks, we came across as careless and crass.”

 

The group said the stunt took place early Monday and involved activists from Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Chile, Germany and Italy. It said they took the letters with them when they left the area.

 

The group said it would cooperate with authorities. But on Friday a spokesman in Lima, Mike T., said that the activists involved in the incident had left Peru and that the group had not given their names to government officials.

 

Annie Leonard, the executive director of Greenpeace in the United States, said the stunt showed “a complete disregard for the culture of Peru and the importance of protecting sacred sites everywhere.” She added, “It is a shame that all of Greenpeace must now bear.”

  

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greenpeace didn't even have the decency to communicate its message in Spanish when it placed these signs on the site of the famous Nasca lines in Peru to grab publicity during the climate-change summit underway in Lima. That's about 300 million Spanish-speaking Latin Americans (not including the population of Brazil) who Greenpeace is excluding from this Anglophone discussion.

 

It shows that even greenies can be ugly gringo cultural imperialists.

 

In American terms, it would be like someone setting up signs amid the fragile thermal pools of Yellowstone National Park - in a language we don't speak.

 

Peru is outraged.

 

Greenpeace claims it followed an old tire track to this image and so did not disturb the fragile desert surface, where it is easy to leave marks that last for centuries.

 

The message looks like it's painted onto the desert, but apparently it's printed on signs. That scarcely makes this less of an offense against archaeology and the world's cultural heritage.

 

Photos taken closer to the vandalism show that the signs are individual letters and that the Greenpeace people removed rocks - I'd say a dozen or more per sign - from the desert surface to hold the signs down in the ever-present wind. ("Hey - they're just rocks. . .) Understand that it's not just the lines themselves that are significant, it's the entire desert plain where they're located. Now a surface that has been undisturbed for millennia has been intentionally damaged.

 

Peruvian authorities charge that the trespassers damaged the surface of the site. And how could they have avoided it? Surely the old tracks weren't the exact shape of the signs.

=======================================================

Lea las noticias de este infame atentado acá:

 

elcomercio.pe/opinion/editorial/editorial-greenpeace-line...

 

internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2014/12/10/actuali...

BEAUTY OF FORM AND BEAUTY OF MIND

By Christian Andersen

 

THERE was once a sculptor, named Alfred, who having won the large gold medal and obtained a traveling scholarship, went to Italy, and then came back to his native land. He was young at that time- indeed, he is young still, although he is ten years older than he was then.

  

On his return, he went to visit one of the little towns in the island of Zealand. The whole town knew who the stranger was; and one of the richest men in the place gave a party in his honor, and all who were of any consequence, or who possessed some property, were invited. It was quite an event, and all the town knew of it, so that it was not necessary to announce it by beat of drum.

 

Apprentice-boys, children of the poor, and even the poor people themselves, stood before the house, watching the lighted windows; and the watchman might easily fancy he was giving a party also, there were so many people in the streets. There was quite an air of festivity about it, and the house was full of it; for Mr. Alfred, the sculptor, was there.

 

He talked and told anecdotes, and every one listened to him with pleasure, not unmingled with awe; but none felt so much respect for him as did the elderly widow of a naval officer.

 

She seemed, so far as Mr. Alfred was concerned, to be like a piece of fresh blotting-paper that absorbed all he said and asked for more. She was very appreciative, and incredibly ignorant- a kind of female Gaspar Hauser.

  

"I should like to see Rome," she said; "it must be a lovely city, or so many foreigners would not be constantly arriving there. Now, do give me a description of Rome. How does the city look when you enter in at the gate?"

  

"I cannot very well describe it," said the sculptor; "but you enter on a large open space, in the centre of which stands an obelisk, which is a thousand years old."

  

"An organist!" exclaimed the lady, who had never heard the word ''''obelisk.'''' Several of the guests could scarcely forbear laughing, and the sculptor would have had some difficulty in keeping his countenance, but the smile on his lips faded away; for he caught sight of a pair of dark-blue eyes close by the side of the inquisitive lady. They belonged to her daughter; and surely no one who had such a daughter could be silly.

 

The mother was like a fountain of questions; and the daughter, who listened but never spoke, might have passed for the beautiful maid of the fountain. How charming she was! She was a study for the sculptor to contemplate, but not to converse with; for she did not speak, or, at least, very seldom.

  

"Has the pope a great family?" inquired the lady.

 

The young man answered considerately, as if the question had been a different one, "No; he does not come from a great family."

  

"That is not what I asked," persisted the widow; "I mean, has he a wife and children?"

 

"The pope is not allowed to marry," replied the gentleman.

 

"I don''''t like that," was the lady''''s remark.

 

She certainly might have asked more sensible questions; but if she had not been allowed to say just what she liked, would her daughter have been there, leaning so gracefully on her shoulder, and looking straight before her, with a smile that was almost mournful on her face?

  

Mr. Alfred again spoke of Italy, and of the glorious colors in Italian scenery; the purple hills, the deep blue of the Mediterranean, the azure of southern skies, whose brightness and glory could only be surpassed in the north by the deep-blue eyes of a maiden; and he said this with a peculiar intonation; but she who should have understood his meaning looked quite unconscious of it, which also was charming.

 

"Beautiful Italy!" sighed some of the guests.

 

"Oh, to travel there!" exclaimed others.

 

"Charming! Charming!" echoed from every voice.

  

"I may perhaps win a hundred thousand dollars in the lottery," said the naval officer''''s widow; "and if I do, we will travel- I and my daughter; and you, Mr. Alfred, must be our guide. We can all three travel together, with one or two more of our good friends." And she nodded in such a friendly way at the company, that each imagined himself to be the favored person who was to accompany them to Italy. "Yes, we must go," she continued; "but not to those parts where there are robbers. We will keep to Rome. In the public roads one is always safe."

  

The daughter sighed very gently; and how much there may be in a sigh, or attributed to it! The young man attributed a great deal of meaning to this sigh. Those deep-blue eyes, which had been lit up this evening in honor of him, must conceal treasures, treasures of heart and mind, richer than all the glories of Rome; and so when he left the party that night, he had lost it completely to the young lady.

 

The house of the naval officer''''s widow was the one most constantly visited by Mr. Alfred, the sculptor. It was soon understood that his visits were not intended for that lady, though they were the persons who kept up the conversation. He came for the sake of the daughter. They called her Kaela. Her name was really Karen Malena, and these two names had been contracted into the one name Kaela. She was really beautiful; but some said she was rather dull, and slept late of a morning.

  

"She has been accustomed to that," her mother said. "She is a beauty, and they are always easily tired. She does sleep rather late; but that makes her eyes so clear."

  

What power seemed to lie in the depths of those dark eyes! The young man felt the truth of the proverb, "Still waters run deep:" and his heart had sunk into their depths. He often talked of his adventures, and the mamma was as simple and eager in her questions as on the first evening they met. It was a pleasure to hear Alfred describe anything. He showed them colored plates of Naples, and spoke of excursions to Mount Vesuvius, and the eruptions of fire from it. The naval officer''''s widow had never heard of them before.

  

"Good heavens!" she exclaimed. "So that is a burning mountain; but is it not very dangerous to the people who live near it?"

  

"Whole cities have been destroyed," he replied; "for instance, Herculaneum and Pompeii."

 

"Oh, the poor people! And you saw all that with your own eyes?"

  

"No; I did not see any of the eruptions which are represented in those pictures; but I will show you a sketch of my own, which represents an eruption I once saw."

  

He placed a pencil sketch on the table; and mamma, who had been over-powered with the appearance of the colored plates, threw a glance at the pale drawing and cried in astonishment, "What, did you see it throw up white fire?"

  

For a moment, Alfred''''s respect for Kaela''''s mamma underwent a sudden shock, and lessened considerably; but, dazzled by the light which surrounded Kaela, he soon found it quite natural that the old lady should have no eye for color. After all, it was of very little consequence; for Kaela''''s mamma had the best of all possessions; namely, Kaela herself.

  

Alfred and Kaela were betrothed, which was a very natural result; and the betrothal was announced in the newspaper of the little town. Mama purchased thirty copies of the paper, that she might cut out the paragraph and send it to friends and acquaintances. The betrothed pair were very happy, and the mother was happy too. She said it seemed like connecting herself with Thorwalsden.

  

"You are a true successor of Thorwalsden," she said to Alfred; and it seemed to him as if, in this instance, mamma had said a clever thing. Kaela was silent; but her eyes shone, her lips smiled, every movement was graceful,- in fact, she was beautiful; that cannot be repeated too often. Alfred decided to take a bust of Kaela as well as of her mother. They sat to him accordingly, and saw how he moulded and formed the soft clay with his fingers.

  

"I suppose it is only on our account that you perform this common-place work yourself, instead of leaving it to your servant to do all that sticking together."

  

"It is really necessary that I should mould the clay myself," he replied.

  

"Ah, yes, you are always so polite," said mamma, with a smile; and Kaela silently pressed his hand, all soiled as it was with the clay.

  

Then he unfolded to them both the beauties of Nature, in all her works; he pointed out to them how, in the scale of creation, inanimate matter was inferior to animate nature; the plant above the mineral, the animal above the plant, and man above them all. He strove to show them how the beauty of the mind could be displayed in the outward form, and that it was the sculptor''''s task to seize upon that beauty of expression, and produce it in his works.

 

Kaela stood silent, but nodded in approbation of what he said, while mamma-in-law made the following confession:-

 

"It is difficult to follow you; but I go hobbling along after you with my thoughts, though what you say makes my head whirl round and round. Still I contrive to lay hold on some of it."

  

Kaela''''s beauty had a firm hold on Alfred; it filled his soul, and held a mastery over him. Beauty beamed from Kaela''''s every feature, glittered in her eyes, lurked in the corners of her mouth, and pervaded every movement of her agile fingers. Alfred, the sculptor, saw this. He spoke only to her, thought only of her, and the two became one; and so it may be said she spoke much, for he was always talking to her; and he and she were one.

 

Such was the betrothal, and then came the wedding, with bride''''s-maids and wedding presents, all duly mentioned in the wedding speech. Mamma-in-law had set up Thorwalsden''''s bust at the end of the table, attired in a dressing-gown; it was her fancy that he should be a guest. Songs were sung, and cheers given; for it was a gay wedding, and they were a handsome pair. "Pygmalion loved his Galatea," said one of the songs.

  

"Ah, that is some of your mythologies," said mamma-in-law.

  

Next day the youthful pair started for Copenhagen, where they were to live; mamma-in-law accompanied them, to attend to the "coarse work," as she always called the domestic arrangements. Kaela looked like a doll in a doll''''s house, for everything was bright and new, and so fine. There they sat, all three; and as for Alfred, a proverb may describe his position- he looked like a swan amongst the geese.

 

The magic of form had enchanted him; he had looked at the casket without caring to inquire what it contained, and that omission often brings the greatest unhappiness into married life. The casket may be injured, the gilding may fall off, and then the purchaser regrets his bargain.

  

In a large party it is very disagreeable to find a button giving way, with no studs at hand to fall back upon; but it is worse still in a large company to be conscious that your wife and mother-in-law are talking nonsense, and that you cannot depend upon yourself to produce a little ready wit to carry off the stupidity of the whole affair.

  

The young married pair often sat together hand in hand; he would talk, but she could only now and then let fall a word in the same melodious voice, the same bell-like tones. It was a mental relief when Sophy, one of her friends, came to pay them a visit. Sophy was not, pretty. She was, however, quite free from any physical deformity, although Kaela used to say she was a little crooked; but no eye, save an intimate acquaintance, would have noticed it.

 

She was a very sensible girl, yet it never occurred to her that she might be a

dangerous person in such a house. Her appearance created a new atmosphere in the doll''''s house, and air was really required, they all owned that. They felt the want of a change of air, and consequently the young couple and their mother travelled to Italy.

  

"Thank heaven we are at home again within our own four walls," said mamma-in-law and daughter both, on their return after a year''''s absence.

  

"There is no real pleasure in travelling," said mamma; "to tell the truth, it''''s very wearisome; I beg pardon for saying so. I was soon very tired of it, although I had my children with me; and, besides, it''''s very expensive work travelling, very expensive. And all those galleries one is expected to see, and the quantity of things you are obliged to run after!

  

It must be done, for very shame; you are sure to be asked when you come back if you have seen everything, and will most likely be told that you''''ve omitted to see what was best worth seeing of all. I got tired at last of those endless Madonnas; I began to think I was turning into a Madonna myself."

  

"And then the living, mamma," said Kaela.

  

"Yes, indeed," she replied, "no such a thing as a respectable meat soup- their cookery is miserable stuff."

  

The journey had also tired Kaela; but she was always fatigued, that was the worst of it. So they sent for Sophy, and she was taken into the house to reside with them, and her presence there was a great advantage. Mamma-in-law acknowledged that Sophy was not only a clever housewife, but well-informed and accomplished, though that could hardly be expected in a person of her limited means.

  

She was also a generous-hearted, faithful girl; she showed that thoroughly while Kaela lay sick, fading away. When the casket is everything, the casket should be strong, or else all is over. And all was over with the casket, for Kaela died.

  

"She was beautiful," said her mother; "she was quite different from the beauties they call ''''antiques,'''' for they are so damaged. A beauty ought to be perfect, and Kaela was a perfect beauty."

  

Alfred wept, and mamma wept, and they both wore mourning. The black dress suited mamma very well, and she wore mourning the longest. She had also to experience another grief in seeing Alfred marry again, marry Sophy, who was nothing at all to look at.

  

"He''''s gone to the very extreme," said mamma-in-law; "he has gone from the most beautiful to the ugliest, and he has forgotten his first wife. Men have no constancy. My husband was a very different man,- but then he died before me."

  

"''''Pygmalion loved his Galatea,'''' was in the song they sung at my first wedding," said Alfred; "I once fell in love with a beautiful statue, which awoke to life in my arms; but the kindred soul, which is a gift from heaven, the angel who can feel and sympathize with and elevate us, I have not found and won till now. You came, Sophy, not in the glory of outward beauty, though you are even fairer than is necessary. The chief thing still remains. You came to teach the sculptor that his work is but dust and clay only, an outward form made of a material that decays, and that what we should seek to obtain is the ethereal essence of mind and spirit.

 

Poor Kaela! our life was but as a meeting by the way-side; in yonder world, where we shall know each other from a union of mind, we shall be but mere acquaintances."

  

"That was not a loving speech," said Sophy, "nor spoken like a Christian. In a future state, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage, but where, as you say, souls are attracted to each other by sympathy; there everything beautiful develops itself, and is raised to a higher state of existence: her soul will acquire such completeness that it may harmonize with yours, even more than mine, and you will then once more utter your first rapturous exclamation of your love, ''''Beautiful, most beautiful!''''"

  

~~ THE END~~~~

   

<b>Bai Maleiha''''s Reflection:</b>

 

Men adore physical beauty for human eyes are weak to temptation. More often

than not, man battles his internal desire for pleasure while he tries to balance the

quality of his choices and decisions.

 

A beautiful form and face will not last as nature has a timetable for the freshness

of beauty. It is important therefore that the genuine focus of appreciating an individual is to look beyond the eyes..for the <b>heart sees beyond the eyes</b>.

  

Learn more good info

Queens Of The Stone Age @ Southampton Guildhall

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them or link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them or at least start putting big watermarks on them.

When I was young, in the 50’s, there were no gays in Ireland, no child abuse and no prostitutes … you had to travel to England to find that sort of thing [OK, Oscar Wilde was an exception and Molly Malone was really a good catholic girl].

 

Having worked in San Francisco and in Sweden I have never really considered being gay as being an issue so I was not paying much attention to the recent referendum campaign here in the Republic Of Ireland. I had assumed that the vote would be “YES” but I was amazed by the turnout and the massive majority in favour of changing to constitution.

 

A few hours ago I could not make my way home along Capel Street as it was packed with the gay community celebrating their referendum victory.

 

In case you are not aware Ireland became the first country in the world to bring in same-sex marriage by a popular vote. 62% of voters voted Yes in the same-sex marriage referendum, a result that has been described as a social revolution, an expression of decency and a country coming of age. 1.2 million people voted Yes for same sex marriage.

The Paxina 29 is the fastest medium format camera you can buy on a budget. Facts: Paxina 29's go on eBay for relatively little, have a big glass Steiner 2.9 lens, shutter speeds from bulb to 1/200. Those lucky enough to own a copy with a Praxanar Bayreuth lens and a Prontor SVS shutter with a much fuller range of speeds going up 1/300 are sharing specs with the rangefinder version of this camera, the Braun Gloria. That camera, and both versions of the Paxina 29 laugh in the the face of public decency with their rigid tubus design. This design is a huge advantage over similarly aged medium format folders, as there are no light tightness issues.

 

The Paxina 29 can be difficult to focus without the aid of an accessory rangefinder, and doesn't have a filter thread (so 'push on' filters and hoods only). The lens is single coated, and will almost certainly require a lens hood if shooting against the light. Rarely used slow speeds shutter speeds and self timers are generally the first to go, and this one was no exception. Here the self timer is jammed solid, but that's no big loss on a manual focus 6 x 6 shooter, is it?

Forbids what exactly? There are times when it's better not to use your imagination. Many Victorian municipal cemeteries seem to have rudimentary urinals for gentlemen although, as far as I've ever noticed, there are never equivalent amenities for ladies. Usually they consist of nothing more than a perforated cast-iron screen and a length of guttering, with no protection from the elements. This little plaque was inside such a facility at Greenbank Cemetery, Bristol. Monday 10th October 1983.

Washington DC, The Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the afternoon of March 1, 2015. Around one hundred social justice activists affiliated with Code Pink, Jewish Voice For Justice, AVAAZ, US Campaign To End The Israeli Occupation, Boycott From Within, Answer Coaltion and other peace and faith groups demonstrate in front of the Convention Center to protest the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) yearly DC meeting. AIPAC is regarded by many as the most powerful lobbying group in town. AIPAC has a policy agenda that's out of step with the values of most Jewish Americans and other participants in civilized society but they call the tune because our corrupt political culture is fueled by money, not decency. In an act of peaceful civil disobedience, five demonstrators, all women, were arrested for failing to obey police orders to remove themselves from the granite in front of one of the Convention Center's many doorways. They were given three warnings before being arrested. I photographed one of women as she was being lead away in plastic handcuffs. "I'm a Jewish mother!" she proclaimed. I gave her the 'thumbs up'.

Most of the DC cops kept their cool but when some of the demonstrators got in their face a brief scuffle ensued. Some of us locked arms and and helped lift up one of the Code Pink ladies who was almost knocked down onto the steps by a DC officer who lost it.

Everyone keeps asking me why it is that I have decided to start eating meat again. It had been well over a decade of my life that I abstained from meat. Was it the taste? No. I have always found meat to be delicious. For the last few years, I have said that I would only eat what I could kill myself. So since I've gone fishing, that meant fish was ok to eat. But looking into the eyes of a cute little cow, and trying to kill it for a meal? That just seemed too hard for me to fathom.

 

Then I read The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The book is a great read for anyone who is interested in food politics and ethics. The book's premise is to follow the social, economic and ethical impact of 4 meals in society. The first being a meal from McDonald's, the last being a meal where Pollan hunts for his own meat, and gathers wild vegetables and mushrooms.

 

Some people who have read the book walk away from it and decide to become vegetarian. For me, I read the book and realized that it was ok to eat meat. The choice to be vegetarian for me had always been for ethical reasons, but people kept pointing out that the choice based on ethics is contradictory. How could I be OK with eating fish, but abstain from the meat of cows or pigs? And the one I got all the time, "What about plants? Don't they feel pain as well." Well, yes, true.

 

But the question that came up in my mind was, "Do you owe moral consideration to animals that can feel pain?" For me the answer was, and still is, yes. Animals need to be treated with the same decency and lack of suffering that humans should be treated with as well. That is why Whole Foods has come up with a rather interesting marketing tactic, (if not eventually a standard) for the Animal Compassionate Program, which requires the "animal's physical, emotional and behavioral needs" to be met. Sadly however, Whole Foods has yet to find producers who met these standards.

 

In Pollan's book he discusses the notion of ethical meat farming, but really the struggle for these farmers is the stringent, irrelevant and incredibly burdensome requirements of agencies like the FDA. We can treat animals with compassion and without suffering, but it simply isn't "up to code" by the FDA's standards to do so.

 

So what to do? Move to Europe where the meat industry is regulated in a different way? Possibly. For the time being, I am fascinated by the social elements of eating, and that is what I am doing with my 30 days of pork exploration. Being a vegetarian is exclusionary. Believe me, I know what it is like to get weird looks from grandmothers, boyfriend's parents and co-workers when you say you don't eat meat. You suddenly become less involved in social traditions because you don't know what an In and Out Burger tastes like, or what the big deal is about the turkey everyone is eating at Thanksgiving. I put many people out (who tolerated and respected my food choices with extreme kindness) like my dad who would always make a special meal for me, but who was also so excited about his meat dishes that I couldn't try.

 

So for me, to eat meat is to come back into a social space of sharing experiences with others, and place that priority of participation over the ethics of eating. Don't get me wrong. I'll pick grass-fed, free-range, hormone-free meat any day over the mass produced variety. And if the animal was treated with compassion, even better. But for right now, I want, and need to explore the ritual of eating without the restraints that I have placed on myself for the last 12 years. I may go back to being vegetarian, I may not. Who knows? But I can tell you that this grilled pear and bacon sandwich from Arlequin in Hayes Valley hit the spot for my Saturday mid-day meal.

Peats 'World of Electronics' - Statement

 

02.04.2012

 

It is with deep sadness and regret that the family owned business of Peats ‘World of Electronics’, the long established and well-known Dublin electronics retail company is to seek the appointment of a Liquidator in an upcoming voluntary creditor’s liquidation.

 

The Chairman of the business, Ben Peat, briefed the company’s 75-staff today at the company’s head-office store in Parnell St and told staff that the company could not continue to trade in light of its current financial constraints confirming that the company’s eleven stores around Dublin have closed with immediate effect.

 

Mr Peat told staff that a combination of recession impacts, unsustainably high rental costs and a changing marketplace in which online shopping was eating into high street retailing, meant that the business cannot continue to trade going into the upcoming lean summer. Mr Peat said that “the business generated 60% of its annual sales in the period November to January, and that a summer’s spend could not carry the business, to allow it to continue. It is evident in our experience that consumers have little discretionary spend at this time and sales volumes are up to 50% down on peak 2007 spend, while in parallel it has not been possible to achieve appropriate rental adjustment to enable a profit margin to be achieved to sustain business viability. The sector in which we operate has been disproportionately affected by the downturn, if we don’t close now our capacity to settle our affairs to best effect will only further deteriorate”, Mr Peat said.

 

Mr Peat told staff that “Trade hit its peak in 2007, with turnover that year of €24m, it has since re-trenched to less than half for the current year” and thanking staff, customers and suppliers, he continued, “the Company had a fine heritage for quality, decency and value, it became a popular name on the Dublin retail landscape and it’s departure from the high-street will be a loss to the tradition of family retailing in Dublin. Thanking customers he said, it is with deep regret that we have to close the doors of our ‘world of electronics business’, - we have tried very hard to establish solutions with suppliers and landlords that could have brought balance and sustainability back into our business. We have implemented extensive cost-reduction at all levels including payroll and terms of employment, but unfortunately it is beyond our power to continue in operation and we have to protect our staff, creditors, debtors and legal interests to best possible effect and do right by all concerned as far as is both humanly and financially possible. We cannot allow our situation to deteriorate further – as we do not want to compromise our capacity to secure the best possible outcome for all out of what is a difficult situation”

 

Thanking staff for their support and loyalty in a number of cases for over thirty years, Mr Peat said that staff will be paid their entitlements and redundancy due in full, and asked for their support for both colleagues and the business in the coming days, while the business settled its affairs to the very best of its ability to do so. He commented that over the years Peat’s staff have always been exceptional, there was one big extended family within which three generations of the Peat family still currently work.

 

Peats began life in Parnell Street in 1934 when Brigit and William Peat set up shop to sell wet cell batteries, bicycles, furniture and prams. All six of their children joined the business and their youngest son, Ben Peat is the current chairman. In its early years the company began to develop the electronics side of the business selling radiograms, followed by three-in-one hi-fi systems and contemporary products including repair services, to the present day sales of an assembly of electronic home entertainment products including flat screen TV’s, cameras, computer laptops and accessories.

 

Peats’ eleven stores are located throughout Dublin, with its head office in Parnell St; the Company also has stores in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, College Green, Rathmines, Swords and in the Whitewater Shopping Centre in Newbridge. It also operated a number of Sony Centre shops under the Sony Centre identity. These outlets are located in the Jervis Shopping Centre, on O’Connell St, in Dun Laoghaire, in the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and also on Stephen’s Green, close to the Shelbourne Hotel.

 

All stores have now been closed and telephone calls will automatically be directed to a call centre to accommodate any enquiries arising, so that they can be logged and dealt with as efficiently and as soon as possible.

 

In making enquiries customers are invited to call 01-9023718 or to Email: admin@peats.com

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society . Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, and sent them by train to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux 37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse .

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country . Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company . These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn , Riverside, Illinois , Morningside Park , and Riverside Park .

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut , Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds , the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington , the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa , and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History .

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford , a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York . Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street . The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B , and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street , and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School .

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street . The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women , it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses , the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Washington DC, The Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the afternoon of March 1, 2015. Around one hundred social justice activists affiliated with Code Pink, Jewish Voice For Justice, AVAAZ, US Campaign To End The Israeli Occupation, Boycott From Within, Answer Coaltion and other peace and faith groups demonstrate in front of the Convention Center to protest the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) yearly DC meeting. AIPAC is regarded by many as the most powerful lobbying group in town. AIPAC has a policy agenda that's out of step with the values of most Jewish Americans and other participants in civilized society but they call the tune because our corrupt political culture is fueled by money, not decency. In an act of peaceful civil disobedience, five demonstrators, all women, were arrested for failing to obey police orders to remove themselves from the granite in front of one of the Convention Center's many doorways. They were given three warnings before being arrested. I photographed one of women as she was being lead away in plastic handcuffs. "I'm a Jewish mother!" she proclaimed. I gave her the 'thumbs up'.

Most of the DC cops kept their cool but when some of the demonstrators got in their face a brief scuffle ensued. Some of us locked arms and and helped lift up one of the Code Pink ladies who was almost knocked down onto the steps by a DC officer who lost it.

Peats 'World of Electronics' - Statement

 

02.04.2012

 

It is with deep sadness and regret that the family owned business of Peats ‘World of Electronics’, the long established and well-known Dublin electronics retail company is to seek the appointment of a Liquidator in an upcoming voluntary creditor’s liquidation.

 

The Chairman of the business, Ben Peat, briefed the company’s 75-staff today at the company’s head-office store in Parnell St and told staff that the company could not continue to trade in light of its current financial constraints confirming that the company’s eleven stores around Dublin have closed with immediate effect.

 

Mr Peat told staff that a combination of recession impacts, unsustainably high rental costs and a changing marketplace in which online shopping was eating into high street retailing, meant that the business cannot continue to trade going into the upcoming lean summer. Mr Peat said that “the business generated 60% of its annual sales in the period November to January, and that a summer’s spend could not carry the business, to allow it to continue. It is evident in our experience that consumers have little discretionary spend at this time and sales volumes are up to 50% down on peak 2007 spend, while in parallel it has not been possible to achieve appropriate rental adjustment to enable a profit margin to be achieved to sustain business viability. The sector in which we operate has been disproportionately affected by the downturn, if we don’t close now our capacity to settle our affairs to best effect will only further deteriorate”, Mr Peat said.

 

Mr Peat told staff that “Trade hit its peak in 2007, with turnover that year of €24m, it has since re-trenched to less than half for the current year” and thanking staff, customers and suppliers, he continued, “the Company had a fine heritage for quality, decency and value, it became a popular name on the Dublin retail landscape and it’s departure from the high-street will be a loss to the tradition of family retailing in Dublin. Thanking customers he said, it is with deep regret that we have to close the doors of our ‘world of electronics business’, - we have tried very hard to establish solutions with suppliers and landlords that could have brought balance and sustainability back into our business. We have implemented extensive cost-reduction at all levels including payroll and terms of employment, but unfortunately it is beyond our power to continue in operation and we have to protect our staff, creditors, debtors and legal interests to best possible effect and do right by all concerned as far as is both humanly and financially possible. We cannot allow our situation to deteriorate further – as we do not want to compromise our capacity to secure the best possible outcome for all out of what is a difficult situation”

 

Thanking staff for their support and loyalty in a number of cases for over thirty years, Mr Peat said that staff will be paid their entitlements and redundancy due in full, and asked for their support for both colleagues and the business in the coming days, while the business settled its affairs to the very best of its ability to do so. He commented that over the years Peat’s staff have always been exceptional, there was one big extended family within which three generations of the Peat family still currently work.

 

Peats began life in Parnell Street in 1934 when Brigit and William Peat set up shop to sell wet cell batteries, bicycles, furniture and prams. All six of their children joined the business and their youngest son, Ben Peat is the current chairman. In its early years the company began to develop the electronics side of the business selling radiograms, followed by three-in-one hi-fi systems and contemporary products including repair services, to the present day sales of an assembly of electronic home entertainment products including flat screen TV’s, cameras, computer laptops and accessories.

 

Peats’ eleven stores are located throughout Dublin, with its head office in Parnell St; the Company also has stores in Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, College Green, Rathmines, Swords and in the Whitewater Shopping Centre in Newbridge. It also operated a number of Sony Centre shops under the Sony Centre identity. These outlets are located in the Jervis Shopping Centre, on O’Connell St, in Dun Laoghaire, in the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre and also on Stephen’s Green, close to the Shelbourne Hotel.

 

All stores have now been closed and telephone calls will automatically be directed to a call centre to accommodate any enquiries arising, so that they can be logged and dealt with as efficiently and as soon as possible.

 

In making enquiries customers are invited to call 01-9023718 or to Email: admin@peats.com

A while later the backroom is free of people, when Mirah goes in there with Honor closely following her…

 

Mirah: “Violet said her cousin’s wife brought some really good homemade buns here. I thought I’d better check them out. Yum! They sure look delicious!”

 

Honor: “Where is Leo? I haven’t seen him here yet.”

 

Mirah: “Oh? Violet said something about him sleeping in her car. I guess he’s still there. Poor boy must not have slept well in ages – but I guess that’s quite understandable since he’s got a fiancée. (smirks at Honor) If you catch my drift? I hope you’re still not pining for him?”

 

Honor (blushes): “No.”

 

Mirah: “You should know it’s too late for you. Ophelia got there first. Well, not first exactly, but anyway, she’s got him hooked.”

 

Honor: “I’m not pining for Leo. I just care for him – unlike you do. You talk about him as if he were just another line on your headboard. He’s a real person with feelings – a person who has had to see and feel too much in his life. He was on the rebound after Sybil when you seduced him and made an even more mess of his head by telling him that you loved him, then dumping him for Davy.”

 

Mirah: “Yeah, right. That was an aeon ago. I can’t believe you’re still going on about that. Leo got over me at the latest when he found his next girlfriend – which was like a week later.”

 

Honor (snorts annoyed): “You must mean one-night stand? Leo didn’t have any girlfriends at the time. He couldn’t trust anyone anymore – thanks to you.”

 

Mirah: “Oh, come on. He was a sharing kind, actually. He was like the village bike. I just happened to be his first stop after prison. At least half of all the girls from the neighborhood shagged him.”

 

Honor (shakes her head): “Not true.”

 

Mirah (nods adamantly): “Is too! There would still have been all those other girls before he decided to get clean and settle down with Ophelia.”

 

Honor: “He was still on the rebound when you clamped your nails around him, and he was using drugs. It was hardly his fault that he drifted into the wrong places with the wrong company. I don’t think there would have been that line of girls if you had had the decency to support him as a friend. But no – you just had to bed him to show you could. You took advance of him for what? A laugh!”

   

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society . Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, and sent them by train to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux 37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse .

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country . Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company . These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn , Riverside, Illinois , Morningside Park , and Riverside Park .

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut , Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds , the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington , the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa , and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History .

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford , a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York . Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street . The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B , and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street , and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School .

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street . The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women , it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses , the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

As good and feminine as it may feel to have my hair draped over my bare shoulders at the end of the night, Joni must still maintain a modicum of female modesty, not just to keep the Flickr police happy, but to maintain her own standards of decency. . . . So she lovingly covers up her "little girls", allowing them to avoid indecent exposure . . .

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society . Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, and sent them by train to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux 37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse .

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country . Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company . These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn , Riverside, Illinois , Morningside Park , and Riverside Park .

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut , Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds , the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington , the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa , and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History .

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford , a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York . Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street . The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B , and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street , and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School .

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street . The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women , it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses , the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels (approximately 340 acres) abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary (a designated New York City Landmark) helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library (a designated New York City Landmark) provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations (vereins) organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace (1826­1890) in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, (some orphans, others from difficult home situations) and sent them by train (“the Orphan Trains”) to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year (1890) the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895)37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse (1874-77, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages (published originally 1857) was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company (1865-72). These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn (1865, a designated New York City Scenic Landmark), Riverside, Illinois (1868-70), Morningside Park (1887-94, from earlier plans), and Riverside Park (1873-88).

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut (1865, with Olmsted), Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds (1867-72), the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington (1866), the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa (1873-79), and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1874-80) and the American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, both designated New York City Landmarks).

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford (dates undetermined), a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York (1881-4) and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York (1879-80). Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street (demolished). The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street (1883, demolished) and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B (1885, a designated New York City Landmark), and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street (1888, a designated New York City Landmark), and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School (1888-89, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School (1888-9, demolished) was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street (1890, demolished). The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women (later the National Florence Crittenton Foundation), it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses (East 12th Street), the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window (on the eastern bay) has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Fanfare (Lorelei), Chopsocky and SparkSarcasm as Magical Girls Cranberry, Blueberry and Strawberry, from "Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly" (inspired by No More Heroes).

Now that is the meaning of fanservice... but believe it or not somebody complained because Quebec has "decency laws" (some kind of RC hangover I guess) under which you can be considered naked "if clad in a way that offends against public decency or order". WTF. Rocking costumes. End of story.

 

The states in question insist that someone has to take responsibility for restrictions of content that they demand as a precondition for flickr's formal internationalization; flickr has been anticipating this by increasingly encouraging flickr users to flag and effectively censor their own images. Obviously not everyone is going to do this (and the degree to which flickr users should partipate at all in this project of "voluntary" self-censorship is open to debate).

 

Presumably the states are demanding that flickr staff take some form of reponsibility for policing the content of flickrstreams which have failed to voluntarily self-censor. And presumably Flickr staff are bristling at the ridiculous requirement that they be reduced to morality police, enforcers of someone else's wierd conceptions of decency and political propriety. Why should Heather & Co. be the ones to get bombarded by 10,000 reams of hatemail for "filtering" this or that photo or photostream when the perception of objectionable content is arising not from individuals within the flickr community itself but from the states, who have very different - and very political - interests.

 

We don't know what demands the states are making but we can guess. And we can also guess that the decision to simpy dump a blanket safe-filter on the countries in question is a bit of a hardball ploy by Flickr - upping the ante - in order to force the states to back down. Ultimately, demanding that flickr staff act as agents of various states poltiical agendas IS unreasonable.

 

Obviously all this is complicated immensely by Flickr's corporate quasi-servility to Yahoo Corp, which has already demonstrated its corporate enthusiasm for catering to the powers that be and coddling the repressive political whims of states.

 

....

 

Finally, while denouncing germany, korea, et al, we would be wise to question whether there are not also domestic demands being made of the US-based Flickr.

 

While it's too soon to really say what's going on, I think it is wise to recall the larger political context here: "The War on terror" is effectively an American invitation to fascists all over the globe: it requires that ALL states play the American game or be subject to unpleasant consequences. One of America's favorite games is called "Total Information Awereness": they intend to allow the anonymity of internet communication to continue only as a facade, and they demand a "right" to know everything everyone has to say to anyone about anything. This fascist game, coupled with an obsessive demand for the capacity to annull critics and criticism, requires that corporations like Yahoo open wide their doors to all sorts of state intervention. And it's not like Yahoo will be fighting it. On the contrary, Yahoo's Board of Directors "strongly opposes" the recent Stockholder Proposal 6 requesting that Yahoo take a stand against internet censorship. Fascism has always been about ensuring that corporate power remains completely unchecked - but provided that it remains subject to political intervention by the state. There are vast profits to be made by states and corporations willing to play the game, and Yahoo Corp and the US are not the only ones playing.

   

From comments on the Help Forum.

Interesting discussion here as well.

 

Stick Out Your Tongue

by Ma Jian

Publisher: Chatto & Windus

 

MA JIAN’S Stick Out Your Tongue comes across as a perverted misrepresentation of a deeply spiritual but materially impoverished society, it appears to be a book version of some cheap documentaries filmed with the sole purpose of commercial success by grossly exaggerating the cultural oddity of a besieged society and its idiosyncrasy.

 

In the freeze of the wind-swept and near-barren tundra land where abject poverty is prevalent, this Chinese writer, who is on a self-imposed exile in London, gets accepted into the fetid tents and other forms of humble dwelling of the Tibetans and Chinese soldiers and partake of their hospitality as he goes on a journey of in search of himself and in flee from his own soulless society.

 

Devoid of hardly any worldly possession or the company of fellow men, it doesn’t take much urging before they open up and share their deepest secrets with a stranger who would cross their path once in a lifetime and this stranger is a beatnik writer who at least has the decency to state that divide between fact and fiction gets blurred in the thin air of the high Tibetan altitude.

 

Disclaimer stated, Ma Jian takes liberties of artistic licence to write five short stories of horrifying encounters of rape, repulsive accounts of incest and unbelievable narrations of acts of violence committed in the name of religion.

 

He starts with a vivid description of a sky burial where the body of a 17-year-old pregnant woman with an unborn fetus is hacked into pieces and fed to the vultures and hawks. As if his description of how the body was disposed off wasn’t gross enough, the writer adds more shock elements to the story by revealing that the woman was the lover of Chinese soldier and the wife of two Tibetan brothers. At least, we are spared the conjugal arrangements of what would have been more than a ménage a trios.

 

More vile would be the sad tale of a love lost, of a silversmith who held on to what he could – the wafer-thin, wind-dried corpse of his lover hung on his wall punctured by a hole between the legs.

 

Crassness aside, Ma Jian is a wonderful writer and his translator Flora Drew did remarkably well to keep the substance, style and essence of his writings. He redeems himself with his empathy for the tortured souls of a deprived society, the fear men have for retribution and the longing for the warmth of a woman’s breasts and the need for the fulfillment of coitus.

 

Ma Jian’s most tragic story would be that of the shame of inbreeding, and how a spirit is shattered and sanity is lost when a young girl is stripped of her dignity by her father. Extreme poverty dehumanises and when trust is broken and love is betrayed, a lively girl gets reduced to a street urchin, wondering around half-naked, giving sex to all and sundry until the stench in her private part becomes too off-putting. She now lives on scraps from the butcher’s stalls like the stray dogs in the marketplace.

 

In this one short story, Ma Jian pieces together a tapestry of emotions - from how love turns to lust, how trust is killed by betrayal and how respect degenerates into disdain. His narrative is violent, yet beautiful. His presentation is beautiful, yet gross. And his noble message of how fragile the human spirit is in a perverted tale is indeed a saving grace.

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/CVR-Virgin-of-chastity-on-a-...

The Skyline of Zwijndrecht and Metallurgical Works on the Oude Maas River

 

It is not every day you see recent sunset shots from my camera. There are 2 reasons; I am too exhausted to go out late and I just don't feel safe driving around on my little jalopy after dark with my camera and gear.

Sunday night however I decided to be daring and drove to the Handelskade on the Oude Maasriver in Dordrecht. And just my luck again, I ended up right at the place where the young daredevils were going to hold illegal races! They must've thought granny on the scootmobiel at the races absolutely hilarious. Although I didn't feel threatend at all, I realised that anything could've happened to me, or even worse my camera, and I didn't feel safe enough to wait for blue hour, which was my intention. Besides my back was killing me. At least the guys had the decency not to laugh in my face and to wait until I left before commencing.

... or at least have the decency to leave some chips.

 

[Adjustments: standard raw file edits]

Bondi Beach is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Bondi Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council, in the Eastern Suburbs. It has a population of 11,656 residents. Its postcode is 2026. Bondi, North Bondi, and Bondi Junction are neighboring suburbs. Bondi Beach is one of the most visited tourist sites in Australia sparking two hit tv series Bondi Rescue and Bondi Vet.

"Bondi," originally "Boondi" is an Aboriginal word which has the same meaning as the word "surf" in English. The first record of "bondi" by European-ancestry Australians was made between 1899 and 1903. It describes the meaning as "noise made by sea waves breaking on the beach," which is essentially the definition of "surf" in contemporary American English. The Australian Museum records that Bondi means place where a fight using bondi sticks (nulla nullas or fighting sticks) took place.

In 1809 the road builder William Roberts received a grant of land in the area. In 1851 Edward Smith Hall and Francis O'Brien purchased 200 acres (0.8 square kilometres) of the Bondi area that included most of the beach frontage, which was named "The Bondi Estate." Hall was O'Brien's father-in-law. Between 1855 and 1877 O'Brien purchased his father-in-law's share of the land, renamed the land the "O'Brien Estate," and made the beach and the surrounding land available to the public as a picnic ground and amusement resort. As the beach became increasingly popular, O'Brien threatened to stop public beach access. However, the Municipal Council believed that the Government needed to intervene to make the beach a public reserve. In mid-1882, Bondi Beach became a public beach. The first tramway to the beach was established in 1884. The Waverley Council was responsible for building the first surf bathing sheds on the beach in 1903. By 1929 an estimated 60,000 people were visiting the beach on a summer weekend day. The opening of the pavilion in the same year attracted a huge crowd of 200,000.

On 6 February 1938 five people drowned and over 250 people were rescued or resuscitated after a series of large waves struck the beach and pulled people back into the sea, a day that became known as "Black Sunday".

Bondi Beach was a working class suburb throughout most of the twentieth century with migrant people from New Zealand comprising the majority of the local population. Following World War II, Bondi Beach and the Eastern Suburbs became home for Jewish migrants from Poland, Russia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Germany. A stream of Jewish immigration continued into the 21st century and the area has a number of synagogues and a kosher butcher. The multicultural migration funded and drove the growth of the suburb throughout the 1990s into the turn of the century, moving it steadily from its working-class roots towards an upper/middle-class enclave similar to its neighbors of Rose Bay and Bellevue Hill which was listed as the most expensive postcode in the country from 2003 to 2005.

Bondi Beach was long a center for efforts to fight indecency in beach attire. The beach was a focal point of the 1907 Sydney bathing costume protests, organized to oppose proposed dress standards for beachgoers. The Local Government Act, Ordinance No. 52 (1935) governed the decency of swimming costumes and was in force between 1935 and 1961, and resulted in public controversy as the two-piece "bikini" became popular after World War II. Waverley Council's beach inspectors, including the Aub Laidlaw, were responsible for enforcing the law and were required to measure the dimensions of swimwear and order offenders against public decency off the beach. While vacationing in Australia during 1951, American movie actress Jean Parker made international headlines when she was escorted off the beach after Laidlaw determined her bikini was too skimpy. The rule became increasingly anachronistic during the 1950s and was replaced in 1961 with one requiring bathers be "clad in a proper and adequate bathing costume", allowing for more subjective judgement of decency. By the 1980s topless bathing had become common at Bondi Beach, especially at the southern end.

Sydney's Water Board maintained an untreated sewage outlet not far from the north end of the beach until the 1960s when a sewage treatment plant was built. In the mid-1990s the plant was upgraded & a deepwater ocean outfall was completed to meet water quality standards.

In March 2007, Waverley Council started proceedings to evict a hermit who was living in squalor on a cliff overlooking the beach. Peter James Paul Millhouse, calling himself Jhyimy "Two Hats" Mhiyles, came to the beach during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games and became a local celebrity for his lifestyle and poetry recitals to visitors. Residents and tourists put together a "save the caveman" petition to allow him to continue residing but under certain rules. In 2009, he was arrested and charged for the rape of a tourist. While he was in custody, Waverley Council under then-mayor Liberal Sally Betts removed his belongings from the cliff. In September 2011, charges against Jhyimy were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions over concerns of the reliability of the witness. Waverley Council has not offered recompense for his eviction from his home or loss of belongings.

In March 2020, the NSW Government closed Bondi Beach after a number of people there exceeded Australia's outdoor-gathering limit imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus in New South Wales.

Session Americana and Peter Wolf playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wolf

www.peterwolf.com/

www.facebook.com/PeterWolfMusic?v=wall

Life and career

 

Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York. He planned a career as an artist, but he got a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on then-cutting edge Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Wolfa Goofa", sometimes expanded to "the Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth" (as mentioned in the intro to "Must of Got Lost" on the Blow Your Face Out album). Later as solo artist he called himself Woofa Goofa Mama Toofa. He formed a group called the Hallucinations who performed with The Velvet Underground, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Sun Ra. He then saw the J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. Wolf was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the microphone stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the songwriting. Creative differences followed their Freeze-Frame album, causing the J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf to part ways in 1983.

 

Peter Wolf with the J. Geils Band in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California Photo: Catharine Anderson

Wolf became a solo artist for the next 15 years, but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They separated again, and Wolf began touring once more, as a solo act.

Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out (1984) was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew, features Adrian Belew, and has a somewhat funky, electro sound. The eponymous single became a hit single the same year, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded many duets with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett to name just a few.

Long Line was co-produced with two musician friends, Johnny A. and a Bob Dylan backup band member, Stu Kimball. Tim Archibald (Bass) and Brian Maes (keys and backing vocals) who are both members of "Ernie And The Automatics", played on the record and Toured in support of "Long Line." His next two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless (2002) was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with such diverse people as Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh.

Wolf toured in 2008 with Kid Rock and Rev. Run on The Rock N Roll Revival Tour. He performed "Love Stinks" solo with Kid Rock's band. Then he joined Kid Rock for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Musta Got Lost", "Centerfold" (from the J. Geils album Freeze Frame) and "For What It's Worth".

The J. Geils Band re-united for a series of shows in 2009, including opening night at the Boston House of Blues.

Wolf's 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs won Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.[2][3]

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated Best Live Act 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated Best Americana Act 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression (read less)

 

Session Americana and Peter Wolf playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wolf

www.peterwolf.com/

www.facebook.com/PeterWolfMusic?v=wall

Life and career

 

Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York. He planned a career as an artist, but he got a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on then-cutting edge Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Wolfa Goofa", sometimes expanded to "the Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth" (as mentioned in the intro to "Must of Got Lost" on the Blow Your Face Out album). Later as solo artist he called himself Woofa Goofa Mama Toofa. He formed a group called the Hallucinations who performed with The Velvet Underground, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Sun Ra. He then saw the J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. Wolf was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the microphone stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the songwriting. Creative differences followed their Freeze-Frame album, causing the J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf to part ways in 1983.

 

Peter Wolf with the J. Geils Band in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California Photo: Catharine Anderson

Wolf became a solo artist for the next 15 years, but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They separated again, and Wolf began touring once more, as a solo act.

Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out (1984) was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew, features Adrian Belew, and has a somewhat funky, electro sound. The eponymous single became a hit single the same year, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded many duets with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett to name just a few.

Long Line was co-produced with two musician friends, Johnny A. and a Bob Dylan backup band member, Stu Kimball. Tim Archibald (Bass) and Brian Maes (keys and backing vocals) who are both members of "Ernie And The Automatics", played on the record and Toured in support of "Long Line." His next two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless (2002) was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with such diverse people as Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh.

Wolf toured in 2008 with Kid Rock and Rev. Run on The Rock N Roll Revival Tour. He performed "Love Stinks" solo with Kid Rock's band. Then he joined Kid Rock for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Musta Got Lost", "Centerfold" (from the J. Geils album Freeze Frame) and "For What It's Worth".

The J. Geils Band re-united for a series of shows in 2009, including opening night at the Boston House of Blues.

Wolf's 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs won Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.[2][3]

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated Best Live Act 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated Best Americana Act 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression (read less)

 

Queens Of The Stone Age and Friends

Natasha Shneider Memorial Benefit show

 

p.s. if you are gonna post my copyrighted images elsewhere on the internet at least have the decency to credit me with them and link them back to here, or i'll probably stop posting them without big watermarks on them.

Session Americana and Peter Wolf playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wolf

www.peterwolf.com/

www.facebook.com/PeterWolfMusic?v=wall

Life and career

 

Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York. He planned a career as an artist, but he got a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on then-cutting edge Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Wolfa Goofa", sometimes expanded to "the Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth" (as mentioned in the intro to "Must of Got Lost" on the Blow Your Face Out album). Later as solo artist he called himself Woofa Goofa Mama Toofa. He formed a group called the Hallucinations who performed with The Velvet Underground, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Sun Ra. He then saw the J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. Wolf was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the microphone stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the songwriting. Creative differences followed their Freeze-Frame album, causing the J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf to part ways in 1983.

 

Peter Wolf with the J. Geils Band in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California Photo: Catharine Anderson

Wolf became a solo artist for the next 15 years, but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They separated again, and Wolf began touring once more, as a solo act.

Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out (1984) was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew, features Adrian Belew, and has a somewhat funky, electro sound. The eponymous single became a hit single the same year, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded many duets with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett to name just a few.

Long Line was co-produced with two musician friends, Johnny A. and a Bob Dylan backup band member, Stu Kimball. Tim Archibald (Bass) and Brian Maes (keys and backing vocals) who are both members of "Ernie And The Automatics", played on the record and Toured in support of "Long Line." His next two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless (2002) was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with such diverse people as Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh.

Wolf toured in 2008 with Kid Rock and Rev. Run on The Rock N Roll Revival Tour. He performed "Love Stinks" solo with Kid Rock's band. Then he joined Kid Rock for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Musta Got Lost", "Centerfold" (from the J. Geils album Freeze Frame) and "For What It's Worth".

The J. Geils Band re-united for a series of shows in 2009, including opening night at the Boston House of Blues.

Wolf's 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs won Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.[2][3]

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated Best Live Act 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated Best Americana Act 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression (read less)

 

Here's YouTube video of the speech.

 

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

"A More Perfect Union"

Constitution Center

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

  

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

   

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands

across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple

words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers

and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean

to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration

of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the

spring of 1787.

   

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately

unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery,

a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a

stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to

continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final

resolution to future generations.

   

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded

within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the

ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised

its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should

be perfected over time.

   

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves

from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their

full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What

would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were

willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the

streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience

and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of

our ideals and the reality of their time.

   

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this

campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a

march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more

prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment

in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the

challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we

perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories,

but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not

have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same

direction – towards a better future for of children and our

grandchildren.

   

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and

generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own

American story.

   

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas.

I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a

Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white

grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth

while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in

America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married

to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and

slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters.

I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of

every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for

as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on

Earth is my story even possible.

   

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But

it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that

this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we

are truly one.

   

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to

the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this

message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through

a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some

of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where

the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of

African Americans and white Americans.

   

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign.

At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me

either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions

bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina

primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest

evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black,

but black and brown as well.

   

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the

discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive

turn.

   

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my

candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's

based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial

reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former

pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express

views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but

views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our

nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

   

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of

Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging

questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic

of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear

him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in

church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political

views? Absolutely – just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks

from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly

disagreed.

   

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply

controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to

speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a

profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white

racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above

all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts

in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart

allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful

ideologies of radical Islam.

   

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive,

divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when

we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two

wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care

crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are

neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that

confront us all.

   

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals,

there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation

are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the

first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I

confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets

of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television

and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the

caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that

I would react in much the same way

   

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I

met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my

Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love

one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man

who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured

at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and

who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by

doing God's work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering

to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison

ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

   

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of

my first service at Trinity:

   

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out,

a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters….And

in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of

that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I

imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories

of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's

den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and

freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had

spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church,

on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a

people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials

and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than

black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a

means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame

about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with

which we could start to rebuild."

   

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly

black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black

community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model

student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches,

Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy

humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting

that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in

full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the

shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the

bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

   

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright.

As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He

strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my

children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk

about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom

he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains

within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the

community that he has served diligently for so many years.

   

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can

no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who

helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a

woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a

woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on

the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or

ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

   

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this

country that I love.

   

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that

are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the

politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just

hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright

as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine

Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some

deep-seated racial bias.

   

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to

ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend

Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and

stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts

reality.

   

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that

have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race

in this country that we've never really worked through – a part of our

union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we

simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to

come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or

the need to find good jobs for every American.

   

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at

this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and

buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here

the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to

remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the

African-American community today can be directly traced to

inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under

the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

   

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't

fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the

inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the

pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

   

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through

violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to

African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access

FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police

force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass

any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history

helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and

the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of

today's urban and rural communities.

   

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and

frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family,

contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare

policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic

services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play

in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code

enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and

neglect that continue to haunt us.

   

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other

African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the

late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the

law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted.

What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of

discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds;

how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who

would come after them.

   

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of

the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it – those who

were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination.

That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those

young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street

corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for

the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race,

and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways.

For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of

humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger

and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed

in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does

find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times,

that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial

lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

   

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in

the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are

surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons

simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in

American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always

productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving

real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in

our condition, and prevents the African-American community from

forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the

anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn

it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of

misunderstanding that exists between the races.

   

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white

community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel

that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their

experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they're concerned,

no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've

worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped

overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are

anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in

an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to

be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense.

So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town;

when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in

landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice

that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their

fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced,

resentment builds over time.

   

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't

always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the

political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and

affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians

routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk

show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers

unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate

discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political

correctness or reverse racism.

   

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these

white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the

middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing,

questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington

dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that

favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of

white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without

recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens

the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

   

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been

stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics,

black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can

get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a

single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

   

But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my

faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working

together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in

fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more

perfect union.

   

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the

burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means

continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of

American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances –

for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the

larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to

break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the

immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full

responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and

spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and

teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination

in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism;

they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

   

Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative –

notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's

sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is

that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that

society can change.

   

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke

about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was

static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a

country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run

for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and

black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still

irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have

seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this

nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to

hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

   

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means

acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not

just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of

discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less

overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just

with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our

communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness

in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with

ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations.

It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to

come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health,

welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will

ultimately help all of America prosper.

   

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing

less, than what all the world's great religions demand – that we do

unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's

keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us

find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our

politics reflect that spirit as well.

   

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that

breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only

as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy,

as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly

news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every

day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only

question in this campaign whether or not the American people think

that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words.

We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that

she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men

will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of

his policies.

   

We can do that.

   

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be

talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then

another one. And nothing will change.

   

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come

together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about

the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children

and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native

American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that

tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look

like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not

those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in

a 21st century economy. Not this time.

   

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room

are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health

care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special

interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it

together.

   

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided

a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale

that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region,

every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the

real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take

your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas

for nothing more than a profit.

   

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and

creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under

the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home

from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've

been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by

caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they

have earned.

   

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my

heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this

country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after

generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today,

whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this

possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the

young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have

already made history in this election.

   

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with

today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr.

King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

   

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia

who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had

been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the

beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable

discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they

were there.

   

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got

cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and

lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's

when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

   

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so

Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really

wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish

sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

   

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told

everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was

so that she could help the millions of other children in the country

who want and need to help their parents too.

   

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told

her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks

who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming

into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in

her fight against injustice.

   

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and

asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have

different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And

finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there

quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he

does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or

the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say

that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone

in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

   

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of

recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is

not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs

to the jobless, or education to our children.

   

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And

as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the

two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that

document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

  

Oh dear, who do i apologize to for this little liberty? For the sake of decency and politeness to the chap in question he looks nothing like this! He's not green for a start!

via Instagram ift.tt/1RsvYBs

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels (approximately 340 acres) abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary (a designated New York City Landmark) helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library (a designated New York City Landmark) provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations (vereins) organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace (1826­1890) in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, (some orphans, others from difficult home situations) and sent them by train (“the Orphan Trains”) to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year (1890) the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895)37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse (1874-77, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages (published originally 1857) was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company (1865-72). These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn (1865, a designated New York City Scenic Landmark), Riverside, Illinois (1868-70), Morningside Park (1887-94, from earlier plans), and Riverside Park (1873-88).

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut (1865, with Olmsted), Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds (1867-72), the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington (1866), the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa (1873-79), and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1874-80) and the American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, both designated New York City Landmarks).

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford (dates undetermined), a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York (1881-4) and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York (1879-80). Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street (demolished). The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street (1883, demolished) and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B (1885, a designated New York City Landmark), and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street (1888, a designated New York City Landmark), and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School (1888-89, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School (1888-9, demolished) was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street (1890, demolished). The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women (later the National Florence Crittenton Foundation), it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses (East 12th Street), the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window (on the eastern bay) has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, was constructed in 1891-2 as a refuge for homeless girls by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS). Designed by renowned architect Calvert Vaux in a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable, this building was one of approximately twelve that the architect created for this organization in the 1880s and 90s. It was the only lodging house designed for girls and one of only a few surviving CAS buildings. The Children’s Aid Society was founded by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 to help New York’s poorest children improve their lives through education and the advantages of “home-like” living quarters. Brace believed that it was necessary to remove poor children from the bad influences of their environment, where they often had no one to care for them and no opportunities for education, in order to improve their lives and alleviate the crushing poverty of the city.

 

He was able to enlist many wealthy supporters and established a strong organization that continues to exist for the benefit of children and their families today. The Children’s Aid Society employed several approaches to achieve its goals, including sending orphan children to homes in the Midwest where they could enjoy the “benefits” of a home in a more rural setting, lodging houses for homeless children and industrial schools where they were trained for trades and employment. The Children’s Aid Society ran the Elizabeth Home in this building until 1930 when it was sold to Benjamin Lust, a practitioner of a natural “water cure” for illnesses, who coined the term naturopathy. In 1946, the building was purchased by the Florence Crittendon League and used again as a residence for girls without other places to live, called Barrett House. In 1984, the building changed ownership again and was converted to co-op apartments.

 

Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side.

 

Development of the East Village Area

 

Prior to the arrival of European fur traders and the Dutch West India Company, Manhattan and much of the modern-day tri-state area was populated by bands of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe. The Lenape traveled from one encampment to another with the seasons. Fishing camps were occupied in the summer and inland camps were used during the fall and winter to harvest crops and hunt. The main trail ran the length of Manhattan from the Battery to Inwood following the course of Broadway adjacent to present day City Hall Park before veering east toward the area now known as Foley Square. It then ran north with major branches leading to habitations in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side at a place called Rechtauck or Naghtogack in the vicinity of Corlears Hook. In 1626, Dutch West India Company Director Peter Minuit “purchased” the island from the Lenape for sixty guilders worth of trade goods.2

 

Under the Dutch, most inhabitants of New Amsterdam lived south of Fulton Street, where they could be close to each other for protection and close to the harbor for the essential shipping activities on which the colony depended. North of the settlement, many wealthy families owned large estates, used as farms and plantations and as country retreats, especially for those recurring times when epidemics threatened the crowded population on the island’s tip. The area now known as the Lower East Side and the East Village was divided into a series of large farms, which by the mid-eighteenth century were owned by three families: the Stuyvesants, Rutgers and De Lanceys.

 

The Rutgers property ran from Chatham Square to Montgomery Street between the East River shore and Division Street. The De Lancey holdings consisted of two large parcels (approximately 340 acres) abutting the Rutgers property on the north and east, acquired by Lieutenant Governor James De Lancey around 1741. Peter Stuyvesant, who came to the colony in 1647, owned a large working farm he called his Bowerie. It lay between present day 5th and 20th Streets, from Fourth Avenue to the East River.3 He owned about 40 slaves, most employed in farm work. This property remained in the ownership of Stuyvesant’s descendents for many years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Peter Stuyvesant’s grandson Gerardus still lived in the original family house. Gerardus’ sons, Petrus and Nicholas lived nearby and divided the property between them. Nicholas called his section Bowery while his brother’s was called Petersfield, and this area included the property on which the Elizabeth Home was constructed.

 

After slavery was outlawed in New York in 1827, many former slaves settled in several black enclaves, including that near the Bowery, another in Greenwich Village, and still another in the growing slum area that came to be known as Five Points. During the eighteenth century Greenwich Village had been a small rural hamlet, but also was the site of a number of summer estates for wealthy families from downtown Manhattan. Its population swelled during the large cholera and yellow fever epidemics that struck in the early nineteenth century. The 1830s brought a huge economic boom to New York, attracting many more people and a great need for more commercial space as well as housing. African-Americans and other poor people were forced northward as more land was opened to development for the upper classes.

 

The areas around Great Jones, Bleecker and Bond Streets were all being paved and built up with “genteel residences”4 while Lafayette Place and St. Mark’s Place developed into some of the city’s most fashionable addresses. Seeking to take advantage of this boom, Petrus Stuyvesant began to subdivide his property in the 1830s and sell lots for development in the 1840s. Many of the buyers of these lots were large landholders who purchased extensive property and built speculative homes here, waiting for the housing need to catch up. These individual houses were first rented, and then sold to middle class families.5 Middle class residents however, did not stay too long in this section.

 

By the 1850s, the population of New York soared, due primarily to an influx of European immigrants as well as newly-freed African-Americans who were drawn to Manhattan because of the availability of jobs.6 Immigrants had been arriving in New York continuously and already by 1825, over one fifth of the population of New York was foreign born. In the 1840s, many of these immigrants were Irish who started coming in large numbers looking for work after the collapse of Irish agriculture and the rapid industrialization that displaced many workers.

 

Germans had always had a strong presence in New York, but after the failed revolutions of 1848, 70,000 more arrived in New York, fleeing “land shortages, unemployment, famine and political and religious oppression.”7 Many were poor and unskilled and tried to find housing in Manhattan’s notorious slum known as Five Points but the Irish and free Blacks who were already there did not welcome them. Although they were all classified as German, this name covered a multitude of ethnicities, and people tended to subdivide themselves, preferring to live among others who came from the same native communities and regions. The German immigrants first congregated in the five-block span between Canal and Rivington Streets, but the newcomers were forced to look elsewhere as landlords continued to crowd more and more people into inhuman living conditions.

 

They moved northward, up the eastern side of Manhattan island, pushing out existing residents of this area, including the African-Americans who had been there.8 Some of the existing homes in what is now the East Village9 were subdivided or changed into boardinghouses, while others were torn down to make way for tenement buildings, constructed to fit more people into the same space. Eventually the area north of Division Street up to 18th Street and from Third Avenue to the East River filled with German immigrants until it became the third largest concentration of German speakers in the world.10 This section came to be known as Kleindeutschland, Little Germany, Dutchtown, or Deutschlandle and was “the first large immigrant neighborhood in American history that spoke a foreign language” and remained the major German-American center in the United States for the rest of the century.11

 

German businesses congregated near Broadway creating a lively commercial strip, while various German groups created institutions to remind them of home and to help ease their way in their new lives. The Staats-Zeitung was the most popular of many German language newspapers. The German Dispensary (a designated New York City Landmark) helped with the health needs of the community, while the Ottendorfer Branch of the Free Circulating Library (a designated New York City Landmark) provided books in their native tongue. Social and other support organizations (vereins) organized around a place of origin or a particular outlook or activity. German shooting clubs became popular12 as did clubs for music, such as the Aschenbroechel Verein. Beer gardens and dance halls such as Scheffel Hall (a designated New York City Landmark) provided places for lively entertainment.13

 

The City’s Poor

 

The poor German immigrants who lived in Kleindeutschland did not have the wherewithal to take advantage of these institutions. They could barely find a place to sleep and a way to feed their families.

 

Since its earliest years, New York has dealt with the poor and helpless among its population with a combination of benevolence and disdain. When the Dutch West India Company sent a group of Dutch orphans to the colony “to be bound out as apprentices and servants” in 1656, Peter Stuyvesant established the first public home for orphans and an “Orphan Masters’ Court.”14 Generally however, under the Dutch, religious organizations were expected to care for the city’s poor. Under the English, in 1693, the Common Council passed its first “poor rate” tax to enable them to distribute fuel, clothes, food and cash to the “deserving” poor and established an almshouse on Broad Street for those who were unable to care for themselves.15 A two-story brick building was constructed on the Common in 1736, housing a mix of the city’s poor along with the unruly as well as convicted criminals, all of whom were required to attend prayer services and work if they were physically able, so they would not be a “Burthen to the Publick.”

 

With time, the gap between the rich and poor grew, and increasing numbers of people needed financial help to overcome problems that were sometimes created by illness or the death of a spouse. The city provided more and more “outdoor relief” and also had to build more almshouses to accommodate the growing need. Religious and philanthropic organizations also helped, their efforts usually involving “education in the habits of self-discipline and the self-reliance necessary to survive in a wage-based economy… to instill prudence, decency, sobriety, thrift, punctuality” since poverty was usually seen as “moral turpitude, not misfortune.”17 In 1806, the Isabella Graham Society for the Relief of Poor Widows opened an orphanage where poor children “could be brought up to lead productive lives,” that eventually led to the formation of the Orphan Asylum Society.18

 

By the early nineteenth century, only half of all children in New York attended school even though the traditional apprenticeship system for learning trades and behavior no longer existed. Many children were caught stealing or engaging in otherwise disruptive behavior and the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents began in 1823 to try to deal with these problems. The first New York House of Refuge opened in 1825 to house children under sixteen years old, and the authorities used religion and education to try to redeem the children brought there.19

 

By the 1850s, conditions for the poor were only getting worse. The huge numbers of immigrants coming into New York increased the competition for jobs and housing, and crowded conditions led to higher rates of illness and crime. Efforts of groups such as the American Tract Society were comprised of preaching and giving away bibles, while the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor was able to attract the interest and donations of many of New York’s wealthiest citizens. They managed to get more needy people into almshouses on Blackwell’s Island, build a new one for the able-bodied poor, and get a new truancy law passed that enabled the police to round up delinquent children to get them off the streets.20

 

Children’s Aid Society

 

The Children’s Aid Society, another in a wide variety of efforts to deal with the problem of poor and uneducated children, was started by Charles Loring Brace (1826­1890) in 1853 and continued under his leadership for the next 37 years. Brace graduated from Yale University and studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary. After a trip to Europe, during which he traveled in England with Frederick Law Olmsted,21 Brace began serving with Rev. Pease at the Five Points Mission in 1852. He was discouraged that the traditional methods of outreach were not helping change the lives of the people he saw. He also was struck by the large numbers of boys and girls who apparently had nothing useful to do and no one to look after them, and who seemed to be headed only for lives of crime. He decided that the most effective way to change conditions for the poor was to reach these children and try to change their circumstances

 

He wanted to “help the helpless, neglected children of the city to help themselves to become good and useful citizens.”23 Typically, their families could not care for them and they were sent out on the streets to fend for themselves, or to find some way to bring money or food back home.24 Because they were small, they were often preyed on by unsavory types who sent them out to steal, or they sold things on the streets or helped organ grinders in their trade. Boys would steal, sell newspapers or hawk matches, while many girls were forced into prostitution. 25 Street gangs developed to offer some protection for these wretched children who often slept on steam grates or in the remains of burned out buildings.

 

Brace believed that if he could show these children that someone cared about them, educate them to have good habits such as industry and self-control, and help them achieve some basic skills, they could get jobs and improve their lives. He felt that “home life was better than institutions and that self-help was better than alms.”26

 

From its beginning, the work of the Children’s Aid Society involved several separate efforts. The most radical and well-known was “placing out.” Over the course of the first forty years, the organization took 97,738 children from New York, (some orphans, others from difficult home situations) and sent them by train (“the Orphan Trains”) to situations away from New York City, usually with “Christian families” in the Midwest where they were supposed to enjoy the benefits of a good home life in a rural setting. While some did in fact become essentially members of these families and benefitted from the experience, others were put to work in stores and on farms, in conditions close to indentured servitude. Brace felt that this effort was very positive because he believed that it was important to completely change the circumstances of these children’s lives in order to have a positive impact.

 

“The effort to place the children of the street in country families revealed a spirit of humanity and kindness, throughout the rural districts, which was truly delightful to see.”27

 

Since Brace could not remove every poor child from the bad influences of the city, he also made local efforts. These included the development of a series of lodging houses and industrial schools located around the city. The lodging houses were places a homeless child could come so he or she did not have to sleep on the street, with separate facilities for boys and girls. A young person could stay for a night or two if his difficulty was temporary, or he could stay for extended periods, and be assured of receiving food and a bath, as well as shelter. If they could pay, the children were asked for a small amount so that they felt they were paying their own way, rather than accepting charity, or they were asked to help with certain chores. These lodging houses eventually offered evening or morning classes to help the children with reading and writing, and specific skills that could help them gain employment.

 

The Newsboys’ Lodging House was opened in a building at Fulton and Nassau streets in 1854. The liveliness and ingenuity of the newsboys had a special resonance with Brace, who admired these qualities but felt they needed to be channeled into some productive enterprise. By 1928, the Children’s Aid Society ran seven lodging houses, located throughout the city.28

 

Brace saw that many poor children did not attend public school, either because they could not afford proper clothes, or because they had to work to help their families, so Brace established the Industrial Schools of the Children’s Aid Society to educate these children.29 The Industrial Schools taught reading and writing and character building, as well as skills such as carpentry for boys and cooking and laundering for girls. They also trained children to work on machines that might help them gain employment, such as sewing machines and typewriters, filling a gap left by the public schools. They provided clothes if needed, as well as a hot meal, and were non-sectarian. The Children’s Aid Society found that different groups had different needs, so they organized specific schools for Italian, German and “Colored” children, and later started medical and dental clinics for these children as well.

 

They became active in legislative efforts to promote their cause, such as working for the passage of the Compulsory Education Law of 1874. They started mothers’ groups to train them for this most important task, and day care centers for those who had to work. They eventually opened homes for sick and convalescing children, a school for crippled children, kindergartens, summer camps and playgrounds. While the Children’s Aid Society no longer runs lodging houses and schools, it continues to exist today, providing a variety of social services to New York children and their families.

 

Elizabeth Wheeler Home for Girls

 

The first lodging house for girls, called “The Girls’ Temporary Home,” was opened at 27 St. Mark’s Place in 1863 and during its first nine months, this building served 597 girls. The intention of this facility was to be “a resting place, a temporary home for any girl without friend or family in the city . . . to gain time to seek reputable employment” as well as a place where they could get help and advice.30 The Annual Report of the Children’s Aid Society of 1889 called this girls’ home “one of the most successful and economical of all the branches of the Society,” but noted that there was a great need for an additional building for this facility.31 In the Annual Report of the following year (1890) the writer was even more adamant. “. . . we feel deeply the lack of accommodations, and look forward earnestly to the time when, with increased facilities, much more can be accomplished.”32

 

They reported that during the previous year, there had been 15,533 lodgings in the house, 49,324 meals served, 45 girls trained on typewriters and 72 girls trained on sewing machines, with 178 girls sent to situations and employment.33

 

In July 1891, the property at 307 East 12th Street was purchased by Emily Wheeler and conveyed by her to the Children’s Aid Society.34 The home was given by Mary B. Wheeler, Mary B. Ceccarini and Emily B. Wheeler in memory of Elizabeth Davenport Wheeler.35 The Elizabeth Home was designed by the preeminent architectural firm of Vaux & Radford.36 The home opened with a festive dedication in 1892, and included dormitories as well as single bedrooms for girls, sitting rooms, a reading room, office, dining rooms and kitchen, and rooms fitted with sewing machines and typewriters.

 

Calvert Vaux

 

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895)37 was one of the most prolific and influential architects working in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. His picturesque buildings and romantic landscape designs were constructed in numerous cities and towns and his books had a wide-ranging audience, contributing to the vogue during this period for interesting and picturesquely styled buildings. Vaux, trained in architecture, landscape design and planning, came from England to the United States in 1850 to work with A. J. Downing in Newburgh, New York as a partner in his Bureau of Architecture. They specialized in the creation of picturesque English country houses and also began the planning of the grounds around many government buildings in Washington, D.C. After Downing’s death in 1852, Vaux began a partnership with Frank Clarke Withers, with whom he designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse (1874-77, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

Vaux’s book of house designs, Villas and Cottages (published originally 1857) was modeled on Downing’s highly popular Cottage Residences and became a standard for the genre.

 

Vaux relocated to New York City where, in 1858, he and Frederick Law Olmsted entered the competition for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence in the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, and the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. He went on to design numerous projects with Olmsted under the auspices of the landscape firm, Olmsted, Vaux and Company (1865-72). These included Prospect Park in Brooklyn (1865, a designated New York City Scenic Landmark), Riverside, Illinois (1868-70), Morningside Park (1887-94, from earlier plans), and Riverside Park (1873-88).

 

Vaux designed many public buildings, institutions and grounds in various cities. These included the Hartford Retreat for the Insane in Connecticut (1865, with Olmsted), Hudson River State Hospital and Grounds (1867-72), the Grounds for Gallaudet College in Washington (1866), the grounds of Parliament buildings in Ottawa (1873-79), and the park system for Buffalo, NY. With Jacob Wrey Mould, who had come earlier from England and contributed many designs for Central Park, Vaux developed a Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1874-80) and the American Museum of Natural History (1874-77, both designated New York City Landmarks).

 

Around 1873, Vaux began a partnership with George Kent Radford (dates undetermined), a civil engineer, that was to last for eighteen years. This partnership was formalized as the architectural division of Vaux & Co., Landscape Architects in 1876. In addition to numerous designs for the Children’s Aid Society during the last part of his career, Vaux designed a High Victorian Gothic townhouse for Samuel J. Tilden in New York (1881-4) and the grounds for Tilden’s country estate, Greystone, in Yonkers, New York (1879-80). Vaux had a long and varied career, from private homes for the wealthy to model tenements for the poor, from the landscape of individual estates, to the layout for entire cities. His designs helped establish the standard aesthetic of the late nineteenth century, both in building and landscaping and he is known as one of the founders of the field of landscape architecture.

 

Calvert Vaux and the Children’s Aid Society

 

Vaux became increasingly interested in the way architecture could be used to better the lives of unfortunate members of society and devoted much of the last part of his career to this cause. He was a careful observer of the first model tenement competition in 1879, sponsored by the journal, Plumber & Sanitary Engineer. In 1880, he designed a block of model tenements on First Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets for the Improved Dwellings Association. These apartments had windows in each room, central courtyards for improved air circulation and roof-top gardens for the residents.38

 

Calvert Vaux was a friend of Charles Loring Brace who lived in a house Vaux designed in Hastings, New York. By the late 1870s, Brace’s organization was successful and well-funded enough to want to construct its own lodging houses, in order to create the exact type of structure they needed. In 1879, Vaux designed their first purpose-built building, the East Side Boys’ Lodging House and Industrial School on East Broadway and Gouveneur Street (demolished). The picturesquely designed, 3 ½ story, brick and brownstone building had steeply pitched roofs and held dormitories, classrooms, and a well-furnished reading room as well as a dispensary and sick room. The free-standing building was a far cry from the dingy tenements of the area and was hailed in the press as “Christianity solidified in brick and mortar.”39

 

Vaux went on to design more than a dozen buildings for the Children’s Aid Society in New York, a very important part of his work. These included four lodging houses, among them the West Side Lodging House at Seventh Avenue and 32nd Street (1883, demolished) and the Tompkins Square Lodging House and Industrial School at 8th Street and Avenue B (1885, a designated New York City Landmark), and five industrial schools that had similar facilities without the beds. This latter type included the Mott Street Industrial School at 256-258 Mott Street (1888, a designated New York City Landmark), and the Fourteenth Ward Industrial School (1888-89, a designated New York City Landmark).

 

The 44th Street Lodging House for Boys and Industrial School (1888-9, demolished) was the first to display a large, front-facing, stepped gable. According to the Society’s 46th Annual Report of 1888, this element came from “an old Nuremburg house called the ‘Petersen’ building, [which] is one of the most picturesque in the city.”40 This lodging house was marked by steep gables, dormer windows and oriole towers, in keeping with Vaux’s intentions to create a home-like and visually interesting composition, but also was “appropriately reminiscent of the city’s Dutch heritage.”41 Most of Vaux’s buildings that were built in the following years employed this design element.

 

The Children’s Aid Society buildings were both domestic and institutional, intended to be an ornament to a part of the city the ugliness of which is particularly in need of some relief. It is a fortunate circumstance that the objects of the Children’s Aid Society require it to undertake its building operations in quarters where, but for its efforts, it is unlikely that there would be any architecture worth looking at or discussing.42

They were usually free-standing structures, with highly varied rooflines that provided visual interest and variety. Vaux believed that,

In any architectural design, the separate groups of forms may be, in themselves, attractive, or the building may be splendid in its general conception of masses, or rich in its varied and charming detail, but it will be defective as an architectural composition if it fails in its sky-line.43

 

Vaux’s rooflines were usually faced with slate or tile, and consisted of mansard roofs with steeply pitched towers, conical roofs or front-facing stepped gables. These buildings were built of brick and sandstone, common and inexpensive materials that were deemed to give a picturesque effect. Vaux tried to site them on corner lots because he felt that two perspectives gave him a chance to create a more interesting design. He used projecting oriels, large windows, dormers and chimneys in an attempt to create a home-like atmosphere for the neglected children who came here. Faithful to his earliest design theories, Vaux worked to evoke the imagery of a snug country inn in the middle of New York City.44 By varying the placement of the entrance as well as the size and placement of the window openings, he created a lively façade, ornamented solely with decorative brickwork such as string courses and recessed panels.

 

Design of the Elizabeth Home for Girls

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls, the last of this group designed by Vaux has the picturesque characteristics common to Vaux’s other designs although its 40-foot-wide, mid-block site required a more restrained composition. It has two asymmetrical sections, with the entrance sited off center, in the western side. The eastern section is topped by the typical stepped gable while the western side has a mansard roof with two dormer windows, a reverse arrangement from that of the House of Reception on West 23rd Street (1890, demolished). The windows are placed along continuous sills, providing some unity in a façade of varied window sizes, shapes and groupings. Unlike many of the other CAS buildings, this one has no projecting oriel window, but here the entrance is given special emphasis by its projecting surround topped by a balustraded balcony.

 

While not as elaborate as some of the other CAS buildings, the Elizabeth Home is a distinctive building that would have provided the sense of “hominess” so desired by both the architect and the organization. Located on a block of brick-fronted rowhouses, this building is obviously different, but not enough to be jarring. Rather, it continues to add interest and variety to the streetscape.

 

Subsequent History

 

In 1895, the Children’s Aid Society hired architects Clinton & Russell to create a two-story addition on the north of the building to house a laundry.45 Another alteration, in 1915, added bedrooms in three floors above this addition.46 In 1901, the Children’s Aid Society acquired the adjacent property at No. 311 East 12th Street and converted it into an addition to the Elizabeth Home.47

 

In 1930, the Society moved its operations to West 134th Street and sold both of these buildings to Dr. Benedict Lust, a promoter of natural healing.”48 Lust, a German immigrant with degrees in osteopathy and medicine, believed in natural healing, including a “water cure” and organized the Naturopathic Society of America. He established the American School of Naturopathy which offered a post-graduate curriculum in naturopathy, chiropractic, massage and physiotherapy.49

 

Upon Lust’s death, the buildings were purchased by the Florence Crittenton League and remodeled and reopened in 1948 as a private shelter for girls aged 16-21, called Barrett House.50 The Crittendon League was started in 1883 by Charles N. Crittenton, a wealthy New York drug supply manufacturer.51 Originally called the Florence Crittenton Rescue Home for Girls and Night Mission for Fallen Women (later the National Florence Crittenton Foundation), it was named after his late daughter and was established as a shelter for troubled and runaway young girls, many of whom were orphaned, and as a mission for women of ill repute. In the late 1880s, the group started a shelter and mission on Bleecker Street that gained renown for its midnight gospel readings. By the turn-of-the-century, the Crittenton Foundation operated in many large

 

U.S. cities and was expanding its services in New York. In 1913, the group relocated its headquarters to West 27th Street and in 1946 purchased the former Children’s Aid Society buildings in order to be able to care for more residents and offer expanded services. The home’s residents were generally referred there by courts, clinics and private agencies and given a variety of therapies to help them emotionally, while keeping them out of the House of Detention.

 

In 1982, the building was sold to a developer and in 1984 it was re-opened as co­op apartments.

 

Description

 

The Elizabeth Home for Girls is a four story brick-faced building set on a raised basement. Built originally on a street of townhouses (East 12th Street), the forty-foot-wide façade blends in by appearing to be two buildings. The western section is two bays wide and holds the building’s main entrance, in the eastern bay of the first story. The raised basement has a pair of large windows framed by a sandstone lintel and watertable and fronted by an iron grille, while the areaway is marked by a non-historic iron fence. The entrance, reached by a short concrete stairway with non-historic iron railings is emphasized by a projecting brick enframement embellished by small, terra-cotta ornament, string courses and globe lights. It is capped by a projecting hood supported on stone brackets. The entrance consists of a paneled door with a large glass light flanked by paneled side sections.

 

A plain, sandstone lintel separates it from the large, round-headed glass transom that is subdivided into small squares. A pair of plain rectangular windows on a continuous sill is in the western bay of the first story. The second story has a single window in the western bay and, in the eastern bay, is a double multi-light, non-historic door that leads to a small, balustraded balcony formed by the projecting hood over the entranceway. At the third story, two pairs of narrow, rectangular windows share a common sill and a smooth sandstone lintel. A simple, corbelled brick cornice separates the roof from the floor below. This section has a mansard roof pierced by two dormer windows with bell-shaped roofs and flanked on the western side by a stepped parapet wall that projects above the roof.

 

A tall, prominent chimney rises between the two sections. Its plain brick facing is marked by several narrow string courses. The section on the east is topped by a stepped, front-facing gable with a decorative sandstone molding that echoes the steps. Each floor contains grouped window openings linked by continuous sills and sometimes lintels. The fourth story has three, round-headed windows capped by a continuous, rounded brick molding. The third story has four evenly-spaced windows under a plain, continuous stone lintel, while the second story has two pairs of windows under stone lintels and a sill that runs across the entire section. There are five windows with transoms and a continuous stone sill and lintel at the first story, and two individual windows fronted by iron grilles at the basement level. A third window (on the eastern bay) has been converted to an entrance, with a non-historic door and light.

 

A broad sandstone lintel and watertable is located at the top of the basement level, creating a strong distinction between it and the rest of the building. A non-historic iron fence shields the areaway.

 

- From the 2008 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Session Americana and Peter Wolf playing at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge, MA.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wolf

www.peterwolf.com/

www.facebook.com/PeterWolfMusic?v=wall

Life and career

 

Wolf was born in the Bronx, New York. He planned a career as an artist, but he got a job in the late 1960s as a disc jockey on then-cutting edge Boston FM radio station WBCN and began exploring his interest in blues and rhythm and blues music, giving himself the nickname "the Wolfa Goofa", sometimes expanded to "the Wolfa Goofa with the Green Teeth" (as mentioned in the intro to "Must of Got Lost" on the Blow Your Face Out album). Later as solo artist he called himself Woofa Goofa Mama Toofa. He formed a group called the Hallucinations who performed with The Velvet Underground, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker, and Sun Ra. He then saw the J. Geils Blues Band in concert and quickly joined. He was the vocalist and frontman, and often acted as a sort of manager. Wolf was known for his charismatic stage antics of fast-talking quips and "pole-vaulting" with the microphone stand. He and keyboard player Seth Justman were responsible for most of the songwriting. Creative differences followed their Freeze-Frame album, causing the J. Geils Band and Peter Wolf to part ways in 1983.

 

Peter Wolf with the J. Geils Band in Candlestick Park, San Francisco, California Photo: Catharine Anderson

Wolf became a solo artist for the next 15 years, but in 1999 the J. Geils Band reunited for several appearances, with Wolf resuming his duties as lead vocalist. They separated again, and Wolf began touring once more, as a solo act.

Wolf's first solo record, Lights Out (1984) was produced by Michael Jonzun of the Jonzun Crew, features Adrian Belew, and has a somewhat funky, electro sound. The eponymous single became a hit single the same year, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. He recorded many duets with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Little Milton, John Lee Hooker, Don Covay, and Wilson Pickett to name just a few.

Long Line was co-produced with two musician friends, Johnny A. and a Bob Dylan backup band member, Stu Kimball. Tim Archibald (Bass) and Brian Maes (keys and backing vocals) who are both members of "Ernie And The Automatics", played on the record and Toured in support of "Long Line." His next two solo albums, Fool's Parade and Sleepless (the latter featuring guest appearances from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards), were both highly praised by Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone, receiving four-and-a-half and five stars, respectively. Sleepless (2002) was noted as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time in Rolling Stone issue 937. He has performed on stage with such diverse people as Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lesh.

Wolf toured in 2008 with Kid Rock and Rev. Run on The Rock N Roll Revival Tour. He performed "Love Stinks" solo with Kid Rock's band. Then he joined Kid Rock for "Ain't Too Proud to Beg", "Musta Got Lost", "Centerfold" (from the J. Geils album Freeze Frame) and "For What It's Worth".

The J. Geils Band re-united for a series of shows in 2009, including opening night at the Boston House of Blues.

Wolf's 2010 album Midnight Souvenirs won Album of the Year at the Boston Music Awards.[2][3]

 

www.facebook.com/pages/Session-Americana/53199003969

 

www.sessionamericana.com

www.myspace.com/sessionamericana

www.hi-n-dry.com/session_americana

www.exploitboston.com/music-musings/grab-new-music-from-s...

Session Americana - www.sessionamericana.com

 

This ad hoc acoustic supergroup started around a table at a small pub in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Conway, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting and other friends gathered to swap songs and stories. Their lively performances and inspired versions of tunes from the dusty backroads of America's past were such a hit with fans that they decided to take their musical conversation into the studio. The two-CD debut Tabletop People ups the ante with stellar appearances by folksinger Rose Polenzani, Twinemen's Laurie Sargent, Dennis Brennan, Asa Brebner, Merrie Amsterburg, Dan Kellar, Presidents of the United States' Chris Ballew, Jabe Beyer, Tim Gearon and other luminaries. And the 18 gritty, funny, soulful performances included span a gamut of emotions and tastes that should please both adult and younger listeners.

 

"Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard:...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston

and vocals that do the same"

— Performer Magazine

 

Session Americana sit tightly around a small cafe table, ambient mics tuned to catch the whole sound of the voices and instruments. A suit-case drum kit, an old electric bass, a bunch of acoustic instruments, a field organ: This format feels very theatrical and though the musicians face each other, the audience feels drawn into the circle by the warmth, joy and camaraderie that emanate outwards by the all star cast of characters seated around the table. What keeps you coming back show after show is the same thing that any audience member longs for, great songs performed by a great band. The six core members of the band have brought enviable careers worth of experience to the “table”, featuring (current and former) members of Treat Her Right, Patty Griffin, Lori McKenna, The The, Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst. The group has grown from a rag tag jam at a local pub to a regional institution, playing gigs from church coee houses to urban nightclubs to regional festival tents to large halls.

 

Band: Ry Cavanaugh, Billy Beard, Dinty Child, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples and Jon Bistline.

 

*Winner “2005 Best Folk Act” - The Boston Music Awards

*Winner “Best Roots Act 2006” - Improper Bostonian “Best of Boston” Issue

*Winner “Best CD” 2007 - Improper Bostonian

*Nominated “Best Roots Act” 2007 - WFNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll

*Nominated Best Live Act 2007 - The Boston Music Awards

*Nominated Best Americana Act 2008 - The Boston Music Awards

 

“Genius ... Jaw-dropping vocals ... Session Americana is blessed in this regard: ...musicianship that sets the standard for the genre in Boston and vocals that do the same”

— NE Performer Magazine

 

“No egos, no big production, just some great songs stripped down to their bare essentials and performed with a real genuineness of spirit and emotional authenticity... it’s beautiful.” (Brian Mosher)

— The Noise

 

“An eclectic, swinging tour de force” — The Boston Globe

 

“[This] local country-folk megagroup’s double CD is one of the most loose, spontaneous, warm, and homespun acts of community and decency since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken.”

 

— The Boston Phoenix

“the cream of the Somerville/Cambridge community" - No Depression (read less)

 

New Depths Of Shameful Destruction Of American Decency, Democracy & Justice - IMRAN™

Trump plumbs new depths to destroy American institutions like the U.S. Department of Justice. Matt Gaetz, under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly having **sex with a minor**, is Trump’s nominee for … drum roll and dirge for funeral march of justice in USA..… **Attorney General**.

 

#news #shame #Trump #DOJ #lawandorder #Republicans #criminals

Co. B, 9th KS. Cavalry

El Dorado Republican, Monday, Nov. 8, 1909, Pg. 2

Vol. XVII, No. 111

  

THOMAS BENTON MURDOCK

______

  

In 1841 Thomas Benton Murdock was born in the mountains of Virginia. He was one of five children, who lived to maturity, of Thomas Murdock and Katherine Pierrepont. From the mother’s side came the pride of the Pierreponts; from the father’s the insurgent instincts of the Irish Murdocks who left Ireland after the Irish rebellion failed in 1798. So, even though reared in the mountains among most simple people and most primitive surroundings, the Murdocks who have dominated Kansas for half a century have been proud soldiers of the militant democracy. They have been fighters who led naturally, by instinct and training but never fighters for the old order. They always were pioneers, always moving out into new territory of thought and action, looking forward. Thomas and Katherine Murdock could not endure the iniquity of slavery so in 1849 they freed their slaves and left the slave country for Ohio. They settled near Ironton but lost everything they had in the panic of 1855, and loaded their household goods on a boat, went down the Ohio to the Mississippi and journeyed as far west as Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. There the family spent the winter and the father went to Kansas and found a location. He brought his family to Topeka in the winter of ’56-’57. They rented a little hotel and kept tavern, among others having for guests, Jim Lane and A. D. Stevens, famous as a border fighter under Montgomery and afterwards killed at Harper’s Ferry under old John Brown. Going and coming in the little Kansas tavern of the Virginia abolitionist were the men who made Kansas free and famous in the great conflict that began at Lawrence and ended at Appomattox.

In this atmosphere of strife and patriotism young Benton Murdock, a youth in his late teens, grew up. In 1860 the family homesteaded at Forrest Hill, near Emporia, and the father and mother lived in Emporia the remainder of their lives; the father died in 1896 and the mother in 1887.

When the civil war broke out Thomas Benton Murdock enlisted with his father and brother, Roland, in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry and served until the end of the war. He served in the Rocky Mountains in ’63 and there met J. H. Betts, now of El Dorado. When they met seven or eight years later in El Dorado John Betts kept eying Murdock and finally said: “Say, aren’t you the chap that relieved me of that army overcoat out west?” Murdock’s company was confiscating government property where ever he found it. Murdock looked at Betts and replied: “Well I guess I am. But I’m here to start a newspaper. What’s the chance?”

“Bully,” returned Mr. Betts, willing to let bygones be bygones, and they have remained friends for forty years.

Returning from the army where he had gone snow blind on the plains—a calamity that hung over him of his later days—young Murdock who had been a hod carrier and general work man as a youth around Topeka, learned the printing trade. He worked in the office of Emporia News then owned by P. B. Plumb and Jacob Stotler who had married Leverah Murdock during the war. His brother Marshall who had worked at the printers trade during the war was running the Burlingame Chronicle at the end of war. Young Benton went back to Ironton, Ohio, married the sweetheart of his boyhood, Francis Crawford, and came to El Dorado, March 4, 1870, and founded the Walnut Valley Times with J. S. Danford. His wife lived only a few years leaving at her death their daughter Mary Alice.

From the first Mr. Murdock became a leader in politics in Kansas. He stood for the Walnut Valley and the Kingdom of Butler. In 1876 he was elected a member of the state senate. He served with such men as E. N. Morrill, Charles Robinson, J. M. Hadley, father of the present governor of Missouri, Benjamin F. Simpson, J. R. Hallowell, D. W. Finney, W. A. Johnston, new chief justice of Kansas, all members of the senate, while in the house were Lyman U. Humphrey, John Gilmore, A. W. Smith, L. B. Kellogg, P. P. Elder. His political career was fostered and guided by Mrs. Antoinette Culbreth-Murdock who for a generation has been wife, friend, comrade, guide and inspiration, who bore him five children of whom Ellina Culbreth only now is living. Mrs. Murdock survives him with his two children. In 1880 he ran for senate again but was unfairly defeated he thought. He sold the Times and moved to Topeka and became connected with the Topeka Daily Commonwealth, then controlled by the Baker family. But El Dorado held his heart and he returned in 1883 and founded the El Dorado Weekly Republican. The Daily followed the Weekly in 1884 and the paper at once took a prominent place in the affairs of Kansas.

Mr. Murdock was, during the late senator’s life time, a friend and ally of P. B. Plumb. He and Plumb were young men together in Emporia, thought alike and had much in common in training and in aspirations. And so after Plumb died the courage and independence and progressive Kansas spirit that made Plumb an insurgent who voted against the adoption of the McKinley bill, lived on Kansas through Mr. Murdock. He was politically always with the scouts, with the pioneers, ever with the skirmish line. It was the spirit of ’60 in his soul the rebellion of the ancestral Murdocks in his blood.

In 1888 he was again elected to the state senate. He served until 1892 and was on the committee that tried Theodosius Botkin and went over the old county seat troubles of western Kansas. He was defeated for re-election by the Populist wave, and until appointed fish and game warden by Governor Stubbs never held public office of any kind again.

But he was a public man all the time. His influence on the state has been more rather than less because of the fact that he was not in office. In every Republican state convention for forty years Mr. Murdock has been a power of the first class. Yet he sacrificed that power and worked for the primaries which put convention politicians out of power. He was never selfish, never little, never mean and so it happened that he was large enough to retain his influence in the state and multiply it through the primary. Gradually he has grown in strength with the people of Kansas, and since 1902—his last alignment with the old political machine—he has been easily the leader of the forward movement in Kansas Republicanism. Others have had the honor; but he has made them. He has expressed as no other man has been able to express it, the sentiment of popular protest against the wrongs of government by ring rule. He has been the voice of the people—an indignant people clamoring for a larger part in their state government.

He fought with arms for freedom in his youth; he offered his body then; he gave his life to freedom in this latest struggle, and fought with his spirit—a brave, successful fight.

As an editor he was equipped as few men are equipped—with an individual style. He expressed something more than an idea. He reflected an idea plus a strong, unique personality. He therefore in a way dramatized whatever he wrote—made it the spoken word of a combatant in the conflict, the defiance of a partisan in the contest. So thousands of people knew him as a voice, who did not know him as a man as we of his home have known him for forty years.

Here was his real life, his real friends, his real success. For before he was a Kansan he was a Butler county man, an El Dorado man. He always stood by the home folks. Of course he took part in local matters, and having taken part had to take sides. He was never neutral in any important contest here at home. But he always fought in the open, and he always fought fair. He never abused a man. He attacked causes, movements, orders, administrations, organizations and principles of his opponents—but the personal character of the men he opposed—there was the limit. He never returned abuse for abuse. He had no newspaper fights. He never made his personal enemies objects of newspaper ridicule. He had no office black list. Every man or woman in Butler county received exactly the same treatment from the Republican under Mr. Murdock that every other man or woman received, no matter whether he or she was friend or enemy. He strove always to be fair. Many is the politician in this county in the old days who has fought Mr. Murdock knowing he could always depend on Mr. Murdock to be fair, to keep to the issue, to be silent on old scores, to leave personal matters out of the question. Men have risen to power in this community opposing Mr. Murdock who have capitalized his innate decency, and have risen more by reason of his charity and humanity than by their own ability. He was a gentleman of the old school, was Thomas Benton Murdock, and that fact has given more power to those who opposed him often than their own worth should have given to them.

As his best qualities grew intenser, as people grew nearer to him, as they who knew him best here in his home community thought more of him than those who knew him in the state, so even better than they knew and loved him in the town, did they him in his home. Mr. Murdock was a home man clear to the core. Some men are least known at home. He was best known there, and best beloved. For there he showed always his best side. He kept the finest part of his heart and mind and soul for those who met him in his home. There he was in his kindest, his gentlest, his most human aspect. Home was his heaven. There he brought all his joy. There he left the world behind. When blindness threatened him, as it did for a quarter of a century off and on, it was in his home that he found his only solace. When enemies pursued him, when cares overcame him, when troubles compassed him about, he turned always up the hill—always homeward. There he drank the elixir of life, and returned full armed, anew and strong to the contest.

When his soul went out into the Greater soul that gave it, how lovingly he must have followed the last ride of his shattered clay tenement as it journeyed through the Kansas that he loved, down the West Branch into the Walnut Valley that loved him, up the hill through the gloaming into the home that was his first heaven. For it was a journey with a climax in love. And when those whom he knew best and loved best gathered about his wasted body of death, his soul triumphant in the new life must have felt glowing even through the dark veil the warmth of an affection too deep for words and tears.

So his last wish was granted. And after “taps” had sounded we left all that was mortal, only a withered husk of the exalted and risen soul of Thomas Benton Murdock under the prairie grass out in the sunshine. Sunshine and prairie grass—and the end.

______

 

T. B. Murdock in writing of the death of his brother, Marsh, January 3, 1908, said:

“There is no death. There are no dead. No waiting for the resurrection, in that it releases the spirit from the body. If there was a Christ, and there was, and if he said something while on earth, and he did, he said it to Martha at the grave of Lazarus: ‘Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.’ The immortal spirit of husband and father has passed through the shadow of the borderland of the shoreless river, ‘and his voice is drowned in the rushing tide.’

“He has Crost the Bar. His dying eyes had read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and passing soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning.”

 

Funeral Service

______

 

Funeral services over the late T. B. Murdock were held from the family home on Walnut Hill, Sunday afternoon, November 7, 1909. Reverend Dean Kay of Trinity Episcopal church, Topeka, conducted the service and very beautifully expressed, sincere and true were his thoughts on immortal life, his tribute on the personality of Mr. Murdock. He was assisted by Reverend I. Newton Roberts of the El Dorado Trinity Episcopal church.

The rooms were banked with exquisite flowers, tributes from friends in this city and from over the entire state. The house and lawns were filled with people.

Brief interment were held in the west cemetery and “in the shadow of the evening,” were closed with “the soul stirring simple sound—the trumpeting of “taps.”

The relatives of the family who were here to attend the funeral were: Mr. and Mrs. Paul Eaton, Victoria Eaton, Mrs. R. P. Murdock, Marcellus Murdock, E. T. Allen, Victor Murdock, of Wichita; Mrs. Jacob Stotler,; Miss Leverah Stotler, Mr. and Mrs. A. Pemberton, Irene Pemberton, Murdock Pemberton, Emporia, Mrs. Emma Brady, Chicago.

Those from out of town attending were:

George Plumb, J. S. Watson, P. B. McCabe, W. Thornton and J. S. Gibson of Emporia, comrades of Mr. Murdock in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry. J. S. Watson was Mr. Murdock’s “bunkie.”

Other distinguished attendants: Governor W. R. Stubbs, Senator J. L. Bristow of Salina; Frank MacLenan, editor of Topeka State Journal; John Dawson, attorney for State Board of Railroad Commissioners; Henry Allen, editor of the Wichita Beacon; Mayor Davison, Postmaster W. C. Edwards, Tom Biodget, editor Kansas Magazine, E. B. Jewett, J. R. Meade, Lock Davidson and John McGinis, of Wichita; William Allen White and wife of Emporia; J. W. Moore of Marion; Victor Hodgin, superintendent of the fish hatchery at Pratt; Dan McGowan, of Emporia; E. C. Newby of the Cottonwood Falls Leader, his wife and daughter, Pauline El Dorado; W. W. Bugbee, of New York and Augusta Kuster of Los Angeles, California.

  

Please read this statement from Victoria Stillwell on www.positively.com after leaked videos from the assessments filmed by the council and not available to the public were leaked onto a facebook page in order to justify the Judges decision. It has backfired, as you can see after reading Victoria's rebuttal to claims against her reputation one can only be more certain that a miscarriage of justice has occured and politics, prejudice and ignorance has won over truth.

 

"Today people all over the world will be lighting candles in honor of Lennox, who, if the courts have their way, will be put to death in less than a week by Belfast City Council. I have become personally involved in this case, both as an expert and as an advocate for decency and humanity. Certain individuals and organizations have been engaged in a last desperate attempt to refute the evidence given by experts, who actually met and evaluated Lennox, and myself, who viewed all the footage of these assessments. I have been informed that a tiny part of David Ryan’s assessment where Lennox reacted to feeling threatened has now been taken out of context and released by itself as ’evidence’ that Lennox is a dangerous dog. I will explain Lennox’s behavior at that point in a moment, but what I want to stress is what is NOT shown, which is the rest of David Ryan’s hour long evaluation where Lennox allows a complete male stranger, David Ryan, to handle him, tease him, walk him, sit by him, lead him and touch him without any negative reaction whatsoever. In fact during this time Lennox was giving all kinds of pacification signals, choosing to turn away from David when he felt uncomfortable, rather than bite, maul or attack him. There has been so much misinformation and ignorance surrounding this case from the start, because unless you fully understand dog communication and signals it is easy to miss, as all of these people have, everything that Lennox is trying to communicate.

 

In my official report I stated: ‘Lennox showed a number of deference behaviours including turning his head away, licking his lips, turning his body and walking away, in response to David Ryan’s attempts to frustrate him. This is an impressive trait in any dog and shows a dog using submissive behaviour rather than offensive behaviour to cope in what is a relatively stressful situation.’

 

At one point Lennox lunged at David Ryan, the piece of video that has been released in a sad attempt, by those against Lennox and the campaign to free him, to show what a dangerous dog he is. This has in actual fact back-fired, because now it gives me no choice but to comment, as an expert with fifteen years experience of canine behavior and ten years of working with all breeds including pit bull types in the United States, on that particular reaction, that I included in my statement to the courts.

 

My report continued: ‘If a dog, that would rather practice avoidance and take himself away from threat, is unable to do so and the threat comes closer and does not allow the dog any chance to escape, the dog has no other choice but to respond defensively. Lennox reacted defensively when David Ryan approached him and Lennox was stuck between two chairs and the wall with nowhere to go to. He tried to get away but when this failed he lunged defensively at David Ryan. Even though this was a defensive gesture, Lennox still showed incredible impulse control and bite inhibition. A dog is faster than the fastest Olympic athlete when it comes to response time. If Lennox intended to harm David Ryan he could have easily bitten him while he lunged, before Mr. Ryan had time to react, but Lennox chose to warn him (a complete stranger) out of his space instead, rather than inflict harm, and this was impressive to see…… Lennox showed impressive restraint and lunged at David Ryan with the intent to warn him to go away from him, without harming him. ‘

 

You see, this is essentially what people do not understand. Behind every growl, snap, lunge etc is a dog signalling its intent. The intent is to warn someone or something out of its space. Aggression serves an important function, to increase distance, to get the threat to move away. Some dogs, especially those that have been dominated, suppressed or abused by a human, learn by that mishandling to not give these warning signals and suppress these signals, going straight to bite. These dogs are made dangerous because of what humans teach them in their attempt to curb unwanted behavior. The dogs that warn instead of going to bite are less dangerous because they are signaling their intent first. If this warning is not heeded, they will lunge or try another way of getting that someone to move away from them, still without intent to harm. This is what Lennox had no choice but to do. Believe me, he could have inflicted a lot of harm on David if he was truly the dangerous dog that some people believe he is and instead Lennox chose not to bite, maul, attack or inflict damage in any way, shape or form. He lunged and barked at David instead. When that was done, Lennox continued to show many appeasement and pacification signals as well as signaling his stress, such as lip licking and turning his head and body away.

 

I also witnessed Sarah Fisher’s assessment on Lennox and, again, most of her assessment won’t be shown because the world would then see how impressive Lennox was with yet another complete stranger handling him. At one point Lennox started playing with the leash, something that many bored dogs do, regardless of breed. At no point did he threaten Sarah, try to bite her or become aggressively aroused when she pulled the leash away from him and he released the leash when he was asked to. The prosecution’s ‘expert’, Peter Tallack, a police dog handler, was apparently dismissive of the majority of Fisher’s report, saying that she did not ‘challenge’ the dog enough and was more focused on building a rapport with the dog. In his ruling, the judge in this case showed yet another flaw in the execution of BSL, in that he clearly is not aware of the basics of dog behavior and basically decided to believe that Tallack’s confrontational approach rather than Fisher’s experienced and scientificially-based methodology was more influential in his decision-making.

 

The judge basically had a choice to make: do I believe the police dog handler on the payroll of the state as a government employee, or a learned and internationally respected dog behaviorist with extensive experience regarding dog aggression. He apparently fixated on the fact that due to Britain’s BSL laws, she had little experience working with actual pit bull type dogs, finding that to be a major flaw in her credibility and authority. Yet again, this shows an ignorance at the heart of the problems with BSL: to conduct a behavioral assessment of a pit bull type dog does not require any special training or experience other than what would be required for any other breed of dog. Yes, they are a strong breed, but I have no doubt that Fisher has worked with countless larger dogs, including other bully breeds types, capable of inflicting as much or more harm than the strongest pit bull could.

 

The judge based his decision that Lennox was a threat to society on stereotypes, misleading ‘expert’ reports, and his own apparent distrust of strong dogs. In his ruling, Judge Rodgers repeatedly refers to an episode where Lennox jumped up on and knocked back the dog warden who came to confiscate him. Court records indicate that two other animal control employees witnessed this. Even though the actual behavioral cause and effect of such an action can almost always be successfully and appropriately explained, the main point here is that a person such as Judge Rodgers, who is unqualified to analyze dog behavior, can easily and mistakenly draw incorrect conclusions regarding the severity, motivation for and circumstances surrounding such behavior. If all dogs who jump up on strangers in their house were guilty of being dangerous dogs, there would not be many dogs left in homes. To fixate on this occurrence and point to it as further proof of Lennox’s dangerousness is reckless and misguided.

 

Every person can form and will form an opinion on a snapshot of behaviour they see, taken out of context and misunderstood by ignorance. Both David Ryan and Sarah Fisher have stated that Lennox is not a dangerous dog and I will stand by their cumulative years of expertise in the field of canine behavior, rather than listen to those who, through no fault of their own, cannot read or misunderstand canine ‘language.’

 

In the 18 months since Lennox was taken from his family and put in a stressful environment and situation away from those he trusted and loved most, he has been a pawn in a political game that serves to take a flawed piece of legislation, such as BSL, to an all time disgraceful level. BSL makes innocent dogs the criminals because of how they look, regardless of their actual temperament. Your money, taxpayers’ money, is being spent by councils to seek out and confiscate these breed types, taking innocent family members away from their families, rather than tackling the real issue of dangerous dogs. If Belfast City Council and other governments like it really want to keep a community safe, go after the irresponsible owners who either raise their dogs in a violent manner, do not socialize them or integrate them into society in any way, allow their dogs to wander off leash and do not heed any warning signs or make any attempt to curb aggressive behavior. Seek to penalize them to the full extent of the law, and protect your citizens by addressing the issue of dangerous dogs of all breeds, not spending your tax payers’ money on taking innocent dogs away from their families because of the way they look.

 

There are two sides to any story and there are always things that are said out of sadness, anger, frustration and pain. I do not condone violence or threatening behavior of any sort to any persons involved in this case. But whatever continues in the human battle over this issue, my frustration lies with the fact that regardless what has been said, the true experts’ opinions in Lennox’s case have been thrown over for behavioral opinions that were given by the prosecution’s expert Peter Tallack, even though he stated himself that he was not brought on to do a ‘behavioural test or assessment’ of Lennox, but to assess only whether Lennox was of pit bull type or not. He himself admitted that the ‘circumstances in which Lennox is being examined are not ideal’ and in this he was absolutely right. Even if he was brought onto do a behavioral assessment, you cannot do a proper assessment or get a true picture of behavior of any dog in or around the vicinity of the kennel where that dog is being confined and where it is experiencing fear, stress and confusion. To get a true picture of behavior tests should be done in all different environments and situations including confined spaces, the home environment, and other indoor and outdoor locations, on and off leash and different times of the day. As he stated, his examination was ‘90% physical conformation and only 10% behavioural’ and therefore his findings were, ‘based on how Lennox looks and not how he behaves,’ yet his statements on Lennox’s behavior under thephysical examination he was supposed to be conducting, were upheld and championed as key components of the judge’s decision to euthanize Lennox. I agree with those who say that you cannot predict future behavior in any animal just as you cannot predict it in any human. The judge also fixated on the concept that the dog is unpredictable. What dog isn’t? What animal isn’t unpredictable? If a dog is truly dangerous then I want that dog off the streets as much as the next person, but Lennox has been so unfairly treated in this case because of the situation that he was taken, the stress he has had to endure since his confinement and now the cruelty of those who seek to destroy him and his family with malicious particularly over social media, that someone needs to highlight the fact that from the start, Lennox was never given a fair chance. This case was decided the day Lennox was taken from his family in May 2010.

 

I myself have been threatened in different ways by supporting Lennox and his family, but that is what fear does. In order to hide the truth and serve a purpose, people will use intimidation tactics to scare others away, in an attempt to stop the truth from coming out. To the few that use threats against me and others, there are millions of people around the world singing with one voice. I am not alone, but am supported by those millions that are sick of seeing these witch hunts take place, when the real issue of dangerous dogs is not being addressed and people are still getting hurt or losing their lives to dog attacks because of irresponsible ownership. BSL tackles the wrong end of the leash and we should be putting our efforts into stopping future attacks by actual dangerous dogs, rather than putting the focus on taking animals away from their families because of the way they look.

 

Lennox is scheduled to be euthanized in a few days. Chances for overturning the verdict are slim, and having read the judge’s official opinion in the case, I hold very little hope that he will recognize he has let his personal feelings about this issue cloud his decision-making process. He has chosen to rely on people unqualified to correctly assess and describe the true nature of certain events relating to dog behavior. We will campaign for justice throughout Lennox’s life and beyond. We must learn from this and make Lennox and his family’s struggle a rallying cry for change."

  

UPDATE Sarah Fisher to issue statement about Lennox after edited clips of her assessment filmed by council wardens of Lennox posted onto Facebook.

   

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters

Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition

But the enemy I see

Wears a cloak of decency

All nonbelievers and men stealers talkin’ in the name of religion

And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend

Estoy aquí y le doy de comer a los cisnes. Exactamente después de 5 minutos, vuelve a aparecer un espía del servicio secreto de Alemania Occidental y (como siempre) comienza a filmar con mi teléfono inteligente. Justo en mi cara. Funciona todos los días. La mujer tiene una cara estúpida, unos 45 años, ojos azules, cabello rubio oscuro y delgado. Se bebe con vino caliente.

La comida decorativa para pájaros está hecha para cisnes, pero no tiene cisnes en el envase, sino flamencos que no viven aquí. Las gaviotas de cabeza negra ya no pueden sentarse en el muelle de vapor porque la sociedad de vapor es demasiado vaga y tiene bandas de aleteo colgadas allí. Pero no hacen nada contra los manifestantes de los padres del estado.

Gaviotas de cabeza negra, patos silvestres, palomas, gansos de ganso silvestre y cisnes se comen aquí. Pero los cisnes también están alimentando a otros ciudadanos ordenados que no están aquí como espías y espían a las personas. Los cisnes están hartos hoy, pero tienen que llenarse porque saben que habrá menos comederos nuevamente.

Llega una mujer hermosa y me sonríe, lo que creo que es genial. Ella es rubia y tiene lentes.

Los autobuses y tranvías están llenos y muchos de ellos son estúpidos porque dejan espacio sin decencia. ¿Por qué tengo una tarjeta de suscripción cuando no puedo ir conmigo?

De lo contrario, las personas son socialmente poco atractivas y aburridas. Solo les interesa mostrar cosas y autos con vino caliente. Te miran como si no fueras uno de ellos. Un niño está arrasando contra una bicicleta de alquiler.

 

---

 

Ich bin hier unf füttere Ziervogelfutter für die Schwäne. Exakt nach 5 Minuten kommt wieder ein Spitzel vom Westdeutschen Geheimdienst und fängt (wie immer) mich gleich an mit dem Smartphone an zu filmen. Direkt in mein Gesicht. Jeden Tag geht das. Die Frau hat ein dümmliches Gesicht, 45 Jahre alt ungefähr, blaue Augen, dünnes, dunkelblondes Haar. Betrinkt sich mit Glühwein.

Das Ziervogelfutter ist für Schwäne gemacht, hat aber keine Schwäne auf der Verpackung, sondern Flamingos, die hier nicht leben. Die Lachmöven können nicht mehr Dampferkai sitzen, weil die Dampfergesellschaft zu faul ist und dort Flatterbänder aufgehängt hat. Gegen Randalierer von Staatseltern machen die aber nichts.

Lachmöven, Stockenten, Stadttauben, Graugänse und Schwäne essen sich durch mich hier satt. Aber auch andere, ordentliche Bürger, die nicht hier als Spitzel stehen und die Leute feindlich ausspähen, füttern die Schwäne heute auch. Die Schwäne sind heute satt, aber müssen sich vollstopfen, weil sie wissen, dass es dann wieder weniger Fütterer geben wird.

Eine schöne Frau kommt an und lächelt mich an, was ich toll finde. Sie ist blond und hat eine Brille.

Die Busse und Straßenbahnen sind voll und dazu sind viele von denen Dumm, weil ohne Anstand Platz zu machen. Wozu hat man eine Abo-Karte, wenn man nicht mitfahren kann?

Sonst sind die Leute sehr sozial unattraktiv und langweilig. Die interessieren sich nur für das Zeigen von Sachen und Autos mit Glühwein. Die schauen einen an, als wenn man nicht zu denen gehören würde. Ein Kind tritt randalierend voll gegen ein Leihfahrrad.

 

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Я здесь и кормлю птицу кормом для лебедей. Ровно через 5 минут снова приходит шпион из западногерманской секретной службы и (как всегда) начинает снимать меня с моего смартфона. Прямо в моем лице. Это работает каждый день. У женщины глупое лицо, около 45 лет, голубые глаза, тонкие темные светлые волосы. Пьет сам с глинтвейном.

Декоративная пища для птиц сделана для лебедей, но на упаковке нет лебедей, а есть фламинго, которые здесь не живут. Черноголовые чайки больше не могут сидеть на причале парохода, потому что пароходное общество слишком лениво и там повешены трепетные полосы. Но они ничего не делают против мятежников государственных родителей.

Черноголовые чайки, кряквы, голуби, серые гуси и лебеди питаются здесь. Но лебеди также кормят других простых граждан, которые здесь не шпионы и не шпионят за людьми. Сегодня лебедям надоело, но им приходится набивать себя, потому что они знают, что кормушек снова будет меньше.

Приходит красивая женщина и улыбается мне, что я считаю великолепным. Она блондинка и носит очки.

Автобусы и трамваи переполнены, и многие из них глупы, потому что они освобождают место без приличия. Почему у меня есть подписная карточка, когда я не могу пойти со мной?

Иначе люди очень социально непривлекательны и скучны. Их интересует только показ вещей и машин с глинтвейном. Они смотрят на тебя, как будто ты не один из них. Ребенок неистовствует против проката велосипедов.

 

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我在这里为天鹅喂鸟饲料。恰好5分钟之后，西德情报局的一名间谍再次出现，并且（一如既往）开始用我的智能手机拍摄我。就在我脸上这个女人每天都有工作，这个女人有一张愚蠢的面孔，大约45岁，蓝眼睛，稀疏的金色金发。用热红酒喝酒。

装饰性鸟类食品是为天鹅制成的，但包装上没有天鹅，但这里不生活着火烈鸟。黑头鸥不能再坐在轮船码头上了，因为轮船社会太懒惰了，那里悬挂着颤动的带子。但是他们并没有对暴动的州亲父母做任何事情。

黑头鸥，野鸭，鸽子，灰雁和天鹅在这里吃饱。但是天鹅也养活了其他普通民众，他们不是这里的间谍和间谍。天鹅今天已经受够了，但是不得不塞满自己，因为他们知道再有更少的饲养者。

一个美丽的女人到来并对我微笑，我认为这很棒。她是金发，戴着眼镜。

公共汽车和有轨电车已满，许多人愚蠢，因为他们腾出的空间不雅致。为什么我不能和我一起去时有订阅卡？

否则，人们在社交上就没有吸引力并且很无聊。他们只对展示带有甜酒的东西和汽车感兴趣。他们看着你，好像你不是其中之一。一个孩子正对出租自行车狂奔。

 

---

 

나는 여기에 백조를 위해 새 사료를 먹입니다. 정확히 5 분 후에 서독 비밀 서비스의 스파이가 다시 와서 항상 스마트 폰으로 나를 촬영하기 시작합니다. 내 얼굴에 여자는 약 45 세의 멍청한 얼굴, 파란 눈, 얇고 어두운 금발 머리를 가지고 있습니다. mulled 와인으로 자신을 마신다.

장식용 새 음식은 백조를 위해 만들어졌지만 포장에 백조가 없지만 여기에 살지 않는 홍학이 있습니다. 기선 사회가 너무 게으르고 설레는 띠가 있기 때문에 검은 머리 갈매기는 더 이상 기선 부두에 앉을 수 없습니다. 그러나 그들은 주 부모들의 폭동에 대해 아무것도하지 않습니다.

검은 머리 갈매기, 청둥 오리, 비둘기, greylag 거위 및 백조가 이곳에서 먹습니다. 그러나 백조는 또한 스파이와 스파이로 여기에없는 다른 일반 시민들에게 먹이를주고 있습니다. 백조는 오늘 먹이를 먹지만 피더가 더 적을 것이라는 것을 알고 있기 때문에 스스로 먹어야합니다.

아름다운 여인이 도착하고 미소를지었습니다. 그녀는 금발이며 안경이 있습니다.

버스와 시가 전차는 가득 차 있고, 많은 사람들은 고요함없이 방을 만들기 때문에 바보입니다. 나와 함께 갈 수 없는데 왜 가입 카드가 있습니까?

그렇지 않으면 사람들은 사회적으로 매력적이지 않고 지루합니다. 그들은 mulled 와인으로 사물과 자동차를 보여주는 데에만 관심이 있습니다. 그들은 당신이 그들 중 하나가 아닌 것처럼 당신을 봅니다. 어린이가 자전거 대여에 반대하고 있습니다.

 

---

 

I am here and feed the bird feed for the swans. Exactly after 5 minutes a spy from the West German secret service comes again and (as always) starts filming me with my smartphone. Right in my face. It works every day. The woman has a stupid face, about 45 years old, blue eyes, thin, dark blonde hair. Drinks himself with mulled wine.

The decorative bird food is made for swans, but has no swans on the packaging, but flamingos that do not live here. The black-headed gulls can no longer sit on the steamer quay because the steamer society is too lazy and has flutter bands hung there. But they don't do anything against rioters of state parents.

Black-headed gulls, mallards, pigeons, greylag geese and swans eat their fill here. But the swans are also feeding other ordinary citizens who are not here as spies and spy on people. The swans are fed up today, but have to stuff themselves because they know that there will be fewer feeders again.

A beautiful woman arrives and smiles at me, which I think is great. She is blonde and has glasses.

The buses and trams are full and many of them are stupid because they make room without decency. Why do I have a subscription card when I can't go with me?

Otherwise people are very socially unattractive and boring. They are only interested in showing things and cars with mulled wine. They look at you as if you weren't one of them. A child is rampaging against a rental bike.

 

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私はここにいて、白鳥のために鳥の餌を食べます。ちょうど5分後、西ドイツのシークレットサービスからのスパイが再び来て、（いつものように）スマートフォンで私を撮影し始めます。私の顔に。女性は、約45歳、青い目、細い、暗いブロンドの髪の愚かな顔をしています。グリューワインを飲みます。

装飾的な鳥の餌は白鳥用に作られていますが、包装には白鳥はありませんが、ここには生息しないフラミンゴがいます。汽船社会はあまりにも怠zyであり、そこにフラッターバンドがぶら下がっているので、黒頭カモメはもはや汽船岸壁に座ることができません。しかし、彼らは州の両親の暴徒に対して何もしません。

黒頭のカモメ、マガモ、ハト、ハイイロガン、白鳥がここで食べます。しかし、白鳥はまた、ここにいない他の普通の市民にスパイや人をスパイしている。白鳥は今日うんざりしているが、彼らは再びより少ないフィーダーがあることを知っているので、自分で詰めなければならない。

美しい女性が到着し、私に微笑みます。それは素晴らしいと思います。彼女は金髪で、眼鏡をかけています。

バスと路面電車は満員であり、それらの多くは愚かさのない部屋を作るので愚かです。一緒に行けないのに、なぜサブスクリプションカードを持っているのですか？

そうでなければ、人々は非常に社会的に魅力的で退屈です。彼らは、グリューワインのあるものや車を見せることにのみ興味を持っています。彼らはあなたを彼らの一人ではないかのように見ます。子供がレンタル自転車に暴れ回っている。

Germany's energy crisis threatens a family-run business:

youtu.be/YwNPpw3xb-4

 

The Duran: Putin delivers confident Federal assembly speech, suspense start nuclear treaty:

youtu.be/fGQF_tvIhb0

 

en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70565

 

Presidential Address to Federal Assembly

Vladimir Putin delivered his Address to the Federal Assembly. The ceremony took place in Gostiny Dvor, Moscow.

February 21, 2023 13:50

 

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon,

 

Members of the Federation Assembly – senators, State Duma deputies,

 

Citizens of Russia,

 

This Presidential Address comes, as we all know, at a difficult, watershed period for our country. This is a time of radical, irreversible change in the entire world, of crucial historical events that will determine the future of our country and our people, a time when every one of us bears a colossal responsibility.

 

One year ago, to protect the people in our historical lands, to ensure the security of our country and to eliminate the threat coming from the neo-Nazi regime that had taken hold in Ukraine after the 2014 coup, it was decided to begin the special military operation. Step by step, carefully and consistently we will deal with the tasks we have at hand.

 

Since 2014, Donbass has been fighting for the right to live in their land and to speak their native tongue. It fought and never gave up amid the blockade, constant shelling and the Kiev regime’s overt hatred. It hoped and waited that Russia would come to help.

 

In the meantime, as you know well, we were doing everything in our power to solve this problem by peaceful means, and patiently conducted talks on a peaceful solution to this devastating conflict.

 

This appalling method of deception has been tried and tested many times before. They behaved just as shamelessly and duplicitously when destroying Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. They will never be able to wash off this shame. The concepts of honour, trust, and decency are not for them.

 

Over the long centuries of colonialism, diktat and hegemony, they got used to being allowed everything, got used to spitting on the whole world. It turned out that they treat people living in their own countries with the same disdain, like a master. After all, they cynically deceived them too, tricked them with tall stories about the search for peace, about adherence to the UN Security Council resolutions on Donbass. Indeed, the Western elites have become a symbol of total, unprincipled lies.

 

We firmly defend our interests as well as our belief that in today’s world there should be no division into so-called civilised countries and all the rest and that there is a need for an honest partnership that rejects any exclusivity, especially an aggressive one.

 

We were open and sincerely ready for a constructive dialogue with the West; we said and insisted that both Europe and the whole world needed an indivisible security system equal for all countries, and for many years we suggested that our partners discuss this idea together and work on its implementation. But in response, we received either an indistinct or hypocritical reaction, as far as words were concerned. But there were also actions: NATO’s expansion to our borders, the creation of new deployment areas for missile defence in Europe and Asia – they decided to take cover from us under an ‘umbrella’ – deployment of military contingents, and not just near Russia’s borders.

 

I would like to stress –in fact, this is well-known – that no other country has so many military bases abroad as the United States. There are hundreds of them – I want to emphasise this – hundreds of bases all over the world; the planet is covered with them, and one look at the map is enough to see this.

 

The whole world witnessed how they withdrew from fundamental agreements on weapons, including the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles, unilaterally tearing up the fundamental agreements that maintain world peace. For some reason, they did it. They do not do anything without a reason, as we know.

 

Finally, in December 2021, we officially submitted draft agreements on security guarantees to the USA and NATO. In essence, all key, fundamental points were rejected. After that it finally became clear that the go-ahead for the implementation of aggressive plans had been given and they were not going to stop.

 

The threat was growing by the day. Judging by the information we received, there was no doubt that everything would be in place by February 2022 for launching yet another bloody punitive operation in Donbass. Let me remind you that back in 2014, the Kiev regime sent its artillery, tanks and warplanes to fight in Donbass.

 

We all remember the aerial footage of airstrikes targeting Donetsk. Other cities also suffered from airstrikes. In 2015, they tried to mount a frontal assault against Donbass again, while keeping the blockade in place and continuing to shell and terrorise civilians. Let me remind you that all of this was completely at odds with the documents and resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council, but everyone pretended that nothing was happening.

 

Let me reiterate that they were the ones who started this war, while we used force and are using it to stop the war.

 

Those who plotted a new attack against Donetsk in the Donbass region, and against Lugansk understood that Crimea and Sevastopol would be the next target. We realised this as well. Even today, Kiev is openly discussing far-reaching plans of this kind. They exposed themselves by making public what we knew already.

 

We are defending human lives and our common home, while the West seeks unlimited power. It has already spent over $150 billion on helping and arming the Kiev regime. To give you an idea, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the G7 countries earmarked about $60 billion in 2020–2021 to help the world’s poorest countries. Is this clear? They spent $150 billion on the war, while giving $60 billion to the poorest countries, despite pretending to care about them all the time, and also conditioning this support on obedience on behalf of the beneficiary countries. What about all this talk of fighting poverty, sustainable development and protection of the environment? Where did it all go? Has it all vanished? Meanwhile, they keep channelling more money into the war effort. They eagerly invest in sowing unrest and encouraging government coups in other countries around the world.

 

The recent Munich Conference turned into an endless stream of accusations against Russia. One gets the impression that this was done so that everyone would forget what the so-called West has been doing over the past decades. They were the ones who let the genie out of the bottle, plunging entire regions into chaos.

 

According to US experts, almost 900,000 people were killed during wars unleashed by the United States after 2001, and over 38 million became refugees. Please note, we did not invent these statistics; it is the Americans who are providing them. They are now simply trying to erase all this from the memory of humankind, and they are pretending that all this never happened. However, no one in the world has forgotten this or will ever forget it.

 

None of them cares about human casualties and tragedies because many trillions of dollars are at stake, of course. They can also continue to rob everyone under the guise of democracy and freedoms, to impose neoliberal and essentially totalitarian values, to brand entire countries and nations, to publicly insult their leaders, to suppress dissent in their own countries and to divert attention from corruption scandals by creating an enemy image. We continue to see all this on television, which highlights greater domestic economic, social and inter-ethnic problems, contradictions and disagreements.

 

I would like to recall that, in the 1930s, the West had virtually paved the way to power for the Nazis in Germany. In our time, they started turning Ukraine into an “anti-Russia.”

 

Actually, this project is not new. People who are knowledgeable about history at least to some extent realise that this project dates back to the 19th century. The Austro-Hungarian Empire and Poland had conceived it for one purpose, that is, to deprive Russia of these historical territories that are now called Ukraine. This is their goal. There is nothing new here; they are repeating everything.

 

The West expedited the implementation of this project today by supporting the 2014 coup. That was a bloody, anti-state and unconstitutional coup. They pretended that nothing happened, and that this is how things should be. They even said how much money they had spent on it. Russophobia and extremely aggressive nationalism formed its ideological foundation.

 

Quite recently, a brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was named Edelweiss after a Nazi division whose personnel were involved in deporting Jews, executing prisoners of war and conducting punitive operations against partisans in Yugoslavia, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Greece. We are ashamed to talk about this, but they are not. Personnel serving with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ukrainian National Guard are particularly fond of chevrons formerly worn by soldiers from Das Reich, Totenkopf (Death’s Head) and Galichina divisions and other SS units. Their hands are also stained with blood. Ukrainian armoured vehicles feature insignia of the Nazi German Wehrmacht.

 

Neo-Nazis are open about whose heirs they consider themselves to be. Surprisingly, none of the powers that be in the West are seeing it. Why? Because they – pardon my language – could not care less about it. They do not care who they are betting on in their fight against us, against Russia. In fact, anyone will do as long as they fight against us and our country. Indeed, we saw terrorists and neo-Nazis in their ranks. They would let all kinds of ghouls join their ranks, for God’s sake, as long as they act on their will as a weapon against Russia.

 

In fact, the anti-Russia project is part of the revanchist policy towards our country to create flashpoints of instability and conflicts next to our borders. Back then, in the 1930s, and now the design remains the same and it is to direct aggression to the East, to spark a war in Europe, and to eliminate competitors by using a proxy force.

 

We are not at war with the people of Ukraine. I have made that clear many times. The people of Ukraine have become hostages of the Kiev regime and its Western handlers, who have in fact occupied that country in the political, military and economic sense and have been destroying Ukrainian industry for decades now as they plundered its natural resources. This led to social degradation and an immeasurable increase in poverty and inequality. Recruiting resources for military operations in these circumstances was easy. Nobody was thinking about people, who were conditioned for slaughter and eventually became expendables. It is a sad and dreadful thing to say, but it is a fact.

 

Responsibility for inciting and escalating the Ukraine conflict as well as the sheer number of casualties lies entirely with the Western elites and, of course, today’s Kiev regime, for which the Ukrainian people are, in fact, not its own people. The current Ukrainian regime is serving not national interests, but the interests of third countries.

 

The West is using Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia and as a testing range. I am not going to discuss in detail the West's attempts to turn the war around, or their plans to ramp up military supplies, since everyone is well aware of that. However, there is one circumstance that everyone should be clear about: the longer the range of the Western systems that will be supplied to Ukraine, the further we will have to move the threat away from our borders. This is obvious.

 

The Western elite make no secret of their goal, which is, I quote, “Russia’s strategic defeat.” What does this mean to us? This means they plan to finish us once and for all. In other words, they plan to grow a local conflict into a global confrontation. This is how we understand it and we will respond accordingly, because this represents an existential threat to our country.

 

However, they too realise it is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield and are conducting increasingly aggressive information attacks against us targeting primarily the younger generation. They never stop lying and distorting historical facts as they attack our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religious organizations in our country.

 

Look what they are doing to their own people. It is all about the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversion and abuse of children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their life. They are forcing the priests to bless same-sex marriages. Bless their hearts, let them do as they please. Here is what I would like to say in this regard. Adult people can do as they please. We in Russia have always seen it that way and always will: no one is going to intrude into other people’s private lives, and we are not going to do it, either.

 

But here is what I would like to tell them: look at the holy scripture and the main books of other world religions. They say it all, including that family is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned. Reportedly, the Anglican Church is planning, just planning, to explore the idea of a gender-neutral god. What is there to say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

 

Millions of people in the West realise that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. Frankly, the elite appear to have gone crazy, and it looks like there is no cure for that. But like I said, these are their problems, while we must protect our children, which we will do. We will protect our children from degradation and degeneration.

 

Clearly, the West will try to undermine and divide our society and to bet on the fifth columnists who, throughout history, and I want to emphasise this, have been using the same poison of contempt for their own Fatherland and the desire to make money by selling this poison to anyone who is willing to pay for it. It has always been that way.

 

Those who have embarked on the road of outright betrayal, committing terrorist and other crimes against the security of our society and the country’s territorial integrity, will be held accountable for this under law. But we will never behave like the Kiev regime and the Western elite, which have been and still are involved in witch hunts. We will not settle scores with those who take a step aside and turn their back on their Motherland. Let this be on their conscience, let them live with this – they will have to live with it. The main point is that our people, the citizens of Russia, have given them a moral assessment.

 

I am proud, and I think we are all proud that our multi-ethnic nation, the absolute majority of our citizens, have taken a principled stance on the special military operation. They understand the basic idea of what we are doing and support our actions on the defence of Donbass. This support primarily revealed their true patriotism – a feeling that is historically inherent in our nation. It is stunning in its dignity and deep understnding by everyone – I will stress, everyone – of the inseparable link between one’s own destiny and the destiny of the Fatherland.

 

My dear friends, I would like to thank everyone, all the people of Russia for their courage and resolve. I would like to thank our heroes, soldiers and officers in the Army and the Navy, the Russian Guards, the secret services staff, and all structures of authority, the fighters in Donetsk and Lugansk corps, volunteers and patriots who are now fighting in the ranks of the BARS combat army reserve.

 

I would like to apologise that I will not be able to mention everyone during today’s speech. You know, when I was drafting this speech, I wrote a very long list of these heroic units but then removed it from my text because, as I said, it is impossible to mention everyone, and I was afraid to offend anyone I might leave out.

 

My deepest gratitude to the parents, wives and families of our defenders, the doctors and paramedics, combat medics and medical nurses that are saving the wounded; to the railway workers and drivers that are supplying the front; to the builders that are erecting fortifications and restoring housing, roads and civilian facilities; to the workers and engineers at defence companies, who are now working almost around-the-clock, in several shifts; and to rural workers who reliably ensure food security for the country.

 

I am grateful to the teachers who sincerely care for the young generations of Russia, especially those that are working in very difficult, almost front-line conditions; the cultural figures that are visiting the zone of hostilities and hospitals to support the soldiers and officers; volunteers that are helping the front and civilians; journalists, primarily war correspondents, that are risking their lives to tell the truth to the world; pastors of Russia’s traditional religions and military clergy, whose wise words support and inspire people; government officials and business people – all those who fulfill their professional, civil and simply human duty.

 

My special words go to the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. You, my friends, determined your future at the referendums and made a clear choice despite the neo-Nazis’ threats and violence, amid the close military actions. But there has been nothing stronger than your intent to be with Russia, with your Motherland.

 

(Applause)

 

I want to emphasise that this is the reaction of the audience to the residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Once again, our deepest respect for them all.

 

We have already begun and will expand a major socioeconomic recovery and development programme for these new regions within the Federation. It includes restoring production facilities, jobs, and the ports on the Sea of Azov, which again became Russia’s landlocked sea, and building new, modern road,s like we did in Crimea, which now has a reliable land transport corridor with all of Russia. We will definitely implement all of these plans together.

 

Russia’s regions are currently providing direct assistance to the cities, districts and villages in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. They are doing it sincerely, like true brothers and sisters. We are together again, which means that we have become even stronger, and we will do everything in our power to bring back the long-awaited peace to our land and ensure the safety of our people. Our soldiers, our heroes are fighting for this, for their ancestors, for the future of their children and grandchildren, for uniting our people.

 

Friends, I would like to ask you to pay your respects to our fellow soldiers who were killed in the attacks of neo-Nazis and raiders, who gave up their lives for Russia, for civilians, the elderly, women and children.

 

(A minute of silence)

 

Thank you.

 

We all understand, and I understand also how unbearably hard it is for their wives, sons and daughters, for their parents who raised those dignified defenders of the Fatherland – like the Young Guard members from Krasnodon, young men and women who fought against Nazism and for Donbass during the Great Patriotic War. Everyone in Russia remembers their courage, resilience, enormous strength of spirit and self-sacrifice to this day.

 

Our duty is to support the families that have lost their loved ones and to help them raise their children and give them an education and a job. The family of each participant in the special military operation must be a priority and treated with care and respect. Their needs must be responded to immediately, without bureaucratic delays.

 

I suggest establishing a dedicated state fund for bringing targeted, personalised assistance to the families of fallen fighters, as well as veterans of the special military operation. This entity will be tasked with coordinating efforts to offer social, medical support and counselling, and also address matters related to sending them to health resorts and providing rehabilitation services, while also assisting them in education, sports, employment and in acquiring a new profession. This fund will also have an essential mission to ensure long-term home care and high-technology prosthetics for those who need that.

 

I am asking the Government to work with the State Council Commission on Social Policy and with the regions to resolve the organisational matters as quickly as possible.

 

The state fund must be transparent in its work, while streamlining assistance and operating as a one-stop-shop, free from red tape or administrative barriers. Every family without exception, and every veteran will have their personal social worker, a coordinator, who will be there for them in person to resolve in real time any issue they might face. Let me emphasise that the fund must open its offices in all regions of the Russian Federation in 2023.

 

We already have measures in place for supporting Great Patriotic War veterans, combat veterans, as well as participants in local conflicts. I believe these essential elements will be added to the state fund’s mission moving forward. We need to explore this possibility, and I am asking the Government to do so.

 

Make no mistake: the fact that we are establishing a state fund does not mean that other institutions or officials at other levels of government will be relieved of their responsibility. I expect all federal agencies, regions and municipalities to stay focused on veterans, on service personnel and their families. In this context, I would like to thank the senior regional officials, mayors, and governors who routinely meet with people, including by visiting the line of contact, and support their fellow countrymen.

 

On a special note, let me say that today, career service personnel, mobilised conscripts, and volunteers all share frontline hardships, including in terms of provisions, supplies and equipment, remuneration, and insurance payments to the wounded, as well as healthcare services. However, there are complaints that make it all the way to my office, as well as to the governors, as they have been telling me, and to the military prosecutor’s office and the Human Rights Commissioner, showing that some of these issues have yet to be resolved. We need to get to the bottom of each complaint on a case-by-case basis.

 

And one more thing: everyone understands that serving in the special military operation zone causes immense physical and mental stress, since people risk their lives and health every day. For this reason, I believe that the mobilised conscripts, as well as all service personnel, and all those taking part in the special military operation, including volunteers, must benefit from a leave of absence of at least 14 days every six months without counting the time it takes them to travel to their destination. This way, every fighter will be able to meet family and spend time with their loved ones.

 

Colleagues, as you are aware, a 2021–2025 plan for building and developing the Armed Forces was approved by a Presidential Executive Order and is being implemented and adjusted as necessary. Importantly, our next steps to reinforce the Army and the Navy and to secure the current and future development of the Armed Forces must be based on actual combat experience gained during the special military operation, which is extremely important, I would even say absolutely invaluable to us.

 

For example, the latest systems account for over 91 percent, 91.3 percent, of Russia's nuclear deterrence forces. To reiterate, based on our newly acquired experience, we must access a similarly high quality level for all other components of the Armed Forces.

 

Officers and sergeants who act as competent, modern and decisive commanders, and they are many, will be promoted to higher positions as a matter of priority, sent to military universities and academies, and will serve as a powerful personnel reserve for the Armed Forces. Without a doubt, they are a valuable resource in civilian life and at governments at all levels. I just want our colleagues to pay attention to that. It is very important. The people must know that the Motherland appreciates their contribution to the defence of the Fatherland.

 

We will widely introduce the latest technology to ensure high-quality standards in the Army and Navy. We have corresponding pilot projects and samples of weapons and equipment in each area. Many of them are significantly superior to their foreign counterparts. Our goal is to start mass production. This work is underway and is picking up pace. Importantly, this relies on domestic research and the industrial base and involves small- and medium-sized high-tech businesses in implementation of the state defence order.

 

Today, our plants, design bureaus and research teams employ experienced specialists and increasing numbers of talented and highly skilled young people who are oriented towards breakthrough achievements while remaining true to the tradition of Russian gunsmiths, which is to spare no effort to ensure victory.

 

We will certainly strengthen the guarantees for our workforce, in part concerning salaries and social security. I propose launching a special programme for low-cost rental housing for defence industry employees. The rental payments for them will be significantly lower than the going market rate, since a significant portion of it will be covered by the state.

 

The Government reviewed this issue. I instruct you to work through the details of this programme and start building such rental housing without delay, primarily, in the cities that are major defence, industrial and research centres.

 

Colleagues,

 

As I have already said, the West has opened not only military and informational warfare against us, but is also seeking to fight us on the economic front. However, they have not succeeded on any of these fronts, and never will. Moreover, those who initiated the sanctions are punishing themselves: they sent prices soaring in their own countries, destroyed jobs, forced companies to close, and caused an energy crisis, while telling their people that the Russians were to blame for all of this. We hear that.

 

What means did they use against us in their efforts to attack us with sanctions? They tried disrupting economic ties with Russian companies and depriving the financial system of its communication channels to shutter our economy, isolate us from export markets and thus undermine our revenues. They also stole our foreign exchange reserves, to call a spade a spade, tried to depreciate the ruble and drive inflation to destructive heights.

 

Let me reiterate that the sanctions against Russia are merely a means, while the aim as declared by the Western leaders, to quote them, is to make us suffer. “Make them suffer” – what a humane attitude. They want to make our people suffer, which is designed to destabilise our society from within.

 

However, their gamble failed to pay off. The Russian economy, as well as its governance model proved to be much more resilient than the West thought. The Government, parliament, the Bank of Russia, the regions and of course the business community and their employees all worked together to ensure that the economic situation remained stable, offered people protection and preserved jobs, prevented shortages, including of essential goods, and supported the financial system and business owners who invest in their enterprises, which also means investing in national development.

 

As early as in March 2022, we launched a dedicated assistance package for businesses and the economy worth about a trillion rubles. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this has nothing to do with printing money. Not at all. Everything we do is solidly rooted in market principles.

 

In 2022, there was a decline in the gross domestic product. Mr Mishustin called me to say, “I would like to ask you to mention this.” I think that these data were released yesterday, right on schedule.

 

You may remember that some predicted that the economy would shrink by 20 to 25 percent, or maybe 10 percent. Only recently, we spoke about a 2.9 percent decline, and I was the one who announced this figure. Later it came down to 2.5 percent. However, in 2022, the GDP declined by 2.1 percent, according to the latest data. And we must be mindful of the fact that back in February and March of last year some predicted that the economy would be in free fall.

 

Russian businesses have restructured their logistics and have strengthened their ties with responsible, predictable partners – there are many of them, they are the majority in the world.

 

I would like to note that the share of the Russian ruble in our international settlements has doubled as compared to December 2021, reaching one third of the total, and including the currencies of the friendly countries, it exceeds half of all transactions.

 

We will continue working with our partners to create a sustainable, safe system of international settlements, which will be independent of the dollar and other Western reserve currencies that are bound to lose their universal appeal with this policy of the Western elite, the Western rulers. They are doing all this to themselves with their own hands.

 

We are not the ones reducing transactions in dollars or other so-called universal currencies – they are doing everything with their own hands.

 

You know, there is a maxim, cannons versus butter. Of course, national defence is the top priority, but in resolving strategic tasks in this area, we should not repeat the mistakes of the past and should not destroy our own economy. We have everything we need to both ensure our security and create conditions for confident progress in our country. We are acting in line with this logic and we intend to continue doing this.

 

Thus, many basic, I will stress, civilian industries in the national economy are far from being in decline, they have increased their production last year by a considerable amount. The scale of housing put into service exceeded 100 million square meters for the first time in our modern history.

 

As for agricultural production, it recorded two-digit growth rates last year. Thank you very much. We are most grateful to our agricultural producers. Russian agrarians harvested a record amount – over 150 million tonnes of grain, including over 100 million tonnes of wheat. By the end of the agricultural season, that is, June 30, 2023, we will bring our grain exports to 55–60 million tonnes.

 

Just 10 or 15 years ago, this seemed like a fairy tale, an absolutely unfeasible plan. If you remember, and I am sure some people do remember this – the former Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture are here – just recently, agrarians took in 60 million tonnes overall in a year, whereas now 55–60 million is their export potential alone. I am convinced we have every opportunity for a similar breakthrough in other areas as well.

 

We prevented the labour market from collapsing. On the contrary, we were able to reduce unemployment in the current environment. Today, considering the major challenges coming at us from all sides, the labour market is even better than it used to be. You may remember that the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent before the pandemic, and now, I believe, it is 3.7 percent. What is the figure, Mr Mishustin? 3.7 percent? This is an all-time low.

 

Let me reiterate that the Russian economy has prevailed over the risks it faced – it has prevailed. Of course, it was impossible to anticipate many of them, and we had to respond literally on the fly, dealing with issues as they emerged. Both the state and businesses had to move quickly. I will note that private actors, SMEs, played an essential role in these efforts, and we must remember this. We avoided having to apply excessive regulation or distorting the economy by giving the state a more prominent role.

 

What else there is to say? The recession was limited to the second quarter of 2022, while the economy grew in the third and fourth quarters. In fact, the Russian economy has embarked on a new growth cycle. Experts believe that it will rely on a fundamentally new model and structure. New, promising global markets, including the Asia-Pacific, are taking precedence, as is the domestic market, with its research, technology and workforce no longer geared toward exporting commodities but manufacturing goods with high added value. This will help Russia unleash its immense potential in all spheres and sectors.

 

We expect to see a solid increase in domestic demand as early as this year. I am convinced that companies will use this opportunity to expand their manufacturing, make new products that are in high demand, and to take over the market niches vacated or about to be vacated by Western companies as they withdraw.

 

Today, we clearly see what is going on and understand the structural issues we have to address in logistics, technology, finance, and human resources. Over the past years, we have been talking a lot and at length about the need to restructure our economy. Now these changes are a vital necessity, a game changer, and all for the better. We know what needs to be done to enable Russia to make steady progress and to develop independently regardless of any outside pressure or threats, while guaranteeing our national security and interests.

 

I would like to point out and to emphasise that the essence of our task is not to adapt to circumstances. Our strategic task is to take the economy to a new horizon. Everything is changing now, and changing extremely fast. This is not only a time of challenges but also a time of opportunities. This is really so today. And our future depends on the way we realise these opportunities. We must put an end – and I want to emphase this – to all interagency conflicts, red tape, grievances, doublespeak, or any other nonsense. Everything we do must contribute to achieving our goals and delivering results. This is what we must strive to achieve.

 

Enabling Russian companies and small family-run businesses to successfully tap the market is a victory in itself. Building cutting-edge factories and kilometres of new roads is a victory. Every new school, every new kindergarten we build is a victory. Scientific discoveries and new technologies – these are also victories, of course. What matters is that all of us contribute to our shared success.

 

What areas should we focus the partnership of the state, the regions and domestic business on?

 

First, we will expand promising foreign economic ties and build new logistics corridors. A decision has already been made to extend the Moscow-Kazan expressway to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen, and eventually to Irkutsk and Vladivostok with branches to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China. This will, in part, allows us to considerably expand our ties with Southeast Asian markets.

 

We will develop Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports. We will pay special attention to the North-South international corridor, as those who work on this every day know. Vessels with a draft of up to 4.5 meters will be able to pass through the Volga-Caspian Sea Canal this year. This will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran, Pakistan, and the Middle Eastern countries. We will continue developing this corridor.

 

Our plans include expedited modernisation of the eastern railways – the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Baikal-Amur Railway (BAM) – and building up the potential of the Northern Sea Route. This will create not only additional freight traffic but also a foundation for reaching our national goals on developing Siberia, the Arctic and the Far East.

 

The infrastructure of the regions and the development of infrastructure, including communications, telecommunications and railways will receive a powerful impetus. Next year, 2024, we will bring to a proper condition at least 85 percent of all roads in the country’s largest metropolises, as well as over half of all regional and municipal roads. I am sure we will achieve this.

 

We will also continue our free gas distribution programme. We have already made the decision to extend it to social facilities – kindergartens and schools, outpatient clinics and hospitals, as well as primary healthcare centres. This programme will now be permanent for our citizens – they can always request a connection to the gas distribution system.

 

This year, we will launch a large programme to build and repair housing and utility systems. Over the next ten years, we plan to invest at least 4.5 trillion rubles in this. We know how important this is for our people and how neglected this area has been. It is necessary to improve this situation, and we will do it. It is important to give the programme a powerful start. So, I would like to ask the Government to ensure stable funding for this.

 

Second, we will need to significantly expand our economy’s production capabilities and to increase domestic industrial capacity.

 

An industrial mortgage tool has been created, and an easy-term loan can now be taken out not only to purchase production facilities, but also to build or upgrade them. The size of such a loan was discussed many times and there were plans to increase it. It is a decent amount for a first step: up to 500 million rubles. It is available at a rate of 3 or 5 percent for up to seven years. It sounds like a very good programme and should be put to good use.

 

New terms for industrial clusters took effect this year, including a lower fiscal and administrative burden on resident companies, and long-term state orders and subsidies to support demand for their innovative products, which are just entering the market.

 

According to estimates, these measures will generate high-demand projects worth over 10 trillion rubles by 2030. Investment is expected to reach about 2 trillion this year alone. Please note that these are not forecasts, but existing benchmarks.

 

Therefore, I would like the Government to expedite the launch of these projects, give a hand to businesses and come up with systemic support measures, including tax incentives. I am aware that the financial bloc does not like to provide incentives, and I partly share this approach: the taxation system must be consistent and without niches or exemptions, but this particular case calls for a creative approach.

 

So, starting this year, Russian companies will be able to reduce their revenue taxes if they purchase advanced domestic IT solutions and AI-enhanced products. Moreover, these expenses will be credited at one and a half times the actual cost, meaning that every ruble invested in purchasing such products will result in a tax deduction of 1.5 rubles.

 

I propose extending these deductions to purchases of all kinds of Russian high-tech equipment. I would like the Government to come up with a list of such equipment by specific industry and with the procedure for granting deductions. This is a good solution to reinvigorate the economy.

 

Third, a crucial issue on our economic development agenda to do with the new sources of funding investment, which we have been talking about a lot.

 

Thanks to our strong payments balance, Russia does not need to borrow funds abroad, kowtow and beg for money, and then hold long discussions on what, how much and on what conditions we would pay back. Russian banks are working stably and sustainably and have a solid margin for security.

 

In 2022, the volume of bank loans for the corporate sector increased, I repeat, increased. There was considerable concern about that, but we have reported growth, an increase of 14 percent, or more than we reported in 2021, before the miliary operation. In 2021, the figure was 11.7 percent; last year, it was 14 percent. The mortgage portfolio went up by 20.4 percent. We are growing.

 

Last year, the banking sector as a whole operated at a profit. It was not as large as in the preceding years, but it was considerable nevertheless: 203 billion rubles. This is another indicator of the stability of the Russian financial sector.

 

According to our estimates, inflation in Russia will approach the target figure of 4 percent in the second quarter this year. I would like to remind you that the inflation rate has reached 12, 17 and 20 percent in some EU countries. Our figure is 4 or 5 percent; the Central Bank and the Finance Ministry are still discussing the figure, but it will be close to the target. Given these positive dynamics and other macroeconomic parameters, we are creating objective conditions for lowering long-term interest rates in the economy, which means that loans for the real economic sector will become more affordable.

 

Individual long-term savings are a vital source of investment resources around the world, and we must also stimulate their attraction into the investment sphere. I would like the Government to expedite the submission of draft laws to the State Duma to launch the relevant state programme as soon as this April.

 

It is important to create additional conditions to encourage people to invest and earn at home, in the country. At the same time, it is necessary to guarantee the safety of people’s investment in voluntary retirement savings. We should create a mechanism here similar to the one used for insuring bank deposits. I would like to remind you that such savings, worth up to 1.4 million rubles, are insured by the state on guarantee deposits. I propose doubling the sum to 2.8 million rubles for voluntary retirement savings. Likewise, we must protect people’s investment in other long-term investment instruments, including against the possible bankruptcy of financial brokers.

 

Separate decisions must be taken to attract funds to rapidly growing and high-tech businesses. We will approve support for the placement of their shares on the domestic stock market, including tax benefits for both the companies and the buyers of their stock.

 

Freedom of enterprise is a vital element of economic sovereignty. I will repeat: against the backdrop of external attempts to contain Russia, private businesses have proven their ability to quickly adapt to the changing environment and ensure economic growth in difficult conditions. So, every business initiative aimed at benefiting the country should receive support.

 

I believe it is necessary to return, in this context, to the revision of a number of norms of criminal law as regards the economic elements of crime. Of course, the state must control what is happening in this area. We should not allow an anything-goes attitude here but we should not go too far, either. It is necessary to move faster towards the decriminalisation I mentioned. I hope the Government will consistently and seriously conduct this work together with Parliament, the law-enforcement bodies and business associations.

 

At the same time, I would like to ask the Government to suggest, in close cooperation with Parliament, additional measures for speeding up the de-offshorisation of the economy. Businesses, primarily those operating in key sectors and industries should operate in Russian jurisdiction – this is a fundamental principle.

 

Colleagues, in this context I would like to make a small philosophical digression. This is what I would like to single out.

 

We remember what problems and imbalances the Soviet economy faced in its later stages. This is why after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its planned system, in the chaos of the 1990s, the country began to create its economy along the lines of market relations and private ownership. Overall, this was the right thing to do. The Western countries were largely an example to follow in this respect. As you know, their advisers were a dime a dozen, and it seemed enough to simply copy their models. True, I remember they still argued with each other – the Europeans argued with the Americans on how the Russian economy should develop.

 

And what happened as a result? Our national economy was largely oriented to the West and for the most part as a source of raw materials. Naturally, there were different nuances, but overall, we were seen as a source of raw materials. The reasons for this are also clear – naturally, the new Russian businesses that were taking shape were primarily oriented toward generating profit, quick and easy profit in the first place. What could provide this? Of course, the sale of resources – oil, gas, metals and timber.

 

Few people thought about other alternatives or, probably, they did not have the opportunity to invest long-term. This is the reason other, more complex industries did not make much headway. It took us years – other governments saw this clearly – to break this negative trend. We had to adjust our tax system and make large-scale public investments.

 

We have achieved real and visible change. Indeed, the results are there, but, again, we should keep in mind the circumstances in which our major businesses developed. Technologies were coming from the West, cheaper sources of financing and lucrative markets were in the West, and capital started flowing to the West as well. Unfortunately, instead of expanding production and buying equipment and technology to create new jobs in Russia, they spent their money on foreign mansions, yachts and luxury real estate.

 

They began to invest in the economy later, but initially the money flowed rapidly to the West for consumption purposes. And since their money was there, that is where their children were educated, where their life was, their future. It was very difficult and almost impossible for the state to track and prevent these developments, because we lived in a free market paradigm.

 

Recent events have clearly shown that the image of the West as a safe haven for capital was a mirage. Those who failed to understand this in time, who saw Russia only as a source of income and planned to live mostly abroad, have lost a lot. They just got robbed there and saw even their legitimate money taken away.

 

At some point I made a joke – many may still remember it – I told Russian businesspeople that they will make themselves sick running from courtroom to courtroom and from office to office in the West trying to save their money. That is exactly how it turned out.

 

You know, I will say something that is quite simple, but truly important. Trust me, not a single ordinary citizen in our country felt sorry for those who lost their assets in foreign banks, lost their yachts or palaces abroad, and so on. In their conversations around the kitchen table, people have all recalled the privatisation of the 1990s, when enterprises that had been built by our entire nation were sold for next to nothing and the so-called new elites flaunted their lavish lifestyle.

 

There are other key aspects. During the years that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union, the West never stopped trying to set the post-Soviet states on fire and, most importantly, finish off Russia as the largest surviving portion of the historical reaches of our state. They encouraged international terrorists to assault us, provoked regional conflicts along the perimeter of our borders, ignored our interests and tried to contain and suppress our economy.

 

I am saying this because big business in Russia controls strategic enterprises with thousands of workers that determine the socioeconomic well-being of many regions and, hence, the overall state of affairs. So, whenever leaders or owners of such businesses become dependent on governments that adopt policies that are unfriendly to Russia, this poses a great threat to us, a danger to our country. This is an untenable situation.

 

Yes, everyone has a choice. Some may choose to live in a seized mansion with a blocked account, trying to find a place for themselves in a seemingly attractive Western capital, a resort or some other comfortable place abroad. Anyone has the right to do that, and we will never infringe on it. But it is time to see that in the West these people have always been and will always remain second class strangers who can be treated any way, and their money, connections and the acquired titles of counts, peers or mayors will not help at all. They must understand that they are second class people there.

 

There is another option: to stay with your Motherland, to work for your compatriots, not only to open new businesses but also to change life around you in cities, towns and throughout your country. We have quite a few businesspeople like this, real fighters in our business community, and we associate the future of our business with them. Everyone must know that the sources of their prosperity and their future can only be here, in their native country Russia.

 

If they do, we will create a very strong and self-sufficient economy that will not remain aloof in the world but will make use of all its competitive advantages. Russian capital, the money earned here, must be put to work for the country, for our national development. Today, we see huge potential in the development of infrastructure, the manufacturing sector, in domestic tourism and many other industries.

 

I would like those who have come up against the predatory mores of the West to hear what I have to say: running around with cap in hand, begging for your own money makes no sense, and most importantly, it accomplishes nothing, especially now that you realise who you are dealing with. Stop clinging to the past, resorting to the courts to get at least something back. Change your lives and your jobs, because you are strong people – I am addressing our businesspeople now, many of whom I have known for years, who know what is what in life.

 

Launch new projects, earn money, work hard for Russia, invest in enterprises and jobs, and help schools and universities, science and healthcare, culture and sports. In this way, you will increase your wealth and will also win the respect and gratitude of the people for a generation ahead. The state and society will certainly support you.

 

Let us consider this as a message for your business: get moving in the right direction.

 

To be continued.

What an amazing place this is. It used to be a thermal bath house. It was built in the 19th century and what beautifully decorated. It will soon be converted into a posh hotel.

When we entered early morning we were the first explorers setting up our gear. Within an hour the place was crowded with explorers from all over Europe and it was hard to take a decent picture.

Apparently it is hard for other people to wait until others who were there earlier are done. I gave them a hard time by just standing in 'their' way while taking a shot. Have some decency people and be patient!

 

Please visit www.preciousdecay.com for more pictures and follow me on Facebook on www.facebook.com/Preciousdecay.urbex

In the 1980s, Eastern Electricity bought a number of these lorries fitted with British manufactured Atlas cranes to replace older vehicles which had the ubiquitous Swedish HIAB. I seem to remember we were going through a, "Buy British" period, as promulgated by the Daily Express, of course. These versatile devices were equipped with excavators, grabs, pole borers, hooks – indeed anything you can think of to fit on the end of an hydraulic crane assembly. Someone at HQ made a good choice.

 

A Linesmen at Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK, took one of these vehicles to site to deliver some poles. It was extremely cold and icy. Parked on a track, offloading his cargo into a field at a much lower level, he realised the lorry had started sliding down the bank and was likely to turn over. He had the presence of mind to extend the crane to its fullest extent and support the weight of the lorry on it, preventing it falling into the field and so maintaining it upright. He was able to summon help from the local garage and the lorry was rescued without damage, other than to the crane.

 

Initially, he was dragged in front of the depot engineer who gave him a telling off for allowing this to happen. My attitude, as the local overhead line engineer, was that, by doing what he did, he saved the Board the cost of considerable damage to the vehicle (which I think had cost about £25,000 new at the time). The crane of course had suffered but only cost about £700 to repair. A very reasonable sum under the circumstances. The main column was never quite upright again but the crane worked perfectly well, without leaking, which, in engineering terms, is all you require.

 

A little while after this incident, our local transport engineer wrote me a memo querying its fuel consumption. The 1980s is a long time ago and I can't remember the actual figures but he said that this overhead line lorry was using derv at (say) 8 mpg whilst the local average for this size of vehicle (not all used by overhead line gangs) was (say) 10 mpg. I, being the obliging sort (?), replied that I would try to improve on this. A month or two later, I received another memo saying that fuel consumption was now (say) 7 mpg. What was I going to do about it? I again replied that I would try to improve this, as you do.

 

A few months later, the figure was (say) 6.5 mpg. His memo was in terms of desperation – what was going on? Feeling a little (but not, very) sorry for him I wrote a reply along the lines ...

"Ideally the fuel consumption of this vehicle should be 0 mpg. It was purchased and equipped to dig pole holes and then plant the poles. If it spent all its time doing so, then I would be totally satisfied that it was working at maximum efficiency, and achieving 0 mpg. Of course, we do have to get the poles from the depot to site and also to drive it from pole hole to pole hole, so 0 mpg is never going to be achievable. But I am pleased to be reducing the mpg, month by month."

 

I didn't get a written reply, nor any more complaints. He did have the decency to phone me and agree with my logic.

 

All for human kind 'indulgence'. url below. For some years, I've laboured under the false notion that we and I mean the world populations living at peace, already had a global ban on ivory and whatever trade there was continued only in the shadows! So what is the EU position on this! Well Avaaz report this morning...

"Momentum is growing for a complete global ban on ivory -- but the European Commission has just come out against it!" Incredulous... barbaric. Please forgive me for posting this terrible image and I understand there is so much barbarism to people and children in the world but the fact that we in Europe appear to have never managed to help bring the strongest support to a ban beggars belief. We must expect a basic decency in nations that claim and pride themselves to be civilized nations. Nothing progressive here and no wonder there is a market for this misery in some parts of the world.

Avazz continue... "The elephant crisis is heartbreaking. In some areas these magnificent, sensitive creatures are so terrified of people they only come out at night, and mourning baby elephants refuse to leave the butchered corpses of their mothers. Now 29 African governments have said if Europe gets its way, it will spell extinction for our elephants, and they need our help." Take action...

secure.avaaz.org/en/global_ivory_ban_loc_en2/?birjfab&amp...

Why? BBC Newsround Oct 2015 reports "In China and Hong Kong, ivory is seen as precious material and is used in ornaments and jewellery. It's also sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Some rich Chinese people think that owning ivory makes them look more successful. Others think that ivory will bring them good luck.

China has the biggest ivory trade in the world and wildlife experts believe that around 70 per cent of the world's ivory ends up there.

Are things changing? "This year China agreed to ban ivory tusks and ornaments coming into the country for twelve months.

The government has said it wants to completely ban ivory sales soon but it is still legal to sell older carvings and ornaments.

Some people don't want ivory to be banned in China because they say that carving it is an old Chinese tradition that should carry on.

But more and more people in China disagree. A recent survey found that 95 per cent of people there wanted ivory to be banned to protect the elephants."

12.07.2016. Tuesday. I really need a walk with ms mcgonigal.

UN staff in New York gather at the “Knotted Gun” sculpture at the UN Visitor’s Centre entrance at 12:00 noon on Wednesday 15 March to call for an end to the six years of conflict in Syria. Staff held signs with photos of six year old Syrian children with the hashtag #notatarget as part of their action to stand in solidarity with the people of Syria.

 

UN Staff Statement: We, the staff of the United Nations wish to express our profound concern and outrage over the suffering of the people and especially the children of Syria.

 

The crucible of war continues to hold the people, and especially the children of Syria, hostage. For six years, Syrians have experienced appalling violence and flagrant disregard for human life. For six years, the world has watched in horror. Human decency and conscience demands that we end the carnage now.

 

The United Nations was founded on principles of human rights and respect for humanitarian values. It is our duty as individuals and as a collective to uphold these principles. We therefore stand in solidarity with the civilians and particularly the children who are suffering from abuses, indignity and destruction caused by ongoing violations of international norms. We stand united in solidarity with the people and especially the children of Syria.

 

We call upon the Member States of the United Nations, in particular the Security Council, to take urgent action to end the bloodshed in Syria.

 

Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown