Some Spring Updates from Michelle and James

Spring Updates from Michelle and James Nevius Two new articles by James Nevius: Recently, James had two interesting stories published on the architectural history of the New York. In Curbed New York, he authored a history of the Grand Hyatt Hotel (formerly the Commodore) next to Grand Central Terminal. The hotel opened a century ago and is now slated for demolition. James chronicles the various twists and turns in the story, including Donald Trump's mid-1970s "rescue" of the hotel. The winding history of Donald Trump’s first major Manhattan real estate project Then, in The New York Post, James took a look at the history of tin ceilings, which were once common not just in the New York but around the country. Why so many NYC buildings boast tin ceilings ITALIANS IN GREENWICH VILLAGE sponsored by the Merchant's House Museum and Village Preservation TUESDAY, JUNE 18, at 6:00PM After the Civil War, hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants came to America, most of them making New York City their first stop. While the Lower East Side and Little Italy are well-known for their immigrant history, many may not remember that the area south of Washington Square was one of the most densely populated Italian precincts in the country. This illustrated presentation will look at how the Village came to be separated into a wealthier area north and west of Washington Square and a more working-class neighborhood to the south and east. We’ll look at who paved the way for Italians in the district and talk about the importance of holding on to the Italian places that still exist in the area -- RIP Trattoria Spaghetto -- so as to preserve this heritage. TICKETS ARE FREE BUT ARE CURRENTLY SOLD OUT Please join the waitlist at https://gvshp.wufoo.com/forms/the-new-new-york-italians-in-the-village-waitlist/

Postcard Thursday: Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump

James wrote a piece earlier this week for the Guardian wondering if there are parallels between the 2016 presidential campaign and that of 1824, when four Democratic-Republicans squared off for the nation's highest office.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won both the popular vote and the most electoral votes, but it wasn't enough to secure victory. Instead, the election was shunted to the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams was selected to be next president in what became known as the "corrupt bargain."

You can read the story James wrote here:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/02/dont-believe-trump-could-win-weve-elected-xenophobic-presidents-before

which really isn't about xenophobia, no matter what the headline says.

Before it was edited to fit in the Guardian's format, the original piece also looked at the election of 1828, in which Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams squared off against each other again. That time, Jackson won in a landslide, but not before the Adams campaign did everything possible to derail his candidacy.

1828 was really the first campaign to use negative advertising, and the Adams camp printed up what have come to be known as the "coffin handbills," that alleged that Jackson -- a general and war hero -- had sent militiamen to their deaths. Jackson was also branded an adulterer and a possible cannibal.

You can read more about the handbills at

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/03/05/andrew_jackson_the_coffin_handbill_distributed_by_opponents_in_the_1828.html

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SAVE THE DATE

Thursday, April 21, at 6:30pm

we will be talking about Footprints in New York at

The Mid-Manhattan Branch of the New York Public Library

details to come

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Read more about NYC history in

 

Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City

The Manhattan Company vs. the Chrysler Building

The Bank of the Manhattan Company by CR on flickr.

A couple of weeks ago, there were a number of commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Great Crash of 1929 which led to the Great Depression. As the stock market was plummeting, however, buildings in the Financial District were still soaring to new heights, including the Bank of the Manhattan Company at 40 Wall Street, which was racing against the Chrysler Building on 42nd Street to be the tallest building in the world.

Eighty years ago today--on November 12, 1929--the Manhattan Company finally topped out at 925 feet. As far as anyone knew at the time, that meant it was the tallest building in the world. (The New York World, reporting the day's events, noted that it had bested the rival Chrysler Building which only stood at 808 feet.)

But the news of the Manhattan Company topping out was overshadowed by a construction accident an hour before the ceremony. In front of a large crowd of spectators, a half-ton block of limestone that was being hauled up the building broke free from its harness at the 35th floor. The huge stone tore through the 8th-floor setback and through three more stories of steel and concrete before stopping at the fifth floor. Debris rained down onto Wall Street; one piece struck Helen Pratt, who was waiting in a car parked across the street. She was only slightly injured and insisted on being taken home and not to the hospital. One of the building's construction workers, James Bellis, was injured by a piece of falling scaffolding and taken to the hospital but was ultimately fine.

The accident so overshadowed the reason people were there -- to see the building's last piece of structural steel hoisted into place -- that the New York Times didn't even bother reporting on the building's completion. Indeed, those news outlets that did proclaim 40 Wall Street to be the "world's tallest tower" were in for a rude shock. Just four days later, it was revealed that the Chrysler Building was not 808 feet tall as previously reported, but that its spire--hoisted into place on October 23--was its crowning architectural element, bringing its full height to 1,046 feet. That not only made the Chrysler Building significantly taller than the Manhattan Company, it also made it taller than the Eiffel Tower and thus the tallest structure in the world.

After the Bank of the Manhattan Company merged with Chase in 1955 to become Chase Manhattan, the skyscraper at 40 Wall went through a succession of owners, including at one time Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Donald Trump purchased the dilapidated tower in 1995 for $1 million and emblazoned his name in large, shiny letters across the front, thus causing all sorts of tourists to think it is Trump Tower and might be full of wanna-be apprentices. Trump has tried to sell the building at least once but has yet to find suitable buyers.

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Read more about this skyscraper race, the Great Crash of 1929, and New York during the Depression in Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

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