historic preservation | Mindful Walker

Entries Tagged as 'historic preservation'

Trinity Episcopal’s Storied History

August 31st, 2022 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham

So many dates feature prominently during a walk of the church and property of Trinity Episcopal Church in Saugerties, N.Y. A large Bible from 1857, with delicate pages, is behind the church pulpit. A lectern contains four intricately carved wooden images of the evangelists such as St. Mark as a wooden lion and John as […]

A New Act for the Loew’s Jersey Theatre

August 10th, 2021 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham

Nearly a century into its existence and spared demolition in the 1980s through the efforts of the city and a committed residents’ group, a magnificent historic Jersey City theater is on the verge of new life. When it opened in the autumn of 1929 as motion pictures were continuing to explode into a huge entertainment […]

Jane’s Walk NYC 2021 Steps Up

May 4th, 2021 · No Comments · Explore New York

The house where Dennis Harris lived, at 857 Riverside Drive, is worse for the wear of many decades, shorn of its dignified shutters and cupola. Yet the rich history the house holds and the life story of Harris, the man who owned this Greek Revival-Italianate place in Washington Heights, are important to keep alive even […]

Sacred Sites, Priceless Opportunities

May 18th, 2019 · 14 Comments · Beyond Gotham

Amid the bustling Lower East Side, a place today with a millennial scene, gleaming glass buildings, and expensive cafes, the old remains, and in fact, finds ways to renew itself. The 132-year-old Eldridge Street Synagogue sits unpretentious in its presence. The structure is strong and commanding in a gentle way, inviting a long look and […]

Preservation Triumphs of 2018

January 26th, 2019 · No Comments · Explore New York

The beautifully proportioned, sand-colored, two-story Beaux Arts building at 236 President Place in Brooklyn is not as grand as the larger structures of this style one finds in New York City. Yet its purpose was great and historic, in its own way, as those places, and its stateliness reflects that higher good. The late 19th […]

Rondout Walks: Listen to the Stories

July 7th, 2018 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham

A look around Kingston’s Rondout neighborhood reveals many signs of the buildings’ lives. Walk past a storefront or home and you can see how well-tended and cared for many places are. The signs, shapes, materials, or features convey a structure’s past as well as its present life. What isn’t visible as often to the eye […]

Sacred Sites: Spring’s Rite of Reverence

May 5th, 2018 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham

Tomorrow is the second day of the annual Sacred Sites Open House throughout New York State. From the 1842 Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on eastern Long Island to the 1905 First Baptist Church of Niagara Falls at the northwest tip of New York, dozens of Sacred Sites are open to the public this weekend. More than […]

Honoring the Landmark IRT Powerhouse

January 9th, 2018 · 10 Comments · Explore New York

It may be the most underappreciated major historic building in New York City. Finally, however, the magnificent powerhouse that generated electricity for New York City’s pioneering rapid transit subway system when it first opened in 1904 is a protected city landmark. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC’s) recent action to designate the IRT […]

Join in Walks of Kingston’s Rondout

October 10th, 2017 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham

If one personified Kingston’s Rondout neighborhood as a storyteller, you might well be inclined to pull up a chair and listen for many hours. In this compact Hudson Valley neighborhood of city blocks and winding streets, hills and paths, architectural gems and eye-catching details, and waterfront setting, you can see, sense, and discover a microcosm […]

Victory in Saving an Underground RR Site

June 3rd, 2017 · No Comments · Be a Mindful Activist

In a win for those seeking to preserve the history of an abolitionist’s house where escaped slaves found safe passage, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) decided early last week that the owner must abandon plans for a fifth-floor addition and restore the building to its original height. In a city of 8 […]

A Subway Powerhouse Speaks To Today

March 11th, 2017 · 4 Comments · Beyond Gotham

Sometimes a message of resilience can come in an instant, and often not predictably. The IRT Powerhouse on 11th Avenue isn’t giving a speech or waving a flag, and it’s not a talking head seeking to shout a point of view at passersby or boast of its strength. Yet, the sight of this 1904 building […]

A Newburgh Church Embodies Resilience

August 26th, 2016 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham

In the center of Newburgh is the oldest church building in the city. In good times and bad, particularly through the turmoil of the 1960s and the demolition of more than a thousand buildings in the city for so-called urban renewal in the early 1970s, St. George’s Episcopal Church on Grand Street has remained steadfast. […]

Stonewall: The Power in History’s Places

June 26th, 2016 · 4 Comments · Explore New York

If you ever for a moment doubt the importance of declaring a site as a landmark, preserving at least some part of it, or placing a sign at a spot of historical significance, go to The Stonewall Inn this month, in New York’s Greenwich Village. There, hundreds have converged in vigils and left remembrances such […]

Sacred Sites Open for Exploration

May 20th, 2016 · 2 Comments · Explore New York

New York’s sacred places of worship possess countless life stories and historical chapters as well as inspiring and magnificent art, architecture, and design. Jacob Riis, the social reformer and photographer whose works brought to light the suffering of the poor living in New York City tenements, was one of the early parishioners of the Church […]

The Grief and Questions Over St. Agatha’s

February 27th, 2016 · 35 Comments · Beyond Gotham

As they dismantle the stones, roof, and interior of the former St. Agatha Roman Catholic Church, the demolition crew is taking apart memories, history, art, and part of a community’s fabric, to be replaced by a nondescript pharmacy in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania. At the corner of Spring Avenue and Fifth Street in the downtown, the […]

The Lessons of LG Sparing the Palisades

July 3rd, 2015 · No Comments · Beyond Gotham

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings,” wrote the pioneering conservationist John Muir in his 1901 book, Our National Parks. On Tuesday, June 23, the mountains – that is to say, the cliffs of the Palisades – were the focus of good tidings for all of us and for future generations. LG Electronics, the […]

A Sweet Statement of Deco in Newburgh

October 1st, 2014 · 2 Comments · Beyond Gotham

Buildings have a way of speaking to people. Such expression can come through their design, materials, condition, or decorative elements – and ultimately in their presence. In the middle of the long, wide expanse of Broadway in Newburgh, 121-123 Broadway is a forgotten but beautiful small building. Its Art Deco elements and design suddenly draw […]

What You Can Do to Save the Palisades

August 16th, 2014 · No Comments · Be a Mindful Activist

Fast forward several years and picture that you are on the east side of the Hudson River, looking across at the steep ledges of the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge. But where once over many years the cliffs stood out boldly, etched against the skies, now a large office tower protrudes above the […]

Pennsylvania Station: Its Glory and Death

February 18th, 2014 · 9 Comments · Explore New York

If ever a hallowed place existed for the travel of the common man and woman, it was New York’s original Pennsylvania Station. Yet a magnificent, soaring station that Alexander Cassatt and the Pennsylvania Railroad built for the ages and opened in 1910 lasted barely over a half-century. Two days after workers started tearing down the […]

The Enduring Wonder of the Rookery

December 30th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Beyond Gotham

One could be forgiven for thinking that one of the crows in terra cotta on Chicago’s Rookery building depicts a current leader of the U.S. Congress. Some of our greatest buildings possess an expressiveness that speaks not only of the time period in which architects and builders created the structure but also to today. The […]