The Leake and Watts Orphan House was erected in 1843, and the massive Greek Revival structure is an unlikely survivor in an ever-changing city. Designed by architect Ithiel Town as a home for orphaned children with the funds from a wealthy New York lawyer, the building was the largest edifice in Morningside Heights until the construction of the neighboring St. John the Divine began in 1892. (The Cathedral is still officially unfinished more than 11 decades later.) The orphanage moved to Yonkers when the church purchased the building in 1887, and the asylum stands on land intended for the south transept of the cathedral. (See the above parenthetical for the reason this has not necessitated the demolition of the building.) The architectural writer, David Dunlap, described the scene as this: "The situation has yielded a happy architectural incongruity: two ample porticos with broad triangular pediments on giant Ionic colonnades, nestled at the base of an unfinished Romanesque-Gothic cathedral. From some vantages on the verdant grounds, it looks as if an ancient Greek temple stumbled into some medieval village." While the building was not demolished for construction, it was largely ignored by the church and might have been taken down due to safety concerns eventually. But in the early 2000s, the Cathedral reversed it hands-off plan for the asylum. With a massive restoration effort completed in 2006 and the building renamed the Town Building, for its architect, the once decaying structure has become home of the Cathedral’s Textile Conservation Lab, and the Cathedral’s social service and neighborhood outreach programming. A coop in the nearby parking lot is also the home base for the Cathedral's three peacocks, Phil, Jim, and Harry.

King's Crown Hotel, ca. 1905. Built in 1909 to the plans of the firm of Naville & Bagge, the Beaux-Arts structure was original the Hotel Westminster, and later the King's Crown Hotel, where some residents lived long term. In the 1930s the hotel was home to both physicists Leó Szilárd and Enrico Fermi. They met accidentally in the lobby of their building in 1939 and that encounter would go on to produce what one science writer described as "one of the more colorful - and contentious - partnerships in the history of science." The partnership played a major role in the Manhattan Project and the eventual creation of the atomic bomb. The building was purchased by Columbia University in the early 1980s and is now a residence for law school students.

The Park Avenue Baptist church relocated to Riverside Drive and Claremont Avenue between west 120th and 122nd streets, one of the highest points in New York, overlooking the Hudson River, became the Riverside Church. This, "the City's greatest skyscraper church" was funded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and designed by Henry C. Pelton in 1929. The church consists of a 60x 100 ft low vaulted auditorium designed for the best acoustics and visibility for 2,400 worshippers, with a bowling alley, basketball court, theatre, assembly rooms and a kitchen beneath it, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial tower based on the façade of Chartes Cathedral. An astonishing 375-ft, it has 21 floors of offices and the largest carillon in the world. Its skyscraper form derived from the competition with commercial and residential towers in the urban fabric due to the rising cost of land as well as the expanded programmatic needs of the church with meeting rooms, classrooms, and social welfare facilities. "the ecclesiastical monument that best symbolizes an era in which modern commercial and social values continue to find their expression in largely traditional forms."

St. Luke's Hospital, 1904. In 1896, St. Luke's Hospital (founded in 1858 on Fifth Avenue at 54th Street) moved uptown. Ernest Flagg designed the grand hospital at the start of his career. The French Renaissance style complex was to have nine five-story, mansard-roofed pavilions connected to a central building topped by an impressive dome. Construction began in 1896 and continued for more than two decades. Only seven of the nine planned pavilions were built, and four remain today. The dome was removed in the 1960s and over time architectural details have been lost, while the complex has been crowded in by the modern Stuyvesant Pavilion on its west side. In the early 1990s, the deteriorating marble cornice was removed and replaced with a concrete/fiberglass replica. The four remaining pavilions were either empty or administrative and doctors’ offices before the buildings were sold in 2016. They are currently undergoing construction as part of a luxury residential conversion with the preservation of both the exterior and some historical elements of the interior structure included. The work is planned to be completed by the end of 2019.

Morningside Heights is graced with the highest concentration of institutional complexes built in a relatively short period at the turn of the 20th century, both in the city and anywhere in the United States. It is home to monumental places of worship, higher learning and healing, which accentuate its backdrop of rowhouses and apartment buildings, culminating in streetscapes that are both elegant and eye-filling. Topographically, it is situated on a plateau historically known as Harlem Heights, while geographically it is bounded by West 110th Street to the south, West 125th Street to the north, and two Frederick Law Olmsted–designed parks to the east (Morningside Park) and to the west (Riverside Park). The first institution to move into the area was New York Hospital, which began purchasing land in 1816 to establish the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum (on the present-day campus of Columbia University) and the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum (on the present-day campus of St. John the Divine) in 1821 and 1834, respectively. The stigma of an insane asylum, compounded by inadequate transit access to the area, hindered other development until the late 19th century, when the hospital auctioned off its real estate holdings and relocated to White Plains in favor of more space and fresher air. The asylum’s relocation prompted a flurry of development by other institutions intent on expansion, starting with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 1887 and followed by St. Luke’s Hospital, Columbia College and Teacher’s College in 1892. The introduction of the subway into Morningside Heights in 1904, coupled with the neighborhood’s magnificent parks and prestigious institutions, led to a frenzy of speculative apartment house construction, attracting middle-class residents who could now commute directly downtown to work. Even before the advent of zoning regulations for land use, developers erected rowhouses and modest apartment buildings on the side streets and grand apartment houses on the avenues, with particularly monumental examples on Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue and Cathedral Parkway, and mixed-use commercial buildings along Broadway, giving the neighborhood a heterogeneous yet cohesive character. Morningside Heights’ unorthodox yet distinctive sense of place comes from the coexistence of residential and institutional clusters, as exemplified by elegant rowhouses and apartment buildings just steps away from renowned academic institutions and houses of worship. Today the neighborhood still enjoys this singular sense of place. Its institutions are impressive examples of Beaux-Arts planning and design, including the graceful approach to Grant’s Tomb, the entrance façades of St. John the Divine and Riverside Church aligned with the axes of 112th Street and 122nd Street, and especially Charles McKim’s plan for Columbia University, whose symmetry and axial layout emphasize the monumentality and unity of the surrounding architecture. The residential architecture, though sometimes grand, offers a human scale and balance to the whole neighborhood.

Eglise De Notre Dame ARCHITECT: Daus & Otto DATE: 1909-10 STYLE: French This church on the corner of Morningside Heights and 114th Street expresses a square building, Greek Cross in plan, by the shallow eastern portico and the semicircular apse. The principal facade on the east is dominated by a handsome pedimented portico, carried on four fluted Corinthian columns. The pediment and cornice are strengthened by well-detailed modillions. The order and regularity of this style are seen in the repetition of the principal portico motif in shallow projection on the south side. Here four pilasters take the place of the columns of the east front while their height and the pediment above them are similar and reinforce the quality of symmetry. Another feature reminiscent of French antecedents is the band of swagged garlands which follows the entablature for the entire perimeter of the building, similar to that on the Church of the Madeleine in Paris and so typical of Nineteenth-Century classicism.

Colosseum Apartment House, ca. 1910. This unique 1910 apartment house with the curved facade was built as a pair with the similarly curved building across the street at no. 440 Riverside Drive. Both buildings were designed by a neighborhood favorite architectural firm, Schwartz & Gross, and built by the same contractors, the Paterno Brothers (after whom the building at no. 440 is named). The Colosseum, at 13-stories, has a symmetrical facade and a grand entrance (though lacks some of the more elaborate architectural details of its larger neighbor across the street). The building was designed with only 16 apartments, including 12 and 8 room single level apartments, and ten room duplex apartments. Harlan Fiske Stone, who would go on to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1941-1946), lived in this building while Dean of Columbia University's Law School (1910-1923).

Open-Air Pulpit: Howells & Stokes, 1913

Low Memorial Library Interior STATUS Designated Interior Landmark 116th St & Broadway ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Charles F. McKim DATE: 1894-97 STYLE: Neo-Classical The design of the Low Library Interior is characterized by a restrained but striking combination of classical ornament and richly colored materials. It is an excellent expression of the classical spirit that so strongly influenced American architecture at the turn of the 20th century. Low Library is an excellent expression of the neo-Classical style. The monumental domed building is the focal point of the campus. Its imposing interior, dominated by a vast central hall with rich, classically-inspired ornament, ranks as one of the finest monumental spaces in New York City

View of Broadway, toward the 116th Street Station, June 14, 1911.

In the closing decades of the 19th century, New York underwent a profound physical and cultural transformation. Fueled by the wealth of the exploding financial and manufacturing sectors, the city rapidly evolved into a world-class metropolis. The bold ambitions of civic and business leaders, architects, and engineers of the era manifested in landmarks such as the vast Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the stately U.S. Custom House, the towering Municipal Building, and the original terminus of New York City’s first official subway line—the ornate City Hall stop. The sweeping interior spaces common to all of these structures, and hundreds of others, depended upon a venerable Mediterranean building technology adapted to contemporary American construction: arched tile ceilings—or vaults—that were not only self-supporting but could also bear the weight of floors or roofs above them. These vaults were designed and built by a single New York firm, founded by Spanish immigrant Rafael Guastavino (1842-1908) and later headed by his son Rafael Jr. (1872-1950). The Guastavinos’ patented system for building domes and vaults involved multiple layers of thin ceramic tiles bonded with quick-drying mortar. The resulting structures were not only exceptionally strong, but also lightweight, easy to build, and inherently beautiful, thanks to intricate patterns of exposed tile that formed finished, decorative surfaces. Guastavino vaults figured prominently in more than 1,000 projects across the nation, including 200 in Manhattan alone. During its 73-year history, the Guastavino Company helped build some of the most impressive interior spaces in America—veritable palaces for the people. This list based on MCNY's exhibition Palaces for the People, contains many of Guastavino's masterpieces in the five boroughs, both those that remain and those that have been lost to the wrecking ball.

Rudd Mansion, ca. 1911. Built by George Rudd, a British arrival to New York in 1815, the Rudd Mansion was a grandiose two-story Greek Revival mansion. Completed in 1852, after George had become quite wealthy in real estate, the mansion was built in the area called Bloomingdale, a bucolic expanse overlooking the Hudson River. Quickly enough the rest of the city began encroaching on the rural vistas here, propelled by the construction of Riverside Park (begun in 1872) and newly laid out thoroughfares. By the start of the new century, the mansion would be surrounded by new homes and apartment buildings. Interestingly the home was not given an address for decades and was known by its intersection, "Riverside Drive and 114th Street.” When Rudd's daughter died (young) in the home in 1909, the building was finally listed with an address, no. 420 Riverside Drive. In 1911 the mansion was sold and razed, a 12-story apartment house, designed by Gaetano Ajello, was constructed and remains extant today.

"Riverside Drive at the S.E. corner of West 113th Street. Apartment house, ca. 1910." The Strathmore is an apartment house built in 1909 for the Akron Building Company, and designed by Schwartz & Gross. The facade of the 12-story building is broken up into three bands. The four-story base is rusticated limestone, while floors five through ten are a dark red brick, and the top of the building is a three-story limestone and terra cotta capital and cornice. The building was designed to house two 10-room apartments on each floor and the apartments were to be of the highest luxury with high ceilings, elaborately parquet floors, and huge bathtubs.

Morningside Heights holds a very different ground than the Upper West Side - probably because it is home to Columbia University, Barnard College, the Manhattan School of Music, and other smaller schools. 🏫📚✍️ Explore the area between the Hudson and the Manhattan Schist…

Saint Paul’s Chapel ARCHITECT: Howells & Stokes DATE: 1904-07 STYLE: Byzantine, Italian Renaissance St. Paul’s Chapel attains an altogether pleasing dignity from its beautiful proportions and handsome architectural details. This brick building with limestone trim is highlighted with terra cotta ornament and ornamental bronze carefully integrated into a harmonious ecclesiastical design. Because of its Greek cross plan, surmounted by a high drummed dome over the crossing and its four columned portico (porch) with a Florentine gable, this Byzantine Chapel displaying much Italian Renaissance detail makes an attractive contribution to American architecture.

Union Theological Seminary ARCHITECT: Allen & Collins DATE: 1908-10 STYLE: English Perpendicular Gothic Rising high above the lower buildings adjacent to them, in the quadrangle of the Union Theological Seminary, the Brown Memorial Tower in the southeast corner, and the James Tower set in the middle of the Claremont Avenue side are among the finest examples of the English Perpendicular Gothic style of architecture in New York. There is a sophisticated restraint revealed in their design coupled with delicate precision in the execution of the details that seem to impart a special quality to the masonry. These striking towers are expressions in masonry of the intent of the designer and manifest the art and skill of the master stone carvers who produced them.

From April 23 to April 30, 1968, Hundreds of Columbia University students occupied and barricaded five buildings on the Morningside Heights campus. They were protesting Columbia’s plan to build a private gym in Morningside Park—an “apartheid gym,” as they saw it, which would exclude the local black community, as well as disciplinary measures taken against student anti-war demonstrators. Afraid a confrontation might spark riots in nearby Harlem, Columbia President Grayson Kirk held back from calling in the police. On April 30, Columbia called in the NYPD to clear the buildings. Police arrested 705 students, at least 150 of whom they beat; more violence erupted on May 1 in skirmishes between police and demonstrators. policemen were also injured, one seriously. Lindsay publicly praised the “restraint” of most police, while admitting that some “used excessive force.”

How did New York build one of the largest Cathedrals in the world? Not quickly, using traditional craftsmen, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine took a century to reach its current state. As the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of New York St. John The Divine remains in active use to this day. This blog is adapted from Historic District Council's Six to Celebrate, which can be viewed here.

Carl Schurz Memorial, 1913. The Carl Schurz Memorial was designed by Austrian-born American sculptor Karl Bitter in conjunction with renowned architect Henry Bacon. Carl Schurz was a Union general in the Civil War, Secretary of the Interior, a U.S. Senator (as well as a lawyer and journalist) who immigrated from Germany after the revolutions of 1848-49. After settling in America, he established a reputation as a skilled orator and anti-imperialist. Following his military and political careers, Schurz lived in New York City from 1881 until his death in 1906. While this statue is situated on the west side just outside Morningside Park, he is also honored on the east side. Carl Schurz Park in Yorkville is the location of Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the New York City mayor.

Morningside Park ARCHITECT: Frederick Law Olmsted; Calvert Vaux DATE: 1873-95 STYLE: Park Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, renowned landscape designers at the time, also designed included Central Park, Prospect Park, and Riverside Park and Drive. They transformed the long, narrow, and unusual site into a picturesque park by respecting and enhancing its inherent beauties and possibilities, including the views both eastward and westward. The most important features of Morningside Park include the massive buttressed masonry retaining wall with parapet, overlook bays, and entrance stairways, natural rock outcroppings, carefully worked-out “designed” rockwork and plantings, curvilinear walk system, and small open meadows along the southern and eastern sides

Construction on the IRT Broadway—Seventh Avenue Line, near West 122nd Street; May 22, 1901. IRT trains emerge north of West 122nd Street, as the open cut tracks quickly ramp up to the Manhattan Valley Viaduct. In this photo, trench work is structured to avoid interference with active streetcar traffic operated by the Third Avenue Railway System.

The Vietnam War was a bloody conflict which lasted nearly 20 years. The United States entered the conflict because of the policy of Containment. Americans believed they needed to contain the spread of Communism in order to prevent the Domino Theory from playing out. This theory held that if one nation fell to Communism then surrounding nations would follow, much like if a person was to knock one domino tile down the others would fall in a chain reaction. As a result, the policy of Containment pursued a goal of containing or limiting Communism's spread by becoming involved in the affairs of nations at risk of turning "Red." With this in mind, US troops first arrived in Vietnam in 1955, and did not leave until 1973. Throughout those 18 years, American soldiers fought and died in the jungles of Vietnam. As time went on, many Americans grew frustrated with their nation's involvement in the conflict and began protesting to demand peace. This protest movement grew quickly and, at times, was marred by violence. However, the pressure put on the US government eventually helped to bring the troops home. Unfortunately, the 18 years, thousands of lives lost, and the millions of dollars spent ultimately proved ineffective at stopping Ho Chi Minh's communist regime from taking over Vietnam in 1975. To this day, the Vietnam War is considered one of America's darkest chapters. Its legacy continues to effect our nation and its veterans of the conflict in particular. As you read, consider how the Vietnam War shaped domestic feelings and movements and how people have come to remember the conflict today. NYS Social Studies Scope and Sequence Standards: 8.7, 8.9 & 11.9 For Teachers: Vietnam War @ Home Lesson Plan

Morningside Park (undated postcard).

Cathedral of St. John the Divine interior ca. 1959 The Guastavino Company pushed the limits of traditional tile vaulting further than any previous builders. Guastavino Jr.’s building method for the dome of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine required no support during construction, yet created a highly stable shell only 4.5 inches thick at its crown. The 135-foot span was erected in a mere 15 weeks. Originally intended as a temporary, inexpensive cover for the crossing of the cathedral’s two main axes, the dome remains in place today—a testament to its solid construction.

Seventh Church of Christ Scientist, August 22, 1929. Designed by Griffin & Wynkoop, this Greek Revival church was completed in 1919. Clad in white limestone, the facade boasted no windows. The building survived until the late 1980s when the church sold the deteriorating church and its brownstone neighbor (which housed administrative offices and the Sunday school). The purchasing developers constructed a modest, modern church facade with a large circular window (that the church owns outright) next to a 22-story condo building, both clad in red brick.

Bancroft Hall Designed and built in 1910 by esteemed architect Emery Roth, Bancroft Hall differed from the general Beaux Arts flavored Morningside Heights. The Vienna Secessionist style building features copper-clad bay windows and a timber Tuscan-style roof. Though designed for apartments, it was purchased to serve as a dormitory by the Teachers College/

Cathedral of St. John The Divine. Heins & LaFarge won the design competition for their Byzantine/Romanesque/Gothic cathedral conception. One of its most prominent features is the Guastavino tiled dome, constructed as a temporary roof during fundraising for the massive central crossing tower, which was never completed. The cathedral famously suffered many setbacks, including waning public interest to provide funds, significant design alterations, the replacement of Heins & LaFarge with Ralph Adams Cram, and building hiatuses during two world wars. Despite its uneven developmental history, the cathedral remains a fascinating juxtaposition of styles and construction technologies. Its subsidiary structures were built around the Close in Gothic variations. In spite of being an international icon, the complex remains unprotected by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. In 2007, the cathedral leased the Close’s southeast parcel for the construction of a residential high-rise, and there is currently a proposal to build two residential high-rises next to the Cathedral’s north wall. The Greek Revival Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum, restored in 2006 and currently the home of the cathedral’s tapestry conservation studio, is Morningside Heights’ oldest extant structure.

Often thought of as a "concrete jungle," New York City also has a rich history of environmental activism--from the creation of green spaces to confronting climate change. In the decades following the first Earth Day in 1970 and the birth of the environmental movement, New Yorkers sought to make their city greener with recycling centers, community gardens, and bike lanes. Activist groups also called for improved environmental conditions and air quality that disproportionately affected people of color. Though the city is less polluted today, climate change has posed large challenges that have ignited a new generation of environmental activists. Explore key sites of eco-advocacy in the city from the 1960s to today.

This rare early view of the north end of the park looks east-northeast from Amsterdam Avenue near West 122nd Street. We see what we now know as Morningside Drive (it was earlier called both Morningside Avenue and Morningside Avenue West) curving off to the right. We see how the park connected to Amsterdam Avenue. This connection was lost when a public school (PS36) was built in this section of the park in the mid 1960’s.

435 Riverside Drive Schwartz & Gross 1909 and 1910 Joseph, Charles, Michael and Anthony Paterno were prolific apartment house builders in Morningside Heights between 1898 and 1924. The Paterno and the Colosseum were constructed across 116th Street from one another on the corner of Riverside Drive. Both buildings feature curved corner façades with stone bases and Renaissance ornamentation.

Charles McKim, 1895–97: New York City Individual and Interior Landmark, State and National Registers of Historic Places Charles McKim designed the campus in the Beaux-Arts style popularized at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Its focal point is Low Library, designed in the Roman Classical style, with Italian Renaissance–inspired classroom buildings flanking it in the forecourt and rear. Fashioned after the Baths of Caracalla and the Pantheon, the library’s granite dome is the country’s largest. The university outgrew Low Library in the 1920s, and a new library named for then president Nicholas Murray Butler was built on the campus’ southern end.

"Riverside Drive, east side, south from and including West 122nd Street, showing the Riverside Church (Baptist). This view was taken from the esplanade of the Tomb of General U.S. Grant, 1936." Riverside Church is a huge Neo-Gothic structure that was opened in 1930. The church was the idea of industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. and pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick. They envisioned a interdenominational church, that would be open to all Christians in an historic part of the city. The church has a rich history of activism, advocacy and social service ministries. It has also hosted many prominent speakers including Martin Luther King Jr. and many other religious and political leaders.

Janus Court, 1913. Built by private developers in 1910, Janus Court would only function as a private residence for less than a decade. In 1919, Teachers College at Columbia University purchased the building to meet the demand for student housing. It was renamed Seth Low Hall, and is the only Columbia building named for the once university president (the well-known Low Law Library is named for Seth's father, Abiel Abbot Low.

The Great God Pan, ca. 1907. Originally located (as seen here) at the center of a fountain on the north side of the Columbia campus, the bronze sculpture was actually intended for a very different location. Commission by the Clark family in the 1890s for a location at their Dakota apartment building, the resulting statue was deemed too risque for the apartment house. For a time it was considered for a spot in Central Park, but finally Edward Severin Clark donated the piece to Columbia for its uptown campus. It was installed in 1907 as a working fountain in a grotto on the northeast corner of campus. It was moved, at an unknown point in the 20th century to its current location outside of Lewisohn Hall. Pan, (deemed to risque for the Dakota) by the American artist George Grey Barnard, is depicted in his usual form as half-man (nude), half-goat, playing his traditional pipes. Cast from bronze by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co., a local foundry, it was one of Branard's first commissions. His later medieval architectural fragments and sculptures would go to become the foundation for the The Cloisters Museum & Gardens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Low Memorial Library, c. 1975. President Seth Low founded the Low Memorial Library in honor of his father, Abiel Abbot Low. It was designed in the Neoclassical style by Charles Follen McKim of the renowned architecture firm McKim, Mead, and White, who designed the Beaux-Arts plan that governs Columbia University's campus. The Low Memorial Library was constructed from 1895 until 1897 as the first major building on the new campus. It was meant to be both the visual and the academic focus of the grounds. The building, a Greek cross in plan, was modeled after the Pantheon, with windows inspired by the Baths of Diocletian, and various Classical influences on the outside, including busts of Apollo, Zeus, and Athena. The great hall of the building, octagonal in plan, was designed as the main reading room. The reading room took influence from the Reading Room at the British Museum, which was circular in plan and also covered by a domed ceiling. A circular arrangement of tiered desks surrounded a central reception desk, both of which occupy the space under the rounded ceiling. The ceiling is painted dark blue and adorned with a suspended white sphere meant to represent the moon and night sky. The reading room held 12,000 of the library's books, and at maximum capacity, the library was to hold 1,900,000 volumes in total. Since 1934, the reading room has been repurposed for more ceremonious occasions such as exhibitions, convocations, and as a reception area. The iconic facade of the building is used as the backdrop for Columbia's graduation ceremonies. During the protests at Columbia in 1968, the library, which also housed the president's office, was occupied by a group of students. The students were protesting the university's involvement in the Vietnam War and, among other things, a segregated gymnasium proposed near campus. Of the drama that ensued, one account by a former student describes food being hurled at the building to feed the occupants. Peculiarly, the 1897 Real Estate Record and Guide wrote that the Library's design was a direct copy of a French Church designed by an architect called Rumpf. There is no record of such a building, though the Guide wrote of the building, "Successful architects have too much to do to be pre-eminently artists -- they much be first-rate men of business." The library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Within twenty years of the park’s completion this grand overlook at West 116th Street and Morningside Drive was completely redesigned to incorporate the Carl Schurz Memorial. While an impressive work in its own right, the monument completed negates the Olmsted and Vaux design intent for this space. The monument faces inward and robs visitors of much of the grand view out over the city and towards Long Island. We’ve watched untold numbers of visitors to this spot immediately proceed to the edge of the monument and peer over trying to recapture that view. The monument also served as a backdrop for this famous photo of The Who from 1968.

Sunnycrest Apartments, ca. 1905. The early advertising for the Sunnycrest Apartments noted its proximity to the Hudson River, St. John the Divine, and subway, street car, and elevated train stations. The 1907-completed Colonial style building in red brick and limestone decoration was designed by the neighborhood favorite firm of Schwartz and Gross. Though laid out originally as substantially sized apartments with servants space, the building became single occupancy residences by the mid century. At some point prior to 1965 Columbia University became the owner of this building, known then as York Studios. That year the evicted the tenants of the building for then unknown reasons. The structure was demolished at some point in the mid to late 20th century and today the site is used as a parking lot.

Riverside Church Interior Collaborating with Harvard University physics professor Wallace Clement Sabine, Guastavino Jr. pioneered the use of acoustical tile in large public spaces. The neo-Gothic Riverside Church exemplifies the successful application of a proprietary Guastavino Company product called Akoustolith. Resembling blocks of heavy stone, the Akoustolith tiles form vaults that combine with a steel frame to create a hybrid load-bearing system with excellent acoustical properties.

Cathedral of St. John the Devine, ca. 1913. The massive Cathedral of St. John, the principal church of the Episcopal diocese of New York, is the largest church in the United States and one of the largest in the world. Designed by the Heins & LaFarge firm in 1891, the Cathedral's construction began its long journey in 1892 when the first stone was laid. The design was transferred to the firm of Cram and Ferguson in 1911, when the crossing and eastern end of church was completed. The resulting change in architects caused the Cathedral's Nave to have a French Gothic influence while the sanctuary and choir taking a Romanesque Style. The initial length of the cathedral was completed in 1941 (in part due to a colossal fundraising campaign amongst New Yorkers) and the cathedral was opened, marking a pause its construction that would last until 1979. The Very Reverend James Parks then spurred another round of construction and renovation, employing masons to continue the work. However, the great Cathedral remains unfinished, the last additions having been made in 2007, as its stone on stone construction is both expensive and painstaking. Even in its unfinished state, it remains one of the most important Anglican churches in the world.

Pulitzer Hall (formerly Journalism Hall), home to the Columbia University Graduate school of Journalism, undated photo. The Columbia Journalism School is the only journalism school in the Ivy League and one of the oldest in the world. Established by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, the school and the related Pulitzer Prizes were funded via a gift of $2 million in 1903. It took nearly a decade to iron out the details from the time of the gift until the official founding and matriculation of the first class in 1912. The classical building that has housed the school since its inception (and was funded through the original gift) was known for its first century as Journalism Hall. Alas a closer reading (in 2003) of the 1903 gift agreement uncovered the specification that "the building shall bear the name of the donor." In 2012 during the celebration of the school's centennial, the building was renamed Pulitzer Hall.

Teachers College, ca. 1915. Teachers College is Columbia University's graduate school of education, health, and psychology. It was founded in 1887 and is the nation's oldest and largest graduate school of education. The early history of Teachers College begins with the establishment of the Kitchen Education Association (KEA). Founded by Grace Hoadley Dodge, daughter of wealthy businessman William Dodge, the association worked with impoverished kindergarten-aged girls to provide miniature kitchen utensils in place of other toys. In 1884, the KEA shifted its scope and became the Industrial Education Association, focusing more broadly on vocational type education for all children and their parents. Columbia University began its relationship with the IEA in 1887, when Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler (CU Ph.D., 1884) was encouraged by the university's president, Frederick A. Barnard, to become president of the IEA. To the IEA, Butler brought the "latest theories in pedagogical science…designed to equip students thoroughly for the profession of teaching." The association was renamed "The New York School for the Training of Teachers" and focused on preparing teachers for the education of those left in need by society or circumstance. In 1892, the school's name was changed to Teachers College. It became Columbia University's Graduate School of Education in 1898.

In the spring semester of 1968, over 1,000 protesters occupied five of the campuses' buildings, leading to one of the largest mass arrests in New York. The story of the Columbia Protests offers a glimpse of the country's political climate during that fateful year. A former protestor recalled that students felt "two strands of anger and disgust converge: what the university was doing to aid the war effort, and what the university was doing that was racist to our neighborhood."

Cathedral of St. John the Divine ca. 1904 In competition among most of the leading architects of the day, the magnificent Romanesque Revival scheme of Heins and La Farge was selected for construction of an American cathedral. Only the choir and apse and a rough masonry shell at the crossing were completed when Ralph Adams Cram gained control of the design for the rest of the building, which then was carried out in French Gothic Style.

Louis Kossuth monument, Riverside Park, ca. 1976. This monument to the 19th century Hungarian patriot was erected in 1928. Its inscription reads: "Erected by a liberty loving race of Americans of Magyar origin to Louis Kossuth the great champion of liberty."

"445-447 Riverside Drive. The Stadium and Shoreham View Apartment, ca. 1912."

My Archive Spring 2019 "September 1989: Playing at the Peace Fountain sculpted by Greg Wyatt, and installed in 1985. The park was a great place to play in the 1980s and I’m very lucky that my grandmother marched me out nearly every day of her visits to watch ongoing construction at the cathedral, including getting to speak with sculptor Simon Verity and his assistants who were working at the Portal of Paradise at the west facade. This photo was taken during one of my Brooklyn-born grandmother’s visits during which she’d encourage me to be more interested in my city. She would have me stand and watch the construction of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine because as she’d say, it’s not every day that you witness the construction of a cathedral. Someone living in our building was from an area near Barcelona and had brought me a 1992 Summer Olympics T-shirt, which is what I’m wearing. Barcelona had been selected as the host city on October 17, 1986." —James Russiello

“During the \[famous 1968] occupation, faculty presence at the occupied buildings was assured. How did it all work? Why did individual faculty congregate in Philosophy Hall, sign up for tours of duty in front of occupied buildings to prevent a police cleanup of the occupied buildings, and regularly show up? The faculty understood its students because it identified with them and their humanistic and political values, as the students identified with the populations they undertook to serve and — to the extent possible — represented, as well as the unknown victims of their government’s Vietnam aggression. That potential for identification, which is prior to ideology, has disintegrated....“ Excerpted from a series presented by The Gotham Center for New York City History on the fiftieth anniversary of the protests in 1968.

Riverside Drive, north from West 119th Street, showing bicyclers near General U.S. Grants Tomb, ca. 1900. This photograph, as per its descriptive notes, was published in a Parks Department pamphlet celebrating the opening of a section of the West Side Improvement Project, a Robert Moses project that expanded Riverside Park, created the Henry Hudson Park, and improved railroad infrastructure along the West Side. The original photograph was likely taken around 1900 and shows cyclists on the path near Grant's Tomb. The 1890s are often referred to as a "bicycle craze" period, when the cost of bicycles was dropping and it was becoming a major form of recreation.

405 West 114th Street Daus & Otto, 1910; Cross & Cross, 1914 New York City Individual Landmark State and National Registers of Historic Places This French Neo-Classical church was donated by Geraldine Redmond after her son was cured at the famous pilgrimage site and sanctuary at Notre Dame de Lourdes in France. Its interior grotto recalls the grotto of its namesake.

Riverside Church, date unknown. The church building is the tallest church building in the United States and was designed by the firm of Allen, Pelton and Collens. The architects were commissioned by the church's funder John D. Rockefeller Jr. to travel in Europe for design inspiration and it is said that the large single bell tower (392 feet tall) is inspired by the towers of a cathedral in Laon, France. The tower and its basement floors not only housed the church's bells, but also provided space for offices, social rooms, classrooms, a bowling alley, and a theatre.

My Archive Spring 2019 "Back when my Brooklyn-born grandmother would revisit the city once a year in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, she’d berate for not being more interested in my city. She’d march me out to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine because as she’d say, it’s not every day that you witness the construction of a cathedral. I was there in a stroller, playing at the newly installed Peace Fountain sculpted by Greg Wyatt. The park was a great place to play in the 1980s and I’m very lucky for my grandmother for marching me out nearly every day to watch sculptor Simon Verity and his assistants first chalk out and then sculpt the jamb figures at the Portal of Paradise. There are a lot of photos of me looking very bored, but we stood there for long periods each day watching, during which time the sculptor spoke to us, and my grandmother inquired if there was a training program I could join. He politely explained that it was nice that I was local but I was too young to be part of the cathedral works (my first in a long line of rejections). I was fortunate to see his amazing Yorkminster west portal figures while living in the UK and his work at NYC’s Hanover Square. I remember we posed my dad under the New York Apocalypse featuring the World Trade Center carving because he was handling maintenance plans for one of the buildings depicted in that carving nearby the World Trade Center. Coincidentally, the photograph is dated September 11, 1991 only because the outing correlated to a family birthday. We had no idea at the time that that would be the exact date featured at the start of The Big Lebowski (1998)." —James Russiello

Riverside Church, detail, date unknown. The buttresses on this church (the architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall) are not structural as is most common. They are purely decorative, being too shallow to provide support and unneeded as the church is entirely supported by an underlying steel frame.

To learn more about the Columbia University Protests of '68, visit: https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/remembering-the-columbia-protest-of-68-students AND https://www.gothamcenter.org/blog/remembering-the-columbia-protest-of-68-faculty

St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University Interior ca. 1917 This chapel on the campus of Columbia University illustrates the full potential of Guastavino vaulting as both a structural and a decorative system. The chapel is capped by a double dome, consisting of two thin tile layers separated by an air space. The most dramatic architectural elements of the building, however, are the spiral staircases whose three-dimensional curvatures convey the remarkable flexibility of the Guastavino system.

Low Memorial Library, Columbia University, ca. 1975. Seth Low, the president of Columbia College, which in the 1890s was located at Madison Avenue at 50th Street, established a great urban university that would eventually be called Columbia University in the City of New York. He built a new campus for this university in the open spaces of 114th to 120th Streets between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. The first building erected on this new campus was the library and President Low was its benefactor. The University moved to its new campus in 1897

Casa Italiana ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; William M. Kendall DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance Casa ltaliana, a neo-Italian Renaissance style institutional building, was designed as a center for Italian studies by the prestigious architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White. Built in 1926-27, it is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University at Amsterdam Avenue and 117th Street. Casa ItaIiana had its beginnings in 1914 when a group of students of Italian descent organized an ItaIian club at Columbia College in an effort to promulgate knowledge of modern Italy. In 1920 a group of 25 students formalized themselves into the Circolo Italiano.

"At Riverside Church in Harlem on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a blistering and sophisticated critique of U. S. intervention in Vietnam. His 'Beyond Vietnam' speech was prescient in ways that continue to haunt our society into the present day... King left the pulpit at Riverside to a standing ovation, but the reaction outside those church walls the next day was swift and scathing. Nearly 170 white and black newspapers across the country denounced him and the speech." For more on King's in/famous speech, check out this article by Kristopher Burrell in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.