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Posts & Stories(38)

King's Crown Hotel image

King's Crown Hotel
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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.
Riverside Church image

Riverside Church
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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 image

St. Luke's Hospital
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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.
Six to Celebrate: Morningside Heights image

Six to Celebrate: Morningside Heights
Story

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.
Henrik Hudson Apartments image

Henrik Hudson Apartments
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Hendrik Hudson Apartments, ca. 1910. Completed in 1907, the Hendrik Hudson Apartments occupy the entire block between Riverside Drive and Broadway and 110th and 111th Streets. The building was modeled on Italian villa with a Spanish tile roof. Of the two tall towers seen in this circa 1910 photograph, once one remains today. The units were spectacularly upscale (unsurprising in this neighborhood of early 20th century luxury apartments). Decorating the 7-9 room apartments was walnut paneling, wood-beamed ceilings, mahogany doors with glass knobs, and the newest technology in porcelain bathroom features. The building itself also boasted a billiard parlor, a cafe, a barber shop, and a ladies hairdressing salon for the exclusive use of tenants and their guests. The original costs for the apartments ranged from $1500 to $3000 a year.
The Colosseum image

The Colosseum
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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).
Columbia University Low Memorial Library image

Columbia University Low Memorial Library
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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
116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line image

116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line
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View of Broadway, toward the 116th Street Station, June 14, 1911.
Rudd Mansion image

Rudd Mansion
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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.
The Strathmore image

The Strathmore
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"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.
St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University image

St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University
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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 image

Union Theological Seminary
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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.
Columbia University, Hamilton Hall image

Columbia University, Hamilton Hall
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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.”
Education: Vietnam War @ Home image

Education: Vietnam War @ Home
Story

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
Seventh Church of Christ Scientist image

Seventh Church of Christ Scientist
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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.
West 119th Street and the Hudson River image

West 119th Street and the Hudson River
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Half Moon & Clermont ships at West 119th Street, ca. 1909. In the last week of September and the first week in October 1909, the city of New York observed the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, which commemorated of the 300th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the Hudson River and the 100th anniversary of Robert Fulton’s first steamer trip. The two boats seen here were replicas of the two original vessels (Hudson's Half Moon and Fulton's Clermont). They were paraded through New York's waterways during the event's grand naval parade of American and foreign warships. This display along with military parades on Manhattan streets were a means of highlighting American martial supremacy and national identity and pride.
Environmentalism in the City image

Environmentalism in the City
Story

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.
The Colosseum image

The Colosseum
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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.
Columbia University Low Memorial Library image

Columbia University Low Memorial Library
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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 Church image

Riverside Church
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"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.
The Great God Pan Sculpture image

The Great God Pan Sculpture
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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.
Columbia University Low Memorial Library image

Columbia University Low Memorial Library
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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.
Sunnycrest Apartments image

Sunnycrest Apartments
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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 image

Riverside Church
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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.
Columbia University Pulitzer Hall image

Columbia University Pulitzer Hall
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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 image

Teachers College
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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.
Columbia's Student Uprising of 1968 image

Columbia's Student Uprising of 1968
Story

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."
Louis Kossuth Monument image

Louis Kossuth Monument
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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 image

445-447 Riverside Drive
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"445-447 Riverside Drive. The Stadium and Shoreham View Apartment, ca. 1912."
Philosophy Hall, Columbia University  image

Philosophy Hall, Columbia University
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“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 Park image

Riverside Park
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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.
Riverside Church image

Riverside Church
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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.
Riverside Church image

Riverside Church
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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.
Columbia University, Hamilton Hall image

Columbia University, Hamilton Hall
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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 image

St. Paul's Chapel, Columbia University
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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.
Columbia University Low Memorial Library image

Columbia University Low Memorial Library
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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
Columbia University, Casa Italiana  image

Columbia University, Casa Italiana
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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.
Riverside Church image

Riverside Church
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"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.

Photos(822)

616-620 West 116th Street image

616-620 West 116th Street

616 and 620 West 116th Street. Flora Ville \[Paterno?] and Porter Arms Apartments.
610 West 116th Street image

610 West 116th Street

The Westerfield, 610 West 116th Street; Plan of upper floors; Plan of first floor; View from The Westerfield looking West.
610 West 116th Street image

610 West 116th Street

The Westerfield, 610 West 116th Street; Plan of upper floors; Plan of first floor; View from The Westerfield looking West.
627 West 115th Street image

627 West 115th Street

627 West 115th Street. Pi Upsilon Fraternity House.
609-615 West 115th Street image

609-615 West 115th Street

The Annamere Court, 609-615 West 155th Street; Plan of first floor; Plan of upper floors.
609-615 West 115th Street image

609-615 West 115th Street

The Annamere Court, 609-615 West 155th Street; Plan of first floor; Plan of upper floors.
609-615 West 115th Street image

609-615 West 115th Street

The Annamere Court, 609-615 West 155th Street; Plan of first floor; Plan of upper floors.
606 West 116th Street image

606 West 116th Street

The Broadview, 606 West 116th Street ; Plan of first floor ; Plan of 2nd-4th floors ; Plan of 5th-12th floors.
606-610 West 116th Street image

606-610 West 116th Street

606-610 West 116th Street. Paterno Apartments.
The Colosseum image

The Colosseum

The Colosseum
The Colosseum image

The Colosseum

The Colosseum image

The Colosseum

Manhattan: Riverside Drive - 116th Street Riverside Drive, at, adjoining and south of the S.E. corner of 116th Street. About 1923. Gift of E. M. Jenks.
The Colosseum image

The Colosseum

435 Riverside Drive at the corner of West 116th Street. Colosseum Apartment House.
607 West 115th Street image

607 West 115th Street

The Bellemore, 607-609 West 115th Street; Plan of first floor; Plan of upper floors.
600 West 116th Street image

600 West 116th Street

West side of Broadway and W. 116th St., N.Y. Newstand on south side.
The Paterno image

The Paterno

West 116th Street and Claremont Avenue. The Paterno Apartments.
The Paterno image

The Paterno

116th Street and Riverside Drive. The Paterno Apartments.
The Paterno image

The Paterno

440 Riverside Drive. The Paterno Apartments House.
The Paterno image

The Paterno

Manhattan: Riverside Drive - 181st Street (West) Riverside Drive, north from a point to the north of W. 181st Street showing this sweepirg thoroughfare skirting the North (Hudson) River. At the right is an inclined roadway (Riverside Terrace) that leads to the apartment house section, known as Washington Heights and from which the new George Washington Bridge projects across the river to New Jersey. The enbanked colonnade forms a portion of Dr. Chas. V. Paterno's estate and same will remain after demolition in 1938 of this individuals castle-like home. He, being a real-estate operator will improve this site with a series of modern garden apartments, similar to his Hudson View Gardens of the same vicinity. View 3 is a vista from the pergola during the aforementioned operation. For additional views taken during this construction period, see, files under Cabrini Boulevard ( a new name for Northern Avenue since 1938). June 3, 1934 Views 1 and 2 View 3: August 23, 1938. P.L. Sperr
The Paterno image

The Paterno

The Paterno image

The Paterno

606 West 115th Street image

606 West 115th Street

The Warfdale \[Wharfedale], 604-606 W. 115th St.
425 Riverside Drive image

425 Riverside Drive

425 Riverside Drive. Apartment building
604 West 115th Street image

604 West 115th Street

604 West 115th Street. General exterior of The Wharfdale.
619 West 114th Street image

619 West 114th Street

Riverside Dwellings, 619 West 114th St.
619 West 114th Street image

619 West 114th Street

Riverside Dwellings, 611-619 West 114th St.
15 Claremont Avenue image

15 Claremont Avenue

Manhattan: Claremont Avenue - 116th Street (West) Claremont Avenue, west side (buildings there upon), from W.116th Street and Riverside Drive (left) to a point on a line with W. 118th Street, showing apartment structures formerly occupied by Barnard College students and that now house the faculty. They are, from left to right, the Paterno, the dual Barnard Court, the Sophomore, the 11 story Peter Minuit and Eton Hall. The photographer is viewing westward from Broadway and across the fenced lot where the present (in 1938) Barnard College Students Building stands. October 1914. Geo. L. Bulgue
445-447 Riverside Drive image

445-447 Riverside Drive

445-6-7 Riverside Drive. The Stadium and Shoreham View Apartments.
15 Claremont Avenue image

15 Claremont Avenue

Barnard Court, 15 Claremont Avenue, near 116th Street; Plan of first floor; Plan of upper floors.
445-448 Riverside Drive image

445-448 Riverside Drive

445-448 Riverside Drive. Stadium and Shore View Apartment Houses.
2937 Broadway image

2937 Broadway

2937 Broadway image

2937 Broadway

File photo of Grace Gold, a 17-year-old student killed by a falling piece of masonry in 1979.
2937 Broadway image

2937 Broadway

As a tribute, the street was named after her.
2937 Broadway image

2937 Broadway

West side of Broadway and W. 115th St., N.Y.
605-611 West 114th Street image

605-611 West 114th Street

605-611 West 114th Street. Heathcote Hall Apartment House.
116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line image

116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line

\[Broadway and 116th Street: IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line] Broadway and 116th Street: IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line. Interior view of 116th Street Station nearing completion, showing tracks and vault lights. The photo was taken between the two subway tracks looking north down the track and into the subway tunnel. Two men are working on the right.
116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line image

116th Street-Columbia University Station, IRT Broadway-Seventh Avenue Line

\[116th Street and Broadway: IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line] Survey photograph showing Broadway and 116th Street on the IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line. 116th Street subway station house is in the background.
Rudd Mansion image

Rudd Mansion

Rudd Mansion image

Rudd Mansion

Manhattan: Riverside Drive - 114th Street (West) Riverside Drive, at the N.E. corner of West 114th Street, showing the Althea Rudd Ward home. This structure, more than 100 years old, is to be razed and replaced with a 12 story apartment building according to a newspaper clipping dated Jan. 5, 1911. 1894 J. S. Johnson, photo Gift of Urbrock Collection REPRODUCTION RIGHTS UNKNOWN NEG. #4312
Rudd Mansion image

Rudd Mansion

Rudd mansion, Riverside Drive at 114th Street, New York City, 1911.
Rudd Mansion image

Rudd Mansion

Manhattan: Riverside Drive - 115th Street Riverside Drive, from but not including 115th Street. About 1894. Brown Brothers.
Broadway Presbyterian Church image

Broadway Presbyterian Church

The Broadway Presbyterian Church, Broadway and 114th Street, New York City, 1913.
417 Riverside Drive image

417 Riverside Drive

Manhattan: Riverside Drive - 114th Street 417-414 Riverside Drive, at, adjoining and south of the S.E. corner of 114th Street. 1923\. Gift of E. M. Jenks. Neg. # 2048
2915 Broadway image

2915 Broadway

West side of Broadway and W. 114th St., N.Y.
604 West 114th Street image

604 West 114th Street

604 W. 114th Street, New York City, undated (ca. March 1917).
Broadway and West 114th Street image

Broadway and West 114th Street

\[Broadway and 114th Street: IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line] Broadway and 114th Street: IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line. View looking south down Broadway of a long trench with construction workers working on pipes. The photograph shows the cable way, underground pipes, cobblestones in the distance, and pedestrians on a tree lined street.
Barnard College, Brooks Hall image

Barnard College, Brooks Hall

Barnard College, Brooks Hall.
Barnard College, Brooks Hall image

Barnard College, Brooks Hall

Students' Hall/Barnard Hall
School of Mines, Columbia University image

School of Mines, Columbia University

Entrance to School of Mines and 'Le Marteleur' statue, Columbia University, New York City, 1915.
Barnard College, Brooks Hall image

Barnard College, Brooks Hall

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