#landmark – Walk with Me, Too

Cherokee Apartments

AKA The East River Houses or The Shively Sanitary Tenements:

Shively was the prescribing physician behind the project to build “healthy” tenements for patients with TB.

The triple hinged windows are a unique feature of the design. They lead to lovely little balconies so the afflicted and their families could get out into the air.

The tenements, now landmarked, have been converted to attractive coops.

Scheffel Hall

Just another historical remnant. Just another once upon a time restaurant.

In the late 1890s, when all of this downtown area was German, 190 Third Avenue was a renowned rathskellar, Scheffel Hall. Joe King ran a beer hall at this address in the 1950s

It is landmarked, I believe, but it may be for sale.

Built 1894-5 by Henry Adams Weber and Hubert Drosser, at a time when the area south of it was known as Kleindeutschland (“Little Germany”)

Quiet spots & city bustle

Scaffolds are covering the quiet areas in this part of the city.

Rocky’s Pizza (Graziano, not Balboa) is under attack from construction next door. The good news: that blue is striking, *and* workers from the site are having pizza for lunch.

The gold dome in the first picture is the Met Life (I think) insurance building. The other two? The top of the Byzantine church around 34th & 2nd.

The Brooklyn invasion is not just on the UES. It’s also at 26th & 2nd.

Mixed “media” landscape with some interesting approaches to how an what to build. There’s lots of construction and lots of empty retail around.

Deco on 42

Deco predominated 42nd Street at one time.

The tour ended with lunch al fresco to a jazz fest by the Sylvester Scott Trio. Once the drummer arrives, it will be the Sylvester Scott Quartet.

Sylvester Scott has an ‘art deco’ trumpet.

Preserving the past

As interesting and attractive as these historic artifacts might be, they lack modern amenities and luxury. They were built as tenements, and along with their landmark designation comes a prohibition to make any improvements. This brings up the question of whether conserving them is beneficial.
From this site and SidewalkSuperblog.wordpress.com

Old buildings hold history in their walls and hallways. They are full of memories. They can be charming reminders of how our city has changed.

Ours is a dynamic city.

Change is its only constant. Progress has brought lots of improvements in our way of living and to our style of life.

Old buildings can’t keep up with those changes and improvements.

Obviously, all of us won’t all live in modern apartments with brand new amenities.

Housing stock won’t all be replaced by newly constructed state of the art buildings.

Some of us like the quirky spaces older buildings offer us. We choose to live in walk-ups or 100 year old town houses.

Some of these residencies suit their tenants to a T. Some are less than optimum living quarters.

How do I define less than ideal apartments?

Pokey floor plans qualify. So do drafty windows. Of course, you may find these quaint.

The rationale behind landmarking old dwellings is that they are part of the historic record of our city.

Building anew wipes out the history.

So then how to preserve the past and its lessons and examples while giving everyone adequate up-to-the-minute accommodations?

On the subject or question of turning less than ideal homes into landmarks, my solution would be to take a small sample, aka one, and preserve it.

Since no changes are tolerated in property that is landmarked, let the landlord develop or improve the rest.

Modern fixtures and high-tech living are the upgrade to creaky and outdated. Maybe we all deserve that kind of change.