Archive for the ‘Brooklyn’ Category
old and exalted
A night time trip to Greenwood Cemetery with the Obscura Society, part two.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As discussed in yesterday’s post, an opportunity to join up with Atlas Obscura’s excursion to the Stephen Whitney monument at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn presented itself. As is my habit, a profusion of photographs were captured while in the cemetery, which was encased in a foggy environment with little to no artificial light beyond that produced by the handheld lanterns and candles set out by the Obscura Society.
from wikipedia
Stephen Whitney (1776–1860) was one of the wealthiest merchants in New York City in the first half of the 19th century. His fortune was considered second only to that of John Jacob Astor. As a prominent citizen of the rapidly growing city, he helped to build some of its institutions, including the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the first permanent home of the New York stock exchange.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the Whitney monument itself, a refreshment was offered, and Allison Meier finished up her narration releasing the crowd to heterogeneous mingling. Your humble narrator had grown chill from the humid November night, but nevertheless continued to exploit this rare opportunity to visit with the tomb legions and night gaunts with the cemetery gates locked behind me.
from 1853’s Rules and regulations of the Green-wood cemetery; with a catalogue of proprietors, courtesy archive.org
” A correct idea, expressed in marble, may be very beautiful, so long as it is unique ; but by too frequent imitation, and in too close proximity with its original, it may destroy the charm of the first, and ultimately raise feelings in the beholder the reverse of those desired.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Stephen Whitney was the second richest man in New York City, and this is the monument he built to himself. He married into the Suydam family, a lineage of note dating back to that primeval era of the Dutch decadence when New York was called New Amsterdam.
from 1898’s Hendrick Rycken, the progenitor of the Suydam family in America. A monograph, courtesy archive.org
Hendrick Rycken had been preceded by other members of his family. The Annals of Newtown, page 301, reads : “When New Netherland invited the virtuous and the daring to seek a home in her wilds, several of the Rikers joined the adventurers coming hither. These were Abraham, Gysbert, Rynier, and Hendrick Rycken, the last of whom came out a few years after the others, and was the ancestor of the Suydam family, his sons assuming that name.” Hence the Riker genealogy is the same as that of the Suydams ; and the heraldry, the noble German ancestry extending back to the eleventh century ; these ancestors’ participation in the First Crusade, as ofificers in the army of Walter the Penniless, are equally their pride and glory.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The timed event was over, and the crew from Atlas Obscura needed to ferry the excursion participants back to the locked gates of Greenwood. I offered to stick around and “watch the stuff” while they did so, allowing a humble narrator a little “alone time.” I set up the tripod and got down to it, as I was alone in Greenwood for a spell.
from nytimes.com
At noon, yesterday, Mr. STEPHEN WHITNEY, one of the oldest and wealthiest of our citizens, died at his residence in Bowling-green. Some of his intimate friends state that he was but 70 years of age, while others affirm that he had completed his 80th year. He entered business, in this City, at an early period of his life, and has always been considered strictly upright in his dealings, but at the same time close and sharp in effecting bargains. These characteristics laid the foundation for a fortune which has accumulated of late years, until it is estimated at the enormous amount of $8,000,000.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
formal studies
A night time trip to Greenwood Cemetery with the Obscura Society, part one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior postings, your humble narrator has been in a bit of rut of late, so when the Atlas Obscura crew announced an opportunity for nocturnal exploration of Greenwood Cemetery over in Brooklyn was at hand, one jumped at the chance and leapt upon a Q train which would carry me to the Gowanus Heights.
from wikipedia
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The event was conducted by Alison Meier and Megan Roberts of the Atlas crew, and involved stopping at several notable or exalted mausolea and monuments while moving inexorably towards the grandiose structure on Ocean Hill which caps those catacombs housing the mortal remains of the Whitney family.
from wikipedia
Stephen Whitney (1776–1860) was one of the wealthiest merchants in New York City in the first half of the 19th century. His fortune was considered second only to that of John Jacob Astor. As a prominent citizen of the rapidly growing city, he helped to build some of its institutions, including the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the first permanent home of the New York stock exchange.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A full moon certainly hung somewhere beyond the occluded sky, but a tenebrous fog had set in. Palpable darkness and flickering illumination lent an air of dread purpose to this perambulation of the notable polyandrion of New York. The fog, which did not smell of salt or wholesome sea, drove the airborne humidity levels up to 90% and higher, causing your humble narrator to perspire both precipitously and persistently. The chill temperatures worked with that moisture absorbed by my clothing, from both atmosphere and bodily secretion, to slowly drain all the energy reserves one such as myself can hope to claim.
from wikipedia
Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response) but in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) a freeze or paralysis response is possible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Allison Meier led the group, narrating in the orange light of hand held lanterns, occasionally producing an electric flashlight for the purpose of illuminating this significant thing or that important monument. I will mention that the shot above was from sometime between 8:30 and 11 P.M., in November, as are all the shots in this series of posts. It was dark, as in “tenebrous dark”, and any ambient light extant was being swallowed up by the fog. Tripod shots weren’t really possible on the walk, and flash was out of the question because of the aforementioned fog.
from wikipedia
Necrophobia is a specific phobia which is the irrational fear of dead things (e.g., corpses) as well as things associated with death (e.g., coffins, tombstones). Necrophobia is derived from Greek nekros (νεκρός) for “corpse” and -phob- from the Greek phobos (φόβος) for “fear.” With all types of emotions, obsession with death becomes evident in both fascination and objectification.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a breath taking (literally, Greenwoood is very hilly) walk, the group finally arrived at the Whitney Mausoleum, which was ablaze with the light of candles. So then, at that moment, was the Obscura Society adjured to enter the crypt.
from wikipedia
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
not voluntary
The banal joy of it all is what today’s post explores.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Have to admit that despite my confession to suffering from a bit of a rut, which is a seasonal complaint often offered at this time of year, the places which I continually find myself seldom disappoint. Case in point today are shots collected from the Queens side of the fabled Newtown Creek, amongst the concretized wasteland of DUPBO (Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp). Pictured is a view of my beloved Creek looking towards Greenpoint and the GMDC (Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center) found at the Manhattan Avenue Street End in Brooklyn from DUPBO, which is ultimately kind of a depressing image for me. Your humble narrator has been spending far too much time in Brooklyn lately, and not enough in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brooklyn is lost in soliloquy again, currently obsessing over ways to spend its ExxonMobil settlement money. There’s all sorts of stuff going on over there, with everyone in 11122 cooking up an idea to mulch this or compost that and applying for funding. It’s all good stuff, but gardening isn’t going to do much against the torrents of waste and sewage which flow out of Manhattan everyday. Greenpoint is the Mississippi delta of municipal waste, and Manhattan is an upstream pig farm whose shit pipes flow directly into the river. Western Queens, on the other hand, knows exactly what role it is expected to play in Manhattan’s gang of subordinates and doesn’t pretend not to know.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Carpet baggers from all over the City and State, sometimes from other states even, can smell the cash over in Brooklyn and want to take a bite. Foundations and think tanks roam about over there, pronouncing the need for “green infrastructure” (gardening) and other buzzy concepts which the masters over on Manhattan (and their Brooklyn representatives) have decided on as the fix for all things related to sewage runoff. I’m not against it, of course, how can you stand up against gardening? It’s just that over in Queens, We’ve got a highway which feeds a couple of hundred thousand auto trips a day into a tunnel that is just a couple of blocks from the Creek. Said highway runs alongside the concentrating point of all rail on Long Island, which is neighbored by two major automobile bridges (Queensboro and Triborough).
How can you garden your way out of that?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
discern nothing
Always moving, no place to go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As one who detests entering the Subway system, it fits neatly within New York City’s macabre sense of humor to force me to enter the labyrinth on a fairly regular basis. The fits of depth born panic and revulsion suffered whilst encased in the rotting concrete bunkers must be controlled. It would be untoward to inflict my own insecurities and phobias upon those fellow unfortunates traveling alongside me, and positively dismissive of a social order in which “anything goes.” Why shouldn’t one defecate in public?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fear of offering loquacious discomforts to others isn’t something reflected by the general population, for course. It would be ridiculous to complain about the manner in which some behave while down here. Eating fried and highly aromatic dishes, performing basic grooming of hair and nails, or applying face paint- there are those for whom the Subway is an extension of the home. Last week, a woman I was sitting next to was utilizing the atomizer of a perfume bottle to liberally paint the confined air, and the rest of us, with her chosen scent.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It must be a wonderful thing, to be so confident in one’s self. The thought of exposing one’s private moments in such a brazen fashion is beyond me, as I was urged during toilet training to consider certain acts as “private.” Just the other day I was thinking, while watching a mid 40’s woman squeezing out a zit on the R train, that we really need to reintroduce the concept of shame and shunning back into society. You are not, my pimply friend, simply “free to be you and me” when out amongst the other humans. Decorum, please.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
prosaic materialism
All believe themselves to be saints, not sinners.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dia de Los Muertos, Áraw ng mga Patáy, the second day of Samhain, or just plain old All Saints Day- here we are again on the track towards the dark and cold wastes of winter. Given a humble narrators abiding interest in the Newtown Creek and its surrounding communities, its only natural for me to think about those who passed through its coils over the centuries. Will you raise a glass to the saints of local industry- Charles Pratt, John D. Rockefeller, The Van Iderstine family, or Ambrose Kingsland- tonight?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Something that I’ve been attempting to reconcile for awhile now is the role of these historical figures in the development and despoiling of the Newtown Creek. Hurricane Sandy showed us what it would be like to live in New York City without a functioning energy sector, and it forced me to reconsider these characters beyond the popular narratives of modernity. From an environmentalist point of view, these are loathsome individuals whose crimes against the earth are countless, and their bones should be scattered in the same way that Marius did to Sulla’s. From an economic point of view, the relict grandeur of early 20th century Greenpoint and Long Island City existed solely because of the energy sector, which provided hundreds of thousands of jobs over the course of a century and “lifted the raft” for the entire community.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s so complicated. This tale of industrialists and robber barons, which is one of the central dichotomies of the American mythology with its narrative of progress. At least they did something with the place which was productive, that generated wealth- is how most of the MBAs would see it. Today, most of these MBA types look to Newtown Creek as a place to throw objectionable materials away, whether it be garbage or sewage. Does modernity have the right to judge the past? Can we understand the “on the ground” circumstances that they were working with back in the 19th century? What have we done, to “lift the raft”?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 