Archive for the ‘Sunnyside Yards’ Category
Project Firebox 2
Project Firebox, 4930 – photo by Mitch Waxman
This battered sentinel is found on Skillman Avenue, just across the street from the cyclopean Sunnyside Yards.
from wikipedia
The yard is owned by Amtrak, but it is also used by New Jersey Transit. The shared tracks of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Main Line and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor pass along the southern edge of the yard. Plans for the LIRR East Side Access project to build tracks to Grand Central Terminal would have those tracks diverging in the vicinity of, or perhaps through, the Sunnyside Yard.
Northeast of the yard a balloon track (or reverse loop) is used for “U-turning” Amtrak and NJ Transit trains which terminate at Penn Station. Leading eastward near the south side of the yard, this balloon track switches off and turns left under the LIRR/Amtrak tracks, turns left once again, and merges with the Sunnyside yard track to turn the train west toward Penn Station.
Astoria to Calvary 4… or planes, trains, and automobiles
Just in case you want to refer to a google map
Skillman Avenue Firebox- photo by Mitch Waxman
(forgotten NY has lamp posts- I got Fireboxes- click here)
In the first installment of this photowalk– we began scuttling through western Queens – descending from Astoria into the milieu of 19th century teutonic progressivism- and found a long forgotten relict of the 1920’s gilded age.
In the second, we lurked, fearfully, down vestigial 37th avenue – past anomalous municipal building and fortress church.
In the third, we marched defiantly into the Sunnyside, and were thunderstruck by the colossus Sunnyside Rail Yard.
Skillman Avenue, Sunnyside Yards- “stitch panorama” photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too far from here (around a half mile east) on Skillman Avenue, during a smallpox epidemic in 1899, the city fathers built a large frame wooden building commonly referred to as “the Pest House”. This is a place of unexpected detail and obscured history, with layers upon layers of significance. I’ve read about the Sunnyside Yard, and observed it from its rotting fenceline, but I’m sorry to say that I cannot grasp the place. Its just so immense, such a huge subject. As in accordance with Newtown Pentacle Policy on such subjects- the history of the FDNY for instance, experts must be referenced and deferred to.
from pefagan.com
In 1899 we had a smallpox epidemic in both Queens and Manhattan boroughs, of which Long Island City had its share of victims. In order to take care of those so afflicted a large frame building was erected in the center of what is now known as Skillman Avenue, a few hundred feet west of Old Bowery Bay Road. In Woodside and on the opposite side of Old Bowery Bay Road, Louis Sussdorf occupied a large mansion. He didn’t like the idea of a wagon (not an ambulance) carrying smallpox patients making the turn opposite his gate on its way to the so-called pest house. Mr. Sussdorf went to court and tried to obtain removal of the pest house but was unsuccessful. Shortly after the epidemic ceased, Mr. Sussdorf died and as the funeral cortege passed through the gateway on his premises the pest house burst out into flames and was burned to the ground.
36th street and Skillman Avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
99 years ago, Skillman Avenue was still farmland.
here’s a NYtimes article from 1910 discussing the nascent development of the area surrounding the Sunnyside Yards
36th street Taxi Depot – photo by Mitch Waxman
36th street, as one moves in a roughly southern perihelion, displays an industrial neighborhood. On your right will be a fascinating multi-story taxi garage festooned with arcing ramps- reminiscent of a plastic toy service station I played with as an innocent. Its curvilinear shapes and utilitarian use of reinforced concrete suggests mid 20th century design and construction.
Curious characters- mohammedans, hindoos, and other representatives of the distant orient mill about- either waiting for a work shift to begin- or just finishing up the hypnagogic 12-16 hours behind the wheel maintained by New York’s fleet of Taxi drivers. Strong coffee and the acrid smell of tobacco hang redolant upon the air, and if one passes at an opportune time- groups of these men can be found kneeling on scraps of carpet as they perform their religious devotions while facing far off Mecca in answer to the call for prayer– heard playing from car stereos. Such adherence to tradition would be remarkable in a an American born Newtownican, and it speaks of a continuity to old world wonders.
36th street Factory – photo by Mitch Waxman
Religion in Long Island City was and is the business of business. 19th and 20th century industrialists with their twin creeds of efficiency and profit built this place. The curious and satisfying esthetics of the area are accidental, a byproduct of utility. A growing but still small number of brave souls decide to live down here in tony condominiums, amongst the effusive whir of city-bound traffic and the hectic and noisome trainyard. For much of the last century, the reverse was true, with vast populations fleeing these neighborhoods for the safety and comforts of Long Island, Westchester, and New Jersey.
36th street looking northwest at 43rd Avenue- photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve coined a phase for the feeling one gets, walking these streets in the off hours when the workers who normally populate the area are enjoying their restful rustications, “a feeling of desolate isolation”. I crave such esoteric intuitions, and the loneliness of wandering a landscape whose very existence is predicated on concentrating large populations into industrial mills and factories. As I’ve mentioned in the past, my headphones are almost always in operation on these long pedestrian ambles, and audiobooks are usually my preferred company. Richard Matheson, Joseph Campbell, and particularly H.P. Lovecraft are often my companions as I walk upon the earth and view the splendors of Newtown. I also bring along a couple of early Black Sabbath albums, and just for kicks- the soundtrack to the Omen movies.
43rd avenue looking southwest – photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing toward the fungus torn ground of Calvary, due south, the grinding noise of the Boulevard of Death penetrates through my headphones. I won’t remind you to safeguard as you cross the massive arterial thoroughfare, for signage attesting to traffic fatalities (and their number) adorns many of its crosswalks- as do tiny roadside shrines memorializing those not loquacious enough to respect the flow of automobiles moving toward the nearby Queensboro bridge.
36th street and Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
Queens Boulevard is one of those places that New Yorkers just take as a given. A massive structure which carries elevated subway service from Manhattan, and allows vehicular traffic egress to and from the great city to all points east, Queens Blvd. is properly viewed as an engineering marvel and modern day Appian Way.
from wikipedia:
Queens Boulevard was built in the early 20th century to connect the new Queensboro Bridge to central Queens, thereby offering an easy outlet from Manhattan. It was created by linking and expanding already-existing streets, such as Thomson Avenue and Hoffman Boulevard, stubs of which still exist. It was widened along with the digging of the IND Queens Boulevard Line subway tunnels in the 1920s and 1930s, and some speculated the plan was to transform it into a freeway, as was done with the Van Wyck Expressway. The city actually did propose converting it in 1941, but with the onset of World War II, the plan was never completed.
The combination of Queens Boulevard’s immense width, heavy automobile traffic, and thriving commercial scene made it the most dangerous thoroughfare in New York City and earned it citywide notoriety and morbid nicknames such as “The Boulevard of Death” and “The Boulevard of Broken Bones.” From 1993 to 2000, 72 pedestrians were killed trying to cross the street, an average of 10.2 per year, with countless more injuries. Since 2001, at least partially in response to major news coverage of the danger, the city government has taken measures to cut down on such incidents, including posting large signs proclaiming that “A Pedestrian Was Killed Crossing Here” at intersections where fatal accidents have occurred and installing more road-rule enforcement cameras.
from Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve always felt the Roman comparison is apt for this interconnected series of bridges and structures called Queens Blvd., due to the visual impact of the design of the elevated subway tracks- an aqueduct thrusting down the center of the great road, and the manner in which it connects so many disparate communities together as one.
from nycroads.com
HISTORY OF QUEENS BOULEVARD: Originally called Hoffman Boulevard, Queens Boulevard dates back to the early years of the twentieth century, when the road was constructed as a connecting route between the new Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge and central Queens. In 1913, a trolley line was constructed from 59th Street in Manhattan east along the new boulevard.
During the 1920’s and 1930’s, New York City began a program to widen Queens Boulevard. The project, which was conducted in conjunction with the building of the IND Queens Boulevard subway line, widened the boulevard to 12 lanes in some locations, and required a right-of-way of up to 200 feet. Once completed, local and express traffic flows were provided separate carriageways.
EXPRESSWAY PLANS: In 1941, the New York City Planning Department recommended that an expressway be constructed along eight miles of Queens Boulevard (NY 25) from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City east to Hillside Avenue in Jamaica. The City’s plan for the highway was as follows:
This highway is the major approach from Queens, Nassau and Suffolk to Manhattan. Its conversion to an express highway could readily be accomplished by the construction of grade separation structures at the more important intersections, and by improved mall treatment to close off access to the express roadways from minor streets.
As part of the project, the express lanes of Queens Boulevard were depressed in the area of Woodhaven Boulevard and Horace Harding Boulevard (later developed as the Long Island Expressway), while the local lanes were kept at grade level.
However, the plan to upgrade Queens Boulevard to an expressway was delayed by the onset of World War II, and ultimately, was never implemented. In the postwar era, Robert Moses, the arterial coordinator for New York City, shifted attention to creating an express route between the Queens-Midtown Tunnel (now under the jurisdiction of his Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority), Queens and Long Island. First proposed as improvements to the Queens-Midtown Highway and Horace Harding Boulevard, the route evolved as the Long Island Expressway (I-495).
According to the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT), Queens Boulevard now carries approximately 50,000 vehicles per day (AADT). In recent years, speeding motorists who exceed the 30 MPH speed limit and jaywalkers have created a lethal mix along densely populated stretches, prompting officials to enact tough measures against both offending groups.
from Queens Blvd. – photo by Mitch Waxman
A major commercial strip as well as a transportation artery, one observes all sorts of colorful chicanery and the craft of advertising at its basest operating along the strip. Many restaurants, gas stations, and bodegas operate along Queens Blvd. I would suggest a stop for supplies, as we’re about to head into another barren industrial moonscape.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
On Queens Blvd.’s southern shore you will observe Aviation High School (this is the 36th street side). I highly suggest that you detour onto 35th street at this point.
context:
Before the second world war, New York City had two classes of secondary education available. School administrators would determine, based on performance in primary school and all too often ethnicity, if one would continue on a scholastic or vocational tract. These often arbitrary and prejudiced reckonings would determine future social class and professional options, damning otherwise sound minds to a lifetime of labor based on an assumption of stereotypical ethnic predestination (the irish cop, black laborer, jewish lawyer, the white doctor, and the female nurse).
The “identity politics charismatic leaders” of the 1950’s and 60’s pointed out the unfairness of this policy and the racial and class stratification it enforced, and the vocational schools joined in the current curricula during the mayorality of John Lindsay. Aviation is a holdout from that era, although it is now listed as “specialized“.
from schools.nyc.gov
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Our state-endorsed Career and Technical Education program provides students with a world-class education. This unique curriculum prepares students for a New York State Regents Diploma and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification as Aircraft Maintenance Technicians, leading to exciting and lucrative careers in the aerospace industry. Inherent in this, we create an educational culture that instills respect, self-discipline and strong intellectual values in meeting the demands of today’s colleges and universities. Our world-renowned reputation for academic and technical excellence reflects Aviation High School’s tradition, mission and commitment to its students, their future and the future of the aerospace industry.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
The United States military has been very generous to the students at Aviation High School, and the shop yard found on 35th street houses a few things that you don’t expect to find along Queens Blvd. That’s a plane I can’t positively identify- but I think it may be some iteration of the WW2 Japanese Zero. The Revell scale model airplane kits I was obsessed with building and painting in my adolescent years have taught me nothing. Knowledge anyone?
UPDATE 8/29 – A netownican to the rescue, I don’t have permission to identify this person as yet, but it is from a trusted source
…the sharktoothed plane you can’t positively identify is not a Mitsubishi Zero. It’s a North American T-6 Texan, an advanced training aircraft used by the U.S. military during World War II.
You’re not completely off base with your Zero comparisons, though. Know the old movie about Pearl Harbor, “Tora Tora Tora”? All the Zeros in that film are actually modified T-6 Texans, which could be bought as surplus for ludicrously cheap prices when the war ended. Real Zeros are as rare as hens’ teeth, since most of them were either shot down, left to rot on abandoned airstrips or scrapped in Japan.
Aviation High School – photo by Mitch Waxman
This plane, a United States Marines Corps Harrier- donated by the Corps itself- is dedicated in the name of Capt. Manuel Rivera, Jr. – the first American casualty during 1992’s Operation Desert Storm. Capt. Rivera was an alumni of Aviation High School.
AND WRONG AGAIN!!! The same source from above says
The jet aircraft is a Douglas TA-4 Skyhawk, the trainer version of a Vietnam-era attack plane.
Hallen Steel Factory – photo by Mitch Waxman
Hallen Steel is directly across the street from Aviation. This is their website, they seem to be some sort of metal working facility. I just really like the way their front yard looks. They are very prepared for what we here at Newtown Pentacle refer to as a “night of the living dead type situation”. Given my druthers, there’s a scrap yard I know in Greenpoint that would make a better shelter against the massive infestation of flesheaters that New York would surely produce, but Hallen is closer. I also like the guard towers on the George Washington Bridge for similar duty.
We are crossed by “the cemetery belt”, after all.
What, you never thought that one through- zombies in New York? I once did a 64 page BW comic about it, called Deadworld:Necropolis.
47th avenue – photo by Mitch Waxman
Sorry for the sporadic updates last couple of days, late summer delights and professional obligation have kept me offline. Next up, we finish the walk to Calvary…
Headed for the grave… or Astoria to Calvary 3
Just in case you want to refer to a google map.
43rd street and 37th avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
In the first installment of this photowalk- we scuttled through western Queens, which is the northern ventricle of our Newtown Pentacle- descending from the heights in Astoria into the milieu of 19th century teutonic progressivism- and then stumbled in front of a long forgotten relict of the 1920’s gilded age in the 20th.
In the second, we lurked, fearfully, down 37th avenue and found an anomalous municipal building which does not exist- as well as a fortress church.
Today, we enter a place of vine encumbered trees which abut vast fields of machinery, and we shall gaze upon an unforgettable sight. But first, we must cross the angles found between neighborhoods, crossing a bridge and avoiding its troll- only to stand revealed in the dappled light of the Sunnyside.
43rd street and 37th avenue, make a left -photo by Mitch Waxman
A desperate precipice, whose slimy walls- comically adorned with painted signs declaring that “these walls are under video surveillance” drip with an obsidian jelly whose composition is a cocktail of fecund decay and petroleum byproduct. The prodigious twin elevated tracks of the LIRR define the eastern borders of industrial Long Island City, residential Astoria, and the vernal lanes of Sunnyside. Make the left on 43rd street, and proceed into its fuligin shadows. These tracks are critical infrastructure for the forthcoming East Side Access project.
Crossing the angles between spaces -photo by Mitch Waxman
To your right is a turnaround track for the one and 3/4 mile long Sunnyside Yard, and a stout fence which bars entry to the great railhead. An odd smell hangs in the air, mildewed garbage and long dead pigeons mixed with an ozone smell from the vast electrical works beyond the fenceline. Also, there is a human smell. In a few pockets, here and there, you will observe signs of an unclean and debased occupation.
I will refer you to this document, found at nyc.gov, specifically to section Q80 for the development plans being discussed for the Sunnyside Yard after the East Side access project is complete. Its implications are staggering.
Next paragraph, incidentally, is where the Newtown Pentacle steps squarely upon one of “the third rails” of modern politics…
Homeless camp by Railroad -photo by Mitch Waxman
First- this is not a rant or anything- just personal observations and opinions
As part of the recent migration enacted by those born south of the United State’s border with the ancient nation of Mexico, a large population of spanish speakers have emerged in the Newtown Pentacle within recent years. Whereas the vast majority of those involved in this 21st century diaspora are following in the solid familial and social traditions typified by those fabled “ethnic waves” of immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries which are the foundation of our modern city- camp followers, debased mendicants, and criminal organizations have also followed the huddled masses that have made the arduous journey to “El Norte”. Just like similar characters followed populations of workers and poets, during earlier times. Such hubris and hope is the immigrant’s song.
This “dark side” of our new countrymen, which is unapologetically visible, colors the perception of area residents about the new neighbors. Hard working former peasants who have often assumed jobs of the most menial type, this population of Latinos are adopting the familiar immigrant patterns- large families living in crowded apartments, ethnic concentrations coagulating around a certain neighborhood or subway stop, a vibrant and overtly public street life, and an uphill battle with the institutional and linguistic barriers to financial security and class mobility that are familiar stories to any 2nd or 3rd generation Italian, Jew, or Boricua.
“The street signs are in Spanish over there” is heard often when referring to nearby Corona, arousing the spectre of the United States’s greatest sin- social class based racism and its bloody consequence. The same could have been said about my father’s old neighborhood in Borough Park, transposing Spanish with Italian or Yiddish- or modern Astoria with usage of the Greek language.
Homeless camp by Railroad -photo by Mitch Waxman
Careful observation of the baser individuals who poison the reputations of this new group, often found in an alcohol fueled stupor on one’s stoop or sidewalk, leads me to recall the Hobo culture of the 20th century (which plagued the American rail system for much of its history, until the age of containerization). Cruel and malicious, the nickname attached to these pathetic individuals (in Astoria, at least) is “Los Caballeros“.
A particularly daring trio of these men made camp in the backyard of a vacationing octogenarian acquaintance recently. This distinguished woman, whose father was one of the original residential developer-builders of this area in the 1920’s, was forced to invoke the massive powers of the NYPD to evict them from her property upon returning from a long trip abroad. All over the area- broken hip flask bottles of discount liquor and half eaten meals can be observed, casually discarded on sidewalk and stoop, public sleepers are not sought- but easily found, and encounters with inebriated gatherings of debased men in the dark of night are becoming a common experience.
A statement of opinion and “I grew up in NYC during the 80’s” wisdom from your humble narrator is “there is a difference between being homeless and being a BUM”.
Like much of the addled and disingenuous public dialogue exchanged between the citizens of the City of Greater New York these days, the word “homeless” is part of an agenda of orwellian newspeak and sociological engineering propagated by an academic class which speaks from the safety of gleaming towers and air conditioned offices in Manhattan.
(I distinctly remember when the term was first coined in the 1980’s, and it was no longer polite to call them Bums (drunks or addicts) or Tramps (nutjobs). It was decided by these professor/doctor types to distinguish between the drunken and pitiless vagrant, and the “down on her luck single mother who was sleeping on a steam grate with her two children by Grand Central” meme. These sort of images, while actual, were used to illustrate- on a national political stage- how the disastrous fiscal policy called “Reaganomics” had led America astray. The term “homelessness” has stuck on as a polite society catch all, and describes a varied crowd of people whose problems run the gamut of human experience, not a homogenous population with a one size fits all solution. This was also before hyphenated american naming conventions became standardized in 1988).
Such gentle and obtuse manipulations of the political landscape is not applicable to conditions found upon the mean streets of New York City, however, and sadly- in the end it will most likely fall to the tender mercies of the NYPD to decide the fate of these “Caballeros”. Just like it always does, in the end.
Bum -photo by Mitch Waxman
The particular troll (anyone who lives under a bridge can be described as a troll, even those who live in the tony condos of DUMBO) is an aberrant creature whose skin has been rendered to leather from exposure to the sun. I was glad to see him asleep, and gingerly walked past him, as sleeping dogs should be allowed to lie. In other crossings of this angle between neighborhoods, he has been aggressive with me and demanded I pay a toll to cross. A natural victim and physical coward, what choice could I make, and I gave the mocking troll his due- a handful of my hard earned coinage. I don’t condemn his type, just him. He is a jerk.
Enough with the opinions, back to the walk…
43rd street from 39th Avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
When you have passed the two rail bridges, you will see 39th avenue, which offers a titanic vista of Manhattan (this is actually a block or two away from 43rd street, looking west, just for the record). You have also just entered the lovely neighborhood called Sunnyside Gardens.
from nyc.gov
Sunnyside Gardens is a predominantly residential area encompassing part of 16 blocks following the city’s traditional grid street pattern within the larger Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens. Located between 43rd and 52nd streets, Queens Boulevard and Barnett Avenue, Sunnyside Gardens was developed between 1924 and 1928 by the City Housing Corporation and designed by architects Clarence Stein, Henry Wright, and Frederick Ackerman and landscape architect Marjorie Cautley based upon the English Garden City model. The neighborhood is comprised of roughly 600 two-story row houses in combinations of one-, two, and three-family units grouped in clusters of 10 to 12 around a series of courts containing common gardens, in addition to eighteen apartment buildings, two community parks and neighborhood stores. The common gardens account for over 70 percent of the lot area and are a primary defining feature of the site plan, offering residents light, air and greenery.
In 1974, Sunnyside Gardens, along with Fresh Meadows in Queens, Parkchester in the Bronx, and Harlem River Houses in Manhattan, were designated Special Planned Community Preservation (PC) Districts to protect their distinctive character and site plans. General purposes of the Special Planned Community Preservation District are:
(a) to preserve and protect the Special Districts as superior examples of town planning or large-scale development;
(b) to preserve and protect the character and integrity of these unique communities which, by their existing site plan, pedestrian and vehicular circulation system, balance between buildings and open space, harmonious scale of the development, related commercial uses, open space arrangement and landscaping add to the quality of urban life;
(c) to preserve and protect the variety of neighborhoods and communities that presently exist which contribute greatly to the livability of New York City;
(d) to maintain and protect the environmental quality that the Special District offers to its residents and the City-at-large; and
(e) to guide future development within the Special Districts that is consistent with the existing character, quality and amenity of the Special District.
and of course- Forgotten-NY has been through here as well.
Sunnyside Gardens, 43rd street -photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ll be returning to Sunnyside Gardens in later posts, but today, we’re heading for the comforts of the grave.
Skillman Avenue and 43rd street- make right -photo by Mitch Waxman
At the corner of Skillman Avenue, turn right. Skillman avenue can be a dangerous place, traffic wise, so do be careful as you move along it.
from the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce
The Sunnyside community is located in the Borough of Queens, just a few minutes from the Queensboro Bridge and the Queens Midtown Tunnel. We are one of the most trafficked areas in the city. More cars pass through our commercial district of Queens Boulevard (Sunnyside’s restaurant row) each day than most neighborhoods see in a normal week. Located between the long-established communities of the Blissville area of Long Island City and Woodside, our unique location makes us easily accessible to Manhattan and only 15 minutes by train to Times Square or the Empire State Building.
People in our area can often reach the theatre district faster then those living in some parts of Manhattan. Sunnyside is convenient, centrally located, and a great place to live, as long-time residents are quick to tell you. It’s believed Sunnyside got its name back in 1850 when the railroad built a station across from the Sunnyside Roadhouse Hotel.
“Sunnyside is a neighborhood in northwestern Queens, lying within Long Island City and bounded to the north by the Sunnyside Yards, to the east by Calvary Cemetery and 51st Street, to the south by the Long Island Expressway, and to the west by Van Dam Street . The area is named for a roadhouse built on Jackson Avenue to accommodate visitors to the Fashion Race Course in Corona during the 1850s and 1860s. A small hamlet was built between Northern and Queens boulevards and became known as Sunnyside. Most of the land was low-lying and therefore cheap; from 1902 to 1905 the Pennsylvania Railroad gradually bought up all the land south of Northern Boulevard between 21st and 43rd Streets. The entire area was leveled and the swamps filled in by 1908 and the yards opened in 1910. The Queensboro Bridge opened in 1909 and from it was built Queens Boulevard , which ran to the center of the borough through Sunnyside, where streets were built along the boulevard. Sunnyside Gardens (1924-29), a complex of attached houses of two and a half stories, with front and rear gardens and a landscaped central court, was on e of the nation’s first planned communities, hailed for its innovative design by such scholars of urban life as Lewis Mumford (a onetime resident). During the following years the neighborhood became middle class, and largely Irish. During the 1940s and 1950s its large apartments enticed many artists and writers and their families to leave their cramped quarters in lower Manhattan , and the area became known as the “maternity ward of Greenwich Village .” Sunnyside during the 1980s attracted immigrants from Korea , Colombia , Romania , and China , though on the whole fewer immigrants than some of the surrounding neighborhoods in northeastern Queens . The Sunnyside Railyards are used by the Long Island Rail Road , Conrail, and Amtrak. The Knickerbocker Laundry nearby is a striking example of art moderne architecture.”
Vincent Seyfried, Encyclopedia of New York City , Edited by Kenneth T. Jackson. New Haven , Yale University Press. 1995
Hike New York signage -photo by Mitch Waxman
When Alexander M. Bing, of Bing & Bing, began to develop Sunnyside, there were no “Hike New York – Long Island City” signs. These plaques are everywhere, and point out directions and distances between the area’s various attractions. They are a bit “off the radar”- but here’s the scoop:
The Public Art Fund and artist Richard Deon placed 44 of these signs around Long Island City in the early 90’s to encourage people to walk around the area and take in the wonders of the place.
Hey, that’s what I do, and yes, when I started these pestilential exercises which became explorations- I did use these signs as markers and waypoints. Success, Mr. Deon.
As I wandered off the path set out by these esthetes, I began to realize that none of these signs point at the Newtown Creek- only at Manhattan and its cultural tendrils.
Here’s a Nytimes.com article on the signage
Moakyang Presbyterian Church -photo by Mitch Waxman
Moak Yang Presbyterian is a small church on Skillman Avenue, which was recently renovated after an emergency closure by the Dept. of Buildings siting a sagging brick wall. Moak Yang translates as “Good Shepherd” I am told, and the Pastor is the Reverend Byung Ki Song. I don’t speak Korean, yet another failing of my weak intellect, but here is their website. I entered the same URL into google translate and saw evidence of a wholesome and prospering church whose agenda and programs would be familiar to any 19th century New England Yankee- even one from Providence.
Vestigial sight line to the East River -photo by Mitch Waxman
Until recently, a sign proclaimed this lot alongside the church as being General Motors property, and it lay fallow for all the time I’ve known it. The tangle of weedy growth and rat middens that were the site’s only residents have been supplanted by a parking lot for delivery vans. If you catch the day just right, you can actually see all the way to the East River- looking over the shallow and marshy hills of Astoria from here, with both Triborough and Hells Gate Bridges in the distance.
Skillman Avenue and 39th street -photo by Mitch Waxman
(this photo was run once before here at Newtown Pentacle- here’s the blurb it ran over in this post)
Sunnyside Yards, this street corner is actually on a bridge over the yards- notice the change in elevation at lower left- still around 30-50 feet (10-15 meters) over the tracks– The structure at horizon is another road bridge over the yards. –3 exposure HDR photo by Mitch Waxman
The “big show” that is Long Island City officially begins at 49th street, when the pretense of being a neighborhood ends- and the unforgettable panorama of the East River Metroplex becomes visible. A sound will escape your lips, something like “whoof” or a “wo”, assuming you make it here before noon when the sun will be at your back and the Manhattan Skyline glitters like an enormous jewel. 39th street is Steinway street on the other side of Northern Blvd, and what you are standing on is no sidewalk- but a bridge over the titan Sunnyside Yard.
Remember- almost everywhere in the center of New York City, the ground is actually the roof of another structure- sewer, subway, or cellar- or series of structures.
from wikipedia
Sunnyside Yard is a large coach yard, a railroad yard for passenger cars, in Sunnyside, Queens in New York City.
When built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at the beginning of the 20th century, Sunnyside was the largest coach yard in the world. The yard served as the main train storage and service point for PRR trains serving New York City. It is connected to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan by the East River Tunnels.
Currently, the yard is owned by Amtrak, but it is also used by New Jersey Transit. The shared tracks of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Main Line and Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor pass along the southern edge of the yard. Plans for the LIRR East Side Access project to build tracks to Grand Central Terminal would have those tracks diverging in the vicinity of, or perhaps through, the Sunnyside Yard.
Northeast of the yard there is a balloon track which is used for “U-turning” Amtrak and NJ Transit trains which terminate at Penn Station. Leading eastward, this balloon track switches off at the southernmost portion of the yard. It then turns left under the LIRR/Amtrak tracks, turns left once again, and merges with the Sunnyside yard track to turn the train west toward Penn Station.
Skillman Avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
For such an important facility, the security at the Sunnyside yard is abyssmal. This, for instance, is the security fence on Skillman. Graffiti observed along the tracks and the numerous reports of urban explorers speak to the time and opportunity afforded trespassers- who ignore the dangers of crossing active tracks, electrified rails, and all sense of personal safety. Let’s be clear- without special training and equipment- you can easily get killed down there. I also think its the greatest unused location for a motion picture I’ve ever seen.
click here for trainsarefun.com’s LIC and Sunnyside yard page (with historical photos and maps!!!)
Skillman Avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
Anywhere you point a camera on Skillman Avenue, you will find a great shot. The only hassles I’ve ever had here (a deserted street on the weekends, especially holidays) were from union guys asking me what I was doing, which wasn’t really a hassle. They were pretty cool, they were just checking I wasn’t “an environmentalist” trying to jam them up. Amtrak security rolls by, but never stops to ask questions. Cops breeze by and don’t even slow down as they pass your humble narrator while he is using a tripod.
Here’s what one of the MTA’s architects proposes for the far end of the Yard.
New York City skyline and Sunnyside Yard from Skillman Avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
Not that long ago, this was the most important place in Queens, and the gateway for freight into Manhattan from all points east. It is still a critical part of the transportation infrastructure of New York City, but the empty factories- and worse- the subdivided ones speak to the economic might which was won, and has since been lost around the Sunnyside Yards.
Skillman Avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
Quoting from one of Newtown Pentacle’s earlier posts– and yes, I know the Degnon terminal is at the other end of the Yard close by the Dutch Kills:
Astoria and Sunnyside provided a large number of the 16,000 employees who worked here at the Degnon Terminal, almost all of whom belonged to labor unions. These were jobs “with benefits” like health insurance or paid vacations, a rarity before the late 1970’s. The shells of the titanic companies like Adams (Beeman) Chewing Gum, and Sunshine Biscuits line the streets surrounding the yard, but modernity has largely cut their links to it.
Turn Left on Skillman Avenue at 36th street -photo by Mitch Waxman
Wow, some walk so far. Dutch Kills is so close, and so is the residential section of Long Island City… but we need to make a left on 36th street and south toward the Boulevard of Death…
Lurking… in fear- or Astoria to Calvary, part 2
Here’s a google map (including part 1 of this walk).
Dwyer Square -photo by Mitch Waxman
Perhaps…
The world knows all that it ought to know of Western Queens, and would remain merry in the satisfied ignorance of modernity- were it not for we Newtownicans who force it to disgorge its centuried secrets to feed the ravenous panopticon. Shudder at revelations of this history, found at our altar of a forgotten cosmos, for its implications may force one to experience monstrous alterations of dream. No rock in this part of the great city can be overturned without portent, or absent the mocking laughter of those who once walked these titan arcades of the Newtown Pentacle.
from the nyc.gov website
Located in the northwestern Queens neighborhood of Astoria, Dwyer Square lies near an old Native American trail (Woodside Avenue) that served as the main road from western Queens to the village of Newtown during the early American Colonial Period. The road ran along a tongue of dry land between the swamps of Long Trains Meadow (towards present day Jackson Heights), Wolf Swamp (towards present day Maspeth), and Burger’s Sluice (along present day Northern Boulevard). Hessians during the American Revolution (1775-1783) garrisoned this strategic point. In 1713 Isaac Bragaw, a descendant of one of the earliest French Huguenots in New Amsterdam, purchased this land. During the early 19th century, William Gosman purchased the farm. (Gosman is also known for having surveyed and laid out the area’s streets around 1875). Also nearby lies Northern Boulevard, an important six mile road connecting Flushing to Hunters Point.
It was originally named Jackson Avenue for Turnpike President John C. Jackson, whose leadership and efforts made the road possible. Costing nearly $40,000 and opening on July 13th, 1860, the highway was originally composed of milestones, a gravel roadbed and a tiny tollhouse and gate where travelers would pay a nine cents fee for passage. Foot traffic, however, was free.
In September 1980, the City of New York rededicated Dwyer Square. The square contains a flagpole with a yardarm that flies the United States, City of New York, and Parks flags; brick and concrete walkways; benches; and five trees, including three Japanese pagoda trees (Sophora japonica), a honey locust (Gleditsia tricanthos), and a green ash tree (Fraxinus pennsylvanica).
48th street between Northern Blvd. and 37th avenue looking west -photo by Mitch Waxman
At the commercialized intersection of 48th street and Northern Blvd. make a right and find the spot where- in 1932 the Madison Square Garden Bowl attracted a degenerate population of gamblers and all those friends and companions of night who accompany the sporting life- and near the spot selected by the US Army in WW2 to locate its titanic mail sorting and postal concentration operation– and close to where Ronzoni’s Pasta Mill stood- is today a shopping mall anchored by discount stores and an ice cream shop.
Gaze west upon the terrible grandeur of the shield wall of Manhattan, lying beyond Newtown across the River of Sound. By the 1970’s, this industrial complex had decayed and fallen prey to the greater malaise which infected New York until just recently. Described to the Newtown Pentacle as abandoned buildings and brick lots, it was home to vermin of all descriptions.
Apocryphal stories passed down by native Astorians speak of queer pock marked and needle scarred characters conducting odd rites in these ruined industrial sites as early as the 1970’s, with the officials in City government only intervening in these midnight gatherings when carelessly lit fires began to plague the area and a jump in the rate of suicide and violent robbery was commented on by many. A whispered Queens patois answers questions put to these lifelong Newtownicans about the place, apocryphally saying that it was where drug fiends and street gangs would hold congress, spending their nights amongst the oddly shaped shadows cast by streetlight streaming through broken windows (typical of similar vacant properties in the greater city, during that degenerate period of shattered and diminished expectations).
LIRR crossing at 48th street and 37th avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
A side effect of the medications which maintain my frail physique in some semblance of balance- an exotic cocktail representing the highest pinnacle of the chemist’s art- is a vulnerability to an outward bodily manifestation of my subconscious notions- both gross and ridiculous. Without obvious provocation, a series of terrified and hysterical shrieks may emerge from my throat, owed entirely to my nervous and cowardly temperament. These nervous attacks are some surface manifestations of a deeper sensitivity, and suggest the buried neuroses which compel my quixotic and noisome nature. I have learned, when this humiliating condition is approaching, that by changing my course and altering my visual environment, I can often prevail against these terrors by resetting my nervous equilibrium.
It is terrible to have one’s mind couched in such an inferior physical example of the specie, and I have often considered alternatives. Oh, mankind, like a leaf- you.
So, we’re making a left onto a vestigial remnant of an earlier street grid, one that existed before the 800 pound gorilla and the Sunnyside Yard came to town- 37th avenue.
S.E.M./Signals Street Light Yard -photo by Mitch Waxman
On the south side of the street lies the elevated trackbed of the LIRR, and a series of garages which until recently served the nearby Sunnyside Yards. Many businesses in this area, which is defined by the gargantuan rail yard, have had their leases vacated by the MTA and LIRR recently. Sunnyside Yards is about to expand. On the north side of the street are two enormous structures, the first of which is a municipal building- the S.E.M./Signals Street Light Yard. Its yard, which consumes most of its lot, houses stores of street furniture and municipal hardware- and the sturdy employees of the place reveal their kind hearted nature by the carefully cared for colony of cats seen stalking the yard fencelines. Obviously capable hunters, some of the cats carry half eaten things that squeal and scream.
S.E.M./Signals Street Light Yard -photo by Mitch Waxman
I couldn’t find much out about this enigmatic and clearly decaying structure, but I did find a link to the New York City DOT Street design manual. (6.8 meg pdf). Other than that, I can find no proof at the Dept. of Buildings that this structure exists. It is anomalous, but clearly it can be photographed, which confirms it is no phantasmagoria nor an hallucination.
S.E.M./Signals Street Light Yard -photo by Mitch Waxman
“No Photography Allowed” -photo by Mitch Waxman
Across the street from the anomalous facility are a recently emptied series of garage sheds which were utilized by the Sunnyside Yards as some sort of machine shop. Signage disallows photography, but should mention grafiti instead. Such street scrawls, the joy of adolescent boys worldwide, is evidential of the lack of attention paid to security by civil and private authorities to these places that are not visible from their shining towers in Manhattan. Disturbingly, the graffiti writers are provided with both time and opportunity to pursue their art, which adorns every train viaducts and even the offshore Brooklyn Bridge moorings. One wonders who and what else may wander these streets looking for just such an opening, and what esoteric desires they may be seeking to fulfill.
LIRR -photo by Mitch Waxman
Like Jason tied to his mast before the fabled Sirens, my attention was suddenly centered and transfixed. My eyes blurred as the powerful air horn of a LIRR train heading for eastern Long Island passed a construction site- screaming wildly in accordance with federal regulations. Unbalanced by the sudden rush of air and sound, I staggered forward several steps to avoid falling, and became transfixed by the nearby construction site. Such variability and inability to stay focused in the face of visual stimuli is undoubtedly the end product of an undisciplined childhood, an upbringing upon which I insisted on despite the best efforts of my simple parents.
LIRR track work -photo by Mitch Waxman
Up until just a year ago, this was a weed choked dumping ground for area residents and passing building contractors. The engineers of the LIRR have recently reinforced the track bed with structural steel and are in the process of armoring it in a wall of cement tile, as part of the larger East Side Access Project . I am not sorry, for I hated both antique wreckage and hellish vegetation which polluted the artificial ridge and occluded viewpoints of these gleaming trains as they carry their mutitudes back and forth to Manhattan.
New York Presbyterian Church – “stitched panorama” photo by Mitch Waxman
click here to see the ridiculously large original- warning-BIG FILE
Across the street is an enormous Church complex, the New York Presbyterian. It has all the appearance of a fortress, complete with a guardhouse possessed of mirrored windows and a retinue of antennae and cameras, but this would be normal for any structure of this size which abuts one of the largest and most important rail yards in North America. The curious asiatic script found on the church’s signage, and indeed the characteristic wide grin and relaxed countenance of the members of the congregation I have observed show all the hallmarks of origins on the Korean Peninsula. This is an assumption of course, based solely on study of New York’s ever shifting demography.
Here’s what archi-tourist had say:
This massive church is located in a strange area between the suburban, automobile landscape of Northern Boulevard and the planned community of Sunnyside Gardens. The LIRR passes alongside the church and 37th Avenue, adding to the feeling that the church doesn’t really belong to any place, any neighborhood.
The plan is basically split into three areas: a large congregation space fronted by the large wall of translucent panels and the church’s entry, the art-deco front on 37th Avenue now containing classrooms and other small spaces , and a series of metal-clad shells concealing the exit stairs required for the large, 2,500-seat sanctuary. All is surrounded by acres of parking, some at the level of the entry, some one-story below grade on the building’s north side.
It’s the building’s north side and its series of angular, metal scallops that gives the church its most striking feature, even though this facade is the most removed from the entry, the road, and the railway. It’s also ironic that so much effort was expended on a feature that’s rarely used, as these pieces cover the exit stairs from the sanctuary. But perhaps that’s the point; that the design needed some sort of POW or hidden surprise that couldn’t find its way into the art deco piece or the main sanctuary.
They seem like very nice people, despite the forbidding appearance of the structure that houses their church. The adoption of Protestant Christianity by a large segment of the Korean population was facilitated relatively recently, as it turns out.
New York Presbyterian Church – photo by Mitch Waxman
from wikipedia
In 1884, two American missionaries came to Korea: Henry Appenzeller, a Methodist, and Horace Underwood, a Presbyterian.[2] Emphasizing the mass-circulation of the Bible (which had been translated into Korean between 1881 and 1887 by the Reverend John Ross, a Scottish Presbyterian missionary inManchuria), the Protestant pioneers also established the first modern educational institutes in Korea. The Presbyterian Paichai School (배재고등학교) for boys was founded in 1885, and the Methodist Ehwa girls’ school (이화여자고등학교) followed a year later. These, and similar schools established soon afterwards, facilitated the rapid expansion of Protestantism among the common people, and in time enabled the Protestant faith to overtake Catholicism as the leading Christian voice in Korea.
and
Korean Americans in America have historically had a very strong fundamentalist and conservative Christian heritage. Between 70% and 80% identify as Christian; 40% of those consist of immigrants who were not Christians at the time of their arrival in the United States. There are about 2,800 Korean Christian churches in the United States, as compared to only 89 Korean Buddhist temples; the largest such temple, Los Angeles’ Sa Chal Temple, was established in 1974.
Stop, make left on 43rd street -photo by Mitch Waxman
A wall of shadowed brick will greet you as you reach 43rd street, and you must choose as I am forced to- do you return to Northern Blvd. and the greater world beyond- whose every path leads to the great gleaming metropolitan city and its myriad pleasures? Or will you choose to take a left handed path, and plunge deeper- ever deeper- worming your way into the darker heartlands of the Newtown Pentacle?
43rd street and 37th avenue -photo by Mitch Waxman
Steadying myself and resolute to continue, I stopped on the corner to consider 37th avenue and noted the sudden change in environmental conditions after crossing the street. A tenebrous darkness clings to this corner- the smell of mildewed wood and nitre dripping cement- mixed with urine- colors the air a yellowish brown. Somewhere nearby, is something that reeks of degenerate humanity.
note: I’m not kidding about the weird darkness here, check it out in google street view.
Moving south on 43rd street, and passing beneath a steel bridge which is manned by an actual troll… a sort of creature whose name the local Croatians might roughly translate into english as a “Sin-Eater“.
Crossing the angles between spaces -photo by Mitch Waxman
But brave this trollish hazard we will, my ladies and lords of Newtown, for the strange energies which course through the ground in these intermediate zones- which are neither one neighborhood nor another– these places- they are just existential hinterlands which reside in the angles found between them.
And we are on the verge of entering the most progressively designed, rationally proportioned, and ultimately verdant section of the long walk from Astoria to Calvary. Netownicans, we are about to pass under and over and enter into the Sunnyside.
Newtown Grafiti
Ms. Heather over at NYshitty recently ran a piece on some interesting runic grafiti found in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Examination by her extensive network revealed a sinister meaning to the appearance of these runes. Connections to the late 19th century German mystics and conjurers who inspired Hitler’s Wagnerian mythos emerged.
As I’ve ambled across the Newtown Pentacle in the last few years, I too have noticed odd grafiti that hints of esoteric knowledge. My interests and studies have crossed the left hand path more than once, and I have the eye of one acquainted with an iconography of the occult. The Pentacle is steeped in magick all the way back to the Dutch.
This makes sense, as the pastoral shamanism of the Koreans and the ghost worshipping of the Catholics stands cheek by jowl with Nestorian Christianity and the Yesidi clan of Kurdish devil worshippers (here’s one of their holy books- I shit you not). Mohammedan or Hasid, Presbyterian or Hindoo, all the mainstream faiths in the area have thrown great spires at the sky and filled the socratic skyline with their particular “gnosis”. The one thing all these people have in common, other than problems with subway service, is that every one of these churches has its apostates. The Catholics have Opus Dei, and the Muslims have the Sufists.
Groups of true believers who think that the “big church” has lost its way, these philosophies offer hidden truths and revelation. Cults, or as we might say it in modern newspeak- “self organizing grass roots gatherings of religious enthusiasts”. Often, these cults form within gangs. The South American and Mexican gangs, in particular, are known to employ magicians called “Padrinos” to amplify their advantages in hostile encounters. If you believe in magick, it works. They do.
In February of 2009, during a religious ritual in Flushing, a 6 year old was burned with “accelerants”. Invocations of a Loa often involve spitting flaming rum at the intended participant of the ceremony. Santeria (and its black magick equivalent- Palo) also employs similar magickal techniques and symbology.
Also… how does Aleister Crowley always end up getting into the mix? The goetia, which that nasty man said was “the Lesser Key of Solomon” contains ritual sigil designs that are very similar to designs found appearing all over Astoria since mid 2007. A better thing to read, would be this. Seriously, this is the craziest thing you’ll see today. Ok, maybe this is.
If you’re interested in this sort of thing, I would suggest reading up on the Rosicrucians, The Order of the Golden Dawn, Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists, and the 19th century Spirititualist movement. Compare with the “model tenement” movement, John Harvey Kelogg, and eugenics. The occult inheritances of these debauched philosophies have filtered out into popular culture as Veganism, New Age Movement, Alcoholics Anonymous and the Recovery Movement, and a series of badly spellchecked grimoires which all refer to themselves as “the Necronomicon”.
At the end of the 19th century, occult topics played well in the absinthe fueled cocktail party culture of the middle class- the “sustainable living” and “green technologies” conversations of their day.
First, there is a difference between grafiti and occult markings. These are grafiti.
Ravenswood- This is a “tag”, a kind of grafiti which is painted or etched with differing levels of artistic merit. Often, taggers will “bomb” a neighborhood, leaving behind dozens if not hundreds of iterations of their particular icon. Often the tag will refer to gang or ethnic affiliations -photo by Mitch Waxman
Sunnyside Yards Honeywell Bridge Tag. The top right looks sigili-ish, but the 187 (police code for an undercover cop in trouble) indicates this is New York Street culture oriented -photo by Mitch Waxman
Street work painted by DOT. An amazing coincidental drawing of a theoretical tesseract or hypercube -photo by Mitch Waxman
The next two are Latin Kings tags. No affiliation or hate.
Astoria Latin Kings tag -photo by Mitch Waxman
I hesitate to post anything about… umm… self organizing fraternal societies of urban youth- but these are Latin King tags. The number of points in the crown has some significance which I am ignorant of, the presence of circles amongst the points which indicates political standing or factional allegiances of the tagger to the citywide organization is also something I am completely ignorant about. Go ask a King.
Woodside Latin Kings tag -photo by Mitch Waxman
Dutch Kills abandoned factory: Part of a series of enigmatic scrawls found in a muddy place where no footprints could be seen -photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, either by design or accident of design- the occult::
This is in one of the isolated spots in Long Island City. Similar to Ms. Heather’s runes, these are under the LIE and over the LIRR in Long Island City, behind the midtown tunnel -photo by Mitch Waxman
Mt. Zion altar. Found this on 59th street while walking the Mt. Zion cemetery fenceline. It was a little wooden mortar and pestle with coarse gray ash inside of it. There was candle wax as well -photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a fairly modern, post-industrial era sigil representing the demon Asmodeus. Lamp pole in Astoria -photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria, chaos dragon/snake mother sigil. Compare with the ancient Naga of the Mahabharata -photo by Mitch Waxman
and another one, miles away in Ravenswood-
Ravenswood Sigil -photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously the work of a small group or possibly even one person, this next grouping started turning up all over astoria since middle 2007. The one with my shadow in it is in Maspeth, by an abattoir.
Occultish grafiti found along the fenceline of a gigantic Korean Church -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Astoria -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Astoria -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Maspeth -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Astoria -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Astoria -photo by Mitch Waxman
Graphomania like this is all over the place, and gets denser as you travel toward Corona and Roosevelt. Most likely a mexican or ecuadorian fraternal group. Read the text from multiple angles and directions. Correct orientation will be apparent to members. Standard fenceline style of code -photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultish grafiti found in Greenpoint -photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, Queens being Queens… some things require little or no explanation
Dutch Kills -photo by Mitch Waxman
The Newtown Pentacle 