Posts Tagged ‘weirdness’
Mt Zion 3- threading precipitous lanes
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Awakening from my “very bad idea” induced faint, here on Path Number 13 in Mount Zion cemetery, your humble narrator was buoyed by the fact that only one hour of his life was lost to that timidity and cowardice with which he is cursed. A quick scan of the Maurice Avenue fences revealed that the sinister (and possibly mutant) children were still gathered along the rusted balustrade forming the cemetery’s border- were they waiting for me to quit this hallowed ground that they seemed to be unable to step upon? They were dancing in a circle around that girl with the hatefully polydactyl cat.
from wikipedia
Syncope (pronounced /ˈsɪŋkəpi/) is the medical term for fainting, a sudden, usually temporary, loss of consciousness generally caused by insufficient oxygen in the brain either through cerebral hypoxia or through hypotension, but possibly for other reasons. Typical symptoms progress through dizziness, clamminess of the skin, a dimming of vision or brownout, possibly tinnitus, complete loss of vision, weakness of limbs to physical collapse. These symptoms falling short of complete collapse, or a fall down, may be referred to as a syncoptic episode.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scuttling disgracefully away from their view, I left Path 13 and picked my way across an avenue of graves which formed the only connection between the widely placed pavement walkways. Walking along the loathsome egress of the plots themselves and while trying to forget about the menace represented by the children, whose disgusting and icthyan appearance caused my flight into this place, my attentions were drawn by the faces of those who have passed beyond the veil.
from wikipedia
Paranoid personality disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others.
Those with the condition are hypersensitive, are easily slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions to validate their prejudicial ideas or biases. They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their incapacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The “PC” sticker indicates “perpetual care”, a funerary industrial complex term that indicates a contracted schedule of groundskeeping and monument maintenance has been arranged by the bereaved. Ostensibly, this contract plays out over the rest of human history, or as long as the cemetery operation continues. Upstate New York, especially in the “burned over district“, has seen dozens of cemetery organizations go out of business in the last 50-100 years. Abandoned, as in many cases the townships let alone the actual congregation no longer exist due to the westward migration of populations during the 19th and 20th centuries- these graveyards became dumping grounds, suffered adolescent vandalism, and went feral. Worse, they become altars for unclean rites, animal torture, and in some cases- tomb desecration. Luckily, the rural cemeteries of Queens are still going concerns, and NYPD hushes up such matters.
from wikipedia
The psychiatrist Kurt Schneider (1887–1967) listed the forms of psychotic symptoms that he thought distinguished schizophrenia from other psychotic disorders. These are called first-rank symptoms or Schneider’s first-rank symptoms, and they include delusions of being controlled by an external force; the belief that thoughts are being inserted into or withdrawn from one’s conscious mind; the belief that one’s thoughts are being broadcast to other people; and hearing hallucinatory voices that comment on one’s thoughts or actions or that have a conversation with other hallucinated voices. Although they have significantly contributed to the current diagnostic criteria, the specificity of first-rank symptoms has been questioned. A review of the diagnostic studies conducted between 1970 and 2005 found that these studies allow neither a reconfirmation nor a rejection of Schneider’s claims, and suggested that first-rank symptoms be de-emphasized in future revisions of diagnostic systems.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Haunting ceramics adorn many markers in Mount Zion. A vogue in funerary architecture, which is making a modern comeback via laser etched digital portraits, the heavily retouched images are almost always studio portraits and not representative of the final countenance of the deceased- these are not death masks. A fellow ghoulish spectator and commenter who calls himself Sorabji produces encyclopedic photographic collections of these markers across the Cemetery Belt, and formed a thorough and profound catalog of them- click here for Sorabji‘s gallery of shadows.
from wikipedia
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition, DSM IV-TR, a widely used manual for diagnosing mental disorders, defines schizotypal personality disorder (in Axis II Cluster A) as:[2]
A pervasive pattern of social and interpersonal deficits marked by acute discomfort with, and reduced capacity for, close relationships as well as by cognitive or perceptual distortions and eccentricities of behavior, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
- Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference)
- Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g., superstitiousness, bizarre fantasies or preoccupations)
- Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions
- Odd thinking and speech (e.g., vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, overelaborate, or stereotyped)
- Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
- Inappropriate or constricted affect
- Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric, or peculiar
- Lack of close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives
- Social anxiety that tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like some aged and arthritic goat, I scattered my steps widely while crossing the plantation of marble. The grounds in these older sections are rife with collapsing vaults, teetering headstones of 8 feet or more, and disturbing subsidence. The evidence of a thriving vegetable ecosystem is everywhere, and during the fall and early winter (when these shots were taken) the thorny underbrush assumes a sinister and skeletal tone. Often- lateral progress was cut off by a congestion of stones and vine strangled trees, egress offered only by a sickeningly subsided depression in the center of a burial plot. The journey, however, brings you into a golden age of typography and poster design.
from wikipedia
A Limited Symptom Attack (LSA), also referred to as a Limited Symptom Panic Attack (LPA), is a milder, less comprehensive panic attack with fewer than 4 panic related symptoms being experienced (APA 1994). For example, a sudden episode of intense dizziness or trembling accompanied by fear that something terrible is about to happen. Many people with panic disorder have a mixture of full blown and limited symptom attacks. LSAs often manifest in anxiety disorders, phobias, panic disorder and agoraphobia. However, experiencing a LSA is not necessarily indicative of mental illness. Often persons recovering from and/or being treated for panic attacks and panic disorder will experience LSAs.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
1929, when Mr. Wiener- pictured above- died (unfortunately, I could find NOTHING on this enigmatic fellow) was one of those moments in history that replaced one view of the world with another- just like 1974 or 2001.
On August 10, the Stock Market Crash that began the Great Depression hadn’t happened yet, that would be in October. Neither had the Hebron Riots, which were the kindling of what would become the Israel/Palestine conflagration. It would be the end of August when the crushing Young Plan of reparations for World War 1 were enacted, in which the interests of the United States were represented by J.P. Morgan, whose provisions set Germany on a course toward World War 2. It would be November, after a total global annular eclipse on All-Saints Day, that saw the opening of The Museum of Modern Art with its lunatic futurism, and the aerial navigation of the fabled South Pole and its lunar Mountains of Madness by the redoubtable Admiral Byrd and the intrepid Floyd Bennett. It’s would only be 2 weeks until Yasser Arafat was born.
from wikipedia
Phobophobia is mainly linked with internal predispositions. It is developed by the unconscious mind which is linked to an event in which phobia was experienced with emotional trauma and stress, which are closely linked to anxiety disorders and by forgetting and recalling the initiating trauma. Phobophobia might develop from other phobias, in which the intense anxiety and panic caused by the phobia might lead to fearing the phobia itself, which triggers phobophobia before actually experiencing the other phobia. The extreme fear towards the other phobia might lead to make believe the patient that his condition can develop into something worse, intensifying the effects of the other phobia by fearing it. Also, phobophobia can be developed when anxiety disorders are not treated, creating an extreme predisposition to other phobias. The development of phobophobia can also be attributed to characteristics of the patient itself, such as phylogenetic influence, the prepotency of certain stimuli, individual genetic inheritance, age incidence, sex incidence, personality background, cultural influence inside and outside the family, physiological variables and biochemical factors. Phobophobia shares the symptoms of many other anxiety disorders, more specifically panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder:
- Dizziness
- Heart Pounding
- Sweating
- Slight paresthesia
- Tension
- Hyperventilation
- Angst
- Faintness
- Avoidance
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The voices of those odd children were heard, repeating some sort of rhyming chant whose exact philology I could not make out due to the constant noise of nearby industry and highway. All that could be cogently reported was a syllabic eee-orrre… or was it eee-ahhh? At any rate, the rhythm of their chantie was identical to the “ring around the rosie” nursery mantra of the english speaking world. The reptilian complexion of the children was mirrored in the gull like voices with which they sang. Its melody affected me, and your humble narrator became befuddled…
from wikipedia
Many have associated the poem with the Great Plague of London in 1665, or with earlier outbreaks of bubonic plague in England. Interpreters of the rhyme before World War II make no mention of this; by 1951, however, it seems to have become well established as an explanation for the form of the rhyme that had become standard in the United Kingdom. Peter and Iona Opie remark: “The invariable sneezing and falling down in modern English versions have given would-be origin finders the opportunity to say that the rhyme dates back to the Great Plague. A rosy rash, they allege, was a symptom of the plague, posies of herbs were carried as protection, sneezing was a final fatal symptom , and ‘all fall down’ was exactly what happened.”
Mt Zion 2- Palaces of Light
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seeking to avoid the infantile menace of the odd and possibly mutated Maspeth children whose appearance filled him with an unguessable sense memory of pure terror, your humble narrator hurriedly entered the incredible locale of Mount Zion Cemetery. Located analagously to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Calvary Cemeteries, Mount Zion is 78 acres and holds a staggering 210,000 interments.
There are a few mausoleums here, but nowhere close to the multitudinous monuments found in nearby Calvary in number or ostentatious quality- however- the remarkably detailed metalwork on the doors of the Katcher monument demand notice and consideration from passersby. Click the photo below and check out the larger incarnations of it at our flickr page for a lot of detail.
The monuments contained within our gates are a window to the past and a connection to the future. The inscriptions on these memorials tells us of relationships; Cherished Mother, Father, Beloved Aunt or Uncle. They sadly pay tribute to those who have passed on before us while leaving behind remembrances sometimes in the form of a sepulcher photo. The use of these miniature photos was popular in Eastern Europe and the custom was continued here by the Jewish immigrants. These photos were images burnt into porcelain and glazed. The monuments themselves are of a time when cookie-cutter and factory turned out stones were unheard of. The tree of life signifying a person’s life cut too short and the infant graves with their sand stone markers topped off with images of little lambs are a small sampling of the way in which the dead were honored.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Extraordinarily engraved and artistically molded by sculptor’s hands, the remarkable monuments of Zion are provided with generations of patina courtesy of the city surrounding them. A caustic etching (manufactured by acid rain, air pollution, and that miasmic suggestion of indescribable colours spreading around- and indeed- swirling within a nearby cataract of tears called the Newtown Creek) worms into and corrodes the metal. Once, there must have been a population of skilled metal artisans located in Blissville or nearby Maspeth.
from wikipedia
Since the Industrial Revolution, emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to the atmosphere have increased. In 1852, Robert Angus Smith was the first to show the relationship between acid rain and atmospheric pollution in Manchester, England. Though acidic rain was discovered in 1852, it was not until the late 1960s that scientists began widely observing and studying the phenomenon. The term “acid rain” was generated in 1972. Canadian Harold Harvey was among the first to research a “dead” lake. Public awareness of acid rain in the U.S increased in the 1970s after the New York Times promulgated reports from the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire of the myriad deleterious environmental effects demonstrated to result from it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The older parts of the place are in fairly good repair, all things considered, but there are still subsidences and the occasional overturned headstone. In these older sections, where the deaths are listed as having occurred in the 1900’s or earlier, things are a little worse for wear. In defense of the organization though, signs of ancient and recent repair are everywhere, and several grounds keepers were observed as on duty and performing maintenance.
from chabad.org
The blood and limbs of an individual are considered by Jewish law to be part of the human being. As such, they require burial. If the deceased was found with severed limbs, or with blood-stained clothes, both the limbs and the clothes must be buried with him.
If limbs were amputated during one’s lifetime, they require burial in the person’s future gravesite. If he does not own a plot as yet, or if he is squeamish in this regard, it should be buried in a separate plot, preferably near the graves of members of his family. The limbs are cleansed and placed in the earth. No observance of mourning is necessary.
Jewish law generally discourages contribution of one’s limbs to hospitals. If one has absolutely stipulated that a limb be donated for medical research, the question of following his will depends on many details, and requires rabbinic research. It is best, therefore, to consult an expert on Jewish law. At any rate, even if it were permitted, the limb would require burial when it is no longer in use by the medical institution.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of the older parts of Mount Zion, however, are deteriorating badly – as the same atmospheric and hydrological processes whose chemical actions are eating away at the metals also affect the stone and cement – but nowhere at Mount Zion are observed the sort of malefic horrors rumored to be playing out at the Bayside Cemetery further east (where exposed human remains and desecrated tombs have been found- click here).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A squirming mass was moving about the hole in the monument, but I couldn’t get close enough with the shallow zoom on my trusty G10. By the time I arrived close enough, only this last vanguard was visible, as his fellows had fled into the aperture (squamous, the loathsome reptile’s camouflage can be penetrated in the top left quadrant of this zoomed in enlargement).
One of my spells began just then and a swooning faint elevated my conscious center to the top of my head and then right down to my bottom which sat down on a section marker block. While resting, and remembering the unwholesome children whose menace remained just outside the cemetery gates, I noticed this sad scenario.
from nyc.gov
(document refers to 2004 budget- I’ve got photos of the floods they’re talking about in 2007, and the project has been concluded only this past summer of 2009)
54th Avenue is main entranceway to Mt. Zion Cemetery. Roadway is totally eroded and there is water flowing on this street on a regular basis. DEP investigated and found underground springs that allows for water to eminate through the road. Currently DDC is designing sewer replacement, new catch basins, etc., to alleviate this condition. The project must move forward so as to improve this road, eliminate the chronic water from underground springs, and to provide for a developed street safe for vehicular traffic and accessibility to the cemetery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What genuine manifestation of joy is excited within the sorts of people who commit this sort of vandalism escapes logic. All over Mt. Zion, indeed- throughout the Cemetery Belt- you see smashed portrait photos, toppled and broken stones, blasted out windows of stained glass. What sort of braying underworld of iconoclasts- savage atavists all- may run loose, here, in the Newtown Pentacle after dark? Could some ghoulish legion pray upon this place, and could it somehow be related to the large pored and scaly looking children whose malefic staring had hastened me into this place? They seemed precluded from entering the cemetery, for some reason. Perhaps… this is where they wanted… me… to…
from nylandmarks.org
The general type of stone used in the grave marker should be identified as accurately as possible. Stones can be identified by first observing for crystals. If crystals are visible, the stone is likely a marble or granite. Granite is typically more strongly colored, has larger crystals, and is significantly harder than marble. If the stone contains visible grains of sand and has clearly defined layers, the stone is probably a sandstone. If the stone does not contain crystals or sand grains, it is likely to be either limestone, which is normally a light beige or brown color, or slate, which is often bluish with clearly defined layers.
Stone identification is not always this simple. Some limestones, for example, have semi-formed crystals that give it a marble- like appearance. Also, some sandstones are so finely grained and buff in color that they resemble limestone.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
note: There are some things which you must never think about. Paranoia, jealousy- that sort of thing. A thought virus… or an emotional infection… you must never entertain these thoughts, lest they sour the meat in your head. Thinking these thoughts, the very eidelons of “a very bad idea”, can cause a psychotic break- and then “the Man” comes for you. Stop.
Your humble narrator, unfortunately, didn’t stop himself from thinking one of the “very bad ideas” whose generally loathsome and indescribable impression was shattered when a nearby pheasant suddenly shot into the air from behind a headstone. The shock of the sudden noise and movement overcame me, and that’s when I passed out in Mount Zion, on the tangled hilltop at Path number 13.
Encountered another one of these “very bad ideas” in researching this post – if you read this, you might go crazy- good luck:
also from nylandmarks.org
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a non-invasive geophysical remote sensing device that utilizes the transmission of electromagnetic waves called radar. The electromagnetic waves are transmitted into the earth and are reflected by discontinuities or disruptions caused by changes in materials electrical properties. The discontinuities that do not follow natural patterns are called anomalies. GPR thus provides a nondestructive means of mapping subsurface objects and disturbances associated with human activity through the identification of anomalies. GPR surveys of burial grounds have been conducted to determine the presence or absence of anomalies related to the presence of potential unmarked graves within specific project areas. GPR allows cultural resource management (CRM) professionals to locate areas of interest within cemeteries without disturbing objects or the ground, enabling them to plan their site excavations and site management with minimal worry of disturbing or destroying unmarked burials. GPR systems collect geophysical data that provides information on the location of probable disturbances, such as grave shafts, based on the changes in soil properties within grave shafts and the surrounding soil. GPR data can also provide information on the existence or absence of caskets or burial chambers. Because GPR is a non-invasive method, it does not provide conclusive evidence that any anomalies identified during the survey are related to human burials. By comparing the data from known burials within a burial ground with data from areas with no grave markers, however, it is possible to identify unmarked grave locations by their similar data patterns.
Mt. Zion 1 – imps of the perverse
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What would appear to be a Jewish section of the vast funerary complex that is 2nd and 3rd Calvary Cemeteries, is actually a distinct cemetery organized as and referred to as Mount Zion.
It made a convenient hiding spot for me one day when a group of children on Maurice Avenue took notice of me and began to follow me around. The possibility of some vaguely malign intention toward me, on their part, caused a near faint and I ran away- here’s what happened.
Narrow, juvenile faces, their appearance and aspect were dominated by a toothy grimace- much wider than the usual proportion- and oddly jowled chins. The corners of their mouths stretched to mid cheek and passed well beyond the bulging center point of those widely set and unblinking milky blue eyes- which I attribute to the possibly mutagenic qualities of the chemical pollution of that nearby extinction of hope called the Newtown Creek.
A little girl amongst them, barefoot and carrying a polydactyl calico which was buzzing with attention, pointed me out and all the other odd looking children turned and stared in my direction. A vast physical coward, and unable to withstand even the thought of defending myself against a crowd of 10 year olds, your humble narrator screamed a shrill shriek and broke into a clumsy run to make an escape to hallowed ground.
Mount Zion Cemetery encompasses an area of 78 acres. This cemetery is located in Maspeth, Queens near the Manhattan Border. When this cemetery was first established the surrounding area was considered to be rural. There was an ongoing need for burial spaces to accommodate the explosion of the immigrant population in not only Queens, but also the nearby neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Mount Zion Cemetery has more than 210,000 burials on its 78 acres making it one of the more interesting burial grounds.
note: Mount Zion has come up once before, in the shot above from a Newtown Pentacle post of June 22- called Newtown Grafiti
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once within the iron gates of Mount Zion, I enacted an old Brooklyn “run away and hide from pursuers strategy” which basically boils down to running around at full speed in a completely random manner and finding something to hide behind or in. Luckily, the tightly packed environs of this Cemetery make for good cover, and I was dressed in a black fedora and black raincoat- making the perfect camouflage for blending in with other visitors at Mt. Zion.
Once, this panic stricken series of turns and circles was called “cheese it”, and the modern English would call it “Leg it”. I knew a guy who once fled from the cops through 4 blocks of brooklyn backyards, hopping a six foot chain link fence every 30 yards, ran across Flatbush, through a golf course, then ran across the Belt Parkway, and dug himself a sand dune hole to spend the night in near Plum Beach. Brooklyn thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are distinct sections in Mount Zion, organized by burial society. Jewish Burial Societies are usually connected either to a Temple Congregation or Secular Association. The Secular ones would often be organized by a labor union, or by a brokerage business that sought to buy a large number of plots at a discount and sell them at a profit. Much information is available online about these societies if one can read hebrew or yiddish. There is also a modern and ancient division.
Some parts of the place date back to the 19th century, others have fresh interments. Unlike other faiths represented nearby, Jewish tradition calls for a single occupant in a grave. As such, the organization and placement of funerary rite and remains demands much lateral sprawl, and like most older Jewish cemeteries- Mount Zion seems crowded and claustrophobic.
But, it’s a good place to hide from those weird Maspeth kids, if you lords and ladies of Newtown don’t mind- let’s just hang out here a little while- OK?
That little girl with the maladapted and curiously 9 toed cat, she said something to the oldest boy that sounded like a name… Y’ha-nthlei?
from wikipedia
A headstone (tombstone) is known as a matzevah (“monument”). Although there is no Halakhic obligation to hold an unveiling ceremony, the ritual became popular in many communities toward the end of the 19th century. There are varying customs about when it should be placed on the grave. Most communities have an unveiling ceremony a year after the death. Some communities have it earlier, even a week after the burial. In Israel it is done after the “sheloshim”, the first thirty days of mourning. There is no restriction about the timing, other than the unveiling cannot be held during certain periods such as Passover or Chol Ha’Moed.
At the end of the ceremony, a cloth or shroud covering that has been placed on the headstone is removed, customarily by close family members. Services include reading of several psalms (1, 23, 24, 103), Mourners Kaddish (if a minyan is available), and the prayer “El Malei Rachamim.” The service may include a brief eulogy for the deceased.
A sound like municipal dentistry
– photo by Mitch Waxman
P.S. 70, an elementary school on 42nd street here in Astoria, is receiving a facelift, general maintenance, and repairs to its roof. Building inspectors have recommended a series of minor repairs to the structure, and 2009 being a local election year, all the project works are being worked on in tandem concurrence.
So as not to disturb classes during the day, all the work is being done after dark, beginning at 4PM and ending at 11PM- as observed. Omnipresent is its sound, as is my kvetching about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Undoubtedly- the availability of Federal Stimulus monies hurried the normally glacial pace of city services in initiating the project, but the work is vulnerable to weather events- especially high winds- and performing it in winter will prolong the ordeal.
On most nights, the sound of masonry drills and other high speed equipment broadcast along the rooftops, manifesting an inescapable staccato of high pitched grinding which reminds me of childhood trips to a certain Percocet addled dentist that my family insisted on using.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sound penetrates through the walls of my nonagenarian Matthews Model Flat, causing no end of discomfort to Zuzu, my little dog. Of course- the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, as Spock said (or will say), and at least the work stops at 11.
from schools.nyc.gov
The Lt Joseph Petrosino School serves 1,139 students from pre kindergarten through 5th grades. Hispanic children make up 44% of the student body, 33% are White, almost 22% are Asians and the remaining 2% are Black. More than two-thirds of this year’s students are English language learners, an 18% increase from last year for this group. Most newly enrolled second language students have arrived from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mexico.
There are self-contained English as second language classes at kindergarten, and ingrades 1, 3 and 4, with two in the 2nd grade. In addition, there is one Spanish bilingual class, in both kindergarten and 1st grade. Approximately 9% of enrolled students are special education students, with 4% of these in self-contained classes in grades 2 and 5. The remaining 5% of special education students are in collaborative team teaching classrooms in kindergarten and 1st grades, or are in general education classes and receive support from resource room specialists.
There are top classes in grades 1 through 5.Classes are housed in the main building, a mini school and two transportable units, which are all adjacent. School attendance is 94.6%, which is 2.5% above that of similar schools and 1.8% above City schools. This is a Title 1 school with almost 82% of the students being eligible, slightly less than similar schools but almost 10% above the City school average.
Tales of Calvary 6
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looming, in this place, is the megapolis. Here lies Tammany, gazing eternally upon their work. The city. The great city.
The greatest and last of their projects is promontory above the shield wall of Manhattan, a familiar vista of Calvary Cemetery offered as an iconic representation by most.
The tower called the Empire State building was built, almost as an act of pure will, by a former newsboy from South Street.
from wikipedia
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world’s tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center’s North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The people buried here arrived in and encountered a very different city- a divergent concept of a city- than the one we imagine. They were fleeing religious war and famine, and even the hazardous journey to an unknown country was better than staying where they were. The first surge of them was Catholic, they came from Poland, Germany, Italy, and like that newsboy from South Street – Ireland.
Especially Ireland.
(the Jews were present as well, but were subsumed by larger descriptions of nationality, and they would describe themselves as Germans or Poles before bringing up religion)
Before the Civil War, New York was ruled by the “knickerbockracy“, a social elite who were labeled “the 400” by Samuel Ward MacAllister. Greedy poor and useless, immigrant mouths to feed were dumped by the courts of Europe on New York’s docks, where they instantly took to crime and profligacy. The dregs arrived like ocean waves, and the disgusted Anglophile and Dutch elites saw to it that these wretched masses would be excluded from power and opportunity in the protestant republic.
also from wikipedia
The Empire State Building was designed by William F. Lamb from the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, which produced the building drawings in just two weeks, using its earlier designs for the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Carew Tower in Cincinnati, Ohio (designed by the architectural firm W.W. Ahlschlager & Associates) as a basis. Every year the staff of the Empire State Building sends a Father’s Day card to the staff at the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem to pay homage to its role as predecessor to the Empire State Building. The building was designed from the top down. The general contractors were The Starrett Brothers and Eken, and the project was financed primarily by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ethnic associations formed amongst the new immigrants, who were victimized by discriminatory policies of government and racial prejudice. One of these ethnic clubs began political organization amongst the immigrant grass roots, and registered voters began to appear in the river front slums, and especially in the Five Points in Manhattan.
from wikipedia
Tammany Hall (Founded May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society, and also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order), was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City politics and helping immigrants (most notably the Irish) rise up in American politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It usually controlled Democratic Party nominations and patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 through the election of John P. O’Brien in 1932. Tammany Hall was permanently weakened by the election of Fiorello La Guardia on a “fusion” ticket of Republicans, reform-minded Democrats, and independents in 1934, and despite a brief resurgence in the 1950s, it ceased to exist in the 1960s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Impeachable offense was just part of doing business back then, and the ethnic associations could muster significant and reliable turnouts on election day for whoever was willing to pay. Soon, the associations began to congeal into ethnic blocks. The largest one of them all was called Tammany Hall, and it began to pick its own people to run for office instead of supporting the landed gentry or the degenerate Dutch.
also from wikipedia
Despite occasional defeats, Tammany was consistently able to survive and, indeed, prosper; it continued to dominate city and even state politics. Under leaders like John Kelly and Richard Croker, Charles Francis Murphy and Timothy Sullivan, it controlled Democratic politics in the city. Tammany opposed William Jennings Bryan in 1896.
In 1901, anti-Tammany forces elected a reformer, Republican Seth Low, to become mayor. From 1902 until his death in 1924, Charles Francis Murphy was Tammany’s boss. In 1927 the building on 14th Street was sold. The new building on East 17th Street and Union Square East was finished and occupied by 1929.[6] In 1932, the machine suffered a dual setback when Mayor James Walker was forced from office and reform-minded Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. Roosevelt stripped Tammany of federal patronage, which had been expanded under the New Deal—and passed it instead to Ed Flynn, boss of the Bronx. Roosevelt helped Republican Fiorello La Guardia become mayor on a Fusion ticket, thus removing even more patronage from Tammany’s control. La Guardia was elected in 1933 and re-elected in 1937 and 1941. He was the first anti-Tammany Mayor to be re-elected and his extended tenure weakened Tammany in a way that previous “reform” Mayors had not.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That boy from the South Street water front, who watched as the East River Bridge being built, lost his father at age 13. He left school and went to work, first at an oil company and later at the Fulton Fish Market- which netted him the astounding salary of $15 per week. He developed a certain celebrity in the 4th ward because of his good fortunes, and came to the attentions of the Tammany men, who discovered a certain “likeability” in him.
from pbs.org
Built during the Depression between 1930 and 1931, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest office building — surpassing the Chrysler Building by a whopping 204 feet. The design of the building changed 16 times during planning and construction, but 3,000 workers completed the building’s construction in record time: one year and 45 days, including Sundays and holidays. The Empire State Building is composed of 60,000 tons of steel, 200,000 cubic feet of Indiana limestone and granite, 10 million bricks, and 730 tons of aluminum and stainless steel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By 1895, the young man was appointed a clerk to the Commissioner of Jurors and was noticed by Thomas F. Foley- the boss of Tammany. Shortly, He was an assemblyman in Albany, and spent 12 years gathering patronage and clout in the capital of New York State. By 1913, he had become Speaker of the House and the most influential man in Albany. As a reward for his services, Tammany appointed him Sheriff of New York, a lucrative position in those days. By 1918, He was elected Governor of New York State and came to national prominence during his 4 terms in office.
In 1928 he ran for President of the United States, this Irish kid from South Street, and a young Franklin D. Roosevelt was honored with placing his name before the convention. He lost to Herbert Hoover, whose many supporters publicly voiced concern about the Tammany contagion spreading into Washington and across the nation. In 1932, he lost the nomination of his party to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
from wikipedia
Horses were used for transportation in 1900, as they had been throughout the history of the city. There were 200,000 of them in the city, producing nearly 2,500 short tons (2,300 t) of manure daily. It accumulated in the streets and was swept to the sides like snow. The smell was quite noticeable. Introduction of motor vehicles was a profound relief.
The municipal consolidation would also precipitate greater physical connections between the boroughs. The building of the New York City Subway, as the separate Interborough Rapid Transit Company and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation systems, and the later Independent Subway System, and the opening of the first IRT line in 1905 marked the beginning of what became a force for population spread and development. The Williamsburg Bridge 1903 and the Manhattan Bridge 1909 further connected Manhattan to the rapidly expanding bedroom community in Brooklyn. The world-famous Grand Central Terminal opened as the world’s largest train station on February 1, 1913, replacing an earlier terminal on the site. It was preceded by Pennsylvania Station, several blocks to the south.
These years also saw the peak of European immigration and the shifting of that immigration from Western Europe to Southern and Eastern Europe. On June 15, 1904 over 1,000 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed when the steamship General Slocum caught fire and burned in the East River, marking the beginning of the end of the community in Little Germany. The German community was replaced by growing numbers of poorer immigrants on the Lower East Side. On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Greenwich Village took the lives of 145 mostly Italian and Jewish female garment workers, which would eventually lead to great advancements in the city’s fire department, building codes, and workplace regulations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Disgusted with politics and betrayed by the last of the Knickerbocker elite, the newsboy governor turned to private business. Amongst other ventures, he became president of that company which would construct the Empire State Building at the height of the Great Depression. One or two of his friends also came in on the venture.
That iconic structure is located, incidentally, on the former site of the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel– a regular haunt and preferred meeting place for the elite “four hundred”.
from greatbuildings.com
The architectural, commercial, and popular success of the Empire State Building depended on a highly rationalized process, and equally efficient advertising and construction campaigns. Skillful designers of Manhattan office buildings, architects Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon were familiar with the imperatives of design and construction efficiency that maximized investors’ returns by filling the building with tenants as soon as possible. …
The Empire State Building, like most art deco skyscrapers, was modernistic, not modernist. It was deliberately less pure, more flamboyant and populist than European theory allowed. It appeared to be a sculpted or modeled mass, giving to business imagery a substantial character…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As Governor, this Tammany man rewrote the labor laws after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and, oversaw the creation of much of modern New York. As a private citizen, he used his extensive patronage and political muscle to build the Empire State Building in an astounding 410 days. President Herbert Hoover cut the ribbon on opening day, however.
His name was Alfred E. Smith. Al the happy warrior to his constituents.
Governor Smith died October 4, 1944 at 6:28 AM.
Click here to listen to a history.com audio file of Al Smith speaking “on New York”.
Click here to access a google map with the actual location of the monument, which doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else on the web.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
He lies in Calvary next to his wife, Catherine A. Dunn Smith.
Alongside them are those generations that came to a city -of wooden clapboard walls rising from unpaved roads – and died in a shining metropolis of glass and steel towers accomplished by their labors. The great city of the age was built by those that lie in Calvary Cemetery, here in the muladhara of the Newtown Pentacle.
note: the view of the Empire State Building, from the gravesite of Governor Smith, is obscured by more modern mausoleum monuments.
In 1918, to the surprise of many, he was elected Governor of the State of New York. Although he lost the 1920 election, he ran successfully again in 1922, 1924, and 1926 – making him one of three New York State Governors to be elected to four terms. While Governor, he achieved the passage of extensive reform legislation, including improved factory laws, better housing requirements, and expanded welfare services. Additionally, he reorganized the State government into a consolidated and business-like structure.
Governor Smith won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President of the United States in 1928. During his campaign he continued to champion the cause of urban residents.
The Newtown Pentacle 