I Walked New York City's 1840s Semi-Suburban Home

Outside of the three-story home at number 152 East 38th Street you will no doubt notice a historical plaque that identifies this house, that is pushed back from the street a bit, was originally built in the 1840s. Famous residents have included the widow of the former eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren.

The building was remodeled from a period of 1934-1936 in the Federal Revival Style and during that time the property was subdivided into a home and office space (hence the two addresses on the low cement wall exterior). In addition, a one-story wall was built to divide the front yard, an ornate iron fence added (complete with sea shell ornamentation atop it), and the owner also had his grandchildren add their handprints in the sidewalk.

Sadly the most drastic of these alterations though was the erection of a gateway to hide the offices from street view. This home is a rare example of properties that are actually pushed back from the street within this area. It is unfortunate that we’re unable to have more insight as to other subtle differences, but it still warrants some of our attention for the variety it offers within the side streets of Midtown.

• Website: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/12/realestate/streetscapes-152-east-38th-street-1857-row-house-stood-back-its-neighbors.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
• Address: 152 East 38th Street, New York City, NY
• Cost: Free.

I Walked Boston's Boston Athenaeum

An athenaeum, if you are unfamiliar, is an institution for the promotion of learning. The word derives from a reference to the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena.

The Boston Athenaeum began as a reading room in 1807. It began by renting rooms near Kings Chapel Burying Ground and later on Pearl Street downtown before finally moving to Beacon Street location when this building was completed in 1849. It is currently only one of sixteen libraries in the country that require membership for usage of services.

Public access to the library is available for free on first floor. This level contains many historic statues and busts and affords an excellent view of the backside of the Old Granary Burying Ground (the burial site of Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Mother Goose).

Boston Athenaeum

Members receive exclusive privileges to the private libraries of George Washington and The Narrative of the Life of James Allen, The Highway Man. This later was written by a convict who while on his deathbed in prison, requested that the book he wrote containing the confessions and stories of his crimes be bound in his own skin. The skin used to bind his autobiography reportedly came from his back and was treated in a process similar to leather for preservation. The process was supposedly so secretive or nonchalant that the bookbinder was not even aware of the material he was using. Perhaps the sickest part of this tale, however, was that one copy (of which there were reportedly two) was bequeathed to an alleged victim who escaped Mr. Allen and whom he held in such esteem.

• Website: http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/
• Address: 10 ½ Beacon Street, Boston, MA
• Cost: Free.

Louisburg Square Apartments in Boston

Louisburg Square Apartments is considered one of most elite neighborhoods in all of Boston and is the last private square within the city. Current famous residents include Senator John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry, the current heir to the Heinz family fortune.

Most of the homes within the square were built in 1835. Upon their completion, the square was named for the 1745 Battle of Louisbourg. A battle fought between the “British” and “French” in “Canada”. How does this relate to Massachusetts? Well, the Battle of Louisbourg was a part of the King George’s War fought between England and France. In this battle (fought in Nova Scotia) the Massachusetts militia actually fought alongside the English who were still allies in the Pre-Revolutionary period of this clash.

Fans of the children’s novel, Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, may recognize the name of Louisburg Square Apartments as the site where Mrs. Mallard and her family did some home shopping before settling within the Boston Public Garden. A popular sculpture commemorating the book resides in this garden.

It may be best that Mrs. Mallard decided to relocate to the Public Garden because it likely saved her substantial living expenses. Louisburg Square was the first neighborhood to create a home owners association within the United States to help pay for its upkeep. On the other hand, having decided not to relocate here Mrs. Mallard and her family would not have been able to partake in the first Christmas caroling in the United States which also occurred here in the late 19th century.

Louisburg Square 

Situated in the center of Louisburg Square Apartments is a fenced in green space. This fence was erected in 1929, approximately one-hundred years after the square was initially developer. Located within the fenced off area are two statues. On the south side is a statue of Aristides the Just (530 B.C. – 486 B.C.). Aristides was known to always do the right thing for Athens even at his own expense. On the north side is a statue of Christopher Columbus. Both statues were presented as gifts in 1850 by a former Turkish consul member who used to reside at 3 Louisburg Square.

Gazing around the home surrounding the square you will notice near perfect symmetry in the architectural styles of the buildings. On the side with even numbered addresses all of the buildings have flat facades. While the odd numbered addresses are a bit more elaborate with bow front, cast-iron balconies and flagpole holders with serpents.

The address at 10 Louisburg Square Apartments was the final home of Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women. Louisa passed away here at the age of 55 of what was guessed to be mercury poisoning. Louisa likely contracted the poisoning while working as a nurse during the Civil War. Mercury was used often as a treatment for many ailments. Mercury was typically combined with honey and chalk into a mixture called calomel and this, in turn, was used to kill bacteria. The substance’s ill effects of teeth loss and brain damage were not yet recognized.

• Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisburg_Square
• Address: Louisburg Square, Boston, MA

The Lever House NYC, Landmark Modernist Structure

Nearby the celebrated Seagram House is another landmark Modernist structure at 390 Park Avenue known as the Lever House NYC. This slender green-tinted glass tower stands at only twenty-one stories and appears as an inverted L from street-level. The building features an extended lobby floor that contains an art gallery and also a Sculpture Garden that was added in 1998. In the Sculpture Garden you can view works from Isamu Noguchi who also created the Red Cube which resides outside of 140 Broadway.

The glass curtain design by Gordon Bunshaft of the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill was relatively new and innovative at the time. Similar to the added bronze beams on the Seagram House for aesthetic purposes, the glass curtain design contained an added outer wall of glass that was not structural. Although the glass was not operational, it did serve as a low-cost material to keep out the elements and allow for a high degree of natural lighting within the building. Lever House NYC was the second significant structure within the city to make use of the glass curtain design. The first was the U.N. Secretariat Building which had also been built in 1952.

The Lever House NYC was built as the American headquarters for the British soap company Lever Brothers. Lever Brothers president, Charles Luckman, expressed to Bunshaft that he wish for a “sparkling” design that would align with the company’s image. Bunshaft, in turn, responded with a shiny glass tower that would reflect the ideal image for a soap manufacturer.

 Lever House NYC

As to the Lever Brothers, it would go on to merge into Unilever in 1930. The Lever Brothers division remained in the building until 1997 when it relocated to Greenwich,CT. The parent company, Unilever, does still maintain a small presence in the building though. Lever Brother’s former president, Charles Luckman, who many labeled the “Boy Wonder of Business” would go on to architect some magnificent buildings of his own including the existing Madison Square Garden.

In the 1990s the Lever House NYC fell into a period of decline when nearly all of its original glass, so meticulously selected for a uniform appearance, had been haphazardly replaced over the years. Forty years after its unveiling, ninety-nine percent of the glass had already been replaced at least once, giving it the appearance of a patchwork quilt. In 1998, though building’s owners began an extensive renovation which has since restored the building to its original luster of uniformity and elegance along Park Avenue.

I Walked New York City's Cartier Building

The Cartier Building is a former mansion that is now home to the French jeweler and watch manufacturer. The building was constructed in 1904 and designed by English-born architect Robert W. Gibson (who is also known for his All Saints Cathedral in Albany, NY) as the home to millionaire Morton Freeman Plant. Plant acquired the land for his mansion from William K. Vanderbilt under the condition that the property not be used for commercial purposes for at least twenty-five years. The resulting mansion was a six-story Neo-Italian-Renaissance palazzo that features an exterior of marble and granite.

Plant resided in this building for just over ten years with his wife, Mae Cadwell Manwaring (aka Maisie). At the time of their union, Plant was sixty-one years old while Maisie was thirty years younger. In 1917, the Plants began to consider moving uptown as were many of their notable neighbors including the Vanderbilts. It was during this time that Maisie discovered an object of her desire and of considerable cost. On a visit to the Cartier store of the time, Maisie fell in love with a pearl necklace that was being showcased and estimated to have been valued at $1.2 million. Feeling it to have been a wise investment at the time, the Plants sold their six-story mansion to the Cartier store for the strand of pearls along with $100 in cash. The Plants, in turn, moved to a new home located near 86th Street.

Unfortunately for the Plants, the value of pearls declined in the ensuing years by a significant amount due to the commercialization of cultured pearls. When the necklace was sold the year after Maisie’s death (in 1957) it sold for a paltry $170,000. Sadly, the whereabouts of the necklace today have been lost to time, although Ms. Maisie is said to still to obsess over its existence. Supposedly within a hotel in Clearwater, Florida that was formerly built by Morton’s father, there resides a disturbed female ghost who appears to be looking as though she lost her most prized possession.

Upon acquisition of the former mansion in 1917, the Cartier Corporation transformed the building into what some now refer to as the House of Cartier. The interior was reportedly completely redone by architect William Welles Bosworth, less the second floor music room. Cartier was founded in 1847 in Paris by Louis Francois Cartier. The family became well known in 1902 when it was hired to design a series of twenty-seven tiaras for the coronation of King Edward VII. A New York location was opened in 1909 by Louis’ son, Pierre who would eventually move the store to this locale in 1917.

• Website: http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=14047
• Address: 651 Fifth Avenue, New York City, NY
• Cost: Free.

I Walked Boston's Common Parkman Plaza

Parkman Plaza is a second dedication to Dr. George Parkman within the Boston Common (the Parkman Bandstand being the first). Parkman Plaza was officially dedicated in 1960. The plaza consists of a cement semi-circular space that contains three statues and is also the home to the Visitor Center where the Boston Freedom Trail begins.

You may read more about the Boston Freedom Trail and the Visitor Center which provides free maps for the trail here. In regards to the statues which surround the plaza, each was dedicated in 1961. Each statue is said to celebrate a different aspect of Boston.

Parkman Plaza

The statue on the south side of the plaza is said to celebrate Boston’s Religious energy. The statue consists of a boy kneeling with outstretched arms, palms up and looking up to the sky as if in prayer or in search of spiritual guidance.

The statue on the west side of the plaza (and nearest the Visitor Center) is a figure celebrating Industry. Here there appears to be a man drilling into some object which he has straddled between his legs.

The statue on the north side of the plaza has the name of Learning across the bottom of it. Here we see another young man sitting atop a globe while reading a book.

• Website: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3MT2_Parkman_Plaza_Boston_MA
• Address: Boston Common, Boston, MA. Near the intersection of Tremont Street and West Street.
• Cost: Free.

I Walked New York City's Soldiers and Sailors Monument

The 95 foot tall white marble Soldiers and Sailors Monument was an addition to this area in 1902. It was dedicated on Memorial Day in honor of those New Yorkers who had dedicated their lives and fought so gallantly as part of the US Civil War. Originally New York did not have any serious plans or consideration for a Civil War monument until 1893 when it formed an association to begin to research the possibility. The committee held a public competition for the design of a memorial to be erected at the site of the Pulitzer Fountain over on the southeast corner of Central Park. This plan was later abandoned and the site was reconsidered to the current locale on the edge of Riverside Park. The winning design which was selected was titled, “Temple of Fame” and by Charles and Arthur Stoughton. The ornamentation which is so rich across the monument was actually done by the same man who designed the Ansonia hotel over on Broadway.

To describe the monument it largely resembles the famous Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. This original Athens monument was created in approximately 355 B.C. and funded by a choregos (or public sponsor of theater) to award to the top performer. If you are familiar with the San Remo on Central Park West you may also recognize the shape and design as that situated atop each of its twin towers.

The rounded marble structure consists of twelve Corinthian pillars atop a large base and with a highly ornamented crown atop it. On this crown are a number of intricately carved eagles. Each of the pillars below contains the names of the New York regiments which fought in the Civl War and the battles they fought in.

Entrance to the interior of the monument is guarded via a large bronze door protected by a sculpted Gryffindor or monkey with wings. Visitors used to be able to enter the monument at all times but are now only open once annually at the Open house New York.

• Website: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/riversidepark/highlights/12871
• Address: Intersection of Riverside Drive & West 89th Street (on the west side of Riverside Drive just inside of Riverside Park), New York City
• Cost: Free