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PHOTO GALLERY: THE STATELY CHRISTMAS TREES IN WEST END AVENUE LOBBIES

December 9, 2016 | 11:26 AM
in ART, NEWS
53

By Mildred Alpern

Many buildings on West End Avenue’s Golden Mile have old world panache, having been built around the turn of the 20th century. At Christmas time, the lobbies are decorated with ornamented trees to celebrate the holidays. Festive and grand, they are welcoming sights.

My own building at 575 WEA (88th Street) has a fourteen foot tree, truly splendiferous, and on Wednesday I decided to do a little comparison-viewing of others in the neighborhood. On a drizzly, cloudy morning, my visits introduced me to the sparkling lights and radiant gleams of lobby interiors spiffy with holiday visual delights. What a joy!

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Bruce Bernstein
Bruce Bernstein
6 years ago

it’s now called “The Golden Mile”?!?

that’s just sad.

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Sean
Sean
6 years ago
Reply to  Bruce Bernstein

We got a lot of Golden Girls up here.

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dannyboy
dannyboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Bruce Bernstein

I am really reflecting on just these things while wintering in S America.

Feeling like i just dont want my Golden building getting in the way of my human life.

Is there some story of a Golden Calf that applies

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stevieboy
stevieboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Bruce Bernstein

wow, aren’t you easily upset….

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ScooterStan
ScooterStan
6 years ago
Reply to  Bruce Bernstein

Want to know what’s TRULY SAD?

You probably do not, as what is sad is the new-faux-populism that celebrates:
poverty over wealth,
uneducated shnooks over “educated elites”,
schlock over classic good taste,
in-your-face aggression over good manners,
etc etc.

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West Ender
West Ender
6 years ago

Nice work! Glad to see Hanukkah is finally getting some equal time 😊

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Reply
Stuart
Stuart
6 years ago
Reply to  West Ender

To West Ender – Hanukkah should not get equal time, as it is a minor holiday on the Jewish calendar. It becomes major here because it’s in December, and becomes commercialized so Jewish kids (like me) don’t feel left out. To prove how minor a holiday it really is, alternate side of the street parking does NOT get suspended for any days during Hanukkah (unless it lands on Christmas), but alternate side parking is suspended during Purim.

End of lesson – class dismissed.

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jeff Berger
jeff Berger
6 years ago

In our building we have a fake tree as we were told that it was not legal in NYC for apartment buildings to have real trees. Is this not true?

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Young Sally
Young Sally
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

We have real trees in our building on Broadway every year, so I don’t think it is an issue. However, it is as simple as checking with the fire department. We also have real Menorah(s) 🙂

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Kenneth
Kenneth
6 years ago
Reply to  Young Sally

Young Sally,
It is an issue. NYC Local Law 29 passed in 1943 after a rash of Christmas-tree fires, prohibits live or fresh-cut Christmas trees from establishments occupied by 75 or more people. Under the law, only fire-retardant artificial trees are allowed in such public places.
Real Christmas trees are also banned under the state’s Multiple-Dwelling Law, which, besides prohibiting prostitution and raising livestock in apartment buildings, says that keeping “any combustible article or any article dangerous or detrimental to life or health” in a public space is illegal.”
FDNY does inspect and force removal. It happens.

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Helen
Helen
6 years ago
Reply to  Kenneth

I don’t understand why there have been real trees in my office and apt buildings all these years then, because we definitely have more than 75 people in each of them.:/

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Morgan
Morgan
6 years ago
Reply to  Kenneth

http://mobile.nytimes.com/1996/12/21/nyregion/reality-versus-legality-in-use-of-christmas-tree.html

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jeff Berger
jeff Berger
6 years ago
Reply to  Kenneth

Thanks for the confirmation. I guest the FDNY has better things to do then go through the fancy apartments on Riverside and West End and look for real trees!

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dannyboy
dannyboy
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

Any crackdowns on raising livestock and on prostitution in apartment buildings

selective enforcement, i guess

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Kenneth
Kenneth
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

Sometimes they do. I know buildings in Manhattan that have been cited and forced to remove fresh cut trees by FDNY the week before Christmas.

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Glen
Glen
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

They can have real trees as long as there are no electric lights on them. Seems like a holdover law from the good old candle and exploding light bulb days, but so be it. In our bldg we went with the live tree and no lights.

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Helen
Helen
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

I’ve never heard that before. Both my office building and apartment building have real trees, they’re all the way up to the ceiling and the scent is amazing! There are menorahs too. 🙂

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Cato
Cato
6 years ago
Reply to  jeff Berger

No. That applies only to your building.

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Hale Alpern
Hale Alpern
6 years ago

Having grown up in NY, for the passed 85 years, I continue to look forward, like a child, in awe of all the resplendent decorations on the trees, hanging across streets and in store windows, to the Xmas season for all citezins to enjoy. Xmas is universal and for me nonsectarian.

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Odette Veneziano
Odette Veneziano
6 years ago

Thanks Mildred. What a wonderful idea to photograph the trees of Christmas on the UWS. Special places at a special time.

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Ed
Ed
6 years ago

Very nice photos. And a great idea. Thank you.

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CG
CG
6 years ago

Very nice. Great to see Christmas trees. Thanks! Christmas is such a special holiday.

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UWSHebrew
UWSHebrew
6 years ago

Just for a little balance 🙂 — There is one antique menorah currently on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (on loan from a collector), and starting on December 16, there will be two antiques menorahs and an antique dreidel on display at The Museum of the City of New York (on loan from another collector). Of course, the Jewish Museum of New York has a year-round display of antique menorahs and dreidels.

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Anon
Anon
6 years ago
Reply to  UWSHebrew

And they say there’s not a war on Christmas….

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Gavin
Gavin
6 years ago

Great photos! Love the idea! You should share this on Yobored.com I bet West End locals would enjoy seeing this.

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Mary Jones
Mary Jones
6 years ago

My building is there! The tree is fake, we used to have a real tree… then had a HUGE fire one year when the tree burned down, terrible

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Sean
Sean
6 years ago
Reply to  Mary Jones

Ya see!

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Reply
Claire
Claire
6 years ago

The golden mile? It’s a shame, I remember when well to do people were scared of the Upper West Side. I hope they tip their doormen well at least.

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Reply
RK
RK
6 years ago
Reply to  Claire

Huh? To which well-to-do people do you refer?

The Dakota was built in 1884. The grand buildings (Eldorado, San Remo, Beresford, Ansonia, Belnord, 101CPW, etc etc) are all pre-war.

Not exactly slums.

Unless you’re talking about the 740 Park Ave crowd, to which the UWS is still slumming it.

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dannyboy
dannyboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Claire

another Real Estate hyperbole

hype, hype, hype

merry Christmas and happy Hanakah

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Monk Monkstein
Monk Monkstein
6 years ago
Reply to  dannyboy

This guy is lounging on the beach in Punta del Este and he wants us all to feel guilty. He loves to tell us how to live our lives though.

Hypocrite much Danny? Do you drive a BMW SUV too?? hahaha

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Independent
Independent
6 years ago
Reply to  Monk Monkstein

I wonder where self-described Socialist Bernie Sanders will be spending the upcoming winter holidays…

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Erica
Erica
6 years ago

You live right around the corner from me ☺️

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Jimbo
Jimbo
6 years ago

Hey Hale –you misspelled Christmas …….

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Reply
Maria Granda
Maria Granda
6 years ago
Reply to  Jimbo

Nope- she didn’t
http://www.crivoice.org/symbols/xmasorigin.html

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Jean-Paul
Jean-Paul
6 years ago

The term “Golden Mile” has been used to describe the Upper West Side for more than ten years. The term is found in articles about art galleries and restaurants in newspaper reviews, it is found in marketing materials produced by real estate agencies, it is described in neighborhood walking tour descriptions, it is referred to in news stories print, electronic, radio, television, and it is a common notion mentioned by locals.

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manhattan mark
manhattan mark
6 years ago
Reply to  Jean-Paul

Whether it’s “golden” or not, WEA is two miles and seven blocks long

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dannyboy
dannyboy
6 years ago
Reply to  manhattan mark

one mile is Golden

gotta have that class distiction, ya know

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manhattan mark
manhattan mark
6 years ago
Reply to  dannyboy

If only one mile is “Golden” than another might be “platinum”and the seven other blocks are probably
“Copper”. These sections are not contiguous , so go building
by building to find out which metallic arc you are in!

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stevieboy
stevieboy
6 years ago
Reply to  dannyboy

Yeah, your neighborhood is more like bronze…but it used to be great for buying weed in the 80s.

Those guys still hanging out on 95th between WE and Riverside?? This was Koch era so…a long time ago. Nobody buys their weed on the streets these days I guess. They probably just 3D print it from the internet or something.

Hey, I’m just asking the important questions. Not all of us can afford to winter in the tropics, ya know.

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Sean
Sean
6 years ago
Reply to  dannyboy

Is the other brass then?

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Sean
Sean
6 years ago
Reply to  Jean-Paul

But is is Donald Trump golden?

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Reply
dannyboy
dannyboy
6 years ago
Reply to  Jean-Paul

is King Midas local

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Hale Alpern
Hale Alpern
6 years ago

Each man’s chimney is his Golden Mile-Stone;
Is the central point, from which he measures
Every distance
Through the gateways of the world around him.

Henry Wordworth Longfellow

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Sally F
Sally F
6 years ago

Fun & lovely photos!

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Reply
Penelope
Penelope
6 years ago

Do we have to get competitive even on Christmas trees — which building (all expensive) has the biggest tree, the most decoration, the brightest lights? Has Christmas and the holiday season come to such a high level of commercialism?

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RK
RK
6 years ago
Reply to  Penelope

Ummm… yes?

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June Quarfordt
June Quarfordt
6 years ago

Thanks for spreading the JOY !
Wonderful walk down WEA!

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Lulu
Lulu
6 years ago

Wonderful! Thank you for that glimpse into other lobbies!

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Terry Rosen
Terry Rosen
6 years ago

Mildred–Great photosurvey! Love these images. Thank you!

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Mark
Mark
6 years ago

Today we are experiencing golden showers on the Golden Mile.

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Jane Rosamilia
Jane Rosamilia
6 years ago

Beautiful!! Thank you so much!

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Reply
Tom
Tom
6 years ago

Great pics! You guys are great!

0
Reply

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