By Jim Mackin
New Yorkers have a love affair with buildings. The quintessential New York experience is walking down a street and being captivated by the façade on an old building. Whether a monumental government building, tenement, or brownstone, our eyes are drawn to the details and our imaginations take us to another time. The question passes our mind—who lived there? The answer is hard to find and we are left wishing someone could tell us.
You would think there would be hundreds and hundreds of plaques honoring the notable people who lived in New York City, but there are less than 200. The vast majority of the plaques are in Manhattan and most are for men, few for women and people of color. Humphrey Bogart, John Dewey, Cecil B. DeMille, and former New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchell, all have plaques on the Upper West Side. Maya Angelou, Woody Guthrie, Barack Obama, and Billie Holliday do not. Their homes and the time they lived in the neighborhood are unrecognized.
Part of the reason for the lack of plaques is that there is no government agency or commission responsible for determining who should be acknowledged and where plaques should be placed, and, not surprisingly, there are no funds available for their creation and installation. That leaves the responsibility with building owners, historians, and dedicated followers to decide. All too often, it is the cost of a plaque that stops the process dead in its tracks. No matter that high-quality plaques can be created for a few hundred dollars, there are few willing to take on this expense.
New Yorkers and visitors are missing out on so much. They can see the concrete and steel of the buildings of the city but the human element is lost. It’s time to “connect” those buildings with the remarkable people who lived in them; it’s time to place a plaque in their honor.
Historian Jim Mackin has researched the Bloomingdale and Morningside Heights neighborhoods, which run from the West 90s to the West 120s. In his book, Notable New Yorkers of Manhattan’s Upper West Side: Bloomingdale – Morningside Heights, he takes the reader on a block-by-block, building-by-building tour, providing fascinating details about 591 of the area’s past residents. The book provides bios of these notables—the famous and infamous, the unacknowledged and well-known—many of whom Jim has identified as “plaque-worthy.”
I think these plaques are interesting because you can look at who used to live in these buildings and compare it to who can afford to live in them now and it’s shocking how unaffordable we have let the neighborhood become. No full time jazz musician is living on Central Park West today unless they were born with a substantial trust fund. The Upper West Side has chosen to preserve its buildings and physical history over its people and cultural history as a diverse neighborhood. We need to build homes at the rates we used to in the 1920s through the 1950s to bring back affordability and diversity.
“We need to build homes at the rates we used to in the 1920s through the 1950s…”
And we’ll be putting these new homes where, exactly?
If you’ve ever strolled through our neighborhood, you’re surely aware that there are not acres of undeveloped land to build on.
No plaque, no problem.
Otherwise, who will regulate plaque removal- when, inevitably, something in a person’s past is found to violate the finely-tuned sensitivities of the future woke police du jour?
I can’t imagine Bogart wasn’t promiscuous in his prime, and Obama smoked at one point. Only perfect people deserve plaques and monuments, no?
Exactly. NYC just removed a very large plaque, also known as a statue, to one of the most famous NYers ever – Teddy Roosevelt. Any plaque honoring someone from more than 20 years ago would be removed today for being offensive
Who are some of these people who comment here? They don’t seem to me the folks I know on the UWS (and I’ve lived here for fifty years).
RE: DLW102 says:
March 29, 2022 at 10:41 pm
Who are some of these people who comment here? They don’t seem to me the folks I know on the UWS (and I’ve lived here for fifty years).
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COMPLETELY AGREE!!!!
This charming little hand-made map from the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group shows where prominent people have lived between W. 95th St. to Duke Ellington Boulevard and beyond.
It is not at all race-based, but all inclusive.
Enjoy, and God bless us.
https://bloomngdalehistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/bloomingdaleselfguidedtourmap.jpg
Great idea! We could have a Nominating Committee to determine who is worthy of a plaque, and a Design Committee, which specifies the appearance of the plaues — for example, the more famous the person; the bigger the plaque, which fonts are acceptable (no comic sans!) and a Fitness Review Committee to ensure that celebrities recently discredited are de-plaqued.
And so on and so on. So much to do!
You jest?
Certainly many wealthy ppl of color and wealthy females with means to make this happen—Melinda Gates, Laurene Jobs, Jay z, Beyoncé, Oprah, Obama etc etc—if it was a priority for them they certainly have had the money to do it—I’m sure they could do as many as they want with no resistance in NYC—what are they waiting for?
Our building, 60 Riverside Drive, has a plaque for the great Arthur Mitchell.
This is a little too cornball, a little too small town for me.
There’s nothing “cornball” about honoring and remembering somebody, and his or her life and achievements.
You should visit London. Lots of plaques.
John Tauranac’s Street Atlas Manhattan Block by Block has lots of info on this. It includes Stanton House on West 94th which does have a plaque indicating that Elizabeth Cady Stanton lived at this site (but not in the building that is there now).
We found out about six years ago in a new biography that James Dean shacked up with a dancer in our building in the early 50’s before his fame. Kind of cool to think, hey, maybe he lived in our apartment.
In the 1980s A lot of plaques were stolen for the bronze.
I always enjoy walking past the Rachmaninoff building on West End. I wonder if you could hear him playing back in the day.
Harry Houdini lived on the top floor of the building that now houses the Soujourn Restaurant at 244 E 79th Street. It was there that a seance took place a few years ago at which Houdini admirer and magician Dorothy Dietrich attempted to lure his spirit back to his former abode. A plaque affixed to that building would be of cultural and educational value and just plain fun.
Either this plaque should be removed or the pipe on it should be ground off. Smoking tobacco is harmful to people, especially children and should not be glorified on historical markers.
@Steve M, if you haven’t noticed, children are now vaping. They’re not smoking cigarettes let alone a pipe.
If you’re concerned about children, tell your US Senators or Congress Member to close the loophole on synthetic nicotine and the remaining flavored e-cigarettes.
What next, take away FDR’s cigarette?
Three of the greatest drummers of all time lived at that building at 101st. Also, 2 of the greatest lyricists. Did they hang out together? Were there dinner parties? Did they shop at the associated??? These are my questions!
I think West 83rd St. between WE Ave and Riverside Drive should be named Babe Ruth Run as he lived for a time at 110 Riverside Drive at the corner of 83rd St. I can sculpt the plaque with his portrait for the building.
Jim’s book is fantastic for anyone who knows the area between W96th and W110th Streets.
I took the first 50 or so names from the book and put them on Google Maps. Five categories: Judiciary, Musicians, Activists, Politicians, Show Business.
https://fuertebrazos.github.io/gmap/
Yeah, I know it’s buggy and the projection is off. Nobody lives in the Hudson River. Want to help?
Several buildings on the UWS would need plaques like the one at Central Park View. The Dakota would need one (Lauren Bacall, Leonard Bernstein, Roberta Flack, Judy Garland, Boris Karloff, John Lennon, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, John Madden, Joe Namath, Rudolph Nureyev, Rosie O’Donnell, Jack Palance, Gilda Radner, and Rex Reed. And that’s just for starters). The Ansonia would include Babe Ruth, Enrico Caruso, florenz Ziegfeld, Arturo Toscanini, and Tony Curtis, just for starters. The Apthorp would include Douglas Fairbanks, Nora Ephron, George Balanchine, Al Pacino, Conan O’Brien, Cyndi Lauper, Jennifer Hudson and Lena Horne, among others. There are also such lists for the Beresford (Jerry Seinfeld, Glenn Close, John McEnroe, Mike Nichols, Laura Nyro, Tony Randall, Diana Ross, Isaac Stern et al), the San Remo (Barry Manilow, Stephen Sondheim, Tiger Woods, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Mary Tyler Moore, Rita Hayworth et al), and the Eldorado (Alec Baldwin, Faye Dunaway, Moby, Bono, Carrie Fisher, Michael J. Fox et al).
But plaques are not the only way NYC honors its illustrious residents. There are also dozens of street signs. On the UWS alone, we have street signs honoring Edgar Allan Poe, Humphrey Bogart, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Norman Rockwell, George Carlin, and Elie Wiesel. And there are dozens of others in the other boroughs.
NYC probably does more to honor its “famous” than any other city in the U.S., and maybe even the world.
Jim Mackin is a NYC treasure!
Many, many thanks Jim, for your indefatigable efforts apprising us of the vital (sometimes arcane), history of NYC’s vibrant Bloomingdale / Morningside Heights neighborhoods.
With appreciation from Marie Taylor.
Many, many thanks, Jim. for your indefatigable, ongoing efforts to keep us informed about our sensational neighborhood. You are a NYC treasure!
There is a plaque commemorating Rachmaninov at 84th Street and West end avenue. And George Gershwin lived on 103rd Street between West end avenue and Riverside drive.