By Rob Garber for the Bloomingdale History Group
Welcome to the second installment in the Rag’s Historical Photo Challenge. The image above was taken somewhere on the Upper West Side, sometime in the past. Can you figure out where, when, and what it shows? Look closely; this week’s challenge photo, like the others in the series, includes clues that will help you identify the scene, if you’re a dedicated UWS history sleuth. And even if you don’t recognize the picture—not to worry! Come back in two weeks and I’ll decode it, show you the clues that help identify it, and—best of all—tell you a story the image unlocks, because this column isn’t just a test of your neighborhood knowledge; it’s also a rolling celebration of the people, buildings and events that wove the tapestry of the Upper West Side.
Ready? If you think you know where and when the photo was taken and what it shows, post your answer as a comment on this column.
Solution to Photo Challenge No. 1:
Subject: National Academy of Design Art School
Location: West 109th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
Year: 1940
Image Source: New York City Municipal Archives
Shoutout to readers James P, Jonathan Morrison, Elgin 93, Dave Cook, and Ira Finkelstein, who not only recognized the location but correctly identified Women’s Hospital and the NAD Art School. Hat tip to Mr. Morrison for seeing Gunther Toody in the stolid policeman.
Clues: The previous column’s mystery photo included a couple of hints that suggested its location. Part of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is visible across 110th Street, mostly hidden behind the Synod House. The Women’s Hospital on the far side of the art school was demolished in the 1950s, but its distinctive balconies can be recognized from historic photos of the neighborhood and might even be lodged in the long-term memory of our oldest UWSers, as might be the wry expression of the beat cop looking at the photographer.
The rest of the story: The National Academy of Design is one of the oldest continuously operating arts organizations in the country. It’s an honorary institution and includes education and public art shows in its mission. Currently based on Gramercy Park South, the academy had “temporary” quarters for nearly half a century at Amsterdam Avenue and 109th Street. Its peregrinations are a tale too convoluted to tell here, with financial and political twists, and two disastrous fires to boot. The plan for an impressive headquarters across Cathedral Parkway from St. John the Divine never came to fulfillment. However, the temporary building, relatively small but apparently designed by Carrère and Hastings, one of the most prominent architectural firms of the era, served several academy functions including housing its art school.
The distinctive shape of the building’s cross section shows that it had glass skylights for north light. Generations of artists trained there, including commercial artists and cartoonists as well as academically-minded painters and sculptors. Columbia University attempted to partner with the academy and incorporate the art school into its own arts department, but members of the academy objected, and the merger never happened. Nor did the plans for a grand edifice on the academy’s large property between 109th and 110th streets. The art school continued at its Amsterdam Avenue location until 1941, when a fire coincided with the donation of a building on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street by arts patron Archer Huntington, and the National Academy of Design departed from the Upper West Side for good.
…and that’s the story behind the Rag’s first mystery image. Scroll back to the top of the column and take on your next challenge, Sherlockians! If you’ve missed any weeks in this series, you can find the complete set at my author page. All photos used with permission.
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I’m going to say the 79th street boat basin.
Palisades Amusement Park, seen in the distance, was across from W 130th St according to this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palisades_Amusement_Park
So it’s around 135th St. The park closed in 1971 so it was before then, probably around WWII.
“Palisades Amusement Park swings all day and after dark. Ride the coaster it’s cool, in the waves in the pool. You’ll have fun, so come on oveerrrr!”. Wow. I guess I haven’t heard that jingle since 1971 but it came right back. Now if I could only find my keys. Sal Bando, (you were a good ballplayer). There is one car in the picture in the lower left and it is definitely earlier than the WW11 period.
I’m pretty sure they advertised in comic books or Mad Magazine.
“Skip the bother and skip the fuss(beep beep) take the Public Service Bus, Public Service sure is great , takes you right up to the gate”
Sunday, May 9, 1915. New York Hails Atlantic Fleet– As reported in the NY Times.
A review of ships for President Woodrow Wilson
“Riverside Drive was crowded yesterday morning an hour before the battleship Louisiana hove into view in the in the van of the column of incoming battle-ships. From Seventy-ninth Street, just north of which the flagship Wyoming was to anchor, up to 186th street, off which the little submarines are neither close to their mother ships… … By 11 o’clock all the ships were swinging at anchor, the column stretching from Eighty-second Street in a straight line north to Fort Washington Point… … The Police estimated that more than 100,000 people were on Riverside Drive south of Grant’s Tomb…”
The photo scene is the monitor USS Tonopah, built in 1903 (as the Nevada) and scrapped in 1922. As well as a number of Submarines.
It is docked somewhere, uptown– Possibly near Grant’s Tomb, or possibly Fort Washington Point as mentioned– Which would have been at what is now the anchorage of the George Washington Bridge.
Thanks for this info! I was going to say right about where Riverbank State Park is now (based on location relative to Palisades Park) and sometime around WWI based on the car in the shot. THat jibes with the info you’ve provided.
There was no pier there in the 1980s that I can recall, as I could have seen it from my apartment windows.
Great call & research. I had noted Palisades Park, the age of the cars, and the numerous little submarines. Way too early for WW II! I’d never have guessed that the main vessel was a battleship!
Not a full battleship or dreadnought but a monitor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitor_(warship)
This one, built in 1903 was called The Nevada, until it was changed when the name Nevada was used for a then newly minted battleship. (I believe)
Sal Bando was first to note the Palisades Amusement Park sign on the other side of the Hudson helping to locate this around W 130 St. — likely just south of where Riverbank State Park is presently located. (Is this the UWS?)
Elgin93 putting the date in the spring of 2015 would certainly be corroborated by the wardrobe of the spectators and the automobile visible in the photo.
130th Street is pretty far south of the park at 145th Street, and the ferry to the Palisades is from 130th, which is probably one block north of 125th, which veers northwest near the Hudson.
Sal Bando was also a great baseball player but I believe this is a different Sal Bando since the ball player passed in 23′
I’m honoring his memory.
Hudson River waterfront, about 68th Street, during US involvement in World War II, 1941-45
What happened to the Art School?
I assume this is it: https://nationalacademy.org/the-academy
For a while it was in a 5th Ave. building across 89th Street from the Guggenheim.
125th street and the Hudson River. My parents told me there was a ferry station there in the 30’s. I can see the sign for Palisades Amusement Park on the other side of the river, which I recall as a child.
Is it the pier where the Marine Transfer Station was built in 1955?
My guess is that the photo was taken during fleet week sometime between 1908 & 1910, the year that Palisades Amusement Park’s name was changed (the name was later changed back). Based on the sign I would have placed the location around 135th Street but that is 25 blocks outside the UWS.
For the younger generation, the citation of Gunther Toody was an in- joke worthy of Gary, Keith and Ron. Gunther Toody was a character in the early ’60’s TV series Car 54, Where Are You?, played by Joe E. Ross. His partner was a pre-Munsters, Fred Gwynne, who, despite the disadvantage of being a Harvard graduate, had a long acting career.
Ross was known in the show for his catch line “Oooh Oooh.” See youtube link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqqx2wgH0yY
And who can forget the famous theme song:
There’s a holdup in the Bronx,
Brooklyn’s broken out in fights;
There’s a traffic jam in Harlem
That’s backed up to Jackson Heights;
There’s a Scout troop short a child,
Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild;
Car 54, Where Are You?
Photograph shows US submarines moored at the 135th street pier on the Upper West Side of New York City as part of the Presidential review of the Atlantic Fleet. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2012)
Contributor: Bain News Service
Date: 1915-01-01
Maybe Pier 1 by 70th st
The picture is from some elevated area, there’s the riverside viaduct that was built 1900s affording a raise platform. I’m thinking this is the Harlem/Edgewater ferry terminal at 125th (130th). The style of car isn’t mid century, the gun boats signal war, I’d say some time in the 1910s, 1920s at the latest.
I think the cat is well out of the bag that this is 135th street at the pier (in 1915), but my question is: how is this considered the Upper West Side?! Location oddity aside, love the new series!
It’s the north end. If Hamilton Heights begins at 135th Street, then that must be the end of the UWS if you’re going to distinguish, unless Manhattan Valley is completely separate, which I wouldn’t say it is unless you say Morningside Heights is also separate. I lived on 149th Street and called it the Upper Upper West Side.
Yes, the Palisades Amusement Park sign was the big clue here. Then the Edgewater ferry terminal can be made out as well, so the location is somewhere north of there, possibly where the State Park/Treatment Plant are today.
The date was a bit harder, the car and the dress of the visitors was surely pre WWII, but the boats looks strange. A little searching however brought up a site called PigBoats.com. It had a cropped section of the same picture showing only the 3 right submarines with this squib: ” USS D-2, D-1 & D-3 shown on May 10, 1915 on the upper westside of New York city moored at the 135th Street piers as part of the Presidential Review for President Wilson with the Atlantic Fleet. Moored to the left, out of the(cropped) photo image, are the USS E-2 and E-1 and all are moored to the tender USS Tonopah (Monitor #8).”
A nice search,– and now after reading the previous posts, remember the Upper West Side is a state of mind, not simply geography.
The warship is USS Tonopah (M-8), one of four Arkansas-class monitors, the last monitors built for the US Navy. Commissioned in 1903 as USS Nevada, she was renamed Tonopah in 1909 in order to free up the name Nevada for use on a new dreadnought battleship.
This photo was taken on 10 May 1915 at the 135th Street Pier in New York City and the occasion was a review by President Woodrow Wilson.
Looks like an Arkansas class monitor acting as tender to a group of K-class submarines probably during ww1 as most of the Arkansas class were scrapped soon after. I’d say the docks around 65th St near the old rail yards
Hi, pretty sure that’s the 125th Street Ferry Station to the left, so it’s around where the Baylander is now….
I’d say a North River pier at 125 Street. A monitor and submarines, some with conning tower canopies.
West Harlem Piers at W 130 st. You can see the Jack Frost Sugar Factory in Jersey. Looks like WWI submarines to me?
President Woodrow Wilson attended a naval inspection at 125 St in 1915. Present are the US Monitor class ship renamed the Tonopah and repurposed as a submarine tender along with submarines on both sides.
135th Street Pier during WWI. USS Nevada and submarines.
DJ here! It’s the intrepid museum ain’t it?
The sign for Palisades Amusement Park is a clue. Sadly, I saw that sign many times but never got to go there. This seems related: https://baylander.nyc/. I never saw this pier, but it is obviously quite old, as this must be from WWII or earlier.