Thursday, May 17, 2001
Preservationists worry about the beauties of Stuyvesant Park Historic District
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
Preservationists worry about the beauties of Stuyvesant Park Historic District
Stuyvesant Square Park in the Spring is a poem, a work of art, a painting by Maurice Prendergast. The trees are in bloom, the perfumes are heady, the purple tulips in the fountain have a special glow, as darkness sets.
The Park has been discovered by artists. Of a Friday morning there were three painters, by name of Charlie, Lyle and Georgina, sitting on the shady benches facing Peter Stuyvesant's statue and capturing the sun-dappled aspects of the structures on historic Rutherford Place. Lyle's was the more ambitious canvas, he covered the length of the park, onward from Friends, past St. George's Church and Chapel, with the former Parish House peeking from behind, all outlined in a grey underpainting. Someone will have a truly nice panoramic vista of the glories of our Historic District, worthy of a place of honor over any mantelpiece..
The St. George's Memorial House, formerly Parish House, at No. 203-207 East 16th Street was the reason for my trip to the park. The owner, a real estate operator, has filed an application for a renovation that has the local preservationists worried. On one hand, he wants to remove an eyesore, the metal ramp that disfigures the East end street level entrance to the 1888 Romanesque Revival style gabled and turreted building, and compensate for it by adding an adroitly concealed ADA-compliant lift at the West end entrance,. That part everyone applauds - the Historic Districts Council, the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association and Community Board No. Six (although the latter would like to hear of alternatives to the lift).
Other aspects of the renovation have the same parties protesting - aproposed architecturally inappropriate light fixture and a canopy over the door that would conceal historic elements of the entrance , and particularly, a rooftop addition that might not be visible from 16th Street but would certainly become apparent when viewed from the Beth Israel side of 2nd Avenue. Such a flat stucture would interfere with the romantic skyline of spires and gables. The charmed unity of rhythm that emerged in Lyle's vision of the parkside would be broken.
The landlord's proposal is currently under review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (its chair, Jennifer Raab, is leaving May 15, to become the President of Hunter College, replaced by a temporary appointee, Sherida Paulsen, an experienced member of the LPC).
The Memorial House has important history. In 1886 J.Pierrepont Morgan, vestryman and senior warden of St. George's Church, accquired the land for it from Rutherford Stuyvesant, grand nephew of the great civic benefactor Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, second-wealthiest New Yorker of the time (after J.J.Astor), who gave the land for 10th through 22nd Streets to NYC in 1828, eight years later adding the acreage for the Stuyvesant Square park to the donation. He also gave the land for St. George's Church in 1846. All this bounty stemmed from the family inheritance of Peter Stuyvesant's "bouwerie." Old Silvernails, the greeat-great-grandfather of PGS, in 1651 bought the farmland from his employer, the Dutch West Indies Company, and kept adding more pasturage to it until he owned most of Manhattan’s East Side from 6th to 21st Streets
Although Morgan is best remembered for his palatial Murray Hill residence, now the Morgan Library at 219 Madison Avenue, he had deep ties to our area. The great romance of his life, Amelia Sturges, who lived with her artistic family on East 14th Street, died of tuberculosis in 1861, four months after their marriage. Although the Memorial House was named in remebrance of Charles and Louisa Kirkland Tracy, parents of his second wife, Frances or Fanny, mother of their four children, poor Mimi Sturges must have been much in his thsoughts. The Morgam memorials in the neighborhood, in addition to the Parish or Memorial house, which he built in 1888, include St George's Chapel (1911-12) and the Lying -In Hospital for poor immigrant women, a 22-story structure on the block between 17th and 18th Streets on 2nd Avenue. It is now the Rutherford House, a duplex rental apartment building.
Note that the Historic Districts Council, a party to the Landmarks Certificate of Appropriateness hearings affecting the Memorial House, is now located nearby, as one of the partners in the newly created Neighborhood Preservation Center. It is at 232 East 11th Street, in the St. Mark's Rectory (designed by Ernest Flagg, 1900). The Center is a project of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund, steward of the restoration and maintenance of the St. Mark's Church in the Bowery complex (the remains of Peter Stuyvesant, Vice President of the US Daniel Tompkins and Nicholas Fish of Revolutionary War fame lie in its vaults). Another partner in the Center is the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, a leader in protecting the structural heritage of the Village.
The Neighborhood Preservation Center has a free landmarks-oriented library,as well as reference and computer services. Although funded by some foundation, city and state monies, it must charge for meeting space and printer and fax services that it makes available for qualified organizations. To visit, call Felicia Mayro, Project Director, 212/228-2781.
This column thanks Jack Taylor and Jon Schachter , and wishes happy landings to Bob Durkin, who has resigned as the principal of Washington Irving High School.
Preservationists worry about the beauties of Stuyvesant Park Historic District
Stuyvesant Square Park in the Spring is a poem, a work of art, a painting by Maurice Prendergast. The trees are in bloom, the perfumes are heady, the purple tulips in the fountain have a special glow, as darkness sets.
The Park has been discovered by artists. Of a Friday morning there were three painters, by name of Charlie, Lyle and Georgina, sitting on the shady benches facing Peter Stuyvesant's statue and capturing the sun-dappled aspects of the structures on historic Rutherford Place. Lyle's was the more ambitious canvas, he covered the length of the park, onward from Friends, past St. George's Church and Chapel, with the former Parish House peeking from behind, all outlined in a grey underpainting. Someone will have a truly nice panoramic vista of the glories of our Historic District, worthy of a place of honor over any mantelpiece..
The St. George's Memorial House, formerly Parish House, at No. 203-207 East 16th Street was the reason for my trip to the park. The owner, a real estate operator, has filed an application for a renovation that has the local preservationists worried. On one hand, he wants to remove an eyesore, the metal ramp that disfigures the East end street level entrance to the 1888 Romanesque Revival style gabled and turreted building, and compensate for it by adding an adroitly concealed ADA-compliant lift at the West end entrance,. That part everyone applauds - the Historic Districts Council, the Stuyvesant Park Neighborhood Association and Community Board No. Six (although the latter would like to hear of alternatives to the lift).
Other aspects of the renovation have the same parties protesting - aproposed architecturally inappropriate light fixture and a canopy over the door that would conceal historic elements of the entrance , and particularly, a rooftop addition that might not be visible from 16th Street but would certainly become apparent when viewed from the Beth Israel side of 2nd Avenue. Such a flat stucture would interfere with the romantic skyline of spires and gables. The charmed unity of rhythm that emerged in Lyle's vision of the parkside would be broken.
The landlord's proposal is currently under review by the Landmarks Preservation Commission (its chair, Jennifer Raab, is leaving May 15, to become the President of Hunter College, replaced by a temporary appointee, Sherida Paulsen, an experienced member of the LPC).
The Memorial House has important history. In 1886 J.Pierrepont Morgan, vestryman and senior warden of St. George's Church, accquired the land for it from Rutherford Stuyvesant, grand nephew of the great civic benefactor Peter Gerard Stuyvesant, second-wealthiest New Yorker of the time (after J.J.Astor), who gave the land for 10th through 22nd Streets to NYC in 1828, eight years later adding the acreage for the Stuyvesant Square park to the donation. He also gave the land for St. George's Church in 1846. All this bounty stemmed from the family inheritance of Peter Stuyvesant's "bouwerie." Old Silvernails, the greeat-great-grandfather of PGS, in 1651 bought the farmland from his employer, the Dutch West Indies Company, and kept adding more pasturage to it until he owned most of Manhattan’s East Side from 6th to 21st Streets
Although Morgan is best remembered for his palatial Murray Hill residence, now the Morgan Library at 219 Madison Avenue, he had deep ties to our area. The great romance of his life, Amelia Sturges, who lived with her artistic family on East 14th Street, died of tuberculosis in 1861, four months after their marriage. Although the Memorial House was named in remebrance of Charles and Louisa Kirkland Tracy, parents of his second wife, Frances or Fanny, mother of their four children, poor Mimi Sturges must have been much in his thsoughts. The Morgam memorials in the neighborhood, in addition to the Parish or Memorial house, which he built in 1888, include St George's Chapel (1911-12) and the Lying -In Hospital for poor immigrant women, a 22-story structure on the block between 17th and 18th Streets on 2nd Avenue. It is now the Rutherford House, a duplex rental apartment building.
Note that the Historic Districts Council, a party to the Landmarks Certificate of Appropriateness hearings affecting the Memorial House, is now located nearby, as one of the partners in the newly created Neighborhood Preservation Center. It is at 232 East 11th Street, in the St. Mark's Rectory (designed by Ernest Flagg, 1900). The Center is a project of the St. Mark's Historic Landmark Fund, steward of the restoration and maintenance of the St. Mark's Church in the Bowery complex (the remains of Peter Stuyvesant, Vice President of the US Daniel Tompkins and Nicholas Fish of Revolutionary War fame lie in its vaults). Another partner in the Center is the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, a leader in protecting the structural heritage of the Village.
The Neighborhood Preservation Center has a free landmarks-oriented library,as well as reference and computer services. Although funded by some foundation, city and state monies, it must charge for meeting space and printer and fax services that it makes available for qualified organizations. To visit, call Felicia Mayro, Project Director, 212/228-2781.
This column thanks Jack Taylor and Jon Schachter , and wishes happy landings to Bob Durkin, who has resigned as the principal of Washington Irving High School.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 3:27 PM 
