Friday, June 14, 2002
NYU and the Poe House defenders have reached an agreement
LOOKING AHEAD by Wally Dobelis
As the most recent in the New York university's unending lineup of
dormitories nears occupancy, the last of three in the 14th Street -
3rd Avenue quadrant, one has to ask whether there are limits to a
school's growth? Is a university like a manufacturer of a patented
product, toothpaste or razor blades, who can open a factory anyplace and
produce, pack and ship uniform quality product as long as there is demand?
NYU certainly seems to have an unlimited capacity to expand. Founded in 1831, its early emphasis turned to religious training. Real secularization and modernity came with the chancellorship of Henry M. McCracken, 1891-1911, who built the
undergraduate school campus designed by Stanford White in University
Heights, as well as the NYU's graduate, law and medicine schools. The
schools grew tremendously. To improve academic standards and make NYU a
leading research institution, University Heights was closed and sold to
NYC in 1973. It is now the CUNY Bronx Community College.
Presently NYU has some 50,000 students, 1,500 professors and 300
laboratories. The question of academic standard is no longer raised. To
quote Thomas Bender, an NYU historian (NY Times, April 19, 2001),"If
anything stops NYU it will be space."
Greenwich Village people view NYU as the enemy. Although the
intellectual atmosphere is exciting and stimulating, the school expansion
is choking the residential community. This is happening throughout New York.
NYU now admits to 60-odd buildings, Houston to 14th Streets, with 9.3
million square feet, up 50 percent since 1970. That's not including the 27
buildings comprising the NYU Medical Center between 34th and 23rd Streets
(I can count several more).
Current construction at NYU focuses on the South side of Washington Square
There will be the new 12-level $70 million Student Center, west of the
red-brick Bobst Library .Dr L. Jay Oliva, the president of NYU, views the
Student Center as an improvement. The community disagrees, and an opposition group, the
Committee To Save Washington Square, sued NYU, and lost. The appeal was
turned down, and construction has begun.
A further expansion, that of the NYU Law School, west of the Center, involved the
destruction of several historic buildings. The most important was the
former residence of Edgar Alan Poe, a town house where the peripatetic
poet lived part of his most productive period, late 1845- early 1846,
rewriting "The Raven" and composing "A Cask of Amontillado" and other
stories and essays. The house at 85 Amity (now 3rd) Street was built by
Judge Judah Hammond in 1836. The short-lived writer (1809-49), who had
stayed at a farmhouse on West 84th Street, brought along his young wife
Virginia, sick with tuberculosis, hoping that the easier town house
existence and the backyard garden would make life more bearable. He was
making some money,"The Raven" had been published in two journals (my copy,
in the Feb 1845 American Review was signed by -Quarles, with some admiring
editorial comments) and he was in the process of acquiring a literary
magazine, the Broadway Journal. Alas, it folded, the little money they had
was dissipating, and the small family (it included Poe's devoted
mother-in-law, Mrs Maria Clemm) had to move to a cheap cottage in
Fordham, 13 miles north. They could not afford wood for the stove, rested
at night under an army coat from Poe's days at West Point, and Virginia
depended for warmth on her tortoise-shell cat that slept at her bosom. The
poor woman died and Poe really went to pieces. Nearly insanely depressed,
at thirty-eight, he sought out women companions who would mother him.
Plagued by hallucinations, he fled to Baltimore, attempted suicide, became
a vagrant, and died, at the age of forty.
Several cities have recognized Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a true literary
genius, who moved from town to town in his frantic newspaperman career.
Baltimore honors him, New York has landmarked the sad cottage where
Virginia died, West Point has named a gate after him, although he lasted
at the military academy less than a year. Only NYU has attempted to
downgrade Poe's stay in their precincts.
After community protests, letters by such supporters as E .L. Doctorow and
Woody Allen and a failed lawsuit, the Save Poe/Save Judson Coalition led
by the Historic Districts Council reached a compromise with NYU, in
January 2001. The front of the Poe cottage will be preserved in the
facade of the new Law School building, a room will be dedicated and made
available for Poe-oriented activities, and the building's height will be
limited to 10 stories.
If you want to visit the site, go to West 3rd Street, between Thomson and
Sullivan and stand in front of the Fire Patrol #2 station (the famous
haunted firehouse, where a fireman suicided in the 1920s, after finding
out about his wife's infidelity). The right half of the red wooden fence
across the street is where the cottage was, the blue fencing eastward
encloses the sites of the three Judson houses, residences once renovated
by Stanford White, New York's great architect of yore. An affable fireman,
who thinks this post is the best girl- watching spot in NYC - lots of
Village cuties wearing low cut-down jeans that expose bare midriffs and
tattoos (a spider over the coccyx is the baddest) - observed the
demolition. He holds out little hope that the reconstruction of the facade
of the cottage will use the original materials, since everything went into
a dumpster. I have been told that some parts of the interior have been
saved.
It is most appropriate that in this, the dumpster era, the Historic
Districts Council has spearheaded a group of 60-odd preservationist
organizations in proposing strengthened preservation of historic buildings
through zoning, tax incentives and better funding of the Landmarks
Preservation Commission. Heads up, dear elected officials.
As the most recent in the New York university's unending lineup of
dormitories nears occupancy, the last of three in the 14th Street -
3rd Avenue quadrant, one has to ask whether there are limits to a
school's growth? Is a university like a manufacturer of a patented
product, toothpaste or razor blades, who can open a factory anyplace and
produce, pack and ship uniform quality product as long as there is demand?
NYU certainly seems to have an unlimited capacity to expand. Founded in 1831, its early emphasis turned to religious training. Real secularization and modernity came with the chancellorship of Henry M. McCracken, 1891-1911, who built the
undergraduate school campus designed by Stanford White in University
Heights, as well as the NYU's graduate, law and medicine schools. The
schools grew tremendously. To improve academic standards and make NYU a
leading research institution, University Heights was closed and sold to
NYC in 1973. It is now the CUNY Bronx Community College.
Presently NYU has some 50,000 students, 1,500 professors and 300
laboratories. The question of academic standard is no longer raised. To
quote Thomas Bender, an NYU historian (NY Times, April 19, 2001),"If
anything stops NYU it will be space."
Greenwich Village people view NYU as the enemy. Although the
intellectual atmosphere is exciting and stimulating, the school expansion
is choking the residential community. This is happening throughout New York.
NYU now admits to 60-odd buildings, Houston to 14th Streets, with 9.3
million square feet, up 50 percent since 1970. That's not including the 27
buildings comprising the NYU Medical Center between 34th and 23rd Streets
(I can count several more).
Current construction at NYU focuses on the South side of Washington Square
There will be the new 12-level $70 million Student Center, west of the
red-brick Bobst Library .Dr L. Jay Oliva, the president of NYU, views the
Student Center as an improvement. The community disagrees, and an opposition group, the
Committee To Save Washington Square, sued NYU, and lost. The appeal was
turned down, and construction has begun.
A further expansion, that of the NYU Law School, west of the Center, involved the
destruction of several historic buildings. The most important was the
former residence of Edgar Alan Poe, a town house where the peripatetic
poet lived part of his most productive period, late 1845- early 1846,
rewriting "The Raven" and composing "A Cask of Amontillado" and other
stories and essays. The house at 85 Amity (now 3rd) Street was built by
Judge Judah Hammond in 1836. The short-lived writer (1809-49), who had
stayed at a farmhouse on West 84th Street, brought along his young wife
Virginia, sick with tuberculosis, hoping that the easier town house
existence and the backyard garden would make life more bearable. He was
making some money,"The Raven" had been published in two journals (my copy,
in the Feb 1845 American Review was signed by -Quarles, with some admiring
editorial comments) and he was in the process of acquiring a literary
magazine, the Broadway Journal. Alas, it folded, the little money they had
was dissipating, and the small family (it included Poe's devoted
mother-in-law, Mrs Maria Clemm) had to move to a cheap cottage in
Fordham, 13 miles north. They could not afford wood for the stove, rested
at night under an army coat from Poe's days at West Point, and Virginia
depended for warmth on her tortoise-shell cat that slept at her bosom. The
poor woman died and Poe really went to pieces. Nearly insanely depressed,
at thirty-eight, he sought out women companions who would mother him.
Plagued by hallucinations, he fled to Baltimore, attempted suicide, became
a vagrant, and died, at the age of forty.
Several cities have recognized Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49), a true literary
genius, who moved from town to town in his frantic newspaperman career.
Baltimore honors him, New York has landmarked the sad cottage where
Virginia died, West Point has named a gate after him, although he lasted
at the military academy less than a year. Only NYU has attempted to
downgrade Poe's stay in their precincts.
After community protests, letters by such supporters as E .L. Doctorow and
Woody Allen and a failed lawsuit, the Save Poe/Save Judson Coalition led
by the Historic Districts Council reached a compromise with NYU, in
January 2001. The front of the Poe cottage will be preserved in the
facade of the new Law School building, a room will be dedicated and made
available for Poe-oriented activities, and the building's height will be
limited to 10 stories.
If you want to visit the site, go to West 3rd Street, between Thomson and
Sullivan and stand in front of the Fire Patrol #2 station (the famous
haunted firehouse, where a fireman suicided in the 1920s, after finding
out about his wife's infidelity). The right half of the red wooden fence
across the street is where the cottage was, the blue fencing eastward
encloses the sites of the three Judson houses, residences once renovated
by Stanford White, New York's great architect of yore. An affable fireman,
who thinks this post is the best girl- watching spot in NYC - lots of
Village cuties wearing low cut-down jeans that expose bare midriffs and
tattoos (a spider over the coccyx is the baddest) - observed the
demolition. He holds out little hope that the reconstruction of the facade
of the cottage will use the original materials, since everything went into
a dumpster. I have been told that some parts of the interior have been
saved.
It is most appropriate that in this, the dumpster era, the Historic
Districts Council has spearheaded a group of 60-odd preservationist
organizations in proposing strengthened preservation of historic buildings
through zoning, tax incentives and better funding of the Landmarks
Preservation Commission. Heads up, dear elected officials.
# posted by Wally Dobelis @ 2:50 PM 
