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Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Corlears Hook Park

I first glimpsed Corlears Hook Park from the water. Specifically, from the NYC Ferry, whose new Lower East Side route stops at a new dock at Corlears Hook, just up the East River from the busy Wall Street terminal. What's that green space? I wondered.

Once again, I'd been mistaken about having visited every park in Manhattan.

Corlears Hook Park gets its name from the old Dutch van Corlear family (alternately spelled Corlaer or Curler). Prominent among them was New Amsterdam schoolmaster Jacob Van Corlaer, but his is an interesting family altogether.

Jacob's relative Anthony Van Corlaer was mythologized by Washington Irving as Anthony the Trumpeter. This bulbous-nosed musician is said to have ridden up Manhattan in 1642, Paul Revere-like, warning the Dutch settlements of a seemingly imminent English attack. The legend of his death by shark (or giant fish, or more likely drowning) is reputed to be the origin of the name Spuyten Duyvil.

Arent van Curler, the founder of Schenectady, was another relation.

corlears hook park manhattan nycThe "Hook" in "Corlears Hook" refers to a sharp bend in the shoreline you can see clearly in this image of the coast before landfill bloated it into its current more rounded shape.

When George Washington led the Continental Army from Brooklyn to Manhattan under cover of night in 1776, their boats put in where Corlears Hook Park is today. Presumably it was a known handy spot for that; the Parks Department website describes it as "[o]riginally marshland that was used by the Lenape tribe to land their canoes."

Today it's the NYC Ferry that pulls in, to a spanking new dock.

corlears hook park nyc ferry manhattan nyc

Meanwhile tugboats motor by, with or without barges, and jet-skiers zip past. (If Anthony the Trumpeter had had one of those, he might not have needed his trumpet; the noise alone would have alerted the colonists.)

corlears hook park tugboat barge manhattan nyc
corlears hook park tugboat barge manhattan nyc
corlears hook park jet ski manhattan nyc

If you're not traveling by water, though, and you don't live in the neighborhood, getting to Corlears Hook Park takes some effort, as it's a bit of a walk from the East Broadway stop on the F. And when you do arrive, you may be disappointed at first. The old part of the park, west of the FDR Drive, is a bit bedraggled.

corlears hook park manhattan nyc
corlears hook park manhattan nyc

There's evidence of care, though, in the cut grass and pretty plantings.

corlears hook park manhattan nyc
corlears hook park manhattan nyc

This part of the park dates to the turn of the 20th century. The city had acquired the land in 1893 to create open space to serve the neighborhood's ever-increasing immigrant population. When finished, it was purportedly quite a handsome park. When the FDR drive was built and the shoreline further developed through the WPA in the 1930s, the park lost some of its acreage, but Robert Moses added park space on the landfill across the highway, resulting in the two-part Corlears Hook Park you'll find today.

Cross a footbridge into the newer part of the park, give a nod to the stone eagles, and observe the bandshell before you.

corlears hook park manhattan nyc
corlears hook park bandshell manhattan nyc

The day we visited, a small dance party was underway, an NYC Ferry zipped towards the dock, and of course, a quartet of Millennials was doing a video shoot.

corlears hook park bandshell manhattan nyc
corlears hook park nyc ferry manhattan nyc
corlears hook park manhattan nyc

But this great "hidden" stretch of waterfront is a beautiful place to just relax too.

corlears hook park manhattan nyc

Corlears Hook Park is part of a string of parkland that runs along the riverfront. I spotted a skater rolling up out of Corlears straight into East River Park. (Maybe there's a time warp thing going on here, too; you don't see in-line skates much anymore.)

corlears hook park manhattan nyc

Somewhere around the transition point between the parks is the East River Park Fire Boat House, a picturesque landmark that now, courtesy of the Lower East Side Ecology Center, which works out of the building, has a "green roof," a bed of plant life atop the structure. (I take this on faith. You can't see the roof from the ground. It's a roof.)

corlears hook park east river park fire boat house manhattan nyc

To cap off a visit to Corlears Hook, take in the view of the Williamsburg Bridge, unspoiled by intrusive glass towers like the horrible one that has wrecked the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn Bridge Park.

williamsburg bridge nyc

And for an actual fireboat, cross to the other side of the island, roll uptown, and visit the John J. Harvey at Hudson River Park.

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

Thursday, October 11, 2018

Henry Hudson Park and Half Moon Overlook

Henry Hudson sailed up the river that came to bear his name in 1609. Nearly 200 years later, in 1807, Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the Clermont, made its maiden voyage up the Hudson River, then still called the North River. (The Dutch colonists had dubbed it the "North" to distinguish it from the Delaware, which they called the South River.)

A century after that, planners conceived a monument to the explorer to mark the 300th anniversary of Hudson's voyage and the 100th of the steamboat. There was no Henry Hudson Park at the time, but in 1909 builders broke ground on donated land in the Bronx's Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood and erected in 1912 the 100-foot Doric column that stands in today's park.

henry hudson memorial monument henry hudson park bronx nyc

The idea was that a 100-foot monument on a 200-foot bluff would numerically as well as symbolically signify both of the historic anniversaries marked by the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.

The site dedication announcement included this wonderfully phrased explanation for the choice of location:

It was within view of the location of the monument that the historical conflict for the possession of the lands which now embrace the second largest City on earth, between the Indians and the white men took place, and it was here also that General Washington caused the erection of Fort No. 1, for the defense of the Hudson.

It is, therefore, quite meet and appropriate that this spot was selected as the location of the proposed monument to the memory of the first explorer of the River bearing his name.

But the funding boat ran aground, and the column stood bare until the 1930s. Finally, flush with federal money, Robert Moses completed the nearby Henry Hudson Parkway and the Henry Hudson Bridge linking Manhattan and the Bronx; acquired the land for the Parks Department, and landscaped the park; and enlisted Karl H. Gruppe, then chief sculptor of the Parks Department's Monument Restoration Project, to complete a statue of Hudson to top the pillar, and create two bas-reliefs for the base. The monument was dedicated in 1938.

henry hudson memorial monument henry hudson park bronx nyc
henry hudson memorial monument henry hudson park bronx nyc

Like the statue of Christopher Columbus in Times Square, the Henry Hudson Monument has attracted controversy in line with challenges to memorials of Confederate heroes in the South. The object of complaint has not been the statue atop the pillar, but one of the two bas-reliefs at the base.

On one side is this harmless image:

henry hudson memorial monument henry hudson park bronx nyc

But walk around to the back and you'll find a mystifying depiction of three native Americans including one kneeling before Hudson and presenting him with gifts. It's understandable that this might offend, leaving aside the fact that history doesn't record any such encounter. (Little is known of Hudson's interactions with the local Lenape.)

henry hudson memorial monument henry hudson park bronx nyc

One Bronx activist told the Riverdale Press in 2017, "For a person like me who does work on racial justice issues…it is a jarring image."

The rest of the park is pretty but unassuming. Part of the monument plaza is undergoing some work, but the rest is nicely planted.

henry hudson park bronx nyc

Curved walkways arc through the grass and trees.

henry hudson park bronx nyc
henry hudson park bronx nyc

A picturesque stone shed in one corner looks abandoned, but you never know.

henry hudson park bronx nyc

The street-edges (the park is bisected by Kappock St.) expose impressive rock cross-sections.

henry hudson park bronx nyc

Across Kappock in the other half of the park there's no monument – and evidently no keeper either.

henry hudson park bronx nyc

No matter – it's a nice spot for recreation, both passive and active.

henry hudson park bronx nyc
henry hudson park bronx nyc

And on a sunny weekday afternoon in early fall, there's plenty of nobody, if that suits you.

henry hudson park bronx nyc

I think there's a view of the Hudson River through these trees – or there will be when the branches are bare:

henry hudson park bronx nyc

But for a prime panorama, stop off at Half Moon Overlook just west of the park. The Henry Hudson theme persists in the name of this tiny half-moon-shaped balcony park off Palisade Ave., named for Hudson's ship, the Halve Maen (Half Moon).

half-moon overlook bronx nyc park

It offers a nice view of the river, along with a satisfying feeling of having discovered a New York City secret.

half-moon overlook bronx nyc park
half-moon overlook bronx nyc park
half-moon overlook bronx nyc park

A blogger who explored the West Bronx back in 2007 just before leaving New York wrote in a post about the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood that from Half Moon Overlook "you can scramble down a steep path that doesn't look like an official walkway. You pass old building foundations and cement pillars covered in graffiti. Once you get to the bottom, there is an open passage to the train tracks."

Next time I'm in the neighborhood I mean to investigate whether that's still the case. Maybe the path in question leads to Spuyten Duyvil Shorefront Park, which seemed to be closed for development when I tried to get to it, but appeared open (if troubled) in a Riverdale Press article from May 2018, just a few months ago. I never stop marveling at the never-ending scope of New York City's parks.

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

Friday, October 5, 2018

Willy's Garden

Willy's Memorial Garden, just north of Washington Square Park at One-Half Fifth Avenue (the actual address), is an exuberantly planted alley-like courtyard that I've walked by hundreds of times on the way to and from Washington Square Park.

Yet I've never really noticed it. Maybe the gate's usually closed?

willy's memorial garden nyu manhattan nyc

Landscaped by NYU, the 8,000-square-foot garden with its native inkberry functions as the entrance to the university's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and some faculty residences. But the garden extends its welcoming, flowery arms even to passersby who have no business there – when the gates are open, anyway.

According to the Local Ecologist website: "The garden was planted in zones: woodland, flowering meow, berry patch, and Three Sisters," all species "collected by the Lenape peoples," the original inhabitants of today's Big Apple.

Beckoning to the explorer from the far end is a figure who, on close approach, turns out to be Miguel de Cervantes.

willy's memorial garden nyu manhattan nyc

The statue is a replica of an 1835 work by Spanish neoclassical sculptor Antonio Solá. The original remains in Madrid; La Paz and Beijing also have replicas. The Mayor of Madrid presented the statue to New York City in 1986. It stood for a few years in Bryant Park. Then, deeming it too delicate for Washington Square, the city donated it to NYU. Here it has stood since 1989.

The one thing I haven't been able to glean from an internet search is who Willy was. After whom did NYU name this peaceful space? Please leave a comment if you know the answer!

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Narrows Botanical Gardens

The Narrows Botanical Gardens lie amid the strip of parkland just south of the Bay Ridge Pier in Brooklyn – the northern tip of Shore Park, really. It's a small wonderland I learned about recently from a Roger Clark NY1 TV report – but it's been here since 1995.

We were visiting the neighborhood a few weekends ago via the NYC Ferry. (Bay Ridge Pier is the last stop on the South Brooklyn Route). Stopping by, we found the Gardens closed. But as this is a pretty narrow space, it's easy to see inside.

narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc
narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc
narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc

The Narrows Botanical Gardens website lists events like movie nights, a springtime planting event, and in the fall a Harvest Festival and Canine Costume Contest. Bees and butterflies buzzing and flitting were the only activity when we visited.

narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc
narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc
narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc
narrows botanical gardens bay ridge brooklyn nyc

Condé Nast Traveler ranked the NBG one of New York City's "Outstanding Urban Gardens" – along with the likes of Fort Tryon Park, Wave Hill, and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden – in a 2013 feature, pointing out "a butterfly garden, a zen garden, two rose gardens, a lily pond, and a turtle sanctuary." I'd love to get a better look at those one day. The website doesn't say when the Gardens are open, though. My guess is that, as with many of these places, availability of personnel to open and oversee is irregular.

Meantime, take a look at the website for a photo of what the site looked like back in 1941. What a testament to the power of community and imagination.

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media