two revolutionary war tours

greg and i began the day at merriweather coffee shop . . 

they have the best avocado toast with a poached egg . . i saw ismael and isaac there . . both remembered me from chanda's days working there. it was nice to see them.

fixing the water bottle in his backpack . . 

still carrying around my detox drink from the coffee shop (still water, sparkling water, a cinnamon stick, chili powder, ginger and lemon juice - so refreshing) . . 

passing the world trade center . . 

several murals were put up downtown telling the story of the revolution . . this one depicts "the miracle escape from the battle of brooklyn heights to lower manhattan." basically, the british chased us out of new york and washington didn't make it back in until the end of the war.

almost at our destination . . 

here we are; waiting for our tour guide. in celebration of the semiquincentenniel, there were several free revolutionary era tours by the tour guide association. a lot of local new yorkers signed up (and attended, even though it ended up raining!). i signed us up for two of them. the first one took us to historical pre-war spots downtown in the financial district.

one of our first stops was a plaque showing the map of the dutch settlement of new amsterdam -

showing stone street where we're standing.

stopping at the site of the second presidential mansion which washington occupied from february to august 1790.

here we are in federal hall which was first used as the city hall from 1699 to 1703 and then used to house the stamp act congress in october of 1765, bringing together representatives from the british colonies who were meeting to come up with a unified strategy against the newly imposed taxes levied by the british parliament. it came at a time of much violence and protests against the presence of the british army. one of the first clashes where blood was spilled was january 19, 1770 at the battle of golden hill.

this is what's left of golden hill (named after a nearby wheat field), now called eden hill just off of gold street.

our tour guide is holding a painting (by charles m. lefferts) of the clash between townspeople and british soldiers. the battle is described here on wikipedia.

a map of the city of new york from 1776 (drawn by major holland).

we walked to city hall which was constructed from 1803 to 1812. the site was originally the first almshouse in nyc - a publicly financed building was built in 1736 (i think replacing a earlier dutch building). in 1757 a debtor's prison and british soldiers barracks were added. the medallion that we're standing on represents the commons where people would congregate to protest and to celebrate.

"here in the ancient commons of the city

where before the time of our national independence

five liberty poles were successively set up

this flag pole of 1921 is placed

in grateful remembrance of all lovers of our country

who have died that the liberty won on these shores

might be the heritage of the world"

liberty poles were erected in protest of the british presence and actions. often they were demolished by the soldiers, and the townspeople would erect a new one.

this was the last photo i have of the morning tour. we lost our guide and what was left of our tour group in the crowd surrounding city hall. we were tired and decided to walk home and rest before our second tour of the day . . 

the second tour was closer to our neighborhood and told the story of alexander hamilton and aaron burr and their duel which took place across the river in weehawken. 

after he was shot, hamilton was taken to a local farmer's house on horatio street where he received last rights from a priest from trinity church and where he then died. burr suffered no legal repercussions as dueling was not prohibited, though it was frowned upon and he lost support from the populace (losing his bid for governor in the following election). 

after this tour we were even more tired, and so were very happy to go home to a light supper and then collapse and fall asleep (obviously i'm writing this on a different day!)

sunny and cold

 
milly's new "doo," but since her coat is now much shorter, it's good for her to wear her fleece jacket because the temperature dropped 15 degrees this week, from 56 last week to 41 today. it was 28 this morning when greg left for work.

in this photo she's looking at me plaintively, wanting me to carry her up the stairs. i managed to get her to the third floor before caving in and scooping her up for the last flight. she sometimes gets confused on that floor, thinking it's the fourth and where she lives. who can resist that adorable furry face? 

some photos from today's walk:

we were in soho directly across the street from: 

the franciscan friary for st. anthony of padua church (located just behind it on sullivan street).

built in 1886 and designed by british architect arthur crooks who lived in nyc and designed many buildings for the roman catholic church in new york and connecticut.

back at home . . waiting for her pupperoni treat.

a monday holiday

greg thought it would be fun to go out for brunch on this president's day holiday. chanda came along too, after checking in on the cats she has been taking care of for our neighbors. 

coffee!

chanda and i shared an omelette and a waffle . . (spinach, goat cheese and bacon, and a belgian waffle with strawberries).

it was a beautiful spring day, and after a walk to the river . . 

i decided to walk to trader joe's on sixth avenue for groceries . . everyone was out and about, feeling happy about the sunshine and bright blue sky . . 

 

 

 

trader joe's is in the old adam's dry goods building, built in 1901 along sixth avenue (then the ladies mile shopping district) by an architecture firm called de lemos and cordes. for many of my homeschooling friends and for myself, this building was important in the 90's and early 2000's as it housed a lovely barnes and noble which we frequently visited. you can read more about it on this office site of quartz, (which seems to be an online member based news journal). (the quartz site links to other helpful articles.)

happy halloween . . a halloween morning

i love my city and all the lovingly crazy people in it. i think i especially love this song and video because it captures the essence of what nyc was like when i first began living here in 1987. the city has changed a lot since then . . but people still flock here to sing and dance and to be free and i guess that's a very 60's thing to say. peace, love and rock n' roll . . those are the roots of this city . . along with greed and corruption, but we won't go there in this moment because it's a happy let's celebrate nyc moment!

walking home

 walking home through washington square park . . 

the commemoration for the triangle factory workers . . 

remembering the triangle fire

today was the 100 year commemoration of the triangle shirtwaist factory fire. the fire was a horrible tragedy that ignited the labor movement and helped create the laws for safer work places. this is a cause that still must be fought in many countries. a writer for southern california public radio, leslie berestein rojas, writes in multi-american how much of the garment industry has been outsourced to factories abroad, where accidents eerily similar to the triangle accident still happen.

living in greenwich village, this is an event that still resonates with us. thanks to filmmaker and artist ruth sergel who began chalk in 1994, volunteers fan out over the five boroughs chalking victim's names on the sidewalks where they lived. when we walk around on any march 25, we can't help but walk over a young girl's name on thompson street, or bedford street or west houston street.

this year korrina and i went out at 10:30 this morning to check out the ceremonies at the asch building where the fire occurred on washington place and greene street. it's now part of nyu and flowers are usually left every year by the international ladies' garment workers' union. since it's 100 years, there was an extra large gathering . . so large that we couldn't get near the site at all. neither of us likes crowds, so we decided to continue on and visit a few addresses instead. (however, blogger and writer stacy horn did attend the ceremonies and gives an account of it on her website.)

i found an informative article written for the new york times by writer joseph berger. you can link to it here. (warning, it does include a graphic photo of the tragedy).

korrina had written down a few addresses to visit. we walked by 97 west houston street. the woman was in the middle of chalking and we stopped to watch.

she wrote with such quiet care.

rosie bassino. on a website called in search of the elusive immigrants, history detective amy herskovits writes about rose and her life and family. actually that link doesn't work anymore, but here is a link to a bowery boys article that includes a map showing where the workers lived throughout the city.

korrina and i imagined rose walking up and down the stairs to her building, or maybe looking out one of these windows . .

korrina went to the east side to visit a few more addresses. i went home to see how chanda was doing and to let morgana leave for a dance class she wanted to attend.

on my way home i walked by 6 bedford street, which was the home of catherine giannattasio. there was a school group there from ps 339. they were on a field trip visiting some of the workers' addresses.

at home chanda was sitting up in bed reading her american girl historical mystery book. i made her a bagel with cream cheese and she ate it on the plate nana brought back from her visit to germany. the napkin has a bluebird i embroidered for korrina when she was three and attending a waldorf playgroup in brooklyn.

life at home . . taking pretty pictures . .

cute little bluebird . . hmm . . it actually didn't come out too bad. it was the first thing i ever embroidered.

at four o'clock i decided to walk with chanda to our lady of pompeii on camine at bleecker street to hear the tolling of the bells at 4:45 pm, echoing the time the fire broke out in 1911.

there were a few other onlookers. many bells rang throughout the city at 4:45 pm.

our lady held a memorial service at 3 pm.

chanda and i went in and lit a candle. well, it wasn't a real candle, just as the tolling bells weren't real bells. they were recorded bells. such is life in nyc in the 21st century.

micheline marciano cordiano, age 25. 272 bleecker street. just next door to john's pizzeria, which opened in 1929. michelina would have been 43 if she had survived.

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korrina and greg ended up going to a play at 7 pm. it was with looking glass theatre and was held at a theatre on 57th street, and was called lincoln on hester street, about a young woman who survives the factory fire and becomes an advocate for protective labor laws. it was written by lu hauser, and directed by ruth ginsberg. korrina thought it was really good.

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morgana was the final one home after attending one of the last concerts given by the merce cunningham dance company presently at the joyce theatre (until sunday). it was a wonderful surprise to go and she really enjoyed it. (merce cunningham passed away last year and requested that his company disband one year after his death). and now i better get some sleep. it always takes me too long to blog.