Showing posts sorted by relevance for query hugo. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query hugo. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, May 07, 2010

Hugo B. Roelker

My great-aunt Minnie is famous in our family as having been the "belle of Hoboken." She was proud of the early American roots of her mother's family tree. Nonetheless, as daughter of Henry Lefman, a German immigrant, she acceded to what was surely her father's wish and merged the Lefmans with the Roelkers, another German-American family. Thus it came about in 1874 that she married Hugo B. Roelker, a German-born engineer who was brother to her uncle's business partner.


{Hugo B. Roelker; source: an article in Refrigerating world, 1906}

In 1861 Hugo left his family's home in Osnabrück, Germany. He was only 18 when arrived in New York and, in making his way as best he could in the new land, he no doubt received help from an uncle, Bernard, and brothers Carl and Alfred, all of whom had arrived before him. In 1862 he got work as a draftsman in a Manhattan iron works. He liked the work and did well. In time he was promoted to chief draftsman and then assistant superintendent, and finally, in 1883, superintendent of what had grown to be a large and successful enterprise.


{Delamater Iron Works at 13th and West Streets circa 1870; source: westviewnews.org}

Before his time, the business, Delamater Iron Works, had achieved recognition for supplying the huge iron pipes that carried New York's water from the Croton River 41 miles to the north. Built between 1837 and 1842, the Croton Aqueduct was a great engineering feat, the greatest the U.S. had known til that time. Just before the water began to flow in it, an article in the New York Tribune described its significance:
This stupendous structure is now completed, and in a few weeks, at farthest, the city will have a foretaste of the thousand benefits it is destined to confer. Our citizens may not be generally aware that in this magnificent work they are surpassing ancient Rome, in one of her proudest boasts. None of the hydraulic structures of that city, in spite of the legions of slaves at her command, equal, in magnitude of design, perfection of detail, and prospective benefits, this aqueduct. The main trunk consists of an immense mass of masonry, six feet and a half wide, nine feet high, and forty miles long, formed of walls three feet thick, cemented into solid rock. But this water channel, gigantic as it is, is far from being all the work. The dam across the Croton, which retains the water in a grand reservoir, is a mound of earth and masonry, forty feet high, and seventy feet wide at the bottom, and has connected with it many complicated but perfect contrivances to enable the engineer to have complete control over the mighty mass of water. The river, thus thrown back towards its source, will form a lake of five hundred acres, which will retain a supply for emergencies of some thousand millions of gallons, and also offer, as a collateral advantage, many picturesque sites for country seats upon the woody points which will jut out into its smooth basin. A tunnel leads the water from this reservoir into the aqueduct, and eleven more of these subterraneous passages occur before reaching Harlem river, having an aggregate length of seven-eighths of a mile, and many of them being cut through the solid rock. At intervals of a mile, ventilators are constructed in the form of towers of white marble, which give to the water that exposure to the atmosphere, without which it becomes vapid and insipid; and these dazzling turrets mark out the line of the aqueduct to the passengers upon the Hudson.
The iron pipes, each three feet in diameter, were used on the elevated portions of the aqueduct, including the magnificent bridge transit over the Harlem river.

The iron works was owned by Cornelius H. DeLamater, who was, most unusually, a skilled engineer, excellent businessman, and talented manager.


{Cornelius Delamater, ca. 1880; source: wikipedia}

By the time Hugo became its superintendent, the works employed over 1000 men at its plant on West 13th St. on the Hudson shore in Greenwich Village. By that time, the firm had been responsible for some important advances in naval warfare. It pioneered the use of the screw propeller to replace the unweildy paddles of early steamships. It constructed ironclad ships which helped the US Navy dominate the Confederate Navy in the Civil War. It designed and built the first submarine, the first self-propelled torpedo, and the first torpedo boat. When destroyers evolved from torpedo boats, it designed and constructed them as well.

Hugo worked on these projects as draftsman during the 1860s and as designer and supervisor in the 1870s and 80s. His work was not limited to naval engineering however. As the author of a brief biography put it: "Many of the large industries of the day started in Mr. Roelker's office, — sugar mills, air compressors, ice machines, etc."

Here are some images showing work in which the Delamater Iron Works was involved.


{Workman standing by aqueduct pipe; source: The Century illustrated monthly magazine, 1877}

These photos show the valves (stop cocks) that controlled the massive water conduits.


{Harpers Weekly illustration, 1881, showing iron pipe supplied by the Delamater Iron Works; source: Library of Congress}


{Engineering drawing showing a stop-cock for 36-inch pipes; source: Library of Congress}


{Map of the aqueduct; source: The Century illustrated monthly magazine, 1877}


{Old postcard showing the aqueduct crossing over a bridge at Ossining, NY; source: Library of Congress}


{High Bridge and Croton Aqueduct spanning the Harlem River to the pumping station and reservoir by D.T. Valentine, lithographic print, ca. 1845; source: Library of Congress}


{High Bridge from east end in the Bronx, by Detroit Publishing Co. ca. 1900; source: Library of Congress}


{High Bridge & Washington Bridge, Harlem River, N.Y.C., looking south, by William Henry Jackson for the Detroit Publishing Co. ca. 1890; source: Library of Congress}

This modern photo shows the tunnel lined with brick which made up most of the aqueduct.

{Roots in the Old Croton Aqueduct, Manhattan, NYC, 2007; source: undercity.org}


{An early sub built under Hugo's supervision in 1881; source: hooksandcrookes.com }


{A later sub, partially submerged, with four members of crew standing on top, at close range, Oyster Bay, 1905; source: Library of Congress}

This photo shows the aft end of a torpedo boat revealing the distinctive twin screw propellers.

{U.S.S. Porter, in dry dock, Brooklyn Navy Yard, taken between 1897 and 1901; source: Library of Congress}

This shows a torpedo boat at sea. These small, fast, maneuverable boats were at first used only against enemy ships anchored in harbor, but came to be seen as useful weapons when the enemy was at sea as well.

{A torpedo boat of the U.S. Navy by Detroit Publishing Co, between 1890 and 1901; source: Library of Congress}


The Iron Works closed down after the death of Cornelius Delamater in 1889. Left without a job, Hugo went into business for himself. He set up a general mechanical and marine-engineering practice and, in time, came to specialize as a manufacturer of an early refrigeration unit, the Allen Dense Air Ice Machine, which he successfully marketed for use on steamships both Naval and maritime.


{Diagram of the Allen Dense Air Machine; source: The elements of refrigeration; a text book for students, engineers and warehousemen by Arthur Maurice Greene}


{Allen Dense Air Machine, front view of upright model; same source}


{same, side view}


{An advertisement}

See also:

Biographical sketch of Hugo B. Roelker in Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Volume 43 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1922)

Croton Water in The Century illustrated monthly magazine, Volume 14, ed. by Josiah Gilbert Holland and Richard Watson Gilder (Scribner & Co.; The Century Co, 1877)

Description of the New-York Croton aqueduct: in English, German and French by T. Schramke (The author, 1846)

Illustrations of the Croton aqueduct by Fayette Bartholomew Tower (Wiley and Putnam, 1843)

Croton Aqueduct on nyhistory.org

-----------

Other blog posts on my family history: ----------------

Some extra images of the Croton Aqueduct. These all come from Croton Water in The Century illustrated monthly magazine, 1877.








Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 3:21 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Croton Water

I wrote about my great-uncle Hugo yesterday and mentioned his employment at an iron works that had supplied pipe for the Croton Aqueduct. As it moved water from the northern part of Westchester County into central Manhattan, the aqueduct passed by quite a few places with family associations.

Here's a map from an article on the aqueduct that appeared in 1877.* I've marked it with numbered red circles and given some of these associations in keyed entries below.



1. Here, as you can see is Croton Lake, dammed to create the aqueduct's source. From the dam, the aqueduct moves west to the Hudson River and then begins its journey south to the City. Its route parallels the Hudson rail line, here identified as the Hudson River Rail Road (it was the Hudson Division of the New York Central in my time and is now something else again).

The village of Croton was home to a set of cousins, sons and daughters of my Uncle Bob and Aunt Ursula. Our family used to visit theirs from time to time; or, we would just drive up to see the lake and the dam, both of them scenic and impressive. When I was 14 or so I spent some time at the marine supply houses that dotted the Hudson shore here; I'd used my paper route money to buy a kit and built a 10 ft. racing pram.

2. Just to the east were another set of cousins, not related the first. Children of my Aunt Gerry and Uncle Ed, they lived in Mt. Kisco.

3. Here are Ossining, Scarborough, and Briarcliff Manor. We lived in the last named and frequented the first for shopping (and the dentist office). Ossining is home to Sing Sing penitentiary, high-walled and ominous, known to contain an electric chair for executions. I came to know pretty much all of Briarcliff. It and Scarborough are known for Washington Irving associations, particularly the Sleepy Hollow of Headless Horseman fame. Scarborough has a country club which was formerly a residence for a member of the hyper-wealthy Vanderbilt family. I had a high school friend who lived in Scarborough and briefly also was classmates with John Cheever's daughter during the time he rented a house there.

4. My mom worked in the public library in Tarrytown for quite a few years. Tarrytown also has Washington Irving's home and is landing place for the east end of the great Tappan Zee Bridge.

5. There were yet more cousins in Pelham not far to the east of this circle. This is also where the aqueduct crosses the Harlem River taking Croton Lake's water from the Bronx into Manhattan.

6. This marks the general location of Manhattan below 14th St. Here were located the iron works of which Hugo became superintendent, the Reformed Dutch School that educated his wife, Minnie, and her siblings (one of whom was classmate with Cornelius Vanderbilt himself — he who built the hyper-fortune), the retail store where my great-grandfather was first employed when he immigrated in 1855, the office he occupied as commission agent for those who wished to buy goods from Germany, and the banks and insurance companies which he founded.

Here is a larger map from 1907.** Click the image to view it full size. I've given it blue numbered ellipses keyed to comments below.



1. This map's northern end is somewhat south of Croton. Here at no. 1 is the location of a double bridge which is shown in a post card I reproduced yesterday.

2. Here, as you can see, is Sing Sing Prison. Some time ago I did a post about one of its associations in my memory.

3. Here, in Kemmy's Cove, I kept the racing pram that I constructed from kit using money from my paper route. The cove looks out on a portion of the Hudson that shows in a favorite painting, seen here and in detail here.

4. This marks the western end of my long paper route, which wound, twisted, climbed, and descended over much that lies east. From near here we would watch fire works on Independence Day. They'd be set off where ellipse no. 6 is located and make their display over the water.

5. Here lived a high school friend whose mom was an actress in a big-time New York soap opera. It's also the location of the Vanderlip estate. The Vanderlips were not near so well off as the Vanderbilts, but they had a nice place and one of my earliest memories is of a country fair held there.

6. This marks the location of a huge Vanderbilt mansion that became Sleepy Hollow Country Club. I had two friends whose families were members but didn't go there often with them. I spent a little time in the mansion when during a period when my parents did try to socialize me a little by putting me in rented tuxedos and having me be one of many anonymous unattached male escorts at some coming out cotillions there.

7. Sleepy Hollow, of Headless Horseman fame, lies right next to the aqueduct. The map text that lies below here is hard to read; it says "where andre was captured." This refers to the capture in 1780 of John André, the British officer who was in league with the American traitor, Benedict Arnold. LC has a picture of the event.

8. This marks the location of Warner Library in Tarrytown where my mother worked for quite a few years. The route which the map shows of the Steam Ferry across the Hudson at this point is approximately the present location of the Tappan Zee Bridge.

9. As you can see, this is the place to see Washington Irving's home in lower Tarrytown.

10. We've progressed south maybe 15 miles to get here from Tarrytown. I marked this spot because it's the point where the aqueduct moves off the map for a couple of miles.

11. Here it reënters the frame.

12. High Bridge is seen. The aqueduct crosses the Harlem River between the Bronx and Manhattan. The first reservoir on the New York end of the aqueduct is also here.

13. Location of the main reservoir. When the aqueduct was constructed few were able to afford the piping of water into their homes. Most benefited from its general abundance in all seasons, an increase in the number of public sources, and, best of all, in the cleanliness of the water.

14. Far from the aqueduct's southern terminus is the location of the Delamater Iron Works which provided its enormous iron pipes, valves, and the like.

15. Since we're down here in lower Manhattan, I'll point out some other locations with family connections. This is the spot where Hugo's wife, Minnie, and her siblings were educated: the Reformed Dutch School on Bleecker St. The school was famous not only for the quality of its education, but also for giving equal education to both sexes and for charging no fees (you were, however, required to belong to, and regularly attend, the church). Old Dutch families would send their kids there. Minnie's father, Henry Lefman, had married a woman from an old American family with Dutch connections so his children fall into this category. As I mentioned above, one of Minnie's sisters, Emma, had Cornelius Vanderbilt as classmate. The Vanderbilts were old Dutch too.

16. Washington St. is here. It's where my great-grandfather got his first job — as store clerk — in the late 1850s. Henry Lefman was his boss, mentor, and surrogate father, and he would himself marry another of Minnie's sisters, Annie.

17. Stuyvesant High School, which my father attended, is located here.

18. Here is Reade St. where my great-grandfather had his office as commissioning agent in the second half of the 19th c. He set up in that business with Alfred Roelker, who like Henry Lefman, would later become a in-law. The two made a great success of importing all kinds of things, from leather to steel rails, on behalf of American customers.

19. This is where you find Maiden Lane. Hugo had his office here after the iron works was sold off (following the death of its owner). It's also where you could find the Maiden Lane Savings Bank. My great-grandfather started this bank, Hugo was a director, and my grandfather was its manager.


-----------

Some of my previous blog posts on the Hudson and its associations.

on the river

shipping news -- more

living high

-------------

Previous family-history posts:


--------------

Notes:

*Croton Water in The Century illustrated monthly magazine, Volume 14, ed. by Josiah Gilbert Holland and Richard Watson Gilder (Scribner & Co.; The Century Co, 1877)

**The Hudson; Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention by Wallace Bruce (Bryant Union Co. NY, 1907)

Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 10:39 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Saturday, January 30, 2010

love, peace and liberty condemn hatred, war and bondage

Volume 34 of the Lineage book - National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (1912) gives a lineage for Minnie Roelker showing that she was eligible to be inducted into the society. The report in DAR yearbook is succinct:
MRS. EMILIE VIRGINIA ROELKER. 33483

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Wife of Hugo B. Roelker.
Descendant of Ensign Thomas Lenington, of New York.
Daughter of Henry Lefman and Sarah Lenington Thorne, his wife.
Granddaughter of John Edmund Thorne (b. 1815) and Abby Lenington, his wife.
Gr.-granddaughter of Thomas Lenington and Sarah Van Sickles, his wife.
Gr.-gr.-granddaughter of Thomas Lenington and Sarah Sickerton, his wife, m. 1777.

Thomas Lenington, (1755-1829), served as sergeant under Capt. John Nicholson in the Canadian campaign; was promoted ensign 1776; was taken prisoner and confined fourteen months at Quebec and Halifax. After his exchange he was employed in the quartermaster's department and had command of a vessel on the North River. The widow was one hundred and four years old in 1848 and a pension was allowed her for over two years actual service as sergeant and ensign in the New York line. She was married in New Providence, New Jersey and received her pension in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Minnie was sister of my great-grandmother Annie Windmuller and as I recall, the family found it slightly embarrassing that anyone related to us wanted to be a part of that tainted organization. Still, Minnie's genealogical research gives some interesting stories, which my aunt Florence collected and saved. I've summarized aunt Florence's work here.

A bit of further research turns up a considerably more distant and somewhat more interesting relative. Both Minnie and her sister, my great-grandmother, were descended from a man named William Thorne. There have be many men of that name. This one is distinguished for having agitated for freedom of religion in Dutch New Amsterdam back when the American colonies were still young.

The story is succinctly told here and at greater length here (pdf).

In 1638 this William Thorne left England so he could practice his religion without interference and then left Massachusetts when he found he disagreed with the practices of the Puritans there. In New Amsterdam he thought he'd found the tolerance he sought, but a change in government brought new restrictions, not on his own freedoms but on those of a near-universally persecuted sect, the Society of Friends, or Quakers. Standing on principle and seeking for others what he valued so much for himself, Thorne joined with others, none of them Quakers, to request that Quakers be able to practice their religion in Flushing, Long Island, the town in which they'd settled. The government of the time refused but was, in time, overridden by the home office in Amsterdam.

William Thorne and his son, also William, both signed this request and both are direct ancestors.*

The document is untitled and has since come to be called the Remonstrance of the Inhabitants of the Town of Flushing to Governor Stuyvesant, December 27, 1657.

This is what it looks like:

{source: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times}

It's the first formal request for freedom of religion in the American colonies and is a precursor of the freedom of religion clause in the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution.

It asks Peter Stuyvesant, the governor, to "let every man stand or fall to his own Master." And it reminds him, "wee are bounde by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith." It also says, "love, peace and liberty, extending to all in Christ Jesus, condemns hatred, war and bondage... if any of these said persons come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egresse and regresse unto our Town, and houses, as God shall persuade our consciences, for we are bounde by the law of God and man to doe good unto all men and evil to noe man. And this is according to the patent and charter of our Towne, given unto us in the name of the States General, which we are not willing to infringe, and violate, but shall houlde to our patent and shall remaine, your humble subjects, the inhabitants of Vlishing [i.e., Flushing]."

-----------

See also:

A Colony With a Conscience an Op-Ed article in the New York Times by By Kenneth T. Jackson

The Flushing Remonstrance by Michael Peabody in Liberty Magazine, whose purpose is to honor freedom of religion ("The God-given right of religious liberty is best exercised when church and state are separate")

Flushing Remonstrance article in wikipedia

Precursor of the Constitution Goes on Display in Queens, an article in the New York Times on an exhibition to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the remonstrance

350th Anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance: 1657-2007 a set of web pages honoring the anniversary

Roots of a Westchester Wedding Planted Deeply in Religious Freedom (pdf)

-----------

Note:

* You can see the descendency here: Windmuller Family Genealogy.

Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 9:34 PM 2 comments
Labels: , ,

Saturday, December 19, 2009

music and books in the journal of Hélène Berr

Hélène Berr was a brilliant student and talented classical violinist. She was first in her class at a small Parisian private school, the Cours Boutet de Monvel taking honors in both philosophy and in Latin and modern languages. Entering the Sorbonne in 1938, she received her first degree in English language and literature, again with honors. In 1942 she registered for a doctorate at the Sorbonne with a thesis topic of Keats's Hellenism. She worked in the library at the Sorbonne and continued to attend lectures and seminars until prevented by the risk of being arrested and deported. She also took music lessons as long as she could and both played and listened to music with friends and relatives.

Her Journal records many of the books she read and gives extracts from ones that meant most to her, particularly poems of Keats and Shelley and Les Thibault by Roger Martin du Gard.

Here are some of the books and pieces of music of which she wrote.

Books Quoted or Mentioned in The Journal of Hélène Berr
=====================

Music She Played or Heard

Beethoven Schumann second violin sonata: Schumann 2nd Violin Sonata: 1st mov. Gidon Kremer vl. Martha Argerich pf.

Bach 1st violin sonata: Nathan Milstein playing Bach Sonata #1, Adagio and Fugue only.

Ravel Trio: Audio recording of Ravel's Piano Trio by the Claremont Trio from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, complete in MP3 format

Cesar Franck Sonata for Violin: Vadim Repin and Nikolai Lugansky Play Franck's Violin Sonata 2004, in Tokyo, 1st mov., 2nd mov., 3rd mov., 4th mov.

A personal note:

The Budapest Quartet was the first chamber group whose work I came to know and love. The version of the group that was active during World War II can be heard in two Beethoven Quartets listed above: Quartet No. 7, 1st mov. and Quartet No. 15, in A minor, Op. 132, Adagio, Heilige Dankgesang


{The Budapest String Quartet, from an early concert at the Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress; source: Library of Congress}



Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 3:50 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Thursday, May 13, 2010

cruft, dandruff, and predictive models

Facebook and its principle founder, Mark Zukerberg, are taking a good deal of heat lately about changes that affect users' ability to keep things out of public view. Despite some overblown rhetoric, there's some real basis for concern.

Am I worried? Yes, a bit. In FB as in life in general, I try to be cautious but not compulsively private in sharing information about myself. I don't do much FB statusing and adjust my settings every time I hear there's been a privacy change. I realize, must not we all, that there's much available about me which I can't control. I try to surrender my social security number as little as possible and it used to annoy me that my work ID contained an SSN barcode. It concerns me that financial institutions have required I give it to them when I've applied for a credit card, opened an account, or applied for a mortgage. I know that my accounts with utility companies, wireless & landline phone providers, and my ISPs yield up publicly available information about my use of their services. Many companies with which I do business accumulate information about me which they can, and under certain circumstances, freely do share. When I've bought the homes I've lived in, a whole raft of information became publicly available about the transactions.

I used to be amazed at how sloppy some organizations were about account data; quite often I found I could search membership data in unprotected files. That's less common now, but no matter how grand a privacy policy sounds, I know I really can't control what an organization does with the personal information I give it. Despite good intentions, some are inept or maybe just naïve. And any commercial enterprise is liable to be bought out by some other organization which can choose to ignore whatever privacy promises the old org. made. Even nonprofits get absorbed by others or go commercial with resulting nullification of whatever policies they had.

I suspect most of us know that the computer we're using supplies information about itself when we're online. There are a number of web sites that show you this info, this one, for example. You probably also know that programs which put spyware in web cookies can accumulate a whole lot more about your internet sessions.

It's the business of data snoops to accumulate this information along with every thing else they can tag as pertaining to you, your computer, and the use you make of it. Many people now assume that all their email traffic is subject to either machine or human inspection, or both.

These are some of the reasons people are growing increasingly concerned about recent changes in Facebook's privacy policy. Facebook is a huge success and, in using it, its vast numbers of participants give enormous amounts of information about themselves — that's the point of this primo social network. The potential for abusing that information is also very great. I've noticed that Facebook apps are increasingly apt to have invasive elements in them and the recent furore is mostly about FB's policy of making certain info you give FB available to all its users, certain of it accessible to search engines outside FB, and certain of it available to FB advertisers; it's also about the complexity of privacy controls and gaps in what you can keep from public view; and it's about the difficulty of getting off FB and deleting what you've put there.

Columbia law professor Eben Moglen summarized the risk in a speech last February:
The Problem is the Cruft and Data Dandruff of Life: In fact the degree of potential informational inequality, and disruption and difficulty that arises from a misunderstanding, a heuristic error in the minds of human beings about what is and is not discoverable about them, is now our biggest privacy problem. My students ... show constantly in our dialog they still think of privacy as the one secret they don't want revealed. But that's not their problem. Their problem is all the stuff that's the ... data dandruff of life, which they don't think of as secret at all but aggregates to stuff they don't want to know. Which aggregates not just to stuff they don't want other people to know, but to predictive models about them which they would be very creeped out to know exists at all. The data that we infer is the data in the holes between the data we already know if we know enough things.
This isn't very precise, but captures the main cause of concern. A whole mess of facts, each by itself benign, can be assembled and put to a nasty purpose.


{sources: PCWorld, ipao.org, }

Here are some links about the current noise regarding Facebook.
Has Facebook gone too far this time? (SocialMedia.biz)

Weekly Wrap-up: Deactivating Facebook, Social Oversharing, iPad vs. Netbooks, And More... (ReadWriteWeb)

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options (New York Times)

Could a start-up called Diaspora knock Facebook off its perch? (Christian Science Monitor)

Facebook's Washington Problem, The social network is facing a privacy backlash that could prompt congressional hearings (Business Week)

Europe slams Facebook's privacy settings (Agence France Presse)

Facebook Gives Us Statement On Latest Zuckerberg IM And Company Privacy Policy (SFGate)

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options (NYT again)

19-Year-Old Facebook CEO Didn’t Take Your Privacy Seriously, Either (Gizmodo)

Facebook: Facts You Probably Didn’t Know (Mashable)

Facebook confirms informal company meeting (CNET News)

Mum's the word from all-hands Facebook company meeting on privacy (NetworkWorld)

Facebook downplays privacy crisis meeting (BBC)

Facebook caves in to privacy pressures; Sort of, partly (Inquirer)

Your public Facebook status updates? Now publicly searchable outside Facebook (TechCrunch)

Anti-Facebook project rockets to $120,000 in online donations (VentureBeat)

Blogrunner Facebook news snapshot (NYT)

Facebook downplays privacy crisis meeting

This Is MySpace’s Moment To Shine, But That Obviously Isn’t Going To Happen (TechCrunch)

Facebook Adds Two Privacy Tools (Information Week)

Are privacy concerns causing an about face on Facebook? (MassHighTech.com)

How to delete your Facebook account forever (GeeshuiLiving.com)
NY Times Graphic on Privacy Settings


{click to view full size; source: Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options (New York Times)}

-----------

Incidentally:

Mark Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, which is not far east of the path taken by the old Croton Aqueduct, and he was raised in Dobbs Ferry through which the aqueduct passed on its way to Manhattan. The green line marks its route. Click image to view it full size.


{USGS, White Plains, NY Quadrangle, 1938, southwest corner; source: UNH DIMOND LIBRARY
Documents Department & Data Center}


Also, as it happens, my great-uncle Adolph Windmuller and his wife Caroline Hague lived in Dobbs.

I've written a few posts about the aqueduct and Mrs. Hague:

Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 8:13 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Sussdorfs

I recently heard from a woman whose home is not far from the place where my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller, lived for much of the nineteenth century.[1] I've written about this summer home of his quite a few times already.[2] The email she sent me links to a set of comments on a blog called Ephemeral New York. The subject of the post is a drypoint print by a highly-regarded artist named Martin Lewis[3] The print is called "Rainy Day, Queens" and it shows an urban scene having a broad street rising as it recedes. In the foreground pedestrians and a few cars occupy what is evidently a viaduct, overpass, or bridge and in the background there are apartment buildings on both sides of the avenue. Here's a small image of the print. You can see a larger view here.[4]


In readers' comments to the blog post you find speculation about the location of the scene which Lewis depicts. Most commenters believe it shows a viaduct over the Long Island Railroad in Long Island City or the nearby Sunnyside Yards. I favor this set of opinions.[5] On the other hand One commenter, with support from a couple of others, says the artist is standing on a street in Woodside and is facing the Sunnyside rail yards to the west. This commenter says the artist depicts a "crumbling bluestone sidewalk on Skillman Ave.," with Roosevelt Avenue to his back. "The crest of the hill," he says, "is the point where 54th Street zig-zags across Skillman."

This commenter, T.J. Connick, gives a link to a photo in NYPL's Digital Gallery. It's this photo that prompted the email message to me about my blog post. The writer, Deniz Hughes, points out that the photo shows property that was adjacent to the place owned by my great-grandfather, Louis Windmuller.

Here's the photo. It shows the home of the Sussdorf family, who were not only the Windmuller's neighbors but also their friends. Louis Windmuller was twenty years younger than Gustav Sussdorf, but they held much in common. Both were born in Germany and had emigrated to America at a young age. Both were successful merchants who spent winter months in Manhattan and summered on their estates in Woodside. Both were religious converts who helped establish St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church at Woodside. Windmuller and Gustav's son William H. served many years as church vestrymen and their wives and daughters were active in the church's Sunday school and social activities. I've written about the two families before.[6]


{The accompanying description says: "54th Street (foreground, unpaved), between Roosevelt Ave. (left) and Skillman Ave. (right), showing in the foreground the G. Susdorff house from 1860-1873. It was gone in April 1925. In the background are homes on 52nd Street. The photo was taken in 1924. Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}


This detail from the photo shows the Sussdorf home.


This detail shows a row of houses on 52nd Street.


This is an obituary of Gustav Sussdorf.[7]

{Newtown Register, October 29, 1896}

This is a detail from a fire insurance atlas page. I've marked it to show where the photographer was standing. Note that the atlas reflects an earlier time; it was made a decade before the photo and a couple of decades before the print was made.

{Detail from Queens, Vol. 2, Double Page Plate No. 15; Part of Ward Two Woodside; [Map bounded by Kelly Ave., Woodside Ave., Greenpoint Ave., Thomson Ave.; Including Astoria Road (Highway to Calvary Cemetery) (Celtic Ave.), Middleburg Ave., Jackson Ave., Solon St., Mecke St.] 1908 updated to 1912, Atlas of the borough of Queens, city of New York, based upon official plans and maps on file in the various city offices; supplemented by careful field measurements and personal observations by and under the supervision of Hugo Ullitz. First and second wards: Long Island City and Newtown. Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

This detail from a 1923 map shows the general area around the Windmuller and Sussdorf properties. I've marked it to show the rough location of the two houses, the school, and the photographer.

{Map of the borough of Queens. "Supplement to The Brooklyn Eagle Almanac, 1923." Williams Map & Guide Co. Source: Library of Congress}

This satellite image shows the location of the two houses and camera.


In the lower right of the satellite image, just below Doughboy Plaza, you can see a school, P.S. 11. Here is a photo of the school as it looked in 1925. The photographer was standing on the southwest corner of 56th St. and Woodside Ave. The trees to the right are on the lower part of the Windmuller property.

{"Woodside Avenue, at the S.W. corner of 56th Street, showing Public School No. 11. Taken by Percy Loomis Sperr, 1925. May be reproduced." Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

NYPL has another photo showing the construction of 54th St. northward from Skillman Ave. in 1931, the same year Martin Lewis made his drypoint print. Here's a link to the image: Queens: 54th Street - Skillman Avenue (1931). The trees in the background of this photo are on the Windmuller estate. The Sussdorf estate is to the left, behind the apartment building and P.S. 11 is at right.

I see nothing in these photos to lend support to the thesis that the Lewis print shows this part of Queens. For more views of this part of Woodside, see a blog called Woodside, A Tour Through the Past, Present, and Culture of a Historic Urban Community. The blog was created by a student at SUNY Purchase named Janel Lloyd. In one section of the blog, Lloyd pairs photos of the area covered by the Sussdorf and Windmuller states. The pairs show what the place looked like in ca. 1940 and what they look like today. This screen shot shows one such pair and gives Lloyd's description.

{See Lloyd's "Denotation" page for source information. I'm using this screen shot under copyright fair use provisions.}

The photograph on the left, from ca. 1940, was taken from a position not far from the place from which the photograph of the Sussdorf house was made, but the camera was pointed further north in this case. The photo is similar to one taken from the elevated platform of the LIRR station at the corner of Roosevelt and Woodside Avenues. If you look closely, you can see Hell Gate Bridge on the horizon at left. Nearby buildings are single family homes, either in row houses or unattached. There are multi-story apartments in the distance, outside the bounds of Woodside.

The area around Woodside was, of course, urbanized, but the transition from rural farmland, to suburban single-family houses, to multi-story apartment buildings was a slow one. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, urbanization spread eastward through and beyond Long Island City, but some communities on its eastern border, like Woodside, nonetheless retained much of their rural or suburban character. This photo of a homestead in Maspeth, a mile and a half south of the Sussdorf and Windmuller homes, shows an old farmstead as it looked in 1929, just two years before the Lewis made the print.

{"55th Drive (foreground, along line of fence), north side, between 58th Street (right) and 56th Street (left), showing the Nicholas Covert house and outbuilding. This is one a set of four views taken on different occasions and from slightly different angles." September 1929. May be reproduced. Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

NYPL has another photo showing the undeveloped nature of Woodside and its environs in the 1920s. One of them I've previously discussed.[8] Here's another.

{"Maspeth Ave., north side, between 55th and 56th Streets, showing a northwest view of the James Way farmhouse, last in a set of four pictures." 1924. May be reproduced. Source: NYPL Digital Gallery}

---------

Some sources:

Know where this was?

Woodside, A Tour Through the Past, Present, and Culture of a Historic Urban Community

Denizblog

Ephemeral New York

NYPL Digital Gallery

----------

Notes:

[1] She's a Woodside resident named Deniz Hughes and she has an excellent blog called DenizBlog.

[2] The "Woodside" label in the list in the right hand panel leads you to posts on that subject. In particular note:
[3] Prints by Martin Lewis fetch a great deal at auction. One of the "Rainy Day" prints sold for more than $16,000 not long ago.

[4] I'd show a large version of the print, but I'm unsure of the copyright status of images made from it.

[5] This photo, from NYPL's digital gallery, gives a general idea of what I believe to be the area which the print shows. The photo shows an apartment building on only one side of the street, the sidewalk barrier at the right of the overpass is different, and of course the Lewis print does not show the Manhattan skyline in the distance. On the other hand the slope and the light fixture are right, so the artist may, as the commenter says, have been located at one of the neighboring overpasses in this area.


[6] On the relationship between Windmullers and Sussdorfs see the blog posts listed above and also Friedle women and three country homes.

[7] Here the obituary of Gustav Sussdorf's son, Louis Albert, from the New York Times. It's tempting to think that the Sussdorf's named him in honor of a son of Louis Windmuller, named Louis Adelbert or Albert, who died in 1872 age 10 days.
Louis Albert Sussdorf Former Stock Exchange Member Dies at Long Island Home.

Louis Albert Sussdorf, a retired member of the New York Stock Exchange, died on Sunday at his Summer home in Bridgehampton, L.I. The Rev. Ernest Sinfield of St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, Flushing, will officiate at the funeral services this afternoon in Mr. Sussdorf's former residence at 144-51 Sanford Avenue, flushing. Born in Charleston, S.C., seventy years ago, Mr. Sussdorf became a member of the shipping firm of Sussdorf, Zalvo & Co. He formerly lived in Elmhurst, Queens.

Surviving are a widow, Mrs. Rebecca Moore Hyatt Sussdorf; two sons, Louis Sussdorf Jr., counselor at the American Embassy in Brussels, Belgium, and Ralph H. Susdorf of Orange, Calif., and two daughters, Mrs. Grace M. Thayer and Miss Elsie Purdy Sussdorf.

Burial will take place in Old St. James churchyard, Elmhurst.

-- New York Times, July 18, 1934
And here is the death notice for Gustav's wife, Jane: "Sussdorff. At Woodside, L. I., July 13, 1902, JANE M. SUSSDORFF, wife of the late Gustav, in the 76th year of her age. Funeral service at her late residence Tuesday, July 15, at four P. M. Carriages will be in waiting at station on arrival of 3:30 P. M. train from Long Island City. Interment at convenience of family. Charleston (S. C.) papers please copy." -- New York Herald, July 14, 1902

[8] It's the one I linked to above as being similar to the 1940 photo shown on Janel Lloyd's blog.

Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 9:14 AM 2 comments
Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Holland House

Late in the 19th century Holland House was considered to be one of the best hotels in the world.[1] The Library of Congress holds an illustrated booklet which the proprietors gave guests when it opened for business in 1891.[2] This piece of promotional literature describes the glories of the hotel itself and gives the reader a short tour up the Avenue from its starting point in Washington Square. Something like today's Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, it's remarkable, even for its time, in its slavish outpourings — celebrations of the trappings of wealth and of the opulence which can flow from expenditure of vast amounts of cash. There's no surprise in its total neglect of the horrible conditions endured by New York's poor in immigrant neighborhoods which bordered the famous avenue.

The little souvenir gives only a tiny drawing of the 5th Avenue Coaches I've been showing lately, but it does describe them: "The sybarite may make the journey [up the Avenue] in a drag, a tandem cart, or a carriage as delicately suspended as the cradle of a nobly born baby, but the ease and elegance of all these are eclipsed by the splendid outlook to be had from the roof of a three-in-hand stage coach. But the uptown driver is slow, for at every corner and between corners passengers are picked up so deliberately, that any one with half an eye can see every thing along the way and side issues as well."

Here are most of its illustrations:

1. The place itself. Built in 1890, it was a world-class hostelry back then and, surprisingly, still survives, although for many decades it's been an office building. The "Guest Souvenir" says the entrance "is, without exception, the finest piece of architectural door work in New York. It is built, as is the entire structure, of a limestone of peculiar beauty, and the carvings, which embellish the cornices and portico ceilings, are unrivalled in the art of stone work in the United States."



2. The lobby is appropriately impressive. Decorated in Sienna marble, it's said to be as artistically satisfying as any other of the rooms in the house. It's "finished in a manner which makes the arriving guest feel that his every comfort is assured" so the booklet says.



3. As in all world-class hotels, the kitchen is buried deep underground. Unlike many others, thise one is spacious, well-ventilated, and well-equipped. The proprietors are said to understand that "if the cuisine is not all right the guests will be displeased" and have thus made it "large and airy and, with its tile furnishings, as sweet and clean as any room in the house." The brochure tells us that from four to five hundred meals are prepared here each day.



4. Here is the café: "The furniture of this room is unexcelled. The style is picturesquely redolent of the antique. Exactly such furniture and decoration were common in Old Holland House, of London. The screens or windows which separate it from the main corridor are marvels of bronze, marble and glass work."



5. The author of the pamphlet becomes ecstatic about the buffet: "perhaps, the most artistic and chastely decorated buffet in America. Here there is not that clap-trap decoration which embellishes so many buffets in the country. Everything is 'inset' — the walls, ceilings and the Mosaic floor are all perfect specimens of the period they reproduce and of the arts they represent. And, instead of gaudy hangings and showy pictures, we have here art in its perfection from the frescoed ceiling and cornices to the floor."



6. He begins to run out of steam when he gets to the restaurant: "It is one of the most ornate rooms in this country. The decorations are perhaps the best reproductions of the Louis Quinze period. The panels of tapestry, and mirrors and relievo decorations are masterpieces."[3]



7. There's a Ladies' Billiard Room — not just for ladies, as you can see, but set aside for their enjoyment, presumably since they've been excluded from the gents' own.



8. Although "every one of the 330 bedrooms are furnished with equal excellence and elegance," the place boasts two over-wrought bridal suites which are "without compare, the most elaborately furnished and decorated bridal suites in any modern hotel."



9. A lady sets out for a jaunt up the Avenue. Madison Square lies in the background as a fashionable lady speaks to the driver of a hansom. Like the other FL in the background, she's unescorted — no gentleman, no lady's companion — showing her Edwardian spirit of independence (and of course her wealth).[4]



---------------

Here's a photo of Holland House with the Collegiate Church on its right.


{Holland House, New York, 1900, by Detroit Publishing Co.; source: NYPL Digital Library}

This is from Google Street View, showing roughly the same image today.

View Larger Map

----------

The brochure touches on some topics I've covered lately.

1. Madison Square. "Unquestionably the greatest thoroughfare on the Western Continent is at the junction of Fifth Avenue, Broadway and Twenty-third Street, where at certain hours of the working day upwards of 800,000 human beings are swept past in the tide of travel forever rolling on towards the goal of Eternity. At this busy point Madison Square charms the sight, for here the grass is green and lovely the entire year, as if to rest the eye of the world weary. Here the children play and mock the birds and chase the butterflies; here the smartest nurse maids in America may be seen, and here the gentle and gifted George Francis Train sits by the hour, day after day, charming the birds out of their nests and the babies out of their wagons with the magic of his voice and the treasures of his pockets."

Here are some of the posts that show Madison Square:
2. The Marble Collegiate Church. "The Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, organized in 1628, is on the north-west corner of Twenty-ninth Street. It was chartered by William III in 1696, and the old bell cast in Amsterdam two-hundred years ago ornaments the church yard. It is the goodly neighbor of Holland House, and on its Dutch oak door is the benignant 'all are welcome.'"

Here are some of the posts that show the church:
3. The Croton Aqueduct. "Passing the Union League Club, corner Thirty-ninth Street, and the Republican Club, the sumptuous homes of the Misses Furness, the Kingslands and the Kipps, brings the stage coach to the old Croton aqueduct, which makes the eastern boundary of Bryant Park."

Here are some of the posts that show the aqueduct:
----------

Some sources:

1890s, on the Living City web site (a digital library initiative intended to capture the experience of life, health, and urban transformation during the decades between the end of the Civil War and the end of World War I)

King's handbook of New York city: an outline history and description of the American metropolis, edited by Moses King, 1892

276 5th Avenue now a commercial office building

AIA Guide to New York City, by Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon (Oxford University Press US, 2010; AIA is the American Institute of Architects

New York Songlines: 5th Avenue
— "Named for Lord Holland's mansion in London, on which it was modeled, [Holland House] was considered one of the premier hotels in the world when built in 1890 (Harding & Gooch, architects). Gainesborough's Duchess of Devonshire, the most famous stolen painting of its day, spent the night here in 1901 after being recovered after being stolen for 25 years by criminal mastermind Adam Worth. (See All Around the Town, p. 217.)"

Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to Present

Holland house, Fifth avenue and Thirtieth street, New York (New York, H. M. Kinsley & Baumann, 1891); scanned at the Library of Congress and appearing on the Internet Archive

---------

Notes:

[1] "The Holland House (European) is but recently opened, and in some respects outranks any hotel in the country. It is a large building of Indiana limestone, 100 feet by 150, on Fifth Avenue and 3Oth Street. Special interest attaches to it for the reason that it is a careful reproduction of the old and famous Holland House of London, a concession to the taste of those who love things English. There are the coat-of-arms of Henry Rich, the first Earl of Holland, with the decorations and all the historic features of the celebrated Kensington mansion. The house is one of the architectural features of Fifth Avenue. The facade, upon which there is but little decoration, is broken with a handsome portico fifty feet long, supported upon four columns, four rows of bay windows, and other windows set in embrasures and arches. Two features of the interior are the large dining-room and a long promenade in the second story. The house is ten stories high, and has 350 rooms." -- King's handbook of New York city: an outline history and description of the American metropolis, edited by Moses King, 1892. See also: AIA Guide to New York City, by Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon (Oxford University Press US, 2010; AIA is the American Institute of Architects

[2] Holland house, Fifth avenue and Thirtieth street, New York (New York, H. M. Kinsley & Baumann, 1891); scanned at the Library of Congress and appearing on the Internet Archive.

[3] NYPL's Digital Library has some menu scans for breakfast, lunch, supper, and dinner. They show an elaborate and expensive French cuisine. Here's the scan of the dinner menu for January 11, 1900.



Measuringworth.com says that the one dollar a diner might spend on a joint of spring lamb would cost $26.40 today, using the Consumer Price Index method of comparison. But in terms of what the average bloke could afford then, the equivalent is way over $100 today: all of $191.00 based on production worker compensation then and now.

[4] Here are some highlights from the booklet's description of wondrous sights on Fifth:
UP FIFTH AVENUE

Fifth Avenue is the promenade of America. Every cosmopolitan will admit that fact, whether a resident or a visitor of New York. ... It is the great artery of fashion, the highway of pleasure, the meridian of delight. ... In the tide of fashion that sweeps up one side and down the other, making the cobble stones and pavements fairly pulsate with life and gayety, the handsomest private equipage, the finest horses, the best dressed men and the prettiest women in the world, may be seen any day in the week from September till July. ... ... There is scarcely a single house the whole length of the famous thoroughfare that is not in some way individualized by the prominence and distinction of present or previous owners. ... [For example, one of them is inhabited by] Mr. Edward F. Searle, who married Mrs. Hopkins from whom he inherited the fabulous sum of $30,000,000. ... Mrs. William Astor's house No. 350, while a most unpretentious building, is a perfect store house of old bronzes, tapestries, marbles and rare paintings. This lady never refurnishes or remodels, being content with the mellow tones time puts on her belongings. ... At No. 501 is the Drawing-Room Club where the ultra fashionables meet weekly in faultless dress for their salon. ... Jay Gould's $700,000 brown stone is on the north-east corner of Forty-seventh Street, perfumed and beautified by the hybrid roses and rare orchids brought daily from his country seat at Tarrytown.

Tweet This

Posted by Jeff at 6:58 PM 1 comments
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)