JOurnals 1-4
1. Impressions of NEw York
The city has always been sort of a let down for me. People always talk about how awesome the city is and how nice it is but I never found any of that true. Every time I visited it was dirty, smelled, to crowded, and overall a place where I did not want to be. I can understand why some people love living there because everything is at your fingertips, but coming from long island I could not live like a city dweller.
Most times when I go to the city it is Manhattan, queens, or Brooklyn. I always thought Queens and Brooklyn where dirty places and that there was nothing interesting except Citi Field, The US Open, JFK, and LaGuardia. Manhattan on the other hand was always to crowded with people constantly pushing through the street. I feel like there is never a chance to relax because your senses are always overloaded. On long island I feel like if you are walking down the street and someone passes you can at least make out there face. In a crowd like Manhattans I look at a thousand faces and cant focus on one thing. It’s just to fast. The city is a place for quick on the go persons, and I do not know if I could keep up. We will just have to wait and find out.
Most of my negative opinion of the city is because of my previous influences. Hopefully through this class my view of the city will be changed to a more positive one. I am a hoping that I will grow more to appreciate the city for what it has to offer. As of right now I have a narrow mind about it, but that could be because I have never seen the whole city. Follow me through my journey to see if my view changes.
Most times when I go to the city it is Manhattan, queens, or Brooklyn. I always thought Queens and Brooklyn where dirty places and that there was nothing interesting except Citi Field, The US Open, JFK, and LaGuardia. Manhattan on the other hand was always to crowded with people constantly pushing through the street. I feel like there is never a chance to relax because your senses are always overloaded. On long island I feel like if you are walking down the street and someone passes you can at least make out there face. In a crowd like Manhattans I look at a thousand faces and cant focus on one thing. It’s just to fast. The city is a place for quick on the go persons, and I do not know if I could keep up. We will just have to wait and find out.
Most of my negative opinion of the city is because of my previous influences. Hopefully through this class my view of the city will be changed to a more positive one. I am a hoping that I will grow more to appreciate the city for what it has to offer. As of right now I have a narrow mind about it, but that could be because I have never seen the whole city. Follow me through my journey to see if my view changes.
2. Queens
Today we experienced quixotic queens. But before we delve into that the day all started back in Seaford Long Island. I woke up this day realizing that I had to get onto a train heading to Penn Station. It was the first day of the Gotham New York Experience class and I was anxious to get the day started. I hopped on a 9:53 train heading to Penn. While I was sitting I realized that the train might be running late and that I might have to catch up to the class in queens. I’m from Long island so I do not know much about the subway system in New York. Nervous about the subway, I downloaded an app called NYC subway, which told me how to get from Penn Station to Willits point, which is the station where the first place was. Luckily my Lirr train was on time and I found the class crowded around the Lirr boards, but because I had this app I felt much safer knowing that if I got lost I could use NYC subway.
We left Penn at 11:05 and headed off towards Queens. The subway we were taking was going to Corona Park where we would encounter our first two pieces of history from the city. The George Washington sculpture and the world fair Unisphere. At first sight of the sculpture I did not think of why Washington would be in the middle of Corona, but upon further investigation I would find out that Washington played a big role in the “Battle of Long Island”. According to the ENY “The first encounter was with the British on August 27 1776, where Washington tried to hold on to NYC with four times less men than the British, eventually Washington’s men would flee to Brooklyn heights, and then completely out of NYC” (ESN, 16).
I always knew what the Unisphere looked like, I used to call it “the big globe”, I always saw it going to the US Open or to Citi Field, but this was the first time I saw this monster up close. I could not believe the size of the thing. It was huge. Professor Russo said it was twelve stories high and that it was put there in 1964 for the World fair. One of the other classmates and I went under it because there was no water in the fountain, I have to say that it is enormous once you are under it. It was so fascinating to me that this thing was built in 1964 and it was still standing. I really wanted to climb the thing but I probably would have gotten arrested. The unisphere also represented something greater than its size, When it was built it was meant to represent, “Mans Achievments on a Shrinking Globe and an Expanding Universe as well as to reflect the ideal of global interdependence” (Eny, 162).
The next stop was the Queens Museum and I have to say that once I heard we were going to a museum I figured it would be boring. Not this one though, the Queens museum is full of art work form the world fair, has many New york related objects, and has a couple huge maps of the states water shed and a miniature sized version of the entire New York City boroughs. The Water Shed was one of the most interesting parts of the tour. It showed us how New York state gets its water from the Catskills and other reservoirs. It was fascinating to find that all the water for the 8 million people of New York is piped down from Upstate and that 90% of it was by gravity alone. Much of the museum had pictures from the world fair including the copies of Andy Warhol’s 13 most wanted paintings. We learned that the first original ones where painted over in silver because the organizers of the fair told Warhol to take it down, Warhol took to long so they painted over it. Through a picture and from what I was told the slogan for the 1964-65 world fair was “Peace Through Understanding”, which makes sense given the hippie times in the 60’s. We also saw something called the panorama, which was a huge small-scaled map. The Panorama “covered more than 9.335 square feet and contained more than 895,000 buildings, scaled to 1 inch to 100 feet, and contained every building in New York before 1992” (Eny 166). Its unbelievable when looking at it that someone took the time to do all this meticulous work. I learned through the tour that the grid system was created in 1811; Coney Island got its name from the Coney Rabbit brought from England, and that Wall Street got its name from a literal wall that kept the Native Americans out.
Next stop was through Jackson Heights to this Indian restaurant called the Jackson diner. ‘It was one of the first in the area to begin serving Indian food” (Eny, 173). Professor Russo was talking about trying the goat all day, and kept saying who is going to be brave enough to do it. I tried it and it actually was really good, very tender meat.
Afterward we caught the subway again to the museum of moving image in Astoria. “Astoria in 1919 became the filmmaking center and a home to Famous Players Laskey Corporation”. (Eny, 168) This museum I have to say was not really up my ally but in all it was cool to see some of the old cameras, and the prosthetics that where used in some of the movies. They had a Chewbakka mask that they used for the star wars movies, they also had the mask with Jim Carey, and many other famous film masks. Another thing that I forgot to mention was that many famous movie where shot at this location. Behind the museum was Kaufman Astoria Studio where they filmed famous movies such as Goodfellas, Carlitos way, Sesame Street and many others. All in all, the museum was pretty cool especially after I realized the history I saw once it was over.
The last place of our day was Long Island City. I had never been there before but have always heard things about it. The first thing we saw when stepping into the streets was the massive rain clouds heading towards us. We knew there was potential to getting soaked but we went along anyway, and I am very happy we did. The first place we saw was P.S 1, which was the first school in NYC which was pretty cool in itself, but it also was transformed into The Museum of Modern Art or MoMA for short. Although we did not go inside it was interesting to see how buildings in the city where sort of recycled for use in other areas such as this one. Across the street from the MoMA was the 5 pointz, which was a huge building, covered in art work graffiti, the only problem was that all the graffiti was being painted over because the surrounding neighbor hood was becoming “gentrified”. For those of you who do not know what gentrification is, it is the process of a troubled neighbor hood being turned into a affluent one. “The site was a warehouse that permitted spray painting, a unique and groundbreaking in the city and in the country” (Eny, 170). It was sad to see the graffiti painted over because I have heard many things about the 5 pointz and it will now only be seen in pictures and photos. A little ways down from the 5 pointz was the Gantry State Park. The first thing I realized when I was standing there was how beautiful the view was, even though there was a massive dark cloud behind it all. The park overlooked the entire East side of Manhattan. It was such a nice view and I never knew it even existed. There where apartment buildings right behind the park overlooking the city and I could not believe that when people wake up in the morning that they look outside and the most famous city in the world is staring right at them. It was the best way to end off the day, and in the distance behind the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building there was lighting, which told us it was time to go home. 100% want to go back to this park when it is nice out because the view was spectacular. So far the best place we have been to but we are just beginning.
We left Penn at 11:05 and headed off towards Queens. The subway we were taking was going to Corona Park where we would encounter our first two pieces of history from the city. The George Washington sculpture and the world fair Unisphere. At first sight of the sculpture I did not think of why Washington would be in the middle of Corona, but upon further investigation I would find out that Washington played a big role in the “Battle of Long Island”. According to the ENY “The first encounter was with the British on August 27 1776, where Washington tried to hold on to NYC with four times less men than the British, eventually Washington’s men would flee to Brooklyn heights, and then completely out of NYC” (ESN, 16).
I always knew what the Unisphere looked like, I used to call it “the big globe”, I always saw it going to the US Open or to Citi Field, but this was the first time I saw this monster up close. I could not believe the size of the thing. It was huge. Professor Russo said it was twelve stories high and that it was put there in 1964 for the World fair. One of the other classmates and I went under it because there was no water in the fountain, I have to say that it is enormous once you are under it. It was so fascinating to me that this thing was built in 1964 and it was still standing. I really wanted to climb the thing but I probably would have gotten arrested. The unisphere also represented something greater than its size, When it was built it was meant to represent, “Mans Achievments on a Shrinking Globe and an Expanding Universe as well as to reflect the ideal of global interdependence” (Eny, 162).
The next stop was the Queens Museum and I have to say that once I heard we were going to a museum I figured it would be boring. Not this one though, the Queens museum is full of art work form the world fair, has many New york related objects, and has a couple huge maps of the states water shed and a miniature sized version of the entire New York City boroughs. The Water Shed was one of the most interesting parts of the tour. It showed us how New York state gets its water from the Catskills and other reservoirs. It was fascinating to find that all the water for the 8 million people of New York is piped down from Upstate and that 90% of it was by gravity alone. Much of the museum had pictures from the world fair including the copies of Andy Warhol’s 13 most wanted paintings. We learned that the first original ones where painted over in silver because the organizers of the fair told Warhol to take it down, Warhol took to long so they painted over it. Through a picture and from what I was told the slogan for the 1964-65 world fair was “Peace Through Understanding”, which makes sense given the hippie times in the 60’s. We also saw something called the panorama, which was a huge small-scaled map. The Panorama “covered more than 9.335 square feet and contained more than 895,000 buildings, scaled to 1 inch to 100 feet, and contained every building in New York before 1992” (Eny 166). Its unbelievable when looking at it that someone took the time to do all this meticulous work. I learned through the tour that the grid system was created in 1811; Coney Island got its name from the Coney Rabbit brought from England, and that Wall Street got its name from a literal wall that kept the Native Americans out.
Next stop was through Jackson Heights to this Indian restaurant called the Jackson diner. ‘It was one of the first in the area to begin serving Indian food” (Eny, 173). Professor Russo was talking about trying the goat all day, and kept saying who is going to be brave enough to do it. I tried it and it actually was really good, very tender meat.
Afterward we caught the subway again to the museum of moving image in Astoria. “Astoria in 1919 became the filmmaking center and a home to Famous Players Laskey Corporation”. (Eny, 168) This museum I have to say was not really up my ally but in all it was cool to see some of the old cameras, and the prosthetics that where used in some of the movies. They had a Chewbakka mask that they used for the star wars movies, they also had the mask with Jim Carey, and many other famous film masks. Another thing that I forgot to mention was that many famous movie where shot at this location. Behind the museum was Kaufman Astoria Studio where they filmed famous movies such as Goodfellas, Carlitos way, Sesame Street and many others. All in all, the museum was pretty cool especially after I realized the history I saw once it was over.
The last place of our day was Long Island City. I had never been there before but have always heard things about it. The first thing we saw when stepping into the streets was the massive rain clouds heading towards us. We knew there was potential to getting soaked but we went along anyway, and I am very happy we did. The first place we saw was P.S 1, which was the first school in NYC which was pretty cool in itself, but it also was transformed into The Museum of Modern Art or MoMA for short. Although we did not go inside it was interesting to see how buildings in the city where sort of recycled for use in other areas such as this one. Across the street from the MoMA was the 5 pointz, which was a huge building, covered in art work graffiti, the only problem was that all the graffiti was being painted over because the surrounding neighbor hood was becoming “gentrified”. For those of you who do not know what gentrification is, it is the process of a troubled neighbor hood being turned into a affluent one. “The site was a warehouse that permitted spray painting, a unique and groundbreaking in the city and in the country” (Eny, 170). It was sad to see the graffiti painted over because I have heard many things about the 5 pointz and it will now only be seen in pictures and photos. A little ways down from the 5 pointz was the Gantry State Park. The first thing I realized when I was standing there was how beautiful the view was, even though there was a massive dark cloud behind it all. The park overlooked the entire East side of Manhattan. It was such a nice view and I never knew it even existed. There where apartment buildings right behind the park overlooking the city and I could not believe that when people wake up in the morning that they look outside and the most famous city in the world is staring right at them. It was the best way to end off the day, and in the distance behind the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building there was lighting, which told us it was time to go home. 100% want to go back to this park when it is nice out because the view was spectacular. So far the best place we have been to but we are just beginning.
3. Brooklyn
Today our goal was to take on Brooklyn. The day started as it always does taking the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station. Entering Penn I knew that we had a long ride ahead of us on the subway because we were headed to the outskirts of Brooklyn, into Coney Island. “Coney Island is a Leisurely 45 minute ride from midtown on the F, D, or Q trains” (Eny, 139). It sounds kind of a bad ride but it was pretty nice, once we exited the dark subways. We went over the Manhattan bridge and got a good view of the Brooklyn bridge and parts of the city. The view lasted about 5 minutes on the subway which I was not expecting to encounter. We also passed what I think was the greenwood cemetery, which was crowded with huge stones that apparently have very famous people buried beneath, weird but kind of cool.
Once the long ride was over we entered into Coney Island. We stopped to talk about the history behind Coney Island for a couple minutes, and I found out that “In the 1920’s Coney Island became NY’s most important summer amusement areas, but post war period it saw dramatic decline in the fortunes of Brooklyn, more people where traveling to Long Islands more appealing beaches and many of Coney Islands major amusement parks closed” (Eny, 138). After hearing some of the history we split up trying to feel the vibe of Coney Island by exploring what it had to offer. First we went to Nathans, which was the original one built in 1916. While on line for a hot dog we encountered our first “vibe” of Coney Island. After waiting on line for a while, service is not the best, some women next to us decided to start getting into a confrontation with one of the girls in our group. They were yelling at each other because apparently the girl in our group was talking about her. This women was crazy, she told me when I stepped in front to mediate, that her brothers were outside, which I’m assuming meant that they would fight me, which is the last thing I wanted to do after the long train ride. Long story short we parted our ways with a hotdog in each hand and looked ahead. We walked the board walk to see a lot of freaky looking people, then walked to the end of the pier to realize that all the homeless where out there fishing and eyeing us down. From my perspective Coney Island was not the greatest place for a day on the beach, but if eccentric people entertain one, then this place is definitely a place to people watch and have a couple laughs. Coney Island is one of a kind but I don't think it's the kind of place for me. ON the way back to inner Brooklyn we reflected on our experience, especially in Nathans, and I will most definitely never forget that day.
Next stop was the transit museum. This museum I was looking forward to because the subway is such an intricate system and I always wondered how it was built. “The museum opened in 1976 for New Yorks bicentennial celebration and proved to be an immediate success with New Yorkers” (Eny, 147). It has been a museum ever since and continues to draw people. The first thing we saw was how they built it, we learned about the sand hogs, which were people working under the high pressure digging under the rivers to make tunnels. The pressure was so high that they would sometimes get what scuba divers do, which is the bends. They had the most dangerous and probably one of the most important jobs in creating the subways. We also learned the systems used to create the tunnels, one was tunnel boaring and the other was cut and cover. Tunnel boring consisted of digging the tunnel underground and removing the rock and dirt above ground to create a tunnel. Cut and cover is basically what it sounds like, it is when they dig a huge trench put in tunnels then cover it back up. Cut and cover was used the most during the subways construction. The second part of the museum was all train cars from the 1900’s up until the 2000’s. The cool part about these was not the trains themselves but the advertisements in them. Each car, from different time frames, had advertisements showing what it would look like in the subway car during that time. The cars where mostly similar to todays except for cushions and the hand rails, but obviously the train cars now are more modern. The museum was very cool and I am very happy we went there.
The third stop of the day was Brooklyn heights. We saw many of the rare brown stone houses that where in this area. Professor Russo says that some of them run up past seven million dollars. Today Brooklyn Heights is one of New York’s most exclusive and desirable neighborhoods, with homes often selling for millions of dollars”(Eny, 145). This area was really nice, so one could tell that it was upscale. A little while down the road was the BH promenade, which was amazing! This was the best view of the day it was so nice, it overlooked downtown Manhattan, The Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and below us was the Brooklyn bridge park. This spot was so nice I couldn't believe it actually existed; I have to go back again.
Below the BH promenade and under the Manhattan Bridge is Dumbo, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This area is being transformed into a very affluent area. “The acronym Dumbo began being used in 1978 as an effort by community members to encourage the development of the area” (Eny, 151). Dumbo was very nice with beautiful views and scenery. There was a carousel that is called Jane’s Carousel, it is under “a 9 million dollar transparent jewel box” (Eny,152). The carousel gives a nice accent to the Brooklyn bridge park.
The last part of our trip was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. This was about a mile walk crossing from Brooklyn into Manhattan. Looking at this bridge I cold not believe that it was built in 1883. Thinking about the amount of workers, time, and effort to build this bridge in that time is mind blowing, and I was about to walk over it. The walk was really nice, except for the speeding bikers, other than that it was awesome. I couldn't believe the amount of people that were walking on it either, there walkway was packed with people, which was also good to see because that means it is a landmark that is actually being used. Once I got to the other side I looked back to see what I crossed and realized that I had just did the same as people in the 1800’s In 1883 when the bridge was opened, “250000 people would walk across what would become the eighth wonder of the world” (Eny,154). The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic places in NYC and if one gets the chance to walk across it I would say take the opportunity because it is worth it.
Once the long ride was over we entered into Coney Island. We stopped to talk about the history behind Coney Island for a couple minutes, and I found out that “In the 1920’s Coney Island became NY’s most important summer amusement areas, but post war period it saw dramatic decline in the fortunes of Brooklyn, more people where traveling to Long Islands more appealing beaches and many of Coney Islands major amusement parks closed” (Eny, 138). After hearing some of the history we split up trying to feel the vibe of Coney Island by exploring what it had to offer. First we went to Nathans, which was the original one built in 1916. While on line for a hot dog we encountered our first “vibe” of Coney Island. After waiting on line for a while, service is not the best, some women next to us decided to start getting into a confrontation with one of the girls in our group. They were yelling at each other because apparently the girl in our group was talking about her. This women was crazy, she told me when I stepped in front to mediate, that her brothers were outside, which I’m assuming meant that they would fight me, which is the last thing I wanted to do after the long train ride. Long story short we parted our ways with a hotdog in each hand and looked ahead. We walked the board walk to see a lot of freaky looking people, then walked to the end of the pier to realize that all the homeless where out there fishing and eyeing us down. From my perspective Coney Island was not the greatest place for a day on the beach, but if eccentric people entertain one, then this place is definitely a place to people watch and have a couple laughs. Coney Island is one of a kind but I don't think it's the kind of place for me. ON the way back to inner Brooklyn we reflected on our experience, especially in Nathans, and I will most definitely never forget that day.
Next stop was the transit museum. This museum I was looking forward to because the subway is such an intricate system and I always wondered how it was built. “The museum opened in 1976 for New Yorks bicentennial celebration and proved to be an immediate success with New Yorkers” (Eny, 147). It has been a museum ever since and continues to draw people. The first thing we saw was how they built it, we learned about the sand hogs, which were people working under the high pressure digging under the rivers to make tunnels. The pressure was so high that they would sometimes get what scuba divers do, which is the bends. They had the most dangerous and probably one of the most important jobs in creating the subways. We also learned the systems used to create the tunnels, one was tunnel boaring and the other was cut and cover. Tunnel boring consisted of digging the tunnel underground and removing the rock and dirt above ground to create a tunnel. Cut and cover is basically what it sounds like, it is when they dig a huge trench put in tunnels then cover it back up. Cut and cover was used the most during the subways construction. The second part of the museum was all train cars from the 1900’s up until the 2000’s. The cool part about these was not the trains themselves but the advertisements in them. Each car, from different time frames, had advertisements showing what it would look like in the subway car during that time. The cars where mostly similar to todays except for cushions and the hand rails, but obviously the train cars now are more modern. The museum was very cool and I am very happy we went there.
The third stop of the day was Brooklyn heights. We saw many of the rare brown stone houses that where in this area. Professor Russo says that some of them run up past seven million dollars. Today Brooklyn Heights is one of New York’s most exclusive and desirable neighborhoods, with homes often selling for millions of dollars”(Eny, 145). This area was really nice, so one could tell that it was upscale. A little while down the road was the BH promenade, which was amazing! This was the best view of the day it was so nice, it overlooked downtown Manhattan, The Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, and below us was the Brooklyn bridge park. This spot was so nice I couldn't believe it actually existed; I have to go back again.
Below the BH promenade and under the Manhattan Bridge is Dumbo, which stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. This area is being transformed into a very affluent area. “The acronym Dumbo began being used in 1978 as an effort by community members to encourage the development of the area” (Eny, 151). Dumbo was very nice with beautiful views and scenery. There was a carousel that is called Jane’s Carousel, it is under “a 9 million dollar transparent jewel box” (Eny,152). The carousel gives a nice accent to the Brooklyn bridge park.
The last part of our trip was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. This was about a mile walk crossing from Brooklyn into Manhattan. Looking at this bridge I cold not believe that it was built in 1883. Thinking about the amount of workers, time, and effort to build this bridge in that time is mind blowing, and I was about to walk over it. The walk was really nice, except for the speeding bikers, other than that it was awesome. I couldn't believe the amount of people that were walking on it either, there walkway was packed with people, which was also good to see because that means it is a landmark that is actually being used. Once I got to the other side I looked back to see what I crossed and realized that I had just did the same as people in the 1800’s In 1883 when the bridge was opened, “250000 people would walk across what would become the eighth wonder of the world” (Eny,154). The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the most iconic places in NYC and if one gets the chance to walk across it I would say take the opportunity because it is worth it.
4. the village
Today we are experiencing Chelsea and the villages. Just getting to the Chelsea was very unique because we took something called the highline. The highline is an old raised railway, which “fell out of existence in the 1980’s and opened as a public park” (Eny, 106). It was covered with plants and trees that are native to the area. It is a great way of walking to parts of the city because it is a change from all the boring concrete that normally engulfs the city. It took us straight to Chelsea where the galleries where located.
The galleries of Chelsea are in abundance. “Most of these galleries are clustered from 27th street to 19th street between 10th and 11th avenue” (Eny, 107). Each gallery portrays two or three artists and there are about 250 galleries to choose from. I have to admit I did not expect much from the artists because I know how some art is just blots of ink on a page, which does not excite me. Although they’re where a few places that housed abstract art, somewhere very cool with unique pieces. The places that stood put the most for me where Always Shameless, Paula Cooper Gallery, and Susan Inglet gallery. The Most unique place of the three was Always shameless because it had a bunch of dictators from past eras put in coke machines, it sounds weird because it is but below I will put pictures to show what it is. After we where done with the galleries we walked the highline again to get to the meatpacking district, ‘from the 1850’s to the 1930’s this was a wholesale meat market and filled with slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants” (Eny, 109).
This place used to be covered with prostitutes I was told but now it is filled with shops and what looks like a nice community.
Next we made a stop at St Peters Epicopal Church which was “designed by Moore himself, this Gothic Revival church was completed in 1836 as a replacement for the community’s earlier Greek Revival church” (Eny, 109). We got to walk in the church because luckily the person in charge let us in, even though it was closed. Once I entered I realized how old this church actually was. It was astounding to look at because the seats where completely wood without kneelers, and the detail in ceiling and artwork was on point. This church was one of a kind, it was very old, but very detailed.
After the church we went to get food at Chelsea Market, which was a very cool place, but packed with people. It had many food options and shops but the amount of people was overwhelming, it was tough to get a seat so we just sat on the ground and ate the Mexican food that we had gotten.
Once we were replenished with food we headed to Washington Square Park, which is seen in TV shows and movies, making it an iconic spot in the city. “The land where the park is located was purchased by the city of New York in 1797 to serve as a potters field-a place of burial for unknown or indigent people… the park was also used for public execution with those convicted hung from Hangman’s tree”(Eny, 117). The tree is still standing today at one of the entrances to the park, it is apparently the oldest tree in the city of Manhattan, over 300 years old. Even though the park used to be dark and mysterious it is now a center of the community. There where people everywhere, and little kids running in the fountain. Some people where playing instruments, while others where standing there practicing there boxing moves, no joke actually the guy was actually boxing in the middle of the park, but that's why the city is unique I guess.
The next major site that we saw was The Merchants House. “This house was built by Joseph Brewster in 1832” (Eny,121). It was eventually sold to the Tredwell family in which it was then kept in the family until it was turned into a museum because of its preservation into the 19th century. Today it still has the furniture that was in the house when the family lived there. Most things in the house are original and from the time period that they lived there. Walking through this house was definitely a time warp. The first thing you notice is how old things appear and how detailed the moldings and doorways where. I thought it was fascinating that everything was still in good condition, considering the age of the house. The house was never meant to be free standing because it was built as row houses but the other houses have been demolished and by standing in the building one can tell it has sort of a lean to it. Another thing about the house was when you walked upstairs it would get hotter and hotter, which back then would have been terrible, after 5 minutes on the top floor I could not stay there any longer.
Today was a long day, we walked a lot and most of us were very tired. The End of our journey was at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which was home to the Salty Pimp. The Salty Pimp was vanilla ice-cream, deleche, covered in chocolate dip. How could you go there and not get ice cream called the Salty Pimp, it's a no brainer, so now I can say I have had the Salty Pimp at the Big Gay Ice-cream Shop.
The galleries of Chelsea are in abundance. “Most of these galleries are clustered from 27th street to 19th street between 10th and 11th avenue” (Eny, 107). Each gallery portrays two or three artists and there are about 250 galleries to choose from. I have to admit I did not expect much from the artists because I know how some art is just blots of ink on a page, which does not excite me. Although they’re where a few places that housed abstract art, somewhere very cool with unique pieces. The places that stood put the most for me where Always Shameless, Paula Cooper Gallery, and Susan Inglet gallery. The Most unique place of the three was Always shameless because it had a bunch of dictators from past eras put in coke machines, it sounds weird because it is but below I will put pictures to show what it is. After we where done with the galleries we walked the highline again to get to the meatpacking district, ‘from the 1850’s to the 1930’s this was a wholesale meat market and filled with slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants” (Eny, 109).
This place used to be covered with prostitutes I was told but now it is filled with shops and what looks like a nice community.
Next we made a stop at St Peters Epicopal Church which was “designed by Moore himself, this Gothic Revival church was completed in 1836 as a replacement for the community’s earlier Greek Revival church” (Eny, 109). We got to walk in the church because luckily the person in charge let us in, even though it was closed. Once I entered I realized how old this church actually was. It was astounding to look at because the seats where completely wood without kneelers, and the detail in ceiling and artwork was on point. This church was one of a kind, it was very old, but very detailed.
After the church we went to get food at Chelsea Market, which was a very cool place, but packed with people. It had many food options and shops but the amount of people was overwhelming, it was tough to get a seat so we just sat on the ground and ate the Mexican food that we had gotten.
Once we were replenished with food we headed to Washington Square Park, which is seen in TV shows and movies, making it an iconic spot in the city. “The land where the park is located was purchased by the city of New York in 1797 to serve as a potters field-a place of burial for unknown or indigent people… the park was also used for public execution with those convicted hung from Hangman’s tree”(Eny, 117). The tree is still standing today at one of the entrances to the park, it is apparently the oldest tree in the city of Manhattan, over 300 years old. Even though the park used to be dark and mysterious it is now a center of the community. There where people everywhere, and little kids running in the fountain. Some people where playing instruments, while others where standing there practicing there boxing moves, no joke actually the guy was actually boxing in the middle of the park, but that's why the city is unique I guess.
The next major site that we saw was The Merchants House. “This house was built by Joseph Brewster in 1832” (Eny,121). It was eventually sold to the Tredwell family in which it was then kept in the family until it was turned into a museum because of its preservation into the 19th century. Today it still has the furniture that was in the house when the family lived there. Most things in the house are original and from the time period that they lived there. Walking through this house was definitely a time warp. The first thing you notice is how old things appear and how detailed the moldings and doorways where. I thought it was fascinating that everything was still in good condition, considering the age of the house. The house was never meant to be free standing because it was built as row houses but the other houses have been demolished and by standing in the building one can tell it has sort of a lean to it. Another thing about the house was when you walked upstairs it would get hotter and hotter, which back then would have been terrible, after 5 minutes on the top floor I could not stay there any longer.
Today was a long day, we walked a lot and most of us were very tired. The End of our journey was at the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop, which was home to the Salty Pimp. The Salty Pimp was vanilla ice-cream, deleche, covered in chocolate dip. How could you go there and not get ice cream called the Salty Pimp, it's a no brainer, so now I can say I have had the Salty Pimp at the Big Gay Ice-cream Shop.