Это я — Эдичка

* Илья Левин / Ilya Levin
** «Russica Publishers» (New York)

7 ноября 2006 года у Екатерины Волковой и Эдуарда Лимонова родился сын Богдан — Богдан Эдуардович Савенко.

* * *

Amherst Center for Russian Culture:

This is a draft letter composed by E. Limonov and V. Prussakov that is repeated on the reverse side of all the pages of this manuscript.

Op-Ed page = Opposite the Editorial Page

Physicist «takes too idealistic view of West»

by Peter Strafford

Disillusioned Russian immigrants in America accuse him of naivety.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

«The Times», No.59.563, November 27, 1975

Edward Limonov at The Winslow Hotel

Shaded relief map of Manhattan, made from LiDAR data

«Это я — Эдичка»

«Проходя между часом дня и тремя по Мэдисон авеню, там, где её пересекает 55-я улица, не поленитесь, задёрните голову и взгляните вверх — на немытые окна чёрного здания отеля «Винслоу». Там, на последнем — 16-м этаже, на среднем, одном из трёх балконов гостиницы сижу полуголый я. Обычно я ем щи и одновременно меня обжигает солнце, до которого я большой охотник. Щи с кислой капустой моя обычная пища, я ем их кастрюлю за кастрюлей, изо дня в день, и кроме щей почти ничего не ем. Ложка, которой я ем щи, деревянная и привезена из России. Она разукрашена золотыми, алыми и чёрными цветами».

Эдуард Лимонов
«Это я — Эдичка», 1976

«If you're walking past the corner of Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street between one and three in the afternoon, take the trouble to tip back your head and look up—at the unwashed windows of the black Hotel Winslow. There on the topmost, sixteenth floor, on the centermost of the hotel's three balconies, I sit half naked. Usually I am eating shchi and at the same time working on my tan, I'm a great sun lover. Shchi, or sauerkraut soup, is my usual fare; I eat pot after pot of it, day after day, and eat almost nothing else. The spoon I eat the shchi with is wooden and was brought from Russia. It is decorated with flowers of scarlet, gold, and black».

translated from Russian by S.[Stuart] L. Campbell
«It's Me, Eddie», 1983

Block 1291, Lot 21

NYC • Department of Finance
Property Information Portal

propertyinformationportal.nyc.gov/…

1976.04.30.pdf
1977.10.13.pdf

The 1811 Plan

Interactive 1811 Plan

To support its interactivity, the 1811 plan has been georectified. The avenues run parallel to the island, tilting to the northeast, rather than true north. The deviation from true north is close to 29 degrees. The georectification enables users to relate the 1811 plan to the city today by using the slide to transition between past and present, or by typing a modern address in the address finder.

Hot spots explain several key features of the map and are searchable by the index.

There are three original manuscript copies of the 1811 Plan. The version presented in this interactive is from the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (MssCol 605). The map is drawn in ink on paper, wax seals are attached at the bottom, and it measures 106 x 30 7/16 inches.

Museum of the City of New York
(The Greatest Grid)

1852

Map of the City of New-York
Extending northward to Fiftieth St.

visualizingnyc.org/map/

OldMapsOnline

1857

1867

1874

1879

1880

1885

1891

1897

1899

1905

1911

1916

1929

1963

Manhattan: Madison Avenue — 55^th Street

Madison Avenue, north from and including 55^th Street, seen from 54^th Street east of Madison Avenue. The streets have been graded, but building is only just getting under way.

On the N.E. corner of Madison Avenue and 57^th Street the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, afterwards to become the Central Presbyterian Church, is nearing completion. This edifice will be demolished in 1928 (see New Fuller Building Progressive Series, 1928–29, Madison Avenue N.W. corner of 57^th Street). On the N.E. corner of 57^th Street stands the newly erected 1 East 57^th Street, residence of Mrs. Mary Mason Jones, and the first of the block known as Marble Row. (See Fifth Avenue at N.E. corner of 57^th Street, 1925, and other views). It will be demolished late in 1929. Two or three of the houses shown under construction on the north side of 57^th Street, notably 17 East 57^th Street (the western wing of the house with the mansard roof), will be standing in 1935.

In the background, on a line from the observer through the intersection of Madison Avenue and 56^th Street, may be seen the old Arsenal in Central Park, used as a police station.

This photograph is reproduced in «Valentine's Manual» for 1923, on page 15, and credited to the collection of George S. Weston. We have taken the date as given by «Valentine's Manual». May 5, 1871.

International News Photos, Inc. MAY BE REPRODUCED. Neg. #946

The New York Public Library

Madison Ave. and 55^th Street

Description: Madison Avenue. ca. 1870. Looking northwest from 55^th Street. The Northwest Reformed Dutch Church (third site) is seen on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue & 57^th Street. The white marble residence on the northeast corner of 57^th Street was one of the block known as «Marble Row», erected in 1871. | J. Clarence Davies Street Views Scrapbook

Physical dimensions: H: 13 in, W: 18 1/4 in

File dimensions: 46.5×33.0 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

Madison Avenue and 55^th Street, showing street construction

Physical dimensions: H: 8 5/8 in, W: 13 3/4 in

File dimensions: 35.5×22.6 cm at 300dpi

Museum of the City of New York

Park Avenue from 55^th to 59^th Street

Dated: ca. 1871

File dimensions: 35,5×22,6 cm at 300 dpi

The city of New York, map

Will L. Taylor • Galt & Hoy, 1879

Library of Congress

19. Ward 19.

David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Allerton House Chain

The Allerton houses were club residences built and managed by James Stewart Cushman (1871–1952), a manufacturer, realty operator, tennis official and philanthropist. The first Allerton House was completed in 1913 at 302 West 22^nd Street, in New York City. The Allerton House chain included six hotels in New York, one in Cleveland and one in Chicago.

James Stewart Cushman was born in New York in 1871. He descended from Thomas Cushman, who came to America in the Mayflower. His father E. Holbrook Cushman was a realty operator. He was a member of the Board of the Young Men's Christian Association. In 1939, he was elected governor of the Society of Mayflower Descendants in the State of New York. His wife Vera Scott Cushman (1876–1946) was an international vice-president of the world council of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), from 1924 to 1938, and the first president of New York YWCA (1912).

The Allerton House Company was organized in 1912 by James Cushman and William Silk. It was intended to provide small residential apartments with hotel services and club-like sociability at modest prices on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. The buildings, noted for the quality of its architectural design and interior decoration, usually included lounges, libraries, and athletic facilities.

Allerton House chain was formed by eight club hotels with moderate prices for men and women, built from 1913 to 1926. The chain was named for another Mayflower ancestor of Cushman, Mary Allerton, daughter of Isaac Allerton, an early owner of the land on which this Allerton House was built. Mary Allerton married Thomas Cushman about 1636.

In 1915 or before, Cushman was the head of the Allerton Realty Co. and the Allerton House Co. William H. Silk was the secretary. Later, the Allerton Thirty-eighth Street Company was formed. In 1923, Silk built the Barbizon Hotel in NYC, a residential hotel and clubhouse for single women.

According to the «New York Times» (March 20, 1952), associated with Cushman was a group of financiers including George W. Perkins and Arthur Curtiss James.

The six hotels in New York of the Allerton House chain were built at

• 302 West Twenty-Second Street (the first one),
• 138 East Thirty-eight Street (the second one),
• 143 East 39^th Street (the third one),
• 45 East Fifty-fifth Street (Winslow Hotel),
• 22 East Thirty-eighth Street (Fraternity Clubs Building)

and, for women,

• 130 East Fifty-seventh Street.

Note: in 1910, a 12-story «The Allerton» apartment house was erected on the southwest corner of Broadway and 113^th Street. It was not part of the Allerton House chain. The building still exists as 600 West 113^th Street.

By August 1918, the second Allerton House, built at 138 East Thirty-eight Street, was sold to Y.W.C.A. and it was then adapted into a women's residence.

In the 1930s, the earnings of the Allerton Corporation was in decline. It was times of the Great Depression. The Allerton club residences were converted into conventional hotels.

In 1930, the 600-room Allerton Club Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, became part of the Knott chain. By June 1932, the Allerton club residence, at 45 East 55^th Street also passed to the management of the Knott Company.

In May 1932, George Tybout Purves (1896–1951) of Graham Parsons & Co. was announced as the head of a committee in the interests of holders of Allerton New York Corporation. The committee was to press for a reorganization of the Corporation. The Allerton New York Corporation was reorganized about 1935.

In 1942, George T. Purves was the head of the Allerton Corporation. James Stewart Cushman was the president of the Longacre House Company and leased from Vincent Astor, the eight-story Club Hotel at 317 West Forty-fifth Street. It was renamed Longacre House and it was not associated with the Allerton New York Corporation. In 1943, Cushman bought the hotel. He died in 1952.

In 1958 a new hotel chain was formed under the name of Mansion Hotels and it included some of the original Allerton Houses, like the Midston House. Two hotel were sold in January 1960, the hotel at 130 East Fifty-seventh Street and the hotel at 22 East Thirty-eighth Street, to corporations controlled by David Bisgeier and Hyman I. Cohen.

Geographic Guide — Historic Buildings in NYC

It has not been possible to determine who or what the hotel The Winslow was named after. 😎 My theory, involving another passenger aboard the Mayflower, appeals to me not only because of his surname, but also because of his first name:

Edward Winslow

Edward Winslow (18 October 1595 — 8 May 1655) was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the «Mayflower» in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and his brother, Gilbert Winslow signed the Mayflower Compact. In Plymouth he served in a number of governmental positions such as assistant governor, three times was governor and also was the colony's agent in London. In early 1621 he had been one of several key leaders on whom Governor Bradford depended after the death of John Carver. He was the author of several important pamphlets, including Good Newes from New England and co-wrote with William Bradford the historic «Mourt's Relation», which ends with an account of the First Thanksgiving and the abundance of the New World. In 1655 he died of fever while on an English naval expedition in the Caribbean against the Spanish. He is the only original Plymouth colonist with an extant portrait painted from life. This, along with portraits of Winslow's son and daughter-in-law, and various Winslow family artifacts, are in the Pilgrim Hall Museum, in Plymouth, Massachusetts. ⟨…⟩

«Wikipedia»

The Winslow, Allerton House at 45 East 55^th Street

The Allerton House at 45 East 55^th Street / 551 Madison Avenue, in Midtown Manhattan, was originally opened for men only as permanent residents. It was completed in mid-1922, when it opened its doors. It was also known as The Winslow. Since 1982, is an office building.

This 17-story Allerton House for bachelors was erected on the site of the old First Reformed Episcopal Church, built in the 1870s on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 55^th Street. The congregation left the place in November 1919, after the property was sold to the Allerton House Company. The temple was then demolished.

The fireproof building was designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon, who also designed other hotels in New York, such as the Allerton House at 145 East 39^th St. and the Shelton. The building fronts 75 feet on Madison Ave. and 100 feet on the 55^th Street. It was constructed with clad in dark-red brick above a 2-story base of stone, metal, and glass, with the main entrance in the south facade on 55^th Street. The penthouse level is topped by a low-sloped tile roof. It had club conveniences and furnished rooms.

In 1932, the 500-room club residence passed to the management of the Knott Company and it was also opened to women.

In 1961, the Winslow Hotel was a property of the H. R. Weissberg Company, headed by Herbert R. Weissberg and operated by the Winslow Associates of New York. The Weissberg chain included the Paramount, the Brittany and the Winslow Hotels in New York, and the Baltimore and the Emerson in Baltimore.

In 1962, the Winslow Hotel was purchased by the Leader-Durst Corporation, a real state company. It had then 400 rooms, a cocktail lounge, restaurant, eight stores and offices with separate entrance.

In 1965, the 400-room Winslow Hotel was transferred to Felomer, Inc., headed by Osias Natch [Nacht].

In 1982, it was renovated and converted into an office building.

The building underwent a series of renovations between 2006 and 2016. In January 2017, Lexin Capital bought the building from Barings (formerly known as Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers). Now, the building is managed by Cushman & Wakefield.

Geographic Guide — Historic Buildings in NYC

First Reformed Episcopal Church

The denomination known as the Reformed Episcopal Church was founded in 1873 in response to a long debate over the excessive «High Church» tendencies by the Protestant Episcopal Church and its exclusive attitude toward other denominations. The Rt. Rev. Dr. George David Cummins (1822–1876), Assistant Bishop of Kentucky, had been rebuked for participating in a Communion Service at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Subsequently, Bishop Cummins, joined by eight clergymen and twenty lay members, withdrew from the Protestant Episcopal Church and formed a new jurisdiction. Services were held in Lyric Hall, on Sixth Avenue, until May 1874, when the new society was able to secure its own church (possibly the former Church of the Resurrection, a little Gothic stone building at the corner of Madison Avenue and 47^th Street). Bishop Cummins became gravely ill in 1874 and was no longer able to function as cleric. He was succeeded by the Rev. Dr. William T. Sabine, who had been rector of the Church of the Atonement at Madison Avenue and 28^th Street. (Dr. Sabine became infamous while at the Atonement when, in December 1870, he refused to conduct a funeral for the actor George Holland. At the time, actors were esteemed only a little higher than prostitutes. When asked if there was someplace else where the funeral could be held, Dr. Sabine responded, «I believe there's a little church around the corner that does that sort of thing». He was referring to the Church of the Transfiguration on East 29^th Street.)

In 1876, the congregation began construction on their first church building, located at 551 Madison Avenue and 55^th Street. The first services were held in the basement on Sunday, April 22, 1877, and the church was expected to be completed and dedicated about the middle of May. As designed by James Stroud in the Victorian Gothic style, the building measured 66 feet by 96 feet and was built of Newark stone with rock face and Berlin stone dressing. At the corner was a square bell tower surmounted by a pyramid steeple. The interior featured an open timber roof of carved ribs sprung from corbelled columns against the walls, a ceiling that rose to a height of 63 feet, and woodwork of ash. Approximately 900 could be accomodated on the main floor, and the gallery provided seating for 200; the basement Sunday-school had space for 600 scholars. The building cost $107,000, including the organ, and the lots cost $42,500. The congregation remained at this location until November 1919, when the property was sold for $325,000 to the Allerton House Company, who then razed the church and erected a seventeen-story apartment hotel for bachelors. Services were held in a leased building while the congregation determined the type of new building they would need for the future. <…>

The New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

First Reformed Episcopal Church

The First Reformed Episcopal Church (formally Saint Alban's Anglican Church: The First Reformed Episcopal Church) is a congregation of the Reformed Episcopal Church in New York City. Incorporated by REC founder George David Cummins in March 1874, it was among the first newly established REC congregations after the REC's 1873 schism from the Episcopal Church in a dispute over Tractarianism. During First REC's history, it has held services at several locations throughout Midtown Manhattan, first at Madison Avenue and East 55^th Street, then in multiple facilities on East 50^th Street, and most recently at Tudor City.

History of the congregation

Amid a long-running dispute within the Episcopal Church about high church tendencies associated with the Oxford Movement versus low church evangelicalism, Kentucky bishop Cummins participated in an ecumenical service of Holy Communion at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Rebuked by church leadership, Cummins and several other clergy and laity unilaterally withdrew from the Episcopal Church to form the Reformed Episcopal Church. They began holding church meetings in Lyric Hall in late 1873 and organized the congregation as the First Reformed Episcopal Church in March 1874. Not long after, Cummins became seriously ill, dying in 1876. He was succeeded as rector of First REC by former Episcopal priest and future REC bishop William T. Sabine.

Under Sabine's leadership, in 1876, the congregation began construction on a new church building at 551 Madison Avenue, on the northwest corner of East 55^th Street. The Gothic Revival building was dedicated in 1877. The congregation remained at this site until 1919, when it sold the building to a developer that demolished the church and built a hotel on the site. From 1919 to 1921, the church met in rented space until purchasing the former Beekman Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1873 and located at 317 East 50^th Street.

The late 1920s saw the 50th Street building falling into poor condition. Without sufficient funds to restore it, First REC leased the site to the Labor Holding Corporation. This company then built a 12-story, income-generating apartment building that included spaces on its lower floors for the church's nave and other activities. The new apartment building was erected in 1931 and the church space on the ground floor was dedicated in September of that year.

In 2003, Matthew P. Harrington began a two-decade rectorate. After his arrival, an audit of the congregation's books revealed «widespread misappropriation». A lawsuit was filed against the former vestry members, and as a result of the investigation, in 2007, the church's volunteer treasurer was convicted of theft after stealing more than $400,000 from the church's collections over a five-year period. In 2019, the congregation vacated its space at 317 East 50^th Street, leasing it to a school, putting the space up for sale and relocating to rented space at Tudor City. It donated its pipe organ—a Schantz instrument with three manuals, 37 registers, 26 stops and 31 ranks—to the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Our Savior.

Architecture

Madison Avenue

The Madison Avenue church was built in a Victorian Gothic Revival style, 66 feet wide and 96 feet long. It was faced with Newark stone and dressed with Berlin stone. The southeast corner of the church featured a square bell tower topped with a pyramidal steeple.

The interior of the church was characterized by an open-timbered roof with carved ribs resting on corbels against the walls. The interior woodwork was made of ash. The main floor of the nave offered seating for 900 worshipers, with an additional 200 seats in the gallery. The Sunday school in the basement could accommodate 600. ⟨…⟩

Rectors

Since 1874, the rectors of First REC have included four current or future presiding bishops of the REC:

Website: saintalbansnyc.org

«Wikipedia»

* * *

Religious News

The corner-stone of the First Reformed Episcopal Church of New York, Madison Ave., cor. 55^th Street, was laid with appropriate service by Bishop Wm. R. Nicholson, D.D., on Tuesday P.M., Oct. 10^th. Addresses were made by Dr. Ludlow, of the Reformed Church; Rev. E.H. Corey, Methodist; Dr. Robinson, Presbyterian; Bishop Fallows, Chicago; Mr. Hepworth, Independent, and Rev. W.T. Sabine, the pastor of the church. Bishop Cummins was warmly remembered in the prayers and addresses. The church is to be a neat and cheerful affair, capable of seating about a thousand persons. Mr. Sabine and his people have every encouragement in their new field.

«The Christian Union», Vol.14, No.16, October 18, 1876

1877?

First Reformed Episcopal Church, 55^th Street and Madison Avenue
Dated: ca. 1876
File dimensions: 35,5×29,2 cm at 300dpi

Museum of the City of New York

«King's Handbook of New York City»

Moses King

«King's Handbook of New York City:
An Outline History and Description of the American Metropolis;
with over one thousand illustrations»
// Boston, Massachusetts: «Moses King», 1893,
hardcover, IV+1008 p.

⟨…⟩

The First Reformed Episcopal Church, at Madison Avenue and East 55^th Street, is the only church of that denomination in the city. It is a handsome stone structure, with a large and simply decorated auditorium. It was built in 1876, soon after the formation of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which was organized by a number of Episcopal clergymen and laymen, under the leadership of Bishop G.D. Cummins, who objected to what they considered the Romanizing tendencies of the Prayer Book. Rev. Dr. William T. Sabine, a former Episcopal clergyman, is in charge of the parish.

⟨…⟩

«A history of the formation and growth of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 1873–1902»

Mrs. Annie Darling Price

«A history of the formation and growth of the Reformed Episcopal Church, 1873–1902»
// Philadelphia: «James M. Armstrong, Printer and Publisher», 1902,
hardcover, VIII+312 p.

⟨…⟩ On October 10th, 1876, the corner-stone of the First Reformed Episcopal Church, New York City, was laid. In these exercises, Bishop Nicholson and others participated. ⟨…⟩

Palmer apartment house

Apartment house No. 28 E. 55^th Street, corner Madison Avenue ; Floor plan.

Date Issued: 1908

The New York Public Library

---

Apartment houses of the metropolis (1908)

read more…

East 55^th Street at southeast corner of Madison Avenue. Palmer apartment house

Dated: ca.1910

File dimensions: 45,2x57,3 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

East 55^th Street and Madison Avenue, southeast corner. Palmer apartment house

Dated: ca.1910

File dimensions: 37,1x46,5 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

Lans Antiques. N.W. Cor. 55 St. and Madison Ave. New York City

Creator: Wurts Bros.

Dated: 1919

File dimensions: 36,5x46,5 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

The Winslow скоро начнут строить справа за кадром.

Hotel to Replace Church

Private reality sales

Another 16-story apartment hotel project will be launched shortly as the result of a deal just closed. The First Reformed Episcopal Church sold its property, comprising a plot 75x100 at the northeast corner of Madison avenue and 55^th street, to the Allerton House Company, comprising James H. Cushman and William H. Silk, who plan to improve the corner with a 16-story apartment hotel. The church valued the realty at $325,000, and sold it through Frederick Southack & Alwyn Ball, Jr., its agents, through William B. May & Co., acting for the purchasers. The church, of which the Rev. W.D. Stevens is rector, has made no arrangement to re-establish elsewhere, but a meeting will be held in the near future to determine upon a new location. Title is expected to pass to the new owners in ninety days.

«Real Estate Record and Builders Guide», May 10, 1919

Church to be Razed

First Reformed Episcopal Home Sold for Apartment Site.

The First Reformed Episcopal Church, at Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, built in 1876, is to be torn down. The Supreme Court has just ratified the covenant of sale. A large apartment hotel will occupy the corner.

The congregation will retain possession of the building until November. It will not abandon the neighborhood. A building in the vicinity will be leased, and the activities of the parish will be reorganized along broader lines than at present. The sale of the First Church property will net the organization something in excess of $300,000. The principal will be left unimpaired until it has been decided just what kind of a building will best fit the needs of the parish, and what would be the most advantageous location.

The First Church is the mother church of the Reformed Episcopal communion. Its first pastor was the Right Rev. George David Cummins, formerly Assistant Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky. He was the leader of the revolt against the High Church tendencies of the Protestant Episcopal Church.

He was succeeded in the rectorship by the Rev. William T. Sabine, D. D., afterward Bishop. The Rev. Dr. Charles Hamilton Coon, D. D., was Bishop Sabine's successor. He served only a few months and then died.

The last rector was the Rev. Dr. William Du Bose Stevens, who died in France while serving as a Red Cross Chaplain.

«The New York Times», June 29, 1919

Madison Av. Church to go

$850,000 Bachelor Hotel for Corner of 55^th St. and Madison Av.

The last religious services to be conducted in the First Reformed Episcopal Church, northeast corner Fifty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue, will be held the first Sunday in November. Soon after that date the building will be razed, and on the site will be erected by the Allerton House Company a seventeen-story structure for use as an apartment hotel for bachelors.

The site, which is 100 feet deep with a frontage of seventy-five feet in Madison Avenue, was purchased by the church authorities in 1874 for $45,000. It is understood the price at which it was sold to the Allerton House Company, of which James S. Cushman is President and William H. Silk is Treasurer, was about $325,000.

Demolition of the church building will be started the day after the last services are held. Construction of the new building, to be known as Allerton Fifty-fifth Street House, will begin as soon as the old structure is razed.

This building will be a seventeen-story apartment hotel, will contain 560 rooms and will be confined entirely to providing homes for men. The building was planned by Arthur Loomis Harmon. Materials to be used in the construction will be red brick with a sparing use of stone in the entrance columns and base courses, and Spanish tile for the higher roofs. The cost is estimated at $850,000.

«The New York Times», Sept. 21, 1919

Farewell Services in Old Church

The congregation of the old First Reformed Episcopal Church, at Madison Avenue and Fifty-first Street, will begin tomorrow three days of farewell services. The church building, the only one of that denomination in Manhattan, will soon make way for an apartment hotel. The church has engaged the auditorium of the Y.W.C.A. at Lexington Avenue and Fifty-third Street for its morning service. Bishop Robert L. Rudolph will celebrate communion at 11 o'clock, and the afternoon service will be preached by the Rev. William A. Freemantle of Philadelphia.

«The New York Times», November 1, 1919

Rare New York City Porcelain Street Sign.
Madison Ave & E. 55^th Street. C1920

For sale is a very rare New York City porcelain enamel street sign. Very rarely do Madison Ave NYC street signs come up for sale. From the estate of Native New Yorkers who long ago moved to Florida. Location: Madison Ave & E. 55^th Street. Year: circa 1915–1920. Condition: Overall very good for age. Age expected wear. Small nicks and chips along edges. One dime size chip on one side above «AVE». (see picture) Measures 21 7/8" wide x 11 3/4" tall. Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. ⟨…⟩

«WorthPoint»

East 51^st Street and Park Avenue, Ambassador Hotel
East 55^th Street and Madison Avenue, Winslow Hotel

Creator: Wurts Bros.

Dated: ca. 1921

File dimensions: 46,5×36,6 cm at 300dpi

«Museum of the City of New York»

déjà vu:

A Little Old Farmhouse

Remodeled. 7 rooms, bath, running water, fireplace, furnace; big piazza; thoroughly comfortable, unpretentious. Summer home or all-year farm; at Hillsdale, N.Y., 3 hours Harlem Division; woods, hiils [hills]; 94 acres; barn, zarage. chicken houses; fruits. $6,500.

Hitchcock, 45 East 55^th St., N.Y. City.

«The Outlook», June 1, 1921

Allerton House

There is a reason why business executives recommend Allerton House.

It is a great satisfaction for them to know that the man upon whom they place responsibility is living in an atmosphere of refinement, yet safely within his income.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^nd St.

New York City

«The Christian Science Monitor», Vol.XIII, No.173, June 14, 1921

A Club-Residence for Business Men

To the ambitious business man with a definite standard of living, the Allerton House group offers a combination of advantages that include the service and appointments of the modern hotel at a fraction of hotel cost, with the good fellowship of the select club.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.

The facilities of the 39^th Street Allerton House include a well-equipped gymnasium under the personal supervision of the Athletic Director of New York's foremost university.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXX, No.23.199, July 31, 1921

Environment and Its Relation to Business Success

The man who lives comfortably, works well.

The man who lives economically, saves.

He is on the road to success.

That is why you will find «success» men at the Allerton House—men who recognize the value of happy living environment as applied to their work.

Every comfort of home. Every service of the modern hotel. Every feature of the modern club. At but a fraction of hotel cost.

Allerton Houses

143 East 39^th St.
45 East 55^th St.

New York City

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.348, Dezember 27, 1921

East 55^th Street and Madison Avenue. Apartment building

Creator: Wurts Bros.

Dated: ca.1922

File dimensions: 36,6×46,5 cm at 300dpi

Museum of the City of New York

What Is Comfort?

You can't be comfortable in the best appointed living quarters if they take your last penny. There is no comfort of mind in that. But with like conveniences at a price you can well afford — that is the kind of comfort that keeps you on the success road. Such comfort as this you will find at

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.

The Allerton Country Club for Allerton residents and their friends will open on June first. Every facility of the high-priced club without the exorbitant dues. Membership list now open.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.437, March 26, 1922

Allerton House for Men

The rates in the newest of the Allerton group, a 17-story fireproof building, just completed, containing apartment, club conveniences, are from $9.50 to $18.50 per week for permanent residents only. 143 East 39^th St., 45 East 55^th St.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.458, April 16, 1922

* * *

Club House • Above: Town House Club, New York City. Starrett & Van Vleck, Architects.

Office Building • Left: Robertson-Cole Building, New York City. F.H. Dewey & Company, Architects.

Hotel • Right: Allerton Hotel, New York City. Arthur Loomis Harmon, Architect.

For Every Type of Building

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Elevator Door Hardware

R-W Ideal elevator door hardware includes easy-running, long-wearing hangers for every type of door, as well as automatic, self-locking door closers and checks. Doors so equipped close swiftly and silently before the car leaves the floor, thus doing away with accidents and damage suits resulting from doors left open by careless operators. If you do not have a copy of our latest catalog, write today for Catalog D-21.

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House doors equipped with R-W Vanishing Door Hardware are a genuine economy. They are space-savers, noiseless, and perfect in operation.

«The American Architect», Vol.121, No.2.393, May 10, 1922

«Ты узнаешь её из тысячи —
по словам, по глазам, по голосу.
Её образ на сердце высечен
ароматами гладиолуса…»
© П.Ж., 2003

30% And Success

Your boss will tell you that you are on the wrong track if you are paying more than 30% of your income for living accommodations. It is by just such practical economy that he became boss—he saved as he went along.

Allerton Houses success men are doing the same thing—living well and saving. They have every comfort of home, plus the advantages of club surroundings.

Allerton Houses

143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
302 West 22^d Street
130 East 57^th Street
(A new 18-Story Building now under construction)

New York City

«Cornell Alumni News», Vol.XXIV, No.33, May 25, 1922

What the Boss Thinks

The boss may not say much—but he keeps his eye on the man whose living standard is in keeping with his working standard. A man with the right living surroundings can do better work and assume new responsibilities to far better advantage than the man whose living quarters are not what they should be. Hundreds of Allerton success men know that. They live better than the average man—and for less. They are good men to know.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.

The Allerton Country Club for Allerton residents and their friends now open. Every facility of the high-priced club without the exorbitant dues for members only.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.535, July 2, 1922

Where and How

Where a man lives determines largely how he lives. Men with a real aim in life find no profit in living surroundings that tax their patience, hours and finances. That is why men of big calibre and bright future make Allerton House their home. They have every comfort—and at a marked saving.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 East 22^d St.

The Allerton Country Club for Allerton residents and their friends now open. Every facility of the high-priced club without the exorbitant dues for members only.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.549, July 16, 1922

Where and How

Where a man lives determines largely how he lives. Men with a real aim in life find no profit in living surroundings that tax their patience, hours and finances. That is why men of big calibre and bright future make Allerton House their home. They have every comfort—and at a marked saving.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 East 22^d St.

The Allerton Country Club for Allerton residents and their friends now open. Every facility of the high-priced club without the exorbitant dues for members only.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.563, July 30, 1922

The Success Stamp

A peep into the foyer of Allerton House after dinner discloses up-and-doing men in all works of commercial and professional life. Every appointment and service of the modern hotel or club is theirs—without the usual heavy expense. They have something left over to show for their working efforts on every budget day. They are unquestionably and indelibly marked with the success stamp.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.577, August 13, 1922

Prestige

Sane living is a great prestige builder. It enables a man to make a good appearance and at the same time to prepare himself for his «success» day.

Allerton men are acquiring new prestige daily. They have living quarters they are proud of. They meet the kind of men they are glad to know. They have comforts usually associated with the fine hotel or city club.

Yet the cost is well within their means. They are Success Men, and regarded as such by their associates.

The Allerton Houses

143 East 39^th Street
302 West 22^d Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street

New York City

«The New York Times», August 21, 1922

At Home In the Big City

Men who live at an Allerton Club Residence are really at home. Every home comfort is theirs. Every refined service belongs to them. The men with whom they live are men they are proud to know. Under one roof they have every facility and feature of the modern city club, without the exorbitant cost.

Allerton Club Residences

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.
130 East 57^th St.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.591, August 27, 1922

Good Company

Another feature of an Allerton Club Residence is the class of men that a man finds there. Men with high ideals and the spirit of achievement. Men who are doing big things. If a man is known by the company he keeps, then Allerton men are rightly called success men.

Allerton Club Residences

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.
130 East 57^th St.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.592, August 28, 1922

A New Meaning

The Allerton Club Residences have given a new meaning to «Bachelor Apartment». Here gentlemen in all walks of professional life live amid wholesome surroundings at prices they can easily afford. It may be some promising lawyer, a well-known medical man, a clergyman, or a rising young business man. All rub shoulders here—all living decently and well, yet well within their means. Hence this new significant meaning to «Bachelor Apartment».

Allerton Club Residences

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
302 West 22^d St.
130 East 57^th St.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXI, No.23.598, September 3, 1922

Allerton House, For Men

The rates in the newest of the Allerton group, a 17 story fireproof building, just completed, containing apartments, club conveniences, are from $9.50 to $18.50 per week for permanent residence only. 143 E. 39^th St., 45 E. 55^th St.

«The New York Times», Vol.72, No.23.678, November 22, 1922

If only for the prestige of it…

If only for the prestige of it — to say nothing of the saving in it — or the better living in every way—you'll be glad to be an Allerton man.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th St.
302 West 22^d St.
143 East 39^th St.
130 East 57^th St.

The Dining Room of the new Allerton House 57^th Street and Lexington Avenue is now open.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXII, No.23.692, December 6, 1922

Arthur Loomis Harmon

Arthur Loomis Harmon (July 13, 1878 — October 17, 1958) was an American architect. He is most famous as the design partner of the firm «Shreve, Lamb and Harmon».

Biography

He was born in Chicago in 1878 and graduated from Columbia University's School of Architecture in 1901. From 1902 to 1911, he practiced with the architectural firm of «McKim, Mead & White». Later, he partnered with the firm of Wallis & Goodwillie before joining Shreve and Lamb to form «Shreve, Lamb & Harmon». He was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member in 1935 and became a full Academician in 1944.

He died on October 17, 1958, in White Plains, New York.

Projects

With the firm, he designed many landmarks that still stand today. Among them are: 740 Park Avenue, the Empire State Building, and 3 Park Avenue.

Personally, he also designed several buildings of relative fame, namely the Jerusalem International YMCA, Allerton 39^th Street House, Shelton Hotel (currently the New York Marriott East Side), and Warburton House.

«Wikipedia»

For some reason, The Winslow Hotel somehow didn't find its way into this article.

Arthur Harmon, Architect, Dead

Consultant on Big Housing Projects Helped to Design Empire State Building.

Arthur Loomis Harmon, a distinguished architect in this city for more than a quarter of a century, died yesterday in the Osborn Nursing Home at White Plains after a long illness. He was 80 years old.

Often identified with the Empire State Building, Mr. Harmon was sometimes embarrassed by the honor, for there were other claims to recognition he felt were more thoroughly his own.

He joined the firm of Shreve & Lamb when it was actively at work on plans for the great building and shared in a medal awarded to the architects of the project. But he never regarded it as his monument.

Mr. Harmon was in charge of construction work on the Metropolitan Museum of Art for McKim, Mead & White, architects, in 1911.

For his design of the Shelton Hotel on Lexington Avenue he received medals from the Architectural League of New York and the American Institute of Architects.

Battle monuments at Tours, Cantigny and Somme-Py in France were his work, together with the Young Men's Christian Association headquarters in Jerusalem, the Juilliard School of Music on Claremont Avenue and a number of buildings for the Kent School in Connecticut and for Connecticut College.

Headed New York Chapter

Mr. Harmon was responsible for the design of the Seamen's Y.M.C.A. in this city, Olin Hall of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University and The New York Times addition on West Forty-fourth Street.

He was also a consultant for the Parkchester, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village housing projects.

Active for many years in architectural education and professional societies, Mr. Harmon was president of the New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects, from 1937 through 1939.

He was president of the Architectural League of New York in 1933–35, and a Fellow of the American Institute, and an Academician of the National Academy of Design.

«What this city needs, in particular, is more open areas, more sky and less architecture, transient as well as permanent»,

Mr. Harmon wrote eleven years ago.

In 1955 he dwelt on the unadorned aspect of modern design thus:

«The contemporary manner has some way to go. When ornament again comes into use it will be a sign perhaps that «contemporary» does not signify contempt for, after which we may make some progress».

An Associate of Firm

Mr. Harmon was born in Chicago. He studied at the Art Institute in Chicago and graduated in 1901 from the Columbia University School of Architecture.

The next year Mr. Harmon entered the office of McKim, Mead & White as a designer, remaining there until 1911.

He was an associate of the firm of Wallis & Goodwillie for the next two years, and practiced under his own name from 1913 to 1929.

He then joined Shreve & Lamb, the name of the firm being changed to Shreve, Lamb & Harmon. In 1943 the word «Associates» was added.

Mr. Harmon lived in semiretirement in recent years, spending most of his time at his home, 383 Grasslands Road, White Plains, and in Nantucket, Mass.

Earlier this year, however, he served on the national jury for the Reynolds Metal Company annual award for outstanding examples of aluminum structures.

He had had long years of experience in serving on juries of this nature.

Mr. Harmon was a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Architectural League of New York and the Century Association.

Surviving are his widow, the former Anne Hallock; a son, Hallock of New York; a brother, Hubert of Canton, Ill., and two grandsons.

An elder son, Lieut. Col. David Harmon, was killed in Germany during the final days of World War II.

«The New York Times», October 18, 1958

Old Winslow Hotel 551 Madison Avenue

Built in 1921, renovated and turned to office building in 1982.
Depicted in russian writer Eduard Limonov's works, particularly «It's Me, Eddie» (1976)

194-foot, 17-story office building completed in 1922 as the Winslow Hotel. Designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon, it was renovated and converted to an office building in 1982. It is clad in dark-red brick above a 2-story base of stone, metal, and glass. The piers at the base are rusticated grey granite. Most of the ground floor is taken up by metal-and-glass storefronts, with the building's main entrance near the east end of the south facade on 55^th Street, with glass doors below a green glass canopy. The 2^nd floor has large tripartite windows.

The upper floors have brick piers and thinner intermediate piers between the windows in each bay. There are patterns of protruding bricks on the main piers and vertical rows of protruding bricks in the intermediate piers. Black glass spandrel panels separate the floor levels at each bay. The west facade has three bays of three windows each, and the south facade has end bays with three windows and a wider middle section that spans seven windows. There are setbacks between the piers, above the 15^th floor; a corbel table marks the setbacks. The piers extend another floor to corbels and stone caps at the next floor, with another corbel table and stone cornice along the 16^th floor, except for at the middle bay on the south facade, which extends up to the top floor, with another corbeled cornice. This penthouse level is topped by a low-sloped tile roof, and the northwest, southwest, and southeast corners all have smaller, pyramidal roofs.

The ground floor is occupied by Robert Marc eyewear, Allen Edmonds dress shoes, Allen Edmonds Leather goods, and Gregory's Coffee, with a Connect One Bank branch on the 2^nd floor.

551madisonavenue.com

Koordinaten: 40°45'39"N 73°58'22"W

«Wikimapia», 2007+2023

The Allerton Houses

by Arthur Loomis Harmon

In New York there are many single men and a comparatively larger number of single women, without family ties in the city, engaged in studies, in the professions, and in commercial pursuits.

A considerable proportion of them coming from smaller communities have to form for themselves entirely new social environments, and modern business organizations, especially financial institutions, take a keen interest in the question of the environment of their employees.

Until recently the housing demands of this body of our population, comprising a considerable proportion of the youth of the city, have had to be met by rooming-houses, boarding-houses, or the regulation transient hotel. Boarding-houses have their distinct limitations, both economic and sociological. On the economic side, not many rooms can be rented in proportion to the area of the plot and ground rentals, and taxes in New York City are not ills which can be overcome by suggestion. Food and service also must be considered.

Sociological limitations are inherent, and we all have in our minds a number of happy communities, particularly when the members are drawn from common sources and are of similar tastes, age, and sex. Those were days when it was your friend's right and privilege to come into your quarters at 3 A.M., drop his suitcase across your recumbent form and sit on it. You might protest, but it did not occur to you to reproach him.

But for the most part there has been too great a diversity of types, ages, and temperament confined in too small a space. Propinquity has prevented as many marriages as it has produced. Hotel accommodations in good transient hotels are more expensive than they are domestic.

The Allerton Idea

There has been this problem in living accommodations, and the Allerton Houses were developed to meet the need. Large enough to insure a low rental and personal freedom to their members, small enough and club-like enough in their planning and handling to foster a community spirit, the success of this group of houses is the best evidence of the wisdom and energy of its originators, who have introduced a distinct form into the varied life of a great city.

In the design of what we call commercial structures, economic problems become the architect's prime consideration, dictating the choice of materials and the character of his design. The success of a design must be measured not only by its outward harmonies but also by its harmony with the financial conditions of the building as a whole.

The architect is, therefore, between the devil tempting him to ignore the business interests of his client and the deep sea of forgetfulness that his task is something more than the satisfaction of these business interests alone.

Up to a certain point business and pleasure, so to speak, go hand in hand. That is to say, there is a certain earning power in good design and embellishment. Unfortunately, it accords strictly with the usage of the building. In a factory it is considered nil. In a hotel it is much greater than in a loft building.

The façade of a tall building divides naturally into a base, of one or more stories, a shaft, and a crown or capital, of one or more stories. The base is near the eye, and from the business point of view the natural place to spend money for expensive material and enrichment. It seems to me that this is somewhat overestimated and frequently overdone to the detriment of the building as a whole. An inexpensive shaft is more or less an economic necessity.

The crowning of the building demands artistically some expenditure. If it does not require it for business reasons, it is usually considered by the owner as a waste of money and a concession to architectural foolishness. With few exceptions there are always necessary compromises between owner and architect in such matters. The architect is too prone to look upon his client as a Philistine, even though he sometimes takes from him the lone piece of embellishment on which he relied for effect, his one pet ewe lamb.

The purpose of the Allerton Houses is to give a better grade of living accommodations at a low cost, to raise the standard but not the price. This means the elimination of all non-essentials and extravagance in construction. An honest attempt has been made to meet these requirements in the design of these buildings and conform to the economic necessities.

In the matter of exteriors, most of the expense of both base and capital has been done away with. The shafts are of a quite inexpensive red brick and spring almost from the sidewalk. Accepting the limitations of material, there has seemed no choice but to use North Italian details or invent them. Fortunately, the architect prefers the North Italian. Whether you like these facades or not, you must admit that they cannot be accused of increasing the prices of the rooms within.

The handling of the brick surfaces is an attempt to give interest to these surfaces and character to the material. The brick are laid as irregularly as the deadly mechanical perfection of the modern mason will permit. That is very little. There are apparently no little irregularities in the rectitude of his daily existence. One of them told the architect that he would do it that way, but «he would be damned if he would admit working on it». To-day, with jobs plentiful, he would probably leave the scaffold. The deep-raked joint which is practical in this porous brick is a considerable help in obtaining surface texture.

In the 39^th Street and 55^th Street houses, the second floors are occupied by bedrooms over a low entrance floor, and the lounges are, of necessity, in the rear. No opportunity was given for expressing these lounge spaces on the exterior. In the 39^th Street house, the roof-garden above helps to make up for this. In the 55^th Street house, the low arcade across the lobby and arched windows of the solarium above help to give character. In the case of the 57^th Street house, however, two higher public floors, joined by the open well in the lobby, make it possible to obtain an effect with large arches through both floors.

The attempt has been made in each of these buildings by restraining the projection on the street facade and carrying some suggestions of their treatment around the other faces, and by enclosing tanks, elevator machines, etc., in a central penthouse, to produce the effect of a tower complete on all sides, built «four-square to the winds». The appearance of height has been fostered by the accenting of vertical lines and the elimination of all horizontal ones. We accept too easily the surveyor's plot plan as final. It is not a virtue that at 150 or 300 feet in the air a building should declare to the observer: «This is my street facade, but this wall is on the lot line—it would be affected of me to conceal the fact».

The interiors of the various public rooms are Renaissance in character, Italian, or closely akin to it. The lounge of the 39^th Street house is probably the most successful, perhaps because it is the most completely finished. In the design of these rooms, the desire has been to avoid a large or rich hotel effect and to accent the club and domestic characteristics of the houses.

In general, the scheme of the bedroom floors is small but complete rooms, a certain per cent to share baths and toilets with the adjoining rooms, the remainder to use those located in the corridor in small convenient groups. Each room has its own lavatory, and in the public groups, toilet and bath facilities are kept separate. In planning such a structure, the typical floor is, of course, the important factor. It is repeated a great many times and is the source of revenue of the enterprise. The layout of the lower and upper floors must be determined within such limitations as the best interests of this plan permit.

The main artery of this body of bedroom floors is the elevator group, of which the rooms may be said to be the capillaries, and the windows the pores in the skin. The number of rooms per floor is in direct relation to the perimeter of this skin of wall surface. The amount of wall surface depends upon the minimum depth practicable for a wing of the building and the maximum amount of space which can profitably be thrown into the courts. This analogy could be carried further and to the other floors but might lead to embarrassing questions.

Stairs are necessary as fire-escapes, but, except for those on the main floors, of no importance for daily use. Stairs and elevators and public-toilet spaces are naturally set in unlighted portions not available for rooms.

An increase in the amount of lot area does not of itself mean more rooms nor does an increase in room area of itself mean more available space. Room areas are not large, and it is essential that each room have necessary wall space for furniture. There is in each room at least one window and two doors, also a lavatory, so that the introduction of an additional door to a bathroom or another window in a corner room may present complications.

The Plans

In all cases the restaurants have been laid out in such a way as to permit the room being used for self-service or for waiter service, with the self-service space acting as a serving pantry. One elevator is arranged for both public and service use, and connected with linen-rooms, baggage-rooms, kitchens, etc. The 57^th Street house shows a room area only slightly larger than that in the 55^th Street house, but the relation of this to the total cube is, for the reasons given elsewhere, not quite as good. The 39^th Street house, owing to its location, is not complicated by the necessity to introduce stores on the ground floor. The basement is occupied by boiler-room, trunk storage, kitchen, billiard-room, etc. The first floor has a women's reception-room. On the right of the entrance is a small restaurant; on the left, elevators and office; in the center, with a lounge across the rear, running through two stories, with a low library and a writing-room opening from it. In this building the desk is behind the elevators.

Above this are thirteen and half floors of bedrooms, in all about 400 rooms. By varying the roof levels, the roof-garden is reached by a half flight down from the solarium. A gymnasium balances in the rear wing, the roof-garden in the south. A low story below the solarium provides offices, etc., for the gymnasium. The roof-garden is enclosed with a colonnade and arches to offer a screen against the pressure of the open space and sky, and to break the vista into a series of picturesque effects. The roof level is raised above the street, to give planting spaces level with the walks. The boiler-flue is brought out through the iron lantern.

In the 55^th Street house there is a basement and a subbasement containing the same features as in the 39^th Street house, and basement storage for the stores which the location on Madison Avenue demands. These stores occupy the second as well as the first floor along the avenue.

On the first floor the front is occupied by a large lobby with the elevators, the desk at one end, and the mail-boxes and shopping service at the other. Height is obtained in the lounge by lowering the floor level. There is a small library off the lounge and a writing-room in a gallery above. In this, as in all cases, the service entrance is in close proximity to the office. That portion of the second floor not occupied by shops is a bedroom floor. There are above the second floor fourteen floors of bedrooms arranged much as in the 39^th Street house, with a total of about 450 rooms. The roof contains a solarium and roof-garden, and also the restaurant and kitchen.

«Architecture», Vol.XLVII, No.2, February 1923

The Lawyer

Many well-known lawyers reside at Allerton House. They find there an atmosphere conducive to the professional man's well-being. Every feature of the modern resident club is their's — at moderate cost.

Allerton Houses

45 East 55^th Street
143 East 39^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street

«The New York Times», July 25, 1923

Allerton Club Residences

New York — Chicago — Cleveland

ALLERTON MEN are regarded as particular in their choice of residence, selective in the matter of associates, appreciative of the better things in life, while mindful of the kind of economy that makes for success.

The comfortable club-like surroundings and appointments of Allerton Houses appeal particularly to business and professional men.

Rates: $10 to $20 per room per week. Allerton facilities include a well equipped gymnasium under the personal supervision of the Medical and Physical Director of New York's foremost University.

Owning and Operating Fraternity Clubs Building, 22 East 38^th Street

James Stewart Cushman
President

William Harton Silk
Secretary and Managing Director

The Williams Printing Company, New York

• 45 East 55^th Street New York
• 130 East 57^th Street (Exclusively for Women) New York
• 143 East 59^th Street New York
• 302 West 22^nd Street New York
• New Fraternity Clubs Building 22 East 38^th Street New York
• Chester Ave & East 13^th Street Cleveland (Under Construction)
• Huron Street & Michigan Avenue Chicago (Under Construction)

«Time», Vol.I, No.24, August 13, 1923

Allerton Club Residences

«Time», Vol.II, No.17, December 24, 1923

Allerton Club Residences

«Ocean-Zeitung / Ocean-Gazette», 1924

Allerton Club Residences

Allerton Club Residences are monuments to the best ideals of refinement and distinction.

Collegiate atmosphere, the conveniences of ultra-modern equipment and the service of well-trained attendants attract university men from every section of the nation.

Their service accords with the ideals without taxing the means of college men.

Rates $2 per day
With Bath $3 per day

Fraternity Clubs Building
Madison Avenue — 38^th Street

The new seventeen story University Club residence devoted exclusively to college men. Roof Garden, Oyster Bar, Squash Court, Grille, Valet, Club Rooms, Lounges.

Rates: $11 to $25 per week
$2.50 per day upward

Supervision
Board of governors fraternity clubs

Management
Allerton House Company

James Stewart Cushman
President

William Harton Silk
Managing Director

• 45 East 55^th Street New York
• 130 East 57^th Street (Exclusively for Women) New York
• 143 East 59^th Street New York
• 302 West 22^nd Street New York
• New Fraternity Clubs Building 22 East 38^th Street New York
• Huron Street & Michigan Avenue Chicago

«Southern Textile Bulletin», Vol.27, No.4, September 25, 1924

«Southern Textile Bulletin», Vol.27, No.12, November 20, 1924

«Southern Textile Bulletin», Vol.27, No.16, December 18, 1924

«Southern Textile Bulletin», Vol.27, No.22, January 25, 1925

8D — N.Y. City (Aerial Set).

Date Issued: 1924

The New York Public Library

Allerton Club Residences

Allerton Club Residences are monuments to the best ideals of refinement and distinction.

Collegiate atmosphere, the conveniences of ultra-modern equipment and the service of well-trained attendants attract university men from every section of the nation.

Their service accords with the ideals without taxing the means of college men.

Rates $2 per day
With Bath $3 per day

Fraternity Clubs Building
Madison Avenue — 38^th Street

The new seventeen story University Club residence devoted exclusively to college men. Roof Garden, Oyster Bar, Squash Court, Grille, Valet, Club Rooms, Lounges.

Rates: $11 to $25 per week
$2.50 per day upward

Supervision
Board of governors fraternity clubs

Management
Allerton House Company

James Stewart Cushman
President

William Harton Silk
Managing Director

• 45 East 55^th Street New York
• 130 East 57^th Street (Exclusively for Women) New York
• 143 East 59^th Street New York
• 302 West 22^nd Street New York
• New Fraternity Clubs Building 22 East 38^th Street New York
• Huron Street & Michigan Avenue Chicago

«Contractor's and Engineer's Monthly», Vol.IX, No.5, November, 2024

«Contractor's and Engineer's Monthly», Vol.IX, No.6, December, 1924

«Contractor's and Engineer's Monthly», Vol.X, No.1, January, 1925

Allerton Club Residences

Squash courts
Clubrooms
Lounges
Library
Exercise rooms

Rates, $10 to $20 weekly
Transient rates, $2.50 up

Applications for residence invited

New York
143 East 39^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
22 East 38^th St.

Chicago
Michigan Avenue and Huron Street

«Normal Instructor and Primary Plans», April 1925

General view — [Midtown Manhattan — Madison Avenue.]

Date Created: 1927 (Questionable)

The New York Public Library

Agency man with Experience Youth Initiative

Looking for a wider opportunity with manufacturer or agency. At present is contact man with a leading agency working on important accounts.

Has a background of seasoned experience in plan, production, copy and merchandising. Intimate knowledge of toilet goods and automotive accessory fields. Possesses initiative, tact and judgment. Knows how to handle and develop business.

College graduate: 34. Address Room 1002, 45 East 55^th St., N.Y. City

«Printers' Ink», Vol.CXXXVIII, No.12, March 24, 1927

Allerton Club Residences

«A year ago, this climb would have winded me».
«What put you in shape—cut down the heavy smoking?
«No—where I live, the gym is so handy, a man has no excuse for not keeping fit.
«Where's that?
«At The Allerton».

Allerton Club Residences: New York — Chicago — Cleveland • Rates: $12 to $22 a week • No initiation fees • No dues

James S. Cushman President • William H. Silk Managing Director

«The Technology Review», April 1927

Allerton Club Residences*

«A full house beats 3-of-a-kind, doesn't it?»
«In poker, yes—but no poker hand can equal these three».
«What are they?»
«Allerton Club Residences, in New York, Chicago and Cleveland».

*The Allerton System, known throughout the country today, was born of a great need. It has solved the problems of men and women of refinement who were formerly forced to forego the living atmosphere their standards prompted but incomes prohibited. Allerton facilities compare favorably with the finer hotels and clubs. Allerton service is well epitomized in the phrase «You live in nine rooms—pay for one».

In all Allerton Club Residences are spacious lounges, reading rooms, restaurants, exercise rooms and showers. In some, squash, handball, tennis courts, gymnasia, roof gardens, swimming pools, and in addition separate accommodations for women guests.

All Allerton Club Residences are centrally and conveniently located. While not at all undemocratic, residents are selected with extreme care. Rates: $12 to $22 a week. No initiation fees. No dues. James S. Cushman, President. William H. Silk, Managing Director.

New York — 45 East 55^th St.
New York — 130 East 57^th St.†
New York — 143 East 39^th St.
New York — 22 East 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd St.
Chicago — Huron St. & Michigan Ave.
Cleveland — Chester Ave. & East 13^th St.

†Exclusively for women

«The Saturday Evening Post», Vol.199, No.46, May 14, 1927

Made to your measure

A young man you can develop quickly to be a consistent producer of fresh, vigorous copy that rings true, and snappy layouts that get the ad seen and read. Age 26; single; Christian Scientist. Address Box 1526, 45 East 55^th St., New York.

«Printers' Ink», Vol.CXLI, No.1, October 6, 1927

Pavilions in the Air

Zoning laws are not alone responsible for the interesting and original character developed in the architecture of New York during the past ten years. The desire and necessity of concealing roof tanks and the tops of elevator shafts have led to a variety of successful solutions of this problem. These illustrations are from photographs of the architectural towers and roof structures on some of the recently completed commercial and hotel buildings in New York. This interesting group of «pavilions in the air» tell their own story and require no explanation. Few of the hurrying throngs down in the canyon-like streets ever have time or interest to look up in the air to discover these often well designed architectural screens which conceal important parts of the mechanical and plumbing equipment of tall buildings. It is hoped that this group of illustrations may have suggestion and inspirational value.

«The Architectural Forum» in two parts, January 1928
(part one: «Architectural Design»)

Allerton Club Residences

«A full house beats 3-of-a-kind, doesn't it?»

«In poker, yes—but no poker hand can equal these three».

«What are they?»

«Allerton Club Residences, in New York, Chicago and Cleveland».

Allerton Club Residences

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

«Time», Vol.11, No.14, April 2, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

«Coming home» to the Allerton means coming home to the comfort of club life and the companionship of men you would choose as your friends.

Rates $12 to $22 per week

Allerton Club Residences

22 East 38^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street
143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New Yok Times», April 20, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

The Allerton points with pride to a growth and expansion which could only have been achieved by its unusual service, congenial atmosphere plus the care exercised in the selection of residents.

Rates $12 to $22 per week

Allerton Club Residences

22 East 38^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street
143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», May 28, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

«Mead must be pretty well fixed to have the city residence he described—gym, pool and all that».

«You or I could have the same, if we were single like Mead».

«Where?»

«At The Allerton».

Allerton Club Residences

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

No Initiation Fees. No Dues. Rates $12 to $22 a Week.

Transients: $2.50, $3.00, $3.50.

«The New Yorker», Vol.4, No.18, Juni 23, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

«Mead must be pretty well fixed to have the city residence he described—gym, pool and all that».

«You or I could have the same, if we were single like Mead».

«Where?»

«At The Allerton».

Allerton Club Residences

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

No Initiation Fees. No Dues. Rates $12 to $22 a Week.

Transients: $2.50, $3.00, $3.50.

«Time», Vol.11, No.26, Juni 25, 1928

While You Wife's Away

«Stay-at-home» husbands can enjoy life and be free from all household cares at The Allerton — New York's club residence. Good meals, comfortable beds, reading rooms and lounges. Convenient locations.

$12 to $22 per week

Allerton Club Residences

22 East 38^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street
143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», July 17, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

A brisk few minutes in the exercise room at The Allerton, followed by a hot and cold shower, will put a new spring into your step and give you an extra zest for the day's work.

Take advantage of these and other good things at The Allerton. Move in today!

Rates $12 to $22 per week

Allerton Club Residences

22 East 38^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street
143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», August 7, 1928

«Variety Obituaries. 1905–1928»

«Variety Obituaries. 1905–1928»
/ an eleven-volume set
// New York + London: «Garland Publishing, Inc.», 1988
hardcover, 648 p.
ISBN: 0-8240-0835-9

August 8, 1928

Harry J. Taylor, Suicide

Harry J. Taylor, 45, 45 East 55^th street, well known automobile salesman along Broadway, committed suicide in his room by shooting himself through the head with a revolver.

A maid found Taylor. From personal papers the police established his identity.

He had been employed until about a week ago by the Moon automobile Co., 1806 Broadway. He resigned without giving any reason. Ill health is believed to have been the cause.

Allerton Club Residences

«After you leave here, you'll be a stranger in a strange land».

«Nothing like it. I'll have plenty of companions».

«Stopping at a club?»

«Just the same—but without fees or dues. I'm going to The Allerton».

Allerton Club Residences

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

No Initiation Fees. No Dues. Rates $12 to $22 a Week.

Transients: $2.50, $3.00, $3.50.

«The New Yorker», Vol.4, No.30, September 15, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

«After you leave here, you'll be a stranger in a strange land».

«Nothing like it. I'll have plenty of companions».

«Stopping at a club?»

«Just the same—but without fees or dues. I'm going to The Allerton».

Allerton Club Residences

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

No Initiation Fees. No Dues. Rates $12 to $22 a Week.

Transients: $2.50, $3.00, $3.50.

«Time», Vol.12, No.12, September 17, 1928

«Time», Vol.12, No.17, September 22, 1928

Allerton Club Residences

Residence at any Allerton House means… the standards of living and associations expected at any fine club — except expense.

Rates $12 to $22 per week

Allerton Club Residences

22 East 38^th Street
302 West 22^nd Street
143 East 39^th Street
45 East 55^th Street
130 East 57^th Street*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», September 24, 1928

General view — Midtown Manhattan — 42nd Street

Date Created: 1929

The New York Public Library

Chrysler Building 1929 Vintage Construction New York Photo Reprint Wall Art

«eBay»

Allerton House

Club residence for men, conveniently located, affording every comfort, with the surroundings and service of the select club lounge, library, billiards, squash courts and handball courts; rates $12 to $20 per week, according to location; for approved residents only; transients $2.50 to $3 a day.

For information telephone Plaza 6800.

22 East 38^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
And 130 East 57^th St., for women only.

New York. Chicago. Cleveland.

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXVIII, No.25.983, March 15, 1929

Allerton Houses

Residence at any Allerton House means… the standards of living and associations expected at any fine club — except expense.

Rates $12 to $20 per week

Allerton Houses

22 East 38^th St.
302 West 22^nd St.
143 East 39^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
130 East 57^th St.*
* (exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXVIII, No.26.001, April 2, 1929

Allerton Houses

The Allerton is democratic but… it is selective in personnel of residents.

Rates $12 to $20 per week

Allerton Houses

22 East 38^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
302 West 22^nd St.
143 East 39^th St.
*130 East 56^th St.
*(exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXVIII, No.26.024, April 25, 1929

Allerton Houses

A cold shower after a hot workout, in the exercise room, on a brisk spring morning. You'll want an extra egg for breakfast!

Rates $12 to $20 per week

Allerton Houses

22 East 38^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
302 West 22^nd St.
143 East 39^th St.
*130 East 57^th St.
*(exclusively for women)

New York

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXVIII, No.26.031, May 2, 1929

Madison avenue, 1929

The New York Public Library

Allerton Houses

«A year ago that swim would have winded me».

«What put you in shape—cut down the heavy smoking?»

«No—where I live, the gym is so handy, a man has no excuse for not keeping fit».

«Where's that?»

«At The Allerton».

Allerton Houses

Executive Offices — 285 Madison Ave., New York

New York — 45 E. 55^th St.
New York — 143 E. 39^th St.
New York — 130 E. 57^th St.*
New York — 22 E. 38^th St.
New York — 302 West 22^nd Street
Chicago — Huron Street and Michigan Avenue
Cleveland — Chester Avenue and East 13^th Street

* Exclusively for women

No Initiation Fees. No Dues. Rates $12 to $20 a Week.

Transients : $2.50, $3.00.

«The New Yorker», Vol.5, No.30, September 14, 1929

Allerton Houses

Residence for Men

Conveniently located, affording every comfort, with the surroundings and service of the select club; lounge, library, billiards, squash courts and handball courts.

Rents 12 to $20 per week

according to location; for approved residents only;

Transients $2.50 to $3.50 per day

For Information Telephone Plaza 6800

143 East 39^th St.
22 East 38^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
and 130 East 57^th St., for women only

New York Chicago Cleveland

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXIX, No.26.203, October 21, 1929

Allerton Club

Residence for Men

Conveniently located, affording every comfort, with the surroundings and service of the select club; lounge, library, billiards, squash courts and handball courts.

302 West 22^nd St.
22 East 38^th St.
143 East 39^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
and 130 East 57^th St. for women only

New York Chicago Cleveland

«The New York Times», Vol.LXXIX, No.26.233, November 20, 1929

Allerton House

Chicago
Huron & Michigan Avenue
W.W.Dwyer, Mgr.

Cleveland
Chester Ave. & East 13^th St.
Fred Joyce, Mgr.

Transient Rate $2.50 — $3.50 daily

Allerton Club Residences are the realization of an ideal for men and women of refinement. So admirably have they lent themselves to the particular requirements of the discerning that they are now numbered among the handsomest structures of America's greatest cities.

Affording every convenience of the modern hotel or club, without the excessive cost, they mark a new era in the matter of select living for people of discrimination.

Allerton facilities include well equipped gymnasiums and squash courts.

New York Allerton Houses
club residence for men

143 East 39^th St.
22 East 38^th St.
45 East 55^th St.
and
130 East 57^th St.
for women only

«The American City», Vol.XLI, No.6, December 1929

The Winslow, 1930

The New York Public Library

PostCards

The Winslow.
Vintage postcard by Lumitone, about 1930

dimensions: 142×90 mm

Eight large hotels added to Knott Chain

The Atterton Club Group and Hotel Paramount Incladed in Transaction.

The entire group of Allerton Club Hotels and the Paramount Hotel were taken under the management of the Knott Hotels Corporation yesterday, it was announced by William J. Knott.

The transaction added eight hotels and 4,100 rooms to the Knott system, giving it a total of thirty-three hotels and 11,450 rooms.

While the new hotels will not officially go under Knott management until May 1, contracts were signed yesterday, and the Knott operating staff actually has taken charge. The negotiations had been conducted for some time by E. K. Gordon, manager of the extension division of the Knott organization, of which David H. Knott, former Sheriff of New York County, is chairman of the board, and representatives of the Allerton company and of the Paramount company.

These eight hotels were neither bought nor leased.

The Allerton company was represented by James S. Cushman, president of the Allerton companies, and the Paramount by I. Zimmer, president, and Frank Locker, treasurer of the 235 West Forty-sixth Company, owners of the 700-room hotel in Forty-sixth Street west of Broadway. The Allerton group brings into the Knott chain seven additional hotels, five of which are in New York. One, the largest, a 1,000-room hotel, is in Chicago, and one of 550 rooms is in Cleveland. The New York hotels are at 302 West Twenty-second Street, a club residence for men; 22 East Thirty-eighth Street, better known as the Fraternities Club Building and housing a number of Greek letter fraternity clubs and alumni clubs; 143 East Thirty-ninth Street, for men; 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, for men, and 132 East Fifty-seventh Street, for women.

Of the 3,425 additional guest rooms in the Allerton houses, 1,875 are in New York. The Chicago hotel is at 701 North Michigan Avenue, and the Cleveland hotel at Chester Avenue and Thirteenth Street. The Paramount was opened in June, 1928.

With yesterday's additions, the Knott chain now numbers twenty-five hotels in metropolitan New York and nine in other cities.

Officers of the Knott Corporation, which controls the chain, are: William J. Knott, president; James E. Knott, vice president and general manager; W. W. Wyckoff, secretary; William R. Lautenbacher, treasurer, and Walter W. Lee, assistant treasurer.

Governor Alfred E. Smith is a member of the board of directors. Other directors are: Judge George W. Olvany, John W. Dilliard, Gerald P. O'Neill, manager of the Pittsburgher, who recently succeeded Lieut. Gov. Herbert H. Lehman of New York; David H. Knott, William J. Knott and James E. Knott.

«The New York Times», April 17, 1930

Alfred Stieglitz

The Alfred Stieglitz Collection

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1930/31

Wikipedia: Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 — July 13, 1946)

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

From My Window at An American Place, North, 1931

Art Institute of Chicago

Madison Avenue

Louis Lozowick

1931 / printed 1972, lithograph on paper, image: 32.7×22.5 cm

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Wikipedia: Louis Lozowick (December 10, 1892 — September 9, 1973)

1931 From the Chrysler Building 14x11" Photo Print

«eBay»

The Winslow Hotel can be seen below the eagle's head.

General View: Midtown — Fifth Avenue — 62^nd Street looking south

Date Created: 1931-02

The New York Public Library

Allerton Club Residences

Since their beginning ALLERTON RESIDENCES have been proverbially popular with men who sough and demanded every comfort and convenience at a moderate rate . . . . . $2.00 daily; $10.00 weekly and up.

Allerton Club Residences

45 East 55^th St.
143 East 39^th St.

When in New York remember the Allertons

«The Marine Corps Gazette», Vol.XVI, No.1, May 1931

General view — [Midtown Manhattan — Madison Avenue — Between 49^th and 50^th Streets (Northwest).]

Date Created: 1932

The New York Public Library

The Winslow, 1932

Museum of the City of New York

Wikipedia: Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 — December 21, 1964)

read more…

Wikipedia: The Blue Angel (New York nightclub): The Blue Angel, also known as the Blue Angel Supper Club, was a New York City nightclub founded in April 1943 and closed in 1964. It was located at 152 East 55^th Street between Lexington and Third Avenue.

Gemini:

Декоративные элементы в виде бараньих голов (букраниев) с крыльями, украшающие колонны и фасад бывшего отеля «The Winslow» (изначально — «Allerton House» на 45 East 55^th Street, построенного в 1921–1922 годах по проекту известного архитектора Артура Лумиса Хармона), несут в себе глубокий пласт классической архитектурной символики.

Для этого здания архитектор выбрал стиль северного итальянского Возрождения (Ренессанса), который активно заимствовал образы из античности. Вот в чем кроется разгадка этого декоративного ансамбля:

1. Баранья голова (Букраний / Эгипан)

В классической архитектуре изображение черепа или головы быка, овна или козла называется букранием (от греч. boukranion — бычий череп).

• Античные истоки: Изначально в Древней Греции и Риме головы жертвенных животных вывешивали на фризах храмов после ритуалов. Со временем этот образ перекочевал в мрамор и лепнину, став символом благочестия, освящения пространства и триумфа.

• Символика овна (барана): Овен в античной традиции неразрывно связан с богом Зевсом-Амоном (в египетской и греко-римской мифологии), а также с Гермесом (Меркурием) — покровителем путешественников, торговли и гостеприимства. Для отеля, принимающего постояльцев, фигура Меркурия и его атрибуты подходят идеально. Баран также олицетворяет мужскую силу, упорство и лидерство.

2. Крылья позади голов

Крылья, расположенные за головами баранов, усиливают символику и добавляют мифологический подтекст:

• Вестники и защита: В римской мифологии крылья — главный атрибут Меркурия (его крылатые сандалии и шлем) и Виктории (богини победы). Сочетание барана и крыльев отсылает к Крылатому Овну из древнегреческих мифов — тому самому, который уберёг детей царя Афаманта и чье золотое руно стало символом благоденствия, богатства и высшего покровительства.

• Апотропный символ (оберег): В архитектуре Ренессанса крылатые зооморфные головы на колоннах у главного входа служили «стражами». Они призваны оберегать дом и его обитателей (в данном случае — постояльцев отеля) от невзгод и злых сил.

3. Контекст здания: «Клубный дом» для амбициозных мужчин

Интересен и сам контекст постройки. Здание строилось сетью «Allerton House» как клубный жилой отель для холостяков — молодых, амбициозных специалистов, приезжавших покорять Нью-Йорк.

Архитектор Артур Лумис Хармон (который позже спроектировал легендарный Empire State Building) намеренно использовал суровую, но элегантную эстетику Возрождения.

Бараньи головы на шести колоннах при входе транслировали гостям и жильцам правильные для того времени ценности: упорство в достижении целей (символ барана), стремление ввысь к успеху (крылья) и безопасность под надежной защитой.

Enjoy Club Life at a One-room Rental

New York City

Enjoy CLUB LIFE at a One-room Rental

For the short stay as well as permanently, the Allerton Houses provide genuine homelike living… full hotel service… in the convenient and desirable East Side section.

Rest, reading and game rooms, lounges, and excellent dining rooms at your disposal.

From $2 daily
$10 to $22 weekly
No initiation fees—No dues

OPEN TO ALL

George A. Richards
Managing Director

Allerton Club Residences for men

143 East 39^th Street (Gym.)
45 East 55^th Street (Madison Ave.)
22 East 38^th Street (Madison Ave.) (Gym.)

«The Christian Science Monitor», Vol.XXIV, No.89, March 11, 1932

America's cities—SLOAN equipped

New York City (Midtown Section)

Numbers Indicate Prominent SLOAN Installations

Sloan Valve Co. • Chicago

«Domestic Engineering», Vol.142, No.1, July 1933

Dentist Ends Life by Gas

S.S. Sobel Uses Anesthetic Mask to Commit Suicide.

Samuel S. Sobel, 43 years old, a dentist, committed suicide yesterday in his fourth-floor offices at 1,280 Lexington Avenue. His body was in his dentist's chair, the face covered with the mask with which he had anesthetized patients. Nitrous oxide — laughing gas — was escaping from the shield.

Dr. Sobel was discovered when his brothers, Herman and David, lace embroidery manufacturers at 491 Broadway, forced the door of his office. The dentist had been absent for two days from his home in the Winslow Hotel, Fifty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue.

«The New York Times», July 13, 1933

New York City views. Looking north from Empire State Building

Creator: Samuel Herman Gottscho

Date Created/Published: 1933 Sep. 11.

.tiff: 5.582×4.028 px, 22,5 MB

Library of Congress

Countess de Littberg

Collapses in Elevator in the Winslow Hotel and Dies.

Countess de Littberg, 55 years old, formerly of Austria, recently a singing teacher, collapsed last night in an elevator at the Winslow Hotel, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, where she had been living for a year or more, and died soon afterward in her room. Dr. Cione of City Hospital said. heart disease caused her death.

Countess de Littberg had planned to meet her son, Theodore, of 303 East Fifty-third Street, last night, her son said. She had been living in modest circumstances, according to Detective Rudolph McLaughlin of the East Fifty-first Street station.

«The New York Times», July 11, 1934

Dies in 14-Story Fall at Hotel

Plunging down the elevator shaft, after stepping through the open door on the fourteenth floor of the Hotel Winslow, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, Demito Blanco, 28 years old, a waiter, was killed early yesterday morning when he struck the top of the elevator car at the bottom of the shaft with such force that he crashed through the roof. Blanco lived at 328 West Fifty-seventh Street.

«The New York Times», May 31, 1935

Edgar S. Gorrell Collection — Correspondence, 1936

January 16^th, 1936.

Colonel Edgar S. Gorrell,
Air Transport Association of America,
Chicago, Ill.

My dear Colonel Gorrell;

You may recall having met me when I was connected with the National Surety Company, at which time I handled some claims against Stutz Motor Car Co. You probably know that the National Surety Company was taken over by the New York State Insurance Commissioner more than two years ago and their Credit Insurance Department discontinued. I left their employ more than a year ago and, while I am employed at present, am interested in making a change.

I have read in the New York Times the announcement that you have been made President of the Air Transport Association of America and I should like very much to be associated with you in some capacity.

I am especially equipped for responsible work in matters involving questions of credits, collections and financing. For several years I was assistant to the Vice President of the National Surety Company, in charge of the entire Credit Insurance Department, handling all phases of the work, and was directly in charge of their nine collection departments in the United States and Canada. For more than five years I was in charge of credit insurance underwriting, passing on applications for credit insurance coverage in all lines of business, including policies ranging from small coverage up to $ 300,000.00 coverage. I was solely responsible for the management of the collection departments, including expense of operation, personnel and organization. I have served on many creditors' committees, involving large amounts, and have been Chairman of some committees. I have handled many large claims against manufacturing firms of all kinds, including a number of motor car companies and firms in the automotive equipment line, one of the later lot of claims being some $ 400,000.00 against Studebaker.

I am an attorney, having been admitted to the bar in Missouri in 1915 and in Illinois in 1923. My first experience in business was in the Credit and Collection Department of a large hardware jobbing house.

I shall be pleased to hear from you if there is any prospect of becoming connected with your organization.

With very kind regards, I am

Very truly yours,
T. M. Garrison.

Mr. T. M. Garrison,
c/o Hotel Winslow,
45 E. 55^th Street,
New York City, N.Y.
Phone: PLaza 3-6800.

Wikipedia: Edgar Staley Gorrell (February 3, 1891 — March 5, 1945)

RCA Building, Rockefeller Center — 1936

Photograph shows the Rockefeller Center with the RCA Building in the center of the picture, looking north from near 48^th Street, New York City. Photo dated February 3, 1936. Source: Records of the Army Air Forces, National Archives at College Park, MD.

The RCA Building (now 30 Rockefeller Plaza), located between West 49^th and W50^th streets in Midtown Manhattan, was built between 1931 and 1933. It was designed by Reinhard & Hofmeister, Corbett Harrison & MacMurray and Hood & Fouilhou. In 1986, General Electric incorporated RCA.

The 1 Rockefeller Plaza office building, located between 48^th and 49^th streets, began to be constructed in the same year of 1936 and it was completed in 1937.

«Geographic Guide»

The Winslow Hotel can be seen in the upper right-hand corner of the image.

General View Looking South from 32 East 57^th Street

Photographer: Berenice Abbott

Description: Looking south from the Bignou Gallery on the 18^th floor of 32 East 57^th Street. The slender tower at the center is 444 Madison Avenue, to the right are the spires of St. Patricks Cathedral and to the right of that is Rockefeller Center.

Dated: January 27, 1937

File dimensions: 37,0×46,5 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

Mint Julep

Authentic as a Southern Colonel's mustache, smooth as his accent, and priced as low as the odds on a Derby favorite.

«Esquire», July 1937

Poetry Markets

Voices, 45 East 55^th St., New York City. May to November, Vinalhaven, Maine. Harold Vinal, Editor. Issued quarterly; 50c a copy; $2.00 a year. «This is a magazine of poetry only. We report on manuscripts at once and do not make any payment».

«Writer's Digest», September 1937

New York City Avenues — 1937

Aerial view of Midtown Manhattan showing buildings of the Rockefeller Center, Central Park and some of the New York City main avenues running south-north in Manhattan, including Fifth Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Madison Avenue and Park Avenue. Photo dated 1937. Source: National Guard Bureau, Records of the Army Air Forces.

From the late 19^th century and early 20^th century, this area grew rapidly. A great number of luxury hotels and apartment buildings were constructed in he area. Central Park became New York's main leisure location. The Rockefeller Center buildings were built in the 1930s. The 36-story 1 Rockefeller Plaza building was completed in 1937 (year of the photo above).

«Geographic Guide»

Noyes Rhythm Dance

The Study of Rhythmic Expression is the specialty of Noyes Rhythm Dance

Summer school camp at Cobalt, Conn.

Write Valeria Ladd, Hotel Winslow, 45., E. 55^th St., N.Y.C.

She kicked up her heels and had a wonderful time.

«Health and Physical Education», Vol.IX, No.4, April 1938,

Noyes Rhythm Dance

She kicked up her heels and had a wonderful time at the Noyes Rhythm Dance

Summer school camp at Cobalt, Conn.

Write Valeria Ladd, Hotel Winslow, 45., E. 55^th St., N.Y.C.

«Health and Physical Education», Vol.IX, No.4, April 1938,

Jean Charlot. Correspondence with Zohmah. 1938

read…

June 27, 1938

July 4, 1938

My new interior decoration

more…

Wikipedia: Jean Charlot (February 8, 1898 – March 20, 1979)

Literary services

POETRY CRITICISM. Criticism of poems and book manuscripts of poetry by editor of Poetry magazine. Also, personally by appointment. For rates write Harold Vinal, 45 East 55^th Street, New York City.

«The Saturday Review of Literature»,
Vol.XIX, No.11, January 7, 1939

Markets For Manuscript Sales

Verse magazines

Voices — 45 East 55^th St., New York, N.Y. Quarterly. $2.00 yr. Harold Vinal, Editor. Poetry of a mature and carefully wrought type, the best work of contemporary poets. High standards. Very little free verse used. No payment.

«The Writer», Vol.52, No.3, March 1939

Hotel Winslow

Single from $1.75 per day

You'll make your New York World's Fair budget go farther and buy more… in hotel comfort and convenience of location…

Write for booklet «W»

Hotel WINSLOW
45 East 55^th St., New York City
A Knott Hotel

«The Atlanta Constitution», Vol.LXXII, No.32, July 14, 1939

Knott Hotels

«The Atlanta Constitution», Vol. LXXII, No.53, August 4, 1939

Chrysler Building, August 23, 1939

A view of the spire of the Chrysler Building looking toward the northeast with Central Park in the background.

Print Size:

8×10 inch — $60
11×14 inch — $120
16×20 inch — $180
20×24 inch — $300
30×40 inch — $450

UCLA Geography Aerial Archives

«Atten-shun!»

Pack your duffle and proceed with all dispatch to The Winslow… the convenient, comfortable, economical New York hotel with the smart address.

From $10 weekly
Daily — $1.75
Single Occupancy

The popular cocktail bar is the afternoon rendezvous of the Gothamite who knows his way around town.

Hotel Winslow

45 East 55^th St., New York, N.Y.
A KNOTT Hotel • PLaza 3-6800

«National Guardsman», December 1939

551–553 Madison Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 1291 Lot 21

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

555 Madison Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 1291 Lot 55

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

555 Madison Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 1291 Lot 55

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

578–590 Madison Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 1292 Lot 56

Rights: The NYC Municipal Library and Archives does not authorize any use of third-party copyright material. Researchers/patrons are responsible to ensure that copyright is not infringed. The prospective user and/or their publisher have the sole responsibility for observing literary property rights, personal property rights, libel, unwarranted invasion of privacy and any infringement of the U.S. Copyright Code. Patrons must obtain permissions for the reproduction of copies, whether they are protected by copyright or are out of copyright, for publication and commercial use. For use information, contact research@records.nyc.gov.

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

* * *

Winslow Hotel New York City 1940 to Paris, France Returned No Service, Scott C24

This cover was sent from New York, N.Y. to Paris, France in 1940 franked by a 30-cent dull blue Winged Globe Transatlantic Air Mail issue of 1939, Scott C24. The stamp is tied to the cover by a Sutton Station duplex with a barred elliptical killer.Manuscript «Air Mail / Transatlantic Clipper». The green corner card reads: «The Winslow, 45 East 55^th Street, New York, N.Y». Purple Handstamps: «Return to Sender / Service Suspended» and another in French («Retour…»). Opened by lifting, the backflap is un-sealed and intact. No contents.The back has a printed notice regarding hotel mail, return addresses, and the Dead Letter Office. A «Buy Defense Savings Bonds and Stamps» New York, N.Y. 1941 slogan machine cancel verso as an arrival marking upon the cover's return. The cover in the scan is the one you will receive. Light lines in images are SCANNER ARTIFACT!

«WorthPoint»

«Delcampe»

Gina Van de Veer

Lyric Soprano

Opera — Concert — Radio

Fern Helscher, Hotel Winslow, 45 East 55^th St., N.Y.C.

«Musical Courier» (Review of the World's Music), Vol.CXXIII, No.8, April 15, 1941

Knott Hotels

A Group of Exceptional Hotels Ideally Located for Washingtonians Moving to New York.

All of these popular hotels are convenient to the Federal Department now in process of being moved to New York City, either within short walking distance or via the city's rapid transit or bus systems.

They offer a wide choice of location, ranging from the very center of metropolitan life at Broadway and 34th Street, to the nearest and one of the most attractive suburban hotels on Long Island.

Their rates meet every requirement as to one's personal budget, depending on the type of accommodations desired and the location of the hotel selected.

The famous Knott standard of service prevails in the following New York hotels

⟨…⟩

Hotel Winslow
Madison Avenue at 55^th Street

A large modern hotel in the exclusive Madison Avenue district between Fifth and Park Avenues. Ideally suited both in arrangement and rates for the younger groups New York-bound. Excellent cuisine in dining room and roof-garden.

⟨…⟩

For Free Illustrated Map of New York City, for Special Weekly or Monthly Rates and other details apply direct to any of above Hotels or to the address below

James K. Guthrie, Washington Representative
National 4749 | 302 Bond Building | Washington, D.C.

«The Washington Post», No.23.810, August 24, 1941

Skyline, midtown Manhattan, New York City digital file from original

Photographer: Arthur Rothstein

Created / Published: 1941 Dec.

.tiff, 35.5 MB

Library of Congress

* * *

Dining out? Go up to the roof of the Hotel Winslow, 45 E. 55^th St. Good food, well served, 85c.

«Grapevine»
(Employees' Benefit Association oft the American Museum of Natural History),
Vol.4, No.2, Flag Day* 1942

* 14.06.1942

Letter to Leonard Cheshire from Helen O'Grady

•

45 East 55^th Street.
New York. N.Y.
March 2. 1944.

Dear Wing Commander Cheshire,

It was most kind of you to write when my brother W.O.2 Brian de Courcy O'Grady was reported missing. I apologise for not thanking you before this, but the thought that I might hear good news at any time, if I were just to ignore the first report, has kept me from writing.

I have not by any means given up hope that he is safe somewhere, and shall continue to look forward to hearing further news from you.

In the meantime, thank you again for your very kind note.

Sincerely.
Helen de Courcy O'Grady

International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive

Letters to The Christian Science Monitor

A Book on Amelia Earhart

To «The Christian Science Monitor»:

I am at work on a biography of Amelia Earhart, with emphasis on her emergence as one of the small aristocracy of aviation pioneers.

AE's appealing personality and her deeply moving example directly inspired many individuals, mature as well as youthful. Many incidents of contact between her and those drawn by her fame have undoubtedly eluded the printed word. I would appreciate hearing by letter from anyone who cares to tell me of a contact with AE, or who will allow me to see the originals or exact copies of any letters written by AE, which illustrate facets of her character and career, and the breadth of her warm human sympathies and interests.

Janet Mabie
45 East 55^th Street,
New York City

«The Christian Science Monitor», Vol.XXXVI, No.193, July 14, 1944

Resourceful man available

Are you seeking a man possessing the ability of Executive, Salesman, Advertising, together with that of a competent Hotel Manager? One who is dependable, resourceful, capable, and who may prove a valuable aid in your present or post-War activities? If so, a personal interview would be appreciated. Please write A.A.K.O'M., Suite 1102, 45 East 55^th Street, N.Y. 22, N.Y., or Phone Plaza 3-6800.

«The Christian Science Monitor», Vol.XXXVI, No.197, July 19, 1944

Records Related to Amelia Earhart

Janet Mabie

45 East 55^th Street New York City
25 March, 1945

The Honourable Franklin D. Roosevelt,
The White House,
Washington, D.C..

My dear Mr. President:

I am in process of writing a biography of Amelia Earhart. By way of being assigned by The Christian Science Monitor to cover her, I saw her continuously through the approximately nine years of her public life.

Approaching the subject in terms of character and personality rather than events, I am deliberately avoiding ground hitherto covered as much as I can, and having marvelous luck in finding sources of new light on someone I feel was one of the great people.

This week I had invaluable conversations with Mr. Bernard Baruch and Mr. Gene Vidal. I feel I should apologize for writing you in the preoccupied period between Yalta and the San Francisco Conference, to say nothing of the war itself. But unfortunately I am trapped by the deadline of the mss., only six weeks off, and must do it now or not at all. Both men seemed to feel you would understand this, considering the subject.

I know you perceived and admired a special quality in AE, and the things she stood for and accomplished. I know that after she disappeared you bore a personal hand in the search, moreover drawing on an unparalleled naval experience to, yourself, direct the details. Yet you will appreciate why that would be a dull way for me to handle it, just to say that you did, and let it go at that. To do justice to the facts it would be very moving I think to show that The President personally helped with the search, and the actual steps, the atmosphere of personal concern, the experienced attention spared by a phenomenally busy man. If I could tell the story as it happened from hour to hour and day to day it would be maximum human interest. Parenthetically I am just back from California where I went to talk with AE's mother. I don't think she knows how, and how much, you helped, and it would touch and gratify her if it were part of the book. She is gallant about losing AE, and cherishes special evidences of admiration for her.

And so, for a book designed as a testament of admiration, I can't resist taking the liberty of asking you direct, if some way can be worked out. I would like to ask to see you but have a feeling that is too much. Mr. Vidal is wonderful about recalling the day-to-day circumstances. But if I could possibly have some of it from you? In any case, both he and Mr. Baruch encourage me to make the try.

Respectfully yours,
Janet Mabie

www.archives.gov/…

Anna Roosevelt Boettiger

THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON

March 26, 1945

Memorandum for Miss Tully:

The attached speaks for itself. Perhaps you know enough about whatever Father did to help in the search for Amelia Earhart to give the lady the information without bothering Father. Otherwise, if you want me to answer it and will give me whatever information you do have, I will be glad to answer it.

A.R.B.

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

5 Houses Resold on Lexington Ave.

Investor Gets 95^th Street Cornet, Hotel Winslow on Madison Ave. Sold

⟨…⟩ Title to the seventeen-story Hotel Winslow at 551–53 Madison Avenue, northeast corner of Fifty-fifth Street, was given by the Allerton Fifty-fifth Street Corporation, Lewis P. Cramer, president, to the Park Madison Hotel Company, of 439 Madison Avenue. The property is assessed at $1,285,000 and was sold for a consideration of $800,000, according to revenue stamps on the deed. ⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», August 4, 1945

$525,000 Loan on Hotel

New Financing for Winslow, at Madison Ave. and 55^th St.

[Full text is unavailable for this digitized archive article.]

«The New York Times», August 10, 1945

Pistol Owner Held in Cousin's Suicide

Charged with ownership of a German Lueger pistol with which his cousin had committed suicide, Daniel Jan Rueb, a recently discharged Netherlands Army officer, was arrested yesterday for violation of the Sullivan Law and later was paroled in the custody of the Dutch Consul here until his trial on Dec. 10.

Rueb was taken into Felony Court after the body of his cousin, Christoffel Rueb, was found in a room on the eleventh floor of the Hotel Winslow, 44 East Fifty-fifth Street. The room was registered in Daniel Rueb's name. Christoffel Rueb, who was described as employed by a Rotterdam bank, had shot himself through the right temple, leaving a note written in Dutch saying he «could not go on any more».

The former Netherlands officer told police he and his cousin and a sister-in-law, Mrs. Marion Rueb of 315 East Sixty-eighth Street, had been drinking the previous night at Mrs. Rueb's apartment. He said he decided to take Christoffel to the hotel room, where he spent the night while Daniel Rueb occupied a room at the Sixty-eighth Street address.

G. Van Sweriden, acting Netherlands Consul in New York, appeared before Magistrate Francis X. Masterson in behalf of Rueb.

«The New York Times», December 7, 1945

Souvenir Seized As Suicide Gun

The City's collection of war souvenir pistols today was swelled by the addition of an alleged suicide gun—a German Luger, the property of Daniel Rueb of the Hotel Winslow, 45 E. 55^th St., who was arrested for possessing it. The dead man is his cousin.

Rueb Wednesday night exchanged apartments with his cousin, Christoffel Rueb, of 314 E, 68^th, a former member of the banking commission of Rotterdam. Yesterday Christoffel's body was found by Daniel, lying across the bed. Police said he had shot himself in the right temple with the souvenir gun.

«PM», December 7, 1945

Killed in 17-Story Plunge

John L. McLaughlin, 38 years old, of 5525 Enright Avenue, St. Louis, Mo., was killed when he jumped or fell from the seventeenth floor of the Hotel Winslow, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, at 1:35 o'clock this morning. The body struck the rear of an automobile parked in Madison Avenue, damaging the car but not injuring two men in the front seat. Mr. McLaughlin had been registered at the hotel since June.

«The New York Times», September 7, 1946

Loss of Job Blamed in Man's Death Leap

John M. McLaughlin, 35, former hotel steward, leaped to his death from the roof of the 17-story Hotel Winslow in mid-Manhattan today, police reporters, after telling a woman companion he was determined to end his life because he had lost his job.

«Los Angeles Times», September 8, 1946

Hotel Steward Leaps 17 Stories

New York, Sept. 7 (AP)—John L. McLaughlin, 35-year-old former hotel steward, leaped to his death from the roof of the 17-story Hotel Winslow in Mid-Manhattan today, police reported, after telling a woman companion he was determined to end his life because he had lost his Job.

The hotel, police said listed McLaughlin's home as St. Louis, Mo. He had lived at the hotel for the last year.

McLaughlin's body struck the fear of an automobile which was pulling up to the entrance of the hotel.

«Buffalo Courier-Express», September 8, 1946

Ex-St. Louisan leaps to death in New York

Dies in Plunge

John McLaughlan Plunges From Roof of 17-Story Hotel.

John L. McLaughlin, a former St. Louis resident, leaped to his death early today from the roof of the 17-story Hotel Winslow in New York after telling a woman companion that he was despondent because he had lost his job, New York police said.

McLaughlin's body struck the rear of an automobile which was pulling up to the entrance of the hotel at Madison avenue and Fifty-fifth street.

His aunt, Mrs. A. M. Lightholder, 5525 Enright avenue, with whom he lived, said she knew no reason for suicide. He had gone to New York to establish himself and find residence for his wife, Mrs. Carletta McLaughlin, Louisville, Ky., she said.

McLaughlin, who was 35 years old, had served in the First Armored Division in France and was discharged in June, 1945. He went to New York to join the personnel department of the Associated Press, his aunt said.

«St. Louis Post-Dispatch», Vol.99, No.2, September 9, 1946

Marriages

DIANE SHARFE, '46x, Newark, N.J., former WAC surgical technician, now attending The New School of Social Research, Dramatic Workshop (New York City), to EDWIN NAGEL, '43, Brooklyn, former Navy officer, now vice president, Iamco, Inc., an import and export concern doing business in South America and China, Oct. 6, 1946. Following a honeymoon spent in Cuba the Nagels are at home at Hotel Winslow, New York City. Best man: HOWARD BRAUNSTEIN, '43, Syracuse, N.Y.

«The Ohio Alumnus», November 1946

Financier Killed By Cab

W.O. Strahler Hit While Walking Across Park Avenue.

William O. Strahler, vice president and a director of the Panhandle Producing and Refining Company, Inc., 63 Wall Street, was killed at 6:55 o'clock last night when he was struck by a taxicab while crossing Park Avenue, north of East Fifty-fifth Street. Mr. Strahler, who lived here at the Winslow Hotel, 45 West [East] Fifty-fifth Street, according to the police, and maintained a winter home at 3714 Harlano Street, Coral Gables, Fla., was struck after he apparently had stepped into the street between two parked cars, according to the police of the East Fifty-first Street station. The driver of the cab, Francis H. Thompson, 55 years old, of 605 West 177^th Street, was booked at the station house on a charge of vehicular homicide. Mr. Strahler also was president and a director of the Panhandle Trading Company, Inc., of this city, and of the Norfolk International Company of Havana, Cuba.

«The New York Times», February 7, 1947

Gitz Rice is dead; wrote war songs

Composer of «Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy» and «Old Pal of Mine», Was 56

Gitz Rice, who wrote two of the memorable songs of the first World War, «Dear Old Pal of Mine» and «Keep Your Head Down, Fritzie Boy», died yesterday afternoon in his home at the Hotel Winslow, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street. He was 56 years old. Born in New Glasgow, N.S., and educated at the Montreal High School, Feller Institute at Grand Ligne, Que., and the conservatory of music at McGill University, Mr. Rice did not turn to song writing until he joined the Canadian Army. He went overseas as a private with the First Canadian Contingent and came back as a lieutenant. After two and a half years' service he was gassed and invalided home. He reported for duty with the British and Canadian Recruiting Mission and in that capacity sang and played songs he had composed in billets. One of the songs was a popular version of a traditional French tune, «Mademoiselle From Armentieres». In 1918 he appeared here in «Getting Together» at the Lyric Theatre, in which several of his war songs had been incorporated. The singing of these selections invariably «stopped» the show. He Mr. Rice was the co-author with B. C. Hillian of «Princess Virtue», a musical comedy presented at the Central Theatre in 1921, and with Werner Janssen he wrote the music for a revue, «Nic-Nax», played at the Cort in 1926. also was a principal in that show. During a long career as a vaudeville headliner, Mr. Rice appeared with Frank Fay, Irene Bordoni, Blanche Ring and the late Florence Moore. He toured for several years from coast to coast with a vaudeville company of his own, billed as «Gitz Rice and His Royal Northwest Mounted Police». During the first World War, while on sick leave in London, he wrote songs for Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrice Lillie. Among his compositions were «I Want to Go Home», «Mother, I Love You», «Under the Roof Where Laughter Rings», «Because You're Here», «Tramp, Tramp, Tramp Along Together», «By My Fireside», «Waiting for You», «Cherry Blossom Land» and «I Have Forgotten You». Several of his songs were published in England and France. Mr. Rice had made his home in New York since 1919. He was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the Lambs. He leaves his wife, the former: Ruby Wilson; a son, Lieut. (j.g.) Gitz Wilson Rice of the United States Navy, and a daughter, Mrs. Walter I. Lillie of Rochester, Minn.

«The New York Times», October 17, 1947

Wikipedia: Gitz Rice (March 5, 1891 — October 16, 1947)

The Winslow, 1947

57 East 55^th Street

57 East 55^th Street. Erdman residence

Creator: Wurts Bros.

Dated: ca. 1910

File dimensions: 44,9×57,1 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

Manhattan: 55^th Street (East) — Madison Avenue

Date Created: 1911

The New York Public Library

---

…with the First Reformed Episcopal Church visible in the background, which would later be demolished to make way for the Winslow Hotel.

The American Institute of Physics on E. 55^th Street, NYC

Emilio Segrè Visual Archives • Physics Today Collection

American Institute of Physics

---

…with the Winslow Hotel in the background

The AIP building on E. 55^th Street (view toward Madison Avenue)

Emilio Segrè Visual Archives • Physics Today Collection

American Institute of Physics

---

…with the Winslow Hotel in the background

Frank Edward Lorson against United States of America

In the United States Court of Appeals fort he District of Columbia
No.9709
Frank Edward Lorson, Appellant, against United States of America, Appellee
May 3, 1948

⟨…⟩

Civil Action No.17971
December 4, 1942

⟨…⟩

Q. Did you attend him at the time of his death, Doctor?

A. I was called too late. Apparently I was out and I returned to the Winslow and found him lying in a little room where a telephone booth is, and he was dead.

Q. That was on February 21, 1942. What was the cause of death, Doctor? I believe you signed the death certificate.

A. Coronary thrombosis. In my opinion he had either had a second attack, as many patients do, sometimes a third and a fourth, and it is often a subsequent attack that kills a patient.

. . . . . . . .

Q. I hand you here, Doctor, a statement, a 2-page statement, dated April 29, 1942, on the letterhead of the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hospital, 303 East 20th Street, New York City, Hospital Division, Record Department, identified J17092—I suppose that is a file number?

A. Yes.

Q.

«Addressed to: Veterans Administration, Washington, D.C. Regarding Harry B. Lorson (XC-3034739). Address: Winslow Hotel, 45 East 55^th Street, New York, N.Y. Admitted: December 7, 1936. Discharged: February 27, 1937. Condition: Improved. Diagnosis: Hypertensive cardiovascular disease; arteriosclerotic heart disease; coronary thrombosis; arteriosclerotic. Treatment Medical».

Under «Remarks» it shows:

«History on admission: A one to two year history of known hypertension (185 systolies) with precordial pain sometimes following exertion, always and only relieved by rest. At 8:30 a.m. yesterday while in bed, after an evening of apples and beer patient developed severe precordial pain radiating to the left shoulder, arm and neck. Two hours later the doctor was called, gave medication without relief, followed by two doses of pantopan gr. 1/6 M.S.»

— what does «M.S.» mean, Doctor?

⟨…⟩

Lorson v. United States, 172 F.2^d 261 (D.C. Cir. 1948)

Letter from Marie Seton
to Ronald and Helene Moody,
addressed from New York

7 April 1949

Wikipedia: Marie Seton (March 20, 1910 — February 17, 1985)

Wikipedia: Ronald Moody (August 12, 1900 — February 6, 1984)

Brochure

1950's Winslow Hotel Brochure from New York City

This is a brochure for New York City's Winslow Hotel from the 1950's. Thanks for looking.

«WorthPoint»

Madison Avenue. New York, NY

The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. «Madison Avenue. New York, NY» The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1940–1979.

The New York Public Library

Импровизация на тему узоров на фасаде отеля The Winslow:

Busy New York City street

United States — circa 1950s: Busy New York City street.

Size: 2.122×1.663 px — 300 dpi — 1 MB

«Getty Images»

People crossing city street

United States — circa 1950s: People crossing city street.

Size: 3.929×3.115 px — 300 dpi — 4 MB

«Getty Images»

Madison Avenue

Madison Avenue in New York City, near the junction with East 55^th Street, circa 1950. The Bermuda Shop is on the left, and the Milton Schepps jewellery store on the right. A bus carries an advertisement for Sugar Free Diet-Rite Cola. (Photo by George Marks)

Size: 6.844×5.444 px — 300 dpi — 13 MB

«Getty Images»

1960s Photo 556 Madison Ave French Book NYC New York City

«LiveAuctioneers»

---

USA-New York-Fashion-French-Shop

Exterior view of the French millinery shop "Nicole de Paris" in the late 1940s in Manhattan, New York City. (Photo by Eric Schwab)

«Getty»

The Winslow Hotel is visible in the upper right corner.

---

Looking northwest from 55 Street, Madison Avenue

February 18, 1948

Looking north toward 55 Street, Madison Avenue

February 18, 1948

Looking south from 56 Street, Madison Avenue

February 18, 1948

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

---

28 East 55^th Street, south west corner Madison Avenue

Author: Irving Underhill

Dated: 1946

File dimensions: 36,6x46,5 cm at 300 dpi

Museum of the City of New York

---

Date Created/Published: 1962 Feb.

55^th St. location [55^th and Madison]. View I

55^th St. location [55^th and Madison]. View III

Library of Congress

Cars riding on street of american city

Size: 3.743×4.711 px — 300 dpi — 8 MB

«Getty Images»

Hotels and Resorts, Places to Stay

New York City

Hotel Winslow on fashionable Madison Ave. at 55^th St. — near midtown shopping and business districts, Radio City, Central Park. Ideal for teachers who want to live smartly but economically. Inexpensive, excellent luncheons and dinners in our cocktail lounge. Singles from $2.50, from $15.00 weekly. Pamphlet. John D. Gibbons, Manager… another fine Knott Hotel.

«The Instructor», June 1950

Mrs. Gibbons Inherits Estate Of Husband

New York — Mrs. Katherine Gibbons of 152 Morsemere Avenue, Yonkers. will inherit the estate left by her husband, John D. Gibbons of the Hotel Winslow, 45 East 55^th Street, New York, of which he was manager. His will was filed for probate in Surrogates Court Friday. He died June 18 leaving property estimated at $2,679.

«The Herald Statesman» (Yonkers), September 5, 1950

If you are coming to NEW YORK this summer…

Find out now about the Hotel Winslow. Here you can live comfortably but economically, right in the heart of New York's midtown area—a 4-minute walk from Radio City!

Take advantage of these minimum rates at the Winslow: per day from $2.75 and $3.00 — per week from $16.00 and $17.50. Enjoy inexpensive luncheons or dinners, also our 17^th floor sundeck.

Now is the time to make your summer plans. Write or call Mr. Gordon N. Taylor, Manager, for further information and reservations. Ask for booklet «C».

Hotel Winslow
Madison Ave. & 55^th St.

Tel. PLaza 3-6800

a Knott Hotel

«The Spectator» (Hamilton College), Vol.IV, No.27, May 25, 1951

German Officials Arrive

Two members of the West German Parliament and five German agricultural officials arrived at the New York International Airport, Idlewild Queens, yesterday. They will study the development of American agricultural policy and legislation with a view to increasing agricultural production in Germany. The visitors, whose trip was arranged by the Economic Cooperation Administration, will stay at the Winslow Hotel before leaving for Washington tomorrow.

«The New York Times», August 18, 1951

John J. Kennedy

John J. Kennedy, Far Eastern division manager of R.K.O. Radio Pictures, Inc., died yesterday of a heart attack in his apartment at the Winslow Hotel. His age was 52. Mr. Kennedy was graduated from Boston College and the Harvard School of Business Administration. He joined the Film Booking Office, predecessor of R.K.O. Radio, as a booker in Cleveland in 1926. He entered the company's foreign department in 1941.

«The New York Times», October 12, 1951

Prize Quartet

by Bruce Bliven and Geoffrey T. Hellman

On tour and at home, the Quartetto Italiano balances grueling schedules, modest instruments, and close quarters with unflappable charm.

The Quartetto Italiano, or Italian Quartet, which won resounding acclaim on its recent American tour («The finest string quartet, unquestionably, that our century has known… Perfection is the only word to describe this playing, perfection of a kind and degree that no quartet lover living, and no quartet player, has heard before», Virgil Thomson wrote in the «Herald Tribune» after its Town Hall debut early in November, and a couple of weeks later the Vancouver, British Columbia, «Sun» remarked, «No chamber-music program has surpassed or even attained the high standard of this organization»), has returned to Italy, but we called on its members, or three of them, at the Hotel Winslow a few days before they sailed and just before their third, and final, Manhattan concert (two encores, twelve curtain calls, innumerable «Bravo!»s). We had a talk with Paolo Borciani, the first violinist, whose English is pleasant, and exchanged smiles with Miss Elisa Pegreffi, the second violinist, and Piero Farulli, the violist, whose smiles are pleasant. Mr. Borciani and Miss Pegreffi are short, dark, and slim; Mr. Farulli is tall, dark, and plump. Miss Pegreffi was born in Genoa in 1922; Mr. Borciani was born in Reggio Emilia, near Bologna, in 1922; Mr. Farulli was born in Florence in 1920. Mr. Franco Rossi, the cellist, who was out Christmas shopping at the time of our visit, was born in Venice in 1921, and is tall and blond. He, we were later informed by a man who had attended all three of the foursome's Manhattan concerts, is the only one who smiled during the barrage of curtain calls; the three others maintained professional poker faces.

All right. Mr. Borciani, whose father gives violin lessons, started at the age of five; Miss Pegreffi, whose father was a violist, began at eight; Messrs. Rossi and Farulli, who come of non-musical families, took up their instruments at the ages of ten and eleven, respectively. They had all met in their teens, before the war, and immediately after it, at Borciani's suggestion, they teamed up. Their first big-city concert—in Milan, in the fall of 1945— was an immense success, and this was followed by triumphs in Venice, Florence, Vienna, Salzburg, Aix, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris, London, and Edinburgh. «Everyone in the quartet is good, and we are of the same sensibility and work very hard», Mr. Borciani told us. «We have made many festivals and like to play chamber music. My original idea was to be a lawyer—I took a four year law course at the University of Bologna—but I preferred to make this life. The viola and the cello have wives, and Miss Pegreffi and I are singles». Mr. B. stated that on Continental tours he and Farulli travelled in their Fiats, taking Mrs. Farulli and Miss Pegreffi with them, but the cellist and his wife went by train. «Mr. Rossi has no car», he said, «and the cello is too big for one anyway». We inquired whether Miss Pegreffi could drive, and he said no but she could turn on the headlights and work the arrow indicating turns to left and right in masterly fashion.

We asked Mr. Borciani if his team's instruments were anything special, and he said they were not. «My violin changed its voice in San Antonio, Texas», he remarked, «and Mr. Rembert Wurlitzer sent me another one, in time for our concert in Shreveport, Louisiana. We are sometimes tired, but so far, nothing serious. We take a rest from each other for two months every summer, and then meet for six or seven weeks' practice before the fall and winter tours. We like to find a nice place, such as Cortina or Capri, and live there and practice five hours a day. We came here just to let people know us, and will come back next October. People in America do not know very well about artists who are only living in Europe».

The Quartet has a strenuous winter season ahead of it—thirteen concerts in Holland in twelve days, twenty appearances in Sweden in twenty-four days, twenty concerts in Germany in twenty-two days, and so on. «We will sleep in a different city every night until the end of May», Mr. Borciani said, with composure. «When we play in our home towns, our parents come to hear us. Last winter, we were in Egypt. Alexandria isn't so bad, but the traffic in Cairo is terrible—worse than in New York. So many cars, such terrible drivers, not enough policemen, all the drivers shrieking—you can hardly cross the street on foot».

«The New Yorker», December 29, 1951

Wikipedia: Quartetto Italiano (1945–1980)

ABRO UN 1952 Advertising Cover Winslow KNOT Hotel New York to Seattle

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Seventh Avenue at 55^th Street
A short walk from the City's favorite visiting spots—Times Square, Radio City, Broadway theatres, Central Park. Subway at the door.

Hotel Fairfax
116 East 51^st Street

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55 East 10^th Street

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Madison Avenue at 55^th Street

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33 Washington Square West

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West End Avenue at 97^th Street

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Newark, N.J.

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Boston Office
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«American Mercury», Vol.LXXV, No.345, September 1952

«American Mercury», Vol.LXXV, No.346, October 1952

«American Mercury», Vol.LXXV, No.347, Novermer 1952

«American Mercury», Vol.LXXVI, No.349, January 1953

Mrs. James G. Blake

Mrs. Abi Butler Blake, a pioneer contract-bridge teacher here, died yesterday in her home, 545 West 111^th Street, after a brief illness. Her age was 80. She was the widow of James G. Blake, former owner of the Schuyler Hotel. Mrs. Blake, who was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., operated her first bridge studio in the Winslow Hotel. She retired five years ago. Surviving are a son, Edmund B. of Morristown, N.J.; a daughter, Mrs. William Revelle, and a sister, Mrs. S. Van Nest of Princeton, N.J.

«The New York Times», November 10, 1952

[Manhattan cityscape featuring the 30 Rockefeller Plaza skyscraper]

Creator(s): Rizzuto, Angelo, 1906–1967, photographer

Date Created/Published: November 1952

Medium: 21×26 cm

Summary: Photograph shows an aerial view of the Manhattan cityscape. The skyscraper at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, formerly known as the RCA building, is featured. Central park is visible in the background.

Library of Congress

Wikipedia: Angelo Antonio Rizzuto (December 19, 1906 — July 15, 1967)

Missing Woman Is Located

Miss Eleanor Smith, 41 years old, who was reported missing on Wednesday from her room in the Winslow Hotel, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, has been in Bellevue Hospital since then, the police of the East Fifty-first Street Station reported yesterday. She was admitted to the hospital on her own application and has been a patient in the psychiatric division, they said.

«The New York Times», February 22, 1953

D.C. Woman's Sister Is Found in Hospital

by the Associated Press

New York. Feb. 21.—Miss Eleanor Smith, 41, who disappeared from the Hotel Winslow Wednesday while packing for atrip to her home town of Pomeroy, Ohio, was located today in Bellevue Hospital.

Miss Smith was being assisted in her packing by a friend when she suddenly left the room and was not seen again. Her disappearance was reported by her sister, Miss Florence Smith, of Washington, D.C., who is secretary to Representative Gwinn, of New York.

Bellevue Hospital authorities said that Miss Smith apparently went directly from the hotel where she lived to the hospital and had herself admitted.

She has been a patient in the hospital's psychiatric division since her admission.

«The Sunday Star», February 22, 1953

Son of D.C. Couple Dies in Hotel Plunge

Alvin Barton Barber, jr., 30, member of a socially prominent Washington family, plunged to his death early today from the ninth-floor window of a New York hotel.

The Associated Press reported that police said Mr. Barber jumped or fell from the Hotel Winslow.

His parents, Col. and Mrs. Alvin B. Barber of 3504 Macomb street N.W., had gone to New York to visit him. Col. Barber, now transportation consultant in the Office of Defense Mobilization, was for 25 years manager of the transportation and communications department of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

The AP reported that young Barber and his parents checked into the hotel in New York yesterday. The fatal plunge occurred shortly after the family had retired to their rooms.In addition to his parents, he is survived by his sister, Mrs. Samuel Clark, who lives in Massachusetts, and two brothers, Caesar Barber, who teaches at Amherst College, and Godfrey E. Barber, a Budget Bureau official who lives at 1301 North Fort Myer drive, Arlington, Va.

«The Evening Star», 101^st Year, No.184, July 3, 1953

Hotel Winslow

Special Permanent Rates from $17.50 Weekly

Transient rooms also available.

Hotel Winslow
Madison Ave. & 55^th St.

Ralph Hamrick, Mgr.
New York, N.Y.

«Variety», Vol.192, No.13, December 2, 1953

Deaths in Nation

⟨…⟩ NEW YORK — John Thomas Clark, 68, of the Winslow Hotel, here, a retired businessman and author of a widely distributed reference book on the Bible, of a heart attack in Brooklyn. ⟨…⟩

«The Atlanta Constitution», Vol.LXXXVI, No.233, March 18, 1954

Author, Publisher Diesi

John T. Clark, 68,— Was Student I and Indexer of the Bible.

John Thomas Clark, of the Winslow Hotel, a retired business man and author of a widely distributed reference book on the Bible, died of a heart attack Monday night in the Central Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, 55 Hanson Place, Brooklyn. His age was 68.

Mr. Clark was born in Ellenwood, Ga. The earlier part of his life was spent in business, and he was president of the American Hat Company of Atlanta when he retired in 1932 and came to New York.

An assiduous student of the Bible, Mr. Clark devised «Stepping Stones», a chronological cross-index to the St. James version. In 1941, he established his own publishing office, the Green-tree Press, to issue this work.

Surviving are his widow, Georgiana; three sisters and a brother, all of Georgia.

«The New York Times», March 18, 1954

Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, Museum Correspondence: Amsterdam, Holland, Rijksmuseum, 1951–1977

March 18, 1955

Dear Dr. van Schendel,

As per your request I take great pleasure in sending you herein photographs and data on the following paintings and sculpture:

Fontainebleau, School of, «Lot et ses Filles»
Fontainebleau, School of, «Le Festin des Dieux» or «The Approach of the Deluge»
Germain Pilon, attributed to, Pair of Maquettes in Wood for a Monument

and I have also added:

von Aachen «Fortuna»

though I know you have already a print of it in Amsterdam, but you may like to have a complete record of the works of art you saw at my galleries. You will find also included a photostat of the print relating to the Festin des Dieux. You will notice (from the data enclosed) that I consider this print refers to a painting of later date.

Both Mrs. Seligman and I are greatly disappointed not to have the privilege of having Mrs. van Schendel and you at our home and do hope we shall make up for this when we meet in Amsterdam this spring. Should you still have a few moments when you return to New York from Canada, I would enjoy having the opportunity of seeing you here again, as meanwhile I have thought of a couple of works of art which you might wish to include in your exhibition in view of its extended scope. I am particularly referring to a gold enamel necklace of the 16^th century. With best regards,

Sincerely yours,
Germain Seligman

Dr. Arthur van Schendel
Hotel Winslow
45 East 55^th Street
New York, New York
(Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)

Wikipedia: Germain Seligman (February 25, 1893 — March 27, 1978)

Wikipedia: Arthur François Emile van Schendel (May 18, 1910 — February 6, 1979)

«Видишь суслика? — Нет. — И я не вижу. А он есть» © 2000

Hotel Winslow — 200m — Hotel Ambassador (R.I.P.)

«Dylan Thomas in America»

John Malcolm Brinnin

«Dylan Thomas in America: An Intimate Journal»
// Boston+Toronto: «Little, Brown and Company», 1955,
hardcover + dust jacket, 304 p.

July, 1951 — June, 1952

⟨…⟩ It was my plan, readily agreed to by Dylan and Caitlin, to take them into the country for a couple of days — to Millbrook, New York, where we would stay with my friend Rollie McKenna, the photographer, and where we could at leisure go over details of the new reading tour. But first we had to have a drink to welcome Caitlin to America; we converged on the bar of the Winslow Hotel, on Madison Avenue. Through all of this Caitlin was almost totally silent. When she did speak, she said she felt dizzy, and I sensed that she was a little frightened. Dylan seemed in bright-eyed good health, chuckling and beaming, in spite of his having been seasick for nearly three days. Toward Caitlin he was sensitively deferential and solicitous in a way I had not previously observed. Aware, perhaps, of her lack of ease in being shunted so swiftly into America and into a group of strangers who were Dylan's friends, he showed every sign that his first thoughts were of her. It was the only time I had ever seen them together when the amenities of a husband-and-wife relationship were apparent. While his open concern for her to be happy in what she saw and in whom she met was almost childishly intense, this attitude showed him in a most attractive new light. My experience in Laugharne had led me, at times, to face their coming to America with dread. It was a relief now to see them so transformed, and I hoped for the best.

Caitlin's first question as we sat in the darkly mirrored light of the Winslow Bar was, «Is this a posh bar?» We could only say no, not really, that we had chosen it because it was convenient and uncrowded. For the rest of the hour she was content simply to listen to the conversation which, once the wave of welcome had passed over, became rather spiritless. ⟨…⟩

Hound
…Christmas beauty-list

⟨…⟩

Permanent Christmas coiffure, by Mr. Harold. He believes in strong curls under the loose curls at the back, so there are no wispy ends and the hair hugs the nape of your neck. The rest is soft, waves gently at the forehead. Harold in the Winslow Hotel, 45 East 55^th Street, New York 22.

⟨…⟩

«Vogue», December 1955

read more…

New York Beat

⟨…⟩

Singer Othella Dallas set fire to her bed at New York's Winslow Hotel when she lit a match to search for a $700 topaz ring she received from a Cuban admirer.

⟨…⟩

«Jet», Vol.9, No.20, March 22, 1956

Knott Chain sells the Winslow Hotel

The Winslow Hotel, at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, was sold yesterday by the Knott Hotels chain to Herbert R. Weissberg, hotel operator and investor. Mr. Weissberg also owns the Brittany Hotel and has leaseholds on the Shelton, Bolivar and Franconia Hotels here, as well as fee ownership of the Greystone and Monterey Hotels. The Winslow is seventeen stories high, fireproof, and has 430 rooms, a roof garden, three stores, five offices, a restaurant and a bar. It fronts 100 feet on Fifty-fifth Street and 70.5 feet on Madison Avenue. The Knott Hotels chain had owned the Winslow since 1945 through a subsidiary, Park Madison Hotel, Inc. Before 1945, the Knott interests operated the hotel for the previous owner. Mr. Weissberg purchased the hotel yesterday through Winslow Hotel, Inc. The broker in the transaction was Ira E. Goldstein, vice president of L. V. Hoffman Real Estate, Inc.

«The New York Times», July 4, 1956

Weissberg Former Lessee

Herbert R. Weissberg, who on Tuesday acquired title to the Hotel Winslow from the Knott Hotels chain, is a former lease-holder of the Bolivar, Franconia and Shelton hotels, and former fee owner of the Greystone and Monterey hotels. In reporting Mr. Weissberg's acquisition of the Winslow in these columns yesterday, it was inadvertently stated that he presently holds the leases and owns the fees of the other hotels.

«The New York Times», July 5, 1956

Miss Alice Putnam, a Retired Actress

Miss Alice Putnam, a retired actress, died Saturday in her apartment in the Winslow Hotel after a long illness.

Miss Putnam was born in Houlton, Me., a daughter of Capt. Black Hawk Putnam of the Union Army and Jerusha Snell Putnam. On her mother's side she was a descendant of Gov. Edward Winslow of the Plymouth Colony. She attended school in Boston.

The actress became interested in the theatre while on a visit to London, where a cousin, Fay Davis, was leading lady to Sir George Alexander at the St. James Theatre, Miss Putnam returned to the United States at the turn of the century and played in stock. Later she acted in productions of David Belasco and supported such stars as Doris Keene, Laura Hope Crews and Effie Shannon.

In the early Nineteen Twenties Miss Putnam moved to Paris, where she had many friends in artistic circles. She returned to the United States in 1940.

«The New York Times», January 28, 1957

Letter from Katherine Anne Porter to Kay Boyle, May 13, 1957

Katherine Anne Porter

Roxbury Road, Southbury Connecticut 13^th May 1957

Dear Kay: I have been rather praying you might give me your telephone number, for it has been beyond me to write letters, even the shortest most necessary notes. I am very much exhausted and this book, so near the end, has become almost an intolerable burden. I am leaving it and going up to New York tomorrow for about ten days; I shall take advantage of several things going on in the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Yaddo meeting, other things that may sound dull but I shall see people I like and rest from «this solitary, sedentary trade—»

I shall be at the Winslow Hotel at Madison Avenue and 55^th Street, and if you should happen to be in New York during that time, please call me, or let me know where to call you. I do so dearly hope you are recovered in health, and I hope to see you, either there or here after I come back.

Yours

Digital Collections at University of Maryland Libraries

Wikipedia: Katherine Anne Porter (May 15, 1890 — September 18, 1980)

Wikipedia: Kay Boyle (February 19, 1902 — December 27, 1992)

Man, 70, Dies in Plunge Here

A 70-year-old man fell or jumped to his death last night from his room on the sixteenth floor of the Winslow Hotel, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street, at Madison Avenue. The police reported he had been identified as Walter Freiystedt of 41 East Sixty-seventh Street. He landed on the roof of a three-story extension in the rear of the hotel and crashed through a skylight into an empty dining room.

«The New York Times», June 3, 1957

The Step Ladder
— quarterly journal of the bookfellows

⟨…⟩

⟨…⟩

«The Step Ladder», Vol.41, No.1, Summer 1957

⟩ c/o L. N. Jennings

Leslie Nelson Jennings 🤔

The Abbells Sell Paramount Hotel

Operator of Winslow and Brittany Is New Owner — The Remington Leased Lease Deal Reported

The twenty-two-story Paramount Hotel, at 235 West Forty-sixth Street, has been purchased by Herbert R. Weissberg, hotel operator. The interest of Joseph Kell in the original contract of purchase was also acquired by Mr. Weissberg. The hotel, which was recently renovated at a cost of $1,000,000, was acquired from the Abbell hotel group, consisting of Joseph J. Abbell, the estate of Maxwell Abbell, and their associates. Maxwell Abbell was a lawyer and hotel investor who died last summer. The Paramount occupies a plot 150 by 100 feet and contains 610 rooms, seven stores, coffee shop and cocktail lounge. It also contains the Diamond Horseshoe, a night club formerly operated by Billy Rose. The club is now unoccupied and is being leased to a cabaret owner, according to Joseph C. Budner of Budner & Budner, attorneys, who represented Mr. Weissberg. Mr. Weissberg, who owns and operates the Winslow Hotel at Fifty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue and the Brittany Hotel in Greenwich Village, insured title to the Paramount Hotel with the Title Guarantee and Trust Company.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», October 7, 1957

Prelude to a Gracious Bowoff; Nigerian's 64G Dilemma and Decision

The «$64,000 Question» expert on the Bible, former Nigerian tribesman Theophilus Ade Aderomnu—emcee Hal March and the execs called him by his middle name for obvious reasons—could have gone for the $128,000 plateau and, even if missing, would not have been denied the $64,000 he first won. Which is what made his exit from the show last week somewhat more gracious since, even despite his self-confessed mental inequanimity, he stood to lose nothing. However, in a sincere, composed speechlet he touched on «the recent newspaper publicity» without going into details about his marital affairs and the like.

INS' Jack Lotto sprung the Chicago marriage, which came on top of an abortive reconciliation attempt with the first wife by a New York judge. Eventually, the show's impresarios, Harry Fleischmann and Steve Carlin, discovered a couple of other «mild fibs».

For a good portion of the Tuesday afternoon preceding the show's regular 10 p.m. CBS slot, he couldn't be found. Mert Koplin, producer of the show, finally smoked Ade out at the Winslow Hotel, Madison Ave. and 54^th [55] St., where the packagers usually put up their guests, after the Nigerian Bible expert had refused phone calls. It was not until 20 minutes before show time that he showed up at the studio and Aderomnu took March aside and told of his decision to quit because he felt he «would make a fool of myself in my present condition; I have caused you and all my friends on this show enough embarrassment». This caused the CBS and the packagers to do a quick revise on the format, permitting Ade to exit before it actually started rolling.

Aderomnu can keep about half of his 64G and is registered for the Roosevelt Medical School, Chicago. Efforts are being made to get him into Northwestern Univ. to attend certain preparatory classes which have been suggested before he starts his medical studies next year.

The triple scars on each jowl, in rather regular symmetry, are heritages of a tribal custom. The oldest son of the tribal chief experienced this baptism by saber.

Carlin states that Ade «impressed us all with his basic dignity and we were all enchanted by him». When a missionary first exposed Ade to the Bible at the age of eight that was all the reading he had and he «just knows it backwards».

«Variety», Vol.209, No.4, December 25, 1957

«Breakfast at Tiffany's»

Truman Capote

«Breakfast at Tiffany's:
A Short Novel and Three Stories»
// New York: «Random House», 1958,
hardcover + dust jacket, 179 p.

⟨…⟩ «You're a bore. Get up from there,» Holly said, stretching on a pair of gloves. The remnants of the party were waiting at the door, and when the bore didn't budge Holly cast me an apologetic glance. «Be an angel, would you, Fred? Put her in a taxi. She lives at the Winslow».

«Don't. Live Barbizon. Regent 4-5700. Ask for Mag Wildwood».

«You are an angel, Fred». ⟨…⟩

Office Expanded in Canada House

⟨…⟩

Hotel Restaurant Taken Richard and Kenneth Seretsky, restaurant operators, have leased the restaurant and bar at the Winslow Hotel, Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street. The Seretskys also operate Hutton's Ad Lib and The Avenue restaurants. The Winslow Hotel Corporation, of which Herbert R. Weissberg is president, was the lessor. Hyman Wolfe was the broker.

«The New York Times», September 2, 1958

Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, Correspondence: London, England, University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1936–1976

16^th March, 1959.

Germain Seligman, Esq.
5 East 57^th Street,
New York 22, N.Y.

Dear Mr. Seligman,

Thank you very much for your letter, written in a blizzard which, I hope, is now abating.

I am arriving in New York on March 28^th and shall be there till about the middle of April. I shall be staying at the Winslow Hotel on Madison Avenue.

I look forward very much to meeting you again and also to seeing your new undefined acquisition.

Yours sincerely,
Blunt.

Wikipedia: Germain Seligman (February 25, 1893 — March 27, 1978)

Wikipedia: Anthony Blunt (September 26, 1907 — March 26, 1983)

Jacques Seligmann & Co. records, Correspondence: London, England, University of London, Courtauld Institute of Art, 1936–1976

March 27, 1959

Dear Sir Anthony:

These lines will welcome you to New York after, I hope, a pleasant flight.

Mrs. Seligman has requested me to inquire whether Lady Blunt and you could give us the pleasure of joining us for luncheon; and I am wondering if Thursday, April 2^nd on Saturday, the 4^th would be convenient, as we would so much enjoy having you both at our home.

I am rushing this note so that I may have a «priority» on the number of engagements which will shortly be crowding your brief stay over here.

And as my regards my latest acquisition which I am particularly anxious to show you, could you put me down among your earliest calls.

Looking forward to seeing you soon,

Sincerely yours,
Germain Seligman

Sir Anthony Blunt
c/o Hotel Winslow
Madison Avenue at 55^th Street
New York, New York

P.S. Unless I hear from you in the meantime, I will call you up Monday morning around 9:00 A.M.. For your information, our home address is 875 Fifth Avenue (between 68^th and 69^th Street, telephone TR 9-3678). My office telephone is PL 3-0250.

Wikipedia: Germain Seligman (February 25, 1893 — March 27, 1978)

Wikipedia: Anthony Blunt (September 26, 1907 — March 26, 1983)

[Bird's-eye view of 5th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan]

Creator(s): Rizzuto, Angelo, 1906–1967, photographer

Date Created/Published: July 1959

Medium: 21×26 cm

Summary: Photograph shows the New York Public Library on 42^nd St. and 5^th Ave., sign for «Knox Hats», and «500 Fifth Avenue» on left side of the street, Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Library of Congress

Wikipedia: Angelo Antonio Rizzuto (December 19, 1906 — July 15, 1967)

Hotel Winslow

New York

Hotel Winslow

East Side

Madison Ave.
at 55^th St.

Smart
Midtown
Location

One block from Fifth Avenue's famous shopping area. Near theatres, Radio City, restaurants, cafes, business and cultural centers. Newly decorated rooms with private bath. Free radios. Air-conditioning and TV available.

Daily rates
from $6.50 single
from $8.50 double

Write for descriptive brochure.

«Sponsor», July 4, 1959

August 1, 1959 + September 12, 1959

Draft Rockefeller

1960 Press Photo Huge «Draft Rockefeller» Sign at Hotel Winslow, New York (12.25×9.5 inches) • NXP1233625-6/3-NEW YORK: Passers-by stop to view a huge «Draft Rockefeller» sign that had just been erected at the Hotel Winslow at 55^th St. and Madison Avenue here 6/3. Hotel is headquarters für the «Draft Rockefeller» movement, organization set up by people in 41 states. New York's Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, their would-be «draftee», has said that he would be available if drafted das Republican Presidential candidate. UPI TELEPHOTO

Rockefeller Draft to be Pressed Soon

A committee to draft Governor Rockefeller for the Republican Presidential nomination announced yesterday that headquarters would be set up in forty-one cities within ten days. The announcement was made by Jack Barnes, a public relations man who is the national chairman of the group, the Draft Rockefeller Campaign Committee. The New York headquarters for the movement was opened last night in the Winslow Hotel, 45 East Fifty-fifth Street. Mr. Barnes said his group was a «grass-roots movement» formed without the Governor's knowledge. He said political leaders of the Republican party had not been consulted. Bernard Newman, New York County Republican leader, said he knew nothing about the committee or its members. Robert L. McManus, press secretary to Governor Rockefeller, said last night: «Formation of the Draft Rockefeller headquarters was undertaken without the knowledge, authorization or consent of Governor Rockefeller or of anyone associated with him».

«The New York Times», June 7, 1960

Convention Due to Get Rockefeller's Name

New York, June 6 (AP) Jack Barnes, publicist and chairman of a «Draft-Rockefeller» group, predicted tonight that Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's name will be placed in nomination for President at the Republican Convention.

Barnes, who earlier today announced that his «National Draft-Rockefeller Committee» would operate in 41 cities, said the group already has unofficial support of an unspecified number of convention delegates.

He said it had not been decided who would put Rockefeller's name in nomination but it will «definitely be done».

A Rockefeller spokesman denied the Governor had anything to do with the draft committee.

Barnes, who has worked for the Governor in the past, declined to identify other members of the group.

He said Rockefeller and other Republican leaders had not been consulted.

He described the committee as a grass roots movement, and said prominent members might be named later this week.

He also declined to say who is supporting the group financially, although conceding that «we're pretty well financed».

The New York headquarters at the Hotel Winslow—a block east of Rockefeller's Manhattan office—consists of the hotel manager's office, the entire lounge, and more than 10 suites. Barnes said a few hundred volunteers were expected to go to work this week and the operation will cost about $1,500 a month.

«The Washington Post», June 7, 1960

* * *

Doors open on the «National Draft Rockefeller Campaign Committee» headquarters at the Winslow Hotel on New York City's E. 55^th St. Stuart Jackson, center, executive vice president of the committee, said Manhattan office is first of 41 that will open in major U.S. cities this week.—AP Photo.

«The Citizen Register», June 8, 1960

Rockefeller drive begun by new group

A week-end Crusade for Rockefeller was started here last night by the newest of the Draft Rockefeller groups to appear on the political scene. The newcomers, who moved into the Belmont Plaza Hotel about ten days ago, appear to be much better financed than the Draft Rockefeller group that has been operating at the Winslow Hotel since early June. The chairman of the new group is Amos J. Peaslee Jr., a former assistant United States attorney. Volunteers were asked to collect signatures over the week-end to petitions calling on delegates to the Republican National Convention to nominate Governor Rockefeller for President. They were also asked to send telegrams to the delegates in Chicago asking the same thing. The workers were given mimeographed song-sheets with the words of a campaign song called «Rock for Rockefeller (and Roll to Victory)». The lyric was credited to Joan Javits, daughter of New York's Republican Senator Jacob K. Javits. Fifteen pickets walked outside the Nixon headquarters at 11 East Forty-second Street, carrying signs that read «We Want Rocky» and «We Want a Convention, Not a Coronation». The group planned to continue picketing from 10 A.M. to 10 P.M. today.

«The New York Times», July 23, 1960

New Skyscraper for Madison Ave.

32-Story Office Building to Be Erected on Plot at 55^th and 56^th Streets.

A thirty-two-story office building will be constructed at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and Fifty-sixth. To be known as 555 Madison Avenue, it will represent an investment of about $7,000,000, including the cost of the land.

The sponsor of the project is the Mid-City Realty Corporation, of which M. Michael Kulukundis is president. The plans have been drawn by John Kokkins, architect, in association with Morris Lapidus, Kornblath, Harle & Liebman, New York and Florida architects. Mr. Kokkins, also of New York, is vice president of the corporation sponsoring the development.

The site takes in 555 to 563 Madison Avenue, 50 to 56 East Fifty-sixth Street and 51 to 55 East Fifty-fifth Street. The building will be L-shaped and will surround the seventeen-story Winslow Hotel at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street. The land fronts 125 feet on the avenue, 121 feet on Fifty-sixth Street and 56 feet on Fifty-fifth Street. It is now being cleared of several store and office structures.

Construction is scheduled to start this month, with completion set for the fall of 1961.

The building will contain 300,000 square feet of office space, with provision for stores on the Madison Avenue side. Mr. Kokkins said the space might include banking quarters.

The building will have a tower and only two offsets on the Madison Avenue frontage. It will be all glass, in an unusual tinted brown color with bronze-tinted spandrils and antique bronze anodized aluminum.

«The New York Times», June 17, 1960

Babcock & Kogan

READY NOW!

A complete TV Department on a low cost per job basis!

Use any or all services: Production Supervision… Direction… Creation… of live, tape and film; Show Coverage; Agency Representation. Service by producers with agency-network backgrounds.

Phone or Write: Babcock & Kogan
45 East 55^th St., New York, N.Y. • PLaza 2-4480

«Advertising Age», Vol.31, No.31, August 1, 1960

Thai Prince

by Geoffrey T. Hellman

A Bangkok curator-prince escorts Thai antiquities to the Met, correcting Hollywood myths about «The King and I» along the way.

The Prince, who is staying at the Hotel Winslow, has one wife, and one infant daughter, in Bangkok.

«The New Yorker», January 14, 1961

Wikipedia: Subhadradis Diskul (November 23, 1923 — November 6, 2003)

Securities and Exchange Commission News Digest

Washington 25, D.C. • For Release: August 29, 1961

A brief summary of financial proposals filed with and actions by the S.E.C.

⟨…⟩

H. R. WEISSBERG FILES FOR STOCK OFFERING. H. R. Weissberg Corporation, 680 Fifth Avenue, New York, filed a registration statement (File 2-18783) with the SEC on August 28^th seeking registration of 250,000 shares of Class A common stock, to be offered for public sale through underwriters headed by Toster, Singer & Co. The public offering price and underwriting terms are to be supplied by amendment. The registration statement also includes 7,500 Class B common shares to be sold to the underwriters at $1 per share and 2,500 Class B shares sold to certain employees and business associates of the company at $1 per share.

The company was organized under Delaware law in October 1960. It is engaged in the hotel and general real estate business. The company began active operations in January 1961 after having acquired 100% of the Capital Units of all partners and stockholders in the partnerships and corporations which were the subject of an Exchange offer in exchange for 1,234,493 shares of the Class A common stock of the company. The properties so acquired are as follows: Lord Baltimore, (fee) Baltimore, Md; Gramercy Park Hotel, (operating fee) New York; Paramount Hotel, (fee) New York; Montmartre Hotel, (99yr ground lease) Miami Beach, Fla.; Hotel Brittany, (fee) New York; and the Winslow Hotel, (fee) New York. Since its inception in January 1961, and subsequent to the consummation of the Exchange Offer, the company acquired the following properties: Western Hills Hotel, (operating fee) Fort Worth, Texas; Emerson Hotel, (fee and operating leasehold) Baltimore; and Lord Baltimore Hotel, (leasehold) Baltimore. Of the net proceeds from the stock sale, $1,360,000 has been allocated towards repayment of bank loans and interim financing for the acquisition of the Emerson Hotel, and the balance will be added to general funds to be used for corporate purposes.

In addition to certain indebtedness, the company has outstanding 1,380,493 Class A and 83,500 Class B common shares, of which Herbert R. Weissberg, president and board chairman, owns 17.89% and 49%, respectively, and management officials as a group 25.57% and 86.46%, respectively.

⟨…⟩

Weissberg Forms Unit

Hotel Concern Organizes a Securities Company

The formation of the Weissberg Securities Corporation has been announced by the H. R. Weissberg Corporation, a hotel organization. The new unit will underwrite the acquisition of shopping centers, industrial plants, office buildings and other real estate throughout the country. Herbert R. Weissberg, president of the parent company said the securities division was intended to provide ready financing for new purchases and expand the parent concern's activities. The corporation owns and operates the Gramercy Park, Paramount, Brittany and Winslow Hotels here, as well as hotels in leading cities throughout the country. It plans to increase its hotel activities.

«The New York Times», February 9, 1962

Plunge Kills Importer

Grosvenor Nicholas Victim in Fall at East Side Hotel.

A 49-year-old man fell or jumped to his death yesterday from the Winslow Hotel, at Madison Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street. The victim was Grosvenor Nicholas of 21 East Sixty-second Street, a liquor importer associated with Nicholas & Co. He was not registered at the hotel. His body struck the Fifty-fifth Street sidewalk at 11:25 A.M. after falling either from the roof or a window.

Mr. Nicholas' wife, Katherine. said he had left their apartment an hour earlier to take a walk. She said he had been under treatment for a nervous disorder.

«The New York Times», February 19, 1962

14-Story Plunge Kills New Yorker

Socially prominent Grosvenor Nicholas Jr. plunged to his death yesterday from the roof of the 14-story Hotel Winslow.

His wife said Nicholas had left their E. 62^nd St. apartment about an hour before the fatal plunge, saying he was going for a walk.

Nicholas, 49, who lived on a trust fund left by his late father, had been treated at a hospital Saturday for a long-standing nervous condition.

« The Herald Statesman, Yonkers, N.Y.», February 19, 1962

Securities and Exchange Commission News Digest

Washington 25, D.C. • For Release: April 18, 1962

A brief summary of financial proposals filed with and actions by the S.E.C.

⟨…⟩

DIPLOMAT ORLEANS ASSOCIATES FILES FOR OFFERING. Diplomat Orleans Associates, 565 Fifth Avenue, New York, filed a registration statement (File 2-20251) with the SEC on April 17^th seeking registration of $1,580,000 of limited partnership interests in Associates, to be offered for public sale at $10,000 per interest. The offering will be made on an all or none basis by Weissberg Securities Corporation, which will receive $80,000 for expenses and commissions.

Associates is a limited partnership organized under New York law in March 1962 with Nathan P. Baker and Sidney Gespass as general partners and as original limited partners. It was formed to acquire for investment title to five shopping centers in New Orleans and the leasehold estate with respect to the Diplomat Motor Hotel, Washington, D. C. In March title to the shopping centers waS conveyed to a nominee of the partnership by H. G. Hill Stores Realty Co., Inc., a non-affiliated person. The transfer of the title resulted from the acquisition of a January 1962 contract to purchase the shopping centers by the partnership from Winslow Hotel, Inc. an affiliated person. The purchase price of $1,425,000 was paid to Winslow Hotel by delivery of a promissory note in that amount, and said note will be repaid to Winslow Hotel as follows: $700,000 to be obtained by a first mortgage loan on the shopping centers and $725,000 from the net proceeds of the sale of partnership interests. In April the partnership contracted to purchase from H. R. Weissberg Corporation, a Delaware company (of which the underwriter and Winslow Hotel are wholly-owned subsidiaries and Baker is an officer and director and Gespass is an officer), the leasehold estate affecting the Diplomat Motor Hotel for a purchase price of $795,000 in cash, to be paid from the net proceeds of this offering. The prospectus states that, assuming the consummation of said transactions, the aggregate gross profit to H. R. Weissberg Corp. will be $620,000. Baker and Gespass have each contributed $5,000 in cash to the capital of the partnership as general partners and an additional $5,000 each as original limited partners.

⟨…⟩

1960s

Straßenszene in der Madison Ave in New York City

New York City, NY, USA, 1962. Straßenszene in New York City. Außerdem: Fußgänger, Gebäude, Autos und Straßenverkehr.

Neu York Stadt, Straßenszene, 1964

Neu York Stadt, Straßenszene, 1964

«iStock»

Hotel acquired on Madison ave.

Leader-Durst, in First Deal Here, Gets the Winslow.

The Winslow Hotel at 551-53 Madison Avenue, northeast corner of Fifty-fifth Street, has been purchased by the Leader-Durst Corporation, a real estate company. The seventeen-story building with penthouses was sold by the H. R. Weissberg Company for more than $2,400,000, of which $1,000,000 was in cash and the balance on a first mortgage.

The building, which fronts seventy-five feet on the avenue and 100 feet on the street, contains 400 rooms, a cocktail lounge, restaurant, eight stores and offices that have a separate entrance. It was bought subject to a net lease held by Winslow Associates of New York, operator of the hotel for the last few years.

The hotel is the first New York property of Leader-Durst, which now has seventeen holdings in this country and Canada, including apartments, office buildings, shopping centers and industrial plants.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», August 29, 1962

Mrs. William Durant

Mrs. Annie Cotton Durant, the widow of William West Durant, former president of the Adirondacks Railroad and a developer of the Adirondacks, died Saturday in Doctors Hospital. Her age was 88. She lived at the Winslow Hotel on Madison Avenue at 55^th Street. Mrs. Durant's husband, who died in 1934, once owned half a million acres in the Adirondacks and built camps for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, J. P. Morgan and Collis P. Huntington. Mrs. Durant leaves a sister, Mrs. D. A. Mitchell of Gananoque, Ont.

«The New York Times», September 17, 1962

Bollmann Map New York

Title: New York
Date depicted: 1962
Date issued: 1962
Cartographer: Hermann Bollmann
Paper, 33¾×42½ inches
Private collection

Bird's-eye views of American cities like the Galt-Hoy Map of Manhattan (see p. 142) were popular during the second half of the nineteenth century, but this technique of delineating cities declined in the twentieth century. The time and research necessary to create such maps became impractical as cities became more complex. During the 1960s and 1970s, this kind of pictorial map was revived with the appearance of two remarkable maps of Manhattan. In 1962, German cartographer Hermann Bollmann published an ambitious pictorial map of midtown Manhattan, and in 1974, Curt Anderson issued an isometric map of a smaller section of the city.

Bollmann was a German graphic artist who was inspired to make picture maps after World War II as an effective way to delineate the towns devastated by war. His success led to more and more sophisticated maps, culminating in this isometric perspective of midtown Manhattan. By that time, Bollmann and his crew were depending heavily on ground and air photographs. Bollmann's map of midtown was based on some sixty-seven thousand photographs, seventeen thousand of which were aerial shots systematically taken from a camera specially designed for the purpose; fifty thousand others were taken from the ground. Once all of the data had been gathered, each building was hand-drawn to a scale of 1:4,800, until, block by block, entire sections of the city were recreated in exact detail.

At the time the Bollmann Map was created, half the skyscrapers (buildings of fifty stories or more) in the world were located in Manhattan, and these great edifices dominate the map. The landmark buildings are shown in meticulous detail and in three dimensions: Rockefeller Center, the Pan Am Building (now known as the Met Life Building), the New York Hilton, and the Empire State Building. At the opposite end of the scale, lampposts, statues, and individual windows are all clearly shown.

The presence of so many high buildings close together created certain logistical problems for Bollmann's draftsmen. Exaggeration was sometimes employed to show the buildings to the best advantage. Streets were significantly widened out of proportion so that structures would not seem cramped together, and the heights of the buildings were increased. Vanishing point perspective was not employed in an effort to have all the buildings drawn to the same scale.

Bollmann has earned a reputation for being a truly artistic cartographer and has used his elaborate techniques to create pictorial maps of various cities around the world. He created his New York City map for the 1964 World's Fair. The map on exhibition there was huge, but there have been reprints on a smaller scale. The example reproduced here was issued as part of Bollmann's multilingual guidebook to the city.

Paul E. Cohen + Robert T. Augustyn
«Manhattan in maps, 1527–1995»
// New York: «Rizolli», 1997,
hardcover + dust jacket, 164 p.,
ISBN: 0-8478-2052-1

«Confessions of an Advertising Man»

David Ogilvy

«Confessions of an Advertising Man»
// New York: «Atheneum», 1963,
hardcover + dust jacket, X+172 p.

⟨…⟩ Research had revealed that our greatest single obstacle lay in the fact that Europeans had an exaggerated concept of the cost of visiting the U.S.A. We decided to attack the problem head-on. Instead of saying in a bland, innocuous way that you can tour America «for less than you suppose», we gave a specific figure: £35 a week. This was arrived at after careful verification. For example, before deciding on a reasonable minimum price for a hotel room in New York, we sent one of our copywriters to check the beds at the Hotel Winslow, which charges six dollars a night; she found them satisfactory. But our critics took the position that £35 a week was far too low. ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: David Ogilvy (23 June 1911 — 21 July 1999)

«Only You, Dick Darling!»

Merle Miller + Evan Rhodes

«Only You, Dick Darling!
or How to Write One Television Script
and Make $50,000,000.
A True-Life Adventure»
// New York: «William Sloane Associates», 1964,
hardcover + dustjacket, 350 p.

⟨…⟩ I looked east to Madison Avenue and the glazed brick towers of the Winslow Hotel, where I had stayed when I first came to New York. I was then not quite seventeen and determined to remake New York City and the world in my own image and to write more and better novels than Balzac.

I was positive that within my lifetime Madison Avenue would be renamed Miller Boulevard and that Rodin would sculpt my poet's features.

I turned from the view of the Winslow and walked to the mirror that had been smuggled out of George C. Tilyou's Fun House at Coney Island. ⟨…⟩

«Complete Guide to New York City»

Andrew Hepburn

«Complete Guide to New York City» // Garden City, New York: «Doubleday & Company, inc.», 1964, paperback, 192 p.

⟨…⟩

Madison Avenue

C — Winslow Hotel, on the northeast corner of 55^th Street. The hotel has 17 floors and 451 rooms, offers both transient and residential accommodations in the medium price range.

⟨…⟩

Hotels

Winslow, 45 E. 55^th St., at Madison Ave. (PLaza 3-6800). Transient and residential; 17 floors, 450 rooms. Single, $8 up; double, $13 up. Cocktail lounge and dining room. Limited meeting or banquet facilities.

⟨…⟩

News of realty: buildings traded

Apartment House and Hotel Figure in Exchange Here.

The transfer of ownership of two major Manhattan properties through a trade exchange rather than an outright sale has been negotiated by Abbott & Adams, brokers. Felomer, Inc., headed by Osias Nacht, traded the 17-story apartment house at 750 Park Avenue, southwest corner of 72^nd Street, for the 17-story Winslow Hotel at 551 Madison Avenue, northeast corner of 5 Street. Both properties had the same amount of equity or cash investment, $625,000, and nearly the same amount of mortgage indebtedness, about $1.1 million for 750 Park Avenue, and about $1 million, plus a second mortgage of $350,000, for the hotel. The 400-room hotel had been owned by the Leader-Durst Winslow Company, headed by Joseph Durst, and controlled by the Prudential Real Estate Trust. Leader-Durst Winslow on competing the trade then sold the apartment house to Julius Korein and Isaac Kaplan through L. V. Hoffman & Co. and Herbert Charles & Co., co-brokers. Herbert Charles has been appointed the apartment building's managing agent. Trading real estate is more common in the West and Southwest than in the New York area. It was developed after the 16^th Amendment took effect in 1913 and an income tax was imposed on individuals, trusts and corporations. The major incentive in effecting a trade is that property owners may avoid the payment of the Federal capital-gains tax on the profit from the sale of the property.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», October 19, 1965

CD Workers Get Real Workout Due To Power Failure

New York (AP)

The power blackout put Civil Defense workers through one of their biggest tests since World War II. They directed traffic, rescued people from stranded elevators and broadcast progress reports.

Robert E. Condon, Civil Defense chief for New York City, was just about to leave for a Wings Club dinner, when the lights began to flicker at 5:27 p.m. Tuesday.

He waited, learned the extent of the power failure and within an hour had mobilized a majority of the 200,000 volunteers in his unit.

Many other people simply walked into Civil Defense headquarters and offered their services. A number of doctors were given first aid kits and ordered to stand by for any calls for medical assistance.

Three workers went to the Hotel Winslow and pulled a 90-year-old woman and four other persons from a stalled elevator.

Others directed traffic, helped persons cross the street or sought rides for those unable to get home.

* * *

Civil Defense trucks equipped with generators sped to hospitals and police and fire stations to help supply emergency lighting.

One mobile communications vehicle provided illumination for three City Hall rooms where officials were meeting on the blackout.

«This was our biggest test since World War II and our people responded magnificently», said Condon. He also praised the general public for cooperating and taking the situation calmly.

A vital part in the agency's work was handled by some 700 warning posts scattered throughout the country.

Within two to five minutes after the power failure developed, a Civil Defense spokesman said in Washington, all of the posts were in business, some with emergency power.

* * *

The setup includes radio stations, highway police headquarters and other government agencies.

The government's emergency action notification system, the broadcast network that replaced Conelrad, was not used. It was set up to go into operation only in cases of a nationwide alert.

«Pottstown Mercury», Vol.35, No.38, November 11, 1965

Woman Saved in Attempt To Jump From Hotel Roof

One of two patrolmen diverted the attention yesterday of a young woman who threatened to jump 12 stories from a roof and she was seized and brought to safety.

The woman, identified by the police as Diane Mitchell, «in her 20s» of the Hotel Winslow, 45 East 55^th Street at Madison Avenue, climbed from a hotel window to the 12^th story set-back shortly after 1 P.M.

Patrolman Michael DeFeo of Emergency Squad 1 began talking to her and offered her a cigarette. As the woman reached for it, Patrolman Vincent Hogan of the East 51^st Street station house, who was about four feet away on the other side, seized her.

The woman, who wore slacks, had in her possession a note indicating she planned suicide, the police reported. She was taken to Bellevue Hospital for observation. She refused to give further information about herself.

The woman registered in the hotel on July 19 and gave a Los Angeles address.

«The New York Times», August 10, 1967

⟩ to jump 12 stories from a roof…

17

55^th Street / Madison Avenue 56^th Street / 5^th Avenue, 1968

«Getty Images»

Policemen Deny Accepting Gifts

by Homer Bigart

Hearings for 10 on Alleged Gratuities Adjourned

Ten policemen pleaded not guilty at a hearing yesterday to charges of violating Police Department rules by accepting Christmas gratuities.

The departmental hearing at Police Headquarters grew out of an investigation that began a year ago when a little black book was found in the subway. The book contained a list of 134 East Side bars, restaurants, stores, hotels and other establishments that allegedly offered cash gifts to the police.

The hearing was adjourned until Feb. 8 when Deputy Commissioner Aloysius J. Melia, in charge of trials, will entertain motions and fix a date for trial. The 10 defendants face possible dismissal from the force if convicted. They were represented by Robert Eliasberg, a lawyer for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.

Under the new state penal code, which went into effect last September 1, anyone who offers a gratuity to a civil servant for performing public duties that the civil servant is required to do is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor and can be fined $1,000 and jailed for a year.

⟨…⟩ Sgt. Daniel J. Messina, 40, was charged with receiving Christmas gratuities in December, 1964, and December, 1965, from Murray Silverman, manager of the Cafe Winslow, 45 East 55^th Street. ⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», January 30, 1968

«The Cannibals»

Keefe Brasselle

«The Cannibals:
A Novel About Television's Savage Chieftains»
// New York: «Bartholomew House Ltd.», 1968,
hardcover + dust jacket, 510 p.

⟨…⟩

The last few weeks had been a sheer hell of politics and crises. This was one of the worst. I was sitting at my desk staring at the phone which I had just hung up after talking to Morry Weinstein.

Finally I grabbed the private.

As soon as the quiet voice answered, I said coldly, «I want to see you».

«Any time you want», he said lightly.

«As soon as possible». He could take that quiet voice and stick it up his ass. «I want to meet right now where we'll be alone. The alternate bar, on Madison Avenue». Click.

I picked up a dart and threw it with every bit of power in me. It missed the bull's-eye, but stuck three quarters of an inch into the board.

I headed out of my office past Vera, saying nothing.

«Shall I know where you're going?» she asked.

She never got the answer. I went downstairs and started to get into the car. Then I changed my mind, slammed the back door, and got into the front seat instead, next to George.

«Take me to the bar on Madison Avenue».

Not a word was spoken for two blocks. Finally George asked, concerned, «Something up, pal?»

«Yeah, something's up». But I just stared straight ahead. Nothing must mar my concentration.

Within minutes I was walking into the Winslow Hotel. Jonathan was waiting for me, sitting at one of the deuce tables in a far corner. We were alone, except for a few stragglers at the stand-up bar.

We ordered vodka martinis. In a few moments the waiter set them down. Jonathan picked up his glass. I pushed mine aside.

«Forget «The Bridge», forget Tom Brady, and forget that miserable cocksucker out on the Coast who's your great friend». I narrowed down and stared him straight in the eye. «I want to know why you broke my word to Morry Weinstein. Nobody breaks my word. Why?»

⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Keefe Brasselle (February 7, 1923 — July 7, 1981)

Jonathan J. Bingham ⟩ Wikipedia: James T. Aubrey (December 14, 1918 — September 3, 1994)

«Fake!»

Clifford Irving

«Fake!
The Story of Elmyr de Hory the Greatest Art Forger of Our Time»
// New York: «McGraw-Hill Book Company», 1969,
hardcover + dust jacket, 244 p.

⟨…⟩ That's when I made the decision that I can't stay with this man any more. We'd been together six months. After all, I hadn't signed a contract, I'd never intended it to be a lifelong partnership. I was getting more and more nostalgic for Europe, and we'd often talked, the three of us, about going there together. Réal thought he knew a way that for about $2.000, through a lawyer he'd once worked for in Toronto, he could get me a Canadian passport. I said okay. I would somehow come up with the money. Fernand, of course, meant for us to do business together over there in Europe. We went back to New York together and they went up to Toronto to see if they could arrange things. All I had to do was to find the $2.000, which, naturally, I didn't have at the time.

I checked into the Winslow Hotel on East 55^th Street, sat down in my little room and quickly put together a small collection of things: some Degas pastels, a Renoir watercolor and a group of various drawings. It took me about three days—it was all work I had done before, I knew the subjects so well I didn't even have to look at the books any more to get what you might call «inspiration». In one sense, perhaps unconsciously, I was even copying my own earlier fakes—that is, without having them in front of me to refer to, except that I could see them in my mind's eye. It's something every artist does, of course: going over old subjects from a fresh point of view. I did it at the time so that I could work fast, because I had to sell fast.

⟨…⟩

In New York he stayed again at the Winslow Hotel and made his final decision. He was tired of looking over his shoulder for the FBI and the vigilantes. He would return to Europe.

He told Fernand and Réal that he had sold «a few small drawings» in Texas; and now he had the money to pay for the Canadian passport. Pleased, they flew back to Ottawa. Elmyr shipped the Corvette from New York to Paris, and his luggage with it—except for one cabin trunk which he left in storage at the Winslow Hotel. It contained, as a kind of farsighted American insurance policy, the unsold Cézanne watercolor and a number of drawings. He had no idea that it would be Fernand Legros, not himself, who would be the beneficiary.

⟨…⟩

If anything, Fernand Legros was a gambler, and a daring one. He guessed that Elmyr had been telling the truth about all except his personal whereabouts and his financial situation. He hurried back to his hotel in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and placed a long-distance telephone call, in the name of Elmyr de Hory, to the Winslow Hotel in New York. He demanded to know if his trunk was still safely stored away in the hotel baggage room. The management, after a rapid inquiry, replied, «Of course».

In that case, Fernand explained, a young man named Fernand Legros, bearing proper identification and a letter of introduction from him, Elmyr de Hory, would be picking it up within the week.

Two days later, with a one-way ticket and $100 of borrowed money, Fernand was on an Air France jet bound for New York.

Checking into the Winslow Hotel, he produced a paper with what seemed certainly an authentic signature of Mr. Elmyr de Hory. The trunk was brought up to Fernand's room. The padlock presented no problem to a man who had traveled three thousand miles to deal with it. The contents, a modest treasure of twentieth-century French drawings and watercolors, spilled out on the bed—and Fernand Legros was ready to launch himself in what was to be perhaps the zaniest career, and certainly the most profitable swindling enterprise, in the history of art.

⟨…⟩

It took him a further five years to find out. Toward the end of his relationship with Fernand and Réal, when things were in a very bad state indeed, he and Réal met in a Madrid hotel suite to discuss strategy. Réal quit the room for a few minutes to make a telephone call. As was customary among the three partners when any one of them left his luggage unguarded in the presence of any of the others, Elmyr dove for the briefcase on the bed and began rifling its contents. Before Réal returned he had discovered a set of photographs and Kodachrome transparences, as well as a 1965 catalog from the Galeria de Arte Solarium of São Paulo, Brazil; all reproduced one of the three Modigliani drawings shown to him by Pfannstiel and several other paintings that had been left behind, safely stored for his old age, he had reckoned, in the trunk in the Winslow Hotel.

⟨…⟩

While Fernand was in Paris setting himself up in business with the contents of the Winslow trunk, Elmyr was doing a little business of his own. His good intentions—to begin life again, to live as a painter of his own work and obliterate his past existence as a forger—turned out to be intentions and no more. They vanished with his bank account. He had discovered that even in the enlightened, cultured Europe of the 1960s, he couldn't make a living from his own painting. After the show in Milan he made the rounds of the Rome galleries, but they were interested only in commercial work or abstract art. The latter would have been a completely false move on Elmyr's part, and he was determined to paint no more palm trees and pink poodles. Once again, naturally, he was nearly broke; life in a city like Rome, wining and dining with the upper classes and buying drinks for young men on the Via Veneto, was not cheap. It was a familiar dilemma and he wasted no time dangling painfully from its horns. With his by now customary sigh, he bought a fresh set of art books, French paper, canvas, ink, pastels, watercolors and the correct oils, and set to work in his studio. He had hardly lost his touch; if anything, it had improved. After a month's labor he had a collection of some twenty-five Renoir and Degas pastels, Chagall and Derain watercolors and Matisse drawings.

⟨…⟩

Fernand, of course, had by then parlayed the contents of the Winslow trunk into a burgeoning business and a steadily growing reputation as an art dealer specializing in French Post-Impressionist masterpieces. He had always had some wit, and now he had added a cultivated charm to his arsenal of weapons. Nor had his years in America been wasted; he had become a devotee and now a specialist of the hard sell. Through his connections in the homosexual establishment of Paris he was able to meet a good many dealers and collectors—the rest was a question of coming up with the goods. This, somehow, he always managed to do, snaring this and that on consignment and occasionally offering things even before he had been commissioned to do so. With the profit from the Winslow trunk he had also bought three genuine Dufy watercolors from a Dr. Alexandre Roudinesco, who had been a close friend of and physician to both Dufy and Vlaminck. Queried some years later, Dr. Roudinesco said: «I didn't want to part with them, but he was a terribly persistent young man. He kept pestering me and in the end I was worn out and agreed».

⟨…⟩

Elmyr browsed through galleries and museums and bought some Dufy portfolios at secondhand bookstores. Still, he hung back; he painted nothing while he was in Paris. Fernand already knew that whatever Elmyr did he could undoubtedly sell, since he had foisted off the entire contents of the Winslow trunk with no trouble whatsoever. But he tried not to press too much. «I was the goose that would eventually lay all the golden eggs», Elmyr realized later, «and he didn't want to kill it».

⟨…⟩

Whatever Elmyr had taught him in America about selling, Fernand had now added some refinements to the business that smacked of his own brand of genius. He soon moved from the rue de la Pompe to a small but more elegant apartment in the Avenue de Suffren. The first batch of Dufys were sold for an average of $8.000 each, and soon the walls in the Avenue de Suffren were covered as well with Derains, Vlamincks and three large Matisse oils. He also had a real Vlaminck and a fine genuine Renoir oil. Thanks to the Winslow trunk, Fernand was already known in New York and Paris as a courtier, a private art dealer, and now that he was once again in active business with Elmyr he swiftly became, in that stylish world of art buyers and dealers, mildly famous—or infamous—as both a personality and a get-rich-quick young businessman. ⟨…⟩

Policeman Averts Peril in Steam Blast

by Alfred E. Clark

A traffic patrolman acted quickly yesterday afternoon to save motorists and pedes trians from possible death or serious injury when a 16‐inch steam trunkline exploded at 55^th Street and Madison Avenue.

The policeman, Joseph Jamieson of Safety Unit B, who has been handling heavy traf fic on the East Side for 13 years, was on duty at 2:30 P.M. at 57^th and Madison when he saw steam spurting from a manhole.

He ran a block south and noticed that «the manhole covers in the gutter were rumbling». Fearing an explo sion, he ran toward 55^th Street, warning pedestrians to turn around and walk south. At the intersection he stopped northbound vehicular traffic and then also cut off traffic that was moving west along 55^th.

Patrolman Jamison, who is 46 years old and has an award for excellent police duty, telephoned from a near by store to summon emer gency units from the Police and Fire Departments. About 10 minutes later, with a muf fled roar, the central area of the intersection at 55^th Street went up, spraying dirt and rocks in all directions.

Deputy Fire Chief Anthony Costa said that when fire apparatus arrived, «hot steam was shooting hundreds of feet straight up in the air».

No injuries were reported, even though the sandy and rocky debris covered hun dreds of feet along Madison Avenue and on 55^th Street.

At the southwest corner, a 37‐story glass‐enclosed build ing, to be known as Finland House, is under construction. Workers there reported that none of the glass had been cracked or damaged by the explosion. Directly opposite, at the Winslow Hotel, a spokesman said that no win dows had been damaged.

Two large holes were blasted in the pavement, one about 6 by 10 feet and the other about 5 feet square, Dense clouds of steam issued from the holes as crews from the Consolidated Edison Cam sought to isolate the break by shutting valves in the area.

According to Assistant Chief Inspector Fred Kowsky of the Police Department, the steam must have taken about 15 minutes to build up pres sure, after the main ruptured; before breaking through the pavement. A spokesman for Con Edison said workmen would have to dig out the hole to determine what had caused the break.

Hugh O'Connor, manager of the Mark Cross store at Fifth Avenue and 55^th Street, said steam was escaping be fore 2 P.M.

Then Mr. O'Connor said, «something caved in. With that the steam shot up, tak ing a good part of the street with it, until it was like snow ing—only it was sand».

«The New York Times», May 2, 1970

«The Card Castle»

Matty Simmons

«The Card Castle»
// New York: «G.P.Putman's Sons», 1970,
hardcover + dust jacket, 252 p.

⟨…⟩

I kept an eye on Eddie for the next hour. He had a half-dozen Scotches, talked, with much handwaving and laughing, with Jan and Linda Haveron and her husband, a tall, chalk-faced, sour-looking man who was supposed to be the most difficult business tycoon alive, and at one point even stopped to talk to Dan Merlin whom he'd apparently known from Casa Mañana — Dan being a well-known man-about-cafés. Finally I walked over to him. «Enough of this bullshit», I said. «We have to talk».

He laughed and put an arm around my shoulder. «I knew you didn't invite me here to show me off, although I think the broads here like the idea of having a real live hood around. Whadda yah want?»

«Come on», I said. I waved to Phil, and we walked toward the bedroom. A big blonde stepped in front of us and put a hand out to Eddie. «Eddie,» she sighed, «how've you been?»

The black eyes danced a greeting. «Hey, baby. How you?»

The blonde didn't want to let him leave. «Eddie, why haven't you called me?»

«I'll call you, baby. I really will. I'll call you tomorrow». As we stepped through the crowd, he leaned over to me. «Who the hell was the broad?» he asked.

«I think her husband's in the record business», I said.

«Yeah», he nodded. «Now I remember. The Winslow Hotel».

⟨…⟩

«Self-Interviews»

James Dickey

«Self-Interviews»
// Garden City, New York: «Doubleday & Company», 1970,
hardcover + dust jacket, 190 p.

⟨…⟩ So I left the University and went to New York to become a businessman of whatever kind it's possible to become at the age of thirty-three. This was in April 1956. But when I went to New York, I had acceptances in my pocket from «Poetry» magazine—which had taken «The Father's Body»—and also from the «Hudson Review». I had those to sustain me. I was hired by McCann-Erickson and began to work on the Coca-Cola account. I did some work on the Eddie Fisher show, called «Coke Time». But on weekends I wrote in the hotel room, the Winslow Hotel—I was known at the advertising agency as the «Winslow Boy». I had one of those little bitty rooms where you can stand in the middle and touch all four walls without raising your arms. ⟨…⟩

«The Fabulous Frauds»

Lawrence Jeppson

«The Fabulous Frauds:
Fascinating Tales of Great Art Forgeries»
// New York: «Weybright and Talley», 1970,
hardcover + dust jacket, 338 p.

⟨…⟩ Besides, to remain in the United States was risky for him. He had peddled a mountain of fakes from coast to coast, had been denounced in California and New York, and was being sought, he supposed, by the F.B.I. He had no such worries in Europe, from which he had been so long absent—but he had no passport. Lessard thought that a lawyer whom he knew in Canada might remedy this lack for $2,000. The three men went to New York together, and Legros and Lessard continued on to Ottawa to see what could be done when and if de Hory could raise the $2,000.

While staying at the Winslow Hotel and working on a new collection of fakes, de Hory heard that a good friend, the Princess of Prussia, was in San Antonio; by the time he arrived there, however, she had flown to London. Desperate, de Hory struck up acquaintance with a dealer, who gave a showing of the things that he had hoped to sell to the Princess. A cattle rancher and his wife took an interest in some Degas pastels and a Renoir; two days later de Hory left San Antonio with $30,000. He bought a Corvette in Chicago and had it shipped to him in Paris. He left a Cézanne watercolor and some drawings in a steamer trunk at the Winslow in New York and went to Niagara Falls, where he walked across the border like any tourist. He found Legros and Lessard and gave them $2,000 and plane tickets to Paris in exchange for the passport, which was in the name of Joseph Boutin. When he arrived in Europe, he made no move to renew the partnership, and he later said that he had avoided Legros for nearly a year.

De Hory managed to promote another one-man show of his own works, this time in Milan's Galeria Monte Napoleone in February 1960. Quite possibly he had to use some of his $30,000 to persuade the gallery owner to risk showing an un-known. Only four landscapes were sold.

Legros reportedly found de Hory that summer and proposed that they work together again. De Hory declined, but in the conversation he carelessly revealed that he had left the Cézanne watercolor in storage at the Winslow. As soon as they parted, Legros borrowed money for a one-way ticket to New York, and within forty-eight hours he was airborne. He produced a letter apparently signed by de Hory asking the hotel to give him the trunk. The contents were Fernand Legros's ticket to big-time art fraud. ⟨…⟩

Body of Man, 65, Is Found In Closet of East Side Hotel

A retired 65‐year‐old man was found dead yesterday in the East Side hotel where he had lived for the last 3½ years.

The police said the body of Charles Alexander was found by the bell captain in an 18^th floor closet at the Hotel Winslow, 45 East 55^th Street. Mr. Alexander had a room on the 16^th floor but he was known to frequent the hotel's roof garden on the 18^th floor.

Residents of the hotel last remembered seeing Mr. Alexander on Friday. No money was found either on his body or in his room, the police said.

The police said there was an injury to the back of Mr. Alexander's head, but the precise cause of his death will not be known until the Medical Examiner's office completes its investigation.

Detectives at the East 51^st Street station, who are investigating the case, said that the death had not yet been classified, as a homicide or otherwise.

«The New York Times», November 30, 1970

⟩ the hotel's roof garden on the 18^th floor

17^th

Otto Lehmann, Opera Coach; Conducted at City Center

Otto Lehmann, musicologist, conductor and opera coach, died yesterday in Roosevelt Hospital of a stroke. He was 65 years old and lived at the Winslow Hotel, Madison Avenue and 55^th Street.

Mr. Lehmann was born in Munich. He studied at the Uni versity of Munich and had been a director of the Munich Opera. A refugee, he came to the United States before World, War II.

He had been a conductor of the New York City Center Opera and the Hartford Opera Company, and taught at the Manhattan School of Music. There are no immediate sur vivors.

«The New York Times», April 30, 1971

Leslie Nelson Jennings, 81, Poet and Editor, Is Dead

Leslie Nelson Jennings, poet and former co‐editor with the, late Harold Vinal of the poetry magazine Voices, died Monday in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he was spending the winter. He was 81 years old and lived at the Hotel Winslow, Madison Avenue at 55^th Street.

Mr. Jennings was born in Ware, Mass., and grew up in San Franciico. He contributed poetry to the New Yorker mag azine in its early years and to The New York Times editorial page for many years. Two col lections of his verse were pub lished: «Mill Talk and Other Poems» (1947) and «Footsteps of Departure» (1964).

There are no immediate sur vivors.

«The New York Times», March 30, 1972

Lost Harbor

by Leslie Nelson Jennings

for George Sterling

I

The love of life that captained him could brook
No laggard helm adversive to the gale;
He knew the fleetness of the wind, the look
Of decks aslant under a cloud of sail.
So, when the sea came sucking at the seams,
And mutiny like some dark plague began
Muttering through the turmoil of his dreams,
He sought a harbor where the slow tides ran.

There is a point of no return, where ships
May ride at anchor for a little space.
And then, some starless night, the cable slips,
Leaving an eddy at the mooring place…
Gulls, veer no longer. Sailor, rest your oar.
No tangled wreckage will be washed ashore.

II

So the black vulture slowly shut his wings,
Hovered and fell. We saw a shadow touch
Those lower levels where the small bird sings,
And in the silence we remembered much.
How two had sat and banqueted before
Under the beak and talon, how they slipped,
Self-exiled, through the enigmatic door,
The bread unbroken and the wine unsipped.

Aldebaran still hangs aloft his red
Beacon among the stars. Perhaps you share
More intimately now the old dispute,
Whether there be another table spread,
Or only fable and a broken air,
Vexing the mind, of Orpheus and his lute.

1927

Grimsby is Unhurt in Icepick Assault

An apparently disturbed young woman attempted to stab Roger Grimsby, an anchorman on WABC‐TV's «Eyewitness News» show, with an icepick shortly after 7 o'clock last night on West 66^th Street.

Mr. Grimsby, who was not injured, said he was walking to his newsroom on the block between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue with Douglas Johnson, another newscaster, when he heard footsteps quicken behind him.

The 45‐year‐old newscaster said he wheeled to see an icepick «coming down at me». He said he moved aside and the woman's fist hit him on the shoulder.

He said he and Mr. Johnson, with the help of Geraldo Rivera, another WABC newscaster, and a television security guard who had been walking behind the woman, took her across the street and, with the help of another man on the street, disarmed her.

Mr. Grimsby said the woman, identified by the police as Leslie Darwick, 24 years old, of 45 East 55^th Street, had accused him and Bill Beutel, another WABC‐TV anchorman, of saying unkind things about her on the air. Mr. Grimsby called this «a fantasy».

Mr. Grimsby said the same woman had kicked Mr. Beutel in the groin on the West 66^th Street block several months ago, accusing Mr. Beutel of having referred to her as a hippopotamus. Mr. Grimsby said Mr. Beutel had declined to prefer charges.

The woman was booked at the West 82^nd Street station house on charges of attempted murder and possession of a deadly weapon. In addition to the ice pick, the police found a table knife in her purse.

«The New York Times», December 28, 1973

Wikipedia: Roger Olin Grimsby (September 23, 1928 — June 23, 1995)

Special filing problems

Simon A. Duchan + Robert A. Schultheis

Special filing problems (Learning activity package 3)
/ Teacher's Edition. Solutions
// Cincinnati, Ohio: «South-Western Publishing Co.», 1974,
paperback, IV+172p.,
ISBN: 0-538-28053-0

«Memoirs»

Tennessee Williams

«Memoirs»
// Garden City, New York: «Doubleday & Company, Inc.», 1975,
hardcover + dust jacket, XX+266 p.,
ISBN: 0-385-00573-3

⟨…⟩ I had been introduced to two lovers in 1939 by Harold Vinal, editor of «Voices». He was living at the Hotel Winslow on Madison, he had a tiny room with a double-decker bunk and he had invited me over, having published a sequence of my lyrics.

He invited me to meet a pair of «delightful Georgia boys» who were living on Fifty-second Street in conditions close to starvation.

The prospect pleased me so off we went to West Fifty-second, the block of it known in those days as «Tin Pan Alley». The street floor din was frightful but «the boys» had a sparsely furnished room on the second floor, it was a walk-up.

I had no sooner seen one of these boys, with his great dreamy eyes and willowy figure, than I thought, Baby this one's for you. ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Tennessee Williams (March 26, 1911 — February 25, 1983)

The Winslow 1976

York The 24‐Hour Beauty Part

by John Leonard

It is 2 o'clock in the morning. A cab pulls up at the corner of 55^th and Madison. A young woman gets out and disappears into the Hotel Winslow. Four hours later, she reappears. The doorman has arranged for another cab to be waiting. She dissolves, like aspirin, into the watery dawn.

Wrong is the conclusion you have probably jumped to. She didn't perform a service. She purchased one. She was teased, stripped, cut, waxed, lashed, scalped, nailed, frosted and blow‐dried. She may also have been playing backgammon.

In the watches of the night, she had a need. There was a place to go for it, like a bar or a delicatessen or a filling station or a coin‐operated icecube machine. Since her need was to be beautiful, she went to Larry Mathews's 24‐hour beauty parlor on the second floor of the Hotel Winslow.

«The New York Times», August 16, 1976

The Winslow Hotel

Just a step, or two, from what you want to do (and where you want to be) in mid-town Manhattan,

NEW YORK CITY

and at most reasonable rates
• $18 single • $24 double
212-PL 3-6800

Maduon Avenue & 55^th Street
New York, New York 10022

«The Warrensburg-Lake George News», August 19, 1976

Woman Found Dead In Elevator Shaft

New York (UPI) — The body of the elderly night manager of a midtown Manhattan hotel was found at the bottom of the hotel's elevator shaft Monday, police reported.

Police said Erna Katz, 72, of Manhattan was found dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft of the St. Winslow Hotel. They said she apparently had fallen to her death.

«Buffalo Courier-Express», August 31, 1976

«Misfortune and failure hover invisibly over our hotel. During the time I have lived here two older women have thrown themselves out the window. One of them, a Frenchwoman I was told, with a face that still preserved traces of beauty, had always paced the corridor inconsolably; she threw herself from her fourteenth-floor window into the courtyard, the light-well. In addition to these two victims God very recently took the proprietress, or rather the mother of the proprietor, who is a huge, elephantine Jew in a yarmulke, I met him once at a party given by my American girl friend Roseanne. The proprietor's mother, like all old women, loved to give orders at the hotel, although the proprietor of our dirty little establishment owns forty-five other buildings in New York. Why she enjoyed hanging around all day and pointing out things for the hotel employees to do I don't know. Perhaps she was a sadist. Recently she disappeared. They found her later that day, a crumpled and mutilated corpse in the elevator shaft. The devil lives alongside us. Having seen a lot of films about exorcists, I am beginning to think it's the devil. From my window I can see the St. Regis Sheraton. I think about that hotel with envy. And, without prospect, dream of moving there if I get rich».

«Stealing from the rich»

David McClintick

«Stealing from the rich:
the story of the swindle of the century»
// New York: «M. Evans and Company», 1977,
hardcover + dust jacket, 336 p.,
ISBN-13: 978-0-87131-240-9

⟨…⟩ The first meeting was just a brief encounter on the hospital grounds. But Fitzgerald and Trippet soon got to know each other better, and it didn't take Trippet long to grasp that despite Fitzgerald's personal problems, he was a very able man.

The two lost touch. Harry Fitzgerald was in and out of other alcoholism facilities in subsequent months. His wife divorced him in Mexico. Trippet heard he had died. But the two men met again by chance on a blustery day in New York City in front of the Winslow Hotel, at Fifty-fifth Street and Madison Avenue. Trippet did a double-take. «I thought you were dead».

«Almost but not quite», Fitzgerald said. He had been released from a treatment facility but still was having difficulty controlling his drinking and was out of work and nearly penniless. He was living on what he could make washing dishes and sweeping out Alcoholics Anonymous meeting halls, where he spent part of each day.

Trippet, in New York completing the sale of $870,000 in Home-Stake interests, was feeling benevolent. He asked Fitzgerald if he would be interested in selling oil-drilling investments. Fitzgerald, who had had considerable oil business experience, said he was interested and would contact Trippet soon. Fitzgerald would always remember that meeting in front of the Winslow as a turning point in his life.

⟨…⟩

Fitzgerald gave Trippet a handwritten letter of resignation in June.

My mental and physical condition have deteriorated to such an extent that I can't even begin to continue… You have been my loyal friend and have probably done more for me than anyone I know… Don't worry about me. (Remember I've been to the Winslow.) As long as I'm breathing I'll stay warm on a full stomach and so will Mary Anne and the children.

(The Winslow was the New York hotel where Trippet had found Fitzgerald unemployed and broke and had offered him work with Home-Stake.) ⟨…⟩

Hotel Winslow,

55^th Street and Madison Avenue,
New York City, U.S.A.,
Phone (212) 753-6800.

Daily rates from $20 Single—$24 Double.

Modern hotel centrally located East Side Manhattan.

«The Jerusalem Post», Vol.XLVII, No.14.089, August 12, 1977

«The Jerusalem Post», Vol.XLVII, No.14101, August 26, 1977

«The Jerusalem Post», September 2, 1977

Durst Organization estate files 11078295

Creator: Seymour B. Durst, 1913–1995
Creator: Durst Organization
Title: Durst Organization estate files
Date [bulk]: 1949-1988

⟨…⟩

Scope and Contents
Photographs included

551–53 Madison Ave., New York, NY (The Winslow Hotel, Madison & 55^th aka 45 E. 55 St.), 1978, box 20

⟨…⟩

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Hair Care

Manhattan

Larry Matthews 24-Hour Beauty Salon

45 East 55^th St., in the Winslow Hotel

246-6100

Sundays 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. All other days, 24 hours of head-to-toe beauty care.

«New York», June 19, 1978

City by Moonlight — The Gallant Spirit

by Dick Schapp • with The Herald Tribune Staff
New York, «Herald Tribune», Thursday, November 11, 1965

«Expanding Horizons»
// New York: «Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.», 1979,
hardcover, XVI+528 p.,
ISBN: 0-15-331793-0

…In the cockpit of his TWA airliner coming into Kennedy Airport from Pittsburgh, Capt. William Brown began his approach to runway 4-right. «Captain», said his copilot, «the runway lights are starting to dim».

On an elevator leaving the lobby of the Winslow Hotel, on Madison Ave., a 91-year-old woman, Mrs. Edgar Moyes, began to relax for the ride up. Before the car reached the second floor, it rocked to a halt. …

And in the Independent «D» train, moving southward out of the 50^th St. Station, Gabriel Rosenthal began to read his evening newspaper. Suddenly, the car lurched to a stop.

Everywhere, lights flickered, died, glowed again and died. Television screens sputtered, then went blank. And electric clocks stood still.

The time was 5:28 p.m. EST, November 9, 1965.

The brightest city in the world had gone dark.

There was, incredibly, almost no panic, no chaos; only, at first, understandable nervousness, then a remarkable demonstration of … cooperation among New Yorkers. …

30 Million

At first, people everywhere suspected that it was only … their house or their neighborhood, but then, as they took to the streets, … they began to realize the enormity of the situation. Quickly, most people learned that the whole city—except Staten Island—had gone dark, a weird darkness cut by the headlights of cars … and the sudden glares of flashlights and the glow of an almost full moon.

Within minutes after the power failed, Times Square was filled with people, remarkably well-mannered, remarkably well-behaved. The traffic in the area moved carefully, but smoothly. Slowly, word filtered through the crowd about the power failures elsewhere, in Boston, in Toronto, in Buffalo, spreading over 80,000 square miles, touching at least parts of eight states plus Canada, affecting perhaps 30 million people. …

Friendship

Even in the trapped subway cars, as on the streets and in offices, spirit was high and new friendships sprang up by chance. …

With the subways stopped, with streets frequently clogged, with the commuter trains to Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester idled, the city, of course, was jammed with people. Hotel rooms in Midtown disappeared early. The restaurants that stayed open did terrific business in sandwiches and uncooked meals. They all operated by candlelight, and even the 10-cent coffee spots looked, in the eerie glow, like French cafes. Rent-a-car outlets did the best business they could—considering that they couldn't operate elevators to bring down cars garaged above street level. …

It was cold on the streets, 46 degrees when the power failed, 34 before it resumed. But people who could wander, by car or by foot, saw a fascinating city, lit by the moon: saw the Statue of Liberty's torch burning in the harbor and saw the bright shore lights of New Jersey and Staten Island, which still had most of their power.

Everything about the whole black evening had a touch of the unreal, but the most stunning aspect, and the most pleasant, was the almost unbelievably impressive behavior of the people of New York. … An overwhelming majority of New Yorkers were calm, were helpful, were considerate and were law-abiding. …

Trapped

The 91-year-old woman who was trapped in the elevator at the Winslow Hotel was rescued, for instance, by volunteers. Robert Joyner, a sailor from Alabama on leave in New York, joined a 17-year-old high school student, Thomas Carmichael, and a 25-year-old writer, Howard Junker, in rescuing Mrs. Moyes and four other persons from the stuck elevator. …

Throughout the city, people were helping out any way they could. Countless drivers picked up stranded persons and, without charge, dropped them off around Manhattan and the other boroughs.

At 7:30 p.m., three teenage shipping clerks took over the direction of traffic at Seventh Ave. and 40^th St., a busy intersection. «Have you been deputized or are you just public-spirited?» one was asked.

«Public-spirited, I guess», said Michael Miller. «We saw this traffic piling up, and we figured instead of just watching we ought to do something. …»

«Marsden Hartley»

Barbara Haskell

«Marsden Hartley»
// New York: Whitney Museum of American Art,
in association with «New York University Press», 1980,
hardcover + dustjacket, 224 p.,
ISBN: 0-8147-3405-7

⟨…⟩

1941

Spring. Returns to New York City in March and lives in Hotel Winslow, where he stays when in New York during the next three years. Begins to be represented by the Macbeth Gallery.

⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 — September 2, 1943)

New York. Map of Midtown Manhattan

Author: Constantine Anderson

Date: 1981

Short Title: New York. Map of Midtown Manhattan.

Publisher: Anderson Isometric Maps

Publisher Location: New York

Type: Separate Map

Obj Height cm: 94
Obj Width cm: 61

City: New York (N.Y.)
Region: Manhattan

Subject: Pictorial map

Full Title: New York. Map of Midtown Manhattan in Detailed Axonometric Projection.

«Davin Rumsey Map Collection»

«Top of the fifties» in renovation

When Charles H. Shaw and Frederick DeMatteis bought the Winslow Hotel at 551 Madison Avenue at 55^th Street in 1978, they were convinced it was a rare location that could support commercial or residential uses and they did not have precise plans.

Mr. Shaw, whose development company is based in Chicago, and Mr. DeMatteis, the chairman of the DeMatteis Organization of Elmont, L.I., are partners in sdveral other Manhattan projects, including the 54-story Museum of Modern Art tower, a mixed-use project on West 53^d Street.

Their first plan was to upgrade the hotel, but Mr. Shaw said their analysis showed that its limited ground floor space was inadequate for a luxury hotel. Mr. Shaw said they considered converting to apartments, but that yield in relation to costs was nat as attractive as a conversion to offices. They decided to renovate.

Noticing a resemblance between the Winslow, built several decades ago, and the A.T.&T. building under construction across the avenue, they decided to make a conscious reference to it. The A.T.&T. building, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, has stirred up considerable comment over its broken pediment.

According to Edward V. Giannasca, the architect for the renovation of 551 Madison Avenue, the major change to the 17-story building's masonry facade is that its window openings will be enlarged and linked vertically, within the existing masonry piers. Its Mediterranean tile shingle roof remains.

Mr. Shaw said he expected to open the 110,000-square-foot building, which will be known as «Top of the Fifties», in about 12 months. The total development cost of the project is about $25 million.

«The New York Times», July 5, 1981

Edward V. Giannasca

Upper-End residential developer

by Diane Henry

⟨…⟩

He [Mr. Shaw] moved to Chicago in 1968, to build the Lake Point Tower, then renewed his interest in New York in 1975, at a time, he said, when «everyone was saying New York was on the verge of bankrupcy».

«I felt people who said New York's days were over were wrong», he said. «I didn't know precisely where or what, but I knew I wanted to do a project in New York. I just thought they were wrong».

He moved very cautiously in such an environment. After four years of looking, he started buying in 1979. First he bought the Winslow Hotel at 551 Madison Avenue, at 55^th Street, followed by three other Manhattan ventures: the Museum Tower, another condominium building at 40 East 94^th Street, and an apartment building at 90th Street and Third Avenue.

Continental Bank of Illinois is Mr. Shaw's principal source of financing. Mr. Shaw said he has known his partner, Mr. DeMatteis, for 20 years, so long that Mr. Shaw does not recall exactly where or when they first met. The Winslow renovation is scheduled for completion next year.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», January 13, 1982

City Adding 3,500 Hotel Rooms

Travel from abroad has declined and hotel occupancy has slipped, butt he momentum of new hotel construction in Manhattan is continuing as w ork proceeds on seven new or totally reconstructed hotels.

In 1981 alone, by Mr. Brener's count, the city lost 3,200 rooms, some of them in hotels that will come back into use when reconstruction is finished. These hotels include the Biltmore, the Gotham, the Abbey Victoria and the Winslow.

«The New York Times», November 7, 1982

«Stieglitz: A Memoir / Biography»

Sue Davidson Lowe

«Stieglitz: A Memoir / Biography»
// New York: «Farrar Straus Giroux», 1983,
hardcover + dust jacket, 456 p.,
ISBN: 0-374-26990-4

⟨…⟩ Failing in health, and deeply depressed since the fall drowning of both young men in his Nova Scotia host family, Hartley's near hysteria and lack of direction might have gained Alfred's sympathy had it not been for the hostility that accompanied them. Hartley had written for his catalogue that he was hoping for a prodigal's welcome from «patient and forgiving Maine», but he was still seething over the critical roasting the year before of his German landscapes for which, paranoiacally, he held Alfred responsible. Why else would Alfred's advice to return to his roots have been echoed in the press? By the time his show was over, his squabbles with Alfred had become so hot and his words so vituperative that both were ready to call it quits. Justifiable or not, Alfred's anger spurred him to give Dorothy a scathing letter he had written Hartley after their first falling-out in 1923 for inclusion (without naming Hartley) in the first issue of her impending magazine, «Twice A Year». Obviously, he felt that the gross insensitivity, ingratitude, and destructiveness he had attributed to the artist fifteen years earlier was still an accurate assessment. Obviously, too, he was relieved when Hartley was taken on by another gallery.

Nevertheless, in 1941, they made up again. Hartley, in residence for the next three winters at the Hotel Winslow, a few blocks away, took to visiting The Place almost every day. Without the contentions over exhibitions and money that their earlier relationship had suffered, he and Alfred were able at last to achieve a certain quiet companionability. ⟨…⟩

MoMA's Santa

by Shawn G. Kennedy

Space has been at a premium at the Museum of Modern Art ever since it began its four-year, $40 million expansion and renovation program. Galleries and administrative offices have been reshuffled, last year the museum was forced to reduce the size of its gift shop, and for a time it seemed that there might not be room for the annual Christmas store this year.

Earlier this month, however, the museum's holiday shop opened, not in the West 54^th Street building but on Madison Avenue at 55^th Street in space donated by that building's owner. The eleventh-hour Santa was Charles A. Shaw, developer of the Museum Tower condominium, who recently finished renovating 551 Madison, once the Winslow Hotel and now an office building known as the Mellon Financial Center.

«We were really in a tight spot for space», said James Snyder, an administrator at the museum, «and since we do well at Christmas, we did not was to lose the time and we are particularlly grateful to be in that location». He added that the development company had agreed to allow the museum to use the 1,500-square-foot ground floor retail space in the building if a lease was not signed before the shop was to open.

Sesgewick Mead, a spokesman for Mr. Shaw said that if the museum had been a traditional tenant, the space would have leased for about $200 a square foot. «We have a close relationship with the museum we were happy to do it», he said, «and the arrangement has worked well for us by helping to promote the retail space».

The Christmas shop will be open until the end of the year.

«The New York Times», December 4, 1983

MoMA • 11 West 53 Street, Manhattan

«My Life with Dalí»

Amanda Lear

«My Life with Dalí»
// London: «Virgin Books», 1985,
paperback, 302 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-86369-095-2

⟨…⟩ I left for New York, several days later, where for the second time I was to present the collection of Mary Quant. After a few days in Puerto Rico, where I had gone to acquire a light suntan, I arrived in freezing New York City on January the sixth. I checked into the Winslow Hotel, on the corner of 55^th Street and Madison Avenue, only fifty yards from the St. Regis where Dali was staying. The evening of my arrival he took me to dinner at El Morocco.

⟨…⟩

What fart was this? I wondered, as Dali took my arm and propelled me through the lobby, past the window-displays of Chinese antiques, to the King Cole bar. There he stopped to show me the mural which covered the entire wall:

«This is the story of a fart. You see the two guards looking at one another behind the King's back; the one on the right is pretending that nothing has happened. Actually he has just farted and the other has caught wind of it. Isn't that a wonderful picture? New York is full of things like that, just waiting to be discovered, you'll see. I am so happy to have you close to me, in your little Winslow (he pronounced it Weenslove). Are you free for dinner this evening? I shall introduce you to the film producer, Darryl Zanuck. He is threatening to buy one of my canvases, so we will dine with him at Trader Vic's. Gala loathes him and refuses to come».

⟨…⟩

We had lunch at the Lutèce, as arranged. Gala found Deering quite pleasant, but no more than that, while Dali pointed out his bad complexion; all in all he thought he was nothing out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, I'd spent the night with him at the Winslow after an evening at the Salvation discothèque. He was sweet and vulnerable and had an aura of being alone in the world. He reminded me of Tara [Tara Browne]. ⟨…⟩

«Manhattan trivia: the ultimate challenge»

Val Ginter

«Manhattan trivia: the ultimate challenge»
// Boston, Massachusetts: «Quinlan Press», 1985,
paperback, 194 p.,
ISBN: 0-933341-05-9

⟨…⟩

Skyscrapers and brownstones

⟨…⟩

75. The Winslow Hotel. It was too small to be renovated as a hotel, so it was turned into a luxury office building.

⟨…⟩

535 Madison Avenue Building NY

September of 1985

~1985

dimensions: 150×104 mm

«Maxwell»

Joe Haines

«Maxwell»
// London: «Macdonald & Co», 1988,
hardcover + dust jacket, X+526 p.,
ISBN: 0-356-17172-8

⟨…⟩

Detlev Raymond, a former member of the Hitler Youth, who was appointed in the spring of 1946 to be trainee-editor of «Der Berliner», the British military government newspaper for the British sector of Berlin, says that Maxwell's bark is worse than his bite. He might readily be regarded as an expert, having frequently been threatened with being shot by a Maxwell who brutally «confided» to him that he had won his Military Cross for conquering and shooting a number of Germans just like him. Maxwell, at the age of 22 and with the rank of captain in the British army, was the press officer — effectively the censor — of Berlin's post-war democratic press. He was thus in charge of «Der Berliner».

After being bellowed at by Maxwell on his first day in charge for taking an «illegal» hot bath — such luxuries being reserved for British officers — Raymond recounts:

On the second day of this experience — that's what I called it at the time — he bellowed again in my direction «Stuelpnagel, I want you to sell 20,000 cigarettes on the black market, and sell them to the Russians — they pay better. So you will proceed to Leipzig in the Soviet zone of occupation…» At which point I was already fresh enough to interrupt him to say: «Sir, my name is D.J. Raymond and I have been hired by this paper to learn the finer points of putting together a democratically-oriented newspaper, and nowhere does it say in my book that I should sell black market cigarettes to the Russians or go to Leipzig». «Now, you shut up and listen to what I have to tell you», he retorted. «Number one, this here is a democratic institution where I make all the rules and, number two, Leipzig has the only factory intact able to provide us with photographic emulsion to publish this goddamn newspaper. Now you go to Leipzig».

This, said Raymond, was his introduction to a practising democracy, but somehow it made Maxwellian sense and saved the paper. And far from being on the wrong end of a firing squad devised by Maxwell, Raymond was later employed by him in Britain and the United States until he was encouraged by Maxwell to start up his own business.

But before he did so he was involved with him in an incredibly boyish act of mischief in New York in the mid-1950s. Raymond said that Maxwell was not popular in some of the best hostelries in Manhattan because of his habits of choking the switchboard with incoming overseas telephone calls, regularly returning sandwiches he had ordered on the grounds that they were made of cardboard, throwing business correspondence out of the window and scattering newspapers in the corridors. So when Maxwell failed to get a suite in one of his regular hotels he asked Raymond to book him into the Winslow on 55^th Street and Madison. Raymond takes up the story:

I said to him «Bob, the Winslow isn't really your type of place. They haven't fixed the rooms in years, the plumbing leaks and, most important, they have switchboard service only until midnight» … to which he replied «Never mind, when will you learn to do what you are told and not always start arguing like a Jewish grandmother?»

The next morning Raymond was denounced by Maxwell for booking him into a flea-pit and told he would be fired (which he wasn't). Maxwell said to him:

I would not have wished on Hitler to have stayed here. Let's put our heads together and think up a good solid lesson we can teach them.

The «good solid lesson» was implemented after Maxwell visited the National Institute of Health where a strain of large fleas was being bred. He acquired a small box full of them — several thousand in all — arranged to check out of the hotel and then released the fleas into the lift shaft. In the early hours of the morning, it is said, the other guests in the Winslow had to be evacuated.

⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Joe Haines (journalist) (January 29, 1928 — February 19, 2025)

Wikipedia: Robert Maxwell (June 10, 1923 — November 5, 1991)

«Bad Dates»

Carole Markin

«Bad Dates:
Celebrities (And Other Talented Types) Reveal Their Worst Nights Out»
// New York: «A Citadel Press Book»
(Carol Publishing Group), 1990,
paperback, 256 p.
ISBN: 0-8065-1158-3

David Brown

David Brown, in partnership with Richard D. Zanuck, produced films such as «Jaws», «The Sting», «The Verdict», «Cocoon» and «Sugarland Express». For years, Brown and Zanuck headed film production at 20th Century-Fox, and later at Warner Brothers. He continues to produce plays, films and TV series.

I was a lonely young man in New York at a time when men outnumbered women. It was before the war. And I was taken by a romantic phrase that I read in the personal ad section of «Saturday Review of Literature». «Girl with windswept hair who loves Mozart, horseback riding, long walks in the country, and wine, seeks man with equal sensitivity and romantic interests. Svelte, sensuous, exceedingly young, nineteen-inch waist, great legs». A knockout.

In the late thirties, we were all on the lookout for sexual adventures. The sexual revolution hadn't taken place and this ad looked like the realization of a great fantasy. Especially to a humble «Women's Wear Daily» reporter, just out of college, with no money and one suit. I was living at the Winslow Hotel at 55^th Street and Madison Avenue, paying, I think eight or nine dollars a week for a single room so small that if you opened the door, you fell over the bed. It wasn't the kind of place where one could bring even a woman who wrote this type of ad. As soon as she saw the place, my intentions would be obvious.

Undaunted, I answered the ad.

At the appointed hour, I waited for my date outside the French restaurant I had chosen on West 55^th Street. The moment I saw her coming, I panicked. She was twice my size, three times my width and much older than I was. «Wait, I just remembered something», I said to her. «This restaurant has been cited for giving its customers ptomaine poisoning. Let's go somewhere else».

I could ill afford it, but we got into a taxicab and I took her to a restaurant in the farthest reaches of Brooklyn, somewhere no one I knew would see me. I thought, What am I doing with this giant? She could have been all of thirty, but to me, at twenty-one, she was «mother».

The cab ride almost wiped me out; there were no credit cards in those days. By ordering only tea on the pretext of not being hungry, I managed to pay the check. She was a nice woman, but her description of herself would have caused her to be indicted for deceptive advertising!

I never brought up the discrepancy. It would have been ungallant. I simply made small talk with a very large woman.

Today I cringe at the thought of my behavior. If I were to do it all again, I would never be so rude as to hustle her out of a restaurant. Secondly, I would request a photo.

After lunch, I took her home, said it was wonderful.

She telephoned me once. I said, «Look, I'm being transferred to Cleveland». That was the end of it. I didn't break her heart and she certainly didn't break mine.

As a result of this experience, I never answered another personal ad. I still read them, however.

«Tennessee Williams: the last stage»

A Personal Memoir by Bruce Smith

«Costly performances:
Tennessee Williams: the last stage»
// New York: «Paragon House», 1990,
hardcover + dust jacket, 262 p.,
ISBN: 1-55778-175-3

«⟨…⟩ When she heard I had a new male friend, she of course assumed that you were another boyfriend, with no credentials, to be blown off at her whim. She does work against all my relationships with men, I am aware of that. But I deflated her expectations just a bit by telling her that you were in business and had had a successful publishing background. She says she's most interested to meet you, but I can tell she holds out little hope for me in any regard. Oh, one more consideration, baby. The one thing she does try to do that can only meet with universal approbation is to try to stop my drinking. We'll stop for our pre-luncheon cocktails elsewhere before we present ourselves at lunch. There, you will witness me nurse a single glass of wine throughout the ordeal».

As we walked through Manhattan for our «ordeal», Tennessee had an unusually brisk and determined air about him. We stopped, as he had said we would, for pre-luncheon cocktails in a dark little lounge in the Hotel Winslow.

As we settled at the bar, Tennessee said, «Judy Garland used to drink here. She thought no one could see her. Ha, ha! Perhaps we will be more fortunate». ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Tennessee Williams (March 26, 1911 — February 25, 1983)

Becomes the Fief Of an Often Imperious Master

by Alessandra Stanley

The new owner of The Daily News took a moment out of a hectic, fax-filled hour last week to reflect on his overall management style and business philosophy.

⟨…⟩

In the 1950's, his reputation for tying up hotel switchboards and making unappeasable demands on the staff made him unwelcome in some of New York's best hotels. On one occasion, unable to reserve a room at the hotel of his choice, he ended up at the Winslow Hotel on Madison Avenue, which he promptly denounced as a «flea-pit». To make his point, he released 1,000 fleas in the hotel elevator shaft.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», March 17, 1991

«Crimes and victims»

Frank Smyth

«Crimes and victims»
// Leicester: Blitz Editions, 1992,
hardcover + dust jacket, 80 p..
ISBN: 1-85605-115-3

⟨…⟩

Elmyr de Hory. Art for Money's Sake

Unable to make a living as a straight artist, Elmyr de Hory turned his talent for pastiche to financial gain. His forged Picassos and Matisses were sold to rich collectors worldwide, yet he himself became the victim of unscrupulous dealers.

⟨…⟩

New partners

By now, Elmyr's forgeries were coming back to haunt him. In Detroit he had found one of his Matisses hanging in the French collection of the art museum. Every book or art magazine he picked up seemed to have a reproduction of his work, sold at auction or hanging in some millionaire's mansion.

As for his own work, nobody wanted it. He was fifty-two. Deeply depressed, he attempted suicide, but was discovered still alive. And then Legros returned.

He drove Elmyr to Florida to recuperate. But they had no money, and Legros had no intention of taking a job. So Elmyr pulled himself together, produced three lithographs, insisted on Legros taking a bath, shaving and putting on one of his old suits, and sent him out to sell. The partnership was to last, on and off, for nine years.

The deal was that Legros would take 40 per cent of whatever he could sell, while Elmyr would get 60 per cent. But he soon noticed that, while he could afford only to stay in a second-rate hotel, Legros and a Canadian beach-bum called Réal Lessard would be at the best in town. If Elmyr attempted to sell a work on his own initiative, or if he questioned the percentage he was getting, Legros would fly into a wild rage.

After six months, Elmyr decided that the time had come to break with the other two and return to Europe. In October 1959, after a leisurely tour of the Riviera visiting old friends, he arrived in Rome. And there he decided to stay. He took up painting again and, under the name of Joseph Boutin, had a modest success with a one-man show in Milan.

Then one day in 1960, as he sat taking his morning coffee at a little café in Paris, a familiar grubby figure emerged from the Métro and crossed the street to his table. Legros had found him again.

Asked if he had anything for Legros to sell, Elmyr explained that he had decided to give up forgery. All that he had left was in storage in his trunk at the Hotel Winslow in New York. Legros took his leave after a few minutes — but he went straight away to a telephone and called New York in Elmyr's name, announcing that a young man named Fernand Legros would call for the trunk within a week. Then, borrowing some money, he took the first available flight. It was five years later that Elmyr discovered what he had done.

He returned to Rome, but all his good intentions came to naught. He couldn't make a living selling his own paintings.

[?] so he set to work once again. Within a month he had a small collection of Renoir and Degas pastels, Chagall and Derain watercolours and some Matisse drawings. He set off in the Corvette, selling in Switzerland, Germany and Holland. In London he sold the car, and once again, thought about settling down.

⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Elmyr de Hory (April 14, 1906 — December 11, 1976)

«Marsden Hartley»

Townsend Ludington

«Marsden Hartley: the biography of an American artist»
// Boston: «Little, Brown and Company», 1992,
hardcover + dust jacket, 326 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-316-53537-3

⟨…⟩ He missed his young friend, who during the previous winter and spring had sometimes joined him for dinner near the Hotel Winslow, where Hartley had a small room. Occasionally they had strolled back to the hotel after dinner and continued their discussions for several hours. Hartley had enjoyed his role as sage, and now he remembered «all the dear times we had together and how happy I was with you close to me».

Although a local doctor had told him that he should remain quiet, he expected to paint some and to complete a book of poems and another volume he was writing about the circus. ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 — September 2, 1943)

«Charles Burchfield's journals»

Charles Ephraim Burchfield

«Charles Burchfield's journals: the poetry of place»
/ edited by J. Benjamin Townsend
// Albany, New York: «State University of New York Press», 1993,
hardcover + dust jacket, XXVI+738 p.
ISBN: 0-7914-0991-0

⟨…⟩

Gardenville
May 31, 1941

Returned this evening from New York…

I got to New York early Thursday morning [May 29]. I went at once to the Winslow²¹, then called Frank. He scolded me for coming after all, then said, «I guess I'm glad you did come»—Watkins²² who had spent the night with him, told me afterwards that he said the same thing to him…

The funeral was to be at Peggy's church, on 55^th and 1^st Ave.…

I watched and listened to the long-drawn out Catholic service with mixed feelings—it seemed boring and endless and pagan on one hand; yet on the other, there were elements about it that were impressive, and awe-inspiring—the responsive singing from the rear of church for example was very solemn and powerful in its emotion.

It was over at length, and we left for the cemetery… It was a beautiful cemetery, park-like and vast in extent. The radiance of June…

Afterwards, Frank had us all to lunch at a roadside restaurant.

Then back to the apartment. All left but John Clancy… John told an incident about Jewell (The Times Critic)²³ that while seemingly out of place, is nevertheless worth telling, (and it drew such a chuckle from Frank that perhaps it was most appropriate after all).—The incident took place in Sweden, where a number of American critics were attending some sort of convention. They all stayed at the same hotel; it seems that in Sweden, there are no private baths, but one large one on each floor. When a guest is ready for a bath, he telephones word down to the desk and his hour [is] appointed. For Swedes, a big strapping woman comes in and gives the guest a thorough scrubbing and slapping. However, when the guests are American or European, the women are not supposed to appear. In some manner when Jewell's turn came for his bath, the information that he was American did not seep thru. Consequently, when he arrived at the bath, clad in his pajamas, he was amazed at the appearance of the bather, in this instance an unusually powerful woman. His horror can only be guessed at when she proceeded forthwith to remove his pajamas. Jewell, however, fought like a wild man; but to no avail. She stripped him and gave him the usual bath, scrubbing vigorously & slapping, the while he still struggled. Finished with the job, she slapped the soles of his feet vigorously and tossed him into the bathtub.

Anderson²⁴ said when he appeared at lunch he still looked white & shaken.

All left before dinner, and Frank & I were alone except for the maid, Anne.

It was a trying evening. It was not only my feeling for Frank—I was myself oppressed—from the time I received the news, I kept seeing Peggy in all manner of places—in the gallery, walking along the street, sitting at a table in the Winslow dining room, by the radio in her apartment—or sending Frank & I [sic] to a movie with a smile. The apartment was full of the emptiness of her absence. It seemed impossible that she would not appear at any moment.

⟨…⟩

²¹ Hotel Winslow, New York City, where CEB stayed.

²² Franklin Watkins (1894–1972), American artist, associated with the Rehn gallery.

²³ Edward Alden Jewell (1888–1947), art critic of the «New York Times».

²⁴ Unidentified.

«Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir»

Ned Rorem

«Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir»
// New York: «Simon & Schuster», 1994,
hardcover + dust jacket, 608 p.,
ISBN: 0-671-72872-5

⟨…⟩ Paul Bowles himself I would see soon again. Forays up to New York grew more frequent, sometimes legitimate, sometimes not. With Shirley we made several six-hour round trips to cover the complete sequence of Beethoven's piano music offered, with snorting bravura, by Artur Schnabel at Carnegie Hall. (In preparation for these events I relearned all of the thirty-two sonatas, even as in the spring I had tackled all of Schumann. Tackled, not thrown.) On my own I went there mainly to cruise, bedding about, catch as catch can. I've no remembrance of how the days were spent beyond using the shining private washrooms of the Winslow bar on Lexington [?] for my personal toilet (I didn't yet shave much, still don't), and subsisting on milkshakes and apples. ⟨…⟩

«The foremost guide to Uncle Sam collectibles»

Gerald E. Czulewicz Sr.

«The foremost guide to Uncle Sam collectibles»
// Paducah, KY: «Collector Books», 1995,
paperback, 272 p.,
ISBN: 0-89145-650-3

⟨…⟩

PETRUCCELLI, Antonio Designer/illustrator born in Fort Lee, NJ, in 1907, later residing in Mt. Tabro, NJ. Studied: M.M.White. Exhibited: Corona Mundi, New York, 1925 (prize), 1926 (prize); Art Alliance of America for International Press Exchange, Cologne, 1927 (prize); American Society of Control of Cancer, 1928 (prize); Johnson and Faulkner, New York, 1933 (prize); House Beautiful Cover Competition, 1928 (prize), 1929 (prize), 1931 (prize), 1933 (prize). Work: Mural decorator, Hotel Winslow, New York. Designer: Covers for «New Yorker», «Collier's», «Today», and «Fortune» between 1932 and 1937. See plate 226.

⟨…⟩

«Being Direct»

Lester Wunderman

«Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay»
// New York: «Random House», 1996,
hardcover + dust jacket, 308 p.,
ISBN: 0-394-54063-8

⟨…⟩ Maxwell Sackheim & Company was then located just across the street from the Hotel Winslow. I registered there, taking the least expensive room at $30 a day. It contained a single bed, two chairs, a small desk, a bathroom, and, most important, a telephone.

It was Wednesday afternoon, August 20, the first day of my new life. Irving, Ed, and Harry joined me in my «office» at the Winslow. Our combined assets were about $60,000. We had no real office, no company, no credit, and no clients. And we would have to live on our capital until we had some income. ⟨…⟩

«The oldest gay couple in America»

Gean Harwood

«The oldest gay couple in America:
A 70-Year Journey Through Same-Sex America»
// Secaucus, New Jersey: «Birch Lane Press», 1997,
hardcover + dust jacket, 304 p.,
ISBN: 978-1-55972-426-5

⟨…⟩ Nevertheless, I still felt bitter about having to abandon Paul, and this was not improved by a phone call from Paul's sister, Phyllis. She asked me to meet her at the Hotel Winslow, where she shared a room with another young woman. I had known from the very beginning of my friendship with Paul that Phyllis would have relished a romantic attachment with me. I had no wish to become a part of some cockeyed family triangle, and the whole thing had been much too awkward for me to even acknowledge. Because my feelings were centered totally on Paul, I never encouraged any of Phyllis's overtures, even though they were obvious. On the other hand, I never knew if she was aware of my relationship with Paul, if she felt any jealousy, or exactly how she rationalized my indifference. This time I had no idea why Phyllis wanted to see me, but the prospect of more complications made me apprehensive. I dreaded the thought of having to deal with some emotional showdown. ⟨…⟩

«Finding God on the A Train»

Rick Hamlin

«Finding God on the A Train: A Journey into Prayer»
// San Francisco: «HarperSanFrancisco», 1997,
hardcover + dust jacket, 152 p.,
ISBN: 0-06-063596-7

⟨…⟩

Chapter 16

In New York my «day job» was a night job at the now defunct Hotel Winslow. I was a desk clerk on the four-to-midnight shift. At that time the hotel had only thirty permanent residents, all of whom the owners were trying to relocate. The structure was being transformed into an office building. My job was mindless and boring. I sat for hours underneath a few bald lightbulbs, distributing packages and mail to a handful of elderly residents who believed against the evidence that they could stay on in the aging building, one tenant to a floor. I had long hours to myself, to study scripts, write letters, and chat on the phone to friends. The hotel residents, in threadbare coats and moth-eaten hats, would linger in the empty lobby, sitting on the rattling radiators and making polite conversation as though their world weren't crumbling around them.

As most actors' «money jobs» went, it could have been worse. I found plenty of time to memorize scenes for my acting class, learn music, and read through three different daily newspapers. From the front desk I watched the drama of everyday life pass through the shabby lobby: a Russian expatriate cinematographer looking in vain for some news from home, an impoverished French diplomat's wife waiting for an inheritance that never seemed to come, a middle-aged Belgian «nurse» who did more lucrative business at night as a call girl, a Cuban refugee always rushing to Saint Patrick's Cathedral with her rosary beads in hand, and friends of mine who stopped and friends of mine who stopped by on their way home from their more conventional nine-to-five jobs.

One of those friends was a college chum who worked in publishing. She was compiling a calendar of quotations—a provocative quote a day—and to earn some extra money I dutifully retyped the manuscript. She was at a transition point in her career and in her life. She knew she could get a job that earned her more than her publishing salary, or she could earn a lot less and take a risk by doing what she really wanted to do, which was to be a freelance writer. She'd recently forgone the Talbot sweaters and khaki skirts of college days; now, with hair flamboyantly hennaed red, she dressed in Bohemian black or outrageous purple. She rolled her eyes at the motley crew assembled in the lobby and issued sharp, opinionated views on the New York cultural scene. Of course, I advised her on her job quandary. «You should be a writer», I told her. Easy for me to say.

«How do I make money in the meantime?» she asked, ever practical.

«I'm sure I could get you a job here at the hotel», I said. So she left her publishing job and took over the 8:00 a.m. shift, working on her manuscripts at the front desk. I usually came early for my 4:00 p.m. shift, or she lingered, so that we could talk. She was great fun to talk to. Witty, clever, she had strong opinions about everything. Moreover, she gave me the feeling that the things I said were witty and clever too. In the gossip and banter, sometimes subjects of great seriousness would suddenly emerge. I thought it odd one afternoon when she bit her lip, avoided my gaze—perhaps afraid that I would be censorious—and announced, «You'll never know what a difference you've made in my life». ⟨…⟩

An Orphan Asylum and a Fifth Avenue «Farmhouse»

by Christopher Gray

⟨…⟩

The Old Winslow Hotel

Q. I would like to know more about the history of the old Hotel Winslow, at the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 55^th Street. I remember having had a pleasant lunch on a sunny day in the 1940's in the hotel's open-air roof restaurant… (P.G. Thyrre, Ardsley, N.Y.)

A. Built in 1921, this was originally one of the Allerton Houses, a chain of moderately priced hotels for white-collar workers begun in 1916 by James S. Cushman.

The chain grew to at least five buildings in New York, the others at 302 West 22^d, 22 East 38^th and 143 East 39^th Streets and, for women, 130 East 57^th Street. The 39^th Street, 55^th Street and 57^th Street buildings were designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon in a Northern Italian style marked by varied brickwork, inset stone trim and rooftop arcades. Harmon, writing in the magazine «Architecture» in 1923, noted that he had problems getting just the effect he wanted, noting that «the brick was laid as irregularly as the deadly mechanical perfection of the modern mason will permit».

He also took special care to have some decoration carried around to the lot line walls and with decorative enclosures for the rooftop water tanks. Inside, the Allerton Houses had club-type lounges, gyms and laundries; in the 1920's rooms rented for one to two dollars a day.

Cushman, a member of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, was a grandson of Don Alonzo Cushman, an active real estate developer in Chelsea; he named the hotel chain for a Mayflower ancestor, Mary Allerton. But in the 1930's the Allerton corporation faltered, and the buildings were converted to conventional hotels.

The 55^th Street Allerton House was converted into offices in 1982, when the architect Edward V. Giannasca inserted vertical strips of reflective glass. But he retained some of the original masonry elements as piers in what was considered a conscious reference to the AT&T building, under construction across the street at the time.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», August 31, 1997

Madison the Cat Is Safe!
Oh, the Avenue's O.K., Too

by James Barron

Yesterday was a good day for Madison the cat and Madison the avenue. One was reunited with his owner, examined by a veterinarian and found to be fine.

The other was reopened to traffic.

For the first time since loose bricks from a high-rise building rained down on Madison Avenue last Sunday, nearby stores were allowed to open and cars and buses were finally permitted on a two-block stretch between 53^d and 55^th Streets. The avenue had been closed all week while construction crews worked to shore up the damaged facade and until the city finished putting up a tunnel-like scaffold between 54^th and 55^th to protect cars and buses in case any more bricks fell from the high-rise.

And after a 10-minute rescue mission, Madison the tabby was freed from his owner's apartment at 536 Madison Avenue, a couple of doors down from the brick-shedding high rise. Mike Tietje of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and three employees of the city's Office of Emergency Management climbed the stairs to the top-floor apartment where Madison spent the week by himself.

His owner, Tim Curran, 27, a bartender and unemployed Wall Street stock trader who was forced to leave his apartment on Sunday because of the precarious situation, spent the week in a nearby hotel, worrying.

«If they want to come to you fast, they will», Mr. Tietje said, and Madison did. «It came out of the closet in the rear room. It started to run around us. It was scared because it didn't know us».

Shortly after Mr. Tietje carried Madison to safety, stores across from the damaged high-rise reopened for the first time since the bricks pelted the street. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani went shopping, buying $71 worth of wine and stopping in cosmetics and candy shops. Officials said that buildings on the other side of the street would be allowed to reopen soon, probably tomorrow.

That was a relief to tenants like Dr. Frederick Kahn, a dentist at 538 Madison Avenue. The emergency workers who accompanied Mr. Tietje to free Madison retrieved Dr. Kahn's appointment book yesterday.

Next door, crews continued to shore up the damaged high-rise. William G. Nagle, a deputy director of the Office of Emergency Management, said bracing and structural supports had been put in. After construction workers discovered that the weakened wall was in worse condition than had been believed, work crews were ordered to reinforce it with wooden planks and steel rods.

By nightfall, traffic had been allowed back on the closed-off section of the avenue. Workers had put up waist-high barriers between 53^d and 54^th Streets, forming a pair of traffic funnels leading to the mini-tunnel covering the avenue between 54^th and 55^th.

«A building that was as high as this one, with bricks falling off, they had to make sure it was secure» before allowing traffic on the street below, the Mayor said.

City officials said on Monday that water damage to the building, accumulated from years of neglect, probably caused the damage. Mr. Giuliani said yesterday that he had also asked the city's Department of Investigation to look into the accident.

For Mr. Curran, yesterday marked the end of a week of worrying over the fate of his beloved cat. As Mr. Tietje rescued Madison, Mr. Curran waited with emergency workers on the street and heard the good news over a walkie-talkie: «We have the cat. We have the cat». Mr. Tietje wrapped Madison in a blue blanket and carried him down the stairs.

Then it was off to a familiar place: A.S.P.C.A. headquarters on East 92^d Street, where Mr. Curran adopted him about four years ago.

He weighed in at 16.9 pounds, about the same as before his week alone in Mr. Curran's apartment. After a checkup, Madison's condition was described in five words Mr. Curran was happy to hear: none the worse for wear.

«He certainly didn't seem hungry», said Peter Paris, a spokesman for the association. «We believe he did actually manage to make it to some food during the week».

It certainly wasn't takeout. No one, whether tenants, letter carriers or delivery people, had been allowed in all week. The rescue came after The New York Times described Mr. Curran's frustration at not being able to see or free his cat.

After Mr. Curran had taken Madison to a friend's apartment on East 85^th Street, city officials said that they would have sent someone in on Thursday had Mr. Curran been there with his keys.

«Whoever he was told to see, he didn't see», said Bruce Brodoff, a spokesman for the city's Emergency Management Office.

Mr. Curran disputed that, saying that he was never given such instructions and that the officials he had spoken with at the command post on 54^th Street did not have clearance to enter the building.

It turned out that Madison was not the only cat stuck on the block, or even in his building. Holed up in the ground-floor restaurant in Mr. Curran's building was Mera, a white cat with a camel-colored tail and a fondness for tuna. Never mind that his owner, Steve Tsirnikas, described Mera as «a cheeseburger cat».

Mr. Tsirnikas had left food for Mera on Tuesday, when he entered the restaurant through a basement entrance. But he could not find her. Yesterday, when he went in again, «she was all over me».

«The New York Times», December 13, 1997

10 months later. Ozzy Osbourne…

Behind Facade of Calamity, Life Goes On

by Glenn Collins

The great paradox of The Building is that it may be safer to be inside it than outside it.

«Once you're inside, you'd never suspect that anything was wrong», Peter Sprague said yesterday, indicating with a sweep of his arm the tranquil view from his office on the 17^th floor of 540 Madison Avenue.

«I've been thinking of the Ogden Nash poem», added Mr. Sprague, chairman of Wave Systems Corporation, a telecommunications company. «It goes: «My face I don't mind it, for I am behind it — it is the people in front that I jar». Well, if you change the word «face» to «facade», it seems singularly appropriate to this building».

The now famous building is, of course, the 39-story Madison Avenue office tower whose southern wall began raining bricks on Dec. 7, shutting many stores between 54^th and 55^th Streets for the past 10 days and hobbling traffic along a major midtown artery.

But the building itself remains open, and despite nearly two weeks of high-profile commotion, the isolated office regulars in 540 Madison seem to have constructed a fragile normality at the summit of potential calamity, continuing their workaday routines in the eye of what the world views as a slow-motion crisis. Yesterday, like a torpedoed liner on automatic pilot, or the Flying Dutchman on its quest for landfall, the good ship 540 Madison tried to hold a steady course.

Although Madison Avenue is closed off with police barricades, the building's workday inhabitants enter through a brilliantly lighted, glassed-in entrance on 55^th Street near Fifth Avenue, incongruously bedecked yesterday with a holiday wreath, a white-bowed Christmas tree and pots of red poinsettias. Workers departed for lunch, and returned. Messengers threaded past the security desk to offices upstairs. Visiting salesmen made their calls, riding up in the four elevators, which have been internally sheathed in plywood to protect them from construction materials as workers renovate the building.

Of course, actually getting to the building yesterday was something of a trial, since office workers and their visitors had to fight past a street blockade on Madison Avenue, through holiday gridlock on surrounding streets, and make their way among hordes of Christmas shoppers who turned out for yesterday's balmy, sunny weather.

«The streets are blocked off, so it's hard to get here», said Manchi Yau, a postal worker who was making her rounds inside 540 Madison. «But once you get inside, it's easy to get around. It's really very quiet».

Yesterday, Gaston Silva, the city's Buildings Commissioner, said that workers were continuing to remove bricks from the exterior wall on the top floors of the building. As the work proceeds, Madison Avenue is closed to vehicles between 52^d and 55^th Streets, and businesses on the east side of Madison between 54^th and 55^th Streets are closed.

For the moment, engineers have deemed the interior of 540 Madison structurally sound. And throughout the problems of the past 10 days, the building, which is about 70 percent occupied, has been shuttered to employees only once. That was on the morning of Dec. 8, the day after the bricks fell, said William Broudy, a lawyer who works on the 20^th floor.

Since then, said Carla Jewett, the office manager of Wave Systems, «We don't even have to see the mess on Madison Avenue. We've been able to enter the building at 55^th Street».

«In fact», said Ms. Jewett, «I don't even think about it anymore».

Complacency was rampant yesterday on other floors, as well. «People were definitely worried when the bricks came tumbling down», said Darrell Springer, an administrative assistant at Banco Itau on the 24^th floor. «But now we've gotten used to it. We're one of the fortunate floors not affected by the little mishap».

Initially, said Joanne Liguori, the office manager for Circle of Beauty, a cosmetics company on the 28^th floor, «we were all talking about the building. But now nobody talks about it. It's business as usual. And please excuse me, I have to go back to a meeting».

Until August, when his office moved to the 17^th floor, Mr. Sprague had been on the 37^th floor, one of the floors where bricks peeled off the exterior of the building. The 35^th, 36^th and 37^th floors of the building have been closed.

«I guess we dodged a bullet», Mr. Sprague said. «Good thing we didn't stay upstairs in that Potemkin village. It didn't make it through Christmas».

Others dodged the bullet by moving from the building before the present crisis. «We feel very badly for the tenants and the merchants who are out of work, but we're pleased not to be there anymore», said John Aloisio, an executive vice president of Sterling National Bank, which moved its headquarters to 430 Park Avenue a year ago.

Sterling had filled two office floors as well as the retail space on the street level of 540 Madison, which is currently tenantless and swathed in large «Retail Space» vacancy signs. «We are happy that no one was injured», Mr. Aloisio said, «and we're offering the bank's help to the retail merchants who had to shut down».

One tenant on the 17^th floor, an executive for Promon International who refused to give her name, praised the building management's actions during the crisis, saying, «We've been in this building for 20 years and we're very happy here».

But other tenants who refused to be identified had no shortage of complaints. «They spent a lot of money making the lobby very pretty, but they should worry about the safety of people in the building», said one secretary who refused to give her name. The building manager for 540 Madison did not return calls for comment.

Others faulted the elevator service. «Sometimes three of the four elevators are out of commission», said another tenant who refused to give his name. «And no one is happy about the loud drilling that's constantly going on. They're running pipes and cables from floor to floor».

Mr. Sprague said the ongoing construction had been a problem. «And the elevator service in the building is a joke», he said. «They've been working on it for eight months now».

Yesterday, some of the tenants were expecting the best while preparing for the worst. «We have an off-site office that's ready to go, in case of future disaster», said Mr. Springer of Banco Itau. «If anything else happens, we're prepared for it».

Mr. Sprague said it was too soon to say whether he would renew his lease, which expires in a year. Meanwhile, «my advice to management is to pull the bricks down», he said. «Or fix it by using big bands of duct tape».

«The New York Times», December 18, 1997

«Assignment Homicide»

Jeanne Toomey

«Assignment Homicide: Behind the Headlines»
// Santa Fe, NM: «Sunstone Press», 1998,
hardcover, 160 p.
ISBN: 0-86534-271-7

⟨…⟩ Mrs. Riis was playing the piano at the community center of the church and we waited for her to finish playing before the interview. Children gathered around her, singing, «Oh, What a Beautiful Morning» from «Oklahoma». I have always identified the tune with Bird and a wild romance. I had thought I was immune to passion and love at first sight. I was wrong.

It wasn't long before I was in bed with him at the Hotel Winslow where he lived. We both drank too much for sustained romance. He finally joined AA* and met and married a Brooklyn Heights socialite. ⟨…⟩

* Alcoholics Anonymous

«Crux: The Letters of James Dickey»

James Dickey

«Crux: The Letters of James Dickey»
/ editors: Matthew J. Bruccoli + Judith S. Baughman
// New York: «Alfred A. Knopf», 1999,
hardcover, XXX+576 p.,
ISBN: 0-375-40419-8

Wikipedia: James Dickey (February 2, 1923 — January 19, 1997)

New York City, Fifth Avenue

«Baedeker's New York»
// Basingstoke: «AA Publishing» (The Automobile Association), 1999,
paperback, 256 p.,
ISBN: 0-7495-1990-8

Маленький Сальвадор

Эдуард Лимонов

«Книга мёртвых»
// Санкт-Петербург: «Лимбус Пресс», 2000,
твёрдый переплёт, иллюстрации, 286 стр.,
тираж: 10.000 экз.,
ISBN: 5-8370-0247-2

⟨…⟩ В марте того же 1976 года я поселился на Мэдисон-авеню в отеле «Винслоу». Это парадокс того времени — времени Большой Депрессии Нью-Йорка: отель в центре города был так баснословно дёшев: 130 долларов в месяц! Как я позднее узнал от режиссера Душана Маковеева, уже живя в Париже, он, Маковеев, неоднократно останавливался в этом отеле, когда бывал в 70-е годы в Нью-Йорке. И якобы там останавливались ещё другие важные люди искусства. Сейчас этого здания на углу 55-й улицы и Мэдисон-авеню не существует, оно не разрушено, но давным-давно инкорпорировано в состав небоскрёба со всеми шестнадцатью этажами и крышей с портиками. Будучи в Нью-Йорке последний раз в 1990 году, я пришел поклониться обители моих стонов, печалей, на место моей «иллюминации и второго рождения». О, чудо, они сохранили даже три балкончика гостиницы «Винслоу», и мой средний в том числе. Не знаю, что там с внутренностями, вряд ли жива моя крошечная клетка, но пространство есть. В 1990 году всё это великолепие называлось «Melon Fondation». Мелоны, напоминаю — известная фамилия миллионеров, так же как Форды, Рокфеллеры или Гетти.

Поселившись в 1976 году в «Винслоу», я однажды стоял поздно вечером у подъезда отеля вместе с эмигрантами. Точной даты я не помню, но полагаю, это было в середине марта, так как уже в апреле я перестал водиться с эмигрантами. Мимо подъезда, а он был один, вход с 55-й улицы, вдруг прошла странная группа людей: двое мужчин и женщина. В мужчине я безошибочно узнал Дали. Эмигранты не знали, что это Дали, но сказали мне, что после двенадцати ночи эту группу нередко можно увидеть идущую по 55-й с Иста, а проходят они вон туда — и эмигранты указали на отель «Сент-Реджис Шератон». Постепенно, путём небольшой слежки я выяснил, что Дали, Гала и их шофёр, он же телохранитель, оставляют машину в подземном паркинге на 55-й у Первой авеню и возвращаются в «Сент-Реджис Шератон» пешком. Впоследствии я несколько раз за цену бутылки водки приводил желающих поглазеть на живого Дали эмигрантов к подъезду «Винслоу». Тех, у кого хватало терпения дождаться, ожидало удовольствие на всю жизнь. «А вот однажды, внучек, будучи в Нью-Йорке, Лимонов водил меня посмотреть на Сальвадора Дали» — так, я полагаю, это будет звучать. ⟨…⟩

«Violencia!»

Bruce Jay Friedman

«Violencia!: a musical novel»
// New York: «Grove Press», 2001,
paperback, 224 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-8021-3875-0

⟨…⟩

But all of this paled beside the misfortune that hit the group midweek.

With the playing of a chord on the piano, Han Nihsu stopped the rehearsal one day to make the following announcement:

«It is my sad duty to inform everyone that Mr. Mortimer has been found hanging in the clothing closet of his suite at the Hotel Winslow».

Everyone was both shocked and sickened by the news. Clement Hartog, of course, canceled rehearsals for the rest of the day, even though there was precious little time to get the show in shape, the lost hours representing a big loss to the production.

⟨…⟩

Reconnaissance

Gordon Van Ness

«The One Voice of James Dickey:
His Letters and Life, 1942–1969»
/ Edited with Commentary by Gordon Van Ness
// Columbia + London: «University of Missouri Press», 2003,
hardcover + dust jacket, XVI+2+500 p.,
ISBN: 0-8262-1441-X

⟨…⟩ As spring did come to New York, Dickey increasingly believed his decision to have been right. Initially his parents continued to forward him money, but the company offered him $8,600, more than twice what he had earned teaching at the University of Florida, and he soon found himself fully involved in the advertising trade, writing copy and participating in production. He wrote Lytle, endeavoring to make amends, but to Maxine he quipped, «I'm glad I don't have to depend on getting along with him, for my livelihood! He comes somewhere near being the biggest fake I've ever known». As he better understood the business mentality and as his superiors at McCann Erickson complimented his efforts, Dickey believed he had permanently separated himself from academe. His new calling required variations in perspective, a change in how he saw the world. The work itself, composing ads first for magazines and then for radio and television, offered him the larger salary he wanted, but the pressure of meeting deadlines gave him headaches and reduced the time available to write poetry. Lytle had cautioned him about the dangers, declaring that «it is a dangerous job for a poet… I'm told it is fast, compettitive [sic], and brutal». Dickey remained ambivalent. On the one hand, he was learning, as he observed, to consider products from a «commercial standpoint, or from a design standpoint, as to what would be effective in the design». On the other hand, New York's imposing skyline and executive lifestyle were far removed from the southern provinciality of his childhood in Atlanta and his teaching sojourns in Houston and Gainesville, and he felt alienated. The job offered no real glory. «I had no illusions», he later stated, «about being full of integrity as far as the advertising business was concerned; I was in it for the money, to make a living. The integrity came at night, on weekends, at sales meetings, on holidays, or whenever I could get to write my «own thing»». After endeavoring to please copy chiefs and assistant creative directors all day, he returned in the evenings to his room at the Winslow Hotel on Madison and Fifty-fifth Street and worked on poems, in particular a long, ambitious effort entitled «The First Morning of Cancer». The poem depicts the visionary flights of a man who has developed brain cancer; the subsequent chemical changes cause him to identify with Christ:

«Lonely Avenue»

Alex Halberstadt

«Lonely Avenue:
The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus»
// Cambridge, MA: «Da Capo Press», 2007,
hardcover + dust jacket, 264 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-306-81300-9

⟨…⟩ Doc moved out of Loew's a few months after he moved in. He'd enjoyed watching the fights and the Knicks' games at the Garden, and his occasional tableside interviews with contenders had been a blast, but the hotel was dead, an anonymous midtown stopover for sightseers from Omaha and St. Louis. Doc's friend, the comic Nipsey Russell, recommended the Henry Hudson Hotel on West Fifty-seventh Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Russell took Doc and Shirlee to his penthouse apartment there, a huge, well-lighted loft lined floor-to-ceiling with books. The Henry Hudson was quiet and nondescript. Nearby theater companies rented most of its meeting spaces for rehearsals; the building stood amid a two-block stretch of restaurants and clubs. Shirlee began to understand that, for Doc, the details of the surrounding block—the location of the steps, the height of the curbs, the proximity of food, coffee and cigarettes, and other things ablebodied men rarely noticed—determined his days. Doc now went out only in his wheelchair. He got around his room on crutches, but one day he told Shirlee that he was through with them. The muscles in his arms had atrophied during his stay at the hospital, and he'd gained even more weight. Using the crutches was now simply too painful. Shirlee encouraged him to keep trying. «Don't you want to face the world standing up?» she asked. «Forget it, baby», Doc told her. «I just can't do it anymore».

When her roommate Fran gave up on Manhattan and went home, Shirlee moved to the Winslow, another anonymous hotel, on Madison Avenue. The distance only made her want to see Doc more. She still wasn't sure how deeply her feelings ran; it had taken nearly a year for their kisses to evolve into sex. Still, she visited him at the Henry Hudson nearly every day. ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Doc Pomus (Jerome Solon Felder) (June 27, 1925 — March 14, 1991)

Fabulous Dead People | Alexis, Baron de Rede

by Christopher Petkanas

It sounds almost too cheesey to be true, but having returned to New York in 1941, de Rede was dining at the fashionable restaurant Les Bruxelles when he literally turned the head of Arturo Lopez-Wilshaw, a Chilean whose staggering wealth was derived from guano. (The irony of bird excrement enabling the lives of two of the greatest aesthetes of the 20^th century is beyond the scope of this article.) The baron had been saving himself, and now he knew why. The deed was done not amid the brocade splendor of the St. Regis, where Arturo was staying with his wife Patricia, but at the «sleazy» (a breathtaking word on de Rede's lips) hotel Winslow on East 55^th Street.

«The New York Times», April 8, 2011

Wikipedia: Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Redé (February 4, 1922 — July 8, 2004)

Wikipedia: Arturo Lopez-Wilshaw (20 juin 1900 — 17 mars 1962)

🎧 Limonov

Activités communicatives

Emmanuel Carrère (Paris, 1957)

Emmanuel Carrère est un romancier, essayiste, scénariste très connu en France. Il a reçu de nombreux prix littéraires, dont le Femina en 1995 pour «La Classe de neige», et le Renaudot en 2011 pour «Limonov», roman-biographique d'Édouard Limonov, écrivain de l'Union Soviétique (Russie).

Nous sommes à New York, dans les années 1975–1980. Edouard Limonov est un écrivain russe exilé aux États-Unis.

L'hôtel Winslow est un repaire de ces Russes, juifs pour la plupart, qui font comme lui partie de la « troisième émigration », celle des années soixante-dix, et qu'il est capable de reconnaître dans la rue, même de dos, à l'aura de lassitude et de malheur qui émane d'eux. C'est à eux qu'il pensait en écrivant l'article qui lui a coûté son job. À Moscou ou Leningrad, ils étaient poètes, peintres, musiciens, de vaillants under qui se tenaient chaud dans leurs cuisines, et maintenant, à New York ils sont plongeurs, peintres en bâtiment, déménageurs, et ils ont beau s'efforcer de croire encore ce qu'ils croyaient au début, que c'est provisoire, qu'un jour on reconnaîtra leurs vrais talents, ils savent bien que ce n'est pas vrai. Alors, toujours entre eux, toujours en russe, ils se soûlent, se lamentent, parlent du pays, rêvent qu'on les laisse y retourner, mais on ne les laissera pas y retourner : ils mourront piégés et floués.

Il y en a un, comme ça, au Winslow, chaque fois qu'Édouard vient le voir dans sa chambre, pour boire un coup ou lui taper un dollar, il croit qu'il a un chien parce que ça sent le chien, qu'il y a des os rongés dans un coin et même des crottes de chien sur le lino, mais non, il n'a pas de chien, il n'a même pas de chien, il est seul à crever, il relit à longueur de journées les quelques lettres qu'il a reçues de sa mère.

Emmanuel Carrère, «Limonov», Paris, P.O.L.

Vocabulaire

• un repaire : un endroit qui sert de refuge, un abri.
• lui a coûté son job : il a perdu son travail.
• under : diminutif de « underground », avant-garde artistique.
• floués : trompés.
• lui taper un dollar : (familier) lui demander un dollar, emprunter de l'argent.

Parlons-en

• De quels émigrés est-il question ?
• Qu'étaient-ils à Moscou/Leningrad et que sont-ils à New York ? Commentez ces différences.
• Quelle image illustre leur solitude ? Qu'en pensez-vous ?
• Pour le narrateur, quel est le destin de ces personnes ? Et vous, quels sont vos constats, vos expériences, vos analyses concernant l'immigration ou l'exil ?

Nicole Blondeau + Ferroudja Allouache + Marie-Françoise Né
«Littérature Progressive du Français»
/ 2e édition
// Paris: «CLE International», 2013,
broché, 176 p.,
ISBN: 978-2-09-038147-4 (+CD-audio)

The Eagles of 551 Madison Avenue

gigi_nyc • Taken on August 17, 2013

«Flickr»

«The Ape has Stabbed Me»

Vincent Poklewski Koziell

«The Ape has Stabbed Me:
A Cocktail of Reminiscences»
// London: «The Write Factor», 2014,
hardcover + dust jacket, 254 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-9568735-7-6

⟨…⟩ I booked into the Winslow Hotel on the corner of 52^nd and Madison Avenue where I got a bedroom for $3 a night on the top floor, which must have originally been a room for travelling servants, as it was tiny and not en suite. However, the phone and lift worked, as did the bathroom at the end of the corridor, albeit with many steamy and leaky protests. ⟨…⟩

Emmanuel Carrère:
the most important French writer you've never heard of

Robert McCrum

As his latest «non-fiction novel», Limonov, comes out in English, the acclaimed and bestselling author discusses his extreme personal candour and why he likes to court danger.

⟨…⟩ As a refugee in 70s Manhattan, contemporary with the poet Joseph Brodsky, Limonov took a cheap room in the squalid Winslow hotel, living on cabbage soup, and writing about his life with the simple, raw energy of a Russian Jack London. ⟨…⟩

«The Guardian», September 21, 2014

Joseph Brodsky ⟩ June 4, 1972
Eduard Limonov ⟩ September 30, 1974

«Floating islands»

Mike Doyle

«Floating islands: a writer's early life»
// Victoria, BC: «Ekstasis Editions», 2015,
paperback, 240 p.,
ISBN: 978-1-77171-099-2

⟨…⟩ About that time I met the English poet George Barker. One evening I joined him at the Hotel Winslow (East 50s?), had a few drinks, then spent hours trailing around with him, joining his friends, listening to him read from a book of plays newly published, which in his voicing sounded very much like «Under Milk Wood». My image of Barker had been influenced by a sepia photo of him, laconic and mysterious behind a veil of blue smoke from a nonchalantly dangled cigarette. I had always pictured him a small wiry man with a gypsy sort of face, spare, knowing, and tough. His long poem «The True Confession of George Barker» reinforced that image as did the memory of a photo in «Penguin New Writing», his face curtained by spirals of cigarette smoke. Instead, I found a tall man with water-blue eyes, modest in manner, easy to get on with. That night we went to several bars before fetching up at the apartment of a redheaded woman-friend of his. Though too tipsy to register much, through her I found a space to bunk down for the night when momentarily I could not easily fend for myself. Early next morning, I left without encountering Barker or our hostess. ⟨…⟩

Lexin pays $155M for Barings' 551 Madison

by Mark Maurer

Principal Life upped existing loan on 17-story Midtown office building to $85M.

Metin Negrin's Lexin Capital closed last week on the $155 million purchase of a 17-story Midtown office building at 551 Madison Avenue from Barings, formerly known as Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, sources told «The Real Deal».

The price for the 151,000-square-foot property came out to $1,030 per square foot, sources said.

The building, located between East 55^th and 56^th streets, according to sources is 94 percent occupied and also has a roughly 17,000-square-foot retail component. Office tenants include French clothing company Lacoste and Omni Hotels and Resorts.

Lexin, which is developing a 40-story Financial District rental tower at 75 Nassau Street, is planning a long-term hold of the Madison Avenue building, sources said.

As for the financing, sources said Lexin increased the existing $63 million loan from Principal Life Insurance Company on the property to $85 million, sources said. Cornerstone had bought the building from LaSalle Investment Management for $128 million in 2012 and then secured that $63 million loan the following year, property records show.

«We have focused on stabilizing the building occupancy while simultaneously capturing the rising tide in the office rental rate environment», said Barings' Kevin Miller, confirming the sale.

The landlord put the building on the market in September. Around the same time, Cornerstone, Barings Asset Management and two other subsidiaries of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company merged to form one company known as Barings with $275 billion in combined assets.

CBRE's [TRDataCustom] Darcy Stacom, Bill Shanahan and Eric Negrin represented the seller in the deal. CBRE's Shawn Rosenthal and Jason Gaccione brokered the financing. Representatives for Lexin and CBRE declined to comment.

Commercial Real Estate Direct first reported in December that the deal was under contract.

Across the street is the Sony Building at 550 Madison Avenue, which Olayan Group and Chelsfield acquired for $1.4 billion, or $1,647 per square foot, last year after Chetrit Group and Clipper Equities scrapped plans for a condominium conversion. CBRE is marketing the 850,000 square feet of vacant office space there.

«The Real Deal», January 23, 2017

«The general's women»

Susan Wittig Albert

«The general's women»
// Bertram, TX: «Persevero Press», 2017,
hardcover + dust jacket, 412 p.,
ISBN: 978-0-9892035-8-6

⟨…⟩ Kay had sent Ike (who was just beginning to settle into his presidency at Columbia University) a prepublication copy of her book*, and on September 30, 1948, he replied with a dictated thank-you note. In New York, she was staying at the Hotel Winslow at Madison Avenue and Fifty-Fifth Street, but she spent the autumn and part of the spring of 1949 on the lecture circuit, speaking on college campuses and at women's clubs, libraries, and bookstores. She also appeared on radio and on the popular quiz show «Twenty Questions». In July 1949, she flew to England, where the UK edition of the book had been published by T. Werner Laurie Ltd. ⟨…⟩

Wikipedia: Kay Summersby (23 November 1908 — 20 January 1975)

* «Eisenhower Was My Boss» (1948)

* * *

Лев Новожёнов

⟨…⟩ В 98-м году, на Новый год, я с друзьями жил в Нью-Йорке в отеле «Сент-Реджис», на который Лимонов взирал с балкона дома неподалёку, хлебая борщ из кастрюли. ⟨…⟩

«Facebook», 18 марта 2020 года

New York Songlines

Virtual Walking Tours of Manhattan Streets

www.nysonglines.com/…

Columbia University Libraries

Title: The Winslow Madison Ave. at 55^th St. New York City

Published: Lumitone

Physical Description: Monochromatic

Subjects: Hotel, Hotels, Midtown Manhattan (New York, N.Y.)

Format: postcards

Location: Avery Classics Collection, Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Collection, Box no. 13, Item no. 234.6.

Everything's for sale!

The Winslow Hotel New York City, USA

Available for Editorial use only. $23.00

Contributor:Chronicle
File size:43.6 MB (2.5 MB Compressed download)
Dimensions: 3.083×4.947 px | 26.1×41.9 cm | 300dpi

www.alamy.com/…

The Winslow Bar in the Winslow Hotel.

Available for Editorial use only. $23.00

Contributor:Chronicle
File size:43.9 MB (1.8 MB Compressed download)
Dimensions: 4.941×3.102 px | 41.8×26.3 cm | 300dpi

www.alamy.com/…

«Alamy»

The Winslow Hotel New York City, USA

Editorial Use Only. Single use in context.

The Winslow Hotel at Madison Avenue at 55^th Street New York City Usa. Postcard Published by Lumitone Photoprint, New York

Image Formats: 3.083×4.947 pixels • JPG

www.shutterstock.com/…

The Winslow Bar in New York City, Usa

A Round of Guests Relaxing at the Winslow Bar of the Hotel by the Same Name at the Intersection Between Madison Avenue and 55^th Street in New York City Usa. Postcard Published by Lumitone Photoprint, New York

Image Formats: 4.941×3.102 pixels • JPG

Important information: Editorial Use Only. Single use in context.

www.shutterstock.com/…

«Shutterstock»

The Winslow Hotel New York City Print 1930s

The Winslow Hotel at Madison Avenue at 55^th Street New York City, USA Date: 1930s. Mary Evans Picture Library makes available wonderful images created for people to enjoy over the centuries. © Mary Evans / Pharcide

Artwork supplied by Mary Evans

15×10 — €13.40
18×13 — €15.88
30×20 — €22.88
47×30 — €42.28
60×40 — €77.28
75×50 — €87.28
90×60 — €127.28

«Media Storehouse»

The Winslow Hotel & Matchbook Collection

via eBay

⟨…⟩

Knott Hotels

via eBay

Knott Hotels New York City map c. 1930's Deco era city plan for tourists

read more…

VINTAGE The Knott Hotels New York City Map Art Deco Style Tourist Brochure

1954 KNOTT HOTELS brochure, NEW YORK CITY, map, photos

New York City Map - 1954 - Knott Hotels

New York City Map. The Knott Hotels New York. 193?

1936 NEW YOTK CITY MAP - THE KNOTTS HOTELS NEW YORK LOCATION & RATES BROCHURE

VINTAGE NEW YORK CITY TOURIST BROCHURE LOTEmpire State Building Observatories

1952 New York City Knott Hotels Chain Calendar Lots of other cities too SCARCE

Homes Dark and Lifeless, Kept by Out-of-Towners

by Sam Roberts

New Yorkers who stay in town during summer and holiday weekends know the empty-streets, Potemkin-village look that parts of the city take on.

But some Manhattan neighborhoods are assuming that vacant feeling the year round, because the people who own or rent apartments there actually live somewhere else most of the time. This explains why, in a city of bright lights, so many windows dotting the imposing facades of Fifth, Madison and Park Avenue apartment buildings are pitch dark every evening.

Wealthy out-of-towners have always had pieds-à-terre and unused investment properties in the city. What is new is how many.

In a large swath of the East Side bounded by Fifth and Park Avenues and East 49^th and 70^th Streets, about 30 percent of the more than 5,000 apartments are routinely vacant more than 10 months a year because their owners or renters have permanent homes elsewhere, according to the Census Bureau's latest American Community Survey.

«The New York Times», July 6, 2011

Cornerstone puts tower at 551 Madison Avenue up for sale

by Rich Bockmann

Asset manager could expect it to fetch at least $180M: sources.

Asset management firm Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, now known as Barings following a $275 billion merger Monday, is looking to sell the 150,000-square-foot office-and-retail building it owns at 551 Madison Avenue, sources told «The Real Deal».

The asking price wasn't clear, but sources said Barings could be looking to get north of $180 million at a minimum.

Connecticut-based Cornerstone paid $128 million in 2012 to buy the 17-story building at 551 Madison Avenue from LaSalle Investment Management.

The building, located at the corner of East 55^th Street, was 91 percent occupied at the time of purchase, and since then Cornerstone [TRDataCustom] has inked a handful of small leases with office tenants on the upper floors.

But an outsized portion of the property's value is weighted toward its retail, which boasts 75 feet of frontage along Madison Avenue and counts tenants such as shoemaker Allen Edmonds and eyewear shop Robert Marc.

CBRE's Darcy Stacom and Bill Shanahan, who brokered the sale four years ago, are currently marketing the property, sources told «The Real Deal». Representatives for Cornerstone and CBRE declined to comment.

The 2012 purchase price works out to about $850 per square foot. A source not affiliated with the property said Cornerstone, seeking a healthy internal rate of return, could be looking to sell for somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500 per square foot. That would work out to a purchase price of roughly $180 million to $225 million.

The French clothing company Lacoste anchors the office floors with a little more than 25,000 square feet. Other tenants include Omni Hotels and Resorts, owner of the 398-room Omni Berkshire Hotel at Madison Avenue and 52^nd Street, as well as various financial-services companies and law firms.

In addition to The Plaza District building, Cornerstone also owns the 520,000-square-foot office property at 100 Wall Street and hotels including the Algonquin on West 44^th Street and the Muse on West 46^th Street.

Institutional asset manager Babson Capital Management announced Monday it had completed the merger of Cornerstone Real Estate, Barings Asset Management and two other subsidiaries of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company to form one company operating under the name Barings with $275 billion worth of global assets under management.

«The Real Deal», September 12, 2016

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank Refis 551 Madison With $78M Loan

by Andrew Coen

Lexin Capital has secured a $78 million debt package to refinance a Midtown office building it acquired five years ago, according to property records.

Deutsche Pfandbriefbank provided the loan on Lexin's 551 Madison Avenue, a 17-story asset in the Plaza District. Lexin purchased the 151,000-square-foot property in January 2017 from Barings for $155 million, «The Real Deal» reported at the time. The transaction marks the second for Deutsche Pfandbriefbank on behalf of Lexin after also closing a loan its property on 220 West 28^th Street.

«With the refinancing, we paid back the previous lender and also increased our investment and with the additional proceeds we will continue to invest into our property and improve and add amenities for our tenants like our new lounge», said Metin Negrin, president of Lexin Capital.

Barings, which was formerly known as Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, initially bought the building from LaSalle Investment Management for $128 million in 2012 and secured a $63 million loan from Principal Life Insurance a year later, per TRD.

The 1922-built 551 Madison houses corporate offices for Omni Hotels and Resorts and French clothing company Lacoste, among other office tenants. It also features 17,000 square feet of retail space.

Representatives for Deutsche Bank and Lexin Capital did not immediately return requests for comment.

«Commercial Observer», July 7, 2022

* * *

551 Madison

workat551.com

551 Madison is a 17-story boutique building located in the heart of Madison Avenue's coveted commercial and retail corridor, with close proximity to everything your business needs to thrive.

The LoopNet

16^th Floor:

12^th Floor:

see more…

«Noah & Co.»

JLL Leases 20K-SF at Newly Repositioned Plaza District Boutique Building Owned by Lexin Capital

•

Esports firm, venture capitalists among five new tenants to ink deals at 551 Madison Ave.

JLL announced today that it has leased 20,763 square feet in a series of transactions at 551 Madison Ave., a 17-story, Class A office tower located in Manhattan's Plaza District and owned by Lexin Capital.

551 Madison Ave. is an owner-occupied property that features a renovated lobby with 24/7 concierge, a private tenant lounge and event space, and a soon-to-open fitness and wellness center operated by Foresight Health Coaching.

«We're delighted to welcome our new office tenants as part of our growing community», said Metin Negrin, President of Lexin Capital. «Our goal has been to create a workplace where professionals genuinely want to come every day — one that combines the intimacy and service of a boutique building, where the doorman knows your name. We're also excited to introduce a new wellness and fitness center on the lower level, operated by Foresight Health Coaching, offering customized programs tailored to each individual».

The new leases include:

read more…

• ESL Gaming, a global esports and gaming entertainment company, signed a five-year lease for the entire 14^th floor totaling 8,330 square feet. The tenant was represented by Sheena Gohill and Jack Senske of Colliers.
• North Bridge, a commercial real estate financing and C-PACE provider, signed a five-year lease for 6,492 square feet on a portion of the 13^th floor. The tenant was represented by Sarah Pontius and Carleigh Bettiol of Artisan.
• Crivelli USA, the American arm of Italian fine jeweler Crivelli, signed a seven-year lease for 2,259 square feet on the 11^th floor. The tenant was represented by Jonathan Anapol and Jasmine Quiroz of Prime Manhattan Realty.
• Recharge Capital leased 1,844 square feet on the 8^th floor of 551 Madison Ave. The venture capital firm signed a three-year lease.
• Han Kun Law Offices, an international law firm headquartered in Beijing with offices across China and Singapore, leased 1,838 square feet on the 13^th floor for four years. The tenant was represented by Brad Gerla and Keegan Schenk of CBRE.

JLL serves as exclusive agent for the property and a team led by Executive Managing Director Greg Wang, Managing Director Rob Wizenberg, Vice President Kate Roush and Associate Nicole Danyi represented ownership in all of the transactions.

«Lexin Capital's investment in maintaining a boutique, high-quality environment resonates strongly with firms that want a Midtown presence with a personalized scale», said Wang. «551 Madison Ave. continues to attract top-tier tenants across industries who value the building's location, design and ownership».

551 Madison Ave. hosts a distinguished tenant roster of premier financial, professional services and legal firms, including Glassbridge Enterprises, Connect One Bank and Santoni N.A. JLL is currently marketing leasing opportunities that include two contiguous 8,300 square feet full floors and a 6,625-square-foot penthouse floor with two terraces.

Foresight Health Coaching will operate the new fitness and wellness center on the building's lower level. The facility will offer customized fitness programs designed to help members prioritize both their physical and mental well-being. Zach Nathan of KSR represented Lexin Capital in the lease with Foresight.

Located between 55^th and 56^th streets, 551 Madison Ave. sits at the heart of the country's largest office concentration and is a major hub for media, entertainment and financial businesses. The building offers accessibility to multiple transit lines, luxury retail and dining destinations, as well as leading cultural institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and St. Patrick's Cathedral.

JLL is a leader in the New York tri-state commercial real estate market, with more than 2,600 of the most recognized industry experts offering brokerage, capital markets, property/facilities management, consulting, and project and development services.

About Lexin Capital

Founded in 2002 by Metin Negrin, Lexin Capital is an investment firm that invests its own capital along with a global client base and makes direct investments in real estate. The firm has expertise in areas such as distressed debt, real estate developments, and income-producing assets. Lexin also provides property management services through an affiliated company, Lexin Realty, which handles various aspects of property operations, from maintenance to marketing. For more information, visit www.workat551.com.

About JLL

For over 200 years, JLL (NYSE: JLL), a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, has helped clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties. A Fortune 500® company with annual revenue of $23.4 billion and operations in over 80 countries around the world, our more than 112,000 employees bring the power of a global platform combined with local expertise. Driven by our purpose to shape the future of real estate for a better world, we help our clients, people and communities SEE A BRIGHTER WAYSM. JLL is the brand name, and a registered trademark, of Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. For further information, visit jll.com.

«CityBiz», November 17, 2025

* * *

Traded: New York🗽 • @tradedny

SALE
IMAGE: Marc Holliday
DATE: 03/31/2026
ADDRESS: 551 Madison Avenue
MARKET: Midtown East
ASSET TYPE: Note / Loan

BUYER: Marc Holliday — SL Green (@SLGreen_Realty)
SELLER: Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG

AMOUNT: $78,000,000

NOTE: SL Green Realty bought a $78 million loan secured by Lexin Capital'sidt 125,495-square-foot office building at 551 Madison Avenue in Midtown East from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.

«Instagram», August 11, 2026

* * *

Aerial view of Central Park, NYC

© «Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst und das ist…»

The Winslow 2024

© Jakob Sandberg

Adlerhorst

Wikipedia: Das Kehlsteinhaus auf dem Kehlstein ist ein 1937 bis 1938 im Auftrag der NSDAP nach Plänen von Roderich Fick errichtetes ehemaliges Repräsentationsgebäude im oberbayerischen Landkreis Berchtesgadener Land. ⟨…⟩ Nicht mehr eindeutig zu belegen sind weitere Bezeichnungen für das Kehlsteinhaus, das während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus auch Teehaus (2. Teehaus), D-Haus (Diplomatenhaus) oder T-Haus (Haus T) genannt worden sein soll. Der französische Botschafter André François-Poncet, der am 18. Oktober 1938 Hitler im Kehlsteinhaus besuchte, bezeichnete den Ort erstmals als Adlerhorst (frz. Nid d'Aigle). Poncet war der einzige ausländische Besucher von Rang, den Hitler im Kehlsteinhaus empfing. Die englische Entsprechung Eagle's Nest wurde spätestens nach Kriegsende in der ganzen englischsprachigen Welt zum stehenden Begriff für dieses Haus und hat übersetzt auch in andere Sprachen Einzug gehalten. Im Deutschen bezeichnet man mit Adlerhorst dagegen das Führerhauptquartier Adlerhorst in Hessen.

Eagle Sculptures on East 55^th Street
near The Winslow Hotel

---

711 5^th Avenue × East 55^th Street

«New York Yimby», July 20, 2022

George G. Kihiczak, M.D. @drgeorge.derm: As Thanksgiving approaches, I'm grateful to announce the upcoming launch of my Dermatology practice — George Gregory Kihiczak, M.D., P.C. Located at 551 Madison Avenue, Floor 10. I look forward to seeing patients in the coming months. Call 212-935-7700.

«Instagram», November 26, 2025

New York Beauty

«Facebook», May 16, 2026

15 W 55^th St, New York, NY 10019

«Apartments.com»

Hidden Object Game 😎 HOG

550 Madison Avenue Officially Unveils New Lobby in Midtown East, Manhattan

«New York Yimby», October 2, 2021

The Winslow's shadow on its neighbor

«Wikipedia»

Delman

www.delmanshoes.com

«Pencil Points», August 1929

A History of Delman Shoes

Herman Delman started his company in 1919. After incorporating in 1925, it grew rapidly. Although Delman Shoes created custom-made footwear, the company's reputation for style and comfort was built on its high-end, ready-to-wear line. Many of Delman's advertising and branding strategies were ahead of their time. Shoes had previously been marked with the names of stores, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, but Delman Shoes were among the first to carry a designer label. Mr. Delman was expanding his business and licensing stores in many cities to sell his shoes. He wanted to make sure that customers knew they were buying his brand.

As he built his company's reputation, Mr. Delman crafted an image of refinement and glamour. In 1926, he opened a store at 558 Madison Avenue, near the residences of many of New York's most fashionable and wealthy women. Suggesting an aristocratic environment, Delman's shoe «salon» was distinctive. Women were graciously welcomed into a Louis XVI-style gallery, where shoes were displayed like works of art. A review in The Shoe Retailer describes «the special evening slipper room, intimate as a boudoir, where only evening slippers are sold and exclusive fittings are given to bridal parties». In 1933, Delman Shoes closed its Madison Avenue doors and entered into an exclusive retail agreement with Saks Fifth Avenue. Three years later, however, Delman formed a new partnership with Bergdorf Goodman, an affiliation that continues to this day. At both locations, Delman essentially replicated the design of the Madison Avenue salon, thereby creating early versions of the «store-within-a-store» concept that remains the prevalent model in today's high-end department stores.

«sites.fitnyc.edu», 2010

558 Madison Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Description: Block 1291 Lot 156

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

A.T.&T. building

«Noticing a resemblance between the Winslow, built several decades ago, and the A.T.&T. building under construction across the avenue, they decided to make a conscious reference to it» © «The New York Times», July 5, 1981

Read more…

This Building Could Be a Landmark. Should Its Lobby Be One, Too?

by James Barron

Maybe they loved it. Maybe they hated it. But to many New Yorkers, the granite office building at 550 Madison Avenue was a landmark from the moment it was unveiled almost 40 years ago. Now some preservationists are upset that only the exterior might become an official one.

read more…

With a Chippendale-inspired broken pediment at the top and a Renaissance-inspired colonnade at the bottom, the building was instantly identifiable, a shape as firmly fixed in the public imagination as the shapes of the Citicorp Center and the Chrysler Building. It was completed in the 1980s as the city marked 50 years of another instantly identifiable element of modern Manhattan, Rockefeller Center.

The building on Madison Avenue, at East 55^th Street, was designed by the architect Philip Johnson and his partner John Burgee. Mr. Johnson called it «a symbolic shift from the flat top» look of postwar office buildings like the Seagram Building, where Mr. Johnson had designed the original interiors of the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants.

Last month, the Landmarks Preservation Commission decided that the interior of 550 Madison Avenue did not deserve landmark designation. It said the building's lobby was not in original condition, mainly because a statue had been taken out in the 1990s when the building's original occupant, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, moved away and the Sony Corporation moved in.

Sony, in turn, left several years ago, and the new owners are renovating. They support designating the exterior as a landmark, and the commission has put that possible designation on its calendar, meaning that it will vote on the matter, probably in a few weeks.

Interior landmark designations are rarer than exterior designations. The city has 1,405 individual landmarks — buildings or the exteriors of buildings — but only 120 interior landmarks, among them the lobby of the Empire State Building, the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center and the dining room of the Gage & Tollner restaurant in Brooklyn.

Preservationists are unhappy that the commission rejected interior landmark status for 550 Madison Avenue, especially the soaring lobby. «There is not an interior and an exterior of the AT&T Building, there is the AT&T Building», said Nathan Eddy, a documentary filmmaker who helped organize a demonstration outside the building last month. «As Philip Johnson would put it, it is a complete work. It should be preserved in its entirety».

But a commission spokeswoman said by email that «the lobby does not hold the same level of broad significance as the exterior». She said the lobby did not qualify as an interior landmark because of «the removal of «Golden Boy» as a focal point, alterations within the lobby itself and its diminished relationship to the overall design of the base».

«Golden Boy» was the statue that was removed when AT&T left and the lobby underwent what preservationists said were minor changes. The statue, commissioned before World War I when AT&T's headquarters were in Lower Manhattan, went by a number of names — first «Genius of Telegraphy», then «Genius of Electricity» after AT&T shed Western Union, then «Spirit of Communication». After stops in New Jersey in the 1990s, it is now at the company's headquarters in Dallas, all 16 tons of it.

Thomas Collins, a preservationist who asked the commission to consider landmark status for the interior as well as the exterior after becoming «alarmed by the renderings» from the new owners, called the landmarks commission's rationale «flimsy».

«The lobby is quite refined», he said. «It's a beautiful interior, clad in the same granite that covers the exterior. It's replete with historical motifs and sources that Johnson had mined throughout history. The same themes he was exploring on the exterior are magnified on the interior. The two are really inseparable».

Elizabeth Goldstein, the president of the Municipal Art Society of New York, echoed that idea.

«The arcades, the open space, all of that was really designed with a single aesthetic vision in mind», she said last week, «and that includes the lobby, no question about it».

The preservationists are upset that work has begun in the lobby. Liz Waytkus, the executive director of Docomomo US, a nationwide organization that works to preserve modernist buildings, said, «We were of the understanding that no work would be done, including in the lobby, until the exterior designation has been made and that more was needed to be known about the lobby area».

A spokesman for the developers said by email that «all work being performed is in accordance with appropriate permits and approvals».

Tara Kelly, the vice president for policy and programs of the Municipal Art Society, described meetings with the developers and said that the work that is going on «is very much contrary to the good-faith conversations that we had with them».

The spokesman for the developers, Jeremy Soffin, said he «vehemently disagreed» with that characterization.

The preservationists say the lobby should have been left untouched.

«Johnson knew exactly what he was trying to do», said Mr. Eddy, who is working on a documentary about Mr. Johnson, «which was to create a monumental space made out of half-foot-thick panels of Stony Creek granite, the same material as Grand Central Terminal, the same material as base of the Statue of Liberty. You don't have to like the architecture, but you have to respect the thought that went into the corporate headquarters of, and this sounds insane now, what was then the largest company in the world».

«The New York Times», January 15, 2018

The Hidden Feats That Built New York's Towering Skyscrapers

by Michael Kimmelman

The ingenuity of engineers helped build landmarks like Black Rock and the new supertalls. Our critic takes a virtual tour with Guy Nordenson.

⟨…⟩

— Authority takes different forms. Philip Johnson, with his partner John Burgee, cooked up what's now called 550 Madison for AT&T. The weighty granite facade, the towering, pulled-taffy proportions and supersized Italianate portico were all meant to project AT&T's heft and permanence. Then the building opened in the midst of the telephone company's breakup.

— People don't realize hiding inside that Chippendale exterior is a remarkable structure by Leslie Robertson, our greatest living structural engineer, who was the engineer of the Twin Towers. He's creative in a way comparable to Eiffel. As you know, Gustave Eiffel's structure for the Statue of Liberty suspends Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's copper sculpture from a central spine, much like the construction of a sailboat. Robertson does something similar here. Basically the way the AT&T Building works is that there is a spine going up the building that is the core, stiffened with steel plate and diagonal bracing to parry the majority of the forces due to the wind. In addition to that, there is a horizontal truss at the top of the building, and that ties the central spine to the columns of the building.

In essence, the building is like a sailboat, where you have a mast up the center, and then you have outriggers tied by cables to the hull of the boat, so when the wind blows, the outriggers and stays stiffen the mast. It's an incredibly efficient and elegant way of stabilizing the building.

— Invisible from the outside. I play the piano and I know how certain things, which an audience may not focus on, are meaningful to pianists, because they know what went into them.

— To me Robertson is a virtuoso.

— Detractors think the building is jokey because of the Chippendale top.

— The best jokes require craft.

⟨…⟩

«The New York Times», April 29, 2020

---

[2 comments on this article cross-posted from another site:]

languagehat (April 30, 2020): Wow, that's a really interesting article — thanks for that. I remember they were putting up the AT&T Building my first year in NYC and everybody was making fun of the Chippendale crown. Too bad you can't see the old Winslow Hotel across Madison in that photo; the next year it was completely redone as a boring office building. (For Russian lit folks, it's the hotel Limonov stayed in and made famous in «Это я — Эдичка» [It's Me, Eddie].)

AJP Crown (April 30, 2020): It was the Chippendale top and then Philip Johnson [never popular among NY architects] said the base was er… based on the Pazzi Chapel in Florence, which it clearly is but still it was a bit of an Oh, Pleease moment at the time, what with the PoMo and the AT&T being twenty times the size. Nowadays they don't even think the Pazzi Chapel was designed by Brunelleschi, so PJ would have got fewer points. That's horrible how they ruined the windows on the poor old Winslow Hotel.

551 Madison Avenue — New York NY

Geoffrey Hubbs • Uploaded on June 13, 2023

«Flickr»

View from 540 Madison Avenue

«New York Offices»

View from 545 Madison Avenue

www.mdeas.com/545-madison-avenue

«MdeAS Architects»

marx-545madisonnyc.com

«Marx»

555 Madison Avenue

www.555madison.com

432 Park Avenue

«На фоне Пушкина снимается семейство…» ©

undated

General View: Midtown, looking north

The New York Public Library

General View: Midtown

The New York Public Library

55^th and Mad

551 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022

At 551 Madison Ave, Gregorys Coffee delivers your daily boost with a smile. Whether it's a classic drip or an indulgent treat, we serve it all with flair. Take a moment, relax, and let the Madison Ave energy mingle with your coffee buzz.

Gregorys Coffee

Wikipedia: Gregorys Coffee

The Winslow Bar Print, New York City, 1930s

A round of guests relaxing at The Winslow Bar of the hotel by the same name at the intersection between Madison Avenue and 55^th Street in New York City, USA Date: 1930s. Mary Evans Picture Library makes available wonderful images created for people to enjoy over the centuries. © Mary Evans / Pharcide

«Media Storehouse»

Brother & Sister

Брат The Allerton House (The Winslow Hotel)
и сестра The Allerton Hotel for Women
находятся в 300 метрах друг от друга…

The Allerton House at 45 East 55^th Street / 551 Madison Avenue was originally opened for men only as permanent residents. It was completed in mid-1922, when it opened its doors. It was also known as The Winslow [now Madison 551]. This 17-story Allerton House for bachelors… The fireproof building was designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon… © Geographic Guide, Historic Buildings in NYC

The Allerton Hotel for Women, today known as Hotel 57, is a hotel located at 130 East 57^th Street in the New York City. It is a 17-story brick, limestone, and terra cotta building designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon in 1920… © Wikipedia

Allerton House for Women at 130 East 57th Street
// «Geographic Guide»

551 Madison Avenue New York

SIME books

Alberto Damian
«551 Madison Avenue, New York»
/ lingua: bilingue Italiano e Inglese
// Conegliano: «SIME books», 2020,
copertina rigida, 144 p.,
ISBN: 978-88-31403-03-0,
dimensioni: 210×180×20 mm

Le fotografie di questo libro sono state realizzate a New York tra le 12:44 e le 12:59 del 28 settembre 2017, sul marciapiede del 551 di Madison Avenue. Ho fotografato quasi tutte le persone che, in quei 15 minuti, sono passate velocemente tra me — che stavo a mezzo metro dal bordo del marciapiede — e l'edificio, tranne quelle passate mentre cambiavo la batteria della macchina fotografica. Il libro raccoglie praticamente tutti gli scatti fatti, nella loro originale sequenza cronologica.

via Gemini (Google)

— Можешь объяснить происхождение слова Winslow?

— Слово Winslow (Уинслоу) имеет древнеанглийские (англосаксонские) корни и изначально возникло как географическое название (топоним) в Англии.

Его этимология складывается из двух староанглийских элементов:

Edward Limonov at The Wareham

Substitutes A-Plenty For Missing Angora

But the Wareham Hallboy Turns Them All Away. CAT'S FRIEND, THE DOG, DEAD. The Hallboy Is Sure He Committed Suicide — Mr. Leigh's «Ad» Gives Him a Lively Sunday.

«Yes, it's true, all right. Nigger, the cat, has been gone since Thursday, and now, to make matters worse, Jimmy, the dog, has gone and committed suicide». Thus spoke the hall boy at the Wareham, 231 to 235 Lexington Avenue, yesterday afternoon. He was explaining why so many boys and women, each carrying a bag, the sounds from which indicated a cat inside, were visiting the Wareham. Charles Neal Leigh, with his wife, lives In the Wareham, and the people with bags in their arms were all looking for him. They had read his advertisement in the papers offering $5 reward for a missing «tortoise shell Angora cat», and each brought a beast which they hoped would prove to be the missing cat.

But Nigger was not inside any of the bags brought to the Wareham yesterday, and last night the report spread through the neighborhood that Nigger was either dead or had deserted his home for good and all.

As for Nigger, the missing cat, he was named that on account of his kinky hair. He was a chestnut-brown animal in color, and had the reputation of being the smartest cat on Lexington Avenue, while as for Jimmy, the fox terrier, he was not only famous throughout the neighborhood as one of its brightest animals, but was also the envy of all the other dogs thereabout, on account of the fine Persian lamb blanket that protected him from the cold when he was taken out for his daily walk in cold weather.

Thursday afternoon Nigger was apparently the most contented cat in all New York. He had his usual afternoon nap, and afterward was as playful as he always was after he had rested mind and body. When dinner time came, however, Nigger was gone. The house was searched from cellar to top, but nowhere was the missing Nigger.

What the «Ad» Brought.

All day Friday everybody who knew Nigger noticed every stray cat they saw and looked up the hiding place of every cat that they heard howl. But none of the animals proved to be the Leigh pet. Saturday came, but brought no tidings of Nigger. Then Mr. Leigh put his advertisement in the paper offering the reward. The advertisement appeared yesterday and soon brought fruit, but it was of the wrong kind. A lot of people read the «ad» and knew where stray strange cats were hiding. They did not know whether any of these cats were tortoise-shell Angoras or not, but they were certain that they were homeless animals, and concluded that it wasn't a bad gamble to take them around to the Wareham in the hope that one might prove to be the truant Nigger.

A little boy was the first to reach the apartment house with a strange cat. The animal was in a crocus bag and was putting up a fearful howl.

«What yer got?» asked the boy at the door.

«Got a cat. What'd you think it wuz-lion? Let me see him?»

The boy untied the mouth of the bag and the hall boy looked down upon the howling beast within.

The Hall Boy Discerning.

«That ain't our cat; that's just a common every-day tramp cat. Our's was a regular diamond turtle-back Angora goat cat», explained the hall boy as he waved the youngster and his bag out of the hall and into the street. In a few minutes another small boy appeared. Then another, and finally a third. Both had bags that contained cats.

«No, they ain't the cats we's looking for», said the hall boy; «that one there is too black, and the other one's hair is too smooth and shiny. Our cat was kinky haired, and only howled in the night time. Them you've got is howling now, and it ain't yet 4 o'clock».

«Your cat's spotted», the hall boy said to the first woman visitor; «our'n was more of a blond, and, besides, that one's old enough to be our cat's father».

The other woman brought a cat that was about two years too young to be taken for Nigger, while the last visitor, a ten-year-old boy, had one that apparently had not had a square meal in a month.

While everybody was looking for Nigger the dog Jimmy, according to the best evidence obtainable, was pining away with grief. Yesterday morning he was so downcast that he wouldn't touch even the most tempting morsal. In his grief he ran across some strange-looking pills. He did not know what they were, but he evidently thought they would be good for a broken heart, for it is said that he devoured three of them. An hour later he was dead.

What really killed «Jimmy» was said to be an overdose of medicine. given to him in the hope of reviving his drooping spirits.

«The New York Times», January 7, 1907

Late Rival of the Cat Show

On view and in voice in and about the Wareham.

Brought in Answer to Mr. Leigh's Offer of a Reward for a Lost Kitten Whose Disappearance Plunged the Household Into Grief—The Dog That Loved Her Dead.

Charles Neal Leigh, a druggist, who has apartments in the Wareham, at 331 Lexington avenue, called up a newspaper office on Saturday night and gave it an advertisement offering a reward—$5—for a tortoiseshell long haired kitten that strayed from the Leigh apartments on Thursday. Mr. Leigh was surprised to read in the newspapers yesterday that he had offered $500 reward. Several reporters went to see Mr. Leigh about it. He refused to answer questions but wanted to know who in thunder could believe that any cat was worth $500.

The elevator men of the Wareham, who are colored, volunteered some information about the kitten, which they say had almost reached cathood, also some gossip about a fox terrier owned by the Leighs. One of the men said that when the kitten disappeared the dog, which was much attached to the tabby (or tablet), fell ill from grief, or something, and died. One of the men said that the dog had really committed suicide. A young colored woman said that the terrier was simply ill and that its death, which occurred in the bathtub of the Leigh apartments, was due to an overdose of medicine administered by Mr. Leigh. The West Indian maid of the Leighs, according to the colored men, was as much affected over the double bereavement as her mistress and cried much.

The gossip of the Wareham was that the dog, known as Jim and well liked by everybody in the house, was treated with more consideration than most children. He wore a coat of Persian lamb's wool and little boots to keep his feet dry and warm in inclement weather.

A few hours after Mr. Leigh had observed the mistake in the advertisement a boy called at the Wareham with something in a bag. It was a long haired cat that looked as if it had seen better days and many of them. It was about as far from kittenhood as it could get and be alive. The janitor turned the boy out and the boy let the cat loose.

Several other boys came in later with bags which they assured the janitor contained the missing kitten. The boys said they ought to receive carfare at least for their trouble in capturing the cats. They also released the creatures at the door.

Two spinsters arrived almost simultaneously, each with a long haired cat. They tried to convince the janitor that the cats were the missing one, but the janitor declared that the Leigh kitten was not twins and that he guessed they would have to take the cats away again. They did, protesting that if they could show their cats the Leighs surely would take them for consolation. The spinsters did not turn their cats loose. They remarked that a man who could afford to offer $500 reward for a kitten ought to be able to pay a hundred for the fine specimens they had.

Boys with cats were still coming to the Wareham when the first edition of «The Sun» went to press. An employee was posted outside finally to keep the cat line moving. No boy took his cat away with him, and the Sunday night concert in the neighborhood was unusually strong.

«The Sun» (New York), January 7, 1907

The 1905 Wareham Apts — No.231 Lexington Avenue

Tom Miller

At the turn of the last century massive apartment buildings dripping with French-style ornamentation rose throughout the city—many on the Upper West Side. The expansive apartments—some including up to 15 rooms—were outfitted much like private homes. The era of 20^th century apartment living had arrived not with a bang, but with an explosion.

For the past two decades architect James E. Ware had busied himself with uptown commissions, designing mansions, rowhouses and other buildings like his monumental 12th Regiment Armory. But in May 1904 Ware looked to the Murray Hill neighborhood to design and erect an apartment building without the middle man developer.

On May 7 the «Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide» reported that James E. Ware & Sons were making plans for a six-story «flat building» for the Ware Realty Co. Exactly one week later, the journal noted that the two old structures at Nos. 231 and 233 Lexington Avenue were in the process of being demolished.

Unlike the lavish apartment buildings rising along Upper Broadway, Ware's more modest structure would target the professional upper middle class. Completed within the year, the building was an interesting marriage of two currently-popular architectural styles.

The five upper stories, clad in red brick, were accented by neo-Federal window treatments—quoined surrounds at the outer openings; and splayed lintels and layered keystones. Ware then splashed the façade with Beaux Arts elements—a stone balcony above the entrance supported by festooned brackets, and unexpected scrolled keystones with dripping carved garlands above four of the outer windows. The openings along the side received deep, angled metal bays filled with handsome leaded glass. These not only added a third dimension to the façade; but caught wafting summer breezes.

The Ware family congratulated itself on the new $40,000 apartment building, complete with elevator, by naming it The Wareham. There were three apartments per floor in the building, and potential residents could choose from three, four or five rooms with rents ranging from $600 to $900 per year. The rent on the most expensive apartment would equal just over $2,000 a month in 2015.

An advertisement in the «New-York Tribune» on August 13, 1905 called attention to The Wareham, a «new apartment house». The ad's description of the apartments as «housekeeping», distinguished them from «non-housekeeping» apartments which had no kitchens. Those more upscale, or sometimes bachelor, apartment houses provided common dining rooms in the building for the residents. The advertisement boasted that The Wareham had «everything modern».

As intended, The Wareham filled with financially comfortable professionals. Among the first was pharmacist Charles Neal Leigh and his family. He had earned his pharmaceutical degree in 1896 with a thesis entitled «The Model Drug Clerk».

The Leigh family had several pets in the Wareham; but one in particular caused a stir in January 1907. On Thursday January 3, a kitten strayed from the apartment. When it was still missing on Saturday, Charles Leigh placed an advertisement in a newspaper offering a $5 reward «for a tortoiseshell long haired kitten».

But on Sunday morning when he opened his newspaper he was shocked to see that a typo resulted in his reward being $500. «The Sun» reported «Several reporters went to see Mr. Leigh about it. He refused to answer questions but wanted to know who in thunder could believe that any cat was worth $500».

The tangled, involved story did not stop there. The elevator men volunteered more information to the reporters. The Leighs also had owned a fox terrier but «One of the men said that when the kitten disappeared the dog, which was much attached to the tabby (or tablet), fell ill from grief, or something, and died». Another elevator man deemed it canine suicide.

A female employee of The Wareham chimed in, saying that the terrier was simply ill and that its death, «which occurred in the bathtub of the Leigh apartments, was due to an overdose of medicine administered by Mr. Leigh». The elevator men then said that the Leighs' West Indian maid, «was a much affected over the double bereavement as her mistress and cried much».

Temporarily, news reports were more focused on the dead dog, Jim, than on the lost kitten. «The Sun» reported «The gossip of the Wareham was that the dog…was treated with more consideration than most children. He wore a coat of Persian lamb's wool and little boots to keep his feet dry and warm in inclement weather».

But Charles Neal Leigh and the building staff soon had more important things to deal with than how the press reported on the pampered, deceased terrier. The first of the young boys seeking $500 arrived at the apartment house only a few hours after the newspaper hit the streets.

He brought along a cat in a bag. «It was a long haired cat that looked as if it had seen better days and many of them», said «The Sun». «It was about as far from kittenhood as it could get and be alive». The janitor sent the boy away and the cat was let out of the bag.

Not far behind were two other boys, each with a cat in a bag which they insisted was the missing feline. Once again the janitor ousted them; although these boys complained that they should at least receive car fare for their trouble. «They also released the creatures at the door».

Almost before the janitor could close the door two elderly women appeared, each with a cat. «They tried to convince the janitor that the cats were the missing one, but the janitor declared that the Leigh kitten was not twins and that he guessed they would have to take the cats away again». The spinsters did so, but not before protesting that if they could just show the cats to the Leighs they would no doubt accept them «for consolation».

The disgruntled women remarked that anyone who could afford to pay $500 for a missing cat surely ought to be able to pay $100 for «the fine specimens they had».

Lexington Avenue soon had what was deemed by one newspaper «the cat line». A Wareham employee was stationed at the door to keep the line moving along. By nightfall the neighborhood was filled with a cat population released by young boys hoping to reap a windfall. «The Sun» noted «No boy took his cat away with him, and the Sunday night concert in the neighborhood was unusually strong».

Another respected resident was Dr. Charles H. Duncan, who came from a family of physicians. His grandfather and two of his uncles were doctors. Duncan's professional career was astonishingly broad. Before he moved into The Wareham he had been Mechanical Engineer of the Illinois Steel Company; a co-founder of the Volunteer Hospital; and was now an Attending Surgeon and Genito-Urinary Specialist in the Volunteer Hospital of New York City.

He was most noted, however, for developing Autotherapy, a rather remarkable precursor to the modern day inoculation process developed by Pasteur. Duncan's approach to «curing disease with its own poison» involved removing bacteria from a patient and developing a vaccine to be used only in that patient. «Similar bacteria taken from another patient may be useless», he explained.

In 1924 The Wareham underwent «alterations». The arcane documentation for the work is unspecific; however surviving interiors suggest that some apartments received a 1920s update.

Tragedy struck The Wareham on February 9, 1926 when Mildred Russell, who was working as the elevator operator, accidentally fell down the shaft. She died instantly of a fractured skull.

The horrible accident led to a bizarre court battle that dragged on for years. Mildred's father received $5,000 in Workmen's Compensation benefits and $750 from the owners of the building, the 231 Lexington Avenue Corporation. But he was not satisfied and filed three suits against the building and two employees.

The owners' defense was surprising. They simply declared they had no idea who Mildred Russell was, and she was not employed by them. It appeared that the building superintendent had made a side agreement with her. The president of the corporation proclaimed «I never hired the girl, and never told him to hire the girl. I didn't need anybody. In fact, I never wanted any help. The house was run very nicely without help».

A far happier incident occurred on February 16, 1939 when resident Elsie Compton's automobile headed across the Henry Hudson Bridge just after noon. At the wheel was Mary Kindrick, «a salesgirl». The women were gleefully surprised when the car was stopped on the opposite side of the span by the New York City Parkway Authority. Elsie's vehicle was the 18 millionth car to cross the bridge and she was awarded a 50-trip book of toll tickets.

As the Lexington Avenue blocks changed drastically throughout the rest of the century, The Wareham apartments did not. Today there are still three apartments per floor, other than the top floor where duplexes extend to a penthouse level. And James E. Ware's handsome building survives as a reminder of a time when upper middle-class families filled the gap between tenements and lavish flats.

«Daytonian in Manhattan», November 26, 2015

1907: The $500 Reward for a Kips Bay Kitten

by The Hatching Cat

The Leigh family's tortoiseshell Angora kitten disappeared from the Wareham apartment building in the Kips Bay neighborhood in January 1907. (This is not the missing cat; this cat was named Foxy.)

Missing Kitten Creates a «Cat Line» Down Lexington Avenue in Kips Bay

Two days after the pet kitten of Dr. Charles Neal Leigh and his wife Mollie Carpenter disappeared from their Kips Bay apartment at the Wareham on Lexington Avenue, Charles placed an ad in the newspaper. The ad was supposed to say that he was offering a $5 reward «for a tortoiseshell long haired kitten».

Imagine his surprise when he opened his newspaper the following day to find that he was offering a $500 reward! That's some expensive typo.

Several reporters went to see Charles about the grand reward. Not only did he refuse to answer questions, but he also wanted to know «who in thunder could believe that any cat was worth $500». (Charles was obviously not a true cat man.)

The kitten may not have been worth $500, but in 1907, but she was living in middle-class style at the new Wareham apartments at 231–233 Lexington Avenue, on the northern edge of Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood.

Designed by architect James E. Ware and built in 1905, the Wareham attracted the professional upper middle class who were priced out of the more luxury buildings rising up in mid-town Manhattan. The $40,000, six-story, red brick building featured an elevator and three flats per floor, for which residents could pay about $600 to $900 a year for three, four, or five rooms.

Charles Leigh was a druggist and chemist who specialized in perfumes and women's toiletries. In 1890, he founded his own company, Leigh's Cosmetics, which was acquired by the Shulton Company around 1943. According to Cosmetics and Skin, Charles' company may have developed the fragrances used in Shulton's Early American Old Spice, Early American Friendship's Garden and Desert Flower lines.

Aside from his perfume company, Charles' other «claim to fame» was losing a lawsuit in 1902, when Poland Spring Water charged him with re-filling their bottles with tap water and re-selling them in his Park Avenue Hotel drug store. He received a $250 fine and lot of publicity for this incident, which is perhaps why he shunned the reporters who tried to interview him about his missing kitten.

The Angora kitten, described as a chestnut-brown cat with kinky fur, shared the family's apartment with a fox terrier named Jimmy (the Leighs, who married in 1891, did not have any human children).

According to the New York Sun, «The gossip of the Wareham was that the dog…was treated with more consideration than most children. He wore a coat of Persian lamb's wool and little boots to keep his feet dry and warm in inclement weather».

The Angora kitty was reportedly the smartest cat on Lexington Avenue. And Jimmy was also famous throughout the neighborhood. One of the pets' biggest fans was the family's West Indian housemaid.

The Leighs' kitten disappeared on a Thursday, after failing to respond to her dinner bell. The next day, family and friends searched high and low for the cat throughout the neighborhood. They checked every stray cat and looked in every hiding place from where they had ever heard a cat yowl.

With all hope of finding the cat on their own, Charles placed the ad on Saturday. (He may have gotten the idea to place an idea by reading an old story about Snooperkatz, a shop cat whose owner had offered a $1 reward for the cat's safe return.)

The first of the many gold diggers seeking $500 arrived at the apartment house carrying a cat in a bag. The New York Sun described it this way: «It was a long haired cat that looked as if it had seen better days and many of them. It was about as far from kittenhood as it could get and be alive».

«That ain't our cat», the Warham's janitor told the young reward seeker. «That's just a common everyday tramp cat. Ours was a regular diamond turtle-back Angora goat cat».

The dejected boy let the cat out of the bag and walked away without any reward money.

Two older woman, described by the New York Sun as «spinsters», tried to pawn off two long-haired cats as the missing Angora. The janitor told them that the Leigh kitten was not twins, so they would have to take their cats away. The women commented that any man who could pay $500 for a kitten could pay $100 «for the fine specimens they had».

Many more people tried to claim the reward throughout the day, creating a «cat line» down Lexington Avenue. As one newspaper noted, everyone simply left their dejected cats in front of the Wareham, «and the Sunday night concert in the neighborhood was unusually strong».

While everyone's attention was focused on finding the missing kitten, poor Jimmy moped about the apartment in dismay over losing his feline friend. He was so distraught, he wouldn't even touch his food.

On Sunday evening, Jimmy died in a bathtub in the apartment. The Wareham elevator men surmise that Charles had given the dog a bit too much medicine in the hope of reviving his spirits.

Ironically, if true, the druggist's dog died of an overdose. The press did not report on the outcome of the missing Angora kitten.

Charles died only 9 years later, at the age of 49, on April 10, 1916. The cause of death was listed as a brain hemorrhage.

Apparently, Charles had eaten a large dinner the night before, and then returned to his shop at 158 Madison Avenue to review some paperwork. His associate and fellow chemist, Patrick A. Fox, found him dead at his desk when he opened the shop the following morning.

Funeral services for Charles Leigh were held at his residence at 122 East 34^th Street. He was buried at the Pine Hill Cemetery in Middletown, New York.

Incidentally, one year later, Patrick was issued a restraining order to prevent him from using the Leigh name on his products.

According to a 1920 article in the Middletown Daily Herald, Patrick, who was now the company's secretary, was the only other person who had access to all the company's product formulas. After Charles died and Mollie had taken over the company, Patrick copied the formulas and used the «Leigh» label without the family's permission.

Makes you wonder about Charles' death…

⟨…⟩

«The Hatching Cat of Gotham»
(True and Unusual Animal Tales of Old New York),
March 13, 2023

J. Romaine Brown & Co.

Offer you the choice of the following High Grade Apartments, ready October 1^st

⟨…⟩

«The Wareham»
231–3 Lexington Ave., (Near 34^th Street.) 3, 4 and 5 rooms, elevator, etc.
$45, $60 and $75

⟨…⟩

Apply at Our Office, 105-109 West 40^th St., or Superintendent on Premises.

«The New York Times», Vol.60, No.19.582, September 5, 1911

231–233 Lexington Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 889 Lot 65

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

231–233 Lexington Avenue

Title: 1940s Tax Department photographs

Start Date: 1939
End Date: 1941

Description: Block 889 Lot 65

NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)

141 East 33^rd Street

[Looking north on Lexington Avenue from East 33rd Street.]

1975

«urbanarchive.org»

Слева, напротив дома 231 Lexington Avenue в доме 120 East 34^th Street с 1965-го по 1982-й год, где и скончалась в возрасте 77 лет, жила Алиса Зиновьевна Розенбаум (она же — Ayn Rand)

[View of the street from the building entrance:]

Lexington Avenue & East 34^th Street

Joe Testagrose • April 17, 1971

see more…

Lexington Avenue & East 34^th Street

Steve Zabel • July 2, 1972

Lexington Avenue & East 33^rd Street

Steve Zabel • June 6, 1973

«PastVu»

231 Lexington Ave

231 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10016

«Apartments.com»

Sour Schchi, the Essence of Russian Food

Julia

From the mostly autobiographical novel «This is Me — Edichka» by Eduard Limonov which protagonist is a Russian immigrant abandoned by his wife living on welfare in New York (translation is mine — forgive me, Edichka):

«If, between 1 and 3 pm, you happen to be walking along Madison Avenue where it's cut by 55^th street, don't be lazy, lift your face up and look at the dirty windows of the black Winslow Hotel. There, on the middle balcony of the last 16^th floor is half naked me. Usually, I am sitting there, roasting under the sun which I love, and eating schchi. Schchi with sauerkraut is my usual diet, I'm consuming it pot after pot, day in and day out, I really don't eat anything besides schchi. The spoon I use to eat schchi is wooden and brought straight from Russia. It is covered with golden, scarlet, and black flowers.

Surrounding buildings and their smoky glassy walls stare at me with thousands of eyes of their clerks, administrative assistants, and managers. Almost — sometimes completely — naked man is eating schchi from a pot. They, however, don't know that it is schchi. What they see is, every other day, a man on a balcony cooking on his electric hot plate in a huge pot something barbaric exuding smoke. There were times I used to eat chicken but then I stopped. There are five advantages to schchi: 1. Schchi is cheap — two or three dollars per pot and one pot lasts for two days. 2. Schchi doesn't go bad even without a refrigerator, even when it's hot outside. 3. Schchi can be made quickly — in an hour and a half. 4. You can and you should eat it cold. 5. There's no better summer food than schchi as schchi is sour».

Schchi is a traditional Russian cabbage soup favored by Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Nicholas II, Lenin, Stalin, Grigory Rasputin, my parents, me — you name it. My mom used to make a large pot of it on a weekend to last through the rest of the week for our lunches. I don't know why borscht is considered traditional Russian soup. Borscht is Ukrainian. Schchi is Russian.

The roots of this soup go back to the ninth century when Russians got their hands on cabbage for the first time. For the frugal ones, the best part of schchi is that neither heat nor cold can ruin it. For the highfalutin — to impress, you can pump it up in so many ways.

By the 17^th century, Russians learned to freeze schchi in big ice rounds when going on a journey. Chip a piece off, heat it up, and you've got a meal. And just like Edichka said, summer heat cannot ruin it either. Schchi only gets better with time.

In the soup chapter of the classic Soviet cookbook published in 1953 — the one and only and Stalin-approved — right after the basic bouillon section, the first soup that appears is schchi. The varieties of this dish are endless. There's anything and everything to accommodate the wallet, health, weather, mood, terrain — anything: schchi with fresh cabbage, schchi with sauerkraut, with fish, with root vegetables, mushroom schchi, summer schchi, sour schchi, green schchi, yes meat, no meat…

Every Russian family has its own schchi recipe. This one is derived from the scarcity of my mother's life and expanded by my life of abundance.

Brisket and bones are the foundation. Basic vegetables and bouquet garni: I do not bother peeling anything — just scrub it, rinse, cut it in chunks. Done.

Don't go crazy with measurements — choose the largest pot you have, put all what you've got in it, and cover with water to the brim. Don't worry about overflow. Some of the liquid will evaporate and bones, fat, and aromatics will be later discarded leaving the room for more.

As the broth is simmering, prep your vegetables for schchi: shred cabbage, chop onions and celery, julienne carrots and parsnip, peel and seed tomatoes.

Mushrooms, of course. Soak them but don't throw out the water as some suggest — add it to the broth once the broth is ready.

Give some time for the cabbage and sauerkraut to soften. Do not go by time — go by texture — it should feel soft, like you would want it in your soup.

When cooking vegetables, go by color. You should see some browning to know that you're getting your umami. Don't panic when they stick to the pan — vary the heat to get them unstuck and stuck again. You want some char.

Once you feel the meat is fork tender, take it out and let it cool. You should be able to handle it with bare hands so you don't lose to utensils all the morsels of flavor. Shake out the marrow and save. Throw out aromatics, bones and fat — they've done their job. Shred the meat. In my parents' family, this duty was delegated to my dad as a prize for being a good boy — he got to clean up and sop up some of the goodness along the way.

Finally, in a clean pot, there's clean broth, and the vegetables, and the meat, and fresh herbs. And garlic! In Russia we say: in good schchi, a spoon should stand. Here it is — standing!

«Julia with a Good Appetite», December 29, 2022

Прототипы литературных персонажей
романа «Это я — Эдичка»
в книжных изданиях

Расхождения в написании имён

Павел Шеметов (Поль Шемет)
Поль Шеммет ©1974	«Аполлон-77» (1977)
Павел Шеметов ©1976	«Это я — Эдичка» (1979, 1982)
Павел Шемметов ©1985	«Молодой негодяй» (1986) изд-во «Синтаксис»
Павел Шемметов ©1985	«Молодой негодяй» (1992) изд-во «Глагол»)

* * *

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