As I started on my path to Penn Station I knew today would be a better day, unlike our wet adventure on the East Side. I arrived extra early at Penn Station and decided to get some breakfast while I waited for class to start. When mike arrived he did the same usual routine, took attendance and explained our escapade for today with a little twist. We were handed the menu for lunch and had to make our selections. When I heard that we are to prepare for a great deal of walking I said to myself “ah I got this, it shouldn’t be anything compared to our first two classes”. Boy was I in for a rude awakening.
As we left Penn we head towards Times Square via Broadway up the
pedestrian path that the city has created. We stopped at 42
nd street and Times Square.
Times Square was known for theatre and entertainment in the 1940s and 50s, by late 60s and 70s it became tarnished by drugs, prostitution, and pornography. Time Square is not at all a square. Geometrically it is two triangles created by the intersection of Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Time Square was once known as Longacre Square that was dominated by hors exchanges, carriage factories, stables and blacksmith’s shops. In 1904 when the subway arrived along with the New York Times, whose publisher persuaded the city to rename the area for his newspaper, perhaps in competition with Herald Square, named for the New York Herald, then the dominant newspaper (BG, 217). Some say the city went to far turning the Time Square area into somewhat a version of Disneyland but at the hour we went it didn’t seem that way. It was just everyone trying to get to work or lounging in the pedestrian areas, I think more at night with all the pretty lights it looks more Disney like.
From here we walked a few more blocks over to and through the GE building, home to the NBC Studios in order to get over to Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller Center, a complex of commercial buildings, theatres, plazas, underground concourses, and shops developed principally during the Depression, is the world’s largest privately owned business and entertainment center. The first architecturally coordinated development in New York City, and a milestone in urban planning, it became a National Historic Landmark in 1987 (BG, 243). The first building constructed at Rockefeller Center is still the most famous and imposing: the
GE Building, originally the RCA Building (BG, 248). From Rockefeller Center we then walked to
M.O.M.A – the New York Museum of Modern Art. Upon our arrival we received our tickets and headed up to the 6
th floor for a tour of the permanent collection, which houses works from famous New York artists as Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jackson Pollock. The Museum of Modern Art is one of the city’s premier cultural institutions, one of the great repositories not only of modern painting and sculpture, but also of drawing, design, photography, and film (BG, 260).
By the time we were half way through all the exhibitions here at MOMA I was already tired and hungry. We then had to walk yet a few more blocks to get to
Hell’s Kitchen where we had lunch at
Yum Yum Bangkok. At first I was very skeptical because when I first had Thai food it wasn’t the best tasting meal I’ve had. So I was miserable and didn’t know what I was going to order or if I would enjoy any of it. The salad I had with peanut butter sauce was ok. Peanut butter isn’t for everything. When I order my meal I was extremely hungry but still iffy about it. I had the white rice with sweet and sour chicken. To my surprise, it was the best tasting Thai food I’ve ever had. It was really good, I hope to find another Thai restaurant that’s just as good because I really enjoyed my lunch. After lunch we headed back in the direction we came for a few blocks and got on the 2 or 3 train headed for Harlem. I’ve never been to Harlem so I was curious to see what it was like.
As I came up the subway and peeked out, the class was welcomed by the voices of the residence in the area. After I saw what the area looked like my curiosity soon vanished and I just wanted to keep it moving but was happy to experience the area. Harlem is currently undergoing a
gentrification process to restore the area to its beauty. Bounded by the East and Harlem Rivers, the cliffs of Morningside Heights and St. Nicholas Terrace,
Harlem is the most famous center of African – American life and culture in the U.S. (BG, 437). White business and property owners fought bitterly to keep Harlem white, but failed simply because it was too profitable to rent to blacks. Nevertheless, the 1920s were years of optimism and great artistic activity, as writers, artists, and intellectuals made the pilgrimage to Harlem, by then the capital of black America. The Depression devastated Harlem, revealing the poverty behind the glittering exterior. In the 1970s, as the city fell into fiscal difficulties, Harlem suffered even more. Since the late 1990s, the northward spread of gentrification in Manhattan has reached into Harlem (BG, 438).
On our long journey now heading towards Morningside Heights we passed by the
Studio Museum in Harlem. It was founded in 1968 to collect and exhibit the work of artists of African decent. The permanent collection embraces 19
th and 20
th century traditional African art and 20
th century Caribbean art, but the emphasis is on contemporary artists (BG, 440). We also walked by the Apollo Theatre. The
Apollo Theatre was once for whites only and as the neighborhood changed, so did the Apollo. The theatre fell on hard times during the 1970s and became a movie theatre. In 1991 the state of New York bought it, and the Apollo is now run as a not-for-profit foundation (BG, 440). We continued walking towards
Morningside Heights, through Morningside Park up the very long flight of stairs. Before the Revolutionary War much of Morningside Heights, like much of the rest of New York, was farmland. Morningside Heights remained isolated until the Ninth (Columbus) Avenue El opened in 1880. Major educational, religious, and service institutions dominate the social and economic tone of the area (BG, 417). From here we visited
Grant Memorial. The General Grant National Memorial, familiarly known as Grant’s Tomb, is the imposing resting place of the victorious commander of the Union forces in the Civil War. It contains the remains of the General Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant (BG, 434). We walked by the famed
Riverside Church. The Riverside Church occupies a commanding site overlooking the Hudson River (BG, 432). Through
Columbia University which by the way is a spectacular campus and ended at
St. John the Divine Cathedral. Columbia University, one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most respected of all North American universities (BG, 427). The Cathedral Church of St. John Divine rises in uncompleted splendor on the heights above Morningside Park.
I was ridiculously tired from walking all day. When Mike emphasized to prepare for a great deal of walking I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. My feet just kept moving trying to get to the train station to head back home, I had no energy I just knew I had to get to the station by foot. It was a day dedicated to walking and ended divinely!
