New Yorkers might recognize this mansion, but they don’t know its history
Image by Ed Yourdon
This photo was taken at the southwest corner of Riverside and 89th Street — just a few blocks from where I lived through most of the 70s and early 80s. I walked past this building dozens of times over the years, but never had any idea of who built it, who lived in it originally, or what its "story" was.
It’s interesting that New York is old enough now that it really does have a "history" — and while the current generation of Millennials might not remember anything that happened more than a a few years ago, the history of this building goes back over a hundred years … which means that it’s highly unlikely anyone alive today would remember its origin.
It turns out that this is the Isaac L. Rice home, built in 1903. As a historical website describes it, "Twenty-five years after Frederick Law Olmsted had planned the idyllic Riverside Park along Riverside Drive, it was finally completed. Imposing views of the Hudson River and New Jersey palisades, along with the pleasant green park made residential lots desirable.
"By the turn of the century, Riverside Drive was the West Side’s answer to Fifth Avenue. Here millionaire builders were less restricted and, along with the many upper-class row houses, were no fewer than thirty free-standing mansions with lawns and gardens.
"In 1899 the site for the planned Soldiers and Sailors Monument was chosen in the park at 89th Street. That same year real estate developer William W. Hall sold the plot of land directly across from it to Isaac L. Rice for 5,000. The lot carried the restriction that anything built here must ‘be a high class private dwelling house, not less than four stories, and designed for the use of one family only.’ "
While the building was indeed luxurious, it did have its problems. As the website reports, "Tugboats passing on the Hudson below disturbed Julia Barnett Rice [Isaac’s wife] with their incessant horns and whistles. One purpose of the whistles was to summon crews from their late-night saloon visits. The intrepid Mrs. Rice would not stand for it.
"Julia Rice held an MD degree from the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary; an unusual accomplishment for someone of her sex and social stature at the time. In 1905 she rallied the neighbors in a campaign to regulate the whistle blowing. Armed with petitions signed by hundreds of residents as well as the heads of several hospitals, she called upon Health Commissioner Darlington (claiming the noise ‘shattered nerves’), Police Commissioner McAdoo, Collector Stranahan and other city officials."
…
"The tugboat officers retaliated. Each night a group of tugs would gather within range of Villa Julia, directing spotlights into the windows and blowing their steam whistles. It only steeled Julia Rice in her mission.
"By November 1906 she had won her battle. ‘Unnecessary tooting’ became a violation of the navigation laws."
You can read more about the Isaac Rice mansion here:
daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/1903-isaac-l-rice-…
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As I’ve noted in other sets of photos here on Flickr, I’ve been lucky enough to visit Rome dozens of times since I first celebrated a solitary birthday there back in 1972. Since then, I’ve often come alone (usually on business trips to lecture about various aspects of software development), and I’ve sometimes managed to bring various children and/or my wife. This time, like many other trips, I was alone.
On most of my trips, I make a point of visiting Piazza del Popolo at least once — because there are always interesting scenes to photograph, with a combination of tourists, students, lovers, and amateur musicians. This time, there was a Michael Jackson impersonator — who, at least from a distance, seemed to mimic MJ’s fluid moves pretty well. And there was an electric guitarist, but it turned out that he could only play instrumentals — and he tended to play the same songs, over and over again.
I photographed people in Piazza del Popolo on the first and last days of my visit; but I also spent a couple hours in Piazza Santa Margarita in Trastevere, where there was a wedding underway. And I strolled a block or two from my hotel to Piazza Cavour, where the entire piazza had been off-limits for years because of reconstruction work. But the reconstruction is over, the piazza is open, and I was lucky enough to be there during the "golden hour" before sunset, where I got some interesting photos of the local people enjoying a balmy early-summer evening.
On Sunday morning, I decided to visit the enormous "flea market" at Porta Portensa, where I did my best to get a few interesting shots of the shoppers, tourists, and long rows of merchant stalls filled with various forms of cheap, tacky merchandise. It was quite an experience…
As I have on past occasions, I took thousands of photos during my week-long visit, from which I select a few dozen to upload to Flickr. Hopefully they’ll give you a sense of what it’s like here in the Eternal City …
