Thursday, July 25, 2013

Morning Walk #59 - West Village




Surprise!  It's 66 degrees, gray and 53% humidity!

Still 84 degrees in my apartment...

Lots of bikes parked outside the fitness center

The Second Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, 1805 - 1829, on West 11th Street.  I've seen the Third Cemetery but not this tiny triangular one.  Apparently it was bigger until some graves were moved uptown to make way for the continuance of 11th Street.

The fountain and sprinklers are running in Washington Square Park

A bust of Alexander Lyman Holley (1832 - 1882) says "In Honor of Alexander Lyman Holley Foremost Among Those Whose Genius and Energy Established in America and Improved Throughout the World The Manufacture of Bessemer Steel - This Memorial is Erected by Engineers of Two Hemispheres."

Two questions:  Why is this Brooklyn resident immortalized in this particular location in Washington Square Park?  And how many of the engineers of 2 hemispheres decided on and/or erected this monument?

It still amazes me that whole neighborhoods of the West Village could be used as sets of movies and television shows set in the 1830's to the 1880's just by removing the cars parked on the streets.

Speaking of television, I walked by a recent shoot for the show "Elementary"

Walked past 75 1/2 Bedford Street, said to be the smallest house in NYC at 9 feet 6 inches wide.  It was home to Edna St. Vincent Millay from 1923 - 1924 and later to Margaret Mead.

Who would have guessed that the Maine-born Millay would be named in part after St. Vincent's Hospital where her uncle's life was saved shortly before her birth.  Unfortunately St. Vincent's Hospital's life was recently extinguished and new construction marks the spot.

This is my 100th post...not so long in the blogworld...but still hard to believe I've kept at it this long.

Steps: 7825

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