Morning Walk #23 - Irving Place & Stuyvesant Park

Two unusual things - this gargoyle is only as old as 1929 and it's at eye level

59 degrees again but a slightly higher humidity made it feel warmer

Found a dime

A passerby says "good morning".  (He must be an out-of-towner!)

81 Irving Place, the 1929 home of the gargoyles

On Second Avenue, the 1902 New York Lying In Hospital is now residential.  (A "lying in" hospital was a maternity facility}. In the early 20th century this was the site of 60% of all hospital births in Manhattan.

Stuyvesant Park bisected by Second Avenue with its east section and its west section

A man hops off his bike and stretches out on a bench for a nap

Some of the trees in the part have had paved walkways designed around them

An older woman with the face of a longtime sun worshipper runs around the park with her little dog as if they were at a dog show

An older man with dreadlocks wearing plaid flannel pajama bottoms and using a cane slowly walks his dog

Scheffel Hall (1895) on 3rd Avenue now is home to movement classes but was once a German beer hall and restaurant and a must visit bar for West Point cadets

A quick compost drop at the GreenMarket

Picketers chanting against Castle Construction

Steps: 7731

Morning Walk #20 - Irving Place & Union Square

There's something interesting about an ornate staircase seen through the windows (Siegel - Cooper Building, 1896)

Sunny & 75 degrees

A woman tries to hail a cab as cab after cab passes by. Lucky 13 stops to pick her up. Who knew it would be so hard to catch a cab at 7am?

The Hellmuth Building (1906) originally housed Mr. Hellmuth's printing ink company.

Across the street is the Altman Building (1896) - built as stables for the delivery horses and carriages servicing B. Altman's customers.

An 1894 firehouse is ornate in architectural detail but the arched bay is narrow for today's fire engines.

An 1885 bust of Washington Irving (1783 - 1859) looks over Irving Place

Park benches are full of people on a warm morning

A delivery guy sits on a bench reading his phone with catering boxes of some company's breakfast standing on a dolly next to him

A thin, stooped backpacker walks by with his straining at the seams huge backpack weighing him down

An older man sits on a bench eating a quart container of cantaloupe chunks. When it's empty he starts on a banana

A woman on her cellphone sternly lectures the father of her daughter on the behavior required of him if he wishes to see said daughter

Dropping off compost and buying vegetables at the GreenMarket

A jagged hunk of sidewalk leaps up to trip me.  I stumble but (surprisingly) find my balance before stumble becomes tumble.  I announce to the world "Wow! Good recovery!"

A woman pushes her puppy - bow and all - in a doggie stroller

Steps: 7384