Saturday – October 6, 2012
The first weekend in October is the time for Open House New York. During this two-day event, many architecturally interesting buildings in the five boroughs are opened to the public. Architects, designers, and directors are on hand to talk about their designs and programs. This year I decided to tour several sites in Da Bronx on Saturday.
14′ Whitehall Rowing Boat
After reviewing the OHNY directory I decided to see a youth program called Rocking the Boat. We drove under the Bruckner Expressway to the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx and continued to Edgewater Road. Rocking the Boat is a program that works with local high school students. They learn the craft of wooden boatbuilding, environmental science, and maritime skills. The program tries to help students build self-confidence and overcome some of their economic disadvantages. The Rocking the Boat organization is housed in a former commercial warehouse which had been renovated for the students’ use.
Wooden Boat Building Workshop
One of the former students, who achieved apprentice status and is a sophomore in college, gave us a tour of the facilities. The students study wooden boat drawings, create patterns, lay the frames, steam the planks, and ultimately build 14 foot Whitehall rowing boats. I later learned that the design came into existence during the 1820’s in New York City. There is a Whitehall Street in lower Manhattan, and it is believed that this was where the Whitehall rowboat was first built.
Whitehall Boats Almost Finished
Rocking the Boat also promotes a community rowing program and teaches environmental science to middle and high school students and their teachers. The organization also employs apprentices to build boats for clients, teaches small boat handling, and provides counseling and support for the students. The young man who conducted our tour did a great job!
The Bronx River
We left Rocking the Boat and drove around the Hunts Point neighborhood to see the famous market. This is the main produce, meat, and fish market for all of New York City and the surrounding areas. Trucks arrive from across the United States to the Hunts Point Market to deliver and distribute food to New York City. Some years ago, the Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan closed and also moved to Hunts Point.
Hunts Point Riverside Park
Since the market was not busy today, we could only imagine the activity level during the week. We continued to drive west across the south Bronx to the Grand Concourse. We drove north on “The Concourse” which was opened to traffic in 1909 and modeled after the Champs-Elysees in Paris. We admired the former grand houses and Art Deco apartment buildings which were built along this beautiful boulevard. We passed the palatial Loew’s Paradise theater, built in 1929, which was at one time the largest movie theater in New York City. I saw movies there during the early 1960s and I remember the impressive interior of the theater.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Cottage
Our final destination was the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage in Poe Park along the Grand Concourse. The house, which had been built in 1797, was where Poe, his wife Virginia, and her mother lived in 1846. Among other writings, Poe wrote his famous poems “Annabel Lee” and “Ulalume” during his stay at the cottage in the Bronx. Virginia died of tuberculosis in the cottage’s first floor bedroom, just one year after they moved in. Poe moved to Baltimore shortly after his wife’s death and died there in 1849.
Downstairs Bedroom
It is a small cottage with only three rooms on the first floor. There was a kitchen, a living room in the middle, and a very small bedroom. Poe’s Bronx home was simply decorated with furniture of the period. I read that the cottage had been completely restored and reopened last year. I remember visiting Poe’s Cottage in the mid-1970s with my young sons, to hear a reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry. It is still an interesting and peaceful place to visit.
Poe Park Visitor’s Center
Also in Poe Park is a newly built visitor’s center. It is actually more of a community center for local residents providing a wide variety of activities. The architect was in attendance and she stated that the design of the Visitor’s Center was inspired by Poe’s poem “The Raven”. The building was built in the shape of a flying bird and the black slate exterior symbolizes the raven’s feathers. All in all, it was an interesting day in Da Bronx.