In 1928, an organization called the Christodora House opened a building of the same name with the intention of providing shelter, education, and sustenance to people in hard times in the area. For a time, the building flourished, taking in tenants and providing them with all forms of educational support, as the building included facilities like a gym, a swimming pool, a music school, and a theater. However, after the events of World War II, the Christodora House was maintained less, was repossessed by the city, and fell into disrepair. Despite its dilapidated facilities, the Christodora House was occupied by social groups within the community, making use of the building for office space for a time. However, in 1969, the building’s electrical systems suffered a great deal of water damage, and as a result, the city declared that the building be condemned.

The Christodora House remained condemned and untouched for several years until it was sold in 1975 at auction. The building was sold numerous times after that, and in the early 1980s, Harry Skydell and Samuel Glasser, two real estate investors, renovated the entire building and turned it into a building of luxury condominiums, which opened in 1986. That same year, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 20th. While the Christodora House was still a series of condos, it was host to numerous famous icons. Today, the Christodora House still rents out rooms to renters of all kinds, whether residential or commercial.

A view of Christodora House in 2006 ((By The original uploader was David Shankbone at English Wikipedia [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons))

The Christodora House is a historic building in Manhattan’s East Village/Alphabet City area. Originally designed as a settlement house for immigrant land low-income residents in 1928, the Christodora House would help those who came through its doors get settled into a home of their own, providing food, education, and other necessities to its residents. In March of 1986, the Christodora House was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the Christodora House still rents out rooms for residents as a condominium complex.

The Christodora House

Tompkins Square Park in the East Village is named for Daniel D. Tompkins (1774-1825), New York Governor and Vice President of the United States under James Monroe. The previous owner of the property, Peter Stuyvesant (1610-1672), was director general of the New Netherland Dutch colony. The land, originally a swamp, was acquired by the City of New York in 1834 for the creation of a public square, and was landscaped and graded from 1835-1850. The park was the site of protests over the city's lack of jobs and poor economy in 1857, and again in 1875. An open parade ground for the Seventh Regiment of New York was created at the site in 1866 through the removal of park trees. City residents pressed for the space's redesignation as a public park, and their efforts were rewarded in 1879. Around 450 new trees were planted to supplement the few sycamore to survive the parade ground years, including Black locust, American elm, and Oriental plane species.The Temperance Memorial Fountain donated by Henry D. Cogswell (1820-1900) of the Moderation Society in 1888. The neo-classical monument consists of a drinking fountain topped by a female figure, sheltered by a square kiosk supported by four Doric columnns. The figure is based on a marble statue sculpted in 1816 by Dutch artist Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen, and has been replaced with a bronze replica. Four stone entablatures are inscribed with the words Faith , Hope, Charity, and Temperance. Originally, four ornamental luminaries in red, white, and blue glass flanked the fountain. Cogswell was born in Connecticut, where he remained alone at the age of nine when his family moved to Orwell, New York. He worked in cotton mills and was incarcerated in a poorhouse for a time, but managed to become principal of Orwell High School before studying medicine and taking up dentistry. During the Gold Rush of 1849, Cogswell moved to San Francisco. Through his dental practice and real estate investments, he amassed a fortune of $2 million and retired at the age of 36. Cogswell became involved in philanthropy and the anti-alcohol temperance movement. The Moderation Society of New York City was formed in 1877 to address Lower East Side health conditions, including the encouragement of citizens to drink water instead of alcohol. In this interest, they (along with Cogswell, who joined the group) erected free ice-water fountains in the city, including the monument in Tompkins Park.The park's second memorial fountain was donated by the Sympathy Society of German Ladies in 1906, and commemorates the General Slocum Disaster of June 15, 1904. The steamship General Slocum, chartered by St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Little Germany (East Village), was carrying 1,358 passengers, most of them women and children, when it caught fire in the East River on its way to Locust Point on Long Island. The death toll of 1,021 (burned or drowned) was the largest single loss in New York City history until the 9/11 attacks. The Slocum Disaster Memorial fountain in Tompkins Square consists of a curved-topped, marble stele with a bas relief above a lion-head fountain and shell basin, sculpted by Bruno Louis Zimm. Its inscription reads:(front, upper right): THEY WERE EARTH'S PUREST CHILDREN YOUNG AND FAIR(right side): IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE DISASTER TO THE STEAMER GENERAL SLOCUM JUNE XV MCMIV(left side): DEDICATED BY THE SYMPATHY SOCIETY OF GERMAN LADIES THE YEAR OF OUR LORD MCMVI In 1904, a playground for girls was built in Tompkins Square Park, and the park held the city's first inter-park athletic championships in 1911. When the Samuel Sullivan "Sunset" Cox statue had to be moved from its original location near Astor Place due to a street-widening project in November of 1924, it was relocated to the southwest corner of Tompkins Square. A native of Zanesville, Ohio, Cox (1824-1889) was unseated from his position as Democratic Congressional representative in Ohio in 1865, and moved on to the New York Congress the following year. Cox championed the 1840s-founded Life Saving Service (absorbed into the Coast Guard in 1915) and worked to improve the quality of life of United States Postal Service employees, who sponsored the statue following his death in 1889. The bronze statue, sculpted by Louise Lawson, was unveiled on July 4, 1891. It is inscribed as follows:SAMUEL S. COX(Plaque 1:) SAMUEL SULLIVAN COXTHE LETTER CARRIER'S FRIENDERECTED IN GRATEFUL AND LOVING MEMORY OF HIS SERVICES IN CONGRESS BY THE LETTER CARRIERS OF NEW YORK, HIS HOME, AND OF THE UNITED STATES, HIS COUNTRY, JULY 4, 1891COMMITTEE: GEORGE H. NEWSOM, CHAIRMAN / THOMAS MURPHY, TREASURER, JAMES GREER, / JAMES MC VEY, BERNARD S. KENNEDY, / MICHEAL J. HARNEY, CHARLES P. KELLY.(Plaque 2:) THE LETTER CARRIERS OF THE FOLLOWING CITIES ERECTED THIS MONUMENT TO SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX. [Here follows a list of about 200 cities.]During the 1930s, Parks Commissioner Robert Moses added handball courts, swing sets, and other recreational facilities in Tompkins Square Park. Two monuments were erected in the park in 1942. One is a granite-and-bronze flagstaff donated by the Ukrainian Production Unit of the American Red Cross, which is inscribed as follows:IN MEMORY OF OUR DEPARTED COMRADESEAST SIDE POST - 868 - A - LPRESENTED BY THE UKRAINIAN PRODUCTION UNIT OF THE NEW YORK CHAPTER A.D. 1942AMERICAN RED CROSSThe second is a bronze plaque on a granite base donated by the Slovak Welfare Club, honoring Milan R. Stefanik:IN MEMORY OF GENERAL MILAN R. STEFANIKASTRONOMER - SOLIDER - CZECHO-SLOVAK PATRIOTBORN JULY 31, 1880 / DIED MAY 4, 1919DEDICATED BY SLOVAK WELFARE CLUB (TATRA)MAY 3, 1942During the 1960s, Tompkins Square Park hosted concerts and rallies, and once again was the site of local protesters in the 1980s and '90s, angry over gentrification. A renovation in the 1990s added a dog run and new playgrounds, and several of the monuments were conserved. The park now hosts performances and events including Wigstock (the outdoor drag festival), the Howl Festival (commemorating poet Allen Ginsberg), and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Park facilities include a handball court, chess tables, a basketball court, and two playgrounds.

Tompkins Square Park in the East Village is named for Daniel D. Tompkins (1774-1825), New York Governor and Vice President of the United States under James Monroe.The land, originally a swamp, was acquired by the City of New York in 1834 for the creation of a public square, and was landscaped and graded from 1835-1850. An open parade ground for the Seventh Regiment of New York was created at the site in 1866 through the removal of park trees. City residents pressed for the space's redesignation as a public park, and their efforts were rewarded in 1879. The park now hosts performances and events including Wigstock (the outdoor drag festival), the Howl Festival (commemorating poet Allen Ginsberg), and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival. Park facilities include a handball court, chess tables, a basketball court, and two playgrounds.

On the morning of June 15, 1904, the General Slocum left the pier at the end of East Third Street and began traveling up the East River, destined for Locust Grove, a picnic site on the north shore of Long Island. The wooden triple-deck, side-wheel steamer, built in Brooklyn in 1891 and owned by the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, was one of the many excursion ships that traveled about New York City’s major waterways, allowing working-class folks a chance to briefly escape the hustle and bustle of America’s largest urban center. On this particular day, however, the vessel had been chartered by St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on Sixth Street in Manhattan for $350 for its annual picnic. Of the roughly 1,300 passengers aboard, most were women and children from the German-American community of the Lower East Side.  Shortly after the steamer embarked on its two-hour-long journey, an improperly disposed match or cigarette ignited packing hay below deck. Within minutes, the ship was engulfed in flames. Rather than bringing the vessel to land as soon as possible, the ship’s captain, William Van Schiak, continued up the East River until he could spot a safe location to run it aground. The boat’s speed, however, combined with a strong headwind to fan the flames. Meanwhile, the ill-prepared crew, which had never before conducted a fire drill, frantically scrambled to connect firehoses and launch lifeboats, and passengers rushed to put on life jackets. Tragically, the firehoses and life jackets were rotten and the lifeboats painted to the decks. In desperation, some passengers jumped or tossed their children overboard, decisions that proved fatal due to period clothing and the inability of most to swim. Eventually, Van Schaick ran the ship aground about twenty-five feet off the shore of North Brother Island in the East River, where staff from Riverside Hospital were waiting to throw life preservers and ropes into the water to save passengers.  In all, over 1,000 passengers and crew perished in the tragedy. For days afterward, bodies washed up on the shores of the East River. Prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, the burning of the General Slocum was the deadliest disaster in New York City’s history. It remains, however, the worst in-land waters, peace-time tragedy in American history. In January 1906, a jury found Van Schaick guilty of criminal negligence for failing to conduct the crew fire drills required by law and sentenced him to ten years hard labor. A few years into his prison term at Sing Sing, however, Van Schaick received a full pardon from President William Howard Taft. The Knickerbocker Steamboat Company escaped punishment.  The same year the jury returned its verdict, the Sympathy Society of German Ladies donated a memorial to commemorate the victims of the disaster. Designed by sculptor Bruno Louis Zimm and erected in Tompkins Square Park, the memorial consists of a nine-foot-tall stele fountain made of pink Tennessee marble. It features a single lion’s head that spouts water into a small basin below and a bas-relief of two children gazing into the distance.

This memorial honors those who lost their lives when the excursion vessel, PS 'General Slocum,' caught fire while traveling up the East River on June 15, 1904. Chartered by Manhattan’s St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for its annual picnic, the wooden side-wheel steamer was destined for Locust Grove, a picnic site on the north shore of Long Island. Of the roughly 1,300 passengers aboard, most were women and children from the German-American community of the Lower East Side. In all, over 1,000 passengers and crew perished in the tragedy. Prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, the burning of the 'General Slocum' was the deadliest disaster in New York City’s history. It remains, however, the worst in-land waters, peace-time tragedy in American history. In 1906, the Sympathy Society of German Ladies donated a memorial to commemorate the victims of the disaster. Designed by sculptor Bruno Louis Zimm and erected in Tompkins Square Park, the memorial consists of a nine-foot-tall stele fountain made of pink Tennessee marble. It features a single lion’s head that spouts water into a small basin below and a bas-relief of two children gazing into the distance.

Slocum Memorial Fountain

Born in Kansas, Charlie Parker came to New York City in the late 1930s and soon established himself as a significant jazz performer. By the mid-1940s, Parker was touring with Dizzy Gillespie and during a six-week tour of Hollywood, the pair invented a new style of music known as bebop. Following their tour of California, Parker returned to New York City and formed a quintet and began a period of remarkable creativity. In 1950, Parker moved into a East Village townhouse which was built in 1849. By this point, Parker had three failed marriages and had suffered for years with mental health issues and substance abuse. He was at the height of his fame as a musician but his ongoing problems were taking a toll. When he was arrested in 1951 for heroin possession, the musician's cabaret card was revoked, meaning he could no longer perform in New York City clubs. Even when his club was reinstated, promoters and club owners were often reluctant to book him because of his well-known reputation for drug use. In spite of Parker's struggles with substance abuse, the time he spent in his home on Avenue B was apparently happy. It was a refuge for him, and in the home, which he shared with his common-law wife, Chan Richardson, and their children (Chan had a daughter and the couple had two children together), Parker was a family man, enjoying dinners with his family and walking his step-daughter to school. Parker, who wanted to keep work and home life separate, only allowed classical music to be played in the home. When he practiced, Parker went into a walk-in closet and closed the door behind him. The years at 151 Avenue B were the closest Parker ever came to real stability. Parker lived in the home from 1950 to 1954. Ravaged by years of drug and alcohol abuse, Parker died in 1955. In 1979, the building was purchased by jazz promoter Judith Rhodes, who spoke of going into the legend's "practice closet" and feeling an overwhelming need to own the home. At the time, it still had the birdcage-themed wallpaper that Parker insalled, a nod to his nickname, "Bird." In a sweetly serendipitous twist, Rhodes, during her time as owner, kept parrots as pets and often brought injured pigeons into the home to be nursed back to health, although she maintained it wasn't an homage to the original "Bird." It was also Rhodes who was instrumental in getting the home declared a landmark.

A landmarked building that faces Thompkins Square Park was once the home of jazz legend Charlie Parker. Parker lived in the home with his family from 1950 to 1954 and though he was at the peak of his career, during this time he was also very much a family man. Years after Parker's death, jazz promoter Judith Rhodes bought the building and lived in Parker's ground floor apartment. The building is a New York City Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Former Residence of Charlie Parker

Samuel Sullivan Cox was born in Zanesville, Ohio on September 30, 1824. Named after his grandfather, Judge Samuel Sullivan, who served as state treasurer from 1820 to 1823, Cox briefly attended Ohio University in Athens before transferring to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. After graduating from Brown in 1846, he read law and was admitted to the bar. Cox began practicing law in his hometown of Zanesville in 1849, but a few years later became owner and editor of the (Columbus) Ohio Statesman, a Democratic newspaper. While working as editor of the periodical from 1853 to 1854, he published a captivating and eloquent description of a sunset, which led to him acquiring the nickname, “Sunset.”  In 1855, Cox commenced a lengthy career in public service. That year, he left the United States to accept an appointment as secretary of the legation at Lima, Peru. The following year, he returned to Ohio and successfully ran as a Democrat for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cox ultimately won reelection three times (1858, 1860, and 1862) and serve four full terms in Congress from March 1857 to March 1865. After losing his bid for reelection in 1864 and serving the remainder of his fourth term, he moved to New York City, where he resumed practicing law.  Cox’s desire to get back into the political arena, however, could not be suppressed and in 1868 he once again ran for Congress and won, this time representing a congressional district in New York. Two years later, he won reelection, but in 1872 lost his bid for a third term. Cox, however, did not remain on the sidelines long. At the end of April 1873, a vacancy opened up when Congressman James Brooks died. Cox ran to fill it and won. He occupied the seat for more than a decade until May 1885, when he resigned to accept an offer made by President Grover Cleveland to become U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. In October of the following year, Cox returned to the U.S. House of Representatives after winning election to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Joseph Pulitzer. He occupied the seat until his death on September 10, 1889. His remains were buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Serving as honorary pallbearers at Cox’s funeral were former President Grover Cleveland and General William T. Sherman.  Cox’s two greatest political contributions pertained to the U.S. Life-Saving Service and the U.S. Postal Service. During his time in Congress, he was an ardent supporter of the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1915, it patrolled America’s coastlines, helping to save the lives of shipwrecked sailors. Additionally, Cox helped pass legislation that gave U.S. Postal Service workers a pay raise, paid time off, and a forty-hour workweek. For his efforts on their behalf, he earned the moniker, the “letter-carriers’ friend.”  Shortly after Cox’s death, U.S. Postal Service employees embarked on a nationwide campaign to raise funds for the erection of a monument in his honor. Mail carriers from 188 cities across the United States donated a total of $10,000 to fund the monument, which was dedicated on July 4, 1891. Designed by sculptor Louise Lawson, the monument features an over-life-sized bronze statue of Cox standing on a granite pedestal. It was originally located at the intersection of Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue, and Astor Place, just south of his former residence on East Twelfth Street. An estimated 2,500 letter carriers from as far away as Memphis and New Orleans attended the unveiling. In 1924, the monument was moved to Tompkins Square Park, where it remains today.

Designed by sculptor Louise Lawson, this East Village monument commemorates congressman and U.S. diplomat, Samuel Sullivan Cox (1824-1889). A native of Ohio, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly thirty years during the latter half of the nineteenth century, representing congressional districts in Ohio and New York. In Congress, Cox ardently supported the U.S. Life-Saving Service and helped pass legislation that gave U.S. Postal Service workers a wage increase, paid time off, and a forty-hour workweek. Additionally, he served briefly as secretary of the legation at Lima, Peru in the 1850s and U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in the 1880s. Shortly after Cox’s death, U.S. Postal Service employees embarked on a nationwide campaign to raise funds for the erection of this monument to honor the lawmaker. Mail carriers from 188 cities across the United States donated a total of $10,000 to fund the monument, which was dedicated on July 4, 1891. The monument features an over-life-sized bronze statue of Cox standing on a granite pedestal. It was originally located at the intersection of Lafayette Street, Fourth Avenue, and Astor Place, just south of his former residence on East Twelfth Street. An estimated 2,500 letter carriers from as far away as Memphis and New Orleans attended the unveiling. In 1924, the monument was moved to Tompkins Square Park, where it remains today.

Tompkins Square Park

The Christodora House

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources