Manhattan I
By Gudrun Weissker, 2002
Dedicated to my dear seventh cousin once removed Charles Henry Weisker.
Nancy invited me to visit her in her Manhattan apartment, W 75 St. between Central Park and Hudson River. So I go by Greyhound from Providence Rl to those famous places, some more than 5 hours. Before starting I have half an hour, enough time to find AAA1 in Providence and to chat a little bit in order to get maps for this ride, one for the states Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and another one for New York City.
The bus goes on the Interstate 95, but then it turns on smaller streets into a forest. „Mohegan Reservation“ says a sign, and the road goes left and right on more and more smaller streets. Suddenly a great modern castle, in size like a small town, but sky scraping. The first stop of the bus: Foxwoods. Here is the third bit of information I get about the life of the Indians (after the not so detailed one „they don’t work“ and „they drink“): Indians learn how to make money. They opened casinos like in Reno or Las Vegas. Here they give employment for people of their own tribe, and when anyone calls it bad – who taught them to do so?
Nancy awaits me at Port Authority Bus Terminal. It is so good to be expected and have company for the first orientation. We are on 42nd St. near Times Square, and we go by bus 104 – Nancy has a ticket for me. We cross Broadway and I see I am really in the center of New York. Fifth Avenue goes along the east side of Central Park and is the line bordering east and west.
Nancy’s apartment is in the second floor of an old house with wooden stairs. It reminds me of Leipzig or Berlin. I feel welcome. The living room has a fireplace – that is different from Germany. The window is large, and you can see the sky and also a tree. The house opposite has not too many stories. And in the courtyard a young couple has placed two long chairs and a table with umbrella. They relax there and smile at me. Nancy tells me that those neighbors are expecting a baby.
We sit and talk. What would I like to do? Now I have a special wish. I would like to see Broadway, that part where „Opah“ had his factory for millinery articles. We decide to do so the next day and now in the evening to go around the block so I can see where I am. We go down Broadway to the Lincoln Center. The Metropolitan Opera foyer is lighted, so I can see the two great pictures by Chagall inside.2 Here used to live the Puerto Ricans, but by the building of this Cultural Center they were pushed out.
The houses in the streets crossing the Avenues are partly high, but partly two to four or five stories. So I don’t feel like I am in a canyon. We go to the Hudson River and look at New Jersey, and we enjoy the summer evening.
View from the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty, 1987
Next day our first aim is lower Broadway to find the number 477. We go by bus to Canal Street and then by foot, longer than thought, but interesting streets. There are real Dutch houses – remember: the first name of the city was New Amsterdam!
Now we are on Broadway. We go north, looking for the numbers. The even numbers are on the left side, the odd on the right. The system is understandable. It is hot, so we go in the shade. Look, there are 473 and 475, old buildings. The 475 has a restaurant with garden, „NELLO SOHO“, and then comes Houston Street, a pretty wide one. Maybe, the 477 had to disappear in order to make space for the street, and the neighbor was happy to get a part for his garden. I sketch the situation to prove it by the picture I have at Nancy’s: 475 has four stories, each with three windows. 473 has also four stories over the shop, but four windows in a row.
After that expedition we deserve a drink. There are some possibilities, but all tables are covered with tablecloths and full of dishes and place settings, so we don’t need to look at the menu to notice that it is not that we wish. But look, there is another one on Spring Street. „Mix“ is written at the shop-window with shoes and cups and chess figures inside, and to explain it once more there is written on the left side „Cafe“ and on the right side „Shoes“, repeated with a sketched cup and shoe.
We go in. Three friendly young men ask for our wishes. Nancy likes an iced tea, I prefer a cappuccino. The iced tea comes, the coffee does not. But we relax in the shade. I remind him of my order. Nothing. Eventually I go up to the counter – and I see some cups on the shelf, three for Mocha and four larger ones. As a European, I really appreciate drinking my coffee not from a paper cup, but from a glass or a china cup. And here are china cups. So I tell to the man behind the desk my wish, and obligingly he chose a cup from the shelf and begins to wash it. Sometime on that afternoon I got a very good Cappuccino… And on the small tables you found glasses with coffee beans for nibbling.
We are looking for the bus to go down to number 1 Bowling Green. It must go on 6th Street, for they all are „One Way“. But here near the top streets are no more so accurate like in the north. And suddenly we read again „Broadway“, but it is another one than where we were. It is even quite a different street: the odd numbers are on the left (just like in Germany). Let’s have a look again for 477!
We go and we find on the left side:475,… 481. Between are two old houses each three windows wide, but you can not see details, for they are in reconstruction and covered with black „curtains“. The only thing I can notice is: there is the space between the stores where the firm names were written. So I think, we found the right one. The criterion is: in which row are the numbers: „475-477-479-481“ or „475-473“? The picture solves the riddle. The second one is the correct house, even if we not can see it. The first try we started on W Broadway! And now you will understand the importance of a „W“!
Manhattan II
The bus brings us to Bowling Green, that tiny park at the southern end of Manhattan. Once the Englishmen used to play here, like the name tells us. Those were the good old times, when the businessmen at Wall Street found time to do so. I think they were less stressful. A corresponding monument decorates the place: The bronze bull made by Arturo di Motica. It is a real adult bull, and even I must think about the Bible story which derides the bull cult as dancing around the golden calf- here you shouldn’t laugh! It’s a serious thing, and the dance goes on.
We use that park for a rest with yogurt and a banana, then we go into number 1 Bowling Green. The Museum of American Indians has the headline „The Journey west was the beginning of one American dream – and the end of another“ The exhibitions are made by native Indians, and the travel guide remarks „absolutely worth seeing“. And there is free entrance!
It reaches to the heart, even as reason says that there are other nations too who went down. It’s true: „There is a time for everything: a time to be born and a time to die…“-but if dying hurts so much …It’s better to live in an after-wartime and rebuild things and have hope like in my childhood than to see how men pass away and people live without a future.
Aerial view of Battery Park 2010, left Pier A, right South Ferry Terminal.
Foto: Gryffindor – Lizenz: CC BY-SA 3.0
After the museum we walk some steps to Battery Park, to see the Hudson River meeting the East River and reaching Upper New York Bay. To the west you see New Jersey, but in front you have the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island with the famous Statue. To go there you need a little bit more time, and clearer weather would be nicer too. But look at that tiny church between all that high houses: „Siemens Church“ I hear Nancy’s explanation. Siemens? By thinking about it, I understand: It’s the seaman’s church!
We catch the bus to go home, it is enough for today. The bus goes through Church Street – it’s the oldest part of town. This doesn’t have the system of streets crossing avenues, which makes it easy to find a place. Look, here was the World Trade Center! An empty place now with a board-fence. The subway station is still closed, in that area you must go by bus. By the way: the subway is really old, like the old „U-Bahn“ in Berlin, and the entrances are pretty inconspicuous, so the bus stops. It is an event of success to find them.
On the way home we see the statue of Eleanor Roosevelt – Nancy remarks, „That is the only statue of a woman in my town“. It was built in 1958. The president’s wife looks very alive. On a brass plaque are written her words:
„Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? in small places, close to home, such are the places where every man, woman and child seek equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity“.
On Sunday we go together to Nancy’s church at the corner East 85 Street, the Park Avenue Christian Church with windows made and given by Tiffany’s. It is an older building and an even older parish, „Disciples of Christ- established 1810“ you can read outside. This name I have never heard. Inside I get a sheet with the explanation: „Welcome! Chartered in 1810, this is a community of open hearts and minds both a Shalom & Open & Affirming Congregation in Ecumenical Partnership with the United Church of Christ. Park Avenue Christian Church is a Congregation of Churches united in Christ.“ Then follows „The Gathering“, the guide through the service. But first I’m invited to sign the guests‘ book in the entrance. And in the pews is a further possibility for written registration of guests. To me once is enough. But I understand: some people may come inside without signing the guests‘ book.
The congregation is a very warm one. I mention it at the peace greeting: they take their time, longer than I knew it in other churches, also in my own. After the service all are invited to the hall, and I see there is a birthday celebration that day with punch and snacks, and a birthday cake. The punch is delicious, cool and refreshing. And I appreciate the possibility to speak with people. So I can ask my question about what I read outside: „Temple Friday 7.30“ – „Yes, there is a cooperation with a Jewish parish, and especially Jewish Christian couples like to come.“ „And the cross in front of the church?“ „It will be covered by the Torah. Their specialty: they pray the Our Father in Aramaic language“… It is a liberal group, „Temple of Universal Judaism“.
After church I am free, and I go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in the middle of Central Park. In former times Central Park had a bad reputation for being a place of crime. That has changed. Mayor Giuliani (1994-2002) had a good plan „public eyes“. He ordered gardening, reconstructing of the playgrounds and great programs of music and entertainment. So the dark corners couldn’t exist longer. Plaques say interesting things like the one at the Ancient Playground: „This site is one of the many adventure playgrounds built in New York City throughout the 1960s and 70s. The playgrounds were inspired by European children, who created their own play equipment using the rubble and debris left behind in cities bombed during World War II (1939-1945). This phenomenon was incorporated into British and Scandinavian play lots, which were designed to encourage children to modify their surroundings, thereby creating a more participatory play environment…“
The Museum is huge. I am submerged in old Egypt, and then I am surrounded by East-Asian cultures. I have a plan of the museum, but I am confused and try to find the small exhibition „Klee’s besf It is on the other end, far away. In my opinion one of the best is „Die Zwitschermaschine“ (the twittering machine), a drawing with birds on a machine. I got it as a postcard from my cousin Paul-Ferdinand, when we were very young. The original I have never seen, and also here I seek without success.
But then I look at modern pictures and find one from 1981 called „The Innocent Eye Test“ painted by Mark Tansey, an American born in 1949. It is without colors, only in gray tones corresponding to the serious situation. There are six hard working men unveiling a new picture at a reception. Perhaps one is the artist, but there is no difference. The picture is painted in a conservative matter -you could take a photograph of that site: a landscape with a meadow, a tree, two cows. The artist is a „good boy“, nothing special. Something is in an exhibition, you can not say why. So it is with this picture. Nobody shows a doubt about this. Only the first viewer. It is a cow, looking a little bit unbelieving of her vis-a-vis, her duplicate. That gives you room to make some philosophy.
Interesting is a video installation in a dark room. Bill Viola, born in 1951, made „The Quintet of Remembrance 2000“, a color video rear projection on a large screen. These five persons show their feelings: joy, rapture, anger, fear, sorrow in very drawn-out time (German say „Zeitlupe“), the tape lasts 16 minutes, but 5 are enough for me. Hieronymus Bosch gave the inspiration with his picture „Christ Mocked“.
In 1938-39 the American John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) painted a wild cloudy sky over a „Wisconsin Landscape“, so the title. Showing the light in that situation reminds me of the French and Dutch painters in Provence. And it touches me: I was the first time in Wisconsin three weeks ago and found there such kind, warm people.
After Feininger „Gelmeroda“ 1936 (a lot of blue and some green and brown) and Picasso „The Scream“, I find my „picture of the day“ The author is the British Graham Nickson, born in 1946, the title „Concordia„, painted 1972-1977. It hangs alone on the wall, and it must hang alone.
There is a landscape with fjords, a shiny orange sky and a shiny rose sea, the mountains deep brown and the foreground dark green. It reminds me of a poster, large-scale planes. There is a young maid on a chair beside a railing with wire netting – perhaps it may be a ship or perhaps a deck on a house. That is the dark green one. The girl stoops to pick up everything – possibly reminders. You may find them in eighteen tiny pictures in the broad dark green linen frame, nine above and nine behind like the holes in a movie strip. These thoughts are painted in the same bright colors, yellow and red-orange, mixed with gray, night violet, steel blue and turquoise green. There are rose colored clouds on a black and violet sky, blue forest with a yellow line at the edge of the sky, purple heather.
I wished to have a poster of this. But all seeking failed. Not even a postcard may I get, and the Museum closes its doors.
Manhattan III
It is so interesting and such an opportunity to see the Center of New York, so I ask Nancy about staying a day more. She kindly agrees and I phone Peggy that she may pick me up in Providence on Tuesday.
It is a hot day again, this Monday, and Nancy enjoys staying at home most of the time. I start along W 75th Street. After crossing Broadway on the right side I see a large house without windows, but nicely decorated. Could it be a slaughterhouse? Later Nancy tells me that it is a theater, with an entrance on Broadway. Shall I go like Nancy explained the way to 5th Avenue around Central Park? I decide to go through, for that is the only way to get an impression because later I find no time to do so. What I see is only the southern end, but also there is a lot to see, beginning with the curved paths you find in English parks.
Panorama of the north of Manhattan, from the Rockefeller Center, New York
Martin St-Amant – Wikipedia – CC-BY-SA-3.0
I come to Sheep Meadow, a fenced lawn of 15 acres, named for the sheep that grazed here until 1934. The flock was housed in a sheepfold, which was subsequently converted into Tavern on the Green. The Sheep Meadow is a quiet zone for public use „…reserved for quiet enjoyment – open April-November 11am to dusk, closed for maintenance or when wet“.
Going further, I am surprised of the landscape: great rocks, joined by bridges. There are flat rocks out of granite with silver glittering dots, which invite one to sit down and relax. Manhattan is built on rocks so they could built such skyscrapers.
The southeast corner shows a nice lake no more than 30 feet from 5th Ave. with all its traffic. Outside the corner there is the Grand Army Plaza with really high skyscrapers and with a golden statue. It is a man, a man on a horse, General William Tecumseh Sherman, I read. A warrior accompanied by an angel with a peace palm branch – this figure is female as usual. The reality is male, therefore dreams use female creatures. Nature makes them equal: on each head a pigeon sits without respect for gold or history or fancy!
I stroll through Fifth Avenue and look at the windows. The decoration at Bergdorf and Goodman is fascinating. Mostly black, fabric with cut slits drawing out to nets and pulled over the background and the floor, on that you see one special dress. High-class. I am curious to know more, but this atmosphere cramps my style. Looking at people who go in for a while, I pluck up my courage and follow them.
The rooms are gorgeous with all that stucco and chandeliers, a lot of light boosted by spots between, but not dazzling. There are palms and orchid-arrangements – look, the palms are not artificial like in other places! A lot of staff awaits your wishes. (My wish is not to seem conspicuous). Furtively I look for prices. There is nothing to see. But in the background are escalators so I go to the upper stories. Here I feel less uncomfortable, and here I find tags answering my question.
This summer dress, fancy, you may get for $2,060.00 (if you not need a single model – in the background are some copies of this one!). It is not 100% your taste? Perhaps this one, only $1,840.00? Or take that exquisite shawl, $ 265.00! You are looking for the cashier? Oh, they are decently hidden behind the great mirror doors. Just a minute and you can do your shopping. But before you do so, I prefer to disappear on the same way I came, by escalator. In my bag is the catalogue for fall 2002,1 found it in a corner. If you are interested to be informed, visit me! And you will understand: even when I see the windows of Saks I don’t need to go in…
An address, which is a must, is Tiffany’s. You remember that charming movie with Audrey Hepburn „Breakfast at Tiffany’s“ about forty years ago? Encouraged by my first steps into the upper-class world I enter in that house. I see jewelry of all kinds in classical style. In the background there is a friendly older gentleman at the information desk. We chat a little bit, and he tells me that this famous breakfast was not in that building but in the one opposite. The young lovers only pressed their noses on the windows dreaming about the great world. He recommended that I not neglect to see the famous Tiffany Diamond, 128.54 carats, the largest naturally colored yellow diamond ever found, and at the end he gives me a booklet with all his treasures inside.
And I look around. In the second story twelve or more tables are covered with the sparkle of diamonds, the third shows crystal and china and the fifth silver.
Back out of that world of dreams I notice that some churches are in this area. The day is hot. It doesn’t help much to go into the „5th Avenue Presbyterian Church“ becayse this building is made out of wood. A good idea is that they offer for use little fans in the pews. These show the picture of the church, so you could have help for reminding you to whom it belongs if you find one in your purse.
The next Church is St. Thomas, „Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA“, made out of stone. Here it is pretty dark, an Ikonostas out of stone imitating old Gothic lets you see only a little bit of blue heaven in the window behind. The left side aisle goes to a wonderful old altar with carved bible stories: the wedding at Cana, the baptizing of Jesus and the raising of Lazarus. Beside this altar hangs an icon of the mother of God, and the right aisle also has an icon and the red lamp. Back in the church I find „Our Lady from 5th Avenue“ adorned with a lot of roses -it is the time for rosary prayers. The church shows ecumenical thinking and gives a place for Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christians.
Going back through the entrance I find the floor covered with jaf mosaic seals. One of them shows a rising sun with hammer and sickle on a red ground – so atheist people from the other part of the world may feel welcome too. Trife’third church is Saint Patrick’s, the Catholic Cathedral. But I don’t wish to bore you, and this church is pretty overcrowded, so I find no rest.
Let’s go into the Library to look for some traces of the family in the genealogical section. We have success: we find the lists of the New York Census from 1870 with the name of Charles Weisker. The entry documents that he was an „Artificent flower Manuf.“ and that he came from Prussia. That is not the truth we know: he came from Reuss. But who should know this tiny state from so far away? And the name sounds similar.
Immigrants came from Ireland, Hungary, Italy, and if German they came from Bavaria, Baden, „Wirtemberg“ or Preussen = Prussia, Another question was after „color“ with the possibilities: White, Black, Mulatto, Chinese or Indian. On the pages I looked were neither Mulatto nor Chinese nor Indian named as people who owned houses or properties or business; black people were „Domestic St.“
I look in the register for my family name, and I find the dissertation of Paul Weissker from 1913: „Verfassung und Verwaltung der Stadt Muenden im Mittelalter“, published by E. U. Huth in Goettingen. It is filed as „Municipal Government Germany Muenden“.
In Muenden the brother of (599) Herman Conrad in California and also of my Grandfather (596) Alexander Edmund lived. He was (605) Heinrich Thankmar Weissker, Mayor in Hann. Muenden.. His nephew Paul was the son of (600) Richard Clemens, and all these numbered men are part of the 12 sons of Otto Clement Weissker. Heinrich was the youngest (1854-1934) one, so it is possible he helped Paul to find a topic. I have never heard that Paul had the title of a doctor, only that he was a teacher in Gera. So I can look for details at home.
Behind the Library is Bryant Park on the way to my bus station. See how many people enjoy the summer evening at this small green patch! Beside me are some tables where you can play a game. Some do it with cards, and some play chess. At a table with chess pieces a young woman sits and asks me to be her partner. We play. A man comes and gives us a tag. The young woman tells me that we each have to pay $3.00 for half an hour. „But he doesn’t take it sharp“ she adds. We play with pleasure, and at the end we exchange our addresses. Her name is Vivian. She is a real New Yorker. We have to go now. We go together to the subway. I can not find my metro card, so she let me go on hers.
There are a lot of impressions in that three days. All that I did was only possible thanks to the friendly invitation of Nancy. I will not forget this. I had a taste of New York, a very good taste, so I hope I can come again.
There is a special reason I have to do so. There are Weisker graves in Brooklyn at the Woodlawn Cemetery, I intended to visit it- but then it was so warm I forgot all my good intentions. John in Texas gave me the detailed map, so it should be no problem to find the place. If meanwhile you go to New York and are interested let me know!
1. Triple A“ = American Automobile Association
2. The computer corrected this sentence to „Chagall inside lights the Metropolitan Opera foyer, so I can see the two great pictures“ Don’t believe all things the machine says ! (And Peggy says: „Amen“)!
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