Footprints in New York Quotes

“Americans honored Mazzini; the old-guard Protestants erected a politically charged “Spanish Columbus” on the Mall in 1892 as a rebuke to the Italian-Americans; lovers of poetry (including future assassin John Wilkes Booth) honored Shakespeare—the list goes on and on. After Hitler invaded Poland, the statue of Jagiello, which stood proudly in front of the Poland pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair, was orphaned. Eventually, it wended its way to the park too, to serve as a symbol of Polish resistance to Nazism.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Instead, civic groups raised money to honor their heroes. The German-Americans placed Beethoven and Schiller on the Mall; the Italian-”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“To that end, the five-year rule was implemented, stating that “a statue, commemorative of any person, shall not be placed in the Central Park . . . until after a period of at least five years from the death of the person represented.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The other traffic issue concerned the park’s users. Vaux and Olmsted came up with three categories of roadway that they simply called the “Walk” (for pedestrians), the “Ride” (for horseback riding), and the “Drive” (for carriages). All together, there are today about seventy miles of Walk, Ride, and Drive wending through the park. In the master plan, none of these paths ever touched. If the Drive crossed the Walk, a bridge was constructed to pass pedestrian traffic below the carriages. Similarly, the Ride was kept separate from the other paths so that horseback riders would never have to rear up suddenly when confronted with an obstacle.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The commissioners received thirty-three proposals; Vaux and Olmsted’s—entry no. 33—arrived on March 31, 1858, one day before the deadline. That deadline had already been pushed back a month, ostensibly to accommodate new specifications that had been added to the contest, but perhaps because Vaux and Olmsted weren’t ready. There’s no evidence the contest was rigged, but the second-, third-, and fourth-place winners also already”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“late 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted, short on cash and desperate for a job, had campaigned to be appointed park superintendent, a position that reported to Viele. Calvert Vaux, remembering Olmsted’s Walks and Talks of an American Farmer and his keen interest in the principles of park design, approached him to form a partnership. Vaux, the trained architect, brought to the table his drafting skills, his knowledge of construction, and a sense of how to sell a project.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“After New York State acquired the land for Central Park (it would remain a joint city/state park until a new city charter in 1870), the job of surveying the landscape fell to Egbert Viele, an engineer whose name has mostly been forgotten. Not only did Viele prepare the detailed topographical survey of the park, his 1865 map of Manhattan’s water courses and bedrock deposits is still being used by architects today.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Bryant died in 1878, ironically because he’d become the park’s go-to guy for dedications and ribbon cuttings. Bryant always showed up, speech in hand. At the unveiling of a bust of Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini on the park’s west side near the sheepfold, the sun was blazing hot; as Bryant sat on the dais, he began to feel weak. He gave his prepared remarks, then walked across the park to rest at his friend James Grant Wilson’s house. As he mounted the front stoop of Wilson’s home, he collapsed, fell backward, and struck his head. Bryant lingered a few days before dying from his injuries.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Central Park is home to fifty-two statues, fountains, and other monuments, but if you go looking for a commemoration of William Cullen Bryant, you’ll be out of luck.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“co-architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who often promoted himself at the expense of his partner, Calvert Vaux; and landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing, who would have designed the park if he hadn’t died in an accident just as the park was getting off the ground.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“that Central Park is the greatest piece of landscape design in America—perhaps in the world.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Poe’s literary importance is so vast that it’s hard to believe that he accomplished so much in such an abbreviated lifetime. With “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” he invented detective fiction and became master of the form. He remains the undisputed king of gothic horror. His poetry appealed to the masses and critics alike. His own criticism, while often stinging, peeled back the veneer on the old boy’s club that was American letters.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The Poes lived nine places in the city, seven of them in just a two-year period, a striking contrast to Gertrude Tredwell, who lived all of her ninety-three years in the same spot. The Poes moved as their finances and Virginia’s health required. She had contracted tuberculosis in 1842 in Philadelphia, coughing up blood one day as she played the piano. Poe spent much of the rest of her short life tending to her.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Other cities have stronger associations with him: Richmond, where he was raised, worked, and married Virginia (his thirteen-year-old first cousin); Philadelphia, where he wrote some of his best-known mystery and horror stories; and Baltimore,”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Edgar Allan Poe lived in New York three times: for a few weeks in 1831, after he’d purposefully gotten himself court-martialed from West Point; from 1837 to 1838, arriving during a disastrous, nationwide economic slump; and again from 1844 until his death five years later.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Poe did live on this block, farther down the street at 85 Amity Street (as West Third was known in Poe’s day). In the fall of 1845, he moved into a Greek Revival townhouse-turned-boardinghouse, where he shared rooms with his wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria Clemm.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Today, most people think nothing of the fact that every morning they will have to travel to another neighborhood—or a completely different city—for work; in the Tredwells’ generation, it was a novelty and another marker of status.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Mayor Hone knew better—he knew it was a park. Soon, the city purchased the land east and west of the former graveyard and began landscaping. By 1828, the pretense that Washington Square was a place for militia companies to drill had been almost entirely dropped.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“In a stroke of genius, the mayor found a solution. He asked the Common Council to annex the Greenwich Village potter’s field as a new military parade ground, which he would also use as the site for his party. The graveyard, which had closed the year before, had outlived its usefulness. And this wasn’t just a short-term fix. Hone was playing a long game, and this new “Washington Parade-Ground” was just the opening gambit.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“On taking office, Mayor Hone faced the first major challenge to the 1811 Commissioners’ Plan: a proposal to do away with the military parade ground at Madison Square that”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“At one point, after daughters Mary Adelaide and Elizabeth had married—but had not moved out—eighteen people lived in the house, including four servants and three small children.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“The refined air of Lafayette Place spread to the surrounding streets. Bond Street, Great Jones Street, and East 4th Street all began to lure wealthier New Yorkers to live “above Bleecker.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Today, only four of the original nine buildings remain, and they are in a sad state. The marble is crumbling and badly discolored. A hodgepodge of penthouse additions mar the roof line. Even standing across the street to take in all four buildings at once, I’m hard-pressed to see the elegance that was once there.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, resided at No. 39. Other residents included other Astor family members, a future two-term governor, and Julia Gardiner, who would soon marry President John Tyler.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Removed from the hubbub of Broadway and the Bowery, La Grange Terrace appealed to the city’s wealthiest citizens. The houses were gigantic by any standard—most had twenty-six rooms. Even though New York would not get running water until 1842, La Grange Terrace somehow had indoor plumbing, as well as central heat. John Jacob Astor purchased No. 37; Warren Delano, grandfather”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“wonderful reminder that as people raced to move to the Village that summer, they would have needed skilled craftsmen to build their homes. The work here—from the shutters to the six-over-six double-hung windows—speaks to Hyde’s skill. I can picture people getting off boats from the city at the Christopher Street pier, spying this house, and saying, “Yes—that’s what I want.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Soon after the church was dedicated, the 1822 quarantine was imposed and the population of the Village soared. That year, one block east of the church, a window-sash maker named William Hyde erected a two-story clapboard house, along with a small workshop in the back.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“At Grove and Hudson, Clement Clarke Moore erected the area’s first Episcopal Church, St. Luke in the Fields in 1821. It still stands, a rare example of a plain, Federal-style brick country”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“In the late eighteenth century, most of the land north of what would become Washington Square was owned by Stephen DeLancey’s son-in-law, Peter Warren (who, though later an admiral, was a pirate), and Captain Thomas Randall (also a pirate).”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers

“Washington Memorial Parade-Ground on July 4, 1826, it completely masks an even older history. Underneath the park’s asphalt and grass are the bodies of countless New Yorkers buried between 1797 and 1825.”
― James Nevius, Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers