"Our Saviour's Atonement" Lutheran Church
       178 Bennett Avenue
       Three photos © OSA
 
Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church was formed by the merger, in 1927, of two congregations: the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement and the Church of Our Saviour, off-shoots of St. John's Lutheran Church of Christopher Street that emerged in the 1890s. The cornerstone of the Parish House was laid in 1928. The original plans, spoiled by the 1929 stock market crash, included a Gothic sanctuary and hospital. The Parish House was built of fieldstone with a slate roof and boasted a full gymnasium, a bowling alley, a sewing room, a seven-room parsonage and separate apartments for a sexton and a deaconess. The OSA Lutheran Church is now the primary tenant of the building, renamed the Cornerstone Center, and leases space to many community groups.
 

  Beth Am, The People's Temple
 
Beth Am, The People's Temple, is a small, active Progressive Reform congregation in Northern Manhattan with regular Shabbat services and a multitude of programs and services. The congregation, which is affiliated with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, is led by Rabbi Karen Bookman Kaplan and meets at the Cornerstone Center, 178 Bennett Avenue (see photographs immediately above).
 

  Bennett Park and outline of Fort Washington
       183rd-185th Sts. at Ft. Washington Ave.
       © Photo Michael Crewsdon/Margaret Mittelbach
 
Here on Manhattan's highest point the Revolutionary Battle of New York was lost.  On 16 November 1776 Fort Washington, commanded by Colonel Robert Magaw, fell with great loss of life and munitions to General William Howe's British and Hessian troops, enabling the British to re-occupy the city until their destructive withdrawal at war's end at the Treaty of Paris in 1783.  Nothing but paving stones in Bennett Park marking its former outline remains of the fort, which had been built by the Continental Army at the top of this western ridge.  (General George Washington's headquarters had been at nearby Mount Morris.)  For more history, visit the Library of Congress' "Today in History" and The History Place.

  Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation
       551 Ft. Washington Ave. at 185 St.
       © Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation
 
The Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation was founded in Harlem in 1906. In the 1930-40s this liberal-reform Congregation, which in 1927 purchased land at 161st Street and Fort Washington Avenue for a new building, grew with the arrival of many German refugees. In its current location since 1973, the Congregation offers a variety of spiritual, cultural and community-oriented programs.

  Castle Village
       120-200 Cabrini Blvd., 181-186 Sts.
       © 1997 Castle Village
 
These five cruciform apartment buildings were designed by George F. Pelham II, son of the Hudson View Gardens architect, and built in 1938 on the site of the Paterno estate.
Forgotton New York has some interesting old photographs.

  NURTUREart
       160 Cabrini Blvd., Suite 134
       © NURTUREart

"I did not find the world desolate when I entered,
and as my fathers planted before I was born,
so do I plant for those who will come after me."

- Talmud

NURTUREart is a NY State licensed, federally tax-exempt organization [501(c) (3)] founded in April, 1997 by George J. Robinson. All NURTUREart members are volunteers.
NURTUREart is dedicated to helping promising career-track emerging fine artists and curators to become full-time, self-supporting professionals. Our name is our mission.
Currently, NURTUREart maintains a registry of more than 300 portfolios, and organizes juried group exhibitions of its Registry Artists' work at host sites in the New York City metropolitan area.
NURTUREart jurors and curators are professionals from the fine arts community. NURTUREart also assists individual artists with career development advice, and presents artist's talks, slide lectures, workshops, symposia, portfolio reviews and other enjoyable and educational events for artists, curators, and the general public.
By way of introduction, visit www.nurtureart.org.

  Hudson View Gardens
       116 Pinehurst, 183-185 Sts.
       © Hudson View Gardens/Stuart Bronson
This complex of fifteen Tudor-inspired buildings was designed by architect George F. Pelham, Sr. and built in 1924-25 on five acres overlooking the Hudson River. One of Manhattan's first cooperative developments, it offers 353 apartments and private gardens, and is located across the street from Bennett Park. The gardens are briefly mentioned in Andrew Dolkart's The Cottages.
 

  The Paterno Trivium
       187th at Pinehurst & Cabrini Aves.
       © Photo by Leslie Day
This small triangle, where 187th Street meets Pinehurst and Cabrini Avenues, has recently been planted with mountain cranberries (Vaccinium vitis idæa magus) and three hawthorn trees (Cratægus viridus "Winter King"). The mountain cranberries will spread to cover the ground. This newly created trivium was designed by landscape architects David Dew Bruner (who was in charge of all interior and exterior landscaping for the World Trade Center), Andrew Dolkart (author of Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development, Columbia University Press, 1998), Thomas Navin and Lynn Torgerson. The latter is also involved in the 187th Street Frieze Project. A member of the Paterno family graciously donated the bench (see Dave Seroy's pictures). The Trivium is ponsored by Greenstreets. Please e-mail if you have comments or questions.
 

  Yeshiva University and Museum
       500 W. 185th St.
       © Yeshiva University
The school was started in 1886 by immigrant Orthodox Jews as an elementary school for boys in order to educate them in the Eastern European tradition.  The school, which had grown into Yeshiva College, moved in 1929 from the Lower East Side to its Washington Heights location at West 186th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  The current campus was built during President Bernard Revel's tenure.  The College grew to include several campuses and in 1946 incorporated as a university.  In 1954, also during Revel's tenure, the first women's college run by Orthodox Jews was established.  The University is the largest and oldest American university under Jewish auspices.  Tel. 212-960-5400.

  The Pumpkin House
       16 Chittenden Ave. at 186th St.
       © Douglas Elliman
Differing accounts exist of the origin of this unique three-story brick townhouse, known as the Pumpkin House. The AIA Guide to New York City (3rd ed., p.466) states that it was the guest house of the former Paterno estate. However, according to a New York Times report (12/5/99 Real Estate p.7), the land on which this house stands was in the estate of James Gordon Bennett, the original publisher of the NY Herald. Bennett is said to have sold the tract in 1923 to a Cleveland Walcutt, who had the house designed by Franklin Pagan and Harold Verna. Construction on the house, its the steel-framed base cantilevered far over the Henry Hudson Parkway, finished in 1925.
The windows of the west façade, reflecting the orange light of the setting sun, bring to mind a jack-o-lantern. The house offers breathtaking views, from the Manhattan skyline to the south, across the Hudson RIver to the Palisades to the west and the Tappan Zee Bridge to the north.
 

  Cabrini Terrace Cooperative Apartments
       900 W. 190th St. at Ft. Washington Ave.
       © Cabrini Terrace Owners Corp. / Roger Tashjian
 
This photograph, looking up from the Hudson River, shows the sixteen-story complex's elevated location. The cooperative building has 217 apartments and 24-hour concierge service.
(The row of buildings in front is on Chittenden Avenue and not part of the Cabrini Terrace complex.)
 

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