TUDOR CITY SERVICE covers

 A look back at the origins of Tudor City's monthly magazine, when it first appeared in 1934 as Tudor City Service. Although rather bland reading, it served its purpose and ran until 1938 when it changed its name to Tudor City View. Here are some of its earliest covers:  

To make up for last week's post, The Hermitage as it should be seen.

The Entrance to The Manor in aqua.

The Tulip Festival gets called out on the cover.

Location, location, location.

At times, they would even put a random painting on the cover. What the heck! 

More about Tudor City Service here and Tudor City View here.

HATFIELD HOUSE, THE CLOISTER, and THE HERMITAGE. . . almost

A return to the collaboration of the Works Progress Administration and the New York City Tax Department to compile a photographic record of all the buildings in the five boroughs. This group of photos shows part of Tudor City's buildings, and only just a part.

This first photograph depicts the awning of 304 E. 41st Street ‒ Hatfield House ‒ as well as two buildings to its west. Today, this anonymous duo has been replaced by Turken House, sponsoring Turkish students in New York.   

We now move to E. 43rd Street. The Cloister (far right) is overshadowed by the four-story building next door that takes up most of the picture. It was eventually demolished and replaced by the headquarters of the Consulate General of Malaysia.      

Then there is The Hermitage, which plays second fiddle to the 43rd Street rowhouses and the huge trunk of a car.

In this second shot, the camera has moved up the street for a more pleasing composition. At the top is the Tudor City sign.

The sequence ends with a shot of the other rowhouse on the western side of The Hermitage. It went away ‒ along with the adjoining Hospital for Special Surgery ‒ when the Ford Foundation headquarters replaced it in 1967.

Welcome to the HOTEL TUDOR

Today we look at a piece of Hotel Tudor advertising that's a bit offbeat. It promises Tudor hospitality without going into great detail about what that exactly entails. Dating from the early 1960s, it was a time when anything British was suddenly hip.           

It does get credit for calling Tudor City "beautiful" though.

More MISCELLANY

Once again, a few interesting bits of trivia.

From last Sunday's Post comes a story about the vicissitudes of New York's real estate market, entitled Prices Growing, Growing, Gone! The study of the market over the last ten years, it was a uplifting tale ‒ particularly if 0ne is a real estate agent ‒ except for a couple of straggling neighborhoods.

The main straggler, according to the Post, is "Tudor City, an apartment complex that consumes the area between East 40th and East 43rd streets and First and Second avenues. It took the greatest hit, with prices falling 17% from $402,000 in 2014 to $335,000 last year." 

Thanks to Vanessa Groce for the tip.

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

Photograph around 1929, showcasing the two Tudor City signs. Then there was another sign on The Woodstock's western wall. . .

WOODSTOCK TOWER is all we can make out, however.

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

The oil painting, Festival of St. Roch by E. Debat-Ponsan, hung in the lounge of Hotel Tudor in the 1950s; this postcard celebrated it.

⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺⸺

Finally, John McKean calls for an emergency meeting in his newsletter of January 25, 1981. "We still can win, but we must fight!"

Anatomy of No. 5

Today's Anatomy session concerns a Percy Loomis Sperr photograph of No. 5, evidenced by his embossed name at the bottom, and no doubt commissioned by his boss, the New York Public Library, in 1929. More on Sperr here.   

In the center of the photograph is the four-story house, 8 Prospect Place, that was preventing the development on the west side of the street. We see its rear side, and on the bottom two floors, there is some sort of circular design repeated. There is no indication of what this could be. Could it be an early start on a beer garden?       

Showing the lumber piled up near the main entrance of No. 5.

Tracking upward, there is still much to do. The windows all appear to be in, but otherwise it's rather dark and foreboding.

On East 40th Street, the construction shed at the corner of 1st Avenue suggests they are nowhere near to finishing. 

Beyond the area that French controls, the landscape dramatically drops twenty feet. 

Lastly, a look at the roof. What appears to be No. 5's weathervane is sheathed in protective scaffolding before permanent placement. More about it here. 

MISCELLANY Again

 Here are the latest odds and ends to digest in our ongoing Miscellany series.

First up is this mini-ad, part of a series that ran in 1936. We have seen the other five ads before, but never this one.

The tall building is the Prospect Hill Apartments, the building that is partly credited with convincing Fred French to take a chance with Tudor City. To its left, rowhouses on 41st Street about to undergo demolition.

The parks are now home to several antique cast iron urns, once owned by Billy Rose, the theatrical impresario who lived in a No. 25 penthouse; the urns decorated his outdoor terrace. When Rose left Tudor City in the 1940s, he sold them to the Walliser family. Mr. Walliser grew fond of the urns and said they belonged in the parks, and they were given to the Greens as a gift by his widow, Mrs. Ursula Walliser, after his death. Above left, in the South Park and right, the North Park.

This item was gleaned from the newsletter of Tudor City Greens. Read the latest issue here.

  

Finally, one of the rare advertisements for No. 2, Tudor Gardens, upon its opening in the fall of 1955.   

Instagramable

A tip of the hat to the inspired Instagrammers whose work makes up this week's post.

by gabriellerosenberg

by Lucas_D_in_NYC         

by robertvizziniphoto         

by amshulem                       

         by i.am.demi.cat