The “experiment” that is City College

When City College opened in 1847—back then it was called the Free Academy, just one brick building on Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street—the concept of higher education open to all was completely new.

 ”The experiment is to be tried whether the highest education can be given to the masses; whether the children of the people, the children of the whole people, can be educated; and whether an institute of learning of the highest grade can be successfully controlled by the popular will, not by the privileged few but by the privileged many,” said Horace Webster, the schools first president.

Some things have changed in the ensuring century and a half: What started as one college is now a sprawling system of more than 20 different campuses and institutes of higher learning. Tuition has been charged since 1976. And in 1951, women were admitted to the flagship campus (below), which relocated to Harlem in 1906.

The flagship campus is a Gothic, serene place situated on a hill overlooking the city. It’s on Convent Avenue and 138th Street and is definitely worth checking out.

What’s playing at Brooklyn’s Opera House?

If it were November 26 and we were in the 1890s, it would be The Village Postmaster, strangely described in this Brooklyn Daily Eagle ad “as full of good, healthy fun as an egg is of meat.” 

The Grand Opera House used to be between Fulton and Livingston Streets in downtown Brooklyn. Check out that great old 4-digit phone number:

A beautiful day on the Boulevard

Morningside Heights looks like a country village in this 1895 photo, facing south from 114th Street. 

“The Boulevard” referred to the main artery bridging 59th Street to Harlem. Eventually it was absorbed into the northern extension of Broadway; those wide roads and the tree-lined center mall are still recognizable. No more bicyclists riding leisurely though.

Who watches you on the streets of New York

Some faces are beautiful and angelic, like this one on a dingy storefront on West 14th Street:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then there are the sad-eyed and frightful. This man stands watch outside a tenement in the East 70s:

Writer murders writer in the East Village

Jack Henry Abbott was a career criminal who had spent the majority of his life in prison. But in the late 1970s, he made one important connection on the outside: Norman Mailer. 

Mailer and Abbott corresponded though letters. Mailer, impressed with Abbott’s writing style, agreed to help him publish In the Belly of the Beast, reprinting those letters detailing Abbott’s life behind bars.

In the Belly of the Beast met with critical acclaim. Soon after it was published, Mailer and other literati sponsored Abbott’s early parole. Mailer gave Abbott a job as his research asisstant, and Abbott moved into a halfway house on East Third Street. He was partying it up with writers and Barnard coeds.

He wasn’t free to party for long. Just six weeks later, on July 18, 1981, he stopped in for breakfast at Binibon, a 24-hour cafe and artists’ hangout on Second Avenue and Fifth Street. 

 Abbott got up to look for a rest room, but a 22-year-old waiter, Richard Adan—son-in-law of Binibon’s owner and an aspiring writer—told him that customers were prohibited from using it.

Abbott began arguing with Adan, and the two went outside, where Abbott stabbed Adan to death.

Caught in Louisiana a few weeks later, Abbott was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life. He committed suicide in prison in 2002.

Mailer later said he felt “completely responsible” for Abbott’s actions. 

Now the Madras Cafe, this was Binibon in 1981, at 79 Second Avenue

More old ads that are fading fast

This Einhorn’s ad is on the side of a building on Fulton and Gold Streets. Not sure what was sold there, but we know it wasn’t expensive:

A reminder to “Simoniz” your car in West Chelsea. Remember when West Chelsea was home to so many garages and gas stations?

This Lindsay Laboratories ad is on Fulton Street in downtown Brooklyn. I can’t imagine that they’re still in business amid all the discount stores and fast-food franchises: