Newsletter of the
Preservation Coalition of Erie County
(Home Page)
Spring 1999....TABLE of CONTENTS.....Vol.
22 No 3
Preservation Nation – News Briefs
How to Control Big Boxes? Don’t Give Them Big Sites
Large retail spaces that are renovated as regular malls often fail because people
come downtown to walk along Main Street, not to have a mall experience, according
to the New York Main Street Alliance. As big box retailers continue to abandon their
stores and leave communities with a difficult space to fill, the Alliance suggests
that communities may want to think about limiting the size of retail buildings in
the first place.
State Accepts Bids on Psych Centers
New York State, eager to shed surplus psychiatric centers, has accepted four bids
for Long Island facilities. The H.H. Richardson-designed center in Buffalo was removed
from the process after concerns were raised by the local officials. Bids for the
Hudson River Psychiatric Center in Poughkeepsie, with several buildings by Frederick
Clarke Withers, and the Wilton Developmental Center in Saratoga County are still
being evaluated.
The four psychiatric center bids accepted are Pilgrim State Psychiatric Ctr., a 600-acre
property at the intersection of the Long Island Expressway and the Sagtikos State
parkway. It sold for $32 million. It is the largest undeveloped tract of land in
western Suffolk County. The Long Island Developmental Center, a 408-acre site in
Melville, sold for $16.1 million. 44 acres of land at the Central Islip Psychiatric
Center sold for $2.2 million. The Bernard Fineson Developmental Center in Corona
was bid at for $4.61 million.
The Nation’s 3 Most Endangered Smells
There are usually 5 to 10 criteria under which local preservation ordinances consider
a building or neighborhood for landmark status. But what to do about the ones that
get away?
Aren’t the smells wafting from a backyard bakery, like Christiano’s or Balestreri’s
an olfactory cultural resource? The smell of carloads of roasting Cheerios that lends
so much to the atmosphere of the Cobblestone District and the Old First Ward?
As a public service, we provide this list of the Nation’s 3 Most Endangered Smells:
- The Drugstore Smell, a combination of outgassing medications, liniments,
unguents, and gauze. This smell is heading toward extinction with the bloating of
drugstores into big boxes, in which the quaint smells dating back to mortar and pistil
are overwhelmed by the non-smells of aisles of trinkets.
- The 5&10 Smell. One of Frank Woolworth’s and Seymour Knox’s unheralded
inventions was “The Wall of Smell” which struck one upon entering their emporia.
It was a combination of popcorn, candy counter, fried chicken, and hot dogs, with
hints of acetone and undertones of chocolate. It was like the county fair all year
‘round. Sure, Target and Hill’s sell hot dogs up front, but the complex bouquet,
aged in place, is missing.
- The Sidewalk Garage Smell. Automobile repair and filling stations used
to open onto sidewalks. This is a remnant of the transition from livery stables to
parking-lot-fronted modernism. The smell is evident only in warm months, when the
garage doors are left open. Then, like the livery stables of old, cool, damp pillows
of air tumble out onto the sidewalk, redolent of dripped oil, overcooked coffee,
rubber tires, girlie calendars, and grease-stained parts catalogs. Ahhhh.
Tenement Museum Becomes Trust Property, National Park
Site
In November the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City was designated part
of the National Park Service as a National Historic Area. In October, it was adopted
by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The 10-year-old museum is the first
site of the Trust which was not the home of a High or Mighty personage. The building,
constructed in 1863 and occupied above the ground floor until 1935, is being restored
apartment by apartment, sometimes with the help of people who lived in it as children.
Over 10,000 people from 25 different countries lived there at one time or another.
Philadelphia Boosts Conversion of Office Buildings
Philadelphia’s 5-year tax abatement program to encourage the reuse of commercial
buildings for residential development has led to about a dozen buildings entering
the program in the first two years, which is due to expire in 2002. The tax abatement
allows developers to avoid for 10 years any tax increase based on the higher value
that results from redevelopment. It applies to non-residential buildings that are
more than 50 years old and more than two-thirds vacant. The projects in the pipeline
will result in about 1,000 new apartments in center city Philadelphia.
“Allentown Clay,” “Porter Plum,” and “White Buffalo” in
National Paint Promo
More fame for the house at 369 Porter Avenue in Buffalo. First, it was featured in
the popular book “Painted Ladies Revisited.” Then the folks at Martin Senour paints
(owned by Sherwin Williams, which also owns Pratt & Lambert and controls 48%
of the national paint market) hooked up with Painted Ladies™ (Yes, it is now a trademark,
which means the Preservation Coalition will have to change the name of its Painted
Ladies Tour.) to create the Painted Ladies Collection.
There are eight houses nationally which inspired the mixologists at Martin Senour.
The folks at Costello Paint - the Official Supplier to Our House - gave us the brochure
and the dirty little secret that the paint formula is not quite the same.
While at Costello’s, we spied a brochure for the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection. It
seems that in 1955, the paint company commissioned FLW to develop a palette. He came
up with 27 principal colors and nine accents. Hoping to ride the burgeoning interest
in the Greatest American Architect (in his own estimation), Martin Senour has revived
the line. No, there is no “Gray Cliff.”
- Tim Tielman
Killing Yourself with Government Money
Calajoharie: fine village streetscape threatened by government
largesse
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Canajoharie, NY, is a fine old town in the Mohawk Valley. It has limestone houses
from the 1700s and stone and brick commercial blocks from the 1800s (the stone for
the Brooklyn Bridge was quarried here). It has a rich history that includes being
the home of the Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant and his influential sister Molly Brant,
the place where Susan B. Anthony taught school, and a shrewd 19th century industrialist
who made millions by popularizing the paper bag and investing in the Beech-Nut Packing
Company.
Canajoharie’s principal street, Church St., is anchored at one end by the Beech Nut
plant and the Library and Art Gallery bequeathed the town by the Bartlett Arkell,
son of James Arkell, the paper bag king, and first president of Beech-Nut. The village
high school is behind the Art Gallery.
45 years ago the Thruway came through, shaving off part of the High School’s playing
fields while paralleling the Mohawk. The village developed rapidly after the canal
passed through, its streets following the topography established by a picturesque
winding creek, the Mohawk River, and the uplands to the south, which slope up barely
three blocks up Church Street.
A model industrial village, as it was called. Beech-Nut has long been swallowed up
by various larger companies, but the main plant is still open, although it only runs
one shift now. That was the beginning of a problem.
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A management genius thought it
would be even more efficient if the plant ran only four days a week with 10-hour
days. The workers went for it.
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A management genius thought it would be even more efficient if the plant ran only
four days a week with 10-hour days. The workers went for it. Immediately, the village
restaurants and retail stores took a hit: With a 10-hour day, the lunch hour was
cut to 30 minutes, and most everyone elects to stay in the plant instead of strolling
to Church & Main. A bake shop closed. People didn’t dawdle after work, either:
kids to feed, weary bones to rest. There was still the high school. Teachers and
students alike often ate at Church & Main, bought a magazine at the newsstand,
ran into other townsfolk. Same thing happened before and after school, since many
people could simply walk the couple blocks to from their homes.
Then the state made a limited-time offer to the town: it would pay an additional
10% on top of the usual 80%, for a new high school to revitalize the town. Suddenly
the Thruway seemed unacceptably close to the Colonial Revival school. A place on
the hill outside the village was targeted, a vote held. Knowing free money when they
see it, the citizens approved the new school overwhelmingly.
Then HUD comes to town, offering revitalization money for any old thing. Well, Mr.
Mayor? The mayor and the three council members want to acquire and demolish the defining
brick building, pictured above, at the northeast corner of Church & Main, to
prepare the site for redevelopment. It is only about 15,000 square feet, too small
for even a convenience store of the modern ilk. The business people want to save
it, believe it or not. But the mayor believes in his bold vision. How else to spend
free money?
Interview with a Pod Person
We are not making this up. Here is a letter written to the New York Times. It is
a reminder of how profound anti-urbanism is in American life, and that many people
transfer their personal prejudices from people to the buildings and urban landscapes
they inhabit. The writer was responding to a previous letter by John Upman on “protecting”
the urban landscape of Orlando. See how many code words you can find:
John P. Upman didn’t do enough justice to the efforts of
Orlando, Fla., to protect its urban landscape. Much of its effort has been concentrated
in the poor, downtown section of its southwest quarter.
In the 1980s, Orlando relieved overcrowding in that neighborhood by replacing
more than 1,000 renters in slum dwellings with trees, the Orlando Arena and thousands
of parking spaces…
In the 1990s, Orlando’s plans have been more ambitious. The city has continued its
demolition projects to rid the area of fleabag hotels and replace them with neat
homeless shelters. Planners envisioned an "African quarter" of black-owned
businesses in an entertainment district with its own African-American jazz museum,
surrounded by affordable homes on tree-lined streets. The original plans have not
materialized, but a block in the area is brightened by old-time street lights and
paving.”
Let’s see, that’s wiping out the homes (and stores and services) of 1,000 disposable
people for a mega-building and acres of parking lots. Then move on and eliminate
the only cheap private housing available - rendering the tenants homeless - and plan
to toss the people into publicly and charitably funded housing (Beg, so we can be
contemptuous; be grateful, so we can be fulfilled). Tell those you will dispossess
that they can actually serve as a colorful tourist attraction.
The letter writer is from Gainesville (Slogan: “Segregation through Zoning”), which
is not so much a city as a carbuncular conglomeration of strip malls and cul-de-sacs.
Lest we feel smug in buffalo, recall what we did to the Lower East Side and Lower
West Side.