North Salem

by Posted in Black & White, Buildings/Structures Leave a comment
NorthSalem-1-of-8

North Salem is located in the northeast corner of Westchester County. Above: Once the Purdy homestead (1775). Now a restaurant: Purdy’s Farmer and the Fish.

“In the 1730s, European settlers began to create a self-sufficient farming community out of the forested wilderness of the Titicus River Valley. The Keelers, Purdys, Van Scoys, Wallaces and other first families built their homes on parcels of the oblong (the eastern edge of town; ownership disputed with Connecticut) and on Stephen Delancey’s share of Van Cortlandt Manor. The Oblong portion here and in Lewisboro was the original town of Salem, while the Van Cortlandt Manor section was known as Delanceytown. Eventually, Salem was divided into Upper and Lower Salem. In 1788, the Town of North Salem was incorporated to include both Delanceytown and Upper Salem.

In the 1840s, the hamlets of Purdys and Croton Falls sprang up around two stations on the new Harlem Railroad. Dairy farmers thrived, using the new iron horse to get products to market. Imaginative entrepreneurs imported exotic animals and started America’s first circuses. Others created summer camps and vacation communities around Peach Lake.

When the New York City water supply was expanded in the 1890s, new dams and reservoirs displaced hundreds of people in North Salem and surrounding towns. The entire hamlet of Purdys was moved or torn down, along with farms and residences in the Titicus Valley and parts of Croton Falls.

For more information on each of these buildings see here:

NorthSalem-2-of-8

Doorway to the Purdy Homestead/Farmer and the Fish.

Delancy Hall

Delancey Hall (1765-1773).

NorthSalem-4-of-8

Once the Lobdell House (c. 1848). Now “The Annexe” housing a number of town offices.

NorthSalem-5-of-8

Former Lobdell House – Hickory Glen (1883). Now the home of still more town offices.

NorthSalem-6-of-8

Balanced Rock (Glacial period). Is it a man-made artifact or a stunning accident of nature?

NorthSalem-7-of-8

Above (and below): The Stebbins B. Quick Carriage Barn (c. 1869).

NorthSalem-8-of-8

Taken with a Sony Nex 5n and Sony E 55–210 mm F4.5-6.3 OSS

Mariandale

by Posted in Black & White, Buildings/Structures, Machines, Statues Leave a comment
Mariandale-1-of-22

At Mariandale.

“Situated on 61 wooded acres, The Center at Mariandale is a spiritual retreat center founded on the mission of the Dominican Sisters of Hope, with care of the Earth as its central tenet. The retreat center offers programs and events centered around spirituality and love for Nature and the Earth. They encourage our community and retreatants to find ways to lighten our footprint on the Earth, and to practice land and environmental justice.

It sponsors retreats and programs in numerous areas, including spirituality, contemplative practices, social and environmental justice, interfaith dialogue, the arts, wellness of body, mind, and spirit, and more.
The center also welcomes nonprofit groups and organizations for day or overnight workshops, retreats, and conferences. Our guests enjoy the quiet, serene environment at the center.”

When I first started collecting old film cameras, this was one of the first places I visited to try them out. At that time there were some lovely, old barn-like buildings on the property. There were also a few interesting old, rusting farm implements. Unfortunately, they have now gone. For a couple of pictures taken at the time take a look at the bottom of this post.

Mariandale-2-of-22

Mariandale-3-of-22

Mariandale-4-of-22

Mariandale-5-of-22

Mariandale-6-of-22

Mariandale-7-of-22

Mariandale-8-of-22

Mariandale-9-of-22

Mariandale-10-of-22

Mariandale-11-of-22

Mariandale-12-of-22

Mariandale-13-of-22

Mariandale-14-of-22

Mariandale-15-of-22

Mariandale-16-of-22

Mariandale-17-of-22

Mariandale-18-of-22

Mariandale-19-of-22

Mariandale-20-of-22

Mariandale-21-of-22

Mariandale-22-of-22

oldmariandalepics-1-of-2

oldmariandalepics-2-of-2

Taken with Sony A77II and Minolta 35-105 f3.5-4.5 except for the last two, which were taken with a a Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory (KMZ), Zorki 4 and KMZ 50mm f2 Jupiter 8.

Meeting Alexander in New York City for dinner – A couple of statues

by Posted in Black & White, Statues Leave a comment
innycforlunchwithalexander-15-of-45

These two statues stand in the UN garden. I still have a UN retiree pass so I could have gone inside to take a picture. But I couldn’t be bothered. I rather like as seen from First Avenue.

The larger of the two is called Good Defeats Evil:

Good Defeats Evil is a bronze sculpture by Soviet/Russian painter and sculptor Zurab Tsereteli (1934 – ) who is well-known for large structures.

Seen here is a human defeating a dragon (you can’t see it in the picture), as in the story of Saint George and the Dragon. The tale tells of St. George slaying a dragon that demanded sacrifices from nearby villagers. Once the villagers ran out of livestock, they offered humans and when a well-loved princess was selected to be sacrificed, the saint rescues the lady. Here we have a new interpretation of the story.

An allegorical St. George, astride a rearing horse, drives his lance through a dragon. The dragon is not the mythological beast of early Christian tradition, but rather represents the vanquishing of nuclear war through the historic treaty between the Soviet Union and the United States. Created as a monument to peace, the sculpture is composed of parts of actual United States and Soviet missiles. Accordingly, the dragon is shown lying amid actual fragments of these weapons, the broken pieces of Soviet SS-20 and U.S. Pershing missiles.  

The sculpture was unveiled on the 5th of October 1990 in a ceremony attended by U.S. Secretary of State James Baker (1930 – ), Soviet Foreign Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze (1928 – 2014), UN Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar (1920 – 2020) and the artist, Zurab Tsereteli.

The sculpture commemorates the 1987 signing of the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Nuclear Missiles (INF Treaty) and was given in celebration of the 45 Session of the General Assembly in 1990.

innycforlunchwithalexander-16-of-45

The other, the smaller looking one to the right in the first picture), is, I think the Peace Statue. IF so, it’s actually much larger than it appears in the picture. The Science Times had this to say about it:

The United Nation’s symbol of peace can be seen at its headquarters in New York City. The massive monument features a woman riding a horse with an olive branch in one hand, symbolically leading the nations toward peace.

The Peace Monument is revered as a significant peace symbol at the UN’s main office. The sculpture’s 33-foot-high pedestal is built of marble from the Croatian island of Bra, and it was produced in bronze in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1954.

Antun Augustinčić, a well-known Croatian sculptor, produced the sculpture. The monument was created and erected in 1954 by Yugoslavia, a country then, in front of the UN building in New York. The nation tasked Augustini with carrying out this concept because it wished to present the UN with a gift highlighting its dedication to maintaining international peace.

He proposed a statue of an equestrian that represents world peace. Augustinčić added, “peace would be far better protected if the decision rested with women instead of men.” As for the use of the horse, a war animal, the artist said that he opted to use it because “We must fight for peace.”

The artist visited New York in 1952 to select the monument’s site. Architect Wallace K. Harrison, the Director of Planning for the UN Headquarters, and Augustinčić agreed that the memorial should be erected in front of the General Assembly building alongside the northern entrance, where hundreds of visitors pass daily. However, the newly elected UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld, reportedly disagreed and changed the monument’s location. Hammarskjöld wanted it to be installed at the end of the big lawn close to the East River, about 200 meters away from the place originally agreed, which the artist had in mind when he added the final touches to the monument.

Augustin was shocked by the decision, which he found to be exceedingly uncomfortable, but the monument was moved despite his objections. The memorial was eventually placed 40 meters away from the original place. However, even though the monument had greater space at the new location, Augustinčić’s concept of the monument’s organic relationship to the General Assembly building was lost.

The Peace Monument was unveiled on Dec. 2, 1954. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, chairman of the Ninth UN General Assembly Eelco Van Klefens, and Head of the Yugoslav Permanent Mission to the UN, Dr. Jože Brilej, were present at the ceremony. Artist Augustinčić could not attend because he was working on a new project, Monument to the Victims of Fascism, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Taken with a Sony RX10 IV.