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

by Posted in Black & White, Statues Leave a comment
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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.

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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.

A new photobook

by Posted in Black & White, Reading Leave a comment
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I like to see my pictures in print. I don’t have a good enough printer to make prints, and even if did I wouldn’t have anywhere to put them. So, I make photobooks. This is my latest. It’s called “Teahouse”.

I usually use the Book module of Lightroom to do the layout and then upload to Blurb for printing. This time, however, I decided to try Blurb’s own standalone software Bookwright (for more on Bookwright see here). I like Bookwright more than the Lightroom Book Module and will use it for future books.

Halsey Pond Park is a 30-acre scenic and tranquil area that is located in Irvington, NY. Nestled between a golf course and private residences, it’s a peaceful oasis drawing families and dog walkers alike. The park is touted as Irvington’s best kept secret. Halsey Pond Park is open to village residents for passive recreation activities. New York State fishing license required for fishing (catch & release). Halsey Pond Park is open from dawn to dusk. The park is managed by the Irvington Recreation & Parks Department.

A wide 1/2 mile long crushed stone path circles the scenic pond, passing old stone walls, a dam, and the Beltzhoover Teahouse that overlooks the pond. A haven for birdwatchers, on any given day, you may see ducks, geese, herons, cormorants, warblers or even an Osprey.

Rochroane castle was built between 1902 and 1905 for Melchior S. Beltzhoover, an oil and cotton magnate from Natchez, Mississippi. The 44 room stone castle, once part of a 200-acre estate overlooking the Hudson River, was designed by Arthur. J. Manning, a New York City architect who also lived in Irvington. The stone was quarried from the land upon which it was built. This “Rhine castle” featured a spectacular stained-glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany that depicted the Hudson River view as seen from the castle.

Benjamin Halsey bought Rochroane castle in 1927, and renamed it “Grey Towers.” After Halsey’s death in 1956, his widow began donating portions of the estate to the Immaculate Conception Church, ending with the mansion itself in 1976. Gutted by fire a few months later, the mansion and 38 acres were sold to a developer who, in 1980, deeded Halsey Pond and its folly, sometimes called Halsey Teahouse, to the Village of Irvington in exchange for permission to remove Rochroane/Grey Towers and subdivide the rest of the property.

Beltzhoover Teahouse, the last remaining structure of the once-grand estate, is a little turn-of-the-century castle, with an open hexagonal tower featuring gothic arched windows and a roof terrace overlooking Halsey Pond.

Neglect and years of deterioration threatened the survival of this rare historic architectural resource. Beltzhoover Teahouse was preserved through the initiative and support of concerned citizens, the Village of Irvington Trustees and Irvington

Landmarks Preservation, Inc.

A Plaque reads:

Beltzhoover Teahouse on Halsey Pond

Largest remaining structure of “Rochrome”, the 200 acre Belzhoover Estate built in 1905. Melchior Beltzhoover was “President” of Irving ton from 1904 to 1916. The Halsey family owned a portion of the property from 1927-1976. The pond area became village land in 1980.

From 1994 to 1997 many citizens volunteered their time, expertise, and craftsmanship to save the structure. Preservation of the Teahouse was financed equally by private donations and Village funds.

Irvington Landmark Preservation, Inc.
1997

A Man in a Bar

by Posted in Black & White, People Leave a comment
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Not long ago I went into Manhattan to meet some friends/former colleagues for a drink. I arrived early and while waiting for my friends to arrive I noticed this man sitting at the bar, his head bowed over his beer.

You might think that this is just a picture of a sad, lonely old guy drowning his sorrows at the bar, but you’d be wrong. He was actually very animated. He seemed to be a friend of the bartender, and they had a fairly long and cheerful conversation while the man drank a single beer. After that he paid and left.

Just goes to show how photographs can, and do deceive even without AI and Photoshop.

Taken with a Sony RX100 MVII.

Miramont Court aka Brandywine

by Posted in Black & White, Buildings/Structures Leave a comment
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Isaac Newton Spiegelberg was born in 1859. His family were wholesale clothing merchants who had done well during the Civil War. Although born in the USA he was educated in Germany. Trained as an engineer, he worked for a while on Switzerland’s St. Gotthard Railway. He eventually returned to the US, where he worked on the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad, mostly in Oklahoma. In 1884 he moved away from engineering and took up brokerage with the firm of J & W Seligman. .

In 1909, he built a large (forty-nine room) mansion in the then popular Tudor Revival style on around twenty acres off Sleepy Hollow Road in Briarcliff Manor. He named it “Miramont Court” (Spiegel-mirror, Berg-Mountain). A later owner renamed it “Brandywine”

For the full story see a piece I just prepared for the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society: Miramont Court/Brandywine, the Estate of Isaac Newton Spiegelberg. Notebook 2025-3

I live about three miles from Miramont Court/Brandywine. On occasion I’ve walked there. It takes about an hour.

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Taken with a Sony RX100 VII.

At Ossining Station

by Posted in Abstracts, Black & White Leave a comment
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In the preceding post (See:At Scarborough Station) I mentioned that I had a choice of two stations when I was going into New York City. In that post I chose to go to Scarborough.

For this post I chose to go to Ossining.

As is often the case strong winds blow down the Hudson. On this day they were not only strong, but very cold so I sought refuge in one of the shelters on the platform. These shelters are like large glass boxes. There’s nowhere to sit, but there is a large button that you can press to get heat. These pictures were taken through the shelter windows.

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