FOR the first time since 2022, I have a “deep bench” in sports terms, a hefty and healthy backlog of photos from a number of different walks, which is surprising given the amount of rain, wind and otherwise lousy weather from this excuse for a winter we have had. As you know, a combination of maladies sidelined me for over a year between September 2022 and November 2023, but, fingers crossed, I’m back in action and actually looking a doing my first “live tour” since November 2019. I am five years older and we shall see what toll the years have wrought.
I recently walked 37th Street from west to east as part of the FNY Crosstown series. Since I don’t have much research available today, as a preview, here’s a stoop at 347 West 37th Street near 9th Avenue with a pair of handsome lighthouse-shaped lamps. There is a tradition that private mayoral residences would have a pair of lamps by the steps outside the entrance, and I can think of two that fit the bill, on St. Luke’s Place (Walker) and Gramercy Park west (Harper). However, I don’t know how the tradition got started, or even if it’s a tradition at all; the two I mentioned may merely be coincidental. Do you know? Comments are open.
It turns out that the place has a somewhat infamous past. Tom Miller, the Daytonian in Manhattan, has the history.
As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. Take a look at the new JOBS link in the red toolbar at the top of the page on the desktop version, as I also get a small payment when you view a job via that link.
3/20/24
5 comments
I believe tradition dates back to the first police force in New Amsterdam…the rattle watch, night patrols with men carrying green lanterns and rattles looking for fires.
That’s why police precincts have green lamps at the entrance.
The NYPD would have set up a manned permanent post in front of a Mayor’s home for protection. A logical extension of that post would have been the installation of a pair of lanterns with green glass, which would identify the address as a police post. This was all from the days before any radio communications, when visual cues were necessary and important.
Daytonian has more on this building
Given that this house is relatively close to the Hudson shoreline maybe a ship captain built it.