RECENTLY, my pal from my Macy’s era Tim Skoldberg pointed out that the universal peace symbol formed in bricks at the East 10th Street entrance of St. Mark’s Church at Second Avenue found on the inner gatefold cover of 1970s-era folk rocker Melanie’s “Candles in the Rain” album is still in place, and I wandered over and got this shot….er, photograph of it.
Melanie Safka (1947-2024), a native of Astoria, Queens, moved with her parents to Long Branch, New Jersey and began singing in clubs there and eventually in Greenwich Village. Her music caught on with Columbia Records, who released her first LP, and she enjoyed hits in France and the Netherlands and in 1969 sang at the Woodstock music festival, which inspired her hit “Lay Down Candles in the Rain.” Her biggest hit, “Brand New Key” came in 1971-72 and at one time, she had three singles in one Top 40 chart, an unusual feat in that era, made possible by a label switch. After her initial fame died down, she continued to write and perform until her death at age 76.
I’m unsure when the brick peace symbol first appeared at St. Mark’s, but it can be no earlier than 1958, when the first peace symbols appeared at a nuclear disarmament rally at Trafalgar Square in London. The symbol was invented by Gerald Holtom and the symbol, a circle with a vertical line with two diagonals issuing from it, is supposed to be a graphic representation of the semaphore signals for “N” and “D” for “nuclear disarmament.”
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St. Mark’s In The Bowery, at 2nd Avenue and East 10th, is one of the oldest surviving buildings in Manhattan, dating to 1799, with additions in 1828 (the steeple) and 1858. Most of the church had to be rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1978. It stands on the chapel site of Peter Stuyvesant’s 17th Century estate (the Director-General is interred in a vault in the churchyard, as his great-grandson sold the property to the Episcopal Church in 1793) and is turned to face Stuyvesant Street, once the driveway to the estate. St. Mark’s claims to be the oldest site of continuous worship in NYC. St. Marks’ rectory is a force in neighborhood preservation and is an enthusiastic patron for the arts. NYC mayor and diarist Philip Hone and NYS Governor and US Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins are also interred in the churchyard.
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11/6/24