Antiquity in Gotham

The Ancient Architecture of New York City

Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis

• Publisher: Empire State Editions
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781531502423, 9780823293841
• eBook ISBN: 9780823293858
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architettura
• Subtopic: Storia dell'architettura

The first detailed study of "Neo-Antique" architecture applies an archaeological lens to the study of New York City's structures Since the city's inception, New Yorkers have deliberately and purposefully engaged with ancient architecture to design and erect many of its most iconic buildings and monuments, including Grand Central Terminal and the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Brooklyn, as well as forgotten gems such as Snug Harbor on Staten Island and the Gould Memorial Library in the Bronx. Antiquity in Gotham interprets the various ways ancient architecture was re-conceived in New York City from the eighteenth century to the early twenty-first century. Contextualizing New York's Neo-Antique architecture within larger American architectural trends, author Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis applies an archaeological lens to the study of the New York buildings that incorporated these various models in their design, bringing together these diverse sources of inspiration into a single continuum. Antiquity in Gotham explores how ancient architecture communicated the political ideals of the new republic through the adaptation of Greek and Roman architecture, how Egyptian temples conveyed the city's new technological achievements, and how the ancient Near East served many artistic masters, decorating the interiors of glitzy Gilded Age restaurants and the tops of skyscrapers. Rather than classifying neo-classical (and Greek Revival), Egyptianizing, and architecture inspired by the ancient Near East into distinct categories, Macaulay-Lewis applies the Neo-Antique framework that considers the similarities and differences—intellectually, conceptually, and chronologically—among the reception of these different architectural traditions. This fundamentally interdisciplinary project draws upon all available evidence and archival materials—such as the letters and memos of architects and their patrons, and the commentary in contemporary newspapers and magazines—to provide a lively multi-dimensional analysis that examines not only the city's ancient buildings and rooms themselves but also how New Yorkers envisaged them, lived in them, talked about them, and reacted to them. Antiquity offered New Yorkers architecture with flexible aesthetic, functional, cultural, and intellectual resonances—whether it be the democratic ideals of Periclean Athens, the technological might of Pharaonic Egypt, or the majesty of Imperial Rome. The result of these dialogues with ancient architectural forms was the creation of innovative architecture that has defined New York City's skyline throughout its history.

ONE

Herculean Efforts: New York City’s Infrastructure

After nearly a century of planning and many delays in construction, the Second Avenue Subway opened on January 1, 2017, with much fanfare and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo riding in attendance.¹ Well-lit stations with colorful mosaics of New Yorkers greet commuters at East Seventy-Second, Eighty-Sixth, and Ninety-Sixth Streets. The Second Avenue Subway has been transformative for residents of Yorkville, giving them a swift transit alternative to the routinely delayed 6 train, where a commuter too often feels like a tightly packed sardine. Unfortunately, most New Yorkers’ experience of riding the subway, before COVID-19, is typical of the 6 train. In January 2018, just 58.1 percent of all trains ran on time, a new low.² While the subway lament is a refrain so common that it belongs to a Broadway chorus, it is a reminder of how fundamental infrastructure is to the running of any metropolis.

Since its founding, New York City’s politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen have known that a well-functioning infrastructure—the basic physical and organizational structures that any city needs to operate—is vital to their city’s success. This chapter examines how ancient architecture, art, and ideas informed the conceptualization and creation of New York City’s street grid, water supply, bridges, and train stations. Before 1850, the city undertook two major infrastructure projects, both of which drew on ancient ideas and designs: the creation of Manhattan’s grid and the erection of the Croton Aqueduct and reservoir system, which included the monumental Egyptian-style Murray Hill distributing reservoir (1836–1842). The next great expansion of New York City’s infrastructure started at the end of the nineteenth century as the city became the megalopolis of Greater New York in 1898. Of these projects, three directly appropriated the architectural and artistic language of antiquity in their design, conception, and execution: the Manhattan Bridge (1909), the old Pennsylvania Station (1910), and Grand Central Terminal (1913). In the early twenty-first century, architects and planners have begun to revisit antiquity as modifications and improvements are made to Penn Station, demonstrating that the shape-shifting nature of antiquity makes it an enduring, multifaceted architectural source upon which New Yorkers could and still do draw for their functional and symbolic needs.

The Grid

Navigating many cities requires local knowledge or Google Maps; however, finding one’s way around large parts of Manhattan is relatively straightforward. Intersections between cross streets and avenues are the easiest way to direct someone in New York City, as Manhattan is predominantly gridded north of Houston Street.³ The decision to grid Manhattan was a direct response to New York City’s exponential growth in the late eighteenth century. In the 1790 census, the city’s population was 32,328. By 1810, the population had tripled to 96,373.⁴ To stay competitive, New York City needed to maximize its economic potential and harness its population growth. In 1807, the state legislature appointed three commissioners, Simeon De Witt, Gouverneur Morris, and John Rutherfurd, to improve, lay out, and design the streets of Manhattan. They hired John Randel Jr. to survey the island. The result was the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811. Most of Manhattan is laid out following Randel’s grid, although there have been significant modifications, such as Central Park and upper Manhattan, whose topography defies the rigidity of an orthogonal grid.⁵ The early grid facilitated trade, prevented traffic jams, monetized the property market, and helped the city manage its ever-increasing population, which had reached 515,000 by 1850.⁶

The “Remarks of the Commissioners” in the Plan of 1811 makes no explicit reference to the planning traditions of the classical world. Rather, the city planning conventions of antiquity seem to have been implicit in New York’s grid. The origin of the rectilinear street grid is traditionally ascribed to Hippodamos, who laid out Piraeus, the new port of Athens, immediately after the end of the Persian wars (480/479 BCE) and possibly his hometown of Miletus (in c. 479 BCE), according to an orthogonal grid.⁷ The “Hippodamian plan” was widely adopted in the Greek world and then in Roman cites and colonies, especially those built for veterans.⁸ While the grid fell out of use in the fortified cities of medieval Europe, Europe’s colonization of the New World renewed the grid’s popularity in city planning. The Law of the Indies, which was widely applied in Spanish colonial cities, was predicated on a grid.⁹ Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Savannah, Philadelphia, and Albany were all gridded early in their history. Thus New York City’s adoption of the grid seems connected to larger trends in the urbanism of the New World.

Rivaling Rome and the Sphinx: The Croton Aqueduct and Murray Hill Distributing Reservoir

Like the grid, clean water was crucial to New York City’s economic development. When New York was settled, the murky Collect Pond in lower Manhattan was the city’s primary source of water. As early as 1774, the need for an improved supply of water and a better water system was acknowledged. The search for a permanent source of potable water for New York City would be an on-again, off-again pursuit until 1832, when yet another outbreak of cholera finally convinced the Common Council that the situation had to be rectified.¹⁰ Five water commissioners were appointed to report on possible water sources by January 1834, and the engineers Canvas White and D. B. Douglass of the US Corps of Engineers were to assess the technical requirements and engineering challenges of bringing water to New York City. A resolution to create the aqueduct was then approved by the electors of the city and county of New York. Douglass served as the chief engineer until October 1836, when John B. Jervis replaced him. Construction started in May 1837 and was completed on June 22, 1842.

The dammed reservoir at Croton-on-Hudson fed the aqueduct, which crossed the East River at the High Bridge into upper Manhattan. The water then flowed to a receiving reservoir between Seventy-Ninth and Eighty-Sixth Streets between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. From here, the water traveled to the colossal Murray Hill distributing reservoir, which had a capacity of 20 million imperial gallons.¹¹ The reservoir stretched from Fortieth to Forty-Second Street at Fifth Avenue, occupying half of a crosstown block. As the highest point in the middle of Manhattan, Murray Hill was an ideal place for the reservoir because gravity helped distribute the water to the low-lying, densely populated tip of lower Manhattan.

On June 27, 1842, the water began its forty-odd-mile-long journey from Croton to New York City, arriving at the distributing reservoir for the Fourth of July celebrations. American flags flew from the reservoir’s corners, and thousands of New Yorkers trooped uptown to marvel at what was sure to be the first of their city’s many engineering and architectural achievements. Rather than enjoying a celebratory glass of cider, early Americans’ favorite drink, more than twenty thousand New Yorkers received a glass of fresh, pure water.¹² Like the Erie Canal, the aqueduct and its reservoirs were representative of what the new American nation could accomplish.¹³

In their accounts of the aqueduct’s construction, Jervis and his contemporaries do not cite ancient Roman aqueducts as a technical model.¹⁴ However, the scope, scale, and achievement of the Croton Aqueduct were framed through the lens of ancient Rome and Europe. Writing in 1843, Fayette Tower, one of the aqueduct’s engineers, justified its whopping $12 million cost,¹⁵ arguing that “the vast expense incurred in the construction of Aqueducts by the Ancient Romans, as well in Italy as in other countries of Europe, proves the value that was attached by that people to a plentiful supply of pure water.”¹⁶

A July 9, 1842, article in New World announced: “This great work surpasses in magnificence and magnitude the famous aqueducts of ancient Rome; and we earnestly hope it may prove as durable as those stupendous structures. As a work of art and enterprise it may be considered a monument of the age in which it was created.”¹⁷ The reservoir system was a technical and artistic achievement that heralded New York’s arrival not merely as a city but as a metropolis. The observation that the Croton Aqueduct had eclipsed Rome’s aqueducts reflects the idea that Americans could create versions of ancient and European architecture superior to the original. Likewise, the author’s comment that infrastructure should have an artistic quality demonstrated that aesthetics and utility could work harmoniously to produce something exceptional.

FIGURE 1. Murray Hill distributing reservoir, Manhattan, 1842.

Source: The Library of Congress.

Working under Jervis, James Renwick Jr., later the architect of Grace Church in New York City and the Smithsonian, designed the distributing reservoir and supervised its construction.¹⁸ The distributing reservoir was built of massive gray stone blocks in the style of an Egyptian temple (Figure 1). Furthermore, it had an Egyptian cornice, which was noted as ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Half Title
• Introduction: From the Appian Way to Broadway
• 1. Herculean Efforts: New York City’s Infrastructure
• 2. The Genius of Architecture: Ancient Muses and Modern Forms
• 3. Treasuries of Old and Treasuries of New
• 4. Modern Museions
• 5. Togas at Home
• 6. Dining Like Nero
• 7. To Be Buried Like a Pharaoh
• 8. Heroic New Yorkers
• 9. Eclectic Antiquity
• Reflections: Useable Pasts and Neo-Antique Futures
• Glossary
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Author
• Series List