Boston Flora

Tag: Brooklyn

  • Saturday and Sunday, October 4 – 5 – Gibson House New York Row House Tour

    Saturday and Sunday, October 4 – 5 – Gibson House New York Row House Tour

    Registration is now open for the Gibson House Museum’s 1859 Weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn: Bricks & Brownstones: Row Houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Evolution of the New York Row House: 1835-1900.
    The focus of this tour will be the development of the New York row house during the Victorian Era (1837-1901). Proceeds from this tour will benefit the Back Bay of Boston’s own Victorian row house the Gibson House Museum. It is recommended that tour participants stay at the Grand Union Hotel, 34 East 32nd Street in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. This hotel is a good value and has a convenient breakfast café from which to launch the tours.

    Saturday, October 4th: Our day of touring begins at 9 a.m. We will visit the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, pictured below, which provides a fascinating opportunity to tour what is probably the first complete recreation of a Victorian residential building. Built during the 1850s and torn down in 1916, the decision was made after T.R.’s death in 1919 to re-create his parents’ Italianate brownstone residence in the Murray Hill section of New York City. The President’s family was very much involved in this 1923 recreation and returned numerous furnishings that belonged to the Roosevelt family (Reservations are now in place for tour up to 15 people — admission is free)

    From T.R’s house in Manhattan we’ll take cabs to the Brooklyn Museum. Following lunch in the museum’s café we will have a guided tour the museum’s period rooms (Tour is booked for 1:30-2:30 tour of period rooms with emphasis on Victoriana—Adult admission $15, Seniors—62 and older:$13—guided tour included in price of admission ). The Brooklyn Museum was a leader in the installation of Victorian era interiors-as early as the late 1930s the Turkish smoking room from John D. Rockefeller’s house in the East 50s of Manhattan was purchased and made available for viewing at the museum. After lunch we will visit Grand Army Plaza, Frederick Law Olmsted’s Prospect Park as well as the late nineteenth century mansions of Prospect Park West and adjacent side streets. Following a reception at an 1888 Romanesque Revival/Dutch row house designed by C.P.H. Gilbert we will have dinner at the moderately — priced Two Boots (the cuisine of the boot shaped Louisiana and Italy) in Park Slope (Park Slope tour lead by Ed Gordon).

    On Sunday, October 5th we will gather in the Grand Union’s lobby at 9:30 a.m. to take cabs to Brooklyn Heights. Once the domain of descendants of wealthy Dutch families, the Heights, overtime, has been the home of well- known preachers (Henry Ward Beecher) poets (Walt Whitman), engineers (the Roeblings who built the Brooklyn Bridge) and above all writers — from Hart Crane through Carson McCullers to Truman Capote and Norman Mailer. Highlights of the tour include a look at “the City of Church’s” churches including houses of worship by Minard LeFevre, James Renwick, Richard Upjohn and others. We will stroll along the elevated walkway overlooking Brooklyn Heights known as the Promenade and enjoy brunch at a Heights restaurant. (Brooklyn Heights tour lead by Ed Gordon) After brunch we will return to Manhattan to tour the Seabury — Treadwell House (a.k.a. Old Merchant’s House). This 1832 red brick row house’s Greek Revival interiors contain fine examples of antebellum furniture that belonged to the Treadwell family who lived here from the mid-1830s to the mid-1930s (reservations have been made for a 3 p.m. appointment).

    Tour Registration: $175 ($100 donation to GHM and $75 per person to cover museum admissions and cab rides). Transportation to and from NYC as well as hotel and meals are not included). Limited to 15 people. For more information call 617.267.6338 or email info@thegibsonhouse.org.

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  • Wednesday, July 11, 6:30 pm – The Pollinator’s Corridor

    This just in: “the back corner” and Mt Grace Land Conservation Trust are pleased to co-host an evening with author Aaron Birk tomorrow, July 11, beginning at 6:30 pm, at 1497 Main Street in Athol. Aaron will present and discuss the significance of his new graphic novel The Pollinator’s Corridor.

    Set in the aftermath of the 1970’s landlord fires, The Pollinator’s Corridor follows the lives of three friends who attempt to convince wild bees and butterflies to cross the Bronx by planting ‘corridors’ of native flora throughout the industrial wasteland. Connecting fragmented forests, watersheds and city parks, our heroes restore biodiversity to the blighted ghetto by uniting marginalized communities and laying the foundations of ecological health in an age of crisis and decline.

    Philadelphia-based artist Aaron Birk began work on The Pollinator’s Corridor in 2003, while employed as a forester in Central Park, NY. Along with his efforts in restoration ecology, Aaron continues to hone his craft in illustration, puppetry and acrobatics. He is sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts, and is the recipient of two major grants from The Independence Foundation and Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts.

    The project has received over $15,000 in grant funding through three major foundations, including The Independence Foundation, The New York Foundation for the Arts, and Pennsylvania Cultural Alliance. The Pollinator’s Corridor has been featured in The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and made the cover of the Philadelphia City Paper. Audiences range from 4th graders to PHD entomologists.

     

  • Tuesday, May 25, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Celebrating the Esplanade’s 100 Years of Nature, Culture and Recreation

    You are cordially invited to attend The Esplanade Association’s Ninth Annual Meeting Tuesday, May 25 at The Hampshire House, 84 Beacon Street in Boston.  The theme of this year’s meeting is “Celebrating the Esplanade’s 100 Years of Nature, Culture and Recreation,” with Keynote Presentation by Tupper Thomas, Administrator of Prospect Park and President of the Prospect Park Alliance, Brooklyn, New York. For those of you who missed Ms. Thomas’s speech at the Boston Committee’s Spring meeting in April, here is another chance to hear a truly inspirational, forward thinking, and down to earth practical leader in her field talk about the challenges faced by parks throughout urban areas.  The General Meeting begins at 5:30, and a Member Reception follows at 6:30.  RSVP to Justin Burke by May 20 at 617-227-0365, or email jburke@esplanadeassociation.org.

    The business to be conducted at the meeting includes consideration and voting on amendments to the bylaws of the Association to change the position and title of Board President to Board Chair.

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