Horstmann

The Horstmann family grave at Green-Wood Cemetery. They lived in the late 19th and early 20th century, but I wasn't able to find out anything about them.

Guggenheim

 The Guggenheim Museum.

Knox Building 2026

I don’t often draw the same building twice, here’s one. I first drew the Knox Building in 2015 through the window of the fifth floor of the Mid-Manhattan Library. Since then, they’ve renovated the building and added a roof deck that provides a great view of it. I’ve developed my skills a little bit. I’m going to draw it again in another eleven years, and it’s going to look amazing.

It was built in 1901 by Edward Knox for the Know Hat Company. The architect was John H. Duncan, who also designed Grant’s Tomb and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. It’s now owned by HSBC, which incorporated it into a 29-story glass tower.

 

Paul's Daughter

 

This is one of the oldest restaurants on the Coney Island boardwalk, known for its clam strips and lobster rolls. It was opened in 1962 by Greek immigrants Gregory Bitetzakis and Paul Georgoulakos. Originally called Gregory and Paul’s, it changed its name when Paul’s daughter, Tina, took over the business. It was almost evicted at the end of the 2011 season, along with a bunch of other Coney Island mainstays, but subsequently was asked to stay.

The fiberglass figures on the roof are Mana and Papa Burger, 1960s-era mascots for the A&W restaurant chain. Apparently there were other A&W Burger Family characters, including Baby Burger, Teen Burger, Grandma Burger, Uncle Burger, Buddy Burger and the Sirloin Baby Burger Twins. I’m not sure when or why they landed on the roof of this restaurant, or why the rest of the Burger Family didn’t make it to Coney Island.

I'd forgotten that I've drawn them before. This is from 2009!

Cyclone

 

We made an end of summer trip to Coney Island last weekend. My kids did not want to ride the Cyclone, but I still drew it. Built in 1927, it’s one of the last surviving wooden roller coasters. It covers 2,640 feet of track in one minute and fifty seconds. In the 1970s, it was almost demolished to make room for an expansion of the New York Aquarium, but that plan was thwarted and now it’s both a New York City Landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Pineapple Street

 

This wood-frame, Federal-style house is on Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights. It is semi-famous because Truman Capote referred to it in his 1959 essay, “Brooklyn Heights: A Personal Memoir,” where he describes “A silvery gray, shingle-wood Colonial shaded by trees robustly leafed, it was built in 1790, the home of a sea captain.” It was in fact built around 1822, and was originally a smaller structure. Originally it was only three windows wide, and was extensively expanded and rebuilt in later years.

Eastwood Arch

Eastwood Arch in Prospect Park. Built in 1867-68, it is, along with Endale Arch, the oldest arch in the park.

Carlos

 Life drawing from last Saturday. Model was Carlos.

Happy Birthday, Stephen Whitney

The mausoleum of Stephen Whitney (1776-1860) in Green-Wood Cemetery. Today is his birthday. I didn’t know his birthday was coming up when I drew this a week ago. I just happened to come across the fact the other day.

Whitney was a merchant, cotton speculator, and real estate investor. He helped to build the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the first home of the New York Stock Exchange. He was also an investor in the Red Star Line and had a sailing ship named after him. That Stephen Whitney wrecked off the coast of Ireland in 1847, costing 92 of the 110 passengers and crew their lives.

He was the second wealthiest citizen of New York City in the early 19th century, second only to John Jacob Astor. But he was not given to any sort of philanthropy or public service, so his name is not remembered the way others are. There is no Whitney Street, Whitney Park, Whitney Station, Whitney Plaza, Whitney Hospital, Whitney Library, etc.

Whitney died in 1860, and his wife soon after, leaving an estate estimated at $15 million (About $400 million today). The mausoleum was built circa 1875. It has a desk and bench inside for a priest or devotee. One can imagine the sort of guy he was, whose biggest accomplishments included funding a building for the stock market and naming a ship after himself, while donating zero dollars to the public good, but still thought there’d be someone manning a desk in his mausoleum for eternity.

Dodge D5

A 1937 Dodge D5 coupe, parked on a street in Brooklyn Heights.

John

 Life drawing session from last weekend.

Bethlehem CT

A house in Bethelem, CT. I did it as an item for an auction for my kids' school. The winning bidder grew up in this house, which is now a wedding venue.

Iris

Figure drawing from last weekend.

Chicago Bridges

Chicago bridges. The La Salle Street Bridge, The Clark Street Bridge, and the Kinzie Street Railroad Bridge, aka the Chicago and North Western Railroad Bridge.

The Kinzie Street Bridge has been unused since 2000, but is still technically active status and is raised and lowered once a year. The bridge in the background is somewhat famous, or infamous, because of an incident in 2004 when Dave Matthews tour bus dumped 800 lbs of toilet waste as it was crossing the bridge, directly onto an architecture tour boat full of passengers.

U.S. Grant in Lincoln Park

 

Lincoln Park, Chicago. The Ulysses S. Grant Monument in the distance. It was commissioned after the president’s death in 1885. Louis Rebisso, an Italian immigrant, was selected to design the monument. When it was completed in 1891, it was the largest bronze statue cast in the country, and over 250,000 people attended its dedication.

Assumption Church

Assumption Catholic Church in the River North neighborhood of Chicago. This parish was founded in 1881 as the first church in Chicago specifically to minister to Italian-speaking Catholics. The church building was completed in 1886.

 

Dearborn Station

 

Dearborn Station was the first of six intercity train stations servicing downtown Chicago. It was designed by Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz, who is best known for One Times Square, the original building of the New York Times. The Romanesque Revival structure, built with red pressed brick walls and pink granite, opened in 1885. It originally featured a steeply pitched roof atop its clock tower, which was lost in a disastrous 1922 fire. As passenger train travel declined after WWII, the intercity train stations saw less and less use. When Amtrak began operation in 1971, the city’s train traffic was consolidated to Union Station, and the Dearborn Station closed. The train yards and sheds were demolished and redeveloped into the Dearborn Park neighborhood. The station sat derelict for years until being renovated into offices and retail spaces.

Iris

 Life drawing session from the weekend. Model's name was Iris.

The Obama Center

The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The text that wraps around the upper floors is from Obama's 2015 speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights March in Selma. It reads:

"You are America. Unconstrained by habit and convention. Unencumbered by what is, ready to seize what ought to be. For everywhere in this country, there are first steps to be taken, there is new ground to cover, there are more bridges to be crossed.

America is not the project of any one person. The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word 'We.' 'We The People.' 'We Shall Overcome.' 'Yes We Can.' That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone.

Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours."

Happy Fourth of July.

740 Broadway Eagle

 

Ornament above the entrance to 740 Broadway, corner of Broadway and Astor Place.

Cozy Soup 'n' Burger

 

Cozy Soup 'n' Burger was opened by Greek immigrant brothers in 1972. It's been on Broadway steps away from the NYU campus for 54 years. But as with so many businesses these days, rent and operating costs have been too much, and tomorrow they will close their doors after half a century. I went to grad school at NYU and passed this place every day, but I think I only ate there once and it gave me diarrhea. But it still makes me sad to see such a recognizable local landmark go away.

Prospect Place

 

This Queen Anne-style house is on Prospect Place in Park Slope. Built in 1887, it was designed by C.P.H. Gilbert. Gilbert was known for designing mansions for the elites of Manhattan, but his first New York projects were residences in Park Slope. I drawn a few of his houses before, here and here.

Jabara

 

This grave in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery is a copy of a neo-classical sculpture known as the Monteverde Angel of the Resurrection Angel. Most of the angel statues you see in cemeteries are copies of other sculptures. There are many copies of this angel in cemeteries around the globe. The original marble version of this statue was carved in 1882 by the Italian artist Giulio Monteverde for the Oneto family tomb at Staglieno Cemetery in Genova, Italy. There's at least one other Monteverde Angel in Green-Wood. Moneverde even made a copy for his own family's tomb in Rome.

The people buried here are Frederick Massound and Katherine Milkie Jabara. They were immigrants from Syria. Frederick founded F.M. Jabara & Sons, a successful linen import business, in 1908. Frederick died in 1949. Katherine lived until 1982, passing away in California at the age of 96.