February 19, 2004: Around New Amsterdam
Sometimes I try to imagine what it was like living in New Amsterdam, during those last years of the 17th Century. Very little is left of that old town, except for the layout of the streets. All the buildings were made of wood, and they were long gone by the 1800s. Below Wall Street it's all skyscrapers now, except for a few brick buildings on Stone Street, a church, and a couple of the grand old banking buildings of the 19th Century. Still, walking around there at night, in the alleys, after all the 9-to-5ers have gone home, you feel a little bit closer to it.
Comments
I've been fascinated by those two brick buildings in photo #3, surrounded by modern (ugly) skyscrapers.
It's a shame that with a few notable exceptions (AIG building, Woolworth building, a couple on Wall Street near Broadway) downtown skyscraper architecture is so bland.
when you do your night photos, are you carrying around a tripod? or do you use the flash? where is the camera shake? the camera shake, dammit! your photos are spectacular. why are they so bright and vivid?
Have you ever been to Kingston, Jake? At the time of Stuyvesant's capitulation, it was the #3 settlement in the colony in terms of importance and size. It never regained that status, except briefly during the Revolution when it served as capital. Much of the old town is still intact; in places you can still trace the palisade wall embankment. Numerous buildings date from the late 1600s and early 1700s.
indeed i have been to kingston, sterling, and i agree, it's a beautiful town. back during the 1980s, my parent's used to take summer vacation in woodstock, which is about 10 miles outside kingston. the whole area is pretty historic, and still relatively untouched by the creeping death that is suburban redevelopment.
Jake, have you read "Forever"? It's such a beautiful illustration of what New Amsterdam was like in the late 18th-late 19th centuries.
Leave a comment