Hudson Park on Lower West Side
#313 “Wurtz (?) Bros. Photo” Looking east toward Seventh Avenue South from Hudson Street. The street on the left is St. Luke’s Place, a one block interruption of Leroy Street, and the one on the right is Clarkson Street. Frontispiece in Vol. II of “The Tenement House Problem, Including the Report of the New York State Tenement House Commission of 1900,” by Various Writers, edited by Robert W. DeForest and Lawrence Veiller. N.Y., Macmillan, c1903. (The handwriting on this picture and #312 may be that of one of the authors when preparing the volumes for the printers. From signatures in the files, the writing looks more like that of Robert W. DeForest than of Lawrence Veiller.) The official name of the park today (1971) is the James J. Walker Park. “Jimmie” Walker was elected Mayor of New York City in 1926 and resigned September 1, 1932, as a result of an “inquiry into corruption in conduct of his office.” Usually referred to as the Seabury investigation. The Walker family residence was at 6 St. Luke’s Place, which may account for the re-naming of the park. There isn’t a blade of grass or a tree in the park today. The entire area has been asphalted over for the playing of various games – tennis, basketball, football, even bocci, an Italian game somewhat like bowling. Before the area was “converted” into a park in 1898, it was the burial ground for Trinity Parish (see #576). The only reminder today that the park was once a cemetery is the Firemen’s Monument, at present stuck into the left (St. Luke’s Place) corner on the Seventh Avenue South side. This memorial was erected to commemorate two members of Engine 13 of the N.Y. Volunteer Fire Department, Eugene Underhill, 20 years old, and Frederick A. Ward, 22, who died fighting a fire in Pearl Street, July 1, 1839.
rbml.css.1260
community_service_society
Community Service Society Records
Community Service Society records
4079675
Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y.)
Photographer
Community Service Society of New York
Former owner
Issuing body
United States
New York (State)
New York (N.Y.)
Manhattan
St. Luke's Place
Hudson Street
Seventh Avenue
NNC-RB
Box no. 296, Folder no. 36, Photograph no. 313
Parks
Memorials
New York (N.Y.)
James J. Walker Park (New York, N.Y.)
Annotation on front: Frontispiece to Vol. II. Hudson Park. On the lower West side
still image
1900
circa 1900
photographs
reformatted digital
eng
2023-03-29T21:42:27Z
2023-03-29T21:42:27Z
Copyright Not Evaluated
Copyright & Permissions for Online Exhibitions & Digital Collections
10.7916/epzv-2v14