Photo of the Day: Washington Square Arch, NYC, Late Summer

After emerging from a movie theater in Greenwich Village on Saturday late in the afternoon, I walked along the surrounding streets. From far away, I beheld the familiar, majestic Washington Square Arch. I’m not sure how often I have seen it over the years, but it still moves something in me—and certainly this weekend, when I took this photo.

Created originally as a wooden structure in time for the 1889 centennial celebration of George Washington’s inauguration, the site proved so popular that in a couple of years, enough money was raised to turn it into the marble neighborhood anchor known today. I think most visitors would agree that every penny raised to create it was money well-spent.

Photo of the Day: Hank Greenberg Birthplace, Greenwich Village, NYC

Seventy years ago this week, the Detroit Tigers sold their great but aging first baseman, Hank Greenberg, to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It wasn’t the first change of address for him, nor would it be the last. The leader of the team that was the great rival to the New York Yankees in the Thirties through mid-Forties was born in 1911 to Romanian-born Orthodox Jews, in this tenement in Greenwich Village.

I was hurrying to a play in the neighborhood this past fall when I came upon this building at 16 Barrow Street, just west of Sheridan Square. It wasn’t a particularly imposing structure, but for some reason I sensed that this tenement meant something. And indeed, when I saw the plaque dedicated to Greenberg's memory, I felt that I had to do more than just take this photo. I had to stand there in tribute, not just to a player of world-class talent but one who needed to display it again and again and again in a time of pressure and even danger.

As the first Jewish baseball superstar, Greenberg had to bear all the hopes of his co-religionists, even as he battled anti-Semitism, in the United States (where he endured countless slurs throughout his career, mostly from opposing fans) and abroad (during WWII, he serve as an Air Corps lieutenant in the China-Burma-India theater).

From Barrow Street, the Greenberg family moved first to Perry Street, then to the Bronx, across the street from Crotona Park. There, on its baseball field, Hank played incessantly and developed his talent. At age 18, though scouted by the New York Yankees (he was told, incorrectly, that incumbent first baseman Lou Gehrig would not be around long), he signed with the Detroit Tigers, whom he led to four American League pennants and two World Series titles.

A particularly significant year for the slugger was 1938, when he belted 58 homers—the closest any hitter came to erasing Babe Ruth’s 60-homer single-season record until Roger Maris finally did so in 1961.

Fourteen years after his major-league debut, Greenberg left Detroit for Pittsburgh. Recognizing his eroding skill at the plate and the wear and tear on his body, and dispirited about going from a pennant contender to a cellar-dwelling squad, he retired at the end of that year, but not before mentoring young slugger Ralph Kiner.

He also offered much-needed encouragement to rookie Jackie Robinson, a kindred spirit in the battle against prejudice: “Listen, I know it’s plenty tough. You’re a good ballplayer, however, and you’ll do all right. Just stay in there and fight back. Always remember to keep your head up.”

Despite missing four years in the war, Greenberg compiled superlative offensive totals by the end of his career: 331 home runs, 1,276 RBIs, .313 batting average, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 1.017—an astounding total surpassed at the time of his retirement only by Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig. Like that quartet, Greenberg ended up in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A one-hour documentary, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, was released in 1998. It was about not simply an accomplished ballplayer, but a symbol of achievement and standing tall for an ethnic minority suffering prejudice in the United States and persecution abroad.

Photo of the Day: Sheridan Square Viewing Garden, NYC

A week ago, on my way to something else, I came across Sheridan Square—not just a triangle, but, as you can see from this photo I took, a sliver of a triangle, in Greenwich Village. The square was dedicated in 1896 in honor of the General Philip Sheridan, but well into the 20^th century, its nexus at Barrow Street, West 4^th Street, and Washington Place had made it a traffic safety island.

According to a 1996 oral history interview given by longtime Greenwich Village preservation activist Doris Diether, that location, outside a local Sloan’s supermarket, also made the triangle a magnet for illegally parked cars, delivery trucks, and motorcycles. The latter bore visitors to and from a local drug hangout, The Haven, nicknamed a “juice bar.” All in all, hardly the type of spot to honor one of the great Civil War heroes.

The establishment of a viewing garden in 1982 changed all that. It was primarily the result of the vision of two women: community activist Vera Schneider, who spearheaded the formation of the nonprofit Sheridan Square Triangle Association, seeing it as a means of eliminating the burgeoning drug trade, and Pamela Berdan, who designed the garden. (Her Jefferson Market Garden is another Greenwich Village adornment.)

The time I walked past this spot—late autumn—can hardly be conducive to seeing this garden at its best. I’ll try to view it again in spring, when tulips, azaleas, rhododendrons and crabapples are in bloom, or summer, when other perennials and annuals enjoy their place in the sun.

Photo of the Day: St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, NYC

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church is located on Christopher Street in New York’s Greenwich Village. The building, one of the oldest in The Village, was constructed in 1821-22 for the Eighth Presbyterian Church, then served as home for St. Matthew’s Episcopal Parish for 16 years starting in 1842. In 1858, it was purchased by German Lutherans.

I took this photo this past winter, on my way to a theater in the area. I was especially struck by the church's symmetry, so characteristic of the Federal style, and its distinctive domed cupola.

Photo of the Day: Taking Wing With Spring

While down by Greenwich Village in mid-April, I walked several blocks west to Hudson River Park and found just about everybody one could imagine out to absorb every bit of the beautiful day. (See my prior post of another scene that afternoon.)