Photo of the Day: Fort Washington Presbyterian Church, NYC

Fort Washington Presbyterian Church stands at the corner of Wadsworth Avenue and 174^th Street, in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. I had observed this church for quite a while, on my way to the subway station at 168^th Street, and one day in October I took this photo.

This photo only gives you some idea of what drew my eye over time to this religious institution. Fundamentally, it imposes itself on the surroundings: sitting on the crest of a hill, looking down toward the dip that nearby Broadway takes, with, looming above everything, its five-stage bell tower, embellished with classical motifs.

Then there is the look itself of this neo-Georgian building: buff-colored brick laid in Flemish bond and trimmed with Indiana limestone, topped off with a “rubbed finish.”

The church, built in 1913 and 1914, was designed by Thomas Hastings (1860–1929) of Carrere and Hastings. The architect, the son of a Presbyterian pastor, was sensitive to the nuances of church design.

In 1982 Fort Washington Presbyterian’s congregation turned over the church to the Primera Iglesia Espaňola de Washington Heights, a Hispanic congregation formed on the Heights in the 1940s. The building’s name was then changed to Iglesia Presbitereriana Fort Washington Heights. In 1909, this historic church was designated a New York City Landmark.

Photo of the Day: The GW Bridge and Washington Heights, From Fort Lee NJ

I count myself lucky to live only five miles from one of the great engineering wonders of the world, the George Washington Bridge. This past Friday, walking around in Fort Lee Historic Park, I made sure to take photos of this amazing, 85-year-old achievement from multiple angles. 

The image I liked best was this, partly because it gives a sense not only of the mighty river it spans but of the skyline directly across from Fort Lee in the Washington Heights area of New York City.

Photo of the Day: Recreation Center, J. Hood Wright Park, NYC

I have written three prior times about it, including this post a month and a half ago. But at the time of my original visit, I also took this photo of the recreation center at the J. Hood Wright Park, located at West 173 St. between Haven Ave. and Ft. Washington Ave. in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan.

Photo of the Day: Patch of Green, NYC

This is another in a series of pictures I took a week ago Sunday while at J. Hood Wright Park, located in New York’s Washington Heights section, between 173rd and 176th Streets on Fort Washington Avenue. (Here is the link that began it all.)

Photo of the Day: A Good Spot in a Heat Wave

In my post yesterday, I extolled the small but real virtues of J. Hood Wright Park as an oasis of green in New York’s very concrete Washington Heights section. 

That earlier photo showed several groups using the park located between 173rd and 176th Streets, from Fort Washington Avenue to Haven Avenue; this one, which I also took Sunday, focuses on just a pair of people, able to enjoy each other’s company—in no small degree, by staying at least somewhat (physically) cool—with the help of all this protective shade afforded by a large tree.

Photo of the Day: J. Hood Wright Park, Washington Heights, NYC

On Sunday, as a heat wave gathered enough momentum in New York City to merit consideration as the muggiest day of the year so far, I was on my way to the subway at 175^th Street and Fort Washington Avenue when I glimpsed a park on the other side of the street. Curious, I walked across to get a better look.

The J. Hood Wright Park is not a sprawling urban landscape like Central Park or Riverside Park, but it gives the citizens of Washington Heights some much-needed green space—and, on Sunday, some much-needed shade. As you can see from this photo I took, a number of people of all ages were also gathered in the playground.

The man for whom the park was named was a Philly-born banker who lived in a mansion on 175^th Street and Haven Avenue. I especially like him for having contributed substantially to the Washington Heights Branch of the New York Public Library.