First event in three-part series
The Power of Place: How Audubon Park Disrupted Manhattan’s Grid
Audubon Park: Rapid Transit Forces a Rapid Transformation
Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
“The Grinnell” 800 Riverside Drive, Community Room
Open to the Public Free of Charge
“Where did excavations for the New York subway begin?” is a question that will stump even the most knowledgeable subway enthusiasts. Some might answer “City Hall,” but the ground breaking there was a ceremonial event yards away from the actual tunnel. Others might claim “the corner of Greene and Bleeker Streets,” but the preliminary digging there was for lowering a sewer pipe that lay in the tunnel’s path.
The actual spot where excavations for the New York subway system began—during a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday afternoon, May 14, 1900—was the intersection of Broadway and 156th Street in northern Manhattan, directly in front of a neighborhood then known as Audubon Park. Although several thousand residents and a boatload of city officials attended the event, it was soon forgotten and today is not even commemorated with a plaque at the 157th Street subway station.
This illustrated talk, by Audubon Park historian Matthew Spady, describes the events of that day in 1900 and explains why the site was significant, who the key players were, why they lobbied so hard for rapid transit (with a station at that spot), and how the subway obliterated a sixty-year-old neighborhood and way of life in less than a decade.
Make plans now for the second event in the series:
Audubon Park: Riverside Drive Runs Through It
Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 7:30 p.m.
“The Grinnell” 800 Riverside Drive, Community Room
Open to the Public Free of Charge
Audubon Park Perspectives 