Brooklyn Army Terminal

Along the water, in the neighborhood of Sunset Park, is the U.S. Army Military Ocean Terminal Brooklyn Army Base, or more commonly known as the Brooklyn Army Terminal. It's a large industrial area of almost 100 acres (40 ha.), which was a part of the New York Port of Embarkation's Army command.

The U.S.'s largest military base during WWII, was built in 1919, and designed by Cass Gilbert (who also did the Woolworth Building).

Falling into disuse by the 1970s, the feds sold the property to New York City in 1981, and, in 1983, had the area entered into the National Register of Historic Places.
Currently, the building houses organizations such as the artist studio program Chashama, a branch of the Guggenheim Museum, and the New York City Police Department Intelligence Division.

The entire area is off-limits to nomadic or wandering sightseers, but if you'd like to see within the gates, there are tours given throughout the spring, summer, and fall, by different groups around the city.
It is worth the effort alone for a view of Building B's atrium.

They have other areas of interests, too.

Just don't walk too far off from your group.

National Debt Clock

If you find yourself in the tourist trap that is Times Square, and have already seen/heard the Max Neuhaus sound installation (see my post here), then walk over to 1133 Avenue of the Americas to witness our bleak financial future with the National Debt Clock.

Originally on the corner of 6th Street, between 42nd and 43rd Avenues, the 11 by 26 feet (3.4 m x 7.9 m) billboard-styled piece was installed in 1989 by real estate developer Seymour Durst, who passed away in 1995, and paid $100.000 for its construction.
The clock displays, both, our gross national debt, as well as each family's share of it.

While it was blank from 2000 through 2002, due to it not being able to run backwards, the original clock was taken down for the construction of One Bryant Park, and moved in 2004 a block away to where it is now.

After the move to 1133 Avenue of the Americas (aka 1133 Sixth Avenue), the clock was updated, so it could run backward, and with more easily read digits.
In 2009, more space for numbers had to be added as the federal debt ran past the 10-trillion mark on September 30, 2008.

As you can see, by the four photos taken in less than two minutes, we are all in for a hell of a fiscal ride.

Spurious Edison Movie Plaque + Tesla Memorabilia

New York city has a lot of interesting stuff, so you'd think they wouldn't need to bolster B.S., but they sometimes do.
On West 34th Street, between Broadway and 7th Ave, there is a plaque on the side of Macy's Department Store, which reads:

HERE THE MOTION PICTURE BEGAN

★

ON THE NIGHT OF APRIL 23rd, 1896, ON THIS SITE

IN KOSTER & BAIL'S MUSIC HALL

THOMAS A. EDISON

WITH THE "VITASCOPE"

FIRST PROJECTED A MOVING PICTURE

------------

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE EVENT , THIS TABLET IS HERE AFFIXED BY

THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY , OCTOBER 4, 1938

This is actually incorrect. Moving pictures had been around for some time, but could only be viewed through Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, which showed a single reel of film to one person, "peep show" style. The first public screening was held at Salon Indien du Grand Café, in Paris, on December 28, 1895, by brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere. They ran ten short film clips, including their own La Sortie des usines Lumière and L'Arroseur Arrosé, but the first projection in front of a crowd would be Charles Francis Jenkins with his Phantoscope. That event holds the earliest documented projection of a motion picture, when he tested a clip of a dancer during a vaudeville act on June 6, 1894, in Richmond, Indiana.
Now, though Edison did pioneer movie projectors, cameras, and film, the Vitascope was actually invented by Charles Francis Jenkins, and Thomas Armat, in 1895, off of modifications to Jenkins' patented Phantoscope. The Edison Manufacturing Company just agreed to manufacture the machine, and produce films for it, if they could advertised it as a new Edison invention.
If all of this angers you, continue west on 34th St, to the corner of 8th Ave, and visit The New Yorker Hotel.

This is the building where inventor, and thorn-in-the-side of Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla spent the last ten years of his life, in a huge suite on the 33rd floor, which served as living quarters and study.
If you're lucky enough to enter the premises as a hotel guest (or ask nicely), you can see the plaques on the doors, which were converted into two different rooms.

New Yorker Hotel historian, and archivist, Joseph Kinney has set up a small museum in the lower lobby, which anyone can view (near the hotel's Business Center), and it holds some of Tesla's belongings, as well as a bust of the scientist.

The building also has an outdoor plaque commemorating Tesla's stay at the hotel, which was unveiled in a ceremony on July 10th, 2001. The tablet was originally created in 1977, by Yugoslav-American Bicentennial Committee, but, due to lack of interest in Tesla's work at the time, wasn't placed there until 2001 (thanks to the hard work of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers).
While the building has been owned by Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church since 1975, it is currently run by Wyndham Hotels, who is doing some renovations on the facade, so the plaque is covered up by scaffolding. Until the construction is done in 2016, and the boards removed, you can only view it online (see an image of it here).

Lin Zexu Monument + First Jewish Cemetery

Since my last post ended just a block away, I thought I'd keep heading south on Bowery, until it ends into Chatham Square.
Before I get to the titular landmarks mentioned, I'd like to start at Confucius Plaza, which opened in 1975 to provide a limited-equity co-op for Chinese-Americans. The 44-story, brown brick skyscraper holds 750+ units, and all visitors are practically greeted by a bronze, 15ft (4.5m) statue of its namesake out front.

The building also houses a public school (Yung Wing Public School aka PS 124), as well as some stores, and a community center.
Interestingly enough, a segment of the Second Avenue Subway runs underneath the plaza. Though construction of the 8 mile (12k) tunnel under 2nd Ave has been going on, and off, since 1929, that part of the line was constructed around the same time as the high-rise. While called "The Line That Time Forgot", it is set to open December of 2016, and will run the T train.
Anyhow, as one heads further south one block, you'll come along Chatham Square (which is also also called Kimlau Square). Named after First Earl of Chatham, and Prime Minister of Great Britain before the American Revolution, William Pitt, the park holds two monuments.
First, is the Kimlau Memorial Arch, which was set up in 1961 by the American Legion in honor of those of Chinese ancestry who have died serving in the U.S. armed forces, and named after Lt. Benjamin Ralph Kimlau, who was shot down over Los Negros Island during WWII. The stele's calligraphy was designed by acclaimed poet Yu Youren.
The second monument is to Chinese scholar Lin Zexu, which is marked to:

LIN ZE XU

1785 - 1850

PIONEER IN THE WAR

AGAINST DRUGS

Lin Zexu, whose courtesy name is Yuanfu, was an official of the Qing dynasty. It is believed his moral conflict against opium was the impetus behind China's attempt to abolish trade with the British, which began the First Opium War (1839 - 1842).
At first, the Daoguang emperor approved of Lin Zexu's policies, but later damned him when China began to lose the war. After being scapegoated, he was exiled to the remote region of Xinjiang, but in 1847 become the Governor-General of the Yunnan province.
He died in 1850 while on route to help put down the Taiping Rebellion, but is remembered every June 3rd, known as Anti-Smoking Day, marking the day in 1839 where he confiscated 2.5 million lbs (1.2 million kilos) of illegal opium, which took 23 days to burn it all.

The southern end of Chatham / Kimlau Square meets the street St James Place, and walking just a few hundred feet down you'll find Chatham Square Cemetery (aka First Shearith Israel Graveyard) on St James Triangle Park.

This grave site is not only the first Jewish cemetery in all the Unites States, it is also the only structure left in Manhattan from the 1600s.

At the time the ground was first consecrated to inter bodies, 1656, the area wasn't even considered part of the city, as it was outside the bounds of New Amsterdam - well before it became New York in 1664.
While many of the graves are lost to construction, the small area that remains was made a landmark in 1903 by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, a group which - strangely enough - dissolved in 1979.

The Porn Buddha + Edward Mooney House

The Rosemary was a small theater in Chinatown, which fit less than 500 ticket holders in their main room, and balcony. The cinema specialized in kung fu features and B-movie fare when it opened in 1978, but by the late 80s started showing porno on weekends. By 1990, porn flicks were their staple until they closed their doors in 1996.
Found at 133 Canal Street (between Bowery and Chrystie Street), they re-opened the following year as a Mahayana Buddhist temple.

Where there once was a canvas screen a thousand freaks freaked to, now sits a huge, golden Buddha. The statue is 16ft (5m) high, and is hollow within.

Along the walls of the main hall are lithographs depicting the Buddha's history and deeds, as well as ritual drums and instruments.
If you visit, be careful where you point your camera, as photos are not allowed in certain areas, and of certain religious objects and offerings.
After you've donated a buck, pick your fortune from the stacks of yellow bundles found throughout the place, and head a few blocks south to the corner of Bowery and Pell Street to see the Edward Mooney house.

Finished in 1789, it is now Manhattan's oldest row house still standing.
The home was constructed by affluent butcher Edward Mooney, on land confiscated from British Loyalist James De Lancey, so as to be near the slaughterhouses where he made his fortune. After his death in 1800, the joint was passed from buyer to buyer, one of which extended the structure in 1807. Since that time, the building had functioned as a saloon, hotel and even a brothel, but is now a bank.

The residence was made a landmark in 1966, and entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.