Volume 1, No. 59  April 30, 2014

Quote of the day:

* Landmarks Preservation Commission unimpressed with Howard Hughes' Fulton Market plan
* 225th anniversary of George Washington's first inauguration as U.S. president
* Bits & Bytes: Historic Tribeca home for sale; Port Authority eyes 3WTC equity
* Downtown openings: Downtown Boathouse on Pier 26 delayed; New Greenmarket?
* Downtown bulletin board: Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra; Summer youth employment
* Calendar

225TH ANNIVERSARY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FIRST INAUGURATION

Reenacting George Washington's first inauguration as President of the United States, Michael Grillo bent down to kiss the Bible as Washington did after taking the oath of office on April 30, 1789. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Two hundred and twenty-five years ago, on April 30, George Washington stood on the balcony of Federal Hall at Broad and Nassau Streets and, in a brief ceremony, placed his hand on a large Bible, raised his right hand and swore the oath that made him the first president of the United States.

At the conclusion of the oath, he bent down and kissed the Bible - his impulse, his idea - as the cheers of the crowd assembled below the balcony rang out.

The Bible is still there, the stone on which Washington stood is there, but the building was demolished in 1812.

The first U.S. Congress had met in this building on March 4, 1789. The United States Bill of Rights had been proposed there, argued there and enacted there. The Judiciary Act of 1789 had been passed there, creating the federal court system still in use today.

Not only was this building a place of irreplaceable historic importance, it was an architectural landmark - remodeled in 1788 by Pierre L'Enfant, who was later chosen by Washington to design the capital city on the Potomac River.

But the building was destroyed, as so often happens in New York City. History succumbs to "progress" and market forces; what has been lost is only mourned when it's too late.

Still, something of the past can be retrieved with the aid of props and some imagination, and so it was today. In the Federal Hall National Memorial, itself a fine building, erected in 1842, George Washington's inauguration was reenacted - not on the porch, as planned, but inside in order to escape from the heavy rain.

The Old Barracks Fife & Drum Corps set the mood, evoking the war from which the new nation had emerged. Then, the simplicity and drama of the inauguration reverberated across the centuries.

Washington's inaugural address was brief and according to eyewitnesses, delivered by him with hesitation. In it, he spoke of his anxiety about his new role. He mentioned his deficiencies and that he would have preferred to remain a private citizen at his Virginia home, Mount Vernon, but could not refuse his country's call. He said that he did not want to be paid to be president beyond any expenses that he might incur. He ended with a "humble supplication" to "the benign parent of the human race" that his "divine blessing" might guide "the temperate consultations and the wise measures on which the success of this government must depend."

New York City, then, as now, was a place remarkable for its diversity. After the reenactment, a panel of religious leaders whose congregations were present in 18th-century New York spoke about "George Washington and Religious Freedom in the New Nation." On the panel, were representatives of the Quakers, the Presbyterians, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Catholics and the Jews. A representative of Trinity Church - Episcopalian - was supposed to be there, but was not.

The oldest of these congregations was Jewish - Shearith Israel, founded in 1654. Gershom Mendes Seixas (1745-1816) was its first American-born spiritual leader and was present at Washington's inauguration. Donald Green, one of Seixas' descendants, organized and moderated the panel.

He read Washington's famous letter of August 21, 1790 to the Jews of Newport, R.I., in which Washington said that the government of the United States would give "to bigotry, no sanction, to persecution, no assistance."

Then it emerged from the panelists, whose congregational archives go back centuries, that Washington himself lived by those principles. He attended services of all denominations, all of which he found worthy. As much as anyone could know of his personal beliefs, which he did not publicly discuss, he believed in an architect of the universe that controlled human destiny and earnestly and humbly entreated guidance for himself and the new nation.

 

Downtown openings, definite, possible, delayed and soon
BOATHOUSE ON PIER 26 DELAYED; RETURN OF THE WTC GREENMARKET?

Greenmarket radishes. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

Downtown Boathouse on Pier 26
Free public kayaking will not be returning to Pier 26 on May 17, as previously announced. Downtown Boathouse, the volunteer-run organization that was awarded a contract for boating from the pier by the Hudson River Park Trust, was just informed by HRPT "that there will be a delay in the Certificate of Occupancy for Pier 26, and that the most realistic start date for us at Pier 26 is now June 1st," said Graeme Birchall,  president of the Downtown Boathouse. "In order to provide free kayaking to Downtown residents in the interim, we will repair our old dock at Pier 40, install the ramp, and open there on May 17."

Meanwhile, the Downtown Boathouse volunteers have packed their gear at Pier 96 on W. 55th Street, where they had been offering free kayaking for several years, thinking that Pier 26 would be ready to receive them. They were about to start packing and clearing out of Pier 40 as well - another interim location.

New York Outriggers, a Hudson River paddling organization, is also counting on Pier 26 to open. The Outriggers' annual regatta, which draws crews from around the world, is scheduled for June 21.

Return of the World Trade Center Greenmarket?
For the 15 years before September 11, 2001, the largest and most popular Greenmarket in Lower Manhattan had been at the World Trade Center. Among many other losses inflicted that day, the loss of the Greenmarket was mourned. There are other Downtown Greenmarkets, but none was ever as large and as successful as that one.

Now it is possible that that Greenmarket can come back. The queuing area for the 9/11 memorial, currently located on Albany Street between Washington and Greenwich Streets, will soon be dismantled. Shortly after that happens on or before June 30, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the site, could use that space for a Greenmarket.

At its full board meeting on April 29, Community Board 1 adopted a resolution that said that it looked forward to working with the LMDC and GrowNY to establish a temporary Greenmarket on Albany Street. Eventually, that site will likely be used for something else, "though it may be available for an awfully long time," said CB1 chair Catherine McVay Hughes.

In its resolution, CB1 said that it hoped that LMDC and the community could reclaim the site from the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in time for a Greenmarket to open there by June 1.

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Editor: Terese Loeb Kreuzer

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