By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is photographer David Plakke, born in Michigan in 1951. A resident of Westbeth for 22 years, Plakke has photographed architecture, fine art, cultural events, musicians, artists, and the corporate world. He has had two books of photographs published, was the photographer and videographer for Diana Gregor’s
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Johannes Brahms: The Working Musician (Part One)
By Styra Avins The author’s original essay, edited herein, was published in the May 2014 issue of Allegro to commemorate the 181st birthday of Johannes Brahms. (Josef Eisinger provided all of the German-to-English translations.) A boy sits in a small room within a modest house in Hamburg practicing the cello, the distracting sounds of family
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Overwhelming Structure Headed For Jane Street: LPC Futzes Around With Window & Door Design
By Robert Widmann For decades, a very ugly Jane Street garage, blackened with urban soot, has sat cloaked in the unconscious acceptance of industrial buildings—that is—until the land became incredibly valuable. It was then sold to a developer in order to build as many elegant condos as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP)
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Notes and Perspectives from Away
By Tom Lamia Why “Notes from Away?” In South Bristol, Maine, where I live, I am identified as a person “from away.” The title I give to these notes is a tongue-in-cheek qualification of my expertise as an observer of life in South Bristol. My friends and neighbors up here would understand. A quick story
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Remembering One of the Village’s—and WestView’s—Greatest: Nat Hentoff
“My name is Nat Hentoff.” “I know that voice,” I said to myself as I broke into a WNYC announcement of the death of Nat Hentoff—a legendary historian, novelist, music critic, and famed Village Voice columnist—on January 17th. We had a number of phone conversations in his effort to get back to writing after the
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Bob Smith Starts a New Shakespeare Series
By Ann Marie Todes “With mirth and laughter, let old wrinkles come!” Seventy-five-year-old Bob Smith leans forward, smiling, his sparkling green eyes set to a playful tease. “It’s from The Merchant of Venice,” he says, “and probably what we all wish for—a comfortable old age surrounded with love.” For over 30 years, Bob has held
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The Friars of Waverly Place
By Joseph Turco, Esq. Due to the way architectural heritage and preservation have developed in the West Village, it is not difficult to picture certain streetscapes a hundred years ago, when priests, lawyers, and writers, among others, scurried about this neighborhood, tending to their vocations. So, last week, George Capsis, Dusty Berke, and I took
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Coffee with Antonia
By Antonia Maxwell Ereñu I am away from my Spanish café, now in the West Village, where my essence has been drawn by some sweet mysterious memory from a past life since I was 22. The rain has been cleansing the City since 2017 woke up. And who was to say that a wise man
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Killer Construction Firm Says “No” to Sentence Following Death
On April 6, 2015, Carlos Moncayo, an undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant, was buried alive when a 14-foot trench collapsed at the construction site on 9th Avenue, where the restaurant Pastis once stood. His employer, Harco Construction, was found guilty of manslaughter and reckless endangerment by Manhattan Judge Kirke Bartley this past July. The Judge based his
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Notes and Perspectives from Away
By Tom Lamia In 2004, after moving into the house on Charles Street that would be my home after twenty years in Washington D.C., I was visited by a neighbor who showed a greater-than-normal interest in the architecture of the entrance portal. “Greek,” he said, and began describing its historical importance. This visit was my
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Tragedies in War (Part Two)
By Isa Covo The author’s recollection of her experiences in Greece during World War II continues in this follow-up piece. After the funerals, most of the Germans departed, but two were left behind, as there was no more space on the ships. They were to remain on the island for a few days, and the
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Becoming an Actor on the Stage of Greenwich Village
By John Bredin Is it better to be a professional actor or an actor in your own life? Can one be both? These are the existential themes that animate my new play, How to Be an Actor in Your Own Life, which hopes for a Spring 2017 mounting on Broadway. Broadway?! “This guy must be
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My Love Affair with Preserving Village History
By Annie Basulto In 2014, I was hundreds of miles away in Miami raising small children and preparing to return to our Fort Greene, Brooklyn apartment. During this life-break of motherhood, I decided to research my granduncle’s Cuban music career. I was on a quest to find someone to re-create the New York and Miami
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The Extraordinary Life of Kendyl Kurth Monroe
By Sidney Monroe Kendyl K. Monroe passed away on November 14, 2016, in Bethesda, Maryland, at the age of 80. He is survived by his three sons: Sidney, Dean, and Loren, and his five grandchildren: Veronica, Henry, Keenan, Devon, Miles, and Linden. A man of insatiable curiosity, leadership, and willingness to make a difference, Kendyl’s
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Judge Extends Injunction Preventing Sale of Village Townhouse
On November 18th, Manhattan Surrogate Nora S. Anderson extended an injunction preventing the sale of 69 Horatio Street, the home of Tom Doyle and Bill Cornwell for 55 years. Doyle and Cornwell never formally married, and after Cornwell’s death in 2014, his will—which gave the house to Doyle—was found deficient because it only had one
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Remember Pearl Harbor—The 75th Anniversary
By John Gilman – The “Pearl Harbor Baby” My father, LaSelle Gilman, the author of adventure novels like Shanghai Deadline, The Golden Horde, and The Dragon’s Mouth, all set in exotic far-flung places, lived for many years in Shanghai where he was a foreign correspondent for Reuters and the International News Service (INS). He was
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Tragedies in War (Part One)
By Isa Covo Wars are never forgotten. They are taught in schools, written about in books, and frequently pictured in movies. But wars are not only what happens on the battlefield, or the heroism of the besieged. In many instances, there are stories of those who try to cope and often suffer tragic consequences. Some
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Tragedies in War (Part One)
By Isa Covo Wars are never forgotten. They are taught in schools, written about in books, and frequently pictured in movies. But wars are not only what happens on the battlefield, or the heroism of the besieged. In many instances, there are stories of those who try to cope and often suffer tragic consequences. Some
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The Passing of Patricia Doherty, RN
Patricia Doherty, RN, Director of the Department of Nursing for Community Medicine, passed away peacefully on August 24, 2016. (Community Medicine was originally part of St. Vincent’s Hospital and focused on treating the less fortunate.) Pat was diagnosed with lung cancer in April of 2016. At the time, she was living with her daughter, Kathleen,
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Love Will Conquer Greed
WestView readers have been following the story of Tom Doyle, who lived for 55 years at 69 Horatio Street with his husband, Bill Cornwell. Bill died, at age 88, in 2014 and, unfortunately, left a will that wasn’t properly witnessed. In swooped rarely heard-from nieces and nephews, eager to grab a share of the $7
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West Village Original: Scott Morfee
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is Scott Morfee, the founding producer of Barrow Street Theater (BST) at Greenwich House. Born in Boston in 1954 and raised in Pittsburgh, Morfee, as a producer, has presented such hits as Buyer & Cellar, The Flick, Red Light Winter, Bugs, and Killer Joe. In addition,
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Kudos For Dr. Alec
By Nadine Hoffmann Our own Dr. Alec, a.k.a. Alec Pruchnicki, received a well-deserved award, along with lots of praise and love, for his years of dedicated service as the Geriatrician at the Lott Assisted Living Residence. He was awarded the Spirit of Lott Award, named for Father Robert Lott, the inspiration behind the Lott Assisted
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Gay Villager Fights to Inherit Home
There are still some frontiers to cross for gay and lesbian New Yorkers. WestView ran a story back in May 2016 about Tom Doyle, a 57-year resident of Horatio Street whose life partner, Bill Cornwell, had passed away in 2014 without leaving a technically-proper will. Bill’s nieces and nephews had swooped in and claimed to
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I Met Croman
By George Capsis “Croman’s going to court tomorrow. Want to come?” offered Nelly Godfrey of the now City Marshall-padlocked Christopher Street restaurant, Lima’s Taste, victim of the worst slum lord in recent City history, Steve Croman. According to Attorney General (AG) Eric Schneiderman, he is facing 25 years in prison. At the entrance of the
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How to be a Billionaire: Luck and Diversification
Young John Catsimatidis had just graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnic and was contemplating a summer of TV watching on the couch before he started NYU engineering school when his mother bustled him out of the apartment to take a summer supermarket job with her friend Tony on Broadway and 137th Street. John proudly offers that they
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Remembering Ann Harris
By Walter Michael Harris Ann Marie McCanless Harris, 90, a prolific songwriter, actress, dancer, playwright, and mother of six, passed away peacefully in Kingston, NY on September 10, 2016. Born in New York City on January 31, 1926, Ann graduated from high school in Bronxville, NY and attended Sarah Lawrence College. In June 1948, she
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Bernard Pollock Passes
Bernard Pollock, actor/stage manager, died on September 14th 2016, aged 96 years, after a long illness. Bernie spent his life in the theatre, starting as a child actor in his hometown of Philadelphia, on The Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour radio show. When he moved to New York City, he attended the American Academy of
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Cry Me A River
I was certainly astounded by your story in the May 2016 edition about the real budget of a real individual. This poor senior is so poor that he is getting Medicaid and Food Stamps (which my very high taxes pay for), can’t afford Con Edison or dental care (not paid for by Medicaid), can’t do
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Comments on Jane Jacobs
To humanize Jane and her accomplishments would it not be helpful to mention that her rise to prominence was in large part based on her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities? And before she did that book, a strong career at Time Inc. and Iron Age. And, if you want to humanize
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Jane Jacobs Turns One Hundred
By Andrew Berman On May 4th, Jane Jacobs would have turned one hundred years old. We at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) marked the occasion with a panel discussion by Jane Jacobs scholars and experts in the field examining her legacy. But perhaps more importantly, we took the opportunity to re-dedicate
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Death Be Not Proud
By Arthur Z. Schwartz I was touched by death too many times this past month. On April 29, Reverend Daniel Berrigan died at age 95; his life as our nation’s conscience had affected me as a young man looking to make sense of the War in Vietnam, and as an adult who saw him
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Trump from Afar, of Mangoes and the Media
By Krishnan Sethu Mumbai is 8,000 miles from New York, but, now, only a day away when it comes to the latest episode of Game of Thrones, Season Six. And closer still when it comes to the great political game for the grandest prize of them all—the U.S. Presidency. Every other hour, the internet
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Neighbors Helping Neighbors Silent Auction/Benefit
By Rima Blair About a year after Hurricane Sandy, a group of older adults formed West Village Houses’s (WVH) Neighbors Helping Neighbors to figure out who might need help in the event of a future flood/prolonged power outage. Soon, our mission expanded to making our community of 420 low-rise, walk-up apartments a good place to
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A Complex Industry
By Steven Monroe Smith Long before I heard the term “West Village,” I was hired as the chef of a restaurant at West 12th and Washington Streets in Manhattan. “We really don’t need a chef,” said the interviewing partner, “but, you’re from Texas and you have experience in high volume. That’s key.” Approaching the 30th
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West Village Original: SuZen
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is photographer SuZen, born in Beth Israel Hospital and raised in Brooklyn. Her artwork has grown from traditional black-and-white print images shown in galleries, to large-scale performances in public spaces. Retired from teaching photography, on May 1st, her 50th anniversary retrospective will open at the Westbeth
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Doris Diether: The Lady Who Wouldn’t Let the Music Stop
By Brian Pape If you’ve lived in Greenwich Village as long as Doris Diether has, you’ve seen a lot of strange things. But Doris is not one to just watch the passing parade, she’s in the parade! Married at the Judson Church at Washington Square Park south in 1958, she is still a regular
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Unlocking the Potential of a Notorious Women’s Prison: Jail to Become Hub for Social Justice
By Leslie Adatto In a rare twist of poetic justice in NYC real estate, a women’s prison that, as recently as five years ago, earned the dubious honor of having the highest rate of reported staff sexual misconduct in the country, is being redeveloped into a hub of organizations that support women and girls’ rights.
