The Low Memorial Library was the first building on Columbia University's new Morningside Campus, originally serving as its main library. Since being supplanted by the larger Butler Library in 1934, it has hosued the office of thee President and served as home to the archival collection and administrative offices. The Library was built from 1895-1897 by the university's 12th President Seth Low, a former Brooklyn Mayor, in memory of his father, Abiel Abbot Low. Unable to raise adequate funding through alumni, Low financed the construction with $1 million of his own money.
Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead, & White designed the Library in neoclassical style, borrowing elements from the Roman Pantheon and Athen's Parthenon. Designed in the form of a Greek cross, it is crowned by the largest all-granite dome in North America (105 feet high and 70 feet across) and features windows modelled on those of the Baths of Diocletian.The columns on the library's front facade are in the Ionic order, suited to institutions of arts and letters. An inscription on the building's attic describes the history of the university.
The interior abounds with classical references. At the entryway are bronze busts of Zeus and Apollo. The foyer contains a white marble bust of Pallas Athene (Athena), modeled after the Minerve du Collier at the Louvre. The twelve signs of the zodiac, which represent knowledge, surround her. The 106-foot tall rotunda, formerly the library reading room when the building was used for its original function, is lined with columns of solid green Connemara marble from Ireland, topped with gold capitals. Roman and Greek philosophers Demosthenes, Euripides, Sophocles, and Augustus Caesar stare down from the rotunda's heights as the four points of knowledge, Law, Philosophy, Medicine, and Theology mark the four points of the Greek Cross. The rest of the interior is finished with Italian and Istrian marble.
Low Library's location, atop a plinth of stairs at the centre of campus, was meant to demonstrate the value of the secular pursuit of knowledge as opposed to religion, the role of which was minimised via the subsidiary placement of the university's religious buildings on Low's right and left flanks. Daniel Chester French's sculpture of the goddess Minerva, Alma Mater was dedicated on the steps leading to the Library on September 23, 1903 and has since become a symbol of the Columbia University. The 12-foot bronze statue, which sits on a marble and bronze base designed by Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White, was originally commissioned by Harriette W. Goelet as a memorial to her husband, Robert Goelet (Columbia 1860). Typical of French's monuments, Alma Mater is rich with imagery. She sits in a klismos chair, arms stretched upward. In her right hand is a scepter which ends in four heads of wheat which hold a crown, part of the original seal of King's College. The chair arms each have a lamp which symbolizes Sapientia (Wisdom) and Doctrina (Teaching). An open Bible rests on her lap.
Low Memorial Library was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967.
National Register #87002599 (1987)
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Columbia academics, local hospital workers and tourists who snap pictures by the famous neon sign prominently featured on Seinfeld flock to Tom's Restaurant (2880 Broadway). The clean, sunny interior looks nothing like Jerry and the gang's dingy haunt, but it showcases fun ephemera like "Seinfeld" cast autographs and press clips on how the diner inspired the musical ode by Suzanne Vega.
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The Croton Aqueduct, 119th Street Gateway, was built in 1884. The granite-slab, one-story, fortress-like building on the southeast corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 119th Street in Morningside Heights replaced a similar structure built in 1842, which stood in the middle of what was then 10th Avenue. The hipped-roof gatehouse, which shut down in 1984 and is now filled in with sand, actually once helped regulate the flow of water under Amsterdam Avenue to the receiving reservoir in Central Park. A similar gateway can be found further uptown at 135th Street.
The Croton Aqueduct was a complex water distribution system initially constructed for New York City between 1837 and 1842. The island of Manhattan had a limited supply of fresh water available on the island, which dwindled as the population expanded and pollution increased. Unsanitary conditions led to epidemics like cholera and yellow fever and many fires, culminating in the 1835 Great Fire of New York. Supervised by Chief Engineer John B. Jervis, the Croton River was dammed. Iron pipe encased in brick masonry was laid from the Croton Dam in northern Westchester County to the Harlem River, where it traveled over the High Bridge at 173rd Street, down the west side of Manhattan to a Receiving Reservoir between 79th and 86th streets and Sixth and Seventh Avenues in an area then known as Yorkville, that is now the site of the Great Lawn in Central Park. The Receiving Reservoir was a 1,826 feet long and 836 feet wide fortress-like building that held up to 180 million gallons of water. Thirty-five million gallons flowed in daily from northern Westchester. From the Receiving Reservoir water flowed down to the Distributing Reservoir, better known as the Croton Reservoir, on Fifth Avenue between 40th Street and 42nd Street, where the main branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park are located today. Water started flowing through the aqueduct on June 22, 1842, taking 22 hours for gravity to take the water the 41 miles to reach Manhattan. The Aqueduct opened for public use on October 14, 1842 with a day-long celebration culminating in a fountain of water that spouted to a height of fifty feet from the beautifully decorated Croton Fountain in City Hall Park.
The capacity of the Old Croton Aqueduct could not keep up with the growth of New York City, and construction on a New Croton Aqueduct began in 1885, and it went into service in 1890, with triple the capacity. The Croton Reservoir continued to supply New York City with drinking water until 1940, when Commissioner of Parks and Recreation Robert Moses ordered it drained and filled to create the Great Lawn in Central Park.
The Croton Aqueduct, 119th Street Gateway, was designated a landmark by the New York city Landmarks Preservation Commission
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To commemorate New York City Defenses During the War of 1812
Barrier Gate McGowan's Pass, Barrier Gate Manhattanville, Forts Clinton, Fish and Faight and Three Stone Towers.
Also in Honor of Maj. Gen. Garrit Hopper Striker, then Captain 5th Regiment, 2nd Brigade
Erected by U.S.D. 1812
Empire State Society - February 22, 1900
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Casa Italiana, home to the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at 1151-1161 Amsterdam Avenue, was styled after Italian Reniassance palaces by William Kendall of McKim, Mead & White in 1926-27. It was restored in 1993 based on the designs of Italian architect Italo Rota of Paris and Milan and Samuel E. White of Buttrick, White & Burtis of New York.
The building contains a small library and a fine collection of Italian art and furniture. The second floor, with a mezzanine, contains an auditorium, the most striking part of which is the ceiling, executed in elaborate gold fresco. A panel on the south side of the building bears an inscription from Dante that translates "May it be a light between the intellect and the truth."
Founded in 1991 on the basis of an agreement between the Republic of Italy and Columbia University, the Academy promotes advanced research in all areas relating to Italian history and society. In addition, it seeks to establish a high level of academic and cultural exchange between Italy and the US. The Academy offers a Fellowship program to post-doctoral scholars in a wide variety of fields; it promotes interdisciplinary study that includes a special focus on the Arts & Neurosciences. The Academy also offers rich cultural programs, presenting distinguished examples of Italian culture through conferences, state visits, film series, concert series and art exhibitions.
Casa Italiana was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1978.
National Register #82001188 (1982)
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