Let the Saturday begin!
a couple of room photos I missed the night before. Our Air B&B would have the same, separate spigots for hot and cold for the lower and two more for the shower portion
The art deco touches on the table
and that ballroom again, as we stowed our bags to go exploring
first up, breakfast!
downstairs to the restroom is actually behind the old area that was once the Manufacturer's Trust company
Here is the front side of those doors
On our way to Herald Square subway
and down to 23rd Street and Madison Square
We arrived just a bit after 9:00 which is when the Harry Potter store opened and they set out the QR code for the virtual queue. We wandered around Madison Square for less than half an hour before our turn was called via text
you can hold on to each of the wands to see the owner, information about them and their wand, and their patronus
The quidditch match is happening over Central Park!
Christmas ornaments
compare yourself to Hagrid and you'll always be small!
The elevator downstairs is the fireplace and you travel, naturally, by floo powder!
Exiting on the lower floor, Nagini is whispering parseltongue
Even the wallpaper is true to the books, with the undesirables in Sirius Black's family burned out
They've got a large personalization portion of the shop where you can get your name engraved or embossed on everything from journals to luggage
itty bitty Hogwarts spirit jersey
Once more back upstairs past the photo ops
looking down the staircase. The statue should spin on the hour, like it does to enter Dumbledore's office, but it wasn't working the morning we were there.
After you check out, you can stop in for some Butterbeer and various Hogwarts treats
even the door handles are bronze wands
we stopped over at Levain for cookies (a must-do)
and walked through SoHo, although our main target, the Purl Store (crocheting yarns) was sadly closed.
And stopped in at Fanelli's for a bite of lunch
from there, it was back to the New Yorker to collect our luggage and walk the 10 blocks north to our Air B&B for the remainder of our stay. (And the cost of staying at the New Yorker for one night equaled the cost of the B&B for the rest of the stay)
Before we took off, I got the key from concierge to use the restrooms downstairs and found a number of old photographs of the New Yorker
The walk uptown was a slog with the luggage but getting through the subway turnstiles with it was equally daunting. We made it.
Claude met us at the entry and was a lovely host. I had made him a book of the history of the building and he left me his 50th Anniversary Marathon booklet as thanks. He was running the marathon the next morning!
oh! the the www.pickitupplease.com link? It's Claude's attempt to help clean up New York!
Our end of the apartment in 2C was perfect for the two of us. I was expecting to share the queen bed, but Steph took one sit on the daybed, which was adult sized and a purple mattress, and claimed it as her own.
The little kitchen
The hallway from the bathroom and the front door looking toward our room and the kitchen to the right
(and a million marathon medals!!)
Claude has been an executive chef in NYC for 25 years
the courtyard
A bit from the history I left with Claude for future guests, at least with an historical bent, to enjoy.
The Astor Court as it came to be called was built by Vincent Astor on land that was formerly Aston mansions at 305 W. 45th. Here is the first photograph of the finished building in 1915
Kate Claxton was a huge name in theater from the 1870s when she starred in The Two Orphans
Thomas Nast, the famous cartoonist who will ever be inextricably linked with Boss Tweed's downfall also drew one of Kate after the press kept hounding her with accusations she was bad luck after surviving two fires in theaters where she was performing. (Fires were all too common in theaters in those days.)
The tax record photo of the building in 1940
Throughout the 60s and into the 70s the building's super was a man named Frank Piccolo who loved to tell stories of happening in the building and was featured in more than 50 pieces in the Daily News recounting his adventures. I printed all of these for the book, but here's just one sample:
In 1965 the Daily News even did a piece just about him!
I ran into the current building super and ask him if he'd ever heard of Frank and he said he had! He said he'd definitely ask Claude if he could borrow the book :)
0 comments:
Post a Comment