Pomander Walk (Thursday Doors)
A miniature stage set
meant to be temporary,
like its original residents–theatrical
made permanent by fate
a bit of serendipity
and a touch of whimsy
Developer Thomas Healey build Pomander Walk in 1921. Designed by the architecture firm King & Campbell, it was intended as a temporary measure to facilitate cash flow until Healey could get financing for the hotel he really wanted to construct on the site. He died three years later before the money came through, and Pomander Walk was saved.
The 27 buildings were modeled after a stage set for the popular London play “Pomander Walk” which had opened in New York in 1910. The architects Tudorized the Georgian-style houses in the play, but retained many whimsical theatrical details, including the small scale. This was interesting to me because I had always been told it was designed as a stage set for a film, and then turned into housing.
Most of the houses are placed facing an interior walkway that crosses the block between 94 and 95 streets. The gates are locked, so there is no access except for residents and their guests, or the occasional tour given to journalists.
A peek through the gates does not give much of a view.
As I have noted before, like a lot of the Upper West Side, the houses had deteriorated by the 1970s, and were set to be razed after Landmarks rejected its original application in the 1960s. But a second application was successfully mounted and approved in 1982. Pomander Walk was saved again.
Soon after, the rental complex was converted to co-ops, and the new owners began raising money to restore the facades to their original appearance.
Surrounded now by huge high rises, it looks even more diminutive than it did when it was built.
My daughter and I once looked at the attic apartment in the corner house. It was very charming but not only really tiny but way out of our price range. But I’ve never managed to see the interior houses except in photos.
You can see those photos here, or here, and also read more about Pomander Walk and its history. Click on the unit listings here at Streeteasy and you can see some floorplans and interior photos if you want as well.
My poem is for the theme of buildings, Kim’s prompt this week at dVerse.
And you can always find lots of doors at Thursday Doors, hosted by Dan Antion.
Heads
A multimedia exploration of Hausmann’s Mechanical Head.
Some new work 3/24/24
I really got into the cherry blossom paintings I was requested by the phlebotomist I work with. She hung the first four in her office. Not to be ummm braggy but it is nice to hear people getting their blood drawn ask about the art. Here are the first four together:
I’m missing one here so I guess I did five versions. The last one is on a canvas board rather than paper.
This one took a few days-it has a lot of layers on it. I did a smaller one a while back:
Also a game board with rodent bones.
The rain was intense yesterday in Northern NJ. Today is my daughter’s birthday and it is very nice out.
Happy Sunday. Nina
equinox
I wake to birdsong–
robins nesting—crows complain–
wind shining through clouds
cold morning, this equinox–
colors bloom amidst bare trees
Thursday Doors in on vacation this week, so I thought I’d post some of the photos I took in Central Park on the way to the dentist on Tuesday. When I woke up it was cloudy, but the wind cleared most of the cloud cover away.
Dan published some bridge photos on Monday which reminded me to take some of my own of the park’s bridges, including interiors. I love bridges.
As you can see, the trees are still bare, and it’s been chilly all week (wind chill in the teens this morning), but there are little signs of spring everywhere.
Next week the city should really start blooming.
One advantage of the bare trees is the ability to see the buildings from the park path. Here’s the Dakota (minus the tourists).
Of course once you get to a view of midtown, you might prefer leaves on the trees…
I’ve written a tanka for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday and for Frank Tassone’s Haikai Challenge #11 Spring Equinox using kigo words birdsong and shining winds. I always know spring is here when the robins wake me in the morning.
Met Cloisters (Thursday Doors)
1
how to reconstruct
golden dawn rising above
the passage through light?
fragmented portal
pieces itself together
using hands and heart
I’ve been meaning to go to Drop-In Drawing at the Met Cloisters for a long time. Saturday, even though it was dreary and threatening rain, I took the train to the bus which dropped me off right at the Cloisters front entrance.
2
who stands sentinel
against the meaninglessness
that threatens spirit?
the silent threshold
distills senses until love
calls and we reply
There are too many wonderful doors here to put into even several posts; I drew one and photographed only some of them. They originated in the collection of American Art Dealer George Grey Barnard who acquired parts of four cloisters in Europe in the early 1900s and had them shipped to NYC.
3
how to observe life–
all its manifestations
entering, leaving?
spring mists hold secret
gardens—daffodils dancing
inside of March winds
John D Rockefeller bought the collection from Barnard and had a medieval-inspired building, designed by architect Charles Collens, constructed in Fort Tryon Park, which he created from land he bought in upper Manhattan. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead Jr, the son of the Olmstead who designed Central Park. Rockefeller then donated the building and its art and grounds to the Metropolitan Museum.
This doorway is from Moutiers-Saint-Jean in France, dating from about 1250. Those are the donors acting as guardians for the door. Pictured in the archway above is the Coronation of the Virgin in Heaven. You can find out more here.
The second doorway was reconstructed from the fragments of the nearly destroyed church of San Vicente Mártir in Spain. I love that they refer to it as the portal to the church. You can see more detailed photos here.
I did not take a photo of the door I drew, but you can see one here. It’s from the main entrance of the Church of San Leonardo al Frigido in Italy. The sculptures, from 1175, were produced by the workshops of sculptor Biduinus.
The gardens are also an important part of the building, as they were in the cloisters and monasteries it is modeled after. They were designed to mimic gardens of the Middle Ages, with trees, flowers, and herbs. I think this one has a fountain in the center, which is covered for the winter. There’s a little bit of the green promise of spring.
I also visited Central Park on a sunny day this week. There are some daffodils on the bottom left, and you can see the beginning yellow of the forsythia ready to bloom.
My poems are (once again) mondos, done for Tanka Tuesday with kigo words spring mists, daffodils, and March winds. I’ve also, for Merril’s prompt at dVerse, used the names she provided of three kinds of daffodils: golden dawn, sentinal, and love call.
And you can always find lots of doors at Thursday Doors, hosted by Dan Antion.
For more detailed information about the Cloisters, here’s the Wikipedia page, and the page at the Met website.
Playing with Pattern
As usual, the Kick-Abouters found many different ways to explore the work of Mainie Jellett.
Mariana Fruit Dove (Draw a Bird Day)
fruit begins to flower in rainbow hues–
laughing mountains empty now,
no matter the season
shadows of wings hang heavy—branches still–
snake coils blend into the dark
spreading complete silence
flowers wilted, the fruit stays uneaten–
butterfly wings appear, ghosts
imprinted on spring mists
The Mariana Fruit Dove, native to Guam and the Mariana Islands, is a shy solitary bird that spends most of its time high in the tree canopy of the island forests. Its diet consists mainly of fruit, but it also eats leaves, flowers, and seeds. Its builds flimsy twig nests in the forks of trees and usually lays only one egg, which is attended to by both parents.
Unfortunately, due to the introduction of an invasive species, the brown tree snake, during World War II, the Mariana Fruit Dove is now extinct on Guam, along with most of the other forest birds that once lived on the island. It is also endangered throughout its remaining range because of habitat loss.
The St Louis Zoo operates a captive breeding program, started in 1993, in the hopes of staving off complete extinction for this lovely bird.
My poem is a three-stanza kimo with kigo words laughing mountains and spring mists for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday. I’ve also used the W3 prompt of a wilted flower, provided by Jane Aguiar, as inspiration.
Flower Children (Thursday Doors)
She had no words but she had a piece of a tune.
She followed behind herself, looking for the lineage.
She unearthed the roots between the staves, searching.
Did she want to set them free? or air them out?
She turned over note after note trying to find
the threads that contained the key. They were tangled,
disconnected. The missing lines covered the ground,
scattered in all directions. Which to follow?
~she wondered~
Where was the strongest branch? The one
that held her inside its skin? The one
that contained the cells of her bones, the pathways
for her blood? Could the parts that were cut off,
missing, lost, be replaced–reunited with the melody?
Her hands touched the delicate fibers, wistful.
She remembered music, being part of a harmony,
a living chord. But she had forgotten how to sing.
You could easily pass this tenement by without noticing the two guardians I dubbed flower children. But since I’m always looking at doors now, I crossed the street to have a closer look.
Each one is a bit different and full of lovely details. They seem to be looking at something beyond our mere human senses.
As it turns out, the building is an HDFC Restricted-Income co-op, containing 20 one-bedroom apartments, four per floor. There is a cap on what the seller can charge, making them more affordable than similar market-rate apartments. The monthly maintenance charges are especially reasonable. It seems to be a walk-up building, but there are many co-ops that don’t have elevators in New York.
Built in 1890, it was designed by Gilbert A Schellenger. He evidently began his career doing brownstones in Brooklyn, but eventually made his mark on all kinds of buildings all over the city. There’s one nearby that I want to go investigate as the Daytonian has a write-up on its history.
My puente was written for Dora’s dVerse Poetics prompt, to consider a time in our lives when we were young and green.
And look for more doors, as always, at Thursday Doors, hosted by Dan Antion.
Cherry Blossoms
I seem to be pursuing a theme. This one is the third cherry blossoms painting.
And this is the fourth.
Maybe I’ll do a few more.
Have a good week! Nina
March 2024
walking slowly through chilled air–
grey mist blurs the path’s edges–
something bright catches my eye–
early spring snowdrops
rain and then more and more rain
erases lingering snow–
wind gusts start, pause—patterning
the panes like a drum
we add a leap day—as if
time could be confined to fit
the boxes with their numbers,
cast off from the wheel
The birdlings are back to welcome March. There is not much color here yet, but I did see snowdrops in the park the other day, and the forsythia have buds.
I’ve written three dodoitsu for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday, using her kigo words of early spring snowdrops, lingering snow, and leap day. We have now officially leapt.
Happy March!
method two madness 
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