Hidden Landmarks: Famous in Fiction

Title: Hidden Landmarks: Famous in Fiction [music]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now the latest installment in our pledge drive tour of lesser known but still fascinating pieces of New York's history. Our guide is Professional Guide Tommy Silk, who has a new book out called Hidden Landmarks of New York: A Tour of the City's Most Overlooked Buildings. You might know him from his very popular Instagram account, Landmarks of New York. Hello again, Tommy Silk.

Tommy Silk: Hey, Brian, thanks for having me again.

Brian Lehrer: We've talked in this series about distinctive private houses and commercial spaces, all with very real histories of sometimes enhanced with a bit of legend. Today we thought we would visit some places with invented histories, buildings famous for the fictional characters who occupy them in the imaginations of the writers and filmmakers who use them in their works. You write about this in your book. Maybe one of the most charming of those creations is Stuart Little, The Little Talking Mouse in E.B. White's children's book. Tell us about that house on Gramercy Park.

Tommy Silk: Yes. This house is on Gramercy Park West. It's notable because it has this beautiful cast iron front porch, and it seems appropriate that Stuart Little would have been there because the original inhabitant of the home was a gentleman by the name of James Harper. Now, Harper would eventually go on to become the mayor of New York, but he also ran a publishing company which would eventually become HarperCollins Publishing. His house is also notable because before Gracie Mansion existed as a place for the mayor to live, the mayor got a very special significance of-- basically, to show that you were mayor, you got to have two gas lamps outside your front porch. If you go visit there, Harper's house has these two gas lamps. Bob Dylan also happened to use that beautiful front porch for an album cover shooting.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, do you know offhand which album it was?

Tommy Silk: I am blanking on it off the top of my head, but it is in the book. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: All right, so there's the Stuart Little house, such as it is on Gramercy Park. Then there's a mansion familiar to fans of the Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. This is on Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights. What is its real life history?

Tommy Silk: I usually have at least three or four buildings that people mistake for it, but it exists in upper Manhattan. Probably most notably was it was the home of a guy by the name of Charles Tuttle. He was the 1930 Republican presidential candidate. As time went on in that neighborhood, a lot of these houses eventually were purchased by some of the wealthier Black families that were moving up into this area of Harlem, which would eventually spur the Harlem Renaissance.

Brian Lehrer: Next one, the Little Red Lighthouse. It isn't fictional, it's right there on the Hudson by the George Washington Bridge. So many of our listeners have seen that lighthouse moving by one way or another, on foot, on bicycle, on a boat, on a car, but it was slated to be torn down and then saved by Robert Moses, no less, because it was featured in a beloved children's book.

Tommy Silk: Yes, it's one of the few situations where you can say, "Wow, Robert Moses didn't tear this down." The children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge was an incredibly popular book. I was given it by my grandfather, who grew up a few blocks away from there, but when it was slated for demolition. The story of the book is basically that no matter how small you are, you're still important. It resonated so much with the children of New York that they were writing in letters saying that they would help protect it. A child wrote and basically mailed a single dollar saying he would do what he can to help contribute to that. There was such this outpouring of support from this children's book that they decided that even though the purpose of the lighthouse was obsolete, they were going to protect that. Robert Moses happened to be the Park's Commissioner who did that.

Brian Lehrer: That's such a great story. Next one, since Halloween is around the corner, let's talk about Hook and Ladder Company Number 8. A working firehouse, a real firehouse, but one that has a spookier fictional life.

Tommy Silk: Yes. On North Moore Street is the actual Ghostbusters Firehouse, which the fire brigade that works there has adopted the logo of Ghostbusters as their own logo. This one is very interesting because it used to actually be twice as wide as it is today. In fact, if anybody's familiar with the tiny Hess Triangle, the spite triangle outside Village Cigars in the West Village, it's the same reason why that exists, which is basically during early subway expansion, the easiest way to dig a subway tunnel was to just dig open a road, build the subway, and cover the road back on top. As a result of that, they expanded Varick Street going through Tribeca, and they had to demolish half of the firehouse and then shift it slightly over. That's why we have the single garage bay that still exists today.

Brian Lehrer: By the way, my producer reminds me that the Dylan album cover that had that Gramercy Park house, "the Stuart Little house," was Highway 61 Revisited for-

Tommy Silk: There we Go.

Brian Lehrer: -those music fans who were curious about that. Right, so we're talking about that spookier fictional life of Hook and Ladder Company Number 8, that building. Some people might not want these put in the fictional category, but there are a couple of reportedly haunted spaces in your book. Tell us about the buildings and why they might be haunted.

Tommy Silk: One of the most notable ones happens to be on Spring Street. It's currently home to a cost clothing store. In the basement of this little two story former townhouse, there's a literal well, like a drinking well. It's allegedly in this well where Elma Sands was found murdered back at the end of the 1700s. The accused murderer, his brother was an architect who happened to have some very notable clients who owed him quite a bit of money. Those clients were Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. They were hired to be the defense attorney for Mr. Levi Weeks, which is actually referenced in the show, Hamilton.

Brian Lehrer: So what you mean, if Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr had decided that they had a common enemy and they together dueled that guy, things might have gone much different in history?

Tommy Silk: Potentially, and if they were slightly better with money, God only knows what would have happened. [chuckles] They were the initial defense attorneys, and in later years, the building was used as a restaurant, and when they were doing an expansion-- so this house was built on top of the well after the fact. As they were expanding into the basement, they rediscovered this well, and waiters and servers reported that when they would go down to what was then the wine cellar, they would frequently hear wine glasses breaking and they just generally did not enjoy being down there. Now you can be haunted while shopping the men's discount rack.

Brian Lehrer: We're just about out of time for today with Tommy Silk, we'll be back tomorrow with one more tour from his new book, Hidden Landmarks of New York: A Tour of the City's Most Overlooked Buildings. You want to take just a few seconds and shout out your very popular Instagram feed. What do you do on Instagram that maybe people wouldn't see in a physical book?

Tommy Silk: I just have the ability to do more of these entries more frequently. I also try to make narrated videos going into a little bit more detail of the history and the architectural features of these buildings, but mostly the people behind it that make it so important.

Brian Lehrer: That Instagram feed is Landmarks of New York. What's the newest thing you have up there, if you remember offhand?

Tommy Silk: The newest thing is actually a thank you to the over 500 people who showed up to Grace Church last night for the book launch, which was a wonderful, wonderful thing to see.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, that's great. We're very honored to be doing sort of a rolling book launch with you this week. Again, listeners, Tommy Silk will be back tomorrow on the last day of the membership drive for one more tour from his new book, Hidden Landmarks of New York: A Tour of the City's Most Overlooked Buildings. Talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for today.

Tommy Silk: Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it.

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