The ornate, baroque-styled marble fountain in Riverside Park is named after Robert Ray Hamilton, a prominent businessman, landowner, and politician who bequeathed $9,000 to the City of New York for its creation. It stands as one of the last surviving examples of decorative horse troughs that were once common in the city. Hamilton, a great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton, used his wealth from Manhattan properties and inheritance to fund the fountain. The lavishly carved fountain is made of Tennessee marble and features an eagle, decorative motifs, a coat of arms, a dolphins’ head spray feature, and more. Erected during a time when horses dominated city streets, it served as a watering spot for them. Though it fell into disrepair, a 2009 restoration, funded by private donations, brought it back to its former glory. The Hamilton Fountain is now a significant historic monument in Riverside Park, maintained by the Riverside Park Conservancy. The inscription reads: BEQUEATHED TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK BY / ROBERT RAY HAMILTON

Robert Ray Hamilton Fountain

The Helmsley Building is a 35-story building at 230 Park Avenue between East 45th and 46th streets in Midtown Manhattan, just north of Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It was built in 1929 as the New York Central Building and was designed by Warren &amp; Wetmore in the Beaux-Arts style. It was the tallest structure in the "Terminal City" complex around Grand Central prior to the completion of what is now the MetLife Building.Located to the north of Grand Central Terminal, this building was the center of a series of hotels and office buildings sponsored by the New York Central Railroad. Once visible for miles away along Park Avenue, this building served as a powerful reminder of the dominance of railroads in the era.

Helmsley Building

 Architectural historian Carol Krinsky on the Helmsley Building, the electrification of the railroad, and the creation of Park Avenue. 

 Holding a copy of "The Divine Comedy" in his hand, Dante stands brooding in bronze. Dante is a casting of a statue located at Dante Park in New York City. The founder of Dante Park and editor of Il Progresso Italiano-Americano, Carlo Barsotti donated the replica in 1921 as a tribute to Italian Americans. 

Located at the intersection of Broadway and Columbus.

Dante Alighieri

 A banquet was held the night before Grand Central Terminal opened for 100 people invited by the building's architects Warren and Wetmore.  The subterranean space is noted for its white tiled Gustavino Vaults.  The vaults have an unusual acoustic property in that they amplify sounds as a 'Whispering Gallery'.  

Whose gravity-defying vaulting technique thrilled builders of the&amp;nbsp;City Beautiful movement, an era defined by the notion that train stations and bridges could be grand works of art with more than just utilitarian value.  

Grand Central Terminal

Oyster Bar

This was Donald Trump's first renovation project outside of Queens. By the late 70's the Commodore Hotel was very down on its heels. Grand Central was sheltering many of the city's homeless who were hanging around the adjacent hotel. It was funded by Hyatt who would be the operators of the hotel. There was another scheme for him to get $40 million tax abatement from the City. In order to get it, he had to show the City that he had a signed option agreement for $250,000 from Penn Central to secure the option to purchase the hotel. It appears that he didn`t have the money because he sent forms with no signature. Nevertheless, Trump's father, Fred Trump, had a long time political connection through the Brooklyn Democratic machine to then-Mayor Abraham Beame. Despite the city being in the midst of the worst fiscal crisis in its history, Beame's deputy mayor, Stanley Friedman, The abatement moved forward as if the agreement had been signed and as if Trump had paid to secure the option.Trump was then able to convince the Hyatt hotel chain to partner with the Trump Organization and purchase the Commodore.They became the operator for the hotel. The existing hotel was reclad in bronze glass and it opened in 1980. Trump and Hyatt parted ways acrimoniously which ended in court some years later.

The Grand Hyatt New York

The organizational meeting which resulted in the formation of the Association was held at the Astor House on December 23, 1859. The first general meeting of the Association was held on February 14, 1860, and a charter was granted by an act of the legislature of the State of New York on April 17, 1860.

One of Haight's few Romanesque Revival works, it is fairly restrained. It is noted for its flat facade and balanced window arrangements.

Oldest clubhouse built and still occupied by its members in NY. A club whose "sole purpose" according to a critic writing in 1887, "is to enable some hundreds of busy men to take one hurried meal a day, six days in the week, under circumstances of more exclusiveness than can be had in the restaurants." Women have been able to join since 1985.&nbsp;

Down Town Association 

This world renowned luxury hotel has been a symbol of elegance in New York City since its opening in 1907. It was designed as an adaptation of French Renaissance architecture.A French Renaissance-inspired château-style building, it contains 21 stories and is 251.92 ft (76.79 m) tall. The Plaza Hotel's floors use a European floor-numbering pattern, where floor 1, corresponding to the second story, is directly above the ground floor. The first and second stories of the facade, are clad with rusticated blocks of marble. The fourth through fifteenth stories, are clad with white brick and typically contain rectangular windows. These stories contain terracotta veneers that harmonize with the marble facade below it and the mansard roof above.Frank Lloyd Wright designed many buildings while staying at the Plaza. Many movies and books, such as North by Northwest and Eloise, have featured scenes at the Plaza. Occupants enjoy unbeatable views of Central Park and Fifth Avenue.The corner of Fifth Avenue, Central Park South, and 59th Street was developed with the Plaza, Savoy, and New Netherland hotels during the 1890s; the Savoy would be replaced in 1927 by the Savoy-Plaza Hotel, which itself would be demolished in 1964. All three hotels contributed to Fifth Avenue's importance as an upscale area.

Summer Garden, a&amp;nbsp; seasonal restaurant opens, is to be known later as The Rose Room, which reverts to a space for private functions in 1940  

 Introduced with the hotel&amp;rsquo;s opening in 1907. The Porch was a seasonal outdoor restaurant with only ten tables, patronized by the likes of Diamond Jim Brady and the Prince of Wales. Today&amp;rsquo;s Champagne Bar was beautifully renovated in 2014 and is located adjacent to The Plaza&amp;rsquo;s lobby and Fifth Avenue foyer.  

The leaded glass dome was removed around World War II, reportedly to prevent it from being a beacon during air raids  

Plaza Hotel

Grand Central Terminal originated as a central hub for the Hudson River, New York and Harlem, and New York and New Haven Railroads. Cornelius Vanderbilt, after merging the Hudson River and New York Central Railroads, commissioned architect John B. Snook to design Grand Central Depot, completed in 1871. Subsequent expansions in 1895 and 1900 couldn’t handle rising traffic, and after a deadly crash in 1902, steam locomotives were banned in Manhattan.&nbsp;

This led to William J. Wilgus’s proposal for a new electrified underground terminal, approved in 1903, and completed in 1913.

The terminal's late-1990s renovation added stands and restaurants to the dining concourse, and installed escalators to link it to the main concourse level. The MTA also spent $2.2 million to install two circular terrazzo designs by David Rockwell and Beyer Blinder Belle, each 45 feet in diameter, over the concourse's original terrazzo floor. &nbsp;The hall was renovated and renamed Vanderbilt Hall after the family that built and owned the station.

In 2007 it seemed like a good idea to connect the Long Island Railroad (America's busiest commuter railroad) with Grand Central Terminal. &nbsp;It took $11 billion and over a decade to make East Side Access into a reality. &nbsp;The five block concourse is 17 stories below grade requiring nearly two minutes to descend via the MTA's longest escalator to the track level.&nbsp;

With the advent of electricity to power trains, a new station was needed to accommodate the additional traffic. William L Wilgus, VP and Chief Engineer of NY Central &amp; Hudson River held a competition between 4 firms including McKim Mead &amp; White and Reed &amp; Stem (relatively unknown but had done a lot of railroad terminals; Wilgus was married to Reed`s sister May). They were made to associate with Warren &amp; Wetmore possibly because Whitney Warren was the cousin of William K Vanderbilt. After Reed died in 1909, there were a few design changes and Whitney Warren became the architect. The final design produced 44 platforms on two levels making it the largest train station in the world.It became the hub of New York for decades. Movies were filmed there. Couples proposed under the great clock. It housed an art school, a library (which still exists) and even an apartment (which is now a bar). The Terminal fell into disrepair in the late 70's prompting multiple planning studies and proposals for its restoration. This finally happened in the late 90's and the terminal was lovingly restored and brought up to date. Retail was added in the former waiting rooms.

The facade includes several large works of art. At the top of the south facade is a 13-foot-wide clock. The clock is surrounded by the Glory of Commerce sculptural group, a 48-foot-wide sculpture by Jules-F&amp;eacute;lix Coutan, which includes representations of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. At its unveiling in 1914, the work was considered the largest sculptural group in the world  

The European style marketplace has 13 different local vendors selling everything from seafood and cooking spices to cheese and deli meats to cupcakes and jams 

 A false ceiling of square boards, installed in 1944, bears an elaborate celestial mural painted with more than 2,500 stars and several bands in gold set against a turquoise backdrop. This ceiling covers the original 1913 version, which had degraded because of water damage.  

One of Grand Central&amp;rsquo;s main attractions, and is often the meeting place for visitors and locals alike. You know you&amp;rsquo;re a New Yorker when you&amp;rsquo;ve told a friend to &amp;ldquo;meet me at the clock&amp;rdquo;!  

The dirt buildup was sometimes reported to be tar and nicotine from tobacco smoke, or diesel or coal soot from the trains in the terminal's train shed (trains have utilized electric power in Manhattan since 1908). Spectroscopic examination revealed that it was made up of air pollutants from trucks, cars, and emissions and contaminants from incinerators and factories. As a general renovation of the terminal got underway, historians and preservationists called for the 1944 boards to be removed and the original ceiling mural restored. But Beyer Blinder Belle, the architecture firm that led the renovation, deemed the original mural irreversibly damaged and noted that the asbestos-laden boards would be hazardous to remove. Starting September 1996, the ceiling boards were cleaned and repainted. Lights were installed into the ceiling boards to imitate the stars, restoring a feature previously only seen from 1913 to 1944. A single dark patch (one brick) if you follow the claw of cancer (the crab) on the ceiling to the corner, was left untouched by renovators to remind visitors of the grime that once covered the ceiling.&nbsp;

 It was conceived in 1912 by architect Warren and painter Paul C&amp;eacute;sar Helleu. The latter, who had come to the United States for a three-month stay to create portraits of eight women for a Parisian magazine, sketched a conceptual design for Warren. Helleu worked from a chart given by Columbia astronomy professor Harold Jacoby, who had derived it from the Uranometria, a star atlas published in 1603. The mural was executed in 1913 by James Monroe Hewlett and Charles Basing of Hewlett-Basing Studio. They were assisted in the design by Helle and multiple astronomers, and in the painting by more than 50 painting assistants. Around 63 electric bulbs were installed to amplify the visual impact of the stars. The depicted constellations include those of the winter zodiac viewable from October to March, from Aquarius to Cancer. Also depicted are Pegasus, Triangulum Majus and Minus, Musca Borealis, and Orion, as well as two broad gold bands spanning the ceiling, representing the ecliptic and the equator.  

In a 1957 attempt to improve public morale after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, an American Redstone missile was set up in the Main Concourse. With no other way to erect the missile, a hole was cut into the 1944 false ceiling to allow a cable to be lowered to lift the rocket into place. Historical preservation dictated that this hole remains as a reminder of the many uses of the Terminal over the years.  

For decades, it was called the Suburban Concourse because it handled commuter rail trains. Today, it has central seating and lounge areas, surrounded by restaurants and food vendors. The shared public seating in the concourse was designed resembling Pullman traincars. These areas are frequented by the homeless, and as a result, in the mid-2010s the MTA created two areas with private seating for dining customers. The terminal's late-1990s renovation added stands and restaurants to the concourse, and installed escalators to link it to the main concourse level. The MTA also spent $2.2 million to install two circular terrazzo designs by David Rockwell and Beyer Blinder Belle, each 45 feet in diameter, over the concourse's original terrazzo floor. Since 2015, part of the Dining Concourse has been closed for the construction of stairways and escalators to the new LIRR terminal being built as part of East Side Access. 

 Grand Central covers 48 acres (19&amp;nbsp;ha) and has 44&amp;nbsp;platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world.&amp;nbsp;  

At the time of the terminal's construction, electricity was still a relatively new invention, and the inclusion of electric light bulbs showcased this innovation.&amp;nbsp; 

 The terminal's main departure boards are located at the south end of the space; the boards have been replaced numerous times since their initial installation in 1967.  

Just not &ldquo;Grand Central Station&rdquo;&mdash;that refers to the US Post Office down the street or the subway station below.Woman sitting on luggage in Grand Central Terminal, September 1958

 Passengers in the main concourse, October 1941  

It is used for the annual Christmas Market, as well as for special exhibitions and private events.  

"Landmarks of New York Grand Central Terminal completed in 1913 from plans of Warren &amp;amp; Wetmore and Reed &amp;amp; Stem on site of earlier depot built by Commodore Cornelius Wanderbilt in 1371. Statuary group over main entrance executed by Jules Coutan. Plaque erected 1957 by the New York Community Trust" 

Grand Central Depot Railroads brought people, profits&hellip;and pollution. Residents complained, and in 1854 the city banned soot-belching steam engines below 42nd Street, keeping them far from New York&rsquo;s populated heart. Trains arriving from the north unhitched their engines at 42nd and towed passenger cars the last few miles downtown by horse. Despite these restrictions, the Hudson, New Haven, and Harlem Railroads were eager to expand. To coordinate their services (and save money) they agreed to share a new transit hub. With 42nd Street the southern limit for steam engines, it was the logical station location. Grand Central Depot opened in 1871. Three towers represented the three participating railroads. Thirty years later, a new Annex doubled the Depot&rsquo;s size, but double wasn&rsquo;t enough&ndash;rail traffic had already quadrupled.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

Pen and black ink, graphite on cream tracing paper, 10 × 12 15/16 in. (254 × 328 mm), irregular.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Plaque location

Architectural historian Carol Krinsky talks about Grand Central Terminal and the development of Midtown.

Head towards Grand Central Station. There you will encounter the Hercules, Mercurius, and Minerva sculptural group atop the station. If you are following along on our art map this should be labeled 64. As you walk into the Main Concourse of Grand Central, the most notable feature is the great astronomical mural (56 on the art map), from a design by the French painter Paul Helleu, painted in gold leaf on cerulean blue oil.

 In Grand Central Terminal are other works of interest, including 'As Above, So Below' by Ellen Driscoll, 'Flight' by Richard Lippold, and 'Sirshasana' by Donald Lipsky. 

Warren and Wetmore was an architecture firm in New York City. It was a partnership between Whitney Warren (1864–1943) and Charles Wetmore (1866–1941), that had one of the most extensive practices of its time and was known for the designing of large hotels.

Warren & Wetmore

SITES

PLAYLISTS CURATED by Warren & Wetmore