Not far from Manhattan is the Incorporated Village of Garden City (below). "America's first planned community," it was initially an ideal neighborhood. It had the BEST intentions. Care and craft was lavished on its creation. It was sturdily maintained for a century. Now, left undefended on Long Island's overgrowing cesspool of greed, over-development, demolition, corrupt politics... it's now a shrinking oasis being chewed away by developers, realtors, malls, slums, and neglect. At the rate they wish to destroy the old buildings (and culture), there'll be nothing special left.
Lets admire the origins of Garden City, NY. 'Twas sooooo pretty in its beginning, with noble ideas--sprouting from a generous soul. There should be more great men like Alexander Stewart, who created the town.
Alexander Turney Stewart (1803-1876) always acted as if he'd just awakened from an Ebenezer Scrooge moment: a sense of noblesse oblige, sharing the wealth, and giving back to the community. *To read more about him, please use this link:
Four years after America ended its Civil War (to finally abolish slavery--30 years after imperialistic England), Stewart bought acres of farmland on Long Island with the intention of designing an ideal community. "Having been informed that interested parties are circulating statements to the effect that my purpose in desiring to purchase the Hempstead Plains is to devote them to tenement houses ... I consider it proper to state that my only object in seeking to acquire these lands is to devote them to the usual purposes for which such lands, so located, should be applied--that is, open them by constructing extensive public roads, laying out the lands in parcels for sale to actual settlers, and erecting at various points attractive buildings and residences, so that a barren wasteland may speedily be covered by a population desirable in every respect as neighbour taxpayers and as citizens. In doing this, I am prepared to expend several millions of dollars."
How did Stewart get those millions by the 1860s? Using his Irish grandfather's inheritance, he created the most successful retail business in America. His American wife, Cornelia, came from a wealthy merchant shipping family. His brother-in-law was Collector of the Port of NY. How could he NOT be successful in retail? (He had a better set-up than Brooks Brothers of 1818!) By 1848 (long before similarly-minded Selfridge's of London), Stewart ran he largest store in America! (located across from City Hall Park).
followed by a cast-iron "Palace" of 1862, on Broadway & 6th.
With stores in far-flung locales around the world--and vertically owning his own factories and fabric mills--Stewart happily returned his profits to the betterment of "the people". (So unlike modern retail operators--greedily sucking employees/communities dry). Despite his attitude of "giving back", he became one of the 20 richest people in history, with a fortune (on paper) of $90 billion (in current USD).
A natural salesman, Stewart realized that "you will deal with ignorant, opinionated and innocent people. You will often have an opportunity to cheat them. If they could, they would cheat you.... You must be wise, but not too wise. You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can.... You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back." Such a pleasant notion--and it worked wonders!
Seeing potential for mail-order business, in 1876 Stewart hired 20 clerks to read, respond and mail out orders. His mail-order efficiency, convenience and profits gained so much attention from all over the country that other famous businesses such as Sears, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel's followed in his footsteps.
Stewart had such a winning formula that US President Grant nominated him to be Secretary of the Treasurer. Perhaps because he was too good/honest, he wasn't approved by the Senate. Officially, they cited that an active merchant couldn't head the Department (which certainly doesn't apply today: think "General Motors" or "Monsanto").
Long before Caroline Astor built her famous limestone "palatial" mansion (1893), Stewart constructed the first Fifth Avenue mansion in 1869. A trendsetter with an eye for architectural beauty, his home was actually across from Caroline's initial brownstone home. (I'm sure he spurred her--the "gatekeeper of Society's "Top 400"--to upgrade her residence). [In 1901, his home was torn down to build a Trust Company building... just like Astor's home was torn down to build the Waldorf Astoria Hotel... by her feuding family.] What a shame that neither mansion lasted.
By now, you get an idea of Stewart's mentality. Knowing the man, helps us understand Garden City, which has such a lovely name. Unlike industrialist Henry Ford's "company town" that was more like a dictatorship, or Walt Disney's imagined community (that never got built in Florida), Stewart created a real homey community--like Steinway Village (in my current neighborhood of Astoria) or Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonia, NY.
Like Henry Steinway's neighborhood for employees (including library, church, trolley), the notion of Garden City was to provide comfortable and airy homes for employees and local citizenry. Like many aforementioned things, Stewart was way ahead of the "City Beautiful" movement in America (which began 1893).
In 1869, Stewart bought 5 square miles of Long Island land, called the Hempstead Plains. The name derives from the 1644 Dutch settlement of Hemsteede = "Homestead". (seen below, with Manhattan in the distance).
He laid out wide tree-lined streets, allotted generous parcels of land for each home, saw to it that gracious houses were sturdily built, arranged a tidy Main Street, and created an efficient street grid. He intended for a beautiful community, with strict zoning and governing rights to ensure its preservation.
In 1871, he built a commuter/supply railroad to Garden City... which is now part of the corrupt Long Island Railroad (monopoly). He built his own brick foundries and garden-supply company. In 1874, he built the first Garden City Hotel. The famous architects of the "Gilded Age", McKim, Mead & White, designed a revised Garden City Hotel in 1895.
Fox hunts and the Vanderbilt Cup Races were celebrated at the hotel. JP Morgan used it, along with many of Long Island's wealthy. *See their Long Island mansions/estates in my prior blog entry:
http://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2016/03/gilded-age-mansions-estates-on-long.h
Stewart died in 1876. To reward his 6 longest-term employees, he bequeathed each of them the equivalent of $6 million in today's money!
To honor his memory, Cornelia Stewart built St. Paul's School for boys: an 1883 baronial building with a clocktower.
Cornelia joined her husband in heaven in 1886. Following his mindset of spreading their fortune, the wealthy widow bequeathed funds to build St. Mary's School for Girls. It was completed in 1892. Alas, it didn't even endure for a century. In 1989, the school was shuttered. It was sold to overeager developers, torn down, and replaced with more houses.
Cornelia also built a Bishop’s Residence...
...and the gothic Cathedral of the Incarnation (today is the center of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island)! The elaborate edifice was completed in 1885.
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are interred there.
In 1898, voters of Garden City selected the current town of Mineola to be the "county seat" for the new county of Nassau (before Mineola incorporated as a village in 1906 and set its boundaries). Little did they know how little their local government would help them, in the future! The Garden City Company (founded in 1893 by Stewart's heirs) donated four acres of land for the county buildings. The land and the buildings have a Mineola postal address, but are within the present-day Village of Garden City, which did not incorporate, nor set its boundaries, until 1919.
In 1910, Doubleday, one of the most world's important publishers, moved its operations to Garden City, adding its own train station. Doubleday purchased land on the west side of Franklin Avenue and built estate homes for its executives.
In 1927, the pioneering aviator, Charles Lindbergh, departed on his famous solo 33-hour transatlantic flight from Roosevelt Field to Paris. He became a worldwide icon.
In the 1930s, hundreds of houses were built to accommodate the post-war population boom, though Garden City used a strict zoning code to preserve Stewart’s vision. Its citizens retained orderly development, true to its rigorously-planned roots. But only for one more generation.
Far from the elite North Shore's "Gold Coast", and alone in central Nassau County, the village soon got encapsulated by greedy tract-home developers. Just like the "Little House" story!
The neighboring town of Hempstead has degenerated into what Detroit looks like--or what Harlem did in the 1970s. Mineola didn't do much better.
Bookended by slummy neighborhoods, Garden City eroded.
Its dedicated citizens either died or moved away. Newcomers--and realtors disguised as local politicians--didn't care about the ornate ambiance. They neglected things and let organizations fall into ruin.
In the 1970s, the old Garden City Hotel declared bankruptcy, and subsequently closed.
The hotel was demolished with a wrecking ball, and Garden City lost one of its grandest and most historical landmarks.
A new (and ugly) Garden City Hotel was constructed on the site.
In 1978, 50 of the original structures--collectively known as Stewart Era Buildings--were designated a national historic district. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1989, St. Paul's School also closed and in 1993 was purchased by the Village of Garden City. Several times, developers lurched forward to tear it down, while residents and architecture fans rallied to intervene. They fought against an uncaring local government to save this magnificent structure.
Finally, the village voted to designate St. Paul's and its property as "parkland".
Gobbling up more "green space", condominiums were built, adjacent to the new Garden City Hotel.
Remember my mention of Roosevelt Field?
The airfield was demolished to build an asphalt parking lot and a vast shopping mall (like much of America) of the same name.
The mall greedily wanted Garden City's posh zip code... but it finagled a deal with county politicians so it doesn't pay any taxes to Garden City. That's cheating the community. And what does it give back, in return? Huge amounts of traffic, congestion, over-hyper consumerism, and increasing crime (as the mall descends into a gang hang-out).
How did Stewart get those millions by the 1860s? Using his Irish grandfather's inheritance, he created the most successful retail business in America. His American wife, Cornelia, came from a wealthy merchant shipping family. His brother-in-law was Collector of the Port of NY. How could he NOT be successful in retail? (He had a better set-up than Brooks Brothers of 1818!) By 1848 (long before similarly-minded Selfridge's of London), Stewart ran he largest store in America! (located across from City Hall Park).
followed by a cast-iron "Palace" of 1862, on Broadway & 6th.
With stores in far-flung locales around the world--and vertically owning his own factories and fabric mills--Stewart happily returned his profits to the betterment of "the people". (So unlike modern retail operators--greedily sucking employees/communities dry). Despite his attitude of "giving back", he became one of the 20 richest people in history, with a fortune (on paper) of $90 billion (in current USD).
A natural salesman, Stewart realized that "you will deal with ignorant, opinionated and innocent people. You will often have an opportunity to cheat them. If they could, they would cheat you.... You must be wise, but not too wise. You must never actually cheat the customer, even if you can.... You must make her happy and satisfied, so she will come back." Such a pleasant notion--and it worked wonders!
Seeing potential for mail-order business, in 1876 Stewart hired 20 clerks to read, respond and mail out orders. His mail-order efficiency, convenience and profits gained so much attention from all over the country that other famous businesses such as Sears, Montgomery Ward and Spiegel's followed in his footsteps.
Stewart had such a winning formula that US President Grant nominated him to be Secretary of the Treasurer. Perhaps because he was too good/honest, he wasn't approved by the Senate. Officially, they cited that an active merchant couldn't head the Department (which certainly doesn't apply today: think "General Motors" or "Monsanto").
Long before Caroline Astor built her famous limestone "palatial" mansion (1893), Stewart constructed the first Fifth Avenue mansion in 1869. A trendsetter with an eye for architectural beauty, his home was actually across from Caroline's initial brownstone home. (I'm sure he spurred her--the "gatekeeper of Society's "Top 400"--to upgrade her residence). [In 1901, his home was torn down to build a Trust Company building... just like Astor's home was torn down to build the Waldorf Astoria Hotel... by her feuding family.] What a shame that neither mansion lasted.
By now, you get an idea of Stewart's mentality. Knowing the man, helps us understand Garden City, which has such a lovely name. Unlike industrialist Henry Ford's "company town" that was more like a dictatorship, or Walt Disney's imagined community (that never got built in Florida), Stewart created a real homey community--like Steinway Village (in my current neighborhood of Astoria) or Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonia, NY.
Like Henry Steinway's neighborhood for employees (including library, church, trolley), the notion of Garden City was to provide comfortable and airy homes for employees and local citizenry. Like many aforementioned things, Stewart was way ahead of the "City Beautiful" movement in America (which began 1893).
In 1869, Stewart bought 5 square miles of Long Island land, called the Hempstead Plains. The name derives from the 1644 Dutch settlement of Hemsteede = "Homestead". (seen below, with Manhattan in the distance).
He laid out wide tree-lined streets, allotted generous parcels of land for each home, saw to it that gracious houses were sturdily built, arranged a tidy Main Street, and created an efficient street grid. He intended for a beautiful community, with strict zoning and governing rights to ensure its preservation.
In 1871, he built a commuter/supply railroad to Garden City... which is now part of the corrupt Long Island Railroad (monopoly). He built his own brick foundries and garden-supply company. In 1874, he built the first Garden City Hotel. The famous architects of the "Gilded Age", McKim, Mead & White, designed a revised Garden City Hotel in 1895.
Fox hunts and the Vanderbilt Cup Races were celebrated at the hotel. JP Morgan used it, along with many of Long Island's wealthy. *See their Long Island mansions/estates in my prior blog entry:
http://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2016/03/gilded-age-mansions-estates-on-long.h
Stewart died in 1876. To reward his 6 longest-term employees, he bequeathed each of them the equivalent of $6 million in today's money!
To honor his memory, Cornelia Stewart built St. Paul's School for boys: an 1883 baronial building with a clocktower.
Sadly, for the last two decades, the effete government let the grand building stay vacant and in disrepair. Citizens and preservationists rally for its salvation, but realtor developers and (lobbied) politicians hope to demolish it.
Cornelia joined her husband in heaven in 1886. Following his mindset of spreading their fortune, the wealthy widow bequeathed funds to build St. Mary's School for Girls. It was completed in 1892. Alas, it didn't even endure for a century. In 1989, the school was shuttered. It was sold to overeager developers, torn down, and replaced with more houses.
Cornelia also built a Bishop’s Residence...
...and the gothic Cathedral of the Incarnation (today is the center of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island)! The elaborate edifice was completed in 1885.
In 1898, voters of Garden City selected the current town of Mineola to be the "county seat" for the new county of Nassau (before Mineola incorporated as a village in 1906 and set its boundaries). Little did they know how little their local government would help them, in the future! The Garden City Company (founded in 1893 by Stewart's heirs) donated four acres of land for the county buildings. The land and the buildings have a Mineola postal address, but are within the present-day Village of Garden City, which did not incorporate, nor set its boundaries, until 1919.
In 1910, Doubleday, one of the most world's important publishers, moved its operations to Garden City, adding its own train station. Doubleday purchased land on the west side of Franklin Avenue and built estate homes for its executives.
In 1927, the pioneering aviator, Charles Lindbergh, departed on his famous solo 33-hour transatlantic flight from Roosevelt Field to Paris. He became a worldwide icon.
In the 1930s, hundreds of houses were built to accommodate the post-war population boom, though Garden City used a strict zoning code to preserve Stewart’s vision. Its citizens retained orderly development, true to its rigorously-planned roots. But only for one more generation.
Far from the elite North Shore's "Gold Coast", and alone in central Nassau County, the village soon got encapsulated by greedy tract-home developers. Just like the "Little House" story!
The neighboring town of Hempstead has degenerated into what Detroit looks like--or what Harlem did in the 1970s. Mineola didn't do much better.
Bookended by slummy neighborhoods, Garden City eroded.
Its dedicated citizens either died or moved away. Newcomers--and realtors disguised as local politicians--didn't care about the ornate ambiance. They neglected things and let organizations fall into ruin.
In the 1970s, the old Garden City Hotel declared bankruptcy, and subsequently closed.
The hotel was demolished with a wrecking ball, and Garden City lost one of its grandest and most historical landmarks.
A new (and ugly) Garden City Hotel was constructed on the site.
In 1978, 50 of the original structures--collectively known as Stewart Era Buildings--were designated a national historic district. They are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1989, St. Paul's School also closed and in 1993 was purchased by the Village of Garden City. Several times, developers lurched forward to tear it down, while residents and architecture fans rallied to intervene. They fought against an uncaring local government to save this magnificent structure.
Finally, the village voted to designate St. Paul's and its property as "parkland".
Gobbling up more "green space", condominiums were built, adjacent to the new Garden City Hotel.
Remember my mention of Roosevelt Field?
The airfield was demolished to build an asphalt parking lot and a vast shopping mall (like much of America) of the same name.
The mall greedily wanted Garden City's posh zip code... but it finagled a deal with county politicians so it doesn't pay any taxes to Garden City. That's cheating the community. And what does it give back, in return? Huge amounts of traffic, congestion, over-hyper consumerism, and increasing crime (as the mall descends into a gang hang-out).
The Village's police department seems overwhelmed... especially when it has to issue tickets regarding garbage left at the curb or washing your car near the curb (instead of out of site on your property).
Village taxes pay for such "services". Yet, a shrinking tax base isn't helping. Being denied financial benefits of the mall, Garden City suffers via nearby towns that steal its zip code but don't pay taxes. East Garden City and Garden City South sprouted up as a gimmicks by realtors to sell more houses with the cache of Garden City. "Isn't it absurd that this immense area is paying taxes supporting other places and other schools but still has a Garden City address?!" wrote former GC historian, John Ellis. The post office at Roosevelt Field (which used a Mineola address when it was still an air field) remains billed as Garden City, despite being located beyond the village line. A "Welcome to Uniondale" sign sits 50 feet from a building called the Garden City Center. (90% of Uniondale's residents are minorities, and they're not happy about losing their territory to East Garden City).
Much of Garden City now resembles the acres of nondescript McMansions & tract homes, like the rest of Long Island. Land gets gobbled up, subdivided to make more houses. Money flows out, and nobody is attracted to GC's Main Street or local shops. The bandstand sits alone on a sliver of remaining park. The corrupt monopoly Long Island Railroad took over commuter rail service. The corrupt monopoly Long Island Power Authority supplies electricity. Vendors/suppliers treat the island's inhabitants as "fish in a barrel", and price-gouge them for gasoline, food, supplies. Nassau County if notorious for its high taxes yet crumbling infrastructure. It can't be depended on to save a small village of Garden City.
In France, they would've preserved the old structures--with plenty of space--and used them continually for public events (like below).
But if somebody doesn't save what remains of Stewart's Garden City, then all that might remain will be a sign like this...
Even Alexander Stewart's generous heart and keen business mind hasn't been able to sustain his vision: a "city beautiful" community for the betterment of mankind.
To learn about him, go here:
Great historical overview...I disagree with some of the doom and gloom assessment about the neighboring villages and etc., but you are spot-on about the over-development and lack of planning and regional support.
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