On January 20th, I attended a funeral service at St. John’s Pentecostal Church at 132nd Street and Lenox Avenue. A brilliant cold morning. After the viewing, I walked Lenox south to Marcus Garvey/Mount Morris Park. Went to the top to visit the old fire watch, a sister to the fire watch in Central Park, “The Belvedere Castle.” NYC’s earliest fire alarm system, manned raised stations at distant intervals. The Castle was built on the same summit where a traditional fire tower stood until it was demolished in the late 1860s. Fire Towers became obsolete when the telegraph became the main fire fighting communication tool. 
Notice the heavy Dutch influence on West Harlem’s architecture. Some of the stretches reminded me of Delft and Vermeer.
Here is a link to a bunch of photos from my walk.
Left park and headed towards Lexington going south towards Yorkville.
East Harlem pictures to follow next week.
If you love the city and wonder what you are missing and you are doing nothing about it. Get in a car, ride a bike, use the subway, take a bus, or put on your shoes and walk. Yes, the city is ever changing and old things go down overnight, and new things pop up and change a neighborhood’s point of view. But if you get out there, and do it now, you’ll still see the template laid down a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, the bench markers are everywhere.
For example, in Central Park there are stakes driven into marble rock indicating street intersections that were planted by the 1811 City Street Grid surveyor, John Randel Jr. well before the area was chosen for New York City’s Great Park. Go find one of these stakes and photograph it. That is my holy grail for the next month.
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We had a wonderful Valentine storytelling show at Cornelia Street Cafe this past Tuesday. Thank you, Steve Northeast, Jana Peri, Jacob Callis, Daniela Schiller, Katherine Wessling & Nick Zaharakos. I love your collective work.
Thank you, Robin Hirsch, Angelo Verga & Shannon for making us feel at home.
Thank you, everyone who came out on an overcast night to hear stories and songs about love from many different angles. Please come back soon.
City Stories: Stoops to Nuts is every second Tuesday of the month @ 6pm. Our next show is March 13th.
Here are photos from Tuesday and my stroll to the Cafe, on a rainy spring like Valentine night.
My favorite Valentine song from Nils Lofgren.
