BLOGS ABOUT HOME DECORATING

Key West (Moresome)

What a time for a revelation!

The moment Prince Charming proposes, Addison London realizes that she is about to say “yes” to a lifetime of love, stability—and constancy—having never really lived her life to the fullest, and runs.

As a straight-laced good girl grown into a responsible, respectable woman, Addison is always prim and proper, and…well, boring. She always does the right thing, plays it safe, makes the right decisions, and suppresses her own longings to meet the expectations of others.

But she will have no regrets.

Before committing to a life wrapped in a white picket fence, she will have a little excitement and adventure, she will throw caution to the wind, and she will live out her most secret sexual fantasies—if only for a weekend.

Desperate to break free, she travels to Key West and surrounds herself with willing, gorgeous men. All she has to do is pick one. But with only one weekend in the tropical paradise, and one chance for a hedonistic experience meant to last a lifetime, she discovers that “one” is not enough.

After all, what happens in Key West stays in Key West, right?

What a time for a revelation!

The moment Prince Charming proposes, Addison London realizes that she is about to say “yes” to a lifetime of love, stability—and constancy—having never really lived her life to the fullest, and runs.

As a straight-laced good girl grown into a responsible, respectable woman, Addison is always prim and proper, and…well, boring. She always does the right thing, plays it safe, makes the right decisions, and suppresses her own longings to meet the expectations of others.

But she will have no regrets.

Before committing to a life wrapped in a white picket fence, she will have a little excitement and adventure, she will throw caution to the wind, and she will live out her most secret sexual fantasies—if only for a weekend.

Desperate to break free, she travels to Key West and surrounds herself with willing, gorgeous men. All she has to do is pick one. But with only one weekend in the tropical paradise, and one chance for a hedonistic experience meant to last a lifetime, she discovers that “one” is not enough.

After all, what happens in Key West stays in Key West, right?

Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Built in 1892, the Claremont Stables was designed in the then popular Romanesque Revival style by Frank A. Rooke. Now the oldest functioning' commercial stable in Manhattan,1 it was constructed as a livery stable containing space for horse stalls and carriage storage.

There horses and carriages could be had for hire, and horses could be boarded for a fixed rate. Claremont is a rare survivor of a once common building type, and its rarity is enhanced because virtually all other stables that survive in Manhattan have been converted to other uses or stand vacant.

Rooke's Romanesque Revival style design is distinguished by such characteristics as five arched bays at the ground story with the large central bay for horse traffic, arched window openings at the upper stories, and bands of fretwork enconpassing the word "Claremont" which surmounts the whole.

The orderly arrangement of the facade, symmetrical and dignified in appearance, subtly expresses the functions within, while relating this utilitarian structure to the surrounding residential neighborhood. Constructed at a time when horses still provided the primary means of transportation and only six years prior to the first automobile appearing on Manhattan's streets, the Claremont Stables has withstood the domination of motor vehicle transportation and potential demolition through adaptation as a riding academy in 1927, providing facilities for boarding and renting horses and recreation in nearby Central Park.

History of the Claremont Stables

The Claremont Stables building was constructed on land that in the mid-eighteenth century was part of the Charles Ward Apthorp farm. By 1860 the site where the stable structure was later built had been divided into city lots. On March 14, 1892, it was recorded that Edward W. Bedell purchased nine lots, each 25 feet x 100 feet. On April 6, 1892, he submitted plans for a public "stable" to be built on a parcel 75 feet x 100 feet which combined three of the lots.2 Designed by the New York architect Frank A. Rooke, the structure took just under five months to build and was completed on October 4, 1892.

At the same time and also for Bedell, Rooke designed three, two-story, architecturally compatible private stables which were built on the neighboring lots, now 167, 169 and 171 West 89th Street.3 Bedell then sold these private stables to local families.

Stables were a necessity during the period when private urban transportation was limited to horses and carriages. New York City Directories, at the turn of the century, list approximately 750 livery-stables. Here one could rent a horse and carriage or board one's own horse. The very wealthy maintained private stables for their horses and carriages. Often, for the sake of convenience, these were located nearby on streets dedicated to stables and similar structures. Public taste, however, dictated that ccrnmercial stables be as far away from residences as possible. A commentary in 1901 stated that New York was "made almost unbearable by the foul odors which arise from the stable and poison the atmosphere for blocks arourad.114

At the turn of the century commercial stables were widespread and numerous in Manhattan extending the length of the island from Water Street on the south to East 234th Street on the north. Often they were clustered together, for the reasons mentioned above. On the Upper West Side, in 1902, from West 64th Street to West 97th Street, Central Park West to the Hudson River, there were approximately 117 stables.5

Residental development occurred very rapidly on the Upper West Side from 1885 onward. The Claremont Stables was situated on one of the streets in the area which was developed with light industrial structures. Seven stables, including the Claremont, were located on West 89th Street in 1902.6 Later a telephone building, garages, and tenements were built on the street, whereas most blocks in the vicinity contained rowhouses and other residential structures.7 The 89th Street location provided area residents easy access to horses without being too close to their homes.

On March 2, 1893, Bedell sold the recently completed Claremont public stable to Charles F. Havemeyer, for $90,000.® Havemeyer and his brother-in-law William B. Duncan, Jr., then leased the structure to Lee and Darius Tallman. The structure had been built with the name "Claremont" in a frieze surmounting the facade. The Tallmans appended their name to the business which first appeared in the 1893-94 city directory as "Tallman's Claremont Stables," and the building was so marked in the 1895 Atlas of Manhattan Island, published by I.A. Lefevre.9

It is likely that the Claremont Stables took its name from the Claremont Inn on Riverside Drive at 125th Street (destroyed by fire in 1951)10 which became a popular site for visitors in the mid-1890s, who journeyed there by horseb

Midtown West, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Engine Company Number 23, built in 1905-06, was designed by Alexander H. Stevens in a straightforward Beaux-Arts style that served as a model for subsequent firehouse design. The symmetry of the three story facade, its materials — Indiana limestone and red brick laid in Flemish bond with dark headers, and its consistently ample fenestration successfully combine to give it its official character. The repetition of architectural elements and their functions — segmental door and window heads, compatible window head and entablature, the sill course, keystones, bracket stone and key consoles — combine to create a sophisticated and cohesive facade design. From this firehouse this engine company has continued to fulfill its mission of protecting the lives and property of the citizens of New York.

Neighborhood History & Context

Engine Company 23 is the only edifice on this section of West 58th Street still housing a function directly related to its original purpose. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, contemporary landbooks indicate that private stables stood on many of the lots along the street's north side. There were commercial liveries a's well: the Bennett Livery Stable was at 221 West 58th Street; there was a small livery on the northwest corner at Seventh Avenue; and on the southwest corner there was the Central Park Livery Stables. On Seventh Avenue just north of the small livery there was a Riding Academy. The presence of a firehouse on this block was appropriate and compatible: the steam engine, the hose and the fuel wagons, and the chief's buggy were all horse drawn; and as much as the residents nearby required stabling for the horses they hired and/or maintained for their own use, they relied upon the protective presence of the Fire Department. The warehouses west toward the Hudson River and the tenements to the south and northwest were equally or more susceptible to fire as the first class residential buildings and hotels along Fifth Avenue and Central Park South.

The home of Engine Company 23 is constructed of load bearing brick with iron cross-bridging. It is three stories on a full basement (Plate 5). The facade, Indiana limestone and red brick laid in Flemish bond with dark headers, is articulated as a single, vertical bay comprising the apparatus entrance and above it the windows of the second story officers' room and third story chief's office. Flanking these broad central elements are relatively narrow apertures: the personnel entrance on the left of the apparatus door and a window (now blocked) on the right; and on both the second and third stories a window on the left and toilet roam window on the right. All of these have deep reveals. The bay containing a service entrance of the adjacent thirteen story apartment building at 221 West 58th Street is set back from the building line, creating a return (approximately five feet) of what had been the firehouse's western party wall.

The first story is faced with ashlar limestone above a granite water table. The segmental-arched apparatus entrance is the central and dominant element. Its intrados and the lower portion of its extrados are protected by wrought-iron plates extending down to the granite spur stones. The window (now blind) embrasure to the right (Plate 6) has become a flat niche and contains a seated lion, sculpted in marble, supporting with his right paw a shield on which "23" is displayed in low relief. 5 Two gold colored metal lanterns flank the apparatus door. Three bronze plaques have been affixed to the ashlar to the right of the apparatus entrance, two of them one above the other, between the entrance and the flat niche and the third to the right of the flat niche.16 The ashlar wall surface is capped by a limestone belt course on which "23 ENGINE 23" is affixed in raised, bronze numbers and letters. A large bronze plaque occupies the central position of the limestone frieze above this course.

The large second story window's ashlar surround is keyed into ttfe adjacent bond. Thick limestone mull ions subdivide it into a wide central window and two narrow side windows, each with a transom above. Hie windows are one over one, double-hung sash; the transoms pivot horizontally. A large, limestone scroll keystone and two conventional brackets support the balconet above. The sides of these brackets are articulated with panels containing horizontal reeding. Both of the small flanking windows are one over one, double-hung sash.

Like the window below, the large third story window's limestone surround is both keyed into the adjacent brick bond and subdivided by limestone mullions. Again the sash configuration is one over one, double-hung and the transom lights pivot horizontally. But unlike the window below, this window is defined by an earred architrave interrupted only by the large limestone key console. The balconet supports the p

Parrotheads, Hemingway aficionados, and sun worshipers view Key West as a tropical paradise, and scores of writers have set tales of mystery and romance on the island. The city’s real story—told by Maureen Ogle in this lively and engaging illustrated account—is as fabulous as fiction. In the two centuries since the city’s pioneer founders battled Indians, pirates, and deadly disease, Key West has stood at the crossroads of American history. In 1861, Union troops seized control of strategically located Key West. In the early 1890s, Key West Cubans helped Jose Marti launch the Cuban revolution, and a few years later the battleship Maine steamed out of Key West harbor on its last, tragic voyage. At the turn of the century, a technological marvel—the overseas railroad—was built to connect mainland Florida to Key West, and in the 1920s and 1930s, painters, rumrunners, and writers (including Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost) discovered Key West. During World War II, the federal government and the military war machine permanently altered the island’s landscape, and in the second half of the 20th century, bohemians, hippies, gays, and jet-setters began writing a new chapter in Key West’s social history.