Greetings, kids and kittens, welcome back to another edition of Where & When. Our season premiere was very solid and we had a pretty good turnout (though I was remiss in declaring a winner since it seemed to be a group effort, so everyone gets a root beer), how about we follow up with some more excitement and discovery?
I’ve somehow stumbled upon some pretty interesting locales and buildings, so I’m rather amped to share them with you this week; provided of course that I have time to set them up like this. So c’mon, let’s get to the game, shall we?
This looks like a rather unique structure for New York, doesn’t it? It sort of reminds me of a beach resort hotel… well, at least one of those thoughts is relative to the location, or close to it. The region was likely not as developed as it is now, but a place like this would certainly stand out in any era. As usual, your job is to determine where this picture was taken and when. There are enough clues in the picture to get a good idea when, but where is going to take some thinking.
There’s a frothing decanter of root beer waiting for the first person to answer both questions correctly, and a bonus scoop of ice cream for the one who can answer the bonus question of what this region looks like now; i.e. what has become of what you see in the photo.
All participants with good guesses or good stories will get a equally frosty glass of cream soda. Cheers to all involved and I’ll try to get back sometime during the day (but as you can tell, I make no promises). Enjoy!
photo credit: Library of Congress
Creedmor Hospital, late 30's?
beach hotels new york or long island 1930s come up empty. But I did stumble across a similar hotel in LA, under the label "Art Deco." Will have to try that.
Wow, this is a toughie.
[1] Close, but no cigar. Pretty good guess, actually...
The North Brother Island Hospital is close, but not tall enough:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094823/North-Brother-Island-Eerie-pictures-abandoned-New-York-leper-colony.html
[5] Wowzers, must be the same architects then. I dunno, maybe the night crew will pick up the save on this one?
[5] interesting tidbit about Typhoid Mary, especially in light of recent events (not to get political of course). Gotta wonder with all the disease that was housed there for so long if it's really any safer for the birds that inhabit it now and how that effects whatever they come in contact with. Maybe the organisms involved would not survive that long without a living host or any type of body since the island was completely abandoned for so long.
I think one of the cars is a Packard 120.
So, I say 1941.
It could be up through 1944. Detroit stopped producing cars 1942-44, for some reason.
Dang, I'm not getting anything.
Getting nowhere on 'where'.
It does look like an LA hotel, I agree. I also agree that it's art deco -- late deco, a style that was called 'Streamline Moderne'. I've stayed here once -- a nice example of the type.
Does this have anything to do with the Idlewild golf resort that showed up once before in our little game?
Whatever the building was, it isn't there now. I found a wonderful site called the "New York Art Deco Registry" artdeco.org/new-york-art-deco-registry and I went through all 200 buildings they show, and it wasn't any of them.
Imma keep looking.
Is it perhaps Brighton Beach? Still not finding it.
I've found at least 3 high schools that are in the art deco style with the same "top" as this building . . . but none of them are this building.
Heck of a puzzle, Chyll!
Based on [1] and [4], I think we are barking up the wrong tree. This isn't a hotel . . .
Found it!
Googling "queens art deco hospital" got too many spurious hits. But "queens new york art deco hospital" got me this Flickr page, which has a picture of the Queens Hospital Center, in Jamaica.
More in a minute (I only have about ten minutes before I have to go anyway...)
Okay, so, it was once the Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis, designed in 1937 by John Russell Pope, construction finished in 1941. The local community board recently voted in favor of demolition, but historical preservation buffs are fighting to keep it whole.
Here's a current photo, and here's a petition to keep the damn thing from being knocked down.
Well, without the links: it was once the Triboro Hospital for Tuberculosis, designed in 1937 by John Russell Pope, construction finished in 1941. The local community board recently voted in favor of demolition, but historical preservation buffs are fighting to keep it whole.
[14] A ha! I was missing the "Queens" part.
I know that building, and the couple of times I've passed by it was striking to see. It's grimey now, amd the individual a/c window boxes ruin the lines. The hospital should be retrofitted and preserved.
[15] Congratulations, RI, you certainly earned that one!
The answer is Triboro Hospital, c. 1940 as the photo credit attributes; RI has the specifics and top bonus for finding the petition to preserve the building from being torn down.
Good work everyone for tracking down the clues, you all get a nice thoughtful cold cream soda for the effort and thanks for playing. I hope to have a new one up later this week, so check back in soon.