Well hello again, welcome to Where & When: On Demand (!) Yes, you read that right. I’ve been so busy this year that you may have noticed a dearth of games in 2015; trust me these games are not easy to conceptualize to my particular standards, but I get a big kick out of the challenge for all of us. In fact, someone (I don’t know who) missed this feature so much that they actually asked when there’d be another… imagine that! Well, I can’t let such eager individuals down too long, so I scoured the nets to find something interesting and challenging to present before being devoured by the daily grind, which has become only too grinding of late (but eh, it’s a living).
But enough about me and my achy limbs, let’s play!
There’s not a whole lot in this fine picture to tell you when this photo was taken, so I’ll give you a hint: “This address almost became the site of the home team, baby!” Now if you know me well enough, I’m I’m sure you do at this point, you know that there’s gooey caramel hidden in that clue; you might even slump, groan or facepalm when the realization hits you; it’s just my thing. But after that, all you have to do is post the name of this building (Where) and a particular date or year that is significant to this location. Bonus if you know something significant that happened after the When date related to this location. As usual, the first person with the correct answers will win the coveted Root Beer of choice (so many good ones to choose from), while the rest of the players will enjoy a cool cream soda as we all regale each other around the Hot Stove. The bonus winner(s) will get a warm brownie to enjoy the cooling Fall weather as we approach the Happy Holiday season.
So, as per special request, enjoy the game and hopefully I can catch up with you all and maybe have some more challenges through the rest of the year. Happy Hunting!
Man, I've been waiting for this! I need it to get me through the off-season. Thanks, Will!
The hint got it for me.
I remember that Jacob Ruppert looked at other sites before building Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. A look at the Wikipedia page pointed me to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum -- Will's "baby" hint assured me that this was the right track. I don't know which year is "significant to this location", but the site is Amsterdam Avenue, 136th to 138th. Maybe May 5, 1922, when ground was broken on the actual Yankee Stadium? 1984, when the Asylum was built?
I'm getting an odd deja vu sense. Did we have a W&W related to this one once?
Definitely Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Quick Google to Wikipedia establish it was a consideration, inquiring as to Original site intended for Yankee Stadium. Early photos of it are missing the telephone poles.
Art Buchwald was admitted in the 1930s (per Wikipedia) which has to be after this photo. In 1915 the Child Welfare Act was passed, so 1913? Are those trolley tracks in front?
And welcome back!
Or, is it an 1884 date, which preceded the Blizzard of 1888?
Good questions all around; I did think there would be more than one significant date related to this place, but I was thinking more in line with hinting towards the building of Yankee Stadium (The House That Ruth Built) more than when the place was founded or other particular dates; the fascinating thing to me was that the new stadium was to be built on what was and still is Convent Avenue; the well-preserved multi-million dollar brownstones from even before that era would have been obliterated for a new stadium for the more-popular Yanks (and still a stone throw away from the Polo Grounds); it would have been even more mud in the Giants' eye because the elevation is higher on Convent Avenue than where the Polo Grounds was situated. Yet, Col. Ruppert had the right idea; the trains that eventually arrived to that area of the Bronx would also eventually outdo the trains of Manhattan in terms of accessibility, and the rest is what we already know.
Ironically, the family Ruppert and Co. bought the land from became super rich generations before due to the foresight of Johann Jakob Astor, a turn-of-the-century (18th Century that is) fur trader and investor who, noting Gov. DeWitt Clinton's planning and implementation of the Manhattan Street Grid, decided to buy up as much land as he could and whenever he could in anticipation of the eventual population boom/shift north that Clinton's project very correctly predicted. That, and Cornelius Vanderbilt saying something like, "Put the road there, and people will go there to live" was certainly a dynamic in play with their eventual decision.
Have I already presented this? I don't think I have, but I did touch up on the "precursor to Yankee Stadium" thing when I presented a photo of Hilltop Park from 1912. Quite a lot of MLB history in Upper Manhattan as it turns out, among other things...
Well, RI gets the root beer and you both get brownies for the dates, as I wasn't looking for a specific dates and you gave me something else to research. Thanks, and hopefully I'll have some time to come up with something at least as interesting as this one. Good Night!
Yeah, the Hilltop Park one is what I must have been thinking of.
The early Yankee history is a bonus, thanks!
Great to have this back!
This was a great one, Will! Even though a number of folks beat me to the punch, I couldn't go without weighing in after jonesing so much to see the feature return.
I got to the answer by the same route RIYank took, and here's what I was wondering at when my threads ran out:
- What year did they bury the power lines on Amsterdam Ave?
- What were those decorations over the main entrance meant to celebrate? Would they have been consistent with a Jewish holiday? Could it have been VE or VJ Day?
(The orphan asylum stopped operating in 1941, but the building survived until 1956, and was used as Army housing for much of that time.)
Any time life gives you a breather to set one of these challenges up, they're always welcome. Thanks for the effort.