in the lounge: Audubon Park

    email from Matthew Spady

Our sincere thanks to Matthew for his interesting comments and illustrations. Comments in brackets are from Leslie Kostrich, proprietor of minniesland.com.  We have also added hyperlinks for the convenience of our visitors. 

NOVEMBER 11, 2002

Hello and thanks for the great website.

Susan's email regarding Audubon Park caught my eye and I thought you might be interested in some information I have to share.  Since moving to Manhattan in 1986, I have lived in Audubon Park first at 780 Riverside Drive (which is directly across from 765 which occupies the site of Audubon's house) and then at 800 where I now live.  [See photos of the current neighborhood by visiting the about our name  feature.]  However, for the first ten years or so, I didn't know that this area had such an elegant and historic name.  When I moved to 800 Riverside Drive, The Grinnell, I became curious to know exactly who Grinnell was, and in researching that, discovered some of the rich history of Audubon Park.

First, Audubon Park is roughly the area of Audubon's estate, and was a name in use from some time just after the American Civil War until about 1915.  It referred to the area bounded by 155th Street on the south, 158th on the north, Broadway on the east and the Hudson on the west.  It developed because Lucy Audubon and her sons [Victor Gifford Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon] needed money and decided to build a few houses and rent them. One of the renters was George Grinnell, who eventually bought some of the land from Mrs. Audubon and built a house called the Hemlocks.  Over time, Grinnell bought most of the land in Audubon Park as can be seen by studying successive insurance maps in the 1870s and 1880s. 

Grinnell had several children, one of whom, George Bird Grinnell, went to a little school that Lucy Audubon held in her home. (Grinnell details this in some of his writings, including a little booklet entitled "Audubon Park" which is available at the Hispanic Society, in reprint).  Madame Audubon (as Grinnell called her) had a great influence on George Bird Grinnell, who became known as the father of American conservation.  Among many other accomplishments, Grinnell was the first person to suggest an Audubon Society, which he did in his magazine Forest and Stream (later Field and Stream).  Although his society faltered, it fostered a movement that eventually led to the creation of the National Audubon Society.  Grinnell, who was a friend of Teddy Roosevelt, wrote extensively in many genres, studied the American Indians and collected their folk stories, was a prime force behind the establishment of Glacier National Park, and, as mentioned above, was a major force in conservation.

In the early 1900s, with the arrival of the subway and a station at 157th Street, land speculators bought up quite a bit of land along Broadway -- particularly in the vicinity of the proposed stations -- and built apartment houses. Such was the case with Audubon Park. Although George Bird Grinnell held his property longer than many, he eventually sold it to developers who erected six to ten story apartment buildings on most of it.  Most of the buildings date from 1906 to 1911 (though a couple are as late as 1916) and are of the Beaux Arts style architecture.  (George Fred Pelham designed quite a few of them; Schwartz and Gross some of the others.)  The builders intended the apartments for middle-class residents, but, to draw them uptown, gave them elegant architectural features such as paneled dining rooms, gas and electric lighting (just in case electricity didn't catch on), and large, spacious rooms with many outside windows. 

Like many urban areas, Audubon Park has been through its ups and downs -- mainly down since WWII.  At the moment, it is undergoing a revival as people looking for large apartments at affordable prices come further and further uptown. 

Should you be interested in more detailed information about this area, I will be happy to share what I have gathered.  To give you an idea of what it looked like just at the time the subways arrived, but before apartment buildings dominated, I've attached two pictures, both from around 1905. 

I'm also including a postcard from around 1909 which shows Riverside Drive and the Audubon house in relation to the Hudson. 

It is important to realize, however, that the land extends much further today than it did then.  In Grinnell's writings, he describes how the railroad ran out over the Hudson when it came by Audubon Park and thereby created a little pond just down the hill from Audubon's house.  Now, the Henry Hudson Parkway and a park extend between the railroad tracks (which are in the same place) and the river.

I would appreciate your passing this information along to Ms. Davis, along with my email address, in case you or she would like to contact me for more detailed information.

Again, congratulations on your interesting website.

Regards,
Matthew Spady

Last updated 02.28.09