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IF YOU HAVE an automobile, you will find woods and rolling
hills, parks and ocean front, lakes and seashore resorts,
and the charm of the countryside within an hour's drive
from Times Square. Once free of the city's traffic, the
motorist will roll along wide inviting highways that point in
all directions. The roads are well constructed and safe. Many
are planned to avoid towns and intersections, so that one may
travel for 30 or 40 miles without encountering a traffic light
or crossroad. Highways run beside rivers, wind over hill and
mountain, traverse green, fertile valleys, skirt rocky coasts
on the Atlantic.
Rip Van Winkle's Catskill Mountains, the high Adirondacks,
the Green Mountains of Vermont, the exclusive beaches at the
eastern end of Long Island, and society's colony at Newport are
within a day'8 ride.
Along the Hudson are the steep Palisades, Storm King High¬
way, historic Bear Mountain, and Vest Point. In Westchester,
Saw Mill River Parkway (once celebrated in popular song as
Saw Mill River Road), Albany Post Road, and Bronx River Park¬
way wind their way among vast estates, through places renowned
in fact and fiction.
The large parks and beaches of Long Island invite the
hiker, camper, and swimmer. Long Island Sound, to the north,
has plentiful fishing and boating facilities. In near-by New
England are the old, picturesque sea towns of the Pilgrims and'
the rugged States of Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Somewhere in the regions just outside New York there is
something to Interest everyone: student of history, nature
lover, sportsman, or exploring motorist. One may travel here
conveniently, safely, and Inexpensively. The tourist Who would
appreciate the metropolis must visit the country that surrounds
it.
WORK
PROGRnm
Here is Your New York, with the compliments of the writers
of the forthcoming New York City Guide, a SOO-page guidebook
of the great metropolis and the first work of its kind in al¬
most a decade and a half. A compendium of New York history,
generously illustrated, it also will include tours of general
and special interest, authoritative articles on art, industry,
education, amusements, and many other aspects of the city.
A condensation of its contents will be Included in The
American Guide now being compiled by the Federal Writers
Project WPA, a national organization employing 9425 persons,
directed by Henry G. Alsberg, in Washington, D. C.
New York City Federal Writers Projects, WPA
Orrick Johns, Director Travis Hoke, Assistant Director
114 East 32d Street CAledonia 5-8950
Vistas of the city, from
any vantage point, are spec¬
tacles unique and surprising.
From the deck of a ferry¬
boat bound for Staten Island,
glance backward. The sky¬
scrapers ihs.ss ir.to angular
mountains; stone, steel, con¬
crete, and brick shape them¬
selves into vertical color
banks. On Brooklyn Heights —
first subway stop after leav¬
ing Manhattan — from Monta¬
gue Terrace you see
in profile every
tall building of
Manhattan, from
South Ferry to Har¬
lem. Or walk across
Brooklyn Bridge at
night. At either
end of the stroll
the near-by build¬
ings shed golden gleams to
splash the shores and waters.
From a mldtown Skyscraper ob¬
servatory — say the Empire
State Tower — all of New York
is within view. Or from In¬
spiration Point, uptown in
Fort Tryon Park, you may see
the broad Hudson and the ma¬
jestic fretwork of the George
Washington Bridge. At night
on Fifth Avenue, between For¬
ty-eighth and Fifty-first
streets, the cen¬
tral shaft of the
Rockefeller Center
Group,gleaming with
the lights of of¬
fices and of the
Rainbow Room atop,
thrusts in slender
dizzying perspectlvi
into the darkness.
IN THE
GOOD
OLD
SUMMER
TIME
THE LARGEST and most civilized community in the West¬
ern Hemisphere — traversed t>y wide rivers and bor¬
dered by the blue Atlantic — surrounded by hills,
woods, cliffs, lakes, islands — this New York you
have come to see is the metropolitan center of one of Amer¬
ica's first-class summer resorts.
Is it the hottest day of the year, a bit uncomfortable
indoors! A nickel becomes a magic talisman to drop into the
slot of bus, subway, or elevated railroad, in order that you be
whisked away to an enchanted pleasure ground. Perhaps it will
be an amusement park, all lights and crowds and excitement;
perhaps a beach, perhaps a wooded hill country, perhaps a park,
a zoo, a highway.
Is it a dry and parching day? Half an hour and half a dol¬
lar, or little more, will place you aboard a steamer coasting
Manhattan Island, showing you around the edge of the city
while you loll in a deck chair under an awning; will give you a
seat in a catboat skimming across Long Island Sound while you
fish or trim sail or Just loaf; will give you a berth aboard a
pleasure craft slipping up-river between wooded heights and
palace-crowned terraces. Or the Staten Island Ferry — 20
minutes at sea for a nickel.
Is the city too noisy for you? Within easy reach are for¬
est trails, the scent of pine, and pools into which to drop a
baited hook. Or have things turned dull and prosaic, even in
this town? Maybe you would be tempted by breeze-swept roof¬
tops, with delectable foods, clever entertainers, music
"sweet" or "hot", and dance floors on which even the most timid
terpslchorean can feel like Fred Astalre.
Sports? There are all kinds. Golf courses, tennis courts,
playgrounds, gymnasiums beckon the robust. Or, should you care
to be only a spectator, there are the gigantic baseball
stadiums, the boxing and wrestling bouts between champions,
polo, racing,and other contests.
Music? The Lewisohn Stadium, with a symphony orchestra and
world-famous conductors, outdoors, for a small price. Band
concerts in the parks, free.
Theaters? Even in the summer the big stage hits hold on,
playing to appreciative crowds, and motion picture palaces
announce, "Cooler Inside". In near-by communities the summer
theaters offer fresh aspirants and old favorites to holiday
throngs. Cabarets, night clubs, restaurants, and bars offer
many opportunities for a pleasant evening.
Whether you view New York from the top of a cloud-misted
skyscraper or from the top of a Fifth Avenue bus, whether you
are a peer or a plumber, whether you spend a hundred dollars or
a dime, there are new thrills awaiting you in this city whose
every pulse-beat is a thrill. And when you leave, it's more
than likely you too will say: New York is America's most ex¬
citing summer resort.
EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD in New York is worth your time —
but some are worth more of it than others.
Times Square, the columnists' "double-cross roads of
the world", is in the heart of Pfenhattan, geographic¬
ally as well as spiritually. At the point where Broadway, the
Street That Is Never Called Straight, sprawls across Seventh
Avenue, are the theaters, the night clubs, the music and mer¬
riment, the glare that never dims — the muddle and Jumble of a
metropolis at play. Keep your eyes open for other things than
bright lights and traffic Jams and huge signs that blink on and
off like fitful constellations against the sky — you may see
Jack Dempsey, Rudy Vallee, Helen Morgan, Fanny Brice, or any
one of those who are known beyond the broad empire of Gotham.
Or go northward to Harlem, a paradise for seekers after the
exotic, which straddles the map from Fifth Avenue westward to
St. Nicholas Avenue, from the northern edge of Central Park up
to 155th Street. Cabarets, night clubs, dance halls, swing
rhythms, and irrepressible high spirits — all add their meas¬
ures to a great rhapsody in which the blue notes are sounded by
adjacent poverty and squalor.
Greenwich Village, extending southward from Fourteenth
Street to Fourth Street, and westward from Fifth Avenue past
Sheridan Square, is the nation's greatest rash of art, litera¬
ture, and temperament in the raw — where the artiest of art¬
ists meet to eat, drink, and argue. On the checkered table¬
cloths of quaint retreats are plotted free verses, free lives,
and a free world. And, as picturesque as poet, painter, or
philosopher, are other figures — artistic racketeers, exiles
from fallen monarchies, playboys, criminals.
Chinatown — the angle of Mott and Pell streets, with Doyer
and Bayard streets adjacent — strikes a note of orientalism
like the muffled clang of a gong in the city's complex melody.
Here, to curio shop or to cafe of strange delicacies, you are
welcomed by yellow gentlemen whose restrained good manners are
seasoned by the ages. Walls are plastered with strange in¬
scriptions that may be the Analects of Confucius or advertise¬
ments of a shark-fin soup. Deeper within the houses may be
incense-clouded temples to brass idols, and — who knows? —
quiet cells where dreamers linger over opium pipes, the dens
of natchet men and desperate mah Jong players. Who can say
that the megaphoned bawl of rubberneck guides is all romance?
Or the Bowery, where "they say such things and they do
such things" — once the farm of Peter Stuyvesant, next the
theatrical district of the growing city, in the nervous nine¬
ties the toughest, saltiest patch of ground in the world. The
Bowery isn't so tough and salty today, but don't miss it.
Don't miss, either, the Old Italian Quarter at Mulberry and
Spring streets, or the New Italian Quarter at 116th Street and
First Avenue, for street festivals, spaghetti feasts, and the
rich gaiety of the Latin; nor the Syrian Quarter, extending
along Washington Street from Morris Street to Rector; nor the
other quarters, streets, and squares, each with its romance
and tradition; the old town, the new town, the Town of a Thous¬
and Towns.
i
SOME OF THESE EXCURSIONS MAY HAVE BEEN DISCONTINUED BY THE
TIME THIS REPRINT OF YOUR NEW YORK REACHES YOU
HUDSON RIVER TRIP
Day Line: To Albany, with stops at Newburgh, Poughkeepsie,
Kingston Point, Catskill, and Hudson. Daily at 9:20 a.m.
from foot of West 42d St. Fare to Albany: 34.00. Last trip
September 26. Until September 13 a steamer leaves daily at
10 a.m. from the same pier for Indian Point, Bear Mountain,
West Point (except on Sunday), Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie.
Round trip: $1.75. Sunday excursions until about mid-October.
ATLANTIC HIGHLAND'S
A fleet of fast steamers making morning, afternoon, dinner,
and moonlight trips between New York and Atlantic Highlands.
(A) Leaving pier 81 (foot of West 42d St.) at 9:05 a.m. and
about every hour thereafter. Round trip: $1.25 and $1.35.
(B) Steamer Mandalay from Battery Park at 9:30 a.m., 1:45 p.m.,
and 8:30 p.m. Round trip: Weekdays, 50d. Sundays and holidays,
75d. Last cruise September 15.
keansburg beach
A 60-mile cruise with all day at this Raritan Bay Beach. From
Battery Park at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m.,
and 8:30 p.m. Round trip: $1.00. Last cruise September 15.
PLAYLAND and RYE BEACH
The steamer Wauketa leaves Battery Park daily at 9:15
a.m., 10:15 a.m., and 2:15 p.m. for a 60-mile cruise up Long
Island Sound. At 8:30 p.m. the steamer Americana leaves
Battery Park for a sail up the Hudson. The Wauketa makes Sun¬
day and holiday trips at 11:00 a.m., 3:15 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and
6:45 p.m. Round trip: $1.00. Last cruises September 13.
BEAR MOUNTAIN PARK
Steamer Bear Mountain leaves Battery Park daily at 8:30 a.m.
Round trip: 75«!. Sundays, $1.00. Last cruise September 11.
Ferryboats to Staten Island afford a fine harbor trip lasting
nearly half an hour. A splendid view of Lower Manhattan.
Manhattan Island may be circumnavigated on sight-seeing yachts
that leave Battery Park at'1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Fare: $1.00.
Leaving Battery Park daily at 10:30 a.m., the Mayflower makes a
125-mile sail on Long Island Sound to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Round trip: $1.00. Sundays, $1.25. Last cruise September 13.
Boats for fishing are available at Sheepshead Bay, Ulraer Park,
City Island, Montauk, and other Long Island and New Jersey
points. Lcng Island and Pennsylvania railroads run rail-water
cruises and excursions for fishermen, $1.00 to $2.00 per
person. See advertisements in newspapers.
DO
YOU
KNOW
?
MUM WAITIKI
That the first free public school in this country was
opened in 1805 at the corner of what Is now
Madison and Pearl Streets.
That Broadway's white lights go back to the East Side's
Goerck Street, where Thomas A. Edison invented his lamp.
That there's disagreement about where Nathan Hale was hang¬
ed. Some say Market Street and East Broadway; others, a Cham¬
bers Street graveyard; others, 45th Street and First Avenue.
That New York City has more buildings higher than 30
stories (97 of them) than all the rest of the world.
That this city of skyscrapers is also a great truck farm —
with wpa Subsistence Gardens, private vegetable patches, and
over 200 commercial truck farms — which produces annually with¬
in the city limits enough to feed the whole state of Nevada.
That salmon once were so plentiful in the Hudson that old
New Amsterdam servants, signing their bond for a term of years,
stipulated they were not to be asked to eat it more than once a
week.
That only men attended funerals in the old days. When the
parents of Catalina de Peyster departed from custom by asking
six of her girl friends — "in white sarcenet Jackets and pet¬
ticoats, their hair powdered and done up in white ribbons" —
to precede the coffin, the procession brought amazed throngs.
That the exact birth date of Dixie is still disputed —
some say 1854, others 1859 — but all sides agree the famous
Southern song was composed by a Yankee minstrel, and was sung
on Broadway at least a full year before it reached New Orleans.
That the most famous skull ever used in Hamlet was that of
George Frederick Cooke, the first famous actor to come to Amer¬
ica. A troupe of actors wanted a skull, went to a Philadelphia
doctor who had a lot of them, and picked Cooke's. Later Edwin
Booth used it. A tooth dropped odt, and Booth had it mounted
in gold. The tooth is now in the Players Club.
That all of Petrus Stuyvesant isn't buried in St. Mark's
In-the-Bouwerie. One of his legs is burled on the island of
Curacao.
That Harlem has been an amusement center for nearly 300
years. In 1658 the Dutch council decided to establish the vil¬
lage of Haarlem "to promote agriculture and establish a place
of amusement for the citizens."
That the United States is the ranking chess-playing country
of the world. The great popularity of the game here is
apparent in the many "sportlands" about the city.
That the pounding of hoofs on a race track was heard in
this country as long ago as 1665, when the first race track In
the New World was opened at Hempstead, Long Island.
»1 I
•, o
BATTLEMENT AND BRIDGE
Fort Tryon Park
George Washington
Bridge in the
Background
Wide World Photo
BACK OF
THE WATER FRONT
South Street's Markets
and Tenements. Brooklyn
Bridge is Overhead. Wall
Street Lies Beyond
Federal Art Project
Berenice Abbott Photo
GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY!
WEST OF WASHINGTON SQUARE
The Empire State
Bui Id i ng
o by Samuel Gottscho
Times Square
Wide World Photo
A Quiet Corner in
Greenwich ViIlage
Federal Writers Photo
Phot
r- — Hr *i list
SPIRE AGAINST THE SKY "«
ft
IS
St. PauI's Chape I:
Downtown
Federal Writers Photo
YW UNITED THEY STAND
W The Triborough Bridge ^|j
It Connects Three Boroughs: 1
The Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan
Wide World Photo
&
wm Th(
TREES AMONG TOWERS
Central Park
Federal Writers Photo
NEW YORK
City of
thrills
WHERE TO I.
GET OFF
HERE'S A KEY to the city. Not a big gold one that will
fit no lock, but one that will enable you to find any
location you seek on the city's main thoroughfares.
Let's suppose that your Aunt Emma has an office in
the building at 520 Fifth Avenue where she sells beads used by
the Egyptians in voting for or against Tutankhamen for Head
Pharaoh in 1358 B. C. You are a stranger in town, perhaps you
are from Egypt or even Andorra, and you have no idea where
Fifth Avenue is, much less No. 520.
Look down the list below to the point where it says "Fifth
Avenue". Next, get the number 520 firmly in mind. Drop the
last figure from this number. You now have 52. Divide by 2
and add or subtract, as indicated, the key number opposite
"Fifth Avenue" in the lower regions, that is, below Fifty-
seventh Street. In this case the key number is 17, which,
added to 26, makes Forty-third Street. Aunt Emma may be found
by hailing a cab, walking, or, if you have a parachute, by
dropping in on Forty-third Street and Fifth Avenue.
Here is what you have done:
r2^-r = 26 -b n « V-3
And here are the key numbers:
Amsterdam Avenue + 60
Avenue A + 5 Avenue B + 3 Avenue C + 3 Avenue D +• 3
Broadway -31
Central Park West : Divide the house number by 10 and add 60.
Columbus Avenue + 60
Eighth Avenue + 10
Eleventh Avenue + 15
Fifth Avenue 17 : From Broadway to 57th Street
Fifth Avenue - Opposite Central Park : Divide the house number
by 10 and subtract 18.
Fifth Avenue+45 : From 110th Street to Mt. Morris Park
Fifth Avenue+24 : From Mt. Morris Park to 140th Street
First Avenue+4
Fourth Avenue+ 8
Lenox Avenue + 111
Lexington Avenue+ 22
Madison Avenue+26
Manhattan Avenue +99
Ninth Avenue+ 13
Park Avenue + 35
Riverside Drive : Divide the house number by 10 and add 72.
Second Avenue + 3
Seventh Avenue + 12 : From Greenwich Avenue to Central Park
Seventh Avenue + 20 : North of Central Park
Sixth Avenue + 4 : From Third Street to Central Park (Old Nos.)
Sixth Avenue -13 : From Third Street to Central Park (New Nos.)
St. Nicholas Avenue + 111
Tenth Avenue +13
Third Avenue + 9
West End Avenue+ 60
WOULD YOU LIKE to see a musical comedy on board a
steamer anchored in the Hudson, or watch a marionette
show as you sit in one of the parks some starry night,
or dance on The Mall in Central Park to the rhythm of
the latest swing music? WPA provides all these during the
summer months, either free of charge or at very modest prices.
Its presentations cover the entire city and Include
vaudeville, opera, drama, symphonic orchestra concerts, min¬
strel shows, circuses, and dance recitals. Past productions
have won the appreciation of large audiences for their profes¬
sional excellence. Here are some notable features of the sum¬
mer schedule
c^orljcrur Entertainment
Concerts (Band or Symphony Orchestra)
Bronx County Building, Tuesday evenings. Prospect Park, Wed¬
nesday and Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. Forest
Park, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday evenings. King Park, Thurs¬
day evenings.
Dance Music
Central Park (The Mall), Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Co¬
lonial Park, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Bronx County
Building, Wednesday evenings. Prospect Park, Thursday even¬
ings. Open-air dances are also held in other parks and play¬
grounds .
New Talent Concerts
Brooklyn Museum Sunday afternoons
Introduce new music, guest artists, and guest conductors.
ALL PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO EMERGENCY CHANGE
Portable Theater
Outdoor presentations of plays from a repertoire including Gil¬
bert and Sullivan operas, comedies, and Broadway successes in
drama. Summer programs have dance recitals and skits. Perform¬
ances every night in the metropolitan area. Admission free.
Negro Theater
Plays expressing the spirit of the Negro race. Produced and
acted by members of the Federal Theater Project. Nightly at
the Lafayette Theater, 7th Avenue and 131st Street.
Marionette Shows
One hundred and sixty-seven parks and playgrounds in the five
boroughs have productions by troupes from the Marionette Unit
of the Federal Theater Project. Free performances.
Showboat Buccaneer
Anchored off Hoboken, near the Jersey slip of the 23rd Street
ferry. Variety shows and musical revues. Seats 1200.
Experimental Theater
Productions by new playwrights. Interesting dramatic experi¬
ments .
The Living Newspaper
Striking dramatizations of current events — something vital
and new in the theater.
Full details regarding time, place, programs, and admis¬
sion charges for any presentation of WPA may be obtained from
Federal Theater Project, 701 Eighth Avenue MEdallion 3-5962
Federal Music Project, 110 West 48th Street BRyant 9-9450
M ^ •
FEDERAL ARTS PROJECTS
/Vesent
fr'—'' '
Marionettes
posture
through the
i ntriguing
mazes of a
production
by the Fed¬
eral Theater
Puppet Unit
COMEDY
Princess
°n the Pea
A Federal
Music Pro¬
ject Opera
HARMONY
1 A theory class
Federal Music
of the
Project