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Don Rice’s talk about the neighborhood in art featured this Ernest Lawson oil painting:
That is very similar but not exactly the same as this other Lawson work, “Tibbetts Creek in Winter.” But it is definitely the same scene.
I thought that the arched bridge or causeway in the painting could have been the one that crossed Tibbetts Brook at modern W. 230th and Irwin Avenue. That intersection looks like this today and is probably very familiar to all Spuyten Duyvil residents:
Looking at the intersection today, it might be hard to believe that about 100 years ago it was such a bucolic environment with slow flowing creek winding its way through a salt marsh. The below animation compares the contemporary map of the area to a map from 1885 (with the causeway circled in red):
If I am correct about what the painting is depicting, it means that the painter was looking southwest toward the causeway (in the same direction as the above Google Streetview photo). Perhaps then this building in the painting…
is this one:
Does that seem right?
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I would agree with you on your assessment. It makes sense that that bridge crossed Tibbetts Brook. I believe the brook ran just east of what is now Riverdale Ave. The building in the painting could very well be the one above. Most old buildings don’t survive exactly as they were built (although I’m sure we’d find a lot that do). This building does reflect Dutch architecture so I think you’re right. Love the painting, are there any reproductions made and can you buy one??
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The yellow building in the Lawson painting I believe was located on the SE corner of 231st St and Riverdale ave across from the Ewen park steps. It was for years was an animal hospital and was recently torn down and is now another NYC lower school. Lawson’s perspective is similar to when you use a small F stop when using a focus camera. The perspective is compressed. So, in the painting the yellow building looks much closer to the Dutch style building located at 23oth street west side. The photo I’ve attached shows the yellow building at the lower left corner with photo looking north east over today’s Ewen Park, photo dates from 1915.
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Peter, I concur. From a study of the photo, I believe that the artist was on the bank of Tibbitt’s Brook roughly at a spot that can be located by dropping a vertical line from the large multi-story building with a tower structure (is this P.S. 7?) to the water. It is hard to discern if, behind the yellow house, there was a road with an arched bridge that may have connected with Tibbett Avenue just south of the intersection with W 230th St. But, if there had been, that bridge is shown in the painting, I think.
Enlarging the photo on the left shows the elevated train station at 238th street at Broadway. Neat!
If that large building with the tower structure is indeed P.S. 7 (built in 1882), then the building must have had major face lifting in subsequent years. Google Street View doesn’t show it looking like the photo. On a personal note, my Mother was the music teacher at that school in the ’60s and early ’70s. I went to P.S. 81, graduating in 1950.
Nick, thank you for all this!
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Tmara2, a few of the houses shown in the near field of the first photo in your link are still in existence today. In the photo below the Bromley Map are shown two brick apartment buildings. The second apartment building is seen peeking out to the left of the first building. That second building was/is 4652 Spuyten Duyvil Pkwy (now Manhattan College Pkwy). My family and I moved into this apartment building in 1937. The first building was/is 226 W 242nd St. Thanks for the link.
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I think that I am wrong about the identity of the two buildings upon closer examination of the photo. The building probably is 4568 Manhattan College Pkwy.
About an inch to the left of the smoke stack, more or less in the center of the first photo, appears to be De La Salle Hall, Manhattan College, whose corner stone was laid in 1922.
I’ve lost the link for an interactive map showing the buildings and the year of construction. If memory serves me, I think that 4568 Manhattan College was built in 1925 – 1926. So, the photo was taken around that time, at the earliest.
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