The Guggenheim in Henry Hudson Park

[COGGINSS]

I’m on disability right now, recovering from knee surgery. Today while trying to find something more interesting to do than watching reruns of Little House on the Prairie, I decided to do a little amateur sleuthing on a subject I’ve wondered about the a while now. And in the process, I believe I’ve discovered something that I would have never contemplated: Henry Hudson Park was almost the site of the Guggenheim Museum.

I’ve always been fascinated by the presence of the family of Alexander Calder in Spuyten Duyvil. A while back there was a Forum topic on Knolls Crescent and Garrett Gardell asked if Calder had been involved in the choice of “Riverdale” as possible site for the museum, and if so, was that location Knolls Crescent.

Apparently “Riverdale” was a serious contender for the Guggenheim, but not because of Calder. It was actually Robert Moses, a cousin of Frank Lloyd Wright who was ready to hand over 8 acres of land to the Guggenheim.

I wasn’t sure where this 8 acres was, and the fact that it was identified as “Riverdale” made it even harder because incorrectly, everything between Kingbridge and the Hudson River, and up to the Yonkers border is identified as “Riverdale”.

In any event, by doing some intuitive google research, I discovered that Robert Moses was ready to turn over a part of Henry Hudson Park to the Guggenheim, likely the southern end where Paul’s Playground is and the  Berrian Homestead was located.

This was 1943, so I have to do some more research to see whether that part of the park was owned by NYC at that time.

But after tooling around I found this reference in a book on FLW, and have attached it here

 

 

[COGGINSS]

[COGGINSS]

And this is another reason Spuyten Duyvil is Spuyten Duyvil, and Riverdale is Riverdale. Henry Hudson Park is in the former, and conflating the two is confusing and wrong.

[leslieday@mac.com]

This is fascinating! Thank you. I had to find out how Moses and Wright were related and read this: https://untappedcities.com/2019/09/11/loved-and-hated-8-controversial-works-of-nyc-architecture/3/

Moses was Wright’s second cousin by marriage – amazing!

[ndembowski]

This was a good find, Stephanie.  If Wright had his way, it would have completely changed the area.

[COGGINSS]

Yes Nick, it certainly wouldn’t be a middle class community, for sure.

[Author]

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