Save the Marx Brothers Place

Mercredi 27 mai 2009 3 27 /05 /Mai /2009 08:24

Save the Marx Brothers Place

A community effort to protect the historic Carnegie Hill block where the childhood home of the Marx Brothers still stands today, in New York City.

In the critically acclaimed memoir Harpo Speaks the brother, so famous for his resolute silence, paints a touching portrait of the vivid memories the Marx Brothers shared with their entire family on East 93rd Street. The block, and the Marx Brothers’ home here, made such an impact on these comic geniuses they often remarked that as they traveled throughout the world, their distinct “93rd Street accent” came along for the journey.

The unabashed love the Marx Brothers profess for their childhood home has inspired tourists from all over the world to make regular pilgrimages to 179 East 93rd Street in Carnegie Hill just to catch a glimpse, and often a photograph as souvenir, of the house that built America’s most beloved Comic Icons.

But now Marx Brothers Place, 93rd Street just east of Lexington Avenue in New York City, is under siege by developers who care nothing of our collective cultural history, much less the remarkable character of our tiny little block. These developers look neither back at history, nor forward to the future of our culture. They only see the immediate effect of maximizing the developable square footage, as they smell quick profit in the air.

One by one, these developers are buying up the beautiful 19th century houses on Marx Brothers Place in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood in New York City, and demolishing these historic homes in order to make room for their modern condo complexes which fail to blend with the strong neighborhood context of our block. Not only are these proposed condo complexes out of synch with the architectural integrity of Marx Brothers Place and the Carnegie Hill neighborhood in general, these demolition projects are not even being driven by American or New York City housing demands.

Over the years, historic preservation has proven a bonanza to the Carnegie Hill neighborhood and the value of New York City real estate. Had these developers taken the time to renovate the ornate 19th century homes they bought, New Yorkers would have eagerly bid on such priceless apartments tauting historic facades with detailed cornice work not reflected in modern architecture. People that move to the Carnegie Hill neighborhood do so, in part, because we actually cherish what is old, unique and historic. The irony is that the value of real estate on Marx Brothers Place is tied directly to its proximity to the Carnegie Hill Historic District where such houses must be preserved by law.

The houses on Marx Brothers Place all have remarkable stories to tell about the American experience. It is imperative that the New York City Landmarks Commission act quickly to protect these histories for future generations.

The 93rd Street Beautification Association does not want to see this historic block in the Carnegie Hill Neighborhood vanish before our eyes. So the Association has launched this historic preservation campaign in an effort to try to Save Marx Brothers Place from the ravages rendered by the proverbial wrecking ball.

Already, two side-by-side 19th century houses have been demolished, irreparably robbing future generations of their cultural value while making way for a larger modern condo complex no one wants. Such a senseless assault on this historic block in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood has gouged a huge crater in the ground, leaving an ugly scar as a painful daily reminder of the history already lost.

Now these developers have bought the third contiguous “Sister House” and propose to knock it down, too, so as to increase their square footage even more, and multiply exponentially the profits they pursue.

Unless we protect Marx Brothers Place now, every house on this historic block in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood will eventually be leveled, a fate against which we are fighting with all our might.

We look forward to hearing from you!

To make matters worse, these historic houses also protect wildlife species habitats in the vast contiguous gardens tucked behind the entire row on Marx Brothers Place. These gardens, which for over a century have been year-round homes for a variety of birds, also serve as the seasonal resting, nesting and feeding places to a vast collection of migratory birds and insects. At a time when our world is finally waking up to the interconnectedness of the global ecosystem, we cannot afford to lose what little greenspace we have left in our residential neighborhoods in New York City.

The 93rd Street Beautification Association is working hard to keep Marx Brothers Place both ‘historic and green’. While the collection of historic homes on Marx Brothers Place includes some of the oldest houses on the Upper East Side, and represents a trove of cultural history, it is currently one block shy of the Carnegie Hill Historic District, an arbitrary line drawn on a map.

Inclusion in the Carnegie Hill Historic District would provide the kind of protection Marx Brothers Place needs to guard against further demolition. Partnering with New York City’s Historic Districts Council in this effort has proved an enormous help to the 93rd Street Beautification Association.

HDC’s support has been invaluable, and the Council’s own effort to see historic Districts expanded, so as to better protect the historic fabric of New York City, informs the 93rd Street Beautification Association’s campaign. On HDC’s Web Site (www.hdc.org) the Council explains that “Designated historic districts are almost invariably smaller than their historic neighborhoods, sometimes so much so that several blocks of intact historic buildings are left in jeopardy”. Sadly, that is the situation with historic Marx Brothers Place.

But as no rational basis exists for not having included Marx Brothers Place within the Carnegie Hill Historic District to begin with, the 93rd Street Beautification Association is currently in the process of drafting an RFE (Request for Evaluation) asking the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east so as to now include this remarkable collection of houses and gardens within the protected area.

As you can well imagine, this is a mighty effort, indeed, requiring the expert assistance of Architectural Historians, Land Use Lawyers and Preservationists.

We can do this folks! We can achieve protection for historic Marx Brothers Place in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood in New York City.

But to get there, we also need to ask for your help. So whether writing a letter; signing a petition; calling your local Congressman or City Council Member; making a tax-deductible donation (by phone, online or by mail) or simply by telling your own neighbors about the 93rd Street Beautification Association’s historic preservation campaign, you can make a difference today.

In the right hand margin of this web log are the various portals through which you can enter the wonderful world of historic Marx Brothers Place. Please enjoy perusing these pages where you’ll learn more about our efforts, goals, and coalition of support. Then you, too, can decide whether you’d like to become a part of the Save Marx Brothers Place Team. We’d love to have you on board!

The more that people register their concerns about the senseless demolition going on in the few village-like neighborhoods left in New York City, the more likely the politicians will hear our voice. It’s a tough fight, to be sure. But with your help, together we can save Marx Brothers Place!

Please help us protect historic Marx Brothers Place, and thanks again for taking the time to visit our web log!

In addition to posting your comments here, at Save Marx Brothers Place, you can also write to the 93rd Street Beautification Association at 93rdst.beautification@mail.org.

A Message From Woody Allen

Woody Allen

May 28, 2008

From Japan to Russia, from Argentina to Alaska and all over Europe the Marx Brothers are revered as the greatest cinema clowns in talking pictures. They are universally adored by the most unsophisticated audiences to the highest intellectuals. There’s never been anything like them, their films are not only an enduring part of movie history but of American culture and now well after their deaths the Brothers continue to exert their impact as strongly as ever.

Woody Allen

Marx Brothers Place is home to some of the oldest gardens in Carnegie Hill. Tucked behind the row of historic homes on the south side of the block lies a collection of contiguous gardens that have been home to a variety of flora & fauna for more than a century. The demolition of even just a section of these gardens will rob many species of their nesting; resting and feeding places, causing a substantial adverse change to New York’s fragile ecosystem

The Marx Brothers, left, around 1911, as the Four Nightingales, and their house today.

By JAKE MOONEY

THE NEW YORK TIMESPublished: June 22, 2008

JOHN BENZ FENTNER, a lawyer from Unionville, Conn., is a serious Marx Brothers fan, if the word “serious” can properly be applied to devotees of that madcap comedy family. Mr. Fentner can name all six brothers — a true litmus test of Marx fandom, he said — and collects even underwhelming Marx Brothers movies like the 1968 Otto Preminger flop “Skidoo,” which featured Groucho as a crime boss named God.

So it was understandable that a few years ago, on a trip to New York with fellow Marx Brothers fans, Mr. Fentner found his way to 179 East 93rd Street, between Lexington and Third Avenues, to the stoop of the house where the brothers spent much of their youth around the turn of the previous century.

“It’s like going to Gettysburg just to stand on the battlefield,” Mr. Fentner said the other day. “There’s a slight difference in quality there, but it’s the same kind of pilgrimage. If you’re really interested in something, you want to go and stand on the ground.”

The house is one of the few remaining links to the brothers in the area, since the old theaters and vaudeville houses where they got their start are almost entirely gone.

Now, residents of East 93rd Street, unhappy about new development that they say is changing the character of the area, are seeking to have the block where the Marx Brothers house is located added to a nearby historic district to keep it, too, from changing.

Susan Kathryn Hefti, a chairwoman of the 93rd Street Beautification Association, hopes her group can persuade the Landmarks Preservation Commission to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District, which currently ends just to the west of the block. And in a more symbolic move, the neighbors of the house hope to have the block ceremonially named Marx Brothers Place.

According to Ms. Hefti, the association formed in response to the demolition of two town houses from the 1880s that were across from the Marx Brothers house. A third house on the block was later torn down.

“We were all out on the sidewalk,” Ms. Hefti said. “Most of us didn’t know about it until it happened, and most of us were just in a state of shock.” Without landmark protection, she added, “the Marx Brothers house could, theoretically, go down tomorrow if it were sold.”

That possibility was enough to alarm the filmmaker Woody Allen, who is a former resident of the area and a Marx Brothers devotee. In a letter to Ms. Hefti, Mr. Allen wrote that “in countries that place a high value on cultural contributions as opposed to simply bulldozing things in the name of progress, the Marx Brothers home would remain standing and affixed with a plaque.”

But Barry Rice, the architect whose firm designed the seven-story condominium that is replacing the three demolished town houses, said that extending the historic district might not provide the control over development that residents expect. New development in such a district is still possible, he said, if care is taken with design and scale.

“My conscience is clear,” Mr. Rice said. “I didn’t knock down the Marx Brothers house, and I think I’m doing something that’s in context with the street.”

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Save the Marx Brothers Place

A Message From Woody Allen

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