Finding Bayard Rustin

Before watching the Netflix film Rustin, what I knew about Bayard Rustin, a key organizer and mastermind behind the March on Washington, was limited. I had only seen Rustin’s name mentioned in the organizational files of the New York Police Department (NYPD) Intelligence Records, also known as the “Handschu” collection. However, after a closer examination of the Handschu records, I became aware of Rustin’s prolific involvement with numerous organizations, and his influence on some of the most successful demonstrations in civil rights history.

March on Washington, Flyer, 1965. Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Handschu collection, which contains records acquired by the Municipal Archives as part of Judge Charles W. Haight’s 1985 court ruling in Barbara Handschu et al. v. Special Services Division, is an invaluable resource for information about the city’s social-political sphere during the 1950s-1970s. The collection includes biographical data, mugshots, flyers and reports from several organizations, police complaints and communication reports, surveillance photographs, and audiovisual material. The vast collection comprises around 500 cubic feet, including 200,000 card files and information on more than 5,200 organizations and 3,000 individuals. Thanks to extensive surveillance and documentation of the civil rights movement, the Handschu records are an excellent source of information to learn about civil rights leaders like Bayard Rustin.

The Handschu collection is comprised of several series, including individual files. Rustin’s file only has an index card that refers to a single communications report concerning his statements about the Harlem Riots in 1964. Although it is not uncommon to find empty files, it is unusual that a file lists only one report. 

Report regarding Bayard Rustin, August 19, 1964. New York Police Department Intelligence Files, Bureau of Special Services, Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.   

After an unsuccessful search, I reviewed the Handschu card series, arranged by name into various groupings. Each card records the person’s name and includes information such as age, occupation, and relevant political activity. Police officers created the cards as they gathered information about a person, and there can be multiple cards for an individual. Rustin’s card shows us his passion for pacifism and work against conscription. The card comments on his arrests in 1947 and 1948, while working with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The card lacks references to reports and ends around 1960, which is unusual. There could be multiple reasons for the abbreviated information; for example, state and federal agencies often requested police files for their investigations, and many cards were not returned or were misfiled.

Bayard Rustin, Index Card, New York Police Department Intelligence Records, Bureau of Special Services, Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.  

Bayard Rustin, Index Card (reverse), New York Police Department Intelligence Records, Bureau of Special Services, Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.   

In 1988, the New York Police Department’s Inspectional Services Division decided to index and number the pages of files from sixteen different organizations represented in the large organization series, which includes groups like the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Communist Party, Black Panther Party, and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The indices list the names of individuals along with the page on which the person is mentioned. A sample page for SANE Nuclear Policy, for example, designated organization code 27, lists Rustin, along with other prominent individuals such as Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. Rustin appears in twelve of sixteen organization folders, including CORE, NAACP, Black Arts, Communist Party, and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). His most prominent role was with CORE, an organization he co-founded and was active in for many years. His association with that group generated multiple references. 

Large Organization Index, Organization 27 (SANE Nuclear Policy), New York Police Department Intelligence Records, Inspectional Services Division, Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

Rustin’s inclusion in these organizations supports the thesis that while he is not yet a household name, he was instrumental in organizing and leading activities that changed the course of American history. Although he was a Deputy Director of the March on Washington, we find only a few mentions of his name in that folder. With more than 250,000 people in attendance, the March on Washington is one of the most well-known civil rights events, and the venue for Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Nevertheless, it was not Rustin’s first rodeo; the organizational files also include his role in organizing the 1958 Youth March for Integrated Schools, which had around 10,000 attendees. Other significant impacts include Rustin’s part in organizing a school boycott along with Reverend Milton Galamison, which resulted in more than 400,000 students boycotting classes and several peaceful rallies across the city in favor of school desegregation.              

There are very few details about Ruskin’s personal life in the Handschu files, but we get a sense of his friendship with Martin Luther King. We find him serving as a Special Assistant to Dr. King, listed as Executive Director of the King Defense Committee, and leading a march at a peace rally after Dr. King’s assassination. There are references from individuals in the War Resister’s League files that indicate he was well-liked and admired. Although he was an openly gay man, there is no indication about his sexuality in any of the files. The only mention I found was a New York Tribune clipping discussing Senator Strom Thurmond’s remarks that labeled Bayard Rustin a pervert after the revelation of a 1955 sodomy charge in California. The clipping has the words “Send to BOSS” inscribed in the corner.   

Interview with Bayard Rustin, Report, July 20, 1967. New York Police Department, Bureau of Special Services, Handschu Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Handschu records demonstrate that Rustin was actively involved in various causes, including anti-war efforts, fighting discrimination, education, and labor rights. There are numerous examples of his support for improving life for all. For instance, in the War Resister’s League folder, we find an essay where he proclaims that “the Crisis in Vietnam is not only one of the dangers of nuclear war [but] a crisis for the conscience of America.” There is also a flyer listing him as a guest speaker at a community church addressing the murder of four children in Birmingham, Alabama, and a report of a rally and sit-in against Woolworth’s and W.T. Grant stores. In other records, we find evidence of him writing letters requesting donations for the National Economic Growth and Reconstruction Organization (NEGRO) and supporting taxicab strikes.

Rustin believed that nonviolent resistance was the best approach to social change. The most effective way of combating racism and inequality was by cooperating with races and forming powerful alliances. Fortunately, historians can use these intelligence records, which the police created and acquired for surveillance, to piece together the life of a man who significantly impacted the civil rights movement.

The Corporation Tea Room

The tall file cabinets in the Municipal Library, termed the Vertical Files, provide an unending glimpse of the workings of City government over centuries.  One recent find, in the “City Hall” file is a typewritten report on expenses related to a tea room at the City Hall in 1800s.

View of City Hall, September 1, 1858. For D.T. Valentine’s Manual of 1862. NYC Municipal Library.

The report, written by Municipal Librarian Barbara S. Peterson, depicts the give-and-take over reimbursements between the Council and the Comptroller. It illustrates the importance of a balance of powers within government. The report was prepared in June 1925 based on research in Municipal Library holdings including the Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen and Minutes of the Common Council.

The report below is a transcript from the original document in the Municipal Library.

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The Common Council of New York City was first granted a salary in April 1850, at which time provision was made for a payment of $4.00 per day for each day the Council was in session. This provision was repealed in December of that year. The Common Council did not intend, however, to be without some share of the City’s money. A “Tea Room” was established in the City Hall under the management of one James Taylor, keeper of the City Hall. There the Board of Aldermen and the Assistant Aldermen assembled for refreshment before starting the regular business at five o’clock in the afternoon.

The Comptroller’s report for the year 1850, lists under the heading “Contingent Expenses of the Common Council,”

“Paid for Tea Room Supplies . . . $2,061.65.”

For the year 1851 the report reads,  

 “Paid for Refreshments for Members . . . $5,185.82.”

ln 1852, the Comptroller received a bill for tea room expenses amounting to $9,672.82, which he refused to pay, setting forth his reasons at length in the annual report published February 14, 1853. His chief reason was that the money had not been appropriated for that special purpose.

Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York, 1852. NYC Municipal Library.

The amended charter of 1830, provided that no money should be “drawn from the city treasury, except the same shall have been previously appropriated to the purpose for which it was drawn.” The Department of Finance, with the Comptroller as the chief officer, was provided for in the amended charter of 1849. It was to have “control of all the fiscal concerns of the Corporation.” 

Among the unnecessary expenses which had been the object of the charter of 1830 to make impossible in the future, were refreshments in the City Hall and Almshouse and refreshments for the court and jury. In reference to the last item of only $100, Stephen Allen, in reporting the amendment to the Senate said, “It is entirely new in the annals of Corporation accounts.” Celebrations and parades made other expenses complained of, having their parallel in Comptroller Flagg’s report for the year 1852, with expenses for the funeral of Daniel Webster amounting to $6,447.35, this in spite of “the injunction contained in the will of that eminent man, to wit: ‘I wish to be buried without the least show or ostentation.’”

“As for the account for refreshments at the City Hall,” says Comptroller Flagg, “although made out by the head of a bureau in the Finance Department, they are a novelty in the history of auditing accounts for disbursement of public money. The last account paid, before I entered on the duties of the office, for refreshments for the month of December, was stated and verified as follows: 

“Corporation of New York,

To Jas. Taylor Dr. 

To refreshments furnished the Common Council, for the month of December, 1852, viz: 

Beef, pork, vegetables, bread, butter, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, chickens, oysters, eggs, cake, pepper, mustard, salt, vinegar and help, ...................... $776.46.”

To this an affidavit was annexed stating that the amount was just and that the articles named, ‘were purchased for, and consumed by, the members of the Common Council, and others, by their authority.’” 

The Comptroller then goes on to state that the former payment were made “under pretense of authority from the commissioners, consisting of the Mayor, and the Aldermen of each ward.”

He claims that no appropriation was made for the item of refreshment and he is not aware of any authority of the expenditure,

The Board had provided for the expenditure in a way satisfactory to themselves by an ordinance adopted by them February 3, 1852:

“Resolution that the keeper of the City Hall be directed to furnish refreshments to the members of the common Council, whenever they meet in session, and that the Comptroller be authorized to pay all bills for the same, when duly certified.”

The Comptroller’s report was received by the Board and “was laid on the table and ten times the usual number directed to be printed.” 

The New York Daily Times for February 15, stated in the editorial column that the comptroller’s report was “one of the most timely and valuable documents ever issued from that Department,”

The New York Tribune of the same date, commented on the report as follows: 

“As to the Tea Room, the Controller thinks the expenditures have no justifiable basis to rest upon. In view of the illegality of the refreshment bills, Mr. F. refuses to pay any of them, . . . It seems that there was a hint of this given out at City Hall, since Mr. Keeper Taylor got in his December bill before the end of the month, when they were usually a full month behind date. The Controller also denounces the refreshments bill of the Aldermen as Commissioners of Excise.”

It may be that the necessity of getting out a bill two months earlier than usual accounts to some extent for the brevity of the bill the Comptroller made such slighting remarks about. 

Another expenditure which evidently got by before Mr. Flagg took up the duties of his office, was that involved in an ordinance passed April 1l, 1852: 

“RESOLVED, That the Commissioner of Repairs and Supplies procure a good and substantial oil-cloth, for the floor of the room in the City Hall, known as the tea-room, and cause the same to be laid therein; and to replace, with new furniture, such articles of furniture in said room, as are in worn out and dilapidated condition, and that this resolution be carried into immediate effect.”

Some idea can be obtained of the appearance of the tea room from this description in the Tribune for August 23, 1852:

“The City Fathers. - These worthy gentlemen are returning slowly to the City, and will appear in a few days upon the broad steps of the City Hall and the sacred porches of the Tea Room, the scene of their moral and physical glory. The corridors of the Hall have been remarkably silent for the past three weeks, and the hangers about there complain that the place is remarkably dull; there is no bribery, no bullying, no vote-buying, no juggling of contracts, no fun whatsoever to enliven the sultry hours....

“But the Fathers are coming back, and brushing up for the September session. They have kept very shy in regard to their intentions, but there is a large amount of business of importance to be faced. 

“Probably the most important business of the session will be that in relation to the coming election; and will be transacted over the champagne and game of the Tea Room. This would be very rich, but unfortunately reporters are not admitted.” 

Even before the Comptroller refused to foot the bills at the tea room, the question of abolishing it came before the Board of Aldermen in the form: 

“RESOLVED, That the Keeper of the City Hall be, and he is hereby directed not to furnish any refreshments to any person, whereby the expense of the same shall come out of the city treasury.”  

The now famous Tweed, then a mere Alderman, moved that the above resolution be laid on the table and the motion was carried. 

The Times the next morning made the following statement about this incident: 

“A flare up among the Patrons of the Corporation ‘Tea Room.’ - Last evening, several of the City Fathers declined entering the corporation ‘Tea Room’ to get their supper, as they have hitherto been in the practice of doing, one of them proclaimed it was an outrage to make the people pay $11,000 per annum, for what was consumed in that ‘Tea Room’ and he at once proceeded to Sherwood’s Saloon in Broadway, took supper, and paid for it out of his own purse. This action will probably result in the abandonment of Mr. Taylor’s department at the ‘Tea Room.’” 

Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York, 1852. NYC Municipal Library.

Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York, 1852. NYC Municipal Library.

The next move in the abandonment of the tea room was a communication from Comptroller Flagg to the Aldermen, dated March 7, 1853, “nominating Thomas Allaire, as keeper of the City Hall and Park, in the place of James Taylor.”

Definite abandonment of the room was not further considered until June 17, 1853, when the Board:

“RESOLVED, That the tea room lately used by the Common Council and known as the ‘tea room’ be set apart for the use of the Clerk of the Common Council…” 

Nov. 25, 1853, the Mayor approved an ordinance which provided:  

“That the Commissioner of Repairs and Supplies be, and he is hereby directed to advertise for proposals for the fitting up, in an appropriate manner, the room known as the ‘tea room’, for the use of the Clerk of the Common Council.” 

The sum of three hundred dollars was appropriated for the purpose. 

The Reform Charter of 1854 resulting from the evidence of graft of which the tea room is only one example, limited the expenditures of the city’s money for entertainment of any kind  to the celebration of three holidays, one of them Washington’s birthday. 

That the new Aldermen were not entirely reform members is indicated by the following incident. The celebration of Washington’s birthday in 1854 would have cost the City $541.42 if the Comptroller had not again refused to pay the bill as presented by James Taylor, stating his reasons in a communication to the Board. His letter reveals that the dinner had been given in honor of the veterans of the war of 1812. The Comptroller wrote: 

“The champagne, brandy and cigars were duly expended in the public and patriotic service of celebrating Washington’s birthday, from forty to sixty days. It did not appear from the evidence that the veterans of 1812 had any share of the three thousand cigars, the five gallons of brandy, and the twenty baskets of champagne.”

Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York, 1852. NYC Municipal Library.

George Washington in New York: The First Presidential Mansion

At 12:30 p.m. on April 30, 1789, a military escort arrived at Franklin House in lower Manhattan to conduct president-elect George Washington to Federal Hall where, about ninety minutes later, he took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. The current Federal Hall, which replaced the original structure in 1842, is a well-known historic site and national landmark that has been welcoming visitors ever since. History has been less kind to Franklin House. Located at the intersection of Cherry and Pearl Streets, Franklin House was demolished in 1856. This week, For the Record highlights Municipal Archives and Library collections that help tell the story of the nation’s first Presidential residence.   

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Federal Hall, Inauguration of General Washington, the First President of the United States, on the 30th of April 1789. H.R. Robinson for D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1849. NYC Municipal Library.

Although President Washington’s residency at Franklin House was short-lived, from April 1789 to February 1790, it was long enough for the City’s tax assessor to record his name in the records of Assessed Valuation of Real Estate.

The assessed valuation ledgers constitute one of the Municipal Archives’ core collections, providing essential information about the built environment of the City for countless researchers. For the Record featured the collection in How to Use Tax Assessment Records to Date Construction of a Building.

The 1789 ledger is the oldest in the series. There are five sections in the ledger; one for each ward of the city. The Franklin House was located in the Montgomery Ward. Turning to page 15 and reading down the first column (Name of Residents) to the ninth line, the entry “George Washington in D” jumps out. The “D” is an abbreviation for “ditto,” meaning Mr. Washington lived in a house owned by Samuel Osgood, listed on the line above. 

Two questions arise from discovery of this entry.  What can Municipal Archives and Library records tell us about the Franklin House, and second, who was Samuel Osgood?

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Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, Montgomery Ward, Cherry Street 1789. Records of Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, NYC Municipal Archives.

The first step in any research project concerning the built environment is to determine the Borough block and lot (BBL) numbers. Although not officially adopted until the latter part of the nineteenth century, it is still important to identify the BBL as records that pre-date the numbering system are often subsequently identified and/or indexed by those numbers. Examining historical atlases in the Archives to locate the Franklin House on Cherry Street provides the necessary BBL: Manhattan Block 112, lots 1 and 52. 

Secondary sources provide helpful information about the early history of Franklin House. An article from 1939, “President Washington’s Cherry Street Residence,” in the New York Historical Society’s Quarterly Bulletin (vol. 23) is particularly useful. According to article author Henry B. Hoffman the Cherry Street property on Block 112 had been the site of a brewery operated by Robert Benson in the mid-18th century. After Benson’s death in 1762, his widow Catherine and son Robert closed the brewery and sold the property to Walter Franklin for £2,000. The Municipal Archives deed transcription series, confirms this transaction, referencing Conveyance Liber 39, page 53, indicating that Catharine Benson, Widow, and Robert Benson grant the property to Walter Franklin on March 19, 1770.    

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Conveyance transcriptions, Manhattan, Block 112. NYC Municipal Archives.

The Hoffmann article continued: “Walter Franklin who was a rising merchant, at once built a large residence on Cherry Street, a squarish building with a front about fifty feet long. In May 1774, he married at Flushing, Long Island, Mary (or Maria) Bowne, daughter of Daniel Bowne of that town. They had three daughters. After the British evacuation of New York City [in 1784], Mr. Franklin died, and shortly thereafter, on May 4, 1786, his widow married Samuel Osgood, a native of Andover, Massachusetts.”  

The indispensable six-volume Iconography of Manhattan Island, by I. N. Stokes, available in the Municipal Library, adds to the story. Stokes quotes extensively from George Washington’s correspondence concerning his upcoming inauguration in New York. In March 1789, Washington wrote from Mount Vernon to James Madison: “I... take the liberty of requesting the favor of you to engage lodgings for me previous to my arrival [in New York City for the inauguration]. “On the subject of lodgings I will frankly declare, I mean to go into none but hired ones—If these cannot be had tolerably convenient... I would take rooms in the most decent Tavern...” Thanks to members of Congress, the President did not need to take rooms in a tavern, but instead they rented the Franklin House on Cherry Street, then owned by Mr. Samuel Osgood. Stokes writes, “This house had been built in 1770 by Walter Franklin, an old merchant in the city and upon his death had passed into the possession of Mr. Samuel Osgood, who was appointed Post-master General in September 1789. It stood on the north side of Cherry Street several doors east of the present Franklin Square which received its name in March 1817, in honor of Benjamin Franklin, its former appellation having been St. George’s Square.”

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The Presidential Mansion, from D.T. Valentine’s Manual, 1853. NYC Municipal Library.

The President’s residency in the Franklin/Osgood house was short-lived. It apparently proved inadequate to accommodate the large Washington household which included seven enslaved persons. In February 1790, the President and his entourage moved to larger quarters, the Macomb house on lower Broadway, nearer to Federal Hall on Wall Street.

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Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 4th Ward, Cherry Street, 1808. Records of Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, NYC Municipal Archives. 

The subsequent history of the Franklin House (later called Franklin Mansion) is described in the secondary sources and confirmed in Archives collections. According to the Hoffmann article, and supported by examination of the assessed valuation records, in 1789 Osgood owned not only the Franklin mansion, but another property at no. 6 Cherry Street. In 1791, after Washington vacated the property, Osgood moved into the Franklin Mansion, and remained there until he died in 1813. His wife Maria survived him by only one year at which point the house passed into ownership of Osgood’s two step-daughters, Maria and Hannah. Maria married DeWitt Clinton, who would later serve as Mayor of New York City and Governor of New York State. Hannah Clinton married DeWitt’s brother George.

The assessed valuation ledger for 1808 shows Samuel Osgood at no. 9 Cherry Street (renumbered from no. 3 in 1794) with the property valued at $7,000, considerably greater than surrounding properties and consistent with the description of the Franklin Mansion as a substantial structure. The 1809, 1810, 1811, and 1812 ledgers record similar data. The 1813 ledger is missing, but in 1814, after Osgood’s death, ownership is listed as DeWitt Clinton and the property’s assessed value had increased to $20,000.

The Hoffmann account notes that the Franklin Square neighborhood had become increasingly commercial in the first decades of the nineteenth century, and by 1818 the mansion had been remodeled into a bank. And again, the assessed valuation records confirm the change. In 1821, the property owner is listed as “Widow Clinton,” with description as “Bank,” valued at $16,500. By the 1840s, the last occupant was the piano and music store of Firth, Pond & Company, also confirmed in the tax records. Finally, the mansion was demolished in 1856.  

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Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 4th Ward, Cherry Street, 1824. Records of Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, NYC Municipal Archives.

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Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, 4th Ward, Cherry Street, 1842. Records of Assessed Valuation of Real Estate, NYC Municipal Archives.

Samuel Osgood. Library of Congress

To answer our second question, who was Samuel Osgood, secondary sources are again helpful, supplemented by other Archival material. An entry prepared by the University of Virginia Miller Center provides basic biographical information:  “Samuel Osgood was born in Andover, Massachusetts, February 3, 1748. He graduated from Harvard University and first experienced politics on a small scale, serving from 1774 to 1776 on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and as a delegate to the Essex County Convention (Massachusetts). He earned more notoriety after a successful stretch with the Revolutionary Army, ascending in rank from volunteer militia captain to army colonel in four years (1776-1800). Resuming his political career soon thereafter, Osgood served two terms with the Massachusetts State Senate (1780 and 1784), and spent several years as a member of the Continental Congress (1781-1784). Involved in national financial affairs as well, Osgood became director of the Bank of North America while a congressman and later became one of three board members to oversee the U.S. treasury under the Articles of Confederation (1785-1789). In recognition of Osgood’s national service, President George Washington named him the nation’s first postmaster general in 1789, a post which Osgood held until resigning in 1791. After giving up politics for a decade, Osgood reappeared to become a member of the New York State Assembly and Supervisor of Internal Revenue for the District of New York by appointment of President Thomas Jefferson (1800-1803). In 1803, Jefferson promoted Osgood to naval officer at the port of New York, a position Osgood held until his death on August 12, 1813.”

George Washington statue in front of Sub-Treasury, 1937. E.M. Bofinger, photographer. WPA Federal Writers’ Project collection. Built as the Custom House in 1842 on roughly the same site as City Hall/Federal Hall, then operated as the US Subtreasury from 1862 to 1924, the building was used for various federal purposes until 1939 when it was turned over to the National Parks Service for use as Federal Hall Memorial National Historic Site.

For the time period of the colonial era through the early Republic, the Common Council records are a useful resource, and it is not surprising that there are several references to Samuel Osgood in the series, given his prominence in the community. To the great benefit of students of this time period, the proceedings of the Council are well indexed, printed and published in two series: 1653-1776 and 1784-1832. Among Mr. Osgood’s appearances in the Common Council records are notices of his appointment as Inspector of Elections for the 5th Ward in 1792 and 1794. Other entries in the Common Council records concern more mundane matters. In 1794, Osgood and other residents along Cherry Street petitioned the Council, “..complaining of the Injury which result to their Houses if the present regulation of St. James Street should be carried into execution... and Mr. Osgood attending the Board was heard on the subject whereupon the whole Board proceeded to the place to see whether any and what alteration could be made in the regulation of the said Street to the end that the cause of complaint be removed if possible.” The record does not note the final outcome.

For the Record wishes its readers a happy Presidents’ Weekend.

The Phony and the Crackpot at City Hall, by Stanley H. Howe

The For the Record  blog has frequently commented on the serendipitous nature of archival research. Thanks to imperfect descriptions and the sometimes haphazard filing practices of record-creators, researchers are often rewarded with seemingly random items. The typescript featured this week turned up in Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s subject files, in a folder labeled “Speeches, 1936.”  

Henry Modell, to Hon. Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, January 8, 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection. NYC Municipal Archives.

The five-page typescript is titled “Cheese Club 1/13/36.”  It appears to be a transcript of remarks that Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, gave to members of the Club. The exact nature of this organization is not entirely clear, but a reference in a description of Sardi’s restaurant seems plausible:  “. . . a group of newspapermen, press agents, and drama critics who met for lunch regularly at Sardi's and referred to themselves as the Cheese Club.”  It is possible that the Club dates back to James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) who founded the literary “Bread and Cheese,” according to a New York City Encyclopedia entry under literature. 

Howe began his remarks: “It occurred to me that the members of the Cheese Club would be interested in hearing some of the interesting human incidents that occur at the City Hall. There are times when it seems that everyone of the seven million people of the City of New York is trying to see the Mayor.” 

Take a few minutes to read Howe’s account of a day at City Hall. In his words:  “Every day we have we have to deal with the phony and with the crackpot as well as with the serious and well-intentioned.”  

Transcript, remarks to Cheese Club, by Stanley H. Howe, Secretary to the Mayor, January 13, 1936. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Langston Hughes, The Writer’s Position in America

20 East 127 Street, Langston Hughes’ house, 1940. Tax Photograph collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Continuing our celebration of WNYC’s 100th Anniversary and in honor of Black History Month, we present this 1957 recording of Langston Hughes discussing the challenges faced by Black writers from a National Association of Authors panel discussion “The Writer’s Position in America.” The themes he discusses: representation, pigeonholing and lack of intellectual freedom, seem as salient today as they were in 1957.

Langston Hughes was an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, and although best known as a poet and novelist, was also a journalist, a composer and an activist. He was a frequent guest on WNYC radio.

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On July 8, 1924, radio station WNYC made its inaugural broadcast from a studio at the top of the Municipal Building. During 2024, For the Record will celebrate the centennial of one of the nation’s first municipally-owned radio station with a series of articles featuring historical audio recordings from the WNYC collection in the Municipal Archives. 

In 1986 the Municipal Archives acquired a large collection of original WNYC lacquer phono discs and tapes dating back to 1937. These unique audio recordings capture the sounds of a city and a nation through decades of transformations, tribulations, and triumphs in the voices of presidents, dignitaries, world leaders, artistic revolutionaries, musical geniuses, luminaries of the literati, and cultural icons. Outside of the federal government, the WNYC Collection is the largest non-commercial collection of archival audio recordings and ephemera from an individual radio broadcaster. 

The Archives has collaborated with WNYC on a series of projects to reformat this material. Most recently, funding from the Leon Levy Foundation enabled digitization of thousands of hours of audio content that documented political, historical, scientific, and cultural events—both large and small.

The Condemnation Photographs

The Municipal Archives photograph collections are renowned and widely valued for their comprehensiveness. For example, the tax photograph series includes pictures of every house and building in all five Boroughs circa 1939 and 1985. As useful as they are, however, they depict only building exteriors. Pictures of building interiors are less well represented in the collections. There are interior views in New York Police Department crime scene and Housing Preservation and Development collections for example, but they are relatively few in number.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Entrance, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

This week, For the Record takes a look at some remarkable pictures in an unprocessed collection, the “Condemnation Photograph Files.” They consist of excellent quality exterior and interior pictures of all types of buildings—apartments, stores, factories, restaurants, theatres, garages, tenements, taverns, warehouses, filling stations—in short, the entire urban landscape of mid-century New York. They even include the legendary Savoy Ballroom in Harlem.

NBC Television (International) Theatre, Entrance, Columbus Circle, May 4, 1953. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

NBC Television (International) Theatre, General View of Theatre from stage, February 24, 1953. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

In a legal context “condemnation” is the process by which a government takes private property for public use under the right of eminent domain. In New York, condemnation proceedings take place in the Supreme Court. The pictures were created as part of the appraisal process that determined how much to compensate the property owner.

The Division of Old Records of the New York County Clerk received and filed the photographs upon conclusion of each Supreme Court condemnation proceeding. They range in date from 1946 to the early 1960s and total 52 cubic feet. There is a box-level inventory. They were transferred to the Municipal Archives in 1998.

Recently, a researcher visited the Archives looking for historical photographs of the San Juan Hill neighborhood in Manhattan before it was razed in the 1960s to make way for the Lincoln Center complex. With help from City archivists and the Collection Guide the patron identified the 1998 accession as a potential resource.

The box-level inventory created when the collection was transferred to the Archives described the contents in very broad terms—essentially by the name of the proposed project, e.g. Harlem T. B. Hospital, Lincoln Tunnel, or by the general neighborhood depicted, e.g. Upper Westside, East Harlem, etc. The San Juan Hill researcher examined the boxes that contained pictures of “Lincoln Square,” and “Columbus Circle,” both in the general vicinity of San Juan Hill, which seemed promising. And indeed they were; several unique images were discovered for the research project.

Hertzberg & Son, 2300 Fifth Avenue and West 140th Street, July 14, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Hertzberg & Son, 2300 Fifth Avenue and West 140th Street, Private Office, Main Floor, July 14, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Further examination of the collection revealed some rather noteworthy pictures. Given that property owners would be compensated not just for the building structure, but also for the value of equipment and fixtures inside the building, it makes sense that there are many interior scenes. In some instances, the pictures include people—shoppers in a store, patrons at the bar, and factory workers at desks and operating machinery.

Another feature of the pictures is their quality. They were taken by professional photographers and consist of well-composed large-format 8x10-inch black and white prints. Each image is captioned with a location and date. The Rutter Studio took almost all of the sample pictures in this article. The Rutter Studio is familiar to City archivists because the Borough President of Brooklyn contracted with them in the 1910s and '20s to document construction of the Coney Island Boardwalk and other public works in the Borough; many have been digitized and are available in the gallery.

Sinclair Refining Co., NE corner Broadway and 225th Street, General View of Station, November 1, 1948. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Sinclair Refining Co., NE corner Broadway & 225th Street, Office, November 1, 1948. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Of particular interest in the Condemnation series are pictures of the legendary Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. There are not people in the pictures (apparently the photographer worked during closing hours) but they do include the ballroom, bar area, murals, cloakrooms, etc. It is also interesting that the pictures date from 1952 and the building was not demolished until 1958/59. Whether this speaks to the time frame of the condemnation proceeding, or to protests against demolition of the Harlem landmark, will require further research. The Ballroom made way for the Delano Housing Complex, renamed the Savoy Park Apartments in 2017.

Further research will also be necessary to answer other questions about the condemnation process; e.g. what entity commissioned the pictures? The Court, the City, or the law firms representing the owners?  Did the people in the pictures know the building was slated for demolition?  Further research in MA collections might reveal answers. In the meantime, here is a selection from the series.

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Entrance Lobby, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Easterly side of Ballroom, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives. 

Savoy Ballroom, 598-614 Lenox Avenue, Manhattan, Mural at Lunch Bar, July 2, 1952. Photographer: Rutter Studio. Condemnation photograph collection. NYC Municipal Archives.