In looking at aerial views of the Bowery and Houston intersection, she noticed that some of the nearby buildings were erected at an odd angle.
As she writes on her blog, Bowery 2.0: "[I] learned that the weird angle actually relates to old farm property lines. I'm not entirely sure why the buildings from 1867 seem to follow the lines so closely, my guess is that the grid was still relatively new and the plots of land were being sold in parcels to individuals by the farm owners. I find the fact that even new buildings follow this footprint fascinating."
Click on image above a few times to compare the grids between First Avenue and the Bowery at different points from the past 150-plus years....
Visit the La Mama site for more on the show, featuring Williams and Wilfredo Ortega. Writes Williams about her portion of the show: "It's an amalgamation of memory, images, and research which will become a site specific collage construction (or deconstruction) of the Bowery’s present state.”
I'll have more from Williams on the exhibit later...
Meanwhile, Jeremiah has more today on the rapidly changing area around the Mars Bar. Read it here.
Did they construct buildings over a cemetery? 1867 forward?
ReplyDeleteOne of the "upper crust" people of Park Slope told me that way back in the day..maybe 100 years or more..people were buried in their backyards.
ReplyDelete