Tom Miller

May 14, 2024 | daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com | Tom Miller

In 1825 portrait artist Samuel Finley Breese Morse was in WashingtonDC working on the portrait of Lafayette commissioned by the City of NewYork. His work was interrupted by ahorse messenger who delivered a letter from Morse’s father that read “Your dearwife is convalescent.”  As Morse scurriedto return home to New Haven, he received a second letter the following day tellinghim that his wife had died.

Mar 22, 2024 | daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com | Tom Miller

By the first years of the 1890s, the family of Frederick E. Westbrook lived in the high-stooped brownstone house at 58 East 56th Street, erected about 15 years earlier. Four stories tall above a high English basement, the 22-foot-wide Italianate residence reflected the affluence of the neighborhood. Its stoop rose to an arched entranceway flanked by engaged columns upholding an entablature.

Dec 5, 2023 | thecourier.co.uk | Tom Miller

My first encounter with Giorgos Asvestas, as he worked on a vibrant mural across one of the Generator Projects exterior walls, wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I admired the welcome splash of colour on a drab breezeblock wall as he told me of an unpleasant exchange with a neighbouring resident. The individual, seemingly a paid-up member of the ‘not in my backyard’ club, had told Asvestas the work-in-progress was not exactly to his liking.

Nov 4, 2023 | daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com | Tom Miller

In 1885, Wm. Kennelley & Bro. completed construction of three five-story-and-basement flats at 125 through 129 West 56th Street. The brownstone-fronted buildings mimicked the private, high-stooped Italianate residences appearing throughout the city. Triangular, Renaissance inspired pediments sat above the first floor windows, and the upper openings sat within architrave frames under molded lintels. The emerging neo-Grec style appeared in the incised carvings of the window frames.

Aug 14, 2023 | daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com | Tom Miller

A panel within the fascia below the cornice announced the building's name.