SEE: THE MANHATTANVILLE SHEFFIELD DAIRY EXHIBIT

Manhattanville: a New York Nexus, Exhibit Hours: Thursdays 1:00–4:00 PM or by appointment, Exhibit Location: 560 West 133rd Street.  

It is dawn on 125th Street. Families are rising. The train booms overhead; trolley tracks run between the cobblestones and the early morning traffic. Workers hurry to their jobs at the local automobile factories, printers, and storage companies. The largest employer in the area is the Sheffield Farms dairy, whose proud billboard boasts the motto, “For the Rising Generation,” and shows a healthy child enjoying a glass of milk. Horse-drawn wagons emerge from a nearby stable building to distribute bottles across upper Manhattan. The year is 1929. New York City at the time is said to have “the best milk supply of any large city in the world.” But, this had not always been the case.

This exhibition examines the fifty-year crusade to turn milk from a “deadly fluid” into a mainstay of a healthy diet. The milk reform movement involved community activists, city officials, scientists and business leaders working together to find solutions to improve public health. Much of the movement’s activity and success occurred here in the Manhattanville neighborhood: LINK

☞ REMEMBER: Manhattanville's Old Indian Spring

Everyone who has lived in the city for some time hears about the urban legend of underground streams flowing into people's basements (usually catching a fish is involved), and it turns out one of those said waterways are actually flowing beneath the Sheffield Dairy Building in Manhattanville. Columbia owns the former bottling facility on 125th Street and Broadway, which is currently called Prentis Hall, and it turns out that the white terracotta building was constructed on top of the old Manhattanville Indian Spring that flows underground in the area. Apparently the basement kept flooding in the building and a rough tunnel was made so that the flowing water could drain into an open channel (lower photo) that eventually connects to a sewer pipe along 125th Street. We recently received information on a website that researches lost streams in New York City, so check it out for more details: LINK. Photo of the Prentis Hall basement taken in 2006 by Steve Duncan. Current photo by Ulysses. Read more about the Sheffield Dairy factory in our past post: LINK

☞ PROTECT: The Sheffield Dairy Stables

Scaffolding has been up on the Sheffield Dairy Stables for the past six months, and the facade transfer of the century old building to a new location in Washington Heights seemed to be in order until late last week. The ornamental pediment, parapets and cornice (top photo) have been removed for some time now, but it looks like all the detail at the shaft and base of the classical structure is being thrown out the window. The building has now been totally gutted and the demolition crew is currently deconstructing each level. Under all the netting and scaffolding, one can see that the original brick facade, quoin stones and window ornamentations have not been removed and are all still intact.

Based on the New York Times article in 2008, the owner sealed a deal with Columbia to preserve the facade and move it to a new building further uptown. Preservationist rejoiced at this solution to saving one of the taller buildings that was set to be razed on Columbia's new Manhattanville campus but somthing doesn't seem right at this point. Does anyone have any news on this recent development? Read the details in the Times article: LINK. There was more recent news in DNAinfo: LINK. Photos by Ulysses

☞ WALK: First Building Down at Manhattanville

Almost five months after work starting on Columbia's Manhattanville campus, one building has finally been demolished. The top photo shows the corner gas station at west 129th Street by the Sheffield Dairy Stables. As of this week, the small single floor building is no more (lower photo). We noticed work starting again after a month long pause and the gas station building is now just a mound of rubble. Phase one of Columbia's new controversial uptown campus is set to finish by 2015 but there have been a few setbacks. Representatives have stated that work could not be continued because of the lost eminent domain lawsuit that prevented the university from taking over a couple of properties that the owners did not want to sell. In early February, a fatal construction accident had the site stalled with a stop work order from the DOB but all seems to be in order now. The nearest subway to this location is the 1 train at 125th Street. Photo by Ulysses.

☞ PROTECT: Columbia Moving 1903 Dairy Stable

The Sheffield Farms Stable, built in 1903, is moving on up to higher grounds. Anne Whitman's beloved family owned building and antique storage facility was a distinct hold out in Columbia's battle to buy-out lots from the remaining land owners of Manhattanville. Many folks thought these owners were just waiting for a bigger paycheck but it turns out Ms. Whitman just wanted to protect her property, which is on the state register of historic places.

The building used to be a stable for the horses in this former dairy district and its owner wanted either to not move at all or move the building itself. Impossible and too costly? A compromise was reached sometimes last year and a new building base will be built a bit further uptown and the original facade will be dismantled and reconstructed on the newer structure.

The lower photo shows Columbia at work in the past week as this process gets on its way. The white stable building to the right has scaffolding up the entire front facade and the deconstruction will probably have to be hand done to remove everything intact. The photo also shows the electrical and ground work area right below the building. All the substructural work of the Manhattanville campus has started and construction crews can be heard at work on this corner of Broadway and West 130th Street. This area is right below the elevated 1 train at 125th Street and Broadway. Read more about the dairy district of Manhattanville in our past post: LINK. All photos by Ulysses

☞ REMEMBER: The McDermott-Bunger Dairy

We have covered the Sheffield Dairy on West 125th in the past (along with its recently demolished horse stable building) in Manhattanville but there was one more major dairy building that appeared at about the same time in 1903.  A New York Times article from a couple of years back reports on the McDermott-Bunger Dairy building which still stands today at 527 West 125th Street, just west of Amsterdam.  The top photo from the 1930's shows the building as it once stood with some major cornices in place and a couple of serious looking steel smoke stacks. Those side entrances would have been where the bottles where loaded up on horse drawn vehicles up until the late 30's when milk processing moved elsewhere. Today, one can see that the structure is now used for Our Children's foundation but pretty much remains intact.  Read more about the area's dairy past in the Times article: LINK.  See what will happen to the other dairy building in our past post: LINK

☞ WALK: Manhattanville Demo Picks Up Pace

Demolition seems to really be in progress at Manhattanville these days seeing that workers have been making good time with the removal of the Shell Station at the corner of Broadway and 129th Street. The site finally got some major work started a couple of weeks ago when the single level building on the lot was leveled and now the remaining gas pump stations and logo awnings have been deconstructed. New scaffolding was also erected last week on the side of the Sheffield Dairy stable which will reportedly have its historic front facade dismantled to be relocated on a new building elsewhere. We have not seen much action on the facade side of this building so it will be interesting to see if the preservation effort will come to fruition as promised. The closest train to this section of town is the 1 at 125th Street. Photos by Ulysses

☞ REMEMBER: The 129th Street General Store

Across from the restaurant Floridita, on the north corner of West 129th Street and Broadway, there once stood a general store. From the looks of the building and the typeface on the storefront, we are talking around 1870, which is a good 30 years before the elevated 125th Street train station made its appearance in Manhattanville. This building would basically be the neighbor to the future Sheffield Dairy Stables if it still stood today. A gas station now sits on the the lot, and it too is currently in the process of making way for a newer building. Read more about this area's history in our past post: LINK. Photo courtesy of NYPL.

☞ ARCHITECTURE: A New Manhattanville Campus

Curbed just posted renderings of the first buildings going up on the new Manhattanville campus of Columbia University: LINK.  Until now, all the architectural plans have been kept from the public and it appears that the glass buildings will level off at the same height as the original Sheffield Dairy stable building that it displaced (center photo).  We remember reading something about Columbia agreeing to level off new building heights to match those of the nearby apartment buildings on the 125th Street south side of the campus but the rendering actually has some severely tall towers to the far left (click on image to enlarge).  It's just a placeholder for the final designs but is it a sign of things to come?

☞ ARCHITECTURE: Manhattanville's Stables

While more non-descript than the Sheffields Farms Stables, we always admired the couple of low buildings off of West 125th Street, a block west of Broadway. The low-rise nature of the neighborhood will officially be removed in the next couple of weeks with the Sheffield Stable in the process of being disassembled and now these two 19th century veterans facing demolition. The lower photo shows the scaffolding coming up on the buildings as of this past Friday. By the weekend, the crew had completely covered both buildings. We always thought that this area could really be a great historic link to the city's manufacturing past and develop into Harlem's own version of downtown's Meat Packing District. Does anyone know what is the status of the remaining lawsuits against Columbia? With the demolition of buildings in process, it would be a really sad situation if the university had to stop their plans and then the neighborhood would be left with barren lots for many years to come.