NY Victorian Gothic, and bits of Harlem

I've been wanting to come here for a long time, and I wasn't disappointed.

Back in 1863 - and yes, they found the labor even during the Civil War - Peter Bonnet Wight got the commission to build the National Academy of Design, on 4th and 23rd: it opened in 1865, and was one of a handful of Ruskin-influenced neo-Gothic buildings in New York - perhaps as faithful as any building to Venetian principles.  It was stunning:

 Harper's called it a "magnificent Temple of Art," and the architectural wonders continued inside, too.  But it became too cramped and crowded.  By 1901 a new site was found; the old building was sold to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company - who promptly tore it down.  And I thought for a long time that that was that: a horrible story of desecration.  But then (from a comment on the website I linked to above), I found that in fact, a significant part of the façade was re-purposed, and incorporated into the front of Our Lady of Lourdes, on W. 142nd St. So I went on a pilgrimage.

Just round the corner was a community garden,

and this (and many other) murals;

on W. 125th;

and then I went all the way downtown (stopping in at CAA on the way, to be sure) to Thomas Street, just up from the WTC, where I'd heard there was another magnificent piece of neo-Gothic, this time a domestic house (now apartments).  Poor house - it was sandwiched between vacant lots and boarded up buildings, and suffering from a depressing location, but must once have been someone's pride and joy (and yes, I've seen pictures of the buildings that used to be there, and are now lost ...).  But all in all, this was a celebration of the Ruskinian principles that found their way across the Atlantic and into NY's architecture.