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Island to Remain Open until Halloween
Today the Trust for Governors Island and the Office of the Mayor announced what was kept secret this summer: the Island will remain open until October 31. This will be the longest the Island has remained open to the public on a daily basis since it became a public park in 2003. With the earlier-than-expected opening on May 1, this stretches the public season a full six months. The press release: Governors Island to Remain Open in October for the First Time, Expanding the Public Season “As we work to increase livability, affordability, safety and equity in this great City, I am incredibly proud that beginning this fall – and…
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Marching Forward with Governors Island WWI Memorials
Progress can be measured—and was measured—on the Governors Island World War I Memorial Project this week. Of the three bronze tablets in the project, one is restored and ready to be installed, and the other two are about to be cast by the foundry. On Monday, Beth and Peter Woolley and I went to Governors Island for an important site inspection. They are the owners of Peaceable Kingdom Memorials in Neptune City, NJ. They are restoring and overseeing the casting and installation of the bronze tablets that are missing. Their company has decades of experience in the monuments and memorials business. In a fine piece of island karma: Beth’s Russian…
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The True Story of the Jazz Age Lawn Party
The Jazz Age Lawn Party created by Michael Arenella carries on a long tradition on Governors Island going back more than 150 years to social events hosted by the U.S. Army. Just as Michael and his Dreamland Orchestra draw big crowds to the Island, so did the soldiers in a similar fashion beginning after the Civil War. While the music and fashions may have changed—seersucker has replaced Army blue—the experience is nearly the same. The party returns June 10 and 11, August 26 and 27. Tickets are $55 to $5,000. Twelve years ago Michael launched the Jazz Age Lawn party not far from where the Army used to have its…
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WWI Centennial and the Governors Island Raiding Party
Today is the centennial of U.S. entry into World War I. The war had already been raging for more than two years before Congress declared war on Germany and the Central Powers on April 6, 1917. What is not remembered much is that Governors Island was part of the first military action the U.S. Armed Forces undertook in the war, and it happened 100 years ago today. On April 2, 1917, readers saw in the morning newspapers that soldiers from the Twenty-Second Infantry Regiment had arrived to be garrisoned on Fort Jay. The one thousand men replaced two hundred Coast Artillerymen. The Twenty-Second had spent six years living in tents…
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Trio of Daring Pilots Took Off From Fort Jay in 1911
February is Aviation Month at the Governors Island Explorer’s Guide. The aviation world had one of its biggest events in its fledgling days on August 5, 1911, at Fort Jay. On this afternoon three aviators took off from the tiny Governors Island airfield destined for Philadelphia. The men, Lincoln Beachey, Eugene Ely, and Hugh A. Robinson, are all members of aviation history for their pioneering flights. Beachey, 24, was a stunt pilot and daredevil. Ely, also 24, was the first pilot to use a tail hook and land a plane on a Navy ship. Robinson, 30, was the third man to fly, after the Wright Brothers. The occasion of the…
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WWI Lovebirds: Aviator & Actress Wed on Governors Island
February is Aviation Month at the Governors Island Explorer’s Guide. Lieutenant Lawrence B. Sperry, 23, and his fiancée, movie actress Winifred Allen, 20, climbed into the cockpit of a U.S. Navy biplane in Massapequa, Long Island, on the afternoon of February 18, 1917, and headed west. The couple landed thirty miles later on Governors Island. Lieutenant Sperry, a skilled aviator, then taxied the airplane directly to the door of St. Cornelius the Centurion Chapel for their wedding. Friends and family, officers from Fort Jay, and naval aviators welcomed the daring couple. So was Chaplain A.B. Smith, the army post’s curate. Rev. Smith and the guests were waiting on the chapel…
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Ruth Law the Record-Breaker Flying with a Skirt
February is Aviation Month at the Governors Island Explorer’s Guide. As anyone who has been to Governors Island knows, there are more than 50 bronze plaques around the island. Only one plaque on the whole island bears the name of a woman. This is Ruth Law. When Amelia Earhart was 19, Law landed a biplane on the island. Ruth Bancroft Law was born March 21, 1887, in Lynn, Massachusetts. Law was 5’ 5” with light brown hair. Reporters noted her blue eyes, fair complexion, and serious nature. About 1907 she married fellow Lynn resident Charles A. Oliver, who raced motorcycles and was an expert mechanic and engineer. He approved of…
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Pioneer Pilot Raynal Bolling Gave All in WWI
February is Aviation Month at the Governors Island Explorer’s Guide. With the centennial of American entry into World War I coming up in April, we will begin the second annual Aviation Month with the story of a pilot who practiced flying on Governors Island and was killed by German bullets in 1918. His story is one of sacrifice to the nation. Today his name is among the group of fifteen carved on the island’s bronze aviation pioneer monument, along with Wilbur Wright and Glenn Curtiss. Raynal Cawthorne Bolling was an incredibly wealthy corporate lawyer who could have sat the war out at his brand-new mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Called Greyledge…
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World War I Memorial Project Launches
Last summer I started work on a project that is small in scope but means a lot to me. Today I submitted the final grant application information to the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission for what I am calling the Governors Island World War I Memorial Project. Last year when my book The Governors Island Explorer’s Guide was published I was not done with the island, which is by far my favorite park in the city. I started work on my next book, World War I New York: A Guide to the City’s Enduring Ties to the Great War, which comes out in about a month. I wrote a…
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Aviation Month Returns in February
The second annual Aviation Month returns to the Governors Island Guide in February. With the Island closed until May 1, more stories about the history of aviation will be presented weekly on the news blog. The series debuted last year and was incredibly popular and the stories were read all year. In August Governors Island made worldwide aviation news once again. The popular Drone Nationals were broadcast live from the Island on ESPN3; a few thousands drone enthusiasts descended on the south end for it. These are the stories from 2016: Wilbur Wright Flies Over New York Harbor in 1909 Glenn Curtiss and the 1910 Flying Marksman of Fort Jay…