Wednesday, August 31, 2011

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Most of the Manhattan Trade School report card files consist of four or five individual five-by-eight-inch cards. But some of the files have additional paperwork: notes from the school staff, letters from social workers, and, as you can see above, notes from doctors. These extra documents -- sometimes still tucked into their original envelopes -- are among my favorite aspects of the Permanent Record project, because they introduce a new set of voices to the chorus of schoolmarminess that's found throughout most of the report cards.

I also love that these notes and letters are often printed on lovely old stationery. In the case of the letter shown above (which was in the file of a student named Florence Gattusa), I was intrigued by the address on the letterhead. Second Aveneue between 7th and 8th Streets -- I know that block. It's in the East Village, and I've walked on it countless times over the years. In fact, I used to walk on it a lot on my way to See Hear, the now-defunct fanzine shop on East 7th Street.

Hmmm, I thought, could there still be an optometrist's office at 124 Second Avenue today? A quick check of Google Maps reveals that the address is now a convenience store. But is it the same building where Florence had her eyes examined by Dr. Rubin in 1931? Probably not -- the oldest certificate of occupancy on file for that address with the city's Department of Buildings (or at least on the department's web site) is dated 1973. This isn't definitive -- sometimes there are older records that aren't available on the web -- but the likelihood is that the old building was torn down and replaced by the current one.

That's part of the fun, and sometimes the sadness, of Permanent Record -- getting to see how New York has transformed and reinvented itself over and over in the years since the students attended Manhattan Trade.

A few other quick notes about Florence:

• Her teachers absolutely loved her. Check out all of the glowing comments on her report card.

• The school placed her in a sewing job with a downtown operation called Progressive Underwear. That's one of the many excellent business names scattered throughout the report cards.

• Here's something I hadn't even noticed until I began working on this blog entry: At one point Florence and the other workers at Progressive Underwear apparently went out on strike. I can't recall seeing any other references to organized labor actions in the report cards; then again, I didn't even notice this one until just now, so I may have to take a closer look.

6 comments:

  1. I love the phone number in the upper left hand corner Dry Dock 0564

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  2. Take another look at Florence's work card -- she had a Dry Dock phone number too!:
    http://bit.ly/mS53qe

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  3. Paul, I am sure that it is the same building. The '73 C of O calls it and old law tenement, meaning that it is from the turn of the 20th Century or earlier. Most older buildings in the City don't have a C of O. The City's City Map address lookup has an estimated date of 1920 for the building, but by the looks of it and the fact that it is old-law (ie: prior to the post Jacob Riis light and ventilation requirements of the new tenement law), it's got to be older than April 12, 1901.

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  4. It is the same building.
    I work for a property information company (hit me up if you need the year built dates for any property mentioned in the report cards ;), and we show this building as being built in 1920.

    There is also what's called an "effective year built" date of 1978...that just means that the proeprty was 50% or more rehabbed.

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  5. Thanks for the clarification, Mindy.

    Thanks also for your offer to help with further building research. Can you please send me your contact info? I'm at plukas64 at gmail.

    Thanks! -- Paul

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  6. I kind of wonder if these kind of cards are also being sent to students who've been undergoing online trade schooling? :)

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