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myhauntedsalem · 4 years

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Ghosts of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

In the afternoon of March 25th, 1911, the upper three floors of the Asch Building in New York was ablaze. The fire would claim the lives of 146 workers of the Triangle Waistcoat Factory.

Now refurbished and renamed the building sees remnants of the past played out before people’s eyes.

Just after 4:40pm on March 25th, 1911 dozens of people looked up to the 8th, 9th and 10th floor windows of the Asch Building, 23 – 29 Washington Place, Greenwich Village, New York. A fire was raging, and besides the smoke that initially drew attention, it was the sound and sight of a man hitting the pavement after dropping 30 meters that drew a crowd.

Soon after, as the crowd watched, a man and women kissed before taking the drop to their deaths.

This event, that was to become known as the ‘Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire’, would draw upwards of 20,000 spectators as 146 people perished in the flames or on the sidewalk below. The eldest fatality was a woman aged 43 and the youngest just 11 (some sources say 14) years of age.

The fire began at about 4:40pm in a fabric scrap bin, under a cloth cutters table in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The factory produced blouses and employed mostly immigrant women. The fire, located on the 8th floor, was noticed by a passer by five minutes later, and soon people rushed to the scene in order to lend a hand.

The tenth floor was warned of the danger through a telephone system, but there was no way to warn those on the ninth floor, who continued working until they themselves noticed the smoke coming through the windows.

As can be expected, the workers all displayed great haste in wanting to leave the path of the flames, which would soon engulf the upper three floors occupied by the factory. Many people crammed into the elevators to escape, while others made way to the fire escapes and emergency doors.

Unfortunately, the emergency escape doors were all locked. The factory had a policy of checking all the women’s purses as they left, to make sure no one was thieving the clothing. Due to this policy, the majority of the doors were kept locked so the women would have to wait till someone was present to check their bags at the end of the shift.

Many of the working women pounded on the doors in order to draw attention, to get them opened. Unfortunately the foreman who held the keys had made a run for it, as soon as he noticed the smoke, leaving everyone trapped on the upper floors.

The elevators moved excruciatingly slow so many of the workers made their way to external fire escape stairwells, but within a matter of minutes one was blocked at both ends due to flames. Everyone rushed to the other stairwell, and in their panic at fleeing the fire, they over crowded it. The flimsy metal construction crumpled under their combined weight, sending 25 people to their deaths on the pavement below.

Two elevator operators continued working the elevators as long as they could. The first of these elevators stopped running when the heat buckled the guide rails of his elevator. The second elevator continued running until the operator began hearing loud thumps and bangs coming from above.

People looking for a way out of the fire started to jump down the elevator shafts, in the hope of landing on the elevator roof. The roof did in fact catch the jumpers, but the distance proved to be too great. These jumpers fell to their deaths, buckling the elevator and causing it to also stop running.

With the fire escapes all blocked by fire or collapsed, the elevators not working and the other exits locked, people made their way to the roof or windows in order to put distance between themselves and the fire. Soon, as the fire spread to the outer reaches of the buildings, people had two choices – allow themselves to be overcome by smoke and fire, or jump the thirty meters and hope to be caught by the firemen’s nets below – their ladders unable to reach beyond the sixth floor.

The first few jumpers made it safely. A man was witnessed helping women make the decision by escorting them out of a window and dropping them safely to the net below. Unfortunately the nets could take only so many impacts and soon started to break. At times workers jumped in twos and threes, which was too much for the nets to handle.

In all 146 people died as a result of the fire. 129 were women and 17 were men. Around 60 of these were located on the sidewalk where they jumped or fell. Six of the victims were not identified initially and were only finally identified in 2011, a full hundred years after the tragedy.

The company’s owners, who had fled at the first sign of the fire, were put up on charges of manslaughter, but were acquitted by the jury. When asked why they locked the doors preventing quick egress in emergency they replied it was to prevent theft. The amount of theft hoped to be prevented amounted to $20. Although that was a fair bit more money back in 1911, it still only amounted to two weeks of wages to one of the underpaid workers. All in all, a small amount for the company that instead resulted in 146 lives lost.

New work safety reforms were created as a result of the fire, including better access to exits and no more locking of doors during working hours. Even so, one of the factory owners was later arrested for locking the doors at another of his factories during working hours.

The building itself survived the fire and the upper most floors were refurbished to accommodate a library and classrooms for New York University. It is now known as the brown building, and is not without its resident ghosts.

Many of those who have visited or worked in the building since its refurbishment have felt in irrational sense of wanting to flee. The panic wells up within them, seemingly without reason, and many who unable to take it leave.

Disembodied screams have been reported in the afternoons towards the end of the work day. A woman has been seen fleeing down one of the hallways of the 8th floor, and also appears out of nowhere in one of the bathrooms.

On the ninth floor, just as you leave the elevator there is a tall rectangular mirror. At times, those who look in the mirror do not recognize the person who is looking back. Generally the similar features are there, the clothes are the same and the stance is the same but the head and face flicker, as if being viewed through a flame.

#Ghosts of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire #haunted locations #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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thebestkitchenremodelblog-blog · 6 years

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Learn More About Great Kitchen And Bathroom Remodeling Ideas

Redesigning is a term that is used to portray the changing or modification of a structure particularly a building. Remodeling is usually done to improve the appearance of a particular structure or area. The most common places that remodeling takes place are the bathroom and the kitchen because they are some of the rooms that are used often. It is in the kitchen that quite a lot of people spends much of their time. Thus people will always want the place to be quite attractive and a place you can really feel comfortable. Several components can be refurbished in the bathroom and the kitchen during the renovation process. Therefore before you start the process of remodeling it will be very paramount to be sure of what you really want for you to be able to come up with the best. Visit - Greenwich kitchen remodeling

Remodeling can be done in several ways which may comprise of painting changing the floor and wall materials and adding space. For the kitchen you can opt to merge the kitchen with the living room to make it larger. It may also include the change or addition of kitchen cabinets and also the appliances. At the same time, you can consider altering of countertops and sinks to come up with ones that will improve the appearance of your kitchen. You can likewise select to embellish your kitchen or washroom with wonderful highlights like the lighting framework, having innovative expressions on the walls or the cupboard entryways. The ornamentation can also be incorporated on the ceiling of the bathroom and the kitchen to make these areas look appealing. For the bathroom you can opt to change the setup or designs of your bathtub, showers, sink, tiles, towel bars, ceiling, and many more features. You can check out also the services of bathroom remodeling Greenwich.

For the food preparation area in the kitchen you can opt for a tile backsplash that has an appealing color and this will make the place to look awesome. It will be crucial to engage the services of professionals in the renovation of the bathroom and kitchen for you to be able to get excellent results. Conducting a market evaluation will be critical in the search of the most excellent contractor. It will be pivotal to procure a redesigning contractual worker who is experienced and have the best skills of renovating. They should have the necessary tools, equipment and remodeling ideas for them to be able to discharge their mandate in the most appropriate way. You should employ a renovating contractual worker who can come up with unique rebuilding highlights that will make your washroom and kitchen to look cozy.

#bathroom remodeling #kitchen remodeling

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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 5 years

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Consumer Guide / No.91 / Artist, blogger, collector and Charlie Gillett fan, Michael Leigh with Mark Watkins.

MW : Your background...

ML : I was born in London just after The Second World War so part of the “baby boom” generation. My parents lived in Highbury at the time and soon moved to various places around Kent and Essex – staying with relatives – uncles and aunties etc. as accommodation was very hard to find at the time.

Eventually, my working class parents got on a housing waiting list for the new town Basildon (about 30 miles outside London, in Essex) and a couple of years later around 1953 got a small, modern, terraced house with a bathroom and a garden – things we'd never had before.

The town at the time was a mixture of old villages and housing estates and farmland so I had a pretty enjoyable childhood roaming over fields and exploring old derelict bungalows and farm houses etc. that were due for re-development.

I enjoyed junior school but wasn't even allowed to take my Eleven-plus so ended up in a terrible secondary school, which I hated. The only nice teacher was the art master who was very encouraging and those were the lessons I really looked forward to. I seemed to be pretty hopeless at everything else except maybe for technical drawing.

So after gaining just one O level in Art I enrolled in the general course at the local art school which happened to be Southend-On-Sea, about 15 miles away in the Thames Estuary. This was a real eye opener for me – mixing with so many like-minded and interesting individuals who loved art as much as I did. Great teachers who were very encouraging and helpful. I loved it!

Looking back through rose coloured glasses these seemed like the Halcyon Days of my youth.

MW : Tell me about your interest in art and any key "light bulb" moments at Art School...

ML : Key light bulb moments? Well, I suppose just being immersed in art all day long was totally thrilling and I thought myself very lucky to spend four years just painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture etc.

My parents were very supportive too most of the time, although I'm sure they thought “a proper job” would be more beneficial ! I had no grant at the time only my bus fares paid by the local council. I realised if I needed to progress to the next level of education – university – I had to acquire some more O levels.

So I had to do some night classes to catch up. Eventually getting a Level 3 over three years which enabled me to do a foundation course and go on to study fine art in Manchester, where I got my degree and afterwards a postgraduate place at Chelsea School of Art in London.

MW : What type of art do you produce...

ML : I've enjoyed all kinds of medium in art over the years – painting with oils and watercolours and making the occasional print when the opportunity arose. It wasn't until 1980 that I discovered the International Mail Art Network via a lovely exhibition at the Greenwich Theatre Gallery in South London, and so the painting took a back seat for a while and I concentrated on collages, rubber stamping and photo copies etc. - things that could easily be stuffed into an envelope and sent to other artists around the globe.

This is how I met Hazel, my wife, after sending weird artworks back and forth to each other until we finally met up and fell in love. We have been together for 35 years now and have a 26 year old son who has just graduated from the Royal College of Art.

I should mention the exhibition of our joint archive of mail art that goes on show this September at Special Collections at Manchester Metropolitan University. It's on until April 3rd, 2020 so you have plenty of time to go and visit it. It will be one of the largest shows of postal art ever in the UK.

MW : Do you have a favourite artist?

ML : One of my favourite artists is the collagist John Evans who sadly died a few years back – we had been correspondents for over 25 years and he used to send me a collage for my birthday, as well as many ink stained letters from New York, his home town. He is featured in this exhibition in Manchester and we have several of his collages dotted around our house.

MW : What do you enjoy collecting?

ML : I enjoy collecting all manner of things from mail art, postcards, rubber stamps, ephemera, records, toys etc. - the list goes on and on. Hazel, my wife, and my son Archie are also avid collectors of stuff.

We frequent boot sales, charity shops and flea markets all the time and have quite filled this little house from top to bottom with all kinds of junk (err... I mean antiques and collectables!).

Every now and then we have a purge and get rid of loads of DVD's, books etc. and take them to the charity shop, where hopefully some other collector will find room for them.

MW : How did you get into recording Charlie Gillett's radio shows, building up an archive, exchanging correspondence and mixtapes?

ML : I first encountered the DJ Charlie Gillett when he did a wonderful show on BBC Radio London in the 70's called “Honky Tonk”. Every Sunday I used to race back from the flea market in East London, where I lived at the time, to record his shows on an ancient reel-to- reel tape recorder with the microphone wedged up against the old valve radio speaker.

Later on, I upgraded to a cassette player which made things a lot easier. I was making mix tapes of my own from records I found at the market and various other places and so eventually I sent him one and our correspondence began. Charlie would send me the occasional record, or a letter - even some photos of his travels. He then moved to Capital Radio and did a show with World Music as the main interest and I was collecting that sort of thing too. Eventually he asked me to go on his show to play some market finds which I did in 1989.

I rather lost touch when we moved from London and couldn't hear his radio shows (except for those on the World Service) anymore and was shocked and saddened by his untimely death. I have tried to keep his name and his shows alive by uploading them onto my music blog and later onto the dedicated page on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1694083207508317/

MW: Why is Charlie (Gillett) much missed?

ML : Charlie is much missed mainly because he was quite unique in the radio world being a passionate enthusiast of all genres of music from Rock 'n' Roll to World Music and was extremely knowledgeable. Also, he always found guests that were equally knowledgeable and engaging.

Nobody comes close to him on the airwaves today because deejays seem to have lost the art of communicating. It's all a bit corporate and flash these days with brash personalities taking over the airwaves with crass chat and awful banter - I can't stand it! Charlie was one of the last real deejays - a bygone era of radio that will sadly never return.

MW : Do you listen to music on the radio?

ML : I rarely listen to music on the radio these days. I much prefer playing records or CD's.

As a child of the 1950's, I was brought up on Rock 'n' Roll - so still love Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Little Richard etc. - not many British artists, except maybe for Lonnie Donegan and The Shadows.

Later on in the 1960's it was The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks etc.

I still listen to all that stuff with a mixture of Punk and New Wave from the 1980's - and - more recently World Music - artists such as Fela Kuti, Salif Keita, M'Bilia Bel, Youssou N'Dour etc.

MW : Your ideal day?

ML : Ideal days for me are usually going out to a boot sale or an antique emporium with my dear wife or else shopping around charity shops in Chester or Llandudno etc.

We also like country walks and finding cafes to have tea and a slice of cake. Somewhere like Whitegate Way in Cheshire where you can do both – their recently refurbished station café (it used to be an old railway line), all run by volunteers and sells lovely food and drink etc.

MW: How do you like to spend Christmas?

ML : I try not to think about Christmas too much. I hate all that hype for the festive season starting in September! Crazy!

We usually have a quiet time at home with the family – eating and drinking too much and watching lots of crap on the TV just like so many other people!!

http://flobberlob.blogspot.com/

http://laughingshed.blogspot.com/

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ebenalconstruct · 4 years

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Different !... Your home is your castle, express yourself and implement your tastes freely... A bold, contrasting colour scheme comes together in this quirky and beautiful bathroom which we had the pleasure of finishing for a great client ! Why not invite us into your home and allow us to deliver your vision ?..... #bathroom #art #refurbishment #renovation #decorating #plastering #builder #homeimprovement #changeyourspace #qualityfinishes #tradesman #kirkdale #sydenham #foresthill #crystalpalace #dulwich #beckenham #clapham #blackheath #greenwich #bromley #hithergreen #peckham #brixton #lewisham #london #kent #surrey #mumsnet #checkatrade

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halsteadproperty · 6 years

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Queen Anne-Style Home in Greenwich Looks Like a Museum

GREENWICH — When Yasukata Murai came to Greenwich in 1889, he brought with him exquisite taste. His design aesthetic can be seen in the house he built at 29 Glen Avon Drive overlooking Cos Cob Harbor in Riverside.

The home incorporates all of the architectural elements of the Queen Anne-style popular with the tasteful upper classes of the era, such as a high-hipped roof with pedimented dormers and granite ashlar chimneys. But look closer, and curvilinear lines arrayed with a pyramid-like roof and flared eaves present a pagoda-like effect, a touch of Japanese design embedded in an old seaside community.

Murai was a highly successful businessman and entrepreneur. He and his business partner, Ryochiro Arai, built adjoining homes on Glen Avon, according to information compiled by the Greenwich Historical Society, which bestowed a plaque on the property citing it as a local landmark.

Murai and his partner eventually dominated the silk trade flowing from Asia to the U.S., and they also began importing U.S. cotton to Asian markets. Besides creating a vast new commodities network spanning the globe, the import-export executive also poured his energies and attention into building a grand home in Greenwich, one that has been well-preserved over the years.

Joann Erb, the listing agent for the house, said she had rarely seen such quality work in a home. “The detail in this house, the way it’s has been preserved, it’s phenomenal. It blows you away, it’s like being in a museum,” she said.

The Glen Avon residence has paneled wainscoting throughout the house, and other typical Victorian flourishes, such as bead-and-reel moldings, according to a writeup on the residence by a local preservationist, Susan Nova. The grand staircase harmonizes a rich array of wooden balustrades and pillars. Many flourishes, from fluted Ionic columns surrounding the fireplace to carved pendants, were crafted to delight the eye.

Murai married Caroline Bailey, an American, and they fit in well among the cosmopolitan and creative arts colony in the area at the time. The art of Japanese flower arrangement was introduced by the new arrivals to an appreciative following. Murai became a devoted golfer after he was introduced to the sport by his partner.

Since it was built, the home has been passed from owner to owner like a treasured family heirloom.

“It’s been beautifully kept. This house has had wonderful owners who have all improved it,” said Erb. A major renovation was carried out in 2008, and in recent years, the stained glass and the woodwork has also been restored. A historical consultant was brought in to advise the color scheme for the exterior paintwork, coming up with a soft greenish-blue. A dock was built for boat access to Cos Cob Harbor.

“Bathrooms are new, a bright and sunny kitchen,” said Erb, noting that the house had striking water views and abundant light. “The windows are oversized - it’s a bright house, the windows are huge. The windows are original, and they’re been refurbished.” Though it harkens back to the 19th century, the house has been adapted to modern tastes.

Murai was one of the founders of the founded the Nippon Club in midtown Manhattan and lived into the 1920s, an immigrant success story like few others. His house in Greenwich continues his legacy into the present era.

The $6.5 million listing is being handled by Halstead Property.

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