Celebrate Women’s History Month At These Ten Places
A Historian is Going to Share Spots to Visit
The cognoscenti will say one doesn’t need a special month to celebrate anything. But when you’re a historian, this helps shine a spotlight on subjects that might need a flashlight. Women’s History Month was proclaimed by Congress in March 1987. It ties into March 8 and International Women’s Day, which dates to the post-war era of the 1940s.
1. Eleanor Roosevelt Monument (Manhattan). First Lady and social justice champion. Iconic New Yorker. Visit the Eleanor Roosevelt Monument on the corner of Riverside Drive and West 72nd Street. This is one of the few sculptures in New York of a real woman (apologies to Juliet Capulet and Statue de la Liberté). Its sculptor is a woman, the Baltimore-born Penelope Jencks. The bronze monument was dedicated by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1996. Looking pensive, Roosevelt has her back to the Hudson River and is looking across Manhattan, her hometown. Her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, has an island named for him and his own sculpture in the East River.
2. The St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine (Manhattan) is dedicated to Mother Cabrini (1850–1917), an Italian-American who devoted her life to the poor. In 1946 she became the first American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. In she 1880 founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During her lifetime, Cabrini established 67 schools, orphanages and other social service institutions in Italy, the United States, and elsewhere. The shrine was dedicated in 1960 to accommodate the large number of pilgrims. Mother Cabrini’s body is in a bronze-and-glass reliquary casket in the shrine’s altar. The shrine is located at 701 Fort Washington Avenue between Fort Tryon Park and West 190th Street. Shrine Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10:00am – 5:00pm; Saturday and Sunday, 9:00am – 5:00pm. Closed Mondays and major holidays.
3. The Sonya Sotomayor Mural (The Bronx) Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice, is a major celebrity in the neighborhood where she grew up. In acting it’s an Oscar or Tony. But the ultimate honor in Soundview is a wall mural painted by the top area street artists. This is the tribute in paint for the most talked-about former resident, Justice Sotomayor. Alfredo Oyague (aka Per One) gathered fellow artists from FX and Tats Cru in 2015 to create the mural. He secured the spot-on Morrison and Westchester avenues. It depicts other local heroes and a streetscape of neighborhood life. Adding Justice Sotomayor in her black robes, 12 feet high, is an inspiring sight. To the delight of the crew that created the mural, she attended the unveiling. Sotomayor appeared tickled at the honor, and in brief remarks reminisced about her girlhood growing up in the Bronxdale Houses nearby.
4. The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass (Queens). Who made the world-famous Louis Tiffany & Company glass designs? Women. Who were the unsung heroes? Women. And who was a major collector of the lamps, lampshades, and artwork? A woman. Starting in 1898, Tiffany’s lamps were made by hand from start to finish using costly materials, like hand-rolled glass and cast bronze. These Gilded Age masterpieces were incredibly popular and sought after. However, during the Depression, few wanted to collect them. Hildegard Neustadt and her husband, Egon, snapped them up from antique shops, auctions, collectors, and friends. Soon they had almost 450 pieces in their collection. It is now housed at the wonderful Queens Museum, the jewel of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The eye-popping display is a tribute to the women artisans who made the pieces, and the woman who saved them. Hours: Wednesday-Friday 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Saturday and Sunday 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
5. Celia Cruz Mausoleum (The Bronx) When Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso died on July 16, 2003, in New Jersey, it was sad news for her fellow Cubans and music fans. This was Celia Cruz, “Queen of Salsa” and “La Guarachera de Cuba,” an international recording star beloved by millions. When Cruz’ somber mausoleum opened in 2005 in Woodlawn Cemetery, it quickly became a destination for her fans to visit. Cruz made more than 75 records, and 23 were certified gold. With hits such as La Vida Es Un Carnival, she solidified her reputation as a star. Her grave is in the Walnut section. The mausoleum is simple and refined. Cruz is next to her husband, Pedro Knight. Peek inside for framed photos. The stained-glass window is La Caridad del Cobre, Our Lady of Charity, the Patroness of Cuba. Address 4199 Webster Ave, Bronx NY 10470, +1 (718) 920-0500.
6. Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (Manhattan) The fire on March 15, 1911, caused the death of 146 garment workers—123 women and girls and 23 men—one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history. 23-29 Washington Place is one of the saddest spots in all of New York, the scene of unspeakable tragedy. The outcome of the fire was lasting change in labor laws and rights for workers. At the time, more worked in Manhattan factories than in all of Massachusetts. There were 500 blouse factories in the city; employing up to 40,000 garment workers. All of the buildings in this area of Manhattan were garment factories built 1890-1916. In the 1890s the shirtwaist was a sensation; it was a blouse for every activity. The fire broke out when a careless cigar was tossed. The workers were locked into the factory floor and there was no fire escape. At 4:50 p.m. the first body was seen. By 4:52 all hope was lost. The jump was 100 feet. Bystanders started seeing bodies falling over and over. Nets caught a few girls but they died later. By 4:53 the nets were removed. Bodies crashed through glass sidewalk vaults. The fire shocked the nation into changing workplace rules. Today, there is a memorial on the site and an annual tribute on the anniversary of the tragedy.
7. Dorothy Parker’s Childhood Home (Manhattan) When the world-famous poet and writer Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild) was growing up on the Upper West Side, she moved around a lot. There are almost ten addresses for the writer. This house at 310 West 80th Street is where a young Dorothy Rothschild penned her very first pieces of light verse as a teen-ager living alone with her widowed father. It is a beautiful six-story limestone row house situated between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive. It was built around 1900 and the architects were Ware, James Edward & Son, who also built apartments on West Seventy-third and West Sixty-ninth streets. Look for the plaque that dedicated by the Dorothy Parker Society.
8. Emily Roebling (Brooklyn) Take a visit to the Brooklyn Bridge and marvel at the work of the woman who got it completed, but never got the recognition she deserved. Emily Warren Roebling (1843 – 1903) was an engineer known for her contributions over a period of more than a decade to the completion of the bridge after her husband, Washington Roebling, developed caisson decompression disease and became bedridden. She had the drive and determination to complete the work of Washington, who was the chief engineer, too sick to continue on the construction site. When the bridge opened in 1883, she was the engineer who could be looked to for completing the work. In 1931, almost thirty years after her death, a plaque on the bridge to her was dedicated.
9. The Lit Bar (The Bronx) For a few years it was easier to find comic books and textbooks in the Bronx than the latest bestsellers in fiction. That all changed when a lone independent bookstore opened in Mott Haven in 2019, two years after the last chain store left the borough. The Lit Bar, a bookstore and wine bar, came to the rescue for those that didn’t want to go to Manhattan to browse the latest new books. The store opened to much fanfare and has been embraced by the South Bronx. Proprietor Noëlle Santos was driven to open a bookstore for the 1.5 million residents who had to go without one. The store has rows of shelves on the sides so that events can take place in the middle. Address 131 Alexander Avenue, Bronx, NY 10454.
10. The Mary Louise Booth Childhood Home (Yaphank, Suffolk County). This summer, jump on the Long Island Railroad to Yapank, and then walk over to this charming little house for a dose of Gilded Age history. This is where Mary Louise Booth (1831-1889) lived, and the Yaphank Historical Society had the house listed on the National Register of Historic Places ten years ago. Booth was a key member of the Suffrage movement and a friend of Susan B. Anthony. She was the secretary of the 1855 Women’s Rights Convention in Saratoga Springs, corresponded with national leaders such as President Lincoln, and ran Harper’s Bazaar for 22 years. Oh, and she helped get the Statue of Liberty built. The charming house has been restored to its 1840s glory. The public can visit the Mary Louise Booth Childhood Home Sunday afternoons in July and August or by appointment only. Call to schedule a visit. (516) 446-4668, visit yaphankhistorical.org.