Hidden New York

In New York, sometimes it seems that real gems are obscured by the obvious. Earlier this month, I was interested by all the people milling around the 9/11 Memorial Site. The recently opened site intends to honor the victims of that terrible September morning in 2001, complete with an office tower and a shopping mall. Virtually every tourist was taking the same photograph, over and over again, from the same perspective, of the newly completed Freedom Tower. I did not see anyone who noticed the architectural gem at 90 West Street, which was damaged during the 9/11 attack as well. The building opened in 1907 and was designed by architect Cass Gilbert. The primary tenant was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and it also housed Garret’s Restaurant, billed as the highest restaurant in the world at the time.  Its magnificence is obscured by other tall buildings and the distraction of other sites in lower Manhattan.