Audubon Park

the neighborhood Manhattan forgot...

AP

Audubon Park (NY) Newsletter..............................................................March, 2009

UPDATE:  Audubon Park Historic District Proposal

www.AudubonParkNY.com in the News

Audubon Park:  A  Clue on a Hilltop in Brooklyn's Greenwood Cemetery

Great News!  The Landmarks Preservation Commission will be reviewing the proposed Audubon Park Historic District on Tuesday, March 24th.  Now is the time to send your support to the Historic District effort with an email or by attending the LPC meeting.    Click here for details.

Recent media interest in the Proposed Audubon Park Historic District has brought some welcome publicity for AudubonParkNY.com.  Check out the articles in the New York Times Feb. 17, 2009 and Manhattan Times (January 22, 2009, page 20; it's a large file and takes a moment to open).

AudubonParkNY and the NYC Organ Project

Audubon's Home: Minnies Land

When John James Audubon died in January 1851, his rural home in Northern

Manhattan on the Hudson River was universally known as Minnie's Land, a name

honoring Lucy Audubon and derived from the Scottish term for mother (Minnie) that

Audubon and his sons began using during their stay in Scotland in the 1830s. 

Only three years later, when the Audubons began building houses in the Park and

renting them, "some of the gentlemen, friends of the Audubon family, who resided

there after the naturalist’s death," began calling the developing community "Audubon

Park," a name that caught on and remained in use for the next six decades. 

So, who coined the name Audubon Park?  Find a tantalizing clue on a solitary

hill-top in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery here.

The NYC Organ Project, which is "an ongoing attempt to document the organs – present and past – that have been installed in the five boroughs of New York City," has drawn upon the history of the Washington Heights Presbyterian Church (now North Presbyterian) that you can find here on AudubonParkNY.com.  Don't miss the anecdote about the alto resigning in a huff - church choirs apparently were no different in 1886.  And, check out the AGO article, with a complete description of the organ, here.

Washington Heights Presbyterian Church