Origins

West Side History

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Kudos and Brickbats

Before Turner Classic Movies, movie revival houses like the Regency on Broadway in the 60s were popular, and the Block Association showed old B movies at meetings.

W75BA Origins

Beginnings

In the late 1960s, when street crime in NYC was 24/7, beleaguered residents on West 75th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive joined in the block association movement to make our neighborhood safer because the city seemed powerless to do the job. The West 75th Street Block Association was established after a meeting held in the home of Joan Franklin, a 300-block homeowner.

Our first project: the purchase and installation of the powerful sodium street lamps that still light our way home at night. We raised the money from tenants by going door-to-door (there were no co-ops here then), and by holding bake sales in front of D'Agostino's on Broadway (Fairway today).

We also purchased a lot of trees, and we planted the tree beds and built iron pipe guards for them designed by Ed Moras, an architect who lived at #250. Residents adopted the tree bed gardens, caring for the flowering plants that brightened the street.

Our Association joined forces with the West 76th Street group in the 1970s to shut down the crime-ridden West Side Towers (now the Astor Apartments) — the largest and worst of the city's single room occupancy hotels. Its managers were dubbed "Fagins in a chamber of horrors" by Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, "spreading sickness, death and despair" among community residents. In a years-long campaign, our neighboring block associations fought alongside state and city government officials to end the horrors and relocate those tenants who were also victims of the criminal inhabitants. Read more about this saga in NY Times coverage: "State Moves to Clean Up Single-Room Chamber of Horrors on West Side" (1972); "76th St Hotel Managers Termed 'Fagins' by State" (1974); "The Conversion of an Incredible 'Chamber of Horrors'" (1977).

Getting to know one another

From working together, we knew everyone on our street. Well-attended monthly meetings at Collegiate Church boasted boldface-name speakers addressing serious issues. Then, as neighborhood safety increased, we lightened up with screenings of rented B movies that were never seen in the revival houses (or on television). Charlie Chan was a big favorite. We had game nights, too.

We not only felt safer; we had become friends. We hosted potluck suppers and brunches on the street, with tables laden with delectable dishes. Soft drinks were kept chilled in trash cans filled with ice from The Bike Stop, our convivial gay bar near Broadway. In the summer, weekly volley ball drew crowds to the 300 block, which was closed to traffic for games.

Annual holiday parties were held at #322, which was then the Richmond Fellowship, a halfway house for young people in psychiatric care. The Fellowship offered us a great kitchen, a piano, and plenty of room for a crowd. Mal Franklin, a West 75th Street songwriter who told us he'd co-founded ASCAP, enthralled us into the small hours, thumping out honky-tonk tunes and special material songs he'd written for George Burns and Floradora chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit Thaw (the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing).

A new start

Gentrification changed the raffish character of the West Side. Buildings went co-op; friends moved off the block; the association in its first incarnation faded away.

Until 1998, when homeowner Ben Gums, determined to restore the neighborliness on West 75th that he'd only heard about, gave a jump start to the current block association. When Ben moved to North Dakota, Joan Franklin, a homeowner on West 75th Street for more than four decades, took over. Her sudden death in August 2007 saddened us all. (W75BA obituary)

Joan had hosted the formative meeting of the association in the late 1960s, and during her presidency her landmark home became a focal point for many of our social events.

With unflagging energy and droll good humor, Joan made the rounds of community meetings: the 20th Precinct Community Council, Landmark West!, Federation of West Side Block Associations among them, voicing the concerns of our street and reporting back to us on the issues. She reinstated the block association newsletter that keeps us up to date on what's happening in the neighborhood and gives public recognition to the individual efforts of our neighbors.

Joan organized regular street soirees and holiday parties with local entertainers — lively occasions where we got to know our neighbors. She planned Association meetings with leaders from city and state government, and the agencies, organizations, and shopkeepers that affect our everyday lives. Friendships formed at Association events, and flourishing tree bed gardens with their brick borders, continue to remind us of how much Joan inspired and encouraged us to work together to make our street a more rewarding place to live.

At a celebration of Joan Franklin's life in November 2007, Dee Rieber stepped up to take on the job of leading the association, which for decades has given vitality to our West 75th Street community.

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