Village plaque honors renowned artist
BY GABE HERMAN
Greenwich Village activists gathered outside the
former West 9th Street home of muralist and
decorative artist James Wall Finn on Oct. 7 to
dedicate in his honor an historic plaque that Village
Preservation furnished.
“Finn, though not a household name, had a remarkable
career,” said Village Preservation Executive Director
Andrew Berman during the ceremony outside
16 West 9th St.
Finn, who was born in New York in 1866 and lived
until 1913, made works for J.J. Astor, Payne Whitney
and the Hotel Knickerbocker. He also has murals at the
Morgan Library in Murray Hill, the New Amsterdam
Theatre, the Lyceum Theatre and the New York Public
Library’s Rose Main Reading Room in Midtown.
After graduating from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in
Paris, Finn moved back to New York in 1900 and into
the building on West 9th Street, which is between Fifth
and Sixth Avenues. He married and raised three kids
in the building, where he lived until his death in 1913.
Berman noted that the building was originally a
mid-19th century row house, and it underwent alterations
in the 20th century and is now a townhouse. The
building’s top windows above the cornice were added
by Finn, which Berman said was a common addition
for artists because they sought spaces with plenty of
light.
Berman thanked the building’s co-owners, Nina
and Rob Kaufelt, for allowing the plaque to be added
to the building.
Nina Kaufelt said she appreciated the building’s history,
and learning about previous tenants. “We get a
big kick out of thinking about the soul of the building,
and the souls of the building,” she said.
Kaufelt said that the ceremony was on the anniversary
of Finn’s burial, which was at Greenwood Cemetery
in Brooklyn on Oct. 7, 1913. She also noted other
famous former residents of the same Greenwich Village
block, including Maurice Sendak and Anais Nin,
and hoped plaques could eventually be installed for
them as well.
Jennifer Tonkovich, curator at the Morgan Library
& Museum, recalled studying in past years in the NYPL’s
Rose Reading Room and seeing restoration work
done on Finn’s mural there, which depicts a sky with
rosy clouds.
“Those restoration campaigns literally brought
Finn’s work into the light,” Tonkovich said.
Tonkovich also noted that Finn’s 1905 mural at the
Morgan Library had been restored in recent years.
Finn was not a fi ne art painter, she added, but a decorative
painter who would adapt his work based on patrons’
desires.
“He is a somewhat elusive character,” Tonkovich
said of Finn. She pointed out that little is known of
how he decided on subjects, where he found models,
or what preparatory work he did. He also had a team
of assistants who contributed to his works, but whose
names remain unknown.
Tonkovoch said at the ceremony that there are interesting
artworks throughout the city by all kinds of
artists, for people to discover and learn about. “We
should all look around,” she said, “and wonder, Who
made that? And not, Who was that made for?”
PHOTO BY GABE HERMAN
The building at 16 W. 9 St. dates back to the
19th century.
A splash-tastic comeback for Dapolito Indoor Pool
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Swimmers, rejoice!
The Tony Dapolito Recreation
Center Indoor Pool at
Clarkson and Seventh Avenue South
reopens on Saturday after a muchneeded
renovation.
The New York City Parks Department
fi xed leaks, cracks and regrouted
the tiles of the entire 70-foot-long
pool, which will be refi lled during
the week before it opens on Saturday
— almost two weeks ahead of schedule,
the pool will reopen.
The center’s director Trevor Merk
had been concerned and frequently
drew Park’s attention to its problems
and over the summer, Parks fi nally
evaluated what work needed to be
done.
When the center’s outdoor pool
closed on Sept. 8, regular swimmers
were bereft as they had to fi nd an alternative
pool to swim. Many went
to the nearby Chelsea Pool on West
25th St. and some when to other indoor
Manhattan pools including Gertrude
Ederle West 60th Street; Asser
Levy at East 23rd Street; Hansborough
Pool at 134th Street; and the
Recreation Center 54 Pool at East
54th Street).
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
The Tony Dapolito Recreation Center pool will welcome swimmers once again this Saturday, Oct. 19.
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