Friday, September 10, 2010

Some Bees

One of my favorite aspects of old New York architecture is its "hidden" details, the cryptic placement of fruits, flowers, animals, monsters, and human faces that you will only notice if you bother to notice. You can, if you want, go on a sort of hunt for various species. Here is a brief assortment of honeybees.

Around and atop the clock of The New York Savings Bank Building on 8th Avenue and 14th Street, you will find a beehive and its busy workers. I assume they symbolized the hard but worthwhile efforts that go into saving your resources.



The Russell Sage Foundation building at 122 East 22nd was once the home of the Family Welfare Association of America and the New York School of Social Work. The Sage Building was built from 1912-1915 and decorated with many motifs that symbolized the foundation's philanthropic ideals of "health, work, play, housing, religion, education, civics, and justice."

I guess the bees had to do with work. Or maybe housing. You can see their hives over the doorways.



And the wrought-iron grills are topped with bees. Above the entrance is carved the inscription: "For the improvement of social and living conditions." Now the building is dedicated to luxury apartment living.



Finally, you can also find a honeybee, or maybe two, in the intricately carved balustrade of the stairway above Bethesda Terrace in Central Park, where they most likely were included to symbolize springtime.

Of course, now with Colony Collapse Disorder decimating our honeybee population, such antique architectural representations may be all we'll have left of these industrious and provident reminders of the value in work, thrift, and home.

10 comments:

ShatteredMonocle said...

I believe the Williamsburg Savings Bank lobby has a recurring bee/hive theme as well. The interior of that building is hysterical with detail. (also a luxury condo)

Anonymous said...

Bees have often been used throughout history as heraldic emblems, most notably by Pope Urban VIII, as evidenced in much of the art and architecture produced during his reign. I wonder if the bees around NYC you observe are indicative at all of the craftsmen or firms that produced them.

Melanie said...

I love the little bees. Hardworkers and make such a good product--honey.

laura said...

this was a great post. hope the luxury building keeps the bee hive. thanks jeremiah.

George Myers said...

When Napoleon was crowned Emperor, he wore a cloak with over 200 gold and jeweled bees on it I saw the other day. The "Paragon" by the way, built in the Lord Shipyard on Staten Island, outran his blockade of Liverpool, England when he was a General. Hear how he's buried in a LaFite cemetery in Lousiana? P. Jefferson'w wife related by marriage, arranged to have him smuggled to the New World. Sick, died off the Yucatan. Not sure if the cemetery survived Katrina. From: Times-Picayune, 1979.

HippieChick said...

Napoleon's chief symbol was bees. Look where that got him...

Joe R said...

I guess you know that the beautiful beehive clock at the Bank for Savings is currently covered by scaffolding. I hope that it's just for some building repair and that it doesn't affect the clock itself.

chris flash said...

There's another one, on the facade of what was the city's oldest bank located at 23th Street + Park Avenue South (can't remember the name just now)....

George Myers said...

My thought or something got in the way here, Shelter Island was where "Paragon" was built, out between the "fork" of eastern Long Island.

laura said...

comment #2-please do more posts like this. we need something positive & nice about new york. the fact that the bees are still there made my day.