Book Review: Heaven on the Hudson

Title: Heaven on the Hudson 

Author: Stephanie Azzarone

Date: 2022

Publisher: Fordham

ISBN: not yet

Length: 250 pages

Quote: "There are secrets in this city." 

Yes, this is another preview copy I received in exchange for a brutally honest review. The brutally honest truth is that I think this is a gorgeous guide to one of New York's most expensive neighborhoods. Azzarone has lived there for thirty years and thinks every single block can be regarded as an attraction. 

If you don't like New York City, you could say that Riverside Park is where NYC tries to look as nice as where you live, and almost succeeds. Too many people are still crowded into too many tall buildings but in Riverside Park you can still see the river, trees, and sometimes a wild bird or animal. In the classic phrase, it'd be fun to visit, once, but you wouldn't want to live there. Well, that's fine! Lots of other people do. 

In the first half of the book Azzarone traces the history of the neighborhood, generally. In the nineteenth century this was the history of Victorian capitalist "society" at its most extravagant. Millionnaires established "the 400" list, based on the number of people who could fit into their ballrooms, but not everyone on the list was wealthy; the upper middle class were on the list too. Still, there were standards; "failure to own your own home was a confession of shabby antecedents or disreputable habits." 

In the twentieth century big houses were chopped up into "French flats," and people gradually adjusted to the idea that multiple families under the same roof could leave one another alone. (There were initially fears of burglary and sexual sin.) The choppers-up of houses tried to make each apartment building sound grander than the next one. No matter how expensive the flats were or how many services came with the building, though, the bottom line was that people were living in squalidly crowded conditions. National news from the Park at first focussed on celebrity crimes, but by the late twentieth century Riverside Park was the site of mugging and "ordinary New York" street crime. The river became polluted. 

Nevertheless, people who wanted to live in New York City still coveted those flats with the view of the river, and in the second section, the block-by-block walking tour, Azzarone names some of the celebrities who have lived in almost every building. Efforts to clean up and rehabilitate had some success. (Azzarone resists the temptation to quote Pete Seeger's song about the Hudson River: "The river may be dirty now, but it's getting cleaner every day.")

In addition to a glossary of architectural terms to explain what the descriptions of the buildings mean, the book has a long section of endnotes and a long index. 

Its big attraction is, of course, the pictures. Readers can see the buildings, as well as the park, and some of the historic figures of the neighborhood, in color photos or reprints of vintage paintings. 

If you or someone you know live in Riverside Park, you or your friend must have this book.