Raymond MeisenheimerW 117th St between Lenox Ave and 7th AveHeart Four · Location 422 · Drawn July 2004Download photograph 1Download photograph 2Download photograph 3Download photograph 4Download photograph 5Download photograph 6Download photograph 7Download photograph 8Download photograph 9Download photograph 10Download photograph 11Download photograph 12Download photograph 13Show all 13 photographsVideo podcast0:00West of Malcolm X Boulevard on West 117th Street, a lot of construction has been done in the last two years.0:08To locate where this drawing was made, all you need to do is locate the first fire hydrant on the north side of the street.0:16It has two companion green poles on either side of it, guarding it from cars, and directly behind it is a Wachovia Bank.0:24Where the ATM machine is located, years ago, there was a blue plywood construction wall.0:30And behind it, nothing.0:32As of spring 2006, the entire corner at this intersection0:36has been filled with large buildings offering a bank and residential living.0:43This is Raymond Meisenheimer.0:46He was drawn in July of 2004.0:49His drawing is counting one person.0:54So we're back in Harlem in front of some buildings0:58buildings which look like they're either under construction or have been abandoned or something.1:04Or brand new.1:08And Mike is showing me a picture.1:10Oh my goodness, this is the same site.1:12It's a vacant lot.1:14Two years ago.1:15With like some orange webbing around it, like it's a construction site.1:19What was the drawing right over here?1:20On the corner?1:22[unclear] hydrant up there.1:22So right, so, you know, as far as getting a sense of where we are, the only thing that1:29remains from the documentation is a fire hydrant on the sidewalk.1:34But where it gets really confusing really quickly is you have a bank and then a whole1:41bunch of these pseudo brown stones.1:46The stones aren't quite yet brown yet, they're not old enough.1:49They're beige stones.1:50Beige stones.1:51But if you were to come through and start to look for hints of how old these buildings are,1:56you could look at these stoops and the worn, weathered rock pillars on either side of the stairs and say,2:03you know, this has got to be 80, 90 years old.2:06You have more evidence, you go up the stairs and you get to sort of nice, rusted decorative metal gates2:14that are obviously products of having been battered by decades and decades of weather.2:20Then you can look around that gate at the framing of this door,2:23and you have what appears to be a style embraced in the 30s and 40s2:29of chiseling away and trying to elaborate these entrances.2:34So these buildings are really less than two years old?2:37They're less than two years old.2:38So is it possible that they've actually never been occupied?2:41Well, there's hints of lights inside,2:46but there's obviously construction still going on.2:49but it has that sort of movie theater set sensation that you're being given the information2:56that you're supposed to be given in order to feel a certain decade but we know for sure that this is3:03not true. You know what these pillars to me look like they were taken from somewhere else3:08and put down here see how they've got those seams right here there's no reason for them to have3:15these seams unless they were lifted from somewhere else and taken in one two three3:20four five different pieces. Yeah the one further down the street has been broken.3:25It's like some sort of Egyptian relic or something. This sort of feels like what3:29they do in museums where they actually take entire temples and move them piece3:34by piece and reconstruct them and they've they've taken the time to3:37lovingly do that with all these these brownstones. And actually you can tell3:40looking up the facade I bet the whole facade is like that because it looks3:45sod has been slapped on top of this wooden construction.3:47Because those ballast pieces, those that go around the bottom of the window,3:51those are old.3:52Those are not new carvings, but they're new to this building.3:57So where was the actual drawing on this site?3:59The drawing was about 15 feet up here on the left.4:03So it would have been just inside this bank.4:08There's a big one of the standard blue construction walls.4:12the most convenient thing you can have to draw on right here and when that4:18curtain was lifted we have this bank here.4:24Raymond Meisenheimer had the new patio penciled in down to individual flowers4:29and the jacuzzi. He was supposed to retire in November, his 20th anniversary4:34with the New York City Fire Department, and he and his wife Joanne and their4:39their daughters Lauren and Caitlin were supposed to move from West Babylon, New York to Holtzville.4:45Right now, my girls want to follow through with everything he wanted, she said.← Location 421Heart Four · Location 422Location 423 →
