I’ve found an apartment! My application was fully approved today, I sign the lease Wednesday morning and I can move in November 1 or as early as this weekend.
It’s in Inwood, the northernmost tip of Manhattan, and my neighborhood is flanked to the west by Fort Tryon Park, home of the Cloisters, which I visited this summer, and to the east by High Bridge Park, where I toured the High Bridge Water Tower last October.
The apartment is a one-bedroom walkup on the fourth floor of a well-kept old building and my rent is more than $100 less per month than what I’m paying for my current place. I’ve got hardwood floors, a small hall at the entrance leading into a large main room with the kitchen area off to the side (“You could teach a dance class in here!” the hair-gelled broker kept blurting in his Long Island accent). The bedroom is at least as big as my current one and the bathroom has snaggle-toothed tile walls in the shower. In the two main rooms are windows overlooking the street, which is not a major thoroughfare and quiet. The building’s management is in the process of adding laundry services in the basement, which will be a nice bonus.
I’m told the landlord, who I’ll meet at the lease signing, is a six-foot-six Greek named Paul. I recall the landlord Andrew and I had in Lakewood, Ohio, who was also Greek and despite that ancient warning about accepting gifts, bore bottles of wine and giant trays of baklava to his tenants at Christmas. Maybe this guy will give out some nice holiday gifts, too.
The main beef you’ll get from people about Inwood is that it’s way on up there, Manhattan-wise. As a reference for non New Yorkers, I currently live on W. 85th Street, whereas my new place is on the equivalent of W. 196th Street. I expect my work commute to be lengthened by at least 15 minutes each way. A strong positive, however, is that I’m a few blocks away from a station of the A, which is an express train, delivers me directly to Penn Station for work nearby and has a song written after it (“Take the ‘A’ Train,” made famous by Duke Ellington). I’ll also have the option of taking the leisurely local train, the 1, which I know well.
But in true Jason fashion, the aspect of this new place that I enjoy the most is that it’s on Sickles Street. I researched the origin and discovered it’s named in dubious honor of Daniel E. Sickles, New York State Legislator and Major General during the Civil War. He’s shown in the center of the below photo, taken in the 1860s.
Dan was born in the city in 1819, studied law at NYU and served as a New York State Senator and Representative in Congress. It wasn’t until he turned 40 that he made his name, dueling with and killing Francis Scott Key’s son, who was having an affair with Dan’s frisky, 22-year-old wife, Teresa. (Dan himself enjoyed philandering, but these were days of different standards.) At Gettysburg, he defied a direct order, resulting in the loss of an entire corps of Union soldiers, as well as his right leg, which was crushed by an artillery round, amputated and now stands proudly on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine among fragments of Lincoln’s skull and Paul Revere’s dental tools.
It is, you will agree, a more entertaining history than that of W. 85th Street.