sing us a song, you're the piano man

Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of Billy Joel’s own struggles in 1972–73.

 While hiding out in Los Angeles to escape a bad record contract, he worked as a lounge pianist at a bar called The Executive Room.

 (1860) Billy Joel - Piano Man (Original Video) - YouTube

 Going by the alias "Bill Martin", he observed and wrote about the real, everyday bar patrons, transforming their broken dreams and quiet routines into a classic vignette of American loneliness. 

 The Real-Life Characters

 Almost every lyric in the song was inspired by someone Joel met while playing his gig. According to interviews and breakdowns, the real-life counterparts include: 

 The "Old Man": A regular named Mr. Brady who always ordered a "tonic and gin"

 John the Bartender: The employee who provided free drinks, lights, and a lot of jokes, but dreamed of being a movie star.

 Paul: A real estate broker by day who would drunkenly rant about writing the "Great American Novel".

 

• Davy: A regular who served in the Navy.
•  
• The Waitress: Joel's first wife, Elizabeth, who was working at the bar and whom Joel affectionately described in the lyrics as "practicing politics." 

 

When I wore a “younger man’s clothes”, the place my Catholic youth group went to on a Friday nights was a place called Hafner’s in Roseville, Minnesota.

 

It started as a basement bowling alley in 1959, and eventually grew to include bowling allies in both the basement and the main floor, and it also included a restaurant called the Lord Aldon Inn - as well as a piano bar.

 

Ultimately, Hafner's became a victim of urban sprawl, and the entire block was razed in 2002.  The last mention in the Minneapolis Star Tribune of the address is in March 2003, in an RFP looking for development of the block for market rate housing.  As of May 2019, no construction has occurred.

The following article appeared in the East Side Review on August 9, 2015, written by Patrick Larkin.

Hafner lot, long empty, on market:  NENDC hoping flea market, food trucks will draw attention to the spot

Just south of the border with Maplewood, a bare and disheveled piece of pavement has sat empty for over a decade at 1590 White Bear Ave.

The lot once held a bustling shopping center emblematic of the strip mall format of the 1950’s, called Hafner’s. Hafner’s was a pillar of the Hillcrest shopping area along White Bear Avenue, just south of Larpenteur Avenue and St. Paul’s border with Maplewood.

Hafner’s held a bowling alley, restaurant and lounge along with several other commercial entities including a barber and a chiropractor. It was a booming mall with parking and a gas station. But slowly, business faded, in part due to changing times, suburban shopping centers, freeways, and the like. It changed owners multiple times, and the building slowly fell into disrepair.

By the time St. Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority acquired the land in 2002, it was on its last legs. The city bought and demolished the place, and shored up the 2.18 acre lot for redevelopment.

Now for the first time since it was razed, the North East Neighborhood Development Company, which now manages the lot through its real estate brokerage, Capitol Brokerage, put it on the market this spring, hoping to draw in a developer to the blank spot on White Bear Avenue.

It was first listed on March 17, and according to NENDC’s Chuck Repke, it has attracted some modest amount of interest from developers, although nothing’s solidified.

To keep the site active, NENDC is allowing it to be used by two food trucks — a taco truck and a deli truck — as well as a church, which will use the lot to hold flea markets.

Mixed use possibilities

Dave Gontarek, project manager in St. Paul’s Planning and Economic Development department, said the place has been informally on the market since the HRA acquired the property more than a decade ago.

Through those years, he said they’ve heard some interest in the parcel, including a church group looking to build a restaurant, but the proposed uses didn’t add up to enough density to satisfy Hillcrest’s small area plan.

The price tag for the empty concrete lot is $1.3 million, and the purchase and development of the lot is subject to the St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Authority’s approval.

“With that,” Repke noted, “the price becomes flexible based on how enthused the city is.

“The more positive the benefit to the neighborhood, the more likely the city is to come down on the price.”

Repke said he’s pulling for a mixed use or commercial development — a smaller grocery store like Trader Joe’s, or an apartment building with storefront retail on the main level.

However, for residential uses to be approved, the site would need significant cleanup — there used to be a Clark gas station in the front portion of the lot, which had leaky gas tanks. Those old wells would need to be removed, and soil remediation would likely be needed.

‘Heck of an enterprise’

Repke said that bringing in an anchor building to the dated shopping district would be a good way to keep the place viable.

Though vacancy rates in the commercial buildings along the corridor are low, it takes a significant amount of time to find new tenants when one moves out, he said.

The goal would be to have a store with some draw, that would make the whole corridor more active, so prospective tenants were approaching the building owners, rather than the other way around.

“I want people to see it as a retail site,” Repke said. “I figured over the course of the summer we would fill it up with things happening and draw a little attention to it.”

“There’s 19,000 cars going past that property every day,” he added. “That ought to be enough customers for almost anybody to figure out how to make a buck.”

Gary Unger, who lives just a few blocks from the site, used to pump gas at the gas station in front of Hafner’s, and also used to set pins at the lanes.

He can recall Hafner’s in it’s full glory.

“It was a heck of an enterprise,” he said, adding that the place was spick and span.

“It was the cleanest place you’ve ever seen in your life… the sanitation around there, it was second to none.”

With the idea of a new development coming to the spot, he said he’d like to see a destination store go in.

While White Bear Avenue was once a happening commercial strip; it’s now a bit more off the beaten path, he said. He pointed out that as the suburbs flared out, White Bear Avenue connected to the Maplewood Mall, as well as the high-speed roadways Minnesota 36 and Interstate 694, which connect to various suburban shopping facilities, leaving the once bustling commercial corridor as just a connector.

 

Alcohol consumption has declined significantly In America since 1976. The percentage of U.S. adults who report drinking alcohol dropped to 54%. This is a sharp decrease from the record high of 71% recorded consistently between 1976 and 1978, representing the lowest drinking rate in nearly 90 years.

 This historical shift away from alcohol is documented by several overarching trends:

 

• Shifting Demographics: The decline is especially pronounced among women and young adults. For instance, between 2023 and 2025, the rate of women who reported drinking alcohol dropped by 11 percentage points.
•  
• Reduced Volume: Among those who still drink, the average number of drinks consumed per week has fallen to 2.8—the lowest figure recorded since 1996
•  
• Driving Factors: Experts attribute this drop to an increased public awareness of the health risks associated with even moderate drinking, as well as a growing preference for alcohol alternatives like cannabis and low-ABV options.

Billy Joel himself struggled with alcohol for decades, which is why has been married 4 times.

He went to rehab twice (in 2002 and 2005), and his heavy drinking contributed to the breakdowns of his first three marriages. His second wife, Christie Brinkley, has referred to alcohol as "the other woman" in their relationship, while his third wife, Katie Lee, gave him an ultimatum to go to treatment.

 Joel has historically used alcohol to self-medicate through deep depression. He has struggled with mental health and trauma from an early age, including surviving the abandonment of his father, two suicide attempts in his early twenties, and a deep mental fog following the September 11 attacks.

 Hafner’s no longer exists, but if still wanted to go to a piano bar, they still exist, and the best ones in the country are listed below:

        https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g191-Activities-c20-t106-United_States.html

 If you find a place you like, find the piano player, and put some bread in his jar.

 Billy Joel would understand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dick and Jane 

We are still in the processing of unpacking boxes after our move to New Mexico.

 

Prior to the long drive from Tucson, we spent roughly six months wrapping and boxing all of our possessions. Even though we made numerous trips to Goodwill, we still have a lot of boxes to go through. In addition, we still have a LOT of books, even though we donated 10 boxes of books to Friends of the Library .

As we unpacked another box today, we discovered that we had a copy of a “Dick and Jane” book from 2004, even though we have a few copies that are much older.

Most of the kids in America learned how to read because of the Dick and Jane series, which first started publishing in the 1930’s.

Dick and Jane are the two protagonists created by Zerna Sharp for a series of basal readers written by William S. Gray to teach children to read. The characters first appeared in the Elson-Gray Readers in 1930 and continued in a subsequent series of books through the final version in 1965. On January 1st, 2026, the first book entered the public domain in the USA. These readers were used in classrooms in the United States and in other English-speaking countries for nearly four decades, reaching the height of their popularity in the 1950s, when 80 percent of first-grade students in the United States used them. Although the Dick and Jane series of primers continued to be sold until 1973 and remained in use in some classrooms throughout the 1970s, they were replaced with other reading texts by the 1980s and gradually disappeared from school curricula.

The Dick and Jane series were known for their simple narrative text and watercolor illustrations. For a generation of middle-class Americans, the characters of "Dick", "Jane", and their younger sister "Sally" became household words. The Dick and Jane primers have become icons of mid-century American culture and collector's items.

Despite criticisms of the stereotypical content that depicted white, middle-class Americans and the "whole-word" or "sight word" (look-say) method of teaching reading on which these readers are based, they retain cultural significance for their impact on literacy education in the mid-twentieth century.

 

I have been a teacher, off and on, for roughly 20 years of my life, and will likely continue to work in a school district for a few more years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_and_Jane#Collectibles_and_reprint_editions

 Despite the advances our educational system has made in the last 50 years, we are still far behind many other countries – despite the fact that we used to have the best educational system in the world.

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2015/01/why-finns-are-smarter-than-us.html

Only about 31% to 35% of American students read at or above a proficient level, depending on their grade. According to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the Nation's Report Card, roughly two-thirds of U.S. students do not meet grade-level reading proficiency expectations. [

 

Reading Proficiency Breakdown

The most recent comprehensive data from the NAEP highlights the percentage of students reaching or exceeding the "Proficient" level (which equates to solid grade-level performance and mastery over challenging subject matter):

 

• 4th Graders: Only 31% score at or above proficient.
• 8th Graders: Only 30% score at or above proficient.
• 12th Graders: Only 35% score at or above proficient.

 

We are also lagging in math proficiency, and I detailed the reasons for that decline in January, after my experience when buying a couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies.

 https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2026/01/its-simple-math-version-2.html

 To be perfectly blunt, our education system is a mess, and I outlined some of the reasons for that in April of this year:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2026/01/its-simple-math-version-2.html

I have written numerous articles about our education system.

Despite the fact that it will needs improvement, I am still convinced that we can, and will, do better.

I grew up in a period of time when a typical grade school classroom had 50 students and one teacher, who was usually a nun.

Her only tools were a pointer and Father John Vincent Ryan - and we learned how to read by reading books about Dick and Jane.

Somehow, most of us turned out OK, years before we had Google and Tik Tok.

If you yearn for those golden days of yesteryear, you can still find copies of “Dick and Jane for sale if you look hard enough.

As Archie and Edith used to sing, those were the days, my friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

adventures in moving

 

Adventures in moving

The average American moves about 11 to 12 times in their lifetime. Breaking this down mathematically over an average lifespan, households change residences approximately every 5 to 7 years.

 However, moving frequency varies drastically based on life stages and circumstances:

 Young Adults: People in their 20s and 30s are the most mobile, frequently moving for college, career changes, or renting.

• Families with Children: Families tend to settle down for longer intervals, particularly when kids are in school, to maintain stability.
• Retirees & Older Adults: Mobility significantly drops as people age, with many staying in the same home for decades

 

Since we got married in 1972, we have moved a total of 14 times, including our first move as a married couple.

We lived in our first house (in St. Paul) from 1974 to 1978, but moved to our second house (in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota) after our first child was born, and we needed a bigger house.

We moved to our third house (In Waukesha, Wisconsin) in 1981 after I was promoted and made a manager in the Milwaukee office of Fireman’s Fund.

We moved to our fourth house (in Aurora, Illinois) after a new job in a different state became a better way forward.

The longest that we lived as a couple together was in Aurora, where we lived from December of 1986 until the spring of 2003.

Each move is unique, and some were easier than others.

Our first house nearly doubled in value in the 4 years we owned it, and selling it was easy because the company I worked for bought it from us before we moved.

When we moved into our second house, inflation was raging, and the best mortgage I could find was at 15 and ¾. (I refinanced a year later at 12%)

Since our move to Wisconsin was a corporate move, it did not cost us any money because the company paid for it.

Our move to Illinois was also a corporate move, so was another easy move.

This move was a little harder due to the fact that our BRAND-NEW house was not finished after we moved, which meant that we had to rent an apartment for about 6 months before we finally got settled.

Toward the end of my stay in that house, I moved to China, where I taught college for about a year. The rest of the family wound up moving to an apartment in Chicago.

When I returned to America, all of us moved (briefly) to an apartment in Logan Square.

Sharon lived there for about 3 years, while I moved to an apartment in Evanston to be closer to my new job. Three years later, we both moved into the bottom unit of a four plex in Evanston.

The kids, meanwhile, wound up moving in with friends.

In the fall of 2011, our niece got married in California. Since I was planning on retiring anyway, we decided that Arizona would be a good place to live. Although we thought of moving to Prescott, we switched to Flagstaff because Kelly decided to pursue her nursing degree at NAU. We moved there just before our niece’s wedding.

Here is lesson number 1:

No matter how carefully you plan - things can go wrong.

The moving company quoted us a price of $8000 to move from Chicago to Flagstaff. When the moving truck arrived, they realized that they had mis-calculated, and the new price was $11,000.

Although most of my 401-K covered the $8,000, I could not afford another $3,000.

Fortunately, we were able to borrow the difference from one of our relatives, which we paid back a few years later.

Lesson number 2

Never forget that we sometimes get lucky.

None of us had jobs lined up when we moved to Flagstaff.

Kelly initially worked at a temp agency until she got a job at a local dealership.  Sharon worked a couple of temporary jobs, until she got hired by the local school district. I sold cars for about a year, ana they got a job with the school district.

Meanwhile, Brian moved from his new location in Chicago to a new location in Tucson, where Kelly and he friend Chris had moved so that she could work on her master’s degree, and she eventually graduated from the University of Arizona with that degree.

(In the spring of 2014, Kelly and Chris bought their first home on the east side of Tucson. In the spring of 2020, they sold the house in Tucson, and bought another one near Durango, Colorado.)

When both of our kids lived in Tucson, we decided that it made sense for the tow of us to also move to Tucson.

We moved there in July of 2011, and the temperature hit a high of 115 a week after we arrived.

Rule number 3:

Not everyone can be counted on to act responsibly.

A week before our moved to Tucson, the management company told us that the occupant of the home we had planned to moved into did not move out on July 1, so we had to rent a storage unit for a week to store our belongings until he moved out.

We were able to stay with Brian at his new apartment for the week, but it cost me another $1000 for the second set of movers – and we had paid $4000 to move from Flagstaff of Tucson.

Rule number 4:

There can be unexpected surprises.

The Kelly and Chris moving company managed to move all of our stuff to our new location in New Mexico. On June 8, it took a 26-foot truck, a Ford F-150, and my car to transport all of our stuff.

Two days later, I was attempting to leave the local Albertsons, but took a wrong turn and hit a tall curb, and utterly destroyed my front bumper. Although my collision claim has been approved, the total damages are $1600, and my deductible is $500.

Rule number 5

Sometimes things work out for you.

We are gradually cleaning out our moving boxes and learning our way around town. We also now have new library cards, and will get new licensees. In the near future, I will be meeting with the local school district so that I can continue to teach again. In addition to the fact that it will increase my income, it also will allow me more time to read.

No matter how you do it, moving is a very difficult thing to do, and it gets harder as you get older.

It’s always hard to leave family and friends, and find new doctors, but it made perfect sense for another reason:

WE ARE GETTING OLDER.

Kelly is a nurse, and her home in Colorado is only an hour away. Since I was recently diagnosed with some heart issues, having a medical person close by is important.

She and Chris are young enough that they can handle the maintenance of our new home, and close enough that they can help us with all those pesky electronic problems that always crop up.

Every time that we have moved, we have always vowed to never do it again. That is still true today, but since we now live in “the land of enchantment, we finally be able to fulfill our promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lessons learned from Dyersville

 

On one of our trips between Minnesota and Illinois, we stopped in a town called Dyersville, Iowa, which was the setting for the 1989 movie, “Field of Dreams”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_Dreams

I thought of the movie today as I finished reading my 50^th book of the year, which is Cory Booker’s latest book, “Stand”, and here is why:

In the movie, James Earl Ray, in character of Terrance Mann, has a few words for Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) that are worth listening to again.

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechfieldofdreams.html

How does a movie about baseball relate to a book from a senator from New Jersey?

Easy.

Both are inspirational.

At a time in our history when a wrestling match will soon be held on the front lawn of the White House, we all need a break from the utter stupidity that we are exposed to a nearly a daily basis, so reading a short book is a good start

  Democrats upset at Trump's White House UFC event—are taxpayers paying?c

 I wrote about the Field of Dreams roughly 5 years ago:

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2021/08/been-there-done-that-bought-t-shirt.html

You already know that Major League Baseball has held profession baseball games at the Field of Dreams. What you may now know is the ANOTHER game is scheduled for August 13 of 2026.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_at_Field_of_Dreams

Since I will be nearly 79 years old when the game will be played, and since I will be living 1234 miles to the north, there is no way in world that I will be at the game, but I will always remember a time when America was great, and can be again – and Cory Booker tells us how it can be done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bulldozers at the White House

 

The East Wing was a portion of the White House complex in Washington, D.C. that was built in 1902, significantly expanded in 1942, and demolished in 2025. In the month prior to the demolition, site preparation began for a larger, replacement wing to include the proposed White House State Ballroom.

Situated on the east side of the Executive Residence, the building served as office space for the first lady and her staff, including the White House Social Secretary, correspondence staff, and the White House Graphics and Calligraphy Office, all of which have been relocated until the new East Wing is completed.

The East Wing was connected to the Executive Residence through the East Colonnade, a corridor with windows facing the South Lawn that housed the White House Family Theater and connected to the ground floor of the Executive Residence.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt oversaw an expansion and remodeling of the East Wing, which included the construction of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the building

President Thomas Jefferson added colonnaded terraces to the east and west sides of the White House, but no actual wings. Under President Andrew Jackson in 1834, running water was piped in from a spring and pumped up into the east terrace in metal pipes. These ran through the walls and protruded into the rooms, controlled by spigots. Initially, the water was for washing items, but soon the first bathing rooms were created, in the ground-level east colonnade. President Martin Van Buren had shower baths installed here.

The East Terrace was removed in 1866. For many years, a greenhouse occupied the east grounds of the White House.

The first small East Wing (and the West Wing) was designed by Charles Follen McKim and built in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt renovations, as an entrance for formal and public visitors. This served mainly as an entrance for guests during large social gatherings, when it was necessary to accommodate many cars and carriages. Its primary feature was the long cloak room with spots for coats and hats of the ladies and gentlemen.

An expansion and remodeling of the East Wing was instituted in 1942, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency. The two-story East Wing was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and added to the White House primarily to cover the construction of an underground bunker, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC). Around the same time, Theodore Roosevelt's coatroom was integrated into the new building and became the White House Family Theater.

Trump’s illegal destruction of the East Wing faces significant legal challenges, which are detailed in the link below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Wing#:~:text=The%20East%20Wing%20was%20a,1942%2C%20and%20demolished%20in%202025.

However, the destruction was not the first time that bulldozers were used to destroy part of the White House.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Reconstruction

The White House Reconstruction, also known as the Truman Reconstruction, was a comprehensive dismantling and rebuilding of the interior of the White House from 1949 to 1952. In 1948, after nearly a century and a half of wartime destruction and rebuilding, hurried renovations, additions of new services, technologies, the expanded third floor, and inadequate foundations, architectural and engineering investigations found that the Executive Residence portion of the White House Complex was facing near-imminent collapse, and it was deemed unsafe for occupancy. President Harry S. Truman, his family, and the entire residence staff were relocated across the street to Blair House, and over the next three years, the White House was gutted, expanded, and rebuilt.

When the Trumans moved into the executive mansion in 1945, they found it badly in need of repair after twelve years of neglect during the Great Depression and World War II. In 1946, Congress authorized $780,000 (equal to $12,877,986 today) for repairs. The mansion's heaving floors and mysterious sounds had been known by staff and first families for many years. For the first two years of his presidency, according to White House photographer Abbie Rowe, President Truman heard "ghosts" roaming the halls of the second-floor residence. Government agencies had expressed concern about the condition of the building, including a 1941 report from the Army Corps of Engineers warning of failing wood structure, crumbling masonry, and major fire hazards. The report was dismissed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In early 1946, during a formal reception in the Blue Room, the First Lady noticed the very large crystal chandelier overhead swaying and its crystals tinkling. The floor of the Oval Study above moved noticeably when walked on, and a valet was then attending the president while he was taking a bath. Truman described a potential scenario of him in his bathtub falling through the floor into the midst of a Daughters of the American Revolution tea "wearing nothing more than his reading glasses." In early 1947, a "stretching" chandelier in the East Room and another swaying in the Oval Study caused further alarm. "Floors no longer merely creaked; they swayed."

The Public Buildings Administration was asked to investigate the condition of the White House, but no action was taken until January 1948. After the commissioner of the Public Buildings Administration, which had responsibility for the White House, noticed the Blue Room chandelier swaying overhead during another crowded reception, he and the White House architect conducted their own on-site investigation the next day. They discovered split and gouged-out beams supporting the ceiling and second floor above. He reported "that the beams are staying up there from force of habit only." The number of occupants in the second floor was restricted, temporary fixes were made to some of the beams, and scaffolding-type supports were erected throughout the first family's second floor living quarters.

On January 30, 1948, the president received a confidential report from the Commissioner of Public Buildings warning of the "imminent collapse" of the second floor of the mansion. In February, the president invited the president of the American Institute of Architects, Douglas Orr, and the president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Richard E. Dougherty, to "make a structural survey of the safety of the White House". Their one-day investigation concluded with a report issued that same day which said the second-floor structure was a fire hazard and was in danger of collapse.

They recommended that the second floor should be reconstructed as soon as possible, electricity use be cut to a minimum, and that further investigations be undertaken. Congress provided $50,000 for a more thorough investigation. Additional engineers and other professionals were engaged from the private sector. Walls, ceilings, and floors were opened up to provide access to the investigators.

 

The scope of the project involved the complete removal of the interior of the White House, except for the third floor, and included salvage and storage of critical interior elements, excavation of new basement levels, and construction of new foundations, steel and concrete structure, masonry interior walls with plaster finish and wood paneling, custom plaster moldings, refurbished and replacement windows, and new heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical, and communications systems.

The bulk of the work was to be accomplished within the exterior stone walls which were to be kept in place and repainted. Landscaping around the house was to be replaced. All workers were subjected to security clearance by the Secret Service. The West Wing was to be kept fully operational and occupied by the president and his staff. All work was to be completed for a total cost of $5.4 million and completed by late 1951, in 660 days, approximately 22 months.

This morning’s Washington Post provide more details on the issues that will either delay Trump’s ballroom, and possibly eliminate it altogether. Since an underground bunker was added during the 1942 renovation, there really is no compelling reason to build another one.

Truth be told, the entire project is nothing more than another vanity project for Trump, as was the renaming of the Kennedy Center and the proposed 250 foot tall arch just outside Arlington National cemetery.

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/26/courts-congress-have-so-far-created-barriers-trump-ballroom/

Trump has no appreciation or respect for history, which is why he had the Bonwit Teller frieze destroyed when Trump Tower was built.

Donald Trump’s relationship to the Metropolitan Museum of Art was permanently damaged early on. He refused to donate artworks that he had promised to the museum and instead had them destroyed, along with a venerable building that had played an important role in American art history.

At that site, the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 56th Street in Manhattan at which Trump constructed his prestige project Trump Tower between 1980 and 1982, the flagship store of the luxury department store chain Bonwit Teller and Co. had earlier stood. The 1929 building was the work of the same architects who had designed Grand Central Terminal, Whitney Warren and Charles Wetmore. It was intended originally to house the women’s department store Stewart. Bonwit Teller, who took over the building in 1930 and opened it anew, soon worked with world-famous artists. Starting in 1936, the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí regularly decorated the windows with spectacular installations, for example in 1939, working with the theme “night and day.” In the 1950s, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg worked for the company on the side as window dressers, using the pseudonym “Matson Jones.” Among other things, Johns displayed his now iconic painting Flag on Orange Field behind a mannequin in the windows in 1957. That same year in the same place, Rauschenberg showed his Red Combine Painting along with others. Two years earlier, the large photographic work Blue Ceiling Matson Jones could be seen in the background of the Bonwit Teller windows.

 

Donald Trump Has a History of Pulverizing Historic Buildings

Congress has finally awakened to the fact that it is supposed to be a check on presidential power, which is why it is unlikely that the $1.776 billion "slush fund" will pass.

As for the final status of the ballroom?

Your guess is as good as mine.