Lost and Found in the West 40s

January 7th, 2011 · 16 Comments · Explore New York

Walking and loving a New York street is akin to a long-term relationship. It’s an experience of both exhilaration and dejection, of losses and gains, times of discovery and times of pain. Sometimes you feel all is lost, and during others you can’t believe your good fortune.

New Yorkers who love the streets know this roller coaster ride of feelings happens even in the course of a few blocks, a feeling of loss and then suddenly a spark of renewal. On a recent walk in the West 40s, I despaired at losing a well-loved long-time store that had closed up. Then, on the next street north I discovered an enchanting, welcoming little space I had never known before. Such are the ups and down of loving New York City.

Here are the “lost” and “found” of one brief walk in the West 40s in Manhattan:

Lost: The Hagstrom Map Store

The Hagstrom Map & Travel Center at 51 West 43rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth avenues) was, simply put, one of my favorite places in Manhattan. It was a map lover’s delight, an entire store devoted to maps from publishers throughout the world as well as to globes, map implements, guides, and travel books. It’s the kind of store where you just wouldn’t know where your explorations would lead you. But now it is closed.

The reason I headed there recently will say much about the loss of this unusual place: I went looking for a map of Cleveland to give as a Christmas present to a family member who will be traveling to the Ohio city a few times over the next several months for training courses. Where else in New York City, I said to myself, would I be able to find a map of Cleveland? Of course I shop online, but often I try to support local brick-and-mortar merchants when I can.

What a dismaying sight I found upon arrival, however. I saw that the Hagstrom map store had closed. A “Store For Rent” sign hung on the window. Langenscheidt Publishers, the company that owned Hagstrom Map Co., decided to sell off its map and atlas business. The map center closed last July after being open for a quarter-century, according to NBC NewYork.  A company executive told NBC New York that “the electronic world is putting an evil crunch on the map business.”

In online reviews at Yelp.com, customers lamented the end of the journey for the Hagstrom store and told why it was a well-loved destination. “I know, I know, GPS gets me where I need to be…most of the time. But Hagstrom’s is the place to go for all things published on travel…all of the time. If you have a map fetish or a bit of wanderlust, like I do, then this is the place that will scratch that itch well,” wrote Theresa H., a San Francisco woman. Another customer, New Yorker Andy T., told of his joy at finding a map of Hokkaido, Japan in the store’s Asia section. He noted it was created by ITMB Publishing, a British Columbia-based outfit “that makes some of the best maps on the planet,” adding, “Seriously, where can you find a map of Hokkaido in NYC?” A Somerset, N.J., man, Jim. B., praised Hagstrom as the source for local, national, and international maps: “I have never seen another store which comes close. Only in New York.”

The Site of the Hagstrom Map & Travel Center
The site of the former Hagstrom Map & Travel Center

Another store suddenly shuttered, another one-of-a-kind experience lost in New York. Thankfully, the West 40s between Fifth and Sixth avenues still retains other quirky merchants as well as glorious late 19th century and early 20th century buildings with sculptured architectural details and impressive design. The New York Yacht Club building, at 37 West 44th St., and the Library of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York, at 20 West 44th St., are two such buildings.

The New York Yacht Club - Entrance
The entrance to the clubhouse of the New York Yacht Club, featuring a huge sea snail, seashells, and the club’s initials

When Midtown Manhattan bursts with people and traffic, such as during the recent Christmas holidays, West 44th and West 43th streets especially provide quieter street-crawling and Old New York experiences. One nifty escape was in the pass-through tunnel within the Berkeley Building at 19-25 West 44th St. There, the lobby had one of those newsstands, with candy, gum, and newspapers, that feel like a bit of the 1940s in the 21st century. There, the owner, Kashyap Desai, greeted customers and wished each one who bought a lottery ticket, “Good luck!”

Berkeley Building Hallway
The hallway of the Berkeley Building in Manhattan

Found: The Mansfield Hotel’s Club Room

Not long after I was feeling mournful about the Hagstrom store being gone for good I found an unexpected pick-me-up. Walking down a New York City street, one can unearth some fabulous little place or detail you never knew was there, even after dozens or even hundreds of walks. This is what happened at the Club Room of the Mansfield Hotel, on a nearby block from the Hagstrom store. The Mansfield is a nearly 100-year-old boutique hotel at 12 West 44th St. James Renwick, Jr., whose architectural works include St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Old Main at Vassar College, designed the Mansfield, which opened in 1904. Its combination of Beaux Arts and Second Empire styles jibed well with the atmosphere of fancy, exclusive clubhouses in the neighborhood such as the Harvard Club and the New York Yacht Club.

As many times as I have walked up and down West 44th Street, I had never noticed – let alone walked into – the Club Room. One long-time rule this New Yorker abides by: You don’t have to stay at a hotel to lounge in and take great pleasure in its lobby and main floor. The Club Room was a fortuitous find when I was looking for a place to warm up in the late winter afternoon’s cold and decided to walk into the Mansfield. Located to the left, off the hotel’s main lobby, it is a cozy library room with honey-color mahogany paneling, floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, soft leather chairs, and a black-iron chandelier. Truly, it’s like walking into a cozy club.

At a time when many city hotel designers and owners seek to be cool, ultra-hip, and edgy, the Mansfield is refreshingly warm without being dowdy. When they became the new owners in 2004, Brad Reiss and John Yoon sought to restore the Mansfield, including the Club Room, to its earlier charm and historic atmosphere. One can instantly sense this upon walking into the Club Room, which has a working fireplace framed by a mahogany and marble mantel, period-style sconces, and an English-style phone booth room, where the door closes to create a nook with banquette seating.

Mansfield Hotel Club Room
The Club Room in the Mansfield Hotel in Midtown Manhattan

New York offers moments of solitude and a sense of being transported to another era that one could never script. They happen if you walk patiently around the city and poke in places. This time at the Mansfield’s Club Room was one such moment. The room isn’t luxurious and seems as if one of your well-to-do aunts hasn’t upgraded some of the furniture lately. But that made it no less appealing and inviting. The oversized chairs are comfortable, and beside them is a wooden game table where guests can play chess or cribbage. Copies of The New York Times lay on another leather-topped table. Warming myself by the gas fireplace, I listened, over the hotel’s speakers, to Ella Fitzgerald singing “A Fine Romance” and then Frank Sinatra crooning “September In the Rain.” Despite the holiday crowds maneuvering and jostling outside nearby on Fifth Avenue, only one other person was sharing this lovely little space during my visit.

It seemed the Club Room was the day’s found treasure after experiencing the loss of the Hagstrom map store. So it goes in New York with its constant comings and goings. I’m sure I will miss the Hagstrom map store for a long time, as I still miss McHale’s tavern, closed in 2006 when developers razed the building it was in and built sterile high-rise condos. People say that in a chain store-dominated, greed-afflicted world, the Old New York is gone. That’s a question to consider another day. The city ever unfolds, sparking a relationship in which things change and losses occur, prompting our own grief over a long-time favorite place or an experience no longer available. Then the city creates and reveals – just as insistently – a new-again, wonderful experience.

Do you have a favorite place that has been “lost” in New York (or in nearby environs)? Do you have other places and experiences that you have recently found in the city? Share them on Mindfulwalker.com below.

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16 Comments so far ↓

  • Gretchen

    Susan, I was with you every step of the way in this column! I haven’t been to the City in decades, but your descriptions put me right there. Two places I miss in Manhattan are vintage Yorkville with its cornucopia of German delis, restaurants, and shops, and Barton’s Bonbonnierre (Almond Kisses in those tins!!), I believe on 5th Ave.

    And the Staten Island ferry boat Cornelius Kolff with its wonderfully mournful hooooooot. SIGH! Loved your photo of the NY Yacht club facade. And might I suggest an alternative (albeit not so grand) to Hagstrom’s : Portsmouth N.H.’s great Gulliver’s Travel Books and Maps.

    Well, now I’m wandering off to the Mansfield Hotel’s Club Room….

  • Susan DeMark

    Gretchen,

    Indeed, you are such an observant walker that I’m sure you would be there for every step of the way…and then some.

    I have had some fantastic German food in the Yorkville section of the city. And though there aren’t as many places today as there were, it can still be found.

    Barton’s Bonbonniere! I have never been there. That must have been great. Here is a photo from Architectural Forum that has been posted on Flickr:
    “More Barton’s Bonbonniere”

    How colorful and sweet, literally, that place had to be. I love the name. Where was the one you went to?

    And I will definitely check out the map store. It’s one of my favorite things to do on any travels!

    Thanks!
    Susan

  • Lynne

    You are certainly NOT going to believe that I was standing right across from that yacht club last year and snapped the same shot!!!! It must be the eye and love of scrolled cement!

    Loved how you made me feel like I was a part of that map store even though I never had the pleasure.

    Lynne

  • Susan DeMark

    Lynne,

    “The love of scrolled cement”…that so describes it, that feeling of the eye being drawn to the ways that someone fashioned cement as if it were icing. That entrance is pretty dazzling, isn’t it?

    As such a lover of places near and far, you would have loved the Hagstrom store. It was very unpretentious…just a simple shop that catered to those who can be transported just by having that folded paper full of routes, rivers, seas, towns, and cities in their hands to explore. And then, yes, to venture off.

    Thank you so much!

    Susan

  • Gerald Berke

    Nice writing…have to send a link to friends that know and love NY City. They should see this.

    But that notion, that you don’t have to stay at a hotel to stop in at the lounge… I noticed that, and I would do that, and I certainly loved it, but I didn’t know that it’s expected by the people, that it’s part of the city. That is a wonderful thing to know! To be able to expect access, to appreciate the courtesy, and keep it in place.

  • Gretchen

    Susan,

    A sad update. Just read in the Portsmouth N.H. Herald that Gulliver’s Travels bookstore is closing.

  • Susan DeMark

    Gerald,

    Thank you! I definitely think there are many hotel lounge aficionados. :c)

    Enjoy,
    Susan

  • Susan DeMark

    Gretchen,

    Gosh, I’m certainly sad to hear of another very good travel and map store closing its doors. And I was planning to visit there!

    Susan

  • Gerald Berke

    Brilliant!

    gberke, NYC HLA (hotel lounge aficionado)

    Way much classier. What’s in a name indeed!

  • Susan DeMark

    Gerald,

    I’ll go along with that designation, definitely.

    HLA: Hotel Lounge Aficionado

    Sounds official, too!

    Susan

  • Maureen

    Hi Susan,

    Boston/Cambridge has globe/map stores; at least they did last time I was there. I love the Mechanics & Tradesmen Library. There is a “write-a-thon” held there every year in June that benefits the New York Writers Coalition. And the New York Historical Society is having a Times Square photo contest: architectural photographs, outdoor portraits, group snapshots, photographs depicting billboards and advertisements, and interior images of notable area buildings.

    There are so many lost and found places in NYC. Thanks for reminding me to revisit the ones I love and explore some more for new finds…before they disappear!

    Best,
    Maureen

  • Nita

    There once was a place called McHale’s
    Most famous for burgers and ales.
    My friend mourned the closing
    (a middle class hosing!)
    Now it lives on in bittersweet tales.

  • Susan DeMark

    Nita,

    Wow…I love this verse! It’s so great.

    And so, because you have inspired me:

    McHale’s was the best of any bar
    A tavern for stagehand and star
    The high-rise that’s there
    is not all that rare
    So McHale’s is mourned near and far

    Your verse is far superior. I owe you a brewski in honor of it!

    Susan

  • Susan DeMark

    Maureen,

    I’m glad for the neighborhoods in our country that retain their map/travel stores. I hope the ones in Boston and Cambridge have held out.

    Thanks for the info about the “write-a-thon” at the Library of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen. Awesome! I also would like to write about its interior — perhaps I would tie that in.

    You’re right — good to cherish the places we all love in case they are lost.

    Happy exploring!

    Susan

  • Out walking the dog

    Another great post, Susan. Thanks so much. I tend to avoid midtown whenever possible, but you make me realize what I am missing: a Club Room to call my own! I’m going to have to try it sometime soon.

  • Susan DeMark

    Melissa,

    I understand your feelings about midtown, but that is definitely why I like to seek out its cubbyholes. Enjoy!

    And thank you so much.

    Susan

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