Page 29 - 200303 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2003

Monster Hunting 29 Monster Hunting 29 Monster Hunting: Demons Monster Hunting: Demons and Gargoyles Haunt the and Gargoyles Haunt the Heights Heights Armed with only with a Armed with only with a notebook, a Spectator notebook, a Spectator reporter exorcises reporter exorcises neighborhood ghouls and neighborhood ghouls and Gothic architecture. Gothic architecture. By Kristian Hansen Spectator Staff Writer "There is beauty in ugliness," wrote Anthony Di Renzo. He was describing the mystical relationship that supernatural creatures share in the public arena, but he may as well have been referring to the stone monsters of Morningside Heights. Careful examination of the our but resemble dragons and disfigured between Riverside and Broadway, grabs neighborhood reveals that caricatures set human heads. the eye of the ambitious monster-hunter, in stone--in all their ugliness--are still Walking between Amsterdam and who will find grotesque human images alive and well uptown. Societies have Broadway is another way to catch seven floors above the ground. According always relied on iconic symbols to ward glimpses of Manhattan's fantastic gothic to AcIS employee Kathryn Engelhardt, off evil, and modern New York City is no creations. On the facade of the apartment the building's frightening facade almost exception. Morningside Heights is building at 527 W. 110th Street, four made it an exterior shot in a Barbra crawling with gargoyles. stone monks, situated equidistant from Streisand movie. The Church of St. John the Divine, each other, are framed in various poses: On a mural of Athena directly located on Amsterdam Ave. at 112th one enthusiastically ladles soup into an inside the entrance of Butler Library, two Street, is both the world's largest open mouth, while a scholarly fellow devilish green men are repelled back into cathedral and Morningside Heights's peruses a stone book. Around the corner hell's flames by Athena's mighty shield. premier location for the viewing of at 526 W. 111th Street, more monk-like In Homer's Iliad, the shield was said to statuesque demons. The entire Cathedral monsters hold the tools of craftsmen. One bear the head of Medusa in its center to Close is excellent creature-watching stone figure holds a t-square, while the ward off evil. Villainy is not the only territory. "Ring of Peace," a park near the other grasps a trowel for laying bricks. exotic depiction found in Butler; directly church's abbey, is home to an utterly And fifty feet above the men are four above the reception in the library, two terrifying fifteen-foot bronze statue extraordinary gargoyles, each one jetting ghastly gryphons guard the King's Crown depicting the decapitation of Satan at the out from building's stone facade. of Columbia. claws of an angry crab. Satan's head Columbia's campus facilities are Take a look for yourself. The hangs by a thread, dangling off his body not without their own ghoulish treasures. monsters are around you--you just have as a sign of good triumphing over evil. Watson Hall, located on West 115th to find them before they find you. [End The buildings surrounding the church also offer monstrous rewards to those with patience, luck, and an eagle eye. The diocesan house, located centrally on the Cathedral's Close, has some of the most impressive gothic figures on the Upper West Side. Perched high above the hands of humans, countless diocesan demons peer with stone eyes down on unsuspecting passersby. But the cathedral itself is the lair of St. John's most captivating creatures. Located directly behind the high altar, rows of monsterly figurines are carved into pillars. Further exploration reveals that on the pulpit, located in the center of the nave, there are signs of ghastly gryphons (as well as a curious sheep-like creature with wings). Each pew is lined with carved heads, which act as arm rests