My apartment overlooks Broadway, the longest street in Manhattan, and if I move to one side of my window — and particularly if I hang my head out — I can see Grace Church, on the east side of Broadway between 10 th and 11 th Streets, right where Broadway curves for its long straight plunge downtown. Grace Church was built in the 1840s based on a design by James Renwick (1818–1895). Renwick was educated as a structural engineer rather than an architect. A competition was held in 1843 to design a new church; Renwick studied European gothic churches, submitted a design, and won. He later went on to design the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington DC and St. Patrick's Cathedral. I recently acquired a book about the street over which I live entitled Broadway: The Grand Canyon of American Business (Broadway Association, 1926), and by "acquired" I mean "found." Sometimes when New Yorkers want to get rid of something, they don't dispose of it properly but instead put
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