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Morton Street News June 2008 pdf
Morton Street News March 2008
Morton Street News December 2007
Morton Street News June 2007
Morton Street News March 2007
Morton Street News December 2006
Morton Street News September 2006
Morton Street News March 2006
Morton Street Block Association
Post Office Box 20136
West Village Station
New York, NY 10014-0709
(212) 924-5053
E-mail: mtphil@bellatlantic.net
 Graceful Morton Street in the early part of the 20th century.
"The Morton Street Block Association is an organization of neighbors who are dedicated to the improvement of the general community and of their neighborhood. The Association is organized and operated exclusively for charitable and educational purposes.” [From the Preamble to the By-Laws of the Morton Street Block Association.]
Our active membership rolls are open to anyone who resides or owns property on Morton St. between Hudson St. and Bleecker St. Tax-deductible dues are collected annually in the following categories: $10 for a Household. Membership, $50 for a Building Owner, $25 for a Sustaining Membership, $50 for a Friend of Morton Street.
The members meet at 6:30 P.M. on the second Monday of every month from September through June in the Community Room of the Manhattan Developmental Center, 75 Morton St.
Our Executive Board consists of four members: a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. These officers are elected at the November meeting for a one-year term.
Seven standing committees meet on an irregular basis, joining the Executive Board in performing the work that is outlined in the Preamble above. These are the Bar/Restaurant Relations, Beautification, Communications, Merchant Relations, Noise, Sanitation, and Traffic & Parking Committees.
Every year on a Saturday in late Spring we close the Hudson-to-Bedford block for our annual White Elephant Sale, a prime source of revenue for the activities of the Association.
And what are those activities?
The most visible activity is the beautification of our two blocks. We now have 44 splendid trees, each with its handsome tree guard surrounding a planted area that is brilliant with daffodils and tulips in the spring and, in summer, with impatiens and other flowering annuals. Luxurious dark green ivy fills the tree pits all year long. Our street – along with neighboring Barrow St. – was picked by the students of the City-as-School Grow NYC Project for a 2003 study of street trees.
We publish the highly-regarded 6 page Morton Street News on a quarterly basis; issues are distributed every March, June, September and December.
A glance at the agendas of our monthly meetings will show the extent of our other concerns. These include: Department of Sanitation trash receptacles, Bishop’s Crook street lamps, a policy regarding the placement of memorial plaques in our tree pits, the noise from a new restaurant’s autostatic precipitator, progress on the removal of violations from another new restaurant’s roof and façade, the establishment of a Pets Committee, celebration of our tenth anniversary, the status of an application for a liquor license for a proposed Disco on Hudson St., graffiti removal, the activities of actor and landscape-architect members, participation in a movement to regulate rooftop cafes, donations/dues to several community-wide organizations.
Is Morton Street the most beautiful street in Greenwich Village?
We like to think so.
JACOB MORTON -- Militia General who commanded the first division of the New York Militia for 20 years in the early 19th Century — Morton was also Master of St. John's Church in Lower Manhattan and Grand Master of the New York State Masons.
 The home of
General Morton.
Jacob Morton retrieved the Altar Bible from St. John's Church on President George Washington's Inauguration Day (April 30th, 1789) as no bible was present at Federal Hall. George Washington placed his right hand on that bible to take the Presidential Oath of Office. Since that time Harding, Eisenhower, Carter and Bush, Sr. used the Bible at their inaugurations.
Morton Street in Greenwich Village is named for General Morton.
St. John's Lodge No.1.A.Y.M., Free and Accepted- Masons, the oldest Lodge in New York State is the caretaker of the Washington Inaugural Bible, on which the first President took his oath of Office in New York City. The Bible is a King James version, printed in London in 1767. It was presented to St. John's Lodge by Jonathan Hampton on November 28th, 1770, the night he became Master of the Lodge.
The popular story is that no Bible had been in place at Federal Hall on Washington's Inauguration Day, April 30th, 1789 and that Jacob Morton, Master of St. John's Church, retrieved the Altar Bible of St. John's from the Lodge Rooms located at "the old Coffee House" on Wall Street. George Washington placed his right hand on Chapters 49 and 50 of Genesis, "Jacob calleth his sons together to bless them and the mourning for Jacob" and took his oath of office administered by New York State Chancellor Robert R. Livingston. When the oath was completed Washington added the phrase, "I swear, so help me God", and bending forward, kissed the open book.
The Bible has been displayed at such public occasions as the funeral processions of Presidents George Washington, Andrew Jackson and Zachery Taylor, the Inaugurations of Presidents Warren G. Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George Bush, the dedication of the Washington Monument, the centennials of the cornerstone laying of the White House and Capitol, and the launching of the aircraft carrier, George Washington.
When not in use or traveling, the Washington Inaugural Bible is on display at Federal Hall, Wall Street, New York.
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