I just discovered this site and was thrilled to see the Japanese Garden and comments. I grew up on West End Ave. and 99 St. and my sister and I had a “shortcut” way to get to school at 93rd and Amsterdam – through a passageway in an apartmentat 98th St., then through an alleyway behind the Riviera and Riverside theaters, where we always stopped to lokat the elevator that went up to the Japanese Garden, then on to Pomander Walk between 94th and 95th – an English-type alley with tiny houses. But the Japanese Garden was always the exotic lure. I’m sure I went to films there because I remember what fun it was to take an elevator to the theater. This was in the
early 1930s (I’m 86 now). The photo shown on the site must have been earlier, because it does not show the Riverside Theater at the corner of 96th and Broadway.
Eileen Lavine, on Sept. 1 at 2:45 p.m.
I just discovered this site and was thrilled to see the Japanese Garden and comments. I grew up on West End Ave. and 99 St. and my sister and I had a “shortcut” way to get to school at 93rd and Amsterdam – through a passageway in an apartmentat 98th St., then through an alleyway behind the Riviera and Riverside theaters, where we always stopped to lokat the elevator that went up to the Japanese Garden, then on to Pomander Walk between 94th and 95th – an English-type alley with tiny houses. But the Japanese Garden was always the exotic lure. I’m sure I went to films there because I remember what fun it was to take an elevator to the theater. This was in the early 1930s (I’m 86 now). The photo shown on the site must have been earlier, because it does not show the Riverside Theater at the corner of 96th and Broadway. Eileen Lavine, on Sept. 1 at 2:45 p.m.