A somewhat momentous occasion in my family occurred this past weekend, as five years after moving into an apartment in northern Manhattan which served as a sort of “home away from home” in NYC, my parents moved their stuff out of there and returned permanently to Newington. The lease on the New York apartment expired today.

Mind you, the house in Newington has remained my parents’ primary “home” throughout the last five years, so they’re not really “moving” per se. They’re more “consolidating,” if you will. :) They got the New York apartment — the “Dolyan Heights,” we called it, or just “the Dolyan” — while my mom was in art school part-time at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, so she’d have a place to stay while in the city and an art studio to work on her printmaking. (She was there on 9/11, barely a month after they got the place. Luckily, the apartment is about as far away from the World Trade Center as you can get while still in Manhattan.) After she graduated from Pratt in 2003, the Dolyan allowed my mom to maintain a foothold in the City, which was essential for various art shows, teaching jobs, and so forth.

My dad also spent a fair amount of time in the Dolyan, as did I, whenever I happened to be in New York. Indeed, in 2003, after graduating college, I lived there for several months while working in Tribeca. I never really thought about how far away the Hudson Heights region (between Washington Heights and Inwood) is from Tribeca until the Blackout of 2003 struck, and I suddenly had to figure out how to get from one tip of Manhattan to the other (a distance of about 10 miles) with no subways running, no ATMs working and a dollar of cash in my pocket. :) Anyway, the Dolyan was my home during the blackout, and it was also home base for Becky, Shannon, Adrienne and me during one of the funnest weekends ever. I have lots of happy memories of that place.

Alas, keeping the apartment was no longer practical for my parents, so they have finally bid farewell to the Dolyan. Here’s the final picture of the apartment, looking rather barren after my parents have hauled all their stuff into a rental van for the drive back to Newington:

To the next renters of Apartment 2K at 802 West 190th Street, if you’re reading this: I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Here are a few photo galleries featuring pictures of the Dolyan:

Our new apartment in northern Manhattan, Aug. 1 & 5, 2001

New Year’s in New York City, Dec. 30, 2001-Jan. 1, 2002

Becky visits CT & NYC, May 31-June 3, 2002 (scroll down; Dolyan pics at the very bottom)

Up on the roof, NYC apartment, July 1-14, 2003

NYC weekend with Becky, Shannon & Adrienne, June 27-30, 2003

The Great Northeast Blackout, August 14, 2003 (not actually a photo gallery, but a blog post with lots of photos and links to even more)

And, last but not least, here’s an aerial view of the neighborhood. :)