History in the Making 2/3: Bundle Day Edition

Bundle Day was an organized used-clothing drive, mounted in February 1915 by the city in association with New York’s elite families (the Astors, Vanderbilts, Cooper Hewitts, among others). “Every railroad station in the city will be a receiving point for bundles bearing … tags or the bundles may be left at police stations, public schools and express offices.”  From there the clothes were sent to ‘Bundle Day Headquarters’ — pictured above — at 210 Fifth Avenue, across the street from Madison Square Park.

Below: Ladies mending donated clothes at Bundle Day Headquarters

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There’s still some work to be done on the blog here so thank you for your patience as I migrate over various features over to this new blog.  Hopefully we will be completely up and running by the end of the month.  (Indexing some of the back-catalog posts may take a bit longer…)

And now, some links of interest:

Music To My Ears:  Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater — currently the property of Long Island University and situated across the street from Junior’s Restaurant — will be transformed into new music venue. [Gothamist]

Hustling: A cinematic vision of Eighth Avenue circa 1975. [Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York]

Exclusive Living: There’s a private island home off the coast of New York City.  [Scouting NY]

Top of the World: One Times Square — one of the most transformed Gilded Age buildings in the city. [Daytonian In Manhattan]

Very Suite:  What treasures await inside the archives of the Waldorf-Astoria? [Atlas Obscura]

Bad Bridge: The Brooklyn Historical Society uncovers a promotional map from 1939 extolling the virtues of a Robert Moses pet project — the Brooklyn-Battery Bridge. [BHS]

Disturbing Parallels: A 7-alarm fire which took place on the Williamsburg waterfront appears strangely similar to a fire which took place — almost on the exact same block — back in 1912. [Bowery Boys]