Whether you’re baking, wrapping presents or just staring in wonder at your Christmas tree decorations, take a break from the Christmas music and dive into these holiday themed podcasts from the Bowery Boys. Celebrating many aspects of New York City during the holiday season — from Rockefeller Center, Dyker Heights and beyond….
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has a surprisingly dramatic history.
There’s a special kind of magic to Christmas in New York City — from Rockefeller Centerto the fanciful holiday displays in department store windows.
But in the past three decades, a new holiday tradition has grown in popularity and in a surprising quarter — the quiet residential neighborhood of Dyker Heights in Brooklyn which becomes Christmas Central for the borough.
The Rockettes are America’s best known dance troupe — and a staple of the holiday season — but you may not know the origin of this iconic New York City symbol. For one, they’re not even from the Big Apple!
Discover the place where Clement Clarke Moore wrote “A Visit to St. Nicholas/Twas the Night Before Christmas” and how his home gave rise to the neighborhood of Chelsea:
PLUS one for Hanukkah….
The Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the most beautifully restored places in the United States, a testament to the value of preserving history when it seems all is lost to ruin.
… and New Year’s Eve! And the Chinese New Year.
The ultimate history of New Year’s celebrations in New York City — from Times Square to Chinatown.
And now add these shows from The Gilded Gentleman to the list:
A festive episode tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th century New York City history, plus a very special look at Charles Dickens’s beloved work, “A Christmas Carol”.
Carl and his vintage cocktail event curator Don Spiro take a look at the myths and magic of champagne, the world’s most elegant drink.
This year it’s going to be a very merry holiday season in the podcasting world — courtesyThe Gilded Gentleman, the Bowery Boys spin-off podcast hosted by Carl Raymond.
Through the month of December, The Gilded Gentleman will feature brand new, holiday-themed shows with special guests. These episodes are perfect for getting you in the seasonal spirit, whether you’re wrapping presents, baking cookies or just enjoying some eggnog or champagne (which, it turns out, is the subject of an entire show!)
So pull on a woolly sweater and join The Gilded Gentleman to launch the holiday season. Now available on your favorite podcast player.
Here’s a sneak preview of the entire festive month:
Christmas in Old New York and A Chat with Charles Dickens — OUT NOW
A special festive double episode tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th-century New York City history and a very special look at Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol.
Licensed New York City tour guide and speaker Jeff Dobbins joins Carl for a look at the city’s holiday traditions dating back to the early Dutch days of New Amsterdam up to the Gilded Age and the early 20th century.
And then Carl welcomes actor John Kevin Jones who has been performing an annual one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, now in its 10th season. Kevin discusses the origins of Dickens’ famous story and how he adapted it for the stage.
Tasting Stars: The Sparkling History of Champagne — December 13
Champagne is unquestionably the world’s most glamorous drink and has been used for centuries to celebrate everything from weddings and birthdays to royal coronations. But there’s so much more to understanding champagne than just enjoying the bubbles and the fizz.
Join Carl and guest Don Spiro as they discuss champagne history,
The Delmonico Way: A Conversation with Max Tucci — December 20
A very special episode in which Max Tucci, grandson of Oscar Tucci who owned Delmonico’s from the 1920’s through the 1970’s, discusses food, family and history of his family’s iconic New York institution.
And start your 2023 right with an extra-special show arriving in the new year:
In 1890 the Danish-American journalist Jacob Riis turned his eye-opening reporting and lecture series into a ground-breaking book called How The Other Half Lives, a best seller which awoke Americans to the plight of the poor and laid the groundwork for the Progressive Era.
Bandits Roost, taken by Jacob Riis (and associates, 1888
Riis exposed more than a humanitarian crisis. He laid bare the city’s complacent Gilded Age divide in revolutionary ways, most notably with the use of a new tool — documentary photography.
For our 400th episode, following our tradition of exploring the legacies of urban planners in past centennial shows (#100 Robert Moses, #200Jane Jacobs, #300Andrew Haswell Green), we finally look at the life of the crusading police reporter and social reformer who forced upper and middle class New Yorker to examine the living conditions within the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
Riis was himself an immigrant who spent his first years in the United States drifting from place to place, living on the street, his only companion a faithful dog. Journalism quite literally saved Riis, providing him with both a stable living and a purpose, especially after he became a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877.
But it was his fascination with visual media — magic lantern shows and later flash photography — which set him apart from other crusading writers of the period like Nellie Bly (who we only wish had a camera with her!)
Portrait of Jacob A. Riis, David Garber Photos, Broadway
Jacob Riis’ culminating work How The Other Half Lives made him one of America’s most famous writers — his friend Theodore Roosevelt called Riss “the model American citizen” — but the book has an imperfect legacy today, with Riis’ broad characterizations of the people he was writing about undercutting the book’s noble purposes.
LISTEN NOW: JACOB RIIS AND ‘THE OTHER HALF’ OF GILDED AGE NEW YORK
FURTHER READING
The Battle with the Slum / Jacob Riis The Children of the Poor / Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives / Jacob Riis The Making Of An American / Jacob Riis
The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America / Tom Buk-Swienty Jacob A. Riis and the American City / James B. Lane Jacob Riis: Reporter and Reformer / Janet B. Pascal Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York / Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom
The best gifts in the world are books and history lovers, in particular, want nothing more than more books than they possibly have time to read. (My own library and its aching shelves are witness to this.)
Here are some of my favorite books of 2022 (with a couple award-winners published in 2021), stories which will invite you into new ways of loving history. They’d all look lovely wrapped in colorful paper or tastefully tucked in somebody’s stocking.
Oh, well, just get them for yourself. You deserve it!
The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator Rich Cohen
From my July review: Playboy Magazine called Herb Cohen “the world’s greatest negotiator” and whether or not that was true, Cohen could convince you that it most certainly was.
But The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator, written by acclaimed author and journalist Rich Cohen, is not your ordinary profile. For one, Rich is Herbie’s son.
This is no mere ode to a no-nonsense, wise-cracking father. Cohen has managed to craft an absolutely perfect character profile, keeping Herbie’s grounded personality front and center in a hilarious collection of anecdotes, recollections and maybe one or two tall tales (in the way that we share tall tales about ourselves).
Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made A President Jonathan Darman
If things had gone even slightly different from the events described in Darman’s excellent biography on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our world would be fundamentally different.
Becoming FDR focuses mostly on Roosevelt in the years following his diagnosis with infantile paralysis, or polio. Who would have looked at this young, failed politician — now forever paralyzed — and seen a world leader in the making?
By focusing so pointedly on the life of young Roosevelt, we see a man shattered and rebuilt by circumstance. With the support of a social and political inner circle, Roosevelt learned to both conceal his condition while also recognizing his role in bringing awareness to others struggling with the disease.
The result was an unimaginable political triumph. With his first major reappearance at the 1924 Democratic National Convention — in support of New York governor Al Smith — Roosevelt had become both spectacle and savior.
Cuba: An American History Ada Ferrer
From my July review: In the beautifully told Cuba: An American History, Ada Ferrer manages a challenging task of epic narrative. Not only is her Pulitzer Prize-winning book an artfully fluid retelling of the history of Cuba, it’s also a sharp, insightful story of the love-hate relationship between the island country and its neighbor to the north.
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine Janice P. Nimura
From my review this year: In 1857 Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell threw open the doors to the New York Infirmary for Women and Children at 58 Bleecker Street, revolutionary as being the first hospital in the world to employ an all-female staff.
In this excellent biography Nimura illuminates the lives of two important women whose rich personal adventures have gotten lost in the shadow of their legacies.
Fifth Avenue: From Washington Square to Marcus Garvey Park William J. Hennessey
“Today Fifth Avenue is a street of varied and overlapping personalities,” writes William J. Hennessey to his new, indispensible guide to one of New York’s most famous streets, “a coveted residential address, a prestigious business location, a prime shopping avenue and a home for many of the city’s most notable churches and civic landmarks.”
This guide provides a perfect adventure for urban explorers with good walking shoes. Lovely maps and loads of photographs guide you through the avenue’s most interesting landmarks — from bohemian treasures and early townhouses around Washington Square Park to the jewels of Harlem.
The Fulton Fish Market: A History Jonathan H. Rees
Manhattan’s waterfront fundamentally changed in 2005 when the Fulton Fish Market, the wholesale anchor of lower Manhattan, moved to its new Hunts Point facility in the Bronx. The market, which dates back to 1822, provided New Yorkers thousands of jobs and the country at large with a vital food source.
Rees’s fun and fascinating history finds the market at the core of New York City history, fueling the city’s growth by providing the region’s most reliable food source — oysters, salmon, cod and (eventually) more particular delicacies like green turtle and terrapin.
This book also provides a look into the changes of the South Street Seaport — including the FDR Drive — colliding with major changes to the wholesale food industry overall. The world Rees describes feels almost alien to the sleek, tourist-friendly Seaport of today.
The New Yorkers 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years and the Untold Biography of the World’s Greatest City Sam Roberts
The New York Times’ Sam Roberts is used to sizing up the history of the city in statistics (101 Objects, 27 Buildings) and he takes that same bite-sized approach in crafting the city’s history through the tales of 31 New Yorkers.
Although Roberts’ approach is to focus on figures “you’ve never heard of,” in fact you probably have heard of some if you’ve listened to our podcast in recent years. (Andrew Haswell Green, Audrey Munson, Levi Weeks, Philip A. Payton Jr and Clara Lemlich all make appearances.)
But that only makes The New Yorkers the perfect gift for history lovers. The joy of experiencing these lives in such a beautifully written tribute will reinvent everything you know about them — and finding the common threads in their lives will ensure they’ve never forgotten.
The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Sold the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life A.J. Jacobs
In the most entertainingly interactive book — or could you call it a workbook? — of the year, Jacobs (The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically) turns his daredevil focus to the world of puzzles — their history, their fundamentals, damnable addictive nature.
These magical games of logic range from jigsaw puzzles to the Rubik’s Cube, from puzzles that are quite ancient (cyphers and mazes) to puzzles which reflect the obsessions of modern newspaper readers the world over (crosswords, Sudoku and other grid puzzles).
Jacobs becomes a puzzle expert himself and invites you to join along. (Literally. The book is filled with both new and historical puzzles. In fact the book itself, like any great work of mischief, is a puzzle.) Along the way you’ll meet master puzzlers, both modern and classic, men like Sam Loyd, the Gilded Age puzzle author and charlatan renown for a ‘puzzle hoax’ which surely drove hundreds of people mad.
Sailor Twain Or: The Mermaid in the Hudson, 10th Anniversary Edition Mark Siegel
From my review of the original edition: Something lurks in the waters of the Hudson River in Mark Siegel’s moody new graphic novel. Sailor Twain, shaded darkly and finely formed out of moody atmosphere, is an ethereal rumination on American urban legend, borrowing from history to create myth.
The Hudson River, as illustrated by Siegal, seems like the end of the earth, a world so choked in mist that it feels like the artist’s ink will rub off on your fingers. Siegal presents a lush, romantic view of historical New York, at equal points comic, erotic and melancholy. Some faces are cartoonish, others delicately real. The art holds the mood as the story unfurls, from Gothic romance to horror parable.
The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism Bill Schaffer
If streaming television were around in the 1890s, then the events described in The Scandalous Hamilton would have made a blockbuster true-crime mini series.
In this crackling, briskly intense crime drama, Schaffer recounts a wicked and lustful melodrama that captivated Americans during the Gilded Age, involving a descendent of Alexander Hamilton and his mysterious new wife. (To say any more would ruin the story’s numerous twists.) With its focus on the breathless reporting of the day, you can almost smell the wet ink hot off the press.
The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler
Brooklyn was once known as the “City of Churches,” which was descriptive of the extraordinary number of Protestant congregations in the 19th century. But the nickname was also shade against Manhattan, deemed by conservative Brooklynites as a city of sin and corruption.
In Blumin and Altschuler’s refreshing history of Brooklyn, city leaders “who wished to maintain their domestic world as a respectable — even a cleansing — retreat from the big city” celebrated their devout, conservative nature. But this emphasis on a spiritual community also made Brooklyn central to the abolition movement and thus, in its own way, radical.
Rise and Fall is a fascinating story that should inspire a stroll through Brooklyn Heights on a hunt for the borough’s most historic houses of worship.
The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison Hugh Ryan
You heard Ryan this year on our podcast Jefferson Market and the Women’s House of Detention and the spirit and passion he brought to our show is in full display in this searing and deeply researched investigation into the lives of those who were incarcerated within this unusual Greenwich Village prison.
When the Women’s House of Detention opened in 1931 — sometimes referred to as the world’s only Art Deco prison — it was meant to improve the conditions of women who were held there. But the dank and inadequate containment soon became symbol of abuse and injustice.
But this is more than a tale of a disreputable institution; this is the story of people who often incarcerated for the crime of being themselves. And it creates, in a series of raw and revealing anecdotes, a remarkable portrait of Village life in the mid 20th century.
In this special episode, we look at the history of New York City as seen through one corner of the Lower East Side. Created by the intersections of several streets, this is a place that has gone by many names — in the past and even today.
At its center is Seward Park, the first municipal playground in the United States, and Straus Square, named for Nathan Straus, philanthropist and co-owner (with his brother Isidor) of Macy’s department store.
Straus Square — with the 1953 war memorial and the Forward Building looking down from above.
Those looking for delicious food may go to Little Fuzhou, an eastern extension of Chinatown located along East Broadway. Trendy artists and influencers instead spend their weekends in Dimes Square, just one block (and seemingly one world) away.
The intersection of Division and Canal, with the glamorous Nine Orchard (aka the old Jarmulowsky Bank Building). Photo by Greg Young
But throughout New York’s history, people have come here for community, shared values and even intellectual enlightenment.
As Rutgers Square, this area became a small portion of a large German immigrant community called Kleindeutschland. In an inconceivable historical moment, a statue was almost raised here — to William ‘Boss’ Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall.
By the late 19th century, this place was the center for American Jewish culture, with a line of cafes serving religious thinkers, political activist and stars of the Yiddish stage.
Tribute to the old tenement blocks in a Seward Park mosaic.
East Broadway became a Yiddish publishers’ row, hosting newspapers and magazines from a host of perspectives.
In 1912 the Jewish Daily Forward, the nation’s most well-known Yiddish paper, built “the Lower East Side’s first skyscraper,” a landmarked building that was once the beating heart of the neighborhood. The paper’s long-running column “A Bintel Brief” illuminated the everyday stories of people in the neighborhood.
A hidden 1920s cinema treasure. Photo by Greg Young
In the 20th century it became the southern edge of Loisaida, the Puerto Rican Lower East Side.And thanks to a mid-century housing boom (fueled partially by the labor unions firmly rooted to this place), some also called it Cooperative Village, with hundreds of old, deteriorating tenements replaced with new high rises.
But we call it our old home. For it was here — call it what you will — that the Bowery Boys Podcast was created 15 years ago this year.
From the window of Wu’s Wonton King, the former location of the Garden Cafeteria. Photo by Greg Young
And so to wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration — and to set up our big 400th episode — we take a fond look at the section of New York City which taught us to love local history.
PLUS: We’re join by staff members of the Forward, celebrating its 125th year of publication. Forward archivist Chana Pollack joins us along with Ginna Greenand Lynn Harris, hosts of the the newspaper column-turned-podcast version A Bintel Brief.
LISTEN NOW: THE CHANGING LOWER EAST SIDE
Photograph by Lewis Hine, taken March 1913. The caption: “Waiting for the “Forwards” – Jewish paper – at 1 A.M. Group includes boys 10 years old. Taken on steps of the Forward Building at 1:15 A.M. just as the papers were being issued.”
Listen to A Bintel Brief on the same podcast players where you found our show. And if you have a quandary for Ginna and Lynn, email them at bintel@forward.com or leave a voice message at (201) 540-9728
Here are a few of our favorite episodes of A Bintel Brief:
Necktie workshop in a Division Street tenement, taken by Jacob Riis, 1889. (Library of Congress)A model of a playground used in the design of Seward Park. (Library of Congress)A rather unrecognizable view of Seward Park, taken between 1900 and 1910. (Library of Congress)Seward Park and the new library (NYPL)Lawn-tennis and volley-ball games as played by girls in the William H. Seward Park, 1905 clipping (Courtesy New York Public Library)Just a’swingin’ in Seward Park, between 1910 and ca. 1915, Library of Congressbetween 1910 and ca. 1915, Library of CongressSeward Park with the Forward Building, taken November 9, 1940 (Dept of Records)Overhead view of the district, 1940 (NYC Dept of Records)
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this show on Seward Park, head over to one of these older podcast to follow the various histories briefly mentioned this week:
What happens when P. T. Barnum, America’s savviest supplier of both humbug and hoax, decides that it is time to go legit? The result is one of the greatest concert tours in American history.
The Gilded Gentleman hosts this special presentation from the Bowery Boys podcast, recorded in 2020. Listen to it here or subscribe to The Gilded Gentleman on your favorite podcast player:
If you’ve seen the film musical The Greatest Showman, you’ve been introduced to Jenny Lind, the opera superstar dubbed the Swedish Nightingale. And you also know that Barnum, taken with the Swedish songstress, brings her to New York to begin a heavily promoted American debut.
But the film sidesteps many of the more fascinating details. Lind was greeted like a queen and rock star when she arrived at the Canal Street dock despite most New Yorkers having never heard her sing.
Jenny Lind / New York Public Library Digital Collection
Her stage was Castle Garden, the former fort turned performance venue that sat in New York harbor, connected to the Battery by a small bridge.
The concert proved legendary. And Lind proved herself an enterprising businesswoman, bending even the will of a profiteer like Barnum. Her financial arrangement for the tour would influence 170 years of musical performances and cement her reputation as one of the greatest vocalists of the 19th century.
LISTEN NOW — JENNY LIND AT CASTLE GARDEN
The concert as depicted in a lithograph by Nathaniel Currier/New York Public Library
New York Public Library Digital Collection
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Have you listened to The Gilded Gentleman’s recent episode on the story of Emily Post. No? Where are your manners?!
In July of 1922, an unassuming book with a rich blue cover landed on bookstore shelves. Titled simply Etiquette by a moderately successful writer named Emily Post, the book went on to become a cornerstone of America’s social fabric and a true cultural cornerstone.
Now, 100 years later, Emily’s original book has been entirely rewritten by her great-great-grandchildren for a new generation while maintaining the spirit and philosophy of Emily Post’s original intentions.
Join The Gilded Gentleman for this unique look at just who Emily Post was, why she chose to write the book at all and how it has evolved — and yet in some ways — stayed the same since it was first published.
Carl will be joined by Lizzie Post, Emily Post’s great-great-granddaughter and co-author of the new edition, to take a look at Emily and etiquette, then and now.
Listen today and subscribe to The Gilded Gentleman Podcast to catch up on all his shows.
Beware! The ghosts and goblins of the Hudson River Valley have been awakened from their dark slumber.
In this year’s annual celebration of New York urban legends and folktales, we journey up the Hudson River to explore the region’s spookiest stories.
Tales of mystery and the supernatural have possessed the villages and towns of the Hudson River Valley since ancient times, when native tribes whispered of strange places and odd islands one simply didn’t visit.
When Dutch settlers arrived in the 17th century, they brought their own mythology, populating the dark mountains with evil, mischievous creatures. These stories have carried over into modern times and continue to fascinate (and terrify) the residents of this beautiful area of New York State.
The Hudson Highlands, a mountainous range which vexed early settlers and inspired a host of strange stories.
Greg and Tom put on their most menacing and spooky voices to tell several stories of the region including:
— A ghost-filled mansion in Nyack, New York that holds a unique place among all American supernatural sites. For the house is legally haunted.
— The unsettling tale behind those mysterious ruins known as Bannerman Castle
— A ghastly death in the Colonial-era Catskills leads to a disturbing life sentence and the appearance of several hellish creatures
— The secrets of Kingston’s Old Dutch Church and an entity which may trapped beneath its holy steeple
PLUS: Who is the Heer of Dunderberg? And why should you run shrieking in fright if you happen to see him on a cold, stormy evening?
LISTEN NOW: GHOST STORIES OF THE HUDSON RIVER
Cheryl Crow and Bat Damon wishes you a happy Halloween!
In Superman #42 the Man of Steel and Lois Lane investigate various urban legends in the Hudson River Valley.
Image courtesy Green-Wood CemeteryPhotos by Greg YoungPhotos by Greg YoungBannerman Castle, photo by Greg Young
Kington’s Old Dutch Church:
FURTHER LISTENING
Catch up on past ghost story podcasts here and then take a trip to the Hudson River Valley (under less spooky circumstances) by re-visiting our trilogy from earlier this year.
The Electoral Commission held a secret session in the Supreme Court to resolve the contested 1876 presidential election on February 1877. (From the Everrett Collection)
You may have heard about the messy, chaotic and truly horrible presidential election of 1876, pitting Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B Hayes. But did you know that New York City plays a huge role in this moment in American history?
Tilden, the governor of New York, was a political superstar, a reformer famous for taking down Boss Tweed and the corrupt machinations of Tammany Hall. From his home in Gramercy Park, the extremely wealthy governor could kept himself updated on the election by a personal telegraph line.
In a way, the presidential election came to him — or at least to his neighborhood. The Democratic national headquarters sat only a few blocks south, while the Republican national headquarters made the Fifth Avenue Hotel (off Madison Square) its home.
The crowd in front of the New York office on the night of the Tilden-Hayes election, 1876 (NYPL)
All this would have made the 1876 national election somewhat unusual already — New York City seemed to be at the center of it — but the strange series of events spawned by a most contentious Election Day would send the entire country into pandemonium.
Not only was democracy itself on the line, but the fate of Reconstruction was also at stake. As were the rights of thousands of Black Southerners.
How did shadowy events which occurred at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in the early morning hours of November 8, 1876, change the course of American history? How did a flurry of telegrams and months of political chicanery cause an end to the country’s post-Civil War ambitions?
FEATURING: A visit to Tilden’s mansion on Gramercy Park, now the home of the National Arts Club!
Listen now: Samuel Tilden and the Presidential Election of 1876
By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 by Michael Fitzgibbon Holt Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 by William Rehnquist Contesting Commemoration: The 1876 Centennial, Independence Day, and the Reconstruction-Era South by Jack Noe Fraud of the Century by Roy Morris Jr. The Republic for Which It Stands – The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 by Richard White Rutherford B. Hayes by Hans L. Trefousse
On the 160th anniversary of the killing of Phillip Barton Key, I’m reposting this article from 2014 which originally ran on the 100th anniversary of Daniel Sickle’s death.
We don’t have large, parade-like funeral processions marching up the avenues as they once did during the Gilded Age and in the early years of the 20th century.
These events were times of public mourning and a bit of festivity. Most often they involved the passing of a well-connected political leader or a popular entertainers. They were somber and reverent affairs; afterwards the saloons along the side streets benefited graciously, tributes and toasts into all hours of the night.
Library of Congress
1914
On May 8, 1914, New Yorkers filled the streets — from Fifth Avenue up to St. Patrick’s Cathedral — to mourn the passing of Daniel E. Sickles, one of the city’s most heralded war veterans.
Having marshaled up volunteers in New York in the early days of the Civil War, Sickles distinguished himself as a bold and commanding general, gathering military promotions through sheer ambition. (He was one of the few commanders in Abraham Lincoln’s army without a West Point education.)
During the Battle of Gettysburg, Sickles was severely injured and had his right leg amputated. (Below: Sickles in 1862.)
He spent his years after the war polishing his war credentials and maneuvering from one political appointment to another. Sickles belatedly received the Medal of Honor and, situated from his home at 23 Fifth Avenue, was acclaimed in later life in one of New York’s greatest living veterans.
Sickles’ military career, however, was built as an exercise in reputation rehabilitation. When the war with the South arrived, he saw an opportunity to change the conversation about himself. His bravery in service to the Union, never questioned, served a dual purpose for Sickles. Today we might call this “re-branding.”
For in the years preceding the Civil War, the young politician was also known as a cold-blooded murderer who held a unique distinction in the history of legal proceedings.
From the New York Times, February 28, 1859
1859 In April of 1859, New York Congressman Daniel Sickles became the first person in history to ever be acquitted of a crime due to temporary insanity.
The crime in this case was the February murder of Philip Barton Key II, the son of Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the national anthem of the United States.
Their lives almost resemble an episode of House of Cards. Key had been having a very open affair with Sickles’ wife Teresa. (Pictured below)
Daniel, however, was something of an epic rake himself. With no thought to his own or his wife’s reputation, Sickles was once passionately obsessed with the New York prostitute Fanny White, going so far as to take her into the Albany assembly chamber for a tour. There were even rumors that some of Sickles’ campaign election costs were covered by White.
But Key was hardly a wallflower; the famous son was a charming widower who bewitched the women of Washington DC with his intelligence, elegance and wealth. He and Teresa met in 1857 and began their affair soon after, meeting often once a day and openly flirting with each other at a society balls. (Below: An illustration of Key which ran in Harper’s Weekly in 1859.)
When Sickles did finally discover the affair, he was distraught and sickened, before turning violently angry.
On February 27, 1859, Sickles approached Key in DC’s Lafayette Square — a short distance from the White House –and shot him in the groin.
“You villain, you have dishonored my house, and you must die!” Sickles reportedly said.
He shot Key again in the chest and would have shot him directly in the head had the gun not misfired.
Said the New York Times the following day, “The vulgar monotony of partisan passions and political squabbles has been terribly broken in upon to-day by an outburst of personal revenge, which has filled the city with horror and consternation.”
The condition of Sickles’ mental state during and following the murder would be closely dissected in court. A colorful swath of testimony described Sickle as everything from disturbingly serene to a raging lunatic.
According to authors Michael Lief and H. Mitchell Caldwell, “These conflicting stories may be exaggerations on the part of creative witnesses, or they may be evidence that Sickles was driven to the edge, past the breaking point, entirely out of his mind.”
One of the lawyers who helped craft the insanity defense was Edward M. Stanton, later to be Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War. Their defense of temporary insanity — never successfully tried in a U.S. court — was sprung upon the jury, nested within an extravagant bed of prose, classical quotations and moral quandary.
“It is folly to punish a man for what he cannot help doing?” asked associate defense attorney John Graham. Apparently so, it seems, for in April, a jury acquitted Sickles, taken with the plight of a man wronged by his unfaithful and deceitful wife. (His attorneys did a spectacular job of burying Sickle’s own unfaithfulness and deceit.)
Above: 23 Fifth Avenue, the home of Daniel Sickles and the location of his death on May 5th, 1914 (images courtesy New York Public Library)
1914 Fifty-five years later, Sickles’ many legitimate accomplishments (and, let’s be honest, his relentless self-promotion) assured that this unusual crime was rendered a footnote when he died on May 5.
His New York Times obituary is an extraordinary bit of word play: “Philip Barton Key … paid attention to Mrs. Sickles, and Sickles shot and killed Key on the street in Washington D.C. on February 27, 1859.”
The focus then turns on Sickles’ “gracious” forgiveness of his wife: “I am not aware of any statute or code of morals,” said Sickles to his critics, “which makes it infamous to forgive a woman….I shall strive to prove to all that an erring wife and mother may be forgiven and redeemed.”
In reality, the two never reconciled. Teresa died in 1867 at age 31, her reputation destroyed. A few years later, Sickles became the ambassador to Spain, returned to his legendary womanizing and eventually married a well-connected daughter of a Spanish official.
He spent his final years at his Fifth Avenue home nearly bankrupt, his only means of support coming from his children and his now-estranged second wife. “[S]everal attempts were made to seize the art treasures in his Fifth Avenue home because of debt,” noted the Times.
Below: Daniel Sickles at a 1913 Gettysburg reunion, accompanied by his live-in secretary Eleanora Wilmerdirg
In the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Jefferson Market Library, a branch of the New York Public Library, and a beautiful garden which offers a relaxing respite from the busy neighborhood.
But a prison once rose from this very spot — more than one in fact.
While there was indeed a market at Jefferson Market — dating back to the 1830s — this space is more notoriously known for America’s first night court (at the Jefferson Market Courthouse, site of today’s library) and the Women’s House of Detention, a facility which cast a gloom over the Village for over 40 years.
Almost immediately after the original courthouse (designed by Frederick Clarke Withers and Calvert Vaux) opened in 1877, it was quickly overburdened with people arrested in the Tenderloin district. By 1910 a women’s court opened here, and by the Jazz Age, the adjacent confinement was known as “the women’s jail.”
When the Women’s House of Detention opened in 1931 — sometimes referred to as the world’s only Art Deco prison — it was meant to improve the conditions for women who were held there. But the dank and inadequate containment soon became symbol of abuse and injustice.
In this special episode — recorded live at Caveat on the Lower East Side — Tom and Greg are joined by Hugh Ryan, author of The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison to explore the detention center’s place in both New York City history and LGBT history.
How did the “House of D” figure into the Stonewall Uprising of 1969? And what were the disturbing circumstances surrounding its eventual closure?
FEATURING: Stories of Mae West, Stanford White, Alva Belmont, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Angela Davis, Andrea Dworkin and — Tupac Shakur?
LISTEN NOW: THE HISTORY OF JEFFERSON MARKET AND THE WOMEN’S HOUSE OF DETENTION
Historic American Buildings Survey, Photocopy, c. 1880, Courtesy of New-York Historical Society, New. York Public LibraryThe courtroom and House of Detention, 1938, New York Public LibraryThe Women’s House of Detention. Courtesy the New York Daily News ArchivesMargot Gayle with an image of the building she would help save. New York Public Library Digital Collections
Photos of the current Jefferson Market Library
Photo by Greg YoungPhoto by Greg YoungPhoto by Greg Young
FURTHER LISTENING
The subjects of these episodes are featured on this week’s episode. So check them out after listening to the current show:
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are creators on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are several different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
Join Tom Meyers and Greg Young as they celebrate their 15th year of making the Bowery Boys Podcast with a special live podcast recording at Caveat on the Lower East Side.
Mark your calendar for Thursday, September 1, 2022 at 7pm.
Index cards. Levers and buttons. Wheels and wires and paper. Stone-gray mechanical boxes and intricate machines of gears and pulleys.
It was these things — and probably a lot of coffee — that kept New York City operating before the advent of computers. From the subway to the Wall Street trading floor, life functioned in America’s fastest city with the help of analog devices.
It’s a celebration of the thousands of workers in countless occupations who moved information before computers and smartphones changed everything. Jobs that have mostly become obsolete, along with the technologies which once seemed so indispensable — from the typewriter to the transistor radio.
An introductory display basically unpacks the functions of a modern cellphone, visualizing them into the everyday objects of the 20th century.
The vast exhibition inside explores a number of different industries and the technologies that kept them in operation. What’s truly startling is how all these devices — from the Linotype and teletype machines to even the bulky ticker tape devices — were once considered truly cutting edge.
What have we lost when we lose stuff like this? Most everything in this gallery is today had been replaced by computers. By phone apps even!
The Museum of the City of New York has graciously offered a 2-for-1 discount code for Bowery Boys listeners and readers. Get your tickets online and use code ANALOGCITYBB to get two-for-one admission.
Just a few months ago, most of the remaining phone booths were removed from the streets of New York City, oft neglected, a nostalgic victim of our increasing use of cellphones.
For almost a century public phones have connected regular New Yorkers with the world. Who doesn’t have fond memories of using a payphone with gum on the earpiece and extremely vulgar messages written on the box? Putting in quarters!
Well this news got us thinking about how the telephone has helped change New York overall.
Ever since Alexander Graham Bell brought his first model telephone to Manhattan 145 years ago, the telephone has helped us make plans, share urgent news, and has even allowed people to move away from each other – but still feel close.
This is a national story of course, one of patents and mergers, of Bell Telephone’s monopoly over the business for over 100 years. But it’s local too; the tales of sassy operators, big shiny Art Deco towers and the ever-changing New York phone number.
FEATURING The story of Antonio Meucci, the Italian immigrant who invented a version of the telephone …. before Bell.
PLUS: We let you in on a little secret. The classic New York City phone booth is not quite gone. We’ll tell you where to find one.
LISTEN NOW: NEW YORK CALLING
The Museum of the City of New York has graciously provided an offer code for Bowery Boys listeners and readers to visit their newest exhibition Analog City. For a 2-for-1 admission, use the discount code is ANALOGCITYBB when you buy your tickets online here. Offer good through December 31, 2022.
Some vintage educational films about ‘new’ telephone technology:
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to New York Calling: A History of the Telephone, go back to these prior Bowery Boys podcast with similar themes
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are creators on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are several different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
In today’s episode, Tom discusses the vast span of New York history with filmmakers and authors Ric Burns and James Sanders, creators of New York: A Documentary Film.
Tom, Ric and James discuss the 8-part documentary (which aired on PBS in installments in 1999, 2001 and 2003) and its newly updated companion book, “New York: An Illustrated History” (Knopf, 2021).
What were the guiding themes of telling New York’s story, the greatest events and characters, and the challenges Burns and Sanders faced as they covered 9/11 and, for the final installments, COVID and other current events?
LISTEN HERE: An Interview with Ric Burns and James Sanders
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are creators on Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are several different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
