The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The world-famous New York City Marathon was almost sixty years in the future on May 6, 1911, when a very different marathon was run from the Bronx to City Hall. The victor of this modified 12-mile race was a newcomer to the streets of New York. Louis Tewanima was born on a Hopi Indian reservation… Read More
I’m an unabashed junkie of the sci-fi TV series ‘Fringe’, and the writers (or at one of them) seems to be a fan of New York history. One of the conceits of the series involves an alternate universe with things are just slightly different from ours. Most notably, the World Trade Center was never attacked.… Read More
Above: Man O’ War, racing at Belmont, where one of the world’s greatest thoroughbreds cemented his reputation. The horse was actually owned by the son of Belmont Park namesake August Belmont. (NYPL) The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday: two minutes of race and a day of fanciful hats, mint juleps and fanning oneself with a… Read More
Almost finished: Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine (courtesy NYPL) The Empire State Building was officially opened in a grand ribbon cutting ceremony 80 years ago yesterday, essentially ending the quest for New York’s tallest building until the World Trade Center came along in 1972.
PODCAST Sick of Donald Trump yet? (Probably.) Figured him out yet? Is he a financial wizard, reality sideshow, or political distraction? Or all of the above? The solution may be contained in the roots of his fortune — a saga that stretches back to the 1880s and begins with a 16-year-old boy named Drumpf who… Read More
I’m putting together a special edition solo podcast to be released tomorrow morning, featuring a very timely subject. In the meantime, here’s a reprint of an article originally posted April 3, 2009, on one of the places that will be mentioned in the show. It’s like that: Rap pioneers and proud sons of Queens NAME… Read More
New Yorkers have been borrowing things from Paris for decades — the fashion, the architecture, the people. And, one hundred years ago today, the city paid homage to Paris’ naughtiest hideaway with the opening of the Folies Bergere (206-14 West 46th Street) on April 27, 1911, a dinner-theater extravaganza that Irving Berlin once proclaimed was… Read More
If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “You know, that Robert Moses, I wish he were even more larger-than-life,” then your wish may be granted this Wednesday, April 27, when the Artists Playground Theatre launches into a staged reading of Robert Moses “three-act, historical fantasy” titled “World of Tomorrow.“ On top of more traditional dramatic moments recounting… Read More
What you think about when you think about the South Bronx: the Morrisania estate built by Gouverneur Morris. (NYPL) NAME THAT NEIGHBORHOOD Some New York neighborhoods are simply named for their location on a map (East Village, Midtown). Others are given prefabricated designations (SoHo, DUMBO). But a few retain names that link them intimately with… Read More
Throngs gather in Union Square in support of the Union cause, April 20, 1861. Just in case you’re slightly confused by the placement, the crowd is standing on Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South) facing into the east side of the park; the Washington equestrian statue once stood at the southeast corner. Look here for comparison.… Read More
From H.S. Tanner’s ‘The American Traveller; or Guide Through the United States’, 1836 (book published book 1840) Stuyvesant Street is mentioned as one of the few streets in New York that was allowed to break the grid, and its diagonal path between Second and Third avenues is a reminder of the original farm grid of… Read More
The simplicity of the New York grid system, seen overhead in a 1939 classic photo by Margaret Bourke-White. PODCAST The Commissioners Plan of 1811 How did Manhattan get its orderly rows of numbered streets and avenues? In the early 19th century, New York was growing rapidly, but the new development was confined on an island,… Read More
In honor of tomorrow’s cartographic-flavored podcast, I present to you a classic clip which begins in that most mysterious of Manhattan locations. Well, at least according to Kramer*: *If this blew his mind, imagine had he stumbled upon the intersection of 4th Street and 10th Street, two streets that logically should never cross paths.
I love this picture. There are so few century-old images of actual saloons that look like places you’d actually want to go into. This image, from 1905, of a handsome bar and its attentive staff was taken in College Point, Queens. Notice the beautiful cash register, the deer head overlooking any patrons and the food… Read More
Today is a day of big historical remembrances, from the 150th anniversary of the first battle of the Civil War to the 50th anniversary of man’s first entry into space. But to me, April 12th will always be the day that William ‘Boss’ Tweed died in his cell at the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878,… Read More