September 9-10, 1963: Future member of the Velvet Underground John Cale, as well as a dozen other pianists of varying talents, took to the stage at the Pocket Theatre at 100 Third Avenue, to perform the 1893 piece Vexations by the French composer Erik Satie. Allegedly, according to Satie’s own wishes, the short piece was… Read More
Some great images from the Library of Congress, a wonderful resource for historical explorers. The links to the original photographs are under the individual photographs: February 1912 With the dark shadows of the Third Avenue elevated train to her right, a girl fights the wind to return home with a bundle of coats. These are… Read More
Above: the mangled remains of a flimsy fire escape which sent many Triangle Factory workers to their death A tragic marker in New York City history: the devastating fire that swept through the upper floors of the Asch Building in 1911, through the sweatshops of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, killing 146 people. Today, March 25th,… Read More
The very first headquarters for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue, was built in 1893, facing into the southeast corner of Madison Square Park. Within a few years, the insurance company would expand out — to fill the entire block, wiping away that darkened church to its right — then… Read More
High, high above Randall’s Island and the Triborough Bridge, 1949, photographer Yale Joel, courtesy Google Life Images“You can draw any kind of pictures you like on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra and Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metropolis you… Read More
Photo above: Robert Moses, October 1952 by Alfred Eisensteadt (Courtesy Google Life) PODCAST: EPISODE 100 We obviously had to spend our anniversary show with the Power Broker himself, everybody’s favorite Parks Commissioner — Robert Moses. A healthy debate about Moses will divide your friends, and we provide the resources to make your case for both… Read More
THE FINAL PART UPDATED BELOW – THE FUTURE CITYSee map below for all the locations mentioned in this story I’m splitting the second half of this series off into a separate posting for easier navigation. Please see the post below this one for the introduction and entries 1 through 50. ————————————————————————-PART SIX: SUBWAY CITY 51… Read More
PART FIVE UPDATED BELOW – CONSOLIDATED CITYSee map below for all the locations mentioned in this story One of the truly great podcast pleasures of the past two months has been the BBC’s A History of the World In 100 Objects, a daily chronological journey through human history via carefully selected items from the British… Read More
Forty years ago, March 6, 1970, a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street harboring members of the Weather Underground exploded from the accidental detonation of bombing materials being used by radical organization. Read more about it here. Super strange fact: At the time of the bombing, Dustin Hoffman lived right next door.
“Donovan’s Lane,” one of the many decrepit delights of the Five Points dark tenement world (from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper) It will come as no surprise to New York history junkies out there that our most popular podcast of all time is our introduction to that most hallowed place of scum and disease, crime and… Read More
Our annual October ghost stories podcasts are quite popular, probably because they cross over into a whole fanbase of ghost enthusiasts who aren’t particularly interested in New York. But hey, more the merrier! Here’s the second installment from 2008 and our second most popular podcast episode ever — Spooky Stories of Old New York. Featuring:… Read More
We’re privileged to have listeners in all over the country and in countries all over the globe. I imagine because of them, our packed podcast on the history of Rockefeller Center, a must-see stop for travelers, is our third most downloaded show. Find out the origins and secrets of JD Rockefeller’s risky midtown gambit, constructed… Read More
I’ve got something ambitious planned starting on Monday, March 8th, that will run all the way until March 19th, when we will launch our 100th Bowery Boys podcast. As I prepare for all that, I thought I’d re-present some of our most popular podcasts, culminating this Friday on our most popular podcast, in a fancy-schmancy,… Read More
FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER To get you in the mood for the weekend, on occasional Fridays we’ll be featuring an old New York nightlife haunt, from the dance halls of 19th Century Bowery, to the massive warehouse clubs of the mid-1990s. Past entries can be found here. LOCATION Reisenweber’s Cafe Columbus Circle, 58th Street and 8th… Read More
Above: An unemployment line in November 1933. The O’Brien administration offers no relief to the city. KNOW YOUR MAYORS Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City. Other entrants in our mayoral survey can be found here.Mayor John Patrick O’BrienIn office: 1933 There’s… Read More