The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Above: The seemingly unchanged Trinity in 1916, already dwarfed by skyscrapers PODCAST Trinity Church, with its distinctive spire staring down upon the west end of Wall Street, is more than just a house of worship. Over three different church buildings have sat at this site, and the current one by architect Richard Upjohn is one… Read More
George at his 85th birthday party in 1981 [Courtesy Life] Today is the birthday of Nathan “Nattie” Birnbaum, known to classic television audiences and “Oh God!” fanatics as George Burns. Born to Romanian immigrants, Nattie grew up on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side, first at 230 Rivington Street, then at 311 Rivington in… Read More
The blog will be a little slow this week as we work on this week’s podcast. I’ll try and put up some regular postings starting tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy this 1885 view of the corner of 42nd and 5th Avenue. The fenced-in area to the left would have been the reservoir (the New York… Read More
The above picture is from North Truro, Cape Cod, not New York City. But it’s dated exactly one hundred years ago to the day and depicts a poor train having a really, really bad day. Caption: Stalled! Snow Storm Jan 15, 1910 [source: Outer Cape Art] New full-length podcasts begin next week. Enjoy your weekend!… Read More
Photo by Louis Buhle (1915), courtesy of the BBG The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is celebrating its 100th anniversay this year. Like Flushing Meadow-Corona Park in Queens, the Garden was created out of an ash dump, landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers (later of Fort Tryon fame), “for the advancement and diffusion of a knowledge and love… Read More
Readers of the New York Times on January 19, 1910, were greeted with the following theatrical review: FAT PEOPLE MUST AVOID THIS FARCE;Unless They Want To Put On Extra Pounds To Prove An Old Adage If you’re confused, the lead of the review elaborates: “If to laugh is to grow fat, obesity patients had better… Read More
So, I’ve been doing all these stories for the new year on what life was like in New York one hundred years ago, 1910. Today we hear a tragic story about a man who was actually alive for all of it — Joe Rollino, a 104-year-old Brooklyn native and a former Coney Island strongman who… Read More
Up In The Air: Glenn Curtiss and his Hudson FlyerPicture courtesy glenncurtiss.com In 2010, there will be well over 100 million passengers coming and going from the New York metropolitan area’s three principal international airports. In 1910, you could count the number of passengers on your hand. And the pilot and passenger of the very… Read More
In 1910, DW Griffith made the first film ever made in Hollywood, CA, called In Old California. Before then, film production companies were scattered throughout the United States, with two of the most successful based here in New York City. The American Vitagraph Company, originally located at the Morse Building on 140 Nassau Street, made… Read More
This post will definitely require you to click on the picture below to give it a closer look, and it’s a fairly large picture. This is the Hammonds 1910 map of “New York City and vicinity.” Give it a close look and observe the things the mapmaker thought worthwhile to highlight. — It’s clear that… Read More
Pic by Coney Girl/Flickr 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 Bohemian HallOpened: 1910-still open!Astoria,… Read More
O. Henry in 1909. He may even be drunk here. New York City has a fine, macabre tradition of harboring famous artists, writers, musicians and actors on the cusp of an alcohol or drug-fueled demise. The city naturally attracts the creative, oddballs and innovators looking for like minds amid the flourishing artistic communities of the… Read More
New York City started 2010 with an important bit of ceremony: the swearing-in of Michael Bloomberg. One hundred years ago, New Yorkers did the same thing, but with a new face — former state Supreme Court judge William Jay Gaynor, replacing George B. McClellan. I did a whole Know Your Mayors posting about Mr. Gaynor… Read More
All The Single Ladies: though I believe the women above are actually garbed for a suffrage march in 1912, I just couldn’t resist this photo (Courtesy LOC, click pic for detail) It seems so bizarre now that it feels funny writing it — one hundred years ago, women didn’t have the right to vote in… Read More
Pic courtesy Shorpy Over the next few posts, I’m turning back to exactly one hundred years ago, to contrast the beginning of 2010 with the events of 1910. New York City was in the midst of its Gilded Age, at the beginning of the skyscraper era, more confident as a worldwide center of finance, media… Read More