The Bowery Boys: New York City History
In last Friday’s podcast on the Hotel Chelsea, I mentioned a building that was located very near by called the Grand Opera House, at the northwest corner of 23rd Street and 8th Avenue. Here it is: The opera house sprang up in 1868, the project of Samuel N. Pike, who purchased the land directly from… Read More
The Bowery Boys finally exist in the Twitter world! But how, exactly, do you apply what we do to a medium that’s brief, spontaneous and decidedly unhistoric? On top of updates and previews about our podcasts, we’ll also attempt to highlight history-related activities in the city, as well as observations as we walk around researching… Read More
Berniece Abbott looks up to the Chelsea, 1936 Arguably New York’s least conventional hotel, the Chelsea Hotel (or rather, the Hotel Chelsea) is the one of New York’s culture centers, a glamorous, art-filled Tower of Babel for both creativity and debauchery. From Mark Twain to Andy Warhol, it’s been both inspiration and accommodation for artistic… Read More
The lovely ladies of Long Island City 1898 CALL FOR SUGGESTIONS! We’re planning out our podcast episodes for the remainer of the year and we’d like your suggestions. We are readily aware that most of our shows are very Manhattan and Brooklyn centric. Since our show is very landmark or personality-centric, sometimes the other boroughs… Read More
We didn’t have a podcast last week, but to tide you over, please check out a new podcast from Tablet Magazine about the 100th anniversary of the Grand Concourse, the lofty and defining Bronx thoroughfare built as a New York homage to the grand boulevards of Europe. Tablet presents a conversation with Constance Rosenblum, author… Read More
FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER To get you in the mood for the weekend, every other Friday 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 Cafe Wha?115 Macdougal St, at Minetta Lane Occasionally,… Read More
Old Hester Street: Could that gentlemen be the murderer*? Grim news today from the Lower East Side: the residents of 128 Hester Street have been forced to evacuate their home due to the structure being declared ‘unsafe’ by the Department of Buildings. And boy, is it. The terribly dilapidated tenement suffered “cracks on the wall,… Read More
Illustration of Brodie’s infamous jump, from a 1939-40 World’s Fair brochure George Dessel’s Old New York, advertising the Old New York section of the fiar created by Messmore and Damon Apparently, it’s still the rage to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge, as a forlorn soul (or misguided daredevil) plunged off the side last night, according… Read More
Today’s the birthday of music icon Louis Armstrong, a child of New Orleans (born in 1901) but a proud resident of Queens for almost 30 years, until his death in 1971. Above, Louis luxuriates at his local Queens barber in 1965. Below, Armstrong belts out his latter-day hit song ‘Hello Dolly’ at a New York… Read More
For millions of Americans, Ellis Island is the symbol of introduction, the immigrant depot that processed their ancestors and offered an opening into a new American life. But for some, it would truly be an ‘Island of Tears’, a place where they would be excluded from that life. How did an island with such humble… Read More
Sorry I was having some serious sound/recording issues this week on the newest podcast, so it’s not available this morning, but I should have it up and running by tonight or Saturday morning latest. Thanks for your patience! Ellis Island 1908 Photo courtesy the National Archives
Above: War-time Empire State Building, circa 1943. The upper floors would dim at night to conserve energy costs (Photo Andreas Feininger) Sixty-four years ago today, July 28, 1945, a B-25 bomber on its way to Newark Airport accidentally meandered over the foggy city and smashed into the Empire State Building. Some rather startling details of… Read More
New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert named a beer after him Despite the fact that New York has one of the richest histories of any city in the country, it’s a faux history of the city written in 1809 by Deitrich Knickerbocker — aka Washington Irving — that has fooled, amused and captivated since it… Read More
ABOVE: Battery Park in “ye olden time” from the NYPL Picture Collection No new podcast this week, but here’s a link for one of our older shows from early 2008 on the history of Castle Clinton and Battery Park. We’ve enhanced some of the older shows with some rather cool old images that magically pop… Read More
Click pic for greater detailCaption: Billy, peering over the edge of the hood, saw the motorman pass the package back to Sim Levy. Ah, the good old days! The image above was taken from amazing Dime Novels and Penny Dreadful website. If you want to wile away a couple hours when you should be doing… Read More