The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The spiral-ramped wonder that is the Guggenheim Museum began as the dream of two colorful characters — a severe German artist and her rich patron art-lover. So how did they convince the most famous architect in the world to sign on to their dream for a modern art “museum temple”? Come meander with us through… Read More
The Big Apple Circus is probably the only show featuring acrobatic dogs and European clowns ever to play Lincoln Center. Well, play next to Lincoln Center. P.T. Barnum made his name in New York with his American Museum and a host of publicity stunts, but his world-famous circus actually originated elsewhere. However, the Big Apple… Read More
In celebration of National Design Week, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum has had free admission all week until Saturday. Why aren’t you there now? Even if exhibits like “Wall Stories: Children’s Wallpaper and Books” don’t sound interesting to you (but who doesn’t like fun wallpaper?), at very least go to check out the building, one of… Read More
Just a few gentlemen, enjoying healthy lungfuls of smoke (Picture courtesy National Cigar Museum) One of the key locales in the mystery of Mary Rogers was the cigar store in which she worked, Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium to the west of City Hall on Broadway. Anderson was known nationwide for the quality of his wares, but… Read More
It’s a mystery! It’s 1841 and the most desirable woman in downtown Manhattan — the ‘beautiful cigar girl’ Mary Rogers — is found horribly murdered along the Hoboken shore. Hear some of the stories of this case’s prime suspects and marvel at the excessive attentions of the penny press. Also: Edgar Allen Poe takes a… Read More
It looks as though Dorothy’s farm house from Kansas was caught up in a cyclone and crash landed before getting to Oz. A tiny, two-story cottage sits at a busy intersection right off the Kingsbridge Road in the Bronx, a strange vestige of once hilly countryside and New York’s remaining keepsake to one of America’s… Read More
Tonight’s the night! We’ll be hosting the New York City Trivia Night on behalf of the Municipal Art Society of New York. TIME: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. The Municipal Art Society and the Bowery Boys will play host to a evening of New York City trivia: history, architecture, culture, and more. Come test your knowledge… Read More
While doing my ghost research this week, I came across an amusing article from an 1894 edition of the New York Times, back when ghost sightings might have merited a serious investigation. (Or, in this case, not so serious.) The location of the haunting was Brooklyn’s 27th Ward in today’s Bushwick area. After charting out… Read More
The Algonquin Hotel: the hippest haunt for the dead writer set By popular demand, we return to the creepier tales of New York City history, ghost tales and stories of murder and mayhem, all of them at some point involving great American icons — Alexander Hamilton, P.T. Barnum, Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain. Listen to… Read More
I should preface this to say, out of fairness, I looked through the annals of New York City history for scandalously corrupt politicians named Barack Obama, Sarah Palin and Joseph Biden, but could find none. John McKane was one of the most important figures in the history of Coney Island, in much the same way… Read More
From the New York City Marble Cemetery Two rarely seen artifacts of the East Village swung open their iron gates this weekend for Open House NY, New York’s two oldest cemeteries — the New York Marble Cemetery and the New York City Marble Cemetery. (Yes, you read that right.) In a few respects they are… Read More
Green-wood Cemetery is one of New York’s oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn’s surprising history — in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn Heights. Find out why it took an inventive city planner with a funny name, a dead New York icon, and a few… Read More
Above: a Victorian home in Richmond Hill, Queens If you’re reading this blog, you will obviously find something exciting to do this weekend during the 6th Annual Open House New York, a veritable cornucopia of history and architectural activities relating to the city’s great history. Classic buildings, unique examples of architecture, rarely opened landmarks, neighborhood… Read More
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. Former New York mayors are all around you. No, Ed Koch is not hiding in your closet — maybe not today — but you can… Read More
Lunchtime down on Wall Street today is chaotic mess of brokers and bankers on cell phones, tour groups, messengers on bikes, police, construction workers, people delivering lunch and the stray old lady walking her dog. Eighty-eight years ago, in 1920, it would have practically been the same, sans the cell phones. So it’s particularly disturbing… Read More