The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The Brooklyn Navy Yard, no longer a bustling shipyard, lives on as a vibrant commercial compound of movie studios, bourbon distilleries and organic rooftop farms. Its waterfront, facing into Wallabout Bay, is relatively peaceful today. There are no remnants of its genuinely disturbing past. During the Revolutionary War, New York was a British stronghold, and… Read More
PODCAST The murder of a young woman in 1799 and the ensuing trial involving two of America’s Founding Fathers There once was a well just north of Collect Pond (New York’s fetid source of drinking water in the late 18th century) in a marshy place called Lispenard’s Meadow, in the area of today’s SoHo. One… Read More
Clear your calendars people. It’s Open House New York time! On Saturday (October 14) and Sunday (October 15), many historic locations normally are closed to the public  — or available at previously limited hours — will be putting out their welcome mats. This is the most exciting weekend of the year for urban explorers. Historic… Read More
For three straight weeks this October, the Bowery Boys will bring you brand new, mysterious podcasts that will send a shiver down your spine. On Friday we present you with one of New York City’s greatest whodunits with an unbelievable cast of characters. Then next Friday (October 20) it’s our 11th annual ghost stories podcast!… Read More
THE FIRST PODCAST How much do you know about George Washington Carver, the man born into slavery who became America’s most famous botanist in the first half of the 20th century? He didn’t discover the peanut, a legume commonplace in the human diet for thousands of years, nor did he invent peanut butter. What Carver… Read More
PODCAST The Bowery Boys head to northwestern Queens to uncover the origin of two close neighborhoods with divergent histories. The borough of Queens has a history unlike any in the New York City region, but the story of its northwestern region — comprising Astoria, Long Island City and about a half dozen other, smaller neighborhoods… Read More
Ravenswood is a dramatic name for a New York City neighborhood and certainly wasted on its primary resident today — Big Allis, the Con Edison generating power station that provides the Queens waterfront with its most unattractive feature. This pocket district is situated on the western edge of Queens just north of Hunter’s Point. Situated… Read More
The Bowery Boys’ Greg Young, an aficionado of comic strip and comic book history, will be appearing at two events this week tied to New York Comic Con. Â The first event on Monday is general admission in the East Village, so come on out to kick off the week. The second event is at NYCC… Read More
Columbus Circle, a center of media and shopping at the entrance to Central Park, has a history that, well, runs against the grain. Counter-clockwise, if you will. LISTEN TO OUR NEW EPISODE HERE: When the park was completed in the mid 19th century, a ‘Grand Circle’ was planned for a busy thoroughfare of horse-drawn carriages.… Read More
The 1980s in New York City were defined by glossy magazines and gallery shows, the earnest giving way to irony, the facile passed off as profound. What would ring hollow in the following decade might have seemed still crisp and dangerous in the Ed Koch years. At the Strangers’ Gate Arrivals In New York by… Read More
Pabst Brewing Company, the Milwaukee beer dynasty founded in 1844 by Jacob Best (and his son-in-law Frederick Pabst), became one of America’s best known beer beverage distributors in the 20th century. Part of their strategy for popularizing their brand was by cracking into a market well saturated with beer at the start of the century… Read More
PODCAST 42nd Street After Hours. Cinema and sleaze. Nostalgia and fantasy. The story of a real and imagined New York. Take a trip with us down the grittiest streets in Times Square — the faded marquees of the grindhouses, the neon-lit prurient delights of Eighth Avenue at night. LISTEN TO OUR LATEST EPISODE HERE: Times Square in the… Read More
PODCAST 42nd Street After Hours. Cinema and sleaze. Nostalgia and fantasy. The story of a real and imagined New York. Take a trip with us down the grittiest streets in Times Square — the faded marquees of the grindhouses, the neon-lit prurient delights of Eighth Avenue at night. LISTEN TO OUR LATEST EPISODE HERE: [geo_mashup_map]… Read More
Writing about New York City often means making big, bold statements — flamboyant, absurd and ridiculous — especially if you love it. And even more if you hate it. New York Is Hell Thinking and Drinking in the Beautiful Beast by Benjamin DeCasseres w. introduction by Peggy Nadramia Underworld Amusements Vanishing New York How A… Read More
This is the final part of our three-part NEW YORK IN THE JAZZ AGE podcast series. Check out our two prior episode #233 The Roaring ’20s: The King of the Jazz Age and #234 Queen of the Speakeasies: A Tale of Prohibition New York Something so giddy and wild as New York City in… Read More