The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Above: Mayor LaGuardia presenting his weekly WNYC radio show from Gracie Mansion. He would carry on the tradition at his Riverdale home. Fiorello LaGuardia, among the greatest mayors ever in New York history, died on this date, September 20, 1947, at his home in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. He arrived at the lovely four-story… Read More
Manhattan’s Playboy Club, at 5 East 59th Street NBC’s saucy new series ‘The Playboy Club’ starts this Monday. I believe it’s set in Chicago, however I thought this was a fine time to revise and reprint an article I wrote last year on the Manhattan branch of the Hugh Hefner club, which was featured in an… Read More
Mr. Seward, with the best seat in the park in 1934. He does seem awfully thin though, almost like a certain president. (At least, some people thought so.) This month marks the 135th anniversary of an extraordinary gift endowed to Madison Square Park — the statue of William Seward. the former New York governor and… Read More
Thanks to everybody who came out on Saturday for our reading at Swift Hibernian Lounge, as part of the 4th Annual Lit Crawl. Swift makes for a incredibly atmospheric place to spin tales of New York history. Or possibly preach the gospel. Or hold an occult ritual. (Above: That’s me behind the massive podium.) And it… Read More
Above: Chinese naval officers, with Mayor William Jay Gaynor, mounting the steps of Grant’s Tomb, 9/11/11. Workers at the Hudson waterfront awoke on September 11, 1911, to catch quite a curious sight in the water that day. It wasn’t the size of the ship that struck gathering crowds or its loud, rumbling engines; after all, the Chelsea… Read More
Picture 1: Flickr/eralsotoPicture 2: Flickr/ Madison GuyPicture 3: NYCvintage.blogspot.com
Come join The Bowery Boys this Saturday, Sept. 10, at Swift Hibernian Lounge (34 East 4th St.) as part of this weekend’s fourth annual Lit Crawl, a combination literary festival/pub crawl taking place throughout the East Village and the Lower East Side. The Lit Crawl is a free event featuring almost two dozen readings throughout… Read More
Ninety years ago today, the Miss America pageant debuted on the Atlantic City boardwalk. New York’s entrant was minor silent film actress Virginia Lee (at left). Although she didn’t win the ultimate sash, she was given some kind of runner’s-up ‘professional’ prize (the Endicott Trophy) on account of her celebrity. In her later years, Lee… Read More
A depiction of Central Park from 1864. The conspirator’s cottage hideout would have been near the southeast corner. (Courtesy NYPL) The year 1864 wasn’t as pivotal to New York City as 1863 (with the Draft Riots), but it is one of the stranger years I’ve ever come across in studying the city’s history, culminating in… Read More
Above: A Moving Day calamity in 1831!I’m moving into a new apartment starting tomorrow morning, and the whole process should take a few days. But on a brighter note, tomorrow will be my first day as a resident of Brooklyn! As a result the blog will be a little quiet until Friday afternoon, when I’ll have some notes on this week’s… Read More
Barnum’s American Museum at left (the building with the flag) and the Astor House at right, from the vantage of City Hall Park, circa 1850. Both buildings were victims of the Confederate plot of 1864 to burn the city. PODCAST We’re officially subtitling this ‘Strange Tales of 1864’, presenting you with a series of odd, fascinating… Read More
Coming this weekend: a podcast in the lap of New York luxury in 1864, including the Fifth Avenue Hotel, pictured above (at far right) in the 1900s. But wait, is that something burning? This has been a pretty insane week, especially as I’m moving to a new apartment this Tuesday and Tom’s recently back from his… Read More
Battery Weed pictured above, a peaceful ruin with almost two hundred years of history In 1864, there were few places in New York harbor more intense than the three fortesses alongside the Narrows. On the Brooklyn side, Fort Hamilton served as a training site, while Fort Lafayette partially functioned as a Confederate prison, notably holding… Read More
Continuing with the theme of ‘1864’, here’s a revised and expanded version of an article I wrote back in 2009 on the man who was mayor of New York during that crazy year: KNOW YOUR MAYORS Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City.… Read More
Wall Street’s curbside traders, in the throes of unregulated buying and selling. From here until next Friday and the release of the next podcast, I’ll be posting stories from a particular, namely the year 1864. It’s one of the weirder years in New York City history. You would think that having part of your city in… Read More