The Bowery Boys: New York City History
Just south of the World Trade Center district sits the location of a forgotten Manhattan immigrant community. Curious outsiders called it Little Syria although the residents themselves would have known it as the Syrian Colony. Starting in the 1880s people from the Middle East began arriving at New York’s immigrant processing station — immigrants from… Read More
Today is National Doughnut Day which is not a real holiday although that shouldn’t stop you from celebrating in whatever powdered, glazed, creme-filled way you see fit. However you will be surprised to learn that this day traces its roots to the Salvation Army and World War I. To provide for the American troops fighting in France in… Read More
PODCAST REWIND New Yorkers are serious about their pizza, and it all started with a tiny grocery store in today’s Little Italy and a group of young men who became the masters of pizza making. In this podcast, you’ll find out all about the city’s oldest and most revered pizzerias — Lombardi’s, Totonno’s, John’s, Grimaldi’s and… Read More
PODCAST A flavorful walk through the Lower East Side, exploring the neighborhood’s most famous foods. Join Tom as he experience the tastes of another era by visiting some of the oldest culinary institutions of the Lower East Side. From McSorley’s to Katz’s, Russ & Daughters and Economy Candy — when did these shops open, who… Read More
One of the most tantalizing artifacts in the collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society is Mrs. Lefferts Book, the hand-written recipe book of Maria Lott Lefferts and her daughter Gertrude Lefferts Vanderbilt, compiled sometime in 1830. Judging by those names, you can get that Mrs. Lefferts was from a prominent Brooklyn family.  At one point she lived… Read More
Setting up a market under the Manhattan Bridge. (Courtesy MCNY. Note: This photo may be of an earlier market here, but this gives you an idea of where the 1914-15 markets would have been located.) Groceries are becoming more expensive as retailers mark up prices due to food shortages (or simple price gouging at perceived… Read More
Lewis Wickes’ photograph of a few children enjoying a bit of ice cream on a hot day, 1910. (NYPL) 1. America’s first ice cream shop was located on Dock Street** (roughly today’s Pearl Street) in 1774. The British confectioner Philip Lenzi advertised ice cream of “any sort”, along with a host of treats, including sugar… Read More