Neighborhoods
Gotham Court and the lost neighborhood of Cherry Hill
Yesterday I went searching for remnants of the old Cherry Hill neighborhood. There are none, as far as I could tell. It's not the first New…
Articles
History, stories, and deep dives from the Bowery Boys.
Latest Article
Bowery Boys Bookshelf‘Spectacle’: The Story of Ota Benga
June 3, 2015
In 1906, visitors to the Bronx Zoo observed a rather bizarre sight in the Monkey House -- the exhibition of a man in African dress, often accompanied by a parrot or an orangutan. An African pygmy, so read the sign, "Age, 23, Height, 4 feet…
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More Articles
Neighborhoods
The hole that swallowed Greenpoint and other treasures at Old NYC
The New York Public Library's Old NYC interface is pretty much one of the best things to happen to New York City history this year. It…
Mad Men
Timeless: How ‘Mad Men’ changed history on television
In 1972 the Robert Altman film M*A*S*H was turned into a weekly half-hour situation comedy series. In retrospect I'm stunned that anybody thought to make this.…
True Crime
‘Days of Rage’ and Nights of Terror
Right before noon on March 6, 1970, an explosion tore open a lovely Greenwich Village townhouse at 18 West 11th Street and awoke New York City to…
On The Waterfront
A Haunting Look Inside the Lusitania
The Lusitania gets dwarfed by recollections of the Titanic. But in many ways, the destruction of the Cunard Line's premier ocean liner on May 7, 1915,…
Brooklyn History
Ungentrified: Brooklyn in the 1970s
The new Bowery Boys podcast that comes out this Friday will be about Brooklyn. So let's get in the mood with some pre-Instagram tinted photography from…
Amusements and Thrills
The 1965 New York World’s Fair: Opening Day
The New York World's Fair opened for its second and last season on April 21, 1965. Â The grand opening the previous year had been rocky indeed…
Bowery Boys Bookshelf
The Lusitania’s final voyage, breathlessly told
They said the Lusitania couldn't be sunk. The German telegrams to the contrary were merely cheap scare tactics. Besides, England will provide protection once in their…
American History
New York’s Poignant Memorial to Lincoln’s Death Is In A Very Odd Place
Abraham Lincoln died 150 years ago today in a Washington DC rowhouse, shot and killed by the actor John Wilkes Booth while the president was attending a performance…
Amusements and Thrills
The Monster Tree: A California Sequoia Visits New York City 1855
The mighty Sequoia tree,  principally existing today in northern California, embodied the breathtaking diversity of the North American continent when it was first discovered by European explorers…
It's Showtime
Happy 100th birthday Billie Holiday! Five ways to celebrate a century of music
The great Billie Holiday was born 100 years ago today. This requires spending some of your day listening…
Newspapers and Newsies
Shameless Urchins and Mighty Frauds: 19th Century Views of April Fools Day
The celebration of April Fools Day traces back to the Middle Ages and possibly as far back as the Roman era. In the mid-19th century, the unofficial…