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Amusements and ThrillsJuly 25, 2013
A view of the balloon launch, looking north towards the Metropolitan Life Tower, which can be seen jutting up in the background. The Met Tower was the world's tallest building in 1911.Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker turned an abandoned train station in Philadelphia into the…
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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…
Bond Clothing Store sign was a mainstay of Times Square in the 1940s and 50s. For more on Bond's unusual transition after that, read my article…
Police try to restore order in front of the New York Tribune building, a pro-Lincoln publication being attacked by rioters.Why are there no permanent remembrances of…
A list of the nine draft offices where lotteries would occur that Monday, July 13th. It would have already begun in Jamaica and at the Ninth…
A sizzling 52nd Street in July 1948 (courtesy LOC)BOWERY BOYS BOOK OF THE MONTH Each month I'll pick a book -- either brand new or old,…
If anybody could be called a patron saint of Brooklyn, one of the nominees would be Henry Ward Beecher, born 200 years ago today. In 1847,…
WARNING The article contains a couple light spoilers about the current season 'Mad Men' on AMC and a few on last season's 'Copper' on BBC America.…
The former St. Bartholomew's on Madison Avenue and 44th Street, burgled by one Mrs. Randolph Fitzhugh. [LOC]NOTE: I revised this article this afternoon which some additional…
Manhattan's Henry Street looking south, 1935, photo by Berenice Abbott (NYPL) Since Manhattan and Brooklyn developed as two separate cities before they were intertwined within consolidated…
The Astor House was New York City's first great hotel, opened in 1836 by John Jacob Astor himself, a premier accommodation for the city throughout the…
I present this little news item from the June 6, 1913 New York Tribune in its entirety: 1) The idea of bombs exploding all over the…
A genuine survivor: The building to the right was once the Strangers Hospital in the 1870s. This picture, by Berenice Abbott, was taken many decades later,…
