PODCAST The epic tale of Ellis Island and the process by which millions of new immigrants entered the United States.
For millions of Americans, Ellis Island is the symbol of introduction, the immigrant depot that processed their ancestors and offered an opening into a new American life.
But for some, it would truly be an ‘Island of Tears’, a place where they would be excluded from that life.
How did an island with such humble beginnings — ‘Little Oyster Island’, barely a sliver of land in the New York harbor — become so crucial? Who is the ‘Ellis’ of Ellis Island? And how did it survive decades of neglect to become one of New York’s most famous tourist attractions?
FEATURING our special guest Tanya Bielski-Braham (currently of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh) who walks us through her own family’s immigration experience over a century ago — from Eastern Europe to America.
THIS SHOW WAS ORIGINALLY RELEASED TEN YEARS AGO THIS MONTH ON JULY 31, 2009!
Here’s a look at many of the faces of newly arriving immigrants from between the years 1904 and 1924, photos byAugustus Frederick Sherman, a clerk on Ellis Island.
Interestingly these are not ‘official’ photographs. Sherman himself was particularly interested in national costume and mostly chose subjects who happened to be wearing the most flamboyant apparel from their respective countries. You can see more pictures from this series at the National Park Service website on Ellis Island. The particular images below are courtesy New York Public Library
This is a podcast about kindness and care. About the bold Progressive Era pioneers who saved the lives of thousands of people in need — from the Lower East Side to Washington Heights, from Hell’s Kitchen to Fort Greene.
The Visiting Nurses of the Henry Street Settlement
Within just a few decades – between the 1880s and the 1920s – so much social change occurred within American life, upending so many cultural norms and advancing so many important social issues, that these years became known as the Progressive Era. And at the forefront of many of these changes were women.
In this show, Greg visits two important New York City social landmarks of this era —Henry Street Settlement, founded by Lillian Wald in the Lower East Side, and the Cabrini Shrine, where Mother Frances X. Cabrini continued her work with New York’s Italian American population.
Margaret Sanger’s birth control clinic in Brownsville. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)
If you have ancestors who came through New York City during 1880s through the 1920s, most likely they came into contact with the efforts of some of the women featured in this show. From the White Rose Mission, providing help for young black women, to the life-saving investigations of ‘Dr. Joe’, leading the city’s fight for improvements to public health.
This episode features the stories of the following ten women — not to mention other guest appearances by other important women like Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Lillian Wald Nursing pioneer and founder of the Henry Street Settlement
The History Chicks Podcast (Beckett Graham and Susan Vollenweider) recorded two shows on the life of Jane Addams for more information on the settlement house movement:
In addition, listen to these shows in our back catalog for more information on subjects mentioned in this show —
For further insights into life in the Lower East Side in the late 19th century:
For more on the neighborhood of San Juan Hill (demolished to construct Lincoln Center):
For a look at what medical institutions were like during this period:
And to get a sense of what the area around Henry Street was like before the settlement house, give a listen to this show on Corlear’s Hook:
Dr. Joe was instrumental in the capture of Typhoid Mary. Revisit our episode on this intense episode of New York City history!
SPECIAL THANKS TO TANYA BIELSKI-BRAHAM, now of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. She joined Greg on the Bowery Boys podcast ten years ago (!) with the story of Ellis Island.
Tanya’s latest project — “The Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh is very excited to share that The Chutz-Pow Project is now available for purchase on Amazon! Be sure to get copies for yourself and those that you care about–you’re supporting the Center and spreading education through art and the true stories of real-world superheroes: Survivors of the Holocaust, Resistance Fighters, and Righteous Gentiles who stood up to horrors of the final solution!”
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
PODCAST A tale of the ‘sporting life’ of the Bowery from the 1870s and 80s. A former newsboy named Steve Brodie grabs the country’s attention by leaping off the Brooklyn Bridge on July 23, 1886. Or did he?
The story of Steve Brodie has all the ingredients of a Horatio Alger story. He worked the streets as a newsboy when he was very young, fighting the bullies (often his own brothers) to become one of the most respected newsies in Manhattan.
He experienced his first taste of adulation and respect as a minor sports celebrity, participating in pedestrian competitions across the country. Back in New York, Brodie started a family and promptly lost most of his money at the race track. He yearned to do something athletic and attention grabbing again.
TheBrooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883, was a crowning architectural jewel linking two major cities; Brodie witnessed much of its construction during afternoons diving from East River docks. He now proposed an outrageous stunt that would garner him instant fame and fortune.
He would jump off the Brooklyn Bridge!
Was Steve Brodie a hero or a fool? A daredevil or a con artist? His story provides a window into the ‘sporting men’ life of the Bowery and a look into what may possibly be the greatest hoax of the Gilded Age.
A photograph of Steve Brodie, taken on July 31, 1886, a week after his ‘jump’.Advertisements for the show On The BoweryImages courtesy Library of CongressAn illustration of Brodie’s jump made for the Old New York exhibition at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.
A few of the creative illustrations of Steve Brodie in the days and weeks following his stunt.
Here’s the Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs (from 1949), courtesy the Internet Archive.
You can watch the 1933 film The Bowery on streaming services and even get the entire thing — in pieces — on YouTube. Here’s the section of the film featuring Brodie’s ‘brilliant idea’ (at around the 5:30 mark). By the way, this film is riddled with offensive stereotypes so be warned!
The actor Steve Brodie, who made his name in Western films and televisions shows, took his screen name from the Bowery’s Steve Brodie. You can also see Brodie in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms!
My thanks to Grant Barrett for allowing me to use a clip from A Way With Words. Hopefully you’re all listeners of his excellent show with Martha Barnette about the history of language. Barrett and Barnette have been producing the show since 2007.
And here’s an article I wrote back in 2007 (!) about two saloons on the Bowery — including Brodie’s. This was written for our FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER series about the history of New York City nightlife. Past entries can be found here .
We’re going way, way, way back to New York’s seediest, filthiest and most notorious place — the Bowery in the late 19th century.
The nightlife of the old Bowery could have an entire blog in itself. It has been witness to some of the rowdiest, most shameless and debauched New Yorkers who have ever lived. They filled up dives and flophouses, brothels and saloons, and catered to the poorest of immigrants and the richest of the upper class ‘slumming it’ for a real idea of fun unimagined in the drawing rooms of the elite.
The two saloons from the late 19th century featured here weren’t extraordinary places as we would consider today — they would both fit comfortably in the 20th century sin-den the Limelight — but they were run by extraordinary people, ‘heroes’ of the Bowery brawler set.
Geoghegan’s at 105 Bowery has been described as “a rendezvous for professional mendicants.” Often called the Bastille of the Bowery, it didn’t just spawn a few fisticuffs; it catered to them. Because this two-floor boiserie featured two boxing rings, and one of the men in the ring was often the bar’s owner.
Owney’s boxing card.
Owney Geoghegan held the boxing distinction of Lightweight Champion of America from 1861 to 1964 when he retired to open his tavern/fight palace in the Bowery. His reputation naturally drew the crowds, and Geoghegan encouraged his patrons on to a little pugilism with the help of ample ales and whiskey. In 1891 the ‘Bastille’ even hosted a few rather fierce bouts of women’s wrestling, with the competitors required to cut their hair (to prevent pulling) and costume themselves wearing only tights.
Such a swarthy establishment was bound to attract the lowest elements and the most sinful gangs of New York. One journalist at the time describes it: “The faces around us are worse than those seen in a bench show of pugnacious dogs, and instinct teaches us to have a care for our nickels, for our pockets are in imminent danger.”
But perhaps the person the clientele should have feared the most was Geoghegan himself. A short but powerful Irish man, Geoghegan was known for his impressive, compact strength. And his penchant to cheat when needed.
Viro Small, one of the Bowery’s most popular boxers.
Geoghegan was in the ring one night against Viro Small, a very popular black wrestler. Geoghegan was still in his prime but it was clear he was being bested in the ring by Small. The drunken crowd kept catcalling him, and he knew he couldn’t lose in his own establishment. So he had one of his henchmen hold a gun to the referee’s head and call the match for Geoghegan!
(Small didn’t hold a grudge. He later wrestled there again, with a man named Billy McCallum who afterward tried to murder him.)
As Geoghegan flexed his strength to his barflies, another Bowery saloon owner was busy displaying his gifts of agility. In 1886 Steve Brodie, on a bet, jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, the bridge being only about three years old at the time. What was amazing was not the amount of stupidity that took, but the fact that he survived and claimed his $100 bet money.
His feat was celebrated at the time and from the fame of this simple act, he was able to open Steve Brodie’s Saloon, 114 Bowery, at Bowery and Grand Street (a couple of doors down from Geoghegan’s place).
Brodie’s saloon. Note the Brooklyn Bridge mural above the bar entrance.
If Geoghegan’s dive was a celebration of his profession, Brodie’s was a celebration of his own personality. Behind the bar was an elaborate oil painting depicting Brodie bravely hurling off the bridge, along with a signed affidavit from the boat captain who fished him out of the water. The floor of the bar was inlaid with silver dollars to give it that wealthy feeling that money had been hurled to the floor.
For the cost of a drink, Brodie would gladly recount his tale. As silly as it seems today, he was able to pack in patrons, perhaps many from Geoghegan’s place, still drunk on booze and bloodletting.
Somehow he managed to turn his feat into a touring autobiographical performance entitled On The Bowery. Eventually, he tried to top his feat with a plunge down Niagara Falls in 1889. (It could never be proven that he actually went ahead with it!) He settled in Buffalo and opened another saloon there, but the enigma of his fame apparently didn’t carry that far. He moved to San Antonio and died at age 39.
Geoghegan had a similar short-lived fate. He lapsed into a severe depression at the death of his father and, traveling to Hot Springs, Ark., to try cure himself of his pain, actually died there, age 45.
As his obituary in the New York Times said: “There is mourning in the Bowery, sorrow on Houston and Bleecker streets, and desolation in the dance halls of the slums….. His career as a prizefighter, ward heeler and dive keeper was that of the typical New York rough, and is only interesting as it illustrates a phase of life little known to respectable people.”
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
Our first-ever Bowery Boys book, “Adventures in Old New York” is now out in bookstores! A time-traveling journey into a past that lives simultaneously besides the modern city.
Bowery Boys Walking Tours
Are you ready to walk through time? We’re excited to announce Bowery Boys Walks, our new walking tours developed around our podcast. Join us in the streets — beginning in October 2018!
PODCAST A tour of historic sites in Washington Heights and Inwood, an unusual set of landmarks and curious destinations that comprise almost 400 years of Upper Manhattan history.
In Washington Heights and Inwood, the two Manhattan neighborhoods above West 155th Street, the New York grid plan begins to become irrelevant, with avenues and streets preferring to conform to northern Manhattan’s more rugged terrain. As a result, one can find aspects of nearly 400 years of New York City history here — along a secluded waterfront or tucked high upon a shaded hill.
In this episode, we look at four specific historic landmarks of Upper Manhattan, places that have survived into present day, even as their surroundings have become greatly altered.
— A picturesque cemetery — the final resting place for mayors, writers and scandal makers — split in two;
— An aging farmhouse once linked to New York’s only surviving natural forest with a Revolutionary secret in its backyard;
And that’s just the beginning! Upper Manhattan holds a host of fascinating, awe-inspiring sites of historical and cultural interest. For those who live and work in Washington Heights and Inwood, these historic landmarks will be familiar to you. For everybody else, prepare for a new list of mysterious landmarks and fascinating places to explore this summer.
Twenty remarkable places of historic interest in Washington Heights and Inwood
After you listen to our podcast episode, check out all twenty sites listed below — by foot, by bike or by subway. Under the article, you’ll find a Google Map that you can use to help you navigate the uptown city streets.
1 TRINITY CHURCH CEMETERY AND MAUSOLEUM
In 1842, with the city rapidly growing and new burials banned from lower Manhattan, Trinity Church constructed a second cemetery, way, way out of town upon property owned by naturalist John James Audubon (1785–1851). It was a spot for quiet contemplation—until they plowed Broadway through it in 1871, splitting Trinity’s peaceful cemetery in two (and disinterring dozens of bodies in the process). Eliza Jumel, John Jacob Astor, Ed Kochand Clement Clarke Moore (the author of ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas‘) are buried here. (770 Riverside Drive)
2 AUDUBON TERRACE
This pocket of majestic Beaux-Arts palaces surrounds a sculpture garden that would look at home in the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Frick Collection. The Audubon Terrace’s remoteness is a big part of its charm. Audubon owned twenty acres of rolling hills, ideal for his naturalistic obsessions, and when he died in 1851, the land was parceled off into a shaded neighborhood named Audubon Park.
Philanthropist Archer Milton Huntington developed several institutions here including the Hispanic Society of America and the originalMuseum of the American Indian (which later moved downtown to even loftier digs). Boriqua College also makes its home here today. (Broadway and West 155th Street)
3 POLO GROUNDS STAIRCASE
Polo Grounds Towers, a housing project on West 155th Street, marks the former spot of the Polo Grounds (1890–1964), the legendary stadium that was home to three major baseball teams (Yankees, Mets, and Giants) and the first home to football’s New York Jets.
A surprising vestige remains today: a staircase, linking the low-lying east side to the high promontory called Coogan’s Bluff. The stairs were installed in 1913, linking public transit on the bluff to the stadium. An even more romantic image to ponder: fans with empty pockets often watched games from these stairs, which are named for John T. Brush, the owner of the Giants from 1890 until he died in 1912. (Edgecombe Avenue and West 158th Street)
The residences of Edgecombe Avenue enjoy gorgeous views of the Harlem River, and the mid-1910s apartment tower at 555 even enjoys close proximity to the Morris-Jumel Mansion. (The building was even named for Roger Morris when it first opened).
But it’s the stellar line-up of African-Americans notables who lived here starting in the 1930s that gives the building its reputation — including Joe Louis, Count Basie and Paul Robeson. It is because of Robeson, film star and civil rights icon, that the building is also a National Historic Landmark. (555 Edgecombe Avenue)
5 MORRIS-JUMEL MANSION
Built in 1765, the Morris-Jumel Mansion is the oldest surviving house in New York, and was the home of British sympathizer Roger Morris, who wisely decided to bid New York adieu during the war.
But it’s the tales of Eliza Jumel that give its Colonial hallways a jolt of scandal. She married former vice president Aaron Burr, but his squandering of her estate led to a quick divorce. When she died in 1865, she was regarded as one of the most notorious women in the city’s history. Some say her ghost still inhabits the house (now a fascinating museum, well worth a visit). If you see her, say hello from us. (65 Jumel Terrace at West 160th Street)
6 SYLVAN TERRACE
This slightly surreal, Belgian block street presents a row of curious wooden houses, lined up like Victorian-era dollhouses. They were constructed in 1882 along the former carriage trail leading to the Jumel Mansion. Their staircases rising high off the street like lifted petticoats but, despite their haughty airs, these jewels were built for working class families. (St. Nicholas Avenue, between West 160th and 161st Streets)
7 AUDUBON BALLROOM
Few buildings have gone through as much adaptation as this former 1912 Thomas Lamb-designed movie palace, a colorful slice of terra-cotta birthday cake decorated with foxes — in honor of Lamb’s client William Fox. By the 1930s, its basement housed a synagogue while impassioned labor gatherings took place upstairs.
Situated in the middle of a collection of medical buildings (most associated with NewYork-Presbyterian), this triangular wedge park is named for one of our favorite mayors — John Purroy Mitchel aka ‘The Boy Mayor’.
After Mitchel left office, he entered the service to fight in World War I but tragically died in training exercise in Louisiana on July 6, 1918. This park was named in his honor a month later.It would acquire an interesting war memorial in 1923, sculpted by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. Several years later, Whitney would found her own museum, comprised almost entirely of work she collected — the formation of the Whitney Museum. (3975 Broadway)
Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia
9 FORT WASHINGTON AVENUE ARMORY
Manhattan once had over twenty armories, built to store military ammunition and sometimes house troops. This armory, named for the old Revolutionary War fort, was built in 1911 and became home to a regiment of the Army Corp of Engineers.
Today it’s more associated with another sort of endurance — track and field. The Armory Track is one of the most important sites in America for the sport, and the National Track and Field Hall of Fame shares space here with dozens of yearly track events. (216 Fort Washington Avenue)
Sam Costanza for New York Daily News
10 COOGAN’S
Coogan’s is the Cheers of Washington Heights, although they prefer, according to their website, “the Washington Heights equivalent of Rick’s Place in Casablanca.” Since 1985, the flamboyantly decorated pub has welcomed visiting dignitaries and countless celebrities. In 2018, when Coogan’s announced they would be closing, regular patron Lin-Manuel Miranda swept in to help save the place! (4015 Broadway)
Courtesy Greg Young
11 THE HIGH BRIDGE
No monument to freshwater dominates quite like the High Bridge, the Romanesque wonder linking Manhattan to the Bronx over the Harlem River. For many decades this majestic artifact, seemingly plucked from the hills of ancient Gaul, was a vital link in that great engineering triumph: the Croton Aqueduct.
Completed in 1848, it not only brought the Croton water into the city, but it also made one heck of a statement noticed around the world. In 1872, as masses of new arrivals from far-off lands crammed into tenements, an attractive water tower was constructed near the High Bridge to help increase the water pressure into the city.
The water has long been turned off, but the bridge still beckons pedestrians onto its expanse over the Harlem. (Highbridge Park)
12 UNITED PALACE / EL MALECÓN
Just up the street from the Audubon Ballroom sits another Thomas Lamb movie palace — the equally dazzling Loew’s 175th Street Theatre, one of New York City’s original ‘Wonder Theatres’ that took movie going to a new level of luxury.
It took a decidedly Evangelical direction in 1969 when the television preacher Reverend Ike transformed it into the Palace Cathedral. While it still retains religious ties, the venue is frequently opened to concerts and film revivals — and frequently hosts tours of the site. (Check out the entire schedule here.) (4140 Broadway)
By the way, across the street is one of the best restaurants in the neighborhood EL MALECÓN, serving some of New York’s best Dominican cuisine for over thirty years. (4141 Broadway)
13 THE LITTLE RED LIGHTHOUSE
Dwarfed by the might of the George Washington Bridge, tiny as a peg as you drive past it into Manhattan, is the quiet red Jeffrey’s Hook Light far below. Manhattan’s only operational lighthouse when it was placed here in 1921, it was quickly made obsolete by the very bright new bridge that opened high above it in 1931— the new structure cast plenty of light down to help guide vessels along the Hudson.
Fortunately for the lighthouse, it became the subject of a popular 1942 children’s book, The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift. Demolishing it would have been like killing off Pinocchio, and so it remains to this day. (178th Street and the Hudson River)
Bennett Park on a nice fall day last year. Courtesy Greg Young
14 BENNETT PARK
The highest point on Manhattan Island was, unsurprisingly, also the site of Fort Washington, a Revolutionary War fort. Nothing remains of it; the spot, now surrounded by apartment buildings, instead holds Bennett Park today, named for news paper publisher James Gordon Bennett, Sr. because he happened to own this land when he died in 1872.
A decorative cannon still adorning the park is a stern reminder of the day, November 16, 1776, when the fort fell into British hands. And nearby, to commemorate the bicentennial of Washington’s birth in 1732, grows an American elm, planted in 1932. (Fort Washington Avenue, West 183rd Street, Pinehurst Avenue)
Courtesy Mother Cabrini
15 ST. FRANCES XAVIAR CABRINI SHRINE
The Cloisters isn’t the only place to find a bit of religious reliquary in Upper Manhattan. In 1899 Mother Frances Cabrini, who founded hospitals and orphanages throughout the United States, bought a remote piece of property on Fort Washington Avenue and founded a high school here. When she died in 1917, her remains were kept in the high school chapel.
But her canonization in 1946 required a larger quarters for visitors and she was moved to this newly constructed shrine in 1959. You can visit Cabrini to this day; she’s contained in a glass coffin beneath the altar. (July 13, her birthday, would be a special time to visit.)
Fort Tryon Park last fall. Photo by Greg Young
16 FORT TRYON PARK
This captivating public park not only hosts the renowned Cloisters museum, but it’s also one of the lushest and most romantic spots in Manhattan, with dramatic outlooks over the Hudson River and sweeping views of the Palisades. Curiously, the name refers to Sir William Tryon (1729–1788), one of the last governors of the Province of New York, who led British forces to burn and plunder civilian outposts throughout New England during the Revolutionary War. He was a debonair monster. And yet the name has, by tradition, stuck.
Wander the meandering paths and you’ll come across several other mementos of long-ago times, including a bronze plaque to the memory of Margaret Corbin (1751–1800), considered the first woman to see active battle in the Revolutionary War and the first to receive a military pension after the war. (190th Street and Fort Washington Avenue)
The Cloisters in a postcard image, 1950. Courtesy the Museum of the City of New York.
17 THE MET CLOISTERS
The Cloisters is an offshoot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, specializes in medieval European treasures and is filled with spectacular examples of Middle Ages paintings, reliquaries, tapestries, and tombs.
But nearly as amazing as its collection is the actual museum structure itself, its walls, corridors, and apses cobbled together from five European holy sites and cloisters.
Parts of the Cloisters are among the oldest structures standing in the United States—although of course, they weren’t made here. They were brought over, stone by stone, in an ambitious scavenger hunt that could only have been the pet project of one of the richest New Yorkers who ever lived: John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
The Hessian Hut on a sunny day at Dyckman Farmhouse. Pic courtesy Greg Young
18 DYCKMAN FARMHOUSE MUSEUM AND HESSIAN HUT
Not all of the surviving Colonial-era homes in New York are elegant mansions. The Dyckman Farmhouse, built in 1784, wouldn’t look out of place on the Midwestern prairie. However, it could not be farther from an actual farm today, as it is boxed in by apartment buildings and locked into place by the traffic of Broadway. Two additional features set it apart from the urban reality that surrounds it: 1) It has a backyard, blooming with flowers, and 2) that backyard also has rugged Hessian barracks. The excavated hut—thrillingly rebuilt in 1916, when the home became a museum—predates the house. (4881 Broadway)
NOW SHOWING AT THE DYCKMAN FARMHOUSE: An interesting new exhibition by Peter Hoffmeister commemorating the Inwood Slave Burial Ground. As the year unfolds, Hoffmeister will be creating additional works placed throughout the house, creating a dialogue between his studio practice and research in our archives.
The former Isham Mansion, pictured here in 1930 — before Robert Moses pulled it down! Courtesy Museum of the City of New York
19 ISHAM PARK
This extraordinarily peaceful spot also has deep Revolutionary roots but it also has a unique connection to another aspect of Inwood history. Until the early 20th century, mansions of elite New Yorkers dotted this rugged landscape, and it was on this exact spot that banker William Bradley Isham built a summer home. Believe it or not, the home and many surrounding structures were actually a part of the park when it opened in the 1910s. Parks commissioner Robert Moses had these structures ripped down in the 1940s. (Isham Street and Seaman Avenue)
20 INWOOD HILL PARK / SHORAKKOPOCH ROCK
This majestic park is quite possibly New York City’s most under-appreciated treasure, a series of breathtaking postcards come to life, where earth, foliage, and water return Manhattan to “Mannahatta.” Made a park in 1916, its woods are naturally wild and rugged, as if no European had ever crossed this forested landscape. Who knows what ancient secrets lurk along the banks of the Spuyten Duyvil?
Nearly 400 years ago, in 1626, next to a tulip tree here, Peter Minuit, the director-general of New Amsterdam, reportedly purchased the island from the Lenape for a grand total of 60 guilders. Today you can find the location of the old tulip tree near a boulder named Shorakkopoch Rock. (Payson Avenue and Seaman Avenue)
You can use the map below to help you out on your journey or click on this link.
FURTHER READING: For years, we’ve been big fans of the MyInwood blog, a gorgeous tribute to the history of Inwood. You can also visit Indian Road Cafe once a month for a LOST INWOOD presentation of historic images.
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways — publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels. Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
Oh what a glamorous party! Those ‘midnight sailing parties’ along the Hudson River piers, partygoers boarding luxury ocean liners as the sun set, drinking and dining with passengers before the ship set sail for destinations abroad.
One hot summer evening of 1935, the crew of the SS Bremen welcomed almost 5,000 non-passengers aboard the jewel of the German ocean fleet, “a technical and aesthetic marvel regarded by the world as the water-borne embodiment of German nationhood.”
At the nose of the ship, a bright arc lamp illuminated a gigantic flag rising high over the piers, seen from the shoreline below. Its unmistakable insignia — the swastika of the Nazi Party.
The Agitator: William Bailey and the First American Uprising Against Nazism by Peter Duffy Public Affairs Books
On July 26, 1935, William Bailey, the subject of Peter Duffy’s The Agitator, a firecracker of a book, led a scrappy, ragtag group of anti-Nazi protestors aboard the ship and — in a chaotic and riotous surge — succeeded in tearing down that Nazi flag.
The Bremen, as it were, was on Bailey’s turf. Born in Jersey City and raised in Hell’s Kitchen, Bailey became a merchant seaman and eventually a union activist, rugged and enthusiastic, who happened to come of age when the movement needed him most.
From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 28, 1935
Duffy’s book also works as a history of early resistance efforts and protests in New York City, disparate groups (Jews, Catholics, union organizers, Communists) taking a stand against Nazi Germany at a time when most Americans were simply not paying attention.
At first the groups opposing Nazi appearances at the piers were “socialist student groups and anti-Fascist refugee committees and Communist peace leagues,” fringe groups that visiting German leaders managed to ignore. (“About those little things, those demonstrations,” said Hitler confidante Ernst Hanfstaengl. “I think they’re just trying to have a bit of fun with me.”)
But as Hitler escalated his reign of terror, New Yorkers were forced to take a look. By 1934, major department stores like Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s were boycotting German products and even MayorFiorello La Guardiawas making minor gestures of protest. Still, the growing threat, the unimaginable horror to come, seemed of minor interest to most Americans.
New York Daily News headline, July 28, 1935
Which makes the brazen and symbolic stunt by Bailey and his cohorts all the more remarkable. “In a proper world,” writes Duffy, “the name Bill Bailey would call to mind an indelible figure in the confrontation against international fascism …. He was a slum kid from a destitute Irish family, a reformed juvenile delinquent with a Hell’s Kitchen twang, who developed a political conscience by working in the decrepit freighters of the Depression-era seafaring trade.”
When he died in 1995, Bailey, who also fought in the Spanish Civil War had become defined by the Bremen incident. He spent his final years telling the story to whomever wanted to hear it. And now Duffy shares it with the world.
Below: A breezy little film clip — taken from the 1936 German film Spiel an Bord — documenting the SS Bremen. Nazi swastikas have conveniently been omitted! (But whoever edited this video has managed to insert an image into the footage.) The liner’s final journey to New York — no surprise — was in 1939. The ship was dismantled in 1942.
PODCAST Many stories of 19th century New York City seem to lead to the Tombs, a stark prison complex with menacing architecture and a fearful reputation.
Some might find it strange that the Manhattan Detention Complex — one of New York City’s municipal jails — should be located next to the bustling neighborhoods of Chinatown and Little Italy. Stranger still is its ominous nickname — The Tombs.
Near this very spot — over 180 years ago — stood another imposing structure, a massive jail in the style of an Egyptian mausoleum, casting its dark shadow over a district that would become known as Five Points, the most notorious 19th century neighborhood in New York City.
From the Foundations of Collect Pond
Both Five Points and the original Tombs (officially New York City Halls of Justice and House of Detention) was built upon the spot of old Collect Pond, an old fresh-water pond that was never quite erased from the city’s map when it was drained via a canal — along today’s Canal Street.
But the foreboding reputation of the Tombs comes from more than sinking foundations and cracked walls. For over six decades, thousands of people were kept here — murderers, pickpockets, vagrants and many more who had committed no crimes at all.
And there would be a few unfortunates who would never leave the confines of this place. For the Tombs contained a gallows, where some of the worst criminals in the United States were executed.
Other jails would replace this building in the 20th century, but none would shake off the grim nickname.
Listen Now — The Tombs: Five Points’ House of Detention
Collect Pond, in an illustration from 1880 — New York Public LibraryGeorge Catlin painting of Five PointsThe Tombs 1894 — New York Public LibraryA Prison Van Discharging At The Tombs 1871 — New York Public LibraryThe Boy’S Cell In The Tombs 1870 — New York Public LibraryThe Execution of Nathaniel Gordon in Five Points. For more information, read this article from our website on Gordon’s execution.The second Tombs, pictured here in 1907 — G. G. Bain Collection/Shorpy
FURTHER READING
The Old World and the New by William Ballantine A Pickpocket’s Tale: The Underworld of 19th Century New York by Timothy J. Gilfoyle New York by Sunlight and Gaslight: A Work Descriptive of the Great American Metropolis by James Dabney McCabe The New York Tombs, Inside and Out!: A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America’s Most Famous Prison by John Josiah Munro
FURTHER LISTENING After listening to our show on the history of the Tombs, check out these shows from our back catalog:
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon. This month’s movie — Midnight Cowboy!
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
This Monday (May 27, 2019), a Memorial Day observance will be held from 10 a.m to noon at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Riverside Park. In honor of the holiday, we’re rerunning this 2015 article on this oft-forgotten monument.
The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument on the Upper West Side has been the centerpiece for Memorial Day commemoration for decades. Unless you actually live by it, you probably have not been there in years, if at all. It’s a vastly under-appreciated landmark, occasionally vandalized and certainly in need of work. [For more on the history of Riverside Park, listen to our podcast episode: Heaven on the Hudson.]
Courtesy the Museum of the City of New York
It owes its form to the great Gilded Age fervor for classical beauty and the aesthetic appeal of Beaux-Arts architecture. Grand war memorials were sprouting up all over New York during this period, most notably he Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza (1892) and Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene (1908). Then there’s Grant’s Tomb (1897), which owes its existence more to the General’s military career and not so much his scandal-filled presidency.
And similar monuments of such colossal proportion were erected in other cities including Hartford(1886), New Haven (1887), Allentown (1899) Indianapolis(1902), Baltimore(1909) Syracuse (1910), Pittsburgh(1910), among many others.
Courtesy the Museum of the City of New York
Monuments are dandy indicators of civic pride but many were inspired by practical necessity. Most Union veterans were in their ’50s and ’60s by this time many of these memorials were planned. Those that grew up after the war– the sons and daughters of war heroes — wanted to recognize the achievements of a previous generation. Many of these men (Grant being the notable example) were now prominent citizens in New York.
Its also not a coincidence patriotic feelings were swelling during this period due to conflicts like the Spanish-American War which would later demand their own memorials like the powerful Maine Monument, unveiled in 1913.
1915, courtesy the Museum of the City of New York
Riverside Drive might seem a curious place to put a Civil War monument. In fact, its location inspired a bit of a civic war itself from the moment it was first planned in 1893. “THE MONUMENT FIGHT AGAIN” proclaimed the New York Times in 1895, reporting on a rivalry between members of the Upper East Side Association and the Upper West Side Association.
I mean, in 1895, didn’t it make sense to place it on Fifth Avenue, the most prominent and wealthy street in the world? Proponents chose Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, the entrance to Central Park, as the ideal spot. “It is rather amusing to hear …. grounds for opposition in view of what was said in front of the Commissioners when the west side men wanted to locate the monument on the Riverside Drive and Seventy-Second Street…..[T]hey charged that the Plaza was not suitable because the monument would be surrounded by buildings that would dwarf it.”
Supports of the Riverside site claimed that the foundations would not be sturdy enough near the park, an amusing remark given the skyscraper boom which would take over Midtown Manhattan in the 20th century. In particular, naval officers bristled at the Fifth Avenue site which was almost as far from the site of water that one could get in Manhattan.
Had the eastsiders won, we would have gotten a Soldier’s and Sailors Monument that looked like this on the spot of today’s Grand Army Plaza:
By 1899, years after the project was conceived, proponents of the west side finally won out. The monument was planned for a spot in the newly developed Riverside Park known as Mount Tom, a “very beautiful little knoll of natural rock,” believed to have been a spot of quiet contemplation for one Edgar Allen Poe (who lived nearby in 1844). That was at Riverside Drive and 83rd Street. Eventually that too was deemed inadequate, and the preparations were then moved to the present location at 89th Street.
Given the new location, the monument was redesigned by the firm of Straughton and Straughton as a circular temple adorned with Corinthian columns. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was officially dedicated on Memorial Day 1902:
Here are a couple views of its dedication ceremony in 1902:
Courtesy the Museum of the City of New YorkCourtesy the Museum of the City of New York
The final monument is absolutely beautiful, of noble design, but was not well constructed. Repairs were necessary less than five years later, and the structure has gone through several alterations. This New York Times article gives you a look inside the monument and reviews some current efforts to rescue the building from further deterioration.
The weather’s supposed to be spectacular this holiday weekend, so make that a good excuse to visit this unusual and charming little memorial.
Photo by Renee Bieretz, courtesy the Library of Congress
And finally, a mysterious post card from the New York Public Library collection. Note the caption:
PODCAST Some delicious bagel history! How did the bagel go from the basement bakeries of the Lower East Side to the supermarkets and breakfast tables of the entire country?
The most iconic New York City foods — bagels, pizza, hot dogs — are portable, adaptable and closely associated with the city’s history through its immigrant communities. Bagel history, no surprise, traces back to the heart of Jewish New York.
In the case of the bagel, that story introduces us to the Polish immigrants who brought their religion, language and eating customs to the Lower East Side starting in the 1870s. During the late 19th century, millions of bagels were created in tiny bake shops along Hester and Rivington Streets, specifically for the neighborhood’s Jewish community.
We start there and end up in the modern day with frozen supermarket bagels, pizza bagels, bagel breakfast sandwiches, bagel bites. BAGELS SLICED ST. LOUIS STYLE?! How did this simple food from 17th century Poland become a beloved American breakfast staples?
Bagel History is Labor History
It starts with a bagel revolution! Poor conditions in the bakeries inspired a worker’s movement and the formation of a union that standardized the ways in which bagels were made. By the mid 20th century, modern technology allowed for bagels to be made cheaply and shipped all over the world.
But the ‘real’ way to make a bagel is to hand roll it. In this episode, we speak to Melanie Frost of Ess-a-Bagel for some insight into the pleasures of the true New York City bagel.
Streits Matzos manufacturing was once located at 150 Rivington Street. Although they no longer make Rivington Street their home, they are still in business.
Streits Matzos
Tom and Greg interviewing Melanie Frost at Ess-a-Bagel:
FURTHER LISTENING After sinking your teeth into this week’s episode on the history of the bagel, try out these past shows about either cuisine and/or Jewish life in New York City
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FURTHER READING The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread by Maria Balinska Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman Encyclopedia of Jewish Food by Gil Marks Gastropolis: Food and New York City by Annie Hauck-Lawson and Jonathan Deutsch A History of Polish Americans by John J. Bukoczyk Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City / Oxford University Press
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon. This month’s movie — Midnight Cowboy!
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
“By the pricking of my thumbs / something wicked this way comes” — Macbeth
PODCAST In old New York, one hundred and seventy years ago, a theatrical rivalry between two leading actors of the day sparked a terrible night of violence — one of the most horrible moments in New York City history.
England’s great thespian William Macready mounted the stage of the Astor Place Opera House on May 10, 1849, to perform Shakespeare’s Macbeth, just as he had done hundreds of times before. But this performance would become infamous in later years as the trigger for one of New York City’s most violent events — the Astor Place Riot.
The theater, being America’s prime form of public entertainment in the early 19th century, was often home to great disturbances and riots. It was still seen as a British import and often suffered anti-British sentiments that often vexed early New Yorkers.
Macready, known as one of the world’s greatest Shakespearean stars, was soon rivaled by American actor Edwin Forrest, whose brawny, ragged style of performance endeared the audiences of the Bowery. To many, these two actors embodied many of America’s deepest divides — rich vs. poor, British vs. American, Whig vs. Democrat.
On May 10th, these emotions overflowed into an evening of stark, horrifying violence as armed militia shot indiscriminately into an angry mob gathering outside theater at Astor Place. By the end of this story, over two dozen New Yorkers would be murdered, dozens more wounded, and the culture of the city irrevocably changed.
RIOT OR RIOTS? You may have noticed in our podcast that we go from calling it the Astor Place Riot and the Astor Place Riots. We both saw primary references to both the singular and the plural. Though it was just one riot which occurred on May 10, the incidents on May 7 and May 11 constitute smaller riots or disturbances that lead up or were the result of the May 10 event. The word ‘riot’ is not perfect either as it starts as a riot and ends as a massacre.
CORRECTION: In the podcast, I mention that John Jacob Astor lived in the line of stately buildings today known as Colonnade Row. Although he built them, he never lived here. However he moved his family into them, including his grandson John Jacob Astor III. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Washington Irving also lived here. __________________________________________________________
The Astor Place Opera House in 1850:
Inside the Astor Opera House, one of the most lavish spaces in all of New York in the 1840s. Curiously, this illustration depicts a ball for the New York Fire Department. Many members of the volunteer fire departments actually set upon the opera house as part of the angry mob.
After the riots, the opera house quickly lost its cache. High society moved uptown to the Academy of Music (not so far away actually, on 14th Street, near Union Square). The interior of the theater was eventually demolished and sold to the New York Mercantile Library and renamed Clinton Hall.
This was torn down in 1890 and replaced with the 11-story structure that stands there today.
Many considered the demons of Astor Place purged when Cooper Union was finally constructed in 1859, a decade after the riots. In this image, we’re looking up Third Avenue and the final remnant of the Bowery. The Third Avenue Elevated has already been built here:
Astor Place in 2019:
William Macready:
From the New York Evening Post, May 1, 1849, advertising his May 7th show (which was interrupted by protesters).
Edwin Forrest: In portrait and in daguerreotype
Images above courtesy the New York Public Library (except where otherwise noted).
FURTHER LISTENING:
We’ve been doing this for so long that we have MANY podcasts about historical landmarks in and around Astor Place. After you listen to this show, check out these older shows from our catalog:
PODCAST Visiting the first World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the unimaginable playground of the future, planted inescapably within the reality of the day.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the fourth largest park in New York City and the pride of northern Queens, has twice been the doorway to the future.
Two world’s fairs have been held here, twenty-five years apart, both carefully guided by power broker Robert Moses. In this episode, we highlight the story of the first fair, held in 1939 and 1940, a visionary festival of patriotism and technological progress that earnestly sold a narrow view of American middle-class aspirations.
It was the World of Tomorrow! (Never mind the protests or the fact that many of the venues were incomplete.) A kitschy campus of themed zones and wacky architectural wonders, the fair provided visitors with speculative ideas of the future, governed by clean suburban landscapes, space-age appliances and flirtatious smoking robots.
The fair was a post-Depression excuse for corporations to rewrite the American lifestyle, introducing new inventions (television) and attractive new products (automobiles, refrigerators), all presented in dazzling venues along gleaming flag-lined avenues and courtyards.
But the year was 1939 and the world of tomorrow could not keep out the world of today. The Hall of Nations almost immediately bore evidence of the mounting war in Europe. Visitors who didn’t fit the white middle-American profile being sold at the fair found themselves excluded from the ‘future’ it was trying to sell.
And then, in July of 1940, there was a dreadful tragedy at the British Pavilion that proved the World of Tomorrow was still very much a part of the world of today.
PLUS: Where can you find traces of the fair in New York City today?
Listen Now: New York World’s Fair of 1939 Podcast
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon. This month’s movie — On The Town!
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
AP Photo
Silent color video of the 1939 World’s Fair
A map of the World’s Fair of 1939, courtesy the David Rumsey Map Collection. Click here to zoom in and get a closer look.
David Rumsey Map CollectionRenfusa/designer Tony SugaRenfusa/designer Tony Suga
With the Trylon and Perisphere in the background, a statue of George Washington presides over the lagoon era and statues of the Four Freedoms. Read this for more information on the fair’s Washington inauguration connection.
Peter Campbell/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
Gazing down at the wonder of Democracity within the Perisphere.
Worlds Fair Community
Starring into the gushing waters of the Lagoon of Nations with a view of the U.S. Federal Building.
A few images of pavilions from the ‘Government Zone’ that were mentioned on the show:
The Soviet Union pavilion/AP PhotoPoland pavilion/AP photoCzech-Slovak Pavilion, New York World’s Fair New York CityA view of the Food North Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City, New York. (Photo by Sherman Oaks Antique Mall/Getty Images)
The Mickey and Minnie Mouse cartoon which appeared at the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) exhibition.
Wonder Bakery displays a wheat field exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair. The model, Penelope Shoo, is wearing an outfit designed by Hattie Carnegie. The wheat field was billed as “the first planted in New York City since 1875.” (Peter Campbell//Corbis via Getty Images)
The ‘rotolactor’ in the Borden Company Exhibit
Courtesy James Beard
Billy Rose’s Aquacade — or if Aquaman were a musical!
You can find evidence of the 1939 Worlds Fair all over the place in the park! Just a few examples (pictures by Greg Young):
The former “New York City Building” which sat in the shadow of the Trylon and the Perisphere. Today it’s the Queens Museum….…where you can find the relief map of the New York City water supply, designed for the 1939 World’s Fair but never used.On the second floor, you’ll find a visible storage collection of World’s Fair memorabilia from both fairs.
Don’t just look up! At your feet are also some tributes and traces to the World’s Fair.
FURTHER READING
The website 1939 New York World’s Fair is a wonderful resource, breaking down the specifics of most pavilions and even offering scans of brochures and programs from the fair.
PODCAST All the history that came before the development of Hudson Yards, Manhattan’s skyline-altering new project.
Hudson Yards is America’s largest private real estate development, a gleaming collection of office towers and apartments overlooking a self-contained plaza with a shopping mall and a selfie-friendly, architectural curio known as The Vessel.
By design, Hudson Yards feels international, luxurious, non-specific. Are you in New York City, Berlin, Dubai or Tokyo? Yet the mega-development sits on a spot important to the transportation history of New York City. And in the late 20th century, this very same spot would vex and frustrate some of the city’s most influential developers.
The key is that which lies beneath — a concealed train yard owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. (Only the eastern portion of Hudson Yards is completed today; the western portion of the Yards is still clearly on view from a portion of the High Line.)
Prepare for a story of early railroad travel, historic tunnels under the Hudson River, the changing fate of the Tenderloin neighborhood, and a list of spectacular and sometimes wacky derailed proposals for the site — from a new home for the New York Yankees to a key stadium for New York City’s bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
PLUS: Trump Convention Center — it almost happened!
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
The West Side Yards area as it appeared on maps throughout the decades:
1879190019431955 New York Public Library
Pennsylvania Station, constructed between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, allowing for trains from New Jersey to arrive via tunnels which were dug under the Hudson River and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad site on the waterfront.
Bain Collection/Library of Congress. Clean-up version courtesy Shorpy
The West Side Elevated Freight Railroad lifted trains off the street and sometimes dropped off cargo right into the buildings themselves.
The elevated freight railroad enters the National Biscuit Company, between W. 15th and 16th streets, July 30, 1950.
August 21, 1915. “Express track, 9th Avenue ‘L’.” Construction along the Ninth Avenue elevated tracks at West 13th Street in New York. On the corner: Charlie’s Restaurant. 5×7 glass negative by George Grantham Bain/Cleaned up version courtesy Shorpy
And finally, for automobile traffic, the West Side Elevated Highway (or Miller Highway) was constructed in stages during the mid 20th century, further separating the waterfront from the east. By the last 1980s, most of this highway was dismantled.
Date unknown, image courtesy NYC Architecture
From the New York Public Library digital collection — a look at the ‘West Side Yards’ area in the late 1920s, before the construction of the elevated freight railroad (aka the High Line) and the elevated automobile highway along the west side. (Captions are those from the original images.)
Eleventh Avenue between 31st and 32nd Streets, showing New York Central freight yards. May 17, 1927. P.L. Sperr, Photographer.Tenth Avenue, south from a point slightly above West 30th Street, showing prominently the pedestrian bridge over the Avenue at that thoroughfare. This was erected by the New York Central Railroad because of the danger involved by the use of the street bed by their trains. Popularly this was called “Death Avenue”. To the left are the milk shed yards. May 17, 1927Tenth Ave., south from, but not including West 30th Street. This view is as seen from the pedestrian bridge, at West 30th Street. May 17, 1927.enth Ave., west side, north from, but not including West 30th to, but not including 31st Streets. The view shows the yards of the N. Y. Central and Hudson River R.R. Company. May 17, 1927.South on Eleventh Avenue from 35th Street. May 17, 1929.Pennsylvania Station Excavation from 9th Avenue and 31st Street, ca. 1900 — Museum of the City of New YorkThe 9th Avenue Elevated Railroad at 37th Street, 1910 — Museum of the City of New York
The ‘Death Avenue’ cowboys, guiding dummy engines down the avenue for the protection of pedestrians and horse-drawn vehicles.
1940, courtesy Museum of the City of New York — Taken from approximately 10th Avenue between 33rd-34th Streets, looking south.Javits Center, c. 1990 — Edmund Vincent Gillon, courtesy Museum of the City of New York
The elevated freight railroad in the early 2000s, before it became the High Line and before the area adjacent to it became Hudson Yards.
wally g/FlickrLooking over the West Side Yards, 2014, photo courtesy Greg Young. To the right, the first Hudson Yards building is being constructed.courtesy Greg YoungA rendering of the West Side Stadium, courtesy Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Images of the new Hudson Yards development, from opening day, March 15, 2019. Photos taken by Greg Young.
From the second floor, behind the deejay booth. Yes there is a deejay booth in the shopping center.An observation deck over New York as traffic passes by on its way through to the Lincoln Tunnel.Looking up at The Vessel and the towers behind it.
The Shed, a performance space that will be one of the primary draws for most locals.The Vessel, designed by Thomas Heatherwick
FURTHER LISTENING
For more information about this topic, check out these early Bowery Boys podcast episodes:
PODCAST: How the Tweed Courthouse became a symbol for everything rotten about 19th century American politics.
The roots of modern American corruption traces themselves back to a handsome — but not necessarily revolutionary — historic structure sitting behind New York City Hall.
The Tweed Courthouse is more than a mere landmark. Once called the New York County Courthouse, the Courthouse is better known for many traits that the concepts of law and order normally detest — greed, bribery, kickbacks and graft.
But Tammany Hall, the oft-maligned Democratic political machine, served a unique purpose in New York City in the 1850s and 60s, tending to the needs of newly arrived Irish immigrants who were being ignored by inadequate city services. But they required certain favors like the support of political candidates.
And that is how William ‘Boss’ Tweed rose through the ranks of city politics to become the most powerful man in New York City. And it was Tweed, through various government organizations and his trusty Tweed Ring, who transformed this new courthouse project into a cash cow for the greediest of the Gilded Age.
How did the graft function during the construction of the Tweed Courthouse? What led to Tweed’s downfall? And how did this literal temple to corruption become a beloved landmark in the 1980s?
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators for as little as a $1 a month.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are six different pledge levels (New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age, Empire State and Greater New York). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
We’d like to thank Mary Beth Betts of the NYC Public Design Commission for giving us a tour of the Tweed Courthouse. Tours are not currently available of the courthouse, but Betts and her docents lead tours of New York City Hall next door. Visit their website to book a free tour.
Some images from our visit —
Leopold Eidlitz brought a million arches into the courthouse, his medieval inspirations playing an interesting contrast to the Romanesque Revival of architect John Kellum.Roy Lichtenstein’s Element E now dominates the interior of the courthouse. Students, teachers and administrators work in the spaces surrounding the sculpture.The infamous rotunda roof which remained incomplete even when courts began convening in the courthouse in the 1870s. The sumptuous staircases are all made of cast iron.The courthouse has many curious staircases, leading to smaller spaces on the upper floors. You can actually view the two competing architectural styles on the exterior facades facing into City Hall Park. (Hint: Arches vs. no arches)
The Tweed Courthouse under construction, date unknown Image taken from page 269 of ‘King’s Handbook of New York City. An outline history and description of the American metropolis. With … illustrations, etc. (Second edition.)’ Courtesy the British LibraryA view of the Tweed Courthouse as seen from the City Hall elevated train station, 1915. The brownstone structure to the right of the courthouse is no longer there. In 1915 the city planned to actually get rid of the Tweed Courthouse. This rendering creates a large park space surrounding City Hall.
H.M. Pettit. Department of Bridges/Plant & Structures collection, NYC Municipal Archives.
The courthouse in 1979 — in shoddy condition and without its famous staircase! Photo by Walter Snalling, Jr., Library of Congress“Can the law reach him?–The dwarf and the giant thief.” Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital CollectionAgroup of vultures waiting for the storm to “blow over.”–“Let us prey.” Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital CollectionSomething that did blow over–November 7, 1871. Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital Collection
FURTHER READING:
Boss Tweed’s New York by Seymour J. Mandelbaum
Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York by Kenneth D. Ackerman
Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics by Terry Golway
The Tweed Ring by Alexander B. Callow Jr.
The Tiger: The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall by Oliver E. Allen
FURTHER LISTENING:
Our original Boss Tweed show from 2009 — with a big news reference at the very beginning that echoes the story we’re about to tell
The massive waves of Irish immigrants who arrived in this country starting in the 1830s and 40s changed New York City forever. Here’s their story:
Fernando Wood was another major power broker in New York City politics in the 1860s.
PODCAST How did one of the greatest composers of the 20th century end up buried in Queens in a pauper’s grave?
Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime”, moved to New York in 1907, at the height of his fame. And yet, he died a decade later, forgotten by the public.
He remained nearly forgotten and buried in a communal grave in Queens, until a resurgence of interest in ragtime music in the 1970s. How did this happen?
In today’s music-packed show, we travel to Missouri, stopping by Sedalia and St. Louis, and interview a range of Ragtime experts to help us understand the mystery of Joplin’s forgotten years in New York City.
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators for as little as a $1 a month.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are five different pledge levels (and with clever names too — Mannahatta, New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age and Empire State). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
Here are Reginald Robinson and Richard Dowling performing Scott Joplin:
New York Public LibraryThe Entertainer published 1902/New York Public Library
Tom’s images from Sedalia and St. Louis, Missouri:
The historic marker outside the site of the Maple Leaf Club in Sedalia, Missouri.Looking into Maple Leaf Park, on the site of the historic club.Inside Maple Leaf ParkMaple Leaf Park contains a timeline of Joplin, the “Maple Leaf Rag” and the club.Downtown Sedalia at sunset, with the historic Hotel Bothwell, right.Historic downtown Sedalia. This is a shot on Main Street.Sedalia’s mural dedicated to Scott Joplin.The Hotel BothwellLooking up Ohio Avenue in downtown Sedalia.Sedalia’s former train station has been converted into a visitors center, with a museum that covers a lot of Ragtime, and Joplin, history.Inside the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site in St. Louis. This is the front apartment, where Joplin may have boarded.A piano with, of course, Joplin music ready to be played.Joplin’s portrait hangs on the wall of the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis.The piano room downstairs at the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis contains many piano rolls of Joplin compositions.Bryan Cather, interviewed in the show at the Scott Joplin House, pumps away at the player piano.Outside the Scott Joplin House in St. Louis on a snowy February day.Scott Joplin House, St. Louis.The last home of Scott Joplin at 163 West 131st Street in Harlem. Image courtesy Google MapsThe grave of Scott Joplin at St. Michael’s Cemetery. Image courtesy Gardens of Stone.The major reason for Scott Joplin’s resurgent popularity in the 1970s was the box office hit The Sting starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman.The Maple Leaf Rag, Joplin’s most successful song in his lifetime. A clip of the Houston Grand Opera’s version of Treemonisha, performed in 1976.
FURTHER LISTENING:
Get a background on the music scene of the early 1900s by listening to these two podcasts on New York’s early music heritage:
And for a look at early African-American neighborhoods in New York, check out this episode (with trips to Seneca Village and Weeksville):
PODCAST Newark Liberty International Airport or LaGuardia Airport? Which do you prefer? (Or is the answer — none of the above. Give me JFK!)
In this episode, we present the origin stories of New York City’s airports and airfields. The skies over New York have been graced with aircraft for almost 110 years. In fact the first ‘flying machine’ was flown by no less than Wilbur Wright, the man who (with his brother Orville) invented the airplane.
Yet by the time the U.S. government began regulating the skies — making way for commercial aviation — the city had failed to develop an adequate airport of its own. Meanwhile the thriving city of Newark, New Jersey, had just opened a glistening new airport, and in 1929 it was awarded the government’s coveted airmail contract.
This did not sit well with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who engineered a spectacular tarmac stunt in 1934, drawing attention to this deficiency. And then he began dreaming of a new airport in northern Queens, one poised to draw customers away from New Jersey.
And thus began a decades-long tug-of-war for supremacy over New York City skies.
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators for as little as a $1 a month.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are five different pledge levels (and with clever names too — Mannahatta, New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age and Empire State). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon.
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
CLARIFICATION: We forgot to mention that the original name of JFK Airport was actually New York International Airport, Anderson Field, almost everybody ended up calling it Idlewild Airport.
You must check out this extraordinary promotional video for American Airlines from 1933:
Roosevelt Field 1927 — Charles Lindbergh takes off on his historic flight to France
National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
Floyd Bennett Field, September 1, 1934. The plan belongs to pilot Roscoe Turner, who landed at the field after flying from Burbank, CA to New York in 10 hours.
Courtesy Airfields Freeman
Newark Airport, in a dramatic postcard. American Airlines would eventually move its base of operations to LaGuardia.
LaGuardia Airport in 1940, a few months after its opening.
Museum of the City of New York
LaGuardia, April 1, 1944: Visitors could stroll a wide promenade, watching airplane activity on the tarmac.
Wurts Bros/ Museum of the City of New YorkWurts Bros/Museum of the City of New York
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia gets a kiss from ‘radio actress’ Arlene Blackburn, the first person to disembark from the first plane at LaGuardia Airport. Photo originally published by the Daily News, Dec. 2, 1939.
The beautiful, former Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia Airport. The terminal is still in use (JetBlue Airlines calls it home), making it the oldest active terminal building for commercial use in America.
PODCAST How New Yorkers (and New York City itself) changed the way the world laughs.
New York City has always cast a melodramatic profile in the Bowery Boys podcasts, but in this episode, we’re walking on the funny side of the street to reveal the city’s unique relationship with live comedy.
The award-winning show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel depicts the birth of modern stand-up comedy in the late 1950s, forged by revolutionary voices in the small coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. But New Yorkers had been laughing for decades by that point.
Most of the early American comedy greats got their starts on the New York vaudeville stage — like the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges and Eddie Cantor. By the 1940s, comedy stars came from the New York supper clubs, cementing a particular style of broad, big-joke comedy. The first major stars of television came from a different pool of talent — young Jewish entertainers, updating the vaudeville feel for the first television broadcasts.
But the counterculture movements in Greenwich Village would help comedians evolve more personal — and more explicit — acts as they performed along side beat poets and jazz musicians. In 1963, an enterprising club owner named Budd Friedman would change comedy forever in a tiny room in Hell’s Kitchen.
The rise of the comedy club and opportunities like Saturday Night Live would create a specific brand of New York City comedy, and Manhattan stages like Caroline’s and the Comedy Cellar would help create major film and television stars during the 1980s. With Seinfeld in 1989, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David would create the perfect fusion of stand-up and New York City attitude. But the following decade brought in new voices and a surprising new direction.
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!
We are now a member of Patreon, a patronage platform where you can support your favorite content creators for as little as a $1 a month.
Please visit our page on Patreon and watch a short video of us recording the show and talking about our expansion plans. If you’d like to help out, there are five different pledge levels (and with clever names too — Mannahatta, New Amsterdam, Five Points, Gilded Age, Jazz Age and Empire State). Check them out and consider being a sponsor.
And join us for the next episode of the Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon. This month’s selection — Ghostbusters!
We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
One of New York’s biggest vaudeville houses, the Keith’s Union Square on East 14th Street, pictured here in 1895.
Museum of the City of New York
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis with Sophie Tucker at the Copacabana, 1948
Museum of the City of New York
The Gaslight Cafe at 116 Macdougal Street, sometime in the early 1960s.
Photo by Fred W. McDarrah/Getty Images
The Gaslight as depicted in the film Inside Llewyn Davis….
…and in the television show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Amazon
A few ads for Lenny Bruce performances — his 1959 appearance at the Den and two from 1964 (including the ad for his infamous booking at Cafe au Go Go).
Phil Silvers and Budd Friedman, in front of pop culture’s most famous brick wall.
Budd Friedman
A young Chris Rock at Catch a Rising Star, pictured here in 1987 (although he had been working the club since 1984).
A 1989 news report on the ‘comedy club boom’ of the 1980s.
Rodney Dangerfield at Catch a Rising Star (audio only, 1983)
An early routine from Joan Rivers….
Derrick Comedy (featuring Donald Glover) at Uprights Citizens Brigade, 2012
Our thanks to Nat Towson and Billy Procida for providing some guidance on the recent history of New York stand-up.
FURTHER READING/LISTENING
The History of Standup Podcast Jewish Comedy: A Serious History by Jeremy Dauber The Improv by Budd Friedman From Traveling Show to Vaudeville: Theatrical Spectacle in America, 1830–1910, edited by Robert Lewis The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff On The Real Side: A History of African American Comedy by Mel Watkins
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![Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3110163346_d342440914_o.jpg)
![Courtesy NYPL. Augustus F. Sherman [ca. 1906-1914]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3110164858_d11ce4843f_o.jpg)
![Courtesy NYPL, Sherman, Augustus F. -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3109330325_550cd50284_o.jpg)
![Sherman, Augustus F. -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3110162400_ec91ca2fda_o.jpg)
![NYPL, Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3109331119_1de4d7edb5_o.jpg)
![NYPL Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) -- Photographer. [ca. 1906-1914]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3110163692_f8c66c0f5a_o.jpg)
![Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3109329865_acba999d7b_o.jpg)
![Sherman, Augustus F. (Augustus Francis) -- Photographer. [ca. 1906]](https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/3110163440_f861bca66d_o.jpg)
