Author: Bowery Boys

Categories
Planes Trains and Automobiles Podcasts

Uncovering Hudson Yards: The hidden history beneath New York’s newest destination

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!

Listen Now: Hudson Yards History Podcast

Or listen to it straight from here:

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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:

1879
1900
1943
1955 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.

The Ninth Avenue Elevated Railroad for passengers also streaked through the west side area. This is a view of at Ninth Avenue and West. 13th Street in today’s Meat-Packing District.

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, 1927
Tenth 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 York
The 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/Flickr
Looking over the West Side Yards, 2014, photo courtesy Greg Young. To the right, the first Hudson Yards building is being constructed.
courtesy Greg Young
A 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:

Categories
Gilded Age New York Podcasts

Boss Tweed’s House of Corruption: A Tale of Crooked Schemes and Unchecked Power

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?

Listen Now: Tweed Courthouse Podcast

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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 Library
A 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.

For an excellent look at Tweed’s 20th century fight for survival, read Kenneth R. Cobb’s excellent article (with tons of archival photography) on the Department of Records and Information Services website.

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 Collection
Agroup of vultures waiting for the storm to “blow over.”–“Let us prey.”
Thomas Nast/New York Public Library Digital Collection
Something 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.

Categories
Music History Podcasts

Scott Joplin in New York: A Ragtime Mystery

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.

Listen Now: Scott Joplin Ragtime 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 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.

________________________________________________________

We’d like to thank the following guests for participating in this week’s show:

— Kathleen Boswell of the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival

— Bryan Cather from the Scott Joplin House State Historic Site and the organization Friends of Scott Joplin

— Edward A. Berlin, ragtime scholor and author of King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era

— Reginald R. Robinson, jazz and ragtime pianist and educator

— Richard Dowling who performed his album The Complete Piano Works of Scott Joplin at Carnegie Hall on the 100th anniversary of Joplin’s birth

Here are Reginald Robinson and Richard Dowling performing Scott Joplin:

New York Public Library
The 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 Park
Maple 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 Bothwell
Looking 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 Maps
The 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):

Categories
Planes Trains and Automobiles Podcasts

Newark vs. LaGuardia: A story of airports and the first flying machines over New York City skies

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.

LISTEN HERE:

_________________________________________________________

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.

CORRECTION: Near the end of this show, Greg says that 18 new gates have opened this month at LaGuardia Airport. It’s actually 11 gates in a concourse that will eventually have 18.

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 York
Wurts 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.

New York Daily News

The infamous incident at Newark Airport, as reported in November 25, 1934, issue of the New York Times:

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.

Courtesy Airport Spotting

FURTHER READING FROM THE BOWERY BOYS WEBSITE

More information about

— The Hudson Fulton Celebration and the famous first flight of Wilbur Wright
— Glenn Curtiss and the first long-distance flight
— One of the more lucrative air contests, held by Gimbels Department Store
— The story of how Idlewild Airport became JFK International Airport
— Did they really think they could build landing strips in the middle of the city? YES THEY DID.

FURTHER LISTENING

This week’s show is basically a prequel for this one, the tale of one of the most impressive airports of the Jet Age:

For a little history on Governors Island’s early years in flight:

We mention the site of Freedomland as being a possible location for an early airport.

Categories
Amusements and Thrills Podcasts

The marvelous history of New York comedy, from the Village coffeehouses to the heights of 30 Rock

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.

LISTEN HERE:

___________________________________________________________

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

Categories
Podcasts True Crime

The Murder on Bond Street: Who Killed Dr. Burdell?

PODCAST A gaslight murder mystery with more twists than an Agatha Christie novel!

On January 31, 1857, a prominent dentist named Harvey Burdell was found brutally murdered — strangled, then stabbed 15 times — in his office and home and Bond Street, a once-trendy street between Broadway and the Bowery.

The suspects for this horrific crime populated the rooms of 31 Bond Street including Emma Cunningham, the former lover of Dr. Burdell and a woman with many secrets to hide; the boarder John Eckel with a curious fondness for canaries; and the banjo-playing George Snodgrass, whose personal obsessions may have evolved in depraved ways.

The mechanics of solving crime were much different in the mid 19th century than they are today, and the mysterious particulars of this investigation seem strange and even unacceptable to us today. A suspect would stand trial for Dr. Burdell’s death yet the shocking events which followed — including a sinister deception and a fake childbirth — would prove that truth is stranger than fiction.

Listen Here: Harvey Burdell Murder 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 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.

__________________________________________________________

A look at Bond Street and the surrounding blocks in 1828. Lafayette Street/Lafayette Place did not yet exist then. In fact, Houston Street stops at Broadway. East of the Bowery runs North Street (which would be renamed Houston Street when it was extended through the block.) Great Jones Street is listed only as Jones Street here, and streets with names like David Street and Art Street also appear.

New York Public Library
Dr. Harvey Burdell and 31 Bond Street, Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 21, 1857 via Off the Grid

The layout of the murder scene on the second floor of 31 Bond Street

The Era Magazine, 1904

Images below are from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, Harper’s Weekly and other contemporary publications from 1857.

John Eckel, Emma Cunningham and George Snodgrass

An advertisement for the ‘bogus Burdell baby’, displayed at Barnum’s American Museum:

Via Strange Company blog

FURTHER READING

Butchery On Bond Street: Sexual Politics and the Burdell-Cunningham Case in Ante-Bellum New York by Benjamin Feldman — the definitive narrative of this crime story from 2007

Evil Emma, Down Mexico Way by Benjamin Feldman — a sequel of sorts, following the strange circumstances of Emma Cunningham’s time in Baja, California

31 Bond Street: A Novel by Ellen Horan — a fictionalized retelling of the story

FURTHER LISTENING

A few other murder mysteries in our back catalog that might interest you:

Categories
Mysterious Stories Podcasts

Ghost Stories of Hell’s Kitchen: Tales of haunted houses, creepy courtyards and spirited taverns

PODCAST The Manhattan neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen has a mysterious, troubling past. So what happens when you throw a few ghosts into the mix? Greg and Tom find out the hard way in this year’s ghost stories podcast, featuring tales of mystery and mayhem situated in the townhouses, courtyards and taverns of this trendy area of Midtown West.

This year’s Ghost Stories of Old New York show features:

— The troubling tale of a 1970s motion picture classic that may have left a sinister mark on West 54th Street

— The haunted home of a popular film and TV actress, possessed with a very hungry ghost

— An enchanting courtyard layered with several horrifying ghost stories

— And the shenanigans at a 150-year-old tavern where the beer and the spirits flow freely.

Listen Now: Hell’s Kitchen Ghosts Podcast

To download this episode and subscribe to our show for free, visit iTunes or other podcasting services or get it straight from our satellite site.

You can also listen to the show on Overcast, Google Music and Stitcher streaming radio.

Or listen to it straight from here:

___________________________________________________________

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.

_________________________________________________________

The location of Madame Blavatsky’s home off Eighth Avenue.

The former site of the 596 Club, a notorious hangout for the Westies.

Some of the Exorcist‘s most frightening scenes were filmed in Hell’s Kitchen.

The former home of both film star June Havoc — and a restless spirit named Lucy.

The mysterious, tucked-away oasis known as Clinton Court.

Courtesy Ephemeral New York

The neighborhood institution known as the Landmark Tavern today, a tavern which has been in business since 1868.

The infamous bathtub. Does the ghost of a Confederate veteran still rub-a-dub in this tub?

Courtesy W42ST

The film star George Raft, a regular at the Landmark Tavern …. to this day.

FURTHER LISTENING:

For a ‘regular’ look at the history of Hell’s Kitchen, listen to this show:

Last year’s ghost story episode on Greenwich Village plays a small role in this year’s episode as well.

Categories
New Amsterdam Podcasts

Peter Stuyvesant and the Fall of New Amsterdam: Where did the Dutch roots of New York City go?

PODCAST There would be no New York City without Peter Stuyvesant, the stern, authoritarian director-general of New Amsterdam, the Dutch port town that predates the Big Apple. 

The willpower of this complicated leader took an endangered ramshackle settlement and transformed it into a functioning city. But Mr. Stuyvesant was no angel.

In part two in the Bowery Boys’ look into the history of New Amsterdam, we launch into the tale of Stuyvesant from the moment he steps foot (or peg leg, as it were) onto the shores of Manhattan in 1647.

Stuyvesant immediately set to work reforming the government, cleaning up New Amsterdam’s filth and even planning new streets. He authorized the construction of a new market, a commercial canal and a defense wall — on the spot of today’s Wall Street. But Peter would act very un-Dutch-like in his intolerance of varied religious beliefs, and the institution of slavery would flourish in New Amsterdam under his unwavering direction.

And yet the story of New York City’s Dutch roots does not end with the city’s occupation by the English in 1664 — or even in 1673 (when the city was briefly retaken by a Dutch fleet). The Dutch spirit remained alive in the New York countryside, becoming part of regional customs and dialect.

And yet the story of New Amsterdam might otherwise be ignored if not for a determined group of translators who began work on a critical project in the 1970s……

Listen Now: Peter Stuyvesant 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 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 first ever Bowery Boys Movie Club, an exclusive podcast provided to our supporters on Patreon. This month’s selection — Taxi Driver.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

__________________________________________________________

The Costello Plan, New Amsterdam 1660. Surveyed by Jacque Cortelyou. Full size photograph of manuscript map in the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana of Florence, Italy. The Castello plan is the earliest known plan of New Amsterdam, and the only one dating from the Dutch period. Wikicommons.

New Amsterdam in miniature at the Museum of the City of New York, photographed in 1932

Museum of the City of New York
Peter Stuyvesant tearing the letter demanding the surrender of New York. Artist Howard Pyle, 1923. New York Public Library

The moment when New Amsterdam became New York, depicted in a 1914 picture book.

The old Stuyvesant mansion, near First Avenue, engraved for the N.Y. Mirror newspaper. Courtesy NYPL

The New Netherland Research Center, located on the seventh floor of the New York State Library.  For more information, visit the New Netherland Institute website.

Greg Young

FURTHER LISTENING

We didn’t go too deeply into it in our latest show, but the Bronx also has a very rich Dutch history. The name even comes from a (unfortunately doomed) Dutch settler.

The early history of Broadway begins in New Amsterdam.

We also spoke about the ‘rattle watch’ in our show on the New York Fire Department.

Categories
Bowery Boys

Bowery Boys Walking Tours takes the podcast to the streets

And now for a little news from the Bowery Boys: We’re excited to announce the launch of Bowery Boys Walks — our official small-group walking tours that are taking our show into the streets!

If you’re a regular listener to the podcast, you know that we try to bring a little fun and humor to retelling the events and characters that have shaped New York’s history. We’re taking the same approach in developing the Bowery Boys walking tours.

Each walk has been developed by an expert tour guide working together with us, and most will complement episodes of the show that have already been released. So, if you’re in the mood to study up before your walk, there will be at least one episode you can listen to to get “situated.”

Our first tour: Broadway

We’re kicking things off on center stage with our first walking tour: Legends and Landmarks of Broadway. Led by professional tour guide and long-time theater insider Jeff Dobbins, the tour will trace the history of Broadway theater and the theater district from the days of Oscar Hammerstein I up through Broadway’s “Golden Age”.

(Looking to study up before the tour? Check out our podcasts on Rodgers & Hammerstein, Florenz Ziegfeld, and Times Square in the ’70s.)

Several additional tours are currently in development and will be announced shortly. Stay tuned for that announcement.

About the tours

Bowery Boys Walks are intended to be as intimate as possible, so groups are limited to 15 participants. Because of this, we strongly recommend booking in advance through the website to ensure a spot on the tour.

Tours last two hours, and tickets are $35 per person. (Read more of the details here.)

Follow Bowery Boys walks on Instagram and on Facebook, where we’ll be posting photos from the streets, past and present.

Categories
New Amsterdam Podcasts

Life in New Amsterdam: How the Dutch helped build the foundations of New York City history

PODCAST Back when old New York was once New Amsterdam.

We are turning back the clock to the very beginning of New York City history with this special two-part episode, looking at the very beginnings of European settlement in the area and the first significant Dutch presence on the island known as Manhattan.

The Dutch were drawn to the New World not because of its beauty, but because of its beavers. Beaver pelts were all the rage in European fashion, and European explorers like Henry Hudson reported back that this unexplored land was filled with the animals and their beautiful coats.

Of course, people were already living here — the tribes of the Lenape — and the first settlers sent by the Dutch — French-speaking Walloons — encountered them in the mid 1620s. But relations were relatively good between the two parties at the beginning. Could the native Munsee-speaking people and the first Dutch settlers get along?

In this episode, we walk you through the first two decades of life in the settlement of New Amsterdam, confined to the southern tip of Manhattan. What was the island like back then? How did people live and work in a region so entirely unknown to its European inhabitants?

Listen Now: New Amsterdam History 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 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 first ever 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 official seal of New York City contains many clues to the city’s history. It also features not one, but two, beavers.

Manhattan Unlocked

The original coat of arms for New Amsterdam and New Netherland.

New York Public Library

Henry Hudson on a vintage cigarette card.

George Arents Collection/New York Public LIbrary

A 1614 map drawn by explorer Adriaen Block, labeling the entire place New Nederlandt!

I. N. Phelps Stokes Collection of American Historical Prints/ New York Public Library

A look at New Amsterdam in it might have looked in 1640. Note the windmill in the background and gallows on Capske Hook!

New-York Historical Society
“As it appeared about the year 1640, while under the Dutch Government. Copied from an ancient Etching of the same size Publd. by Justus Danckers, at Amsterdam. Printed and Published by H. R. Robinson, 52 Courtlandt Street New York” Courtesy Museum of the City of New York

An illustration from the 1921 book A History of the United States by Henry Eldridge Bourne. A Dutch blacksmith shop and a farm scene, Manhattan Island, where a brookside path with the name of Maiden Lane followed a valley to the East River

From the same book — a look at Fort Amsterdam and Capske Hook.

An illustration of New Amsterdam clearly depicts its placement in the larger scheme of the New Netherland territory (and, as the years went by, its increasing prominence as both a tobacco producer and a component of the Dutch transatlantic slave trade).

New York Public Library

A look at New Amsterdam in the year 1642, dominated by the fort to the south and a sheep’s pasture and various farms to the north.

Plan of New Amsterdam About 1644, map dated 1902, compiled from the Dutch and English records by J. H. Innes.

Museum of the City of New York

The Pieter Schaghen letter outlining the purchase of the island of Manhattan. This letter is located at the New Netherland Research Center.

FURTHER LISTENING

Listen to the podcasts

Looking for the latest episode of our podcasts? Listen now on iTunes to “The Bowery Boys” and “The First”.

Find recent podcast episodes here, and click to read more about listening options here.

Read the book

Bowery-Boys-Book-Cover-R6--revised

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!

Categories
Food History Podcasts

Counter Culture: A History of Automats, Lunchonettes and Diners in New York City

PODCAST The evolution of affordable dining — from oyster houses to lunch counters.

The classic diner is as American as the apple pie it serves, but the New York diner is a special experience all its own, an essential facet of everyday life in the big city. They range in all shapes and sizes — from the epic, stand-alone Empire Diner to tiny luncheonettes and lunch counters, serving up fried eggs and corned beef.

In this episode, the Bowery Boys trace the history of the New York diner experience, a history of having lunch in an ever-changing metropolis.

There were no New York restaurants per se before Delmonico’s in 1827, although workers on-the-go frequented oyster saloons and bought from street vendors and markets. Cellar establishments like Buttercake Dicks served rudimentary sustenance, and men often ate food provided by bars.

But once women entered the public sphere — as workers and shoppers — eating houses had to evolve to accommodate them. And thus was born the luncheonette, mini-lunch spaces in drug stores and candy shops. Soon prefabricated structures known as diners — many made in New Jersey — moved into vacant lots, streamlining the cheap eating experience.

Cafeterias appealed to New Yorkers looking for cleanliness, and those looking for an inexpensive, solitary meal turned to one unusual restaurant — the automat. Horn & Hardarts’ innovative eateries — requiring a handful of nickels — were regular features on the New York City streetscape.

How did all these different types of eating experiences culminate in the modern New York diner-counter experience? For that, you can thank the Greeks.

Listen Now: Diner History 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 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.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

________________________________________________________

Like oysters? They were the easiest way to grab a quick bite on the go in the 19th century. You could find oyster sellers at markets (pictured here: the scene at a mid-19th century oyster stand at Fulton Market) or…..

New York Public Library

…head over to the many oyster saloons or houses along the waterfront. Believe it or not, many oyster places remained opened well into the 20th century. The ones pictured here were photographed by Berenice Abbott in 1937!

Berenice Abbott/1937

This scene at T.E. Fitzgerald’s Bar, taken in 1912, reflects the typical bar and saloon scene of the 19th century. A food bar is at the left, liquor on the right. Below that, a picture from a bar in Jersey City, New Jersey, with a scenario that was probably more standard — help-yourself food heaped on a bar in the corner.

Museum of the City of New York
Byron Company/Museum of the City of New York

A luncheon menu at Siegel-Cooper Department Store on Ladies Mile, 1901.

The Arcadia Luncheonette Soda Fountain at 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue, 1930.

Customers crammed in at a restaurant counter, 1920s.

NYPL

Rela’s Open Kitchen Luncheonette & Coffee Shop at 252-254 West 17th Street, 1932

Charles Von Urban / Museum of the City of New York

Lamston 5 & 10 Cent Store, lunch counter, 45th Street and Lexington Avenue, 1940

One hundred years ago, an aspiring New York entrepreneur could have a O’Mahony dining car (or diner) shipped to your lot. And voila! Your new restaurant was ready to serve hungry customers.

©Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ladies at a lunch counter, 1948

Images of automat goodness from the New York Public Library:

1936, Berenice Abbott/NYPL
115 East 14 St. automat, 1935.

A transfixing little film about dining in an automat.

1960: Religious leaders protest outside a New York Woolworth location in solidarity with protesters in the South.

Howard Johnson’s Restaurants were another ubiquitous sight on the streets of New York during the 1970s.

Photo by Bob Gruen, taken 1972, courtesy Ephemeral New York

Many stand-alone diners have closed in New York City, but there are plenty still in New Jersey and on Long Island. These New York classics are still open for business:

Carlos Escobedo/Flickr
Andreas Komodromos/Flickr
NYC Corners

Who knows who’ll meet in a New York City diner?

FURTHER EXPLORING

Please visit the New York Public Library’s wonderful resource called What’s On The Menu?, a searchable database of thousands of old menus. As of this date, they have 1,333,481 dishes transcribed from 17,545 menus!

FURTHER LISTENING

Listen to the podcasts

Looking for the latest episode of our podcasts? Listen now on iTunes to “The Bowery Boys” and “The First”.

Find recent podcast episodes here, and click to read more about listening options here.

Read the book

Bowery-Boys-Book-Cover-R6--revised

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!

Categories
Parks and Recreation Podcasts

Heaven on the Hudson: How Riverside Park covered its tracks and became a breathtaking spot

PODCAST The highs and lows of the history of Riverside Park

In peeling back the many layers to Riverside Park, upper Manhattan’s premier ribbon park, running along the west side from the Upper West Side to Washington Heights, you will find a wealth of history that takes you back to Manhattan’s most rugged days.

The windswept bluffs overlooking the Hudson River were home to only desolate mansions and farmhouses, its rock outcroppings appealing to tortured poets such as Edgar Allan Poe. But the railroad cleaved the peace when it laid its tracks along the waterfront in the 1840s.

To encourage development, the city planned Riverside Park as a respite with commanding views of the river and a swanky carriage way for afternoon excursions. But the original plan by Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted only went so far — right up to those pesky train tracks.

In the 20th century, residents along the newly chic Riverside Drive tired of the smoky mess. It would take the ‘master builder’ himself — Robert Moses — to finally conceal those tracks and create a new spot for recreational facilities. In doing so, he threaded his new park with a new noisemaker — the Henry Hudson Parkway.

We give you the grand overview history of this extraordinary park THEN we visit the park itself to give you the full dynamic sound experience, reviewing Riverside’s most spectacular attractions.

PLUS: The strange story of two great monuments at 125th Street, the final resting place for a great military leader and a five year old boy, whose tragic story has inspired generations of poets.

FEATURING: George and Ira Gershwin, Charles Schwab, Joan of Arc, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump (in non political capacities!)

Listen Now: Riverside Park New York 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 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.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

________________________________________________________

From an 1855 map of Manhattan, showing the still-rugged terrain of the area west of Central Park

1896, Museum of the City of New York
Detroit Publishing Co.,Created / Published between 1910 and 1920 / Library of Congress

In the early 1900s, the park was extended further north. This depicts the scene near 148th Street, near a ‘bathing beach’ that couldn’t have been very pleasant to visit during construction.

MCNY

Riverside Park and Drive in the 1920s — the park stops at the tracks.

Another image from 1910, showing the exposed tracks and the waterfront.

Photograph shows the unveiling of the Joan of Arc statue, Riverside Park, New York City on Dec. 6, 1915. (Source: Flickr Commons project, 2013)

The original tomb of Ulysses S. Grant, circa 1886….

Library of Congress

Replaced by his more famous resting place in 1897, in Olmsted’s carriage loop. (Olmsted was no longer associated with Riverside Park or else he might have taken issue with its placement.)

1901/Library of Congress

The fabulous Claremont Inn which drew thousands of weary New Yorkers after a long stroll in Riverside Park.

Detroit Publishing Co., 1900/ Library of Congress

A view of Grant’s Tomb, Claremont Inn, the Manhattan Valley Viaduct and a glorious pier structure.

1906/Library of Congress
New York Public Library

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument. (Read more about it here.)

New York Public Library

The Rice residence at West 89th Street and Riverside Drive

Wurts Brothers/MCNY

The Firemen’s Memorial, pictured here in 1929

MCNY

The tomb of the Amiable Child, 1900 and 1925

MCNY

The Henry Hudson Parkway and the Boat Basin, 1975

New York Times/MCNY

A portion of Riverside Park South, developed by Donald Trump.

A glorious little marina sits in front of the Boat Basin.

The Hamilton Fountain, at West 76th Street, named for the man who bequeathed it to the city — Robert Ray Hamilton, the great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton and Eliza Schuyler Hamilton.

Up the hill and through the trees, you will find the contemplation spot for one of America’s most famous writers.

The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial — or rather, where a memorial should be.

Just west of the peacefulness of Warsaw Ghetto Memorial Plaza:

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, completed in 1902.

A message of thanks from the ASPCA….

The Amiable Child monument today…..

…just steps away from Grant’s Tomb.

All hail Joan!

FURTHER LISTENING

After listening to this story of Riverside Park, check out these related Bowery Boys podcasts —

For more information on Upper West Side development:

For more information on the westside railroad:

Listen to the podcasts

Looking for the latest episode of our podcasts? Listen now on iTunes to “The Bowery Boys” and “The First”.

Find recent podcast episodes here, and click to read more about listening options here.

Read the book

Bowery-Boys-Book-Cover-R6--revised

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!

Categories
Amusements and Thrills Podcasts

Harry Houdini and the Golden Age of Magic: Spectacle, sorcery and spiritualism in New York

PODCAST The history of magic in New York City — in all its peculiar varieties.

Harry Houdini became one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century, a showman whose escape artistry added a new dimension to the tried-and-true craft of stage magic. In this show, we present not only a mini-biography on the daredevil wizard, but a survey of the environment which made him — a city of magic, mediums and mystery.

New York during the late 19th century was a place of real, practical magic — electric lights, elevated trains, telephones and other wonders that would have seemed impossible just a few decades before. Those that performed stage magic in a world of such unbelievable inventions would need to up their game.

The great names of European stage magic — most notably Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin — would give rise to spectacular performances on both vaudeville and legitimate stages. Performers like Howard Thurston would dazzle New York crowds with unbelievable demonstrations of levitation while Harry Kellar and his ‘spirit cabinet’ would seem to use sorcery from other worlds.

Houdini got his start in New York’s dime museums, evolving from simple card tricks to elaborate routines of escape. He was a truly modern performer, borrowing from the magic masters and benefiting from an eager public, looking for a virtual superhero.

But stage magic had a surprising foe — actual magic or, as practiced by hundreds of mediums and mystics,  spiritualism. Suddenly, the craft of magical illusion seemed secondary to those who could practice those same arts via a connection with the afterlife. Houdini was drawn into the debate early in his career, and the conflict intensified with his unusual friendship with one of the greatest writers in the world.

Listen Now: Harry Houdini

___________________________________________________________________________

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.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

________________________________________________________

And we have even MORE magic in store for you!

Tickets on sale now for an evening of historical tales, magical projection and a poorly placed pun or two. A tie-in event to the New-York Historical Society’s Summer of Magic: Treasures from the David Copperfieldcollection

THE BOWERY BOYS MAGICAL MYSTERY HOUR
Tuesday, August 14th, 2018 | 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
$20 (Members $18)

Presenting the most magical tales in all of New York City history! Tom Meyers and Greg Young of the Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast will conjure up stories of historical wizardry and superstition, from the dusty backrooms of old magic shops to the impossible feats of illusion and incantation from the Gilded Age’s most mysterious parlors. You may even see them perform a bit of sleight-of-hand themselves! Afterwards, we’ll be signing copies of our book The Bowery Boys Adventures in Old New York.

LOCATION
The Robert H. Smith Auditorium at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY

TO PURCHASE TICKETS
Click HERE to purchase tickets online
By phone: Contact New-York Historical’s in-house call center at (212) 485-9268. Call center is open 9 am–5 pm daily.
Advance tickets may be purchased on site at New-York Historical’s Admissions desk during museum hours.

________________________________________________________

Magic posters from some of the great magicians who preceded Houdini to the New York stage:

Martinka’s Magic Shop on Sixth Avenue — the center of the American magic community for much of the 20th century

At top: Harry Houdini stepping into a crate that will be lowered into New York Harbor as part of an escape stunt on July 7, 1912.

Library of Congress

FURTHER LISTENING

The Conan Doyle-Houdini seance was spoken about in of the official Bowery Boys Halloween podcasts:

Categories
American History Podcasts

The Astonishing Saga of Cyrus West Field and the Atlantic Cable, the “Eighth Wonder of the World”

PODCAST The origin of the Atlantic Cable — the first telegraph connection between the Old and the New Worlds — and the role of New York City in its creation.

New Yorkers threw a wild, exuberant celebration in the summer of 1858 in honor of ‘the eighth wonder of the world’, a technological achievement that linked North America and Europe by way of an underwater cable which sat on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

The transatlantic cable was set to link the telegraph systems of the United Kingdom with those in the United States and Canada, and New Yorkers were understandably excited. Peter Cooper, one of the city’s wealthiest men, was attached to the ambitious project as a member of the ‘Cable Cabinet’, as was Samuel Morse, the brilliant inventor who helped to innovate the telegraph.

But it was an ambitious young New Yorker — a successful paper manufacturer named Cyrus W. Field — who devised the endeavor from the comfort of his luxurious Gramercy Park townhouse.

New Yorkers had so much to celebrate; a link with Europe would bring the world closer together, enrich the financiers of Wall Street and raise the city’s international profile. The city partied so relentlessly that New York City Hall was almost destroyed in a frenzy of fireworks.

But had everybody started celebrating too early? Was the Atlantic Cable — fated to change the world — actually a terrible failure?

PLUS: A visit to beautiful Newfoundland and the origin of the journalism slang “scoop”!

Listen Now: Atlantic Cable 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 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.

We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.

________________________________________________________

The initial New York City celebration for the Atlantic Cable — when the cables first touched ground — literally ignited a firestorm. Frenzied fireworks caught the cupola on fire, almost destroying the whole building. Compare lithographs from the August 1858 celebration and the September celebration:

Library of Congress

Image courtesy Bill Burns/History of the Atlantic Cable

A dramatic rendering of the Cable Cabinet, featuring all the principal players in Cyrus Field’s townhouse.

Museum of the City of New York

Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, location of the North American terminus of the Atlantic Cable

New York Public Library

The words of Queen Victoria and James Buchanan:

Library of Congress

Images of the September 1, 1858 celebration, mere days before people realized that the cable stopped working.

Two vibrant versions of the same view from Union Square:

Image courtesy Bill Burns/History of the Atlantic Cable
NYPL

The celebration at the Crystal Palace in honor of Cyrus Field:

NYPL

FURTHER READING:

We encourage you to visit Bill Burns’ wonderful and exhaustive online resource on this subject — History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Transmission

FURTHER LISTENING:

Samuel Morse also plays a big role in the birth of early photography — and in a famous New York City location!

One of our earliest shows! On the history of Peter Cooper, one of the principal characters in the laying of the Atlantic Cable.

The glorious history of Gramercy Park, the neighborhood of Cyrus Field.

Categories
Landmarks Podcasts

The Origin of Broadway: The Story of a Street

PODCAST What makes a street so extraordinary that it becomes a destination in itself? What makes it Broadway? This is the history of New York City’s most famous street and a progression through the entire history of the city.

In this episode, Tom is joined by Fran Leadon, the author of a new history of Broadway, called Broadway: A History of New York in 13 Miles.

We’ve discussed Broadway, the street, in just about every show we’ve done — as so many of the city’s key events have taken place along Broadway or near it. And that’s also the point of Fran’s book — by telling the story of a street, you’re actually telling the story of the entire city.

On today’s show, we’ll be discussing how Broadway moved north — literally, how did it expand, overcoming natural obstacles and merging with… or avoiding… old, pre-existing roads, and how did it take such an unusual route?

And perhaps most surprisingly, how did Broadway survive the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811 which imposed a rigid street grid on the city?

You’re in for a few surprises.

To download this episode and subscribe to our show for free, visit iTunes or other podcasting services or get it straight from our satellite site.

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You can read Greg’s review of Fran Leadon’s book from a couple months ago here. “Fran Leadon, an architect and co-author of fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City, is a perfect biographer for Broadway, a main character in the development of one of the world’s great cities. His book is dense, richly written and researched, loaded with a million fun anecdotes.”

The beginning of Broadway — from a map of New Amsterdam and one from the Commissioners Plan

New York Public Library

Undated image of the commerce of Broadway. The Western Union building was located on Broadway and Dey Street, placing this view in lower Manhattan. Note the telephone and telegraph wires!

Library of Congress [No Date Recorded on Shelflist Card]

Broadway at Canal Street, 1836, in a lithograph by T. Hornor

Museum of the City of New York

The unique ‘Broadway bend’ that begins on 10th Street, attributed, some say, to the farm of Henry Brevoort.

From the Commissioners Plan of 1811, both Broadway and the Bowery were to ‘disappear’ into a massive open space called the Parade.

The glamour of Broadway and 42nd Street as it heads into Times Square. Broadway’s many ‘accidental’ plazas are responsible for most of New York’s cultural hubs. Thanks to the subway and proximity to the two major train stations, the ‘center of it all’ seemed to remain in Times Square, even as the city continued to move further northwards.

Library of Congress

Broadway at West 62nd Street and at West 153rd Street, circa 1900-1915. City planners had an opportunity to make Broadway in upper Manhattan into a grand boulevard, Paris-style.

Museum of the City of New York
Museum City of New York