Our book, The Bowery Boys Adventures in Old New York, was just re-released as a 10th-anniversary edition with lots of brand-new entries. So to celebrate, we thought we would highlight three of our all-time favorite stories from the book.
Featuring:
— The Astor House, one of the first luxury hotels in the United States, owned by the original Astor himself — John Jacob Astor. When it opened in 1836, it wrote the rules for how people even stay in hotels in New York City.
Why was it considered so revolutionary during its day, and why did its eventual demolition in the 20th century take almost 13 years?
— The Haymarket, the most scandalous dance hall of the Gilded Age! This lively and bawdy place, where both men and women met (sometimes upstairs, behind the curtains), sat in the heart of New York’s turn-of-the-century entertainment district, the burgeoning theater district.
But the show inside was MUCH more risque. Oh-la-la! Tom gives you a little tour of the joint, so pull up your stockings.
— The Nabisco Factory in the Meatpacking District was New York’s very own Willie Wonka’s chocolate wonderland, the American center of cookie and cracker making for decades. The sweet smells from the National Baking Company’s ovens were a relief in the late 19th-century district of meat processing.
It was here that two of the most important manufactured desserts in American history were born. Visitors to the High Lineand Chelsea Market may not realize they are strolling through a veritable cookie paradise!
LISTEN TODAY: ADVENTURES IN OLD NEW YORK
The 10th anniversary of our book Adventures In Old New York is now available in bookstores.
FURTHER LISTENING:
Some older Bowery Boys episodes related to this episode
Tom and Greg return to Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater with their NINTH annual Halloween ghost stories live show, conjuring the spooky folklore and mysterious urban legends that have famously kept New Yorkers awake at night – from haunted mansions to possessed parks.
Following sold-out runs in 2018 through 2025, the Bowery Boys will again retell some of the greatest of these haunted tales with live musical accompaniment by Andrew Austin and vocalist Lisa Karlin.
And this year — expect the unexpected!
The ghost of Peter Stuyvesant may make a return appearance this year.
Tickets on sale now for the following dates. Get yours today because tickets do go fast for these shows.
And we have new ticket pricing tiers — Wednesday, Oct 28 & Thursday, 29 shows – Tickets are $36 (inclusive of advance phone/web service fee; door price).
Friday, Oct 30 & Saturday, Oct 31 shows – Tickets are $48 (inclusive of advance phone/web service fee; door price).
Join Greg Young of the Bowery Boys in conversation with Carl Raymond, host of The Gilded Gentleman, at the historic Salmagundi Club to celebrate the publication of the Bowery Boys newly revised edition of “Adventures in Old New York: Historic Streets, Hidden Spots, and Iconic Neighborhoods in Manhattan” (Greg Young and Tom Meyers authors).
Greg will share some of his favorite spots, some intriguing bits of history, and a fewof Manhattan’s least-known secrets. As Greg and Carl will discuss, there’s so much history in plain sight if you just know where to look. Greg will be happy to sign books following the talk.
It’s a scene more commonly imagined today in a Wild West saloon — a shootout at Stanwyx Hall, across from the most elegant hotel in New York City.
The year was 1855, and the combatants were bitter rivals who had fought many times, including once in the notorious neighborhood of Five Points.
By the end, one man lie bleeding on the floor — William Poole, a member of the Bowery Boys street gang, better known as Bill the Butcher.
The Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, loosely based upon the Herbert Asbury book, features a version of this character (named Wiiliam Cutting) played by Daniel Day-Lewis. But the story of the real William Poole is far more fascinating, stretching from the west side’s Washington Market to the streets of today’s SoHo neighborhood.
In this episode, Greg takes you into the world of Bill Poole and the domain of the mid-19th century street gang, mostly seen as scourges of the public good — that is, until ruthless politicians began to see them as useful.
What was the Bowery like in the 1840s? And just who were the Bowery Boys?
This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.
LISTEN HERE: THE MURDER OF BILL THE BUTCHER
FURTHER LISTENING
Other shows that relate to this week’s episode:
The original article which inspired this episode, originally published on July 24, 2021, on the occasion of his 200th birthday:
William Poole was one of the most infamous villains in New York City history.
As a young man, he operated as a butcher at Washington Market (in the area of today’s Tribeca neighborhood) and that legitimate occupation lent him his nickname earned by his more disreputable activities — Bill the Butcher.
Not actually William Poole but a picture taken in 1875 very clearly inspired by his legend.
Poole was a thug, a thief and a celebrity, leader of a Christopher Street gang which morphed and coalesced with others to become one of the most terrifying group of criminals in New York — the Bowery Boys.
We kn0w details of his life not only from classics like Gangs of New York but because of the unique nature between gangs and city politics in the mid 19th century. Street gangs were often aligned with political and social beliefs about the changing city — particularly the ships of newly arriving immigrants from Ireland.
The Bowery Boys, at least his variant (for they changed over time), were an instrument of the Know Nothings, a nativist movement which violently rejected the Irish newcomers. Their attacks on immigrants on the streets of Five Points were so severe that Irish gangs soon formed in retaliation, collectively referred to in the press as the Dead Rabbits.
This street level violence echoed the loftier nativist debates happening at City Hall and in the penny press. But Poole was no dignified man. His habits of proving himself a real ‘native American’ were distinctly chaotic and bloodthirsty.
Just one example from the New York Daily Herald, January 16, 1846: “William Poole and Smith Ackerman were amusing themselves by putting two dogs to fight in Christopher Street, creating a most disgraceful riot.” When a man stepped in to stop the dog fight, Poole and Ackerman gauged out his eye.
The journalist Herbert Asbury was so fascinated by Poole that in his classic Gangs of New York, he devotes an entire chapter to the man’s brutal murder in 1855.
New York Times, March 10, 1855
Poole was shot through the heart at Stanwix Hall (579 Broadway) by Tammany Hall sluggers Lewis Baker on behalf of Poole’s rival John Morrissey.
“Despite his wounds,” writes Asbury:
“Poole lived for fourteen days after the shooting, to the vast amazement of his doctors, who declared vehemently that it was unnatural for a man to linger so long with a bullet in his heart.
But at last, while other Native American gladiators watched anxiously by his bedside and relayed bulletins to a sorrowful crowd in the street, Bill the Butcher died, gasping with his last breath: ‘Good-bye, boys, I die a true American!‘”
He was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in a funeral befitting a decorated war hero with thousands of mourners and over 150 carriages in a long, mournful procession.
The words ‘I die a true American!’ were actually emblazoned upon the side of the hearse carrying his flag-draped coffin.
New York Daily Herald, March 12, 1855
In the 2002 film Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, a version of William Poole (named William Cutting) is depicted with genuine grit and horror by Daniel Day Lewis.
While the film is entirely fictional — liberally taking from various tales from Asbury’s book — Lewis’ Bill the Butcher has a grotesque and villainous quality that the real William Poole would have loved.
A few of the most memorable frenemies and catfights from American history — including the story of New York City’s longest lasting rivalry.
Alexander Hamilton vs Aaron Burr! Delmonico’s vs Sherry’s! John Adams vs everybody! Some of history’s most fascinating stories involve important figures who did not like each other very much.
In this edition of Bowery Boys History Live!, recorded at Manhattan’s City Winery on May 26, 2026, Greg Young from the Bowery Boys brings some of these stories to a live audience, featuring author Laurie Gwen Shapiro, tour guide Billy Nemec, and the Gilded Gentleman himself, Carl Raymond.
Featuring tales of Revolutionary War spite, obscene Gilded Age banquets, and Jazz Age flights of spite. PLUS: New York City’s longest-running rival.
NOTE: We performed at City Winery less than 24 hours after the Knicks clinched their place in the NBA Finals.
This episode for produced and cleaned up by Kieran Gannon.
PODCAST In New York City, during the tumultuous summer of 1776, the King of England lost his head.
Bowling Green is best known today as the calming, flower-filled oasis in lower Manhattan, next to the decidedly less calming, lumbering sculpture Charging Bull, which is popular with tourists. But this peaceful park was once home to New York City’s most infamous statue — and the stage for America’s first No Kings protest.
In 1770, the old park became the home of a monumental statue of King George III on horseback, an ostentatious artifact meant to remind the rebellious colonists of just who was in charge.
On July 9, 1776, following a reading of the freshly minted Declaration of Independence, angry New Yorkers violently pulled down that statue of King George and, as legend has it, rendered his body into bullets used in the battles of the Revolutionary War.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the United States, we also mark the 250th anniversary of this event — not a moment of jubilation and freedom, but of anger and uncertainty.
The Declaration beautifully set down the words of independence. The tearing down of King George made the same statement — in a far messier, more violent manner.
The remnants of the statue of William Pitt, at home at the New-York Historical
In this episode, take a trip back to the city right before the war, when New York was split into those sympathetic to the Tories and those to the Sons of Liberty, an early organization dedicated to the liberty of the American colonies.
PLUS: Find out where you can locate artifacts from this story throughout the city today.
FEATURING: A young Alexander Hamilton, William Pitt the Elder, that rascal Cadwallader Colden and the enterprising ladies of the Wolcott household.
This special episode is not a rerun! It’s a riff on a 2020 Bowery Boys episode. It has been rewritten and rerecorded (including for video on YouTube) in honor of America 250, and newly produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.
LISTEN HERE: TEARING DOWN KING GEORGE
The coronation painting of King George III, painted by Allan Ramsay, 1762Map of New York City — London, Jefferys & Faden, 1776. Library of Congress“Print shows the raising of a liberty pole in a village center on a festive occasion with many spectators, some appear to be disgruntled loyalists; in the background, several men are removing a sign bearing the likeness of King George III.” — painted by F.A. Chapman ; engraved by John C. McRae, N.Y.
The story of the destruction of the statue at Bowling Green spread far and wide, inspiring some less-than-accurate depictions of the event.
“Print shows a misguided attempt by the artist to depict the destruction of an equestrian statue of King George III in New York City on July 9, 1776” — Basset, André, active 1749-1785, publisher (Library of Congress)An illustration from 1914/Chambers Publishing CoThe William Pitt statue in Charleston, South Carolina, 1892.
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
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We are now a creator on 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.
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We greatly appreciate our listeners and readers and thank you for joining us on this journey so far.
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this tale of the King George III in Bowling Green, check out these past Bowery Boys podcast episodes which also speak about some of the subjects featured on this show.
New York City will be at the center of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the United States, thanks to the largest-ever flotilla of tall ships to sail into New York Harbor — a reminder of the city’s storied maritime history. It will be like ghosts of the past returning from a long voyage.
But this is just the latest in a long line of patriotic parties that the city has hosted since the early 19th century, when citizens gathered in a former potter’s field (later renamed Washington Square) to mark the 50th anniversary of the nation’s birth.
The 100th birthday of the United States gifted New York the arm of the Statue of Liberty (a decade before she was fully assembled) and a treasured landmark located in Central Park today.
The parade of tall ships, known as Operation Sail, first assembled in New York waters for the 1964 World’s Fair, and later for the big Bicentennial of 1976.
The city had a lot going on that year, most notably a financial crisis and a public spat with President Gerald Ford.
But when television cameras turned to film the big event, they saw not just majestic ships, but a diverse array of New Yorkers, reinventing what it meant to be American.
Tom and Greg are joined on this show by Captain Jonathan Boulware, the President and CEO of the South Street Seaport Museum, to discuss the Seaport’s unique connection to Operation Sail and the museum’s latest exhibition, The Promise of Liberty: Words That Shaped a Nation, which places the nation’s most important documents in a unique waterfront context.
LISTEN NOW: PARTY LIKE IT’S 1976!
Courtesy South Street SeaportA photochrom postcard published by the Detroit Photographic Company. circa 1899-1924Square rigger during the Parade of Sail on 4 July 1976 (US Bicentennial). The ship is most likely the Polish schoolship Dar Pomorza. Wikimedia commons
If you want to walk the footsteps of New Yorkers during the American Revolution:
Echoes of the Revolution multimedia 90-minute walking tour in downtown Manhattan and will be a free city-scale augmented reality experience for mobile devices utilizing the detailed historical environments of Assassin’s Creed® III (set during the American Revolution).
A celebration for the Apollo 11 astronauts, August 13, 1969. Courtesy NASA/BIll Taub photographer
In 1886, during a miles-long parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, office workers in lower Manhattan began heaving ticker tape out the windows, creating a magical, blizzard-like landscape.
That tradition stuck. Today that particular corridor of Broadway — connecting Battery Park to City Hall — is known as the “Canyon of Heroes” thanks to the popularity of the ticker-tape parade.
Ticker tape parade on Broadway for presidential candidate Richard M. Nixon, 1960 (Library of Congress)
While many cities with skyscrapers host ticker-tape parades today, New York was the place they originated in the late 19th century and for a very obvious reason — the ticker-tape itself, a byproduct of the Financial District which revolutionized the way stocks were traded.
New York has regularly honored athletes, politicians, pilots, kings and queens, astronauts and generals with ticker-tape parades for over 125 years. Today, they’re best known as a way to celebrate New York sports teams, the winners of the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup.
Charles A. Lindbergh renjoying his tickertape parade up Broadway,, June 13, 1927. Courtesy Smithsonian Institute
The story of the ticker-tape parade is also a story of modern American history in capsule form, celebrating technological achievements, victories in war, cultural milestones and international unity.
Greg and Tom are back in the studio to give you a rundown of New York’s greatest parades. And they also pay tribute to those other local heroes — the Department of Sanitation who cleans up after these festive but messy celebrations.
LISTEN NOW: THE TICKER-TAPE PARADE
The ticker tape unfurling for the Statue of Liberty 1886 (Getty Images)
The New York Knicks are the ultimate New York City sporting franchise. Why would we make such a big claim? It’s all in the name.
The Knicks were founded in 1946 as one of the inaugural teams from the sports professional league which became the National Basketball Association (NBA).
However there were no notable Knickerbockers in the original Dutch settlement. Where did this odd name come from?
Tom and Greg go on the hunt for the origins of this unusual name, charting a course through the Hudson River Valley in the early 19th century — to the romantic Knickerbocker Mansion in Schaghticoke, and then following the various wanderings of a young Washington Irving.
His character Diedrich Knickerbocker would not only bend the will of history, he would inspire generations of New Yorkers to boast traces of their lineage to the city’s Dutch past. By the Gilded Age, it would be a stand-in for New Yorkers in general, adhered to steamships, hotels and even beer
And so the spirit of Washington Irving shines down upon the Knicks to this day!
This episode was produced and edited by Kieran Gannon.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson 100 years ago on June 1, 1926.
In late 1954, on the cusp of major Hollywood stardom, Marilyn moved to New York City on a quest to become a better actress and to find a little peace on streets where she could sometimes go unnoticed.
The year 1955 was one of discovery for the star of The Seven-Year Itchand Gentlemen Prefer Blondes — exploring the city, working on her craft and generally being the toast of the town.
In particular, she came to New York to become a better actress via the Actors Studio and the influence of Lee Strasberg. But she also managed to see the most glamorous corners of New York.
That deep connection she made with New York City never left her.
We’re big old movie buffs here on the Bowery Boys, and to celebrate a century of Marilyn, we’ve remastered and re-edited a show we recorded on Marilyn’s New York back in 2022. So raise a toast to Marilyn tonight — and put on something a little extra glamorous for fun.
Marilyn Monroe overlooking Park Avenue from the roof of the Ambassador Hotel at Park and 51st. (The hotel was demolished in 1966). From here you can also see the Racquet and Tennis Club (1918) and the Lever House (1952). Photograph by Ed Feingersh, taken 1955.
FEATURING: New York in the 1950s with Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Marlene Dietrich and many others.
PLUS: As an extra treat, Greg and Tom are joined on the show by Alicia Malone of TCM (and Tom’s co-host on “The Official Gilded Age Podcast”) and author of the book Girls on Film: Lessons from a Life of Watching Women in Movies to discuss how the city changed her career and performances.
Alicia Malone/TCM
LISTEN NOW: MARILYN MONROE AT 100: HER LIFE IN NEW YORK CITY
This episode was remastered by Kieran Gannon.
FURTHER READING
Lois Banner Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox Isaac Butler The Method: How The Twentieth Century Learned to Act Carl E Rollyson Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress Donald Spoto Marilyn Monroe Gloria Steinem and George Barris Marilyn: Norma Jeane Anthony Summers Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe Elizabeth Winder Marilyn in Manhattan: Her Year of Joy Donald H. Wolfe The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe
She arrived in New York calling herself Eliza Brown — but she’d been born Betsy Bowen, daughter of a woman jailed for running a disorderly house in Providence.
By the time she died in 1865, she was Eliza Jumel — Manhattan’s richest woman, mistress of a hilltop mansion in Washington Heights, the widow of a former vice president, and the subject of so many wild rumors that even her New York Timesobituary couldn’t keep the facts straight.
Tom is joined by Catherine Hughes and Danielle Gaita of the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion to sort the legend from the life. Born in 1775 to grinding poverty, Eliza reinvented herself as an actress at the Park Theater, married the French merchant Stephen Jumel in 1804, and in 1810 moved into the grand house that had served as George Washington’s headquarters in the fall of 1776 — Manhattan’s oldest surviving residence.
And from there the story only grows more intriguing. Paris in the age of Napoleon. A staggering art collection. Real estate dealings while her husband stayed an ocean away. A whirlwind second marriage to the 77-year-old Aaron Burr — and a scandalous divorce, finalized on the very day Burr died.
Plus: Lin-Manuel Miranda writing Hamilton lyrics in Burr’s old bedroom!
LISTEN NOW: THE MANY INTRIGUES OF ELIZA JUMEL
Morris Jumel MansionGreg YoungGreg YoungGreg YoungGreg YoungGreg YoungGreg Young
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this show on Eliza Jumel, listen to these other shows featuring historical stories of Upper Manhattan
Courtesy: Ragtime on Broadway. (Photos by Matthew Murphy)
The Lincoln Center revival of Ragtime— with music by Stephen Flaherty, lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and a book by Terrence McNally, adapted from the novel by E. L. Doctorow — has just garnered 11 Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical, along with multiple acting nods for its acclaimed cast.
This new production feels more timely and resonant than the one that first played on Broadway in 1998. In addition to the fictional Coalhouse Walker Jr. and several archetypal figures, Ragtime brings to life several real celebrities and power brokers from turn-of-the-century New York.
Anna Grace Barlow, who portrays Broadway sensation Evelyn Nesbit, and Rodd Cyrus, who embodies legendary illusionist Harry Houdini, join Carl Raymond from The Gilded Gentleman podcast for a behind-the-scenes conversation about their characters and their experiences bringing this revival to the stage.
This show is brought to you by The Gilded Gentleman podcast, produced by the Bowery Boys and edited and produced by Kieran Gannon.
Cotopaxi, 1862, Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
Perched over the Hudson River near the city of Hudson sits Olana State Historic Site, once the wondrous home of painter Frederic Church.
This Gilded Age mansion is unlike any in the valley, mystical and imposing, evoking Persian and Moorish architectural styles and reflecting the art and ambitions of its former owner.
Church was more than a Hudson River School painter; he was an adventurer and dreamer, bringing the vistas of the world to America within his massive landscape creations. In 1859, when his Heart of the Andes made its New York debut, thousands lined up to soak in its impossible beauty.
She joins Greg and Tom on the podcast this week to discuss Church’s unusual life — both as a New Yorker and as a daring traveler. After this show, you may never look at a landscape painting the same way again.
LISTEN HERE: THE PAINTER WHO BROUGHT THE WORLD TO NEW YORK
You can also find the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Overcast and YouTube.
We want to thank Victoria Johnson for joining us on the Bowery Boys Podcast. Her new book Glorious Country is available on Scribner.
Floating Iceberg, Canada, June–July 1859, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumFrederic Edwin Church, Niagara Falls in Winter, March 1856, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumTwilight in the Wilderness, 1860, The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Parthenon, 1871, The Metropolitan Museum of Art10th Street Studio, where Church’s studio was locatedFrederic Edwin Church, The Heart of the Andes, 1859, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
FURTHER LISTENING
Some other shows from the Bowery Boys Podcast related to this week’s show. Give them a listen when you’re done with our interview with Victoria Johnson:
In our modern world, people are turning to all sorts of unusual beliefs and fringe disciplines just outside the bounds of medical science and psychology, all in search of a better understanding of the human mind and the origins of personality.
In the mid-19th century, New Yorkers with similar questions became obsessed with the mysterious practice of phrenology, which promised to unlock the secrets of the brain through a careful examination and mapping of the human skull.
By the 1840s, visitors to New York City Hall and Barnum’s American Museum could walk just a short distance to the curiosity cabinet run by the Fowler family, a group of phrenologists and publishers who helped popularize this now-debunked practice.
At this very odd tourist attraction, visitors could examine rows of skulls and casts of skulls taken from both celebrated figures in human history and some of the world’s most infamous criminals.
Phrenology attracted the interest of some of the 19th century’s most notable figures, including P. T. Barnum and Walt Whitman. The Fowlers’ empire of unusual disciplines soon expanded to include mesmerism and even spiritualism. But there was also a darker side to phrenology: it was used by many to justify elitist and racist philosophies.
Greg is joined in the studio by Paul Stob, author of the new book Empire of Skulls: Phrenology, the Fowler Family, and a New Nation’s Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind, to explore this strange craze, what people believed they saw when they looked at the skull, and why New York City played such a crucial role in its rise.
LISTEN NOW — THE PHRENOLOGY CRAZE
Thanks to Paul Stob for being on the Bowery Boys Podcast. His new book Empire of Skulls: Phenology, The Fowler Family and a New Nation’s Quest to Unlock the Secrets of the Mind is now available from Counterpoint Press
An advertisement for phrenological services at Clinton Halland an Evening Post ad for the ‘cabinet of curiosities’The study of phrenology was quite risqué in the Victorian era as male practicioners would often examine the scalps of female patients.Outside Clinton Hall….
FURTHER LISTENING
Some other shows from the Bowery Boys Podcast related to this week’s show. Give them a listen when you’re done with The Phrenology Craze:
Carnegie Hall is one of America’s greatest and most enduring cultural landmarks, enchanting audiences and making history since its opening night on May 5, 1891, when Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky appeared there in his first performance in the United States.
This groundbreaking performance space (originally known simply as “Music Hall”) is in fact a trio of distinct venues, all nestled within a single, opulent Italian Renaissance–style building.
Although its benefactor Andrew Carnegie and his fellow Gilded Age elites had moved their grand residences farther up Fifth Avenue, New York’s established cultural institutions, like the venerable Academy of Music, still lingered well to the south. Carnegie Hall helped shift that center of gravity uptown.
Yet the true history of Carnegie Hall lives inside its walls—within the experiences of the audiences and the artists, and, for this week’s show, within the archives themselves. Tom and Greg have been invited into the Carnegie Hall archives for an exclusive, unprecedented encounter with the story of American music.
Kathleen Sabogal and Robert Hudson of the Rose Museum & Archives guide the Bowery Boys through the Hall’s past, using some of their collection’s most cherished artifacts: a clarinet, mysterious locks, ledger books, stickpins, suffrage buttons, beaded jackets, photographs, and autograph books that together bring the spirit of Carnegie Hall vividly to life.
And in the end — they even take to the stage!
This episode was proudly sponsored by Carnegie Hall. Visit CarnegieHall.org for information on upcoming shows, including the United in Sound: America at 250festival, a multifaceted reflection of the United States 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Carnegie Hall’s 2025–2026 season festival is a multifaceted reflection of the United States 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
In more than 35 concerts at the Hall, audiences will experience Broadway, jazz, film music, rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, bluegrass, classical, and so much more, showcasing the very best of the American spirit through music.
Events at top cultural institutions across New York further expand the festival’s scope, offering new avenues for discovery as we explore our nation’s vibrant and complex past, present, and future.
Carnegie Hall, 1891. Main entrance to Carnegie Hall on 57th street. The front stairs were removed in 1920 when 57th street was widened to add two additional traffic lanes.
Courtesy Carnegie Hall Rose Archives
The speakeasy lock! Double-lock used to gain entry to Club Richman, a speakeasy located on the Carnegie Hall property, 1924
Courtesy of Carnegie Hall Rose Archives
Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall 1961
Courtesy of John FrickeCourtesy Bowery Boys
The Beatles at Carnegie Hall, February 12, 1964
Courtesy of Carnegie Hall Rose Archives
FURTHER LISTENING
After taking in the story of Carnegie Hall, take a dive into these past Bowery Boys episodes to learn more about some of the topics mentioned in the show, including some forays into New York City musical history
