Fish vendors, South Street, ca. 1937. WPA Federal Writers’ Project Photograph. Photographer: Clifford Sutcliffe. Courtesy Municipal Archives.
In the 19th century, the Fulton Fish Market in downtown Manhattan was to seafood what Chicago stock yards were to the meat industry, the primary place where Americans got fish for their dinner tables.
Over the decades it went from a retail market to a wholesale business, distributing fish across the country – although that was a bit tricky in the days before modern refrigeration.
Today its former home is known by a more familiar name — the South Street Seaport, a historical district that has undergone some incredible changes in just the past half century. The fish market, once a awkward staple of this growing tourist destination, moved to the Bronx in 2005.
You can still find delicious seafood at the Seaport — lobster rolls, grilled octopus, steamed bass, buttery scallops and other offerings of the many fine restaurants of the Seaport area. And the Tin Building has taken dining in the neighborhood to the next level, literally in the architectural remains of a former fish market building.
Photo by Gordon Parks, courtesy Library of Congress
Maybe you have parents or grandparents who once worked at the Market in the 20th century. They might have stories about rusty, old architecture or bizarre new sea creatures for sale. Or maybe they have tales about the mobsters who kept certain aspects of the market’s distribution process under their control.
Why did the Fulton Fish Market appear at this very specific spot in New York City? How did it become so important? How did people manage to successful sell thousands of tons of seafood in the 19th century and keep it delicious and fresh?
On this show, we’ll be joined by professor Jonathan H. Rees, a professor of history at Colorado State University–Pueblo, author of the new book The Fulton Fish Market: A History.
By the end of our conversation today, we’re confident that you’ll never look at the fish section of your local grocer in the same way.
LISTEN NOW: THE FULTON FISH MARKET
Tin Building, 1951, Library of CongressPhoto by Greg Young
Some views inside the new chic Tin Building:
Photo by Greg Young
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this week’s show on the Fulton Fish Market, you’ll want to re-visit these shows from the back catalog for additional context
If you’re into radio dramas, historical epics and intriguing tales about New York City, we think you’ll like Burning Gotham, the new podcast produced by The Wallbreakers, weaving the biographies of several real-life New York City figures into a speculative tale leading to the Great Fire of 1835.
On the frigid blustery night of December 16th, the worst fire in city history sweeps through Manhattan
The East River is frozen solid. The undermanned team of volunteer firefighters are no match. Everything south of Maiden Lane and east of Broad Street—the chief merchant district with the highest property value—turns to ash.
The fire causes the modern equivalent of $500 million in damage. The investigation finds the cause to be a leaky gas valve near a lit coal stove at the office of Comstock & Andrews.
But what if New York’s greatest accidental fire was no accident?
The eight-part first season is now available with a new season planned for later this year.
In addition, for a look behind the history of each episode, there are four episodes of Beyond Burning Gotham, providing historical context for the narrative. Episode two of Beyond Burning Gotham even features Greg Young from the Bowery Boys!
Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in the borough of Queens is the home of the New York Mets, the U.S. Open, the Queens Zoo, the Hall of Science and many other recreational delights.
But it will always be forever known as the launching pad for the future as represented in two extraordinary 20th century world’s fairs.
There is so much nostalgia today for the 1939-1940 World’s Fair and its stranger, more visually chaotic 1964-65 World’s Fair. And that nostalgia has fueled a thriving market for collectables from these fairs — the souvenirs and other common household items branded with the two fairs’ striking visual symbols.
The Trylon and Perisphere represented the dreams of 1930s America after the Great Depression, the strange symbols of “the World of Tomorrow.” A quarter century later the Unisphere depicted its theme — “Peace Through Understanding” — as a space-age fantasy.
Millions of souvenirs were manufactured and sold at these two fairs. And those very treasured items which survive — in the hands of collectors, at flea markets and antique shops — are nearly all that remain of these special, ephemeral events.
In this show, Greg is joined by design and cultural historian Kyle Supley, recorded at Brooklyn’s City Reliquary where Supley’s own collection of World’s Fair has found a permanent home.
How do such souvenirs allow us to visit the past? And what do they say about our world today?
LISTEN NOW: TREASURES FROM THE WORLD’S FAIR
Kyle Supley is a historian, curator and preservationist with a focus on Mid-Century American culture, consumer products, architecture, and design.
Had a wonderful time wandering the city researching shows for the Bowery Boys podcast. Here are a few of my favorite images from New York City and the Hudson River Valley in 2022. Happy New Year! — Greg
We’ve just debuted a new podcast series — Side Streets, available only to those who support the Bowery Boys Podcast on Patreon, featuring conversation about all sorts of New York City related subjects.
And the first episode is all about food!
Greg and Tom — with some help from producer Kieran Gannon — reflect nostalgically upon old New York City restaurants from the 1990s (Mars 2112, anyone?), wonder what it was like to eat at a chop suey restaurant, praise the strange wonders of Chez Josephine and Congee Village and reveal their favorite diners in the city.
PLUS: Where do the Bowery Boys go to have a delicious slice of pizza? (Hint: Head to Brooklyn.)
Photo by Greg Young
Side Streets will be an every-other-week show, available to patrons at any level. To listen to the show and support the Bowery Boys podcast, just sign up at Patreon.
And check out the various Patreon support tiers for additional benefits such as ad-free episodes, patron-only merchandise, early notice of live events and other fun things.
What a way to spend our 15th year of podcasting! You’ve helped make it another fantastic year. Over the past twelve months, we’ve released 24 brand new episodes and even went back to the live stage twice (at Caveat and Joe’s Pub).
And speaking of a Gilded good time, Tom spent a few weeks co-hosting The Official Gilded Age Podcast with Alicia Malone — who then came on the Bowery Boys in November to discuss the life of Marilyn Monroe.
A extra, extra special thank you to those who support us Patreon. We were able to produce these shows because of your support and encouragement. PLUS we just started up a new Patreon-only show called Side Streets.
And thanks to guest Hugh Ryan, we saw Jefferson Market in a very different way with an exploration into the place known as the Women’s House of Detention.
But you especially loved the following ten shows — the most listened-to Bowery Boys episodes of 2022.
Looking forward to 2023 — we’ve got LOTS of surprises planned for January and February, plus a new upcoming mini-series for the spring.
Crosswords, jigsaws, mazes, rebuses, Rubik’s cubes, Myst, Words With Friends — and now Wordle? Not only have people loved puzzles for centuries, they’ve actually gone wild for them. Every few years, a new puzzle comes along to captivate the nation.
But each of these little games has an extraordinary history and for this special show, we have the “the puzzler” himself to help us unravel these unique mysteries.
— Sam Loyd, the ultimate puzzle huckster — The utterly madcap Rebus Craze of 1937 — The Secretand the possible treasure buried underneath New York’s very streets — Stephen Sondheim‘s glorious contributions to the puzzling world
PLUS: A special New York City-themed anagram game!
LISTEN NOW — TALKING PUZZLES WITH A.J. JACOBS
Would you like to solve the Puzzler‘s secret puzzles? Find them here.
Bain News Service, Publisher. Sam Loyd. [No Date Recorded on Caption Card] Photograph. Courtesy Library of CongressTrademark listing for a Nellie Bly puzzle game, 1890Harris & Ewing, photographer. Old age versus the cross word puzzle. They don’t come too hard for Ambrose Hines… D.C., who just celebrated his one hundredth … “Bring on the hard ones,” says Mr. Hines. “I’ve … dictionaries, time and pencils necessary.” And he … too. [January or February] Photograph. Courtesy the Library of Congress. Kid cut ups puzzle, How did Noah get the animals into the ark? , 1909. Pittsburgh, Retrieved from the Library of Congress
The first crossword (or word-cross) puzzle, 1913, from the New York World.
In celebration of his new book “The Delmonico Way: Sublime Entertaining and Legendary Recipes From The Restaurant That Made New York,” author Max Tucci joins The Gilded Gentleman for a talk about food, family history and the real meaning of hospitality.
Delmonico’s! Just the name was legendary. Edith Wharton mentioned it in her fiction set in the Gilded Age. The dining room hosted royalty and heads of state along with, in later years, Hollywood’s most famous stars. And then there was the equally legendary food.
Max Tucci is the grandson of Oscar Tucci who reopened the legendary restaurant in the 1920s after the original – in business since 1827 – had been closed due to Prohibition.
Oscar and his family built an empire that established Delmonico’s as the gold standard of American fine dining and hospitality from the 1920s through the 1980’s.
Oscar Tucci with another famed restaurateur, Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque. Courtesy of Oscar’s Delmonico Facebook page
Max, who holds the largest collection of Delmonico’s memorabilia of his family’s famous establishment, shares his memories, family history and anecdotes about the incomparable hospitality, fine dishes and famous clientele of America’s first truly grand restaurant.
Mentioned on the show — the culinary genius behind these dramatic dishes was Delmonico’s celebrity chef — the Frenchman Charles Ranhofer — who guided their kitchens from 1862 to 1896.
Ranhofer left us with his extraordinary cookbook published at the height of the Gilded Age in the 1890’s, called The Epicurean, detailing the ingredients and preparations of Delmonico’s classic dishes.
Back in 2008 (!) the Bowery Boys did a podcast about the history of Delmonico’s. A little rudimentary but good background information for when you’ve finished with this show:
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about one of the most mysterious alcoholic spirits in the world.
This week we’re running one of our favorite shows of the year from our spin-off podcast The Gilded Gentleman.
Absinthe was one of the most popular and most mysterious drinks that fueled Paris and London’s cafe society and artistic circles in the Belle Epoque and late Victorian and Edwardian worlds.
Artists and writers from Henri Toulouse-Lautrec to Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde were proponents along with members of the upper classes as well as everyday workers.
Poster Absinthe Terminus by Tamagno, 1897
Myths sprang up that the elixir created dramatic hallucinations and even provoked ghastly crimes. And it was even banned throughout most of Europe and even in the United States by the early 20th century.
Join Carl and his guest Don Spiro, creator of New York’s Green Fairy Society to discuss and demystify the myths and legends of this most evocative of spirits.
PLUS: A great new absinthe cocktail recipe to make at home!
Don Spiro, creator of New York’s Green Fairy Society. For more information on upcoming events, find them on Instagram and on Facebook
And make sure you’re subscribed to The Gilded Gentleman so you don’t miss an episode!
The Gilded Gentleman Podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Overcast
Whether you’re baking, wrapping presents or just staring in wonder at your Christmas tree decorations, take a break from the Christmas music and dive into these holiday themed podcasts from the Bowery Boys. Celebrating many aspects of New York City during the holiday season — from Rockefeller Center, Dyker Heights and beyond….
The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has a surprisingly dramatic history.
There’s a special kind of magic to Christmas in New York City — from Rockefeller Centerto the fanciful holiday displays in department store windows.
But in the past three decades, a new holiday tradition has grown in popularity and in a surprising quarter — the quiet residential neighborhood of Dyker Heights in Brooklyn which becomes Christmas Central for the borough.
The Rockettes are America’s best known dance troupe — and a staple of the holiday season — but you may not know the origin of this iconic New York City symbol. For one, they’re not even from the Big Apple!
Discover the place where Clement Clarke Moore wrote “A Visit to St. Nicholas/Twas the Night Before Christmas” and how his home gave rise to the neighborhood of Chelsea:
PLUS one for Hanukkah….
The Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the most beautifully restored places in the United States, a testament to the value of preserving history when it seems all is lost to ruin.
… and New Year’s Eve! And the Chinese New Year.
The ultimate history of New Year’s celebrations in New York City — from Times Square to Chinatown.
And now add these shows from The Gilded Gentleman to the list:
A festive episode tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th century New York City history, plus a very special look at Charles Dickens’s beloved work, “A Christmas Carol”.
Carl and his vintage cocktail event curator Don Spiro take a look at the myths and magic of champagne, the world’s most elegant drink.
This year it’s going to be a very merry holiday season in the podcasting world — courtesyThe Gilded Gentleman, the Bowery Boys spin-off podcast hosted by Carl Raymond.
Through the month of December, The Gilded Gentleman will feature brand new, holiday-themed shows with special guests. These episodes are perfect for getting you in the seasonal spirit, whether you’re wrapping presents, baking cookies or just enjoying some eggnog or champagne (which, it turns out, is the subject of an entire show!)
So pull on a woolly sweater and join The Gilded Gentleman to launch the holiday season. Now available on your favorite podcast player.
Here’s a sneak preview of the entire festive month:
Christmas in Old New York and A Chat with Charles Dickens — OUT NOW
A special festive double episode tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th-century New York City history and a very special look at Charles Dickens’ beloved A Christmas Carol.
Licensed New York City tour guide and speaker Jeff Dobbins joins Carl for a look at the city’s holiday traditions dating back to the early Dutch days of New Amsterdam up to the Gilded Age and the early 20th century.
And then Carl welcomes actor John Kevin Jones who has been performing an annual one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, now in its 10th season. Kevin discusses the origins of Dickens’ famous story and how he adapted it for the stage.
Tasting Stars: The Sparkling History of Champagne — December 13
Champagne is unquestionably the world’s most glamorous drink and has been used for centuries to celebrate everything from weddings and birthdays to royal coronations. But there’s so much more to understanding champagne than just enjoying the bubbles and the fizz.
Join Carl and guest Don Spiro as they discuss champagne history,
The Delmonico Way: A Conversation with Max Tucci — December 20
A very special episode in which Max Tucci, grandson of Oscar Tucci who owned Delmonico’s from the 1920’s through the 1970’s, discusses food, family and history of his family’s iconic New York institution.
And start your 2023 right with an extra-special show arriving in the new year:
In 1890 the Danish-American journalist Jacob Riis turned his eye-opening reporting and lecture series into a ground-breaking book called How The Other Half Lives, a best seller which awoke Americans to the plight of the poor and laid the groundwork for the Progressive Era.
Bandits Roost, taken by Jacob Riis (and associates, 1888
Riis exposed more than a humanitarian crisis. He laid bare the city’s complacent Gilded Age divide in revolutionary ways, most notably with the use of a new tool — documentary photography.
For our 400th episode, following our tradition of exploring the legacies of urban planners in past centennial shows (#100 Robert Moses, #200Jane Jacobs, #300Andrew Haswell Green), we finally look at the life of the crusading police reporter and social reformer who forced upper and middle class New Yorker to examine the living conditions within the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
Riis was himself an immigrant who spent his first years in the United States drifting from place to place, living on the street, his only companion a faithful dog. Journalism quite literally saved Riis, providing him with both a stable living and a purpose, especially after he became a police reporter for the New York Tribune in 1877.
But it was his fascination with visual media — magic lantern shows and later flash photography — which set him apart from other crusading writers of the period like Nellie Bly (who we only wish had a camera with her!)
Portrait of Jacob A. Riis, David Garber Photos, Broadway
Jacob Riis’ culminating work How The Other Half Lives made him one of America’s most famous writers — his friend Theodore Roosevelt called Riss “the model American citizen” — but the book has an imperfect legacy today, with Riis’ broad characterizations of the people he was writing about undercutting the book’s noble purposes.
LISTEN NOW: JACOB RIIS AND ‘THE OTHER HALF’ OF GILDED AGE NEW YORK
FURTHER READING
The Battle with the Slum / Jacob Riis The Children of the Poor / Jacob Riis How The Other Half Lives / Jacob Riis The Making Of An American / Jacob Riis
The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America / Tom Buk-Swienty Jacob A. Riis and the American City / James B. Lane Jacob Riis: Reporter and Reformer / Janet B. Pascal Rediscovering Jacob Riis: Exposure Journalism and Photography in Turn-of-the-Century New York / Bonnie Yochelson and Daniel Czitrom
The best gifts in the world are books and history lovers, in particular, want nothing more than more books than they possibly have time to read. (My own library and its aching shelves are witness to this.)
Here are some of my favorite books of 2022 (with a couple award-winners published in 2021), stories which will invite you into new ways of loving history. They’d all look lovely wrapped in colorful paper or tastefully tucked in somebody’s stocking.
Oh, well, just get them for yourself. You deserve it!
The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator Rich Cohen
From my July review: Playboy Magazine called Herb Cohen “the world’s greatest negotiator” and whether or not that was true, Cohen could convince you that it most certainly was.
But The Adventures of Herbie Cohen: World’s Greatest Negotiator, written by acclaimed author and journalist Rich Cohen, is not your ordinary profile. For one, Rich is Herbie’s son.
This is no mere ode to a no-nonsense, wise-cracking father. Cohen has managed to craft an absolutely perfect character profile, keeping Herbie’s grounded personality front and center in a hilarious collection of anecdotes, recollections and maybe one or two tall tales (in the way that we share tall tales about ourselves).
Becoming FDR: The Personal Crisis That Made A President Jonathan Darman
If things had gone even slightly different from the events described in Darman’s excellent biography on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, our world would be fundamentally different.
Becoming FDR focuses mostly on Roosevelt in the years following his diagnosis with infantile paralysis, or polio. Who would have looked at this young, failed politician — now forever paralyzed — and seen a world leader in the making?
By focusing so pointedly on the life of young Roosevelt, we see a man shattered and rebuilt by circumstance. With the support of a social and political inner circle, Roosevelt learned to both conceal his condition while also recognizing his role in bringing awareness to others struggling with the disease.
The result was an unimaginable political triumph. With his first major reappearance at the 1924 Democratic National Convention — in support of New York governor Al Smith — Roosevelt had become both spectacle and savior.
Cuba: An American History Ada Ferrer
From my July review: In the beautifully told Cuba: An American History, Ada Ferrer manages a challenging task of epic narrative. Not only is her Pulitzer Prize-winning book an artfully fluid retelling of the history of Cuba, it’s also a sharp, insightful story of the love-hate relationship between the island country and its neighbor to the north.
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine Janice P. Nimura
From my review this year: In 1857 Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell threw open the doors to the New York Infirmary for Women and Children at 58 Bleecker Street, revolutionary as being the first hospital in the world to employ an all-female staff.
In this excellent biography Nimura illuminates the lives of two important women whose rich personal adventures have gotten lost in the shadow of their legacies.
Fifth Avenue: From Washington Square to Marcus Garvey Park William J. Hennessey
“Today Fifth Avenue is a street of varied and overlapping personalities,” writes William J. Hennessey to his new, indispensible guide to one of New York’s most famous streets, “a coveted residential address, a prestigious business location, a prime shopping avenue and a home for many of the city’s most notable churches and civic landmarks.”
This guide provides a perfect adventure for urban explorers with good walking shoes. Lovely maps and loads of photographs guide you through the avenue’s most interesting landmarks — from bohemian treasures and early townhouses around Washington Square Park to the jewels of Harlem.
The Fulton Fish Market: A History Jonathan H. Rees
Manhattan’s waterfront fundamentally changed in 2005 when the Fulton Fish Market, the wholesale anchor of lower Manhattan, moved to its new Hunts Point facility in the Bronx. The market, which dates back to 1822, provided New Yorkers thousands of jobs and the country at large with a vital food source.
Rees’s fun and fascinating history finds the market at the core of New York City history, fueling the city’s growth by providing the region’s most reliable food source — oysters, salmon, cod and (eventually) more particular delicacies like green turtle and terrapin.
This book also provides a look into the changes of the South Street Seaport — including the FDR Drive — colliding with major changes to the wholesale food industry overall. The world Rees describes feels almost alien to the sleek, tourist-friendly Seaport of today.
The New Yorkers 31 Remarkable People, 400 Years and the Untold Biography of the World’s Greatest City Sam Roberts
The New York Times’ Sam Roberts is used to sizing up the history of the city in statistics (101 Objects, 27 Buildings) and he takes that same bite-sized approach in crafting the city’s history through the tales of 31 New Yorkers.
Although Roberts’ approach is to focus on figures “you’ve never heard of,” in fact you probably have heard of some if you’ve listened to our podcast in recent years. (Andrew Haswell Green, Audrey Munson, Levi Weeks, Philip A. Payton Jr and Clara Lemlich all make appearances.)
But that only makes The New Yorkers the perfect gift for history lovers. The joy of experiencing these lives in such a beautifully written tribute will reinvent everything you know about them — and finding the common threads in their lives will ensure they’ve never forgotten.
The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Sold the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life A.J. Jacobs
In the most entertainingly interactive book — or could you call it a workbook? — of the year, Jacobs (The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically) turns his daredevil focus to the world of puzzles — their history, their fundamentals, damnable addictive nature.
These magical games of logic range from jigsaw puzzles to the Rubik’s Cube, from puzzles that are quite ancient (cyphers and mazes) to puzzles which reflect the obsessions of modern newspaper readers the world over (crosswords, Sudoku and other grid puzzles).
Jacobs becomes a puzzle expert himself and invites you to join along. (Literally. The book is filled with both new and historical puzzles. In fact the book itself, like any great work of mischief, is a puzzle.) Along the way you’ll meet master puzzlers, both modern and classic, men like Sam Loyd, the Gilded Age puzzle author and charlatan renown for a ‘puzzle hoax’ which surely drove hundreds of people mad.
Sailor Twain Or: The Mermaid in the Hudson, 10th Anniversary Edition Mark Siegel
From my review of the original edition: Something lurks in the waters of the Hudson River in Mark Siegel’s moody new graphic novel. Sailor Twain, shaded darkly and finely formed out of moody atmosphere, is an ethereal rumination on American urban legend, borrowing from history to create myth.
The Hudson River, as illustrated by Siegal, seems like the end of the earth, a world so choked in mist that it feels like the artist’s ink will rub off on your fingers. Siegal presents a lush, romantic view of historical New York, at equal points comic, erotic and melancholy. Some faces are cartoonish, others delicately real. The art holds the mood as the story unfurls, from Gothic romance to horror parable.
The Scandalous Hamiltons: A Gilded Age Grifter, a Founding Fathers Disgraced Descendant, and a Trial at the Dawn of Tabloid Journalism Bill Schaffer
If streaming television were around in the 1890s, then the events described in The Scandalous Hamilton would have made a blockbuster true-crime mini series.
In this crackling, briskly intense crime drama, Schaffer recounts a wicked and lustful melodrama that captivated Americans during the Gilded Age, involving a descendent of Alexander Hamilton and his mysterious new wife. (To say any more would ruin the story’s numerous twists.) With its focus on the breathless reporting of the day, you can almost smell the wet ink hot off the press.
The Rise and Fall of Protestant Brooklyn Stuart M. Blumin and Glenn C. Altschuler
Brooklyn was once known as the “City of Churches,” which was descriptive of the extraordinary number of Protestant congregations in the 19th century. But the nickname was also shade against Manhattan, deemed by conservative Brooklynites as a city of sin and corruption.
In Blumin and Altschuler’s refreshing history of Brooklyn, city leaders “who wished to maintain their domestic world as a respectable — even a cleansing — retreat from the big city” celebrated their devout, conservative nature. But this emphasis on a spiritual community also made Brooklyn central to the abolition movement and thus, in its own way, radical.
Rise and Fall is a fascinating story that should inspire a stroll through Brooklyn Heights on a hunt for the borough’s most historic houses of worship.
The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison Hugh Ryan
You heard Ryan this year on our podcast Jefferson Market and the Women’s House of Detention and the spirit and passion he brought to our show is in full display in this searing and deeply researched investigation into the lives of those who were incarcerated within this unusual Greenwich Village prison.
When the Women’s House of Detention opened in 1931 — sometimes referred to as the world’s only Art Deco prison — it was meant to improve the conditions of women who were held there. But the dank and inadequate containment soon became symbol of abuse and injustice.
But this is more than a tale of a disreputable institution; this is the story of people who often incarcerated for the crime of being themselves. And it creates, in a series of raw and revealing anecdotes, a remarkable portrait of Village life in the mid 20th century.
In this special episode, we look at the history of New York City as seen through one corner of the Lower East Side. Created by the intersections of several streets, this is a place that has gone by many names — in the past and even today.
At its center is Seward Park, the first municipal playground in the United States, and Straus Square, named for Nathan Straus, philanthropist and co-owner (with his brother Isidor) of Macy’s department store.
Straus Square — with the 1953 war memorial and the Forward Building looking down from above.
Those looking for delicious food may go to Little Fuzhou, an eastern extension of Chinatown located along East Broadway. Trendy artists and influencers instead spend their weekends in Dimes Square, just one block (and seemingly one world) away.
The intersection of Division and Canal, with the glamorous Nine Orchard (aka the old Jarmulowsky Bank Building). Photo by Greg Young
But throughout New York’s history, people have come here for community, shared values and even intellectual enlightenment.
As Rutgers Square, this area became a small portion of a large German immigrant community called Kleindeutschland. In an inconceivable historical moment, a statue was almost raised here — to William ‘Boss’ Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall.
By the late 19th century, this place was the center for American Jewish culture, with a line of cafes serving religious thinkers, political activist and stars of the Yiddish stage.
Tribute to the old tenement blocks in a Seward Park mosaic.
East Broadway became a Yiddish publishers’ row, hosting newspapers and magazines from a host of perspectives.
In 1912 the Jewish Daily Forward, the nation’s most well-known Yiddish paper, built “the Lower East Side’s first skyscraper,” a landmarked building that was once the beating heart of the neighborhood. The paper’s long-running column “A Bintel Brief” illuminated the everyday stories of people in the neighborhood.
A hidden 1920s cinema treasure. Photo by Greg Young
In the 20th century it became the southern edge of Loisaida, the Puerto Rican Lower East Side.And thanks to a mid-century housing boom (fueled partially by the labor unions firmly rooted to this place), some also called it Cooperative Village, with hundreds of old, deteriorating tenements replaced with new high rises.
But we call it our old home. For it was here — call it what you will — that the Bowery Boys Podcast was created 15 years ago this year.
From the window of Wu’s Wonton King, the former location of the Garden Cafeteria. Photo by Greg Young
And so to wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration — and to set up our big 400th episode — we take a fond look at the section of New York City which taught us to love local history.
PLUS: We’re join by staff members of the Forward, celebrating its 125th year of publication. Forward archivist Chana Pollack joins us along with Ginna Greenand Lynn Harris, hosts of the the newspaper column-turned-podcast version A Bintel Brief.
LISTEN NOW: THE CHANGING LOWER EAST SIDE
Photograph by Lewis Hine, taken March 1913. The caption: “Waiting for the “Forwards” – Jewish paper – at 1 A.M. Group includes boys 10 years old. Taken on steps of the Forward Building at 1:15 A.M. just as the papers were being issued.”
Listen to A Bintel Brief on the same podcast players where you found our show. And if you have a quandary for Ginna and Lynn, email them at bintel@forward.com or leave a voice message at (201) 540-9728
Here are a few of our favorite episodes of A Bintel Brief:
Necktie workshop in a Division Street tenement, taken by Jacob Riis, 1889. (Library of Congress)A model of a playground used in the design of Seward Park. (Library of Congress)A rather unrecognizable view of Seward Park, taken between 1900 and 1910. (Library of Congress)Seward Park and the new library (NYPL)Lawn-tennis and volley-ball games as played by girls in the William H. Seward Park, 1905 clipping (Courtesy New York Public Library)Just a’swingin’ in Seward Park, between 1910 and ca. 1915, Library of Congressbetween 1910 and ca. 1915, Library of CongressSeward Park with the Forward Building, taken November 9, 1940 (Dept of Records)Overhead view of the district, 1940 (NYC Dept of Records)
FURTHER LISTENING
After listening to this show on Seward Park, head over to one of these older podcast to follow the various histories briefly mentioned this week:
What happens when P. T. Barnum, America’s savviest supplier of both humbug and hoax, decides that it is time to go legit? The result is one of the greatest concert tours in American history.
The Gilded Gentleman hosts this special presentation from the Bowery Boys podcast, recorded in 2020. Listen to it here or subscribe to The Gilded Gentleman on your favorite podcast player:
If you’ve seen the film musical The Greatest Showman, you’ve been introduced to Jenny Lind, the opera superstar dubbed the Swedish Nightingale. And you also know that Barnum, taken with the Swedish songstress, brings her to New York to begin a heavily promoted American debut.
But the film sidesteps many of the more fascinating details. Lind was greeted like a queen and rock star when she arrived at the Canal Street dock despite most New Yorkers having never heard her sing.
Jenny Lind / New York Public Library Digital Collection
Her stage was Castle Garden, the former fort turned performance venue that sat in New York harbor, connected to the Battery by a small bridge.
The concert proved legendary. And Lind proved herself an enterprising businesswoman, bending even the will of a profiteer like Barnum. Her financial arrangement for the tour would influence 170 years of musical performances and cement her reputation as one of the greatest vocalists of the 19th century.
LISTEN NOW — JENNY LIND AT CASTLE GARDEN
The concert as depicted in a lithograph by Nathaniel Currier/New York Public Library
New York Public Library Digital Collection
The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!
We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every other week.
We’re also looking to improve and expand the show in other ways —
publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we
can only do this with your help!
We are now a 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. If you’d like to help out, there are six different
pledge levels. 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.
