The Bowery Boys: New York City History
ABOVE: Inside the main hall at the Alexander Hamilton Custom House (standing in the very spot where Fort Amsterdam stood) New Amsterdam in 1660 vs downtown Manhattan today — the Yahoo comparison[Yahoo Maps] A Seinfeld landmark — and one of Sinatra’s favorite late night spots — fades into memory[NY Times] [Gothamist] Radio Row — the… Read More
As often happens in the blogosphere, seemingly unimportant events get parceled about with declarations that don’t really mean much. For instance, the announcement yesterday that a new bowling alley was opening in Brooklyn — the first to open there in nearly 50 years! — disguises the fact that there are already a few bowling alleys… Read More
I wasn’t sure what kind of entry to post today, so I figured it might be interesting for some of you to read an excerpt from the letter I wrote my family and friends back home on Sept 15, 2001. (The day I got back my Internet service, which had been knocked out.) I lived… Read More
A homeless man’s memorial to September 11th.[Neither More Or Less] New York City future: the latest illustrations of the new World Trade Center[Gothamist] Will Queens be destroyed by a massive super-hurricane?[Queens Crap] History reprieve: the Red Hook food vendors keep on sellin’[Lost City] The castle of the Red Legged Devils … in Park Slope? [Forgotten… Read More
The world has turned its eyes to Flushing Meadows, Queens, for almost 30 years now thanks to the U.S Open, held as the sports complex called the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It’s named after the tennis icon who won four women’s Open singles titles, three mixed doubles titles, and two women’s doubles… Read More
While winding through the financial district in lower Manhattan on Sunday (Sept 2), I made my way down Stone Street (one of the city’s oldest paths) and found this scene outside of Ulysses bar: About 40 people, in various Colonial and period garments, were carousing in character and loudly carrying on like Revolutionary War heroes.… Read More
Heather Graham produces a movie about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, a tragedy on Washington Square Park that killed 146 women [Gothamist] Save Coney Island! prepares to rally the troops to save their beloved old amusement land from developers.[Kinetic Carnival] What porn shops must resort to on 8th Avenue.[Forgotton NY] Hilly Kristal, the cantankerous but… Read More
Sorry the blog’s been a little dormant. Its been a tad insane here in Bowery land. We’ll be back up and running on Wednesday morning, with an “in pictures” segment of this week’s podcast. Thanks for listening!
Another colorful New Yorker died earlier this week, the Cruella Deville of real estate, Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean. With her passes a dynasty of wealth and power derived from her husband Herman, whose properties included the Empire State Building, the Flatiron building and more than 30 hotels. Brooke Astor, elder survivor of the… Read More
Our tribute to an off-the-beaten-path museum or landmark that you may not know about. Instead of MoMa, why not try out one of these places? Past entries in this series can be found here. Okay, I know I’m stretching when I call the NYC Transit Museum ‘off the beaten path’. Its advertised in every available… Read More
In this week’s podcast, we briefly touched on a pivotal moment in the history of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians. They assisted in the defense of St Patrick’s Old Cathedral during a raid by anti-Catholic, anti-Irish rioters. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians are essentially the Irish-Catholic version of the Freemasons. The Pope had… Read More
To get you in the mood for the weekend, every Friday we’ll be celebrating ‘FRIDAY NIGHT FEVER’, featuring an old New York nightlife haunt, from the dance halls of 19th Century Bowery, to the massive warehouse spaces of the mid-90s. Past entries can be found here How can I continue to do this series without… Read More
New York City is a terrible place for horses, or for that matter, any animal bigger than a rat. However, the animal has been instrumental to New York’s history. Today you can see them trotting through Central Park, looking lobotomized, carting around tourists in frilly carts. Already a rather demeaning usage, the horses are also… Read More
In our last podcast, we referred to the New York city prison not-so-affectionately nicknamed ‘the Tombs’ as being ‘beneath City Hall’. In fact its a couple blocks away from current City Hall. Today its officially called Manhattan House of Detention. It was monickered the The Bernard B. Kerik Complex before being stripped of that name… Read More
New York’s robust and often scary gentrification drive into Condo Land, already ripping through neighborhoods like the Lower East Side, threatens another unusual city landmark – the Dominos Sugar factory, a cluster of important buildings just near the Williamsburg bridge on the Brooklyn side. While it might seem weird to get all angsty about a… Read More