Goodbye Astroland (again)

Astroland is once again closing for the final time at the end of this weekend, making way for Thor Equities to begin their new development of the area. The park’s main attraction, the legendary Cyclone, isn’t going away however. A functioning roller-coaster since 1927 — and built on the spot of the world’s very first… Read More

On View: Victor Prevost’s (really) old New York

If all this talk of Jacob Riis has whet your appetite at all for some nostalgic images of Manhattan, you must check out the New York Historical Society‘s display of some really, really, really old photographs, the early work of photography pioneer Victor Prevost. Provost’s early experiments in the 1850s with calotypes (negatives on wax)… Read More

Dandies of New York: the dapper Cherry Hill Gang

Above: Another local gang of the Lower East Side, the Shirt Tails of Corlear’s Hook, most likely fought with the Cherry Hill gang, the Batavia Street gang, or maybe even both (circa 1889 pic from courtesy of Irishinnyc) We’re finally stepping away from the grime of the late 19th century, but not before giving a… Read More

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PODCAST: The Fate of Five Points

Part two of our “Five Points” podcast. Join us as we explore the “wicked” neighborhood’s clean up, fall from grace, and eventual destruction. Listen to it for free on iTunes or other podcasting services. Or you can download or listen to it HERE Sleeping quarters An Italian family newly arrived in New York. An Italian… Read More

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We’re sleepy! (Podcast up later today)

“Street Arabs,” as they called them, as photographed by Jacob Riis Sorry, it’s been a crazy week! Our second-part podcast on the history of Five Points will be up by this evening or early tomorrow morning.

Where New York’s Chinese food addiction begins

I know that the native cuisine of New York City is officially pizza or hot dogs, but on a daily basis, perhaps nothing is consumed more in this city than Chinese food. There are hundreds of Chinese restaurants in this city; I’ve got four within a block of my apartment. Its probably impossible to identify… Read More

The Roughs: New York’s mangy, murderous heritage

An excerpt from “Lights And Shadows of New York Life; or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City” by James D McCabe Jr, published in 1872, quantifying the gang element of New York under the quaint sobriquet ‘the Roughs’: “Another class of those who live in open defiance of the law consists of the… Read More

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The Dead Rabbits — Were they ever alive?

The Bowery Boys-Dead Rabbits kerfluffle: it definitely happened, but not how you think it did In one of the sources we used for this week’s podcast — Tyler Anbinder’s wonderful and sober history on Five Points — the author throws out a theory that’s truly devastating for lovers of New York history, one that flies… Read More

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The Story of Five Points: Wicked Slum

You’ve heard the legend of New York’s most notorious neighborhood. Now come with us as we hit the streets of Five Points and dig up some of the nitty, gritty details of its birth, its first residents and its most scandalous pastimes. One of the most famous images of Five Points, accentuating its bustle and… Read More

Charles Dickens’ guide to New York City low life

Dickens in 1850 What is this dismal-fronted pile of bastard Egyptian, like an enchanter’s palace in a melodrama! – a famous prison, called The Tombs. Shall we go in? And thus in this voice continues the eager, fey, often condescending but spectacularly written account of Charles Dickens’ New York excursion as captured in his “American… Read More

From whence came Bruni: NY Times’ first restaurant review

Delmonico’s Restaurant set the standards in fine dining by which future restaurants would be judged. But don’t just take my word on it. In the January 1, 1859 edition of the New York Times, Delmonico’s and other eateries of the city were the topic of that paper’s very first restaurant review. And the establishment of… Read More

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Podcasts

PODCAST: Delmonico’s Restaurant Francais

The kitchen staff, 1902 Before Delmonico’s, New Yorkers ate in taverns or oyster houses. But the city caught the fine dining bug at this family-owned business, which standardized everything you know about restaurants today. Find out about “menus”, “fresh ingredients”, “dining rooms for ladies” and other unusual and exotic Delmonico innovations. Listen here: The Delmonico… Read More

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Jimian? The strange affair of Lillian and Diamond Jim

Had there been a paparazzi in the 1880s, the woman they would have hounded the most would be New York stage singer and actress Lillian Russell. Like a Scarlett, she was always hanging on the arm of a famous, powerful man. Like an Angelina, she did dramatic things in her personal life that often upstaged… Read More

A historic stroll down Summer Streets

The city tried out its interesting Summer Streets experiment this past Saturday morning, shutting out cars along Lafayette, Fourth Avenue and Park Avenue, from the Brooklyn Bridge up to 72nd Street. The result was a temporary respite from noise and traffic; you literally felt yourself puncturing a wall of sound upon re-entering the world of… Read More

Know Your Mayors: Hugh Grant, our youngest mayor

Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City. Other entrants in our mayoral survey can be found here. The year Carnegie opened his illustrious Music Hall to the delight of New York’s cultured class, the city’s fate was in the hands of the… Read More