The Bowery Boys: New York City History
The Gilded Age, a fascinating new documentary from PBS’s American Experience, premieres in early February. But we’ve got your ticket to the premiere on Thursday, January 25! The Bowery Boys are hosting a panel discussion about the film at the New-York Historical Society, and we’d love to see you there.  —————— In collaboration with PBS’s… Read More
PODCAST The history of the Empire State Building revealed! Start spreading the news …. the Bowery Boys are finally going to the Empire State Building! New York City’s defining architectural icon is greatly misunderstood by many New Yorkers who consider its appeal relegated to tourists and real estate titans. But this powerful and impressive symbol… Read More
The original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the ultimate symbol of the Gilded Age, was demolished in the fall and early winter of 1929 to make way for a new building project. That the building project in question happened to be the Empire State Building does not make the loss of the Waldorf-Astoria any less regretful. The storied… Read More
The Vanderbilts did more than dictate the fate of Park Avenue, the boulevard hovering above the old track path of the New York Central Railroad. The scions of this New York family also changed the fate of a little street called Sutton Place. Anne Harriman Vanderbilt—along with other society mavens—had mansions built there in 1920,… Read More
PODCAST The story of Harlem’s hair care queen and her daughter A’Lelia, a patron of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1867, Sarah Breedlove was born to parents who had once been enslaved on a Louisiana plantation. Less than fifty years later, Breedlove (as the hair care mogul Madam C.J. Walker) would be the richest African-American woman… Read More
THE FIRST PODCAST Apartment living is something we take for granted today, the option for those who can’t afford or don’t desire a private home. But how did this type of living situation become popular in the United States? In mid-19th century New York, people lived in townhouses, boarding houses or tenements. But far-thinking urban planners… Read More
In the 1980s comic book Watchmen, a redheaded protester haunts a local New York newsstand holding a sign which says THE END IS NIGH. Sometimes I feel the urge to hoist my own version of that sign upon a street corner, moaning as I watch the city I fell in love with change into something… Read More
This was our tenth year in recording the Bowery Boys podcast and it was easily the best ever. We charted new territories (from our first ever live show to the release of the Bowery Boys spin-off The First)Â and featured more treasured New York institutions than ever before — places like Weeksville Heritage Center, the Tenement… Read More
PODCAST The Bowery Boys celebrate the end of the year by sitting down with Roz Chast, who has been contributing cartoons to the New Yorker since 1978. She’s also the author of the New York Times best-selling graphic memoir Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? Chast’s new book Going into Town: A Love Letter to New York is… Read More
THE FIRST PODCAST Â In 1900, there were about 8,000 registered automobiles in the United States. They were a genuine novelty. Those that attempted to go on ‘road trips’ met with a frustrating reality — there were no drivable roads, no unified road maps, no nation-wide infrastructure of gas stations or amenities. The first automobiles to… Read More
For this holiday season, what single present can satisfy a native New Yorker, a history buff enchanted with the city’s rich heritage, or a person who’s dreamed of coming here to visit one day? A book of course! Here are our picks for ideal gifts this year — from hard-hitting non-fiction to nostalgic memoir, from the Revolutionary… Read More
In today’s show, we’ll continue to explore housing in New York, but move far from the mansions of Fifth Avenue to the tenements of the Lower East Side in the 20th Century. Specifically, we’ll be visiting one building, 103 Orchard Street, which is today part of the Tenement Museum. The Bowery Boys: New York City… Read More
‘THE FIRST’ PODCAST The surprisingly rich history of Christmas lights in America. That string of multi-colored Christmas lights wrapped around your tree (or your house) is far more influential to American history than you might think. The first electric Christmas lights debuted in 1882, shortly after the invention of the incandescent light bulb itself, in… Read More
PODCAST The story of how Fifth Avenue, once the ritziest residential address in America, became an upscale retail strip and the home of some of New York’s finest cultural institutions. LISTEN HERE: In this episode, the symbols of the Gilded Age are dismantled. During the late 19th century, New York’s most esteemed families built extravagant… Read More
Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, is my bible. It sits with my reference books, not with the other history non-fiction, foundational in its importance to this subject. I’ve read every page, although not in one or even 50 sittings. It winds through about 275… Read More