#nyc-history — Public Fediverse posts

125 years later, Brooklyn’s oldest restaurant Gage & Tollner is still building community https://www.diningandcooking.com/us/16397/ #chophouse #DisneyPlus #DowntownBrooklyn #fx #Gage&Tollner #hulu #localish #NewYorkCity #NewYorkCityFineDining #NYC #NYCFineDining #NycHistory #SunkenHarborClub #TheBear

Since the original Penn Station was demolished in the 1960s, architects and planners have proposed a range of replacements. Untapped Cities collects five that never came to be: recreation of original Beaux-Arts design, a glass atrium built around the existing skeleton of MSG, a SOM proposal that would have created a circular park, and a Columbia University concept turning the site into a futuristic burial ground. #NYCHistory #PennStation #UntappedNY #Architecture https://www.untappedcities.com/never-built-penn-station-in-nyc/

New York City banned pinball on January 21, 1942. Mayor LaGuardia called the machines "larceny machines" and had police confiscate them. The ban lasted until 1976, when a journalist named Roger Sharpe walked into City Hall and proved, in a live demonstration channeling Babe Ruth, that pinball required skill and was not gambling. Untapped Cities tells the full story. #NYCHistory #UntappedNY #Pinball #NYC https://www.untappedcities.com/pinball-ban-illegal-nyc/

People know Madison Square Garden as the world's most famous arena, but few know that the current building is its fourth incarnation, that ice is stored beneath its basketball floor, that its ceiling is the only concave stadium ceiling in the world, or that John Lennon's last concert appearance took place there in 1974. Untapped Cities covers 10 secrets of the Garden. #NYC #MSG #UntappedNY #MadisonSquareGarden #NYCHistory https://www.untappedcities.com/secrets-madison-square-garden-nyc/

The Russian Tea Room on West 57th Street was founded in 1927 by former members of the Russian Imperial Ballet who fled the Revolution. Its regulars included George Balanchine, Ayn Rand, Woody Allen, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In 1982, a young Madonna worked there as a coat-check clerk. City Beautiful Blog traces its century of caviar, celebrity, and New York glamour, including a 1996 renovation that divided loyalists. #NYCHistory #CityBeautiful #NYC #RussianTeaRoom https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-russian-tea-room/

The lobby of the Woolworth Building is one of only a handful of interior spaces in New York City to hold landmark status. Untapped Cities looks at its three ceiling sections: a vaulted mosaic arcade in Byzantine style, a stained-glass skylight ringed with the names of great commercial nations and coded "W's" for Woolworth, and coffered plaster ceilings made to look like wood specifically to prevent fire. #NYCHistory #Architecture #UntappedNY #WoolworthBuilding https://www.untappedcities.com/hidden-symbols-in-the-gorgeous-ceilings-of-the-woolworth-building-in-nyc/

In the mid-1880s, Nikola Tesla rented a room on the second floor of 89 Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan, where he invented and patented the alternating current motor, later declared by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to be the most significant invention of the electrical age. The building is long gone, replaced by One Liberty Plaza, and there is no plaque or marker of any kind.. #NYCHistory #NikolaTesla #UntappedNY #NYC https://www.untappedcities.com/nikola-teslas-lost-laboratory-manhattan/

Most people walk past Federal Hall. Untapped Cities makes a case for stopping. The building is where George Washington was inaugurated, where Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr once worked the same murder trial together, where the Peter Zenger case laid the groundwork for freedom of the press, and where parts of the structure were literally suspended in air before a $16 million renovation. Ten secrets, all worth reading. #NYCHistory #FederalHall #UntappedNY #WallStreet https://www.untappedcities.com/the-top-11-secrets-of-nycs-federal-hall/

On November 1, 1939, John D. Rockefeller Jr. wielded a 60-pound pneumatic hammer and drove the final rivet into Rockefeller Center, completing 14 buildings that were built straight through the Depression. That silver alloy rivet, bearing his engraved signature, still sits inside a column in the lobby of 1230 Avenue of the Americas. Untapped Cities tells the story and explains exactly how to see it. #NYCHistory #RockefellerCenter #UntappedNY #NYC https://www.untappedcities.com/how-to-see-the-last-rivet-hammered-into-rockefeller-center/

In June 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made history as the first reigning British monarchs to visit the United States, guests of President Roosevelt. After Washington D.C. and Hyde Park, they came to New York City for the World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, greeted by Mayor LaGuardia and Governor Lehman. Their souvenir was a custom Cartier model of the fair's iconic Trylon and Perisphere. #NYCHistory #WorldsFair #UntappedNY #BritishRoyals https://www.untappedcities.com/when-the-king-and-queen-of-england-came-to-the-worlds-fair-in-queens/

Millionaire's Row, Fifth Avenue between 59th and 78th Streets was lined with some of the most extravagant private residences ever built in New York City. Untapped Cities looks at 8 that no longer exist, including a Vanderbilt mansion , a 121-room copper baron's folly that cost $6 million and stood for barely two years, and a mansion whose destruction helped strengthen New York City's landmark laws. #NYCHistory #GildedAge #UntappedNY #FifthAvenue https://www.untappedcities.com/lost-mansions-5th-ave-nyc/

Before skyscrapers, before New Amsterdam, before the Lenape, mastodons roamed what is now New York City. In 1925, construction workers digging a foundation in Inwood uncovered the jaw and teeth of a young mastodon. By the time a Museum of Natural History curator arrived to collect them, locals had taken most of the bones. Untapped Cities has the full story. #NYCHistory #UntappedNY #Mastodon #Manhattan https://www.untappedcities.com/the-inwood-mastodon-in-nyc/

New York City was the Titanic's intended destination, and more than 700 survivors eventually made it there. Untapped Cities identifies 6 sites across the city still connected to the 1912 disaster, including the pier where Carpathia docked, the hotel that sheltered surviving crewmembers, a landlocked memorial lighthouse designed by the architects of Grand Central Terminal, and memorials. A moving piece of city history. #NYCHistory #Titanic #UntappedNY https://www.untappedcities.com/titanic-sites-nyc/

Did you know the Oreo was invented at Chelsea Market? That the remote control was first demonstrated at Madison Square Garden by Nikola Tesla in 1898? That the tuxedo got its name from a Hudson Valley enclave for New York's wealthiest elite? Untapped Cities rounds up 11 inventions that trace their origins to New York City, and the list covers everything from air conditioning to the way Americans celebrate Christmas. #NYCHistory #UntappedNY #NewYorkCity #Trivia https://www.untappedcities.com/10-things-you-didnt-know-were-invented-in-nyc/

Gowanus, 4.

The Gowanus Canal may be one of the most storied waterways in the country, certainly in New York. Here’s a neighborhood bar commemorating one of its dark tales (see alt text).

Details of this story and more fascinating history and anecdotes can be found here:

https://theneighborhoods.substack.com/p/gowanus-brooklyn

#photography #streetphotography #gowanuscanal #brooklyn #nyc #nychistory

Beneath the sidewalk at 85 Broad Street in Lower Manhattan, the original foundation walls of the 17th-century Lovelace Tavern are visible through a glass window. The tavern operated 1670 to 1706,served as a second city hall of colonial New York, and was uncovered in one of the most expensive urban archaeological digs in American history. Untapped Cities has the full story, a fascinating piece of early New York history. #NYCHistory #DutchNYC #UntappedNY #NewAmsterdam https://www.untappedcities.com/the-remains-of-the-lovelace-tavern-a-17th-century-artifact-found-in-the-financial-district/

The site of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue was once home to a massive granite reservoir with walls nearly 50 feet high, designed to resemble an ancient Egyptian fortress. It held over 20 million gallons of water and drew visitors who strolled its promenade as one of the city's first observation decks. City Beautiful Blog tells the story of this lost Manhattan landmark and why it was demolished in 1899. #NYCHistory #CityBeautiful #LostNewYork #Manhattan https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-distributing-reservoir/

Those wooden cylinders on New York City rooftops are not relics. Between 10,000 and 15,000 of them are still actively in use today. City Beautiful Blog explains why: the 19th-century gravity-fed system they use is still the most practical and economical solution for buildings taller than six stories. The article also covers why wood, specifically cedar, cypress, or redwood, remains the ideal material even now. #NYCHistory #CityBeautiful #NewYorkCity #Architecture https://citybeautifulblog.com/nycs-rooftop-water-tanks/

Untapped Cities looks at Tim English's book "The Kennedys' New York," which traces the family's deep and often surprising connections to the city. The article highlights three locations, including the Upper East Side townhouse where the only known photo of Monroe and JFK together was taken, the Carlyle Hotel duplex that served as the family's presidential base, and the Stork Club where a chance meeting made JFK a national hero. #NYCHistory #Kennedys #UntappedNY #NYC https://www.untappedcities.com/guide-kennedys-new-york/

City Beautiful Blog has a wonderful piece on the Croton Fountain in City Hall Park, NYC's first decorative fountain, built in 1842 to celebrate the Croton Aqueduct that finally brought clean water to Manhattan. Presidents Tyler, Adams, and Van Buren were at the dedication. The fountain jetted water 50 feet into the air. The history of what came after is just as interesting. #NYCHistory #CrotonFountain #CityBeautiful #NewYorkCity https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-croton-fountain/

#FotoVorschlag

“Wäsche” / Laundry

One of my favorite sections in the Museum of the City of New York is an exhibition called “Activist New York,” about the organized activist and labor movements throughout the city’s history. This display is about the laundry workers in Manhattan’s Chinatown, who led the fight for labor rights and against discrimination during the years of Chinese Exclusion in the US.

#photography #monochrome #blackandwhite #museum #activism #ushistory #nychistory #nyc

Before the gourmet food truck era, New York City's streets were lined with pushcarts run largely by immigrants offering blintzes, sausages, and other specialties. Mobile dining dates back to the 1600s, and the city introduced its first food cart regulations as early as 1691. Untapped New York traces that long history through a remarkable collection of vintage photos from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
#NYCHistory #FoodHistory #StreetFood #VintageNYC #ImmigrantHistory
https://www.untappedcities.com/vintage-photos-19th-early-20th-century-nyc-street-food-vendors/?ref=daily-newsletter

Most visitors to Ellis Island never make it to the abandoned hospital complex on the southern end, but it holds some of the island's most remarkable history. Did you know the word "moron" was coined there? Or that around 350 babies were born on the island? Untapped New York rounds up 10 surprising facts from the Hard Hat Tour of this extraordinary site.
#NYCHistory #EllisIsland #Immigration #NYCTours #History
https://www.untappedcities.com/8-surprising-facts-from-the-hard-hat-tour-of-the-abandoned-ellis-island-hospital/?ref=daily-newsletter

For decades, the accepted story of Annie Moore, the first immigrant through Ellis Island on New Year's Day 1892, held that she moved to Texas, ran a hotel, and died in a streetcar accident. It was entirely wrong. Years of research by professional genealogist Megan Smolenyak uncovered the truth. Untapped New York tells the full story.
#NYCHistory #EllisIsland #IrishHistory #ImmigrationHistory #NYC
https://www.untappedcities.com/annie-moore-ellis-island/?ref=daily-newsletter

From Harriet Tubman in Harlem to Mother Cabrini at The Battery, New York City's monuments dedicated to real women tell stories of courage, reform, and resilience. Untapped New York has gathered 10 of them in one essential guide, including some you may not have known existed. A worthwhile read for anyone who loves this city's history.
#NYCHistory #PublicArt #WomensHistory #NewYorkCity #UrbanHistory
https://www.untappedcities.com/8-nyc-monuments-dedicated-to-real-women-with-more-to-come/?ref=daily-newsletter

The Former Bronx Zoo Platypuses

https://social.emucafe.org/naferrell/the-former-bronx-zoo-platypuses-04-04-26/

City Beautiful Blog takes a look at Chelsea — one of Manhattan's most layered neighborhoods. The Oreo was invented in what is now Chelsea Market. The Hotel Chelsea sheltered Mark Twain, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. The land under London Terrace once belonged to the author of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. And the High Line transformed an abandoned freight rail line into one of the city's most celebrated parks.
#NYCHistory #Architecture #NYC #LocalHistory #UrbanDesign
https://citybeautifulblog.com/chelsea-highlights/

Julia Vitullo-Martin of Untapped New York covers the Robert Rauschenberg centennial exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York — a show that is as much about the downtown Manhattan world Rauschenberg inhabited as it is about the artist himself. Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Trisha Brown — the people who shaped his work and his city are all here. Open through April 19, 2026.
#NYCHistory #ArtHistory #NYC #RobertRauschenberg #ArtsAndCulture
https://www.untappedcities.com/robert-rauschenbergs-new-york/?ref=daily-newsletter

City Beautiful Blog profiles the Helmsley Building on Park Avenue — the Beaux-Arts skyscraper built as headquarters for Cornelius Vanderbilt's New York Central Railroad. Traffic passes through its base via two monumental portals, its copper roof was once gilded in gold leaf, and a 6,000-watt lantern in the cupola was visible for miles. A building with layers worth knowing about.
#NYCHistory #Architecture #BeauxArts #GildedAge #NewYork
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-helmsley-building/

City Beautiful Blog takes a close look at the animal imagery inside St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. The symbolism runs deep. From the pelican piercing its own breast to the unicorn as an allegory for the Incarnation, each creature carries a theological message rooted in medieval bestiaries. A thoughtful piece for anyone drawn to the intersection of art, architecture, and history.
#NYCHistory #Architecture #ArtHistory #MedievalHistory #Symbolism
https://citybeautifulblog.com/animal-depictions-inside-the-st-barts/

The Waldorf Astoria began as a calculated social insult. William Waldorf Astor built a luxury hotel next to his aunt's mansion just to annoy her. City Beautiful Blog traces the full story, from that Gilded Age family feud to FDR's secret railway platform beneath the Park Avenue building. A well-told piece of New York history.
#NYCHistory #GildedAge #Architecture #NewYork #LocalHistory
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-waldorf-astoria-on-park-avenue/

City Beautiful Blog has put together a guide to NYC's most beautiful restaurant interiors, and the history behind each space is as compelling as the design. A railroad tycoon's pantsless office inside Grand Central. The sheepfold that became Tavern on the Green. Aaron Burr's carriage house in the West Village. Fraunces Tavern, where Washington said farewell to his officers. Worth reading slowly.
#NYCHistory #Architecture #NYC #LocalHistory #HistoricPreservation
https://citybeautifulblog.com/nycs-restaurants-with-beautiful-interiors/

The Domino Sugar sign, originally from the 1920s, was rebuilt as a replica for Brooklyn's waterfront. Radio City Music Hall's 1932 neon is synonymous with the city itself. The Pepsi-Cola sign, rescued from a shuttered bottling plant, now stands in Gantry Plaza as a designated NYC landmark. Meanwhile, the beloved Kentile Floors sign was saved and will be reinstalled in Gowanus, preserving Brooklyn's industrial heritage.
#NYCHistory #Architecture #IndustrialHeritage
https://www.untappedcities.com/new-york-city-signs/?ref=daily-newsletter

When William K. Vanderbilt's $30,000 offer for an opera box was rejected by Mrs. Astor's crowd at the Academy of Music, the snubbed industrialists built their own opera house. The Met opened in 1880 with superior acoustics and 36 private boxes—and the Academy of Music couldn't compete. Today's Lincoln Center home continues that legacy of grandeur.
#NYCHistory #MetropolitanOpera #GildedAge #Opera #LincolnCenter #Architecture
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-metropolitan-opera/

Untapped Cities presents a look at the lost mansions of Fifth Avenue. The article examines the grand Gilded Age residences built by New York's wealthiest families - Vanderbilts, Astors, and others - that once transformed Fifth Avenue into America's most opulent residential street.
#NYCHistory #GildedAge #Architecture #HistoricPreservation #FifthAvenue #LostArchitecture #UntappedCities
https://www.untappedcities.com/lost-mansions-5th-ave-nyc/

City Beautiful blog presents a comprehensive look at the Hotel Chelsea, one of New York City's most storied landmarks. For decades, the Chelsea served as haven for artists, writers, musicians, and bohemians - from Mark Twain to Bob Dylan, Patti Smith to Andy Warhol.
#HotelChelsea #NYCHistory #Architecture #CounterCulture #ArtHistory #LiteraryHistory #CityBeautiful
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-hotel-chelsea/

City Beautiful blog examines the Time mural at Rockefeller Center by Spanish artist Jose Maria Sert which replaced Diego Rivera's destroyed "Man at the Crossroads." The piece analyzes how the Sert mural reflects different political and artistic values, offering insights into art, patronage, and ideological conflicts in 1930s America.
#RockefellerCenter #ArtHistory #PublicArt #Murals #NYCHistory #DiegoRivera #CityBeautiful
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-rockefeller-center-artworks-time-mural/

City Beautiful blog delivers an in-depth look at the American Museum of Natural History's architectural evolution, tracing the museum's development from its founding vision through multiple expansions and additions. A compelling exploration of how museums grow and adapt over time while maintaining their core identity and purpose.
#AMNH #UrbanPlanning #Architecture #Museums #NYCHistory #MuseumArchitecture #CityBeautiful
https://citybeautifulblog.com/the-american-museum-of-natural-history/

City Beautiful blog presents an architectural and urban planning analysis of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It explores the vision behind creating a unified cultural campus, the architectural decisions that shaped its distinctive modernist aesthetic, and the complex legacy of urban renewal.

#LincolnCenter #UrbanPlanning #Architecture #PerformingArts #NYCHistory #UrbanRenewal #CityBeautiful
https://citybeautifulblog.com/lincoln-center-for-the-performing-arts-a-temple-of-the-arts-in-new-york-city/

"It was the time before GUIs, before mice and color monitors, when MS-DOS and 1200bps dial-up modems roamed the Earth."

https://www.flatbushgardener.com/2007/05/23/back-in-the-day/

Written in 2007, so lots of linkrot.

#OnlineCommunity #LGBTQIA #QueerHistory #Blogging #Brooklyn #BrooklynHistory #NYC #NYCHistory

https://mastodonapp.uk/@bytebro/115690629389813288
@bytebro

https://social.emucafe.org/naferrell/happy-new-york-evacuation-day-2025/

November 25 marks New York’s Evacuation Day. What is Evacuation Day? I humbly cite to me:

New York’s Evacuation Day, not to be confused with Massachusetts’ Evacuation Day, is a former New York annual holiday that fell on November 25. It marked the organized November 25, 1783 British evacuation of New York City, which coincided with General George Washington leading American troops to Fort George to complete the transfer of power.

Nicholas A. Ferrell

Learn more in my 2023 article on Evacuation Day. If you happen to be into karaoke, you can impress your friends or colleagues with your rendition of an olden Evacuation Day song.

#evacuationDay #nycHistory #thisDayInHistory #uSRevolutionaryWar #usHistory

Think you know Grand Central Terminal? Most New Yorkers rush through without noticing the hidden whispering gallery, secret basement tracks, or the astronomical error on the famous ceiling. These architectural secrets reveal why this isn't just a train station, it's a living museum of NYC history and design ingenuity.
#GrandCentral #NYCHistory #Architecture #NYC #UrbanExploration #NewYork #Design
https://www.untappedcities.com/secrets-nyc-grand-central-terminal/?ref=daily-newsletter

Ever wonder what Central Park was like before it was a park? This video is excellent. #nyc #history #senecaVillage #nycHistory #centralPark #aquaduct

(I like how this video ends with "and people keep saying there are secret tunnels IDK..." LMAO Don't let the dream die.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cirLDsebPzQ

Ever heard church bells ring on their own? At St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery, Manhattan's oldest site of continuous worship, legend says Peter Stuyvesant's ghost still paces the aisles. Built in 1799 on the Dutch governor's farm, this architectural gem layers Georgian, Greek Revival, and Gothic styles into one building. From stolen bodies to phantom hymns, it's a hidden treasure connecting modern NYC to its colonial past.
#NYCHistory #UrbanExploration #Architecture
https://citybeautifulblog.com/2025/09/19/st-marks-in-the-bowery-history-mystery-and-ghosts/

Did you know Labor Day was created in New York City? In 1882, 10,000 workers marched down Broadway in the first Labor Day parade, demanding better working conditions and fair wages.
This wasn't just a parade, but the birth of a movement that would become a national holiday. NYC's labor organizers literally created the template for workers' rights celebrations across America.
#LaborDay #NYCHistory #WorkersRights #LaborMovement #AmericanHistory #NYC #SocialJustice
https://www.untappedcities.com/labor-day-created-new-york-city/?ref=daily-newsletter

I wrote a version of this on Fedi a year ago, and thought I'd tighten it up a little and post it to my personal blog today.

CW: 9/11, gender, a bit of snark prompted by a bad joke.

https://robvincent.net/2025/09/11/the-twin-towers-and-gender/

#TwinTowers #WTC #WorldTradeCenter #September11th #Gender #OffensiveHumor #NYC #NYCHistory

After his mother died in '22, I kind of lost a trace of him, he drops out of the music union directory for a while too. in 1928 when he got married to Miriam Goldstein he gave his address as Jack Levitt's address (and that of several of his musician relatives) at 335 Williams Ave in Brooklyn.

#Brooklyn #NYChistory