James S. Kaplan

James S. Kaplan is the President of the Lower Manhattan Historical Association and a long-time supporter of Evacuation Day celebrations. He is a lawyer, writer and Manhattan walking tour guide, who has written a number of articles on historical subject for the New York Almanack.

Wall Street History: The Politics of New York’s First Banks

January 10, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

Prior to the American Revolution, there were virtually no banks in the United States. However, Alexander Hamilton, who was George Washington’s key advisor on financial matters, was familiar with the central banks of England and the Netherlands which had been key factors in the growth of the economy of those countries.

Unlike some agrarian Virginian politicians such as Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton believed that banking and credit was the key to the nation’s future. In 1781 he encouraged Robert Morris, the recently appointed Superintendent of Finance for the Continental government, to form the Bank of North America in Philadelphia. For a time up, until the British surrender of New York, this was the only Bank in the colonies. [Read more…] about Wall Street History: The Politics of New York’s First Banks

A History of Wall Street: Tontine Coffee House & The Buttonwood Agreement

January 3, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

Many New Yorkers, and many Americans generally, consider Wall Street – to be the world’s most famous and important street. Many tourists are surprised to find that Wall Street, once described as “a short street with the river at one end and a Church at the other,” is only seven blocks long.

Originally named for a palisade wall built by the Dutch in the 1640s (and torn down by the English in 1699), the street was an important east-west thoroughfare until the American Revolution. At that time the entire city of New York, home to about 15,000 people, was south of City Hall Park.

One of the current ironies is that Wall Street today has returned to its residential roots. The financial institutions which became famous there now are located in midtown Manhattan or elsewhere. [Read more…] about A History of Wall Street: Tontine Coffee House & The Buttonwood Agreement

Marinus Willet, Tammany Hall & The Treaty of New York

November 28, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 5 Comments

Every year in October the Lower Manhattan Historical Society holds its Saratoga/Yorktown celebration in Trinity Churchyard to celebrate the American victories at the Battles of Saratoga and Yorktown.

At that ceremony wreaths are lain on the graves of Revolutionary War figures associated with those battles — Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Marinus Willett. [Read more…] about Marinus Willet, Tammany Hall & The Treaty of New York

A Short History of New York City’s ‘Evacuation Day’

November 25, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 7 Comments

At noon on November 25, 2014 about 25 people gathered at the flag poles at the north end of Manhattan’s Bowling Green to raise a specially designed flag with 13 stars and stripes.

It was a replica of the flag which was raised at the same spot on November 25, 1783 (Evacuation Day) when George Washington’s Continental army had marched into New York City officially ending the American Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about A Short History of New York City’s ‘Evacuation Day’

NYC Politico Jimmy McManus and Tammany History (Series Conclusion)

November 11, 2021 by James S. Kaplan Leave a Comment

Jimmy McManus was interested in promoting the political history of Hell’s Kitchen and Tammany Hall. He occasionally would co-lead walking tours about the political history of Hell’s Kitchen for the 92nd Street Y or Culture Now.

One of McManus’s earlier activities in this regard was as a member and later President of the National Democratic Club of New York, which dated from 1834 and was credited with swinging the 1844 Presidential election to Democratic candidate James K. Polk, when as the Empire Club it helped carry New York State to James K. Polk over his opponent Henry Clay. [Read more…] about NYC Politico Jimmy McManus and Tammany History (Series Conclusion)

Tammany’s McManus Club: The Final Decades

November 7, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

In 1984, longtime Tammany politician and leader of McManus Democratic Club James R. McManus was challenged for his position as Hell’s Kitchen’s District Leader by a reform politician named Hamed Houssain. Houssain argued that it was time for the district’s voters to retire the last vestige of Tammany Hall and throw out the organization affiliated with the corrupt disgraced Camine DeSapio.

McManus however, was overwhelmingly reelected and Mayor Ed Koch attended his victory party. For the next 33 years, until his retirement in 2017, there would be no other challenges to Jimmy McManus for the position of District Leader in Hell’s Kitchen. [Read more…] about Tammany’s McManus Club: The Final Decades

The Theatre District & Hell’s Kitchen Revival

October 31, 2021 by James S. Kaplan Leave a Comment

With the recent reopening of Broadway and the Theatre District in the city of New York, which is claimed to be a $1.8 billion industry, it’s appropriate to remember James R. McManus’s role in the efforts to bring Broadway and the adjacent Hell’s Kitchen district to what it is today.

Around 1972 economic and social conditions in Hell’s Kitchen and the rest of the city of New York were beginning to deteriorate. At the time that Jim’s father and great grand uncle had been the District Leaders, living conditions in the once notorious slum had improved for most residents.

This was partially because of improvements in the city’s manufacturing economy during the two world wars, and because of the New Deal social welfare policies pioneered by Al Smith and Frances Perkins. [Read more…] about The Theatre District & Hell’s Kitchen Revival

Tammany’s Last Stand: The McManus Club & The McGovern Campaign

October 28, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

James R. McManus was born in Hell’s Kitchen in 1936 and recently died in 2019. For 54 years (from 1962 to 2016) he was the Democratic Party District Leader from the Hell’s Kitchen area. This was a position that his father Eugene E. McManus had held for 20 years before him.

Previously Eugene McManus’s great grand uncle, Thomas J. McManus, had held the position, since the formation of the McManus Democratic Club in 1892, when he defeated the prior District Leader George Washington Plunkitt, author of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: A Series of Very Plain Talks on Very Practical Politics (1905). [Read more…] about Tammany’s Last Stand: The McManus Club & The McGovern Campaign

Richard Rescorla: The Man Who Saved 2700 Co-workers On 9/11

September 1, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

As we approach the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attack on New York City’s World Trade Center, it is perhaps appropriate to remember that while this was undoubtedly one of the most horrific events in New York City’s history, it was in certain respects one of the most heroic.

In the 103 minutes that the World Trade Center stood after the first plane was flown into them, about 2,900 people died. At the same time, more than 12,000 people escaped from the towers, an amazing feat in which there were many heroes. Richard Rescorla, the English born security director of Morgan Stanley, is credited with saving the lives of more than 2,700 people. [Read more…] about Richard Rescorla: The Man Who Saved 2700 Co-workers On 9/11

Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason

February 23, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 6 Comments

Donald Trump’s recent impeachment trial in which the President was accused of incitement of insurrection against the United States recalls to mind a case from more than 200 years ago.

In that case another New York politician, former Vice President Aaron Burr, whose personality was arguably not dissimilar from Donald Trump, was tried and acquitted of treason in 1807. [Read more…] about Trump Impeachment Recalls Aaron Burr’s Treason