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 History blog.

Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

September 23, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

Frances Perkins, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor in all four terms of his administration, is often credited with designing many of the New Deal’s social welfare programs, including Social Security. As such, she ranks among the most influential women of the 20th Century.

Few however, know that Perkins began her career in the Hell’s Kitchen area of the city of New York, work that as inspired inn part by a chance meeting an Irish Tammany Hall District Leader Tom McManus. [Read more…] about Frances Perkins, One of America’s Most Influential Women, Remains Unrecognized

Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

August 31, 2020 by James S. Kaplan Leave a Comment

Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican-born printer who as a young man became keenly aware of the severe discrimination against Black people, particularly dark skinned people, internationally.

He later moved to London where he met several Black Nationalists seeking to end white European colonialism in Africa.

At a library in London he read Booker T. Washington’s Up From Slavery in which Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, urged that African-Americans pull themselves up and establish black institutions, over seeking equal rights through integration. [Read more…] about Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

August 4, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

The Underground Railroad Coalition recently announced a major effort to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the New York State constitutional provision that ended slavery in the State on July 4, 1827.

The emancipation provision in the New York State Constitution of 1799 provided for the gradual elimination of slavery in New York, but it did not end the widespread legal race discrimination in the state. The most glaring example of this was the New York State Constitution of 1821, which eliminated property qualifications to vote for white men, but denied black men owning less than $250 worth of property the right to vote. [Read more…] about Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

Charging Bull, Fearless Girl & Cultural Tourism In Lower Manhattan

May 31, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

On May 19th 2020, the Waterfront, Parks and Cultural Committee of Manhattan Community Planning Board No. 1, at a virtual meeting, rejected a proposal by the New York City Department of Transportation to move Arturo DiModica’s Charging Bull statue from its current location at Bowling Green to Broad Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange.

Although the matter of moving a sculpture from one City street to another a block away might not seem to be a matter of particular importance or great controversy, this issue did generate significant concern among residents of Lower Manhattan because of the nature of the work, the importance of the location and the people involved. [Read more…] about Charging Bull, Fearless Girl & Cultural Tourism In Lower Manhattan

A Last Chance To Save The Thomas Paine Museum

April 6, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 8 Comments

Shortly before the City of New Rochelle recently became nationally famous (or infamous ) as an epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, a controversy was developing over the threatened destruction of the Thomas Paine Museum Memorial Building on North Avenue. [Read more…] about A Last Chance To Save The Thomas Paine Museum

Crisis: Forgetting Thomas Paine in New Rochelle

January 1, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 12 Comments

The City of New Rochelle, the last home of Thomas Paine, is beginning to undergo something of an economic renaissance. A number of the City’s tremendous historical resources however, remain neglected.

The Thomas Paine Museum on North Avenue — once the centerpiece of an international effort to recognize and promote the importance of Thomas Paine – has been vacant for years and is headed for sale and destruction. [Read more…] about Crisis: Forgetting Thomas Paine in New Rochelle

Manhattan’s Mill Street Synagogue: A Short History

December 24, 2018 by James S. Kaplan 7 Comments

The Mill Street Synagogue, the first synagogue in North America, was constructed in 1730 and located on what today is 26 South William Street in Lower Manhattan. It was from this synagogue that two of the leading Jewish figures in eighteenth and early nineteenth century America, Gershom Mendes Seixas and later Mordecai Noah, influenced the Jewish community in the city of New York and beyond.

Although one of the most important sites in the history of the Jewish people in America, currently 26 South William Street is occupied by an Icon parking garage. It’s across the street from Dubliners restaurant and up the street from 85 Broad Street, the old Goldman Sachs building. In a city of perhaps more than 2 million Jewish residents, there is nothing that would inform a passersby or others of the importance of this place. [Read more…] about Manhattan’s Mill Street Synagogue: A Short History

NYC Elections of 1800: Alexander Hamilton and Horatio Gates

September 23, 2018 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

On October 28, 2018, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association (LMHA), the Sons of the Revolution of the State of New York, the New York Veteran Corps of Artillery, and various French civic and military groups will hold the Sixth Annual Saratoga/Yorktown celebration in the cemetery at St. Paul’s Chapel and at Trinity Churchyard.

This celebration is intended to honor the American victories in the two most important battles of the American Revolution — the Battles of Saratoga on October 17, 1777 and the Battle of Yorktown on October 19, 1781. It is also intended to honor three important Revolutionary War figures connected with those battles who are buried in Trinity Churchyard — General Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton, and Marinus Willett. [Read more…] about NYC Elections of 1800: Alexander Hamilton and Horatio Gates

Tammany and NYC’s Fourth of July Celebrations

June 22, 2018 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

In 1776 John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail about July 4:

“I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

242 years after John Adams’ exhortation, people in the city of New York are still struggling with how to celebrate July 4, and its meaning. In the City of New York July 4 celebrations held after the enactment of the U.S. Constitution were anything but nonpartisan. [Read more…] about Tammany and NYC’s Fourth of July Celebrations

Marking Lower Manhattan History: Saratoga, Yorktown Commemorations

October 2, 2017 by James S. Kaplan Leave a Comment

This year on Sunday October 15, 2017at 2:30 pm in Trinity Churchyard, the Lower Manhattan Historical Association (LMHA) with other groups will celebrate the Fourth Annual Commemoration of the American victories at the Battles of Saratoga (October 17, 1777) and Yorktown (October 19, 1781).

Whereas the Battle of Bunker Hill has been celebrated with a parade in Boston since 1786, New York perhaps because of its status as a City of immigrants has been somewhat slower in recognizing its very rich Revolutionary War history. Thus it is perhaps not completely surprising that it is 225 years behind Boston in commemorating these two most important battles in the Revolutionary War which are directly connected with sites in Lower Manhattan. [Read more…] about Marking Lower Manhattan History: Saratoga, Yorktown Commemorations