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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.

Controversy Over Development At New York’s Seaport Historic District

January 21, 2021 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

South Street and Brooklyn Bridge (c. 1900)On January 5th, 2021, the City of New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission held a virtual public hearing at which more than a hundred people testified about Howard Hughes Corporation’s proposal to build a 47-story residential building at 250 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, at the heart of the South Street Seaport Historic District.

Fights over the appropriateness of tall buildings in Historic Districts are not unusual in the City of New York, but this one is uniquely centered on the purposes of historic preservation and the role cultural institutions play in helping to build and sustain communities, and themselves. [Read more…] about Controversy Over Development At New York’s Seaport Historic District

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Historic Preservation, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Maritime History, New York City, South Street Seaport, South Street Seaport Museum

Profile: Bruce & Wendy Wasserstein and NYC’s Revival

December 23, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

Bruce & Wendy Wasserstein and NYCs RevivalBruce Wasserstein, the financier and corporate takeover adviser, and his sister Wendy Wasserstein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author, were among the most accomplished and famous New Yorkers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Both died suddenly and somewhat prematurely — Bruce in October 2009 at the age of 61 of a reported aneurism and Wendy at the age of 55 in January 2006 reportedly of lymphoma, but not before they had reached the pinnacle of their chosen professions — Bruce in finance and Wendy in the theater.

Their success was achieved through a combination of shrewd insight and highly effective self-promotion, and the good fortune to live through a period of economic and social revival in New York City, in which they were active participants. [Read more…] about Profile: Bruce & Wendy Wasserstein and NYC’s Revival

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: art, Economic History, Financial History, Manhattan, New York City, Theatre, womens history

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

September 23, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 3 Comments

Frances Perkins meets with American workersFrances 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

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Al Smith, Albany, FDR, Frances Perkins, Greenwich Village, Housing, Labor History, New Deal, New York City, Political History, Prohibition, Tammany Hall, womens history

Marcus Garvey In Harlem: Roots of African Independence

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

Universal African Legion in front of the UNIA Liberty Hall on 138th Ave in Harlem, NY during the 1924 UNIA Convention's opening day parade. Photo by James Van Der Zee.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

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Civil Rights, Harlem, Marcus Garvey, New York City, Political History

Real Estate, Philip Payton And The Rise of Black Harlem

August 4, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

Philip A Payton Jr circa 1914The 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

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Black History, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, Housing, Jewish History, New York City, Slavery, Urban History

Charging Bull, Fearless Girl & Cultural Tourism In Lower Manhattan

May 31, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 2 Comments

Charging Bull by Arturo Di ModicaOn 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

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Cultural History, Financial History, Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan Historical Society, Manhattan, New York City, New York Stock Exchange, sculpture, Tourism, womens history

A Last Chance To Save The Thomas Paine Museum

April 6, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 8 Comments

Thomas Paine CottageShortly 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

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, New Rochelle, Thomas Paine, Thomas Paine Museum, Westchester County

Crisis: Forgetting Thomas Paine in New Rochelle

January 1, 2020 by James S. Kaplan 12 Comments

portrait of Thomas Paine by Laurent Dabos for the purpose of engravingThe 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

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: Education, Historic Preservation, Museums, New Rochelle, Thomas Paine, Tourism, Westchester County

Manhattan’s Mill Street Synagogue: A Short History

December 24, 2018 by James S. Kaplan 7 Comments

Rev Gershom Mendes Seixas c 1784The 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

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Greenwich Village, Jewish History, Manhattan, New York City, Political History

NYC Elections of 1800: Alexander Hamilton and Horatio Gates

September 23, 2018 by James S. Kaplan 1 Comment

Alexander Hamilton portrait by John Trumbull 1806On 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

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Alexander Hamilton, American Revolution, AmRev, Battle of Saratoga, Horatio Gates, Military History, NYC, Political History, Tammany Hall

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