On October 11th, U.S. Park Police and New York City Parks Enforcement Officers alerted New York State Environmental Conservation Officer Goonan about a man with a large Burmese python in Battery Park near the Statue of Liberty ferry terminal in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Man Returns To Battery Park With Another Burmese Python
New York City
Hudson River Riders: A Classroom On The Water
Founded in 2003, the Yonkers Public Paddling Program, an arm of the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club (YPRC) was initially created to introduce people to the sport of kayaking. [Read more…] about Hudson River Riders: A Classroom On The Water
Preservation League of New York State Names Excellence Award Winners
Since 1984, the Preservation League of New York State’s annual Excellence Awards program has shone a light on the people who are using historic preservation to make all our lives better — through exemplary restoration projects, indispensable publications, individual action, and organizational distinction. [Read more…] about Preservation League of New York State Names Excellence Award Winners
Poet-Boxer Arthur Cravan: The Man Who Shocked Greenwich Village
The first annual exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists opened at Manhattan’s Grand Central Palace on the evening of April 10, 1917. Thousands of guests gathered to celebrate what was to be the largest art show ever held in New York. The momentous occasion took place in an atmosphere of growing political tension as it coincided with America’s entry into the First World War.
In spite of these circumstances, there was a single figure who attracted widespread attention. Known by his adopted name of Arthur Cravan, he had been invited to deliver a lecture on “The Independent Artists in France and America.” His outrageous behavior shocked New York’s artistic elite. [Read more…] about Poet-Boxer Arthur Cravan: The Man Who Shocked Greenwich Village
New York City Quietly Demolishes Historic Fort Totten Buildings
In August, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) demolished two city-owned, landmarked, Fort Totten 1892 barrack buildings (323 Story Avenue and 322 Murray Street), as well as earlier frame structure (317 Murray Street) from 1883, without involving the local community board or local residents.
The DOB claimed that the buildings posed an immediate safety concern, but the Department had issued the “emergency” demolition order in 2021, yet did not act on it until 2023. [Read more…] about New York City Quietly Demolishes Historic Fort Totten Buildings
Preservationists Reviewing Siting for Thousands of 5G Towers
The Historic Districts Council of New York City is a consulting party to the Section 106 Historic Review Process for proposed Link5G Towers.
This summer, CityBridge, the private contractor installing 32-foot tall 5G towers, sought to begin the review process. [Read more…] about Preservationists Reviewing Siting for Thousands of 5G Towers
Gangsterland: Organized Crime in 1920s New York City
This week on the Historians Podcast Historan David Pietrusza talks about his new book Gangsterland: A Tour Through the Dark Heart of Jazz-Age New York City (Diversion Books, 2023).
Gangsterland is a site by site, crime by crime, outlaw by outlaw walking tour through Roaring Twenties Manhattan, where gamblers and gangsters, crooks and cops, showgirls and speakeasies ruled the day and, always, the night. [Read more…] about Gangsterland: Organized Crime in 1920s New York City
New York State Makes Large Investment in Renewable Energy
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul recently announced what she called the largest state investment in renewable energy in United States history.
The conditional awards include three offshore wind and 22 land-based renewable energy projects totaling 6.4 gigawatts of clean energy, enough to power 2.6 million New York homes and deliver approximately 12 percent of New York’s electricity needs once completed. [Read more…] about New York State Makes Large Investment in Renewable Energy
Professional Racist John Van Evrie & The New York Weekly Day Book
Southern secession was a disaster for American nationalists with a pro-slavery vision. Few were as virulent as John Van Evrie (1814–1896), a Canadian educated as a physician, who spent the 1850s building a publishing company that churned out pro-slavery works, including the notorious New York Weekly Day Book newspaper.
Van Evrie’s pseudoscience theories, which lacked evidence even for the time, claimed black people were inferior to white people, defended slavery as practiced in the United States, and attacked abolitionism. [Read more…] about Professional Racist John Van Evrie & The New York Weekly Day Book
Rediscovered Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw
The pottery of Thomas W. Commeraw, a stoneware manufacturer working in the city of New York during 1797-1819, has been acquired by American museums since the early twentieth century.
Always assumed to be a white potter of European descent, Commeraw’s remarkable life story languished in obscurity until a chance encounter with a census record sent collector, auctioneer and author Brandt Zipp on a long journey to bring it to light. [Read more…] about Rediscovered Black Potter Thomas W. Commeraw