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New York City

1899 And The Making Of New York City

April 26, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 5 Comments

original St James Hotel on Broadway & 26th StreetOn August 31st, 1901, Polish-American anarchist Leon Czolgosz booked a room in Nowak’s Hotel at 1078 Broadway.

Six days later he made a trip to Buffalo, site of the Pan-American Exposition where President William McKinley was due to speak. He shot him from close range. [Read more…] about 1899 And The Making Of New York City

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Auburn Prison, Crime and Justice, Fires, Irish Immigrants, Jewish History, Manhattan, New York City, Oscar Hammerstein, Performing Arts, Sing Sing Prison, Theatre, Theodore Roosevelt, Transportation History

Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

April 25, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

The Roemer map of Albany 1698 showing fort orange and BeverwyckTjerck Claeszen DeWitt immigrated to New Amsterdam (now New York City) from Grootholt in Zunterlant in 1656. Grootholt means Great Wood and Zunterland was probably located on the southern border of East Friesland, a German territory on the North Sea only ten miles from the most northerly province of the Netherlands.

By 1657, Tjerck DeWitt married Barber (Barbara) Andrieszen (also Andriessen) in the New Amsterdam Dutch Church and moved to Beverwyck (now Albany). While in Beverwyck, he purchased a house. At this time Albany contained 342 houses and about 1,000 residents, about 600 of whom were members of the Dutch Church. [Read more…] about Simeon DeWitt: America’s Surveyor General

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, American Revolution, Aurelius, Brutus, Camillus, Cato, Cayuga County, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Dryden, Fabius, Galen, Geography, George Washington, Greece, Hannibal, Hector, Homer, Ithaca, Junius, Kingston, Locke, Lysander, Manlius, Maps, Marcellus, Military History, Milton, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Onondaga County, Ovid, Pompey, Rome, Romulus, Schenectady County, Scipio, Sempronius, Seneca County, Simeon DeWitt, Solon, Stirling, surveying, Syracuse, Thompkins County, Tully, Ulster County, Ulysses, Virgil, West Point, Yorktown

Florenz Ziegfeld: The Incarnation of Broadway

April 20, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

The Follies in 1907Impresario Florenz (Flo) Ziegfeld Jr. was an American icon who developed the modern Broadway revue and established its global leadership in entertainment. He invented show business.

Florenz hit his stride with the Follies of 1907. A combination of European refinement, the signing of high quality performers (chorus girls), choreographers and lyricists, a relatively short show of forty minutes presented with lightning speed and precision, created an unprecedented sense of theatrical excitement. [Read more…] about Florenz Ziegfeld: The Incarnation of Broadway

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Chicago, Cultural History, Dance, German-American History, Immigration, Jewish History, Manhattan, Musical History, New York City, Performing Arts, Theatre, womens history

Robert Yates, John Lansing & The Constitution

April 18, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

The Manner in which the American Colonies Declared Themselves Independent of the King of England, throughout the Different Provinces, on July 4, 1776, by Noble (engraver), after Hamilton (painter), for Edward Barnard’s The New, Comprehensive, Impartial and Complete History of England… (London, 1783).Robert Yates (1738-1801) was born in Schenectady. His parents were Joseph and Maria Yates. He received a classical education in the city of New York and later studied law in the Albany law firm of William Livingston, who was later a signer of the U.S. Constitution.

Yates was admitted to the New York bar in 1760 and thereafter resided in Albany. From 1771 to 1775, Yates was on the Albany Board of Aldermen and considered himself a member of the Radical Whigs, a party carried over from England that had a reputation for strong opposition to corruption and the protection of liberty. [Read more…] about Robert Yates, John Lansing & The Constitution

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, John Lansing, Lansingburgh, Legal History, New Jersey, New York City, Political History, Schenectady, Schenectady County

Freedomland: Co-op City and the Story of New York

April 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Freedomland Co-op City and the Story of New YorkLocated on the grounds of the former Freedomland Amusement Park on the northeastern edge of The Bronx, Co-op City’s 35 towers and 236 townhouses have been home to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and is an icon visible to all traveling on the east coast corridor.

In 1965, Co-op City was planned as the largest middle-class housing development in the United States. It was intended as a solution to the problem of affordable housing in America’s largest city. [Read more…] about Freedomland: Co-op City and the Story of New York

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Architecture, Housing, New York City, The Bronx

Empire City Race Track in Yonkers: Some History

April 17, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Fleetwood Park Morrisania, NY July 9, 1878 courtesy Library of CongressEarly April saw New York State lawmakers adopt the 2022 budget and approve a plan to accelerate the siting of three new full casinos in the metropolitan New York area. This plan will see the casino licenses awarded to those able to cover the $500 million fee and be approved in a selection process.

The obvious first choice for one of the three sites is Aqueduct Race Track in Queens, and another possible location would be Empire City Casino in Yonkers.

Both locations for many years have successfully demonstrated their feasibility by conducting horse sports, and each of the casino facilities are managed by experienced operators, Resorts World at the Big A, and MGM at Empire City.

With Aqueduct in the Big Apple so well known, perhaps this is a good opportunity to delve into the origins of Empire City. [Read more…] about Empire City Race Track in Yonkers: Some History

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Gouverneur Morris, Horses, New York City, sports, Sports History, The Bronx, Westchester County, Yonkers

George Deem, Bulldozers and Stalinist Suppression

April 11, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

George DeemManhattan artist George Deem is remembered for referencing the history of painting by re-imagining Old Masters in a contemporary context. He re-configured iconic pictorial images through visual ploys such as repetition and erasure, or through the addition of components of contemporary life and art. [Read more…] about George Deem, Bulldozers and Stalinist Suppression

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Art History, Chicago, Cultural History, Literature, Long Island, Manhattan, Metropolitan Museum of Art, modernism, New York City, painting, Russian History, Writing

William Sears’ American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills

April 10, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Sears American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills Advert Newburgh Telegraph, Jan 26 1835The nineteenth century in America saw the rapid growth of “patent” medicines, developed and marketed to a populace longing for relief from the many chronic maladies of life.  Newspapers of the times were filled with advertising extolling the virtues of these creations as entrepreneurs tried to make their fortune by selling into this need.

The early fall of 1834 found one such man, William Sears, then in his middle fifties, traveling around Saratoga County soliciting testimonials from prominent local citizens as to the benefits of the medicines he had produced that were now being offered to the public. [Read more…] about William Sears’ American Hygiene Vegetable Renovating Pills

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Ballston Spa, Medical History, New York City, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Center, Saratoga County History Roundtable

Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat-Lift

April 8, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

seawallOn this episode of Empire State Engagements, a conversation with author, historian, and mariner Jessica DuLong about her book Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boatlift (Three Hills/Cornell University Press, 2021). [Read more…] about Saved at the Seawall: Stories from the September 11 Boat-Lift

Filed Under: Books, History, New York City Tagged With: 9-11, East River, Hudson River, Manhattan, Maritime History, New Jersey, New York City, New York Harbor, Podcasts, Search and Rescue, Transportation History

NYC Street Co-Named For First Woman Cabinet Member Frances Perkins

March 31, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Frances Perkins street co-naming ceremonyOn March 26, 2022,the city of New York officially co-named West 46th Street between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, Frances Perkins Place. Perkins was U.S. Secretary of Labor under Franklin Delano Roosevelt from 1933 to 1945, the first woman to serve as a cabinet secretary.

The Frances Perkins Place block includes Hartley House, a nonprofit organization where France Perkins was a social worker. You can read more about Frances Perkins here. [Read more…] about NYC Street Co-Named For First Woman Cabinet Member Frances Perkins

Filed Under: New York City Tagged With: Frances Perkins, New York City, Political History, womens history

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