Queens

The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

September 11, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

As the 1920s advanced, the economy soared. But with that dramatic expansion came irrational exuberance and unchecked speculation: stock prices reached levels that had no basis in reality; margin purchases were rampant; banks handed out loans lavishly and imprudently; and giddy product production resulted in a vast oversupply of goods.

On Tuesday, October 29, 1929, it all came crashing down. This is the story of the Great Depression in New York City. [Read more…] about The Great Depression in New York City: A Primer

The Arthur Murray Girls Baseball Team

August 6, 2023 by Chris Kretz Leave a Comment

In 1949 nine women of the Arthur Murray Girls baseball team took the field against the all-male squad from the Patchogue Athletics. By that year, the Murrays had been together as a semi-pro outfit for some time. Formed out of the sandlots and playgrounds of Queens, they grew under the tutelage of New York Times sportswriter Mike Strauss to become the nucleus of a league that, by the late 1940s, became the American Girls Baseball Conference. [Read more…] about The Arthur Murray Girls Baseball Team

Labor History: Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct & the 1961 Track Workers Strike

July 23, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

There were only 14 horses at Saratoga Race Course in late July of 1961. By that time, it was expected that at least 200 would have arrived for the racing season. Strikes led by Jimmy Hoffa and a branch of the Teamsters Union, Local 917, halted the transportation of horses from New York City to Saratoga Springs. [Read more…] about Labor History: Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct & the 1961 Track Workers Strike

New York City Historic Districts Council Names ‘Six to Celebrate’

March 17, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Historic Districts Council (HDC) has announced its Six to Celebrate, an annual listing of historic New York City neighborhoods that merit preservation attention. Six to Celebrate is New York’s only citywide list of preservation priorities. [Read more…] about New York City Historic Districts Council Names ‘Six to Celebrate’

Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

March 9, 2023 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the racehorse Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989) winning the Triple Crown in 1973, a feat that had not been achieved since it was won by Citation in 1948.

Secretariat, also known as Big Red (a nickname shared with Man O’War), was the ninth winner of Triple Crown, setting and still holding record fastest time in all three races – the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes and the Preakness Stakes. He spent much of his career in New York State, and was notably beaten at Saratoga Race Course in 1973, but the only three races he ever lost were in New York State. [Read more…] about Secretariat’s Triple Crown at 50

Remembering Historian, Preservationist Jeffrey Kroessler (1952-2023)

February 12, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Jeffrey Kroessler, a longtime board member of the Historic Districts Council (HDC) in New York City, preservationist, author, and historian, passed away on Sunday, February 5th at the age of 71.

Kroessler served on HDC’s boards of directors and advisers for 36 years, helping to craft the organization’s advocacy strategies and educational programs on preservation across the city. [Read more…] about Remembering Historian, Preservationist Jeffrey Kroessler (1952-2023)

Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

January 2, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Larger-than-life figures such as Thurgood Marshall and Martin Luther King and, going back further, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Booker T. Washington, functioned as the “celebrities” of the equal rights movement, the public face of the crusade for racial justice.

But outside the spotlight, “bridge figures” such as New Yorker Franklin H. Williams — men and woman unencumbered by the sometimes blinding “star quality” of the Kings and Marshalls while also shunning the divisive tactics of militants such as Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and Malcolm X — made enormous but often underappreciated contributions. [Read more…] about Franklin Williams: An Unsung Civil Rights Hero

Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

December 20, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 2 Comments

What and where a person eats, suggests togetherness with one community and dis-identification with another and is therefore a factor that affects all migrant communities. Consumption conveys an idea of public identity.

Food can also serve as a psychological stimulus by unlocking emotional childhood reminiscences. Such experiences have frequently been expressed creatively. There are, for example, the uncooked wrinkled French prunes for Tolstoy’s Ivan Il’ich or the famous “petites madeleines” for Marcel Proust’s Swann that recapture vivid images of early years. [Read more…] about Mayonnaise, Hollandaise, Huguenots and Nostalgia: A Culinary History

Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

December 14, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall Leave a Comment

Marjorie Sewell Cautley (1891–1954) was the first woman landscape architect to design state parks, the first to plan the landscape of a federally funded housing project, the first to lecture in a university’s city planning department – and the first person to design a plan for D.L. Rogers Memorial Park in Bolton Landing on Lake George. [Read more…] about Marjorie Sewell Cautley: Renowned Landscape Architect

Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration

June 16, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

One of the top-grossing American films of 1940 was the western Santa Fe Trail, the seventh Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland collaboration. The story concerns John Brown’s campaign against slavery just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Starting out on an acting career, young Ronald Reagan appeared in the story line as George Armstrong Custer. [Read more…] about Wilhelm Grosz: The Red Sails of Forced Migration