History, Natural History & the Arts
On September 27th, 2025, it will be two hundred years ago that the world’s first public railway, known as the Stockton & Darlington (S&DR), was opened in north-east England.
As well as carrying coal, the train offered space for six hundred passengers, most of them traveling in wagons, but some distinguished guests were allocated a seat in a specially designed carriage called The Experiment. [Read more…] about Railroads, The Spuyten Duyvil Disaster & Faustian Legend
Located 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
Early 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
Due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in New York City and transmissibility of the Omicron variant, the Board of Managers of East Side House Settlement — the owner and beneficiary of The Winter Show — made the decision to postpone the 2022 edition of The Winter Show, originally scheduled for January 20th through 30th, 2022.
New dates and details for The Winter Show 2022 are expected to be shared in the coming weeks. [Read more…] about The Winter Show Postponed By COVID-19
The most recent episode of Empire State Engagements features a conversation with Dr. Lizabeth Cohen Professor in the Department of History at Harvard, who discussed her Bancroft Prize-winning book Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019). [Read more…] about The Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age
The city of New York plans to tear down most of the historic buildings on Hart Island, where more than one million people are buried in unmarked graves. The city declared an emergency, which bypasses cultural resource and environmental reviews.
New York State designated the entire island off the coast of the Bronx eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2016. About 20 institutional and residential structures remain at the mile-long site, including a women’s insane asylum built in 1885 known as “The Pavilion,” a 1912 electrical generating dynamo building, and a 1930s Catholic chapel – 18 are planned to be demolished. [Read more…] about NYC Plans to Demolish Historic Hart Island Buildings
Book purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.
In The Floating Pool Lady: A Quest to Bring a Public Pool to New York City’s Waterfront (Cornell University Press, 2021) Ann L. Buttenwieser recounts her triumphant adventure that started in the bayous of Louisiana and ended with a self-sustaining, floating swimming pool moored in New York Harbor. [Read more…] about The Floating Pool Lady: Bringing A Public Pool to NYC’s Waterfront
Geraldine Ferraro, born in Newburgh and later of the South Bronx, would make history as the first female Vice Presidential nominee for a major party. In 1984, Democratic Presidential nominee Walter Mondale announced that Congresswoman of New York would be his running mate. [Read more…] about Trailblazing Women: Geraldine Ferraro
In his memoir, That Further Shore: A Memoir of Irish Roots and American Promise, (Fordham University Press, 2020) John D. Feerick shares his life story, from his humble beginnings born to immigrant parents in the South Bronx.
He went on to practice law, participating in framing the Constitution’s Twenty-Fifth Amendment, serving as dean of Fordham Law, President of the New York City Bar Association and chair of State Commissions on government integrity. [Read more…] about A Bronx Memoir: Irish Roots And Fordham Law
City Island is a neighborhood in the northeastern Bronx in New York City, located on an island of the same name approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long by 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide.
City Island is located at the extreme western end of Long Island Sound, south of Pelham Bay and east of Eastchester Bay. At one time the island was incorporated within the boundaries of Pelham, Westchester County, New York, but the island is now part of the City of New York. [Read more…] about City Island And The America’s Cup