New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Upper West Side

Gertrude Ederle: The Queen of the Waves Hits a Speed Bump

by Leave a Comment

Gertrude Ederle, 1925Gertrude Ederle led a long and amazing life. Born in New York City in 1905 to German immigrant parents who ran an Upper West Side butcher shop, Ederle became an Olympic swimming champion at age 19 in 1924, and in August 1926, a century ago this month, became the first woman – and the fifth person – to successfully swim the English Channel.

Henry Ederle promised his daughter a red roadster if she did it, and in a companion boat he and Trudy’s sister shouted reminders about the car as encouragement on the turbulent route from France to England. [Read more…] about Gertrude Ederle: The Queen of the Waves Hits a Speed Bump

Daniel Talbot, New Yorker Films, and the Art of Cultural Courage

by Leave a Comment

Daniel Talbot, 1986Daniel Talbot did not simply show movies. He helped teach America how to watch them.

My father was born in the Bronx in 1926 to Polish Jewish immigrants. He came of age during the Depression and World War II, part of a generation that understood culture not as decoration, but as a way of thinking about the world.

He was tough, funny, exacting, deeply humanistic, and unmistakably New York. [Read more…] about Daniel Talbot, New Yorker Films, and the Art of Cultural Courage

Plywood History: Lawrence Ottinger’s Timber, Tenacity and Triumph

by 1 Comment

testing the strength of plywood historyThe death last month of eight-term U.S. Rep. Richard Lawrence Ottinger (D-Westchester) brings to mind the remarkable career of his father, Lawrence (1884-1954), an important player in plywood history.

Lawrence was the youngest of four sons of Moses Ottinger, a real estate developer who as a child emigrated from the German kingdom of Wurttemberg in the mid-nineteenth century and became known for developing properties along Columbus Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. [Read more…] about Plywood History: Lawrence Ottinger’s Timber, Tenacity and Triumph

Another Landmark Left Exposed: West Park Presbyterian Church

by 3 Comments

Open windows at West Park Presbyterian Church on 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, January 2026 (New York Landmarks Conservancy)When wet snow falls windows along the front facade of the 136-year-old West Park Presbyterian Church stand open to the elements.

Pigeon droppings coat the front steps and portions of the public sidewalk in front of the Romanesque Revival Presbyterian church on the corner of Amsterdam Avenue at 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. [Read more…] about Another Landmark Left Exposed: West Park Presbyterian Church

Leslie Day’s River: A Hudson Memoir

by Leave a Comment

River A Hudson Memoir by Leslie DayLeslie Day’s life changed forever when, in 1975, she moved to a tiny houseboat on the Hudson River at the 79th Street Boat Basin ― a new home umbilically tied to Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

In her heartfelt memoir, River (Cornell University Press, 2025), Day reveals how she fell in love with ― and married ― her neighbor, a biology professor at Brooklyn College, became a naturalist, educator, and author, and raised her son on the boat. [Read more…] about Leslie Day’s River: A Hudson Memoir

Harry Belafonte’s Early Career in Greenwich Village

by 1 Comment

Portrait of Harry Belafonte ca 1957In 1951, Harry Belafonte decided he was finished with singing. For the past few years, he had been taking acting classes at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School with the influential German director Erwin Piscator, alongside Marlon Brando and Sidney Poitier.

All the while he was performing with the American Negro Theater. [Read more…] about Harry Belafonte’s Early Career in Greenwich Village

2025 Six to Celebrate Historic Preservation Awardees Named

by Leave a Comment

Main Administratiuon Building, at the Third District US Lighthouse Depot in Staten Island, 2025 (Historic Districts Council)The Historic Districts Council (HDC) has announced its Six to Celebrate annual listing of historic New York City neighborhoods that merit historic preservation attention.

Throughout 2025, HDC plans to work with neighborhood partners to set and reach preservation goals through strategic planning, advocacy, outreach, programs, and building public awareness. [Read more…] about 2025 Six to Celebrate Historic Preservation Awardees Named

The 1890 New York City Police Census

by Leave a Comment

Mulberry Street, on the Lower East Side, circa 1900 (Library of Congress)Following the federal census of 1890, officials of the newly consolidated New York City thought federal enumerators had failed to give a true account of city residents. As a result, between September 19th and October 14th of that year, an enumeration of the 24 assembly districts of New York County (Manhattan) was taken by city police. [Read more…] about The 1890 New York City Police Census

New Source for New York City Street Name History

by 2 Comments

a new map by the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). The map helps connect people to the nearly 2,500 streets, intersections and other locations that have been co-named after notable people.Diana Ross, Peter Jennings and Run DMC all have something unusual in common. Each of has a New York City street or playground named after them.

You can find where each of their eponymous spots are, thanks to a new map by the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). The map helps connect people to the nearly 2,500 streets, intersections and other locations that have been co-named after notable people. [Read more…] about New Source for New York City Street Name History

The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune

by Leave a Comment

The Sullivanians -Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American CommuneIn the 1960s the Sullivanians, a group dedicated to the teachings of the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis in New York and founded on the premise that dismantling the nuclear family and freeing people from the repressive force of their parents was the key to both happiness and success had 300-400 people living in shared spaces in the Bloomingdale neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. [Read more…] about The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy and the Wild Life of an American Commune

The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years With The Legends Who Lunch

by 1 Comment

The Algonquin Round TableLocated at 59 West 44th Street in New York’s theatre district, the Algonquin Hotel became an artistic hub for the city and a landmark in America’s cultural life.

It was a meeting place and home away from home for such luminaries as famed wits Alexander Woollcott and Dorothy Parker; Broadway and Hollywood stars, including Tallulah Bankhead and Charles Laughton; popular raconteurs like Robert Benchley; and New York City mayors Jimmy Walker and Fiorello LaGuardia. [Read more…] about The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years With The Legends Who Lunch

‘Thuggery, Intimidation and General Foul Play’: Ogden Mills & The 1935 Nabisco Strike

by 1 Comment

Bakery Workers Picketing The Mansion of Nabsico director Ogden Mills' East 69th Street and 5th avenue Mansion in Manhattan in 1935Like all great mysteries, it started with an unexpected clue. In this case, a photograph that caught the eye of Joe D’Agostino, Historic Interpreter at Staatsburgh State Historic Site in Hyde Park, Dutchess County, NY.

It was a March 3, 1935 Acme News Service photograph showing workers picketing outside the 5th Avenue, Manhattan mansion formerly owned by Ruth Livingston Mills (1855-1920) and her husband Ogden Mills (1856-1929), who had also owned the Staatsburgh Mansion. [Read more…] about ‘Thuggery, Intimidation and General Foul Play’: Ogden Mills & The 1935 Nabisco Strike

Remembering Joan Kaplan Davidson (1927-2023)

by Leave a Comment

Joan K. Davidson speaks at her 90th birthday celebration on June 26th, 2017 at the Arthur Ross Garden of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design MuseumCivic organizations across New York State are mourning the passing of Joan Kaplan Davidson, at the age of 96.

Joan Davidson spent her life improving and advocating on behalf of civic betterment, cultural enrichment, and environmental protection in the City and State of New York, especially in the Hudson River Valley where she lived. [Read more…] about Remembering Joan Kaplan Davidson (1927-2023)

NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

by Leave a Comment

An information table set up by the Gay Liberation Front on the University of Rochester’s Eastman Quadrangle in 1970 (Photo by Anthony Boccaccio)The New York State Board for Historic Preservation has recommended adding 13 properties to the State and National Registers of Historic Places and submitting one request to the Columbia Turnpike East Toll House to the National Park Service.

The nominations include a key site associated with Rochester‘s LGBTQ+ history, a historic synagogue in Manhattan‘s Upper West Side, a public park in Ithaca, a church connected to Yonkers’s civil rights history, a re-built Lustron House in Erie County, the Oneida County History Center, and more. [Read more…] about NYS Nominates 13 Places for State, National Registers of Historic Places

Posh Portals: Elegant Upper West Side Entrances

by 1 Comment

posh portalsAndrew Alpern, author of Posh Portals: Elegant Entrances and Ingratiating Ingresses to Apartments for the Affluent in New York City (Abbeville Press, 2020), says first impressions count when it comes to the luxury buildings of the city, which is what inspired him to write Posh Portals.  [Read more…] about Posh Portals: Elegant Upper West Side Entrances

We Need Your Help Now More Than Ever

New York Almanack receives no public funds.

It’s supported only by readers like you.

Please give today (a monthly recurring gift is best)

PayPal

Venmo

Patreon

Buy Me A Cup of Coffee

CashApp

Use your bank’s “bill pay” option (or just send a check)

Thanks for your support! These are difficult times. Without your support we cannot publish the Almanack.

*Donations are not tax deductible.

(Click the X in the top right corner this box to not see this message again for 7 days).