Epidemics have shaped the growth and geography of New York . And one 19th century epidemic changed a neighborhood’s name, too. That’s what happened with the Brooklyn enclave formerly known as Yellow Hook. This farming village overlooking New York Bay was originally part of the town of New Utrecht. Source: How yellow fever rebranded a […]
Tag: NYC History
Bowery Boys Podcast: The history of Hart Island, a place of strangeness and sorrow
Few people are allowed to go onto Hart Island , the quiet, narrow island in the Long Island Sound, a lonely place in sight of the bustling community of City Island. For over 150 years, Hart Island has been New York’s potter’s field, the burial site for over one million people — unclaimed bodies, stillborn […]
Touching History: I found one of the Commissioner’s Bolts
I am honored to have found one of the Commissioner’s original bolts in Central Park!
Seward Park Library: One of New York’s most beautiful branch libraries also had a rooftop view
Below is a picture, facing east, of Seward Park Library in the Lower East Side at 192 E. Broadway (picture taken in 1911). This spectacular branch library, funded by Andrew Carnegie, opened in November 1909, two years before the 42nd Street main branch opened. Source: Seward Park Library: One of New York’s most beautiful branch […]
