History

For nearly a century, the Rockettes have been an icon of Christmas in New York. From humble St. Louis origins (no, the troupe was not formed in the Big Apple) to performing when Radio City Music Hall was in disrepair and shuttering for weeks at a time, they've managed to continue dancing throughout the decades. Not only that, they've emerged as America’s best known dance troupe. Here's the incredible history of this small team of female dancers, who have pulled off astounding, razor-sharp choreography while also fighting for higher wages and the landmarks designation of Radio City. The Rockettes are a New York icon, but only after a hard-fought battle to keep performing in the city.
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The Urban Lens: The Museum of the City of New York looks back at NYC ice skating over the centuries

Skaters at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, 1935. Courtesy New York City Parks Photo Archive

December 15, 2017

The Urban Lens: The Museum of the City of New York looks back at NYC ice skating over the centuries

By Hannah Frishberg

6sqft’s series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, we take a look back at New York City's ice skating history just days before the Museum of the City of New York's "New York on Ice" exhibit opens to the public. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. There are few New York winter activities more iconic than ice skating. The rink, the blades, the gliding people attempting to balance – the elements of the pastime are minimal, and so the pictures of it over the centuries are not so very different despite the decades. On view this Wednesday through April 2018, the Museum of the City of New York will be hosting an exhibit titled "New York on Ice: Skating in the City" featuring many of the images below of ice skating in NYC from the 1800s to the present day. In addition to paintings, postcards, and vintage photographs, the exhibit will also showcase costumes, posters, and more.
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NYC’s first elevated train and the world’s first streetcar began in Greenwich Village

The Ninth Avenue El near 14th Street c. 1914. Via Bain Collection, Library of Congress.

December 14, 2017

NYC’s first elevated train and the world’s first streetcar began in Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village is known as the birthplace of many things – the modern gay rights movement, Off-Broadway theater, the New York School of artists and poets, the “new urbanism” pioneered by Jane Jacobs, among many other trailblazing firsts. Less closely associated with the Village, however, are radical and transformative innovations in transportation technology. But while little known, the Village was in fact home to the first elevated rail line, and the first streetcar.
The whole history right this way

December 7, 2017

The Urban Lens: From Bob Dylan to Jack Kerouac, see rare photos of the Village’s Beat Generation

Perhaps no single photographer could be said to have captured the energy, the cultural ferment, the reverberating social change emanating from New York City in the second half of the 20th century as vividly as Fred W. McDarrah. McDarrah got his start covering the downtown beat of the Village Voice in the 1950s and '60s, as that publication was defining a newly-emerged breed of independent journalism. McDarrah penetrated the lofts and coffeehouses of Lower Manhattan to shed light upon a new movement known as "The Beats" and went on to capture on film the New York artists, activists, politicians, and poets who changed the way everyone else thought and lived. Through the generosity of the Estate of Fred W. McDarrah and the McDarrah family, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation was fortunate enough to add to its digital archive a dozen of the most epochal of Fred McDarrah’s images of downtown icons, including Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Jane Jacobs, and Allen Ginsberg. And just in time for the holidays, you can purchase your own copy (with all proceeds benefitting GVSHP!).
Learn the story behind all the photos

In the 19th century, Brooklynites played baseball on ice

Baseball on Ice (1884) via Fine Art America

December 5, 2017

In the 19th century, Brooklynites played baseball on ice

For baseball fans, winter becomes an unbearably long season. In addition to the cold weather and early darkness, there are no games to watch. As a solution to this ball game drought, Brooklynites of the mid-and-late-1800’s began playing ice baseball. Getting its start in Rochester, N.Y. and later moving downstate to Brooklyn in 1861, the sport of ice baseball forced players to strap on skates and attempt to follow the rules of regular baseball on a frozen pond. Although ice skating remains a very popular winter activity in New York City to this day, baseball on ice eventually lost its charm before the turn of the 20th century, as players, and fans, complained about the freezing cold and slippery conditions.
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History

Former IRT Powerhouse on West 59th Street, once the world’s largest, gets landmark status

Image via NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

December 5, 2017

Former IRT Powerhouse on West 59th Street, once the world’s largest, gets landmark status

By Michelle Cohen

This morning, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the former IRT Powerhouse (now the Con Ed Powerhouse) at 12th Avenue and 59th Street an official New York City landmark. The Beaux-Arts style building, designed in 1904 by McKim, Mead & White, is considered a remarkable example of the style applied to a utilitarian building. It was bestowed with such grandeur to convince the public to embrace the subway, a newly-created transportation option at the time. The monumental building not only powered the city's the first subway line but upon completion 111 years ago it was the largest powerhouse in the world.
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New York City was home to America’s first-ever electrically lit Christmas tree

The first electrically-illuminated Christmas tree in 1882, courtesy of the Thomas Edison Museum

December 4, 2017

New York City was home to America’s first-ever electrically lit Christmas tree

At a townhouse on East 36th Street in 1882, the first Christmas tree to ever be adorned with electrical lights was lit, paving the way for the frenzy surrounding tree lightings around the world today. As an engineer and vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, as well as Thomas Edison’s business partner, Edward Hibberd Johnson, was quite familiar with light bulbs. While festively decorating his apartment ahead of the holiday that year, Johnson had a very bright idea: wiring 80 red, white and blue light bulbs together around the tree and placing it in his parlor window.
More history this way

The long cultural and musical history of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village

Jimi Hendrix, via Wiki Commons

November 30, 2017

The long cultural and musical history of Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village

Jimi Hendrix would have turned 75 this week. In his brief 27 years and even briefer musical career, Hendrix left an indelible mark upon guitar playing and rock music, permanently transforming both art forms. But perhaps in some ways his most lasting impact came from a project completed just three weeks before his death--the opening of Electric Lady Studios at 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village. On August 26th, 1970, the studio opened, the only recording artist-owned studio at the time. It provided Hendrix with affordable studio space that would also meet his personal technical and aesthetic specifications. Kicked off by an opening party near summer’s end, Electric Lady Studios was the location of Hendrix's last-ever studio recording--an instrumental known as "Slow Blues"--before his untimely passing on September 18, 1970. Fortunately, this was only the beginning of the studio’s incredible run recording some of the greatest rock, hip hop, and pop albums of the last nearly half-century and only the latest incarnation of one of the Village’s most unusual and storied structures.
The whole history here

History

Artists plan to install eight life-size sculptures of powerful women across New York

Rendering courtesy of Gillie and Marc

November 29, 2017

Artists plan to install eight life-size sculptures of powerful women across New York

The husband-and-wife sculpture team Gillie and Marc have an ambitious plan to install bronze sculptures of powerful women throughout New York City beginning next year. Over 25 years, Gillie and Marc have completed over 100 commissions for sculptures in public places and businesses in more than 40 cities. (In New York, their work has been everywhere from Rockefeller Center to the Fulton Center, and they plan to install the world's largest rhino sculpture in Manhattan next year.) But in all their commissions, they were shocked to find that only one was to celebrate a woman. To help narrow the glaring gender gap in public monuments, the artists plan to install eight life-size bronze sculptures of powerful women across New York City as a public art exhibition. It's set to debut in 2018, and until the public has a chance to vote on which women should be featured.
Learn more about the art project

The Urban Lens: Wayne Sorce’s vivid photos capture the spirit of 1970s and ’80s NYC

By Dana Schulz

6sqft’s series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, the Joseph Bellows Gallery shares the late Wayne Sorce's "Urban Color" series. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. Chicago-born photographer Wayne Sorce began capturing the people and places of urban landscapes while at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1960s. In the late '70s and early '80s he took large-scale color photos of his hometown and New York, capturing "a formal exactitude, the light, structures, and palette of these cities within a certain era," according to a press release from the Joseph Bellows Gallery in L.A. where this "Urban Color" series is currently on view. Not only do the vivid colors help express the spirit of the city at this time, but the way Sorce incorporates people exposes a unique energy in which they serve as "both inhabitants, as well as sculptural forms relating to a larger composed scene." From Manhattan barbershops and restaurants to the gritty, industrial streets of Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, the photos transport the viewer to a bygone NYC.
See all of Sorce's photos here

Jewish gangsters, jazz legends, and Joy Division: The evolution of the Ukrainian National Home

The Stuyvesant Casino in 1945, via the Swedish Buck Johnson Society (L); The Ukrainian National Home Today, via Wally Gobetz/Flickr (R)

November 16, 2017

Jewish gangsters, jazz legends, and Joy Division: The evolution of the Ukrainian National Home

On 2nd Avenue, just south of 9th Street at No. 140-142, sits one of the East Village's oddest structures. Clad in metal and adorned with Cyrillic lettering, the building sports a slightly downtrodden and forbidding look, seeming dropped into the neighborhood from some dystopian sci-fi thriller. In reality, for the last half century the building has housed the Ukrainian National Home, best known as a great place to get some good food or drink. But scratch the surface of this architectural oddity and you'll find a winding history replete with Jewish gangsters, German teetotalers, jazz-playing hipsters, and the American debut of one of Britain's premier post-punk bands, all in a building which, under its metallic veneer, dates back nearly two centuries.
Learn this fascinating history

History

Dannon Yogurt’s fruity history in the Bronx

Photo courtesy of Dannon

November 14, 2017

Dannon Yogurt’s fruity history in the Bronx

The Bronx is home to your favorite European-sounding ice cream brand--and it's also the place where a European yogurt was outfitted for American tastes. Back in 1919, in Barcelona, Spain, Isaac Carasso started making yogurt after learning about scientific advances fermenting milk at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He founded the "Danone" yogurt company--named after his young son Daniel--and invented yogurt's first industrial manufacturing process. Isaac's son, Daniel, eventually brought the business to France, but then moved to New York in the midst of World War Two. In 1942, Daniel Carasso changed the name Danone to Dannon to make the brand sound more American. It was the first American yogurt company located in the Bronx at a time when few Americans knew what yogurt was. The rest, as they say, is history, with hand-delivered yogurt making its way around the city, and the American taste preferences leading the company to invent fruit-based flavors you still see today.
Keep reading for Dannon's NYC history

History

November 14, 2017

Cracking open the stories of NYC’s most historic bars

With rising rents and ever-changing commercial drags, New Yorkers can take comfort that the city still holds classic bar haunts, some of which have been serving booze for over 100 years. Some watering holes, like the Financial District's Fraunces Tavern, played a crucial role in major historic events. Others, like Midtown's 21 Club and the West Village's White Horse Tavern, hosted the most notable New Yorkers of the time. These institutions all survived Prohibition--managing to serve alcohol in both unique and secretive ways--and figured out ways to serve a diverse, ever-changing clientele of New Yorkers up to this day. 6sqft rounded up the seven most impressive bars when it comes to New York City history--and they've got the legends, stories, and ghosts to prove it. From longshoreman bars to underground speakeasies to Upper East Side institutions, these are the watering holes that have truly withstood New York's test of time.
This way for the roundup

Frank Lloyd Wright had a plan to build a ‘city of the future’ on Ellis Island

Frank Lloyd Wright/TAA drawing of Key Project for Ellis Island. Credit: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York)

November 10, 2017

Frank Lloyd Wright had a plan to build a ‘city of the future’ on Ellis Island

By Michelle Cohen

Ellis Island, well known as the processing center for millions of American immigrants until 1954, has figured heavily in the nation's history; once the center was closed and neither of its current owners, the states of New York and New Jersey, knew of an alternative for its re-use, the island was offered for sale. Among the bidders for the 27-acre site were a pair of young NBC executives whose idea included breathtaking plans conceived by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright. According to Metropolis, Wright's idea supported the media execs' vision for “an entirely new, complete, and independent prototype city of the future."
So what happened?

Artist aeries: Touring downtown’s ‘studio windows’

Artist’s studios on Bleecker Street, via GVSHP

November 9, 2017

Artist aeries: Touring downtown’s ‘studio windows’

With fall’s arrival and the turning back of the clocks, sunlight becomes an ever more precious commodity. Perhaps no New York living space is more centered around capturing and maximizing that prized amenity than the artist’s studio, with its large casement windows and tall ceilings. So with sunlight at a premium, let’s conduct a brief survey of some of the most iconic artist’s studio windows in the Village and East Village.
But first, a little history

November 8, 2017

MAP: Explore the women’s suffrage movement through the lens of NYC landmarks

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in New York State, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission released an interactive story map that highlights places where suffragists lived and worked in New York City. The map, called NYC Landmarks and the Vote at 100, designates 43 sites associated with impactful activists, organizations, and institutions. Explore significant sites like the Cooper Union, the Panhellenic Tower, the New School for Social Research and much more, while learning about their role in the suffrage movement.
Explore the map here

The history of the New York City MetroCard

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

November 8, 2017

The history of the New York City MetroCard

No New Yorker's life is complete without a MetroCard slipped into their wallet. For $2.75, it'll get you from Brooklyn to the Bronx, and everywhere in between. But the lifespan of the MetroCard is perhaps shorter than you might think--the flimsy plastic card, complete with the Automated Fare Collection turnstiles, only became an everyday part of subway commuting in 1993. And in recent years, all signs point to the card becoming extinct. The testing phase of a mobile device scanning and payment system began this fall with plans to roll out a fully cardless system by 2020. And so in honor of the MetroCard's brief lifespan as an essential commuter tool, 6sqft is delving into its history, iconic design, and the frustrations that come when that swipe just doesn't go through.
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November 7, 2017

The short life of NYC’s women-only subway cars

By Michelle Cohen

In dealing with the examples of ill-behaved humanity that still plague the city's subway today, the powers that be in 1909 thought they were doing the ladies a favor when they suggested the addition of women-only subway cars, according to Ephemeral New York. Called "suffragette" cars (though women didn't win the right to vote in New York until 1917) they were introduced on trains of the Hudson Tubes running from Manhattan to Hoboken (today's PATH line). In trial runs, the last car in each train was reserved for women. Officials of the five-year-old IRT line began considering the idea–thought to be a success in its earliest trials–for the New York City subway.
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Robert A.M. Stern joins fight against Snøhetta’s plan to renovate Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building

Photo of the protest courtesy of Nathan Eddy

November 6, 2017

Robert A.M. Stern joins fight against Snøhetta’s plan to renovate Philip Johnson’s AT&T Building

After Olayan America and Chelsfield revealed plans last week for a $300 million renovation of the building at 550 Madison Avenue, known as the AT&T Building, criticism quickly followed. Members of the architecture community, including New York architect Robert A.M. Stern, rallied together last Friday at the base of the Philip Johnson-designed skyscraper, to protest Snøhetta's proposal to replace the building's base with a scalloped glass front (h/t Dezeen). Protestors held signs that read "Hands off my Johnson," "Save the Stone," and "Save AT&T." Plus, a petition is currently being circulated on Change.org in an attempt to preserve Johnson's iconic AT&T Building by having the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission officially designate it as a city landmark.
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November 6, 2017

Parks Department approves Central Park’s first monument to historic females

By Dana Schulz

On the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in New York state, the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation will make an announcement today that it's moving ahead with a proposal to erect a monument to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony in Central Park. First reported by West Side Rag, the statue of the two suffragists will be Central Park's first monument to historic women and only the sixth in the entire city. It will be placed on the mall, which runs from 66th to 72nd Streets in the middle of the park, and will be unveiled on another important date--the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote nationally on August 26, 2020.
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‘The Alamo’ turns 50: A history of the Astor Place cube

1980s photo of the Alamo surrounded by mural, vendors, & musicians. © Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Image Archive.

November 2, 2017

‘The Alamo’ turns 50: A history of the Astor Place cube

On November 1, 1967, an enigmatic 20-foot-tall cube first appeared on a lonely traffic island where Astor Place and 8th Street meet. Though several months before the release of "2001: A Space Odyssey," the one-ton Cor-Ten steel sculpture shared many qualities with the sci-fi classic’s inscrutable "black monolith," at once both opaque and impenetrable and yet strangely compelling, drawing passersby to touch or interact with it to unlock its mysteries. Fifty years later, Tony Rosenthal’s "Alamo" sculpture remains a beloved fixture in downtown New York. Like 2001’s monolith, it has witnessed a great deal of change, and yet continues to draw together the myriad people and communities which intersect at this location.
Learn about the cube's entire 50-year legacy

FDR’s beloved dog is said to haunt Grand Central Terminal’s secret train track

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial featuring Fala, via Wikimedia

October 31, 2017

FDR’s beloved dog is said to haunt Grand Central Terminal’s secret train track

While the subway can always be a bit creepy, there might be more behind those spooky feelings when standing underground than just frighteningly bad service. Allegedly, a ghost haunts Track 61, the secret track hidden under Grand Central Terminal, according to Phil Schoenberg, a New York City historian and founder of Ghost Walks NYC. And not just any ghost, but the spirit of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Scottish Terrier, Fala, who apparently roams the shuttered train track. The president famously used the private track as a way to escape the public eye, keeping his paralysis a secret (h/t WNYC).
Get the spooky scoop ahead

Rare photos of the High Line being demolished in the 1960s tell the story of a changing West Village

Crane with wrecking ball mounted on the trestle. Photo by Peter H. Fritsch (1962). Photo courtesy of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation/Fritsch Family Collection.

October 26, 2017

Rare photos of the High Line being demolished in the 1960s tell the story of a changing West Village

Few structures have had a more far-reaching impact upon the West Village and Chelsea than the High Line. Its construction in 1934, then partial demolition in the early '60s, and final preservation and conversion into a park a decade ago have profoundly shaped the way these neighborhoods have changed over the last 85 years. And while photos of its heyday and those of it today as an internationally recognized public space are plenty, few exist of those interim years. But GVSHP recently acquired some wonderful images of the High Line being demolished in 1962 at Perry Street, donated by the Fritsch Family who lived nearby at 141 Perry Street. The Fritschs’ photos say a lot about how the High Line, and its demolition, changed the West Village. It’s apparent from the images just how much more industrial, and gritty the Far West Village was in those days. But it also shows how the demolition of the High Line left a huge gap in this unpretentious neighborhood, which housed both disappearing industry and a diverse and vital residential community.
See the other photos and learn the whole history

History

In 1917, a German U-Boat submarine ended up in Central Park

Photo via Library of Congress

October 25, 2017

In 1917, a German U-Boat submarine ended up in Central Park