History

6sqft has marveled at the 1951 proposal by Goodyear Tires for a giant conveyor belt to carry people between Times Square and Grand Central and Alfred Ely Beach's underground pneumatic tube system. The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL) fills in the blanks on an early idea for an elevated rail system that was ahead of its time. In 1870, Appleton's Journal of Literature, Science and Art introduced an article with a lament about the state of New York City public transportation that sounds uncannily familiar even in the 21st century: "the present means of travel are not only inadequate in extent, but are far too slow and cumbersome." The anonymous author then tells of the futuristic vision of one Rufus Henry Gilbert, a New York-born surgeon, Civil War veteran and inventor.
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How an 1894 Hangover Created an Eggs Benedict Controversy in New York City

Image via Wiki Commons

October 20, 2017

How an 1894 Hangover Created an Eggs Benedict Controversy in New York City

By Dana Schulz

Brunch is inarguably one of New Yorkers' favorite pastimes, and if there's one dish that represents the lazy, and perhaps boozy, Sunday afternoon meal it's Eggs Benedict -- poached eggs and Canadian bacon on an English muffin, topped with hollandaise sauce. Which is why it's not surprising to learn that the egg creation originated right in our fine city. There is however, a bit of controversy over just who gets the credit for inventing it. Was it the Wall Street bigwig who was looking for a hangover cure at the Waldorf Hotel? Or was it Charles Ranhofer, the legendary Delmonico’s chef who published a recipe for it in his cookbook "The Epicurean?"
The mysterious case of Eggs Benedict unfolds this way

October 19, 2017

Off the grid: The little Flatiron Buildings of the Village

The Flatiron Building is one of the city’s most iconic and beloved landmarks. Since 1902 it’s been a symbol of New York, though ironically its acute angle formed by the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue makes it an unusual sight in our otherwise orthogonal city on a grid. But while the Flatiron Building may be the most famous product of quirky street angles, it’s far from the only one. In fact, the "off-the-grid" streets of Greenwich Village and the East Village contain scores of them, most of which pre-date the 23rd Street landmark.
Take a tour of the little Flatirons

A short history of New York City’s foul air shafts

Image by Bikes And Books

October 16, 2017

A short history of New York City’s foul air shafts

By Cait Etherington

If you think there is nothing worse than renting an apartment with windows and no view, think again. At one point in the city’s history, where one may now enjoy a small sliver of daylight and at least some fresh air, there was no light or air at all. Indeed, at some points in the history tenants’ windows looked out onto slits—sometimes a mere 28 inches wide—that were teeming with waste, rancid smells, and noise.
on the history of NYC air shafts

The Urban Lens: Go back to the ‘mean streets’ and urban decay of 1970s NYC

The corner of Broadway and 55th Street in 1970

October 13, 2017

The Urban Lens: Go back to the ‘mean streets’ and urban decay of 1970s 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, Edward Grazda shares photos from the "mean streets" of 1970s and '80s NYC. Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected]. When photographer Edward Grazda moved to New York in the early '70s, he was renting a loft on Bleecker Street for $250 a month during a time when the city was in a financial crisis, jobs were hard to come by, and places like the Bowery were facing a huge rise in homelessness. But it was also a time when a new generation of artists were beginning to move in. Instead of the tourist- and millionaire-filled streets we see today, 40 years ago they were teeming with energy. "I felt like there were many possibilities to be creative," Ed says. And with that in mind, he began shooting candids and random street scenes between personal projects in Latin American and Afghanistan. This work abroad taught him "how to make oneself invisible and blend in on the street." Just a few years ago, Ed rediscovered these black-and-white photos and noticed how different things are now, from the physical buildings to the absence of people reading newspapers. He decided to compile them into a book "Mean Streets: NYC 1970-1985," which was just released earlier this week and offers a rare look back "at that desolate era captured with the deliberate and elegant eye that propelled Grazda to further success."
See Edward's photos here

Lorraine Hansberry’s Greenwich Village: From ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ to civil rights

Google Street View of 337 Bleecker Street

October 12, 2017

Lorraine Hansberry’s Greenwich Village: From ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ to civil rights

Lorraine Hansberry, the trailblazing playwright, activist, and Nina Simone song inspiration was perhaps most closely associated with Chicago. But in fact she lived, went to school, and spent much of her life in Greenwich Village, even writing her best known play "A Raisin in the Sun" while living on Bleecker Street. And shortly a historic plaque will mark the site of her home on Waverly Place.
Learn the full history here

In the 19th century, sailors prayed on floating churches in the East River

Chapel of the Holy Comforter (1846-1856), courtesy of NYCago

October 10, 2017

In the 19th century, sailors prayed on floating churches in the East River

While New York City’s waterways have featured both floating pools and floating parks, they also once held floating churches. The Seamen’s Church Institute of New York and New Jersey (SCI) first built a floating house of worship in 1844, designed for sailors. According to Untapped Cities, the group’s first big project included building the Church of Our Savior, which floated in the East River off of Pike Street in downtown Manhattan.
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History

Stonewall Inn to get NYC’s first permanent LGBT pride flag

Stonewall Inn, photo via Wikimedia

October 10, 2017

Stonewall Inn to get NYC’s first permanent LGBT pride flag

LGBT activists will unveil a rainbow flag outside the historic gay bar Stonewall Inn on Wednesday, marking the 30th anniversary of the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. The Greenwich Village bar at 53 Christopher Street is often credited with launching the gay rights movement after multiple violent police raids in the summer of 1969. President Barack Obama designated Stonewall as a national monument last year, the first National Park Service unit dedicated to the gay rights movement (h/t DNA info). Stonewall's rainbow flag will be the first permanent LGBT pride flag in New York City.
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Uncovering the sites of the South Village’s secret ‘Little Italy’

Caffe Reggio, via Prayitno/Flickr

October 5, 2017

Uncovering the sites of the South Village’s secret ‘Little Italy’

Many think of Little Italy’s Mulberry Street or the Bronx’s Arthur Avenue as the centers of Italian-American life and culture in New York. But some of the most historically significant sites relating to the Italian-American experience in New York can be found in the Greenwich Village blocks known as the South Village--from the first church in America built specifically for an Italian-American congregation to the cafe where cappuccino was first introduced to the country, to the birthplace of Fiorello LaGuardia, NYC's first Italian-American mayor.
All the historic sites right this way

History

MAP: Watch 1 million+ NYC buildings being constructed since 1880

A walk down any block in today's New York City feels like taking a tour of a giant, noisy, scaffolded construction site. But the map mavens at Esri show us that this is definitely not the only time in history when living in the city felt like occupying a giant beaver colony. Their fascinating New York construction map brings new life to the word "built environment" with time lapse coverage of over a million buildings being built in NYC starting in 1880.
Check out the map

History

October 2, 2017

A 1934 engineer’s plan fills in the Hudson River for traffic and housing

In mid-20th century America–particularly in New York City–a roaring economy emboldened by our ascendant international stature filled many a scholar of public infrastructure with eagerness to execute grand ideas. This proposal to drain the East River to alleviate traffic congestion, for example. Another ambitious but unrealized plan–one that would make it a lot easier to get to New Jersey–was championed in 1934 by one Norman Sper, "noted publicist and engineering scholar," as detailed in Modern Mechanix magazine. In order to address New York City’s traffic and housing problems, Sper proposed that if we were to "plug up the Hudson river at both ends of Manhattan,” and dam and fill the resulting space, the ten square miles gained would provide land to build thousands of additional buildings, as well as to add streets and twice the number of avenues to alleviate an increasingly menacing gridlock.
So how much would it cost?

September 28, 2017

Iconic album covers of Greenwich Village and the East Village: Then and now

There’s no shortage of sites in the Village and East Village where great makers of popular music lived or performed. Less well known, however, are the multitude of sites that were the backdrop for iconic album covers, sometimes sources of inspiration for the artists or just familiar stomping grounds. Today, many are hiding in plain sight, waiting to perform an encore for any passersby discerning enough to notice. Ahead, we round up some of the most notable examples, from "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" to the Ramones' self-titled debut album.
Learn about the covers and see what the locations look like today

History

There’s a trolley car graveyard buried without a trace in Canarsie, Brooklyn

A Coney Island trolley, via Coney Island History

September 27, 2017

There’s a trolley car graveyard buried without a trace in Canarsie, Brooklyn

By Emily Nonko

It may be hard to imagine today, but Brooklyn of the late-19th and mid-20th centuries was full of trolley cars. A number of different companies built out an expansive trolley system that connected residents to different neighborhoods and up to Queens—in fact, by 1930, nearly 1,800 trolleys were traveling along the streets of Brooklyn from Greenpoint to Gowanus to Bay Ridge and beyond. (The Brooklyn Dodgers were originally known as the “Trolley Dodgers,” for the practice of jumping out of the path of speeding electric streetcars.) But as automobiles began to take over the streets, trolley use diminished throughout New York. That, of course, meant that Brooklyn needed to figure out what to do with all those unneeded cars. According to Atlas Obscura, there were a few options, including sending cars to other cities as well as countries as far as South America, or selling them to museums. But the most fascinating—and forgotten—end to the Brooklyn trolley car can be found in Canarsie, where many were simply sunk into a pit about the size of a city block at the end of the Canarsie train line.
Learn more about this trolley graveyard

On the Lower East Side in the 19th century, a kooky cat lady took in more than 50 feline friends

Image courtesy of New York by Gaslight via Ephemeral New York

September 26, 2017

On the Lower East Side in the 19th century, a kooky cat lady took in more than 50 feline friends

Before cat sanctuaries existed in New York City, one woman, in particular, may have been responsible for saving many kittens from the harshness of 19th-century city life. In the 1870s, a woman named Rosalie Goodman lived in a run-down home on Division Street on the Lower East Side. While she rented out most of the home’s bedrooms to tenants, she left two rooms for her family and her roughly 50 cats (h/t Ephemeral New York). In an article from 1878, the New York Tribune wrote, “Lying in the closets, on the tables, and under the stove, were cats of all descriptions. Some had broken limbs or missing eyes, the result probably of prowling around at night.”
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History

Radio Row: A tinkerer’s paradise and makerspace, lost to the World Trade Center

Radio Row, looking east along Cortlandt Street towards Greenwich Street, by Berenice Abbott Image via NYPL.

September 25, 2017

Radio Row: A tinkerer’s paradise and makerspace, lost to the World Trade Center

By Michelle Young

Before the internet and before television, there was radio broadcasting. The advent of radio at the turn of the 20th century had major repercussions on the reporting of wars along with its impact on popular culture, so it's not surprising that a business district emerged surrounding the sale and repair of radios in New York City. From 1921 to 1966, a roughly 13-block stretch going north-south from Barclay Street to Liberty Street, and east-west from Church Street to West Street, was a thriving small business stronghold known as Radio Row.
Read more about Radio Row here

History

From Willem de Kooning’s loft to the threat of the wrecking ball: The history of 827-831 Broadway

827-831 Broadway today via Wiki Commons (L); Willem de Kooning in his Fourth Avenue studio, April 1946. Harry Bowden, photographer. Harry Bowden papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.Via The Willem de Kooning Foundation. (R)

September 21, 2017

From Willem de Kooning’s loft to the threat of the wrecking ball: The history of 827-831 Broadway

Underneath the lyrical and much-admired sherbet-colored facades of the twin lofts at 827-831 Broadway lies a New York tale like no other. Incorporating snuff, sewing machines, and cigar store Indians; Abstract Expressionists; and the “antique dealer to the stars,” it also involves real estate and big money, and the very real threat of the wrecking ball. Ahead, explore the one-of-a-kind past of these buildings, which most notably served as the home to world-famous artist Willem de Kooning, and learn about the fight to preserve them not only for their architectural merit but unique cultural history.
Get the entire history

The most rainfall ever recorded in NYC fell on September 23, 1882

A rainy NYC day, photo courtesy of dalioPhoto on Flickr

September 20, 2017

The most rainfall ever recorded in NYC fell on September 23, 1882

While it appears New York City avoided much of Hurricane Jose’s wrath this week, experiencing only slight showers and mild winds, New Yorkers weren't as lucky on an autumn day in 1882. According to the National Weather Service, Sept. 23, 1882 is considered the rainiest day in New York City's history, with 8.28 inches of rainfall recorded (h/t NY Times). As a Times article reported from the record-setting wet event: “Umbrellas were useless, and most of the thin rubber over-garments proved of little service in excluding the drenching, penetrating streams which hit the wayfarer from above and below, and, for that matter, in front and behind as well."
More this way

Fifth Avenue from the Metropolitan. Image: Wiki Commons.

September 19, 2017

How Fifth Avenue bigwigs kept New York City from getting a new address system

Finding addresses on most of Manhattan's streets and avenues is a pretty easy task in most places. Cross streets make sense thanks to the decimal system-based numbering that began in 1861, when each street block between two major avenues was assigned a set of 100 numbers. And we have this nifty algorithm for avenues, right? It all works...except when it doesn't. And we've spent centuries trying to tame the city into an easy equation. But there are always outliers–and we always wonder why. If you look on the address algorithm chart, Fifth Avenue doesn't fit easily into the "all" category. This is nothing new: According to The New York Times, in 1940 the Avenue of legend nixed a plan to renumber avenue addresses throughout the city because its wealthy business bigwigs didn't want to have to change their letterhead.
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History

OTD in 1954, Marilyn Monroe’s dress famously flew up above a random NYC subway grate

The iconic shot of Marilyn Monroe via Wikimedia; subway via Steven Pisano/flickr cc

September 15, 2017

OTD in 1954, Marilyn Monroe’s dress famously flew up above a random NYC subway grate

Sixty-three years ago today, one of the most iconic moments in cinematic history happened on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street, above a gritty subway grate. On September 15, 1954, Marilyn Monroe’s white halter dress blew up over her hips while filming "The Seven Year Itch." The shot was taken after midnight, with thousands of fans looking at the Hollywood starlet standing on the grate, with the uptown 6 train running underneath. While the scene appears effortless, it took roughly three hours to film and 14 takes to get it just right. Despite the multiple takes, the scene was later re-shot in California, with the original shots used just for ads.
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Explore 1980s NYC street by street with this interactive map

The East Village in the 1980s

September 15, 2017

Explore 1980s NYC street by street with this interactive map

From Broadway to Bowery, 1980s New York City was a very different place compared to today's manicured metropolis. Courtesy of Maps Mania, the 80s.NYC street map picks up where the Finance Department of New York City left off. In the mid ‘80s the bureau photographed every single building in the five boroughs in order to accurately assess building taxes and estimate property taxes. Brandon Liu and Jeremy Lechtzin have finessed this trove of photographic information into a nifty map that allows users to travel the city's streets in the bad old 1980s with a map-based street view for an easy-to-browse glimpse of the streetscape 30 years ago. You can browse by location by clicking anywhere on the map for vintage street views on that spot, or type in an address. For more context there are curated “stories” that provide historical background where it’s available (and interesting).
Check out the map

History

The Urban Lens: Zach Gross layers current and historic views of Penn Station

6sqft’s series The Urban Lens invites photographers to share work exploring a theme or a place within New York City. In this installment, photographer Zach Gross presents his series “Penn Station.” Are you a photographer who’d like to see your work featured on The Urban Lens? Get in touch with us at [email protected].

September 15, 2017

The Urban Lens: Zach Gross layers current and historic views of Penn Station

By Dana Schulz

The original Penn Station, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece completed by McKim, Mead & White in 1910, evoked the kind of grandeur one would expect upon arriving in one of the greatest cities in the world, complete with a grand facade made of massive Corinthian columns and a 15-story waiting room with a steel and glass roof. This structure was demolished in 1964 and replaced with our present version, lacking any of the architectural merit or civic design of its predecessor. But recent years have sparked a renewed interest in transforming the station into an updated and better functional transit hub, falling under a $1.6 billion plan from Governor Cuomo. Well aware of both the history and future of Penn Station, photographer Zach Gross recently completed a unique series that layers historic imagery of the site with contemporary photos. He feels that, though the station is currently dysfunctional, "there’s still hope for a grand, more unified and uplifting structure," and it's this hopeful sentiment that shines through in his work.
Hear more from Zach and see his photo series

How Alphabet City’s ‘milk laboratory’ led to modern pasteurization

Nathan Straus’ First Milk Depot, opened in the summer of 1893, courtesy of the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University

September 14, 2017

How Alphabet City’s ‘milk laboratory’ led to modern pasteurization

The utilitarian building at 151 Avenue C between 9th and 10th Streets would hardly elicit a second glance from the casual passerby today. But its unassuming looks belie the incredible story of how Gilded Age science and philanthropy converged here to save thousands of children’s lives. In the 1800s, intestinal infections and diseases like tuberculosis caused by bad milk was running rampant in the city's child population, especially in poor communities like the Lower East Side. To combat the problem, Macy's co-owner Nathan Straus instituted a program to make pasteurized milk affordable or even free. And on Avenue C, he set up a “milk laboratory” to test the dairy and distribute millions of bottles.
The whole history here

History

In the early 20th century, Finns in Sunset Park created NYC’s first not-for-profit co-op

Streetview of Sunset Park’s Alku Toinen, photo courtesy of Lynn Massimo via HDC

September 12, 2017

In the early 20th century, Finns in Sunset Park created NYC’s first not-for-profit co-op