History

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

While the co-op movement officially began in Europe in the late 1800s, its legacy as the dominate housing choice in New York City continues today, all thanks to the large groups of Finnish immigrants that landed in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park during the first half of the 20th century. Instead of renting the typical tenement-style buildings of the time, a group of 16 Finnish families decided to combine their resources and set up a housing cooperative called the Finnish Home Building Association in the South Brooklyn neighborhood in 1916 (h/t WNYC). Just over 100 years later, the Finn’s idea of co-ops, which spread quickly throughout the five boroughs, remains prevalent in the city today.
More this way

History

The boarding house’s long history of hosting single New Yorkers

Images by Esther Bubley, 1943. Courtesy of the Esther Bubley Photo Archive

September 12, 2017

The boarding house’s long history of hosting single New Yorkers

By Cait Etherington

In the mid-19th century, as the city rapidly grew in area and population, many single New Yorkers faced difficult decisions on the housing market. Unlike the majority of today’s single New Yorkers, however, the decision was not whether to share an apartment with one or more roommates or squeeze into a studio apartment but rather which type of boarding house to inhabit. Ahead we'll go over the history of the New York City boarding house, as well as where you can still find the handful that remains.
read more here

September 11, 2017

VIDEO: Photographer Richard Drew on his haunting 9/11 image ‘The Falling Man’

By Dana Schulz

Video courtesy of TIME When Associated Press photographer Richard Drew emerged from the Chambers Street subway station on the morning of September 11, 2011, he saw both towers up in smoke. Despite the atrocity in front of him, he began snapping photos of the burning buildings, eventually noticing the people jumping from the upper floors. "I instinctively picked up my camera and started photographing them, following them as they came down, until I photographed what has become known as 'The Falling Man'" he told TIME. Ahead, Drew discusses the story and meaning behind his haunting photo that is one of the only to show someone dying on that day.
More here

History

September 7, 2017

‘Uncle Sam’ may have been born in Brooklyn instead of upstate

September 7th is often credited with being the date, in 1813, that the United States received its moniker Uncle Sam. It's said that upstate New York butcher Samuel Wilson was the real-life inspiration behind the unofficial “human face” of the U.S. Government. The Troy, NY butcher supposedly stamped cuts of meat he delivered to American troops during the War of 1812 with the initials “U.S.” But the NY Times tells us that a Nebraska professor who has been tracing the origin of the top-hatted elder statesman has turned up an earlier reference. History professor and War of 1812 expert Donald R. Hickey from Wayne State College brings the origin of Uncle Sam back to New York City–the nation’s first capital–and a young midshipman’s use of the Navy slang of the day.
So what's the Brooklyn story?

History

Häagen-Dazs may be a Danish name, but the ice cream was founded in the Bronx

Häagen-Dazs’ store in the Bronx, via Yelp

September 6, 2017

Häagen-Dazs may be a Danish name, but the ice cream was founded in the Bronx

By Emily Nonko

Despite its European-sounding name, Häagen-Dazs is actually born and bred right here in New York. In fact, there's a fascinating history behind how the brand reached national success under a seemingly random title, picked by two immigrants from Poland. It all started in 1921, when the Polish Jewish couple Reuben and Rose Mattus emigrated to New York, according to Atlas Obscura. They worked for the family's ice cream business, selling fruit ice and ice cream pops from a horse-drawn wagon in the busy streets of the Bronx. In the 1960s, Reuben and Rose struck out on their own, starting an ice cream company with three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee.
Here's why they named it Häagen-Dazs

History

Early public floating bath. Image: New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

August 30, 2017

Floating pools on the Hudson and East Rivers kept New Yorkers cool as early as 1870

With summer winding down, New Yorkers are treading water til fall arrives–with late-season heat and kids that still need to be kept busy, back-to-school or not. The good news: Most city pools are open until September 10. This form of easily-accessible fun has been keeping NYC cool since the early days of the 20th century. The New York Times tells of the first city pools and their origins as public baths as early as 1901–and the even older pontoon-pools that floated in the Hudson and East Rivers.
More on the history of the floating pool, this way

A Guide to the gilded age mansions of 5th Avenue’s Millionaire Row – Part II

Mrs. Astor’s House on 65th Street and Fifth Avenue. Image via Library of Congress

August 28, 2017

A Guide to the gilded age mansions of 5th Avenue’s Millionaire Row – Part II

By Michelle Young

Last week, 6sqft went through the many mansions, predominately lost, along Millionaire's Row on Fifth Avenue up to 59th Street. Most of this stretch has been converted into upscale luxury retail and corporate skyscrapers, but Millionaire's Row continued northwards along Central Park, which opened in 1857. Though some have been lost, a significant number of these opulent Gilded Age mansions still stand within this more residential zone. The AIA Guide to New York City calls this area of Fifth Avenue from 59th Street to 78th Street the "Gold Coast," and rightly so. Walking up 5th Avenue, you'll first pass the decadent Sherry-Netherland Hotel with its recently uncovered 1927 Beaux-Arts mural and the Stanford White-designed Metropolitan Club, founded by J.P. Morgan in 1891 for friends who were rejected from the old-money Knickerbocker Club. But even before the construction of the Metropolitan Club, a mansion was rising less than a block away on 61st Street and Fifth Avenue.
Find out more about these incredible mansions here

Jewish rights group wants Peter Stuyvesant monuments removed over anti-semitism

Monument to Peter Stuyvesant in Stuyvesant Square via edenpictures via photopin

August 25, 2017

Jewish rights group wants Peter Stuyvesant monuments removed over anti-semitism

By Dana Schulz

Earlier this week, the de Blasio administration said it would give "immediate attention" to a proposal from City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito to remove Central Park's Christopher Columbus statue based on accounts that the explorer enslaved and killed many indigenous people. And it looks like Peter Stuyvesant might be next on the chopping block. The Post reports that Jewish rights group Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center is "demanding Mayor de Blasio scrub all traces of the anti-Semitic Dutch governor from city property" as part of the city's 90-day review of symbols of hate. Not only do they want monuments of him removed, but his name erased on everything from the public Stuyvesant High School to Stuyvesant Square Park to the entire neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Find out the full history

August 24, 2017

How LGBT activism led to NYC’s most notorious bank robbery: The real story behind ‘Dog Day Afternoon’

The most notorious bank robbery in New York City history took place on August 22, 1972, during the decidedly dog days of that long hot summer. Immortalized in the film "Dog Day Afternoon," it was an unlikely anti-hero tale with a backstory that began in Greenwich Village, interwoven with the social and political currents running through the city at the time, most notably the growing LGBT movement that had taken hold after the Stonewall Riots.
Get the whole surprising history this way

History

67 years ago in Queens, Althea Gibson became the first African-American on a U.S. tennis tour

West Side Tennis Club via Joe Shlabotnik/Flickr; Althea Gibson via Wiki Commons

August 22, 2017

67 years ago in Queens, Althea Gibson became the first African-American on a U.S. tennis tour

On August 22, 1950, what was then known as the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) accepted Harlem's Althea Gibson into their annual championship at Forest Hills, New York (the precursor to the U.S. Open). The spot on the championship roster made Gibson the first African-American athlete to compete in a U.S. national tennis competition, launching a storied career in which she won a whopping 16 Grand Slams, including the 1956 French Open where she became the first person of color to win such a title.
Find out more

Postmaster General Harry Stewart New watches the solar eclipse of January 24, 1925, shielding his eyes with a photographic plate. Image: Wikimedia commons

August 21, 2017

How researchers used NYC buildings to measure the 1925 solar eclipse

During a total solar eclipse that occurred in 1925 in Manhattan, according to Space.com, "the streetlights turned on, three women fainted, vendors sold smoked glass while exhorting passersby to 'save your eyes for 10 cents' and seagulls landed in the water, assuming it was night." Though today's eclipse will be only a partial version for New Yorkers, we know enough about the moon's orbit to accurately predict an eclipse's timing as narrowly as a city block's distance. At the time, though–long before anyone had landed on the moon, observing and measuring the shadow as it moved over the Earth provided important information on the moon's size, shape, and path.
Find out what happened next

How to kayak or canoe across a NYC water reservoir (GUIDE)

Image via Pexels

August 18, 2017

How to kayak or canoe across a NYC water reservoir (GUIDE)

By Cait Etherington

On average, New Yorkers use a staggering 1 billion gallons of water per day, but unlike people in many other U.S. cities, they don’t need to worry about their taps running dry. Over a century ago, city engineers devised a plan to ensure the city would have ample water and that the supply would meet the growing needs of the city over time. Today, the city’s century-old reservoir system continues to supply New Yorkers with clean water year round. For outdoorsy residents, the city’s water supply also serves another surprising purpose. Located just over two hours north of the city limits, the reservoirs are also an increasingly popular place to canoe and kayak without the distraction of motorized water vehicles and cottagers.
our complete guide here

A 15-year-old Greenwich Village student inspired the hit song ‘Summer in the City’

Image via Wiki Commons

August 17, 2017

A 15-year-old Greenwich Village student inspired the hit song ‘Summer in the City’

Everyone knows the folk-rock classic "Summer in the City" by the Lovin’ Spoonful, which topped the charts 51 years ago this August in 1966. But fewer know the song’s roots in Greenwich Village--lead singer John Sebastian actually grew up in the neighborhood and the act got their start in the local clubs--and fewer still know a 15-year-old Village student was responsible for a significant part of its composition.
Get the whole story

History

De Blasio and Cuomo announce plans to eradicate ‘symbols of hate’ in New York

Image via Alisdare Hickson/flickr

August 17, 2017

De Blasio and Cuomo announce plans to eradicate ‘symbols of hate’ in New York

After a violent weekend led by white supremacist groups in Charlottesville, Virginia, New York officials have announced plans to review and remove controversial public structures. Mayor de Blasio said on Wednesday the city will conduct a 90-day review of “all symbols of hate on city property,” by putting together a panel of experts and community leaders who will make recommendations for items to take down (h/t NY Post). On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo called upon the United States Army to reconsider its decision to keep the street names that honor Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two Confederate leaders, at Fort Hamilton. Cuomo also announced the removal of the busts of Lee and Jackson from CUNY’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx.
Find out more

On this day in 1974, the Ramones played their first gig at CBGB in the East Village

The Ramones outside of CBGB, photo via CBGB

August 16, 2017

On this day in 1974, the Ramones played their first gig at CBGB in the East Village

On August 16, 1974, four men dressed in leather motorcycle jackets and Converse high-tops hit the stage at CBGB, an iconic East Village dive bar, for the very first time. After this debut performance, the Ramones, who hailed from Forest Hills, Queens, became the first regulars at CBGB, a spot known for the cutting edge punk rock musicians that played there, like Talking Heads, Patti Smith and Blondie. In the year 1974 alone, the Ramones played there over 70 times.
Find out more

History

Two plaques honoring Robert E. Lee in Brooklyn will be removed

General Lee Avenue and Robert E. Lee’s former home on Fort Hamilton, via Jeremy Bender/Business Insider

August 16, 2017

Two plaques honoring Robert E. Lee in Brooklyn will be removed

Following the tragic events in Charlottesville, Va. last weekend, officials announced Tuesday that two plaques honoring Gen. Robert E. Lee outside of a Brooklyn church would be taken down. The plaques, tacked to a maple tree, belonged to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Fort Hamilton, although the church has been closed since 2014. As Newsday reported, the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island owns the church and will sell it.
Find out more

History

August 15, 2017

NYC lawyers once gifted Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin a tenement in Brooklyn

>Google Street View of 541 Clinton Street. Map data © 2019 Google In the 1940s, two attorneys from Manhattan let the mortgage payments lapse on a building they owned in Carroll Gardens. Julius Freilicher and Martin Auslander had a $3,300 mortgage with Dime Savings Bank on their tenement at 541 Clinton Street. Believing it was a better idea to not pay the mortgage, the two lawyers decided the best thing was to file a deed of gift, as the Brownstone Detectives reported. The receivers of this gift? Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
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History

INTERVIEW: Author Ed Hamilton on how the Chelsea Hotel inspired personal stories of gentrification

Background image via Andrew Malone/Flickr

August 15, 2017

INTERVIEW: Author Ed Hamilton on how the Chelsea Hotel inspired personal stories of gentrification

By Emily Nonko

When it comes to the Chelsea Hotel, Ed Hamilton has seen it all. He and his wife moved to the iconic property in 1995, living among artists and musicians in a 220-square-foot, single-room-occupancy unit. The storied, artistic community nurtured inside the hotel came to an end a decade ago when the building sold for the first time and evictions followed. Since then, the property has traded hands a number of times with talks of boutique hotel development, luxury condos, or some combination of the two. Hamilton started tracking the saga at his blog Living With Legends and published a book, "Legends of the Chelsea Hotel," in 2007. After the book's success, Hamilton wrote a short story collection titled "The Chintz Age: Stories of Love and Loss for a new New York." Each piece offers a different take on New York's "hyper gentrification," as he calls it: a mother unable to afford her lofty East Village apartment, giving it up to a daughter she shares a strained relationship with; a book store owner who confronts his failed writing career as a landlord forces him out of now highly valuable commercial space. Ultimately, many of the stories were inspired by the characters he met inside the Chelsea Hotel. And his tales offer a new perspective on a changing city, one that focuses on "the personal, day-to-day struggles about the people who are trying to hang onto their place in New York." With 6sqft, he shares what it's like writing in the under-construction Chelsea Hotel, what the Chintz Age title means, and the unchanged spots of the city he still treasures.
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The Village’s Twin Peaks: From a quirky ‘Swiss-chalet’ to a landmarks controversy

102 Bedford Street in 2015 (left) via Wiki Commons, and as of today, via GVSHP

August 10, 2017

The Village’s Twin Peaks: From a quirky ‘Swiss-chalet’ to a landmarks controversy

Few buildings capture the whimsy, flamboyance, and bohemian spirit of early 20th century Greenwich Village as does the building known as "Twin Peaks" at 102 Bedford Street. Described as a "wonderfully ludicrous mock half-timbered fantasy row-house castle" by architecture critic Paul Goldberger, the present incarnation of the building was born in 1925 as a radical remodeling of an 1830 rowhouse into a five-story artists’ studio apartment building. In the mid 20th-century, the building became even more iconic with a cream and brown paint job that mimicked its Alpine cottage inspiration. However, a more recent paint job stripped away this history, resulting in a controversial landmarks battle.
The whole story

There’s a rare Guastavino tiled ceiling hidden inside this $359K UWS studio

Image courtesy of Halstead

August 10, 2017

There’s a rare Guastavino tiled ceiling hidden inside this $359K UWS studio

A block of 78th Street on the Upper West Side, between the Museum of Natural History and Amsterdam Avenue, has more going for it than just colorful brownstones; it also has a colorful architectural secret. The block's display of Moorish brick and stone buildings shares a history with some of the city's notable public spaces. Known as "Guastavino Row," its decorative and altogether charming townhouses were designed by noted 19th-century architect Rafael Guastavino, famed for his beautiful and expertly engineered vaulted, tiled ceilings. Recently, a small but lovely first-floor studio at 120 West 78th street listed for $359,000, and it boasts a beautiful ceiling that, according to the listing, was one of Guastavino's iconic designs.
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August 10, 2017

From oysters to falafel: The complete history of street vending in NYC