The Bowery Boys: New York City History

What 19th century American engineering landmark invites you through nature, past historic sites and into people's backyards? Where can you experience the grandeur of the Hudson Valley in (mostly) secluded peace and tranquility -- while learning something about Old New York?Welcome to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, 26.5 miles of dusty pathway through some of the most interesting and beautiful towns and villages in Westchester County.But this is more than a linear park. The trail runs atop -- and sometimes alongside -- the original Croton Aqueduct, a sloping water system which opened in 1842, inspired by ancient Roman technology which delivered fresh water to the growing metropolis over three dozen miles south.At its northern end sits the New Croton Dam -- the tallest dam in the world when it was completed in 1906 -- with its breathtaking, cascading spillway (a little Niagara Falls) and its classic steel arch bridge, providing visitors with a view into a still-active source of drinking water.In the first part of this Road Trip to the Hudson Valley mini-series adventure, Greg and Tom not only trace the history of this colossal engineering project, they literally follow the aqueduct through the village of Westchester County (with some help from Tom Tarnowsky from Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct).WITH Nineteenth century ruins! Ancient bridges and weirs! Steep hikes and historic houses!PLUS: How did this elaborate mechanism help revolutionize modern plumbing? And find out how portions of this 180 year old system are still used today to distribute fresh water.For many historic images and photographs from out adventure, visit our website.boweryboyshistory.comAnd for further listening about the Hudson River and Westchester County, check out these earlier Bowery Boys podcasts:-- Water For New York: The Croton Aqueduct (our original show on this subject)-- Henry Hudson and the European Discovery of Mannahatta-- Literary Horrors of New York City (for the story of Washington Irving and Sleepy Hollow)-- The George Washington Bridge 

We wanted to present to you one of our favorite new podcasts of the year -- and one we think you'll love. It's called History Daily. And yes, it really is history, daily!Every weekday host Lindsay Graham (American Scandal, American History Tellers) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. Whether it’s to remember the tragedy of December 7th, 1941, the day “that will live in infamy,” or to celebrate that 20th day in July, 1969, when mankind reached the moon, History Daily is there to tell you the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world—one day at a time.Enjoy these two sample episodes of History Daily -- the first on the formation of Barnum & Bailey's Circus, and the second on the opening of the Eiffel Tower.  We love Graham's podcasts and we hope you enjoy them too. And remember to subscribe to History Daily on your favorite podcast player.  

Frederick Law Olmsted, America's preeminent landscape architect of the 19th century, designed dozens of parks, parkways and college campuses across the country. With Calvert Vaux, he created two of New York City's greatest parks -- Central Park and Prospect Park.Yet before Central Park, he had never worked on any significant landscape project and he wasn't formally trained in any kind of architecture.In fact, Fred was a bit of a wandering soul, drifting from one occupation to the next, looking for fulfillment in farming, traveling and writing.This is the remarkable story of how Olmsted found his true calling.The Central Park proposal drafted by Olmsted and Vaux -- called the Greensward Plan -- drew from personal experiences, ideas of social reform and the romance of natural beauty (molded and manipulated, of course, by human imagination).But for Olmsted, it was also created in the gloom of personal sadness. And for Vaux, in the reverence of a mentor who died much too young.PLUS: In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Olmsted's birth, Greg is joined on the show by Adrian Benepe, former New York City parks commissioner and president of Brooklyn Botanic Garden.boweryboyshistory.com 

This episode focuses on the special relationship between New York City and Puerto Rico, via the tales of pioneros, the first migrants to make the city their home and the many hundreds of thousands who came to the city during the great migration of the 1950s and 60s. Today there are more Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent in New York City than in any other city in the nation — save for San Juan, Puerto Rico. And it has been so for decades. By the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans lived in New York City, but in a metropolis of deteriorating infrastructure and financial woe, they often found themselves at the lowest rung of the socio-economic ladder, in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.Puerto Rican poets and artists associated with the Nuyorican Movement, activated by the needs of their communities, began looking back to their origins, asking questions.In this special episode Greg is joined by several guests to look at the stories of Puerto Ricans from the 1890s until the early 1970s. With a focus on the origin stories of New York's great barrios -- including East Harlem, the Lower East Side and the South Bronx.FEATURING The origin of the Puerto Rican flag and the first bodegas in New York City!WITH Dr. Yarimar Bonilla and Carlos Vargas-Ramos of CUNY's Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO), Kat Lloyd and Pedro Garcia of the Tenement Museum and Angel Hernandez of the Huntington Free Library and Reading Room and the Webby Award winning podcast Go Bronx.

Temple Emanu-El, home to New York's first Reform Jewish congregation and the largest synagogue in the city, sits on the spot of Mrs. Caroline Astor's former Gilded Age mansion. Out with the old, in with the new.The synagogue shimmers with Jazz Age style from vibrant stained-glass windows to its Art Deco tiles and mosaics. When its doors opened in 1929, the congregation was making a very powerful statement. New York's Jewish community had arrived.This story begins on the Lower East Side with the first major arrival of German immigrants in the 1830s. New Jewish congregations splintered from old ones, inspired by the Reform movement from Europe and the possibilities of life in America.Congregation Emanu-El grew rapidly, moving from the Lower East Side to Fifth Avenue in 1868. Their beautiful new synagogue reflected the prosperity of its congregants who were nonetheless excluded from mainstream (Christian oriented, old moneyed) high society.Why did they move to the spot of the old Astor mansion? What does the current synagogue's architecture say about its congregation? And where in the sanctuary can you find a tribute to the congregation's Lower East Side roots?PLUS Greg visits Temple Emanu-El and chats with Mark Heutlinger, administrator of the congregation, and Warren Klein of the Herbert and Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica.  FURTHER READINGStephen Birmingham / Our CrowdStephen Birmingham / The Rest of UsMichael A. Meyer / Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in JudaismDeborah Dash Moore / Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a PeopleMarc Lee Raphael / Judaism In AmericaSteven R. Weisman / The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became An American ReligionThe Jewish Metropolis: New York City from the 17th Century to the 21st Century / Edited by Daniel SoyerFURTHER LISTENINGAfter listening to this week’s episode on Temple Emanu-El, dive back into past episodes which intersect with his story:The Miracle on Eldridge Street: The Eldridge Street SynagogueWelcome to Yorkville: German Life on the Upper East SideThe Real Mrs. Astor: Ruler or Rebel? 

Richard Morris Hunt was one of the most important architects in American history. His talent and vision brought respect to his profession in the mid-19th century and helped to craft the seductive style of the Gilded Age. So why are there so few examples of his extraordinary work still standing in New York City today? You're certainly familiar with the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and the grand entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, two commissions that came late in Hunt's life. And perhaps you've taken a tour of two luxurious mansions designed by Hunt -- The Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island, and Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. But Hunt was more than just pretty palaces. He championed the profession of the architect in a period when Americans were more likely to associate the job with construction or carpentry. Hunt brought artistry to the fore and trained the first official class of American architects from his atelier in Greenwich Village. He promoted certain European styles of design -- collectively known as the Beaux-Arts architecture -- to growing wealthy class of Americans who wished to emulate the grand and regal lifestyles of French aristocracy. His legacy includes prominent organizations promoting both the field of architecture and the need for effective urban design. Along the way he built hospitals, libraries, newspaper offices, artist studios, churches and even the first American apartment building. Join us for this look at a true arbiter of American architecture. boweryboyshistory.com And for more fascinating details about the Gilded Age, listen to our spin-off podcast The Gilded Gentleman, hosted by Carl Raymond. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

New York City has an impressive collection of historic homes, but none as unique and or as joyful as the Louis Armstrong House and Museum, located in Corona, Queens. What other historic home in the United States has a gift shop in its garage, aqua blue kitchen cabinets, bathroom speakers behind silver wallpaper, mirrored bathrooms and chandeliers over the bed? Elvis Presley's Graceland perhaps comes close, but the Louis Armstrong House has a charming comfort and a genuine grace and modesty to it, befitting its legendary former occupants. Louis Armstrong is one of the most influential and most popular musicians in American history. Louis, like jazz itself, was born in New Orleans; in 1943, Armstrong moved to this house in Corona, thanks to the influence of his wife Lucille Armstrong, a former Cotton Club dancer and a fascinating personality in her own right. In this episode Greg charts Armstrong's path to international fame -- and then his journey to becoming a New Yorker. And he pays a visit to the house itself, a magnificent treasure on a quiet street in Queens. FEATURING audio of Louis and Lucille courtesy the Louis Armstrong House and Museum. And lots of music!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Dorothy Parker was not only the wittiest writer of the Jazz Age, she was also obsessively morbid. Her talents rose at a very receptive moment for such a sharp, dour outlook, after the first world war and right as the country went dry. Dorothy Parker’s greatest lines are as bracing and intoxicating as a hard spirit. Her most successful verse often veers into somber moods, loaded with thoughts of self-destruction or wry despair. In fact, she frequently quipped about the epitaph that would some day grace her tombstone. Excuse my dust is one she suggested in Vanity Fair. In this episode, Greg pays tribute to the great Mrs. Parker, the most famous member of the Algonquin Round Table, and reveals a side of the writer that you may not know -- a more engaged, politically thoughtful Parker. Death did not end the story of Dorothy Parker. In fact, due to some unfortunate circumstances (chiefly relating to her frenemy Lillian Hellman), her remains would make a journey to several places before reaching their final home -- Woodlawn Cemetery. Joining Greg on the show is author and tour guide Kevin Fitzpatrick of the Dorothy Parker Society who has now become a part of Parker's legacy. boweryboyshistory.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

PODCAST What does the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea mean to you? Religion and architecture? Art galleries and gay bars? Shopping and brunch after a stroll on the High Line? Tens of thousands of people, of course, call it home. But before it was a neighborhood, it was the Colonial-era estate of a British military officer who named his bucolic property after a London veterans hospital. His descendant Clement Clarke Moore would distinguish himself as a theologian and writer; he invented many aspects of the Christmas season in one very famous poem. But he could no longer preserve his family estate when New York civic planners (and the Commissioners Plan of 1811) came a-calling. Moore parceled the estate into private lots in the 1820s and 30s, creating both the exclusive development Chelsea Square and the grand, beautiful General Theological Seminary. Slowly, over the decades, this charming residential district (protected as a historic district today) would be surrounded by a wide variety of urban needs -- from heavy industrial to venues of amusement. One stretch would even become "the Bowery of the West Side." Further change arrived in the late 20th century as blocks of tenements were replaced with housing projects and emptied warehouses became discotheques and art collectives. Then came the Big Cup. Join us as we celebrate over 200 years of urban development -- how Chelsea the estate became Chelsea the neighborhood. Visit the Bowery Boys website for more information on Chelsea. If you like the show please rate and review The Bowery Boys podcast on Apple PodcastsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

The strange, scandalous and sex-filled story of the Ansonia, an Upper West Side architectural gem and a legendary musical landmark. In the television show Only Murders in the Building, Martin Short, Steve Martin and Selena Gomez play podcasters attempting to solve a mystery in a building full of eccentric personalities. Their fictional apartment building is called The Arconia, a name partially inspired by The Ansonia, a former residential hotel with a history truly stranger than fiction. Built by the copper scion W.E.D Stokes, the lavish Ansonia remains one of the grandest buildings on the Upper West Side. But its hallways have seen some truly dramatic events including one of the greatest sports crimes in American history. Today the Ansonia is still known as the home for great musicians and many of the most famous composers and opera stars have lived here. But it's the music legacy of the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse once in its basement, that may resonate with pop and rock music lovers as the launching pad for one of America's great performers. PLUS: The hedonistic disco delights of Plato's Retreat. NOTE: This show feature discussions of adult sex clubs and bathhouses. Although the show does not linger on the specifics, parental guidance is nonetheless suggested. boweryboyshistory.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys