As It Was - NYC History (2025)

29/04/2025

This was the Waldorf-Astoria. What is there now?

23/04/2025

1936 and today.

Still the best hot dog?

23/04/2025

And this building became…

15/04/2025

Dakota Territory

One of the most famous apartment buildings in the world, The Dakota (or Dakota Apartments) on Central Park West and W. 72nd Street was completed in 1884 by architect Henry Hardenbergh, who later designed the original Waldorf-Astoria (where the Empire State Building is now) and the Plaza Hotel. It was built in German Renaissance / Gothic style for businessman Edward Cabot Clark, who was the president of the Singer Sewing Machine company. It was called Dakota because of its then remote location on the Upper West Side.

With so many famous residents like Judy Garland, Leonard Bernstein and Lauren Bacall, the building is unfortunately infamous because of the murder of its most famous resident, John Lennon, in 1980 right in the entranceway on 72nd Street.

Yeah, I know, you’re probably thinking I know all this Lennon stuff. Yeah, yeah John and Yoko (And Sean) lived in The Dakota. Everyone knows that. But did you know WHERE they lived in the Dakota?

His apartment, well actually apartments, were on the seventh floor with windows overlooking W. 72nd St and Central Park. They also had a first floor apartment they used as an office.

Fun fact: Billy Joel and Madonna TRIED to get an apartment there but were rejected by the management.

12/04/2025

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11/04/2025

Street Entymology

Whenever I give one of my walking tours, many people are always interested on how the streets got their names. 6th Avenue and 23rd Street obviously does not need much explanation, but streets like Chrystie, Forsyth, Eldridge, Allen, Essex usually have a story behind them. (By the way, it should be etymology. I mix the words up all the time. Street entymology in NYC would probably be about cockroaches.)

As the previous street names suggest, let’s talk about a section of the Lower East Side. Before 1817, the LES streets from Chrystie to Ludlow which run North/South were all numbered. Chrystie was 1st Street, Forsyth 2nd Street, Eldridge 3rd, Allen 4th, Orchard ? and Ludlow 6th. They were all renamed for soldiers who died in the War of 1812. As for Orchard Street, yes, it should have been 5th Street but was really always known by Orchard, harking back to an apple orchard which existed on James Delancey’s farm in the 18th Century.

As for the next three North/South streets, Essex, Norfolk and Sussex, they were named in the 18th Century by property owner James Delancey (De Lancey) after counties in his beloved jolly old England. Rivington and Stanton streets were named after Loyalist buddies of Delancey (though Rivington, who wrote a Loyalist newspaper, was actually a spy for George Washington). Even though the Delancey family was forced to leave after the Revolutionary War and all their property seized and sold off, many streets they named were never changed.

The 1797 street map below is one of my favorites and has a LOT of interesting stuff.
Link in comments.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/68da22a0-90bd-0135-d0b0-6f7e7adcc92d

I’ll get to other street names in a future post.

NYPL NYC Street Map from 1796

07/04/2025

They’re All Still There

James J. Walker Park in the West Village, between St. Luke’s Place and Clarkson Street, is a very typical NYC park with a playground and a ball field. It’s was named in 1947 for former mayor Jimmy Walker, who grew up across the street at 6 St. Luke’s Place in the 1880’s and 90’s. In the park, right across from the mayor’s boyhood home is what appears to be a memorial tombstone commemorating three firemen who died fighting a fire in 1834. But what’s it doing in the middle of the park?

Before it was named after the former mayor in 1947 (who died the previous year in 1946), it was called Hudson Park. Before that it was St. John’s Park. And before that from the 18th Century to 1898 it was St. John’s Burying Ground.

Beautiful brick townhomes were built right across the street from the cemetery on Leroy St. in the 1850’s when they changed the name to St. Luke's Place to make it more fancy. The owner at 6 St. Luke's Place, then 110 Leroy St, was William H. Walker, politician and father of Jimmy Walker. He introduced a proposal to the city in 1895 to take the land through eminent domain and make it a park. It was accepted and in a few years the view from his stoop was a beautiful new park

But where did the bodies go?

Trinity Church, the owner of the cemetery said most were moved to a cemetery on 155th Street, but in actually only a few hundred were moved. The others, gravestones and all, were plowed under and an extra layer of dirt placed on top to make the new park. It is estimated as many as 10,000 bodies still reside beneath.

Oh, and for you Hamilton fans, Burr’s first wife Theodosia, you know the woman they referenced in the play he was having an affair with, was buried there in 1794. She is still there.

It is also purported Edgar Allan Poe lived adjacent to the park at 113 ½ Clarkson (Carmine) Street around 1837 and used to take walks through the cemetery (to cheer himself up?).

05/04/2025

Wholly Trinity

Often called the finest example of Gothic Revival architecture in the United Stares, Trinity Church is really magnificent. From the moment you walk in, all you can say is “Whoa!”

The previous church, which was the second on that spot, was finished in 1790. In 1838, architect Richard Upjohn was brought in to fix structural damage in the steeple. He determined the damage was too severe and convinced them to demolish it and build the structure you see today from 1839-1846.

Since that little known play by Lin Manuel Miranda came out a few years ago, Trinity has been a busy place especially because it contains the graves of Alexander Hamilton,wife Elizabeth (Liza), son Phillip, sister-in-law Angelica and friend Hercules Mulligan.

By the way, is that a cemetery or a graveyard that surrounds Trinity? Answer below.

Whenever I give a walking tour of the area, Trinity is always a highlight. I have not met anybody who did not appreciate the great history and beautiful architecture.

Answer: It’s a graveyard because it is attached to a church. Freestanding burial grounds are cemeteries. It actually started as a cemetery though because the North side of the graveyard predated the first church built on that spot in 1696.

Trinity Church in 1895

02/04/2025

NYC History Lovers,
On Sunday 4/6 at 12:30 pm, join me for “Sites, Stories and Synagogues”, my Jewish leaning tour of Greenwich Village for the Museum at Eldridge Street.

We meet at E. 12th Street and 4th Avenue in front of Crunch Fitness and meander through Greenwich Village for about 2.5 hours where I will point out many things I’m sure even a hardened New Yorker is unfamiliar with.

The weather forecast for Sunday is improving and the cost is very reasonable. Please go to this FareHarbor link for a full description and to sign up. I hope to see you there.

https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/eldridgestreet/items/518504/?full-items=yes

30/03/2025

PIZZA!

My favorite pizza place in the 70’s and 80’s was Famous Ray’s Pizza. Not just any of the 2,347,642 Ray’s in the city at the time, but the one in the Village at 6th Avenue and 11th Street. You know, the one you usually waited on a line to get into and sold mostly slices. After you ordered they would take a plain slice, dump requested toppings and a handful of mozzarella on it and stick it in the oven for a few minutes. What came out after what seemed like an eternity was absolute cheesy deliciousness.
I heard there were a few other “Ray’s” that were good, but I never found another one to compare. It was open until 2011, then reopened as “Famous Roio’s Pizza” (after original owner Mario DiRienzo) in 2013 but closed pretty soon afterwards for good.

Below is a sausage slice (it’s under the cheese) and a regular slice.

26/03/2025

What a Gem

When I was growing up, it seemed like you could find a candy store / soda fountain on almost every corner. It was a treat to go in and have them make you up a coke (from syrup), a lime Rickey or, of course, an egg cream.

Unfortunately one of last of these places closed their doors in 2020 - Gem Spa at 131 Second Ave.

It was open 24 hours, had a great vibe and made arguably the best egg cream in NYC. Dave’s on Canal and Broadway was also great and the only choice of which one to go to at 2am was where I happened to be carousing that evening.

Yeah, you can still get an Egg Cream at places like the Lexington Candy Shop and other old time diners in the city, but it’s just not the same.

25/03/2025

Mmmmmmmm, Beer

My favorite beer bar in NYC is, hands down, the Blind Tiger on Bleecker Street In Greenwich Village. Great vibe and more than 25 craft beers on tap. After one of my walking tours in the Village, I always try to find a seat at the bar and unwind with a couple of unusual beers.

It’s been at this location since 2007, but started out at 518 Hudson St. in 1995 in an 1826 brick townhouse. I only vaguely remember that location from when I used to go to the White Horse Tavern, which is down the block at 567 Hudson.

To get there from 6th Avenue, pass Bob Dylan’s first apartment and make a left on the street where he and Suze Rotolo shot his Freewheelin’ album cover. The Blind Tiger is on the corner of the next block.

25/03/2025

The Last Dance

Question: What famous “starchitect” designed an iconic NYC church and an infamous nightclub?

Answer: Richard Upjohn, the creator of Trinity Church in downtown Manhattan and The Limelight on 6th Avenue and 20th Street.

Well, he created it as the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion in 1844, but it was transformed from 1983 to about 1998 into the infamous music venue and dance club The Limelight.

It was wildly popular during the 80’s, attracting celebrities and a young, beautiful crowd who danced the night away to originally disco and rock, but later to techno and goth music - which went perfectly with the mid 19th Century Gothic Revival architecture.

Unfortunately, a lot of the crowd may also have been coming for the “massive amounts" of ecstasy, co***ne, special K and rohypnol that were reported available. The police called it a “drug supermarket”.and arrested the manager for promoting the fact. Ironically, for ten years before it was “The Limelight” it was Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation program.

The good news is the historic building still exists, but now as a pizza joint.

As It Was - NYC History

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