In 1804, dueling wasn’t allowed in New York. Intrepid and determined souls had to cross the Hudson River to New Jersey to carry out their plans and even in the more lenient state, the stakes were high. Precautions, such as the pistols arriving aboard separate boats from their owners, had to be taken to ensure that all participants could plead ... Read More »
The Brooklyn promenade is without a doubt, one of the greatest sites in New York City. Forget for a second about the cobbled streets or gorgeous Gothic revival architecture of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood where it sits and instead, cast your eyes western, across the East River, and gaze upon one of the most famous and awe inspiring views ... Read More »
Millions of tourists flock to New York City each year but it is not often that they venture to Manhattan Island’s northernmost neighborhood, Harlem. Originally settled in 1658 by Peter Stuyvesant under Dutch rule, Nieuw Haarlem was lush agricultural land distinctly separate from Nieuw Amsterdam at Manhattan’s southern tip. Since then, Harlem has seen many rises and falls, ... Read More »
The Vanderbilts are one of those mythic American families whose name invokes wealth, industrialism and power. Patriarch of the Vanderbilt family, and one of the richest men to ever live, was Cornelius Vanderbilt, otherwise known as Commodore Vanderbilt, a nickname he received after he began operating ships. Uneducated, ruthless and shrewd Vanderbilt amassed a fortune which today would ... Read More »
The corner of Pearl and Broad streets has seen more history than most in New York City. There stands a stately mansion built in 1719, once home to one of the most prominent and controversial of early families, The Delanceys. The Delancey’s were real estate moguls in the early days of New York but when the Revolution came, pled ... Read More »
Ever since the late 19thc, legends have been told about the large English elm in Washington Square Park. It has been called Hangman’s Elm or just simply, The Hanging Tree, and the story goes that traitors were hanged here during the Revolutionary War. In 1824, the Marquis de Lafayette is rumored to have witnessed the hanging of 20 highwaymen from ... Read More »
President Theodore Roosevelt was a war hero, a naturalist and a true New Yorker. The Roosevelt family roots are buried deep in the 17th c. history of the city, as a modest Dutch family of immigrants who made their fortune as merchants. Unbeknownst to many locals, the childhood home of President Theodore Roosevelt is located in Manhattan, right on Gramercy ... Read More »
Over the course of its 350-year history, St. Paul’s Chapel in New York has been the witness to some of the city’s most triumphant and tragic moments. Built in 1766 on land granted by Queen Anne of Britain, St. Paul’s is New York’s oldest building in continuous use and the oldest remaining church in the city. The church’s architecture is ... Read More »
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