Trinity Church has the oldest parish in New York City and with that comes lots of parishioners who when they die, are looking to stay close to the church for all eternity. In 1842, when the church ran out of room in their Wall St and Broadway cemetery, they had to look for space elsewhere. They found that space ... Read More »
In 1991, work began on new federal offices in downtown New York City but excavators soon turned-up something they weren’t bargaining for, skeletal remains. Building halted while archaeologists moved in to excavate what would end up to be the largest bioarchaeological site of its kind, which uncovered 419 men, women and children. The bodies were that of free and enslaved ... Read More »
In 1899, The New York Herald hired journalist, and part-time composer, Monroe Rosenfeld to write a series of articles about the burgeoning song-writing business in New York. It is Rosenfeld, in an attempt to convey the cacophony of sound emanating from the popular music houses of the day all at once, who coined the phrase “Tin Pan Alley.” Eventually, the ... Read More »
Not all things are created for the pursuit of beauty or glory. Sometimes, they are created purely from spite. Such is the case of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. In the midst of a family feud with his aunt, Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, William Waldorf Astor decided to take his revenge by building a hotel directly next store to her ... Read More »
“Let us go on again, and … plunge into the Five Points….We have seen no beggars in the streets by night or day, but of other kinds of strollers plenty. Poverty, wretchedness, and vice are rife enough where we are going now.” – Charles Dickens, American Notes Never has a slum been so notorious as that of Five Points. So ... Read More »
The NYTimes is reporting today that the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City will be embarking on a 4.6million dollar restoration of the McKim Building in order to expand the institute’s exhibition space. The McKim Building on E.36th St. was built by architect Charles McKim in 1906 to hold J.P. Morgan’s office and library and has received little ... Read More »
Adam Ritchie is a man on a mission. That mission (as stated in his twitter bio): “maintaining a dual life: fearlessly running a brand communications agency by day / shamelessly rocking in The Lights Out by night.” Well so far, mission accomplished. Ritchie’s drive and passion has seen his company flourish as well as his band; last year The Lights ... Read More »
Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh spent much of the last years of his life in France. The artist’s stay in Arles is perhaps one of his most well known periods as he spent nine-weeks with Gaugin there and painted 300 works. The final year of his life though was spent in Saint Rémy-de-Provence, just northeast of Arles, before his fateful ... Read More »
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