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New York City History

New York City – Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was an Old New Yorker in the best sense of the word. His family for generations were New Yorkers, and they were not citizens only but citizens who, in each generation, took an active and important part in the affairs of the city and of the state. Going back to pre-revolutionary times, we […]

New York City – Old Target Companies And Firemen

The Target Companies and Firemen are naturally associated together, as the Target Company was an outgrowth in the first instance of the Fire Companies, though later on they were formed by various bodies of men like employees of factories, or congenial spirits of some neighborhood. Though I lived in a distant Western city, yet as […]

Manhattan History – The British Fall To Rise Again

THE English, it has been observed, take things coolly, but they take them. For years they had been protesting against the Dutch occupation of New Netherland, basing their claims on Cabot’s voyages. Diplomatic representation had been made at various times since 1621. Friction had developed over the Connecticut occupation, the Dutch expansion to the Delaware, […]

New York City – Ambrose Channel

When the weary transatlantic traveler hears the lynx-eyed lookout cry, “Ambrose Light abeam, sir!” he begins to realize that he is near his journey’s end. “Ambrose Light” marks the entrance to the great Channel leading from the trackless deep of the Atlantic Ocean to the harbor of New York City. While “Ambrose Light” and “Ambrose […]

New York City – Some Recollections Of Old Brooklyn

THE Brooklyn of which I write is a different city from the one we know today, entirely different. The buildings have changed, the streets -have changed, and the people have changed, and there are a great many more families in the village than when I was a boy playing among its vacant lots and selling […]

New York City – Slave Burials In New York

Directly on the line of Tenth Avenue near its junction with 212th Street in the fields of Inwood about thirty rude stones may be seen projecting a few inches above the sod. These stones are partly enclosed by a semi-circle of wild pear trees which have been permitted to grow and furnish shade for the […]

New York City – The Velocipede

In 1869 the craze was for velocipedes—the fore runner of the bicycle. All over town there were academies and rinks for teaching and practicing the art of riding. Between Grace Church and Tenth Street there was a f our-story building—afterward occupied by the Vienna Bakery—the top floor of which was used as a Velocipede Riding […]

New York City – Some Famous American Naval Prints

In the pages of that delightful repository of antiquarian lore concerning New York of an older period—Valentine’s Manual—one may see an old-time print or two of exceeding interest, not so much for what they are as for the tremendous developments which they foreshadowed. One is dated October 14, 1814 others a little later ; and […]

New York City – Dr. J.G. Holland And Roswell Smith

Two men who, with knowledge and sympathy and money, did much to further the growth of literature and art in New York in the seventies, were Josiah Gilbert Holland and Roswell Smith, founders, with the senior Charles Scribner, of the joint stock company known in its early years as Scribner & Co. The chief object […]

New York City – Edwin Booth Memorial

The memorial of Edwin Booth erected in Gramercy Park is the first of its kind, to an actor in this country. It is a product of the genius of one of the members of The Players—the club founded by Mr. Booth in 1888. Mr. Booth conceived the idea that the intermingling of players with men […]

About New York City

New York City is the largest city of the United States by population. It was settled in 1613 by Dutch and originally called New Amsterdam. New York City is popularly known as the "The Big Apple", "Gotham City", "Empire City", "Fun City", "The Naked City" and the "City That Never Sleeps". Manhattan Island is often referred to as "The City" by New Yorkers, despite being only one part of the city itself. New York City is often referred to as "the Capital of the World", due to its size, wealth, and for its being the location of the United Nations headquarters.

Quotes And Facts

  • To write the history of Broadway would require a volume, for it would be the history of New York itself. The street was laid out in the days of the Dutch, and then, as now, began at the Bowling Green. By them it was called the “Heere Straas,” or High street. They built it up as far as Wall street, but in those days only the lower end was of importance. The site of the Bowling Green was occupied by the Dutch fort and the church, and on the west side of it was the parade and the market place. Ere long several well-to-do merchants erected substantial dwellings on the same side, one of these belonging to no less a personage than the Schout-Fiscal Van Dyck. The east side of Broadway, during the rule of the Dutch, was thickly built up with dwellings of but one room, little better than hovels. Eventually, however, some of the better class mechanics came there to reside, and erected better houses. Their gardens extended down to the marsh on Broad street, and they cultivated their cabbages and onions with great success, where now the bulls and bears of the stock and gold markets rage and roar.