With an estimated population in 2023 of 8,258,035 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. New York is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. (Full article...)
Hamilton acquired land for the estate from Jacob Schieffelin and Samuel Bradhurst starting in 1800, and he commissioned architect John McComb Jr. to design a country home there. The house was completed in 1802, just two years before Hamilton's death in 1804. The house remained in his family for 30 years afterward and was then sold several times, including to the Ward family, who occupied the house between 1845 and 1876. The original estate was parceled off and sold in the 1880s, and the house was first relocated after St. Luke's Episcopal Church bought it in 1889. The church used Hamilton Grange as a chapel and a rectory before selling it to the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (ASHPS) in 1924. The ASHPS opened the house as a museum in 1930 and handed over operations to the NPS in 1960. For the next four decades, the NPS attempted to move the house so the building could be restored. The Grange was closed for restoration and relocation between 2006 and 2011.
The Grange is a two-story frame Federal-style house with a ground level basement. It is a rectangular structure with porticos on the front and rear facades, as well as piazzas to its left and right. The basement dates from 2011 and contains the gift shop and exhibits, while the other two stories are part of the original house. On the first floor are Hamilton's study, a parlor, a dining room, and two additional spaces. The second-floor spaces were used as bedrooms. Most of Hamilton's original belongings were sold after his death to other American institutions, and many of the current objects in the house are replicas created in 2011. The Grange has been the subject of architectural commentary over the years, and it is the namesake of several structures in the neighborhood. (Full article...)
The Booth's facade is made of brick and terracotta, with sgraffito decorations designed in stucco. Three arches face north onto 45th Street, and a curved corner faces east toward Broadway. To the east, the Shubert Alley facade includes doors to the lobby and the stage house. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, one balcony, box seats, and a coved ceiling. The walls are decorated with wooden paneling with windows above, an unusual design for Broadway theaters, and there is an elliptical proscenium arch at the front of the auditorium. The stage house to the south is shared with the Shubert Theatre, and a gift shop occupies some of the former dressing rooms.
Dianna Elise Agron (/ˈeɪ.ɡrɒn/AY-gron; born April 30, 1986) is an American actress and singer. After dancing and starring in small musical theater productions in her youth, Agron made her screen debut in 2006, and in 2007, she played recurring character Debbie Marshall on Heroes and had her first leading role. In 2009, she took the role of the antagonistic but sympathetic head cheerleader Quinn Fabray on the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. For her role in the series, she won a SAG Award and, as part of the cast, was nominated for the Brit Award for Best International Breakthrough Act, among other accolades.
After her breakthrough success in Glee, Agron began working more in film, first starring in the popular young adult adaptation I Am Number Four (2011) as Sarah Hart before taking on films aimed at more diverse audiences, including the 2013 mob-comedy The Family and 2015's Bare. She has also directed several short films and music videos and, in 2017, began performing as a singer at the Café Carlyle in New York City, while continuing to star in films including Novitiate and Hollow in the Land in 2017, Shiva Baby in 2020, and As They Made Us in 2022. She acted in and directed part of the 2019 anthology feature film Berlin, I Love You.
Agron is Jewish and has spoken of how her religion relates to her career. She has also been involved with significant charity work, particularly in support of LGBTQ+ rights and human rights. (Full article...)
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A contemporaneous artist's interpretation of the fire, published in 1776
The fire destroyed from 10 to 25 percent of the buildings in the city, while some unaffected parts of the city were plundered. Many people believed or assumed that one or more people deliberately started the fire, for a variety of different reasons. British leaders accused revolutionaries acting within the city and state, and many residents assumed that one side or the other had started it. The fire had long-term effects on the British occupation of the city, which did not end until 1783. (Full article...)
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Baldwin in 2011
Hilaria Baldwin (born Hillary Lynn Hayward-Thomas, January 6, 1984) is an American yoga instructor, entrepreneur, podcaster, and author. She was the co-founder of a chain of New York-based yoga studios called Yoga Vida, and has released an exercise DVD and a wellness-focused book. Baldwin has been married to actor Alec Baldwin since 2012. (Full article...)
The Rodin Studios is 15 stories tall with a superstructure made of reinforced concrete. The main facades are clad in polychrome buff and gray brick, and contain French Renaissance-inspired trim made of terracotta and iron. The brickwork of the facade contains both broad and narrow bays, while the northern side facing 57th Street contains large studio windows. The double-height studios, now subdivided, were mostly on the 57th Street side, while the smaller residences were at the back of the building.
The Rodin Studios was developed by the corporation of the same name, which operated the building until 1942. By the 1960s, the building was converted for office use. The Rodin Studios was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1988. The building was restored in 2008 by Zaskorski & Notaro Architects, and is owned by The Feil Organization. (Full article...)
The ground-floor facade is made of rusticated blocks of terracotta. The theater's main entrance consists of two archways and a doorway shielded by a marquee. The upper stories contain an arched screen made of terracotta, inspired by Roman baths, which is surrounded by white brick. The auditorium contains ornamental plasterwork, a sloped orchestra level, a large balcony, and a coved ceiling with a 36 ft-wide (11 m) dome. The balcony level contains box seats topped by decorative arches. The theater was also designed with a basement lounge and a now-demolished stage house.
The Shubert brothers developed the Barrymore Theatre after Ethel Barrymore agreed to have the brothers manage her theatrical career. It opened on December 20, 1928, with The Kingdom of God, and was the last pre-Depression house developed by the Shuberts. Ethel Barrymore only worked with the Shuberts until 1932 and last performed in the theater in 1940. The Barrymore has consistently remained in use as a legitimate theater since its opening, hosting plays and musicals; it is one of the few Broadway theaters to have never been sold or renamed. The theater was refurbished in the 1980s and the 2000s. (Full article...)
Much of the Starrett–Lehigh Building is 18 stories tall; the central portion is 19 stories tall, while the westernmost portion is nine stories tall due to the site's geology. The building's facade has alternating bands of steel strip windows, brickwork, polygonal corners, and large setbacks. The interior has large concrete floor plates, with a total volume of 26 million cubic feet (740,000 m3) and a rentable floor area of 1.8 million square feet (170,000 m2). There was a rail yard and driveways at ground level, as well as three freight elevators that carried trucks to delivery bays on the upper levels. Widely acclaimed on its completion, the Starrett–Lehigh Building was displayed at the Museum of Modern Art's 1932 "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition", and its design was imitated by other structures. Although the exterior remains intact, the railroad tracks have been removed, and many of the old freight-delivery areas have been converted into amenity spaces.
A freight terminal on the site was announced in 1928, and the LV acquired the lots in early 1930; the Starrett Corporation leased the site's air rights later that year. The building was completed in December 1931 and sold to the LV the next year following the death of William A. Starrett, head of the Starrett Corporation. The LV sold the building to Jacob Friedus in 1944, and the rail lines were removed in the mid-20th century. Occupancy peaked in the 1940s and early 1950s, when 5,000 people worked at the Starrett–Lehigh Building, but the structure was 40 percent vacant by the early 1970s. Harry Helmsley acquired the building at an auction in 1974 and owned it until his death in 1997. A syndicate of investors bought the Starrett–Lehigh Building in 1998 and renovated it, attracting dot-com companies and later fashion firms. The structure was sold again in 2011 to RXR Realty, which conducted further renovations in the late 2010s and early 2020s. (Full article...)
The complex consists of two distinct, perpendicular stations. The Jay Street–Borough Hall station was built by the Independent Subway System (IND) in 1933, while the Lawrence Street–MetroTech station was built by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) in 1924. Despite being one block away from each other, the two stations were not connected for 77 years. As part of a station renovation completed in 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) built a passageway to connect the two stations and made the complex fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Both stations also contain "money train" platforms, which were formerly used to deliver MTA token revenue to neighboring 370 Jay Street. (Full article...)
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Houses of the Nehemiah Spring Creek development under construction in 2008.
For most of its history, the neighborhood of Spring Creek was considered the place where "the city came to an end", consisting of undeveloped marshland used as illegal dumping grounds, and hosting several large landfills and an incinerator during the 20th century. Much of the area was designated as the Fresh Creek Urban Renewal Area in 1967. The area has since seen several major development and restoration projects, including the Starrett City apartment complex, the Gateway Center shopping complex, several affordable housing communities, and Spring Creek Park. Spring Creek had the largest net gain in population in Brooklyn between 1940 and 2010, an increase of 330%.
Dooley (right) and Hennessy, by E. W. Kemble (1900)
Mr. Dooley (or Martin J. Dooley) is a fictional Irish immigrant bartender created by American journalist and humorist Finley Peter Dunne. Dooley was the subject of many Dunne columns between 1893 and 1915, and again in 1924 and 1926. Dunne's essays contain the bartender's commentary on various topics (often national or international affairs). They became extremely popular during the 1898 Spanish–American War and remained so afterwards; they are collected in several books. The essays are in the form of conversations in Irish dialect between Mr. Dooley, who in the columns owns a tavern in the Bridgeport area of Chicago, and one of the fictional bar's patrons (in later years, usually Malachi Hennessy) with most of the column a monologue by Dooley. The pieces are not widely remembered, but originated lasting sayings such as "the Supreme Court follows the election returns".
Mr. Dooley was invented by Dunne to replace a similar character whose real-life analogue had objected. By having the garrulous bartender speak in dialect and live in an unfashionable area of Chicago, Dunne gained a freedom of expression he often did not have in standard English. The first four years of the weekly column made Mr. Dooley popular in Chicago, but little noticed elsewhere. Dunne was a rapidly rising newspaperman, and the pieces mainly appeared in the Chicago paper which he worked for. During that time, Dunne detailed the daily life of Bridgeport through Dooley's lips, painting a portrait of ethnic urban life unparalleled in 19th-century American literature.
Dunne's bartender came to wider attention with the wartime columns, and the Dooley pieces were soon in newspapers nationwide. Both the columns and the books collecting them gained national acclaim. Beginning around 1905, Dunne had increasing trouble finding time and inspiration for new columns, and they ended in 1915, except for a brief resurrection in the mid-1920s. Even in Dunne's own time (he died in 1936), his work was becoming obscure in part due to his use of dialect, and the unusual spellings that it required have proved a lasting barrier for potential readers. (Full article...)
The concept of a benefit concert in Central Park had been proposed by Parks CommissionerGordon Davis and promoter Ron Delsener. Television channel HBO agreed to carry the concert, and they worked with Delsener to decide on Simon and Garfunkel as the appropriate act for this event. Besides hits from their years as a duo, their 21-song set list included material from their solo careers, and covers. Amongst them were "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "The Boxer" and Simon's "Late in the Evening", with the show concluding with a reprise of the latter. Ongoing personal tensions between the duo led them to decide against a permanent reunion, despite the success of the concert and a subsequent world tour.
The album and film were released the year after the concert. Simon and Garfunkel's performance was praised by music critics and the album was commercially successful, peaking No. 6 on the Billboard 200 album charts and being certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The video recordings were initially broadcast on HBO and were subsequently made available on Laserdisc, CED, VHS and DVD. A single was released of Simon and Garfunkel‘s live performance of The Everly Brothers‘s song "Wake Up Little Susie". It reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and is the duo's last Top 40 hit. (Full article...)
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Statue of James S. T. Stranahan, c. 1923
J.S.T. Stranahan is a bronze statue in Brooklyn's Prospect Park in New York City. Designed by Frederick William MacMonnies and erected in 1891 near the park's entrance at Grand Army Plaza, it honors James S. T. Stranahan, a businessman from Brooklyn who served on the city's park commission and was instrumental in Prospect Park's creation. The statue is considered one of MacMonnies' finest works and was praised for its realism. An inscription on the pedestal of the statue includes the Latin phrase LECTOR SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS CIRCUMSPICE ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you") which also marks the tomb of Christopher Wren. (Full article...)
The Federal Reserve Building has fourteen above-ground stories and five basement levels, designed by York and Sawyer with decorative ironwork by Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. Its facade is separated horizontally into three sections: a base, midsection, and top section. The stone exterior is reminiscent of early Italian Renaissancepalaces such as Florence's Palazzo Strozzi and Palazzo Vecchio. The horizontal and vertical joints of the facade's stones are deeply rusticated. The Federal Reserve Building's gold vault rests on Manhattan's bedrock, 80 feet (24 m) below street level and 50 feet (15 m) below sea level. The vault contains the largest known monetary-gold reserve in the world, with about 6,190 short tons (5,620 metric tons) in storage .
The distinctive architecture and interior design of Grand Central Terminal's station house have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Beaux-Arts design incorporates numerous works of art. Grand Central Terminal is one of the world's ten most-visited tourist attractions, with 21.6 million visitors in 2018, excluding train and subway passengers. The terminal's Main Concourse is often used as a meeting place, and is especially featured in films and television. Grand Central Terminal contains a variety of stores and food vendors, including upscale restaurants and bars, a food hall, and a grocery marketplace. The building is also noted for its library, event hall, tennis club, control center and offices for the railroad, and sub-basement power station.
In 1912, the city, urged on by social journalist Jacob Riis, acquired the land for a park initially called Seaside Park and later Telawana Park. In 1914, the park was renamed for Riis. During World War I, the site was used as the Rockaway Naval Air Station, one of the first naval air stations in the United States and, in 1919, the launching point for the first transatlantic flight. The Art Deco-style bathhouse was built in 1932, but much of the park's infrastructure and approaches were built between 1936 and 1937 by New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who envisioned it as a getaway for New York City residents, like Jones Beach State Park further east on Long Island. The park was built along with the Marine Parkway Bridge and the Belt Parkway in nearby Brooklyn, which provided access to the park.
After a period of decline, Jacob Riis Park was transferred in 1974 to the control of the National Park Service. The Jacob Riis Park Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. The Neponsit Beach Hospital, which occupies part of the park's site, was razed in 2023. In addition to the bathhouse, the park contains a north–south central mall; a boardwalk to the north of the beach; a large parking lot; an 18-hole golf course; and several sporting fields. The beaches at Jacob Riis Park, on the south side of the Rockaway peninsula, consists of 14 bays on the Atlantic coast. (Full article...)
The front facade of the Hotel Chelsea is 11 stories high, while the rear of the hotel rises 12 stories. The facade is divided vertically into five sections and is made of brick, with some flower-ornamented iron balconies; the hotel is capped by a high mansard roof. The Hotel Chelsea has thick load-bearing walls made of masonry, as well as wrought iron floor beams and large, column-free spaces. When the hotel opened, the ground floor was divided into an entrance hall, four storefronts, and a restaurant; this has been rearranged over the years, with a bar and the El Quijote restaurant occupying part of the ground floor. The Chelsea was among the first buildings in the city with duplex and penthouse apartments, and there is also a rooftop terrace. The hotel originally had no more than 100 apartments; it was subdivided into 400 units during the 20th century and has 155 units as of 2022.
The idea for the Chelsea arose after Hubert & Pirsson had developed several housing cooperatives in New York City. Developed by the Chelsea Association, the structure quickly attracted authors and artists after opening. Several factors, including financial hardships and tenant relocations, prompted the Chelsea's conversion into an apartment hotel in 1905. Knott Hotels took over the hotel in 1921 and managed it until about 1942, when David Bard bought it out of bankruptcy. Julius Krauss and Joseph Gross joined Bard as owners in 1947. After David Bard died in 1964, his son Stanley operated it for 43 years, forming close relationships with many tenants. The hotel underwent numerous minor changes in the late 20th century after falling into a state of disrepair. The Krauss and Gross families took over the hotel in 2007 and were involved in numerous tenant disputes before the Chelsea closed for a major renovation in 2011. The hotel changed ownership twice in the 2010s before BD Hotels took over in 2016, and the Chelsea reopened in 2022. (Full article...)
The building's basement is clad with a granite water table, while the superstructure is clad with Indiana limestone. The exterior features Corinthian columns and sculpted pediments by Frederic MacMonnies. The main entrance is through a triumphal arch on the relatively narrow Bowery elevation, which is designed to resemble a Corinthian temple. The Grand Street and Elizabeth Street elevations contain Corinthian pilasters, and there is a secondary entrance portico on Grand Street. The interior was designed to give the impression of a Roman temple, with a waiting room to the east and a banking room to the west. Both spaces are decorated with mosaic-tile floors and marble colonnades, and the banking room also features a double-height coffered ceiling with a square skylight. A bank vault and offices for the president and secretary were to the west of the banking room, while a director's room was placed above the waiting room.
The Bowery Savings Bank was founded in 1834, occupying a house at 128 Bowery; this structure was replaced with a larger building in 1853. The bank acquired additional land through the late 19th century and announced plans for a new headquarters in 1891. Construction on the banking room commenced in May 1893, and the banking hall opened in June 1894. The waiting room was built as part of a second phase that was completed in 1895. The building remained relatively unchanged in the 20th century as the Bowery Savings Bank continued to expand. The Bowery Savings Bank's successor company, Greenpoint Bank, sold the building to Jeffrey Wu in 2000. The Capitale event venue opened in October 2002, and the building was sold again in 2023. (Full article...)
Irving was born and raised in Manhattan to a merchant family. He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. He temporarily moved to England for the family business in 1815, where he achieved fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. which was serialized from 1819 to 1820. He continued to publish regularly throughout his life, and he completed a five-volume biography of George Washington just eight months before his death at age 76 in Tarrytown, New York.
The original complex in March 2001. The tower on the left, with antenna spire, was 1 WTC. The tower on the right was 2 WTC. All seven buildings of the WTC complex are partially visible. The red granite-clad building left of the Twin Towers was the original 7 World Trade Center. In the background is the East River.
The core complex was built between 1966 and 1975, at a cost of ~$400 million (equivalent to ~$3.80 billion in 2023). The idea was suggested by David Rockefeller to help stimulate urban renewal in Lower Manhattan, and his brother Nelson, then New York's 49th governor, signed the legislation to build it. The buildings at the complex were designed by Minoru Yamasaki. In 1998, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decided to privatize it by leasing the buildings to a private company to manage. It awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001. During its existence, the World Trade Center symbolized globalization and the economic prosperity of the U.S. Although its design was initially criticized by New Yorkers and professional critics—"they put up the boxes instead of the buildings"—the Twin Towers became an icon of New York City. It had a major role in popular culture, and according to one estimate was depicted in 472 films. The Twin Towers were also used in Philippe Petit's tightrope-walking performance on August 7, 1974. Following the September 11 attacks, mentions of the complex in various media were altered or deleted, and several dozen "memorial films" were created.
The World Trade Center experienced several major crime and terrorist incidents, including a fire on February 13, 1975; a bombing on February 26, 1993; and a bank robbery on January 14, 1998. During the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets, one into each of the Twin Towers; between 16,400 and 18,000 people were in the Twin Towers when they were struck. The fires from the impacts were intensified by the planes' burning jet fuel, which, along with the initial damage to the buildings' structural columns, ultimately caused both towers to collapse. The attacks killed 2,606 people in and around the towers, as well as all 157 on board the two aircraft. Falling debris from the towers, combined with fires in several surrounding buildings that were initiated by falling debris, led to the partial or complete collapse of all the WTC complex's buildings, including 7 World Trade Center, and caused catastrophic damage to 10 other large structures in the surrounding area. (Full article...)
Henry Edwards (27 August 1827 – 9 June 1891) was an English stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theatre work.
Edwards was drawn to the theatre early in life, and he appeared in amateur productions in London. After sailing to Australia, Edwards appeared professionally in Shakespearean plays and light comedies primarily in Melbourne and Sydney. Throughout his childhood in England and his acting career in Australia, he was greatly interested in collecting insects, and the National Museum of Victoria used the results of his Australian fieldwork as part of the genesis of their collection. (Full article...)
Staten Island (/ˈstætən/STAT-ən) is the southernmost borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southern most point of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km2); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.
A home to the Lenape indigenous people, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. (Full article...)
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. (Full article...)
Named after the Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a border with the borough of Queens. It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across the East River, and is connected to Staten Island by way of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km2) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km2), Kings County is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. (Full article...)
With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after New York City itself, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. It is highly diverse as about 47% of its residents are foreign-born. (Full article...)
Image 14Anderson Avenue garbage strike. A common scene throughout New York City in 1968 during a sanitation workers strike (from History of New York City (1946–1977))
Image 29The Sunday magazine of the New York World appealed to immigrants with this April 29, 1906 cover page celebrating their arrival at Ellis Island. (from History of New York City (1898–1945))
... that Lucy Feagin founded the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York City, where talent scouts for radio, screen, and stage were always present to watch her senior students' plays?
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