History of New York City

Rudolph "Rudy" Giuliani

"Rudy" Giuliani (born 1944) is an American lawyer, businessman, public speaker, and former mayor of NYC. During his term as mayor of NYC, Giuliani hired a new police commissioner, who applied the broken windows theory of urban decay, which holds that minor disorders and violations create a permissive atmosphere that leads to further and more serious crimes that can threaten the safety of a city. Within several years, Giuliani was widely credited for major improvements in the city's quality of life, and in lowering the rate of violent crimes. Giuliani was named Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2001, and was nationally recognized for his leadership after 9/11 attacks. Giuliani was considered a potential candidate for New York Governor in 2010 and for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. However, Giuliani declined all races, and instead remained in the business sector.

Charles Francis Murphy

"Silent Charlie" or Boss Murphy. Head of Tammany Hall from 1902-1924. Transformed reputation from corrupt to respectable, as an Irish-American. - Review Guide

Population Density

The number of people per square mile in a city. Reflects transportation patterns, urban history, and demographics. Manhattan - 66,000 per square mile. NYC average - 26,000 per square mile. - Myles

Cotton Club

The original Cotton Club, was at 644 Lenox Avenue, in New York (at West 142nd Street and Lenox Ave.). Former heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson first opened the club in 1920 as the Club Deluxe. Then, Owney Madden took it over, and in 1922 changed it's name to the Cotton Club. The club's manager in the early 1920s was Don Healy, and the stage manager was Herman Stark. the club had an "all-White" policy, - only the performers were Black. In the Fall of '23, the club opened with a high stepping line of the most beautiful "sepia skinned" chorines. The shows had the best choreography, and soon everyone was coming up to Harlem. Here's the Front Cover of the Cotton Club Menu. During its years of operation, the Cotton Club spawned a generation of top flight talent. In 1927, Duke Ellington's orchestra was hired, and was replaced a few years later by Cab Calloway's band. It was at the Cotton Club that a young 16 year old Lena Horne began singing. Duke Ellington discovered that one of the showgirl dancers, Adelaide Hall, had a beautiful singing voice. Her first fame came when she sang the Obbligato on Ellington's recording of "Creole Love Song." The club even had the finest composers writing music for the shows, such as composer Jimmy McHugh, and Lyricist Dorothy Fields. After the 1935 race riots in Harlem, the area was considered unsafe for Whites (who formed the segregated Cotton Club's clientele and the club was forced to close. It reopened in 1936, downtown on West 48th Street, in premises that had formerly housed the Palais Royal, and Connie's Inn (1933-'36); the Cotton Club continued to operate at this location until 1940. - New York Architecture

Dutch West India Company

The private company established by the Dutch colonizers of New Amsterdam. Some of its responsibilities are as follows: Purchase of land and fur from local Lenape Indians. Appointments of officials in colonial government. Providing for the common defense of New Amsterdam with local militia and construction of Fort Orange in present day Battery Park. Governed by the likes of Peter Stuyvesant and Dutch appointees from Amsterdam. The West India Company was the less profitable counterpart to the Dutch East India Company's tea colonies in Sri Landka and Indonesia. - Myles.

Half Moon

The ship Henry Hudson sailed up the Hudson River on in 1609. He was working on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in search of a the fabled Northwest Passage as shortcut from Europe to China. - Myles

How many acres is Central Park?

843 acres Bounded by 59th and 110th streets to the south and north. Bounded by 5th and 8th avenues to the east and west. - Myles

Ladies' Mile

A stretch of 6th Avenue that was home to many department stores, it was frequented by the rich and famous. Rose to prominence around 1855-1860 Epicenter and epitome of the change in consumer culture defined by the department store era. - Review Guide

Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr Jr. (1756-1836) was a ruthless and corrupt politician. He was the third Vice President of the United States (1801-1805), serving during President Thomas Jefferson's first term. Burr served as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, after which he became a successful lawyer and politician. He was elected twice to the New York State Assembly (1784-1785, 1798-1799), was appointed New York state attorney general (1789-1791), was chosen as a United States senator (1791-1797) from the state of New York, and reached the apex of his career as vice president. The highlight of Burr's tenure as president of the senate (one of his few official duties as vice president) was the Senate's first impeachment trial, that of Supreme Court justice Samuel Chase. In 1804, the last full year of his single term as vice president, Burr killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel—a man whom he had rescued during the Revolutionary War. Burr was never tried for the illegal duel, and all charges against him were eventually dropped, but Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career. One of the founders of Manhattan Water Company which was chartered to provide early New York with fresh drinking water. Burr used proceeds from company to establish the Chase Manhattan Bank.

Adriaen van der Donck

Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (c.1618 - 1655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named. In addition to being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post. Enchanted by his new homeland of New Netherland, van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland.

Afrika Bambaataa

Afrika Bambaataa was a DJ who influenced the fusion of punk rock and hip hop scenes in the late 70s to early 80s leading to a social and cultural transfusion at a time of heavy segregation. Afrika Bambaataa played at a club called The Roxy, where white LES kids and black Bronx kids would party together at a time when most clubs were still segregated by race and scene. - Review Guide

Colonel George E. Waring (1895)

After a yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis, Tennessee in 1878, the newly created National Board of Health sent engineer and Civil War veteran George A. Waring Jr. to design and implement a better sewage drainage system for the city. His success there made Waring's national reputation, and in 1895 he was appointed sanitation commissioner of New York City. During his brief tenure, Waring made a huge impact on the city, making much-needed reforms that would become the foundations for modern recycling, street sweeping and garbage collection. - The History Channel

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton (c.1756-1804) was a statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the Constitution, as well as the founder of the nation's financial system, the Federalist Party, the United States Coast Guard, and The New York Post newspaper. As the first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton was the main author of the economic policies of the George Washington administration. He took the lead in the funding of the states' debts by the Federal government, as well as the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs, and friendly trade relations with Britain.

Al Smith

Alfred "Al" Smith was a statesman who was elected Governor of New York four times. He was the foremost urban leader of the efficiency-oriented Progressive Movement and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. He was also linked to the notorious Tammany Hall machine that controlled New York City's politics; was a strong opponent of Prohibition, which he did not think could be enforced, and was the first Catholic nominee for President. His candidacy mobilized Catholic votes—especially of women, who had only recently received federal suffrage. As a committed "wet" (anti-Prohibition) candidate, Smith attracted not only drinkers but also voters angered by the corruption and lawlessness that developed alongside prohibition. Many Protestants feared his candidacy, including German Lutherans and Southern Baptists, believing that the Catholic Church and the Pope would dictate his policies. Most importantly, this was a time of national prosperity under a Republican Presidency. Smith lost in a landslide to Republican Herbert Hoover, who gained electoral support from six southern states. Four years later Smith sought the 1932 nomination but was defeated by Roosevelt, his former ally and successor as New York Governor. Smith entered business in New York City and became a vocal opponent of the New Deal.

Fiorella LaGuardia

An Italian and Jewish Mayor between the 1930s to 1940s. Defeated Tammany Hall as a Republican (New Deal). Worked closely with Moses and famous for creating lots of infrastructure and the Housing Authority. Complained about push-carts in the city and had them relocated into Markets. Ripped up Trolley Tracks in 1930s. - Review Guide

Flushing Remonstrance

An early example of New York's history of toleration and diversity. The Dutch government in New Amsterdam opposed the migration of Quakers to New York. The village of Flushing (now incorporated as part of Queens) responded with the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance, which affirmed the values of toleration, despite official disapproval. - Myles

Andrew Haswell Green

Andrew Haswell Green (1820-1903) was a lawyer, New York City planner, and civic leader. Considered "the Father of Greater New York," he is responsible for Central Park, the New York Public Library, the Bronx Zoo, the Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also participated in or led projects including Riverside Drive, Morningside Park, Fort Washington Park, and the protection of the Hudson River Palisades from destruction. His last project was the consolidation of the "Imperial City" or City of Greater New York; he chaired the 1897 committee that drew up the plan of amalgamation.

Andrew Jackson Downing

Andrew Jackson Downing (1815-1852) was a landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine (1846-52). Downing is considered to be a founder of landscape architecture.

Anthony Comstock

Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) was a United States Postal Inspector and politician dedicated to ideas of Victorian morality. The terms "comstockery" and "Comstockism" were used for his extensive campaign to censor materials he considered indecent and obscene, such as birth control information. In 1873, Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public. Later that year, Comstock successfully influenced the United States Congress to pass the Comstock Law, which made illegal the delivery by mail, or by other modes of transportation, of "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material, as well as prohibiting any methods of production or publication of information pertaining to the procurement of abortion, the prevention of conception and the prevention of venereal disease.

Delmonico's

At Delmonico's the high and mighty no longer dined in as status, they dined out. Originally opened in 1827 by the Swiss brothers Giovanni and Pietro Delmonico at 21 William Street as a confectioner, "Delmonico and Brother" served cakes, ices, and fine wines. In 1831 the small café expanded to 25 William Street to include a new restaurant specializing in Continental cuisine. Managed by their nephew Lorenzo, it became the best- known restaurant in the United States in the nineteenth century. In 1834 the Delmonico's opened a small hotel and a second restaurant at 76 Broad Street. After the William Street building was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1835, the Broad Street restaurant became the main location until a new, larger building was completed at 56 Beaver Street. Designed by James Brown Lord, the building, which became known as "The Citadel," cost $360,000 and featured two columns that supposedly were salvaged from the ruins of Pompeii. The Delmonico's opened restaurants in the financial district and at 23 Broadway, Fifth Avenue at 14th Street (the former Grinnell Mansion), 26th Street at Madison Square (in the Dodworth Studio Building), and Fifth Avenue and East 44th Street. The original Delmonico's closed in 1925, primarily as a result of Prohibition. In 1929 Oscar Tucci opened a restaurant called Oscar Delmonico's at the 56 Beaver Street location. In 1977 the Huber family opened another restaurant called Delmonico's at that location, which they operated until 1992. The building was left vacant until 1998, when the Bice Group opened another "Delmonico's," which continued to operate into the early twenty-first century. The restaurant became famous for such culinary innovations as baked Alaska, eggs Benedict, chicken à la king, and lobster Newburg. Its private dining rooms were famous, and it was the first American restaurant to use tablecloths and to admit female diners. Patrons included Mark Twain, J. P. Morgan, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Henry Irving, Henry Ward Beecher, Theodore Roosevelt, and other presidents. One of the most popular and recognized restaurants in the city. Delmonicos represents the beginning of "restaurant culture" in NYC. - Review Guide

Tim Sullivan

Big Tim Sullivan was a Tammany Hall Ward Boss for Mulberry Bend. Elected to NY State Assembly at 23. Took neighborhood on cruises and picnics in the summer and gave out shoes, coats, and food in the winter. The Ward bosses were Tammany Hall's closest contact with New Yorkers, allowing them to remain in good favor and earn needed votes. - Review Guide

Dakota Building

Constructed in 1884, became one of Manhattan's most prestigious apartment buildings. Changed the idea that apartment buildings were only for the poor/tenement houses. Home to John Lennon and other famous people throughout the ages. - Review Guide

Andrew Carnegie

Born in Scotland in 1835 and emigrated to New York at a young age in dire poverty. Industrialist, author, philanthropist, and peace activist. Carnegie moved to the United States with his parents in 1848 and settled in Allegheny City, which is today part of Pittsburgh. After working briefly in a cotton mill, he took a job as a telegraph messenger, then secured a position as secretary to Thomas Scott, then a divisional superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Carnegie eventually rose in the ranks to become the Pittsburgh division superintendent of the railroad. He retired from the railroad in 1865 to go into business for himself, primarily bridge- building and iron mills. Within only a few years, he had earned his first millions. In 1872 he became one of the nation's first — and soon its most successful — steelmakers. Carnegie devoted his later years to writing, philanthropy, and peace activism. He was a fierce opponent of the Spanish-American War and an outspoken advocate for treaties and world organizations devoted to international peace. In 1901 he sold his majority share in Carnegie Steel, worth $226 million, to J. P. Morgan, who was organizing the US Steel Corporation. Considered by many to be the founder of modern philanthropy, he gave away most of his fortune during his lifetime. The remainder was bequeathed to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Among his many gifts was Carnegie Hall at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, considered by many professionals to be the most prestigious concert venue in the world.

Roebling, Joseph Pulitzer

Buys New York World in 1883. Anti monopoly, pro union, pro immigration. Circulates over one million copies. Hires Nellie Blye to travel world in 80 days. Founded Columbia U School. Fiercely competed with William Hearst and the two owners' competition guided public opinion towards war with Spain in 1898. - Review Guide

Calvert Vaux

Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) was a British-American architect and landscape designer. He is best known as the co-designer, along with his protégé and junior partner Frederick Law Olmsted, of what would become New York's Central Park. Vaux, on his own and in various partnerships, designed and created dozens of parks across the country. He introduced new ideas about the significance of public parks during a hectic time of urbanization. This industrialization of the cityscape inspired him to focus on an integration of buildings, bridges, and other forms of architecture into their natural surroundings. He favored naturalistic, rustic, and curvilinear lines in his designs, and his design statements contributed much to today's landscape and architecture.

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is named after Andrew Carnegie, who funded its construction. It was intended as a venue for the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society, on whose boards Carnegie served. Construction began in 1890. The inaugural performance was conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Originally known simply as "Music Hall" (the words "Music Hall founded by Andrew Carnegie" still appear on the façade above the marquee), the hall was renamed Carnegie Hall in 1893. The hall was owned by the Carnegie family until 1925, when Carnegie's widow sold it to a real estate developer, Robert E. Simon. When Simon died in 1935, his son, Robert E. Simon, Jr., became owner. By the mid-1950s, changes in the music business prompted Simon to offer Carnegie Hall for sale to the New York Philharmonic, which booked a majority of the hall's concert dates each year. The orchestra declined, since it planned to move to Lincoln Center, then in the early stages of planning. By the 1950s, it was widely believed that New York City could not support two major concert venues. Facing the loss of the hall's primary tenant was forced to sell. A deal with a commercial developer fell through, and by 1960, with the New York Philharmonic on the move to Lincoln Center, the building was slated for demolition to make way for a commercial skyscraper. Under pressure from a group led by violinist Isaac Stern and many of the artist residents, special legislation was passed that allowed the City of New York to buy the site from Simon for $5 million, and in 1960 the nonprofit Carnegie Hall Corporation was created to run the venue. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962.

Catharine Beecher

Catharine Esther Beecher (September 6, 1800 - May 12, 1878) was an educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. Beecher was born in 1800, in East Hampton, New York, the daughter of outspoken religious leader Lyman Beecher and Roxanna (Foote) Beecher. She was the sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the 19th century abolitionist and writer most famous for her groundbreaking novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and of clergymen Henry Ward Beecher and Charles Beecher.

Central Park

Central Park is an urban park in middle-upper Manhattan, within New York City. Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States, with 40 million visitors in 2013. It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world. The Park was established in 1857 on 778 acres (315 ha) of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, a landscape architect and an architect, respectively, won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they titled the "Greensward Plan." Construction began the same year and the park's first area was opened to the public in the winter of 1858. Construction continued during the Civil War farther north, and was expanded to its current size of 843 acres (341 ha) in 1873.

Chambers Street

Chambers Street is a two-way street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It runs from River Terrace, Battery Park City, in the west, past PS 234 (the Independence School) and Stuyvesant High School to 1 Centre Street, the Manhattan Municipal Building, to the east. In the early 20th century the street continued through that building's archway. Between Broadway and Centre Street, Chambers Street forms the northern boundary of the grounds surrounding New York City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse.

Charles Lindbergh

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (1902-1974), nicknamed The Lone Eagle, was an aviator, author, inventor, military officer, explorer, and social activist. At age 25 in 1927, Lindbergh won fame for his nonstop flight from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, to Paris, France. He flew the distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km) in a single-seat, single-engine, purpose-built Ryan monoplane, Spirit of Saint Louis. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, for his historic exploit. In 1932, his infant son, Charles Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was dubbed the "Crime of the Century." It was described by journalist H. L. Mencken as "the biggest story since the resurrection" and prompted Congress to make kidnapping a federal crime and give the FBI jurisdiction over such cases. The kidnapping eventually led to the Lindbergh family being "driven into voluntary exile."

DeWitt Clinton

DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828) was a politician and naturalist who served as a United States Senator and was the sixth Governor of New York. In this last capacity, he was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal. Clinton was the leader of New York's People's Party and was a major rival of Martin Van Buren, who was the Attorney General of New York during part of Clinton's governorship. Clinton believed that infrastructure improvements could transform American life, drive economic growth, and encourage political participation; and he heavily influenced the development of New York State and the United States.

Battle of Brooklyn Long Island (1776)

During the Revolution, British forces under General William Howe defeated Patriot forces under General George Washington at the Battle of Brooklyn in New York. On August 22, Howe's large army landed on Long Island, hoping to capture New York City and gain control of the Hudson River, a victory that would divide the rebellious colonies in half. On August 27, the Red Coats marched against the Patriot position at Brooklyn Heights, overcoming the Americans at Gowanus Pass and then outflanking the entire Continental Army. Howe failed to follow the advice of his subordinates and storm the redoubts at Brooklyn Heights, and on August 29 General Washington ordered a brilliant retreat to Manhattan by boat, thus saving the Continental Army from capture. At the Battle of Brooklyn, the Americans suffered 1,000 casualties to the British loss of only 400 men. On September 15, the British captured New York City. - The History Chanel

Prison Ships

During the Revolutionary War, the British maintained a series of prison ships in the New York Harbor and jails on the shore for captured prisoners of war. Due to brutal conditions, more Americans died in British jails and prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War. The British quickly disposed of the bodies of the dead from the jails and ships by quick interment or throwing the bodies overboard. Following the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, the remains of those who died on the 16 prison ships were neglected, left to lie along the Brooklyn shore on Wallabout Bay, a rural area little visited by New Yorkers. In 1877, the New York Times reported that the dead came from all parts of the nation and "every state of the Union was represented among them."

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman became leading figures of anarchism in the United States; they published the journal Mother Earth (1906-1917), addressed May Day rallies in Union Square, protested against World War I, organized strikes, gave lectures on contraception and "free love," and helped to renew the intellectual vigor of anarchism. In 1919 Emma Goldman was deported to Russia as an "alien anarchist" after her writ of habeas corpus was denied in the court. Her lawyer had unsuccessfully argued that an individual could not be deported for an "attitude of mind or the holding of political, social or economic views, or the expression thereof. - Review Guide

Evacuation Day (1783)

Evacuation Day on November 25 marks the day in 1783 when British troops departed from New York Town on Manhattan Island, after the end of the Revolutionary War. After this British Army evacuation, General George Washington triumphantly led the Continental Army from his former headquarters, north of the city, across the Harlem River south down Manhattan through the town to The Battery at the foot of Broadway. The last shot of the war was reportedly fired on this day, as a British gunner fired a cannon at jeering crowds gathered on the shore of Staten Island, as his ship passed through the Narrows at the mouth of New York Harbor. The shot fell well short of the shore.

A.T. Stewart

Father of the department store. Opens first at Broadway and Chambers St in 1846. Opens a large store with the emphasis of cutting prices. Kicks off department store culture that pervades the United States for a long while. - Review Guide

Fernando Wood

Fernando Wood (1812-1881) was a politician of the Democratic Party and the 73rd and 75th mayor of New York City; he also served as a United States Representative (1841-1843, 1863-1865, and 1867-1881) and as Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means in both the 45th and 46th Congress (1877-1881). A successful shipping merchant who became Grand Sachem of the political machine known as Tammany Hall, Wood first served in Congress in 1841. In 1854 he was elected Mayor of New York City. Reelected in 1860 after an electoral loss in 1857 by a narrow majority of 3,000 votes, Wood opposed the Thirteenth Amendment and evinced support for the Confederate States during the Civil War, suggesting to the New York City Council that New York City secede and declare itself a free city in order to continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. Wood's Democratic machine was concerned with maintaining the revenues (which depended on Southern cotton) that fed the system of patronage.

JP Morgan

Formed in 1843 as Peabody and Company, the bank helped to develop the railroads in the United States. J. P. Morgan became a partner in 1871. This firm soon became one of the most prosperous investment banks in the US, important in both government and railroad finance. In 1873 it helped to refinance the Civil War debt by underwriting federal bonds worth $1.4 billion. Its headquarters were set up at 23 Wall Street during the same year. From 1875 the firm became the engine of the Morgans' enterprises. It was the main underwriter of stock and bond issues for the railroads and controlled several important reorganizations, including that of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. After 1890 the firm undertook more corporate financing, and in 1895 it rescued the federal government during a gold shortage; in the same year it was renamed J. P. Morgan and Company. The Firm was also the primary underwriter in the mergers that formed General Electric in 1892, US Steel in 1901, and International Harvester in 1902. J. P. Morgan became the central figure in national finance. He helped to limit bank failures during a panic in 1907 by permitting his firm to act as a sort of central bank. Under the direction of Morgan's son J. P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943), the firm ceased to function as a central bank after the formation of the Federal Reserve System and focused increasingly internationally. During the Great Depression in the 1930s the firm ceased to dominate national finance. The Glass- Steagall Act (1933), passed in part to separate Morgan's interests, forced banks to choose between underwriting and lending. The firm then became a commercial bank, and its investment services were taken over by its former partners, who established the firm of Morgan, Stanley in 1935.

Longacre Square (Times Square)

Formerly known as Longacre Square, Times Square was renamed in 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building, the site of the annual ball drop which began in 1907, and continues today, attracting over a million visitors to Times Square every New Year's Eve. Times Square is not a square in the geometric sense of a polygon, but is more of a bowtie shape, or two triangles emanating roughly north and south from 45th Street.

New Amsterdam

Founded in 1625 by the Dutch Extended across Lower Manhattan between Battery Park and Wall Street. Built as riverene town with Canal running down Broad Street between the East River and Wall Street. Disorganized street pattern centered around terminus of Broadway at Bowling Green. - Myles

Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was a landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture. Olmsted was famous for co-designing many well-known urban parks with his senior partner Calvert Vaux, including Central Park in New York City, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and Elm Park in Worcester, Massachusetts, considered by many to be the nation's the first municipal park. Other projects that Olmsted was involved in include the country's first and oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the country's oldest state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; one of the first planned communities in the United States, Riverside, Illinois.

George Balanchine

George Balanchine (1904-1983) was a choreographer. Styled as the father of American ballet, he co-founded the New York City Ballet and remained its Artistic Director for more than 35 years. Balanchine took the standards and technique from his time at the Imperial Ballet School and fused it with other schools of movement that he had adopted during his tenure on Broadway and in Hollywood, creating his signature "neoclassical style." He was a choreographer known for his musicality; he expressed music with dance and worked extensively with leading composers of his time like Igor Stravinsky. Balanchine was invited to America in 1933 by a young arts patron named Lincoln Kirstein, and together they founded the School of American Ballet. Along with Kirstein, Balanchine also co-founded the New York City Ballet (NYCB).

HISTORIC FIGURES

HISTORIC FIGURES

HISTORIC PLACES

HISTORIC PLACES

The Jersey

HMS Jersey was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment of dimensions at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1736. She is perhaps most noted for her service as a prison ship during the Revolutionary War.

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin (1888-1989) was a Russian-born composer and lyricist, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history. His music forms a great part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russia, Berlin arrived in the United States at the age of five. He published his first song, "Marie from Sunny Italy," in 1907, receiving 33 cents for the publishing rights, and had his first major international hit, "Alexander's Ragtime Band" in 1911. He also was an owner of the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. "Alexander's Ragtime Band" sparked an international dance craze in places as far away as Berlin's native Russia, which also "flung itself into the ragtime beat with an abandon bordering on mania." Over the years he was known for writing music and lyrics in the American vernacular: uncomplicated, simple and direct, with his stated aim being to "reach the heart of the average American," whom he saw as the "real soul of the country." In doing so, said Walter Cronkite, at Berlin's 100th birthday tribute, he "helped write the story of this country, capturing the best of who we are and the dreams that shape our lives." He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him "a legend" before he turned thirty. During his 60-year career he wrote an estimated 1,500 songs, including the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 Hollywood films, with his songs nominated eight times for Academy Awards. Many songs became popular themes and anthems, including "Easter Parade," "White Christmas," "Happy Holiday," "This Is the Army, Mr. Jones," and "There's No Business Like Show Business." His Broadway musical and 1942 film, This is the Army, with Ronald Reagan, had Kate Smith singing Berlin's "God Bless America" which was first performed in 1938. Celine Dion recorded it as a tribute, making it no. 1 on the charts after the September 11 attacks in 2001. And in 2015, pianist and composer Hershey Felder began touring nationwide as a one-man show, portraying Berlin and performing his songs. Berlin's songs have reached the top of the charts 25 times and have been extensively re-recorded by numerous singers.

James Gordon Bennett

James Gordon Bennett Sr. (1795-1872) was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of newspapers. Bennett began the Herald after years of failing to start a paper. In 1836, it shocked readers with front-page coverage of the murder of prostitute Helen Jewett; Bennett conducted the first-ever newspaper interview for it. The Herald initiated a cash-in-advance policy for advertisers, which became the industry standard. Bennett was also at the forefront of using the latest technology to gather and report the news, and added illustrations produced from woodcuts. In 1839, Bennett was granted the first ever exclusive interview to a United States President, Martin Van Buren.

Langston Hughes

James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Missouri. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue [sic.]," which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue."

Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs (1916 - 2006) was a Canadian journalist, author, and activist best known for her influence on urban studies. Her influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) argued that urban renewal did not respect the needs of most city-dwellers. The book also introduced sociological concepts such as "eyes on the street" and "social capital." Jacobs was well known for organizing grassroots efforts to protect existing neighborhoods from "slum clearance" - and particularly for her opposition to Robert Moses in his plans to overhaul her neighborhood, Greenwich Village. She was instrumental in the eventual cancellation of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have passed directly through SoHo and Little Italy, and was arrested in 1968 for inciting a crowd at a public hearing on the project. As a mother and a writer who criticized experts in the male-dominated field of urban planning, Jacobs endured scorn from established figures. She did not have a college degree or any formal training in urban planning, and was criticized for lacking such credentials.

Jones Beach

Jones Beach State Park is a park built by Robert Moses in southern Nassau County, beyond New York City limits. The park was created during Robert Moses' administration as President of the Long Island State Park Commission as part of the development of parkways on Long Island. Moses' first major public project, Jones Beach is free from housing developments and private clubs, and instead is open for the general public. When Moses' group first surveyed Jones Island, it was swampy and only two feet above sea level; the island frequently became completely submerged during storms. To create the park, huge dredgers worked day and up to midnight to bring sand from the bay bottom, eventually bringing the island to 12 feet above sea level. Another problem that followed was the wind — the fine silver beach sand would blow horribly, making the workers miserable and making the use of the beach as a recreational facility unlikely. Moses sent landscape architects to other stable Long Island beaches to find ways to stabilize the land at Jones Beach. Built in the 1920s, many of its buildings and facilities feature Art Deco architecture. In the center of a traffic circle that he planned as a terminus for the Wantagh State Parkway, Moses ordered the construction of an Italianate-style water tower to serve as a central feature of the park. Two large bathhouses are also prominent features within the park. After rejecting a number of submissions by architects for the bathhouses, Moses selected the designs of the young and relatively inexperienced Herbert Magoon. Moses also picked out building materials — Ohio Sandstone and Barbizon brick — two of the most expensive materials available. The park opened to the public in 1929, along with the causeway that provided automobile access from the mainland of Long Island. The causeway was the first section in what was to become the Wantagh State Parkway. Unusually for the time, no carnival-style amusements were allowed in the park area.

Lawrence Veiller

Lawrence Veiller was already the chief executive officer of the Tenement Housing Committee when he organized the Tenement-House exhibition in the winter of 1900 designed to bring to light the housing conditions of people living on the Lower East Side. The Tenement House Department would later conduct a survey that found the Tenth Ward the most densely populated in the city. Graphically, Veiller's exhibition of photographs, maps, and charts revealed the poverty, disease, and sanitation horrors that were part of everyday life for the area's denizens. The outcry was so mammoth that within weeks Veiller had drafted the language for a new Tenement House Law that was rushed through the New York state legislature by Teddy Roosevelt and signed into law in 1900. "The horrible dumbbell tenement is now a thing of the past," Veiller predicted. "In its place is the new-law tenement, with large courts providing adequate light and ventilation for every room. What this one change means to the future welfare of the city cannot be overstated." - Review Guide

Lewis Mumford

Lewis Mumford, (1895-1990) was a historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer. Mumford was also a contemporary and friend of modernist and Prairie Style architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Quote: "The madmen are planning the end of the world. What they call continued progress in atomic warfare means universal extermination, and what they call national security is organized suicide." Selected books: 1938 The Culture of Cities 1945 City Development 1961 The City in History 1963 The Highway and the City 1968 The Urban Prospect (collected essays)

Llewellyn Park (1853)

Llewellyn Park is an unincorporated community and neighborhood within West Orange in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. It is a 425-acre (1.7 km2) gated residential community of 175 homes, 12 miles (19 km) west of New York City. The Ramble is a common area of 50 acres (200,000 m2) landscaped with streams and paths. Period gas lamps line the curving streets of the community. As one of the first suburbs for the wealthy, Llewellyn park represents some of the ideals of suburban planning with a balance between spacious homes and rustic landscape features.

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was a trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in jazz. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. Armstrong started to work at Connie's Inn in Harlem, chief rival to the Cotton Club, a venue for elaborately staged floor shows. The Great Depression of the early 1930s was especially hard on the jazz scene. The Cotton Club closed in 1936 after a long downward spiral, and many musicians stopped playing altogether as club dates evaporated.

Loyalists

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men; Patriots called them "persons inimical to the liberties of America." They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution. Prominent Loyalists repeatedly assured the British government that many thousands of loyalists would spring to arms and fight for the crown. The British government acted in expectation of that, especially in the southern campaigns in 1780-81. In practice, the number of loyalists in military service was far lower than expected. Across the new United States Patriots watched suspects very closely, and would not tolerate any organized Loyalist opposition. Many outspoken or militarily active loyalists were forced to flee, especially to their stronghold of New York City.

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

McKim, Mead, & White

McKim, Mead, & White was a prominent architectural firm that thrived at the turn of the twentieth century. The firm's founding partners were Charles Follen McKim (1847-1909), William Rutherford Mead (1846-1928) and Stanford White (1853-1906). They hired many other architects, partners, associates, designers and draftsmen, who came to prominence during or after their time at the firm. The firm's New York City buildings include Manhattan's former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, and the main campus of Columbia University. Elsewhere in New York State and New England, the firm designed college, library, school and other buildings such as the Boston Public Library and Rhode Island State House. In Washington, DC, the firm renovated the West and East Wings of the White House, and designed Roosevelt Hall on Fort Lesley J. McNair and the National Museum of American History. Across the United States, the firm designed buildings in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington and Wisconsin. Other examples are in Canada, Cuba and Italy.

Bronxville

Millionaire real-estate and pharmaceutical mogul William Van Duzer Lawrence sparked the development of Bronxville as an affluent suburb of New York City with magnificent homes in a country-like setting. The area, once known as "Underhill's Crossing," became "Bronxville" when the village was formally established. The population grew in the second half of the 19th century when railroads allowed commuters from Westchester County to work in New York City.

Nathan Hale

Nathan Hale (1755-1776) was a soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British and executed. His last words before being hanged were purported to be "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." The Battle of Long Island led to British victory and the capture of New York City via a flanking move from Staten Island across Long Island. Hale volunteered in September, 1776, to go behind enemy lines and report on British troop movements. He was ferried across on September 12. It was an act of spying that was immediately punishable by death and posed a great risk to Hale. During his mission, New York City fell to British forces on September 15 and Washington was forced to retreat to the island's north in Harlem Heights. On September 21, a quarter of the lower portion of Manhattan burned in the Great New York Fire of 1776. The fire was later widely thought to have been started by saboteurs to keep the city from falling into British hands, though Washington and the Congress had already denied this idea. In the fire's aftermath, more than 200 partisans were rounded up by the British.

Coney Island

Neighborhood in southwest Brooklyn. It is also home to one of the most famous amusement parks in the world. The area was named by the Dutch for the wild rabbits ( konijn ) that abounded there during the seventeenth century. The area's first resort hotel, the Coney Island House, opened in 1824 and played host to P. T. Barnum and Daniel Webster, among others. After the Civil War, development of the beachfront area accelerated, and five railroads were built connecting the area to the rest of Brooklyn. With the encouragement of the well- connected Brooklyn politician John Y. McKane, entrepreneurs began to set up innovative seasonal concessions at the shoreline, including the first American hot dog cart, carousels, and roller coasters. Other early attractions included heavyweight championship boxing matches, gambling dens, dance halls, and brothels, earning Coney Island the nickname of "Sodom by the Sea." Between 1897 and 1904 three amusement parks opened along Surf Avenue, the avenue closest to the ocean: Steeplechase Park in 1897, Luna Park in 1903, and Dreamland in 1904. The new parks had several features that transformed the amusement industry: they charged admission, banned alcohol, promoted "polite vaudeville," and offered elaborate mechanical rides. Steeplechase Park was presided over by "The Funny Face," a cartoon figure whose expression of slightly unhinged hilarity set the tone for the park's amusements, including the namesake Steeplechase Race, in which visitors rode mechanical horses attached to high iron rails; the Blowhole Theater, where jets of air sent women's skirts skyward; and the revolving Barrel of Love. - Wikipedia Allowed the lower-middle class public transit with Nickel Fare to play and have fun with new found leisure time. It was an area with lots of businesses owned and run by immigrants. (Mass consumption/Mass Enjoyment) Different than Central Park because active instead of passive. - Review Guide

Five Points

New York's largest slum at one time. Named for intersection of five city streets at center of slum. Visited by social reformers like Jacob Riis and writers like Charles Dickens. In vicinity of present-day Chinatown, cleared to construct public parks and federal courthouses. - Myles Five Points was a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The neighborhood was generally defined as being bound by Centre Street to the west, the Bowery to the east, Canal Street to the north, and Park Row to the south. The former Five Points is now split between the Civic Center to the west and south, and Chinatown to the east and north. Five Points gained international notoriety as a disease-ridden, crime-infested slum that existed for well over 70 years. The name "Five Points" was derived from the five-pointed intersection created by Orange Street (now Baxter Street) and Cross Street (now Mosco Street); from this intersection Anthony Street (now Worth Street) began and ran in a northwest direction, dividing one of the four corners into two triangular-shaped blocks; thus the fifth "point." To the west of this "point" ran Little Water Street (which no longer exists) north to south, creating a triangular plot which would become known as "Paradise Square," after the buildings standing in the triangle were torn down in 1832. - Wikipedia

The Last Hurrah (1958)

Novel in the 1950s talking about the transition of government. Last Election in Boston that Tammany Hall controlled. The film tells the story of Frank Skeffington, a sentimental but iron-fisted Irish-American who is the powerful mayor of an unnamed New England city. As his nephew, Adam Caulfield, follows one last no-holds-barred mayoral campaign, Skeffington and his top strategist, John Gorman, use whatever means necessary to defeat a candidate backed by civic leaders such as banker Norman Cass and newspaper editor Amos Force, the mayor's dedicated foes.

Adolph Ochs

Ochs bought the New York Times in 1896. Focused on foreign and current affairs and was popular with Tweed and the gang. Moves paper to Times Square, giving it its name Official newspaper of record in the United States. Official newspaper of record in the United States. - Review Guide

Lake Forest

One of the first suburbs with curving streets to evoke the natural topography and to contrast with the rigid grid of the inner city. Developed a few miles from The Chicago Loop as a bedroom community for the rich who would commute into the city. - Myles

Automat

One of the wonders of NY, very popular among all types of people. First opened 1912 at Times Square. Fast food restaurant where foods were served by vending machines. A row of small cabinets divided the restaurant in half. In each cabinet, there was food for sale. To open the cabinet, customer inserted coin in slot to unlock door and retrieve meal from behind the glass. By 1940s automats were all over NYC. However, its decline paralleled the move of city dwellers into suburbs, costs also increased and restaurants began to ran out of business by the 1990s. - Review Guide

Peter Minuit (1626)

Peter Minuit (c1583-1638) was a Walloon from Wesel, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, then part of the Duchy of Cleves. His surname means "midnight." He was Director of the Dutch colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden in 1638. Minuit is generally credited with orchestrating the purchase of Manhattan Island for the Dutch from the Native Americans called the Lenape, which later became the city of New Amsterdam, modern-day New York City, which was the core of the Dutch colony of New Netherlands and the later British colony of New York.

Peter Stuyvesant (1647)

Peter Stuyvesant also Pieter or Petrus Stuyvesant served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City. Stuyvesant's accomplishments as director-general included a great expansion for the settlement of New Amsterdam beyond the southern tip of Manhattan. Among the projects built by Stuyvesant's administration were the protective wall on Wall Street, the canal that became Broad Street, and Broadway.

Margaret Sanger

Pioneered the idea of the "new woman." College educated, middle class, part of the work force. Anti-establishment, leftist. Birth-control advocate and founded organizations that have evolved into Planned Parenthood (American Birth Control League - 1921). Major figure in working towards women's right in the 1920s and early 1930s. - Review Guide

Belle Moskovitz

Political advisor to Al Smith associated with helping women, social reform, and the women's suffrage movement. - Review Guide

William Randolph Hearst

Purchased New York Journal in 1895. Served two terms representing New York in Congress, subsequently lost a mayoral and gubernatorial race. Pioneers Yellow Journalistic tactics with Pulitzer to sensationalize, find human interest stories, and pushes President to McKinley to War with Spain over the explosion on the USS Maine that turned out to be an accident. - Review Guide

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD

Riverside

Riverside is arguably the first planned community in the United States, designed in 1869 by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. The village was incorporated in 1875. In 1863 the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was built heading southwest from downtown Chicago to Quincy, Illinois, passing through what is now the Near West Suburban area of Chicago in a western-southwestern direction. This new access to transportation and commerce brought about a significant housing and construction boom in what was once farmland far from the bustle of the city of Chicago.

Robert Moses

Robert Moses (1888-1981) was a city planner working in the New York metropolitan area. Known as the "master builder" of mid-20th century New York. He is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris. He was one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban planning in the United States. His decisions favoring highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation. One of his major contributions to urban planning was New York State's large parkway network. Robert Moses simultaneously held twelve titles (including NYC Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission), but was never elected to any public office (he ran only once, for governor of New York as a Republican in 1934 and lost). Nevertheless, he created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Through these authorities, he controlled millions of dollars in income from his projects, such as tolls, and he could issue bonds to borrow vast sums for new ventures with little or no input from legislative bodies, allowing him to circumvent the power of the purse as it normally functioned in the United States, and the process of public comment on major public works. As a result of Moses' work, New York has the United States' greatest proportion of public benefit corporations, which are the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and account for most of the state's debt. Moses' projects were considered by many to be necessary for the region's development after the Great Depression. During the height of his powers, New York City built campuses to host two World's Fairs: one in 1939 and the other in 1964. Moses also helped persuade the United Nations to locate its headquarters in Manhattan, instead of Philadelphia, by helping the state secure the money and land needed for the project.

Seneca Village

Seneca Village was a small village in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded by free black people. Seneca Village existed from 1825 through 1857, when it was destroyed for the construction of Central Park. The village was the first significant community of African-American property owners on Manhattan, and also came to be inhabited by several other minorities, including Irish and German immigrants. The village was located on about 5 acres between where 82nd and 89th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues would now intersect, an area now covered by Central Park.

Henry Hudson (1609)

Sir Henry Hudson (died 1611) was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northwest Passage to Cathay (today's China) via a route above the Arctic Circle. Hudson explored the region around modern New York metropolitan area while looking for a western route to Asia while in the employment of the Dutch East India Company. He explored the Hudson River (which is named after him), and laid thereby the foundation for Dutch colonization of the region. Hudson discovered the Hudson Strait and the immense Hudson Bay on his final expedition. While searching for the Northwest Passage, Hudson and his son would eventually lose their lives.

Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of Saint Tammany, the Sons of Saint Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated 1789, as the Tammany Society. It was the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in controlling New York City and New York State politics and helping immigrants, most notably the Irish, rise up in politics from the 1790s to the 1960s. It typically controlled Democratic Party nominations and political patronage in Manhattan from the mayoral victory of Fernando Wood in 1854 and used its patronage resources to build a loyal, well-rewarded core of district and precinct leaders; after 1850 the great majority were Irish Catholics.

America First Movement

The America First Committee (AFC) was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the nation's entry into World War II. Peaking at 800,000 paid members in 450 chapters, it was one of the largest anti-war organizations in American history. Started in 1940, it was dissolved in 1941, three days after the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor had brought the war to America.

Battle of Fort Washington

The Battle of Fort Washington was a battle fought in New York on November 16, 1776 during the Revolutionary War between the United States and Great Britain. It was a British victory that gained the surrender of the remnant of the garrison of Fort Washington near the north end of Manhattan Island. It was one of the worst Patriot defeats. After defeating the Continental Army under Commander-in-Chief General George Washington at the Battle of White Plains, the British Army forces under the command of Lieutenant General William Howe planned to capture Fort Washington, the last American stronghold on Manhattan. General Washington issued a discretionary order to General Nathanael Greene to abandon the fort and remove its garrison — then numbered at 1,200 men but later to grow to 3,000 — to New Jersey. Colonel Robert Magaw, commanding the fort, declined to abandon it as he believed it could be defended from the British. Howe's forces attacked the fort before Washington reached it to assess the situation.

Brooklyn Bridge (1883)

The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m) and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an icon of New York City and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

Colored Orphan Asylum

The Colored Orphan Asylum was an institution in New York City open from 1836-1946 that housed on average 400 children annually and was mostly managed by women. Its first location was of Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Street which was a four-story building with two wings. The Colored Orphan Asylum was burned down by Irish mobs during the New York Draft Riots on July 13, 1863. The children were led out the back door to escape.

Conquest of New Amsterdam Establishment of New York (1664)

The English seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664. The city was seized without battle and peacefully renamed New York after the King of England's brother: The Duke of York. English conquest led to legal change when woman lost many of their rights and the English government was less tolerant of religious diversity. But, as a whole, city remained a relatively tolerant place for waves of immigrants. Early censuses of New York illustrate incredible diversity relative to more homogeneous and less tolerant cities like Boston. - Myles

Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World)

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies," is an international labor union that was founded in 1905 in Chicago, Illinois. The union combines general unionism with industrial unionism, as it is a general union whose members are further organized within the industry of their employment. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as "revolutionary industrial unionism," with ties to both socialist and anarchist labor movements.

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during World War II that started in Manhattan with working continuing under Enrico Fermi at Columbia University's Pupin Hall. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the Army Corps of Engineers; physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the actual bombs. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ more than 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion (about $26 billion in 2016 dollars). Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissile materials, with less than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the United States, the UK, and Canada.

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as "The Met," is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center. The Metropolitan Opera Company was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to New York's old established Academy of Music opera house. The subscribers to the Academy's limited number of private boxes represented the highest stratum in New York society. By 1880, these "old money" families were loath to admit New York's newly wealthy industrialists into their long-established social circle. Frustrated with being excluded, the Metropolitan Opera's founding subscribers determined to build a new opera house that would outshine the old Academy in every way. A group of some 22 men assembled at Delmonico's restaurant in 1880. They elected officers and established subscriptions for ownership in the new company. The new theater, built at 39th and Broadway, would include three tiers of private boxes in which the scions of New York's powerful new industrial families could display their wealth and establish their social prominence. The first Met subscribers included members of the Morgan, Roosevelt, and Vanderbilt families, all of whom had been excluded from the Academy. The new Metropolitan Opera House opened in 1883, and was an immediate success, both socially and artistically. The Academy of Music's opera season folded just three years after the Met opened. Inaugural season. In its early decades the Met did not produce the opera performances itself but hired prominent manager/impresarios to stage shows. The company performed not only in the new Manhattan opera house, but also started a long tradition of touring throughout the country.

NAACP (1909)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 by Moorfield Storey, Mary White Ovington and W. E. B. Du Bois. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination." The group enlarged its mission in the late 20th century by considering issues such as police misconduct, the status of black foreign refugees, and questions of economic development. Its name, retained in accordance with tradition, uses the once common term colored people. In 1909, the Niagara Movement conference took place at New York City's Henry Street Settlement House; they created an organization of more than 40 individuals, identifying as the National Negro Committee [sic.]. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings.

Stonewall Inn

The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United States. After the initial riots in 1969 were cleared, the feeling of urgency and aggression began to spread throughout all of Greenwich Village. The riots would continue for a few days afterwards. However, the riots turned into altercations between the police and the Village people, different from the open violence shown the morning of the beginning of the riots. Interestingly enough, even people who had not seen the riots at the Inn began to become a part of the aftermath. Many were emotionally moved by the events and began to attend meetings in an effort to take action. Many look to the riots at Stonewall as being the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.

Wall Street

The northernmost boundary of Dutch New York Originally a wooden palisade wall that protected the city. Demolished as city expanded northward and threat of Indian attack subsided. Street name remained. - Myles

Greenwood Cemetery

The cemetery was the idea of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont, a Brooklyn social leader. It was a popular tourist attraction in the 1850s and was the place most famous New Yorkers who died during the second half of the nineteenth century were buried. It is still an operating cemetery with approximately 600,000 graves spread out over 478 acres (1.9 km2). The rolling hills and dales, several ponds and an on-site chapel provide an environment that still draws visitors. Paul Goldberger in The New York Times, wrote that it was said "it is the ambition of the New Yorker to live upon the Fifth Avenue, to take his airings in the Park, and to sleep with his fathers in Green-Wood"

The Roxy

The club where Afrika Bambaataa played and where white LES kids and black Bronx kids would party together at a time when most clubs were still segregated by race and scene. Afrika Bambaataa was a DJ who influenced the fusion of punk rock and hip hop scenes in the late 70s to early 80s leading to a social and cultural transfusion at a time of heavy segregation. - Review Guide

Potter's Field

The colloquial name for the pauper's cemetery in a city. New York's potter's field is on Hart Island in the middle of Long Island Sound and just north of Riker's Island. - Myles

William M. Tweed

The first boss of Tammany Hall, got his start as the foreman of Americus Engine Company in 1848. The insignia of his fire company, the tiger, later became the Tammany symbol. Fire companies became affiliated with different ethnic or religious groups, rivalries grew to a point where fires would become the occasion for pitched battles between companies. As local gangs allied themselves with fire companies, sabotage of equipment and harassment of rivals were regular features of the job until FDNY was created. Forty Thieves was a corrupt group of members of the Board of Aldermen who extorted money from city contracts, franchises, and legislation at a time of expansive development in the early 1850s. One of its members was William M. Tweed, who learned methods of corruption that he later perfected as Boss Tweed. In 1858, Tweed Courthouse was built where an eighteenth-century almshouse had stood. The city's Board of Supervisors appropriated about $13 million for construction between 1862, when William M. "Boss" Tweed became the board's president, and 1871, when investigations into corruption toppled Tweed. - Review Guide

Garden City

The garden city movement is a method of urban planning that was initiated in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the United Kingdom. Garden cities were intended to be planned, self-contained communities surrounded by "greenbelts," containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture.

Columbia Founded (1754)

The greatest university in the greatest city in the world. Period. Yale, P-ton, and Cambridge just can't compare to good old Pantone 292. Originally founded as seminary institution to train clergy for ministry work. First graduating class was all male between 7-15 students.

Admiral Howe and General Howe

Two brothers who participated in the Battle of Brooklyn to capture New York from General Washington. At the beginning of the War of Independence, General Howe was known to be sympathetic to the colonists. He had known Benjamin Franklin since late 1774 and was joined in a commission with his brother, General Sir William Howe, head of the land forces, to attempt a reconciliation. The British took Long Island in August 1776 and captured New York City in September 1776 in combined operations involving the army and the navy during the New York and New Jersey campaign. In 1777 Howe provided support to his brother's operation to capture Philadelphia, ferrying General Howe's army to a landing point from which they successfully marched and took the city.

Balloon-frame house

Type of home popularized in 1910s and 20s as quick, efficient, and affordable way to build pre-fab home. Marketed in several models and sizes for consumer to pick and choose the home that met their needs. Built of wood, often as bungalow and/or in arts and crafts style. - Myles Popular in 19th and 20th centuries. Style of building house extremely quickly and cheaply. Shift towards suburbanization: for working class to achieve the dreams of suburbs and home ownership. Gone out of fashion, were not very sturdy. - Review Guide

Department Stores

What makes them different? Bigger (organized by department, needs more employees). Low prices (key factor). Big advertising campaigns (so people know of the low prices). Money back guarantee. First developed in New York City above 8th Avenue on a stretch of 6th Avenue known as "Ladies Mile." - Review Guide

Emily Warren Roebling

Wife of the Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge (an engineering marvel). After he became incapacitated, she took over communications and construction responsibilities and completed the bridge in 1883. The connecting of America's first and third largest cities had tremendous impact on the regional economies. It also likely contributed to the annexation of Brooklyn in 1898. Emily was not recognized for her contribution to the Brooklyn Bridge until decades later. - Review Guide

William Kieft

Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director by the West India Company in 1638. He formed the council of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice. He tried to tax, and then, drive out, local Native Americans. He ordered attacks on Pavonia and Corlears Hook in 1643 in a massacre (129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children), followed by retaliations resulting in what would become known as Kieft's War (1643-1645). The war took a huge toll on both sides, and Dutch West India Company Board of Directors fired him in 1647. He was replaced with Peter Stuyvesant.

Woodlawn Cemetery

Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and is a designated National Historic Landmark. Located in Woodlawn, Bronx, New York City , it has the character of a rural cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that would be annexed to New York City in 1874. It is notable in part as the final resting place of some great figures in the American arts.

Zora Neale Hurston

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was a novelist, short story writer, folklorist, and anthropologist. She is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. When Hurston arrived in New York City in 1925, to attend Barnard, the Harlem Renaissance was at its peak, and she soon became one of the writers at its center. In 1948, Hurston was falsely accused of molesting a ten-year-old boy in New York City. Although the case was dismissed after Hurston presented evidence that she was in Honduras when the crime supposedly occurred in the US, her personal life was seriously disrupted by the scandal.