A Chat With The Bowery Boys

I have been late posting this, but back in February I was able to join two of my idols in the New York History space, Greg Young and Tom Meyers, of The Bowery Boys podcast. I got to chat with them on their Patreon specific podcast, Side Streets. We covered a broad range of topics from our favorite landmarks to the creative process of what it takes to make content about the city we call home. If you somehow haven’t heard of The Bowery Boys, they have been making THE New York City history podcast since 2007. Their Side Streets podcast is exclusive to their patrons however they were gracious enough to allow me to share this episode with you. I hope you all enjoy.

Stables at 136 West 18th Street

Many of the remaining carriage houses in New York are located on the Upper East side, where they served the upper class during the gilded age. If you look hard enough, however, you can still find some of these wonderful buildings further downtown. This particular one is located at 136 West 18th Street in Chelsea. It was build in 1865 for the Gilman Family who lived on West 20th Street. It was later sold to Charles Landon and Benjamin Hutton, brother in laws and business partners, who ran a successful fabric importing business. They used it for their house on 14th Street, Hutton lived there first then moved out and sold it to Landon, before renting it out. Over the years it has been home to various businesses and has been used as a garage. Currently it is home to the shop of artist Michael Aram. 136 West 18th was landmarked by The City of New York on December 11th, 1990.

The Center

The Village has a long and storied history with LGBTQ+ rights. It’s bohemian openness to different lifestyles made it a hub for the LGBTQ+ community beginning in the early 20th century and the Stone Wall Inn riots in the 60s made the area a focal point in the fight for civil rights. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, otherwise known as “The Center” was founded in 1984 and purchased this former school built in 1869.

The Center served as an important home for multiple LGBTQ+ organizations and offered community outreach including health services, a school for LGBTQ+ Teens and political activism. The Center played a large role in protesting the terrible conditions and lack of funding for Aids patients in the 80s and 90s. A large memorial to the victims of the Aids epidemic can be found a block south in St. Vincent’s Triangle. In more recent history, the Center played host to over 300 weddings on the day that Gay Marriage was legalized in New York State. It is located at 13th and 7th Avenue and was meticulously restored in 2001. It was landmarked on June 18th, 2019 in recognition of the large role it has played in the LGBTQ+ community.

Coney Island Parachute Jump

With Memorial Day kicking off the unofficial start of summer, let’s take a trip down to Coney Island. What once was America’s largest amusement park has a fascinating history. There are multiple theories on where its name came from, the most popular is that it comes from the Dutch word for rabbit “konijn” however even that is disputed. The island was a part of Gravesend and didn’t really begin development until the 1820s. For the middle of the 19th Century it became a high end get away for Manhattan’s wealthy residents, with multiple luxury hotels and later race tracks. The horse racing attracted a different crowd which caused the island’s reputation to suffer, couple that with multiple fires destroying some of the hotels and it was in need of a rebranding.

Enter George C. Tilyou, who decided to open Stepplechase Park in 1897 which unified a bunch of attractions on the boardwalk. His sons would purchase this tower, the parachute jump, from the 1939 World’s fair in Queens. The ride literally had parachutes that would be guided up and down from the top of the tower, it’s a miracle people survived this thing. Steeplechase Park closed in 1964 and the tower went inactive. It was landmarked on May 23rd, 1989.

24 Middagh Street

I just found out my favorite house in Brooklyn is for sale, so donations are welcome. The word compound is generally associated with a military base, or the Kennedy’s, not usually someone’s living situation in New York. And yet at 24 Middagh Street in Brooklyn Heights, a family had exactly that. This home is one of the oldest in the neighborhood, we don’t know exactly when it was built, but it was likely some time in the 1820s. The wooden home also has a small carriage house which dates to roughly the 1850s but was much smaller than it is now. Today it is a two story guest house in the back yard. It served as a garage in the 1950s until it was fully converted. In 1946, the Fitz Randolf family, who were the owners at the time, began a tradition of mailing information about the home to new owners. In 1958, that packet landed with the Wiseman family who would go on to own the home for over 60 years. In 2018, it came on the market and eventually sold. It remains one of the most charming and coveted houses in Brooklyn. It was landmarked as a part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District on November 23rd, 1965.

78 Cambridge Place

I love stumbling upon buildings like this. This is 78 Cambridge Place in Clinton Hill Brooklyn. It was most likely built in 1860 for Jeremiah Peterson. At the time it was built this was a free standing house which would have been something to see. This area of Brooklyn was an upper middle class enclave, just a short jaunt over to the Fulton Ferry. However because it was built on the property line and there are no windows on the free standing side, it is likely to assume that the builder didn’t think it would be alone for long. It is also more than likely that this house had a front porch when it was first built. For any of my millennial followers this kind of gives me the vibes of the cover of the “I SPY” books from the Scholastic book fairs. 78 Cambridge Place was landmarked as a part of the Clinton Hill Historic District on November 10th, 1981.

118 Rutland Road

This rather magnificent house is the exclamation point at the end of a row on Rutland Road in Prospect Lefferts Garden. Built in 1910 at the corner of Rutland and Bedford, this house was built in 1910 for William T. Reinking by architect Benjamin Driesler, as one of five houses, the others being a slightly more modest two story set up. This area of Brooklyn was originally part of the independent rural village of Flatbush. Development really took off in the beginning of the 20th Century with the increase in transportation connections from this area of Brooklyn to Manhattan. 118 Rutland Road was landmarked as a part of the Prospect Lefferts Garden Historic District on October 9th, 1979.

60 White Street

One of these days, whenever they finally take down this sidewalk shed, I’ll get another picture of this building, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. This is 60 White Street in Tribeca which was very clearly built in 1869. Its owner/developer was Jasper Grosvenor, although interestingly he was dead before construction started. Because this was the 19th Century his wife Matilda oversaw construction on behalf of her late husband, but was never listed as the owner. This was one of three identical buildings constructed by architect  William W. Gardiner, Matilda Grosvenor only owned two of the three of them. No. 60 was occupied for a while by Albert G. Hyde & Sons who made cotton goods, which would have been a fairly typical tenant for the neighborhood at the time. And because this is Tribeca, wouldn’t you know the building is now luxury condos. It was landmarked as a part of the Tribeca East Historic District on December 8th, 1992.