This is the story of Thomas Downing, a man who made oysters a delicacy as opposed to a common food. He became one of the most successful restaurateurs in New York in spite of racial biases.
Last chance for May tour tickets. A limited amount will be available in June before stopping for the summer. Tickets available on our website or directly in the bio.
When this home was built in 1842, it was part of a larger development occurring in the center of Greenwich Village. The estates of two men, Peter and John Remsen, descendants of one of the earliest Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam, Rem Jansen Verbeek, were beginning to cash in on the waves of well-to-do New Yorkers moving their way up the island. Less than a decade earlier, a former potters’ field was converted into a parade ground, making it a great place for polite society to build their new stately homes. 132 W 13th Street was on land that was owned by John Remsen and was originally one of 11 built on the south side of the street. The first tenant of the building was a man by the name of James W. Hale, which might not mean much to you today, but would have been a very known figure in the 19th Century. Hale ran a private mail business which competed with the US Postal Service. During the first half of the 19th century, sending mail and specifically packages was incredibly expensive and time-consuming. Hale pioneered the direct express shipping of packages between New York and Boston, as well as carrying mail. One of the innovations that Hale borrowed from England was the use of a new tool in the world of postage, the paper stamp. Before Hale, the recipient of the letter was responsible for payment; his stamps allowed for the pre-payment of a parcel by the sender. By the 1840s, Hale’s company, the creatively named Hale & Co. Independent Mail, had over 100 offices throughout the United States. This innovation would be his downfall, as the competition that he and other independent mail forced the USPS to lower their rates in July of 1845 effectively put him out of business. A retrospective written in the Rochester Democrat in Chronicle in 1893 estimated that at his peak, Hale’s company was carrying 6 letters for every one that USPS did. Caption continues in the comments.
Did you know Winston Churchill was half a Brooklynite by birth? His mother’s house still exists in Cobble Hill.
The Upper West Side is full of lavish, tall apartment buildings. It all started with Henry Hardenberg’s Dakota on Central Park West, kicking off a building boom. The Orleans is the second oldest surviving tall apartment building that’s still standing. It was built in 1898 as a residential hotel on the corner of 80th and Columbus. It was designed by the firm of Buchman & Deisler and was built by the same company that built Carnegie Hall. It remained as a hotel until 2013 when, like many other hotels in the city, it began a conversion into condominiums. It was landmarked as a part of the Upper West Side Historic District on April 24th, 1990.
If you have spent anytime in lower Manhattan, you’ll have inevitably run into a street with the word slip in it. They’re all over the place and used to be places where ships could dock and unload cargo.
This little building on the campus of Fordham University has an uncertain origin. Initially it was believed to be the house of the Architect William Rodrigue, who lived here while he oversaw constructed the neighboring church and St. John’s Hall for the newly opened seminary. However this has been disputed and it was argued that it was built to house some seminarians during construction of the rest of the campus. Whatever the case may be, the building has served a variety of functions for Fordham University since it was built in 1840. It housed the offices of the student newspaper, and was later home to the school infirmary giving it the nickname “the pillbox”. It has served a variety of administrative functions but is now Rodrigues Coffee House. It was Landmarked by the City of New York on 2/3/1981.
Finance used to be the only game in town in New York. If you wanted to get rich, you worked for a bank. These days, tech is elbowing its way in, becoming a money making juggernaut. It seems only fitting that this building, once a bank, is now an Apple Store. Located at the intersection of 74th Street and Madison Avenue, this building was constructed for the United States Mortgage Trust Company in 1922. It was an award-winning design that showed off the bank’s stability and strength to passersby. The building would remain a bank for decades, transitioning to a Chemical Bank branch that would operate there for over four decades. In 2015, the building was restored by Apple to create a new store. The bank vault is now a VIP testing area, and 6 chandeliers were recreated from original photos of the building. It was landmarked as a part of the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19th, 1981.
Did you know New York has its own Notre Dame? This one is quite a bit smaller than its more famous namesake in Paris but has a uniquely French vibe. Designed by the firm of Dans & Otto, it was built in 1911 and expanded in 1919 as it grew from a chapel to an independent parish. There were additional renovations over the course of the following 50 years, including at one point, a plan for a large dome reminiscent of the Pantheon in Paris. A unique feature of the church is the grotto behind the altar, making it look like the church is built around a giant boulder. Its location on Morningside Drive gives it a very European vibe. It was landmarked by the City of New York on January 24th, 1967.
Warren Street, like most streets in Cobble Hill, is gorgeous. It also has this unique two-story Neo-Grec Revival home. Most of the street is full of 3-story townhouses built in the 1850s, but Number 206 is different. This double-wide home appears to have been built in 1905, although it could be a bit earlier, and I’ve seen some sources that point to it being a carriage house, although I slightly doubt that due to its design. However, it’s still a delightful little home tucked away near the intersection with Clinton Street. It most recently sold for just a tad over $3 million in June of 2021. It was landmarked as a part of the Cobble Hill Historic District on December 30th, 1979.
This photo illustrates why I love New York’s history so much. The city has so many layers to it, with buildings dating from the early 1800s surrounded by skyscrapers of Wall Street and the financial district. These particular buildings were built on some of the earliest landfill in New York, which began in the late 1600s. Property owners on the shoreline at what is now Pearl Street were given the option to exercise the right to claim land in front of their properties that was exposed at low tide, provided they filled in the land themselves. The original landowners who did this were sort of a who’s who of old New York, with the bulk being owned by the Vancortlandts, Philipses, and Delancys. These buildings were built between 1827 and 1868, initially spurred by the opening of the Erie Canal. Prior to this, the block’s prospects had diminished as additional landfill was created, making these less appealing to shipping as the docks moved further out. However, with the sheer volume of trade coming from the Midwest, the area boomed again. The fact that these buildings are still here is a minor miracle. The first attempts at demolition came in the 1900s but were fought off by the daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the Revolution. In the 1960s, there was a plan to build a skyscraper on the site, and in the 70s, a developer illegally tore down five neighboring buildings in order to put up a parking lot. Luckily, the demolition was halted as the Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the block landmark status on November 14th, 1978.
I generally avoid tall buildings on this page. If you’re interested in some Instagram inside baseball, they tend to perform so much worse than a two-story brick house. But I’m taking a break from that trend as this building fundamentally changed the face of Park Avenue. This is the Lever House, which was constructed on Park between E 53rd and E 54th Street in 1952. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois, The Lever House was one of the first buildings to buck the trend of skyscrapers utilizing setbacks, which gave them their unique wedding cake design. These designs had been influenced by the 1916 zoning code, which required buildings to incorporate these setbacks in order to allow natural light to hit the street. The Lever House took advantage of the fact that if your building only took up 25% of the lot it was on, it effectively built the setback into the building. With this new design, the office space in the tower could be standardized, making it more appealing to potential tenants as each floor would have the same floor space, whereas in older buildings, the floor space would shrink as it got taller. The Lever House was also the first building to fully incorporate a full glass facade, something that was completely original at the time, but unfortunately is now standard and rather uninspiring. After its construction, Park Avenue would see the construction of the Seagram Building in 1958, and the race to build tall glass buildings was well underway. It was landmarked on November 9th, 1982.
This townhouse on Barrow Street was built in 1826 as a group of four by carpenter James Wells. It’s the only one that retains its original two-story layout. The house is on land that was leased by Trinity Church on Wall Street as part of a development plan in the beginning of the 19th century. Trinity Church was initially granted over 200 acres of land in Manhattan by Queen Anne. Although it has sold off a lot of that land, it is estimated its remaining holdings are worth over $6 billion. Trinity gave the land to St. Luke’s in the field, which was a chapel until 1976. The home is now owned by Episcopal Charities and was rented for over $25,000 per month in 2024. It was landmarked as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District on April 29th, 1969.
Now that the weather is getting nicer, it’s time for the question that pits New Yorkers against one another. Is Prospect Park or Central Park better? Here’s a little history to help you decide. Feel free to let me know what you think in the poll.
New Yorkers get a bad rap for being cold and indifferent, but nothing could be further from the truth. Organizations like the Greenwich House on Barrow Street in the West Village were founded in 1902 by Mary Simkhovitch to aid the poor and immigrant communities that crowded the area at the time. The West Village used to be extremely overcrowded with high infant mortality, and most buildings didn’t even have running water. Prominent New Yorkers like Jacob Riis and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney were early donors and helped fund the construction of its headquarters in 1917. The building had a gym, theater, and social services available to the community. It was one of the first organizations to set up a shelter for children who had been domestically abused. It also played a major role in helping in the AIDs crisis, opening an AIDS Mental Health Project and HIV Primary Medical Care Project. Greenwich House was landmarked as a part of the Greenwich Village Historic District on April 29th, 1969.
The north side of 69th Street between Lexington and 3rd is almost entirely converted stables. In the late 1800s, the neighborhood began to develop rapidly with elevated trains running up 3rd Avenue. 5th Avenue continued to have a growth of wealthy residents who needed space for their carriages. No. 147 was constructed in 1880 by railroad magnate Arthur C. James. No. 149 was built a little later in 1896 for Charles T. Yerkes, who helped finance parts of the London Underground. Both men had their mansions on 5th. The stables on this street, and elsewhere in the city, had apartments built into them from the beginning, but in recent years, they have gone from servants’ quarters to luxury housing. They were landmarked as a part of the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19th, 1981.
Fans of Law and Order, or frankly any police shows taking place in New York, will instantly recognize the New York County Courthouse. Designed by Guy Lowell, it was built between 1913-1927 to house the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan. The three statues on top of the massive portico are for Truth, Equity, and Law. The quote running across the top is attributed to George Washington; however, it has a typo. Instead of saying “True,” it should say “Due.” Close enough, I guess? The Courthouse was landmarked by the City of New York on February 1st, 1967.
The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission recently turned 60 years old. One of the catalysts for its creation was the destruction of the Old Penn Station. Here’s an abbreviated history. *correction* the Path tunneled under the Hudson first, these were the first long distance train tunnels.
The Flatbush Dutch Reform Church is one of the oldest churches in New York and the oldest religious site in the city. There has been a church here since 1650, when the Director General of New Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant, called for its founding. To house the clergy, there were multiple parsonages built. This one was constructed in 1853 on Flatbush Avenue on the site of the original 1699 parsonage. It was moved to its current location on Kenmore Terrace in 1918 due to rising land values on the avenue, which must have been a sight to see. It was landmarked on January 9th, 1979.
In 1898, following the consolidation of the five boroughs of New York City, a municipal building boom began. With a new sense of civic pride and a necessity for increased public services, many libraries, schools, police, and fire stations were built, including this one on Broome Street. Construction began in 1898 and was completed a year later for Fire Engine Company 55. At the time it was built, it could hold four horses to draw the company’s steam engine and wagon to help fight fires throughout Little Italy. It has served continuously as a firehouse for over one hundred and twenty years. It was landmarked on October 13th, 1998.