The Half Moon Hotel once graced the Coney Island shore with a salty elegance. Designed by George B. Post & Sons in Spanish Colonial style, it was built in a letter C shape with two wings and a court facing the boardwalk. The buff brick structure was 14 stories high, laurelled with various urns and [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (2) Article tags: Albert Anastasia, Atlantic City New Jersey, coney-island, construction, crime, Fiorello H. La Guardia, Great Depression, Half Moon Hotel, Henry Hudson, historic, Murder, Robert Moses, Seaside resort
On the day of John F. Kennedy‘s inauguration (January 20, 1961), the Northeast was paralyzed beneath 1-2 feet of snow. The president’s speech was carried on the heels of fierce winds and a biting cold. People were relatively more optimistic in those days, in spite of their fears and paranoia…before the fall of Camelot and [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: Cold War, historic, John F Kennedy, kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, personal, president, Robert Frost, Soviet Union, United States, Vietnam War
As an aside: I’m not really looking for a “New America” but for an Improved America. Over the past few decades, this nation experienced more than enough “innovation“: a “new world order” over democracy, controversy over liberty, corruption over integrity, ineptitude over responsibility, and outrage over respect. The original ideals and principles of America, as [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: America, Barack Obama presidential campaign 2008, Democracy, historic, Innovation, Minor Adjustments, New America, New world order, Oldies, personal, poltics
In 1918, at the New York Hippodrome, legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini made an 8- foot, 6,000 pound elephant disappear. A crowd of over 5,000 packed the auditorium to watch Houdini’s latest stunt: the “world’s most incredible” conjuring illusion. The pachyderm would proudly and graciously appear upon Houdini’s introduction, with a raising of [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: England, entertainment, Harry Houdini, historic, Jennie, Jim Steinmeyer, legend, Magic, Mail Online, Morritt, New York Hippodrome, theatre
Apparently, one of NYC‘s last remaining “railcar diners” will not be saved from the wrecking ball after all. The Cheyenne Diner once stood on 33rd Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan since the 1940s, when rail travel was elegant and railcar-shaped dining attractive. Last April, the Cheyenne was closed to make way for (that’s right) [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (2) Article tags: 33rd Street, Brooklyn Paper, Cheyenne, East River, historic, manhattan bridge, Mike O'Connell, Ninth Avenue, nostalgia, Red Hook Brooklyn, restaurants
America never seems to find the time and money to give proper attention to its lesser-known memorials. While famous locales and attractions such as Gettysburg and the numerous monuments in Washington, D.C. receive the lion’s share of federal funding and diligence (these are, of course, tourist spots), the less popularly frequented/ less attractively situated sites [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: 20th century, brooklyn, Brooklyn Navy Yard, commemoration, historic, HMS Jersey, monument, park, Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Stanford White, Washington DC, Wikipedia
About 2,300 years ago, a meteorite may have landed close to present-day New York City. The strike set off a tsunami that flooded the entire region and would have certainly destroyed anyone or anything in its path. Landing off the coast of Long Island (map), the space rock’s diameter was approximately 165 feet (50 meters) [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (2) Article tags: Columbia University, Dallas Abbott, disaster, historic, HudsonRiver, Impact crater, Long Island, Meteorite, new york city
The Coney Island Polar Bear Club took their New Year’s Day plunge into the icy, fun-filled waters of the Atlantic Ocean today. A tradition since 1903, nearly 700 men, women and children enjoyed their frost-happy dip and laughed to scorn reason and sanity. Nearly 3,000 spectators attended this annual event that’s now over a century [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: Atlantic Ocean, Coney Island Polar Bear Club, coney-island, historic, holiday, new year, New Year's Day, new york city, nostalgia, Swimming
New Year’s Eve was first celebrated in Times Square in 1904. The commemoration marked the official opening of The New York Times‘ new headquarters at the triangular intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway and 42nd Street. Manhattan‘s second-tallest building at the time, the Times Tower rose on the small spot of land overlooking the Square newly [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (2) Article tags: 42nd Street, broadway, commemoration, historic, holiday, new year, new years eve, new york city, One Times Square, Seventh Avenue, times square
Nowadays, Evacuation Day lies dormant in the annals of American history; its significance entirely lost or unknown to most Americans. Outside of scholars, studied in this nation’s history, a mere handful of people would know what transpired in New York City on November 25, 1783: The orderly return of a city to its citizens, seven [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (2) Article tags: Belgium, False Accusations, historic, holiday, Lodging, Men, Mental health, People, Travel and Tourism, Violence and Abuse
This show, now 11 years old but still fresh and interesting, encompasses about 160 years and 200 objects drawn from the Staten Island Historical Society‘s 4,000-piece toy chest. An 1840s vintage doll is the gallery’s senior mamajama. Knowing that you can’t very well show children a pile of toys and then deny them playtime, the [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comment (0) Article tags: 1840s, christmas, historic, History, holiday, Recreation, staten island, Staten Island Historical Society, Toy
One of the most poignant moments in the history of warfare occurred in 1914 during World War One: a “Christmas Truce.” Proposed by Pope Benedict XV earlier in the month, it was flatly rejected by commanders on both sides. The Russians were the first to reject the truce (their Orthodox Church celebrating Christmas on January [...]
Filed under: Postings | Comments (4) Article tags: christmas, Christmas carol, Christmas truce, French Foreign Legion, historic, holiday, Pope Benedict XV, Western Front, World War I