Lower East Side History Project Blog

40 years later: Remembering Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster

2012-01-27T00:00:00.276-05:00

9th Precinct police officers Gregory Foster and Rocco Laurie

On the night of January 27, 1972, rookie NYPD officers Rocco Laurie and Gregory Foster were ambushed while on patrol along Avenue B at East Eleventh Street.

Only recently joining the police force after a stint as combat marines in Vietnam, Laurie and Foster were approached from behind by a group of individuals who opened fire on the unsuspecting pair. The war veterans never had a chance to react and fell to a total of fourteen bullets.

The murderers were tied to a radical splinter cell of the Black Liberation Army, which according the Justice Department, was suspected in the murders of 13 police officers nation wide between 1970 and 1976.

It was the second such slaying by this group in this city -- the first being officers Joseph Piagentini and Waverly Jones, ambushed in the same fashion on the Upper West Side on May 21, 1971.

The Laurie and Foster shooting prompted one of the biggest manhunts in city history and pushed an already tense police department into a frantic state of alert.

According to My Life in the NYPD by James Wagner and Patrick Picciarelli, cops volunteered their off-days to follow patrol cars in civilian vehicles and (before stringent department regulations) many opted to carry high-powered semi-automatic weapons as backups to their police revolvers:

"The public, surprisingly, was on our side and sympathized with our plight. While most New Yorkers don't necessarily like their cops, they're not crazy about people who shoot at them..."

Twenty-three year old Rocco Laurie, a native Staten Islander, was a champion shot-putter at Port Richmond High School before enlisting in the war, where he saw heavy combat as a member of the 3rd Platoon of Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines. Less than a year after returning from Vietnam, Laurie joined the police force, on July 1, 1970.

Twenty-Two year old Queens native Gregory Foster joined the police force on December 1, 1970 after serving as an M-60 machine-gunner for G Company, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Division in the Vietnam War. Foster was awarded a Silver Star for risking his life to save his fellow marines while being pinned down by enemy fire.

Over 10,000 people turned out for the funeral ceremonies of officers Laurie and Foster, held just a few hours apart at the Church of Blessed Sacrament in Staten Island and St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, respectively.

The shooting made national headlines and in 1975, a television movie named "Foster and Laurie" retold the story of the slain heroes, starring future Rocky Balboa sweetheart Talia Shire as widow Adelaide Laurie.

As a touching tribute, Intermediate School 72 in the New Springville section of Staten Island was renamed in honor of Rocco Laurie in 2009.

Today, on the 40th anniversary of the slayings, the New York Post published an interview with the officer's widows: Two police widows reflect on ’72 slays

The East Fourth Street Cultural District

2012-01-25T12:43:00.000-05:00

Did you know that Manhattan has only one official cultural district? And it might not be located where you think: Under the bright lights of Broadway? Nope. Museum Mile perhaps? Guess again. The East Fourth Street Cultural District is the only designated cultural district in the borough and one of only two in all of New York City...

Read Eric Ferrara's full article on Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/lower-east-side-in-new-york/new-york-city-s-only-official-cultural-district-east-fourth-street

The Villager profiles Lower East Side History Project

2012-01-13T15:07:00.003-05:00

Thank you to Terence Confino and The Villager such a great article about LESHP.

He just came off a stint as a media consultant for the Warner Brothers release of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” where he worked directly with Hollywood A-listers like Leonardo DiCaprio and “Spider-Man”’s Tobey Maguire. However, that’s just one of many projects Eric Ferrara, founder and executive director of the Lower East Side History Project, is currently taking on.

Offically formed in 2003, L.E.S.H.P. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to researching, documenting and preserving the history of the Lower East Side...

READ FULL ARTICLE

The Essex Market Court and former Essex Market Place

2012-01-11T16:10:00.001-05:00

Photos of the Essex Market Court (entrance on Essex) from the turn of the century. You can see the old Essex Market Place (which ran crosstown between Essex and Ludlow Street) in the top left photo; the legendary Ludlow Street Jail can also be seen behind the court in that photo (its entrance was on Ludlow).

The Essex Market Court, erected in 1856, was eventually relocated to 2nd Ave and 2nd Street, now the site of the Anthology Film Archives.

The other two photos of people milling around in front of the court are from an October 8, 1905 New York Times article about plans to renovate/destroy the building: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB091EF93D5A12738DDDA10894D8415B858CF1D3

Essex Market Court prisoners, scan from a 1900 magazine

Today the site houses Seward Park High School.

The Lower East Side immigrants who influenced Hollywood

2012-01-03T01:01:00.004-05:00

Some of the most tangible and significant contributions that turn-of-the-century European immigrants provided the world were in the field of entertainment and the Lower East Side has spawned some of the most accomplished film producers, directors, actors and composers in the medium's century-long history.

In fact without the influence of these early immigrants and their offspring, the motion picture industry as we know it would be very different today.

Screen cap from Edison's
New York City Fish Market

Filmmakers have been attracted to the rich street scape of the East Side since the medium was introduced at the turn of 20th century. For example, some of the Edison Company’s earliest stereoscopic films included several shorts depicting life in the slums of the Lower East Side.

Though the neighborhood did not get its first movie house until about 1906, these films were shown at venues across the nation, which means that the target audiences for these films were not its subjects.

In what can be chalked up to the earliest examples of "reality tv," these two-to-three minute, one-camera shorts were essentially produced for middle and upper class audiences, who for the first time were able to catch a glimpse of "how the other half lives" in the new urban ghettos of America.

Edison's titles include Panoramic View of the Ghetto (1900), New York City Ghetto Fish Market (1903), Pushcarts of Eternity Street (1903), Move on (1903), East Side Urchins Bathing in a Fountain (1903), and New York City Public Bath (1903).

Portrayals of immigrants were largely unfavorable, often inspiring curiosity and amusement in captive audiences. It wasn't until the 1920s that immigrants were depicted sympathetically on the big screen.

It was the sons and daughters of these very slums who, through the medium of film, helped change the public's perception of the immigrant experience – at the same time altering the direction of the entire entertainment industry.

George Burns and Gracie Allen
began on the vaudeville stage.

American Vaudeville, which was refined at Tony Pastor's Opera House on the Bowery in the 1870s, was a primary influence in development of early film and radio. By the time that the iconic "vaudeville hook" was introduced at Miner's Bowery Theater in 1902, immigrants had infused their brand of song, dance and comedy which made the format so successful on the big screen.

Another major influence on Hollywood was Yiddish Theatre, brought to America from Eastern Europe in 1884 and incubated in the tenement district of the Lower East Side. So much so that Second Avenue between Houston and 14th Streets became known as the Yiddish Rialto (Jewish Broadway) and was highly regarded as a cradle for fine dramatic theater in this city.

Many of America's earliest film and radio stars graduated from these vaudeville and immigrant theatre stages but more than that, the culture bred some of the film industry's original power brokers and innovators of the modern movie-going experience.

Adolph Zukor, founder of
Paramount Pictures

1920's Humoresque, the story of a Lower East Side boy from a poor Jewish family who becomes a successful violinist and brings fortune to the family, is often credited as being one of the first to promote a pro-immigrant sentiment. The film was produced by Hungarian-born, Lower East Side raised Adolph Zukor (1873-1976) and partially financed by William Randolph Hearst.

By 1903, Zukor, an upholstery shop apprentice-turned-successful furrier, took a gamble and invested in the first motion picture theater chain in America, headed by two brothers from Buffalo named Mitchel and Moe Mark. By 1912 Zukor launched his own film distribution company, which ever since a 1927 merger has been known as Paramount Pictures.

Marcus Loew, founder of
Loew's Theaters & MGM

The Mark brothers had another investor in their blooming theater business, Lower East Side born Marcus Loew (1870-1927) – a man who dropped out of school at an early age to help support his family – and went on to establish Loews Theaters and co-found Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios.

Some of Loew's earliest associates and partners were fellow Lower East Siders and future industry moguls Joseph Schenck (1878-1961) and Nicholas Schenck, (1881-1961) who founded 20^th Century Pictures – and William Fox (1879-1952) – who founded the Fox Film Corporation. In 1935 these studios merged and created 20^th Century Fox.

It was men like Loew, Fox and the Schenck brothers who brought the motion picture industry to the masses by constructing dozens of theaters in working-class neighborhoods throughout the United States.

William Fox, co-founder of
20th Century Fox

With the influence of these early pioneers, a series of films were released in the 1920s focusing on life on the Lower East Side. It was an era where many first generation Americans began rebelling against their immigrant ancestry and the films almost always featured themes of generational friction, overcoming poverty, or struggling to find an identity in America.

By this time, the bulk of the movie industry had relocated to the cavernous studios of Hollywood and much of the street scape was reproduced on a sound stage. Regardless, success was overwhelming and working-class audiences flocked to theaters, treated to such East Side-themed films as The Miracle of Manhattan (1921), Hungry Hearts (1922), The New Teacher (1922), His People (1925), The Patent Leather Kid (1927), Danger Street (1928), The Madonna of Avenue A (1929), and The Younger Generation (1929).

Al Jolson

In 1927, the first full length talkie was introduced to the general public. The Jazz Singer, written by Samson Raphaelson (1894-1983) and starring Al Jolson (1886-1950), both Lower East Side raised, was the first film to hit theaters accompanied by synchronized dialogue.

The story of a local singer caught between dreams of stardom and his family's traditional Jewish values crossed over class boundaries and proved to be a commercial success.

By the 1930s several film productions went on to capitalize on the new-found popularity of the district, like 1931s Sidewalks of New York. Here Buster Keaton, in one of his earliest talkie film roles, plays a Lower East Side slumlord who falls in love with a poor tenement girl. While pursuing his love interest, Keaton gets caught up with a band of local street toughs and ends up mixing it up with a small time hood.

This portrayal of the rough and tumble East Side became a recurring theme in countless productions during cinema's most formative years, which coincided with a nation's waning support of a decade long ban on alcohol and a severe economic depression, giving rise to character that would become an icon of the big screen – the American Gangster.

Edward G. Robinson

Dozens of gangster movies were produced during the 1930s and the tenement districts of New York City bred three of the most famous tough-guy actors of the era, including George Raft, the Hell's Kitchen raised matinee powerhouse, and the Lower East Side's own James Cagney (1899-1986) and Edward G. Robinson (1893-1973).

Robinson's on-screen persona went on to define the Hollywood gangster – a character which was parodied for generations (do you remember this Bugs Bunny cartoon? Or the frog in the Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse cartoon?) Though he never completely shook the tough-guy image, Robinson's career spanned seven decades, earning him an honorary Oscar in 1973.

James Cagney

Academy Award winning actor James Cagney, whose breakout role as gangster Tom Powers in 1931's The Public Enemy led to a series of films which showcased his hard-nosed upbringing.

However, by the early 1940s, rebelling against the system was out and American patriotism was in. Cagney, an accomplished singer and dancer, broke gangster typecasting and was hired to play the lead in the 1942 blockbuster, Yankee Doodle Dandy, where his portrayal of Broadway impresario George M. Cohen earned him an Academy Award for best actor.

A series of popular comedic films released between the late 1930s and 1950s further exploited the Lower East Side's gritty reputation. Little Tough Guys, Dead End Kids, and The Bowery Boys followed the adventures of a group of bungling local street kids and inspired several knockoffs, including The Gas House Gang (1939, 1942) and The Harlem Tuff Kids (1946, 1947).

Stella Adler

No article about the history of motion pictures should fail to mention Stella Adler (1901-1992), one of the most accomplished acting teachers of all time. Born on the Lower East Side in 1901 to Yiddish Theater star Jacob Adler, Stella opened the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in 1949 and trained dozens of future movies stars such as Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, and Robert De Niro.

Perhaps the only person to give Stella Adler a run for her money was "father of method acting in America," Lee Strasberg (1901-1982), whose family immigrated to the Lower East Side from the Ukraine in 1909.

Lee Strasberg

Strasberg, an alumni of the former Chrystie Street Settlement House's drama club, trained the likes of James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Monroe and Al Pacino, and was director of the prestigious Actor's Studio from 1951 until his passing in 1982.

And what would the movie going experience be without a film score? Some of America's most respected composers and lyricists hail from the Lower East East Side.

Eight-time Academy Award nominated composer Irving Berlin (1888-1989), who penned such classics as "Putting on the Ritz," "White Christmas," and "There's No Business Like Show Business," started out as a singing waiter in the most raucous Bowery dives.

George Gershwin (1898-1937), who got his first piano while growing up on Second Avenue, is often remembered as a stage composer; However he provided the score to a handful of films before his untimely passing, including the song "They Can't Take That Away from Me," which earned an Oscar nomination for the Best Song in 1937. Sharing that nomination was George's brother and writing partner, Ira Gershwin (1896-1983), who is considered one of the greatest songwriters of the 20th century.

Edgar Yipsel Harburg

Former P.S. 63 student Yip Harburg (1896-1981) has transported millions of people "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," as lyricist for one of the most successful and beloved motion pictures of all time, The Wizard of Oz.

Though not officially credited, Harburg played a larger role behind the scenes of the movie. He acted as script supervisor, helped with casting and wrote in several classic scenes.

Other pioneering Lower East Side to Hollywood transplants include Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, George Burns, John Garfield and dozens more, such as Tony Curtis, Estelle Getty, Walter Matthau, Zero Mostel, and Jerry Stiller who all attended the same high school, Seward Park on Essex Street.

Without the contributions of these immigrants and their offspring, where would the entertainment industry be? What we covered here is just the tip of the iceberg. In the future we will to delve into the pioneers of television, radio, Broadway and the music industry who hailed from the Lower East Side.

Eric Ferrara's St. Marks Place article in The Villager

2011-12-31T17:30:00.000-05:00

A big thank you to The Villager newspaper for publishing this article by LESHP director Eric Ferrara:

A lawsuit filed on behalf of neighbors to prevent the demolition of No. 1 St. Mark’s Place was presided over by a Superior Court judge, ending a two-year rift that pitted independent landowners against a corporate behemoth — all over 8-feet of land. Another battle for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation? Not this time; this took place in May of 1856.

READ FULL ARTICLE: http://www.thevillager.com/?p=1332

Old Ad: Hiram Anderson's "Great Carpet Establishment"

2011-12-19T13:29:00.001-05:00

Inside Hiram Anderson's Great Carpet Establishment at 99 Bowery (c.1858), which billed itself as the “largest carpet establishment in the U.S.”

Today 99 Bowery hosts the Chinese-owned Olivia Furniture Corporation.

On this day, December 16, 1848, the prestigious Park Theatre closed

2011-12-16T16:30:00.002-05:00

The Park Theatre, located just below the one-time fashionable Chatham Square,
was one of the nation's first contemporary professional theaters.

Opened on January 29, 1798, the Park Theatre was built to satisfy the city's Post-Revolution aristocracy and elevate New York City's status on the world stage as a culturally and commercially viable metropolis. Early planners set out to create a megalopolitan empire on par with European cities like Paris and London, attracting some of the wealthiest families of the era to Lower Manhattan -- and the Park became the crux of this Utopian-seeking high society.

The theatre offered world-class acts from around the globe and was the first to introduce professional Italian Opera to the country in November of 1825, Rossini's "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" (The Barber of Seville). The Park became the premiere playhouse for U.S. debuts of European superstars such as Norwegian violinist Ole Bull and Austrian ballerina, Fanny Elssler and was a breeding ground for pioneers of early American theatre as some of the most celebrated actors, singers, dancers, playwrights and producers of the 19th century earned their reputations at the Park.

Despite the high caliber of performers and pedigree of theatre-goers, the Park's function was wholly utilitarian and lacked any aesthetic beauty. It was described as "an unattractive auditorium, inadiquately illuminated, with many uncomfortable seats." by The Magazine of history with notes and queries, Volume 22.

The Bowery-Theatre, 46-48 Bowery

Population in Manhattan boomed from 49,401 in 1790 to 242,278 by 1830 and the Park found itself competing with more elegant theatres like its earliest rival, the 3000-seat Bowery Theatre, which opened as the first gas-lit playhouse in America in 1826 -- just a few blocks north of the Park.

By that time, New York City had changed dramatically. It went from Colonial backwater to cosmopolitan city in a matter of decades and the rapid change did not sit well with the entire population, as explained in The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur:

As grand as (the Bowery Theatre) was, a new theater in Manhattan was not welcomed by everyone. Much of the conservative population was not adjusting well to the new cosmopolitan status of New York City and the hedonistic culture it bred. An 1826 Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church article warned: “A theatre in this city was opened for the season on the Monday evening of last week. We do not mention this fact to give information;—we mention it to excite Christians to pray against the wide-spreading pestilence; to exhort Christian parents to keep their children from the vortex of destruction.”

The Christian Spectator commented: “The influence of the theater is bad, and only bad,” along with several more paragraphs of colorful passages like, “The theater cannot be reformed. We should just as soon think of reforming the devil himself.”

However, it wasn’t theatrics per se that had conservatives up in arms, though they did complain of productions that were lowbrow, amoral and obscene. It was the alcohol, prostitution and gambling that went hand in hand with a night on the town in the 1820s and ’30s that really bothered them. For example, it was common practice for theaters to hire prostitutes from nearby Five Points to work the upper tiers of the auditorium, and liquor was served by waitresses of questionable morals who wore dresses that revealed their ankles.


Early Bowery Theatre ad promising "Piracy Mutiny & Murder," and "Fire Worshipers."

A working class had taken root in the city by the 1820s and less refined programming was introduced in an attempt to broaden theater's appeal beyond the upper classes. A recreation once reserved for the elite was now available to the masses and the Bowery Theatre capitalized on the culture shift.

While the Park continued to offer top-notch European artists, the Bowery promoted home-grown entertainment and stole some of the Park's thunder for a few years, however the Park remained a celebrated New York City treasure until its demise.

The original 1798 Park Theatre burned to the ground in 1820 but was rebuilt by 1821, only to suffer the same fate on December 16, 1848. Some hanging playbills were ignited by a nearby gas lamp and within an hour the structure was devastated. It was never rebuilt, ending half a century of cultural influence.

Carlo Tresca's "Il Martello" first published today, December 14, 1917

2011-12-14T22:40:00.005-05:00

An April 1920 cover of Il Martello,
published at 208 E. 12th Street

On this day, December 14, in 1917, the first issue of labor leader Carlo Tesca's Italian language newspaper, Il Martello, was published on the East Side.

Called "radical" and "subversive" by opponents, Il Martello faced tough government scrutiny for its anti-war, anti-establishment views and was deemed "unmailable" at the time by the U.S. Postal Service.

The newspaper, originally titled, Il Martello: Giornale politico, letterario ed artistico ("The Hammer: Political, Artictic and Literary Newspaper"), was founded in in November of 1916 by a man named Luigi Preziosi. Tresca purchased the magazine for a few hundred dollars in late 1917, soon after halting operations of his previous journal, L'Avvenire ("The Future") in August of that year.

Tresca purchased Il Martello -- but did not attach his name to it for over a year -- as a way to circumvent government censorship. By the time he acquired the newspaper, Tresca's involvement in national labor movements and progressive writings had caught the eye of authorities, who went as far as tapping his phone line.

Carlo Tresc

Tresca and L'Avvenire, like many foreign language publications of the WWI era, were targeted with the introduction of the Espionage Act -- which, for example, required a literal English translation of any war- or government- related content mailed in the United States. Those publications deemed uncooperative would minimally lose their postal permits and often have their offices raided, eventually driving them out of business.

According to Carlo Tresca: Portrait of a Rebel by Nunzio Pernicone,"Tresca's acquisition of Il Martello demonstrated his skill in the fine Italian art of arrangiarsi -- to manipulate a situation for the best outcome."

Knowing he could never get the proper permits to publish in his name, Tresca essentially used Il Martello as a front to continue his mission; It was not until June of 1918 that his name appeared as publisher.

Il Martello moved into an office at 208 E. 12th Street by the Spring of 1920, and Tresca lived in an apartment above John's Italian restaurant at 302 E. 12th Street. Over the following twenty-three years, the publisher created a lot of enemies as an outspoken critic of Communism, Stalinism and Benito Mussolini's attempt to organize fascist support on American soil.

Ultimately, Tresca was assassinated on a Fifth Avenue sidewalk on January 11, 1943. His murder remains unsolved though several theories have circulated since the incident. One leading theory hints at Mafia involvement -- more specifically, Bonanno underboss Frank Garafolo, who at the time operated a Cheese import shop at 176 Avenue A, according to Manhattan Mafia Guide by Eric Ferrara.

As the legend goes, Tresca publicly offended Garafolo at a dinner event on September 10, 1942 and ordered a young Carmine Galante to commit the murder. Another theory surrounding the incident involves Sicilian assassins, and yet another implicates Joseph Stalin's secret police.

New schedule, revamped "Lower East Side" and "East Village" walking tours

2011-12-13T19:49:00.004-05:00

We are pleased to announce that our staple "Lower East Side" and "East Village" walking tours have been revamped with with a new route, content and guide -- author and director of Lower East Side History Project, Eric Ferrara.

Ferrara, a fourth-generation Lower East Sider, offers a decade of active research and over a century of ancestral community insight, providing a one-of-a-kind experience suitable for any casual tour-goer or hard-core academic.

Utilizing rare maps, photos, documents, articles and oral histories not found elsewhere, Ferrara digs deep into the neighborhood's forgotten history -- far beyond the familiar "immigrant experience" narrative -- exposing the social, political and cultural intricacies which made this so district vital to the evolution of our city.

Lower East Side Walking Tour
Every Saturday at 12:00pm (beginning January 7, 2012)
http://leshp.org/walking-tours/117-lower-east-side-walking-tour

East Village Walking Tour
Every Saturday at 2:00pm (beginning January 7, 2012)
http://leshp.org/walking-tours/61-east-village-walking-tour

Thank you Andrea Coyle for providing these tours over the last couple of years!

Map: Churches of the Lower East Side, 1877

2011-12-08T03:31:00.008-05:00

Click for larger map

By the turn of the twentieth century, the abundance of houses of worship on the Lower East Side rivaled any district on the planet. The map above highlights the neighborhood's churches by 1877 (synagogues will be explored in a future post). Many more churches and chapels were erected in the following three decades as Catholic Italians, Orthodox Ukrainians and others began immigrating in large numbers.

Old St. Patrick's today

Remarkably, except for St. Nicholas (No. 29) which was demolished in the 1960s and St. Ann's (26), recently remodeled into a dormitory, all of the Roman Catholic churches still exist one-hundred and fifty years later. St. Stanislaus (31) is technically still active, though the congregation moved to East Seventh Street in 1900. Church of the Nativity (24) is still active, though its original 1830s Greek Revival structure was replaced in the 1960s with a more modern looking building.

A few of these original churches have been transformed into synagogues since 1877, including the First German Baptist Church (1) which has been home to Congregation Tifereth Israel since the 1960s and the Bialystoker Synagogue, which moved into the landmarked Willet Street Methodist Episcopal Church building (13) in 1905. Another example is the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (38), which lost much of its congregation in the 1904 General Slocum disaster and sat empty for decades until the Sixth Street Synagogue moved in just before WWII.

Bialystoker today, 7 Willet St.

Today, the Lower East Side hosts some of the oldest churches in New York City. St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery (22) was built in 1799, on the site of a mid-seventeenth century Dutch chapel that predated Trinity Church on Wall Street. The original St. Patrick's Cathedral (30) opened in 1815, serving the local Irish Catholics, who also built St. Bridig's (27), "The Famine Church," in 1848.

If you would like to learn more about our local houses of worship, you may be interested in our seasonal Sacred Spaces walking tour of the Lower East Side.

Industrial Lower East Side, part 2: The 11th & 13th Wards, 1891

2011-12-07T16:27:00.001-05:00

For well over a century, the Lower East Side's waterfront hosted Manhattan's primary industrial district. Among dozens of factories and horse stables was one of the largest concentrations of coal, lumber and iron yards in the city. This map illustrates some of the larger companies operating by 1891, in the 11th and 13th Wards of the Lower East Side.

See "Alphabet City" in 1891: http://evhp.blogspot.com/2011/12/industrial-alphabet-city-1891.html

"Perambulating Fountains" of the Lower East Side

2011-12-06T02:58:00.004-05:00

Source: Directory of New York Charities, 1900

You are probably asking yourself, "What on earth is a 'perambulating fountain'?"

Source: Directory of
New York Charities, 1900

Well, if you lived on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century, you would probably be very familiar with its common term, "ice-water fountain."

Before refrigerators, running taps in every apartment and public fountains -- let alone bottled water -- there were horse-drawn wagons that toured the local slums during summer months, offering free ice and water to overheated citizens.

The first cart embarked on June 15, 1891, paid for and organized by the Moderation Society, a temperance-advocating charity organization founded on the Lower East Side in 1879.

Source: nycgovparks.org

A tank holding one-hundred gallons of water and kept cold by four tons of ice a day was pulled from one end of the neighborhood to the other, stopping from five to thirty minutes at each location. Any ice that remained by the evening was given away in small packages at the wagon's final stop -- the Five Points.

It took the Moderation Society eleven years to secure the proper permits and political support to launch the water wagon initiative, which was paid for by donations to the organization.

Milwaukee Sentinel, Nov 25, 1910

The institution's charitable endeavors did not end with ice-wagons; the Moderation Society was successful in having permanent fountains installed in several locations in this city and others like Washington DC, San Fransisco, Boston and Newark. One tangible remnant of the society's work is a familiar sight for most Lower East Siders -- the Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park, installed in 1890 (pictured, left).

By the 1910s, pro alcohol-abstinence organizations like the Salvation Army began what were essentially marketing campaigns -- highly publicized "water wagon parades" -- with the goal of recruiting "boozers" to "get on the wagon" (meaning, exchange booze for water).

A new American catch-phrase was adopted from campaigns like these; those who made pledges to quit drinking were considered "on the water wagon." And those who returned to alcohol were said to have "fallen off the water wagon" (since shortened to "on the wagon" and "off the wagon.")

How crowded was the Lower East Side?

2011-12-04T04:57:00.001-05:00

In the decades following the Revolutionary War, opportunists from across the globe poured into New York City seeking fortune in the Capital of the newly formed United States of America.

Anticipating a major growth in population, the modern day street grid was established in 1811, opening up two-thirds of previously uninhabitable Manhattan real estate. As industry boomed, the city (perhaps conveniently) opened its doors to laborers, Irish and German immigrants, former Southern slaves, and down-on-their-luck job seekers.

Many successful families migrated north, away from the heart of the commercial and industrial districts and a class-structure emerged in New York City for the first time -- exemplified by this 1864 illustration:.

By the time Eastern and Southern European immigrants and others arrived by the end of the century, Manhattan was decidedly segregated into distinct upper-, middle- and working-class districts. By 1900, the Lower East Side earned the distinction of becoming one of the most populated two-square miles on the face of the earth -- with over a quarter of a million people living per square mile in five out of eight local wards.

To give you an idea of how dense that is, today there is an average of about 70,000 residents per square mile in Manhattan.

Overcrowding eased up early in the twentieth century when the city subway system (1908), Williamsburg Bridge (1903) and Manhattan Bridge (1909) opened, allowing entire communities to relocate and move freely between Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

Industrial Alphabet City, 1891

2011-12-03T00:29:00.002-05:00

Based on 1891 G. W. Bromley map

For well over a century, the Lower East Side's waterfront hosted Manhattan's primary industrial district. Among dozens of factories and horse stables was one of the largest concentrations of coal, lumber and iron yards in the city. This map illustrates some of the larger companies operating by 1891, in the neighborhood referred to now by many as "Alphabet City."

By WWII most of these industries died out or relocated to the outer boroughs and the entire district was redeveloped during a post-war public housing initiative. Today "Alphabet City" is overwhelmingly residential.

Rare photos of the legendary Steve Brodie

2011-12-02T02:18:00.007-05:00

Outside 114 Bowery c. 1897 (left), scan of Brodie's 1896 liquor license (right)

These are some rare images relating to Steve Brodie, a man whose claim to fame was just that, a claim, that in 1886 he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and survived.

The following an excerpt from The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur:

Brodie, a native Lower East Sider, was an outgoing, blusterous youth who earned the nicknames “Napoleon of Newsboys” and “George Washington of Blackbooters” because of the influence he had over other boys in the rowdy Fourth Ward. (Think Christian Bale in the 1992 movie-musical Newsies.) In one 1879 interview, sixteen-year-old Steve Brodie bragged about how he and other local “newsies” would band together to chase new competition out of their territory and complained about how Italians were taking all the bootblacking jobs.

A professional gambler as a young adult, Brodie fell into debt when he took on a dare to jump off the New York City landmark for $200—just months after daredevil Robert Odlum was killed while attempting the same stunt. As Brodie began to take full advantage of the publicity around his planned jump, a liquor dealer named Moritz Herzber offered to finance a saloon in Brodie’s name—if he survived.

On the morning of July 23, 1886, Brodie stood on the railing of the bridge while a couple of friends tested the waters below in a rowboat and news reporters gathered on a pier nearby. At 10:00 a.m., Brodie’s team called off the jump, claiming the tide was too strong. Brodie came down from the structure only to return about 2:00 p.m. that day,, when it is claimed he rode in the back of a wagon until he got about one hundred yards over the bridge, at which point he took off his hat and shoes and plunged over the railing into the East River.

Despite several “eyewitnesses” and lengthy news reports, most historians believe the jump was a hoax, theorizing that a friend threw a life-size dummy from the wagon that people mistook for Brodie amidst all the excitement. Brodie was arrested after being “rescued” from the water, but charges were dropped and he became an instant celebrity. Herzber made good on his promise, and Brodie’s saloon was opened at 114 Bowery. It also doubled as a museum dedicated to the stunt.

The public could not get enough of Steve Brodie, who went on to tour the country in vaudeville musicals Mad Money and On the Bowery, re-creating his famous leap for clamoring fans. Eventually, Brodie settled in Buffalo, New York, where he died from diabetes in 1901 at the young age of thirty-nine.

Steve Brodie’s stunt inspired a slew of pop culture references, including the 1933 Hollywood film The Bowery, in which fellow Lower East Sider George Raft portrayed Brodie in the lead role; and a 1949 Looney Tunes cartoon named Bowery Bugs, which re-imagines Bugs Bunny being the motivation for Brodie’s jump. The urban legend also inspired a popular saying: “pulling a Brodie.”

210 E. 5th Street , Then & Now

2011-12-01T13:55:00.002-05:00

210 E. 5th Street in 1892 (left), and today (right)

For close to half a century, this address hosted one of the city's most important union halls, Beethoven Hall. Between the late 1880s and late 1930s, several prominent organizations held meetings here: From the ILGWU and Federation of Labor, to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Jewish Socialist League of America.

Many high profile union leaders and politicos made rousing speeches here: from Emma Goldman and Johan Most to William Randolph Hearst.

Beethoven Hall played an important role in the Women's Suffrage movement and most citywide strikes of the era, as meetings here helped lead to sweeping changes in labor laws and Women's Rights. It also played a prominent role in the community during the General Slocum and Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire disasters.

Today, 210 E. 5th Street is a quiet residential building.

1897 Saloon Locations in the "Jewish Quarter"

2011-12-01T03:13:00.001-05:00

Here is a crude map of bar locations in the LES "Jewish Quarter" in 1897. There was one bar for every 208 people living the the neighborhood.

Lord & Taylor on the Lower East Side

2011-11-30T03:09:00.001-05:00

Did you know that Lord & Taylor got its start on the LES? The flagship store was at 63 Catharine Street (pictured left), its next on the corner of Grand and Chrystie Streets (pictured, right).

Brooks Brothers First Store on the Lower East Side

2011-11-29T03:05:00.001-05:00

Did you know that Brooks Brothers, America's oldest mens retail store, got its start on the Lower East Side? These images are from its original store on the corner of Catharine and Cherry Street -- which opened in 1818! It moved from this location to Broadway and Grand Street in the late 1850s.

19-23 St. Marks Place, Then & Now

2011-11-28T03:07:00.000-05:00

19-23 St. Marks Place then & now: Rare photo of Arion Society/Arlington Hall, 1890s (left) and St. Marks Market, c.2010 (right)

341 Bowery , Then & Now

2011-11-27T03:11:00.001-05:00

341 Bowery (corner of E. 3rd St) then & now... Dry Dock Savings Bank c. 1890 (left) and Bowery Hotel c. 2010 (right)

Steinway & Sons on the Lower East Side

2011-09-07T02:55:00.001-04:00

Did you know that Steinway & Sons was once located on the Lower East Side?

Though German immigrant Heinrich Steinway founded in the iconic company 1853 out of a small shop at 75 Varick Street, his sons opened an upscale showroom at 107-109 E. 14th Street in 1864.

In 1866, they opened Steinway Hall in the rear of the showrooms, which quickly became the center of New York City's cultural elite. The concert hall hosted the New York Philharmonic for a quarter of a century, until they moved to the newer Carnegie Hall in 1891.

(Images: left, Steinway ad from 1907; right, a photo of 107-109 E. 14th Street from 1892).

Lower Manhattan During the Revolutionary War

2011-09-06T02:52:00.001-04:00

Here is a map of major forts and artillery batteries in Lower Manhattan during the Revolutionary War.

In the Summer of 1776, George Washington's 10,000-strong Continental Army fortified Manhattan Island, concentrating five Brigades below Houston Street.

The only major road into the city at the time, the Bowery, was heavily barricaded and used to maneuver thousands and thousands of troops and supplies in and out of the largest Army encampment on Manhattan Island.

"Bunker Hill" was a heptagonal fort built atop a 100-foot elevation on the Bayard estate -- today the heart of Chinatown. This fort was fitted with six mortars and twelve cannons and provided a 360-degree view of Lower Manhattan.

Iconic martyr Captain Nathan Hale was stationed at Bunker Hill, before being captured by the British and hanged.

Learn more about the Lower East Side during the Revolution: "The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur" http://www.amazon.com/Bowery-History-Grit-Graft-Grandeur/dp/1609491785/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314821141&sr=1-1

2 Doyers Street, Then & Now

2011-09-04T02:51:00.002-04:00

Chinese Tuxedo Restaurant at 2 Doyers Street (at Bowery) c. 1910 (left), and 2010 (right)

Here is a chapter about the restaurant (with great images) from "Manhattan's Chinatown": http://books.google.com/books?id=uY9njnuRejcC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Housing Crisis of 1920

2011-09-01T02:45:00.002-04:00

The Telegraph-Herald (Dubuque, Iowa), April 19, 1920

In the spring of 1920, thousands of families were ordered to vacate their homes during one of the worst housing crises in New York City history.

The combination of a severe housing shortage and immense population boom at the end of WWI led to waves of mass evictions for much of the city's working-class and working-poor population.

Motivated by a post-war interest in Manhattan real estate, unscrupulous landlords used loopholes in the housing laws in what surmounted to nothing less than class warfare; tenants were essentially extorted into paying over 25% more in rent or face eviction. Tens of thousands who could not pay were forced into homelessness.

The abandoned apartments were then rented for over four times the market value to "pleasure seekers" and people with "abundant war profits or earnings," according to a April 19, 1920 Telegraph-Herald (photo).

Over 73,000 families were registered as homeless by the Spring of 1920, many living in parks throughout the city in tents provided by the U.S. Army.

Tombs Prison being dismantled, c. 1898

2011-09-01T02:34:00.002-04:00

Rare image of the original Tombs Prison being dismantled to make way for a newer structure, c. 1898. Apparently nothing was spared. There was a push to rebuild the structure in Central Park for nostalgic purposes but the cost was too prohibitive. Here is a great article mentioning the preservation effort at the time: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2011/07/lost-1838-egyptian-revival-tombs.html

Helen Hall, pioneering social worker

2011-08-30T02:38:00.002-04:00

August 31 marks the anniversary of the passing of pioneering social worker Helen Hall, who died of natural causes in 1982 at the tender age of 90 at her home on the Lower East Side.

Known as a "second generation social reformer," Helen Hall (b. January 4, 1892) was the second director of the Henry Street Settlement between 1933 and 1967 -- succeeding Lillian Wald, who founded the esteemed settlement house in 1893.

During her three decades of service at Henry Street, Hall rallied to establish the organization's first mental hygiene clinic and family day camp, and spearheaded one of the nation's first programs for the impoverished elderly.

Hall's work was the subject of numerous articles throughout her lifetime and she is listed in several publications honoring important women in American history. In her spare time, the selfless administrator authored a handful of books, including the notable autobiography, "Unfinished Business in Neighborhood and Nation" (1971)

See it here on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Unfinished-Business-Neighborhood-Nation-Helen/dp/B00005X20H

Rooftop Sleeping in 1897

2011-08-03T03:04:00.001-04:00

Today is the Anniversary of the "Great Revolt"

2011-07-07T02:41:00.000-04:00

This day in 1910 marked the end of one of the largest organized strikes in NYC history, the "Great Revolt."

Just five months after the "Uprising of the 20,000," when thousands of women bravely battled violence and arrest lobbying for a safe and equal work environment, the men gave it shot.

On July 7, 1910, over 50,000 male garment workers walked off the job, affecting over 1,800 shops and factories nation wide. The Lower East Side-founded ILGWU led tense negotiations on behalf of the strikers and an agreement was reached two months later on September 2.

The planning and sacrifices made by Lower East Side immigrants a century ago revolutionized the workplace for all Americans, leading to many things we may easily take for granted today: like eight hour days, 40 hour work weeks, overtime pay, health care, safety standards, break time, arbitration rights and much more.

Sammy's on the Bowery memorabilia

2011-06-07T01:24:00.001-04:00

The following scans were sent to us by Barry S. of Toronto, Canada. After reading an interview we did in the Toronto Star, Barry recalled the stories of the Bowery his parents would tell him as a child. They were performers and mingled with the likes of Sophie Tucker, Edward G. Robinson and Henny Youngman. These collectibles sat in a closet for decades until last week. Now they have a new home -- right back here on the Bowery.

These original 1950s Sammy's on the Bowery cards, with autographs and snapshots of his parents, are true treasures.

Dr. Henry Moskowitz and Immigrant Patriotism

2011-06-04T03:00:00.001-04:00

Each 4th of July in the 1910s, homegrown icon Dr. Henry Moskowitz led a movement to inspire a patriotic spirit in the Lower East Side immigrant population.

Appointed by Mayor William Jay Wagner, Moskowitz's job was to "arouse" immigrants to "participate in the American Festival," according to a 1912 New Outlook magazine. The Mayor was concerned that "the immigrant often gets his first impression of this land of the free from those who seek to exploit his ignorance," and felt that the 4th of July was an "opportunity to bring home the higher mood of American Democracy."

Each year there were special celebrations, "monster parades," music and patriotic speeches targeting the East Side's immigrants and great crowds would gather to listen to readings of the Declaration of Independence.

Romanian-born/LES bred Dr. Moskowitz was the co-founder and director of the Madison Street Settlement House, co-founder of the NAACP, Triangle Factory Fire investigator, NYC Commissioner of Public Markets, and much more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moskowitz (Wikipedia just scratches the surface actually)

LESHP Joins New Museum for "Festival of Ideas"

2011-05-06T02:20:00.002-04:00

The Festival of Ideas for the New City (May 4-8, 2011) is a major new collaborative initiative in New York involving scores of Downtown organizations working together to harness the power of the creative community to imagine the future city and explore ideas that will shape it.

The Festival will include a three-day slate of symposia; an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery; and over eighty independent projects and public events.

Join LESHP's Rob Hollander as he explores how politics, economics, social trends and public policy created the Bowery streetscape, considering how policy affects community and context:

When: Sat, May 7th @ 12:00pm & Sun, May 8th @ 11:00am
Reservations: Not Required, you can pay your guide
Fee: $20 for the public, $10 with a Festival of Ideas schedule/brochure
Meet: Astor Place Cube, E.8th St and 4th Ave
Map/Directions: Click Here
Subway: 6 train to "Astor Place

LESHP mentioned in NY Times Article on the Bowery

2011-03-21T02:18:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Marc Santora for writing this timely article on the gentrification of the Bowery, and for including our quotes.

The Skids? Not Hardly
Written by Marc Santora
Published March 18, 2011
New York Times

BEFORE the Bowery bums and urban blight, before the restaurant-equipment dealers flooded the sidewalks, before lighting stores illuminated storefront windows and before the area became known as a haven for punk rock, one of New York’s oldest thoroughfares fell into the cross hairs of real estate speculators. They helped transform it into one of the city’s ritziest addresses.

A century later, the speculators are back, and over the past few years the Bowery has undergone another transformation, one that in some ways recalls its heyday even as it risks erasing the markers of its past.

Where flophouses and derelict buildings once stood, luxury condominiums with prices of more than $2,000 per square foot are popping up. Empty lots, gas stations and family businesses have been swept away. Fancy hotels now charge upward of $400 a night for the privilege of crashing on the same Bowery where $4.50 bought a bed for the down and out. Luxury rental apartments — where one-bedrooms start around $4,000 a month — have replaced John McGurk’s long closed but not forgotten watering hole.

“Historically, what happens in New York City has almost always been reflected on the Bowery,” said Eric Ferrara, the director of the Lower East Side History Project and the author of “The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur.”

“So in this age of high-rise condos and hotels, gourmet cupcakes and chichi boutiques, it is not surprising that the Bowery would be vulnerable to gentrification.”

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/realestate/20cover-the-bowery.html

LESHP Helps NAT GEO Track Down "Jack the Ripper"

2011-03-02T02:15:00.001-05:00

Look out for "Jack the Ripper: The German Suspect" on National Geographic channel.

For more than 120 years, the identity of the infamous Whitechapel murderer has remained unknown. Now, astonishing new evidence revealed by retired UK police detective Trevor Marriot claims to have finally discovered the killer's true identity - a German merchant sailor.

Teaming up with criminal psychologist Thomas Muller and a team of international experts, Marriott applies modern detective techniques to this century-old crime in an attempt to solve the apparently unsolvable case, and what he uncovers is truly remarkable. On a trail that takes him through Europe and into New York's Lower East Side, Marriott claims not only to have uncovered the identity of the Ripper but also the nature of his own grisly end. Read more from NATGEO.com

New book: "The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur"

2010-10-22T02:10:00.004-04:00

We are very proud to announce the release of The Bowery: A History of Grit, Graft and Grandeur, the latest title by LESHP director Eric Ferrara (with a foreword by Rob Hollander).

(From back cover): Originally part of a Lenape trail running the entire length of Manhattan Island, the Bowery has become one of the most notorious thoroughfares in America. Developed in stages by the Dutch, British and then Americans, this stretch of street has continually risen from its own ashes, interminably experiencing periods of popularity, poverty and prosperity.

It has been celebrated as a haven of counterculture, entertainment and theater and denigrated as New York's "Skid Row." Home to bums, bohemians, criminals, artists, performers and the rich and poor alike, the Bowery has attracted the most diverse population of any place in all of New York City's history. Travel down the Bowery with New York City author and researcher Eric Ferrara as he explores its rich, fascinating and at times troubling past.

On Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1609491785/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=eastvillage09-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1609491785&adid=1A3JBPV55T6B2KC6R1Z2&

LESHP's "On The Bowery: An Historical Exhibit"

2010-10-22T02:04:00.004-04:00

LESHP is proud to partner with Whole Foods and the Bowery Alliance of neighbors for an historical exhibit about one of the most culturally influential thoroughfares in America, the Bowery.

Crowded with commerce, spectacular theaters, entertainments high and low, brilliant nightlife, cheap hotels, prostitution and gay bordellos, saloons, gangsters, corruption and political power-brokers, Bowery exuberance suddenly vanished into a ghost town of indigents and artists, its buildings alone remaining. Learn the story of what happened ON THE BOWERY..

ON THE BOWERY: An HISTORICAL EXHIBIT
at Whole Foods Gallery
95 East Houston St at Bowery (2nd Floor, east wing)
Open daily, 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM
October 29, 2010 through Winter 2011
FREE!

Eric Ferrara discusses Mafia bosses on WFUV radio

2010-10-16T01:58:00.001-04:00

Listen to LESHP's Eric Ferrara discuss Mafia bosses on WFUV for a special segment on National Boss Day.

Listen Here

Listen to Rob Hollander on WNYC radio

2010-09-18T01:56:00.001-04:00

Listen to LESHP's Rob Hollander on WYNC discussing the re-release of Lionel Rogosin's 1957 film, On The Bowery.

Rob Hollander, cofounder of the Lower East Side History Project, and Michel Rogosin son of Lionel Rogosin, the legendary filmmaker of “On the Bowery,” talk about the 1957 film about life on the streets in downtown Manhattan. It won Best Documentary at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. “On the Bowery,” is showing at Film Forum September 17-23.

Listen Here

See Eric Ferrara on SyFy Network, March 31

2010-02-07T15:32:00.002-05:00

LESHP director Eric Ferrara was recently interviewed by the Ghost Hunters International crew about the history of a local Irish pub.

The episode will premier on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2010 at 9:00pm. Check back for more information as the air date approaches.

Newsday features Gangster Tour

2010-02-07T15:31:00.002-05:00

"What Hollywood has done its part to bring the Italian Mafia to life, but nothing gets you closer to the real thing than this tour. Let Eric Ferrara, executive director of the Lower East Side History Project, separate myth from fact as you trace the roots of organized crime. Walk the same streets and alleyways where mob legends Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel held court."

-Newsday, Sunday, Feb 7, 2010
"These tours take you to quirky corners of NYC"
By Jeanne Fury

East Village Visitor Center Reopens on E.4h Street

2010-02-02T17:26:00.002-05:00

The Lower East Side History Project (http://leshp.org) has joined forces with Fourth Arts Block (http://fabnyc.org) and the Cooper Square Committee (http://www.coopersquare.org) to bring the East Village Visitors Center to the heart of the E.4th Street Cultural District.

After almost a year at 308 Bowery, the new East Village Visitor Center opened February 2, 2010 at 61 E.4th Street (Bowery/2nd Ave). The hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00am to 6:00pm. Besides providing local information, maps and brochures, the East Village Visitor Center will offer theater discounts through Fourth Arts Block and sell advance Lower East Side History Project walking tour tickets.

The East Village Visitor Center (http://eastvillagevisitorscenter.com) will serve to highlight and provide clear access to East Village & Lower East Side businesses, attractions and history to tourists and local resident’s alike.

“It seemed natural to combine the East Village Visitors’ Center and Fourth Arts Block Central. Where better to host a visitor center but in the heart of the only Cultural District in Manhattan? Everyone wins. We get an opportunity to stimulate the local economy by directing visitors to East Village businesses, and visitors looking for entertainment have access to Fourth Arts Block's incredible network of theater and arts groups. says Eric Ferrara, executive director of Lower East Side History Project and founder of the East Village Visitor Center.

“When Eric came to us and suggested moving the visitors’ center in with our ticket window, we were really excited, because now we can help even more people experience the best in East Village arts,” comments Tamara Greenfield, executive director of Fourth Arts Block.

“This neighborhood has such a rich history of activism and arts, which we think Lower East Side History Project has done a great job in preserving and educating people about. Having the visitors’ center in our building, here in the East 4th Street Cultural District only emphasizes the tie between the two,” mentions Steve Herrick, executive director of Cooper Square Committee, one of the oldest tenants rights and advocacy organizations in New York City.

-------------------------------------

What: East Village Visitors Center
Where: 61 E.4th Street, NY NY 10003
Cross Streets: Bowery and 2nd Avenue
When: Tuesday thru Saturday, 11:00am-6:00pm
Why: Local information and discounts, maps, brochures, advance tour tickets
Directions: F/V to 2nd Ave, 6 to Astor Place
Website: http://eastvillagevisitorscenter.com

We recommend: Slide Show History of the East Village @ Middle Collegiate Church

2010-01-08T15:33:00.004-05:00

Slide show History of East Village
Middle Collegiate Church
50 East 7th Street, NY NY 10003
@ 2nd Ave

January 13th, 2010 - 7PM
Donation suggested

Contact Anthony for more information: antoned@aol.com

We recommend: "New York Undercover: Private Surveillance in the Progressive Era"

2010-01-08T14:40:00.005-05:00

A in-depth look at a surprising finding: early 20th-century social reformers, seeking to expose the roots of the city’s social ills, ended up spying on the very people they were meant to assist. Working women, interracial couples, immigrants, and radicals all found themselves under the microscope of “private investigators,” usually untrained social workers or journalists. Most of those under scrutiny had committed no crime except acting outside of society’s norms. Sound at all familiar? Fronc asserts that these local Progressive-era practices helped to shape modern federal surveillance policy.

With Jennifer Fronc, assistant professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 6:30PM
Tenement Museum
108 Orchard Street
http://www.tenement.org/vizcenter_events.php

NY Times article about CUNY/Gotham Center presentation

2009-12-08T21:27:00.003-05:00

The following article about a panel discussion that LESHP was involved with, written by Sarah Maslin Nir, appeared in the 12/07/09 City Room section of the NY Times.

"The Lower East Side has gentrified so exponentially that generations of inhabitants are being priced out, their homes razed or renovated, and replaced with luxury apartments. While this account of the neighborhood’s transformation — offered by a panel of historians and scholars on Wednesday evening — was hardly new, the discussion was notable for the range of its panelists."

READ FULL ARTICLE

Archived Video: Behind the Scenes at the Pyramid Club, 1980s

2009-12-01T01:27:00.002-05:00

A short film by Nelson Sullivan and Robert Coddington from the Pyramid Club on Avenue A.

Archived Video: Wigstock, 1991

2009-12-01T01:25:00.001-05:00

From the video description: "Super-8 footage from the 1991 Wigstock in Union Square after the riots closed Tompkins Square Park. Onstage - RuPaul (as Star Booty!) and Dee Lite! Set to The Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"

Archived Video: LES Squatters, 1991

2009-12-01T01:04:00.004-05:00

Here is some compelling footage of squatters on the Lower East Side --- looks to be some Tompkins Square Riot footage edited in. (Sorry, not in English)

Archived Video: The Hells Angels 1970s

2009-11-30T00:48:00.010-05:00

This is a montage from the documentary "Hells Angels Forever," featuring a few NYC Hells Angels members and a scene from E.3rd Street headquarters (8:43). I think I recognize president Sandy Alexander (:30, 9:12, etc.) and "Big" Vinnie Giorlamo (:07, :26, etc.) -- can anyone confirm if that is indeed them?

Archived Video: Police Disperse Street Vendors, 1903

2009-11-30T00:11:00.004-05:00

Archival footage of a police officer encouraging Lower East Side street vendors to move on in 1904.

Archived Audio: Grateful Deal Live at the Filmore East, 1970

2009-11-29T22:36:00.004-05:00

Of course the Filmore East, formerly located at 105 Second Avenue, was one of the most popular music venues in America in the late 60s and early 70s. Though relatively short lived, it played host to music giants such as The Who, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and many more.

This archival performance is of one of many Grateful Dead performances at the Filmore, recorded February 11, 1970, at the height of the Filmore's legendary run.

FULL PLAYLIST HERE: http://www.archive.org/details/gd70-02-11.early-late.sbd.sacks.90.sbefail.shnf

Archived Video: Lower East Side Fish Market, 1903

2009-11-29T20:21:00.007-05:00

Archival footage of a Lower East Side fish market on the morning of May 1, 1903:

Inside a Turkish Night Club on Allen Street: 1942

2009-11-28T23:17:00.002-05:00

Turkish Night Club 2
Image descriptions:

New York, New York. Turkish nightclub on Allen Street
Joe Levy, Jewish-Turkish-American owner of a nightclub on Allen Street
Turkish-American and his wife who own a nightclub on Allen Street. Their son is in the United States Army
Orchestra at a Turkish nightclub on Allen Street
The girl plays a tambourine between dances.
Guests get up and dance to the Oriental music whenever they please
Habitues of a Turkish nightclub on Allen Street drinking beer and eating hors d'oeuvres. Apparently women are left at home

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1942 Dec.
CREATOR: Collins, Marjory, 1912-1985, photographer.
PART OF: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress)
REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
DIGITAL ID: (digital file from intermediary roll film) fsa 8d24224 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d24224

Posted by Knickerbocker Village

We Recommend: TAKE IT! a film by Max Weissberg

2009-11-26T19:49:00.001-05:00

TAKE IT! (2008) is the story of an art thief who can't please anyone.

Directed and edited by Max Weissberg, starring H.R. Britton, Lethia Nall, and Rob Hollander at Theater For The New City.

155 First Avenue
(between 9th and 10th Streets)
New York, NY 10003

8:00pm - $5
MORE: http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net/newfilm.htm

Happy Thanksgiving from LESHP

2009-11-26T01:14:00.005-05:00

Feeling guilty after dinner? Adopt a turkey! (This is legit...)
http://www.adoptaturkey.org/aat/adopt/index.html

Enjoy the holiday, and thanks for your support.
-LESHP Staff

We Suggest: Spiritual Sounds, an Evening of Interfaith Music

2009-11-26T01:06:00.006-05:00

(From the press release): Spiritual Sounds will be presented in New York City on Tuesday, December 8th, 7:00pm at Middle Collegiate Church, 112 2nd Avenue (between 6th and 7th Streets).

The evening’s coordinators: priests, imams, ministers, rabbis, and monks, will be in attendance along with their choirs and or musicians.

Light refreshments will be served following the performance. No tickets are required but a free will offering will be requested.

Visit LocalFaithCommunities.com for more details.

This group of local clergy, all practicing within a few block of each other, held its first meeting spring 2009 in New York City’s East Village. In a desire to know each other personally and to see where partnership might lead, the group has grown around its shared mission to serve, to celebrate its tremendous diversity, and to rejoice in the rich traditions represented.

Each institution below will share from its tradition with intended offerings to include Taize, jazz, gospel, chants, and traditional holiday songs and hymns.

Iglesia Alianza Cristiana y Misionera
Mary House
Medina Masjid Mosque
Middle Collegiate Church
Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church
Nechung Foundation
Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection
Sixth Street Community Synagogue
St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery
St. Mary’s American Orthodox Church
The Bhakti Center

Commemoration Of The Centennial Of The Uprising Of the 20,000: Part 2

2009-11-26T01:05:00.002-05:00

Joe Raico speaking at the Commemoration of the Centennial of the Uprising of the 20,000. This took place on Sunday November 22, 2009/ 1- 3:30 pm at IBT Local 237 Union Hall, 216 W 14th St, New York, New York. There was a screening of Alex Szalats Clara Lemlich: A Strike Leaders Diary. This was followed by discussion with honored guests: Rita Margules (Clara Lemlich's daughter), Richard Greenwald (Triangle Fire Historian), and Bob Lazar (former ILGWU archivist).
Organizers of the event were
The Remembering the Triangle Fire Coalition and
Organizing the Curriculum

Posted by David Bellel, Knickerbocker Village

Commemoration Of The Centennial Of The Uprising Of the 20,000

2009-11-26T01:02:00.002-05:00

Ruth Serkel speaking at the Commemoration of the Centennial of the Uprising of the 20,000. This took place on Sunday November 22, 2009/ 1- 3:30 pm at IBT Local 237 Union Hall, 216 W 14th St, New York, New York. There was a screening of Alex Szalats Clara Lemlich: A Strike Leaders Diary. This was followed by discussion with honored guests: Rita Margules (Clara Lemlich's daughter), Richard Greenwald (Triangle Fire Historian), and Bob Lazar (former ILGWU archivist).
Organizers of the event were
The Remembering the Triangle Fire Coalition and
Organizing the Curriculum

Posted by David Bellel, Knickerbocker Village

Miriam Friedlander Honored

2009-11-13T11:39:00.002-05:00

Legendary Lower Manhattan City Councilmember Miriam Friedlander, who died at the age of 95 last month, was remembered on Thursday, November 12, 2009 at the Council Chambers, City Hall. The event was hosted by Councilwoman Rosie Mendez and Family and Friends. Speaking above was Miriam's friend Frances Goldin. There was an article about Miriam in The Villager last month

Posted by David Bellel: Knickerbocker Village

Eric Ferrara lecture at Bluestockings

2009-11-04T04:30:00.003-05:00

LESHP director Eric Ferrara gave a lecture/book signing at Bluestockings on Monday, November 2, 2009, in support of his new book, "A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side." Read more here.

Henry Eckstein: A Lower East Side Legend Passes

2009-11-04T04:24:00.003-05:00

Posted by David Bellel (more info at Knickerbocker Village)

An email I received from Bernie Dolnansky:

ECKSTEIN--Herbert, died peacefully at home in Great Neck at the age of 87 on October 27, 2009. Beloved husband of Nadine for 56 years; devoted father of Kenneth, Linda and Myra Mogilner; cherished father-in-law of Ruthann Eckstein and Dr. Alon Mogilner; adored grandfather of Max, Sam, Shoshana, Josh, Zack, Joey and Gabi; much loved brother of David, Eugene and Barbara Shostak. During his lifetime he was proprietor of H. Eckstein & Sons, a dry goods store and Lower East Side institution. He will be sorely missed.

I believe that's Eckstein's store window showing on Grand Street on the left of the picture above. I fondly recall my trips to Eckstein's with my mother. The basement at Eckstein's was a world unto itself and there was always interesting back and forth sales talk/flirting going on between my mother and the salesmen.

An excerpt from a 2004 nytimes article about Eckstein's

Trendiness Among the Tenements; Descendants Return to a Remade Lower East Side
By JOSEPH BERGER

H. Eckstein & Sons was not quite as much a fixture of the Lower East Side as Guss's Pickles or Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery. Still, Brenda Zimmer spent much of her life there, haggling with customers in the cramped and hectic clothing store on Orchard Street that her family owned, hanging on until a greatly weakened Eckstein's finally shut its doors in 1998.

Yet when she told friends a few years ago that her daughter, Amy, was moving into one of the neighborhood's storied tenements, ''they looked a little shocked,'' she said.
''Everybody spent their lives trying to get out of there, and my daughter is trying to come back,'' Mrs. Zimmer said, recalling her friends' puzzlement and suggesting more than a little of her own.

The rapid changes in a neighborhood famous as the squalid foothold for immigrants just off the boat have produced more than a few such expressions of astonishment.
There are still many people around who were glad to escape the neighborhood when the old life seemed to be seeping out of it more than a half-century ago. Some of them are now wonderstruck as their adventurous children and grandchildren are returning.

On a recent stroll from Hester Street to Houston Street with Amy, Mrs. Zimmer seemed tickled that her daughter, a 28-year-old Yale graduate and freelance writer, had actually settled a few blocks from where Amy's grandfather was born and where Mrs. Zimmer worked full time for 15 years. Sure, only a handful of the wholesale and retail stores that sold hosiery, linens, lingerie, and handbags were still around, and even many of the bodegas of a more recent era of migration were gone. But the neighborhood had once again quickened to life, something closer to the bustle of the days when the walk-up tenements were teeming and the dowdy stores drew shoppers from all over for their Sunday bargains.

''Now it's exciting; it's prestigious to live there,'' Mrs. Zimmer, a high-spirited woman, observed.

Dry-goods shops are being replaced by restaurants with $30 entrees; by boutiques where the tastefully spaced wares are fashionably retro but the prices are decidedly nouveau; by galleries like Fusion-Arts Museum, which exhibits a robotlike ''fusion golem'' made of motorized hardware; by cafes where young people peck at laptops while sipping lattes; and even by one shop, Toys in Babeland, that, to Mrs. Zimmer's embarrassed amusement, sells sex toys.

''A very unusual store,'' Mrs. Zimmer observed, gathering up her dignity. ''Colorful.''

A link to another article by Amy Zimmer about Eckstein's

Andrea Coyle quoted in Washington Square News article

2009-10-29T02:01:00.003-04:00

A hoard of outraged residents and members of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation gathered to protest the construction of a new building yesterday, chanting "Save the South Village! Save the South Village!"

Read full article: http://nyunews.com/news/2009/oct/22/village/

"Preservation society hopes to avoid South Village modernization"
by Anna Sanders

Image copyright, Brandon Knopp

We recommend: A Reading From "City of Belief" at Maryhouse

2009-10-28T21:02:00.003-04:00

Join author Nicole d'Entremont for a reading and signing of her fantastic book, City of Belief, on November 6, 2009 at the Maryhouse on E.3rd Street. City of Belief explores Nicole's time on the Lower East Side (between 1964-1973) while working with the Catholic Worker organization.

Nov 6th, 7:30
@ the Maryhouse (free event)
55 East Third Street (b/t First and Second Ave)
(212) 777-9617
2nd Ave stop on the F or V train.

Billed as the 45th anniversary(actually it's the 44th anniversary) of the draft card burnings in Union Square on Nov. 6th 1965.

City of Belief on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/City-Belief-Nicole-dEntremont/dp/1442138505

We rocommend: TSP HALLOWEEN FREAKFEST

2009-10-20T12:24:00.002-04:00

HALLOWEEN FREAKFEST! FREE PUNK AND VARIETY SHOW
Sunday Oct. 25th, 2-6pm
Tompkins Sq. Park
Come Wig Out in the Park!

A free Halloween themed show in New York City's Tompkins Square Park, featuring great music, creative costumes, a costume contest, a clothing swap, political speakers, helpful information and lots of surprises!!

Halloween Freakfest is part of a series of shows that celebrate the vitality of the counter cultural scene that has survived on the Lower East Side, despite the rampant gentrification, soaring rents and lost venues that have contributed to the cultural genocide sweeping New York City.

Presented by: SHADOW Press/PMS productions

Co-Emceed by OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL PMS (GLOB - Gorgeous Ladies of Boodwrestling) and DIANE O' DEBRA (subversive-comedic rap songs)

LONE VEIN: (Day of The Dead-inspired rock gloom-tunes www.lonevein.com)
SKUM CITY (amazing punk from our own gritty city www.myspace.com/skumcity)
CATHY CATHODIC (one woman avant-rap artist from Boston www.myspace.com/cathycathodic)
GHOULS NIGHT OUT: (all female MISFITS cover band featuring members of Kissy Kamikaze www.myspace.com/ghoulsnightoutnyc)
THE CHI-CIONES (craftastic Halloween-themed burlesque dancers/muses)
RACHEL CLEARY (political speaker)
ENDANGERED FECES (demented comedic punk from Queens - sounds like every toilet in Queens flushing simultaneously www.myspace.com/endandered feces)
RACHEL TRACHTENBURG AND SUPERCUTE (Teen Girl pop-rock band doing a set of political songs plus a few Halloween specialties www.myspace.com/supercute)
DETHRACE (a theatrical art rock experience...10 ft. tall fiberglass super-robots, playing 666 volts of metal! www.dethrace.net )
JUGGERNUT (Manly Freak Electro-Punk featuring 2 hot back up dancers in nutsack suits www.myspace.com/juggernutnyc)
GLOB - GORGEOUS LADIES OF BLOODWRESTLING (www.myspace.com/g_l_o_b) Live lady warriors, with ridiculous vendettas, wrestling in face blood to punk rock! w/special guests the Gorgeous LADS of Bloodwrestling!

Also featuring a CLOTHING SWAP.
Bring or take clean fall/winter clothes only.
Plus a COSTUME CONTEST.
Come in your Halloween best (or perhaps find some stuff in the swap!)

Photos from NY Historical Society presentation on 10/18/09

2009-10-19T00:54:00.004-04:00

LESHP director Eric Ferrara gave a presentation on the history of vice and crime in New York City at the prestigious New-York Historical Society on Sunday, October 18, 2009. Here are a few images from the event: http://picasaweb.google.com/eastvillagehistoryproject/LectureAtNewYorkHistoricalSociety#

Great New Book Of Archival Lower East Side Photos

2009-10-15T16:09:00.003-04:00

from the Knickerbocker Village Blog

Great new book I got at the Tenement Museum yesterday with old lower east side photos I've never seen before. Can't locate an online site to purchase. It's also available at the South Street Seaport Museum
Brian Merlis gave me permission to post this picture showing a favorite Knickerbocker Village sporting goods and stationery supply destination, Haber's at 29 Essex Street. This was in 1930

Article featuring Eric Ferrara at Bowery Mission anniversary event

2009-10-12T16:30:00.003-04:00

"The Lower East Side, New York, has gone from aristocracy and sophistication to squalor and debauchery and back to aristocracy—but with one constant Christian presence for the past 130 years: the Bowery Mission..." (cont.)

FULL STORY: WorldMag.com, written by Alisa Harris

More Recent Chinatown History

2009-10-11T09:51:00.001-04:00

from the Villager
Preserving Chinatown’s doo-wop era
The web site of Lonnie's Coffee Shop

Almost 98 Years Ago Today In LES History

2009-10-11T09:49:00.002-04:00

chinatown-1911

Sidewalk Plaques Near The Municipal Building

2009-10-11T04:06:00.004-04:00

Foley Square Plaques
These are located near the spot where the Fourth Ward/Two Bridges Walking Tour begins

Mazie Phillips-Gordon: The Queen Of The Bowery, Part 5

2009-10-10T15:37:00.004-04:00

The fifth in a series about Mazie from the Knickerbocker Village Blog

A follow up to story about Mazie told to me by Bruno in Tanahey Park last week
Bruno probably lived near where the X is the top map before he moved to Knickerbocker Village. It's a section I cropped from the Galt Hoy map (circa 1900) found on the library of congress site. In the bottom section you can see the Venice Theater where Mazie Phillips Gordon worked.

Mazie Phillips-Gordon: The Queen Of The Bowery, Part 4

2009-10-10T15:36:00.007-04:00

The fourth in a series about Mazie from the Knickerbocker Village Blog
Mazie Hotel
Above are the pages in Joseph Mitchell's book that refer to Mazie

Mazie Phillips-Gordon: The Queen Of The Bowery, Part 3

2009-10-10T15:35:00.004-04:00

The third in a series about Mazie from the Knickerbocker Village Blog
the pdf is from a nytimes article by Saul Austerlitz
Up in the New Old Hotel
We mentioned this book and its reference to former Knickerbocker resident Mazie Phillips (or Gordon) before Recently I found a picture of the Venice Theater where she worked. I met a current KVer, Bruno, in Tanahey Park recently who remembered Mazie and remembered how she would let him sneak in to see a movie when he was kid living on Baxter and Roosevelt. That was not too far away from the theater which was located at 209 Park Row. The hotel referred to in the article, the Fulton Ferry Hotel, was right where Sloppy Louie's was on Fulton and South Street.

Mazie Phillips-Gordon: The Queen Of The Bowery, Part 2

2009-10-10T15:25:00.006-04:00

The second in a series about Mazie from the Knickerbocker Village Blog The following pages come from the introduction of an autobiography of one of our country's greatest living philosophers, Morton White. It's called "A Philosopher's Story." He mentions Mazie, as well as Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, Socks Lanza and others. White lived at 76 Madison Street, near Catherine Street excerpts about the book and White from Amazon

A vivid tale of the author's journey from the Lower East Side of New York to some of the greatest centers of higher learning.
"Although a great many memoirs are being published these days, this autobiography by Morton White has special significance because professional philosophers seldom write their memoirs and, when they do, they rarely produce books as engaging as this one. . . . Indeed, White's autobiography should attract more attention among the educated public than any book written by an American philosopher in many years."-Peter H. Hare, SUNY
As historian of ideas and a philosopher, White is able to situate his life in the deeper and broader intellectual currents of his time, and therefore the story of his experiences at Columbia, Harvard, and the Institute for Advanced Study is a brilliantly conceived contribution to the history of American philosophy in the twentieth century. Readers concerned with the development of higher education will be fascinated by White's description of the struggles over religion at Harvard in the 1950s, while historians of urban life will be much interested in his vivid account of his boyhood on the Lower East Side of New York. ..
Morton White is Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Among his many well-known books are Social Thought in America (Viking, 1948), Foundations of Historical Knowledge (Harper & Row, 1965), Science and Sentiment in America (Oxford, 1972), and The Question of Free Will (Princeton, 1993).

mortonwhite2 - Upload a doc

Mazie Phillips-Gordon: The Queen Of The Bowery, Part 1

2009-10-10T14:58:00.004-04:00

First of a series about Mazie from the Knickerbocker Village Blog

I found the obituary of the legendary Mazie of KV. There's a chapter devoted to Mazie in Joseph Mitchell's, "Up In The Old Hotel"

maizie - Upload a doc

Images from Tenement Museum book signing

2009-10-04T00:12:00.005-04:00

Here are a few images from a recent book signing at the Tenement Museum on Monday, September 29, 2009. LESHP director presented a lecture on the history of the Sicilian Mafia to a standing-room only crowd at the museum's Tenement Talk series, and signed copies of his new book, "A Guide to Gangsters, Murderers and Weirdos of New York City's Lower East Side." Thanks to Erica Hawkins for the pictures.

Andrea Coyle interviewed by Women's eNews

2009-08-24T12:12:00.003-04:00

Andrea Coyle, East Village History Project's Director of Outreach, was recently interviewed by Women's eNews, about her thoughts on The Museum of American Finance's new "Women of Wall Street" exhibit. You can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/4111

LESHP director to participate in panel on East Village

2009-08-01T16:08:00.001-04:00

Panelists will include Council Member Rosie Mendez (District 2); Steve Zeitland, Founder and Executive Director of City Lore, Eric Ferrara, Founder and Executive Director of the East Village History Project; and Marguerite Van Cook, Multimedia Artist and Executive Director of the Howl! Festival.

The panel is a part of Metropolitan's East Village Theater Festival, a three-week celebration of the changing culture of the East Village. Combining two of the theater’s annual new works series and featuring the work of local artists and musicians, the festival will be held every day of the week in Metropolitan’s home at 220 E 4th Street August 3rd through 23rd, 2009.

Metropolitan Playhouse Presents
Discussion Panel: The Changing East Village
Monday, August 17, 2009, 8:00pm
Part of the East Village Theater Festival

More info on event and festival: metropolitanplayhouse.org

EVHP director to participate in panel on East Village

2009-07-31T18:02:00.007-04:00

Metropolitan Playhouse Presents
Discussion Panel: The Changing East Village
Monday, August 17, 2009, 8:00pm
Part of the East Village Theater Festival

Panelists will include Council Member Rosie Mendez (District 2); Steve Zeitland, Founder and Executive Director of City Lore, Eric Ferrara, Founder and Executive Director of the East Village History Project; and Marguerite Van Cook, Multimedia Artist and Executive Director of the Howl! Festival.

The panel is a part of Metropolitan's East Village Theater Festival, a three-week celebration of the changing culture of the East Village. Combining two of the theater’s annual new works series and featuring the work of local artists and musicians, the festival will be held every day of the week in Metropolitan’s home at 220 E 4th Street August 3rd through 23rd, 2009.

More info on event and festival: metropolitanplayhouse.org

The New Museum Block Party

2009-07-28T14:23:00.004-04:00

The East Village History Project (EVHP) team was able to participate in the New Museum Block Party on Sunday, July 26, at Sara D. Roosevelt Park in the Lower East Side.

At our table we provided information about the various walking tours that we offer at the East Village Visitors Center.

Although it was a very hot and sunny day, enthusiasm was high & many people visited our booth and joined our free "Bowery" walking tours, lead by EVHP Executive Director Eric Ferrara.
For those who missed it: the "Bowery" walking tours are usually offered on Thursdays at 2:00 P.M.

We also had a fantastic time with our visitors by playing our famous "Guess the Great and the Famous of the East Village" game. On 5 panels, we displayed pictures of famous people divided into different categories such as: artists and musicians, anarchists, or gangsters, which were all
in someway significant to the East Village. Those of our visitors who were able to name 5 people on these panels won an "East Village Visitors Center History Bar", a chocolate bar, affectionately designed by Andrea Coyle, Director of Outreach.

Despite the heat and humidity it was loads of fun, and we are thrilled we were able to be apart of it!

We encourage you to stop by for at least a coffee. Visit our web page for more info about our upcoming events and walking tours.

-Ina & the East Village History Project Team

EVHP partners with Orenzanz Summer Museum on Governor's Island

2009-07-16T20:21:00.003-04:00

East Village History Project is a proud partner of the Orensanz Summer Museum on Governor's Island this Summer 2009.

We encourage art lovers and adventurers to take the 10 minute ferry departing from South Manhattan (or Brooklyn) and make a pleasant promenade to the Island, where you can enjoy the specially curated drawings, light boxes and external sculptures created specifically for the occasion as well as workshops and debates covering a wide range of disciplines.

The exhibition is open every weekend from June 14th to October 3rd, and together with other cultural activities programmed on the Island, the Orensanz Summer Museum's aim is to make of this tiny island in the heart of New York’s Bay a new cultural reference for the city’s summer artistic scenario.

MORE INFORMATION: http://www.orensanz.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=32

The story of Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins, former slave and musical genius

2009-07-12T16:18:00.002-04:00

Thomas Greene Wiggins (1849-1908) was a former slave and indentured servant who began playing piano by the age of four and became one of the most celebrated musicians of the Civil War era.

Thomas was born autistic and without sight on May 25, 1849 to Mungo and Charity Wiggins, two Georgia plantation slaves owned by Wiley Edward Jones. His family was sold soon after to Colonel James Neil Bethune, and Tom was "thrown in as a bargain." By all accounts, because of his disabilities, Thomas was treated like a "household pet," but Bethune's daughter Mary recognized talent in the young boy and became his first music teacher. Thomas learned fast and began performing publicly by the age of eight.

By 1858, at the age of nine, Thomas was basically rented out by the Bethune family to Perry Oliver, who booked performances for Thomas all over the South, promoted as the "Musical Prodigy of the Age: a Plantation Negro Boy." Bethune received $15,000 for the three-year contract, which, as a slave, Thomas saw no part of.

Thomas Wiggins continued to astound audiences and performed many high-profile events, including a concert before President James Buchanan in 1859, becoming the first African-American to ever perform at the White House.

In 1864, James Bethune, sensing a Union victory in the Civil War (and an end to slavery), protected his investment by convincing Mingo and Charity to sign an indenture agreement for Tom's services. Under contract, Tom's parents were to receive "a good home and subsistence and $500 a year". Sixteen year old Thomas was promised "$20 per month and two percent of the net proceeds of his services".

Over the next few years, Thomas was touring all over the United States and Europe. He was being managed by John C. Bethune, who was earning as much as $50,000 a year from the performances. It was a rigorous schedule, but Thomas the respect of professional musicians the world over.

John G. Bethune had himself appointed Thomas's legal guardian on July 25, 1870, and soon moved to New York City to live with his new new wife, the owner of the boarding house where they lived (7 St. Marks Place).

Over the following nine years, while living here on St. Marks Place, Thomas Wiggins studied music with Professor Joseph Poznanski, who wrote down and collected many of Thomas' original compositions.

In 1865, a custody battle broke out when Charity Wiggins filed a suit against the Bethunes for the return of her son and a fair share of profits. John Bethune was killed in 1887 while trying to board a local train, but his widow, Eliza, ended up winning the long and bizarre custody battle later that year.

Thomas' last public appearances were between April 17-22, 1905 in Boston and little was heard from him again until his death at age 59 on June 13, 1908. Thomas Wiggins died of natural causes in the new home of Eliza Bethune in Hoboken, NJ, his memorial was held at the Frank E. Campbell funeral chapel at 241 W.23rd Street.

In 1999, the first commercial CD of music composed by Thomas Wiggins was released called John Davis Plays Blind Tom.

Read more about the incredible life of Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins here: http://chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com/Wiggins.html

And Here: Blind Tom, the Black Pianist-Composer 1849-1908 By Geneva Handy Southall

Local activist awarded prestigious 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal

2009-06-30T19:34:00.004-04:00

The Rockfeller Foundation announced today that the recipients of the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal are Richard Kahan and Damaris Reyes. The medal, which is administered by the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS), was created in 2007 to honor the author and activist who died in April 2006. It is awarded annually to two New Yorkers whose work creates new ways of seeing and understanding the city.

Founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly, Richard Kahan is a former President of the New York State Urban Development Corporation and former Chairman of the Battery Park City Authority. Since 1999, the Urban Assembly has created, and now manages, 22 public secondary schools located, by design, in many of the lowest income neighborhoods in New York. Mr. Kahan will receive the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership.

Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), will receive the 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism. She began her work with GOLES as a grassroots community organizer before assuming her current role in 2005. Through an approach Reyes describes as holistic, GOLES has been pivotal in strengthening the community and preserving the character of the Lower East Side. Both medals come with an award of $100,000.

To read more about the work of the 2009 recipients, click here.

Previous years' recipients include Peggy Shepard, executive director and co-founder of West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT), and Alexie Torres-Fleming, founder of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice (YMPJ) in 2008; and Barry Benepe of New York City?s Greenmarket program and Omar Freilla of Greenworker Cooperatives in the Bronx in 2007.

The Rockefeller Foundation made a grant to Jane Jacobs in the 1950s for the research and writing of the book The Life and Death of Great American Cities. More than fifty years later, this work remains one of the most influential books ever written on urban design.

The 2009 Jane Jacobs Medal Jury was chaired by Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, and comprised Rockefeller Foundation trustee David Rockefeller, Jr., Dean of New York University's Tisch School for the Arts Mary Schmidt Campbell, and The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger.

For more information about the award and past year's recipients, visit www.mas.org/jane-jacobs-medal.

------

Congratulations to Damaris for her important work in the community. Visit GOLES: http://www.goles.org

*Recent image of Damaris Reyes and Carlos Garcia courtesy of The Villager

Bowery Alliance of Neighbors video w/ Mitchel Grubler

2009-06-28T02:22:00.003-04:00

A presentation by Mitchel Grubler about Bower Alliance of Neighbors' preservation efforts:

The Bowery: A Documentary - Trailer for upcoming film

2009-06-26T22:43:00.003-04:00

Here is a preview of a documentary we are working on about the Bowery:

EVHP partners with Orenzanz Summer Museum on Governor's Island

2009-06-10T16:06:00.000-04:00

East Village History Project is a proud partner of the Orensanz Summer Museum on Governor's Island this Summer 2009.

We encourage art lovers and adventurers to take the 10 minute ferry departing from South Manhattan (or Brooklyn) and make a pleasant promenade to the Island, where you can enjoy the specially curated drawings, light boxes and external sculptures created specifically for the occasion as well as workshops and debates covering a wide range of disciplines.

The exhibition is open every weekend from June 14th to October 3rd, and together with other cultural activities programmed on the Island, the Orensanz Summer Museum's aim is to make of this tiny island in the heart of New York’s Bay a new cultural reference for the city’s summer artistic scenario.
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.orensanz.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=95&Itemid=32

No Wal-Mart for Union Square

2009-06-09T17:27:00.003-04:00

"Please be advised that Rosie’s office did some research regarding a Wal-Mart opening at Union Square. To the best of our knowledge these rumors are not based on any solid evidence that Wal-Mart has an interest in Union Square. All the research we have done says that the spaces available do not meet the retail giant’s specifications and that they never made any overture to do business there. None-the-less Rosie hears your objections loud and clear and encourages you to distribute your point of view as widely as possible."

This was a portion of a response from Rosie Mendez's office to a letter from a concerned St. Marks Place resident which reads:

Dear Councilmember Mendez:

Greetings from St. Mark's Place. I've recently read that the Wal-Mart corporation is trying to gain a foothold in the Union Square area. As a constituent living in the East Village, and as a local architecture writer who treasures the unique culture, heritage, and built environment of our city, I would like to urge you to use all available means to prevent that corporation from opening anywhere in New York. Not in Union Square, not in Brooklyn, not in Queens: nowhere in our city, please. Not now, not ever, not here... and not even if they swear on a stack of every major culture's holy books that they'll pull an ideological 180-degree turn and start supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. No matter what promises they make, Wal-Mart simply doesn't belong in New York City.

With a disgraceful record of corporate behavior and a business model premised on exurban sprawl, automobile dependence, a work force with no better options, and a bland commercial monoculture, Wal-Mart represents everything ugly and mediocre and unjust about our nation, the exact opposite of the values that progressive Americans take pride in. Part of the case against Wal-Mart is simply economic: Wal-Mart destroys local economies, puts people out of work, damages local environments with auto traffic, degrades local pay-scale standards, treats workers like cattle, and evades its responsibilities as a major employer to provide its workers with decent health care. I'm sure you've heard the grim stories about workers locked into stores, mandatory work hours off the clock, petty efforts to claw back legal settlements from workers with health problems, exploitation of Chinese labor under conditions that border on slavery -- all the things that make the Wal-Mart name stink worldwide. The "low prices" that Wal-Mart offers on its goods are no bargain at all: they merely shift the costs of its profiteering onto the people and places that have the least power to bear them. (The necessary statistics and narratives on all this, as you're probably already aware, are available at walmartwatch.com.)

But the argument is not limited to economics. It's about aesthetic standards and cultural diversity, too -- the unique strengths of New York City, as robust as solid rock but not immune to erosion. Wal-Mart is both a creature of the sprawl culture and a vector of that particular disease; it is the antithesis of everything that makes urban life (particularly NYC life) vibrant and distinctive. Our city thrives and maintains its flavor by supporting the small businesses and activities that offer opportunities to recent immigrants -- both from other nations and from other parts of the US. I am one of many "New Yorkers by choice," people who moved here from other states precisely because our city's cultural activity, walkable-scale street life, intelligent discourse, and human diversity present a highly attractive alternative to everything tiresome and predictable about Flyoverland and Generica.

Giant-scaled retail outlets, the bloated organizations that have turned so much of the rest of the country into such a dreary place, are utterly incompatible with the "New York-ness" of New York. Wal-Mart and Wal-Martism are exactly what many of us came here to avoid. If they spread here, they'll have no more respect for the NYC way of life than a metastatic tumor cell has for the health of its host. We need many things here -- affordable housing, decent jobs, better transit, better and fairer enforcement of the laws, expanded support for the arts and for artists, reliable health care for everyone -- but we don't need $1.89 boxes of detergent at the cost of our civic soul, our dignity, our wage levels, and the livelihood of our neighborhood's mom-and-pop enterprises.

As poet Bob Holman, proprietor of the Bowery Poetry Club, once told me in a conversation about our neighborhood, "We have nothing to lose but our chains!" Chain stores, of course, are what he was referring to. There are too many of them here already. Wal-Mart is the worst of them, and when they come knocking here, they should be told decisively that they are undesirable and unwelcome.

Thanks for your attention and consideration, and best of luck in defending the irreplaceable values of our city and our neighborhood.

Best regards,
Bill Millard,
X St. Mark's Place
New York, NY 10003

June 2009 - Women in History

2009-06-07T00:12:00.000-04:00

June 6, 1872 - Susan B. Anthony is arrested for leading a group of women to register & vote in Rochester, NY

June 8, 1949 - Ladies' Professional Golf Assn. (LPGA), oldest women's professional sports organization in the world

June 9, 1949 - Georgia Neese Clark 1st woman treasurer of the US

June 10, 1963 - Equal Pay Act enacted: "To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or production of goods for commerce."

June 12, 1913 - Women celebrate passage of a state woman suffrage bill in Springfield, Illinois

June 14, 1811 - Harriet Beecher Stowe's birthday - author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

June 18, 1983 - Sally Ride, 1st American woman in space

June 20, 1921 - Alice Robertson 1st woman to chair the House of Representatives

June 23, 1940 - 1st women graduate from Harvard Medical School

June 24, 1903 - Mme Marie Curie announces discovery of radium

June 2009-This Month in NYC History

2009-06-06T23:58:00.000-04:00

Jun 1, 1625 - Sarah de Rapaelje is born in Breuckelen (Brooklyn) to Jan Joris Rapaelje and his wife, the first child of European parents born in the New World.

June 12, 1904 - Ground is broken on P.S. 64, the future home of Charas/El Bohio.

June 15, 1904 - over 1,000 people, mostly German Immigrants, perish on a boat after leafing the 9th Street dock in the Slocum Disaster

June 27, 1971 - The Fillmore East final night performance with the Allman Brothers, The Beach Boys and others.

June 5, 2002 - Dee Dee Ramone (Douglas Glenn Colvin) dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 50.

June 16, 2002 - A gunman takes all patrons of Bar Veloce hostage. Hostages fought back and four people were shot during the mele, including the gunman, but no one was killed.

May 2009 - This Month in NYC History

2009-06-06T23:55:00.001-04:00

May 15th, 1638 - Jan Gybertsen stabs New Amsterdam gunner Gerrit Jansen in a brawl, killing him; New York City's first recorded European on European murder.

May 10, 1640 - First militia is formed in New Amsterdam.

May 11, 1647 - Peter Stuyvesant arrives in Nieuw Amsterdam, as Director General, to replace Willem Kieft.

May 19, 1677 - New York City's council begins taxing the construction of docks and bridges

May 10, 1849 - The Astor Place Riot. At least eighteen died and hundreds were injured. (Join us on our special 160th Anniversary tour)

May 24, 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge is opened.

May 1st, 1980 - The Ritz takes over Webster Hall and quickly becomes a famous showcase venue for emerging rock acts. Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Prince, Sting, KISS, B.B. King, and Guns N' Roses all performed on it's stage.

May 10, 1997 -A Danish woman was arrested at BBQ's on 2nd Avenue for leaving her baby outside in a stroller while she dined inside.

EVHP awarded grant from Citizens Committe for NYC

2009-06-01T16:03:00.003-04:00

East Village History Project is proud to be awarded a grant from the Citizens Committee for New York City.

Join us at the awards reception on Monday, June 8:

Citizens Committee's 2009 Neighborhood Awards Reception
Municipal Arts Society
457 Madison Avenue at 51st Street, Manhattan
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm

Citizens Committee for New York City hosts its annual Neighborhood Awards Reception for all of our grantees to come together to meet and celebrate our work together over the past year.

Come celebrate the work of great New Yorkers like you, enjoy refreshments, and connect with your friends from Citizens Committee.
RSVP to shunt@citizensnyc.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it, or contact Arif Ullah at (212) 989-0909.

GVSHP considers East Village History Project for 2009 Award

2009-05-10T15:50:00.001-04:00

East Village History Project is proud to be considered for a 2009 Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation Award.

This is a tremendous honor. Since 1991, GVSHP has presented businesses, individuals, institutions, and organizations with our Village Award, in recognition their significant contribution to the legendary quality of life in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. GVSHP members are asked to nominate awardees each April, and a committee of community members decides on the winners. These awards are presented at the GVSHP’s Annual Meeting each June.

View previous award winners here: http://www.gvshp.org/_gvshp/events/awards.htm

LESHP's Rob Hollander on WNYC Radio

2009-05-05T01:34:00.001-04:00

Main Street NYC: Bowery History on Display at the East Village Visitors Center
by Brigid Bergin

NEW YORK, NY April 03, 2009 —WNYC's Main Street Project is tracking streets across the area. Last month, we stopped by the Bowery to see how New York's old Skid Row is doing today. But there's much more to the street's history. And that's the subject of a new exhibit opening tonight.
HOLLANDER: We want to be the defining institution of the East Village the way the Tenement Museum is the defining institution of the Lower East Side.
REPORTER: Rob Hollander is one of the co-founders of the East Village History Project and the new East Village Visitors Center.
Hollander says one of the street's legacies is its role in the development of New York's theatre district. He says the 19th century Bowery Theatre used to draw some 3,500 working class people to its spirited productions.
HOLLANDER: That's a huge gathering place for working class people. That's where people went to see each other, to interact with with each other and the theatre experience was nothing like what it is today. It was more like a riot.
REPORTER: That exhibit opens tonight at the Bowery Poetry Club.
LISTEN TO AUDIO: http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/127865

NBC features "Gangsters, Murderers & Weirdos" tour

2009-05-02T15:53:00.004-04:00

The tour, which is led by East Village historian Eric Ferrara takes you on a journey from the golden age of the American gangster to the bohemian arts and drug culture of the 1960s. Eric guides you to historic hotspots like 57 Jones Street – the Five Points gang headquarters – and to Second Avenue at 12th Street, the scene of a famous mob shootout.

For a $15 donation – you’ll be amazed to hear about the riots, assassinations, grave-robbings, and other criminal behavior that took place on the East Village streets you roam daily.

From NBC (April 2009)

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/around-town/archive/City-By-Subway-.html

Time Out New York: "Women: Movers & Shakers" tour Top Five in NYC

2009-04-10T15:40:00.002-04:00

Forget the dudes—this two-hour, three-quarter-mile tour is all about the awesome ladies who influenced the art, culture and politics of NYC’s hippest ’hood. Guide Andrea Coyle concentrates on the Bowery and shares tidbits about everyone from Emma Goldman to Patricia Field and Madonna.

From Time Out New York, (Issue 705, Apr 2-8)

Women Movers & Shakers Tour
The gist: Forget the dudes—this two-hour, three-quarter-mile tour is all about the awesome ladies who influenced the art, culture and politics of NYC’s hippest ’hood. Guide Andrea Coyle concentrates on the Bowery and shares tidbits about everyone from Emma Goldman to Patricia Field and Madonna.
Who goes: Womyn, counterculturists and, yes, men, too
High: Even longtime Villagers will learn something new about their nabe—for instance, the corner of Bowery and 2nd Street once held a flophouse nicknamed “McGurk’s Suicide Hall” for the high number of prostitutes who offed themselves there.
Low: The tour hammers home just how much history has been lost in the East Village. The Fillmore East, where Janis Joplin once performed, is now an Emigrant Bank; the Amato Opera will close in May. And so it goes.
Before you go: Fuel up at Think Coffee (1 Bleecker St at Bowery, 212-553-3366), and search for cute vintage frocks at KGB Bar (85 E 4th St between Second and Third Aves, 212-505-3360), modern dance at La MaMa (74A E 4th St between Second and Third Aves, 212-475-7710) or the New York Neo-Futurists’ long-running show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, at the east-village.com to register.
If you like that, try this: The East Village History Project produces a variety of neighborhood tours; delve into its seedy underbelly with Gangsters, Murderers & Weirdos (avenuea.org), covering the more gruesome parts of the Village’s history (avenuea.org)—Amy Plitt

LESHP's Rob Hollander on WNYC Radio

2009-04-03T13:20:00.002-04:00

Main Street NYC: Bowery History on Display at the East Village Visitors Center
by Brigid Bergin

NEW YORK, NY April 03, 2009 —WNYC's Main Street Project is tracking streets across the area. Last month, we stopped by the Bowery to see how New York's old Skid Row is doing today. But there's much more to the street's history. And that's the subject of a new exhibit opening tonight.

HOLLANDER: We want to be the defining institution of the East Village the way the Tenement Museum is the defining institution of the Lower East Side.

REPORTER: Rob Hollander is one of the co-founders of the East Village History Project and the new East Village Visitors Center.

Hollander says one of the street's legacies is its role in the development of New York's theatre district. He says the 19th century Bowery Theatre used to draw some 3,500 working class people to its spirited productions.

HOLLANDER: That's a huge gathering place for working class people. That's where people went to see each other, to interact with with each other and the theatre experience was nothing like what it is today. It was more like a riot.

REPORTER: That exhibit opens tonight at the Bowery Poetry Club.

LISTEN TO AUDIO: http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/127865