New York City has a new landmark, a little bar in the West Village named Julius' , officially recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on December 6th, 2022. Now it may not look like much from the outside, but it's here that one moment of protest (the Sip-In of 1966 ) set the stage for a political revolution, “a signature event in the battle for LGBTQ+ people to gather, socialize, and celebrate openly in bars, restaurants, and other public places.” So we thought it would...
Jan 13, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in the borough of Queens is the home of the New York Mets , the U.S. Open , the Queens Zoo , the New York Hall of Science and many other recreational delights. But it will always be forever known as the launching pad for the future as represented in two extraordinary 20th century world's fairs. There is so much nostalgia today for the 1939-1940 World's Fair and its stranger, more visually chaotic 1964-65 World's Fair. And that nostalgia has fueled a thriving market f...
Jan 06, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Greg and Tom -- with some help from producer Kieran Gannon -- reflect nostalgically upon old New York City restaurants from the 1990s ( Mars 2112 , anyone?), wonder what it was like to eat at a chop suey restaurant, praise the strange wonders of Chez Josephine and Congee Village and reveal their favorite places to get pizza in New York City. --- Here’s the first episode of Side Streets, a conversational show about life and culture in New York City, an exclusive podcast for t hose that support th...
Dec 30, 2022•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Crosswords, jigsaws, mazes, rebuses, Rubik's cubes, Myst , Words With Friends -- and now Wordle? Not only have people loved puzzles for centuries, they've actually gone wild for them. Every few years, a new tantalizing puzzle comes along to captivate the nation. But each of these little games has an extraordinary history and for this special show, we have the "the puzzler" himself to help us unravel these unique mysteries. Joining the show today is AJ Jacobs, author of The Puzzler: One Man’s Que...
Dec 21, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast A Special Presentation: We know some of you like to celebrate the holiday spirit with actual alcoholic spirits so we thought you'd enjoy this episode of The Gilded Gentleman , the Bowery Boys spin-off podcast hosted by Carl Raymond, which lays out everything you've wanted to know (but were afraid to ask) about absinthe -- aka the green fairy. Absinthe was one of the most popular and most mysterious drinks in the Belle Epoque and late Victorian and Edwardian worlds, fueling Paris and London's caf...
Dec 16, 2022•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 1890 the Danish-American journalist Jacob Riis turned his eye-opening reporting and lecture series into a ground-breaking book called How The Other Half Lives , a best seller which awoke Americans to the plight of the poor and laid the groundwork for the Progressive Era. Riis exposed more than a humanitarian crisis. He laid bare the city's complacent Gilded Age divide in revolutionary ways, most notably with the use of a new tool -- documentary photography. For our 400th episode, following ou...
Dec 09, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast To wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration -- and to set up our big 400th episode -- we take a fond look at one corner of New York City which taught us to love local history. Perhaps you know this area for Seward Park , the first municipal playground in the United States, or for Straus Square , named for Nathan Straus , philanthropist and co-owner (with his brother Isidor) of Macy's Department Store. Today, trendy artists and influencers instead spend their weekends in Dimes Square , just one b...
Nov 24, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In late December 1954 Marilyn Monroe came to New York City wearing a disguise. Monroe -- the biggest movie star in the world when she arrived -- came to the East Coast to reinvent herself and her career. The year 1955 would be a turning point in her life and it all played out on the streets of the city. She intended to spend most of her life here. It was a year of discovery -- exploring the city, working on her craft and being the toast of the town. She came to New York to become a better actres...
Nov 11, 2022•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast On January 1, 2023 , New York City will celebrate a special moment, the 125th anniversary of the formation of Greater New York and the creation of the five boroughs — The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island. In honor of this special moment in New York City history, we are celebrating a bit early, reissuing our episode (originally #150) on the Consolidation and the formation of the boroughs, with a new introduction. And stay tuned for new episodes of the Bowery Boys Podcast for t...
Oct 28, 2022•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Beware! The ghosts and goblins of the Hudson River Valley have been awakened. In this year's annual celebration of New York urban legends and folktales, Tom and Greg journey up the Hudson River to explore the region's spookiest stories. Tales of mystery and the supernatural have possessed the villages and towns of the Hudson River Valley since ancient times, when native tribes whispered of strange places and islands one simply didn't visit. When Dutch settlers arrived in the 17th century, they b...
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 14 min•Transcript available on Metacast In honor of an exciting new theater season, we're revisiting our 2011 episode on the history of Sardi's restaurant, updated to cover the trials and triumphs of the past decade. The famous faces on the walls of Sardi's Restaurant represent the entertainment elite of the 20th Century, and all of them made this place on West 44th Street their unofficial home. Known for its caricatures and its Broadway opening-night traditions, Sardi's fed the stars of the golden age and became a hotspot for produce...
Sep 30, 2022•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast You may have heard about the messy, chaotic and truly horrible presidential election of 1876 -- pitting Democrat Samuel Tilden and Republican Rutherford B Hayes -- but did you know that New York City plays a huge role in this moment in American history? Tilden, the governor of New York, was a political superstar, a reformer famous for taking down Boss Tweed and the corrupt machinations of Tammany Hall . From his home in Gramercy Park, the extremely wealthy governor could kept himself updated on ...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the heart of Greenwich Village sits the Jefferson Market Library , a branch of the New York Public Library, and a beautiful garden which offers a relaxing respite from the busy neighborhood. But a prison once rose from this very spot -- more than one in fact. While there was indeed a market at Jefferson Market -- dating back to the 1830s -- this space is more notoriously known for America's first night court (at the Jefferson Market Courthouse, site of today's library) and the Women's House o...
Sep 02, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just a few months ago, New York City removed most of the remaining phone booths from the streets, oft neglected, a nostalgic victim of our increasing use of cellphones. For almost a century public phones have connected regular New Yorkers with the world. Who doesn’t have fond memories of using a payphone with gum on the earpiece and extremely vulgar messages written on the box? Putting in quarters! Well this news got us thinking about how the telephone has helped change New York overall. Ever si...
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today's episode, Tom discusses the vast span of New York history with filmmakers and authors Ric Burns and James Sanders, creators of " New York: A Documentary Film ". In our episode, we discuss the 8-part documentary (which aired on PBS in installments in 1999, 2001 and 2003) and its newly updated companion book, " New York: An Illustrated History " (Knopf, 2021). We cover the guiding themes of New York's story, the greatest events and characters, and the challenges Burns and Sanders faced a...
Aug 05, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast In honor of the 125th anniversary of the first ELECTRIC CABS hitting the streets of New York , the Bowery Boys are revisiting this episode from 2015, recounting almost 175 years of getting around New York in a private ride. The hansom , the romantic rendition of the horse and carriage, took New Yorkers around during the Gilded Age. But unregulated conduct by — nighthawks — and the messy conditions of streets due to horses demanded a solution. At first it seemed the electric car would save the da...
Jul 29, 2022•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tom and Greg are still off celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Bowery Boys podcast, so this week we're highlighting one of the best shows produced by the Bowery Boys this year -- for The Gilded Gentleman podcast, the spin-off show hosted by Carl Raymond. Domestic servants during the Gilded Age did more than simply maintain the mansions of the wealthy. New York City simply could not function with these 'invisible' armies of butlers, housekeepers, footmen, ladies maids, gardeners, cooks, valet...
Jul 22, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Let's go back to 2007. Tom and Greg recorded the first episode of the podcast which would become The Bowery Boys: New York City History on June 19, 2007 . The location: the Lower East Side. The method of recording: a karaoke microphone and a small white iBook. In this special celebration of that anniversary, they set the scene with the ultimate 'situate the listener' -- situating the year 2007 . What were you up to that year? How has your life changed in the past 15 years? The world was very dif...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast What wonderful surprises await the Bowery Boys in Little Caribbean ? The Brooklyn enclave in Flatbush is one of the central destinations for Caribbean-American life and culture in New York City. Since the 1960s, thousands of immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean nations have made this historic area of Flatbush (mostly east of Flatbush Avenue) their home. The streets are lined with restaurants and markets that bring the flavors of the islands to Broo...
Jun 28, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over 350 years ago today's Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush was an old Dutch village, the dirt path that would one day become Flatbush Avenue, lined with wheat fields and farms. Contrast that with today's Flatbush, a bustling urban destination diverse in both housing styles and commercial retail shops. It's also an anchor of Brooklyn’s Caribbean community -- Little Caribbean. There have been many different Flatbushes -- rural, suburban and urban. In today's show we highlight several stories fro...
Jun 17, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Presenting "Cautionary Tales". Host Tim Harford tells tragic stories from the past, pointing out the valuable lessons in the greatest mistakes, disasters and fiascos. On this episode, get a front row seat as an award winning choreographer and a rock legend come close to opening the worst Broadway musical of all time. When Billy Joel agreed to let dance legend Twyla Tharp turn his songs into a Broadway musical it seemed like a surefire hit. But in previews, Movin’ Out was panned by the critics. I...
Jun 10, 2022•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Renwick Ruin , resembling an ancient castle lost to time, appears along the East River as a crumbling, medieval-like apparition, something not quite believable. Sitting between two new additions on Roosevelt Island -- the campus of Cornell Tech and FDR Four Freedoms Park -- these captivating ruins, enrobed in beautiful ivy, tell the story of a dark period in New York City history. The island between Manhattan and Queens was once known as Blackwell's Island , a former pastoral escape that tra...
Jun 03, 2022•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two landmarks to American art history sit on either side of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge over the Hudson River -- the homes of visionary artists Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church . Cole and Church were leaders of the Hudson River School , a collective of 19th century American painters captivated by natural beauty and wide-open spaces. Many of these paintings, often of a massive size, depicted fantastic views of the Hudson River Valley where many of the artists lived. In this episode, the final ...
May 20, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hyde Park, New York, was the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. He was born here, he lived here throughout his life, and he's buried here -- alongside his wife Eleanor Roosevelt. But it was more than just a home. The Hyde Park presence of the Roosevelts expands outwardly from the Roosevelt ancestral mansion of Springwood, over hundreds of forested acres from former farmlands on the eastern side to the shores of the Hudson River on the west. FDR was born h...
May 06, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast What 19th century American engineering landmark invites you through nature, past historic sites and into people's backyards? Where can you experience the grandeur of the Hudson Valley in (mostly) secluded peace and tranquility -- while learning something about Old New York? Welcome to the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail , 26.5 miles of dusty pathway through some of the most interesting and beautiful towns and villages in Westchester County. But this is more than a linear park. The trail runs atop -- a...
Apr 22, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast We wanted to present to you one of our favorite new podcasts of the year -- and one we think you'll love. It's called History Daily . And yes, it really is history, daily! Every weekday host Lindsay Graham ( American Scandal , American History Tellers ) takes you back in time to explore a momentous event that happened ‘on this day’ in history. Whether it’s to remember the tragedy of December 7th, 1941, the day “that will live in infamy,” or to celebrate that 20th day in July, 1969, when mankind ...
Apr 15, 2022•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Frederick Law Olmsted , America's preeminent landscape architect of the 19th century, designed dozens of parks, parkways and college campuses across the country. With Calvert Vaux , he created two of New York City's greatest parks -- Central Park and Prospect Park. Yet before Central Park, he had never worked on any significant landscape project and he wasn't formally trained in any kind of architecture. In fact, Fred was a bit of a wandering soul, drifting from one occupation to the next, looki...
Apr 08, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast This episode focuses on the special relationship between New York City and Puerto Rico, via the tales of pioneros, the first migrants to make the city their home and the many hundreds of thousands who came to the city during the great migration of the 1950s and 60s. Today there are more Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent in New York City than in any other city in the nation — save for San Juan, Puerto Rico. And it has been so for decades. By the late 1960s, hundreds of thousands of...
Mar 25, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Temple Emanu-El, home to New York's first Reform Jewish congregation and the largest synagogue in the city, sits on the spot of Mrs. Caroline Astor 's former Gilded Age mansion. Out with the old, in with the new. The synagogue shimmers with Jazz Age style from vibrant stained-glass windows to its Art Deco tiles and mosaics. When its doors opened in 1929, the congregation was making a very powerful statement. New York's Jewish community had arrived. This story begins on the Lower East Side with t...
Mar 11, 2022•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Richard Morris Hunt was one of the most important architects in American history. His talent and vision brought respect to his profession in the mid-19th century and helped to craft the seductive style of the Gilded Age. So why are there so few examples of his extraordinary work still standing in New York City today? You're certainly familiar with the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty and the grand entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , two commissions that came late in Hunt's life. And pe...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
