A part of New York’s Civic Center, Foley Square sits on the site of a Collect Pond — the main source of drinking water in colonial New York. After the Pond got polluted and drained in 1811, the area became a home for the most notorious New York City slum known as Five Points. The…
Category: Downtown
Slumming in Gilded Age New York
“Slumming parties to be the rage this winter.“ New York Times, 1884 In the 1880s, the gilded shine of Fifth Avenue’s spectacular mansions contrasted sharply with the squalid living conditions of the New York poor, easily described as “slums.” Such was the difference between these two worlds that visiting the impoverished neighborhoods by the wealthy…
A Remarkable History of the Bowery
Few streets in the world can boast such a colorful history as the Bowery — Manhattan’s oldest thoroughfare. Physically it runs through historic neighborhoods of Little Italy, Chinatown, East Village, and Lower East Side; metaphorically, it goes through each and every period of New York’s complicated history. The Bowery was once a Native American trail…
Federal Reserve Bank – Seven Stories of Gold
Located in the heart of the Financial District, a massive fortress-like building is the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, completed in 1924. The architectural firm of York and Sawyer designed the building in a style of an Italian Renaissance, reminiscent of the 16th-century Florentine Palazzi. The Federal Reserve was created by Congress in 1913…
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