415 Monroe Street – Sinatra’s Childhood Home This is where Frank Sinatra was born and spent his childhood until he turned 12. The Sinatras lived in a cold-water tenement building at 415 Monroe Street until 1927. It was a poor section of town settled by Italians (the more prestigious German-Irish section was located east of…
Category: NYC Personalities
Tweed Courthouse – a Building that Cost More than Alaska
Not known for its architectural merits, the Tweed Courthouse stands as a monument to the enormous grid and epic corruption. The Tweed Courthouse was a pet project of Boss Tweed, who, without ever holding an official city government position, controlled just about every office in the city from transportation to the press. He was an…
Blizzard, price gouging, and the death of a politician — Roscoe Conkling monument
At the southeast corner of Madison Square Park stands a statue marked by a laconic plaque: Roscoe Conkling. A towering figure in 19th-century politics, Roscoe Conkling owes this monument to a mighty nature calamity that led to his untimely demise. March 12, 1888, started as an ordinary spring day but ended as a major climate…
The Dakota and Singer sewing machine
The Dakota – the first luxury apartment building in New York City – was not just a building; it was a rule-breaking revolutionary concept. In the 1880s, the Gilded Age wealthy resided in palatial private residences, while apartment living was associated with poverty. The Dakota changed these rules forever. They called The Dakota Clark’s folly….
City Beautiful Blog 