How would you celebrate the opening of your stables? A dinner, perhaps? Here is how Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, an American industrialist tycoon, philanthropist, and a noted horseman and horse breeder did it. On March 28, 1903, he gave a lavish 14-course dinner for a small select group of people, namely thirty-five members of the…
Category: Secrets and Stories
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….
The Pierre – pick a story
Elegant and understated, The Pierre hotel bears the name of its original owner, Charles Pierre Casalasco. His story deviates from the expected New York rug-to-riches story into an “haute cuisine”-to-riches one. Except, the story has more than one version. The first one is prosaic. In this version, Charles Pierre Casalesco worked as a busboy in…
Brooklyn Bridge for sale — a true story
When Sinatra sang: “I’ve been tryin’ to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge,” he meant it metaphorically. The Bridge, however, had been a commodity on the swindlers marked ever since it opened in 1883. Other sale items included the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Grant’s Tomb, and the Statue of Liberty, but nothing sold as well as…
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