Old New York History

New York Beneath a Bombsight
(Coronet Magazine, 1941)

When this article hit the newsstands, W.W. II was in full swing throughout many parts of Asia, Europe and North Africa. America had not yet committed itself to the war, but the grim, far-seeing souls who ran New York City recognized that it was inevitable – and much to their credit, they had been studying the possibility of New York City air raids since 1939.


Another article about wartime N.Y. can be read here…

Click here to learn about the New Yorkers who volunteered to fight the Germans and Japanese in W.W. II.

The Loud Noises of N.Y.
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The unsettling noises of New York City are as well-known to the New Yorkers of today as they were to the New Yorkers of yore:

Soldiers get war shell-shock; New Yorkers get peace shell-shock, a condition of nerves less obvious, but more insidious. It makes the New Yorker smoke more cigarettes than any one else in the world…it keeps the speakeasies open, it builds skyscrapers and eggs him on to splendid achievement, or shatters his morale…

A 1940s Tour of Manhattan
(Click Magazine, 1940)

A black and white photo-essay of a New York that is gone with the wind, written in that wonderfully irreverent slang-heavy patois so reminiscent of the movies of that era. We posted this piece to please that New York archivist in all of you: you will see images of the watering holes preferred by the high and the low, the museums, Fifth Ave., Harlem, and the Fulton Fish Market.


Click here to see another 1930s photo-essay…

N.Y. Artists Discover Loft-Living
(Pageant Magazine, 1960)

A new day dawned in Manhattan real estate history at the end of 1961 when the city elders agreed to abandon their bureaucratic jihad (a fire code issue) to evict artists from all those assorted run-down ateliers located around lower Broadway.


These were the upper floors of hundreds of old downtown business and manufacturing buildings (most over a century old) that were characterized by their heavy masonry proliferating with faux loggias, balustrades, entablatures and rows of delicately fluted columns – all scattered throughout Tribeca, SoHo and Chelsea. The artists called them Lofts.


As far as we can figure out, this was the first time in history that anybody seemed to care where an artist lived and worked.

One Year in the Life of NYC
(Literary Digest, 1937)

Within twelve months time the following things happen in New York:


• One hundred thousand New Yorkers are born.


• Five thousand of them die.


• Twelve thousand New Yorkers die in car accidents.


• Sixty thousand New Yorkers are married.


• 1,350 New Yorkers commit suicide etc., etc., etc.,

Fifth Avenue Observations
(Vanity Fair, 1922)

This cartoon was drawn by the New York artist Reginald Marsh (1898 – 1954), who had a swell time comparing and contrasting the bio-diversity along 1922 Fifth Avenue; from the free-verse poets on Eighth Avenue up to the narrow-nosed society swanks on Sixty-Eighth Street -and everyone else in between.


Click here to read a 1921 article about the growth of the Jewish population in New York.


Click here to read a magazine article about 1921 Harlem.

The New York Social Register
(America, 1932)

Who could write an accurate assessment of social New York better than a celebrated Broadway playwright? Exactly; that is why we were so happy to find this essay by Clare Boothe Luce (1903 – 1987) on just that very topic:

The New York Social Register for 1931 contained about thirty-five thousand names, an increase of fifteen thousand over the Social Register of 1914; and the fourteen social registers of the largest American cities contained more than one hundred thousand names – an increase of over fifty thousand names during the same length of time.


These figures are particularly remarkable when one considers that the social register of exactly one hundred years ago, Longworth’s New York Directory, boasted exactly eighteen names.


From Amazon: Price of Fame: The Honorable Clare Boothe Lucestyle=border:none

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia
(Coronet Magazine, 1956)

An exceptional article about Fiorello LaGuardia (1882 – 1947), who is remembered to have been one of the great mayors of New York City (1934 – 1945). Written by a fellow who knew him well, you get a sense of his energy, humor and strong sense of civic duty:

At exactly midnight on January 1, 1934, Fiorello H. LaGuardia took the oath of office as Mayor of New York City. At exactly one minute after midnight, he ordered the arrest of the most notorious gangster in town: Lucky Luciano. This jet-propelled momentum never let up during the next 12 years.


The article is composed of a series of anecdotes that clearly illustrate his humanity, making you feel somewhat at a loss for never having known him yourself.


Even today, LaGuardia’s memory is so revered that New Yorkers conveniently forget that he was a Republican.


Click here to read about the NYC air-raid wardens of W. W. II…

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