Off the Path

The Sons of Liberty, the activists who helped start the American Revolution, liked to frequent a watering hole on the tip of Manhattan Island called Fraunces Tavern. The tavern played more than one surprising role during the American Revolution. 250 years later, it still serves libations — and celebrates its history.

There’s only one known intersection in America where the buildings on all four corners were built before the American Revolution.  The place is Kingston, New York -- the state’s first capital -- until British troops burned it to the ground. But that corner survived - and a few dozen more structures  -  thanks to some hefty building materials.

The first woman in American history to get an honorable discharge or a military pension served almost 250 years ago. Her name was Deborah Sampson. She disguised herself as a man and fought in several skirmishes -- and was injured -- before she was found out. Her adopted hometown, Sharon, Massachusetts, still honors her memory.

Long before the first shots of the American Revolution were fired, there was -- a tree. An elm tree in a grove in Boston, where some say the Revolution truly started. It became famous across the colonies in paintings, engravings and poems as the Liberty Tree. Now, 250 years after the British unceremoniously chopped it down, Liberty Trees are springing up once again.

Today, a mystery rooted in Vermont history: the case of the missing Tinmouth Apple. Once thought to be lost, the search for this rare apple reveals how one community worked to preserve a piece of its agricultural heritage.

Thanks to our friends Sabine Poux, Josh Craneat, Vermont Public and their podcast Brave Little State for sharing this story with us. Here’s a link to the original episode.

It’s believed that some of the oldest preserved depictions of Jesus Christ are from a town in Syria, abandoned nearly 2000 years ago.  The paintings, on a rough stone wall, can be seen at the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven.

The Yale Art Gallery holds some treasures from an ancient city in Syria, where many religions flourished side by side, including a new one called Christianity. The city was attacked, abandoned, and then rediscovered by archeologists in the 1920s. But tragedy struck the city again, more recently, at the hands of terrorists.

Every Halloween, WSHU’s Off the Path gets a little .... spooky. Visits to Lizzie Borden’s house, a haunted pirate cave, and Sleepy Hollow, to name a few. This year, reporter Davis Dunavin finds himself on a boat in the middle of New York Harbor — surrounded by creatures of the night — for New York City’s 5th annual vampire cruise.

The Gothic Vampire Cruise on the Hudson is co-hosted and features music by The Sedona Effect

The origins of the word "podunk" are shrouded in history. In the Algonquin language, it most likely meant a boggy place, a swamp or a junction of streams and rivers. But we now use it to mean a small, unimportant, and isolated place. There was also a tribe called the Podunk, one of many who lived and fished on the Connecticut River.

The Appalachian Trail stretches more than 2,000 miles from Maine to Georgia. It was the brainchild of an idealistic forester who drew inspiration from a mountain top in Vermont.