The Bowery Boys: New York City History

The energy and personality of New York City runs through its local businesses -- mom-and-pop shops, independently run stores and restaurants, often family run operations.

We live in a world of chain stores, franchises, corporate run operations and online retailers that have run many of these kinds of stores out of business. But what is New York without its diners, its small book shops, its curious antique stores and its historic delis?

These kinds of shops contribute to the health of a neighborhood. And today we're celebrating them with Nicolas Heller, better known to his 1.4 million Instagram followers as New York Nico, "the unofficial talent scout of New York City."

But he's also helped lift up small businesses and even helped them survive through the pandemic and beyond.

And now Heller's new book New York Nico's Guide to NYC, he highlights 100 of his favorite small business from all five boroughs. So we thought we'd geek out with him for about an hour, talking about our favorite small places in the city.

FEATURING: Astor Place Hairstylists, Pearl River Mart, Katz Deli, Casa Amadeo, Fishs Eddy, DeFonte's in Red Hook and many, many more

And remember to shop local this holiday season!

The young socialite Dorothy Arnold seemingly led a charmed and privileged life. The niece of a Supreme Court justice, Dorothy was the belle of 1900s New York, an attractive and vibrant young woman living on the Upper East Side with her family. She hoped to become a published magazine writer and perhaps someday live by herself in Greenwich Village.

But on December 12, 1910, while running errands in the neighborhood of Madison Square Park, Dorothy Arnold — simply vanished.

In this investigative new podcast, we look at the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, from the mysterious clues left in her fireplace to the suspicious behavior exhibited by her family.

This mystery captivated New Yorkers for decades as revelations and twists to the story continued to emerge. As one newspaper described it: “There is general agreement among police officials that the case is in a class by itself.”

ALSO: What secrets lurk in the infamous Pennsylvania ‘House of Mystery’? And could a sacred object found in Texas hold the key to solving the crime?

Visit the website to see photographs and images related to this show

A version of this show was originally released in May 2016 (episode 205). It has been newly reedited and remastered.

On January 1, 1898, Greater New York was formed from the union of two cities – New York and Brooklyn, along with other towns and villages of the region, creating the five boroughs we know and love today. 

But each of those five boroughs brings their own unique histories and personalities. And so for this year’s annual Bowery Boys Halloween Special, we thought we’d give each borough the spotlight – or rather the spooklight – to highlight the city’s haunted landscape, from rural escapes to densely populated urban centers. Ghosts, you see, can manifest anywhere!

And a special treat -- every single one of these ghost stories was sourced from actual newspaper and magazine reporting of their respective eras. Journalists on a ghost beat, finding ghostly activity in every corner of the city.

The Bronx: The Reptile House at the Bronx Zoo doesn't seem like a haunted house, but when a sudden ghost whistling disturbs both man and beast alike, zoo directors call a meeting .... and a medium.

Brooklyn: When a former hospital in Flatbush converts into a luxury apartment tower, horrifying poltergeists stop by to spook the new tenants. Is it all a ruse -- or something more sinister?

Manhattan: The Russian mystic Madame Blavatsky attempts to divine the identity of a spooky ghost orb along the East River waterfront. Is it the apparition of the beloved watchman Old Shep?

Queens: The 19th-century town of Flushing seemed overflowing with ghost stories! But none more notorious than the sight of three sword-wielding spirits at the Old Meeting House, the 17th-century house of worship with a few secrets under its foundations.

Staten Island: A tombstone-nabbing ghoul at the Old Clove Cemetery in Concord decides to ride a trolley.

Find the complete list of Bowery Boys ghost story podcasts here.

Get tickets to our live Ghost Stories of Old New York podcast (Oct 29-31, 2024) at Joe's Pub here

New York City has its fair share of famous 'urban legends' -- persistent rumors, too good to be true, often macabre and dark.

No, we're not talking about just about ghost stories. (Those arrive next episode.) We mean far fetched, reality defying fantasies sometimes rooted in science fiction and horror – with just enough bearing to the real world that many people believe them to be true.

Tom and Greg go deep into their favorite New York urban legends. breaking down their origins and revealing the hidden truths that live beneath the legends. This episode answers the questions:

-- Are there alligators in the sewer? Believe it or not, there are. Or at least, there were. Kinda. New York's most famous urban legend has a fun and twisted origin.

-- Does the Cropsey Maniac stalk the corridors of a New York ruin? Campfire tales collide with genuine institutional breakdowns and real-life horrors in this somber story set in Staten Island.

-- Did somebody really sell the Brooklyn Bridge? The truth is even more surprising!

-- Have UFO's landed in New York City? Sounds preposterous, but one incident in 1989 ignited a decade of conspiracies, entangling both the New York Post and the United Nations. You'll never look at Pier 17 the same way again....

Ida Wood had a secret. Born Ida Mayfield in New Orleans, Ida moved to New York in the 1850s and through her marriage to Benjamin Wood, publisher of the New York Daily News, she entered society. 

By the 1870s, Ida’s name was regularly found in the social columns of the city’s newspapers. So why, in 1907, did Ida Wood cash in – withdrawing her fortune from the bank and then, along with her sister and daughter, retreat into a suite at the Herald Square Hotel… for decades?

This is the story of a Gilded Age Belle turned recluse, who chose to withdraw from society while still living in the heart of it. It’s also the story of the fortune hunters who circled around her in her final years. 

And most incredibly – it’s the story of what happened next. 

Check out the Bowery Boys website for photos of Ida, Ben, the Herald Square Hotel, plus the "alternate ending" proposed by Joseph Cox, author of The Recluse of Herald Square.

After listening to this episode, dive into these past shows with similar themes and locations
-- Herald Square
-- Fernando Wood
-- When Longacre Square Became Times Square

This episode is part of the Bowery Boys Season of Mysteries, running through September and October:

-- The Ghosty Men: Inside the Collyer Mansion

This episode was edited by Kieran Gannon

In 2022, Greg received a large box in the mail, containing hundreds of news clippings and documents related to the Collyer Brothers. This expanded, newly edited version of his 2019 show on the Collyer Brothers includes some of this research.

New York City, with over 8 million people, is filled with stories of people who just want to be left alone – recluses, hermits, cloistering themselves from the public eye, closing themselves off from scrutiny.

However, none attempted to seal themselves off so completely in the way that Homer and Langley Collyer attempted in the 1930s and 1940s.

Their story is infamous. In going several steps further to be left alone, these 'ghosty men' drew attention to themselves and to their crumbling Fifth Avenue mansion – dubbed by the press ‘the Harlem house of mystery’.

They were the children of the Gilded Age, clinging to blue-blooded lineage and drawing-room social customs, in a neighborhood about to become the heart of African-American culture. But their unusual retreat inward — off the grid, hidden from view — suggested something more troubling than fear and isolation. And in the end, their house consumed them.

Visit the website for images of people and places from this show

What was Times Square before the electric billboards, before the Broadway theaters and theme restaurants, before the thousands and thousands of tourists?

What was Times Square before it was Times Square? Today it’s virtually impossible to find traces of the area’s 18th and 19th century past. But in this episode, Tom and Greg will peel away the glamour and chaos — evict the Elmos and the pedicabs — to explore a far different world — of colonial estates, rolling farms, horse stables, and beer-themed hotels.

They’ll be ENDING their story today on the date December 31, 1904, when the very first New Year’s Eve celebration was held here – in the plaza newly christened as Times Square. But if you had walked through here fifty years earlier, you certainly would not have called it ‘the crossroads of the world.’

FEATURING: The Vanderbilts, the Pabsts, the Ochs, and the biggest musical of the 1900s! And a few connections in Times Square where you can still find these 19th-century traces of the past.

This show was edited by Kieran Gannon

Visit the website for images and other information, including recommendations of other Bowery Boys podcasts

In 1886, during a miles-long parade celebrating the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, office workers in lower Manhattan began heaving ticker tape out the windows, creating a magical, blizzard-like landscape.

That tradition stuck. Today that particular corridor of Broadway -- connecting Battery Park to City Hall -- is known as the "Canyon of Heroes" thanks to the popularity of the ticker-tape parade.

While many cities with skyscrapers host ticker-tape parades today, New York was the place they originated in the late 19th century and for a very obvious reason -- the ticker-tape itself, a byproduct of the Financial District which revolutionized the way stocks were traded.

New York has regularly honored athletes, politicians, pilots, kings and queens, astronauts and generals with ticker-tape parades for over 125 years. Today, they're best known as a way to celebrate New York sports teams, the winners of the World Series, the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup.

The story of the ticker-tape parade is also a story of modern American history in capsule form, celebrating technological achievements, victories in war, cultural milestones and international unity.

Greg and Tom are back in the studio to give you a rundown of New York's greatest parades. And they also pay tribute to those other local heroes -- the Department of Sanitation who cleans up after these festive but messy celebrations.

Visit the website for more information and other stories from the Bowery Boys

Get your tickets for The Gilded Age Unplugged with Greg Young and Carl Raymond (Sept 5 at the Montauk Club) here.

One-two-three-four! The Ramones, a four-man rock band from Forest Hills, Queens, played the Bowery music club CBGB for the very first time on August 16, 1974.

Not only would Joey, Johnny, Tommy and Dee Dee reinvigorate downtown New York nightlife here -- creating a unique and energetic form of punk -- but they would join with a small group of musicians at CBGB to revolutionize American music in the 1970s.

In this episode we’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Ramones' first performances in downtown Manhattan. But this also a tribute to New York rock music of the 1970s and to the most famous rock-music club in America.

CBGB & OMFUG officially stands for "Country, Bluegrass, Blues and Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers," and Hilly Kristal's legendary hole-in-the-wall music venue on the Bowery would be best defined by that "other music" -- namely punk, new wave and later hardcore.

Over the course of 70 performances, the Ramones would perfect their sound and appearance on the ragged little stage here at CBGB, building upon musical influences like the local glam rock scene (The New York Dolls, Jayne County) and their own nostalgic callbacks to the Beatles.

The mid-1970s CBGBs scene would produce other artists who would go on to mainstream, international fame -- Patti Smith, Television, the Talking Heads and Blondie. Not only would these artists become associated with the Bowery, but most of them would live on the surrounding streets.

On this special episode, Greg is joined by an incredible roster of guests including Ramones record producer and engineer Ed Stasium; longtime CBGBs fixture BG Hacker; tour guide and Ramones fan Ann McDermott and music historian Jesse Rifkin, author of This Must Be The Place: Music, Community and Vanished Spaces in New York City.

Visit the website for more information and images

See the Bowery Boys live at Joe's Pub this October!

After listening to this show, check out the Bowery Boys podcasts on the history of the East Village:
#416 Creating the East Village
#417 Walking the East Village

Carl Raymond of The Gilded Gentleman podcast and his guest Keith Taillon invite you into one of the most historically exclusive spaces in New York City -- the romantic and peaceful escape known as Gramercy Park. 

This small two-acre square, constructed in the 1830s, has been called “America’s Bloomsbury”. Taking the reference from London’s famous neighborhood once home to many great writers and artists, New York’s Gramercy Park has similarly included noted cultural icons as architect Stanford White, actor Edwin Booth and the great politician Samuel Tilden. 

Wandering along the park today it’s easy to gain a view back into the past — many of the original Greek Revival brick townhouses and brownstone mansions remain, some still in private hands. The park in the center is one of the most unique places in America — it is a private park, not a city property and its upkeep has been managed since its inception in the early 19th century by the property owners around the park itself. 

Writer and historian Keith Taillon joins Carl for this episode to look back into this hidden pocket of New York City’s past and unlock its history. 

Visit the website for images and other information about Gramercy Park