Welcome back and let’s get going. Nostrand Avenue, which gets its name from Gerret Noorstrandt, is a vital artery that flows between Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, and strings together other communities from Sheepshead Bay to Williamsburg...
Contributions and Controversies: The Complex History of Mayor Koch and the LGBT Community
June is National Pride month when LGBT communities around the country celebrate the night that effectively kicked off the modern gay civil rights movement. In the early hours of June 28, 1969, gay and lesbian patrons of the popular Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street decided they had enough of the constant...
Behold the Baby Artichoke, or, Power to the Punies
The Dutch & the English Part 5: The Return of the Dutch and What Became of the Wall
The Last County: The Bronx
The Objective Eye
Behind the Scenes: Book Conservation
The Dutch & the English Part 4: Invasion?
In late August 1664 the Burgomasters & Schepens (mayors and aldermen) of New Amsterdam were faced with “four King’s frigates from England, sent hither by his Majesty and his brother, the Duke of York, with commission to reduce not only this place, but also the whole N. Netherland under his Majesty’s authority…”
Dispatches from the Urban Heartland, Part 2: Rebooting Crow Hill, Brooklyn
The Brightest Days of the Marshall
The Chewing Gum War of 1939
A Tale of Two Collections
Dispatches from the Urban Heartland, Part 1: Welcome
Doomed Guests: Faisal II, The “Boy King” Of Iraq
The Surprises Waiting in 40,000 Vacant Lots
The Dutch & the English, Part 3: Construction of the Wall (1653-1663)
Sunset Park: The Blue-Sky Line
The Dutch & the English, Part 2: A Wall by Any Other Name
In 1653, the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam built a fortification along the northern edge of the town, running from the Hudson River (today's Greenwich Street) to the East River (then lapping at Pearl Street). Eventually the English captured the city, and named the street that ran along that old fortification Wall Street. But what did the Dutch call it?