Fort Amsterdam Walking Tours Blog

You probably already know that New York City is a haven for movie fans. There are dozens to choose from in Manhattan alone, from the multiplexes at 42nd Street and Union Square to the basement art theaters on 12th and 13th Streets. The Lincoln Center-66th Street stop alone has at least four movie theaters within a three block radius. My three favorite movie theaters in New York City can all be found on Houston Street. The Film Forum at 209 West Houston has been screening movies since 1970 when it was just a single projector and a few rows of folding chairs. It’s still fairly small, but it probably has the best repertory film program in New York City. For modern films, the A ngelika at Houston and Mercer has a terrific selection, and I’ve always been charmed by the occasional rumble of the 6 train rolling by. But if you’re looking for a great space, it’s hard to do better than the Landmark Sunshine at 143 East Houston. * With five screens stretched across three floors, the Sunshi...

Hey guys, thanks for sticking with me through this week's two-parter! If you haven't read part 1 , go take a look at Manhattan's largest brewery and the first lager in America. Today we continue with our history of Park and 51st with the current structure, St. Bartholomew's Church (St. Bart's to his fellow New Yorkers.)

With the huge influx of German immigrants in the first half of the 19th century, Manhattan was introduced to a wide range of new foods that would go on to become staples of the American menu. Immigrants from Frankfurt and Hamburg would bring their taste for wursts and ground beef that would evolve to the all-American hot dog and hamburger. And in 1842, two brothers from Wetzlar, Germany would introduce Manhattan to a new beer to wash it all down. F. & M. Schaeffer Brewing Company (1889) New York was no stranger to beer, of course. The earliest brewery dates back to 1633 at Bridge Street and Whitehall, and the New Amsterdam taverns that dotted lower Manhattan were central to Dutch and English society. New York is still covered with references to old family names who began as brewers: Bayard, Cortlandt, Kip, and Beekman to name just a few. In the early 1800s, New York bars predominantly served British-style beers, light on hops but heavy on malt, with a low amount of carbonat...

"Most of our readers have witnessed a dog fight in the street. Let them imagine the animals surrounded by a crowd of brutal wretches whose conduct stamps them as beneath the struggling beasts, and they will have a fair idea of the scene at Kit Burns's."  - Secrets of the Great City,  Edward Winslow Martin Just down the block from the Hole in the Wall is a three-story brick building at 273 Water Street. Built in 1773, 273 Water is the third-oldest building in Manhattan, behind only St. Paul's Chapel on lower Broadway and the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Harlem Heights. The first resident was a mahogany trader named Joseph Rose. Captain Rose built a comfortable two-story home with a steep-pitched roof, three fireplaces, a wooden sidewalk out front, and a dock out back where he moored his brig, the Industry . Later occupants would include tenant Abraham Walton, a vestryman at Trinity Church and a delegate to the First Provincial Congress in 1775, and son Isaac Rose,...

This weekend I had the pleasure of going to the Brooklyn Beefsteak at the Bell House in Gowanus. It was an awesome event, and I probably ate more meat than any sane human being has a right to eat. Beefsteaks have been a tradition in New York since the late 1800s, when they served as fundraisers for civic and political organizations. Men (and they were always men; beefsteaks remained stag until 1920) would rent out meeting halls or cellars, stretch planks of wood over barrels, and then start cooking slices of steak tenderloin in butter and drippings. Downtown Merchants' Beefsteak (1893) The details differ from event to event, but the general outlines have remained the same: unlimited steak, unlimited beer, and no utensils. If your hands got too greasy from the meat, you'd wash them in a little beer and wipe them on your personalized apron. Steak would be served on slices of bread, though the bread is typically not eaten. Instead, a beefsteaker would eat the st...

Hey guys! Welcome to Fort Amsterdam's first Block Party, where we'll explore the rich history of a single Manhattan block. This month, take a stroll down "the Bloody Angle," Doyers Street between Pell and Bowery. 

279 Water Street has been known by many names since it was built in 1794. It started life as a waterfront grocery run by Newell Narme. (At the time, Water Street marked the eastern edge of Manhattan, much like Beaver and Pearl before it and Front Street after.) The property changed hands many times in the 19th century, notably to attorney Charles G. Ferris, who leased the property to a host of saloons. The most famous of these was the Hole in the Wall, owned by the aptly named One-Armed Charley Monell. Hole in the Wall was what's known as  a "pull joint." Rather than use glasses, a thirsty patron would pay three cents to drink as much as they could in one breath from rubber tubes connected to barrels of rotgut behind the bar. One-Armed Charley also kept a glass jar full of pickling juice next to the barrels. Waterfront brawlers would return from fights and deposit their "trophies" of severed ears, fingers, and noses into the jar.

The handsome five-story townhouse at 46 East 70th Street began its life as the home of Stephen Carlton Clark. Clark's grandfather was Edward Clark, the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and one of the wealthiest men in America. (Edward Clark would also build the Dakota on 72nd and Central Park West.) In 1911, Frederick Sterner designed a house for him at 46 East 70th Street with high bay windows, gabled roofs, and rich wood paneling throughout the interior. Clark probably never expected his home would one day be filled with lions, narwhal tusks, stones from the top of Everest and sand from the surface of the moon.

"It did not seem possible that so much wealth could be assembled in one spot...There seemed to be enough clothes to supply an army. There were trunks filled with precious gems and silverware. Antique furniture was stacked against a wall and bars of gold from melted jewelry settings were stacked under newspapers. There were scales of every description to weigh diamonds." - Journalist, upon discovering "Marm" Mandelbaum's hideout Born in Prussia in 1818, Friederike Henriette Auguste Wiesener may not have seemed like an underworld queen at first blush. At 250 pounds, with a ruddy complexion and beady eyes, she was no looker, but what she lacked in beauty she made up for in shrewdness. She set her sights upon Wolfe Mendelbaum, who she wooed with bland, easily-digestible cooking to cure his "chronic dyspepsia." The two wed in 1847 and moved to New York City, with Wolfe going first to earn money for Freiderike's travel. By 1854, the Mandelbaum...

"You're so droll. They don't make droll people anymore. Where have all the droll people gone?"  - Rayleen,  45 Seconds from Broadway by Neil Simon The Hotel Edison was constructed in 1931 by hotelier Max Kramer. Thomas Edison was on hand to flip the switch and turn on the lights at its opening (though he did so remotely from his home in Menlo Park, New Jersey.) The hotel was able to accomdate 1,000 guests across its 26 floors, three restaurants, and one grand ballroom, though the ballroom was converted to the Edison Theatre from 1950-1991.

"I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot...The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best." New York City's only president, Theodore Roosevelt was born on this spot on October 27th, 1858. The son of a northern father and a southern mother, his childhood was spent teetering between happy curiosity (he studied nature by bringing in dead mice and snakes into the house) and familial tension (his parents were frequently at odds during the Civil War, his Georgian mother sending care packages to the Confederacy while his New York City father lobbied for improved living conditions for Union soldiers.) After the war, the founders of the American Museum of Natural History (which included Roosevelt, Sr.) would sign the charter in the Roosevelt's parlor in 1869. "Theedie" (never "Teddy") lived there until he was 14, when his family moved uptown to 57th Street.

In 1958, photographer Art Kane took the famous photo "A Great Day in Harlem," featuring 57 of Harlem's most famous jazz musicians. Though few lived there at the time the photo was taken, it includes such famous former Harlem locals as Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Gene Krupa, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, and Lester Young.