Fort Amsterdam Walking Tours Blog

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.