Hart Island, the nation’s largest public cemetery, will open to the public for the first time this month. The city’s Parks Department on Wednesday announced that free walking tours of the Bronx island will be offered twice per month starting November 21. Hart Island, which has served as the final resting place of more than one million people since the Civil War, has long been inaccessible to visitors, with extremely stringent security and once-a-month visitation days. Now, with NYC Parks managing the site, the public can get an up-close look at the island’s history, helping undo historical stigmas. The tours will last roughly 2.5 hours, with ferry transportation provided to and from the island.

Hart Island has served as the city’s public cemetery since 1869, with New Yorkers who were unable to afford private burials or who were never claimed by family. While currently only used for burials, the 131-acre island has previously been used as a quarantine station, a psychiatric hospital, a tuberculosis ward, a reform school, a homeless shelter, a rehabilitation facility, a military base, and a jail.

The highly-anticipated NYC Parks walking tours aim to enrich participants on the island’s public history, how the area became a municipal cemetery, its wildlife and natural features, the burial process, and current advocacy efforts to sustain it.

“We’re thrilled to begin offering free public history tours of Hart Island, allowing New Yorkers an intimate look at the island for the very first time. Our Urban Park Rangers have created informative and reflective programming that highlights the island’s important role in New York City history,” NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said.

“As Hart Island will continue to be the City’s main burial ground for the foreseeable future, we’re also pleased to unveil, in collaboration with sister agencies, the positive improvements and beautification efforts that have taken place to improve the experience at gravesite visits for those visiting loved ones buried on the island. I encourage New Yorkers to join the Urban Park Rangers to explore Hart Island’s unique past, present, and future.” 

The first tour is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 21. To attend a tour, interested participants must register through an online form and then be selected by a lottery.

Additional public tour dates include:

• December 5, 2023
• December 19, 2023
• January 16, 2024
• January 30, 2024
• February 13, 2024
• February 27, 2024
• March 12, 2024
• March 26, 2024
• April 9, 2024
• April 23, 2024
• May 14, 2024
• May 28, 2024

The free public walking tours aren’t the only activities coming to the island. New nature classes, known as the Urban Park Rangers Weekend Adventures, will be offered in the next few months. These classes include activities like canoeing, hiking, archery, and fishing.

In November 2019, the City Council approved legislation transferring ownership of Hart Island from the city’s Department of Corrections to the Parks Department and the NYC Human Resources Association (HRA). The transfer of management took place in 2021, following years of advocacy from groups who wanted to ease the process of visiting the island to pay respects to loved ones buried there, improve its dilapidated conditions, and make it more publicly accessible.

Since the island’s transferral, the area has seen significant upgrades that improve the visitor experience for guests, including the demolition of deteriorating buildings, new plantings, and additional beautification efforts.

HRA, which manages the island’s burials and landscaping, cleared overgrowth that previously blocked graves for decades and created a landscaped area with seating near the ferry dock.

Future plans include the creation of a 3.5-mile shuttle bus from the 6 train to the ferry, or a new dedicated water route from the Bronx, according to the New York Times.

Additionally, the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) recently finished a $32 million project that removed 15 old structures from the island, which resulted in better views and a more open feel. DDC is continuing to work on stabilizing the island’s historic chapel.

More information on the tours can be found here.

RELATED:

• City Council votes to make Hart Island, nation’s largest public cemetery, more accessible
• NYC might get a COVID-19 memorial on Hart Island
• NYC Council considers turning mass gravesite on Hart Island into a city park

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New York’s oldest museum, the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, begins construction this month on an 80,000-square-foot renovation and expansion project. As 6sqft previously reported, the $140 million five-story extension at the rear of the museum’s Upper West Side location will be designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern. New-York Historical president and CEO Louise Mirrer announced Monday the new addition will feature a Democracy Wing. When construction is completed in 2026–just in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary–the new wing will offer educational programs and a home for valuable materials on American democracy.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission-approved addition will also provide the first real home for the American LGBTQ+ Museum, a partner institution dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture. The new space will also feature a courtyard and rooftop garden terraces with Central Park views.

On the wing’s second floor, the Tang Academy for American Democracy will offer the New-York Historical’s award-winning American history educational program. The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Center for Teaching Democracy will offer a space for teachers, scholars, and museum professionals to collaborate on explorations of history and political theory.

“As construction begins on our new wing, we are fulfilling a vision set into motion in 1937 by the Trustees of New-York Historical Society, who had the foresight to purchase the lot adjacent to our building, knowing that our growing collections and evolving programs for scholars, students, educators, and the public would someday need room to expand,” said Dr. Mirrer in a statement.

“As we look ahead, our new wing will serve as a beacon for democracy education, a powerhouse of inclusive history, and a home for history enthusiasts of all backgrounds and perspectives. We look forward to seeing Robert A. M. Stern Architects’ design, which was crafted with extraordinary skill and sensitivity, come to realization.”

The expansion will also house the Klingenstein Family Gallery, The Stuart and Jane Weitzman Shoe Museum, a conservation studio for painting and paper, and storage stacks for collections in the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. The new addition’s facade will be constructed from granite from the same quarry in Deer Isle, Maine that yielded the stone used in the original 114-year-old building.

“It’s a privilege to work with the New-York Historical Society on this expansion of its landmark building, enabling it to extend its broad and vital mission to a growing audience that ranges from local schoolchildren to international visitors,” Stern, founder and senior partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, said.

“With input from engaged and supportive neighbors and in response to the historic neighboring townhouses, the design of the expansion is sympathetic to the palette and rhythm of the 1908 building and its 1938 additions.”

RELATED:

• New-York Historical Society expansion includes a home for the American L.G.B.T.Q.+ Museum
• See the Museum of Natural History’s sparkling new Halls of Gems and Minerals
• NYC agency approves removal of racist Theodore Roosevelt statue at AMNH
• Intrepid Museum gets a branding makeover with updated name and logo

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Fifty years ago, Ralph Lee took a walk around Greenwich Village with his puppets on Halloween night. It resonated with people. A couple of years later, as part of the City in the Streets program, Theater for the New City stepped in and produced the event on a larger scale, hitting more Village streets and attracting more participants. After Lee stopped his involvement with the parade, Jeanne Fleming stepped in. Today, over four decades under Fleming’s careful eye as artistic and producing director, the Village Halloween Parade is a part of New York City’s cultural identity — an event that through hardship and triumph over the past 50 years, has remained a ritual.

That word, “ritual,” is a meaningful one to Fleming in the context of her beloved parade in 2023. Over a million people come out to see the parade and 70,000 people participate. Plus, the parade is televised for people to watch from home. “We don’t advertise, we just put the word out,” said Fleming.

The theme of this year’s event is “Upside Down/Inside OUT,” and it’s an ode to what New Yorkers have gone through with the Covid-19 pandemic.

During past hard times, the parade has served as a constant in New York City, and a reason to come outside. “My job is to make it safe for people to dance in their g-string in the middle of New York,” joked Fleming. And she means that both figuratively and quite literally.

Fleming recalls the 2001 parade, just weeks after the 9/11 attacks.

“That was very intense,” she said. The parade went on, but a New York Post article from 2001 reported that attendance was about half of what it was the year prior. The theme was “Phoenix Rising.”

A heavy police presence (about 2,000 police officers according to live coverage on PIX11 that year) was a reminder that the world’s safety had been compromised. “In previous years, you’d be able to look down 6th Avenue…in the backdrop you’d be able to see the Twin Towers,” the reporter said.

“That was like a healing ritual,” Fleming said of that year’s parade. “We started the parade, and I told the band to play ‘New York, New York’ slow like a dirge, and it was really weird; you could hear a pin drop, and as we moved along you could hear people letting out their breath. It was like people had been holding their breath for weeks.”

“By the time we finished, there was finally a sense of, ‘We are going on. We’re New York,’” she added.

This year’s event marks the third in-person parade since the Covid pandemic. In 2020, the parade was canceled for only the second time in its history. Instead of the usual in-person march, a puppet show was recorded and lives on in perpetuity online.

“The parade traditionally is led by giant dancing skeletons; they remind us how important it is to dance. In times like this, it seems important…The parade becomes this year more of a ritual than a celebration,” said Fleming. “My thinking is we’re calling us who are alive to come out. Our world was turned upside down and we went inside, but now we’re coming out.”

This year’s parade is also meant to be a reflection (pun intended) of how Fleming believes New Yorkers and people in general are feeling in today’s world. “I was feeling the energy the other day in NYC,” she said. “Usually, people are walking with purpose. But that was not what I felt; I felt like people were pretending — trying to figure out what the meaning was, but lost it.”

The giant puppet section of this year’s parade was inspired by Felming’s idea that “our world is shattered.”

“But after 50 years, we have to reflect on what we have done,” she said, “so they came up with a great design: ‘Mirror, Mirror.’ If our world is shattered then maybe it’s like a broken mirror in 50 different pieces over the years, and how do you put it together and make meaning of something shattered?”

The performance, she said, will involve 50 pieces of mirror, and figures called Sweepers (who are meant to clear away the energy of the daily use of the streets ahead of the parade) will clean up the shards. “The mirror will attempt to remake itself, but it still won’t be perfect. But how do you heal? Through art. What’s going to happen is the shattered mirror will make choreography. It will become something — not what it used to be — but something beautiful.”

As a career artist, Fleming speaks of the parade through this artistic lens: as an expression of the human condition through performance. But at the crux of it all is the humans themselves — the people who don costumes and come out to enjoy one of the final nights of outdoor revelry in NYC before winter.

“I’ve always felt the parade allows the expression of individual imagination. I was more interested in people who are not artists because we (artists) already experience creation,” she said.

“Halloween is a chance to have that experience of creating. I believe that if you’re given the opportunity to do that and to open your heart, there’s a better chance for the world to be a more peaceful place. Being an artist who does celebrations, there’s no greater reason for me to do my work than to change people’s souls.”

This 50th anniversary is also an opportunity for Fleming and the parade organizers to honor the life lost of a fellow artist. Musician Lou Reed will serve as a posthumous Grand Marshal while his wife, artist Laurie Anderson, will be the Grand Marshal. Reed and Anderson would attend the parade every year, said Fleming, and he even had a song called “Halloween Parade.”

“In that song, he talks about the people who died of AIDS who used to be in the parade, and I knew all those people, and it was always an evocative song for me,” said Fleming. “He says, ‘I’ll see you next year at the parade.’ And I think what he was saying was, ‘I’ll see your spirit.’”

Anderson’s float will include Reed’s guitars being played live and a recording of Reed’s voice playing as well, she said.

The memory of lives lost during the AIDS epidemic about 40 years ago, September 11 22 years ago, and the Covid pandemic just three years ago, permeates the theme of this year’s parade. But looking ahead to the next 50 years, Fleming hopes the parade can continue to be the healing experience it is today.

“You come dressed like Superman, and you come dance in the cold for two hours and people treat you like a superhero — you lose your mind and become something else,” she said. “When I see people in the parade — by the end, they are like in a trance, dancing in the air, treated like whatever they are dressed as, and you’re just not the same. The whole parade is like a dance transformation for me and that’s why I do the work. It’s endlessly interesting.”

“I wish it will continue to do that. It is a ritual; that’s what it is. Everyone who comes is in the magic circle,” she continued.

“You’ll never see anything like it. Come out and be with your tribe. Find your tribe; they are there…come out and play! Play!”

New York’s 50th annual Village Halloween Parade takes place Tuesday, October 31 at 7 p.m. The parade starts at Canal Street and 6th Avenue and goes up from 6th Avenue to 15th Street. Costumes are required to participate in the parade.

RELATED:

• The best ways to celebrate Halloween 2023 in NYC
• Village Halloween Parade cancelled for only the second time in 47 years
• The Urban Lens: A walk through the wild and wonderful Village Halloween Parade

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The Whitney Museum of American Art and Village Preservation on Thursday unveiled a historic plaque at the Greenwich Village home and studio of the renowned artist Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein lived and worked at the 11,000-square-foot building at 741-745 Washington Street from 1988 until his passing in 1997. The building, constructed in 1912 as a metalworking shop, has officially reopened after receiving a full renovation by Los Angeles-based architects Johnston Marklee. The building now serves as the first permanent home for the museum’s Independent Study Program (ISP), which supports future artists and scholars.

In the years since Lichtenstein’s passing, the property has been used by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation for a variety of purposes, including the preparation of archives and the creation of the artist’s catalogue raisonné. In 2022, the Foundation donated the building to the Whitney Museum of Art, which had a close relationship with the artist since the museum first presented his work in 1965.

For 55 years, the ISP has supported the growth of artists, critics, and scholars and provided them with space, instruction, and support to fully devote themselves to their craft. The Washington Street property will be the program’s first permanent home. The space will go on to train the next generation of world-class artists.

“This project is so important to me and to the Whitney, as it truly sits at the heart of our mission to support American art and artists in innovative ways,” Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum, said. 

“The original Whitney was the studio of our founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, where she held salons and conversations and gatherings of artists. The ISP is a continuation of Gertrude’s tradition, and to have its first permanent home be in the same space where an iconic American artist questioned hierarchies and worked to evaluate, understand, and critique pop culture, is just perfect.”

The renovation project was approved by the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2022 and retained many of its historical elements, including a chandelier in the central stairway, ornamental metal designs, and Lichtenstein’s distinct rail system that he used to hang his oversized paintings to dry.

What was Lichtenstein’s former office will serve as the seminar room for the ISP, while his former living quarters on the second floor have been turned into space for meetings and research, according to the New York Times. Extra space has been added on the third floor that will serve as living space for an artist-in-residence.

The ground floor studio has been divided into 15 individual studios; amenities such as lounges and dining areas have also been added.

The Greenwich Village building was Lichtenstein’s “dream studio,” Dorothy Lichtenstein told the Times. “It was the largest studio he ever had,” and was so big that he and Dorothy were once able to jog in it before it was subdivided into smaller sections.

“This is the most wonderful way to celebrate Roy’s legacy,” Dorothy Lichtenstein said. “The ISP is such an extraordinary organization, and I am so proud to support it in any way possible. I am so pleased with the sensitive way the architects designed this space, which is so important to me, and was so important to Roy. It was his favorite studio, and I know he would be very happy.”

RELATED:

• Village townhouse once owned by Roy Lichtenstein’s son is back on the market for $30M
• Roy Lichtenstein’s former Nomad loft hits the market for $4.5M

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A 19th-century wooden house in the West Village that has lived many lives over its nearly 190-year-old history is now on the market. Built in 1834, the property at 392 West Street (also known as 6 Weehawken Street) was originally part of the open-air Greenwich Market and later operated as a tavern, cigar store, pool hall, speakeasy, and two gay bars. The building’s last owner, Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, made headlines in recent years after claiming he would leave the home to the Lenape people, the original Manhattanites. But when Bourgeois died last year, the house went to his estate and is now on the market for $6,000,000, as Gothamist reported.

The property was built on land that had been part of the colonial Newgate State Prison and later became part of the Greenwich Market (also known as Weehawken Market); it is considered the sole surviving portion of the market house. After 10 years of operation, the market closed and went on to house a saloon, a gambling parlor, an oyster house, bars, and an adult video shop.

Bourgeois, son of famous late sculptor, Louise Bourgeois, bought the building for $2.2 million in 2006. In 2016, Bourgeois announced he would be giving the building, and the land, to its original owners, by transferring the deed to a nonprofit group run by a Lenape tribe.

“Manhattan is a capitalist rock; this is a quiet protest against that,” Bourgeois told the New York Times in a 2017 interview. “I’m giving it back to whom the land was stolen from, and that’s really a joyful event.”

The deal never went through. When Bourgeois died last year, he did not leave the building to anyone (but did leave $50,000 to his house cat, the New York Post reported). And now, as Gothamist spotted, the house is on the market again.

Largely unchanged since the 19th century, the home sits within the Weehawken Street Historic District, designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2006. The district includes 14 buildings that represent the development of Greenwich Village along the waterfront, with its history as a “place of dwelling, industry, and commerce, much of it maritime-related,” as the LPC noted in its report.

The two-and-a-half-story shingled home measures roughly 2,400 square feet and is one of the last wood-frame buildings on the Hudson River waterfront. Any future owners would need approval from the LPC before any work can be done on the property.

“With frontage on both West Street and Weehawken, and zoned for commercial as well as residential, this versatile little gem awaits its next incarnation,” the listing from The Corcoran Group reads. “Bring your architect and your imagination.”

[Listing details: 392 West Street by Jessica Buchman and Deborah Kern of The Corcoran Group]

RELATED:

• Three years after promising $5M West Village house to the Lenape, Louise Bourgeois’ son backtracks
• Louise Bourgeois’ son gifts $4M West Village townhouse to Native American tribe

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Celebrate Coney Island’s 200th anniversary by honoring the neighborhood’s oldest surviving artifact this weekend. The Coney Island History Project, located at 3059 West 12th Street next to the entrance to Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park, is displaying the 200-year-old Coney Island Toll House sign from 1823. The artifact will be on view on Saturday, October 28, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Until 1823, there was no way for the public to access Coney Island. The area began as land that was shared between 39 property owners in the village of Gravesend. Before it was developed, the island was known for its towering sand dunes, salt marshes, beaches, and forests. It was also a popular spot to fish and hunt waterfowl, but before the construction of the Shell Road bridge, it was only accessible by boat, according to the Coney Island History Project.

Gravesend residents formed the Coney Island Road and Bridge Company in March of 1823 to create easier access to the island. To begin, Shell Road was extended by one mile through an expansive salt marsh to a new bridge. Next, a wooden toll house and gate were built on the banks of Coney Island Creek.

Coney Island first opened to the public in the summer of 1823 after the completion of the new bridge and its adjacent toll house at Coney Island Creek and Shell Road. Daniel Morell, who operated the tollbooth after the road first opened, recorded roughly 300 horse-drawn vehicles crossing the bridge. At the time, the toll fare ranged from 5 cents for a horse and its rider to 50 cents for horse-drawn carriages.

In 1829, a wood-frame hotel was erected close to the toll house, and further developers quickly went up around it, leading to Coney Island’s establishment as a popular getaway destination by the 1830s.

The toll house’s sign is the only relic that has survived from when the area was first established.

The sign’s authenticity can be verified. In 1928, a year before the toll house was demolished, the sign was removed from the structure by amusement ride manufacturer William Mangels Jr. and displayed in his father’s amusement museum located a block away on West 8th Street.

That same museum closed down not so long after the sign arrived, and a majority of its contents were sold off. However, the sign remained. In 1964, the relic was sold to folk art collector Frederick Fried, who displayed the sign in his apartment on Riverside Drive. When Fried died, his estate was sold to Nick Zervos, who kept the item in his private collection for decades.

In 2003, Charles Denson, executive director of the Coney Island History Project, was contacted by an antique dealer who said that he had obtained the historic sign after Zervos passed away and was interested in selling it. While Denson couldn’t afford the hefty price tag associated with the item, he contacted Carol Albert, co-founder of the Coney Island History Project, who purchased the sign and had it restored.

Following its restoration, the sign was put on display at the History Project, just a few blocks away from where it first hung 200 years ago.

In case of rain, the sign will be on display on Sunday, October 29 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Learn more about the original Coney Island Toll House sign here.

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• The 13 best things to do in Coney Island
• The Coney Island Mermaid Parade turns 40, returns to the boardwalk this year

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A new sculpture in Union Square Park plays on the century-old myth that alligators live in New York City’s sewer system. Created by Swedish artist Alexander Klingspor in collaboration with Mollbrinks Gallery, “NYC Legend” is a bronze sculpture depicting a life-sized alligator sitting atop a manhole cover. The artwork is inspired by an urban legend that originated 100 years ago claiming New Yorkers set pet baby alligators loose in the sewers after they grew too large to handle. The installation is on display through June 2024.

The sculpture blends the themes of ancient mythological symbolism and modern urban folklore, honoring NYC’s signature resilience and enduring nature, also qualities of alligators.

“Stories are the very backbone of human civilization giving shape to our shared consciousness through sculptures, paintings, and architecture,” Klingspor said. “This piece is a testament to our timeless drive to find icons in nature, and to the bridge that myth builds between the ancient and modern that still echoes today.”

While tales of large sewer alligators feeding on unsuspecting animals and sanitation workers are myths, there is some truth to the urban legend.

On February 9, 1935, later celebrated by some as “Alligators in the Sewers Day,” a group of teenagers reportedly caught and killed an eight-foot, 125-pound alligator through a manhole on East 123rd Street while shoveling snow on a winter day, according to the New York Times.

The next day, the newspapers were full of stories about the event, giving way to a widespread urban legend about scores of alligators infesting the sewer system. So much so that February 9, 1935, has become a sort of unofficial holiday among certain New Yorkers.

There have been alligator sightings across the city in recent history. In 1995, a four-foot alligator was taken from Kissena Lake in Queens; in 2001, a two-foot caiman was caught in Central Park; and in 2003, an American alligator was seen in Alley Pond Park. This past February, a five-foot alligator was rescued in Prospect Park after being abandoned by their owner. It died a few weeks later despite extensive medical treatment at the Bronx Zoo.

A sewer alligator can also be found on the 14th Street/ Eighth Avenue subway platform, but this one poses no danger. The bronze underground gator is a sculpture created by Tom Otterness as just one piece of a series titled “Life Underground.”

“NYC Legend” is presented in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation and Union Square Partnership, and funded by Mollbrinks Gallery. The sculpture was cast by Switzerland’s Perseo Foundry, which is highly regarded for its world-class materials and casting techniques.

“This sculpture is a beautiful representation of our enduring resilience as New Yorkers, and embodies one of the most famous urban legends about our city,” Anthony Perez, NYC Parks Manhattan Borough Commissioner, said.

“Public art installations like this are one of the many ways we use our public parks to celebrate the stories and spirit that make our city so unique. I’m so excited to see this sculpture take its place in iconic Union Square Park, where I’m sure it will surprise and delight both New Yorkers and visitors.”

RELATED:

• On this day in 1935, a 125-pound alligator was wrangled in an East Harlem sewer
• Three major public art installations explore sustainability, social justice as part of NYC’s annual Design Pavilion
• Fred Eversley’s first public artwork in NYC explores new dimensions in Central Park

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The first permanent memorial honoring the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was officially unveiled in Greenwich Village on Wednesday. Designed by artists Richard Joon Yoo and Uri Wegman and commissioned by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, the memorial is located on steel panels fixed to the exterior of 23-29 Washington Place, also known as the Asch Building, where the devastating event took place. All 146 names of the workers who perished on that fateful day are etched into the panels.

Wegman and Yoo’s design is inspired by the mourning ribbons that were traditionally draped on buildings during times of public grief. The main component of the memorial is a textured stainless steel ribbon that descends from the corner of the building on the ninth floor and splits at the top of the ground floor, continuing along both sides of the building.

The ribbon hangs 12 feet above the sidewalk and is reflected by a reflective directly below on the street level. As visitors look up and read the names etched into the ribbon, they will see the testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses reflected in the panel.

Union leaders and government officials attended Wednesday’s unveiling, including Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“It’s a stand with the working men and women of the proud State of New York, the birthplace of the workers’ rights movement because of what happened right on this block. That is something we tout to the rest of the world,” Hochul said.

“Our workers deserve to be protected and we will fight to make sure they have those rights. And as we think of the people coming here in search of the American Dream, the recently arriving migrants, I want to thank my labor team, Roberta Reardon, for working quickly to find jobs,” the governor added.

“Because this state is so great because of the immigrants, the migrants who came here. They’re part of our family. Just like those little girls who worked and toiled here making shirts for the well-to-do ladies to wear in the parks and on their Sunday outings.”

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire is one of the deadliest workplace tragedies in American history. The fire began around 4:30 p.m. on March 25, 1911, on the eighth floor of the Asch Building, which is located on the corner of Washington Place and Green Streets.

A majority of the factory workers were poor immigrant women and girls, hired by owners Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, who specifically hired them because they would work for less pay than men and were considered less likely to unionize.

The factory floor was known for its terrible working conditions and neglectful management by Blanck and Harris, who designed the layout of all 280 sewing machines to minimize conversation between workers and maximize production. They fined workers for talking, singing, or taking too many breaks.

The fire was ignited when ash from a foreman’s cigarette landed on rags and cloth on the floor and quickly spread, fueled by grease from the sewing machines. When the workers tried to escape, they realized they were trapped behind the doors that Blanck and Harris kept locked throughout the workday. With no other way out, some workers jumped out of the building’s windows to their deaths to escape the flames.

The fire brought national attention to the widespread mistreatment of laborers and poor working conditions in factories around the country. The incident played a pivotal role in the labor movement and led to a series of reforms in New York, and eventually the rest of the country.

In 2012, the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition organized an international competition aimed at creating a permanent memorial to honor the victims at the site of the tragic event. After looking at roughly 180 submissions, the Coalition went with Wegman and Yoo’s design as the winning proposal.

In 2015, New York State granted $1.5 million towards the construction of the memorial, and in January 2019, the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission approved the design. Finally, in 2021, the Public Design Commission approved and commended the memorial’s design.

In July, it was announced that after more than 100 years since the incident, a permanent tribute to the Triangle Factory Fire would finally be built.

RELATED:

• NYC memorial honoring Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire victims to be unveiled this fall
• Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the women who fought for labor reform
• The story behind ‘Scabby the Rat,’ NYC’s symbol of unionized labor

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The Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886. The Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883. Grand Central Terminal opened to the public in 1913. Fraunces Tavern, a famed Financial District watering hole, has been serving New Yorkers since 1762.

“Fraunces Tavern’s remarkable ability to remain in business throughout its long history is attributed to its resilience in the face of numerous disasters and challenges. These include surviving the 1775 British bombings, the 1975 FALN bombing, weathering Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and navigating the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Edmund Travers and Dervila Bowler owners/operators of Fraunces Tavern Restaurant.

“The key factors behind its enduring success include its iconic status, historical significance, dedicated management, loyal patronage, and adaptability in evolving with changing times and circumstances.”

Many of New York City’s oldest eateries and watering holes predate some of the city’s most iconic landmarks and have “lived” through eras and eras of change.

“NYC is a unique world capital. Though not as old as some of the great European capitals, NYC has a unique and valuable history to preserve and unfortunately, it’s vanishing quickly,” said a spokesperson for Pete’s Tavern, which has been in business since 1864.

Owners of NYC’s historic restaurants have a unique task of preserving the past while staying relevant and profitable in today’s ever-changing world. It’s a task that’s not always easy, according to Pete’s Tavern.

“Due to many factors including the recent Pandemic, high rents, a transient population, changing customers’ tastes and rising costs for all inputs, historic restaurants face many obstacles to their longevity – especially at a single location.”

But a passion for history and for the city keeps these restaurants — many of them family-owned for generations — alive and well hundreds of years after their founders served their first beer, burger, or plate of pasta.

“NYC has a rich and diverse history that encompasses so many cultures, communities, people, and events. Preserving its history allows us to understand and celebrate the city’s roots that have made it one of the greatest cities in the world,” said Dennis Turcinovic, owner and operator of Delmonico’s Restaurant Group.

Here are 17 still-functioning NYC restaurants that opened their doors prior to 1900.

Fraunces Tavern, 1762
54 Pearl Street, Manhattan

Located downtown in the Financial District, Fraunces Tavern bills itself as New York’s oldest bar and restaurant. And old it is. Founded in 1762, Fraunces Tavern is on the National Register of Historic Places, recognized as a “watering hole for many of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America,” according to its site.

Its early American history can be expired at the Fraunces Tavern Museum where visitors can explore rooms where George Washington held meetings as well as a collection of Revolutionary War artifacts. But, of course, the age-old pastime of eating and drinking is still alive and well too. Fraunces Tavern has five bars with menus that include unique beers, cocktails, and whiskey. The food menus include traditional and upscale American bar fare and some U.K. favorites like fish and chips and pot pie.

The Ear Inn, 1817
326 Spring Street, Manhattan

Another bar with a connection to George Washington, The Ear Inn on Spring Street is located in the James Brown House, a designated NYC landmark. Brown “was the first owner of the home, and according to lore an aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War,” Village Preservation reports. “Some have even suggested that Brown was depicted in the famous Emmanuel Leutze painting of the victorious Delaware River crossing.” The Ear Inn was established in 1817, and the townhouse in which it resides remains “virtually untouched.” But according to the bar’s site, the unique name only dates back to the 1970s. “They called it The Ear Inn to avoid the Landmark Commission’s lengthy review of new signage, simply covering the round parts of the long-standing neon “BAR” sign, leaving it to read “EAR.” And so, a modern legend was born.” The menu features American fare.

Neir’s Tavern, 1829
87-48 78th Street, Queens

Proudly described as the “most famous bar you’ve never heard of,” Neir’s Tavern in Queens has been featured in two films: 1990’s “Goodfellas” starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci and 2011’s “Tower Heist” starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller. According to its site, Neir’s is also “known as the tavern where as a child, Mae West used to dance (and possibly first performed) in the ballroom, which featured a wooden balcony with small hotel rooms around the upper walls, similar to the Wild West dancehalls of the movies and television.” The bar has operated in its current space continuously since it was established in 1829, though the name Neir did not come into play until 1898. In the 1890s it became the meeting spot for jockeys from the old Union Course Race Track, and to this day, it features a horse and jockey logo. The menu includes traditional pub fare, including a “Goodfella” burger with a special “Goodfella” sauce

Delmonico’s, 1837
56 Beaver Street, Manhattan

A true piece of history, Delmonico’s was one of the first fine dining establishments, not only in the city but in the United States. It was also the first dining establishment to call itself a “restaurant,” have a cookbook and, according to Dennis Turcinovic, owner and operator of Delmonico’s Restaurant Group, serve women at a table without men. Starting as a successful pastry shop, the Delmonico brothers then purchased a “triangular plot of land” to open their soon-to-be iconic restaurant.

It’s also where Baked Alaska — served then as “Florida, Alaska” — was served for the first time as a commentary on the United States’ purchase of Alaska. “Charles Ranhofer, an expat Parisian pastry chef at the legendary Delmonico’s restaurant in New York City, was renowned for dishes doubling as cultural commentary,” according to NPR. “The price tag reflected its grandeur — the cost of the dessert then would equal about $40 today. And Delmonico’s, established in 1837 and still in business today, was a who’s who of the dining scene, drawing personalities like the Rockefellers and Charles Dickens.” Other signature dishes include the Delmonico’s Steak and Lobster Newberg.

Today, the clientele is a mix of tourists from around the world and loyal customers who were “thrilled” when the restaurant reopened in September after being shuttered since the start of the pandemic, Turcinovic said. The menu is upscale and includes land and seafood dishes, a raw bar, and the original Baked Alaska, which today costs $24.

McSorley’s Old Ale House, 1854
15 East 7th Street, Manhattan

The origins of the East Village’s famed Irish bar date back to 1854 when ​​John McSorley opened an ale house on East 7th Street called The Old House at Home. “In the beginning the building was not five stories tall–there was nothing in the neighborhood that tall,” the official historian of McSorley’s told 6sqft in 2015. It wasn’t until 1908 that the name New Yorkers know and love today donned the building (which grew into a tenement in the 1860s).

“The sign over the front door falls in a storm (in 1908),” the bar’s history details. “It is replaced by one that reads “McSorley’s Old Time Ale House”. Later the word ‘Time’ is removed.” With original details like its old bar taps, wooden bar, and pot-bellied stove, the bar remained a mainstay of the neighborhood through the ages. In 1923 E.E. Cummings penned the poem “Sitting in McSorley’s,” and in 1940, The New Yorker published an article titled “The Old House at Home” about “McSorley’s, the oldest Irish saloon in the city.” In more recent history, McSorley’s was the last bar in New York City to only admit men. It wasn’t until 1970 that women were allowed to enter (due to a lawsuit) and 1986 that women had a restroom to use in the establishment.

Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn, 1855
4254 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island

Out in Staten Island, Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn dates back centuries, but Nicolas Killmeyer purchased the property around 1855, according to the restaurant’s site. “The next generation of Killmeyers expanded the original building, made the upstairs hotel, and commissioned the beautiful Mahogany bar in 1890.” Through the years, the business changed hands and names until in 1995, the current owners bought and named it. As the name implies, the menu consists of traditional German dishes and beer.

Pete’s Tavern, 1864
129 East 18th Street, Manhattan

Pete’s Tavern in Gramercy celebrated 159 years of business on Sept. 26, and a spokesperson said the secret to the bar’s appeal is in the walls. The building at Irving Place was built in 1828 and originally served as a hotel. Fast forward to today, and the current owners are dedicated to preserving history and even unearthing new stories.

The 1864 Project was started this year as a way to collect “memorable stories, recollections and pictures from Pete’s past,” a spokesperson said. “We have learned even more about the history of this incredible place that somehow remained a working bar during Prohibition.” The stories are disseminated in a newsletter and featured online (those interested in submitting can email the1864project@petestavern.com). The current story online tells of a patron who painted Pete’s Tavern in 1966 and still has the painting hanging up. And like the building itself, much of the staff has been around for decades — two people for more than 50 years. The menu features a range of cuisines from Italian dishes to burgers and salads plus a full bar menu.

Old Homestead Steakhouse, 1868
56 9th Avenue, Manhattan

Aptly located in the Meatpacking District is the Old Homestead Steakhouse. Before the neighborhood became synonymous with trendy clubs and high-end hotels, the little corner of Chelsea was home to slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants, so it’s no surprise beef was and still is on the menu at this long-standing neighborhood restaurant. The current owners made the historic eatery a family business 70 years ago when former dishwasher Harry Sherry decided to buy it. Today, his grandsons, who learned the business from the ground up as he did, run the show but admit to not changing much. “Why change something that has worked for 150 years?” owner Greg Sherry is quoted as saying on the website. The menu boasts 10+ beef and steak dishes (including wagyu) as well as burgers and seafood options.

Landmark Tavern, 1868
626 11th Avenue, Manhattan

NYC is chock full of Irish Pubs, especially around Midtown, but what makes Landmark Tavern special is that it actually used to be a waterfront eatery on the Hudson River when 11th Avenue was the end of the west side. According to the website, it was a saloon and the owners’ home until Prohibition when it became a speakeasy. Today, it’s a local haunt for New Yorkers — some might say, literally. Legend has it, the Landmark Tavern is haunted by multiple ghosts. The spirits one can be sure to find there, though, are the ones behind the bar along with a menu of American and traditional Irish fare

Gage & Tollner, 1879
372 Fulton Street, Brooklyn

Downtown Brooklyn lost its iconic restaurant Gage & Toller for a while. Opened in 1879 and achieving landmark status for its dining room in 1975, the restaurant was “Brooklyn’s answer to Delmonico’s,” the New York Times wrote in 2020. “The restaurant was an elegantly appointed dining temple that served seafood, chops, and steaks, and it attracted celebrities like Mae West, Lillian Russell, Jimmy Durante, and members of the Brooklyn Dodgers.” It served patrons for over 100 years until it shuttered in 2004. T.G.I. Friday’s replaced it, and then Arby’s.

The restaurant sat vacant until 2020 when a group of restaurateurs decided to revive the Victorian eatery. Sohui Kim, Ben Schneider, and St. John Frizell joined forces to revive Gage & Tollner to its former glory, but their targeted opening date of March 2020 proved to be bad timing. Finally, in 2021, Gage & Toller officially reopened taking “inspiration for our food and beverage offerings from the Gage & Tollner archives, honoring and elevating beloved longtime classics with meticulously sourced ingredients and diligent technique,” the website describes. In the ornate dining room, upscale menu items while Sunken Harbor Club upstairs serves up tropical libations.

White Horse Tavern, 1880
567 Hudson Street, Manhattan

Though it has been around since 1880, Whitehorse Tavern in the West Village achieved legendary status in the 1950s. Poet Dylan Thomas often frequented the tavern, and “The White Horse Tavern is famous for being where Dylan Thomas had his last drinks before his untimely death just a few days after turning 39,” according to the bar.

The beatnik and jazz movements also passed through Whitehorse’s doors with names like Jack Kerouac, Anaïs Nin, and James Baldwin on the clientele list. “Legend has it that the idea for the Village Voice…was born over drinks at the bar, known colloquially as ‘The Horse,’ Gothamist writes. Today, the Village is still bustling with artists and students and Whitehorse Tavern remains a watering hole for New Yorkers and tourists alike, instantly recognizable by its neon sign and greenery. The menu features classic American pub fare as well as a raw bar.

P.J. Clarke’s, 1884
915 Third Avenue, Manhattan

P.J. Clarke’s started as a saloon serving mostly Irish Immigrants, and in fact, got its current name from an Irish bartender who purchased it in 1912, according to the restaurant’s history. After making it through prohibition, the bar became a watering hole for famous crooner Frank Sinatra who “regularly closed the place down at Table #20 and Johnny Mercer wrote ‘One for My Baby’ on a bar napkin.” Buddy Holly and Nat King Cole were also familiar faces in the joint and Holly even proposed to a woman there. Later the Kennedys were frequent customers. Today, P.J. Clarke’s has three NYC locations as well as spots in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

Keens Steakhouse, 1885
72 West 36th Street, Manhattan

Located in Herald Square — and the lone survivor of what once was the Herald Square Theatre District — Keens Steakhouse was originally “part of the Lambs Club, a famous theatre and literary group founded in London,” according to its site. In 1885 it became an independent eatery and a hot spot for theater actors. “By the time Keens celebrated its 20th anniversary, you could glance into the Pipe Room and see the jovial congregations of producers, playwrights, publishers and newspaper men who frequented Keens.”

And speaking of pipes, according to Keens, the restaurant houses the largest collection of wooden churchwarden smoking pipes in the world, which was a popular pastime of the time. “The membership roster of the Pipe Club contained over ninety thousand names, including those of Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, Will Rogers, Billy Rose, Grace Moore, Albert Einstein, George M. Cohan, J.P. Morgan, Stanford White, John Barrymore, David Belasco, Adlai Stevenson, General Douglas MacArthur and ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody,” the site writes. The menu is a traditional chophouse one with red meat and seafood as the stars.

Peter Luger Steakhouse, 1887
178 Broadway, Brooklyn

Williamsburg’s most famous steakhouse opened in 1887 as “Carl Luger’s Café, Billiards and Bowling Alley.” Today, the restaurant is owned by the Forman family who established a silverware company across the street from the restaurant in the early 1920s. Sol Foreman frequented the eatery so much with clients that when owner Peter Luger died, he bought the restaurant at auction in 1950 and turned it into what it is today. “The critical job of inspecting and purchasing meat fell to his wife, Marsha Forman. Marsha spent two years learning this special skill from a retired USDA grader, who took her to the wholesale houses in the meat market along New York City’s West Side Highway. In keeping with tradition, and to ensure the highest quality of meat, the selection process is still performed by members of the family, who visit the wholesale markets to inspect the selection of short loins,” the site details. In the hipster neighborhood, Peter Luger’s menu stays classic and simple with red meat and seafood.

Katz’s Delicatessen, 1888

Everyone knows that famous scene from 1989’s “When Harry Met Sally.” But Katz’s history started 100 years before Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal stepped foot inside this Lower East Side landmark. Once named “Iceland & Katz,” Katz’s deli got its current name in 1910, and seven years later it moved to its current location across the street from where it first opened.

Serving Jewish delicacies like matzoh ball soup, knishes, and pastrami, “during the peak of the Yiddish theater, the restaurant was forever filled with actors, singers and comedians from the many theaters on 2nd Avenue, as well as the National Theater on Houston Street. Although the age of the Yiddish theater has passed, Katz’s still has its fair share of famous customers, whose photos now line our walls,” the site details. Those celebrities include the likes of Barack Obama, Lionel Richie, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Matthew Broderick. But on any given day (or late night), local customers line up for Katz’s true NYC comfort food.

Old Town Bar, 1892
45 East 18th Street, Manhattan

Youth is one of the most coveted things in the world. But when you’ve been around since 1892, you wear the name “old” proudly. Old Town Bar in Gramercy serves casual American fare in an old-school tavern setting. “It’s easy to have an 1890s moment at Old Town without realizing it,” Jennifer Berg, professor of food studies at New York University told the Village Voice in 2014. “It has that gorgeous musty smell. It’s like New York’s own little secret.”

One hundred years later, it got a taste of fame in the opening for “The David Letterman Show” in the ‘80s-’90s. In 2017 when it celebrated its 125th anniversary, owner Gerry Meagher told Gothamist that many of the restaurant’s original fixtures, including the mahogany bar, are original. “My father’s philosophy was not to be trendy. Implicit in that is that your trend will not last. He liked to keep Old Town Bar like an old New York tavern,” he said.

Rao’s, 1896
455 East 114th Street, Manhattan

Many of the restaurants and bars on this list are American, Irish, and German pubs, taverns, and steakhouses. But Rao’s is as Italian-American as one can get. The East Harlem landmark restaurant is all about classic southern Italian food like grandma used to make. But unlike a seat at nonna’s table, the ones at Rao’s are hard to come by. “If you’ve never eaten at Rao’s, well, join the club. It’s impossible to get a table at the East Harlem Italian restaurant,” Bon Appetit wrote in 2016. And, in fact, a call to Rao’s gets you a voicemail that simply says, “Our reservation book is filled for 2023 and we are not taking any reservations. Thanks for calling Rao’s and have a good day.”

The restaurant’s prestige goes beyond reservation exclusivity all the way to Hollywood. Frank Pellegrino Sr., who ran Rao’s for years before his death in 2017, was an actor as well as a restaurateur, appearing in “The Sopranos” and “Goodfellas.” “He was cast in 1990’s ‘Goodfellas’ by Martin Scorsese, a longtime regular at Rao’s…Pellegrino was a beloved fixture at Rao’s where, in addition to Scorsese, bold-face diners over the years included Leonardo DiCaprio — who filmed a scene for ‘The Wolf Of Wall Street’ at the uptown restaurant — as well as Woody Allen, Keith Richards, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Jimmy Fallon and others,” Deadline wrote in 2017.

Today, Frank Pellegrino Jr., or “‘Frankie’ as he is known to Rao’s regulars,” co-owns the restaurant along with newer outposts in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He “grew up helping his father and family at the restaurant – waiting tables, cooking, managing the restaurant – basically learning the family business, even though his father, Frank Sr. attempted to talk him out of it,” the site writes.

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A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be on display in Queens in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. “The Wall That Heals,” a traveling three-quarter-scale version of the memorial in Washington D.C., arrives in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park on Thursday, a way for New Yorkers to remember the lives lost during the conflict. The memorial is free and open to the public from September 28 through October 1.

Since debuting in 1996, “The Wall That Heals” has been presented in more than 700 communities across the United States, as well as four provinces of Ireland in April 1999 and Canada in 2005. Designed by Maya Lin, the original monument in the nation’s capital was completed in 1982.

The chevron-shaped memorial is made of Avonite, a synthetic form of granite, measures 375 feet in length, and stands 7.5 feet tall at its highest point. It consists of 144 individual panels that are supported by an aluminum frame, with light provided by LED lighting.

Similarly to the original version, the memorial gradually rises as spectators walk towards its apex, a key design feature of the Wall in D.C. Visitors are able to do rubbings of individual service members’ names. All of the names are listed in order of date of casualty and alphabetically on each day. The names begin at the center and make their way out to the right side before picking up again on the west side and working their way back to the center.

A 53-foot-long trailer transports the monument from city to city and transforms into a mobile education center when it’s parked. After the memorial is installed, the trailer’s sides open, revealing exhibits that tell the story about the history surrounding the Vietnam War, its controversy, and the Wall.

“This week, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of combat operations in the Vietnam War and honor the sacrifice of the brave men and women in uniform, our Gold Star Families, and all the families of those who have served our country so bravely,” Mayor Eric Adams said.

“Those who have served know what it takes to put their life on the line on behalf of their fellow Americans. We owe you what we value most, our freedom, and hope that you will join us this fall when ‘The Wall That Heals’ comes to Flushing Meadows Corona Park to honor and offer healing to our Vietnam War era brothers and sisters.”

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is offering free shuttle bus rides between the Mets-Willets Point subway station and the memorial. Between September 28 and 30, the shuttle will run every hour between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. On October 1, the shuttle will run every hour between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The shuttle will make stops along Roosevelt Avenue between Union Street and Main Street, in front of the Mets-Willets Point station, and in front of the Flushing/Main Street station.

Those who are interested in becoming a volunteer to help with outreach and visitor services at the memorial can apply here.

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