A History Lover's Guide to New York City

The newly arrived immigrant who was literally “just off the boat” and unsure how to begin life in the United States would seek out fellow countrymen for help with settling in. Communities of Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese and Eastern European Jews developed in nineteenth-century New York City. Part of the magic of New York is not only the blend of the many cultures in the city but also their distinct preservation.

In the five years after the 1845 potato famine that killed more than two million people in Ireland, one million Irish immigrated to the United States. An additional one million came during the following twenty years. The United States represented life for these immigrants. Many settled in the port cities where they first entered this country, particularly in Boston and New York. The Irish were Catholic and working class. In nineteenth-century New York, this meant that they were subject to widespread discrimination. “No Irish permitted in this Establishment” was a common placard.

There was one notable instance where perceived discrimination turned to violence. In July 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the Federal government attempted to enforce a law requiring all men between the ages of twenty and forty-five years to serve in the Union army. However, anyone could buy his way out of service with a $300 payment. Only the wealthy could afford such a large sum. The New York City poor, many of whom were recent Irish immigrants, protested. Angry mobs burned to the ground the Colored Orphan Asylum, churches and the homes of abolitionists. It took Federal troops returning from the Gettysburg battlefield to quell the violence that took 120 lives and injured thousands. To this day, the New York City Draft Riots of 1863 remain the largest civil disturbance with the most fatalities in American history.

To counter harsh treatment, the Irish turned to the Catholic Church. There is a beautiful and enduring reminder of the Irish presence in and contribution to New York: St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Saint Patrick, who brought Christianity to fifth-century Ireland, becoming its patron saint, was special to Irish immigrants in New York. Like them, Saint Patrick, born in England, left his homeland to make a life in a new land.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, New York had been a majority Protestant town. Irish immigration changed that. By 1858, when the Right Reverend John Hughes, the first Catholic archbishop of New York, laid the cornerstone for St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5^th Avenue, Catholics were the largest single religious denomination in the city. His successor as archbishop of New York, John McCloskey, would become the first American cardinal in 1875.

The architect for St. Patrick’s Cathedral was James Renwick Jr. Renwick designed the magnificent granite and white marble twin-spired Gothic cathedral. The cathedral occupied an entire city block at 5^th Avenue and East 50^th Street in what was then a little developed area of New York. The exterior is reminiscent of the renowned cathedral in Cologne, Germany, while the interior elements recall the great French cathedrals of Rouen and Amiens, as well as London’s Westminster Abbey. Many of its windows were manufactured in Chartres, France, home of a cathedral known for its beautiful stained glass. In one window, designed by James Renwick, there is the image of Saint Patrick with Renwick and Archbishop Hughes. The bronze doors at the main entrance, added later, weigh twenty thousand pounds and bear figures that depict the New York saints.

Completed in 1878, the cathedral was dedicated on May 25, 1879. It would take another nine years to complete the spires. Rising 330 feet above the pavement, the spires could be seen at great distances throughout the New York City of the late nineteenth century. Though today dwarfed by neighboring skyscrapers, the cathedral remains an inspirational sight. Seating approximately 2,400 people, St. Patrick’s is the largest Catholic cathedral in the United States. Each year on March 17, the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade marches by St. Patrick’s Cathedral. While St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, the parades—first held in New York City—and the green beer are an American contribution to the annual celebration.

In addition to St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish brought another tradition to the United States: Halloween. Although the origins of Halloween are somewhat murky, the date is on the eve of All Saints’ or All Hallows’ Day, November 1. It coincides with the Gaelic pagan holiday Samhain, which was celebrated at the end of the harvest season when the days darken early and the souls of the dead are all about. Brave citizens went door to door to beg for food. They were disguised so the spirits would not recognize them. Halloween parties began in the United States in the late nineteenth century while trick-ortreating became popular in the 1930s. Today, the largest Halloween parade in the world is in New York City.

Others besides the Irish came to New York. In 1848, a revolution in Germany, followed by continuing political uncertainty, convinced many Germans to come to the United States. Initially, Germans settled in the Lower East Side; part of this area became known as Kleindeutschland, or Little Germany. Other German immigrants found to their liking the Upper East Side of New York, east of Lexington Avenue between 83^rd and 88^th Streets, an area called Yorkville. Germans have since mostly scattered throughout New York City. A reminder of their presence is Carl Schurz Park overlooking the East River. It is named for the German immigrant who became a Union general during the Civil War and then a United States senator from Missouri. As secretary of the interior from 1877 to 1881 in the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes, Schurz was a strong advocate for the federal preservation of forests. Carl Schurz spent his final years living in New York City.

Little Italy, in the area of Mulberry, Hester and Grand Streets, is now more Chinese than Italian. However, each September, large numbers of Italian Americans return to Mulberry Street to celebrate the Feast of San Gennaro in honor of the patron saint of Naples, Italy. Naples sent many of its sons and daughters to New York City. And Italians have left an indelible mark on New York.

More than 200,000 Chinese came to the United States from 1860 to 1880. The vast majority of Chinese immigrants were men who worked on the transcontinental railroad. As that work wound down, many Chinese moved from the West of the United States to New York City. The first restrictive immigration legislation in the United States was directed at the Chinese. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which not only barred Chinese from entering the United States but also denied citizenship to those already here. Chinese men were not permitted to bring their wives to the United States. With no family life, the men frequented the many modest restaurants that would help sustain them. In New York City, the Chinese settled in the area around Mott and Pell Streets, later expanding to Canal and Bayard Streets. Chinatown flourishes today with many shops, restaurants and food stores. New York City has the largest community of people of Chinese origin in the Western Hemisphere.

Orchard Street was at the heart of the nineteenth-century Jewish Lower East Side. The area around Orchard, Grand, Delancey, Broome and Eldridge Streets contained kosher food shops and synagogues for the newly arrived Jewish immigrants who settled, worked and lived here. Between 1880 and 1925, two and a half million Eastern European Jews came to the United States. Approximately 85 percent of them settled in New York City, and most of those chose the Lower East Side for their new home. This was the most crowded neighborhood in the world.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the Jewish population in New York City was greater than in any other city anywhere. It was around this time that a Jewish immigrant, Israel Zangwill, wrote a play, The Melting Pot, which played on Broadway for over two years. It celebrated the blending together of the many into one great New York City. While many of the former Lower East Side Jewish residents have dispersed throughout New York, there is a serious effort in the neighborhood to preserve the synagogues and acknowledge the contributions to the city and to the United States of those who once lived here.

Another popular area for Jews to settle in New York was in Harlem. Harlem, however, became much better known for becoming a center of African American community and culture in the city.

Harlem, the area of New York City north of 96^th Street stretching up to the northern handle of Washington Heights, began as an early Dutch colonial farming settlement. A group came here in 1658 to farm, building the small village of Nieuw Haarlem, named for the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Haarlem, or Harlem, became an area of grand homes and large, productive farms, providing food to the larger town of New Amsterdam just ten miles away. By the early nineteenth century, however, farming had depleted the soil. As a result, most of the farmers left.

A Harlem rebirth occurred after 1837, when a railroad line opened between City Hall and the Harlem River. This cut travel time significantly, revitalizing the area. Even more instrumental in the renewed settlement of Harlem was the construction of elevated railroad lines, or “Els,” along 2^nd and 3^rd Avenues in 1870. Then, in 1904, the Lenox Avenue Subway opened at 145^th Street. Harlem became completely developed as a transportation-inspired building boom led to the construction of middle- and uppermiddle-class housing. Elegant homes and luxury apartment buildings made Harlem a desirable address. Many nineteenth-century immigrants, especially the Irish, Germans and Jews who prospered in Manhattan, bought property in Harlem.

The bubble burst early in the twentieth century as over-development sharply drove down prices. This decline coincided with the great migration of African Americans from the South to northern cities in the years before World War I. And from 1906 to 1910, the construction of the Pennsylvania Rail Road Station in the area of New York City known as “the Tenderloin” disrupted the African American neighborhood that ran along Broadway from 23^rd to 42^nd Street. Police captain Alexander “Clubber” Williams had given the Tenderloin its name. Williams made so much money taking bribes in exchange for protection in this section of New York City that he boasted he could afford tenderloin steak for dinner every night.

Blacks were able to find housing in Harlem thanks to an African American businessman named Philip Payton, who founded the Afro-American Realty Company in 1904. Taking advantage of the depressed housing market in Harlem, he convinced white owners to rent homes in the area to blacks. This opened up an attractive neighborhood previously closed to African Americans. Many took advantage of this relaxation in discriminatory practices. By 1920, 200,000 African Americans lived in Harlem. Some Harlem neighborhoods were over 50 percent black.

Harlem became a magnet for black writers, artists and musicians in the 1920s, an era known as the Harlem Renaissance. The poet Langston Hughes, the writer Zora Neale Hurston and musicians Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway were among those who gathered here, creating literature and music with great appeal. One popular area to live was the section of Harlem known as Sugar Hill because it was “sweet and expensive.” Sugar Hill is the neighborhood from 138^th to 155^th Streets west of 8^th Avenue, now called Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Its geography along the Harlem River provides it with an attractive, elevated setting. Those who lived here included Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

Another attractive housing area is Striver’s Row. David King developed this area of Harlem in 1891. King hired prominent architects such as Stanford White, Price and Luce and James Brown to build rows of lovely homes on West 138^th and 139^th Streets near Frederick Douglass Boulevard. The style of these homes in the St. Nicholas Historic District, as the area is formally known due to its proximity to St. Nicholas Park, vary from Georgian to Renaissance to Victorian. Initially, these homes were restricted to “whites only.” In the 1920s, blacks began to move here. But only the most successful could afford to—in other words, those who would “strive” for success. And so the King model homes became commonly known as Striver’s Row. Jazz great Eubie Blake and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., among many other notables, have made their homes on Striver’s Row.

Many who came to New York found neither Sugar Hill nor Striver’s Row. Dreams quickly yielded to the harsh reality of actual living conditions. There may have been visions of mansions, but a tenement was the more likely shelter. A tenement, or “tenant house,” was a building that housed multiple low-income families. An apartment intended for one family might be broken up into living quarters for several families. By the mid-nineteenth century, half of New York’s population lived in tenements. New York had the reputation for having the worst slums in the world.

Recognizing the deplorable living conditions in these buildings, New York tried reform. In 1879, it passed the Tenement House Law. Unfortunately, this law made matters worse. It created, based on an architectural competition, a model for all future tenement construction that became known as the “dumb bell” from the shape of the floor plan. The law dictated a space twenty-five feet wide and one hundred feet deep with apartments in the front and apartments in the back. The center of the building would be indented and contain the stairway. The intent was good: to let light into the center of the building. All bedrooms were to have access to light either through a window or this center area. But overcrowding in the tight confines of the tenements made conditions even more difficult than before. The buildings, one right next to the other, were firetraps. They became breeding grounds for tuberculosis and other deadly diseases. A typical apartment had three rooms. Bedrooms were small—seven by eight and a half feet. Often, several families occupied one apartment. Toilets were rare. If available, they were shared by several families.

The appalling living conditions for many were equaled by difficult labor conditions. In the late nineteenth century, working hours were long, wages were low and the environment was unhealthy and dangerous. Child labor was common. American workers recognized this difficult situation. Many began to organize to convince employers to make improvements. Higher wages, an eight-hour workday and better factory conditions were the goal. The first American Labor Day Parade occurred in New York City on September 5, 1882, proceeding from City Hall to Union Square. Ironically, the name Union Square has nothing to do with unions but rather with the convergence, or union, of streets in the area. The workers gathered to call for their rights. They also wanted a national day off in honor of labor—a day that would be devoted to discussion and consideration of workers’ issues.

There were ten thousand labor strikes in the United States from 1880 to 1890. One strike was particularly violent. In July 1892, workers at the Carnegie Steel Company in Homestead, Pennsylvania, protested when owner Andrew Carnegie cut wages. Carnegie’s manager, Henry Clay Frick, hired guards to enforce order. An exchange of gunfire killed more than sixteen people. Frick brought in new labor and broke the union. Carnegie Steel imposed its objective of lower wages and longer hours on its employees. Then, in 1893, the worst depression of the nineteenth century hit the United States. Five successive years of drought forced farms to go under. Banks financing the farms foreclosed on unpaid loans. The banks, in turn, failed. Businesses closed. Even railroads—one of the great drivers of nineteenth-century prosperity—shut down. Unemployment skyrocketed to somewhere around 20 percent. There were more strikes and violence. In 1894, President Grover Cleveland (1885–89 and 1893–97) sent federal troops to break the strike at the Pullman Company of Illinois. The federal troops fired on the strikers. In an attempt at national reconciliation, President Cleveland signed legislation in August 1894 to set aside the first Monday after the first weekend in September for Labor Day. The holiday’s intent is to recognize the contributions of the American worker to the nation and to discuss workforce rights.

But American labor wanted more than a parade. Workers continued to organize during this period. One leader was Samuel Gompers, who believed the purpose of a union was to enter into collective bargaining with management for increased wages, better hours and improved conditions. Gompers had come to this country as a boy when his parents moved here from Holland and Great Britain. The Gompers family settled in New York, where young Sam became a cigar maker. The labor environment for cigar makers was deplorable. They worked in small sweatshops, ventilation was poor, hours were unregulated and pay was ridiculously low. Cigar makers, however, had the distinctive tradition of reading to one another as they worked. This added to their education and awareness of general working conditions. And they unionized. Gompers joined Cigar Makers Union Local 144 in New York, rising through the ranks to become its president. Gompers recognized the need for unity and organization among different trades. He, therefore, founded the American Federation of Labor, or AFL, a federation of unions of mostly skilled workers, in 1886. By 1900, the AFL had a membership of half a million. Gompers would remain AFL president until 1924. In 1955, the AFL joined with the Committee for Industrial Organization, or CIO, founded by John Lewis to become the AFL-CIO.

One incident in New York City history that demonstrated the need for labor reform stands out. On March 25, 1911, 146 people, mostly women, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City. Most of the young women died because they were locked into the workplace and could not escape the fire. This tragedy pointed out the need for basic safety regulations and improved conditions for American labor. Frances Perkins, an advocate for New York workers, witnessed the Triangle fire. The horror of the agonizing deaths remained with Frances Perkins when she became secretary of the Department of Labor in 1933 under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Perkins was the first woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet. To this day, she remains the longest-serving secretary of labor as she stayed on the job until 1945. Francis Perkins put her experiences in New York City to good use in the federal government. She played a major role in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, instituting the minimum wage.

YOUR GUIDE TO HISTORY

Images

A vendor in Chinatown. Courtesy of James Maher.

103 Orchard Street at Delancey Street • Manhattan/Lower East Side
877-975-3786 • www.tenement.org • Admission Fee

Purchase tickets in advance, either online or by telephone, or in person at the visitor center. The visit to the museum is by a guided tour only, which begins at the visitor center and then proceeds to the tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. The Tenement Museum tours last one to two hours. Each has a special focus—such as “Sweatshop Workers,” which includes a visit to the home where the Levine family had a garment workshop, or “Hard Times,” which involves a visit to the homes of the Gumpertz and Baldizzi families. Descriptions are on the museum website. In addition to the building tours, there are neighborhood walking tours. The Tenement Museum and the walking tours are mostly recommended for ages eight years and above. One tour is designed specifically for young children. There are also food tours that include a sampling of Lower East Side specialties.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum is housed in a real tenement built in 1864. For seventy years, this building was home to countless numbers of immigrant families who struggled to make ends meet in New York City’s Lower East Side. Stricter housing codes resulted in the tenement closing in 1935. While there were shops on the lower level, the upper-floor apartments were boarded up. The entry hall of the tenement is basically in the condition in which it was found in the 1980s. The museum also offers visits to restored apartments with a re-creation of the lives of those who lived there in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century New York. Some tours include reenactors.

The story of each family who lived here at 97 Orchard Street is compelling. Widow Julia Langolar supported herself and her two children by taking in laundry. Nathalia Grumpertz worked as a dressmaker after her husband walked out on her and their four children. This was their world. The museum has made an impressive and successful effort to reach out to the descendants of those who lived at 97 Orchard Street to enrich further the history conveyed here. The museum shop hosts Tenement Talks, which focus on New York City. The museum offers extensive educational outreach for students. It is a National Historic Site.

132 James Street at Madison Street • Lower Manhattan
212-233-0161 • Donation

Dedicated in 1836 for its Irish parish, a plaque on its exterior commemorates the founding of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) at St. James Church in 1836. The AOH worked to combat violence and discrimination against the Irish in New York and to help Irish immigrants find work and housing. Ireland in Latin is Hibernia. St. James was the parish church of Al Smith, who went on to become governor of New York and, in 1928, the first Catholic to run for president of the United States. St. James remains an active parish church with Sunday services.

263 Mulberry Street, New York • Manhattan/Little Italy
www.oldcathedral.org • Donation

This is the second Catholic church in Manhattan, dating to 1815. It would become the first cathedral church for the Diocese of New York. Pope Pius IV created the Archdiocese of New York in 1850, elevating John Hughes to archbishop. John Cardinal McCloskey became the first American cardinal in 1875. The new St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5^th Avenue replaced Old St. Patrick’s as seat of the Archdiocese of New York in May 1879.

The geography of Five Points no longer exists in Lower Manhattan. In the early to mid-nineteenth century, it was an area of five points formed by Streets that intersected here: Mulberry, Anthony (now Worth), Cross (now Mosco), Orange (now Baxter) and Little Water Street (no Longer exists). Where once a pond had existed, landfill, though poorly executed, permitted settlement by middle-class families who then fled the area in the 1820s. Five Points became home to the poorest of the Irish immigrants and to newly emancipated African Americans. Poverty led to disease, infant mortality and also to vice and gangs in one of the worst slums in the world. In 1834 and 1835, anti-immigrant, anti-Irish gangs attacked the Five Points neighborhood. Irish gangs responded in kind, leading to major violent street brawls that further darkened the reputation of this area.

In the late nineteenth century, reformers, fueled by the photographs by Jacob Riis of the misery of Five Points, demolished most of the buildings in the area and reconfigured it to “eliminate” the problems. Part of the Five Points area is now the civic center with its massive city, state and federal buildings. Columbus Park, originally designed by Calvert Vaux, opened in 1897. In 1911, it was named Columbus Park in honor of Christopher Columbus. The park is near Little Italy and Chinatown.

This nighttime parade occurs on Halloween each October 31. The parade route is through Greenwich Village on 6^th Avenue from Spring Street to 16^th Street. Hundreds of giant puppets join bands, dancers and fifty thousand New Yorkers in their own costumes. Of course, this is New York, so those costumes tend to be pretty spectacular. This parade is an artistic delight offering sheer enjoyment for both participant and viewer.

Please remember when you visit that this is a place of worship and that it is important to dress and behave respectfully. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Archdiocese of New York saw the need for a larger, grander cathedral than the original St. Patrick’s in New York, now known as Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The church selected a site at 5^th Avenue and 50^th Streets, then in a little-developed area of New York. The cornerstone was laid on August 15, 1858. The cathedral was blessed and opened on May 25, 1879. The height of the spires is 330 feet. The beautiful rose Window is 28 feet in diameter. This is the largest Catholic cathedral in the United States. It is a national Historic Landmark.

The New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is the oldest and largest in the nation. The first parade was on March 17, 1762, in Lower Manhattan. Today, it occurs each March 17 except when that date falls on a Sunday; then it takes place on March 16. The parade begins at 44^th Street on 5^th Avenue, marches past St. Patrick’s Cathedral and continues up 5^th to 79^th Street, where it ends at the Irish Historical Society. As many as 300,000 people have marched in a single parade and enjoyed its jubilation, floats and the wearing of the green. The Ancient Order of the Hibernians has sponsored the parade since the nineteenth century. The Archbishop of New York reviews the parade from the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. To serve as the parade’s grand marshal is a great honor.

991 5^th Avenue at East 79^th Street • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-288-2263 • www.aihs.org • Admission Fee

In this lovely five-story town house, situated across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the headquarters of the American Irish Historical Society. Founded in 1897 at a time when Irish Americans were making great strides economically and socially and yet still faced widespread discrimination, the society seeks to educate the public about the accomplishments of Irish Americans. There is an impressive library of ten thousand volumes on both Irish and Irish American history. The society sponsors frequent musical performances and lectures.

155 Mulberry Street at Grand Street • Manhattan/Little Italy
212-965-9000 • www.italianamericanmuseum.org • Free

The museum, founded in 2001, has as its mission to exhibit and interpret memorabilia and artifacts that explain both the achievements and the struggles of Italian Americans in this country. There is a special focus on Italian immigrants and their difficulties and successes in establishing themselves in the United States. The setting of the museum is appropriate. It is the former Banca Stabile, founded in 1885, which offered newly arrived Italians banking, the telegraph and a post office to help them survive on the streets of New York while maintaining their ties to the homeland. The corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets was in the very heart of Little Italy. The museum has rotating exhibits highlighting the Italian American experience.

This festival, occurring in Little Italy in mid-September each year, honors the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro, who was a martyr for the faith. The city of Naples in southern Italy sent many of its sons and daughters to New York City in the late nineteenth century. The festival is both secular and religious. There is abundant and very good food, a cannoli-eating contest, music and a parade with floats. There is also a religious procession and celebratory Mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, founded in 1891.

686 Park Avenue between 68^th and 69^th Streets • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-879-4242 • www.iicnewyork.esteri.it

The institute provides a busy calendar of events, including musical performances and art exhibits to educate the public on the history and culture of Italy. It is located in the remarkable Georgian-style house designed by Delano & Aldrich in 1919.

5^th Avenue from 68^th to 86^th Streets • Manhattan/Upper East Side
347-454-2269 • www.germanparadenyc.com

German culture and heritage are celebrated in one of the largest German American parades in the United States. Floats and marching bands with many participants in traditional German dress take to 5^th Avenue, marching from East 68^th to 86^th Streets each September. The grandstand is at East 79^th Street. Immediately after the parade, there is an Oktoberfest in Central Park. Some of the events associated with the parade and grandstand seating require a ticket.

Baron Friedrich von Steuben is well known to students of the American Revolution as the soldier who came to this country from Prussia to serve under General George Washington. At Valley Forge in 1778, von Steuben instilled into a ragtag group of soldiers a sense of discipline and purpose that they carried throughout the war to victory against the British. After the Revolutionary War, Friedrich von Steuben remained in the United States, dying in New York in 1794.

This fifteen-acre park dating to 1876 runs along the East River. It is in the area known as Yorkville that was once home to many German immigrants. Calvert Vaux and Samuel Parsons redesigned the landscape features early in the twentieth century. In 1910, German Americans realized their objective of having the park named in honor of Carl Schurz, a German immigrant who, during the Civil War, served as a United States ambassador to Spain and as a general in the Union army. After the Civil War, Schurz was the first German American elected to the United States Senate, where he represented Missouri.

Carl Schurz served as secretary of the interior in the cabinet of President Rutherford B. Hayes. In this position, Schurz was a strong advocate of the federal park system. After 1881, Carl Schurz moved to New York City, where he held a variety of jobs until he died there in 1906. His wife, Margarethe Schurz, also originally from Germany, was an educator who helped found the kindergarten system in this country. Kinder is “child” and garten is “garden” in the German language.

36 Battery Place • Lower Manhattan
646-437-4202 • www.mjhnyc.org • Admission Fee

The museum remembers those who died in the Holocaust through exhibits of personal items, photographs and letters. It also celebrates those who survived and the vibrancy of Jewish life today. This museum has the Garden of Stones for reflection and the Keeping History Center for magnificent views of New York Harbor. There are also rotating exhibits, lectures and musical performances.

This nonprofit organization offers public programs and tours of the Lower East Side that focus on the history of the Jewish community in this area and on the synagogues that served it.

12 Eldridge Street between Canal and Division Streets • Manhattan/Lower East Side
212-219-0888 • www.eldridgestreet.org • Admission Fee

The museum is housed in a synagogue built in 1887 for the Orthodox Jews who fled persecution in Eastern Europe for the asylum of the United States. The prominent and repeated display of the Jewish Star of David on the exterior of the synagogue building was a joyful expression of freedom of religion in their new homeland. In Eastern Europe, most often Jews had to worship discretely and without public display. Otherwise, they risked intolerance and even death. The docent may point out that the stars used to decorate the interior of the synagogue are not the six-sided Star of David but the five-sided American star reflecting the patriotism of these new immigrants to the United States. The architects of the Eldridge Street Synagogue were the Herter brothers, Catholic immigrants to the United States from Germany.

Synagogue members moved out of the Lower East Side in the mid-twentieth century, and the synagogue closed its doors as a place of religious worship. A major restoration, completed in 2007, repaired the beautiful Moorish interior and façade. There is also a large, striking, modern stainedglass window by Kiki Smith. Today, the synagogue remains active as home to a small Orthodox congregation. The collection in the small synagogue museum includes displays on the synagogue and religious objects. The museum offers guided synagogue tours and talks. On a Sunday each June, the museum organizes an “Egg Rolls, Egg Creams, Empanadas Festival” to celebrate the diversity of the Jewish, Chinese and Puerto Rican neighborhood community. The building is a National Historic Landmark.

2 West 70^th Street at Central Park West • Manhattan/Upper West Side
212-873-0300 • www.shearithisrael.org • Donation

The congregation offers tours the second Tuesday of every month of the beautiful Neoclassical synagogue by architect Arnold Brunner that dates to 1897. Of particular interest are the glass windows created by Louis Comfort Tiffany and religious ritual objects that date to the colonial period. This is the oldest Jewish congregation in North America, dating to 1654, when the first Jewish settlers arrived in New York from Portugal and Brazil. From 1654 to 1825, this was the only Jewish congregation in New York City. With the immigration of many Jews from Eastern Europe fleeing the pogroms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, other congregations were founded. Members of Congregation Shearith Israel were very active in assisting the newly arrived Jewish population to settle in, find employment and establish community.

1109 5^th Avenue at 92^nd Street • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-423-3200 • www.thejewishmuseum.org • Admission Fee

Cass Gilbert designed this magnificent French chateau, completed in 1908, for the financier Felix M. Warburg. Since 1947, the former Warburg residence has housed the Jewish Museum, with its significant collection exploring Jewish culture and identity through works of art. The museum offers talks and special programs.

South of Broome Street, north of Chambers Street, west of East Broadway and east of Broadway
www.explorechinatown.com

The largest population of Chinese in the Western Hemisphere lives in New York City. While there are a number of Chinese American neighborhoods in the city, the one that gets the most attention is in Lower Manhattan—100,000 strong. The streets of Chinatown with the residents, shops, restaurants and signage in the Chinese language transport visitors to another land.

215 Centre Street between Grand and Howard Streets • Manhattan/Chinatown
212-619-4785 • www.mocanyc.org • Admission Fee

Within a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America is the core permanent exhibit of the Museum of Chinese in American (MOCA). It encapsulates the mission of this small museum: to help visitors understand the Chinese American experience in New York and the country as a whole, as well as to appreciate what Chinese Americans have contributed to the United States. The MOCA houses an extensive collection of artifacts, photographs and art to bring a depth of understanding of what it meant to arrive here, deal with prejudice and discrimination and to find your way in a new homeland. While MOCA began in 1980, its facility, designed by architect Maya Lin, offers a brilliant setting for the collection. The museum offers gallery talks and walking tours.

The Chinese New Year is based on a lunar calendar rather than on the Gregorian calendar in use in the United States and throughout the world. Therefore, the actual date of the celebration in January or February varies each year. The festival consists of a Firecracker Ceremony to ward off evil spirits and a parade that winds its way through Chinatown. It begins at Canal and Mott Streets and ends at Sara D. Roosevelt Park. This popular parade is highly colorful with brilliantly adorned floats and dancers. The most anticipated are those costumed as lions and dragons.

725 Park Avenue at 70^th Street • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-288-6400 • www.asiasociety.org/newyork • Admission Fee

The mission of the Asia Society is to educate the general public regarding Asia and the United States’ relations with Asia. The Asia Society also has permanent and rotating exhibits on traditional and contemporary Asian art. Particularly noteworthy is its collection of art from Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3^rd.

222 East 6^th Street • Manhattan/East Village
212-228-0110 • www.ukrainianmuseum.org • Admission Fee

Ukrainian American architect George Sawicki designed this building, which opened in 2005. The museum has existed since it was founded in 1976 by the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. It has extensive educational outreach and programming and an impressive collection of Ukrainian folk art and costumes. In addition, the museum houses an archive of documents from Ukrainian immigration into the United States.

2 East 79^th Street at 5^th Avenue • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-288-8660 • www.ukrainianinstitute.org • Admission Fee

This beautiful building is the design of Cass Gilbert. It dates to 1899. It was built as the home of industrialist Isaac Fletcher. After Fletcher died in 1917, the founder of Sinclair Oil, Harry F. Sinclair, bought the house and lived here until 1930. The Ukrainian Institute of America has owned the magnificent French Gothic–style mansion, a National Historic Landmark, since 1955.

15 East 97^th Street at 5^th Avenue • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-289-1915 • www.mospatusa.com • Donation

Czar Nicholas II of Russia donated the first contribution to make this cathedral, designed by John Bergesen, a reality. Church officials laid the cornerstone in 1901. This is the leading center of Russian Orthodoxy in the United States. The exterior onion domes and the breathtaking Baroque interior with red, blue and yellow tiles offer a glimpse of Russia in Manhattan. For those considering attending a service, there are no pews as the Orthodox stand during the lengthy services. Services are in English and Russian. Guided tours are by appointment.

680 Park Avenue between 68^th and 69^th Streets • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-249-8950 • www.as-coa.org

This building was originally a home constructed in 1909 for New York banker Percy Rivington Pyne. It was designed by the famed architectural team of McKim, Mead & White. The Americas Society—through its public programs, musical events and art exhibits—seeks to inform the public of the culture of Latin America, the Caribbean and Canada.

1230 5^th Avenue at 104^th Street • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-831-7271 • www.elmuseo.org

The museum’s mission is to present and promote understanding of the culture and art of Puerto Rico and all of Latin America. With its one floor of galleries of modern and contemporary art, traditional and folk art, as well as pre-Columbian artifacts, it takes seriously its work of educational outreach.

613 West 155^th Street • Manhattan/Washington Heights
212-926-2234 • www.hispanicsociety.org • Free

The Hispanic Society, founded in 1904, has been housed in the lovely Beaux-Arts building on Audubon Terrace since 1908. The mission of the society is to further the study of the arts and culture of Spain, Portugal and Latin America. It has an extensive collection of Spanish paintings, as well as decorative arts and sculpture. There is an important research library as well. It is a National Historic Landmark.

58 Park Avenue at 38^th Street • Manhattan/Midtown
212-779-3587 • www.scandanaviahouse.org • Admission Fee

This is the leading center for Nordic culture in the United States, focusing on the arts, music, literature and films of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. National institutions in these nations often lend works of art for exhibit in Scandinavia House. There are regular concerts and also activities for children. Ennead Architects designed the striking modern building, completed in 2000.

This website is a good reference tool for festivals and festivities in New York City that occur throughout the calendar year.

515 Malcolm X Boulevard • Manhattan/Harlem
917-275-6975 • www.nypl.org • Free

The Schomburg Center, a branch of the New York Public Library, is named for Puerto Rican–born black scholar Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, who began the collection. It is the world’s largest holding of documents, photos and records of Afro-American culture. This research library also sponsors talks and exhibits, musical performances and films for the public and offers free tours.

144 West 125^th Street at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard • Manhattan/Harlem
212-864-4500 • www.studiomuseum.org • Admission Fee

Entry to this museum, with its rotating exhibits, is free on Sundays in order to share with the community the work of artists of African descent. Founded in 1968, the museum’s holdings include paintings and objects from the nineteenth century to the current day. Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden are among the talent represented in the collection. Another important holding is the photography of Harlem from 1906 to 1983 by James VanDerZee. The “studio” in the name of the museum refers to the fact that it supports the ongoing work of artists in this attractive building, a former bank renovated by architect J. Max Bond Jr.

German immigrant Gustavus Sidenberg named the hotel for his late wife, Teresa. The hotel opened 1913, serving primarily as a long-stay establishment with some overnight guests. Although, initially, the Teresa had a whites-only policy, it integrated in the 1940s and ’50s and became known as the Harlem Waldorf. Many black celebrities stayed here and socialized at its famous bar and grill. The thirteen-story building, with its terra-cotta exterior ornamentation and large bay windows, is the work of the architectural firm of George and Edward Blum. Fortunately, the renovation to convert it to an office building, the Teresa Towers, in 1970 left the exterior in place.

253 West 125^th Street at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard • Manhattan/Harlem
212-531-5305 • www.apollotheater.org • Admission Fee

This theater specializes in live acts and musical performances of a wide variety. Architect George Keister designed this large theater, which can hold an audience as large as 1,500 people. When it opened in 1914 as a venue for burlesque, it had a whites-only policy. It was not until it closed and then reopened in 1934 as the Apollo that it catered to black clientele, becoming the heartbeat of top black talent during the Harlem Renaissance. The list of talent that played here is staggering: Duke Ellington, Dizzie Gillespie, Count Basie, Mahalia Jackson, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and many others. The Apollo Theater became famous for discovering black talent who performed on amateur night. Jimi Hendrix was one of the amateurs who went on to fame and fortune. The Apollo Theater is located on 125^th Street, the heart of Harlem. The Apollo Theater Foundation now owns the theater. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

151 West 128^th Street at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard • Manhattan/Harlem
212-663-8990 • www.mbcharlem.org • Donation

The Romanesque and Gothic Revival building is the work of a series of architects over the years. The foundation of the church is two earlier churches that decided to combine and create an entirely new name. This was one of the earliest African American churches in Harlem and certainly one of the most important. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

West 138^th and 139^th Streets between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Frederick Douglass Boulevards • Manhattan/Harlem
Exterior Only

The formal name for this area is the St. Nicholas Historic District. It’s informal name, Striver’s Row, derives from the expression that one had to strive to be able to afford one of the beautiful town homes here. The Georgian Revival–style red brick and brownstone homes on West 138^th Street were the work of architect James Brown Lord. Bruce Price and Clarence Luce designed the yellow brick and white limestone buildings on West 138^th and 139^th Streets, while Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White was the architect for the Italian Renaissance brick and brownstone buildings on West 139^th Street. Musician Eubie Blake, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and composer W.C. Handy were among the many notables who have lived on Striver’s Row. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

132 Odell Clark Place (formerly West 138^th Street) • Manhattan/Harlem
212-862-7474 • www.abyssinian.org • Donation

There is a special tourist entry door on the southeast corner of West 138^th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. The church welcomes visitors to the 11:00 a.m. Sunday service except on significant religious holidays and some church special event days. This is a working church. Visitors should dress and act with respect and not go in and out of the sanctuary during a service. Note that the service lasts two and a half hours. Founded in 1808, this is the third-oldest Baptist Church in the United States. The church was initially located in Lower Manhattan. Sixteen worshippers who refused to accept the segregated seating policies then in effect in the First Baptist Church of New York founded this church. Abyssinia is an ancient name for Ethiopia. As African Americans moved north in New York City, the church followed. It built this large and lovely Gothic and Tudor building with extensive stained-glass windows on its current site in Harlem. Dedication of the church occurred in 1923. The church has long been active and influential in social justice issues. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was pastor here before his election to the United States Congress representing this district.

Harlem Week is actually much more than a week. It is a series of events throughout the months of July and August each summer that celebrate the past and future of Harlem and all it has to offer. Outdoor concerts, the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival and sporting events keep the activities varied and popular with all ages. Activities occur throughout the neighborhood.

23–29 Washington Place at Greene Street • Manhattan/Greenwich Village
Exterior Only

The March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire that killed 146 garment workers, mostly women, occurred in the building at 23–29 Washington Place. Most of the young women died because they were locked into the workplace and could not escape the fire. This tragedy pointed out the need for basic safety regulations and improved conditions for American labor in the workplace. There are two bronze plaques on the building to remember the terrible event and the lives lost. New York University now owns the building, which is a National Historic Landmark.

7^th Avenue at 27^th Street • Manhattan/Chelsea
212-217-4558 • www.fitnyc.edu • Free

Although the garment industry has left, New York City remains the fashion industry capital of the United States. FIT has three galleries of rotating exhibits. The Fashion and Textile History Gallery displays articles of historic importance from the last 250 years. The Fashion Institute of Technology is part of the State University of New York. It grants degrees in art and technology connected to fashion.

555 7^th Avenue between 39^th and 40^th Streets • Manhattan/Garment District

This eight-foot bronze sculpture by Judith Weller of a Jewish garment worker at his sewing machine dates to 1984. The artist and the Ladies Garment Workers Union presented the statue to the city as a gift to remember those who toiled so hard here. Street signs at this location also show 7^th Avenue as Fashion Avenue. This was the heart of the New York garment district that produced most of the ready-to-wear clothing worn by Americans for over 150 years, from the early nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. The Garment District in Midtown Manhattan is the neighborhood from West 34^th to West 42^nd Street between 5^th and 9^th Avenues. The manufacture of less-expensive clothing has left Manhattan and moved overseas. The once busy factories in the area with their racks and racks of clothing are more and more becoming condominiums and office buildings.

No longer as large or celebratory as it once was, the Labor Day Parade occurs in New York City the first or second Saturday in September with a parade route on 5^th Avenue that begins at East 44^th Street and continues to East 72^nd Street.

Images

City Hall Park with the Manhattan Municipal Building. Courtesy of James Maher.