A History Lover's Guide to New York City

Nineteenth-century New York was an economic force. Its extraordinary wealth and large population made it a political powerhouse as well. Many of the national political figures at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came from New York State. In fact, in ten of the sixteen United States presidential elections between 1872 and 1932, either the Republican or Democratic candidate—or sometimes both—was a New Yorker.

During these years, three former governors of New York served as president of the United States: Grover Cleveland (1885–89 and 1893–97), Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09) and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933–45). Chester Arthur, previously the customs collector for the Port of New York, was elected vice president and then became president (1881–85) after the assassination of James Garfield. Only candidates from Ohio, with a record of six victories in six attempts, ran more successfully during this period than those from New York. More recently, New Yorker Nelson Rockefeller served as vice president from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford.

One president remembered as a New Yorker through and through was Theodore Roosevelt. Born in New York City in 1858, Teddy Roosevelt skyrocketed to national prominence as a Rough Rider charging up San Juan Heights, Cuba, in 1898 in the Spanish-American War. During his tenure as New York City’s police commissioner and then as governor of New York (1899–1900), Roosevelt showed so much vigor in pursuing reform measures that New York politicians conspired to get rid of him. They worked to make Teddy Roosevelt vice president of the United States, a position of little power where he could do them no harm.

Imagine their consternation when President William McKinley was assassinated on September 14, 1901, during a visit to Buffalo, New York, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him as president. President Theodore Roosevelt immediately undertook reforms that characterized his tenure in the White House as “the Progressive Era.” More than any other individual, Teddy Roosevelt symbolized the excitement of the early twentieth century. His mediation of the end to the Russo-Japanese conflict in 1905 earned him the Nobel Peace Prize. And it was President Theodore Roosevelt who built the Panama Canal to create a shipping shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

One New Yorker who did not win election to the presidency but who is remembered fondly is Al Smith. To this day, the Democratic Party holds an annual “Al Smith Dinner” in honor of the man known as “the Happy Warrior.” Smith served four two-year terms as governor of New York in the 1920s. He ran for president on the Democratic ticket in 1928, the first Catholic to do so. Irving Berlin wrote “Happy Days Are Here Again” in support of Al Smith’s presidential campaign. The song still plays on nonofficial occasions when a president enters the room. Smith himself considered the song “The Sidewalks of New York” to be his theme song.

Al Smith lost the election to Herbert Hoover, who promised voters “A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.” Hoover, taking office at the onset of the Depression, could not deliver on his pledge. He, in turn, lost the 1932 presidential election to New Yorker Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who would remain in the White House from 1933 until his death in 1945. FDR is the only American president who has won four elections to the highest office in the land. The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1951, now limits presidents to two terms.

While New York sent presidents to the White House, William Marcy “Boss Tweed” and his Tammany Hall Gang made nineteenth-century New York hometown politics legendary. The famed Tammany Hall organization was originally formed in New York at the end of the eighteenth century as a counter to the political power of the wealthy landowners with their English affectations. “Tammany,” a Native American name, emphasized the group’s ties to America.

William Marcy “Boss” Tweed appealed to newly arrived immigrants, particularly to those who, like himself, were Irish. He offered friendship and assistance in finding housing and a job—often on the city payroll. Tweed gave new meaning to the word “boss.” Though he rose no higher in New York City electoral politics than the board of supervisors, behind the scenes, he controlled City Hall and often the New York governor’s mansion through influence peddling and graft.

Tweed’s size—he weighed over 240 pounds—became a symbol of excess in New York City politics. Estimates of Tweed’s theft from the city coffers ran as high as $200 million. Boss Tweed and his gang nearly drove New York City into bankruptcy. Ultimately, Tweed overreached, leading to his own demise. It was the construction of the county courthouse that caused his downfall. The construction of this building, known as the “Tweed Courthouse,” took twelve years (1861–72) and cost over $12 million, a vast sum in those days. Investigations of the Tweed Courthouse revealed blatant discrepancies, fraud and theft.

Cartoons of “Tweed-Le-Dee” by the well-respected political cartoonist Thomas Nast in the publication Harper’s Weekly publicized Tweed’s corruption. Nast had a large following, having become known for his iconic depiction of Santa Claus in Harper’s Weekly, as well as his popularization of the donkey as the symbol of Democrats and the elephant as the symbol of Republicans. Nast relentlessly skewered Tweed, drawing cartoons with titles such as “Wholesale and Retail Thievery” and “The Tammany Tiger Loose—what are you going to do about it?” Tweed tried to bribe Nast to stop and even threatened him. His efforts to silence the influential cartoonist failed.

Reformer Samuel J. Tilden, head of the Democratic Party in New York after 1866 and governor of New York in 1874, spoke out, condemning Tweed. Finally, Tweed was arrested. William Marcy Tweed was tried for corruption in the very courthouse he had built and profited from so handsomely. Found guilty in 1877, he escaped overseas. However, Tweed was apprehended and returned to New York City. Boss Tweed died in a New York jail in 1878.

Tammany Hall influence in New York City politics continued. Jimmy Walker, one of the most colorful mayors in the history of the city, won election with Tammany backing. Serving as mayor from 1926 to 1932, Walker was at his best during the Roaring Twenties. He exemplified the era and enjoyed its excesses. Whether taking in the theater; enjoying the company of showgirls, despite the fact that he was married; or frequenting speakeasies during Prohibition, Walker popularized the fun-loving entertainment side of the city. But concerns about his corruption grew exponentially until New York governor and president-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt removed Walker from office in 1932.

Fiorella LaGuardia, the son of Italian immigrants to the United States, won the 1933 mayoral election. La Guardia had worked on Ellis Island. He served as a member of the United States Congress and as an army airman in World War I. LaGuardia was mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945. He was known affectionately as the “little flower,” the English translation of Fiorella. The nickname also derived from his stature—he was only five feet, two inches tall. LaGuardia would become one of the best mayors ever to run City Hall. He took on Tammany, cleaned up corruption, instituted a civil service in the city and expanded parks, the subway, public housing and airports. Interestingly, one of the strongest supporters of Republican Fiorella LaGuardia was the Democratic president of the United States, New Yorker Franklin Delano Roosevelt. LaGuardia Airport and LaGuardia High School in New York are named in honor of the “little flower.”

A mayor and a city council govern the City of New York. The city council has fifty-one members, each representing a defined geographic district. The mayor and the council members are elected to four-year terms. The mayor of the City of New York today is Bill de Blasio, elected in 2013. The mayor’s office is in City Hall. Mayor de Blasio and his family live at the official mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion.

New York City politics are never far from the spotlight. The mayor of the country’s largest city commands national attention. Former mayors John Lindsey and Rudy Guiliani were presidential candidates, and another former mayor, Michael Bloomberg, was a prominent potential contender. Past governors of the state of New York, such as George Pataki and Mario Cuomo, have also dipped their toes into presidential politics. United States senators from the state of New York have played significant roles in the life of this country. Among the best known and most respected in recent years have been Jacob Javits, Kenneth Keating, Robert Kennedy, James Buckley, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Hillary Clinton.

New York City is a global capital. It is the home of the United Nations. After World War I, statesmen had tried and failed to form an effective international institution for conflict resolution. Many attributed, in part, the outbreak of World War II to this earlier failure. In 1945, the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China led the effort to form a world body to promote peace and cooperation. Fifty-one nations signed the United Nations Charter in 1945. Today, 193 countries belong to the UN.

Meeting in London, England, in 1945, the United Nations General Assembly selected New York City to be the permanent host of the UN headquarters. This decision was facilitated by millionaire John D. Rockefeller Jr., who donated funds to purchase eighteen acres of land on the East River for the United Nations. This land on which the UN sits is extraterritorial. In other words, neither New York City nor the United States government has legal authority on United Nations headquarters territory.

Of the five principal bodies of the United Nations, four are located in New York City: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat and the Economic and Social Council. Only the International Court of Justice is not in New York. It is in The Hague in the Netherlands. An international team of architects—including American Wallace Harrison, Canadian Ernest Cormier, Frenchman Le Corbusier and Brazilian Oscar Niemeyer—designed the easily recognizable headquarters complex, which includes a tower for the Secretariat and a low, rectangular-shaped building for the General Assembly.

YOUR GUIDE TO HISTORY

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The City Hall Subway Station. Courtesy of James Maher.

The New York City Design Commission offers one-hour tours once a week to individuals and twice-weekly tours to groups. Both require advance registration on the website above. Occasionally, walk-up tours are offered on Wednesdays.

In 1812, when City Hall was built, its location on Foley Square marked the northern edge of the developed city. City Hall, therefore, faces south. At one point, the side facing north was not even finished, reflecting the belief that the city would not develop to its rear. The Neoclassical design, by Joseph-Francois Mangin and John McComb Jr., is held in high regard to this day. City Hall’s masterpiece is a central rotunda whose grace, awe-inspiring height and elegant marble spiral staircase lends itself as a frequent backdrop for movies. The beautiful Governor’s Room is both a reception hall and museum. Its collection of American portraiture is one of the most important in the country. The museum has the writing table that belonged to George Washington while he served as president of the United States in New York City in 1789. Two deceased presidents of the United States have lay in state in City Hall: Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Ulysses S. Grant in 1885.

While the mayor’s office is in City Hall, it is not open to the public. The city council chamber where the city council meets is open on many occasions. This room was created from three smaller spaces in 1897 in anticipation of the consolidation of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island into the City of New York in 1898. Beautiful ceiling murals by Taber Sears, completed in 1903, depict The City of New York, as the Eastern Gateway of the American Continent, Receiving Tributes of the Nations. It is a National Historic Landmark.

To look at this white marble Italianate building today makes one think that at least New Yorkers got something for their money. Twice threatened with demolition in the twentieth century, the City of New York instead invested $85 million in an extensive renovation of the building. Formerly known as the Old New York County Courthouse once the 1926 county courthouse on Centre Street was completed, today, 52 Chambers Street is again commonly referred to as the Tweed Courthouse. The building currently serves as office space for the city’s Department of Education.

The office of the mayor offers tours of the building, with its cast-iron interior painted to look like stone and intricate buff, red and black brick Gothic arches. A large rotunda is the centerpiece of the building. The only light here comes from the skylight above. All other rooms, formerly courtrooms and now offices, radiate from the rotunda. The beautiful light fixtures in these rooms are reproductions of those that were here when Tweed was Boss and then on trial. The courthouse is the product of two architects with somewhat competing visions: John Kellum and Leopold Eidlitz. The rotunda today houses a large sculpture by American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, which might strike some as out of place. Lichtenstein was born in Manhattan in 1923 and died in Manhattan in 1997. The building is a National Historic Landmark.

This is the court of wills and estates for New Yorkers. This Beaux-Arts creation of white granite, completed in 1911, took twelve years to build. It is possible to enter the building to view the ornate interior central hall and stairway that is reminiscent of the Paris Opera. The building’s ornamentation includes statues of distinguished New Yorkers, such as Peter Stuyvesant and DeWitt Clinton. It is a National Historic Landmark.

Originally called the Manhattan Municipal Building, this enormous structure designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White was built in 1914. It is said to have caught the fancy of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin when he viewed photographs of it, inspiring Stalinist architecture throughout the Soviet Union, including the central building at Moscow University. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio renamed the Manhattan Municipal Building in honor of former mayor David Dinkins.

The website offers a slide show virtual tour of the courthouse interior. Originally called the United States Courthouse, it was renamed in honor of Thurgood Marshall, United States Supreme Court justice. Marshall worked here before being nominated to the Supreme Court. This Classical Revival building, with its massive Corinthian columns, was the last building by noted architect Cass Gilbert. It opened in 1936 after his death. The thirty-seven-story federal building, which stands 590 feet tall, holds thirty-five courtrooms.

Formerly known as the New York County Courthouse, this building was completed in 1927 to replace Boss Tweed’s earlier effort. Architect Guy Lowell designed the building to look like a Roman courthouse to give it gravitas. Thirty-two steps, which are one hundred feet wide, lead to sixteen granite columns at the entrance. In the interior, a seventy-five-foot-high central rotunda impresses visitors with ceiling murals painted in the 1930s by Attilio Pusteria and a team of artists supported by the Depression-era United States government Works Progress Administration.

15 Gramercy Park South • Manhattan/Gramercy Park
212-475-3424 • www.nationalartsclub.org • Free

One of the outspoken opponents of Boss Tweed was Samuel J. Tilden, who was elected governor of New York State in 1874. Tilden ran on the Democratic ticket for president in 1876. He actually won the popular vote, receiving 250,000 more votes nationwide than Rutherford B. Hayes. After ballots for Tilden in a number of southern states were thrown out, Hayes won the presidential election by the margin of one electoral vote (185 to 184). This is one of four times in this nation’s history when the candidate who received the greater number of popular votes was not elected president. Samuel J. Tilden acquired 15 Gramercy South in 1863 and, a few years later, 14 Gramercy South as well. He hired noted architect Calvert Vaux to redesign the adjoined residences to serve as his home. It was outside this home in November 1876 that Tilden’s well-wishers gathered to congratulate him—prematurely, it turned out—on his presidential election victory.

When Samuel J. Tilden died in 1884, he left $3 million to establish a free public library in New York City. This and funding from the Lenox family became the New York Public Library. Today, the Tilden home is the National Arts Club, a private club. The National Arts Club was founded in 1898 by author Charles DeKay, the art critic for the New York Times. Its mission, which continues to this day, is to promote public interest in and knowledge of the fine arts. The beautiful interiors of the home are open to the public on a limited schedule for exhibitions of its collections, lectures and musical performances. The schedule is on the website. It is a National Historic Landmark.

28 East 20^th Street between Park Avenue South and Broadway • Manhattan/Gramercy
212-260-1616 • www.nps.gov/thrb • Free

National Park Service Rangers give guided tours of the period rooms. Many of the furnishings are original. This is a reconstruction of the home where Theodore Roosevelt Jr., president of the United States (1901–09), was born in 1858 and lived until his teenage years. Though he was sickly as a boy, his was a happy childhood with a loving mother and father. His father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., was a leading citizen of New York involved in many city public improvement projects. The original home was demolished in 1916, causing immediate regret in New York City. In 1919, Theodate Pope Riddle, one of the first female American architects, was selected to build the precise replica of the original home that occupies the site today. It is a National Historic Site.

1^st Avenue at 46^th Street • Manhattan/Midtown
212-963-8687 • www.visit.un.org • Admission Fee

Tours are guided. They last sixty minutes and give a good overview of the history and mission of the United Nations. It is important to make reservations for a ticket in advance on the website. It is not possible to buy tickets at the United Nations Visitor Center. Tours are not open to children under five years of age. Arriving early for your reserved tour is a must as security is tight and federal identification for adults is necessary. There are separate procedures for groups. The actual route of the tour inside the United Nations Headquarters may vary depending on the time of the year and on-going activities. Most tours include a visit to the General Assembly Hall, the Security Council Chamber and the Economic and Social Council Chamber. The United Nations also has changing exhibits on its role in the promotion and preservation of international peace.

ROOSEVELT ISLAND BY TRAM AND THE FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT FOUR FREEDOMS MEMORIAL

The Tramway station is at 59^th Street and 2^nd Avenue • Manhattan/Upper East Side
212-308-6608 • www.rioc.com • Admission Fee

For the price of a subway fare purchased onsite, the five-minute aerial tramway ride from Midtown East to Roosevelt Island, as well as the return trip, offers delightful views of Manhattan. At first, it seems as though the rider is enjoying a Batman experience as the tram glides among the skyscrapers before it emerges to cross the East River and descend to Roosevelt Island. Once on the island, there is a small visitor center provided by the Roosevelt Island Historical Society that has maps and helpful directions. Visitors may proceed on foot for ten minutes to the southern tip of the island and to the 2012 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Memorial, designed by architect Louis I. Kahn. The spectacular views of the East Side Manhattan skyline from this appealing, spare site include the East River, the United Nations and the Chrysler Building.

FDR made one of his most famous speeches on January 6, 1941, as Nazism and fascism were making the world an increasingly hostile place. The president outlined his vision of a world in which all people would enjoy freedom of expression, the freedom to worship God in their own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. While taking in the beauty of the view and the serenity of the memorial, visitors may wish to reflect on the universality of these four freedoms today.

Formerly Blackwell Island, named for the family who moved onto the island in 1676, it had a smallpox hospital designed by James Renwick Jr., now in ruins. It was also known as Welfare Island. The island was renamed Roosevelt Island in honor of the former president in 1971. At the tram disembarkment point, a free red bus takes visitors around Roosevelt Island. There is an 1872 lighthouse built to help ships navigate the dangerous Hell Gate waters of the East River.

There is an online application to tour Roosevelt House. Architect Charles A. Platt designed this Neo-Georgian double town house in 1907 for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt. The overbearing Sara had Platt design the double town house to serve as a home for her and her son, the future president. It has the interesting feature of a single entry for the two adjoining town houses. The senior Mrs. Roosevelt moved into number 47 in 1908, while her darling Franklin, Eleanor and their young children moved into number 49. This was FDR’s home as he launched his political career. He lived here when he won election as governor of New York in 1928 and as president of the United States in 1932. The tour focuses on the years that FDR and Eleanor lived here, the evolution of their political concepts and their many contributions to the United States.

When Sara Roosevelt died in 1941, Franklin Roosevelt put both homes up for sale. Hunter College of New York bought them. Today, they constitute the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, now part of the City University of New York. The homes are furnished as classrooms, with no remaining furniture from the FDR years.

Gracie Mansion tours traditionally occur on Wednesday through online registration well in advance of the desired date. Mayor Bill de Blasio has suspended the tours for an indefinite period of time in order for repairs to the home to occur.

Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of the mayors of New York City since 1942, when Fiorello LaGuardia was mayor. Archibald Gracie, a wealthy merchant in New York, built this Federal-style country home in 1799 looking out toward Hell’s Gate, the treacherous channel in the East River between Manhattan, Long Island and Ward’s Island. Archibald Gracie played host in the home to many notables in early American history, including John Quincy Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Washington Irving.

Gracie sold his home in 1819. The City of New York purchased it from subsequent owners in 1887 and added the grounds to the adjoining Carl Schurz Park described in Chapter 10. When the City of New York offered a house for the mayor to Fiorello LaGuardia in 1942, he passed up many grander homes for this one. The Gracie Mansion Conservancy operates Gracie Mansion.

The four-hundred-acre Woodlawn Cemetery dates to 1863. Over 300,000 people are interred here, while another 100,000 visit annually to pay their respects and also to appreciate the bucolic setting, with its distinctive monuments designed by some of the best sculptors in the history of the country, including Daniel Chester French, famed for his depiction of Abraham Lincoln in the Washington, D.C. memorial.

Among the notable people buried at Woodlawn are Fiorella LaGuardia, Noble Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche, composer Irving Berlin, jazz musicians Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton, writer Herman Melville, cartoonist Thomas Nast and artist and founder of the Whitney Museum Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The site is a National Historic Landmark.

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Times Square. Courtesy of James Maher.