The Bowery Boys: New York City History

From an odd assortment of abandoned creatures, to one of the most notorious zoos in the world, take a tour with us through Central Park's storybook zoo. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

The fashionable district of NoLIta happens to be home to a few ghosts as well, tucked behind the walls of St Patrick's Old Cathedral. Come with us as we unearth some info about a mysterious New York fraternal order, the occupants of a few cemetery crypts, and the origins of a legendary film director. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Learn about New York's most famous luxury apartment building and the classic horror film set here. Plus: Lauren Bacall, Connie Chung and some dumb waiters!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Something's afoot in Washington Square Park. Join the Bowery Boys this week on an expedition through one of New York's quirkiest -- and most beloved -- parks, from Hangman's Elm to Bob Dylan. And you say there's WHAT buried in the ground underneath the park?Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

New York's most under-appreciated treasure gets the Bowery Boys treatment. It's Governors Island: a fort, a small town, a prison and a Burger King ... all bought for one dollar. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Flash back to the summer of 1977, when Star Wars and the Yankees ruled, gas prices were high, a serial killer roamed the streets, and the city experienced a little convenience called the New York City blackout.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Green-Wood Cemetery is one of New York's oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn's surprising history -- in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn Heights.  Find out why it took an inventive city planner with a funny name, a dead New York icon, and a few errant parakeets to make this place a beautiful, richly historical place to visit today.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

We tackle the New York Stock Exchange in this episode, beginning with Alexander Hamilton, some pushy auctioneers, a coffee house and a sycamore tree. And find how this seminal financial institution ended up in its latest home -- that beautiful, classically designed George Post building, with a marble goddess on top who was almost too heavy for her own good. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

The Mets are movin' out to Citi Field, but we can't overlook the great stories contained in their own home, Shea Stadium, a Robert Moses project took years to get off the ground. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Today it's the Met Life Building. It's been called the ugliest building in New York City. It sits like a monolith behind one of the city's most enduring icons Grand Central Terminal. But it's got some secrets you may not know about. In this podcast, we scale the heights of this misunderstood marvel of modern architecture. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Part two of our "Five Points" podcast. Join us as we explore the "wicked" neighborhood's clean up, fall from grace, and eventual destruction.      Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

You've heard the legend of New York's most notorious neighborhood. Now come with us as we hit the streets of Five Points and dig up some of the nitty, gritty details of its birth, its first residents and its most scandalous pastimes.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Well, we can at least show you the way through its tumultuous history, from a fortunate meeting on a Norwegian cruise ship, past a symphonic rivalry, and into the 20th Century with some of the biggest names in classical and popular music. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Small islands reveal fascinating secrets of New York's past, and Randall's and Ward's Islands are no exceptions. Find out how these former potter's fields are related to the most important Olympics-related event New York City has ever seen. The cast includes a swashbuckling British engineer, Jesse Owens, Tony Bennett, FDR, Othmar Ammann, Robert Moses, and Pearl Jam!Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

When last we left Central Park, it was the embodiment of Olmstead and Vaux's naturalistic Greensward Plan. So how did all those playgrounds, a swanky nightclub, a theater troupe and all those hippies get here?www.boweryboyspodcast.comSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Come with us to the beginnings of New York's most popular and most ambitious park -- from the inkling of an idea to the arduous construction. Learn who got uprooted and find out who the park was REALLY intended for.Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

How did the land surrounding an old 19th century fortress develop into the city's mainline distributor for produce and meat? And how did that once bustling place transform itself from the dilapidated home of leather bars and prostitutes to a hot spot of high fashion stores and boutique hotels? Welcome to the Meatpacking District, one of Manhattan's strangest neighborhoods. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Meet former mayor, governor, senator and privileged son DeWitt Clinton, one of New York's most successful politicians and champion of the Erie Canal. Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

Grab yourself a couple mugs of dark ale and learn about the history of one of New York City's oldest bars, serving everyone from Abraham Lincoln to John Lennon --- and eventually even women! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys 

We celebrate a year of New York City history podcasting by re-visiting the topic of our very first show.Downtown Civic Center used to have a big ole pond in the middle of it which provided drinking water for the island's first inhabitants.What happened to it, why is it important today and how did it give rise to Canal Street, New York's biggest traffic thoroughfare? Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys