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In a city like New York, governed by a spirit of tearing down and rebuilding at short intervals of time, it is not surprising that landmarks have been destroyed and that old places have been in danger of losing their historical associations. Fortunately, of late, through the worthy efforts of certain patriotic societies, many of the more important historic sites have been determined and marked by suitably inscribed tablets. These memorials serve the double purpose of awakening attention and of investing with an air of reality the events they perpetuate. They are, however, but isolated mementos, bearing a suggestive phrase or two that have meaning only to the student who has delved into the city's past. To make clear the full significance of these tablet-marked sites, to visit them in their chronological order, together with other landmarks worthy of consideration, and to weave around these rlics and reminders of other days an interesting, graphic, and precise story, has been the object of this little work.

Along with the Dodgers and Prospect Park, the Abraham & Straus department store was a legendary piece of Brooklyn's history and identity.

From Abraham Abraham's modest store of 1865, A&S developed into one of America's largest department stores, eventually becoming a charter member of the powerful Federated Department Stores Corporation in 1929. Known for unparalleled customer and employee loyalty, the stores rode a wave of demographic and economic changes. Today, the former Fulton Street Abraham & Straus operates as a Macy's and remains one of America's last downtown department stores. Author, historian and lecturer Michael J. Lisicky chronicles the rise and fall of Brooklyn's iconic store.

Unbeknownst to most of the city’s inhabitants, a rural community of garbage workers once existed on a now-vanished island in New York City.

Barren Island was a swampy speck in Jamaica Bay where a motley group of new immigrants and African Americans quietly processed mountains of garbage and dead animals starting in the 1850s. They turned the waste into useful industrial products until their eviction by Robert Moses in 1936, all in the name of progress. Barren Islanders built businesses, fought fires, demanded a public school and worshipped at churches as they created a quintessentially American community from scratch. Author Miriam Sicherman tells the story of a Brooklyn neighborhood lost in the annals of New York City history.

Experience the architecture and colorful history of the Historic Theaters of New York's Capital District as author John A. Miller charts the entertaining history.

For generations, residents of New York's Capital District have flocked to the region's numerous theaters. The history behind the venues is often more compelling than the shows presented in them.

John Wilkes Booth brushed with death on stage while he and Abraham Lincoln were visiting Albany. The first exhibition of broadcast television was shown at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady, although the invention ironically contributed to the downfall of theaters across the nation. A fired manager of the Green Street Theatre seized control of the theater with a group of armed men, but Albany police stormed the building and the former manager regained control.

Columbia County Past Revealed

People have been drawn to Columbia County, New York, for years. Beyond the region’s picturesque streams, lakes and mountains, the county is filled with the magic of history. Famed pirate Captain Kidd and local Lord of the Manor Robert Livingston were once in cahoots regarding the plundering of the seas. A roaring nightclub fashioned as a ship marooned on dry land, named the Show Boat, drew legendary acts like Ella Fitzgerald and Redd Foxx in the 1930s. The hills and caves of Austerlitz feature a pond that appears to have no bottom, there have been sightings of the “Beast of the Berkshires” and the area was home to outlaws, gangs and many wishing to remain remote. Author Allison Marchese reveals the lost people, places and things of Columbia County.

Winner of the Association of New York Public Historians 2023 Excellence in Local History Award

Winner of the American Legacy Book Award 2024 for United States History

Winner of the NYC Big Book Award 2024 for Regional-Nonfiction

Winner of the IAN Book of the Year Award 2024 for Outstanding Non-Fiction: History 

The Van Wyck, the Major Deegan, the Jackie Robinson, the Hutch, the Merritt, FDR Drive, or the Henry Hudson...you might drive them regularly, without really noticing that those road names are, well, names. But, who were these people?

New York's many roads, bridges, tunnels, neighborhoods and institutions bear the names of a diverse cast of characters. The Kosciuszko Bridge honors Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a Polish American Revolutionary War hero and fervent abolitionist. The Outerbridge Crossing, named after the Port Authority's first chairman, Eugenius Outerbridge, is called a crossing because Outerbridge Bridge sounded absurd. Shirley Chisholm State Park celebrates the first Black woman elected to Congress, the larger-than-life Shirley Chisholm. Clifford Holland originally designed his tunnel under the Hudson River to accommodate horse carts. These place names embody the rich history of the city that never sleeps, yet few know their true stories. Author Rebecca Bratspies uncovers the vibrant personalities behind the names that have become New York's urban shorthand for traffic jams, culture and recreation.

Just off the coast of the Bronx in Long Island Sound sits Hart Island, where more than one million bodies are buried in unmarked graves.

Beginning as a Civil War prison and training site and later a psychiatric hospital, the location became the repository for New York City's unclaimed dead. The island's mass graves are a microcosm of New York history, from the 1822 burial crisis to casualties of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and victims of the AIDS epidemic. Important artists who died in poverty have been discovered, including Disney star Bobby Driscoll and playwright Leo Birinski. Author Michael T. Keene reveals the history of New York's potter's field and the stories of some of its lost souls.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family may be most remembered for their time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but it was the Hudson Valley they called home. In Manhattan, the president's mother built a townhome on East Sixty-Fifth Street, and Eleanor was born on East Thirty-Seventh. On the banks of the Hudson River, Hyde Park was Franklin's birthplace and where he entertained some of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. Up the Albany Post Road, several homes of family and friends played important moments in history. Laura Delano's Tudor-style house was where FDR met with Churchill, and the beautiful Wilderstein was home to Daisy Suckley, a devoted confidante. In Albany as governor, FDR installed a therapy pool in a converted outdoor greenhouse to assist his physical challenges in the Executive Mansion. Historian Shannon Butler traces the historic homes that shaped the Roosevelt family in the Hudson Valley.

On the east side of Midtown Manhattan, next to the United Nations, sits the towering apartment complex Tudor City.

An architectural masterpiece created by developer Fred F. French during the Roaring Twenties, Tudor City was the first residential skyscraper complex in the world. It brought middle-class lifestyle to center city. Tudor City has parks, shops and restaurants and even once had a mini-golf course. Developers and preservationists battled over the site in the 1970s and 1980s, with a notable cast of characters including Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Mayor John Lindsay and Representative Ed Koch. The city designated the area a historic district. Author and resident Lawrence R. Samuel charts the ninety-year history of New York’s Tudor City.