Hidden Histories of New York City and Beyond: Stories in Photos!
I LOVE NYC. LOVE. IT. I’ve spent a lot of time there throughout my life and have well over a century of family history there. Lately I’ve been to the Big Apple more than ever since our daughter moved there a few years ago. I’ve included some sites I’ve visited in New York City before on this blog and I have some more to share so let’s get to it. There really is a TON of history to see in the city and surrounding areas even if much of it has been paved over and developed. Some of it you just have to look for which I’ve done for you…
I’m going to group these somewhat by location starting in Manhattan. And just as a side note I’m not including many “big” obvious attractions that every average tourist sees when they visit New York City. This is just a collection of what I think are cool sites the average person may not know about or have visited. Some are curiosities, some are worth checking out, and I have a map at the bottom that will give you an idea of where these spots are.
Hidden Histories Of New York City and Beyond: Stories In Photos!
Trinity Church Cemetery
Opened in 1697, Trinity Church Cemetery is the final resting place of some important historical figures including Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza (more on them later). We were there on the same 2024 trip - it’s pretty cool. Below you’ll see Alexander Hamilton’s gravesite in the top row with a closeup of the wording on the right. In the middle row is Eliza Hamilton’s grave as well as Robert Fulton who is credited with inventing the first commercially successful steamboat. The bottom row has the grave of Captain James Lawrence, war hero of 1812 whose dying words as captain of the frigate Chesapeake were also famous - “Don’t Give Up The Ship!” His wife and his second-in-command, Lt. Augustus C. Ludlow, both share his grave. The last photo is of an impressive memorial to Hamilton and other members of the Continental Army interred there from the New York State Society of the Cincinnati.
New York Marble Cemetery
I notice things as I walk around. The amateur historian in me can’t resist a good plaque or statue and this one caught my eye. The gate was locked and apparently it’s rarely open to visit but what a unique history… The Wikipedia Entry on it is pretty interesting. Wealthy NY Tycoons and politicians were buried here in marble vaults starting in the 1830’s. Yes, sometimes I will refer to Wikipedia for info…
Stonewall national monument
Stonewall National Monument is an important spot commemorating The Stonewall Uprising on June 28, 1969. It was a huge milestone in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement - it basically was what got it started and there is a small park there next to the Stonewall Inn which is still open. They will be adding a visitor center there in the future, and Pride events around the world commemorate the riots that happened here in 1969.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Birthplace National Historic Site
I definitely recommend a visit here. It’s a rebuilt replica of the brownstone home on 28 E. 20th St. between Broadway & Park that the Roosevelts lived in until young Theodore was 14, on the spot where the house stood. It was demolished in 1916 to make way for more development but when Teddy passed in 1919 apparently they realized that was a mistake and they rebuilt it in 1923. It’s basically the 1865 version of the home with a bunch of original furnishings. They have the bullet pierced shirt and speech on display that he was wearing during the 1912 assassination attempt on him. Great museum. This photo is from a 2010 trip and the rest of the photos I took were really more of my kids there lol…
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site
Chester A. Arthur Home
At this point on this particular trip in 2010 it was between 103-105 degrees in the city. I’m not kidding. It was so unbearable I don’t believe I’ve witnessed anything like it before or since. We were ducking into bodegas to get bottles of water to drink and pour over our heads if we walked a block or two. I wanted to see President Arthur’s home just to see it. It is privately owned and hasn’t been preserved in any way. It stands at 123 Lexington between 28th and 29th and while the 5 story home was all his at the time, the first two stories are now retail and the top 3 are apartments. This was where he took the oath of office upon President Garfield’s death and there is a plaque that commemorates it - it’s behind a window with plenty of glare. As a side note I’ve recently read Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President about James Garfield and his death by Candace Millard and I followed that up with The Unexpected President - The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur: A Gilded Age Tale of Corruption and Courage by Scott S. Greenberger which serve as fantastic companion volumes in my opinion (both of those links are my affiliate links FYI). I have a higher regard for President Arthur than I thought I would after reading these books.
Now I want to make something very clear here…. I am aware that the quality of these photos are not good. They are actually stills from the video I took. I thought I took photos but I may have just documented it on video at the time and ducked into an air conditioned cab with Ally and the kids. There are better photos online but I prefer to use MY own visuals from my visits. So I apologize on these. I didn’t even have the whole plaque in the frame so I stitched them together lol… I might have been on the verge of heat stroke here.
Ugh - I know. That’s the best I got. But I wanted to include it anyway - if you’re in that area take a look - you can’t go in but something historically significant did indeed happen there.
Nathan Hale Plaque
Just a plaque - but wow! This just caught my eye as I was walking past just last July 2024 and when I stopped to read it I was pleasantly surprised. Nathan Hale was a patriot and a spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolution. When he was captured by the British they executed him near this spot, and his last words were the now famous "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." The plaque is at the Yale Club at 44th & Vanderbilt right by Grand Central Station.
Side by Side - Empire State Building and Chrysler Building
I just think this is cool. Photos I took of the Empire State Building on the left and the Chrysler Building on the right… Would you believe I took the one of the Empire State Building through the glass roof of the Revel I was riding in? The Chrysler Building I was just standing in front of. And did you know that the Chrysler Building was the tallest in the world for a year when it was completed in 1930? It was the Empire State Building that surpassed it in 1931. While these are not traditional definitive photos of these classics I think the up close looking straight up pairing is interesting.
General Grant National Memorial
The only other time I went to Grant’s Tomb it wasn’t open, and I still wanted to get back to it. It’s pretty impressive. It’s an imposing memorial that wouldn’t be out of place on the National Mall in D.C. and the architecture is stunning. Now called the General Grant National Memorial, I found it worth the stop. The murals inside, the statues of some of Grant’s Civil War Generals, the flags on display from the war including the one on the wall which is an original regimental battle flag of the 11th Indiana Infantry and dates to 1863 or 1864. According to the sign next to the flag, the 11th Indiana fought with Grant in the West from Forts Henry and Donelson all the way to Vicksburg. They also served under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley and were mustered out after the war. The Grants are side by side in red granite sarcophagi on the lower level surrounded by the busts of his generals that served under him.
Hamilton Grange National Memorial
Our last stop in Manhattan for this post before we head to Brooklyn is Alexander Hamilton’s home The Grange! How cool - I’m trying to visit all the home of U.S. Presidents which has been really rewarding and the homes of other historical figures and obviously the rest of the founding fathers like Hamilton fit with that quest. The home has been moved from its original location - but it’s pretty close to the original spot and it is indeed the original house. It was completed in 1802 only two years before Hamilton’s death and it was the only home he ever owned. The grounds are nice and there are interpretive markers as you can see below that even include some of his handwritten plans for the home and grounds. Many of the items in the home are not original but many are faithful replicas of the items and furniture that was there so you get a very real sense of what it looked like inside in the foyer, the study, the dining room and the parlor. You can see the bust statue sculpture in the main foyer that Hamilton actually sat for, and the little stack of 5 books on the round table in the study are original books that he owned that date to the late 18th century. Titles include: "The History of Modern Europe", "The Antiquities of Rome", "A Universal History from the Earliest Account of Time", "Anderson's Historical And Chronological Deductions of the Origins of Commerce", and "History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic." The wine cooler with the two blue bottles in it in the dining room is a replica of the one George Washington gave to Hamilton as a gift. So nice! The collections overall in the home are detailed here, and you can see some of the items in my photos below.
The Battle Of Long Island (aka The Battle of Brooklyn)
So while Brooklyn is obviously very developed, there are still several spots that relate to the Battle of Long Island that I still plan to see. The only two spots I’ve seen so far are the site of General George Washington’s Headquarters at “Four Chimneys” at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, close to the spot where after being surrounded by the British, he orchestrated a night time evacuation of 9000 troops across the East River to Manhattan and eventually to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the other is just a plaque in the Long Island University main lobby denoting that it sits along the Continental Army line of defense. It was a significant defeat for the Continental Army coming on August 27th, less than 2 months after declaring independence from England in July and losing control of Long Island and Manhattan.
Ebbets Field
The next couple of spots are near and dear to me personally - one will mean something to sports fans and the other - well it’s specific to my family history. Let’s start with Ebbets Field from a 2021 trip! My dad grew up a die hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan living in Woodmere, NY on Long Island and he would take the bus to the games as a teenager. He was completely heartbroken when they left for Los Angeles and he eventually became a Mets fan. The Dodgers were no longer his team. He had a framed painting of Ebbets Field on his wall with an original brick from the demolition. And while the stadium is no longer there, there is more to see than you might think, including the “Ebbets Field” lettering that used to be on the stadium, and a home plate shaped plaque on the sidewalk on the spot where home plate was. SO COOL! The home plate commemorates the spot where Jackie Robinson integrated Major League Baseball. A sacred spot indeed - reminds me of how you can see the very spot where JFK stood on the steps of the student union at the University of Michigan when he announced the Peace Corps or the spot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where MLK delivered “I Have A Dream.” The apartment building there where the stadium stood is massive. That’s me with my daughter Lacey standing in front of home plate. If felt like a pilgrimage to connect with a spot that meant so much to my dad who passed just over three years ago. I miss him a lot.
Varet Street
I had heard for years about how my Grandpa Louis “Louie” Ackman lived in a small apartment where they had to go down the block to take a bath. This would have been not long after the turn of the 20th century when my great grandfather came to America from Russia and then sent for the rest of the family I think 2 years later. My Grandpa Louie was a child when they moved to that apartment on Varet Street in Brooklyn in the 1900’s. I found the street which is only about two blocks long, so I knew I was standing on the street in the neighborhood where my Grandpa lived as a child. I was close to him and this meant a lot for me to be standing there. There’s nothing special there to be sure, but I was transported back over century knowing where I was. Oh and Law and Order SVU was going to film there which was pretty cool - you can see the sign.
Revolutionary War Sites Outside of the City
There are a couple of Revolutionary War Sites that don’t warrant a blog post for themselves but they are close to New York so I’m including them here. Let’s start with the Battle of Ridgefield which was fought during a British raid to destroy supplies in Connecticut across the Long Island Sound between April 25th and April 28th, 1777. The patriots of the Continental Army led by Benedict Arnold tried to barricade the British in Ridgefield on the 27th but were unsuccessful and the British escaped back to Compo Beach. I would like to get back there since there are sites in town and a museum, but I did see a couple of cool monuments relating to the battle. The first is the one in Westport honoring the Patriots who defended the fledgling America.
The next site is the monument at Compo Beach where the British left from and returned to after the raid.
The Battle of Minisink
Another really interesting Revolutionary War spot - the Minisink Battlefield which is off of the Upper Delaware Scenic River. The drive along the river is part of the National Park Service and it’s quite beautiful. I wasn’t aware of this battle but if I see a sign for a battlefield I stop. Historians are pretty sure the Patriots here (led by Col. John Hathorn) made their final stand close by the monument and markers below as they retreated uphill from the river, but they were mostly surrounded by the British and between 45 and 50 were killed out of about 120. These are stills from the video I took on the 2010 trip so I apologize for the quality again here.
The map gives more of a logical path to the spots I’ve mentioned even if I didn’t present them exactly in that order, but again - not all of these are really destinations per se - some are, some might be worth walking an extra block to see, others like the New York Marble Cemetery were just interesting - there’s no need to go find it.
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M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here. You can also visit our other business Detroit Jerky at the website www.DetroitJerkyLLC.com!