New York City Building History

The Andrew Carnegie Mansion: A Private House Opens to Design

By Solomon Rokowsky

At Fifth Avenue and 91st Street, Andrew Carnegie built a house that looked more settled than showy. Its brick walls, pale stone trim and enclosed garden suggest a large English country house translated to a Manhattan corner.

The Ansonia: A Soundproof Home for Musicians on Broadway

By Solomon Rokowsky

W.E.D. Stokes's soundproof 1904 apartment hotel, with a rooftop farm, a famous basement and a tenant list of opera stars, now a condominium.

Brooklyn Army Terminal: A Concrete Machine for Moving a Nation

By Solomon Rokowsky

Cass Gilbert’s vast Sunset Park terminal, from military logistics and wartime embarkation to today’s industrial, office, studio, and service uses.

The Brooklyn Museum: From a Wheelbarrow Library to a McKim, Mead & White Palace

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Brooklyn Museum marked its 200th anniversary in 2023, and its home is a McKim, Mead & White palace on Eastern Parkway that is only part of what was planned. Here is how it all happened, and who owns the museum today.

Carnegie Hall: The Concert Hall New York Almost Tore Down

By Solomon Rokowsky

A shipboard friendship, Tchaikovsky on opening night, and the 1960 campaign led by Isaac Stern that kept the wrecking ball away.

The Chrysler Building: A Machine-Age Crown for Midtown

By Solomon Rokowsky

Walter Chrysler, William Van Alen, the secret spire and the Art Deco tower’s changing control.

Conference House: The Staten Island Manor Where Peace Talks Failed

By Solomon Rokowsky

The seventeenth-century Staten Island manor where British and American delegates held failed peace talks in September 1776.

Cooper Union's Foundation Building: The Free School That Pointed Toward the Skyscraper

By Solomon Rokowsky

Peter Cooper's free school put the first rolled wrought-iron beams in an American building and gave Lincoln the stage that made him president.

The Dakota: The Upper West Side Apartment House That Came First

By Solomon Rokowsky

Edward Clark's 1880s gamble on a remote corner of Central Park West, Henry Hardenbergh's design, and the 1961 tenant buyout that saved it.

The Empire State Building: A Depression-Era Gamble That Became a Symbol

By Solomon Rokowsky

John J. Raskob, Al Smith and a race against the calendar - how the world's tallest building survived the Depression to become New York's symbol.

The Flatiron Building: How an Awkward Plot Became a New York Landmark

By Solomon Rokowsky

How an unusual triangular site, modern steel construction, and Daniel Burnham's design produced one of New York's most recognizable buildings.

Grand Central Terminal: How an Electric Railroad Built a Midtown Monument

By Solomon Rokowsky

A deadly tunnel crash, William Wilgus's electric plan and a Supreme Court fight - how Grand Central became New York's great front door.

Is the Unisphere the Largest Globe in the World?

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, is a stationary openwork representation of the Earth in stainless steel, 120 feet across, and it does not turn. Here is how its size compares with the globe that holds the official record, and who owns the Unisphere today.

Jefferson Market Courthouse: The Village Gem That Became a Library

By Solomon Rokowsky

A Tweed-era scandal, Frederick Withers's Victorian Gothic courthouse, and the Village campaign that turned it into a library.

The Manhattan Municipal Building: A Skyscraper Built for City Hall

By Solomon Rokowsky

How William M. Kendall gave New York a monumental government building with a street beneath it, a subway station at its base, and Civic Fame above.

The Morgan Library & Museum: J.P. Morgan's Marble Masterpiece on Madison Avenue

By Solomon Rokowsky

J. Pierpont Morgan hired Charles Follen McKim to build a library beside his Madison Avenue home in 1903, and his son opened it to the public in 1924. Here is how the Morgan came to be, and who owns it today.

New York City Hall: The Oldest City Hall in America Still Doing Its Job

By Solomon Rokowsky

City Hall has housed New York's mayor and City Council since 1812, making it the oldest city hall in America still doing its job. Here is its story, and who owns it today.

The New York Life Building: Cass Gilbert’s Gold-Crowned Tower

By Solomon Rokowsky

The story of 51 Madison Avenue: two Madison Square Gardens, Cass Gilbert’s insurance skyscraper, and the gold-toned roof above the park.

The New York Public Library: A Marble Palace on an Old Reservoir

By Solomon Rokowsky

Three private libraries, an abandoned reservoir and a sketch by John Shaw Billings - how New York built its great Beaux-Arts library.

The New York State Pavilion: Queens’ Space-Age Ruin Moves Toward Renewal

By Solomon Rokowsky

Philip Johnson’s World’s Fair landmark, its decline and the preservation work now underway.

The Philip Howard Apartments: A Vertical Neighborhood on Flatbush Avenue

By Solomon Rokowsky

The 1960s complex, Philip Kaskel, its original renting-management company and a changing Flatbush Avenue.

The Plaza Hotel: A French Chateau Beside Central Park

By Solomon Rokowsky

Henry Hardenbergh's 1907 chateau on Grand Army Plaza, from Eloise and the Beatles to the Trump deal and Qatari ownership today.

Poe Cottage: A Small Bronx House at the End of a Literary Life

By Solomon Rokowsky

The modest Bronx farmhouse where Edgar Allan Poe spent his final New York years, and how it survived through relocation and preservation.

The Puck Building: How a Satirical Magazine Built a NoHo Landmark

By Solomon Rokowsky

Joseph Keppler's color-cartoon weekly built this red-brick Romanesque giant on Lafayette Street; NYU and Kushner Companies keep it busy today.

Sailors’ Snug Harbor: From Mariners’ Home to Staten Island Cultural Campus

By Solomon Rokowsky

How a home for retired mariners became Staten Island’s landmark cultural campus, from its Greek Revival row to its preservation and reuse.

The St. Regis New York: John Jacob Astor’s Fifth Avenue Hotel

By Solomon Rokowsky

The St. Regis New York, from John Jacob Astor and Trowbridge & Livingston to its 1927 expansion and the hotel’s present owner.

The Tenement Museum: A New York Home Worth Saving

By Solomon Rokowsky

New York's grand houses tell us what money could buy. At 97 Orchard Street, the rooms tell us what families managed to do without it.

The TWA Flight Center: When an Airport Learned to Fly

By Solomon Rokowsky

Eero Saarinen’s 1962 terminal, its landmark rescue and conversion to the TWA Hotel.

The Tweed Courthouse: How a Palace of Graft Became a Civic Treasure

By Solomon Rokowsky

Boss Tweed's twenty-year palace of graft became the city's restored marble home of the Department of Education.

The Twin Towers: A New York Skyline Remembered

By Solomon Rokowsky

The original World Trade Center, its architecture and daily life, the attacks of September 11, and the responders and people remembered today.

Van Cortlandt House: The Bronx’s Oldest House and the Labor Behind It

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Bronx’s oldest house, its Georgian architecture, Revolutionary War history, and the enslaved labor behind the estate.

The Waldorf Astoria: How a Park Avenue Palace Became the World's Most Famous Hotel

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Waldorf Astoria rose on Park Avenue in the depths of the Depression and became the world's most famous hotel. Its story, its movie and gangster lore, and who owns it today.

Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge? How Three Roeblings Finished It

By Solomon Rokowsky

John Roebling designed the Brooklyn Bridge, Washington Roebling built it and Emily Roebling kept the work going. See who did what, from caissons to opening day.

Why Was the Original Pennsylvania Station Demolished?

By Solomon Rokowsky

Pennsylvania Station was a pink-granite palace modeled on the Baths of Caracalla, and New York tore it down beginning in 1963. Why it happened, what was lost, and who owns Penn Station today.

The Woolworth Building: A Five-and-Dime Fortune Becomes a Skyscraper

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Frank Woolworth's nickels and dimes, Cass Gilbert's Gothic design, and a race for height produced the world's tallest building of 1913.

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Federal Hall: The Greek Revival Custom House on Washington’s Inaugural Site

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Town & Davis’s Greek Revival Custom House replaced the building where Washington took his oath, and how it became a National Park Service memorial.

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Fraunces Tavern: The Lower Manhattan House Where Washington Said Farewell

By Solomon Rokowsky

The story of Fraunces Tavern, from Etienne De Lancey’s 1719 house to Washington’s 1783 farewell and the Sons of the Revolution’s 1907 restoration.

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The American Museum of Natural History: Eighteen Buildings Built Over Sixty Years

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the American Museum of Natural History grew from a Central Park Arsenal home into eighteen linked buildings, and who owns the land today.

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The New York Stock Exchange: From a Buttonwood Tree to George B. Post's Marble Fortress

By Solomon Rokowsky

The NYSE began with 24 brokers under a buttonwood tree in 1792. Its 1903 George B. Post building at 18 Broad Street is a New York City landmark and a National Historic Landmark.

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The 9/11 Memorial & Museum: Reflecting Absence in the Twin Towers' Footprints

By Solomon Rokowsky

How an open competition produced the 9/11 Memorial's twin waterfall pools, what the museum holds at bedrock, and what the official sources say about visiting.

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The Apollo Theater: From Harlem Burlesque House to Black Music’s Great Stage

By Solomon Rokowsky

How George Keister’s 1914 burlesque theater became the Apollo, the Harlem stage that shaped Black American popular music, and who runs it today.

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The Broadway Theatre: Steamboat Willie, Evita and the Colony That Became One of Five Playhouses on Broadway

By Solomon Rokowsky

How B.S. Moss opened the Colony in 1924, why the Broadway Theatre has had so many names, and how it became the Shuberts' big-musical house.

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The Bronx Zoo: How a Gilded Age Society Built America's Wildest Classroom

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Bronx Zoo opened in 1899 on city parkland, bankrolled by Carnegie and Vanderbilt and designed by the architects of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. From Astor Court to the Rainey Gates, this is how it was built and who owns it now.

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Brooklyn Botanic Garden: A Century of Cherries, Bonsai and a McKim, Mead & White Landmark

By Solomon Rokowsky

Brooklyn Botanic Garden opened in 1911 on land reserved beside Prospect Park, and grew into 52 acres with a landmark McKim, Mead and White laboratory, a famous cherry esplanade and a Japanese garden. This is its story, and who owns it today.

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Bryant Park: A Potter's Field, a Crystal Palace and New York's Most Famous Park Comeback

By Solomon Rokowsky

Bryant Park has been a potter's field, a reservoir, a world's fairground and an open-air drug market before its celebrated 1992 reopening. This is its story, and who owns it today.

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Citi Field: The Queens Ballpark Built to Look Like Brooklyn

By Solomon Rokowsky

Why the Mets' Queens ballpark wears Ebbets Field's facade, the Jackie Robinson Rotunda and Home Run Apple, the naming-rights fight, and the cost figures that don't agree.

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The Cloisters: How Rockefeller and Barnard Built a Medieval Monastery in Fort Tryon Park

By Solomon Rokowsky

How George Grey Barnard's collection and John D. Rockefeller Jr. led to The Cloisters, a 1938 building made with real medieval cloisters, and who owns it today.

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Coney Island: How a Brooklyn Beach Became America's Playground, From the Cyclone to Nathan's

By Solomon Rokowsky

Coney Island in Brooklyn: the 1927 Cyclone coaster, the 2.7-mile Riegelmann Boardwalk, Nathan's 1916 hot dog stand and the amusement parks that made it famous.

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Did Donald Trump Build 40 Wall Street? The 1930 Skyscraper That Lost the Height Race to the Chrysler Building

By Solomon Rokowsky

Donald Trump did not build 40 Wall Street. Who did, how it lost the 1930 race with the Chrysler Building, the owners before Trump, and who holds the lease and land today.

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Did the Palace Theatre Really Move? How Broadway's Most Famous Vaudeville House Was Lifted 29 Feet

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Martin Beck built the Palace in 1913, why performers dreamed of playing it, how the landmark interior was raised 29 feet inside the TSX Broadway tower, and why its seat count and address differ by source.

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Did Trump Build Trump Place? The Riverside Boulevard Towers That Dropped His Name

By Solomon Rokowsky

Who built the Trump Place towers on Riverside Boulevard, what Trump planned for the old rail yard, how the sources differ, and when each of the six buildings dropped his name.

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Did Trump Build Trump SoHo? The Tower Behind the Dominick Hotel at 246 Spring Street

By Solomon Rokowsky

Who built Trump SoHo at 246 Spring Street, what Trump actually did there, why it became the Dominick in 2017, and what the 2025 sale means for its name.

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The Ed Sullivan Theater: Hammerstein's Gothic Memorial, CBS Studio 50 and the Late Show Years

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Arthur Hammerstein built a Gothic theater for his father in 1927, how CBS made it Studio 50 and then the Ed Sullivan Theater, and what is known about its future after The Late Show.

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Ellis Island: How a Fire and a Design Competition Built the Gateway to America

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Ellis Island became the immigration station for 12 million people, why Boring & Tilton designed the Main Building, and who runs the island today.

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The Frick Collection: A Steel Baron's Mansion Built to Become a Museum

By Solomon Rokowsky

Henry Clay Frick built his Fifth Avenue mansion in 1913-14 intending it to become a public museum. It opened in 1935, was renovated from 2020 to 2025, and reopened with its second floor open for the first time. The building history of 1 East 70th Street.

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The High Line: How an Abandoned Freight Railway Became a Park in the Sky

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the High Line went from a 1934 elevated freight line to a public park, who saved it, how its sections opened from 2009 to 2023, and who runs it today.

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The Hotel Chelsea: From Victorian Cooperative to Artists’ Landmark

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Hubert, Pirsson & Co.’s 1884 cooperative apartment house became the Hotel Chelsea, home to writers and artists, and what its owners have done since.

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The Hudson Theatre: Harris's 1903 Playhouse, a TV Studio, a Rock Club and Its Return to Broadway

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Henry B. Harris built the Hudson in 1903, how it became a Tonight Show studio, burlesque house and conference center, and how it returned to Broadway in 2017.

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The Intrepid: How a Torpedoed WWII Carrier Became Manhattan's Sea, Air and Space Museum

By Solomon Rokowsky

The USS Intrepid fought five kamikaze attacks and a torpedo hit, recovered two space capsules and was saved to become a museum. History of the carrier, the Space Shuttle Enterprise and the Concorde.

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Is Madison Square Garden Actually at Madison Square? Four Arenas and a Name That Moved

By Solomon Rokowsky

No. The current Madison Square Garden opened in 1968 above Penn Station, a mile from Madison Square. How the name traveled from Stanford White's 1890 arena and Tex Rickard's boxing house to the arena between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.

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Is the Marquis Theatre the Only Broadway Theater Inside a Hotel? What Was Torn Down to Build It

By Solomon Rokowsky

What the sources say about the Marquis Theatre inside the Marriott Marquis, the five theaters demolished in 1982 for the hotel, and how many seats the house has.

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Is the Minskoff Theatre Inside an Office Tower? Hotel Astor, a Zoning Deal and The Lion King

By Solomon Rokowsky

Why the home of The Lion King sits on the third floor of One Astor Plaza, what stood there before, and how the Minskoff came to exist.

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Is the New Yankee Stadium on the Same Site as the Old One? The Ballpark That Moved Across the Street

By Solomon Rokowsky

Why the 2009 Yankee Stadium stands one block north of the 1923 original, what happened to the House That Ruth Built, and what the city built on the old footprint.

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Is the Stonewall Inn Actually a National Monument? Stables, a Speakeasy and a Bar That Changed History

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Stonewall Inn began as two 1840s horse stables on Christopher Street, became a Prohibition speakeasy and a Mafia-run gay bar, and sparked the 1969 uprising. Here is its story, and who owns it today.

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Is the United Nations Headquarters Actually in the United States? Slaughterhouses, Rockefeller and a 39-Story Truce

By Solomon Rokowsky

Yes, the UN headquarters stands in Manhattan on the East River, but the 18-acre site is owned by the United Nations with a special legal status. This is how a slaughterhouse district became the world's most diplomatic address.

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Is Washington Square Park Built on a Graveyard? A Potter's Field, a Parade Ground and an Arch

By Solomon Rokowsky

Yes, the eastern part of Washington Square Park was a potter's field from 1797 to 1825, and archaeologists found burials still in place. This is how the burial ground became a parade ground, a park and the home of Stanford White's arch.

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Lincoln Center: The Neighborhood That Came Down for a Performing Arts Campus

By Solomon Rokowsky

Lincoln Center opened in stages from 1962 to 1969 on land cleared by Robert Moses's Lincoln Square urban renewal project, which displaced more than 7,000 families and 800 businesses. This is how the campus was planned, built and rebuilt.

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The Lyric Theatre: How the Old Apollo and Lyric Became One Broadway House

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Lyric Theatre in Times Square was built from the 1903 Lyric and the 1920 Apollo, why it has had five names, and why its seat count and address vary by source.

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Macy's Herald Square: How a Dry Goods Shop Became the World's Largest Store

By Solomon Rokowsky

How a small dry goods shop became the Macy's Herald Square flagship, the story of the Million Dollar Corner holdout, and the parade that made the store a national fixture.

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The Majestic Theatre: Chanin's "Modern Spanish" House, Home of The Phantom of the Opera for 35 Years

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Chanin brothers built the Majestic in 1927, what the landmark reports say about its stadium plan and interior, and how The Phantom of the Opera ran there from 1988 to 2023.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Vaux's Gothic Original and Hunt's Beaux-Arts Front

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Met grew from a Gothic Revival building by Vaux and Mould into the Beaux-Arts museum on Fifth Avenue, and who owns the building today.

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The Morris-Jumel Mansion: Manhattan’s Oldest House, from Washington’s Headquarters to City Museum

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Roger Morris’s 1765 country house became Washington’s headquarters, Eliza Jumel’s home and a city-owned museum, and who runs it today.

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The Museum of Modern Art: From Rented Rooms on Fifth Avenue to the 2019 Expansion

By Solomon Rokowsky

MoMA opened in 1929 in rented rooms at 730 Fifth Avenue, moved into its West 53rd Street home in 1939 and has been rebuilt and enlarged ever since. This is the building history, from Goodwin and Stone to Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

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The New Amsterdam Theatre: Broadway's Oldest Working Theater and the Art Nouveau House Beautiful

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Klaw & Erlanger built the New Amsterdam Theatre in 1903, what the landmark reports say about its Art Nouveau design, the Ziegfeld years and how Disney restored it.

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The New York Botanical Garden: A Kew-Inspired Dream Built on a Tobacco Mill's Land

By Solomon Rokowsky

A botanist's 1888 visit to Kew Gardens led to a 250-acre national landmark in the Bronx, planned by Calvert Vaux around an old-growth forest, a river gorge and a glass palace by Lord and Burnham. This is how NYBG was built and who owns it today.

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The Oculus: The $4 Billion Bird That Rose Over Ground Zero

By Solomon Rokowsky

From Hudson Terminal in 1909 to Calatrava's winged $4 billion hub: the delays, the Wedge of Light that became a skylight, and the mall and memorial inside.

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One World Observatory: How the Tower Got Its 1,776 Feet and What You See From Floors 100 to 102

By Solomon Rokowsky

How One World Trade Center reached 1,776 feet, how One World Observatory opened in 2015, what is on floors 100 to 102, and who owns and runs it.

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Park Central Hotel: The 1927 Giant Where Two Mob Hits Made History

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Park Central Hotel opened on Seventh Avenue in 1927 and saw Arnold Rothstein's shooting and Albert Anastasia's barbershop murder. This is its story, and who owns it today.

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Prospect Park: How Olmsted and Vaux Built Brooklyn's Backyard

By Solomon Rokowsky

Prospect Park was Olmsted and Vaux's Brooklyn answer to Central Park: a mile of meadow, the borough's only forest and a lake dug by hand. This is how it was built, and who owns it today.

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Radio City Music Hall: How a Failed Opera House Became the Showplace of the Nation

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Metropolitan Opera’s abandoned site became Rockefeller Center’s Radio City Music Hall, the 1978 fight that saved its interior, and who holds the lease.

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Rockefeller Center: How a Failed Opera House Became a City Within the City

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Rockefeller Center grew from a canceled Metropolitan Opera plan into 30 Rockefeller Plaza and the Channel Gardens, and who owns it today.

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The South Street Seaport: From the Street of Ships to the Festival Marketplace and Back

By Solomon Rokowsky

How South Street Seaport went from the Street of Ships to decline and back, with Schermerhorn Row, the Fulton Fish Market, the Titanic Memorial and Pier 17.

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The St. James Theatre: Erlanger's Last Broadway House, Home of The King and I and Hello, Dolly!

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Abraham Erlanger built the St. James Theatre in 1927, what the landmark reports say about its facade and auditorium, and which long-running shows opened there.

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The Statue of Liberty: A French Gift That Americans Had to Finish Paying For

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Statue of Liberty went from Laboulaye's 1865 idea to the 1886 dedication, who designed it, who paid for the pedestal, and who runs it today.

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Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point: A Bronx Landfill, a Nicklaus Course and a Name That Came Off in 2023

By Solomon Rokowsky

How a Bronx landfill became the Jack Nicklaus course at Ferry Point, what Trump actually built there, why the Trump name came off in 2023, and who runs it now.

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Trump International Hotel and Tower: How the Gulf and Western Building Got a Gold-Tinted Skin and a New Address

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Gulf and Western Building became Trump International Hotel and Tower at One Central Park West. Who developed it, who designed it, why the floor counts differ, and who owns it today.

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Trump Palace: The Upper East Side Tower Built on the Foundling Hospital Site

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Trump bought the New York Foundling Hospital site in 1985 and built Trump Palace at 200 East 69th Street, where the sources disagree on its height and apartment count, and who owns it today.

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Trump Parc and Trump Parc East: The 1930 Barbizon-Plaza Hotel Trump Bought and Converted

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Trump bought the 1930 Barbizon-Plaza Hotel and 100 Central Park South in 1981, failed to demolish them, and converted them into Trump Parc and Trump Parc East, with the sources compared.

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Trump Park Avenue: The 1929 Hotel Delmonico That Trump Bought for $115 Million and Converted

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the 1929 Hotel Delmonico at 502 Park Avenue became Trump Park Avenue, what Trump actually changed, where the sources disagree on its height and date, and who owns it today.

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Trump Plaza on East 61st Street: The 1984 Tower Trump Sued the Savoy Over

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Trump Plaza at 167 East 61st Street was built, why Donald Trump sued the developer of the Savoy across Third Avenue, what its public plaza offers, and who owns it today.

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Trump Tower: How a Bonwit Teller Site Became a 58-Story Tower With 68 Floors on Paper

By Solomon Rokowsky

How Trump Tower rose on the Bonwit Teller site at 725 Fifth Avenue, why its 68th floor is really the 58th, what its public atrium requires, and who owns it today.

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What Is the Vessel? A Staircase Sculpture, the Edge Sky Deck and the Rail Yard Under Hudson Yards

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Vessel is a 16-story climbing structure designed by Heatherwick Studio at Hudson Yards. How it was built, why it closed in 2021, how it reopened in 2024 and how Edge compares.

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The Whitney Museum: From West Eighth Street to the Breuer Building to the High Line

By Solomon Rokowsky

The Whitney Museum of American Art opened in 1931 in a Greenwich Village row house, moved to Marcel Breuer's granite fortress on Madison Avenue in 1966 and opened Renzo Piano's building at the foot of the High Line in 2015. The building history of the Whitney.

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Who Built Castle Clinton? A Harbor Fort That Became an Opera House, an Immigrant Depot and an Aquarium

By Solomon Rokowsky

Who built Castle Clinton in Battery Park, why the fort never fired a shot, and how it became Castle Garden, an immigration depot and an aquarium.

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Who Designed Central Park? How Olmsted and Vaux Won a Competition for 843 Acres

By Solomon Rokowsky

Central Park began as a design competition won by Olmsted and Vaux in 1858. How the Mall, Bethesda Terrace and the Lake were planned, and who cares for the park today.

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Who Is Buried in Grant's Tomb? The Monument New York Built for a President

By Solomon Rokowsky

The trick answer to the famous riddle, the 1897 dedication that drew a million spectators, the WPA-era rescue, the decades of decline, and the student volunteer who forced the tomb's comeback.

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Who Is Buried in Green-Wood Cemetery? A Composer, a Boss and a Butcher

By Solomon Rokowsky

Green-Wood Cemetery holds 580,000 burials, from Leonard Bernstein and Boss Tweed to Bill the Butcher and Joey Gallo. This is how it began in 1838, and who owns it today.

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Why Did Walter Cronkite Fight Trump World Tower? The Tallest Residential Tower Across From the U.N.

By Solomon Rokowsky

Why neighbors including Walter Cronkite fought Trump World Tower at 845 United Nations Plaza, how a 72-floor tower came to be marketed as 90 stories, and who runs it today.

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Why Is the Gershwin Theatre the Biggest on Broadway? From Uris Theatre to Wicked

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Gershwin Theatre at 222 West 51st Street came to seat 1,933, what stood on the site, how the Uris Theatre opened in 1972, and where Wicked fits in.

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Why Is the Guggenheim Museum a Spiral? Wright, Rebay and a Sixteen-Year Wait

By Solomon Rokowsky

Why Frank Lloyd Wright gave the Guggenheim a spiral ramp, how Hilla Rebay started the commission, and who runs the museum on Fifth Avenue today.

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Why Is Times Square Called Times Square? The Newspaper, the Subway and the Ball

By Solomon Rokowsky

Times Square was Long Acre Square until April 1904, when the city renamed it for The New York Times and its new tower. How the name stuck, how the Ball followed, and who runs the square today.

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The Winter Garden Theatre: A Horse Market Turned Cats, Mamma Mia! and Beetlejuice Theater

By Solomon Rokowsky

How the Shuberts turned the American Horse Exchange into the Winter Garden in 1911, what the landmark report says about its interior, and what has played there.