With an estimated population in 2023 of 8,258,035 distributed over 300.46 square miles (778.2 km2), the city is the most densely populated major city in the United States. New York has more than double the population of Los Angeles, the nation's second-most populous city. New York is the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. by both population and urban area. With more than 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York City is one of the world's most populous megacities. The city and its metropolitan area are the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York City, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. In 2021, the city was home to nearly 3.1 million residents born outside the U.S., the largest foreign-born population of any city in the world. (Full article...)
Lenox Library, View from the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th Street
The Lenox Library was a library incorporated and endowed in 1870. It was both an architectural and intellectual landmark in Gilded Age–era New York City. It was founded by bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox, and located on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt designed the building, which was considered one of the city's most notable buildings, until its destruction in 1912.
The library's collection was unsurpassed in its collection of Bibles, and included the first Gutenberg Bible to cross the Atlantic. It was also known for its collection of Shakespeare, Milton, and early American literature. The library became a part of the founding collection of the New York Public Library (NYPL) in 1895, and opened to the public as part of the NYPL's Main Branch in 1911. (Full article...)
The Ed Sullivan Theater was built in conjunction with a 13-story Gothic-style office building facing Broadway. An entrance vestibule and two lobbies lead from the main entrance on Broadway to the auditorium on 53rd Street. The auditorium was purposely designed to resemble a cathedral, unlike other structures that were designed as Broadway theaters. It has a domed ceiling with ribs, as well as walls with stained glass. Though the seating arrangement and stage have been heavily modified from their original design, many of the design elements in the lobbies and auditorium are intact.
Hammerstein operated the theater from 1927 to 1931, when he lost it to foreclosure. For the next five years, the theater was leased to multiple operators as both a theater and a music hall. The theater became a venue for CBS radio broadcasts in 1936, and it was converted to TV broadcasting in 1950. Under the Studio 50 name, the theater housed The Ed Sullivan Show from 1953 to 1971, as well as other shows such as The Garry Moore Show and The Jackie Gleason Show. Studio 50 was renamed after Ed Sullivan in 1967, and Reeves Entertainment used the Sullivan in the 1980s as a broadcast facility. The Sullivan has staged CBS's The Late Show franchise since 1993, first under David Letterman, then under Stephen Colbert since 2015. (Full article...)
The Booth's facade is made of brick and terracotta, with sgraffito decorations designed in stucco. Three arches face north onto 45th Street, and a curved corner faces east toward Broadway. To the east, the Shubert Alley facade includes doors to the lobby and the stage house. The auditorium contains an orchestra level, one balcony, box seats, and a coved ceiling. The walls are decorated with wooden paneling with windows above, an unusual design for Broadway theaters, and there is an elliptical proscenium arch at the front of the auditorium. The stage house to the south is shared with the Shubert Theatre, and a gift shop occupies some of the former dressing rooms.
The Barclay–Vesey Building's architects intended for the structure to have an imposing form, with vertical piers designed as buttresses; setbacks at upper floors; and a program of elaborate ornamentation on the exterior and interior. The Barclay–Vesey Building's design has been widely praised by architectural critics, both for its design scheme and for its symbolism. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and its exterior and first-floor interior were declared city landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1991. (Full article...)
Cliff Lee pitched a complete game in the Phillies' Game 1 victory, allowing only one unearned run, while Chase Utley hit two home runs. In Game 2, solo home runs by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui helped the Yankees win by a score of 3–1. After a rain delayed start, Game 3 featured more offense, with a combined six home runs and thirteen total runs en route to a Yankee victory. The Yankees won Game 4 by scoring the decisive three runs in the ninth inning after an alert base running play by Johnny Damon. The Phillies avoided elimination with a win in Game 5, aided by Utley's second two–home run game of the series. The Yankees secured their World Series championship with a Game 6 victory in which Matsui hit his third home run of the series. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series, making him the first Japanese-born player and the first full-time designated hitter to win the award. Matsui was the series' MVP despite starting only the three games that were played at Yankee Stadium, since the designated hitter position was not used in NL ballparks at the time. (Full article...)
The Yankees won the World Series every year from 1936 to 1939 with a team that featured Gehrig and outfielder Joe DiMaggio, who recorded a record hitting streak during New York's 1941 championship season. New York set a major league record by winning five consecutive championships from 1949 to 1953, and appeared in the World Series nine times from 1955 to 1964. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford were among the players fielded by the Yankees during the era. After the 1964 season, a lack of effective replacements for aging players caused the franchise to decline on the field, and the team became a money-loser for owners CBS while playing in an aging stadium.
George Steinbrenner bought the club in 1973 and regularly invested in new talent, using free agency to acquire top players. Yankee Stadium was renovated and reopened in 1976 as the home of a more competitive Yankees team. Despite clubhouse disputes, the team reached the World Series four times between 1976 and 1981 and claimed the championship in 1977 and 1978. New York continued to pursue their strategy of signing free agents into the 1980s, but with less success, and the team eventually sank into mediocrity after 1981. In the early 1990s, the team began to improve as their roster was rebuilt around young players from their minor league system, including Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. After earning a playoff berth in 1995, the Yankees won four of the next five World Series, and the 1998–2000 teams were the last in MLB to win three straight Series titles. (Full article...)
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George H. D. Gossip
George Hatfeild Dingley Gossip (December 6, 1841 – May 11, 1907) was an American-English chess master and writer. He competed in chess tournaments between 1870 and 1895, playing against most of the world's leading players, but with only modest success. The writer G. H. Diggle calls him "the King of Wooden Spoonists" because he usually finished last in strong tournaments.
Gossip was also a noted writer. His treatiseThe Chess-Player's Manual—A Complete Guide to Chess, a 900-page tome published in 1874 after several years of work, was harshly received by the critics, largely because he had included a number of informal skittles games that he had (atypically) won against stronger players. As a result, Gossip developed a lifelong enmity toward chess critics, whom he often attacked ferociously in his books. However, his 1879 book Theory of the Chess Openings was well received. Wilhelm Steinitz, the first World Chess Champion, wrote that the 1888 edition of The Chess-Player's Manual was one of the best available books on the game. Thanks in part to a 122-page appendix by S. Lipschütz, it became one of the standard opening works of the time.
Gossip made his living primarily as a journalist, author, and translator. He wrote for publications in England, France, Australia, and the United States. At various times he resided in each of those countries, as well as in Germany and Canada. In 1898 and 1899, two publishers issued Gossip's sole book about a subject other than chess, The Jew of Chamant. Published under the pseudonym "Ivan Trepoff", it was virulently antisemitic. (Full article...)
The church occupies the block bounded by Riverside Drive, Claremont Avenue, 120th Street, and 122nd Street near Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus and across from Grant's Tomb. The original building opened in 1930; it was designed by Henry C. Pelton and Allen & Collens in the Neo-Gothic style. It contains a nave consisting of five architectural bays; a chancel at the front of the nave; a 22-story, 392-foot (119 m) tower above the nave; a narthex and chapel; and a cloistered passageway that connects to the eastern entrance on Claremont Avenue. Near the top of the tower is the church's main feature, a 74-bell carillon—the heaviest in the world—dedicated to Rockefeller Jr.'s mother Laura Spelman Rockefeller. A seven-story wing was built to the south of the original building in 1959 to a design by Collens, Willis & Beckonert, and was renamed for Martin Luther King Jr. in 1985. The Stone Gym to the southeast, built in 1915 as a dormitory, was designed by Louis E. Jallade and was converted to a gymnasium in 1962.
Riverside Church has been a focal point of global and national activism since its inception, and it has a long history of social justice in adherence to Fosdick's original vision of an "interdenominational, interracial, and international" church. Its congregation includes members of more than forty ethnic groups. The church was designated as a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2000 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. (Full article...)
Sheep Meadow was originally designed as a parade ground and incorporated into the Greensward Plan, the original plan for Central Park developed in the 1850s. However, Central Park's designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux opposed the use of the meadow for military purposes, so it was instead converted to a pasture with sheep. Housed in a nearby sheepfold that now contains the Tavern on the Green restaurant, the sheep were removed in 1934.
Sheep Meadow has a long history as a gathering place for large-scale demonstrations and political movements. These have included festivals, rallies, concerts, and protests such as the be-ins of the 1960s. Though sports and gatherings were gradually allowed through the late 19th century, Sheep Meadow saw significant deterioration because of overuse. A regulation prohibiting sports was enacted following a 1980 renovation, and the meadow was restored again in 2000. (Full article...)
O'Neill began researching high-energy particle physics at Princeton in 1954, after he received his doctorate from Cornell University. Two years later, he published his theory for a particle storage ring. This invention allowed particle accelerators at much higher energies than had previously been possible. In 1965 at Stanford University, he performed the first colliding beam physics experiment.
While teaching physics at Princeton, O'Neill became interested in the possibility that humans could survive and live in outer space. He researched and proposed a futuristic idea for human settlement in space, the O'Neill cylinder, in "The Colonization of Space", his first paper on the subject. He held a conference on space manufacturing at Princeton in 1975. Many who became post-Apollo-era space activists attended. O'Neill built his first mass driver prototype with professor Henry Kolm in 1976. He considered mass drivers critical for extracting the mineral resources of the Moon and asteroids. His award-winning book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space inspired a generation of space exploration advocates. He died of leukemia in 1992. (Full article...)
The Morse Building uses polychrome brickwork and terracotta cladding to highlight its fenestration. Its interior structure consists of a steel frame placed upon a foundation that descends to an underlying layer of sand. The Morse Building was developed by G. Livingston and Sidney E. Morse, nephews of telegraph inventor Samuel F. B. Morse and sons of the site's previous owners. It was constructed from June 1878 to March 1880 and was one of the tallest buildings in New York City when completed, standing at 140 feet (43 m) with ten stories. As completed, the building had 175 offices and modern amenities such as steam heat and gas lighting.
Bannister & Schell altered the building significantly in 1901–1902 to an EdwardianNeo-Classical style, bringing the building to 14 stories and 180 feet (55 m). Around 1965, the base was modified again and the balcony and cornice were removed. After a failed redevelopment attempt in the 1970s, it became a residential building in 1980, with 39 apartments. The building was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2006. The Morse Building is also a contributing property to the Fulton–Nassau Historic District, a National Register of Historic Places district created in 2005. (Full article...)
Bryant Park is a 9.6-acre (39,000 m2), privately managed public park in the New York Cityborough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The eastern half of Bryant Park is occupied by the Main Branch of the New York Public Library. The western half contains a lawn, shaded walkways, and amenities such as a carousel, and is located entirely over an underground structure that houses the library's stacks. The park hosts several events, including a seasonal "Winter Village" with an ice rink and shops during the winter.
The first park at the site was opened in 1847 and was called Reservoir Square due to its proximity to the Croton Distributing Reservoir. Reservoir Square contained the New York Crystal Palace, which hosted the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in 1853 and burned down in 1858. The square was renamed in 1884 for abolitionist and journalist William Cullen Bryant. The reservoir was demolished in 1900 and the New York Public Library's main branch was built on the site, opening in 1911. Bryant Park was rebuilt in 1933–1934 to a plan by Lusby Simpson. After a period of decline, it was restored in 1988–1992 by architecture firms Hanna/Olin Ltd. and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates, during which the park was rebuilt and the library's stacks were built underneath. Further improvements were made in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets was developed as an interchange station between the Fulton Street and Crosstown lines of the Independent Subway System (IND). Construction began around 1929, and it was opened on April 9, 1936. Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets has six tracks and four island platforms, with two platforms and three tracks for each direction of service. The innermost tracks in each direction originally served Crosstown Line trains, while the center tracks were supposed to serve Fulton Street express trains and the outermost tracks were supposed to serve Fulton Street local trains to Court Street. However, Court Street was only served by a shuttle train from Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets, which stopped running in 1946.
Today, all Fulton Street Line trains use the center tracks in each direction, and all Crosstown Line trains use the innermost tracks, while the outermost tracks and platforms are not used for revenue service. Until 1981, the outer platforms were used by special trains to Aqueduct Racetrack, which stopped on the center tracks in each direction. Today, the abandoned tracks and platforms are only used on special occasions, such as for film shoots or moving trains to the New York Transit Museum at the former Court Street station. The mezzanine has also been used for film shoots, most famously for the video of Michael Jackson's single "Bad". (Full article...)
The apartment complex, just north of the Museum of Modern Art, was built on land left over from the construction of Rockefeller Center. The Rockefeller Apartments consists of two towers, one facing north toward 55th Street and one facing south toward 54th Street. The land under the Rockefeller Apartments had been owned by the Rockefeller family, and the architects had been involved in designing Rockefeller Center. The two towers are 11 stories and are faced with brick, with partially protruding cylindrical bays. The interior was intended to allow fifteen percent more air and natural light compared to contemporary building regulations. The ground floor contains a location of Michael's Restaurant.
The Rockefeller family had secretly acquired the site by the 1930s, although this was not disclosed until the plans for the apartment complex were announced in November 1935. The family had intended to remodel existing houses on the site, though they instead decided to build an apartment complex to complement Rockefeller Center, connected via an ultimately unbuilt extension of Rockefeller Plaza. The complex was fully leased by the time residents moved to the apartments in October 1936. The building was sold to the Astor family in 1945 and Henry Goelet in 1953, and it became a cooperative apartment complex in 1954. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the complex as a city landmark in 1984. (Full article...)
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Shops along the boardwalk, with the Parachute Jump in the background
The Riegelmann Boardwalk is primarily made of wooden planks arranged in a chevron pattern. It ranges from 50 to 80 feet (15 to 24 m) wide and is raised slightly above sea level. The boardwalk connects several amusement areas and attractions on Coney Island, including the New York Aquarium, Luna Park, Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, and Maimonides Park. It has become an icon of Coney Island, with numerous appearances in the visual arts, music, and film. After its completion, the boardwalk was considered the most important public works project in Brooklyn since the Brooklyn Bridge, with a comparable impact to the Catskill Watershed and Central Park.
By the mid-19th century, the Coney Island waterfront was divided among several private entities who erected barriers. Plans for a Coney Island boardwalk were first discussed in the late 1890s as a means of uniting the different sections of Coney Island, and as a revitalization project for these areas. The boardwalk, designed by Philip P. Farley, was named after Brooklyn borough president Edward J. Riegelmann, who led its construction. The Riegelmann Boardwalk's first portion opened in 1923, with further extensions in 1926 and 1941, as well as several modifications and repairs throughout the 20th century. After NYC Parks proposed repairing the boardwalk with concrete in the early 21st century, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Riegelmann Boardwalk a scenic landmark in 2018. A renovation of the boardwalk was announced in November 2021. (Full article...)
Roger Morris developed the house for himself and his wife Mary Philipse Morris, but only lived there until 1775. Continental Army General George Washington used the mansion as his temporary headquarters for one month in late 1776, after which British and Hessian officers occupied the house until 1783. After the British evacuation of New York, the house passed through multiple owners over the next three decades, being used variously as a residence and a tavern. The Jumels bought the house in 1810, living there intermittently until the late 1830s; the Jumel family and the related Chase family then occupied the house consistently until 1887. After being sold twice more, the house was owned by the Earle family from 1894 to 1903. After the city acquired the mansion, it reopened as a museum on May 29, 1907, and was operated by the Washington Historic Association. The house has undergone renovations in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1980s.
The house, designed with elements of the Federal, Georgian, and Palladian styles, has a raised basement and three above-ground stories. It has a wooden facade with a double-height portico facing south and an octagonal annex in the rear. The interior consists of a kitchen in the basement; a parlor, library, and dining room on the first floor; bedrooms on the upper floors; and wide central hallways. The museum's collection includes furniture, decorations, household items, and personal items belonging to its former occupants. The museum also presents performances and events at the house. Critics have praised both the museum's exhibits and the house's architecture, and the mansion has been featured in several media works. (Full article...)
The restaurant opened in 1879, when Charles Gage opened a restaurant at 302 Fulton Street, and was named Gage & Tollner's in 1882. Gage & Tollner's moved to 372–374 Fulton Street around 1889 and soon became a popular restaurant for judges, politicians, and businessmen. A.H. Cunningham and Alexander Ingalls took over the restaurant's operation in 1911, and the Dewey family operated the restaurant for nearly seven decades starting in 1919. A partnership led by Peter Aschkenasy bought Gage and Tollner in 1988. Joseph Chirico operated the restaurant from 1995 until 2004, when the restaurant closed. The Gage and Tollner space was then occupied by various other stores during the 2000s and 2010s. Following a crowdfunding campaign in 2018, the restaurant reopened in April 2021.
Although the restaurant building's exterior was designed in an Italianate style, the interior retains its original Victorian design, with a main dining room, a waiting room, and a second-floor cocktail lounge. The main dining room measures 90 by 25 feet (27.4 by 7.6 m) across and contains woodwork, arched mirrors, two bars, and a group of chandeliers with gas-powered and electric lights. The restaurant initially specialized in seafood, meat chops, and steaks, and it served a large variety of oyster dishes during the 20th century, pivoting to Southern fare in the 1980s. Gage & Tollner was also known for its waitstaff, who wore insignia on their uniforms to denote the length of their employment, and its clientele, which included Diamond Jim Brady, Truman Capote, Fanny Brice, Jimmy Durante, and Mae West. Over the years, the restaurant has been the subject of much commentary, both for its architecture and for its cuisine and service. (Full article...)
The first Prospect Hall was built in 1892 by local entrepreneur John Kolle. The original structure burned down in 1900 and was replaced by a new building, which opened in 1903. It was operated by the Kolle family through 1940, when John Kolle's son, William, sold the building to a Polish-American organization. Greek-American couple Michael and Alice Halkias bought the hall in 1981 and renovated it, gaining some local celebrity for their cheaply produced television commercials. In 2020, it was sold to contractor Angelo Rigas, who announced plans to demolish and redevelop it, along with adjacent properties. Local activists organized to save the building, but the effort was unsuccessful and Grand Prospect Hall was demolished in February 2022.
Grand Prospect Hall was four stories tall and faced in buff-gray brick, with pressed metal decoration that was originally colored to resemble limestone. The front portion of the building was arranged around a large central staircase and was designed with a bar, a banquet hall, and various reception and parlor rooms. The rear of the building was arranged around the ballroom, which was overlooked by two balcony levels. The basement also had facilities, including a bowling alley. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. (Full article...)
Malcolm spent his adolescence living in a series of foster homes or with relatives after his father's death and his mother's hospitalization. He committed various crimes, being sentenced to 8 to 10 years in prison in 1946 for larceny and burglary. In prison, he joined the Nation of Islam, adopting the name MalcolmX to symbolize his unknown African ancestral surname while discarding "the white slavemaster name of 'Little'", and after his parole in 1952 quickly became one of the organization's most influential leaders. He was the public face of the organization for 12 years, advocating Black empowerment and separation of Black and White Americans, and criticizing Martin Luther King Jr. and the mainstream civil rights movement for its emphasis on non-violence and racial integration. Malcolm X also expressed pride in some of the Nation's social welfare achievements, such as its free drug rehabilitation program. From the 1950s onward, Malcolm X was subjected to surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). (Full article...)
The Bronx is divided by the Bronx River into a hillier section in the west, and a flatter eastern section. East and west street names are divided by Jerome Avenue. The West Bronx was annexed to New York City in 1874, and the areas east of the Bronx River in 1895. Bronx County was separated from New York County (modern-day Manhattan) in 1914. About a quarter of the Bronx's area is open space, including Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, Pelham Bay Park, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Bronx Zoo in the borough's north and center. The Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden is thousands of years old and is New York City's largest remaining tract of the original forest that once covered the city. These open spaces are primarily on land reserved in the late 19th century as urban development progressed north and east from Manhattan. (Full article...)
Named after the Dutch town of Breukelen in the Netherlands, Brooklyn shares a border with the borough of Queens. It has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan, across the East River, and is connected to Staten Island by way of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. With a land area of 69.38 square miles (179.7 km2) and a water area of 27.48 square miles (71.2 km2), Kings County is the state of New York's fourth-smallest county by land area and third smallest by total area. (Full article...)
Staten Island (/ˈstætən/STAT-ən) is the southernmost borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southern most point of New York. The borough is separated from the adjacent state of New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 495,747 in the 2020 Census, Staten Island is the least populated New York City borough but the third largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km2); it is also the least densely populated and most suburban borough in the city.
A home to the Lenape indigenous people, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. It was one of the 12 original counties of New York state. Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898. It was formerly known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island. Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. It has also been referred to as the "borough of parks" due to its 12,300 acres of protected parkland and over 170 parks. (Full article...)
With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after New York City itself, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. It is highly diverse as about 47% of its residents are foreign-born. (Full article...)
Image 6The Sunday magazine of the New York World appealed to immigrants with this April 29, 1906 cover page celebrating their arrival at Ellis Island. (from History of New York City (1898–1945))
Image 31Anderson Avenue garbage strike. A common scene throughout New York City in 1968 during a sanitation workers strike (from History of New York City (1946–1977))
... that Lucy Feagin founded the Feagin School of Dramatic Art in New York City, where talent scouts for radio, screen, and stage were always present to watch her senior students' plays?
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