From the category archives:

Inwood History

Civil War Era Inwood: The Brooks Brothers Connection

Brooks Brothers

In the years following the Civil War the Bloomingdale Road, now called Broadway, was an impoverished and often treacherous stretch of dirt and mud where many inhabitants just barely scraped by. In glaring contrast, just to the west, atop Inwood Hill, the rich and famous built magnificent country homes steps from the squalor of the [...]

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Wonderland

Wonderland in Inwood.

Shortly after the turn of the century a small group of investors, led by real estate “wheeler-dealer” Andrew J. Cobe, made a land grab in northern Manhattan.  Their vision—a sprawling thirty-one acre amusement park to be built on the current site of Columbia University’s Baker Field. Cobe was a shameless self-promoter who had been kicked [...]

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The Hoboken Turtle Club

Hoboken Turtle Club

“Dum vivimus vivamus” -Motto of the Hoboken Turtle Club According to legend, as the history of most social clubs is so often based, the Hoboken Turtle Club was founded in 1796. It is reputed to have been the oldest social club in the United States. The club was the brainchild of John Stevens, a former [...]

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Miramar Saltwater Pool

Miramar Saltwater Pool, Inwood, New York City, thumbnail

As the dog days of summer approached, generations of children in Inwood, and around the City, looked forward to one thing only…The Miramar Saltwater Pool. Built in the 1920′s, the massive facility was located on 207th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. Photos, dating as early as 1927, show a large outdoor pool just west [...]

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Inwood Hill in the 1920′s

Inwood Hill boat colony 1904

There is a turn of the century photo of a small boathouse on the water’s edge in what is now Inwood Hill Park.  The boathouse, run by “Pop” Seeley, supported a houseboat colony far from the noise and bustle of downtown.  It would be many years before these house-boaters, artists and assorted eccentrics were given [...]

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Glenn Curtiss 100th Anniversary in Isham Park Video

On May 29th, 2010 the children of Inwood gathered in Isham Park to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Glenn “The Birdman” Curtiss’ historic flight from Albany to New York City.    He landed right here in Isham Park. To read more about the 1910 flight click here A special thanks to Don Rice for organizing [...]

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House of Mercy

House of Mercy. Inwood, New York City. 1932

Starting in the late 1800′s various institutions serving alcoholics, drug addicts, tuberculosis patients, petty criminals, runaways and “women of ill repute” lined the ridge in what is now Inwood Hill Park. Of these bleak fortresses  of infirmity, born of era  when inebriates were often treated with hypodermic injections of nitrate of strychnine and married women [...]

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Libbey Castle

Thumbnail image for Libbey Castle

If some imaginative Gotham scribe were to write a tale about the colorful and often bizarre history of New York in the 1800′s he or she couldn’t find a better backdrop than Libbey Castle. While northern Manhattan would eventually see other monumental estates including the Seaman Mansion, the Billing’s estate and even another castle owned [...]

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