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“Recollections of Northern Manhattan” by William Calver

William Calver

Much of what we know today about the history and pre-history of Inwood and Washington Heights is due largely to the turn of the century work of amateur historians, self taught archaeologists and close friends William Calver and Reginald Bolton. Starting in the 1880′s Bolton and Calver began exploring northern Manhattan with picks and shovels, [...]

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The Old Nagle Cemetery

Inwood Cemetery, NYC

In mid-17th century Jan Nagle and Jan Dyckman traveled to the New World and settled in northern Manhattan. For more than two centuries the families farmed the land, raised cattle, planted orchards, built bridges and homes and even intermarried. And while Dyckman is a familiar Inwood name, largely thanks to the preservation of the post-Revolutionary [...]

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Inwood in 1903: The Subway Cometh

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Inwood. 1903.  Farmers tend to flowing fields of wheat.  Children chase pigs down muddy ruts that appear as streets on maps many residents have likely never seen.  For more than a year now that strange elevated skeleton of steel and wood has crept ever northward like a serpent. Change is on its way. The arrival [...]

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Weekend Archeologists of Northern Manhattan

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Now and then when I feel that Indiana Jones-like urge to dig deep into Inwood’s history, that primal need to explore that cannot be quelled through an Internet search or a trip to the library, I’ll often take a stroll in Inwood Hill Park. For planned excursions  I’ll stuff a knapsack with printouts from old [...]

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From Dyckman Street to Treasure Island

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Near the beginning of the last century, Mrs. Addison J. Rothermel faced both an agonizing loss and a difficult decision.  Tuberculosis had taken her husband and doctors warned that her two teenage boys, Addison Jr.  and Royale Valray, might also succumb to the “white plague” if they continued to live in the cramped and unventilated [...]

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The Inwood Arch and Mansion: Circa 1896

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On the west side of Broadway, formerly known as the Kingsbridge Road, at 216th Street, stands a neglected and nearly forgotten monument to Inwood’s past.  The great marble arch, constructed in the 1850’s, once led visitors to the glorious Seaman mansion, which, until the 1930’s, stood on the current site of Park Terrace Gardens on [...]

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Tornado on the Hudson

tornado generic

In the summer of 1901 Gotham suffered the deadliest heat wave in New York City history. From June 29-July 6th  at least 989 individuals perished in weather so hot it melted asphalt and drove scores of New Yorkers insane. For a solid week New Yorkers cursed, collapsed, threw themselves into wells, leaped to their deaths [...]

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