hudson

Isham Hill in 1913

Inwood, New York City in 1913

Since launching MyInwood.net I’ve read thousands of century-old news accounts regarding all things Inwood, but the following article, written in 1916, is one of my favorites. The account contains so many elements from my little corner of the neighborhood—The Seaman Estate, Isham Park, the still-standing Hurst house on Park Terrace East and 215th and the [...]

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Inwood Arts Pioneer: Aimee Le Prince Voorhees

Inwood Pottery Works

  In the early part of the twentieth century a pioneering woman named Aimee Le Prince Voorhees and her husband Harry built a pottery works in the shadow of Inwood hill. In this pastoral setting, lacking any modern conveniences, Voorhees created a world-class pottery studio and inspired a future generation of artists, ceramicists and sculptors. [...]

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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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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 Billings estate and even another castle [...]

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Hudson Fulton Celebration Postcards

Hudson Fulton 1909 Celebration postcard

In the summer of 2009 Fourth of July spectators marveled at the wonders of pyrotechnics from viewing galleries and apartment buildings up and down the Hudson River. Normally held on the East River, city leaders moved the spectacular display to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s historic voyage up the North River now bearing [...]

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The Summer of Henry Hudson

Henry Hudson

Four hundred years ago Henry Hudson, an English sea captain flying a Dutch flag, departed Amsterdam looking for a northwest passage to the Orient. It would be his third and most important voyage. According to a journal kept by shipmate Robert Juet, Hudson and his crew on the Half Moon sailed into New York Harbor [...]

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Inwood Hill Park

Photo of duck swimming in Inwood Hill Park in New York.

Dyckman Street, Hudson River, Harlem River Ship Canal Manhattan Acres: 196.40 There’s old New York, and then there’s old New York. Inwood Hill Park is a living piece of old New York. Evidence of its prehistoric roots exists as dramatic caves, valleys, and ridges left as the result of shifting glaciers. Evidence of its uninhabited [...]

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The Naming of Inwood

Ernest Lawson painting of old tulip tree in Inwood, New York.

Believe it or not, our neighborhood was not always called “Inwood.” The name has served the area well for some 160 years, but prior to that much  of Manhattan north of Dyckman was affectionately called “Tubby Hook.”

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