IRT

Relic Hunting in Northern Manhattan

Reginald Pelham Bolton

“I chanced to visit an old inn near Fort George some years ago and I noticed a human skull that the proprietor kept among the bottles above his bar.  The man told me he had unearthed it, together with several swords and cannon balls, in his yard.  I offered to buy it, not caring much [...]

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A Band of Gypsies

Gypsy

Today northern Manhattan is home to thousands of gypsy cabs, but step back a century in time and you would find a sleepy little farming community inhabited by, among others, real life European gypsies. As early as 1887, according to a New York Times article, Mr. J. Hood Wright allowed a full blown Romany encampment [...]

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Sherman Avenue in 1906

Thumbnail image for Sherman Avenue in 1906

Back in 1906 the elevated IRT train (today’s one train) first reached Inwood.  With it came the first true housing boom the neighborhood had ever seen.  Seemingly overnight apartment buildings sprang up east of Broadway to house working class folks lured uptown by an affordable, and suddenly accessible, part of Manhattan. Below is a 1906 [...]

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