At 18 Bowery in Chinatown (on the corner of Pell Street) stands the Edward Mooney House. It was built between 1785-1789. The land was seized from British Loyalist James Delancy and sold at auction for around $50,000. Edward Mooney was a wealthy merchant and ran a wholesale meat business and was a race horse breeder. He lived in the house until his death in 1800. Continue reading
Doyers Street is an angled, narrow street that runs 1 block at a sharp angle from Pell Street into the intersection of Bowery and Chatham Square. In 1791, Dutch immigrant Hendrik Doyer bought the property and ran a distillery at 6 Doyers, the spot where the post office stands today. It was once known as the Bloody Angle for the many battles of the Tong gangs (On Leong Tong and Hip Sing Tongs) of Chinatown in the late 1800s and lasting into the 1930s. The term ‘hatchet man’ was used in the late 19th century to describe a Chinese assassin who carried a handleless hatchet. Continue reading
Up until Friday night, I thought it was all media hype. Last year they kept saying we were going to get hit with blizzards and we’d wake up to 5 inches. 5 inches of snow is nothing. When I looked out my window and saw how much snow stuck and accumulated – I was so excited. This year the weather people got it right! Continue reading
There’s nothing like a Charlie Brown Christmas. This is and will always be my favorite Christmas window. My Dad is a big Peanuts fan and I guess that rubbed off on me. When it was that time of year we’d head to Tribeca (the Tribeca Grand Hotel stands there now) to go to the nursery and we’d get the Charlie Brown tree. It would be lopsided or part of the bottom would be missing. You get the point, we bought the saddest trees because my Dad felt bad for them and I loved my Christmas trees. Still do. Continue reading
We went to the NY Botanical Garden 4-5 years ago for the annual Holiday Train Show. It was a bitter & extremely freezing cold day in December. I was super excited because I love trains but when I got there I realized the show is all about the model structures which was a nice surprise. They are made out of natural plant based resins and materials. The details were impressive. Continue reading
Brooklyn Navy Yard is the only active shipyard in NYC. In 1966, the yard was finally sold to the city by the Nixon Administration. At it’s in peak over 70,000 were employed 24 hours a day during WWII. The yard sits in Wallabout Basin in the East River. Continue reading
This is the reason why we joined the Transit Museum – to go on a tour of the Old City Hall train station. It’s a beauty to the eyes, too bad they don’t design things like this anymore. We had to hop on the 6 train at the last stop, the train stops on the turnaround and let’s you off at the old unused platform and they let us off. The first thing you want to do is stop and look up but you have to get off as quickly as possible to let the our tour members off. Being there felt like we had the keys to the city. It was amazing and totally worth our membership fee. Continue reading
We still didn’t quite understand what a substation was after the tour but it was still cool. After some googling, we have our answer: “It coverts High Voltage AC current into the DC current used by the New York City subways.” Quoted from untappedcities.com. Continue reading
Even nature can be hypnotic. Continue reading
Yeah, you read that right – a cat acrobat show.
The Amazing Acro-cats is a small circus troupe of cats and other domestic animals by animal trainer Samantha Martin. Her animals are clicker trained and they go back to their cages when a whistle is blown. Most are her pets but some cats are fosters and available for adoption. All the animals are rescues and strays. She wants to inspire people to clicker train their cats. She even explains how this can be handy in emergency situations like when you need to find them quickly if there’s a fire. Continue reading
Jebus Mews & Andrea 