The Birth of the Postcard

We were at the Metropolitan Postcard Club's annual show this weekend adding to the Inside the Apple archives, when we noticed that we were visiting on an auspicious date. Yesterday was the 115th anniversary of the birth of the modern postcard.

Prior to May 19, 1898, postcards were primarily the domain of the United States Postal Service, which had been issuing pre-stamped, one-cent cards since 1873. These cards were mostly unadorned. While pivate companies did issue cards during this time--predominantly as advertisements--they required a two-cent stamp, making them the same price as a letter, and, thus, impractical and unpopular.

In 1898, Congress decided to allow privately printed cards to go out for the one-cent rate. To distinguish these cards from government issue, they were marked "Private Mailing Card." Until 1907, the back of the card was reserved exclusively for the recipient's address. Only a small white band below the illustration on the front could be used for a message, making it the Twitter of its day. These brief messages are often nothing more than "Hope you are well," "Wish you were here," or, simply, "Received your card," which makes one wonder if some cards went back and forth in an endless loop.

In 1907, Congress agreed to allow both the message and the address on the back of the card, creating the postcard format that we know today.

We've featured some of our postcard collection in previous blog posts and, of course, they are prominently on display in Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City. One nice find this weekend was this illustration of one of New York's earliest sightseeing companies setting out from Twenty-Third Street. Notice that even though the postcard is from 1909, it still has space for only a brief message on the front. Either this was older stock still being sold two years later or it was just easier to reprint the older cards rather than design new ones.

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See more of our collection in

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

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Last Chance: "Street" at the Metropolitan Museum

If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, you only have until May 27th to see James Nares's "Street" at the Metropolitan Museum, a captivating one-hour film about the city.

Shot over the course of a week in 2011, Nares used a high-definition camera to slow down the movements of the people (and, sometimes, birds) on the street to a virtual crawl. Because the camera captures everything in such high fidelity, nothing is blurry and the details are fantastic. If, like us, you spend a lot of time walking in the city, you'll recognize some of the streets that Nares filmed while others will make you wonder, "Where is that?"

The film, with an ethereal soundtrack by Thurston Moore, runs about an hour. There are benches in the gallery, but many people simply lounge against the back wall or on the floor. In the accompanying galleries, Nares has put together an assemblage of objects from the Met's collection as a sort of commentary on the film. This isn't always successful, but there is some great early film footage of the Lower East Side and the Flatiron building that seems directly pertinent to Nares's work. In particular, look for children in each film who notice the camera and chase after it.

Memorial Day Walking Tour of Alexander Hamilton's New York

Memorial Day Walking Tour of Alexander Hamilton's New York
Monday, May 27, at 11:00AM

$15 per person for reservations made on or before Tuesday, May 21
$20 per person for reservations on or after Wednesday, May 22

This Memorial Day, join us for a walk through Lower Manhattan concentrating on our hometown Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton -- statesman, ladies man, architect of American finance, and lousy duellist. We will talk about New York in the years running up to the Revolutionary War, explore places Hamilton was stationed with his artillery company during the war, and visit the great man’s final resting place to honor his memory.*

Meeting place and other details will be forwarded to you when you reserve. Payment is by cash only at the time of the tour. Space is limited, and reservations will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis.

To reserve, email us at info@insidetheapple.net with:

* Your name
* The number in your party
* A contact number for that day in case there are any last-minute changes.

Copies of Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City will be available for sale and signing.

See you there!
Michelle & James


* There’s a small chance the graveyard will be closed for the holiday; if so, we’ll improvise.

Scott and Zelda and the Plaza Hotel

With Baz Luhrmann's Great Gatsby being released today in eye-popping 3D (it's either "overwrought, asinine, exaggerated and boring" [Rex Reed] or "the first must-see film of Hollywood’s summer season" [The New York Post]), the F. Scott Fitzgerald hype machine is in overdrive. We thought we'd join the party with a quick look at the New York City locale most associated with the Fitzgeralds: the Plaza Hotel. Scott and his wife, Zelda, loved the Plaza, dining there, staying there, and--if the rumors are true--even frolicking fully clothed in the Pulitzer fountain out front one night.

Not long after Scott and Zelda married in 1920, they rented an apartment at 38 West 59th Street. Since neither liked to cook, the Plaza's Grill Room--the casual basement restaurant/speakeasy--became a regular dinner haunt. Scott kept his own personal bottle of liquor stashed there and when his second novel, The Beautiful and the Damned, came out in 1922, the Grill Room was featured. As the novel is widely thought to be based on the Fitzgeralds' own life, that seems only fitting. When The Great Gatsby was released three years later, the Plaza again played a crucial role, with a fiery showdown between Tom and Gatsby taking place in one of the hotel's suites. Considering Scott's combative nature when he'd been drinking, one wonders how much of him is present in Gatsby (or Tom, for that matter).

After they'd moved out of the city, the Fitzgeralds returned to stay at the hotel or have tea at the Palm Court with friends. (Fitzgerald's affection for the hotel was so great that Ernest Hemingway once joked that when Scott died his liver should go to Princeton and his heart to the Plaza.)

Then there's that fountain escapade, which--like most good stories from the Roaring Twenties--may be apocryphal. Some versions have Scott and Zelda going for an evening swim in the fountain, drunk. Other versions insist it was Scott alone, and stone-cold sober. Either way, it can't have been too much out of character. In 1922, painter Reginald Marsh designed a scenic curtain for a show called Greenwich Village Follies. He crammed every Twenties luminary into the scene and placed at its center--rising from the fountain in the middle of Washington Square Park--Zelda Fitzgerald.

Most of the Plaza that the Fitzgeralds knew is gone, of course. The Grill Room didn't even make it to the end of the 1920s. In conjunction with the new film, there is now a Gatsby/Fitzgerald suite (so that you can have your own wild parties, presumably). However, if you really want to commune with the spirit of at least one Fitzgerald, head down to Battery Park, where a wild turkey, named in honor of Zelda Fitzgerald, carries on the spirit of twenties.

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Read more about the Roaring Twenties in

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

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David and Goliath: Remembering Jane Jacobs' Legacy on Her Birthday

We've written another piece for GOOD magazine, in conjunction with the celebrations of Jane Jacobs birthday and GOOD's "Fix Your Street" challenge.

You can read Jane Jacobs piece here and our write-up about New York City stoops from last week here.

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Find out more about Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs in
Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.



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Stairway to Haven

Head on over to GOOD Magazine, where you can read our brief history of the stoop.

"East Side Stories" at the Metropolitan Playhouse

As you know, we're big fans of the Metropolitan Playhouse in the East Village, where we've spoken a couple of times in conjunction with main stage productions. In addition to the revivals that are the mainstay of the Metropolitan's season, each year they also produce an East Village theater festival, showcasing short new works about the East Village and the Lower East Side.

A few nights ago, we were able to see "Pioneers," one of four nights in this year's festival, and it was great. Michael Bettencourt's "The Origins of Zoos" pits birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger against Bronx Zoo founder Madison Grant in a Lower East Side coffee house. "The Invention of the Living Room," by Andrew R. Heinze imagines the birth of Levittown in a Lower East Side tenement. "Occupy Avenue A" (Josh Gulotta) brings the conversation into the present, and "Delicacy" (Toni Schlesinger) moves it into the world of Dreams -- and the Second Avenue Deli. If the other three nights are as good as this one, you're in for a treat no matter which night you go.

Tickets and more information at: http://www.metropolitanplayhouse.org/EVTF2013.

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Find out more about the Lower East Side and East Village in
our book:

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

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Reminder: West Chelsea Walking Tour on Sunday

Today, Tuesday, April 23, is the last day to sign up at the $15 price. 

All reservations from tomorrow onward are $20 per person

Join us Sunday, April 28, at 2:00pm, for an excursion through historic West Chelsea. Our walk encompasses everything from early 19th-century houses to industrial buildings and factories (including the birthplace of the Oreo). We'll see the General Theological Seminary, built on the apple orchard of Clement Clarke Moore, who was not only the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas('Twas the Night Before Christmas), but also a major real estate developer in early New York. We'll also talk about the High Line, which is either a triumph of urban renewal or the last nail in the coffin of the real Lower West Side. (The tour ends near the High Line for those who want to stroll it afterwards.)

To reserve:
Email info@insidetheapple.net with your

* Name
* Number of people in your party
* A cell phone where we can reach you before the tour in case of any changes

The meeting place for the tour will be emailed to you as your confirmation. (We try to get confirmations out in about 24 hours.) Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first served basis and in order for everyone to see and hear, we are going to cap the number of people who can attend, so do reserve as soon as you can.

You can pay by cash only at the start of the tour.

If you cannot make this date and time, the tour is, of course, available for private bookings. Email us and we'll set something up for you & your group.

Copies of Inside the Apple will be available for sale and signing.

Hope to see you there!

The Randel Farm Maps

One of the previously unsung heroes of nineteenth century New York--whose praises are actually being sung a bit more often these days--is John Randel, Jr. As chief surveyor of the 1811 Commissioners' Plan that established the Manhattan street grid, Randel perhaps had a greater effect on our day-to-day life in the city than any of his contemporaries. For the first time, Randel has been the subject of a major biography, The Measure of Manhattan: The Tumultuous Career and Surprising Legacy of John Randel, Jr., Cartographer, Surveyor, Inventor, which has just recently been published.

As we write in Inside the Apple:

With the population rapidly increasing and without any plan for regulating property sales and population growth, it seemed very possible that the city would simply collapse underneath its own weight, with too many people crammed into the area of the city below Chambers Street but not enough food, water, or sanitation to go around. The grid plan was overseen by a commission headed by Gouverneur Morris, the eminent politician who’d written the preamble to the Constitution. The survey itself was carried out by John Randel, Jr.; he and his team walked out every block of the city from Houston Street to 155th Street in Harlem, charting over 2,000 city blocks in all. It was enough room, as was noted at the time, “for a greater population than is collected at any spot this side of China.”

Though Randel finished his first survey in 1810, he then produced an even more important work--a detailed atlas of the island of Manhattan, showing both the existing farms and the new, superimposed grid. This atlas, known as the Randel Farm Maps, now resides in the office of the Manhattan Borough President.

In conjunction with the exhibition The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of the Manhattan, 1811-2011 at the Museum of the City of New York in 2011, the entire atlas was digitized and the maps "stitched" together so that anyone with a computer and some time to kill can examine Randel's marvelous work in detail. The maps are online at http://www.mcny.org/sidebars/randel-farm-maps-online.html and it really is a great way to time travel back to the early nineteenth century. Most recently, we've been consulting the maps in preparation for our new West Chelsea Walking Tour, which you can participate in on Sunday, April 28.

* * * *

Find out more about John Randel, Jr., and the 1811 grid in
our book:

Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City.

To get RSS feeds from this blog, point your reader to this link.

Find us on Facebook.

To subscribe via email, follow this link.

Or, follow us on Twitter.

West Chelsea Walking Tour: Sunday, April 28, at 2:00 pm

Walking Tour West Chelsea

Reservations made on or before Tuesday, April 23: $15 per person

Reservations made on Wednesday, April 24 or later: $20 per person

To reserve email info@insidetheapple.net

Join us Sunday, April 28, at 2:00pm, for an excursion through historic West Chelsea. Our walk encompasses everything from early 19th-century houses to industrial buildings and factories (including the birthplace of the Oreo). We'll see the General Theological Seminary, built on the apple orchard of Clement Clarke Moore, who was not only the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas('Twas the Night Before Christmas), but also a major real estate developer in early New York. We'll also talk about the High Line, which is either a triumph of urban renewal or the last nail in the coffin of the real Lower West Side. (The tour ends near the High Line for those who want to stroll it afterwards.)

To reserve:
Email info@insidetheapple.net with your

* Name

* Number of people in your party
* A cell phone where we can reach you before the tour in case of any changes

The meeting place for the tour will be emailed to you as your confirmation. (We try to get confirmations out in about 24 hours.) Reservations will be taken on a first-come, first served basis and in order for everyone to see and hear, we are going to cap the number of people who can attend, so do reserve as soon as you can.

You can pay by cash only at the start of the tour.

If you cannot make this date and time, the tour is, of course, available for private bookings. Email us and we'll set something up for you & your group.

Copies of Inside the Apple will be available for sale and signing.

Hope to see you there!