To wrap up our 15th anniversary celebration -- and to set up our big 400th episode -- we take a fond look at one corner of New York City which taught us to love local history.
Perhaps you know this area for Seward Park, the first municipal playground in the United States, or for Straus Square, named for Nathan Straus, philanthropist and co-owner (with his brother Isidor) of Macy's Department Store. Today, trendy artists and influencers instead spend their weekends in Dimes Square, just one block (and seemingly one world) away.
In the 19th century, as Rutgers Square, this area became a small portion of a large German immigrant community called Kleindeutschland. In an inconceivable historical moment, a statue was almost raised here -- to William 'Boss' Tweed, leader of Tammany Hall.
By the late 19th century, this place was the center for American Jewish culture, and East Broadway became Yiddish publishers row, hosting newspapers and magazines from a host of perspectives. In the 20th century, thanks to a mid-century housing boom (fueled partially by the labor unions firmly rooted to this place), some also called it Cooperative Village, with hundreds of old, deteriorating tenements replaced with new high rises.
It's a neighborhood that means so much to so many -- and we hope you learn to love it all yourself, no matter what you call it.
PLUS: We're join by staff members of the Forward, celebrating its 125th year of publication. Forward archivist Chana Pollack joins us along with Ginna Green and, hosts of the the newspaper column-turned-podcast version A Bintel Brief.
Rewind: The Historic New York City Hall
#365 Do The Right Thing (Bowery Boys Movie Club)
#364 The Very Gay History of Fire Island
#363 The Sunny Saga of Jones Beach
#362 Gatsby and the Mansions of the Gold Coast
#361 Landmarks of Coney Island (Extended Funhouse Mix)
#360 The Botanical Gardens of New York City
#359 The Magic of the Movie Theater
#358 The Muppets Take Manhattan (Bowery Boys Movie Club)
#357 Edith Wharton's New York
#356 Pfizer: A Brooklyn Origin Story
#355 The Midnight Adventures of Doctor Parkhurst
#354 Who Wrote the First American Cookbook?
#353 Harlem Before the Renaissance
Rewind: Harlem Nights at the Hotel Theresa
#352 The Birth of Black Harlem
#351 Auntie Mame (Bowery Boys Movie Club)
#350 The World Trade Center in the 1970s
Rewind: Strange Hoaxes of the 19th Century
#349 The Queensboro Bridge and the Rise of a Borough
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