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PODCAST

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers, Greg Young

The tides of American history lead through the streets of New York City — from the huddled masses on Ellis Island to the sleazy theaters of 1970s Times Square. The elevated railroad to the Underground Railroad. Hamilton to Hammerstein! Greg and Tom explore more than 400 years of action-packed stories, featuring both classic and forgotten figures who have shaped the world.

history places & travel

All Episodes

00:46:42

#477 Chester A. Arthur: The Gentleman Boss

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2026/01/02

On Lexington Avenue sits a special food store named Kalustyan's with a second floor stocked with international spices, syrups, and bitters. In 1881, this was the home of Chester A. Arthur, and it was here in the early morning hours of September 20, that he became the 21st President of the United States.He is one of only two men inaugurated as president in New York City -- the other was George Washington. And Arthur was certainly no Washington!Fans of the Netflix series Death By Lightning have

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01:15:43

#476 Hot Victorian Holiday: Bowery Boys History Live!...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/12/23

Bowery Boys History Live is a live-show series at City Winery hosted by Greg Young featuring a variety of historians and tour guides. The last installment this summer featured author Liz Block and tour guide Keith Taillon. As live performances, they're a bit more loose and irreverent than the regular podcast and sometimes feature references to images being projected on stage.As a special holiday bonus, step into the season with this festive dose of “Hot Victorian” history, naughty-list edition.Join

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01:16:40

#475 Subway Tokens, MetroCards and Other Historic Fare

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/12/19

New Yorkers have gotten around their cities by subways, buses, elevated trains, streetcars and ferries. And the ways in which they have paid for them have changed as well. And keeps changing!This month, the city is saying farewell to the MetroCard, the magnetic-stripe card that has gotten the town moving since the early 1990s. When the orange cards debuted, they replaced the strange physical tokens commuters had been using since 1953.Mass transit fares were also a key issue in the past New York

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00:34:56

The Great Fire That Transformed New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/12/12

This month marks the 190th anniversary of one of the most devastating disasters in New York City history — The Great Fire of 1835.This massive fire, among the worst in American history in terms of its economic impact, devastated the city during one freezing December evening, destroying hundreds of shops and warehouses and changing the face of Manhattan forever.It also underscored the city’s need for a functioning water system and a permanent fire department.So why were there so many people drinking

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01:21:33

#474 Made in France: The Statue of Liberty’s Alsatian...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/12/05

She stands in New York Harbor as America’s most recognizable symbol—but the story of the Statue of Liberty begins thousands of miles away, in the charming Alsatian city of Colmar, France.In this special on-location episode, Tom ventures to the picturesque town where sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi was born in 1834. Walking through Colmar’s cobblestone streets and half-timbered facades, Tom sits down with Juliette Chevée, curator of the Musée Bartholdi, to uncover the French side of this iconic

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00:57:27

The Last Ships From Hamburg: An Immigration Story

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/11/28

Our second in a series of podcasts about New York City and American immigration history. Between the late 1890s and early 1920s, over 2 million Jews from Eastern Europe fled their homes and made the long journey to America, escaping persecution and violence in their native countries. Many were fleeing state-sanctioned antisemitism in Russia.This mass immigration effort was, in large part, brought about by three entrepreneurial men: Albert Ballin, the director of the Hamburg-America line; Jacob

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01:25:54

#473 The Other Side of Ellis Island

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/11/21

Ellis Island is one of America’s great landmarks, a place in New York Harbor that represents the millions of people who arrived in this country during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The north side of Ellis Island, now operated by the National Park Service as the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration (part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument), saw nearly 12 million immigrants processed between 1892 and 1954. Part of the "processing" involved medical and mental health tests. Most

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00:47:18

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree: A History in...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/11/14

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has brought joy and sparkle to Midtown Manhattan since the early 1930s. The annual festivities may seem steady and timeless but this holiday icon actually has a surprisingly dramatic history.Millions tune in each year to watch the tree lighting in a music-filled ceremony on NBC, and tens of thousands more will crowd around the tree’s massive branches during the holiday season, adjusting their phones for that perfect holiday selfie.But the Rockefeller Center

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01:09:36

#472 The Many Mysteries of Amelia Earhart

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/11/07

The aviation hero Amelia Earhart, who became one of the world's most famous women during the Great Depression, is one of those historic figures that people think they know quite well.But during her lifetime, much of her public image was the product of a New York book publisher. And even today, Earhart's legacy is reduced down to seemingly strange disappearance over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.Laurie Gwen Shapiro, author of The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage

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00:57:15

Rodgers and Hammerstein: Some Enchanted Broadway History

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/10/24

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II are two of the greatest entertainers in New York City history. They have delighted millions of people with their unique and influential take on the Broadway musical — serious, sincere, graceful and poignant. In the process they have helped in elevating New York’s Theater District into a critical destination for American culture.In this episode, we tell the story of this remarkable duo — from their early years with other creators (Hammerstein with Jerome Kern,

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01:33:41

#471 Ghost Stories of Long Island

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/10/10

For this year's annual Bowery Boys Ghost Stories podcast, Greg and Tom take a road trip to Long Island to explore the region's most famous haunted tales from legend and folklore, 'real' reported stories of otherworldly encounters that have shaped this historic area of New York state.When you think of Long Island and scary stories, your mind might immediately go to the Amityville Horror houseor perhaps even the Montauk Monster. But let us introduce you to a series of far older stories which

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01:22:02

#470 The Grand Tale of the Erie Canal

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/26

On October 26, 1825, the fate of New York City – and the entire United States – changed with the opening of the Erie Canal, a manmade waterway that connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie.It was the most significant engineering project of its time, linking the ocean to the nation’s interior -- a 363-mile route from Albany to Lake Erie. Without even knowing where the Erie Canal is on a map of New York state, you could probably guess its course because of a row of cities which developed and prospered,

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01:22:21

#469 Dominican New York: A History In The Heights

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/19

Dominicans comprise the largest immigration group in modern New York City, and Dominican culture has become embedded in the city's rich fabric of immigrant history. And in one place in particular -- Washington Heights.This historic neighborhood of Upper Manhattan is named for George Washington, who led the Continental Army in an early, pivotal battle here during the Revolutionary War. Today, it's also known to some as Little Dominican Republic, home to the largest Dominican neighborhood in the

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01:05:03

19th Century NoHo: Glamour, Greed, Money, and Murder

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/12

Today's New York neighborhood called NoHo, wedged between Greenwich Village and the East Village, holds the stories of many people and places that then went on to become deeply associated with the great Gilded Age.The Astor family began their dynasty here in both investment and real estate as did the well-known Dutch-American merchant family the Schermerhorns.Caroline Schermerhorn, who became the famed Mrs. Astor, grew up right here on Bond Street along with many members of her family. NoHo today

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00:49:15

The Boy Mayor of New York

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/09/05

As New York City enters the final stages of a rather strange mayoral election in 2025, let’s look back on a decidedly more unusual contest over 110 years ago, pitting Tammany Hall and their estranged ally (Mayor William Jay Gaynor) up against a baby-faced newcomer, the (second) youngest man ever to become the mayor of New York City.John Purroy Mitchel, the Bronx-born grandson of an Irish revolutionary, was a rising star in New York City, aggressively sweeping away incompetence and snipping away at

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01:06:27

#468 Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue": A Jazz-Age Drama

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/29

On January 3, 1924, 25-year-old George Gershwin was shooting pool in a Manhattan billiard hall when his brother Ira Gershwin read aloud a shocking newspaper article: "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto." There was just one problem—George had never agreed to write any such piece.What happened next would change American music forever. In just five weeks, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants raced to compose what would become "Rhapsody in Blue," breaking down the barriers between popular

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00:32:49

History Daily: Pirate Tales!

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/22

We love the podcast History Daily, a co-production from award winning podcasters Airship and Noiser, so we're presenting two episodes with a very similar theme -- pirates!-- July 6, 1699. The arrest of Captain William Kidd ends the reign of plunder of one of history's most infamous pirates and sparks rumors of buried treasure-- November 16th, 1720. The trials of notorious pirates Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and John Rackham began in Spanish Town, Jamaica.Subscirbe to History Daily wherever you get your

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00:48:53

#467 The Brooklyn Theatre Fire: The Forgotten Gilded...

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/15

On the evening of December 5, 1876, the glorious Brooklyn Theatre caught fire, trapping its audience in a nightmare of flame and smoke. The theater sat near Brooklyn City Hall (today's Brooklyn Borough Hall), and the blaze which destroyed it could be seen as far away as Prospect Park.The terrible truth emerged by the morning -- almost 300 people died in this disaster. To this day, it remains the worst disaster in Brooklyn's history in terms of lives lost. Of individual one-day disasters in New York

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01:23:56

#466 Pete's Tavern and McSorley's Old Ale House

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/08

The ultimate bar crawl of Old New York continues through a survey of classic bars and taverns that trace their origins from the 1850s through the 1880s.And this time we're recording within two of America's most famous establishments, joined by the people who know that history the best.In Part One, we introduced you to the origin story of New York City tavern life in the Dutch and colonial periods, and we ventured into Fraunces Tavern to witness the creation of the United States itself. Then we

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01:20:03

#465 The Oldest Bars in New York City

The Bowery Boys: New York City History ·

2025/08/01

We’ve put together the ultimate New York City historic bar crawl, a celebration of the city’s old taverns, pubs, and ale houses with 18th- and 19th-century connections. And along the way, you’ll learn so much about the city’s overall history — from its changing shoreline to the everyday lives of its working-class immigrant populations.Being an old historic bar isn’t just a novel curiosity for history lovers. It can be good for business and many of the most popular landmark pubs literally wear their

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