Shadowy forms that fly through a dark library, raucous unearthly music in Central Park, a bicycle bell that rings itself, a mysterious seamstress — these spectral tales and others will be our winter fare for a dark February evening. Writer Maria Dering has collected these ‘true’ stories from both century-old and face-to-face accounts. Original and historic photographs […]
Who was this woman who knew everyone who was anyone in the 19th century? Writer, translator, editor, abolitionist, suffragist, Mary Louise Booth touched the lives of thousands with her writing, but her story has been lost. She wrote the first History of the City of New York in 1859 and was instrumental in bringing the Statue of Liberty […]
March 14, 2021 marks what would be Ada Louise Huxtable’s 100th birthday. Huxtable (1921-2013), a native New Yorker, was a pioneer in architectural criticism, and a champion of livable cities. As the first full-time architecture critic at a major American Newspaper (The New York Times created the position specifically for her in 1963), she won the […]
Whether you’re a casual viewer or film buff, this is a trip you won’t want to miss. Fan favorite Paula Uruburu has crafted the perfect escapist evening for all who love the many faces of Manhattan. Through the magic of film — with a focus on fantasy — we will visit iconic and identifiable places and spaces […]
Journalist, editor, publisher and now memoirist Peter Osnos is joined by journalists Walter Shapiro and Meryl Gordon for a fascinating discussion on the Upper West Side of the 1950s and 1960s. The Osnos family, fleeing the Nazis, settled first in the Blenord and then The Beresford. Peter Osnos revisits the UWS of his youth–a place of immigrants, artists and academics, a […]
Everyone starts somewhere-even lauded Starchitects like the trio of McKim, Mead & White. Individually, they were rather undistinguished as young men. How did they ever become the gold standard of American architecture? Architectural historian Prof. Mosette Broderick takes us behind the drafting table for this onetime, special program on the early years of the individuals who became […]
For one spectacular evening we raise the velvet curtains of New York’s infamous theatrical history when authors Nils Hanson and Robert Hudovernik discuss the “Ziegfeld Girls” of Broadway’s Ziegfeld Follies of the early 20th century. Now lost to history, but forever etched in time for their contributions to the American Beauty culture, Ziegfeld Girls became iconic symbols of the […]
Do statues "belong" in historically important landscapes like Central Park? Did Vaux and Olmsted expect statues in the park? NYC public art and monuments expert Michele Bogart says "Yes!" To prove it, she takes us inside the social and financial networks of the late 19th century to meet some of the players of the day—August Belmont, […]
Emery Roth, born in 1871, was an architect and Hungarian-Jewish immigrant to New York. Roth designed many of the definitive New York City hotels and apartment buildings of the 1920s and 1930s, including the UWS's Beresford and San Remo, incorporating Beaux-Arts and Art Deco details to create the decorative streetscapes we know and love. Historic […]
Learn the story of “The Father of the West Side” as only Tom Miller (internationally known for his "Daytonian in Manhattan" blog of fascinating social and architectural histories of NYC) can tell it. Miller rewinds the clock to 1880s Manhattan, when Clark pushed for the creation of Riverside Drive and staunchly protected the Hudson River waterfront for the public. He organized the community for action and lobbied for critical infrastructure and improvements for the UWS. There will be history and politics and tales of UWS shenanigans. Of course there will be fabulous architecture. But most important, there will be an incredible person, the city he envisioned and the very special neighborhood we know today. TICKETS