Museum Mile
"Museum Mile" along Fifth Avenue contains the following: El Museo del Barrio at 104th Street Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street International Center of Photography at 94th…
Archive for 10/2004
“Wise Men Fish Here” (Gotham Book Mart)
The Gotham Book Mart opened in 1920 at 128 West 45th Street and moved in 1923 to 41 West 47th Street. It has recently moved again, to 16 East 46th Street. "Wise Men Fish Here" is its…
Sugar Hill
Most people know this from the "Sugar Hill Gang." "Sugar Hill" is the African-American area around Harlem where life is sweet. Wikipedia: Sugar Hill, ManhattanSugar Hill is a…
Pizzeria
Lombardi's on Spring Street claims to be the first pizzeria (1905) in the western hemisphere. The problem here is the the telephone directories that I checked list Lombardi's as a…
“Brooklyn is the bedroom of New York”
"Brooklyn is the bedroom of New York" means that people may work in Manhattan, but they live in Brooklyn. Perhaps Walt Whitman coined this. Brooklyn has also been called the…
Little Syria
"Little Syria" was located on Washington Street in lower Manhattan. That neighborhood was destroyed in the 1960s to build the World Trade Center. There was also a "Little Syria"…
Little Hungary
"Little Hungary" is part of what is now the "East Village." The term is not used any more, but "Little Hungary" was probably one of the earliest "Little"…
Little Colombia (Chapinero or Chapinerito)
"Little Colombia" is Jackson Heights, Queens. The restaurant bearing this name probably helped. "Chapinero" is a desirable area of Bogota, Colombia. "Little Colombia"…
Bag Lady
Lily Tomlin got the character of the "bag lady" exactly right. Her performance should be available on video somewhere. The Historical Dictionary of American Slang has: "Orig. N.Y.C.…