By popular demand, we return to the creepier tales of New York City history, ghost tales and stories of murder and mayhem, all of them at some point involving great American icons -- Alexander Hamilton, P.T. Barnum, Dorothy Parker and Mark Twain. Featuring a murder at a Manhattan well, a bloody slaying in rural Staten Island, the lingerings of New York's most fabulous undead, and the most haunted home in Greenwich Village!

This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.

(Original version released Oct. 10, 2008)

Green-wood Cemetery is one of New York's oldest burial grounds, but its development reaches back all the way to the beginning of Brooklyn itself -- in fact, to the founder of Brooklyn Heights.  Find out why it took an inventive city planner with a funny name, a dead New York icon, and a few errant parakeets to make this place a beautiful, richly historical place to visit today.

This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.

(Original version released Oct. 3, 2008)

We tackle the rich history of the New York Stock Exchange in this episode, beginning with Alexander Hamilton, some pushy auctioneers, a coffee house and a sycamore tree. And find how this seminal financial institution ended up in its latest home -- that beautiful, classically designed George Post building, with a marble goddess on top who was almost too heavy for her own good. This was originally recorded back in 2008 in the midst of the big financial crisis, giving it a little extra context!

This is a Special Illustrated Edition. Just hit play and images of the things discussed will pop up on your media player.

(Original version released Sept. 26, 2008)

Special Illustrated Edition! Today it's the Met Life Building. It's been called the ugliest building in New York City. It sits like a monolith behind one of the city's most enduring icons Grand Central Terminal. But it's got some secrets you may not know about. In this podcast, we scale the heights of this misunderstood marvel of modern architecture.

 

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In our second podcast on the notorious Five Points neighborhood, we see how the district changed with the influx of new immigrants and the valiant attempts to reform the seedier elements. With the new Italian and Chinese residents, the culture changed drastically, critical shifts that are still reflected in the neighborhoods of Chinatown and Little Italy today. Who was the man who helped clear Five Points from the landscape forever, and what famous park designer is associated with its replacement in the streets of downtown Manhattan?

You've heard the legend of New York's most notorious neighborhood, heard the story of the seedy gangs of New York. Now come with us as we hit the streets of Five Points and dig up some of the nitty, gritty details of its birth, its first residents and its most scandalous pastimes.

Special illustrated version

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Before Delmonico's, New Yorkers ate in taverns or oyster houses. But the city caught the fine dining bug at this family-owned business, Delmonico's Restaurant Francais, which standardized everything you know about restaurants today. Find out about "menus", "fresh ingredients", "dining rooms for ladies" and other unusual and exotic Delmonico innovations.

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How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Well, we can at least show you the way through its tumultuous history, from a fortunate meeting on a Norwegian cruise ship, passed a symphonic rivalry, and into the 20th Century with some of the biggest names in classical and popular music. And forgive our pronunciation of Dunfermline! www.boweryboyspodcast.com

The smaller islands of the East River reveal fascinating secrets of the city's past, and Randall's and Ward's Islands are no exceptions. Found out how these former potter's fields are related to the most important Olympics-related event New York City has ever seen. The cast includes a swashbuckling British engineer, Jesse Owens, Tony Bennett, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fiorello LaGuardia, Robert Moses, and Pearl Jam! www.boweryboyspodcast.com