Take a Walk New York produces an email newsletter with interesting stories about New York and, often, a schedule of our tours. You can access past issues here. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the 2015-2017 newsletters. Submit your email above to receive new issues directly in your inbox.
2024
August
April
February
2023
November
2022
October
2021
December
2020
October
2019
December
2018
December
2017
December
2016
December
2015
December
2024
August
- Coney Island's Start as a Seaside Resort
- Long-Gone Amusement Parks of Coney Island
- Coney Island Today
April
- Fraunces Tavern's Role in the Revolutionary War Period
- Recreating an Old Building Without a Photograph
- A Nineteenth Century Block in the Financial District
February
- Seven Repurposed Manhattan Firehouses
- The Work of Architect Napoleon LeBrun
- Anderson Cooper's Home and Andy Warhol's First Studio
2023
November
- History of Prisons in New York City
- What Used to be Where the Courts Are Now
- The Many Versions of NYC's Infamous Tombs
- Rocking Chair Riots
- How New Yorkers Handled a Heat Wave a Century Ago
- Protests in Madison Square Park
- Street Names in the Financial District
- Reminders of Dutch and British Colonial New York
- Jane's Walk Through the Financial District
- Hell's Kitchen Was Once a Tough Place
- Gentrification of Hell's Kitchen
- A Personal Story: Living in Hell's Kitchen
2022
October
- All About Margaret Sanger
- The First Birth Control Clinic
- Books from Guides at Take a Walk New York
- Ukrainians in New York
- Places to Go in NYC's Little Ukraine
- Books from Guides at Take a Walk New York
- Madison Square Park
- From Potter's Field to Community Gathering Spot
- Books from Guides at Take a Walk New York
- Black Pioneers of New York
- Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Shirley Chisholm, and others
- The Unknown Couple That Invented the Home Security System
2021
December
- New Yorkers' Contributions to Christmas
- How New Yorkers Created Santa Claus
- The First Christmas Tree with Electric Lights
- History of Theater in New York
- Origin of the Nickname "The Great White Way"
- Theaters Reopening After the Pandemic Shutdown
- German Jews in Washington Heights
- Before Lin-Manuel Miranda's In the Heights
- Introducing Our Virtual Tours
- Moynihan Train Hall---The New Addition to Penn Station
- The Original Penn Station
- What Became of the Farley Post Office
- Early Ambulances
- NYC's EMS System
- Ambulances for NYC's Jewish Community
2020
October
- Missed 50th, 75th, 100th, 125th, and 150th Anniversaries
- The Met Turned 150 Years Old in 2020
- Gay Pride and the NYC Marathon Celebrate 50 Years
- Slaves in Early New York
- Where Free Blacks Lived in New York Before the Civil War
- Civil War Draft Riots
- Yellow Fever, Smallpox, & Cholera Epidemics in New York
- Twentieth-Century Epidemics: Polio, Influenza, AIDS
- Parallels with Coronavirus and Past Epidemics
- Pushcarts in New York
- The Lower East Side
- Essex Market, Yesterday and Today
- The Story of Victoria Woodhull
- The First Woman to Run for President
- The First Woman-Owned Brokerage Firm
- The Four Madison Square Gardens
- How Madison Square Garden Got Its Name
- The Murder of Stanford White
2019
December
- The Manhattan-Brooklyn Greenway
- How Ocean Parkway Came To Be
- A Creative Idea of the Central Park Designers, in Brooklyn
- How Macy's Began
- The Two Locations of Macy's in Manhattan
- The Woman Who Helped Make Macy's a Leading Department Store
- How Bicycles Changed New York in the Late 1800s
- The First Dedicated Bike Lane in America
- Bike vs. Vehicle Accidents in New York
- Bringing Electricity to NYC Homes and Businesses
- The Battle Between Edison and Westinghouse/Tesla
- Uses of Alternating and Direct Current
- The Narrowest House in Manhattan
- Edna St. Vincent Millay's Home
- How the Cherry Lane Theatre Came to Be
- New Yorkers Walk Where Water and Space Had Been
- How Landfill Changed the Size and Shape of Manhattan
- Building on Air Rights in New York City
- Robert Moses and the Henry Hudson Parkway
- How Moses Pieced Together Financing for Pet Projects
- Hudson Rising Exhibition at the New-York Historical Society
- New York's Secret Garden
- Conservatory Garden in Central Park
- Our 2019 Jane's Walk
- The Oldest Library in New York City
- Creation of the New York Public Library System
- Fun Facts About the 42nd Street Library
- Immigration in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- Where Immigrants Arrived Before Ellis Island
- Major U. S. Immigration Laws
- The Strange Thing on Roofs on NYC Buildings
- How New Yorkers Get Their Water
- Unusual Uses for Water Towers
- An Important Toll Bridge in Early New York
- Kingsbridge Road
- How the Map of Northern Manhattan Changed
2018
December
- Who Wrote "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"?
- Clement Clarke Moore
- Full Text of "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
- The Calder Sidewalk
- The City's Past Embedded in the Pavement
- Walks of Fame in New York City Streets
- The Deadly Influenza Pandemic of 1918
- Dr. Royal S. Copeland Saves NYC with Common Sense Measures
- Germ City Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York
- New York's Green Island
- How Roosevelt Island Collects Its Trash
- Cornell Tech's Eco-Friendly Campus
- Elizabeth Jennings Graham's Challenge to Segregated Streetcars
- Adah Isaacs Menken, a Rebel New York Woman
- Kosher Meat Riots of 1902
- Helping the Masses Stay Clean and Cool
- What Happened to Public Bathhouses
- Open Fire Hydrants
- How New York Street Vendors Created Ice Cream Treats
- The Invention of Air Conditioning
- Custom Tour Ideas
- The "Mayor of Central Park"
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Reservoir
- Scuba Divers in the Central Park Reservoir
- Tenements of New York
- Laws to Improve Tenement Life
- The Tenement Museum
- Sacred Spaces in New York
- Creating an Eruv for Orthodox Jews
- Spiritual Central Park
- Funding the Statue of Liberty
- A Special Partnership Between France and the U.S.
- The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus
- What Is Greater New York?
- Creation of a Five-Borough City
- Andrew Haswell Green
2017
December
- Who Really Invented Christmas
- How Washington Irving Influenced Christmas in America
- The Cult of True Womanhood
- The Dramatic Demonstration of the Elevator Safety Brake
- The World's First Passenger Elevator
- What Cooper Union and the Haughwout Buildings Have in Common
- New York's First Subway
- The Mayor's Role in the First Subway Run
- The Beautiful Original City Hall Station
- The 1920 Wall Street Bombing
- Scars on the Morgan bank building
- Terrorist attacks in New York
- Affordable Health Care for New Yorkers
- Abandoned Building on Valuable Greenwich Village Site
- The Intersection of Waverly Place and Waverly Place
- New York's Worst Death Toll Until 9/11
- The General Slocum Disaster
- How Kleindeutschland Changed Forever
- How New York City Got the Nickname "Gotham"
- Washington Irving's Salmagundi
- Batman's Gotham City and Superman's Metropolis
- How New Yorkers Stared Down Bulldozers to Save Their Parks
- The Battle of Central Park
- Jane Jacobs on What Makes a Great Neighborhood Park
- How the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Came to Be
- The Feud Within a Leading New York Family
- The Famous Buildings That Replaced Astor Mansions
- How Ticker Tape Parades Began
- What Happened When Ticker Tape No Longer Existed
- Some Unusual Ticker Tape Parades in NYC
- How New York looked with overhead electric wires
- The Great Blizzard of 1888
- Record snowfalls in New York City
- Ice Staking in Central Park in the Victorian Era
- Donald Trump and the Central Park Ice Rink
- Year-Round Ice Skating in New York
2016
December
- How the Bull Statue Came to the Financial District
- Christmas Innovations at Macy's
- Gifts for Lovers of New York City
- Evacuation Day, 1783
- The Holiday Honoring Evacuation Day
- Occupied New York City in the Revolutionary War Era
- A Haunted House on West 10th Street
- The Ghost at the Morris-Jumel Mansion
- The Witch on Bethesda Terrace
- The Nation's First Labor Day Celebration
- Whose Idea Was It --- McGuire or Maguire?
- How Union Square Got Its Name
- Summertime Illnesses in New York
- How Yellow Fever Led to Development of Greenwich Village
- The Story of Typhoid Mary
- New York City, July 1776
- Statue of King George III
- The Oldest Fence in New York
- The Stonewall Rebellion and Birth of the Gay Rights Movement
- Origin of the name Gay Street
- Famous residents of Gay Street
- Jane Jacobs, a Unique Urban Activist
- Jane's Walk, the Global Event Honoring Her
- A New Ebook, My New York Stories
- Great Hoaxes by New York City Newspapers
- Origin of the "Penny Press"
- Jane's Walk New York
- New York's First Roman Catholic Cathedral
- Why New York City Has Two St. Patrick's Cathedrals
- The First St. Patrick's Day Parade in the World
- George Washington's Inauguration
- Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union speech
- Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace
- Activism in New York City in the 19th and 20th Centuries
- Martin Luther King, Jr., on Three Visits to New York
- Henry Ward Beecher and Plymouth Church
2015
December
- How Times Square Got Its Name
- Why the Ball Drops in Times Square on New Year's Eve
- Why Many Squares in NYC Are Actually Triangles
- Why New York City Created the First Zoning Law in the Nation
- How to Approximate the Age of a Skyscraper
- Why So Much Valuable NYC Real Estate Has Parks Instead of Buildings
- A Brief History of NYC Water Sources
- New York's Collect Pond
- The Croton Aqueduct System
- Real and Imposter Traces of Colonial New York
- The Great Fire of 1853
- The Miraculous Survival of St. Paul's Church Through Multiple Disasters
- The 1930 Battle for Tallest Building in the World
- What Was Once Hidden Inside the Chrysler Building
- Why the Empire State Building Was Once Called the Empty State Building
- Why New York's Wealthiest Citizens Began to Try Apartment Living
- Features of Early Luxury Apartments
- Carriage Houses a Century Ago and Today
