WNYC Historian Profiles | Water Supply Bike Tour | OHNY Needs Your Help | Before They Were Parks Exhibit
News from Mike Miscione: Manhattan Borough Historian
FIVE BOROUGH HISTORIANS PROFILED ON WNYC RADIO
Recently, WNYC Radio profiled all five Borough Historians. Follow the links below to listen to the interviews. At the bottom of each page are links to supplementary stories. A big thank you goes to producer Kathleen Horan for making us all look and sound so good.
Queens (Jack Eichenbaum)
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/jul/19/passion-all-things-queens/
Brooklyn (Ron Schweiger)
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/jul/26/collecting-history-brooklyn/
Bronx (Lloyd Ultan)
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/aug/02/bronx-borough-historian/
Staten Island (Thomas Matteo)
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/aug/09/studying-staten-island/
Manhattan (Michael Miscione)
http://beta.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/aug/16/manhattan-borough-historian/
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!
EXPLORE THE OLD BROOKLYN WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM BY BICYCLE (OCTOBER 2)
I’ve been asked by NYCH2O to reprise a popular historical bike tour I led a few years back. We’ll rediscover the now-defunct water supply system that served the once-independent City of Brooklyn. The system, built in the 19th century, brought fresh water from Queens and Long Island into the city. It was largely abandoned after Brooklyn was consolidated into New York City in 1898, and its components — pipes, reservoirs, pumping stations, wells, etc. — were dismantled, built over or repurposed. But some remnants and ruins still exist, and can be seen if you know where to look.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Meet-up: 11:00a
Cost: $10.00
Full details and registration: http://brooklynwaterworks.eventbrite.com/
OPENHOUSENEWYORK SEEKS VOLUNTEERS FOR OHNY WEEKEND 2010
Every year openhousenewyork (OHNY) Weekend celebrates New York City’s historical built environment by providing free access to hundreds of significant buildings and sites, many of which are off-limits to the public the rest of the year. OHNY also offers educational tours and talks related to the city’s history, design, planning and preservation.
But OHNY can’t do it alone. They rely on enthusiastic and capable volunteers to help staff their hundreds of sites and programs in all five boroughs. I encourage you – as well as your friends, family, colleagues and/or students — to join me as I lend them a hand this year. (This year OHNY Weekend is on October 9 & 10, 2010.)
To volunteer, see: http://www.ohny.org/volunteers/volunteer.cfm
For more information about openhousenewyork, please visit ohny.org .
CATCH “BEFORE THEY WERE PARKS” EXHIBIT BEFORE IT CLOSES
Jonathan Kuhn and his colleagues oversee the art and antiquities of the NYC Parks Department. They do a splendid and largely unsung job promoting the history of the city and its parkland, so I want to throw them a little plug.
Earlier this summer they put together a terrific show at the Arsenal Gallery titled “Before They Were Parks.” If you have not already seen it, I encourage you to check it out before it closes on September 9 (soon!). The exhibition uses vintage and contemporary photographs to recount the transformation of 36 city parks, from their pre-park states into today’s forms. Also in the exhibition is an 18th-century gravestone unearthed last fall in Washington Square Park and an artist’s model for Frederick Douglass Circle.
Read an article about it here: http://www.thevillager.com/villager_375/exhibitshows.html
“Before They Were Parks” will run through September 9 at the Arsenal Gallery, located just inside Central Park at East 64 St. and Fifth Ave., on the third floor of the Arsenal Building, weekdays 9:00a to 5:00p. Admission is free. The gallery is closed on holidays.