It was the bullet felt around the world. On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was shot by stage actor, Confederate sympathizer, and white supremacist John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Lincoln succumbed to his wounds in the early hours of the following day, April 15, at the Peterson Boarding House just […]
If you were a traveler from, say, Illinois spending a day in New York City, what would you choose to do? You almost certainly would not have had as successful a day as prairie lawyer and one-term congressman Abraham Lincoln, who, on February 27, 1860, was able to change his country-bumpkin image, become a leading […]
Civil War Major General Daniel E. Sickles had one of history’s most contentious, strange, and multifarious biographies.
Greenwich Village has long been the home of many of history’s most important social change champions. Now, using Village Preservation’s interactive map of the Greenwich Village Historic District, we can take a virtual walk through the neighborhood to visit the homes of these remarkable individuals. Get to know a nineteenth century abolitionist, an early-twentieth century […]
On May 30th, 1922, fifty-seven years after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, over 35,000 people gathered at the western end of the National Mall in Washington D.C. to see him once again. Sitting within the grand, neoclassical Lincoln Memorial building designed by architect Henry Bacon, the statue of the beloved president seemed to convey to the […]
James Renwick, Jr. was born on November 11, 1818, in New York City. He would become one of the most successful American architects of the 19th century, designing such high profile buildings as New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the Smithsonian “Castle” in Washington D.C., and Grace Church, right here in our neighborhood on Broadway […]
On April 3rd, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become both his last and one of his most powerful speeches, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” In it, he called for unity and non-violent protests while challenging the United States to live up to its promise and ideas, saying he could see the day […]
Happy President’s Day! Though the Village is only one neighborhood in our great, big country (though ask any resident and they will say the Village should be its own country!), it has some distinct connections to several few of our nation’s past presidents. To celebrate the day, we are doing a roundup of our presidential […]
Born on February 12, 1791, Peter Cooper left his mark on the world as a pioneering industrialist and inventor, and his mark on the Village as a great philanthropist. Cooper began his career as a coachmaker’s apprentice, although he had only one year of formal schooling. He also worked as a cabinet maker, hatmaker, brewer, and grocer. From these humble […]
This is an updated re-posting of a piece originally penned by GVSHP staff member Drew Durniak. It was on April 14, 1865 that President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington. The event was the first assassination of an American president and sent shock waves throughout the nation. […]
In remembering the 150th anniversary of the Lincoln assassination, the Merchant’s House Museum displayed a dress in the house that was worn by a member of the Tredwell family to an entertainment venue known as Laura Keene’s Theatre. In one of the pockets was a ticket from a performance there. This is how I first […]
This post is the second in a three-part series about holidays held in the Village, a collaboration between GVSHP and the students in NYU’s Fall 2014 Intro to Public History course. In conjunction with the public program held on Wednesday, December 17th, each group was also tasked with sharing their discoveries with us on Off […]
It was almost 150 years ago this evening that President Abraham Lincoln was fatally shot by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington. The event was the first assassination of an American president and sent shock waves throughout the nation. A period of mourning set in for weeks, and included viewings of the […]
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; he died eight days later on September 14. Both the man responsible for the assassination, and the man who assumed the presidency as a result, had some interesting connections to our neighborhoods. McKinley was only the third […]
On this day in 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Serving as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861, until his assassination in 1865, Lincoln most famously preserved the Union through the Civil War and signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation […]
As I was considering a topic for last week’s Presidents’ Day post, I came across a great find from our nation’s past that took place right here in present-day NoHo. To my delight, the anniversary of this historic event was right around the corner, today in fact! Yes, on February 27, 1860, relatively unknown presidential […]
