NYC History
See How New York Became a City in This New Digital Collection of Maps
What did your neighborhood look like in the 17th century? Now you can find out.
The best Zoom backgrounds for New York City fanatics
Bring a little New York City to your next video call with these virtual backgrounds.
Revisit these 10 NYC stories that have nothing to do with coronavirus
If you need a distraction, here’s some choice writing about New York City
For centuries, pandemics have shaped NYC’s built environment
New York has dealt with epidemics before—and those outbreaks led to infrastructure changes and housing reforms.
How one woman fought segregation on public transit in 19th-century NYC
In 1854, a woman named Elizabeth Jennings helped kickstart the desegregation of New York’s public transit—and she’ll soon be honored with a statue at Grand Central Terminal.
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New York City’s 20 oldest buildings, mapped
The city's oldest building dates to 1652
Central Park highlights historic sites of erstwhile African American village
Seneca Village thrived from the 1820s through 1857, when its inhabitants were booted for the creation of Central Park.
How 5 essential NYC buildings reveal ‘the soul of the city’
New York’s hundreds of thousands of buildings are key to understanding its history.
A tale of Two Bridges
How idealistic 20th-century planning created a 21st-century loophole for developers on the Lower East Side.
A walking tour of 1949 Greenwich Village
In the footsteps of Henry Lanier and Berenice Abbott.
In the 1970s, the Bronx was burning, but some residents were rebuilding
Decade of Fire, a new documentary, tells a different story about the borough’s fires—and the communities affected by them
The winding history of Donald Trump’s first major Manhattan real estate project
The Commodore Hotel was a key remnant of Midtown’s Terminal City.
See the top five designs for Shirley Chisholm’s Brooklyn monument
The city is now soliciting feedback on five proposed designs of the forthcoming monument to the trailblazing legislator.
How urban development shaped the way 19th-century New Yorkers ate
The ripple effects of transportation, housing trends, and industrialization showed up on dining plates
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The sorority in the skyscraper
A 1929 "residence and clubhouse" for young professional women offered affordable housing—and community.
Long Island City’s forgotten history
Amazon’s new home was once its own sprawling city
How Wall Street became Wall Street
Named for a wall that once ran across Manhattan, the street is on the verge of change.
The elevated era
For 80 years, the elevated railway shaped New York City. Today, it seems a cautionary tale.
New York’s lost neighborhoods
All across NYC, the ghosts of old neighborhoods—demolished to make way for newer and flashier developments—can be found.
Uncovering the ghosts of Roosevelt Island
A new book about the island’s past offers a clear line between the uncomfortable parts of history and the societal debates of today.