History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress-Vol. 3


Book Description

The social life of New York at this period was invested with a peculiar charm. Wealth and refinement, money-making and good-breeding, were blended as never before. -from Chapter XLVI: The Final Struggle From the exuberance of post-Revolutionary Manhattan to the great debate over incorporating the independent municipality of Brooklyn into the City of New York, this final volume of an extraordinary three-volume history of New York remains an informative and entertaining resource today. Volume 3 relates tales of social elegance and bustling commerce, of the founding of Alexander Hamilton's newspaper and Broadway theaters, of grand civic projects of park creation and library building... of the modern foundations of one of the planet's most influential cities. Numerous captivating illustrations depict: .Fifth Avenue at Madison Square .bird's eye view looking south from General Grant's tomb .police parade .Cathedral of St. John the Divine .the Plaza Hotel and Metropolitan Club .bridge at Canal Street in 1800 .Washington Arch .and dozens more. Originally published from 1877 to 1881, this is a delight to browse-for history buffs and lovers of the grand metropolis alike. Also available from Cosimo Classics: Martha J. Lamb's Wall Street in History. American historian MARTHA J. LAMB (d. circa 1892) was a prolific author, publishing children's books, novels, short stories, and magazine articles, as well as serving as editor of the Magazine of American History. Active in charitable organizations, she founded Chicago's Home for Friendless and Half-Orphan Asylum, and was secretary of the city's first Sanitary Fair in 1863. MRS. BURTON HARRISON, ne Constance Cary (1843-1920), was the wife of BurtonNovell Harrison, personal secretary to Jefferson Davis. Recollections Grave and Gay (1911), her autobiography, relates her childhood in pre-Civil War Virginia and her experience as a young adult there during the war.




Planning the Great Metropolis


Book Description

As the Regional Plan Association embarks on a Fourth Regional Plan, there can be no better time for a paperback edition of David Johnson’s critically acclaimed assessment of the 1929 Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs. As he says in his preface to this edition, the questions faced by the regional planners of today are little changed from those their predecessors faced in the 1920s. Derided by some, accused by others of being the root cause of New York City’s relative economic and physical decline, the 1929 Plan was in reality an important source of ideas for many projects built during the New Deal era of the 1930s. In his detailed examination of the Plan, Johnson traces its origins to Progressive era and Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan of Chicago. He describes the making of the Plan under the direction of Scotsman Thomas Adams, its reception in the New York Region, and its partial realization. The story he tells has important lessons for planners, decision-makers and citizens facing an increasingly urban future where the physical plan approach may again have a critical role to play.