Top all-time · #4856
Ephemeral New York
Personal blog · ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.comhistoryculture
Ephemeral New York is a personal blog at ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com about history and culture. Since 2013, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 39 times, most often “How New York became a metropolis of stoops”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-02, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (7) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for New York history, including old images and vanished places like the 19th-century Park Avenue and colonial roads near the Chrysler Building. One commenter calls it terrific for New York history.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 7 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Chronicling an ever-changing city through faded and forgotten artifacts
Most-linked posts?
- How New York became a metropolis of stoops2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-12-23
What Hacker News says?
Cities were loud long before cars. See https://www.medievalists.net/2016/02/the-noisy-middle-ages/ https://daily.jstor.org/a-history-of-noise/ https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/a-19th-cen... https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.64.5....
Comment linking /2013/09/30/a-19th-century-writer-gripes-about-the-noisy-city/
on “Tear up unused parking lots, plant trees”Submitted How New York became a metropolis of stoops as a story · 72 points
HN discussionIt's remarkably hard to find images of what it used to look like. I've seen some before. Here's what one section looked like in the 1870s when the railroad run underneath it: http://www.iridetheharlemline.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05... Here's park avenue in the 1920s: http://screencast.com/t/7GRMhOzq Park Avenue (used to be 4th Avenue) has probably changed more than most Avenues in NYC. Here are some images of wh…
Comment linking /2013/01/28/three-views-of-park-avenue-in-the-east-50s/
on “A 140-Acre Forest Is About to Materialize in the Middle of Detroit”Submitted The ghost of a colonial road on the eastern side of the Chrysler Building as a story · 64 points
HN discussionThat reminds me of the trapezoidal Chrysler Building[1] in NYC, shaped by a plot boundary reflecting the pre-grid Boston Post Road[2] (only 2 weeks NYC-Boston!). The Road elsewheres reflects 1600's colonial improvements to the earlier Pequot Path, and influenced US1 et al. [1] https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/chrysler-building... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road
Comment linking /tag/chrysler-building-boston-post-road/
on “A new map of medieval London”Submitted A vintage 1903 espresso machine at a Village cafe (2012) as a story · 51 points
HN discussionYes, I remember hearing that they had to convince the public it was safe by having elephants cross it first. I looked it up, and it turns out that there was an elephant march, but it was delayed until long after the (for-humans) opening, but still was a big spectacle: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/the-elepha...
Comment linking /2011/12/22/the-elephants-that-tested-the-new-brooklyn-bridge/
on “Diagnosing the Steel Failure in the SF Transit Center”Submitted Quiet glimpses of the turn of the century NYC through an amateur’s camera as a story · 32 points
HN discussionThe website Ephemeral New York is terrific for all sorts of interesting New York history: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com (the New Year's day post is where I found the reference to her diary) And the Historical Atlas of New York City is both visually and textually superb for all sorts of fascinating details of New York's development: http://www.amazon.com/Historical-Atlas-New-York-City/dp/0805... Finally, "Le…
Comment linking /
on “Diary of a little girl in old New York (1919)”Submitted Where the Hangman Lived on Washington Square as a story · 21 points
HN discussionThis is a link to a tag on the blog rather than the particular blog post. It should link here: https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2022/09/15/the-ghost-...
Comment linking /2022/09/15/the-ghost-of-a-colonial-road-on-the-eastern-side-of-the-chrysler-building/
on “The ghost of a colonial road on the eastern side of the Chrysler Building”Submitted The 1950s plan for a Washington Square Highway (2014) as a story · 19 points
HN discussionArguably, that process has already started. To anyone who was born after 9/11 (and that was almost 18 years ago, so there are people born after 9/11 who are almost old enough to vote!), that event is already kind of an abstraction, in much the same way that the attack on Pearl Harbor is to almost everyone reading this. The passing of an event out of living memory is the first stage of that kind of transition from ex…
Comment linking /
on “You’re never going to have a legacy, so give up trying”Submitted The “bobbed-hair bandit” on the run in Brooklyn as a story · 19 points
HN discussionFor a little more context, about 40% of the buildings in Manhattan couldn't be built under today's zoning laws: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/upshot/forty-... In other words, the very thing that people move to NYC for can no longer be built in much of NYC. Pretty perverse. In the 1950s, nice apartments in Greenwich Village or the UES might be $800 – $1,500, adjusted for inflation: https://ephemeraln…
Comment linking /2013/09/02/what-a-west-village-apartment-cost-in-1955
on “More Housing for Better Public Transit: A Grand Bargain for New York City”Submitted How yellow fever rebranded a Brooklyn village as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The tiny holdout building in the middle of Macy’s as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The sudden demise of New York’s organ grinders as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Mob Torches New York’s Quarantine Hospital as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted What a tourist saw on a trip to New York in 1970 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Brighton Beach Hotel building was moved as a whole 495 feet inland as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted This Upper East Side school still has boot scrapers as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted A department store becomes a makeshift hospital as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Tracking the “Mousetrap” of Greenwich Village as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Last Years in Edgar Allan Poe’s Bronx Cottage as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted When “play streets” let New York kids run free as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted How New York City Invented the Penthouse as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted New York’s old public bath buildings still inspire as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted By billboards for over 100 years, holdout building by Macy's is back as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The short, forgotten life of New York City’s first skyscraper as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
