August 12th: a walking tour through NYC History
Posted: Aug 12, 2013 | 8:42 PM
by Jared Goldstein
1790: The American Capitol in New York City moved south to Philadelphia.
We see the site of the capitol on Downtown tours, Colonial NYC Tours, Financial District tours, Wall Street tours, Santa Claus the NYC tour, and George Washington's NYC. On some of these tours we learn how NYC lost its capitol but kept its capital, and what that had to do with Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. George Washington left NYC as soon as possible, never to return.
1851: Isaac Singer patented his sewing machine, the first ready-made home appliance. It was also suitable for factories. He allowed financing to purchase them, and revolutionized mass production of clothing in NYC where he lived and ran his corporation.
We see the remaining Singer Building on SoHo tours.
1856: Financier and philanthropist Diamond Jim Brady born in NYC. He died 4/13/1917.
1950: Happy Birthday, Kid Creole. Born in NYC.
1988: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) died of drug related causes in his 57 Great Jones Street loft in an odd building that Andy Warhol owned. Basquiat could likely be the first international black superstar artist. Ten years earlier, after dropping out of Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, he started in graffiti.
We see 57 Great Jones Street on East Village Tours, and we learn the difference between that street and Jones Street in Greenwich Village.