“Isabella Boyer Singer, the wife with whom Singer had spent most of his final years, in her claim to be the legal widow. Isabella eventually won her case and went on to live a glamorous life in Paris, where she… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“New York horses were driven until they expired, and as many as a hundred horses collapsed daily in the streets. It was often a matter of days before the carcasses could be hauled away, and the odor of decaying horseflesh added its own pungency to the city air. In the 1880’s, meanwhile, New Yorkers were only beginning to get used… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share
“also introduced another controversial feature—an elevator, described as a “perpendicular railway intersecting each story.” Theretofore, elevators had been installed only in a few of… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
What is known as success assumes nearly as many aliases as there are those who seek it. — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“New York, in the late nineteenth century, was also an astonishingly dirty city for a variety of reasons. Only about half of New York’s families had bathrooms; the rest were served by outhouses. The Saturday-night bath had become a national ritual, but brushing one’s teeth was unheard of. By 1885, some 250,000 horses—pulling carts, carriages, trolleys and public omnibuses—jammed New… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share
“How New York has fallen off during the last forty years! Its intellect and culture have been diluted and swamped by a great flood-tide… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“Isabella Boyer Singer, the wife with whom Singer had spent most of his final years, in her claim to be the legal widow. Isabella… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“seventeen rooms with six bathrooms and eight working fireplaces for $650. In 1884 these Dakota rents had seemed substantial. But the astonishing thing was… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“Sophisticated New Yorkers complained that their city had none of the exuberance and spectacle of Paris—no Place de l’Étoile, no Place de la Concorde,… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“when America entered the era of the automobile, there was a noticeable tendency for the affluent of American cities to build their homes on… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“In the summer the whole family would take the night boat to Albany. You left in the evening and arrived in the morning. It… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
A great many people go after success simply for the shiny prizes it brings...And nowhere is it pursued more ardently than in the city… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
“Anything of even mildly antiquarian or historic interest was the target of destruction, and anyone who deplored the way the city was remaking itself… — Stephen Birmingham Copy Share Image
