Marcia Reiss’s Lost New York is filled with snippets of history that many may be unaware of when walking down the streets of Manhattan. Educators who have students interested in New York City history, architecture, and the famous families from the Gilded Age such as the Vanderbilts, the Astors, and the Goulds will love diving into this book with them. 

New Yorkers are walkers. And while walking ten miles in a day might be a cakewalk to any borough dweller, many of us are guilty of avoiding eye contact with others especially as we rush to beat the light, catch the bus, or sprint onto a train as the doors close for the third time. New Yorkers have also been known to quietly judge tourists who stop in the middle of the sidewalk during rush hour (or any hour) to take photos and gawk up at our magnificent buildings and skyscrapers. Perhaps we can learn something from these tourists and stop once in awhile to look up and around us. A story is waiting on every corner and in every building, but we have to take the first step in being interested in diving deeper, looking around and embracing that history.

Did you know that the site of the main branch of The New York Public Library was once the Croton Reservoir, the main supplier of drinking water for people below 42nd street? Or that the Polo Grounds in Harlem once hosted three stadiums and was the home of many quintessential teams including the New York Giants (baseball and football), the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and the New York Jets? Would you be surprised to learn that 10th and 11th Avenues were once referred to, collectively, as Death Avenue due to the lack of barriers between the trains hurtling down them and the people living in the community? As you walk past Madison Square Garden (its current location is actually its fourth), consider that the original, and quite beautiful, Pennsylvania Station was torn down to make room for it. 

Delving into Lost New York could help inspire deeper research and fascination for students. The photographs and artwork are inviting and our digital collections offer even more for students to get lost in. Using our New York Historical Newspaper databases to find articles about topics or people discussed in this book will help introduce students to primary sources.

Current titles like, The Bridge: How the Roeblings Connected Brooklyn to New York by Peter Tomasi, can also be useful as a secondary source for students to learn more about the city they live in and all its seemingly mundane surroundings. The database Biography in Context is also a  great jumping off point to search for people whose familiar names adorn buildings and streets throughout the five boroughs.

Suggested Titles for Teaching New York City History

• The Encyclopedia of New York City by Kenneth T. Jackson E-book

• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro Print/Audio-book (Three volumes)

• Greater Gotham : A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919 by Mike Wallace Print/E-book

• City of Ambition: FDR, La Guardia, and the Making of Modern New York by Mason B. Williams Print

• The Bronx: Lost, Found, and Remembered, 1935-1975 by Stephen M. Samtur & Martin A. Jackson Print

• The Gilded Age in New York, 1870-1910 by Esther Crain Print

• Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City by Julia Wertz Print / E-book

• AIA Guide to New York City by Norval White E-book

• I See A City: Todd Webb's New York by Todd Webb Print

• New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York by Douglas Levere Print

Suggested Subject Search Terms

• New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1898-1951

• New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1865-1898

• New York (N.Y.)    Pictorial works

NYPL Resources

• Picture Collection

• Digital Collections

  • Photographic Views of New York City, 1870’s-1970’s

External Resources

Center for Brooklyn History

The Center for Brooklyn History is a nationally recognized urban history center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn’s extraordinary 400-year history.

Gotham Center for New York City History

The Gotham Center is a research and public education institution, sponsored by The Graduate Center, CUNY, devoted to advancing scholarly and public understanding of New York City’s rich and living past. 

International Center for Photography

The International Center of Photography is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture.

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps and manuscripts in its collections.

New York Historical Society

A vast collection of art, objects, artifacts and documents and an ongoing collecting program that aims to facilitate a broad grasp of history’s enduring importance and its usefulness in finding explanations, causes, and insights.

The Original Urban Cowboy (Death Avenue) 

A fascinating blog post on Livin' the High Line about the West Side Cowboys who helped curtail train accidents on "Death Avenue"