THE GANYC E-NEWS BLAST
 

Brooklyn is the Borough of Churches, but it was also known as the Borough of Baseball Clubs. After baseball emerged from Manhattan in the early 1800s, organized baseball exploded in Brooklyn in the mid-19th century. This tour will explore Brooklyn's key role in shaping the national pastime. We'll visit the sites of early baseball clubhouses and baseball grounds. We'll hear stories of legendary matches in the early battles for baseball supremacy. We'll learn how the game developed commercially and see homes of key figures of this era.

We'll begin the tour with locations connected to the very first clubs in Brooklyn, and we'll end where the Brooklyn Dodgers, the borough's most famous club, were born. Join tour guide and baseball historian John Semlak on this tour of this almost-forgotten baseball heritage.

Join Green-Wood Cemetery's Allison C. Meier for a wonderful fam tour.

There is a secret language at Green-Wood that's etched upon the monuments: cemetery symbology. Learn the meaning of the inverted torch, bales of wheat, and an hourglass with wings, along with those that are a bit more difficult to decipher. This eye-opening walking tour will showcase the meaning of these eternal, but sometimes cryptic, images.

Afterwards, Joe Svehlak will lead an hour informal walk for those who would like to join him.
 

Wednesday March 25, 2020 marks the 109th anniversary of the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire. Join Kevin C. Fitzpatrick on a visit to the site and a full background of the tragedy that took the lives of 146 victims, mostly Jewish, Irish, and Italian immigrant girls. A tip of the cap to Lee Gelber, who originated this tour. We will remember Lee's spirit on our walk.

The tour will encompass sites and locations related to the disaster, where some of the young women resided, immigration, and the Fire Department. There will be a special focus on FDNY history. We will end in the West Village with a toast to Lee in a landmark tavern that has been around since before 1911.
 

Bushwick has seen major transformations from a Dutch settlement to a 19th-century staunch German enclave, to a symbol of urban decay after the 1977 blackout and fires. Hear the story of one of New York City's oldest neighborhoods, as preservationist Joe Svehlak shows us remnants of Bushwick's glorious past and its current renaissance.

View a former brewery, beer baron mansions, great civic buildings and churches including the magnificent St. Barbara's, and two WWI memorials by sculptor Pietro Montana. We will also visit the Rheingold Gardens complex of apartments and townhouses, an award-winning symbol of Bushwick's revitalization. Private developers are now transforming Bushwick into a trendy community of new housing, galleries, shops, and restaurants. Come discover Bushwick!
 

We start with a walking tour through the two floors of The Theater Center to gain an understanding of how it functions as an Off-Broadway theater uniquely situated as one of the only one of its kind with a Broadway address. While visiting the two main theaters inside the Center, you'll hear about several of the major  shows that have been in them. Photos from the long running show The Fantasticks will be available in addition to how The Perfect Crime, the longest running play in NYC, came to reside here.

Next we'll meet Catherine Russell, an actor and general manager of The Theater Center, who will give the acting class. Currently acting in the show The Perfect Crime, she is well known for never having taken a sick day or vacation day since the play opened in 1987. She also holds the world record for the most performances as the same character (Margaret Thorne Brent) in the play. If you ever wondered what it would feel like to be on an Off-Broadway stage, now's your chance on this tour. Everyone will get a chance to participate and have an opportunity to get on stage to present a short performance coached by Ms. Russell. Come join us and be a star for the day!  No previous acting experience needed as this class is designed for people not in the profession.

See the world's tallest residential building, and learn of the plans to already de-throne it just blocks away. Stare up at the world's thinnest skyscraper. See the building where a penthouse sold for $238 million... the highest home sale price in US history! And much more!

New York City is in the midst of a new skyscraper age, leaving icons like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in the dust. In the past 7 years, 36 skyscrapers have popped up, all over 700 feet tall. In the entire previous century, there were 38 skyscrapers. But the biggest buildings in this age of "supertalls" are a series of residential buildings dubbed Billionaires Row.

Learn the factors that led to this modern skyscraper boom.

And we will discuss the controversies over how these buildings reflect the economic divides of 21st-century New York, as well as how they impact the neighborhoods and landmarks around them.
 

Located on the Brooklyn/Queens border, Ridgewood was an outgrowth of German Bushwick. Join Joe Svehlak to see how Ridgewood has changed into a multi-ethnic neighborhood.

We will view several churches, grand and humble, that serve diverse congregations, including Eastern Orthodox churches where people from places like Egypt, India, and Romania now worship. We'll also see many award-winning 'Mathews Flats', and landmarked districts of fine working class housing constructed over a century ago. We'll walk landmarked Stockholm Street with its brick-paved roadway. Also we will visit Linden Hill Cemetery founded in 1842 with its impressive Manhattan skyline views and interesting gravestones in several languages.
 

See the world's tallest residential building, and learn of the plans to already de-throne it just blocks away. Stare up at the world's thinnest skyscraper. See the building where a penthouse sold for $238 million... the highest home sale price in US history! And much more!

New York City is in the midst of a new skyscraper age, leaving icons like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building in the dust. In the past 7 years, 36 skyscrapers have popped up, all over 700 feet tall. In the entire previous century, there were 38 skyscrapers. But the biggest buildings in this age of "supertalls" are a series of residential buildings dubbed Billionaires Row.

Learn the factors that led to this modern skyscraper boom.

And we will discuss the controversies over how these buildings reflect the economic divides of 21st-century New York, as well as how they impact the neighborhoods and landmarks around them.