Protecting Manhattan's Historic Legacy

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, we have a new appointee as the Manhattan Borough Historian. And I’ve learned something new. Every borough has its own historian. What is today is Harold Holser, a friend, and he has been newly appointed by the Borough President of Manhattan as the historian of Manhattan. And let’s go to Harold Holzer. Harold, where was the last

0:27 place we met together?

0:30 Speaker 2 John? We met at Roosevelt House when you came to a packed house to talk about your new book and taught us all how to become wealthy. And I have to say, it’s been a few months. It hasn’t worked yet, but I’m still trying.

0:43 Speaker 1 Well, maybe you have to read the book a second time. I said, you’ll make twice as much if you read it twice.

0:49 Speaker 2 Okay, I will well.

0:52 Speaker 1 Tell us Manhattan. I didn’t know every borough has his own historian. Tell us about a few minutes today on a Sunday morning. And a lot of our listeners are from the island of Manhattan. That we bought for how much we buy for? Fourteen dollars?

1:09 Speaker 2 Is it all twenty four dollars?

1:11 Speaker 1 Twenty four dollars? Okay? What inflation four.

1:13 Speaker 2 Hundred years ago? We’re about to have the anniversary of the purchase.

1:16 Speaker 1 I look forward to the anniversary. I hope I get invited. Okay, tell us about a little historian historical stuff about Manhattan Island that nobody knows.

1:29 Speaker 2 Well, nobody knows there was a Belgian immigration crisis in the seventeenth century. I just learned that myself when the notice went out.

1:37 Speaker 1 That I, I mean, it had a migrant crisis.

1:39 Speaker 2 We had a migrant crist how many years ago? No ice except in the winter, And yes, we did for centuries. And you know what, all of the people who immigrated eventually became part of the Manhattan community and did well for themselves and by us, which is a lesson maybe we should learn. I did, John, I didn’t know about

1:58 this position very much much about it either. I’ve actually known the two predecessors. But Borough President Brad Hoilman Singel, who is actually being sworn in later this Sunday afternoon his official inauguration at Lincoln Center, he called me up and said, I want you to do this because you’ve written fifty books about the Civil War and Lincoln. I

2:21 want someone who’s written about history, and we have all these plans to do tours and websites about the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, about the Civil War in Manhattan, about the Dutch settlement, about the Native peoples. And we’re going to have a lot of fun. And I think it’s going to help spur extra tourism as well. Well.

2:43 Speaker 1 I mean that sounds wonderful now. I mean, I hear that there’s parts of Manhattan when you dig down deep enough, do you find another part of Manhattan, a different part of the city.

2:57 Speaker 2 You do. And in fact, when they built the Moynihan Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan decades a few decades ago, we both remember that period, they found a slave burial ground, which is now known as the African Burial Ground. Construction was halted. An entire project came up from Washington and other cities and examined with great respect the remains. In

3:25 those days, this was the northern part of the island, so they shipped enslaved people up there when they died to be buried. And as they say, in my part of Manhattan, who knew they have a lot to learn.

3:37 Speaker 1 I mean, there’s so so many things that they don’t know. I mean, I know, I watched history channel. Sometimes in deep down in Japan, deep down underneath the water, they found whole cities. And in China, which is a civilization that’s six thousand, eight thousand years old, they found dig down enough, they find old cities. So I mean, there’s

4:03 so much thing that, so many things that we have to know. And when did Columbus selldish the ocean blue? Fourteen ninety two? Rhymes so I mean we’re only five hundred years behind versus some of the things some six thousand years behind, in ten thousand years behind. And the question who built the pyramids in Central America?

4:28 Speaker 2 Who knows exactly? We’re not sure, but you know, we have we have centuries of Native American history in Manhattan two and every once in a while people excavate and learn about that. You know, there is a new building you may have noticed going up on Fifth Avenue and forty third Street. It’s gigantic, it’s overwhelming. That plot of

4:53 land was once an orphan asylum for black children, the most an orphanage in New York City, and during the eighteen sixty three Draft riots in New York, rioters burned it down to drive the oh and trap the black children inside so oh, more than two hundred they got out, and I want, and I think the borough president wants

5:19 to have a plaque put on that building to acknowledge that one of the worst acts of you know, insurrection and mob rule took place there and it’s you know, it’s part of the history that we should remember as well as the stuff we celebrate.

5:35 Speaker 1 I think, well, Harold, how’s I hope you come on more often and give us any updates on anything interesting that you find out.

5:45 Speaker 2 And say hello to my friend Andrew Cuomo. I worked for his dad for many years and feel very close to Andrew. And I’m glad he’s on the radio. I listened to all of the shows.

5:55 Speaker 1 Thank you. I will I will send him a copy of our mini cast that we’re doing right now. And and thank you for pointing that out.

6:04 Speaker 2 Thank you, John. Pleasure to talk to you. M