Broadway

January 1, 2018
Architect Leadon, coauthor of the fifth edition of the AIA Guide to New York City, puts his background to good use in this entertaining look at how the growth and development of New York City’s most famous street paralleled that of Manhattan. Leadon’s method of organizing his rich source material makes the history more digestible; instead of a predictable chronological approach, he devotes a separate section to each single mile of the street, from its southernmost starting point in Bowling Green, north through 228th Street, after which it continues into the Bronx. As with the best popular histories, Leadon enlivens the past through memorable anecdotes, such as that of the accidental origin of the ticker-tape parade. Colorful individuals populate the narrative, including Alfred Ely Beach, who without anyone’s permission built the first subway under Broadway, and Martin Molenaor, a septuagenarian who spuriously claimed that he was the real owner of over 70 acres of prime real estate. Leadon covers other bits of essential ground, detailing the construction of noteworthy buildings, commenting on the role of mass transit in the life of Manhattan, and remarking on the changing nature of political protests in Union Square. This is a welcome complement to more daunting and encyclopedic volumes on New York’s history. Maps & illus.

February 1, 2018
Four hundred years in the life of a road the original Dutch settlers referred to as Brede Wegh (Broad Way).For a thoroughfare that, in the early 1600s, had such poor drainage that "the roadbed quickly became a foul stew of mud and horse manure," Broadway hasn't done too badly for itself over the ensuing centuries. In this opinionated work, architect Leadon (Architecture/City Univ. of New York) tells the story of Broadway in Manhattan, from Bowling Green in the south to the Bronx in the north. The book has 13 sections, one per mile, with stories behind the development of each neighborhood. The author gives space to everyone from the architects who designed Broadway's iron buildings to the theater world's stars and impresarios. Leadon calls the area's "lack of coherence" or development strategy "the urban planning equivalent of throwing dice." This is an impressively detailed history, sometimes overly so. Leadon is fond of long lists--e.g., items for sale in Constable's department store, "so comprehensively opulent, that it practically defined the Gilded Age"; the curios producer David Belasco kept in the studio above his theater; the diseases that killed New Yorkers in the early 19th century--and some readers may tire of repeated references to money: how much a property cost, the equivalent amount in today's dollars, etc. Still, Leadon offers plenty of entertaining anecdotes. George M. Cohan "insisted that his dressing room be decorated floor-to-ceiling with American flags," and Thomas Edison promoted his incandescent bulb in 1882 when he "mounted light bulbs on the heads of a contingent of militiamen and had them drag a steam engine and dynamo up Broadway." And the author has a way with a takedown: he notes that John Jacob Astor IV, pampered member of America's richest family in the 1890s, was known as "Jack Ass" and that his drowsy expression in photos made it seem "as if submitting to the lens was an hour of yachting lost forever."A lively history of one of the most famous streets in America.

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March 1, 2018
Architect Leadon provides a historical and cultural tour, with sketches of relevant individuals, up New York's most famous thoroughfare, from its foot at the Battery north past George M. Cohan's Times Square and Columbia University to Washington Heights and Inwood. But the city itself is constantly changing, a challenge to the author, who chooses to focus mainly on Broadway's early years. Along lower Broadway (Mile One), Leadon describes nineteenth-century parades, pigs, conflagrations, Trinity Church, and more. His knowledge is expansive; he explains at some length the bend in Broadway around Grace Church on 10th Street and the origin of union in Union Square, which stems from neither the Civil War nor labor history. Subways affect Broadway's development and are treated effectively, but cars and traffic are barely mentioned. As the street works its way up the West Side (partly following the old Bloomingdale Road), Broadway changes character. Recent major transformations are unfortunately entirely omitted. Except in Manhatttanville (uptown), the bad times are barely discussed. At best, the book is a partial history of Broadway, but it is engagingly written and supplemented by good, easy-to-follow maps at each milestone.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)