A History of New York in 27 Buildings

September 1, 2019
A series of biographies of significant New York City buildings that "have been transcendent in some way." Despite the title, this is the history of 27 structures, although a great deal of New York's past makes an appearance. "Can collective conglomerations of bricks, glass, wood, steel, and mortar reveal the soul of a city?" Definitely, writes Roberts (Only in New York: An Exploration of the World's Most Fascinating, Frustrating and Irrepressible City, 2018, etc.), the former urban affairs correspondent of the New York Times. The author offers a solid education in New York architecture that pays close attention to the personalities, politics, economics, and natural disasters that inevitably accompany it. Eschewing the commonplace, Roberts begins with the oldest house, which is in Queens. Built in 1661 when the city was Dutch, it was home to John Bowne, a Quaker preacher and source of a petition, signed by a group of neighbors, objecting to director-general Peter Stuyvesant's order banning Quakers. The author points out that this is a foundational document of American freedom written over a century before the Bill of Rights (also born in New York). Even educated readers will identify only a minority of Roberts' choices, including St. Paul's Chapel, City Hall, the Flatiron Building, Tweed Courthouse, Empire State Building, Grand Central Terminal, and the Apollo Theater. A laundromat was once a branch of Bank of the United States. Notwithstanding the name, it was a private institution whose collapse in 1931 launched the banking crisis which, perhaps more than the 1929 stock market crash, converted a normal recession into the Great Depression. New York's poorest district, the South Bronx, hosted the huge American Bank Note Plant, which churned out currency, stamps, and stock securities for nations around the world. It moved away in the early 1980s; the building remains as a landmark, and the area is prospering. Though not a cohesive narrative, these isolated journalistic essays provide an entertaining picture of New York through the centuries.

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 16, 2019
New York Times urban affairs correspondent Roberts (A History of New York in 101 Objects) delivers a lively history of 27 architectural structures symbolic of New York City’s progression from Dutch colony to urban colossus. Chosen for their importance to the city’s economic, political, and cultural evolution, these 27 “buildings” include High Bridge, the oldest standing bridge linking Manhattan to the U.S. mainland; First Houses, the nation’s first low-income public housing project; and the Coney Island Boardwalk. Roberts’s selections range from the legendary (the Flatiron Building; Grand Central Terminal) to the obscure (123 Lexington Ave., the brownstone where Chester Arthur was sworn in as U.S. president after the assassination of James Garfield in 1881). Some have been preserved (the Bowne House in Queens, site of an important chapter in America’s history of religious freedom), while others have been stripped of nearly everything but their exteriors (the Bronx branch of Bank of United States
, where a bank run in December 1929 helped to kick off the Great Depression). Though Roberts can occasionally get bogged down in the details, he proves to be a witty and informed narrator whose enthusiasm for his subject is contagious. This lucid account will help New Yorkers to see their city in a new light.

November 1, 2019

To commemorate the 400th anniversary of New York City, author and broadcaster Roberts (The Caucus) highlights structures he believes have been significant. The book isn't really about design, but how occupants have used these buildings. A few, such as Grand Central Terminal and the Empire State Building, are iconic. Most, including St. Paul's Chapel on lower Broadway, exemplified their original times and later found new functions; the classical chapel survived the burning of the city and served as a sanctuary during the Revolutionary War. Two hundred years later, St. Paul's also survived the 9/11 attacks, becoming a refuge for recovery workers and a memorial site. Other structures discussed by Roberts include reminders of municipal politics (and corruption), the rise of the department store, the value of maritime commerce, electric power for the transit system, a tragic sweatshop fire, live theater in the city, a run on banks during the Great Depression, and pioneering public housing. VERDICT Roberts's wide-ranging historical research and storytelling skills should captivate New Yorkers and others. Larger photographs might have enhanced readers' connection to these structures and their roles in the life of the city.--David R. Conn, formerly with Surrey Libs., BC

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.