Today's New York neighborhood called NoHo, wedged between Greenwich Village and the East Village, holds the stories of many people and places that then went on to become deeply associated with the great Gilded Age.

The Astor family began their dynasty here in both investment and real estate as did the well-known Dutch-American merchant family the Schermerhorns.

Caroline Schermerhorn, who became the famed Mrs. Astor, grew up right here on Bond Street along with many members of her family.

NoHo today still contains many remnants of its early 19th-century glamorous past and sites where the tensions between the wealthy residents of the Lafayette Place neighborhood clashed with the growing immigrant population just one street away on the Bowery.

Bowery Boys Walks tour guide Aaron Schielke joins Carl Raymond of the Gilded Gentleman podcast for a look at this fascinating neighborhood, which includes stories of the rich and famous, as well as the macabre details of a grisly 19th-century murder that took place on Bond Street that remains unsolved to this day.

Take a Bowery Boys Walks tour with Aaron! Find dates to his NoHo tours here and other walking tours here.

This episode was originally released in the Gilded Gentleman feed in March 2025. The show was edited and produced by Kieran Gannon.

As New York City enters the final stages of a rather strange mayoral election in 2025, let’s look back on a decidedly more unusual contest over 110 years ago, pitting Tammany Hall and their estranged ally (Mayor William Jay Gaynor) up against a baby-faced newcomer, the (second) youngest man ever to become the mayor of New York City.

John Purroy Mitchel, the Bronx-born grandson of an Irish revolutionary, was a rising star in New York City, aggressively sweeping away incompetence and snipping away at government excess.

Under his watch, two of New York’s borough presidents were fired, just for being ineffectual! Mitchel made an ideal candidate for mayor in an era where Tammany Hall cronyism still dominated the nature of New York City.

Nobody could predict the strange events that befell the city during the election of 1913, unfortunate and even bizarre incidents that catapulted this young man to City Hall and gave him the nickname "The Boy Mayor of New York."

But things did not turn out as planned. He won his election with the greatest victory margin in New York City history. He left office four years later with an equally large margin of defeat.

Tune in to our tale of this oft-ignored figure in New York City history, an example of good intentions gone wrong and — due to his tragic end — the only mayor honored with a memorial in Central Park.

Visit the website for images from this podcast.

Get your tickets to the Bowery Boys Ghost Stories of New York City live show at Joe's Pub here.

This show is a reissue of a show that originally ran in September 2012; however, we think you’ll find more than a few similarities in this tale to the current 2025 mayoral election landscape. This show was refreshed and remastered by Kieran Gannon.

On January 3, 1924, 25-year-old George Gershwin was shooting pool in a Manhattan billiard hall when his brother Ira Gershwin read aloud a shocking newspaper article: "George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto." There was just one problem—George had never agreed to write any such piece.

What happened next would change American music forever. In just five weeks, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants raced to compose what would become "Rhapsody in Blue," breaking down the barriers between popular music and the concert hall.

From that snowy February night at Aeolian Hall to today's reinterpretations by contemporary artists, this is the story of how a newspaper lie became a masterpiece—and how one young composer captured the sound of Jazz Age New York in music.

Featuring original audio clips of George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, and orchestrator Ferde Grofé, plus the historic 1924 recording of the premiere performance.

The Bowery Boys podcast is supported by Founded by NYC, celebrating New York City's 400th anniversary in 2025.

This show was edited by Kieran Gannon