1896 Video is Oldest Known Footage of New York City

Recently uncovered and shared on YouTube, this video footage from 1896-1905 is the oldest known film showing New York.

The scenes in the 8 minute video begin in 1905 in Midtown Manhattan at 42nd Street overlooking Bryant Park, a drive through the subway, then looping around the lower tip of Manhattan around Battery Park. The video continues out to the Statue of Liberty and scenes in the Outer Boroughs. The video is also going back in time from 1905 to 1896 and the final shot is a street scene, again in Midtown Manhattan at 6th Avenue and 34th Street showing pedestrians and a streetcar passing by.

The Masonic Secrets of New York's Baron von Steuben

Revolutionary War hero Baron von Steuben was granted a large tract of land in upstate New York and he had grand plans for an estate and surrounding village to be laid out according to the principles espoused by Enlightenment thinkers and Freemasonry. The Haunts and Legends of New York explores set out to Remsen to uncover the secrets at his resting place, the Sacred Grove.