By Kim Velsey 10/31/12 5:27pm

Making History

Like a rock: the Alice Austen house on Staten Island (the Historic House Trust).

Built To Last: New York’s Historic Houses and Ships Largely Unharmed By Hurricane

Their floors may creak, their plaster may crumble and their halls may be filled with daunting drafts, but New York’s old houses have proved their mettle through many a storm. Hurricane Sandy was no exception. The city’s historic mansions appear to have come through the hurricane basically unscathed, preservationists told The Observer, although at least one Lower Manhattan Landmark remains unaccounted for.

“We’ve been very lucky, none of our 23 houses sustained damage,” said Frank Vagnone, the executive director of the Historic House Trust. “And many of them were right in the path of the storm. The Alice Austen House, in particular. It’s right on the Verrazano Narrows.” Read More

By W.M. Akers 2:54am

Art Calendar

Gotham’s Social Archaeology

The “great families” and cultural icons of New York have been enumerated, and celebrated, from the time of George Washington through Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age and well into the postwar era, when New York became the capital of the art world. This month, museums and other institutions salute the city’s power brokers, artistic pioneers and Read More