Fire, Water, Land, and People — Exploring Remnants of Wild 1830s Manhattan

While New York is a city continually changing and evolving in almost every aspect, it's hard to top the upheaval of the 1830s. Between the worst fire in New York City history, which destroyed the entire financial district, in to absolute pandemonium surrounding Moving Day — when all NYC leases expired simultaneously — it was truly one of the city's wildest periods.
It's time to hit the streets and uncover the stories and remnants of 1830s New York like never before.
Led by James Scully — NYC tour guide and director / co-creator of the Tribeca Film Festival award-winning historical audio fiction soap opera set in 1835 NYC, Burning Gotham — our unique experience will include:

• An overview of New York City in the 1830s and why this period of social, political, and geographical upheaval is so underserved — everything from the creation of new streets, to abolitionism, to the vote to build (and funding behind the creation of) the Croton Aqueduct, NYC in the mid-1830s is the wildest and most forgotten period in NYC history.

• A trip to important landmarks in the neighborhood dating back to the 1830s including Fraunces Tavern, Bowling Green, Stone Street, and South Street Seaport. You'll also find out which historic architectural relic from Wall Street is safely tucked in plane sight inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Some of the big news stories that were the talk of the town, including why the United States was on the verge of war with France, the lack of clean running water in New York, and NYC’s Penny Papers orchestration of the greatest hoax of the 19th century

• The full scoop surrounding the Great Fire (December 16, 1835), the worst fire in New York City history, which destroyed everything in Manhattan's chief merchant district (and caused the modern equivalent of $500 million in damage) — while an investigation ensued, no public blame was ever assigned... but what if NYC's greatest "accidental" fire was no accident.

Our experience will conclude on Stone Street, with a chance to grab a bite to eat or a drink after. See you there!

* Please bring water and comfortable shoes as we’ll be doing a lot of walking. This tour will happen rain or shine, unless there is torrential rain or a blizzard, which then a makeup date will be announced.

** Runtime for this tour is roughly 90-120 minutes.

*** This tour begins on the steps of The Alexander Hamilton Custom House (1 Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004) and concludes on Stone Street.

About James

James Scully is an outgoing native New Yorker who grew up in a home with four generations of family. He had close relationships with both his grandparents and great-grandparents. This exposed him to an invaluable amount of local history and culture, helping him to become a passionate historian, writer, and director.

He’s a graduate of Xavier High School in Manhattan, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and spent over a decade working as an art director and copywriter for media companies such as Condé Nast and Hearst before becoming a writer, director, and historian. His history focus is both New York City history and US radio history.

James produces and hosts Breaking Walls, the docu-podcast on the history of US network radio broadcasting (https://www.thewallbreakers.com/breaking-walls). He has developed historical audio fiction productions, like the 2022 official Tribeca audio selection Burning Gotham, set in 1835 New York City (http://burninggotham.com), the Frank Sinatra biopic musical And Then I Sing (https://www.andthenising.com), and the western adventure series Frontier Gentleman (https://www.frontiergentleman.com/).

James is a member of the Salmagundi Club, has given numerous talks and webinars on various history subjects, and is a New York City sightseeing/tour guide.

Testimonials

"Learning of incredible stories I'd never heard before." -Mary

"Guide was engaging, info was interesting" -Christine

"I liked all the historic information on or near the sites where events occurred and/ the people sited lived." -James

"The content was amazing, but even more amazing than the Content was our guide Mr. Scully. Thank you" -Debbie

"I liked James. He is friendly, extremely knowledgeable, speaks well and at the correct volume. He cares about getting the facts right." -Lawrence

"James Scully is the best guide we've ever had. Very informative, entertaining and passionate." -Carol

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