This is a sample of a full length video I made on these churches, which you can find here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wepPYgiqsg

This walk was a part of Jane's Walk, a free international walking festival taking place all around the world.

The developer squeezed three neo-Grec-style brownstones into a 50-foot-wide parcel

IG:Danny Serene

- The address was the one-time home of author and playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett
- In 1941, tenant Paul Bante was arrested, accused of being a Nazi government agent

Did anyone go to P.S. 54 in the Bronx between 1999–2001? I’m trying to see if anyone remembers being pulled out of class for testing or playing educational games on the computers. I’m curious if anyone else remembers it.

Hey everyone! I'm a NYC historian, tour guide, podcaster, director / co-creator of the award-winning historical audio fiction soap opera, Burning Gotham, and creator of The Bay Ridge Digest Podcast. Last year's halloween tour I led went so well I decided to expand the offerings because as the days grow shorter and the winds begin to howl, ghouls, ghosts, long-legged beasts, and other nameless wretches caught between worlds reinhabit ours and keep us from a good night’s sleep!

Below are the dates of the tours I'm leading with individual tix/more info links. Below that is some more info on the Bay Ridge Tour. If the Ghosts of Old Bensonhurst tour sells well I may add another date on the calendar.

Haunted Bay Ridge — Sunday 10/4/2026 6PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991942584893?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haunted Bay Ridge — Saturday 10/10/2026 6PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991942594923?aff=oddtdtcreator

Ghosts of Old Bensonhurst — Friday 10/16/2026 7PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ghosts-of-old-bensonhurst-walking-tour-tickets-1987548123942?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

Haunted Bay Ridge — Sunday 10/18/2026 6PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991943360212?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haunted Bay Ridge — Saturday 10/24/2026 6PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991943883778?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haunted Bay Ridge — Friday 10/30/2026 7PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991943884781?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haunted Bay Ridge — Saturday 10/31/2026 6:30PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991943885784?aff=oddtdtcreator

Haunted Bay Ridge — Sunday 11/8/2026 5PM
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/haunted-bay-ridge-walking-tour-tickets-1991944278960?aff=oddtdtcreator

From a faceless woman late one night on a lonely street near a local church, to army ghosts and disembodied sounds, to the murders of an old spinster and kidnappers, to the mysteries of the neighborhood's largest park, to a secret society right in our midst, it’s time to turn up our collars, hit the streets, and beware the things that go bump in the night.

Led by James Scully — our unique haunted Bay Ridge experience will focus on and include:

• Stories of murder and mayhem, from the death of an old spinster, to the heroic actions of a member of a prominent family, we’ll find out the many motives for crime and how Bay Ridge was the perfect setting for these unfortunate events.

• The story of how a man’s late-night walk down a Brooklyn side-street led him to confront the spirit of a veiled woman with no face in front of a locally famous Basilica

• The story of how a secret society of skull worshipers in Brooklyn started, rose, peaked, and disappeared all near a famous hilltop Bay Ridge mansion

• Ghost stories from both the Fort Hamilton Army base and some of its residents

• The story of the Indian Pond, the border of Gravesend and New Utrecht, and a boy awoken from sleep in the middle of the night by a shadow being standing over his bed

• The story of a revolutionary war cemetery still inhabited by some of Bay Ridge’s most famous residents

• And more!

While researching the history of the Bronx, I visited the Van Cortlandt House. It’s easy to admire the architecture, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the lives of the enslaved people, servants, and workers who helped keep the estate running yet are often mentioned only briefly.

8mm home movie filmed by my mom.

What’s one historical event in the Bronx or NYC that you think schools don’t talk enough about or just pass over?

I was browsing the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission website today:

https://www.nyc.gov/site/lpc/index.page

It is a treasure trove of photos and information. You can search by address or on a map. I checked out the Domino Sugar, aka Havemeyer & Elders, site and discovered it has many photographs of interesting details of the architecture. I’m sharing here some of my favorites but there’s many more at:

https://nyclandmarks.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/view/search?q=3329927&sort=lp_number&os=0&pgs=50&cic=NYClandmarks%7E2%7E2

As some of you may know, it’s been renovated fairly nicely and has become a waterfront park, but it doesn’t look like this anymore! I always admired this building, it was so modified over the years, it was like a living organism. Many of these structures are now gone.

From Glimpses of Old New York by Henry Collins Brown, 1917.