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Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group discovering, preserving and sharing our history Welcome to Our Home Page |
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About Us
The Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group promotes education and research on the history of the Bloomingdale neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side from 96th to 110th Street between Central Park and Riverside Drive. For more than 300 years, the area has been referred to as Bloomingdale after the Netherlands town of Bloemendaal. This poetic name for the Upper West Side is Dutch for "valley of flowers." Learn more about our group's activities at our About us page. The Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group began in 2000 as the Park West Neighborhood History Group.  This Victorian Gothic building at West 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue was built in 1883 as the Association Residence for Respectable Aged Indigent Females. In 1990 it was renovated and became Hostelling International-New York, the city's first official youth hostel. The BNHG holds most of its programs here. The Latest Blogs
See a complete list and links to all 31 BNHG Blogs at BNHG BLOGS. 
Bloomingdale’s residential development brought numerous retail food shops into the neighborhood, from the late 1880s to today, when the latest food store opening can still create excitement (see the frequent reporting on the new Trader Joe’s!). BNHG planning committee member Pam Tice began this blog as a search into our neighborhood food stores, focusing primarily on 86th to 110th Streets. Read her latest blog accompanied by 17 historic photos at Provisioning Bloomingdale
Dr. William Seraile's Presentation:
New York's Colored Orphan Asylum 
The Colored Orphan Asylum (COA) was founded in 1836 by three Quaker women. It was sorely needed, since youth of color were excluded from orphanages for white children. The orphanage faced many obstacles throughout its existence including financial panics, fires, diseases and chronic money shortage. Read Dr. William Serailes's summary of his February 27, 2018 BNHG presentation New York's Colored Orphan Asylum
BNHG planning committee member Marjorie Cohen rounded up recommendations from local historians and authors of resources to begin exploring New York City's vast past. In two previous blogs, she described their picks for
The 25 best books about the history of New York City's boroughs and neighborhoods, and The 25 Best Books about New York City Now, she has their choices for the best blogs, websites, podcasts, and social media feeds at The 10 Best Web Resources about New York City History |
Coming in June: the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group's last public program until September!
Plants and People: How Central Park's Landscape is Evolving Presenter: Regina Alvarez of the Central Park Floral Project 
Ms. Alvarez, the former Director of Horticulture and Woodland Management at the Central Park Conservancy, will share her experience of the ecological restoration of Central Park's Woodlands and the recent findings of the Flora Project
Tuesday, June 26 at 6:30pm Ballroom of the Hostelling International 891 Amsterdam Avenue (at 103rd Street) Free and open to all more info at 212-666-9774 A program of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group with the Columbus Amsterdam BID and Hostelling International NYC Upcoming Free Walking Tour
July 11, 2018 (Wed.) at 6:00pm Meet at Hostelling International 891 Amsterdam Avenue 
Explore the history of the
Bloomingdale Neighborhood with local historian Jim Mackin. More information at Upcoming Events 
The BNHG Library Collection has more than a thousand items in 150 categories, for example, this book excerpt from the "Pasteur Institute" file. Explore the history of your neighborhood. Come to the library to explore the many items in this file and the 150 other files!
More information at BNHG Library Collection. Read historical background on the New York Pasteur Institute at Pam Tice’s blog: The New York Pasteur Institute 
Park West Village was one of Robert Moses's earlier housing projects. It was intended to provide an incentive to middle- income residents to return to the Upper West Side and be part of the multi-economic, multi-ethnic neighborhood. Winifred Armstrong and Barbara Earnest wrote this pamphlet in 2007 for the Park West Neighborhood History Group (predecessor of the BNHG.)
Read the entire pamphlet at Park West Village |