Hoaxes, Hotels, and Humbugs of Newspaper Row

While New York is a city continually changing and evolving in almost every aspect, it’s hard to top the upheaval of the 1830s. In 1835 as New York City experienced unprecedented growth, two penny papers went to war with each other just as John Jacob Astor, the country’s richest man, and P.T. Barnum, about to  become the country’s biggest showman, forever altered the social and physical landscape of New York.

In the Spring of 1835 John Jacob Astor divested himself completely from his fur company to sink his fortune into building the finest hotel in the United States, constructed on the north side of Vesey Street and Broadway. Astor was simultaneously buying up as much Manhattan real estate as possible.

Meanwhile the City’s Penny Papers: The New York Sun and The New York Morning Herald, stoke fears of cholera, fire, an immigration as they battle for readership. The upstate Morning Herald’s founder James Gordon Bennett Sr. is caustic, shrewd, and will stop at nothing to put The Sun out of business. In August, their battle leads to a fire which burns down Bennett’s office, just as The Sun begins to publish the greatest literary hoax of the nineteenth century, fooling both layman and scholar: The Sun claims intelligent life exists on the Moon just as Halley’s Comet is about to fly overhead.

Even as he calls the hoax remarkable, Phineas T. Barnum is orchestrating one of his own. Barnum is set to display a woman named Joice Heth, who claims to be George Washington’s one-hundred-sixty-one year-old nursemaid. Their ensuing relationship will change the trajectory of Barnum’s life. Remarkable indeed.

Join Untapped New York as we explore the City Hall area for remaining sights, sounds, and smells from 1835 New York City, with a close look at how a single year forever changed history.

About Your Guide

James Scully is an outgoing native New Yorker who grew up in a home with three generations of family. He had close relationships with both his grandparents and great-grandparents, being exposed to an invaluable amount of local culture. It has helped him become a passionate actor, writer, director, and historian. He’s a graduate of Xavier High School in Manhattan, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and has spent over a decade working in media for companies such as Condé Nast, and Hearst.

James is behind Breaking Walls, a docu-podcast on the history of American network radio broadcasting. He’s directed, post produced, adapted, and acted in scripted audio fiction productions and is an actor in the Fireside Mystery Theatre troupe. He’s also a Salmagundi Club member.