Did you say the Hippodrome?

November 19, 2015 7:34 AM

The Delights and Perils of Navigating New York City with a Guidebook from 1899, in which Luke Spencer at Atlas Obscura spends a weekend with the 1899 Baedeker guide to NYC.
posted by Stacey (17 comments total)

This was charming, and now I want a mutton chop.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:49 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I love Atlas Obscura, but every article leaves me wanting just a little bit more detail, a little bit more depth. I would buy (okay, borrow from the library) a coffee table book with articles like this in a bit more depth. How do the modern locations actually compare to the descriptions? What other color doesn't quite survive? I don't know, I just ... I wish I had some more here because I really like this.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:14 AM on November 19, 2015

There's a few versions of the Baedeker guide on Archive.org if you want to peruse for your city. I'm actually kind of impressed by how much of the stuff he says to visit in Philly is still here today.
posted by zempf at 8:31 AM on November 19, 2015

I have this guide! It's delightful. You can combine it with other period guides to get a good idea of where to find a gay bar in 1899
posted by The Whelk at 8:51 AM on November 19, 2015 [3 favorites]

Great post title. The few of us who get the reference appreciate it.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 9:18 AM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Chimmie and Maggie at the Hippodrome, sung by Ada Jones and Len Spencer, Edison Gold Moulded cylinder 9079, released 1905.

(Includes the phrase, "Now I'm hip," used to mean "Now I understand," which always surprises me.)
posted by mwhybark at 9:31 AM on November 19, 2015

From zempf's link: The famous Carnival of Mardi Oras (Shrove Tuesday), celebrated here with great splendour, is, perhaps, the most picturesque festival in America. The city is taken formal possession of by Rex , the King of the Carnival ; and the revels of his retinue, the Knights of Momua, the Mystic Crewe of Comus, and other societies are of the liveliest description. The processions are very elaborate (comp. 350). Those who mean to visit New Orleans at this season should secure rooms in advance (see p. 415).

This certainly remains accurate.
posted by Bringer Tom at 9:52 AM on November 19, 2015

I wish I lived in NYC: Then I would do a weekend outing following this trail
posted by growabrain at 10:09 AM on November 19, 2015

We did this when we went to Stockholm. Our conclusion was that people back then were much more interested in visiting public statues and monuments.

One fun thing is to find the restaurants that are still around.
posted by vacapinta at 10:19 AM on November 19, 2015

I love the guides that start out giving you 100 pages on the geologic history of the region you're visiting so you're not foolishly wasting your time.
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

From previously, an 1828 New York City Guide.
posted by ShooBoo at 10:26 AM on November 19, 2015

Well, now I want to know just how many songs about the Hippodrome there are?
posted by Stacey at 10:44 AM on November 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

This reminds me that I have an early 1960s (I think) guidebook called Where to Go in New York. As you might guess it is a cheeky guide to publicly accessible bathrooms in NYC. I've always thought it would be a good project to visit the sites in the book to see how many still exist.
posted by plastic_animals at 11:12 AM on November 19, 2015

He mentions two of the buildings whose destruction at the hands of evil greedheads still enrages me, the Herald building and the old Madison Square Garden. I feel about them the way many people feel about the old Penn Station. Ah well, New York has always privileged commerce over beauty, and I guess always will.

But the classic editions are greatly prized by collectors for their detailed descriptions of countries and cities from a century ago, including details long since forgotten. If you can get your hands on one, try taking it for a spin; you might find that it still works.

Indeed. Right up until the fall of the Soviet Union, journalists and others who needed to find their way around (Soviet maps were deliberately misleading—you might be a spy!) and/or wanted to understand the history made use of the 1914 Baedeker (now available at Archive.org), to the point that it was reprinted by Arno Press in 1971 (I have a much-treasured copy—it now goes for $70), and my 1905 Baedeker Austria-Hungary (Archive.org) is my constant companion when reading about WWI and the period leading up to it. (I got it at the Complete Traveller on Madison Ave., now alas gone; I knocked it down to a price I could barely afford by pointing out some physical defects.)
posted by languagehat at 1:29 PM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Well, now I want to know just how many songs about the Hippodrome there are?

According to Lyrics.net, 6 songs and an album (if you kind of stretch the definition of "about the Hippodrome").
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 2:43 PM on November 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Okay, if no one else is going to do it: Come Up to My Place.

The tie-in hinted at in the title is too good to miss.
posted by skyscraper at 3:35 PM on November 19, 2015

We did this when we went to Stockholm. Our conclusion was that people back then were much more interested in visiting public statues and monuments.

Well, you haven't met my husband!

But man....I so want to know more about what those French prostitutes were up to...
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 5:40 PM on November 19, 2015