A giveaway for Astor Place Vintage just began at Modern Commonplace Book. Check out Ginny’s write-up of my book on her blog, where’s she’ll be giving away a free copy. My Etsy Gift Card giveaway is running until September 19th on my Facebook page. And… I’m doing my talk on department stores and New York City history this Wednesday at 2:00 at the 92nd Street Y. More info...

10 Great Authors, 10 Unforgettable Adventures. With every Today’s Adventure post between August 1 and August 13, you can register to win the featured book and the grand prize of all 10 books. We’ll announce winners on August 14. You may enter today’s contest by going to the Astor Place Vintage Facebook page and liking it. Find links to all the authors below–follow any of them to keep up with the latest adventures....

My novel is named ASTOR PLACE VINTAGE. So what is Astor Place and how did it come to be?

(19) He had never seen an iron bridge or…

(20) a steel-frame sky-scraper.

These photogaphs were taken by Thaddeus Wilkerson (1872-1943). He took hundreds of photographs of New York City — both well-known sights and the many new residential buildings, especially around the Upper West Side. His studio was in Washington Heights, so that was his own neighborhood. Lots of these images were used for postcards, and he was quite focused on recording the buildings, but I particularly like the photos that happened to...

I was interested to see they’re going to be selling condominiums on the top floors of the Woolworth Building because that chain of five and ten cent stores figures into my novel. Olive, my main character who lives in 1907,  grew up around the Woolworth’s her father managed, but she didn’t think much of Frank Woolworth. This is a quote from the novel: “Father’s attitude was not unlike his employer’s, Frank...

Making Shopping Fun The limit of the human race’s stair-climbing tolerance seems to be six floors. The will to buy seems to be unlimited. So it’s only natural the very first elevators and escalators turned up in department stores. My first memory of riding an escalator is in a department store, and I bet that’s the same for many of us. What kid doesn’t worry about getting trapped underneath one of those stairs that...