This blog is the online companion to the book Hidden Waters of New York City, published by WW Norton. The book’s author, Sergey Kadinsky, is a staffer at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and an adjunct professor of history at Touro College. His previous work included community outreach for elected officials in Queens, NY; newspaper reporting; and giving tours atop double decker buses in Manhattan. His hobbies include mural painting, snowboarding, and uncovering little-known bits of urban history.
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Hidden Waters blog 
I absolutely love this blog and your book. It is fascinating to learn more about what NYC used to look like before it was developed, and what still remains today. http://www.oldkewgardens.com/ss-beginning-0800.html
“Crystal Lake did not go quietly. Well into the 1980’s, 70 years after it was drained, store owners along Austin Street continued to suffer periodic flooding in their basements – no doubt caused by the underground spring that had fed old Crystal Lake.”
You do mention it in your piece on Maple Grove Cemetery, but if possible, could you possibly do an independent piece on it? Thanks.
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I gotta do a page on Crystal Lake.
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What a fantastic website. I love it. I read your article on Minetta Creek. Are you aware that from the 1930s – 1950s, Minetta Creek surfaced briefy? It was in the lobby of ! University Pl. There was a plastic pipe in the lobby, which from time to time allowed the murk that the creek had become, to be displayed.
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Hi, Sergey! I’m trying to get in touch to inquire with you about a potential on-camera appearance in a Virtual Field Trip for Discovery Education. I can explain more via email or phone. I have also reached out via linkedin. Thanks!
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Sergey
I purchased a copy of your book hoping to find information on a body of water known as Hammonds Cove located in Throggs Neck section of the Bronx. I then came across your blog which has an extensive write up about it. I have lived on Tierney Place since 1960. As you know Tierney is side street off Pennyfield Ave. which dead ends into the Cove. As a teenager way back then swimming in the Cove it was apparent that the depth of the water in the center of the Cove at high tide is about 18 feet. This means it was dredged sometime in the past. A survey dated April – May 1897 show the mean high water to be less than 7.0 ft. and Mean low water to be 0.0 ft.
Many years ago I checked with Ports and Terminals which was the agency that had jurisdiction and was advised there was no records of dredging of these waters.
Can you be of any assistance in helping me determine how this Cove came to be dredged.
Ralph Mellusi
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I do not know the answer on which agency is responsible for dredging this waterway.
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I was hoping you would cover Graniteville Swamp and hidden waters flowing into it.
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I grew up in Rosedale, and left in 1987, after I graduated from college. I know that when I left for college in 1983, the boathouse was still standing by Conselyea’s Pond. Someone had set fire to it, and a lot of the roof was gone, but it was still there.
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Surprised and happy to read your detailed comments on the Alexandra Canal as I grew up in the public housing apartments in that area and went to schools in the Alexandra Estate area. My mother’s family had been relocated to the three-storey Singapore Improvement Trust housing at Prince Charles Square from their original home lower down the Singapore River nearer to the Riverview Hotel. They had built their hut next to the rubber godown owned by my grandfather’s boss. During World War Two, they survived the bombings and the Japanese invasion, having close encounters with Japanese soldiers.
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I would think the idea of doing “hidden waters” studies as related to sea level rise could be a fascinating area of study for place like the Jones Falls as it runs through the city and arrives at the Patapsco River at the mouth of the Inner Harbor. Riverine flooding as related to tidal flooding is quite dynamic.
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