Laurie Lewis - New York City Firsts: Big Apple Innovations That Changed the Nation and the World

Laurie Lewis is a freelance writer and editor who moved to New York from the Midwest in the mid-1980s. After being a volunteer tour guide in Central Park for eleven years, Lewis became a licensed NYC tour guide and began Take a Walk New York, which offers scheduled and private tours of New York City. She is the author of the award-winning book What to Charge: Pricing Strategies for Freelancers and Consultants.

Most of the entries in this book occurred in Manhattan. But each of the five boroughs and some islands that are part of New York City were the scene of pioneering achievements. Below is a list of people, places, and events, in no particular order, associated with firsts in New York City locations other than Manhattan.

Brooklyn Heights

• First suburb in America
• First indoor tennis court in America
• First Hasidic (a Jewish sect) woman elected to public office in America serves in civil court here

Dumbo

• First precut foldable cardboard boxes

Brooklyn Navy Yard

• First sweeteners in single-serving packets

Crown Heights

• First museum in the world designed specifically for children
• First Chabad (Lubavitch) Jewish community in the U.S.

Flatbush

• First universal bank-issued credit card

Brownsville

• First teddy bear
• First birth control clinic in the United States
• First Darul Islam group in the U.S.

Williamsburg

• First Giglio feast in America
• First enclosed baseball park
• First building with air conditioning
• First general museum about food and drink

Coney Island

• First hot dog stand
• First frozen custard
• First roller coaster
• First escalator

Bensonhurst

• First Sbarro

Sheepshead Bay

• First transcontinental flight took off from here

Green-wood Cemetery

• First statue of a physician in America relocated here

Ocean Parkway

• First dedicated bike lane in America

Brooklyn Bridge

• First suspension bridge in the world with steel cables

Williamsburg Bridge

• First all-steel suspension bridge

Manhattan Bridge

• First suspension bridge based on deflection theory

Ebbets Field

• First televised professional baseball and football games

Brooklyn Dodgers

• First team to use a batting helmet
• First World Series MVP

Jackie Robinson

• First Black major league baseball player in the twentieth century
• First baseball player named Rookie of the Year
• First Black player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
• First player whose number was permanently retired from baseball
• First baseball player to appear on a U.S. postage stamp

Shirley Chisholm

• First Black woman in the U.S. House of Representatives
• First Black woman to run for president on a major party ticket

Forest Hills Gardens

• First garden city in the United States

Jackson Heights

• First radio commercial, for Hawthorne Court apartments
• First Scrabble game created here

Jamaica

• First closed-circuit TV home security system

Woodside

• First television commercial, for Queens-based Bulova Watch Company

Astoria

• First movie museum in the United States
• First Bareburger

Althea Gibson

• First Black tennis player at the U.S. National Championship and at Wimbledon

Geraldine Ferraro

• First woman nominated for vice president of the United States

The Beatles

• First rock concert in a stadium

Yankees

• First baseball team to retire a number
• First club with six players who hit 300 homers for the team
• First team with three players who had 400 career homers
• First televised World Series
• First perfect game in the World Series
• First losing team with a World Series MVP

Babe Ruth

• First baseball player with more than fifty and later sixty home runs in a single season
• First player to hit 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, and 700 home runs
• First baseball player with a salary of $50,000
• First group of Hall of Fame member

Lou Gehrig

• First baseball player with more than twenty grand slams
• First professional baseball player to play in 2,000 consecutive games
• First baseball player to have his number retired

Joe DiMaggio

• First athlete on a championship team in each of his first four seasons
• First baseball player with a fifty-six-game hitting streak

Mariano Rivera

• First baseball player unanimously elected to the Hall of Fame

Giants

• First overtime championship football game, at Yankee Stadium

Van Cortlandt Park

• First public golf course in America
• First public golf tournament

Bronx River Parkway

• First multilane, limited-access automobile road in America

Hagen-Dazs

• First superpremium ice cream

DJ Kool Herc

• First hip hop event

Sonia Sotomayor

• First Hispanic judge on the Supreme Court

Sailors Snug Harbor

• First home for retired seamen in America
• First old-age home in America

Staten Island Cricket and Baseball Club

• First tennis court in America

Incinerator

• First high-temperature, mixed-refuse municipal incinerator in America

• First garbage incinerator in America
• First flight over water took off and landed here

• First televised college football game

• First aerial commuter tram in the country
• First residential high-rise passive house

1612 First brewery in the New World

c. 1614 First male of European descent born in America

1632 First commercial brewery in America

c. 1634 First Double Dutch games

1654 First Jews and Jewish congregation in America

1670 First brewery started by someone born in America

1730 First synagogue in America

1736 First public hospital in America

1751 First public cricket match in America

1762 First St. Patricks Day parade

1765 First peaceful, organized, mass resistance in America

1766 First Methodist congregation in America

1768 First chamber of commerce in America

1770 First performance of Handels Messiah in America

1779 First woman to receive a military pension from the United States

1789 First capital of the United States

1789 First U.S. Congress

1789 First president of the United States sworn in

1800 First recorded murder trial in the United States

1801 First secular philanthropy in America

1807 First commercially successful steamboat

1811 First steam ferry service in the world

1814 First suburb in America

1818 First ship in a fleet crossing the Atlantic on a regular schedule 1821 First patent for dry cleaning