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EPISODE 300: Andrew Haswell Green helped build\xa0Central Park\xa0and much of upper Manhattan, oversaw the formation of the\xa0New York Public Library, helped found great institutions such as the\xa0American Museum of Natural History\xa0and the\xa0Bronx Zoo, and even organized the city's first significant historical preservation group, saving\xa0New York City Hall\xa0from demolition.\xa0\n\nThis smart, frugal and unassuming bachelor, an attorney and financial whiz, was critical in taking down\xa0William Tweed\xa0and the Tweed Ring during the early 1870s, helping to bail out a financially strapped government.\xa0\n\nBut Green's greatest achievement -- championing the consolidation of the cities of New York and Brooklyn with communities in Richmond County (Staten Island), Westchester County (the Bronx) and Queens County (Queens) -- would create the\xa0City of Greater New York, just in time for the dawn of the 20th century.\xa0\n\nKenneth T. Jackson, editor of the Encyclopedia of New York, called Green "arguably the most important leader in Gotham's long history, more important than\xa0Peter Stuyvesant, Alexander Hamilton, Frederick Law Olmsted, Robert Moses\xa0and\xa0Fiorello La Guardia.''\n\nSo why is he virtually forgotten today? "Today not one New Yorker in 10,000 has heard of Andrew Haswell Green," wrote the New York Daily News\xa0in 2003.\n\nIn our 300th episode, we're delighted to bring you the story of Mr. Green, a public servant who worked to improve the city for over five decades. And we'll be joined by an ardent Green advocate -- former Manhattan Borough Historian Michael Miscione.\n\nSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys