I'm happy to say I achieved two feats over the last week: (1) I visited New York City for the first time in my life! You're probably asking, "What took you so long, dude?" Well, I'd never been big on traveling until now, not to mention the fact that my wife and I chose to save up for a while in order to have the wherewithal to go on these trips. (Much like our trip to Boston last summer, vacationing in the Big Apple costs a pretty penny.) What's more, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I morphed into the biggest history nerd on the planet. Now I have a valid excuse to explore historic cities big and small, from New York City to Washington D.C. Museums, anyone? (2) Just as my plane was landing in New York, I finished reading Ron Chernow's behemoth 730-page biography Alexander Hamilton , which inspired the hit Broadway musical .  It was fitting that I completed the book when I did, for Alexander Hamilton, immigrant-turned-Founding-Father a...

The fourth property in our series of haunted hotels is none other than the renowned Algonquin Hotel . Opened in 1902 and now designated as a New York City Historic Landmark, the New York hotel is conveniently situated in the heart of Manhattan, near Times Square and Fifth Avenue. It boasts The Round Table restaurant, named for literary greats such as Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott who convened and lodged there in the early 1900s; 181 comfortable guestrooms; over 4,000 feet of function space; The Blue Bar, which opened at the demise of Prohibition in 1933; and even a cat named Matilda that never fails to delight guests. Interestingly, The New Yorker magazine was founded here, and The Algonquin claims to be the first hotel to have offered accommodations to actors and single women travelers. In addition, the property was originally intended to be residential, but it was determined that a lodging establishment would be more profitable. A psychic medium confirmed the presence ...