8. The Knickerbocker Greys is the oldest after school activity in the country
The Knickerbocker Greys is a youth cadet corps on the Upper East Side and the oldest after school activity in the U.S. The corps was founded by Mrs. Augusta Lawler Stacey Curtis, whose husband Dr. Edward Curtis assisted in the autopsy of Abraham Lincoln. The corps was started to keep her boys out of trouble, especially since there were no after school activities or sports in 1881.
The Knickerbocker Greys meet at the armory on Park Avenue, although the corps previously met at locations downtown. The Greys first accepted girls in 1986, decades after figures such as Nelson Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt III, and John Lindsay attended. The program teaches children leadership skills through marching and drill routines, as well as American history lessons.