Kings of the Waterfront
The Making and Remaking of DUMBO
Brooklyn is Kings County, and DUMBO, the waterfront neighborhood beneath the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges lives up to the name.
Kings of DUMBO include Joshua and Comfort Sands, the 18th Century power brokers who laid DUMBOs Streets; Robert Fulton whose steam ferry spanned the river and built the borough; John Arbuckle the coffee roasting revolutionary whose DUMBO plant roasted more coffee than any other place in the world; Robert Gair, the cardboard box impresario who built so much of DUMBO’s industrial architecture that the neighborhood became known as Gairville, and David Walentas, the real estate developer who bought so much of that industrial architecture in 1981 that in the decades since, he has been able to almost single-handedly shape the neighborhood.
This walking tour traces the building and rebuilding of DUMBO. As we uncover the neighborhood’s exceptional industrial history, explore its spectacular examples of architectural adaptive-reuse, and situate modern DUMBO within the larger story of New York’s reclamation of its post-industrial waterfront, we’ll consider the way the Kings of the Waterfront each consciously sought to shape this place, and ask, how does a neighborhood get made?
Love is a Place
A Poet's Walk of Greenwich Village
The Poet E. E. Cummings wrote that “love is a place.”
Perhaps he meant 4 Patchin Place, in Greenwich Village, where he lived from 1924-1962.
Cummings was certainly not the only poet to live in Greenwich Village, and not even the only poet to live on Patchin Place.
In this walking tour of Greenwich Village, we’ll visit the homes and haunts of more than a century of poets who called the neighborhood home. Along the way we’ll meet symbolists and modernists, 19th century salon hostesses and 20th century raconteurs, Pulitzer prize winners and prophets, feminist luminaries and queer pioneers whose words enriched, and even defined, American life.
Brownstones and Ballot Boxes
Women's Suffrage in Brooklyn Heights
Brooklyn Heights was home to some of the nation’s earliest suffrage organizations, including those founded by Black women. The suffragists of Brooklyn Heights, known as the "wise women of Brooklyn” were doctors, lawyers, educators and orators whose vision and fortitude changed the course of history. On this tour, we’ll explore suffrage history at what was once “the center of Black Brooklyn,” find out why the Brooklyn Bridge is a feminist icon, and see how the Brooklyn Academy of Music set the stage for the Women’s Movement.
Victorian Flatbush
From the oldest continuous site of worship in New York City, to the highest concentration of Victorian mansions in the United States, Victorian Flatbush stands out as one of the most striking, and historically rich areas in the city. Join us as we make our way from the epicenter of Dutch settlement on Long Island, to the leafy splendor of Prospect Park South and Ditmas Park. We’ll take in a dash of rainbow shingles, a drop of Dutch Reform, and find out how this remarkable neighborhood has a direct connection to The American Revolution, the Women’s Movement, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and the Golden Age of Hollywood!
Vinegar Hill
Some of New York City’s loveliest early to mid-19th century Greek Revival and Italianate row houses stand in the Vinegar Hill Historic District, a patchwork of historic architecture on the East River tucked between Dumbo and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On this tour we will explore the Vinegar Hill Historic District, and see how centuries of architecture, industry and immigration shaped this unique neighborhood, from the Dutch period to our own!
Gramercy Park
From a “Crooked Little Swamp” to the Erie Canal; “The American Bloomsbury” to the Underground Railroad; “The First Lady of American Theater” to the first Transatlantic Cable, the history of Gramercy Park is exceptionally rich.
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Best known as the city’s only private park, Gramercy has been home to both some of the city’s stateliest architecture and its most celebrated artists.
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Inspecting the environs of both Gramercy and Irving Place, this tour will consider Gramercy Park as an early effort at modern city planning, delve into the area’s historic architecture - from an early Quaker Meeting House to some of the city’s oldest Co-ops - and uncover the stories of the artists, writers, inventors, and politicians who called the neighborhood home.
Women's Health
A walking tour of Greenwich Village
Let's look back at the history of women's health in Greenwich Village, once home to this nation's first female physician, its earliest visiting nurses, its first female public health expert, its leading birth control advocates, its queer and trans health pioneers and even its largest pre-Roe abortion referral service (founded by Village-based clergy!). This tour will delve into women's health advocacy beginning as early as the 1840s, and consider how it intersected with many other fights for equality being waged in the Village and around the nation.
Sympathetic Spies
George Washington's Eyes and Ears in Lower Manhattan
The British Revolutionary War Spymaster Major George Beckwith claimed that, "Washington didn't really outfight the British, he simply out-spied us." The General's master-spies operated out of Lower Manhattan. As we make our way between The Battery and Wall Street on this walking tour, we'll retrace their steps. Along the way, we'll find out who first peddled fake news, meet the tailor who saved George Washington's life not once but twice, and discover what Eagles, Turtles, and Vultures have to do with turncoats and saboteurs.
New School(s)
Education and Free Expression in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village is home to some of the first public educational institutions in New York City, from the city's first free circulating library to the People’s Institute, open to "whatsoever things are true." The Village’s pedigree as a bastion of free expression has its roots in these institutions, which were at the center of some of the great progressive movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. On this tour, we’ll visit the first law school in the nation to admit women, learn about the woman who invented the school field trip, find out how a commitment to new styles of education saved hundreds of refugee faculty during WWII, and visit some of the earliest homes of American Modern Art, Drama and Dance.
57th Street
Artists' Alley
Before West 57th Street was Billionaires’ Row it was Artists’ Alley. A wide array of buildings - from artist studios to concert halls, dance conservatories to literary clubs - made 57th street one of New York’s preeminent cultural corridors. This tour of West 57th Street focuses on the artistic legacy of 57th street, featuring such institutions Carnegie Hall, the American Fine Arts Society Building, and the Louis H Chalif School of Dance. We will explore why such celebrated architects as Henry Hardenbergh and Cass Gilbert were drawn to 57th Street, discover why luxury apartments appeared on 57th Street long before the current super-talls, and see where the arts are still flourishing on 57th Street.
New York Style
An Architectural History of the Garment District
The architect Ely Jacques Kahn was considered a “master of the loft building” and a “father of the New York City skyline.” As a native New Yorker and graduate of Columbia University, Khan sought to achieve “a new style of architecture - a New York style.” We can see evidence of his vision all over New York, but it is particularly striking in the Garment District, where he designed 14 buildings. On this walking tour, we will consider Kahn’s work inside and out, from his skyscraper designs to his custom art deco lobbies. We’ll learn how Kahn’s “New York Style” contributed to the rise of the Garment District, and how the district itself grew and flourished after WWI, as Jewish garment workers-turned-manufacturers-turned-developers commissioned millions of square feet of loft and office space to support the needle trades, and turned to Jewish architects to realize those building projects. Kahn, who hailed from a French and Austrian Jewish Family, created some of the most prestigious and architecturally distinctive buildings in the district.
Fired Up about Fired Earth
Terra Cotta Architecture in Lower Manhattan
Before New York’s tallest towers were sheathed in glass, they were clad in clay. Terra-Cotta, or “fired earth,” is an ancient building material made of baked clay, that helped make New York a Modern city. At the turn of the 20th century, terra- cotta became a sought-after fire-proof skin for the steel skeletons of the city’s tallest buildings. Though you’ll find it on some of New York’s most iconic structures, including the Flatiron Building, The Woolworth Building, and the Plaza Hotel, terra-cotta often hides in plain
sight, mimicking other materials like granite or carved wood. On this tour of Lower Manhattan, we’ll uncover some of city’s earliest terra-cotta structures, and find out how New York got fired up about fired earth. Along the way, we’ll see the tallest terra-cotta structure in the world, find out how the nephews of Samuel Morse commissioned the city’s earliest surviving “fireproof” sky-scraper, and learn how this stunningly versatile material moved from monochrome to multi-colored, and helped shift the city from Beaux-Arts beauty to Art Deco splendor!
Rooms of Their Own
Womens'-Only Spaces on the Upper East Side
The Upper East Side boasts the first private women's social club in New York, the first public women's college in the nation, and the first Black working women's settlement house in the city. Since the 19th century, the neighborhood has been home to clubs, schools, residences, political institutions, and professional associations catering exclusively to women. The women who founded, joined, lived, worked and learned in these institutions used them to shape their lives, their city, and their nation. On this walking tour we will dive into the architectural and social history of these establishments, and delve into more than 100 years of local women's history through the spaces they made their own.
George McAneny's New York
George McAneny was honored as “a friend beyond compare” to the City of New York. McAneny held a wide variety of municipal offices, including Manhattan Borough President, President of the board of Alderman, and President of the City Club. He was the first head of the Transit Commission, and first head of the Regional Plan Association. He even found time to found the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and do a stint as Managing Editor of the New York Times! His planning genius gave us our Art Deco skyline, and our modern transit system. On this tour of Lower Manhattan, we’ll see how McAneny shaped the city center, and connected it to the outer boroughs like never before. We’ll find out how McAneny went toe to toe with Robert Moses...and won, spearheading the modern preservation movement in the process.
Prospect Heights
From "Howling Wilderness" to Historic District
The New York Times once described the area of Brooklyn now known as Prospect Heights as a "howling wilderness." On this tour of Prospect Heights and Grand Army Plaza, we'll find out how this petit neighborhood, located on the north eastern edge of Prospect Park went from a rural expanse to a historic district, home to some of the city's most spectacular brownstone and row house architecture. Along the way, we'll find out what makes Prospect Heights Revolutionary, where architects set out to build the world's largest museum, how Frederick Law Olmsted intended to connect Prospect Park to Central Park, and why the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library took nearly 40 years to build!
