New York City Historic Sites

This Tour Comes From...

An image of the book: America's Historic Places

National Geographic Guide to America's Historic Places

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Peter Minuit, director general of New Netherland, purchased Manhattan from the Indians in 1626 for $24 worth of baubles, and the Dutch proceeded to settle on the island’s southern tip. Prized for its location on the Hudson River, Manhattan was the object of fierce fighting during the Revolutionary War. First capital of the new nation from 1789 to 1790, New York City blossomed, and by 1844 it was the country’s most populous city. By the mid-1800s, Wall Street—home to the world’s preeminent financiers—had become first in world trade and finance. Such promise of the good life lured millions of immigrants, who helped shape New York’s ever changing, multiethnic culture. By the turn of the century, a frantic race to build the world’s tallest structure began to fashion the city’s legendary skyline. (Convention & Visitors Bureau, 2 Columbus Circle at W. 59th St. +1 212 397 8222 or 800 NYC VISI) CONTINUED

- Manhattan
- Brooklyn

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Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

Photograph © Harald Sund/The Image Bank

Museum of the City of New York (5th Ave. at 103rd St. +1 212 534 1672. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) Period rooms from the 17th to the 20th century, including the 1860s bedroom of John D. Rockefeller (removed from his town house), and a toy gallery are some of the items splendidly displayed here.
New-York Historical Society (2 W. 77th St. +1 212 873-3400. Closed Mon.-Tues.; Donations) Among the treasures of this repository of New York history (founded in 1804) are original watercolors by John Jay Audubon, an exceptional collection of colonial silver, federal furniture, and Tiffany lamps.
Abigail Adams Smith Museum (421 E. 61st St. +1 212 838 6878. Sept.-July Tues.-Sun.; Adm. fee) The daughter of President John Adams never lived in this elaborate 1799 carriage house, though she and her husband owned the property before going bankrupt. Restored as a federal-era museum, the house currently offers a glimpse into its days as a country inn, when much of Manhattan was countryside.
Central Park (Between 5th Ave., Central Park West, 59th St., and 110th St. +1 212 360 3444) In 1857 landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux began to transform an area of pig farms and swamps into a “place where city dwellers could go and forget all about the city.” Today, Central Park covers a lush 843 acres [341.2 hectares], and its old Gothic Revival Dairy (65th St., near carousel. +1 212 794 6564. Closed Mon.) serves as a Visitor Center. The Arsenal (5th Ave. at 105th St.) contains a museum with an original copy of the Olmsted and Vaux park plan.
Chrysler Building (405 Lexington Ave. at 42nd St.) The art deco masterpiece, commissioned by auto magnate Walter Chrysler in 1930, ruled briefly as the world’s tallest building (1,046 feet; 318.8 meters).
Empire State Building (5th Ave. at 34th St. +1 212 736 3100. Adm. fee) At 1,250 feet [381 meters], the 1931 national icon reigned longer as the world’s tallest building than any other—42 years. In the U.S. today, only Chicago’s Sears Tower is closer to the sky. Observation platforms on the 86th and 102nd floors afford city views.
Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (28 E. 20th St.+1 212 260 1616. Wed.-Sun.; Adm. fee) This re-creation of the 26th President’s birthplace displays an extensive collection of memorabilia, including childhood toys and a Rough Rider uniform. The tour of five rooms includes the library, which Roosevelt called a room of “gloomy respectability.”
Lower East Side Tenement Museum (90 Orchard St. +1 212 431 0233. Closed Mon.; Fee for tours and films) The appalling conditions endured by immigrants in the Lower East Side slums come alive at 97 Orchard Street, a tenement that housed more than 10,000 people from the 1860s to 1935. The guided tour wanders through a dark hallway to two cramped apartments—the 1870s home of a Jewish family and the 1935 home of a Sicilian Christian family—both meticulously re-created. Tours of the surrounding ethnic neighborhoods, a museum with objects recovered from the tenement house, and films are also offered.
Ellis Island Immigration Museum (Ellis Island, New Harbor. Via ferry from Battery Park. +1 212 363 7260. Fare for ferry) More than 12 million men, women, and children came through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954, during North America’s greatest immigration wave.The island’s refurbished main building houses a museum that tells the stories of individual immigrants and the processing procedures they endured.
Statue of Liberty National Monument (Liberty Island, New York Harbor. Via ferry from Battery Park. +1 212 363 3200. Fare for ferry) An 1886 gift of France, Lady Liberty has greeted millions of immigrants from her New York Harbor perch. Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi sculptured her, perhaps in his mother’s likeness, and Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame devised an iron frame for the enormous copper sheets. A museum explores the statue’s history.

Brooklyn
Brooklyn Bridge The world’s longest suspension bridge (1,595 feet; 486.2 meters) when opened in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the inspiration of engineer John A. Roebling. It took 14 years to build and cost some 20 lives, including Roebling’s own. Walk across for excellent views of Lower Manhattan.
Brooklyn Historical Society (128 Pierrepont St. +1 718 624 0890. Closed Sun.-Mon.; Adm. fee) The society offers exhibits on the Dodgers, the Brooklyn Bridge, Coney Island, the Navy yard, and the borough’s famous residents over the years. The surrounding Brooklyn Heights Historic District is filled with 19th-century brownstones. Note the 1849 Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims (75 Hicks St.), where abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher (the brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe) preached.
New York Transit Museum (Boerum Pl. and Schermerhorn St. +1 718 243 3060. Closed Mon.; Adm. fee) Vintage cars, signal equipment,and photographs trace the development of the city’s subway and bus systems.
Pieter Clasen Wyckoff House (Clarendon Rd. and Ralph Ave., in Flatlands. +1 718 629 5400. Thurs.-Fri.; Adm. fee) The state’s oldest building, circa 1652, holds 17th- and 18th-century furnishings.
Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton (101st St. and Fort Hamilton Pkwy. +1 718 630 4349. Call for weekend hrs.) Housed in the original 19th-century fort, the museum explains how the harbor has been defended over the years.
This partial listing is an excerpt from the National Geographic Guide to America's Historic Places.