Cultural Building sights in New York City
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A
New York Public Library
Loyally guarded by 'Patience' and 'Fortitude' (the famous marble lions overlooking Fifth Ave), this beaux arts show-off is one of NYC's best free attractions. When dedicated in 1911, New York’s flagship library ranked as the largest marble structure ever built in the US, and to this day, its Rose Main Reading Room will steal your breath with its lavish, coffered ceiling.
The library's Exhibition Hall contains precious manuscripts by just about every author of note in the English language, including an original copy of the Declaration of Independence and a Gutenberg Bible. The Map Division is equally astounding, with a collection that holds some 431,000 maps, 16,000…
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B
Pierpont Morgan Library
Part of the 45-room mansion once owned by steel magnate JP Morgan, this sumptuous library features a phenomenal array of manuscripts, tapestries and books (with no fewer than three Gutenberg Bibles). There's a study filled with Italian Renaissance artwork, a marble rotunda and a program of top-notch rotating exhibitions.
Recent exhibition themes include Islamic manuscript painting, drawings from Revolutionary France and Charles Dickens.
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Historic Richmond Town
In the center of Staten Island, this ‘town’ of 27 buildings (some dating back to a 1690s Dutch community) stands in a 100-acre preservation project maintained by the Staten Island Historical Society. The town includes the former county seat of the island; its most famous building, the two-story, 300-year-old, redwood Voorlezer’s House, is the USA’s oldest schoolhouse. Guides lead tours (included with admission) at 2:30pm on weekdays and 2pm and 3:30pm on weekends; in July and August folks in period garb roam the grounds. There’s a cafe on site. It’s about 40 minutes from the ferry by bus.
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C
King Manor
In Jamaica, the Jamaica Center–Parsons/Archer subway stop (the last along the E, J and Z lines) is a short block south of the main strip, Jamaica Ave. Near the station, amid the 11-acre King Park, is the redone, Greco-Roman-style King Manor, home to US Constitution signatory Rufus King in the early 1800s. King, an early abolitionist, made a failed run for president in 1817 (the last Federalist to run). King is buried a block east in the cemetery outside Grace Episcopal Church (155-03 Jamaica Ave).
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D
Louis Armstrong House
At the peak of his career and with worldwide fame at hand, Armstrong chose Queens. Armstrong spent his last 28 years in this quiet Corona Heights home, now a museum and national treasure; he died here in 1971. Guides offer free 40-minute tours of his former abode, leaving on the hour (the last starts at 4pm).
Satchmo shared the house with his fourth wife, Lucille Wilson, a dancer at the Cotton Club. The tour offers an intimate glimpse into what was a happy life together, with entertaining anecdotes and a handful of home audio recordings. Armstrong's den, of which he was most proud, features a portrait of the great painted by none other than Benedetto (aka Tony Bennett).
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Alice Austen House
The harbor-side home of this early-20th-century photographer shows a bit about her life on Staten Island and many of her works. It’s located just north of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, about a 15-minute bus ride from the ferry pier.
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E
Old Stone House
This stone house is a replica of a 1699 Dutch farmhouse that was reconstructed by Robert Moses. There’s a permanent exhibit devoted to the Battle of Long Island (what Brooklyn was known as c 1776) that includes period clothes and weapons. The original home also served as a club house for Brooklyn Superbas, a predecessor to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
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F
Paley Center for Media
Heaven for pop-culture fans, the Paley Center offers more than 150,000 TV and radio programs from around the world on its computer catalog. While reliving your favorite TV shows on one of the museum’s consoles is sheer bliss on a rainy day, the radio-listening room is an unexpected pleasure – as are the excellent, regular screenings, festivals, speakers and performers.
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