Sights in New York City
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Great Lawn
Located between 79th and 86th Sts, this massive emerald carpet at the center of the park was created in 1931 by filling in a former reservoir. It hosts outdoor concerts – this is whereSimon & Garfunkel played their famous 1981 concert., and also where you can catch the New York Philharmonic Orchestra each summer – and there are eight softball fields, basketball courts and a canopy of London plane trees. Not far from the actual lawn are several other big sites: the Delacorte Theater, which is home to the annual Shakespeare in the Park festival, and its lush Shakespeare Garden; the panoramic Belvedere Castle(the leafy Ramble(the epicenter of both birding and gay-male…
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Children's Museum of Manhattan
This small museum features interactive exhibits scaled down for the little people. This includes toddler discovery programs and exhibits that stimulate play, like operating a giant heart with a pedal or tumbling around a set with Dora the Explorer elements. It’s not very exciting, but it can be a rainy-day saver if you’re traveling with antsy toddlers.
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David Rubenstein Atrium
One of the most exciting new additions to the sprawling Lincoln Center has been that of the David Rubenstein Atrium, a modern public space offering a lounge area (with free wi-fi), a cafe, an information desk, a ticket vendor offering day-of discount tickets to Lincoln Center performances and a roster of Thursday-eve free performances, ranging from jazz and chamber music to opera and ballet.
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Jacob Riis Park
Much of the Rockaway Beach area is part of the 26,000-acre Gateway National Recreation Area (www.nps.gov/gate), which encompasses several parks. One, toward the southern tip of the Rockaways, is Jacob Riis Park, named for an advocate and photographer of immigrants in the late 19th century; it’s also home to Fort Tilden, a decommissioned coastal artillery installation from WWI. The boardwalk, beach and picnic areas are popular in summer.
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Dwyer Cultural Center
The brand-new, $3-million, 7000-sq-ft Dwyer is the latest player in a new cultural renaissance here. The permanent home to a previously traveling exhibit, ‘Harlem Is…, ’ featuring large-scale portraits and video montages, this is also the new uptown destination for jazz and blues concerts, dance performances, artist talks, film screenings and rotating exhibits, like the inaugural ‘Harlem Sewn Up 2009: Quilted Reflections of a Community.’
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St Patrick's Old Cathedral
Though St Patrick’s Cathedral is now famously located on Fifth Ave in Midtown, its first congregation was housed here, in the neighborhood now called Nolita, in this 1809–15 Gothic Revival church designed by Joseph-François Mangin. Its soaring inner vault stands at 85ft, and the ornate interior features a marble altar and gold-leaf detailing. Back in its heyday, the church was the seat of religious life for the Archdiocese of New York, as well as an important community center for new immigrants, mainly from Ireland. Today it holds regular liturgies in English, Spanish and Chinese. Its ancient cemetery out the back is a beautiful respite in the midst of city chaos; if it’s…
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New York Transit Museum
Occupying an old subway station built in 1936 (and out of service since 1946), this kid-friendly museum takes on 100-plus years of getting around town. The best part is the downstairs area, on the platform, where you can climb aboard 13 original subway and elevated train cars dating to 1904. The museum’s gift shop sells popular subway-map gifts.
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Fraunces Tavern Museum
Combining five early-18th-century structures, this unique museum/restaurant combo is an homage to the nation-shaping events of 1783, when the British relinquished control of New York at the end of the Revolutionary War and General George Washington gave a farewell speech to the officers of the Continental Army in the 2nd-floor dining room on December 4.
The site was originally built as a tony residence for merchant Stephen Delancey’s family; barkeeper Samuel Fraunces purchased it in 1762, turning it into a tavern in honor of the American victory in the Revolutionary War. After the war, when New York was the nation’s first capital, the space was used by the Departments of…
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Wave Hill
Built by a lawyer in 1843 as a country estate, the 28-acre, riverside Wave Hill served the needs of the wealthy and connected until it became a city park in 1960. Other guests have included Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain. There are soaring views of the Hudson and a cafe in the stone mansion that serves as the park’s centerpiece. From the Riverdale Metro-North station it’s a 15-minute walk uphill, or catch the free van service from the station, provided by Wave Hill.
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Malcolm Shabazz Harlem Market
This semi-enclosed market does a brisk trade in just about everything: leather goods, crafts, textiles, bootleg CDs, oils, drums, clothing, sculptures and a stupendous array of assorted African everything. It’s also, coincidentally, an excellent spot to get your hair braided. The market is run by the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque, the former pulpit of slain Muslim orator Malcolm X.
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Brooklyn Historical Society
Housed in an 1881 Queen Anne–style landmark building (a gem in itself, with striking terra-cotta details on the facade), this library and museum is devoted to all things Brooklyn. Its priceless collection contains a rare 1770 map of New York City and a signed copy of the Emancipation Proclamation (both too fragile, unfortunately, for permanent display).
Be sure to check out the vintage library, with its original black ash balcony from the 19th century. The society organizes regular exhibitions and neighborhood walks. Check the website for details.
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Colonnade Row
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Sideshows by the Seashore
The heart of Coney Island in many ways is the two-part, nonprofit complex Coney Island USA. Best is the Sideshows by the Seashore, where you can see glass-walking, a face-tattooed fire-eater, a Mormon sword-swallower and nostril nailers. During the summer, Sideshows hosts Burlesque at the Beach (admission $15; 9pm Thu, 10pm Sat May-Sep), a tongue-in-cheek program featuring ‘girlie revues’ and bubble machines; sideshow freaks and vaudeville acts add to the mayhem.
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Holcombe Rucker Park
For die-hard fans of basketball, the riverside courts at Rucker are a venerated spot, consistently delivering some of the most exciting street ball games in the city. Throughout its history, NBA stars like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Kobe Bryant have all stopped in for hoops.
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Eastern States Buddhist Temple
The Eastern States Buddhist Temple is filled with hundreds of Buddhas.
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Church of the Ascension
In the 1840s, pagan Greek Revival architecture was abandoned for the spiritual Gothic, reaching toward the heavens and echoing English and French church architecture of the late Middle Ages. Richard Upjohn jump-started the Gothic Revival in New York with his Church of the Ascension, 1841, a square-towered English country church faced in brownstone. Architect Stanford White gathered a group of artists in 1888 to redecorate the interior with paintings, sculptures and stained-glass windows.
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White Columns
Geographically, White Columns is part of the Meatpacking District, but aesthetically speaking, it's in Chelsea. The sedate, four-room space has ample installations and exhibits, many of which are by fairly well-known names like Andrew Serrano, Alice Aycock, Lorna Simpson and a White Columns founder, Gordon Matta-Clark. One of its most successful recent installations came from South London's Studio Voltaire, which presented different works all somehow related to the public persona of singer Michael Jackson.
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Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
The nation’s largest collection of documents, rare books and photographs relating to the African American experience resides at this scholarly center run by the New York Public Library. It is named after Arthur Schomburg, a black Puerto Rican activist who amassed a singular collection of manuscripts, slave narratives and other important artifacts. Regular concerts, lectures and exhibits are held on-site.
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Sheridan Square
The shape of a triangle, Sheridan Sq isn't much more than a few park benches and some trees surrounded by an old-fashioned wrought-iron gate. But its location (the heart of gay Greenwich Village) has meant that it's witnessed every rally, demonstration and uprising that has contributed to New York's gay rights movement. It also holds two sets of slender white statues: a male couple and a female couple, holding hands and talking. Known as Gay Liberation, they are a tribute to the normalcy of gay life.
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Chelsea Art Museum
Occupying a three-story red-brick building dating from 1850, this popular museum stands on land once owned by writer Clement Clarke Moore (author of the famous poem ‘A Visit from St Nicholas’). Its focus is on post-war abstract expressionism, especially by national and international artists, and its permanent collection includes works by Antonio Corpora, Laszlo Lakner, Jean Arp and Ellen Levy. The museum is also the headquarters of the Miotte Foundation, dedicated to archiving the works of Jean Miotte, a SoHo-based artist who has played a large role in creating the genre known as ‘Informel’ (Informal Art).
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Museum at FIT
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) lays claim to one of the world's richest collections of garments, textiles and accessories. At last count, there were around 50,000 items spanning the 18th century to the present day. The school's museum is the place to catch a glimpse, it's rotating exhibitions showcasing both permanent collection items and on-loan treasures.
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Greenbelt
In the heart of Staten Island, the 2800-acre Greenbelt – and its 32 miles of trails for hiking – crosses five ecosystems, including swamps and freshwater wetlands. One hike reaches the Atlantic seaboard’s highest points south of Maine (take that, Jersey!). Check the website for the many access points. One good place is at High Rock Park, a hardwood forest spot cut by six trails. Take bus S62 from the ferry terminal to Victory Blvd and Manner Rd (about 15 or 20 minutes), then transfer to the S54.
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American Numismatic Society
The holdings here of more than 800,000 coins, medals and notes are rivaled by only one similar collection in Europe. The items are from all over the map and throughout history, including Greek, Roman, East Asian, medieval and Islamic items. Frequent small special exhibitions and lectures focus on the history of currency, while the Society’s main exhibition space is at the nearby Federal Reserve Bank. It’s best to call ahead before setting out to visit the headquarters here.
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Noguchi Museum
The art and the building here are the work of eponymous Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, and both exude a Zen-like sensibility. Displayed in bare concrete galleries and an outdoor rock garden, the artist's abstract stone sculptures are a meditation on the struggle between nature and the manmade world.
The building itself was once a photo-engraving plant, located across the street from Noguchi's studio. Art aside, the space also hosts a small cafe and gift shop, the latter stocking Noguchi-designed lamps and furniture, as well as a small range of other mid-20th-century design pieces. The museum is a 10-block walk from the subway stop; there’s also a shuttle bus…
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Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
Built in 1784 on a 28-acre farm, the Dyckman House is Manhattan’s lone surviving Dutch farmhouse – and is better than ever following an extensive renovation. Excavations of the property have turned up valuable clues about colonial life, and the museum includes period rooms and furniture, decorative arts, a half-acre of gardens and an exhibition on the neighborhood’s history. To get to the Dyckman House, take the subway to the Inwood–207th St station (not Dyckman St) and walk one block south.
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