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Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York
New York City, New York, USA
$59.00
This is an experience gift voucher. The recipient will book the experience after
they redeem the gift voucher.
Overview
This 2.5-hour walking tour meets at the Public Theater in Astor Place, across from Colonnade Row and what was the highest end residential block in the country in the 1830s, the resides of Astors, Delanos and Roosevelts. We end at the Civic Center, and the old Five Points neighborhood of "Gangs of New York" notoriety.
Going from the upper class residential precinct of today's Astor Place to the gang-infested slums of the Five Points was a typical request of visitors in the 1830s and 40s. That walk down Broadway would have taken them through a part of town that would, in the 1850s, break out as the new fashionable city center, what we now call SoHo. This part of Broadway was once a tether between the locales of these social extremes. In making that walk again, we decode and deconstruct the streetwalls of NoHo and SoHo to reveal the forces at work in the architectural creation of New York City.
Going from the upper class residential precinct of today's Astor Place to the gang-infested slums of the Five Points was a typical request of visitors in the 1830s and 40s. That walk down Broadway would have taken them through a part of town that would, in the 1850s, break out as the new fashionable city center, what we now call SoHo. This part of Broadway was once a tether between the locales of these social extremes. In making that walk again, we decode and deconstruct the streetwalls of NoHo and SoHo to reveal the forces at work in the architectural creation of New York City.
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Start Times
Tour guide
Language: English
Human tour guide
Availability depends on seasonality and number of participants. Bookings can not be made for the same day. Please read our TnC’s.
When giving as a gift, your recipient can choose a date at their convenience during a booking process. Otherwise, you can choose one after checkout and voucher redemption.
When giving as a gift, your recipient can choose a date at their convenience during a booking process. Otherwise, you can choose one after checkout and voucher redemption.
Check available dates by emailing us at [email protected]
- Professional guide
- Gratuities
Meeting point
We meet inside the Public Theater, New York's first public library. (Bathrooms are available)
Return details
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The Public TheaterWe start at the ruins of Colonnade Row, the early 1830s residence in the country's elite. We will lay the groundwork of history and the forces that passed through a landmark location of many histories. What's most to be appreciated is the high ground setting of once was a pleasure garden when "the city" was far downtown.
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NohoWe walk down Broadway and decode the streetscape making sense of history through the buildings, noticing their styles, and sizes, and how they may have been adapted (and re-adapted) for re-use. Images from the past show the evolution of the SoHo section of Broadway. What went on before the fashionable shops and the artists gallery before them? Who were the people who walked the sidewalks?
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We stop to appreciate Louis Sullivan's only building in the city, and learn its role in the evolution of the skyscraper style.
- At Houston Street and Broadway the ancient geography makes it apparent in the asphalt why the grid began here. It was an early site of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, and an upper class residential neighborhood. The tour continues through SoHo, a name place only since the 1950s, which begs the question, how did people refer to this part of town at different times in the past? We go down Broadway with explanations, descriptions, and images that deconstruct of the streetscape and reveal the brick-and-mortar history of New York City. (pass by)
- The walk down to Canal Street is a roster of social and retail history, with stories and characters from a by-gone era. (pass by)
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Foley SquareToday's Civic Center was a lake, the shore of which had been the African Burial Ground through much of the British colonial period. The lake would be filled in, and along its old shoreline would develop The Five Points, the most notorious slum in New York City history.
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Columbus ParkThe tour ends at the location of The Five Points, now 500 Pearl Street. From the high historical social standing of the beginning of the tour, we end where the most long-lived desperate and deplorable living conditions once existed, from the Irish (and The Five Points), through the tenements of Mulberry Bend, the area is now at the border of the Court District and Chinatown.
If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
If it’s canceled because the minimum isn’t met,
you’ll be offered a different date/experience or a full refund.
How it works?
01
—
You choose from 10,000+ experience gifts
02
—
We deliver the eVoucher or the Physical box to the recipient
03
—
Recipient books the experience and creates unforgettable memories!
Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York
New York City, New York, USA
$59.00
This is an experience gift voucher. The recipient will book the experience after
they redeem the gift voucher.
How it works?
01
—
You choose from 10,000+ experience gifts
02
—
We deliver the eVoucher or the Physical box to the recipient
03
—
Recipient books the experience and creates unforgettable memories!