Walking the Dog Days: Upcoming Tours in NYC
By Troy Segal
One way to beat the heat is to keep moving, and what better move than a guided tour around the thought-provoking nabes of New York City? From historic skyscrapers to ghost-ridden haunts, there’s an eclectic array of paths to choose from in the coming weeks. And if walking seems just too draining, we’ve even thrown in a couple of tours that provide their own transport.
Image: Jennifer Snyder — Flickr
Embark on an herbal alcohol tour, learning about the trees, plants and bushes whose parts provide the ingredients of that popular summery spirit—gin. A reception, complete with cocktails (of course), follows. Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Saturday, Aug. 8.
Image: Chris Bastian — Flickr
Lower Park Avenue is like a 3-D photo album of three centuries of New York City’s architectural avatars, from Sanford White to Ely Jacques Kahn to Renzo Piano. Gaze upwards at their handiworks on this Center for Architecture walk between Grand Central Terminal and Union Square. Saturday, Aug. 8.
Herons and egrets and ibis, oh, my! Keep your eye on the birdies, cruising local waters in a New York Water Taxi; the canary-colored boat visits Hoffman and Swinburne Islands (two bits of landfill in New York Bay), on Sunday, Aug. 9, and East River hospital site-turned-sanctuary North Brother Island on Sunday, Aug. 23.
From Duke Ellington to Miles Davis to Lionel Hampton, you wouldn’t believe the number of musicians buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. Get into the (down) beat as you hitch a ride on a big red trolley that tours the graves of various jazz greats, soaking up the history of the genre as you go. Sunday, Aug. 16.
Halloween is a few months off, but Boroughs of the Dead is offering a scary stroll through the West Village: sites of ghostly sightings, grisly doings and places that inspired Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft (whose 125th birthday falls on this date). Thursday, Aug. 20.
Image: Joseph Buxbaum — Flickr
Walk along Orchard Street—a hot shopping destination now, just as it was a century ago—imagining the emporia of times gone by, in a Tenement Museum-sponsored “Storefront Stories” tour. Sunday, Aug. 23.
Learn how, “From Coffeehouses to Banquet Halls,” the history of Chinatown’s eateries reflect the quarter’s metamorphosis from bachelors’ den to family neighborhood, in this guided walk offered by the Museum of Chinese in America, Saturday Aug. 29.
Once it was the world’s tallest skyscraper. And while the Woolworth Building lost that title long ago, its Cass Gilbert-designed, cathedral-like interior still amazes. A preservationist leads an Untapped Cities-sponsored visit around this usually off-limits site. Wednesday, Sept. 16.
Image: Mike Fleming — Flickr
The New York Stock Exchange started out as a business meet-up under a buttonwood tree. The insiders of Wall Street Walks will show you how it evolved into the largest exchange on the planet, with looks at financial icons like J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller along the way. In addition to the Exchange itself, tour stops include Trinity Church, Federal Hall and Ground Zero. Daily, ongoing.
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