New York: 15 Walking Tours, An Architectural Guide to the Metropolis

by Gerard R. Wolfe

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“IF THERE IS A BETTER GUIDEBOOK TO NEW YORK CITY WITH A HISTORICAL BENT, WE HAVEN’T SEEN IT.” *--American Heritage magazine You can ride the subway and buses, even take a cruise on the Staten Island Ferry. But the best way to discover the architectural majesty of New York City is the old-fashioned on foot! And with McGraw-Hill’s newly expanded New 15 Walking Tours as your guide, you’ll discover why the architecture of the Big Apple is still recognized as the world’s most powerful, most sophisticated, and most influential. Packed with little-known historical details that will intrigue both tourists and natives alike, New 15 Walking Tours leads you on a journey that reveals New York’s beginnings as a small community clustered at the southern tip of Manhattan to its present-day status as the Great Metropolis. Along the way, you’ll be introduced to its landmark buildings and architectural styles plus a host of historical details that have come to symbolize not only the City of New York, but our entire culture as well. The revised New 15 Walking Tours puts architectural history into fascinating context, and
* Fifteen walking tours marked on easy-to-follow street maps, with travel directions and landmark designations noted throughout
* A discussion of September 11th , 2001, and its widespread effect on lower Manhattan
* The latest historic building and district landmark designations
* Nearly 300 vintage photographs and engravings that bring New York’s history to life
* Unusual historical facts such as the discovery of the African Burial Ground, New York’s hidden first subway, the Draft Riots and other riots, the Triangle Fire, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, etc. So no matter if you’re an out-of-towner or a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, do what comes naturally the next time you feel like exploring amazing take a walk! And do it with New 15 Walking Tours as your companion. THE TOURS
* Lower Manhattan and Battery Park
* Manhattan’s Financial District
* City Hall and “Newspaper Row”
* Greenwich Village
* The Lafayette Historic Group
* The Lower East Side
* The SoHo Cast-Iron District
* Gramercy Park and Madison Square
* Ladies’ Mile and Union Square
* Old Chelsea
* Forty-Second Street and Times Square
* The Upper East Side and Roosevelt Island
* Brooklyn Heights

Genres: Travel

476 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2003

Reviews

[Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This handy book recommends interesting walks, like say Ellen Levitt's Walking Manhattan... , and then goes a step beyond by supplying a completely researched history and architecture. Best appreciated as a field guide or from the comfort of your easy chair by just google mapping a particular address.
Unfortunately the author was limited to b/w photo plates of mostly demolished sites like the old Penn Station or the Singer Building.
Gratefully not included are flavor of the month type entries like where sitcom characters bought their cupcakes.

[Katie R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative, but outdated and more subjective than I prefer in a guide. This walking tour heavily focuses on architecture, and if that's what you're interested in, I would recommend it. However, it needs an update!

[Irene Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing wrong with this book is that it is dated (1980's), but since so much of New York is landmarked, even that doesn't matter much. Anyone who grouses about photos being in black and white instead of color is missing the point: this is a lively, authoritative, and well-constructed book. The series of tours vary in length, allowing for you to choose what you have time for on a given day, and the material included is informative and often amusing. There are more recent books; I have yet to find a better one. In fact, we had the original edition and when the revised edition came out, we bought that, too, though it had (unfortunately) dropped the Brooklyn Heights walk.

(N.B.: I've lived in NYC for 40 years and was an editor at a travel magazine.)