Events

Open to all 2026 Jane's Walk NYC Leaders: Join us for this in-person walk leader training session! This training will be led by walk leader Jacquie Ottman. The session will include a walk exploring the Meatpacking District, plus walk leader tips and best practices. There will be time for Q&A.

Join MAS at the Museum of the City of New York for Celebrating the City, an evening recognizing the people and projects that shape New York through urban design and public art. The ceremony will include the presentation of the 2025 Brendan Gill Prize and the 25th year of the MASterworks Design Awards, followed by an afterparty that officially kicks off the 2026 Jane’s Walk NYC Festival.

Discounts available for MAS and Museum of the City of New York members as well as NY City and State government employees.

Kickoff event for the 2026 Jane's Walk NYC. Held as part of the afterparty for Celebrating the City.

Discount available for NY State and City government employees. 2026 Jane's Walk NYC leaders attend at no charge. Email events@mas.org for details.

A mostly flat and downhill walk through “Upstate Manhattan,” aka Washington Heights. Prepare for approximately 2.5 hours, with some short stops along the way. We’ll discuss the unique history and culture of our neighborhood, beginning at the highest natural point in Manhattan.
Stops include the site of the Battle of Fort Washington, the beautiful 1930 United Palace theater, the iconic Highbridge, the culturally important Audubon Ballroom, and the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion.

A guided walk through the North Woods to learn from a landscape architect about its flora/fauna and design (with a short sensory awareness experience included). Bring a camera (optional) and walking shoes.

A walk thru two of Brooklyn's most ethnic neighborhoods: Hasidic Jewish and Brooklyn's own Chinatown. About 5.5 miles walking with dropout points all along the way. Both of these neighborhoods were a part of the Dutch village of Nieuw Utrecht. Borough Park (the Hasidic area) has always had a strong Jewish presence, being the home of Buddy Hackett and David Geffen. Sunset Park (Chinatown) was once a part of Bay Ridge and the home of a large Scandinavian community; it is now the second-largest Chinese enclave in NYC.

Forests might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the tight urban grid of the Lower East Side. Yet the history of Lower Manhattan is firmly rooted in the story of the urban forest - the trees that call the city home. On this walk, join Hadas Fischer, Street Tree Care Manager at the LES Ecology Center, to experience urban history from an unusual, leafy, perspective. We’ll visit locally-evolved and immigrant trees, and discover the ways they and the people who cared for them have shaped New York history, from the old-growth forests of Indigenous New York, through colonial orchards and New Deal plantings, to current understandings of urban ecology. So come and meet London planes, oaks, and other members of our urban forest, and even learn a few practical tips for caring for for your own friendly neighborhood trees!

It’s well known that Central Park is one of the most iconic urban parks in the world. But imagine, just for a moment, that it isn’t a park at all—instead, it’s a museum. It would be the most diverse museum on Earth, one that is open 365 days a year and is completely free. Its “collections” would span almost every conceivable department including art and sculpture, landscape design, archaeology, geology, urban history, horticulture, engineering, transportation, theater and performance, and more. No other museum would rival its scale, variety, or accessibility.

Welcome to the “Central Park Museum.”

This easy stroll (roughly one mile) offers a perfect sampler of the museum’s “exhibits” blending education and enjoyment. Your Jane’s Walk leader, Jack, is an NYC licensed tour guide and longtime Central Park Conservancy volunteer.

This in-person guided walking experience invites participants to uncover the herstory of Weeksville and the often-overlooked role Black women played in building, sustaining, and protecting one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Moving through historic and present-day sites in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, participants will encounter locations that mark Black women’s labor, care, and leadership that made the community possible. Stops include the Weeksville Heritage Center, the Hunterfly Road Houses, and former sites of schools and churches. Attendees should wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water, and are encouraged to bring a camera.

In the nineteenth century a humor magazine called Puck took the country by storm. It was the Saturday Night Live of its day and every Wednesday its colorful cartoons ‘pucked’ some politician or organization, to the delight of subscribers. By 1885 circulation grew to 80,000 and property at Mulberry and Houston was purchased to build the magazine a new home. This is where Puck came to be printed and published for the next thirty years, until it was closed down by William Randolph Hearst (think Citizen Kane). We will walk the four blocks around the Puck building to discover the history of the magazine, the color printing process that made it famous, and the building that remains as its legacy.

In a city full of towering skyscrapers, everyone looks up - but on this tour, we’re looking down! Soho’s sidewalks are packed with endless bits of history and art that most people step right over. On this tour, you’ll see old vault lights, engravings, and other sidewalk oddities that tell the story of the neighborhood: its industrial past, artistic heyday, and everything in between.

Trees are increasingly a part of urban resilience plans. With funding from the New York State Attorney General’s office, Trees New York was able to work with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to plant trees at Red Hook Houses and other NYCHA sites that lost trees due to Superstorm Sandy.

We will walk through Red Hook and discuss how trees fit into resiliency plans for Red Hook Houses, Red Hook, and the city as a whole. We will also be considering the challenges to urban trees, including human infrastructure, poor soil, and climate change.

The walk is approximately 1 mile and takes about 75 minutes. It will be on sidewalks, but some may be broken. Please dress for the weather.

Ever wondered what waterways weave beneath the West Village? Or how Washington Square Park came to rest atop a cemetery plot? This tour will peel back the palimpsest that is Manhattan—or Manaháhtaan, as the Lenape called it. The goal: to reveal the powwow spots, cobblestone streets, and orchards that eventually gave way to today’s concrete jungle.

Attendees aren’t just tourists; they’re time travelers, traversing centuries of topographical upheaval in the West and East Villages. We'll explore how successive waves of colonial rule shaped and renamed the land, yet never fully erased the Lenape. (Times Square, in fact, could not have existed without a Lenape trail.) Sneakers and water bottles are ideal. Visitors can rest their feet beneath my favorite unsung landmark: the city’s oldest tree, the last living witness to this buried history.

Embark on a 45 minute – 1 hour discovery route through Hell’s Kitchen South, bounded by West 34th to the south, West 40th to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and Tenth Avenue to the west. Our walk will highlight the 19th and 20th century sites, society, and stories of the immigrant and working class communities that shaped the area. We will spotlight a few notable people who are proud to remember their roots here. We’ll explore to what extent this understated, unostentatious neighborhood is undergoing rebranding and redevelopments as a result of its proximity to Hudson Yards. We’ll consider the potential for further transformation caused by the Governor’s recommendation of Paddy’s Market for the Register of Historic Places. Join us to discover the past of Hell’s Kitchen South, and to frame questions that may shape its future.

This will be a walk along the car-free and traffic-light free Hudson River Trail It will connect two disasters: it will start at the World Trade Center, and will be a two mile walk to Pier 59 at Chelsea Piers, where the Titanic was to arrive in 1912. There are over 20 talking points along the way, including:
How close were the World Trade Center Towers to the original edge of the island?
Why do they call the Hudson "the river that runs both ways"?
The Hudson River along Manhattan is not actually a river... what form of body of water is it?
What was Robert Moses going to do with the West Side Highway and how did Jane Jacobs stop him?
How long has the New York City street grid system been in effect?

I did this walk the past two years and it has been very well received.

Join branch staff from The Bronx Library Center for an in-person walking tour! Learn about the history and landmarks of this neighborhood and connect with the community.

We will take a walk through the Fordham Road area, tracing the history of local building and landmarks. The tour will last approximately 1 1/2 hours and will begin at our neighborhood library.

We will start from the Bronx Library Center (BLC), Poe Park, St. James Park, Post Office, Monroe University, Fordham Shopping, Bryan Park, 1 Fordham Plaza, Fordham University, and ending at BLC.

Uncover the history of one of New York City’s oldest neighborhoods! This walking tour focuses on how everyday buildings and places of historical significance reflect and shape a community—from its origins as the Native American village of Werpoes Hill in 1600 to its present status as one of the most vibrant immigrant communities in New York City. Highlighted sites include: Columbus Park, Transfiguration Church, the oldest streets in Chinatown, a Chinese eatery that catered to the needs of Chinatown’s turn-of-the-century “bachelor society,” and the street life along the way.

The walk will begin at the Richard Morris Hunt designed building that was once a home for widows and now is a hostel. We'll cover parts of Amsterdam, Broadway, West End and Riverside as well as a stroll through Riverside Park, stopping at historic sites such as Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a memorial to two Titanic survivors, a Buddhist temple and the building that housed IBM's first computer lab. I'll point out my favorite places to eat and drink as well as a bookstore and a geological remnant of Manhattan schist. Weather permitting, we can purchase food to eat in the park afterwards. The walk covers three miles -- wear comfortable shoes and bring water, if desired.

Join our Jane's Walk to discover the hidden soul of Canarsie! We trace the evolution of Conklin Avenue from a center of commerce in the late 1800s to today’s quiet country lane.

Some highlights of this walk include standing at the "Crossroads of Canarsie," home to a 1912 movie theater and the 1839 Methodist congregation, hearing the legend of "Indian Jim," the last full-blooded Canarsie Indian, and the narrow escape of Judge Rogers from an assassin’s bullet, visiting the 1865 site where medicine was first practiced in the neighborhood, learn of Civil War veteran Charles Phillips who saw Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C, and seeing the early homes of the Canarsie Courier, historic blacksmith shops, and early Jewish merchant outposts.

Explore how horses, buggies, and the railroad shaped this vibrant past. Don't miss it!

Ketriana Yvonne Founder of One Woman League Productions.

Join us to be a featured writer in the group read some of new work shared from a prompt in the workshop. Introduction to learn more about writer and workshop leader Ketriana Yvonne who created the group based on her book "Sequin Soul Poetry from the Spirit. Ketriana is a Ft. Greene Community Hero and local historian and lifetime member of the Society of Old Brooklynites and Community producer of ” The Ketriana Yvonne Show” and we will write to a prompt: Share a story about a relationship to a place or landmark or building in your neighborhood. Share a story or write a poem about it and share in the open mic portion of the workshop. Show up on time with a pen and paper ready to write. Wear a tee shirt to rep where you are from if you like. We are spirit writers that live creatively.

Let’s spill the tea on Rebels and Redcoats, victors and vanquished, on this uptown walk about Revolutionary War stories. Instead of guns and cannons, we’ll talk about the people connected to the Battle of Fort Washington. Along the way, we’ll visit three parks to see how the terrain itself was a character in the devastating action of 1776. (Spoiler alert: we lost the battle but won the war.)

Distance: please be ready to walk 2 miles. Route includes some hills and stairs.

Note: The topic of war battles and gossip, while kept mild, is best suited for adults.

Walk ends in beautiful Ft Tryon Park, close to public transportation (A train, M4 bus), restrooms, and a restaurant.

Huzzah!

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

By walking the block bounded by West 40th Street and West 39th Street between 6th Avenue and Broadway, we can gain an understanding of the evolution of land use, zoning, and architecture from the late 19th century to today. The development of the block has been impacted by wider changes in the area, from a textile-garment district to office buildings, modes of transportation, and cultural destinations. We will use pictorial maps from different dates to track these changes. Tour participants will be able to appreciate buildings following pre-1916, post-1916, and post-1961 zoning rules. Architectural styles range from Gothic skyscrapers to the International Style to contemporary architecture.

On this walk we'll visit some of the East Village’s stalwart shops and restaurants that have been in operation for decades. Many establishments were opened by refugees and remain in the family, like the Ukrainian-rooted restaurant Veselka. I've learned through reporting for newspapers and my newsletter Mercantile Mayhem that the cost of owning and operating an independent business has been increasingly difficult to financially sustain. NYC's real estate prices continue to soar along with general inflation. In addition to Veselka, we'll visit East Village Meat Market, B&H Dairy, Block Drug Stores and McSorley’s Old Ale House, among others. I'll talk about the neighborhood's history and how various immigrant groups, social movements, trends and gentrification have impacted these independent businesses.

Come discover the hidden history of Middleburgh, aka Newtown, aka Elmhurst, stretching from 1652 through the American Revolution to the present.

This eye-opening stroll encompasses the early settlement of Elmhurst, including its famous families, prominent visitors and how American independence was already brewing in Queens way before the Revolution erupted in 1776. We'll visit several pre-Revolutionary churches and cemeteries, and learn about the residents of the area, and how the community has explosively grown and changed over the years. We'll cover the early inhabitants' struggle for personal and religious freedom from England, and the clashes between the local patriots vs. the loyalists and British soldiers.

We’ll meet at the Schinasi Mansion at 351 Riverside Drive at 107th Street. Award-winning Sephardic writer Jane Mushabac’s short story, “Kantiga” (Song), which has been published in Judeo-Spanish and English, is based on the biblical “Song of Songs,” and is set during the spring of 2021 when the beauty of Riverside Park and nearby places was a great solace during the pandemic. The walk will visit several of the places that animate the story, serving as both backdrops for the two young people’s meetings, and as sources for poetic metaphors in their talk. The nearby places include the Fireman’s Memorial, the Lotus Garden, the Statue of Kossuth, and the Hudson River where Cherry Walk begins. At one stop, there will be a 15-minute reading of the story, a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, in English.

This will be a walking tour of the former Five Points neighborhood with a focus on its public health issues. We will talk about problems with sewage, the prevalence of prostitution, and illness in the community. We'll visit the former sites of Paradise Park (now Columbus Park), the Old Brewery, Mulberry Bend, Bandits' Roost, House of Industry, Children's Aid Society, and notorious tenement blocks and brothels. Attendees should wear comfortable shoes, bring water, and not be squeamish!

Lace up your walking shoes, pack your camera and join the Alice Austen House for a 90-minute photowalk through Rosebank, one of Staten Island's most historic neighborhoods, in the spirit of Alice Austen — pioneering photographer, Staten Island native, and one of New York's great street observers. Starting at her landmark waterfront home, Clear Comfort, we'll meander down Buono Beach, then follow quaint back streets to the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, and finish at the hidden folk art masterpiece of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto. Along the way, we'll explore how this immigrant community built, saved, and shaped its neighborhood from the ground up — the very idea at the heart of Jane Jacobs’ legacy.

*Polaroid cameras and film will be available for rental and purchase from the Alice Austen House Museum prior to the walk start.

Spanning roughly a mile long, the Disability Justice Through the Ages Jane’s Walk takes New Yorkers on a journey through pivotal places in the disability rights movement. The walk features two historic locations (The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary & Gallaudet House for Aged and Infirm Deaf Mutes) and two modern locations (Union Street Greenmarket & 14th Street Transportation Complex Upgrades), allowing participants to see the evolution of fighting for disability rights to working towards mobility justice in the city. This walk will not only showcase important New York City historical sites crucial to the beginnings of the disability rights movement, but also highlight modern improvements to increasing accessibility for New Yorkers with diverse abilities.

Jackie Robinson is best known for breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As Robinson developed into a seasoned civil rights activist, however, he turned his attention to Harlem as he and other Black New Yorkers continued the fight for racial equality. This tour brings to light Jackie Robinson’s multifaceted and decades-long engagement with Harlem. Explore sites including Freedom National Bank, the Apollo, and the Harlem YMCA and re-discover lesser known stories like that of the first Jackie Robinson Day and Robinson’s relationship with Harlem leaders like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X. Join a curator from the Jackie Robinson Museum as we build our understanding of the neighborhood that helped shape both Robinson’s outlook on America and his fight for racial and economic justice.

Step into the lively and storied streets of the Lower East Side, where the tales of tenacious cats intertwine with the neighborhood's gritty past and legendary characters. This cat-themed walking tour led by cat historian Peggy Gavan explores the surprising ways cats left their paw prints on the city's history.
You'll uncover wild stories of feline bar flies in dive joints like Suicide Hall and The Flea Bag, a heroic cat who saved more than 9 lives from a burning building, and even a cat who very well may have saved Debbie Harry’s life. From the site of Houdini's first performance and Teddy Roosevelt’s feline friend to CBGB's and a cowboy lassoing a tenement cat to safety—this tour is packed with the kind of quirky, can't-believe-it-happened-here stories that make the Bowery and the Lower East Side so special.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

Come hear the stories of the amazing women honored with historical markers and statues below Chambers Street. We’ll discover suffragists, patriots, Nobel Prize winners, sport champions, adventurers, saints and royalty – women whose stories need to be shared again and again.

We will stay on city sidewalks and have opportunities to sit along the way on this walk from City Hall to The Battery.

The proposed walk will revisit the key role played by the King’s Bridge in the Continental Army’s evacuation of Manhattan Island in October 1776. Washington and the Army came close to extinction on several occasions in Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1776, the last of which involved the King’s Bridge as the only robust crossing to the mainland in the current Bronx.

The walk will begin at Henry Hudson Park in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the Bronx to discuss American fortifications built in and around the park to protect the King’s Bridge. It will proceed to the site of the King’s Bridge on West 230th Street, stopping to note the course of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek that once separated Manhattan from the mainland. It will conclude at West 230th Street and Broadway. The events of 1776 in Manhattan and the Bronx will be discussed throughout.

This in-person guided walking experience invites participants to uncover the herstory of Weeksville and the often-overlooked role Black women played in building, sustaining, and protecting one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Moving through historic and present-day sites in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, participants will encounter locations that mark Black women’s labor, care, and leadership that made the community possible. Stops include the Weeksville Heritage Center, the Hunterfly Road Houses, and former sites of schools and churches. Attendees should wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water, and are encouraged to bring a camera.

Join Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) for a walk through Battery Park City to learn how sustainability comes to life—from green spaces and storm water systems to coastal resiliency and climate-ready design.

The 3rd rendition of Harlem Sculpture Gardens (https://harlemsculpturegardens.com) presented by West Harlem Art Fund and NY Artist Equity Association will feature more women artists and academic teams this year. Joining the lineup is Natalie Colette Wood, a seasoned artist who uses recycled materials that she turns into botanical forms. Harlem-based artist Dianne Smith will bring a stately work that takes us back to the 1970s with her Afro Puff. Brooklyn-based artist Michael Poast will return again with five works along Broadway in partnership with the Broadway Mall Association. There will be two teams from the City College School of Architecture led by Elizabeth MacWillie and Zihao Zhang. Chris Sancomb from the University of Connecticut brings portable wind mills that explore our need to look at resilience.

Bike tour focuses on Robert Moses and his impact on NYC. Tour originates at the end of the 2nd ave subway and circles Randall's/Wards island. Along the way, we discuss Moses's primary types of impact on the city (transit, playgrounds, parks, highways, bridges, displacement, housing), with a focus on first-hand view of examples of each type woven into an overarching narrative of his rise, fall, and legacy.

See thepowerbiker.com for more details. Fully non-commercial tour I developed a few years ago.

The most important logistics is that this is a bike tour rather than a walking tour, so you need access to a bicycle. The tour has a few citibike racks - both at the start and twice along the way which can be used to reset the timer if using citibike. We will not ride on any city streets, just on bike paths.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

A walking tour meets street theater in this interactive performance of New York language and slang. Set in the historically linguistic melting pot of the Lower East Side, this two hour exploration of words and accents is led by licensed NYC tour guide Nic Reale in character as "The Tour"—but all guests participate. Together everyone explores more than the origin of local phrases or how New Yawkers tawk; we also communicate across the city’s diverse cultures to see how they form a new one.

Join staff from the NYC Department of Transportation as we walk through the evolving Public Realm of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst. As neighborhoods that welcome people from all over the world, the region, the city, and from the neighborhood, the public realm in Jackson Heights/Elmhurst is a canvas for public space, high pedestrian demand, transit connections, and more. We will begin at Diversity Plaza and walk and talk about different public space, pedestrian, and transportation interventions made in the area over the years, in addition to what opportunities and community feedback we have heard in this neighborhood about the public realm, pedestrians, and transit use. As we walk around the neighborhood, there will be opportunities to share observations and ideas. Please bring comfortable walking shoes and water.

Join us for a stroll down Woodlawn Cemetery's Park Avenue and view the mausoleums of notable New Yorkers. You will see familiar names related to Bronx History, as well as American History. The tour ends at the final resting place of Robert Moses.
The Woodlawn Cemetery is a National Historic Landmark with the largest and finest collection of funerary art in the United States.

A walking tour from the City Hall park north to Chambers Street and then west through lower Tribeca for a total distance of about ¾ of a mile. The tour will cover the historic significance of area and evolution from a frontier area of the City, to a place of government, then a place of trade and now a largely residential area.

Points of interest would include:
-City Hall and park
-Park Row
-Brooklyn Bridge
-8 Spruce
-Buildings on Chambers including David Dinkins Municipal Building, Surrogates Court, Tweed Courthouse, Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, 280 Broadway (the Marble Palace Stewart’s department store) and the Woolworth Building
-Cast iron buildings on Reade Street
-Bogardus Plaza, the old Cosmopolitan Hotel
-Duane Park, 60 Hudson building, AT&T Long Lines building and 56 Leonard (Jenga Building)

Join us for an immersive Resilience Thinking Walkshop exploring the landscape architecture of the northern end of Prospect Park, where participants will engage in a collective social practice performance exploring environmental and social and ecologies of resilience. Following an infinity-loop pathway, the walk encourages learnquiet observation, active engagement, and radical collaboration.

Stops include the Music Pagoda, Theodore Roosevelt Tree, and Vale of Cashmere Pond, where attendees will discuss utopian urban planning, queer histories, and resilience in public spaces. Using scientific resilience thinking approach heuristics, and pluriverse visioning, the walk and performance fosters deep connections between people, place, and nature.

Wear comfortable shoes, bring water, and prepare for a transformative experiential learning.

Come for a stroll down the Upper East Side! Starting in Central Park, we will head east, walking through Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, along one cross street, till we culminate our tour at the East River.

Discover the rich history of the most densely populated neighborhood in the country.
Hear about notable residents, and figures who have impacted the area’s development. Learn how the neighborhood’s current appearance and character have been formed by city planning, civic improvements, and generations of immigrants. We will look at various physical evidence of the development of the city’s grid, its transportation and utility systems, and its residential architecture, including mansions, brownstone rowhouses, luxury apartment buildings, elaborately decorated tenements and modern residential towers.

Take a bike tour to learn about the fascinating history and development of Shirley Chisholm State Park. Named after the amazing Brooklyn Congressional Representative and first black female presidential candidate, this park repurposed 407 acres from a landfill site. It features an ecosystem that preserves native plants and fauna, offers spectacular views of Jamaica Bay, and provides free bike loans through its Bike Library program.

Walking tour of the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery, located within the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, New York.

Stretching from East 57th Street and Sutton Place, through the 60s, we will uncover the evolution of Sutton Place, York Avenue and the ever-changing landscape that grew near the banks of the East River.

“Meet” the former famous residents of this tony area, visit a 1799 carriage house-turned day hotel-turned museum that once belonged to the daughter of President John Adams, discover the site of the worst maritime disaster in NYC history and learn about one of America’s first spies who helped spark a famous spy ring created by George Washington. Once a vast expanse of farmland that later drew the masses of crowded, lower Manhattan up to the “country” for a relaxing escape, this UES neighborhood brims with historic highlights spanning well over 250 years.

Lace up your sneakers and come discover this vital part of NYC!

Spanning roughly a mile long, the Disability Justice Through the Ages Jane’s Walk takes New Yorkers on a journey through pivotal places in the disability rights movement. The walk features two historic locations (The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary & Gallaudet House for Aged and Infirm Deaf Mutes) and two modern locations (Union Street Greenmarket & 14th Street Transportation Complex Upgrades), allowing participants to see the evolution of fighting for disability rights to working towards mobility justice in the city. This walk will not only showcase important New York City historical sites crucial to the beginnings of the disability rights movement, but also highlight modern improvements to increasing accessibility for New Yorkers with diverse abilities.

For over 120 years, the Bush Terminal has been an economic engine of Brooklyn's waterfront and a cornerstone of the Sunset Park community. Once a single entity that spanned from 29th St to 51st St, and encompassed more than 8 million square feet of factories, warehouses, and piers, today Bush Terminal is divided into private developments (e.g. Industry City), city-owned industrial property, and parks. This tour will focus on MADE Bush Terminal, a city-owned space fore Manufacturers, Artisans, Designers, and Entrepreneurs. On this guided walk with Andrew Gustafson and Carinn Candelaria of Turnstile Tours, we will explore Bush Terminal’s rich industrial history through historical documents and architecture, examine updated resiliency measures and community spaces, and walk the newly-accessible water's edge along Bush Terminal Piers Park.

Hugely controversial when proposed (in 2003) and later approved, the megaproject Atlantic Yards (in 2014 renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn), is at an inflection point. See what’s been built (the Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets; 8 of 15-16 towers) and what remains: a costly deck over an MTA railyard, supporting proposed larger towers, and a two-tower project opposite the arena.
With watchdog journalist Norman Oder, learn about the project's history, uncertain timetable, changing designs (and ownership), and questions about proposed new density, financing, timing, and affordable housing, as well as oversight. Issues include public accountability, open space, arena design/operations, & the changing neighborhood/Brooklyn context.
We will walk around much of the 22-acre site's perimeter, plus a few adjacent blocks.

Join us for a tour of the Public Design Commission (PDC) Archive!

The PDC maintains an archive of projects reviewed by the Commission since 1902, documenting nearly 8,000 sites throughout New York City and providing a unique view into the history of the City’s public works that showcases how social, political and economic factors and world events can shape the public realm.

Learn about the origins of the PDC, an overview of the PDC's jurisdiction over the public realm, and discover the role that the Archive plays when it comes to providing vital background for old and current public projects and research assistance to PDC staff, New York City agency staff, and the public.

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

The fish are gone, the smell is gone, but the legend lives on. This in-person walk in the South Street Seaport visits sites of the old Fulton Fish Market. Walk leader, artist Naima Rauam, spent decades painting scenes of market life. During this “then and now” walk, Naima’s paintings show “then” at nine locations where fish market activity once took place. A printed handout and a webpage (http://artpm.com/RememberingFultonFishMarket.htm) will have reproductions of the artwork. Naima talks about the history of the fish market and her experiences working and living there. One site is the Tin Building, where Naima had an art studio.

Long before 'Anora' won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2025, the neighborhood of Brighton Beach has captured America's imagination.

We'll discuss the history of the neighborhood from turn of the century resort destination to diverse immigrant enclave today, with stops at local markets, cafes, community landmarks, and filming locations along the way. The tour will end on the famous Boardwalk during the sunset hour.

Please wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water and sun protection as we'll be right next to the beach on the boardwalk.

In this walk we will focus on the infrastructure located in West Harlem, with a focus on water - both the provision of fresh water as well as processing wastewater. Starting out at the historic 135th St Croton Aqueduct Gatehouse, we will make our way west towards the Hudson River. Along the way, we will stop at the former site of a United Electric Light & Power Company retail store on Hamilton Pl. The main attraction is the North River Wastewater Plant, which the community resisted even after the Riverbank State Park was added as a "sweetener" to appease them.

We will catch a magnificent view of the sunset over the Hudson to cap off the tour!

Themes on this tour include infrastructure, siting it, community relations, and environmental justice.

If you’ve never walked the Brooklyn Bridge, May is the ideal time. It’s a must-do NYC experience for locals and visitors alike. If you have walked it, it’s an even better experience with a tour guide. Scott will cover the rich history of the bridge build, insider knowledge of the area and point out familiar and iconic filming locations. Enjoy incomparable views of the city skyline from the Brooklyn waterfront. Hear of the several decade effort to create one of the city’s newest, most innovative and beautiful parks, Brooklyn Bridge Park

This tour will end up in NYC’s hottest neighborhood, DUMBO, home of NYC’s best pizza. Make time for lunch and to enjoy the shops, including the Brooklyn Flea (on weekends) and take home a bespoke, vintage souvenir.

The filmography and writings of Nora Ephron have become synonymous with the Upper West Side. We’ll visit Ephron’s haunts, homes, and filming locations to discover why she fell in love with the UWS after growing up in LA, how her films showcase local geography and architecture and shaped our shared cultural understanding of the area, and I’ll argue that the *real* romance of her work is not with any man, but with the unique independence and interconnectivity of life in a dense, walkable, diverse city.

We’ll also mention some non-Ephron UWS rom-coms such as The Apartment (1960) and Crossing Delancey (1987) that intersect with our route!

With gratitude to bloggers Erin Carlson and Mark Phillips for their fantastic research that shaped this tour.

Comfy shoes and water always good! Nora-themed costumes or snacks also welcome!

Our Jane’s Walk on Harlem’s famous 125th St will visit 7+ large-scale murals created over the last 20 years. We will explore these very different works of art developed by Creative Art Works and its youth apprentices. Topics will include the mural-making process, subject content and technique, and personal narratives of the artists and other stakeholders. CAW has developed hundreds of celebrated murals around the City in iconic places, e.g. Rockefeller Center and Citicorp Center; we will stop along our Walk route to discuss these stunning 7 very relevant murals, among others, at retailers Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Shack Shack and on walls controlled by Harlem Community Development Corp and DOT. We will delve into placemaking and how public art can activate, influence culture and brand spaces.

Jane’s Walk NYC is a festival of free, community-led walk/bike conversations inspired by urbanist, author, and activist Jane Jacobs.

Jane’s Walk NYC encourages people to share stories about their neighborhoods, discover unseen aspects of their communities, and connect with visitors and neighbors alike.
Ride starts at “Lehman Triangle”, intersection of Edwards Ave. and Balcom Ave behind the Lehman High School Auditorium.

We will ride North along the Hutchinson River Greenway to Shore Rd., and head back on the Pelham/Moshulu/Hutchinson Greenways.

About 7 miles, less than 2 hours. We will be stopping to discuss the parkway crossings, a flattened area we spread wood chips at, discuss the flooding area and take notes for future concerns. Finishing with pizza at Lee Street Garden, 2801 Lee Street, off the Hutch service Rd.

New York City is home to an amazing concentration of creatives in the worlds of literature and art. Manhattan's Chelsea has been an especially fruitful haven of writerly talent over the decades. This tour will celebrate some of the eclectic writers that have set up shop in this westside Manhattan from Patti Smith to Edith Wharton. We'll stop by bookstores, parks and hotels, playing games to see who can recall the songs, poems and great works they contributed to the world. Sure to be an engaging, memorable trek around a beloved NYC neighborhood.

Come for a stroll down the Upper East Side! Starting in Central Park, we will head east, walking through Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, along one cross street, till we culminate our tour at the East River.

Discover the rich history of the most densely populated neighborhood in the country.
Hear about notable residents, and figures who have impacted the area’s development. Learn how the neighborhood’s current appearance and character have been formed by city planning, civic improvements, and generations of immigrants. We will look at various physical evidence of the development of the city’s grid, its transportation and utility systems, and its residential architecture, including mansions, brownstone rowhouses, luxury apartment buildings, elaborately decorated tenements and modern residential towers.

This will be a 1-to-2-mile guided walk through the Ditmars section of Astoria, exploring the neighborhood’s diverse fruit trees in parks, along sidewalks, and in private yards. We’ll visit juneberries in Astoria Park, the city’s first public sidewalk pawpaws, chokecherries, apples, black cherries, and Astoria’s main crop – fig trees. Attendees will learn to identify trees, forage responsibly and safely, and gain a deeper appreciation for the abundance that’s around us. Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water.

We're going to walk over a few of the Harlem River Bridges. The bridges include the Third Avenue Bridge, Madison Avenue Bridge, 145th Street Bridge, and Macombs Dam Bridge. We'll see how things are connected with amazing views of the Harlem River.

We'll explore the surrounding areas including a street that was once a canal, the J.L. Mott Iron Works, some military heroes including the Harlem Hellfighters, 369th Regiment Armory, a park which used to be an industrial site, a view of Yankee Stadium, the only relic left which connected to the former Polo grounds, and much more.

We'll be crossing bridges and streets with pedestrian onramps, steps and inclines. This is not wheelchair accessible.
Wear comfortable shoes, bring water and a camera.
Around three miles, maybe a little more. Approx 2.5hrs

Learn the inside story about how the organization Monumental Women brought the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument--the first-ever statue honoring real women in the 167-year history of New York City’s Central Park--to Literary Walk. Hear the Monument's Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton "talk" about their lives with the Monument's Talking Statues app. Then discover MW's expanding virtual 5-borough women's rights history trail as well as MW's additional initiatives to honor more women and people of color in NYC's public spaces as part of our 2026 commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Unfinished Revolution.

For over 100 years, wooden water towers have stood tall above New York City as emblems of ingenuity and resiliency. An undisputed anchor of the skyline, these essential and familiar structures are often overlooked or misunderstood. Join us for a celebration of these New York City icons.

Learn how they work, their role in the city’s growth, and why they continue to be relevant today.

See water towers in art & architecture through the decades.

Reflect on water towers as a symbol of NYC.

Keep exploring with our Look Up, New York Water Tower Map.

The NYC Water Tower Tour is a walking tour. The tour begins on the High Line at 23rd Street and ends at 33rd Street & 8th Avenue. The walking distance 1.5 miles and the duration is 1.5 hours.

This will be a bike ride and talk led by Rich Miller, who previously was both NYC Energy Policy Chief (1998-2003) and Vice-President for Energy and Environmental Law at Con Edison. He has authored articles on the history of electricity and New York City’s role.
The modern electricity grid began in Lower Manhattan on September 4, 1882, when Thomas Edison started up the first grid based electric system with a power plant located on Pearl Street. This trip/talk will focus on how this happened and transformed New York City and the world. The trip/talk will also discuss two other prominent persons from this time. Nikola Tesla, who had laboratories at 89 Liberty Street and near Washington Square Park; and JP Morgan who had an Edison electric generator in his house at 36th and Madison Avenue in 1881.

I am leading a walk across Central Park to visit iconic pigeon hangouts, buildings, sidewalks and statuary. I will offer a history of pigeons, how they came to NYC and why they are so successful here.

What if we walked the city as if it were a life‑support system? This Jane’s Walk invites participants to explore NYC streets, plazas, and green corridors through the lens of space station biological closed‑loop systems. Drawing inspiration from Space Station Biological Closed Loop Research, we’ll observe how water, oxygen, heat, nutrients, waste, and care circulate—or break down—in the built environment. Together, we’ll look for “system leaks” like heat pockets, stressed plants, flooding, and maintenance gaps, while also highlighting thriving loops of stewardship and community care. This interactive walk reframes buildings and cities as living systems that depend on collaboration, maintenance, and ecological balance, offering new ways to imagine resilient, equitable urban futures grounded in everyday observation.

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

Finding Home Away from Home is a photo walk through Chinatown, exploring how we connect emotionally to unfamiliar places. Rooted in topophilia (love for place) and genius loci (spirit of the place), the walk invites immigrants and foreigners to reflect on memory, identity, and belonging while engaging in photo-based exercises. Walking becomes a tool to research our bonds with space. Participants will receive prompts to explore themes like light, repetition, and emotion in the landscape. Bring your own camera or use a provided disposable one. We’ll visit places like Seward Park and Columbus Park, tracing both visible and invisible stories. Comfortable shoes and curiosity are recommended. As Isamu Noguchi once said, “We are a landscape of all we have seen.”

Embark on a 45 minute – 1 hour discovery route through Hell’s Kitchen South, bounded by West 34th to the south, West 40th to the north, Eighth Avenue to the east, and Tenth Avenue to the west. Our walk will highlight the 19th and 20th century sites, society, and stories of the immigrant and working class communities that shaped the area. We will spotlight a few notable people who are proud to remember their roots here. We’ll explore to what extent this understated, unostentatious neighborhood is undergoing rebranding and redevelopments as a result of its proximity to Hudson Yards. We’ll consider the potential for further transformation caused by the Governor’s recommendation of Paddy’s Market for the Register of Historic Places. Join us to discover the past of Hell’s Kitchen South, and to frame questions that may shape its future.

Participants will walk and discover East Harlem’s cultural institutions,organizations, unknown places and history of historic East Harlemites.

Want to learn about some radical Black women who contributed to making Harlem a center of cultural innovation, radical politics and sustained activism in the 1930s? The tour will be led by Mariame Kaba who will share stories of inspiring Black women like Regina Andrews, Ella Baker, Williana Burroughs, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Louise Thompson Patterson, Pauli Murray, Billie Holiday, Mother Audley Moore and more.
We'll visit the street corners, buildings, public places and neighborhood spots where Black women made history - with impacts that extended far beyond Harlem's streets to the world.

This is an active tour. Participants should be reasonably fit and feel comfortable walking for up to 2 miles. Be prepared to remain outside and on your feet. If you bring young children, bring a stroller. Bring water.

A walking tour from the City Hall park north to Chambers Street and then west through lower Tribeca for a total distance of about ¾ of a mile. The tour will cover the historic significance of area and evolution from a frontier area of the City, to a place of government, then a place of trade and now a largely residential area.

Points of interest would include:
-City Hall and park
-Park Row
-Brooklyn Bridge
-8 Spruce
-Buildings on Chambers including David Dinkins Municipal Building, Surrogates Court, Tweed Courthouse, Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, 280 Broadway (the Marble Palace Stewart’s department store) and the Woolworth Building
-Cast iron buildings on Reade Street
-Bogardus Plaza, the old Cosmopolitan Hotel
-Duane Park, 60 Hudson building, AT&T Long Lines building and 56 Leonard (Jenga Building)

This is a walking tour of the Hudson Heights section of Washington Heights. The tour will start at Bennett Park, the site of Fort Washington and end in Fort Tryon Park, home to the Cloisters. We will see or discuss the area's involvement in the American Revolution, the wonder of the George Washington Bridge, the mansions and castles that were built in the area, the life and activities of Mother Cabrini, the importance of the Hudson River, the development of the Cloisters museum and other items of interest that we pass on the walk. The walk is about one mile in length and will take about one and a half hours. The walk is mostly level terrain with some steps in each of the parks.

Tin Pan Alley is the cradle of the music industry in the United States. Here, American popular music as we know it was first created and promoted. This one block of 28th Street offers a glimpse into what has become a worldwide cultural force – pop music – at its specific place of creation. As an enclave of 19th-century structures, it is also largely intact as architecture. Author and guide Miriam Berman will tell the story of Tin Pan Alley sheet music publishers, songwriters and performers who worked on 28th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue to create what would become “The Great American Songbook.”

Join us on Hudson River Park's Gansevoort Peninsula and take a tour from our salt marsh to our tide pools. Gansevoort Peninsula, which opened in 2023, is the largest stand-alone recreational space in Hudson River Park with its 5.5 acres of incredible public green space. From a sandy shoreline beach with tide pools to a pine grove, pile field and salt marsh, it is also one of the most fascinating sites to learn about local ecology.

During the Shoreline Stroll, you'll have the chance to learn more about these dynamic ecosystems and the storied history of the Peninsula.

We encourage guests to bring binoculars, wear comfortable walking shoes and to bring a hat and/or sunglasses.

Perhaps you know about the Unisphere or the New York State Pavilion, or perhaps you didn’t even know New York hosted a World’s Fair (let alone two!). Along with some of the more well-known landmarks, this tour will invite you to go beyond what you can still see and imagine Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as it once was, when more than 50 million people visited during the 1964-65 World’s Fair. We’ll visit sites that still exist, like the Garden of Meditation and the Westinghouse time capsules. We’ll also explore the historical significance of sites whose pavilions were torn down—including, yes, the Belgian pavilion, that popularized the Bel-gem waffle in the United States. We’ll wrap up at the Unisphere, and if you want, you can continue your day at the Fair at the Queens Museum and the Panorama of the City of New York.

Join me on a cute walking tour exploring the very cute neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens. This tour is all about showing off a small part of NYC that often goes unexplored, and showcasing where the latest Spider-Man trilogy was filmed.
This is an outdoors walking tour where we'll explore the neighborhood through a historical and architectural lens.
We'll visit the actual apartment buildings where Peter Parker lived and discuss how the films capture the spirit of Western Queens. We'll compare movie magic to the neighborhood's daily life, from the Sunnyside sign to the "Little Manila" billboards of Woodside. The walk is approximately 1-2 miles and will highlight architectural gems and local history, with a focus on Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home, but we'll also touch on other Spider-Man movies and media.

Join UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino founded community organization, for a hyper-local, 90-minute tour of Sunset Park through a climate justice lens. We’ll bring to life GRID 2.0, our community-led plan to decarbonize the neighborhood & operationalize a Just Transition. Move beyond mainstream narratives focused on developments like Industry City, Made in NY, or the Climate Innovation Hub to hear directly from local residents. As we walk through the neighborhood & waterfront, we’ll discuss ways to preserve Sunset Park’s working class character, protect its industrial waterfront, strengthen social cohesion, and build community power in the age of climate change. Wear comfortable shoes, bring water, and learn how you can help fight displacement and uplift frontline leadership to shape a future by and for the people of Sunset Park.

Learn about New York through four centuries of Muslim history, with a focus on the sites and sounds of Harlem. The tour brings to life interracial stories of labor movements, halal food, anti-colonialism, and the prolific life of Malcolm X. Through the Great Migration or more recent immigration, we will see how Muslim intellectuals, artists, and communities have shaped the city. Learn about the links between jazz and Islam at the Apollo Theatre, the presence of a Sufi saint on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, and more!

The filmography and writings of Nora Ephron have become synonymous with the Upper West Side. We’ll visit Ephron’s haunts, homes, and filming locations to discover why she fell in love with the UWS after growing up in LA, how her films showcase local geography and architecture and shaped our shared cultural understanding of the area, and I’ll argue that the *real* romance of her work is not with any man, but with the unique independence and interconnectivity of life in a dense, walkable, diverse city.

We’ll also mention some non-Ephron UWS rom-coms such as The Apartment (1960) and Crossing Delancey (1987) that intersect with our route!

With gratitude to bloggers Erin Carlson and Mark Phillips for their fantastic research that shaped this tour.

Comfy shoes and water always good! Nora-themed costumes or snacks also welcome!

A walking tour meets street theater in this interactive performance of New York language and slang. Set in the historically linguistic melting pot of the Lower East Side, this two hour exploration of words and accents is led by licensed NYC tour guide Nic Reale in character as "The Tour"—but all guests participate. Together everyone explores more than the origin of local phrases or how New Yawkers tawk; we also communicate across the city’s diverse cultures to see how they form a new one.

It’s well known that Central Park is one of the most iconic urban parks in the world. But imagine, just for a moment, that it isn’t a park at all—instead, it’s a museum. It would be the most diverse museum on Earth, one that is open 365 days a year and is completely free. Its “collections” would span almost every conceivable department including art and sculpture, landscape design, archaeology, geology, urban history, horticulture, engineering, transportation, theater and performance, and more. No other museum would rival its scale, variety, or accessibility.

Welcome to the “Central Park Museum.”

This easy stroll (roughly one mile) offers a perfect sampler of the museum’s “exhibits” blending education and enjoyment. Your Jane’s Walk leader, Jack, is an NYC licensed tour guide and longtime Central Park Conservancy volunteer.

Enjoy a guided walk through time as we discover remnants of the Upper West Side’s storied history that have survived relentless rounds of development and are still there to see—if you know where to look. Wear comfortable walking shoes because we’re going to cover 450 million years in 40 blocks! Your time-traveling host will be Rob Garber, who writes the Historical Photo Challenge column for the West Side Rag.

Join the Newtown Creek Alliance for a walking tour to witness and discuss last mile warehouse pollution and other related environmental issues along Newtown Creek. The tour will bring us to several last mile facilities to witness firsthand the impact of excessive truck traffic on issues including pedestrian safety, air pollution, and aquatic habitat vitality. The tour also highlights the growing movement for cleaner freight and introduces the proposed Clean Delivers Act, which would require large warehouses to reduce emissions and address their environmental impacts. We will begin at Onderdonk House in Ridgewood and make our way through industrial portions of Maspeth. In total, the walk is approximately 2.5 miles long and features some adverse sidewalk conditions. The route is not wheelchair accessible.

Our Jane’s Walk on Harlem’s famous 125th St will visit 7+ large-scale murals created over the last 20 years. We will explore these very different works of art developed by Creative Art Works and its youth apprentices. Topics will include the mural-making process, subject content and technique, and personal narratives of the artists and other stakeholders. CAW has developed hundreds of celebrated murals around the City in iconic places, e.g. Rockefeller Center and Citicorp Center; we will stop along our Walk route to discuss these stunning 7 very relevant murals, among others, at retailers Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Shack Shack and on walls controlled by Harlem Community Development Corp and DOT. We will delve into placemaking and how public art can activate, influence culture and brand spaces.

How much history can a "new" neighborhood hold? More than you'd think. Everyone knows Long Island City as one of NYC's fastest-growing neighborhoods, but scratch the surface and you'll find a rich history hiding in plain sight.

During this in-person, guided group walk, we'll start on the steps of a 150-year-old courthouse, take in some remnants of the old subway system, and check out some underappreciated row houses. We'll also learn the beefy backstory of who purchased the land that would become Murray Park, before finishing at what many consider one of the city’s finest examples of adaptive reuse. My grandmother always said this neighborhood had the best views in the city, come see if she was right.

Starting at the Historical High Bridge, we will look at some of the infrastructure and obstacles that separate the Bronx from the Harlem River Waterfront. We will proceed to walk along the river's edge, discuss the history of water recreation along its shores and a vision for reconnecting the community to its waterfront, and once again providing community members on-water recreational activities.

Participants should come prepared to walk over a mile and we will start and end in the same neighborhood.

This walking tour will visit a nearly complete multi-family building designed by BKSK Architects on the northern edge of the West Village, called The Village West. This new development marks the third of four corners at 14th Street and 6th Avenue to be redeveloped in the past decade. Taking cues from the surrounding neighborhoods and immediately adjacent buildings in forms and materiality, the Village West offers textures and lines reflecting a dialogue between past and present, honoring the city’s architectural heritage while supporting modern life.

Participants will experience the exterior of the building and visit the interior courtyard. Some of the building might be an active construction site, and closed toe shoes should be worn by all.

We’ll trace modern NYC from its days as the greatest manufacturing hub the world had ever seen to the financialized city of today. The tour centers on Cortlandt Street’s former “Radio Row,” Lower Manhattan’s once-thriving panoply of electronics shops and shacks. We’ll discuss the people who gave Radio Row its “amazingly human quality,” in Pete Hamill’s words, and those, like Jane Jacobs, who recognized its singular value. We’ll cover the 1960s battle over Lower Manhattan's fate, which ended in the stunning demolition of Radio Row and the rise of the Twin Towers. We’ll also examine how finance - exemplified by David and Nelson Rockefeller - shaped the city’s built environment, architecture, and direction. The walk will be about 90 minutes, mostly shaded, beginning in Battery Park City and concluding at the foot of 1 World Trade Center.

Transport yourself back in time with the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)’ exclusive tour of the Surrogate’s Courthouse (originally known as the Hall of Records). Located in Lower Manhattan, this Beaux-Arts historical landmark is an example of the early 20th-century architectural movement, City Beautiful. Designed by John Rochester Thomas and completed in 1907 by Tammany Hall architects Horgan and Slattery, the building aimed to visually transform NYC, uplift the city’s communities and inspire moral and civic virtue.

The guided tour, led by Matthew Minor, a digitization specialist in the Municipal Archives, takes participants through the building’s magnificent lobby and shares historical insights on the Palais Garnier-inspired grand staircase, mosaic ceilings, and interior sculptures.

Welcome, you tired, you poor, you huddled masses yearning to breathe free, to the East Village! On this tour, we'll explore the four centuries of immigrant history - Italian bakeries, Ukrainian butchers, Yiddish theaters, Dutch graveyards, German libraries, Irish pubs - and we'll do it all in the space of six blocks.

Let's ride the Staten Island Ferry to hear the greatest New York story never told—the life of Daniel Tompkins. We know Tompkins for the East Village park bearing his name. But this two-time U.S. Vice-President and four-time NYS Governor was the political power behind the abolition of slavery in New York, which celebrates its 200th Anniversary next year. And in the War of 1812, with little or no resources, Governor Tompkins organized, armed, and even financed the defeat of the British in the northeast, preserving both New York City and the Hudson River when losing those would have meant the end for of a young, independent United States. At the same time, Tompkins was launching the first Staten Island Ferry (no, it was not Vanderbilt!). So all aboard Big Orange for a fascinating story and a salute to New York's forgotten hero.

Come discover the hidden history of Middleburgh, aka Newtown, aka Elmhurst, stretching from 1652 through the American Revolution to the present.

This eye-opening stroll encompasses the early settlement of Elmhurst, including its famous families, prominent visitors and how American independence was already brewing in Queens way before the Revolution erupted in 1776. We'll visit several pre-Revolutionary churches and cemeteries, and learn about the residents of the area, and how the community has explosively grown and changed over the years. We'll cover the early inhabitants' struggle for personal and religious freedom from England, and the clashes between the local patriots vs. the loyalists and British soldiers.

Experience Jewish life as it was over a century ago on the Lower East Side.
Join us as we visit iconic Jewish social and political landmarks: explore beautiful historic Synagogues and cultural institutions; indulge in Jewish immigrant cuisine unlike anywhere in New York; and glimpse at one of the City's most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods.

In celebration of America 250, this walk will visit some historic sites in the Bronx that played a role in the American Revolution. During the war, the Bronx contained vital crossroads leading to and from New York. The area saw fighting as Washington's army and later other patriot forces tried to maintain control of the area. We'll discuss the role the area played in the war and visit several key sites.

I will talk about several forces that shaped this land, from the ice age to the present day. We will find ourselves in the current moment through intimate observation of our surroundings and gentle movement.

There will be time to write and/or draw at several points throughout our time together. Please bring: a journal or sketchbook and something to write/draw with.

About me: I am a disabled nonbinary artist who has lived and worked in Brooklyn since 2016. I host free and donation-based events, including clothing swaps and weaving workshops. I walked the entire Brooklyn waterfront in 2022, and the Manhattan waterfront in 2023. I've spent hundreds of hours in Prospect Park. I love to stare at the lake.

From the imposing to the inspiring, this tour delves into the Brutalist gems both known and overlooked of the Upper East Side. Over the course of a 2 mile walk, we’ll explore six buildings, examining the architects’ visions, their original purposes, and how they function today. Through discussion and interior imagery, we’ll gain a deeper appreciation for their place in the city’s architectural landscape.

Before it was the national pastime, baseball was New York's game. Like Silicon Valley is to technology and Detroit is to cars, Brooklyn was an incubator of innovation in the early days of baseball. Imagine walking through old South Brooklyn (Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill) on a May day in the mid-19th century. I guarantee you would have seen baseball. Although the rules, the business, and how you followed the game might differ even between Carroll and Bergen Streets, the overheard debates of team rivalry, superiority, and prognostication are the everlasting threads connecting the game's infancy to today. Join this walking tour led by a former professional moneyballer and current baseball fanatic/Brooklyn resident. Bring your peanuts and Cracker Jacks (and water and comfortable shoes), and let's play ball!

In downtown Jamaica, theaters have become churches, churches have become cultural venues, a library became a courthouse, then apartments, and a hospital transformed into housing. Buildings often outlive the purposes they were designed for, leaving clues about earlier eras hidden in plain sight.

This walk explores the many “second lives” of Jamaica’s buildings and what they reveal about the neighborhood’s changing community, economy, and institutions. Together we’ll look for architectural hints of past uses and talk about how cities adapt when the needs of a neighborhood shift. Stops include the Jamaica Performing Arts Center (former First Reformed Church of Jamaica), the Tabernacle of Prayer Lifeline Church (former Valencia Theater), Parkhill City Apartments (former Mary Immaculate Hospital), and others.

Stroll the historic Meatpacking District with Jacquie Ottman, "The Meatpacking Lady", whose family's storied meat purveying business parallels that of the district itself. Start at Gansevoort Plaza, the Belgian block lined intersection of five Manhattan blocks whose history spans over four centuries of NYC transformation. Then, retrace the steps of a Lenape Trail, enjoy examples of architecture commissioned Astor and other Gilded Age families, and visit the site of an 1812 military fort. Learn why this area became the center of meatpacking in NYC during the 20th Century, and why and how it has transformed into NYC's most fashionable neighborhood. Cap off the walk by taking in a stunning view of New York harbor. Get answers to your questions from your enthusiastic and passionate guide who experienced the district in the 1970s firsthand.

Finance bros, midtown commuters, and… the site of a Revolutionary War battle? Cast aside the stereotypes of Kips Bay to uncover 250 years of rich cultural history on this guided walking tour. We’ll explore how Kips Bay has evolved alongside New York City as a whole, from Kip family farm, to Little Armenia, to “Curry Hill” today. Some of our eclectic stops will include the footprint of the original farm, a rare surviving wooden house, and the site of a presidential inauguration. The tour will conclude with a snack at one of our favorite Curry Hill establishments!

Everyday over 700,000 New Yorkers pass through Midtown along Park Avenue to and from Grand Central Terminal. This is a part of the City where in a few blocks you can see many of the forces that have shaped our city. There are icons of architecture (Midtown Modernism) and capitalism such as Lever, Seagram, and the Chrysler building. There are icons of real estate such as the Grand Hyatt and Helmsley. Under construction is one of the city’s tallest office buildings Chase. There are great clubs and great churches. This walk will showcase some of the art and architecture along Park Avenue and tell some of the stories about its past, its present, and perhaps future.

The tour is available as a guided tour, as well as a virtual tour.

Brooklyn was once known as the “Borough of Churches,” a 19th-century nickname inspired by the steeples and bell towers that once filled its skyline. Within just a few blocks, a remarkable collection of churches emerged, each tied to stories of immigration, reform, architecture, and community life.

This Jane’s Walk visits some of Brooklyn Height's most influential houses of worship, including Plymouth Church, St. Ann & the Holy Trinity, and St. Charles Borromeo, uncovering stories of abolitionists, famous preachers, and the congregations that helped shape Brooklyn’s identity.

Along the way, we’ll explore how these institutions transformed Brooklyn Heights from farmland into one of America’s first commuter suburbs, and how their influence can still be seen in the neighborhood today.

After trying to have a walking tour before a row the last two years, we are eliminating the walking tour as it wasn't enough time rowing. We will teach you how to row in the cove at Pier 40. Point out points of interest observable on our row on the river. Bring a water bottle and a hat for sun protection. We supply the Life Jackets.

This 60 minute walking tour will touch on the architectural history of Prospect Lefferts Garden and how the neighborhood has evolved over time.

Beginning near the Lefferts Historic House located in Prospect Park, the walk will continue down Flatbush, noting the former home of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Bond Bakery Company building.

The tour will then continue through the historic district of PLG, observing landmarks such as the Grace Reformed Church, the Rogers Firehouse, and the unique architectural stylings of the neighborhood. Considering how the neighborhood has changed, the walk will head down Rutland Rd. ending back on Flatbush.

Participants will want to bring comfortable walking shoes and water.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

New York City, as always, is in a deep, unrelenting housing crisis. During this walk -- which covers the Lower East Side -- we will look at various housing models New York City experimented with during the 20th century, from public housing (a model that would have been successful with consistent federal funding), to limited equity co-operatives, to Mitchell Lama developments. We'll consider how these models, most of which remove market pressures from housing, could be adapted to meet the city's current housing needs, and talk about the growing movement for social housing in New York. This tour, which will last approximately 2 hours, will be lead by Katelin Penner, a writer and urban planner working in New York City.

Let’s spill the tea on Rebels and Redcoats, victors and vanquished, on this uptown walk about Revolutionary War stories. Instead of guns and cannons, we’ll talk about the people connected to the Battle of Fort Washington. Along the way, we’ll visit three parks to see how the terrain itself was a character in the devastating action of 1776. (Spoiler alert: we lost the battle but won the war.)

Distance: please be ready to walk 2 miles. Route includes some hills and stairs.

Note: The topic of war battles and gossip, while kept mild, is best suited for adults.

Walk ends in beautiful Ft Tryon Park, close to public transportation (A train, M4 bus), restrooms, and a restaurant.

Huzzah!

Join docents from the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition at the Triangle Fire Memorial to learn about the historic fire and its outcomes. “Reframing the Sky,” the Triangle Memorial is a work of public art, placed on the landmarked site of the infamous 1911 shirtwaist factory fire. The Triangle Memorial honors the 146 victims, and stands to preserve their memory and that of the activists who instituted legal and social systems and safety requirements that since have improved Americans’ lives. Meet at the Triangle Fire Memorial at the intersection of Washington Place and Greene Street in Greenwich Village.

In a city full of towering skyscrapers, everyone looks up - but on this tour, we’re looking down! Soho’s sidewalks are packed with endless bits of history and art that most people step right over. On this tour, you’ll see old vault lights, engravings, and other sidewalk oddities that tell the story of the neighborhood: its industrial past, artistic heyday, and everything in between.

Learn the inside story about how the organization Monumental Women brought the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument--the first-ever statue honoring real women in the 167-year history of New York City’s Central Park--to Literary Walk. Hear the Monument's Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton "talk" about their lives with the Monument's Talking Statues app. Then discover MW's expanding virtual 5-borough women's rights history trail as well as MW's additional initiatives to honor more women and people of color in NYC's public spaces as part of our 2026 commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Unfinished Revolution.

Sharpen your #2 pencils and put on your thinking cap— it’s time to learn about NYC Public Schools, the largest school district in the country, serving nearly one million children. But it wasn’t always a given that NYC kids would get an education. How did this vast system come to be? How do the many stakeholders come together to serve our youngest New Yorkers? Join two education researchers for a walk through downtown Manhattan as we learn about public education from the POVs of the many groups involved: NYC Public Schools, the mayor and politicians, teachers, students and families, and graduates.

Gowanus has changed faster in the last 3 years than in the previous three decades. Join photographer Ines Leong for a 60-min walking tour anchored by her photographic series Gowanus Canal In Transition (2022–2024). A "time capsule" view from above before new towers closed the views forever.

Starting at Union St & Nevins St, we'll cross two historic bridges: Union St and the 1889 Carroll St Bridge, the oldest retractable bridge in North America. At each stop, compare side-by-side aerials from 2022–2024, and look at some of the old photos from previous eras.

Participants are encourage to share their stories of the Gowanus Canal.

Wear comfortable shoes and stay hydrated. Rain or Shine event.

Join us on an exciting walking tour of the ever-changing architecture of Southwest Midtown Manhattan. Focusing on locations in close proximity to 34th Street, we’ll be exploring the history of iconic landmarks such as The Empire State Building, Farley Post Office, Madison Square Garden, The Macy’s Building, and others. Be sure to wear some comfortable shoes and have your camera at the ready to capture both the classic and contemporary architecture that helps define New York City. We’ll be meeting at Plaza33, located at 7th Avenue and 33rd Street (in front of Anita Gelato). It will be a fun and educational experience for all!

Perhaps you know about the Unisphere or the New York State Pavilion, or perhaps you didn’t even know New York hosted a World’s Fair (let alone two!). Along with some of the more well-known landmarks, this tour will invite you to go beyond what you can still see and imagine Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as it once was, when more than 50 million people visited during the 1964-65 World’s Fair. We’ll visit sites that still exist, like the Garden of Meditation and the Westinghouse time capsules. We’ll also explore the historical significance of sites whose pavilions were torn down—including, yes, the Belgian pavilion, that popularized the Bel-gem waffle in the United States. We’ll wrap up at the Unisphere, and if you want, you can continue your day at the Fair at the Queens Museum and the Panorama of the City of New York.

This is a (now semi-authorized) love letter to Colson Whitehead's Harlem novels. Following along some of the locations (real-life and fictionalized) in the two books, this walk will look at 25 years of Harlem history and reflect upon the context of New York in that greater period.

Join us for a unique exploration of one block—22nd Street between 9th & 10th Avenues. Inspired by Alexandra Horowitz’s book, “On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes”, we’ll slow down and awaken our senses to details we often overlook.

We’ll observe the interplay of architecture and nature, uncover hidden patterns, and marvel at the rich textures and contrasts that make urban life so endlessly fascinating. From the artistry of building facades, to the quiet life of the trees, to the whispers of history etched into brickwork—every inch of this block holds stories waiting to be discovered.

No prior knowledge is required; just bring your curiosity and an openness to seeing the world anew. By the end of the walk, you may find yourself noticing more wherever you go, with a deeper appreciation for the extraordinary in the everyday.

En este recorrido exploraremos la maravillosa arquitectura del área al norte de Park Avenue. Partiremos desde el Rockefeller Center y desde allí iremos explorando íconos de la arquitectura como el Lever House, El Seagram, el Waldorf Astoria y la nueva sede de JP Morgan. Culminamos en el área del icónico Grand Central Terminal.

On this tour, we will explore the magnificent architecture of the area north of Park Avenue. We will set out from Rockefeller Center and, from there, explore architectural icons such as Lever House, the Seagram Building, the Waldorf Astoria, and the new JP Morgan headquarters. We will conclude in the vicinity of the iconic Grand Central Terminal.

The proposed walk will revisit the key role played by the King’s Bridge in the Continental Army’s evacuation of Manhattan Island in October 1776. Washington and the Army came close to extinction on several occasions in Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1776, the last of which involved the King’s Bridge as the only robust crossing to the mainland in the current Bronx.

The walk will begin at Henry Hudson Park in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the Bronx to discuss American fortifications built in and around the park to protect the King’s Bridge. It will proceed to the site of the King’s Bridge on West 230th Street, stopping to note the course of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek that once separated Manhattan from the mainland. It will conclude at West 230th Street and Broadway. The events of 1776 in Manhattan and the Bronx will be discussed throughout.

Spanning roughly a mile long, the Disability Justice Through the Ages Jane’s Walk takes New Yorkers on a journey through pivotal places in the disability rights movement. The walk features two historic locations (The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary & Gallaudet House for Aged and Infirm Deaf Mutes) and two modern locations (Union Street Greenmarket & 14th Street Transportation Complex Upgrades), allowing participants to see the evolution of fighting for disability rights to working towards mobility justice in the city. This walk will not only showcase important New York City historical sites crucial to the beginnings of the disability rights movement, but also highlight modern improvements to increasing accessibility for New Yorkers with diverse abilities.

The beautiful and historic neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights offers excellent examples of Jane Jacobs’s principles of urban diversity in action. Beginning at the steps of Brooklyn¹s Borough Hall, we will stroll through residential and commercial streets while observing and talking about how the physical environment influences social activity and even economic and cultural development, both for good and for ill.

Please bring water and wear comfortable shoes!

Transport yourself back in time with the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)’ exclusive tour of the Surrogate’s Courthouse (originally known as the Hall of Records). Located in Lower Manhattan, this Beaux-Arts historical landmark is an example of the early 20th-century architectural movement, City Beautiful. Designed by John Rochester Thomas and completed in 1907 by Tammany Hall architects Horgan and Slattery, the building aimed to visually transform NYC, uplift the city’s communities and inspire moral and civic virtue.

The guided tour, led by Matthew Minor, a digitization specialist in the Municipal Archives, takes participants through the building’s magnificent lobby and shares historical insights on the Palais Garnier-inspired grand staircase, mosaic ceilings, and interior sculptures.

Jackie Robinson is best known for breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he took the field with the Brooklyn Dodgers. As Robinson developed into a seasoned civil rights activist, however, he turned his attention to Harlem as he and other Black New Yorkers continued the fight for racial equality. This tour brings to light Jackie Robinson’s multifaceted and decades-long engagement with Harlem. Explore sites including Freedom National Bank, the Apollo, and the Harlem YMCA and re-discover lesser known stories like that of the first Jackie Robinson Day and Robinson’s relationship with Harlem leaders like Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X. Join a curator from the Jackie Robinson Museum as we build our understanding of the neighborhood that helped shape both Robinson’s outlook on America and his fight for racial and economic justice.

Mary was my ancestor, born in 1845 and died in 1912. She worked with Tiffany and partnered with LaFarge, but was never given her due as a leading artist in Gilded Age mansion interior design, opalescent stained glass, and other works of art. She was born on Washington Square and died a few doors away. With the publication of my 11 volumes of her life and works this year, I will take you on a short tour of the square mile in which she lived and worked on her masterpieces. We will see #3 Washington Square N, where her sumptuous apartment was and upstairs her studio where Edward Hopper succeeded her. I will describe the many illustrious figures who also lived there with her. The tour includes Union Square Century building, National Arts Club, her beautiful window in Grace church, and related spaces. See that Age through her eyes!

Join docents from the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition at the Triangle Fire Memorial to learn about the historic fire and its outcomes. “Reframing the Sky,” the Triangle Memorial is a work of public art, placed on the landmarked site of the infamous 1911 shirtwaist factory fire. The Triangle Memorial honors the 146 victims, and stands to preserve their memory and that of the activists who instituted legal and social systems and safety requirements that since have improved Americans’ lives. Meet at the Triangle Fire Memorial at the intersection of Washington Place and Greene Street in Greenwich Village.

Join a specialized architectural walking tour of the Lefferts Manor Historic District and its unique place in the Flatbush landscape. We’ll explore the 1893 Restrictive Covenants that mandated brick and stone construction, creating a preserved 19th‑century streetscape. Learn to identify Romanesque Revival, Neo‑Renaissance, and Tudor‑style homes along Rutland Road and Midwood Street, and observe the shift to 1920s apartment architecture near Flatbush Avenue. Attendees will learn key historic markers and design traits that define this landmarked enclave.

Wear comfortable shoes for a 1.5‑mile walk, and bring a camera for the limestone details.

Ever wondered what waterways weave beneath the West Village? Or how Washington Square Park came to rest atop a cemetery plot? This tour will peel back the palimpsest that is Manhattan—or Manaháhtaan, as the Lenape called it. The goal: to reveal the powwow spots, cobblestone streets, and orchards that eventually gave way to today’s concrete jungle.

Attendees aren’t just tourists; they’re time travelers, traversing centuries of topographical upheaval in the West and East Villages. We'll explore how successive waves of colonial rule shaped and renamed the land, yet never fully erased the Lenape. (Times Square, in fact, could not have existed without a Lenape trail.) Sneakers and water bottles are ideal. Visitors can rest their feet beneath my favorite unsung landmark: the city’s oldest tree, the last living witness to this buried history.

The tour will explain the 100-year evolution of the far West Side, from the historic railroad, to the impact of Robert Moses's urban renewal footprint around Lincoln Center, going through Trump's many visions (and final plan) for Trump Place, and the development of Riverside Center. Attendees will get to familiarize themselves with one of the more isolated corners of the Upper West Side, learning about how the dynamics of development shaped the neighborhood, and its contrasts with its historic counterparts.

Stops will include:
- 69th Street Transfer Bridge
- Former ABC recording studio @ 320 West 66th Street
- Trump Place building @ 160 Riverside Boulevard
- Extell's poor door @ One Riverside Park
- Waterline Square

Special guest(s) TBD

Comfortable walking shoes recommended

Explore structures and sites in South Slope and surrounding neighborhoods through first-hand accounts by people who lived and traveled there. Listen to the words penned in letters, family papers, manuscripts, and contemporary essays, as well as Lenape oral histories illuminating personal experiences in what is now South Brooklyn. See images of newspaper clippings and photographs from Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper articles, Brooklyn CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) ephemera, and other primary sources offering a glimpse of South Slope at various points in time. Inspired by Betty Smith’s semi-autobiographical novel, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” this tour will shine a light on everyday residents and their daily habitats through their own words and images.

Join artist-researcher Kyle Barnes of Chimeras Collective in a leaf-walk through Prospect Park. In early May, this ecosystem is mid-exhale — bud scales dropping, new leaves unfurling, the forest mid-becoming. Together, we’ll move through Brooklyn’s last remaining forest, attending to the leafing out of some of the park’s 193 tree species. Come ready to go slow, get low, and learn some of the stories leaves can tell us about transition and flourishing.

Bring comfortable shoes and a small bag for collecting leaf specimens, optionally a journal. We'll be outside for approximately 90 minutes, rain or shine.

In 1980, Edward Fausty and I embarked on a year-long documentation of the Lower East Side in a unique collaboration in which we shared a 4x5 view camera.
1980 was a pivotal moment in the history of New York. While the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, artists and musicians flocked to the crumbling Lower East Side with its affordable housing and edgy vibe. Ed and I were participant witnesses to that almost mythical time when everything from punk rock to graffiti emerged from the streets of Downtown New York.
Murder on Second Avenue is a memoir that keys off of an infamous murder at Binibon, a restaurant that once stood at the corner of East 5th Street and Second Avenue.

My walk begins at St. Mark’s Place proceeds down Second Avenue and ends on East 4th Street where I lived in the late 70s until about 1993.

Learn the history of NYC's amazing community gardens. Most of NYC's gardens were started on abandoned land by community volunteers, and in 1999 NYC tried to destroy them. Environmental organizations and community activists rose up to defend them and were successful in saving almost all the gardens. Today these gardens are not just building community, providing clean air and capturing rain water, but also educating people on the composting system, water recovery systems, urban farming techniques, and so much more. This walking tour will also pass by another huge victory: the saving of CHARAS community center. The tour will start at the Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, and led by the museum's director who was involved in saving NYC's community gardens.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

This will be a walk along the car-free and traffic-light free Hudson River Trail It will connect two disasters: it will start at the World Trade Center, and will be a two mile walk to Pier 59 at Chelsea Piers, where the Titanic was to arrive in 1912. There are over 20 talking points along the way, including:
How close were the World Trade Center Towers to the original edge of the island?
Why do they call the Hudson "the river that runs both ways"?
The Hudson River along Manhattan is not actually a river... what form of body of water is it?
What was Robert Moses going to do with the West Side Highway and how did Jane Jacobs stop him?
How long has the New York City street grid system been in effect?

I did this walk the past two years and it has been very well received.

Join me for a 0.7-mile Jane’s Walk along the beautiful Long Island City waterfront, exploring the future of public bathrooms in NYC. We’ll begin at the residential public bathrooms at Gotham Point (56-27 2nd St), then visit the NYC Dept of Parks and Recreation restroom by the Oval, continue to Hunter’s Point Library, and end at the residential bathrooms at 46-10 Center Blvd behind the Pepsi Cola sign, managed by the NYS Office of Parks and Recreation. Along the way, learn how NYC has just 1,000 public bathrooms and how new legislation requires 1,000 more by 2035. We’ll compare multiple bathroom typologies, discuss maintenance models, explore global precedents, and share advocacy strategies. This walk is an opportunity to exchange ideas, share experiences, and discuss how we can collectively improve access to public bathrooms in our city.

Join UPROSE, Brooklyn’s oldest Latino founded community organization, for a hyper-local, 90-minute tour of Sunset Park through a climate justice lens. We’ll bring to life GRID 2.0, our community-led plan to decarbonize the neighborhood & operationalize a Just Transition. Move beyond mainstream narratives focused on developments like Industry City, Made in NY, or the Climate Innovation Hub to hear directly from local residents. As we walk through the neighborhood & waterfront, we’ll discuss ways to preserve Sunset Park’s working class character, protect its industrial waterfront, strengthen social cohesion, and build community power in the age of climate change. Wear comfortable shoes, bring water, and learn how you can help fight displacement and uplift frontline leadership to shape a future by and for the people of Sunset Park.

This downhill walk begins at the Grand Staircase near Laurel Terrace in Highbridge Park and ends at the Harlem River shoreline in Sherman Creek Park. Starting on the monumental concrete stairs, we will reflect on the legacy of Robert Moses and the infrastructure that prioritized cars, highways, and trucks over pedestrians, bikes, and public transit along Northern Manhattan’s east side.

We’ll follow the Chestnut Trail through Highbridge Park’s urban forest, stopping at the Chestnut Grove to learn about efforts to restore the American chestnut—once dominant in eastern forests.

From there, we continue to Sherman Creek Park and end by the water, exploring the park’s living shoreline and imagining a greener future for the Harlem River waterfront.

Wear comfortable walking shoes. The walk is a moderate downhill route of up to 1.6 miles.

There is so much to see in this wonderful neighborhood which is sandwiched in between the Upper West Side and Harlem. And Morningside Heights is so compact that we can walk from the SE corner at 110th Street to the Northwest corner near 125th Street in about 2 hours. We will start with the Revolutionary War at a monument by Morningside Park, and end with the Civil War at Grant’s Tomb. In between we will see the many academic institutions which give the neighborhood its nickname of New York’s Academic Acropolis. Also on our route are Morningside's 3 parks, 2 magnificent churches, and its many beautiful prewar apartment buildings.

This 1.2 mile live walking tour of the East Village will begin at the Astor Place Cube — across the street from the first public restroom in the city — and make stops at locations including McSorley’s Ale House, a former public bathhouse, and the 10th Street Historic District — and end at the Temperance Fountain in Tompkins Square Park. During the walk we’ll discuss how access to various types of water impacted public health in the city, from flush toilets and drinking fountains, to bathing and leisure activities. We’ll visit public works projects, tenements, fashionable row houses, and a historic park. Attendees will come away with a greater appreciation of modern sanitation, safe drinking water, and indoor plumbing. Participants should wear comfortable shoes and bring water (if they’d like).

Join longtime Seaport advocate Stephen Dima and artist Naima Rauam for their annual walk back in time along historic South Street to celebrate Louis Morino and his legendary restaurant, Sloppy Louie’s, once a warm harbor for fishmongers and workers. Immortalized by New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell in Up in the Old Hotel, Louie’s stood at the heart of the bustling Fulton Fish Market, where the air carried the scent of salt and ice, and the voices of a thousand early-morning deals. Our journey begins at the former site of Louie’s, now the Fulton Stall Market, we'll share some stories, photos and film that whisper of vanished days. Then wander the streets of the Seaport together, where past and present blur, and glimpse the shadows and stories of the neighborhood’s legendary characters who still seem to linger in the brick and cobblestones.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

The A and C trains brought thousands of Southern and Caribbean migrants to Bedford Stuyvesant during the 1st and 2nd waves of the Great Migration. Fulton Street remains the primary commercial artery for the community; however the community has changed. Although the jazz/ venue sites have been demolished or repurposed, we remember the rich jazz legacy of the community.

We will walk through the streets that produced luminaries such as Max Roach, Randy Weston, Jitu Weusi, Judges John Phillips and William Thompson, Andrew and Jocelyn Cooper, Joan Maynard, Bertram Baker, Ernesta Procope, Bethann Hardison, June Jordan, Paule Marshall, Roxie Roker, Una Mulzac, Hattie Carthan, Elsie Richardson, Dr. Josephine English the women of the United Order of The Tents to name a few and the multitudes who labored in obscurity.

Join us for a walk reflecting on 50 years of art history in Jamaica, led by Damali Abrams, Sherese Francis, and Rejin Leys, local artists and members of the Southeast Queens Artist Alliance. Starting at the York College campus, home to a significant public art collection, including works by Houston Conwill and Martin Puryear, the tour will proceed to York’s Health and Physical Education building, previously the site of artist Tom Lloyd’s Store Front Museum, the borough’s first art museum. The Store Front Museum operated from 1971 to 1988 as a museum of Black history, culture, and art and community space. After a half-mile walk through the central business district, the tour will end at Queens Public Library’s Central Library, where participants are invited to join a follow-up creative workshop and artist roundtable with the tour leaders.

Follow the footprints of Brooklyn's forgotten abolitionist. We’ll be tracing the history of Brooklyn's spirit of liberation, from the first Free Black communities of the 1800s to the Black suffragists, to hip-hop and beyond. Our focus is 227 Duffield Street, which NYC wanted to destroy in the name of "progress." Its owner Mama Joy Chatel stopped the plan by showing it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Her daughter Shawné Lee leads the tour with a deeply personal story of the impact of urban renewal. Public historian Raul Rothblatt uncovers the stories of heroes, including journalist & suffragist Ida B. Wells. Learn why she moved there and why it was central to our Civil Rights history. Once you hear these stories, the neighborhood will never look the same.

A walking tour of western Washington Heights and the area now known as Hudson Heights, starting in the 160s and going up to the beginning of Fort Tryon Park. Many people who are not native New Yorkers, and some who are, don't know much about this interesting neighborhood. It's a place of incredible diversity, from the Dominican "capital" of New York to landmarks like the United Palace Theater to Revolutionary War historic sites to the prestigious Castle Village and Hudson View developments. It has dramatic views of the Palisades and the George Washington Bridge, and, toward the end of the walk, Bennett Park, the highest point in Manhattan. I lived in the Heights back in the early '80s, and have remained in love with it ever since.

The New York City Department of Records & Information Services (DORIS) invites visitors to tour the Municipal Archives’ storage and research location in Industry City. Opened in October 2021, the $22 million state-of-the-art facility is the city's most significant investment in its Archives since the establishment of DORIS in 1977.

Join archivists Cynthia Brenwall and Katie Ehrlich on Saturday, May 2nd, for a 90-minute behind-the-scenes tour of the space and a look at unique archival artifacts, from Mayoral scrapbooks and gifts to historical records on crime, education and city life!

Ft Greene is the heart and soul of Brooklyn's Art and Cultural Institutions. Walk, learn and capture the sights. Bring your camera. Learn from Ketriana Yvonne, a Ft Greene Brooklyn native, about the stories of what was, what is now, and what will be. We will walk along Fulton Street, Lafayette ave and Flatbush ave and end in front of the Paramount Theater. Ketriana knows the old history and will share personal stories about who has lived here and what change has created in Ft. Greene. Ketriana is a Board Member of the Society of Old Brooklynites and serves on the Intergenerational Community Arts Council serving Fort Greene. Ketriana leads the "Sequin Soul Poetry from the Spirit" which is also a virtual workshop for Jane's Walk. Ketriana Yvonne is also the host and producer of "The Ketriana Yvonne Show" airing on Brooklyn Free Speech.

In celebation of the 250th Anniversary of American Independance, the focus is the American Revolution in Astoria. Highlights will include the site of Ebenezer Steven’s mansion (also the home of Secretary of the Treasury and Founding Father, Albert Galatin), the Blackwell family’s role during the American Revolution, the hamlet of Hallett’s Cove, the site of a British Army camp, a skirmish between American and British forces during the aftermath of the Battle of Brooklyn, and the discovery of the headstone of a British officer.

In this walk up and down “the sliver in the east river”, we’ll survey the palimpsest of the layers of the island’s history, from a Lenape settlement, to the Dutch, the English Blackwell family farm; the legacy and memory of eight awful nineteenth and early twentieth century institutions
Including, hospitals for disease, and a women’s insane asylum. Reimagined in a bold masterplan commissioned in the 1960s and a series of “sensitive” megastructural housing projects completed by 1975, when funding ran out. We’ll see the Louis Kahn’s FDR Memorial and the Nellie Blye memorial. The island expanded its residential housing population through the last decades. We’ll also tour the Cornell Tech campus. Take the Roosevelt Island Tram from 2nd Ave and 60th Street.

Before The Beatles, Harry Potter and The Crown, our friends across the Pond held sway on old Manahatta isle, whose (white) people were so enamored with the Royals, the place was nicknamed “Torytown.” A historical walk in Lower Manhattan exposing where the first British occupiers stepped foot and the legacy they left. In a near-circular, 1.5 mile walking tour, taking in the origins of the social, financial and political whirl of NYC with hostelries, notable buildings – or their remnants – and the sites of key events like the USA’s 1st Congress, the Great Fire of 1776 and, eventually, the expulsion of the royalist Brits. Folx will also get to meet the memories of the original Anglo-Scots eccentrics, including the notorious pirate Captain Kidd and the 1st Governors of the colony, Richard Nicholls and Francis Lovelace.

Let’s dig into the ways we define nature and our relationship to urban ecology! We’ll explore different environs in the park while getting creative! Engage in writing exercises, like erasure poetry, while interpreting open-sourced data to reveal the history and infrastructure that may shape our city’s future. While exploring different environs in the park, we’ll seek out solutions hidden in plain sight. Traveling east to west, we’ll visit three destinations in the northern part of Central Park. Starting at the ornate Vanderbilt Gate, we’ll stroll among the spring blooms in the Conservatory Garden. Next, we’ll visit the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer. Finally, we’ll follow the walkway deeper into the park’s North Woods and end at the double waterfall.

Bike tour focuses on Robert Moses and his impact on NYC. Tour originates at the end of the 2nd ave subway and circles Randall's/Wards island. Along the way, we discuss Moses's primary types of impact on the city (transit, playgrounds, parks, highways, bridges, displacement, housing), with a focus on first-hand view of examples of each type woven into an overarching narrative of his rise, fall, and legacy.

See thepowerbiker.com for more details. Fully non-commercial tour I developed a few years ago.

The most important logistics is that this is a bike tour rather than a walking tour, so you need access to a bicycle. The tour has a few citibike racks - both at the start and twice along the way which can be used to reset the timer if using citibike. We will not ride on any city streets, just on bike paths.

I will lead this walking tour of the piers of the West Side to narrate the history of the shifting waterfront, the rise-and-fall of ocean-liners for transatlantic travel, and I will unravel the story of the events surrounding the sinking of the Greatest Ship in the World. My walk will be very comfortable, obviously, but dress shoes are discouraged. I will start along the Hudson River and work my way downtown along the waterfront and end at the Titanic-and-Lusitania memorials at Little Island. I will walk at a reasonable pace and will even pass a restroom.

This area of Windsor Terrace has a long history. It was the first developed in that neighborhood with homes dating back to as early as the 1850's. Some structures dating back to the 1880's are still intact. Vanderbilt Street was one of the first developed. It was named after the John Vanderbilt farmland that originally occupied the area prior to development. Included in this walk are then and now enlarged images of the block, including survey images taken prior to subway construction, as well as articles from old Brooklyn newspapers (via NYPL) that highlight people and families that once lived there. The small commercial strip that adjoins the block on Prospect Avenue is undergoing commercial revitalization.

This walk will explore the history of the neighborhood through visits to historic buildings in the area. It will start at the Old Stone House, touch on the Revolutionary war, Battle of Brooklyn, creation of Prospect Park, and how the neighborhood came to be. We will visit a former training school, the branch library, Lichfield Villa, and the Prospect Park’s West Drive entrance. The tour will end at the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument at Grand Army Plaza. Through the lens of the existing buildings, we’ll discuss changing transportation modes, development of Brooklyn, gentrification, and the increasing number of condo buildings being built.
Attendees should wear comfortable shoes and bring a hat and water for the walk. It will be approximately 2 miles in total, 1.5-2 hours.

Perhaps you know about the Unisphere or the New York State Pavilion, or perhaps you didn’t even know New York hosted a World’s Fair (let alone two!). Along with some of the more well-known landmarks, this tour will invite you to go beyond what you can still see and imagine Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as it once was, when more than 50 million people visited during the 1964-65 World’s Fair. We’ll visit sites that still exist, like the Garden of Meditation and the Westinghouse time capsules. We’ll also explore the historical significance of sites whose pavilions were torn down—including, yes, the Belgian pavilion, that popularized the Bel-gem waffle in the United States. We’ll wrap up at the Unisphere, and if you want, you can continue your day at the Fair at the Queens Museum and the Panorama of the City of New York.

Stroll the historic Meatpacking District with Jacquie Ottman, "The Meatpacking Lady", whose family's storied meat purveying business parallels that of the district itself. Start at Gansevoort Plaza, the Belgian block lined intersection of five Manhattan blocks whose history spans over four centuries of NYC transformation. Then, retrace the steps of a Lenape Trail, enjoy examples of architecture commissioned Astor and other Gilded Age families, and visit the site of an 1812 military fort. Learn why this area became the center of meatpacking in NYC during the 20th Century, and why and how it has transformed into NYC's most fashionable neighborhood. Cap off the walk by taking in a stunning view of New York harbor. Get answers to your questions from your enthusiastic and passionate guide who experienced the district in the 1970s firsthand.

Ever wondered what’s up with that building on the corner of the Whole Foods in Gowanus? And why 3rd Street is so wide? In this guided walk, we’ll explore the development of the Gowanus Canal and much of Park Slope from pastoral meadowlands and rolling hills to a bustling industrial and residential area through the lens of Edwin Litchfield, industrial entrepreneur and namesake of Prospect Park’s Litchfield Villa. Delight in the smells of the putrid Gowanus Canal and the lush greenery of Park Slope’s tree-lined streets as we traverse 3rd Street from the canal to the park with a few detours along the way. Some stops will include the Coignet Building, the Old Stone House, and Litchfield Villa. Wear comfortable shoes and bring sun (or rain) protection.

Stretching from East 57th Street and Sutton Place, through the 60s, we will uncover the evolution of Sutton Place, York Avenue and the ever-changing landscape that grew near the banks of the East River.

“Meet” the former famous residents of this tony area, visit a 1799 carriage house-turned day hotel-turned museum that once belonged to the daughter of President John Adams, discover the site of the worst maritime disaster in NYC history and learn about one of America’s first spies who helped spark a famous spy ring created by George Washington. Once a vast expanse of farmland that later drew the masses of crowded, lower Manhattan up to the “country” for a relaxing escape, this UES neighborhood brims with historic highlights spanning well over 250 years.

Lace up your sneakers and come discover this vital part of NYC!

The walk will begin at the Richard Morris Hunt designed building that was once a home for widows and now is a hostel. We'll cover parts of Amsterdam, Broadway, West End and Riverside as well as a stroll through Riverside Park, stopping at historic sites such as Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a memorial to two Titanic survivors, a Buddhist temple and the building that housed IBM's first computer lab. I'll point out my favorite places to eat and drink as well as a bookstore and a geological remnant of Manhattan schist. Weather permitting, we can purchase food to eat in the park afterwards. The walk covers three miles -- wear comfortable shoes and bring water, if desired.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

New York City, as always, is in a deep, unrelenting housing crisis. During this walk -- which covers the Lower East Side -- we will look at various housing models New York City experimented with during the 20th century, from public housing (a model that would have been successful with consistent federal funding), to limited equity co-operatives, to Mitchell Lama developments. We'll consider how these models, most of which remove market pressures from housing, could be adapted to meet the city's current housing needs, and talk about the growing movement for social housing in New York. This tour, which will last approximately 2 hours, will be lead by Katelin Penner, a writer and urban planner working in New York City.

Spanning roughly a mile long, the Disability Justice Through the Ages Jane’s Walk takes New Yorkers on a journey through pivotal places in the disability rights movement. The walk features two historic locations (The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary & Gallaudet House for Aged and Infirm Deaf Mutes) and two modern locations (Union Street Greenmarket & 14th Street Transportation Complex Upgrades), allowing participants to see the evolution of fighting for disability rights to working towards mobility justice in the city. This walk will not only showcase important New York City historical sites crucial to the beginnings of the disability rights movement, but also highlight modern improvements to increasing accessibility for New Yorkers with diverse abilities.

Walk from 42nd Street to Columbus Circle along 8th avenue with the Manhattan and Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board Chairs and their member and participate in a street litter audit to understand the problem of single use plastics, waste disposal in New York City where it goes and how much it costs.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

A walking tour along the East River Esplanade.
Attendees should dress for the weather (it’s windy on the Esplanade) and wear comfortable walking shoes.

Secrets of the Esplanade: A History-ish Walk Along the East Midtown Greenway
From movies to books, bridges to boats, discover the surprising stories hiding along our waterfront.

What do Annie, Spider-Man, a historic shot tower, and even trash have to do with the East River Esplanade?

Join us for a lively walk filled with quirky anecdotes, neighborhood lore, and a few real historical facts. You’ll never look at the waterfront the same way again.

This is a walking tour of Baisley Pond, in Baisley Pond Park in South Jamaica, Queens. The tour will take visitors around the entirety of the 1.5 mile pond with about 5-7 stops along the way. The stops we will explore will be by former mouths of creeks, along with a stop by the old lake outflow into a creek that runs all the way to Jamaica Bay. Other stops will be along major thoroughfares (like Rockaway Blvd), near August Martin High School, the Sutphin Playground Mastodon, and Mother Carter Garden. During the tour I will explain how waterways and water bodies have and continue to impact and influence life in this area from thousands of years ago to present day. Visitors should wear comfortable walking shoes. The park is accessible with benches and bathrooms throughout and no stairs. Visitors can also bring a camera and bottle of water.

Starting at the Historical High Bridge, we will look at some of the infrastructure and obstacles that separate the Bronx from the Harlem River Waterfront. We will proceed to walk along the river's edge, discuss the history of water recreation along its shores and a vision for reconnecting the community to its waterfront, and once again providing community members on-water recreational activities.

Participants should come prepared to walk over a mile and we will start and end in the same neighborhood.

Landmark East Harlem is pleased to spotlight a neighborhood in East-Central Harlem that it has proposed for listing as an historic district on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Its boundaries are Park Avenue to Lenox Avenue/Malcolm X Boulevard, 125th to 132nd Streets, and it encompasses no fewer than 32 designated New York City landmarks! The earliest buildings date to the time when Harlem was a rural village not yet annexed to the City of New York; the latest are ultramodern townhouses. Featured sites include Langston Hughes House, one of the first apartment buildings erected specifically for black residents, the former Finnish Hall, the site of the legendary Collyer Brothers townhouse, former church buildings that have been given creative new purposes, two of the oldest houses in Harlem, and the famous Astor Row.

A two hour exploration through the streets of Chelsea, searching out the most intriguing gargoyles, mascarons, monstrous creatures and other strange architectural carvings. In doing so we will learn about Chelsea’s architectural, cultural and economic history and in doing so we will also learn more about our own imaginations.

This will be a rather long urban walk so we advise wearing comfortable shoes and bringing liquids as it may get hot.

Walk by the former sites of Jewish religious life in the remarkable urban settlement of Harlem, which from 1870 -1930, was the third largest Jewish community in the world, after New York's Lower East Side and Warsaw, Poland.
View important landmarks and learn about legendary people of this often forgotten segment of Jewish history, starting with its origins as a community for the very rich, and covering its glory days as a major center of Jewish life in New York.
Explore Harlem's old legendary Jewish Synagogues - many of which transformed the Judaism of today's world. Visit the old "Commandment Keepers" - Harlem's Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation.

Gowanus has changed faster in the last 3 years than in the previous three decades. Join photographer Ines Leong for a 60-min walking tour anchored by her photographic series Gowanus Canal In Transition (2022–2024). A "time capsule" view from above before new towers closed the views forever.

Starting at Union St & Nevins St, we'll cross two historic bridges: Union St and the 1889 Carroll St Bridge, the oldest retractable bridge in North America. At each stop, compare side-by-side aerials from 2022–2024, and look at some of the old photos from previous eras.

Participants are encourage to share their stories of the Gowanus Canal.

Wear comfortable shoes and stay hydrated. Rain or Shine event.

Let’s dig into the ways we define nature and our relationship to urban ecology! We’ll explore different environs in the park while getting creative! Engage in writing exercises, like erasure poetry, while interpreting open-sourced data to reveal the history and infrastructure that may shape our city’s future. While exploring different environs in the park, we’ll seek out solutions hidden in plain sight. Traveling east to west, we’ll visit three destinations in the northern part of Central Park. Starting at the ornate Vanderbilt Gate, we’ll stroll among the spring blooms in the Conservatory Garden. Next, we’ll visit the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer. Finally, we’ll follow the walkway deeper into the park’s North Woods and end at the double waterfall.

Beyond the private keys and iron gates of Gramercy Park lies a history of two New Yorks. While the city's elite promenaded in the square, an army of servants operated out of sight in the basements and garrets. This walk traces the literal and figurative lines that separated the privileged from domestic workers.
NOT INCLUDED: Inside access to Gramercy Park

Let’s dig into the ways we define nature and our relationship to urban ecology! We’ll explore different environs in the park while getting creative! Engage in writing exercises, like erasure poetry, while interpreting open-sourced data to reveal the history and infrastructure that may shape our city’s future. While exploring different environs in the park, we’ll seek out solutions hidden in plain sight. Traveling east to west, we’ll visit three destinations in the northern part of Central Park. Starting at the ornate Vanderbilt Gate, we’ll stroll among the spring blooms in the Conservatory Garden. Next, we’ll visit the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer. Finally, we’ll follow the walkway deeper into the park’s North Woods and end at the double waterfall.

New York City is blessed with beautiful public sculptures, especially in Central Park. But while we often know the names of the artists, we rarely know the names of their hardworking models. On this tour, we will learn about four "supermuses," whose various accomplishments include posing for some of our most iconic statues. Let's meet the real women behind the marble and bronze!

While it's an easy stroll, the total route distance is 1.6 miles, so wear comfortable walking shoes.

Much as Harlem Shuffle expanded into the Harlem Trilogy, this is a sequel tour! Explore Harlem history from 1959 through 1976 in this walk, mostly through the lens of Colson Whitehead’s second Harlem mystery, "Crook Manifesto."

This in-person guided walking experience invites participants to uncover the herstory of Weeksville and the often-overlooked role Black women played in building, sustaining, and protecting one of the largest free Black communities in pre-Civil War America. Moving through historic and present-day sites in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, participants will encounter locations that mark Black women’s labor, care, and leadership that made the community possible. Stops include the Weeksville Heritage Center, the Hunterfly Road Houses, and former sites of schools and churches. Attendees should wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water, and are encouraged to bring a camera.

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

New York City is home to an amazing concentration of creatives in the worlds of literature and art. Manhattan's Chelsea has been an especially fruitful haven of writerly talent over the decades. This tour will celebrate some of the eclectic writers that have set up shop in this westside Manhattan from Patti Smith to Edith Wharton. We'll stop by bookstores, parks and hotels, playing games to see who can recall the songs, poems and great works they contributed to the world. Sure to be an engaging, memorable trek around a beloved NYC neighborhood.

Hugely controversial when proposed (in 2003) and later approved, the megaproject Atlantic Yards (in 2014 renamed Pacific Park Brooklyn), is at an inflection point. See what’s been built (the Barclays Center, home to the Brooklyn Nets; 8 of 15-16 towers) and what remains: a costly deck over an MTA railyard, supporting proposed larger towers, and a two-tower project opposite the arena.
With watchdog journalist Norman Oder, learn about the project's history, uncertain timetable, changing designs (and ownership), and questions about proposed new density, financing, timing, and affordable housing, as well as oversight. Issues include public accountability, open space, arena design/operations, & the changing neighborhood/Brooklyn context.
We will walk around much of the 22-acre site's perimeter, plus a few adjacent blocks.

Four centuries of ghosts, ghouls, murder and magic await you on this macabre tour of the East Village. You may spot a specter in a former speakeasy, share a beer with Houdini’s ghost at the oldest bar in Manhattan, or discover the Dutch general still patrolling his estate from beyond the grave. All the history on this tour is 100% real. The ghosts? Well, that’s up to you.

Beyond the private keys and iron gates of Gramercy Park lies a history of two New Yorks. While the city's elite promenaded in the square, an army of servants operated out of sight in the basements and garrets. This walk traces the literal and figurative lines that separated the privileged from domestic workers.
NOT INCLUDED: Inside access to Gramercy Park

Learn how to use binoculars and spot the fascinating birds that live in Marine Park's salt marsh together with an expert from NYC Bird Alliance. Families are welcome. Wear comfortable shoes for this 90-minute guided walk on mostly level gravel trails, stopping frequently for discussions of birds of interest. Binoculars will be provided. Meet outside the Salt Marsh Nature Center on Avenue U.

From Dumbo in Brooklyn, a walk under the Manhattan Bridge, over the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, then the City Hall park in Manhattan. The walk will end in the glass covered atrium of the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center where participants can view Ground Zero, and visit the extensive food court, shopping options, and subway connections to further walks.

A walking tour from the City Hall park north to Chambers Street and then west through lower Tribeca for a total distance of about ¾ of a mile. The tour will cover the historic significance of area and evolution from a frontier area of the City, to a place of government, then a place of trade and now a largely residential area.

Points of interest would include:
-City Hall and park
-Park Row
-Brooklyn Bridge
-8 Spruce
-Buildings on Chambers including David Dinkins Municipal Building, Surrogates Court, Tweed Courthouse, Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, 280 Broadway (the Marble Palace Stewart’s department store) and the Woolworth Building
-Cast iron buildings on Reade Street
-Bogardus Plaza, the old Cosmopolitan Hotel
-Duane Park, 60 Hudson building, AT&T Long Lines building and 56 Leonard (Jenga Building)

If you’ve never walked the Brooklyn Bridge, May is the ideal time. It’s a must-do NYC experience for locals and visitors alike. If you have walked it, it’s an even better experience with a tour guide. Scott will cover the rich history of the bridge build, insider knowledge of the area and point out familiar and iconic filming locations. Enjoy incomparable views of the city skyline from the Brooklyn waterfront. Hear of the several decade effort to create one of the city’s newest, most innovative and beautiful parks, Brooklyn Bridge Park

This tour will end up in NYC’s hottest neighborhood, DUMBO, home of NYC’s best pizza. Make time for lunch and to enjoy the shops, including the Brooklyn Flea (on weekends) and take home a bespoke, vintage souvenir.

Join the Lower East Side Ecology Center for a guided Spring Bird Walk at East River Park on the Lower East Side. This in-person walk will explore the park’s waterfront paths, lawns, and planted areas as spring migration brings birds back to New York City. Led by an experienced birder, participants will learn how to spot and identify common species such as warblers, sparrows, and swallows while discussing the importance of urban green spaces for wildlife. We will make several stops along the route to observe birds, listen to calls, and talk about the role of stewardship in maintaining healthy habitats.

Please wear comfortable walking shoes and bring water. Binoculars and cameras are encouraged if you have them. The walk will move at a relaxed pace and is suitable for beginners and experienced birders alike.

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

Learn the inside story about how the organization Monumental Women brought the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument--the first-ever statue honoring real women in the 167-year history of New York City’s Central Park--to Literary Walk. Hear the Monument's Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton "talk" about their lives with the Monument's Talking Statues app. Then discover MW's expanding virtual 5-borough women's rights history trail as well as MW's additional initiatives to honor more women and people of color in NYC's public spaces as part of our 2026 commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Unfinished Revolution.

We’ll meet at the Schinasi Mansion at 351 Riverside Drive at 107th Street. Award-winning Sephardic writer Jane Mushabac’s short story, “Kantiga” (Song), which has been published in Judeo-Spanish and English, is based on the biblical “Song of Songs,” and is set during the spring of 2021 when the beauty of Riverside Park and nearby places was a great solace during the pandemic. The walk will visit several of the places that animate the story, serving as both backdrops for the two young people’s meetings, and as sources for poetic metaphors in their talk. The nearby places include the Fireman’s Memorial, the Lotus Garden, the Statue of Kossuth, and the Hudson River where Cherry Walk begins. At one stop, there will be a 15-minute reading of the story, a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, in English.

Explore the East River neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. We will start our walk by crossing the Queensboro (59th Street) bridge on the new, somewhat hard-to-find pedestrian path. From there we will continue South through the neighborhoods of Long Island City, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg. Finally, we will arrive at the Williamsburg Bridge, which we will cross to return to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, ending our tour. The tour is mostly physical (many miles) and visual (many photo ops)!

Lace up your shoes for a nature walk at Freshkills Park! Freshkills Park staff will take you behind the scenes to visit areas that are currently closed to the public. On this 2+ mile walk, you’ll learn about the different plants and animals found in the woods, wetlands, and grasslands at Freshkills Park. Freshkills Park will be the largest park developed in New York City in over a century. The transformation of what was once the world’s largest landfill into a sustainable park makes the project a symbol of renewal and an expression of how we can re-imagine reclaimed landscapes. Landfill infrastructure is essential to the Park’s design, and it adds to the project’s complexity. The park’s design, engineering, and ecological restoration emphasize environmental sustainability and public concern for human impact.

Join me on a cute walking tour exploring the very cute neighborhood of Sunnyside, Queens. This tour is all about showing off a small part of NYC that often goes unexplored, and showcasing where the latest Spider-Man trilogy was filmed.
This is an outdoors walking tour where we'll explore the neighborhood through a historical and architectural lens.
We'll visit the actual apartment buildings where Peter Parker lived and discuss how the films capture the spirit of Western Queens. We'll compare movie magic to the neighborhood's daily life, from the Sunnyside sign to the "Little Manila" billboards of Woodside. The walk is approximately 1-2 miles and will highlight architectural gems and local history, with a focus on Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home, but we'll also touch on other Spider-Man movies and media.

Step back in time and join an unforgettable walking tour that traces the iconic career of the legendary Frank Sinatra right here in New York City. Explore the city in a way you've never experienced before, featuring visits to the sites of the historic performance venues where Sinatra dazzled audiences with his memorable concerts and radio and TV appearances. Delve into his personal history by discovering his favorite places to eat and drink. Each stop on the tour is chosen to offer a deeper insight into the man behind the music, allowing you to truly immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of the city's nightlife and cultural heritage. Whether you're a die-hard Sinatra fan or just someone who loves the allure of the city's storied past, this walking tour promises to be an experience that you'll remember fondly.

Before it was the national pastime, baseball was New York's game. Like Silicon Valley is to technology and Detroit is to cars, Brooklyn was an incubator of innovation in the early days of baseball. Imagine walking through old South Brooklyn (Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill) on a May day in the mid-19th century. I guarantee you would have seen baseball. Although the rules, the business, and how you followed the game might differ even between Carroll and Bergen Streets, the overheard debates of team rivalry, superiority, and prognostication are the everlasting threads connecting the game's infancy to today. Join this walking tour led by a former professional moneyballer and current baseball fanatic/Brooklyn resident. Bring your peanuts and Cracker Jacks (and water and comfortable shoes), and let's play ball!

Stroll down just the two blocks along East 69th Street between Second and First Avenues and experience a microcosm of the history of the entire Upper East Side. This tree-lined block features landmarked brownstones dating to 1879 on the south side, and on the north side, mid-century co-ops defining the Upper East Side lifestyle. Amidst it all, the landmarked Hungarian Reformed Church whose bells still ring each Sunday morning, calling yet another generation of Eastern Europeans to service. Tour is led by Jacquie Ottman, a popular Janes Walk tour guide, 46 year resident of the block and past president of the East 69th Street Association.

It’s well known that Central Park is one of the most iconic urban parks in the world. But imagine, just for a moment, that it isn’t a park at all—instead, it’s a museum. It would be the most diverse museum on Earth, one that is open 365 days a year and is completely free. Its “collections” would span almost every conceivable department including art and sculpture, landscape design, archaeology, geology, urban history, horticulture, engineering, transportation, theater and performance, and more. No other museum would rival its scale, variety, or accessibility.

Welcome to the “Central Park Museum.”

This easy stroll (roughly one mile) offers a perfect sampler of the museum’s “exhibits” blending education and enjoyment. Your Jane’s Walk leader, Jack, is an NYC licensed tour guide and longtime Central Park Conservancy volunteer.

Enjoy a guided walk through time as we discover remnants of the Upper West Side’s storied history that have survived relentless rounds of development and are still there to see—if you know where to look. Wear comfortable walking shoes because we’re going to cover 450 million years in 40 blocks! Your time-traveling host will be Rob Garber, who writes the Historical Photo Challenge column for the West Side Rag.

For over 100 years, wooden water towers have stood tall above New York City as emblems of ingenuity and resiliency. An undisputed anchor of the skyline, these essential and familiar structures are often overlooked or misunderstood. Join us for a celebration of these New York City icons.

Learn how they work, their role in the city’s growth, and why they continue to be relevant today.

See water towers in art & architecture through the decades.

Reflect on water towers as a symbol of NYC.

Keep exploring with our Look Up, New York Water Tower Map.

The NYC Water Tower Tour is a walking tour. The tour begins on the High Line at 23rd Street and ends at 33rd Street & 8th Avenue. The walking distance 1.5 miles and the duration is 1.5 hours.

Architects have long celebrated Sunnyside’s Art Deco housing and the landmarked Sunnyside Gardens district, but everyone can appreciate the many sights and stories of the neighborhood’s cultural heritage. This walk traces some highlights, from Thalia Spanish Theater (NYC’s first and only bilingual Hispanic theater), the Bliss Theater (a rare surviving example of an Egyptian Revival movie palace), and iconic Sunnyside Arch, to plaques and murals commemorating jazz and punk rock pioneers. Along the way, we will see both Art Deco treasures as well as new galleries and storefronts that are nurturing current artists of this close-knit community. The route runs from the bustling corridors of Greenpoint Ave. to the south of Queens Blvd. to Skillman Ave. on the north, and participants can continue the discussion over drinks at Sanger Hall.

On this “creative walk” participants were invited to take photographs to document their experience along a route through Gowanus, a formerly industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, centered around the Gowanus Canal. The area has experienced significant change and redevelopment as the result of rezoning which occurred in 2021.

The aim of the walk is threefold: First, to inspire participants to creatively engage with the built environment. Second, to highlight the history of the neighborhood. And finally, to collectively create an archive that will document further changes in the area.

Photos from previous walks are available at gowanuscreativewalk.com

Join The Evergreens Cemetery and Trees New York for this in-person walk about the trees and some history of The Evergreens Cemetery. The Evergreens Cemetery is not just a cemetery; it is also an ArbNet Level 2 arboretum.

Along the way, we will look at the “poplars” that are more closely related to magnolias, an impressive European beech, and some of Evergreens’ impressive oaks. We will also discuss the cemetery’s history and its role as a non-sectarian and “rural” cemetery.

The route is paved, with some slopes.

Reminder this is a working cemetery, please be respectful. See cemetery rules at: https://www.theevergreenscemetery.org/rules-regulations

Please bring comfortable shoes and dress for the weather.

Ever wondered what waterways weave beneath the West Village? Or how Washington Square Park came to rest atop a cemetery plot? This tour will peel back the palimpsest that is Manhattan—or Manaháhtaan, as the Lenape called it. The goal: to reveal the powwow spots, cobblestone streets, and orchards that eventually gave way to today’s concrete jungle.

Attendees aren’t just tourists; they’re time travelers, traversing centuries of topographical upheaval in the West and East Villages. We'll explore how successive waves of colonial rule shaped and renamed the land, yet never fully erased the Lenape. (Times Square, in fact, could not have existed without a Lenape trail.) Sneakers and water bottles are ideal. Visitors can rest their feet beneath my favorite unsung landmark: the city’s oldest tree, the last living witness to this buried history.

Let's ride the Staten Island Ferry to hear the greatest New York story never told—the life of Daniel Tompkins. We know Tompkins for the East Village park bearing his name. But this two-time U.S. Vice-President and four-time NYS Governor was the political power behind the abolition of slavery in New York, which celebrates its 200th Anniversary next year. And in the War of 1812, with little or no resources, Governor Tompkins organized, armed, and even financed the defeat of the British in the northeast, preserving both New York City and the Hudson River when losing those would have meant the end for of a young, independent United States. At the same time, Tompkins was launching the first Staten Island Ferry (no, it was not Vanderbilt!). So all aboard Big Orange for a fascinating story and a salute to New York's forgotten hero.

Come discover the hidden history of Middleburgh, aka Newtown, aka Elmhurst, stretching from 1652 through the American Revolution to the present.

This eye-opening stroll encompasses the early settlement of Elmhurst, including its famous families, prominent visitors and how American independence was already brewing in Queens way before the Revolution erupted in 1776. We'll visit several pre-Revolutionary churches and cemeteries, and learn about the residents of the area, and how the community has explosively grown and changed over the years. We'll cover the early inhabitants' struggle for personal and religious freedom from England, and the clashes between the local patriots vs. the loyalists and British soldiers.

Bike tour focuses on Robert Moses and his impact on NYC. Tour originates at the end of the 2nd ave subway and circles Randall's/Wards island. Along the way, we discuss Moses's primary types of impact on the city (transit, playgrounds, parks, highways, bridges, displacement, housing), with a focus on first-hand view of examples of each type woven into an overarching narrative of his rise, fall, and legacy.

See thepowerbiker.com for more details. Fully non-commercial tour I developed a few years ago.

The most important logistics is that this is a bike tour rather than a walking tour, so you need access to a bicycle. The tour has a few citibike racks - both at the start and twice along the way which can be used to reset the timer if using citibike. We will not ride on any city streets, just on bike paths.

Come take a walk from the founding on New Amsterdam as outpost of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) to the rise of Wall Street and recent arrival of blockchains.

Come for a stroll down the Upper East Side! Starting in Central Park, we will head east, walking through Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, along one cross street, till we culminate our tour at the East River.

Discover the rich history of the most densely populated neighborhood in the country.
Hear about notable residents, and figures who have impacted the area’s development. Learn how the neighborhood’s current appearance and character have been formed by city planning, civic improvements, and generations of immigrants. We will look at various physical evidence of the development of the city’s grid, its transportation and utility systems, and its residential architecture, including mansions, brownstone rowhouses, luxury apartment buildings, elaborately decorated tenements and modern residential towers.

Rego Park is a Queens neighborhood with a large population of Bukharan Jews (that is, Jews from Uzbekistan and nearby countries). We will walk to three or four kosher bakeries/groceries and shop for take-out breads and beef pies. (How far we go depends on how long people want to walk).

A walking tour meets street theater in this interactive performance of New York language and slang. Set in the historically linguistic melting pot of the Lower East Side, this two hour exploration of words and accents is led by licensed NYC tour guide Nic Reale in character as "The Tour"—but all guests participate. Together everyone explores more than the origin of local phrases or how New Yawkers tawk; we also communicate across the city’s diverse cultures to see how they form a new one.

The Williamsburg Bridge is a New York City icon unto itself. Starting service as the longest suspension bridge in the world, the bridge has been woven into the byways of the city ever since. Join us for a walk over the bridge as we retrace its history, from pneumatics to jazz and granite to gold, with, of course, a lot of steel in between.

This walking tour will take us from Manhattan to Brooklyn, a minimum walking distance of about 1.5 miles (1.7 to the nearest Subway station). Comfortable shoes, water, and a tolerance for loud metallic noises strongly recommended.

At the top of Manhattan we'll walk across the University Heights Bridge into the Bronx and walk back over the Broadway Bridge into Manhattan all while exploring the surrounding area between the two bridges.
Along the way- Learn more about these two bridges.
-Find out how some of the streets got there name.
-The First Reformed Dutch Church location and see what's there now.
-Experience part of the Aqueduct Walkway.
-See the largest Armory in the U.S. (from the outside)
-Learn about some military heroes and the battles they fought in.
-Hear about the Free Bridge and the areas connection to the Revolutionary War.
-We will go back in time 250 years and see what the view between the two bridges looked like.
-If it's your first time you get to say that you've walked over these two bridges.
Wear comfortable shoes, bring water, camera.

Ever wondered what’s up with that building on the corner of the Whole Foods in Gowanus? And why 3rd Street is so wide? In this guided walk, we’ll explore the development of the Gowanus Canal and much of Park Slope from pastoral meadowlands and rolling hills to a bustling industrial and residential area through the lens of Edwin Litchfield, industrial entrepreneur and namesake of Prospect Park’s Litchfield Villa. Delight in the smells of the putrid Gowanus Canal and the lush greenery of Park Slope’s tree-lined streets as we traverse 3rd Street from the canal to the park with a few detours along the way. Some stops will include the Coignet Building, the Old Stone House, and Litchfield Villa. Wear comfortable shoes and bring sun (or rain) protection.

You think Brooklyn Heights is all quiet streets and stroller traffic? Think again. Long before the brownstones and Promenade views, this neighborhood was shaped by five powerful families: the Remsens, Livingstons, Pierreponts, Hicks, and Middaghs, who owned the land and set the terms.

On this walk, we’ll explore their stories with a playful nod to classic New York “mafia” lore, stepping through old Brooklyn “territory” where influence mattered and land was everything. No actual crime… as far as we know.

Along the way, we’ll see how these families transformed farmland into one of America’s first commuter suburbs, leaving a legacy still visible today. History with a wink, and a fresh way to see a familiar neighborhood.

This guided in-person tour retraces the steps of immigrant women who organized food boycotts and rioted against price gouging in the streets of 1917’s Lower East Side.

In February 1917, food prices suddenly shot up. Unable to afford their groceries, the first pushcarts were toppled over and women took to the streets. Facing hunger, immigrant women organized across cultures and language barriers to take action and feed their families. You’ll meet the women who made the Lower East Side home in the early 20th century, including real life anarchist and activist Marie Ganz. We’ll retrace their steps from Straus Square to Rivington Street to University Settlement and beyond. The walk will be approximately 75 minutes long. Attendees should feel comfortable walking on foot; feel free to bring water.

Our organization advocates for integrating both subways and park space on the abandoned Rockaway Beach Branch in Queens, NY. The project would create 4 new subway stations along with 33 acres of new parks. QueensLink would create the borough's first north-south connection, and it would provide vital access for marginalized communities. During this walk, we'll explore the 3.5 mile QueensLink corridor and talk about our vision for each section. Participants should wear comfortable shoes, bring lots of water, and be prepared for a fun day of urban hiking! We hope this walk will demonstrate the importance of better access for Queens neighborhoods, as well as what we can accomplish with a little bit of creativity, and a lot of community support.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

Tour the first landscape that Frederick Law Olmsted impacted when he moved from a farm in Connecticut to New York City. The site holds the centuries-old house where Olmsted lived and surviving trees that he planted to beautify the farm, including a New York City "Great Tree". Of the 130 acres that Olmsted farmed, 3.5 acres still surround the house. The tour will include Olmsted's beach. It will be co-led by Christine Kaasmann-Dunn and Giuseppe Settinieri. "Tina" is a life-long history buff, former resident of Hale-Kaasmann House, a dedicated gardener at the site. She is on the Board of Directors of Friends of Olmsted Beil House. Giuseppe Settinieri is an artist, historian, graphic designer, sits on the Advisory Board of FOBH. To be comfortable on tour dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes. Bring water and a camera if you want.

An in-person walk around the Gowanus Canal neighborhood in Brooklyn. “A soundwalk is any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment” – Hildegard Westerkamp

The Gowanus Canal was designated as an EPA Superfund site in 2010, and legacy fossil fuel pollution is undergoing partial remediation as new apartment towers spring up. Listening to all sounds in the environment brings us into contact with changes as they occur. "Extending our awareness as far as possible to include any and all sounds places one in the center of the environment, with presence and relationship to all that is going on" - Pauline Oliveros

Please note that the Carroll Street Bridge remains closed.

In a city full of towering skyscrapers, everyone looks up - but on this tour, we’re looking down! Soho’s sidewalks are packed with endless bits of history and art that most people step right over. On this tour, you’ll see old vault lights, engravings, and other sidewalk oddities that tell the story of the neighborhood: its industrial past, artistic heyday, and everything in between.

Learn the inside story about how the organization Monumental Women brought the Women's Rights Pioneers Monument--the first-ever statue honoring real women in the 167-year history of New York City’s Central Park--to Literary Walk. Hear the Monument's Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton "talk" about their lives with the Monument's Talking Statues app. Then discover MW's expanding virtual 5-borough women's rights history trail as well as MW's additional initiatives to honor more women and people of color in NYC's public spaces as part of our 2026 commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Unfinished Revolution.

This walk introduces the northern end of Manhattan not often seen day-to-day. We start from the George Washington Bridge Bus Station with its up front and center view of the GWB. A brief walk through city streets gets us to the Hudson River path where our first stop will be the famous, historic Little Red Light House. Continuing south on the shore path, we’ll see blossoming trees and will pass the famous Riverbank State Park. We will walk along Riverside Park, passing Riverside Church and Grant’s Tomb. Our walk ends at the beautiful and historic Riverside Park Gardens at 91st Street and Riverside Drive. The walk is just under 5 miles and there are drop out points along the way.
Wear comfortable shoes and be sure to bring water and a snack.

We are looking forward to sharing this lesser-known part of Manhattan with you all.

This walk will explore the beauty of the historic rural Green-Wood Cemetery. In celebration of America 250, we'll visit the graves of key figures of the American Revolution and the also learn about the Battle of Brooklyn, some of which took place on the land now occupied by Green-Wood.

Before The Beatles, Harry Potter and The Crown, our friends across the Pond held sway on old Manahatta isle, whose (white) people were so enamored with the Royals, the place was nicknamed “Torytown.” A historical walk in Lower Manhattan exposing where the first British occupiers stepped foot and the legacy they left. In a near-circular, 1.5 mile walking tour, taking in the origins of the social, financial and political whirl of NYC with hostelries, notable buildings – or their remnants – and the sites of key events like the USA’s 1st Congress, the Great Fire of 1776 and, eventually, the expulsion of the royalist Brits. Folx will also get to meet the memories of the original Anglo-Scots eccentrics, including the notorious pirate Captain Kidd and the 1st Governors of the colony, Richard Nicholls and Francis Lovelace.

Walking tour of the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery, located within the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, New York.

Join us for a unique exploration of one block—81st Street between Columbus & Amsterdam. Inspired by Alexandra Horowitz’s book, “On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes”, we’ll slow down and awaken our senses to details we often overlook.

We’ll observe the interplay of architecture and nature, uncover hidden patterns, and marvel at the rich textures and contrasts that make urban life so endlessly fascinating. From the artistry of building facades, to the quiet life of the trees, to the whispers of history etched into brickwork—every inch of this block holds stories waiting to be discovered.

No prior knowledge is required; just bring your curiosity and an openness to seeing the world anew. By the end of the walk, you may find yourself noticing more wherever you go, with a deeper appreciation for the extraordinary in the everyday.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

Explore Union Square through the lens of the neighborhood’s multimedia public art installations on this interactive Jane’s Walk led by Union Square Partnership and featuring inCituAR. This guided walk will explore a range of site-specific artworks that bring surprise and delight into our everyday public spaces – from sculpture and asphalt murals to digital art experiences and augmented reality.

We will visit several temporary art installations in the district and discuss how artists respond to the unique character, history, and movement of Union Square. Participants of all ages and experiences will learn how public art is managed and experienced in a busy urban setting, and how technology like inCituAR is opening new possibilities for interacting with art in the public space. Comfortable shoes and water are recommended!

We start at the site where it all happened: Stonewall National Monument (formerly Christopher Park) across from the Stonewall Inn. We then check out the site of the first LGBTQ bookstore: Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore and venture to Julius’ Bar, one of the oldest bars in the city and site of the “sip-in.” We will view the AIDS Memorial, First Presbyterian Church: Home of the First PFLAG Meeting, the LGBT Center, site of the former 8th Street Bookstore and Two Fifth Avenue: home to the late Larry Kramer, Edie Windsor and Bella Abzug. Our tour ends in Washington Square Park – and anyone who wishes, can join us as we walk back to the Stonewall Inn for a toast!

Follow the footprints of Brooklyn's forgotten abolitionist. We’ll be tracing the history of Brooklyn's spirit of liberation, from the first Free Black communities of the 1800s to the Black suffragists, to hip-hop and beyond. Our focus is 227 Duffield Street, which NYC wanted to destroy in the name of "progress." Its owner Mama Joy Chatel stopped the plan by showing it was a stop on the Underground Railroad. Her daughter Shawné Lee leads the tour with a deeply personal story of the impact of urban renewal. Public historian Raul Rothblatt uncovers the stories of heroes, including journalist & suffragist Ida B. Wells. Learn why she moved there and why it was central to our Civil Rights history. Once you hear these stories, the neighborhood will never look the same.

We will check out 7 buildings in Red Hook (and probably more along the way).

A site-based tour and discussion at The Public Theater exploring the clash between Robert Moses and Joseph Papp that shaped Shakespeare in the Park—and redefined access to public art in New York City.
This Jane’s Walk explores one of New York City’s most consequential cultural battles: the fight between Joseph Papp and Robert Moses over free Shakespeare in the Park in the 1950s and 60s.
Hosted at The Public Theater on Lafayette Street, this experience is structured as a guided, site-based tour and discussion rather than a traditional walking route. Participants will move through select public spaces within the building while engaging with the history of Joseph Papp’s vision for free, accessible theater—and the resistance he faced from Robert Moses.

While my father wasn’t a native New Yorker, he spent much of his life in this city striving and dreaming, first as a teenager and then as a middle aged man. Join me for a walk through Midtown Manhattan to visit some of the places that best represent his memory.

We’ll be visiting four locations over the course of an hour and forty-five minutes. Be sure to bring comfortable walking shoes, as well as a notebook, pen, & headphones that connect to your phone.

In addition to learning about how each location featured in my father’s life, there will be opportunities for thinking, writing, and listening prompts.

This is not a traditional historical trivia tour, but rather a meditative walk through a stranger’s memories. You’ll also have the opportunity to consider your own relationship to the places in New York that loom large in your memory.

The fish are gone, the smell is gone, but the legend lives on. This in-person walk in the South Street Seaport visits sites of the old Fulton Fish Market. Walk leader, artist Naima Rauam, spent decades painting scenes of market life. During this “then and now” walk, Naima’s paintings show “then” at nine locations where fish market activity once took place. A printed handout and a webpage (http://artpm.com/RememberingFultonFishMarket.htm) will have reproductions of the artwork. Naima talks about the history of the fish market and her experiences working and living there. One site is the Tin Building, where Naima had an art studio.

The tour will explain the 100-year evolution of the far West Side, from the historic railroad, to the impact of Robert Moses's urban renewal footprint around Lincoln Center, going through Trump's many visions (and final plan) for Trump Place, and the development of Riverside Center. Attendees will get to familiarize themselves with one of the more isolated corners of the Upper West Side, learning about how the dynamics of development shaped the neighborhood, and its contrasts with its historic counterparts.

Stops will include:
- 69th Street Transfer Bridge
- Former ABC recording studio @ 320 West 66th Street
- Trump Place building @ 160 Riverside Boulevard
- Extell's poor door @ One Riverside Park
- Waterline Square

Special guest(s) TBD

Comfortable walking shoes recommended

Explore structures and sites in South Slope and surrounding neighborhoods through first-hand accounts by people who lived and traveled there. Listen to the words penned in letters, family papers, manuscripts, and contemporary essays, as well as Lenape oral histories illuminating personal experiences in what is now South Brooklyn. See images of newspaper clippings and photographs from Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper articles, Brooklyn CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) ephemera, and other primary sources offering a glimpse of South Slope at various points in time. Inspired by Betty Smith’s semi-autobiographical novel, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” this tour will shine a light on everyday residents and their daily habitats through their own words and images.

The Greenpoint and Williamsburg waterfronts may be undergoing a glamorous transformation, but a powerful industrial past still lingers just below the surface. On this tour we will visit sites and hear stories of extraordinary and explosive events from three different centuries of North Brooklyn history. We’ll discuss the infamous disasters and heroic deeds that have shaped these neighborhoods and their residents for generations to come and, on the way, we’ll safely encounter some lesser-known disasters whose stories continue into the present day. Comfortable shoes recommended.

New York City is blessed with beautiful public sculptures, especially in Central Park. But while we often know the names of the artists, we rarely know the names of their hardworking models. On this tour, we will learn about four "supermuses," whose various accomplishments include posing for some of our most iconic statues. Let's meet the real women behind the marble and bronze!

While it's an easy stroll, the total route distance is 1.6 miles, so wear comfortable walking shoes.

In 1980, Edward Fausty and I embarked on a year-long documentation of the Lower East Side in a unique collaboration in which we shared a 4x5 view camera.
1980 was a pivotal moment in the history of New York. While the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, artists and musicians flocked to the crumbling Lower East Side with its affordable housing and edgy vibe. Ed and I were participant witnesses to that almost mythical time when everything from punk rock to graffiti emerged from the streets of Downtown New York.
Murder on Second Avenue is a memoir that keys off of an infamous murder at Binibon, a restaurant that once stood at the corner of East 5th Street and Second Avenue.

My walk begins at St. Mark’s Place proceeds down Second Avenue and ends on East 4th Street where I lived in the late 70s until about 1993.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

Come hear the stories of the amazing women honored with historical markers and statues below Chambers Street. We’ll discover suffragists, patriots, Nobel Prize winners, sport champions, adventurers, saints and royalty – women whose stories need to be shared again and again.

We will stay on city sidewalks and have opportunities to sit along the way on this walk from City Hall to The Battery.

The proposed walk will revisit the key role played by the King’s Bridge in the Continental Army’s evacuation of Manhattan Island in October 1776. Washington and the Army came close to extinction on several occasions in Brooklyn and Manhattan in 1776, the last of which involved the King’s Bridge as the only robust crossing to the mainland in the current Bronx.

The walk will begin at Henry Hudson Park in the Spuyten Duyvil section of the Bronx to discuss American fortifications built in and around the park to protect the King’s Bridge. It will proceed to the site of the King’s Bridge on West 230th Street, stopping to note the course of the Spuyten Duyvil Creek that once separated Manhattan from the mainland. It will conclude at West 230th Street and Broadway. The events of 1776 in Manhattan and the Bronx will be discussed throughout.

This Walk activity arose from a course I was teaching on Decoding Artists. Last year, I gave it virtually, but this will be a physical place-mapping of how these two artists arrived in NYC and came of age (Leonard Cohen being slightly older than Bob Dylan). Although other parts of NYC will be mentioned, the actual starting point and activity will be in the Village. We will optionally end at the Chelsea Hotel, and those who wish can continue the discussion there at the El Quijote. It is also a narrative of some of their song origins, mostly based on their relationships with various women. Before the tour, I would recommend seeing the film, A Complete Unknown, reading many of the books about the pair, and listening to their musical journey through YouTube or whatever. Email me at kent.watkins@yahoo.com for additional information.

A walking tour of western Washington Heights and the area now known as Hudson Heights, starting in the 160s and going up to the beginning of Fort Tryon Park. Many people who are not native New Yorkers, and some who are, don't know much about this interesting neighborhood. It's a place of incredible diversity, from the Dominican "capital" of New York to landmarks like the United Palace Theater to Revolutionary War historic sites to the prestigious Castle Village and Hudson View developments. It has dramatic views of the Palisades and the George Washington Bridge, and, toward the end of the walk, Bennett Park, the highest point in Manhattan. I lived in the Heights back in the early '80s, and have remained in love with it ever since.

In a tour from Rockefeller Center to the United Nations, we’ll explore the architectural, infrastructural, and financial legacies of the Rockefeller dynasty in midtown Manhattan. From Raymond Hood’s utopian vision of a City of Towers to Wallace Harrison’s functionalist International Style, we’ll learn about the architects who carried out commercial and philanthropic projects for generations of Rockefellers. And in projects ranging from company town-style housing developments to pied-à-terres, we’ll reflect on the Rockefellers’ built environments as we trace their financial crimes, philanthropic pursuits, and political designs.

Join artist-researcher Kyle Barnes of Chimeras Collective in a leaf-walk through Prospect Park. In early May, this ecosystem is mid-exhale — bud scales dropping, new leaves unfurling, the forest mid-becoming. Together, we’ll move through Brooklyn’s last remaining forest, attending to the leafing out of some of the park’s 193 tree species. Come ready to go slow, get low, and learn some of the stories leaves can tell us about transition and flourishing.

Bring comfortable shoes and a small bag for collecting leaf specimens, optionally a journal. We'll be outside for approximately 90 minutes, rain or shine.

I’ve lived in Harlem since 2007 and consider it one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in New York. It’s helpful to experience it with someone who can curate a good walking experience. We’d meet at 117th and Lenox Avenue, walk north to the Mount Morris Park historic district and its iconic brownstones. Then we’d walk south to 110th and Central Park. We’d walk around the Harlem Meer lake and end by the Conservatory Gardens on 106th and Fifth Avenue. Beautiful.

This in-person walk is the length of Clinton Avenue from Fulton Street to Myrtle Avenue, wear comfortable sneakers or walking shoes. We will be photographed (please specify preference) and do ask questions as the guide is an Historic Preservationist, advocate of history and expert on this section of Clinton Hill. We will stop and explore the Castles (we are not able to go inside of these buildings) and homes along Clinton Avenue, great time.

Walking tour of the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery, located within the Moravian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, New York.

More ubiquitous than pigeons, scaffolding covers 380 miles of sky across NYC. This walk will take us from the East side of Manhattan to the Hudson River Park. The caveat: we must keep to the sidewalk and we can’t walk under any scaffolding to get across town. We can move freely East and West, but will be limited to North/South movement by the number of participants. Comfortable shoes, hydration, hats if you need them and a sense of adventure are all welcome on this walk. This walk is for folks who like to wander the city with no destination in mind.

We’ll trace modern NYC from its days as the greatest manufacturing hub the world had ever seen to the financialized city of today. The tour centers on Cortlandt Street’s former “Radio Row,” Lower Manhattan’s once-thriving panoply of electronics shops and shacks. We’ll discuss the people who gave Radio Row its “amazingly human quality,” in Pete Hamill’s words, and those, like Jane Jacobs, who recognized its singular value. We’ll cover the 1960s battle over Lower Manhattan's fate, which ended in the stunning demolition of Radio Row and the rise of the Twin Towers. We’ll also examine how finance - exemplified by David and Nelson Rockefeller - shaped the city’s built environment, architecture, and direction. The walk will be about 90 minutes, mostly shaded, beginning in Battery Park City and concluding at the foot of 1 World Trade Center.

The murals and mosaics of Spanish Harlem tell us so much about the history, culture, and politics of the residents of this under-appreciated NYC neighborhood. Many of the artworks celebrate the Latin culture of the neighborhood. Some of the public art is dedicated to accomplished citizens of Spanish Harlem, such as the writers Julia de Burgos and Nicholasa Mohr. Others honor world-famous people such as Celia Cruz and Che Guevara. Still others deal with issue of immigration. The art also brings into the streets the gorgeous scenery of the tropical islands which so many members of this community left behind. We will see about 2 dozen murals and mosaics as we walk less than one mile between E. 111th and E. 103rd Streets and between Lexington and Third Avenues.

A site-based tour and discussion at The Public Theater exploring the clash between Robert Moses and Joseph Papp that shaped Shakespeare in the Park—and redefined access to public art in New York City.
This Jane’s Walk explores one of New York City’s most consequential cultural battles: the fight between Joseph Papp and Robert Moses over free Shakespeare in the Park in the 1950s and 60s.
Hosted at The Public Theater on Lafayette Street, this experience is structured as a guided, site-based tour and discussion rather than a traditional walking route. Participants will move through select public spaces within the building while engaging with the history of Joseph Papp’s vision for free, accessible theater—and the resistance he faced from Robert Moses.

Join the Douglaston and Little Neck Historical Society (DLNHS) for a Jane's Walk stroll through Douglas Manor, Queens (in the Douglaston Historic District), to explore enchanting Tudor Revival and English Cottage architecture that permeates this early 20th century planned community. You will discover many variations of the style, by multiple notable architects of the day. Experience the charm of this landmarked waterfront neighborhood, easily accessible via the LIRR. This 1.6-mile walk includes a visit to the Douglas Manor dock and refreshments at the historic and private Douglaston Club, where you are invited to stay for drinks or dinner. Experience dazzling English architecture amidst the natural beauty of Douglas Manor.

I will lead this walking tour of the piers of the West Side to narrate the history of the shifting waterfront, the rise-and-fall of ocean-liners for transatlantic travel, and I will unravel the story of the events surrounding the sinking of the Greatest Ship in the World. My walk will be very comfortable, obviously, but dress shoes are discouraged. I will start along the Hudson River and work my way downtown along the waterfront and end at the Titanic-and-Lusitania memorials at Little Island. I will walk at a reasonable pace and will even pass a restroom.

This area of Windsor Terrace has a long history. It was the first developed in that neighborhood with homes dating back to as early as the 1850's. Some structures dating back to the 1880's are still intact. Vanderbilt Street was one of the first developed. It was named after the John Vanderbilt farmland that originally occupied the area prior to development. Included in this walk are then and now enlarged images of the block, including survey images taken prior to subway construction, as well as articles from old Brooklyn newspapers (via NYPL) that highlight people and families that once lived there. The small commercial strip that adjoins the block on Prospect Avenue is undergoing commercial revitalization.

This walk will explore the history of the neighborhood through visits to historic buildings in the area. It will start at the Old Stone House, touch on the Revolutionary war, Battle of Brooklyn, creation of Prospect Park, and how the neighborhood came to be. We will visit a former training school, the branch library, Lichfield Villa, and the Prospect Park’s West Drive entrance. The tour will end at the Soldiers and Sailor’s Monument at Grand Army Plaza. Through the lens of the existing buildings, we’ll discuss changing transportation modes, development of Brooklyn, gentrification, and the increasing number of condo buildings being built.
Attendees should wear comfortable shoes and bring a hat and water for the walk. It will be approximately 2 miles in total, 1.5-2 hours.

Stroll down just the two blocks along East 69th Street between Second and First Avenues and experience a microcosm of the history of the entire Upper East Side. This tree-lined block features landmarked brownstones dating to 1879 on the south side, and on the north side, mid-century co-ops defining the Upper East Side lifestyle. Amidst it all, the landmarked Hungarian Reformed Church whose bells still ring each Sunday morning, calling yet another generation of Eastern Europeans to service. Tour is led by Jacquie Ottman, a popular Janes Walk tour guide, 46 year resident of the block and past president of the East 69th Street Association.

How much history can a "new" neighborhood hold? More than you'd think. Everyone knows Long Island City as one of NYC's fastest-growing neighborhoods, but scratch the surface and you'll find a rich history hiding in plain sight.

During this in-person, guided group walk, we'll start on the steps of a 150-year-old courthouse, take in some remnants of the old subway system, and check out some underappreciated row houses. We'll also learn the beefy backstory of who purchased the land that would become Murray Park, before finishing at what many consider one of the city’s finest examples of adaptive reuse. My grandmother always said this neighborhood had the best views in the city, come see if she was right.

Stretching from East 57th Street and Sutton Place, through the 60s, we will uncover the evolution of Sutton Place, York Avenue and the ever-changing landscape that grew near the banks of the East River.

“Meet” the former famous residents of this tony area, visit a 1799 carriage house-turned day hotel-turned museum that once belonged to the daughter of President John Adams, discover the site of the worst maritime disaster in NYC history and learn about one of America’s first spies who helped spark a famous spy ring created by George Washington. Once a vast expanse of farmland that later drew the masses of crowded, lower Manhattan up to the “country” for a relaxing escape, this UES neighborhood brims with historic highlights spanning well over 250 years.

Lace up your sneakers and come discover this vital part of NYC!

This special experience starts with a meet up at The Boogie Down Grind cafe (Best in NYC by TimeOutNY, and Al Fresco NY Awardee).

Join local resident, Peabody Award winning public radio host, and author, Majora Carter on a trek from The Grind to The Corpus Christi Monastery, Banknote Building, and Manida Street Historic District (where Majora lives).

The tour concludes at Bronxlandia NYC -- a Cass Gilbert Designed rail station that originally drew Majora's Pullman Porter father up from Georgia during the Great Migration of the mid-20th century.

Majora now owns that structure, and has created a vibrant cultural 3rd space bar and events venue.

Books available for purchase at the start and end of Jane's Walk.

Paul Simon felt so groovy, walking along the Queensboro bridge, that he wrote a song about it. The bridge, declared a landmark in 1973, has a history of public access dating to 1914, when a farmers market opened under its famous Guastavino-tiled arches. This walk will explore the Manhattan side of the bridge, its history, and the public (or not so public) spaces alongside it.

We’ll meet in Tramway Plaza, where the Beaux Arts trolley terminal hearkens to the site's history as a transportation hub. We’ll visit the derelict storage lot that residents are campaigning to re-open for public use. Continuing along East 59th Street, we'll visit recently-restored Honey Locust Park and the Bridgemarket complex (with its historic Evangeline Blashfield Fountain) before wrapping things up at Andrew Haswell Green Park, overlooking the East River.

This walk along Bard Avenue traces the history of Elliottville, a Staten Island neighborhood where extraordinary people lived, from the 1830s to 1890s. The neighborhood’s history illuminates the impact of transformative cultural, social, economic, and political change stemming from abolitionism, transcendentalism, the women’s suffrage movement, and the rapid growth of national markets.

Elliottville originated in 1839 as a therapeutic community. When some New England patients with ties to Emerson settled near each other, they formed a distinctive community that included abolitionists Francis George Shaw, Sydney Howard Gay; author and lecturer George William Curtis; novelist Theodore Winthrop; Civil War hero Robert Gould Shaw; artist Helena (de Kay) Gilder; author Anna Leonowens; and livestock reporter Maria “Midy" Morgan.

Tour the first landscape that Frederick Law Olmsted impacted when he moved from a farm in Connecticut to New York City. The site holds the centuries-old house where Olmsted lived and surviving trees that he planted to beautify the farm, including a New York City "Great Tree". Of the 130 acres that Olmsted farmed, 3.5 acres still surround the house. The tour will include Olmsted's beach. It will be co-led by Christine Kaasmann-Dunn and Giuseppe Settinieri. "Tina" is a life-long history buff, former resident of Hale-Kaasmann House, a dedicated gardener at the site. She is on the Board of Directors of Friends of Olmsted Beil House. Giuseppe Settinieri is an artist, historian, graphic designer, sits on the Advisory Board of FOBH. To be comfortable on tour dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes. Bring water and a camera if you want.

The Interborough Express (IBX) is a planned light rail line that will connect Brooklyn and Queens along an existing freight rail corridor. This project is currently in the planning phase, and has the potential to bring major changes to parts of both boroughs that are not currently well-served by public transportation.

As part of Made in NYC Week (A project of the Pratt Center), The Office of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso is planning a series of events related to Brooklyn’s industrial sector. In partnership with the Regional Plan Association (who originally conceptualized the IBX), this walk invites participants to observe the future route on the Bensonhurst/Borough Park border and asks: How can we best balance moving people and moving freight? What could the future hold for jobs and industry along the route?

We will visit the places connected with the life of Ira Aldridge, a free African-American who started his acting career in lower Manhattan and continued the most illustrious career in Europe. Ira Aldridge is also well known in Ukraine for his friendship with Taras Shevchenko, the national poet of the country, who was born a serf.
We will start at the site of African Free School where Ira studied and African Grove Theatre where he made his debut at the age of 15. On the way uptown we will visit several surviving buildings of the era and learn about the life of people in New York City and State at the time (successful defense of the City against the British invasion!) We will finish at Taras Shevchenko Place.
Be prepared for a moderate walk and interesting sights. Please bring enough sun protection and liquids to stay comfortable.

The Battle of Harlem Heights (September 16, 1776) was the only patriot's victory within New York City during the American Revolution. We’ll start our walk at the plaque which commemorates that event at 118th Street on the east side of Broadway embedded in the wall of Columbia University. We will look closely at the plaque as a work of art that informs us about the battle, its site and the soldiers who fought there. Although it celebrates a victory, the plaque depicts the deaths of two heroes: Lt. Col. Thomas Knowlton, and Major Andrew Leitch. George Washington knew both of these men well, and both men had fought valiantly in earlier battles.

We will then travel through Riverside Park–seeing it as a battlefield–and end at Grant’s Tomb looking across the Hudson River to Fort Lee and north to Fort Washington.

Wear comfortable shoes.

The participants in the writing project “Como una casa abierta / As a House with Open Doors” will read, at a virtual event, some of the works written and shared in creative writing workshops over the past 13 years. These works are inspired by their experiences as immigrants in this city—intense and immensely varied experiences, joyful or difficult. New York experiences written in Spanish.

Each reader will share with the audience which neighborhood or place in the city, and which time period, inspired their poem or story.

The audience will be invited to take a few minutes to write some lines about New York City and share them with everyone through the chat. Some of these texts will be read aloud.

The reading will remain online so that anyone who wishes can enjoy it in the future.