Event Registration

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.