This was at the beginning of the Pandemic in March of 2020
Chinese New Year in 2021:
I returned to Chinatown for Chinese New Year 2021 and what a change to the neighborhood in just a year. I have never seen so many “For Rent” signs in the core of Chinatown. This pandemic has destroyed so many well-known businesses. Not just restaurants and snack shops that could not adjust to the take out business that many places have had to adopt to now. It was well known gift shops, hair and nail salons, body massage businesses and several well-known bakeries.
When I saw a sign on the Lung Moon Bakery 83 Mulberry Street (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor) that the bakery closed its doors after 53 years in business that is telling you there are problems here. Sun Sai Gai at 220 Canal Street (visit my reviews as well on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor as well), which has been there for over 30 years has been closed as well and I am not sure if it is going to be reopened. This is heart breaking because these were my go-to places for years.
The weird part was it was not just on Mott Street, the heart of Chinatown, but on the side streets off Mott and outer parts of the neighborhood reaching out to East Broadway and into parts of the Lower East Side like Hester and Henry Streets. It is not just in Chinatown because at the end of the evening I walked up to Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street (visit my review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor) to see if that store was still open and walked through the heart of Little Italy Mulberry Street.
Three well known restaurants had closed for business including Angelo’s and Luna which has been mainstays of the neighborhood for over 40 years. A lot store fronts were dark here as well and slowly but surely NoLiTa (North of Little Italy) is creeping further and further into Little Italy. Even the two well known Chinese restaurants on Mulberry Street are now closed for business.
My journey on this gloomy Saturday morning started when I took the C train down to Canal Street and started to walk around Lower Manhattan to see what was open and not. The City had lifted its ban on indoor dining, I think too little to late, for Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. Still even with the 25% indoor dining allowed, people choose to eat outside or else some of the restaurants were not ready to open indoor dining. On a 30 degree day I could not believe that people wanted to eat outside. Even bundling under heat lamps does not make pleasant dining. The mood was festive but people were cold.
It was the second day of Chinese New Year and there were not that many people out in the streets as I thought there would be. In the early morning, there were small groups of people walking around but not the throngs of people on parade day. Last year, the Chinese New Year Parade was very subdued and there were not that many people around the route. The parade was cancelled this year and even though there were lights and decorations all over Mott Street there was not a lot of people walking around.
Chinese New Year 2021-Mott Street
When I visited the provision and grocery stores in the neighborhood, they were mobbed with people doing their grocery shopping telling me that people were opting to stay home and have small intimate dinners with their families. This is where I saw no social distancing.
My project today was to see not just what was happening for the New Year but to visit many of the stores and restaurants I had mentioned on my blogs to see if they were still open. Thankfully many of the establishments that were already take-out were surviving the storm. Plus I came with an appetite.
My first stop was Fried Dumpling on 106 Moscoe Street, a little hole in the wall for fried pork and chive dumplings. The owner/chef is a real hoot. I am figuring she changed her prices and serving sizes to increase sales because I ordered 17 dumplings for $5.00 which I thought was too much to eat but ended up devouring all the them in record time while sitting next to the bathrooms in Columbus Park just off Mott Street. In the summer months this park is packed with people but with the two feet snow piles and over flowing garbage cans, it was not the best place to eat. Even with the cold weather, these delicious little pan-fried pork and chive dumplings can warm any heart in the New Year.
Fried Dumpling at 106 Moscoe Street
After this snack that warmed me up I walked all over the neighborhood, walking the side streets and the Bowery which is the northern border of the traditional neighborhood. Again many of the well known restaurants and stores were either empty or closed for the New Year celebrations.
I walked up and down the side streets of Chinatown that border with Mott Street along Bayard, Pell, Henry, Division and East Broadway to look at the status of restaurants that I enjoy and have written about and to see what is still open there as well. It has not been pretty.
Dumplings at 25B Henry Street, one of the few places left in Chinatown where you can get five dumplings for $1.00 is closed except for takeout (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor). That was always the fun of this place was squeezing in and having their delicious pork and chive dumplings. I was always sharing soy sauce with the kids from the local school that would come here for a snack and I would listen in on their very adult sounding conversations.
Dumplings at 25B Henry Street
Walking up the side streets until I got to the Manhattan Bridge was just as upsetting, There were so many closed businesses on all of these streets that I wondered where the locals were eating and shopping. What really surprised me was how many art galleries had opened in the places where provision stores and small restaurants had once been. When I started to see white twenty year olds walking out of the tenements in the neighborhood, I knew that it would not be long until this whole area started to gentrify.
The walk took me further into the Lower East Side then I had ever been. I walked down the length of Catherine Street to the river and then turned around and walked down Market to the park under the Manhattan Bridge to watch the skate boarders. Those kids were really talented. They were performing some amazing tricks.
I stopped at this little deli, the K & K Food Deli at 57 Market Street just to take a peek inside. The cook was so friendly to me that I felt I should get something. Even after the 17 dumplings I was still hungry and I ordered a Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a roll ($3.25). It was mind-blowingly good. The roll was fresh chewy and soft and the perfect combination of scrambled eggs with the cheese melted just perfect and crisp bacon. On this cool now afternoon it really warmed me up and I devoured it while I walked along Cherry Street.
K & K Food Deli at 57 Market Street
This area of the City is all housing projects and even in the small park in between them all it was really quiet. The one thing I find when I visit the areas around the projects is the assortment of restaurants are so creative with their menus and they are so reasonable. I just popped in and out and looked at their menus.
I walked around Little Flower Park at Madison and Jefferson Street, which lines all the housing complexes and was watching as kids were using the swings in snow drifts. I thought that was dedication of wanting to get outside as the weather grew colder that day.
I walked back down Madison Street and around Monroe Street and back up Market Street to get to the foot of the Manhattan Bridge entrance and then walked around that to Chrystie Street. Then I made the turn to see if my favorite group of restaurants were still open Chi Dumpling House at 77 Chrystie Street , Wah Fung Number One at 79 Chrystie Street and Tao Hong Bakery at 81 Chrystie Street. I called this stretch of Chrystie Street the ‘triple threat’ as these three restaurants are mind blowing and the best part reasonable (visit my reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor).
Chi Dumpling House at 77 Chrystie Street
Even after 17 dumplings and a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich I was still hungry so I stopped in at Chi Dumpling House for steamed dumplings and scallion pancakes. This little hole in the wall has the most amazing food and for $5.00 I got an order of steamed dumplings ($3.00) and an order of scallion pancakes ($2.00). Both were just excellent.
Because there was no indoor dining in the restaurant yet, I had to eat them in the park across the street. In between the snow piles and the pigeons, I found a place to sit down. The dumplings and the scallion pancake let off so much steam you could see it in the air. The scallion pancake was loaded with freshly chopped scallions and was pan-fried to be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The dumplings were plump and bursting with juice when I topped them with soy and hot chili sauce. They warmed me up at the day grew colder.
I walked back through Mott Street and saw many people twisting poppers and letting streamers into the air. About a dozen people got into it and were having a good time blocking traffic. It was nice to see a little celebrating that day.
Sweets Bakery at 135 Walker Street
My last stop on the agenda was Sweets bakery, one of my favorites in Chinatown at 135 Walker Street, which is right across the street from Sun Sai Gai. The pastries here are just excellent and I have never had a bad baked item from here. I treated myself to an Egg Custard tart ($1.50) and a Pineapple Bun ($1.25). Both had just been baked and were still warm. I started eating them as soon as I left the store to explore Little Italy.
The Egg Custard Tarts at Sweets Bakery are amazing
I devoured them before I crossed the street. The egg custard had a rich creamy texture and was still warm when I made each bite. The taste of the butter in the tart and the eggs was so good. The Pineapple Bun was made of a rich dough and topped with a sweet crumb topping that crackled when I bit into it. It was a nice way to end this ongoing meal.
Walking through Little Italy was just as bad as Chinatown. The main thoroughfare, Mulberry Street was like looking at Mott Street. Some of the most famous restaurants closed like Luna and Angelo’s. I could not believe how many empty store fronts were open. Even for a Saturday night it was really quiet. There were a few people eating inside.
What I did notice just like in Chinatown was that NoLiTa (North of Little Italy) was creeping further and further down Mulberry Street and the surrounding blocks. All of a sudden all these little trendy stores and restaurants started opening up where the Italian restaurants once lined the streets.
I reached my destination, Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street (visit my review on LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com), one of the nicest children’s stores in Manhattan and one of the most creative. I was so happy to see that they were still open. I felt a little over-whelmed because the owner was showering attention on me as I was here only customer. She looked determined to sell me something. I guess I looked like a high spender. I was polite and looked around. As a store it is so visually appealing with the greatest window displays.
Little Moony at 230 Mulberry Street
The owner showed me all the new clothing that had come in, the artisan toys she was carrying and some new books carried. If I had someone to buy something for I would have bought something. The merchandise is that nice. I was just afraid that she had closed.
I walked back down Mulberry Street again surprised by the number of people in the restaurants and the number of new buildings opening up on the lower part of Mulberry Street. I do not even give it five years before the entire core of Little Italy is just a block if that.
I walked back to the A train up Canal Street and looked at the buildings in various stages of renovations. I have to say one thing that the City is still progressing as COVID still goes on. It is like walking through NoMAD (North of Madison Square Park), the neighborhood just keeps getting sandblasted and going through another stage of its life.
Maybe this is what the New Year is about, new beginnings and new life to something. Even though there was no formal parade, there was still the feeling that the New Year was here and let’s hope it is a better New Year!
Happy Chinese New Year! (2018) & Happy New Year Again (2020)
After a long day in the Soup Kitchen (I have to stop doubling up events on days), instead of finishing the walk of the Upper East Side, I decided to head downtown to Chinatown for the first day of Chinese New Year. What a madhouse!
First off, it was a gloomy day. The clouds kept threatening rain which finally came around 4:00 pm but it did not damper everyone’s spirits. The city closed off the main streets of Chinatown, so people were able to walk around Mott, Mulberry, Bayard, Elizabeth Streets and all the side streets around the core of Chinatown.
It was a very festive afternoon of Lion Dances in front of businesses and a non-stop of silly string and firecrackers going off all over the neighborhood. It was fun watching all the kids…
I came across this wonderful little Vietnamese restaurant when I was walking the Turtle Bay neighborhood for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and was looking for a reasonable meal that evening. I was pleasantly surprised. The food and service were very good and the I had a nice time talking to other guests.
The space for the restaurant is quite tight and it is a long narrow space done in all woods along the walls and in the seating. The kitchen is in the front as you walk in but you can’t see where the cooking is being done. As I walked in at 5:00pm, I must have thrown the staff off as they were eating their lunch when I walked through the door. It was funny because not even five minutes later two other parties followed me into the restaurant.
The inside of Pho 2 at 273 Eighth Avenue
The service was very pleasant and the food came out in a timely basis. I started the meal with the pork filled Spring Rolls ($6.00) which were filled with well spiced ground pork and fresh vegetables and cooked to a golden brown. They had a nice crunch with every bite and with the accompanying sauce plus some hot sauce really brought out the flavor of the pork. A little different from their Chinese counterparts.
The Pho 6 Spring Rolls a very crisp and golden brown
They are so good
The crispy Spring Rolls were served with lettuce and Ginger sauce
The Spring Rolls were crisp and light made sweeter by the Ginger Sauce
For the main meal, I had the Vermicelli Noodles with Grilled Shrimp ($10.00). Most of the time I avoid grilled anything in restaurants because it always tastes dry. Not here as the shrimp was grilled to perfection. The outside was nicely marked but the inside was moist and sweet. The noodles were smooth and cooked to tenderness that were topped with fresh greens and carrots which made the dish sweet and crunchy with the ginger sauce that was served on the side.
Their Vermicelli Noodle dishes are delicious
The Rice Noodles with Grilled Shrimp are delicious
The menu also contains lots of different items from Banh Mi sandwiches to Rice Dishes, Vietnamese Tacos and Pho Noodle Soups, so there is a lot to choose from.
The whole meal was enjoyable from the food to the service to the ladies and their little baby sitting next to me that I talked to through my meal. It is a very engaging restaurant with good quality food, nice size portions, friendly service and very fair prices.
It is nice to discover these little neighborhood gems.
*Author’s Note: the restaurant closed during the COVID-19 pandemic but Pho 5 is in Murray Hill and Pho 4 is in the Garment District to enjoy.
The Pho 2:
Pho 2 at 273 Eighth Avenue
I really miss the Pho 6 but recently discovered that there is a branch of the restaurant around the corner from where I work on Eighth Avenue and I decided to try it for lunch. I was very impressed by this branch as well.
The Classic Banh Mi Special Sandwich
I had a Banh Mi Special sandwich, which is ham, sliced pork, pate, cilantro, carrots, daikon, and lettuce on a toasted baguette. The sandwich was excellent. All the meats were so fresh and the vegetables were so crispy.
The Banh Mi Special sandwich was delicious
The baguette was toasted perfectly and the sandwich was nicely accompanied by both Plum Sauce and Hot Sauce that you could add on top from the bottles on the table. The sandwich was really reasonable at $9.00.
The Classic Banh Mi sandwich is excellent at Pho 2
The service was quick and very pleasant. The food came out quickly. The quality of the food is excellent.
The inside of the restaurant is bright and cheery.
The next time I ate at the Chelsea branch, I wanted to try a different sandwich and choose the Grilled Chicken and it was delicious. Thinly sliced pieces of grilled chicken marinated and perfectly grilled with lots of fresh vegetables on top on a chewy role is excellent.
The Grilled Chicken sandwich.
The food here is always consistent and fresh.
The chicken sandwich is wonderful.
I always enjoy eating here.
The Grilled Chicken sandwich was excellent.
Yum!
I recently returned to have dinner with a friend at Pho 2 and we each ordered a Bahn Mi sandwich and two types of Spring rolls. The food as usual was excellent.
She had the Classic sandwich with pork and pate and I had the Beef which is a combination of flank steak and rib. It was excellent. The thinly sliced meat complimented the crisp vegetables.
The beef was so tender and the vegetables very crisp.
The sandwich was a great combination of flavors.
Along with our sandwiches, we order both the Pork Spring Rolls and the Duck Spring Rolls. Both were so well cooked and seasoned. The Pork Spring Rolls were served with a Ginger Sauce and the Duck Spring Rolls served with a Hot Chili sauce.
The perfect dinner: A Beef Bahn Mi and Pork Spring Rolls
The delicious Spring Rolls wrapped in lettuce and then dipped in sweet sauce
The Duck Spring Rolls are loaded with sweet thinly sliced Duck meat.
The Duck Spring Rolls with the hot chili sauce
The Duck was so sweet and rich with the chili sauce to accompany it.
We ordered the Fresh Spring Rolls on our next trip which had delicious marinaded pork
I never realized how good these were until I tried them
A new item that they are featuring were a Soft Tacos with pork, chicken and shrimp. We tried the Pork and Chicken versions and tucked into the soft taco shells and a little plum sauce, these were delicious.
The Grilled Pork Tacos
The Grilled Beef Tacos
The Beef Tacos were just amazing
The Tacos were served two per portion and made the perfect start to our meal.
The food is truly excellent here.
The Pho Maiden Lane:
I was staying overnight in Lower Manhattan and right across the street from my hotel was Pho Maiden Lane so I wanted to try this one as well. I never realized that this was a small chain in Manhattan.
The Pho Maiden Lane at 3 Maiden Lane in Lower Manhattan
This time I tried the Grilled Pork Bahn Mi with a Coke and it was the perfect sized dinner. The pork was so nicely marinaded in a soy and hoisin sauce. The taste was so amazing with the fresh vegetables and crisp bread.
The food was excellent again and the service was attentive and friendly. I will be back again in the future.
The fresh bread and well cooked and spiced meat really does make a difference
The meat is well spiced
It is a well designed restaurant for the space
I had the Vietnamese Noodles with Shrimp and their noodles were just as good as the other branches.
The Noodles are really good
The Pork Spring Rolls here are perfectly fried and filled with a wonderful spiced pork mixture and were delicious.
The Pork Spring Rolls are wonderful here
The Spring Rolls are excellent
Yum!
After dinner I walked around Lower Manhattan and the views are amazing.
I came across this wonderful little Vietnamese restaurant when I was walking the Turtle Bay neighborhood for my blog, “MywalkinManhattan.com” and was looking for a reasonable meal that evening. I was pleasantly surprised. The food and service were very good and the I had a nice time talking to other guests.
The space for the restaurant is quite tight and it is a long narrow space done in all woods along the walls and in the seating. The kitchen is in the front as you walk in but you can’t see where the cooking is being done. As I walked in at 5:00pm, I must have thrown the staff off as they were eating their lunch when I walked through the door. It was funny because not…
When I finally finished walking Sutton and Beekman Places, I finally decided to take the long walk down Broadway that I had planned for two years. As you can see by the blog, I like to take one neighborhood or section of the City at a time and concentrate on getting to know it. What is the history of the neighborhood? What is there now? Who are the shop keepers and the restaurant owners? What is the neighborhood association doing to improve the area? I like to become part of the neighborhood when I walk around it.
But recently I have noticed people on the Internet have been posting blogs that they walked the entire length of Broadway and bragged about it like they were ‘performing brain surgery’. It always amazes me when I read about a new person who does this walk online and acts like they are the first person to do it. So, I put aside my next walk and decided to see what the fuss was about walking up and down Broadway. Everyone is right about one thing, it is an amazing walk through the Manhattan’s history, you get great exercise and the parks and historical sites you will see are beyond the tourist destinations.
I am not sure about everyone else, but it was a long trip that took a little over eight hours and I highly recommend the exercise. It was a lot of fun and I felt terrific afterwards. The walk goes by very quickly as there is so much to see and do. Try to start the walk between 9:00am-10:00am depending on the season so you get the maximum light for taking pictures.
The entrance to Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx at 242 Street in the Summer of 2025
The entrance to the park during the Fall of 2025
I got to visit neighborhoods that I had not seen in about two to three years. The most striking thing I had discovered especially walking through Harlem and Washington Heights is how many of the old businesses I had either passed or had eaten at had closed. Just like the rest of the City, these areas are going through a lot of change and are being gentrified.
It seems like the college campus neighborhoods are leading the way especially around Columbia’s new campus above 125th Street and SUNY between 145th Street to 130th Street. The shifts in neighborhoods are changing very fast and more and more buildings are under scaffolding or being knocked down and replaced.
Since the walk down Broadway from 242nd Street to Bowling Green Park is so extensive, I will not go into the intense detail of historical sites and parks along the way. More detail can be found on my sister sights, VisitingaMuseum.com, DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com. On these three sites I will discuss more on each site and a more detailed history. More information on each neighborhood can be found section by section of Manhattan on my blog, MywalkinManhattan.com. I have added as many links to the information as possible.
With the COVID-1 pandemic going on especially the months from March to July 2020 when the City started to reopen for business, I wanted to see how Manhattan has changed in just six months and the findings were pretty shocking. It was like someone put Manhattan into a time machine and brought us back to 1989 or 1990. I felt like I went through a time warp.
Now New York City admittingly was having its problems with the cost of apartments and rents on stores but this is something different. The mood of the City has changed from optimism to walking the streets being scared again. I have not seen this since the Dinkins’s Administration when it was dangerous to walk the streets during the day and night and all the racial problems in Crown Heights. It just seems that the progress of the last thirty years has been wiped out in a few months. I was pretty shocked at the changed I saw while walking down Broadway.
I also have been tired of the controversy with statues all over the United States, so I decided to take a better look at all the public artworks along Broadway and feature in more detail the statues, their meaning and their artists. We should not be wiping out our history but have dialogue about it.
During the recent 2021 walk, I have noticed that things are going back to normal with the exception of a lot of businesses closing over the last year, but construction still persists, and renovations of older historic buildings have gained steam as well as new restaurants opening in place of the older ones. New York City is again reinventing itself.
During the walk in 2022, almost a year later, I found Manhattan bouncing back in its own way. Older stores and restaurants have been replaced by new ones and businesses that were able to hold on during the pandemic are open for business much to the delight of the local residents and tourists who are slowly making their way back to New York City.
I also noticed on my walk in June 2022, the number of people in Manhattan has increased. The sidewalks and tourist spots were much busier than before. Even the restaurants were getting crowded. People are up and about with very few masks in site. The vaccines are obviously working, and people are going about their lives again.
In the Spring of 2024, I took the walk again a few weeks after the official walking of the “The Great Saunter” so I had a lot of practice time in. The walk took nine and a half hours this time due to two meal breaks where I had to charge the phone from all the pictures I was taking. It was the perfect day to take the walk with a 71 degree start.
In the Summer of 2025, it was a rather humid day with a 81 degree start and a 90 degree finish. The humid was not bad that day but it did get hot by the time I got to West 80th Street and I had to walk in the shade whereever I could.
The start of the walk in Van Cortlandt Park, the old Van Cortlandt estate in the Bronx.
The History of Broadway:
Broadway itself as an Avenue has a very interesting history. Broadway is the English-language literal translation of the Dutch name, ‘Brede-wey’. Broadway was originally the Wickquasgeck Trail that was carved into brush of Manhattan by the Native American inhabitants. ‘Wickquasgeck means “birch-bark country” in Algonquian language. The trail originally snaked through swamps and rocks along the length of Manhattan Island (Wiki).
Manhattan in Colonial Times
When the Dutch arrived, the trail became the main road through the island with the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam at the southern tip. The word ‘Brede-wey’ was translated when the British took possession of the island, they changed the name to ‘Broadway’. Known in the past as ‘Broadway Street’, ‘Kingsbridge Road’ and ‘Bloomingdale Road’ in parts around the island, it officially became ‘Broadway’ in 1899 when the whole street from the top of Manhattan to the bottom was named for one long road (Wiki).
The entire length of Broadway through Manhattan from Inwood to the Battery is 13 miles and the length in the Bronx is 2 miles. There is an additional 18 miles that runs through Westchester County all the way to Sleepy Hollow, NY where it ends. I just concentrated on the subway route from the 242nd Street Subway exit to the Bowling Green at the tip of Manhattan.
The walks down Broadway:
I started my mornings in 2019 and 2020 at 5:30am getting up and stretching. The sun shined in my room and that was a good start to the day. The weather was going to be in the high 70’s with a touch of clouds and the weather really cooperated. In 2019, I got into New York City at 8:15am and started my day with breakfast at my favorite deli in the Garment District, 9th Avenue AM-PM Deli (or Juniors AM-PM Deli as it also known by (See reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). In 2023, having just come back from Europe, I was not sure I was ready for the walk. It ended up being no problem. I got to the Van Cortlandt House by 10:00am.
What I love about 9th Avenue AM-PM Deli is the generous portions at a very fair price. I started one day with a French Toast platter ($4.99). I had four very nice sized slices of French Toast that were nicely caramelized and just a hint of cinnamon. On my second time on the walk, I ate here again ordering one of their Hungry Man Hero’s ($9.75), which is three eggs, potatoes, ham, bacon and sausage on a soft hero roll with mayo. Laden with calories yes but taste wise wonderful. It had all the calories and carbs for a 15-mile walk.
Their Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a hero roll is one of the best in the City.
It is always nice to grab one of the stools and eat by the window and watch the world go by. Just remember to get here early before all the construction workers from the Hudson Yards come over for their half hour union break. Then it really gets busy.
After breakfast, it was off to Times Square to take the Number One Subway up to 242nd Street-Van Cortland Park stop to start the walk. Manhattan actually starts lower than that but on such a nice day, I thought it would be nice to start at the very top of the subway route.
On the trip to Van Cortlandt Park in 2020, the subway was practically empty. There were about five of us on the car and the funny thing was that people sat near one another on an empty car. So much for socially distancing from people. They all sat near me! In 2022, the subway was empty of everyone, and I travelled alone to the last stop. In 2023, being Father’s Day, I found the whole city quiet and there was just a few of us on the train. In 2024, all the colleges had let out for the summer, but the schools were still in session with Memorial Day being next week and the City seemed quiet during the day (with the exception of Times Square). In 2025, I had to change subways to take the bus because of repairs on the subway so I got a late start that morning. No matter, the weather cooperated and the trip went by well.
The first stop on this journey is the 242nd Street stop at the end of the Number One line
Starting the walk in the same position in Fall 2025
Interesting street art on the subway
The Summer of 2026 the views from the subway platform were breathtaking in the park. The views from the subway platform at the Van Cortlandt Park exit were beautiful with everything in full bloom.
Looking North on the subway platform in 2026
Looking from the subway in 2026
Looking at the start from the subway platform in 2026
I had not been to the Van Cortlandt House Museum (See VisitingaMuseum.com and TripAdvisor for my reviews) since right after the holidays to see the house decorations and not seen the park ever in the warmer months.
I got to my destination at 9:00am and had to go to the bathroom. What is nice about Van Cortlandt Park is that the public bathrooms are right near the subway exit and there is another set right next to the Van Cortlandt House Museum so that is covered when you enter the neighborhood.
The Van Cortlandt Manor House in the late Spring
Make sure to take a bathroom break now because the options get slimmer until about 207th Street at the Ann Loftus Playground (and in 2022 those bathrooms are closed for renovations). The bathrooms at the park were even cleaner in 2020 with new park regulations for COVID-19 so the hand sanitizers were all full and the hand blowers were fixed. That was nice. Both the bathrooms at the 207th Street stop and at the manor house are really well maintained.
The Van Cortlandt House in the Fall of 202
I started my adventure by walking into the park and visiting the museum grounds. Van Cortlandt Park is a beautiful park that was once the Van Cortlandt estate. The last time I had been here was to tour the house for Christmas and to see the decorations.
The Van Cortlandt Manor at Christmas time in 2022
Van Cortlandt Manor gardens and house in 2022
The house was closed when I got to the park (in the summer months it does not open until 11:00am), so I just walked around the grounds to stretch a bit and admire the foliage. It was nice to see the trees with leaves on them and the gardens surrounding the house were in full bloom (the house is open-Check the website for hours).
Van Cortlandt Park and the Manor House in the Spring of 2024.
Don’t miss when exiting the park to stop and see Memorial Grove, a small section of the park dedicated to 21 servicemen who gave their lives in World War. There are twenty-one oak trees that were planted by the graves which are now fully grown. It is a somber but quiet place to reflect on what these men gave for our country.
I always start my walk at the statue of General Josiah Porter, a Civil War hero who is memorialized just outside the entrance to Van Cortlandt Mansion. Every year I salute him before I start the walk. I consider him my guardian angel on this walk. I swear in 2024, I could have sworn that the statue moved his head in my direction when I saluted him. In 2025, I saluted the General again for good luck on the walk.
This elegant statue was created by artist William Clarke Nobel in 1902. He was commissioned by the National Guard Association of New York to create the statue and it was placed in front of the parade grounds inside Van Cortlandt Park.
General Porter lead the 22nd Regiment of the National Guard of New York during the Civil War. His contributions to the war effort helped the North win. After the war, he had been promoted to Colonel in 1869 and then was promoted again 1886 to Major General, the highest-ranking position in the New York National Guard (NYCParks.org).
General Josiah Porter in front of the Van Cortlandt Mansion
This is the reason why I started at the Van Cortlandt Mansion. To the see the condition of statues along the route of Broadway. There are so many historical monuments on the way down that I wanted to note them in the updated blog. With all these idiots knocking down statues all over the country, New York City has not seen much of this. I am sure that art historians and the police are just waiting to pounce on these people.
In 2025, Van Cortlandt Park was just passing its peak in foliage and the park was spectacular to look at from all aspects.
Van Cortlandt Park in the Fall of 2025
Van Cortlandt Park in the Fall
Van Cortlandt Park in the Fall
The park in the Fall when the leaves change colors
When visiting the park in the Summer of 2026, it was a different story with lush greens with all the rain we had recently. It may have been September but it was still just near the end of the Summer.
Van Cortlandt Park in the Summer of 2026
Van Cortlandt Park at the end of the Summer in 2026
Once I left the park, I started the walk on the west side of Broadway and the plan was to walk the west side the first day and then the east side the second time so that I could see the buildings along the way and see what restaurants had opened, closed and what looked interesting. Plus, where to find public bathrooms along the way. This was the interesting part of the walk was trying to find bathrooms when you needed them.
Since I have visited most of the neighborhoods already from 59th Street up to the tip of Inwood and wrote about historical sites, buildings, gardens and museums that I have visited along the way in other blogs, I won’t be mentioning these in as much detail as you can see them in other entries.
*I will refer to the other sites DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com, LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com, VisitingaMuseum.com and other entries of MywalkinManhattan.com for more details to read on each neighborhood.
Also, to make the walk more enjoyable and include all the wonderful places to visit and see along the way, I will be blending many days of walks down Broadway experiences into one blog so I can make stopping points that visitors should take time to see. The walks took just over eight hours and please watch the humidity. There was a big difference doing this walk in 70-degree weather versus 85-degree weather with humidity. You should also give yourself stopping time for bathroom breaks and time to rest in some of the small parks along the way.
I needed more liquids in me and more time to sit down. Suggestion after four trips down this route is two water bottles frozen the night before. This way they melt on route, and you always have cold water until you hit the next park. This makes all the walking easier. Still, it was great exercise, and you will never be bored.
When I passed the entrance of Van Cortlandt Park by Van Cortlandt Avenue, another statue at the entrance of the park caught my eye. It was of a coyote guarding the front entrance. It seems that coyotes were wild back then and are still being seen today in the park system.
The statue known as “Major Coyote” is a symbol of coyote sightings in the park as late as 1995. This statue guards the main entrance and gardens of the park.
Once I left Van Cortlandt Park, I walked through Twin Oaks Square, a small park outside the park which is a nicely landscaped. It is picturesque and looking at from the street gives a beautiful entrance way to the park.
Twin Oaks Triangle
The Twin Oaks Triangle in the Fall of 2025
I continued walking down through the commercial district of the Bronx along the Broadway corridor which is loaded with chain stores and malls of all sorts. So much for people saying the Bronx is dead. There was so much shopping going on that you never had to leave for the suburbs to find a chain store. This part of the walk was still vibrant proving that the chain stores still have the staying power. Even during COVID and when the City reopened, these areas the stores remained open.
At each subway stop station I did notice clusters of small family run businesses and here you can find some interesting restaurants and pizzerias. There are a lot of family run bakeries as well but none that stood out. The fact that the area was still so vibrant in 2020 showed the resilience of the area.
As I was leaving the Bronx on the way to Marble Hill, I noticed a lot more sidewalk and street art all around the neighborhood. Here is some that stood out to me on my 2025 walk.
Sidewalk art on Broadway
Sidewalk art on Broadway
Sidewalk art on Broadway
Street art on Broadway
Street art on Broadway
When you reach the edge of Marble Hill (the Northern most part of Manhattan), you will pass the Marble Hill Houses. I had more whistles and yells when I passed the projects on my many trips in the neighborhood. I am not sure what about me screams cop.
The Marble Hill Houses in the Summer of 2023
The Marble Hill Houses in the Fall of 2025
Even so as I walked in the front walks of the houses, I noticed that the residents were growing gardens that were part of the ‘Outer Seed Shadow Project’, a program of growing crops on the project’s lawns in raised beds. I thought it will be interesting when everything gets harvested. Some of the plants were fully grown when I visited this early in the season.
The Outer Seed Shadow Project at the Marble Hill Houses
For breakfast the morning of my June 2025 walk down Broadway, I revisited Rosarina Bakery at 5215 Broadway. I have been coming here since the first day of the walking project in 2015 and the baked goods here can be hit or miss. Sometimes they are really delicious and sometimes that can be hard. This time around I had one of their Vanilla Doughnuts and it was really good. It was cake like and sweet with a thick Vanilla icing. Enough sugar to start the walk.
After enjoying the sweet treat, it was off for the walk down Broadway crossing over the bridge from Marble Hill to the Island of Manhattan. I stopped at the Columbia Campus to look at the boathouse and admire the parks. One a beautiful day in the summer, there is nothing like the Inwood Parks.
The crossing from Marble Hill into Inwood with Muscato March in the background.
The foliage was especially beautiful in the Fall of 2025. I passed the bridge, and the views were just spectacular in the morning.
The cross in the Fall of 2025
The cross in the Fall of 2025
It was when you will cross the bridge at 225th Street in the Bronx to the tip of Manhattan in Inwood is where it all starts to change as you enter the northern Columbia University campus and pass the football stadium.
The Columbia University ‘C’ when you exit Marble Hill and go over the bridge to the Island of Manhattan in the Summer of 2024
The same view in the Fall of 2025
The interesting part of this part of Inwood is that on tip of Manhattan is nothing at the end of it. Here we have bus stations, garage trucks and delivery vans. This is one of the most commercial parts of Manhattan I have ever seen outside parts of the Garment District. The area has been rezoned so there will be a lot more changes up here in the future. Once you cross the bridge from the Bronx, you feel the difference in the neighborhoods depending on what side of Broadway you are on.
Crossing the bridge means that you have entered Columbia University territory and to the right is Columbia Stadium which is pretty much shut down this time of year. There were some football players on the field, but the Ivy League season starts later so it was not that busy. On my second trip down the east side of Broadway, I made two pit stops in Inwood past the stadium that I think tourists and residents alike should see.
Columbia Stadium at 533 West 218th Street was locked for the summer but there was a Summer Camp going on
During my trip pass the college in 2020, everything is locked tight. Columbia University’s football season I believe has been cancelled. In 2022, the field was being prepared for the football season and some students were out on the field. In 2023, again the field was being prepared for the upcoming football season (Cornell will be playing them home in 2023).
Please read my blog on the Columbia-Cornell rivalry and the football games at the stadium:
Still there are a lot of sites to see around Inwood Hill Park. The first is Muscota Marsh at 575 West 218th Street (See review on VisitingaMuseum.com) right behind Columbia Stadium that faces the shores of Marble Hill. This interesting marsh is one of the few in the City and one of the only ones in Manhattan that I know of, and it is a great place to just sit and relax.
The marsh takes on a different look in the Fall of 2025 with all the leaves changing colors and the skies so clear. On a warm Fall Day, the park looked amazing.
Muscato Marsh
Muscato Marsh
Muscato Marsh
Muscato Marsh
The views of the marsh and Inwood Park in the Fall of 2025
The Muscota Marsh is right next to the Columbia Boathouse where their rowing team set their boats off and right next to the Columbia Football stadium. On a sunny morning or afternoon, it is a nice place to just sit back and watch the boaters and people on jet ski’s zoom by. It is nice to just sit by the flowers and relax.
There were a lot of local residents relaxing in the park on all afternoons that I visited. Each year I see that more people have discovered this little hidden gem. In 2025, it was my stop off point to cool down for a bit.
Muscota Marsh is right next to the Columbia Boathouse
In 2026, the park is where I ate my second breakfast of the day. By the time I got into the City and started the walk, I reached the football field and I got hungry again. So I decided to stop here for a bit and relax and enjoy the beautiful weather.
Muscato Marsh in the Summer of 2026
Muscato Marsh flowers were in full bloom that afternoon
The birds were watching me through the rocks and weeds
If you want to walk a little further into Inwood Park, visit the Shorakkopoch Rock the place where it has been said that Peter Minuit had bought the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans. This is where a three-hundred-year-old tulip tree had once stood, and legend stated that the event had taken place under a tulip tree in clearing on the island. No one is too sure if this is the right place but to really understand the history of Manhattan. this is the spot where to begin.
Shorakkopoch Rock the site of the purchase of Manhattan Island by Peter Minuit
On the way of exploring Broadway in 2019, I followed the path of artwork by artist Nicolas Holiber and his bird sculptures that lined Broadway similar to the art by Joy Brown and Bernadette Myers. So, traveling from 165th Street to 59th Street searching for bird artwork. There were still a few of the sculptures still up during the Summer of 2020 but no one seemed to notice them. Still, that was the fun of walking down Broadway, trying to search for the sculptures to find them all.
As I left Inwood Park, I watched as kids participating in summer camps were playing games and running around in 2019. Parts of the park were closed to reseeding so you can see that money was being put into the park and renovations were starting. When I did the Broadway walk in 2021, the lawns had been reseeded and green with lots of kids running all over the place.
As I walked down Broadway the few times, I have visited the area since my initial walk in 2015, I have noticed so many businesses open and close which is almost an epidemic all over Manhattan. Broadway for almost the entire length is no different.
In 2021, I had read an article about Borough President Gale Brewer walking the length of Broadway in Manhattan and saying that about 200 store fronts were empty. This is not good and is showing what is going on not just in the economy but how the landlords are beginning to gouge small businesses with rent increases. So many small Dominican businesses I have watched close to be replaced by Hipster restaurants who are also not making it with these rent increases.
In the Summer of 2020, what a difference a year makes. The COVID-19 pandemic and the stalling of the economy has changed the neighborhoods along Broadway even more. I have never so many businesses close along the route both Mom & Pop and chain stores alike. It looks almost like the Upper West Side of the early 1990’s with all the empty store fronts and a lot more homeless milling around the area.
In the Summer of 2021, things were opening back up and changing. On the walk in 2022, you can see that many businesses have reopened, and new restaurants and shops are opening in many of the closed spaces. Still there are still quite a few vacancies between West 96th and West 72nd Streets.
On the Father’s Day walk in 2023, the whole neighborhood was starting to come back to life. New York City especially Manhattan was slowly coming back. Maybe not to 2019 but was getting better. The storefronts were filling up all over Broadway. On both walks in 2024, Manhattan was back in business and the empty storefronts were starting to fill up again.
When I walked down Broadway in the Summer of 2025, it was as if COVID never existed. The shopping areas and restaurants were back in full swing, everything was open. When I started the walk up in Van Cortlandt Park, groups of men were playing cricket in the ball fields and lots of people jogging and walking their dogs. It was just another day but the park was really busy early in the morning. The walk down Broadway has seen new businesses open and a vibrant shopping district in each neighborhood.
Still there are many businesses that are thriving along the Broadway corridor and a lot of great restaurants to stop and visit along the way. Even after a big breakfast, I needed to take snack breaks along the way and the restaurants in the Washington Heights area are reasonable and have great travel food.
My first stop after visiting the Muscota Marsh was Twin Donut at 5099 Broadway (permanently closed July 2021 and still sitting empty in 2022 and 2023) for a donut and a bathroom break. You will need to know which public bathrooms are good along the way and for the price of a donut it was well worth the visit. Their donuts are around a $1.75 depending on the type but go for one of their jelly or custard filled. They are really good. This is one of the first places I used to visit during the Cornell/Columbia Football games.
Rumor has it by 2021, it will turn into a residential building. In the Summer of 2022, the building is still there but is long closed. They have not started construction on the residential tower that was supposed to go there. In 2023, the building was behind fencing and nothing been done. In 2025, the building still sits there awaiting development.
Twin Donut was formerly at 5099 Broadway (Closed in 2021-it still sits empty in 2025)
As I passed Isham Park, which is a beautiful Inwood Park with lots of rock formations, I stopped to look at the Church of the Good Shepard at 4967 Broadway. I had never really noticed it on previous walks, but I had walked around the church when I visited the Farmer’s Market two months earlier when I walked “The Great Saunter”.
The church was built in 1930 and designed by architect Paul Monaghan in the Romanesque style. The church is a combination of limestone and granite and has the most beautiful gardens planted that were in full bloom on the corner of Isham Street and Broadway. During the warmer months, there is a terrific Farmers Market that lines Isham Street by the park with all sorts of fruits, vegetables, baked goods and flowers to buy.
As you are traveling down Broadway, take some time to walk the side streets into the heart of ‘Little Dominica’, Inwood’s Dominican community of stores, restaurants and bakeries. The first stop should be walking down 207th Street to the subway stop on 10th Avenue. While the street is full of all sorts of restaurants, stop at the street vendors for fresh juice and pastilitos, the Dominican version of the empanadas.
These usually run about $2.00. There are all sorts of street vendors selling their wares along the sidewalks. On my second trip down I stopped at a vendor for fresh chicken pastilitos and there is nothing like them when they are just out of the fryer.
Fresh Pastilitos at the stands in the shopping district at 207th Street to Tenth Avenue
As I traveled through Inwood, I stopped at the Dyckman Family Farmhouse (See reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com), which is the oldest home on the Island of Manhattan. The Dyckman Farmhouse was built in 1785 and was once part of a 250 acre that stretched to the tip of Inwood. The house now sits on a bluff overlooking Broadway and Washington Heights on about an acre of land.
The house is still impressive to walk through and when you have time, take the formal walking tour of the home and hear about the history of how the farm worked and about the Dyckman family (the site has now opened up for tours outside in 2022 and the house will open this summer).
As you pass the Dyckman House and walk south also take a side trip down Dyckman Avenue to visit more Dominican restaurants, bakeries and stores from Broadway to Nagle Avenue. There are some interesting places to have a snack but again check out the street vendors first especially on the weekends when the weather is nice. More people are out walking around.
Walking down Isham Park on the way to Ann Loftus Park offered more beautiful views of the foliage.
Broadway by 213th Street
Broadway by 212th Street
Broadway by Isham Park
Walking by Isham Park in the Summer of 2026
The Dykman House in 2025
In 2021, I stopped back at G’s Coffee Shop at 634 West 207th Street, one of my favorite places to eat when I am visiting The Cloisters. Their food is excellent and so reasonable.
In 2023, I had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese on a hero roll, and it carried me through walking through Washington Heights. Talk about a sandwich as it was stuffed with loads of eggs and bacon and had that nice buttery taste of the grill (see my reviews on DiningonaSheStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor)
Their Bacon, Egg and Cheese is really good
In 2024, I had a Bacon and Cheese Omelet with Home Fries and Rye Toast that was wonderful.
The breakfast in 2024 was spectacular and gave me the energy of the 13 mile walk.
In 2023, I stopped at the Park Terrace Deli where I had the same sandwich. I love the Bacon, Egg and Cheese when I am doing this walk and it fills me up for the afternoon. Park Terrace Deli offers all sorts of breakfast and lunch sandwiches at very reasonable prices. Their hamburgers and cheeseburgers are excellent too.
I took my breakfast and ate at Muscota Marsh on the benches and just watched the water drift by on the river. What a beautiful morning to be outside. it is the nicest place for excellent views of the Hudson River.
Muscato Marsh was so pretty that morning
The Hudson River looms in the distance
The park in the summer of 2025
On my most recent walk down Broadway in the Summer of 2026, I stopped in for breakfast wanting to try one of their breakfast platters. I chose a Cheese Omelet with Cheddar Cheese.
The breakfast menu
The guy must have not been listening because I ordered a Cheddar cheese omelet and somehow got a Feta Cheese omelet. Not the same but still good.
My Broadway walk breakfast
The omelet was huge
It came with a mountain of spiced hash browns which were really good. I also should have gotten rye toast instead of wheat but it still made a good sandwich. So it was two breakfasts in one.
You have to make a sandwich with it for two breakfasts
Even though the order was screwed up, the food was still delicious and I tried something new. It was such a beautiful day, I took my breakfast down to Muscato Marsh down the road, ate outside and enjoyed both the weather and the views.
Talk about the best place to eat breakfast with those views
Balancing out this huge omelet outside
The one nice thing about eating meals in Muscato Marsh is the views on a beautiful, sunny afternoon. I enjoy just relaxing on a warm morning or afternoon and enjoying my meal as I watch the birds fly by or watching people boating in the river.
The shopping district on Broadway in Inwood is always changing with a selection of restaurants and shops constantly changing. You go from Spanish bodegas to fancy restaurants and then back again. I have been doing this walk for almost a decade and keep watching how the neighborhood keeps changing with the economy,
Shopping district in Inwood in 2026
Looking down Broadway to Fort Tyron Park in the Summer of 2026
Inwood Street art near 207th Street
Street art in Inwood
When you cross Dyckman Street, Ann Loftus Playground at 4746 Broadway (named after a local community leader) will be to the right and there are nice public bathrooms and water fountains here. There are also benches under shade trees to sit under and on a warm day, there are vendors selling Dominican ices for $2.00. Go for the mango/cherry or the rainbow. On a hot day, they are very refreshing (The Ann Loftus Playground is closed for renovations in the summer of 2022 and I ended up having my mango-cherry ice at 110th Street after lunch).
Ann Loftus Playground is part of the extensive Fort Tyron Park that runs from Riverside Drive to Broadway from Dyckman Street to 190th Street.
The park in the Fall of 2025 offered many different colors of red, gold, orange and still some green on the leaves. The walk through the park was beautiful.
Ann Loftus Park
An. Loftus Park
Ann Loftus Park
Sidewalk art by a creative child artist
Ann Loftus Park in the Fall
Ann Loftus Park in the beginning of the Fall
Ann loftus park
Fort Tryon Park in the Fall of 2025
If you want to take a walk through the park, not only are there beautiful views of the Hudson River along the stone paths but it leads up to The Cloisters Museum at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art that features Medieval Art including the ‘Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries.
The park also has many colorful flower gardens and paths along the river with amazing views. There is a lot of walking up and down hills in Fort Tyron Park but trust me the views are breathtaking and the paths lead to amazing gardens and lawns. There are also nice public bathrooms to stop at here.
Fort Tryon Park
Fort Tryon Park Gardens
When I visited the park in 2020, the NYC Parks Department has issued new cleanliness standards for the bathrooms, so they were much cleaner on this trip with soap and working hand blowers. I would find this in all bathrooms along the route. In 2022, there is a complete renovation of the park and the bathrooms so be prepared to hold it in until you hit the McDonalds at 183rd Street. In 2025, I found the bathrooms needed a really good cleaning again.
Inside and outside of Ann Loftus Playground, there are always local merchants selling pastilitos and ices on hot days. The prices have gone up slightly since COVID but the food is always wonderful. Two freshly made pastilitos (Dominican Empanadas) and flavored ices are the best meal when you are on the go and trust me, those ices cool you down both inside and out.
At 207th Street, the pastelito vendor has been my favorite snack place while I begin my journey downtown. I eat these on a nice day in Ann Loftus Park.
For $2.00 they make the perfect snack and he makes these so good!
In Ann Loftus Park, there was also a vendor selling the Dominican ices and a rainbow ice on a hot day there is nothing like it.
As you leave the park and continue walking down Broadway, you will be in the heart of Washington Heights so on a warm day expect to see people sitting on the benches socializing, playing checkers and dominoes and listening to music. There is a lot of life on these sidewalks.
As you pass Fort Tyron Park, take a peek at the street artwork inside the 190th Street Station and take some time to walk the corridor. It is its own museum in constant change and the street taggers do some interesting work.
The subway station at 190th Street in 2024.
The decorations are quite interesting
The weather was hot and humid in the summer of 2025 and I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. The walk down Broadway next to Ann Loftus Park was especially nice as the weather was clear and sunny and everything was in bloom in the park.
Broadway at West 212th Street
Ann Loftus Park and Fort Tryon Entrance
The playground in the summer of 2025
When walking into the streets between 187th and 160th, there are some wonderful Spanish restaurants catering mostly to Dominican families, but the menus are extensive, and the prices are reasonable. There are a lot of restaurants especially clustered around the George Washington Bridge Depot.
In 2020, I stopped for breakfast and lunch at the Chop Cheese Deli at 4234 Broadway. Having eaten breakfast at 5:45am, I was hungry for another breakfast and could not decide what I wanted to eat. So, I ordered both the Egg and Cheese on a roll ($2.95) and their signature Chopped Cheese on a roll ($4.95). Both were really good, but the Chopped Cheese should have had shredded lettuce not chopped lettuce, so it was a little soggy but still good. The deli’s prices are excellent and there is nothing over $10.00 in the hot food’s menu (In just three years they have expanded to four delis).
The Chopped Cheese on a roll here at Chopped Cheese Deli at 4234 Broadway is really good
I must have built up some appetite because I made on pit stop on the 2021 walk and wanted to revisit a few places from previous walks on 118th Street. My first stop was Papi’s Pizza at 1422 St. Nicholas Avenue. I had passed by here many times when walking Washington Heights and never got a chance to try it. The cheese slice was very good and really large. It made a nice addition to the sandwich I had just eaten. In 2023, they were closed for the day (the restaurant closed permanently at the end of 2023).
Papi’s Pizza at 1422 St. Nicholas Avenue (Closed December 2023)
I then stopped at Esmeraldo Bakery at 538 West 118 Street for something sweet to tide me over and I just love this bakery. There prices are not just reasonable, but the selection of interesting desserts is hard to come by. I love their guava pastries, their iced doughnuts and their glazed twists. I settled on a powder covered cream horn and it was delicious. Sweet and flaky with each bite.
The wonderful selection at Esmeraldo Bakery
In 2022, I stopped here again for a quick early lunch. I had a Ham and Cheese roll that just came out of the oven, and I had a Cinnamon Raisin Pinwheel was dessert. The Ham and Cheese roll was really good with chunks of ham and melted cheese in every bite. Esmeraldo’s is always a staple with me when I am in the neighborhood, and I love the quality of their baked goods.
In 2023, I was back again. I decided I needed something sweet after the breakfast sandwich and settled on an apple turnover and a sugar doughnut. The apple turnover needed some more apples inside, but the sugar doughnut was excellent. It was soft and sweet and loaded with granulated sugar. Each bite had an extra sweetness to it.
The sugar doughnuts at Esmeraldo Bakery are excellent
Esmeraldo’s Apple and Pineapple turnovers were delicious as well on my walk in 2024
New street art has shown up in Washington Heights and the artists are extremely talented. I love going in search for new murals that seem to go up every year.
Street Art in Washington Heights on 182nd Street
Street art in Washington Heights on 175th Street
Street art in Washington Heights
Street art in Washington Heights
The shopping district on Broadway at 180th Street
As you walk further down the shopping district there are better and reasonable restaurants. Three standouts that I highly recommend are La Dinastia at 4059 Broadway (at 171st Street) for Dominican Chinese food and 5 Star Estrella Bakery at 3861 Broadway (at 161st Street) for pastries, pastilitos and all sorts of hot snacks. George’s Pizza at 726 West 181st Street is also excellent.
The restaurant row around 181st Street has a nice selection of restaurants
The active shopping district on 181st Street is the heart of Little Dominica
181st Street decorated for the upcoming holiday season in the Fall of 2025
Washington Heights shopping district
Broadway in Washington Heights in the Fall of 2025
On the other side of West 181st Street in the Summer walk of 2025, I stopped at George’s Pizza at 726 181st Street. I had not been there for a while, and the pizza was still excellent and very reasonable.
My review on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com:
The inside of George’s Pizza
The pizza is amazing
Yum!
When you get to 172nd Street, La Dinastia has a reasonable lunch menu and I recommend having the Chicken Cracklings, a type of batter fried chicken patty with their Special Fried Rice which contains shrimp, sausage, eggs and vegetables (See review on TripAdvisor).
La Dinastia at 4059 Broadway
A lunch special here can run about $15.00 with a Coke and tip and you will be full for the rest of the afternoon. The nice part about the restaurant is that it has Chinese food with a Spanish influence with rice, beans and salads on some of the entrees.
The inside of La Dinestia during lunch time
Chicken Cracklings with Fried Rice
The lunch
Yum!
La Dinastia’s at 4059 Broadway’s Chicken Cracklings and Special Fried Rice lunch special
Before you leave this area, check out the former Coliseum Cinema on the corner of Broadway and 181st Street before they tear it down. It was built in 1920 as an old vaudeville theater and famous actors including the Marx Brothers and Harold Lloyd performed there. The building is slated for demolition due to its structure concerns and will be replaced by housing and a retail mall. In 2020, a church group is now using it.
The Coliseum Theater at 181st & Broadway has interesting detail work
Palace Theater in 2024. The details on the building are amazing.
I noticed that on my trip in 2020 that the shopping districts in Washington Heights have been devastated by the COVID-19 crisis. I saw a lot of closed and empty businesses in the 207th and 181st shopping districts and a lot of popular delis and stores have closed along the Broadway corridor of Washington Heights. This made the lines at the places that were still open even longer.
In 2022, when I took the walk down the 181st Street shopping corridor, I noticed that there were still some empty storefronts but not as many as two years ago. Some older restaurants have been replaced by chains and there is a new Chick fil A on the block. It seems that the chain stores have now discovered the shopping area so expect to see more changes. With the changes in the neighborhood’s demographics, I expect to see more chain stores here in the future. In 2025, many new Latino cuisine restaurants have opened to replace the ones that have closed and the chain restaurants have discovered the district as well. The areas population is changing with the shifts in the neighborhood.
There is a small park across from the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, Mitchell Square, at the corners of Broadway and St. Nichols Avenue at 168th Street, that features the Washington Heights-Inwood War Memorial by artist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. It was dedicated in 1922 for members of the community who fought in WWI. I found it very touching. It features two soldiers assisting another wounded one.
Washington Heights-Inwood War Memorial by artist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Street art of birds on the store front of Broadway and West 167th Street (I could not figure out the name of the artist)
Also check out some of the Dominican bakeries in the area. 5 Star Estrella Bakery is near the corner of 161st Street and Broadway. Everything at the bakery is delicious and I have never had one bad thing to eat here (See reviews on DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com and TripAdvisor).
Their chicken and beef pastilitos are cooked perfectly and stuff full of filling ($1,50), their doughnuts are light and slathered in thick icing ($1.00) and their cinnamon buns ($2.00) are the best. They are light, chewy and sugary. Another item that stands out is a type of potato croquette that is filled with meat ($1.50). If they are available, grab one. Totally delicious!
The Cinnamon Swirl pastry here is excellent
The lines in 2020 were the longest I have ever seen with about 15 people waiting outside for service. I had a Raisin Swirl doughnut ($2.00) and a chewy fried doughnut ($2.00) which I ate on the way down Broadway. Even in 2022, the lines were long and I was still stuffed from my earlier snack.
As you reach the small pocket park, the IIka Tanya Payan Park at 157th Street, you will come across the first piece of Broadway Art by artist Nicolas Holiber for his “Birds on Broadway” Audubon Sculpture Project exhibit which is a partnership he has with Broadway Mall Association, NYC Parks, NYC Audubon and the Gitler Gallery.
Ilka Tany Payan Park at Edward Morgan Place and Broadway
The park is named after the Dominican actress from the 1960’s and 70’s who later became an AIDS activist and Lawyer.
The park in the summer of 2025
These interesting sculptures bring attention to birds’ species that are endangered by climate change. These birds are either native to New York or do a fly by when in season. They are made of 100% reclaimed or recycled wood (Nicolas Holiber website).
The Wood Duck by artist Nicolas Holiber (the sculpture is still up in 2020)
The first sculpture on the walk that I saw was the Wood Duck. It was an interesting piece that unfortunately was being walked on by a couple of kids that did not seem to know the significance of the work. These rustic pieces really do stand out though and I like the write ups with each one which gives a short story on each bird.
When I was walking through IIka Tanya Payan Park in 2022, there was a very strange looking sculpture that looked like a shell formation called “Gifting Angel” by artist Jon Isherwood for the project “Broadway Blooms: Jon Isherwood on Broadway”, part of the Broadway Mall Association project with eight sculptures along Broadway. This exhibition opened in 2020 and has been extended to July 2022.
The “Gifting Angel” sculpture by artist Jon Isherwood sits in IIka Tanya Payan Park in 2022
Mr. Isherwood is an English born American artist and a graduate of Canterbury College of Art in England and holds an MFA from Syracuse University. He has had exhibitions all over the world and is known for his public art and large sculptures.
Boricua College Campus where both museums are located
As you pass the sculpture and continue south to the right is the Audubon Terrace at 155th Street and Broadway, which is home to Boricua College, the Hispanic Society of America Museum (See reviews on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com) which is currently closed for renovation and the American Academy of Arts & Letters (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum.com) which just recently closed and is only open twice a year to exhibitions. Both museums are only open at select times of the year, so you have to visit their websites for more information.
The American Academy of Arts & Letters at 633 West 155th Street
The inside of the museum in 2025 after the long renovation
Inside the Hispanic Society Museum in the summer of 2025
In 2021 when I revisited the college, the college was hosting the Latinx Diaspora exhibition with artwork and musical displays. Artists Danny Pegresso, Carla Torres, Dister Rondon and FEEGZ displayed their works outside the building in the courtyard.
The Latinx Diaspora Exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library
The exhibition displayed several works of art in galleries that spanned three buildings. I got to see many local artists display their work as well as seeing an exhibition on the progression of the musical “Hamilton” from local theater to the smash hit on Broadway. It was interesting to see how the show progressed. It also gave an interesting perspective on what is going on in the world by younger artists. The exhibition will be open until August 2021.
In June of 2022, there was an exhibition outside entitled “Art of Solidarity” by artist Andrea Arroyo. The exhibition touches on the themes of immigration, gender rights, love and peace, gun violence and environment crisis (Artist website).
Ms. Arroyo is known for her paintings, illustrations, public art and site-specific works and a noted lecturer, curator and speaker (Artist bio).
The college abuts the Trinity Church Cemetery that holds the graves of many prominent New Yorkers including John Jacob Astor IV and Mayor Ed Koch. It is interesting to walk along the paths of the cemetery during the day and look at the historic tombstones. When visiting the grave of Mayor Koch, be prepared to find lots of stones along the grave site as a sign of respect for the dead. Take some time out when visiting the cemetery to pay your respects to one of New York City’s greatest mayors.
As you pass the borders of 155th Street into Harlem there is a distinct change in the street life. It is a lot quieter when you reach the borders of Washington Heights and Harlem. There are less people on the sidewalks here. In Washington Heights, there is music on the sidewalks, families playing games and men debating issues. It is a lot quieter I noticed when you cross the 155th Street border between the neighborhoods.
The cemetery at the Church of the Intercession is the border of Washington Heights and Harlem.
The General Washington plaque on Broadway and 155th Street.
The entrance to the cemetery at 155th Street
Broadway in Washington Heights in the Fall of 2025
The cemetery at 155th Street
155th Street by the cemetery with a view of New Jersey
Another church I had not really taken a good glimpse at over the last few walks is the Church of the Intercession at 550 West 155th Street. This elegant church sits in front of the cemetery, holding guard on the gravesite.
The Church of the Intercession at 550 West 155th Street (Church Website)
The Church of the Intercession was founded in 1846 and the current building was built in 1915. It was designed by architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue from the firm of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson and was designed in the Gothic Revival style with a combination of English Perpendicular style (Wiki).
As you past the church and the Trinity Cemetery, you enter the heart of Washington Heights though some would consider it upper Harlem. This part of the neighborhood was dealing with hyper gentrification before the pandemic started and I noticed that a lot of stores and restaurants were opening and closing before the pandemic. The closer you got to the CUNY campus that stretches from West 142nd Street to the border of West 129th Street, the businesses started to become more geared to the college students. That has since slowed, and a lot of bars have closed.
Street art a Bird on the building at 145th Street
There is also a difference in the types of restaurants and shopping as slowly CUNY is starting to spread its wings and more businesses catering to students and faculty are opening in this area. More pizzerias, wing shops and bakeries gearing to both the neighborhood and the college students have opened in the old businesses place since 2022. More and more businesses are behind brown paper so we will see in the next few months before college resumes in six weeks what comes out of it.
I kept following the path of Broadway artwork. The next stop was to see Nicolas Holiber’s Snowy Owl at 148th Street. This was one of the more whimsical pieces in the exhibit and was unique with its outlaying wings.
The Snowy Owl by artist Nicolas Holiber at 148th Street
Street art on Broadway
The Beeagloo artwork on West145th Street
My next stop for a snack was at Olga’s Pizza at 3409 Broadway (See review on TripAdvisor). Olga’s, I had just stumbled across as I had a craving for a slice and the pizza is delicious. The secret to a good pizza is a fresh tasting and well spiced sauce and Olga’s hits both marks on this. It is a little pricey at $2.50 a slice but she is catering to the CUNY students who venture from campus to the restaurants on Broadway for meals. I got to meet Olga herself in the pizzeria who was working alongside of her parents, and she seemed please that I liked her pizza so much (Olga’s Pizza is closed in 2020).
To the right of Olga’s just down the block is Montefiore Square Park, which is always a nice place to take a break and sit down to rest under the trees. It is a real mixture of neighborhood families, college students and teenagers who are eating at the local McDonald’s or one of the food trucks that line the park in the warmer months. Just north of the park at 139th Street is the third sculpture in the Nicolas Holiber exhibit, the Hooded Merganser.
The Hooded Merganser by artist Nicolas Holiber at 136th Street (still here in 2020)
Montefiore Square Park has since gone through a renovation closing off the Hamilton Place Road extension and bricking up the road to make it a pedestrian park. It is now full of small vendors and food carts catering to the people of the park but again the college students are moving into this area, and it is starting to change again.
One surprising thing I found at the corner of Broadway and 135th Street was a Pediatric office that housed in the front of it the Martinez Gallery at 3332 Broadway. The gallery features in the front waiting room an array of street art. This was interesting for a doctor’s office.
The Martinez Gallery at 3332 Broadway (Closed in 2025)
The inside artwork at the Martinez Gallery. Very unassuming doctor’s office (because of COVID the gallery looked closed to visitors and then closed permanently in the Summer of 2025)
Once you pass 135th Street, you enter the new extension of the Columbia University campus and because of the growth of the campus to this section of Harlem especially around the 125th Street corridor, it is changing fast. I have never seen so many new restaurants and shops going up right across the street from the Manhattanville Housing Projects. It is becoming a real extreme in this part of the neighborhood.
Passing the impressive 3333 Broadway on my way to the Columbia campus in the Summer of 2026.
In 2021, the campus is now stretching from the corner of 132nd Street with more new buildings under construction to the 125th Street shopping district. All around this area the housing is being renovated and newer stores catering to students are starting to open up. I walked the streets again on the campus and it is expanding to the Hudson River parks.
In 2022, most of the buildings have been finished and opened. New pocket parks have opened on this side of Broadway. More construction is going on as Columbia University marches northward to meet up with the CUNY campus.
Columbia University’s new Manhattanville campus that stretches from 125th to 132nd Streets
The new extension to Columbia is changing the neighborhood
The Manhattanville campus in 2024.
The one thing I can say about the new campus is that they have a study area that is open to the public where you can go to the bathroom and charge your phone which is very helpful. I will let you know that you have security all over the place watching what is going on.
The view of Old Broadway and the Manhattanville Housing in the Fall of 2025
I took a walk back down 125th Street to West Harlem Piers Park at Marginal Street which stretches up to 132nd Street. The park is one of the nicest to visit on a warm sunny afternoon and offers the coolest breezes and the most beautiful views of New Jersey. It is a nice place to take a break and just enjoy nature.
In 2020, this became my place of rest on this walk as well as a stopping point on “The Great Saunter” in May. The views are just spectacular in this small Hudson River Park and the breezes on a hot day will cool you down. It is just nice to sit and admire the views. I just like to admire the views of New Jersey and watch the boats go by.
West Harlem Piers Park between Marginal Street from 125th to 132nd Streets
As I made my way back down 125th Street, I came across the very much renovated St. Clair Rose Garden which sits just under the bridge at corner of 125th Street and Riverside Park. The last time I had seen the garden two years ago, it had been infested with weeds.
The St. Clair Rose Garden was fixed up during COVID and is now maintained
Ángel Toren is a contemporary artist known for his vibrant and thought-provoking street art. Hailing from Spain, Toren has garnered attention for his ability to blend traditional graffiti techniques with modern artistic elements. Toren’s art explores themes such as identity, social issues, and human emotions, often portraying these subjects through surreal and abstract imagery (Artist Bio).
Once you cross 125th Street on this part of Broadway, you enter Morningside Heights and the home of Columbia University. This part of 125th Street and Broadway has really changed since I started the walk of the island. There is a more established ‘Restaurant Row” that stretches from 125th Street to 122nd Street on Broadway that contains such restaurants as LaSalle Dumplings at 3141 Broadway (currently moving to West 113th Street as of this writing in 2020) and Bettolona at 3143 Broadway (Closed in January 2022) that I have tried in previous entries on this blog and check them out on my blog on Morningside Park. They are both excellent and I highly recommend them.
Bettolona at 3141 Broadway is where I spent my birthday lunch when visiting the neighborhood (and I just found out closed in January 2022-it was empty when I passed it)
As soon I arrived on the Columbia University campus at 125th Street the mood of Broadway changed again from the streets of Harlem to a collegiate atmosphere. Don’t miss a break at the Columbia University commons around 116th Street. It is a lot of fun when school is in session and even during these quiet times of the summer, there still is a lot of energy here. It is a nice place to gather your thoughts and relax.
What is also nice is all the food trucks outside the commons that cater to the Asian students. You can get fresh dumplings, pork pancakes, noodle dishes and fresh soups for very reasonable prices and you can relax in the commons on a nice day and enjoy your lunch (these were gone when school was not in session in 2020).
Right next to the campus on East 117th street is the third in Nicolas Holiber’s sculptures, the Common Goldeneye. This is one of the nicer locations for the work as there is plenty of seating in much less congested area of Broadway. You can sit back and just admire the work.
The Common Goldeneye by artist Nicolas Holiber at 117th Street
Don’t miss the beautiful Union Theological Seminary building at 3041 Broadway. This non-denominal Christian Seminary is affiliated to Columbia University. The building was finished in 1910 and was designed by the architectural firm Allen’s & Collins in the English Gothic Revival design (Wiki).
The Union Theological Seminary building at 3041 Broadway
After taking a break in the commons and watching the summer students reading and chatting amongst themselves or so involved in their cell phones that they would not look up at a zombie attack. Still, it is a nice place to take a break and relax on the stone benches. The commons is open to the public but with school out and many people out of the City, it was really quiet. I just like to find a shady spot and look at the buildings and let life pass by.
The Columbia University Commons is open and a nice place to relax
The Quad was going through a renovation when I visited
The Columbia Quad in the afternoon.
In 2024, the campus was padlocked down after the Pro-Palestinian protests and the campus was closed for the summer break. If you were not a Columbia student living on campus, you were not entering that campus. In 2025, you can no longer go into the Columbia Quad without a Columbia student ID and there is security all around the campus. The days of ‘just walking around campus’ are over!
The Columbia campus padlocked down in May of 2024 after the protests.
I headed back to Broadway to cross into the Upper West Side. It is amazing how everything between 125th and 110th have changed over the past few months and even from 110th to 100th Streets the changes have been constant in a twenty-year period. Businesses are opening and closing at a rapid rate and with the students gone from campus and may not come back for the Fall of 2020, it will hurt the area more. The locals though are filling the outdoor dining and making do with masks and all. In June of 2020, the masks were all but gone even indoors. In the summer of 2025, it was like it never existed but still you see some masks outside with older people.
The gardens by the older part of campus in the Summer of 2026
I needed a lunch break by the time I reached West 110 Street and spent some time searching for old restaurants on my DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com blog to see if they were still open. Hunan Chens Kitchen, a tiny Chinese take-out place at 1003 Columbus Avenue A closed during the pandemic and is now empty. West Place Chinese Restaurant at 1288 Amsterdam Avenue A is still open but only for takeout and delivery. That’s when I stopped at Koronet Pizza at 2848 Broadway for lunch in 2022.
I was starved and needed one of their giant slices of pizza that takes up three plates. At $5.50 a slice, it is well worth the money. The slice could easily feed two people and even when you fold it, it is hard to maneuver but it is so good! The sauce is so well spiced, and it is loaded with cheese and was so fresh. It tasted like it just came out of the oven.
The giant slice at Koronet Pizza is well worth the $5.50 price tag (Yum!)
I just sat outside on the tables they set up and chopped away. God did that pizza hit the spot. This is the perfect college pizzeria, and I can see why this is their major location. They have two more in the City. It was just nice on a sunny day to sit back and watch the world go by.
Tom’s Restaurant in Morningside Heights at 2880 Broadway made famous by the TV show “Seinfeld”.
Before I left the edges of Columbia University, I found my ices lady at the corner of Broadway and West 110th Street. These Dominican women own the ices carts, and it is now $2.00 for small Mango-Raspberry ice but she loaded on the scoops for me, and I said a big “Thank you” in Spanish. I could tell she was happy that I was so happy. It was so sweet and cooled me down on a hot day’s walk.
The Columbia campus on Broadway
By West 120th Street in the Fall of 2025
When you need to take a break from the heat, Straus Park which is between 107th and 106th Streets. This shady and well landscaped little pocket park was name after Isidor and Ida Straus who were once the owners of Macy’s and died in the Titanic sinking. The park’s beautiful fountain is centered in the park with the statue “Memory” by artist Augustus Lukeman and architect Evarts Tracy who designed the statue and fountain and dedicated it in 1915.
The Statue “Memory” by Augustus Lukeman in Straus Park
Artist Augustus Lukeman was an American born artist from Virginia and raised in New York who studied at the National Academy of Design and Cooper Union with continued studies in Europe and at Columbia University. He was known for his historical monuments (Wiki).
There is a beautiful memorial to them in the park. Friends of the Park maintain it with the city so it is always beautifully planted. On a hot day, it is such a nice place to take a break and since The Friends of Straus Park maintain it, the gardens and statuary is always in perfect shape.
The Entrance to Straus Park and the Straus Park plaque
Look closely or you will miss it is the ‘Art for Art Sake’ dedication to Duke Ellington on the Broadway Island on West 106th Street. The work is done in tiles, and you have to look down to see the work as it on the bottom park of the cement island facing the bench. I guess most people miss this interesting piece of street art.
One of my favorite bakeries in Manhattan is located right near the park at West 105th Street and Broadway, Silver Moon Bakery at 2740 Broadway (See review on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com-Closed March 2025). I love coming here for all the creative pastries and buns that the bakery created, and I have the most delicious blueberry Danish ($3.50) and cinnamon bun ($3.25) for a snack.
Don’t be shy in this bakery and try several items. Everything I have ever ate there was wonderful. With so many businesses closing in the City, when I walked Broadway in 2020, the lines were out the door. People obviously needed comfort food in these troubling times. Even in 2022, the lines were still out the door, and I could not get in for a snack.
Silver Moon Bakery at 2740 Broadway (new location at 2664 Broadway called Silver Moon Bakery Buttercup)
The new bakery that just opened at 2664 Broadway (new owner and same staff)
Their delicious Crumuffin is what they are known for. It is a delight!
When I got to 103rd Street, I saw the next part of the Birds on Broadway exhibit with the Double Crested Cormorant that stood proud on the Broadway Island looking over the neighborhood.
The Double crested Cormorant by artist Nicolas Holiber at 103rd Street
In 2022, the sculpture was “Chances Wish” by artist Jon Isherwood at the 103rd Street stop
“Chances Wish” at Broadway and West 103rd Street
Another little pizzeria that you might miss is Cheesy Pizza at 2640 Broadway (See reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The food is really reasonable and their personal pizza ($5.00) and pizza special (Two slices and a Coke for $5.00) are a real steal and their sauce is delicious and so well spiced (the restaurant is still open but with new owners and prices as of 2020 and in 2022 it got more expensive). They no longer have those wonderful reasonable lunch specials.
On the corner of West 103rd Street and Broadway is a beautifully detailed building at 203 West 103rd Street, the Edinboro Building. The apartment building was built in 1888 by architect E.L. Angell and the stone carvings and designs standout on all parts of the building (CityRealty/Voorhis-Architect paper).
The detail work on the entrance of 230 West 103 Street
When you finally cross over past West 100th Street, you enter the Upper West Side which has been extensively traveled on this blog. There are dozens of shops and restaurants that line Broadway on this stretch of Broadway and sadly a lot of empty store fronts. This seems to be an epidemic all over the City with landlords jacking up rents every month. It really is changing this stretch of Broadway. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has not helped matters in this area as businesses are closing left and right.
At West 96th Street and Broadway is the next “Birds on Broadway” piece, the “Brant Goose”. This part of Broadway enters into the traditional boundaries of the Upper West Side and there are many changes along this stretch of Broadway as well. It was almost like the mood in 2020 harked back to 1989 or 1990 with the store closures and the homeless taking over the streets.
The Brant Goose at West 96th Street
Another interesting building located at West 85th and Broadway at 2350 Broadway is Bretton Hall which once was a residential hotel. The building was complete in 1903 by architect Harry B. Mulliken of Mulliken & Moeller and was designed in the Beaux Arts style. The detail work with its stone carvings is very elaborate with cornices and (Wiki/CityRealty).
When walking on Broadway in the West 80’s, don’t miss walking through Zabar’s at 2245 Broadway near 80th Street. It is fun to wander around the store and smell the aromas of cheese, olives, freshly baked breads and chocolate. Don’t miss their café at the corner of West 80th Street (See my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). There is a nice assortment of pastries and soups at a reasonable price and on certain days they have specials that are reasonably price. They have the most delicious pastries and pan pizza.
In the summer of 2020, the café was closed because of the pandemic but the supermarket part was still open for business. In 2021, the Café has now reopened but only to outside dining and delivery. The once lively comradery of the customers has moved to the sidewalk tables. In 2022, the Zabar Cafe is open for business, but they still have the outdoor cocktail tables where you have to stand while eating your food.
Zabar’s Café is the original place where Zabar’s started at 2245 Broadway
The Zabar’s Cafe is one of my favorites for a nice snack.
You will also see the next sculpture by Nicolas Holiber at West 79th Street, the “American Brittern”, which stands majestically on Broadway.
“The American Brittern” by artist Nicolas Holiber at West 79th Street
Still when you reach the West 70’s there are many beautiful apartment buildings that I admired that were built at the turn of the last century when builders were trying to woo the wealthy in the late 1890’s to the early 1900’s. The area itself is going through building boom and is changing all the time. At West 79th Street, look to the Broadway Island again to see Nicolas Holiber’s “Scarlet Tanager” sculpture. These playful little birds are fun to look at.
The Scarlet Tanager by artist Nicolas Holiber at West 86th Street
Broadway has a series of churches that are really beautiful in design and in the details like the stonework and the stained-glass windows. One church that stands out is the First Baptist Church 265 West 79th Street. It was built between 1890-93 and was designed by architect George M. Keister. The large window facing Broadway depicts Christ as the center of the New Testament Church (Wiki).
Some of the apartment buildings are quite spectacular. The Apthorp Apartments at 2211 Broadway (that stretches back to Broadway) is one of the most beautiful, enclosed buildings with an elegant courtyard in the center. This building was built in 1908 and is the largest type of apartment of its kind in New York City. If you can take a peek inside the gates, it is worth it.
The next spectacular building was the Hotel Belleclaire. One of Manhattan’s oldest luxury hotels, Hotel Belleclaire debuted on the Upper West Side in 1903 with its Beaux-Arts architecture blended with Art Nouveau-Secessionist style. Designed by legendary architect Emery Roth, the building’s brick and limestone facade have been brilliantly restored to its original splendor, which have earned the Hotel Belleclaire its landmark status. Once home to writers Mark Twain and Maxim Gorky, as well as, a residence for Babe Ruth, Hotel Belleclaire continues its legacy of historic hospitality into the 21st century (Hotel Belleclaire website).
William Waldorf Astor hired architects Clinton and Russell to design the two southern towers of The Astor in 1901. In 1914, William Waldorf Astor hired Peabody, Wilson & Brown to design a third tower for The Astor. The third tower, completed within a year, is structurally and aesthetically similar to both original towers. All three wings are connected at the base and have gray brick facades above a limestone base (Wiki). The architectural firm of Pembrooke & Ives has done the renovations of the current building (Astor.com).
The Ansonia Apartments at 2109 Broadway is one of the biggest and grandest of the Victorian age apartment buildings on the Upper West Side. Built between 1899 and 1904 the outside of the building is studded with beautiful stonework, interesting torrents and a Mansard roof. Take time to walk around the building and admire the stonework.
The details at the top of the Ansonia. This looks like a confectionary.
The details of the Ansonia
The details on the Ansonia
Another building that stands out in the neighborhood is the Dorilton Apartments at 171 West 71st Street that was built in 1902. This elegant building is in the Beaux-Arts style and is another building that sets the tone for this part of the neighborhood.
The Dorilton just finished a multi-million dollar renovation and the building looks amazing. It was brought back to life.
The Dorilton Apartments at 171 West 71st Street
The outside of the Dorilton
The detail work of the windows at the Dorilton
The details around the windows at The Dorilton apartments
In the Summer of 2025, the Dorilton Apartments were done with the outside renovation and the building looks spectacular now. You can see all the stone details.
In the 2021 walk, I made it to Verdi Park on the corner of West 72nd Street and was able to relax. The small park has gone through a recent renovation and now has upscale umbrella cart businesses selling coffee and pastries. The park was named after Giuseppe Fortunino Francisco Verdi, one of the most famous composers in the late 1800’s (NYCParks.org).
I was able to relax for a bit and listen to a sax player play “New York New York”. It is a nice place to cool down and people watch as they race in and out of the subway.
Verdi Square Park between West 73rd to 72nd Streets (Guiseppe Verdi Statue)
The details on the Apple Savings Bank (the former Central Savings Bank Building.
The Apple Bank Building is another older building that has a lot of charm. Constructed as a branch of the Central Saving Bank, now Apple Bank, from 1926 to 1928, it occupies a trapezoidal city block bounded by 73rd Street to the south, Amsterdam Avenue to the east, 74th Street to the north, and Broadway to the west. The Apple Bank Building was designed by York & Sawyer in the Renaissance Revival and palazzo styles, patterned after an Italian Renaissance-style palazzo (Wiki).
This is where the Upper West Side has changed so much. This area has become so expensive, and the once notorious “Needle Park” Sherman Square is now a nicely landscaped park with a coffee vendor and young mothers with strollers. It is amazing how the City just keeps changing itself.
Sherman Square; the once “Needle Park” in the Fall of 2025
Right by the subway stop at West 72nd Street is the next sculpture the “Peregrine Falcon”.
“The Peregrine Falcon” at West 72nd Street
Once you pass the borders of West 72nd Street, you will begin to see the magic of former Parks Director and major City Planner, Robert Moses. In the mid-1960’s, the City decided the area was dilapidated and pretty much leveled the neighborhood to build the Lincoln Center complex and branches of the local colleges so you will see more modern architecture on the western side of Broadway.
The Van Dyke Apartment Building at 175 West 72nd Street embellishments
Both Harry Mulliken and Edgar Moeller graduated from Columbia University’s School of Architecture in 1895. Mulliken opened his own practice around the turn of the last century and in 1902 he and Moeller went into partnership as Mulliken & Moeller. The two specialized in apartment hotels like the Bretton Hall Hotel, the Hotel York, and the violet-colored Lucerne Hotel (Miller, Tom Landmark West).
On July 29, 1905 the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Mulliken & Moeller, “are making revised plans for the 12-story 34-family apartment house” on the northeast corner of 72nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue for developers Ripley Realty Co. The Van Dyke, as it would be known, would have a near twin, the Severn, on the southeast corner of 73rd Street and Amsterdam, separated by a service alley (Miller, Tom Landmark West).
The entrance of 2020 Broadway is the only interesting part of the building but it is so beautiful.
This pre-war apartment building was built in 1901 and it now a rental building.
Interesting grill work on one of the renovated buildings
In the small park triangle park across from Lincoln Center there was a statue of opera singer Richard Tucker that I had never noticed in all my trips down Broadway. It sits in the middle of this small park with tables and chairs where people enjoy coffee and snacks on a warm sunny day.
The Richard Tucker statue in the small park across from Lincoln Center
Richard Tucker had started off as a Cantor who in 1945 made his operatic debut with the Metropolitan Opera, where he stayed on with the company until his passing in 1975. The bust of him by artist Milton Hebald that graces the park was donated to the park system by his wife, Sarah, in 1975.
By the time you get to West 67th Street, you will see Julliard School, some of the buildings in the Lincoln Center complex and then Lincoln Center itself between West 65th and West 62nd Streets. On a theater night, the complex is so full energy and it is always a nice trip to see the ballet, opera or the philharmonic. The groundbreaking for this complex was in 1959 with President Eisenhower present and the complex was developed between 1962 and 1966 with current renovations still occurring in 2005. Take time to walk the courtyard and admire the fountains and the artwork that are around the buildings.
While passing Lincoln Center, you will see Dante Park across the street and the stately Empire Hotel. Here in Dante Park which is named after the Italian Poet, Dante Alighieri.
The statue of Dante Alighieri in Dante Park with the Empire Hotel in the background in the summer.
The statue of Dante Alighieri was designed by artist Ettore Ximenes for the Dante Alighieri Society for the 50th Anniversary of Italian unification in 1912
Ettore Ximenes was an Italian born artist who studied at the Palermo Academy of Fine Arts and the Naples Academy. His works captured the themes of Realism and Neo-Renaissance. He was also known for his big, commissioned works.
Dante Park in the Summer of 2026
Dante Park in the Summer of 2026
This beautiful little pocket park sits across from Lincoln Center and has been a place to relax on my walks down Broadway. This is also the location of the last sculpture on the “Birds on Broadway” tour, the “Red Necked Grebe with Chicks”. This whimsical piece shows the mother grebe with her little ones on her back.
The Red Necked Grebe with Chicks by artist Nicolas Holiber at West 64th Street
The Empire Hotel sits right across from the park and Lincoln Center. These were some of the historical buildings. In 1889, a seven-story building rose from the ground that would later become The Empire Hotel. Herbert DuPuy purchased this building in 1908. In 1922, DuPuy decided to tear the original structure down and build a 15-story building. On December 5, 1923, The Empire Hotel opened with its iconic red neon signage reading “Hotel Empire” erected on the rooftop (Wiki).
During the 2020 walk down Broadway, Lincoln Center has been closed down for all performances for the rest of the 2020 season and not slated to open up until 2021. Because of the riots in the City in early June, the complex has been cordoned off and you can only walk through the complex to the fountain. It is surreal how empty this seems for a complex normally full of either arts patrons or tourists. Even the fountain in the middle of the complex was not at full capacity.
In 2021, things were still pretty quiet as the complex waited for the official opening date. In 2022, the Center is fully open for business but going through a renovation in the courtyard. I had seen a Christmas concert there in December 2021 with Kristin Chenoweth.
“Christmas with Kristin Chenoweth” concert in December 2021. She brought down the house with this song “Why couldn’t be Christmas Everyday?”
As you head down Broadway, you will reach the Time Warner Building with its upscale shops and restaurants and Columbus Circle with its impressive statue of Christopher Columbus and the soaring fountains that surround it. This is one of the best places in Manhattan to just sit back and relax and people watch. The statue was recently part of a controversy on statues of specific people and history and happily that seems to have gone away for now. This is because of the twenty police vans and high police presence on Columbus Circle.
In 2021, with the election long behind us there is still a pretty big police presence in this area. The guard fencing is still surrounding the park but at least now you can walk into the park with its elaborate fountains. It is a nice place to converse and relax. In 2022, the fountains are up and running but the barriers are still there. I don’t think anyone even notices the Christopher Columbus statue now.
The Time Warner Building in Columbus Circle is heavily guarded now
Since the Trump World Hotel and the famous statue of Christopher Columbus are located in the same spot, it is a lot more difficult to walk around here and the NYPD is on guard in this area of the city. In 2020, rioters have been tearing down statues of Christopher Columbus in parks across the nation so now monuments all over the United States have been protected.
Columbus Circle at West 59th Street
The famous statue of Christopher Columbus dedicated in Columbus Circle and the start of the annual Christopher Columbus Parade in Manhattan was designed by artist Gaetano Russo, the famous Italian artist for the 400 anniversary of the discovery of America in 1892. A procession from Little Italy to Columbus Circle of over 10,000 lined the streets for this gift from the Italian community to the City of New York (Wiki)
The statue of Christopher Columbus right next to the Time Life Building in the background
Gaetano Russo is an Italian born artist who studied at the Academia del Belle Arti whose works in historical sculpture were well known. The statue of Christopher Columbus in New York is one of the most famous of his works.
On the other side of the Columbus Circle when making the left is the Maine Monument by artist Attilio Piccirilli. The monument is a dedication to the victims of the USS Maine which was the navel disaster that started the Spanish American War. You really have to look at the details all around the statue for a full appreciation
The most interesting part of the statue is the stone figures that flank the front of the monument that are noted to be “The Antebellum State of Mind: Courage awaiting the flight of Peace and fortitude supporting the Feeble” which gives the meaning that peace still could have reigned before war was declared (Diane Durant article on the Maine Monument).
Attilio Piccirilli was an Italian born American artist who worked for his family’s company Piccirilli Brothers in the Bronx as a sculptor, stone carver and modeler. He is known for many historical monuments.
The Globe Sculpture by artist Kim Brandell
Artist Kim Brandell
Mr. Brandell is an American artist with 50 years in the art field.
This statue hides in the courtyard of Trump World Hotel
As you pass Columbus Circle and enter into Midtown Manhattan, notice to the south the Museum of Art & Design at 2 Columbus Circle. This innovative little museum has the top floors of the building has a interesting exhibition of “Punk Rock” art and music going on right now. (See my write up on it on VisitingaMuseum.com.)
One building that needs to be noted on the way down to Times Square is the Brill Building at 1619 Broadway. Built in 1931 by builder Abraham E. Lefcourt the building was originally known as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building and got its current name from a haberdasher store front in the building. The building was known to play a major role in the music industry housing music studios and music company offices. Performers such as Carole King and Burt Bacharach had their offices here (Wiki).
You have to see the details at the top of the building
As I was walking down Broadway through the theater district, I noticed a small statute in the middle of the sidewalk. It was Jim Rennert’s “Walk on a Tightrope” at Broadway and West 54th Street.
Jim Rennert’s “Walk on a Tight Rope” at Broadway and West 54th Street (Artist Bio)
Mr. Rennert is an American born artist who is known for his large figural sculptures of the everyday man. He attended Brigham Young University but concentrated on his business interests. He became a sculpturer later in life focusing on his passion of drawing and art (Wiki).
At 1170 Broadway, I saw a Disney looking Hippo statue that I thought I saw in Midtown.
The Hippo statue outside of 1170 Broadway (no longer there)
The sculpture labeled the Hippo Ballerina was created by Danish artist Bjorn Okholm Skaarup. The placement of the sculpture was coordinated with the New York City Art in the Park program. The sculpture was inspired by the dancing hippos in the movie “Fantasia”.
Okholm Skaarup is a Danish born artist. Skaarup holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence from 2009 and is a member of The Royal British Society of Sculptors. He has created a contemporary bestiary, or classical book of animals, in bronze. Each sculpture presents a whimsical story or allegory to decipher, with sources ranging from ancient fables and art history to music and modern animation (Artist bio).
Things start to get busier as you get to Times Square and the heart of the Theater District. The crowds get larger the closer you come to the 42nd Street Mall. This part of Broadway near the TKTS for Broadway shows becomes crowded as these four blocks of Times Square is now an open-air mall with seating and loads of costume characters who beg for pictures and money with tourists.
It has gotten really crowded and annoying and the quicker you get through it the better. This is where the Ball drops on New Year’s Eve, and you can see it up above the One Times Square building (the building is currently going through another renovation in 2022).
One Times Square Building where ‘the ball’ drops on New Year’s Eve.
Still get through Times Square, especially on a Saturday or Sunday as quick as possible. Even in 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis, tourist still flock to this area. I think people like the energy. In 2022, Times Square is really one of the busiest sections of Manhattan.
Broadway during the day.
The one thing that is important to know is that the bathrooms at the Marriott Marquis at 1535 Broadway are free and it is a good pit stop before heading further downtown. They are located on the Eighth floor and are clean and very nice. They also have some good restaurants in the hotel like the Broadway Bar (See review on TripAdvisor) to eat at but wait until you head further downtown (I did not visit the bathrooms on the 2020 walk so I am not sure if they are open now).
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Times Square was still pretty busy with out of towners and mostly locals and businesspeople as the City has opened back up again. Costume characters were fighting for customers all over the square and even the “Naked Cowboy” a staple in Times Square was out again. He was still there singing and dancing in 2022.
Video of the Naked Cowboy from the movie “New York Minute” with the Olsen Twins.
While in Times Square there are a few more sculptures that I missed on previous walks. The statue of Father Duffy sits erect on “Duffy Square” the northernmost part of the Times Square triangle. This is dedicated to “Father Francis P. Duffy”, a Canadian American priest in the New York Archdiocese and on the faculty of the St. Joseph’s Seminary. He gained fame in World War I as an army chaplain and was noted for his bravery and leadership during the war with the 69th New York.
The Father Duffy Statue in Times Square’s “Father Duffy Square”
The statue was created by artist Charles Keck and was dedicated in 1937. Charles Keck is an American artist who studied at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York.
Another statue that most people miss is the statue of composer, actor, and theater performer George M. Cohan, one of our great American artists. The artist wrote some of the most famous songs of that era including “Over There”, You’re a Grand Old Flag” and “Give my regards to Broadway”.
The George M. Cohan statue in Times Square
The statue in Times Square of the composer was designed by artist Georg John Lober and was dedicated in 1959 in Father Duffy Square. Artist Georg John Lober was an American sculptor who studied at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design and the National Academy of Design and was part of the New York Municipal Arts Commission from 1943-1960.
As you head down past Times Square you will notice that not much has changed on this part of Broadway. Most of the buildings are pre-war and been around since the 30’s and 40’s. Here and there new buildings have creeped in.
Stop in the lobby at 1441 Broadway, the Bricken Textile Building that was built in 1930 to see the “Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development” art exhibition (2019). It is quite creative. The whole lobby was full of modern art. There was a very interesting piece by artist Daniel Rozin who created a ‘Software Mirror’ where when you looked into it, it then looked back at you.
Artist Daniel Rozin demonstrating how the piece works
A piece of art that appeared on my walk in May of 2024 was the work of artist Chakaia Booker, Shaved Portions. The work was created from used tires and the theme of the work covered many issues. This work was part of the Spring 2024 Garment District Alliance program.
The sign on the exhibition from the Garment District Alliance.
Artist Chakaia Booker is an American born sculptor known for creating monumental, abstract works from recycled tires and stainless steel for both the gallery and outdoor public spaces. She holds a BA in Sociology from Rutgers and MFA from City College of New York (Artist Bio).
In 2025, the exhibition on Broadway changed and it is now “New York Roots” by Artist
American artist Steve Tobin is an American born artist with a BS in Mathematics from Tulane University. The artist draws his inspiration from nature and he twists and welds repurposed steel pipes to create New York Roots, a series of modernist forms that evoke gatherings of figures, families, and community. The works seem to grow from the earth, telling stories of relationships, and prompting viewers to reflect on their own life histories and roots (from the Broadway Alliance website)
After wondering through the outdoor art show, I stopped in Frankie Boys Pizza at 1367 Broadway for a slice and a Coke and just relaxed. I was starved by this point of the walk. Their pizza is very good (See review on TripAdvisor) and was crowded that afternoon with people having a late lunch (Closed in 2024 and is now a Joe’s Pizza).
After I finished my lunch, I continued the walk to Herald Square the home of Macy’s at 151 West 34th Street, whose store still dominates the area and is one of the last decent department stores in New York City. It is fun to take a quick pit stop in the store to see the main lobby and there is another public bathroom both on the lower level and on the Fourth Floor.
Macy’s at 151 West 34th Street’s Broadway entrance
The Macy’s Broadway part of the store was designed in 1902 and is a historical landmark in the City. It was designed by architects Theodore de Lemos and A. W. Cordes and has a Pallidan style façade, which is a classical style based on Greek and Roman symmetry. The additions of the building along West 34th Street are more in the Art Deco design.
Macy’s Broadway side of the store
Macy’s is now open for business so take a peek in and see what the store has in store. It has been pretty busy since it has opened. After that, cross the street into Herald Square Park to take a rest under the shade tree. People packed the park during lunch hour (socially distanced) as they normally do to avoid the heat.
Macy’s at the start of the holiday season in Fall 2024. It was getting dark by 4:00pm
When I worked at Macy’s in the early 1990’s, Herald and Greeley Squares were places to avoid until about 1994 when the parks were renovated, and new plantings and French metal café tables were added. Now it is hard at lunch time to find a table. In the process of the renovations, the City also restored the statues dedicated to James Gordon Bennett and Horace Greeley.
The statue dedicated to James Gordon Bennett and his son James Gordon Bennett II
Herald Square in the evening in the Spring of 2024.
The statue is to Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom and Invention and two blacksmiths who flank a bell that once topped the Herald Building where the New York Herald, which was founded by James Gordon Bennett in 1835. The statue was dedicated in the park in 1895 (NYCParks.org).
Antonin Jean Carles was born in France and was a student of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Toulouse. He was known for his monument sculptures.
Greeley Square was named after Horace Greeley, who published the first issue of The New Yorker magazine and established the New York Tribune. He was also a member of the Liberal Republican Party where he was a congressman and ran for President of the United States after the Civil War.
Publisher and Politician Horace Greeley famous for his quote “Go West, young man, Go West”
The statue was created by artist Alexander Doyle. Alexander Doyle was an American born artist who studied in Italy with several artists. He is best known for his marbles and bronze sculptures of famous Americans including many famous Confederate figures that have come under fire recently.
When I visited in 2025 during the start of the Fall, the area had been decorated for the upcoming Christmas holidays. It was getting dark by 4:00pm and the area lit up like a Christmas tree. It never looked like this when I worked at Macy’s in the 1990’s.
Greeley Square in the Fall of 2025
Herald Square in the Fall of 2025
Broadway by Greely Square
Once you leave Herald Square and walk south you will be entering what is left of the old Wholesale district where once buyers used to come into these stores to commercially buy goods for their businesses. Slowly all of these businesses as well as most of the Flower District is being gentrified out with new hotels, restaurants and bars replacing the businesses. It seems that most of the district is being rebuilt or renovated.
One building that stands out is 1200 Broadway, the former Gilsey House Hotel with its Victorian architecture and the details of the clock at the top of the building. Gilsey House was designed by Stephen Decatur Hatch for Peter Gilsey, a merchant and city alderman. It was constructed from 1869 to 1871 at the cost of $350,000, opening as the Gilsey House Hotel in 1872. The cast-iron for the facade of the Second Empire style building was fabricated by Daniel D. Badgar, a significant and influential advocate for cast-iron architecture at the time. The extent to which Badger contributed to the design of the facade is unknown (Wiki).
1200 Broadway finally emerging from the scaffolding.
The clock that sits above the building that you have to walk across the street to admire.
A couple of buildings that stand out walking by is 1234 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and West 31st Street, a elegant Victorian building with a standout mansard roof and elaborate details on the roof and windows. I did not realize that it was the Grand Hotel built in 1868 as a residential hotel. The hotel was commissioned by Elias Higgins, a carpet manufacturer and designed by Henry Engelbert. Currently it is being renovated into apartments (Daytonian). It shows how the City keeps morphing over time as this area has become fashionable again.
1234 Broadway in all its elegance, the former Grand Hotel
Another beautifully designed building is 1181 Broadway the former Baudouine Building built by furniture manufacture Charles Baudouine in 1896. The building was designed by architect Alfred Zucker and is ten stories of office space (Wiki and Daytonian).
The unique feature of this building is the Greco-Roman temple structure on the room and the terra cotta details along the outside and windows of the building.
The roof of 1181 Broadway, the Baudouine Building
The building has some very strange stories of tenants who have leased there and it has not always been that pleasant. The unusual history of 1181 Broadway:
Another standout building was at 1133 Broadway, The St. James Building. The building was finished in 1896 and was designed by architect Bruce Price in the Renaissance Revival style (Metro-Manhattan.com).
The details of 1133 Broadway-The St. James Building
I got down to Worth Square by Madison Square Park in the early evening and admired the William Jenkins Worth monument. General Worth was a military hero during the War of 1812 and the Mexican American War. The monument was designed by James Goodwin Batterson and when General Worth died in 1849, his remains were buried under the monument.
Another sculpture that is in Madison Square Park is the statue of William Henry Stewart, the former Governor of New York State, US Senator and Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the Alaskan Purchase in 1867.
Governor William Henry Stewart statue in Madison Square Park
Governor Sewart statue in Madison Square Park in the Spring of 2024.
Governor William Henry Sewart, who negotiated the Alaskan Purchase “Sewart’s Folly”
The statue was designed by artist Randolph Rogers an American born sculptor who studied in Italy. He was a Neoclassical artist known for his famous historical commissions.
The Shake Shack in Madison Square Park in the Spring of 2024
Madison Square Park is noted for its beautiful plantings, shaded paths and for being home to the first Shake Shack, a Danny Meyers restaurant and popular upscale fast-food restaurant.
The very first Shake Shack is in Madison Square Park
Looking at the sunset in the Fall of 2025 where I had seen ‘Manhattanhenge’ a few months earlier
As you look down further on the square, you will see the Flatiron Building one of the most famous and most photographed buildings in New York City. The building was designed by Daniel Burnham as a Renaissance Palazzo with Beaux-Arts style. The original name for the building was the “Fuller Building” for the Company. The name “Flatiron” comes from a cast iron clothes iron from the turn of the last century. (Wiki)
The ‘Flatiron’ Building at 175 Fifth Avenue at 23rd Street
As you pass the Flatiron Building and continue the walk south between 23rd and 14th Streets, take a look up to admire the buildings that once help make up the “Ladies Shopping Mile”, once the most fashionable neighborhood after the Civil War for shopping, hotels and entertainment (See my blog in MywalkinManhattan.com “Walking the Ladies Shopping Mile”).
My Christmas Blog on “Victorian Christmas in New York City”: Day One Hundred and Twenty-Eight:
The buildings that line Broadway from the Flatiron Building until you get to Bowling Green Park at the tip of Manhattan are some of the most beautiful and detailed examples of Victorian architecture and were built between 1870 to about 1915. You really need to put the cellphone down and look up when walking south on both sides or you might miss the details of these buildings.
The Warren Building is another example of turn on the last century elegance. Designed by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White in 1896, the building was designed in the Neo-Renaissance style (Daytonian).
One of the most elegant buildings on this part of Broadway is the former “Lord & Taylor” building at 901 Broadway. The building was constructed for the department store in 1870 and was the main store until 1914. It is now the Brooks Brothers Red Fleece store. Really take time to look at the detail work of the store and step inside. The Mansard Roof is an amazing touch. In 2020, the branch of Brooks Brothers has since closed. In 2022, it is now a restaurant on the lower level.
901 Broadway “Lord & Taylor” building from 1870-1914
I had not really noticed this building as much on my last couple of visits down Broadway as I was too busy looking across the street. 889 Broadway is the former Gorham Manufacturing Building and was built between 1883-84 and was designed by architect Edward Hale Kendall. it was designed in the Queen Anne style and the first two floor was their retail store with the remaining floors converting to offices in later years (Wiki).
Across the street at 888 Broadway is the ABC Furniture and Rugs store housed in the old W. & J. Sloane Store when in its day was one of the upscale carriage trade merchants as well. The store was completed in 1892 and was designed by architect William Wheeler Smith. It had a mixture of Renaissance, Baroque and Gothic styles coining the phase “Commercial Palace Style” (Daytonian in Manhattan.com). The upper floors the building was recently sold and renovated for office space (888 Broadway).
889 Broadway-The Gorham Manufacturing Building
888 Broadway-W & J Sloane Building/ABC Building (888 Broadway.com)
Another beautiful building along the “Ladies Mile” is 881-887 Broadway with its graceful Mansard roof and elaborate details was built in 1896 by architect Griffin Thomas. It served as the second location for the Arnold Constable & Company department store.
881-887 Broadway was the second location for Arnold Constable & Company 1869-1914
Another interesting building is 873-879 Broadway with its Victorian details was built in 1868 for merchant Edwin Hoyt, a partner of Hoyt, Spragues & Company. The retail company also used architect Griffins Thomas to design this building as well. The company went out of business in 1875 and other businesses moved in over the years (Daytonian).
The Roosevelt Building at 841 Broadway was built in 1893 and was designed by architect Stephen D. Hatch. It was designed in the Renaissance Revival style and when you look up at the details you can see the decorative touches and ornamental designs with faces staring back at you. Look at the elaborate designs around the roof and windows (VillagePreservation.org).
Finally reaching Union Square at Broadway and 14th Street, I was able to relax on a bench under a shade tree. I stopped at the Farmers Market, that is there every Wednesday and Saturday, and pick up some fruit and a couple of cookies from one of the stands. This is a lot of fun in the warmer months and don’t miss it September and October when the produce really comes in.
As you venture inside Union Square Park to enjoy a meal or just relax, you have to admire the statue of Abraham Lincoln which is tucked among the shade trees. For all the controversy with President Lincoln these days no one in the park seemed to make a full about it especially all the people sitting by it eating their lunch.
The Abraham Lincoln statue in Union Square Park
The statue was designed by artist Henry Kirke Brown and was dedicated in 1870. The statue was a commission of the Union League Club after Lincoln’s assassination (NYCParks.org)
The statue was created by artist sculptor Horatio Greenough (1805- 1852), known for his huge classical marble portrait of Washington. Simultaneously, the committee also invited Henry Kirke Brown to submit a design, though it was unclear whether he was to assist Greenough or compete with him for artistic selection (NYC Parks.org).
Artist Horatio Greenough was American artist who studied at Harvard and with various artists. He was best known for his government commissions including this important work.
As you leave Union Square and head south again, you will be entering the campus of New York University and all over you can see classrooms, stores and restaurants that cater to the students. Sometimes I think these kids are trying so hard to look cool it becomes outlandish. The way some of them dress is over the top.
At the bend on Broadway, another church stands out in the neighborhood. Grace Episcopal Church at 802 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and East 10th Street sits at a bend in Broadway and makes an impressive statement in the neighborhood. The church was designed by architect James Renwick Jr. in the French Gothic Revival style and started construction in 1843 (Wiki).
Grace Church at 802 Broadway
The beauty of the front of Grace Church in Greenwich Village.
Grace Church in the evening well lit and elegant at night.
Walking south, stop in front of both 770 Broadway between 8th and 9th Street, the former home of John Wanamaker Department Store and 693 Broadway at 4th Street, the Merchants Building. These two buildings stand out for their beauty and design.
770 Broadway was built between 1903 and 1907 by architect Daniel Burham as the annex for the main store of Wanamaker’s which was next door. There was a skyway that once connected the two stores. The company closed for business in 1954. (Wiki)
770 Broadway, the former Wanamaker’s Department Store Annex
One Astor Place, which faces Broadway is another building that you have to admire from the other side of the road. You will see the beauty in the details when you look up and admire the faces staring back.
The former Schermerhorn Building at 700 Broadway is another beauty on the Broadway corridor. The building was designed by architect George C. Post in 1891 and designed in the Romanesque Revival style (New York Architecture).
The historic plaque to 700 Broadway
Stop at 693 Broadway to admire the design of the building. Built in 1908 by architect William C. Frohne the building is studded with interesting stone carvings and ornamentation. What really stands out is all the owls that decorate the building (Greenwich Village Preservation).
684 Broadway is a 12-story, 22-unit cooperative built in 1905 and designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Frederick C. Browne.
Don’t miss the beauty of 642 Broadway with its elegant windows and doorways. This unique building is at the corner of Broadway and Bleeker Street. I could not find any information on who built it online, but it must have been built in the late 1880’s.
Looking up at the scaffolding of 611 Broadway, The Cable Building, it is not hard to miss the detail work of this graceful building. The stonework like a lot of the buildings on lower Broadway has beautiful, detailed stonework adorning it. The building was designed by architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White and was designed in the Beaux-Arts design of “American Renaissance”.
The building was once home to the Metropolitan Traction Company, one of New York’s big Cable Car companies. In the last twenty years it has been home to the Angelika Film Company and Crate & Barrel home store. (Wiki)
555 Broadway was built in 1890 and has been sandblasted back to its original glory. It was designed by Aldred Zucker as a store for Charles Broadway Rouss (LoopNet).
530 Broadway is a unique property comprised of what was originally three adjacent structures530, 532-534, and 536-538 Broadway on SoHo’s most coveted corner at Broadway and Spring. These loft-style buildings have been treated as a single property since 1904 (SoHo Initiative).
The buildings are emblematic of the neighborhood’s fourth wave of development around the turn of the 20th century: designed by notable local architects, Brunner & Tryon, Ralph S. Townsend, and De Lemos & Cordes for New York real estate developers, constructed out of brick, limestone, and terra cotta with Classical elements, and specifically configured with large, operable windows and high ceilings to comfortably accommodate workers engaged in light manufacturing in the textile and dry goods industry (SoHo Initiative).
Walking further down Broadway, take time to admire 495 Broadway. This early example of Art Nouveau architecture was designed in 1893 for the New Era Printing Company. The building was claimed to be designed by architect Alfred Zucker for client Augustus D. Julliard (Wiki).
Another interesting SoHo building is 487 Broadway the former “Silk Exchange Building” built in 1896 by developer and architect John Townsend Williams. The exterior is done in limestone and terra cotta details along the edges of the building.
The beauty of this building is almost matched by 451-433 Broome Street which stretches to Broadway with its main entrance on Broome Street. The building was designed by John Townsend Williams and built in 1896.
Because of the businesses housed here in the middle of the luxury fabrics, the building was known as the “Silk Exchange Building”. It is now housing luxury condos (SoHo Loft.com).
The former Grosvenor Home at 385 Broadway is another interesting piece of the past in this part of the neighborhood. The home was built in 1875 and was owned and managed by two sisters, Matilda and Charlotte Grosvenor. It was later used for manufacturing when the area stopped being residential and is now used for retail space (Real Estate Weekly/LoopNet).
I took a break when taking the walk in 2020 at Joey Pepperoni Pizzeria at 381 Broadway which had just reopened. This small reasonable pizzeria is quite good and the prices are very fair. The pizza really has a nice flavor to it and the sauce is well spiced. You can buy two slices and a Coke for $2.99.
Joey Pepperoni at 381 Broadway (closed August 2023)
Take some time to admire 366 Broadway, a former Textiles Building built in 1909. Designed by Fredrick C. Browne, the building was designed in Edwardian commercial architecture and look at the detail work of the pillars, stone carved faces and other decorative stonework. The building once housed the Royal Typewriter Company then moved on in its later life to house textile firms including Bernard Semel Inc. (where the signage comes from on the outside), who was a former clothing jobber. Now called The Collect Pond House is a coop in Tribeca neighborhood (Tribeca History News).
The former New York Life Insurance Company/Clocktower Building was built between 1894-1898 and was designed by McKim, Mead & White on plans by architect Stephen Decatur Hatch. The marble exterior is done in the Beaux Arts style and the building is now a residential condo (Wiki).
The details of 346 Broadway
The close up beautiful detail work on the corner of 346 Broadway.
Tucked under all the construction of the Federal Building at 290 Broadway stands a very lonely sculpture that had been hidden from all my walks that I just noticed on a recent trip to the neighborhood.
The statute at Ted Weiss Federal Building at 290 Broadway. This has been hidden behind construction. This is part of the African Burial Ground site.
African Burial Ground Monuments outside the museum.
One stands out building at 280 Broadway is the former home to the A. T. Stewart Department Store and the New York Sun Building headquarters for the well-known newspaper. Known as the “Marble Palace” in its retailing days, it was considered one of the most famous department stores of its day. It was designed by the firm of Trench & Snook in 1850-51 in the ‘Italianate Style’. When the store moved further uptown, the building was acquired by the New York Sun in 1917.
280 Broadway is the former “Marble Palace” A. T. Stewart Department Store and Sun Building
The Sun Times Clock at 280 Broadway-The Former Sun Building and Marble Palace.
Heading downtown I passed 277 Broadway, the “Broadway-Chambers Building”. The building was designed by architect Cass Gilbert and was built between 1899-1900. The building was designed in the Beaux-Arts style and has many detailed decorations around the lower doorways, windows and especially around the cornice at the top of the building. The building was built with granite and terra cotta embellishments (Wiki/Daytonian in Manhattan.com).
The Woolworth Building at 233 Broadway is one of the most famous buildings on Broadway. The former headquarters for F. W. Woolworth & Company was once the tallest building in the world when it was constructed in 1913 and stayed the tallest building until 1930 when the Chrysler Building was finished on Lexington Avenue in 1930. The building was designed by architect Cass Gilbert in the neo-Gothic style and was a representation of the time as a “Cathedral for Commerce”. The lower floors are clad in limestone and the upper floors in glazed terra-cotta panels (Wiki). The lobby is one of the most detailed and ornate in New York but ask security first if you can walk around.
Across the street from the Woolworth Building is the very popular City Hall Park home to the to the 1803 built City Hall (Tweed Hall) and the seat of government for the City of New York. The park has always been used as some form of political function since the beginning in the Colonial days as a rebel outpost to its current function. It has had a prison, public execution site and parade ground on the site.
The unique detail work of the Woolworth Building.
The view of Downtown from the City Hall Park entrance
Since the renovation in 1999 under then Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the City Hall Park at Broadway and Chambers Street has been a place for people downtown to gather and relax by its fountain and beside the beautifully designed gardens. There are about a dozen statues in the park to admire so take time to enjoy a walk in the park (NYCParks.org).
The historical marker next to City Hall. Where City Hall stands near the park was once the British Barracks during the Revolutionary War.
In 2020, the park had just been cleaned up from an “Occupy City Hall” protest so the police presence in the area is high and the entire park is closed off for patrons. There is heavy metal fencing all around the park to prevent people from coming back in.
City Hall Park during “Occupy City Hall” July 2020
In 2022, the park was in full bloom and everyone in the park was walking around with no masks. The park was beautifully landscaped, and it is so nice to just sit by the fountain and relax. The fountain is elegant and detailed. It was designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, who designed the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park in 1871. It was returned to the park after its renovation in 1999 after it had been moved to the park in the Bronx in 1920.
The Jacob Wrey Mould City Hall Fountain in City Hall Park (NYCParks.org)
Cannupa Hanska Luger is an American born artist who has a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. He is known for his sculptures and performance art that address environmental justice and gender violence issues (Wiki/Artist bio)
Downtown at night
Another historic church that played a big role in the recovery of the World Trade Center events of 9/11 is the St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church at 209 Broadway. The Church was built in 1766 and is the oldest surviving church in Manhattan and is designed in the late Georgian church architecture by architect Thomas Mc Bean and crafted by Andrew Gautier (Wiki).
St. Paul’s with the new World Trade Center in the background. The contrast of old and new New York City in Spring 2024.
The view at night in the Fall of 2025
George Washington worshipped here on his Inauguration Day in 1789 and continued to worship here when New York City was the capital of the country. The church had been spared by a sycamore tree on the property that absorbed the debris from the World Trade Center site and became a place of recovery and reflection in the aftermath of the events on 9/11 (Wiki).
195 Broadway-The former AT&T/Western Union Building
The former AT&T Building at 195 Broadway has a very historical past. The building was built between 1912-1916 when AT&T acquired the Western Union Company in 1909. Designed by William W. Bosworth the building has a Greek inspired ornamentation with Doric and Ionic styles of columns. It was where the first transatlantic, transcontinental and Picturephone phone calls took place (Wiki). It now houses the new headquarters and flagship store for Brooks Brothers.
The embellishment details
The embellishment details
The embellishment details
The embellishment details
The embellishment details of 195 Broadway have a Greek tone and theme around the building. You really have to walk around the building to appreciate the details of 195 Broadway.
The Equitable Building at 120 Broadway was designed by architect Ernest R. Graham in the Neoclassical style and was completed in 1915 to replace the previous building that had burnt down. The building was designed in three horizontal sections with a design of a column with a base, shaft and capital (Wiki).
The founding of The American Institute of Architects plaque at 120 Broadway
Another building to admire is 108 Broadway at Leonard Street. This beautiful Italian Renaissance Revival building was designed by McKim Mead & White and has been refitted for apartments.
Upon reaching Zuccotti Park which is right near the World Trade Center sight and the home of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement that traveled around the world after the 2008 meltdown of the New York Stock Market. The movement and occupation of the park, which is private property, began in September of 2011. The park which is owned by Brookfield Office Properties was named after the Chairman of the company, John Zuccotti in 2011. (Wiki)
Zuccotti Park at twilight at Broadway and Cedar Streets
Zuccotti Park during its days of “Occupy Wall Street”
This interesting sculpture was installed in the park in 2006 and features “four open-ended tetrahedrons”. (Wiki)
“Joie de Vivre” by artist Marc di Suvero
Another historic statue located in Zuccotti Park is the sculpture “Double Check Businessman” that had survived the attacks on 9/11. The sculpture by John Seward Johnson II was created in 1982 and depicted a businessman reading himself to enter the World Trade Center nearby when it was made. It survived the attacks of 9/11 and was a symbol of those businesspeople who died that day.
“Double Check Businessman” by John Seward Johnson II
Artist John Seward Johnson II is an American born artist and a member of the Johnson & Johnson family. A self-taught sculptor he is known for his life like cast sculptures. This famous statue was formerly in Liberty Plaza Park by the World Trade Center.
Across the street from Zuccotti Park in the plaza of the Brown Brothers Harriman Building is the sculpture “Red Cube” by artist Isamu Noguchi. This interesting sculpture stands on one edge of the cube.
Artist Isamu Noguchi was an American born artist of an American mother and a Japanese father. After dropping out of Columbia Medical School, he concentrated on sculpture maintaining a studio in New York and Tokyo. He is known for his large-scale modern sculptures and was considered one of the most important artists of the Twentieth Century (Artist Bio).
As you pass Zuccotti Park and head down the last stretch of Broadway, look around at the buildings on both sides of Broadway as they have not changed much since the early 1900’s.
Just as you leave Zuccotti Park at 111-115 Broadway right next to Trinity Church is the Trinity & US Realty Building. This elegant and detailed building was designed in the “Neo-Gothic” style by architect Francis H. Kimball in 1905.
113 Broadway
115 Broadway
111-115 Broadway is the Trinity & United States Realty Building
Another building with an interesting history is The American Surety Building at 100 Broadway. The building was designed by architect Bruce Price in the Neo-Renaissance style between 1894 and 1896 and when finished it was the second tallest building in the world at its time (Wiki).
The details are amazing
The exterior is of Maine Granite and the ornamentation of the building was designed by J. Massey Rhind. The building was one of the first to use the new steel frame technology of the time (Wiki).
The last historic church I have visited and have walked past many times when in the neighborhood is Trinity Church, an Episcopal church at 75 Broadway. The first church on the site was built in 1698 and burned during the Revolutionary War during the Great Fire of 1776 when two thirds of the City burned after a fire started in tavern and left most of New Yorkers homeless (Wiki).
The true beauty of the church in the Fall of 2025. This is at 5:45pm at night
The details on the church
The current church was built in 1839 and finished in 1846 and was built in the Gothic Revival design by architect Richard Upjohn. It was the tallest building in the United States until 1869. The church has played important roles in recent history as a place of refuge and prayer during the attacks on 9/11. It also was part of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2012 as a place of refuge and support to the protesters (Wiki and Church History).
The Macomb Mansion that once stood at 39 Broadway.
Just outside of 39 Broadway is the marker to the Macomb Mansion, where President George Washington lived when he first became President of the United States. New York City served as the first Capital of the United States as Washington DC was being planned out. The mansion was built for merchant Alexander Macomb, who leased the house first to the French Ministry and then to George Washington when he moved from another part of the City at One Cherry Street. The mansion was demolished in 1940.
26 Broadway in the front.
26 Broadway-“The Standard Oil Building” (fineartamerica.com)
One of the most elegant buildings in lower Manhattan is the Cunard Building, the former home of the Cunard Shipping line. The building was designed by architect Benjamin Wistar Morris and opened in 1921. The company sold the building in 1971 and has different tenants now.
I finally got to my designation of Bowling Green Park on the first trip down Broadway at 5:45pm (starting time again 9:00am) just in time to see all the tourist lined up by The Bull statue (see my review on VisitingaMuseum.com). The statue was designed by artist Arturo de Modica and was installed as ‘renegade art’ meaning he did not have permission from the City to place it there. It has been a big tourist attraction since its installation, and I could not see a reason for the City to move it from its location. At 7,100 pounds they can move it too far.
The Charging Bull at Bowling Green Park by artist Arturo de Modica
The Charging Bull has many meanings now but it depends on how you interpret the statue.
I reached the end of Broadway at 5:45pm the next few walks and relaxed in Bowling Green Park (See review on VisitingaMuseum.com) for about a half hour. It was so nice to just sit there watching the fountain spray water and watching the birds as they pecked around.
The end of Broadway by Bowling Green Park in the Spring of 2024.
Bowling Green Park at Broadway and Whitehall Street has a rich history as a park. It was designed in 1733 and is the oldest park in New York City. It was here that the first reading of the Declaration of Independence was read and then the toppling of the Statue of King George III in defiance.
The historic plaque on the Bowling Green fence.
You can still see where the citizens at the time cut off the small crowns on the fencing that surrounds the park. This is another place that was rumored to be the site of where the Dutch bought Manhattan. The park is the official start of Broadway.
Bowling Green Park at Broadway and Whitehall Street at the height of its beauty in the Spring of 2024.
The tulips coming into bloom in Bowling Green Park in Spring 2024.
The park in the Summer of 2025
I walked from the Bowling Green Park and sat by the harbor in Battery Green Park and watched the ships go by. It is a nice place to relax and watch the sun set and the lights go on in all the buildings in lower Manhattan and watch the Statue of Liberty illuminate. It is quite a site. Look at the lights of Jersey City and Governors Island.
Bowling Green Park in 2024
I always try to relax at the end of the walk in Bowling Green Park but by the time I get down there, usually around 7:00pm, they are ready to close the park.
Bowling Green Park
Bowling Green Park
Bowling Green Park
Bowling Green Park
Gardens in Bowling Green Park in the Summer of 2026
This ends the walk with the exception of walking into Battery Park to see the lights turning on all over the harbor. It is another walk finished.
Me finishing the Broadway walk for my ninth time in July 2024 at 7:45pm
The view from Battery Park in 2025
Me finishing the walk down Broadway at 6:20m in 2025. In six hours and twenty minutes.
I arrived downtown at Bowling Green Park at 6:38pm and completed the Broadway Walk in the Fall of 2025 in eight hours and fifteen minutes. It had gotten pitch black by this point at around 7:00pm and I thought it was 9:00pm. Still the lights came on and this is when Manhattan truly shines.
Bowling Green Park in the Fall of 2025
Battery Park in the Fall of 2025
Bowling Green Park in the Fall of 2025
Lower Manhattan at the end of the walk in 2026
Lower Manhattan in the Summer of 2026 after I finished my walk
For dinner that night in 2019, I walked from the Battery into Chinatown and went to Chi Dumpling House (See reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com) at 77 Chrystie Street in Chinatown. They have the most amazing menu that is so reasonable. Ten steamed dumplings for $3.00 and a bowl of Hot & Sour Soup for $1.50. In 2020, with most of Chinatown shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic (which is bleeding Chinatown NYC), this is always my ‘go to’ place for dumplings and noodles.
Chi Dumpling House at 77 Chrystie Street (Closed January 2023)
For dessert that evening I came across Gooey on the Inside at 163 Chrystie Street (See review on TripAdvisor) for the most soft and gooey homemade cookies. I saw a bunch of people smiling as they left this basement business raving about the cookies, and I had to investigate. I have to admit that they are pricey ($5.00 and higher) but the cookies are amazing. The Chocolate Chunk was loaded with large pieces of chocolate and the Birthday Cake is filled with icing and is soft and chewy. The best way to end the evening.
Gooey on the Inside Birthday Cake Cookies at 163 Chrystie Street
On my second day of walking down Broadway, I stopped at Pranzo Pizza at 34 Water Street (See reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com-now located at 44 Water Street) for dinner. I had arrived later in the evening and did not realize they closed at 8:00pm. The food, which is normally excellent, had been sitting for a while and was not that good. I had a Chicken Parmesan and spaghetti special that was dried out. Not their best work.
Pranzo Pizza at 34 Water Street (moved to 44 Water Street in 2021)
After dinner, I returned to Battery Park to admire the lights on Governor’s Island and the illuminated Statue of Liberty. There is nothing like this site in the world and only off the. Island of Manhattan can you see it this way. The crowds have started to get bigger in 2020 and 2021.
In 2021, I decided to take off early and dined near the Port Authority at Chef Yu’s Chinese Restaurant for dinner. After a very forgettable meal where the food has gotten mediocre since the reopening, I wished I had just walked to Chinatown that evening. In 2023, I had no appetite for dinner and just headed home after relaxing for an hour. I finished the walk at 7:00pm and just wanted to go home and relax.
Things are changing in 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis and will keep changing in NYC. Keep watching this entry for updates over the next year or so. In 2021, things are still morphing, and I plan on making the Broadway walk part of the ongoing walk in Manhattan.
In 2024, I was so tired and so hot from the walk I decided I wanted a small dinner and wanted some dumplings. I went to Dumplings at 25B Henry Street.
I was lucky that they were still open for the evening. When I got there, all the hipsters were in line for their dumplings and all the steamed dumplings were gone, so I order the Roast Pork Buns. This order is $5.00!
The Roast Pork Buns that I had that evening. I needed the carbs to get me through the rest of the evening.
I did the same thing in 2025. After all that walking and snacking along the way, I just wanted some Fried Dumplings and that was it.
The Fried Dumplings are wonderful too.
The Fried Dumplings here are excellent and there is a nice park around the corner to eat
I sat in the tiny park down the road from the takeout place on Catherine Street which is across from the Al Smith Houses. I relaxed and watched the kids playing basketball and tag while it got dark outside. When I finished I walked around for a bit and then headed home. Another walk done well.
Some of my favorite restaurants in Chinatown are across from the park
In the Fall of 2024, I decided to go to Dim Sum Go Go on 5 East Broadway for dinner. I was starved at this point and wanted something special for dinner. So I ordered two courses of Dim Sum for dinner. I started with the Shrimp and Pork Shu Mai and the Pork Soup Dumplings.
The first course
The Shrimp Shu Mai
The Pork Soup Dumplings
I was still hungry, and I ordered the second course of Dim Sum and then I ordered dessert. They did not have the Egg Custards I loved so much so I tried the Mango Pudding. Excellent choice by the waiter.
The Second Course
The Second Course
The Second course of dinner I ordered Duck Spring Rolls, Fried Shrimp Balls, Fried Pork Dumplings and for dessert I had the Mango Pudding. It was an amazing meal and I really enjoyed it. Perfect food for a perfect walk!
The Duck Spring rolls
The Fried Shrimp Balls
The Fried Pork Dumplings
The Mango Pudding
When I finished my recent Broadway walk in the Summer of 2026, I stopped in for dinner North Dumpling at 21 Division Street and had the Fried Pork & Chive Dumplings and the fresh Noodles with Julienne and Pork, which were spicier than I thought. It was the perfect meal and just enough food.
My dinner of the Fried Pork and Chive Dumplings and the fresh Noodles with Julienne and Pork at North Dumpling at 21 Division Street in Chinatown
The pork mixture is really spicy and make sure you order a water or a Coke to drink with it. All of these are made right in front of you by the ladies taking the order.
After dinner, I walked around Chinatown and for the first time was really tired after this walk. I must be getting rusty with not walking as much in the City as I had in the past. I have to get back to the neighborhoods more. I still have to finish Alphabet City as of Fall of 2025. I highly recommend Dim Sum Go Go for dinner or just for a snack. I love the assortment.
Chinatown at night in 2024
Downtown Manhattan at the end of the walk in 2024. It was just about twilight.
*Bloggers note: this blog will continue to be built on trip after trip and there will be more walks down Broadway to see the many changes and developments that are happening along the way.
The Broadway Mall Art Exhibition: (some sculptures still up in July 2020)
The Birds of Broadway by artist Nicolas Holiber:
Artist Nicolas Holiber in front of his sculptures for the “Birds on Broadway” show
*Authors Note: All the hours for these establishments have changed with COVID-19. Please check their websites and call them first before visiting. They may change again after the City reopens. Also too, the prices keep changing as well, so please check with the restaurants.
I can’t believe that the year went by so fast. I blinked my eye and the leaves changed colors and it was the end of the summer. The weather has been so unpredictable since the beginning of 2018, it is hard to judge the seasons. It was a cold Winter, was cool and rainy most of the Spring, and the Summer was either humid or rainy. We never had normal seasonable days the way we have had in the past. We had two rather nice days around Labor Day Weekend and that was about it.
The Fall became cool very quickly. Where as last year, the leaves did not change colors until November 12th, this year it got really cool early in October and the leaves changed quickly and were off the trees because of constant rain storms. So much for the seasons!
The Hudson River Valley in the early Fall
Halloween was the exception to the rule. We had a sudden burst of an “Indian Summer” and the weather to 59 degrees on October 30 and the night of Halloween it was 64 degrees, a perfect night for the Halloween Parade. It was nice to have three days of above 60 degree weather and then by November 2nd back down to 40 degrees. Still it made Halloween more fun and engaging.
Halloween activities ranged from watching films to museum events to the best part of all, the New York Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village. Its more of a lower Manhattan parade now but still keeps it heart in the community. I even designed our shirts for Engine One HHFD with a Jack-o-Lantern logo.
The Engine One Hasbrouck Heights tee-shirt logo.
Hasbrouck Heights Engine One members in their new Fire Fighter tee shirts
Eddie Carter, Bernie Valente and Justin Watrel from Engine One HHFD wearing our new logoed tee shirts.
My first activity of Halloween was visiting the Meadowlands Museum for the Annual Scarecrow Festival. The tough part was it was a gloomy day and there were not many participants. Still the people who came were really artistic and very enthusiastic. There were only a dozen or so scarecrows on the sticks but there were some interesting designs. The sad part was there were only about twenty or so people at the event. This could be a very interesting event if they advertised it more.
Scarecrow Day at the Meadowlands Museum in Rutherford, NJ
The second event I attended was the Ridgewood Schoolhouse Museum Historical Society’s Annual Cemetery Walk through both the Old Dutch Cemetery and the Valleau Cemetery across the street. This is an interesting tour that I did last year by with different actors at the grave sites.
What the Schoolhouse Museum located at 650 East Glen Avenue in Ridgewood does is they wait until nightfall and they take you on a lantern tour of the grave sites of prominent members of the Ridgewood community and an actor plays that person and describes their life and their role in the community.
Joe Suplicki from the Ridgewood Historical Society
Under the direction of Ridgewood historian, Joe Suplicki, who leads the tour into the graveyard with lantern in hand, you will walk a lighted path of luminaries into the heart of the cemetery to the different sites. The most interesting one I found on this tour was the mausoleum of J. J. Newberry, the founder of the discount department store. This company went out of business years ago but I had not realized the family had lived in Ridgewood.
The Cemetery Walk in Ridgewood, NJ.
The tour really does take you to the spooky parts of the cemetery and it is best to stay with the group. Although no one is popping out at you, you still have a creepy feeling from walking around all the tombstones. It is almost a relief to get back to the museum. The best part is that Demerest Farms in Hillsdale, NJ donates their apple cider and cider doughnuts to the museum for the end of the tour and that is a real treat.
You get to munch on doughnuts and listen to ghost stories from the head of the museum around ‘a campfire’. The best part is watching the kids scared from stories that are told and by kids I mean the forty year olds. Their children are too busy on their cell phones. The museum does a wonderful job every year and for the $10.00 donation it a nice tour.
My next venture on the Halloween list takes me to Croton-on-Hudson to the Van Cortlandt Manor to the annual ‘Pumpkin Blaze’. That is a site to see every year. Even though I have visited it over the last five years, I never get tired of looking at it. The estate is illuminated with hundreds of pumpkins. The pumpkins take all sorts of shapes, sizes, carved faces and even in the structures.
Entering the Pumpkin Blaze at Croton on the Hudson in Upstate New York.
When you enter the estate, you are greeted with a form of mortuary, Halloweenish music that sets the tone for the walk. The Pumpkin Blaze has gotten even more popular in the four years that I have been going and I had to get the tickets way in advance. The weather was nice but it had cooled by this point and was in the low 40’s when I got there.
I was part of the last group that arrived at 8:30pm so the place was starting to clear out when I arrived. It is a lot easier coming towards the end of the night as it gives you more time to walk around.
Van Cortlandt Manor decorated for Halloween.
The display was just as spectacular as in years past. You are greeted at the beginning of the path by the river with carved lit pumpkins of all expressions until you reach the pumpkin bridge, ‘The Pumpkin Zee Bridge’ and travel over it to the rest of the displays which include pumpkin jack in the boxes, a pumpkin Ferris wheel and a pumpkin tunnel.
The Pumpkin Zee Bridge and Spider Web at the Pumpkin Blaze.
Through out the display, I walked the path by myself to see pumpkin skeletons, the pumpkin version of the headless horseman, spiders, dinosaurs and a pumpkin circus train. This lead to the main house, the Van Cortlandt Manor, where there were pumpkin scarecrows, a pumpkin cemetery and a light show at the manor that was ablaze with lit pumpkins. The whole effect was engaging.
The Pumpkin Blaze Graveyard
I doubled back around the cemetery and walked through the sea of pumpkins smiling and grinning at me. The music continued to play as I doubled back through the display but by this time the crowds started to thin and it got colder. When I reached the gift shop it was about 38 degrees I heard someone say. I looked back at the dark lawn with the music still moaning and thought about the amount of work to make this spectacular display every year.
Ghosts and Ghouls at the Pumpkin Blaze.
My last event of the holiday was work as a marshal for the Halloween Parade in New York City. I have been working as a marshal for five years now starting in 2014. My job is the least glamorous part of the parade. I work the performance gate where all the performers enter the parade route to their floats. It is also one of the tougher jobs of the parade as I have to make sure all the people who don’t belong in the parade stay out.
“Cousins” Mark Schuyler and Justin Watrel at the gate of the Halloween Parade.
It has gotten easier since the passes are now on cell phones or the performers print them out. They know that they have to bring it to the parade. What I love are all the people who try to wheedle their way in to see the parade at its starting point. I have watched people say that they lived there, were staying at the hotel near by, they have dinner plans across the street, they are meeting someone there or try to sneak in with the groups of performers.
The Halloween Parade practice on Domick Street in Lower Manhattan.
After five years, I have gotten wise to everyone. The only problem I have is that I work with people who just let people in because they don’t want to confront people. I just tell them “and the cow jumped over the moon!” when they give me a lame answer.
This year I had a pretty good track record of keeping people out with new volunteers who followed the rules. It is fun watching the parade come to life. I have watched hundreds of volunteers come through the parade entrance in costume and with instruments in hand who volunteer to make the magic of the parade.
The Halloween Parade and getting ready to march.
After we got everyone in the parade route, we closed the gate for the night and the NYPD protected it. I got to go into the parade route and by Broome Street got to watch the parade come together with a combination of floats, performing acts and costumed participants progress up the Avenue. By the time I got to the parade starting point most of the parade was already over and had proceeded uptown. I got to see the last of the floats and bands head uptown.
The robot themed puppets in the parade.
By 9:00pm, the last float headed uptown with a group of Mardi Gras drag queens yelling and screaming over disco music. The rest of the people in the parade were the costumed participants from all over the world who were thrilled to be in the parade. We left yelling and cheering as they entered the parade route.
There were many creative costumes in the parade. You had your usual cartoon characters, police, fire fighters, superhero’s and witches and devils. There was not much politics as I had seen in the last two years though there were a few Donald Trump masks. Maybe because I was seeing the end of the parade head up town, it looked to me like people were there to have fun and march in the parade less the politics. I did see some unusual and creative costumes such as geometric angels, elaborate dress costumes and show outfits. There still is a lot of creativity left in the population and they like to show it off one night of the year.
Getting ready to enter the parade.
To end Halloween, we all met at Tipsy Parson on 156 9th Avenue for a parade rap up party. It was a nice way to end the evening meeting with all the parade marshals and volunteers. They had a nice meal for us as they did the year before with pulled pork sliders, spiced chicken wings, deviled eggs, macaroni and cheese, chips and dip and assorted desserts. Everyone was starved by the time we got there at 9:30pm and made multiple trips to the buffet.
It was nice to sit back and laugh with everyone. My distant cousin, Mark Schuyler and I got to kid around through the evening about some of the stories we heard about people trying to sneak into the parade lineup. We have been swapping these stories now for five years ( I can’t believe it was that long) and still through the back of my mind I thought “We are here again? A year has gone by this quickly? Where did it all go?”
Through the laughing I realized that time has gone by pretty quickly and Christmas was right around the corner. As another Halloween drew to a close, I look back on this Halloween and realize that you can have fun without dressing up and Trick or Treating. You just have to see where life takes you and the experiences in front of you.
In 2018, my aunt called me out of the blue and said that she had an extra spot on a trip to Governors Island with her Retired Teachers Association group and I jumped at the chance. I had never been to the island before only having seen it from a distance so it was a chance to visit the island with a tour group. The nice part of the tour was that we could walk independently around the island, which my cousin, Bruce and I decided to do.
The view from the lawn at Governor’s Island toward Lower Manhattan
When going to Governor’s Island during the week, there is a $5.00 round trip fee to travel to the island, which is now open seven days a week. On the weekends, the ferry is free before 11:00am, so it is a treat to go to the island as a type of ‘Staycation’. For people living in New York City, it is an oasis away from the hustle and bustle of the island of Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs.
The walkway to Fort Jay
Governor’s Island has been a public space since 1996 when the US Coast Guard left the island and part of the island reverted to the National Park system. Since then, twenty-two acres of the park where the forts are located have been part of the National Park system and the remaining one hundred and fifty acres of the landfill area are part of the Trust of Governor’s Island, which is an entity of the City of New York. Governor’s Island is now part of Manhattan. Since 2001, the island has reinvented itself and in 2012, Mayor Bloomberg broke ground on the master plan for the island. In the next six years, the island has developed into the park is has now become with more developments in the future (Wiki).
Governor’s Island from the top of the hill with views of Downtown and Collective Hotel on the bottom.
The rock on the main path on the southern most part of the island as you arrive.
Andes Road is the southern most road from the ferry to Fort Castle Williams. Most people follow this path when they come to the island.
On a nice day, there is nothing like a boat ride out to the island. It only takes about ten minutes to leave from the Battery to the dock of the island. It’s a nice ride over to the island with the most spectacular views of Lower Manhattan, Jersey City, NJ, Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. These are all ‘must sees’ when you are visiting New York. The views of Lower Manhattan are most breathtaking when you reach the area around Castle Williams, one of the two forts on the island.
Once you arrive on the island, the gift shop and information booth is to your left up the hill and the public bathrooms are to your right. Make sure to make pit stops at both before venturing further on the island. At the gift shop you can get a map of the island to know where to walk and the public bathroom at the dock is the best place to go on the island.
The sign welcoming you to Castle Williams
We started our walk of Governor’s Island on the path to Castle Williams, one of the two forts of the island and one of the last relics of ‘Old’ New York. Castle William is fort that protected New York Harbor for the War of 1812 and after that was used during the Civil War as a jail for prisoners of war and then during World Wars for training base.
The model of Castle Williams inside the fort.
The fort is made of red sandstone quarried in New York area and was designed by Lt. Colonial Jonathan Williams, who was the Chief Engineer of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The fort was designed in a innovative circular pattern, which protected the fort from all sides and was considered a prototype for a new form of coastal fortification (US National Park System).
The historic entrance to Castle Williams.
The tour was very interesting as we started in the courtyard, which had once been a training ground for the troops. They took us on a tour of the jail cells on the first floor, solitary confinement on the second floor and then took us to the roof to see where the cannons were located that protected the harbor during the War of 1812. The views were breathtaking of Lower Manhattan and Jersey City, NJ. One a clear day, the view is amazing with all the soaring towers, pleasure boats and helicopters above.
The courtyard to Castle Williams Fort.
The tour took us all over the building and the guide told the story of how the fort supported the City during The War of 1812 and its use in later years for other military service. Since the City was surrounding by forts on the various islands protecting New York Harbor, the British did not venture to New York during the war.
The inside of the quarters of Castle Williams Fort
As we left the Castle Williams, we walked the path toward Fort Jay, which is located in the middle of the island. The fort is currently being renovated and some of the walls were crumbling around us. The interior of the fort is open and there are rocking chairs around the porches that line the insides of the fort while the outside walls of the fort are being renovated and repaired.
The pathway leading to Fort Jay
Fort Jay has been altered and rebuilt since its inception around 1775, when defenses were made on the island by the Continental troops during the Revolutionary War. This fort and Governor’s Island was held by the British during the war and surrendered after the war in 1783. With renewed tensions abroad, the New York Legislature and United States Congress reconstructed the fort in 1794 as part of the First American System of Coastal Fortifications. The fort was called Fort Jay in 1798 for New York Governor John Jay (US National Park Services).
The walls of Fort Jay were built in the 1800’s
The fort went through extensive renovations between 1855-1921 with the brick barracks being replaced, interior remodeling and the addition of officer’s apartments and a golf course. Fort Jay has sat vacant with minimal upkeep since closure of the Coast Guard base in 1997 and you can see the current renovation going on now (US National Parks Services). There is also an art installation in this fort that is on view.
Both forts do close early for tours and viewing. Make sure you get to the island early so that you can take the tours or visit on your own to admire the architecture. They are interesting examples of early harbor defenses not just in New York but of the coastal cities that were established before the Revolutionary War.
The inside of Fort Jay
The inside of Fort Jay
Exiting the old fort, look up to see the statuary going through a renovation. The soft stone of the fort have been damaged by the sea air over the years and the eagle statues need extensive repairs.
The back wall of Fort Jay.
The pathway then leads to Nolan Park, home of the Officers Homes when they lived on the island. These are currently being renovated for non-profit organizations. I had a nice walk through of one of the homes on a second trip to the island and it is now part of the NY Audubon Society. There are a lot of interesting displays that the Society shows on both floors.
The Commanding Officers House on Governor’s Island.
The information sign at the Commanding Officers House.
Most of the homes are still going through a renovation and are not open to the public but it is interesting to see the Victorian architecture and how the officers and their families must have lived when they were stationed here. Even when walking through the homes you can see that a lot of work is needed in these buildings with the sagging porches and peeling paint.
Noland Park artwork is part of the Artist’s Collective now on the island in 2024.
Leaving Nolan Park you head to the South Battery, where there is an active school and it leads to one of the three piers on the island. To the north of this is the Parade Ground where they were setting up for one of the summer movies that was going to be shown on the lawn with the last one being in mid-September.
The artwork as you are leaving Noland Park to the southern part of the island.
We walked along the Yankee Pier on the southern part of the island and looked over the views from Brooklyn, which are not that exciting and then walked to Liggett Terrace to cool down and grab some lunch. Before we got there, I stopped at the South Battery Building but there was not much to see there.
The back of South Battery Building with a view of Downtown Brooklyn.
The Bronze Propeller sculpture right near Liggett Terrace.
On the weekends in the warmer weather is there are a lot of food trucks on this side of the island and we stopped at Fauzia Jamaican Food truck stand right near the building for some Jerk Chicken sandwiches. This was an experience. I felt like I was sitting in a little restaurant in Kingston. They had the tables set up just so with colorful chairs and decorations and they were playing music by Luciano, a well-known singer from Jamaica.
The front of Fauzia’s Heavenly Delights in Liggett Terrace.
The food at Fauzia’s is really good. Their Jerk Chicken Gyro sandwich ($14.99) has some kick to it and when you add their hot sauce, it ‘sets fire’ in your stomach. The sandwiches are a rather large so be prepared to have an appetite. The ladies are really nice and engaging to talk to and bring a warm island hospitality to the dining experience.
When I returned to the island in 2024, I went back to Fauzia’s for lunch and had the same Jerk Chicken Gyro sandwich that I had in 2018. It was just as delicious as I remember. Tender pieces of chicken tossed in a very spicy jerk sauce that had a spicy tang to it.
The Frozen Pineapple Lemonade was the refreshing touch with the meal. They make their own homemade lemonade and then add a little pineapple juice to it and then run it through the blender with some ice. It is a the perfect drink on a hot day.
The menu at Fauzia’s Heavenly Delights
The homemade patties were made on the island restaurant.
The Jerk Chicken Gyro sandwich with white sauce and a Frozen Pineapple Lemonade. What a great meal!
The Jerk Chicken Gyro sandwich is excellent and I highly recommend it.
After lunch, we sat by the fountains near the building and I amused a bunch of ten-year old’s by taking off my shoes and socks and walking around the shooting fountains. The temperature had hit 98 degrees and was really humid and I could not take the heat. So, I splashed around the fountain. The jumping and shooting of the fountains felt really good on my legs and feet and my cousin could not stop laughing. Even in the late Spring of 2024, the island gets very hot even with the harbor breezes.
The gardens leaving Liggett Terrace.
The rest of the afternoon we explored the southern part of the island which is all landfill (from building the first subway system in the City and the island grew an additional 150 acres). Once you leave Liggett Terrance, you follow the paths to the southern (or western) part of the island which is all divided up park land by a series of paths.
Looking at the World Trade Center from the southern path of the island.
We walked through the Hammock Grove and relaxed in the hammocks that are always in demand. It is a nice place to relax on a hot day but do spray yourself as the bugs can bite here. All along the paths there are local wildflowers and trees so that paths can be very colorful in season. The hammocks are a nice place to just lie back and relax. On a hot, humid day they were not as much fun but nice for a break. My second time to the island was after a rainstorm and the bugs were biting me so I did not venture long.
The “Yankee Hanger” Sculpture on the southern part of the island by Artist Mark Handsforth. This is meant to be a interactive sculpture with the public.
Artist Mark Handsforth is an English born artist now based in Miami. He attended the Slade School of Fine Art at the University College London. He is known for his large public sculptures (Wiki).
The Play Lawn area around the south part of the island was booked for an event called “Pinknic”, a picnic where everyone wore pink and drank rose wines. On a 94-degree day with the humidity hitting almost 100 degrees drinking rose wine in that heat was the last thing I would want to do but my cousin and I watched as each wave of ferry riders became pinker in color in their dress and the place filled up.
The stone stairs leading to the top of the hill on the southern part of the island.
We walked up The Hills section just below the Play Lawn and that is some exercise. Climbing up the rocks on the ‘Outlook Hill’, can be trying but the views are well work it. When the two of use reached the top neither of us took the time to notice that there was a path leading up the hill that was paved.
The top of the hill view on Governor’s Island offers the most amazing views of Lower Manhattan.
When you reach the top of the hill, there are the most interesting and beauty views of the island and of the harbor region. Since Governor’s Island is in the heart of the harbor, you can see everything around the surrounding islands and Lower Manhattan.
The view from the top of the hill on Governor’s Island.
Picnic Point was closed for private events on both trips I made to the island and the area surrounding The Hills is being developed for a future hotel or inn on the island from what one of the tour guides I over-heard talking to a group of tourists.
The view of Liberty Island from Governor’s Island.
We traveled up the northern part of the island and noticed a tent village. The Collective Governor’s Island was having a soft opening the day we were there and just starting to receive guests. The Collective is an eco-friendly resort concept and the tents are hardly ‘roughing it’ with gourmet treats and meals, 1000 thread sheets and plush Turkish towels and some of the tents have private baths. The day were there was no one on the property yet and the second time I visited the island, it was not yet check in time and the place looked like a ghost town with no one there. I will have to revisit before it closes for the season.
The Collective Governor’s Island is now fenced off in 2024.
On my second trip to explore the island, I attempted to slide down the two slides found in the ‘Slide Hill’ section of The Hills. Good luck on that. At 6:4, I had to push myself down the slides while the little kids slide down with no problems. The slides are hidden by trees on this part of the hill but just look for the little and big ‘kids’, who are laughing hard at each other.
Slide Hill
As we traced out steps back to the Manhattan Ferry landing, we passed various restaurants that were open for the season. The Oyster House has a nice menu and the bar area was packed that afternoon and Taco Beach, a slightly more casual place was full of guests enjoying Mexican food. Those I will have to try on future trips.
I would like to point out the various public arts works on the island by in the Chapel of St. Cornelius, which is an old church on the island near the South Battery and the Liggett Archway in the middle of the Liggett Terrace. These sculptures are by artist Jacob Hasimoto, who currently lives in Queens, NY.
Mr. Hashimoto was born in 1973 in Greeley, CO and is a graduate of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Having shown in museums and galleries all over the world, this is the first major installation by the artist (Artist Bio)
Using sculpture and installation, the artist creates worlds from a range of modular components: bamboo and paper kites, model boats and even AstroTurf-covered blocks. His accretive, layered compositions reference video games, virtual environments and cosmology, while also remaining deeply rooted in art-historical traditions notably, landscaped-based abstraction, modernism and handcraft (Artist Bio).
In the historic Chapel of St. Cornelius which closed in 2013, the artist reopened it with a sculpture of 15,000 bamboo and paper kites done in white and black named ‘The Eclipse’. To me it looked more like a sunrise/sunset pattern in the sky than a full eclipse but the artist really captured the progressiveness of the color and light of the movement of the sun and moon. It blew me away of the intricate detail work the artist had to figure to get the placement just so to get this effect. It takes over the whole church and you have to see it from all sides to fully appreciate it.
Jacob Hashimoto’s “Eclipse”
In the Liggett Hall archway, his sculpture ‘Never comes Tomorrow’ contains hundreds of wooden cubes and two massive steel funnels which showcases the artists interest in architecture. To me I found it whimsical and fun showing a combination of a work straight out of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’. It looked like a series of trumpets with the communication devise in the middle of the structure. Hurry though, these sculptures I read online will only be up until Halloween.
Jacob Hashimoto’s “Tomorrow Never Comes”
After a hot and sticky day on the island both times, it is a pleasurable trip back to Lower Manhattan. The breezes are really nice and the view unbelievably beautiful. When you hear the words “New York” this is what you would imagine it to be.
Governor’s Island is from May 1st until October 31st during the season from 10:00am-6:00pm Monday-Thursday and on Friday’s and Saturday’s there are late hours until 10:00pm but only until September 14th. The island is open on Sunday from 10:00am-7:00pm. The ferries run on the hour except extended on the weekends. The last ferry departs the island 6:00pm Monday-Thursday and 7:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The island closes after Halloween night.
Depending on the part of the season you visit, there is loads to do on the island from just walking around, biking, skate boarding, touring or just relaxing.
Places to Visit:
All restaurants and historical sites are located on Governor’s Island and you can see it all by accessing their website at http://www.govisland.com.
I took some time out of my regular touring and took a historic tour of the pubs and bars of lower Manhattan with the Cornell Club. The club had arranged this tour through one of the local historical tour companies in the City in which we would be touring sections of local historic watering holes. This included the Frances Tavern, Delmonico’s and India House.
We met on the stairs of the National Museum of the American Indian which once upon a time was the U.S. Customs House. Here we met our tour guide and we started our discussion on historic bars and restaurants and their place in lower Manhattan.
The tour started with a talk on the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House building located at 1 Bowling Green. The building was designed by architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed the Woolworth Building with construction beginning in 1902 and was finished in 1907 and considered a masterpiece in Beaux-Arts style (Wiki).
The interesting part of the building is when you look up to the roof to see the statuary of ‘The Continents’, also called the ‘Four Continents’ of Asia, America, Europe and Africa. Located on the main cornice are standing sculptures representing the great seafaring nations, representing American seagoing commerce (Wiki and tour guide).
The interesting part of the discussion was that the U.S. Custom House sits on the site of Fort Amsterdam, the fortification constructed by the Dutch West Indian Company to defend their operations in the Hudson Valley. It was the center of the settlement (Wiki and tour guide).
Our next stop on the tour was walking around Bowling Green Park across the street from the U.S. Custom House. The park is the oldest public park in New York City and is one of the two rumored places that Peter Minuit ‘bought’ the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans in 1626 (the other being in Inwood Park) and had once served as the Council grounds for the local Native American tribes (NYC Parks.org).
The park was first designated a park in 1733 when it was offered for rent at the cost of one peppercorn per year. There had been a gilded statue of King George III erected there in 1770 and an iron fence (still there and a New York landmark) installed in 1771. On July 9, 1776 at the first public hearing of the Declaration of Independence, the statue was toppled by angry citizens and melted down for ammunition (NYC Parks & Tour Guide). The crowns that used to line the fence had been sawed off and you can still see traces of it on the fences.
The area surrounding the park became a fashionable residence in the late 18th century and mid-19th century, the area gave way to business and manufacturing. The park has since gone through many renovations, including the most recent 2004 which re-landscaped the park and added new bluestone sidewalks, plantings, gas lamps and hoof benches (NYC Parks & Tour guide).
Just north of the Bowling Green Park is the 7,100 pound statue of the ‘Charging Bull’ by artist Arturo DiModica. Mr. DiModica is a self taught Italian artist who had once worked in the foundries and then immigrated to New York City in the 1970’s. He became part of the 80’s art scene in lower Manhattan.
DiModica states that “Bronze figure of the bull represents the strength, power and hope of the American people for the future.” This was dealing after the Crash of the Market in 1987. Considered ‘guerrilla’ art when it was illegally installed in front of the New York Stock Exchange during the Christmas holiday season in 1989, the statue was moved to its current location in the Spring of 1989 and been there since.
Next to the statute, another statue has been cast and placed near the bull. “Fearless Girl” was installed in 2017 the night before International Women’s Day and was created by artist Kristen Visbal and was commissioner by State Street Global Advisers as a marketing campaign for their index fund. Ms. Visbal is a graduate from Salisbury State University with a BFA and currently runs the Visbal Fine Arts Sculpture in Lewes, DE (Wiki).
The artist says that the statue of the young girl shows her as being “brave, proud and strong.” There has been criticism between the two artists on the meaning of the statutes (Wiki).
The first historic bar we visited was the Fraunces Tavern at 54 Pearl Street (See review on TripAdvisor). The restaurant has played a prominent role in history before, during and after the American Revolution, serving as a headquarters for George Washington, a venue for peace negotiations with the British and housing federal offices in the Early Republic. It is owned by the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York Inc. and claim it is Manhattan’s oldest surviving buildings with the current being built by Stephen DeLancey, the son in law of New York Mayor Stephanus van Cortlandt in 1719 (Wiki).
We only stayed at the bar for a short time, looking at the period furniture and some of the museum quality artifacts before some of the members of our group ordered a drink. I have to tell you one thing, they get very testy if you sit a table and don’t order anything. Check out their website at http://www.francestavern.com for the menu’s and full history.
Our next stop on the tour was historic Stone Street, a cluster of historic buildings along Stone, South William and Pearl Streets and Coenties Alley. The street’s stores and lofts were built for dry-goods merchants and importers shortly after the Great Fire of 1835, which destroyed many remnants of New Amsterdam (Wiki).
The entrance to Stone Street
The street had been neglected for years but a partnership between the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission and other city agencies, the Alliance for Downtown New York and Stone Street business owners transformed the area into the lively entertainment area that contains several restaurants and bars (Wiki & the Tour Guide).
The buildings of Stone Street.
The middle of Stone Street now is lined with tables used by all the restaurants for seating and is a very active area during lunch and Happy Hour time. We walked among the busy tables and looked at the menus but didn’t stop here. I had stopped earlier at Justino’s Pizzeria at 77 Pearl Street for a snack (See review on TripAdvisor). Their pizza is quite good although I think that Pranzo at 34 Water Street is better. They give you a better slice and the sauce is much spicier.
After we left the Stone Street Historic area, we walked up Broad Street to see the New York Stock Exchange and the Federal Hall District. This is the seat of the financial center and the capital of the financial world.
The New York Stock Exchange at 8-18 Broad Street was built in 1903 replacing the original Victorian structure which had been built in 1865. The building was designed by architect George Browne Post, who was a native New Yorker who studied architecture and civil engineering at NYU. He designed it in Second Empire design (Wiki and the Tour Guide).
Standing on Wall Street, you can see the 1903 building rise ten stories above the sidewalk. Six Corinthian columns steadily rise from a seven-bay-wide podium set between two rectangular pilasters. He complimented the six columns with symmetry of seven with a center flat arched doorway with three more on either side. The podium symmetry continues to the second store, where directly above each street-level doorway is a contrasting round-arched opening. Balustraded balconies between floors provide the classic ornamentation as do lintels with carved fruit and flowers (Architecture of New York Stock Exchange Building & Tour Guide).
New York Stock Exchange at 8-18 Broad Street
We passed the now closed Stock Exchange building and continued on to Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street. We discovered that this is not the original building but its replacement that was built in 1842.
Looking down Wall Street at the NY Stock Exchange and other historical buildings
The original Federal Hall was a Greek Revival structure completed in 1703 and served as New York’s first City Hall. It was where the Stamp Act Congress met to draft a letter to King George on opposition to the Stamp Act and after the Revolution for the Congress of the Confederation held under the Articles of Confederation. It was renamed Federal Hall when it became the first Capital of the Newly created United States in 1789 and hosted the first United States Congress. On its steps, George Washington was sworn in as the first President. That building was demolished in 1812 (Wiki & the Tour Guide).
Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street
The current structure, completed in 1842 and one of the best surviving examples of neoclassical architecture in New York, was built as the U.S. Custom House for the Port of New York. Later it served as a sub-Treasury building. It is operated today by the National Park Service as a national memorial and designated the Federal Hall National Memorial (Wiki and the Tour Guide).
The statue of George Washington was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward in 1882. Mr. Quincy Adams is an American born artist from Ohio. He trained under known artist Henry Kirk Browne and is the brother of artist Edgar Melville Ward. He moved to New York City in 1861, was elected to the National Academy of Design and was a known sculpture of historical busts and monuments (Wiki).
It was erected on the front steps of the building, marking the approximate site where he was inaugurated as President of the United States. Part of the original railing and balcony floor where Washington was inaugurated are on display in the memorial (Wiki).
We also looked at the original J.P. Morgan Building at 23 Wall Street or known as ‘The Corner’. The building was designed by Trowbridge & Livingston and built in 1913. It was known as the ‘House of Morgan’ so there were no signs with the Morgan name. The building was designed in the classical architecture and Morgan made sure that it was designed only four feet high (Wiki). When I asked the tour guide why, he basically said everyone knew who J. P. Morgan was and he didn’t have to prove it.
JP Morgan Building Wall Street 23 Wall Street
The foundation of the building is constructed deep and strong enough in order to support a forty foot tower if it needed to be built. The company moved its operations to 60 Wall Street and the company sold the building and it has had several owners. Our tour guide said that the building was rumored to be turned into condos (Wiki and the Tour Guide).
We moved down Beaver Street towards Wall Street and our second stop of the tour at Delmonico’s restaurant at 56 Beaver Street. The restaurant has moved and changed since it was founded in 1827. The restaurant has always been since it’s founding a place of society and influence. The restaurant was first operated by the Delmonico family as a small cafe and pastry shop at 23 William Street. Later it would be considered one of the nation’s top fine dining restaurants and the birthplace of such dishes as Baked Alaska, Lobster Newberg and famous Delmonico steak. It was the first restaurant to allow patrons to order from a menu a la carte as opposed to table d’hote. It also claimed to be the first to employ a separate wine list (Wiki & the Tour Guide).
The current location of Delmonico’s was opened in 1926 by restaurateur Oscar Tucci as a speakeasy and this restaurant would continue on until 1986. It has operated in this location at different times as Delmonico’s since and has currently been open since 1998 (Wiki, Delmonico’s History and the Tour Guide).
I found the restaurant to be very formal and a little stuffy for a tour group to visit since we were not all dressed for the occasion. The restaurant patrons were all dressed up and I had to parade through the dining room in shorts, which are not allowed in the formal dining room. We had a drink at the bar and I found it to be excellent. The service at the busy bar was friendly and very inviting and I was ready to stay for some dinner. The bar atmosphere was very engaging and we had a nice time there. It is expensive but well worth it once (See review on TripAdvisor).
We walked down the street to The Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden located across the street from Hanover Square. The land around this part has been in public used since 1637 and in 1730 became known as Hanover Square in tribute to the House of Hanover. It had been the center for commerce and printing in the beginnings of New York and was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1835. The small triangled parcel was not developed into a park until 1952 and was rededicated with new landscaping until the 1970’s. It has since been redesigned again with new plantings, benches and decorations (Wiki and the Tour Guide).
Queen Elizabeth Park September 11th Garden
It was rededicated July 6, 2010 by Queen Elizabeth II as The Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Garden in memory of the 67 British citizens that lost their lives in the September 11th attacks. Originally named the ‘British Gardens’ it was again rededicated and renamed on May 2, 2012 and the ceremony led by the Dean of Westminster Abbey which included other members of the Commonwealth nations (Wiki). It is such a nice place to just relax and the plantings are beautiful. I told the tour guide that it is a very touching place to visit.
Queen Elizabeth II September 11th Park at 1 Hanover Square
Our last part of the tour was a visit to India House now called 1 Hanover Square, which is located at the very end of the Stone Street Historic district. Located at the southern end of Hanover Square and facing the Queen Elizabeth II September 11th garden across the street, the building was built in 1851 and was the site of the nation’s first commodity futures exchange, the New York Cotton Exchange and was designated a National Landmark in 1977 and a New York City Landmark in 1965 (Wiki & the Tour Guide).
India House at 1 Hanover Square
The structure was built out of brownstone and designed in the Italian Renaissance style by builder, developer and merchant, Richard F. Carman. It had been the headquarters of Hanover Bank and then the Cotton Exchange. Since then it has operated as a private club since 1913 and now houses restaurants (Wiki).
The main facade of the building has eight bays wide, with the main entrance occupying two bays at the center. Windows on the ground floor are tall and set in openings flanked by paneled pilasters and topped by pediment segmental arches Second floor windows are smaller, set beneath gabled pediments and their floor windows are smaller still with simpler surrounds. The building is crowned by a modillioned cornice (Wiki).
We ended the tour at the restaurant on the bottom level where some of the group stayed for dinner. I headed off to the Wonton Noodle Garden at 56 Mott Street for dinner. After a long tour outdoors and the night getting cooler, a steaming bowl of Cantonese Wonton Soup ($8.95) with a side of pan-fried dumplings ($5.00).
Wonton Noodle Garden at 56 Mott Street (this location has moved to 23 Pell Street)
This restaurant in the middle of the heart of Chinatown is my main standby when eating in the neighborhood. Like the rest of the Manhattan, I see the traces of gentrification creeping into the area. All you have to do is look at the buildings above.
My message to readers, please, get off the cell phones and look around you. You are missing a lot! I have walked this neighborhood dozens of times over the years and my eyes were open by all the changes and by the beauty of the surroundings. I will print more of my travels with the Cornell Club in future blogs.
They are very interesting and a detailed perspective of New York City.
To all of my readers and fellow bloggers following my blog, ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’. I created two more blog sites to accompany the main site.
I created ‘VisitingaMuseum.com’ and ‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC.Wordpress.com’ to take what I have discovered on the walk around the city and put it into more detail.
I created ‘VisitingaMuseum.com’ to feature all the small and medium museums, pocket parks, community gardens and historical sites that I have found along the way in my walking the streets of the island and in the outlining areas of Manhattan. There are loads of sites you can easily miss either by not visiting the neighborhoods by foot or not consulting a guidebook. Most of the these places are not visited by most residents of the City and should not be missed.
I never realized how many small museums exist in New York City, let alone the outer boroughs and in New Jersey. I have discovered so many wonderful and interesting artifacts in these museums that not only have so much historical value but they also deal with local history.
Gallery Bergen at Bergen Community College
There are so many pocket parks, community gardens and historical sites that you would miss if you did not walk the neighborhoods. What has also been fascinating about it is the people you meet along the way that volunteer in these facilities. There is so much pride to be had by these local residents dedicating their time to make these places successful.
‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC.Wordpress.com’ is my latest site:
I am featuring and promoting wonderful local restaurants that I have found along the way when doing the walk as well as places I have recently visited outside the city for $10.00 and below. I am not just featuring them for their price but for the quality of the food, the selection and the portion size.
Delicious Dumplings at ‘Dumplings’ on Henry Street
These little ‘hole in the wall’ dining establishments offer a good meal at a fair price as well as supporting the local economy. I have a very limited budget for meals and thought this blog site would help all of you economize when touring New York City and the outlying regions. I cross reference my reviews on TripAdvisor.com.
For anyone thinking of doing a similar project like ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’, I want to let you know how expensive it is to do. I have to pay not just for bus tickets, subway passes, meals, donations to museums and historical sites but the general wear and tear on my clothes. I am on my third pair of sneakers due to this walk. This is why you need to set a budget for it:
So I hope you enjoy ‘VisitingaMuseum.com’ and ‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC.Wordpress.com when coming to Manhattan. Please check all of this places out online for a change of hours and exhibits and menus.
Check out the newest site, “LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com” for small boutiques and specialty shops that are unique and quirky.
Please check out my fire fighting blog sites, ‘The Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association’, ‘tbcfma.Wordpress.com’, where I am blogging about the activities of the association that I am volunteering for at the home on a quarterly basis and the support that the organization gives to The New Jersey Firemen’s Home in Boonton, New Jersey. Firemen for all over Bergen County, where I live, volunteer their time up at the nursing home with activities to engage and cheer up our fellow fire fighters.
The second site about fire fighting I blog about is ‘The Brothers of Engine One Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department”, ‘EngineOneHasbrouckHeightsFireDepartmentNJ.Wordpress.com’, where I blog about the activities of Engine Company One, in which I am a member, as part of the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department. We do a lot of volunteer work for the department and many of our members are very active and hold a lot of positions on the department.
The Brothers of Engine One HHFD (site now closed-Blogs moved to section of MywalkinManhattan.com called “My life as a Fireman”):
The most frequented of my blogs is “BergenCountyCaregiver.com’, a caregivers blog site to help adult caregivers take care of their loved ones. This helps caregivers navigate a very broken system and put all sorts of programs that might help them all in one place to read and chose what might help them. This deals with county, state and federal programs that most social workers miss because there are so many of them that don’t get a lot of attention. It is by far the most popular site.
The Bergen County Firemen’s Home Association
I wanted to share these with my readers and thank you for following my main blog, ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’. Please also share this with your friends who are visiting New York City to really tour the city by foot and see it for its own beauty and uniqueness.
I have been waiting to come to the Feast of Our Lady of Carmel in East Harlem to see the dancing of the Giglio for months since I had finished the walk in the neighborhood. I was not sure of what to expect since there really are not many Italians still living in the neighborhood. The church I am sure still attracts people from all over the city and I could see that my the members of the lift team.
It was a glorious day for the feast. Warm, sunny and no humidity. You could not have asked for a better day to be outside. The Dance of the Giglio started at 1:00pm and wanting to get into the city early, I took the 10:00am bus into the city. Who knew that I would get uptown two hours early.
I started my day with a Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwich at Blue Sky (now Harlem Taste) Deli at the corner of 110th and First Avenue at 2135 First Avenue, home to the famous ‘Chopped Cheese Sandwich’ (see review on TripAdvisor & DiningonaShoeStringinNYC.wordpress.com). I swear, I don’t know what it is about this little hole in the wall deli but the food here is so good!
The Bacon, Egg and Cheese at Chopped Cheese Delicious is delicious
The sandwich was one of the best breakfast sandwiches I had eaten outside my absolute favorite one, the Sausage McMuffin with Cheese at McDonald’s. The sandwich was loaded with freshly cooked eggs, turkey bacon and American cheese. It was put on a hoagie roll and then pressed. For $4.00, it was a steal.
I took my sandwich and sat in Jefferson Park as I have had many times with my lunch and watched the world go by. A lot has changed since March and April. The park was in full swing and all over the place people were playing soccer, baseball, handball or swimming in their giant pool. It was a perfect day to be outside and relax.
All over the park, there were all sorts of birthday parties and family barbecues going on. Families really use this park and it was nice to see multi generations eating together. As I have said before, it is nice to see people socializing without a cell phone glued to their hands. There were lots of balloons and decorations and the boom of Spanish music to entertain them. Its fun to sit and watch people have a good time.
The Feast of My Lady of Carmel started around 1:00pm but the dance started late and everyone finally started to gather around the Giglio around 2:15pm. I give these men and women a lot of credit. The Giglio looked really heavy considering it was the structure itself plus about five musicians and the lead singer. One of the trumpet players was a little ‘zaftig’ to say the least. I will not be participating in this anytime soon.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 448 East 116th Street
The program started off with a prayer the patron saint, St. Anthony:
(from the prayer sheet):
Sant’Antonio of Padua: “The Wonder Worker”
St. Anthony is know as “The Wonder Worker” for the many miracles and conversions attributed to him. Although quiet and unassuming he was regarded as a sensational preacher in his time. A Franciscan priest and professor of theology, he gave up teaching to be assigned to preach all over Italy, attracting huge crowds wherever he went.
St. Anthony is often depicted as holding the infant Jesus as it is said that the Christ child appeared to him in visions.
He is known as being of particular help in retrieving lost articles because of a story in which a book of psalms that had been stolen was returned due to his intercession.
He died June 13th at the age of 36. He was canonized the following year and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
The Giglio Society of East Harlem’s roots can be traced to a town several miles from Nola called Brusciana. The annual dancing of the Giglio began in 1800’s inspired by Francisco Vivolo’s vow to St. Anthony, the patron Saint of Brusciana. Francisco vowed to dance the Giglio annually if St. Anthony would help his gravely ill son recover from a very serious illness. The prayers were answered and the dancing of the Giglio in honor of St. Anthony began in Brusciana and still continues today.
The carnival on Pleasant Avenue
Immigrants from Brusciana continue the feast and uphold this grand tradition brought to this country by our forefathers. Our objective is to pass onto our children, as was done with us, the tradition of o’Giglio, truly one of the greatest wonders of the world!”
The carnival and the Giglio on Pleasant Avenue
After the prayer was over, the crowd went wild and the ceremony began. These handlers really worked hard as they broke several boards lifting this structure. It was amazing as some of them were smoking cigars or drinking a beer while they were doing it. The guys all looked like military, construction workers, police and firemen. Some did their job with ease, others looked like it was going to be a long day.
Getting to the Giglio
After the prayer, their master of ceremony, Jimmy Alleva , sang a few songs in Italian and I swear that his guy had the most beautiful singing voice. I read his bio online and it seems that he sings in feasts all over the tri-state area. Even though the guy is self-taught, you would swear he is a classically trained opera singer.
Singer Jimmy Alleva (in the blue shirt) leading the songs at the ceremony.
This video of him singing is from the feast in 2023:
After he sang two songs in Italian, he ‘brought the house down’ with the crowd and there was a massive applause. Talk about bringing you closer to God when someone can touch a crowd like this. People were giving him ovations. Then came the lifts.
The ceremony from 2017 was the same as it was in 2023.
Like I said, some of these guys were experts and did it with ease and others were really struggling. They lifted that Giglio all over the neighborhood, up and down the street then to the church and back and then the Ladies of the Giglio did there lift and credit to all the women that lifted it along with the men because these ladies held their own. The Ladies of the Giglio did there lift with some of the men and these women were strong. They did a great job as well.
The start of the ceremony in 2023
The lifts of the Giglio went on for quite awhile being dedicated to various families who must have made donations to the church. After that it was festival time. One of the announcers said that the feast just keeps getting bigger every year and you could tell by the crowd that more and more people are venturing back into this neighborhood for the afternoon. The place was packed.
The best part was the fresh zeppole and funnel cakes that were cooked right in front of me. There were not that many food vendors on the block so they had control of the whole crowd. For $5.00 for funnel cake was one of the best I have had. They came right out of the fryer and loaded with powdered sugar. I devoured those fast.
Zeppole served at the feast
I walked around the rest of the feast, looking at the small rides and the games of chance. This feast is only two blocks long but a lot of people are packed into this small space. The band kept playing for the rest of the afternoon and groups of families sat under tents on the sidewalks catching up with old friends and members of the church.
The games at the carnival
It is going to be interesting the fate of this festival in an ever gentrifying neighborhood that has switched from Italian to Spanish to Hipster. The neighborhood is changing fast even in the time I have walked it. More and more is under scaffolding.
I stayed for about two hours and then decided to walk around the neighborhood. My walk took me past the Jefferson playground, down FDR Drive to the dreaded East River Houses (they still have not finished that playground facing the drive) and I walked across the pedestrian bridge to Randalls-Ward Island and walked across the explore the island. I walked the entire length of the island and it took about two hours.
Randalls-Ward Island is a island in the East River bend off Hell Gate and is connected to Manhattan by two pedestrian bridges one on 105th Street and the other on 125th Street plus the bridges leading you to the South Bronx. The island is part of New York County which is where Manhattan is located but it is truly one of those hidden ‘gems’ of the city that most people don’t know exist. I never knew it was there. When I crossed over the pedestrian bridge, I never knew of islands and their dark past. You would never know it from the new playgrounds and ball fields.
From what I had read online, the islands were once separated by a stream called ‘Little Hellgate’ that was filled in years ago to create one island. The reconfiguring of land that you see all over Manhattan, like in Marble Hill and in Battery City. The islands were originally used for farming by the American Indians, Dutch and English but it was during the Civil War, they started being used for a dumping ground.
At various times up until World War II, the islands housed a potter’s field, homeless shelters, a ‘Insane Asylum’, small pox ward and a dumping ground for orphans. They were considered ‘islands for the undesirables’ and most of the city’s problems were shipped to the island, similar to the role that Riker’s Island plays today.
The Ward on Ward-Randall’s Island:
You would never know it now with all the new playgrounds, picnic sites, ball and soccer fields, concession stands and thank God, new bathrooms and water fountains. When I got to the island, everything was in full swing on a beautiful sunny day.
You thought the parties were in full swing in Jefferson Park, you should come to Randalls-Ward Island. All over the edges of the island were barbecues with meat sizzling on the grill, birthday parties with balloons with pink and blue all over the place and Spanish music blasting over their heads. These were not small parties but big family get-togethers. Its nice to see people having such a good time.
Even the ‘hipsters’ are discovering the island mostly hanging around that southern part of the island that faces the Upper East Side and the rapidly developing Queen’s waterfront. Theirs is the quieter section closer to the pedestrian bridge with the better vantage points over-looking the new ‘hipster’ enclaves.
Walking the island took me close to two hours as I walked through the parks and ball fields and under the bridges that crisscrossed the island. There were many natural flower gardens on the northwestern part of the island overlooking Astoria Park on the other side of the river. The Wildflower Meadow was in full bloom and was attracting all sorts of butterflies and honeybees. As you walked in there were all sorts of benches to relax and just watch the view.
The entrance to Ward-Randall’s Island
The island is still has remnants of its past. I passed the water treatment plant, a much needed addition to an ever growing city that seemed quiet that day and the FDNY Training Academy which was closed for the afternoon. You could see from the street the size of the academy and how much training these guys really get. It is isolated from the rest of the island.
On the most Northern part of the island , the police have their back offices and training facility and in between both of these are ball fields in which many leagues were playing that day. The nice part was when following the paths there were plenty of new bathrooms and places to just relax as well as snack bars where the prices were not unreasonable.
The New York Psychiatric Center still sits on the northern part of the island like a fortress. The ironic part of this is that it is surrounded by paths of flowers, marshes and lagoons that have been built around the island to clean the water. The Water’s Edge Garden sits just past the Center and offers the nicest views of the new Harlem being built.
The western part of the island has the nicest walking paths by the water and many different gardens that are in full bloom. I passed the Icahn Stadium, where a small game was going on and could hear the cheers in the background. I kept wondering why such a great set of parks was not being better taken advantage of by the entire city.
I rounded the path back to the pedestrian bridge and while walking across tried to spot the ‘spotters’ that everyone talked about at the East River Houses. I saw a lot of open windows on the top of the complex but not a sole in sight. I will avoid this place in the future now.
I walked back to the Q subway on East 96th Street going full circle since my day at Coney Island and took it down to Little Italy downtown. I had such a craving for Italian food that needed to be filled.
Little Italy now is just three blocks by one block and its barely that anymore. Even in between the famous restaurants that still exist, new boutiques are opening. The area is now squeezed into Mulberry Street from Canal to Broome Streets with a smidgen of restaurants up to East Houston, the original border of the neighborhood. Anything above Broome Street is not longer ‘Little Italy’ but ‘NoLiTa’ (North of Little Italy).
Little Italy Manhattan along Mulberry Street at night in 2025
This area has been becoming trendy for about twenty years. Most of the old Italian businesses have closed by the late nineties and have become boutiques and non-Italian restaurants. If my grandfather who was raised here had a crystal ball and had owned one of these buildings, we would have been set.
There is even a change from the ‘red sauce’ restaurants of the past to more sophisticated Italian dining leaving the old restaurants to the tourists. One by one they are closing down or changing hands. It shows in the food quality.
I went to the Grotta Azzurra at 177 Mulberry Street (See reviews on TripAdvisor), where I have been eating for years and the food quality and service have gone way down. While I ordered my dinner, the table next to me the guest was fighting with his waiter on a glass of wine that he had ordered that he was not happy with and the waiter was giving him attitude. Not smart in an economy like this.
Grotta Azzurra at 177 Mulberry Street in Little Italy
The food was mediocre at best that night. The fried Mozzarella was cooked perfectly on the outside and not cooked on the inside and I had to send it back. The second batch was better. The manicotti was good and the sauce was decent but the runner who served me the dish dumped so much Parmesan cheese on top all I could taste was the cheese. It was such a waste. The service was good but not great. All of this reflected in the amount of people eating there that night. Most of the other restaurants were much busier than here.
Little Italy at night August 2023
I walked back down Canal Street to the E subway and back to Port Authority to go home. I must have walked five miles today but got to see so much of what makes this city great. The cultural festivals of certain parts of the city have not died yet and still thrive with more attention from outlets like YouTube. It was an interesting afternoon into my own family’s past.
I visited the Feast of the Church of Carmel again this year after not being able to come the previous year because of classes at NYU. It was a spectacular morning and I was able to go uptown by 1:00pm. The official first lift did not start until after 2:00 pm because Mayoral Candidate Mario Cuomo would be attending the festival. That was pretty exciting since I know he really wants to be Mayor.
The festival was really busy when I got there at 1:00pm
The amusement rides were just getting started
The Giglio that afternoon had been imported in from Italy
I walked over to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel as it was letting out after the opening ceremony inside the church.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church at 448 East 116th Street
After the lively band opened the ceremony, I saw many of the people who had lifted the giglio in the past and I recognized many of the entertainers from past trips to the festival.
Everyone gathering for the opening of the ceremony
Singer Jimmy Alleva was the master of ceremony again and God can that man sing! What a voice!
The video on singer Jimmy Alleva singing both the US National Anthem and the Italian National Anthem
Then the ceremony with more song and cheers as the event continued as the crowd waited for the former governor to arrive. With all the traffic and horrible parking in the area, that must have been tough for security.
The video on the opening song for the ceremony right before the first lift
Just after the opening ceremony and the lifters were getting into place the former governor showed with his security team and gave a welcoming speech to the crowd in both English and Italian.
The video on the Former Governor Andrew Cuomo’s opening remarks at the festival
I know it was a bit of a photo op but still I thought it was great of the former governor to make an appearance at the festival and I know that everyone was thrilled by this.
The first lift, Andrew Cuomo did participate in before he left for the day. I am sure he had other stops
To video to honor the former governor, Jimmy Avella sang ‘New York, New York’
Then it was time for the first lift. I swear this position is passed down from generation to generation as I saw the daughters of the lifters participating in the lift. It used to be all men and the ladies would have their own lift.
The video on the second lift was happening as the former governor was leaving the festival
After the second lift was heading for the church and finished I searched out a place to eat. Most of the vendors were so expensive that I did not want to eat there. Come on, Zeppoles for $8.00 for six and a pizza for $18.00? I went to Patsy’s again for a slice and a Coke. I forgot how much I missed their pizza.
Watching the giglio after the dnd of the second lift
Patsy’s Pizza is one of the last hold outs from when this was an Italian enclave. Their brick oven pizza is still amazing but the cooks now look like they are all from Honduras.
Patsy’s Pizzeria at 2287 First Avenue in East Harlem
The Cheese pizza here is excellent and the slice was only $2.50 (very pre-COVID)
After I finished my lunch, I wanted to update some of my pictures on my blogs on East Harlem. So I walked all around this section of East Harlem and walked up and down the area between Lexington and First Avenue from 116th to 110th Street.
I found myself still hungry after walking around and I stopped at Sam’s Famous Pizza at 115 East 116th Street. I forgot how good the pizza was here too. The Cheese slice was over-sized and they have the most amazing sauce. It just makes the pie.
The Cheese pizza at Sam’s Famous Pizza is excellent
Yum!
I could not believe how delicious the pizza is here. I had not eaten here in about five years and the food is still wonderful.
I walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and took a lot of pictures to replace things I had not been to in about five to six years. It had been a long time since I explored the neighborhood. I headed back to the feast one more time stopping for a Dominican ice along the way. Talk about refreshing.
The Dominican ices are the best
By the time I got back to the feast by 4:30pm, they had just finished the last lift and everyone looked relieved. They all looked tired. The crowds continued on into the evening as entertainment would be happening later that evening. I started to head home.
Have you ever experienced a parade in 19-degree weather? I just did. Today was the Annual Chinese New Year Parade in New York City and I spent the morning watching the parade travel down Mott Street, the heart of New York City’s Chinatown. There was a large crowd for such a cold day.
The worst was the night before it was 0 degrees outside with a wind chill factor of 10 below. I felt like I was sleeping in Alaska. The breezes were the worst as the heat was on in the house and still it was cold.
Even with the cold the parade was very festive.
We lucked out with the weather as it was a beautiful sunny day outside and at least when the sun hit, it started to get a little bit warmer. For a parade that was standing in a refrigerator, it was fun. The sights and sounds of the music as the lion dancers performed their dances. The contestants from the ‘Miss Chinatown’ contest were waving to the crowds with much enthusiasm.
It was not a particularly long parade. The parade was mostly made up of Chinese businesses, Lion Dance groups and small bands. The parade was led off by the NYPD Marching band and honor guard and by members of the Asian Jade Society, the Asian version of the Vulcan Society or the many organizations for Italian or Irish NYPD members.
The Jade Society of the Police Department.
What surprised me was how young they all were, mostly in their 20’s and 30’s leading me to wander when the first wave of Americans with Chinese decadency entered the NYPD. The oldest person there was a detective that looked about my age and I really wandered what his career must have been like in the late 80’s or early 90’s with the NYPD. The rest of the members were these fresh-faced guys who looked right out of the academy while this guy looked hardened from years on the job. It is amazing what years on the same job can do to a person.
The atmosphere was electric as with every passing float poppers filled with confetti and streamers were let off and confetti flew over the whole parade. I heard so many different languages in the crowd especially German and French, I wondered how many New Yorkers ventured down for the parade.
The Chinese New Year Parade at the beginning of the parade.
The parade ended with many floats for the airlines and one last lion dance that included four different colored lions. I was impressed on how long this parade goes. It just does not go down Mott Street and ends. It goes up and around Chinatown going up East Broadway to the other side of Chinatown that has creeped into the Lower East Side. What has thrown me is how much of this neighborhood has gentrified in the last five years.
Dancers in the parade.
As I walked the streets on the edges of Chinatown, I am fascinated by how fast SoHo, Nolita, NoHo and the East Village have morphed and changed and have gotten more upscale pushing more into this neighborhood. So, I decided to explore it and I toured all around the Bowery, a street that when I was a kid was a dump! And it had always been a dump until recently.
I have never seen such a swift change in a place in ten years. I remember walking up the Bowery which stretches from Chinatown to about West 4th Street near Cooper Park. The area around Chinatown is slowly changing in that their businesses are there to stay as long as the population stays but it starts to give way by about Kenmore Street, which also pretty much ends ‘Little Italy’ over by Mulberry Street. Even ‘Little Italy’ doesn’t exist the way it did when I was a kid. That neighborhood is pretty much five blocks by a block.
I love a parade!
The lower part of the Bowery is small restaurants, small businesses such as transportation companies and lighting companies. This slowly gives way to the first wave of galleries, hip restaurants and spas. Once you pass Kenmore Street it really begins to change. From Kenmare to West 4th Street, like the rest of the neighborhood, a lot of this has been knocked down and rebuilt with luxury housing and chic new stores. In some cases, I can see how the first wave of ‘hip’ stores have given way to even more expensive stores as the neighborhood have gotten more desirable and more expensive. Who knew that the Bowery was someplace that people really wanted to live?
No walk around Manhattan could be complete without something to eat. Having to rush into the city on a Sunday is never fun but we got into the city rather quick, and I always start my day off in Chinatown with baked roast pork and crème buns at Sun Sai Gai at 220 Canal Street (see reviews on TripAdvisor & DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com), one of the most traditional and cheapest places to eat in Chinatown right on the edge of the original Chinatown. It is a dumpy place that used to cater to mostly locals and workers in the local businesses but over time has its share of tourists as well.
They have the cheapest and most delicious buns for sale for around a dollar. I always go for their baked roast pork bun and when I sit down for lunch, I love their Roast Pork plate with fried rice. So good and so reasonable. What I always get the impression at is that the people who work there wonder why so many tourists are coming there. I guess they don’t read TripAdvisor.
After I walked both sides of the Bowery and will take guesses of when gentrification will get to Canal Street (I give it about two years not even), I found that all the restaurants were still packed with people especially in the heart of Chinatown, so I decided to try someplace brand new and went to New Style Handpulled Noodles at 23 Pell Street (see review on TripAdvisor). What a nice meal. It is a small place that must be brand new because it was not even in the review books.
New Style Handpulled Noodle at 23 Pell Street (Closed in 2020)
I had their pork soup dumplings which were freshly made and just excellent. They just burst in your mouth with a sweet pork flavor and to warm me up their roast duck and pulled noodle soup. The noodles were freshly made, and the broth really warmed up every part of my body that was cold. The place was just starting to empty out when I got there and was half empty when I left. Everyone else seemed to like the food as well.
For something sweet, I came across the Double Crisp Bakery at 230 Grand Street (see review on TripAdvisor), which I had passed on my way back down from walking the Bowery. They had this raisin what they called a “top”. It was just a sweet bun covered with a sugary top with raisins for a dollar (most everything there was a dollar) but I munched on this sweet, sugary treat while I was walking back to the subway. Another great find!
My walk will find me back in this next of the woods at this rate in a few months where I will revisit all these places, but for now it was a nice side trip while watching the parade and watching the neighborhood in another state of transition.
(This project is dedicated with much love to my father, Warren George Watrel, who still inspires me!)
Hello and Welcome to ‘MywalkinManhattan.com’, an extensive project to walk the entire island of Manhattan. My name is Justin Watrel and I will be your guide in exploring the island of Manhattan, searching every nook and cranny of the island for the unusual, the usual and the in between.
The official walk started in front of the Marble Hill Houses in the Marble Hill neighborhood
‘Walking the Island of Manhattan’ may not be terribly original as there are about four other people doing the project at the same time, but this project is different in the way I see the island. Not rushing through to prove I have walked it but to see what these neighborhoods are all about and what is there to discover and enjoy.
The unique homes of Marble Hill were my starting point in June 2015
For all you ‘Manhattanites’ who think you know your island, I will show you things that you have never seen and places you have never gone, restaurants you have never tried and historical sites and museums you never knew existed. Maybe just a few blocks from where you live. As the son of two “Brooklynites’, I have traveled around the city a lot since 1969, my first time in the City when my parents took me to Chinatown to Hunan Gardens, a Chinese restaurant on Mott Street. I ended up there for eight birthdays until it closed in the early 2000’s.
Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown every February
“My Walk in Manhattan” is a project to walk the entire island of Manhattan in New York City from top to bottom from the beginning of the Summer of 2015 until I finish the walk. Manhattan is 13.4 miles long and 2.3 miles wide and covers a total area 23.7 square miles. Along the way of walking the streets of Manhattan, I will be walking into parks, museums, restaurants and looking at the architecture of the neighborhoods and the buildings in them.
My soon to be path around the Island of Manhattan
I have found that people miss a lot when they walk with their cellphones and only look down at it. When you look up, you see the true beauty of the City. You see the stone work of old brownstones, you see small boutiques off the beaten track and can indulge in those hole in the wall restaurants that are usually found by foreign tourists. Nothing is more interesting then seeing a stone face on a building staring back at you, a tiny pocket park that residents created out of a garbage dump and that small entrepreneur trying to create a vision.
The Cable Building at 611 Broadway
This project was inspired by many things. My major inspiration for this project follows the recent passing of my father, Warren George Watrel. My dad and I loved to walk around the city and spend the day at various museums, walking around Central Park and the Conservatory, taking the subway to try new restaurants in Chinatown or Little Italy or any new place I had read about in the Village Voice (my Bible when looking for things to do on weekends).
Columbus Circle on the West Side
My father was a ‘Brooklynite’ from Williamsburg (long before it was ‘Hipster Central’, he would have been amused) and loved the city, so this voyage is dedicated to him. Having watched the movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen, we look for inspiration in our travels and try to find the answers to why something happens the way it does. Walking to explore does that.
I was my father’s caregiver after his illness hit him and I continued my trips into Manhattan as my father got better. It was the inspiration to this site’s sister site, ‘BergenCountyCaregiver.com’. After he passed in 2014, I wanted to spend Father’s Day doing something different yet do something that we would have done together. Thus started the first walk in Marble Hill.
My first Day in Marble Hill, Manhattan
Another inspiration was a recent article in New York Magazine entitled “Which New York is Yours? A Fierce Preservationist and a Pro-Development Blogger Debate” in which the author Justin Davidson asks about the disappearance of New York’s Character. “What does that character actually consist of? If we did make an all-out effort to preserve it, how would we know what to protect?” How much is the city changing? I have worked off and on in New York City since 1988 and the answer is in some parts of Manhattan it is night and day. Could you imagine walking in Bryant or Tompkins Square Parks in 1990?
I did and they were very different places back then. With the changing Zoning Laws and gentrification of many neighborhoods, its not the city of 1970’s movies. What I am looking for are those unique little pocket parks that we pass, those statues of people we have no clue who they are and those historic plaques of places gone by and people we don’t know.
Astor Row Houses in Harlem
Another are the books, ‘Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost its Soul’ by Jeremiah Moss and ‘The Death and Life of the Great American City’ by Jane Jacobs. How do cities keep progressing and changing? How does change effect a city and what direction are we going in? Does the Island of Manhattan have to be all luxury or can it be mixed to help keep the creativity alive and keep innovation going? Do we want the big bad 70’s again or the luxury brand of the 2010’s and 20’s? How is it impacting and changing the city? How much has Manhattan and the rest of the boroughs changed with the rezoning of the city under the Bloomberg Administration. This can also be looked at in the documentaries “Gut Renovation” and “My Brooklyn”.
The last inspiration was my doctor. He said I have to lose ten pounds. I am hardly over-weight but like many people he feels that I will be healthier if I lose the weight and keep it off. I want to see how a walk like this tones the body.
Bowling Green Park in Lower Manhattan
I know many people before have walked the entire length of Manhattan while others have or are attempting to walk the every block in the city, mine has a more personal reason. To really see the city I love from the ground up and explore parts of the island that I have never ventured to and see what I find there. Along the way, I want to see how the city changes while I am taking the walk. This is not the “Christopher Columbus” attitude most people are taking when exploring the neighborhoods but more honoring those residents who are trying to make the City better.
The Bowling Green Park Fence
My project also includes stops at various points of interest and to get a better feel for all the neighborhoods, I am walking both sides of the street to get a better look at the buildings in each neighborhood and what defines the character of a neighborhood. I get the impression from some of the readers of Mr. Davidson’s article and from comments on the Internet that Manhattan is some “playground of the wealthy that is being gentrified to the hilt and soon no one will be able to afford any part of Manhattan”. Like in any place, there are people struggling everyday to survive in New York and like every city in the country, people are moving back in droves and want a quality of life for them and their families.
Delacorte Clock in Central Park
In the Age of COVID, it has been interesting starting the project again. I had been on hold from March 13th, 2020 through June 10th, 2020 when the City was closed for anyone other than First Responder and people who had to work there. I was so happy when I could return and continue walking Manhattan. My walk down Broadway for the forth time was a surprise with all the businesses closed on the Upper West Side and I met the challenge of “The Great Saunter Walk” , the 32 mile walk around the perimeter of the island in 14 hours. There is now more to see and explore and write.
The COVID world though has me facing closed businesses that I have covered over the years. Restaurants and stores that I have mentioned in this blog since 2015 have since closed permanently or closed for the time being, I am not too sure. We also have a walking world of masks that keep us safe. The times in Manhattan are changing from the way we eat in restaurants to the way we shop and visit museums.
SoHo boarded up after the June Riots 2020
Fifth Avenue boarded up after the June Riots 2020
Things are constantly changing in Manhattan since the riots in June and COVID keeps raging in the City with people not wanting to wear masks. I hope that things will get back to normal soon. I still see people out and about doing their thing and enjoying the warm weather so I am optimistic about life. Still though, Manhattan keeps changing with the Theater District boarded up and Chinatown looking like a ghost town. We will see how New York City recovers from COVID like the rest of the country.
By August of 2025, the area completely bounced back
I have now expanded this site to three other blogs, ‘VisitingaMuseum’ (VisitingaMuseum.com), which features all the historical sites, community gardens and small museums and galleries I find in not just Manhattan but throughout the rest of the NYC and beyond in the suburbs.
‘DiningonaShoeStringinNYC’ (DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com), where I feature wonderful little restaurants, bodegas and bakeries that I find along the way. The one requirement is that the meal is around $10.00 and under (for us budget minded people).
“LittleShoponMainStreet” (LittleShoponMainStreet@Wordpress.com) where I find unique and creative stores in Manhattan and locally whose merchandising, displays, merchandise and service stand out in an age of Amazon. This harks back to a time when shopping was enjoyable and not a chore.
I have also added two new sections to the blog, “My life as a Fireman”, which I have moved from an old site that I had created for my old engine company to describe my experiences on the Hasbrouck Heights Fire Department over the last 16 years. Also, this is what takes up my time when I am not exploring New York City.
Justin Watrel, Fireman
Another is “A Local Journey” are tours of downtown’s and communities outside the New York City area to travel to when you need to escape the City’s clutches. I have specific guidelines in finding stores, restaurants and museums/cultural sites in the area. This has lead me to really explore my own town of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ and exploring out of town destinations like Red Hook, NY and Beach Haven/Long Beach Island, NJ. You would be amazed on what these small towns offer.
Downtown Red Hook, NY in the Summer months
With COVID still rearing its head when I am in New York City, I do everything to stay safe from being fully vaccinated (I have take both shots and no I have not turned into a ‘Pod Person’) to wearing a mask and keeping hand sanitizer on me. I abide by all NYC Parks rules and try to stay away from people when in museums and restaurants.
Downtown Red Hook, NY during the Christmas holiday season
Even with all its problems, New York City is still the most exciting City on earth and follow the blog, neighborhood by neighborhood and join me in discovering what makes Manhattan one of the greatest places on Earth!
So to readers who will be following me on the journey walking through Manhattan and beyond, I hope you enjoy trip walking by my side!
Me in Red Hook, Brooklyn discovering my new love in “Street Art”
This project is dedicated to my father, Warren George Watrel, with lots of love and many wonderful adventures and memories to keep me company as I take “My Walk in Manhattan”.
My dad, Warren and I at his 60th high school reunion in 2013
‘Break My Stride’ still plays in my mind when I do this walk.
mywalkinmanhattan 