I finally finished the area on the western side of Broadway from 178th Street to 164th Street. It was a long day of walking. I also covered the entire lengths of Haven Avenue and Fort Washington Avenue past Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, which pretty much dominates over this area. There is a pretty distinct line in the neighborhood once you cross over 180th Street and you get to 165th Street, which is the border of the ever-changing Dominican neighborhood and the Hospital neighborhood. Things become much more commercial and a little upscale below 165th Street as it caters to the hospital staff.
Even the housing stock changes. The area around the hospital you can tell caters to the staff and the guests and once over the 168th Street border, it goes back to Dominican neighborhood. Between Yeshiva University and the hospital, this area you can see is going through a rapid flux. The streets are full of such beautiful, classic housing stock and if it were in the lower 90’s on both sides would be snatched up for more than double the price.
The corner of West 181st Street and Broadway
The stonework along on some of the buildings with pillars and statuary brings almost a European feel to this area. I call the changes the ‘new window’ theory. Whenever you see new window frames in an older building, you know the area is changing. The gentrifying cliché of white people walking their dogs or jogging rings so true around here. I see the looks in the faces of the guys playing dominoes in the park and their eyes roll.
I got up today as classes were letting out at PS 173 across from J. Hood Wright Park. The streets were lined with well-dressed students yelling and screaming at one another all over the street. The school is very impressive looking almost like an Ivy League school with its beautiful stonework and pillared entrance. It complements the park very nicely.
J. Hood Wright Park, the former estate of banker and financier, J. Hood Wright is located between 176th Street to 173rd Street and has gone through an over two-million-dollar renovation. The park was full of action this afternoon.
People were walking their dogs, sunbathing by the rock formations and reading on the backside park with the most spectacular views of the George Washington Bridge. The park has a dog walk in the back, a baseball and basketball court and walking paths that wind the whole park.
The rock formations at Hood Park
The best was all the street vendors outside the school. You had your choice of soft serve ice cream, shaved flavored ices, freshly fried Pastelitos (meat pies) and fresh fruit. The shaved ice is the best on a humid day. I had a mango-strawberry ice that was so refreshing. You can also get three very sweet peaches for a dollar.
The Mango ice is so refreshing on a hot day
The park in the summer of 2025
It was nice to just sit in the park and relax, watching kids chase each other around the playground and eating their snacks while dog walkers compared notes.
The views of the George Washington Bridge from the park
The lawn by the rock formations
The gardens by the dog walk in the park
The gardens in Hood Park in the summer of 2025
I stopped by Mambi Steak House at 4181 Broadway at 177th Street, a Dominican restaurant that is very popular in the neighborhood. The fresh Pastelitos are great and there is a nice selection of other takeout items as well.
The Mambi Steakhouse at 4181 Broadway at 177th Street
On the hot line, there are all sorts of lunch specials such as beef, chicken and codfish stew, pepper steak, eggplant and lasagna. Wonderful smells wafted through the entire restaurant. With two Pastelitos and a coke in hand, I walked the lengths of Haven Avenue and Fort Washington Avenues and the side streets from 164th Street to 178th Street. The streets were lined with the most amazing pre-war apartment buildings and a lot of rebuilding and renovations especially around the hospital.
I concluded my walk at La Dinastia Restaurant at 4181 Broadway on the corner of Broadway and 171st Street, a Dominican-Chinese restaurant. This restaurant is wonderful and the pictures on the window of the place don’t do it justice.
I had a boneless chicken crackling with a special fried rice. The chicken cracklings had a breading that was a cross between a tempura and fried chicken with spices and the special fried rice was full an array of ingredients such as shrimp, ham, chicken, sausage and vegetables.
The Chicken Cracklings and Fried Rice is one of their specialties
The meal was huge. They gave me about eight large pieces of chicken with almost a pint of fried rice. It was a meal you cannot finish at one sitting, and it made almost three meals. The restaurant is well worth the trip with the combination of flavors and fusion of Spanish and Chinese cuisine. It will be worth a second trip.
The walk concluded the area from 164th Street to 178th Street west of Broadway. The next part will be the area east of Broadway from 193rd on down. I hope for good weather.
Street art off Broadway and 172nd Street
Please read my other blogs on walking Washington Heights. It was a big area to cover:
Day Twelve: Walking West of Broadway to West 170th Street:
I finished the remainder of my walk of the lower part of Fort Tyron Park today. What a scorcher of a day at 95F and the humidity was not great either. The initial part of this walk started at the middle of the park at the 190 Street station. Take the elevator from the subway station to the top floor and exit through the park. You will be in front of the Margaret Corbin Circle, a beautifully landscaped cul-de -sac at the lower end of the park, where the buses drop everyone off. In season, the flowers are a colorful bouquet of different varieties with the green of the trees in the background.
The Margaret Corbin Circle by the entrance to Fort Tryon Park
I walked around the Stan Michels Promenade past the Heather Gardens. It is such a great place to stroll and look at the various plantings. I was floored when I saw crocuses blooming this time of year when they are a Spring flower. The Heather Gardens to the side of the promenade was in full bloom and I took the time out to see what was planted. All sorts of birds, butterflies and bees make this their home so be on the lookout for things flying around.
The entrance to the Stan Michels Promenade
The Heather Gardens in the Stan Michels Promenade
The Heather Gardens in the Spring of 2024
The Heather Gardens in bloom
I stopped for lunch at the New Leaf Café at 1 Margaret Corbin Drive (Closed in January 2020). This pretty little restaurant is as you enter the park and a short walk from the subway terminal. I have to admit that the restaurant is just beautiful with a great location and the view from the patio is pretty spectacular, but the food doesn’t match it. The cheeseburger I ordered nicely cooked with no flavor, the fries were standard, and the dessert menu was pretty boring. It can be pricey on the lunch menu so stick to the sandwiches.
The New Leaf Café in Fort Tryon Park (Closed January 2020)
The service is friendly and attentive. The waiter I had, Sarah, was explaining to me how she was training in some new people and was a little distracted. I thought she was perfectly fine. I told her I loved the view and the restaurant, but the meal did not match the atmosphere. She explained that they are still working on the dessert menu and new things are being added. It is a place to visit for the view alone. (Note to readers: You can see all my restaurant and attraction reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com).
Fort Tryon Park gardens and paths
I relaxed after lunch on the Linden Terrace, a stone terrace that has views of the park and in the distance, the Hudson River. It is a great place to relax in the shade on a hot day and read a book or the paper. I plotted my game plan of the neighborhood and took the elevator back down to Broadway and walked from 190th Street to 177th Street. It was a nice walk on a hot day.
The bench area in Fort Tryon Park
The beautiful flowers by the benches
Fort Tyron Park has an interesting history. The park is named after Sir William Tyron, the last British Governor of the Providence of New York. It was donated to the City by John D. Rockefeller Jr in 1935 after buying the old C. K. G. estate and employing the firm of the Olmsted Brothers, who created Central Park, to redesign it into a park.
The Fort Tryon Park plaque right by the bench area
The Battle of Fort Washington was fought here during the Revolutionary War and the first women to fight in Battle here, Margaret Corbin (who the road is named after) was wounded here. The park had fallen in hard times in the 70’s and 80’s and has now received a full restoration (Wiki).
Walking under the George Washington Bridge is something new for me. You never realize how busy that bridge is until you walk under it and around it. I was surprised by all the construction around the bridge. It seems that they are building retail space under the bridge. Who knew you could develop upscale shopping under the George Washington Bridge?
As I walked around 177th Street on the west side of Broadway the one thing I noticed was the classic housing stock around Cabrini and Haven Avenues. It is really beautiful with elegant entrances and pillared fronts. The buildings do need some work, but this area has interesting housing stock.
I took an interesting detour around the playground and under the bridge off Haven Avenue. When you walk up the crumbling steps to the walkway around the entrance and exit to the George Washington Bridge, it takes you around a spiral path around the streets through mountains of household garbage that the homeless must discard, places where these people must sleep, or gang members meet. The worst part is when you finish following the path, you must turn around and go back the way you came because the path is blocked off at the other end by a wooden door as the stairs on the other side is being repaired. This little side trip is not for the faint hearted as you do not have much room to walk around and to any passerby by car, they would have their own thoughts of why you are up there.
The street art around the playground at 177th Street is very interesting and if you decide to take the walk around the bridge area, check out the painting along the cement rail of the three faces. It really is a unique piece of artwork. Walking up the hill on 181st Street, there are some great shops and restaurants and the view walking up the hill is quite a site. It looks like a street in San Francisco.
My path took me up Cabrini Avenue past the Castle Village Apartment complex, a series of buildings with a spectacular view of the Hudson River and nicely landscaped yards around the buildings. The details along the buildings really make the complex seem like a series of medieval buildings and from what I could see from the street level a very nice place to live. The path up the road lead me right back to Fort Tyron Park, fitting from what I saw on the way up the road.
Castle Village Apartments and Park at 120 Cabrini Boulevard
On my way back down the avenue, I crisscrossed the side streets at 190th, 187th, 181st, 180th and 179th, looking over the various restaurants and stores in the area. All around me I can see signs that the neighborhood is in the process of changing as the smaller low scale establishments are being replaced with more updated restaurants, shops and coffee bars.
Some of the true neighborhood stores you can tell are keeping up by changing their signs and frontage displays to cater to the newcomers. There is a real change going on in this part of the area and local merchants are starting to cash in on their new clientele while keeping the old ones happy. I stopped by a vendor selling shaved rainbow ice for $1.00. These little ice vendors are a pleasure on a hot day and are located at various spots on Broadway.
I double backed on Broadway and walked up Overlook Terrace and believe me, there is a reason why they call it that. You really have to walk up a hill and by time you reach the top by the hospital, you really have a nice view of the neighborhood. I took this to 190th Street right back up to Fort Tyron Park. You’ll find that all the roads on this side of Broadway lead back to the park. I walked the side streets back down and made the turn making Bennett Avenue my final part of the day.
Fort Tryon Park overlooking the Hudson River
Bennett Avenue like the other streets in this part of Washington Heights is dominated by natural rock formations that line pockets of the streets. Bennett Avenue is no exception as there are beautiful formations of rocks and trees that line the sides of the road on the western part of the street. Halfway up make sure to stop at the Bennett Rest, a pocket park near the rock formations to take a rest. It was a long day of the walking, and this little park is right near a Gothic looking Lutheran Church that was having a Farmers Market. A nice distraction from looking at all the apartment buildings.
This part of upper Bennett Avenue must cater to the families working and attending Yeshiva University on the other side of Broadway as many Jewish families were walking around the neighborhood after work and relaxing in the parks in the neighborhood. The street is filled with classic looking pre-war apartments, some with doorman and chandelier foyers.
I complete my walk today walking back down Bennett Avenue. Note the beautiful rock formation that faces you walk down 192nd Street from Broadway. It is quite the site and reminds you that not all of Manhattan was blasted away to build things. I crisscrossed all the side street from the edge of Bennett to the beginning of 181st Street, noting all the businesses that faced Broadway and the restaurants that started to fill up for the evening. Note to walkers, there are some interesting restaurants around the 187th Street between Cabrini and Fort Washington Avenues to check out as well as some nice stores.
Walking down Bennett Avenue from 192nd Street
By nightfall, I was walking up the west side of Broadway from 179th Street to the Dyckman Street A Train entrance passing Fort Tyron Park for one last time that day. People still walk in this park at night, and I saw joggers exiting. It is obviously an active park at all hours of the day. Ann Loftus Playground was still going strong even in the dark with little kids running around at 8:30pm.
The subway station by the Fort Tryon Park entrance
Note: Avoid the McDonald’s on Broadway and 180th Street. The service is terrible, and they mix up your order.
For all the things people say about Washington Heights, you have to see it to believe it. It really is a nice neighborhood.
Please read my other blogs on walking Washington Heights. It was a big area to cover:
Day Twelve: Walking West of Broadway to West 170th Street:
I wanted to get off the beaten track of the streets today, especially since it was so hot out and explore the paths of the parks in the area. Inwood has so many beautiful parks, rock formations, valleys and peaks that when you walk the remote paths to the middle of Inwood Hill Park, with the exception of a train passing by you would never know that you were in Manhattan and not in the middle of the wilderness.
In the Spring of 2026, I revisited Inwood again for a more extensive tour for the afternoon and revisited the neighborhood and explored the blocks to see if anything changed since my original visit. The parks were really lush and in full blooming trees and flowers.
Getting off the subway stop at 207th Street. The artwork on the wall of the subway station said it all about coming back to this neighborhood.
I made my way up Broadway and have to say that the stores and restaurants keep changing with the economy. More of the upscale restaurants have closed and newer cafes, coffee shops and some Dominican gourmet restaurants have opened in their place. The neighborhood is so beautiful in the warmer months.
Getting off the 207th Street subway by Isham Park walking up Broadway
I started the day at 218th Street and started my walk of Inwood Hill Park (See review on TripAdvisor). I walked the Muscota Marsh at 218 Indian Hill Road (See review on TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum@Wordpress.com) part of the Columbia campus, again at low tide and observed the many birds that call the marsh home. More people were enjoying their day at the park and all over the ball fields and lawns people were enjoying baseball games, soccer and picnics. There was a lot of activity at the upper end of the park and as you start the walk up the hill into the paths leading to the woods, you really are transported to another world.
Muscota Marsh at 218 Indian Hill Road near the Columbia Stadium
The Columbia C inside the Inlet of the Harlem River
As I walked the paths to the upper reaches of the park, I was reminded that once upon a time when Manhattan was all wooded and what the Dutch must of thought of Manhattan when they arrived. It is quite the experience walking around the park in the middle of the afternoon and no one is around this part of the park. For the all the ballgames and soccer games below, it is peaceful, relaxing and a sense of tranquility is the feeling you get as you walk along the hills and valleys of the park. These are things that you don’t see from the apartment buildings and streets below.
Muscato Marsh in the summer of 2023
Walking around the park and up through the paths into the woods is like going to another world. It is so quiet and peaceful with beautiful views, you forget that the City surrounds you.
Before you exit the playing fields and make your way through the paths that take you up through Inwood Hill, you will pass the Shorakkopoch Rock, the spot where Peter Minuet ‘bought’ the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans.
The historic Shorakkopooh rock. This is where Peter Minuet ‘bought’ Manhattan from the Native Americans
A closer view of the plaque
The upper paths of the park offer logs to sit and relax on, the view of Indian Caves, beautiful rock formations and dozens of types of wildflowers along the paths. When walking this part of the park, wind down multiple paths before reaching street level. There is lots to see in the middle of the park and if you want to be by yourself this is the part of the park you want to be in.
Walking through Inwood Park is like stepping back through time when there was nothing in Manhattan but woods.
Inwood Park
Inwood Park pathway
Inwood Park in the Spring
Walking through the paths
Walking through Inwood Park
In the middle of the park are the old Indian caves when Lenape Indians once camped. These rock formations have a history older than the City itself.
The paths of Inwood Park during the “Great Saunter”.
The rock formations in Inwood Park.
Rock formations in Inwood Park
Reaching the highest point of Inwood Park gives you the best views of the Hudson River.
The Hudson River behind the trees
The views of the Hudson River and inlet from the highest point of Inwood Park
Walking down the path through Inwood Park
As you exit the park by Dyckman Street, make a left and head back to the pier and little beach at the end of the street. It is a nice place to relax after a long walk around the park.
Walking through the back of the park on Payson Avenue
Walking to the pier at the end of Dyckman Street offers some of the most breathtaking views of the Hudson River. One side is the Hudson Restaurant which has the most amazing views of the Hudson River and look in the other direction and there is the Palisades for miles along the river.
The view of the Hudson Restaurant and looking down the Hudson River to the George Washington Bridge
Looking up the Hudson River from the pier at Dyckman Street offers
Enter the park from the lower side of Dyckman Street and enter the ball fields. On a busy Saturday, I watched a soccer game that had the intensity of an Olympic match. It was the Mexicans vs the Mexicans and you could feel the pressure from the fans. There were loads of families watching the game and picnicking by the river. What was nice was the food carts offering all sorts of Mexican food choices at very reasonable prices.
A special note when walking this section of Inwood is that there are lots of choices of places to go to the bathroom. You have the public bathrooms under the bridge, you have the public bathrooms in the playground on the corner of Dyckman Street and Payson Avenue and at the local library by the corner of Dyckman Street and Broadway.
Inwood Hill Park Rose Garden
I crossed Dyckman Street and walked into the Fort Tyron Park. At the beginning of the park is Lt. William Tighe Park Triangle. This park was open today and offered much relief from walking around Broadway. The park was named after William Tighe, a decorated veteran of two wars and a local resident (NYCParks).
William Tighe Park at Dyckman Street and Broadway during a recent art show
This little gem of a park reminds us of the positive benefits when a neighborhood of volunteers bans together to create a little park so magical and polished. There is a little pool full of golden fish to the back of this little pocket park, colorful flowers and small benches perfect to relax and read a book.
The inside of William Tighe Square Park in one of the rare days it was open
William Tighe Square Park during the art show
The reflecting pools at William Tighe Square Park
The gardens were open again in the Spring of 2026 and this section of the park was called “Jardin Abierto”. The gardens were in bloom and it was really relaxing to walk around.
I walked through the extremely busy Anne Loftus Playground again. It was some afternoon trying to avoid all the kids running all over the playground, splashing in the fountain area and chasing one another up the jungle gym while parents chatted amongst themselves or read books. This well-laid out playground is very popular with the locals at all times of the day because as I passed it one night late in the evening, the kids were still running around the park. Kids of all ages, shapes and sizes play together and they show real neighborhood unity by watching out for one another.
The Anne Loftus Playground is really popular in the late Spring and early Summer
The Anne Loftus playground was named after the District Manager and Community Board Leader for District 12, who tirelessly fought for improvement in the parks and the neighborhood. The park was name after her in 1990 when it opened. It has currently received a face lift and is being enjoyed by children and families from all over the neighborhood.
Anne Loftus Playground at Broadway and Dyckman Street
In the warmer months, the neighborhood has a wonderful Farmer’s Market on Isham Street right next to the park area. Many upstate New York vendors come down the to market and there is a nice selection depending on the season.
The Inwood Farmers Market during a Summer of 2025
The vendors are more plentiful during the summer and the beautiful produce in the summer months
At the corner of Isham Street is the Catholic Church of the Good Shepard, where I have stopped in on quiet afternoons to sit and cool down and charge my phone. The church building is beautiful inside and out.
The Catholic Church of the Good Shepard at 4967 Broadway
The Church of the Good Shepherd, built by the Paulist Fathers on land purchased from the Isham family, has been a spiritual and social center for Inwood’s Roman Catholic community for more than one hundred years. The priests ‘ ultimate aim was to establish a great Catholic centre in a part of the city which, in the near future, is destined to have a large population. Good Shepherd Church 1915 (from the church website).
The Catholic Church of the Good Shepard
The first church was a wood frame building that was moved across Cooper Street around 1930 and later razed to make way for an addition to the elementary school. As Inwood’s population increased in the 1930s following the opening of the IND subway under Broadway, the need for a larger facility for the predominantly Irish congregation was recognized. Architect Paul Monaghan was commissioned in 1935 to design the present church, a handsome, Romanesque-style building featuring a random coursed granite facade with limestone and granite trim and a roof of terra-cotta barrel tile. Three stained glass windows set between stepped buttresses are recessed above a prominent porch that projects onto the street. The building’s massing gives it prominence as a work of architecture and a symbol of the community. An impressive interior space seats approximately 1,000 people (from the church website).
The arch on the doorway
From the arch
I try to take a break in the church when I am hot and tired from all the walking. It is so beautiful inside.
I took some time to walk around both Isham Park and Bruce Reynold’s Garden which is part of the park along Cooper and Park Street. Like all the other gardens in the neighborhood, the flowers were all in bloom, there were places to sit and relax in the shade and it was so peaceful just to walk around and have some time to myself.
Like other parks in northern Manhattan, the site of Isham Park played a crucial role in the battle of Fort Washington during the American Revolution. The site served as a landing point for Hessian troops coming up the Harlem River to drive the American forces to Westchester and New Jersey (the park website).
Isham Park in the Spring of 2026
The Isham Park oval in the Spring
The oval during the Spring
The oval with the roses in bloom
All the cars were turning around at the end of the oval and what was really pretty was the roses were in full bloom at the time I visited.
The roses in bloom
Isham Park in the Spring
The Bruce Reynolds Garden was open when I was there as volunteers were cleaning and trimming the plants in the park that afternoon. It is always so nice to walk around the paths and see all the flowers and well maintained garden beds.
The gardens inside Isham park were created and maintained by Officer Bruce Reynolds, who died on 9/11 while rushing to help people escape the falling towers. The gardens were his pride and joy and he along with many volunteers took a neglected section of Isham Park and created this area to revitalize this section of the park as a place of peace and tranquility (Park website).
The Bruce Reynolds Garden
The Garden in the Spring
The gardens in bloom
The gardens in the Spring
The roses were in full bloom
The gardens were in full bloom
What I love about visiting this area of the City is that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has their Cloisters Branch of the museum on the top of the hill in Forty Tryon Park. This is where the museum houses some of its Medieval collections and the gardens inside the Cloisters when they are in bloom are so colorful to see.
I love to tour the Cloisters during any season especially in the Summer months and during the holidays. I try to walk around the upper reaches of the park before nightfall. If you like this type of art, it is one of the best of its kind. Do not miss the courtyard area to sit and relax amongst the flowers and the patio area to overlook the park.
‘The Hunt of the Unicorn Tapestries’ at the Cloisters Museum
One of my favorite exhibits is the ‘Hunt of the Unicorn’ tapestries. These world renown tapestries show the pursuit and capture of the mythical unicorn. The artwork and detail are breathtaking considering the age of these works. You can spend as little or a lot of time here, but it is a small museum.
The Cloisters at 99 Margaret Corbin Drive in Fort Tyron Park
In 2015, I ended my day back in Inwood Hill Park and stopped at the Indian Road Café at 600 218th Street #3 (it is now Inwood Farm Restaurant), a farm to table concept restaurant for dinner and a history lesson. First off, this restaurant is amazing. It is small and cozy and I was lucky to snag a table by the screen on ‘History Night’.
Indian Road Cafe at 600 West 218th Street food is excellent (now called ‘Inwood Farm’)
The front of Inwood Farm Restaurant in Spring 2026
I love the inside of the restaurant with its interesting artwork and fixtures. The room is as innovative as the menu. They also have a very nice outdoor cafe in the warmer months where you can people watch. It is a real neighborhood restaurant as many of the patrons were greeted by name and it looked like a lot of the neighborhood eats here on a regular basis.
The inside of Inwood Farm
The inside of the dining room Inwood Farm Restaurant
The bar area of the restaurant
The speaker from the Museum of Natural History, who had just given us a talk and tour on Inwood Hill Park for a museum tour that afternoon, was there talking about the history of the neighborhood and you would be floored by the number of adults hanging on every word. The gentleman discussed the history of the area with details on the amusement parks that were once here, the trolley and bridge systems and the progression of development in Inwood. The food was fantastic that evening.
When I visited in 2015 when it was Indian Road Cafe, I ordered the Cuban Panino sandwich with an iced tea for dinner that I really enjoyed. The restaurant is a ‘farm to table’ concept and you can see it in the taste and freshness of the entrée. The pork was perfectly cooked and sandwich combination worked. The salad was the right amount with a light dressing.
When I revisited again in 2026 when when the name changed to the Inwood Farm Restaurant, the food was the same high quality and I had to have the Cuban sandwich again, this time with freshly cut French Fries. The sandwich was packed with meat and cheese and pressed to perfection. I could barely finish it.
The Urbano Cubana sandwich with French Fries
The Urbano Cubana sandwich with French Fries
The sandwich was over sized and delicious
For dessert, in 2015, I had a Blueberry Cobbler that was more of a dump cake with fresh blueberries baked inside. The whole meal was wonderful, and the service was friendly and not rushed. In 2026, this was no longer on the menu so I had the Croissant Bread Pudding that had layers of honey and chocolate in it and was topped with Vanilla Gelato. It was a pretty sizable piece for dessert and it was delicious.
The Honey Bread Pudfing
The Bread Pudding with Vanilla Gelato
I sat back, ate my dinner and enjoyed my lesson on the history of Inwood. Check out the restaurant’s website for other special events and I have read many reviews on their wonderful weekend brunch. It was a nice way to end my evening touring the parks. (Special note though, watch the pricing here. They charge for refills on Ice Tea and overcharged me for the Cuban sandwich the second time by $2.00. Make sure to double check the menu on these things).
Walking up Seaman Avenue in the Spring of 2026 to tour the park again
I finished my afternoon with a quick walk around Muscato Marsh again and enjoyed the view on this warm sunny afternoon.
The inlet during the Spring by Muscato Marsh
As I headed down Broadway in the late afternoon on my way back to the “A” subway at Dyckman Street, I passed the Inwood Animal Hospital and admired the paintings of a dog and cat that were on the roll down doors. The doors just happened to be down that afternoon and I was able to get a good look at them.
I covered a lot of ground between all the parks and walking all the streets on Inwood on the west side of Broadway. There is a lot to see and do and please be prepared to walk when you go up and down the pathways in Inwood Park. It is an amazing neighborhood especially in the warmer months.
Christmas in Inwood:
Even during Christmas time, the area is really beautiful. There is also lots to do as the parks have their own Christmas trees, holiday celebrations, farmers markets and holiday traditions.
The Christmas tree in Washington Heights/Inwood.
The holiday celebration on Dyckman Street.
The Christmas tree in William Tighe Park during the holidays.
Even the Cloisters was decked out for the holidays and for the Epiphany. I have taken museum tours on the history of “Three Kings Day” and the use of plants and greenery during the holidays in the Middle Ages. The museum always have great walking tours during the holidays.
The inside of the Cloisters at Christmas time.
The greenery at the Cloisters at the holidays.
The Pagan symbols of the Christmas holidays that the Catholics adopted into the holiday.
The beautiful plants that decorate the Cloisters during the holidays.
Each of the Cloisters were lined with fresh greens and potted plants giving each of the Cloisters its own special mood. The whole museum was decorated with potted and flowering plants.
One of the Cloisters bright with plants
The stairs leading into the chapel decorated for the holidays
The chapel on the main floor decorated for the holidays
The colorful floral displays lining the window sills of the chapel
This led to a discussion about what each plant, flower and fruit meant in the Christian tradition, a clever way to justify decorating and celebrating during the holidays. Ivies, pine, winter flowers and even late season apples not only lined places of worship but gave a festive look and district smell to these buildings. A symbol of life in the cold winter months while they waited for the arrival of Spring.
One of the artifacts at the Cloisters for the talk on “Three Kings Day”.
This is what I love about the neighborhoods in New York City. You don’t have to go to just Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. There are many around the City and they are beautiful in their own way. This is what makes a neighborhood as neighborhood.
(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.
This walking song plays in my mind when I start ‘Walking’. Thank you Mary Mary!
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