When you walk south on Dyckman Street you will be reminded they you are in a very hilly section of the neighborhood. I walked Broadway to Hillside Avenue, and I have to say I got my exercise today. Hillside Avenue and the surrounding streets are all up and down hills. Hillside Avenue as you are walking up has unusual rock formations and small patches of wooded area which is unfortunately filled with garbage.
Highbridge Park entrance by Fort George Avenue is under renovation
The neighborhood should really rally around this because it is quite beautiful. It is even nicer toward the end of the street with the large rock formations and the trees growing out of them.
I covered the lower parts of Sherman Avenue, Nagle Avenue, Bogardus Place and then traveled west to cover Ellwood Street, Sickles Street, Arden Street, Thayer Street and Dongan Place. These blocks were filled with pre-war apartment buildings and local family businesses. The one thing I noticed on a lot of these blocks is that many families set up tables and chairs and sit outside in the afternoon and night and play dominoes and cards and talk to their neighbors.
The Dyckman Shopping district
I felt like it was a throwback to the days when my mom, who lived in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn back in the 50’s, would talk about everyone sitting outside because there was no air-conditioning, and you would converse with your neighbors because everyone was in the same boat.
What’s nice about this neighborhood environment is that these families watch what is going on and know the comings and goings of the people in their neighborhood. For all the talk about Inwood not being a safe place, I never felt nervous. The one thing I will remember after today is that Manhattan is not flat.
Walking through the Dyckman Houses is an interesting experience.
I walked around the Dyckman Street Houses and into the park area between the buildings. Word of advice, when walking around public housing. Never wear a ‘9/11 Remembers NYPD and FDNY’ shirt. At 6:4 with a thick mustache, I could see that some of the people on the park benches assumed I was a cop walking through to inspect what was going on and I saw a few small groups of people actually get up and leave when I looked at them. That was strange.
After a long walk on a hot day, head over to the corner of Nagle and Dyckman Street. There is a woman who sells the most refreshing mango and strawberry ice for $1.00, and it will cool you down immediately. Before leaving this section of Inwood, double back to Bogardus Place and Hillside Avenue and watch the sunset. It is a pretty amazing sight.
Check out my other blogs on walking around the Inwood neighborhood:
Stop by the vendors on 207th Street from Broadway to 10th Avenue. There are all sorts of street cooks making everything from Pastilitos to fried breads and doughnuts. Take time to look at the wares in “Little Dominica”. This shopping district stretches from Broadway until you reach the other subway platform.
I had some extra time today to double back to some of the sites that either were not open the day I walked this part of Inwood or did not have time to visit. The Dyckman Farmhouse tour (See TripAdvisor and VisitingaMuseum@Wordpress.com) is defiantly something you should tour while you are in the neighborhood. Sitting on the top of a hill overlooking Broadway at 4881 Broadway, you have to be sure to visit the house when it is open. Its hours are from 11:00am-3:00pm Thursday-Sunday. It is worth the visit to step back to the 18th Century and see how people lived in comparison to today. It’s a small island into the past in a bustling neighborhood.
The Dyckman Farmhouse at 4881 Broadway during the summer months.
The tour is self-guided and free. The house was built in 1785 by William Dyckman in the Dutch Colonial style on what was once a 250-acre farm estate that he inherited from his grandfather who had come to the New World in 1661. The original house had been further in the estate, and it was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. The house left the family in 1868 and was bought again by Mr. Dyckman’s granddaughters in 1915 and was restored (Wiki).
Dyckman Farm now sits above the neighborhood in the Fall of 2024
The back of the farmhouse.
The house was donated to the City of New York in 1916 and is now part of the Parks system. The nice part is that the house has a self-guided tour, and you can take your time to look over the rooms and the gardens.
The Smokehouse behind the Dyckman house.
It really is a simple house as the Dyckman’s, who owned most of the land in this part of Inwood were farmers. They owned the house for several generations, and it was the last family member living their grandchildren who invested in the house to open it up to the public.
The back of the property by the old smokehouse
The back of the house in the Fall of 2024
It amazes me of how many people lived in this house at one time with the amount of space in which they had to work. The bedrooms are pretty small and take time out to see the downstairs kitchen. It makes us appreciate today.
The upstairs bedroom at the Dyckman Farmhouse
The Dyckman Farmhouse rooms reflect its rural past but the family still entertained and housed many extended family members.
The second bedroom
The guest bedroom
The gardens in the back are a nice place to roam and relax. The beds are set up with both flowers and vegetables and are maintained by their Friends group. Sit back under one of the trees and just enjoy the view. It really is a time capsule to our rural past in an extremely busy section of Inwood. Watch their events calendar too as there are many activities at the Dyckman House.
Touring the inside of the Dyckman Farmhouse during the holidays.
The first floor is a reflection of a working farm and home. Things are sensible without being overdone. Still the family would have held a prominent place in the Dutch farming community.
The formal parlor at the Dyckman Farmhouse
The parlor in the Dyckman Farmhouse.
The farmhouse kitchen in the basement of the home. The hearth was also part of the heating system of the house.
I double backed and explored the surrounding neighborhood of Payson Avenue, Cummings Street, Academy Street and walked down Dyckman Street to Nagle Avenue. I made a quick pit stop at Nagle Bakery at 121-B Nagle Avenue, which is pretty good.
I had a Pastilito, a type of Dominican beef or chicken turnover, which they make really good, and they are only a dollar. I also had a fruit filled Coconino, a type of flaky pastry with mango filling that was a little dried out but not bad. The bakeries in Inwood are wonderful and offer a lot of selection at a very fair price.
The pastries at Nagle Bakery at 121 B Nagle Avenue (Closed January 2023)
This was the unfortunate part of most of the bakeries I tried in Inwood. By the time I got to the bakeries it was later in the afternoon so everything seemed not as fresh as first thing in the morning and it had been sitting since the morning. Nagle Bakery, though is not bad and if you are in the neighborhood, it’s worth the stop.
Nagle Bakery at 121-B Nagle Avenue (Closed January 2023)
On my back to the subway at 207th and Dyckman Street, I stopped at Tony’s Pizza and Pasta at 4771 Broadway (now closed) for a quick slice before the ride downtown. You have to watch them here. On the outside sign, they advertise a $1.00 slice but when you go in its $1.50. Then when you order the slice, you have to designate that you want the $1.50 slice, or they will try to bait and switch you with a larger slice that is $2.50. The $1.50 slice is not bad, and the sauce is pretty good, but the more expensive slice is much bigger. Not a good business practice but the pizza was pretty good, so I forgave them for that, and it is close to the subway station.
Tony’s Pizza and Pasta at 4771 Broadway (Closed 2018)
The cheese pizza was really good.
With both Nagel Bakery and Tony’s Pizza both closed before and during the pandemic, my favorite place to eat in the neighborhood now and when I visit the Cloisters is G’s Coffee Shop at 634 West 207th Street. The food and the service at this local neighborhood spot is excellent and the prices are extremely fair (see my reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com).
I made trip to the Cloisters and the Dyckman Farmhouse for a Christmas themed “Holiday Decoration” tour for both places and stopped in for a late breakfast because I was starving. They had a wonderful all day breakfast special, a Breakfast Burrito ($7.95), filled with eggs, chorizo sausage, salsa, avocado and hashbrowns wrapped in a soft burrito shell. It was very large and delicious. The flavors were really brought out by the salsa, hot sauce and the sausage. With a cool Lime Soda is really made the meal.
The Breakfast Burrito with Chorizo sausage was excellent.
When visiting the Dyckman Farmhouse again for a Spring walking tour, I stopped by G’s for lunch and had the Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe that I saw everyone ordering on the last two trips to the restaurant I had made and it was worth the trip.
The Bacon Cheeseburger was perfectly cooked with a nice amount of caramelization on the meat and was loaded with freshly cooked bacon and topped with a few pieces of cheese, chopped lettuce and tomatoes. The French Fries were cooked to order and were the small shoestring type that were crisp and plentiful on the plate. The burger had a nice complexity to it and the meat had a lot of flavor to it as it was a fresh patty not frozen. For less than $10.00, it made a nice lunch.
The Bacon Cheeseburger lunch at G’s Coffee Shop.
The service is very nice and the orders come out quick. It is a Hodge Podge of neighborhood types but that’s what I think makes this G’s Coffee Shop special, it really is a neighborhood restaurant catering to everyone. It is a restaurant that every neighborhood should have.
It was a quick afternoon in the city but a nice walk for the day. I just wanted to revisit the Inwood neighborhood to be sure that I covered everything and see the Dyckman Farmhouse. Don’t miss it at the holidays as well.
The front of the Dyckman Farmhouse in the Fall of 2024
The street level view of the home in the Fall of 2024
Check out my other blogs on walking around the Inwood neighborhood:
My walk today took me all over the lower park of Inwood. My all day walk took me from the northern border of 207th Street to the Harlem River covering both sides of Dyckman Street to Inwood Park and the Marina area covering Payson Avenue and the lower part of Seaman Avenue. My legs were killing me at the end of the day but the sites I saw were amazing.
I started at the 207th Street stop and walked up 207th Street walking both sides and peeking into the small businesses that lined the street. There are still a lot of Mom & Pop stores in this area catering to the local clientele.
On a recent visit to the neighborhood, I had both breakfast and lunch at G’s Coffee Shop at 634 207th Street (see reviews on TripAdvisor and DiningonaShoeStringinNYC@Wordpress.com). The food is so reasonable (their breakfasts are delicious) and the service is very friendly. You feel like you are part of the neighborhood here.
G’s Coffee Shop burgers at 634 207th Street are excellent
I walked both sides up and down Seaman Avenue lined with pre-war apartments and sprinkled in with some small houses. Then I back tracked to walking the side streets of 204th Street, Cooper Street, Academy Street, Beak Street and Cumming Street admiring all the buildings and pocket parks along the way. I doubled back to Seaman Avenue and walked Payson Avenue which lines Inwood Hill Park.
The apartment buildings that face the park are offered spectacular views of the flora and fauna of the park and paths leading into the park are just steps away. It is interesting that taking some of the paths off Payson Avenue lead you right into the interior of the park and takes you into the interior of a forest right on Manhattan Island.
Once you exit Payson Avenue to Dyckman Street, walk the stretch of Inwood Hill Park to the end. You will pass a very active playground which on the weekend seems to be one long birthday party. At the end of Dyckman Street on the Hudson River side you will find the very edge of Inwood Park that leads to La Marina Restaurant at 348 Dyckman Street on one side that offers sweeping views of Hudson River and the Palisades on the New Jersey side.
The entrance to the Dyckman Beach Cove
The other side of the street leads to the soccer fields and to the Dyckman Street pier and next to it a small, picturesque beach and rock formation. It offers some of the best views of the Hudson River and who knew that there was a beach in this part of Manhattan. On a sunny day, it is the most relaxing place to relax on the benches and just look at the view of the Hudson River and the cliffs across the river.
The Dyckman Beach attracts more than just people on a warm day.
The ducks on the beach
After a long rest, I walked back down Dyckman Street to cover the area between that and Riverside Drive which opens to Fort Tryon Park. These streets have a row of pre-war apartment buildings that offer great views of the park and as you exit, more small pocket parks and playgrounds are on both sides. Dyckman Street between Payson Avenue and Broadway is lined with upscale eateries making it the ‘Restaurant Row’ of Inwood with more on the way.
I took the walk to the other side of Dyckman Street that led to Fort Tyron Park and from the hill offers another view of the Hudson. I relaxed in two smaller parks that are part of this sea of green on Dyckman Street.
The entrance to Ann Loftus Park in the Fall of 2025
The very active Ann Loftus Playground, named after a local neighborhood leader, had all the rambunctious charm that a playground should have with kids playing on the swings, jumping through an active fountain and climbing on the jungle gym, which I thought had been outlawed since the 80’s. Parents chatted with one another while kids ran all over the park.
The Ann Loftus Playground just finished their renovation
The park again in November 2025 when I walked through to enjoy the foliage
The park was not as busy on a cool November afternoon in 2025
Enjoying the views during the Fall of 2025
Sidewalk Art in the park
Another park across the street, the Lt. William Tighe Park Triangle, which is named after a prominent Inwood resident and veteran of two World Wars, was locked in the day but I could see the colorful plantings and small benches that lined the park. This park sits across from the Dyckman Street ‘Restaurant Row”.
There was a free art show in 2023 in William Tighe Triangle Park
In 2023, the park gates were finally open (in the nine years I have been doing this project, they have never been open), they were having a small art show, so I was able to walk around the garden. The artwork was nothing interesting, but the park is so beautifully maintained and landscaped that it was fun to walk around and take a quick break from the walk to see it. This is why it took so long to leave upper Manhattan, there was so much more to see and do that not been open before.
I made my first pit stop of the day at McDonald’s for one of their new frozen Strawberry Lemonade ($2.00). I have been swearing off McDonald’s for a while, but this is something so perfect and wonderful to have on a hot humid day. It is so sweet and tart it will quench your thirst while you are walking around the area. It is the perfect fast-food drink.
Dyckman Avenue shopping district
I made my way down Dyckman Street on the other side, passing many family-owned businesses catering to the neighborhood and a few national chains proving that this area is very up and coming. I covered the lower parts of Sherman, Post and Nagel Streets lined with their apartment buildings and businesses until I passed Fort George Avenue and the start of High Bridge Park.
The entrance to High Bridge Park off 207th Street in the Spring of 2024 (park under renovation)
High Bridge Park entrance right off the subway stop in Spring 2024
Along the stretch of Dyckman Street the park while rustic was full of trash. It wrecked the effect of the high hills and large boulders with their small paths. Once passing 10th Avenue, I reached the entrance of Harlem River Drive and the beginning of High Bridge Park with the lush greenery and small parks and gardens within the larger park.
High Bridge Park is unique in itself that there are many smaller parks that are part of it. As I walked into the park on a busy weekend day, it seemed that every family in the area was either having a barbecue or a birthday party as people were cooking in every part of the lawn that was open. As you enter the park and walk down the path off Harlem River Drive you find the quiet and secluded Swindler Cove Park with its well-tended paths and natural preserve appearance along with beautiful views of the Harlem River. These winding paths will take you through the back woods and offers nice places to sit and chat.
High Bridge Park at West 190th Street and Amsterdam Avenue
I then walked up 10th and 9th Avenues crisscrossing the side streets up to 207th street. At the end of each side street from 201st through 207th there is a small park at the end of the block that the park system runs. Again these parks, as small as they were filled with families having small parties. Each little park was called Sherman Cove Park, and all offered nice views of the Harlem River.
Sherman Creek Cove Park at 3703 Harlem River Drive
It was a nice place to rest after a long day of walking. I finished my walk on this side of Inwood with a grape soda at the Community Food Store at 2893 Broadway. This bustling store offers everything you need for a day in the park or to run a small business.
Sherman Cove by the East River with new grass regrowth
My last stop of the day when I doubled back down 207th Street was a snack at Dichter Pharmacy and Soda Shoppe at 4953 Broadway. This Pharmacy is a throwback to the old Woolworth stores with the things you need to buy in the front and an ice cream parlor and lunch counter to the side. I saw their sign for ‘the best ice cream sundaes in New York’, so I had to test their claim. I was not disappointed. I had a vanilla and blueberry sundae that hit the spot after a hot day and was tempted with an order of Mozzarella sticks but decided to be good (they did stop making the hot food in 2023).
They have a full menu of lunch and dinner items, and it is worth checking out this unique spot. It is worth it just to sit back and chat with the soda jerk. So many great things to see today though my feet were killing me.
Check out my other blogs on walking around the Inwood neighborhood:
Taking the number One subway back uptown, I continued my travels to 215th Street station right next to the Columbia complex and sports center. My journey took me to 10th Avenue from the tip of the island to West 220th Street to West 207th Street. For you folks out there they think the island of Manhattan is completely gentrified with upscale housing and businesses, you must visit this part of Manhattan. There is hardly a Gucci store on every corner.
This has got to be the most commercial area of Manhattan I have seen so far. Home to Time Warner repair trucks, the NYC Sanitation Department, the MTA Headquarters and the Knightsbridge Terminal it made for interesting walk. Between 9th and 10th Avenue from 218th Street to 216th Streets is the Knightsbridge Bus Terminal, which is the center of much action throughout the day.
Tenth Avenue near all the restaurants near the 207th Street shopping district
The New York Sanitation Department is located from 216th Street to 214th Streets and it is best to avoid this area most of the day. It was quiet on the 4th of July. The only person I saw was a security guard and his dog, who was so happy to see someone he jumped up and down. When I went back to tour the area later in the month, it was a whirlwind of action with garbage trucks going in and out of buildings and the place really smelled. It is not exactly an area I would recommend to tourists unless they want to see how the city really runs.
All along 9th Avenue are places to get your car repaired and washed. At the end of every street, there is a nice view of the river, but I would suggest holding your nose. From 214th Street to 207th Street, The MTA has their building behind high walls and barbed wire. 208th Street has a parking lot and a few truck vendors. Not much to see here and the operation is behind closed doors.
The MTA Facility and the New York Sanitation Department Facility take up most of the corner of this part of Manhattan
Walking Tenth Avenue near the 207th Street Shopping area
Parts of lower 10th Avenue are being gentrified as some of the former parking garages and repair shops are giving way to small more upscale restaurants. The area around the subway station at 207th Street is a bustling shopping area catering to the large Dominican population living on the Broadway side of Inwood with everyday stores, very reasonable and good restaurants specializing in Dominican and Spanish cuisine and several clothing stores. This area is slowly going through a transition as the neighborhood is starting to change to a younger, artier crowd.
The best part of this part of 207th Street is the local street cart vendors selling everything from Pastelitos (a kind of empanada) to fresh mango juice and shaved ice all for around a dollar. It is a nice way to have a reasonable to go meal while you are walking around. One restaurant for delicious Pastelitos is El Lina at 500 207th Street.
El Lina Restaurant at 500 207th Street
Their fillings are generous, and the service is very friendly. It is one of the many restaurants that line the ‘restaurant mile’ on 207th Street. From the subway station to Broadway, it is interesting to look at the menus and peak in the windows of the many shops and dining establishments that line both sides of the street.
El Lina’s Pastilitos are delicious
Both the Chicken and the Beef are great and perfectly cooked
This vibrant section of the neighborhood hustled every day that I visited it and the subway stop is always busy. If you are looking for tourist spots and excitement, it’s not for you. If you want a true experience in Dominican culture and food, a trip to this part of Inwood is for you. It is not just the restaurants and shops that make the neighborhood, it is the interaction of the people in the neighborhood, the music, the conversations and debates and the overall life of the streets that make this neighborhood a neighborhood.
The street art in the neighborhood on West 204th Street
Don’t miss the interesting street art in the neighborhood. These taggers are very talented!
One of the taggers was sending a message of crime in the neighborhood (I think)
Check out my other blogs on walking around the Inwood neighborhood:
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