history Archives - Page 6 of 7

May 31, 2017

BLDG 92 at Brooklyn Navy Yard

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	95 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	A quote from a guy who works at a set design firm based in the Navy Yard today: “This building built ships and now we build Saturday Night Live in it.”

BLDG 92, Brooklyn Navy Yard BLDG 92 is the vowel-challenged, fascinating, historical center of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It tells the story of the Navy Yard through artifacts, an interactive tabletop, and a comprehensive timeline. Continue reading “BLDG 92 at Brooklyn Navy Yard”

May 6, 2017May 1, 2018

City Reliquary

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	46 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	In 1986, the first run of brass subway tokens with steel centers had a tiny “SJD” worked into the design. That stands for “Silvester J. Dubosz,” then Assistant Controller of the New York City Transit Authority. Mr. Dubosz ordered the tokens, and thought it would be cool to have his initials on every one. And he was fired for it. Great relic!

New York City boasts a host of institutions dedicated to preserving our history and heritage, led by the twin titans of the Museum of the City of New York and the New-York Historical Society. I described one of our history museums, the New York City Fire Museum, as the attic of the Fire Department, storing its heritage of historic treasures.

Stretching that metaphor, the quirky City Reliquary would be, not the attic of New York, but the dusty space between the attic floorboards and the downstairs ceiling, where who knows what bits and bobs find their way. Open it up and you may just find a lot of crap, but if you look from the right perspective, treasures abound.

City Reliquary, Exterior Housed in a tiny storefront in Willamsburg, City Reliquary started as a hobby for its founder, who first created it as a display in a window in his apartment. It has grown from there as New Yorkers with collections of, well, whatever, occupied the space for exhibitions, and the Reliquary’s own collections multiplied.

Knish Show at City Reliquary The current temporary show features perhaps the most under-appreciated of the city’s street foods, the humble knish. I learned things I never thought to wonder about knishes. Where they come from (the Eastern European knish belt extends from Latvia through Moldova); who makes them (there are six “Heroes of the Knish” who are the main local manufacturers); and what it means in Yiddish slang (lady parts). Also, back in 2013 Joan Rivers tweeted that Kim an Kanye should name their baby Knish because “who doesn’t love one?” Who knew?

2nd Ave Deli Sign, at City Reliquary

City Reliquary Restroom — The restroom at City Reliquary

The rest of the space is crammed from floor to ceiling, and then some, with a dizzying assortment of this-and-that, bric-a-brac, and thingamabobs. Even the restroom threatens a case of sensory overload.

Some of the Reliquary’s exhibits include:

The Statue of Liberty, the city’s “secular saint.”
New York geology, including core samples of Manhattan bedrock.
Souvenirs and memorabilia from both the World’s Fairs.
Seltzer and other native soft drinks.
“Little Egypt,” a burlesque dancer.
Jackie Robinson.
A quilt commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

The Reliquary is dense. Every time you visit, you’ll discover something new. Should you go? Those seeking a solid chronological telling of New York’s tale won’t find it there. But those looking for the quirky bits will love this place. Alternately, if you’ve explored the A-list history museums and still feel like something’s…missing, have I got a place for you!

In the end, New Yorkers will probably get more out of it than visitors. But for anyone afraid that this city has become sterile and homogenized and has lost its mojo, the Reliquary has it. It’s in one of their collection of Greek coffee cups, next to some gneiss and schist samples, on a shelf just below the collection of subway grab-holds.

For Reference:

Address	370 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn
Website	cityreliquary.org
Cost	General Admission: $5
Other Relevant Links	Laura Silver’s book on Knishes (she guest-curated the knish exhibition Article at Bluestocking on Little Egypt

May 4, 2017

Trinity Church

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	32 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	Phillip Hamilton, son of Alexander, is buried in Trinity Churchyard. But there’s no longer a marker, and somehow no one quite knows where he is. How can that be? What kind of negligence does it take to lose a Hamilton for goodness’ sake? I mean, even before the musical to end all musicals made him a hero, A.Ham was always New York’s hometown Founding Father. And Phillip’s death was always an important part of the story. So, Trinity Church, how do you lose a Hamilton?

Wall Street NYC — View of Trinity Church from Wall Street

Its steeple stretching toward heaven at the head of Wall Street, Trinity Church stands as a powerful rebuke to those greedy financial types who see money as the beginning and end of living. I’m not sure it’s an effective rebuke, but it’s the thought that counts.

It’s an impressive, location at the heart of 18th century New York, and Trinity boasts not only a storied history, but also serves as a key, perhaps even the key stop on the Hamilton pilgrimage route. He’s buried there. As are Eliza and Angelica Schuyler (Peggy, the third Schuyler sister, is in Albany). And Phillip Hamilton is at Trinity too, though as mentioned above, no one quite knows where.

Eliza Hamilton Monument, Trinity Church, Manhattan The current church is Gothic Revival, in brownstone, which always seems to me a striking and unlikely choice. Until this visit I never wondered what the surrounding area was like when it was built — if it was all brownstone rowhouses, it would’ve fit in nicely I suppose. Now it stands out, even as the surrounding skyscrapers far overtop it.

Trinity Church, Wall Street Trinity’s history goes back to 1697, but this is the third church on this site. The first Trinity Church burned down in the Great Fire during the revolution in 1776. The second revealed structural problems following a severe snowstorm in 1838 that led to its replacement with the current building in 1846. So while it’s old, it’s not as old as it might want you to believe. St. Paul’s Chapel, a Trinity offshoot a short stroll north on Broadway, dates to 1766. I strongly recommend visiting both if you have time.

With Trinity itself, I’d say the cemetery is more important to visit than the church, which with one an exception doesn’t play much of an historical role. In addition to Hamilton and family, an assortment of other luminaries is there, including Robert Fulton (inventor of the steamboat), who probably wishes Lin-Manuel Miranda would get to work on a musical about him. And there’s a monument to firefighters, and assorted romantically crumbling old gravestones. The oldest legible marker in the cemetery dates to 1681.

Trinity Church, Manhattan The interior of Trinity is pretty, but not especially noteworthy. It’s on a par with most other gothic revival churches in the U.S. or U.K.

To my mind, Trinity’s most important historic role came in the days after September 11. Trinity and St. Paul’s Chapel served as incredibly important sources of physical and spiritual sustenance for all the people facing the unimaginable work at Ground Zero.

Graveyard, Trinity Church, Manhattan Anyone who likes old churches or cemeteries or Hamilton (or Robert Fulton) must visit Trinity. Moreover, the graveyard is an oasis of green in a part of the city that doesn’t have a lot of that. For those frantically visiting all of Lower Manhattan’s many historic sites, museums, and other landmarks, it represents a chance to catch one’s breath in the midst of a jam-packed day. Trinity also has a fine music program–definitely take a look at their website. Even for a casual visitor, Trinity is worth a special trip.

Finally, I was going to take Trinity to task for not playing up the Hamilton-Hamilton connection–missed marketing opportunity!–but as I was departing I spotted this sign on the fence:

There's a Million Things You Haven't Seen...at Trinity Church — Clever, subtle, Hamilton reference

Well played indeed.

For Reference:

Address	75 Broadway, Manhattan
Website	trinitywallstreet.org
Cost	Free
Other Relevant Links	NY Times piece on Trinity Church’s role after 9/11

May 2, 2017

Federal Hall National Memorial

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	33 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	The steampunky goodness of the “Damon’s Patent Lock Mechanism” guarding the Customs House vaults. Even the bolts are pretty.

Federal Hall National Memorial, Greek Revival Masterpiece, New York Federal Hall is not what it seems. In fact, it’s not Federal Hall at all. From the outside a passer-by might easily believe that it was the first capitol of the U.S., and the building where George Washington took the oath as president. I thought that for years; only recently did I realize: right location, wrong building.

Federal Hall’s spot on Wall Street was the location of New York’s colonial-era City Hall, built around 1700. When the fledgling United States of America decided New York would be the capital, that building got remodeled by Pierre L’Enfant (later architect of the District of Columbia’s master plan) to make it fancier. Rebranded from City Hall to Federal Hall, it did indeed serve (briefly) as the nation’s first capitol building, before the government moved to Philly and eventually to Washington.

Federal Hall, New York — Model of the actual Federal Hall

Ever more practical than sentimental, New York tore Federal Hall down in 1812. According to the visitor guide, the city sold the scrap to a “grocer on South Street” for $425. The guide skips over what they built next, but eventually the government replaced it with a United States Customs House in 1842.

In some ways that’s okay. The current building is fantastic, the best example of Greek Revival architecture in New York City. As Customs House and later a Sub-Treasury, it has its own important history as a key locale in New York’s growth as the commercial and financial capital of the U.S.

Federal Hall National Memorial, Interior, New York But I couldn’t help get the sense that the National Park Service would trade today’s building if they could get the “real” Federal Hall back again.

As I’ve racked up historic sites for this project it occurred to me that New York’s relentless development leads to a fairly loose definition of “authentic” history. Sometimes authentically old buildings migrate from their original locations (like Hamilton Grange or Edgar Allan Poe’s Cottage). Sometimes historic locations remain, while the buildings themselves change (like Theodore Roosevelt’s Birthplace, Federal Hall, or Trinity Church). And sometimes “historic” sites feature inauthentic buildings in ersatz locations.

That last one is typically bad, but not always. Think of The Cloisters, which enthralled both me and Jorge Luis Borges.

Forced to choose, I’d prefer old building/new location. I’d rather see Hamilton’s house somewhere else (within reason) than an exact reproduction built on the site of Hamilton’s house. Your mileage may vary.

On view at what I will more accurately call “(Not Actually) Federal Hall National Memorial”:

Federal Hall National Memorial, New York — Washington Stood Here

The cracked but actual marble slab Washington stood on when taking the oath of office.
Vaults where the Customs House kept tons of cash (literally)
A model of Washington’s Inaugural Parade
Memorabilia from the centennial celebrations of Washington’s Inauguration.
Models showing the old City Hall and Federal Hall buildings.
A National Park Service overview of historic sites and parks, in the New York region and beyond.
An exhibit on the Zenger trial of 1735, an early libel case that set a precedent for freedom of the press.
The Bible on which Washington swore the oath of office (borrowed at the last minute from a local Masonic Lodge).

Everyone should visit (Not Actually) Federal Hall National Memorial. The architecture alone justifies a special trip. Contemplating the vicissitudes of history and what we save versus what we tear down just ices the cake.

Federal Hall, New York

For Reference:

Address	26 Wall Street, Manhattan
Website	nps.org
Cost	Free

May 1, 2017

South Street Seaport Museum

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	48 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	The Museum is home to the Alan Govenar & Kaleta Doolin Tattoo Collection. The current modest Gus Wagner show is like a teaser for what they might be able to do once material in the collection (Wagner’s notebooks and such) is conserved and stable. I was sad to learn the Staten Island Tattoo Museum is no more, so I’m hopeful this enables the Seaport Museum to fill that gap.

The South Street Seaport Museum just celebrated its 50th anniversary, and its establishment contributed to the survival of a collection of historic buildings in the face of Lower Manhattan’s relentless pressure for development. The museum includes a print shop (worth visiting; great cards), the museum building proper, and the “street of ships,” a collection of historic vessels, several of which are open for tours when the museum is open.

The museum itself is still not fully back on its feet following 2012’s Hurricane Sandy. This is unfortunate because a significant part of the museum’s space is not currently open, and the exhibits on display now are long on words and short on artifacts — the science fair school of museum displays, wherein you might as well just read about it on the internet. Told that way, even something as fun as the story of an early 20th century tattoo artist is only so engaging.

A wall of reproductions and captions, the bulk of the Gus Wagner, Tattooist exhibit

Until it fully reopens, the museum by itself is not worth the time or $12 to visit. However, the museum also offers the chance to tour the lightship Ambrose and the tall ship Wavertree. And the museum also runs the sailing vessel Pioneer (which needs to be booked separately) which is an awesome way to get out on the Harbor.

I only had time to visit Wavertree, but she’s impressive. Immense, steel-hulled, and built in 1885 as a cargo ship, Wavertree just completed a massive restoration effort that has helped put her back in seaworthy condition. The brief public tour gives a taste of what life was like for sailors (i.e., tough) and the officers (i.e., less tough) aboard. She’s still a work in progress, which is interesting too: there’s always staff or volunteers performing some work or other on her.

Ambrose is a lightship, which was a sturdy class of ship used as a floating lighthouse, in places where terrestrial ones weren’t feasible. She went into service in 1908 and helped ships navigate the entrance to Lower New York Bay until 1932.

The collection is completed by two sailing vessels, Lettie G. Howard and Pioneer, and an adorable wooden tugboat named W. O. Decker.

I want to be more enthusiastic about the Seaport Museum than I am. I love ships, the sea, and the city’s history. South Street Seaport is about as central as it gets, while many of the city’s other maritime museums are in far flung locales like Staten and City Islands. Still, in its current state, it’s operating at only a fraction of its potential, and having two historic boats to tour only goes so far. With regret, the best I can muster for it is a lukewarm nod to anyone with an interest in those topics.

For Reference:

Address	12 Fulton Street and Pier 16, Manhattan
Website	southstreetseaportmuseum.org
Cost	General Admission With Ship Tour: $12
Other Relevant Links	Tour New York Harbor on Pioneer, a schooner dating from 1885

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	70 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	During their sojourn at the cottage Poe and his wife had a cat named Katarina. And maybe that was Mrs. Poe’s idea but still there’s an endearing humor to that which changed the way I think about Poe a little.

Edgar Allan Poe, proto-goth, inventor of the detective story, writer of gruesome tales and horror-struck poetry, quother of the raven, had a hard life. Baltimore has largely claimed him as its own (just think of their NFL team). While he did live there for while, and died there in 1849, Poe was a New Yorker for a good chunk of his life. Indeed, he was only visiting Baltimore when he shuffled off his mortal coil in circumstances that remain mysterious to this day. For the last three years of his life Poe resided in a small rented cottage in what was then the village of Fordham in Westchester County, known today as the Bronx.

Built in 1812 by the Valentine family to house farm laborers, it’s a mark of how fast esteem for Poe rose after his death that his cottage has survived to the present. In 1902 Poe Park was established, and in 1913 the cottage was moved to the park, where it has stood as a museum ever since.

Poe’s reason for moving north was as sad as anything else in his life: his wife Virginia had contracted consumption, and they hoped that by escaping from the foul miasma of the city to bucolic Fordham, she might improve. It was not to be, however, and she died less than a year after they moved to the cottage, in January of 1847.

The cottage is definitely the home of a poor man. A realtor would call it cozy. While tiny, I imagine that during the winter it was freezing. A kitchen, parlor, and small bedroom on the ground floor, and a study and bedroom on the second floor, a small porch out front, and that’s it. Poe and his wife rented it for $100 per year.

It’s furnished with a fair number of period pieces, three items of which are known to have been Poe’s: a rocking chair, a fancy gilded mirror, and the narrow bed where Virginia Poe passed away.

In addition to period furniture, the house also contains assorted Poe memorabilia: period prints of the cottage, a bust of Poe that used to be in the park, and several pictures of the man in various states of unhappiness.

There’s a brief video that describes Poe’s life in the Bronx: walking the High Bridge, wandering along the Bronx River, and visiting the Jesuits at then then brand-new St. John’s College (founded in 1841, now called Fordham), with whom he seems to have gotten on well. Poe wrote some of his best-known works while he lived at the cottage, including “The Bells,” and Fordham lays claim to having THE bell that inspired the poem.

My guide during my visit was a local kid who really loved Poe and the place. His enthusiasm helped bring the cottage to life.

And he explained the most random furnishing of the cottage: a picture of penguins on the parlor wall. They feature in Poe’s only novel, a whaling tale called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. I asked him who comes, and he said it was about 25% New Yorkers, 50% tourists from overseas, and 25% tourists from other states.

It takes some determination to get there. It’s on the way (by subway) to the New York Botanical Garden or Woodlawn Cemetery, and kind of near Lehman College Art Gallery. But it’s not especially close to any of those. Thus, even though the city has grown up all around it, Poe’s cottage is still sort of a lonely place.

Anyone with vaguely goth or romantic tendencies should absolutely go. Underappreciated poets and anyone who can still quote the opening lines of the Raven should too. But those outside those categories could probably stick visiting other historic houses in the city, many of which are easier to get to.

For Reference:

Address	2640 Grand Concourse, the Bronx
Website	Bronx Historical Society Website
Cost	General Admission: $5
Other Relevant Links	Full text of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (from Project Gutenberg)

April 17, 2017June 15, 2017

African Burial Ground National Monument

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	39 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	The Visitor Center focuses quite a bit on the efforts at balancing the human desire to learn from the skeletons and artifacts in the burial ground, with the human desire to treat those remains respectfully and not have them end up on dusty museum shelves for eternity. That’s a hard balance, and it’s valuable to have a glimpse into the conversations that led to the compromises they made.

African Burial Ground National Monument The African Burial Ground is a small monument overshadowed by the government buildings around Foley Square. As they were digging for a new federal building in 1991 they discovered bodies, and from there re-discovered a forgotten cemetery used by the city’s African American population in the late 1600s and early 1700s.

African Burial Ground National Monument Today a corner of what used to be the cemetery is a small green open space with a black granite monument, standing in for a headstone. There aren’t any markers, of course, and if it weren’t for the signs and a series of low humps of earth, you’d probably just think it was a pocket park. It’s not the whole extent of the cemetery, as this city is sufficiently about commerce and building that it won’t let the past fully forestall progress, even when that past includes the earthly remains of slaves.

Mosaic of Skeletons, African Burial Ground — Photomosaic of the remains examined and then re-interred at the African Burial Ground

You can visit the national monument in just a few minutes. However, the as is the norm with the National Park Service, the visitor center’s exhibits are simple, thoughtful, and earnest, and merit spending some time and contemplation.

Comparative mortality ages show almost no African Americans lived to a ripe old age.

It looks at what we know about the people laid to rest at the Burial Ground — nothing in terms of written records, but quite a bit based on archaeological evidence. It also talks a bit about contemporary black residents of New York about whom we do know something, and paints an unflinching picture of the hardships they faced.

The narrative of the visitor center speaks of “ancestors” (the remains of the people they dug up) and “descendants” (the modern activists who argued for humane treatment of those remains. It forges a compelling but unproveable link– we don’t know the names of those who were buried there, and there probably isn’t enough DNA in bones that old to connect them with certainty to any living person. Without a doubt, though, they were New Yorkers, and it seems very right that there is a space in the heart of the civic center of the city to note and remember the role that they played.

African Burial Ground National Monument Museum The African Burial Ground is definitely not entertaining. But it is important. Every New Yorker and everyone with an interest in the city and its history should go and pay their respects.

For Reference:

Address	290 Broadway (Visitor Center) and corner of Duane and Elk Streets (National Monument), Manhattan
Website	nps.gov/afbg
Cost	Free

April 5, 2017

Van Cortlandt House Museum

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	138 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	All the front windows of the house have neat, scary terra cotta faces centered above them. This was apparently a Dutch thing to ward off bad spirits. Reproductions are available at the gift shop!

At the northern terminus of the Number 1 subway line lies Van Cortlandt Park, home of one of the oldest surviving houses in New York City. Within the park, \ surrounded by an ancient iron fence, is a very fancy residence built in 1748 as a summer home by (surprise!) the Van Cortlandt family. The grandest home in the area, the Van Cortlandts owned and lived in the house for about 140 years, until in 1887 as the family fortunes ebbed, they sold the property to the city as a park. The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York took over the house and opened it as a museum in 1897. It is, of course, a New York City landmark.

The Van Cortlandts in the early days were super-wealthy, and the house showed it. They were also super-Dutch, proud of their heritage as New Amsterdammers, and many of the details of the house (including a blue and orange color scheme for the china cabinets in the parlor) reflect that as well. Little that’s in the house today remains from the Van Cortlandts, but most of the publicly accessible rooms are filled with period furniture and knick-knacks that give a sense of what the lives of the earlier generations of the family might have been like.

When it opened as a museum, one room was redone to depict a modest city house, simulating how a much less successful Dutch family would have lived down in Manhattan. They’ve kept that to this day and while I would’ve liked the place to be as close as possible to how the family lived in it, the contrast is informative.

I joined a tour being given by a guy named Paul — when they have tours, they do them in a repeated loop (which is probably not that fun for Paul), so you can join in progress and then stick around for the beginning of the next one to pick up what you missed. It’s a little odd, leaving the Van Cortlandt background until the end, but it was very efficient.

Fancy, newly refurbished parlor/dining room, decorated a little later than the rest of the house. Note the neat Dutch tiles around the fireplace.

As I’m conditioned to do, I asked Paul about Hamilton. There is no recorded occurrence of the great man visiting. Washington did, though, thrice, as did John Adams. The VC house was the only large, fancy home for miles around. So Ham might’ve visited, but there’s no proof.

The Van Cortlandts lived a very different kind of life than the Dyckmans or the Hamiltons. And of course their home is a huge contrast to a city house like the Treadwells’. I wish that more of it was open — there are slave quarters up the back stairs that the only accessible periodically for special small-group tours because of the fire code. And we didn’t get to see the kitchen — as a food lover I’m highly interested in the evolution of kitchens and cooking. But with each one of these homes I visit, my sense for life in and around the city in the 1700s-to-early-1800s gets deeper and richer. And I have yet more appreciation for life in the 2010s.

On a sunny Sunday spring afternoon, Van Cortlandt park was full of people strolling, and several cricket teams in full whites, which made for interesting if rather bewildering spectating. I highly recommend a visit to the park. If you do, definitely venture past the iron fence and see how the Van Cortlandts lived.

For Reference:

Address	Inside Van Cortlandt Park at 246th Street, the Bronx
Website	vchm.org
Cost	General Admission: $5, Free/donation on Wednesdays
Other Relevant Links	The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York Consider the Fork, a great book on the evolution of kitchens and cooking implements

April 4, 2017April 7, 2017

Museum of the City of New York

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	203 minutes across 2 days. I had a lot I wanted to see.
Best thing I saw or learned	On display in “New York at its Core” show is the scrap of paper, literally the back of an envelope, on which Milton Glaser scribbled “I ♥︎NY.” It’s such a quintessential statement it’s hard to imagine someone had to invent it, but Glaser did, in 1977. That little idea changed the way generations of visitors think about this crazy place, and it elegantly expresses a sentiment I feel (almost) every day.

The Museum of the City of New York is an absolute treasure. It occupies a really lovely Georgian/Federal-style building at the northern end of Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue. The Museum started out its life in Gracie Mansion, but as its collection and ambitions grew, and its directors wanted it to be more central, a move seemed prudent.

I confess I always assumed the building was legitimately old, though on reflection that doesn’t make sense. Who in the 1800s would build a grand federal style institutional building that far north? The building was started for the museum in 1929, and it was completed in 1932.

For all that it’s merely fake old, it’s got one of the best staircases of any museum in the city, a super-elegant curve leading up from the ground floor. Nowadays complemented by a terrific light sculpture.

It also claims to have the most exciting stairwell in the city, so it’s definitely got a New Yorker’s flair for self-promotion.

Off the top of my head, other great staircases, if you’re a scalaphile or like making a dramatic entrance, can be found at the Neue Gallerie, the Czech Center, the Frick Collection (but you can’t go on it), the Cooper Hewitt, the Rubin, and of course the grand stairs at the Met (both the outside and inside ones). Come to list them, there are a lot of great staircases in New York City museums. But City of New York’s is still near the top.

I also have to say a word or two about typography. Most museums manage signage and wall descriptions okay, but not great. But it matters. City of New York does its visuals stunningly well. Legible, fun, brash… It makes navigating the museum a pleasure.

The main exhibit on currently is called “New York at its Core,” a look at the full sweep of the city’s history, from the earliest beginnings to the future. It’s extremely well thought out, covering an immense amount of content economically and judiciously. It also makes great use of interactive features. Person-height vertical screens in the middle of the main room feature key historical characters on a rotating basis. Interact with a character and you get more, potentially much more, about them and their contribution. And it’s not just human characters, you can find out about players like beavers and oysters, too. I’m often skeptical of the value of these kinds of things. Too often they are more sizzle than steak. But this impressed me a lot.

Other exhibits look at the Gilded Age, protests in New York (no small topic), photos of Muslim life in the city, and an in-depth look at the city’s zoning laws on the centennial of the original 1916 law.

Let me underscore that. This museum can make a visually and intellectually interesting show out of the city’s zoning laws.

Graphic showing the number of pages in NYC’s Zoning Laws, 1916-present

Then there’s the Stettheimer dollhouse, with its legit modern art. And the cafe (great, by the way, and at the top of the grand staircase).

And the future bit of “New York at its Core” where via touchscreen you can design a building, streetscape or neighborhood and have it rated based on affordability and livability and environmentalism. Neat, fun, and yet again way better implemented than is typical for that sort of technology.

And finally, as I do wherever I can, I will mention Alexander Hamilton, who is present, larger than life size, on the facade.

Should you go? Absolutely. City of New York epitomizes great museuming in my book. It balances edification and entertainment with great finesse, and tells the story of this place such that both newcomers and lifelong New Yorkers can get something fresh and interesting out of it.

For Reference:

Address	1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd Street), Manhattan
Website	mcny.org
Cost	General Admission: $18

April 3, 2017January 14, 2018

National Lighthouse Museum

Edification value
Entertainment value
Should you go?
Time spent	47 minutes
Best thing I saw or learned	The largest Fresnel lens in the U.S. was installed at Makapu’u Point Lighthouse on Oahu in Hawai’i in 1909. It was made in France and was featured at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

The National Lighthouse Museum is a museum in its infancy. Located a short stroll from the ferry terminal in St. George, Staten Island, the museum describes the history, technology, and design of lighthouses. Continue reading “National Lighthouse Museum”