The Gaslight Neighborhoods of Old New York: Stuyvesant Square, Gramercy, and Madison Square Park

Get an intimate look at the gaslight neighborhoods of 19th-century New York

(Best suited for adults and teenagers that have a strong interest in New York history.)

Duration

2 hours, about 1.4 miles

Overview

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Stuyvesant Square, Gramercy Park, and Madison Square Parks anchored Manhattan neighborhoods that were home to both the wealthy and the middle class. Newly arrived immigrants lived around the corner from some of the oldest families in New York.

The tour explores the places in these neighborhoods where New Yorkers lived, worshipped and took respite from a city that was growing up around them.

Tour Highlights:

• The hospital for more than half of the babies born in Manhattan during the early 1900s
• Surviving middle-class residences from the 1850s
• An elegant Richard Morris Hunt residence
• The oldest cast-iron fence in New York
• William Penn’s carriage block and hitching post
• The oldest apartment building and first co-op apartment in Manhattan
• A German beer hall from the days of “Little Germany” (Kleindeutschland)
• The Washington Irving home that he never actually lived in
• Some of the last remaining gaslights around Gramercy Park
• The church where Edith Wharton worshipped and Eleanor Roosevelt was christened
• The invention of the profession of interior design (Elsie de Wolfe)
• The tavern where O Henry frequented
• The home of Mamie Fish before she built her mansion on 78th Street
• The courthouse with prominent sculptors of the nineteenth century and a stunning interior (sometimes open to the public)
• The statue of the man who didn’t survive the Great Blizzard of 1888
• The park where the torch of the Statue of Liberty was displayed for seven years
• The site of the original Madison Square Garden

Please Note

This tour takes place in Manhattan. It starts on First Avenue, walks to Stuyvesant Square, Gramercy Park and ends in Madison Square Park. Exact start location will be sent via email after you sign up.

*Tours take place rain or shine ​— dress for the weather!

Private Group: Please contact us for pricing and availability