I discovered Jane’s Walks (named for activist/author Jane Jacobs, who would have turned 100 this year) last May, when I went on a tour of outdoor murals in East Harlem. So I was really glad to see/hear about them again this year. I had a very ambitious list for myself, and while I didn’t do them all, the ones I actually did were tons of fun.
The first was Saturday morning at 10:30 called Mansions, Money, and Scandal: Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. The tour guide,
Alan Engler, was superb! He brought wit and humor to the plate, as well as lots of knowledge. I had a noon walk on my schedule, in case I wanted to leave the first tour early. As they say in Hawai’i, “No-a way-a!” In a concentrated area (East 70th Street/Fifth Avenue/East 72nd Street/Madison Avenue, down to East 66th Street), he packed in a ton of very interesting tidbits, even pointing out something that most New Yorkers and tourists alike had not seen in a long time—the sun! I highly recommend this tour. In fact, I did recommend it to other Jane’s Walkers I met on Saturday, since he repeated it on Sunday morning. Interestingly, one of the first stories he recounted was about himself. He’s given this tour before as Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. He got double the attendees after he added the Mansions, Money, and Scandal part. I even jotted down other buildings to visit and the titles of a couple of books to possibly explore.
Walk number two, at 2:00 in the afternoon, also had a catchy title. Home on the Grange chronicled the history and moving of Alexander Hamilton’s home that he had built in Harlem in 1802. Although there is a Hamilton Heights Historic District, Hamilton always referred to his neighborhood as Harlem. According to the Park Ranger leading the tour, Hamilton Heights, as a neighborhood, came into being in the 1970s as a term coined by the real estate industry. The house was first moved in 1889, by horse-drawn wagons. In 2008, it was moved to its current home in
St. Nicholas Park. For that move, it had to be hydraulically lifted 30 feet in the air in order to clear a tower structure of the church it sat next to. Once again, a great tour. I have only the highest regard for the Park Rangers I’ve dealt with. They’ve all been very knowledgeable and very helpful.
The third walk on my abbreviated Saturday schedule was a bit of a bust. I was at
St. James Church on Madison Avenue at the appointed time, and was joined by a few other walkers. Alas, no tour guide ever arrived—or at least not during the thirty minutes I waited.
Sunday morning’s tour was a little on the strange side. I met the tour guide,
Cynthia Ladopoulos, and her assistant, and then we were met by one more walker. The tour guide wanted to wait a few minutes, in case others showed up a little late, since Sunday morning transit had had some rerouting going on. The second walker seemed antsy to get walking. In fact, due to transit changes, he bailed after only about ten minutes of walking so that he could get to the Bronx for another walk. So I had a private tour of my old stomping grounds in the East 70s. The tour guide was once again very informative about different buildings in the neighborhood, some of which I knew and others I didn’t. Highlights included the Apple store, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (I worked there for a while and sang in the professional choir there for a time), the Bohemian National Hall, and the Cherokee Apartments (we even got a tenant to let us into the locked courtyard, where we saw the Guastavino-tiled arches). I then quickly made my way to 53rd Street and Park Avenue for a noon tour. But I got there at about five minutes past noon and didn’t see a soul. Bummer. While trying to salvage my schedule I glanced at my printout and realized that I wasn’t late—I was really early for the 1:00 tour.
This tour was run by two bona fide architects, so architectural features were heavily commented upon. Highlights there included the Seagram’s building, Casa Lever, St. Bartholomew’s Church’s Hildreth Meièr mosaic tiles (I once sang an afternoon of Gilbert & Sullivan music at St. Bart’s as part of a quartet), and Grand Central Terminal, including the upside down olive tree in the food market (I’m not making this up, you know!). Not new to me were the plaques along Library Way, though Architects’ Walk a little to the east was new to me. All of the plaques are the work of artist Gregg LeFevre. I also jotted down another book title to follow up with. I could have rushed to a 3:00 tour, but I was pretty pooped by then, so I went home and got to see the Mets win on TV. Not a bad day.
Here’s what was on my list that I didn’t get to: Harlem Noshwalk, Abraham Lincoln on Broadway, Gay Bars that Are Gone, and Madison Square Park. Maybe they’ll be prime contenders for next May.
ConcertMeister
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