Places to Visit

In 1930, a 185-foot steel spire was hidden inside the top of the Chrysler Building — assembled in secret, raised in 90 minutes, and unveiled to a city that never saw it coming.

New York once tore down its greatest building. The story of Penn Station’s demolition — and the law it created that saved Grand Central and 37,000 other buildings forever.

Discover the Horn & Hardart Automat — the coin-slot cafeteria that fed millions of New Yorkers for 90 years and why the city never got over losing it.

The brownstones lining Brooklyn’s famous streets were built as cheap, temporary housing for a booming city. Here’s how they became New York’s most coveted — and most fought-over — buildings.

The Empire State Building was built in 410 days at the height of the Great Depression, sat nearly empty for two decades, survived a plane crash, and became the most iconic building on earth. Here’s the story New York never got tired of telling.

Inside the Village Vanguard — the tiny Greenwich Village basement where jazz history has been made since 1935, and where it is still being made tonight.

Stand at the center of Washington Square Park on any afternoon and you’ll see musicians, chess players, students, and tourists. What you won’t see — what the city has never advertised — is the 20,000 people buried beneath your feet. Washington Square Park is New York City’s most beloved public gathering place. It’s also one …

The Park Built on 20,000 Graves That Became the Heart of New York Read More »

Walk north on Broadway past 155th Street and the city changes register. The bodegas multiply. The music spills from apartment windows. Spanish — specifically Dominican Spanish, rapid and warm — fills the air. You haven’t left Manhattan. But you’ve arrived somewhere that feels entirely its own. Washington Heights, the neighborhood that stretches from 155th Street …

The Manhattan Neighborhood That Became the Heart of the Dominican Republic Read More »

El Barrio in East Harlem has shaped New York like few places on earth — birthplace of salsa music, Nuyorican poetry, and a community spirit that a hundred years of change has never erased.

Inside the Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village, a group of American painters changed art history — and took the art world crown from Paris forever.