Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions
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distinguished for their claim to fame as the world’s largest/smallest whatever. All of them are notable for the passion with which their proprietors and curators care for them, and all of them can be visited via the subway system as Suzanne Reisman directs you to which of the city’s 486 subway stations will get you closest.
These attractions are the types of places and things that not only fit perfectly with the New Yorker’s psyche and ego but also satisfy a tourist’s desire to see the unusual. For example, the Big Apple is home to the world’s tallest Doric column, the world’s largest armory, the world’s largest cathedral, and the world’s largest Reform synagogue. The city also has a troll museum, a numismatic museum, a skyscraper museum, doll and toy museums, and a museum of comic and cartoon art. In many cases, half the fun of visiting these places is getting to meet the people behind them.
Organized geographically to help you to explore the culture and diversity of the city’s great neighborhoods, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track offers venues in Manhattan (Lower, Middle, and Upper), Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. Also included in many of the entries are nearby places of interest within walking distance that you might also want to visit while you’re in the neighborhood.
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Reviews for Off the Beaten (Subway) Track
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Book preview
Off the Beaten (Subway) Track - Suzanne Reisman
TURNER PUBLISHING COMPANY
445 PARK AVENUE, 9TH FLOOR
NEW YORK, NY 10022
200 4TH AVENUE NORTH, SUITE 950
NASHVILLE, TN 37219
OFF THE BEATEN SUBWAY TRACK
Copyright © 2011 by Suzanne Reisman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.
www.turnerpublishing.com
New York City Subway Map © Metropolitan Transportation Authority 2008. Subway Map, tokens, and transfer slips used with permission.
Cover design: James Duncan Creative
Text design: Lisa Taylor
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reisman, Suzanne.
Off the beaten subway track: New York City's best unusual attractions / Suzanne Reisman.
p. cm.
Orig. pub.: Nashville, Tenn.: Cumberland House, c2008.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-58182-641-8
1. New York (N.Y.)–Guidebooks. 2. Curiosities and wonders–New York (State)–New York–Guidebooks. 3. Subways–New York (State)–New York–Guidebooks.
I. Title. II. Title: Off the beaten track.
F128.18.R45 2011
917.4704'44–dc22
2011005397
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 — 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
To Justin, my favorite unusual attraction
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
LOWER MANHATTAN (BELOW 14TH STREET)
Skyscraper Museum
Fraunces Tavern Museum
archeological dig sites
New York City Police Museum
American Numismatic Society/New York Federal Reserve Bank
Little Lad's Basket
Museum of American Finance
Jeremy's Ale House
Lower East Side Troll Museum
Pickle Guys
Economy Candy
Yonah Schimmel's Knishery
New York City Fire Museum
Rice to Riches
Dia Center for the Arts: The New York Earth Room
and The Broken Kilometer
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
Ukrainian Museum
Galeria De La Vega
Obscura Antiques
Forbes Galleries
14th Street A, C, E Subway Station
MIDDLE MANHATTAN (14TH STREET TO 59TH STREET)
Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace
Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop
Masonic Hall and Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of Grand Lodge
Chapel of Sacred Mirrors
Horticultural Society of New York
United Nations Sculpture Garden
Waterfall Walkway
Berlin Wall
Tourneau Gallery of Time and Oris Exhibit Hall
UPPER MANHATTAN EAST (ABOVE 59TH STREET, EAST OF 5TH AVENUE)
Corning Gallery at Steuben Glass
Mt. Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
Tender Buttons
Museum of American Illustration
Herbert & Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica at Temple Emanu-El
New York Academy of Medicine Library 86
Museum of the City of New York 88
Charles A. Dana Discovery Center
National Museum of Catholic Art & History/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
UPPER MANHATTAN WEST (ABOVE 59TH STREET, WEST OF 5TH AVENUE)
Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame
Nicholas Roerich Museum
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Hungarian Pastry Shop
Harlem Market/Malcolm Shabazz Mosque
Amy Ruth's
Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum
Museum of Art and Origins
Jumel Terrace Books
National Track & Field Hall of Fame
Mini George Washington Bridge Playground
El Malecón
Highway Living
Site of Fort Washington
St. Frances Cabrini Shrine
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
Scavengers of Inwood
Inwood Hill Park
Albert's Mofongo House
THE BRONX
Judaica Museum of the Hebrew Home for the Aged
Loeser's Kosher Delicatessen
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage
Original Products
258th Field Artillery Armory
Hall of Fame for Great Americans
Aqueduct Walk
Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at St. Lucy's Church (a.k.a. Lourdes of America)
Maritime Industry Museum at SUNY Maritime College
QUEENS
Steinway & Sons Piano Factory Tour
Astoria bakeries and food mini-tour
Socrates Sculpture Park
Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden
5 Pointz
Louis Armstrong House
El Indio Amazonico
Queens Museum of Art
Poppenhusen Institute
The Living Museum at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center
Queens County Farm Museum
BROOKLYN
City Reliquary
Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel
Brooklyn Brewery Tour
SKSK
New York City Transit Museum
Prison Ship Martyrs Monument
Waterfront Museum
Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.
Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies
Weeksville Heritage Center
Floyd Bennett Field
Enrico Caruso Museum of America
Coney Island Museum
Nathan's Famous and the Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame
Harbor Defense Museum
John Paul Jones Park
STATEN ISLAND
Staten Island Museum
Professional Baseball Scouting Hall of Fame
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Shrine
Garibaldi Meucci Museum
Castleton Hill Moravian Church Labyrinth Walk
Noble Maritime Collection
Index by Category
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to my helper monkeys
(Stephanie Adams, Roger Chi, Paula Denoya, Sara Marks, Desiree Miltimore, Jenny Occhipinti, Justin Pollack, Scott Pollack, Rachel Samlan, Oliver Swan, and Stef Weiss) for sharing so many adventures with me; my friend and agent Matthew Elblonk for helping me share my adventures in book form; and my family for their love and support through years of adventures.
I could not have done it without you.
INTRODUCTION
I love road trips, strange museums, and eccentric people who share their unusual talents, passions, and obsessions with the general public. While I happily reside in Manhattan, I jealously spent years reading about interesting historic sites, crazy monuments, nostalgic diners, and buildings designed to resemble something else—e.g., a building in the shape of a giant duck or a pharmacy shaped like a mortar and pestle—around the United States. (Perhaps my interest in these things was honed at a young age; when I was a tot growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I received my first swimming lessons at a YMCA that resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa.) If New York City is the largest, most diverse city in the country, why was it so hard for me to find unusual sites to see and things to do that didn't require long drives? Sure, I understand that New Yorkers face real estate constraints unheard of anywhere else in the country, but I figured there must be interesting places within the five boroughs that adventure seekers like me could get to with the subway and/or bus.
I believe that New York is the best city on earth. During my ten-year career in community development, I spent time in a variety of communities across the City that will never get attention from travel magazines but which offer tremendous opportunities to see and do new things, not to mention feast like royalty. Taking advantage of our public transportation led me to discover that there are oodles of interesting things to see and do in the City that give any roadside attraction a run for its gas money. It turns out that the ultimate road trip is the one taken on the subway tracks.
Don't get me wrong; I love a good road trip as much as anyone. But road trips are special occasions usually requiring several days off from work, and most people who live in New York City don't own an automobile. Why not save some money and shrink your carbon footprint by taking a road trip
using New York's fine public transportation to visit something different? This book explores unusual attractions that are off the beaten (subway) track that easily match anything for which you would need a car to see. With almost 850 miles of subway track, over twenty-five subway lines (including three shuttles), and 486 stations in New York City, where can't you go? You can travel thirty-eight miles with only one transfer. There are also more than 200 bus routes covering hundreds—if not thousands—of miles of urban territory. Mass transit can carry an adventurous soul to many unusual attractions within the City, often away from the hustle and bustle of stressed New Yorkers and the usual, crowded tourist areas.
Think about it: New York has the more densely populated blocks in the country, yet a single subway ride from Times Square will leave you utterly alone, surrounded by (mostly) silent nature in the woods of Inwood Park. There are skyscrapers galore in Manhattan, but the subway and bus can bring you to a working farm in Queens. In a city where millions of dollars are spent acquiring fine art, there is a psychiatric hospital with a working gallery of its residents' artwork that is open to the public by appointment. You can join the hoity-toity at the Metropolitan Opera House, or you can listen to turn-of-the-century recordings of opera legend Enrico Caruso played on vintage phonographs in a museum on the second floor of a two-family home in Brooklyn. The body of a venerated saint, shrines that heal the ailing, and religious relics are located not very far from enormous balls of hair coughed up by cows. New York City is loaded with enough offbeat attractions to keep a curiosity seeker busy for quite some time, no car required.
Off the Beaten (Subway) Track is designed to help people find the unusual and quirky sites in New York City that even many lifelong New Yorkers don't know about. This book is for New Yorkers and visitors who want to avoid Times Square and see more of the real
city. It is organized by geographic regions to encourage the exploration of the cultures and variety of New York City's many great neighborhoods while making your way to the destination of your choice.
An upfront admission: Since the book is a labor of love, it is heavily influenced by my personal preferences and interests. I especially like bakeries, Southern cooking, Jewish heritage, Catholic shrines, and historic sites of somewhat limited importance. (A Bronx cottage containing the bed that Edgar Allan Poe's wife died in? I am so there!) Oddities and grotesqueness delight me, but I also enjoy normal places that have some hidden treasures. Gift shops also figure prominently into my preferences, as half the time they are as much fun to browse as the museum or attraction for which they raise money to support. Interesting neighborhood shopping and eating opportunities are highlighted in this book as well. There's no rhyme or reason why many of the places are included in the book; I just happen to like them.
As many of these sites depend on one person to operate, be sure to call before you set out for your destination. Checking official websites is a good start, but that is not always enough as the information may not be updated. Small museums and other interesting attractions frequently change hours of operation, sometimes change locations, and often are understaffed. If a special event is taking place, the attraction may be closed even if it usually is open at the time you plan to visit. Countless times, I foolishly did not follow my own advice and found myself standing grumpily on the stoop of some closed building in the outer reaches of a borough after I spent ninety minutes getting there via bus and subway. Half the fun may be getting there, but still, don't let this happen to you—call beforehand.
Further, it is critical to consider the effects of rapid gentrification. The history of New York City is constant change. I learned from my community development experience that there are almost no sites in the City that haven't been something else in a previous life or two. From the time I began research for this book two years ago to when I finished it, many unique sites have closed. One day I was eating a hamentashen in front of a Lower East Side bakery, the next day the bakery was a hole in the ground, being prepared for its new use as yet another glass and steel luxury condominium. (Rest in peace Gertel's Bakery Since 1915, the Caribbean Costume Museum, the African-American Wax Museum of Harlem, and the Museum of the Mikveh. I hardly knew ye.) Again, calling ahead to make sure the site you want to visit still exists is a solid plan.
After verifying if and when you can indeed visit a place, the next step to a successful subway road trip is to figure out how to get there. Some places have websites with excellent directions; others don't even have phones. Fortunately, there are several great trip planning resources on the Internet, each with benefits and drawbacks.
PROS
pg017_img1CONS
pg018_img1If, even after all the mapping and planning, you are lost, just ask someone for help. When I first moved to New York, non-New Yorkers advised me to never look lost; never take out a map; and never, ever, under any circumstances, stop someone on the street for directions or else be mugged/beaten/killed. This could not be further from the truth. As a friend reminded me, we New Yorkers love to show off how much we know about our hometown. People are almost always willing to give directions or show you the way, provided you do not inconvenience them too much. For example, my friend Nancy and my sister once visited me from Chicago. When they got lost on their way to South Street Seaport, a man with a black trench coat stopped and offered to help them. You want directions?
the guy asked. He suddenly yanked his trench coat open. They gasped, expecting to be flashed. The fully clothed man instead revealed pockets stuffed with maps. He daintily pulled one out, showed them where they currently were, highlighted their route, and off he went on his merry way.
Now it's your turn. Load up your MetroCard and explore the City on a subway road trip of your own!
LOWER
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H
A
T
T
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(Below 14th Street)
LOWER
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SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM
Address: 39 Battery Place
Phone: 212.968.1961
Directions: 4 or 5 to Bowling Green; 1 to Rector Street; R or W to Rector Street
Other details at: www.SkyScraper.org
For such a