Off the Beaten (Subway) Track : New York City's Best Unusual Attractions

by Reisman, Suzanne

• ISBN13: 9781581826418
• ISBN10: 1581826419
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-01
• Publisher: Cumberland House

Summary

While it may seem that every possible topic about New York City?s attractions has been written about, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track is the first book to focus on the hundreds of off-the-beaten-path destinations in the city. Some are small museums, others are historic places long forgotten, some are stores that sell only odd things, and some are 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 can be visited via the subway system as the author directs readers to which of the city's 486 subway stations will get them closest. These are the types of places and things that fit perfectly with New Yorkers? psyches and egos and satisfy the desire of tourists to see the unusual. For example, New York 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. It 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 many of these sites is meeting the people behind them. Organized geographically to help readers explore the culture and diversity of the city?s great neighborhoods, Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City?s Best Unusual Attractions offers venues in Lower, Middle, and Upper Manhattan; Brooklyn; the Bronx; Queens; and Staten Island.

Author Biography

Suzanne Reisman, a graduate of New York University (BA) and Columbia University (MPA), is a travel writer and editor

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 11
Introduction	p. 13
Lower Manhattan (Below 14th Street)
Skyscraper Museum	p. 21
Fraunces Tavern Museum	p. 25
Archeological dig sites	p. 28
New York City Police Museum	p. 29
American Numismatic Society/New York Federal Reserve Bank	p. 32
Little Lad's Basket	p. 34
Museum of American Finance	p. 35
Jeremy's Ale House	p. 36
Lower East Side Troll Museum	p. 37
Pickle Guys	p. 40
Economy Candy	p. 40
Yonah Schimmel's Knishery	p. 40
New York City Fire Museum	p. 41
Rice to Riches	p. 43
Dia Center for the Arts: "The New York Earth Room" and "The Broken Kilometer"	p. 44
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art	p. 46
Ukrainian Museum	p. 48
Galeria De La Vega	p. 50
Obscura Antiques	p. 50
Forbes Galleries	p. 51
14th Street A, C, E Subway Station	p. 56
Middle Manhattan (14th Street to 59th Street)
Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace	p. 59
Eisenberg's Sandwich Shop	p. 61
Masonic Hall and Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library and Museum of Grand Lodge	p. 62
Chapel of Sacred Mirrors	p. 67
Horticultural Society of New York	p. 69
United Nations Sculpture Garden	p. 70
Waterfall Walkway	p. 71
Berlin Wall	p. 71
Tourneau Gallery of Time and Oris Exhibit Hall	p. 72
Upper Manhattan East (Above 59th Street, East of 5th Avenue)
Corning Gallery at Steuben Glass	p. 75
Mt. Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden	p. 76
Tender Buttons	p. 79
Museum of American Illustration	p. 80
Herbert & Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica at Temple Emanu-El	p. 83
New York Academy of Medicine Library	p. 86
Museum of the City of New York	p. 88
Charles A. Dana Discovery Center	p. 90
National Museum of Catholic Art & History/Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church	p. 91
Upper Manhattan West (Above 59th Street, West of 5th Avenue)
Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame	p. 97
Nicholas Roerich Museum	p. 98
Cathedral of St. John the Divine	p. 101
Hungarian Pastry Shop	p. 107
Harlem Market/Malcolm Shabazz Mosque	p. 107
Amy Ruth's	p. 107
Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum	p. 108
Museum of Art and Origins	p. 110
Jumel Terrace Books	p. 112
National Track & Field Hall of Fame	p. 113
Mini George Washington Bridge Playground	p. 115
El Malecon	p. 116
Highway Living	p. 116
Site of Fort Washington	p. 116
St. Frances Cabrini Shrine	p. 117
Dyckman Farmhouse Museum	p. 121
Scavengers of Inwood	p. 123
Inwood Hill Park	p. 124
Albert's Mofongo House	p. 126
The Bronx
Judaica Museum of the Hebrew Home for the Aged	p. 129
Loeser's Kosher Delicatessen	p. 131
Edgar Allan Poe Cottage	p. 132
Original Products	p. 135
258th Field Artillery Armory	p. 135
Hall of Fame for Great Americans	p. 136
Aqueduct Walk	p. 138
Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at St. Lucy's Church (a.k.a. Lourdes of America)	p. 139
Maritime Industry Museum at SUNY Maritime College	p. 142
Queens
Steinway & Sons Piano Factory Tour	p. 149
Astoria bakeries and food mini-tour	p. 152
Socrates Sculpture Park	p. 153
Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden	p. 155
5 Pointz	p. 156
Louis Armstrong House	p. 158
El Indio Amazonico	p. 164
Queens Museum of Art	p. 165
Poppenhusen Institute	p. 169
The Living Museum at Creedmoor Psychiatric Center	p. 172
Queens County Farm Museum	p. 176
Brooklyn
City Reliquary	p. 183
Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel	p. 187
Brooklyn Brewery Tour	p. 189
SKSK	p. 191
New York City Transit Museum	p. 192
Prison Ship Martyrs Monument	p. 194
Waterfront Museum	p. 196
Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.	p. 199
Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies	p. 199
Weeksville Heritage Center	p. 200
Floyd Bennett Field	p. 204
Enrico Caruso Museum of America	p. 207
Coney Island Museum	p. 211
Nathan's Famous and the Hot Dog Eating Wall of Fame	p. 216
Harbor Defense Museum	p. 217
John Paul Jones Park	p. 220
Staten Island
Staten Island Museum	p. 223
Professional Baseball Scouting Hall of Fame	p. 225
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Shrine	p. 226
Garibaldi Meucci Museum	p. 229
Castleton Hill Moravian Church Labyrinth Walk	p. 232
Noble Maritime Collection	p. 233
Index by Category	p. 237
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.