Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island is a living history village that offers a glimpse into bygone days. This charming site takes visitors back in time with its collection of original and restored buildings dating from the late 17th century to the early 20th century. The town reflects the diverse lives and cultures of the people who once called Staten Island home. With costumed interpreters, interactive exhibits, and engaging demonstrations, Historic Richmond Town brings history to life.
Strolling through the streets of Historic Richmond Town feels like stepping into another era. The village is home to over 30 historic buildings, including homes, shops, and a schoolhouse. Each structure tells a unique story, illustrating different aspects of daily life from centuries past. The Voorlezer’s House, built in the late 1600s, is one of the oldest schoolhouses in America. Visitors can explore how education was conducted in colonial times.
The town is alive with activities and demonstrations that offer hands-on experiences. Blacksmiths, carpenters, and other artisans demonstrate traditional crafts and skills, allowing visitors to see historical methods in action. The candle-making workshop is especially popular, providing an opportunity to create a souvenir using techniques from the past. These activities offer insight into the craftsmanship that shaped the community.
Throughout the year, Historic Richmond Town hosts numerous seasonal events and festivals that draw crowds from near and far. The annual Richmond County Fair is a highlight, featuring live music, traditional games, and delicious food. During the holidays, the village transforms with festive decorations and special programs, celebrating the season with warmth and cheer. These events add a lively and colorful dimension to the historical setting.
Beyond its role as a tourist attraction, Historic Richmond Town emphasizes education. School programs are designed to immerse students in history through interactive lessons and tours. These programs encourage participants to engage with history in a meaningful way, fostering a deeper understanding of the past. Educators and history enthusiasts alike find value in the rich learning opportunities offered here.
Source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Richmond_Town
Built in 1802 (and physically shifted from its original location), this was the home of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers and the first Secretary of Treasury.
Dedicated to preserving and collecting television programs as a service to the public, the museum consists of two museum branches in Los Angeles and New York City; combined they hold over 100,000 television programs that are available to the public, providing a historical, artistic and cultural perspective to television and radio. You may use their library here for the price of admission. They have lots of old shows and a database so you can see if they have what you want.
Ellis Island was home to the nation's primary federal immigration station, with over 12 million immigrant steamship passengers passing through from its opening in 1892 to its closing in 1954. Today, over 40 percent of America's population can trace their ancestry through Ellis Island. The island is home to the American Family Immigration History Center, which contains manifests of 25 million immigrants, passengers, and crew members who entered New York Harbor. The Immigration museum at Ellis Islands has details about "Peopling of America" and if you are an avid history lover, this museum will need at least 3-4 hrs of your time. Since the ferry ride takes you to both Ellis Island as well as the Liberty Island, you will have to plan your day well.
See the Rockettes, another show, or just tour the famous Art Deco masterpiece.
Housed in a 560,000-square-foot, Beaux-Arts building, the Brooklyn is the 2nd largest art museum in New York City and one of the largest in the USA. Its world-renowned permanent collections include more than one million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art, and represent a wide range of cultures. It is a 30-minute subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, and has its own subway station (renovated in 2019-20), the museum is part of a complex of 19th-century parks and gardens that also includes Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Prospect Park Zoo. On the first Saturday of each month, the museum is open until 11PM with free admission and special events.
This neo-Romanesque fairy castle was built in 1891, and a northern addition in very similar style was built in 1933. The older building is a busy post office serving Downtown Brooklyn and the northern addition houses the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York.
A large and historically important Protestant church and center of progressive social activism. Also neo-Gothic.
This beautiful park extends along the Hudson River north of Riverside Park and features wonderful views of the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey and a community feel.
Rather large, interesting museum with all kinds of documentation of events in the 400-year history of this city and delightful artifacts of life in earlier periods, such as the extensive collection of 19th-century dollhouses complete with miniature furniture.
Supported by the Museum of Modern Art, this innovative (and cheap) contemporary art museum is in a former public school building. The conversion left most of the original features of the school - the large ex-classrooms are perfect for installations - and the bathrooms are a blast from the past. P.S.1 is a few blocks south on Jackson Avenue from the Citibank tower; the entrance is a concrete slab (how fitting) which occludes view of the school itself. P.S.1 also has a nice cafe and outdoor seats.
The historic heart of the Financial District and the home of the New York Stock Exchange, Wall Street is a metonym for American big business, stock trading and the entire financial industry, although most New York financial firms are no longer headquartered on the street itself, but housed nearby in new offices, and some have moved to Jersey City. A narrow street running downhill from Broadway to the East River, Wall Street was named for the wall that was built here in 1652 to keep Manhattan's indigenous peoples out of the growing Dutch settlement. The wall was demolished by the British in 1699. By the late 18th century, traders and speculators would gather under a buttonwood tree at the foot of Wall Street to trade informally - this was the origin of the New York Stock Exchange that was established in 1817.
Housed in the Alexander Hamilton US Custom House, this Smithsonian museum is the New York branch of the National Museum of the American Indian (the other branches are in Washington, D.C. and Maryland).
None of Central Park is actual virgin forest, but this is the closest any part of the park gets to feeling like genuine forest. It is beautiful and cool in hot weather. However, like a real forest, it is a mosquito habitat, so make sure to use insect repellent before walking through this part of the park.
Get up close to over 200 lifelike wax figures of the biggest stars and icons in entertainment, sports and history.
A spacious green lawn that was originally home to a herd of sheep, which grazed in the meadow and tended to in their nearby pen - a Victorian style building which today is the Tavern on the Green restaurant (see Eat below).
The historic building with the distinctive, iconic twin towers and a star-studded housing cooperative board. Built in 1930 in a vaguely Art Deco style to the design of Emery Roth, the San Remo actually has two separate addresses, lobbies and sets of shafts, each for a half of the building topped with a tower.