Discover the origins of The Gilded Age in Downtown Manhattan
Step back in time to discover the amazing history of 1800s New York City
Join this unique tour of the once elegant Bond Street NOHO neighborhood, former home to some of New York’s most famous families including the Astors, Vanderbilts, Delanos and Schermerhorns. You’ll learn how the neighborhood from the Bowery to Washington Square evolved into an enclave of the very rich and often vary famous, as well as the fringes of New York’s 19th-century underbelly.
Your expert guide Aaron will lead you through the neighborhood of 19th-century cobblestone streets and introduce you to characters in this real-life drama, such as John Jacob Astor, Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Mrs. Astor, and Edith Wharton.
Our tour will visit such New York landmarks as the famous Colonnade Row, the Public Theater (once New York’s first public library), and Cooper Union, site of impassioned political speeches from Lincoln to Obama. You’ll be able to imagine the drama of events that unfolded on today’s bustling Astor Place including the Opera House riot of 1847, one of the bloodiest in American history.
We’ll dive into the history of the site of the notorious 1857 Bond St. murder of Harvey Burdell, which remains one of New York’s still unsolved murder mysteries, and you’ll hear true stories of the literary as well as the libertine residents of this incredible neighborhood.
NoHo Tour Highlights
- Astor Place, a longtime site of cultural life as well as a political struggle
- Visit Washington Square and the chance to explore the myth and reality of this historic space
- Grace Church, built for the neighborhood’s wealthy elite and a background setting in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence
- Colonnade Row, once the most exclusive residential site in America with a look at some of the homes’ most famous inhabitants
- Merchant’s House Museum, Manhattan’s first landmark and a virtually intact home inside and out from 1832
- The Bowery – tales of the famous and infamous that once walked this famous street
- Site of A.T. Stewart’s Iron Palace, one of America’s very first grand department stores
- St.-Mark’s-in-the-Bowery, a look at this beautiful Georgian church built on the site of land once belonging to New Amsterdam’s last leader, Peter Stuyvesant
Rates
Person – $40
(Best suited for ages 16+)
Please contact us to set up a private tour!
Duration
2 Hours (we will send you the meeting place after you book)
Your guide
Prep for our 19th-Century NoHo Tour by listening to the Bowery Boys episode “The Murder on Bond Street”.