19th Century NoHo: Discover the origins of The Gilded Age in Downtown Manhattan
Step back in time to discover the amazing history of 1800s New York City
Our walk will dive into the history of NoHo (North of Houston Street), a geographically small neighborhood in downtown Manhattan that contains within its borders an outsized amount of New York City history. New York is a dynamic city that is constantly reinventing itself, and perhaps no period in the city’s history has been marked by such significant change as the 1800s. The events and people you will hear about on this tour will involve tales of glamour, greed, money, and murder in 19th-century New York.
Before New York’s elite migrated to Fifth Avenue and made their way uptown, this small slice of Manhattan—what would have been called the Bond Street neighborhood 200 hundred years ago—was one of the most fashionable enclaves in the city. NoHo—located between Washington Square Park and the East Village—is an interesting area to explore because the physical changes that were taking place in New York City, and the social tensions that existed as immigrants poured into the city and the population exploded, played out in NoHo. This neighborhood from Broadway to the Bowery was transformed over the course of the 1800s, and in many ways the area’s history is a representation of the changes that defined New York City in the 19th century:
The wealth that was on display in the city, as New York grew from a shipping hub, anchored by its merchant class, to a world city occupied by many of America’s new titans of industry, culminating in the excesses of the Gilded Age in the later decades of the century. The influx of immigrants and the exploding population in the 1800s and the social tensions that arose. And the continuous march north, as the city grew and the population moved farther up the island of Manhattan. This development would wash over NoHo, transforming farmland at the start of the 1800s to a dense, mixed-use neighborhood in the heart of the city by the close of the century.
Tour Highlights
On the walking tour, you will:
- Take in the street scenes of NoHo, imagining what life in the growing metropolis would have been like in the middle of the 1800s
- Learn about the early development of the area and the roots of the Gilded Age being here
- Hear about a riot that shook the neighborhood, and the entire city, and represents the social tensions that existed in NoHo in the middle of the 19th century
- Visit today’s Lafayette Street, one of the most fashionable residential streets in the city when it was created, and the site of a building that has connections to the start of the New York Public Library
- Consider how NoHo was a microcosm of New York City’s transformation over the course of the 19th century
Key Stops
On the walking tour, you will:
- Astor Place: Our tour begins where the patriarch of one of New York’s most prominent Gilded Age families who made a real estate investment here that would be the catalyst for the development of the area
- Site of A.T. Stewart’s Iron Palace: A grand department store unlike any other that had come before it
- Grace Church: One of the most fashionable churches in New York City in the middle of the 19th century, and the site of some of the most famous weddings and funerals in the city’s history
- Colonnade Row: Once the most exclusive residential address in New York City
- Bond Street: The home to well-heeled New Yorkers starting in the 1820s, the queen of Gilded Age society, Caroline Astor, lived here when she was a child, and later, this street would be the site of a ghastly murder that rocked the neighborhood
- Merchant’s House: A remarkable example of the residential architecture that was being built in NoHo for the merchant class who made their money when the city was still a shipping hub
This entertaining and informative tour is ideal for lovers of New York City history, fans of the Gilded Age who are interested in learning about the roots of New York’s Gilded Age society, and locals who are curious about NoHo, the often-overlooked neighborhood between Washington Square Park and the East Village.
Rates
$40 per person
We will send you the meeting place after you book.
Duration
2 Hours
Your guide
Aaron Schielke is a licensed New York City tour guide who loves exploring cities. He has worked on the design and production of a series of city guidebooks. Aaron has a BA in Architecture with a focus on urban design. He’s excited to be leading the NoHo Bowery Boys Walk.
NoHo on the Bowery Boys New York City History Podcast
Study up for our walking tour by listening to the Bowery Boys episodes:
Episode 276: The Murder on Bond Street: Who Killed Dr. Burdell?
Episode 289: Astor Place Opera House Riot in 1849
Episode 422: Grace Church