MUSEYON BOOKS Smart City Guides for Travel, History, Art and Film Lovers

Historic, Romantic and Obsessive Liaisons Memoirist and Francophile Baxter (A Year in Paris) offers an alluring collection of essays focused on the Parisian “culture of acceptance and acquiescence” in the boudoir. He combines personal reflections with a literary-historical account of neighborhoods and locales, including Montparnasse circa 1924, when Jean Rhys moved in with Ford Madox Ford and his girlfriend, and ... Read More »

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Upper West Side> Now start to walk along Riverside Drive. In the last few years of the 19th century, the Drive failed to attract many very wealthy residents, yet remained out of reach of middle class residents. However, a number of mansions were built, soon followed by upscale apartment blocks—by 1910 there were 24 ... Read More »

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Midtown> Walk on, stopping outside (26) 1678 Broadway—approximately where the parking sign is today. This venue has an equally important place in modern music culture as its basement was home to The Birdland Jazz Club from 1949 to 1965. It was named for jazz pioneer and saxophonist Charlie Parker (1920-1955), whose nickname was “Bird.” ... Read More »

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Hell’s Kitchen> On the right, you pass West 39th Street, which—between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues—was once as a notorious slum known as “Battle Row.” Long before the Westies, the 500-strong Irish American Gophers gang controlled the area from the 1890s until around 1910, finding rich pickings by stealing from the nearby train yards and ... Read More »

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: Chelsea> Continue on to Eleventh Avenue and the Hudson River to the west. Ahead is Pier 57, built in the early 1950s for shipping by the chemical business W.R. Grace and Company and later used as a bus station. In 1837, Thirteenth Avenue was constructed beside the Hudson River, but it was an unlucky ... Read More »

<Excerpt from New York Offbeat Walks: West Village> Continue along Bank Street to reach the junction with Washington Street. On the northwest corner is (34) the Westbeth Artists Housing complex. This incredible site originally comprised of 13 buildings was constructed for Western Electric in 1868, and later taken over by Bell Laboratories in the late 1890s. Demonstrations were held here ... Read More »