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

UNDERCITY from Andrew Wonder on Vimeo.   In a city with more than 400 years of history that is snaked with a vast network of tunnels, it is no wonder that a few pieces of beautiful history will be lost, hidden underground down unused subway tracks, cattle tunnels and old waterways. Each year, a few brave souls venture beneath the ... Read More »

The row houses on West 29th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue, in New York might look like many of the older townhouses scattered around Manhattan, except the ones on 29th St hold a significant and often overlooked place in the city’s history.   Built in 1846, this row of houses, situated on what was then Lamartine Place, during the ... Read More »

  One of the more surprising sites along Lexington Avenue in New York City is Central Synagogue; it’s Moorish towers topped with sparkling domes seem so out of place in the hustle and bustle of midtown. And yet, the synagogue is one of the oldest buildings on the block, not to mention one of the oldest synagogues in the United ... Read More »

  Dominating the picturesque Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan is the India House, or 1 Hanover Square. Built in 1851 by developer and merchant Richard F. Carmen, it was here where the New York Cotton Exchange was founded in 1870, the second such exchange of its kind.   But before the India House stood on Hanover Square, during Dutch Colonial ... Read More »

  As a modern day visitor to the bustling and trendy Meatpacking District of New York City, it is easy to forget the meaning behind the name of the area or that you are even in NYC at all; its beautiful people decked in expensive clothes are more reminiscent of LA. But what is now a trendy night spot, home ... Read More »

Hidden amongst the high rises of Murray Hill sits a secret courtyard, unknown by even some of the streets neighbors, Sniffen Court. Nestled on E36th St between 3rd Avenue and Lexington Avenue, this courtyard was originally built by architect John Sniffen in 1850 and was used as stables for the surround townhouses. During the 1920s, when keeping horses in Manhattan ... Read More »

The Chester A. Arthur Home in New York City was the home of the 21st President of the United States, both before and after his time in the White House. The townhouse located at 123 Lexington Avenue in New York City, is where Arthur spent most of his adult life. It is also to this home where, while serving as ... Read More »

Like many older uptown and midtown churches, St. Bartholomew’s first began downtown in 1835, near the greatest concentration of New Yorkers. But as its congregation grew, it soon built a large new church uptown on Madison Avenue in the year 1872. The church was designed by James Renwick and later embellished with a triple portal by Stanford White. In addition ... Read More »