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Published on 7/4/08
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Survey
Chelsea: Then and Now | East Village 101
The Genius and Elegance of Gramercy Park | The Multiethnic Eating Tour
Your old college buddy scored the penthouse suite at the Maritime Hotel (363 W 16th St) and can’t wait to splash around in the terrace shower—lucky him. But residents at that address had a less lavish experience back when it was Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter plagued by sex-abuse scandal in the late 1980s, as we learn on Anthony Grifa’s never-dull stroll through Chelsea.
The tour runs rain or shine, so you be prepared to slog it out. But such endurance is rewarded, as Grifa is a font of information about the neighborhood’s storied past. The epicurean mecca of Chelsea Market (75 Ninth Ave), for example, once housed the not-so-gourmet National Biscuit Company (a.k.a. Nabisco). And prior to its rebirth as a sports complex, Chelsea Piers (West St at 23rd St) was a highly trafficked port where the Lusitania docked before being sunk by German U-boats in WWI.
The tour is fast-paced, but Grifa—whose father was a construction worker on the Empire State Building—is passionate about architecture and often pauses to discuss the finer points of Italianate design or the sad fate of Federal-style row houses. Most of the latter burned down in the Great New York Fire of 1835, Grifa informs us, but a few preserved examples remain across the street from ’hood favorite Billy’s Bakery (184 Ninth Ave).
Grifa glosses over Chelsea’s gay scene—only briefly mentioning the Anvil, now the Liberty Inn (51 Tenth Ave), as the birthplace of the Village People—but tourists who might otherwise just come here for Loehmann’s and the remaining gallery scene would still greatly benefit from this tour. And that’s exactly why locals will love it too.—Dan Lopez
Contact tour companies for the next available tour or consult daily listings.
Mikey
Sat, Dec 01, 07, at 12:07am
For all newcomers and old NYawkers alike who like this site and the tours. Might I recommend you read a little of Pete Hamill's
My Downtown , Manhattan
We grew up reading Pete along
with Jimmy Breslin born and bred rough and tough NY writers. They made you feel you were at the scene, whether a disco or local bar.
NY is always revolving into a new a vibrant city. Eric Ferrara is correct in his post, you should google people who made NY and The NY who made the people.
Mikey
Fri, Nov 30, 07, at 11:09pm
Shout out to Montel who touted
this web site on his TV show today
Thank you Montel
Eric Ferrara
Thu, Nov 29, 07, at 5:49pm
I just want to say that the review may have missed the point of this tour. I am
concerned that "Tom Cruise andChristy Turlington" are what made an impact. On this
tour, we cover the "melting pot", the immigrant experience, tenement life, Yiddish
Theater, Vaudeville; the rise of the American gangster, labor unions and women's
rights; the birth of radical arts, activism and politics in America; and the demise
of Lower East Side mom and pop meat markets, tailors, and bakeries in the face of
gentrification. And so much more.
Earth shattering, no. But in my opinion, the subject matter is very important for
any New Yorker (or any American for that matter); The arts, ideas, and politics
which spawned from the Lower East Side have changed the world.
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