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The Chinese Scholars botanical Garden at Snug Harbor
Courtesy: Snug HarborSnug Harbor

The best lesser-known NYC attractions

These lesser-known NYC attractions are hidden gems that are often overlooked but well worth a visit

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NYC is chock full of iconic attractions that are known around the world. From the Statue of Liberty and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Times Square and the Empire State Building, these NYC attractions should be on everyone’s must-do list. Once you’ve tackled all the most important things to do in the city, branch out and explore these lesser-known NYC attractions.

These under-the-radar attractions range from overlooked parks to quirky museums. New York has many historic buildings that don’t make the best-of lists, but they’re definitely worth a visit. You may be surprised that you’ve never heard of some of these attractions, so check them out now to be in the know. For more under-the-radar gems in NYC, check out these off-the-beaten-path tours, hidden restaurants, hidden streets, and speakeasies.

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RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best New York attractions 
RECOMMENDED: Check out the best attractions in Manhattan

Best lesser-known NYC attractions

  • Attractions
  • Historic buildings and sites
  • Financial District

Designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1913, the Woolworth Building was once the world's tallest and was famed for its Gothic Revival exterior and sumptuous lobby. Unfortunately, only the wealthy residents were privy to its beauty, as outsiders weren't allowed in. The lobby is still closed to the public, but architecture and history buffs can sign up for a tour (Note: tours currently on hold). If you're a film fan, you might also recognize this location from several flicks, including Singin' in the Rain, The Great Gatsby, and Fantastic Beasts.

  • Museums
  • History
  • Upper West Side

The hyphen in the name of the New York Historical Society isn’t a mistake, but a reference to the way the city spelled its name when the museum was founded in 1804. The collection of more than 1.6 million artifacts focuses on city lore and includes exhibits on everything from women’s history to original Tiffany lamps. 

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  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Staten Island

Sitting just a ferry ride away from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, this former home for retired sailors is still something of a secret. Spread across 83 acres, the area boasts an enormous botanical garden and cultural center surrounded by cobblestone streets and Victorian and Tudor homes. One of the most popular attractions here is the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, fitted with magnificent rocks meant to resemble mountains inspired by the poetry and paintings of Confucian, Buddhist, and Taoist monks, as well as a bamboo forest path and koi pond.

  • Museums
  • Special interest
  • Fort Greene

Housed in what was once a military residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, this small museum pays homage to the historical significance of the former shipbuilding center—which, at its peak during World War II, employed close to 70,000 people. History buffs can geek out over permanent exhibits on the building of ships such as the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor and the Pearl Harbor casualty USS Arizona and explore the previously unheard stories of women and people of color who toiled on repairs of battleships and carriers.

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  • Museums
  • History
  • East Harlem
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Located at the top of Museum Mile, the Museum of the City of New York is the place to explore the city’s past, celebrate its present, and imagine its future. The institution’s entire first floor is devoted to New York at Its Core, a sprawling exhibition including two galleries taking visitors on a tour of all 400 years of New York City history and a flagship space known as the Future City Lab where visitors use interactive technology to design the NYC of the future. Rotating exhibitions throughout the rest of the Museum focus on issues ranging from the city’s history of social activism to New York’s built environment, and include objects from the Museum’s extensive Collections of vintage photographs, costumes and textiles, theater memorabilia, furniture and decorative arts, and more. Don’t miss the amazing Stettheimer Dollhouse, created during the 1920s by Carrie Stettheimer, whose artist friends re-created their masterpieces in miniature to hang on the walls. Look closely and you’ll even spy a tiny version of Marcel Duchamp’s famous Nude Descending a Staircase.

  • Museums
  • Art and design
  • Queens

Let's get real, with all of the amazing things to do and places to visit in the big apple, it's not possible to visit everything – no matter how much free time you've got. Luckily, tackling Gotham is made a little easier with this Panorama – and why? Because it combines all of the boroughs into a single room. But don't think you'll be seeing a miniature here, the Panorama of the City of New York still spans an impressively vast 9,335-square-foot, allowing for fantastic detail that can be discovered by eagle-eyed visitors. Peer down and you'll feel like Google Earth, spotting your local, favorite coffee shop. Plus, if you want to get really involved you can purchase some of the cheapest real estate in New York – scaled-down apartments on this model cost as little as 100 dollars. (Although, to be honest, they aren't far off the size of New York studios, anyway).

 

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  • Things to do
  • Walks and tours
  • Greenwood

A century ago, this site vied with Niagara Falls as New York State’s greatest tourist attraction. Filled with Victorian mausoleums, cherubs and gargoyles, Green-Wood is the resting place of some half-million New Yorkers, among them Jean-Michel Basquiat, Leonard Bernstein and Boss Tweed. But there’s more to do here than grave-spot: Check out the massive Gothic arch at the main entrance or climb to the top of Battle Hill, one of the highest points in Kings County and a pivotal spot during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776.

  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • The Bronx
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This city-owned garden in the Riverdale section of the Bronx retains the same horticultural traditions as when it was a private estate. You’ll find an elegant 19th-century mansion surrounded by meticulously groomed gardens, featuring abundant wildflowers and shady pergolas. The area offers sweeping views of the river and the New Jersey Palisades. Wake up early to take advantage of free admission between 9am and noon every Saturday during select months of the year.

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  • Museums
  • Special interest
  • Boerum Hill
  • price 1 of 4

Other archives may offer broader perspectives on city history, but we love the Transit Museum because it goes deep into one essential element of New York life: the public transit system. Opened in 1976 in a former IND subway station, the museum displays historic artifacts—including a collection of vintage train cars spanning the 20th century—as well as more timely pieces, such as works from the MTA’s Arts for Transit program. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Sadie, the fluffy gray cat who controls the space’s rodent population; look for her on the lower-level subway platform, where she’s often found snoozing in an old-timey car.

  • Museums
  • History
  • The Bronx

The history of this beautiful estate dates back to the 17th century, when Thomas Pell signed a treaty with the Siwanoy Indians to purchase about 50,000 acres of what is now the Bronx. Located within today’s Pelham Bay Park, the current house was built between 1836 and 1842 and sold to the City of New York in 1888. Re-opened as a museum in 1946, it now offers tours of its furnishings, carriage house and formal gardens.

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  • Museums
  • Science and technology
  • Midtown West

Part museum, part spy training ground, Spyscape offers aspiring intelligence agents the opportunity to test their mettle. First, visitors can read up on real-life spies like Alan Turing, the mathematician who cracked the Enigma code, and Virginia Hall, the one-legged operative who helped escaped POWs travel to safety during World War II. Then it’s time for your assessment: After you sneak through a hallway peppered with laser beams, submit to a lie detector test and test all kinds of other Bond-style skills, the museum uses a profiling system developed by a former British Intelligence officer to grade your performance.

  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Prospect Park

Though it isn’t as well known as its cousin in the Bronx, Brooklyn Botanic Garden is still worth a visit. Founded in 1910, the 52-acre green space encompasses everything from wildflowers in the Native Flora Garden to sacred lotuses in the Lily Pools. Come in the spring for the perennially popular Sakura Matsuri Festival celebrating cherry blossoms and all things Japanese, or just take in the serene Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden – the first public garden inspired by that island nation to be built in the United States.

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  • Museums
  • History
  • Battery Park City
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This museum explores Jewish life before, during and after the Nazi genocide. The permanent collection includes documentary films, thousands of photos and 800 artifacts, many donated by Holocaust survivors and their families, while the Memorial Garden features English artist Andy Goldsworthy’s Garden of Stones, 18 fire-hollowed boulders embedded with dwarf oak saplings. Special exhibitions tackle historical events or themes. The new Keeping History Center brings the core collection to life with interactive displays, including “Voices of Liberty,” a soundscape of émigrés’ and refugees’ reactions to their arrival in the U.S., which is made all the more poignant juxtaposed with the museum’s panoramic views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

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  • Museums
  • Special interest
  • Red Hook

Located aboard a refurbished 1914 Lehigh Valley Railroad barge, The Waterfront Museum is dedicated to preserving New York's maritime history, with classes, performances, photos and vintage objects that harken back to the city's nautical heyday as the most important port in the country.

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  • Museums
  • History
  • Staten Island
  • price 1 of 4
  • Recommended

Clear Comfort, 19th-century photographer Alice Austen's family home, is also one of New York's oldest buildings, dating back to 1690. It now houses a large collection of her work, as well as frequent exhibitions of contemporary shutterbugs.

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  • Attractions
  • Parks and gardens
  • Astoria

In 1986, artists and activists created this 4.5-acre city park over an abandoned landfill. Now, it hosts large-scale sculpture exhibits year-round and is one of the few locations in the city specifically designated for artists to create outdoor works. The splendid Queens space looks out over the Manhattan skyline and is open 365 days a year, with a Greenmarket, free yoga, and tai chi classes, outdoor movie screenings, and more.

  • Attractions
  • Historic buildings and sites
  • Chinatown

What better place to learn about Jewish culture and history than the first synagogue built on the Lower East Side? Check out the museum’s expansive collection of ritual objects, Yiddish street signs, immigration documents and other artifacts collected from the Jewish community. The exhibits aren’t the only draw, either: Architecture fans will geek out over building’s splendor. And after a recent $20 million restoration, the National Historic Landmark’s Gothic facade, oak pews and stained glass windows are looking better than ever.

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  • Museums
  • Movies and TV
  • Astoria

It’s only natural that a city so well represented in film and TV would have its own museum dedicated to the industry. Cinephiles will love spending an afternoon at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, where you can watch classic films in a state-of-the-art cinema, play 14 retro arcade games and examine props and artifacts from real-life film sets. The latest addition, "The Jim Henson Exhibit", includes more than 47 puppets from The Muppet Show and tons of archival footage.

  • Museums
  • Special interest
  • Williamsburg

All the rules go out the window at the Museum of Food and Drink. Ok, not all the rules, but the one that says "don't touch" has been flipped on its head. Here visitors are expected to not just touch the exhibits, but to really get to know them. Have a sniff, try a taste even. Whether you're one of those people who loves to cook, or prefers the eating part more, you'll find your fancy at the Museum of Food and Drink. Their current display, the long-running "Chow", takes a close look at the history of Chinese culinary culture in America.

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