New York City Travel Guide: Architecture

New York Skyscrapers The New York sky scrapers constitute one of the most impressive and interesting features of the city. The high buildings of Manhattan Island are a picture which has no parallel in the cities of the world. Our first impression of Manhattan is the height and magnitude of these architectural marvels.

St. Patricks Cathedral ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL. is the largest and most beautiful church edifice in America, and holds high rank as an example of decorated and geometric style of Gothic architecture to which belong the cathedrals of Rheims, Amiens and Cologne, on the Continent; and the naves of York, Westminster and Exeter in England.

Trinity Church Trinity Church, set in its churchyard on Broadway at the head of Wall street. The Trinity Church is the third of those which have stood here since 1697. The present edifice, which was completed in 1846. It is of brown sandstone, and is regarded as a fine specimen of the Gothic style.

The Produce Exchange THE PRODUCE EXCHANGE, on Whitehall street (near the lower end of Broadway), occupies a building which is one of the notable architectural features of New York. The exterior is of brick and terra-cotta, of rich red tones; the decorations are the Arms of the States, the prows of ships and the heads of domestic cattle.

The Apellate Court House The Court House of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the City of New York is on the east of Madison Square at Madison Avenue and Twenty-Fifth Street.

Custom House In the Custom House, fronting on Bowling Green, New York possesses the largest and most beautiful custom house in the world. The building is seven stories in height. It is embellished with a wealth of exterior decoration, the motives of which are found in the world-wide commerce of the United States.

New York City Hall Having explored the surrounding environment, we will now enter the City Hall itself. It is open to visitors. Ascending the steps, the visitor finds himself in a central rotunda, with curving stairs leading to a circular gallery on the second floor. In this gallery, on the north side stands a statue of Thomas Jefferson. On the south side, opposite the stairs, is the entrance to the Governor's Room, now held ready for the Governor of the State when he visits New York.

St Marks Church. St. Mark's Church, at Second Avenue and 11th Street, stands on the site of a private chapel built by Governor Stuyvesant. The land was given (1687) to the Dutch Church by Judith Stuyvesant, upon condition that the vault be preserved. The old governor's tomb is beneath the tablet erected to his memory.

Saint Peter and St Paul Churches. Leaving Greenwich Village the next interesting section of New York extends from 19th to 24th and from Eighth Avenue to the river. It was formerly a region of highly respectable homes and is locally known as "Chelsea Village," At 59th Street is the Church of St. Paul, the Apostle, seat of the Paulist Fathers. Also St Peters Church is a very important church.

New York Municipal Building and Hall of Records. Leaving the City Hall we walk a short distance to Chambers Street, where stands the workshop of the city, to which we have just referred, and which is officially known as the Municipal Building. It is a huge structure, 450 by 300 feet. It is 40 stories high, or 564 feet.

New York and Brooklyn Bridges THE NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN BRIDGE, which spans the East River, connecting the Boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn, has its Manhattan terminal at the City Hall Park.

Bowling Green The diminutive oval of Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway, is the city's oldest park. Its story goes back to the beginning, when the Dutch came to Manhattan Island in 1626.

Grace Church GRACE CHURCH, set in the bend at Tenth street and closing the vista from the south, is one of the most familiar and most highly cherished of the landmarks of Broadway. It is a beautiful structure of white limestone, with marble spire, in the Decorated Gothic, and was designed by James Renwick, the architect of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The Statue of Liberty The statue of liberty is the work of the eminent French sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi, who in 1865 conceived the idea of a fitting memorial to be given by the French people to the United States in commemoration of the long-established good will between the two nations.

St. Pauls Chapel St. Paul's Chapel is a cherished relic of Colonial days. Built in 1766 as a chapel of Trinity Parish, it is the only church edifice which has been preserved from the pre-Revolutionary period. After the burning of Trinity in 1776, St. Paul's became the parish church.

Manhattans Fifth Avenue. It is not an exaggeration to say that in no other city in the world is there a street so altogether attractive as Manhattans Fifth Avenue from Madison Square to Carnegie Hill.

Wall Street the Financial District of New York Of the four streets in New York known the world over —Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Bowery and Wall Street—the latter is by far the most famous. For a street less than half a mile long and but little more than thirty feet wide, its importance is altogether disproportionate to its mere physical size.

The City Hall, City Hall Park and the Hall of Records. Above the Post Office, is City Hall Park, in the center of which stands the City Hall (frontispiece) that has, and not with-out some justice, been styled the most beautiful public building in the United States. The Hall of Records on Chambers Street, is at the north end of the park.

The criminal courts building, Grace Church and Madison Square. A short walk up Centre Street takes the visitor to the Criminal Courts Building, that contains the first mural painting presented to the city by the Municipal Art Society, an organization devoted to encouraging the cultivation of civic art. Returning to Broadway, one of its cars can be taken to the corner of Tenth Street, where Grace Church is located. Westward through Tenth Street for two blocks the visitor may walk to Washington Square. A stage may be taken to Madison Square.

The New York Public Library and St Patricks Cathedral. Continuing in a Fifth Avenue stage to Fortieth Street, the visitor will be at the New York Public Library, that is an art museum as well. At Fiftieth Street and Fifth Avenue stands St. Patrick's Cathedral, designed by James Renwick, a superb example of Gothic architecture.

The United States barge office, The Custom House, The Woolworth Building To the visitor in New York who begins his art pilgrimage at the Battery, architecture is that form of design which makes the most profound, the most stirring impression on him. From this point visit The United States Barge Office, the Custom House, the Woolworth Building.