Sunday, October 12, 2008

City Walk #21 - Upper West Side 1: The Gold Coast

Card no. 30 - photos

Begin at Central Park West and 81st Street (B or C train to 81st Street).
The walk begins in front of the Beresford, the cream-colored Italianate apartment house at the corner of Central Park West and West 81st Street against which Mickey Mouse can be seen bobbing at the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade each year. The Beresford was compelted in 1929 and sold 11 years later, along with the San Remo (145 Central Park West), for $25,000. Across 77th Street is the Rose Planetarium, part of the American Museum of Natural History complex. No visitor to New York, especially those with children in tow, should fail to visit the Museum of Natural History. At the corner of West 77th Street is the New York Historical Society, the city's oldest museum (since 1804) and repository of many extraordinary collections, including watercolors from John James Audubon's Birds of America. Two blocks along is the San Remo, followed by yet a third variant on manhattan glamour. Compelted in 1884, and nicknamed for its remoteness from the center of town, the Dakota (1 W. 72nd St.) is one of the Upper West Side's great apartment buildings, as well as a shrine for fans of John Lennon, who was shot to death at its entrance on December 8, 1980. Directly across the street, at 115 Central Park West, is the Majestic, a striking example of the art deco style. Continue south to West 70th Street and the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, home to New York's oldest Jewish congregation, since 1897. A couple blocks south, the tawny facade of 55 Central Park West, is a landmark of a different sort - it's where Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis lived in Ghostbusters.

From City Walks: New York: 50 Adventures on Foot by Martha Fay

A Year Ago Today: Sex and the City in the Streets
Two Years Ago Today: Speed Chess on 42nd & Fifth

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