Walking New York City Tours

06/03/2026

If you have ever wondered what Paris would look like if it were built by New Yorkers, here is your answer. The Dorilton Apartments were built in 1902 on the corner of 71st and Broadway. American architects at the turn of the century went to Paris to study design and brought back the Beaux-Arts style of architecture with them. The Dorilton took its styling cues from Parisian apartments and French palaces. Architectural historian Andrew Dolkhart stated that the building is the most flamboyant apartment house in the city, and I’d be apt to agree with him in a good way. The building has attracted musicians and artists throughout its history due to the large rooms and soundproofing. It was landmarked by the City of New York on October 8th, 1974.

06/03/2026

Before this part of Manhattan became courts, offices, and traffic, it held a deep freshwater pond.

Collect Pond was once a spring-fed body of water where New Yorkers skated, picnicked, drew drinking water, and even watched early steamboat experiments. Then the city turned the pond into a sewer, drained it by cutting the canal that gave Canal Street its name, and filled it in by 1811.

The ground did not forget. The new neighborhood sank into foul, unstable soil and became part of the notorious Five Points. Today, Collect Pond Park is small, but it marks one of the city’s biggest lessons: when New York buries its landscape, the past still rises through the pavement.

06/03/2026

1907 - The Trinity and United States Realty Buildings, at 111 and 115 Broadway, next to Trinity Church.

Trinity was designed by Francis Kimball, built in 1905, and it’s neighbor built in 1907, and we’re the first neo-gothic skyscrapers in the city.

The Trinity Building, adjacent to the churchyard of Richard Upjohn’s neo-Gothic Trinity Church, replaced an 1853 Upjohn structure of the same name. Earlier, the Van Cortlandt sugar house stood on the west end of the plot – a notorious British prison where American soldiers were held during the Revolutionary War.

The US Realty Building had a 70 ton bank vault installed- built in upstate NY and sailed down the Hudson on a barge. Railroad tracks were built from the river near where the World Financial Center now sits up the hill to the vaults resting place. The vault is still there, sitting on the tracks today.

In 2006 it became Trinity Place and it incorporated the bank vault into the design of the bar.

Both buildings are landmarks today.

06/02/2026

1912 - Woolworth Building nearing completion. On the bottom right, you can see the roof of the Mullett Post Office.

Upon completion, it would be tallest building in the world until 1930.

The building was designed by Cass Gilbert, whose famous works include the NY Life Building and the US Supreme Court Building in DC.

Today, it has been turned into a luxury residential building. Google search images of the penthouse.

Fun fact: Although Woolworths the company went bankrupt and all stores in the US were closed in the late 90s, the company still exists today- the company today is Foot Locker!

06/02/2026