Meeting Location: Riverside Drive & West 83rd Street (Meet by the Park Benches)
Details:
Our meeting point will be at Riverside Drive & West 83rd Street by the park benches. Please arrive several minutes early so our experience can begin on time — Belinda will be there as well as the Adventure Club brand ambassador and guide Esther, to greet and check you in.
During New York's Gilded Age of opulence at the turn of the 20th century, Riverside Drive was supposed to overtake Fifth Avenue as New York City’s “millionaire colony.” And by the early 1900s, that transformation was well underway as the once sleepy carriage drive became lined with dozens of free-standing mansions boasting spectacular park and riverfront views. But what led its affluent residents to vacate their palatial homes and abandoned this center of luxury for good by the 1930s? It's time to explore the rise, fall, and repurposing of Riverside Drive over the past century, with a special look at the few homes of this era that still remain.

Join New York Adventure Club to uncover the opulent history and architecture of Riverside Drive — located on the banks of Manhattan's Upper West Side, this beautiful stretch of land was once home to some of the world's most notable business leaders and creatives before transforming into one of New York's most spectacular parks.

Led by Esther Crain — historian, founder of Ephemeral New York, and author of The Gilded Age in New York. Her extraordinary tour will cover everything from the origins of Riverside Drive,  a visit to the 1903 Rice Mansion with stories surrounding the owner’s beloved wife, who was so annoyed by Hudson River tugboat traffic beyond her landscaped grounds that she founded the Society for the Suppression of Unnecessary Noise. A stop at the 35-room marble palace Schinasi Mansion — built in 1907 by a tobacco baron, this house has a Prohibition-era tunnel that led to the Hudson River
Stories of the builders and barons, as well as artists and eccentrics, who made their fortunes and homes here. A discussion of Edgar Allan Poe’s ties to the area, where he would sit and think while residing in a nearby farmhouse A look at the Schwab Mansion, an 86-room French chateau built in 1906 that was offered to New York City as an official mayor’s mansion in the 1930s (but turned down) and The Gilded era memorials lining Riverside Drive.

NOTE: This tour usually costs $40 a person. Hank's special group rate is $29.00. This exclusive 2-hour experience is not to be missed. We really can only accommodate 15.


*Please bring a water bottle and comfortable pair of shoes!
**This tour will conclude at Riverside Drive and West 107th Street
**This tour does not go inside any of the mansions


Exclusive Gilded Mansions and Memorials. RIVERSIDE PARK AND 83RD STREET PARK BENCHES

$29/person

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