Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
MERCHANT'S HOUSE MUSEUM
29 E 4th St between Lafayette St and the Bowery. Subway B, D, F, M to Broadway-Lafayette; N, R to 8th St;
#6 to Astor Place. 212 777 1089,
www.merchantshouse.com
.
Thurs-Mon noon-5pm. $10.
MAP
Constructed in 1832, this elegant Federal-style rowhouse offers a rare and intimate glimpse
of domestic life in New York during the 1850s. The house was purchased by Seabury Tred-
well in 1835, a successful metal merchant, when the area was an up-and-coming suburb for
the middle class. Remarkably, much of the mid-nineteenth-century interior remains in
pristine condition, largely thanks to Seabury's daughter Gertrude, who lived here until 1933
- it was preserved as a museum three years later. Highlights include furniture fashioned by
New York's best cabinetmakers, the mahogany four-poster beds, and the tiny brass bells in
the basement, used to summon the servants.
COOPER UNION - FOUNDATION BUILDING
7 E 7th St, Cooper Square, between Third and Fourth aves. Subway N, R to 8th St; #6 to Astor Place.
212
353 4100,
www.cooper.edu
.
MAP
Erected in 1859 by wealthy industrialist Peter Cooper (1791-1883) as a college for the poor,
the
Foundation Building of Cooper Union
is best known as the place where, in 1860,
Abraham Lincoln wowed an audience of top New Yorkers with his so-called “right makes
might” speech, in which he boldly criticized the pro-slavery policies of the Southern states -
an event that helped propel him to the White House later that year. In 1909 it was also the
site of the first open meeting of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People), chaired by W.E.B. Du Bois. Today, Cooper Union is a prestigious art, en-
gineering and architecture school, whose nineteenth-century glory is evoked with a statue of
the benevolent Cooper by Augustus Saint-Gaudens just in front of the hall. From the en-
trance hall the guards normally allow you to walk downstairs to the Great Hall, where his-
torical exhibits are displayed in the gallery outside.
ST MARK'S PLACE
Subway N, R to 8th St; #6 to Astor Place.
MAP
The East Village's main drag gets a name, not a number (it could have been called East 8th
Street).
St Mark's Place
stretches east from Cooper Union to Tompkins Square Park.
Between Third Avenue and Avenue A it's lined with souvenir stalls, punk and hippie-chic
clothing shops and newly installed chain restaurants, signalling the end of the gritty atmo-
sphere that had dominated this thoroughfare for years.
ST MARK'S CHURCH IN-THE-BOWERY
131 E 10th St at Second Ave. Subway N, R to 8th St; #6 to Astor Place.
212 674 6377,
In 1660, New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant built a small chapel here close
to his farm, and was buried inside in 1672 (his tombstone is now set into the outer walls).
The box-like Episcopalian house of worship that currently occupies this space was com-
