Viewing NYC Articles Categorized Under Landmarks

[WATCH] Tourist in Your Own Town Explores the Van Cortlandt House Museum in the Bronx

2026-02-28T12:00:00-05:00

The New York Landmarks Conservancy's Tourist in Your Own Town series explores some of New York City’s best hidden gems as well as some of the classic iconic landmarks. In this video from the series, we take a look at the Van Cortlandt House Museum, one of the oldest houses in New York City, and the oldest in The Bronx.

The Van Cortlandt House Museum is located inside Van Cortlandt Park at Broadway and West 246th Street in the Bronx. […] The large Georgian manor dates from 1748 and is the oldest house in the Bronx. It is built from local fieldstone with contrasting brick trim and was designated a City Landmark in 1966, with interiors added in 1975. It's also a National Historic Landmark.

The building became the City's first house museum in 1897 and it still continues today, under the auspices of the National Colonial Dames of New York State. Educational programs are offered with over 250 school groups visiting each year, and a summer camp program is offered in August.

See the place where George Washington, John Adams, Count Rochambeau of France, and King William IV of the U.K. visited.

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[VIDEO] Tourist in Your Own Town Explores Brooklyn Heights' Landmarked Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral

2026-02-19T12:00:00-05:00

The New York Landmarks Conservancy's Tourist in Your Own Town series explores some of New York’s best hidden gems as well as some of the classic iconic landmarks.

In this video from the series, we take a look at Brooklyn Heights' Our Lady of Lebanon, a landmarked cathedral built in 1844 that has had significant historical impact throughout Brooklyn and New York City over the past century and a half.

Our Lady of Lebanon Cathedral, located within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, was designed by Richard Upjohn in a Romanesque Revival style in 1844. The building originally housed the Church of the Pilgrims congregation, until that group merged with the nearby Plymouth Church in 1934. The building was sold in 1944 to the Lebanese Roman Catholic congregation known as Maronites, who had a growing community in Brooklyn.

As part of the early work to renovate the site, new exterior doors were added from the French luxury liner, the SS Normandie. Other components were also brought in from the 1948 demolition of the Charles Schwab mansion on the Upper West Side and marble flooring from the French and Lebanese pavilions at the 1939 World's Fair.

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[VIDEO] Take a Tour of Lott House in Marine Park, One of Brooklyn's Hidden Landmarks

2026-02-01T12:00:00-05:00

The Lott House is a relatively unknown historic landmarked home right in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. Once the home of the Lott's, a prominent farming family who owned the land since 1719, the house was also a potential stop in the underground railroad!

According to the video's accompanying article by our friends at Untapped Cities:

[…] what makes this a sight to behold are the new renovations. In the last few years, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Hendrick I. Lott House Preservation Association have been working to refurbish the historic spot.

Whether looking to admire its Dutch architecture or looking to possibly trace the steps of runaway slaves, check out this historic New York City landmark.

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[BOOKS] New York's Original Penn Station: The Rise and Tragic Fall of an American Landmark

2025-11-19T12:00:00-05:00

The original Pennsylvania Station was a historic railroad station, opened in 1910 and demolished a short 54 years later. Its grandeur matched or exceeded that of Grand Central Terminal, and was one of the architectural jewels of the City. A new book from author/historian Paul Kaplan titled "New York's Original Penn Station: The Rise and Tragic Fall of an American Landmark" tells the story:

In early twentieth-century New York, few could have imagined a train terminal as grandiose as Pennsylvania Station. Yet, executives at the Pennsylvania Railroad secretly bought up land in Manhattan's infamous Tenderloin District to build one of the world's most spectacular monuments. Sandhogs would battle the fiercest of nature to build tunnels linking Manhattan to New Jersey and Long Island. For decades, Penn Station was a center of elegance and pride. But the ensuing rise of the airplane and automobile began to diminish train travel. Consequently, in the mid-1960s, the station was tragically destroyed. The loss inspired the birth of preservation laws in the city and the nation that would save other landmarks like Grand Central. Author Paul Kaplan recounts the trials and triumphs of New York's Penn Station.

Pick up your copy of "New York's Original Penn Station: The Rise and Tragic Fall of an American Landmark" for just $15 on Amazon.

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[VIDEO] Tourist in Your Own Town Explores Flushing's Landmarked Voelker Orth Museum

2025-11-13T12:00:00-05:00

The New York Landmarks Conservancy's Tourist in Your Own Town series explores some of New York’s best hidden gems as well as some of the classic iconic landmarks.

In this video from the series, we take a look at Flushing's Voelker Orth Museum, a landmarked home built in 1891.

The Voelker Orth Museum in Flushing Queens is a picturesque frame house built in 1891. Inside, you will find the story of Conrad Voelker, a German immigrant, and his family whose furnishings and photos are on display.

The museum is also devoted to local history and nature. It offers exhibitions, house tours, performances, talks and workshops, and educational programs year-round. The property was designated a New York City Landmark in 2007, ensuring that this small corner of Flushing's history endures to be enjoyed by generations to come.

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[WATCH] Tourist in Your Own Town Explores Gracie Mansion

2025-10-04T12:00:00-04:00

Gracie Mansion has been the official residence of New York City’s mayors since 1942, but it has had a long history before that. Built in 1799 as a summer home for Scottish merchant Archibald Gracie, it is one of the oldest wood buildings in the five boroughs and is now part of the city’s Historic House Trust.

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[VIDEO] Above New York: Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island

2025-08-29T12:00:00-04:00

Gifted to the United States in 1885 to celebrate and commemorate our centennial anniversary the following year, the Statue of Liberty originally arrived in pieces, displayed around New York City to raise support for the financing of the pedestal. With a campaign and donation matching request led by newspaper tycoon Joseph Pulitzer, the fundraising efforts took over 10 years to determine a permanent location for the statue and to raise enough to pay for its pedestal, as the United States Congress refused to finance it.

Standing at just over 151-feet-tall, Lady Liberty is the tallest statue in the United States. She is mounted on the massive star shaped footprint and pedestal, which gives her a total height of 305-feet, 1-inch from ground level to torch, allowing her to be seen from anywhere with a clean line-of-sight in New York City and parts of New Jersey.

The Statue of Liberty National Monument sits on the aptly named Liberty Island and is managed by the United States National Park Service. The land was originally known to New Yorkers as Bedloe's Island, only being renamed to Liberty Island in 1956 by and act of the United Stated Congress. The island was private for a century following the Dutch surrender of Fort Amsterdam to the British in 1664, where the original owner, Captain Robert Needham, sold it to the namesake Isaac Bedloe. It shifted hands privately and to businesses until February 1758, when the City of New York purchased the island for one thousand pounds to hold terminally ill patients with infectious diseases.

After the United States won independence, the star-shaped Fort Wood was constructed on the island and was completed in 1811. Never used for battle, the aging fort was mostly dismantled for the mounting of the Statue of Liberty and pedestal, which maintained the original 11-point footprint for its foundation.

In this short aerial video from our Above New York series, see the Statue of Liberty and Liberty Island from a unique birds-eye-view on a gloomy day in New York Harbor. This is likely one of the last times you will see a drone video shot this close to the Statue of Liberty, as the FAA and DOI have recently imposed special restrictions on the proximity of flight to this, and other U.S. National Monuments. This video was captured before the new restrictions took effect.

Music: "Release" by Pogo

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[VIDEO] 131 Duane Street - Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award

2025-08-14T12:00:00-04:00

The pristine restoration of this Italianate loft building in Tribeca shows meticulous work by a team of preservation professionals. They succeeded in a minimally invasive scope of work that repaired the facade and brought back its grand original appearance.

The building was completed in 1861-62 for merchant Thomas Hope. For a century, its tenants included printers, clothing and shoe companies, and restaurants. Artists began to take residency on the upper floors during the 1970s. Their use ensured the building would survive, but a series of patches and repairs left it in less-than-ideal condition.

Throughout this project, care was taken to research and test treatments, and document existing conditions at every stage. The first step was removing a failing and inappropriate coating. Exposed historic fabric was repaired or if unusable, became the model for replacement pieces. Delicate, hand-carved Tuckahoe marble elements required several different approaches. The cast-iron entry level was rebuilt and the wood windows were replaced in kind. When the wind-damaged cornice was removed, signage from the original building name was revealed and restored: 131 Duane is once again known as the Hope Building.

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[WATCH] Castle Clinton - Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award

2025-08-03T12:00:00-04:00

Castle Clinton has been an active example of adaptive reuse since it was completed in 1811. The Castle served as a military headquarters, restaurant, immigrant processing center, and aquarium, before Robert Moses tried to demolish it. FDR’s intervention saved the structure which was turned over to the federal government in 1950. Now, its robust facade has finally been restored.

This restoration focused on treating the historic red Newark sandstone walls, which had been damaged by the harsh marine environment and construction of the nearby Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. New archival research and non-destructive techniques helped the project team diagnose complex masonry problems, such as major vertical cracks, dislocation of stonework, and exfoliation and spalling of the sandstone. They cleaned the stones and removed old patches, making Dutchman repairs, and, when necessary, installing new stones sourced from Germany that match the originals.

Today Castle Clinton welcomes more than 3 million visitors annually, as the National Park Service NPS ticket office for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This work ensured that the Castle will continue to welcome visitors to New York City for decades to come.

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[WATCH] Tourist in Your Own Town Explores The Noble Maritime Collection

2025-05-26T12:00:00-04:00

Snug Harbor on Staten Island is a great reminder of New York City's maritime history. Opening in 1833, it was the grand retirement home for sailors from around the world. Now it houses several cultural institutions, including the Noble Maritime Collection.

The museum celebrates Snug Harbor, maritime art, and the history of New York Harbor, including the Robbins Reef Lighthouse and its famous caretaker Kathryn Walker. It also houses and maintains the collections and works of marine artist John A. Noble, featuring the houseboat he used as his art studio.

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