new york city history tour

5 Fascinating Historical Tours of New York City

Discover Manhattan's Long & Curious Past on 5 Guided Tours

Allan Montaine / Getty Images

New York City tells the tales of its past through art, architecture, food, and landmarks. Yet with the fast pace of the city, it can be hard to truly take it all in. That’s where historical tours come in. Across Manhattan, knowledgeable guides are bringing the history that surrounds us (and that we often walk right by) to life. From the earliest history of New York as a Dutch settlement to the opportunity to board a historic aircraft carrier, here are five favorite historical tours in NYC .

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Tour

New York is a city of immigrants, and for many new Americans, their story began on Ellis Island. Follow in their footsteps with this 4 1/2-hour guided tour with ExperienceFirst , kicking off with a boat ride in New York Harbor. The first stop is Liberty Island, home to the Statue of Liberty, which served as a symbol of welcome to millions of immigrants. After a guided tour of the museum in the statue’s pedestal and a stroll around, the tour continues back on the boat as it sails toward Ellis Island. The original building still stands where millions of immigrants over five decades were processed before officially entering the United States. After your guide provides context about the buildings and the island’s history, it’s time to explore. You can look up the records of your own ancestors, wander through the Ellis Island Museum, and roam the grounds before boarding the boat back to the tip of lower Manhattan. Meets at the bookstore inside Castle Clinton National Monument in Battery Park, from $57/adult.

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Tenements, Tales, and Tastes: A Tour of New York’s Lower East Side

For many immigrants, their story continued on from Ellis Island to the tenements of New York’s Lower East Side . This 3-hour tour with Urban Oyster is an on-foot exploration of one of Manhattan’s largest melting pots, home to Italian, Irish, Chinese, and Jewish settlers, among many others, over the years. This tour begins at City Hall with a Dutch snack before winding through the narrow streets of Chinatown and Little Italy. Stops will include everything from historic synagogues to a century-old bakery to the revitalized Essex Street Market. Historical sites are also included; expect to see both an African burial ground and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Snacks from a variety of cultures are included in this tour, so bring an appetite. Meets at the fountain at City Hall Park, from $69/adult.

Wall Street and 9/11 Memorial Tour

The most comprehensive history tour of New York City is found downtown, in today’s Financial District, where Manhattan as we know it first began. This 90-minute walking tour with Wall Street Walks begins on Wall Street—named by the Dutch during the 17th century when Manhattan was still New Amsterdam. The street today marks the northern extremity, or “wall,” of that original settlement. This neighborhood is also dense with landmarks dating back to the American Revolution, including Federal Hall, where George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States. Jumping forward in time, this tour covers Wall Street as the home of the American financial sector, including the imposing New York Stock Exchange. A stroll through the neighborhood concludes at the 9/11 Memorial, now home to two striking pools in the footprints of the former World Trade Center Twin Towers. Meets at 55 Wall St., from $35/adult.

Rockefeller Center Tour

In Manhattan, a rich history is often right under our noses. One of the best examples is Rockefeller Center, known today for its annual Christmas tree lighting and iconic ice-skating rink, but actually an important historical site in its own right. This 75-minute walking tour offered by the Rockefeller Center is led by a local historian and explores the history of Rockefeller Center from its Art Deco buildings to the Radio City Music Hall to its extensive displays of art, including sculptures and murals. This tour is a particularly good fit for art and architecture enthusiasts, with in-depth coverage of 30 Rockefeller, formerly called the GE Building, which is home to the viewing decks of Top of the Rock and a major Art Deco landmark dating back to 1933 (it was here that the famous photograph of workers sitting on a beam high above the New York City skyline was snapped). Meets at West 50th Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues., from $25/adult.

Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum Tour

History is brought to life aboard a floating landmark at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum . The USS Intrepid , a 900-foot-long aircraft carrier, is docked in the Hudson River and contains a wide range of exhibits spread throughout four decks, including a space shuttle, spy plane, submarine, and a hands-on flight simulator. Take your museum visit to the next level by joining a guided tour . Several different options are available, including tours that cover the USS Intrepid in World War II, Intrepid 101 (that covers the basics, including the flight deck), Concorde: A Supersonic Story (an exploration of the fastest airplane to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean), and Space Shuttle Enterprise: Up Close and In Depth. Pier 86, 12th Avenue & 46th Street, from $15/adult in addition to museum ticket.

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Best Historic Walking Tours in New York

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New York City is the perfect walking town. The streets are laid out in a grid pattern so it’s easy to navigate and if you get lost or have questions, locals love to pave the way with directions and advice. (They may keep walking while tawking but they’ll go out of their way to help.) Still, while many will happily tell you where to find the best Chinese food, if you want to learn about the city’s history, best to go with an organized walking tour that will embellish the walk with insider knowledge. These tours take 2 steps forward and 1 step back into New York’s past, sharing anecdotes about neighborhoods, residents and iconic buildings. Personal History Tour Joyce Gold , a New York history teacher at New York University and The New School, has been giving visitors walking history lessons for 25 years. Her 2- to 2 1/2- hour “field trips” include tours about the bohemian and flamboyant Greenwich Village, the Irish in Hell’s Kitchen and New York gangs. Gold leads most of the tours herself, which she enlivens with insights culled from her years of teaching history. Central Park Tour The Central Park Conservancy offers several free walking tours that delve into the park’s fascinating history. The “Views from the Past” tour gives a glimpse into how the park was designed by landscape architects Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux in 1858. The tour, “A Road Once Traveled,” explores the role of the park’s wildlife habitat, Harlem Meer, during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Custom-Made Tours The popular Big Apple Greeter tours are led by more than 300 volunteers who lead custom-made tours of the city in over 30 languages. The guides will meet you at your hotel, or wherever else you want in any of the boroughs, and show you whichever neighborhoods you’d like to explore. The tours vary in time. Oh, and they’re free. Tip: You must book at least 1 month in advance. New York Food Tour Foodies will eat up the Foods of New York Tours that take a bite into the Big Apple’s historic neighborhoods including Chinatown and Greenwich Village. Experienced guides feed you tidbits of info about the culture, architecture and history -- as well as food tastings from specialty and ethnic foods shops and restaurants. Grand Central Tour Grand Central Terminal isn’t only the world’s largest train station; it is also an architecturally stunning building with a past that most commuters don’t even know. Take the self-guided audio tour (the 30-minute “local” or 1-hour “express”) or free guided walking tours. On Wednesdays, the Municipal Art Society runs a tour that highlights the architecture and history of the Beaux-Arts landmark. On Fridays, a tour of the terminal and surrounding neighborhood, led by urban historians, is offered by the Grand Central Partnership. Neighborhood Tours The Big Onion Walking Tours offer 30 neighborhood history-based tours led by guides who hold an advanced degree in American history or related fields. The 2-hour tours, spanning 1 to 2 miles, include explorations of neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights where you’ll see the former homes and haunts of many literary types including Truman Capote and Walt Whitman. The Free Historic Districts Walking Tour by NYC by Foot explores a couple of the city’s oldest neighborhoods from a historical perspective -- SoHo, Little Italy, Lower Manhattan and Chinatown. Bonus: Your well-behaved dog can hoof it, too! The guides function as “part professor, part performer” and while the tours are free, the company’s motto is “We’re so hip, we know you’ll tip.” Ghost Tours There’s nothing too scary about the Haunted Greenwich Village tour offered by Gotham Walking Tours. Instead, this history tour led by Lina Viviano, a native New Yorker who taught American history and politics at Harvard, tells tales about sites linked to famous residents and events where ghosts are said to roam, like Mark Twain (who knows, maybe he had a ghostwriter) and the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire that still haunts New York. Walking is not only a great way to discover the Big Apple but ideal for working off those extra calories and getting some fresh New York air (well, okay, maybe not fresh.) So, bring some comfy walking shoes and explore away. Laurie Bain Wilson writes often about New York City and is the author of several travel guidebooks, including New York City Made Easy and New York City with Kids .

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A Walk Through the Past in New York

Ahead of next year’s 400th anniversary of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, the historian and author of “The Island at the Center of the World” offers a walking tour of often-overlooked Native American and Black sites.

In the 1600s, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was situated on what is now the southern tip of Manhattan, the present location of the Financial District. Credit... George Etheredge for The New York Times

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By Russell Shorto

Russell Shorto , the author of “The Island at the Center of the World” and director of the New Amsterdam Project at the New-York Historical Society , is working on a book about early Manhattan.

• Published June 19, 2023 Updated June 20, 2023

In the 19 years since my book “The Island at the Center of the World,” about the Dutch settlement that preceded New York, came out, I’ve changed the way I think about the history and geography of New Amsterdam, which occupied the southern tip of Manhattan Island in the 1600s.

In recent years, as the culpability of our forebears has come into focus, I’ve come to see the “Dutch” period as comprising three constituencies: the European settlement (which was only about half Dutch); the Native Americans, who were steadily displaced yet remained a force; and the enslaved Africans, who were brought here against their will but employed agency and ingenuity to their situation.

In preparation for next year’s 400th anniversary of the Dutch colony, I’m hitting the streets as I put together a walking tour that will tell a complex story of New York’s beginnings. It’s a story of settlement, conquest, peace, strife, promise, prosperity, enslavement and freedom. Here’s how you can follow.

Battery Park

The obvious start of such a tour is at the tip of Battery Park , looking into the harbor. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island speak to the city’s ideals of freedom and promise and its long relationship with the water, from clipper ships to World War II battleships to commuter ferries. But in my mind’s eye I see the waterscape incised by silent canoes. Several groups of Munsee people inhabited the wider region for centuries — a homeland stretching from Connecticut through New York and New Jersey to Delaware — and moved seasonally from the mainland to the island they called Manahatta, which translates roughly as “place of wood for making bows,” to fish and hunt.

I envision, too, Henry Hudson’s small wooden sailing vessel, the Half Moon, appearing on the horizon in September 1609, as he charted the area for the Dutch, setting in motion a historic transformation. Then, in 1624, another Dutch vessel arrived, bearing the first settlers of the colony of New Netherland.

Custom House

Cross Battery Park, which is all landfill, and you come to the original shoreline of Manhattan. The plaza in front of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House is probably where, in 1626, Dutch settlers under the command of Peter Minuit made the infamous purchase of the island from a branch of the Munsee. What each side thought was going on in this exchange is an interesting question. The Dutch knew that the Native Americans had no notion of property transfer. Both sides believed they were entering into a defensive pact. Neither could know what the coming centuries would bring. But it can’t be denied that the event was a milestone in the dispossession of Native Americans from their land.

The Custom House, which was built in 1907 from a design by the architect Cass Gilbert, occupies the site of Fort Amsterdam , the bulwark that protected New Amsterdam. By a curious coincidence it happens to be the home of the National Museum of the American Indian , whose permanent exhibition, “Native New York,” offers a primer on the Indigenous groups who have called the New York State region home, from the Unkechaug and other tribes of pre-contact Long Island to the Mohawk ironworkers who helped build 20th-century skyscrapers.

The Munsee surely had in mind a working relationship with the Dutch, who came initially to trade furs. That trade continued throughout the lifetime of the colony, but the Dutch soon shifted their attention northward, where the Mohawk, who lived along the river of the same name, had a more plentiful supply of beavers. The relationship suffered its first serious blow when Willem Kieft, a director of New Netherland, declared war on the Munsee in 1643. In attacking his colony’s business partners, Kieft acted against the wishes of his own people, and the war inflicted terrible losses to both sides. Even greater suffering came to the Native Americans as a result of smallpox, which the Europeans brought unwittingly.

That said, the Munsee are very much alive today. Through myriad treaties and swindles they were split apart, and many were relocated or simply moved — to Oklahoma, Kansas, Delaware and Ontario. Others never went anywhere. “We’re still here, 30 miles from where we were all those years ago,” Michaeline Picaro, a member of the Turtle Clan of the Ramapough Munsee Lenape, in Andover, N.J., told me. She and her husband, Chief Vincent Mann, run a farm and serve as advocates for their community.

Pearl Street

Head down Whitehall to Pearl Street. Lower Manhattan is enveloped by several blocks of landfill. I find it useful to walk the original shoreline, which on the east was Pearl Street. The section on either side of Whitehall Street contained the first Dutch houses, erected in the 1620s: On the west side of the street, a row of them overlooked the East River and the wilds of what would later become the village of Breuckelen. In one of these lived Catalina Trico and her husband, Joris Rapalje, a couple of nobodies from present-day Belgium who showed up in Amsterdam as immigrants seeking work, heard of this new venture, got married, jumped on one of the first ships and made their lives here. They would have 11 children, 10 of whom lived to marry and have children of their own. Their descendants today number in the millions. I think of them as the Adam and Eve of New Amsterdam.

Pearl and Wall Streets

At the corner of Pearl Street and Coenties Slip, an outline in gray stones on the wide sidewalk marks the foundation of a building that started life as the Stadts Herberg, or city tavern. Ships arriving from Europe would anchor in the East River; then passengers were rowed to a nearby dock. Apparently the first thing everyone wanted to do after 10 or 12 weeks at sea was have a drink, so this was the most popular spot in town.

It stood to reason, then, that when the city won a municipal charter in 1653, this same building would be converted into Manhattan’s first City Hall. Here, New Amsterdam’s twin burgemeesters, or mayors, would hold sessions with their council, resolving disputes and managing their city.

Continuing to the corner of Pearl and Wall Streets, we come to the site of one of the most far-reaching achievements of that council. Stop and face south. You’re at the northeast corner of the city. To your left, imagine the East River lapping at your feet. To your right, it’s not so hard to envision the legendary wall running down the middle of the street. The wall — actually more of a fence made of planks — was built in the wake of the municipal charter, when the new city government took measures to defend the place against an expected attack from the English. It’s no accident that global finance is associated with that wall and this street.

The same Dutch who founded New Amsterdam created the world’s first stock exchange and invented many of the building blocks of capitalism, upon which New York rose.

South William and Broad Streets

From here, one might head west down Wall Street, traversing New Amsterdam’s northern border, but let’s cut down Beaver Street into the middle of the city. On South William Street in the Dutch period there stood a building that was for a time the home of the enslaved Africans owned by the West India Company. Throughout most of the Dutch period, slavery was a haphazard business in New Netherland, with Africans reaching Manhattan as “cargo” on Spanish or Portuguese ships that had been captured in the Caribbean. Those who arrived were pressed into the service of the West India Company, or W.I.C., which ran the colony.

Andrea C. Mosterman, the author of “Spaces of Enslavement: A History of Slavery and Resistance in Dutch New York,” surmises that multiple families were crammed here into one modest house. In 1659, five years before the English took over the colony, the W.I.C. decided to undertake an “experiment with a parcel of Negroes,” beginning what would become, under English rule, a major trade that would forever alter the trajectory of the American experience.

Continuing down South William and turning right, we come to Broad Street. It got its name because the Dutch had carved a canal down the middle, with roads on both sides. Later, the whole thing was paved over, and it became one of the widest streets in Lower Manhattan.

The intersection of Broad and Wall Streets is one of those spots that overload the mind with historical associations. Here is the New York Stock Exchange, another reminder of Dutch financial innovations. Opposite it sits Federal Hall , where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president in 1789. In the Dutch period this was the northern edge of the city. Just a few steps away, at Wall and Broadway, was the gate that led out of the city.

Broadway and Park Row

The southernmost section of Broadway follows the route of the Wickquasgeck Trail , named for a branch of the Munsee whose territory encompassed much of Manhattan. The Dutch adopted it as their main thoroughfare up the island. It was a busy road, plied by Europeans, Africans and Native Americans, as well as by horses and wagons. Walking up it as I did recently, hearing snippets of French, Spanish, Chinese and what might have been Tagalog, I reflected on a talk I heard recently by Ross Perlin, director of the Endangered Language Alliance . He noted that the often cited figure of 18 languages spoken in New Amsterdam almost certainly didn’t include African or Native American languages, and that, when these were added, the figure would probably have been 25 or more.

Between Liberty and Ann Streets, Broadway skirts the World Trade Center site, yet another reminder of how 17th-century concepts of free trade grew in Manhattan. As you approach City Hall Park, Park Row continues the course of the Wickquasgeck Trail as it jogs eastward then continues north.

At Broadway and Duane is the African Burial Ground National Monument , an appropriate spot to reorient one’s thinking. If the beginnings of slavery in New York were haphazard, it quickly became a hardened institution in the English period. And it grew. I’m continually amazed at our ability to will away the past. We still associate slavery with the South, yet by 1730, 42 percent of New Yorkers owned another human being, a higher proportion than in any city in the colonies except Charleston, S.C.

The city began to segregate burials in 1697. About 15,000 people were buried at this site designated for interring those of African heritage. It occupied five city blocks. Yet when digging began for an office building in 1991, the city was stunned to learn that there were human remains here. Somehow, we forgot.

Collect Pond

At Leonard and Centre Streets you come to a scruffy little oasis called Collect Pond Park . Once, a five-acre lake dominated this section of what is now Chinatown. It was spring-fed, deep and cold. A Munsee village sat on the southern shore. This was Manahatta in its primordial state.

Manuel Plaza

The last stop is a mile north. I followed the Bowery, which tracks the Wickquasgeck Trail. Manuel Plaza, on East Fourth Street, is one of the newest city parks, and a testament to the enslaved Black people of New Amsterdam.

In the era before slave codes, Black people had some rights, including the right to sue. In 1644, 11 men petitioned for their freedom and that of their wives. They won it, with conditions, and they and others were given land here, two miles north of New Amsterdam, in what became known as the Land of the Blacks. “It was more than 100 acres, a significant amount of Manhattan real estate,” said Kamau Ware, the owner of Black Gotham Experience , which gives walking tours.

But the relatively bright moment was short-lived. “It wasn’t outlawed for Black people to own land in the English period,” Mr. Ware said, but those families were stripped of their land through gimmicks, including a law that made it illegal for a Black person to inherit property.

Manuel Plaza, which sits on what was once the property of Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, a Black resident of Dutch Manhattan, is a quiet place to rest and contemplate the way our inheritances from the past are interwoven. We can trace back our ideals of tolerance, of individual freedom. They made us who we are and give us hope for the future. But they come to us bound up with their opposites, and we struggle to untangle the threads.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2023 .

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Let me be your guide to the city's diverse neighborhoods, history and lifestyle.

Thank you for visiting my website!  My name is Hank Orenstein and I am a native New Yorker and a licensed NYC Tour Guide and I am intensely passionate about my city and its amazing diversity.  New York has always been a city of change – and even in the past decade there have been what seems like a century of new opportunities to explore and appreciate our neighborhoods.

Over the years I have logged over 2,000 walking and vehicle tours, and whether you are a first-time or repeat visitor, or reside in New York or the metro area, I will create an unforgettable experience for you. Fill out the contact form and we’ll start the conversation!

I have a repertoire of close to 100 neighborhoods, including all of Manhattan and many areas of Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens.  theme-tour options.  Sample list below:

GUIDED NEIGHBORHOOD TOURS

• Manhattan:   Harlem; Washington Heights; Financial District; Hell’s Kitchen; Greenwich Village; Tribeca; Central Park West; Fashion District; Lower East Side, Upper West Side, Inwood.
• Brooklyn:   Brooklyn Heights; DUMBO; Williamsburg; Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Coney Island;  Sunset Park; Bushwick and Street Art; Fort Greene; Victorian Flatbush; Greenpoint; Crown Heights.
• Queens:   Long Island City; Historic Flushing; Jackson Heights;  Sunnyside; Forest Hills Gardens; Astoria; Corona and the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
• The Bronx:   Fieldston Historic District/Riverdale; South Bronx; Botanical Gardens/Belmont/Little Italy; Hunts Point; Yankee Stadium/Grand Concourse.

THEME TOURS

• Alexander Hamilton’s New York
• Women’s History
• Colonial Manhattan and New Amsterdam
• African American History
• Following in the Footsteps of the Presidents
• 1776 and the Battle of Brooklyn
• Harlem Jazz Tour
• Kleindeutschland and German New York
• Gangs of New York
• Art and Architecture Tours
• Natural History and New York Geology
• Community Gardens

REAL ESTATE

Looking to move or purchase or rent a home in New York?  As I am also a licensed Real Estate Broker with the prestigious Corcoran Group, I love helping people find the right home in a neighborhood that fits their lifestyle and budget.

 Free tours of neighborhoods for my real estate clients!  I represent home buyers, sellers, renters, investors and landlords.

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New Tour Alert! SWEETS AND SCREAMS: A SUGARY SWEET GHOST WALK OF GREENWICH VILLAGE

Historic Downtown Walking Tour

Experience the City’s Rich History

From Colonial to Contemporary

Small Group Sizes!

Explore New York City by experiencing a journey of historical jewels that can't be missed

A New York City walking tour that compactly retraces a city’s evolution, Lower Manhattan is a treasured destination that provides a concentrated timeline along historical roads less traveled. Discover the key role of New York Harbor , where Lenape Villages converged with a fledgling Dutch colonials outpost. Retrace the strategic maneuverings of a conquering British Empire alongside the covert activities of the Revolutionary War. Relive the endeavors at governance of a new nation. And imagine a fledgling municipality’s grand visions of foundational urban planning, engineering innovations and financial restructurings,, as waves of new immigrants would expand cultural boundaries and heritage landscapes.

Lower Manhattan teems with perspectives brought to life by its many characters and lives revealed as you meander through ancient paths that acknowledge their presence. For discerning travelers on the hunt for long sought insights on the forces driving the evolution of this metropolis, the tour is an essential item on the list of things to do in NYC. No other historical neighborhood can lay claim to so much impact or influence in the world over a relatively brief time-period in global events. You come away with the past present in ways that enchant, intrigue, enlighten, magnetize. Through the myths and legends of the city’s origins , the secrets of the United States’ foundational directions, the hidden legends behind street names and places, the forgotten stories buried with unearthed archeological sites, and — in true NYC evolutionary fashion — the phenomenon of how the Charging Bull has become the most iconic structure redefining the neighborhood’s prestige.

Experience where the whole city and nation began

Learn about the city’s origin as a Dutch fur-trading outpost and colonial stronghold

Visit key historical locations like Wall Street, Stone Street Historic District, Trinity Church, Federal Hall, Hamilton's gravesite

Discover how Lower Manhattan has transformed since 9/11

Click the Tabs to Find Out More

Trip details.

$50, but best value is the combo with our Chinatown or Greenwich Village food tours for a $25 discount

Tours require a minimum of 2 guests to open, and then single travelers can join. If you are a single traveler, and are having trouble booking, please email or call.

Departure time

Meeting point.

Upon your reservation, you will receive a confirmation with maps and best mode of transportation to get to your meeting point

Finish Point

Bowling Green

Availability

Seven days a week, rain or shine

Approximately 90 minutes

All tours are semi-private with 8 people or less

It is a walking tour, but the pace is slow and comfortable

Private Tour Option

All of our tours are available as private tours . Enjoy the same great tour with just your friends and family, and one of our guides. Get in touch to plan your tour today!

What You’ll Do and See

See where it all began on this fascinating tour that takes you past some of New York’s most important business and government institutions . This area is the birthplace of NYC , and your guide will share their immense knowledge of how it emerged from a Dutch fur-trading outpost and colonial stronghold, to a land of towering skyscrapers and glittering lights. We’ll show you the last remaining gas lamp lights and e xplore how stocks were originally traded . You will amble down Wall Street, explore the Stone Street Historic District (New York City’s oldest neighborhood), see the famed Trinity Church, Federal Hall, visit Hamilton’s gravesite and experience how 9-11 transformed these sacred grounds. Every step of this walking tour is like turning the page of an American history textbook . Let the next chapter be one YOU write!

This tour makes a great Half Day Double Combo with our  Greenwich Village Food Tour (opens in a new tab) , or an awesome Full Day Triple Combo with the  Greenwich Village Food Tour and High Line Walking Tour (opens in a new tab)

Check Out What Our Guests Are Saying

Happy client.

My wife and I have done a lot of guided tours, in a lot of different places round the world. I don’t think we have ever had a better one – and we’ve had some pretty good ones!

I really love this tour and the guides! Been to every single one! Full of knowledge when it comes to history and food.

This tour was great. Really informative and really laid back. You see a local side to NYC you would never normally see.

You May Also Like...

Central park walking tour, hell’s kitchen food tour, greenwich village food tour.

New York City Macy’s History Tour

Learn all about the beloved past of Macy’s Herald Square in New York City and the company’s retailing history on the fun and fact-filled Macy’s History Tour.

Guided Group Tour (45 minutes)

Take a guided tour of Herald Square to learn how the store’s rich history goes beyond R.H. Macy. Take a ride down our wooden escalators to our Big Piano before walking around the main floor to get glimpses of our plaques commemorating those who left a lasting impression throughout the years. Minimum group of 10 participants required. All participants will receive a Macy’s 10% Visitor Savings Pass . One person complimentary for every group of 10 paid.

$12 per person

Macy’s Convention and Meeting Planner Services

Macy’s special services for convention and meeting planners include discounts, private events, shopping parties, pop-up stores and group programs.

Martha Stewart Fresh Takes Easter Videos

Macy's Martha Stewart Fresh Takes video series shows how to make easy recipes and table accents for Easter using Martha Stewart Collection products.

Macy’s Personal Stylist Helps Shoppers Select Perfect Outfits and Gifts

Macy's free personal shopping service, Macy's Personal Stylist, helps you find the perfect outfit, home furnishings and gift items.

www.visitmacysusa.com

Travelers' Choice Award 2023! TripAdvisor Hall of Fame! 130,000+ Happy Customers Since 2009.

African American & Black Heritage NYC Tours

Inside Out Tours is an award-winning, certified minority and women owned business that is dedicated to presenting the histories of people of color in an engaging, sensitive and in-depth manner. Our African American Heritage tours are carefully researched to highlight the hidden history and contributions of black people in New York City.

African American Heritage Tour of New York City

Discover the African American Heritage of Lower Manhattan and Harlem in this comprehensive tour from the establishment of New York to present.

African American Heritage Tour of Brooklyn

Brooklyn has long been one of the great centers of African-American culture in the United States, boasting the largest black population in New York City. Explore the legacy of iconic figures like Spike Lee, Jay Z, Shirley Chisholm, David Ruggles and Frederick Douglass.

NYC Slavery and Underground Railroad Tour

Learn the exciting history of the enslaved people who built the foundations of New York City and the brave band of freedom fighters who formed the networks that became the Underground Railroad. This tour is featured in the New York Times!

Harlem Renaissance Bus Tour

Learn about the Harlem Renaissance including its musical, artistic and literary achievements while exploring Harlem on this bus-guided experience.

Heroes of Harlem Tour

Discover the iconic literary, political and artistic heroes that made Harlem the capital of Black America.

Need individual instead of group tickets?  See individual tours here .

Interest in a Group tour?

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NY Historical Tours uses cookies for enhanced service. By continuing, you agree to our terms.

New York Historical Tours

For 15 years, our mission at New York Historical Tours is to provide memorable rewarding New York experience through exciting and enriching professionally guided walking tours. We are a wholly locally owned and operated family business dedicated to excellence and personal service. All of our tours are led by trained, experienced and knowledgeable officially licensed local tour guides. On your tour, you can expect to see some familiar places and make many new discoveries about the world’s most fascinating city, where every street and building has a story to tell.  We look forward to providing an exceptional New York city experience with the highest level of service.

Dedicated to Excellence

Enriching experiences for locals and visitors from across the country and around the world

Rewarding experiences for professionals and corporate groups

Educational experiences for local and inbound students and alumni groups

Driven By a Commitment to the Greater Good

New York Historical Tours pledges a percentage of profits to support education, historical preservation, and environmental conservation.

Why We Are NYC’s Favorite Historical Tours

Travelinspiration, tripadvisor reviews.

Our 1st day we concentrated on the many iconic sights of Midtown Manhattan, including inside the Empire State Building, NY City Library, Grand Central, Rockefeller Center, and many more including hidden gems along the way – all fantastic!!!

Amazing tour! We were fascinated the entire time. We ran into another of their guides while we were out and about – equally kind and gracious. We will definitely schedule some of their other tours next time we are in NYC.

Highly recommend the Gilded Age tour. Learned so much about a neighborhood I thought I knew so well. A great way to rediscover a city you love.

I gave my husband a private Gilded Age tour as a Christmas gift and we went on our anniversary in mid-January.  Quite honestly the tour was so interesting, that the weather didn’t distract us. We’ve both lived and worked in New York City so are very familiar with the city, but we learned so much!

Year after year New York Historical Tours has been awarded Trip Advisor’s Certificate of Excellence and consistently receives top accolades by travelers on the world’s largest travel website.

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Lost NYC landmarks are found again at this New-York Historical Society exhibit

"It is about loss but also about recovery and also about remembering."

There’s only one constant in New York City: Change. A new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society explores the rapid development of the city and what’s been left behind. 

The exhibit, titled Lost New York , transports viewers to a time when pigs roamed the streets, shopping was a radical act, and New Yorkers used to brave polluted waters for a swim. The exhibition also documents long-gone landmarks like the original Penn Station, Met Opera House, Chinese Theater, and Croton Reservoir. See it at the Upper West Side museum now through September 29. 

RECOMMENDED: The best museum exhibitions in NYC right now

More than 90 paintings, photographs, objects, and lithographs combine to tell the story of the city’s history and the importance of preserving pieces of our otherwise vanishing past. Though the idea for an exhibit like this had been brewing for some time, the concept solidified when the museum acquired two trompe-l’œil paintings by Richard Haas. One painting depicts Manhattan in 1855 with the Crystal Palace and original Croton Reservoir in view. The second painting depicts the same view during 1994 with Bryant Park and the Empire State Building in focus. The contrast is dizzying. 

Museum curators focused not just on lost landmarks but also on lost communities (think Seneca Village), environments (like bathhouse culture), monuments (such as the Hippodrome), pastimes (cruising on a penny farthing, for example), and transportation (the horse-drawn omnibus). 

"I hope for visitors it's a fun dive into the many and deep layers of our past. But I hope that it becomes clear throughout the exhibition that it is about loss but also about recovery and also about remembering, and the importance of knowing our history," Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto told Time Out New York on a tour. As vice president and chief curator of New-York Historical,  Ikemoto served as curator for Lost New York.

It is about loss but also about recovery and also about remembering.

While the exhibition draws from the past, it stays contemporary by including quotes from living New Yorkers who reflect on many of the places, often with first-hand memories.

For example, next to an oil painting of Klein's discount department store, there's a quote from New Yorker June Goldberg who remembers shopping there for bargains because her family didn't have much money growing up. Different than a typical department store, the clothing at Klein's sat unfolded in piles on tables. The store was also noteworthy for its racially integrated lunch counter, a rarity during the Jim Crow era. A beautiful 1930s-era watercolor piece depicts a Black man eating lunch elbow-to-elbow with a white woman. 

In another section, stunning images capture the soaring arches and ornate columns in the original Penn Station. The railroad station opened in 1910 and stood for only 54 years. Its demolition spurred the creation of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, an organization that later saved Grand Central Terminal from destruction. Quoted next to the artwork, Justin Rivers of Untapped New York says you can still find remnants of the original Penn Station—you just need to know where to look. 

A powerful landmark from the 1980s was Keith Haring’s Pop Shop, a place where the artist tried to make artwork accessible to anyone. Though the late artist’s iconic designs still live on today on everything from posters to sweatshirts to backpacks, the Soho Pop Shop closed in 2005 due to rising rent costs. You can see a portion of the shop in the exhibition, along with a Bowery subway sign emblazoned with Haring’s signature artwork. 

Other sections of the show spotlight river bathhouses where New Yorkers cooled off before the existence of public pools; activist posters from Alphabet City; the first Chinese-language theater on the East Coast; and the Central Park Hooverville that emerged after the stock market crash in 1929. 

The exhibit chronicles decades of New York City's major moments with crisp descriptions and vivid detail to create an unflinching portrait of the city's history. Its paintings and photographs hold lessons for us all. 

Lost New York is included with museum admission ($24/adult). Or check it on during pay-as-you-wish Friday evenings , which will expand 5-8pm with live vintage music and specialty "lost" cocktails during the spring and summer months. Friday night activities begin on May 3 and continue through early summer. 

• Rossilynne Skena Culgan Things to Do Editor

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Unveil the mysteries of one of the most alluring cultural enclaves in New York City

A Tight Knit Community

Immerse yourself in this 90 minute walking tour that will pull the curtain back and give you a glimpse into the magic that makes this neighborhood so unique.  In partnership with Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and the Chinatown Little Italy Historic District Association,  We now has exclusive access to places in this community that are normally off-limits to the public.  We tour the southern portion of the Historic District from Canal Street to Kimlau Square; the infamous Doyers Street ‘aka’ the bloody angle, Confucius Plaza, a Taoist Temple and we’ll see the largest Buddhist statue in NYC.  The grand finale in a peek inside the CCBA (Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association)

A Living Tapestry of Culture

Within the borders of this Historic District is a living breathing tapestry of Chinese American Culture.  In addition, there are also enclaves of Taiwanese, Thai and Vietnamese.    As you wind your way through Chinatown you will find it to be an epicenter of fashion, food, technology and culture.  A well greased machine, you’ll be sure to encounter members of the Chinatown Business Improvement District keeping the streets cleaned.  The parks within the district are always filled with neighborhood residence engaging in social activities like group dancing and tai chi, or playing cards and majhong.  You will always find a very strong sense of community here.

We bring the History Alive

Today’s Manhattan Chinatown in lower Manhattan is a thriving community of Chinese American immigrants that first started taking root here in the late 1860’s.  Restricted in size as a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, this community did not see substantial growth until after 1965 when the Immigration and Nationality Act was finally passed.  Today, the Manhattan Chinatown in Lower Manhattan is 1 of over 9 different Chinese American Communities throughout the 5 boroughs of New York City.  Combined they represent the largest representation of Chinese outside of China.  And it all began right here on Mott Street in what was once known as Little Hong Kong.

In partnership with the Chinatown Little Italy Historic District and Two Bridges Neighborhood Council

Book Public Tour

Click here to buy tickets for one of our daily time-slots Monday to Friday at 11:30am.  This Tour is 90 minutes long and under 2 miles of walking.  We operate rain or shine so please come prepared for the weather.

Passholder Reservations

If you  have a Go City Pass or New York Pass then click here to make your pass reservations.

Private and Corporate Chinatown Tours

We offer Private and Corporate Group Tours of the Chinatown Official Historic District Tour.  Click here to learn more.

CHINATOWN CHECK-IN LOCATION

CHECK-IN AND STARTING POINT

Please check-in for the Chinatown Official Historic District Tour at the red pin on the map above. We are located at Chinatown Little Italy Information Kiosk in-between Canal, Baxter and Walker streets. See the photo of the Kiosk where we will be.

CHECK-IN HERE

Chinatown Little Italy Information Kiosk

Corner of Baxter, Canal & Hester Streets