Hidden New York

Historic houses & hidden corners

Dutch farmhouses older than the United States, mansions, secret lanes and odd corners of the city. Short, true stories you will not find on the usual walking tour.

Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors

31 places

The Alice Austen House, also known as Clear Comfort, in Rosebank on Staten Island

Alice Austen House

Alice Austen House · Dutch colonial home and photography museum

Bartow-Pell Mansion, the Greek Revival manor house in Pelham Bay Park, the Bronx

Bartow-Pell Mansion

Bartow-Pell Mansion · a Greek Revival manor hidden in the Bronx woods

Cast-iron facade of the Bennett Building in the Financial District, lit by the sun

Bennett Building

Bennett Building · the biggest cast-iron facade in the world

Furnished bedroom inside the Conference House in Tottenville, Staten Island

Conference House

Conference House · the stone manor of the 1776 peace talks

The Dyckman House farmhouse on its small hillock beside Broadway in Inwood, Manhattan

Dyckman House

Dyckman House · Manhattan’s oldest remaining farmhouse

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, the small wooden house in the Bronx where the poet lived

Edgar Allan Poe Cottage

Poe Cottage · where Poe wrote “Annabel Lee” in the Bronx

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, a Gothic Revival cottage in Rosebank, Staten Island, photographed in 2008

Garibaldi-Meucci Museum

Garibaldi-Meucci Museum · Staten Island home of Meucci and Garibaldi

The Hendrick I. Lott House on East 36th Street in Marine Park, Brooklyn

Hendrick I. Lott House

Hendrick I. Lott House · a Dutch colonial farmhouse in Marine Park

The Hispanic Society of America building on Audubon Terrace in Washington Heights

Hispanic Society of America

Hispanic Society · Goya, Velázquez and Sorolla uptown

The Christopher House at Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island

Historic houseFilmed here

Historic Richmond Town

Historic Richmond Town · a Staten Island village in time

The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Lighthouse Hill in Staten Island

Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

Jacques Marchais Museum · a Himalayan monastery on Staten Island

The James Watson House at 7 State Street, now part of the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton

James Watson House

James Watson House · a 1793 mansion facing Battery Park

Kreischer House, a wood-frame Queen Anne mansion with a corner tower and verandas in Charleston, Staten Island

Historic houseFilmed here

Kreischer House

Kreischer House · Queen Anne mansion of a Staten Island brick family

The brick Louis Armstrong House on 107th Street in Corona, Queens

Louis Armstrong House

Louis Armstrong House · where the jazz giant lived in Corona

Brick facade of the Merchant’s House Museum on East Fourth Street in Manhattan

Merchant’s House Museum

Merchant’s House Museum · NoHo home with its original interior

The Morris–Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights seen from the southwest, with its double-height portico

Historic houseFilmed here

Morris–Jumel Mansion

Morris–Jumel Mansion · Washington’s 1776 headquarters

Tudor-style houses of Pomander Walk on the Upper West Side of Manhattan

Pomander Walk

Pomander Walk · a storybook lane tucked into the Upper West Side

Quarters A, the Federal-style commandant’s house of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, seen among trees

Quarters A, Brooklyn Navy Yard

Quarters A · Commodore Perry’s Federal-style Navy Yard home

Sailors’ Snug Harbor on the North Shore of Staten Island

Sailors’ Snug Harbor

Sailors’ Snug Harbor · Greek Revival campus built for retired sailors

The Greek Revival Seguine Mansion on Lemon Creek, Staten Island

Seguine Mansion

Seguine Mansion · an 1838 Greek Revival house on Lemon Creek

Sniffen Court, the small brick mews off East 36th Street in Murray Hill, Manhattan

Sniffen Court Historic District

Sniffen Court · a tiny 1860s carriage-house mews in Manhattan

Row houses by Stanford White on the north side of West 139th Street in Striver’s Row, photographed in 2014

St. Nicholas Historic District (Striver’s Row)

Striver’s Row · Gilded Age row houses and a Harlem milestone

Steinway Mansion, the hilltop Italianate villa in Astoria, Queens

Historic houseFilmed here

Steinway Mansion

Steinway Mansion · a 19th-century villa hidden in Astoria

Historic view of the New York City Asylum for the Insane (women’s building) on Blackwell’s Island

The Octagon

The Octagon · last remnant of a historic asylum, on Roosevelt Island

Stone facade of the Van Cortlandt House in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx

Van Cortlandt House Museum

Van Cortlandt House Museum · 1749 Georgian house in a Bronx park

Back of the Vander Ende–Onderdonk House in Ridgewood, Queens

Vander Ende–Onderdonk House

Vander Ende–Onderdonk House · Dutch Colonial stone house in Queens

The clapboard Voorlezer’s House in Historic Richmond Town on Staten Island

Voorlezer’s House

Voorlezer’s House · Dutch-era “schoolhouse” on Staten Island

The historic Hunterfly Road houses of Weeksville in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Weeksville Heritage Center

Weeksville · a 19th-century free Black town hidden in Brooklyn

A corner of an artist’s apartment at Westbeth in Greenwich Village

Westbeth Artists Community

Westbeth · former Bell Labs turned artists’ housing

Exterior of the Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead, a Dutch Colonial farmhouse in Flatlands, Brooklyn

Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead

Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead · Dutch farmhouse in Flatlands

Exterior of the Wyckoff House, a Dutch frame farmhouse in East Flatbush, Brooklyn

Wyckoff House

Wyckoff House · Dutch frame house in East Flatbush