Touring the Upper East Side: Walks in Five Historic Districs

by Andrew S. Dolkart

touring

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some years back, I picked up a copy of the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Touring the Upper East Side by Andrew S. Dolkart. I can’t recall where I bought it, maybe the Historical Society or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but anyway, this past year, finally, my son and I decided to actually walk some of the wonderful tours described in its pages! We started with the Treadwell Farm Historic District where we sat in on a church service, moved on to do part of the Upper East Side Historic District (bothered a couple of doormen to let us in lobbies), and then this past week, we took in the small Henderson Place Historic District (almost attended an open house, but chickened out!)

The book is beautifully laid out and easy to follow with fabulous images. We learned quite a bit about the streets we’ve walked for over twenty years and came home from each tour inspired do more exploring online.

The book includes an index to architects and buildings, and the only thing I missed was perhaps a dictionary explaining some of the architectural terms. More than once we looked at each other and wondered, “what does that mean?” Thankfully we used my son’s iphone to provide onsite, on-the-fly clarifications!