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This Beaux Arts building was used as the drill hall and offices of a military unit privately formed in 1848. In 1913, the controversial exhibition of modern art known as the Armory Show was held here, including works by Van Gogh, Duchamp, and Brancusi. The show was widely panned in the press, but it brought modern art to New York on a large scale and had a profound and lasting effect on American art.

Anchored by Macy’s, which opened in 1858, this was once a popular district known as “Fashion Row”. The 1876 cast-iron façade of the Hugh O’Neill Dry Goods Store at Nos. 655–71 exemplifies the era, when the arrival of the 6th Avenue elevated line provided easy access to the area. As Manhattan’s commercial center moved northward, these cast-iron palaces were left deserted until recently, when they found new life as bargain fashion outlets and superstores.

Ever quirky, New York’s narrowest home, just 9.5 ft (3 m) wide, was built in 1893 in a passageway in the Village. Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay lived here, as did actors John Barrymore and, later, Cary Grant. No. 77 Bedford Street is the oldest house in the Village, dating from around 1799, and at No. 103 is the house known as “Twin Peaks,” an 1830 structure remodeled in 1925 by Clifford Reed Daily to house artists and writers, who would presumably be inspired by the whimsical architecture.

The city’s most eclectic emporium, two landmark buildings that are part flea market, part antiques fair, and part Middle Eastern bazaar. Offerings include fancy French or rugged Mexican furniture, antiques and reproductions, fabrics and accessories, linens, bedding, flowers, foods, and a whole building for rugs. There are two dining places: Lucy and Pipa.

One of the oldest and most influential African-American churches in the U.S. was organized in 1808 by a group protesting segregation within the Baptist church. The congregation became politically active under such leaders as congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Today the church is widely attended on Sundays by many who come to hear the wonderful gospel choir.

The mammoth museum whose holdings include 32 million artifacts.

Join throngs of New York parents introducing children to the world-famous dioramas of wild animals in realistic natural habitats and the fascinating dinosaur exhibits. The totem and giant canoe in the Northwest Coast Indian exhibit and the enormous meteorites and mineral rock specimens are also favorites. The Rose Center will intrigue older children and teens.

On weekends, year-round, an empty parking lot becomes one of the city’s most popular outdoor markets. A tradition for more than 30 years, some 600 dealers, from Maine to Maryland, set up booths selling clothing, silver, jewelry, furniture, art, and “junktiques” from old tools to vintage eyeglasses. Many prize antiques can be discovered at The Amex, an indoor market just around the corner at 112 West 25th Street, and at The Showplace, 40 West 26th Street, with 135 dealers on three floors.

Built in 1922, this is a monument to excess but fun to see nevertheless. The façade is said to have more columns than any other building in the world, and the vast lobby is a forest of marble pillars. Close by at 120 Broadway, the former Equitable Building, built in 1915, is of note for another excess: the immense bulk of the building was responsible for the nation’s first skyscraper zoning regulations.

Built largely on 18th- and 19th-century landfill, this park at New York harbor is usually visited for Castle Clinton, the 1807 fort that is now the embarkation point for Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty ferries. This welcome swath of green is of interest for its many monuments and statues.