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NYC Encounters

Walking & Virtual Tours
Art, Architecture, History & Trivia

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Upcoming Tours & Webinars

Please register for programs through the links provided in each description.
Can't make the date?
Consider a private tour! 
Scroll down for rates.
Email for available dates & arrangements: ginnypoleman@gmail.com.

  • Nov 09, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    Explore Carnegie Hill nestled upper 80s/lower 90s on the UES, full of historic architecture: the former Andrew Carnegie mansion, (the Cooper-Hewitt Museum); the former Otto H. Kahn House, (the Convent of the Sacred Heart); & the former Warburg Mansion, (the Jewish Museum).
  • Nov 11, 2024, 10:00 AM – 12:45 PM
    New York, 62 Chelsea Piers Pier 62, New York, NY 10011, USA
    Lively narration covering architecture and engineering landmarks from all eras of the city’s history, as well as current urban planning and environmental issues impacting urban waterfronts on a vintage-style boat while circumnavigating Manhattan.
  • Nov 11, 2024, 5:30 PM – 6:30 PM
    Webinar
    On the virtual program, learn how a 18th c. parcel of land on Manhattan’s westside transform from an estate owned by poet Clement Clarke Moore; the site where the Oreo was invented; and how NYC’s elevated park — the High Line — come about.
  • Nov 14, 2024, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
    Webinar
    Rediscover this neighborhood South of Houston (SoHo) — visit the cast iron district; see a building designed by the renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead, and White; admire the Beaux Arts beauty of the former 1909 NYPD police headquarters; and hear the stories at stops along the way.
  • Nov 15, 2024, 12:45 PM – 1:45 PM
    New York, 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA
    FREE with Museum admission. No registration necessary. This cross-collection tour looks at fashion — clothes, hair, jewelry, etc —  using sculpture, paintings, and decorative objects in the museum's collection. Meet in Gallery 534, the Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco.
  • Nov 16, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    See the palaces built for NY’s oldest families like Astor & Roosevelt, designed by notable architects: C.P.H. Gilbert, Stanford White, & Carrère & Hastings. And hear the scandalous stories of infidelity and family dramas along the way.
  • Nov 17, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    Explore the neighborhood of the Morgan Library, designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead, & White, & the homes, stables, and private clubs in this historic district. Learn how the first RR in the world impacted the area and see a then-and-now illustration of how the neighborhood has changed.
  • Nov 19, 2024, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
    Webinar
    A virtual presentation using vintage & new photos exploring what was once 5th Avenue’s Millionaire Row with neighbors named Vanderbilt & Whitney, & how it’s transformed into a canyon of glass office skyscrapers, art deco buildings, and big-box retailers.
  • Nov 21, 2024, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    Starting with Grant’s Tomb, take a virtual tour of the statues & monuments that line Riverside Park with a focus on the art & the artists who created them, including 2 of only 5 sculptures of historical women in NYC.
  • Nov 23, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    New York City's late 19th century’s wealthiest moved uptown & built colossal palaces. Architectural details like, turrets, gargoyles, moats, & wrought iron inspired by Italian Renaissance tombs for names like Pulitzer & Frick, by architects like Stanford White & Carrère & Hastings.
  • Nov 24, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    From a statue dedicated to a beloved sled dog to the oldest outdoor monument in New York City, explore the rich history and hidden gems of Central Park along a custom-curated path from the zoo to the Met.
  • Nov 25, 2024, 12:15 PM – 2:00 PM
    New York, 62 Chelsea Piers Pier 62, New York, NY 10011, USA
    Lively narration covering architecture and engineering landmarks from all eras of the city’s history, as well as current urban planning and environmental issues impacting urban waterfronts on a vintage-style boat while circumnavigating Manhattan.
  • Nov 30, 2024, 9:15 AM – 12:00 PM
    New York, 62 Chelsea Piers Pier 62, New York, NY 10011, USA
    Lively narration covering architecture and engineering landmarks from all eras of the city’s history, as well as current urban planning and environmental issues impacting urban waterfronts on a vintage-style boat while circumnavigating Manhattan.
  • Dec 01, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    Learn how a 19th-century parcel of land on the westside of Manhattan transform from a sleepy estate owned by famed poet Clement Clarke Moore into one of today's chicest New York City neighborhoods. Where did a group of cowboys play a crucial role in public? See historical Chelsea on this tour!
  • Dec 12, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    * Discover the secrets of one of NYC’s most iconic buildings * Learn about the design flaw in the main concourse * Find one of NYC’s most elegant cocktail bars formally an office, a speakeasy and a jail * Peek into the entrance of the glass walkways * Decipher the symbols of the family that built it
  • Dec 12, 2024, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
    Webinar
    Virtually visit the Financial District & some of Manhattan's most historical sites: Manhattan’s oldest fence from the late 18th c; Trinity Church & Alexander Hamilton's gravesite; Federal Hall — the site of Washington's inaugural address; the US Customs House, and so much more!
  • Dec 13, 2024, 12:45 PM – 1:45 PM
    New York, 1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA
    FREE with Museum admission. No registration necessary. This cross-collection tour looks at fashion — clothes, hair, jewelry, etc —  using sculpture, paintings, and decorative objects in the museum's collection. Meet in Gallery 534, the Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco.
  • Dec 15, 2024, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
    Location is TBD
    Explore Carnegie Hill nestled upper 80s/lower 90s on the UES, full of historic architecture: the former Andrew Carnegie mansion, (the Cooper-Hewitt Museum); the former Otto H. Kahn House, (the Convent of the Sacred Heart); & the former Warburg Mansion, (the Jewish Museum).

Private Walking Tours

Visiting NYC?

Book a private tour! Choose from a selection of in-person

walking tours for your group. 

 Two-hour Walking Tour

$200 for up to 4 people. 

$40 for each additional attendee, max of 15 people 

 

Other neighborhoods, Street Art, Art Gallery, or Art Museums tours 

can be customized for your group! 

Two-hour Custom Tour

$300 for up to 4 people

$50 for each additional attendee, max of 15 people 

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The Slow Down Tour of

Grand Central Terminal

2-hr Walking Tour

No need to rush through Grand Central Terminal on this slow down tour exploring the history, architecture, and stories of NYC's landmarked Beaux Arts jewel.

Gilded Age Mansions
of Museum Mile

2-hr Walking Tour

Stroll up Fifth Avenue from the Frick Collection to the Cooper Hewitt Museum seeing the turn-of-the-20th century homes and hearing the stories of their wealthy owners, familiar names like Pulitzer, Whitney, Carnegie, and more!

Highlights of

Central Park

2-hr Walking Tour

Hitting the major attractions of Central Park, this tour will highlight the structures, sculptures, and history of this magnificent urban space within Manhattan.

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Gilded Age Department Stores
of Ladies Mile

2-hr Walking Tour

As we take the steps of women of the 1890s who window shopped on 6th Avenue, we'll look up at the magnificent architecture of the department stores of the Gilded Age with names long gone, like Siegel-Cooper, and some still hanging on, like Macy’s.

Poems, Oreos, & Cowboys: History of Chelsea & the High Line

2-hr Walking Tour

What do the Night Before Christmas, Oreos, and cowboys in New York City have in common? Learn that and much more as you take this two-hour walk through the history of Chelsea and the High Line listening to the stories of this revitalized area of restaurants, high-end shops, art galleries and mid-19th century brownstones.

The 1915 Farley Post Office

& new Moynihan Train Hall

2-hr Walking Tour

The old Farley Post Office is one of the last vestiges of McKim, Mead, & White’s architectural designs in the old Penn Station neighborhood. See how this Beaux Arts beauty was painstaking conserved to its former glory, and how the rest of the building was repurposed as the new, modern train hall, honoring the original Penn Station.

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Explore South Street Seaport!

2-hr Walking Tour

Come explore the largest concentration of restored early 19th-century commercial buildings in the city, and the newly repurposed Tin Building as a culinary marketplace by Chef Jean-Georges. With vintage photographs, this tour will show how the Seaport has evolved from one of the first and busiest streets in Manhattan to today’s tourist destination featuring the South Street Seaport Museum and its fleet of historical ships, Schermerhorn Row, the Titanic Memorial, and the revitalized Pier 17. And of course, great photo spots of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Custom Neighborhood, Art Gallery, 

Art Museum, or

Street Art Tours

2-hr Art Tour

Specially developed for your group including the latest exhibitions, you can choose a tour of galleries, an art museum (MoMA, Whitney, Frick, Guggenheim), or neighborhood street art (Chelsea, Greenwich Village). This tour can be customized for families with kids 10-years and up.

Rockefeller Center —
City within a City

2-hr Walking Tour

Using his own money, John D Rockefeller Jr. envisioned an ambitious 22-acre city-within-a-city of 19 buildings with offices, restaurants, TV studios, theater, all during the Great Depression. On this walking tour, discover the magnificent Art Deco architecture, view some of its site-specific art installations, and hear the story behind the most famous Christmas tree and how it came there at Rockefeller Center.

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Midtown Fifth Avenue

Then & Now

2-hr Walking Tour

What was once 5th Avenue’s Millionaire Row at the turn of the 20th century, with neighbors named Vanderbilt and Whitney, is now a canyon of Manhattan’s finest hotels, high rises, and retail. What remains? You'll see some of the finest Gilded Age churches, hotels, private clubs (designed by McKim, Mead, & White), and repurposed mansions like Cartier and Gucci.

SoHo Architecture

2-hr Walking Tour

Rediscover South of Houston (SoHo), once a high-end residential neighborhood, then commercial district, and now a destination for shopping and entertainment. Travel back in time to early 19th century and then see brand new architecture. Visit SoHo’s historical cast iron district; see a building designed by the renowned architectural firm, McKim, Mead, and White; and admire the Beaux Arts beauty of the former 1909 NYPD police headquarters.

The Gems of Bryant Park 

2-hr Walking Tour

Take a stroll around this 9.6-acre park while viewing vintage photographs and listening to the stories of the history, sculptures, library, and neighboring buildings of Bryant Park, including the landmarked American Radiator Building. Named after newspaperman and abolitionist, William Cullen Bryant, the park shares the block with the New York Public Library and has become Manhattan’s midtown’s square with year-around events and free public activities.

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Riverside Drive:

the Other Millionaires Row

Two, 2-hr Walking Tours

Split into two unique walking tours, your choice of Riverside south from 72nd to 90th Streets, or Riverside north from Grant's Tomb to 103rd Street. Both tours cover the gilded age mansions, turn-of-the-century luxury apartment buildings, and the statutory of Riverside Drive Park.

Gems of Madison Square Park & the Flatiron District

2-hr Walking Tour

Today, Madison Square Park serves as a meeting place for New Yorkers and tourists with green space, playground, and annual site-specific art installations. Come explore the history of the park and its surrounding historical buildings like Metropolitan Life North Building, the NY Life Building, and the perennial favorite, the Flatiron Building. Using vintage photographs, see the district then and in person, while listening to many stories of these sights.

Gilded Age Mansions
of Murray Hill

2-hr Walking Tour

Imagine life as it was in the 19th Century Murray Hill. We’ll look at the Morgan Library, designed by renowned architect Charles McKim of McKim, Mead, & White — using no mortar between its marble blocks — as well as the remaining homes, stables, and private clubs in this historical district. Using vintage photographs, you'll get a then-and-now look of what remains, as well as talk about how the very first railroad in the world impacted the area.

Webinars

Not in New York City? Prefer an on-site lecture?

How about a virtual tour or webinar?

Choose from the offerings for your private group or fundraising event

Email ginnypoleman@gmail.com for more webinar subjects. 

One-hour online Webinar (your platform or mine)

$100 for up to 10 people

$5 for each additional attendee, no max

(Recorded replay available)

One-hour Custom online Webinar (your platform or mine)

$200 for up to 10 people

$5 for each additional attendee, no max

(Recorded replay available)

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Grand Central Terminal

4-Part Series

$400+

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History of

Grand Central Terminal

1-hr Highlights

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Grand Central's "Terminal City"

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History of the

New York Public Library

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History of Central Park

3-Part Series

$300+ 

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History of Central Park

1-hr Highlights

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Gilded Age Mansions of Museum Mile

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Gilded Age Department Stores of Ladies Mile

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History of the 

Original Penn Station

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History of the

Empire State Building

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Poems, Oreos, & Cowboys

History of Chelsea

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Color: Culture, Science, & History

3-part Series

$300+


 Red, Yellow, & Blue

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A Love Affair with
New York City

A Native New Yorker

From the time I was a little kid from Whitestone, Queens, I loved going on excursions into “the city.” I’ve been in love with NYC ever since—the architecture, the history, the stories, and probably most of all, the energy. After living in other places in the States and raising my family in Westchester county, I am now a full-time Manhattan resident. I have immersed myself in learning more about this great city— the fun, the quirky, and the fascinating— and now dedicated to passing it on to YOU.

Selfie at Downtown Carousel.HEIC

Testimonials

"Ginny is always a delightfully knowledgeable
and engaging tour guide. The subject matter is always intriguing and often surprising! I'd never thought about the buildings in NYC having such a fun history."

"For this webinar,
Ginny did her research.
I could picture the 
Empire State Building right in front of me."

"Great & varied info in a relaxed setting - Ginny's voice & style were very calming!"


"I really enjoyed this webinar and I definitely learned a lot."

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Contact

Ginny Poleman

914-261-8546

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