This week we welcome in the fall with a full line-up of exciting behind-the-scenes experiences! Uncover the secrets of famous sites like Grand Central Terminal and Coney Island, and lesser known locations like the abandoned hospital at Ellis Island. Whichever path you choose you are sure to learn something new about New York City on our Untapped Cities tours!

Monday, September 23rd

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Learn about the secrets of one of NYC’s most iconic buildings
• See Grand Central’s hidden tennis courts
• Peek into the entrance of the glass walkways
• Learn about the design flaw as large as Grand Central Terminal‘s main atrium
• Discover a multi-million dollars jewel hidden in plain sight and more!

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

Tour the American Merchant Marine Academy Museum

The American Merchant Marine Museum  at Kings Point preserves, displays, and interprets historic artifacts and artwork related to the United States Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine, and the profession of seafaring. Housed inside the Barstow Estate, a Long Island Gold Coast mansion next to the Merchant Marine Academy was built in the 1920s for William S. Barstow, the first Mayor of Kings Point and a colleague of Thomas Edison. The Museum is used to educate midshipmen and the public and to instill an appreciation for the significant contributions made by the maritime services to the nation’s heritage. On this special lunchtime tour, Untapped Cities Insiders will have the museum entirely to ourselves as it will be closed to the public. Before or after the tour you are encouraged to enjoy a picnic on the grounds overlooking the Long Island Sound. If you are an Untapped Cities Insider, you can join this tour for free! Not an Insider yet? Become a member today to gain access to free behind-the-scenes tours and special events all year long!

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• See ship models of all sizes and navigational tools spanning through decades of maritime history
• A Japanese sword (one of only five in existence!) surrendered by Vice Admiral Matomu Ugaki to Supreme Allied Commander and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur on October 18, 1945
• Collection of china from shipping companies around the world
• The “142 Gallery” dedicated to the 142 U.S Merchant Marine Academy cadets lost in enemy action during World War II.
• Historic and modern maritime artwork

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Tuesday, September 24th

Tour the Architectural Studio of CetraRuddy

Photograph by Alan Schindler, Courtesy of CetraRuddy

Untapped Cities and 6sqft are reprising our series of architectural studio tours. The next firm we will explore in the series is CetraRuddy, the team behind projects such as Fotografiska New York and the Lincoln Square Synagogue. On this tour, Insiders will see the spaces where the ideas of architects come to life and learn about some of the firm’s current projects. Led by principals at the firm, you will stop by stations throughout the office that illustrate the integration of architecture and interiors, technology, sustainability and resiliency. The tour will end with a Q&A. If you are an Untapped Cities Insider, you can join this tour for free! Not an Insider yet? Become a member today to gain access to free behind-the-scenes tours and special events all year long!

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Wednesday, September 25th

Special Access Tour of the Members Only Players Club

Untapped Cities invites you on an exclusive special access tour of the Players Club on Gramercy Park, led by a Players Club docent. This members only social club was founded in 1889 by Edwin Booth, one the most renowned American actors of the 19th century, along with fifteen friends and colleagues including Mark Twain and General William T. Sherman. Today’s notable members include Jimmy Fallon, Ethan Hawke and Tommy Lee Jones, whose portraits hang in the club’s grand staircase.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Learn about the history of the Club and its members
• Visit the room in which actors met secretly in 1913 to form the Actors Equity Association, and walk inside Edwin Booth’s bedroom, where you can find the skull that was used in his famous 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet
• Visit the Hampden-Booth Theatre Library, which contains a vital collection of books, plays, theatre magazines and other artifacts of 19th and early 20th century American and British theatre history
• View the Players Club’s impressive art collections, including portraits by Everett Raymond Kinstler, Edwin’s theater costumes, and more
• Get a close look at Mark Twain’s poker table

Insider Tour of the Players Club on Gramercy Park

Thursday, September 26th

Casting the UWS in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Take part in Landmark West’s special event Casting the UWS in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” This talk will feature Amanda Foley, Supervising Location Manager of the hit Amazon Series along with Bill Groom, Production Designer, and Jan Jericho, Art Designer. The Emmy- and Golden Globe-award winning The Marvelous Mrs. MaiseI, which streams on Amazon’s Prime Video will give a behind-the-scenes look into how they transport audiences the Upper West Side of New York City in the 1950s. The group will share personal stories, and photographs including streetscapes of “befores” and “afters.” If you are an Untapped Cities Insider, you can attend for free!

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Saturday, September 28th

Experience Technoimagination at the Korean Media Arts Festival

Eikyong Lee “Thoughtful Space,” Courtesy of Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery

Technoimagination has taken over the Wald and Kim gallery on Lafayette Street with three floors of groundbreaking installations by prominent Korean new media artists such as Beikyoung Lee, Cheol-Woong Sim, Chan Sook Choi, Hahkyung Kim, Haru Ji and Graham Wakefield, Yoon Chung Han and Eunsu Kang. The immersive installations are arranged according to three themes related to Technoimagination: Memories in Time and Space, Living Data and Media Scavengers. Technoimagination offers multi-sensory environments that blend the worlds of art and science. The festival runs through October 26th and Untapped Cities Insiders will get to go inside and explore the space with curator Odelette Cho, while it is closed to the public. If you are an Untapped Cities Insider, you can join a curator led tour of the gallery for free while it is closed to be public! Not an Insider yet? Become a member today to gain access to free behind-the-scenes tours and special events all year long!

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Behind-the-Scenes Hard Hat Tour of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Explore the over 100-year-old contagious disease hospital, which has been abandoned since 1954
• See an exhibition by the world-renowned artist JR, who has placed life-sized historic photographs of Ellis Island immigrants on interior walls of the hospital buildings
• Visit the Laundry Building, where 3000+ pieces of laundry were washed and sanitized daily
• Discover the kitchen, autopsy room and other usually off-limits places
• Get special access inside the original morgue and long abandoned FBI offices

Behind-the-Scenes Hard Hat Tour of the Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

The story of Grand Central Terminal is that of New York City itself: the structure embodies the social, cultural, economic and technological evolution around it. It is one of great men, feuding architects, ingenuity, rejuvenation, secrets and surprises.  On this tour, we will tell you these stories – about what once was, what could have been, and what can be; about the struggle to save and restore Grand Central as a preserved icon of the past, and of challenge to ensure that it serves New York’s future. We will show you what it was like in the booming age of the railroad, as a rundown embarrassment, and as a renovated jewel at the center of the city. Together, we will explore the interesting and unique spaces produced for and by it. Whether you pass through it every day on your morning commute or stroll through the Beaux Arts beauty for the first time, you are sure to leave having learned, seen, or experienced something new and extraordinary.

Tour of the Secrets of Grand Central Terminal

Secrets from Below: Underground Tour of the NYC Subway!

Inside the Chambers Street station in Lower Manhattan

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

• Explore City Hall Park as the birthplace of the NYC subway system, including elements of the famed, decommissioned City Hall Station you can see right in the park
• Learn about the comically short route of the mythical “Subway before the Subway,” Alfred Ely Beach’s Pneumatic Transit System
• See the architectural ghosts of the now nearly forgotten, and partially abandoned, Chambers Street station then nicknamed the “Grand Central of Downtown”
• Use the 6 train as your own time machine as you ride through abandoned subway stations
• Discover the remnants of Union Station as you learn about a hidden art installation thousands of riders walk by everyday

Underground Tour of the NYC Subway

See our full lists of upcoming public tours and Insider events!