The Perfect Place: Big Onion Walking Tours

I am a big dork. I admit this fact. I love to learn, especially about New York. We live in a fascinating city filled with beautiful architecture and an interesting history. Walking tours are my favorite daytime activity. Big Onion leads 2 hour tours of various neighborhoods. History students getting their masters, walk around historic districts and tell you the who, what, why, and where that make up the area. Not only do you learn about your neighborhood, but you can impress you friends as you casually mention that the building to your right was the former home of Aaron Burr.

Big Onion refers to the fact that New York is like an onion. You have to peel back the layers. They are not building any more land (We are an island, duh!), so many famous buildings have been torn down for newer, sleeker structures. My favorite example is Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. The Astor brothers built two fabulous mansions next to each other on this block. You may have heard of Caroline Astor's famous 400. It was a list of 400 elite New Yorkers, and the same number of people she could fit in her ballroom. Everyone was dying to be on the list! Her ballroom was located in her mansion on 5th and 34th. However, as the area became more commercial, people moved uptown. Thus, the glorious mansions were torn down to make way for the first Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Yep, the one we know today was not the original! But time moved on and this building also met its fate with the wrecking ball. Only to make way for, The Empire State building. It's amazing that this one block has had such a colorful history.