Registration is now open for the Gibson House Museum’s 1859 Weekend in Manhattan and Brooklyn: Bricks & Brownstones: Row Houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, the Evolution of the New York Row House: 1835-1900.
The focus of this tour will be the development of the New York row house during the Victorian Era (1837-1901). Proceeds from this tour will benefit the Back Bay of Boston’s own Victorian row house the Gibson House Museum. It is recommended that tour participants stay at the Grand Union Hotel, 34 East 32nd Street in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood. This hotel is a good value and has a convenient breakfast café from which to launch the tours.
Saturday, October 4th: Our day of touring begins at 9 a.m. We will visit the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, pictured below, which provides a fascinating opportunity to tour what is probably the first complete recreation of a Victorian residential building. Built during the 1850s and torn down in 1916, the decision was made after T.R.’s death in 1919 to re-create his parents’ Italianate brownstone residence in the Murray Hill section of New York City. The President’s family was very much involved in this 1923 recreation and returned numerous furnishings that belonged to the Roosevelt family (Reservations are now in place for tour up to 15 people — admission is free)
From T.R’s house in Manhattan we’ll take cabs to the Brooklyn Museum. Following lunch in the museum’s café we will have a guided tour the museum’s period rooms (Tour is booked for 1:30-2:30 tour of period rooms with emphasis on Victoriana—Adult admission $15, Seniors—62 and older:$13—guided tour included in price of admission ). The Brooklyn Museum was a leader in the installation of Victorian era interiors-as early as the late 1930s the Turkish smoking room from John D. Rockefeller’s house in the East 50s of Manhattan was purchased and made available for viewing at the museum. After lunch we will visit Grand Army Plaza, Frederick Law Olmsted’s Prospect Park as well as the late nineteenth century mansions of Prospect Park West and adjacent side streets. Following a reception at an 1888 Romanesque Revival/Dutch row house designed by C.P.H. Gilbert we will have dinner at the moderately — priced Two Boots (the cuisine of the boot shaped Louisiana and Italy) in Park Slope (Park Slope tour lead by Ed Gordon).
On Sunday, October 5th we will gather in the Grand Union’s lobby at 9:30 a.m. to take cabs to Brooklyn Heights. Once the domain of descendants of wealthy Dutch families, the Heights, overtime, has been the home of well- known preachers (Henry Ward Beecher) poets (Walt Whitman), engineers (the Roeblings who built the Brooklyn Bridge) and above all writers — from Hart Crane through Carson McCullers to Truman Capote and Norman Mailer. Highlights of the tour include a look at “the City of Church’s†churches including houses of worship by Minard LeFevre, James Renwick, Richard Upjohn and others. We will stroll along the elevated walkway overlooking Brooklyn Heights known as the Promenade and enjoy brunch at a Heights restaurant. (Brooklyn Heights tour lead by Ed Gordon) After brunch we will return to Manhattan to tour the Seabury — Treadwell House (a.k.a. Old Merchant’s House). This 1832 red brick row house’s Greek Revival interiors contain fine examples of antebellum furniture that belonged to the Treadwell family who lived here from the mid-1830s to the mid-1930s (reservations have been made for a 3 p.m. appointment).
Tour Registration: $175 ($100 donation to GHM and $75 per person to cover museum admissions and cab rides). Transportation to and from NYC as well as hotel and meals are not included). Limited to 15 people. For more information call 617.267.6338 or email info@thegibsonhouse.org.
