 |
|
Take a private walkabout through Lower Manhattan to explore its sites
|
From its Gothic architecture to its waterfront vistas, Lower Manhattan is filled with sites to discover. One of the best ways to appreciate this historic, vibrant area is with an enthusiastic and informed guide. Native New Yorkers and longtime friends Nikki James and Elissa Marton created Walkabout NY, an audio walking tour, to help visitors and New Yorkers alike turn an ordinary stroll through Lower Manhattan into an educational adventure.
Beginning at the southern tip of Manhattan in Battery Park, the tour takes walkers through the historic Financial District north to the World Trade Center site, finishing in City Hall Park. In total, the hour-long CD covers 22 sites, including Fraunces Tavern, Federal Hall, St. Paul's Chapel, the Woolworth Building, and Trinity Church. Along the way, the tour provides loads of information about the area delivered in a fun, non-textbook way.
 |
| Meander through the streets of the Financial District with an engaging, informed guide |
Without the time constraints of a group tour, listeners also get personalized attention as they meander through the alleyways and cobblestones streets, making it easier to really notice what's around. James' friendly, conversational style as narrator makes it feel like she is taking participants by the hand. Through her descriptive storytelling, walkers are transported to a time when men walked around in knee britches and livestock roamed the streets.
"We want to make people feel as if they are walking with a friend who knows a whole lot about Lower Manhattan," James says. "What we want is a fun adventure."
Walkabout NY highlights the history, architecture, and culture of newly revived Lower Manhattan. Using little-known anecdotes, historic highlights, observations, and personal accounts, the tour connects the sites and history of Lower Manhattan through an engaging story. In sharing quotes, James actually steps into character -- sometimes speaking in an accent or altering her voice to sound like a man's.
The tour is a good way for children to learn about where they live. It is also an opportunity for native New Yorkers to become tourists in their own city by looking at the sites in a whole new way and learning facts they may not have known. And walkers can go at their own pace by skipping ahead on the CD or pressing pause to linger at one of the sites.
Walkabout NY is about getting to know a neighborhood and discovering its essence. "Lower Manhattan is about commerce and trade," James says. "That's what started it, and it's still going on today."
Through doing the research for the CD, Marton and James discovered some interesting facts about Lower Manhattan, which they included in the audio tour. For example, "Bowling Green was set up as an area to keep the riffraff out," Marton says. To this end, the park was established as a place for lawn bowling. "[People] had to pay one peppercorn per year as rent to use the lawn," she says.
In Bowling Green, which is a former Indian trading post and the city's oldest park, there once stood a statue of King George made of solid gold. "When the Declaration of Independence was read in front of Federal Hall, people were so enraged that they marched down to Bowling Green, knocked it down, and melted it into bullets," Marton says.
 |
| Stone Street was formerly called Brewer's Street because of all the breweries around |
Another interesting fact about Lower Manhattan shared on the walking tour is that Stone Street, which was the first city street to be paved, was formerly called Brewer's Street because of all the breweries around. It was originally paved with an open gutter. The tour also takes walkers to Coenties Alley, where a waterfront tavern that would later became New York's first City Hall once stood.
The idea for the audio tour came about after 9/11 when James and Marton, who both live in midtown, wanted to do something for the city. In addition, they were continually approached by tourists asking for directions to get to Ground Zero. "We kept trying to tell people there's so much down there architecturally, so we would throw in what people ought to see as well," James says.
Marton's background in travel marketing and James' experience as an actor specializing in television and audio recordings was a perfect combination for this project. The friends and now business partners spent a couple of months researching, reporting, and writing the material. They avoided the internet as a resource and instead relied on books, archives, and library and museum research. "It's been a labor of love," James says.
They had such a great time working on the Walkabout NY for Lower Manhattan, which was released last year, that they will soon release an audio tour for Greenwich Village. They are also working on a Walkabout NY for Central Park and plan on doing several more.
The 60-minute CD (with map) is available in New York at Rizzoli Bookstore, Coliseum Books, Kate's Paperie, Barnes & Noble, and Borders at 100 Broadway, as well as the Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, and Waldorf Astoria hotels. For more information visit www.walkaboutny.com.
|
