Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for new york
Spooked in Staten Island
By Linda Tancs
It seems fitting that an allegedly haunted mansion in Staten Island, New York, should be located on Arthur Kill Road, particularly considering that the house was an actual murder scene. The property in question is what remains of Kreischer Mansion, a wood-frame house in the American Queen Anne style built by German immigrant and brick magnate Balthasar Kreischer circa 1885. The home’s ghostly vibe could be attributed to one or more unfortunate events taking place there: a suicide of one of Kreischer’s sons in the late 1800s and a killing for hire in 2005. The eeriness lends itself to an annual horror fest around Halloween as well as haunt tours.
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Dark Island
By Linda Tancs
Straddling the border between the U.S. and Canada, the Thousand Islands are a group of more than 1,800 islands in the St. Lawrence River. It’s a place with elaborate island mansions, like Singer Castle on Dark Island, so named because the number of evergreens on the island gave it a “dark” look. The castle is named for Frederick Bourne, who was the fifth president of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, and it remained in the family’s possession from its establishment in the early 1900s until the 1960s. A 45-minute guided tour of the 28-room castle includes the Great Hall, library, dining room, breakfast room, terrace, drawing room, loggia, wicker room, bedrooms, and guest rooms. The opening hours are seasonal, from April to October.
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The Red Fox of Kinderhook
By Linda Tancs
Born on December 5, 1782, Martin Van Buren was the first future president born a citizen of the United States. He was known as “the Red Fox of Kinderhook,” an acknowledgment of his red hair and his birthplace in Kinderhook, New York. That’s where you’ll find his post-presidency home, Lindenwald, a National Historic Site. Guided tours of the home are offered seasonally. In the formal parlor, you’ll learn of the countless meetings he hosted there. In addition to the home’s interior, a cell phone tour of the outside Wayside Loop Trail hosted by a park ranger shares a bit about the president and those who worked in the house and on the 220-acre farm.
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A Tropical Oasis in Buffalo
By Linda Tancs
When you visit the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, you’ll find a tropical oasis under the Palm Dome, home to a beautiful and diverse collection of palms and other tropical plants native to areas throughout the world like the Foxtail Palm. Native to Queensland, Australia, this rare palm was unknown to botanists until 1978. The dome is just one of many interconnecting indoor gardens featuring an aquatic garden, an Asian rainforest, succulents, exotic flowers and the largest public ivy collection in the world. The gardens are located in Buffalo, New York, easily accessible via the New York State Thruway or a public bus from downtown.
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Billed as the Great North American Eclipse, a total solar eclipse will cross North America on April 8, 2024, passing over Mexico, the United States and Canada. The path of the eclipse begins in Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and traveling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton. This will be the last time any solar eclipse will be visible within the United States until 2045.
Be prepared! So long as supplies last, you can purchase eclipse glasses and other accessories, like a phone app and photo filter, from American Paper Optics, a NASA-approved manufacturer. The link in the preceding sentence is an affiliate link, which means that if you click on the link and purchase merchandise from the page, then I may receive a small commission.
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Regards to Broadway
By Linda Tancs
Statistics show that Broadway is one of the top reasons that tourists come to New York City. Until recently, though, there has never been a museum to honor it. That all changed with the opening of the Museum of Broadway, an educational and immersive experience. The facility highlights the history of the Broadway theaters through projection mapped videos, the timeline of Broadway through immersive environments and theater production through a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a Broadway show. Located on West 45th Street in the heart of (where else) the Theater District, the experience is self-guided and appropriate for all ages.
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An Iconic Ferry in New York
By Linda Tancs
One of the last operating ferry systems in New York, the Staten Island Ferry has been transporting passengers between New York City and Staten Island long before bridges were introduced. Today it is the only non-vehicular mode of transport between Staten Island and Manhattan, transporting almost 70,000 passengers daily between the St. George and Whitehall (also known as South Ferry) terminals in Staten Island and Manhattan, respectively. The orange-colored icon offers scenic views of New York Harbor (including Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty) and is a free service provided by the City of New York.
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The National Lighthouse Museum
By Linda Tancs
The United States Lighthouse Service’s General Depot in Staten Island, New York, was the national headquarters, testing ground and distribution center for all materials and equipment used by light keepers and USLHS personnel from 1864 to 1939. Now the foundry building on that site hosts the National Lighthouse Museum, where visitors can enjoy self-guided exhibits exploring lighthouses, their lights and lightkeepers, as well as monthly lectures and special events. This time of year (May through October) you can also enjoy a boat tour, visiting lighthouses that can’t be seen from land as well as ship graveyards and bird sanctuaries. The museum is a short walk from the Staten Island Ferry terminal.
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The Skinniest Skyscraper
By Linda Tancs
It’s like a supermodel, tall and thin. That’s a good way to think of New York City’s Steinway Tower, the world’s skinniest skyscraper. At 1,428 feet it’s the second-tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere and the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a ratio of width to height at 1-to-23 1/2. The tower is named for its locale, the former Steinway Hall, once a performance space of the famed piano makers. You’ll find the building along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires’ Row.” That should give you an indication of the price tag attached to these digs with 360-degree views of the city.
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Railroad Ties in Port Jervis
By Linda Tancs
Port Jervis, New York, is inextricably tied to the railroad industry. Its depot was built as a passenger station for the Erie Railroad and for years was the busiest passenger station on the railroad’s Delaware Branch because Port Jervis is along the Delaware River near the tripoint of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Incorporated in 1907 and named after John Bloomfield Jervis (the engineer of the Delaware & Hudson Canal), the city’s transportation history is being commemorated with a new history center. Located at the city-owned historic Erie Railyard and turntable (the longest-operating turntable in the eastern U.S.), the Port Jervis Transportation History Center will host a collection of locomotives, boxcars and cabooses, preserving the city’s railroad heritage and its role as a crossroads of commerce.
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A Little Zing and Spark
By Linda Tancs
Touted as the largest light show in the country, Amaze Light Festival is an interactive adventure through five holiday-themed worlds guided by storybook characters Zing and Sparky. Guests visit sites like the North Pole, a Land of Sweets and a Whimsical Forest, immersed in a million twinkling lights. The event is returning to Chicago (Odyssey Fun World in Tinley Park) and has expanded to New York City’s Citi Field baseball park. Give yourself at least two hours to enjoy the festivities.
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