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Photo: Ajay Suresh from New York, NY, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Park Avenue Armory is, again, a site not to be missed. The Armory is a venue for unconventional performing and visual arts with a vast array of unique storytelling methods and programs.
The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Designed in the Gothic Revival style by Charles Clinton for the 7th New York Militia Regiment, the Park Avenue Armory was completed in 1880, with two expansions in the early 20th century. The building and its interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the structure is also a National Register of Historic Places site and a National Historic Landmark. Since 2006, it has been the home of the Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, which leased the building for 99 years from the New York state government. The 53rd Digital Liaison Detachment of the New York Army National Guard, the Veterans of the 7th Regiment, the Knickerbocker Greys cadet corps, and the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House also occupy parts of the armory.
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The Asia Society is a unique educational organization like no other in the area promoting relationships and understanding among and of leaders, people, and organizations of Asia. It features a vast array of Asian art including art, business, culture, and education, promoting collaboration and a new, progressive understanding of Asian relations. The opportunities for discovery here are endless, with lessons about art, calligraphy, language, literature, politics, and religion.
The Society of Illustrators is one of the many off the beaten path museums in New York City, and while it may not have as many visitors, it certainly isn't a place to miss. Certainly don't miss the art of illustration featured here, with countless historical galleries since the museum's opening in 1901. It's even the origin of the famous "I Want You For U.S. Army" poster of World War I and II.
This temple traces its lineage to the founding of the Reform Jewish community in New York in 1845, although this building itself dates from 1929. The building is an important and impressive landmark, and the congregation numbers among its members many of the pillars of the Jewish community in New York, including major philanthropists, businesspeople, and politicians. If you don't arrange to visit the interior, it's worth just walking past the building and looking at the decorations on its exterior.
The former home of steel baron Henry Clay Frick, this sprawling mansion is filled with Frick's enormous personal art collection, displayed as he left it. It's worth a visit for the house alone, which is explained nicely in the audio tour. The collection is impressive, including works by Whistler, Corot, El Greco, Turner, Renoir and Rembrandt.
A hidden gem that's been a hotspot for Upper East Side recreation since 1996. While the area may seem like any park welcoming screaming children from nearby areas and plenty of areas to exercise such as basketball courts and the running track, this park is so much more. Such a small park is so rich in history, mimicking Rome's Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church and including many Roman-influenced details few and far between. If you're in this area, be sure to pay the park a visit.
Hidden in the small pocket of the very southeast Upper East Side, this rustic site dates back to 1799 as a carriage house, and was converted into a hotel in 1826. Sitting on land historically owned by Abigail Adams Smith, daughter of John Adams, it is home to beautiful historic gardens, halls, and taverns.