Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, SoHo and Greenwich Village

Between 1880 and 1920, almost 2 million Eastern European Jews had settled in and made a lasting mark on New York's Lower East Side. Chinatown is the largest Chinese community in the Western Hemisphere. A major tourist attraction, Little Italy has shrunk to a small, yet enticing, stretch of Italian restaurants, bakeries and food shops. SoHo, built as a business district dominated by a distinctive cast-iron architectural style, became an artists' community in the mid-twentieth century when they began squatting in the buildings which had been abandoned. Now it's a major shopping district. Greenwich Village was a farming community settled by freed slaves in the 1640s. After being a magnet for artists in the nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries, what remains is a charming neighborhood now prime real estate. In this tour, we walk through these distinctive areas that abut and overlap in interesting and delightful ways.

During the tour, there will be multiple opportunities for sitting, taking a coffee break, or using a restroom. Below is a list of some of the many noteworthy things we will see: Henry Street Settlement Seward Park Jewish Daily Forward Building Educational Alliance Columbus Park Mott Street Jarmulowsky Bank Building Eldridge Street Synagogue First Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue Haughwout Building Bust of Sylvette (a large public sculpture by Pablo Picasso) Washington Square Park Stonewall Inn "Friends" Apartment Building Tour can be customized upon request.