New York Society Library
53 E. 79th St.
212-288-6900
Nothing against the beloved and sometimes beleaguered New York Public Library branches on the Upper East Side—East 67th Street, Yorkville, Webster, and the rest—but there are times, and manifold reasons, when ardent bibliophiles want something more. Enter the private New York Society Library, founded in 1754, where for a modest membership fee, anyone can enjoy a wealth of resources in a setting that’s elegant, comfortable, quiet, and secure. Indeed, here is a place where the perpetual struggle between anarchy and security is something to ponder in books, not bear personal witness to while trying to browse, write, work, or research. Plentiful, and exceptionally engaging, programs for kids and adults alike are another NYSL benefit.
Pick hit, and open to the public on Saturday, May 31 ($20): “Unlaunch’d Voices: An Evening with Walt Whitman,” a one-man play based on the writings and conversations of America’s greatest Brooklyn journalist turned visionary bard. Written / compiled by Michael Z. Keamy and performed by the show’s co-creator, Stephen Collins, it draws especially on six volumes of the diary of Horace Traubel, Whitman’s amanuensis during the poet’s last, infirm years in Camden, NJ. Essential complement: Whitman’s posthumously published 1856 essay, “The Eighteenth Presidency!”, which stands as one of greatest, and least known, screeds on the pitfalls and potentialities of the American condition.
Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan
344 Amsterdam Ave.
646-505-4444
The Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan is so many things to so many people, it can be a little difficult for newcomers to get a handle on what they do. First, of course, is JCC, which stands for Jewish Community Center. Jewish life was an integral part of its founding and it remains so today, including a deep connection to Israel. Beyond that, the JCC Manhattan is just about as inclusive as can be, with a satellite branch on West 118th Street in Harlem and programs ranging from infants and toddlers on up to seniors, with all manner of families, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and people of diverse abilities in between. They also have a fitness center, gym, pool, and even pickleball courts. For the 60-plus set exclusively, there’s the Wechsler Center for Modern Aging, as well as an abundance of social events, arts and culture clubs, discussion groups, health and legal guidance, and volunteer opportunities. A few highlights: beginner and supervised Mah Jongg with instructor Julie Azous; a number of experience-graded group Tai Chai classes; and Central Park birdwatching with Miriam Rakowski.
General Grant National Memorial (Grant’s Tomb)
Riverside Drive at West 122 Street
646-670-7251
www.nps.gov/gegr/index.htm
Few stories about eminent seniors are more unexpectedly moving than that of Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885). A man of modesty and often mediocrity, he achieved greatness but twice, first as the Union general who won the Civil War for President Lincoln and again when he was dying of throat cancer and yet managed to write one of the great American autobiographies. Briefly, the story goes like this: In 1877, the now former President Grant and wife Julia took a self-financed trip around the world that left the couple cash poor. To make money upon his return, Grant went into business with an investment firm run by financier Ferdinand Ward and Grant’s son, Ulysses Jr. When the firm failed in the financial Panic of 1884 (a combination of bad investments and Ponzi-like scheme to paper over them), Grant was ruined. Wanting to support his family, Grant began to write articles about the Civil War, and when a book was proposed, Mark Twain arranged for Grant a generous publishing deal. Not long afterward, Grant understood he was dying but, aided by pain-killing cocaine and fortitude, he stoically continued working nearly unto his death.
Best-sellers in his time, the two volumes that make up The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant are recognized today as a masterpiece of world literature. Dedicated in 1897, when Riverside Drive was barely developed and there was little below but railroad tracks along the Hudson, Grant’s Tomb remains an imposing and compelling monument to one man’s personal strength and our collective striving for freedom.
Center for Jewish History
15 W. 16th St.
212-294-8301
Nestled on a handsome block in Chelsea, the Center for Jewish History is a tremendous and, because it doesn’t have museum in its name, often overlooked cultural resource for all New Yorkers. In fact, the institution, which opened in 2000, has always had a museum component in addition to its primary function as center for Jewish history, genealogy, art, and scholarship, namely The Yeshiva University Museum, which is among five partner institutions that make up the CJH. Currently, the museum is featuring “Anne Frank: The Exhibition,” which presents, for the first time outside Amsterdam, a full-scale re-creation of the Annex where the Frank family and others spent two years hiding from the Nazis. Among the exhibits on display in 2024 were “Tapestries by Shoshana Comet (1923-2011),” a Holocaust survivor; “Bernard Eliyahu Sidi, Animating the Talmud,” showing his French-born artist’s comics-inspired Talmudic illustrations; “The Golden Path: Maimonedes Across Eight Centuries.” As for its broader remit as multi-institutional research and education hub, the center includes the Lillian Goldman Reading Room, Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute; and the David Berg Rare Book Room. It also offers an abundance of concerts, lectures and symposiums, and exhibit space with free admission. Current exhibits include “Jewish Fighters in the Red Army (1941-1945)” and “The Vienna Model of Radicalization: Austria and the Shoah” (through July 30).
Hall of Records Building
31 Chambers St.
212-639-9675
www.nyc.gov/site/records/index.page
The Hall of Records—also known as the Surrogate’s Court Building—is one of the city’s grandest municipal structures. Designed in the French Second Empire Beaux-Arts style that embodied the newly consolidated city’s late 19th and early 20th century aesthetic ideals, the stunning seven-story edifice was constructed from 1899 to 1911, with various financing and other disputes accounting for the delay. Its final cost of $7 million—around $200 million today—seems like a pretty good deal given its stunning design and the insane costs of present-day New York construction. A great quote from Mayor Robert Van Wyck (1898-1901) skeptically acknowledges the Hall of Records’ opulence: “We’re building an office, not an opera house.”
Nestled amidst all this rich marble and exotic wood are Manhattan Surrogate’s Court, which you don’t want to know about; the Department of Cultural Affairs, currently led by former City Council Member and snazzy dresser Laurie Cumbo; and, most important from the public point of view, the Department of Records, officially the NYC Records & Information Service. While the Records Department offers many valuable services online, in person, one not only gets to visit their extraordinary building but also see the exhibition spaces, the highlight of which is the 17th-century-focused “New Visions of Old New York,” presented in collaboration with the New Amsterdam History Center.
Because admission is free (as with many other government buildings, one does have to enter through a security screening), visiting the Hall of Records building makes it an excellent part of a multi-stop day to other nearby landmarks, including the African National Burial Ground Monument just around the corner, City Hall (free tours of which are offered weekly), the Brooklyn Bridge, and, just slightly farther away, Columbus Park—formerly Mulberry Bend, the locus of the famously iniquitous Five Points district—which is just steps from the historic heart of Chinatown at Pell and Doyers streets. Dumplings, anyone?