WGPA

This weekend's walking tours (tour sponsors in brackets):

Saturday, May 19, 11:00 a.m.
$15, $12 MAS members

Come and discover Vinegar Hill, a charming neighborhood with coblle-stone streets tucked away along downtown Brooklyn's waterfront. Native Americans held the area in high regard and thanks to its currenty landmark status we can still delight in its rich history today. Stroll through historic DUMBO and see how the cycle of changes has come full circle. We'll look at former factories, visit art galleries and enjoy the spectacular vistas at Brooklyn Brige Park. Leader: Ans Heerdink-Schickler, Vinegar Hill resident. Meet at the entance to the York St. subway station. (Transit: F train to York St.)

Sunday, May 20, 10:15 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
$50, $40 MAS members

Sailor's Snug Harbor was a campus of buildings built throughout the 19th century as a haven for retired merchant seamen. Most of its buildings remain and have been adaptively reused as the components of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center. The buildings and grounds, including masterpieces by Minard LaFever that are among the most important works of Greek Revival architecture in America, are spectacular, and trul one of the treasures of New York City. The cultural center includes such wonderful attractions as the Noble Maritime Museum (one of the unsung great museums of New York) and the remarkable Chinese Scholar's Garden, a modern addition to the setting. We will also tour what was once the SSH physician's residence with Snug Harbor's first historian, Barnett Shepherd, who lives in the house. As a bonus, we will take a bus over to Calvary Presbyterians Church to see a set of astonishing stained-glass windows by D. Maitland Armstrong that once belonged to the Randall Memorial Church at Snug Harbor. Leader: Francis Morrone, architectural historian. We will take a boat to the Snug Harbor dock and return by bus. Meet promptly at 10:15 a.m., Slip 6, Battery Park, near the Statue of Liberty ferry. (Transit: R train to Whitehall, #1 train to South Ferry, #4, 5 trains to Bowling Green.)

Reservations and prepayment required. RSVP to rsvp[at]mas.org or 212-935-2075. Box lunches and all admissions are included in tour price.