Upper East Side Redux: More Things to Do

In my last post, I called on The Woman in Gold, a beautiful Gustav Klimt painting now in the Neue Galerie New York on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. She was perhaps a bit aloof to our visit, but we fawned over her nonetheless.

I went on so much about the Upper East Side, the Gilded Age, “The Woman in Gold” movie and Austrian refugee Maria Altmann’s story—not to mention rhapsodizing over the Neue Galerie’s incredible collection of pieces from the Wiener Werkstätte—that I didn’t have space to relate the rest of our adventures there.

Namely, a walk down the Museum Mile and a visit to Central Park. Both excellent things to do when on New York’s Upper East Side.

The Museum Mile

New York City has officially designated Fifth Avenue from 82nd to 105th streets “The Museum Mile.”

The stretch of Fifth Avenue is home to 8 major museums—the Africa Center, El Museo del Barrio, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Jewish Museum, Neue Galerie New York and the Museum of the City of New York.

If you’re going to be in New York in June, don’t miss the Museum Mile Festival. The annual festival offers free admission to some of the world’s best art collections during extended evening hours.

All 8 museums along the Mile will open their doors for free on the day of the festival from 6 to 9 p.m. The 2024 event will be June 18; it’s always on a Tuesday.

Among the amazing and culturally diverse museums open during the Festival: The Africa Center (110th Street), El Museo del Barrio (104th Street), The Jewish Museum (92nd), the Guggenheim (89th), the Neue Galerie (86th), and the Met (82nd Street).

And that’s not all—the festival is a mile-long, free block party! No cars are allowed, so it’s a walker’s paradise with lots of fun attractions. Street musicians, art-related activities for children, food vendors, and more make for a fabulous summer evening. 

For my tips on what art to see on the Mile, check out Calling on the Woman in Gold at the Neue Galerie and Visiting Ancient Egypt at the Met.

The Osborn Gates: Fanciful Fables

We came upon these lovely gates, with their fanciful depiction of vignettes from Aesop’s Fables, at the Fifth Avenue and 85th Street entrance to Central Park.

According to the Central Park Conservancy website, the Osborn gates are one of the most important pieces of artwork in the park. The sculptor was Paul Manship, who also sculpted the Prometheus at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.

A miniature version of Manships’ sculpture Group of Bears (the original is in the Met’s collection) sits atop the left-hand post, while a group of deer are atop the right. A life-sized version of the Bear sculpture, commonly referred to as “Three Bears,”  is in the Pat Hoffman Friedman Playground at East 79th Street.

Dedicated in 1953, the gates originally stood at the Osborn Memorial Playground. The playground closed in the early 1970s when the museum expanded the Egyptian wing to accommodate the Temple of Dendur.

The gates sat in storage for nearly 30 years. They now grace the entrance of the Ancient Playground, right across from the Met.

Things to do in Central Park

A beloved NYC icon, Central Park has the distinction of being the most filmed location in the world. According to a December 2017 report, 231 movies have used it for on-location shoots, more than Greenwich Village or Times Square. 

The Park’s cultural and historical significance have made it a National Historic Landmark since 1962 and on UNESCO’s list of tentative World Heritage Sites since 2017.

Engage the help of a helpful guy

Upon entering the park at 85th Street, we saw a kiosk offering park maps. An exceptionally helpful gentleman inside suggested a route for us.

He was also exceptionally talkative. Yikes. Bee said she saw me trying to end the conversation and take the map, but he held onto the other side of that map with a grip of IRON.

So, I had to stay and listen to him talk quite a bit more. It was that or run away without my map. We got lost even with the map, so I think I made the right choice.

While there are many many things to do in the ginormous green space that is Central Park, here’s a recap of things to see in the area of 85th Street, or mid-Park. My wish list included Alice in Wonderland, the Bow Bridge, Bethesda Fountain and Strawberry Fields.

Helpful guy drew a meandering route for us which would allow us to see the Loeb Boathouse on the way, too. You can find scads of info about the park, plus maps and suggestions for things to see and do, at the Central Park Conservancy website.

Go to a Mad Tea Party

The Alice in Wonderland statue was something I’d long been wanting to see, being as I’m a big fan of the book and of the Tenniel illustrations.

Alice and her cast of storybook friends have been cavorting in Central Park since 1959. Philanthropist George Delacorte commissioned the bronze statue as a gift to New York City’s children. The sculpture was also a tribute to his late wife, Margarita.

Engraved around the statue are lines from Carroll’s poem The Jabberwocky.

Alice holds court from her perch on a mushroom. To her right is the host of the tea party, the Mad Hatter.

Supposed to be a caricature of George Delacorte, the Mad Hatter looks quite a bit like the Tenniel illustration to me. To the left of Alice the white rabbit holds his pocket watch, keeping track of the time.

Lurking, and grinning, near Alice’s left shoulder: the Cheshire cat. At right, the timid little dormouse nibbles a teatime treat and keeps his eye on the Mad Hatter. Which seems like a very good idea.

The sculpture is a favorite with kids, who love to climb on it and explore its varied textures and hiding spaces. Yes, this is allowed.

There were no children there that day, and I may say that I was glad, though that would be terribly scrooge-like of me. Well Bah and Humbug, I was glad. I had Alice all to myself.

It is sweet, though, that through the years, thousands of little hands have polished parts of the statue’s surface smooth. That’s why the patina is so very shiny in places. Sculptor: José de Creeft.

Visit the heart of the Park, Bethesda Terrace

Bethesda Terrace is the heart of Central Park.

In their original plan, Park designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux envisioned a sweeping promenade (the Mall) that led to a grand terrace overlooking the lake. The carvings represent the four seasons and, on the side facing the Mall, the times of day.

The Angel of the Waters

Rising from Bethesda Terrace is Bethesda Fountain and the famous Angel of the Waters statue.

The Gospel of John describes an angel blessing the Pool of Bethesda, giving it healing powers. The fountain commemorates the Croton water system, which first brought fresh water to New York City in 1842.

The lily in the angel’s left hand is a symbol of the water’s purity. Since the city had suffered a devastating cholera epidemic, purity was very important.

Created by Emma Stebbins, it also marked the first time a woman received a public art commission in New York City and the first large public sculpture commission for an American woman. Cool.s

See more public sculpture in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and St. Louis’ Laumeier Sculpture Park

Listen to Doo-Wop

Bethesda fountain was a bit of a letdown, not sure why. Maybe because I saw it in the middle of a gloomy winter day with no water in it. Hmmm.

But I really enjoyed listening to a fantastic Doo-Wop group in the arcade underneath the terrace. Cover Story performs at the Bethesda Fountain every week from Tuesday to Friday and on Sunday (they were in the arcade that day due to rain). Check out their website for a performance video!

Gaze up at the Minton Tile Ceiling

A grand staircase connects the Mall to the subterranean arcade. The arcade is an open-air reception hall, neither fully indoors or outdoors, offering shelter from rain and heat. The highlight is the magnificent Minton Tile ceiling designed by British-born architect and designer, Jacob Wrey Mould.

Constructed in the 1860s, the Minton Tile ceiling is one of the Park’s main architectural features. Made up of 49 panels, the ceiling features almost 16,000 elaborately patterned encaustic tiles, handmade by England’s renowned Minton and Company. The arcade is the only place in the world that uses Minton tiles for a ceiling.

The arcade you see now reopened in March 2007 after extensive renovations. The 50-ton ceiling had deteriorated over the years, and the Conservancy removed the tiles in 1983 and placed them in storage. The funding necessary for a challenging restoration took until 2004 to obtain.

I’m so glad to be able to enjoy the stunning restoration. Reflecting the light coming from Bethesda Terrace and the Mall, the amazing ceiling transforms the arcade. What would otherwise be a creepy dark passageway becomes a glorious jewel box of pattern, color, and light.

View the San Remo across the Lake

We spent quite a bit of time putzing around by the Lake. You may recognize the building in this often-photographed view. Did you know the San Remo is its name?

Located at Central Park West between 74th and 75th streets, the San Remo, along with architect Emery Roth’s other two towered masterpieces, the Beresford and the Eldorado, helps to create one of the most iconic streetscapes in New York.

Roth was an interesting guy. Born in Hungary, he emigrated by himself at age 13. By 18 he had won a national architecture contest.

He worked for the firm that designed the Palace of Fine Arts at the Chicago World’s Fair, where he met Richard Morris Hunt (a famous Gilded Age architect who designed the Biltmore Estate, the Lenox Library, and the Met’s Fifth Avenue facade).

Hunt casually offered Roth a job should he find himself in New York City, and Roth promptly set off for Manhattan!

Roth designed apartment houses, academic buildings and churches throughout New York. The San Remo is one of the last great pre-Depression era New York buildings, built in 1930. Though the San Remo suffered during the Great Depression, today it is famous for its celebrity tenants and glorious homes.

Stroll over the Bow Bridge

Bow Bridge is another Central Park must-see, one of New York’s most photographed settings. Of course I wanted to see this iconic sight, and it didn’t disappoint, despite the gloomy and darkening day.

Built between 1859 and 1862, the Bow Bridge is the first cast-iron bridge in the Park (and the second oldest in America). Named for its graceful shape, reminiscent of an archer’s or violinist’s bow, the bridge spans the Lake to link Cherry Hill with the Ramble.

Do not become lost in the Ramble

Our designated path curved around the Lake to Strawberry Fields, and I swear that we followed it. But we ended up in the Ramble, lost.

I don’t really recommend it, at least not at dusk when you might never find your way out! GPS wasn’t helping. We were using our cellphone flashlights to peruse our map, and getting a bit freaked.

This was not at all the fault of the helpful guy and totally the fault of the twisty Ramble. And maybe of the fact both Bee and I: just a wee bit directionally challenged.

No Levain for me! *Sob*

We made our way out of the Ramble somehow and discovered we had missed Strawberry Fields completely. What was worse: we were tantalizingly close to Levain (a place with famously delicious, gigantic cookies).

However, Bee was tired (and cranky). And there was a subway stop, unfortunately, right there. You can’t win ’em all, folks, so I agreed to get on that darn subway and go back to the hotel. (No matter how tired I am, and sore of foot, I can always walk an extra few blocks for another sight, a piece of street art, or an awesome cookie.)

This is the SECOND time I was in Upper Manhattan and missed getting a cookie at Levain, so next time, Levain is on the agenda first, before any museums! I can also hope that it might not be a rainy gloomy day. I’d love to see Central Park in the sun!

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Join me for more NYC adventures!

Exploring Midtown Manhattan

In Midtown, come visit the NYPL with me. I’m In Love with the New York Public Library!

At Christmastime, a whole lot of merry madness envelops Midtown. See all the incredible holiday windows and decorations, including that big ole Rockefeller tree, in New York City is Crazy for Christmas.

First-timer sights and bites

From my first visit to NYC, What You Must See and What You Must Eat, according to me. Sights include St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, The Plaza Hotel and food court. Bites include bagels, New York pizza by the slice, and afternoon tea in Greenwich Village.

Loving the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Join me on my first foray to the Upper East Side to Visit Ancient Egypt at the Met. Get a gander at their OUTSTANDING Egyptian collection. In my humble opinion, the Met’s Egyptian galleries are a must-see in NYC.

Navigating the New York City subway system

For the harrowing tale of the temporary women’s restroom fiasco, in which I reluctantly enter a tiny scary subway elevator, see Misadventures in the New York City Subway. Learn how to ride the subway (successfully) and have heartwarming encounters in Nice New Yorkers.

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