Here are the rules, list places in NYC which are exotic, but interesting. These places where people might want to go or to go see which are not on the stanard tourist map. I'll start with an EASY example: The Top of Deno's Wonder Wheel. Not on the swinging car, but on the stationary car which will reach to tippy top of the wheel, to give the passengers a unique wonderful view from the Atlantic Highlands to the heart of NY Harbor. The Elevated Acre (Financial District) at 55 Water Street The Top Floor of 111 Broadway (Broadway and Thames Street) which has a stain glass cathedral like trading floor in a sunken space, permanently lit because of its position over Trinity Church. The Ford Foundation Building Atrium (Midtown East) Located at 320 East 43rd Street, The Historical Paramount Theater, Dekalb Avenue and Flatbush The Brooklyn Museum's Visible Storage / Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion There is a secret speakeasy (no longer such a secret) under the Paramount with marble and mahogany appointments. (which they've beautifully revived as the late-night bar, Avena) The Hidden Art Deco Log Cabin (Flushing Meadows Corona Park) The 3d Map of NYC BRUSH STAIRWAY leading to an abandoned staircase down Coogan's Bluff to the Pologrounds The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel (Cobble Hill, Brooklyn) The Fort Tilden "Battery Gibson" and the Whispering Dunes (Riis Park / Rockaway which had real missiles until 1972 The Stone House which marks the largest battle of the American Revolution which over 250 Maryland soldiers who fought a desperate rear maneuver near what was then known as the Cortelyou house to save Washington's army as it silently retreated from Brooklyn to Manhattan. J.J. Byrne Playground There is a further monument for the lost soldiers off the main lawn of Prospect park on the train to Lookout Hill. The Directing Laboratory / The Abandoned Ruins of North Brother Island - Home of Typhoid Mary Polhemus residence (formarly LICH) The Osbourn Lab (Formorly LICH) The New York Cancer Hospital Architecture (455 Central Park West) William J. Syms Operating Theatre - Roossevelt Hospital Brooklyn Jewish Hospital and Nursing School - which is a residence off of Classson Street. Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital / The Alexandria Center The Rockerfeller Institute The Chatelaine Grants Square. Montrose Morris's Imperial Apartments 23rd Regiment Armory. The Boys High School Architecture (Marcy Avenue, Bed-Stuy) The Statue of Grant which was built near a classical theater that is now being used as a church. Washington Temple Church of God in Christ Bedford Avenue and Bergen Street The Studerbaker building on 1000 Bedford Avenue, just noth of where Ebbets field was Public Bath No. 7 / The Historic Raymond F. Almirall Bathhouse The Union League Club House on Grants Square 19-29 Rodgers Avenue The Lefferts Manor Historic District / Midwood Street If you head down to Midwood Street between Bedford and Rogers Avenues, you step into a remarkably preserved micro-neighborhood that feels completely untouched by the surrounding high-rise development. What makes this enclave so special is a literal legal anomaly built right into the land deeds: The Van Sicklen Cemetery in Gravesend, Brooklyn Lady Deborah Moody House The Flatlands Dutch Reformed Church Cemetery - new Amsfort The New Amsfort Dutch reform Church in Flatlands where Pieter Wyckoff is buried in the church Wyckoff House on Ditmas Avenue, which is the oldest surviving building in all of New York State (built around 1652). Highland Park and the resevoir The "Dawn of Glory" Monument / Charles Atlas Model (Jamaica Ave & Cleveland St) Hamilton Grange - 414 W141st The Morris-Jumel Mansion (Roger Morris Park) at 65 Jumel Terrace, The Pedestrain Walk on the George Washington Bridge The Little Red Lighthouse (Jeffrey's Hook Light) High Bridge and the adjacent parks in the Bronx and Manhattan The Living Aqueduct Tower: The park’s defining landmark is the soaring, 200-foot High Bridge Water Tower, built in 1872 The University Heights Bridge and Roberto Clemente State Park The World of Birds in the Bronx Zoo The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and Poe Park The Loews Movie Palace on the Grand Concourse The Kingsbridge Armoury The Andrew Freedman Home (1125 Grand Concourse) 26 Joralemon St The Riverside Buildings by Alfred Tredway White 58 Joralemon Street (The Disguised Subway Vent) 25 Joralemon St The Water works on that stretch 43-49 Willow Place the Colonade in that area he Commander's Quarters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (Building 1) The secret Brooklyn Naval Hospital Cemetery just outside the gate on Williamsburg Street. The were supposed to move the bodies, but like in the movie, Poltergeist, they failed to do the job. The Havemeyers & Elder Filter House (The Domino Sugar Refinery) The Grand Street Ferry The Empire Stores "Patent Light" Openings (Water Street, DUMBO) The Carol Street Draw Bridge The Prospect Park Carosel The Gowanus Flushing Tunnel Pumping Station (Butler & Nevins Streets) the Metropolitan Rod and Gun CLub on 162 Pacific Street http://images.mrbrklyn.com/brooklyn/cobble_hill_atlantic_ave/dsc02297.jpg?width=1600 The Washington Park Outer Wall (4th Avenue & 3rd Street, Park Slope/Gowanus) What you are looking at in that photo at 162 Pacific Street (between Court and Clinton Streets) is the home of the Metropolitan Rod & Gun Club, and it is one of the single greatest, most unbelievable survival stories in all of Kings County. Ferdinand's Focacceria (Union Street) The Lady of Loreto "Save the Church" Relics (Ocean Hill/Brownsville) Sackman Street Holy trinitiy Russian Orthodox Church 400 Glenmore Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11207 South Bushwick Reformed Church on Bushwick Avenue near Himrod Street Wind Surfing at Plumb Beach - Jamacia Bay The School House in Erasmus Hall 1602 Kings Highway http://images.mrbrklyn.com/brooklyn/kings_highway_bank_murals/ I would love to include this, but it is gone now. Which is increadable to me. In that specific branch, the murals beautifully captured the arc of Kings Highway itself: The Native & Dutch Layers: Visualizing the highway when it was a winding, pre-colonial trail used by the Lenape, transitioning into the dusty farm lane where Dutch settlers established the early townships like Flatlands and Gravesend. The Gilded Expansion: Showing the dramatic arrival of the railroads, the cutting of the modern grid, and the transformation of rural homesteads into the roaring, vibrant shopping bazaar that Kings Highway became by the 1940s and 50s. The Avenue H Subway Station House (Fiske Terrace/Midwood) The Marilyn Jean IV docked at Pier 5 The Houseboats of Garretson Creek (Marine Park) Eldorado Bumper Cars 1216 Surf Avenue ... Bump Bump Bump Bump your Ass off... The Wyland Gray Whale Mural (Coney Island Aquarium) The Real Whales in the Harbor The Williamsberg Savings bank lobby on Hanson Place The Grand Atrium of the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch (Grand Army Plaza) The Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch (Grand Army Plaza) The Grand Army Plaza Fountain The White Marble Court house, 27 MAdison Avneue, in east chelsea with the Holocaust memorial carved in it of Aushwitz The Lafayette Monument (Prospect Park West & 9th Street) The Met Life Clock Tower (Madison Avenue & 24th Street) City Island Broad Channel (Jamaica Bay) The NY Transit Museum 99 Schermerhorn St The Abandoned City Hall Subway Station (Lower Manhattan) The Nevins Avenue ghost Station The Bowling Alley at the Port Authority? The Vanderbilt Tennis Club (Grand Central Terminal) http://images.mrbrklyn.com/cobble_hill-carrol_gardens/dsc02399.jpg That is the famous, mysterious brass plaque dedicated to "Pop" Torello right outside 227 Smith Street (on the border of Carroll Gardens and Boerum Hill). But the real history is so much better: Nick "Pop" Torello was actually a beloved local bartender. Back in the 1940s and 50s, when this stretch of Brooklyn was a deeply tight-knit, working-class Italian and Irish enclave, 227 Smith Street was home to the Golden Eagle Bar and Grill. Pop ran the taps, listened to everyone's problems, and was the absolute heartbeat of the block. He loved the neighborhood so much that he eventually bought the building. When he turned 80, the regulars—affectionately known just as "The Boys"—chipped in to permanently bolt this tribute into the brickwork so Pop would never be forgotten. United States 1515 Broadway - home to Tin Pan Alley, the Ed Sullivan theater (might be too well know for this list), the Blue Note Seventh Avenue South, The Franklin avenue shuttle and the Heinze building, (and Macom Blvd which is not Empire Blvd), Abaraham Cahans grave in Mnt Carmel Cemetery, the Soldiers and Saliors Memorial at Ft Green Park (the HMS Jersey), the Archological dig at the Goldman Sacks building. The Billy Holiday Theater The Heinz Building: Bringing up the shuttle line ties right into the dark history of the 1918 Malbone Street Wreck (which prompted the street's renaming to Empire Boulevard). Abraham Cahan at : Tucked into the hills of Glendale, Queens, lies the final resting place of the legendary editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. Burying him here anchors his legacy alongside thousands of working-class immigrant families he championed. The Gould Libary at the former NYU site in the Bronx The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: Hubards Lane in Brooklyn, Gravesend Neck Rd The "Irving House" 49 Irving Place The Teddy Roosevelt House 28 East 20th St, NY Tamany Hall Macy's original locations at the New School and on 14th Street Kenilworth and Amsfort Place - Flatbush - the original Flatbush Avenue route. Hubbard's Lane The Hubbard-Lucchelli House: Sitting right at 2138 McDonald Avenue (just off Neck Road) is the phenomenal Hubbard House, a perfectly preserved Dutch-American frame farmhouse built around 1830 by Lawrence Ryder for Nelly Hubbard. Hunder Fly Road The Public Theater The Laffeyyette Colonade The Bobst Library, and Cooper Union hall. Oh and the Brooklyn Lager beer tour The on North 11th Street in Williamsburg Hofman Island and Swinburne Island near the VZ Birdge Robins Reef light house in NY Harbor Ambose Channel and Light House The Atlantic Reef Ansonia Hotel, 2109 Broadway, where Babe Rith lived The Algonquin Hotel The Cartoon Wall at Overlook 225 East 44th St Borough Hall, Brooklyn Federal Hall The Olive Branch resurant on 117 McDougel with Silent movies and tables to draw on the Promande in Brooklyn the Private Dinning Hall at the Metropolitian Museum, Grants Tomb Grant's Tomb at 122nd Street The Wyckoff-Bennett Homestead: Built around 1766, The Hendrick I. Lott House: Tucked away on East 36th Street, The Dutch reform Church on Flatbush Avenue with Stained glass donations Jim Creightons gravesite (Vechte-Cortelyou House) – 336 3rd St, Park Slope. – 5816 Clarendon Rd, Flatlands. – Kings Highway & E 22nd St. – 1940 E 36th St. – 911 Flatbush Ave. – Pier 6, 2200 Emmons Ave, Sheepshead Bay. – 3059 W 12th St, Coney Island. – 500 25th St (Annotation: Jim Creighton Grave, Lot 14144, Section 56). The Hidden Earthen Wall – Secret, unmapped archaeological site in the Hudson River. Boerum Hill's iconic, living community art project: the at 108 Wyckoff Street. 770 Eastern Parkway Synagugage The Forward building - Lower East Side vitagraph smokestack Chase Pfizer Factory Pitkin and Herzl Murals in east New York Brownsville Community Culinary Center 69 Belmont Avenue, ENY - great Mueril and fine food The Canarsie Peir The Vanderbilt House East 107th St, Canarsie, NY