Find more Stephanie Azzarone/Riverside Walks and Talks Events and Community & Culture events in New York
Description
Spite walls! Sleazy spouses! A “slum with a view”!
Upper Riverside Drive is rich with glorious monuments, famous institutions, ornate residences – and tales of early residents behaving badly. Here, a discreet and heart-breaking memorial to an 18th century child lies across from a world-renowned monument to a former president. Across the way, a church with North America’s tallest steeple boasts an unexpected carving above its central portal. There are buildings that curve around corners, others “autographed” by their architects, one known as the “God box” and another that was home (on TV) to a famous comedian. The upper Drive is also where one neighbor deviously blocked another’s river view, a husband murdered his in-laws, and not one but two children fell to their untimely deaths. The tour will include a history of Riverside Park and Drive, and photos of some of the grandest mansions that once stood there, shown alongside the buildings that replaced them.
Stops will include:
- The site where a wealthy resident erected a “spite wall”
- A former SRO (turned-coop) known as a “slum with a view”
- A memorial to a former presidential candidate who won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College
- The scene of a headline making murder
- Grant’s Tomb, Riverside Church and the Tomb of the Amiable Child
The tour will begin on the southwest (park side) corner of 108th Street
Date & Time
Sat, Jul 26, 2025 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Venue Details
Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10025