September 26, 2007

OHNY tricks: Fall's best behind-the-scenes NYC tours

This Friday morning, Open House New York will publish its full list of the 200 or so places that will be open for free tours during the first weekend of October. Some of those spots will require reservations, and some will fill up crazy fast.

In theory, all the locations on the OHNY list are supposed to be places that are normally closed to the public, or at least are offering something out of the ordinary. But in practice, some tours have proven a bit of a disappointment for people trying to cram the very best rare stuff into a mere two days.

NewYorkology has poked around the web the past couple weeks to put together a list of some OHNY-type tours that are available at times other than OHNY weekend, such as the High Bridge Water Tower, abandoned subway and train tunnels, the control tower of the city's first airpoprt and the Masons' Grand Lodge.

Here's some of the best unusual tours of NYC:

The National Park Service offers tours of New York City`s First Control Tower of Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn every Sunday at 1 p.m. through Nov. 25. (However for OHNY, they will again take visitors into the passenger loading tunnels on Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.)

On December 9, you can get into the stacks at the New York Public Library for Holiday Open House -- but only if you’ve donated at least $40 to the library before invitations go out in early November.

Since this summer, the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association has been operating tours of the 1840s abandoned Atlantic Avenue rail tunnel about once a month. Call for dates.

On October 21, the High Bridge Water Tower will open for tours as part of the 15th Annual Uptown Treasures Celebration. (For OHNY, it will open on Sunday at noon.)

The New York Transit Museum's next tours of the abandoned Old City Hall subway station are scheduled for November 18.

The Met Opera backstage tour is offered most days of the week. Additionally, you can walk across the stage for free during the MetOpera Open House events, next scheduled for December 21 and April 18.

The city parks department is offering dozens of free "park preview" tours of Fresh Kills through October 20.

The next Hidden Harbor Tour is October 8.

The National Park Service offers free tours of the Nike Missile Radar Site at Sandy Hook, N.J. on multiple dates through October 28.

The Masons' Grand Lodge on 23rd Street is open for tours if you ask.

And of course the NBC tour gets you into the bleachers of Saturday Night Live, the free monument pass gets you into the base of the Statue of Liberty and the extra $15 ticket gets you to the rather private 102nd floor of the Empire State Building (above the crowds on the 86th floor.)

Earlier: Touring backstage, behind-the-scenes New York

September 26, 2007 02:52 PM in Architecture, Cheap Stuff, History, Museums, Sightsology, Tours

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