The Viele Map

"No other city is so spitefully incoherent"

--James Baldwin

Welcome to Manhattan Unlocked Walking Tours

Discover the hidden-in-plain-sight history and have fun decoding the architectural assortments of New York's most iconic (and architecturally complex) neighborhoods.

About Us

Manhattan Unlocked began as a blog over a decade ago to explore and explain the complex and captivating histories behind New York's constellation of neighborhoods that stretch nearly five miles from the Battery to Central Park--what most people consider New York City. It was a journey to test the waters for a book project, and the results were promising enough to dive into discovering the single story history behind the architectural creation of New York City. Our method of research and exploration involved creating immersive walking tours for key New York neighborhoods that together tell a unifying story of the city.

Our Walking Tours

Join us on a journey through time and space and re-discover long lost geographies and bygone transit systems. Manhattan Unlocked walking tours cover neighborhoods with their own unique stories to tell, but that were all part of the "city's" move uptown from City Hall to Central Park.

What Makes Our Tours Special?

  • Historical Insights:We believe that understanding Manhattan's long lost geography is crucial to grasping how "the city" moved uptown.
  • Transit Tales:Learn how different forms of rail transit--from horsecars in the 1850s to subways in the 1900s--shaped the city's architectural diversity.
  • The Pump Uptown:Discover how the daily act of "commuting to work" played a pivotal role in the city's growth, turning it into the vibrant metropolis we know today.
  • The Book: Build: The History of New York City on the Island of Manhattan

    While our walking tours provide a taste of Manhattan's history, we're also hard at work on a book that will dive deep into the city's past and explain the logic behind the "conveyer belt" of neighborhoods running up Broadway and Fifth Avenue, along a path of modern-day "ruins" of forgotten "cities."

    Join Us on a Walking Tour

    We are relaunching our walking tours over the Fall 2023 after the challenges of covid. We hope to see you on a tour of the history behind the world's most inspiring streetscapes.

    Re-launch dates:

    Sept 18: Midtown Manhattan Art and Architecture Walking Tour

    Midtown west

    Sept 27: Holdouts! Based on the Alpern & Durst Book

    Midtown east

    Oct 10: Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York

    NoHo & SoHo to City Hall

    TBD: Explore the Ruins of a Forgotten City in the Middle of Manhattan

    Astor Place to Madison Square

    TBD: A Disastrous History of Housing the Poor

    Chinatown and The Lower East Side

    In the meantime, the old blog for "testing the waters" remains below.

    Click Here to See Tours

    Tuesday, December 14, 2010

    The Limelight: an Unholy Evolution

    As happens, while doing research on one project I stumbled on something so remarkable I thought it deserved its own post.  At first I didn’t think it could be possible, but Stoke’s Iconography (v. 3) had this image from 1846 of a quaint little country church, that looked eerily familiar. Then I read the name: Church of the Holy Communion—the notorious Limelight on the corner of 6th Avenue and West 20th Street run by Peter Gatien in the 80s and 90s.
    Limelight ii
     Stokes, I. N. Phelps The iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909 New York : Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.Electronic reproduction. v. 1-4. New York, N.Y. : Columbia University Libraries, 2008. JPEG use copy available via the World Wide Web. Master copy stored locally on [74] DVDs#: ldpd_5800727_001 01-13 ; ldpd_5800727_002 01-19 ; ldpd_5800727_003 01-16 ; ldpd_5800727_004 01-16.. Columbia University Libraries Electronic Books. 2006.

    I still didn’t believe it, but when I Google Earthed it there was no question it was the same building.  The vantage point below is farther to the left of the above image.  
    Limelight today iii
    It’s not as quaint as it seems though, according to Stoke’s, “In the plate representing the Church of the Holy Communion,…[the] landscape scenery has been substituted for the streets of the city, as more appropriate to the character of the building.”  Still, in the 1840s this part of 6th Avenue was a quiet residential part of town. The landmarked Gothic Revival church was designed by Richard Upjohn, the same architect of Trinity Church.

    Today it’s in the heart of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District, the middle class shopping mecca of the 1870s and 80s when an elevated train ran down 6th Avenue.  The parish somehow survived all the retail mayhem only to have its former house of worship become the victim of a much more maniacal sort.  

    The congregants moved on in the 1970s and the church (deconsecrated) became a drug rehab center, Odyssey House.  Peter Gatien bought the property in 1982 and opened it as the Limelight (Andy Warhol hosted the opening night party).  Drug dealing and bad publicity saw the place padlocked on-and-off until it was finally shuttered in 2001.  What it’s most notorious for though is its connection to the 1996 murder and dismemberment of a denizen drug dealer by the club’s party promoter, Michael Alig (not on the grounds).  Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green did the movie Party Monster based on the club and that event.

    Today it’s a boutique shopping mall, the Limelight Marketplace, and I went there not too long ago.  It’s definitely a different kind of shopping experience; a maze of little “shops” in tiny nooks strung along walkways and narrow stairs that every so often reveal Gothic elements in the walls and ceilings.  I also went there once in the 90s when it was the Limelight.  Just once.

    12 comments:

    1. I know this is probably not what you to intended for us to take away from this, but Party Monster sounds like just about the worst movie ever.

      ReplyDelete
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    3. *like*...very interesting...next time I come home, you have GOT to take me around to all these places..I will start practicing my roller blading...

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    4. Thanks everyone. Party Monster was an awful movie, though I have this urge to see again.

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    5. You write so well. And I am learning things about my city I never knew. Like Ladies’ Mile Historic District - I want a piece of that.

      Also, love your alliteration:

      dismemberment of a denizen drug dealer

      Nice. Disturbing. But nice.

      ReplyDelete
    6. What can one say. A while back was a TV show, I can't the Name, but the intro was "There 6 millon stories in this city, this one of them".

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