Places Ian Engweiler Wants to Go

One of the city’s oldest watering holes was originally the home of a famous James Brown (not that one).

This Russian bar-restaurant lies within a three-story underground bathhouse.

Manhattan's lighthouse, erected at the insistence of the unsinkable Molly Brown.

The place where Dvořák composed some of his most famous works.

Try not to get slimed in Tribeca.

An accidentally hidden library containing the ephemeral history of New York.

This memorial honors thousands of enslaved Africans and their descendants who died in colonial New York.

La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela's "Dream House" will immerse you in an ever changing world of sound and light.

Avoid gangster interaction while window-shopping.

During the 19th century, you could pay for violence off a prix fixe menu on this Manhattan street.

America's oldest Eastern European synagogue provided the immigrants of crowded Lower East Side tenements a space of sanctuary.

The only gallery in New York dedicated to olfactory art and the exploration of scent in art.

A modern zoetrope on the New York City subway.

This beautiful Brooklyn monument over a crypt memorializes a grim and largely unknown story from the American Revolution.

Now the site of a high school, this was almost the location of the largest cathedral in the US.

One of the few Glatt kosher delis in the United States is a cornerstone of its Hasidic neighborhood.

A no-frills cinephile haven known for showing offbeat, underseen films.

A simple midtown bar was once the home of a secretive and exclusive club staffed by "bunnies" under Hefner's strict rules.

This vacant church in the Financial District was once the heart of New York's first Syrian immigrant community.

Hear the tales of New York's most notorious criminals.

Named the fifth most beautiful building in America in 1885, this former courthouse boasts the best view in the Village.

This secluded ruin was once a home for exotic plants.

This unique house, the only one of its kind in Brooklyn, was built as part of a real estate developer's showcase.

These century-old townhouses contain some of the first car garages built in the United States.