840 Best Sights in New York, USA

The 1737 restored Dutch farmhouse is especially noted for its collection of Hudson Valley paintings. The grounds include the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, a one-room schoolhouse that was actually used until the 1940s. It takes its name from the character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving. Irving, who tutored at Lindenwald, purportedly modeled the character after a schoolmaster who taught in the area.

Noted architect Alexander Jackson Davis designed this magnificent marble mansion overlooking the Hudson River. Built in 1838, Lyndhurst is widely considered the premier Gothic Revival home in the United States. You may tour the mansion's elaborate interior and stroll the 67 landscaped acres, which include a conservatory and a rose garden. The estate also includes a turn-of-the-20th-century bowling alley and an original child's playhouse. Kids can walk outside the perimeter of the playhouse and admire it, but are not allowed to enter it. During summer weekends, visitors can pay $5 to roam around the grounds, and then apply that fee to the guided tour price if they wish to learn more about the house.

The family-owned winery is committed to organic and sustainable vineyard practices, and wines like its 2010 Bergen Road red and 2012 Reserve Chardonnay enjoy consistent critical acclaim. The tasting room is big and modern; vineyards nestle below the Long Island Sound bluffs. Best sellers here are 2012 Katherine Fields Sauvignon Blanc, 2008 Dos Aguas, and the Sette blend. Cheese boards and charcuterie are available for wine pairings. Off-season, barrel tastings and pairings of food prepared by a local chef are offered one Saturday a month for $50.

The design studios and factory of this home-furnishings empire occupy a Victorian farmhouse and other attractive buildings on a bluff overlooking Cayuga Lake. A 15-minute studio-tour video plays continuously in the visitor center, where artisan demos are given Friday and Sunday 11–4. You can tour the "farmhouse," a late-1800s Second Empire–style home that's been renovated and decorated with MacKenzie-Childs products. The extensive, 75-acre grounds include gardens, trails, and a shop devoted to MacKenzie-Childs wares.

Much of the fun here comes from photo opportunities—you're encouraged to pose with and touch the more than 200 realistic replicas of the famous, infamous, and downright super. Croon with Tina Turner and Taylor Swift, swoon to your favorite heartthrob (be it Justin Bieber or Justin Timberlake), strike a fierce pose with RuPaul and Heidi Klum, or enjoy a royal chat with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, aka William and Kate. 

The Marvel 4-D Experience includes wax likenesses of heroes like the Hulk, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, and Thor, as well as a short animated movie shown on a 360-degree screen. Other interactive options include a karaoke café, a celebrity walk down the red carpet, and a Sports Zone where you can see how you measure up to legends like Serena Williams and Lionel Messi. Note that closing hours vary during peak seasons, but the last tickets sold are always one hour prior.

The benches of this elegant, tree-filled park afford great views of some of the city's oldest and most charming skyscrapers—the Flatiron Building, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower, the gold-crowned New York Life Insurance Building, and even (to the north) the Empire State Building—and serve as a perfect vantage point for people, pigeon, and dog watching. Add free Wi-Fi, Shake Shack, temporary art exhibits, and free summer and fall concerts, and you realize that a bench here is certainly a special place to be.

New York City's first baseball games were played in this 7-acre park in 1845. On its north end, an 1881 statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens memorializes Civil War naval hero Admiral David Farragut. An 1876 statue of Secretary of State William Henry Seward (the Seward of the term "Seward's Folly," coined when the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867) sits in the park's southwest corner, though it's rumored that the sculptor placed a reproduction of the statesman's head on a statue of Abraham Lincoln's body.

A stroll around this whimsical, plant- and sculpture-studded 2-acre preserve designed by artist Robert Dash reveals why HomeStyle magazine once described it as one of the 10 most beautiful gardens in America. Many adult and childrens' educational programs are offered here. Photographs are permitted, but dogs and strollers are not.

Gilded lions guard the entrance of this bright, beautiful Buddhist temple, on a busy corner at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge Arch on the Bowery. Inside are a 16-foot-tall Buddha seated on a lotus flower (allegedly the largest Buddha in the city), incense-burning urns, hand-painted prints, and a second-floor gift shop full of interesting items.

The on the Nott Memorial's second floor, shows history-, science-, and art-related exhibits.

The three-story brick house and its 34 acres were the home of the 19th-century utopian Oneida Community, founded in 1848 by John Humphrey Noyes. The sect believed that the second coming of Christ had already occurred and that a new Eden could be achieved on Earth. Followers considered themselves sinless and believed in the sharing of property and spouses. The group, which supported itself by making silk thread, animal traps, canned foods, and silverware, eventually led to the formation of tableware manufacturer Oneida Ltd. The mansion, a 93,000-square-foot National Historic Landmark with beautiful mansard roofs, was constructed in stages between 1861 and 1914 and contains 35 apartments (some occupied by descendants of the original community members), a large hall, a dining room, and a museum. Guided tours are the only way to see the interior.

Polish soprano Marcella Sembrich (1858–1935), who sang with New York's Metropolitan Opera, used the building housing this museum as a vocal-instruction studio. The studio was part of her summer estate. You can walk along Lake George here and take in the beautiful vista. The museum, on the National Register of Historic Places, includes opera costumes, paintings, and assorted memorabilia.

After a $7.9 million renovation completed in fall of 2019, a 47-foot cast-iron watchtower (Julius Kroehl, 1865), the last remnant of a citywide network used to spot and report fires in pretelephone days, once again stands atop a 70-foot-high outcrop of Manhattan schist (the same bedrock that anchors the city's skyscrapers) at the center of this historic, tree-filled public square. Around it, an Acropolis provides great views of Manhattan and the handsome neoclassical row houses of Mount Morris Park Historic District, which extends west from the park. In summer, check out musical and stage performances at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater and at the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (at the end of August).

Perhaps the most respected contemporary art dealer in town, the Marian Goodman Gallery has been introducing top European artists to American audiences since 1977. The stable of excellent contemporary artists in the Goodman fold includes Gerhard Richter, Jeff Wall, John Baldessari, William Kentridge, Chantal Akerman, and Steve McQueen.

Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in this study built for him by his sister-in-law and her husband. The octagonal shape was inspired by a Mississippi riverboat pilothouse. The study was moved to the Elmira College campus in the 1950s and is part of the school's Center for Mark Twain Studies. Cross the street to visit the (free) Mark Twain Exhibit to learn more about Twain's connection to Elmira or to buy books in the gift shop.

The gallery has an international reputation, representing modern artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Beverly Pepper, and Red Grooms; architect Santiago Calatrava; and photo-realist Richard Estes. Look for sculptures by Tom Otterness, whose whimsical bronzes are found in several subway stations. A Chelsea branch specializes in contemporary art.

Once a roadside farm stand, the winery founded by the Entenmann family and named for their matriarch, Martha Clara, now has a large, barn-style summer tasting room with patio and has become quite popular for its large-scale events. Off-season, a winter tasting room gives a more intimate feel, although it's becoming increasingly busy. Original old barns serve as art galleries and event spaces; pet goats, live music, and antique-carriage tours pulled by resident Clydesdales add to the down-on-the-farm feel. Making waves in the wine world is the 2010 Norseville Red, and the Rieslings are always a popular choice.

Born in Kinderhook, Martin Van Buren (1782–1862)—the eighth president of the United States—decided to retire to this estate, which he purchased during his presidency and called Lindenwald. Built in the Federal style in 1797, the house took on Gothic and Italianate features following a revamp in the mid-1800s. The graceful building can only be visited as part of a guided tour.

Martin's Fantasy Island has more then 100 rides, including a wooden roller coaster, a 140-foot-tall swing ride, and a petting zoo, and a water-park area with a wave pool, swirling slides and chutes, and a log-flume ride.

Talk about religious conversions: in the mid-1960s, the Lenox Casino was transformed into this house of worship and cultural center and given bright yellow arches and a huge, green, aluminum dome that loudly proclaims its presence in a neighborhood of churches. Once functioning as Temple No. 7 under the Nation of Islam with a message of Black nationalism, the mosque was bombed after the assassination of Malcolm X, who had preached here. It was then rebuilt and renamed in honor of the name Malcolm took at the end of his life, El-Hajj Malik Shabazz; its philosophy now is one of inclusion.

These days the Sunni congregation has a large proportion of immigrants from Senegal, many of whom live in and around 116th Street. Next door is Graceline Court, a 16-story luxury condominium building that cantilevers somewhat awkwardly over the mosque.

The handsome 14-room Federal-style mansion on the Westfield village green was built in 1820. The Chautauqua County Historical Society runs the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and is decorated in high Victorian style. Displays include Civil War documents and American Indian and military artifacts.

More than 5,000 years of art is contained within the 14 exhibit rooms at this museum, opened in 1913. Egyptian coffins, medieval tapestries, impressionist paintings, European masters, and African carvings are on permanent display. The collection of American art is strong and regional artists are represented and compete in juried shows here.

Built in 1832, this redbrick house, combining Federal and Greek Revival styles, provides a glimpse into the domestic life of the period 30 years before the Civil War. Retired merchant Seabury Tredwell and his descendants lived here from 1835 until 1933. The home became a museum in 1936, with the original furnishings and architectural features preserved; family memorabilia are on display. The fourth-floor servants' bedroom, where the family's staff slept and did some of their work, offers a look at the lives of Irish domestics in the mid-1800s. Guided tours are at noon, cover all five floors and the rear garden, and last about 75 minutes.

Some of the hottest talents in contemporary art are shown here, including Cindy Sherman, Olaf Breuning, Louise Lawlor, Trevor Paglen, Camille Henrot, and B. Wurtz.

In 1909, with the addition of a 700-foot tower resembling the campanile of St. Mark's in Venice, this 1893 building became the world's tallest—but it was surpassed in height in 1912, when the Woolworth Building was completed. The Met Life Tower was stripped of much of its classical detail during renovations in the early 1960s but remains a prominent feature of the Midtown skyline. The clock's four faces are each three stories high, and their minute hands weigh half a ton each. If the street view doesn't quite cut it, you can reserve a room in the skyline itself: the New York EDITION, a luxury hotel conceived by Ian Schrager and Marriott International, occupies the clock-tower portion of the building.

In 1826, when Millard Fillmore was just a young lawyer, he built this simple house. The man who was to become the 13th U.S. president lived here for only four years. A National Historic Landmark, the house has been restored and refurnished to reflect life in the early 19th century.

At this 130-acre winery and vineyard you may savor a chardonnay or cabernet franc against a backdrop of spectacular views. An upstairs loft is open on weekends and offers seasonal art exhibits with regional artists and a selection of the vineyard's reds and whites.

Formed from Margaret Lewis Norrie State Park and Ogden Mills and Ruth Livingston Mills Memorial State Park, the park encompasses 1,200 scenic acres along the Hudson River, about 5 miles south of Rhinebeck. The grounds include close to 9 miles of hiking, biking, and horseback-riding trails; a marina; nature center; public golf course; and the Staatsburg State Historic Site. Camping is an option; there are tent sites and 10 cabins available for rent between May and October. Atlantic Kayak offers short kayaking tours on the Hudson. Eagles can sometimes be spotted from the nature center.