It’s Monday afternoon the day following the penultimate episode The Gilded Age The third season has ended on yet another cliffhanger. As I put on my earpiece, I stand outside of the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. The Gilded Age Mansions Tour is about to start. The first building on the east side of East 78th Street was constructed in 1912 for the businessman James B. Duke. This is a huge mansion, built in 1912 for James B. Duke and his family. NYU stationed security guards at the entrance to deter curious visitors from standing even on the stairs.
You can still find remnants of the Gilded Age everywhere. New York City Look at the blocks that line the walls. Central Park Upper East Side. Many of the mansions that were built by wealthy people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries still exist. They are framed by traffic lights and telephone poles, but the styles, sponsors, and preservation have been better on this side of the century. Some of them have been converted into museums or schools. You won’t go inside most any of them on this tour, at least not without paying an additional admission fee, but the façades are free for all to enjoy.
AJ is a Brooklyn native who now lives in Washington Heights. I was surprised to discover that many of my fellow tourists were New Yorkers. AJ confirmed that the locals were often present. He asks us how many of our fellow tourgoers were attracted to the show by watching. The Gilded AgeAround half of the group raise their hand. We’ve assured those who haven’t watched the series (or don’t care to watch it at all) that we’ll only be discussing season one. Then we’re off.
The tour
The walking tour takes exactly two and a half hours. It begins at the aforementioned East 78th Street, and ends across the street on East 92nd Street on Fifth Avenue. Along the way, we stop outside—but do not go into—the Harry F. Sinclair House at 2 East 79th Street (now owned by the Ukrainian Institute), the Beaux-Arts townhouse headquarters of the American Irish Historical Society, and the Payne Whitney House. The last of these, located at 972 Fifth Avenue in New York City, is now the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. It has a bookshop open every day of the year except Mondays, which is the day of the tour.
We also go to the Metropolitan Museum of ArtWhile not a Gilded Age house, this is still an institution of the Gilded Age, as it was built during that period out of noblesse obligation. The tour does not include museum admission, so we don’t go inside the gallery. There are also the William Starr Miller House Museum and the Neue Galerie, located at 86th & Fifth. the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. We can discreetly enter the lobby to experience some of its interior, though we need to hide our microphones. The Jewish Museum is our final stop, which was the former home of financier Felix M. Warburg. AJ gives us a detailed account of the original owners. I won’t spoil it for you, but hearing his informed perspective on the story is worth the trip.
The verdict
I recommend this tour for New Yorkers as well as tourists who want to hear Ward McAllister’s gossip about the Gilded Age Elite. It would be easy enough to hit all the tour spots on your ownThe.n some—The Frick, The Morgan, and the Lotte New York Palace are all just a bit too strewn about the area to make the cut in this geographically contained approach—but then you really would just be standing outside, looking. Book tickets for a combination or all of the museums above before your tour so you can get inside.
