Little Italy

New York City is indeed a melting pot of many cultures. You'll find neighborhoods filled with people of various ethnic backgrounds. One of the most popular areas with visitors is Little Italy, where you can experience the sights and smells of The Old Country.

Where is It?

The neighborhood known as 

Little Italy is located in Lower Manhattan, between Canal and Houston Streets and Lafayette and the Bowery, bordering Chinatown. The area has long been home to New York's Italian population, including those who came through Ellis Island in search of a better life in America.
At the end of the 19th century Little Italy was populated with more than 40,000 Italians who housed in cramped tenement houses. Today the number of Italians still living here is only a small percentage of this figure and much of Little Italy has been devoured by the ever-growing Chinatown.

American Radiator Building

In 1924, this stunning black-and-gold building added new character to New York's Bryant Park area.

Something Different

For Raymond Hood, what started out as a small job designing

radiator covers became so much more. When the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Company decided to build a new showroom and office building on 40th Street near Fifth Avenue, the company turned to the man who had been creating their radiator covers and asked him to come up with a design for their new headquarters. Just a few months prior, Hood had become instantly famous for his unique winning design for the Chicago Tribune building and American Radiator was just one of many companies that pursued his talents.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building

For four years the tallest building in the world (1909-1913), the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Building still stands as a reminder of the opulence of early twentieth century New York City.

Metlife Tower

MetLife

Located on posh Madison Avenue at 23rd Street, the original MetLife headquarters was a rather modest building, constructed in 1893. The company, who had made its fortune selling insurance to immigrant wage workers who had much to lose if they were injured or died on-the-job, had become the largest and most successful insurance company in American by the early years of the new century.

To match their new status, the president of the company, John Rogers Hegeman, hired architect Napoleon LeBrun and Sons in 1907 to design a magnificent marble office tower to rival the other large skyscrapers that had begun springing up in Manhattan just a few years prior. Hegeman wanted the building to be the world's tallest.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Sitting on what was once the site of an ash dump, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden has been a colorful addition to the city for nearly 100 years.

A Brief History

Citing the need for some dedicated green space, the New York legislature put aside 39 acres in 

Rose Garden

1897 for the building of a botanic garden. Though it took 13 years to design and open the garden, in 1910 it finally opened to the public. Through the first decade, the garden continued to grow with new additions including rock gardens, a Japanese garden, and a children's garden.

Columbus Circle

Just a traffic circle to some, Columbus Circle is truly a New York landmark and was an early innovation for traffic control and safety.

History of the Circle

Located at the intersection of Broadway, Central Park West, Central Park South (59th Street), and Eighth Avenue, situated at the southwest corner of Central Park, the Columbus Circle was completed in 1905. The designer of Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted, had planned this circle for the entrance to this vast park, hoping to create a grand entryway for what was to be one of the largest city parks in the world.