Step inside the home and studios of Thomas Cole, the English-born painter whose 1825 discovery of the Catskill Mountains launched America's first homegrown art movement, the Hudson River School. This episode walks through Cedar Grove, Cole's Federal-style house in Catskill, New York, from the porch view he painted more than any other subject to his original 1839 studio and the more architecturally ambitious 1846 New Studio he designed near the end of his life. Along the way, we cover Cole's surprising history as an early environmental writer, the Library Gallery's current exhibition “Contemporary Vistas,” and the Hudson River Skywalk that connects this site to Olana, the home of Cole's student Frederic Edwin Church. We also recommend two local spots to eat -- Creekside Restaurant and Bar on Catskill Creek and Subversive Malting and Brewing's farmhouse taproom -- plus nearby stops at CREATE Council on the Arts and Dutchman's Landing Park, and lodging options from Peloke's Motel to the bed-and-breakfasts of nearby Hudson, New York.

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Sagamore Hill, the longtime home of President Theodore Roosevelt, sits on a grassy rise above Oyster Bay Harbor on Long Island's Gold Coast , , about 35 miles east of Manhattan. Roosevelt lived here from 1885 until his death in January 1919, and during his presidency from 1901 to 1909, the 23-room Queen Anne shingle-style house served as his "Summer White House," hosting foreign dignitaries, presidential campaign visits, and the opening moves of diplomacy that would end the Russo-Japanese War. The interior has been preserved , , not restored , , with nearly all original furnishings intact, and guided house tours led by National Park Service rangers take visitors through nearly the entire home, including the library where Roosevelt wrote 18 of his books, the children's rooms, and the grand North Room added in 1905 to accommodate presidential-scale entertaining.

In this episode, we walk through the history of how Sagamore Hill came to be , , from the tragedy that preceded its construction, to the ranching years in the Dakota Territory, to the decades of family life and history that unfolded on these 83 acres. We explore the Old Orchard Museum and Visitor Center, the nature trails, the beach path down to Cold Spring Harbor, and the surrounding Oyster Bay area. We also cover the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center and the president's gravesite at Youngs Memorial Cemetery nearby.

Nearby places to eat and drink mentioned in this episode: Oyster Bay Brewing Company on Audrey Avenue, Gioia on South Street in Oyster Bay, and The Audrey on Audrey Avenue. Nearby sites covered in this episode: the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary and Audubon Center on Cove Road, and Youngs Memorial Cemetery where Roosevelt and his wife Edith are buried.

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Times Square is the most famous intersection in the world -- a canyon of light, energy, and spectacle at the heart of Midtown Manhattan where Broadway crosses Seventh Avenue.

In this episode of Walking Tour of New York, we explore the full story of Times Square: from its origins as a gritty carriage district called Longacre Square to its transformation into the world's most iconic entertainment neighborhood. We trace the remarkable history of publisher Adolph Ochs and the New York Times, how a newspaper headquarters gave this neighborhood its name and its most beloved New Year's Eve tradition, and how the first ball drop in 1907 -- a 700-pound iron orb lowered from a flagpole -- grew into the global celebration watched by over a billion people each year. We walk through the Theater District, explore more than forty Broadway houses and the stories behind them, visit the TKTS discount booth at Father Duffy Square for same-day Broadway tickets, and stop at the Museum of Broadway to understand the world behind the curtain. We also cover dining highlights: Sardi's on West 44th Street, the legendary Broadway institution open since 1921 whose walls are covered with over a thousand celebrity caricatures; The View Restaurant and Lounge at the Marriott Marquis, New York's only revolving restaurant; Joe Allen on West 46th Street; and Los Tacos No. 1 right in the square. Nearby sites covered include Rockefeller Center, Central Park, the Empire State Building, Bryant Park, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, and Lincoln Center.

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Deep in the Finger Lakes region of New York, tucked along the western shore of Cayuga Lake, Taughannock Falls plunges 215 feet into a gorge ringed by 400-foot canyon walls -- making it taller than Niagara Falls and one of the most dramatic natural features in the entire Northeast. In this episode of Walking Tour of New York, we explore Taughannock Falls State Park in Ulysses, New York, from the flat and accessible Gorge Trail that winds three-quarters of a mile through an ancient canyon to the sweeping Rim Trail overlooks and the shimmering Cayuga Lake shoreline.

We dig into the park's remarkable geological story -- the glaciers that carved the Finger Lakes twelve thousand years ago, the hanging valley that created the falls, and the ongoing erosion that is still reshaping the gorge today. We also cover the park's Indigenous history as part of the Cayuga Nation's ancestral homeland, the Victorian hotel era when tourists arrived by steamboat to stay at the Taughannock House, and the Jones family estate that eventually became the state park in 1925.

You will learn about the park's camping, cabins, swimming beach, marina, and summer concert series -- plus tips on when to visit for peak waterfall power (spring), fall foliage (late September and October), and frozen-falls season (winter). We cover nearby dining including the Inn at Taughannock Falls Restaurant, with its Cayuga Lake views and locally sourced American-Mediterranean menu. And we highlight nearby sites including Watkins Glen State Park, Robert H. Treman State Park, Buttermilk Falls State Park, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Sapsucker Woods, and the Cayuga Wine Trail.

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In this episode of Walking Tour of New York, we head to the hamlet of Mumford in Monroe County -- about twenty miles southwest of Rochester -- to explore Genesee Country Village and Museum, the largest living history museum in New York State. Covering more than six hundred acres, the museum was founded in the 1960s by John "Jack" Wehle, son of the Genesee Brewing Company's founder, who spent a decade rescuing 19th-century structures from across the Genesee Valley and reassembling them into a fully realized historic village. The result is sixty-eight restored and furnished buildings -- from a simple pioneer log cabin to an elaborate Victorian mansion -- organized into three chronological sections representing the Early Settlement, Center Village, and Gaslight District eras of Western New York life. Costumed interpreters bring each building to life with active demonstrations of blacksmithing, coopering, pottery throwing, weaving, historic cooking, and more.

The episode also explores the John L. Wehle Gallery of Sporting Art (home to works by Audubon, Remington, and Bateman, plus a 3,500-piece historic costume collection), the Carriage Museum, Silver Baseball Park -- the first replica 19th-century baseball park in America -- and the five-mile trail system of the Genesee Country Nature Center. On-site dining includes the Depot Restaurant, the Freight House Pub (featuring house craft beers brewed by Rohrbach Brewing Company), the Pavilion Garden Restaurant, and the historic D.B. Munger Confectionery. For nearby sites, the episode highlights the JELL-O Gallery Museum in LeRoy (about ten miles west), and the New York Museum of Transportation in Rush (with the only vintage trolley ride in New York State).

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At the very tip of Long Island's North Fork, where the land narrows to a slender finger of sand and the waters of Gardiner's Bay stretch wide and glittering toward the horizon, Orient Beach State Park waits quietly for the visitors who find their way out here. It is one of the few places on Long Island where the landscape still feels genuinely untouched -- a 363-acre sanctuary of beach, salt marsh, and a rare maritime forest that has earned the distinction of being a National Natural Landmark. This episode takes you through every corner of the park, from the legendary Long Beach spit and the Roy Latham Maritime Forest Trail to the lighthouse nicknamed Bug Light that has stood guard over these waters since 1871. Along the way, you'll discover why birders, paddlers, and beachgoers alike make the long drive out to the North Fork's eastern edge -- and why the nearby village of Greenport is worth staying for.

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At the very tip of Manhattan, where the Hudson meets the Harlem River, lies a 196-acre forest that most New Yorkers have never visited. Inwood Hill Park is home to the last old-growth forest on the island, dramatic glacial caves used by the Lenape people for thousands of years, a legendary site where Peter Minuit may have purchased all of Manhattan, and a salt marsh that somehow survived the city's relentless growth. This episode explores the deep Indigenous history of Shorakapok, the amateur archaeologists who uncovered pots and axes in the 1890s, the park's stunning trails, and the lively Dominican neighborhood waiting just outside the park gates.

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Tucked along the southern edge of Ithaca in New York's Finger Lakes region, Buttermilk Falls State Park is one of the most spectacular and accessible state parks in the entire Northeast. With ten waterfalls cascading through a dramatic 600-foot gorge, emerald-green potholes carved by ancient glacial forces, and stone trails hand-laid by Depression-era workers, the park offers something rare -- a place where deep history and raw natural beauty arrive side by side. Whether you're wading in the natural swimming pool at the base of Buttermilk Falls, hiking the quiet shores of Lake Treman, or simply sitting beside the churning white water that gave the park its name, this is a destination that rewards every kind of visitor.

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