Our last full day this trip and what a day. Perfect weather again, it’s 15 degrees Celsius with mostly sunny skies. We head uptown, it’s quiet uptown, you’d like it uptown.
All the way up to 145th Street. We plan to visit The Grange. If you haven’t got the reference yet, it was the home of Alexander Hamilton for two years before he died and his family’s home for another 30 years.
We walk to Bryant Park-42nd St to catch the express D train. While waiting a historic subway train pulls into the station. During the holiday season the MTA rolls out some historic subway cars to show off to tourists. We are so surprised we simply look at the old red cars. They are obviously antecedents to the current crop of bright metal cars. Before we realise though the doors close and it takes off. It was a D train. We could’ve caught it. Not to worry, seeing it was awesome.
7 minutes later the next D arrives and three stops later we arrive at 145th. It’s takes around 15 minutes. Back in Hamilton’s day, a horse and carriage took over 90 minutes.
We walk a few blocks from the subway to the Hamilton estate. Thirty acres of sprawling parkland, with the house ideally located on the high point of the land.
We walk up the entry way and into the lower level on our way there are information points describing the development of the area and the fact the house has been moved twice. Both occasions engineering accomplishments equal to some of what Hamilton achieved were carried out.
We enter the museum. It depicts Hamilton’s life and times. Most people know Hamilton now thanks to the Broadway hit. He really was a genius, a national builder, but also flawed and fallible like most of us.
We then join a tour of the actual house. From a parlour (living room) to a dining room and den (office). We learn a little about life in 1802. We also learn about the architecture at play, the federal style. The house and its rooms and layout are very symmetrical, using sharp square corners, with ornamation on architraves and skirting boards. The parlour and dining room are mirror images of each other, both octagonal in shape with three identical windows in each room. The windows were large and open to allow cross ventilation. There are four chimneys on the roof, two ornamental in nature and simply there for symmetry. It’s a fascinating look into the fastidious nature of how Hamilton thought and worked. His perfection and attention to detail.
We finish the tour and look through the small gift shop before heading back downtown.
We arrive in midtown and it certainly isn’t quite downtown. It’s Saturday afternoon, perfect weather and it feels like everyone is in New York. Every sidewalk is crammed, ordinarily the cross streets are quieter than the avenues. But not today. We wander to the library on 42nd and 5th, from 43rd and 6th and it takes us almost 15 minutes. There’s a line to get into the library and the hallways and gift shop are full. We look around and do some shopping. The line out is just as long as the line in.
We pop home and decide to go to John’s Pizza. Times Square is heaving with people and we eventually to the John’s. there’s a queue. We wait for 15 minutes and are then told it’ll be another 30 minutes for a table of 2. It’s fine, we aren’t in a hurry and we haven’t eaten today. So we wait. About 25 minutes later our number is called and we are shown to our table.
We order a couple of pizzas, Margherita and original with salami. We can take the left overs home for a snack later. John’s is packed. It’s a large, well, massive space; an old church was used to build the restaurant around. It claims to be the largest pizzeria in the world. There are three floors and easily over 250 tables.
As we eat a school group enjoys a corner on the second floor for an event, there are more than 50 of them.
The cavernous space is noisy and bustling. Staff in black shirts zoom around carrying sometimes up to six pizzas at a time.
We get our left over pizza boxed up and head out. We thought the queue was long when we arrived. It now snakes down 44th Street, I reckon it’ll be a two to three hour wait now.
We decide to head home, since we had better get to that packing. So we spend the night in and pack. We’ve got emergency pizza if we get hungry. And yes, it’s good pizza. Great dough, great sauce and just the perfect amount of toppings.
