The Other Side of the Gilded Age: The Lives of Everyday New Yorkers in Lower Manhattan
Explore New York’s Gilded Age, far from the palaces of Fifth Avenue
The Gilded Age is synonymous with opulent mansions, grand parties and unimaginable wealth, but there is another side to the era. This tour will discuss the lives of the other residents of New York at the time: the poor tenement dwellers, the staff who worked for the rich, the politicos and journalists of the time, and the emerging army of city workers.
We’ll wander through the very streets where New York City churned and bubbled, including some of the most famous blocks in the city, like Mott Street in Chinatown and Mulberry Street in Little Italy. Along the way you’ll learn how the lives of the rich and poor differed enormously in this era, but also how they intersected in direct and indirect ways. We’ll also discuss the architecture of numerous buildings along the route, from large public buildings that mined the same architectural styles as the famous Fifth Avenue mansions, to humble tenement buildings designed to house as many as possible for the least expense.
Mulberry Bend 
Five Points 
The Gilded Age era was one of tremendous growth and change for New York City, but the lives of the ultra-wealthy were only one part of it. This tour aims to fill out the picture and show what was going on down on the streets.
Tour highlights will include:
- A walk through the areas were once New York’s most notorious and dangerous slum in the 19th century
- The origins of two of New York’s most famous neighborhoods, Chinatown and Little Italy
- A look at how the lives of the poor, particularly the lives of children in this era (and how it differed from the lives of wealthy children)
- The raucous, hard-nosed politics and journalism of the era
- The tumultuous creation of the modern NYPD and FDNY
- Architectural highlights like a stately but notoriously expensive courthouse, a gorgeous Beaux Arts police headquarters, and the meager dwellings of the city’s poor
The Tour
This tour walks through Lower Manhattan. It starts near City Hall Park and ends at the Puck Building. We will send you the exact meeting point when you sign up.
Duration
2 hours and about 1.5 miles of walking
Rates
$40
Please contact us to set up a private tour!
Ages
This tour is best suited for ages 12+
Tour Guide
Krikor Daglian, a New York City resident for nearly twenty years, has walked, biked, driven, subway-ed, bused and boated around much of the city. During his time here, he’s played in rock bands, written and edited for a guidebook, worked in many different industries (web start-up, market research, beauty), prowled the city as a street photographer and generally absorbed as much as he could about the many facets of New York’s rich culture.
Prep for the tour by listening to these Bowery Boys and Gilded Gentleman podcast episodes on Gilded Age New York.