New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [51]
The store has survived the Great Depression, World War II, the competition of a giant Barnes & Noble bookstore a few blocks away, and the tremendous shift in how readers are consuming literature. The Strand has also survived the challenges of being an intellectual oasis as well as a profit-making machine.
Stock includes both new and secondhand books, plus thousands of collector’s items. A separate rare-book room is on the third floor and closes at 6:20 daily. Check out the basement, with discounted, barely touched reviewers’ copies of new books, organized by author. TIP If you’re looking for souvenirs, visit the New York tables at The Strand; you’ll find New York–centric literature, poetry, history, photography, and cookbooks, as well as T-shirts, gadgets, and totes. | 828 Broadway, at E. 12th St., Union Square | 10003 | 212/473–1452 | Mon.–Sat. 9:30 am–10:30 pm, Sun. 11–10:30 | Subway: L, N, Q, R, 4, 5, 6 to Union Sq./14th St.
Fodor’s Choice | Union Square Park and Greenmarket.
A park, farmers’ market, meeting place, and site of rallies and demonstrations, this pocket of green space sits in the center of a bustling residential and commercial neighborhood. The name Union originally signified that two main roads—Broadway and 4th Avenue—crossed here, but it took on a different meaning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the square became a rallying spot for labor protests; many unions, as well as fringe political parties, moved their headquarters nearby.
Union Square is at its best on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (8–6), when the largest of the city’s greenmarkets brings farmers and food purveyors from the tri-state area. Browse the stands of fruit and vegetables, flowers, plants, fresh-baked pies and breads, cheeses, cider, New York State wines, fish, and meat. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, artisans sell gift items in candy-cane-stripe booths at the square’s southwest end.
New York University dormitories, theaters, and cavernous commercial spaces occupy the handsomely restored 19th-century commercial buildings that surround the park, along with chain coffee shops and restaurants. The run of diverse architectural styles on the building at 33 Union Square West, the Decker Building, is as imaginative as its former contents: this was once home to Andy Warhol’s studio. The redbrick-and-white-stone Century Building (33 E. 17th St., Flatiron District), built in 1881, on the square’s north side, is now a Barnes & Noble bookstore, with original cast-iron columns. The building at 17th Street and Union Square East, now housing the New York Film Academy and the Union Square Theater, was the final home of Tammany Hall, an organization famous in its day as a corrupt and powerful political machine. Two blocks south at Union Square East and 15th Street is the former U.S. Savings Bank, now the Daryl Roth Theatre.
Statues in the park include those of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi (often wreathed in flowers), and the Marquis de Lafayette sculpted by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty. Plaques in the sidewalk on the southeast and southwest sides chronicle the park’s history from the 1600s to 1800s. | E. 14th to E. 17th Sts., between Broadway and Park Ave. S, Flatiron District | 10003 | Subway: L, N, Q, R, 4, 5, 6 to Union Sq./14th St.
WORTH NOTING
Appellate Division Courthouse.
Sculpted by Frederick Ruckstuhl, figures representing Wisdom and Force flank the main portal of this imposing Beaux-Arts courthouse, built in 1899. Melding the structure’s purpose with artistic symbolism, statues of great lawmakers line the roof balustrade, including Moses, Justinian, and Confucius. In total, sculptures by 16 artists adorn the ornate building, a showcase of themes relating to the law.
This is one of the most important appellate courts in the country: it hears more than 3,000 appeals