Big Onion Walking Tours

Big Onion Walking Tours Walking Tours of New York City neighborhoods focusing on history & architecture. Lead by NYC licensed educator-guides with teaching & academic backgrounds.

Since 1991, Big Onion has been leading award winning walking tours of New York's historic districts and ethnic neighborhoods. All our guides are fully licensed with teaching backgrounds! We lead more than 20 different tours throughout Manhattan & Brooklyn. We offer public "show up" tours year-round. All of our walks are also available for private bookings. Big Onion has been called "The Best in Ne

w York" by New York Magazine (1998). We were named one of the "Best History Tours in the World" by Forbes.com (2010).

June is National LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Celebrated every June, the month culminates with a parade and commemoration at The ...
06/01/2026

June is National LGBTQ+ Pride Month. Celebrated every June, the month culminates with a parade and commemoration at The Stonewall Inn, the site of the June 28, 1969, Stonewall Uprising.
New York City has been at the center of the long battle for equality for many marginalized people in American society. On this walk we will explore the theme of Social Justice and Equality over the past 200 years. The Stonewall Uprising will be contextualized within the broader history of the Villages. We will explore the 19th and early 20th century labor movement; the battle for women gaining the right to vote; the 20th century anti-war movements; the early 1960s Folksingers “Riot,’ and more.
Join us on Saturday June 6 at 1 p.m. or throughout the year on this unique and thought provoking walking tour! The walk is called “The History of Social Justice in the Villages Walking Tour” and is featured on our homepage.

Images: Christopher Street Liberation Day March, June 28, 1970. Credit: Michael Evans, The New York Times; Musicians in Washington Square, April 26, 1962. Credit: The Museum of the City of New York; The Declaration for “The Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square,” January 23, 1917. Credit: Delaware Art Museum; The Strike of the 20,000, November 22, 1909 Credit: Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Behold this view of the Bowery going south from Canal Street in lower Manhattan!This 1927 photo captures various aspects...
05/19/2026

Behold this view of the Bowery going south from Canal Street in lower Manhattan!

This 1927 photo captures various aspects of life on the Lower East Side at the turn of the 20th Century: the elevated train, the cramped tenement buildings, and in the distance the new skyscrapers rising from further downtown. While this view make look glamorous, life in these neighborhoods was not (or at least not yet).

The tenement buildings would have been filled with working class immigrants, largely from southern and Eastern Europe, as well as Chinese immigrants moving further southwest, who did not have the resources to seek out any nicer housing. Although they were constantly grinding to get by, these immigrant populations have left the neighborhood with a rich historical and cultural legacy, still evident in the buildings, landmarks, and even the food scene of the LES!

No longer standing today, the elevated train tracks caused a number of issues for the community: environmental and noise pollution, obstruction of light from the city streets, and reportedly as a space where criminality could thrive. Particularly in the mid-19th Century, the Bowery and nearby Five Points neighborhood were known as epicenters of gang activity. These networks conducted their criminal enterprises and feuds with each other with local impunity, as they also provided support and protection to the denizens of the neighborhood. The streets under the train were seen as some of the more dangerous areas to hang out, as the elevated tracks and loud noise shielded the activities below from view.

Want to learn more about the history of this area? Big Onion has TWO tours for you this weekend! Join us for Gangs of New York on Saturday, May 23, and/or the Multiethnic Eating tour on Sunday, May 24, both at 1pm! Tickets available on our website.

Image: “Manhattan: Bowery - Canal Street” (1927), Ewing Galloway c/o

On this day, May 17, in 1792, 24 merchants signed a document outside of 68 Wall Street (2). Known as the Buttonwood Agre...
05/17/2026

On this day, May 17, in 1792, 24 merchants signed a document outside of 68 Wall Street (2). Known as the Buttonwood Agreement, this paper established a brief set of rules to govern the emergent securities trade. The brokers consented to two key provisions: they would trade only directly with each other, and they would cap commissions at 0.25%.

This unassuming, brief document became the foundation of the New York Stock Exchange (1), which is today the largest stock exchange in the world. They have since introduced a few more regulations, but this institution would go on to drive NYC’s financial sector, which has itself been so influential on the city that we named the whole neighborhood after it!

Much of the early financial business in the post-Revolutionary War era was conducted in establishments such as the Tontine Coffee House on Wall and Water Streets; the official NYSE building wasn’t constructed until 1903!

To learn more about the early days of NYC, join a Big Onion walking tour this holiday weekend! Take the Historic Lower Manhattan walk on Friday, May 22 at 1pm, or the Revolutionary New York walk on Monday, May 25 at 1pm. Tickets available on our website.

Images: (1)  New York Stock Exchange and Wilks Buillding, Irving Underhill; (2) New York City. Stock Exchange, Buttonwood diorama, Museum of the City of NY. Both images via

Hudson, New York. An architectural and historic gem in Columbia County. Two hours from Manhattan via Amtrak. A great pl...
05/16/2026

Hudson, New York.
An architectural and historic gem in Columbia County. Two hours from Manhattan via Amtrak. A great place to live or visit. We have been offering a walking tour since 2018! Join us to explore this outstanding city!
While filled with incredible architecture we lost a marvel in 1968...One of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in America, the 1834-35 Worth Hotel, 215 Warren Street, was demolished in 1968 to build a Dairy Queen. It was not universally welcomed. The legendary writer Ada Louise Huxtable addressed the matter in the WSJ and NYTimes. In December 1969 she wrote:
“The Hudson River Valley Commission, the State Historical Trust, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation urged that it be saved. But political heads prevailed and Hudson demolished its National Register property. Ready for the biggest gag of all?
Read it in the Hudson Register-Star:
A modern Dairy-Queen Drive-In will be constructed on the site of the historic General Worth Hotel that fell victim to the bulldozers last year. The Common Council in special session voted to sell the site for $1,700. Council President Thomas Quigly said the purchase ‘was a step in the right direction to develop downtown Hudson’”

Join us on Saturday May 30, 1 p.m. for our Historic Hudson walking tour to learn what happened and for whom the hotel was named. The first Hudson walk of the summer season! Details & sign up on the Historic Hudson tour page at www.bigonion.com

Images: The Warren Street Dairy Queen. Date unknown From the Ciancetta-Rowles Photo Collection held by the Hudson Area Library; Worth Hotel, 1931. Photographer Walker Evans. Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Join us this Saturday, May 16th at 11:00 am, on our Brooklyn Bridge & Heights Walking Tour!Brooklyn Heights is among the...
05/14/2026

Join us this Saturday, May 16th at 11:00 am, on our Brooklyn Bridge & Heights Walking Tour!

Brooklyn Heights is among the oldest surviving neighborhoods in New York City, with several of its streets being largely unchanged for over 150 years. However, this is not to say it hasn’t transformed at all over the centuries! Take a look at this photograph, taken around 1896, of 180-182 Fulton Street, on the west side, between Cranberry and Orange Streets. The central building originally held a theater in 1850, though it did not last long. Washington Council No. 1, order of the United American Mechanics, had its lodge rooms in the Cary Building, on the left, by 1849.

Unfortunately, these buildings were demolished after being seriously damaged by a fire in 1923. Today, this area borders Cadman Plaza on the west and looks markedly different (the second image shows what this general area looks like today).

Join us this weekend to learn more about this fascinating neighborhood and about the Brooklyn Bridge! Tickets and information are available on our website.

Image information: 1) Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "Brooklyn: Fulton Street - Cranberry Street" New York Public Library Digital Collections; 2) Google Maps.

10 to 4 Perry Street in Greenwich Village, facing south, between 7th Avenue South and Greenwich Avenue. No. 10 was the r...
05/13/2026

10 to 4 Perry Street in Greenwich Village, facing south, between 7th Avenue South and Greenwich Avenue. No. 10 was the residence of Thomas M. Mulry, President of the Emigrant Savings Bank and of the United States Society of St. Vincent de Paul (hence the name Mulry Square at 7th Avenue at Greenwich Avenue and 11th Street). Perry Street was first known as Ogden Street in the early 19th century, then Henry Street, and finally as Perry Street in 1813. This first photograph was taken in 1932 – the second image, from 2024, shows how the small street looks today! Come join us this Friday, May 15th, at 1:00 pm on our Greenwich Village Walking Tour to learn more about the fascinating neighborhood and how it has changed over the centuries!

Thomas M. Mulry (last photo) would not have recognized the Emigrant Savings Bank’s East 43rd Street location, but he would have been very familiar with its old headquarters at 49 Chambers Street; currently a residential building, it was built between 1909 and 1912 and designed in the fabulous Beaux-Arts style by Raymond F. Almirall. The 3rd aerial photo from 1935 shows the east facing side of the bank, in the heart of Manhattan’s civic center. Originally founded in 1850 by 18 members of the Irish Emigrant Society, its goal was to serve the needs of the growing Irish immigrant community in New York City. Many of these immigrants lived nearby in the Lower East Side. The 4th image shows how 49 Chambers looks today! Join us this Sunday, May 17th, on our Lower East Side: The “Creative Destruction” of an Ethnic Neighborhood Tour. We hope to see you there! Tickets and information for both tours are available on our website.

Image info: 1) Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The NYPL. "Manhattan: Perry Street - 7th Avenue South" NYPL Digital Collections; 2) Google Maps; 3) Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The NYPL. "Manhattan: Chambers Street - Centre Street" NYPL Digital Collections; 4) By Gryffindor - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9671012; 5) Thomas Maurice Mulry, Wikimedia commons.

The East Village has transformed significantly over the last two centuries!Look at this old photo from 1909. It shows 3r...
05/11/2026

The East Village has transformed significantly over the last two centuries!

Look at this old photo from 1909. It shows 3rd Avenue facing east, between 6th and 7th Streets, at Cooper Square (the old Cooper Union building is out of frame on the left). This photo captures the area at a time of major transition. The old Tompkins Market Armory, originally built in 1860 for the 7th Regiment and later occupied by the 69th Regiment, is being demolished. The top two floors belonged to militia regiments and included a drill hall and meeting rooms, with a market on the ground floor. The building was demolished between 1909 and 1911, at which time the Cooper Union built an art building there. Note the elevated train on 3rd Avenue, also visible in the second photograph from 1893. Those trains are absent in the 3rd photograph, likely taken in the 1860s before they were built. These elevated trains are long gone now, replaced by modern bus and subway systems. The site is currently occupied by the new Cooper Union academic building (4th image), 41 Cooper Square – an imposing structure designed by the architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis that has been controversial for residents of the East Village, some of whom were horrified by how modern and anomalous the building feels in its surroundings. Not everything has changed, however - note the 1867 building just to the north, or left, of the armory in the first photograph. It’s still there today, as seen in the 4th image! Originally the site of the Metropolitan Savings Bank for 68 years, it’s now the home of Cornerstone Church First Ukrainian Assembly Of God.

Come learn more about the dynamic history and architecture of the East Village on our East Village Walking Tour this Saturday, the 16th, at 1:00 pm. Tickets and information are available on our website. We hope to see you there!

Image info: 1) Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The NYPL. "Manhattan: 3rd Avenue - 6th Street" NYPL Digital Collections; 2) Off The Grid: Village Preservation Blog; 3) Cooper Union Events Page: A History of the Tompkins Market; 4) Google Maps.

This family photograph, originally shared in the Jewish Daily Forward by columnist Jennifer A. Stern, shows her grandmot...
05/07/2026

This family photograph, originally shared in the Jewish Daily Forward by columnist Jennifer A. Stern, shows her grandmother and a friend out to lunch on the Lower East Side in the early 1930s. In her article, Stern analyzes the subjects’ styling and location to conclude that this midday outing to a kosher dairy restaurant would have been a high point of their day, hence the decision to document it with a photo!

The photo captures two significant pieces of NYC culture. Our rich history of immigrants from different parts of the globe is evident in the story of the Lower East Side. The girls pictured are on the LES, which boasted a thriving community of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants at the turn of the 20th Century. A huge number of shops, cultural institutions, and restaurants served this population, ensuring their continued access to goods, services, and traditions from their countries and cultures of origin.

The other key component of NYC culture documented here is lunch, or possibly brunch! New Yorkers of all walks of life love a good lunch special, innovative meal, or (bottomless) brunch experience. So cherished is a nice meal that it’s often the central component of a day out, or celebrations of personal milestones, special occasions, and holidays.

Speaking of, Mother’s Day is just around the corner! Didn’t get a brunch reservation yet? Try a variety of snacks from the various immigrant communities who have made the LES what it is now while learning about their history!

Spots are still available for Big Onion’s May 10th Multiethnic Eating tour at 1pm! Tickets available on our website.

Photos from the interior (1-2) and exterior (3) of 112 East 64th Street from its time as the headquarters of the Asia So...
05/06/2026

Photos from the interior (1-2) and exterior (3) of 112 East 64th Street from its time as the headquarters of the Asia Society, an institution to promote and cultivate American understanding of and interest in Asian arts and culture. Founded by John D. Rockefeller III, the Asia House occupied this address from the current building’s opening in 1959 until 1982. Asia House didn’t go too far though - the Asia Society’s NYC location remains at E 70th and Park today!

Since the 1980s, the Russell Sage Foundation has been located in the building. Founded in the midst of the progressive urban reform movement at the turn of the 20th Century, Russell Sage’s original mandate was to support the “improvement of social and living conditions in the United States” (per their website). As the Upper East Side developed into an elite neighborhood, many of the wealthy families living there contributed their resources to philanthropic endeavors, whether that meant opening cultural institutions such as Asia Society or funding urban revival projects in New York or elsewhere around the country.

Come learn more about the history of the Upper East Side on a Big Onion walking tour this Saturday, May 9th at 1pm! Tickets available on our website.

Images: “Manhattan: 64th Street (East) - Avenue N,” by Joseph W. Molitor c/o

Address

476 13th Street
New York, NY
11215

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 6pm
Tuesday 9am - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 6pm
Friday 9am - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

(212) 439-1090

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