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New York has its share of grand galleries. But many smaller museums, from a merchant's house to one housing a hand-carved piano, are also worth a visit.
By RACHEL POLLACK
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2002
Most visitors to New York know the names of its venerable and grand museums: the Metropolitan Museum of Art (to everyone, the Met); Museum of Modern Art -- that's MOMA; Whitney Museum of American Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Frick. All march in stately fashion up Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue.
But there are many smaller and lesser-known museums, brilliantly reflecting history or particular tastes and preferences. Here are four of them -- one just recently opened- and another under construction but set to display its treasures this May.
This five-story structure is kept as if the family that lived there from 1835 until 1933 would return at any moment.
The Merchant's House Museum is believed to be the only 19th century residence built in the Federal and Greek Revival style that survives in Manhattan with its original furnishings and architectural features. Everything is intact: family memorabilia, gas lamps, chamber pots, penmanship books and many more items, used by the owners and the servants.
The Tredwell family lived in this red brick townhouse: Seabury Tredwell, his wife, Julia, eight children and four servants. The youngest child, a girl, grew up and fell in love with a man her parents forbade her from marrying. The young woman never did marry, outlived her parents and became mistress of the house where she lived until she was an old woman. She kept everything as she had known it in her childhood.
Self-guiding brochures are available, but try to visit when the chatty and knowledgeable docents are there to explain everything in vivid detail.
The Merchant's House Museum: 29 E Fourth St. (212) 777-1089. Call for times and reservations.
Is it a tavern? Or is it a museum? And who was Fraunces anyway? This story goes back to pre-Revolutionary War years.
From what is known, Samuel Fraunces left the French West Indies to make his way in New York City in the 1750s. As the owner first of the Mason's Arms Tavern and later of the Queen's Head, he was truly an original. Nicknamed Black Sam, he was friendly and a connoisseur of good food and drink, and he eventually became one of the better hosts in the colonies.
His tavern became hugely popular as a meeting place for revolutionaries -- at great risk to Fraunces. British troops kept him under house arrest during the war. Yet he kept his tavern open and found ways to aid American prisoners of war held by the British.
At the end of the war, the Americans held a victory parade along lower Broadway (close to the tavern). Black Sam renamed his establishment Fraunces Tavern and organized the first public dinner for Gen. George Washington. Later, it was here that Washington said farewell to his troops and leading officers.
When Washington was called back to serve as president, he appointed Samuel Fraunces his chief steward. He reclaimed his popular tavern after Washington left the presidency. Originally built in 1719, it was restored in 1904, and some of the original bricks are intact.
This is a stunning Georgian building with a dark slate roof, a balustrade, dormers and chimneys. Dining is on the first floor, and the top floors offer several museum rooms with artifacts from the Revolutionary War and from Fraunces' personal items.
Fraunces Tavern Museum; 54 Pearl St., at Broad Street, (212) 425-1778. Call for hours.
Perhaps there is no one answer as to what constitutes craft and what distinguishes it from art. But visitors to this museum will see that craft and art are constantly evolving. For the past 41 years, the American Craft Museum has been showing the work of fine craftspeople from around the world.
From goblets to pottery, tapestries to beads, furniture (there is a hand-carved piano) to jewelry, this exciting museum celebrates it all. There are collections in glass, fabric, wood, clay, paper, metal and, at times, chocolate. There is no end to the craft imagination.
Be sure to inquire about the wide variety of artist-led, drop-in workshops for families.
The American Craft Museum; 40 W 53rd St., (212) 956-3535. Fax: (212) 459-0926 for information about changing exhibits.
Less than two months ago, the American Folk Art Museum moved into its stunning new home directly across from the American Craft Museum. Originally chartered as the Museum of Early American Folk Art when it was founded in 1961, it focused on common arts of the 18th and 19th centuries. Over the years, it gained an international reputation as a cultural institution devoted to the collection, exhibition and study of traditional and contemporary American folk art.
The museum's new space itself is a work of art and is the first free-standing art museum to be built in New York since 1966. From the outside, it looks like an 85-foot-tall bronze sculpture. The faceted panels resemble both carved stone and metal; as they catch the sunlight they create different visual effects.
The museum is offering guided tours on Mondays with the architects, Billie Tsien and Tod Williams, presenting intimate, behind-the-scenes tours called "If These Walls Could Talk." The tours are offered to small groups when the museum is closed to the public.
The inaugural season opened with American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum; and the Henry Darger Collection.
Esmerian, chairman of the museum's board of directors, is an eminent folk art collector and has recently donated his entire collection to the museum. It includes more than 400 paintings, sculpture and weather vanes, pottery, textiles, scrimshaw and furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Visitors should note the many exquisitely detailed oil portraits; Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog by Ammi Phillips is the best-known painting in this group and a crowdpleaser.
The American Folk Art Museum: 45 W 53rd St., (212) 265-1040 or (212) 977-7170. Ask for the Education Department for further information about tours and programs.
Plans call for this museum to be built in the near future at Battery Park City, not far from ground zero.
This May, the founders of the new museum plan to present a photographic exhibit tracing the history and architecture of New York through its dramatic buildings. The New York Historical Society will be the venue for this exhibit.
The New York Historical Society is at 2 W 77th St. at Central Park West; (212) 873-3400, www.nyhistory.org.
- Denver freelance writer Rachel Pollack is a frequent visitor to New York.