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Chelsea: Then and Now  |  East Village 101
The Genius and Elegance of Gramercy Park  |  The Multiethnic Eating Tour

PIECES OF EIGHTH Guide Eric Ferrara sets the scene for tourgoers on East Village 101.

Photograph: Monika Fabian

Your old college buddy scored the penthouse suite at the Maritime Hotel (363 W 16th St) and can’t wait to splash around in the terrace shower—lucky him. But residents at that address had a less lavish experience back when it was Covenant House, a homeless youth shelter plagued by sex-abuse scandal in the late 1980s, as we learn on Anthony Grifa’s never-dull stroll through Chelsea.

The tour runs rain or shine, so you be prepared to slog it out. But such endurance is rewarded, as Grifa is a font of information about the neighborhood’s storied past. The epicurean mecca of Chelsea Market (75 Ninth Ave), for example, once housed the not-so-gourmet National Biscuit Company (a.k.a. Nabisco). And prior to its rebirth as a sports complex, Chelsea Piers (West St at 23rd St) was a highly trafficked port where the Lusitania docked before being sunk by German U-boats in WWI.

The tour is fast-paced, but Grifa—whose father was a construction worker on the Empire State Building—is passionate about architecture and often pauses to discuss the finer points of Italianate design or the sad fate of Federal-style row houses. Most of the latter burned down in the Great New York Fire of 1835, Grifa informs us, but a few preserved examples remain across the street from ’hood favorite Billy’s Bakery (184 Ninth Ave).

Grifa glosses over Chelsea’s gay scene—only briefly mentioning the Anvil, now the Liberty Inn (51 Tenth Ave), as the birthplace of the Village People—but tourists who might otherwise just come here for Loehmann’s and the remaining gallery scene would still greatly benefit from this tour. And that’s exactly why locals will love it too.—Dan Lopez

Contact tour companies for the next available tour or consult daily listings.