New York City Hall

The oldest city hall in the United States stands in Manhattan's Civic Center district, between Broadway, Chambers Street, and Park Way. While it is the nations longest continuously-operating government building, it is actually the city's third city hall.

The architects who won the 1802 design competition, are a true testament to New York City's multiculturalism: U.S. architect John McComb, Jr., and freed slave Joseph-François Mangin (some accounts say he was born in Haiti, others France). Mangin, who designed St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on Mulberry Street, and McComb, who designed Castle Clinton, were jointly awarded a prize of $350.
Under construction from 1803 to 1812 (delayed due to City Council's objection that the design was excessive), it was built in a Federalist style, emulating much of what was being built in Paris at that time.
New York City Hall is listed as a National Historic Landmark, and is on the National Register of Historic Places, with landmark designation in 1966 for its exterior, and again in 1976 for the interior.
Before ascending the steps to enter, there is a large plaque on the ground, which commemorates the first excavations for the city's subway system.

After entering, one will notice the amazing American-Georgian interior design of marble, sandstone, limestone, and painted wood...

...which leads to one of the United States' largest floating marble stairways.

Before heading up the stairs to the second floor, take a look up to see the rotunda's dome.

Sadly, it is the second dome, as the first burned down during a 1858 firework show for the celebration of the laying of the Transatlantic cable. The copper statue of Justice, atop the outside of the dome, is also a replica of the first that came crashing down with the dome, and, strangely, is one of the few in the U.S. to not be blindfolded.
Most rooms within the Hall are not locked, except for one, the Governor's Room, which is normally opened only for tours, or special guests.

The room holds a large portion of the of the building's oil portrait collection (which is estimated to be worth a total of $100 million), as well as George Washington's desk (seen below at the center of the room).

Also, if one feels politically motivated, you may take part in Council meetings in the Hall's Council Chambers.

One may attend Committee, and Stated Meetings to voice your opinion on public matters, which are held twice a month, and are a proud distinction to our admirable democracy. A full listing of public meetings is available at this link.
On a morbid side note, this room's balcony was also the scene of a murder.

While New York City Hall briefly held the bodies of Abraham Lincoln, as well as Ulysses S. Grant, and Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth (the first Union officer killed in the Civil War), the first to lay in state, due to political assassination within the grounds, was Brooklyn Councilman James E. Davis. In 2003, Othniel B. Askew shot and killed Davis on the balcony of the Council Chamber. A plainclothes policeman, Richard Burt, then shot Askew from the ground floor, hitting him five times, and he later died at Beekman Downtown Hospital.
Anyhow, whether you visit to let your civic voice be heard, or just to see a piece if this city's history, I highly recommend it, and there are groups (such as New York Adventure Club - link here), that hold after-hours tours of the building.

Moore-Jackson Cemetery + Athens Square Park

One of the older cemeteries in New York City sits in a crowded section of Woodside, Queens.
The Moore-Jackson Cemetery was first established a little before 1733 on the farmland of Samuel Moore. Samuel was the son of the first reverend of Newtown, Long Island, John Moore, whose family settled the area in 1652. It is thought that Newtown Pippen apples originated from this farm.
While the cemetery's address is "officially" between 31-30 to 31-36 on 54th Street (as the grave markers are visible from there), the entrance is on 51st Street.
One can walk through the graveyard, to view - up close - some of the memorials, such as the well-preserved tombstone of  Augustine Moore...

...as well as other headstones that haven't stood the test of time very well.

The vacant farmhouse was dismantled in 1901, and during excavations in 1919, it was discovered that the grave site held a total of 42 burials, with surnames including: Jackson, Hallet, Rapelye, Fish, Berrian, and Mecke.
The Works Progress Administration reburied the remains, along with arranging the remaining gravestones in 1936. The area was finally acknowledged as a New York City landmark in 1997, and is now managed by the Queens Historical Society.
If you are still looking for something somewhat nearby, check out Athens Square Park, which is on 30th Avenue, between 29th and 30th Street. The 30-minute walk will certainly let one take in the breadth and compass of Queens.
Named for the modern capitol of Greece, due to the sizable Greek-American population in Astoria, the park first opened as a simple playground in 1967, after it was acquired as public land in 1963. Reconstruction began in 1990, thanks to a one-million dollar restoration project; adding a central court, an small amphitheater, recreational space, plus seating areas along the perimeter, and sculptures throughout the park. In 1993, the first of many bronze statues was unveiled (of philosopher Socrates, and designed by artist Anthony Frudakis). Many of the following icons were donated by mayors of Athens, as well as other cities throughout Greece.

In 1996, three fluted Doric columns of granite, as well as a curved entablature atop, were built to echo the Tholos of Athena Pronaia in Delphi.
Every summer, the park holds a number of Hellenic-themed festivals, not to mention concerts of Greek music, old and new.

The Toynbee Tiles of NYC

First some history for those not familiar with what a Toynbee Tile is.
Though no one really knows who created, or exactly why this strange form of street art exists, many believe the mystery has been solved by Justin Duerr, and his amazing documentary Ressurect Dead.
The story goes that, for over 30 years, one Philadelphia man has used linoleum tiles, and an asphalt compound, to spread his near-schizophrenic message of life-after-death, through a hole in the floor of his car. By placing the tiles onto the street to be constantly run over, the tiles would be pushed into the road to create an almost permanent display of his ideas.
Staring in Philadelphia in the early 1980s, and spreading throughout the Northeast in the 90s (as far south as Washington D.C., and as north as Boston, MA), a few have also been spotted in the Midwest (such as Missouri), and even one in South America - with New York having the largest collection outside of Pennsylvania.
The messages, though brief, are thought to originally stem from the book, Experiences, by British philosopher Arnold J. Toynbee, and mixed with some sci-fi from the 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Nevertheless, the information contained in the tiles has been known to change from time to time, and some even include stories of secret government attacks on the "artist".
It is now accepted that whoever placed the tiles thinks we can colonize the planet Jupiter with the souls of all human life that have died so far.
There is a wonderful interactive map of all the so-far-discovered pieces (link here), which I used to catalog those in New York City.
While there are many spread throughout Manhattan, like the one on the corner of Church and Warren Streets in Downtown...

...most can be found in the Midtown area.
By taking a walk south on Broadway, starting at 42nd Street, then a left on 35th, heading south again on 6th Avenue to 27th Street, and then north on 5th Avenue from 31st to 38th Street, one can find all those pictured below.

Try seeing how many you can spot along your way.
Since the tile work has garnered a bit of infamy, there are quite a few fakes, with varying degrees of competence in the original method.

Happy hunting, and I look forward to someone turning this into some kind of scavenger hunt.

Irving Avenue and Moffat Street, Queens

Many are going to ask, "What's so weird about this one corner?" and I'm here to answer.
The end of Irving Avenue, where it meets Moffat Street, in Ridgewood, Queens, is the most radioactive spot in the entire state of New York, and would be the northeast's if not for NJ's McGuire Air Force Base in Burlington County (called "the most contaminated base" in 2007 by the United States Environmental Protection Agency).

In 1918, chemical engineer Alcan Hirsch, and his brother, mining chief Marx Hirsch, opened a chemical plant where today sits most of the businesses on Irving Ave's north side. In 1920, they christen it Hirsch Laboratories, and later added the mining company Molybdenum Corporation (aka Molycorp). The Hirsch brothers sold the lab in 1923 to Harry Wolff and Max Alport, who renamed it Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, but continued their mining operations, and supplied W-A Chemical with the rare-earth metals needed to produce a huge list of products.
The plant processed Monazite sand, which, when treated with Sulfuric Acid, separates into the rare-earth Sodium Sulfate, but also the radioactive waste known as Thorium Pyrophosphate.
It wasn't till the United States’ nuclear weapons program in 1942, known as the Manhattan Project, that Thorium became useful. Until 1947, when the Atomic Energy Commission began to purchase the fertile heavy element from Wolff-Alport, and for the full 20-years prior, the Thorium waste was simply dumped into the area's sewers.
In 1974, the Department of Energy created the FUSRAP initiative, which stands for "Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program", in an attempt to clean up environmental contamination, but it wasn't until 1987 that they notified New York City officials about the dangerous pollutants that stemmed from the Wolff-Alport plant. From 1988 to 2006, tests claimed the levels of radiation in the area were below regulatory limits, but broader tests in 2010 proved this was untrue.

The land where the chemical depot once stood is now Los Primos Auto Repair and Sale (1127 Irving Ave), and - if you ask nicely - the owner may show you the arches where the kilns once scorched apart the Monazite sand.
While a single X-ray may subject someone to 10 millirem of radiation, a worker at Los Primos is exposed to about 300 millirem per year (100 per year is deemed the highest "safe" dose).
It is said the site is not a danger to those who visit once or twice, but it's so bad within the auto-body shop, the Environmental Protection Agency has asked that no employee rest on their back within the premises, even though a sandwich of 2 inches (5 cm) of steel, 2 inches of lead, and another 2 inches of steel has been laid down under almost the entire block, by the E.P.A., to prevent further spoliation from gamma radiation.

Waterside Plaza (aka Bristol Basin)

Nestled along the East River stands Waterside Plaza. Located on the east side of FDR Drive, between 25th to 30th Street. It holds some wonderful views of Brooklyn...

...Queens, and Roosevelt Island.

Designed in 1966 by the architecture firm Davis, Brody & Associates, the first building was opened in 1973. Originally a housing development, the Waterside Management Company threw $35 million towards a three-year improvement program in 2004, publicly opening the four towers of 1,470 units and 25 townhouses to all.

What makes this triangular-shaped landmass so interesting is that it's mostly made up of rubble from England. The structures were built atop a landfill created using debris from the city of Bristol after its bombing by the German Luftwaffe during World War II.

Brought over in the ballast of ships, the buildings were later constructed on a platform with 2,000 pilings dug 80 feet deep into the scree on the shore of Kips Bay.

The area was to be expanded in the 1980s, but scrapped due to resistance by the community, as well as environmental concerns.

The United Nations International School is located just to the south of the complex, with - fittingly enough - the British International School of New York holding lease in a number of the commercial spaces.