ABOUT THE TOUR:

Curving gracefully along the great Hudson River on New York’s Upper West Side, Riverside Drive is best known for the elegance of its buildings and the quiet of its streets. But behind serene facades overlooking lush Riverside Park lie shocking tales of headline-making scandals – infidelities, suicides, murders, and more -- along with amazing architectural details of the homes where they happened.

Join local historian and author Stephanie Azzarone for a special tour based on her award-winning book, Heaven on the Hudson: Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park. Explore the delights of exquisite Gilded Age Mansions, Art Deco landmarks and monuments that were the first of their kind. Learn the history of how and why Riverside Drive and Riverside Park came to be, from a guide who literally “wrote the book.”

DETAILS:

Date: Saturday, July 26, 11 am ** ONE DATE ONLY! **

Maximum number of guests: 20

Starts: SW corner (Park side), Riverside Drive and 86th Street

Ends: Riverside Drive and 107th Street

This tour will run from 86th Street to 107th Street.

Tour highlights include:

• an exquisite villa that is the Drive’s only privately owned freestanding mansion (and whose owner stiffed his famous architect)

• the sad fate of America’s first supermodel

• the mansion where William Randolph Hearst ensconced his paramour, Marion Davies

• the landmark apartment building created for a Russian mystic -- with a “stupa” and a notable cornerstone

• And much more

ABOUT YOUR GUIDE: STEPHANIE AZZARONE

Stephanie Azzarone is a native New Yorker who has lived on Riverside Drive most of her life. A former journalist (freelancer for The New York Times and New York magazine, among others), she also ran an award-winning Manhattan public relations agency. Her first book, Heaven on the Hudson: Mansions, Monuments and Marvels of Riverside Park received the 2023 Book Award from the Victorian Society in America. Her second, Fabulous Fountains of New York, debuts in Fall 2025. Stephanie is a licensed New York City sightseeing guide.