Join architectural historian Matthew Postal for a walking tour that begins at City Hall Park and heads north to New York City’s largest concentration of Civil War-era buildings. This once leading retail corridor is populated with ornate Italianate-style structures of masonry and cast iron that housed the era’s fashionable shops and large commercial establishments. Passing into the Tribeca and SoHo Historic Districts, you will view Manhattan’s earliest department store, photographer Mathew Brady’s portrait studio, and the 1857 E.V. Haughwout & Company Store Building, a splendid cast iron edifice that was once frequented by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln.

Matthew A. Postal is an architectural historian who frequently leads walking tours of Brooklyn and New York City.