Touring Rockefeller Center

We had tickets for an 11 a.m. architectural tour of Rockefeller Center. We took PATH to the 33rd Street station, then caught the V line of the subway and went north 2 stops to the 49th-51st Rockefeller Center Station. We're trying to minimize the amount of walking John has to do. His leg is still tired from our wanderings yesterday. But like all subway systems, you can walk farther underground than you do above ground.

From Wikipedia: "Rockefeller Center is a complex of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres between 48th and 51st Streets in New York. Built by the Rockefeller family, it is located in the center of Midtown Manhattan, spanning between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1988. It is the largest privately held complex of its kind in the world, and an international symbol of modernist architectural style blended with capitalism."


The area in front of that great bronze gilded statue of Prometheus that is an ice skating rink in the winter, started being a restaurant the first of May. It is one story below street level, but one of the most famous views that we associate with Rockefeller Center.

This tour has something all tours should have--headsets with volume control. The tour guide talks into her microphone and you can hear her talk. With a group of about 40 people and going in and out of the buildings onto the noisy streets, it was a great way to not miss anything.


The four floors with no windows are the NBC studios. NBC leased the space before construction and were able to specify no windows. That's even before TV days.

We went in and out of several buildings. The lobbies are all different and all beautiful. Abby Rockefeller, wife of John D. Jr., was a big art lover and very influential in how the buildings turned out with artwork everywhere.


Two very interesting things I learned from the Tour Guide were 1) how to cross the streets in New York and 2) you can go into Christies's and handle the things coming up for auction.



The technique for threading your way through the huge masses of people that congregate at the corners and race towards each other either when the light changes or the traffic clears (whichever comes first). Don't look at faces, look at knees. If you look at faces, your body tends to lean towards them. If you look at knees, you can see where their feet are headed and avoid them. I tried it and it works.

Christie's Auction House is in one of the Rockefeller buildings and encourages people to come see what they have coming up for auction. After our tours, I went into Christie's and John went to Sharper Image. I enjoyed picking up a lovely sterling silver teapot and looking at the mark on the bottom like I knew what I was doing. The guy next to me was using his magnifying glass to look at the mark on another piece.