Flatiron Partnership to Lead Free Holiday-Themed Walking Tours

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership, which provides free, year-round historic walking tours of the neighborhood, will hold special holiday-themed walking tours on three Sundays in December to complement its annual “23 Days of Flatiron Cheer” programming.

Attendees will learn about the Star of Hope, the first public Christmas tree, the international toy and gift center, and Dr. Clement Clarke Moore writing his famous Christmas poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (commonly known as “The Night Before Christmas”) in his country home on 23rd Street in 1822.

The holiday-themed tours will be held on December 5, 12, and 19. Tours start at 11:00 a.m. at the tip of the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street just east of Fifth Avenue. No advance registration is required. For more information, visit: bit.ly/FlatironWalkingTour.

The walking tours complement the annual “23 Days of Flatiron Cheer,” spearheaded by the Flatiron Partnership. This year, “23 Days” runs from Wednesday, December 1 to Thursday, December 23 and features mostly online programming including deals and Instagram giveaways from local businesses, holiday meal-kit roundups, the Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition winner, and events on the Flatiron Public Plazas.

Since the Flatiron Partnership began offering the tours over ten years ago, more than 7,000 people - from 60 countries, and more than 460 cities in the United States and Canada - have taken part in more than 610 excursions. The tours highlight some of the city’s most notable landmarks, including the Flatiron Building, New York Life Insurance Building, MetLife Clock Tower, and Appellate Courthouse.

Weekly tours are led by Miriam Berman, the author of “Madison Square: The Park and Its Celebrated Landmarks” and “New York in Words and Images”; Mike Kaback, a native New Yorker who has an unquenchable enthusiasm for everything about the city; and, Fred Cookinham, author of “The Age of Rand: Imagining an Objectivist Future World”.