A Tour of Washington Heights

On Friday, April 23rd, Tatiana and Mark went up to Washington Heights to visit the Contemporary Latin American Art Space of the Heights (CLASH) building that is under construction and to take a guided tour of Washington Heights with Moises Perez and Michelle Morazan.

First, they visited the CLASH building -- a six-story, 46,000 square foot, three-sided structure.

Here is the entry way on the main floor:

The second floor will feature a performance hall where Latin American musicians will perform to an audience of up to 250 people:

On the third floor, a world-class art gallery will exhibit contemporary Latin American art to a diverse and international audience:

The view from the sixth floor provides a panorama of the island of Manhattan.

Following our visit to the CLASH building, Moises guided us on a fascinating tour of Washington Heights, where we saw such historic sites as: The Audobon Ballroom -- home of the Malcolm X Memorial; the Morris-Jumel Mansion -- Manhattan's oldest house;

the Dyckman House -- Manhattan's oldest remaining farmhouse; the Hispanic Society of America -- featuring works of art my El Greco, Goya, and Velázquez;

Fort Tryon Park -- a beautiful public park that overlooks the Hudson River;

the Trinity Church Cemetery -- were naturalist John James Audobon (a Hatian by birth) is buried;

The Cloisters -- a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to Medieval art and featuring the famous Unicorn Tapestries; and the former sites of the Polo Grounds, where the New York Giants played baseball, and Hilltop Park, where the New York Highlanders (Yankees) played baseball.

Touring Washington Heights was an eye-opening experience, as Northern Manhattan is "out of the spotlight" and is not a common destination point for tourists. Greencard is excited to helping bring tourism and economic growth to this beautiful area of Manhattan.