You Can Live HBO's 'The Gilded Age' on This New Upper East Side Tour
Learn about the history and architecture behind the 1880s NYC drama.
HBO's new period drama The Gilded Age sheds new light on old New York City, capturing the social clashes of old and new money NYC in the late 1800s. The show has already proven to be a ratings winner for HBO, and now New Yorkers can get a closer look at some of the landmarks and neighborhoods that inspired the show's high-society drama.
Context Travel's Upper East Side: New York Gilded Age Tour offers a guided tour of the Upper East Side to coincide with the show's airing. Attractions on the 1.6-mile, historian-led walking route include the Plaza Hotel, the Metropolitan Club, the Frick Mansion, the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, and the Ukrainian Institute of America, with information about the Beaux-Arts and French Renaissance architectural styles of the time.
While many of the Fifth Avenue mansions of the time have since been demolished, there are still some architectural gems scattered around the Upper East Side. In fact, it's the perceived pretentiousness of Bertha and George Russell's Beaux-Arts mansion that sets up much of the drama in the show's pilot. Context promises the tour will "take guests on a deeper look at the history of a New York in a way they have never experienced before to unpack the drama and learn about the key players that defined this era, and ultimately shaped the city in which we know today."
You can book private tours for up to 12 participants on Context Travel's website, and you can catch new episodes of The Gilded Age every Monday on HBO Max.