Want to Explore NYC’s Most Secret Spaces? Join the Club

I‘m wondering how many New Yorkers know about the greatest club in their city. Like many of our readers, I’m the kind of city kid that likes to look under the surface of my urban landscape, open doors I’m not supposed to, and see inside spaces you need a special key for. The New York Adventure Club has that key to unlock the city.

Every city should have a club like this one. I stumbled across the New York Adventure Club (apologies if I’m late in the game) via some fascinating photos that surfaced recently on the net, giving a rare look inside the secret trash collection in a New York sanitation garage ↓

(more photos on NYAC)

 

It sounds odd but seriously, this place is incredible; a gold mine, a hidden Aladdin’s Cave that truly brings meaning to “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. The collection is not open for the public and doesn’t do regular visits, unless as I discovered, you happen to be a member of the New York Adventure Club.

The Explorer’s Club, founded in 1904, members include astronauts and explorers of the South Pole (c) NYAC

Valencia Theater, the first of the five Wonder Theaters in the NYC region (c) NYAC

If you’re up for discovering some of the most impressive off-beat spaces you’ll likely ever see in your life– this is what they do. It’s a small community that gets you into the places you normally couldn’t and tells you the stories behind them.

The Van Cortlandt Park Golf Course clubhouse, opened in 1895,  was the first public golf club in the United States.

The Brooklyn Army Terminal (c) NYAC

The club came about when a New Yorker by the name of Corey William Schneider realised he was stuck in a very boring routine of going to the usual bars and brunching and generally not accomplishing very much with his weekends. “This group is the culmination of my weekly adventures over the course of nearly five years in New York, and my way of helping others also escape the Manhattan Bubble of boringness that consumes too many of us,” says the young founder turning New Yorkers into explorers.

Green-wood Cemetery and its 30-vault catacombs by flashlight (c) NYAC

Valencia Theater (c) NYAC – for more photos

Abandoned Ellis Island Hospital (c) NYAC

Scrolling through the NYAC’s list of future and past experiences instantly makes you feel like you’re missing out on something very unique. Almost everyday, the New York Adventure Club has some secret space in New York to take you.

The Explorer’s Club, an experience, led by the club’s Executive Director. They have a collection of artifacts from expeditions, including the first sled to the north pole, pieces of the Wright Brothers plane, flags taken to the moon, and numerous taxidermied animals. Afterwards, there were complimentary beers in the members-only lounge.

The National Arts Club, founded in 1906 (c) NYAC

Rare tours inside private museum collections and secret libraries, jazz nights in underground crypts, access to legendary members-only clubs like the Explorer’s Club or the Harvard Club, expeditions to abandoned facilities and forgotten historic buildings– the NYAC leaves no stone unturned in the big apple.

Inside the Rare Book Room @ New York Academy of Medicine (c) NYAC

The Elevator Museum (c) NYAC

Perhaps a drink at a secret bar in an active military facility tickles your fancy? Every organised event is also followed by a social hangout afterwards to give members a chance to meet other members and give them another reason to come back each week.

So whether you’re a bored New Yorker, a first-time or regular visitor, this is one club you probably want to be a part of.

Here’s their Facebook group and you can sign up for the Adventure Club Newsletter via the NYAC website.

Courtesy of: MessyNessyChic.com

SHOP OUR NEWEST TREASURES FROM AROUND THE GLOBE >