What are the loneliest public institutions in NYC?

May 3, 2018 10:59 AM

With the weather getting hot, I want to hang out in cool, dark, maybe slightly musty-smelling places with interesting stuff to look at, and nobody else around. Museums, historic houses, libraries or whatever - especially in New York City, but if you know of amazing ones elsewhere, maybe I can go there someday.

Maybe it's often crowded but you know when the quiet times are? Cheap or free admission would be nice but not vital.

posted by moonmilk to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)

It's counter to my own interests to tell you this, but if you go alllll the way to the back of the Met, to the Lehman Collection, they are a separate set of rooms that for one stretch are fairly dimly-lit and often fairly empty, especially at quieter times. The collection is also very strong.
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on May 3, 2018 [6 favorites]

The Hispanic Society of New York is often totally empty, and the Bronx Museum and the Queens Museum of Art are all fairly un-crowded especially during weekdays. All great institutions and should be better known.
posted by LeeLanded at 11:03 AM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you're in Boston some time, go to the Japanese Temple Room at the Museum of Fine Arts. It's not only lonely but dark, which makes it even better. There are other musty, lonely rooms in the museum too (some of the Chinese paper rooms come to mind).
posted by Melismata at 11:10 AM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is several decades out of date, so who knows, but when I was in high school, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace on 20th St east of Broadway was reliably dead empty if you wanted to have a private conversation indoors someplace.
posted by LizardBreath at 11:33 AM on May 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Hispanic Society would be my first choice, too, as it is quiet, dark, and admission is free. Alas, it is also closed for renovation until late 2019.
posted by plastic_animals at 11:44 AM on May 3, 2018

I had this experience at the Mark Twain Museum in Virginia City, Nevada, which was a day trip from Lake Tahoe.
posted by bleep at 11:56 AM on May 3, 2018

Pratt's Brooklyn Campus in the summer. Some of the buildings stay open and you can just kind of poke around and find one to chill in.
posted by greta simone at 12:14 PM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

It seems to me that the Rubin, while not empty, is quiet and feels like a break from the NEW YORK of New York.
posted by Smearcase at 12:33 PM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

What about The Cloisters?
posted by bleep at 12:42 PM on May 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thirding the Hispanic Society when it re-opens. I went once upon a time and was one of like only three people there.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:52 PM on May 3, 2018

Maybe try the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum?
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:59 PM on May 3, 2018

Provided there is not a service or concert taking place, the Cathedral of St John the Divine is overall very quiet and has lots of nooks and places that are isolated from the main areas. Between the art and architecture and history of the place, there is plenty to see. Although come to think of it, I did not visit in summer and I doubt it is air-conditioned so maybe not when it's been hot for days on end.
posted by Athanassiel at 2:27 PM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

The Museum at FIT was pretty much empty when I went, after work on a weeknight. It's very, very small, with just one exhibition a time, but features a lot of cool, well-curated clothing.

Oh and it's free!
posted by perplexion at 5:09 PM on May 3, 2018 [2 favorites]

Seconding Pratt and gonna say specifically the Brooklyn campus library in the summertime. The stacks are beautiful iron towers and there are the Tiffany glass floors. In the summer it’s pretty much empty, especially on the weekends. Also, unlike other buildings at Pratt, you’re actually allowed to be in the library if you show the guard your ID.
posted by degoao at 7:05 PM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is totally not answering the question, but the dark gallery of Bodhisattvas in the old Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto was the most introspective place imaginable. Regret gone now.
posted by ovvl at 7:15 PM on May 3, 2018

Grant's Tomb?
posted by Dr. Grue at 8:55 PM on May 3, 2018

The Natural History Museum itself is a bit of a zoo year-round, but the Native American exhibits and the North American Forest Hall are generally really empty.

Across the street, the top floor of the NY Historical Society is fascinating and rarely busy.

The permanent exhibits at the Jewish Museum don't get as much traffic as the special ones. Just don't go on a Sunday.

And seconding the Teddy Roosevelt museum and the Queens Museum - the diorama of New York is amazing and you can often have it all to yourself.
posted by Mchelly at 9:49 PM on May 3, 2018 [1 favorite]

The downstairs of the jefferson market branch of NYPL was always empty (and cool) when I was there.
posted by jessamyn at 9:31 PM on May 4, 2018

As a result of this question, I have learned that the Forbes Galleries, which were a small gem, closed in 2014. Pity.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 10:02 PM on May 4, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks for all the great suggestions!

I've got one of my own, maybe a bit out of NYC - last year I accidentally found the David Collection in Copenhagen, and on a beautiful spring weekday afternoon it was almost completely empty. It's full of amazing art, and a lot of the rooms and displays are mostly dark until you hit a timed light switch (to preserve the artifacts, I guess), so if you're the only one there, you walk around in a little bubble of light surrounded by dimly glowing art.
posted by moonmilk at 7:24 AM on May 5, 2018