Next time you’re at 156th and Broadway — not that many New Yorkers or visitors to New York ever are — look west. The Audubon Terrace is a group of eight Beaux Art buildings that come as quite a shock. They’re home to a few institutions like the Hispanic Society of America, founded in 1904. It’s fun. Past an outside relief of Don Quixote and statue of El Cid, you can peak at old Spanish paintings in a mezzanine main court room that feels like you’ve stepped into Seville. I enjoyed popping through the simple “reading room” door on the ground floor to go to a fun library with portraits of fancy-pants men and a full wall of old-school card-catalog shelves still in use. I sat down by a “SILENCE” sign with a “Latino & Latina Encyclopedia” for the US, and was fascinated. Did you know the biggest celebration for George Washington has been held on the Mexico/US border in Laredo, Texas for over 100 years?
