Lost in Translation

One of the things I love to do is take people to the New York Public Library. It is free. It is so New York City. 

The Lions guarding the front originally named Leo Lenox and Leo Aster, the first contributors.. 

During the Great Depression the lions names changed to Patients and Fortitude.  

I was working with a French family, and I asked, “do you know the story ‘Winnie The Pooh?’

We were standing next to the Ladies Room on the first floor, besides the children’s sections in the library, when the young lady from France said, ‘No thank you.’ 

That is when I learned that Pooh means the same thing in France as in America.. 

I took this young lady by the hand and dragged her into the children’s section to see that Eeyore looked like he had the mange with so many patches, Piglet is literally 3 inches tall, Kanga has a broken neck, no Roo.. Tigger is there too. 

I was lost in translation.. 

One Token Tours will take you by the hand and find secrets and symbols in plain site.  

Orange is my Color

You got to have a gimmick. 

When I started I didn’t have a gimmick and I was not going to carry a flag, a light saber, or an umbrella. Yes, I have an umbrella in case it rains and yes, it is orange. 

Before I began touring, I worked for a wholesales apparel company and one season, orange was a color projection so we received a number of apparel samples in orange. 

It has made for some very interesting comments over the years. 

A couple of years ago, this 14 year old boy asked, “Mr. Sean, how many orange polos do you have?” First I said to the young man, “how do you know I changed my shirt?” Then followed, “I have enough so that I don’t have to do laundry while you’re in town.” 

My neighbors have followed my career since the beginning. At the mailbox those first years, a neighbor would see me in orange and say, “you worked today.” Now, over fifteen years later they say, “gosh, you work all the time.” 

It is funny how my coworkers perceive my obsession. I showed up for a non-work function as a civilian, a coworker asked, “where is your orange?” 

Every time on tour I would wear orange in that first season, someone in my group would come up to me and say, “I thought I lost you and then I saw your orange jacket.” After the third time, orange became my thing. 

Welcome to One Token Tours... 

40 Wall Street for the Win

40 Wall Street

40 Wall Street was the first building to surpass the Eiffel Tower, becoming the tallest building in the world.  

I don’t think that 40 Wall Street nor the Chrysler Building started out to be the tallest buildings. If you can find drawing of the original designs they do not look like they do today. I don’t think the foundation was expected to hold more than 60 floors. Ego became the drive and The demand, higher, higher!

There is a reason why few know this because it was the tallest building for a very short amount of time as Chrysler Building had a secret weapon. 

When you meet me in New York City, I will share the entire story. 

For that extra height on 40 Wall Street a flagpole was added to the top. It was decided that the flagpole was added after the fact and can be removed therefore, does not count as part of the height.

Join me, One Token Tours.

This is not Gossip Girl nor Sex and the City

The Chrysler Building

The Chrysler Building is one of my favorites and I have many favorite building in New York City, an icon that appears in the opening credits of TV shows and movies. 

I studied architecture, interiors at the College of Architecture at Auburn University and I am fascinated by the vocabulary of architecture.

Classical architecture is about proportion to the human. Contemporary architecture during the Art Deco period is about motion, it is about energy. 

The concept of architecture we understand is more than just shelter. 

Within different cultures architecture tells the story of the place it exists. 

Cars, cars, cars, drive the skyline of this great city in 1930.

The featured ornamentation, they are not gargoyles lIke one might find in history, they are not warding off evil.. They are hood ornaments, and design features of the Chrysler automobiles. 

Imagine yourself owning a Chrysler car.. That hood ornament defines status. The striving to become..  The American dream. 

The Chrysler Building erected during the Great Depression is the difference between the haves and have nots during a very difficult period of American history.  

What it, The Chrysler Building represents within the record of architecture, it holds a prestigious right as the ‘Tallest building in the world because of that spire.” This is a story for another time. 

Join me at One Token Tours and I will share with you which building surpassed the Eiffel Tower first.

The Race to the Sky

From left to right: 40 Wall Street, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building

Before there were the tall building of New York City the tallest structure in the world was The Eiffel Tower since 1886 standing at 1,063 feet tall. 

It is not until the Art Deco period of the 1930s does New York architecture surpass the tower of France. 

During my tour it is not uncommon for me to ask my groups if they know which of the three buildings, 40 Wall Street, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, is the first one to surpass the Parisian edifice and in what order?

Do you think you know the answer? 

While researching this bit of history, there are varying versions as it is known to some as ‘The Race to the Sky.’ I enjoyed the novel by Neal Bascomb called ‘Higher’ I found it so interesting as it was the height of the Great Depression when these buildings begin to become icons of this great city and the United States.

The competition was between the egos of the developers, Walter Chrysler, engineer and automobile manufacture hence the Chrysler Building and The Manhattan Company, headquarters for the Bank of Manhattan Trust Company, known by its address, 40 Wall Street. 

Walter Chrysler joined forces with architect William Van Alen and 40 Wall Street, the architect Craig Severance. Van Alen and Severance had been partners for about ten years and they were getting critical acclaim for their work; however, the articles more times than not would begin “William Van Alen and Craig Severance,” yet Van Alen was getting the credit as a contemporary designer where as Severance more of a classicist. It caused a rift between they two and they severed their professional relationship by 1924. This fuels the fire for contemporary technology in architecture and the egos involved. 

The Empire State Building jumped into the race backed by General Motors, a direct competitor to the Chrysler Corporation. Cars, cars, cars, and money drives the skyline of this city. 

It is an epic story, it plays out in the court system, the newspapers, and the public as they witness these building climb higher, and higher a mantra by egos and fists beating table tops to go HIGHER. 

Join me at One Token Tours to get the rest of the story. Stay tuned to learn which building is the first one. 

Hidden Gems - Community Gardens

There are many people that think of NYC as a ‘concrete jungle.’ 

Well, that is until people visit Central Park, particular north of the Bethesda Terrace which feels very Victorian in design to me. Central Park is a project won by Culvert Vaux & Frederick Olmsted in the 1850s. It is considered The City’s backyard. 

Bethesda Terrace, Central Park 

Once you get into the area known as The Ramble, you get a feeling of being in the woods, maybe not the woods but an idea of the natural terrain of the island before it had all of the tall buildings; one of the concepts of the design of the park. 

Fast forward to the plight of the 1970s. New York City was in decline. There were burned out buildings. My neighborhood, became in large part a ‘squatters village and tent city.’ Particularly in and around Tompkins Square Park, in Alphabet City.  

Out of this comes a movement of community gardens within empty, abandoned lots peppered throughout neighborhoods like the East Village. 

These community gardens were for many individuals a places to plant flowers, or small box gardens, goldfish ponds, sculptures and a variety of trees to relieve the stress of the hard times.

Once The City began to rebound, developers became interested and these small community areas became territorial battlegrounds. 

Liz Christy, a leader of this grassroots (pun not intended) movement to solve some of the issues of urban decay. Banded together with a group that became known as the Green Guerillas: To get people working together to stabilize their city blocks. 

Today, these are little hidden gems in neighborhoods around The City that provide respite from the busy streets, a place of solitude, and meditation - supplies a place for creativity. 

Left photo, Miracle Community Garden, Top, Garden on Bleeker St., Bottom, Marble Cemetery

When people say that they are looking for a guide, they say that they want to see where the ‘New Yorkers’ hangout. Here, One Token Tours we can customize just for you.

Flatiron Building

The Fuller building is a result of the past merging with the present. 

It became known as the Flatiron Building. 

Working with kids, I often ask if they know what a flatiron is, and the answer I get from a fourteen year old is, “it is what I used to straighten my hair.” 

I have to explain, “a flatiron is a triangle cast iron, iron, used when New York City was the center of the garment district.” 

The Fuller Building sits on the crossroads of 5th Avenue and 23rd Street. Within the concept of the Grid Plan of 1811. Broadway does not conform to the grid because it follows the Native American Indian trial familiar to everyone at the time. It cuts a rectangle into a triangle. 

Technology was booming in 1901 and the Fuller Building becomes the tallest building in New York City at 23rd Street. 

The past dictated the reality of this building. It is one of my favorite stories to tell. 

I can’t wait to see you in New York City and share more of this story. 

I Heart NYC

I 💗NY

Missing the kids, the teachers and the chaperones.. This is student tour season here in NYC sadly, we are experiencing a pandemic. My heart is not broken but it is a little empty right now. One of the things I share at the end of my student tours is ‘show your gratitude’ because travel is one of the best forms of education there is. This world is huge, diverse and we all need to experience how people live. 

The kids ask me, ‘what brought me here to New York City from Alabama?’ My answer is always, ‘I had a dance teacher that brought to NYC when I was 17 years old and it changed my life. I got to be in this glorious city for 2 weeks in 1982 (don’t do the math). I saw 6 Broadway shows: Annie, A Chorus Line, Pirates of Penzance, Amadeus, Tap Dance Kid, and Sugar Babies with Ann Miller and Mickey Rooney. I went to a free Philharmonic concert in Central Park, a jazz concert on The South Street Seaport pier, so many museums and I was hooked. I stood on the top of the Empire State Building at night and felt that all of the stars are below my feet.’ And I said, ‘Okay, this is where life is.” 

None of this has changed.. 

Right now we are ‘social distancing.’ I appreciate everyones support with this and I look forward to enjoying meeting new travelers soon. 

Love letter to the universe... 

Red Light, Green Light, GO!

Red Light, Green Light, GO! 


The pulse of New York City lies within the Subway system. 

Like the veins of this concrete, steel, and glass commune the miles rushed with constant abandon 24/7. 

New York, ‘the City that never sleeps.’

Color coded and calculated over 800 miles of tracks, trains churning, intrepid, pushing the system to capacity. 

Uptown, Downtown, yes, ‘all around the town’ like life’s blood goes local and express. 

Twenty-four hours out of each day, everyday, the Subway system flows. 

The soul of the system organized by colors, numbers, letters a language of its own. 

Red Light, Green Light, GO! 

With all of its complexities it is very simple to learn. 

First things first, entrances with a green globes constant, inviting in the day and in the night. 


Red globes shine in the darkness, gated for your safety and salvation, Yo,

check around the corner you will find a green light.

Tank You Very Much

A question on my tour, “the purpose of the cisterns atop so many buildings?” 

My response, “Water does not naturally run up.” They are meant to equalize the water pressure for building six floors or more so that one can flush ones toilet. This is just one of their purposes.  

Peppered along the skyline throughout The City, these rustic water tanks or cisterns seem a thing of the past but this is not the case. Started by a barrel maker in the 1800s, as building were getting taller, they continue to be manufactured today. 

Built like a barrel, the wood is a natural insulator and fitted together in a tongue and grove fashion so that no nails are used to puncture the shell. Instead, metal tape or cables wraps the exterior, tightly wound at the bottom to top creating a compression system. Water fills the wooden structure making the wood panels swell naturally becoming watertight. 

To me, I find them to be an urban, romantic element of the place I call home and sometimes, when something is technologically sound, change is not necessary. As they say, “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” If it leaks, time for a new one. 

Two companies continue to manufacture and maintain over 10,000 to 15,000 tanks throughout the city, Rosenwach Tanks and Isseks Brothers. 

The Name

When starting a business, the name is very important. It is the first clue into understanding the reality of the business. I expected to use my name because it is the most common acknowledgement with every group. I planned to call this business, “Sean Sellers Tours.”
Within this world wide with the web, in 2003 I Googled my name. I shared what I discovered with a friend and my friend said, “use your middle initial.”
First of all, no one knows my middle name and therefore, just putting a ‘W’ in the middle dose not help when searching the world wide web in order to find me.
When I Googled my name, I found a Satin worshiper from Colorado, who robbed a convenience store, and killed his parents.
I am from Alabama and for five Google pages I found that Sean R. Sellers, a fugitive in 1984, was one of the individuals to be ‘wanted’ on the first episode of the nationally syndicated TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”
This guy is a celebrity on the internet.
Trying to make sure that I am conducting business as an upstanding member of the community, I had to come up with the name.
No, I did not change my name, I brainstormed.
New York City in 2003, this city was overwhelmed. The Subway system was transitioning from the ‘coin,’ token to this thing called the MetroCard.
We were not accepting the change.
Riding the Subway, we always needed one token to get through the turnstile so we could get anywhere in town. All it ever took at that time was one token and you could experience everything this city had to offer.
I continued to brainstorm and New York City was in transition. Change is difficult. We were fighting this whole reality that a card will replace heavy pockets full of coins, tokens, that can only be used to enter the Subway.
Really, a card? I was buying tokens like a dime bag on the streets.
It happened, the MTA changed all of the turnstiles so that no longer do we insert one token to get anywhere in New York, we swipe a card. No longer could we fight it, this MetroCard becomes the standard. I don’t want the history to be lost so I named this company, “One Token Tours.”

We make NYC as easy as the Subway system, A, B, C and 1, 2, 3.

Favorite Photos

Going Green

Pros vs. Cons? Seems like we have a lot of issues regarding public programs these days...

New York is going green, well as green as a city of this size can. This past Memorial weekend 2013 a bike share program was initiated. Join the program, get a key, and on your way. 

Public programs are always met with resistance and this one is no different particularly here. If you have experienced the streets of New York, the gridlock, the crowded sidewalks, the masses, it is important to see a government program try to bring relief. It is too early to tell if it is going to be successful because the streets here can be unforgiving. 

I like living here for the simple reason that I don’t need a car. I haven’t had a car in over 22 years. I don’t have to deal with parking, oil changes, and my only concern about the price of gas is regarding the toll it is taking on our society and earthly resources. Therefore, giving it a chance is my attitude. 

A walking tour is a specialty at One Token Tours. 

The Food Experience no. 3

Tomato & Lentil Soup w/ Samosas 

        When I first moved to New York, my mother said to me, she said, “Sean, I know that you will talk to a brick wall, I want you to go to dinner with a college classmate of mine that lives up there.” I said, “OK.” 

We made it a date. Being so new to ‘the city’ I said, “you choose,” thinking she would pick a burger joint or something simple until we were standing in the doorway of an Indian Restaurant. I was a little overwhelmed. 

Chicken Tikka Masala

We were seated immediately and I was handed a menu that I could not understand. It was at this moment that I had to have a little conversation with my 25 year old self and in my head, I said, “Sean, you are an adult now and you have to eat what is put before you.” 

Rebecca, my mothers classmate noticed that I was unfamiliar with the food. I said, “you’re going to have to order for me because I don’t know what this is and she said, “what do you like?” In a heavy southern accent I said, “chicken.” My Mom’s friend ordered everything with chicken; however, lamb is the protein for this cultural cuisine. 

Today, my neighbor Helga and I wondered into Little India not far from our apartment building here in the East Village because I had a craving for some Chicken Tikka Masala. It brought me back to that lovely moment and I remember those first dishes, they looked strange but my goodness were they good!

We enjoyed the lunch special that offered appetizers of Samosa, no not the champagne drink, Mimosa. A Samosa is a pastry filled with a light curry blend of vegetables or beef. The soup was a delicious surprise, a mildly spiced tomato, lentil puree. 

I think it is true that one must be brave to try new things and I thank my friend Rebecca for helping me along the way and my Mom too. Thanks Mom! 

Now, lets talk about the Chicken Tikka Masala, yum! It is a plate of velvet and Basmati rice. The cubes of chicken marinates in yogurt before being combined with tomato and exotic spices, the orange color is so intense. It is creamy heaven. If you like spicy go with a Vindaloo. Don’t discredit the Sag or Saag, depends on the region, it doesn’t look pretty but it sure is tasty. 

I love Indian Food and let me share with you they eat with there hands and they know how to sop it up, the breads are an integral part of each meal. Naan or poori two different breads that will not disappoint. 

Join me at One Token Tours and let’s try something new.  

New York is for Lovers

Grand Central Celebrates 100 Years

After Sandy, Finding the Hot Spot!

I have seen the future and this is what it looks like; a generator with a power strip. 

In the days following mega storm Sandy the northeast coastline continues to suffer with power outages, demolished real estate, and downed trees. We lost power in the East Village at the point of high tide on Monday evening, everything below 40th Street became what I coined as the ‘blackout zone.’

Since Katrina, forecasters here have been preparing for storm serge and high winds. Public officials papered the streets of New York with evacuation regions, the most significant, Zone A to B and C as warning of low-lying areas. Surveying the neighborhood, the waterfront was hit hard, lots of downed trees and the power station on the East River failed at around 9:00pm, I was cut off immediately from friends and family but I had my candles sitting ready. 

For the most part, I think a majority of New Yorkers carried on with great perseverance; however, with storms of this nature rare, there are those few that make a difficult situation worse. Compassion and curtesy are lost when common sense is disregarded and individuals cannot be bothered with inconvenience. 

In this new wireless, handheld society the demand for electricity is the new crisis when power fails and what I witnessed Day 1 of the aftermath, I call it, “The Great Outlet Migration.” 

I am not sure which word is more appropriate, covet or hoard, it is a matter of perspective as my neighbor along with hundreds of others made our daily pilgrimage to civilization, but once we reached the lighted zone, it was anything but civilized. Trying to find an unmanned outlet was like the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack.’ It was interesting to see forward thinkers carry power strips because they have multiple devices that require juice. 

All around Grand Central Terminal uniformed officers try to initiate a very limited transportation program with the  Subway system crippled by flood waters. Long lines, lots of yelling, and chaos as officers use megaphones to direct crowds to buses assigned to assist workers back to their homes in the outer boroughs also in the mix flashing lights and tireless sirens. 

Crossing wide avenues without red lights felt like a game of chicken, worrying if vehicles were going to slow down to allow pedestrians the ‘right of way.’ We were not in a state of lawlessness nor were their reports of looting that triggers memories of news reports of the blackout of the 1970s. We worked together, pooled our resources, and made the best of the situation here at 45 First Avenue. 

Each day of the blackout my neighbor and I walked forty blocks to and from for a warm meal, to restock, and to power our devices. Each day there was a new source of the humble collection of people trying to bring to life humanity in it’s best light even in the darkness. The hum of generators began to bring little hot spots to each neighborhood affected by the storm and it became more bearable for the East Village everyday.