Laura and the entire staff at Bayside Historical Society were great! The venue was beautiful, slightly off the beaten path in a cool way, which is exactly what we were looking for. It feels like an escape from the city, but it’s still easy for guests to get there. And the bang for your buck as compared to many other NYC venues can’t be overstated. The surrounding grounds are also really beautiful. It’s a special place and we’re really happy that we chose it for our special day.

If you are looking for something unique and interesting for your private party, this is the place. Situated on beautiful Fort Totten, it is the kind of place that makes you feel you've gone back in time. The "castle" has different spaces for different size events. We rented the place and we found a local, recommended caterer. The whole party was terrific and our guests were amazed we found this place. The staff is great and very helpful.

The place turned out to be perfect for the wedding. We used the entire building and was very happy. Once the place is set up and decorated it is georgous. I loved having my wedding there...

I had my reception there.

Bayside Historical Society was absolutely PERFCT!!! The director was EXTREMELY helpful with any and all information to help us have a perfect day. Even suggested the PERFECT caterer to handle the best evening anyone could have ever asked for. Wonderful scenic view of the bay for wedding pictures as well. Couldn't have asked for a more picturesque place to start a new life. THANK YOU!!!

The fabulous: Fort Totten Park is a beautiful, quiet, green oasis that feels like it's been pulled out of time and NYC. The historical society really does look like a castle, with amazing light and acoustics in the second floor ceremony space. Almost all our guests asked how we found this place, and said how beautiful it was. There's a spacious changing area in the attic that you get along with your second-floor rental, which worked well for two brides and our bridal parties to get changed without seeing each other prematurely. Monica and Laura were very helpful throughout the process, providing us with a clear checklist of information and permits we needed to obtain and a timeline for when to provide everything.

Slight challenges to bear in mind: Bayside is a bit out of the way if you have guests who live elsewhere in the city, the traffic on the way in tends to be nasty on a Saturday and the parking is very limited. They're also very strict about when you're allowed to set up: they're open 10-4 on Fridays and said we were allowed to drop stuff off then, but seemed surprised when we then stayed all day to actually decorate the space and set up tables. It's a DIY type venue; while they do always have someone on site to supervise and make sure you're not messing with the historical artifacts, they don't provide an event coordinator per se. And the base rental is for six hours—a four hour event with one hour to set up and one to break down. Even doing as much prep as we could on Friday, we ended up paying for three extra hours and it felt tight. Accessibility can also be a concern; they have a chair lift up the stairs to the second floor but it was broken when we arrived day-of, and if not for my sister's engineering skills I'm not sure how my grandmother would have managed.

All that said, I'm incredibly glad we chose this place and it felt like a unique and magical oasis for our wedding.