Still standing: the Alice Austen house on Staten Island (the Historic House Trust).

Their floors may creak, their plaster may crumble and their halls may be filled with daunting drafts, but New York's old houses have proved their mettle through many a storm. Hurricane Sandy was no exception. The city's historic mansions appear to have come through the hurricane basically unscathed, preservationists told The Observer, although at least one Lower Manhattan Landmark remains unaccounted for.

"We've been very lucky, none of our 23 houses sustained damage," said Frank Vagnone, the executive director of the Historic House Trust. "And many of them were right in the path of the storm. The Alice Austen House, in particular. It's right on the Verrazano Narrows."

The Alice Austen house did narrowly escape damage from a fallen tree, whose branches scraped the home's exterior, but neither it, nor the artifacts and collections in any of the Trust's homes were damaged.

"These buildings can sustain a lot of battering," he said. "The Conference House in Tottenville [Staten Island] is a stone building with thick wooden shutters. It's been there since before the Revolution."

It was one of many historic waterfront properties that withstood the storm surge: Gracie Mansion is unharmed and ready to house the next mayor if he or she is so inclined. The Bartow-Pell Mansion did not succumb to the waters of Pelham Bay and on Tuesday morning Trinity Church took to its website to assure parishioners and preservationists that there were "no reports of significant damage to Trinity Church, St. Paul's Chapel, Hudson Square properties, St. Margaret's House, Trinity Preschool, or Charlotte's Place." Meanwhile, the basement of the Shrine of Saint Elizabeth Seton in Lower Manhattan was flooded with at least three feet of water, but the structure's first floor does not appear to be breached. (The Shrine also had one of its doors torn off).

The South Street Seaport museum was flooded, with water rising five feet high on the building's first floor, the Museum of the City of New York reported, but all museum artifacts and docked ships weathered the storm's wrath. These included a car float, a barge, the Pioneer's dock and historic vessels the Ambrose, the Wavertree, the W.O. Decker and the Peking, which starred in the film Around Cape Horn documenting her 1929 passage around the southern tip of South America in hurricane conditions.

Arlene Simon, the President of Landmark West, the preservation organization that watches over the stretch of Manhattan between 59th Street to 110th Streets, the River to the Park, said that there was no real damage but tree damage, and even that wasn't bad.

"Much of the architecture on the Upper West Side is incredibly sound architecture from the 1800s. I live in a building that was built in 1903 and if you didn't listen to the radio or read the paper, you wouldn't have even known about the hurricane," said Ms. Simon.

Simeon Bankoff, the executive director of the Historic Districts Council said that he had yet to hear of any flooded interiors, waterlogged museum collections or otherwise compromised structures. He added that it was encouraging to hear news trickle in that many of the city's lower-lying, waterfront landmarks like the Eldridge Street Synagogue and the Alice Austin House were unharmed.

"Old buildings were built pretty sturdy," he said, noting that he had yet to hear the fate of the Battery Maritime Building or the bungalows in Far Rockaway that Historic Districts has been trying to save.

"I do expect the bungalows got bashed pretty good," he said, adding "no news doesn't necessarily mean good news when there is limited phone service and power outages."

The West Village, while waterlogged, without power and missing its Halloween parade, does not appear to have lost any of its historic charm, Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation reported as he walked through Village this afternoon, scouring the neighborhood structures for signs of damage."

"Although it's the emptiest and the quietest I've ever seen it," he added.

The Merchant House Museum on East 4th Street appeared to be intact as well, although the 19th Century home, rumored to be haunted, did cancel its candlelight ghost tours. It would appear that on this Halloween, the only ones roaming the house's pristinely preserved halls will be the ghosts.

kvelsey@observer.com

Historic House Festival: "The Moveable Feast"

Various Locations

September 24 to 26

historichousetrust.org

Jacobus van Cortlandt, was a 17th-century Bronx real estate developer, Claes Vechte's house was the site of the 1776 historic Battle of Brooklyn and Edgar Allan Poe wrote "Annabel Lee" in the village of Fordham. All of their houses ended up owned by the city's Historic House Trust. With about two dozen properties scattered throughout the five boroughs, the Trust likes to boast that it's the largest museum in the city. This weekend, the houses co-host a massive fall festival. New York's culinary history is the theme. There's open-hearth cooking, an apple festival, 19th-century-style teas and, of course, costumed docents.

"Notorious and Notable: 20th Century Women of Style"

The Museum of the City of New York

Now through January 3, 2011

mcny.org

The Museum of the City of New York has just opened its survey of classic city style, showing off the evening wear of seemingly every one of the town's grand dames from Sunny von Bulow to Mona von Bismarck, who in 1933 became the first American to be dubbed Chanel's "Best Dressed Woman in the World." They have Isadora Duncan's chiffon gown-scarf not included-some of Gypsy Rose Lee's performance wear, and a flower brooch of Jackie O's. Think twice before wearing sweatpants.

"Abstract Expressionist New York"

The Museum of Modern Art

October 3 to April 25, 2011

moma.org

MoMA is redecorating! (And rewriting art history.) This month, the museum is stripping the walls of its fourth-floor galleries to prepare for what could be the biggest, and most controversial, hit in a year of blockbusters. The curatorial staff is dipping into the archives, dusting off nearly 300 works from the museum's world-class collection of Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollocks, Arshille Gorkies and Mark Rothkos, plus works by artists whose names we've forgotten but perhaps shouldn't have, MoMA will argue, will crowd the walls. 

"On Stage in Fashion"

New York Public Library for the
Performing Arts

October 14 to January 22, 2011

nypl.org

There was an era when actors didn't need a red carpet to wear couture. The performing arts library at Lincoln Center remembers a golden age of Broadway and costume design, when Mary Martin wore Mainbocher and Martha Graham dressed her dancers in Calvin Klein. Besides the costumes-on loan from the Museum of the City of New York-there will be vintage copies of Playbill, videos of well-dressed ballerinas and a film series that includes the classic documentary on drag haute-couture of the 1980s, Paris Is Burning.

"Hipsters, Hustlers and Handball Players"

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 5, 11 AM

$300

metmuseum.org

In the years after World War II, Leon Levinstein captured the look of the streets of New York for the people who walked them. Early next month, the Met offers a stylish farewell to their summer exhibition of about 100 Levinstein works with a lecture and luncheon. Savor the irony of spending hundreds of dollars for a private tour of photographs of working-class people-many of whom met Mr. Levinstein while sunning on the city's public beaches. That said, it's for a good cause, and luncheon will be served.

Robert Moses: The Panorama

Queens Museum of Art

QueensMuseum.org

Though the U.S. Open has come and gone, and there are no reasons left to meet the Mets, there is still much to see in Flushing Meadows Park. The Unisphere may be the most visible remnant of the 1964 World's Fair, but surely the most remarkable is Robert Moses' famed Panorama: a 9,335-square-foot model of the city he loved so dearly. From high rises to housing projects, every building is there. It hasn't been fully updated since 1992, but unless you live in a sparkling new condominium, you'll be able to say, "I can see my house from here!"

"NUEVA YORK (1613-1945)"

EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO

Through Jan. 9, 2011

elmuseo.org

This sweeping four-century history of the city predates Peter Stuyvesant, and looks at the role Spanish-speaking cultures have played in shaping Gotham. A documentary by Ric Burns rounds out the extensive visual arts portion of the show.