Walking and loving a New York street is akin to a long-term relationship. It’s an experience of both exhilaration and dejection, of losses and gains, times of discovery and times of pain. Sometimes you feel all is lost, and during others you can’t believe your good fortune.

New Yorkers who love the streets know this roller coaster ride of feelings happens even in the course of a few blocks, a feeling of loss and then suddenly a spark of renewal. On a recent walk in the West 40s, I despaired at losing a well-loved long-time store that had closed up. Then, on the next street north I discovered an enchanting, welcoming little space I had never known before. Such are the ups and down of loving New York City.

Here are the “lost” and “found” of one brief walk in the West 40s in Manhattan:

Lost: The Hagstrom Map Store

The Hagstrom Map & Travel Center at 51 West 43^rd St. (between Fifth and Sixth avenues) was, simply put, one of my favorite places in Manhattan. It was a map lover’s delight, an entire store devoted to maps from publishers throughout the world as well as to globes, map implements, guides, and travel books. It’s the kind of store where you just wouldn’t know where your explorations would lead you. But now it is closed.

The reason I headed there recently will say much about the loss of this unusual place: I went looking for a map of Cleveland to give as a Christmas present to a family member who will be traveling to the Ohio city a few times over the next several months for training courses. Where else in New York City, I said to myself, would I be able to find a map of Cleveland? Of course I shop online, but often I try to support local brick-and-mortar merchants when I can.

What a dismaying sight I found upon arrival, however. I saw that the Hagstrom map store had closed. A “Store For Rent” sign hung on the window. Langenscheidt Publishers, the company that owned Hagstrom Map Co., decided to sell off its map and atlas business. The map center closed last July after being open for a quarter-century, according to NBC NewYork.  A company executive told NBC New York that “the electronic world is putting an evil crunch on the map business.”

In online reviews at Yelp.com, customers lamented the end of the journey for the Hagstrom store and told why it was a well-loved destination. “I know, I know, GPS gets me where I need to be…most of the time. But Hagstrom’s is the place to go for all things published on travel…all of the time. If you have a map fetish or a bit of wanderlust, like I do, then this is the place that will scratch that itch well,” wrote Theresa H., a San Francisco woman. Another customer, New Yorker Andy T., told of his joy at finding a map of Hokkaido, Japan in the store’s Asia section. He noted it was created by ITMB Publishing, a British Columbia-based outfit “that makes some of the best maps on the planet,” adding, “Seriously, where can you find a map of Hokkaido in NYC?” A Somerset, N.J., man, Jim. B., praised Hagstrom as the source for local, national, and international maps: “I have never seen another store which comes close. Only in New York.”

The site of the former Hagstrom Map & Travel Center

Another store suddenly shuttered, another one-of-a-kind experience lost in New York. Thankfully, the West 40s between Fifth and Sixth avenues still retains other quirky merchants as well as glorious late 19^th century and early 20^th century buildings with sculptured architectural details and impressive design. The New York Yacht Club building, at 37 West 44^th St., and the Library of the General Society of Mechanics & Tradesmen of the City of New York, at 20 West 44^th St., are two such buildings.

The entrance to the clubhouse of the New York Yacht Club, featuring a huge sea snail, seashells, and the club’s initials

When Midtown Manhattan bursts with people and traffic, such as during the recent Christmas holidays, West 44^th and West 43th streets especially provide quieter street-crawling and Old New York experiences. One nifty escape was in the pass-through tunnel within the Berkeley Building at 19-25 West 44^th St. There, the lobby had one of those newsstands, with candy, gum, and newspapers, that feel like a bit of the 1940s in the 21^st century. There, the owner, Kashyap Desai, greeted customers and wished each one who bought a lottery ticket, “Good luck!”

The hallway of the Berkeley Building in Manhattan

Found: The Mansfield Hotel’s Club Room

Not long after I was feeling mournful about the Hagstrom store being gone for good I found an unexpected pick-me-up. Walking down a New York City street, one can unearth some fabulous little place or detail you never knew was there, even after dozens or even hundreds of walks. This is what happened at the Club Room of the Mansfield Hotel, on a nearby block from the Hagstrom store. The Mansfield is a nearly 100-year-old boutique hotel at 12 West 44^th St. James Renwick, Jr., whose architectural works include St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Old Main at Vassar College, designed the Mansfield, which opened in 1904. Its combination of Beaux Arts and Second Empire styles jibed well with the atmosphere of fancy, exclusive clubhouses in the neighborhood such as the Harvard Club and the New York Yacht Club.

As many times as I have walked up and down West 44^th Street, I had never noticed – let alone walked into – the Club Room. One long-time rule this New Yorker abides by: You don’t have to stay at a hotel to lounge in and take great pleasure in its lobby and main floor. The Club Room was a fortuitous find when I was looking for a place to warm up in the late winter afternoon’s cold and decided to walk into the Mansfield. Located to the left, off the hotel’s main lobby, it is a cozy library room with honey-color mahogany paneling, floor-to-ceiling shelves of books, soft leather chairs, and a black-iron chandelier. Truly, it’s like walking into a cozy club.

At a time when many city hotel designers and owners seek to be cool, ultra-hip, and edgy, the Mansfield is refreshingly warm without being dowdy. When they became the new owners in 2004, Brad Reiss and John Yoon sought to restore the Mansfield, including the Club Room, to its earlier charm and historic atmosphere. One can instantly sense this upon walking into the Club Room, which has a working fireplace framed by a mahogany and marble mantel, period-style sconces, and an English-style phone booth room, where the door closes to create a nook with banquette seating.

The Club Room in the Mansfield Hotel in Midtown Manhattan

New York offers moments of solitude and a sense of being transported to another era that one could never script. They happen if you walk patiently around the city and poke in places. This time at the Mansfield’s Club Room was one such moment. The room isn’t luxurious and seems as if one of your well-to-do aunts hasn’t upgraded some of the furniture lately. But that made it no less appealing and inviting. The oversized chairs are comfortable, and beside them is a wooden game table where guests can play chess or cribbage. Copies of The New York Times lay on another leather-topped table. Warming myself by the gas fireplace, I listened, over the hotel’s speakers, to Ella Fitzgerald singing “A Fine Romance” and then Frank Sinatra crooning “September In the Rain.” Despite the holiday crowds maneuvering and jostling outside nearby on Fifth Avenue, only one other person was sharing this lovely little space during my visit.

It seemed the Club Room was the day’s found treasure after experiencing the loss of the Hagstrom map store. So it goes in New York with its constant comings and goings. I’m sure I will miss the Hagstrom map store for a long time, as I still miss McHale’s tavern, closed in 2006 when developers razed the building it was in and built sterile high-rise condos. People say that in a chain store-dominated, greed-afflicted world, the Old New York is gone. That’s a question to consider another day. The city ever unfolds, sparking a relationship in which things change and losses occur, prompting our own grief over a long-time favorite place or an experience no longer available. Then the city creates and reveals – just as insistently – a new-again, wonderful experience.

Do you have a favorite place that has been “lost” in New York (or in nearby environs)? Do you have other places and experiences that you have recently found in the city? Share them on Mindfulwalker.com below.