New York Songlines: John Street

with Dey Street

Broadway | Liberty Place | Broad/Nassau | William | Pearl | Water | Front | South

John Street is named for John Haberdinck (or Harperding), a wealthy Dutch-era shoemaker who owned the land the street passes through. Dey Street's namesake is Dirck Thomas Dey, whose farm (leased in 1677) extended from near Broadway to the Hudson. The street was cut through the farm in 1763 to provide access to a new ferry service to what's now Jersey City.




Ground Zero

Site of WTC 4

Here was the nine-story Commodities Exchange Building, destroyed in the September 11 attacks. The northernmost part of the site, north of Cortlandt Street, is said to be the future site of WTC Tower 3 (175 Greenwich). Richard Rogers' design is for an 80-story building with 2.8 million square feet of office space. It could open as early as 2015--if developer Larry Silverstein can find a tenant willing to commit to 400,000 square feet, which seems increasingly unlikely.











Site of WTC 5

Ground Zero Site by beelaineo, on Flickr

Was the nine-story Dean Witter Building, destroyed in the September 11 attacks. On this site the Port Authority is currently constructing the WTC Transportation Hub, a permanent replacement for the PATH station destroyed in the attacks. (PATH = Port Authority Trans Hudson, the separate subway system connecting New York and New Jersey.) The design, by Santiago Calatrava, features 150-foot glass-and-steel wings that are supposed to bring natural light down to the rail platforms. The new station, which is to include a connection to the New York City subway system, is not scheduled to open before 2014 at the earliest.


S <===     CHURCH STREET     ===> N

South:

Century 21

Century 21 by edenpictures, on Flickr

Corner (22 Cortlandt): This is the mecca of discount shopping in New York City, where hard-core bargain-hunters elbow each other in pursuit of marked-down designer goods. Founded in Brooklyn in 1961. It was one of the first major businesses to reopen after the September 11 attacks, surviving with its attitude intact.







5: Arome Cafe


Corner (189 Broadway): A two-story building from 1940, demolished 2008, housed New York Stocking Exchange, Cookie Island, World of Golf.

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Millenium Hilton

Millennium Hilton by strangnet, on Flickr

Corner (55 Church): This hotel, opened in 1992 (as the Millenium) and reopened in 2003 after heavy damage from the September 11 attacks, is designed to resemble the black monolith from 2001. The spelling variant (one N rather than two) is said to be intentional.

The hotel bar is called Liquid Assets.

Former AT&T Building

NYC - Financial District - American Telephone and Telegraph Building by wallyg, on Flickr Corner (195 Broadway): Designed by William Wells Bosworth in 1917 for what was then as much or more Telegraph as Telephone. The building, patterned after the Septizodium in Rome, is said to have more classical columns than any building in the world, and more marble than any other New York building.

The bronze decorative elements are by Paul Manship.

Previously the site of Western Union's headquarters, which, as one of the city's tallest buildings, had a ball on the roof that was dropped every day at noon, upon a signal from the Naval Observatory in Washington. Ships in the harbor set their chronometers by it, and pedestrians their watches. The ball that drops in Times Square on New Year's pays tribute to this tradition.


S <===     BROADWAY     ===> N

South:
















20: It's a Pizza









30: The Tie Gallery



















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North:

Corbin Building by epicharmus, on Flickr

Corner (192 Broadway): Renaissance Jewelers is in the Corbin Building, an 1880s Queen Anne structure with cast-iron bay windows. In 1864, at this address, Ebenezer and Ellen Butterick pioneered the marketing of paper patterns for making clothes.

John Street Theater Site

15-21: The address of one of New York's first theaters, opened in 1767. Built of wood and described as "an unslightly object, painted red," it saw the premiere of Royall Tyler's The Contrast, the first comedy written by a playwright born in America. (The Contrast introduced the character of Brother Jonathan, a stereotypical Yankee who later became a model for Uncle Sam.) President George Washington used to attend performances regularly, where he was greeted with "Hail Columbia."

Built on the site of the theater are...

Brasserie Les Halles

Les Halles - Main Room by ZagatBuzz, on Flickr

15: French steakhouse owned and operated by celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain. The name evokes Paris's central wholesale market.

17: The Irish American Pub & Restaurant is downstairs here, in the space that used to be The John Street Bar & Grill.

29: Mike's Barber Shop


S <===     NASSAU STREET     ===> N

On January 19, 1770, members of the Sons of Liberty surrounded 20 or so British soldiers who hand been posting handbills denouncing the patriotic group as "enemies of society" and mocking the Liberty Pole in City Hall Park that the Redcoats had cut down two days earlier. More British troops arrived to rescue their comrades, but not without serious injuries on both sides, in what is considered by some the first fighting of the American Revolution. (Some sources say that there was one fatality, on the American side, but you'd think the name of the first person killed in the revolution would be remembered.) The incident is known as the Battle of Golden Hill, after a nearby wheat field.

South:

Corner (56 Nassau): A 27-story building from 1986.

John Street United Methodist Church

NYC: John Street United Methodist Church by wallyg, on Flickr

44: The original Wesley Chapel on this site was dedicated in 1768, making this the oldest Methodist church in America. The current building, the congregation's third structure here, was built in 1840.








Department of Finance

60-66 (corner): A 16-story building from 1929, designed by Clinton & Russell, houses the city's financial offices.

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North:

Zaitzeff by Adam Kuban, on Flickr

Corner (72 Nassau): Ashkans Fashions; Zaitzeff Burgers are reputed to be among the best in the city. The three-story building dates to 1930.

45 (corner): A 14-story office building from 1908, coverted to condos a full century later.


DUTCH ST ===> N        

55 (corner): Seventeen stories built c. 1900; owned by Educational Housing Services and leased to Pace University for student housing.

59 (corner): A 13-story office building from 1909, converted to condos in 2006 and now known as Five Nine John Lofts.


S <===     WILLIAM STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (100 William): Offices of the webhost NYI.







80 (corner): Twenty-six stories built in 1927, now a condo building known as The South Star.

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North:

81 (corner): This was the address of J.L. Haiger, who in 1877 became the first telephone customer in the city; a half-mile of wire strung over the half-finished Brooklyn Bridge connected his offices here to his wire factory in Brooklyn.

Corner (110 William): 1956 31

85: Martin Busch Jewelers

87 (corner): A 14-story building from 1926.


S <===     GOLD STREET     ===> N

South:

90-100 (corner): A commercial building from 1931, converted into condos in 1998 and redubbed The Renaissance. Includes the bar Libations 101 and a branch of Crunch Fitness.


108: Cafe Sage

110: Open Door Gastropub




116 (corner): A 35-story Art Deco office building from 1931, designed by Louis Allen Abramson and Charles Glaser. Converted to condos in 2010.

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99 (block): The Great American Insurance Company Building, a 1933 Art Deco building designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. Jubilee Marketplace on the ground floor.



CLIFF ST ===> N        

111 (block): The Insurance Building, 26 stories from 1929. Cafe Gusto on ground floor.



S <===     PEARL STREET     ===> N

South:

130 (block): A 24-story office building from 1970, also known as 180 Water Street. Occupied by the city's Human Resources Administration until it relocates to WTC 4.



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North:

127 (corner): A 1971 31-story International Style office building designed by Emery Roth & Sons. Converted to residences in 1997; for a time it was NYU at the Seaport, the college's largest dorm until it was closed in 2009. Plaza Deli is on the ground floor.



S <===     WATER STREET     ===> N

South:

AIG Building

John Street at Sunrise, Lower Manhattan by JGNY, on Flickr

Block (175 Water): This 1983 30-story office building, designed by Fox & Fowle Architects, was built for the National Westminster Bank. It later served as offices for the American International Group, becoming a backdrop for the financial crisis that AIG was at the center of.

Excavation for this building uncovered the 82-foot hull of a merchant frigate built c. 1715 in Virginia or the Carolinas. The bow of the ship is now housed at the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia.

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One Seaport Plaza

Water Street by TGIGreeny, on Flickr

Block (199 Water): A 35-story office tower from 1983, designed by Swanke Hayden Connell & Partners with two contrasting facades. The building houses offices for Guardian Life, Prudential and other financial firms, as well as the Downtown branch of the TKTS reduced-price theater admissions service. The Europa Cafe is on the ground floor.





S <===     FRONT STREET     ===> N


Burling Slip by John Fraissinet, on Flickr The last block of John Street is also named "Burling Slip," the name it bore when it was an inlet of the harbor used to unload shipping for the Burling merchant family.

South:






170: The Ships Chandlery is an 1845 building converted into condos. On the ground floor is George O'Neill's Yankee Clipper, a seafood restaurant with Off-Track Betting on site.




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North:

Imagination Playground

Imagination Playground by JGNY, on Flickr

Playground designed by David Rockwell that encourages children to "create a play space of their own with sand, water and loose parts...giant foam blocks, mats, wagons, fabric, and crates."




S <===     SOUTH STREET    ===> N

S <===     FDR DRIVE     ===> N

South Street Seaport

NYC: South Street Seaport and Ambrose by wallyg, on Flickr South Street Seaport by Martin Haesemeyer, on Flickr

A historic district that became a museum complex in 1967 and was reimagined as an upscale shopping/tourist experience. It's the epitome of the kind of place actual New Yorkers don't go to, but its collection of antique sailing ships is really very impressive.



Pier 16

South Street Seaport_2012 05 04_0215 by HBarrison, on Flickr Ambrose by B.C. Angell, on Flickr The center of the Seaport's collection of vintage ship, the starboard side of the pier features the four-master Peking, a 1911 giant, while the 1908 light ship Ambrose is on the port side.





EAST RIVER


What am I missing on John Street? Write to Jim Naureckas and tell him about it.

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