New York Songlines: Thomas Street

Hudson | W Broadway | Church | Broadway
Thomas Street is named after Thomas Lipsenard, one of the three sons of Anthony Lipsenard, the owner of the Lipsenard Meadows, through which this street was cut. Thomas' brothers also got streets named for them--Leonard Street and Anthony Street (now Worth Street)-- plus there's a Lipsenard Street, apparently named for the dad. The brothers' mother was Alice Rutgers, who belonged to another wealthy land-owning family that gave a lot of money to a certain school in New Jersey.


(55 Hudson): Washington Market School is in the a striking 1890 red-brick McKim, Mead and White building (though I've also seen this building attributed to Edward Hale Kendall). Actor Harvey Keitel has lived here.


S <===     HUDSON STREET     ===> N

South:

Corner (50 Hudson): Was Lucius Pitkin, real estate firm founded 1885.














T
H
O
M
A
S

S
T

North:

Western Union Building

60 Hudson telco hotel by Shiny Things, on Flickr

Block (60 Hudson): A 1930 Art Deco landmark from Ralph Walker, who also designed what is now the AT&T HQ. Still houses many communications firms; it's been said that "there is probably more bandwidth in and out of this building than any other in the world."


S <===     WEST BROADWAY     ===> N

South:

Odeon

The Odeon, West Broadway, Tribeca by Phillip Ritz, on Flickr

Corner (145 W Broadway): A French brasserie with Art Deco style, this bar/restaurant helped make Tribeca the fashionable neighborhood it is today-- originally attracting art scene the odeon by h-bomb, on Flickr heavyweights like Warhol and Basquiat. It introduced the Cosmopolitan in the early 1980s. The exterior was featured on the cover of Bright Lights, Big City.

The building dates to 1888, desighned by William Kuhles. It became the Tower Cafeteria c. 1935.

62: An unusual neo-Gothic cast-iron building from 1865 houses Megu, a high-end sushi restaurant-- formerly Obeca Restaurant & Bar.

58: Caribbean Flavors

T
H
O
M
A
S

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

Corner (155 W Broadway): This 1865 Renaissance Revival building by Jardine, Hill and Murdoch originally housed J.C. French & Sons, manufacturers of sidewalk trapdoors and skylights. Now it's a supplementary courthouse for the New York City Supreme Court.
















49: Legal Aid Society

Corner (220 Church): Buckle My Shoe Nursery School


S <===     CHURCH STREET     ===> N

South:

NYC - TriBeCa: State Insurance Fund by wallyg, on Flickr

Block (199 Church): State Insurance Fund Building. Houses a non-profit organization established in 1914 to provide low-cost workers' compensation insurance to businesses.


S <===         TRIMBLE PL



Tribeca Tower

Tribeca Tower by edenpictures, on Flickr

10: A 52-story red-brick condo built in 1991 to a design by Schuman Lichtenstein Claman and Efron. The lobby is by David Rockwell, designer of hot spots like Nobu and the W New York.






8 Thomas Street by edenpictures, on Flickr

8: A Victorian Gothic gem built in 1875-76. The architect, Jarvis Morgan Slade, had a promising career cut short by his death at the age of 30.





Corner (315 Broadway): At approximately this spot was the Rutgers mansion, which later housed the Ranelagh Garden tavern from 1765-69. The Rutgers family--beer merchants who helped found the university--owned the property until 1790.

T
H
O
M
A
S

S
T
R
E
E
T

North:

AT&T Long Lines Building

Corner: Long Lines Building by edenpictures, on Flickr Built in 1974 to house long-distance switching equipment--a giant tower without a single window, inhabited mainly by electronics. Designed to function even after a nuclear war.

41: This was the address of the brothel where Helen Jewett, a prostitute well-known for her beauty, New York City's most famous and beautiful prostitute, was brutally murdered with an ax on April 10, 1836. A young clerk named Richard Robinson is believed to have been the culprait, but was acquitted in a dubious trial.








Corner (319 Broadway): Former Met Life Home Office; ''a cast-iron gem of the first order'' (AIA Guide), designed by David & John Jardine in 1869 and fabricated by the Daniel D. Badger Architectural Iron Works. Met Life Home Office by edenpictures, on Flickr On the ground floor was Stark's Veranda, an Italian restaurant that opened in 1894 and closed c. 2009. In the 1840s, this was the address of John Anderson's cigar store, where Mary Rogers worked; her puzzling death in 1841 inspired Poe's ''The Mystery of Marie Roget''.


S <===     BROADWAY     ===> N

Federal Plaza

Federal Plaza by edenpictures, on Flickr Manhattan Sentinels by edenpictures, on Flickr

26 Federal Plaza: The Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Buildingis named for the U.S. senator for New York from 1956 until 1980. He's remembered for his work passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the War Powers Act of 1973. They don't make Republicans like him anymore.

The building, which houses the New York offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the INS), was begun in 1963 to a design by Kahn & Jacobs et al, with an expansion completed 1977.

The four cast-iron pylons in Federal Plaza are the Manhattan Sentinels, a 1996 sculpture by Barbara Pepper.





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

New York Songlines Home.

Sources for the Songlines.

Share